The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1917-06-06
9 NAN Of 9
MUSIC MOUNTAIN
By frank II. Spedrman
Author Of Whispering Smith,.
Author q Whispering Smlth


De Spain. his eyes on the danger
and his hand laid behind Mans waist
led the way guardedly down to
where their horses stood. Nan, need
ing no instructions for the emergency,
took the lines of the horses, and De
Spain, standing beside his own horse,
reached his right hand over in from;
of the pOmmel and, regarding SassOOn
all the while, drew his rifle slowly
from its scabbard. The blood ded
Mans cheeks. She said nothing. With
out looking at her, De Spain drew her
own rifle from her horses side, passed
1t into her hand, and, moving over in
front of the horses, laid his left hand
reassuringly ON her waist again. AT
that moment, little knowing what eyes
were on him in the black fragments
ahead, Sassoon looked up. Then he
rode more slowly forward. The color
returned to Mans cheeks. "Do you
want me to use thisf" she murmured
indicating the rifle.
"Certninly not. But II the others
turn back, 1 may need 1t. Stay right
here with the horses. He will lose the
trail in n minute now. When he
reaches the rock I'll go down and
keep him from getting off his horse
he won't fight from the saddle"
But with an Instinct better than
knowledge, SassOon, like wolf scent
ing danger, stopped again. He scanned
the broken and forbidding hump in
front, now less than u quarter Of II
r1afln from him nsragfInnfnrrINT His
eyes seemed to rove inquisitively over
the lava pile as if asking why u Nor
gan Gap pony had visited It, In an.
other moment he wheeled his horse
and spurred rapidly after his compan-
ions.
The two drew a deep breath. De
Spain laughed. what we don't know
never hurts u.s." He drew Nan TO him.
Holding the rifle muzzle AZ arms
length as the butt rested on the
ground, she looked up from the Shout
der to which che was drawn. ''What
should you have done If he had conner
Taken you to the gap and then
taken him to Sleepy Cat, where he be-
longs"
But, Henry, suppose"
There wouldn't have been any sup
pose"
Suppose the others had come"
with one rifle, here, man could
stand OF a regiment. Nan, do you
know, you fit into my arm as If you
were made for itf'
His courage was contagious. When
he had tired her with fresh importu-
mites he unplnned her felt hat and
held It out of reach while he kissed
and toyed with and dlsarranged her
hair. In revenge. she snatched from
his pocket his little black memOran-
dunn book and some letters and read,
or pretended to read them, and SELF
ing her opportunity she broke from
him and ran with the utmost fieetness
up into the rocks.
In two minutes they had forgotten
the episode almost as completely as
If 1t never had been. But when they
left for home they agreed they would
not meet there again. They knew that
Sassoon, like a jacknl, would surely
come back, and more than once, until
he found out just what that trail or
any subsequent trail leading into the
beds meant. The lovers laughed the
jackal's spying to scorn and rode away,
bantering, racing and chasing each
other in the saddle, as solely concerned
in their happiness as II there were
nothing else Of moment in the whole
wide world.