The Mena weekly star., 1911-08-03

'"sJ "s'o rigntin9 TOT Life Silently,
 Desperately.
 Please do not call me thatl"
 But you said 1t didn't make any difference what I called you"
 T though it didn't then. but 1t does now"
 "oh. see; we are already on a new footing. Yet I must call you some thing"
 She hesitated just long enough for him to notice it. Either she had no substitute ready at hand, or else doubt. ed the advisability of contiding hef real name under present circumstances to one so nearly stranger.
 You may call me Hope"
 "A name certainly of good omen.~ he returned. From this moment I shall forget Christie Maclaire, and re- member only Miss Hope. All right, Neb, now turn over . chair, and sit your man up against It He will rest all the easier in that position until his gang arrives"
 
 peering cautiously forth into the night and listening. A single horse. prob ably the one Hawley had been riding. was tied to dwarfed cottonwood near the corner of the cabin. Nothing else living was visible.
 T am going to round up our horses. and learn the condition of Hawley's outfit" he announced in a low voice. may be gone for fifteen or twenty minutes, and, meanwhile, Miss Hope. get ready for long ride. Neb, stand here close beside the door, and If any one tries to come In brain him with your gun-stock. I'll rap three times when return"
 He slipped out into the silent night. and crept cautiously around the end of the dark cabin. The distinct change in the girls attitude of friendship tor ward him. her every evident desire that he should think well of her. ts. gether with the proyidential epportu. nity for escape, had left him full ol confidence. The gambler had played blindly into their hands. and Keith was quick enough to accept the ad- vantage. It was a risk to himself, to be sure, thus turning again to the northward, yet the clear duty he owed the girl left such a choice almost i'm perative. He certainly could not drag her along with him on his flight into the wild Comanche country extend ing beyond the Canadian. She must. at the very least, be first returned to the protection of the standardization along the Arkansas. After that had been accomplished. he would consider his own safety. He wondered If Hope really was her name, and whether 1t was the family cognomen, or her given name. That she was Christie Maclaire he had no question. yet that ariistrc establishment was probably merely assumed for the work of the concert hall. Both he and Hawley could scarcely be mistaken as to her identt- ty in this respect, and. indeed. she had never openly denied the fact. Yet she did not at all seem to be that kind and Keith mentally contrasted her with numerous others whom he had somewhat intimately known along the border ctscuit. It was difficult to as E sociate her with that class; she musl have como originally from some excel lent family East. and been driven to the life by necessity; she was more tc be pitied than blamed. Keith held nc puritanical views of life-his own ex periences had been too rough and democratic for that-yet he clung te naciously to an ideal of womanhood which could not be lowered. However interested he might otherwise feel no Christie Maclaire could ever find entrance into the deeps of his heart where dwelt alone the memory of hii mother.
 He found the other horses turned into tho corral, and was able. ron their restless movements. to decide ;;. sh==eA eisht 4 fra. nearl1 extsnguished, glowed duly at thu farther corner of the enclosure, ant he crawled close enough to distinguish tue TGCunUout 1Vkhur VI st-o1 ot~~F---e about it on the ground. Apparentil no guard had been set the fellows be ing worn out from their long ride, an' confident of safetly in this isolated spot. Besides. Hawley had probaDl' assumed that duty. and told them t get whatever sleep they could. How ever, the gate of the corral opened be side their fire. and Keith dare no venture upon roping any of tnei ponies. or leading them out pas where they slept There misn be clippers in the cabin with which n could cut the wires. yet If one of tn gang awoks, and discovered the her absent, it would result in an alarm and lead to early pursuit It was ra safer to use their own ponies II would lead Hawley's horse quietl' through the water. and they coui mount on the other shore This plal 1 settled, he went at 1t swiftly, ridin the captured animal while roundin 1 up sias others. and fastsnins ths tnrs