The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-06-27

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 10 his w 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 a%pprehen-
sion, with the passing Of u curiously
brief period. dissolved into a conf
dence in her ability to withstand fur
thei interference, on anyone's part,
with her feelings.
Gale Morgan rode into town fire.
Quently and Nan at first painfully ap-
pretended hearing sometime Of a dead
ly duel between her truculent gap adj
mirer and her persistent town courtier
WHO WIS more tDILSlltIh anu UtL-
ter hammered, but no less logged, and,
in fact, a good deal more difficult TO
handle.
AS to the hoisterOuS mountain man,
his r~esOlute little cousin made no Sc
cret of her detestation of him. She
denied and deied him as openly as "A
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 Spain, from Thief river to Sleepy
Cat, was n marked man None sought
to cross his path or his purposes, and
neither the town haunts of C~alabasaS
men nor those of their Morgan Gap
sympathizers 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 OBJ
stacle to her peace Of mind In the talk
she coull not always avoid hearing
dDOul lie oDdlu tOINuItSNtlIS III tile
corridors. practically all of them men,
never gathered in sunny corners or ut
the tables In the dining room without
De SPANS name coming in some way
into the talk, to be followed with vary
ing circumsta ltial accounts of what
really had happened that day at Gala
'basas.
And with all the known escapades
In which he had figured, exhausted cs
topics, by long-winded commentators,
more or less hazy stories OF his earlier
experiences at Medicine Bend in the
company of Whispering Smith We're
dragged into the talk. One GONZALES
cent stage-guard at the hospital told
a story n night at supper about him
that chilled Nan again with strange
fears, for she knew it to be true. He
had had it from McAlpin himself, so
the guard said, that De SPANS father
had long ago been shot down from am
bush by a cattleman and that Henry
de Spain had sworn to find that man
n kill him. And it was limited pref
ty strongly that De Spain had informa-
ton when he consented to come to
Sleepy Cat that the assassin still lived,
and lived somewhere around the head
OF the sinks.
On that very evening 1t CHANGED the
doctor came late. When he walked in
he asked her If she knew 1t was From
tier day, and reminded her that just
a year ago she had shot against Henry
de Spain and beaten the most danger
GUS man and the deadliest shot on the
mountain divide in her rifle match
How he had grown in the imagina-
ton Of Sleepy Cat and Music noun
tain. she said to herself-while the
doctor talked to her uncle-since that
day a year ago! Then he was no more
than an unknown and discounted
marksman from Medicine Bend, beaten
by a mountain girl-now the most
talked-of man in the high country. And
the suspicion would sometimes obtrude
itself with pride into her mind, that
h who never mentioned his nam
when 1t was discussed before her,
ACuiy hucW duu UNDERSTOOD MIN bet
ter than any Of those that talked so
much-that she had at least one great
secret with him alone.
When leaving, the doctor wished to
send over from his office medicine for
her uncle. Nan offered to go with him,
but the doctor said it was pretty late
and Main street pretty noisy-he pre-
ferred to find a messenger. When
there came a rap on the half-open door,
she went forward to take the medicine
from the messenger and saw, standing
before her In the hall. De Spain.
She shrank back as If struck. She
tried to speak. Her tongue refused its
Office. De Spain held a package out
In his hand. Doctor Torpy asked me
to give you this"
Doctor T0rpyf What is It'll"
II really don't know-I suppose II
IL medicine" She heard her uncle turn
in his bed at the sound Of voices.
Thinking only that he must not at any
cost zee De Spain, Nan stepped quick
49, -FA