Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-03-20

ders, your makeup Tn general-that sent me away with 6 large-sized grouch at myself, at Cariboo Meadows, and at you for coming in my way"
 "Why?" she asked in wonder.
 Because you'd have believed what they told you, and Cariboo Meadows can't tell anything about me that isn't bad" he said quietly. My record there makes me entirely unfit to asso- eiate with--that would have been your conclusion. And I wanted to be with you, to talk to you, to take you by storm and make you like me as I felt I could care for you. You can't have grown up, little person, without realiz- ing that you do attract men very strongly. All women do, but some far more than others"
 Perhaps" she admitted coldly. 'Men have annoyed me with their un- welcome attentions. But none of them ever dared go the length of carrying me away against my will. You can't explain or excuse that"
 "I'm not attempting excuses" Bill made answer. "There are two things never do-apologize or bully. I dare say that's one reason the Meadows gives me such black eye. If they weren't good deal afraid of me, and always laying for q chance to do me up, they wouldn't let me stay in the town overnight So you can see what handicap I was under when 1t came to making your acquaintance and courting you in the orthodox manner"
 You've made great mistake" she said bitterly, Eff you think you've re- moved the handicap. I've suffered great deal at the hands of men in the past six months. I'm beginning to be- lieve that all men are brutes at heart"
 Roaring Bill sat up and clasped his hands over his knees and stared f1xedly into the fire.
 "No," he said slowly, "all men are not brutes-any more than all women are angels. I'll convince you of that"
 "Take me home, then" she cried for lornly. That's the only way you can convince me or make amends"
 "No," Bill murmured, "that isn't the way. Wait till you know me better. Besides, I couldn't take you out now if wanted to without exposing you to greater hardships than you'll have to endure here. Do you realize that it's fall, and we're in the high latitudes7 This snow may not go off at all. Even if 1t does 1t will storm again before a week. You couldn't wallow through snow to your waist in forty-below-zero weather"
 People will pass here, and I'll get word out" Hazel asserted desperately.
 What good would that do you7 You've got too much conventional re- gard for what you term your reputa- tion to send word to Cariboo Meadows that you're living back here with Roar ing Bill Wagstaff, and won't some one please come and rescue you" He paused to let that sink in, then con- tinued: Besides, you won't see white face before spring; then only by accident. No one in the North, out side of few Indians, has ever seen this cabin or knows where it stands"
 She sat dumb, raging inwardly. For the minute she could have killed Roar ing Bill. She who had been so sure in her independence carried, whether or no, into the heart of the wilderness at the whim of a man who stood a self. confessed rowdy. in i'll repute among his own kind. There was slumber. Ing devil in Miss Hazel Weir, and 1t took. little to wake her temper. She looked at Bill Wagstaff, and her breast heaved. He was responsible, and he could sit coolly talking about 1t. The resentment that had smoldered against Andrew Bush and Jack Barrow concen- trated on Roaring Bill as the arch of. fender of them all. And lest she yield to a savage impulse to scream at him. she got up and ran into the bedroom. slammed the door shut behind her, and tnrew herself across the bed to muffle the sound of her crying in pillow.
 Alter time she lifted her head. outside, the wind whistled gustily around the cabin corners. In the hushed intervals she heard a steady pad, pad, sounding sometimes close by her door, again faintly at the far end or the room. A beam of light shone through the generous latchstring hole In the door. Stealing softly over, she peeped through this hole. From end to end Of the big room and back again ftoarlng Bill paced slowly, looking straight ahead of him with a fixed, absent stare, his teeth closed on his neither lip. Hazel blinked wondering. ly Many an hour In the last three months she had walked the floor like that, biting her lip in mental agony. And then, while she was looking, Bill abruptly extinguished the candles. In