The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-04-20

and were strong enough to MIX Alce
and pitch hay. But above all I think
I love your fearlessness and your non
esty with yourself. The only other
woman that I ever really loved had
neither, and I ended by despts1ng my
self for loving her. I shan't have that
to help me in forgetting you. Instead
I'll have the valley and so always some
thing of you to keep my love alive
There" he said harshly, NOV you
know"
After a long pause she spoke, scarcely
above her breath, yet I must -. go?'
He had not answered and another
pause heightened between them. She
broke it quietly. I'll go tomorrow,
then in the afternoon. VII you
come down once more and see me of
the place? About 4 O'Clock. I'll give
you a cup of tea," she added dryly.
But the man did not wait till 4 next
day.
He awakened to a gray and shadow
less dawn. BY loon a curious warning
hush had settled IN the earth and at
2 o'clock he went down to the ranch.
But the girl was not there. For an
instant, when she did not answer his
knock, knowing her a. capable as him
self of interpreting the sky's threat,
he thought she had left without waiting
for him, but when he opened the cabin
door he saw, with an exquisite relief,
that things of hers were still about the
room. A sweater, a pair of wool socks
drying on the hearth. And his batter
ed old tin tray was laid for tea.
He got the stock into shelter and fed.
When he returned to the house she
had just come in and was pulling off
her coat.
Look here" he protested. cts a good
three miles to town and when this
storm hits it's going to be a humdinger.
We always get n about now
She nodded. II remember. Gosh,
how I'm going to love to see one!" Her
eyes were shining.
He stared at her a moment. She was
altogether too casual, he thought. But
to his immense relief when they'd had
their tea, hurriedly, and almost in sill
ence, she did not demur from his in
sistence, that they start. It was, how
ever, well past four o'clock.
AS they took off down the meadow
the first snow flakes began to fall. BY
the time they had reached the first
bend of the creek the hills on either
hand had vanished.
I'VE should have started when I
said," the man declared. "There'u be
an inch of this before we reach the next
bend. And it'll be getting dark"
But the girl did not answer. He
doubted whether she had heard him.
Her eyes, set straight ahead, had TAX
en- on that rapt, lost look of one who
listens to great music.
Rupert kept pace with them, a little
ahead, in a ~businesslike way.
When finally they climbed over the
last low spur, with the town beyond,
the slow northern night had all but
closed in, and a light in the first house
was no more than a faint blur. They
halted side by side, looking at it. Sign
posts, the man told himself, at the
parting of their ways.
Hadn't you better stay in town?"|
the girl asked.
mo, it's easier to go back now than
it may be for another week." the man
explained.
eyes, of counsel" she agreed, and he
was puzzled by something very like sat-
isfaction in her tone. 80 this is the
end?"
The man turned his head to look at
her. He could have touched her easily,
but dusk and the storm lent her a quail
ity of the unsubstantial so that she
seemed to be drawing slowly away, and
he had an almost panic impulse to seize
her before she should vanish altogeth-
er-to take her in his arms and keep
her! Yet at the same time a kind of
sullen anger began to burn in him
against her.
He said then, Pride is something you
have never had to live without"
"And you think I'm asking you to-,
again? 80. I don't pretend to despise
money but apparently I put a different
kind of value on it than you do"
apparently" he conceded. "At least
on your money"
MY money! . Moneys just
money"