Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-07-19
p X.

A hundred miles from the haunts
most familiar with Duane's needs, far
up where the Nueces ran a trickling
clear stream between yellow cliffs,
stood n small deserted shack OF covered
mequite poles. 1t had been made lonR
ago., but was we'll preserved. A door
faced the overgrown trail, and another
faced down into a gorge Of dense thick
cts. On the border fugitives from law
and men who hid in fear OF some one
they had wronged lived in houses
with only n door.
human habitation except for the out
cast. He, perhaps. might have found 1t
hard to leave for most Of the other
wild hooks in hat barren country.
Down in the gorge there was never
failing sweet water, grass all the year
round, cool. shady retreats, deer, rab-
bits. turkeys. fruit, and miles and miles
of narrow-twisting, deep canon full Of
broken rocks and impenetrable thickets.
The scream Of the panther was heard
there. the squall of the wildcat, the
cough OF the jaguar. Innumerable bees
seemed, scattered honey to the winds.
All day there was continuous song Of
birds that of the hooking bird loud and
sweet and hooking above the rest.
On clear days-and rare indeed were
cloudy days-with h subsiding OF the
WIN az SuIlScl IL uuSu SCCIu0U TO Iall
around the little hut. Far-distant dim
blue mountains stood gold-rimmed
gradually to fade with the shading Of
light.
At this quiet hour a man climbed up
out Of the gorge and sat in the west
ard dOor of the hut. This lonely
watcher of the west n listener to the
silence was Duane. And this hut was
the one where, three years before, Jen-
ME had nursed him back to life.
The killing Of a man named Sellers,
and the combination Of circumstances
that had made the tragedy a memorable
regret. a marked, if not a change, at
least a cessation in Duane's activities.
He had trailed Sellers to kill him for
the supposed abduction Of Jennie. He
had trailed him long after he had
learned Sellers Travelled alone. Duane
wanted absolute assurance of Jennie's
death. Vague rumOrS, a few words here
and there, unauthenticated stories, were
all Duane had gathered in years to SUBJ
stantiate his belief-that Jennie died
shortly after the beginning of her Sec
ond captivity. But Duane did not know
surely. Sellers might have told him.
Duane expected, II not to force it from
him at the end. to read it, in his eyes.
But the bullet vent too unerringly; 1t
locked his lips and fixed his eyes.
After that meeting Duane lay long at
the ranch house of a friend, and when
he recovered from the wound Sellers
had given him he started with two
horses and q pack for the lonely gorge
on the Nueces. There he had been hid
den for months. a prey to nor q
dreamer. a victim of phantoms.
1t ook work for him to find subsis-
tence in that rocky fastness. And work.
action, helped to pass the hours. But he
could not work all the time, even IL he
had found 1t to do. Then in his idle
moments and at night his task was to
live with the hell in his mind.
alone in h cabin 80 near h road.
So he put her up on his horse and babe
her follow. The rain had ceased for
the time being. though evidently the
storm was not yet over. The tracks led
up a wash to a wide flat where mes
quite, prickly pear. and thorn bush
grew SO thickly that Jennie could not
ride into it. Duane was thoroughly
concerned. He must have her horse
might. He could not expect her to
scramble quickly through that brake
on foot. Therefore, he decided to risk
leaving her at h edge of the thicket
and go in alone.
AS he went In a sound startled him
Was 1t the breaking of a branch he
had stepped OF or thrust aside? He
heard the impatient pound Of his
horses hoOfs. Then all raj quiet. Still
he listened. o wholly satisfied. He
was never satisfied In regard to safety:
he knew too well that there never
could be safety for him In this coun-
try.
the saisles Of the thic1et. Duane
wondered what had drawn him
there. Certainly II had not been grass,
Tor there was o Presently he heard
the horse trAmping along. and then he
ran. The mud wa deep. ana the SHARP
th0Fna mnAA eoin1 difficult. He came
moment crossed . multitude Of fresh
hoEDe-trAckS.