The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-22
Copyright, 1908. by Benj. .. Hampton.


 - was merely poet who once declared that the
 world is wide for those who love. but not for
 those who hate, and Gene Rock, in all his hard
 - life, had read line of verse: Perhaps if he had read little poetry he would never have given up braking the Santa Fe just because Lucy Mahoney bolted with bookkeeper. Perhaps he would never bought that small ranch on the hot edge of the great alka desert and gained the well earned reputation of being quite the hardest and almost the worst man in his broad district Perhaps now, year later, he would not have been riding weariy across that terrible waste with the fear of death on every hand and the hatred of God and in his pounding heart
 It had happened suddenly all things happened to Rock, and only week before he would have had no hesitation in giving odds his ability to whip the whole Blueheld outfit single handed But when gang of horse thieves-two white men and ten half breeds-come upon your shack midnight, when they it and fire to it and drunk with the page of all the country round about, begin to pour hot lead into the flames, then the most that the bravest man may hope to do is to shoot couple and make clean getaway, lucky if he can find cow pony, burro and water cask and not altogether unfortunate, even if the pursuit lands him deep in the desert
 Rocks task then, was to the post, fearful journey away. Farther behind him at each jeg of his mustang lay the little strip of green country that the drunken desperadoes had left blackened with fire and wet with the blood of massacre. and in all his ride thus far he had dodged the accustomed trails because he knew the certainty of . tracking hatred from those whose only safety to leave victim alive. The sun poured down molten blast upon the deserts gleamng coat of mailand from sand hillock from scrub cactus and from sterile sagebrush the deserts sent back the rays of unrelenting fire until fugitive's skin baked and his tongue thick ened and his bursting eyes began to see strange visions.
 He saw so many things out of the past-so many things which he had almost managed to forget-that the logical and the unexpected changed places and the people of the lost years became more real than the facts of the great waste about him, which is why he did not feel any sensation akin to that of surprise when the wreck of Lucy Mahoney herself up from before his horses heefs and fell fantng across the pommel of his Mexican saddle.
 "Oh." said Gene. tits you. is itr'
 The mustang had come to stop, head and tail wearily a-droop. Behind him the sapient burro fol- lowed sut one ear still cooked for further orders.
 Gene passed his rough hand over the masses of the woman's blue-black hair. which. released from all restraint, swept across his saddle.
 How in thunder did you git here, anyhow?' he murmured
 That query was the herald of returning common He lifted her face, looked hard the closed lids and slowly swinging from his perch, took her gently in his arms.
 Plumb kerlapsed," he commented and laid her gently on the sand.
 Kneeling there in such fashion to shade her in some degree from the fercest of the suns rays, be opened her bleeding lips and, might father bedside of his little child. slowly poured between them few drops of water from his >canteen.
 The HfSt time she opened her eyeS-WOnderful, deep blue Irish eyes they were-it was only to close them again with tired smile of recognition and then fall calmly asleep But just as Gene was thinking that at last he might leave her and picket his horse and burro the eyes opened again. full now of re- membrance and terror "Tomw she cried. q had forgotten Tomr'
 Gene turned upon her the hard, weather beaten face with its black scowi which had done more than anything else to win him his bad name. Tom was the title of certain bookkeeper whom in spite of all efforts he likely forget
 Well" he said. what about TomT She was sitting upright now, amazement in every feature
 'Its yeuT she began. 'Is it you, Gene3 How did you come here?"
 That's the question was just going to ask you, Lucy. Pm Gene all right, an Pm here all right, but where in thunder did you come fromY
 We were at Las Vegas. Tom got job there last week We rode out-two days ago. guess it was and we uet-them. didn't know you were in this country. thought Oh my GodF' She flung her two little hands before her face. "It was you thenl You were with them! That's why they did it, Oh, my Godw
 Along the desert men learn first of all to wait. Gene with his face unaltered, folded arms across his great chest and not until the womans sobs had lessened from sheer exhaustion did he speak. "No," he said in tones that absolutely devoid of emotion. Tt wasn't me. an wasn't with lem. I reckon what refer to is the Blueaeld gang an if its any satisfaction for to know it. they cleaned me out too. That's how Pm here"
 The very stoidity of his voice compelled conviction Slowly she uncovered her face, slowly she looked him through and through and slowly at last belief and hope broke through the ranks doubt and terror, and she smiled again. "Then-then you'll save 2" she cried. '"Oh, Gene you'll us?"
 Gene considered.
 Save your" he at last repeated. "whats there to you from"
 Those men--and this desert. They robbed us of what we had, and they took our horses Tdon't know when it was-sn ngur ago yesterday. And then they shot Tom and rode away" "Oh~ said Gene-and never moved muscle She looked at him wildly.
 Don't you see what mean?" she demanded. Hes over therein the hoow."s She pointed to the near est ridge of low sand hills. T made sort of a he'd for him GaIe An AN khA water that was left