The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-10-31
Maybe" he suggested at last, when

StTdiSnI 10 tne uOOT, THIS Is where
our stick-up gents hang out Choice
place for cutthroat to hibernate,
huhT
II don't believe IT," answered Ju-
dith positively. The man who made
his hermitage here has soul I'd
rather own this cabin and live here,
than have palace on Fifth avenue
She knocked at the door, knowing
that silence would answer her, but
hoping to have a man, calm-eyed,
gentle-voiced, romantic hermit In all
of his picturesqueness, come to the
door.
"Golng in?" asked Lee in well-sim-
ulated carelessness.
NO" she told him freezingly. "Why
should I? Would you want people
poking about into your home just be-
cause Ii was In the heart of wilder
ness and you weren't there to drive
them out?"
NO." answered Bud gravely. Now
that you ask me. wouldn't! Let's go
find that trail"
But" continued Judith, mot being
a fool, and realizing that one Of the
men we want might possibly be in
hiding in here, 1 am going to peek
in"
mot being a fool" he repeated
after her, adding gently, land being
a girl, which means filed with Gu
riosity."
| A disdainful shoulder gave him his
answer The door was unlocked, after
immemorial western custom, and
Judith opened it. Lee heard her little
gasp of pure delight.
"He's a dear, the man who lives
herer she announced positively
"You can just tell by looking at his
home"
Looking in over her shoulder, Bud
Lee wondered just what in his one
room shanty had caught her enthus-
iasm. There was the rock fireplace
with an iron hook protruding from
each side for coffee-pot and stew-pOt;
bunk with a blanket smoothed over
cedar boughs; shelf with dozen
books; little else, so far as he could
see or remember, to catch at Judith's
delight. Yet she, looking through
woman's eyes, read in one quick
"peek" the character of the dweller
in this abode. One who was content
with little, who loved clean. outdoor
life, and who was TRANQUILITY above the
pettiness of humanity. Judith closed
the door softly.
Going straight across the plateau,
she showed him where one could
Chamber up a steep way to the ridge.
Once up there, it was but ten minutes
until, in a hollow, they found the
monument marking a trail, a stone
set upon a boulder.
1t was after five O'Clock. When,
following the trail back and forth in it's
winding along the side of the ridge,
they found the signs they sought, it
was fast growing dark. But there, in
narrow defile where loose soil had
filtered down, were tracks left by
large boot Lee went down on his
hands and knees to study them in the
dusk. He got up with little grunt
and moved down the trail Again he
found tracks, this time more clearly
defined. So dark was 1t now that
they had lighted several matches.
"Two men," he announced wonder
ingly. Fresh tracks, too. Made this
morning or last night, I'll bet. One
coming east from Indian Head. The
other coming west from the plateau
behind us. Who's he? Where'd he
come from?
"He's the second of the two men
who shot at you," said Judith quickly.
Don't know every trail in this neck
of the woods, Bud Lee? He followed
south side of the ranch. They met
here just as knew they would!'
"What for?" Lee frowned through
the darkness at her eager face. What
would they want to get together for?
If they had any sense they would scat
ter and clean out of the country"
"Unless," Judith reminded him,
"they don't intend to clean out at all
Unless they mean to stick to the cliffs
and try their hands again at their
sort of game. They'll figure that we
will expect them to be a long way
from here by now. won't they? Then
| where would they be safer than right
here in these mountains? Give me a
rifle and something to eat and I'll. de-
fly an army getting me out of here.
| And think of it: If this is Treyors'
work, Ii he means business, think
what two gunner on these heights
could do to US. They could pick off
three-thousand-dollar stallion down
In the pens; they could drop more
than one prize bull or COW; and" she
added sharply, "if they thought about
girls as some men think, they could
take a chance on soaring Judith San
ford out of the country"
Lee stared at her long time in
silence.
II wouldn't have said," he offered
finally, that Bayne Trevors would
make quite so strong play as that"
'You wouldn't Then look him in
the eyel And where's his risk, If he's
picked the right men, if he sees them
through, keeping the back door open
when they want to run for It? You
just gamble your boots. Bud Lee. that
Bayne Trevors -"
Without warning, without a sound
of explosion came why whine into
the still air. little venomous ping.
and bullet sped by just over their
heads. But. through the gloom, they
both saw the flash of the gun as 1t