Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-04-19

in manner calculated to invite conf
dence without giving offense. Miss
Man." said he simply, Henry de Spain
was here, with me, sitting right there
where you are sitting, in that chair,
not fifteen minutes before that fight
began. l told you he never went down
there to fight. Do you want the proof?
III tell you'll wouldn't want anybody
else to know-wiH you keep it?''
Nan seemed Indifferent. "Girls are
not supposed to keep Secrets she said
Obstinately.
Her narrator was not to be baked,
He pointed to the coat-rack on the
wall in front of them both. There is
Henry de SPANS coat. He hung it
there just before he went down to the
inn. Under ii, if you look, you'll find
his belt of cartridges. Don't take my
WOrd-look for yourself"
Giving this information time to sink
in, McAlpin continued. Mans eyes had
turned, despite her Indifference, to the
coat; but she was thinking more in
tently about the belt which McAlpin
asserted hung under it. You want to
know what he did go down to the hotel
for that afternoon? I happen TO know
that, too" averred McAlpin, sitting
down, but respectfully, on the edge of
the chair. First I want to say this: /
worked for your Uncle Duke five
years"
He paused to give Nan a chance to
dispute the statement if she so desired.
Then, taking her despairfng silence as
an Endorsement of his position in Civ
ing her a confidence, he went on:
Henry de Spain is dead" he said quf-
city. She eyed him without so much
as winking. Il wouldn't tell it, if he
wasn't. The boys dead. And he was
always talking about you. It's Gods
truth, and since he's dead it harms no
one to tell it to you, though I'd never
breathe it to another. He was fairly
gone on you.
You don't have to knock me down,
Miss Nan, to put me wise about a
mans being keen on a girl. Tn mar
ried man." declared McAlpin with
modest pride. HE thought all the
time he was fooling me, and keeping
covered. Now, that afternoon he came
in here kind of moody. It was an an
niversary for him, and hard One-the
day his father was shot from am
bush-a good many years ago, but
nary one of US had forgot it. Then
he happened to see your pony-this
same pony you're riding tOday-a-
standing back there in the bOx-staIl.
He asked me whose it was; and he
asked me about you, and, by jinx! the
way he perked up when | told him
you were coming in on the stage that
afternoon! When he heard you'd been
sick, he was for going down to the
hotel to get a cup of collector you !'
McAlpin, like any good story-teller,
was already on his feet again. "He
did it," he exclaimed, land you know
what he got when he stepped into the
barroom." He took hold of De SPANS
coat and held it aside to enter his
exhibit. There" he concluded ''is
his cambridge belt, hanging there yet.
The boy is dead-why shouldn't I tell
your
Nan rode home much more excited,
more bewildered than when she had
ridden over. Strangest shock of all
that this man of all other men should
profess to care for her. She had
shown anger when McAlpin dared
speak of it; at least, she thought she
had. And she still did not know how
sufficiently to resent the thought of
such audactty on De SPANS part
This was, to say the least, a further
awkward complication for her feelings.
She already had enough to confuse
them.