The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-15

little graveyard where the girls forefathers
for generations back had been buried.
Through it all the girl did not break down
az most women would. People said she
was cold, though at evening she would come
with her beads and pray by the new made
grave until darkness came.
One day she WAS missing; no one knew
whittier she had gone. Soon, though,
rumors returned that she was in the differ
emit frontier towns among the Americans as
one of the public dancing girls. She was
beautiful and had no lack OF lovers.
Her beauty was so great that many men
oven among she Americans-otfersd to
make her a wife. But she only smiled and
refused all with . Qentleness that made
them wonder that one in her position could
display it. When she was at the height of
her popularity she disappeared. No one
knew whittier, although some said she had
left to JOIN a band of desperadoes near the
Arizona line.
Wherever it was, nothing was seen OF her
for months, and then one day She returned
home. but only a shadow of her former self.
Where she had spent tho months of her
absence she never told. 10 all questions
she gave In evasivs nswer Several times
she had received messages, but from whom
no one knew. Even to her mothor, who alone
spoke to her. she declined to tell. One day
she received one OF these messages. and
that night, after she had gone to her lovers
grave she went to the house of the sheriff,
who was the only officer that had dared to
follow .Clancy's murderer. When she re-
turned he was with her, and passing through
the dimly lighted patio she led him to her
room and placed him where he could not be
seen in the darkness, and then she laid
down in her bed and waited in the darkness
as the hours passed, until there WAS a tap
at the window. The house was so quiet
that it seemed to echo like a pistol shot,
Iv,h aho AHcco md unin0 IN tho yvirHNuy
opened it and let q man enter. who threw
his arms about her and kissed her passion
ately and spoke respectfully of the time they
had been separated.
The room was very dark, and aa she led
him from the window toward the bed where
the other man crouohed hid she could al
most feel her heart beat. The man whose
arm was around her waist noticed her trem-
BILE. and drew her moro closely to him.
When they reached the bed she drew her
self gently from his arm and luy down.
Then she turned and spoke to the man who
had entered, telling him to light II match.
90 that he would not make any noise by
INJURED that it might not be safe. she an
swered him that. as the village was asleep,
no one could see him.. For q moment he
hesitated and then he struck n match and
the tiny spark grew into a blaze, showing
the room plain and distinct. Only
Tor an instant, tuOuRn, ZOE tuen
there leaped out across the bed on
which the girl lny a jet of fire and the man
who held the match fell to the ground with
out a groan. The air of the room grew
thick with tho smell Of powder, and through
the house could be heard voices calling in
alright, but in the room no one stirred o,
uttered a word. Tho girl was wondering il
tho man who had fallen was dead or only
wounded. and the man who had shot him
remained quiet. fearing that after all hi
shot might have failed him. II WAS onl,
when tho door of the room was opened
from without and the light showed a deaG
out. stretched figure on the ground that he
came forth, and then the girl rose from the
bed and Qazed coolly down on the body o.
the man who had murdered her lover.