The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-24

loneliness swept over him, and he
stretched out his big hand aud laid il
ON the boy S wrist.
~ yc got 10 take vou home. sonny,
haven t I?' he said, unsteadily, in the
faint hope that the boy might contra
dict him. The child. pausing with his
spoon half way 10 his mouth, regarded
Hugh critically.
- hope yoq aren't going to cry,
ssan Ss Sa" you nnW and BRING Sog mG mHT nSTE
ver,' he added. by way of happy en-
couragement.
With a murmur of impstience Hugh
rose. and then laughed at his own fool
ishness. He really believed he was be
coming Jealous Of this woman.
pushed the bowl far from him,
stretched himself lazily and yawned,
II I'M awful sleepy Then, without
further ado. he walked 10 the hearth
and curled himself up contentedly upon
the bearskin before the fire.
Hugh, towering above HIM, watched
the long lashes droop, raise themselves
heavily, hutter languidly and finally
fall to rest like silken fringe upon the
rounded cheek.
a vague longing tugged at the man s
heart. All that he might keep him.
Now was his chance, he argued 1t
would be cruel TO disturb him. Yes.
Walking to the rude couch that
served him for bed, he stripped il
Of its gay coored Indian blanket. and.
returning with ii to the hearth, was
about Ia lay ii over the sleep@lg child,
when the thought of the anxious
mother at this moment half crazed,
maybe, with fear, staring wild-eyed
into the night and calling djstractedlv
for her lost child, made him pause and
start guiltily.
For one moment ne stood motionless,
battling with a host of conflicting emo
tions, irresolute, but stern. Then turn
ing abruptly TO corner where a lantern
hung spluttering drowsily in its socket,
he took it down, turned it up full and,
gathering again the blanket from the
bed where he had thrown it with i'm
patience, recrossed TO where the child
Law sleeping. Softly he stopped and
folded the boy gently in mis- arms The
child stirred uneasilv and awoke. muir,
INJURED. nestled closer and closed his
eyes conteutedly. Hugh felt the hot
blood mount to his temples and his
pulses beat wildly as. with heaving
chest, he stepped ont into the night
a wave Of pine-laden air rushed to his
uostrils. He drank il in hungrily. Its
cool, pungent flavor fortified him and
he squared his shoulders and threw back
his head
Outside the cabin he turned sharply
TO the left, keeping along the clearing
until, with every step the path growing
narrower, he plunged finally like diver
into the underbrush. The branches
snapped and sprang together behind
him, obliterating completely the trail
by which he had descended. Hugh won
dered how it had been possible for tine
tiny creature nesting against his
shoulder to have forced his way through
that sea of tangled wood.
He recollected now with impatience
that he had not asked the boy now he
had come to be lost; indeed. he had not
questioned him at all, and did not know
where to take him. So completely had
he been engrossed in his own selfish
emotions that he had learned practically
nothing of his companion, other than
that he had mother somewhere among
that frivolous tangle Of berufIled femi-
ninity he had seen fitting about the
hotel piazza.
In half an hour he had reached the
clearing, coming thus abruptly upon the
long white road that led to the village of
keane. The moon was now completely
hidden behind bank of Ieaden clouds.
The angry growl of distant thunder
warned Hugh of an approaching storm
and he quickened his pace
On his left stood deserted farm.
house, partially ruined and wholly
dilapidated A short distance below.
and approached from the house by a
weed-choked path, lay some broken