The Ozark spectator., 1917-07-04

bed she rose bolt upright. 'sE0w she declared solemnly. You shan't faka his arm off"
 The surgeon met her rebellion tact fully. But he told Nan, at last, that De Spain must lose either his arm or his life. "No." she repeated without hesitation and without blanchins, you shan't take of his arm. He shan't lose his lffe."
 E The blood surged into her checks better blood and redder than the doc tors had been able to bring there-such blood as De Spain alone could call into them. Nan, with her nurses help, dressed, joined De Spain, and talked long and earnestly. The doctors, too, laid the situation before him. When they asked him for his decision, he nodded toward Nan. "She will tell you, gentlemen, what we'll do,"
 And Nan did tell them what the two who had most at stake in the decision would do. Any man could have done as much as that. But Nan did more. She set herself out to save the arm and patient both. and, lest the doctors should change their tactics and move together on the arm surreptitiously, Nan stayed night and day with De Spain, until he was able to make such active use of either arm as to convince her that he and not the surgeons would soon need the most watching.
 Afterward when Nan, in some doubt, asked the chaplain whether she was married or single, he obligingly offered to ratify and confirm the desert cere- mony.
 This affair was the occasion for an extraordinary roundup at Sleepy Cat. Two long hostile elements-the stage and railroad men and the Calabasas- Morgan gap contingent of mountain men, for once at least, fraternized. Warrants were pigeonholed, suspicion suspended, sidearms neglected In their scabbards |he fighting men of both camps, in the presence of 8 ceremony that united De Spain and Nan Morgan, could not but feel generors elation. Each party considered that it was con- tributing to the festivity in the bride and groom and the very best each could boast, and no false note dis turbed the harmony of the notable day.
 Gale Morgan, having given up the fight, had left the country. Satterlee Morgan danced till all the platforms in town gave way. John Lefever attend ed the groom. and Duke Morgan stern ly but without eOmpunction, gave the bride. From Medicine Bend Farrell Kennedy brought notable company of De Spain's early associates for the event. It included Whispering Smith, whose visit to Sleepy Cat on this oc- casion was the first in years; George McCloud. who had come all the way in arms; Wickwire, who had lost none of his taciturn bluntness-and so many train dispatcherS that the service on the division was crippled for the entire day.
 A great company of self-appolnted retainers gathered together from over all the country, rode behind the gayly decorated bridal coach in procession from the church to Jeffries' house, where the feasts had been prepared. During the reception a modest man, dragged from an obscure corner among the guests, was made to take his place next Lefever on the receiving line. It was Bob Scott, and he looked most un. comfortable until he found a chance to slip unobserved back to the side of the room where the distinguished Medicine Bend contingent, together with McAlpin. Pardaloe, Elpaso and Bull Page. slightly unsteady but ex- tremely serious for the grave occasion, appeared vastly uncomfortable to- gether.
 The railroad has not yet been built across the sinks to Thief River. But only those who lived in Sleepy Cat in its really wild stage days are entitled to call themselves early settlers, or to tell stories more or less authentic about what then happened. The great CT number of the Old Guard of that day, as cankering peace gradually re- asserted itself along the sinks, turned from the stage coach to the railroad coach; some of them may yet be met on the trains in the mountain country. Wherever you happen to find such one. he will tell you of the days when Superintendent de Spain of the Vest ern division wore a gun in the noun tains and used 1t, when necessary, on his wife's relations.
 Whether it was this stern sense of discipline or not that endeared him Go the men, these old. timers are, to a man. very loyal to the young couple who united in their marriage the two hostile mountain elements. One in especial, a white-naired old man. de- scribed by the tanciful as a retired outlaw, living yet on Mans ranch in the gap, always spends his time in