Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-11-26

charge OF him.
All her life had this woman taken
chances, sharp chances, fraught with
swift danger and trying to nerve and
skill, but never had she done a harder
thing than to face this little group of
Westerners whose instinct matched
her art.
They turned upon her In thunder.
stricken silence-the doctor with a
clean amaze, the Indians In stoical
quiet, Ma Daily with an establishment
that was only the forerunner of antag'
onistic reaction. But of them all 1t
was the face of Siletz, fallen upon her
knees beside the cot, that shook the
heart in her, chilled her bold spirit.
It lifted itself, painting, white and
awful, its lips where the broken Sign
stood plainly out, fallen apart and col
orless. The dark eyes stared upon her
with an uncomprehending horror that
irritated her.
81 know something Of nursing and
well do out best"
But here Silet2 sprang up to her
slim height and her voice smote the
hushed room like the swapping Of a
taut wire.
mol" she cried in anguished pro
test. mo! He kissed me and / am
his womani"
They faced each other across the
unconscious form of the man, these
two women from the ends of the earth,
and war raised its banner between
them. Unnoticed, the four Indians
shifted gently until they stood, a back
ground for the pallid girl in the rough
western garb. Miss Ordway smiled,
though a hard brilliance came into her
face.
Perhaps" she said. "He has kissed
many. 1t is the way of the outside
world"
She turned to the physician.
When do you think he will recover
consciousness?
Her cool voice terminated the scene.
She was mistress of the hour.
With both hands extended before
her Siletz went blindly out into the
sunlight. She stood a moment, her
breath coming and going in great
gasps, like that of a doe mortally
wounded. and In her eyes was no light.
Like the wounded doe. she fed to
the hills for sapctuary-Goosna
swung into his pace behind her; and
presently, after an hours climb, they
reached the great fir stump on the
crest of the ridge. Here the girl flung
herself OF her knees, gripping her
braids in savage fingers, and for a wild
space something within her that she
had never known in all her life arose
and shook her. She had gone back a
thousand years. Blind rage was upon
her-she wanted to fight as the pre-
historic female fought for her mate.
So she knelt and rocked in the lust
of fury while the little clouds sailed
in an azure sky and the hill streams
trickled to the valleys, and suddenly
a bird in a high pine top dropped a
string of notes. clear, silvery, spar
king, for all the world like the dia-
mond notes of a flute and instantly she
covered under them, covering her eyes
in instructive guilt.
The Preacheri" she gasped aloud
''oh, father! What have | done! I
have shut my ears to the winds of
God!"
When, an hour later, she came up
on the cook-shack porch and stood
leaning in the doorway, spent with
her wild passion, Ma Daily grimly fed
the fire in the range, setting about
the supper for the men left at camp.
Mother" said Siletz duly, "she
lied"
"Yes-I know It. But what you goin'
to do, child? You love him N you're
right-so would / eff l was thirty year
younger, for he's a man, East or no
East"
The general turned to her work and
a sigh heaved her ample breast.
Its all in the days work." she
thought, a you had to take your
chanel, Johnny-but you're strong, my
son, you're a strong man-like yer
daddy"
So began a strange time in camp.
Daily came home in three days, g
and grim-lipped, and in the pocket of
his flannel shirt be carried the big
check for which Sandry had worked
and struggled. He had delivered the
raft in safety, along with the scaler's
report, receiving the payment which
had been ready in the hands of a
thin, gray man who leaned from the
steamers rail to exchange a few curt
words.
Ma Daily cornered him in the kitch,
en- late in the night as he finished
his careful rounds of the camp.
Son." she said gently, "they's a
hard knock comm to you an wan
to give you warnin', though l know
you'll take it standin', Johnny, as yer
daddy took all O. his, an I've seen
him take some corkers.
Il know what you've always thought
o. Sletz, son, Sence she was a teensv