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Show ! THE BR ANDINGIRON By Katharine Newlin Burt Copyright by Katharine N. Burt , pnrture, rame out at noon and found herself In the small, gay house alone. She sat In one of the lacquered chairs and saw after a long while that the Chinaman was looking at her. Wen Ho, It seemed, had been given Instructions. He was to stay and take care of the house and the lady for as long as she wanted It, or him. Afterward After-ward he was to lock up the house and go. He handed her a large and bulky envelope, which Joan took and let lie In her lap. "You can go tomorrow, Wen Ho," she said. "You no wait for Mr, Gael to come back? He say he Come back." "No. I am not going to wait. 1 guess" here Jonn twisted her mouth Into a smile "I'm not one of the waiting wait-ing kind. I'm a-going back to my own ranch now. It won't seem so awful lonesome, perhaps, as I was thinking last spring that It would." She touched the envelope without looking at It. - "Is this money, Wen Ho?" "I tlnk so, lady." - She hold It, unopened, out to him, "I will give It to you, then. I have no need of It." , She stood up. "I am going out now to climb up this mountain hack of the house so's I can see Just where I am. I'll come own squat, actke shadow, he looked like a huge spider weaving a web. This effect was heightened by the fact that he never looked up. He was deep In some plan to which it was impossible impos-sible for her not to believe that the curious pattern of his walk bore some relation. From the northern wing of the ranch-house, ranch-house, strongly lighted, came a tumult of sound: music, thumping feet, a man's voice chanting couplets: Oh, you walk right through and you turn around and swing- the girl that finds you, And you come right back by th sama old track and turn the girl behind you. Someone was directing a quadrille In native fashion. There was much laughter, confusion and applause. None of this noise disturbed the man. lie did not look at the lighted windows, win-dows, He might really have been' a gigantic Insect entirely unrelated to the human creatures so noisily near at hand. A man enme round the corner of the house, crossed the square, and, lurching a little, .made for the door of the lighted wing. Shortly after his entrance the sound of music and dancing danc-ing abruptly stopped. This stillness gave the spider pause, but he was about to renew his weaving, when, in the silence, a woman spoke. "You. Mabel, don't you go home," she said. She had, not spoken loudly, but her voice beat against the walls of the court as though It conld have filled the whole moonlight night with dangerous dan-gerous beauty. The listener outside lifted his head with a low, startled exclamation. Suddenly the world was alive with adventure and alarm. "Mind your own business, you wildcat," wild-cat," answered a mnn's raucous voice. "She's my wife, which Is somethln' that your sort knows nothln' about. Come on, you Mabel. If you think that outlaw can keep me from taktn' home my wife, you're betting wrong." Another silence ; then the voice again, a little louder, as though the speaker had stepped out Into the center cen-ter of the room, "Mabel is not a-goln' home with you." it said; and the listener outside threw back his head with the gesture of a man sensitive to music who listens lis-tens to some ecstatic melody. "She happens to be stoppin here with us tonight. You say that she's your wife, but that don't mean that she belongs to you,- body and soul, 15111 Greer not to you, who don't possess your own body or soul. Why, you can't keep your feet steady; you can't pull your hand away from mine. Yon can't bold your tipsy eyes on mine. Do you call that ownln' your own body?" A deep, short, alarming chorus of Inngllter Interrupted the speech. The speaker evidently had her audience. CHAPTER XIV Continued. 12 She only drew gradually Into herself, shrinking from her pain and from hlin os the cause of It; she only lost her glow of love-happiness, her face seemed dwindled, seemed to contract, and that secret look of a wild animal returned to her gray eyes. She quietly qui-etly gave tip the old regulations of their life; she did not remind him of the study-hours, the music-hours, the hours of wild outdoor play. She read under the firs, alone; she studied faithfully, alone; she climbed and swam, alone or with his absent-minded, absent-minded, fitful company ; she worked In her garden, alone. At night, when he was asleep, she lay with her hand pressed against her heart, staring at the darkness, listening to the night, waiting. She never expressed her trouble, even to herself. She did not give It any words. She took her pain without wincing, without complaint. Resides, although she wns Instinctively waiting, she did not foresee the end. It was in late October when, somewhere some-where In the pile of I'rosper's mail, there lay a small gray envelope. Joan drew his attention to It, calling It a "queer little letter," and he took it up slowly, as though his deft and nervous fingers had gone numb. Before Be-fore he opened It he looked at Joan and, In one sense, It was the last time he ever did look at her; for at that moment his stark spirit looked straight Into hers, acknowledging its guilt, and bade her a mute and remorseful farewell. fare-well. He read and Joan watched, nis face grew pale and bright as though some electric current had been turned Into his veins; his eyes, looking up from the writing, but not returning to her, had the look given by some drug which Is meant to stupefy, but which taken In an overdose Intoxicates. He turned and made for the door, holding hold-ing the little gray folded paper In bis hand. On the threshold he half faced her without lifting his eyes. ,l "I have hnd extraordinary news, Jonn. I shall have to go off alone and think things out. I don't know when I shall get back." He went out and shut the door gently. Joan stood listening. She heard him go along the passage and through the second door. She heard his feet on the mountain trail. Afterwnrd she went nut and stood between the two sentinel firs that had marked the entrance en-trance to that snow-tunnel long since disappeared. Now It wns a late October Oc-tober day, bright ns a bared sword. The flowers of the Indian paint-brush burned like red candle flames everywhere every-where under the firs, the fire-weed Mazed, the nspen lenves were laid like little golden tiles against the metallic blue of the sky. The high peak pointed point-ed up dizzily and down, down dizzily Into the cleur emptiness of the lake. This Brent rwak stood there In the "So you don't own anything tonight," went on the extraordinary, deliberate voice; "surely you don't own Mabel. You can't get a claim on her, not thiitnway. She's her own. She belongs be-longs to her own self.- When you're fit to tnke her, why, then come and tell us about It, and if we Judge you're s-tellln' ns the truth, mebbe we'll let her go. Till then" a pause which was filled with a rapid shuffling of f-t. The door flew open and In Its lighted oblong the observer saw a huddled figure behind which rose a woman's black and shapely head. "Till then," repeated the deep-toned, ringing voice, "get out!" And the huddled man came on a staggering run which ended In a backward fall on the cobbles of the court. The man who watched trod lightly past him nnd came to the open door. Inside, firelight beat on the golden log wnlls and salmon-colored timber celling; cell-ing; a lamp hanging from a beam threw down a strong, conflicting arc of white light. A dozen brown-faced, booted young men stood about, three musicians were ready to take up their Interrupted music, the little fat man who had called out the figures of the quadrille stood on a barrel, his arms folded across his paunch. A falr-halred girl, her face marred by recent tears, drooped near him. Two of the young men were murmuring reassurances to her ; others surrounded a stout, Ted-faced Ted-faced girl who wns laughing and talking talk-ing loudly. The Jew's eyes wandered till they came to the fireplace. There another woman leaned against the wall. The music struck up, the dancing began again, the two other girls, quickly quick-ly provided with partners, began to waltz, the superfluous men stood up together and went at it with gravity and grace. No one aked this woman, who ntood at ease, watching the dancers, danc-ers, her hands resting on her hips, her head tilted back against the logs. As he looked nt her, the Intruder hnd a queer little thrill of fright. lie remembered re-membered something be hnd once seen a tame panther which was to le used In some moving picture piny. Its confident owner had led It on a chain :ind held It negligently In a corner of tbe room, waiting for his cue. The iisuitlier bad stoil there drowsily, its eycx shifting M illtle, then, watching people, its Inky henfl bad begun to move from side to side, tie remembered remem-bered (Tie ? tin, loose ihnlti Jerked, The nnhnni's e e hiilf cloved, 1 low. eri'l its bejel, its upper lip beRfin to ilniw iiwny from H teeth, All St once if bad droppeM en its belly. Someone cried out, "Hold your beast!" to r-K coNTisn:n.) glittering stillness of the day. A grouse boomed, but Jonn was not startled by the sudden rush of Its wings. She felt the sharp weight of that silent mountain In her heart; she might have been burled under It. So she f!t It all day while she worked, n desperate, bright day hideous In her memory and at night she lay waiting. After hours longer than nny ber hours, the door of her bedroom opened and an oblong of moonlight, ns white as paper, fell across the matted floor. Prosper stepped in noiselessly and walked over to her bed. He stood a moment and she heard him swallow. "You're awnke, Joan?" Her eyes were staring up nt him, but she lay still. "Listen, Jonn." He spoke In short sentences, waiting between each for some comment of hers which did not come. "I sbnll have to go away tomorrow. to-morrow. I shall have to go away for some time. I don't want you to be unhappy. I wont yon to stay here for a while If you will, for so long ns you want to stay. I nm leaving you plenty of money. I will write and explain It all very clearly to you. I know that you will understand. Listen." Here he knelt nnd took her bands, which he found lying cold and stiff under the cover, pressed against her heart. "I have made you happy here In this little house, haven't I, Jonn?" She would not answer even this except ex-cept by the merest flicker of her eyelids. eye-lids. "You have trusted me; now trust me a little longer. My life Is very complicated. This beautiful year with you, tbe year you have given to me, Is Just n temporary respite from from all sorts of things. I've taught you a great deal, Jonn. I've healed the .wound that brute mnde on your shoulder and in your heart, I've taught yon to be beautiful. I've filled your mind with beauty. You are a wonderful woman. You'll live to be grateful to me. Some diy you'll tell nie so," Her quiet, curved Hps moved. "Are ! you tellln' me good by, Prosper?" It was ltnpop.le to lie to licr. He I tent bis bend, j "Yes, Joan." i "'I'll. 'ii tet! It quick and go out and I leave me here funt::ht." I It was ImpnooiMf to touch her. She , might have been tv"? ;pcd In white f i'e I He found that tt.oii'li s!:e had not ' Ftlrred a fini-er, Ids band shrunk ir.wty ! fi-cm hers. He got Jo It's feet all the ' elei onie- wldi-h nil dri.v bucr ho had j beet) weaving IH e ti y-lVn H'T to catch, j in bewibb te d'':iv a way her br.ti'i fro:;! the pi-gsiprti of fill comprel.otl-shriveled. comprel.otl-shriveled. 1( t't.md nnd rtsred b('!ph.'y nt her eimb us a lout h. And, obedient, he vent out mi! shut the door, taking the white patch nt moonlight ivltli him. So Jonn, liming waited, behind an trbstlnately locked t'oor, for his de- Joan Shrank Back Into the Shadows of the Pines. down tonight for dinner and tomorrow after breakfast I'll be going away. You understand?" ' , ; "Lady, you mean give me all this money?" babbled the Chinaman. ; "Yes," said Joan gravely; "I have no need of It." 1 She went past him with her swinging swing-ing step. She was coming down the mountainside mountain-side that evening, very tired, but with the curious, peaceful stillness of heart that comes with nn entire acceptance of fate, when she beard the sound of horses' hoofs In the hollow of the canyon. Her heart begun to beat to suffocation. She ran to where, standing stand-ing nenr a big fir tree, she could look straight down on the trull leading up to I'rosper's cabin. Presently the horseman came In sight the one that rode first was tall and broad and fair, she could see under his hat-brim his straight nose and (Irmly modeled chin. "The sin-buster!" said Jonn; then, looking nt tbe other, who rode behind him, she cnugbt nt the tree with crooked bauds nnd began to sink slowly to her knees. He was tall nnd slight, be rode with Inimitable grace. As she stared, he took off his sombrero, som-brero, rested hi band on the saddle-horn, saddle-horn, nnd looked haggardly, eagerly up the trail toward the house. Ills face was whiter, thinner, worn by protracted pro-tracted mental pain, but It was the henutlful living face of Pierre. Joan shrank bnck Into the shadows of tbe pines, crouched for a few minutes min-utes like a mortally wounded beast, then ran up tbe mountain-side ns though the Ore that had once touched her shoulder had enten Its way at last Into her heart. Book Two: The Estray CHAPTER I A Wildcat. Tbe I.nzy-Y ranch-house, a one-storied one-storied building of logs, was built about throe sides of n paved court. In tiie middle of this court stood a well with a high rustic top, and about tlds ell on a cert 'i I n brilliant Julv night. ; n tail man was strolling with Ids bunds behind bis hack. Jt was a night of full ii i. sailing high, which j poured wlntem-ss Into the enurf, inak-i inak-i leg lis cobbles embedded in the earth ! look li'.e milky bubbles and drawing i oear-ct;t '-hadows of the well top and j tbe g;;b!es ami chimneys of the hi'iiM-. The lean slowly circled the court, be-gir.ldl'i; be-gir.ldl'i; chce to the ials nnd tiar rowing; till be made n loop id, out the well, nnd then, reversing, worked In widening orbiM as fur ill (he V.a'i-I afain. His wfe looking our ,f him through one of tbe w!nd , thought that, !u the moonlight, followed by ids |