The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-05-28

OAu. nIcnlBdu TalHeO a cry ulu Janet
turn to see the open door behind hen
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 200 yards across the field.
The deputies were shouting. Arne saw
her now. He turned to follow. Janet
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 like a moving picture: the
bleak corn-stubbled field. the gray little
house detached In the winter sunlight,
q hlrn OF smoke over its gable; and on
all three sides Of IL a struggling line OF
men advancing. firing here and there,
Yelling insanely loading to fire again.
The spatter OF shots thickened; II be-
came a volley; the blue smoke hid the
farther fence. the masses Of people far
beyond under the leafless trees. From
the gable OF Lindstron's house came q
single report, sharp "a em Its nearness.
A man or the line went down.
she saw Harlan coming with the
posse from the other side Her broth
er was running faster. but Aurelie was
Tar beyond him flying on with her old
woodland litheness. Then another fig-
e1re caught Janets eye. Wiley Curran
had leaped the fence from among the
deputies and had outstripped them. He
was shouting; and the angle Of his
course would cut Aurehe of from the
house. Janet cried out to him. She
saw the men beyond the house. un-
der Harlan's orders. stopping to fire
cody. deliberately. at the window from
which hndstrom was Kidding the dep
uties. " ~ -
Then came the crash of volIey loud
er than all else. And she saw her broth
er stop short midway between her and
the veil OF smoke. He was staring at
q patch OF color, maroon and Elistening
Mack plumes. against the gray Of the
guns and the wintry woods.
In the moments intefmission fol-
lowing the volley they saw man step
from the door--a tall, grim gure, stag
gening In the acrid haze of the powder
smoke and then coming on alone, up
right. majestic. >#s, A. ~.
Aurelie was flying to him. The OUT
law did not stopshe flung herself
agains thin, clasping him, looking up;
and John merely put his stub OF an
arm about the girl. holding her close,
as II TO shelter her. and came on, his
Winchester swinging up to his other
SHOULDER as he strode.
4 He fired sQuarely into the line Of his
advancing enemies. A man dropped; he
nred again. again. again. cool, sure.
ASANAATS0f AAtW AAAAtuCI Va ~ PTdyGE UPON
his lips, the pleadines OF the girl with
IN his ears. But he would not stop.
The God who ruled above mans petty
justice was with him; he had come
forth to save his wife and children from
the hurricane OF bullets slivering hts
home, but he yielded nothing.
The girl, clinging to him. was trying
to reach his neck. seeking to draw him
down. to kiss his gaunt lined cheek, II
seemed. And he did stop. They saw
his left arm swing the rifle down until
he was clasping Aurelie, listening to
her. moved by her. Then from the
groups OF men about the cottage, who
could not see what those on this side
could. came the crash OF another
yolley. From the fence Janet saw Cur
ran running on, reaching out his hand,
and then stopping to stare through the
thIckening smoke about the cottage.
Janet knew great silence had come.
Van, Harts line Of men had stopped.
They were staring--all the hundreds
OF people were staring. Janet knew
Lindstrom was down, riddled by the
deputies behind him. And that Aurelie
had fallen not 20 yards from her old
home. The roses she had clung to as
she ran lay red and scattered about her
on the frozen clods. Curran was kneel-
Ing 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 Cur
rams heart. .a -
When Janet and Arne reached them.
Curran had turned Aureiie's face up
ward. Curran himself was bloody from
q taSsel or wound torn across his
forehead. Men were in and about
the bullet-swept and burning house,
kicking away the barricade Of boxes
from the door. Under the window they
found LAdeau dead, his lips forever
sealed, and In another room lay Albert
the peddier, his piteous life come 10
the inevitable nothingness. The wom-
an children, burrowed in the cellar,
cold, starved, were unhurt. S
But on the frozen field q group had
formed. Curran knelt to watch his
child's face. Harlan had dismounted
and was staring. He could not speak
eyes and muttered: i
"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 you'll"
The other mans lips moved uselessly.
Then he turned TO the others your
Arne! QuIck!"
STOPPING, he seized the girls body.
The father clung to her and II was as
II the two were fighting for her pos
session. Then Harlan whirled back,
with the blood from her lips staining
his shoulder. Keep back, Wiley. The
Home" And
as they all ran. Curran trying to keep
her hand In his. az II hung from Har-
lan's arm, the younger man kept mutt
terinR: II didn't know--God help me,
Wiley-I didn't knowi" |.1..t 3"
They thrust Old Michigan aside In
the car and were in. The two men
seemed against struggling to hold her,
az the machine ground OF through the
field. Janet was conscious Of the
awed white faces-thousands of them.
It seemed-1Rlong the roads to town.
Only they Knew that ''Michigan's girl
was being borne from her old home now.
shot-riddled and burping, and that the
outlaw Of the Pocket was dead. They
could not hear MIch's bewildered
In the car, or Wiley Cur
ran, as she shifted his child's body
from the widening pools OF blood on
the cushions. whispering: Calling to
You, boy, just kept on going-calling
that she loved you'll" E
The car was In the Van Hart yard.
Harlan dragged his burden from them,
silent fierce with possession. He laid
her on a bed on the lower floor before
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 uD-riYer They were