The Holbrook news., 1921-05-20

at the pale arch of sky. Slowly mem
 ory came back, and he managed to lift
 one hand to his head, his numb fin
 gers touching a ghastly scalp wound,
 the clOtted blood mating his hair. He
 had been struck a desperate blow, and
 was doubtless left lying there in the
 belief that he was dead, yet apparent
 ly the skull was not crushed, and the
 night air had cOngealed the blood. | With supreme effort he drew him.
 self into sitting posture, and stared
 rather blankly about at the objects re-
 vealed in the gray dawn.
 The sight as instantly restored his
 memory; the cabin door stood wide
 open, just as he left it, and within the lamp still burned on the table, in the
 midst of the dirtied dishes. She had
 not returned, then; he had been lying | there alone all night. The realization
 maddened him to effort, and, by grasp
 ing at the door for support he attained
 his feet, and stood there for mo-
 ment, swaying dizzily. Exactly what | had occurred he could not determine; | the whole affair seemed more like
 dream than a reality. He had left her
 there apparently cheerful and happy,
 the laughter in her eyes a memory to
 finger with him; he had not been ab-
 sent to exceed thirty minutes, and not
 so far away but what any cry would
 surely have reached his ears. Yet
 when he returned she had vanished
 utterly, leaving everything untouched. Whatever occurred must have been
 brought to pass almost immediately
 upon his departure, before she even
 began the work of cleaning up. But
 how could such thing happen with
 out any alarm? Why, the Kid was
 working within ten feet of the house,
 and must have heard the slightest sound of a struggle. The Kid where was he anyway? What had become of the fellow all this time? He was mo- where in sight when Shelby retraced his steps up the path. Could it be that the Kid was the one guilty of this deed? If so, what was his object? Not robbery, surely, for the place had not been ransacked. or anything re- moved from his pockets. Yet surely this was not Indian work 1t bore no resemblance to savage raid. The questions were unanswerable; no mental effort gave him any clue, yet his strength was rapidly coming back, and with it a grim, determined anger, which urged him into action.
 First he went through the deserted house, room by room, seeking for the slightest sign of guidance, but finding none. Everything remained precisely as he remembered seeing 1t the night before. He blew out the light, took down one of the rifles from the wall, loaded 1t, and then, feeling his old strength returning, cautiously stepped out through the front door. The buck board stood there. gaunt and stripped. except for the box between the rear wheels He peered into this, and found 1t still half filled with bundles Macklin had not completed his job, other evidence being furnished by the extinguished and overturned lantern on the ground just beyond. But there was no sign visible of any struggle.
 Surely she had not left of her own choice. That was unthinkable. She had appeared cheerful and contented, even actually interested in the new life; besides, if she possessed the slightest desire to escape, he had of fered her every opportunity on the way out, and she had refused. Surely she would never have come way out there to make her disagreeable jour- ney over again at night Even if crazy enough for such an attempt, the effort | would never he made upon foot, and | all three ponies were in the corral; he | had seen them while coming down. No. that theory might be dismissed at 1 once. and secretly he was glad 1t was so easily disposed oft had vaguely | haunted him at first, causing him to | dread the discovery that it might be | true.
 Then what was true? Who could be guilty of such an outrage? Indians? | White outlaws? Joe Macklin? These three possibilities alone remained, but the first two seemed quite impossible | He was used to Indian foray, but this act bore no resemblance to the work of savages on the warpath. There had been no attempt to plunder, or de- stroy. The very fact that the ponies remained undisturbed convinced him that this was no deed of Indian raid CTS. That it might have been white out laws was not quite so easily dis missed. There were desperate men hiding out wonder in the Bad Lands, but he never had known of their ven- turing to attack any settler, except oc- casionally to run off cattle on the range. In this case there was no ap- parent object-they had taken noth- ing, neither food nor stock. Then 1t must have been Macl<lin.
 His sudden disappearance was, at least, proof he must have had a hand in 1t. But why? To what end? Shelby strengthened up, new flash of intel ligence in his eyes. Perhaps this all harked back to that early mystery in her life. She had told him that Cal kins had taken her from place to place, apparently always afraid that he was being followed. Was 1t pos. sible that he had been hunted down at last; that he recognized the approach of the end, and had committed suicide on that account? And was this strange seizure of Olga part of the plot, either of revenge, or restitution? This ex- oaaroad T10v-o rr.ohobIo %k.. |