The Dickinson press., 1890-02-08

point Of the attack, but not soul had
issued from its portals; the occupants
were the men who made the assault on
Perry the night of his first visit, and
now they deemed it best to keep within.
Everything indicated that Perry had got
to the scene just in time to prevent a
bloody and desperate fracas, for the few
ranch people who appeared were still
quivering with excitement and dread.
Even was almost too much agitated to
speak:
go to Mr.. Maitland as soon as you
can, doctor; this has given him fearful
shaking up. Mrs. Cowan is having a
room made ready for Mr.. Perry. All!
here's young Cowan now. Ready? he
asked.
"All ready. Mother says carry the
gentleman right in. She wants you to
come too" he added, in lower tone, to
Sergt. Gwynne, but the latter made no
reply.
And so, borne in the arms Of several
of his men, Lieut.. Perry was carried
across the intervening space and into the
main building. When he recovered con-
seriousness, as the morning light came
through tho eastern windows, he found
himself lying in white curtained bed in
a strange room, with strange yet kind
and motherly face bending over him,
and his captain smiling down into his
wondering eyes.
"You are coming round all right, old
fellow" lie heard Stryker say. "I'll call
the doctor now; he wanted to SEQ you as
soon as you walked"
And then Quin came in and said a few
CHEEKY words, and babe him lie still and
worry about nothing. The row was over.
thanks to him, and he and poor Nolan
were the only victims; but it had been a
great shock to Mr.. Maitland and rem
dered his condition critical.
Perry listened in silence, asking no
questions. For the time being he could
think of nothing but Nolan's loss. twas
such cruel fate to be killed by those he
came to save.
All that day he lay there, doing and
thinking alternately. BE wondered at
the tenderness and devotion with which
the kind old Englishwoman nursed him
and seemed to anticipate his every want.
Quin came in towards evening and
dressed his wound, which now began to
be feverish and painful. He heard his
colonel's voice in the hallway, too, and
heard him say to the doctor that some
body at Rossiter was eager to come down
and take care of him. "Bosh!'' said the
blunt surgeon; "Pve far better nurse
hero-and reserve to fall back upon
that will be worth new life to him"
And, weak and feverish though he was,
Perry's heart thrilled within him; he
wondered if it could mean Gladys. Two
days more he lay there, the fever skill
fully controlled by the doctors ministra-
tions, and the pain Of his wound sub
dued by Mrs. Cowan's cooling bandages
and applications. But there was burn
ing fever in his heart that utterly re-
fused to go down. He strained his ears
listening for the sound of her voice or
the pit-a-pat of her foot fall in the corri-
| dor. At last he mustered courage and
asked for her, and Mrs. Cowan smiled:
"Miss Maitland has been here three
times to inquire how you were; but it
was while you were sleeping, Mr. Perry,
and she rarely leaves her fathers bed
side. Ho is very i'll, and seems to be
growing weaker every day. l don't
know what we would have done if we
had not found DIR. Quin here; he has
pulled him through two or three bad
seizures during the past year."
"Whcre had you known the doctor be-
forc?" asked Perry, with an eager light
in his eyes.
"Nowlere; but it was as though one
of his own kith and kin had suddenly
made his appearance here to welcome
Mr.. Maitland. The doctor is a first cousin
of Mrs. Maitland's; she was from Ire
land, and it was from her family that
the ranch was named. Lord Dunraven
is of the peerage of Ireland, you know y
added Mrs. Cowan, with the cheerful
confidence of the Englishwoman that
every person of any education or stand
ing must be familiar with the pages of
Debrett
GLOW should know anything about
it?' laughed Perry. He felt in merry
mood; another page in his volume of sus-
picion and dread was being torn away,
and Quin's relations with the household
wero turning out to be such as made
him an object of lively interest, not of
jealous doubt.
Then came the callers from the garri-
son. Itseenled as though all of sudden
the blockade had been raised and that ne
people were SO warmly welcomed at
Dunraven as the very ones who had been
especially prescribed. Mr.. Maitland,
weak and i'll as he was, had asked to be
allowed to see Col. Brainard on the occa-
sion of that officers second visit; Stryker,
Dana, Graham and Parke had all been
allowed to come up and see Perry few
moments, but Mrs. Cowan was vigilant
and remorseless, would allow them only
brief interview, and, with smiling de-
termination, checked her patient when
he attempted to talk. The third day of
his imprisonment DIR. Quin came scowl-
ing in along in the afternoon, manifestly
annoyed about something, and said a few
words in a low tone to Mrs. Cowan, and
that usually equable matron fluttered
away down stairs in evident excitement.
"Its Mrs. Belknap," explained the
doctor, in answer to Perry's inquiring
look. "She has ridden down here with
Dana and sent her card up to Gladys
who can't bear the sight of her; I don't
know why; intuition, suppose"
no BE CONTINUED
Quail Preserves.
The day is not far distant when quails
will be preserved in every state in the