OCR Text |
Show VVraSPEDING 0 Thank Ii. SpeAhman 3 ILLUSTRATIONS ,,5Y; ANDRE BOWLEG 1908 BY CHAS SCRlBNCR'i SYNOPSIS. Murray Sinclair and hi gang of wrecker were called out to clear the railroad tracka at Smoky Creek. MoCloud, ayoung road auperlntendent, caught Sinclalr and his man In the act of lootingtil wracked train. Sinclair oleaded Innocenca, declaring It only amounted to a mall sum a treat (or the men. McCloud discharged the whole outfit and ordered the wreckage burned. MoCloud became acquainted with Dicksle Dunning, a girl of the west, who cams to look at tha wreck. She gava him a message (or Sinclair. Whispering" Gordon Smith told President Bucks of the railroad, of McCloud' brave fight against a gang of erased miners and that was the reason for tha superintendent's appointment to his high office. McCloud arranged to r, board at tha boarding housa of Mrs. deserted wife, the fclcksle Dunning was the daughter of the lata Richard Dunning, who had died of a broken heart shortly after hla wife a demise, which occurred after one yearSin-of married life. Sinclair visited Marlon clair's shop and a fight between him and Sln-Jlel- McCloud was narrowly averted. Smoky Creek bridge was mysteriously burned. McCloud prepared to (ace the situation. President Bucks notified Bmtth that ha had work ahead. McCloud worked for days and finally got tha division running In fairly good order. He overheard Dlck-sl- e criticising his methods, to Marion Sinclair. train was wrecked by an open switch. a passenger train was held up and the express car robbed. Two men of posse pursuing the bandits were killed. McCloud was notified that Whispering Smith was to bunt the desperadoes. Bill Dancing, a road lineman, proposed that Sinclair and. hla gang ap-be sent to hunt tha bandits. A stranger, told him to go parently with authority, ahead. Dancing was told the stranger apwaa "Whispering Smith." Smith proached Sinclair. Ha tried to buy him McCloud thtt warned He off, but failed. hla Ufa was In danger. McCloud was carried forcibly Into Lance Dunning s presence. Dunning refused the railroad a he had already signed for. Dicksle Interfered to prevent a snooting met McCloud on a lonely Dicksle affray. trail to warn him his life was 5n danger. On his wav home a shot passed through his hat. Whispering Smith reported that Du Sang, one of Sinclair's gang, had been and Smith assigned to kill McCloud. He saw Du Sang. Whispering Smith taunted Du Sang and told him to get out of Medicine Bnd or suffer. Du Sang seemed to succumb o tha bluff. MoCloud's big construction Job was taken from him because of anj Injunction Issued to Ince Dunning by! the United States court. A sudden rle of tha Crawling Stone liver Dicksle and Matreated consternation. rlon appeld to McCloud for help. Whisgroup. He and pering Smith Joined tha In conversation. t'leksie spent the night Smith giving the girl an outline of hla took his McCloud life. In the morning men to fight the river. Lane DunBlng welcomed them cordially. Iter right-of-wa- y. CHAPTER nued. "Let me talk with them.' "Just what I should like. Come on!" said Dicksle, leading the way to the chicken-yard- . "I want you to see my bantams, too. I have three of the dearest little things. One Is setting. They are over the way. Come Bee them first. And, oh, you must see my new game chickens. Truly, you never saw anything as handsome as Caesar he's the rooster; and I have six pullets. Caesar Is perfectly superb." When the two reached the chicken house Dlcksie examined the nest where she was setting the bantam hen. "This miserable hen will not set," she exclaimed in despair. "See here, Mr. Smith, she has left her nest again and Is scratching around on the ground. Isn't It a shame? I've tied a cord around her leg so she couldn't run away, and she Is hobbling around like , a scrub pony." "Perhaps the eggs are too warm," suggested her companion. "I have had great success in cases like this with powdered ice not using too much, of course; Just shave the Ice gently and rub It over the eggs one at a time; it will often result in refreshing the attention of the hen." Dicksle looked grave. "Aren't you shamed to make fun of me?" Whispering Smith seemed taken aback. "It is really serious business?" "Of course." "Very good. Let me watch this hen for a few minutes and diagnose her. You go on to your other chickens. I'll stay here and think." Dicksle went down through the yards. When she came back, Whispering Smith was sitting on a cracker box watching the bantam. The chicken was making desperate efforts to get off Dlcksle's cord and join Its companions In the runway. Smith was critically , when eying the bantam Dicksle rejoined him. "Do you usually," he asked, looking suddenly up, "have success (n setting roosters?" "Now you are having fun with me again." "No, by heaven! I am not." "Have you diagnosed the case?" "I have, and I have diagnosed It as a case of mistaken Identity." "Identity?" "And misapplied energy. Miss Dicksle, you have tied up the wrong bird. This Is not a bantam hen at all; this Is a bantam rooster. Now that is my Judgment. Compare him with the other! Notice how much darker his plumcge isit's the rooster," declared Whispering Smith, wiping the perplexity from his brow. "Don't feel bad, not. at all. Cut htm loose, Miss Dicksle-don- 't hesitate; do It on my responsibility. Now let's look at the cannibal leghorns-'B- nd great Caesar." s CHAPTER XXI.' Between Girlhood and Womanhood. About tine o'clock that night Puss ushered McCloud In from the river. Dicksle came running downstairs to meet him. "Tour cousin Insisted I ' should ronie up to the house for some said McCloud, dryly. "I Wppor," I ; ' JONJ . 4 or could have taken camp fare witn the men. Gordon stayed there with him." Dicksle held his hat In her hand, and her eyes were bright In the firelight. Puss must have thought the two made a handsome couple, for she lingered, as she started for the kitchen, to look back. "Puss," exclaimed her mistress, "fry a chicken right away! A big one, Puss! Mr. McCloud Is very hungry, I know. And be quick, do! Oh, how is the river, Mr. McCloud?" "Behaving like a lamb. ' It hasn't fallen much, but the pressure seems to be off the bank, If you know what that means?" "You must be a magician! Things changed the minute you came!" "The last doctor usually gets credit for the cure, you know." v "Oh, I know all about that Don't you want to freshen up? Should you mind coming right to my room? Marlon lg In hers," explained Dicksle, "and I am never sure of Cousin Lance's he has so many boots." When she had disposed of McCloud she flew to the kitchen. Puss was starting after a chicken. "Take a lantern, Puss!" whispered Dicksle, vehemently. "No, Indeed; dls nigger don' need no lantern fo' chickens. Miss Dicksle" "But get a good one. Puss, and make haste, do! Mr. McCloud must be starved! Where Is the baking powder? I'll get the biscuits started." Puss turned fiercely. "Now look-heah, yo can't make biscuits! Yo' Jes' go se' down wlf dat young Jes' lemme lone, ef yo' gen'm'n! please! Dls ain't de firs' time I killed chickens, Miss Dicksle, an made biscuits. Jes clalr out an' se' down! Place f'r young ladles is in de 01' Puss can cook supir parlor! f'r one man yet ef she has to!" "Oh, yes. Puss, certainly, I know, tA course; only, get a nice chicken!" an, with the ptrtlng admonition Dicksle, smoothing her hair wildly, uag'.ened back to the living noni. But the tana was done. Puss, mora excited than her mistress, lost he. head when she got to the chicken-yard- , and with sufficiently bad results. AVheu Dlcksie ran out a few moments afterward for a glass of water for McCloud, Puss" was calmly wiping her hands, and In the sink la? the quivering form of young Caesar. Dicksle caught her favorite up by the Iocs and suppressed a cry. There could be no mistake. She cast a burning look on Puss. It would do no good to storn now. . Dlcksie only wrung he hands and returned to McCloud. He rose In the happiest- - mood. He could not see what a torment Dlcksie was In. and took the water without asking himself- why it trembled In her hand. Her restrained manner did not worry him. for he felt that bis fight at the river was won, and the prospect of fried chicken composed him. Even the long hour before Puss, calm and inviting In a white cap and apron, appeared to announce supper, passed like a dream. When Dicksle rose to lead the way to the dining room, McCloud walked on air; the high color about her eyes Intoxicated him. Not till half the fried chicken, with many compliments from McCloud, had disappeared, and the plate had gone out for the second dozen biscuits did he notice Dicksie's abstraction. j "I'm sure you need worry no longer about the water," he observed, reassuringly. "I think the worst of the danger Is past." Dicksle looked at the tablecloth with wide-opeeyes. "I feel sure that It Is. I am no longer worrying about good-nature- , that." "It's nothing I can do or leave undone. Is it?" asked McCloud, laughing a little as he implied in his tone that she must be worrying about something. Dicksle made a gesture of alarm. "Oh, no, ho; nothing!" "It's a pretty good plan not to worry about anything." "Do you think so?" "Why, we all thought so last night Heavens!" McCloud drew back in his chair. "I never offered you a piece of chicken! What have I been thinking of?" "Oh, I wouldn't eat It anyway!" cried Dlcksie. "You wouldn't? It Is delicious. Do have a plate and a wing at least." "Really, I could not bear to think of It" she said, pathetically. He spoke lower. "Something Is troubling you. I have no right to a confidence, I know," he added, taking a biscuit d train-wrecke- a - to what I say: Don't ever quote me or let it appear that you any more than know .me. Can you manage that? Really? "Very good; you will understand why In a minute. The man that is stirring up all this trouble with your Cousin Lance and In this whole country Is your kind and neighbor, Mr. Sinclair. I am prejudiced against him; let us admit that on the start, and remember It In estimating what I say. But Sinclair Is the man who has turned your cousin's bead, as well as made things In other ways unpleasant for several of us. Sinclair I tell you so you will understand everything, more than your cousin, Mr. McCloud, or Marion Sinclair understand Sinclair Is a r and a murderer. That makes you breathe hard, doesn't It? but it is so. Sinclair is fairly educated and highly intelligent capable in every way, daring to the limit, and, in a way, fascinating; It is no wonder be has a following. But his following is divided Into two classes: The men that know all the secrets, and the men that don't men like Rebstock and Du Sang, and men like your cousin and a hundred or so sports in Medicine Bend, who see only the glamour of Sinclair's pace. Your cousin sympathizes with Sinclair when he doesn't actually side with him. All this has helped to turn Sinclair's head, and this Is exactly the situation you and McCloud and I and a lot of others are up against. They don't know all this, hut I know It, and now you know it. Let me tell you something that comes close to home. You have a cowboy on the ranch named Karg he is called Flat Nose. Karg was a railroad man. He Is a caUle-thlef- , a a murderer, and a spy. I should not tell you this If you were not game to the last drop of your blood. But I think I know you better than you know yourself, though you never saw me until last night. Karg is Sinclair's spy at your ranch, and you must never feel It or know It; but he is there to keep your cousin's sympathy with Sin clair, and to lure your cousin bis way, And Karg will try to kill George Mc Cloud every time he sets foot on this i ranch, remember that." "Then Mr. McCloud ought not to be here, I don't want him to stay if he Is In danger!" exclaimed Dicksle. "But I do want him to come here as If it mattered nothing, and I shall try to take care of him. I have a man among your own men, a cowboy named Wlckwlre, who will be watching Karg. and who is Just as quick, and Karg, not knowing he was watched, would be taken unawares. If Wickwlre goes elsewhere to work some one else will take bis place here. Karg Is not on the ranch now; he Is up north, hunt ing up some of your steers that were run off last month by bis own cronies Now do you think I am giving you " confidence?" She looked at him steadily. "If I can only deserve it all." In the distance she heard the calling of the men at the river borne on the wind. The shock of what had been told her, the strangeness of the night and of the scene, left her calm. Fear had given and Dicksle way to responsibility retmed to know herself. "You have nothing- whatever to do to deserve It but keep your own coun sel. But listen a moment longer for this Is what I have been leading up to," he said. vMarlon will get a mes a message from Sinsage clair, asking her to come to see him at his ranch-housbefore she goes back. I don't know what be wants but she is his wife. He has treated her Infamously; that Is why she will not live with him and does not speak of him. But you know how strange a woman is or perhaps you don't; she doesn't always cease to care for a man when she ceases to trust him. I am not In Marion's confidence. Miss Dick sle. She Is another man's wife. 1 cannot tell how she feels toward him; I know she has often tried to reclaim him from his deviltry. She may try again, that Is, she may, for one reason or another, go to him as he asks. I could not Interfere, If I would. I have no right to If I could, and I will not. Now this Is what I'm trying to get up the courage to ask you. Should you dare to go with her to Sinclair's ranch if she decides to go to him?" "Certainly I should dare." "After all you know?" "After all I know why not?" "Then In case she does go and you go with her, you will know nothing whatever about anything, of course, unless you get the story from her. What I fear is that which possibly may come of their Interview. He may try to kill her don't be frightened. He will not succeed if you can oily make sure he doesn't lead her away on horseback fom the ranch-housor get her alone In a room. She has few friends. I respect and honor bor because she and l grew up as children together In tht same little town in Wisconsin. I knew her folks, all of them, and I've promised them you know to have a kind of care of her." "I think I know." He looked even at her tone of understanding. "I need not try to deceive you; your Instinct would be poor It It did not tell you train-robbe- "Yonder They Come!" Marion and Dicksie sympathized with never him and laughed at him. " worry about what can't be helped,'" ' Dicksle murmured. He looked at Marion. "That's a shot at me. You don't want to go down, do you?" be asked. Ironically, looking from one to the other. ' "Why. of course, I'll go down," responded Dicksle, promptly. "Marlon caught cold last night I guess, so you will excuse, her, ,1 know. I will be back In an hour, Marion, and you can toast your cold while I'm gone." "But you mustn't go alone!" pro- i tested McCloud. Dicksle lifted her chin the least bit. "I shall be going with you, shall I not? And if the messenger has gone back I shall have to guide you. You never could find your way alone." . "But I can go," interposed Marlon, rising. "Not at all; you can not go!" announced Dicksle. "I can protect both Mr. McCloud and myself. If be should arrive down there under the wing of two women be would never hear the last of it. I am mistress here still, I think; and I sha'n't be leaving heme, you know, to make the trip!" McCloud looked at Marlon. "I never worry over what can't be helped though it Is dollars to cents that those fellows don't need me down there any more than a cat needs two tails. And how will you get back?" he asked, turning to Dicksle. "I will ride back!" returned Dicksle, loftily. "But you may, if you like, help me get my horse up." "Are you sure you can find your way back?" persisted McCloud. Dicksle looked at him In surprise. "Find my way back?" she echoed, softly. "I could not lose it. I can ride over any part of this country at noon or at midnight, asleep or awake, with a saddle or without, with a bridle or without, with a trail or without. I've ridden every horse that has ever come on the Crawling Stone ranch. I could ride when I was three years old. Find my way back?" The messenger had gone when the two rode from the house. The sky was heavily overcast, and the wind blew such a gale from the south and west that one could hardly hear what the other said. McCloud could not have ridden from the house to the barn In the utter darkness, but his horse followed Dlcksle's. She halted frequently on the trail for him to come up with her, and after they had crossed the alfalfa fields McCloud did notrcare whether they ever found the path again or not "It's great, isn't it?" he exclaimed, coming up to her after opening a gate In the dark. "Where are you?" "This way," laughed Dicksle. "Look out for the trail here. Give me your hand and let your horse have his head. If he slips, drop off. quick on this side." McCloud caught ber hand. They rode for a moment In silence, the horses stepping cautiously. "All right now," said Dlcksie; "you may let go." But McCloud kept his horse up close and clung to the warm hand. "The camp is Just around the hill," murmured Dicksle, trying to pull! away. "But of course If you would ':ke to ride In holding my hand you . Her eyes fell to the' floor. "It Is nothing. Pray, don't mind me. May I fill your cup?" she asked, looking up. "I am afraid I worry too much over what has happened and can't be helped. Do you never do that?" McCloud, laughing wretchedly, tore Caesar's last leg from his body, "No, Indeed. I never worry over what can't he helped." Tbey left the dining room. Marlon came down. But tbey had hardly siay!" seated themselves before tha living "No," said McCloud. "of bourse not room fire when a messenger arrived not for worldsl But Miss Dlcksie, with word that McCloud was wanted couldn't w ride back to tha house at tha river. His chagrin at being and ride around the other way Into dragged away was so apparent that camp? I think the other way Into the camp say, around by the railroad bridge would be prettier, don't you?" For answer she touched Jim lightly with her lines and his spring released her hand very effectively. As she did so the trail turned, and the camp-fire- , whipped In the high wind, blazed before them. Whispering Smith and Lance Dunning were sitting together as the two galloped up. Smith helped Dlcksie to alight. She was conscious of her color and her eyes were now unduly bright Moreover, Whispering Smith's glance rested so calmly on both McCloud's face and her own that Dicksle felt as If be saw quite through her and knew everything that had happened since they left the house, i Lance was talking to McCloud. "Don't abuse the wind," McCloud was saying. "It's our best friend Mr. Dunning. It is blowing the wa ter Where is the trouble?" For answer Dunning led McCloud off toward the bend, and Dicksle was left alone with Whispering Smith. He made a seat for her on the windward side of the big fire. When she had seated herself she looked up in great contentment to ask If he was hot going to sit down beside her. The brown coat, the high black hat, and the big eyes of Whispering Smith had already become a part of her mental store. She saw that he seemed preoccupied, and sought to draw him out of his abstraction. "I am so glad you and Mr. McCloud are getting acquainted with Cousin Lance," she said. "And do you mind my giving you a confidence, Mr. Smith? Lance has been so unreasonable about this matter of the railroad's coming up the valley and powwowing so much with lawyers and ranchers that be has been forgetting about everything at home. He Is so much older than I am that he ought to be the sensible one of the family, don't you think so? It frightens me to have him losing at cards and drinking. I am afraid he will get Into some shooting affair. I don't understand what has come over him, and I worry about It. I believe you could Influence him if you knew him." "What makes you think that?" asked Whispering Smith, but his eyes were on the fire. "Because these men he spends his time with in town the men who fight and shoot so much are afraid of you. Don't laugh at me. I know It Is quite true In spite of their talk. I waa afraid of you myself until "Until" "But I think It Is because I don't understand things that I am so afraid. I am not naturally a coward. I'm sure I could not be afraid of you If I understood things better. And there is Marlon. She puzzles me. She will never speak of ber husband I don't know why. And I don't know why Mr. McCloud Is so bard on Mr. Sinclair-- Mr. Sinclair seems so kind and good-natured- Whispering Smith looked from the fire Into Dlcksle's eyes. "What should you say If I gava you a confidence?" 8he opened her heart to his searching gazo. "Would you trust me with a confidence?" Ha answered without hesitation. "You shall see. Now, I have many things I can't talk about, you understand. But 1! I had to give you a secret this Instant that carried my life, I shouldn't fear to do It so much for trusting you. Only this, too, as , e e s r, more than I ought to. He came along; and turned her head. You need fear nothing for yourself In going with her, and nothing for ber If you can cover Just those two poInts-J-c- an you remember? Not to let her go away with him on horseback, and not to leave her where she will be alone with him la the house?" "I can and will. I- think as much of Marlon as you do. I am proud to be able to do something for you. . How little I have known you! I thought you were everything I didn't want to know." "It's nothing," he returned, easily,, "except that Sinclair has stirred up your cousin and the ranchers as well as the Williams Cache gang, and that makes talk about me. I have to do what I can to make this a peaceable country to live In. The railroad wants decent people here and doesn't want the other kind, and it falls on me, unfortunately, to keep the other kind moving. I don't like It, but we can none of us do quite what we pleasa in making a living. Let me tell you this" he turned to fix his eyes seriously on hers: "Believe anything you hear of me except that I have ever taken human life willingly or save In discharge of my duty. But this kind of work makes my own life an uncertainty, as you can see. I do almost literally carry my life in my hand, for If my hand Is not quicker every time than a man's eye, I am done for then and there." "It is dreadful to think of." "Not exactly that, but It Is soma, thing I can't afford to forget" "What would become of the lives of the friends you protect if you were killed?" "You say you care for Marlon Sinclair. I should like to think if anyto me you thing should happen wouldn't forget her?" "I never will." He smiled. "Tfcen I put her to charge of the man closest to me, George McCloud, and the woman she thinks the most of In the world except her mother. What Is this, are they back? Yonder they come." "We found nothing serious," McCloud said, answering their questions as he approached with Lance Dunning, "The current is really swinging away, but the bank is caving in where if wis undermined last night." He stopped before Dicksle. "I am trying to get your cousin to go to the bouse and go to bed. I am going to stay all night but there Is no necessity for his Btaylng." "Damn it, McCloud. it's not right," protested Lance, taking off his hat and wiping his forehead. "You need the sleep more than I do. I say he is the one to go to bed tonight" continued Lance, putting it up to Whispering Smith. "And I insist, by the Almighty, that you two take him back to the house with you now!" Whispering Smith raised his hand. "If this is merely a family quarrel about who shall go to bed, let us compromise. , You two stay up all nljht and let me go to bed." Lance, however, was obdurate.' "It seems to be a family characteristic of the Dunnlngs to have own way," ventured McCloud, of ei some further dispute. "If you v. Ill have It so, Mr. Dunning, you n iy stand watch and I will gc to the house." Riding back with McCloud, Did le and Whispering Smith discussed t ie flood. McCloud disclaimed credit t'ai the Improvement In the situation. "II the current had held against us r.3 it did yesterday, nothing I could hav done would have turned It," he sal::, "Honesty is the best policy, ot course," observed Whispering Smith. "I like to see a modest man and ou want to remind him of all this wh-he sends in his bill," he suggest i d, speaking to Dicksle In the dark. "But," he added, turning to McCloud, "admit ting that you are right, don't take tht trouble to advertise your view- - cf II around here. It would be only decent strategy for us in the valley Just no to take a little ot the credit due to th wind." (TO BE CONTINUED.) - tb-Jl- . . Needed to Begin at Home.' Two young women were scheduled to read papers on the rearing of chit dren in connection with a mothers' meeting, their husbands being left at home to put the two children to bed, They lived In adjoining apartments. The young women attended thi meeting, read the papers and aftei the discussion on the care of infanti adjourned to the home ot a friend foi refreshments. When they reached home at 11:30 the two husbands had Joined forces and were frantlcallj pacing the floor, each carrying shrieking baby. His Efforts Wasted. Lecturer on Art "Before I sit dowa I shall be happy to answer any que tlons that any of you may wish to ask." Gentleman (In audience) "1 have enjoyed the lecture much, sir, and have understood It all except s few technical terms. Will you pleas tell me what you mean by the words perspective, fresco, and mickle-an- j lo?" (Lecturer sits down discouraged.) Chicago Tribune. , ' |