Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-01-26
@ NAN Of 9
MUSIC MOUNTAIN
MEdnk IT, SpedrmaN
Author Of WHISPERING Smith

When tho anXietieS of her situation
overwhelmed her, rs they would again
and again. she felt herself in the arms
of this strange, resolute man whom all
her own hated and whom she knew she
already loved beyond all power to put
away. In her heart, she had tried Ahis
more than once--she knew she could
not, would not, ever do ii, or even
try to do II, again.
She rejoiced in his love. She trusted.
When he spoke she believed this man
whom no one around her would be-
lieve; and she. who never had believed
what other men avowed, and who de-
tested their ayowals. believed De
Spain, and secretly, guiltly, glowed IN
every word of his devotion and
breathed faint in its every caress.
Night could hardly come fast enough,
after the next long day. A hundred
times during that day she reminded
herself, while the slow, majestic sun
sh0ne simmering on the hot desert,
/ that she had promised to steal out into
! the grounds the minute darkness fell
he would be waiting. A hundred times
In the long afternoon Nan looked into
the cloudless western sky and with
puny. eager hands would have pushed
( the tagging orb on its course that she
J might sooner give herself into the
arms where She felt her place SO sure,
her honor safe her hclplessness SO pro-
tected, herself so loved.
How her cheeks burned after supper
when She asked her uncle for leave to
post a letter downtown! How breath
less with apprehension she halted rs
De Spain stepped from the shadow OF
the trees and drew her approximately
beneath them for the kiss that had
burned on her troubled lips all day
How, girl-ike, knowing his cnresses
were all her own--knowing she could
mt m instant call forth enough to
smother her--she tyrannized his i'm
portuning, and like a lovely mlser,
boarded her responsiveness under calm
eye and laconc whispers until. when
she did give back his eagcrness, she
made his senses reel.
How drcamily she listened to every
word he let fall in his outpouring OF
devotion; how gravely she put up her
hand to restrain his busy intrusion
and asked If he knew that no man In
the world least of all her fierce ant
burly cousin, had ever touched her lips
until he himself forced Il kiss on then
the night before. And now - Sht
: hid her face against his shoulder. "Oh
Henry how | love YOU. I'm ST
ashamed couldn't tell you If it weren
night; I'll never look you in the face
again in the daytime
And when he told her how little h,
! himself had had to do with. and how
, little he knew about girls, even from
boyhood, how she feigned not to be
J lieve, and believed him still! The.
, were two children raised i'm the inagl
, of an hour to the supreme height o
/ life and dizzy together on its summit
, 81 don't see how you can care 70
me Henry. Oh, mean It," she pro
tested holding her head resolutely up
"You know who we are away Off Their
in The mountains. Everyone hates Us
, ! suppose they've. plenty of reason to
/, we hate everybody else. And VIII
: shouldn't we? We're at war with ey
eryone. You know, better than | dt
q what gocsson in the gap. | don't wan
:. to know | try not TO know; Uhcl
: Duke tries to keep things from me-
That day on Music couldn't bclicv
. you meant 1t at all. And Yeti
afraid liked to try to think you die
! When you looked At me felt as
you could see right through me-"
Condolences never came to an en-,
And diplomacy came into its own II
q most at once in De SPANS efforts {
Improve his relations with the impl,
!. cable Duke. The day came when Nan
r uncle could be taken home. De Spni
sent to him soft-spokcn emlssnr,
Bob Scott, offering TO provide Il llgl
stnge, with his compliments, for I'll
trip. The intinctable mountainee
with his refusal to accept the div
- branch, blew Bob out of the room
= Nan was crushed BY the result. but /
!. Spain was not to be disnlnycd.
y Lcfevcr came to him the day aft,
. Nan had got her uncle home. Henry
he began without any prclimlnarie
!. "there is one thing about your preclr
y tntc ride up Music mountain that
. never got clear IN my mind. After Il
.