The Holbrook news., 1921-03-11

east yard first, and then the west. Pn not aiming to leave any tracks, but it's so dark l can't make sure" He was talking rapidly. "Pm not expectin to leave the Flatwoods, and-you, un less they crowd me hard; not III I've run him down and found my proof But the odds are against me. If any. thing should happen, I want you tC 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 un- der his protection, and tell him why have the money transferred to you and-send fer 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 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 it was just woman's way. Maybe he had done wrong to come to her with his cuts and blood and danger.
 She raised her face after time. He drew a long breath dropped his hand to his side; stared in astOnishment. She was smiling smiling through the tears-and the dimples were back. The ways of woman-utterly beyond him. and past finding out She smoOt..ed the draft out in her hands and was | looking at him over 1t.
 "T wonder if I 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.
 q haven't a soul in the world to leave it 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 I saw yesterday on the mantel-is it loaded?"
 'I think so."
 She looked up in curious half eur 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 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 the hammer, cylinder revolution and 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.
 i've shot lots of squirrels with it, sometimes clear in the treetOps," she answered. And once I killed a hawk that pestered the chickens"
 A grin puckered his eyes for a mo- ment, then his brows lowered. An other question, hard one, had to be asked. that set him raking over his slim stock of words for ways to ask 1t. Do girls-I mean-have you got any place about yOu-your dress-to car ry it?"
 She was looking at him, her eyes frank and wide-eyes that had no need to narrow.
 T haven't" she answered; but can make one"
 'T 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 1t. 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 I blow out the candle?" he aid at last.
 She went to the window and the ext moment the room was in dark ness.
 Two fiuttering spots of white in the gloom rolled up the blind. found the trings that held 1t and whipped them ntO a knot. Then the girl stepped lack. The man crawIed through the rindOw-with extreme care not to car the ground outside.
 It is past all knowing how her hands happened to get into his. He bent h.s head and laid his face upon them; suffered them to slip out of his fingers Ut last; and turned away.
 He was gone on the instant-gone IS a shadow goes-never knowing that for long and long the dull window framed a white face listening for some sound of him to come back out If the night.
  The woodcraft of the PearIhunter was profound. It was about all life had taught him, but 1t had taught him that. With the logical precision of a schOolmaster passing from one step of a problem to another, 1t led him straight to the trail of the man he had been following a short time before which, of course, took him in the di- 1 rection of Fallen Rock. The man he followed had doubtless gone back to | the village by this time. This prOb- | ability he had already estimated and 1 set down in his reckoning at its 1 proper value. But he had another pur- pose in turning his steps toward Fall |