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Show "Fhe CrosCM By Courtney Ryley Cooper - Copyright by LitUe, Browa A Oa, she must he? been expecting that young fellow or she ' wouldn't hare cut you off so abort She ain't usually that way." s "Her fiance?" Falrchlld asked tht question with misgiving. The miner finished his stretch and added a yawn to It. Then he looked appralstngly up the street toward the retreating fig-urea. fig-urea. "Well, some say be Is and some 8a y he ain't. Gueu It mostly depends on the girl, and she ain't telling yet" "And the man who Is he?" ' "Him? Oh, he's Maurice Rodalne. Son of a pretty famous character around hore, old Squint Rodalne. Owns the Silver Queen property up with quick emphasis, "there!! be a fot of things really real real keno tad roulette and everything like that, 'Ad everybody In the costume of thirty or forty years ago. Don't you want to bny a ticket? It's the last one Ie got r she added prettily. 1 m'i it to ber "A week from tomorrow night Are you going to be here that long?" , She realised the slip of her tongue and colored slightly. Fatrchlld, recovered recov-ered now, reached into a pocket and carefully fingered the bills there. Then, with a quick motion, as he drew them forth, he covered a ten-dollar ten-dollar bill with a one-dollar note and thrust them forward. (J ( A RATTLESNAKEl" STN0P8IS.-At Thornton Falr-chlld's Falr-chlld's deatb his son Robert learns there has been a dark period In his father's life which for almost thirty years has caused him suffering. suffer-ing. The secret is hinted at in a document Mt by the elder Fair-child, Fair-child, which also informs Robert he is now owner of a mining- claim In Colorado, and advising him to see Henry Beamish, a lawyer. Beamish tells Robert his claim, a sliver mine, Is at Ohadl, thirty-sight thirty-sight miles from Denver. He also warns him against a certain man, "Squint" Rodalne, his father's enemy. en-emy. Robert decides to go to Ohadl. On the road to Ohadl from Denver 1 Fall-child assists a girl, apparently In a frenzy of haste, to change a tire on her auto. When she has left the sheriff and' a posse appear, in puriult of a bandit Fatrchlld. bell be-ll wlldered, misleads them as to the direction the girl had taken. At I Ohadl Falrchlld is warmly greeted I by "Mother" Howard, boarding-bouse boarding-bouse keeper, for his father's sake. CHAPTER V Impatiently Falrchlld awaited Mother Moth-er Howard's return, and when at last she came forth from the kitchen, he drew her Into the old parlor, shadowy now In the gathering dusk, and closed the doors. of a fellow that would do It Out In the dead of night they went and staked out your father's claim Harry was to get 25 per cent and early the next morning your dad: was waiting to file on It, while Harry was waiting for them three. And what a fight It must have been that Harry was a wildcat In those younger days." She laughed,- then her voice grew serious. "But alt had Its effect. Rodalne didn't jump that claim, and a few of us around here fiTed dummy claims enough in the vicinity to keep him off of getting tee- close but there was one way we couldn't stop- him. He had power, and he' always had It and he got tt now. A tot of awful strange things happened re your father fa-ther after that charges were filed against him for things he never did. Men jumped or him In the dark, then went t the district attorney's office and accused htm of making the attack. at-tack. And the funny part was that the district attorney's - office always believed them and not htm. Once they had hint just at the edge of the penitentiary, but I I happened to know a few things that well, he didnt go." . Again Mother Howard chuckled, only te grow serious ooce more. "Men who went to work for your father and Harry disappeared, or got hurt accidentally tn the mine or Just quit through the bad same It was getting... Once Harry, coming dressed In some of 'Slssle's clothes, half hidden between them. Nobody dreamed that I was anyone else but the Swede my head was tipped forward, for-ward, so they couldn't see my features. fea-tures. We drove outside town" and stopped. Then we said goodby, and I put on an old dress that I had brought with me and sneaked back home. Nobody, No-body, knew the difference." "But Larsen ?" "You know as much as I do, Son." "You never saw Larsen again?" "I never saw any of them. That was the end." "But Rodalne r . "He's still here. You'll hear from him plenty soon. I could see that the minute Bllndeye Bozeman and Taylor Bill began taking your measure. meas-ure. You noticed they left the table before the meal was over? It was to tell Rodalne." . "Then he'll fight me, too?" Mother Howard laughed and her voice was harsh. "Redalne's a rattlesnake. Hia son's a rattlesnake. His wife's crazy Old Crazy Laura. He drove her that way. She lives by herself. In aa old house on the Georgevllle road. ' And she'd kin for him, even If he does beat her when she goes to his house and begs him to take her back. That's the kind of a crowd It Is. Just to put a good finish on ft all, the young 'oa moves In the best society In town and spends most of his time trying to argue the former district judge's daughter Into marrying him. So there you are. That's all Mother Howard knows, Son." - the hill. Ever hear of hira?" The eyes of Robert Falrchlld narrowed, nar-rowed, and a desire to fight a longing long-ing to grapple with Squint Rodalne and all that belonged to hlm-surged Into his heart. But his voice, when he spoke, was slow and suppressed. "Squint Rodalne? Yes, I think I have. The name sounds rather familiar." fa-miliar." Then, deliberately, he started up the street, following at a distance the man and the girl who walked before hira. " ' CHAPTER VI There was no specific reason why Robert Falrchlld should follow Maurice Mau-rice Rodalne and the young woman who had been described to hira as the daughter of Judge Richmond, whoever who-ever he might be. Resentment was In ' bis heart resentment that the family of Rodalne should be connected In some way with the piquant, mysterious mysteri-ous little person he had helped out of a predicament on the Denver road the day before. And, to his chagrin, the very fact that there was a connection added a more sinister note to the escapade es-capade of the exploded tire and the pursuing sheriff; as he walked along, his gaxe far ahead, Falrchlld found himself wondering whether there could be more than mere coincidence In It att,' whether she was a part of the Rodalne schemes and the Rodalne trickery, whether But he ceased his wondering to tum sharply Into a nearby drug store, there absently to give an order at the "Yes, I'll take the ticket." She handed It to him, thanked him, and reached for the money. As It ' passed Into her hand, a corner ot the ten-dollar bill revealed Itself, and she hastily thrust It toward him as though to return money paid by mistake. mis-take. Just as quickly, she realized his purpose and withdrew her hand. "Oh!" she exclaimed, almost In a whisper, "I understand. She flushed and stood a second hesitant, flustered, , her big eyes almost childish as they looked up Into his. "Too you must think Tra a cad !" Then she whirled and left the store, and1 a slight smile came to the Hps ef Robert Fatrchlld as he watched her hurrying across the street. He had wen a tiny victory, at least. : With a new enthusiasm, a greater desire than ever t wis out In the fight which had brought him to Ohadl, he hurried to the courthouse and the various technicalities which must be coped with before he could really call the Blue Poppy-mine hts own. It was easier than he thought. A few signatures, and he was free to wander through town to where Idlers had pointed out Kentucky gulch and to begin the steep ascent up the narrow nar-row road oa a tour of prospecting that, would precede the more legal and more safe system of a surveyor. The ascent was almost sheer in places, for In Kentucky gulch the hills huddled close to the little town and rose In precipitous inclines almost al-most before the city limits had been reached. He stepped aside to allow the passage of ore-laden automobile trucks, loaded until the springs had flattened and until the engines howled with their compression as they sought to hold back their burdens on the steep grade. And It was as he stood there, watching the big vehicles travel down the mountain side, that Fatrchlld Fatr-chlld caught a glimpse of a human figure which suddenly darted behind a clump of scrub pine and skirted far to one side, taking advantage of every covering. A new beat came Into Falrchlld's heart. He took to the road again, plodding upward, .seemingly a man entirely bereft of suspicion. A quarter ot a mile he went, a half. Once, as the road turned beside a great rock, he sought Its shelter and looked back. The figure still was following, fol-lowing, running carefully now along the bank of the stream In an effort to gain as much ground as possible before the return of the road to open territory should bring the necessity of caution again. A mile more, then, again In the shelter shel-ter of rocks, he swerved and sought a hiding place, watching anxiously from his concealment for evidences of discovery. dis-covery. There were none. The shad-ower shad-ower came on, displaying more and more caution as he approached the rocks, glancing hurriedly about him She turned to the door and then, turning, patted Falrchlld on the shoulder. shoul-der. "Boy," came quietly, "you've got a broad back and a good head. Rodalne beat your father don't let him beat you. And always remember one thing: Old Mother Ho ward's played the game before, and she'll play it with you dark streets aren't exactly the place for you." Robert . Falrchlld obeyed the Instructions, In-structions, a victim of many a conjecture, conjec-ture, many an attempt at reasoning as he sought sleep that was far away. Again and again there rose before him the vision of two men In an open buggy, with' a person between them whom Ohadl believed to be an efferal-nate-volced Swede; in reality, only a woman. And why had they adopted the expedient? Why had not Larsen been with them In reality? It was hours before Falrchlld found sleep, and even then It was a thing of troubled visions. Streaming sun awakened him, and he hurried to the dining room 'to find himself the last lodger at the tables. He ate a rather hasty meal, made more so by an Impatient waitress, then with the necessary papers In his pocket, Falrchlld started toward the courthouse and the legal procedure which must be undergone before he made his first trip to the mine. A block or two, and then Falrchlld suddenly halted. Crossing the street at an angle just before him was a young woman whose features, whose mannerisms he recognized. The whipcord whip-cord riding habit had given place now to s tailored suit which deprived her of the boyishness that bad been so apparent on their first meeting. The cap had disappeared before a close-fitting, close-fitting, varicolored turban. But the straying brown hair still was there, the brown eyes, the piquant little nose and the prettily formed lips. Fair-child's Fair-child's heart thumped nor did he stop soda fountain and stand watching the pair who had stopped just In front of him on the corner. She was the same girl ; there could be no doubt of that, and he raged Inwardly as she chatted and chaffed with the man who looked down upon her with a smiling air of proprietorship which Instilled Instant rebellion In Falrchlld's heart. Nor did he know the reason for that, either. After' a moment they parted, and Falrchlld gulped at his fountain drink. She had hesitated, then with a quick decision turned straight Into the drug store. "Buy a ticket, Mr. McCauley?" she asked of the man behind the counter. "I've sold twenty, already, this morning. morn-ing. Only five more, and my work's over. Please take the five, won't you? Then I'll be through." . "I'll be darned If I will, 'Nlta I" McCauley Mc-Cauley backed against a shelf case In mock self-defense. "Every time you've got anything you want to get rid of, you come In here and shove It off on me. There's only four In my family and four's all I'm going to take." He tossed four sliver dollars on the showcase show-case and took the tickets. The girl demurred. "But how about the fifth one? I've got to sell that too" . "Well, sell It to him!" And Fair-child, Fair-child, looking into the soda-fountain mirror, saw himself Indicated as the druggist started toward the prescription prescrip-tion case. There was a moment of awkward silence si-lence as Falrchlld gazed intently Into hts soda glass, then with a feeling of queer excitement, set It on the marble counter and turned. Anita Richmond was approaching In a stranger-like manner a ticket of some sort held before her. "Pardon nie," she began, "but would you care to buy a ticket to the Old Times dance? It's a sort of rnunicl- "Mrs. Howard," he began, "I" "Mother Howard," she corrected. "I ain't used to being called much else." y "Mother, then although I'm not very accustomed to using the title. My own mother died shortly after my father came back from out here." She walked to his side then and put a band on his shoulders. For a moment mo-ment It seemed 'that her Hps were struggling to repress something whtch strove to pass them, something locked behind them for years. Then the old face, dim In the half light, calmed. "What do you want to know, Son?" "Everything!" "But there Isn't much I can tell." He caught her hand. "There 1st I know there is. I" "Son all I can do Is to make matters mat-ters worse. If I knew anything that would help you If I could give you any light on anything, Old Mother Howard would do It I Lord, didn't I help out your father when he needed It the worst way? But I'm as much In the dark as you. . All that I ever knew was that your father came to this boarding house when he was a young man, the very first day that he ever struck Ohadl. He didn't have much money, but he was enthusiastic and It wasn't long before he'd told me about his wife and baby back in Indianapolis and how he'd like to win Jut for their sake. A for me well, they always called me Mother Howard, How-ard, even when I was a young thing, sort of setting my csp for every good-looking good-looking young man that came along. I guess that's why I never caught one of 'em I always insisted on darning their socks and looking after all their troubles for 'em Instead of going out buggy-riding with some other fellow and making 'em Jealous." She sighed ever so slightly, then chuckled. "But that ain't getting to the point, though, Is it?" "If you could tell me about my fa-ther fa-ther " 4Tm going to all I know. Things were a lot different out here then from what they were later. Everywhere Every-where around the hills and gulches you could see prospectors, with their wads and little picks, fooling around jlke life didn't mean anything In the .trorld to 'era, except to grub around !a those rocks. "Your father was one of these men. 'Squint' Rodalne was another they called him that because at some time 1n his life he'd tried to shoot faster than the. other fellow and didn't do It The bullet hit right between his eyes, but It must have had poor pow-J pow-J jer behind It all It did was to cut hrougn the Btiiu ad 0 straight tp his forehead. When the wound healed, the scar drew his eyes close together, " like a Chinaman's. You never see Squint's eyes more than half open. "And he's crooked. Just like his yes--" Mother Howard's voice bore a touch of resentment. "I never liked lilm from the minute I first saw him, and I liked Iiiin less afterward. Then I got next to his game. "Your father hnd been prospecting Just like everybody else. He'd come on float up Kentucky gulch and was trying to follow It to the vein. Squint "The Three of Us Drove Up the Main Street." down from the - tunnel at night, stepped on a little bridge that always before had been aa secure and safe as the hills themselves. It fell with him they went down together thirty feet, and there was nothing but Nature Na-ture to blame for It, In spite of what we three thought. Then, at last, they got a fellow who was willing to work for them in spite of what Rodaine's crowd and it consisted of everybody In power hinted about your father's bad -eputatlon back East and" "My father never harmed a soul In his life I" Falrchlld's voice was hot, resentful Mother Howard went on: "I know he didn't, Son. I'm only telling the story. Miners are superstitious super-stitious as a general rule, and they're childish at believing things. It all worked In your father's case with the exception of Harry and 'Slssle Larsen. Lar-sen. a Swede with a high voice, just about like mine. That's why they gave hliu the name. He went to work. A few months later they got Into good ore. It looked like the bad luck was over at last. Then" Mother Howard hesitated at the brink of the very nubbin of it all, to Robert Falrchlld. A long moment fiillov.cd, Ir. which l repressed a desire de-sire to seize her and wrest it from her, and at last "It was about dusk one night," she went on. "Harry came In and took me with hliu Into this very room. lie kissed .me and told me. that he must go away. He asked me If I would go with htm without knowing why. And, Son. I trUHled him, I would have done anything for htm but I wasn't as old then as I am now. I reused and to this day, I don't know. why. It was Just woman, I guess. Then he asked me if I would help him. I said I would. as he moved swiftly froni cover to cover.- Closer closer" then Falrchlld repressed a gasp. The man was old, almost white-haired, with hard, knotted knot-ted hands which seemed to stand out from his wrists; thin and wiry with the resiliency that outdoor, hardened muscles often give to age, and with a face that held Falrchlld almost hypnotized. hyp-notized. It was like a hawk's; hook-beaked, hook-beaked, colorless, toneless In all expressions ex-pressions save that of a malicious tenacity; the eyes were slanted until they resembled those of some fantastic fantas-tic Chinese Image, while Just above the curving nose a blue-white scar ran straight up the forehead. Squint Rodalne 1 So he was on the trail already I Falrchlld watched him pass, sneak around the corner of the rocks, and stanza moment In apparent bewilderment bewilder-ment as be surveyed the ground before be-fore him, A mumbling curse and he went on, his cautious gait discarded, walking brlHkly along the rutty, boulder-strewn road toward a gaping hole In the .hill, hardly a furlong away. There ne surveyed the ground carefully, care-fully, bent and stared hard at the earth, apparently for a trace of footprints, foot-prints, and finding none, turned slowly and looked intently all about him. V arefully he approached the mouth of the tunnel and stared within. Then lie straightened, and with another glance about, him, hurried off up a gulch leading away from the road. Into the hills. Falrchlld lay and watched him until he was out of sight, and he knew Instinctively that a surveyor sur-veyor would only cover beaten territory terri-tory now. Squint Rodalne, be felt sure, hnd pointed out to him the Blue poppy mine. Hurriedly he descended the rocks once more lo turn toward town and toward .Mother Howard's boarding house, lie wanted to tell hir what he r had st-en and lo obtain her help and counsel. i to consider why. A quickening of his pace, and he met her just as she stepped to the curbing. , "I'm so glad of this opportunity," he exclaimed happily. "I want to return re-turn that money to you. I I was so fussed yesterday I did n't realize " "Aren't you mistaken?" She looked at fflm with a slight smile. Falrchlld did not catch the Inflection, i "Oh. no. I'm the nfan, you know, who helped you change that tire on the.Penver road yesterday." "Pardon me." This time one hrown eye had wavered ever so slightly. Indicating In-dicating someone behind Falrchlld. "But I wasn't on the Denver road yesterday, and If you'll excuse me for saying so, I don't remember ever having hav-ing seen you before." There was a little light in her eyes which took away the sting of the denial, de-nial, a light which seemed to urge caution, cau-tion, and at the same time to tell Fair-child Fair-child that she trusted him to do his part as a gentleman in a thing she wished forgotten. More fussed than ever, he drew back and bent low In :-Jv - ' ' l "A tall, thin, ugly old man, with mean squint eyes and a scar straight up his forehead." ! i'H) lite CONXINUKU.) I saw . him and wbnt's more, he saw that float. It looked good to Squint and lute that nlcht, I heard him and his two drinking partners. Bllndeye Hozcmun and Taylor Bill they Just reverse his niitne for the sound of It talklntr In Bllndeye's room. I'm a woman" Mother Howard chuckled "so I Just leaned my head a'enlnst the door and listened. Then I (lew downstairs down-stairs to wuit for your father when be came In from sitting up half the Bright to got an assay on that flont. "Squint and them two others was flgur- ing n Jumping his claim before he could file on It and all that. "Well, there wua a big Cornlshman here that I was kind of sweet on and I guess i nlwnys will be. He's been gone now, though, ever since your fa-iher fa-iher left. I pot him and asked him to help. And Uamr vu Jiiat the kind "lie didn't tell me much; except that he had been uptown spreading the word that the ore had pinched out and that the hnnfrlnic rork had caved In and that he unu 'Slssle' and your father were through; that they were beaten and were going away that nlcht. But and Harry waited a long time before he told me this 'Slssle' was not going with them. "Tin putting a lot In your hands.' he told nie, 'but yeu've got to help us. "Sissle" won't he there and I can't tell you why. The town must think that he Is. Your voice Is just like ".Slssle's." You've got to help us out of town.' "And I promised. I.nte that night, the three of us drove up the main street, your father on one side of the eat, Harry sn the other, and nie, apology, while she passed on. Half a block away, a young man rounded a corner and, seeing her, hastened to Join her. She extended her hand; they chatted a moment, then strolled up -the street . together. Falrchlld i watched blankly, then turned at a chuckle Just behind lilm emanating from the bearded Hps of an old miner, loafing on the stone coping In front ' of a smnll store. , "Pick the wrong Ally, pnrdner?" came the query. Falrchlld managed to smile. "flness sO." Then he lied quickly. "I thought she waJ a girl from Denver." Den-ver." "Her? The old miner streU-hed. "Nope. That's Anita Richmond, old Judge Richmond's daughter. Guess "Oh, He's Maurice Rodaine pal thing, gotten up by the bureau of mines to celebrate the return of silver sil-ver mining." But I'm afraid I'm not much on dancing." "You don't have to be. Nobody'll dimcV miK-li except the old-fashioned affairs. You see, everybody's supposed to represent people of the days when things were booming around here. There'll be a fiddle orchestra, and a dance caller and everything like that, ijnd a bar but of course there'll only be Imitation liquor. But," she added |