Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-10-04

ed figures ono noon. AN them fell
lers air in Their bilin,."
CHAPTER ".
Physical exhaustion win finally tell.
even over such handicaps % noun.
tain feather bed and the fumes Of .
backwoods cabin.
II Juanita Holland did not at last
actually fall asleep, she drifted into q
sort Of nightmare coma from which
she awoke with . start.
She wondered II she had really
screamed aloud % her eyes opened
and stared at the rafters, but little
Dawn's sleeping breath rose and fell
undisturbed at her side and the shores
about her went on unbroken. She
raised her hand and wiped the per-
spiration from her eyes. She even
ventured to look cautiously about.
After all, she must have slept heav.
lily. for now besides the four beds
there was . pallet on the floor, and at
its top the freight, which was lower
now, but still strong, showed . tousled
head and at its foot two bare feet.
Jeb had come homo from the dance.
Again she shut her eyes. but their
lids were hot and feverish. The whole
procession Of the days wretched oc-
currences paraded before her, and she
wondered IL these creatures were
worth the effort she was making in
their behalf.
What monstrous things might she
have to face at the very outset Of her
mission? Could it be that the sleep
ing volcano Of violence would select
her coming 10 . cue for eruption, and
that she. who had seen only the bet.
ter things Of life until today. must
begin her work BY looking at such .
revolving drama?
Finally she fell again into that half
sleep which dreams Of wakefulness.
It may have lasted minutes Or hours,
but suddenly she reused sgain with q
start from q new nightmare and lay
trembling under the oppression Of
poignant foreboding. What was 1t that
she had systematically heard or mag
ined? She was painfully wide awake
IL SA0 O4OAAOo4 AA& C0Ulus AT lA0t BIO
was sure of sound, low but instinct
with warning.
Beardog was growing Just outside
the door.
Then, violently and without the pref.
ace Of gradual approach-precisely rs
though horsemen had sprung from the
earth-there clattered and beat past
the front Of the cabin staccato thun-
der Of wildly galloping hoofs and a
rattle of scattered rocks She felt an
uncanny freezing Of her marrow.
Horses travel perilous and broken
roads in that fashion only when their
riders are in Wild haste.
A abruptly a. the drumbeat had
come It died again into silence, and
there was no diminuendo Of hoofbeats
reoeding into distance. The thing was
weird and ghostly. She had not no.
ticed In the weariness Of her arrival at
the cabin that tho road ran deep In
sand to the corner OF the fence and
that after ffty yayds Of rough and
broken rock It fell away again into an
other sound-mufaing stretch. She
knew only that she was thoroughly
frightened, and that whatever the
noise WAS. It proclaimed hot and des-
perate haste.
Yet even in her terror she had
moved only to turn her head and had
opened her eyes cautiously and mar
rowly.
There was no sound in the cabin
now; not even the stertorous breath Of
. snore. The fre hickered family and
occasionally sent up from it, white
bed Of ashes . dying squirt. before
witch the darkness fell back . little
for the moment.
She could see that Fetch McNash
had half risen IN Ais bed. His head
WAS partly turned u aan attitude Of,
intent listening, and his pose was ~
rigid - that Of . bird-dog frozen on .
point. It had Ill been momentaEy. and
a. Juanita ga1ed she saw other hg-
ures stir uneasily. though no one
spoke. The missionary lay still. but
the womAn's figure moved restlessly
beneath the heaped-up comforter.
SO. for few moments. the strange
and tense tableau held. and the girl.
watching the householder's alert yet
motionless pose. remembered him %
he had hunched drunkenly over his
plate few hours ago. Tho two pic.
lures were hard to reconcile.
Then, ct some warning which her
less acute ears failed to register, she
saw Fetch McNash's right hand tweep