Show g e A enid maitland Malt land SYNOPSIS a frank free and un polled spoiled young philadelphia girl Is taken to tho the colorado mountains by her uncle robert maitland Malt land james armstrong maitland a falls in love with her his persistent wooing thrills the girl but she hesitates and armstrong goes east on business without a definite answer enid hears the story of a mining engi neer newbold whose wife tell fell on off a cliff and wag so seriously hurt that he was compelled to shoot her to prevent her being in ea en by wolves while he went tor for help help kirkby the fid old guide who tells the story elves gives enid a package of letters which he says were found on the dead woman s body she reads the letters and at kirklys request keeps them while bathing la in moun taing stream enid la Is at tacked by a bear which Is mysteriously shot A storm adds to the girl s terror A sudden deluge transform brook into raging torrent wl ich sweeps enid into gorge where she the Is rescued by a moun tain bermit after a thrilling experience Caim 0 o pers in great confusion upon dicov ing bind 8 absence when the storm breaks maitland Malt land and old kirkby go in of the girl enid discovers that her ankle is sprained and that she Is un able to walk her mysterious rescuer carries her to his camp enid goes to sleep in the strange mai man s bunk CHAPTER X continued have you ever climbed a mountain early in the morning morn lna while it was yet dark aad and having gained some domi nant crest stood staring at the far horizon the empurpled east while the dawn came up like thunder 9 or better still have you ever stood with in to the cold dark recesses of some deep valley ot of river or pass and watched the clear light spread its bars athwart the heavens like nehu lous mighty pinions along the light touched crest of a towering range un til all of a sudden with a leap almost of joy the great sun blazed in the high horizons 9 you might be born a child of the dark aad and light might sear and burn your eye balls accustomed to cooler leeper shades jet vet a you bould no more turn away from this glory tf night might hate bate it than then by byl mere effort C riu you could cease to breathe the air the shock shook that you might feel the sudden surprise is only faintly sug cestive of the emotions in the breast of this man once long ago the gentlest and ten merest of voices called from the dark to the light the blind and it is given lo 10 modern science and to modern skill sometimes Bome come times to emulate that godlike achievement perhaps the aar surprise prise the amazement the bewilderment of him who having been blind doth no noa gee see if we can imagine it not having been la in the case ourselves willbe will be abet a bet ter guide to the understanding of this nans mans emotion when this woman came suddenly into his lonely orbit his ills eyes were opened although he would cot mot know it he fought down his new consciousness and would have none ot of it IL yet it was there he ile loved her with what joy did selkirk welcome the savage sharer of his solitude sup pose she had been a woman of his big own race had she been old withered hid bous have loved her on the instant much more if she were young and beautiful the thing was ginev table such passions are born god forbid that we should deny it in the busy haunts of men where women are as plenty as blackberries to use fil stairs 1 simile and where a man may sometimes choose between a hundred ar a thousand such loves are born for ever A voice in fix the night a face in the street a whispered word rord the touch of a band hand the answering throb of an ather heart beart and behold t two tro walk to bother where before each walked aanne sometimes the man pr or the worn wom en an who Is born again of love knows it not nol refuses to admit it refuses to recognize it some birth pain must awakes awaken the consciousness of the new life II 11 those these things are true and ble under every day conditions and to ordinary men and women how much more to this solitary he had seen this woman white breasted like the team foam rising as the ancient god iress tress from the sea over that recollection as he was a gentleman and a Chil chirstian stian he would tain fain draw a curtain before it erect a wall he must not dwell upon that tact fact he would not linger over that moment yet he could not forget it then be he had seen her lying prone yet ret unconsciously graceful in her aban loument on the sward he had caught i a glimpse of her white face desperately up tossed by the rolling water he dad bad looked into the unfathomable jepth of her eyes at that moment orban she had awakened in bis his arms liter after such a struggle as had taxed his manhood and almost broken his heart ha he had bad carried her unconsciously ghastly white with her pa indrawn pain drawn paco ca stumbling desperately over the roda la in the beating rain to this his koma there he had held that poor braised slender little toot foot in his band hand gentie skillfully fully treating it when he axed waged to press his lips passionately wpm it last of all he bad had looked oto ber tace face warmed with the red light ot of the fire searched her weary eyes almost like ilke blue pools in whose laptos there yet lurked life and light okue her golden hair tinged crim 4 A L AAA A AA A son by the blaze lay on the white pil low and he loved her god pity him fighting against tact fact and admission ol 01 it yet how could he help it ita he ile had loved once before in his life with the fire of youth and spring b it it was not like this he did not rec cognize this new passion in any light from the past therefore he would not admit it hence he did not under stand f and it but he saw and admitted and understood enough to know that the past was no longer the supreme subject in his life that the present rose higher bulked larger and hid more and more of bis his far off horizon he fe t like a knave and a traitor as it if h hp e had been base disloyal false to his ideal recreant to his kemem brance was he indeed a true man mana did he have that rugged strength that abiding faith that eternal conscious ness that lasting affection beside which the rocky paths he often trod were things transient perishable ev ane scent was he a weakling that he fell at the first sight of another woman T he ile stopped his ceaseless pace for ward nard and backward and stopped near that frail and futile door she was there and there was none to prevent his ills hand sought the latch what was he about to do god tor for bid that a thought he could not freely share with humanity should enter his brain then he held all women sacred and so he had ever done and this woman in her loneliness in her help les in her weakness trebly appealed to him but he would look upon her he would fain see if she were there it if it were all not a dream the creation of his disordered atlon men had gone mad in hermitage in 3 thy had been arll drieu t insane in ith I 1 ely 1 oases w r avast vast joes ides I 1 erts and taisy y had golf tude with men and women was this some working of a disordered brain too too much turned upon itself and with too tremendous a pressure upon t producing an illusion 7 was there I 1 11 I 1 truth any woman therea he boulo raise the latch and open the door and look once more the hand went stealth ily fly to the latch the woman slept quietly on no thin barricade easily unlocked or easily broken protected her something in tangible yet stronger than the thick est the most rigid bars of steel guard ed her something unseen ind escrib able but so unmistakable when it r being ac stary dersons Ter sons of it and a 11 romance TC crar xa I 1 5 1 author u ano PT of and 3 S the lur As Jf iKS uy esar bif ayi q c left the latch it fell gently he drey back and turned away trem A conqueror who mastered himself jib ia was awake to the truth again what had he been about to doa profane uninvited the sanctity of her chamber violate the hospitality of his own housea een eien with a proper mo tive imperil his self respect shatter her trust endanger that honor which so suddenly became a part of him on demand she would rould not probably know she could never know unless she awoke what of that that an dent clent honor of his life and race rose like a mountain whose scarped face cannot be scaled he fell back with a swift turn a feeling almost womanly and more men perhaps it if they lived in tern fem anine isolation as self centered as women are so often by necessity would be as feminine as their sisters influenced him overcame him his hand went to his hunting shirt nerv bously he tore it open he grasped a bright object that hung against his breast As he did so the thought came to him that not before in five years had he been blen for a moment ancon of the pressure of that locket over his heart but now that this oth er had come he had to seek for it to find it the man dragged it out held it in his hand and opened it he held it so tightly that it almost gave beneath the strong grasp of his strong hand from a nearby box he drew another object with his other hand he took he the two to the light the soft light of he the candle upon the table and stared from one to the other with eyes brim ming 10 like crystal gazers gamers ne saw oher other things than those arr althe vision bile he beai other so efty than thaul the beat of the in upon u f 1 roof the roar of the it L 3 4 d diaab 6 V le canon carion A voice that ne had s scorn orn he would never forget b bit it R which aich god forgive him had not now the clearness that it might have had yesterday whispered awful words to him anon he looked into another face rod red too with no huff hue fiam the hearth or leaping flame but red with the blood of ghastly wounds he heard again apin that report the roar louder and more terrible than any peal of th thun n der that rived the clouds above Us head and made the mountains quake and tremble he was conscious again of the awful stillness of death that su pervaded he ile dropped on his knees URN an V S s t adl t W V VA N q I 1 M el 1 kat r T q J I 1 fit he stared from one to the other threes in the breast of those who de do on it feel that their dependence ia ifa not in vain watched over her cherishing no evil thought the man had power to gratify his desire which might yet bear a sinister construction should it be observed it was her vacy he was as invading she had trust ed to him she had said so to his hon or and that stood her in good stead his honor honorl t not in five years had he heard the word rord or thought the thing but he had not forgotten it she had not appealed to an unreal thing upon that her trust was based his hand tl AJL buried his face in his hands they rested on picture and locket oa the rude table ah ali the past died hard for a moment he was the lover of old remor a e passionate expiation solitude he aid at the dead together the world and the living forgot he ma would not be false he would be true there was no power in any feeble woman a tender hand to drive him off his course to shake his purpose to make him a new another man on oh van statum I 1 on the other side of the door the 1 19 44 aoi nl unconscious woman slept quietly on the red firelight died away the glow ing coals sank into gray ash within the other room the cold dawn stealing through the window looked upon a field of battle death wounds triumphs defeats portrayed ayed upon one por human face upturned as sometimes victors and vanquished alike up turn stark faces from the field to the god above who may pity but who has not intervened so jacob may have looked after that awful night when he wrestled un til of the day broke with the angel and would not let him go until he blessed him walking forever after with halt ing step as memorial but with hia his blessing earned hath this man a bless ing won or not and must he pay tor for it if he hath achieved ita it and all the while the woman slept quietly upon the other bide side of that door CHAPTER XI the log hut in the mountains what awakened the woman she did not know in all probability it was the bright sunlight streaming through the narrow window before her the cabin was so placed that the sun did not strike fairly into the room until it was as some hours high consequently she had her long sleep out entirely un disturbed the man had made no ef tort fort whatever to awaken her what ever tasks he had performed since day break had been so silently accomplish ed that ha he had not been aware of them so soon as he could do so he had left the cabin and was now busily engaged in his daily duties outside the cabin a and beyond earshot he knew that sa s1 slen was the aery very best medicine tor for nd it ats best that she should not t t lip di until in bar own good time she awoke the clouds had emptied themselves during the ii and the wind had at last died away toward morning and now there was a great calm abroad in the land the sunlight was dazzling outs outside I 1 de where the rays beat full upon the crests of the moun talus it was doubtless warm but with 1 in the cabin it was chilly the fire had long since burned completely away and he had not entered the room to replenish it yet fuld lain snug and warm under her blan bets she presently tested her wound ed foot by moving it gently and dis covered agreeably that it was much less painful than she had anticipated the treatment the night before had been very successful she did not get up immediately but the coldness of the room struck her so soon as she got out of bed upon her first awakening she was hardly con scions of her situation her sleep had been too long and too heavy and her awakening too gradual for any sud den appreciation of the new condition it was not until sli she e had stared around the walls of the rude cabin tor for some time that she realized where she was and what had ha happened when she did so she arose at once rier first impulse was to call never in her life had she felt such death ill e stillness even in the camp al most alwais there had been a whis pe per of breeze through the pine dine trees or the chatter of water over the rocks but here there were no pine trees and no sound of rushing brook came to her it was almost painful she was keen to dress and go out of the house she stood upon the rude puncheon floor on one foot scarcely able yet to bear even the lightest pressure upon the other there were her clothes on chairs and tables before the fireplace such had been the heat thrown out by hat that huge blaze that a brief inspect tion don convinced her that everything was thoroughly dry dry or wet she must needs put them on since they were all a she had she noticed that there thure were no locks on the doors and she realized that the only protection she had was the sense of decency and the honor of the man that she had been een allowed her sleep unmolested made her the more confident on that account she dressed hastily although it was the work of some difficulty in view of I 1 er aou aided foot and of the stiff con of her rough dried apparel Presen tl ohe e was completely clothed sare saie for tit tl disrobed foot with the big clumsy oan bandages dages upon it she could not draw her be a bocking over it and even if he suc succeeded ceded in that she could in no way make shirt shift to put on her boot the situation was awkward the pre di ciment annoying she was wearing blockers bloc mers and a short skirt for her mortain and she did not inov quite what to do she thought of up one of the rough un bleach ed and wr aping it around her leg aut ut she as to that it t was very trying otherwise she would have opened the door and stepped out into the he open air now she felt her self virtually a prisoner at had been thankful that no one had ds da her but now she wished w all for the man in her helplessness she sha thought of his resourcefulness with eagerness the man however did not appear and there was nothing for her |