The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-03-13

| lGIGu TIE Iuut CdUlu. lie sun S T0u
rim slipped below the horizon. Soon
light shone in the cabin. The man
on the bluff lay watching it till far
into the night. But his head was
sunk on his arms and his gun was
unheeded at his side. When a black
figure for an instant darkened the
doorway his heart leapes up. Then
the old CLEAN of hate sprang anew
in his eyes. 1t was the half-breed.
The man in the chaparral softly
raised himself. 'I'll settle you yet"
he exulted. And in the dark he
shook his clenched fist at the cattle
thief. Then he stealthily withdrew.
A month had passed and again it
was the dark of the moon.
The time had dragged heavily for
old Escolante, for with the accursed
gringos so closely watching, even a
practiced hand must move warily,
and 1t was hard to go empty with fat
cattle feeding at ones very door.
To Dick Matson time had flown
on golden wings. Love and hate wax
well together in strong mans heart;
and the red lips of Dolores were
sweet.
To the girl the month had passed
as day 1t Is good to live when the
blood Is warm; and young love is
daring and does not wait for the dark
of the moon.
On this night Escolante ate his last
meal of frijoles and tortillas without
the customary sullen scorn. He even
ventured a few coarse jests with Do
lores, who was dear to him as the
apple of his eye. A man may we'll
jest whose knife is whetted for the
killing, and who knows that on the
morrow he will feed fat, voiding his
hate and filling his stomach at one
and the same time. Dolores met his
badinage with easy response and we'll
simulated affection. 1t is easy to
scatter careless affection from the
lips when the heart is trimming over
with love.
| Without, men gathered quietly in
certain lonely glade The night
! was heavy about them. In the ST.
lence each man could hear his own
heartbeat and his straining breath.
The little voices of the night shrilled
loudly, and the sound of the cattle
cropping the rich grass was like a
thousand crunching engines in their
ears.
The waiting had heightened to
hours before fat steer coughed and
fell under the knife. Then some
thing whirred in the gloom; and then
lantern flared out. Escolante was
caught red-handed. His ludicrous
dismay when the deft-fung RATA
frightened round him drew burst
of rough mirth from the sheriff as
| he slipped on the half-breed's wrists
the symbol of the law and its bond
| age. But when Dick Matson stepped
from the darkness and reclaimed his
RATA the cattle-thief broke into fierce
vituperations, for this was the most
hated, and therefore the most preyed-
upon of all the gringos.
Save your wind, old man."
laughed Dick Matson. you'll need
1t for the blessing, for tomorrow I
marry your daughter"
Escolante grew livid and his jaw
dropped. Then he opened a fresh
volley of imprecations, hurting the
lie in the gringo's teeth.
Dick laughed careless laugh.
Come here, Dolores" he said.
Like shadow the girl slipped out
of the blackness and stood beside
him. Dick slid an arm about her
and bending kissed her full on the
mouth.
Then the half-breed went mad with
rage. and spat and screamed out
curses on the pair until it was horrid
to hear him. The sheriff and his men
had trouble to hold him.
Dolores trembled and shrank
against her lover. But Dick Mat
son only laughed his easy laugh and
frightened his arm around her. Then
he turned and drew her with him
into the forest.
No more cattle are stolen or killed
within the range of the Cross Bar Y.
| The cattlemen sleep well of nights
and Dick Matson grows rich off his
profits. Several plump brown chill
dren play about his door; and of
those he is inordinately fond, as is
also Dolores, who sees in them ador-
able replicas of the man she wor-
ships. The two are very Happy, for
Dolores is still slim and beautiful;
and Matson wants no better life
than that of the range and his own
fireside. There are moments, how
ever, when the hair stiffens on the
back of his neck, and chill runs
along his spine.
These are the moments when he
reflects on the fact that the utmost
that the courts could award to ESQ.,
lante was life sentence; and that
there is always the chance that a
prisoner may escape, or that too
lenient governor may exercise the
right of pardon.-San Francisco