thearts, dressed just as they
were from their work, and the women as they were in their homes.
Evening clothes would have been as much out of place in that ballroom,
as the garb of a workman would be out of place in the ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria. The orchestra struck up, and Buchan and Hattie were
given the place of honor in the dance. Carson and Annie, being better
known, felt that they should largely play the part of host and yielded
every honor to Buchan and Hattie. The music was good. Everybody joined
in the spirit of goodfellowship, and the dance continued until the
small hours of the morning.

It was toward the close that Rayder came upon the floor with a fat
widow milliner. He had taken a few drinks of gin and was trying to act
kittenish when, in the midst of a cotillion, the widow fell to the
floor in an epileptic fit. They bore the woman to an adjoining room,
where she soon recovered, but it was such a shock to Rayder's nerves
that he went out and braced up on a little more gin.

* * * * *

I was at the governor's reception in the state capitol of Colorado.
The rooms and corridors were brilliantly lighted. Men and women in
rich attire were there to do honor to the occasion. I was seated
behind a decoration of palms, when a prominent attorney and a
companion took seats near me.

A heavy set man with a woman leaning on his arm entered the corridor.
They were well, but modestly dressed. There were grey streaks in their
hair, but their steps were firm and, both were the picture of good
health, evidence of good and wholesome lives.

"Here comes Senator Buchan and lady," said the attorney to his
companion. "I knew those people twenty-five years ago. I was one of a
party to rescue Buchan and a companion from under a snow slide in the
Sangre de Christo mountains. The girl had come all the way from
California to help in the rescue. I don't believe she would have lived
two days longer if we had not got him out. Shows what the right sort
of love will do. It stands the test of time. There is no divorce
business in that. Buchan had an iron will, too. Somehow he and his
partners had discovered a lost Spanish mine and did not know its value
on account of some trickery of an assayer. But Silas Rayder did, so
Rayder hounded the boys to sell and finally when he offered a hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, they closed the deal. Carson had just
married, too. He took his money