The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1917-05-12
CHAPTER XVI.
Her Bad Penny.

Her Bad Penny.
Nan reached her room in fever of
excitement, angry at De Spain, bitterly
angry at Gale. angry with the noun
tains, the world, and resentfully fight
Ing the pillow on which she cried her
self to sleep.
In the morning every nerve was on
edge. When her Uncle Duke, with his
chopplng utterance, said something
short to her at their very early break
fast he was surprised by an answer
equally short. Her uncle retorted
sharply. A second curt answer greet
ed his rebuff, and while he stared at
her. Nan left the table and the room.
Duke, taking two of the men. start
ed that morning for Sleepy Cat with
a bunch Of cattle. He rode fractions
horse, Infatuated, as his horses fire.
quently were, by his brutal treatment,
bolted In q moment unguarded by his
master, and flung Duke on his back In
a strip Of lava rocks.
The old man--in the mountains a
man is called old after he passes
forty-was heavy, and the fall seri-
Gus one. He picked himself up while
the men were recovering his horse,
knocked the horse over the head with
a piece of jagged rock when the fright.
ened beast was brought back, climbed
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 horse, nor sit in wagon. Sleepy
Cat was stirred at 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 a 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 McAlpir
rode to her with a note telling her OF
the accident.
Whatever his vices, Duke had beer
a good protector to his dead brothers
child. He had sent her to good school:
and tried to revive in her, despite hel
untoward surroundings, the better ira
dltlons Of the family as 1t had onct
flourished In Kentucky. Nan took the
saddle for Sleepy Cat In haste ant
alarm. When she reached her uncle!
bedside she understood how serlousl,
he had been hurt, and the doctors
warnings were not needed to convinc'
her he must have care.
Duke refused to let her leave him
In any case, and Nan relieved thu
| nurse, and, what was Of equal moment
made herself custodian of the casl
in hand before Dukes town compan
ions could get hold Of 1t. Occasiona
trips to the gap were necessary as tn,
weeks passed and her uncle could no
be moved. These Nan had feared a.
threatening an encounter either by &C
cident, or on his part designed, witt
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 he
whereabouts without getting In he
way. She had come to Sleepy Ca
dreading to meet him and fearing hi
influence over her. but this apprehen
sion, with the passing Of curiousl!
brief period. dissolved into 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 dead
ly duel between her truculent gap ad
mirer and her persistent town courtie
who was more considerate and bet
ter hammered. but no less logged, and
in fact, a good deal more difficult t
handle.
As to the boisterous mountain mar
his resolute little cousin made no sc
cret Of her detestation Of him. Sh
denied and defied him AZ openly as
girl could, and heard his threats wit
continued indifference. She. was quit
alone, too. In her fear OF any fata
meeting between the two men VIII
seemed determined to pursue her.
The truth was that after Calabasas
De Spain, from Thief river to Sleep
Cat, was a marked man. None sough
to cross his path or his purposes, an
neither the town haunts Of Calabass
men nor those Of their Morgan Ga
sympathlzers bad any champion dis
posed to follow too closely the aler
Medicine. Bend railroatler.
/ In and about the hospital. and In tn
town itself, Nan found the chief oh
stacle to her peace of mind In the tall
she could not always avoid hearin
about De Spain. Convalescents In tn
corridors, practically all Of them mer
never gathered In sunny corners or q
- table, ~ the diving bn~m vith0u