The Holbrook news., 1921-01-28

the fiowers-the place showed very sad lack of care.
 The underbrush along the bluffs trembled slightly, but enough to at | tract the woodsman's eyes Noiseless- ly the swaying bushes parted-as nOiseless as the unfolding of flower and in the narrow opening. framed by its border of quaking leaves, there | grew a face-sad and vacant, with pitiful eyes; unmistakably, though he had never seen 1t before, the gaunt, gray face of the Wild Man.
 The Pearlhunter glanced quickly at the girl, to find her eyes still fixed on her basket. and when he looked again at the bushes, the face was gone.
 As his gaze searched the under brush, glimpse of a gray shadow fitted along under the cliff and dis appeared behind the cabin. He couldn't leave her now-and yet, by what excuse could he stay?
 You have pretty place here" he said, probably because he couldn't think of anything else to say. "A pretty place-all so natural; the woods are hardly disturbed bit-but aren't you-afraidT
 q haven't been till-today." She raised her eyes to his face. The store keepers story came to her mind ;- the grave at Fallen Rocks; the lonely cabin to which he would have to re turn. And he had just rendered her a service-the age-old service of man to woman. Wont you come up to the house?
 The Pearlhunter little knew how that simple invitation honored him. No other man had ever received 1t.
 ''Td like to-"
 He said it so seriously that the girl laughed.
 Carrying the light basket between them they walked up what might be called, for want of better word to name it, the front yard There was not the least necessity that two hands should be laid to that one light basket It just happened. as do so many other pleasant things in this delightfully."- un- orderly world.
 At the door she stopped and faced him. A deep seriousness had filled up the dlmples.
 "Mr.-Pearlhunter-
 The slow eyes of the man found her face, and she paused.
 You told me to leave off the Miss. I'm askin' you to leave off the Mr."
 The dimples came back, but only for a moment.
 "-Pearlhunter." The name came strange to her. You will be the first man, except my father aud the doc tor, that has crossed his doorstep in seven years" Her voice fell very low. You must not be surprised at what you see"
 From behind the closed door of the cabin came groan-not of physical pain. but one that seemed to mutter up out of a wracked soul. The girl dropped her side of the basket handle.
 Daddy" she cried; and dashed the door open.
 The Pearlhunter was a hard man to jar out of his habitual calm. but the sight that met him as he followed her across the doorstep struck him rigid and staring.
 A huge iron gray shell of a man rose slowly in the shadow the late af ternoon cast over the room. The light that fell in at the open door brought out the pathetic, nervous quiver of his face; the solemn vacancy of his pitiful eyes. It was the Wild Man.
 The girl ran to him and put her arms about his shoulders. He seemed not to feel her touch. Slowly and he approached the Pearl hunter. A leaf couldn't have drifted across the floor more silently, or more involuntarily. Some extraneous force seemed to drive him.
 The glrI clung 10 him and tried to coax him, even drag him, back into his chair. He seemed to be utterly unaware of her weight. There was a knife in his hand: His hollow eyes never left the Pearlhunter's face.
 With all the girls assurance that l he was harmless, that there was no danger, 1t took all the Pearlhunter's \ resolution to abide the coming of that | gaunt apparition. His breath came | fast. He set the basket down on the | floor, dropped his hat beside 1t, and | kept his eye on the knife.
 A pale fire burned away back. in he Wild Mans vacant eyes, and his beard writhed with the culver of his features. He even raised his hands md ran them over the Pearlhunter's r face, as a blind man might in search ng for some recognizable feature.
 Apparently he did not find it. The pale fires died out of his eyes; his ace quivered; his breast seemed to collapse; the tense silence shivered with a groan. The thrush of strength hat had seemed to dover his vast rame with irresistible force fell rom him as a mantle. He tottered IS the girl led him, like a tired child, pack to his chair.
 Her father! The daughter of the Wild Man!
 He stepped aside out of the open loor and let the sun in. It streaked lcross the floor and caught her where she stopped over the old mans hair.
 She seemed for the moment to have orgotten his presence. He glanced round the cabin. It was really four rooms-under one roof. The door by which they had entered aced south. He stood in the center