Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-03-19

that crawling, creeping, twisting
worming, insinuating-nearer and
nearer, so near now that it beat upon
her--unseen presence. She pressed
her finger TO the trigger to shoot at
the tangible shadows and dispel that
enyeloping, choking, blanket horror,
when God knows what stayed the
action Of her fingers Call it instinct,
what you will, her hand was stayed
even before her physical eye was
caught and held by blot darker still
than the night. over to her right farth.
est from the spring. 1t lay perfectly
still 1t came to her, the willy plan,
with startling clearness. The blot
was waiting for her to fire futilely at
grinning shadows among the trees
and, under cover of her engrossed at
tention insnuate its treacherous body
the farther forward. Then the play
would go merrily on till--the end. She
turned the barrel OF her rifle slowly
and deliberately away from the NOV
ing shapes among the cottonwood
clump, sighted truly the motionloss
blur to her right and fired, once. twice,
three times.
The completeness Of the surprise
seemed to inspire the attackers with
a hellish fury. They returned the fire
rapidly and at will remaining under
cover the while Shrinking low at
her window, her eyes glued on the still
black mass ont yonder Mary wonder
ed if it were dead She prayed pas
sionateiy that it might be, and yet
it is dreadful thing to kill. Once
more the wud firing ceased. Mary re-
sponded once or twice just to keep the
deadly chill from returning-if that
We're possible.
Under cover Of the desperadoes'
fire, at obtuse angles with the first
attempt. a second blot BEGAN its tor
tuous twisting. It accomplished
space, stopped; pulled itself its length,
stopped, waited. watChful eyes on the
window whence came Mary's scatter
ed firing still into the clunp OF trees
They had drawn her close regard at
last Would it hold out? Forward
again, crawling fat on the ground.
ever advancing, slowly, very slowly,
but also very surely, creeping, creep
ing, creeping, now stopping, now
creeping, stopping creeping.
All at once the gun play began
again. sharp, quick, from the spring,
from the sheds. The blot lay perfect
~ still for a moment-waiting. watch
ing. The plucky little rifle was silent
But so it had been before. Quarter
length. half, whole length, cautiously
with frequent stops, eyes so steely, so
intent-could it be possible that this
gun was really silenced-out Of the
race 1t would not do to trust too
much. The blot waited, scarcely
breathed, crept forward again
A sudden bright light flashed up
through the darkness under the unpro-
tected wall 70 Marys left. Almost
simultaneously kindred light sprang
| into being from the region Of the cat
tle-sheds. The men down there had
been waiting for this signal 1t
meant that for some reason the second
| effort to creep up unobserved to fire
the house had been successful. The
fare grew and spread, 1t became
| glare.
When the whole cabin seemed 10 be
/ in flames save the door-the dry, rude
| boarding had caught and burned like
papcr-when the heat had become I'M
bearable. Williston held out his hand
to his daughter. silently. AS silently
she put her hand, her left hand, in
his; nor did Williston notice that it
was her left. nor how Imply her right
arm hung to her side. In the glare,
her face shone colorless, but her dark
eyes were stars, Her head was held
high With firm step, Williston ad-
vanced to the door Deliberately he
unbarred it, as deliberately threw it
open and stepped over the threshold.
They were covered on the instant by
four rifles.
CTo BE CONTINUED
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