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Show !1 fieke ff file Pack I! !-J j- ijS By EDISOfJ MARSHALL i . a. a a. a. a. a a a . ..... a. a a- a. . a . . . a . . a. . ... a a a.. -.------------ I mark ..!' ll,.- .h-.-a-o mi IJs far,-. ,s ! h.- shook hand-. Ill- tl-i.-l his ., 1 1 1 r.-al tin- mountaineer's rp rrssiun. I w a all I'm j.lnin: an uii'leiilalih- look of disappoint uii-nf. Tin- I j-1 1 r 1 1 uns ihal - -r i in spin- nf j all tin- ( 'hamher ..I'CniiiliiiTiv Iii-imI IiH'I told liiin. I.i-iiiiiix hail siill hoped to liml sunn- Imago nf tin- i-hli-r I hill railing in tin- face anil hody nf his grandson. Because nf tin- thirl; glasses. I.i-iinn r-i 1 1 1 I tint see the "tiiir man's cms: hut In- didn't think i! likely thry were at all like the eyes with which the elder Failing saw his i way through the wilderness at night. Of course he was tall, just as the famous fa-mous f run I iersina ii had horn, hut while the elder weighed one hundred and ninety pounds, hone and muscle, this man did not touch one hundred and thirty. Kvidonily the years had brought degeneracy to the Falling clan. Lennox was desolated hy the thought. lie helped lan with his ha-,' to a little lit-tle wiry uiilomnhlle that waited he-side he-side the station. They pit inlo tin-two tin-two front seats, and a moment later SYNOPSIS. U III 1 1 ''( H I.Ih pill si. l.i :. I 1 1 .i I ii-tun ii-tun not nan.- liiaii sa ni'-fillis l.i II W-. -.illii:.? Hps ili-.-.j.iiiiil.-iill v mi a ,alt ti.-ieli. IMili.l.-rldX v.li'-i-- lie mIio'iPI ,ii.-tel tiioMt Hix rii'.rilli- A trU-rellv s.iilrr.-l prar I Ha II y .l.-rl.l.-M tin- ri.al'.r tor til m. Ilin l.to.nl In l-l-Oli-.T I, Inn. I, mill In- llt-i'M.-M In ml Uix a . vs In tliss for. --Us of Or-K'iil' Or-K'iil' M.-iin.i li s i,( Ms i-rainlpilhiM-ai.il a ii. . i I . . . . - loi all Hilars or ia- .ilil ln-lp him In n-.i-liliii; a 'I.-. Plon. In a lalio- h.iiii lifi'a I ir.-rinn i ll In- iii. i-n p. o,U- v ho I 1 1 I. flown nii'l lov.-il his Ki'aml-fiilliiT Ki'aml-fiilliiT a famous iron i l'-rnna n. Hi-Inal Hi-Inal i s hl:l Iioiiim Willi J-hln.s Pi-anox. it lytiiral w.-Mli-rm-r. Tin- imp.- olli-i-r ri i r 1 1 1 1' i'h of tie- lioas.-hohl mi r.i-iuio'.H noil, "l;lll," anil ilaiiKh-ti-r. "Snow l.lrd." Their alio h- Is runny ihiIi-m from "rivllizn Itoa," In Ihe t 'iiiprpia. ilUiile, anil Ihert-I Ihert-I nilhiK plans to llv.- nut Ihe Mhort -;iwi of life vvhlrh he has her-n lolil Ih his. HI.M extri-nie weakness In Ih.i face of even a shrrht exer-llon exer-llon rniivino'H him that the (loetor hail maile a enrreet diannslH nl Ills rase. O 1 ('oi.vri'ht. JK0. by T.iitlo, Brown & Co. I never saw anxihiiiL' like it In inv life.- "in this very stream," the mountaineer mountain-eer told him Joyously, "you may occasionally occa-sionally catch trout that wei-h three I hi mis." But us he mit hack into the cur the look of interest died out of Lennox's eyes. Of course any man would he somewhat excited hy his first rjimpse of the wilderness. It was not that he had inherited any of tin- trails of his Kramlfallier. Ii was ahsuid to hope that he had. And he would soon jret tired of Hi" silences and want to !'o hark to his cities. He inld his thought that it would all soon j'row old to him; and Kan turned almost in linger. "You don't know," he said. "I didn't know myself, how I would feel "I I it- I'm never jroinji to leave the hills iiL'ain." "You don't menu that." "But I do." He tried to speuU further, fur-ther, hut he coughed instead. "But I i-ouldn't if I wanted to. That eolith tells you why, I guess." "You mean to say " Silas Lennox turned in amazement. "You mean that you're n a got er? That you've given up hope of recovering?" "That's the Impression I meant to convey. I've got a little over four months though I don't see that I'm any weaker than I was- when the doctor doc-tor said 1 had six months. Those four will take me all through the fall and the early winter. And I hope you won't feel that you've heen imposed upon to have a dying man on your hands." "It isn't that." Silas Lennox threw his oar into gear and started up the long grade. And he jlrove clear to the top of it and into another glen before he spoke again. Then he pointed to what looked to Dan like a brown streak that melted into the thick brush. "That was a deer," he said slowly. "Just a glimpse, but your grandfather could have got him be- cre .starling up the long, curved road Hint led to Ihe Divide. During the hour that they were crossing over the foothills, on the way to the big timber, Silas Lennox talked a great deal about the f roul iersman Ihal had heen Dan's grandfather. A mountain man does not use profuse adjeclives. IK- talks very simply and very straight, and often there are long silences between Ids sentences. Y"et he conveys his ideas with entire clearness. clear-ness. Dan realized at once that If he could lie, In Lennox's eyes, one-fifth of the man his grandfather had been, he would never have to fear again the look of disappointment with which his host had greeted him at the station. But instead of reaching that high place, he had only death, lie knew what his destiny was in these quiet mi v m CHAPTER II Continued. 3 Yes. Steele knew Bill. Bill weighed two hundred pounds, and be would choose the blggesl of the sloers he drove down to Ihe lower levels In the winter and, twisting Its horns, would illlike It lay over on Its side. Besides. I)ul 1 1 of Ihe men assumed that Dan must be only In the first stages of bis malady. And even lis Ihe men talked, the train Ihal bore Dan Failing to the home of his ancestors was entering for the first time the dark forests of pine and Mr that make the eternal background of the Norlhwe.-i. lie was wholly unable to understand the Klriinge feeling of familiarilv (hat he bail with them, 'a sensation that in his dreams he bad known them always, al-ways, and that he must never go out of Ihe range of them again. T 1 1 1 1 didn't see his host at first. For the first instant he was entirely engrossed en-grossed hy a surging sense of disappointment disap-pointment a feeling, that he bad been tricked and bad only come to another city lifter all. lie got down onto (he gravel of the station yard, and out on the gray street pavement he heard the clang of a trolley car. Many nu-toniobiles nu-toniobiles were parked Just beside the station, some of them foreign cars of expensive makes, such as he supposed would be wholly unknown on the frontier. A man in golf clolhes brushed his shoulder. Dan looked up to the hills, and he fell belter. He couldn't see them plain- " ly. The faint smoke of a distant for est (ire half obscured them. Yet he saw fold on fold of ridges of a rather peculiar Jdue in color, and even his Tiiilraiued eyes could see (hat they were clothed In forests of evergreen. Over the heads of the green hills Dan could see a few great peaks; McLaughlin, Mc-Laughlin, even and regular as a painted paint-ed mountain; Wagner, with queer while gashes where the snow still lay In Its ravines, and to the southeast the misty range of snow-covered hills that were the Sickeyous. lie felt decidedly de-cidedly better. And when be saw old Silas Lennox waiting patiently beside the station, he felt be hail come lo the right place. It would be interesting to explain why Dan at once recognized the older man for the breed he was. Silas Lennox Len-nox was not dressed in a way that would distinguish him. It was true that he wore a flannel shirt, riding trousers and rather heavy, leathern boots. But sporlsmen all over the face of tl e earth w ear this costume at sundry times. Mountain men have a peculiar stride by which experienced persons can occasionally recognize them : but Silas Lennox was standing still when Dan got bis first glimpse of ti t in. The case resolves itself into a simple matter of the things that could be read in Lennox's face. Dan disbelieved wholly in a book that told bow to read characters at night. Yet at the first glance of the lean, bronzed face his heart gave a curious little bound. A pair of gray eves met his two (me black points in a rather bard gray iris. They didn't look past him. or at either side of him. or at his chin or bis forehead. They looked right at his own eyes. The skin around the eyes was burned brown by the sun. and the flesh was so lean that the cheekbones showed plainly. The mouth was straight: but yet it was neither savage nor cruel. It was simply sim-ply I'eieriasned. Lennox came up with a light, silent tread and extended his hand. "You're Dan Failing's grandson, aren't yen?" he asked. "I'm Silas Lennox, who used to know him when be lived on the Divide. You are coming to spend the summer and fall on my ranch." The immediate result of these words, besides relief, was to set Dan wondering how the old mountaineer bad recognized him. He wondered if he had any physical resemblance to bis grandfather. But this hope was shot to earth tit once. IPs telegram had explained about bis malady, and of course the mountaineer had picked 1:': simply because he had the tween the eyes. Most like as not, though, he'd have let him go. He never killed except when he needed meat. But that as you say ain't the Impression I'm trying to convey." He seemed to be groping for words. "What is it, Mr. Lennox?" Dan asked. "Instead of being sorry, I'm mighty glad you've come," Lennox told him. "It's not that I expect you to be like your grandfather. You haven't had his chance. But it's always the way of true men, the world over, to come back to their own kind to die. That deer we just saw he's your people, and so are all these ranchers that grub their lives out of the forests they are your people, too. And you couldn't have pleased the old man's old friends any better, or done more for his memory, than to come back to his own land for your last days." The words were strange, yet Dan intuitively understood. It was as if a prodigal son had returned at last, and although his birthright was squandered and he came only to die, the people of his home would give him kindness and forgiveness, even though they could not give him their respect. CHAPTER III. The Lennox home was a typical mountain ranch-house square, solid, comforting in storm and wind. Bill was out to the gate when the car drove up. He was a son of his father, fa-ther, a strong man in body and personality, per-sonality, lie too had heard of the elder Failing, and -he opened his eyes when he saw the slender youth that was his grandson. And he led the way into the white-walled living room. "You must he chilly and worn out from the long ri lie." Lennox suggested suggest-ed quietly. He spoke in the tone a trong man invariably uses toward an invalid. Dan felt a curious resentment re-sentment at the words. "I'm not cold." he said. "It's hardly hard-ly dark yet. I'd sooner go outdoors and look around." The elder man regarded him curiously, curi-ously, perhaps with the faintest glimmer glim-mer of admiration. "You'd better wait till tomorrow, Dan." he replied. ."Bill will have supper soon, anyway. You don't want to overdo too much, Tight at first." "But. good heavens! I'm not going to try to spare myself while I'm here. It's too late for that." Dan Failing is introduced to "Snowbird," who proves to j be a decidedly interesting member of tbe Lennox family, j and Dan shows new interest in life in the next installment. iTO BK CONTINUED.) j "You're Dan Failing's Grandson, Aren't You?'' bills. And it was true that he began to have secret regrets that he had come. But it wasn't that he was disappointed dis-appointed in the land that was opening open-ing up before him. It fulfilled every promise. His sole reason for regrets lay in the fact that now the whole mountain world would know of the decay that had come upon his people. Perhaps it would have been belte. to have left them to their traditions. lie bad never dreamed that the fame of bis grandfather had spread so far. For the first ten miles Dan listened to stories legends of a cold nerve that simply could not be shaken: of a powerful, tireless physique; of moral and physical strength that was seemingly without limit. Then, as the foothills began to give way to the higher ridges, and the shadow of the deeper forests fell upon the narrow, brown road, there began to be long gaps in the talk. And soon they rode in litter silence, evidently both of them absorbed in their own thoughts. Dan did not fee oppressed at all. He merely seemed - to fall into the spirit of the woods, and no words came to his lips. Fvery mile was an added delight to him. Not even wine could have brought a brighter sparkle to his eyes. He had begun to experience experi-ence a vague sort of excitement, an emotion that was almost kin to exultation, ex-ultation, ever the constant stir and movement "of the forest life. Once, as 'hey stopped the car to retiil the radiator ra-diator from a mountain stream, Lennox Len-nox looked at him with sudden curiosity. curi-osity. "You are getting a thrill out of this, aren't you?" he asked wonder-ingly. wonder-ingly. It was a curious tone. Perhaps it was a hopeful tone, too. He spoke as if he hardly understood. "A thrill!" V.zn echoed. He spoke as a njs.n speaks in the presence of .jJtwTgreat wonder. "Good Heavens, |