Show irhe LL irule lr Q Q Q B q katharine newlin burt burl copyright by katharine N X burt FOREWORD next to the impulses to satisfy anger and thirst and to rest when tired the most elemental element I 1 la Is to possess something to na acquire c property with pos possession sessi on comes the thought of 0 protecting and vo so maritime markin pr the property as to dist distinguish it from that belonging to others the branding iron Is only an improvement upon crudi crude methods of marking in vogue since tho the beginnings of the human race this Is a 0 romance of the cattle country primarily it Is a love story in which the passions of virile strong willed danger dancer defying people are realistically and powerfully revealed Xa katharine tharine newlin newlan burt the authoress has had much experience of the west and finds great inspiration tor for her work in the life and characters of that region there are arc few writers who equal her in ability to make readers feel th the emotions t of lur characters and and the effects of life spent in close conjunction with wild nature book one the two bar brand CHAPTER I 1 joan reads by firelight there Is no silence so fearful so breathless so searching as the night silence of a wild country burled buried me feet deep in snow for thirty miles or so north south east cast and west of the small half smothered speck of gold bold in alerre landis cabin window there lay on a certain decem december be night this silence bathed tit in moonlight the cold was intense below the bench where pierres ric homestead lay there rose from the twisted rapid river a cloud of steam above which the hoar arol d tops of cottonwood trees were perfectly distinct trunk branch and attig alg against a sky shy the color of iris petals the stars flared brilliantly hardly dimmed by the full moon and over the vast surface of the enow minute crystals kept up a steady shining of their own the range or of sharp wind vind scraped mountains uplifted fourteen thousand feet rode across the country northeast south dazzling in white armor spears mp to the sky a sight seen suddenly to take the breath like the crashing march of archangels militant in the center of this ring of silent crystal pierre landis logs shut in a little square of 0 warm and ruddy human darkness joan ills his wife made the heart of this defiant space joan the one mind living in tills this ghostly area of night dight she had bad put out the lamp for pierre Il erre starting two dais before had warned her with a certain threatening sharpness not to waste aaste oil and she lay on the hearth her rough head almost in the ashes reading a book by the unsteady light of the lames flames she followed the printed lines with a strong dark forefinger and her lips framed the words ith slow whispering motions it awas was a long strong womans comans body stretched there across the floor heavily if not sluggishly built dressed rudely in warm aarin stuffs and clumsy toots boots and it was aas a heavy face too unlit from within but built on lines of perfect animal beauty the alie head and throat had the massive look of a marble fragment stained to one eien een tone and dug up from attie attic earth and she was reading thus heavily and slowly by firelight in the midst of this tremendous northern night keats version of Boccac cios tale of isu isa bella and the pot of basil the be story for some reason interested her she felt that she could understand der stand the love of young lorenzo tind and of isabella the hatred of those two brothers and isabellaa horrible tenderness for that young murdered bead there were even things in lier ter own on life that she compared with till these in fact at aery phrase aile stopped and staring abbad crudely r and ignorantly visualized after her own oun experience what she had bad juit read and in doing so she pictured ner her own life her love an and pierres Iier res her life before pierre came to put herself in isabellaa place bile felt back to till tho days lars before her love when she ila biad lived in a desolation of bleak poverty up and away along lone river in h her er fo bothers i this to log house of pierres rier was a castle by contrast carver and his daughter had shared one room between them joans bed oft off with gunny sacking in a corner she slept on hides and rolled herself up in old dingy patch ailts il ts tin and worn blankets on emings she would wake cov pred cred w etli t ti i the snow that had sifted in between the ill III matched logs there lind had teen been t een a stove one log leg gone and for by it a huge cobblestone there had been two chairs a long box n table huelves all rudely inide in ide by john there had and been guns 1 and 1 nd traps and anon shoes hides the enss of nf lardi a couple of fishing rods jolin made its his living by legal 11 sal nl Illegal trapping and killing lie ile III ad like a trapped or hunted liun teil small furtive very eirls with long fingers always work tie tic ovel lila ills mouth a great crooked nose a hideous man surely a hideous father lie ile hardly ever spoke but sometimes coming home from the town which he visited several times a year but to which he had never taken joan he would sit down over over the stove and go over heavily for joans benefit the story of litsi his i crime and his escape joan always told herself that she would not listen whatever he be said she would stop her eairs ears but always the story fascinated lier her held her eyes widened on the figure by the stove ile he had sat bat huddled in his chair its ills face contorting with the emotions of the story his own brilliant eyes fixed on the rou round nd red mouth of the stove the reflection of this scarlet circle was hideously noticeable ti in his bis pupils A mans a right to kill his woman it if she aint honest with him so the story began if he finds out ashes ben bea brickin kIn of him him oft off fer another man that was yer mother gel she was a bad woman there followed a coarse and vivid description of her badness and the manner of it that kinder thing no man can let pass by in his wife I 1 found her ber again the rude details of his discovery an I 1 found him an 1 I let him go for the white livered coward he was but her I 1 killed I 1 shot her dead after shed said her prayers an asked gods mercy on her soul then I 1 walked off but they botched me an I 1 was tried they swing me out lu in them parts they knower knowel I 1 was in my rights so the boys held but a life sentence they tuk me by rall rail down to dawson an I 1 alv give e em the slip handcuffs an all perhaps only a halfhearted half halt hearted chase they maderer me some of them fellers debbe had alies ies of their own lie ile always stopped to laugh at this point an I 1 cut off up lip country till V iv I 1 ik az she followed the printed lines with a strong dark finger I 1 come to a smithy at the edge of a town I 1 hung round for a spell till the smith bed gone oft tin an I 1 got into his place un tin rid me of the handcuffs TV buas as a job but I 1 botched at it an I 1 made myself free followed the story of 0 his wanderings and hd hardships and his coming to lone river and setting out his traps in them days there no law agin trapp ln beaver A man inan could make a honest livin now tuk tuh an mado made laws agin a roans mans bread an butter I 1 ask ye it if taint wrong on a tuesday to trap yer beaver why taint wrong the mollerin fol lerin tuesday I 1 dont tee see it jes becos some fetters fellers back there has made a law agin it to suit themselves anyway the market fer beaver hides Is still prime ill leave leare you a fortin gel ive saved you from badness anyhow I 1 risked a lot to go back on an git you yon lint but I 1 done it you was out in front of yer aunts house an I 1 conic coni fer you you was a three year old an a big youngster says 1 I byh ats yer name says you joan carver an I 1 knowel you by yer likeness to to her her ey by G d I 1 swore id sayche say cje I 1 tuk you oft off with me though you put up a fight on an I 1 tied lied to use you rough to hence you there aint a coln to be tie no man in yer life joan carver says ayou I 1 you aw an yer big eyes Is a coln to be fer me inor to do my worl work an to look after my comforts no pretty boys fer you tin an no lie it husbands either cither to go a shooting of you down fer yer sins lie ile shivered and shook his head no here bore you stays avith yer father an grows up a good gel eel there aint a goin to be no man in yer life joau joan hut but youth was stronger than the mans mails hat haf crazy will und and when she was seventeen joan ran away she found her way easily enough to the town for she was wise in the tracks of the wild country and johns trail though so rarely used was to her eyes eye s plain enough and very coolly she walked into tho hotel past the group of loungers around the stove store and asked at the desk where sirs mrs upper sat it if she could get a job mrs upper and the loungers stared for there were few women in this frontier country and those few were well known title tills gr great eat strong girl heavily graceful in n her heavily awkward clothes be bareheaded r shod like a man her face and throat purely classic her eyes gray and wide and as secret in expression as an untamed beasts no one had ever seen the like of her before wants yer name asked mrs upper suspiciously it was mormon day in the town there were celebrations and her house was full she needed extra hands but where this wild creature was concerned she was doubtful joan im john carvers daughter answered the girl at once comprehension dawned heads were nodded then craned for a better look yes the town the whole country even had bad heard of john carlers careers imprisoned daughter sober and drunk he had boasted of her and of how bow there was to be no man in her life lt it was like dangling ripe fruit above the mouths of hungry boys to make such a boast in such a land your father sent sou down here fer a job asked M Mrs rs upper incredulously ulous ly no I 1 cume com e joans araie graie gaze vas ins unchanging im tired of it up there I 1 aint a coln back im most eighteen now nov an I 1 kinder want a chanze change slie site had not meant to be friny but a gust of laughter rattled the roon room i S she he 6 shrank it is back it was more terrifying to her than tiny any cruelty she tied had fancied meeting her in the town those liese I were the men her father had forbidden these loud laughing crinkled faces site she had turned to brave them a great surge of color in her brows dont mind the boys dear spoke mrs upper they will laff joke or none we aint none of us blamen you its a wonder you aint run off long afore now I 1 can give you a job an welcome but be green an unhandy well sir we kin learn ye you kin turn yer hand band to chamber work an bobbe help at the table maud viii mill show you but joan what will dad do to you hell be taken after you hotfoot hot foot I 1 reckon an be fer you back home as soon as he can joan did not cli change tinge her look ill not be coln back with him she said ifer her slow deep voice chest notes of a musical vibration stirred the room the men were hers tind and gruffly sall said so A sudden warmth enveloped her from heart to font she followed mrs upper to the initiation in her service clothed clot lied for the first time in human sympathies CHAPTER II 11 pierre lays his hand on a heart maud upper was the first st girl of her own age that joan had ever seen joan went in te terror aror of her and maud knew this and enjoyed lier her ascendancy over an untamed creature twice lier her size there was the crack of a lion tamers whip in the tone of her instructions that was after a day or two at first maud had been horribly afraid of joan A wild thing like her alvin off there in the MIN hills w with ith that man why ma theres s no tellin what she in ight be doln doin to me she wont hurt ye laughed mrs upper who nho had lived in the wilds herself having been a wife lie before the days even of tills this frontier town and having married the hotelkeeper hotel botel keeper as a second venture she knew that civilization this rude place being civilization to joan would cow the girl and site she knew that mauds self ass assertive relve buoyancy would frighten the alie soul of her tend maud was large hipped hilgh bosomed with a small round waist much compressed site she taught joan impatiently and caughel laug hel I 1 loudly adly but not unkindly at her ways gee ashes awkward aint she she would say to the men trail like a bull moose I 1 the men grinned but their eyes followed joans movements As a unit ter of fact she was war not lint awkward through her clumsy clothes the heaviness of her early auth la in spite of till air the fetters of her ignorance her wonderful long bones avid and her wonderful strength asserted themselves and she never hurried at first this apparent sluggishness infuriated maud G get et a gait on ye joan carver she would scream above the din of the rough meals but soon she found that joans slow movements accomplished a tremendous amount of work in an amazingly short time there was no pause in the girls activity she poured out her strength as a python pours bours lils ills noiselessly evenly steadily me jio haste no waste and the mens eyes brooded blooded upon her TO BE CONTINUED |