Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1916-07-13

He was not looking for hope. OF
hope he knew there was none. Fear,
to which he had been stranger chill
ed the blood in his veins. Still he did
not pray. To Bill John Mickle, who
still stood in the doorway looking
down upon the little tragedy enacted
in the little arena as Judge looks
down from the bench, the man with.
the moose about his neck turned an
appealing, helpless, whitening face,
and his lips moved. But no sound es-
capped them.
The silence was that of the hills and
Of death.
1t was broken by football inside
the saloon, and from behind Bill John
appeared woman, little more than
girl. She was Frisco's daughter Katie,
who, attracted by the crowd, had come
from the kitchen which was set apart
a little way in the rear.
For one second she surveyed the
scene through eyes red with weeping;
then she stepped into the semicircle of
men.
Kenny, the rope about his neck, went
whittier at sight Of her and trembled,
afraid of the woman for love Of whom
he had gone to his ruin.
But how he had loved her! If he
might know that she even now still
cared one little bit he could go to his
doom and die like man.
Times up" announced Bill John,
swapping the case of his watch.
"Wait."
Something in the girls voice as she
spoke-something Kenny least of all
had expected and which he could not
define-caused him to lift his head.
Would she taunt him for killing her
lover, he who had known the way to
a woman's heart, now that he was GO
ing to his own death?
He tried to kill me-" he pleaded. ~
cannot make them believe me, but
had to do it."
THAT is what have come to tell
you," answered the girl, addressing
the men who formed the semicircle.
II saw it all. 1 was riding on the up
per trail, and saw 1t. He killed him
in self defense"
Kenny looked at the girl unbeliev-
ingly. She whose lover he had shot
down, whose scorn he had expected,
she had come at the crisis to save his
neck. They must believe her.
In spite of the hemp rope, he threw
back his head and laughed boldly in
triumph, for he had cheated the death
that moment before lowered over
him, and in life there would now be
no handsome, hated Blick to win away
the girls heart from him.
Bill John Mickle from the doorway
was speaking.
Kenny" he said, "she has saved
your worthless hide, but you've had a
narrow escape. Let this be lesson to
you. We can't hang you now, but this
community don't need your kind, and
you got to go. Before sundown-un-
derstand2"
Unblushing and defiant. the girl who
had drawn nearer to the man she had
saved, as though to further protect him
from the rest. turned upon Bill John.
If he goes, then go too" she threat
ened, knowing full well that every man
in camp was dependent upon her. the
only woman within forty miles.
Kenny, who was man Of action,
lost no time marveling at Katie's I'M
expected words. He heard, and a
proud advantage over these rugged, ST.
lent men swelled within him. at the
instant he regained all the bold def
ance of his nature.
Let us CO." he said to her.
II am ready"
The men who had formed the semi.
circle were silent and still no longer.
They gathered round Bill John and
Frisco and voiced their protest against
the girls going. 1t was unanimous.
II guess ,gou can stay, Kenny"
Reversing his former decision with
these words, Bill John walked away,
and Katie, laughing in the pride of her
victory, ran back to her kitchen behind
Frisco's saloon. She felt certain that
Kenny would come to her there pres
emily.
Three hours later, when the men who
had formed the semicircle were back
up in the hills and Frisco dozed in a
corner Of his saloon and the mining
camp was lifeless and still, the man
sought the woman who had saved his
life.
For more than an hour he had been
'cursing himself for blind fool while
he lay outstretched upon the bunk in
his shack at the foot of the hills.
Any one else, he told himself, would
have known that the girl had loved
him all the while and that, like wo
man, she had only pretended Blick had
won her away from him.
But, even though she loved him and
had loved him while he had not known
II, Kenny felt that he owed her
great debt for what she had done