Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-01-25
% NAN Of .
MUSIC MOUNTAIN
II By frank II. Spedrmdn-
h Author Of WHISPERING Smith,,
Author q Whispering Smith

ell tllal morning Tor sleepy Cat Win
bunch of cattle. He rode fractions
horse, Infatuated, as his horses fire.
quently wore, by his brutal treatment,
bolted in Il moment unguarded by his
master, and flung Duke on his back in
strip of lava rocks.
The old man--in / the mountains
man is called old after he passes
f0rty-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
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 a 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 at Calahasas. knew Nan
would not be alarmed should her uncle
not return that night. But early in the
/ morning messenger from McAlpin
/ rode to her with note telling her Of
the accident
4 Whatever his vices, Duke had been
good protector to his dead brothers
child. He had sent her to good schools
and tf1Gd TO revive in her, despite her
\ untoward surroundings, the better ira
(litions Of the family Us 1t had once
fourshed in Kentucky. Nan took the
saddle for Sleepy Cat in haste and
alarm. When she reached her uncles
! 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,
in any case, and Nan relieved the
nurse, and, 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 conf
dence in her ability to withstand fur
ther interference on anyone's part,
with her feelings.
Gale Morgan rode into town fire.
quently, and Nan at first painfully np-
pretended hearing sometime of 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 resolutc little cousin made no So
crct of her detestation Of him. She
denied and defed him as openly as n
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 SPUN, from Thief river to Sleepy
Cat, was q 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
sympathlzers had any champion dis
posed to follow too closely the alert
Medicine Bend railroader.
In and about the hospital and in the
town itself, Nan found the chief oh.
stacle to her peace Of mind in the talk
she could not always avoid hearing
nbout DE SPIN. Convalesccnts in the
corridors, practically all of them men
never gathered In sunny corners or III
the tables In the dining room withou,
De Spaln's name coming In some way
Into the talk, to be followed with vary.
Ing clrcnnlstantia accounts Of whu,
really had happened that day Mt Gala
bnsas.
Aud with all the known escnpnles
.Ap~AseS~r ~ s~~ssr~tv,