Show katharine burt r iian OT BY BURT SYNOPSIS john landi eighteen years rears old wife of pierre ts to the daughter of john ohn carver who murdered her mother mothe r to tor r adultery ner her lonely life with her father in a wyoming cabin unbearable joan oan leaves him to work in a hotel la in a nearby town joan meets pierro and the two mutually attracted tr are married carver tells i pierre story of joans mother pierre forces argea a cattle bra brand nd frank noll lwell well young minis minister ter presents books to joan flerra forbids her to read them maddened by jealousy pierre ties joan and burns the two car brand into her shoulder hearing her screams a stranger bursts bunts into the house and shoots pierre the stranger revives joan oan tolling her pierre Is dead arg urges es her to go with him I 1 CHAPTER X 7 prosper comes to a decision I 1 perhaps in spite of his gruesome boast BS as to dead me dpn n it was as much to satisfy his own spirit as to comfort ort joans that prosper actually did ad undertake otake a journey to the cabin that had d belonged to alerre it was truo true that prosper had bad never been able to stop thinking not on en much odthe of the tall allin youth lying no still across the tha floor all his beauty and strength turned to an ashen slackness as of r p brown rown hand band that stirred tho motion of those fingers groping for life had continually disturbed him no ile wont back stealthily at dusk choosing a dusk of wind driven snow so that bla tracks eraclis vanished as soon as made tho root roof of pierres cabin made a dark ridge above tile the snow veiled in cloudy drift ile he reached it with a cold heart and slid down to its window cautiously bending his face near to tho the pane lie expected an interior already dark from rom the snow piled round the window so lie he cupped his hands about his eyes at once he lot let himself down out of sight below tho the sill thero there was a living presence in the house prosper had bad seen a bright alre the smoke of which had been hidden by the snow spray a cot was drawn up before the fire and a big fair young oung man in tweeds whose face rosy losy sensitive and quiet quie was bent over the figure on tile the cot A pair of large white hands were fl ere carefully busy prosper crouched below the window considered what lie he had seen it wai was ii a week now since he had left landas for a dying man this big fellow tn in tweeds must have come soon after after the shooting evidently he was not caring tor for a dead man the black 0 head on the pillow had moved now there came the sound tf of speech just a laass murmur this time the black head turned itself slightly and prosper saw pierres res face he had seen it only twice before once when it had bad looked up fierce and crazed at his first entrance into the house once again lay with lifted chin and pale ups on the floor cut but even after BO 50 scarce a memory prosper was in 1 r thra there was a living presence in the th house startled by the change before it had bad been the face of a man beside him gelf with drink and the lust of animal power and cruelty now it was the wistful faco face of bierre drawn drann into a tragic mask maik like joans when she ica came me to herself a miserably haunted and hafron ed faco no as though it too like ilke the outside worl had lost or had new hod had a merro ry of sun evidently ho submitted to tai th dressing of Ms ble wound but with a ahamed and pitiful look prospers whole tin ot of the nun man was changer changed and aad tile the change thero there began something like a struggle ile he was afflicted by a cro crossing Esing of purposes and ana a stumbling of intention ho did not care cao ca o to risk a second look lie crept away and fled into the windy dusk ile he traveled with the i vand like a blown rag and stopping only for or a few hours rest at tile station mada Inada tho journey homo home by morning of tile the second day andon and on tho the journey he lle made up hla his mind concerning joan prosper gael was wa a roan ot of bellber dell ber a ato to though passionate imagination no ile did not often 2 at t upon impulse though kilough ills his actions iero cro often those attempted only by passion driven or impulsive folk prosper Ir osper could never plead thoughtlessness ile iio justified carefully ills every action to td himself these were cold dark hours of deliberation as ho he let the wind drive him across the desolate land when the wind dropped and a splendid still dawn swept up into tho the clean sky he was at peace with his own mind and climbed up tho the mountain trail with a halt half smile on his face in the dawn awake on her pillows joan was listening for him and at the sound of hla his webs she sat up ua palo to her lips she did not know what she feared but site she was filled with dread the restful stupor that had followed her storm 0 of grief bad spent itself and she was suffering again waves of longing for pierre of hatred for him alternately v submerged her all these bleak gny hours of wind during which wen lio ho had pattered in and out with meals with wood tor for tier her r tove stove with lattio questions as to her comfort she had suffered as aa people suffer in a dream a restless misery like the misery of the pine branches that leaped up and down bo be fore her window the still stillness of the dawn with its ita sound of nearing steps gave her a sickness of 0 heart and brain so that eliat when prosper came softly in at her door she saw him through a mist lie ile moved quickly to tier her bide knelt by her took her hands lie has been cared for joan said prosper some friend of his bis came and did all that wits mis left to be done some i friend 7 in the pale delicately expanding light joans face gleamed between its black colls coils of hair clr with eyes like enchanted tarns prosper could see in them reflections of those terrors that had been tormenting her ills touch pressed reassurance upon her ter ills his eyes his voice sty sly poor child 1 aly dearl dear t im glad clad I 1 am back to take core care of you I 1 cry let me comfort you lie he has haa been cared for lie ile Is not lying there alone lie ile Is dead lets forgive him joan lie ile shook her hands a little urgently and a most painful memory of pierres res beseeching grasp come upon tipon joan she wrenched away and fell back quivering but she did not cry only asked in her most moving voice who took care of alerre after I 1 went away and left him dead prosper got to his feet and stood with his arms folded looking wearily down ot at her nig ills mouth had fallen into rather cynical lines and there were puckers at the corners of his eyes oh a big fair young man ft a rosy boy face serious looking blue eyes joan was startled and turned turned round it was mr hollawell Holl lwell she ehe sala in a wondering tone did you tal daiy le with him did you tell him 7 no Il hardly ardly prosper shook bis big head 1 I found out what he had done for your bierre without asking unnecessary questions I 1 saw him but he did not see me hell be comin to get me said joan it was rn n entirely unemotional statement of certainty prosper pressed his lips into a line and narrowed his big eyes upon her oh he will yes hell be after me ile he must a ben by ito methin pierre cald in the town durin their quarrel an have come up after him to took look out ont what pierre would be doln to roe me I 1 wisht hed a come in time what roust must he be think in of me mat now to find pierre alyin a there dead an roe me gonel hell be after roe me to bring rne me home borne prosper would almost have hae questioned her then his sharp face was certainly at that moment the face of an inquisitor a set let of keen and delicate instruments ready for probing but so weary arill and childlike did she look so weary and childlike was her speech that he be forbore what did it matter after all what there was in her past she had lone done what site she had done been what she bad been if the he fellow had branded her for sin why she had suffered buffered overmuch prosper admitted that unbranded a AR to skin P lie wits was scarcely fit to put his dirty civilized soul under her ber clean and savage foot was wag the big rosy chap her lover she had spoken of a quarrel between him and pierre they be looking for joan to come back to go to the town to some neigh borin ranch they would make L k a seng bearch but winter would be ba a against 9 n an t them its teeth bared a blizzard was on its ito way by tho the time they found her thought trosper erand and he fie quoted one of joans quaint phrases to himself smiling with radiance as lie did so eo aiho wont be caran to leave me in ills gay little arella room he sa eat stretched out lank and long in the low deep red lacquered choir chair dozing through the long day sipping strong coffee smoking rend read mg was quiet end and content tile the devil of disappointment and of thwarted desire that lind had dived him jn a this carefully appointed hiding place stood away a little from h him tin and that hat wizard imagination of hla his began to 0 o weave by dusk duk lie he was wa writing furiously and there was a glow of rantum on ills his face CHAPTER XI the whole ly duty of woman joan waited for and wilt tug ang began inevitably to regain her strength ono evening as W wen e ile ho was spreading the table babl prosper e ir looked up from his writing to see a tall gaunt girl clinging to the tha doorjamb door jamb sho she was dressed in the heavy clothes i which hung loose upon liar her long bones her throat was drawn up to support the sharpened and hollowed faco face in which her eyes had grown very large larga joans joana eyes wandered curiously Cur louly about the brilliant room and wistful she was a moving figure piteous lovely rather like some somo graceful mountain beast its spirit half broken by wounds and imprisonment and human tending but ready mady to leap into a savagery of flight or of attack attach they were wild those great eyes as well as wistful prosper looking suddenly up at them caught his breath ile he put down his book its as quietly as though she had indeed been a wild easily startled thing and suppressing the impulse to rise stayed where he to was leaning a trifle forward tits his hands on the arms of ills his chair joans eyes wandered curiously about the brilliant room and came to him at last prosper met them relaxed and smiled come in and dine with me joan he said tell me how you like it she felt her ter way weakly to the second large chair and sat down facing him across the hearth its right beautiful said joan an right strange to me I 1 never seen anything like it before that her eyes followed wen lies depar departure departs tn re halt half fearful fearfully Y that man ind and all prosper laughed delightedly stretching up his arms in full enjoyment of her splendid Ign ignorance orande the chinaman does docs he took look so strange to you 71 Is that what he Is 1 I 1 I know she smiled rather sadly and ashamedly im awful ignorant mr din gael I 1 just can read an ive only read two books she hushed flushed and her pupils gre grew w large truly thought prosper it was like talking to a grave trustful and most impressionable child the way site she sat there rather on the edge dofher of her chair lier her hands folded letting everything he be said disturb and astonish thel whole pool gool of her thought at dinner prosper unlike ciolll well made no attempt to draw joan into talk but sipped his blo wine and watched her enjoying he composed silence and her slow graceful movements afterward he made a couch for her on the floor before the fire two skins and a golden cushion a rug of dull blue which he threw over her hiding the ugly skirt and boots lie ile took a violin from the wall 01 0 1 tuned it joan watching him with all her ber eyes 1 I dont like what youre now she told old him impersonally nod and gently im tuning up well sir id be gettin tired of that if I 1 was you im almost done said prosper humbly TO BE CONTINUED |