Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-12-01


 q ,,lYplus it would ha rude t2=estimate Ter 4aeetiug ot -.t.A W.,s r'tl.".,. -s welcome pal td Ill Hot.i>
 ' ,r4o.l y-s5%2 . , 1T I5.rii.i pn. \
 would i-Irp s,cRte;l warning iu~''a- ,5 ,frap faEt-rg rnd the curtel and DIT faMef f3e,-s5s.- -HeiHs suspicious cr3is5t= and sine to rouse those lightly SlHm- hprfug 0dtchdoes. the feminine Wits. Fnt peter o'l'y tprar3 the 3ther cheek.
 \ tglFE7Htu reeaiadl him t3 the ranch aa,l pHeVea5al q Ga.sl leave taking Wift A3i5; eoiel -,5't. lie lnaee ais a-.fe5 i5v letter. and they were frankly rr# zyettuI Miss Cole}reale's reply n}iu- g}ed s5l13W in parting ffaA an old friend with joy in having found him Her letter. q ma~tytpi "A of phraSe spinning. presented t. Peter the one sf&.sitieant fact thEt she would not be avrr>e- to the reHe@;l If AS suit. Ill reading her letter He male= no allow ance for the fact tlat tic lady had made q fine at 9f saying things and that her joy and regret 1t their meet inc and parting might have been rem iniseent of tie printed passion that was so prominent q feature of maga- zinedom. Her ietters-the like of them he had never seen outside printed vol ulnes of letters that had achieved the distinction of classicS-culnnated in the one that Judith had given him that morning, announcing that unexpected ly she had decided to join the Wetmore girls and would be glad to see him at the ranch.
 That he had flown at her bidding Jul dith knew. What she would least have suspected was that Miss Colebrooke had received her visitor as if his break neck ride across the desert had been in the nature of an afternoon call. If Judith, knowing what she did of this l long drawn out romance, could have known likewise of her knights chagriu, would she have pitied him?
 Ignorant of the recent anticlimax and with a burden of many heavy thoughts Judith was penetrating q world of unleavened desolation. Be meath the scourge of the monday sun the desert lay stripped of every illu- sion Vegetation had almost ceased. Nothing but sun scorched, dust choked sagebrush could spring from such ste rility The fruit of desolation, it gave back to desoation quality more mel. ancholy than utter barrenness.
 The trail that she must take to Jim's camp in the mountain was known 10 but few honest men. FugitiveS from justce-tbe grave, impersonal justice of the law or the swift justice of the plains-found there an asylum. And, while they sometimes suffered ill death by thirst or hunger sentence more dreadful than the law of the land or the law of the rope would have given them, the desert, like the sea, seldom gave up her own. IL was more than probable that no woman except Aida Rodney had ever taken that trail be- fore and reasonably certain that no woman had ever taken it alone. Dolly, when sle saw the beds of alkali grow more frequent and that the trails of the range cattle turned back. shifted the lack of water in the air, slackened her pace and turned an interrogatory ear toward her mistress
 
 leted hand patted the satin neck. Were in for''-Judith flung her head up and confronted the infinite desoa. tion yawning to the sky line-"God knows what"
 Dolly broke into light canter. This evidently was not an occasion for dawdling. There was touch of busi- ness about the way the reins were held that made the mare settle down to work. But her flying hoofs made little apparent progress against the space and silence of the desert Five. ten. if teen miles and the curving shoulder of the mountain that she must cross still mocked in the distance. Only the sun moved in that vast world of seem- ingly immutable forces
 There was no stoic Sioux in Judith now. The girl that breasted the crests of the foothills shrank in terror from the loneliness and the suggestion of foes lurking in ambush. The sun 1 dropped behind the mountain, leaving blood red pool in his wake, like fugitive Cain. Already night was sweeping over the earth from noun tain shadows that flowed impercep. tibly together like blackened pools.
 "Ah. Dolly, my dear, house is the place for women folk when the night comes-a house, the fire burning clear, the kettle singing, and''- Dolly whin- nied an affirmative without waiting for the picture to be completed. The will derness was being gradually swallowed by the shadows, as deliberately as snake swallows its victim. They were nearing the mountains. The hot blasts of air from the desert blew more aud more intermittently. The breeze swept keen from the hills. towering higher and higher, and Judith breathed deep of the piny fragrance and felt the ten sion of things loosen a little
 Whitening cattle bones gleamed from the darkness, tragic reminders of hard