Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1932-08-04
By Jackson Gregory
Copyright by Charles scrIbner's Son
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CHAPTER
i

1t was %springtime in the California
Sierra. Never were skies bluer. never
did the golden sun-flood steep the end
less forest lands in richer iIfe-giving
glory. 1t a early June. and thus far
only had the springtime advanced In
Its vernai progress upward through the
fimbered solitudes. Down In a hollow
at the base of the sunny slope was a
round alpine lake of the same deep.
perfect blue as the sky. whose color
1t seemed NOT 10 reflect but TO absorb.
While sitting with his back against
a tawny cedar. the man had been drawn
into the entity of the wilderness TO
which. obviously. he belonged. The
wei. worn. tall, laced boots were OF
brown leather, much seuffed. one In
color with the soil busting them. The
khaki trousers gathered into the boot
tops. the soft flannel shirt. were the
brown of the tree trunks. skin OF
hands and face and muscular throat
were the bronze of ripe pine-cnnes
and FURNISHED plne-needIes. And. In a
landscape spotted with light and
shadow. the head OF black hair might
have passed for d Bit of such pitch
black shadow as a tuft of thick foliage
casts upon the light-smitten ground.
He stood looking. u across the
ridges and so TO the final bulwark
against the sky still white with last
December. He sought landmarks and
measured distance, not In miles hut In
hours. Then he glanced briefly at the
sun. The eyes which had been keen
and alert filled suddenly with a shining
brightness.
He picked mp his hat and a small
canvas roll And vet again. with his
hat I'm his hand, he stood motionless-
Already he had marked ont the way
he planned to go, and still the nearer
peaks with the sunshine upon them
called to him. Slowly he drew back
into the shadows to watch and o be
seen.
For abruptly two figures had APP
peared upon the rocky head of the
mountain across the lake. They had
come up from the further side, and
when he saw them first stood cIear-cnt
against the sky. They might have
been hunters. since each carried a rifle.
The two figures separated. one going
along the crest Of the ridge. the other
climbing downward cautiously until he
stood MT the edge of the cliffs. He
craned his body to look down as
though seeking a way TO the lake,
Strengthened and stared for q long
time toward the snow o Of the more
distant attitudes. He turned and must
have said something to his companion,
who ieaped down from a boulder and
came to his side. The second man tow.
cred over him. head and shoulder.
They talked together. and vet the
only sound to carry across the lake and
meadow was the rush of air through
innumerable tree-tops. The smaller
man pointed. his arm 0utheid steadily
The other drew nearer. towering above
him. He. too. pointed or seemed about
TO point. From a distance they looked
like one man now.
IT was with startling ahruptness
that the two figures were torn apart
each resolved again into an individual
One. the towering a had drawn
suddenly back. the other was falling
And yet the silence was unbroken
There was never a cry to echt
through the gorges from q horror
cIutched throat. The falling mar
plunged straight down a dozen feet
struck against a ragged rock. writhes
free. fell again a few feet. and hegar
To roll over an owe ~plunging fiowI
the steep flank of the mountain.
The man who had watched from
across the lake had no stirred. TIL
big man on the cliffs came back sl0wI1
to the brink and crnnched there. look
ing down. m~otionless so long that |
was hard for the eve to he sure of him
to know II Ii were really a humal
being or a poised boulder sGuattini
there.
Then he stood up. holding his rife
i He had done with looking down. nor
he pivoted slowly. looking off In al
other directions Presently he begal
climbing back up the few feel to th
knife-like crest from which he ha
descended moi five minutes ago. lei
paused there for hardly more than a
instant and then went on. down TIL
further side. ont of sight
The man who had seer ali this fror
his own slope caught up his canya
roll again and hurried down towar
the lake. For the first time he spok
aloud, saying.
Sven Brodie. There's not anothe
man in the mountains brute enoug
for that"
He FASTENED on. taking the shortes
way, making nothing of the steepes
slopes. He was going straight to tn
man who had fallen.
The sun was appreciably lower whe
the man carrying the canvas roll cam
at last under the cliffs Before h
keen eyes found the man they seugh
he heard a voice calling family.
THAT you, Brodie?"
.Na RrndinsE gopnu