The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1915-02-01
Continued From Last Saturday,
CHAPTER XIII.
Open MutInv.

Though she had been schoOled to hOl.
the very name of Law in loathing un
speakable and to think of Alan as {
mortal enemy and as one whose deatl
alone could properly requite the crue
Injury that had been done her father
and though the man himself hac
laughed to scorn her first involuntary
confession Of that love for him which
now consumed her being with its in
satiable fires, she swallowed hel
chagrin and followed him with the
solic1tude of one whose love can recog
nize no wrong in its object. Through
I all the remainder of that day Of terror
II she was never far from his side
y With tie meekness Of the strong,
Y she maqe, herself his shadow And
she was npw the stronger, for she had
had more than an hours rest beside
the waterhole, which he had missed
4 on the way of that rocky windbreak.
Sooner or later his strength must fail
him and he would need her; till then
she was content to bide her hour.
1t befell presently In startling fash
ion; she was not a yard behind him
when he vanished abruptly.
But the next moment Judith herself
was trembling on the crumbling brink
of an arroyo Of depth and width in
determinable in the obscurity Of the
duststorm. Down this, evidently,
Alan had fallen in his dizzy blindness.
She found him insensible, lying with
an arm bent under him In a pose
frightfully suggestive of dislocation.
Yet when she turned him on his back
and released the arm, he made no
sign to indicate that the movement
had caused him the slightest pain.
There was a slight cut upoE his
brow, bruise about his left temple.
She tore linen from her bosom, be-
meath her coarse flannel shirt, and with
sparing aid from the canteen, washed
the cut clean and bandaged it.
Then seeing that the storm held
with fury undated, she rose, recon-
noitered and returned to exert all her
strength and drag the unconscious
man across the dry bed of that ancient
water-course and under the lee Of its
farther bank.
There, sitting, she pillowed his
head upon her lap, and bending over
him made her body an additional shell
ter to him from the swirling clouds
of dust.
And for hours on end Judith nursed
him there. scarce daring to move
save to minister to his needs, bathing
h jcto hi
parched lips and throat.
In the course Of the first hour she
was once startled by the spectral Wis.,
ion through the driving sheets of dust
of a horse that plodded up the arroyo,
bearing two riders on its back
Weary with the weight of it's double |
burden, it went slowly and passed so
near to Judith that she was able to
recognize the features of her sister |
and Tom Barcus.
Be sure she made never sign to
catch their attention.
Within the next succeeding hour
the coppery light lost something Of
its hot brillance, took on a darker
shade, and then one darker still. Twi-
light stole athwart the desert, turning
its heat to chill, it's light to violet.
Growing more intense, the cold
eventually reused the sleeping man.
And hardly had his eyes Enclosed
and looked up into the eyes of Judith
bending oyer him than he started up
and 91tt "a her embrace, got INSTEAD
lily uYl,h his feet and after moment
Of pause, watching her rise in turn,
strobe away-or, rather, staggered
with the gesture Of exorcism
Uncomplaining, hugging her new
born humility to her with the ecstasy
Of the anchorite his horse-hair shirt,
Judith followed him patiently, at a
little distance.
Not far from where he had rested
here was break in the, overhanging
wall of the arroyo Through this he
scrambled painfully, reaching the level
If the desert only after cruel effort,
he UNDECIDED woman at his heels. |
A brief pause there afforded both
ime to regain their breath and survey {
he desert for signs of assistance: it {
,ffered none, other than what they
lll6uL dCCOAAPIAoA Cu1Ou6A tACiA OWA
xertions. For leagues in any quarter
stretched without break other than
he black cleft Of the arroyo cleaning
bleached and deathly white in the |
the face of a frozen
World. t
With tacit consent both turned that +
ray Alan leading, Judith his pertina- +
ious shadow, with never word or
ign between them to prove that either a
vas aware Of the others company.
But this was a state of affairs that n
ould not long endure. Judith had the
rice ITO pay for her own trials, suf- II
sring and privation: the strain began S
, tell sorely upon her. She reeled t
lightly as she walked weaving a h
hiding trail across and across the y
,raighter line Of footprints that
arked Alan's course through the or 1t
cred pattern Of the powdered sage n
rush. d
And Of sudden she collapsed h
Instinct alone made Alan glance