The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1931-03-05
CHAPTER Vl-Continued

CHAPTER VI-continued
3
All about her was the haze of
smoke, soft and still in the air. In
the distance obscured by the fog
which ran from the smOldering
ruins. she saw a form bent gro
tesqueiy under a burden. 1t was
shapeless thing, distorted by the
sun and the smoky spindrifts
dancing before her eyes, but liv-
ing because it was moving away
from her. Behind it was a smaller
object, and she knew the two were
Jeems and his dog.
She watched until they were
blOtted from her vision, and min
utes passed before she followed
where they had gone.
.Jeems must have seen her, for
he reappeared with the dog like a
werewolf at his heels. He had
found a coat somewhere and did
not look so savage though his
face was dsfigured and bleeding
where she had struck him with the
barrel of the musket. She tried
to speak when he stopped before
her. Accusation and bit of fero-
city remained in her soul, but they
We're impotent in the silence be-
tween them His eyes meeting
hers steadily from under the lurid
brand OF her blow, seemed less
like a murderer's and held more
the gaze of one who regarded her
with a cold and terrible pity. He
did not put out helping hand
though she felt herself swayng.
He was no longer youth. He was
not even Jeems Bulain.
But his voice was the same.
5"I am sorry. TOinette."
Jeems scarcely knew he spoke
the words. They rang back
through the years as if a ghost
had come to life whose memory
they had fayed out of their hearts
a long time ago.
what are you doing here?" she
demanded.
She might have asked that same
question in those unimportant
years when he had dared to visit
Tonteur manor with his foolish
gifts. Why was he here? He
turned in the direction from which
he had come and held out his
hand, not for her to take, but as
a voice. She understood what his
burden had been. Tears? Such
trivial things could not exist in the
after-heat of the holocaust that
had consumed them. Pride, defy
ing grief, raised her chin a little
as she obeyed Jeems. She knew
to what she was going. And when
she came to the place which Jeems
had prepared she was like white
angel who had appeared to gaze
for moment or two upon the
dead.
With a tool he had found, Jeems
had made a grave. 1t was shallow
and made less unbeautiful with q
bed of golden grass. Tonteur did
not seem unhappy as he lay upon
it. The top of his head was GOV.
cred so Toinette could not see
She knelt and prayed, and Jeems
drew back. feeling that to knee
with her, with the marks of hel
hatred on his face and body, would
be sacrilege.
Even now, when it should have
known better, the mill wheel con
tinued to whine and scream, anC
suddenly it occurred to Jeems thai
it could not have been that way
yesterday when Tonteur was alive
A devil must have come to abide
at the top of the mill
He waited, scanning the hori
IONS that we're thinning of theil
smoke. Death had passed an(
death might return over its owl
backened trail. Toinette, beside
her father, made him think O.
that. 1t seemed a long time be
fore she rose to face him. She
was not crying. Her eyes were
blue stars in a countenance q:
pale as marble. The sun shone or
her and gave an unearthly radi
civ W uCl Hail. IeI D6dul,
3 held him stricken just as his owl
terribleness forced from er {
gasp of protest when he drew of
the coat borrowed from one of til,
dead men and spread it over Ton
teur. But she did not speak. Onl,
the mill wheel continued its viru
lent plant as the loose earth fel
on the baron. Toinette looked
steadily toward the sky, and whel
Jeems was done she accompanied
him back to the mill. She watched
him go for his bow, where he saw
that the form he had thought wa
Toinette was the wife of Peter tn,
Younger.
He came back and spoke to he
second time. The lips she hal
broken with the musket barre
were swollen, and the brand acros
his forehead was turning a darl
and angry color. The cloth he hat
twisted about his wounded arm