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Seagram leaned forward, his eyes narrowed "The Army paid you a ten-thousand-dollar indemnity? Wasn't that a bit steep for 1912?"

"You couldn't be half as surprised as I was then," she said "Yes, that amount of money was a small fortune in those days"

"Was there any explanation?"

"None," she replied "I can still see the check after all these years All it said was `Widow's Payment' and it was made out to me That's all there was to it"

"Perhaps we can start at the beginning"

"When I met Jake?"

Seagram nodded

Her eyes looked beyond hi the terrible winter of 1910 It was in Leadville, Colorado, and I had just turned sixteen My father was on a business trip to the ate possible investment in several claims, and since it was close to Christmas, and I had a few days vacation fro The train barely made it into Leadville station when the worst blizzard in forty years struck the high country of Colorado It lasted for teeks, and believe me, it was no picnic, especially when you consider that the altitude of Leadville is over ten thousand feet"

"It irl"

"It was Dad paced the hotel lobby like a trapped bull while Mother just sat and worried, but I thought it was marvelous"

"And Jake?"

"One day, Mother and I were struggling across the street to the general store-an ordeal when you are lashed by fifty-rees below zero when out of nowhere this giant brute of a h the snowdrifts and deposits us on the doorstep of the store, just as sassy as you please"

"It was Jake?"

"Yes," she said distantly, "it was Jake"

"What did he look like?"