The Elk Mountain pilot., 1924-01-24
CHAPTER ~

The sun was barely above the east
ward wall Of trees when Kenneth and
his man rode away from the home Of
Phineas Striker.
The master was In a thoughtful,
troubled mood. What he had Just heard
from the lips Of the settler disturbed
him greatly. That beautiful girl his
half-sister! The child of his own IA
ther and the hated Rachel Carterl Ra.
chel Carter. the woman he had been
brought up to despise. the harlot who
had stolen his father away, the scarlet
vanton at whose door the death of his
mother was laid! That evil woman
Rachel Carter! 1
Could she. this foulest' Of thieves. be
the mother of SO lovely, so sensitive. So
perfect a creature as Viola Gwyn?
he revisualized the woman he had
known in his earliest childhood
Strangely enough. the face of Rachel
Carter had always remained more firm
ly, more indelibly impressed upon his
memory than that of his own mother
This queer. unusual circumstance
may be easily, reasonably accounted
for: his grandfather's dogged, almost
daily lessons In hate. He was not al
lowed to forget Rachel Carter-not for
one instant. Always she was kept be
fore him by that bitter, vindictive old
man who was his mothers father
even up to the day that he lay on his
deathbed. Small wonder, then, that his
own mothers face had faded from his
memory while that Of Rachel Carter
remained clear and vivid, as he had
known 1t now for twenty years.
Then there had been little MindA-
tiny Minda who existed vaguely as
name, nothing more. He had 4 dim
recollection Of hearing his elders say
that the babe with the yellow curls
had been drowned when 4 boat turned
over far away in the big brown river
Some one had come to his GRANDPA
TIERS house with the news. he re-
called hearing the talk about the acci-
dent. and his grandfather lifting his
fsr toward the sky and actually blam-
ing God for something! He never for
got thet His grandfather had blamed
God!
S~sA<A h8u C4PioAlSo tAhC sOhhC WAat
distasteful scrutiny to which he had
been subjected the night before. All
fhree Of them, knowing him to be vio-
las blood relation, were studying his
Features with interest, seeking for q
race Of family resemblance, not alone
TO bis father but to the girl herself.
THIS had set him thinking. There was
not 10 far A. he could determine. the
siiGhtest likeness between him and his
beautiful half-sister; there was abso-
iutely nothing to indicate that their
sire was one and the same man.
Pondering, he now understood what
striker meant in declaring that he
fought to know the truth about the frus-
trated elopement.
And Kenneth felt new weight Of
responsibility as unwelcome to him as
1t was certain to be to Viola /; for, when
all was said and done, she was her
mothers daughter and, as such. doubt
less looked upon him through the
mothers eyes, seeing common enemy.
Still, she was his half-sister and,
whether he liked 1t or not, he was NOR
ally bound to stand between her and
disaster-and If Striker was right,
marriage with the wild Lapelle spelled
disaster of the worst kind. He had
only to recall, however, the unaccount-
able look Of hostility with which she
mad favored him more than once dur
ing the evening to realize that he was
not likely to be called upon for either
advice or protection.
He mused aloud, with the shrug of a
philosopher: "Heigh-ho fear me
shall have small say as to the conduct
of this newly-found relation. The only
lie that bound US is gone. She is not
only the child of my father, whom she
ieared and perhaps hated, but of mine
enemy, whom she lOves-so the case is
ciear There is wall between us. and
snail not attempt to surmount 1t.
mat demnition mess 1t has turned
fnt to be. came prepared to find only