Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-11-23

| thought, ana u6u Wdpcu tue uOubo careful. He couldn't do any more if he knew about the pole" &c., her con scieece satisfied, she decided to keep her own counsel. That decision cost her abundant grief and penitence in the months to come.
 While Marylyn was busy with her troublesome problem similar one was running fin Dallas brain, where 1t called for calculation. Would Mat thews threaten the shack that day? It was scarcely probable. Night offered the best hours for an attack. There fore the wagon must return before night. But could Ben and Betty make Clark's and the return trip before then? So far they had never done 1t. The previous summer the drive was begun at dawn, when dawn was at 3 o'clock. "We'll just have to hike along" she said aloud to Marylyn.
 Into the coulee slid the wagon, its long tongue in the air, the loose tugs hitting the mules in the bach When the team had scrambled up the farther side Dallas put them to trot by. a flick of the blacksnake. Then she bent forward over the dashboard, her 1 eyes fixed eagerly on that distant brown blotch at the eastern ridge top. But Marylyn as they drew away look ed respectfully backward-to where a clump of tall cottonwoods, shaking their heart shaped leaves in the wind, dappled flower studded stretch below the coulee mouth.
 Rod by rod the mules climbed the gently sloping prairie. The morning was perfect and belied in its beauty even a suggestion of lurking harm. The air, crystal clear and exhilarating, brought far things magically near to the eye. On every hand shimmered the springing grass, now a pale emerald with the wind brushing 1t, again in the still places a darker green and yet again under the ravine's fringing will lows, where the deer nibbled, cool black. Out of 1t the meadow larks showed their good luck waistcOats and rippled their tunes. Out of it countless wild roses smiled up pinkly to the sun
 But all the loveliness of the new day only mocked at the lonely girls in the wagon. To them the gray sands of their desert home, the blistering "northers," the brassy skies, were un- consciously synonymous of safety and peace. More than once as they press ed on the old, red painted section house rose before them, very haven.
 Behind, the squat shack was grad ually lessening in size. A jutting cor ner had already shut from view itf crippled sentry.
 There was little conversation. Mary lyn for a time could not dismiss the subject that had confronted her at the start. Finally, however, she put il aside impatiently and let herself drift on pleasant current. And Dallas her thoughts were also harried, for as her home dropped mile by mile in the distance and she was forced to meet the question of what she would say
 
 her feelings underwent a marvellous change. It had been easy enough in the excitement following her discovery to contemplate meeting with Louns- bury. But that excitement having dwindled not little the idea of seeing him and of talking to him mounted in proportional importance. She saw her self drawing up before his store or standing just within as she related her story. She saw his face, the blue eyes, full of fun-and she had not met him since that evening! Her heart began to thump with the picturing, its pound ings playing up to her throat and down again. Want of food was giving her a sensation of weakness and sinking. But this seemed also to be the result of mental and not physical suffering. She was torn by desire to retreat.
 Then darted through her mind the remembrance of Marylyn's midnight confidence It was a blow on a wound. She glanced at her sister entreatingly. And what she fancied she read in the others eyes instantly altered the de- sire to turn-made her send the mules forward at a better pace. Marylyn was sitting stifHy upright, bracing her self with her hands. Her head was up, her look was eager and fixed. There was a smile on her parted lips.
 She's happy about seeing him." thought Dallas and was overwhelmed by q sense of her own guilt.
 A diversion soon came in a horrid guise. The road touched the coulee again, bringing close the giant cotton woods, where the Sioux dead were dashed. and the girls. glancing toward the trees. suddenly caught a glimpse of long, wrapped bodies.
 Marylyn edged toward her sister. "Oh, I hope it'll be light when we get here coming back" she whispered, shuddering.
 "we won't be alone" answered Dal- las reassuringly.
 The coulee was deep and dark at that point and full of queer shadows. From the boughs that cradled the braves came uncanny futterings as the wind shook loosened scraps of the sleepers' covering. The dead seemed to be moving restlessly upon their bier boards and waving an imploring sum- mons to be freed of the thongs that bound them. Overhead was full cause for fear. Floating on motionless wing, with bare necks craning hungrily. cir. cled black watchers.
 "They say" whispered Marylyn, watching nsrvously behind-"they say tha Indians are scared to come near