The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-03-10
The Path Master
Continued from page y

ne Dc0n again, WIS
pered the game-warden. Fur Gods
said, give him that bottle, somebody"
But as the bottle was pushed across
the counter, McCloud swung his rifle
butt and knocked the bottle into sIivers
Drinks for the crowdi" he. said, with
an ugly laugh. "Get down and lap
it up off the floor, you fox cubsl"
Then, pushing the fly-screen door
open with one elbow, he sauntered out
follow him, although now that he had
insulted and defied the entire town there
were men behind who would have
done him mischief if they had dared
believe him off his guard
He walked modify on in the moon
light, disdaining to. either listen or
glance behind him. There was stoop
to his shoulders now, a loose carriage
which sometimes marks a man whose
last shred of self-respect has gone,
leaving him nothing but the naked
virtues and vices with which he was
born. McCIoud's vices were many,
though some of them lay dormant;
his virtues, if they were virtues, could
be counted in a BREATH natural
courage, and a generous heart, paralyzed
and inactive under a load of despair
and deep resentment against everybody
and everything. He hated the for
tunate and the unfortunate alike; he
despised his neighbors, he despised
himself. His inertia had given place
to a fierce restlessneSs; he felt a sudden
and curious desire for a physical struggle
with strong antagonist-hke young
Byram-
All at once the misery of his poverty
arose up before him. It was not I'M
endurable simply because he was OBJ
iged to endure it.
The thought of his hopeless poverty
stupefied him at first, then rage fol-
lowed. Poverty was an antagonist,
like young Byram-a powerful one
How he hated iti How he hated ByramI
Why? And, as he walked there, shutting
up the dust in the moonlight, he
thought, for the first time IN his life,
that II poverty were only q breathing
creature he would strange it with his
naked hands But logic carried him
no further; he began to brood again,
remembering Tansey's insults and the
white anger of young Byram, and the
threats from the dim group around the
stove. If they molested him they
would remember 1t. He would neither
pay taxes nor work for them.
Then he thought of the path-master,
reddening as he remembered Tansey's
accusation. He shrugged his shoulders
and Strengthened up, dismissing her
from his mind, but she returned, only
to be again dismissed with an effort.
When for the third time the memory
of the little path-master returned, he
glanced up as though he could see
her in the flesh standing in the road
before his house. She acos therein
the flesh.
The moonlight silvered her hair,
and her face was the face of a spirit:
it quickened the sluggish blood in his
veins to see her SO in the moonlight.
She said: !" thought that if you
knew / should be obliged to pay your
road-tax if you do not, you would
pay. Would you2"
. A shadow glided across the moon
light; 1T was the collie dog, and It came
and looked up into McC1oud's shadowy
eyes
YesI would" he said; "but I
cannot
His heart began to beat faster; a
tide of wholesome blood stirred and
flowed through his veins 1t was the
latent decency within him awaking.
Little pash-master, he said, AZ
am very poor; have no money. But
l viii work out my taxes because you
ask me"
Il, I L. 4 =