The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-12-09
1.-THE WILD GEESEA
~ BY Stanley }. Meyman. =

I woe to him whose aim proved faulty o.
his hand uncertain!
But this reputation alone. seeing tina
reckless spirits were not wanting
would have awaited him little IL tn,
protection Of the McMurrough hat
moi been cast over him. Why 1t wa
cast over him men scarcely dared I,
guess. It was a dark thing into which
i We're Ill to peer too closely. But thu
fact was certain that the anxiety o
the young man that the colonel NIGH
meet with no hurt was plain and no
torious, a thing observed stealthily
and with wonder.
Did Colonel John saunter across tn,
court to look at the lake? The Nc.
Murrough was at his shoulder in &
twinkling, and thence, with a haggart
eye, searched the furzebush for tn,
CLINT OF a gun barrel and the angle o.
10 wall for a lurking foe. It was the
same II the colonel Jared as far as the
ruined tower, or stretched his legs or
n road by the shore. The McMur.
rough could not be too near him
walked with his hand on his arm, cas-,
from time to time vigilant looks &c
the rear. A score of times between
rising and sleeping Colonel John smiled
at the care that forewent his steps and
as AOtACdtp hui perhaps HaO
the contempt in which he held James
McMurrough ever reached a higher
pitch than while he thus stood from
hour to hour indebted to. that youne
man for his life.
what Uncle Ulick. If he held the
Key to the matter, thought Of 1t, did
not appear; MOI was Colonel John
oVercurious to know. But what Flavia
thought of the position was a point
which aroused his most lively curiosity.
He gave her credit for feelings so deer
and for a nature so downright. that
time serving or paltering were the last
faults he looked to find in her. He
could hardly believe that she would
consent to sit at meal with him after
what had happened; and possibly-for
men are strange and the motives of
tne best are mixed-a desire to see
how h would pear herself in the
circumstances had had something to
do with the course he was taking.
That she consented to the plan was
soon made clear. She even took part
In It,. James could not be always at
MS elbow. The young man must some
times retire. When this happened, the
girl took her brothers place, STONED
to dog the colonels footsteps, and for
a day or two cast the mantle of her
presence over the man she hated.
But stoop as she might, she never for
a moment stopped to mask her hate.
In her incomings and her o~utgoings,
In her risings-up and at table with
him, every movement OF her body,
the carriage of her head, the glance of
her eye, showed hat she despised him:
tnat she who now suffered him was
n same woman who had struck at
his life, and failing, repented only her
failure.
- " .-s
For her brothers sake she was will
ing to do this, though she abhorred It
n though every time that she broke
bread with the intruder, met his eyes
or .breathed the air that he breathed,
n told heroelf that ii was intolerable,
that 1t must end.
once or twice, feeling the humilia-
ton more than she could bear. she
declared to her brother tina the man
must go. Let him go!" she cried, in
uncomfortable excitement. Let him
go!"
But he will not be going, Flavyy."
He must go!" she replied.
And Moristown his? James would
answer. "Ye are Forgetting! over and
ABOVE that, he's not n to do my bid
ding, nor yours!"
That was true. He would not go:
he persisted In remaining and being
master. But 1t was not there the diff
Guilty lay. If he had not made a will
before he came-a will that doubtless
set the property of the family forever
beyond James reach-the thing had
been simple and Colonel Johns shrift
a been short. But now, to rid the
earth OF him was to place the power
In the hands Of a stranger, an alien,
for whom the ties of family and honor
would have been no stringency. True,
the law was weak in Kerry. A writ
was n thing and possession another.
A bold man might keep the forces of
law at bay for a time; but James Nc
Murrough, Notwithstanding the folly
which he had been led, was no
desperado. He had no desire to live
with a rope around his neck, to flee
to the bog on the least alarm, and in
issue, to give his name to an Irish
Glencoe.
A position 1t had been hard to con-
ceive more humiliating to a proud and
spirit such as Flavia's. The
McMurrough found little difficulty in
subduing his temper to his interests,
broke out. For Uncle Ulick, his habit
was to be easy and to bid others be
easy; the dawn and dark Of a day
him to most things. The
O'Beirnes, sullen and distrustful, were
still glad to escape present peril. Look
for a better time to come, they
helped to shield the common enemy,
supposed 1t policy and felt no shame.
Flavia alone, in presence Of the man.
a announced that he meant to
be master, writhed in helpless revolt,
swore that he should never be her
master, swore that, whoever bowed her
head, she would.
And Colonel Sullivan, seated appar-
emily at his ease, on the steep lap of
danger, found his thoughts dwelling on
the n untamable person, on the one
who would not stoop and whose
submission seemed invaluable. The
others took up the positions he as
to them, gave him lip service,
that they were as they had
been and as he had been. She did not;
she would not.
Presently he discovered with surprise
that her attitude rendered him unhap-
py. Secure in his n of right, certain
he was acting for the best, he
should have been Indifferent. But he
was not Indifferent.
Meantime, she believed hat there was
no length to which she would not go
against him; she fancied that there was
no weapon which she would not stoop
to pick up If II would hurt him. And
presently she was tried. A week had
passed since the great fiasco. Again 1t
was the eve of Sunday, and in the usual
course of things a priest would appear
to celebrate mass on the following day.
NIL -t-I-