Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-10-12

II we can. We want to stop them JUS
at the door,"
But will you hide?" asked MacNelly
"Hide!" The idea had not occurred
to Duane.
There's a wide open doorway. a sor'
OF round hall, a vestibule, with steps
leading up to the bank. There's q dool
in the vestibule. too. 1t leads some
where. We a put men in there. Yol
can be there"
Duane was silent.
See here. Duane" began MacNelly
risk here. You'll hide with the rest oil
us?"
mol" TIL word was wrenched from
Duane.
MacNelly stared, and then a strange
compromising light seemed to fiji,
! over his face.
Duane, l. can give o no or
i am only Offering advice. Need
you take any more risks? You've done
a grand job for the enthusiastically.
You've paid me 1000 times for that
pardon. You've redeemed yourself. The
governor, the adjutant general-the
whole state will rise up and honor you.
The games almost up. Wen kill these
outlaws, or enough Of them to break
forever their power. ! say as a ranger,
need you tax more risk than your cap
tain?"
Still Duane remained silent. He was
loclled between two forces. And one,
a tide that was bursting at it's bounds,
seemed about to overwhelm him. FL
nally that side of him, the r%etreating
self, the weaker, found a voice.
Captain, you want this job to be
sure?' he asked.
Certainly"
I've told you the way. alone know
he kind of lei to be met. Just what
I'll do or where I'll be l can't say yet.
In meetings like this the moment de
cides. But I'll be there!"
MacNelly spread wide his hands,
looked helplessly at his curious and
head.
Now that you've done your work
laid the trap-is this strange move of
yours going to be fair to Miss Long
streth?' asked MacNelly, in significant
low voice.
Like a great tree chopped at the roots
Duane vibrated to that He looked up
as if he had seer a ghost.
Mercilessly the ranger captain went
on: You can win her, Duane! Oh,
you can't fool me; l vas wise in a
minute. Fight with us from cover
then go back to her. You will have
served. the Texas rangers as no other
man has. I'll accept your resignation.
You'll be free, honored, happy. That
girl loves you! 1 saw it in her eyes.
She's"
But Duane cut him short with a
fierce gesture. He lunged up to his
feet, and the rangers fell back. Dark,
silent, grim as he had been, still there
was a transformation ~singularly more
sinister, stranger.
Enough. I'm DONE" he said, SOM
berly. I've planned. Do we agree
or shall / meet Poggfn and his gang
alone?"
MacNelly cursed and again threw up
his hands, this time in baffled chagrin.
There was deep regret In his dark eyes
as they rested upon Duane.
Duane was left alone.
Never had his mind been so quick,
so clear, so wonderful in it's under
standing of what had heretofore been
intricate n elusive impulses of his
strange nature. His determination was
to meet Poggin; meet him before any
n else had a chance-Poggin first
and then the others! He was as un-
altesable in that decision as if on the
instant of it's acceptance he had be-
come stone.
Why? Then came realization. He
was not a ranger now. He cared moth
ing for the state. He had no thought
of freeing the community of a danger
Il outlaw, of Kidding the country OF
an obstacle to it's progress and pros
perity. He wanted to kill Poggin. 1t
was significant now that he forgot the
the u thrower, the gun fighter, pas
sionate n terrible. His fathers blood,
that dark and fierce strain; his moth
ers spirit, that strong M unquench-
able spirit of the surviving pioneer
these had been in him; and the killings,
one after another, the wild and haunt
ed years. had made him, absolutely in
allied 1t nov bitterly, hopelessly. The
thing he had intelligence enough to
hate he had become. At last he shud-
dered under the driving, ruthless, in
human blood lust of the gunman. Long
ago he had seemed to seal in a tomb
that horror Of his kind--the need, IN
order to forget the haunting, sleepless
presence of his last victim, to go out
and kill another. But it was still there
in his mind, n now it stalked out,
worse. more powerful, magnified by it's
rest, augmented by the violent passions
peculiar n inevitable to that strange,
wild product Of the Texas frontier
the gun fighter. And those passions
were so violent, so raw. so base. so
much over than what ought to have
existed in a thinking man. Actual pride
Of his record! Actual vanity in his
speed with a gun! Actual jealousy u
any rival!
Duane could not believe it. But there
he was, without q choice. What he
had feared for years had become s.
monstrous reality. Respect for him
self, blindness, a certain honor that he
had chung to while in outlawry-all, like
scales. seemed to fall away from him.
He stood stripped bare, his soul naked
the soul Of Cain. Always since the
first brand had been forced and burned
upon him he had been ruined. But now
with conscience flayed to the quick, yet
utterly powerless over this tiger in
stinct, he was lost. He said it. He adj
mitted it. And at the utter abasement
the soul he despised suddenly leaped
and %quivered with the thought of Ray
Longstreth.
Then came agony. AS he could not
govern all the chances of this fatal
meeting-as all his swift and deadly
genius must be occupied with Poggin.
perhaps In vain-as hard shooting men
whom he could not watch would be
close behind. this almost certainly must
be the end of Buck Duane. That did
not matter. But he loved the girl. He
wanted her. All her sweetness, her
fire, and pleading returned to torture
him.
At that moment the door opened, and
Ray Longstreth entered.
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