The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-02-12

never come. Msungo was too en-
crossed with his work to notice her.
She kept on, riding her nerve, until she
felt that in another moment she must
topple over; then she laid q quivering
hand on his arm. He turned quickly,
looked at her face gone white In spite
of the heat and cursed himself aloud.
He led her through the fringe of the
forest to the deep shade at its open
edge, made her lie down and showed
her that a helmet, right side up IN the
ground, makes an excellent pillow.
I'm off. Promise you won't be
lonely, for it will be hours before I
get back"
Andrea's lower lip trembled. "Aren't
you coming for lunch?"
He looked down at her and shook
his head. "There may come days of
picnics, youngster, but they're a long
way off"
please come back" she insisted.
He met her eyes with a hardened
gaze. There's not a living"
he said slowly, shat will let a man
work when she's around-if she can
help IT,"
You're thinking Of people in love-"
said Andrea to start an argument and
gain time.
"Of course I was" said the man on
the instant. "Can't you let me workY
Beast" said Andrea and rolled over
on her side, n moist hand for a pill
low in place of the hard helmet. She
did not watch him go, she did not see
Bathtub and another boy arrive with
table, chair and lunch basket, all In
a single small load, for before it hap
pened she was far away in the land
Of Nod. When she awoke she was
sorry, for awake the hot hours passed
on laggard feet. At midday she ate;
then she tried to read, but by four in
the afternoon she was desperate for
something to do. She determined to
sleep again, and just as she was doing
off a whisper came to her-one of those
carefully measured whispers that
reach the intended al and go no far
Their.
MlSSlS I
She turned. "what Is 1T" she
asked.
"Gashly! Missis," breathed Bathtub,
and the agony In his appeal to her
TO 60 slow was so eloquent that she
caught the spirit, If not the meaning
of the word.
She raised her head aver sv care
fully and looked out over the plain.
"Ohv" she murmured.
A quarter of a mile away q band Of
sable were grazing, and in a moment
she could tell that they were feeding
directly toward hex. "Oh!" she
breathed again, "oh, you beautiesl"
Closer and closer grazed the herd,
stepping daintily from tuft to tuft Of
fodder. Their black and white faces,
the sweep Of their arching horns, their
brown bodies that glistened in the sun
as though they had been groomed,
their Ticking bobbed tails,
their incredibly slim legs, combined
all the attributes Of fa% scination-
beauty, yigor, strength, motion-and
filled the eyes OF the watchers to over
flowing.
In the van of the herd stepped a
mighty bull, his tiny hoofs lifting high
as though he boosted that his weight
was really nothing. Straight toward
the forest and Andrea he led his little
army until presently she could smell
the stable odor of their bodies. Her
heart was beating like a trip hammer.
She tried TO hold her breath. Her
bosom rose and fell in a futtering
undulation. The bull looked up and
saw her. His horns went back and
he squatted. hesitating on the brink
of the mighty spring of fright. In his
eyes was a CLEAN u~nbelievably wicked.
Then the crack of a rifle. the thud
OF a bullet in flesh, a body hurled into
the air by the death-throe and falling
in a heap, legs doubled up, neck out
stretched, blood gurgling from nos
trils and mouth!
Andrea buried her face In her lap,
trying to blot out the sight from her
eyes and scbbca as though her heart
We're breaking. She did not hear the
wild cry Of Bathtub. nor see his crazy
gyrations about the PROSTATE brute,
but when the white man spoke her
mind leaped to meet the justification
in his words, without which she felt
she could never have looked upon his
face again.
"Stop your crying" he said sharply.
when a sable bull gets as close as
that, there's no telling which way he's
going to go"
CHAPTER VI.