The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-04-20
Would you give up yours to marry

me?"
"of course not. I told you your pride
was small"
He said cynically, There's nothing
you won't do or say to get your way. is
there?"
why should I let my life be ruined
by your folly if I can help it?" she re-
torted calmly, and he strained his eyes
trying to see her face alert to an i'm
ponderable something in her tone.
"Well, you can't help it." he assured
her grimly.
The girl turned and met his eyes.
Though she was so close she was no
more than a ghost in the smothery
white gloom and when she spoke her
voice seemed to come from a long way
off. "Good-by, then" she breathed.
He heard the lisp of a starting ski and,
suddenly, even the ghost was gone as
If it had been something he had only
dreamed.
He could not have told how long he
ness first attracted his attention, but
1t must have been some hours. The dog
would not settle and his whole manner
was alert and listening. A marauding
skunk or coyote at the henhouse, the
nan supposed, only to refute the sup
position instantly. Hardly tonight! He
spoke to the dog but Rupert, though
he lay down obediently did not lose
his %uneasiness and suddenly was up and
at the door demanding egress. The
man thought in surprise, 1T is coyotes,
I can hear them" But he told the dog,
No fights tonight, old man." But Ru-
pert only scratched frantically at the
door, and again the man heard family
that strange wailing that coyotes
make like a woman in distress. Like
a woman -.
Suddenly it seemed to the man that
something had taken hold of his heart
and vas COMPRISING it-forcing it into
a smaller space than was bearable.
The next thing he knew he was
standing outside the cabin, shouting,
Where are you? 49,. WHERE ARE
YOU?"
There was no answer.
Rupert had plunged past him on the
first opening of the door and in a single
stride vanished behind the curtain of
the storm.
Again he shouted, cracking his lungs
in a desperate plea, and again there
was no answer but the faint continu-
Gus hush" of the snow falling, fall
ing, soft, impenetrable, implacable.
The moment that followed was ages
long to the man who believed the wo-
man he loved had called to him in her
extremity and who knew too well how
easy it would be to perish in such a
storm within a dozen yards of safety.
Then like the blessed trumpets of
Judea the fanfare of Rupert's barking
fell upon his ears.
He put the kettle back on the stove
and with the steaming glass in his
hand turned. The other end of the
room was Lit only by the flames that
leaped high upon the hearth. The girl
lay, cocooned in blankets, on the couch.
Her eyes were closed and her face
drawn and white with WEAKNESS and
the still recent agony of sensation, re-
turning to her numbed limbs. Yet, in
her expression there was a certain
a complacency, a subtle hint
of triumph, that, even while he shiver-
ed remembering how close that triumph
had coasted to disaster, reused in the
man a ghost Of his old irony.
She opened her eyes as he bent above
her in time to catch his rather COM
plicated expression but it did not seem
TO puzzle her. A faint derision Lit her
intrepid eyes even while she murmur-
ed weakly, 1T wasn't as bad as you
think; I've been in the barn for hours.
came back almost on your heels, and
you didn't notice-but I kept Rupert
till I struck the feedyard fence. It was
just missing the house that made the
trouble. You wouldn't have thought I
could, would you? All the times I've
come up that PATH"
He made nc comment, but, kneeling
beside the couch, slipped an arm under
her and holding the glass to her lips
said, Better have another swig-even
if it is Scotch"
20, WELL" she conceded TN an
emergency"
When she had drunk she settled her
head in the hollow of his arm and let
her eyes rov about the room. Rupert,
his gallantry like that of any true gen.
tleman, already forgot, lay sleeping on
his rug. The light from the fire leap