Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-07-12

into the saddle again, and rode all the
way into town.
But when his business was done,
Duke, too, was done. He could neither
SIT a horse, . sit In q wagon. Sleepy
Cat was stirred ut the news, and that
the man who had defied everybody in
the mountains for twenty years should
have been laid low and sent TO the
hospital by Il mere broncho was the
topic of many comments. De Spain.
who was ut Calabasas, knew Nan
would not be alarmed should her uncle
not return that night. But early in the
morning q messenger from McAlpin
rode to her with q note telling her of
the accident.
Whatever his vices, Duke had been
n good protector to his dead brothers
child. He had sent her to good schools
and tried to revive in her. despite her
untownrd surroundings, the better tra-
ditions Of the family as 1t had once
fiourished in Kentucky. Nan took the
saddle for Sleepy Cat In haste and
alarm. When she reached her uncle's
bedside she understood how seriously
he had been hurt, and the doctors
warnings were not needed to convince
her he must have care.
Duke refused to let her leave him.
i n any case, and Nan relieved the
nurse, aud, what was Of equal moment,
made herself custodian of the cash
in hand before Dukes town compan.
ions could get hold of 1t. Occasional
trips to the gap were necessary as the
weeks passed and her uncle could not
be moved. These Nan had feared as
threatening an encounter either by ac-
cident, or on his part designed, with
De Spain. But the impending encoun-
ter never took place. De Spain, at
tending closely to his own business,
managed to keep accurate track of her
whereabouts without getting in her
way. She had come to Sleepy Cat
%dreading to meet him and fearing his
influence over her, but this apprehen-
sion. with the passing of Il curiously
brief period. dissolved into a conf
dence In her ability to withstand fur
Their interference, on anyone's part.
with her feelings.
Gale Morgan rode into town fire.
quently, and Nan at first painfully ap-
pretended hearing sometime of a dead
ly duel between her truculent gap adj
mirer and her persistent town courtier
who was more considerable and bet
ter hammered. but no less logged. and,
in fact, a good deal more difficult to
handle.
As to the boistcrouS mountain man,
his resolute little cousin made no Sc.
cret of her detestation Of him. She
!, denied and defied him as openly as q
girl could, and heard his threats with
continued Indifference. She was quite
alone, too, in her fear Of any fatal
, meeting between the two men who
seemed determined to pursue her.
The truth was that after Calabasas,
De Spain, from Thief river to Sleepy
, Cat, was Il marked man. None sought
:, to cross his path or his purposes, and
neither the town haunts Of Calabasas
, men nor those Of their Morgan Gap
sympathizers had any champion dis.
i. posed to follow too closely the alert
i, Medicine Bend railroadcr.
In and about the hospital, and in the
/, town itself, Nan found the chief OBJ.
, staclc to her peace Of mind in the talk
, she could not always avoid hearing
about De Spain. Convalescents In the
corridors, practically all Of them men
, never gathered In sunny corners or al
the tables In the dining room without
, De SPANS name coming In some way
into the talk, to be followed with vary
ing circumstantial accounts Of what
really had happened that day at Gala
basas.
, And with all the known escapade,
In which he had figured, exhausted a,
topics, by long.wlnded commentators
. more or less hazy stories Of his earlier
experiences at Medicine Bend In the
company Of Whispering Smith were
dragged into the talk. One GONZALES
cent stage.guard at the hospital tolt
, a story one night at supper about hin
! !. that chilled Nan again with strange
fears, for she knew It to be true. HI
had had 1t from McAlpin himself. &C
the guard said, that De SPANS father
had long ago been shot down from am
bush by a cattleman and that Henr,
Z de Spain had sworn to hnd that mar
and kill him. And It was limited pref
~ strongly that De Spain had infor,na
ton when he consented to come t
: tSieepy Cat that the assassin still lived
and lived somewhere around the heat
o Of the sinks.
On that very evening Il CHANGED th,
8 doctor came late. When he walked II
he asked her II she knew Il was From
tier duy, and reminded her that Jus
q q year ago she had shot against Henri,
de Spain and beaten the most danger
Gus man and the deadliest shot on th,
mountain divide In her rife match.
How he had grown In the magma
b tion Of Sleepy Cat and Music noun
. tain, she said to hcrself-whiie th,
doctor talked to her uncle-since tina,
day q year asoi Then he was no NOR,
. than an unknown and dlscomntet
q rnarksuan from Medicine Bend, bcater
By q mountain giri-now the mos,
tafked.of man 10 the high country. And
. the suspicion would sometimes obtrud,
itself with pride Into her mind, thai
. she who never mentioned his name
when Il Was discussed before her
} really knew and undsgSeeed ~ ~