Show the 0 fj av 0 per by jackson copyright by charles so service SYNOPSIS in the th california flerra arr mark king prospector seen andy killed by swen won brodle brodie parkers e s outlaw both known to king he ha I 1 Is on hl his way to the th horns home of his friend alend ben gaynor king and gay gaynor n or share with brodie 0 and his cr crowd ow d knowledge knowl edKa of a vast vait store of hidden cold bold alne meets mrs gaynor arid to la impressed bg by her daughter glorias gloria youthful beauty he instinctively dislikes a house visitor named gritton gratton with gloria king rides to the village of Co coloma chlorne lorne intending to sound bound HoneT honeycutt cutt he finds brodie with the old oil prospector prospect r and animosity flares their r rid do to Co coloma lorns and their companion hip tor for a day draw king closer to 0 gloria CHAPTER IV that night when king and gloria said eald good night an odd constraint lay over them to gloria king seemed stiff and preoccupied she blie herself had red spots in her cheeks and was nervously tense the abrupt approach of brodle brodie with his repulsive face at a moment when the world swirled away from her underfoot and a divine madness was in her blood the reaction anil and revulsion all this and the resultant conflict of emotions had worn her out she knew that king was going back to the mountains she knew when he left going swiftly and silently like a shadow she know that this time he went armed carrying her fathers rifle for marlc mark king knew that it was inevitable that his path and swen brodies should run closer and closer that trails made by two men like king and brodle brodie could never converge harmoniously that there was too much mach at stake geake that it was well to be ready for brodle brodie in an ugly mood in an encounter so far removed from the habota i eions of men that a deed done would pass without human commentary A week passed and gloria went back to san ban francisco leaving a little note for mark king king did not return to the log house lie ire knew that long ago gloria would have gone there was nothing to draw him in her absence these were strenuous days during which king kin pen penetrated the most out of the way corners of the mountains ile he held that when galdy baldy winch had bad made him a cabin in so eo inaccessible and distant a spot as the crest of lookout ridge it had bad been because winch the sole of those hardy spirits who had been of oua gus ingles party was wag of a mind to make sure day after day th that at no other men went where he all had been A man like hire baldy winch as king envisioned him would do that hence from lookout ridge one should be able to see the very point or it a peak standing over the very point where gus ingles men had gone but always the one difficulty that point might be a mile away or ten twenty thirty miles away there was nothing to do but seek and he knew that always swen brodle brodie too was seeking so king spent day after day in the canyons and on the ridges and yeti yet through ben gaynor thought to keep an eye on old loony honeycutt Honeycut fc hut but there were hours that king thought very little of brodle brodie gus gos ingle or honeycutt there were times when the solitudes were empty at such each moments he be fancied that a girl c came 1 1 me stealing steal ing through the trees to II 11 him 1 m that she slipped her hand into info hla his own that she lifted to lis his her soft eyes that something within the soul of him spoke to her and that she answered hla his pulse eulsea quickened a great yearning as of infinite hunger possessed him he saw virtually nothing of brodle brodie now and then smoke from a campfire once or twice the charred coals where brodies Brod les men had been before him one day he came upon signs of a killing made the day before by one of brodies Brod les outfit ito ha assumed some one had batted baited for a bear and had bad killed the mother bear he die covered the following morning for he came upon a little brown cub whimpering dismally king made the rebellious bel lious little fellow an unwilling captive and smiled as he be thought of gloria gloria had talked of bear cubs it if she but had one for a pet betl I 1 well here was glorias pet king that day turned toward the log house and thus he received at last glorias note at jim spaldings dings hands car mark mamma and I 1 have to go back to town tomorrow I 1 am so sorry that I 1 cant stay up here always and always do you realize that I 1 have never seen you in the city I 1 wondra if you yon would come down if I 1 asked naked you to ill say it very nicely and properly like this thia mlis G gloria gaynor requests the tha pleasure of mr mark alark kings presence at her little birthday party on the evening of august twelfth at eight just the four of us mark mamma and papa you and aloria autust august twelfth said king TU ru lo go ile he write as the necessity of an answer did not suggest itself to him he took it for granted that she would know that he would come ile he chuckled as he thought of the birthday gift he would bring her there was still a week he remained with spalding at the gaynor mountain home and devoted hour after hour to taming the cub on tile the eleventh he was in san francasco francl isco ile iio wax wa busted busied for an hour or so finding quarters iu arters for his cub getting a shave and half hair cut cot later he telephoned to the gaynor home A maid answered and informed alm allm that mr gaynor had not arrived yet though he was expected th this Is afternoon or in the morning that both mrs gaynor and miss gaynor were out king hung up without leaving his name the next evening he got ft a taxi called for his bear cub stopped at a florists for an armful of early violets and was off to the gaynor home nere here you are sir said the chaut if benr eur opening the door king fancied the man had made a mistake in the number the house was wag blazing with lights upstairs and down there was an unmistakable air of revelry about it faintly the music of a new dance tune violin and piccolo and piano crept out into the night kling king was of a mind to go back to the hotel he had counted on the gay nors alone not on this sort of thing but also most of all he be had counted on gloria and his hesitation was brief lie he lumped jumped down and leading his bear cub by its new chain went up the steps A housemaid came to the door opened it wide for him saw the cub against ills ila leg and screamed why what on earth Is the matter frieda said some one it was gloria passing through the front hallway with a worshipful youth to of a sudden his HI gift seemed out of place gloria came to the door the th e youth at her heels looking over her shoulder oh I 1 cried gloria king knew then in a flash that she had not expected him that probably because he had never answered her letter she had for gotten all about it unconsciously he be stiffened we his old gesture before a woman but now gloria came running out to him her two bands offered her eyes alight with pleasure you tou old did come she said gladly and oh look I 1 she let her hands remain in hla his but her eyes were all for the little brown bundle of fur at kings feet that began now to whine and pull back at its chain my birthday present I 1 just tow BOW mark king would have given anything he could think of to have that bear cub cab back in the woods where it belonged he bad time to analyze impulses he be know why all of a sudden his gift seemed out of place but as an gloria a little timid and holding her skirts back and yet clearly delighted flashed him her look of understanding and gratitude he was content gloria remembered to make mr king known to mr trimble then king suggested that they take the cub around back and lodge him for the night in the garage but gloria discovering that she could pat and fondle the little creature and that he was of friendly disposition insisted on having him brought into the house bouse for all to see am its the most delightful present of aill she whispered to king in the hallway they were surrounded by a crowd of the curious girls in pretty dresses young follows fellows in black suits all very exact as to the proper evening appointments at first they were disposed to look on king as the man who brought the cub and it was only when gloria began a string of introductions that they understood ore one and all they regarded mark king curiously mrs lira gaynor appeared and was very glad indeed to see sir mr king again gratton whom kin king remembered with small liking came up op and shook hands bands and looked at king in a way which did nothing to increase too the liking ben it appeared had been unable enable to come this year king was sorry for that as he looked about him the evening was anything but that to which he had looked forward lie ile was out of place and felt more out of place than he was lie ile was cons out because he was different outwardly ly in garb inwardly in much else there was no one here whom he be knew he had never felt that he knew glorias mother and tonight glorias self puzzling him baffling him was an unknown not that she was not delightful to him she was just as delightful to every other man there and in the same way his days with her in the forest blurred and faded ile he understood too by that sixth sense sensa of man which Is so BO keen at certain moments of mental distress that all of Gl glorias orlas friends were wondering about him where he came from what hla his business was he ha was waa tanned rugged he was not of them As he be sat gat with gloria and found little to say he was of her eyes probing at him when she thought that ha be did not see he looked away a shadow in his eyes and chanced to seel see gratton gratton Or atton who had struck him aa contemptible temp tible la in the woods a misfit and a poor sort of man at best was waa here on his own heath he carried himself well be talked well he be bore himself with a certain distinction when couples were seeking each other to the jazzy invitation of the musicians king slipped away and went outside he stood in the shadows of the porch seeking to get a grip on himself in a moment he would go in and say good right bight to mrs gaynor hed say good night to gloria he w would go a and nd put an end to a hideous nightmare he held himself very much of a fool and he be knew that he was fanciful but he was of no mind to stay two or three couples came out hi bi he heird but vi rubly he looking sense who r her dane in doubt A whirl one of tb you handsome dollar ser heaven on him oh t they called to her demanding wiio who Is he be oh said gloria carelessly he to Is an old friend of papas and hla his name la Is king they went in two of the girls lingering a little behind the others gloria and another the other bantering and yet curious said bald georgia told me all about it a mr king up in the mountains mount alna this spring and that it looked like love at jiro first i sight eight to her tess up glory my dear king reddened and stirred unea uneasily Geor georgias glas crazy I 1 gloria said emphatically the man la Is impossible I 1 five minutes later long king went in found his hat and told mrs mra gaynor good night she was glad that he was going and he knew it she made the obvious perfunctory rein remark arlL gloria saw and came tripping across the room not going so BO soon yes he said briefly goodby good by gloria good night you yon mean do dont n t you yon 1 I mean goodby good by he said quietly gratton thrust forward king left abruptly leaving them together conscious ions of the quick look of pleasure on the face of glorias mother 0 0 0 0 always gloria to heady impulses of youth was ready for high adventure therein lay the explanation of many things which gloria did time went vent scurrying on mark kling king had bad returned to the sierra came from him and gloria told herself with sin an exaggerated air of indifference that she had just about forgotten him autumn came the city grew gayer its as the season advanced dinners dances and theater part parties leir made life ilia a gloriously joyful affair tor for gloria she bad hardly the time to ask herself just where am I 1 gol going ng it was so much easier to laugh and cry lightly tn in the phrase of the day 1 I am on my way I 1 she knew that her father was beset by some sort of anan caal troubles tor for the first time in her life he bad not come to i her birthday party and her mother had explained rather soberly that it was because of a business crisis weeks and weeks had gone and still she knew from a look which her mother could not hide that the money troubles were still stalking her father and coining so DO close that for or the first time in history they cast it a shadow from the top to of the sierra down into her mothers mother heart in san francisco now gratton became the man mail of the tha hour ne ile had bad studied gloria with infinite patience and he never displeased her ue ile understood her as she aha comfortingly issued assured herself and about the same time fate had bad it that by two entirely unassociated trends trenda of dt circumstances he be should draw to the dregs of glorias lively ind romantic interest in the first place h he began to become a prominent figure in san francisco 0 and of far greater import to gloria he became what she liked to consider a man of mystery My steryll I 1 for weeks ago gloria had bad noted that once it a week mr grat ton dropped out of sight eight to be gone tor for one or two days and though there were countless opportunities for an offhand er explanation gratton never gave it others than gloria remarked the fact a girl friend insinuatingly remarked getter better watch out for him glory dear cherches Cher chez la ia femme you know gloria never suspected any such condition of affairs she was too sure aure of grattoni attona Grat Or tons attentions but being gloria she wondered one night might she and gratton were having a late supper together at the palace gloria saw the page as aa he came to the doorway he be stood an envelope v in his hand looking up and down the room when at last him eyes rested on her and her companion the boy came to the table telegram mr oration nr 10 70 na |