The Topeka state journal., 1908-08-04
THE EVENING STORY
Olives Outlaw.
(By Taylor Whitley


Spouting Springs hotel ever since the
spring season had got fully under way.
AS a business getter the outlaw was
q huge success. No shore resort with
such popularity, and the stages that
met the trains from the east numbered
back over the twenty-mile trail loaded
to capacity with women who openly
avowed their timidity and men who
tried more or less successfully to con-
ceal theirs.
Almost every afternoon the porch
was crowded to witness the departure
of the sheriff and his posse. and almost
as regularly some of the guests came
hurrying back to the hotel to tell how
they had been held up and stripped
of their valuables with an expedition
that excelled the speed of the man
back Of the marble counter in the ro-
tunda. The latter kept the books, and
each day set down opposite each ac-
count sum that would have obtained
board and lodgings for week at
hotel not cursedIor blessed-by a
bandit.
Approaching the fact that much of
his booty was keepsakes and heir
looms. the bandit was always ready to
trade back his plunder for the more
convenient specie, and as the landlord
insisted upon making good all losses
there were no complaints; indeed the
guests rather enjoyed being held up
1t gave them something to talk about
when their visit was over. Many of
the visitors, by oft repeated telling, so
embroidered the accounts of their in
dividual holdups that the tales would
have offered good material for maga-
zines. But 1t was not until olive
Marchand came that the real sensa-
ton was sprung.
Until then the outlaws taciturnity
had been his most pronounced charac-
teristic, but when the slip or girl
came rushing down the path from the
springs to tell how Black Pete had not
only held her up, but had detained her
in conversation for more than an
hour, every woman in the hotel turned
envious. The following afternoon the
banks of the stream fed by the springs
were dotted with women waiting to be
captured and talked to, that they
might share Miss Marchand's prestige.
Possibly it was for this reason that
Miss Marchand, walking down the
valley instead of toward the springs,
was confronted by 1.-THE figure above
whose sQuare-cut chin appeared a
mask of black velvet that lent deep
er brillance to a glittering gray eye.
I'm glad to see you this afternoon"
was the greeting. Il rather thought L
should find you here. The woods are
too crowded above and SO I came
down this way. l trust that you suf-
fered no Ill effects from the shock of
our meeting yesterday"
ct rather enjoyed it," admitted
Olive frankly. 'I really think that the
other women are envious''
Pete smiled at recollection of the
goodly company he had passed on his
way down the trail There was no
question about it. He motioned her to
a seat on the fallen trunk of a tree and
sat down beside her.
The girl was an eager questioner
and presently he was reeling off
stories of adventure with a dash that
brought the glow of excitement to
Miss Marchand's eyes. To make 1t
still more thrilling there was a crash
ing sound among the trees, and with
out a word the outlaw swung himself
up into a tall pine just as the sheriff
and his posse came tearing alons.
They paused long enough to warn
the girl that Black Pete was supposed
to be somewhere in her vicinity, and
that 1t would be we'll for her to return
to the hotel by the trail instead of
through the woods, then they hurried
on and Pete swung himself down from
his perch.
This is the easiest experience
ever had he declared laughingly.
''The sheriff trusts to numbers and
hard riding, with the result that 1
have plenty of time to disappear when
I hear him coming
''It must be terrible to feel that you
are hunted thing" unused Olive with
little shudder.
That's the joyous part" declared
the outlaw. 'I am not hunted when
the pursuit is in the hands of the
sheriff. But let's forget the sheriff
he added. 1--WE told you all about
myself. Now turn about is fair play"
1T would all seem SO tame after
what you have told me-" she demur-
red, but she was soon deep in her sub
ject, and 1t was not until the after
noon shadows heightened that at last
- ;.I
the trail toward the hotel, where half
a hundred disappointed women were
already gathered upon the porch.
There was not exactly an arrange
ment to meet the following afternoon.
but Black Pete had said that he would
be over on 1.-The Branch" and she
found him there in the late afternoon.
This time he had removed his mask,
disclosing a face in which there was
no hint of the depravity with which
he was credited. 1t was an honest.
manly face. with frank. gray eyes and
a tangle of crisp yellow curls above
smooth white brow. With the mask
off, only two Ass swung on his hips
suggested the bad man, and while
they talked Olive forgot that she was
in company of a man who was out
lawed by society and upon whose
head there was an increasingly heavy
price dead or alive as the bills of
reward read.
Pete escorted her nearly to the ho-
tel by a short cut, and not until she
came upon the hotel piazza and heard
them discussing the hold-up of that
morning did she realize again that
this was the man with whom she had
been spending the afternoon.
Then followed weeks of indecision.
Sometimes Olive would declare to her
self that she would never see Black
Pete again. At such times she hated
herself for having given her love to
breaker of the law, but love had been
given, and love is powerful above the
law Her periods of revulsion were
sure to be followed by penitential
moods when she was glad to pass
through the leafy aisles of the forest
to their tryst
The guests of the hotel profited by
tho absorDtiOD of the bandit for days