Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-11-04

I noiselessness with which a beaver
slips into the water.
q reckon ye kin Jest lay thar
spell" added the woman, whilst
goes out an sees what victuals I kin
/ skeer up"
| Left alone, the girl from Philadel-
| phia ran over the events Of the day
events which seemed to smother her
under a weight of sQualor and fore
| boding.
At length from the road came loud
| shouts Of drunken laughter, broken
| by the evident remonstrances of a
| companion who sought to enjoin quiet,
/ and by these tokens the ''furrin"
woman knew that the lord Of the
| squalid manor was returning, and that
| he was coming under convoy. She
! shrank from a meeting with Fletch
| McNash; but if she went out by the
/ only door she knew she would have
| to confront him, so she lay still.
Fletch was deposited in one of the
| split-bottom chairs by the doorstep.
Il jest went over thar ter borry a
hoe" he proclaimed, IAN I met up
with some fellers and thar was all
manner of free Ticker. They had white
| Ticker an bottled-in-bond Ticker, an
! none of hit didn't cost nothiu' Them
fellers jest wouldn't hardly suffer me
ter come away"
AN whilst We war a-soakin' up tibet
1 thar froa IioL-or tbono mort for cotG uyo .
a-dryin' up waitin' ter be sot out, 4"
came the stern wifely reminder
Between the strident voices came
every now and then the softly modu-
! lated tones Of the stranger whose
words Juanita lost. Yet, somehow,
whenever she heard them she felt
! sOOthed, and after each Of these ut
terances the woman outside also
spoke in softer tones.
! Whoever the stranger was, he car
| ried in his voice a reassuring quality,
! so that without having seen him the
girl felt that in his presence there was
an element of strength and safeguard
| ing.
At last from one of the beds she
heard a scuffling sound, and moment
later a childish form opened door at
the back of the cabin and slipped out
into the darkness.
That revealed an avenue of escape.
Juanita had not known that these win
| dowless cabins are usually supplied
with two doors, and that the one into
which the wind does not drive the
weather stands open for light on win
| try days. Now she, too, rose noise
lessly and went out of the close and
musty room. 1t was quite dark out
there and she could feel, rather than
see, the densely foliaged side of the
mountain that doomed upward at the
back.
In her brooding she lost account of
time. At last she heard voice sing
out from the stile:
I'm Jim White, an I'm a-comin'
in"
A thick welcome from Fletch Nc
Nash followed, and then again silence
settled
After a while, as she sat there on
the rock, with her chin disconsolately
in her hand and her elbows on her
knees, Juanita became conscious of
footsteps and knew that someone was
coming toward her. Then she caught
the calm voice which had already i'm
pressed her-the voice of the stranger
who had brought home the half-heIp-
less householder.
q reckon we're out of earshot now,
I reckon we kin hev speech here; but
heed your voice an talk low"
In the face of such preface the girl
shrank back in fresh panic. She had
no wish to overhear private conversa-
lions.
She huddIed back against the rock
and cast an anxious glance about her
for way to escape. Behind lay the
mountain wall with its junglelike
growth, where her feet would sound
an alarm Of rustling branches and dis
turbed deadwood. But the men were
strolling near her, and to try to reach
the house would require crossing their
path.
Then the second shadow spoke, and
its voice carried beside the nasal
shrillness so common to the hills the
tenseness of suppressed excitement
"Thar's liable ter be he'll ternight. +"
The girl thought that the quiet
stranger laughed, though of that she
could not be certain.
ct reckon ye mean concernin' Cal
Douglas?"
"Thet's hit; when 1 rid outen Peril
this afternoon Their jury he'd done took
Their case, an everybody lowed they'd
find a verdict afore shutdown"
81 reckon"-the taller of the two
men answered slowly, and into his
softly modulated voice crept some
thing of finty inality-'T reckon I can
tell We what that verdicts goin' to
! be- Cal will come clear"
Tibet hain't Their pint" urged the
messenger excitedly. Tibet hain't why
I've rid over hyar like a bat outen
hell ter cotch up with ye. I was
amin ter fotch word over ter Their
! dance, but es l come by hyar l seen
yore boss hitched out thar in Their
road, so I lit an come in. l reckon
ye knows tibet cote an thet jury.
Thet's yoTe business, but tibet hain't
ALL"
We'll. what's the balance of it?
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