The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-07-20
PROLOGUE
a QUARTER OF A CENTURY BE.
FORE.
The Storm Within.

The storm was one of the worst
that had ever burst from the noun
stains and swept across the plains.
rhe wind came In wild bursts of ire
mendous speed Even in the lulls,
(which were only comparatively such,
VI blew perhaps 20 miles an hour. The
Fierce blasts were laden with fine
snow-frozen spindrift from a white
ocean Of coldl Needles of ice sharp
sr than their prototypes Of steel cut
Pie bare flesh of those whom evil fer
rune kept abroad on such q night.
bringing the blood to the freezing
Skin. The onslaught OF the screa1a-
ang tempest drove the hapless cattle
mad with pain and terror. The thick
snow compelled them TO hubble to-
gether at last, and shelterless to SUI
ser. freeze. and die in the pitiless huT-
kfcane
Just where the foothills lose them
selves In the prairie lay huddled a liz.
tie town or camp. Every door and win.
dow was shut and b~arricaded against
the searching storm.
In n OF the poorest and most mis-.
erable shanties on the outskirts OF t..
town a woman waited alone. A com
mon kerosene lamp stood on a table
before the window. set there as II in
signaL
This house. a mere shack which
shook and quivered under the tre-
mendous assaults OF the storm, and
might have been blown down II It had
not been buttressed and protected by
heaps OF snow yet threatening TO over.
fwhelm It. contained but one room. In
khe corner farthest from the door
stood a tumbled. frowzy bed. A rick
ety chest of drawers. a kitchen table, a
rusty cook stove, a few uncertain
chairs of the plainest and cheapest
quality. were all the rest Of the fur
niture. A few clothes hung from pegs
driven In the boarded wall. A saddle
IN one corner, a pickax and shovel. a
heavy Quirt, and a rife hanging from
pegs beneath q shelf sufficiently
pointed out the avocations OF the
owner.
Yet she was a woman who, what
ever her outward circumstances,
showed no poverty Of spirit. She
ragged up and down the room as a
p~risoned tiger PAGES the narrow con-
nnes OF his cage. Sometimes she
paused and stopped by the window. to
rest her head beneath her hand on
the sash and peer eagerly, passion
ately, out into the falling snow. She
couid see nothing, and after having
stared with increased disappointment
and further mutterings of angry
words, she would resume her rest
less backward and forward march.
Had there been any spectator when
nhe assumed that picturesque position
at h window, where the light, how
ever It failed to illuminate the snow,
ahrew her own face and person In high
relief, the observer would have been
surprised at the coarse and yet not
unattractive beauty OF her face and
pfgure. She was full Tipped and deep
fbosomed. tall, 1.-THE, strong. Her
cheeks were full OF color, her hair
BLACK and coarsely crisp and curly.
Aa@tA LeAaoB "hASh Al tla6DCd anu uH-
elasped n~ervously, were large and
reddened by toll, but they were shape
by nevertheless. But there was neith-
er refinement nor goodness In her
face. There were great possibilities
OF evil which experience could have
detected. Hers had been a hard life,
and II had made her a hard woman.
She was perhaps twenty-five years
old, but looked older.
For hours the woman had waited IN
that hut alone. II had been storming
BADLY when she began her vigil, and
the violence Of the tempest had In
creased until she feared that no hui
man soul could brave 1t. That she
very much wanted some one to at
Tempt 1t, that she very keenly, ardent
1y. longed for that. was quite evident
Great Is the power OF love. Even
ats counterfeit-that which passes for
1T IN the eyes Of the ignorant and in
en- to mighty deeds. This woman
waited the arrival Of one who fancied
himself a modern Perseus about to re-
lease another bound and helpless An
Aromeda from a ~devouring monster.
Whether the man who fatuously
hlled that role-or the boy, rather. for
NE had not reached mans years or
estate-would arrive before her hus-
band. was the problem that filed the
woman's mind. In view Of the bliz-
kard raging. she might have wondered
whether, In case either OF them
sought the house. they could find It or
reach It alive. II she had stopped to
consider that phase OF the possibili-
ties, she would have been profoundly
glad had both ventured and had both
wandered on In the night until beaten
down and mastered by the spirit OF
the storm, so that the searchers. after
Its violence had abated. might find
chem frozen to death as many another
poor fellow was found frozen there
after. For while the woman loathed
and hated her drunken brute of \ hus-
hand, yet she had nc affection for the
FOOLISH young t~enderfoot who had wan
norsd ont west to spend q SUMMED