The Washington herald., 1913-10-19

| the groups Of men about the cottage
who could not See what those on thi:
side could see, came the crash of an
| other yoliey. From the fence Janei
saw Curran running on, reaching out
his hand, and then stopping TO stare
through the thickening smoke about
the cottage.
I Janet knew a great silence had come
Van Harris line of men had stopped
They were staring-all the hundreds
of people we're staring. Janet knew
Lindstrom was down. riddied by the
deputies behind him. And that Au-
relic had fallen net twenty yards iron
her old home. The roses she had
clung to as she ran lay red and scat
tered about her on the frozen elods.
Curran was kneeling by her. And the
silence held as il earth and sky-the
gray lonely land with a CLINT of sun
through the clouds-had hushed to
hear, had followed to hold the agony
that broke from Curran's heart.
When Janet and Arne reached them,
Curran had turned Aurelie's face up
ward. Curran himself was bloody
fros a tassel of a wound torn across
his forehead. Men were in and about
the bulict-swept and burning house,
kicking away the barricade of boxes
from the door Under the window
they found Ladeau dead, his lips for
ever sealed, and in another room lay
Albert, the pedler, his piteous life
come to the inevitable nothingness.
The woman and children, burowed IN
IL $1,000 str1lfFfrf
But out on the frozen field a group
had formed. Curran knelt to watch his
child's face. Harlan had dismounted
and was staring. He could not speak
as Curran wiped the blood from MS
eyes and muttered:
She kept crying for you TO stop.
Couldn't you see? Couldn't you hear ?
Crying to you, Harlan, to stop. That
she loved you--with all her soul she
loved youi'
The other mans lips moved useless
h. Then he turned TO the others.
Your machine, Arnei Quickf
STOPPING, he seized the girls body.
The father clung to her ard it was
as If the two were fighting for her
possession. Then Harlan whirled back
with the blood from her lips staining
his shoulder. Keep back, Wiley. The
machine-quick Home" And as
they all ran, Curran trying to keep
her hand in his, as it hung from Har-
lan's arm, the younger man kept NUT
tcring: Il didn't know-God help me,
Wiley-I didn't knowf'
They thrust Old Michigan aside in
the car and were in. The two men
seemed again struggling to hold her,
as the machine ground off through the
field. Janet was conscious of the awcd
white faces-thousands of them, il
seemed-along the roads to town. Only
they knew that "Michigan's gifP was
being borne from her old home now
shot-riddled and burning. and that the
outlaw of the Pocket was dead. They
could not hear Mich's bewildered mum
bling in the car, or Wiley Curran, as
he shifted his child's body from the
widening pools of blood on the cush-
ions, whispering: Calling to you, boy,
just kept on going-calling that she
loved you"
The car was. in the Van Hart yard.
Harlan dragged his burden from them,
silent, fierce with possession He laid
lISI Oll DNu Ol AOhCA DN
fore his mother knew of their entrance.
In the hall Janet Vance was trying to
comfort Michigan who babbled on
about his little girl-the little girl he
had done brought up-riyer. They were
trying to take her away from him
they would not let him touch her hand.
The Yankees had killed her, somewsy
or other.
The judges wife touched Harlan S
shoulder as he knelt. Telephone for
the DOCTOR" he said-"for Brown and
Lenberg both And a nurse. Cor
He stopped the question on her lips,
a young Caesar grasping power as her
Roman matron's pride in him would
have had. She turned and went out
without word to the telephone.
When she went back the two men
were by Aureiie's side. They had
been muttering to each other. Curran
was staring at the younger.
''You knew-last night? How could
you know?'
Father told me. And Tanner?-
We choked it out of him. And no
one else knows, Wiley. Ladeau is
dead-snd Tanner dares not speak I'd
swing him to the pen-as Ill drive him
out of the countyr' Then Harlan's
new-found wonder broke again. But
your little girl. Wiley!'
"Yes-God help me. / let her grow
up any way-without care, without
love Just fighting her own way, al
waysl / never could understand what
moved me so about her-the delight
she gave me And you, boy-you
thought"-he whispered it shed
come between usf Why, e loved you
always-put il away in her mighty
pride-but loved you alwaysi Why,
with all her laughter and her playing
never dreamed of loving her as you
did. Oh, the wonder of i'll She led
me on TO he. land of ioyF
BE stillp' the younger man muttered
She's trying to say something. Home
She's home now-"Harlan's eyes went
to his mother cool, fair. listening by
the bedside; he slipped his arm down
about Aurelie's head to watch the fieck
of crimson on her lips, Home,
motherr1
The mother put her hand upon his
shoulder: the other on Aurelie's
brow. You'd better go now The
doctors are here. Shes shot low in
the side. VIII you leave her mo-
ment?g
Curran was moving to the door. But
Harlan. as he tried to rise, found Au-
relics fingers stealing through his hair /;
he was listening to-his name upon her