The Glenwood post., 1920-12-25

fork. Moreover, you're a thousand
miles back"
"Only one hundred, If you must
know. But Steele-do you suppose
he's the man his grandfather was be-
fore him-that all the Failings have
been since the first days Of the Ore
gon trail? If he is-well, my hats
off to him before he steps off the
train"
The mountaineer's bronzed face was
earnest and intent in the bright lights
Of the club. Steele thought he had
known his breed. Now he began to
have doubts of his own knowledge
"He won't be; don't count on It," he
said humbly. 1.-THE Failings have done
much for this region, and I'm glad
enough to do a little to pay 1t back
but don't count much on this eastern
boy. He's lived in cities besides, he's
sick man. He said SO in his wire
You ought to know 1t before you take
him in"
The bronzed face changed; possibly
a shadow of disappointment came In
to his eyes. "a lunger, eh7" Lenno1
repeated. "Yes-it's true that If he'd
been like the other Failings, he'd never
have been that. Why, Steele, you
couldn't have given that old man
cold II you'd tied him in the Rogue
river overnight. OF course you couldn't
count on the line keeping up forever
But I'll take him, for the memory of
his grandfather"
you're not afraid tor
afraid HI! He can't infect those
two strapping children of mine Snow
bird weighs one hundred and twenty
pounds and is hard as steel Never
knew sick day in her life And you
know Bill, of course"
Yes, Steele knew Bill Bill weighed
two hundred pounds and he would
choose the biggest of the steers he
drove down to the lower levels in the
winter and, twisting its horns, would
make it lay over on its side. Besides
both of the men assumed that Dan
must be only In the first stages of his
malady
And even as the men talked, the
train that bore Dan Failing to the
home of his ancestors was entering
for the first time the dark forests of
pine and fir that make the eternal
background of the Northwest. He was
wholly unable to understand the
strange feeling of familiarity that he
had with them, a sensation that in =.
his dreams he had known them al
ways, and that he must never go out
of the range of them again. :,
Dan didn't see his host at first. Fer
thn Gtct L.,
crossed by surging sense of disap-
pointment-a feeling that he had been
tricked and had only come to another
city after all He got down onto the
gravel of the station yard, and out on
the gray street pavement he heard ,
the clang of trolley car. Many au-
tomobiles were parked Just beside the
station, some of them foreign cars of ,
expensive makes, such as he supposed
would be wholly unknown on the
frontier. A man In golf clothes
brushed his shoulder
Dan looked up to the hills, and he
felt better. He couldn't see them plain,
ly. The faint smoke of a distant for
est fire half obscured them. Yet he
saw fold on fold of ridges of a rather
P'N''iui biuC III COlcI. anu even his
unframed eyes could see that they
were clothed in forests of evergreen
Over the heads of the green hills Dan
could see few great peaks; Nc
Laughiin, even and regular as a paint
ed mountain Wagner with queer
white gashes where the snow still Law
In Its ravines, and to the southeast
the misty range of snow covered hills
that were the Sickeyous. lie felt de
cidedly better. And when he saw old'
Slias Lennox waiting patiently beside
the station, he felt he had come to
the right place.
1t would be interesting TO explain
why Dan at once recognized the olde
man for the breed he was Slas Len
nox was not dressed in a way that
would distinguish him. 1t was true
that he wore flannel shirt riding
trousers and rather heavy. leathern
boots. But sportsmen all over the,
face of the earth wear this costume at
sundry times. Mountain men have
peculiar stride by which experienced,
persons can occasionally recognize
them; but Silas Lennox was standing
still when Dan got his first glimpse of,
MIN. The case resolves itself into
simple matter of the things that could
be read In Lennox's face.
Dan dlsbelleyed wholly in book
thnt told how to read characters Mt
sight Yet at the first glance of the,
lean bronzed face his heart gave a
curious little bound. pair of gray
eyes met his-two fine black points In,
a rather hard gray iris, They didn't
look past him, or at either side of him
or at his chin or his forehead Thet
looked right at his own eyes. The skin
around the eyes was burned brown BY
tho cup op1 H.