The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-12-12
CHAPTER 1.

mountain clarity the sun seemed hest
Eating before it's descent to the hor1-
zon. The sugar-1oaf cone that tow
cred above a creek called Misery was
pointed and edged with emerald trac-
cry where the Hottest timber thrust
up its crest plumes into the sun. On
the hillsides it would be light for
more than an hour yet, but below,
where the waters tossed themselves
along IN a chorus of tiny cascades, the
light was already thickening into a
cathedral gloom. Down there the fur
riner" would have seen only the rough
course of the creek between moss
velveted and shaded powders of
titanic proportions. The native would
have recognized the country road in
these tortuous twistings. A great block
of sandstone, to whose summit man
standing in his saddle could scarcely
reach his fingertips, lowered above
the stream, with a gnarled scrub oak
clinging tenaciously to its apex. Loft
lily on both sides climbed the noun
tains cloaked in laurel and timber.
Suddenly the LEAKAGE was thrust
aside from above by a cautious hand,
and a shy, half-wild girl appeared in
the opening. For an instant she halt
ed, with her brown fingers holding
back the brushWood, and raised her
face as though listening. AS she
stood with the toes of one bare foot
twisting in the gratefully cool moss
she laughed with the sheer exhilara-
ton of life and youth. and started out
on the table top of the huge rock.
P11f h. w
startled exclamation and drew instinc
lively back. What she saw might well
have astonished her, for it was a thing
she had never seen before and of
which she had never heard. Finally,
treasured by the silence, she slipped
across the broad face of the fat rock
for a distance of twenty-five feet and
paused again to listen.
At the far edge lay a pair of saddle
bags. such as form the only practical
equipment for mountain travellers.
Near them lay a tin box, Uttered with
small and misunderstanding tubes of
soft metal. all grOtesquely twisted and
stained, and beside the box was a
strangely shaped plaque of wood
smeared with a dozen hues That this
plaque was a painters sketching pal
cite was a thing which she could not
know, since the ways of artists had
to do with world as remote from
her own as the life of the moon or
stars. 1t was one of those vague mys-
teries that made up the wonderful life
of down below" Why had these
things been left here In such confu-
sion? If there was man about who
nwnoH fh0U1 h0
to claim them. She crept over, eyes
and ears alert, and slipped around to
the front of the queer tripod, with all
her muscles poised in readiness for
fight.
half-rapturous and utterly aston
ished cry broke from her lips. She
stared moment, then dropped to the
moss-covered rock, leaning back on
her brown hands and gazing intentIy.
Hits purify" she approved, in a
low, musical murmur. Hits plumb.
dead beautiful"
OF course it was not a finished pic
ture-mereiy a study of what lay be-
fore her-but the hand that had
placed these brush strokes on the
academy board was the sure, deft
hand of a master Of landscape, who
had caught the splendid spirit of the
thing and fixed it immutably in true
and glowing appreciation. Who he
was; where he had gone; why his
work stood there unfinished and aban-
doned, were details which for the mo-
ment this half-savage child-woman for
got to question. She was conscious
only of a sense of revelation and awe
Then she saw other boards, like the
one upon the easel, piled near the
paint box. These were dry, and rep
resented the work of other days; but
they wers, all pictures of her OWL
mountains, and in each of them, as
in this one. was something that made
her heart leap.
To her own people these steep hill
sides and "coves" and valleys were e
matter of course. In their stony sol
they labored by day, and in their shad
ows slept when work was done. Yet
someone had discovered that they held
a picturesque and rugged beauty; tina
they were not merely steep field:
where the pillow was useless and the
hoe must be used. She must tell Sam
son-Samson, whom she held in al
artless exaltation Of hero worship
samson, VINO was SO smart CnaI IL
thought about things beyond her IN
Outstanding; Samson, who could no
only read and write, but speculate OF
probiematical matters.
Suddenly she came to her feet will
a swift-darting impulse of alarm. He
ear had caught a sound. She cas-
searching glances about her, but TIT
tangle was empty of humanity. Tn
water still murmured over the rock
undisturbed. There was no sign o
human presence, other than herself
that her eyes could discover-and ye
to her ears came the sound again, ant
this time more distinctly. It was tn
sound of a mans voice, and it wa!
moaning as if in pain. She rose ant
searched vainly through the bushes o
the hillside where the rock ran on
from the woods. She lifted her skirt
and splashed her feet in the shallow
creek water. wading persistently VI
and down. Her shyness was forgotten
The groan was a groan of a human
creature in distress, and she must flnt
and succor the person from whom
came.