Show I I I Ir I II II 4 r 41 By FRANCIS YNDE LYNDE I. I a rr rr Cr a IC So n I. I CHAPTER Continued 20 20 Youre out of date this from the dealer daler In ranches You Tou know the story that was going around about his being being beIng be be- ing an escaped convict or something of that sort It gets Its local color this morning Theres There's a sheriff sherif here from back East somewhere somewhere came came In Inon Inon inon on the early train names name's Macauley and hes he's got U tl requisition papers But Smiths Smith's s 's feU led bled him good and plenty Again the chorus diorus united In an eager query How He died last night night night-a a little past midnight They say they're going to bury him out at the dam dam on on the Job that he be pulled through and stood on Its feet One of Williams Williams' quarrymen drifted In with the story just a little while ago Im I'm here to bet you even money oncy that the whole town goes to the funeral Great gosh said the man who I was crunching the burnt bacon Say that's tough Bixby I I dont don't care what hed he'd run away from back East he was a man right Harding has hns been telling everybody how Smith wouldn't let the posse open fire on that gang of ups hold-ups last Friday night how he chased across on the dam alone and unarmed to try to serve the warrants on cm em m and make em stop firing It was glorious but It wasn't war To this the other mining man added a n hard word Dead he gritted and only a n few hours earlier the girl had taken snap Judgment on him and married somebody else I That's the 4 j woman of It I 1 Oh hold on Stryker the ranch broker protested Dont you get too fierce erce about that There are ore two Strings to that bow and the longest and sorriest one runs out to Colonel Baldwins Baldwin's place on Little creek Im I'm thinking The he business was only on nn Incident Stanton told me that much As the event proved the seller of ranch lands would have lost his bet on the funeral attendance For some unknown un un- known reason renson the notice of Smiths Smith's J death th did not appear In the afternoon papers and only a few people vent people went out in autos to see the coffin lowered by Williams' Williams workmen into a grave on the mesa behind the construction camp a grave among others where the victims of an early Industrial accident accident ac ac- ac- ac 2 at the tho dam had been burled Those who went out from town came bade back rather scandalized There had been a most hearted hard-hearted lack of the r common formalities they said a cheap coffin no minister no mourners not even ven the poor fellows fellow's business associates In the company he had fought taught so hard to save from defeat and extIn extinction on It was a shame I With this report passing from lip to Up in Brewster another bit of gossip to the effect that Starbuck and Still- Still tugs tags had bad gone East with the disappointed disappointed pointed d sheriff to clear Smiths Smith's memory memAry memry mem mem- ory ry as the talk street-talk had It called no little comment In the House Douse cafe on the evening of the funeral day Stryker the mining speculator spec spec- was loud In his criticisms of the High Line people Yes Tes Teal 1 ho he railed a couple of em will wm go on a Junketing trip East to clear his memory after atter they've let their at the dam bury him like a yellow dog And this woman they say shed she'd known him ever since he and she were school kids together she went down and took the train with her father Just about the time they were planting the poor devil M Three weeks of the matchless August August Au- Au gust weather had slipped by without Incident other than the indictment by bythe ho the grand Jury of Crawford Stanton Barney arney and a number of others oth ors ers on a charge of conspiracy e and Williams unmolested since the night of the grand battle in which Sheriff Warding HartUng had figured as the master of the hunt had completed the great ditch system and was Installing the machinery in the lately finished power house douse Over the hills bills from the no hern mountain boundary of ot the a n. wandering prospector had come with witha a vague vogue tale of a new v strike ke in Sunrise Gulch a n placer district worked out and abandoned twenty years earlier In Inthe Inthe inthe the height of the Red Butte excitement excitement excite excite- ment Questioned closely the talo- talo bringer confessed that he had no proof positive of the strike but in the hills he had found a worn well trail trait lately used Ica leading to the old camp and from n J f th hv deserted 1 cabins in inthe the he he ha had seen smoke arising AS to th t fact of the trail troll the wandering wan wan- Bering dering tar talebearer was not at faultOn fault faultOn On the most perfect of the late ln late August mornings a young woman clad cladIn cladIn cladin In serviceable khaki and keeping her herI I cowboy headgear and anil buff top-boots top in good countenance by riding astride in ina ina 0 a mans man's saddle was pushing her mount moun up the trail toward Sunrise Gulch rom Prom I the top of ot a little rise the at anan- anan an camp came Into view its heap f f. worked over gravel sprouting thick with the thi t wild growth of twenty r years and its crumbling shacks only one of which seemed to have survived In n habitable entirety scattered among the he firs of ot the gulch At the top of the rise the horsewoman an nn drew rein and shaded her eyes with a n hand On a n bench beside the door on the single tenanted cabin cobin a man was sitting and she saw him ilm stand to answer her hand wave A few minutes later Inter the man a g gaunt ghunt young fellow tellow with one arm in a n sling and the pallor of a long confinement whitening his face and hands bands was tryIng trying try- try Ing ng to help the horsewoman to dismount dismount dismount dis dis- dis- dis mount In the cabin cobin dooryard but she pushed him Wm aside and swung out of the he saddle unaided laughing at him out ut of ot the slate-gray slate eyes and saying How often have I got to tell you that ou simply cant can't help a woman out of ofa a mans man's saddle The man smiled at that Its automatic he returned I Ishall shall hall never get over wanting to help you ou I guess Have you com comp come to xo tell me that I can go Flinging the bridle reins over the head lead of the wiry little pony cow-pony which was thus left free to crop the short sweet grass of the creek valley the oung young woman led the man to the house bench ench and made him sit down You are frightfully anxious to go gond and nd commit suicide arent aren't you she tensed teased sitting beside him Every time I come its it's always the same thing I When can I go Youre You're not well yet ret et Im well enough to do what Ive I've I got ot to do Corona and until its it's done Besides there Is Where Is Mr this morning He has gone up the creek fishing I made him go If I didn't take a club to o him now and then hed he'd hang hangover over me all the time There never was another nother man like him Corona And Andt at t home we used to call him Wm the black blacksheep blacksheep sheep beep and the failure and cross the street treet to dodge him when hed he'd been drinking too much I He says youve you've made a man of him ilm that you saved his life when you had md every reason not to You never told old me that John No I didn't mean to tell anyone But Jut to think of his coming out here hereto to o nurse me leaving Verda on the nIght Ight he married her A brother of my own blood wouldn't have done It it The young woman was looking up with a shrewd little smile Maybe Maybethe the he blood brother would do even that It if f you had Just made It possible for for him ilm to marry the girl hed he'd set his heart on John Piffle PIme I I growled the man And then hen the time come when you can tell me a little more about what happened to me after the doctor put me to sleep that night at the dam 1 Yes The only reason you haven't been told was because we didn't want wont you to worry we wanted you to have havea a chan chance e to get well and strong again The mans man's eyes filled suddenly and andle he le took no shame He was still shaky enough In nerve and muscle to excuse excuse excuse ex ex- cuse It Nobody ever had such frIends Corona he said You all knew new Id I'd have bave to go back to Lawrenceville Lawrence Lawrence- ville and fight It out and you didn't want me to go handicapped and half- half dead But how did they come to let you take me away Ive I've known Macauley Macauley Macauley Mac- Mac auley ever since I was In knickers He HeIs Heis Hes Is s not the man to take any chances The young womans woman's laugh was wasI soundless Mr Macauley wasn't I asked He thinks you are dead she said What I 1 Its so You were not the only one wounded in the fight tight at nt the dam There were two others two others two of men Three days later Just x j f 1 Y rt 4 r Y ra l. l i How Often Have I 1 Got to Tell You i as daddy colonel-daddy and Billy BUly Starbuck Starbuck were getting ready to steal Iteal you away one of ot the others died In some way the report got out that you were the theone theone theone one who died and that made everything everything everything every every- thing quite easy The report has never been contradicted and when Mr Macauley reached Brewster the police poUce people told him that he was too late Good heavens I Docs Does everybody e in Brewster think Im I'm dead 1 Nearly everybody But you needn't look so horrified Youre You're not dead you know now and there were no obituaries obituaries aries arles in the newspapers or anything like that The man got upon his feet rather unsteadily the limit he said defini defini- Im a n man now Corona too much of a man I hope to hide behind another mans man's grave Im I'm going back to Brewster today 1 I IThe The young woman made a n quaint little grimace at him How are you going to get there she asked Its twenty miles and the walking Is awfully awfully awfully aw aw- aw- aw fully bad bad In In spots But I must go Cant Can't you see what everybody will say soy of me that me-that that I was too cowardly to face the music when my time came Nobody will believe believe believe be be- lieve that I wasn't a consenting party to this hide away I ISit ISit Sit down she commanded calmly and when ho he obeyed From day to today today today day since I began coming out here John Ive I've been trying to rediscover the man whom I met Just once one evening over a n year ago at Cousin Addas Adda's house bouse In I cant can't find him him him-he's he's hes gone Corona I he said Then you recognized recognized recognized rec rec- rec- rec me 7 Not at first But n after ter a while things began to come back and what you told me about me-about about Miss you know and the hint you gave me of your trou trouble trouble did le did the rest Then you knew or knew or you thought thought- I was a criminal She nodded and her gaze was restIng restIng rest- rest Ing tag upon the nearby gravel heaps Cousin Adda wrote me But that made no difference I didn't know whether you had done the things they said you had or not What I did know was that you had broken your shackles In some way and were trying try try- lag ing to get free You were weren't you I suppose so in some blind fash- fash Ion But It is you who have set me free Corona It began that night In when I stole one of your gloves it wasn't anything you said It was what you so evidently believed and lived And out here I was simply simply simply sim sim- ply a raw savage when you first saw me I had tumbled headlong Into the abyss of the new and the elemental and If I am trying to scramble out now on the side of or honor and clean manhood It Is chiefly because you have shown me the way When did I ever eyer J John ohn with John i with an on up-glance up of the gray eyes that was almost wistful Always and with a n wisdom that makes me almost afraid of you For example there was the night when I Iwas Iwas Iwas was fairly on the edge of letting Jib Jib- bey stay In the mine and go mad if he wanted to you lashed me with the theone theone theone one word that made me save his life Instead of taking It How did you know that was the one word to say How do we know anything she Inquired softly The moment brings its own Inspiration It broke my heart to see what you could be and to think that you might not be it after all But I came out here this morning to talk about something else What are you going to do when you are able to leave Sunrise Gulch The one straightforward thing there Is for me to do I shall go back to Lawrenceville and take my medi medi- cine And after that That Is for you to say Corona Would you marry a convict You are not guilty That Is neither here nor there The They will probably send me to prison Just the same and the stigma will be mint to wear for the remainder of my life I can cnn wear It now thank Go God I I J But to pass It on to you you and and to your children children chil chil- dren Corona if I could get my own consent to that you couldn't get yours Yes I could John I got t It the first time daddy colonel-daddy brought me out here and oud let mo me see you You were out of your head and you thought you were talking to Billy Starbuck Starbuck-In Starbuck In the automobile on the night when you were going with him to the fight at the dam It n made mo go down on my two knees John and kiss your poor hot hands He slipped sUpped his one good arm around her and drew her close Now I can go back U like e a n man and fight light it through to the end he exulted soberly Jib bey will take me I know be he is li wearing himself out trying to tomake tomake make malo me believe that he can wait and that Verda understands though he hevont wont won't admit it And when It is allover all allover allover over when they have done their worst to me me With a quick little twist she broko broke awn away from the encircling arm John dear she said and her voice was trembling between a laugh and a sob Im the wickedest wickedest woman that ever lived and breathed breathed- and the happiest J I knew v what you would do but I couldn't resist the temptation to make you say soy it Listen Listen Listen Lis Lis- ten this morning daddy colonel-daddy got a night-letter night from tram Billy Starbuck You have been wondering why Billy never ne'-er came come out here to see sec you It you It was because because because be be- cause he and Mr nIr Stillings have been In L to lear ilear you y u. u A They arc are there now and the wire says that Watrous Dunham has been arrested arrest arrest- ed and that he has broken down and confessed You are a free man John you you you- The grass-cropping grass pony had widened Its circle by a full yard and the westward-pointing westward shadows of the firs tirs were growing shorter and more clearly defined as ns the August sun swung higher over the summits of the eastern For the two on the house bench time having all aU Its 1 In in- filled with beatific silences had no measure that was worth record record- ing In one of the more coherent Intervals intervals Intervals In in- It was the man who said Some things in this world are very wonderful Corona We Ve call them happenings happenings hap hap- and nd try 11 to account for them Ito It o t 3 a I l 1 Go Back Like a Man and nd Fight as we may by the laws of chance Was it chance hance that threw us together at your cousins cousin's house in a year ago last June She laughed happily I suppose it was was though though Id I'd like to be romantic enough to believe that It Debritt would say soy that It was the Absolute Ego he said sold half musingly And who Is Mr Debritt He Is s the man I dined with on my last evening In Lawrenceville He had been Joking me about my various little good good Job good clothes easy life and all that and he wound up by warning me to watch out for the Absolute Ego What Is the Absolute Ergo Ego she asked |