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Show IpX (DrGI3?ALIXNLIONNEIL, JT XV'AT Author "THB FDNEE face, (he chin iup, the lips parted under un-der the fringe Of a brown mustache, was a marble white, and showed a gray shadow in the cheek. The hair on his forehead, thawed by the heat, was Qytag in damp .half-curled semicircles, semi-circles, 'dark ;agalnst -the pallid Bkin. ; There was :a ring on the hand that still hunglimp-on the floor. The doctor, doc-tor, muttering to himself, .pulled open the shirt -and was feeling the "heart, when 'Perley, who had flown into the bar for more'whlskyemerged, a glass in hfsihand. As his'eye fell upon the man, he -stopped, stared, and then exclaimed ex-claimed in loud-voiced amaze: "My God why, it's Dominick Ryan!' Look here. Governor" to Cannon, who was-Btanding by his daughter in the parlor doorway, "come and see for yourself. If, this ain't young Ryan I'm a Dutchman!" Cannon pushed between the Intervening Inter-vening men and bent over the prostrate pros-trate figure. "That's who it is," he said slowly and unemotionally. "It's Dominick Ryan, all right. Well, by ginger !" and he turned and looked at the 1 "But you must take it I think perhaps per-haps I gave it wrong. I ought to have lifted you up. It's easier that way," and before he could answer she slipped her arm under his head and raised it, with the other hand setting the rim of the glass against his Hps. He swallowed a mouthful and felt her arm sliding from behind his head. He had a hazy consciousness that a perfume per-fume came from her dress, and for the first time he wondered who she was. Wondering tlrus, his eyes again followed tier band putting back the ,,lass, and watched it, white in the gush of lamplight, carefully replacing the book. Then she turned toward him with the same slight, soft smile. "Who are you?" he said, keeping his hollowed eyes hard on her. "I'm Rose Cannon," she answered. "Rose Cannon from San Francisco." "Oh, yes," with a movement of comprehension, com-prehension, the name striking a chord of .memory. "Rose Cannon from San Francisco, daughter of Bill Cannon. Of course I know." He turned his head away from her and said dryly and without interest: J ' SYNOPSIS. Bill Cannon, the bonanza Ttng. and his -daughter, Rose, who had passed up Mrs. Cornelius Ryan's ball at San Francisco to accompany her father, arrive at Antelope. Dominick Ryan calls on his mother to beg a ball Invitation for his wife, and Is refused. The determined old lady refuses to recognize her daughter-in-law. Dominick Dom-inick had been trapped Into a marriage ' with Bernlce. Iverson, a stenographer, several vear his senior, fine sauanders man's age and physical condition, as upon the search party's success in finding him. After supper they retired to the parlor, par-lor, piled the fire high and sat grouped before It, the smoke of cigars and cigarettes lying about their heads in white layers. It waa but natural that the conversation should turn on stories of the great storms of the past. his money, they have frequent quarrels, and he slips away. Cannon and his daughter are -snowed in at Antelope. CHAPTER1 TVj-Contlnued. "And the other one," went on Cora, ' her eyes riveted on the hair-dressing, her subconscious mind making notes of the disposition of every coil, "his name's ' J. ' D. Buford. And I'd like you to guess what he is! An actor, a stage player. He's been playing all up the state from Lob Angeles and was going down to Sacramento to keep an' engagement there. It Just tickles me to death to have an actor In the "house. I ain't never seen one close to before." The last hair-pin was adjusted and Miss Cannon studied the effect with a hand-glass. "An actor," she commented, running run-ning a smoothing palm up the trade Of her head,' "that's Just what he looted like, now' I think of it. Perhaps he'll act for us. I think it's going to te tots Of fun being snowed up at Antelope." Rose had heard many such before, but to-night, with the wind rocking the old hotel and the thought of'th lost man heavy at her heart, she'llstened, held in a cold clutch of fascinated attention, to tales of the emigrants caught In tbe passes of the Sierra, of pioneer mining-camps relieved by mule trains which broke through the snow blockade as the miners lay dying in their nuts, of men risking their lives to carry succor to comrades lost In tbeir passage from camp to oamp on just such a night as' this. The clock hand passed ten, and the periods of silence that at intervals had fallen on the watchers grew longer and more frequent, and finally merged Into a stillness where all sat motionless, motion-less, listening to the storm. It was nearly eleven, and for fifteen minutes no one had spoken a word. Two of the dogs had come in and lain down on the hearth-rug, their noses on their paws, their eyes fixed brightly bright-ly and ponderingly on the fire. In the midst of the motionless semicircle amazed innkeeper, "that's the queerest queer-est thing I ever saw. 'What's brought him up here?" Perley, his glass snatched from him by the doctor who seemed entirely indifferent in-different ' to their recognition of his patient, shrugged helplessly. "Blest If I know," he said, staring aimlessly about ' him. "He was here last summer fishing. But there ain't no fishing now. God, ain't it a good thing that operator at Rocky Bar had the sense to telegraph up!" CHAPTER V. ' Nurse and Patient. When Dominick returned to consciousness con-sciousness he lay for a space looking directly in front of him, then moved his head and let his eyes sweep the walls. They were alien walls of white plaster, naked of all adornment. The light from a shaded lamp lay across one of them in a soft yet clear wash of yellow, so clear that he could see that the plaster was coarse. i inougm li was some une eiae. She bent down and said, speaking slowly and clearly as though to a child: "The storm has broken the wires, but as soon as they are up, papa will send your mother word, so you needn't worry about that. But we don't either of us know your wife's address. If you could tell us" She stopped. He had begun to frown and then shut "his eyes with an expression expres-sion of weariness. "That doesn't matter," he said. "Don't bother about it. Let her alone." Again there was one of those pauses which seemed to him so long. He gave a sigh and moved restlessly, and she said: ' "Are your feet very painful?" "Yes, pretty bad," he answered. "What's the matter with them?" "They were frost-bitten, one partly frozen." "Oh " 'he did not seem profoundly interested. It was as if they were some one else'n feet, onlv thev hurt H o Looked Like a Dead Man. The sound of a voice crying Cora nere rose from the hallway and that young woman, with a languid deliberation delib-eration Of movement, as of roe Who obeys a vulgar summons at her own elegant leisure, rose and departed, apologizing for having to go so oon. A few mlnutesi later, the hour of sup-;per sup-;per being at hand. Rose followed her. She was descending the stairs when a commotion from below, a sound of voices, loud, argumentative, rising and falling in excited choruB, hurried her steps. The lower hall, lit with lamps nd the glow of its stove, heated to a translucent red, was full of men. A current of cold could be felt in the ihot atmosphere and fresh snow was . melting on the 'floor. Standing by the stove was a man who had evidently just entered. Ridges of white Day caught in the folds of his garments; silver hoar was on his beard. He. 'held his hands' out to the heat and as Rose reached the foot of the iBtairs tfhe heard him say: "Well, T tell you that any main that started to walk up here from Rocky Bar thlB afternoon must have 'been plumb crazy. Why, John L. Sullivan one of them "uddenly raised its head, its ears pricked. With Its muzzle elevated, ele-vated, its eyes full of awakened intelligence, in-telligence, it gave a low, up ""ay whimper. whim-per. Almost simultaneously Rose started and drew herself up, exclaiming, exclaim-ing, "Listen!" The sound of sleigh bells, faint as a noise in a dream, came" through the night. In a moment the lower floor was shaken with movement and noise. The bar emptied itself on to the porch and the hall doors were thrown wide. The sleigh had been close to the ho tel before its bells were heard, and almost al-most immediately its shape emerged from' the swirling whiteness and drew up at the steps. , Rose, standing back in the parlor doorway, heard a clamor of voices, a rising surge of sound from which no intelligible sentence detached de-tached itself, and a thumping and stamping of feet as the searchers staggered in with the lost traveler. The crowd separated before them and they entered slowly, four men carrying carry-ing a fifth, their bodies incrusted with snow,-the man they bore an unseen un-seen shape covered with whitened rugs fromvWhich. an arm hung, a limp There were few pieces of furniture in the room, and all new to him. A bureau of the - old-fashioned marble-topped marble-topped kind stood against the wall op-; posite. The lamp that cast the yellow light was on this bureau; its globe, a translucent gold reflection revealed in liquid clearness in the mirror just behind. It was not his own room nor Berny's. He turned his head farther on the pillow very slowly, for he seemed sunk in an abyss of suffering and feebleness. On the table by the bed's head was another lamp, a folded fold-ed newspaper shutting its light from his face, and here his eyes stopped. A woman was sitting by the foot of the bed, her head bent as if reading. He stared at her with even more in-tentness in-tentness than he had at the room. The glow of the lamp on the bureau was behind her he saw her against it without color or detail, like a shadow shad-ow thrown on a sheet. Her outlines were sharply defined against the illumined illu-mined stretch of plaster the arch of her head, which was 1 broken by the coils of hair on top, her rather short neck, with some sofct of collar binding it, the curve of her shoulders, round- violently enough to obtrude themselves them-selves upon his attention. "Thank you very much," he added. "I'll be all right to-morrow." He felt very tired and heard, as in a dream, the rustle of her dress as she moved again. She said something about "supper" and "Mrs. Perley coming," com-ing," and the dark, enveloping sense of stupor from which he had come( to life closed on him again. Some time 'later on he emerged from it and saw another woman, stout and matronly, with sleekly parted hair, and an .apron girt about her. He asked her, too, who she was, for the fear that he might wake and find his wife by his bedside mingled with the pain of his feet, to torment him and break the vast, dead restfulness of the torpor in which he lay. It broke into gleams of interest and returning consciousness during the next two days. He experienced an acuter sense of Illness and pain, the burning anguish of his feet and fevered fe-vered misery of his body, bitten through with cold, brought him back to a realization of his own identity. pleasurable anticipation. "What young lady?" "Our young lady," answered the doctor. "Miss Cannon, the Young Lady, of Perley 's Hotel. Don't you know that's the nicest girl in the world? Maybe you don't, but that's because your powers of appreciation have been dormant for the last few days. The people here were most scared to death of her at first. They didn't know how she was going to get along, used to the finest, the way she's always been. But, bless your heart, she's less trouble than anybody in the place. There's twelve extra people eating here, besides you to be looked after, and Mrs. Perley and Cora are pretty near run to death trying try-ing to do it. Miss Cannon wanted to turn in and help them. They wouldn't have it, but they had to let her do her turn here taking care of you." "It's very kind of her," said the invalid in-valid without enthusiasm. "I noticed her here several times." "And as easy as an old shoe," said as funny and a slow grin brok8 thw melancholy of his face. She Btolo stealthy look at him, her gravity vanished van-ished at the first glimpse of the grin and she began- to laugh, holding her head down and making the stiSeiL. t chuckling sounds of controlled mirtb suddenly liberated. He was amusefl and a little puzzled and, with his grin. more pronounced than before, said:: "What are you laughing at?" She lifted her head and looked al" him with eyes narrowed to slits, map-muring: map-muring: "You, trying to get rid of me anl being so polite and helpless. It's too-pathetic too-pathetic for words." "If it's pathetic, why do you laugh.?"' he said, laughing himself, he did not: know why. She made no immediate reply and.! he looked at her, languidly Interested! and admiring. For the first tim-9 h" realized that she was a pretty girl, with her glistening coils of blond hair and a pearl-white skin, just now suf -fused with pink. ' couian t ao it in Bucn a storm. To 'jvhieh 'the well-bred voice- 'of, WIHough'by -answered : i "But according to the message he started at two and the snow was Hardly Hard-ly falling then. He must have got a good way, past the Silver Cresoent, when the storm caught him." A hubbub of voices broke out here, and, seeing iher 1 father on the edge . of the crowd, Rose went to him and plucked his sleeve, murmuring: "What's lhappened? What's going on?" He took his .cigar but of his mouth and turned toward 'her, speaking low; and keeping his .eyes on the men by the stove. "The telegraph operator has Just ; had a message sent from Rocky Bar that a man started from there this afternoon to walk up here. They don't think he could imake it and are afraid he's lost somewhere. Perley and some of the 'boys are going out to look for him." "What a dreadful thing! In such a storm! Do you think they'll ever find him?" ed and broad, not the shoulders of a thin woman. He did not think she was his wife, but she might be, and he moved and said suddenly in a husky voice: "What time is it?" The woman started, laid her book down, and rose. She came forward and stood beside him, looking down, the filaments of hair round her head blurring the sharpness of its outline. He stared up at her, haggard and intent, in-tent, and saw it was not his wife.. It was a strange woman with a pleasant, smiling face. He felt immensely relieved re-lieved and said with a hoarse carefulness careful-ness of utterance: "What time did you say it is?" "A few minutes past , five," she answered. an-swered. "You've -been asleep." "Have I?" he said, gazing Immovably Immov-ably at her. "What day is it?" "Thursday," she replied. "You came here last night from Rocky Bar. Perhaps Per-haps you don't remember." "Rocky Bar!" he repeated . vaguely, groping through a haze of memory. "Was it only yesterday? Was It only vesterdav I left San Francisco?" He heard the aoctor murmuring in the corner of "threatened pneumonia" and understood that he was the object threatened. He began to know and separate the strange faces that seemed continually to be bending over him, asking him how he felt. There was the doctor, Perley, Bill Cannon, and the old judge and three different women, wom-en, whom he had some .difficulty in keeping from merging into one composite com-posite being who was sometimes "Miss Cannon," and sometimes "Mrs. Perley," Per-ley," and then again "Cora." When on the fourth day the doctor told him that he thought ne would "pull through" with no worse ailment than a frozen foot, he had regained enough of his original vigor and impatience im-patience under restraint to express a determination to rise and "go on." He was in pain, mental and physical, and the ministrations and attentions of the satellites that so persistently revolved re-volved round his bed rasped him into irritable moodiness. The doctor laughed at his desire to "move on:" The storm was still rag- I n tr anil Anfolnna woe oa rnmntyitnl,. the doctor. "Just as nice to Perley's boy, who's a waif that the Perleys picked up in the streets of Stockton, as if he was the Prince of Wales. I tell you heredity's a queer thing. How did old, Bill Cannon come to have a girl like that? Of course there's the mother to take into account, but " A knock on the door interrupted him. To his cry of "Come in," Rose entered, a white shawl over her shoulders, shoul-ders, a book in her hand. While she and Dominick were exchanging greetings, greet-ings, the doctor began thrusting his medicines into his bag, alleging the necessity of an immediate departure, as two cases of bronchitis and three of pneumonia awaited him. "You didn't know there were that many people in Antelope," he said as he snapped the clasp of the bag and picked up his hat. "Well, I'll swear to it, even if it does seem the prejudiced preju-diced estimate of an old inhabitant. So long. I'll be back by five and I hope to hear a good report from the nurse." The door closed behind him and "Why did you think I wanted to soS-rid soS-rid of you?" he askedl "You've almost said so," she ao--swered. "And then well, I can o you do." "How? What have I done tliat you've seen?" "Not any especial thing, but I tblnk. you do." ' He felt too weak and Indifferent tf tell polite falsehoods. Leaning his head on the pillow that stood up el his back, he said: "Perhaps I did at first. But noir I'm glad you came." She smiled indulgently, at him am though he were a sick child. "I should think you wouldn't tiav-wanted tiav-wanted me. You must be so tired at people coming in and out. Those day when you were so bad the doctor bod! the greatest difficulty in keeping mn out who didn't know you and tiafi never seen you. Everybody in th hotel wanted to crowd in." "What did they want to do that for?" "To see you. We were the wo- sauon oi Anteiope mm. uui intra you came and put us completely In the shade. Antelepe hasn't had sack an excitement as your appearaoc since the dealh of Jim Granger, tio picture is down stairs In the parlor and who comes from here." "I don't sue why I should be an e-cltement. e-cltement. When I was up here fiub-lng fiub-lng last summer nobody was in tl least excited." "It was the way you carne nuir-dead nuir-dead out of th night as If the se. had thrown you up. Then everybody wanted to know why you did it, whjr you, a Callforn'an, attempted such . dangerous thin."." "There wasn : anything so (legitimately (legitim-ately dangerous abqut It," be said, ht-niOBt. ht-niOBt. In a tone of sulky protest. "The men downstairs Bcemcd ln think so. "f ey say nobody could, have got up .'iere In sur-h a storm." He shrugged, and replaced his cigar In his mouth. "Oh, I guess so. If he was strong , enough to get on near here -tlhey ought i to. But it's Just what the operator says. The feller must have been plumb crazy to attempt such :a thing. lLooks as if he were a stranger in the .country." 'fit's a sort of quiet, respectable way of committing suicide," saW the Votce of the actor behind them. Rose looked over her shoulder and saw his thin, large-featured face, no longer -nipped and reddened with cold, Ibut wrvathed in an obsequious and friendly smile which furrowed it with .deep ltnea. Her father answered him and she turned away, being more interested in-terested iu the preparations for the search party. As she watched these eho could ih-'ar the desultory conversation conver-sation behind her, the actor comments com-ments .delivered with an unctuous, elaborate politeness which, contrasted I "Do You Think They'll .Ever Find Him?" hand touching the floor. Questions and answers, now clear and sharp, followed fol-lowed them, like notes upon the text of the inert form: "Where'd you get him?" "About five iniles below .on the main road. One of the horsee almost stepped on him. He was right In the path, but he was all sprinkled er with snow." "He's not dead. Is he?" "Pretty near, I guess. We've pumped whisky into hiin, but he ain't shown a 6ign of life." "Who is he?" "Search me. I ain't seen him myself my-self yet. Just as we got him the lantern lan-tern went out." There was a sofa in the hall and they laid their burden there, the crowd edging in on them, horrified, interested, in-terested, hungrily peering. Rose "I don't know when you left San Francisco " the newspaper cracked and bent a little, letting a band of light fall across the pillow. She leaned down, arranging it with careful hands, looking from the light to him to Bee if it were correctly adjusted. "Whenever you left San Francisco," she said, "you got here last night. They brought you here, Perley and some other men in the sleigh. They found you in the road. You were half-frozen." half-frozen." "What is this place?" "Antelope," said the woman. "Perley's "Per-ley's Hotel at Antelope." "Oh, yes," he answered with an air of weary recollection, "I was going to walk there from Rocky Bar, but the snow came down too hard, and the wind you could hardly stand against it! It was a terrible pull. Perley's Hotel at Antelope. Of course, I know all about it. I was here last summer for two weeks flshlne." cut off from the rest of the world as If it were an uncharted island in the unknown reaches of the Pacific. Propping the invalid up among his pillows, pil-lows, he drew back the curtain and let him look out through a frost-painted frost-painted pane on a world all sweeping lines and skurrylng eddies of white. The drifts curled crisp edges over the angles of roofs, like the lips of breaking break-ing waves. The glimpse of the little town that the window afforded showed it cowering under a snow blanket, almost lost to sight in its folds. "Even If your feet were all right, you're tied here for two weeks anyway," any-way," said the doctor, dropping the curtain. "It's the biggest storm I ever saw, and there's an old timer that hangs round the bar who says it's as bad as the one that caught the Donner party in forty-six." The next day it stopped and the world lay gleaming and still under a frost v crust. .i-'u in illicit ciuu hit: juuii filll wtlt ItlL looking rather blankly at each other. Ho had a hunted, helplesB feeling that he ought to talk to the young woman as gentlemen did who were not burdened bur-dened by the pain of frozen feet and marital troubles. Moreover, he felt the annoyance of being thrust upon the care of a lady whom he hardly knew. "I'm very sorry that they bothered you this way," he said awkwardly. "I I don't think I need any one with me. I'm quite comfortable here by myself," and then he stopped, conscious con-scious of the ungraciousness of his words, and reddening uncomfortably. "I dare say you don't want me here," said Rose with an air of meekness which had the effect of being assumed. "But you really have been too sick to be left alone. Besides, there's your medicine, you must take that regularly." regu-larly." The invalid pave an indifferent cast of his pvp toward the pIokb nn 1ha hti. I "Oh, rubbh! Besides, It wasn't storming w) en 1 left Rocky liar. It I was gray a, id threatening, lint rtwr i yasn't a fla.e falling. The first Know fam down when I was pausing ttiw Silver Creerenl. It came very fat. after that.'' "Why Md you do It attempt lt walk suc!i a distance in such nnccr- taln weatiKT?" Uowirt'ck smoothed the rug over h! knee ilia face, looking down, had a. curious expression "t cold, enforced: patience. (TO BE COrrrtXVED.y with her father's gruff brevity, made her smile furtively to herself. Suppe was an animated meal that evening. The suddenly tragic Interest that had developed drew the little: froup of guests together with the strands ot a common sympathy. The Judge and tt actor moved their seats to the Cannons' table. Cora was sent to request the doctor a young man fresh from his graduation in San Francisco Fran-cisco who took his meals at the bachelor's bach-elor's table to join them and add the weight of medical opinion to their surmises a to the traveler's chances of survival. These, the doctor thf-i'Kht. depended as much upon the could tfee their bent, expressive backs and the craning napes of their necks. Then a sharp order from the doctor drove thorn back, sheepish, tramping on one another's toes, bunched against the wall nd still avidly staring. star-ing. As their ranks broke, the young girl had a sudden, vivid glimpse of the man, his head and part of his chest uncovered. Her heart gave a leap of pity and she made a movement move-ment from the doorway, then stopped. The lost traveler, that an hour before had almost assumed the features of a friend, was a complete stranger that she had never seen before. He looked like a dead man. His She stretched out her hand for a glass, across the top of which a b&ok rested. He followed the movement with a mute fixity. "This is your medicine," she said, taking the book off the glass. - "You were to take It at five but I didn't like to wake you." She dipped a spoon into the glass and held it out to him. But the young man felt too ill to bother with medicine medi-cine and, as the spoon touched his lips, he gave his head a slight jerk and the liquid was split on the counterpane. coun-terpane. She looked at it for a rueful moment, then said, as IX with gathering gather-ing determination. That afternoon Dominick, clothed in an old bath-robe of the doctor's, his swathed feet hidden under a red rug drawn from Mrs. Perley's stores, was promoted to an easy chair by the window. The doctor, who had helped him dress, having disposed the rug over his knees and tucked a pillow behind his back, stood off and looked critically at the effect "I've got to have you look your best," he said, "and you've got to act your prettiest this afternoon. The young lady's coming In to take care of you while I go my rounds." "Young lady!" exclaimed Dominick In a tone that Indicated anything but reau, guarded by the familiar book and spoon. Then he looked back at ber. She was regarding him depre-catingly. depre-catingly. "Couldn't I take It myself?" he said. "I don't think I'd trust you," she answered. His sunken glance was held by hers, and he saw, under the deprecation of! her look, humor struggllf-g to keep Itself In Befcmly suppression. He was ! faintly surprised. There did not seem to him anything comic In the fact of her distrust. But as he looked at her he saw the humor rising past control. Sh dropped her eyes to hide It and 1 bit ber under lip. This did strike him |