The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25

I'm Patrick Swanson.
 "Pat Swansonv' breathed Ed. ..Why you're the sheriff."
 Not for 20 years," chuckled the old man. q see your dad aint quite forgot me, now's he rich n all that. Still re- members the sheriff and-''
 And the Taliaferro gang"
 "Rightov'
 And how you fought Bud Jack on the-''
 Morgan claim"
 "Yes, yes!'
 Sheriff, it's sure great to meet you; but aint there really no danger from old Mar tin? He sure talked like death and killin' and gun-play."
 Didn't he, though? He's been talkin' like that, off n on, for these 25 years ever since your pa pulled his stakes out of Sierra Padre.'
 But what's he mean about woman? Dad was always straight as far as l know''
 He's talkin' about Bess Devine."
 My mother! The internal old fool. Tll-"
 Easy, lad. They ain't no harm in him. So Bess is your mother, eh? Last we seen of her was when she eloped with your pa"
 Ed Raleigh scratched his massive head, drowning.
 But what does Martin mean by this rot ten talk?" he frowned.
 Its always this way. I'll tell you the yarn.
 "Back there in the old days when Sierra Padre was first boomin', after gold was struck in the Bald Eagle, Bess Devine was the prettiest girl in the town. For min in camp, she was almost too .retty to be good. Mind you, l don't mean your ma wasn't the straightest, finest girl that ever stepped; but you take the eirest kind of girl and put her dowr in a gang of men, without no competition to spea' of, and she gets lot of funny ways with her eyes.
 "Speakin' in general, Bess played tag with .he whole camp. She could pick man up with her eyes, and make him drunk with smile, and then she slipped away to the next man. They was considerable Iish in Bess, which they's some in me, too I understood; but they was pile that didn't.
 When we give dance, mostly the. nei was dancin' with each other We'd tie req string around the arm O. some of the gents, and they was the ladies; and the others danced with 'em. But Bess was an honest to-God girl, and they was always a crowd arouns, her. She could pick and choose from hundred, al7ays. And she did do her pickin,' right enough.
 "She had her favorites, and she danced with 'em, but she always gave the ones she left behind her best smile and her best look under the lashes of her eyes. Gives me a thrill vet to think how Posc usod to handle us. She always made the ones she didn't dance with feel like she really wanted to dance with 'em more'n with any one else in the room-but they just hadn't happened to ask her first.
 "She was the kind of girl, lad, that man would see jest once, and then keep dreamin' about her for year or so after ward. That's the kind of girl she was. l can see her yet driftin' through crowd, shakin' hands with newcomers, smilin' right and left, and sowin' the seeds of hell-rasin' all around her.
 "Her eyes was as blue as the sky and her hair was as black as midnight, and they was a ripple like runin' water in her laugh that started at her head and wound up in . shiver at her feet. That was Bess Devine your mother.
 "Well, among the other suckers who couldn't read Bess' mind, along come this Jim Martin. He seen her in the street and stopped and gaped at her like she was fish out of water. And then he went to the dance and seen her again. And somehow-I think they'd been fight between Bess and your pa-somehow Jim got the bid to take her home after the dance; and he was so