The Washington herald., 1913-10-19
COPYRIGHT 1912 THE BoBBs-MERRILL COMPANY

tub, and denounced the conductor an
the way 10 New York when he re-
| fused. Say, II / could get over halt
| the real stories ! know about her with
the city editors, I'd be made on Broad
wayp
.Heyr retorted the haeIsman.
Used to see that kid sellin' skinned
rabbits at the grocery not so many
years ago. Young man, If you want
stories about Aurelie Lindstrom, right
here's the placeP r
keep a-goingI" yelled the publicity
man; ''if she gets out of sight most
anythings liable to .break-and I've
got to make the 3 o'clock editions
with a column on herP'
Arnes machine tore into the long.
leafess stretch of creek road where
the first Of the watchers began to APP
/ pear in the buggies and carts. Then
the people on foot, throng thicken-
ing until the road was blocked; and
.he dyspeptic farmer-student, swearing
| at them, ieaped out and kicked away
panel of the rail fence. He sent the
big car smashing through and il went
lunging over the rough and frozen
plowed land. Aurelie had sat very
still and pale, holding to Uncle Mich
| igan's hand. She seemed swiftly un-
derstanding it all, the masses Of peo-
pee, the sense of impending horror, the
acute crisis, Uncle Michigan had been
trying to tell her; Janet Vance was
endeavoring to explain; and her big
black eyes grew wider and brighter.
And suddenly from the woods ahead
there came the spatter of rife shots.
Janet put her hands to her ears.
They want you, Aureliel Maybe
you can--maybe you cani He would
not listen to Wiley, but maybe
you
She turned swiftly. "Mr. Curran,
where is he?"
Janet ceased She had almost for
gotten in the whirl of events Dumbly
She watched the girl, striving to guess
her thought. Curran, crushed with
his agony, out there making his last
staring now at the battlefield, her eyes
searching for him. She had asked for
himl And slowly an infinite pity came
Ito Janet's heart-Aurelie, what was
she thinking?
When the machine ground past .
fence corner man leaped out waving
a shotgun.
Hold oni You can't go farther!
Van Hart said no one could go
closer! They're going to, riddle that
shotP
Arne jerked his throttle wider and
dashed past. They're closing in. Oh,
Janet-they're closing inl Where's
| L.
"Harlan?" Aurelie arose, her hostile
eyes leveled at the line of deputies
climbing the fence. go on-go onP
she cried.
The guards were yelling at them
From the creek side of the held an
other shot rang out Janet, looking
that way, saw Harlan mounted. mo-
tioning to the men. Then from Lind
stromis house came the squirt of a
gun, and one of Harlan's group fell
face downward at his feet They scat
tered.
"Arne.r his sister whispered, get
word to him-to Harlan, that she's
here"
He stopped the big car with jerk.
And as he was climbing out, with the
whir OF the machine, and the warning
shouts of the deputies in their ears,
they did not notice that Aurelie had
slipped from the other side. Not un-
Ill Old Michigan raised a cry did Janet
turn to see the open door behind her.
Thirty feet away Aurelie was run
ming. She had thrown her furs from
her, scattering the roses among the
frozen clods, and was flying onward
TO her old home 400 yards across the
field. The deputies were shouting.
Arne saw her now. He turned to fol-
low. Janei sprang out, cry on her
lips. Old Michigan uprose, calling his
pleadings.
Janet stopped. There was nothing
she could do. The panorama was
spread before her Ike moving pic
ture: the bleak corn-stubbed tieid, the
gray little house detached in the win
ter sunlight, a film of smoke over its
gable; and ,on all three sides OF II a
Struggling line of men advancing, mr.
ing here and there, yelling insanely,
loading to FIRE again. The Spatter OF
shots thickened; il became a volley;
the blue smoke hid the farther fence,
the masses of people far beyond under
the leafess trees. From the gable OF
Lindstrom's house came single re-
port, sharp from its nearneSs man
of the line went down.
She saw Harlan coming with the
posse from the other side. Her broth
er was running faster, but Aureiie
was far beyond him flying on, with her
old woodland litheness. Then another
figure caught Janets eye Wiley Cur
ran had leaped the fence from among
the deputies and had outstripped them:
He was shouting; and the angle OF
his course would cut Aurelie of from
the house. Janet cried out to him.
She saw the men beyond the house,
stopping to FIRE coolly, deliberately, at
the window from which Lindstrom
was Kidding the deputies.
Then came the crash of volley
louder than all else. And she saw her
brother stop midway between her and
the veil of smoke. He was staring at
a patch of color, maroon and giisten-
ing black plumes, against the gray oil
the guns and the wintry woods.
In the moments interfnission follow
ing the volley they saw man step
from the door,-a tall grim figure,
staggering in the acrid haze OF the
powder smoke and then coming on
alone, upright, majestic.
Aurelie was fying to him. The out.
law did not stop-she flung herself
against him, clasping him, looking up
and John merely put his stub OF an
arm about the girl, holding her close