The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-11-28

is nothing to TELL" said Necia, except
a girls troubles, and 1 can't talk about
them" She smiled a painful, crooked
smile at him.
"Your old man has been rough to
your
mo, no! Nothing Of that sort"
'Then It's that soldier?" he quizzed
shrewdly. 81 knew you cared a heap
for him. Don't he love your"
Eyes. That's the trouble, and he
wants to marry me. He swears lie will
In spite of everything"
"See here. I don't quite follow. 1
thought you liked him. He's the kind
most women go ol1y over"
Like him." The girl troubled with
emotion. Like him! Why-why, 1
would do anything to make him hap
py."
II guess l must be kind of dull"
Stark said perpleXedly.
Don't you see? I've got to give him
up. I'm a squaw."
"SQuaw hi! With those shouldersi"
Stark checked himself, for he found
he was rejoicing in his enemy's defeat
and was in danger of betraying HIM
self to che girl. In every encounter the
young man had bested him, and these
petty defeats had crystallized his an
tipathy to Burrell into a hatred so
strong that he had begun to lie awake
nights planning a systematic quarrel.
He had brooded over his quarrel
with Gale and the lieutenant ever since
their first clash, for in this place they
furnished the only objects upon which
his mania could work, and it was a
mania, the arrangement of a diseased,
distorted mind.
$50 you like him too much to stand
In his way" he said meditatively.
GLOW does your father look at it?"
"He wants the lieutenant to marry
me. He says he will fix it up all
right. But he doesn't understand.
How could he?"
"You are doing just right" concur
red the man hypocritically, and you'll
live to be glad you stood OUT Now
that both his enemies desired this
thing he was set on preventing it re-
CARELESS Of the girl. "How did the
lieutenant take it when you refused
him?"
laughed and declared he would marry
me anyhow" The very thought thrill
ed her.
"Does he know you love him"
The tender, sobbing laugh she gave
was ample answer.
"Well, what's your plan?"
I'LL don't know. / am so torn
and twisted with it all that l can't
plan, but l have thought I-ought-to
go-away."
"Good!' he said quickly, but his &C.
quiescence, instead of soothing her,
had the contrary effect, and she burst
out impulsively:
"Oh-I can't can't! l can't go away
and never see him! l can't do 1t!
want to stay where he is" She had
been holding herself in stubbornly, but
at last gave way with reckless aban'
don. "Why wasn't 1 born white like
other girls? I've never felt like an In.
dian. I've always dreamed and fan
cied 1 was different, and l am In my
soul. know l am! The white is SO
strong in me that it has killed the red.
and I'm n of fathers people. I'm
not like the other two. They are brown
and silent and as cold as little toads.
But I'm white and full of life all over.
They never see the men and women
that l see in my dreams. They never
have my visions Of the beautiful snow
white mother with the tender mouth
and the sad eyes that always smile at
me-"
"You have visions of such things.
eh?"
"Yes, but l came a generation late,
that's all, and I've got that other wo-
mans soul. I'm not a half breed. I'm
not me at all. I'm Merridy-Merridy!
That's who l am"
Her face was turned away from him,
so that she did not notice the frightful
effect her words had upon Stark.
"Where did you get-that nameT'
His voice was pitched in a different
key now. Then after a moment he
added, From the story l told you at
the mine that night, l suppose"
"Oh, no." she answered. 1--WE al
ways had it, though they call me Ne
ella. Merridy was my fathers mother
I guess I'm like her in many ways, for
l often imagine she is a part of me-
that her spirit is mine. It's the only
way 1 can account for the sights ]
see."
"Your fathers motherT' he said me-
chanically. That's queer" He seem
ed to be trying to shake himself free
from something. "It's heredity, / sup
pose. You have visions of a white wo-
man, a woman named Merridy, eh?'
Suddenly his am changed, and he
spoke so roughly that she looked at
him in vague alarm.
How do you know? How do you
know she was his mother?
"He told me So"
Stark snarled. HE lied!'
II can show YOU her wedding. ring.
rye always worn It," She fumbled for
- r,.k t. nlyrI4I