Arizona republican., 1909-05-16

able literary material Do you know what you remind me of?"
 The Tapping hat held on by head-string, cow boy fashion. slipped to her shoulders when she shook her head.
 "No" she said
 "It is of something that you have probably never heatd of-a figure in one of the Sirius bronzes."
 What they" She asked the question art lessly with smile to match
 "A collection of Greek antiquities; the best ex- ampes of their metal work that have come down to us."
 When he had thanked her he ventured to introduce himself and was not Aattered when his name evoked flash of recognition in the gray eyes Clearly, this sweet young savage did not read the periodicals.
 Hugo vandenberg'" she echoed. That. is what Pete would call a highfalutin' name. You don't look it the least little bit"
 The open eyed lapse into personalities took him aback, but before he could reply she smiling up at him ingenuousy.
 'I guess l didn't mean just that, either" she amended, quickly. But it sounds more like a made name; like name you'd expect to find in the story know"
 He plunged deep into the smiling eyes at that, but there was no hint ot guile in them, and he took comfort in the thought that 1t was no more than random shot.
 You haven't told me your name yet" he said going from defense to attack.
 Haven't I? They call me the little un' at the ranch, but l suppose I'll have to give you my-my store name. How would Madge do?-Madge Bus hong"
 At this he was sure she was laughing at him. but as before the guileless eyes disarmed suspicion.
 T don't like it." he said, Ietaliatng for her frank ness; fit doesn't fit you l shall translate it into French and call you Marguerite. If I to the ranch will you teach how to break cayuses and to rope down and cut out'?
 Maybe. But you can't come, you see"
 Why can't IT"
 "Because'-she was poised on the foot-log, ready for flight instantaneous-"becau it's on the other side of the creek, and you can't cross alone'
 She was gone at the word, across and a-horse and away; and Vandenberg had only the memory of mocking laugh for her leave-taking
 He figured 1t all to his own satisfaction that evening sitting out the hour the porch of feetye deliberation
 As to the better acquaintance that was mere matter of detail; and he went about the prelmi- nsries the next morning, making guarded inquiries of the hotel clerk There several ranches near by. and on one of these there herder whose name would be "Pete." With Pete for starting point, Vandenberg felt his way cautiously into the particulars The ranch in question was the "X-bar- X," and its menage consisted of old E1iphalet Win ters, its owner; his wife. and small family of punchers.
 Vandenberg marvelled that there was no mention of the young woman but much too wary to be- tray the source of his own curiosity. Could the inn stables furnish forth horse gentle enough for a sick man to ride? And was the trail to the X-bar x practicable for rider with a complicated case
 With affirmative assurances on both heads Van denberg set out his voyage of discovery An hours ambng along the mountain boundary of the Park brought him to the door of the isolated ranch house; and 1t was the grizzled Eliphalet himself who bade him dismount "to his face and hands, and who fetched him the drink of water which his excuse for the call Also the young woman was there; and since she promptly took up the thread of acquaintance at its day-before dropping, his wei come was assured
 Though he taxed his ingenuity in setting traps to draw her out the young woman herself would give him no clue to her proper identity At times she was so heartily at one with her encompassments that Vandenberg could go back securely to his first mpression-the daughter of the wilderness i'm pression. But at other times she led him into the blind alley of doubt; as once, when he describ- ing his first visit to the art treasures of the Louvre she hung upon his words with lips parted and the gray eyes alight giving him such thrilling glimpse of unsuspected lntensenesses ia her that he went near to forgetting what he stalking about
 That was on one of their gallops in the Park, and before the midsummer madness had demanded to be reekoned with. For after the reckoning there were more thrills of wonderment; there was only the conviction that life without daily communion with this sweethearted girl would be scarcely worth living.
 When this day of reckoning came, vandenberg put in miserable fortnight. When a man has passed unscathed beyond his third decade he may love with all the might of maturity but he longer be the fatuous lover of the early twentes. reckless of consequences and the willing thrall of desire
 Vandenberg of inbred stock, and one of his inheritances was very just horror of mesalliances .rnismatngs of the kind that ask for miracle of blending to make sort of living compound out of two persons hopeessly dissimar in their upbringing. Try as he would, he could not help ing this wild flower of the solitudes from the tain ranch to his particular social garden in Boston. He had seen other men try it, and always with failure to mark the grave of the buried ideal In most cases the wild flower had developed into d unbeautiful hybrid, unloved of all; in a few it had dropped and withered and died
 It little curious that in all his boxing of the conventional compass he thought much of the consequences and little nothing of any uncer- tainty of winning her There IS no love besotted that of maturity and the possibility of her refus- ing him never suggested itself. But of this, as of other things, be presently to learn more.
 It was after he had given up all hope of making literary 'copy" out of her that the incident occurred upon which the story of his earlier fancy would have been wrecked beyond all salvage. The incident turned upon a curious happening in Lame-Horse Canon. As it chanced, the in the higher gulches melted late that year; and afternoon. when Vandenberg reached the ranch at the portal gorge, thc bci of the canon torrent dry as arroya.
 Madge met him at the corral bars, as had come to be her custom, and after the greetings pointed to the dry strcam-bed