The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-08-25
PROLOGUE
"A QUARTER OF A CENTURY BE
FORE.
The Storm within,

80
FORE.
The Storm Within.
The storm was n of the worst
(hAt had vel burst from the noun
Gains and swept across the plains.
The wind came In wild bursts OF ire
mendous speed. Even in the lulls,
which were only comparatively such,
It blew perhaps 20 miles an hour. The
1erce blasts were laden with ane
snow-frozen spindrift from a white
ocean OF cold! Needles Of Ice sharp
e han their prototypes of steel cut
The bare flesh Of those whom evil for
tune kept abroad on such a night,
bringing the blood to the freezing
sk1n. The onslaught Of the screarA
lnS tempest drove the hapless cattle
mad with pain and terror. The thick
SNOW compelled them to huddle t.
gether at last, and shelterless to SUI
Ter, freeze. and die in the pitiless hur-
sicane
Just where the foothills lose them
selves In the prairie lay huddled a lit
ID town or camp. Every door and win
4ow was shut and ~barricaded against
Tho searching storm.
In n Of the poorest and most mis-
srable shapties on the outskirts Of TIN
town . woman waited alone. A COM
mon kerosene lamp stood on a table
before the window. set there az II in
Bignnl.
ThO house. . mere shack which
shook and Quivered under the ire
mendous assaults of the storm, and
might have been blown down II 1t had
not been buttressed and protected by
heaps Of snow yet threatening to over.
whelm It. contained but one room. In
tho corner farthest from the door
stood . tumbled, frowzy bed. A rick
city chest OF drawers. q kitchen table, a
rusty cook stove, a few uncertain
chairs OF the plainest and cheapest
quality. were all the rest OF the fur
1iturc. A few clothes hung from pegs
driver In the boarded wall. A saddle
IN ore corner. q pickax and shovel, a
heavy Quirt. and q rife hanging from
DeGs beneath q shelf sufficiently
pointed out the avocations Of the
owntr.
Yet she was a woman who, what
9 her outward circumstances,
showed no poverty Of spirit. She
r1Se6 up and down the room as q
prisuned tiger PAGES the narrow con-
4nes OF his cage. Sometimes she
paused and stopped by the window, to
rest her head beneath her hand ON
thu sash and peer eagerly, passion
atsly- out into the falling snow. She
could see nothing. and after having
starsA with increased disappointment
and further ~mutterings of angry
WORDS. she would resume her rest
0css backward and forward march.
Hal there been any spectator when
she assumed that picturesque position
1t thu window. where the light how
ever 1t failed to illuminate the snow,
threw her own face and person In high
relief. the observer would have been
surprised at the coarse and yet not
figure. She was full Tipped and deep
'bosdraed, tall, 1.-the, strong. Her
cheeks were full OF color. her hair
black and coarsely crisp and curly.
1er hands, which she clasped and un-
,elasred nervously, were large and
seddaned by toll. but they were shape
n nevertheless. But there was neith-
Or refinement nor goodness in her
face. There were great possibilities
Of evil which experience could have
detected. Hers had been a hard life.
and It had made her q hard woman.
She was perhaps twenty-five years
cid, but looked older.
For hours the woman had waited In
that hut alone. It had been storming
badly when she began her vigil. and
the violence OF the tempest had in
creased until she feared that no hu-
maj soul could brave It That she
very much wanted some one to at
tempt It, that abe very keenly. ardent
u. longed for that was quite evident.
Great Ii the power Of love. Even
IT. counterfeit-that which passes for
q N the eyes of the ignorant and In
expsrienced-may stir men and wom-
IN to mighty deeds. This woman
waited the arrival Of one who fancied
Aimself . modern Perseus about to 70
lease another bound and helpless An
1romsda from : devouring monster.
Whether the man who fatuousty
Allied that role-or the boy. rather. for
Ne had not reached mans years or
ostate-would arrive before her hus-
land. was the problem that filled the
woman's mind. In view Of the blix-
naM raging. she might have wondered
whether, In - either Of them
sought the house. they could nnd Il or
reach Il alive. II she had stopped 70
eonsider that phase Of the possibili-
Niss. she would have been profoundly
glad had both ventureA ana had beth
wandered on 81 the night until beaten
down and mastered By To spirit q
he storm. - that tho ssarchsrs, after
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