Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-10-07

the man whose words gained prompt
obedience-and finally as the self
declared advocate Of peace.
He was standing. as she entered.
little back from the hearth, with the
detached air OF one who drops into the
background or comes to the fore with
equal readiness. She found that In
appearance as in voice he bore arough
sort OF impressiveness about him. In
the brighter light stood the messen-
ger, a gaunt youth, in whose wild.
sharp features lurked cunning. cruelty
and endurance. But the other man.
who stood a head taller. fell into a
pose of indolent ease which might
wake instantly into power.
1t was a face strongly and ruggedly
chiseled, but so dominated by unfal-
tering gray eyes that one was apt to
forget all else and carry away only a
memory of dark hair-and those eyes.
Then, as they sat at table and the
girl struggled with her discontinue
over each unclean detail of the food,
she raised her eyes from time to time
always to encounter upon her the
steady, appraising gaze of the dark
stranger.
When they rose from the table the
stranger drew Fletch, nov somewhat
sobered by his meal, aside, and the
al - xaoz xokirAd IN fho chairs in tina
dooryard. Then the girl from the East
slipped away and took up her solitary
place on top of the stile, where she
sat thinking.
At last she was conscious of a pres
ence besides her own, as OF someone
standing silently at her back.
Rather n%ervously she turned her
head, and there, with one foot on the
lower step of the stile, stood the
young stranger himself. Once more
their eyes met, and with a little start
she dropped her own
Il kinder hate to bother we, ma'am,"
said the even voice, "but l can't hardly
get acrost that stile whilst ye're settin'
on it."
There was no note of badinage or
levity in his tone, and his clear, drawn
features under the moonlight were en-
tirely serious.
Juanita rose. 81 beg your pardon"
she said hastily, as she went down the
stile on the far side.
That's all right, ma'am," replied
the man easily, still with a serious
dignity as he, too, crossed the road.
While he was untying the knot in
his bridle-rein the girl stood watch
ing him. In the easy Incidence of his
movements was the ripping some
thing that suggested the leopards
frictionless strength.
The very quality that gave this
young stranger his pic~turesqueness
and stamped him as vital and dynamic
in his manhood sprang from that wilt
roughness which he shared with his
eagles and Dawn shared with hel
weedlike flowers. And yet it wal
somehow as though this man, who's
voice was so calm, whose movement
!, were SO quiet, whose gaze was so I'm
4 arrogant, was crying out in a Clarion
] challenge with every breath: l an
4 a mani"
4 Suddenly she wondered if in hin
1 she might not find an ally. She fel
! very lonely. To have counsel wit
someone in these hills less stupid
phlegmatic than Good Anse Talbot
would bring comfort and reassuranc
IS to her heart. She must cope with tn
g powerful re~sourcefulness Of Bad Ans
r. Havey, he of the unframed ferocit
and implacable cruelty and shrewd II
,e telligence. If some native son coul
at share even a little of her viewpoir
she would find in him a tower
ct strength.
It, Perhaps he had yielded to the III
a spoken appeal of the deep, rangefl
eyes that were always gray, yet nev'
e, twice the same gray, and the sweet
n sensitive lips so tantalizingly CHAIR
ay ing, because they were fashioned II
ad smiles and were now dropping instea
81 reckon" he said, you find it rigI
Oh different, don't your"
ly She nodded.
yn "But it's very beautiful" she add
ed as she swept her hand about in a &c
as ture of admiration.
,er 1t was he who nodded at that, We
gravely, and almost reverently, thoui
at the next moment his laugh W
ith short and almost ironical.
as 81 reckon God never fashioned ar
no thing better-nor worse" he told h,
MT when you've breathed it an seen
yht an lived 1t, no other place is fit
ice dwell in, an yet sometimes l low tn
God didn't mean it to be the habi
.ty. ton of men an women. It's cut
,ep for eagles an hawks an wild thin
Ter. It belongs to the winds an storms
,or. bear an deer. 1t puts fire into vel
get meant for blood, an the only crop
tell raises much is hell"
lin "You-you've been out in the otl
int. world-down below?" she question
lty. Eyes; but l couldn't stay down the
lust couldn't breathe, hardly. 81
ened-an' | came back"
and She turned to him impulsively.
ght II don't know who you are"