The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-08

~ 1aesN 80 y &A0A a
with q pazzled look, twisting and UNI
twisting the ends of a soiled r~ose-colored
| shawl that hung ABOUT hoT shoulders.
At length she staggered heavily up to
she bar.
"Gimme some waterr0
The crowd of men laughed and ieered.
The barkeeper seemed spelt-Dound.
Course you! Quityerf oolin,' Gimme
a drink off water, | tell YOU"
The bar. keeper took q glass from a
shelf back of his counter, and went
slowly to large a ola, into which he
dipped it. He ventured only one re.
mark in a tone of mingled inquiry and
timId expostulation:
"Will you take it straight, Moll?"
The woman did not deign to reply,
but deliberately drained the glass 10 the
last drop. The cold, pure draught
seemed to clear the mists away from her
brain. She fingered the tattered shawl
with intelligent recollection. Standing
in the entrance to her tent that after
noon, and looking, with bleared eyes and
b%efo2ged brain, off in the direction Of
the Floridas, she had seen something of
tk1t came color moving through the
mequisite. To her drunken fancy it had
first seemed a bird of brilliant plumage,
then a warm.tinted tropical flower,
blown about by the wind. A slow intel
hgence seemed TO dawn upon her.
How was the kid dressed"
The men looked at her in dub amaze
ment. One of them ~vouchsafed al an
swer:
''Some kind of a pink frock, all rufles
/ seen her playin' round the car this
mornin'," he added. half apologeticc'iy,
as if to extenuate his poetic smile.
'"Twere a three-year old girl"
His closing Information was addressed
TO the crowd. The woman was forgot
ten and turned to the door with q sud-
den determination. The d IN reeollec-
ton bad taken shape md form at last.
The men sprangto their horses and set
out to scour the country In various direc-
tons.
Over tie trackless plain, with IFS
clumps of mesquite and greAsewood, a
woman went swiftly along. Stumbling
over the rough ground, her feet pierced
the minnie needles Oi cactus or stabbed
with the hafsber j. thrusts of
Spanish bayonet. she nSiiar
once faitered. The cool rbat
winds PLAYED about her bare headptIId
refreshed and restored her heatedbrain.
Her step grew firm and steady, and, ere
long, she left far behind her the circuit
within which a hundred men were beat
ing every foot Of ground.
She had progressed several miles up
on her rough pilgrimage, when her pace
slackened and she commenced to wan
der to and fro, her head bent in anxious
scrltiny, c-llipg out at times III a soft,
low voice, which her rough companions
would never nave recognized. But she
ever moved on in the direction OF the
Big Floridas.
she was taking a line as straight as a
bee,n she said to herself. II see it all
she was running away 10 the mountains.
Don't know? must have been just
about her when | set out for Mount
Katahdn. / had gone down to Aunt
Jones's on a visit with mother"
Something choked her with that word.
forbidden herself even in thought for go
many years. Yet she pronounced it
oyer and over again, moaning ell the
time. Out upon the desolate plains, far
from any hum n habitation, with only
the mountains, the sky and stars In
sight, she was nearer the old life than
she had been for years.
A sharp cry in the distance, multiplied
until it became a discordant chorus, ar
rested ner attention.
"The cGwardly coyotcs!' she muttered.
They'd never harm the child, but
they q brighten the little thing to death,
out here alone"
"a sudden recollection made her shud-
der. Ike Floridas out there were said
to have lately harbored another foe,
cowardly and ~trcacherous as the wolves
of the plain, but sparlng neither babe
nor woman. Al band of marauding
Apaches had been lurng in the neigh
borhood. What III, ttracted by the
bright raiment Of the child; they had
swooped down upon her2 The frail
mother, helplcssly wrlDging her hands
as she wandered up ahd down the car,
or sobbing as she placed TO her lips come
battered toy or little garment belong
ing to the lost child, hardly felt a deep
or anguish ia her heart than swayed the
abansoneti woman at the terrible vision
she had conjured.
Suddenly she stopped short. What
was that faint wall that echoed in the
distance? The moon had risen and
stood high above Cooks Peak, a silver
globe in the sky, lighting up every clump
add bush. hardening q moment, she
then went swiftly toward a small object
she deserted afar off, and came at last TO
where a little child sat, frightened and
exhausted, beside a bunch ofsage-brush,
and lifted her tiny arms appeallngly.
mammal me want mammal
Eyes. darling, 4 will take you straight
To herr
The wonan's voice was fine and. low,
with a strange, afiectionate thrill.
She took from her shoulders the tat
tered shawl and wrapped IL around the
little one; then lifted her in
her arms, and, with soothing
words and tender reinsurance,
turned back toward the town. In the
bright moonlight her path was plain as
day, and she picked her way carefully