Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-06

\ lew ranches, owned Cn1eny Dy EnSuSn
remittance men, and regarded more by their
owners as houses of refuge when the remittance
money had been burned up in the fiery furnace
of carouse at Calgary, dotted the wide expanse
of cattle country at intervals of half a days
ride This situation was also of assistance to
a man who shuddered with repugnance and
self abasement when, Bible in hand he posed
as a vicar of the God of Truth before the men
of Stand Off, who, whatever they might be in
the way OF desperate tenaclty OF purpose, were
certainly fearless and devoid of sham.
The name of their headquarters had been
brthed in that spirit of open defiance of officials
whom they looked upon as jackals serving for
pay misguided Government that wantonly
trampled on the rights of men, who as free
men should be allowed to have whisky if they
desired. At that spot on the trail the whisky
runners had put up such a bitter hight against
the police that the latter had been beaten off:
Then the whisky men named the place Stand
Off and abode there.
Individually the whisky men were akin to
Stand Off in their jocund Indifference to the
laws conventions. A reward of five hundred
dollars each was written against the names OF
Kootenay, Tough, and CayuSe IN British
Columbia, matter of some dead Indians
that had decorated the scene of fight in
Kettle Valley. 1t.was a picturesque, danger
Gus atmosphere; extremely so for spy should
he be caught
That the first and only incumbent of the
mission had been stampeded before he had
time to proselytize a single recruit, bore testi
mony to the dearth of Christian yearning
KINNAIRD'S immunity from fragrant per-
~ secution was wildly epitomized in Cayuse
Georges tribute day, when the latter had
warmed the cookies of his heart with spirit
solace at least twenty overproof.
THE felars kinder cotton to you, preacher,
he said Cause why?" With grimy thumb
he prodded the black coat on Kinnairds breast,
and added gravey, Fer in that uni
form you monkey less with religion than any
body ever see.
At Preacher Blacks first service in the little
log church he gathered in the contribution
plate fluffy pyramid of gopher tails He put
them quietly to one side without comment,
understanding the grim humor of the offering.
There was a Government bounty OF ten cents
a tail on gophers, and his collection repre-
sented four dollars and twenty cents.
Its just a saw-off, he muttered: The
plate was a bluff and these jokers called me"
Scarcely a day passed without its vivid
splash of local color reading danger or humor,
or suspicion, and at times friendly tribute of
regard for Kinnaird's quality And
he was an acceptable quantity in a secular
way. He had been medical student in his
young days, and had brought to Stand Off
store of medicine and surgical appli-
ances. This had 81 wen color to his assertion
that he had come in dual role: as medical
missionary
Mayo's nature was an extraordinary COM
bination of fanatical hatred of his enemies the
police and spirit of fair mindedness in al
most everything else. He tall, powerful,
and lean of lon stag hound. A strange
mastery over men lay hidden behind his deep
SET solemn eyes, which, when he was angered,
fared up with 1urid light ravenously fierce
as a VOLTS. He had drifted northward from
California with Chris after her mother died.
The girl had much of the fathers strong, fear
less nature, his adherence to what he consid
cred right; but something of schooling in her
younger days had softened the channels of
her thoughts.
KINNAIRD had come expecting to find
~ Chris of Stand Off, the daughter of the
whisky runner, an unlettered, perhaps
sexed woman, something akin to the
street type. He believed she had been used
as decoy, drawing the boyish constable
Somers under the influence of her young
womanhood, so that the whisky men might
through her obtain information of police
movements against them. There a half
formed plan in his mind to switch Chris's in
tent from Somers to himself How it would
work out he didn't know. Something would
happen,-the boys pride,-something would
save him. That had been at the beginning;
but the long days of many houred sunlight at
Stand Off brought their enlightenment, and a
new phase of this love trouble complicated
one
Chris just what Somers had pictured