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Show Jimiii;iiimmiiim;mi!mmmiimii'MHmiiHinmiimiiiimmmnmmn THE BLUE MOON I A TALE OF THE FLATWOODS I "By DAVID AJVDE'RSOJV f ' Copyright by the Bobbs-Merrill Company niiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiw o o t BOX 23. Synopsis. Never having known his father, and living wiih his mother on a houseboat on the Wabash, Wa-bash, river. Pearl hunter the only name he has learns from her a part of the etory of her sad life. The recital Is interrupted by a fearful tit of coughing and he hurries hur-ries ashore to seek a root that affords af-fords relief. He meets a young girl whom he mentally christens the Wild Rose- She eludes him be- F fore lie can make her acquaintance. acquaint-ance. A vacant cabin on the shore has attracted the attention of the ailing woman, and they move into it. Their first meal is interrupted by the man-in-1 he-Fancy-Vest. Pearlhunter strikes him. Gunplay threatens. The mother drama cally drives the intruder away. She says it is the "Other Man." whom she has not seen for 20 years. They find a red mask dropped by the Other Man. Tl at i night Pearlhunter finds the Blue Moon, a great freshwater pearl. His mother dies without revealing his father's name. Pearlhunier and the Other Man meet in the village; a pistol fight is narrow iy averted. Pearlhunter believes him to be the Red Mask criminal. Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter rescues Wild Rose from th-1, Other Man and meets Wild Man. her father. He Is a man of w-u!-ture, crazed from concussion of the brain, the result of an attack by someone wearing a red mask. o CHAPTER V Continued. 7 . The girl cnught the falling how from his hand ; drew the cello to- her and deftly twisted the strings in tune. The Pearlhunter stood amazed at what followed. The tones of the cello cel-lo seemed to reach out into the quiet evening, purple with the close of day, and gather up the drowsy sounds of wood and stream, and liring them in and strew them down like falling rose leaves the fall of a distant oar; the lap of water upon cool rocks; the pulse of a current that rose and fell ; the croon of contented trees under a serene sunset. He did not know that what he heard was Beethoven's incom-I incom-I parably witching Moonlight Sonata. The old man's head had drooped forward, for-ward, his eyes were closed, his' face muffled In his rumpled beard upon his breast. Leaning the cello against the chair, the girl picked up a limp arm. laid It about her neck, and led him away, like a drowsy child, through the curtained entrance of the west room. With the departure of the girl the picture dissolved ; the evening world became a vast emptiness, au emptiness (he silence poured in to fill. It caught the Pearlhunter in Its flood ; it held him ; overwhelmed him ; found out little lit-tle nooks and crannies of his nature that he never knew were there. The curtains parted. A soft step crossed the carpet. The world came hack. A deeD breath swelled the chest of the Pearlhunter deep as if it had been the only ' breath he had taken since the song began. "Next to the thrush song, that was the most wonderful thing I ever heard !" The girl looked up from rearranging the cushions In the old man's chair. "Daddy taught me. He said it was my gift. He had the deepest, soft voice," she went on, more to herself . ' I alp 1 "That's Why I Trusted You." than to him. "Like the low tones of the cello, though it always made him sad to sing. Long ngo, when I was a child, lie used to hold me in his arms and sing to me. He was a wonderful cellist before !" She bowed her head over the chair and the 1'enrib'inHT fancied be saw tears. JSut t r face was soon up agnln, brave and cheerful. "You could iing." "Me!" It was about the most startling start-ling thing she could have said. The dry splinters of a gliu pinched up the corners of his eyes. "I'd have the woods to myself if I tried." She looked at him. The tiniest suggestion sug-gestion of a frowrs seemed to be trying to find a place on her face. "I know what I am saying when I say that. You could sing. Your voice is soft and low and strong like Daddy's. Dad-dy's. I didn't notice it till a little bit ago, but I think I felt It all along. I guess that's why I trusted you because be-cause your voice is like Daddy's." The Pearlhunter was standing quite close to her.- His eyes drank in the plump white mystery of her throat ; the' bit of ribbon rising and falling upon her bosoiu. It was an old ribbon, old and worn. Pie studied her dress. It had been many a day since it was new. He recalled the old man's coat and his shoes. They were as old as hers. He glanced around the cabin ; stole a quick look toward the ejist room her room. The Pearlhunter was slow in some things but somehow some-how be always managed to arrive in 1 time. "Wild Rose!" Her eyes jumped to bis. She let him see how much the name pleased her. "You've just said a mighty big thing to me. You've said you trust me. That's a big thing for a girl to say to a man. The Almighty alone knows whether I'll do to trust. Now. don't think hard of what I m about to say. And I wish I knew some nice way to say It. But I don't know any way only just to say it. Don't you need help money. I mean?" A succession of emotions flitted across the girl's face-pleasure at the name; bewilderment as he talked on; and at the last,' a smile. The man watched the smile. It was a brave smile, but it had to retreat, beaten back by a stronger foe. Her lips drew together; her chin quivered; she bowed her head- and buried her face in her arms. What had he done! Had she misunderstood mis-understood him. The Pearlhunter inwardly cursed his clumsiness. He found his hard hand stealing toward her hair. How helpless she was and he had hurt her. His fingers strayed over the soft locks and smoothed them. It seemed a long time to the Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter before she raised her face. He half dreaded to see her eyes; but a desperate glance no reproach In them. He had not been misunderstood. misunder-stood. "I don't know how I am to go on." Her throat and neck and face flamed crimson at the admission. "I can't leave to go out to service; and all the furniture that can be spared I have sold." "Only your own," he blurted out. rather imprudently, as he reflected afterward, aft-erward, for how was she to know that he had glanced Into her room? "I didn't wish Daddy to miss anything." any-thing." The unselfishness of her act seemed not to have entered her mind, bul it was not lost on the Pearlhunter. "The storekeeper has been so good to me, and trusted me for so many things. I'm afraid to think hew i-jch I owe him. But he is old. and his wife has been ill. It mortifies me to have to ask him for more credit, but I can't let Daddy starve. Money used lu i-imii- to us before he got hurt. But I found out afterward that it always came addressed simply to Box 23. Not even the postmaster knows Daddy's name. Neither do I!" Her voice fell very low. The Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter pitied her, for be knew what it was like not to know "Daddy's name." "The doctor says," she went on, "lhat the bullet broke a piece of skull, so that it presses on the brain. He thinks a great surgeon be knows might lie able to raise that little piece of skull and made Daddy well. And that's what hurls me worst of all that I can't have It done." She stopped ; turned her tv-nd away. There came Into the man's level eyes a look that the hard men of the river bad learned to kno'i "Listen!" he said. "You n iPt trust me. Y'on must let me help yon. You already know the story of the Blue Moon. Such a find always brings the pearl buyers. They flock to It like vultures to a carcass. They'll soon be hen maybe tomorrow. I'll sell the pearl, and you shall send for that sur-! sur-! germ." I Like one waking from a dream to i find Ibi' dream come true she turned' slowly and raised her face to bis. The full significance of his olTer. the big generosity of it, the Immense fact of It, eseiiperl her in the first moments, (inly a mere detail ot it reached l.er. I"! we coul'ln t erer pay you iihck. It was on ills tongue to say be didn't . expect to lie paid back that he didn't want to lie paid back, but a glance at her somehow made such an answer Impossible. Im-possible. The book case gave lilm an inspiral ion. "You could let me read these books." "Why, you jcnuld do that anyway." She looked at him in curious surprise. sur-prise. Not knowing the hope that was slowly waking in her, he misinterpreted misinterpret-ed the look. He avoided her eyes. His generosity bail overreached bis tact. Such an offer couldn't be made to a girl In the same way It could be made to a man. Ills eye roved the room in desperation. It lighted finally final-ly on the cello still leaning against the old man's chair. "Y'ou can teach me singin' lessons !" He said it a good deal as a man might consent to a surgical operation, with the chances dead against him. "That wouldn't be worth money," she said. "That would just be fun. If things were so I could." The Pearlhunter picked up his hat from the table, stood fumbling it and thinking intently. It went against the grain of him to give up till the last lick was struck. Something she had said a few minutes before happened into bis thoughts. "When your father is well, there'll be more money coming to Box 23. He can pay me back then himself." He said it slowly like a man laying his last card on the table, and the odds against him. But the effect was utterly opposite to what he had dreaded. Her eyes sprang to his face, and there was something in them he- had not seen there before. He knew In that Instant In-stant that she had not misunderstood him. With a freedom from which the high moment took even the tiniest semblance of boldness, she stepped toward to-ward him and laid her hand on his arm. ' "You're wonderful ! I don't suppose anyoociy else in tne worm wouia uo such a tiling for folks like us for strangers. Forgive me that I didn't thank you. It was all so marvelous! But I do. I do, over and over!" The puzzled misgivings on the wind-seasoned wind-seasoned face of the man melted up into a slow smile. "It's nothing " he said. That was the best he could do, the utmost syllable he could muster. "Nothing! When Daddy Is to be well, and the good days are coming back ! How can I ever thank you !" "It's nothing," he repeated. "I'd just as soon you" he hesitated ; finally added the word, "folks :had the money mon-ey for a while as to let It stand there In the bank Idle." "Yes, but how many would look at it that way? I'm sure the bank wouldn't; nor the doctor; nor anybody but you. Except Daddy," she added. "He would when he was well. He was like you." "Anyhow," he said, as If continuing some previous remark some remark he had doubtless been turning over In his mind, since he had let fall no word of it "the first thing Is to sell the pearl." He stepped toward the open door. She followed him. With the air of a man seeking some excuse to linger, he turned at the threshold. "Sure you're not afraid?" "Afraid! With Daddy?" A thought clouded her eyes. Her face fell. "I'm only too safe," she continued In a low voice. "Nobody In the Flatwoods would venture near this place. They think It's it's " She did not finish. The man guessed, and stood silent. But the future held too big a hope for her to stay long under a chance cloud. She raised her face after a moment and held out her haud. He grasped it in both his own. "Don't feel bad," she said, "because you have no name but Pearlhunter. I haen't any either but but " "Wild Hose," he finished. lie watched the dimples come back; and the soft twilight in her eyes; and a shaft of bronze sunset doing straight magic with her hair. He felt her hand slipping out from between his the cushions of her palm; her soft lingers and turned away. Down near the Hat rock at the pool he looked back and found Lie cabin through the trees. She was still standing stand-ing in the door. He waved Ills hand. Her white arm shot up In the twilight, outlined for a brief Instant against the gray logs. CHAPTER VI. An Arm Across the Moon. The cabin of Fallen ltock was very gloomy as the Pearlliiititer came down the bluff, walked around to the front door and pushed it open. The fire had long since died in the stove. In tin-twilight tin-twilight the interinr of the cabin was like night. He hastened to light the r-andie. The sight of his mother's chair, when the light brought it out of the gloom, oppressed him heavily. lie stepped out of the cabin, thinking think-ing to sit upon (lie door-step a while. The moon was not due till midnight, but the sky was already spiked with stars; and so blue and deep that it appeared to hae no liiittnm. A good eye seemed to be all that was needed to see clear through. t Tile bottom grew agnin in the sky; till- stars ou';- bail; out of the deep azure. The man's eyes opened. It was the sound of oars that opened them. For the first moment he did not know Hint be hail been asleep. A glance at tlie cast, all a-llare with the close coming of the moon, convinced him that be bad slept for hours. Midnight. What were ours doing on tin! Wahiu-V at midnight? The creaking creak-ing of them, accotmianied by the dull clupp-cltipp or the oar locks, drew nearer. Presently there came the gruff tones of men, surly, and short-spoken. When even with the house-boat the rowing ceased, and he knew the boat was being allowed to drift. "Hello-o. up there !" It was the hoarse, gruff voice of the Boss. A day and half a night! ' The finding of the Blue Moon had been celebrated cel-ebrated most furiously. "Hello-o!" he answered. He heard the Boss swear'and say to the others: "There! What'd I tell y'u ! I knowed he wouldn't be asleep." The hoarse voice, thickened a good deal by the celebration, boomed across the water again and bounded against the face of the cliff. "Louie Solomon struck town t'night. He'll he down in th' morniu'." "Let 'm come." "Stick out fer th' five thousan'." The Pearlhunter did not answer. "He up t'morrow, sometime," the voice boomed out again. "Come ahead." The Boss tossed back no further word. So Louie Solomon, the smoothest, trickiest, shiftiest of them all, would be "down In the morniu'." The eyes of the Pearlhunter narrowed. His jaws snapped together. He turned and re- The Sight of His Mother's Chair . . . Oppressed Him Heavily. entered the cabin. The candle bad burned low. The draft that set in from the open door had guttered it deep. He blew it out, flung off his clothes and rolled Into bed. "Five thousand !" he muttered, dropping drop-ping Into the sleep that comes easy to the woodsman. "Not even Louie Solomon Sol-omon can beat me If I stick right here. That's what I'll do stick right here. I'm not askin' more, and he shan't have it for "ess" So long as the pulse of the woods beat normal the sleep of the Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter was sound. The hoot of th" owl; the whine of the wildcat; the howl of the wolves ; uever disturbed him. In cabin or house-boat, or out under the trees, he could sleep through It all. But let a false note creep Into the wild medley and It instantly reached him. It was his training, and could be counted on. Some time away In the dead night the false note came guarded footfalls outside the cabin, and close to the wall. Without start or stir the Pearl-hunter's Pearl-hunter's eyes came open, every sense at keenest pitch. It must have been near morning, for the moon stood almost al-most straight in the open door. He slid his hand down his 'e, felt for the revolver under the edge of his thigh, laid It across his chest, and covered both band and revolver with a corner of the sheet. "Five t'ousan'I Himmell You pearlfishers is, all alike all crazy." I (I'll lit: COXTIM'KLM |