The daily Alaskan., 1918-12-19
LAID PLANS
By JACK LAWToN.


AS luT DIth US SuC GOulu tSluGLIDSA Laurel had known of the enmity ex iStiDg between her fathers family and that of their neighbor farther down the ro?l. It was L&urel's mother whc had told her the tale of her grand fathers crime.
 'It was best" she had said, "that the child should learn of it from her own. ."
 Laurel had lOnged to make the mountain neighbours child her cOmpan- ion, life was lonely among the hills. So Laurers mother had explained why this could not be.
 She had listened In frightened hor- TOT. Her grandfather was a murderer. That was the fact in all its brutal plainneSS, as her mother told 1t. Grandfather had killed the man who would be this mountain child's grand father. His crime had been vlndi- cated because the deed was considered one of sclf-defenSe.
 But the grandfather had sought no such excuse. Murder" he said, was in his heart at the time. "The man had told a cruel lie to the woman he loved, breaking the engagement be- tween them. On the narrow mountain trail he had met and accused the vic tim, and when they had struggled in anger 1t had ended In the fall of the man to his death below.
 Self-coufeSsed. Laurers grandfather was a murderer, and the shadow lin gered on those who followed. Recon ciled. he had married his sweetheart, but the enmity between the two fam files concerned remained a thing of reality.
 When Laurel's own saddened mother had gone forever from the mountain home, 1t was at her wish that her daughter be sent away to school, and to learn what the great outer world might hold. Now, in all the sweetness of mountain summer, Laurel had come back again, to be with her father.
 It was in the weather-beaten church on Sabbath that she raised her eyes from her singing book, to meet those of a stranger. From the outer world he, too. had come back to the prinl- tive. Like her's, his own eyes had widcned la question, "How come you here?" asked tie strangers eyes. And who" flashed Laurel's, "are youT
 After service both were answered. "That," said her father, in tone of constraint. 'is the last of the WiltOns, from down the road. He's been away for years, studying, they say, an get ting rich"
 On the following morning, she met the man of the questioning gaze on a marrow .saunt@in trail. Ills pro- nouaccd avoidance of her proclaimed that the last of the Wiltons still bore aversion to the granddaughter of a murderer.
 LaurcPs soft eyes clouGed, but she felt no resentment.
 The next day Laurel took a diff fercnt path, hoping to avoid the mans d!spleasure at sight of her, and as Dan Wilton had started out with the same purpose, the two came again focp 10 "ace ia the roadway. LaurePs Im7ulSive smile met his frown. Ana ns he locked down upon her again In "mccting" Laurel fancied that the neighbors eyes wore a kinder light, as though against his own will he were netting a rart. She found 1t impossi- ble to banish his face from her thoughts.
 Crie7ed, yet wondering why 1t should sc grieve her, Laurel decided to coofiae her walks to the wood; there, fatefully. she met him. He stood for A moment, watching the sunlight filter ing down on her face, then spoke:
 "You must not think" he sald slow lv, "that my avoidance of you has been evidence of the foolish enmlty of my family. You will find 1t as difficult to believe the truth as find 1t myself"
 'T love you" said Dan Wilton. "I have loved you from the moment l looked into your eyes; but" he laughed harshly, there Is no use. l cannot reconcile that past stain in the blood"
 Laurers lip trembled; It did not oc- cur to her to resent his self-confdence, to tell him that her own heart was not for the winning.
 ''We must not meet again" she said. 'T always will take the upper path to town, you the lower. When l come to the wood. I shall leave always be- fore four; 1t Is a dark stain; l am sorry and understand"
 Longing eyes followed her up the trail. She forgot as she determinedly kept to her stated routine, that the best-laid plans have been known to "gang aglee."
 Dan Wilton had forsaken the meet ing house. He realized that he must resort to more rigid measures if he would keep from seeing the girl he loved. He must go away, and after four o'clock, therefore, through the silent wood he walked, fighting his fight.
 True to her promise Laurel had left the eloquent spot of fir and pine. But on her homeward way she paused con-