The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-08-20
The Blue
Moon
A Tale of the Flatwoods
BY
DAVID ANDERSON
Copyright, 1913.
The BobbS-Merrin Company
rights, 1920. Mcclure
Syndicate and Pensacola
Journal

Il
| Journal
/ The tears beat their way up into the
! girls eyes in spite of her. and ran
down her cheeks. Her head bent low.
It was the one thing he knew not how
to face. HIS hard life hadn't taught
him that. The tears hurt him. What
| had caused them? Maybe 1t was just
| a woman's way. Maybe he had done
1 wrong to come to her with his cuts and
| blood and danger. Some mighty i'm
| pulse, new and strange, drew his arms
| toward her; kindled a yearning in his
/ face. An instant the arms lowered
| about her, but did not touch her. In
stead he laid his hand upon her hair;
/ stroked it with a tenderness that Bull
| Materson and the men of the river
would never have dreamed was in him.
She raised her face after time. He
| dreaw long breath; dropped his
| hand to his side; stared in astonish-
| ment. She was smiling-smillng
| through the tears-and the dimples
were back. The ways OF a woman
utterly beyond him, and past finding
/ out! She had smoothed the draft out
| in her hands and was looking at him
/ over it.
! II wonder If / ought to take t." she
unused to herself, as much as to him.
He took the paper out of her hands,
| folded it and with a masterful air
| thrust it under fold of the loose gar
| ment across her bosom.
| II haven't a soul IN the world to
| leave 1t to but-you."
| His slow eyes left her face and
| stared hard at the basin of red water.
| Stepping over to the stand, he stopped
and snuffed the candle. The huge
shadow of him filled the room. Turn
| ing away, after he had the candle at
| full flame. his eyes came back , The
| thoughtful face of his companion.
| THAT revolver / saw yesterday on
| the mantel,-is it ioaded?"
| Il think So"
| She looked up in curious half sur
prise, as If the question had brought
| her thoughts back from afar.
May / see it?"
"Why-yes-"
| He shaded the candle again while
she lifted the curtain over the door;
| paused moment to listen to the heavy
| breathing of the. sleeper in the west
room; crossed to the mantel over the
fireplace and brought him the re-
| volver.
| Several minutes the man spared to
| its inspection; testing the action of the
hammer, cylinder revolution and tr.g-
| ger pull; replacing the somewhat cor
roded caps on the tubes with new
ones; even picking fresh grains of
powder into the tubes where he
thought necessary.
| Don you know how to use it?' he
| asked, looking up from his inspection.
1--WE shot lots of squirrels with it,
sometimes clear in the treetops,' she
| answered. And once killed a hawk
that pestered the chickens"
A grin puckered his eyes for a mo-
ment, then his brows lowered. An
other question, a hard one, had to be
| asked, that set him raking over his
| slim stock of words for ways to ask it.
do girls-I mean-have you got any
| place about you-your dress-to carry
it?"
| She was looking at him, her frank
| eyes open wide-eyes that had no need
| to narrow.
Il haven't" she~answered; but I
/ can make one"
81 advise you to-
| He lad the revolver on the stand
4
come to go, and they both knew it.
For a while they stood silent. Once
| his hand reached toward her, but he
drew it back.
| "Will you be ready to raise the blind
| when / blow out the GAMBLER" he said
| at last
| She went to the window and the next
Emoment the room was in darkness.
| Two fluttering spots of white in the
gloom rolled up the blind. found the
strings that held it and whipped them
| into a knot. Then the girl stepped
| back. The man crawted through the
window-with extreme care not TO scar
the ground outside.
/ It is past all knowing how her hands
happened to get into his. He bent his
head and laid his face upon them; suf-
| fered them to slip out of his fingers at
| last; and turned away.
| He was gone on the instant-gone as
a shadow goes-never knowing that
| for how long the duh window framed
a white face listening for some sound
/ of him to come back out of the night
CHAPTER Xxx.
/ The chink in the Cabin Wall.
| The woodcraft of the Pearlhunter
was profound. 1t was about all life
had taught him, but it had taught him
that with the logical precision Of a.
schoolmaster passing from one step of
schoolfmaster passing from one step of
problem to another, IL led him
straight to the trail of tie man he had
| been following a short time before
which, of course. took him in the di-
rection Of Fallen Rock The man he
followed had doubtless gone back to