The Alaska citizen., 1910-11-21

Carmichaers head. and struck witt a thud in the trunk of cottonwood about a foot above his sombrero.
 Carmichael dropped on his hand: ani knees, and peered cautiously through the half-grown barley at 2 woman with a rife across the gulch
 That widow IS learning to shoot a little too well fo. the comfort ot the neighborhood" muttered Car michael to himself
 Whau-ung, Another bullet clip ped through his hat. and he dropped flat on his stomach
 Whang-n-ng!
 "I guess that last one was just for for luck" said Carmichael, as the third bullet went through the bar | ley
 But there was an answer to the third brllet. From the chaparral beyond his cabin came the stricken cry of child Carmichael saw the widow stare out across the field Suddenly she threw down her rife and her agonized scream froze the blood in his veins.
 The third bullet had found a wee runaway-her baby
 A long time before the Widow McGafferty ever heard of Calabasas, which k in the heart of the Santa Monica mountains. there was a sur veyor who was in a hurry He want ed to get home for Christmas. and his survey lines didn't fit
 A spring of water had been left in dispute between two sections of land The claim upon which the Widow McGafferty settled with her little children overlapped the next claim. She had fought three prede- cessors To Carmichael, bullet for but, let and won. The three men whom she drove off agreed that she was a demon; the, didn't know she was pitifully afraid.
 Carmichael was an ex-sergeant of the cavalry, who bought the disputed claim for a song. He found out why it was so cheap when the widow ap- peared al her kitchen door and took a pot-shot at him He did not shoot back like the others.
 
 Carmichael saw her blowing. with her little children running along in the furrows behind her. He saw her watering the stock from the wretched water-hole; she had to lift every bucketful back over her shoul- der, and was drenched to the skin
 She had been two years at this drudsery before she learned about the mistake in the survey-when they tried to take away her rights 10 the precious spring. Carmichael was sorry for her, but he didn't in tend to be chased out of Calabasas by a woman with a rifle. He didn't mind being shot at, and took a pro- fesstonal pride in the improvement of her craftsmanship.
 As her scream reached him, Car. michael leaped up out of the bar ley. Across the gully, where a rain fresLet tricliled, he SAW a child stumble and fall. He was holding the little limp, bleeding figure in his arms as the widow plunged through the water and rushed up the slope.
 Carmichael noted that she was young. and of a faded prettiness. Her work-worn hands were small.
 She snatched the child from him and crushed it in her arms. Thero was in her eyes the look of a corn cred animal-a sort of helpless. ap peaing ferocity.
 Let me take her" said Carmi. chael quietly. I'm an army man. l understand wounds
 The woman yielded the child to him, and they crouched on hands and knees above the little body as Carmichael tenderly stripped off the garments and bathed the blood away
 "Flesh-wound," said Carmichael in the even tone of authority. He was tearing his bandanna into strips for bandage as he spoke.
 The woman stared at him, dry eyed stunned.
 Carmichael remembered afterward that he did not hear the sound of her voice that day.
 The old instinct of command that had made him a crack troop-ser- geant, asserted itself
 Has that doctor gone from the stone-quarry at Chatsworth he ask ed quickly. But he remembered be- fore she could answer that the doc tor had eoEe. Then the nearest help was Los Angeles-fully forty miles away, and over dangerous mountain roads part of the way.
 Carmichael got to his feet deci- sively.
 Here" he said, handing her the child, which was moaning and only half-conscious. Wrap her up warm