The Huttig news., 1916-12-23
'No. nol she said with emotion.

No. nor she said with emotion.
 "Some drunken cowboy. some fool town, wherever I SC" he went OH. miserably. "Baek Duane! To kill Bncil Duane!'
 Hush! Don't speak SC. Listen. You remember that day in Val Verde. when l came to you-plcaded with you not to meet Poggin? Oh. that was q terrible hour for me. But il showed me the truth. l saw the struggle be- tween your passion to Kill and your love for me. 1 could have saved you then had l known wha, l know now Now 1 understand taGt--that thing s.hich hauRts you. Ent y8ull never laye to kill another man, thank God ]"
 Like drowning man he would have grasped at straWs, but he could not voice his passionate query
 She put tender arms round his neck. "Because you'll have me with you al- ways she replied. Because always I shall be between you and that that terrible thing"
 It seemed with the spoken thought absolute assurance of her power came to her. Duane realized instan ly hat he was in the arms of Il troager woman than she who had pleaded with him that fatal day.
 .Wefl-woii be married and leaTp Texas she said. softly with the rzd blood rising rich and dark in her checks.
 "Rayi'
 'Yes we will thoughsyou'Ee laegard in asking me, sir
 "But. dear-suppose." he replied, huskily, suppose there might be=-be children-a boy. A boy with his father's biooa p
 ei pray God there will be do not fear what you fear But even SO he'll De half my bieod.n
 Duane felt the storm rise and break in him And his terror was that of joy qaelling fear. The shining glory of love in this Weman's eyes made him weak as child. How could she
 
 face q future with him2 Yet she held him in her arms, tVning her hands round his neck, and pressing close to hiia. Her faith and love and Apauty these she meant to throw between him and all that terrible past. They were her power. and she meant to uSe them all He dared not think of accepting her sacrifice.
 "But Ras-you dear, noble girl l- Pm pour l have nothing. And I'm il erippe.' z
 "oh. ya1n be well some day" she replied And listen have money. My mother Jeff ne well off All she had was her fathers Do you under Standz Wen take Uncle Jim and your mother. Well go n Loeisiana-- to my old home. It's far from here. There's a plantation to work. There are horses and cattle--a great cypress forest to cut. oh, you'll have much to do. You'll forget there. Youll learn to love my home. It's a beautiful old place. There are groves where the gray moss blows all day and the night-z ingales sing all night"
 My darlingn cried Duane. broken iy. No, no, no,'
 Yet he knew ill his heart that he was yielding to her. that he could not resist her moment longer. What was this madness of love?
 well be happy" she whispered l
 Her eyes were closing. heavy-lidded, and she lifted sweet, tremulous wait ing lips
 With bursting heart Duane bent to them. Then he held her. close pressed 10 him, while with dim eyes he looked out over the line of low hills in the west, down where the sun was setting gold and red, down over the NueceS and the wild brakes of the Rio Gfande which he was nevert see again.
 It was in this solemn and exalted moment that Duane accepted happi- ness and faced new life. trusting this brave and tender woman to be strong CT than the dark and fateful passion that had shadowed his past.
 Ii would come back-that wind of flame, that madness to forget, that driving. relentless instinct for blood. It would come back with those pale, drifting, haunting faces and the ac- cusing fading eyes, but all his life, always between them and him. render ing them powerlesS. would be the faith and love and beauty of this noble woman.
 (THE END)