Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1917-04-13
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She rejoiced In his love. She trusted
When ne spoke she believed this mar
whom no one around her would be
lleve; and She who never had believed
what other men avowed, ana who de
tested their ayowals believed DC
Spain, and secretly, guiltlly, 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
shone simnering 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
might sooner give herself into the
arms where she felt her place so sure
her honor safe, her helplessness so pro
tected, herself so loved.
How her cheeks burned after supper
when she asked her uncle for leave tc
post letter downtown! How breath
less With apprehension she halted as
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
4 How, glrl-lIke, knowing his caresscs
We're all her 0wn-knowing she could
Mt an instant call forth enough &c
smother her--she tyrannzed his i'm
| portunlng, and like lovely miser
boarded her responsiveness under calm
eye and laconlc whispers until, when
she did give back his eagerness, she
made his senses reel.
How dreamily she listened to every
word he let fall In his outpourng 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, lenst Of all her fierce and
burly cousin, had ever touched her lips
until he himself forced kiss on them
the night before. And now!" She
hid her face against his shoulder. "Oh
Henry, how love you! I'm SC
ashamed | couldn't tell you II II weren't
night; I'll never look you In the face
again In the daytime"
And when he told her how little he
j himself had had to do with, and how
| little he knew about girls, even from
boyhood, how she felgned not to be-
lIeye and believed him still They
+ were two children raised In the magic
OF an hour to the supreme height Of
life and dizzy together on Its summit.
81 don't see how you can care for
me, Henry Oh, | mean It," she pro-
tested, holding her head resolutely up.
I You know who we are, away off there
in the mountains. Everyone hates us.
| suppose they've plenty of reason to
we hate everybody else. And why
shouldn't WEI We're at war with ev-
eryOne. You know, better than do,
what goes on in the gap. ! don't want
to know; | try not to know; Uncle
Duke tries to keep things from me
that day on Musc-I couldn't believe
you meant II at all. And yet-Im
afraid | liked to try to think you did.
When you looked at me | felt as II
you could see right through me-
Condolences never came to an end.
And diplomacy came into Its own al
most at once In De Spaln's efforts to
improve his relations with the impla-
cable Duke. The day came when Mans
uncle could be taken home. De Spain
sent to him a soft-spoken emlssary,
Bob Scott, Offering to provide light
stage, with his compliments, for the
trip. The intractable mountaineer,
with his refusal TO accept the olive
branch, blew Bob out of the room.
Nan was crushed by the result, but De
Spain was not to be dlsmayed
Lefever came to him the day after
Nan had got her uncle home. Henry"
he began without any prelimlnaries,
'there is one thing about your precipi.
tate ride up Music mountain that I
never got clear In my mind. After the
fight, your cartridge belt was hanging
up In the barn at Calabasas for two
weeks. You walked In to us that morn
ing with your belt buckled on. You
told us you put It on before you came
upstairs. Whatf Oh, yes. | know,
Henry. But that belt wasn't hanging
downstairs with your coat earlier In
the evening. No, Henry, 1t wasn't-not
when l looked. Don't tell me such
things, because-I don't know. Where
was the belt when you found it?"
"Some distance from the coat, John.
I admit that. I'll tell you: some one
had moved the belt. 1t was not where
/ left 1t. l was hurried the morning
rode in, and / can't tell you Just where
I found It."
Lefeyer never batted an eyelash. ~
know you can't, Henry. Because you
won't. That Scotch hybrid McAlpln
knows few things too, that he won't
tell. All / want to say is, you can
trust that man too for. He's got all
my recent salary. Every time Jeffrtes
raises my pay that hairy-pawed horse
doctor reduces 1t just so much a month
And he does 1t with one pack of fifty
two small cards that you could stitch
into your vest pocket"
"McAlpln has wife and children te
support" suggested De Spain.
"Don't think for q moment he doe.
It," returned Lefever vehemently 20
support his wife and children myself
"You shouldn't play cards, john
at was by playing cards that / 10
Gated Sassoon, just the same. A little
game with your friend Bull Page, By