The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-12
THE ADVERTISERS : DAILY SHORT STORY

| eS " V
 Winter had flung his gauntlet on Dead
 Mans Gulch. The snow lay in a thick
 hard crust on the ground, and every pine looked severely clerical in its sur
 plice of ice.
 | The primeval grandeur of the steep narrow gulch, was disfigured by only a | few scattered log cabins. and before one | which was situated more centrally and was somewhat larger than the others, a | crowd of rough miners was gathered A few women and even a struggling half dozen children, huddled close to the men, and all watched common point silently, gr1mly.
 There was something unpleasantly ami nal in their loud, quick breathing, some- thing untamed and savage in their rest less, shuffling feet something omnous. | relentless, in their hard, fixed gaze; in their set jaws; in their swelling veins. In them Nature was resolved into it's primitive elements, as it was in the rug ged gorge in which they lived. The door of distant cabin opened. and three figures stood out sharp and black against the snow. Synchronously, an involuntary movement stirred the watch CTS. Their keen eyes followed the three approaching across the barren plane of white.
 The central figure was a woman, and In her arms she held bundle-her child. As she drew near. her face showed white and haggard above the dark, tight drawn shawl that coVeIeo ner Snouiuers, but her step was doggedly nrm, her head defantly unbending.
 A man stepped forward from the crowd; the three halted, and there was a
 second of expressive silence. Then the spokesman said:
 Priscilla Ives. are you ready to look upon the face of the man whom you
 murdered. and then stand for trial be-
 fore your judges"'
 '1 am."
 Her voice was high and unfaltering.
 Turning to the two guards, he said:
 Lead the prisoner in.
 There was general movement toward
 the door, and as Priscilla and her guard entered, she met the same fixed gaze
 that had followed her across the snow
 to her place of judgment.
 her wide eyes dilated as she saw on the
 bare floor before her rough pine cof-
 fin. It was beside this that the guards
 led her and left her alone, fronting the
 semi-circle of stolid faces.
 Again the spokesman, Joshua Elm, w-boned, loose-jointed man, came for ward and addressed her. You are here to be tried for the mur- der of Matthew Field he said slowly, with hard ring in his voice: He paused, and leveled his narrow. gray eyes on her impassivs face. The stiffness was profound. Are you guilty, Priscilla 1ves?" 'I am."
 A shriek shocked the silence into re- verberatng sound There was strug- gle, a tussle, as a woman in the crowd strove to dash toward the prisoner. It
 was the murdered mans wife. Compass sion shone on the hard faces, strong arms restrained her. and looks of hatred
 were concentrated on Priscilla Ives The interruption was short, and Joshua Elm proceeded with the business in hand.
 "We, the law-abiding citizens of this guich, met here to try you for the mur- der, but your confession Is enough. All that remains for us to do Is to decide
 what punishment to inflict on your guilty You know" he said. addressing the crowd. the circumstances of the kill ing of Matthew Field. How he, our be- loved brother, was shot down by this
 woman. who lured him into her disrepu- table home. As she stands before you
 she holds in her arms a badge of her
 infamy. its father unknown-
 You iie.''
 strained close to his. and 1t was the face of mad she-wolf, not of harmless girl. The force of her personality mas tered the man and the throng before rapid. impassioned words. swayed but
 not convinced. or perhaps convinced, but
 not softened through their power. "I came here girl as innocent as was kind to me. and I was grateful to him. He told me he loved me; he asked
 me to be his wife. and through gratitude
 yielded to him-through gratitude. mark you, not love. I loved another man, but
 I was true to that one there in tho box. |. "He knew I was young and untried.
 and he ruined me, knowing I trusted him. The cunning he used, the lies he
 practiced and told. my tongue is not trained to repeat. "It all happened In spite of me. and I tell you I believed in him until my child was on its way and I begged him | to marry me and shield me. He prom ised, and the months wore on. You summed me-vou Christian men and wOmen-and you courted him. At last this little baby came. lay sick and alone in my cabin like wild beast with her young. was half
 starved. and this little creature in my | arms cried through the bitter nights for the milk my breast did not yield. He avoided us-mv child and me-and we should have starved but for a name | less friend who left some food outside the door.
 "One morning heard sleigh bells, and wonder, down the trail, saw man and a woman riding across the snow. "The man was Mathew Field, the wo' ! xr.a.,, .rtIL, CTrT p ApI E FLEA" by r