| Show the voice of the pack by EDISON MARSHALL evv w CHAPTER III continued i it Is extremely doubtful if a plains aan would have possessed this knowl adge but a plainsman has not the of life itself that the mountaineer has simply because he does dot see it in the raw and he has not half the intimate knowledge of death in absolute requisite of self composure the mountaineer knows alte to its simple phases with little tradition or convention to blur the lson death alsa very intimate acquaintance that may be met in any snow drift on my rocky trail and these conditions re very deadly to any delusions that be has in regard to himself he acquires an ability to see just where he stands and of course that means self possession this had something to do with the remarkable record that the mountain men such as that mag warrior from tennessee made in the late war cranston knew exactly what snowbird would do although of a order she was a mountain creature eian as himself she meant exactly what she said if he haan hadn t climbed from dans prone body she would have shot quickly and very straight it be tried to attack either of them now her finger would press back before he blink an eye and he wouldn t weep any hysterical tears over his dead body if he kept his distance she shoot at all he meant to keep his distance but he did know that he could insult her without dan to himself and by now his lips had their old curl of scorn go snowbird he said tene te ne ou with our sissy but I 1 guese sou saw what I 1 did to him in minutes 1 I saw but you must remember bes sick isow go if lies sick let him stay in bed and have a wet nurse you can be that lids drooped halfway over her gray eyes and the slim finger curled boore tightly about the trigger oh I 1 w iba I 1 shoot you bert I 1 she said she illan t whisper it or hiss it or hurl it or do any of the things most people ire supposed to do in moments ef violent emotion she simply mid it and her meaning was all the clearer cut you can t and I 1 II 11 pound that milk sop of ours to a jelly every time I 1 see ahlm id think snowbird that want a roan he started up the trail and then she did a strange thing he s more of a nan than you are right now bert she told him 11 prove it some day thena her arm went about dans and lifted his head upon her breast and in cranston s plain sight she beef and kissed him softly on the lips cranstone Cran stong answer was an oath it dripped from his lips more poisonous more mall cloua than the venom of a snake ills features seemed to tighten the dark lipa drew away from his teeth words could have made him such an effective answer as this little action of hers f and as he turned ap the trail he called down to her a name that most dreadful epithet that tout tongues have always to women held in greatest scorn dan struggled in her arms the ass mss on his lips the instant before had not railed him out of his half consciousness it had scarcely seemed real rather just an incident in a blissful dream but the word called down the trail shot out clear and vivid from the silence just as a physician s face will often leap from the darkness after the anesthesia something infinitely warm and tender was holding him pressing him back against a holy place that throbbed and gave him life and strength but he knew that this word had to be answered and only actions not other words could be its payment all the voices 0 bis body called to him to lie still but the voices of the spirit those higher nobler from which no man to the glory of the breed from which he sprung can ever quite escape were stronger let tugged upward straining but he even have he strength to break the hold that the soft arm had about bis neck oh it I 1 could only pull the trig leri she was crying it I 1 could enly kill him let roe he pleaded give me the pistol I 1 II 11 kill him and he would there was no flinching in the gray eyes that looked up to her she leaned forward as it to put the weapon in his hands but at see drew back and then a single bob caught at her throat an instant later they heard cranston a laughter as he vanished around the tarn of the trail for long minutes the two of them were still the girl still held the man upon her breast the pistol had fallen in the pine needles and her nervous hand plucked sp angely at the leaves of 0 mountain flower to dans yes there was something hint of paralysis and insensibility ant her posture and nev wn he ia A af 4 i jw jwia ii i dished their utter darkness darL ness startled him lie eat up straight and her arm that biad been about his neck felt at her side ue took her hand firmly in his and their eyes met vie must go home snow bird he told her im not so badly hurt but that I 1 can make it she nodded but otherwise scarcely seemed to hear her eyes still flowed with darkness and then before his own eyes their dark pupils began to contract the band he held filled and throbbed with life and the fingers closed around his she leaned toward him listen dan she said quickly you heard sou the last thing that he said 1 I help but hear snow bird her other hand sought for his then it you heard payment must be made you see what I 1 mean dan maybe you cant see knowing the girls that live on the plains you were the cause of his saying it and you must it to dan thit some stern code of the hills unwritten except in the hearts of their children inexorable as was speaking through her HP this was no personal thing in some dim half understood way it went back to the basic code of life people must fight their own fight up here she told him the laws of the courts that the plains people can appeal to are all too ar away there s no one that can do it except ou not my father my father can t fight your battles here it your honor Is going to stand its up to you dan lou cant pretend that you dian didn t hear him such as yon are weak and sick 1 I guess you saw what I 1 did to him to be beaten to a pulp in two minutes you alone will have to make him an awer for it I 1 came to your aid and now yon must come to mine her fingers no longer clasped his strength had come back to him and his fingers closed down until the blood went out of hers but she was wholly unconscious of the pain in reality she vas conscious of nothing except the growing flame in his face it held per eves in passionate fascination ills pupils were contracting to little bright dots in the gray irises the jaw was setting as she had never seen it before do you think snowbird that even have to ask me he demanded dont you think I 1 understand and it wont be in your defense only my own duty but he is so strong and you are so weak 1 I wont be so weak forever I 1 never really cared much about living be fore I 1 II 11 try now and you 11 see oh snowbird wait and trust me I 1 understand everything its my own fight when you kissed me and he cried down that word in anger and jealousy it put the whole thing on me no one else can make him answer no one else has the right its my honor no one alses that stands or falls lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it again and again and for the first time he saw the tears gi in her dark eyes but you fought here vou dan she asked with painful slowness you put up your arms or try to run anway I 1 come till he had you done so I 1 see she looked at him as it her whole joy of life hung on his answer fought I 1 I 1 would hive fought till I 1 biedl but that enough snowbird it isn t enough just to fight in a case like this A mans got to win I 1 would have died it you come and another debt that I 1 hive to that debt I 1 owe to ou sh nodded comly the choa of 1 o 0 sa ti iya W r ii copyright 1920 by little brown co the mountain men are not saved by their women without incurring obligation she attempted no barren denials bhe made no effort to pretend be biad not incurred a tremendous debt when she had come with her pistol I 1 was an unavoidable fact life bof a life I 1 the code of the mountains things I 1 must do before I 1 can ner dare to die he told her soberly one ot them Is to pay you the other la to pay cranston for the thing he said mabo the chance will never come for the first of the two only pray that it will maybe it would be dinjer to you to pray that it yet I 1 pray that it will I 1 maybe I 1 can pay that debt only by being always ready always for a chance to save you from any danger always trying to protect you you come in time to see the fight I 1 made besides I 1 lost and little else mat and that debt to you cant be paid until sometime I 1 fight again tor you and win he gasped from his weakness but went on bravely til never be able to feel nt peace snowbird until I 1 m tested in the fire before bour mesi I 1 want to show you the things cranston said of roe are not true that my courage will stand the test it wouldn t be the same with an eastern girl other things matter in the valleys but I 1 see how it Is here that there Is only one standard for men and by that stand ard they rise or fall things in the mountains are down to the assen bials lie paused and struggled tor strength to continue and I 1 know what a said to him he went on half unconscious as I 1 was I 1 kemem her every word cach word just berns to burn into me snowbird and make every one of them good ton said I 1 am a better man than he and sometime it would be proved and its the truth I 1 maybe in a month mabe in a year I 1 m not going to die arora this malady of mine now snowbird ive got too much to live for too many debts to pay in the end prove your words to him ills eyes grew earnest and the hard fire went out of them its almost as if you were a queen a real queen of some gaoat kingdom he told her tremulous with a great awe that was stealing over him as n mist steals over water and because I 1 had kissed your fingers for ever and ever I 1 was your subject living only to fight your fights a with a dream in the end to kiss your fingers again when you bent and kissed me on that hill side or him to see it was the same that I 1 was sworn to you and noting mattered in my life except the service ind love I 1 could ghe you and its more than you ever dreim im snowbird its all your for your battles and your happiness the great pines were silent above them shadowed and dark perhaps they were listening to an age old story those vows of service and self gained worth by which the race has struggled upward from the darkness but I 1 kissed you once before she reminded him the voice was just a whisper hardly louder than the stir of the leaves in the wind but that klc dian didn t count he told her it nt all the same I 1 loved you then I 1 think but it mean what it did today and whit she leaned toward him liei eyes full on his does it mein now all worth while in etc all thit matters when everything Is said that can be said and all Is done that ran be done and it means please god when the debts are paid that I 1 mav have such a kiss ngien not until then she told him whispering until then I 1 make oath that I 1 wont even ask it or receive it if you should give it it goes too deep dearest and it means too much this was their pact not until the debts were paid and her word made good would those lips be his again there was no need for further words both of them knew in the sl les the gray clouds wore gathering as always in the mountains the raindrops were falling one and one over the forest the summer waa done and fall bad come in earnest TO CONTINUED |
