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Show fnAlBc Story ofN Certain Jtrsops ) V I yho UranV oLit and Cemjuere J J I o m n n c c Yof C o T o r ad o Aulfvr of ATScTuHtfeOaarS -3 Dc1ier f1an1)kri and N V FfyJUjif, :i w ill IP JSP I,, ) Sha Actually Fried the Bacon Herself. mntter!-bad It been placed before him on the old colonial mahogany ol the dining room In Philadelphia. Hut tip there In the wIIcIh she had eaten the coarse homely fare with the est and relish of the most seasoned ranger of the hill. Anxious to tie of service, she had burned hT hands and smoked her hair and scorched her fare by usurping the functions of the young ranchman who had been brought along at cook, and had actually fried the baron herself! Imagine a goddess with a frying pan! 1 be black thick coffee and the condensed milk, drunk from the granite WHre cup, had a more dfllelmia aroma and a more ih-llght-fill taHle than the tlnit Mocha and Java In the dulnttcxt pom-lain of r"rance. Optimum condlmcntum. Tb Kill waa frankly raveuoimly hungry, lli air, ibu all Undo, the exertion, the excitement made her able to cat anything any-thing and enjoy it. Him wan glorloiiKly beaut Iful, too; even her brief experience In the went had broiiKht buck the iiiImhIiik rose to her cheek, and had linnlHhed the bint re circle from beneath her eye Hubert Maltland, lazily reclining propped up iigalnHt a boulder, bin feet to the fire, ttuioklug an old plpn that would have given tils brother the horrors, hor-rors, looked with approving complacency com-placency upon her, confident nnd at-Ihdi-d that his prescription was working work-ing well. Nor was he the only one who looked at her (bat way. Marlon and Kinma bis to daughters, worshipped wor-shipped their handKoine Philadelphia cousin and they sut one on either side of her on the great lug lying between the tents and the fire. Kven Hob Junior condescended to give her approving ap-proving glances. The whole ramp was at her feet. Mrs. Maltland had been greatly taken by her young niece. Klrkby made no necret of his devotion, Arthur ISrailnhaw and Henry Philips, each a "tenderfoot" of the ex-tremlwt ex-tremlwt character, friends of bunlnea connections In the cant, who were Kpenillng their vacation with Maltland, Malt-land, shured In the general devotion; to say fiothlng of George Him rook and Pete, the packer and horse wrangler. Philips, who was an old acquaint-nnco acquaint-nnco of i:nld's, had tried bis luck with her back east and had to nne enough to accept an final his failure. Hrad-shaw Hrad-shaw was a rolemn young man without with-out that keen Kerine ot humor which was haracterbtlc of the went. The others were suitably dressed for adventure, ad-venture, for P.radi haw'a Idea of an appropriate ap-propriate costume was dbitlngiilHhed chiefly by long green felt puttees which swathed his huge calves and excited curious Inquiry and ribald comment from the surprised denizens of each mountain hamlet through which they had passed, to nil of which liradhhaw remained serenely oblivious. The young man, who doen enter espe- "It Was In Thess Vtry Mountains Said Robert Maltland. dally Into this tale, was a vestryman or the rhurch In his home In the suburbs of Philadelphia. Ills piety had been put to a severe ttraln In the mountains. That day everybody had to work on the trail ever) body wanted to for that matter. The hardest labor consisted con-sisted In the driving of the burros I'nfortunately there was no good and trained leader among them through an unavoidable mistake, and the ramp, ers bad great dlff.rulty In keeping the burros on the trail. To Arthur Hrad-sha Hrad-sha had been allotted the most ob-stlnste, ob-stlnste, cross grained and determined of the unruly band, and old Klrkt? and troorge paid particular attention to Instructing him In the gentle art of manipulating him over the rorky , mountain trail. , Wall." said Klrkby with hi some- , what languid, drawling. haal vole. trat there burro like a ship w p n I often seed "eia w'ert I was a kid down fast afore I come out to Clod's country. coun-try. Nature baa pervlded m with a I kind of a helium. I remember If you I aud the boat to go to tfcs right you shoved the helium over to the left. Sta'boBd an' port was the terms as I recollects 'em. It's Jest the same with burros, you takes 'em by the tiller, that's by the tall, git a good tight twist on It an' ef you want him to head to the right, slew his stern sheets around to the left, an' you got to be keerful you don't git no kirk back w'Irh ef It lands on you Is worse 'u the ree-coll of a mule." Arthur faithfully followed directions, direc-tions, narrowly escaping the outraged brute's small but sharp pointed heels on occasion. Ills efforts not being productive of much success, finally In his despair he resorted to brut strength; bn would pick the little animal ani-mal up bodily, pack and all he was a mnn of powerful physbpie-and swing him around until his head pointed In the rlKht direction; then with a prayer that the burro would keep It there for n few rods anyway, he would set him down and start him all over again. Tho process tift repeated became monotonous mo-notonous arter awhile. Arthur was slow thinking man, deliberate in action; ac-tion; he stood It as long as ho possibly could. Klrkby, who rode one horse and led two others, and therefore was exempt from burro driving, observed him with great Interest, lie and Hrad-shaw Hrad-shaw had strayed way behind the rest of tho party. At last Arthur's reMHtance, patlenca and piety, strained to the breaking point, gave way suddenly. -Primitive 1 Instincts rose to the surface and overwhelmed over-whelmed him like a flood, lie de- llberately sat down cm a fallen tree by the side of a trail, tho burro halting halt-ing obediently, turned and faced hlra with hiujiglng head, apparently conscious con-scious that he merited the disapprobation disappro-bation that was being heaped upon him, for from the desperute tenderfoot tender-foot there burst forth so amazing, so fluent, so comprehensive a torrent of assorted profanity, that even the old past master In objuration was aston-Uhed aston-Uhed and bewildered. Where did P.radshaw, mild and Innffenstvfl, get ll? Hi proltcleticy would have appalled ap-palled his rector and amazed his fellow fel-low vestrymen. Not the Jackdaw of Khelms himself was so eurBed as that little burro. Klrkby sat on his hor In fits of silent laughter until the tears ran down his cheek, the only outward and visible exprcstilon of his mirth. Arthur only stopped when he had thoroughly emptied himself, possibly of an accumulation of years of repression. repres-sion. "Wall," said Klrkby, "you sure do overmatch any one I ever heard w en It comes to cursln'; w'y, you could gimme cards an' spades un' beat me, an' I was thought to have some gilt that a way In the old days." "I didn't begin to exhaust myself." answered Hradxhuw, shortly, "and what 1 did any didn't equal the situation. situa-tion. I'm going home." "I wouldn't do that," urged the old man. "Here, you take the horses an' I'll tackle the burro." "Uladly," said Arthur. "1 would rather ride an elephant and drive a herd of them than waste another minute min-ute on this Infernal little mule." The story was too good to keep, nnd around the camp fire that night Klrkby drawled It forth. 1 here was a freedom and easiness of Intercourse In the camp, which was natural enough. Cook, teamster, driver, host, guest, men, women, children, and I had almost al-most said burros, stood on the same level. They all ate and lived together. The higher up the mountain range you go. the deeper Into the wilderness you plunge, the further away from the conventional you draw, the more homogeneous becomes society and the less obvious sre the Irrational and un-sctenilflR un-sctenilflR distinction of the lowlands. The guinea stamp fades and the man and the woman are pure gold or base metal Inherently and not by any artificial ar-tificial standard. George, tho cattle man. who cooked, and Pete, the horse wrangler, who assisted as-sisted Klrkby In looking after the stock, enjoyed the episode uproariously, uproarious-ly, and would fain have hud the exact language repeated to them, but here Kobert Maltland demurred, much to Arthur's relief, for he was thoroughly humiliated by the whole performance. It was very pleasant lounging around the camp fire and on good story easily led to another. "It was In these very mountains," said Robert Maltland, at lat, when hi turn came, "that there happened one of the strangest and most terrible adventure ad-venture that I ever heard of. I have pretty much forgotten the lay of toe lnnd, but I think It wasn't very far from here that there la one of trie most stupendous canons through the range; nobody ever goes there; I don't suppose anybody has ever been there idnre. It must nave been st least Bve years ago that It all hp;ene4." TO RE rONTINl'KD) "Tbere are people who do not know low to waste their time alone, and hence become the scourge of busy eo De UonaliL SYNOPSIS, Knld Maltlnd. a frank, free and un- IMilled young I'lillailelplila girl is taken tli I'nloriMlo tiiuuiilnln by her uncle, tot.i rt Mult Intnl. Jhiiivs Armstrong. Maltland ptol.-nn, rKll In low Willi her. CHAPTER II. (Continued). "And by what right did you take that one?" haughtily demanded the outraged yountc woman, looking at him beneath level brows while the color slowly receded from her face. She had never been kissed by a man other than a blood relutlon In her life remember, suspicious reader, that she was from Philadelphia, and he resented this sudden and unauthorized unau-thorized caress with every atom and Instinct of her still somewhat conventional conven-tional being. "Hut aren't you half way engaged to me?" he pleaded In JUHtlllcatlon, seeing see-ing the unwonted seriousness with which h had received his Impudent I advance. "Itldn't you agree to give me a chance?" "I did say that 1 liked you very much," she admitted, "no mnn better, and that I thought thnt you might" "Well, then" he began. ilut she would not be Interrupted. "I did not mean that you should enjoy en-joy all tho privileges of a conquest before be-fore you had won me. I will thank you not to do that again, sir." "It seems to have had a very different dif-ferent effect upon you than it does upon me," replied the man coolly. "1 loved you beTore, but now, since I have kissed you, 1 worship you." "It haxn't affected me that way," retorted re-torted the girl promptly, her face still frowning and Indignant. "Not at all, and " "Forgive tne, Enid," pleaded the other. "I JiiFt couldn't help It. Vou werr; so beautiful I had to. I took tho chance. Vou are not acoustoiued to our ways." . "Is this your habit In your love af fairs?" asked the girl swiltly and not without a spice of feminine malice. "I never had any love nfTalr before," be-fore," he replied with a ready masculine mascu-line mendacity, "at least none worth mentioning. Put you see this Is the west; we have gained whnt we have by demanding every Inch that nature oITcrs, and then claiming the all. That's tho way we play tho game out here and thil's the way we win." "Put I have not yet learned to piny the 'g.-mie,' as you call it, by an;Asuch rules," returned ihe youtiB woman determinedly, de-terminedly, "and It Is not the way to win me If I am the stake." "Whnt la the way?" asked the man anxloutiy. ".Show me and I'll take It no matter what Its uiillculty." "Ah. for too to point out the w-ay would be to play traitor to myself," she answered, relenting and relaxing a little before his devoted wooing "You must find It without assistance. I can only tell you one thing." "And what is that?" "You do not advance toward the goat by such actions as those of a moment hlnce." "Look here." said the other suddenly. sudden-ly. "I mn not ashamed of what I did, snd I'm not going to pretend that I aih, either." "You ought to be," severely. "Well, maybe so, but I'm not; I couldn't help It sny more than 1 could help loving you the minute 1 saw you. Put yourself In my place." "Put I am not in your place, and I ean't put myself there. I do not wish to If it be true, as you sny, that you have grown to care so much for me snd so quickly" "It It be true?" came the sharp Interruption In-terruption as the man bent toward her. fairly devouring her with his bold, srdetit gi7e "Well, since It Is true," she admit-ed admit-ed under the compulsion of bis pro-tent. pro-tent. "That fact Is the only polbie excuse for your.actlnn." "You find some justification for me, then ?" "No, only a possibility, but whether It be true or not. 1 do not feel that way-yet" There iM a saving grace In that Iam word, which gave him a little heart. He would have spoken, but she suffered no Interruption, saying: "I have been wooed before, but " "True, unless the human race has become suddenly blind," he said softly antler bis breath. 'i "I tiit never In such ungentle wsys 1 suppose you have never rn up i aci1t"-t a real red bluoded man like ' Hie betore " I "If red flooded be evidenced mainly i iy lackirg of self control, perhaps I i have not Yet there sre men that 1 t have met that would not need to apol- l crUe for their n.iailMe even to you, Mr Jaine Arms'rong " i "Ixmt say that. Evidently I make ' but pcir i rt grem in my wooing I Never have I r et wfh a woman quite -like )ni" snd In that Indeed lay l some of ber xharm. snd she might I up I'd In exactly the same Ian- I a-'iSK" :'' 'th esartly the same I menu rs t h'm "! am no longer a i L-y I n li t l-e ffteen years oidr tiur. j'n for I am thirty Bve" i The difference between their years was not quite so great as he declared, but womanlike the girl let the statement state-ment pass unchallenged. "And I wouldn't Insult your Intelligence Intel-ligence by saying you are the only woman that I have ever made love to, but there is a vast difference between making love to a woman nnd lovtng ono. I have Just found that out for the first time. I marvel at the past, and I am ashamed of It, but I thank God that I have been saved for this opportunity. op-portunity. I want to win you, and I am going to do It, too. In many things I don't match up with the people peo-ple with whom you train. 1 was born out here, und I've made myself. There are thlngn that have happened In the making that I am not especially proud of, and I am not at all satlalled with tho results, especially Blnee I have met you. The better I know you the less pleased I am with Jim Armstrong, Arm-strong, but there aro possibilities In me, 1 rather believe, and with you for Inspiration, God!" the man flung out his hand with a fine gesture of determination. de-termination. "They sny that the east and west don't naturally mingle, but It's a lie; you and I can beat the world." The woman thrilled to his gallant wooing. Any woman would have done so; some of them would have lost their heads, but Enid Maltland was an exceedingly cool young person, for she was not quite swept off ber feet, and did not quite lose her balance. "I like to beur you say things like that," she answered. "Nobody quite like you has ever made love to me, und certainly not in your way, and that's the reason I have given you a half way promise to think about It I was sorry that you could not be with us on this adventure, but now 1 am rather glad, especially If the even temper of my way Is to be Interrupted by anything like the outburst of a few minutes since." "I am glad, too," admitted tho man "For I declare I couldn't help It. If 1 have to bo with you cither you have got to be mine or else you would have to decide that It could never be, and then IM go off and fight It out." "Leave nie to myself," said the girl enrnchtly "for a llttlo while; It s best so; I would not take tho linest, noblest man on earth" "And I am not that." "V'lilef I loved him. There Is something some-thing very attractive about your personality; per-sonality; I don't know In my heart whether It Is that, or " "Good," said the man, as she hesitated, hesi-tated, "That's enough." lie gathered up the reins and whirled bis horse suddenly In the road. "I am going back. I'll wait for your return to Denver, and then" 'That's oest," answered the girl. She stretched out her hand to him. leaning backward. If he had been a different kind of a man he would have kissed It; as It was he took It In his own hand snd almost crushed It with a llerce grip. "Weil shake on that, little girl," he said, and then without a backward glance he put spurs to his horse and galloped furiously down the road. No, she decided then and there, she did not love blm, not yet. Whether she ever would she could not tell. And yet she was half bound to him. The recollection of his kiss was not altogether al-together a pleasant memory; he had not done himself any good by that bold assault upon her modesty, that reckless attempt to rifle Ihe treasure of her lips. No man had ever really touched her heart, although many had engaged her Interest. Her experience thepiore was not definitive or conclusive con-clusive If he had truly loved James Armstrot'g. In rplte of all that she tiiirh! have said, she would have thrilled to the remembrance of that wild caress. The chances, therefore, were somewhat heavily against him thnt morning as he rode down the trail alone. Ills experiences In love affairs were much greater than hers. She was by no mean the first woman he had klKsed remember, suspicious reader, that he was not from Philadelphia hers were not the first ears into which be had poured passionate protestations, lie was neither better bet-ter nor worse than most men, perhaps he fairly enough represented the sver-nge; sver-nge; but surely fate Lad something better In store tor such a superb worn-in. worn-in. A girl of such attainments and such tnnnlte possibilities, she must mate Metier than with the average man. Pel bap there was a subconsciousness subcon-sciousness of tf.ls In her mind as she l!ettt!y waited to be overtaken by the rest of the pry. There were curious glanrei and Ktrarge sperulatlon In that little rompany a they ssw her sitting her horse alone. A few momenta before lame Armstrong had passed ths-ra at i gtllcp, b had waved hi band as h dashed t y snd bad smiled st tfce,. 1 nope fivlfg blm a certain assurance, kl; hough bt confidence was scarcely ! ssrrarted hy the fscls. I I'll demeancr wss cot In ronsonsnce lth Knli s somewhat grave and some- I what troubled present aspect. Kite threw off her preoccupation Instantly and easily, however, and Joined readily read-ily enough in the merry conversation of the way. Mr. Robert Maltland, as Armstrong has said, had known him from a boy, There were thing In hi career of which Maltland did not and could not approve, but they were of the past, he reflected, and Armstrong was after all a pretty good sort. Mr. Muitland's standards were not at all those or bis Philadelphia brother, but tbey were very high, ills experiences of men had been different; he thought that Armstrong, having certainly by this time reached year of discretion, could be safely entrusted with the precious treasure of the young girl who had been committed to his care, and for whom his affection grew a his knowledge knowl-edge of and ac'iualntancenblp with her increased. A for Mrs. Maltland and the two girl and the youngster, they were Armstrong's devoted friends. Tbey knew nothing about bis past, Indeed there were things In It of which Maltland Malt-land himself was Ignorant, and which had they been known to him might have caused him to withhold even hi tentative acquiescence In the possibilities. possibili-ties. Most of these thing were known to old Klrkby, who with masterly skill, amusing nonchalance and imat-Ing imat-Ing profanity, albeit most of It under his breath lest be shock the ladles, tooled along the four nervous, excited bronchos that drew the big supply wagon. Klrkby wss Maltland's oldest and most valued friend. He bad been the latter deputy sheriff, be bad been a cowboy and a lumberman, a mighty hunter and a successful miner, and now, although he bad acquired a reasonable competence, and had nice little wife and a pleasant home In the mountain Tillage at the entrance to the canon, he drove stage for pleasure pleas-ure rather than for profit He bad given over bis dally twenty five mile Jaunt from Morrison to Troutdale to other bands for a short space thst he might spend a little time with hi old friend and the family who were all greatly attached to blm on this outing Enid Maltland, a girl of a kind that Klrkby tad . never seen before, bad won the old man's beart during the weeks spent on the Maltland ranch-He ranch-He bad grown fond of her, and be did not think thst Mr. Jan.es Armstrong merited that which be evidently so overwhelmingly desired. Klrkby was well along In years, but be wa quite capable ot playing a man's game for sll thst. and be Intended to play tt la this inMaiire Nobody scanned Fnld Maltland's face more closely than be, sluirg bumped up on the front seat of the wsgon, c be foot on the high break.' bis brad suck almost to the level ol bis knee, his long whip In his hand, fats keen and somewhat fierce brown eye taking In every detail of what was going go-ing on about blm. Indeed there was but little that came before blm that old Klrkby did not see. CHAPTER HI. The Story and the Letters. Imagine, If you please, the forest primeval; yes, the murmuring pines and the hemlock of the poem as well, by the side of a rapidly runhlrig mountain moun-tain torrent fed by the eternal snows of the lofty peaks of the great range. A level stretch of grassy land where a mountain brook Joined the creek was dotted with clumps of pities and great boulders rolled down from the everlasting bills half an acre of open cloartug. On the opposite side of the brook the canon wall rose almost sheer for perhaps five hundred feet, ending In Jagged, needle-edged pinnacles pin-nacles of rock, sharp, picturesque and beautiful. A thousand feet above ran the timber line, and tour thousand feet above that the crest of the greatest great-est peak In tho main range. The white tents of the little encampment encamp-ment which had gleamed so brightly in the clear air and radiant sum blue of Colorado, now s'ood dim and ghostlike ghost-like In tho red reflection of a huge campflre. It wss the evenlug of the first day in the wilderness. For two days since leaving the wagon, the Maltland party with Its long train of burros heavily parked, its horsemen and the steady plodders on foot, had advanced Into unexplored and almost Inaccessible retreats of the mountains Into the primitive Indeed! In-deed! In thl delightful spot they had pitched their tent and the permanent perma-nent camp had been made Wood was abundant, the water at hand was as cold as Ice, as clear as crystal and as soft as milk. There was pasturage pas-turage for the horses and burros on the other side of the mountain brook. The whole place was a little amphitheater amphi-theater which humanity occupied perhaps per-haps the first time since creation. Inpacklng the burros, setting up the tent, making the camp, building the fire, had used up the late remainder remain-der of the day which waa theirs when they bad arrived. Opportunity would come tomorrow to explore the country, coun-try, to climb the range, to try the stream that tumbled down a succe sloo of wsterfall to the right of the camp and roared and rushed merrily around Its feet until, swelled by the volume of the brook. It lost Itself In i trce-clsd depths far beneath. Tontshi rest after labor, tomorrow play after rest The evening meal was over. Knld could not help think with what scorn and contempt ber father would I have regarded the menu, bow bis gorge I would have risen hers, too, for that |