Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-11-10

I
receives mysterious message, sent by q
Mrs. Ross, summoning him peremptorily
to southern Oregon-to meet Linda
CHAPTER u.-Bruce has vivid but baf-
fling recolections of his childhood in an
orphanage before his adoption by New
ton Duncan. with the girl Linda.
CHAPTER 1rI.-At his destination,
Trails End, news that message has
been sent to Bruce Is received with
marked displeasure by man introduced
to the reader as Simon
CHAPTER Iv.-Leaving the train.
Bruce Is astonished at his apparent ia
miliarity with the surroundings, though
to his knowledge he has never been there.
CHAPTER V.-Obedient to the message,
Bruce makes his way to Martins cross
roads store, for direction as to reaching
Mrs. Ross cabin.
CHAPTER vI-On the way, Simon"
sternly warns him to give up his quest
and return East Bruce refuses.
CHAPTER VH.-Mrs. Ross, aged and
infirm, welcomes him with emotion. She
hastens him on his way-the end of Pine
Needle Trail"
CHAPTER VIII.-Through a country
puzzlingly familiar, Bruce Journeys, and
finds his childhood playmate, Linda.
CHAPTER K.-The girl tells him of
wrongs committed by an enemy clan on
her family, the Rosses. Lands occupied
by the clan were stolen from the Rosses,
and the family, with the exception of
Aunt Elmira (Mrs. Ross) and herself,
wiped out by assassination. Bruce's IA
ther, Matthew Folger, was one of the
victims. His mother had fed with Bruce
and Linda. The girl, while small had
been kidnapped from the orphanage and
brought to the mountains Linda's father
had daa6ad hia lQn6a 10 Matthew E'Olp1r
but the agreement, which would confute
the enemy's claims to the property, has
been lost
CHAPTER x.-Bruce's mountain blood
responds to the call Of the blood-feud
CHAPTER N-A giant tree. the Sen
tinel Pine, in front of IAnda's cabin.
seems to Bruce's excited imagination to
be endeavoring to convey a message.
CHAPTER xM.-Bruce se& out In
search of q trapper named HUDSON a
witness to the agreement between Lndas
father and Matthew Folger.
CHAPTER XIIL-A gigantic grizzly,
known as the Killer, Is the terror OF the
vicinity. because Of his size and ferocity.
CHAPTER xIV.-Dave Turner, sent by
Simon, bribes Hudson to swear falsely
concerning the agreement. II brought to
light he knowing its whereabouts
CHAPTER XV.--Hudson and Dave visit
the formers traps. A wolf. caught In one
is discovered by the Killer. Disturbed at
his feast, the brute strikes down Hudson:
Bruce, on his way to Hudson, shoots and
wounds the Killer, driving him from his
victim Hudson, learning Bruce's iden.
tity, tries to tell him the hiding place OF
the aRraament but death summons nim-
CHAPTER XvL-Simon, believing Bruce
knows where the document Ia concealed,
lays plans to trap him
CHAPTER xvII.-Dave decoys Linda
and Aunt Elmira from their homA The
man insults Linda and is struck down
by the aged woman Elmira's son has
been murdered by Dave and at her com a
perado, Linda leaves them alone.
CHAPTER XVIu.-Returning, Bruce
finds q note, presumably from Linda, tell
ing him she has been kidnapped by the
Turner's.
CHAPTER xK.-Bruce falls into 81
mons trap, and Is made prisoner.
CHAPTER XX-Charging Bruce with
attempting to reopen the blood-feud, the
clan, after mock trial, decides to leave
him. bound, in a pasture on the spot
where the Killer had slain and half eaten
a calf the night before. They look for
the return of the grizzly and the probable
Staying Of Bruce by the animal.
And they thought they understood.
They supposed that the night would
be of the utter depths of terror to the
tenderfoot from the cities, that the
bear would sniff and wander about
him, and perchance the mans hair
would be tuYned quite white by morn
ing. But being mountain men, they
thought that the actual danger of at
tack was not great They supposed
that the inborn fear of men that all
animals possess would keep him at a
distance. And, If by any unlikely
chance the theft of the beef carcass
should throw him into such rage that
he would charge Bruce, no harm in
particular would be done. The man
was a Folger, an enemy of the clan,
and after once the telltale ropes were
removed, no one would ask questions
about the mutilated, broken thing
that would be found next morning in
the pasture. The story would carry
down to the settlements merely as a
fresh atrocity of the Killer the last
and greatest Of the grizzlies.
But they had no realization of the
full dreadfulness of the plan. They
hadn't heard the more recent history
of the Killer-the facts that Simon
had just learned from Dave. Strange
and dark conjecturing occupied ST.
mons mind, and he knew-in a mo-
ment's thOught-that something more
than terror and indignity might be
Bruce's fate But his passion was ripe
for what might come. The few signif-
cant facts that they did not know
were merely that the Killer had al
ready found men out, that he had
learned in an instant's meeting with
Hudson beside Little river that men
were no longer to be feared, and
worse, that he was raving and deadly
from the pain of the wound that
Bruce's bullet had inflicted.
The circle of faces faded out for
beth of them as the eyes of Bruce and
Simon met and clashed and battled In
the silent room.