The Huttig news., 1916-02-05

wild, green country, it seemed to her, and to catch glimmerings Of things 1 that sent her to Sandry, so full of vital | prescience that she was as 8 charged wire in her eagerness and her delight
 MT. Sandry," she said one evening as they stood together on the toot.1og and watched the brown tidewater go ing down toward the distant sea. I'm going to tell you something be lieye Hampden is crooked as hades, and Pm going after him..
 That's funny said Sandry, "do you know, I've had the same notion?'
 She stretched out her hand
 Let's go after him together. What do you say?"
 Well, '-Sandry took the hand, an exquisite thing, and held it in his own moment warmly, closely-'I am pleased and fiattered by your offer out l don't just fancy your knowing his Hampden man. He's-hes coarse and bad. Miss Ordway."
 But isn't it worth a little risk? ! What big thing is ever accomplished without some risk? And think. Mr 5andry-isnt Hampden trying to ruin the Dillingworth company? In other words, to ruin you?"
 There was tingling suggestive tim bre in her low voice, a subtle, fatter- ing tone that thrilled the young owner strangely.
 Miss Ordway,o he said admiringly, "as a mans friend you're simply greati"
 ''I may have to make frequent de- l mands on Black Bolt she said fur ther, for I cannot navigate in your deluged valleys. I'm poor mariner"
 Ssh h." warned Sandry, you don't want to speak about this climate that way Why, haven't you noticed that the Oregon mist doesn't wet through"
 They laughed together after the fashion of youth and health, though at the last turn of words he felt a vague uneasiness. He remembered Siletz' dark face between her braids and the tears falling on her cheeks.
 Poor little girl" he said to him. self. And on Thursday of that week another horse made it's appearance at the camp, a wiry, loug-limbcd bay, picked up at Toledo.
 This is for you, Miss Ordway." he told the novelist, "so you may come and go at will. No one will have him when you wish to ride. You can al- ways put your hand on mount at a Dol frequently gone when you might need him.
 So it came about that the young woman from the East went after 1 Hampden," and the sharp, crude man Of the hills was to be no match for her. By another week she could not fare forth upon the road to the Siletz ride into Toledo, where she was g matter of wonder in her beauty anc her smart clothes. or take the least canter on the rangy bay but what 1 Hampden met her-by the merest chance. She was a revelation to him. In his crude way he was soon at the point where he would have laid down his world for her little finger and in his loose-tibered soul he swelled with self-approVal beneath her notice
 What delicate 1attery she employed only she herself knew. It was su1fi- cient at least, for he unwound to her his somewhat eventful and picturesque life with the simplicity of a child They rode and talked, traversing the lonely ways, piercing the mist thread ing trails where Hampden had to ride close at her side to keep the wet foli- age out of her face, and she saw the passion growing in him to the point of idolatry-which filled her soul with rioting laughter.
 I'll get it-I'H get it!" she told her. self, and there was no place in the uni verse so interesting as this rain. soaked country, this land of mysteri. ous operations.
 What are these little, deserted huts?" she asked him one day when they had climbed high on wooded ridge and come upon a tiny cabin, win. dowless and roofed with shakes. I've seen several of them"
 "Homesteader's cabin" he answered l All eilb "hNi V bhC lODlCSlCdu For goodness sake, did any man ever intend a woman to live here?"
 It was a staggering question to the 1 lumberman, who knew more than any other man in those hills about those l deserted shacks. He had been pains l takingly correct in all his dealing with her. It was something he did not un- derstand some blind instinct of his better self serving his one great pas. sion.
 We'll he said reluctantly, you see that is,-no They don't often come here to live. This heres a snap
 "Ah-yes was a note of vague puzzlement in Poppys golden voice-"and what is that?"
 Why, feller comes up an takes a claim--proves up on it, you know gets his patent-an' then sells out. Relinquishes his right to the buyer
 "Oh-and this is only temporary arrangement She waved a hand around ct the dreary clearing among the lesser growth The man who