The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-11-24

most a mile distant. For the first
time, Dave began to move cautiously.
1t would complicate matters If the
two women had already gone to bed.
The hour was early-not yet nine
but the fall of darkness Is often the
going-to-bed time Of the mountain peo-
pie. 1t is warmer there and safer;
and the expense of candles is les
sened. But tonight Linda and old
Elmira were sitting up, waiting for
Bruce's return.
dow. Dave went up to the door and
knocked.
"Who's there?" Elmira called. 1t
was habit learned in the dreadful
days Of twenty years ago, not to open
door without at least some knowl-
edge Of who stood without. A lighted
doorway sets off a target almost as
well as field of white sets off a black
bull's-eye.
Dave knew the truth was the proper
course. Dave Turner" he replied.
A long second Of heavy, strange ST.
lence ensued. Then the woman spoke
again. There was new note in her
voice, h curious hoarseness, but at the
same time a sense of eXultation and
excitement. But Dave didn't notice
it. He might, however, have been in
| terested In the singular look of Won
der that flashed over Linda's face as
she stared at her aged aunt. Linda
was not thinking of Dave. Her whole
attention was seized and held by the
unfamiliar note in her aunt's voice,
and strange drawing of the woman's
| features that the closed door prevent
ed Dave from seeing 1t was look
almost of rapture, hardly to be ex-
! pected in the presence of an enemy.
| The dim eyes seemed to glow in the
shadows. 1t was the look Of one who
trails for uncounted years and sees
the distant lights of his home at last.
She got up from her chair and
moved over to the little pack she had
carried on her back when she had
walked up from her cabin. Linda still
| gaZed at her in growing wonder. The
long years seemed to have fallen away
from her; she slipped across the I'M
carpeted floor with the agility and 81
lence of tiger. She always had given
the impression Of latent power, but
never so much as now. She took some
little object from. the bag and slipped
it next to her withered and scrawny
breast.
"What do you want?" she called out
into the gloom.
Dave had been getting little rest
less in the silence; but the voice reas-
sured him. 'I'l tell you when you open
the door. It's something about
Bruce" s..-.
Linda remembered him then. She
leaped to the door and flung 1t wide.
She saw the stars without, the dark
fringe of pines against the sky line be-
hind. But most of all she saw the
cunning, sharp-featured face Of Dave
Turner, with the candlelight upon him.
The yellow beams were in his eyes,
too. They seemed full Of guttering
lights.
The few times that Linda had talked
to Dave she had always felt uneasy
beneath his speculative gaze. The
same sensation swept over her now.
She knew perfectly what she would
have had to expect, long since, from
this man, were 1t not that he had lived
in fear Of his brother Simon. The
mighty leader of the clan had set a
barrier around her as far as personal
attentions went-and his reasons were
obvious. The mountain girls do not
usually attain her perfection of form
and face; his desire for her was as
Jealous as it was intense and real. This
dark-hearted man of great and terrible
emotions did not only know how to
hate In his own savage way he could
love too. Linda hated and feared him,
but the emotion was wholly different
from the dread and adherence with
which she regarded Dave. What
about BruceT she demanded.
Dave leered. do you want to see
him? He's lying-up here on the hill. ;"
The tone was knowing, edged with
cruelty; and it had the desired effect.
The color swept from the girls face
In a single fraction of an instant II
showed stark white in the candlelight.
There was an fnstant's sensation of
terrible cold. But her voice was hard
and lifeless when she spoke. ..
you mean you've killed him?" she
asked simply. ....
1--WE amt killed him. We've lust
been teaching him lesson" Dave ex-
planned. "Simon warned him not to
come up-and we've had to talk to him
little-with fists and heels"
Linda cried out then, one agonized
syllable. She knew what fists and
heels could do in the fights between
the mountain men. They are as much
weapons of torture as the claws and
fangs of the Killer. She had an in
stant's dread picture of this strong
man of hers lying MANNED and broken,
battered, whimpering, ineffective
thing in the moonlight of some distant
hillside The vision brought knowledge
TO her. Even more clearly than In the
second of their kiss, before he had
gone TO see Hudson, she realized what
an immutable part of her he was. She
gazed with growing horror at Dawes
leering face. Where is hep" she
asked. She remembered, with singular
steadfastness. the pistol she had con-
/ cealed in her own room.
''Fll show you. If you want to get
him in you'd better bring the old bag