Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-01-18


her nerve for q mon,ent. Well. we're
going to take you home, and she'll go
with us. Colonel LoRgstreth left for
Louisiana right after the fight. |
advised it. There was great excite
ment. 1t was best for him to leave"
Have I-a-chsnce-to recover?"
"Chance? Why man." exclaimed the
captain. you'll get we'll! You'll pack
sight of lead all your life. But you
can stand that Duane. the whole
Southwest knows your story. You
need never again be ashamed of the
name Buck Duane. The brand out
law is washed out. Texas believes
you've been a secret ranger all the
time. You're a hero. And now think
Of home. your mother, of this noble
girl-of your future"
The rangers took Duane home to
Wellston.
4 railroad had been built since
Duane had gone into exile WeIlston
had grown. A noisy crowd surround
ed the station, but it stillea as Duane
was carried from the train.
A sea of faces pressed close. Some
were faces he remembered-schoo
mates friends. old neighbors. There
was an uplifting of many hands.
Duane was being welcomed home to
the town from which he had fled A
deafness within him broke. This well
come hurt him somehow, quickened
him; and through his cold being. his
sight dimmed.
Then there was white house, his
old home. How strange, yet how real
His heart beat fast. Had so many,
many years passed? Familiar yet
strange it was, and all seemed magni-
fed.
They carried him in, these ranger
comrades, and laid him down. and
lifted his head upon pillows. The
house was STILL though full of people.
Duane's gaze sought the open door.
Someone entered-a tall girl in
white, with dark wet eyes and a light
upon her face. She was leading an
old lady, gray-haired, austere-faced,
somber and sad. His mother She
was feeble, but she walked erect. She
dignity.
Then someone in white uttered a
low cry and knelt by Duane's bed.
His mother flung wide her arms with
a strange gesture.
'This man! They've not brought
back my boy. This mans his father
Where is my son? My son-oh my
~
and listen to his talk. The old man
was broken now. He told many in
teresting things about people Duane
had knOwn-people who had grown up
and married, failed, succeeded, gone
away, and died. But it was hard to
keep Uncle Jim off the subject of
guns, outlaws, fights. He could not
seem to divine how mention of these
things hurt Duane. Uncle Jim was
childish now, and he had great pride
in his nephew. He wanted to hear
of all of Duane's exile. And if there
was one thing more than another that
pleased him it was to talk about the
bullets which Duane carried in his
body.
give bullets, amt it," he asked
for the hundredth tine. Give in that
last scrap! BY gum! And you hat
six before?"
Eyes, uncle" replied Duane.
give and six. That makes eleven
BY gum! A mans man, to carry
all that lead. But, Buck, you would
larry more. There's that niger Ed
Yards, right here in Wellston. He's
cot a ton of bullets in him. Doesnt
seem to mind them none. And there's
Cole Miller. I've seen him. Been 6
bad man in his day. They say ne
packs twenty-three bullets. But he's
bigger than you-gOt more flesh.
Funny, wasn't 1t Buck, about the
doctor only bein' able to cut one bullet
out of you-the one in your breast
bone? It was a fOrty-one caliber, al
unusual rar;i'i15e. I saw 1t, and
wanted it, but Miss Longstretf
wouldn't part with it. Buck, there
was q bullet left in one of POggin''
guns, and that bullet was the same
kind as the one cut out Of you. BY
gum! Boy, it d have killed you il
it ID stayed there"
'It would indeed, uncle" replied
Duane, and the old, haunting, sombel
mood returned.
But Duane was not often at The
mercy of childish old hero-wOrshipin&
Uncle Jim. Miss Longstreth was the
only person who seemed to divine
Duanes gloomy mood, and when sht
was with him she warded off all sug
gesti0n.
One afternoon while she was there
at the west window, a message came
for him. They read it together.
You have saved the ranger service t.
the Lone Star State.
Ray knelt beside him at the window
and he believed she meant to speal
then of the thing they had Stunned
Her face was still white, but sweetel
| now, warm with rich life beneath tht
marble; and her dark eyes were still
intent, still haunted by shadows, bu
no longer tragic.
'Tm glad for MacNelly's sake a:
we'll as the states" said Duane.
She made no reply to that anC
seemed to be thinking deeply. Duane
shrank q little.
G|Tbo pain-is IL anv rnrSa today9'