The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1922-07-26

full, too so many years a come and
gone since she had listened to it and
loved it.
She had been only a girl then, with
her hair in braids down her back.
P~recocious and wise beyond her
years, perhaps, but a girl, neverthe-
less. And Roderick was already a
young man with a dropping though
somewhat scanty m~0ustache, with
coal black hair that he had permit
ted to grow long, after the fashion
Of the southern folk, at that time,
and he had been addicted to frock
coats, string ties and a touch of
"swagger"-like other young Ken
tuchans of his class.
Besides, during the three years
that had Immediately preceded his
"going away from home," Katherine
brother-less and less with each sue
ceeding day and week and month.
He had been wild, untamed and
untamable; she, only the kid sister
at home. He had raced his horses,
drank his toddies and juleps and
smashes, played cards, made love and
sowed his wild oats broadcast with
generous indulgence; she had been
the kid sister at home who saw him
scarcely at all, save when-as quite
often happened-in the dead of night
or at dawn, she stole down the stairs
to help him into the house and to
his room without waking his parents.
She had idolized him and worshiped
him, nevertheless-her only brother;
for he had been the eldest and Kath-
crime the youngest among five, and
of the three who had died she had
no recollection whatever.
So she painted with expectancy and
dread while she stood behind the
trunk of the hemlock watching the
man on the bench who had smoked
On as fundamentally as if he had not
a care in the world beyond the i'm
mediate consumption of the ciar.
She wished that he would throw
| that one away and light another, and
turn so that he would face toward
her her when he did it. She was GER
tain that she would know if he were
Roderick. She was not sure about
the voice, but she knew that she
could never forget the handsome,
somewhat dissipated, but wholly pat
rician face of her brother.
After a time he stood up again,
tall and stalwart, with his head and
shoulders yelled within the black
gloom above him, and Katherine
crouched low behind her tree.
Then he did precisely what she had
been hoping that he would do; hav
ing turned his body slowly around
gazing first out across the lake, then
toward the buildings at inquest, he
presently faced directly toward her
self as if he looked at the trunk Of
the very tree behind which she wa:
crouched.
He struck a match; he held the
flame of it before his face while hi
applied it to the cigar so that every
line of his features showed plaInl!
and Katherine was conscious of
sharp pang of disappointment.
She saw no resemblance to he
brother Roderick in that flamell
, Illuminated face.
katherine's disappointment was s.
/ keen that she closed her eyes In tn
spasm of regret that followed it
: she had not realized how earnestl,
2 she had hoped, nor how confidentl,
: she had expected, that the flarinI
5 light of the match would reveal tn
face of her brother.
v When she opened them, and LITE
S her gaze again, he was gone.
1t amazed her that he could dis
appear so swiftly and silently; bu
5 the fact Of it reminded her of Bine
e ham when he had been the Nigh
Y Wind, and a hunted man.
She kept very still for a time afte
a that, for she did not know that I'll
? strange mar might not be close {;
.e hand, where he would discover HI
if she started away; but ere Ion
she became convinced that he had +
ally gone, and so she continued {
to her way toward the Nest.
IN The artificial lake vas the gem
r inquest.
ly 1t was something more than tv
ne acres in extent, and had been ma
he by erecting a dam cross a ravi'
ey to hold bck the waters of a brook
he sweet cold water that had no dou
sr. once been a torrent. 1t was fed
nix numerous springs as well as by t
tn brook, and was clear, and cold, a
ed deep, and was well stocked with sc
ad eral varieties Of trout which
ok guests at inquest always found {
les light and entertainment in feedli
nd There was a boathouse and t
he lighthouses at the shoreside near
ED to the inquest home, while upon
in higher of the bluffs that border
ent the ravine Katherine had had bI
fly under her personal supervision g
direction, and after her own Sc
inc made plans, a Swiss chalet; and
sed building of it had been a whim
hers which Bing had INDUCED to
ind limit-and then some.
yht 1t was Katnerine's very owl
the more individually and excluslv
ave hers than in her widest imagmll
pom she had ever dreamed of-for
in husband had gone her n letter
the every suggestion she had made ab
it until it had become a verits
Castle Of Seclusion for the indt
rita ence of her own pet hobbies, theor
On lfoetos and talents. and into which