The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1920-12-17

was talking rapidly. I'm not expectin
to leave the Flatwoods. and-you, un-
less they crowd me hard; not Ill I've
run him down and found my proof
But the odds are against me. If any.
thing should happen, | want you to
have this money. And the minute you
hear they've got me. you must GO
straight to the sheriff Don't risk the
woods another hour. Put yourself I'M
der his protection, and tell him why
have the money transferred to you
and-send for that surgeon"
The tears beat their way up into the
girls eyes in spite of her. and ran
down her cheeks. Her head bent low.
1t 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 it was tust
a woman's way. Maybe he had done
wrong TO come to her with his cuts
and blood and danger.
She raised her face after a time He
drew a long breath; dropped his hand
TO his side; stared in establishment.
She was smiling smiling through the
tears-and the dimples were back. The
ways of woman-utterly beyond him.
and past finding out She smootled
the draft out in her hands and was
looking at him over it.
"I wonder if ought to take It," she
unused to herself, as much as to him.
He took tho paper out of her hands.
! folded it and with a masterful air
thrust it under fold of the loose gar
ment across her bosom.
81 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
again at full flame, his eyes came back
TO the thoughtful face of his compan-
ion.
'"That revolver 1 saw yesterday on
the mantel-is it loaded?"
81 think So
She looked up in curious half sur
prise, as if the question had brought
her thoughts back from afar.
May see fr?"
-Why-yes-"
He shaded the candle again while
she lifted the curtain over the door;
paused a 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
trigger pull; replacing the somewhat
corroded caps on the tubes with new
ones; even packing fresh grains of
powder into the tubes where he
thought necessary.
do you know how it use it?" he
asked, looking up from his inspection.
eve shot lots of squirrels with it.
sometimes clear in the treetops," she
answered. "And once 1 killed 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 mean-have you got any
place about you-your dress-to car
ny it?"
She was looking at him, her eyes
frank and wide-eyes that had no
need to narrow
Il haven't" she answered; "but I
can make one"
81 advise you to-
He laid the revolver on the stand |
and turned back to her. The time had |
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 candle?' he
said at last.
She went to the window and the
next moment the room was in dark
ness.
Two 1uttering spots of white in the
gloom rolled up the blind. found the
strings that held 1t and whipped them
into knot. Then the girl stepped
back The man crawled through the
extreme care not TO
scar the ground outside.
1t is past all knowing how her hands
happened to get into his. He bent his
head and laid his face upon them:
suffered them to slip out of his fingers
at last; and turned away.
He was gone on the instant-gone
rs a shadow goes--never knowing
that for long and long the dull window
framed 4 white face listening for
some sound of him to come back out
IF the night.
The woodcraft of tie Pearlhunter
vas profound 1t was about all life
lad taught him, but it had taught him :
hat. With the logical precision of a
passing from one step of
problem to another, it led him ,
straight TO the trail of the man he had
'een following a short time before
which, of course, took him In the di- I
ection of Fallen Rock. The man he |
ollowed had doubtless gone back to I
he village by Shis time. This prob I
bility he had already estimated and 4
ct down in his veckoning at its
roper value. But he had another pur-
ose In turning his steps toward Fall
n Rock. He was deliberately going !
ack TO the cabin. r