Tombstone epitaph., 1917-03-11

in shadowy. almost impaipable shapes
 and as the first dropped inside ana
 started on at . crouching trot shs
 aimed quickly but steadily and fired
 A little cry of primitive and savage
 joy sprang from her lips as she saw
 the man plunge forward in the hall
 light and lie there rolling on the
 ground.
 But at that warning the others
 leaped down and came on at a run | The tempo quickened and became con
 fusing. They were firing as they ran and their answering bullets pelted against her barrier and over her head l on the walls. She heard window panes shivering and glass falling. and yet her elation grew-two more advancing ! figures had crumpled into inert masses. Unless there were re-enforce ments she would stem their oncoming tide. Even a mountain marksman can. not target his shots we'll while he is running and under fire. It takes championship sprinting to do fifty yards in five seconds-on the smooth ness of a cinder path.
 Uphill in a constant spit of fire and lead it requires a little longer.
 There were only two left now, and one of them suddenly yeered and made for the cover of hickory trunk of to one side-he was in full flight. But the other came on, throwing the rife away and shifting his heavy mag azine pistol to his right hand.
 It was easy now. thought the girl she could take her time and be very sure.
 Yet she shot and missed, and the man came on with the confidence of one who wears a talisman and fears no harm. Now he was almost at the steps and his pistol was barking vi ciously-then suddenly something in the mechanism of Juanita's rife damned and it lay useless and dead in her hands. She struggled with it, frantically jerking the lever. but be- fore she had conquered its baking obstinacy she saw the oncoming figure leap up the steps at one stride and thrust his weapon forward over the table. She even caught the glitter of his teeth as a snarling smile parted his lips.
 Then a rife spoke behind her-a rifle in the hands of the man who had dragged himself to the firing line, and with his foot on the threshold Jim Fletcher reeled backward and rolled lumberingly down the steps to the ground.
 You got him!" she screamed. You got him. Anse!"
 It had been perhaps five minutes since she had called out to the men in the road. but 1t seemed to her that she had sustained a long siege. She saw the man who had fed crossing the fence and disappearing. Then very slowly she rose and turned to the room again.
 Anse Havey was lying on his face Jim Fletcher lay by his side. but his posture was so rigid and his limbs so motionless that the girl caught at her breast and reeled backward. She would have fallen had she not been supported by the table. Had the fight been lost. after all?
 Slowly. and in a daze of reaction and fright, she moved forward and turned his body over and laid her ear to his heart.
 It was still beating. The rife. had only jolted his weak and pain-racked body into unconsciousness. and as she held his head to her breast her eyes went about the room. where the pal lid light was stealing now. and by the mantel she saw hanging the horn that Jerry Everson had given her.
 Why had she not thought of that be- fore? she asked herself accusingly. Why had she not sent its call for Then there came back to her mind the words of the mountain man when he had brought it over and had initiated the Havey battle-call.
 Don't never blow thet unlessen ye wants ter start he'll When them calls goes out acrost the mountains every Havey thet kin tote a guns got ter glI up an come.
 If ever there had been a time when every Havey should come 1t was this time. She laid Anse's head once more on the cushions and went to the man tel. Then. standing in the door, she drew a long breath.
 She set the horn to her lips and blew. Out across the melting vague ness of the dim world fioated the three long blasts and the three short ones She waited little while and blew again. That signal could not reach Anse Havey's own house, because the ridge would send it echoing back in a shattered wave of sound It would be better heard to the east, and after a time there came back to her waiting ears. very low and distant. yet very clear. an answer.
 It came from the house of Milt Mc- Briar and Juanita's heart, torn and anxious as it was, leaped, for she | knew that for the first time in the | of man the Havey call to | arms had been heard and was being | by a chief of the McBriars, l and that as fast as horses could carry them he and his men would bring sue | cor.
 An hour later. when the mountain slopes were unveiling in miracles of | and tender color, young | Milt McBriar and his escort flung |