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Show I The White Desert BY COURTNEY RILEY COOPER. (Copyright, 1922, Little. Brown & Co.) . (Continued Pram Om LmM issur) shr pressed her lips tight I'm not go'.ng to tell yet. You've 'I got to da something for me first. I'm jn '.rouble " she was Speaking rapidly now. the words flooding over her lips between gasps, her even set, hrr hands "He ran away and lft ne for three days. The fire went out now baby " hysterical laughter broke from her dry H Hps "My baby died, and still he UBfilt i l n't come. H " "Agnes!'' Houston grasped her I hand-;. "Try to control yourself May- i he couldn't pet back. The storm " "Yes, the storm! It's always the storm! We would have been mar-i-jod but there was the Btorm." Then shs halted, for the briefest part or B moment, to become sudden-ly sudden-ly madly cajoling, craxlly running "Listen Barry. You want to know things. I can tell them to you oh I so many of them. I'll tell them too If you'll only do this for me It's my baby mv baby. Won't ou proin- Isc for me0' Take her to a priest please. Barry and have her burled in hallowed ground. Won't you, Barry'.' I Mil you u ant mo to die too or l" v on want me to live and tell you why I did the things I did? Lo you want to know who was. back of everything .' I didn't do It for mvself. Barry- It was some one else I'll help you. Bai -iv. honestly I'll help you" I "About the murder?" Houston "V i rorwS rd 1 1 'V I . nse hop. ful I I U.,t rli .,...i.i, l- 1 1, . 1 i r li.', ,t I'Tf 'No the leuse. and the contract I'll help you about that If you'll help ine Take my baby " The man rose. "I'll promise, Agnes. If you want to help me afterward, well and good. , If not you are free to do as jou I ! please." The woman had raised eagerly Then look In a box in the top drawer. You'll find a crucifix. They they might want to put it on her." In a mass of tangled, old-fashioned jewelry, he found the crucifix. Its chain broken and tsvlstcd, and placed it In a pocket. Then he turned to the grimmer task and the ood-by. A half hour later, white-featured, his arms cupped gently about a blanket-wrupped blanket-wrupped form, ho stepped forth Into the storm, and bendlnc against the wind, turned toward the railroad In obedience to the hazy directions of the sobbing woman he had left behind. The snowfall was lighter now; ho could find his way more easily Black splotches against the snow, two figures suddenly had come out of the sweeping veil a girl and a man. Something akin to panic seized Houston. Hous-ton. The man was Ixst Wing. The girl was Medalne Roblnette. Modalne's eyes went with womanly instinct to the bundle In his arms. "A baby'" There was surprise in II, her tone Forgetting for the moment her aversion to the man himself, she came forward, touching the blankets, j then lifting one edge ever so slight l that she might peer beneath. "Whor did you find It? Who.se is If" Houston sought vainly for words And the words seemed to come unbidden unbid-den " ' Does It matter?" "Of course not." She looked at him qucerly. "I merely thought I could be of assistance." "You can. Tell me where i can find a priest the baby Is dead." "Oh " She touched the bundle evet 't, o eoftly. "I didn't know." Then i with a sudden thought; "But her mother She must need " "Only a doctor. I will try to get Ba'tlste to come out " "But couldn't I " "I'm s)rry." He felt that he was miring himself hopelessly. lie wanted to tell the truth, to ask her aid. to send her back into the woods to the I usslstanee of the stric ken woman. there. But ho could not frame the reques. lnnal. "I I .ant till you. I've given a woman my word. She wouldn't understand if vou went there with Ba'tlste, it rs different Me Is ' il" !" He ha- n right, I I" "I understand." came quietly, and in i hi. two words Houston felt thai hei opinion had been formed, that to her. he was the father; the quiet form in his arms his own child' "You ire asking something almoBt Impossible. The nearest priest Is at a settlement near Crestline." ''Crestline?" Houston Instinctively turned toward the hill, a bleak, forbidding for-bidding wall OCalhel the sky ' Will you lend me Lost Wing to run an errand" I want to gel Ba'tlste for her." "Certainly.' ' She poke to the Indian in Sioux then and drew away Houston, polnt-iriK polnt-iriK with his head. Instructed the redskin. red-skin. The Sioux started on. soon to ho enulfej in the swirling veil of tho Mtorm. Barrv turned again to the girl. "Just cne more request I can't cony the child up then this way. Will you help strap her to my back'.'" Silently she ussislcd him In tho grim task of mercy. Then: "Do you know the Pass'' He Shook his head She tapped ono glove against the other. "It is Impossible then. Vou " "I'll make ".in, i .i v 'lh ink vou for helping me." He started on. But she called him back 'It's dangerous too dangerous." and there was s note of pity in her voice. "It's bad enough on foot when there's no snow If you're not familiar with it. I " "Tell mo the way. Perhaps I could find It It's not for myself I made ft promise to the child's mother. I'm afraid she's dying." A now light came Into tho girl's eyes, a light of compassion, of utmost pity. Slowly she came toward Houston, Hous-ton, then bent to tighten the fasten ings oi nor snowsnoes. "I know th way," came quietly "1 hnve been over It In summer and winter. I will show you " "You' Medalne! I I beg pardon " The outburst had passed his lips almost al-most before he realised It Miss Hob-lnette, Hob-lnette, you don't know what you'r saying." "I know the way." sho answered, without Indicating that .she h.d heard his remonstrance. "I am glad to go for the sake of " She nodded slightly toward the tenderly wrapped bundle on the pack. "I would not feel right otherwise." CHAPTER XVIII An hour found them in the hills, plodding steadily upward. following the smoother mounds of snow which Indicated heavy, secure drifts. As they went higher, and the wind heat against them with itH hail of splintered Ice particles. Houston saw her heail gloved hands go to hc-r face in sudden pain and remain thero. The man went to bet side, and grasping her by tho shoulder, stopped her. Then. with out explana-tlon, he brought forth B heavy bandanna handkerchief and tied It about her features, as high Together they wnt 0n again, gracc- Hcnra in fro.--n clothing;, las possible without shutting off the sight. Her eyes thanked him. They went on. "A mile more." She said no more He nodded in answer and extended u hand to 'aid her over a slippery stretch of ice-iroated ice-iroated granite The snowfall ceased, to give- way to spasmodic flurries of driving white. And It was in one of jthe moments of quiet that Medalne I pointed above. V i splotche? showed on the mountain side the roofs of ms man 1 i-. '.he rest of them were burled in now. Xo smoke came from the slanting chimneys; no avenues were ted to the doorway "Gone!" Houston voiced the monosyllable. mono-syllable. I "Yes. Probably to Crestline. It's too late to turn back now. ' Bhe looked at him qucerly. then turned away. At last they reached the cabins. There was no wood; he toi th-? clapboards from a nearby cabin and the tar paper from the I wind-swept roof Five minutes later a fire was booming; a girl tlrod. bent-j bent-j shouldered, her eyes drooping from a sudden deelre for sleep, huddled nrar It. Houston walked to the pack and took food. I shall bo In the next cabin S wake." "Awake?" "Yes. I'd rather keep watch ' "But there Ls nothing " Illnes--a snoWSllde a fresh drift I WOuld feel easier In mind. Good 'night." Then with his Bnowshoes and nil pn k Of death, he went out the door, tn plunge through another drift, to ..jit,.; ma nuj iiilu a. (.aowi, ana inert i go sodden'.y about the duties of comfort. com-fort. The wlnd-SWept night became wind-iswcpt wind-iswcpt dawn, to find him still grim Ml drawn and haggard with sleep-Mess sleep-Mess ness and fatigue Th.n he roso 'at a call from without; "Are you ready?" Ho affixed the pack. Together they went on again, graceless figures In frozen clothing. ahe pointing ths way. he aiding her with his strength In the final battle toward the summit sum-mit of the range nd Crestline. Noon And ft half-cry from both of them, a burst of energy which won faded. For above was Crestline even as the little settlement had been smokeless, lifeless They had 't'"n' from here also, hurrying humane fleeing with the last snowplow befor the tempest., beings afraid to remain, once the lines of communication were broken. Roofless houses met them, stacks or crumpled snow, where the beams had cracked beneath the weight of high piled drifts; staring, glasslcss windows and rooms filled with white. Gloomily Houston survejed the deso-lats deso-lats picture, at last to turn to the girl. 1 (Continued In Our Next Is&ue,) |