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Show The Giri9 a Horse FRAnciS i and a Do? LYNDE lllrv Copyright bj Charles BorlbDer't Hons case I were foolish enough to lose my tern per." "I know," she nodded. "He killed a man ouce ; It was when I was a little girl and we were living In Cripple Crip-ple Creek. He was acquitted on the plea of self-defense. So I didn't dare sny anything to you or to Daddy. What I did was to steal your deed myself, when I had a chance. Paddy has some hlank forms just like it, and I sat up one night iu my room and made a copy. It wasn't a very good copy your grandfather's handwriting was awfully hard to Imitate. Besides. T didn't have any notarial seal. But I thought it might io for for something, some-thing, to he stolen. Then I hid the real deed and put the copy back in the envelope in your pocket." "And Bullerton finally stole it, Just as you thought he would," I put In. "He did. You are dreadfully careless care-less with your things; you are always al-ways leaving your coat around. Just where you happen to take It off. I knew then that the next thing to he done was to get your deed recorded quickly. He he was urging me every day to ran away with him, and I was afraid to tell him how much I despised him; afraid he'd take It out on you and Daddy. So I just let him go on and talk and helieve what he pleas Of course, he wanted to ride with i the morning we went away, but nfi we got down the rood a piece, I mn an excuse to go on ahead by anotl trail." "That much of what he told yo father and me when we were hav! the scrap was true. He said 5 went on ahead." "I didn't go to Atropia, as he e peeled me to," she continued calm' "I took the old Haversack trail aero the mountain to Greaser siding, knew that the Copah train would st there on the side-track. When I grr as far as the Haversack I thought I heard somebody following me. I was scared and didn't know what to do. I was afraid my copying of the deed had been discovered and that the original would be taken away from me, so I hurried to hide the real deed. The old Haversack tunnel seemed to be a good place, but while I was In there Barney began to bark, and I looked out and saw that the noise I had heard had been made by a stray cow from one of the foothill ranches. So I remounted re-mounted and rode on to catch the train to Copah. At Greaser siding I tried to make Barney lead the pony home, and Barney tried his best to do It. But Winkie wanted to graze, and I had to go off and leave them wdien the train came. That's all, I think ; except that I had to wait two days at my cousin's In Copah before I could get the deed back from the recorder's record-er's office. They were awfully slow about it." "It Isn't quite all," I amended. "You haven't told me how you happened to come back with Beasley and his posse." "That was just a coincidence. ' I reached Atropia on the early morning train and met Mr. Beasley and his men just as they were starting up the mountain. Cousin Buddy Fuller had told me how he had telegraphed to Angels for Mr. Beasley, and I was scared to death, of course, because I knew what It meant. So I borrowed the Haggertys' pony and came along with the posse." There was silence for a little time; such silence as the clattering and hammering of the carpenters and steam-fitters permitted. Then I said : "And when you got here, the first tiling I did was to call you 'Mrs. Bullerton'. Bul-lerton'. I don't blame you for not being be-ing able to forgive me, Jeanle, girl ; honestly, I don't." "It was worse than a crime." she averred solemnly; "it was a blunder. What made you do It?" "Partly because I was a jealous fool ; but mostly because I was sore and sorry and disappointed. I thought Bullerton had beaten me to it." "No," she said quite soberly; "It was Miss Randle who beat you to It." I gnsped. There were tremendous possibilities in that cool answer of hers; prodigious possibilities. "But say!" I burst out;, "didn't I tell you that LIsette had pushed me overboard long ago?" "I know. She was sensible enough to see that you and she couldn't live on nothing a year. But now that you are rich, or are going to be . . I'm sure you are not going to be less generous gen-erous than she was. What if she did take your ring off in a moment of discouragement, dis-couragement, and knowing that you couldn't buy her hats? You can be very sure she put It on again as soon as your back was turned." There we were ; no sooner over one hurdle before another and a higher one must jump up. I Jroaned and thrust my hands Into my pockets. A paper rustled and I drew It out. It was the telegram Buddy Fuller had handed me, still unread. I opened It half absently, holding It down so that the glow of the nearest flare fell upon the writing. Then I gave a little yelp, swallowed hard two or three time and nearly choked doing It, and read the thing again. After all of which I said, as calmly ns I could: "But, in spite of all that I had told you about LIsette, you asked me once to kiss you." "Is is it quite nice of you to remind re-mind me of It?" site Inquired reproach-full reproach-full v. "It wouldn't be In ordinary circumstances: cir-cumstances: It would be beastly. But, listen, Jeanie; havttn't you been mad clear through, sometimes, in reading a story, to have a coincidence rung in on you when you knew perfectly well that the thing couldn't possibly have happened so pat in the nick of time?" "I suppose I have ; yes." "Well, don't ever let it disturb you again. Because the real thing Is a lot more wonderful and unbelievable, you know Listen to this: It's a wire from mv cousin, Percy; the one who sent me out Into the wide, wide world to look for a girl, a horse and a dog, and who is the only human being outside of Colorado who knows where I am likely to he reached by telegraph. He is in' Boston, and this is what ho says: J.I ..! - - - " '- back. You must think something of '-' him or you wouldn't have asked me ; not to prosecute him for trying to murder your father and me." She looked down at her pretty feet, which were crossed. "I think a little something of myself," my-self," she said, with small breath-. catchings between the words. "I owed myself that much, don't you think? If I didn't deceive him outright', I'm afraid I did let nim deceive himself. So that made me responsible, in a way, and I couldn't let you send hira to jail, could I?" "But what about nie? Are you going go-ing to send me to a worse place than any jail? for that is what the whole wide world is going to be to me without with-out you, Jeanie, dear." Her answer was just like her: She turned and put up her face to me and said, "Kiss me again, Stannle." And "Let's Have It Out, Jeanie," I Said. though all the carpenters on the job were looking on, as I suppose they were, by this time, I took her In my arms. It was a short spasm ; it sort of had to be In the public circumstances. When It was over, I folded Percy's telegram, took out my pencil, and with the dear girl looking on, printed my reply on what was left of the message blank. This is what I said: "The same to you. Have found the G., the H. and the D., and Miss Jeanie Twombly and I are to be married as soon as we can find a minister. Incl-' Incl-' dentally, I have learned how to work. Hope it will he a comfort to you, to Grandfather Jasper If he Is where he : can hear of It and to all concerned. "STANNIE." . THE END. CHAPTER XVII. Continued. 11 "Would you have bohr vd him?" I asked, grinning across the talile at Beasley. "II 'd 11-bcen a question of vee-racity, as Hie court says; with maybe you anil III Twombly too dead to testify." At Ihis. Daddy, who had been eating eat-ing like a man hulf-stiirvod, put in Ids vvord. "f reckon you can't get at them galoots higher up, Stannic, hut If you don't .shove Charley Bullerton Just about as far as the law 'II allow, I'm , goin' to call ye a quitter." Al that moment Jeanie had Just brought In another heaping plate of the luscious corn cakes, and I was looking at her when I replied. "We'll see about the shoving a bit laler, Daddy. The first Ihing to do Is to put the old Cinnabar In shape to shell us out some money. I'm broke, you know." When I made this admission. Beasley, Beas-ley, the Inst man In the world from whom help could come, I should have said, looked me squarely In the eyes. "Stannle Broughlon If that's your nana1 you ain't so dad-blamed crazy ns you look and act," he remarked. ".Money's what talks. Are you nifnln' to swing onto this Ihing with your own bunds? for keeps, I mean; not to sell It out lo the first set 0' mlnin' sharps that comes along?" "Sure! you said It; I'm going to keep it and work It after I get out of I he jail where you're going to land me for pinching that Inspection car and getting It smashed. Why else diil I start out blindfolded to hunt for n girl, a horse and a dog?" He let the hitler half of my reply go without comment ; charging it up to some last lingering remains of the crni'.inoss, perhaps. "Well, let's see about where you'd Clark your whip first," he invited. "That part of It is easy." I laughed. "What I don't know about the practical prac-tical end of the mining job would load a wagon. I'll pilch out and hunt me up a real, for-sure miner, of course." "Nntliin' so awfully crazy about thai." he granted. Then: "What's the matter with Hi Twombly, here, for your boss miner?" .Not a thing in the wide world except that he can't be because he Is going to be my partner In the deal." "Now you're talkin' a whole heap like a white man." said the desperndo-ish desperndo-ish one. "Dog-goned if I don't b'lieve you are white! 'What do you say to glvhV me a whack at the bossln' Job?" I took just one little glance at Daddy, Dad-dy, and the mild blue cjes aid "yes." "But you've got nie under arrest, Mr. Beasley," I pointed out, just to see what he'd say. "You can't very well close a business deal with your prisoner, can you?" "Kill two 'r three birds with the one rock," he mumbled, cramming the siruped half of his breakfast-finishing corn cake Into his capacious mouth. "I'll chase you down to Angels and turn you over to the majesty 0' the law Hie same bein' by name old Squire Dubbin. Then I'll jump my Job o' sortin' out the bad angels from amongst the good angels and go out anil rustle your hail. Time old Bill Dubbin's chewin' over the law iu sich mm! I . I Was Looking al Jeanie When I Replied. Re-plied. cases mai'e and pervided "ik; he's hound to do I'll scrape up a bunch o' men and start 'em up hcronways tr begin on the repairs. How docs all that s'.iike you?" If my laugh was a bit grim there was a warrant for it. "It strike.-, mi' fair in the emptv pocket, my good fiierd." I told him .hist al this present moment couldn't finance one solitary, loncscm. carp -liter to say nothing of a gam of llieni. wltn half a h-en steam tine, s and boiicrninke-s thrown u." II:;;.1 or::ln' cy;;al. you rc.eau I That's about the easiest tiling tliis side o Hades with a mine like the old Cinnabar witli no more water In It than what can he pumped out to hack you. I reckon your title to the property's prop-erty's all right, ain't it?" "It Is; I have a deed from my grandfather." grand-father." So mu h I said, but I didn't go on to explain bow the quick wit of a girl who now hated me had saved that rleed from being a mere scrap of waste paper. Not that I knew how she had done It hut the tangible fact was safely In my pocket. 'f Fifteen minutes after this hreak-fio't hreak-fio't tattle talk I was bidding a temporary tem-porary good-hy to the wreck on the Cinnabar ledge, and was about to take the road to Atropia with Beasley ; both of us intent upon catching a way-freight way-freight to Angels. Daddy had lent me the piehahl pi.tiy for the ride to the railroad station tills either with or without Jennie's consent; I didn't know and forbore to ask and the harlequin-faced dog was ready to trot at the pony's heels. But the blue-eyed maiden had shut herself up in her room, and I thought she wasn't going to come out and see nie off. At the final moment, however, after Beasley had already steered his nag across the dump head, and I was about to climb into my saddle, she came to the cabin door, and was botli curiously embarrassed and a bit breathless. "Please! one minute!" she begged ; and as I took my foot out of the stirrup stir-rup : "Do you know what they have done with Willi " "With Bullerton?" I helped out. "No, I don't know ; but I suppose they've taken him on to the county seat at Copah with the others." "Then then please let him go! If you refuse to prosecute " "Make yourself entirely easy," I broke in, a bit sourly, maybe. "I'll agree not to play the part of the dog in the manger." "Thank you so much !" she murmured mur-mured ; and then she backed away quickly and went in and on through to the kitchen, leaving ine to follow Beasley, which I did, with the sour humor telling me that of all the puzzling, puz-zling, unaccountable things in a world of enigmas, a woman's vagaries were the least understandable. For, after all was said and done, and after all that had happened and been made to happen, it seemed to be palpably apparent ap-parent that Jeanie Twombly was still iu love with the jeet. CHAPTER XIX. Angels, Desert and Urban. Our stop-over In Angels, Friend Beasley's and mine, was of the shortest. short-est. Our business with Father William Wil-liam Dubbin was the merest travesty upon a trial at law, and was speedily concluded. Since there would be no passenger tram until afternoon, Beasley and i resumed our places in the freight's caboose, and In due time were set down in Brewster, the breezy little metropolis of Timnnyoni Park. Here my captor and friend appeared ap-peared to be very much at home. He took me to the best hotel, where he was greeted with affectionate camaraderie cama-raderie by a clerk who wore a diamond dia-mond big enough to serve for a locomotive loco-motive headlight, shook hands with, and introduced me to, a number of gentlemen in the lobby, and presently gave me orders to go up to our rooms and "take a wash," preparatory to meeting a certain friend of his at luncheon ; the meeting contingent upon his being able to "round up" the friend in time for the feast. It still wanted a half-hour of the appointed luncheon time when I descended de-scended to the lobby. A little before one o'clock Beasley came In with a middle-aged man who looked as If he might have been the retired manager of a Wild West show; not long-haired, or anything like that, but with the cool eye and bronzed, weather-beaten face of one who lived under house roofs only when circumstances forced him to. A moment later 1 was shaking shak-ing hands with Mr. William Starhuck, mine owner, ranchman, a director in the Brewster National bank, president of the Brewster Commercial club and the prime mover in a lot of other civic activities too numerous to mention. I may pass lightly over the events of the three days following; days in which Mr. William Starhuck. who seemed to be known to all the old-timers old-timers iu Brewster ns "Billy," and to the younger generation as "Uncle Billy." Bil-ly." labored untiringly in my behalf; . procured nie the necessary working credit at the Brewster National, helped me in the telegraphic ordering 1 of now machinery, helped Beasley to ' rustle up a small army of mechanics 1 to go ahead of us to the Cinnabar, I and last, but not least, made my peace with the raiiroad company in the mat- ler of the stolen and smashed inspection inspec-tion car; this being a thing whivh he was easily able to do because he was . the brother-in-law, once removed, ot I the railroad company's vice president and general manager. ; I On our last day in Brewster, and a - j a parting favor. I asked Starhuck how 1 should proceed In regard to quash ? 1 ing the U'dlctment against Buiiertoi: and when I did so, he gave nie a shrewd look out of the cool gray eyes, with a gentle uplifting of the shaggy brows. "If you are determined to let Bullerton go, all you have to do Is to do nothing. If you don't appear in Copah to prosecute him and his would-be would-be mine Junipers, t lie case against them will be dismissed, as a matter of course. But really, you know, you ought to make an example of them." "In the circumstances, I can't." I returned, so we let it go at that; and ran hour later Beasley and I were on our way back to Atropia aud Cinnabar Cinna-bar mountain. CHAPTER XX. Cousin Percy Wires. It was on the evening of the fourth day's absence that Beasley and I left the train at Atropia and took the mountain trail in reverse for a return to the high bench on Old Cinnabar, mmk "Now You're Talking Like a White Man." Beasley riding a borrowed horse, and I the calico pony, which Daddy Hiram had sent down to the station by one of the newly imported workmen. Just as we were leaving the railroad rail-road station Buddy Fuller, the operator, opera-tor, ran out to hand me a telegram. Since it was too dark to see to read it, and I supposed, naturally, that It was nothing more important than a bid from some machinery firm anxious to supply our needs, I thought it might wait, stuck It into my pocket and promptly forgot it. Our talk, as we rode together up the now familiar trail, was chiefly of business busi-ness ; the business of reopening the mine; and It was not until we were nearing our destination that the ex-marshal ex-marshal said : "Still stickin' in your craw that you ain't a-goin' to pop the whip at Charley Bullerton?" "It is," I answered. "Well, now, why not?" "Principally because I have promised somebody that I wouldn't prosecute." "Not Hi Twombly ; he'd never ast you to do anything like that." "No; not Daddy Hiram." He didn't press the matter any further, and we rode on in silence. As we approached the neighborhood of the mine, evidences of the forthputting activities began to vaanifest themselves. them-selves. Daddy Hiram met as at the door of his newly repaired cabin across the dump head and insisted upon taking care of the horses. Beasley and I washed up at the outdoor, bench-and-basin lavatory; and when we went in, Jeanie had supper ready for us. She didn't sit at table with us from which I argued that she and her father had already eaten and I thought she purposely avoided me; avoided meeting my eye, at least. I didn't wonder at It. Her position, as I had it figured out, was rather awkwardly awk-wardly anomalous. By this time, I had fully convinced myself that she was in love with Bullerton, and was probably engaged to be married to him; and that it was only her native honesty that had driven her to take sides against him in the struggle for the Cinnabar, prompting her 10 An the one thing which had knocked his nefarious ne-farious scheme on the head namely, , the recording of my deed. : Knowing nothing but hard work, Daddy Hiram was running the deep- 1 well pumps himself, or rather, taking . ilie night shift on them; and about ten o'clock, just as I had made up my mind . 'o go to bed and let the repairing nc- ; .ivitios take care of theaiselvcs, 1 saw leanie going over to the boiler shed villi a pot of freshly made coffee for 'er father. Here was my chance. I : hecchr : so I waited and cornered her s she came back. "Let's have it out, Jeanie," I said; , hich, I confess, was a sort of brutal way to begin on the woman I loved, and yet the only way if I w as to go on remembering that she belonged to another an-other man. "We can at least be good friends, can't we?" "No," she returned, with a queer little lit-tle twist of her pretty lips and a flash of the blue eyes, "I'm afraid we can't even he that or those any more, Mr. Broughton." It was awkward for both of us, standing there before the open cabin door, and I pointed to the bench where Daddy Hiram was wont to smoke his evening pipe in good weather. "Won't you sit down until we can sort of Hail it out?" I begged. "It's no use, whatever," she objected object-ed ; nevertheless, she did sit down and let nie sit beside her. "I know Just how distressed you must be," I began, "and perhaps I can lift a bit of the load from your shoulders. shoul-ders. There will be no legal steps taken against your against Charles Bullerton." "Thank you," she said ; just as short as that. "And that isn't ail," I went on. "After "Aft-er we get into the ore and have some real money to show for it, I'm going to make "over a share in the Cinnabar to your father and put him in a position posi-tion to do the right thing by you when you marry. And he'll do it; you know iie'll do It." "How kind !" she murmured, looking look-ing straight out in front of her. "It isn't kindness; its bare justice. Between you, you two have saved my legacy for me." "I wish, now, It hadn't been saved !" she exclaimed, as vindictively as you please. Truly, I thought, the ways of women are past finding out; or at least the way of a maid with a man is. "Can't I say anything at all without putting my foot into it?" I asked In despair. "You break a man's back with a load of obligation one day, and toss him lightly out of your young life the next! I haven't done anything to earn your to earn the back of your hand, Jeanie ; or if I have, 1 don't know what it is." "You have committed the unpardonable unpardon-able sin," she accused coolly. "I don't wonder that Miss Randlb took your ring off." I wasn't going to let the talk shift to LIsette ; not if I knew it, and could help It. "What is the unpardonable sin?" I asked. "To misunderstand: to think a person per-son capable of a thing when a person is not; to just take rt for granted that a person is guilty oh" with a little stamp of her foot "I can't bear to talk about It!" I guess It's a part of a man's equipment equip-ment to be dense and sort of stupid In his dealings with women, I mean. Slowly, so slowly that I thought the catch would never snap and hold, my fool mind crept back along the line, searching blindly for the point at which all this fiery Indignation toward me had begun ; back and still back to that moment of our deliverance-Daddy's deliverance-Daddy's and mine at the shafthouse door, with this dear girl untwisting her aims from her father's neck, and with me saying, "I'm not hurt, either. Welcome Wel-come home, Miss Twombly or should I say. Mrs. Bullerton?" "Jeanie !" I gasped ; "do you mean that you're not going to marry Charles Bullerton? that you never meant to?" "Of course, I'm not !" she retorted, with a savage little out-thrust of the adorable chin. "But you thought so small of me that you simply took it for granted !" I wagged my head In deepest humility. hu-mility. "I'm ns the dust under your pretty feet. Jennie; please don't trample me too hatd. Bullerton that is er we had a scrap the next morning after you went away, you know, ana I . . . well, he rather got the worst f It. And when I had him down and was trying to make him tell us where you were even your father thought you'd gone off with him he said you'd planned to go with him to get married, mar-ried, but that you had Tailed to show up at Atropia in time for the train." "He told a lie, because that Is the way he is made and he couldn't help it," she said simply, still as cool as a cucumber. "He said we were going to Angels to get married, and I I didn't say w-e weren't; I just let him talk and didn't sny anything at all." "Won't you tell me a bit more?" I begged. "You don't deserve it the least little lit-tle bit. but I will. It began with the deed ; your deed to the mine. One day. when you were over at the shaft-house, shaft-house, and had eft yonr coat here In the cabin I saw him take the deed from your pocket when he didn't know I was looking. lie read it and put 't hack quickly when he heard me stirring stir-ring in the other room. I knew it hadn't been recorded ; you and Daddy had both spoken of that. I felt sure he'd take it again, and porhans destroy de-stroy it. At first. I thought I'd tell von or Daddy, or both of you. But I knew that would mean trouble." "We were never very far from the gliting edge In those flays." I admit-od. admit-od. "Bullerton had s'-.own me rhe ' gun he always carried under his arm. and had told me what to expect In |