The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-10
CHAPTER iV-Continued

"Roarin' Bill's goin' to get himself killed one uh these days"
 Hazel started, but 1t was only Jim Briggs in the doorway beside her.
 "I guess you aint much used to see in that sort of exhibition where you come from, Miss Weir" Briggs wife put in over his shoulder. My land, it's disgustin'-men fightin' in the street where everybody can see 'em. Thank goodness. 1t don't happen very often. Specially when Bill Wagstafr ain't around. You ain't shocked, are you. honey2"
 "Why, I didn't have time to be shocked" Hazel laughed. Tt was done so quickly"
 "If them fellers would leave Bill alone" Briggs remarked, there wouldn't be no fight But he goes of like hair-trigger gun, and he'd scrap a dozen quick as one. I'm lookin' to see his finish one uh these days"
 What name!" Hazel observed. caught by the appelation Briggs had first used. ''Is that Roaring Bill over there?"
 That's him-Roarin' Bill Wagstafr." Briggs answered. "If he takes few drinks, you'll find out tonight how he got the name. Slngs-just like a bull moose-hear him all over town. Prob ably whip two or three men before mOrnin'."
 His spouse calling him at that mo- ment, Briggs detailed no more infor- nation about Roaring Bill. And Hazel sat looking across the way with con- siderable interest at the specimen of type which hitherto she had encoun- tered in the pages of fiction-a fight ing man, what the West called bad actor" She had, however, no wish for closer study of that particular type, The men of her world had been altogether different. and the few iron tier specimens she had met at the Briggs dinner table had not i'm pressed her with anything except their shyness and manifest awkwardness in her presence. The West itself ap- pealed to her, its bigness. its nearness to the absolutely primeval, but not the people she had so far met. And so she looked at Roaring Bill Wagstaff, over the way, with quite impersonal interest.
 ! He came into Briggs place for sup per. Mrs. Briggs was her own wait ress. Briggs himself sat beside Hazel She heard him grunt, and saw mild look of surprise fit over his counte- nance when Roaring Bill walked in and coolly took a seat. But not until Hazel glanced at the newcomer did she recognize him as the man who had fought in the street. He was looking straight at her when she did glance up, and the mingled astonishment and frank admiration in his clear gray eyes made Hazel drop hers quickly to her plate. Since Mir. Andrew Bush, she was beginning to hate men who looked at her that way. And she could not help seeing that many did so look
 The next Saturday Hazel went for tramp in the afternoon. The few walks she had taken had dulled all sense of uneasiness in venturing into the unfolding forest. She felt that those shadowy woods were less sinister than man. And since she had always kept her sense of direction and come straight to the Meadows whenever she went abroad, she had no fear or thought of losing her way.
 To reach her objective point, she crossed long stretch of rolling land. well timbered, dense in parts with thickets of berry bushes. Midway in this she came upon little brook, purr- ing monotone as it crawled over pebbled reaches and bathed the tangled roots of trees along its brink. By this she sat while. Then she idled along, coming after considerable difficulty to abruptly rising ground. She could not see the town. but she could mark the low hills behind 1t. At any rate, she knew where 1t lay. and the way back.