The Penn's Grove record., 1886-07-03

darkness of the west burned a low, req
light.
''There's your train. The station is
Just ahead. l shall wait here till l see
that you get away" 1t was the Arst
word that had been spoken.
She pulled her horses down to a
walk.
81 hope" forcing herself to improve
the occasion, ''that you won't do ii
again."
"Ges caught for a horse-thief?"
pleasantly. 81 certainly shall try to
avoid it."
1t did not sound penitent. Miss Alli-
son experienced a revulsion of feeling.
"You had better get down here"
she said, severely.
He alighted slowly and with diff.
Guilty. Then he turned toward her,
and she saw his face pale in the shadow
of Toms slouched hat.
"I do not want you to think that !
do not know that you are saving my
life, and that not n woman in a thou
sat d would have had the nerve to dc
what you have DONE" There was nc
question of eaTnestness in his voice
now.
hope you'll mend your ways, then.
"Will you tell mi your name?' not
needing her speech,
"Mary Allison"
s'Thank YOU" He turned and took
a few steps away. Excuse me- diff
IDENTIFY, forgetting his abandoned char.
scter. He was at her side again.
"Have you-have you"-desperately-
''any money"
livery little" quietly. "Take this,
then," dropping a purse into his hand.
"And L wish you'd tell me-" with a
sudden impulse, ''did you take. the
horSe2"
Upon my word, no."
She bent towards to him.
Goodbye" putting out a bare
white hand.
He took it with frank earnestness,
held it a brief minute, and then the
darkness swallowed him up.
A month later Tom wanted that coat
and hat, and failing to find them,
raised the usual masculine whirlwind
about their disappearance,
"Molly Allison, you're respons!blel
Ii the country produced image-yen-
ders, / should say you had been making
a tradeI"
She shook her head, but with the
color mounting in her face.
He came back from the station that
night with news.
"Visitors coming, Molly"
"Who and whenp"
"Rob Mckenzie. You don't know
Rob. He was a classmate of mine.
Res coming next week to spy out the
land. 1 haven't heard of him since |
came out here"
Rob Mckenzie alighting at the small
sunny signal station one day in the next
week, found q stylish apparition in
a white dress and pretty garden hat
waiting on the platform.
"You are MT. McKenzie2" a pleas
ant voice said. ~ am Mary Allison.
Tom spralned his ankle last night and
couldn't come.
MI. Mckenzie seemed rather a quiet
young man. Miss Allison drove her
ponies and chartered away in the unre-
strained delight of having a stranger to
talk with-or rather to-and some one
fresh from the good times that seemed
doubly good in recollection:
81 suppose everybody here shoots
more or less. Are you an expert with
firearms, Miss Allison?"
They were sitting within doors in the
slight chill of the October evening.
Tom answered for her.
"Molly says she can, but l don't be-
lieye it. An awful little coward is
Molly"
us she2" quietly. 81 shouldn't
think it,"
Somebody opened a door incautious-
ly, and in the strong draft the light
went out, 1t was Mckenzie who re-
lighted it, and in the faint glow as he
bent over the rekindled lamp his face
came out with an odd effect against the
lark background.
"Oh, myl' in a gasp from Molly's
corner,
Mckenzie turned toward her as the
lamp famed up. She was staring al
him with wide eyes full of p~erplexity'
"Are you civilized beyond lynch law
YETI" he asked, irrelevantly.
"Why? A private grudge against
any onep"
Zone likes to see all the peculiar in
situations Of the country, Do you eyel
hang horse-thieves, for instancep"
1--WE don't always catch them,'
drily.
"Dld you eve miss a coat and hat
TOMB"
MOLLY gave them away" in SLOW
wonder at his companions drift. AND
then, catching his sisters blank face
What have you been telling, Mary
Allisonp"
"Oh, Tom, II gave them to
horse thief, and / believe it was MI
Mckenzie.
Tom sat staring.
"Truth, Allison" And then came
the story. ''There were two of u
taken together. I don't know witt
they mlstook us for. l lodged tn
mob and took to the timber. l never
knew what became of the other man.
81 suspect he is the n l helped gu
of the State the night l left you alone
Molly"
Some weeks later Rob Mckenzie wa:
going through the ceremony of fitting
a diamond solitaire on Miss Allison's
left hand index finger.
"Oh, the beautyl Where did you
get it?"
81 brought it with me" coolly.
upon my word, Rob Mckenzie
And you took this for granted2"
II made up my mind, n night il
september, between here and the Mis-
sissippi River, that / would MARI,
Molly Allison il I could get her; and
did my best"
Character in Eyebrows.