The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1922-11-08

upon his chest, laid the cross on his
breast, and shined the result with
complacenCy.
Then Quintana took off his hat.
''L'ami Mike" he said, you were
a mani %s* Adiosr"
The night had turned frosty. Quin-
tana, wet to the knees and very tired,
moved slowly not daring to leave the
trail because Of sink-hOles.
What he had to have was a fire; he
realized that. Somewhere OK the trail.
in big timber if possible. he must build
a fire and master this deadly chill that
was slowly paralyzing all power of
movement.
At last he came to place of pines,
first growth giants towering into
night, and, looking up, saw stars, in
finitely distant. where perhaps
those things called souls drifted like
wisps of vapor.
When the fire took, Quintana's thin,
dark hands had become nearly use
less from cold. He could not have
crooked finger to trigger.
For long time he sat close TO the
blaze, slowly massaging his torpid
limbs, but did not dare strip off his
fcot-gear.
Later he ate and drank languidly,
looking up at the stars, specializing
as to the possible presence of Mike
Clnch up there.
What a chase Clinch had led him
after the Flaming Jewel. And now
Cnnch lay dead in the forest-faintly
smiling. At what?
In a very low. passionless voice,
Quintana cursed monotonously as he
gazed into the fire. In Spanish,
French, Portuguese. Italian he cursed
CIinch. After a little while he re
membered Cinch's daughter, and he
cursed her, deliberately, thoroughly,
wishing her black mischance awake
and asleep, living or dead.
Presently Quintana slept after his
own fashiOn-that is to say, looking
closely at him one could discover q
glimmer under his lowered eyelids.
And he listened always in that kind
Of sleep. AS though a shadowy part
Of his were detached from his body,
and mounted guard over it.
The inaudible movement Of
wood-mouse venturing into the frelit
circle awoke Quintana. Again a
dropping leaf amid distant birches
awoke him. Such things. And so he
slept with wet feet to the fire and his
rifle across his knees; and dreamed
of Eve and of murder, and that the
Flaming Jewel was but a mass Of
glass.
At that moment the girl Of whose
white throat Quintana was dreaming,
and whining family in his dreams,
stood alone outside CHnch's Dump.
rifle in hand. listening, fighting the
creeping dread that touched her slen-
der body at times-seem to touch her
very heart with frost.
Clinchs men had gone on to Ghost
Lake with their wounded and dead.
where there was filter shelter for
both. All had gone on; nobody re
manned TO await Clinchs Homecoming
except Eve Strayer.
1t was not yet dawn, bu 1.-THE girl
could endure the strain no longer.
With electric torch and rife she
started for the forest. almost running
at first; then, among the fir trees,
moving with caution and in silence
along the trail over which Clnch
should long since have journeyed
homeward.
But nowhere could she discover any
impression resembling her step
father's-that great, firm stride and
solid imprint which so often she had
tracked through moss and swale and
which she knew so well
Once when she got up from her
knees after close examination Of the
muddy trail. she became aware Of the
slightest faint in the night air-stood
with delicate nostrils quivering-ad-
vanced. still conscious of the faint,
listening, wary, every stealthy in
stinct alert.
She had not been mistaken; some
where in the forest there was smoke
Somewhere a fire was burning. 1t
might not be very far away; 1t might
be distant. Whose fire? Her fathers?
Would hunter of men build n fire?
The girl stood shivering in the dark
ness. There was not a sound.
Now, keeping her cautious feet in
the trail by sense Of touch alone, she
moved on. Gradually, as she adj
vanced, the odor of smoke became
more distinct. She heard nothing,
saw nothing; but there was a near
reek Of smoke in her nostrils and she
stopped short.
In the faint, pale luster she saw
tiny rivulet flowing westward from a
spring. and. beside it, in the mud, i'm
prints Of a mans feet.
The tracks were small narrow,
simmer than imprints made by any
man she could think of. Under the
glimmer OF her torch they seemed
quite fresh; contours We're still sharp,
some ready to crumble, and water
stood In the heels.
AS she stole along. dimly shining
the tracks, lifting her head incessant-
ly to listen and peer into the dark
ness. her quick eye caught something
ahead-something very Slightly differ
ent from the wall of black obscurity
"a vague hint Of color-the very
Iaguest tint scarcely perceptble at
all.
But she knew it was freight
touching the trunk Of an unseen
tree.
Now. soundless over damp pine
needles she crept. Tho scent of smoke
grew strong in nostril and throat. All
about her the blackness seemed pal
pable-seemed to touch her body with
its weight: but, ahead, a ruddy glow
stained two huge pines. And presently
she saw the fire. burning low. but