The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-11-06

and half shaking him, half drawing
him nearer her bright face. Tell me
Isn't it true?"
81 was thinking of you just now when
fell asleep, Susy," he said. He did
not know why he said it; he had not
intended to tell her-he had only meant
to avoid a direct answer to her ques-
ton, yet even now he went on. And
/ thought of you when was out there
In the rose garden waiting to come in
here"
You did?" she said, drawing in her
breath. A wave of delicate pink color
came up to her very eyes-it seemed
to him as quickly and as innocently as
when she was a girl. "And what did
you think, Klarus''-she half whis-
pered-"tell mel"
He did not speak, but answered her
blue eyes, and then her lips, as her arms
slipped quite naturally around his neck.
The dawn was breaking as Clarence
and Jim Hooker emerged together from
the gate of the casa. Mr.. Hooker looked
sleepy. He had found, after his return
from Fair Plains, that his host had an
early engagement in Santa Inez, and he
had insisted upon rising to see him on.
It was with difficulty, indeed, that Clar-
ence could prevent his accompanying
him. Clarence had not revealed to Susy
the night before the real object of his
journey, nor did Hooker evidently sus-
pect it, yet when he had mounted his
horse, he hesitated for an instant-but
without extending his hand.
eff l should happen to be detained"
he began with half smile.
But Jim was struggling with a yawn.
''Tha's all righ'-don't mind u.s." he
said, stretching his arms. Clarence's
hesitating hand dropped to his side,
and with light, reckless laugh and
half sense of providential relief, he gal
loped away.
What happened Immediately there
after, during his solitary ride to Santa
Inez, looking back upon it in after
years, seemed but a confused recollec-
ton, more like dream. The long
stretches of vague distance gradually
opening clearer with the rising sun
in an unclouded sky, the meeting with
a few early or belated travellers and
his unconscious avoidance of them, as
if they might know of his object, the
black shadows of foreshortened cattle
rising before him on the plain and
arousing the same uneasy sensation of
their being waylaying men; the won
dering recognition of houses and land
marks he had long been familiar with,
| his purposeless attempts to recall the
| circumstances in which he had known
them-all these were like dream. So,
too, were the recollections of the
night before, the episode with Susy,
already mingled and blended with the
memory of their previous past, his fu-
tile attempts to look forward to the
future, always, however, abandoned
with relief at the thought that the
next few hours might make them I'M
necessary. So, also, was the sudden
realization that Santa Inez was before
him, when he had thought he was not
yet half way there, and as he dismount-
eL before the courthouse his singular
feelipg-followed, however, by no fear
of distress-that he had come so early
to the rendezvous that he was not yet
quite prepared for it.
This same sense Of unreality per-
vaded his meeting with the deputy
sheriff; the news that the federal judge
had, as was expected, dismissed the
prisoners on their own recognizance,
and that Capt. Pinckney was at the
hotel at breakfast. In the like alb
stract manner he replied to the one or
two questions of the deputy, exhibited
the pistols he had brought with him
and finally accompanied him to little
meadow hidden by trees below the hotel,
where the other principal and his sec
onds were awaiting them. And here
lie e!-clear-eyed, keen, forceful
and intense!
So stimulated were his faculties that
his sense of hearing in its acuteness
took in every word of the conversation
between the seconds, a few PAGES dis
tant. He heard his adversary's second
say carelessly to the deputy sheriff: "t
presume this is case where there will
be no apology or mediation" and the
deputy's reply; II reckon my man
means business, but he seems little
queer He heard the other second
laugh and say lightly: They're apt to
be so when it's their first time out"
followed by the more anxious aside of
the other second as the deputy turned
away: Eyes. but by Cd don't like
his looks!" His sense of sight was also
so acute that having lost the choice of
position, when the coin was tossed and
being turned with his face to the sun,
even through its glare he saw with un-
erring distinctness of outline the black
coated figure Of his opponent moved
into range, saw the perfect outline of
his features, and how the easy, super
cilious smile as he threw away his
cigar appeared to drop out of his face
with kind of vacant awe as he faced
HIM. He felt his nerves become as
steel as the countering began, and at
the word three" knew he had fired by
the recoil of the pistol in his leveIed
hand simultaneously with its utter
ance. And at the same moment, still
standing like rock, he saw his adj
versary miserably collapse, his legs
grotesquely curving inward under him,
without even the dignity of death in his
fall, and SO sink helplessly like felled
bull to the ground. Still erect, and
lowering only the muzzle of his pistol,
as . thin feather of smoke curled up
its shining side, he saw the doctor and