t read any more about the thing, for I
was sore on the whole business, and considerable worried about Old Man
Wright, what he was going to do. But at part of the piece it said
something I happened to see.

Evidently [it says] though it may be difficult for a young man to
kiss a girl through a four-foot wall, this aperture, opening or
orifice, without doubt or question originally was intended as an
avenue for Mr. Pyramus to achieve access occasionally, if not to
the lips, at least to the ears of little Miss Thisbe. Which leaves
it only a question of who was Mr. Pyramus and who Miss Thisbe. As
to this, Alderman Wright has steadily denied himself to the press,
while Mrs. Wisner, the only member of the family at home on the
north side of the wall, also refuses to talk. It is well known
that Mr. Wisner has been absent in Europe on important business
connected with the war loan--

I read that far to Old Man Wright and then he broke out.

"War loan!" says he. "It's a loan for his own self that he's looking
for. He's lost four million dollars on that irrigation scheme of his
when he bought our ranch. Now I'm going to foreclose and he knows it.
He's got his funds tied up in cargoes of meat and grain that ain't
cashed in. He's short, and damn short! And I know it; and these are
times when banks ain't loosening much. War--yes; I'll show him war!
There can't nobody get title to a foot of that land till Old Man Wisner
gets his title from me--and he ain't never going to get it. If it's my
last act I'll ruin him. I trusted you, and you turned me down. I trusted
her, and she threw me down. I won't trust nobody no more, except myself.

"What's it come to?" says he to hisself after a while, looking around at
the big rooms. "What did it all come to, what I done for her? And I give
up the ranch for her and give up the life I loved!"

"The sun was on the hills when I was out there, Colonel," says I to him,
sudden, happening to think of something, "and the sky was blue as it
ever was; and the wind was just carrying the smell of the sage, like it
used to; and the river was running white on the riffles, same as it did
before. And the cows----"

"Don't, Curly!" says he. "Don't!"

"I won't no more, Colonel," says I. "I won't be on your pay roll much
longer; but them old days----"

"Don't!" says he. "I can't think about the old days no more. I'm closing
the books now, Curly."

"So'