The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-04-13

aSNameQ. BuC ne was angry, 100. LIE
angrier because he was ashamed.
Everything about the girl irritated him.
Her being in his valley at all; her fore
ing herself into his house vel his I'M
welcome; her very beauty-slender,
supple, alluring, beneath the contrived
revelation of her clinging white jersey.
The smoke from her cigaret trailed up
across the smooth olive of her cheek
and tangled in the shining ripples of
her dark chopped hair, nimbussed by
the freight. Yes, most of all her
beauty, he analysed, with the calm as
sumption born of it, that where men
were concerned it was all she needed.
Well, here was one time she would find
herself mistaken.
"You aren't a native of these parts,
m you?" she stated rather than in
quired.
The man stared at her a second in
ironic admiration. Then he smiled.
"D'you KNOW" he said, and no other
answer to her question was needed
than the subtle change of tone and
diction, II had almost forgotten how
insolent a beautiful oma can bel"
"Wen," she remarked without en-
phasis, you have not almost forgotten
how insolent a gentleman can be-"
The mans brown skin turned a
scarcely perceptible shade darker, but
he continued to smile. II didn't ask
you here" he pointed out. And after
all . . it is my house."
She stood quite still looking out. The
man had a pleased conviction that at
last he'd touched her, but when she
spoke her tone was UNDERTAKING. cts
mine, too -. in a way" she said. II
was born in it."
"You!" The exclamation broke from
him without volition, and after its ex-
plosion he stood staring at her in a
complete surprise.
And she stood silent also. Looking,
! looking, as if she could never get
enough of what she saw. Forgetting
, him, and seeing only his valley. The
white meadow, the barn, the winding
willow bordered creek, the rosy, pine
crowned bluff running back to the low
hills that shut away all that belonged
to other men.
And she had loved it-still loved it
and it had been hers before ever he'd
known it existed. But never, something
within him protested hotly, in the same
way that it vas his! Yet it had
drawn her back after years from the Sc
different life that he also knew :.
As if to confirm that thought, but
not as if she thought of him at all, the
girl said simply, Il think I have been
homesick ever since I went away" And
presently, in a curious, muted, re-
membering' tone she went on speaking
Tive dreamed about the bluff was
afraid it wouldn't look the same! 49,.
And that big warm spring back of it .
in the hollow where the ferns grow Sc
tall :. They used to be up to your STIR
rup by mid June, and the does hid their
fawns among them when they went off
to feed"
"They still come"
20, do they?" cried the girl softly
Dad used to take me up to see them
He could always find them no matter
how carefully their mothers hid them
You had to be awfully quiet and slow
not to brighten them, you know :.
Dad never let any one hunt"
mo one hunts now" said the man.
%, I'm glad" said the girl, and heI
voice trailed into silence that lasted q
long tine. When she spoke again II
was with d casualness that was palpably
false.
"The ranch" she said. II came to sec
II you would sell 1t back to me?"
For a second q fresh surprise held
the man wordless, then he said fatty