Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-04-26

I puny, eager fanus would nave pushed
the tagging orb on its course that she
/ might sooner give herself into the
/ arms where she felt ner place so sure,
/ her honor safe, her heIplessness so pro-
tected, herself so loved.
Row her cheeks burned after supper
when she asked her uncle for leave TO
/ post letter downtown! How breath
| less with apprehension she halted rs
De Spain stepped from the shadow of
the trees and drew her approximately
| beneath them for the kiss that had
burned on her troubled lips all day :!
How, girl-like, knowing his caresses
were all her own-knowing she could
| at an instant call forth enough to
smother her-she tyrannized his i'm
portuning, and like q lovely miser,
boarded her responsiveness under calm
eye and laconic whispers until. when
she did give back his eagerness, she
made his senses reel.
How dreamily she listened to every
word he let fall in his outpouring of
devotion; how gravely she put No her
hand 10 restrain his busy intrusion,
| and asked if he knew that no man in
the world, least OF all her fierce and
burly cousin, had ever touched her lips
until he himself forced a kiss on them
the night before. And now! !" She
hid her face against his shoulder. ooh,
Henry, how l love you! I'm so
ashamed couldn't tell you if it weren't
night; I'll never look you in the face
again in the daytime
And when he tod her how little he
himself had had to do with, and how
IittIe he knew about girls, even from
buyhOOG. how she Ivigrad not to be-
lieve, and believed him still They
were two children raised in the magic
of an hour to the supreme height of
life and dizzy together on its summit.
Il don't see how you can care for
me, Henry. Oh, [ mean it," she pro-
tested, holding her head resOlutely up.
You know who we are, away off there
in the mountains. Everyone hates US.
[ suppose they've plenty of reason to:
we hate everybody else. And why
eryone. You know, better than [ do,
what goes on in the gap. I don't want
to know; [ try not to know; Uncle
Duke tries to keep things from me
that day on Music-I couldn't believe
you meant it at all. And yet-Pm
afraid liked to try to think you did.
When you looked at me I felt as if
you could see right through me-"
Condolences never came to an end.
And diplomacy came into it's own al
most at once in De SPANS efforts to
improve his relations with the impla-
cable Duke. The day came when Mans
uncle could be taken home. De Spain
sent to him soft-spoken emissary,
Bob Scott, offering to provide a light
stage, with his compliments, for the
trip. The intractable mOuntaineer,
with his refusal to accept the olive
branch, blew Bob out of the room.
Nan was crushed by the result, but De
Spain was not to be dismayed.
Lefever came to him the day after
Nan had got her uncle home. Henry"
he began without any preliminaries,
there is one thing about your precipi-
tate ride up Music mountain that
never got clear in my mind. After the
fight, your cartridge belt was hanging
up in the barn at Calabasas for two
weeks. You walked in to US that morn
ing with your belt buclzled or. You
told US you put it on before you came
upstairs. What? Oh. yes, I know.
Henry. But that belt wasn't hanging
downstairs with your coat earlier in
the evening. No, Henry, it wasn't-not
when I looked. Don't tell me such
things, because-I don't know. Where
was the belt when you found it?"
"S0me distance from the coat, John.
admit that. I'll tell you: some one
had moved the belt. It was not where
left it. [ was hurried the morning [
rode in, and I can't tell you just where
I found it,,
Lefeyer never batted an eyelash. 81
know you can't, Henry. Because you
won't. That Scotch hybrid McAlpin
knows a few things, too, that he won't
! tell. All I want to say is, you can
! trust that man too far. He's got all
my recent salary. Every time Jeffries
raises my pay that hairy-pawed horse
doctor reduces it just so much a month.
And he does it with one pack Of fifty
two small cards that you could stick
! into your vest pocket"
'McAlnin has a Wife and children to
! support" suggested De Spain.
Don't think for a moment he does
! it," returned Lefever vehementIv. 81
support his wife and children myself"
you shouldn't play cards, John"
at was by playing cards that I To-
! Gated Sassoon, just the same. 4 little
/ game with your friend Bull Page, by
the way. And say, that man blew
into Calabasas one day here lately
] with a twenty-dollar bill; it's q fact
Now, where do you suppose he got
| twenty dollars in one bill? [ know I
had it two hours after he got there,
and then in fifteen minutes that
blamed bullwhacker you pay thirty