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

Published by Special Advancement with The
CHICAGO Tribune-New York News Syndicate,
Inc.
Copyright: 1884: BY L. M. B1sPHAM
IN TWO PARTs-PART TWO
She made a gesture of greeting and
he answered. Her cheeks glowed and
her eyes were full of zest when she ar
rived at the fire and examined him
why won't you?" she said finally
M referring to his answer to her note.
why should II" he countered.
well 49,. for one thing you'd get
. cracking good dinner"
He grinned. Derisively. Look here
he said, "it's not a bit of use. I'm not
going to let you have the place."
She let a little pause ensue before
abe said slowly, "And if I told you I'm
really not inviting you to dinner in
the hope of vamping you into letting
me have it, you wouldn't believe me,
would you?"
He did not answer, but when she
looked up at him he shook his head,
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ironic and ap~preciative.
She smiled back at him. "And you
ere such a susceptible male that, even
forwarned, you are afraid?"
He waved a hand at the surrounding
landscape. "Need you ask? Am I not
out here in the wintry blast while you
lie snug and warm beneath my roof?"
%, WE'LL" she said, that's that"
01nn cfNNJ for n voN,,oarf 11Nbinr off
across the valley.
I'm sorry" she said at last, that
you can't believe me. I meant the din
ner to be a gesture of appreciation, and
-. renunication. I fell don't know
Just how to tell you-that the ranch is
yours. And when I go I won't bother
you again. 7 admit I had hoped to stay
e little longer, but . when you come
down in the morning you can break
camp. And thanks for understanding
As much as you have"
She stood a moment longer examin-
ing the scene before her while the man
stared at her, aware of a sudden. pang
OF dismay in the midst of what should
have been unmitigated rejoicing. She
was going. He wouldn't be seeing her
again.
She made a little gesture with her
hand and began to o smoothly away
down the slope among the little white
spring cove. One by n they formed
glance back.
The eerie dark that is never. quite
dark in snowbound lands had held the
valley for an hour when the man came
slipping up to the cabin door, silent on
his skis. He stood staring at it for a
moment from sardonic eyes. The girl
had won again. He had known al
most from the moment Of her depart
ure that oon that she had won. He
had called himself a sentimental fool,
but the inner conviction had persisted
that, however ephemeral her claim, un-
less he came the valley in some intang-
ble spiritual sense would be less his.
He stepped off his skis and stood
them against the house. She wouldn't
be expecting him; but-he grinned-
she hadn't hesitated to drop in on him
without warning. Besides, his coming
was only a symbol.
He mounted the steps, kicking the
SHOW from his boots as he did so, and
raised his hand to knock, but before
the gesture was completed the door OPP
ened.
II see you waited dinner for me-" he
said dryly.
Lying sleepless in his bag that night he
etrove to recall at what point had come
that subtle change in their relations
that had made the evening end as 1t
had done. OF course it is difficult to
maintain a complete cynicism toward
q girl who cooks your supper and whom
you help wash up" afterwards, even
though you know it is all aimed at
getting you to give her something that
you do not want to give.
They hadn't told each other much.
It struck him with sudden irony that
he had told her that he loved her, but
hadn't asked her name or told her his.
She knew he'd make a mess Of things
with the help of too much money, too
little sense, and a woman. She knew
about his first night in the valley, and
his second when he had crawled back
to die. And he knew that there had
been oil on a dry ranch in the lower
country" that her father had bought
to winter his cattle, and that she would
always wonder if her father might not
have lived if he had never found it.
He had been just a puncher till he'd
met her mother, who had come west
with another girl a%dventuring and had
been unable to resist a western ro-
nance, and he had never been anything
but an alien in the world his money
had carried him into. But to the mother
It had been going home. She had tried
to get him to sell the ranch, hoping to
make him forget, but he had refused,
for not only was it his natural environ
ment, but in the beginning it had
meant her" to him. After his death
she had sold it, and the girl, off at
school, hadn't known for months.
When she did learn it, she made up