The Greeley tribune., 1906-01-11

Ing Mrs. Dax split her favors ,nto t.,
intestinal fragments. for each meas.
ure OF which her long list of waltinc
eaiiants stood ready to pick q Quarrel
II need be. Her dancing, In the snIen.
Cor OF Its spontaneity, had somethin,
OF the surge Of the west wind sween'
Ing over a field Of grain. Sometime.
she waved back her partner and alone
danced figure, putting to the music
ner own nterpretation-barbari ms.
sionate, rude, but magniHcently vivid.
Ana the dancers would stop and crowd
about her. clapping hands and stamn.
ing feet to the rhyming movement Of
her body, while against the wall her
hostile sister-ln-law, Mrs. Leandar
stood and glared in fury of dlsap-
proval, Leander himself smiling broad
ly meanwhile and exercising the ut.
most restraint to keep from Joining
Mrs. Johnnie's train.
The xxx men, who had remained
aloof from the dancers and the merri.
ment, keeping faithful vigil in the
bunk room. where the hospitable bot
ties were to be found, seemed to
awaken from the spell that had bound
them all day. Henderson, the fore
man. whose face had not lost Its tai
low paleness despite the number of his
potations, put his head through the
door to have look Mt the dancing, was
caught IN the outermost eddy of the
whirling throng and was soon dancing
as madly as the others. The rest of the
xxx party still hugged the bunk
room. where the bottles cleaned hos
pttably. They were still dusty from
their long ride Of the early morning
and more than once their fear-auick-
ened imaginations had been haunted
by the specter Of the dead cottonwoods.
from which something heavy and limp
and warm had been swaying when
they left 1t. Henderson had secured
the dancing Mrs. Dax for partner
The "caller out" stationed between the
two rooms, warmed to his genial task
He improvised. he put wealth Of
imagination and personality into his
work, he showered compliments on the
nimbleness of Mrs. DaX's feet, he
jOked Henderson on his pallor he at
tempted florid venture at Kitty.
Judith stood for Il moment in the
kindly enveloping darkness, and her
heart cried out in protest at the thing
she must do. 1t was the utmost cruelty
of fate that forced her here to dance
on the evening of the day that they had
killed him. But she must do it that his
children might evade the stigma of
"cattle thief" that the shadow of the
gallowS tree might not fall across their
young lives, that the neighbors might
give credence to the tale of Jim's es-
cape from his enemies, that Aida and
she might earn the pittance that would
give the children the "clean start that
Jim had set his heart on so confident
ly. And she must dance and be the
merriest of them all that these things
might happen, but again and again she
deferred the dread moment The light
the music, the voices, the shuttle of the
feet, came to her as she stood forlorn
in the grateful darkness.
Judith drew close to the window
and the merriment struck chill at her
heart like the tolling of a knell. She
saw the pale face of Henderson gleam
yellow white among the dancers. and,
watching him. the blood lust of the In
dian woke in her heart The rest of
the room was but blur. The dancers
faded into swaying shadows. She saw
nothing but Henderson as he danced
that he might forget the gray of morn
ing, the black, dead trees and the gro
tesuue thing with head awry that
swuyed in the breeze like pendulum.
He dreaded the long, black ride that
would bring him to his camp. for he
alone of the lynchers remained. Some
thing was drawing his gaze out into