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Show M Mf Tfve jgM&CW PUNCHER 8t R-?s. By Rober i J.C.Siead MS3 dutf-oro X tlC "Kitchener, and olker poems I St "You know I've bad a good time with yon, Dave," she said, "and I've gone with you everywhere, like I would not have gone with any other hoy I ever knew, and I've talked and let yon talk about things I never talked about before, be-fore, and I believe you're true and clean and and " "Yes," he said. "What's your answer?" an-swer?" "I know you're true and clean," she repeated. "Come to me like that when I'm a woman and you're a man, and then then we'll know." He was tall and straight, and his shadow fell across her face, as though even the moon must not see. "Ree-nie." "Ree-nie." he said, "kiss me." For one moment she thought of her mother. She knew she stood at the parting of the ways ; that all life for her was being molded in that moment. Then she put both arms about his neck and drew his Hps to hers. "The horses are tired, so let's walk. . . . It's our last chance." She ran for her sweater and rejoined him in a moment. They walked In silence down a puth through the fragrant fra-grant trees, but Dave turned from time to time to catch a glimpse of her face, white and fine as ivory in the soft light. He had much to say, but he was tongue-tied under the spell of her beauty. "You squelched him, all right," he broke out, at length. "Just in time, too, I think," she replied. re-plied. "I was watching your hands." He smiled a quiet but very confident smile. "Reenle," he said, "that fellow makes me sick. All the way out he talked about girls. He's a city chnp an' wears a white collar, but he ain't fit to speak your name. Another minute min-ute an' I'd 'a' hnd 'im by the neck." He seized a spruce limb that stuck across their path. It was the size of a stout stick, but he snapped it with a turn of his wrist. It was very tough ; it oozed sticky stuff where he broke It "His neck," he said, between his teeth, "jus' like that." They reached an open space. Something Some-thing black or was it red? lay on the ground. Dave bent over it a mo- "WHAT'S YOUR ANSWER 7" Synopsis. David Elden, son of a drunken, shiftless ranchman, almost al-most a maverick of the foothills. Is breaking bottles with his pistol from his running cayuse when the first automobile he has ever seen arrives and tips over, breaking the leg of Doctor Hardy but not injuring injur-ing his beautiful daughter Irene. Dave rescues the Injured man and brings a doctor from 40 miles away. Irene takes charge of the housekeeping. Dave and Irene take many rides together and during her father's enforced stay they get well acquainted. much shocked over this mingling of the classes. "Well, you youngsters must have this country pretty well explored," said Doctor Hnrdy, as they entered the house. "Where was It today the prairies, the foothills or the real fellows fel-lows behind?" "The canyon up the river," said Irene, drawing off her sweater. "What's the eats? Gee ! I'm hungry I Getting pretty supple, Daddykins, aren't you?" "Yes, an' I'm sorry for it, miss," said the old rancher, "not wishin' him any harm, or you, neither. We was jus' lalliin' it over, an' your father thinks he's spry enough for the road again. Ain't ever goin' to be like it used to be after he's gone, an' you." "We'll be sorry to go," said the doctor. doc-tor. "That's what I've been saying all day, and thinking, too. If misfortunes can be lucky, ours was one of that kind. I don't know when I've enjoyed a holiday so much. What do you say, girl?" he asked, as he rested an arm on her round, firm shoulder and looked with fatherly fondness into the fine brown of her face. CHAPTER II Continued. For the first time he looked her straight in the face. His dark eyes met her gray ones and demanded truth. "Irene," he said, "do you mean that?" "Sure I do," she answered. "College courses, and all that kind of thing, they're good stuff, all right, but they make some awful nice boys real live boys, you know into some awful "Reenie," He Said, "Kiss Me." dead ones. My father says about the best education is to learn to live within with-in your income, pay your debts and give the other fellow a chance to do the same. They don't all learn that at college. Then there's the things you do, just like you were born to it, that they couldn't do to save their lives. Why, I've seen you smash six bottles at a stretch, you going full gallop and whooping and shooting so we could hardly tell which was which. And ride you could mak more money riding for city people to look at than most of those learned fellows, with letters after af-ter their names like the tall of a kite, will ever see. But I wouldn't like you to make it that way. There are more useful things to do." He was comforted by this speech, but he referred to his accomplishments modestly. "Ridin' an' shootin' ain't nothin'," he said. "I'm not so sure," she answered. "I've never known anything like It," she answered. "It's wonderful. It's life." Then with a sudden little scream she exclaimed : "Oh, daddy, why can't you sell your practice and buy a ranch? Wouldn't that be wonderful?" "Your mother might not see It that way," he replied and her eyes fell. Yes, that was the obstacle. She would have to go back to the city and talk by rule, anj dress by rule, and behave by rule, and be correct. "It's been a good time," the doctor continued, when they had commenced supper, "but I've already overstayed my holiday. I feel I can travel now, and my leg will be pretty strong by the time I am back east. If Dave will oblige us by going to town tomorrow and bringing back some one who can drive a car, we will be able to start the following morning. I will just take the car to town, and either sell it there or shin it." "Father says the day Is coming when our country will want men who can shoot and ride more than It will want lawyers and professors." "Well, when it does it can call on me," he said, and there was the pride In his voice which comes to a boy who feels that In some way he can take a man's place in the world. "Them is two things I sure can do." Years later she was to think of her remark and his answer, consecrated then In clean red blood. They talked of many things that afternoon, af-ternoon, and when at last the lengthening length-ening shadows warned them It was ment, then looked up to her white, clear face, white and clearer than ever since witnessing the strength of his hate. "It's a calf," he said, as calmly as he could. "Half et up. Wolves, I guess." "The poor, poor thing !" she breathed. breath-ed. "The poor, Innocent thing! Why did it have to die?" "It's always the Innocent things 'at suffers," he answered. ''Always the innocent things," she repeated mechanically. "Always " She sprang to her feet and faced him. "Then .what about the justice of God?" she demanded. "I don't know nothin' about the justice jus-tice of God," he answered bitterly. "All I know is the crittur 'at can't run gets caught." There was a long pause. "It doesn't seem right," she said at length. "It ain't right," he agreed. "But I guess it's life. I see it here on the prairies with every livln' thing. I guess I was like that, some. I've been caught. I guess a baby ain't responsible respon-sible for anything, is it? I didn't pick my father or my mother, did I? Bui I got to bear It." There was something near a break in his voice on the last words. She felt she must speak. "I think your father Is a wonderful old man," she said, "and your mother must have been wonderful, too. You should be proud of them both." "Reenie, do you mean that?" he demanded. de-manded. His eyes were looking straight into hers. The following morning found Dave early on the trail, leading a saddled horse by his side. The hours were, leaden for the girl all that day and, looking into the future, she saw the specter of her life shadowed down the years by an unutterable loneliness. How could she ever drop It all all this wild freedom, this boundless health, this great outdoors, this life, life how could she drop It all and go back into the little circle where convention con-vention fenced out the tiniest alien streamlet, although the circle itself might lie deep in mire? And how would she give up this boy who had grown so imperceptibly but so Intimately Inti-mately into the very soul of her being give him up with all his strength and virility and, yes, and coarseness, if you will, but sincerity, too an essential man, as God made him In exchange for a machine-made counterfeit with the stamp of Society? Deeply did she ponder these questions, and as the day wore on she found herself possessed of a steadily growing determination that she would not follow the beatea trail, let the by-paths lead where they mitrlif "Absolutely," she answered. "Absolutely "Ab-solutely I mean it." "Then I'm goin' to say some more things to you," he went on rapidly. "Things 'at I didn't know whether to say or not, but now they've got to be said, whatever happens. Reenie, I haven't ever been to school or learned lots of things I should 'a' learned, but I ain't a fool, neither. I didn't learn to break all those bottles in a day. Well, I can learn other things, too, an' I will, if only it will take me across. I'm goin' to leave this old ranch, some way, jus' as soon as It can be arranged. I'm goin' to town an' work. I'm strong; I can get pretty good wages. I've been thinkin' it all over, an' was askin' some questions In town today. I can work days an' go to school nights. An' I'll do it if it'll get me across. You know what I mean. I ain't askin' no pledges. Reenie, Ree-nie, but what's the chance? ' I know I don't talk right, and I don't eat right you tried not to notice but you couldn't help but, Reenie, I think right,' an' I guess with a girl like you that counts more than eatin' and talkin'." She had thought she could say yes or no, to any question he could ask, but as he poured forth these plain, passionate words she found herself enveloped in a flame that found no expression ex-pression In speech. She had no words. She was glad when lie went on : "I know I'm only a boy an' you're only a girl. That's why I don't ask no pledge. I leave you free, only 1 want you to stay free until I have my :hanee. Will you promise that?" She tried to Dull herself together. Darkness, save for a white moon, had settled over the foothills when the boy returned with another young man. The stranger ate a ravenous supper, but was not too occupied to essay conversation con-versation with Irene. He chose to call her cook. "Swell pancakes, cook," was his opening remark. "Can you find another an-other for yours truly?" She refilled his plate without an-, swer. "Used to know a girl mighty like you," he went on. "Waitress In the Royal Edward. Gee I but she was swell! A pippin! Class? Say, she had 'em all guessing. Had me guessing myself for o while. But just for a while." Hp voiced these remarks with an air of Intense self-approval more offensive than the words. Irene felt the color rise about her neck and cheeks and run like an overflowing over-flowing stream into her ears and about her hair. It was evident that, for a second time, Dave had chosen to say nothing to strangers about her presence pres-ence at the ranch. Her father and Mr. Elden were In Dave's room ; Dave had stopped eating, and she saw the veins rising in his clenched fists. But the chaJenge was to her, and she would accept it ; she felt no need of his protection. pro-tection. "Fi'l your stomach," siie said, passing pass-ing more pancakes ; "your head Is hopeless." He attempted a laugh, but the meal was finished in silence. The stranger lit a cigarette and Irene went to the door with Dave. "Come for a walk," he whispered. For the First Time He Looked Her Straight In the Face. time to be on the way they rode long distances in silence. Both felt a sense which neither ventured to express, that they had traveled very close In the world of their hopes and sorrows and desires. The shadows had deepened into darkness, and the Infinite silence of the hills hung about them as they dropped from their saddles at the Elden door. A light shone from within, and Doctor Hardy, who was now able to move about with the aid of a home-made crutch, could be seen setting the table, while Mr. Elden stirred a composition m the stove. They chatted as they worked, and there was something of the joy of little children in their companionship. com-panionship. The young folks watched for a moment through the window, and In Da-Vs heart some long-forgotten emotion moved momentarily at the sight of the good-fellowship prevailing in the oid house. Irene, too, was thinking think-ing ; glimpses of her own butlered home, and then this background of primal simplicity, where the old cow-ntf cow-ntf p cooked the meals and the famous specialist set the plates on the bare board table, and then back of it all her mother spclste and correct, and very |