The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-06-07
BY LUCIA CHAMBERLAIN
Copyright, 1910, by
Bobbs-Merrill Co.
Continued from our last ISSUE,
A NOVEL A WEEK!


to the remnant of her Formally
but one cannot regulate the fast.
enings of windows with a mar
and yet maintain q distant man.
ner. The shellacking of the back
stairs went far toward reconciline
her. and by the time the shelves
were going up in the bedroom
with all the dissensions and
agreements involved in such busi-
ness they knew each other well
enough to argue important points
/, Blanche accepted his services
with a promptitude and ordered
him about with a grace that CON-
mended itself. Yet she waited on
him, too. at moments; she
brought him his implements. She
watched him.
But not another word could he
get out of her in reference to
their ride or what she had said
about the tanning of wild Great
ures. So after two more days OF
rug pounding he aonnounced that
thO hCAI HUI llO Woulu otdlt
out on hunting trip.
i He was up at dawn to be sure
of being out of the house before
the RAIDER family were stirring;
but it was necessary to intrude in
Mrs. Raiders kitchen. previous to
trying 20 miles on horseback. He
was looking helplessly about when
the door opened and Blanche
RAIDER entered.
She began to move deliberately
about. The kitchen was filled with
the soaring and steaming OF
things cooking. She set out his
breakfast on the kitchen table
but set it very prettily on a linen
! hemstitched cloth.
She sat down with him at the
table, and made him uneasy, not
eating, but leaning her chin on
her hand. He ate hastily, for he
sensed question in the wind. He
did not escape it. Are you going
to be gone long?" she asked, still
intent on her moving finger
! point.
"All day"
"Oh!" Her eyes came up with
flash. Are you coming back?'
why, of course. Did you
think"
Il only wanted to say" she ex.
planned, that you would better
take my pony. He is used to the
rocks. Nothing can hurt him oil
lose him in the mountains. He
knows all the trails
She was more thoughtful OF
him certainly than other women
he had known, and not at all in.
sistent upon her own presence
when you get back tonight, II
you care to and not too tired,
will take you over to the largest
pine, The Witch's Spindle and
show you what I mean by the
high tide of night"
II shall be delighted" he said
and departed hastily toward the
barn.
When he rode up the drive &
few minutes later he saw her JUS,
at the edge of the pines. She
looked toward him and waved hel
hand.
C.arron remember her quiet too
long after he had lost sight o.
her. He did not leave tina
thought quite behind until h,
was fairly out in the long, dull
level valley with Beckwith II
sight.
The day was early still when h,
got in, but his business in thi
place was trying and various, frs
to discover Esmerelda Charley
whom he found in a desperate lit
tie half-breed hotel.
There remained his stuff t,
look after. 1t was safer not t.
appear himself in connection
. with that heap of stakes, rope,
and canvas. for he knew the cur
iosity of a village, how fast 1t car
travel and how far. He sent Els
meralda Charley on this errand
and waited in the wretched bar
fretted with the false position OF
secrecy in which he found him.
self.
The half-breed returned, they
made an expedition straight out
from Beckwith to the canyon
wall-ten miles across very vile
country, and spent the afternoon
Investigating the chance for an
inlet there. Nothing was posi-
BILE, and they returned to the
town at dusk. He had no thought
of starting for RAIDERS that night.
He wished that he might have
found some one bound in that d.
rection who could have carried a
note; but he was too full of cal
EQUATIONS of moonrise, of trails
and possibilities of rock forma-
tons to reflect long on what the
Raiders might think.
| Throughout all the night he
was wakeful and his mind at
work. He decided to ascend from
this side. The mountain range
that walled in the big canyon
Blanche had shown. 1t would
take too long to go back the 9TH
er way. II he could reach, the
Sphinx's window and look thru
It he might observe the trend Of
mountain and valley, the direc-
tion of the river he might sight
certain places more likely than
others for the habitat of a horse,
some place in the course of the