The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1916-04-20
CHAPTER II.
A DISTURBING SUGGESTION.

CHAPTER II.
A DISTURBING SUGGESTION.
IF Jess warn't SO good lookin'. Mar
tin said Kilrain's sister to him that
evening, after h had made ready for
him the foreman's place by the eleared
supper table, ''she wouldn't be SO
headstrong, an If she warn't SO head
strong she'd be more good lookin'-
which you can lock at from behind side
lore, or tother way, as yeu please. it
meanin' the same thing whichever way,
Jess is spoiled, and spoiled bad, am
l amt the one what's done the spoilin'."
Agnes kilrain had come to her broth
ef from the east at the time when his
wife dying, he had been left with Jess,
a prattling child, upon his hands.
she was a capable woman, with a
VIII of her own which, as the girl grew
up, was not always in harmony with
that OF her charge, and a tongue which
was not always in harmony with her
really kline heart. Kilrain idolized his
daughter, and stood somewhat in fear
OF ms s~lster-facts which the girl had
long since found out to her w adyan-
tage.
Indeed, Jess Kilrain was something
OF a puzzle to those who knew her best.
She was always in hot water with
ner aunt. She leased and bullied her
tather. She was scornful and unkfnd
to Buck Brannon, whose heart. she
knew, she held in the hollow Of her
hand.
She was by turns gracious and nm
gracious to the rest of the outfit. Even
TO Earle Worthing himself less not
infrequently INDUCED in the caustic
things of her tongle thai made her
something Of a wasp in the social life
OF the Loop.
"Whpra is Tacc or ,.l-ol r,
sister. for she had spoken with an un-
derclrfent of meaning in her not m
usual dlsapproval of her niece.
ASnes Kilrain shrugged.
Where" she echoed. I'm sure I
don't know. With the owls out alone
on the plains. where she HADN'T o1eht
70 be. She's never indoors. Day an
night, she's always somewhere eisa
Iain,t right, Martin. 'Tain't
hliralns face sobered. He was an
easy gong man in his W household,
ana sometimes he might have wished
Agnes We're not quite so determined.
The girl means no HARM" he said.
b u III speak to her"
Gals DON'T have to mean harm to
get INTO harm, though l amt so sure.
M va T Ihat Jess wouldn't grapple with
the devil himself just to see What his
horns was made of. Jess is powerful
~pernlckety. An you know what comes
OF h~ohnobbin' with the dewitt"
hilraln looked up with some impa-
tlence at his sisters pertinacity. Inv
ing aside the Stock Gazette he had hasen
making al attempt to read and mo-
ceedlng to relight his pipe with one of
the long, twisted paper lighters of
"ilcn Agnes made a supply each week.
She was herself rather aimlessly
hanging about the oak %siaeboard as
though expectant of the question her
brother vas to put.
An who's the particular devil Jess
is feelin' the horns of, Agnes?"
The woman lost her INDIGESTION at the
pointed Inquiry. turning abruptly.
"Blass Cardross."
"Blass Cardross!"
Amt O ever heard his name.
Martin kilrain?"
He looked at her now more than half
inclined to be angry.
"Blass Cardross is a square man"
he said slowly, "if he is on the wrong
track bout some things. don't see
what you drivin' at, Agnes"
She came nearer to him, any trace of
lesser irritation gone from her voice
and manner alike.
Just this. Martin. Is he square
enough to marry the gal if he might
make her love him-or is he too fine?"
Only recently the realization that his
daughter had grown into woman's es-
tate had come upon Martin Kilrain
with a shock of surprise. Another and
a more numbing shock ran through him
now. A mother would never have been
thus taken by surprise about her
daughter. Martin Kilrain was a man.
Il don't like to think Of Jess mar
ryin.:" he said, his a C rave.
That isn't going to keep her from
thlnkin' of it,"
Helpless under this logic, he was ST.
lent. She left him at that, going into
the kitchen, n Kilrain took up the
Gazette once more. but he could not
read.
Where was Jess?
After a time, Kilrain threw down
his paper, rose, and went out of the
house His sisters words had taken
an unpleasant hold upon his mind.
With his arms upon the gate he
stood smoking. The night was dark,
soft with the hin Of the coming sum
mer, very still and motionless over the
Towering prairies. Most of the sur
rounding cabirls were already in I'M
ilghtened silence, for the boys of the
outfit We're given to early turning in.
kilrain opened the gate, stepping out
into the road beyond, and noiselessly
letting the latch fall back into place.
He was not conscious of this care he
took to be unobserved. 1t was born on
the asu disquiet of his mood.
Going down the lane, he reached the
lower barn lots, the orchard lying fur
Their to his left, pungent with the fra
GRANGE of it's full bloom. Kilrain turned
his back southwark across the prairie
to the distant woods thai formed at