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Show WICTORUSSEAI .' 'Illustrations ly RJUgstogH "I LOVE YOU I" BYNOI'SIS.-I-ooldnu over Big MuhKuk, a noemlmJly impassible awamp In the i.aUi of U'e tihi rullruiid; Joe Jcalock, builder of the line, and Wilton Currutlicrs. chief of engineer, "re considering the dilllLUltlc-8. A rllle shot Instantly Instant-ly kills lloatock and breaks tar-i tar-i utiles' ai m. Carruthera tries to carry the body to a post of the lludHon'a Hay company, where McDonald Mc-Donald Is the factor. MelJonald s .laughter, Molly, sues Carruthera .urugitlliiK In the muskeg and drags 1 him from the swamp, with his bur- . .. ..1.1.. V...F- f'ttUff d'-n. unaccouniaoiy, objects to her saving Carruthers. Weakened by his wound and exertions. exer-tions. Carruthera la disturbed by the appearance of Tom Bowyer. linstock's business rival and personal per-sonal enemy. llowyer Insults Molly, Mol-ly, and Carruthers strikes him. Carruthera declares his love for Molly. She promises to be his wife. Carruthera has to reach the town of Clayton to attend a meeting at which Bostock's enemies plan to wrest control of the Mlssatlbl from him. Molly goes wllh him. They are delayed by a storm. Attacked by his dogs, Carruthers' life Is saved by Molly, who Is forced to kill the animals. "The snow, the snow!" They set out on foot for Clayton, reaching It with Carruthers Car-ruthers In an almost dying condition, condi-tion, lie la in lme to foil Bostock's enemies and keep control of the line for Mrs. Bostock. He finds enemies at prk at Big Muskeg, llowyer persettites Molly with attentions. at-tentions. Lee Chambers asks Carruthers Car-ruthers for work, saying he has broken with Bowyer. Carruthers takes him on. Kitty Bostock, deeply deep-ly In love with Carruthers, comes I to live at the Big Muskeg. j? 1 CHAPTER VII Continued. ' 9 I But slie went on without heeding liiin, until she stood almost at the end of the Blinking structure. It was a dangerous place. The wind blew wrongly, sending her skirts flying ubout her, and tumbling her lmir upon her shoulders. 'Come back, Kitty!" called Wilton, making his way across the planks until un-til he reached her side. He put out his hand to steady her. Then he saw that the tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Why, Kitty, what Is it?" he begged. "I didn't hurt you?" She shook bis hand from her arm with a violent gesture, leaning back ; and suddenly she lost her stance and toppled from the edge of the trestle into the river below. A plunge Into that viscous water was more dangerous than a tall. Wilton realized it instinctively. He leaped feet first nnd found himself struggling In the gluey swamp, half mud, half water. wa-ter. Kitty, who had fallen into the center of the stream, appeared half a dozen feet away, her white face upturned, up-turned, her hands catching for support as the shallow current carried her toward to-ward the lake. Fighting madly, Wilton detached his limbs from the sucking mud and managed man-aged to grasp her skirt as she drifted past him. With a desperate effort he drew her to him and struggled through the yielding muskeg until he as aide to catch an upright of the cstle-worU. lie glanced at Kitty as lie halted to itch his breath. She lay passive in .s anus, her eyes closed; she seemed ,,i have fainted, but she breathed easily, eas-ily, though quickly. Her dripping clothes clung to her tightly, and her fair hair streamed over his arms. Then, plodding through the yielding swamp, he struggled on until he reached the shore. Kitty opened her eyes and lixed them upon nis. "Thank God, we're all right now!" said Wilton. "It was a near thing In that muskeg. You lie quiet and rest a lit tie, and then we'll hurry back, and you must change your things quickly." There was a quick catch of Kitty's breath. "Oh, Will, vou are so blind !" she whispered. "Couldn't you see? Are You going to make me tell you, Will? Are you going to make tne tell you that 1 love you?" She put her arms about his neck, and her face on his shoulder. Wilton, dum-iiuih1ih1. dum-iiuih1ih1. hardlv stirred: he did not know what to do. "i'll tell you because I see I must," she whispered. "I've always loved you, Will. And I never cared for Joe." Kitty !" The cry that broke from his lips held all the anguish of his disillusionment. disillusion-ment. His face grew scarlet. He tried to free himself, but she clung tightly to him. "You've made me tell you, Will, and u must bear me now," she said. "I ver cared for Joe not in that way. (e wanted me. and I thought I could t-aih to love him. I was happy with iim, but what coma he expect? He would have been old enough to have been my fatoer. What right had he to marry me, Ignorant as I was of love and of the world? was happy with tint till I met you. "I always loved you. Will, and it was my right to lrrve you. It was you built up In your mind nil that about my loyalty to Joe. I cared for Joe in a way, but that was all. If you imagined all that you did, was I to blame for it? Sometimes you nearly drove me crazy with your talk about Joe, about bis work, about my loyalty to him, when I was hungry for your love. "I'm ashamed (J ml knows how I'm ashamed to tell you this. You made me. Will. While Joe lived I was true to him. I'm free, and you are free, and love cannot be bound. And I don't care a snap of my lingers for the Mls satlbl. I care for you. I'm shameless now, when I say this, but you should have seen you should have known. What right had you to drone out your refrain of Joe, Joe, all the day to me, when my heart was crying out for you, and you would not hear it? I want your love, Willi I want you to love me, and to take me away from Manitoba, Mani-toba, where I'll never hear of the Mis-satlbi Mis-satlbi again or Joe!" Afterward it seemed to Wilton like a dreadful dream. Gently he put her arms from his neck, and rose to his feet. And, because the nature of the man was of that simplicity that Instinctively In-stinctively understands, it was not anger, an-ger, but a deep pity that filled his heart. "I'm sorry, Kitty," he said. "What you have told me makes an end of much that I have planned and dreamed of. It takes the zest out of things. It was my fault. Let us go back." She looked at him with white face, set lips and blazing eyes. She rose without a word, declining his hand, and without a word they went back along the cleared road in the, twilight. Ua lpft hAr at hpr door. He went to his shack and sat at his desk for a whole hour, his head resting rest-ing heavily in his hands. All that he had given his life to seemed broken, his ideals outraged ; his love for Molly was the lodestone of his life, but even love is not all a man has to live for. After a long time he was aware of a low tapping at his door. He rose and opened It. Kitty stood there in the gathering darkness. She came a few steps into the office, and stopped. "Will," she said in a low voice, "I want to ask you to forget. It was true what I told you partly true. But I was overwrought and weak." The "heavy cloud that hung about him partly lifted. Wilton grasped at the hope she gave him as a man, con- nfYoinc- hla lvlll tnrna ncrnln to his accustomed habits of thought, and will not see. "Kitty," he said, "I should have known. I was blind. I looked for perfection. per-fection. I was to blame. Let us forget for-get it all." She answered in tbe same strained, monotonous voice. "I did love Joe," she said. "In a way, I did. As much as women mostly love their husbands. I Vl (I Gently He Puc . ,er Arms From His Neck. I gave him all the love that was his right. And I do care for the line. 1 want you to wipe all memory of this afternoon out of your mind. Try to think of me as you used to." He took her hands in his. "It's all forgotten. Kitty," he said. "We won't think of it again." I'.ut all that night his thoughts revolved re-volved about that dark spot in his mind, which be had barred off, as if it had been a prison. CHAPTER VIII Treachery. When Kitty left the shack she went slowly toward her house. At the door she hesitated and then, as if with a sudden resolution, she made her way quickly lu the tiireetian of tile port-ago. port-ago. There was a rig with two horses before be-fore the factor's door. Inside the door Tom Howyer was standing, and Molly faced him, white to the Hps, and rigid. "I've given yu your answer many times," said Molly. Bowyer smiled. "No decision that was ever made can't be changed," he retorted. "Is it a crime to love you to want to make you my wife?" "No: but It Is a crime to persecute me when you know you have no right to ask me at all." Tom llowyer, who had cultivated bis rages until they had mastered him, could never refrain from fulling into the bully's pose, when lie met opposition, opposi-tion, lie slammed his fist down fiercely fierce-ly on the counter. "I'll change your answer, Molly!" he cried. "Before I leave this store tonight. to-night. I'll have you at my feet, for all your pride. D n it. it's your pride I want as much as vou. I want to humble hum-ble you, because there's never been man or woman I couldn't tame sooner or later. I'm making you an honorable proposal. Your father's a dying man. Anyone can see that. I want you, and I want to take care of him for your sake, the rest of his days. I ask you to be my wife, to come to Cold Junction Junc-tion with me and marry me. LVyou suppose sup-pose he could hold his job here another an-other day if the company knew he's paralyzed? I'll drive him from the portage unless you marry me and let Mm take his nension aud live with us." "I tell you 'no' again !" cried -Molly. "How many times ara I to answer you? Will you go now?" He caught her by the wrists, thrusting thrust-ing his face forward into hers. She screamed in fear, and they heard the dragging footsteps of Cie factor in his room above. The old man felt his way slowly down the stairs and edged along the counter. There was fear in his sunken eyes; but it was anger made him tremble. "Ye go too far, Mr. Bowyer!" he quavered. "Ye canna insult my girl in my own house !" "Get back to bed, you old fool!" sneered Bowyer. "Didn't you do your own love-making?" "If she winna have ye I winna sell her ! Leave the house and do your worst !" . "If I do," answered Bowyer, "I'll do It. D'you mean that? Answer me, McDonald !" The factor sank back against the counter and glared at him with haggard hag-gard eyes, his gray beard brushing his breast. Bowyer smiled triumphantly. t'Onoot- fnr nip. McDonald." he jeered. "Tell her why she'd better change her mind." The factor raised his head. "Molly, lass," he whimpered, "it's a grand opportunity op-portunity he's offering ye. Have ye no thocht of that? It'll be a hame for ye in my old age, when I canna care for ye." Molly fixed her eyes In horror upon McDonald. But Bowyer strode between them. "You're a fine love-maker I" he sneered. "Get out of the way !" And, Inflamed almost to madness, he seized Molly in his arms etnd pressed his lips to her cheek and throat again and again. "1 guess you're not so coy as you pretend, pre-tend, Molly," he cried. "You women are all alike, after all. I never knew one yet that wasn't in a hurry to get hitched up, however much she pretended pretend-ed to dislike it." The opening of the door behind him made him start. Kitty stood there, and it was quite clear that she had been a spectator of the scene. With a strangled stran-gled cry Molly broke from Bowyer's grasp and ran into her room. She dragged her bed against the door and stood behind it, sobbing with terror and anger. The factor leaned against the counter, a look of dull apathy on his face. Bowyer turned sheepishly to Kitty. "Well, I guess you caught me this time, Mrs. Bostock," he said. "But, being be-ing a woman, you'll understand." Kitty's disgust for Sowyer held her silent. She made the slightest gesture of her head to him and went out of the store. Bowyer followed her. "What docs it mean?" asked Kitty. "It means that I want Molly McDonald, McDon-ald, and I've never wanted any man or woman yet that I didn't get," said Bowyer. "Make the most of it," lie blustered. "I've as much right as Carruthers, Car-ruthers, haven't 1?" "No," said Kitty. "Whv haven't I?" "Mr.'carruthers was first. They are engaged." "What's to stop her breaking it?" As his agitation subsided, Bowyer, a keen judge, noticed that Kitty's poise was unnatural ; she seemed laboring under some suppressed emotion. He .looked quickly into her eyes and saw that she had been crying. And then he knew. A slow smile spread over his face. Kilty Bostock had not made Big Muskeg Mus-keg her home so long out of devotion to the memory of Joe. With a deliberated impulse Bowyer put out his hand and took hers. "I want two things, Mrs. Bostock." he said. "Molly M' Donald, and the Missatibi. How many do you want?" He looked at her still more keenly. "One?" Kitty said nothing, but there was the slightest nod of her head in answer. "It's a shame, Mrs. Bostock, that yon should have to lose all Joe's money In that ten-cent line," said Bowyer. He was quite at his ease now, feeling himself him-self in his accustomed element of intrigue. in-trigue. "Even if it could be built, it wouldn't pay. And if it did pay I'd take it myself. I want it, anyway. Not that I'd hurt you, if I could help it. Mrs. Bostock; but I've got my luterests to look out for." 7 -Weirr asked Kitty, breathing qulcklv. "Bv the end of the year your shares wfT. W; worth nothing. You'll be ruined. It will be Impossible to raise the capital capi-tal to keep the line, either. It's a shame that Carruthers should waste Ills time and strength trying to carry out an Impossible dream. If you could sell your shares at par when the note falls' due, you could pull out, and you and lie could make a sensible investment. invest-ment. He'd soon get over the disappointment. disap-pointment. Yon could see to that." He could not hide the flicker of a smiie. Kitty saw it, and loathed Bowyer Bow-yer the more. She knww he was playing play-ing on her hopes, and yet the sudden vision made her heart beat furiously. "I'm going to marry Molly," he continued. con-tinued. "I swear that I possess the power to make her my wife. But 1 want the line in return. I want to see some of Joe's papers. They're yours, and you can let me see them without doing wrong, and you'll be helping Carruthers Car-ruthers Indirectly. They're iu his safe. You know the combination. "I'll marry her this fall. You can trust me, Sirs. Bostock, because you oversaw just how I feel about her." Kitty tapped softly at the door of Molly's room. "He's gone, dear," she whispered. "Let me come in to you." The bedstead was dragged back. Molly stood before her, white-faced 1 (ill ' Kitty Drew Her Down Beside Her, and tense. Kitty put her arm round her and sat down on the bed beside her. "Tom Bowyer's a beast, Molly," she said. "But most men are. If you give them the least bit of encouragement" "I never encouraged him !" cried Molly, sobbing violently. "I've always hated the sight of him. He has some power over father." "He seems very fond of you," suggested sug-gested Kitty. "Do you call that fondness? I hate him. I hate the sight of him." Kitty stroked her cheek softly. "You haven't met very many men, dear. Love doesn't amount to very much. And it doesn't last very long. I was quite hinn. -with Toe. nfter the first month ""fw ...... , or two." Molly looked at her in wonder. "Why, I thought you and Joe loved each other!" she exclaimed. "I admired Joe and respected him. 'And then, there was not the dreadful specter of poverty with him. Joe was a man like Will Carruthers, he'd keep his word, no matter at what cost." Molly sprang to her feet. "What are you hinting at?" she cried hysterically. "What word is Will keeping? Do you mean his promise to me?" Kitty drew her clown beside her. "Can't you see, Molly, dear Heaven knows how I hate hurting you, but I'm thinking of your happiness as well as Will's can't you see that it was only a passing episode to him, this engagement?" engage-ment?" Molly sat perfectly silent, fixing her eyes on Kitty's face. "If he had meant It, wouldn't he have written oftener from Clayton?" "How long was he ill, then?" cried Molly. "He was in bed a few days after you left. Of course, he couldn't resume his work till his arm had healed, but he wasn't what you could call ill. At least, he went to the directors' office every day to work on the plans." Her blue eyes, tranquil as a child's, looked into Molly's gray ones. Presently Pres-ently Molly laughed. "To think I didu't know!" she said. "I have been blind, haven't I? And I thought that it was you who had ceased to love me." "I, Molly, dear? Well It was pretty hard, coining here with Will Carruthers and feeling you ought to know, and not daring to speak. But please don't take my word about the man you're engaged en-gaged to. I feel like a mischief-maker. But I love you. dear, and 1 like Will, and 1 do feel he isn't to blame. That's why I came to you. And I've no doubt he's honorable enough to say nothing at all, if you want to " "Kitty!" Molly sprang to her feet, quivering with indignation. "Two-thirds of the trcRt.!ewo had disappeared, including great stretch of the foundation." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |