The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-01-25

obedience-and finally as the seiN
| declared advocate of peace.
He was standing, rs she entered. .
| little back from the hearth. with the
detached air Of one who drops into the
background or comes to the fore With
equal readiness. She found that In
appearance as in voice he bore a rough
sort Of impressiveness about him. In
the brighter light stood the messen-
ger, a gaunt youth. in whose wild,
sharp features lurked cunning, cruelty
and endurance. But the other man,
who stood head taller, fell into
pose of indolent ease which might
wake instantly into power.
1t was face strongly and ruggedly
chiseled, but SO dominated by unfal-
tering gray eyes that one was apt to
forget all else and carry away only
memory Of dark hair-and those eyes.
Then, as they sat at table and the
| girl struggled with her discontinue
over each. unclean detail of the food,
she raised her eyes from time to time,
| always to encounter upon her the
steady. appraising gaze of the dark
stranger.
stranger drew Fletch, now somewhat
sobered by his meal, aside, and the
other men retired to the chairs in thu
dooryard. Then the girl from the East
slipped away and took up her solitary
place on top of the stile, where she
sat thinking.
At last she was conscious of pres
ence besides her own. as of someone
standing silently at her back.
Rather nervously she turned her
head, and there, with one foot on the
lower step of the stile, stood the
young stranger himself Once more
their eyes met, and with a little start
she dropped her own.
81 kinder hate to bother ye. maam."
said the even voice, but can't hardly
get acrost that stile whilst ye're settin'
on it."
There was no note of badinage or
levity in his tone, and his clear, drawn
| features under the moonlight were en-
tirely serious.
| Juanita rose. 81 beg your pardon"
she said hastily, as she went down the
stile on the far side.
That's all right, ma'am." replied
the man easily, still with serious
dignity as he, too. crossed the road.
While he was untying the knot in
his bridlerein the girl stood watch
ing him. In the easy Incidence Of his
movements was the ripping some
thing that suggested the leopard's
| frictionless strength.
The very quality that gave this
young stranger his picturesqueness
and stamped him as vital and dynamic
in his manhood sprang from that wild
roughness which he shared with his
eagles and Dawn shared with her
weedlike flowers And yet 1t was
somehow as though this man. whose
voice was so calm, whose movements
were so quiet. whose gaze was so un.
arrogant. was crying out in a clarion
challenge with every breath: Il am
a mani"
| Suddenly she wondered II in him
she might not find an ally. She :elt
| very lonely. To have counsel with
someone in these hills less stupidity
! phlegmatic than Good Anse Talbot
would bring comfort and reinsurance
to her heart. She must cope with the
powerful resourcefulness of Bad Anse
| Havey. he of the untamed ferocity
and implacable cruelty and shrewd in.
telligence. If some native son could
share even little of her viewpoint
she would find in him q tower OF
strength.
Perhaps he had yielded to the un.
spoken appeal of the deep. rangeful
eyes that were always gray. yet never
twice the same gray. and the sweetly
sensitive lips so tantalizingly charm
ing, because they were fashioned for
smiles and were now dropping instead.
81 reckon" he said. you find 1t right
different, don't your"
She nodded.
But it's very beautiful" she added
as she swept her hand about in a ges-
ture of admiration.
1t was he who nodded at that, very
gravely, and almost reverently. though
at the next moment his laugh was
short and almost ironical.
II reckon God never fashioned any
thing better-nor worse" he told her
when you've breathed 1t an seen IT
an lived it. no other place is fit to
dwell in. an yet sometimes low that
God didn't mean 1t to be the habita.
tiou of men an women. It's cut out
for eagles an hawks an wild things
1t belongs to the winds an storms an
bear an deer. 1t puts fire into veins
meant for blood. an the only crop 1t
raises much is hell."
"You-you've been out in the other
world-down below" she questioned.
| "Yes: hut couldn't stay down there
couldn't breathe. hardly. l sick
ened-an | came back"
She turned to him impulsively