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Show 7 rwi I I SPEARMAN CHAPTER XI Continued 13 "Yes, you can, damn you, and you will. Let me put that bandage back where It belongs and you keep It there. Don't talk about eyesight eye-sight unless yoa want It back. Where the hell do I come In? What am I getting out of this?" It was a battle between two strong wills, and It was long In the waging. But when Carpy, wiping the sweat from his forehead and, himself almost unstrung, left Denlson's side, his patient had ridden out the storm and had promised quiet till the two could think of what might be done, pledging In the Interval mutual and absolute secrecy. Secrecy, however well pledged, grows more difficult to control In proportion to the number of persons per-sons pledged. Carpy swore Sawdy and Lefever to It very easily. McAlpIn and Ben Page were warned that If the story leaked out, It might become unpleasant un-pleasant for both. As for Bob Scott, no one was ever known to worm a secret out of him ; Barney, of course, dared not talk. Yet It will easily be understood that too many people had the story; and only the continual efforts of Dr. Carpy In silencing, through threats of what might happen to them, one or another of the conspirators con-spirators kept it under cover. Jane, after the usual storm with her father, who knew what she was doing, rode next morning into town to make her visit to the hospital. Denison was a poor actor. In his endeavor to make Jane feel there had been nothing to upset him, he was over solicitous. Carpy did better; but he was compelled to admit ad-mit that Denison had not been doing do-ing quite so well since Jane could see that for herself. Her father continued taciturn and aloof. Jane knew she was defying him by continuing to visit Denison. yet being of much the same tenacious tena-cious will as her father himself, she reckoned little of It. But her visits and ministrations to the Injured neighbor of Gunlock Ranch became so frequent, and she herself was so wholly Indifferent to comment, that the situation became be-came food for local gossip. Here was Van Tambel a deadly enemy of Denlson's, with his daughter openly showing a very spr.ial Interest In-terest In Denison's condition at the hospital carrying to him delicacies delica-cies and spending with him half her time in town. Things were at this pass when one day Van Tambel .told his daughter he must go to Medicine Bend on some bank business. Jane knew that he was not able to make the trip Carpy had told her more than once that the old man's life hung by a thread. She pleaded with her father, found out what the business busi-ness was, and offered to go Id his stead. She took the morning train for Medicine Bend, secured the further time on his notes at the bank, spent the night at the Mountain House, and took the afternoon train west for Sleepy Cat. The Pullman cars were crowded. Jane was forced to And a seat In a day coach. Here she placed her handbag In the seat beside her, bought a magazine, and resigned herself to a long afternoon and evening. eve-ning. Two men had taken the seat directly di-rectly behind her. Jane resumed her reading until In the conversation conversa-tion between the two men her attention at-tention was attracted by catching the name of Bill Denison. Her curiosity once aroused, H was easy to follow the drift of their talk. Presently she heard mention of her father's name. Aroused now to keen interest, Jane was torn between be-tween the feeling that she ought not to listen and the impulse that she must. "Of course, nobody can prove It, were the words she heard. "I didn't say ttioy could. That old bird knows too well how to cover his tracks. But everybody knows how he deviled Denlson's brother when he lived there tried to buy him out then scare him out. and then smoke him out. The old devil has been crazy ever since he owned Gunlock to get hold of that little Spring Ranch. Why? Account of the water. It's the biggest spring In the hills. Now that he's back from the hospital, the first thing he thinks of Is to get hold of that "j'alfe listened with bated breath. "Why, it's common talk In Sleepy Cat" tlie narrator went on, "that he 'paid Barney Kenstock to set Bill's ranch house afire and came damned near burning Bill up In It. Her heart stopped beating as she beard the dreadful recital, deliv ered as calmly as the merest bit of current gossip would be discussed dis-cussed on a street corner. "According to what I hear," con tinued the narrator, "Sawdy and some of Bill's friends choked the story out of Barney. Sawdy got cut up in the fracas with him Sawdy was laid up in the hospital for a month. Barney's a mean devil with a knife." The train was pulling Into Sleepy Cat. Jane, rousing herself from a stupor, her breath choking her, ner heart ready to burst with every beat, staggered to her feet, dazed, and supporting herself along the aisle with her hands alternately on the backs of the seats, stepped blindly down to the platform. Bull Page, who was In with the team and buckboard to take her home, reached for her handbag. "No, Bull," Jane said quietly. "I'm not going out tonight." "Not going out?" "I'm staying In town." "Stayln' In town?" stammered Bull, vastly surprised. "Drive me to the hotel," Jane said wearily. "I'll take a room there. You drive home and come back for me tomorrow afternoon." It was ten o'clock. Assigned to a room, Jane freshened herself after the long, dusty car ride, bathed her face and temples again and again In cold water, and tried to collect her throbbing thoughts. It all seemed like a hideous dream. Surely It could be shaken off; surely men could not be so fiendish as to plot fire and so horrible hor-rible a death as would follow to sleeping men. Her father! She shuddered. This thought was most horrible of all Incredible and yet . . Of one thing she felt certain: If It were true, she could no longer live under the same roof with him. and the terrifying duty of learning the revolting truth from his own lips confronted her. And her lover Bill, blinded Bill what now of him? Could she ever face him again? What would he say? What would he do? He knew the truth. No doubt remained re-mained In her mind on that point. No need now to ask why he seemed worried and changed. Was he only waiting, trying to decide how to tell her he could not marry her that her father had blinded him that they must part? She threw open her window and kneeling before It, looked out upon the silent, far-stretching desert with 1 f h "Let Me Put That Bandage Back Where It Belongs." its myriad of heavenly lights. The cool air cleared her head. But what could loosen the deadly grief and shame that clutched at her pounding pound-ing heart? When Dr. Carpy walked Into his office from the dining room after breakfast next morning, he taw Jane Van Tambel standing before the window, looking out. "Why, Jane !" be exclaimed. "What brings you here so early?' She looked around at him In si lence. The doctor walked over to her and laid his hands on her shoulders. shoul-ders. "Jane." ne asked, "what has happened, pirl?" The grief In her sunken eyes was too apparent Oh. doctor I" The exclamation came like a burst of suffering long pent "I know everything." ne saw the fat was flatly In the fire. Indeed he had long had oniy a faint hope of keening the Men from Jane. His real hne hud been that she might not hear the truth till he could save Denlson's eyes and thus cushion the horrid shock that the facts must bring to an Innocent In-nocent sufferer. She had thrown her arms on the table In front of her. Her bead sank between them. Dr. Carpy rose, walked around to the other side, lifted her head aDj, standing beside her, supported It In his arms. "Jane." he said slow ly, looking down Into her pitiful eyes, "from what you tell me, I see that you have heard loose stories floating around." "You, too, have heard them, Doctor. Doc-tor. Why, oh, why didn't yon tell me?" "Jane!" exclaimed .the doctor, driven from his last stronghold of reserve by the poignancy of her grief. "How the hell could I tell you a story involving those It did in such an affair? Actually, nobody no-body knows just what the facts are. Now we must get started right. First you tell me all you heard. Then I'll tell you all I've heard Is that fair?" Brokenly, and pausing at intervals inter-vals to control her voice, Jane gave him the train story. Carpy had bowed his head. "Well," he commented as she looked soberly up, "that's not far from what I've been told myself But, Jane, I'm not a bit sure we have the facts In these stories. They all depend on the word of one of the worst characters In this country. Barney Rebstock wouldn't hesitate at anything low down In the whole range of crime anybody In town will tell you that. He's not only an ex-convict but the biggest liar In this whole country." "Doctor," she said solemnly, "does Bill know all that you and I know?" "Jane," he answered In like, "Bill knows all that you and I know." "Oh, I knew. It. I knew it. To think that poor I should have brought this horror Into his life!" "Jane, that's not so. This might all have happened If you never had seen this country." "I want you to do one last favor for me, Doctor. Will you?" asked Jane. "What Is It, Jane?" "I want you to say to Bill that I freely release him from his promise prom-ise of marriage; that I beg him to forgive me all I have Innocently caused him to suffer and that I will leave here forever " "Jane!" exclaimed her listener. She raised her hand, "I've not finished fin-ished yet." "Go on!" he snapped, bluntly. "My father has made me his heir to Gunlock ranch; he has no other heir. This morning I will make my will and bequeath whatever I Inherit In-herit from my father to William Denison, to atone as far as I can for the wrongs my father has done him." "Well?" remarked Carpy coldly, "That Is all." "And that Is- what you want me to tell Bill?" "That, Doctor, Is what I want Bill to know. Oh, If I had another to do It for me, dear Doctor, 1 wouldn't put It on you." Carpy rose to his feet. "Jane, you're sending me on a fool's errand. But seeing I'm nothing noth-ing but an old fool, I expect I'm just the man for the Job. I can tell you now what he'll say as well as If I'd seen him and given him your message. But I know, of course, that wouldn't satisfy you. So I'll go and go now. "Now promise," he repeated, In parting, "you will stay right here in this office till I get back." But she was 111 prepared for what she saw when the office door was opened half an hour later and Dr. Carpy pushed Denison ahead of him into the office. Bill's eyes were bandaged. ban-daged. He groped a little with his hands, while the doctor guided r.im to a chair. "Here he Is, Jane," announced Carpy bluntly. "He can speak for himself." She had not an Instant to wait. No sooner did Denison feel himself him-self seated in a chair than he held out his arms and said, apparently not with deep feeling, not with pained emotion, but In the most commonplace, every day, matter-of-fact manner: "Where's my girl? Come here!" The old doctor watched Jane run timidly to Denison's side. "Bill!" she exclaimed brokenly. "Here I am!" "What's all this talk I hear about your quitting me, Jane?" be asked unsteadily. "Bill, I thought you ought at least to have a " "Well, I've had my chance, haven't I? And this Is my answer. Till death us do part! Nothing less, nothing else goes! Is that plain, girlie? I gave you a chance the other day to quit me what was your answer?" CHAPTER XII JANE did not go home that afternoon. after-noon. She sent Bull and the buckboard back with Instructions not to come In for her until she sent word. She wrote a brief note to her father, merely saying that she had attended to his busings and would be home In a few days. Van Tambel, In an Impatient ra:re. sent Bull back with an order to Jane to come hnme at onre. The harsh mr-vaie made less impression im-pression on his Oauiiitw than b had Intended; but it did bring hack l!ie answer that siie would tie on; suon. When the bii'.iiW'ird t.-:t Juj j drew up at the ranchhouse door, Jane alighted with a fast-beating heart Fortunately, when she got home, her father was out In the hills. Her welcome came from Quong; It sort of broke the Ice of the home-coming. But she went to her room, got out her two old suitcases, dusted them off, laid them on her bed and, stripping the hooks of her cloiet and opening the drawers of Uer dresser, began almost furiously to pack. While she was at this, she heard the heavy uueven steps of her fa- "Bill, 1 Thought You Ought at Least to Have a " ther in the living room, and the next minute his huge bulk darkened the open doorway of her bedroom. "Hello !" he snapped. She turned. "Hello, Father," she responded simply. "What are you doing?" "Packing." "What f'r?" "Preparing to go Into town." "What you goin' in town agin f'r?" "I'ye got a job In town, and I'm going there to work at it." "What kind of a job?" he snorted. "I'm going to study nursing at the hospital." "What the hell you goln' to do that f'r?" "Because things have been done from here that make this place hateful to me. I couldn't stand It here any longer." "What things you talkin' about?' She looked at him steadily. "I'm talking about burning Bill Denlson's Denl-son's ranch house." "What's that got to do with your quitting home?" "Everything. Everybody's talking about that fire. Barney Rebstock has told that you paid him for setting set-ting fire to a neighbor's ranch house with men sleeping In It." "Why, that fellow's the worst liar In Sleepy Cat. Nobody believes anything he says." "I can tell you everybody believes be-lieves It," she said, trembling. "Do you believe It?" "Father, I nm forced to unless you can convince me you had nothing noth-ing to do with It. This wretch nas had a pocketful of money." Van Tambel regarded her with perfect poise. "Why, T did give him a little money. I'll say I've been sorry for him. I know be hates Bill Denison a good many folks In this country's got no use for that" "Stop!" cried Jane. "Don't say anything against Bill Denison. He saved my life!" " that damned, dirty, ornery rustier rus-tier and thief" Jane's eyes blazed. She stamped her foot. "Don't you dare!" she cried. "What you're saying about him Is what every one In this country coun-try says about you." "Yes? There's some damned mean people In this country," thundered thun-dered her father. "Just look out for yourself, my lady. I don't know any more about that fire than you do. If Barney Rebstock wanted to get even with Denison, that's his business, not mine. You shut your trap." "That's not all." "More lies, eh?" "McCrosson has told In town that you once tried to get him to set the house on fire and he refused to do It." "He lies I He did do it! I gave him five hundred dollars to do It. He agreed to do It and took the money to do It If he hired Barney Bar-ney Rebstock to start the fire that's his lookout! I left you here to watch things, and McCrosson has been running off my steers ever since I went to the hospital, ne knows I know it. lie knows I'm going go-ing to get after him. And I will," he shouted with a frightful oath. "Now look here! I'll tell you where yon get off. You're not going a step to town! I know your scheme; you're going to live with that man Denison " "Father !" (TO EE COTICED) |