Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-05-03

roWeu races showing the erect OF naru-
ships. Not man there but had seen
himself despoiled had swallowed the
| bitter dose In helplessness. :. \
Most of them were married and had
| families Some of them had Killings to
their record. Many Of them were none
| too upright
Jameson was good man and so
was Dan Hill. Thomas was merely
weak. Buford was gunman who had
rest Ms MentyTe SWn mash like Sm one
by one they came forward as Tharon
| called them by name. and leaning down,
put their names or their marks To a
sheet OF paper which bore these few
simpe lines:
I'VE, the slgners named below, do
solemnly promise and pledge ourselves
to stand together through all con-
sequences of this act for the protection
piece ofproperty taken from any one of
US, we shall go together and take back
IT, or its worth, from whoever took It,
For every person killed in any way. but
fair-and-open, we promise to hang the
murderer"
Billy had drafted the document
Tharon, whom Jim Last had taught her
letters, read 1t aloud. The names OF
Lasts Holding headed It, The thirty
names and marks-and of the latter
there were many-stretched to the bot
tom Of the sheet
When It was done the girl folded It
solemnly and put 1t away IN the depths
from the shadows Of the eating room
beyond. put her reboso over her head
and rocked in silent grief. She had
seen tragic things before.
Then these lean and quiet men filed
out, mounted the waiting horses and
went away In the darkness, mysterious
figures against the stars.
That night Tharon Last sat late by
the deep window in her own room at
/ 80 tIA q.
huge old room high walled and somber.
There were bright blankets hung like
pictures on the walls. baskets mar
velously woven OF grass and rushes,
manner and of a rough, long-fbered
grass that grew down In a swale beyond
the Black Coulee, while In one corner
there shone pale in the darkness the
one great treasure Of that unknown
mother. an almost life-sze statue OF the
| Holy Virgin.
| on this beautiful thing Tharon had
stood In awe from babyhood.
half fearful reverence bowed her
before It on those rare times when
Anita, throwing back to her Mexico an
cestors, worshiped with vague rites at
its feet.
Always its waxen hands bore offer
ings. silent tribute from the girls still
nature. Sometimes these were the
prairie flowers. little wild things, sweet
and fragile. Sometimes they were
| sprays OF the water vines that grew by
the wonderful spring Of the Holding.
beads, looped and falling in glistening
cascades over the tarnished gilt robes
| of the Virgin.
Under the deep window there was
mattress Of wild goose feathers and
| covered with crimson blanket.
Here the girl sat with her arms on the
| SUI and looked out into the darkness
th that covered the valley; She thought of
paper. riding far and by In the sound
Ing basin, returning to their uncertain
homes She thought Of her father
asleep under his peaceful cross, Of
young Hardness beside him.
She thought of Courtrey and Service
and Wylackie Bob, of Black Bart and
! the stranger from Arizona. They were
n hard bunch to tackle.
They had the valley under their
thumbs to do with as they pleased, like
the veriest Roman potentate Of old. Her
daddy had told her once, when she was
small and lonely of winter nights,
helpless subjects Jim Vast could talk
when he needed. though he was a man
| or conserved speech
Yes, Courtrey was like king in Lost
since she could remember. of countless
cattle run off, of horses stolen and
shamelessly ridden in ,grinning defiance
ttou OF any who might dare to identify
| Stronghold's range and left to rot under
the, open skies warning like those
birds OF prey that are shot and hung to
scare their kind. Her soft lips drew
Jim Lasts, and the heart in her ratified
Its treaty with the thirty men.
!, she had none to mourn her, she
thought a trihe sadly-well Anita and
Paula Of course. and there were her
riders. Billy would grieve--he'd kill
some one IL she were killed--and Con-
ford and Jack
:. A warm glow pervaded her being.
Yes, she had folks. even II she was the
But she didn't intend to be killed. She
was right. and she had listened enough
| to Anita to believe with a superstitious
certainty that right was invulnerable.
For instance, II she and Courtrey should
draw at the same second she believed
absolutely. that because she was in the
right her bullet would travel a bit the
swifter. her aim be truer She felt in
her heart with a profound conviction
that some day she would kill Courtrey.
she thought of his wife, Ellen, a pale
! mower OF woman, white as milk with
hair the color of unripe maize, and
wondered If she loved the man who made
Tharon wondered how it would seem TO
| love man, as women who were wives
must love their men---if the agony oY
loss to Ellen could be as acute and ter.
rifying as hers had been ever since that
sofe night In spring when her hest
friend, Jim Last, had come home on El
Rey. 49,
She thought OF the gray look on his
face. OF the pinched line at his rostrils'
base. and the tears came miserabIy
under, her lids, she laid her head on
the cloth mat that covered the wide
window ledge and wept like any child
for a time. Then she wiped her face
with her hands, sighed, and fell again
| to thinking.
An hour later, as she rose to make
ready for bed, she thought she caught a
faint sound out where the little rock
! pleased to call her garden, since few
hardy flowers grew by the springs
| trickle, and she held her breath 10
listen. 1t was nothing, however she
| thought, and turned into the deep room,
J., Only the tree-toads, long since silent.
ed In a palm, glowed In the darkness.
Two days after this a visitor came
| to Lasts. From far down they saw
| him coming, In the mid-morning while
the work of the house went forward.
Paula, bringing a pan Of milk from the
to satisfy her young eyes with the un-
wonted appearance OF him. She looked
| long, and hurried in to tell her mistress
,"Senorita," she said excltediy, ,"see
who comes! A stranger who has differ
ent clothes from any other. He rides
too stiff and straight Come see"
And Tharon, busy about the kitchen
| In her starched print dress, dropped
| everything at once TO run with Paula to
the western door Of the living room that
| they might look south
| pIal Ina la