Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-07-08

Couiunt nave ueSn Duiit NJ MA with"
out you. Fire your Why. Kitty'd have
my life II / dared suggest such a
thing"
Wilton frowned involuntariiy at the
reference to the pretty young wife
whom Joe Bostock had married In
Winnipeg the year before, Joe's first
marriage had been unhappy; It had
been long ago. and Wilton knew there
had been a separation, though Joe
was always retlcent about that
Kitty was Ave and thirty years
younger than Joe. and she had inter-
vened into fast friendship Of more
than decade between Joe and VIII
ton. II made difference. az 1t always
does, though Joe had sworn It should
not. and Kitty thought the world Of
Wilton.
Wilton could never understand his
secret feeling about Kitty. She was
devoted to Joe. Perhaps that was
what lay beneath his latent antag0-
nism toward her. He was jealous Of
her. He was Jealous OF woman's
love for Joe.
II guess mott" said Joe Bostock
again, pressing his hand hard down
on Wiiton's shoulder.
And. In that instant, Wilton heard
the crack Of rifle, and felt a violent
blow on the upper part of the left arm,
which knocked him to the ground. Az
he fell, Joe Bostock pitched forward
upon him.
Twice Joe's lips quivered, as II nc
was trying to speak. Then the lower
jaw dropped and the eyes rolled up
ward. A graylsh palIor crept over the
| face.
Wilton saw that Joes macklnaw hat
q tiny tear In II. over the breast. A
trickle OF blood seeped through the
cloth. He wrenched the garment open
with his right hand. pulled up the
sweater, and tore the shirt apart. The
heart, fiuttering like a wounded bird
stopped under his hand. Joe sighed
once, but he never stirred again. The
bullet had passed clean through Joe
Bostock's heart from the back. And
as he tried to raise Joe's body, Wilton
realized that the same bullet hat
broken his left arm, which hung limT
from the shoulder.
He sprang to his feet, mat
wrath giving back to him his ebbinl
strength. He glared about him, but
IL was impossible to ascertain from
where the shot had come. He could
not even locate the direction within
hundred degrees, for Joe had been In
the act OF turning. Nobody was In
sight. and the woods were silent.
His believing call Of fury that wen
echoing through the trees ELECTED nc
answer. He tore strips from his hand
kerchlef, holding 1t between his teeth
and, with his left hand on his knee
| knotted them about a stick and I'm
provised tourniquet. The blood was
squirting down his sleeve In Jets, the
| pain was intenses and II was Impos
| sible to take off the mackinaw and
hope to replace his arms In IL: but
he twisted with all his force until the
diminishing flow showed that he had
compressed the artery. Thrusting the
longer end Of the stick beneath his
arinpit, he passed the other through
| the buttonhole OF the garment, and
STOPPING, managed to get Joe's body
upon his shoulder and to hold IL with
his right arm.
His impulse was TO carry Joe's body
back to the camp, but he knew that II
would be impossible to make the dis
lance. Yet to leave 1t would meal
the certainty Of mutilation by bear
or timber-wolves unless he couit
build calrn Of stones. And OF tina
he was equally incapable. He se
Joe's body down, and. In the first full
realization of his loss and bis predica
ment, he shouted curses to the sky
That murder had been intended h.
did not believe; no doubt the shot hat
been bullet fired at some nearel
mark, perhaps hare. and by one Of
4 the half-breeds. He suspected thai
the transit-bearer, following them up
had fired the shot, and, seeing the fa
tality, had fed.
But the thought that this might BIZ
the explanation was only a fieetins
one. Joe was dead, and his body mus
be cared for, just as IL he were alive
taken back to the camp and thence
out Of the woods. There was no pos
slbility Of leaving Joe's body there
Yet II seemed to him that he coult
not hope to reach the camp. And
now another idea came to him.
1t was seven miles back to the camp
but only five to the portage over the
frozen swamp. Upon the other sid,
Of the portage was trail that came
out Of the prairie southwark and
wound into the unknown north
Along this Indians brought their win
ter catches to the trading-store Of
Mcdonald, the factor Of the Hudson's
Bay company
Travelling was hard along the shore