Nogales international., 1936-08-01

L ne ROIQGH nSdQ SLlTIGQ dC last
on the pillow. Long lashes quiv-
cred; gray eyes opened and looked
dimly around the cabin. Meeting
his, they dropped in bewilderment
to the bunk.
After an hour or so the pain be-
gan to relent.
Il can't ever thank you, Bud"
she murmured.
Forget that and try to sleep.
Maybe this will help" He brought
a toddy he had been warming.
When a real sleep of exhaustion
presently stole over her, he went
out to stable the mare.
"I'l1 have to travel as soon as the
storm dies" she said upon waking,
But why, Peter If it's because
you need"
She shook her head in troubled
reverse Il made some money this
winter cooking for a rafting outfit
on the Teslin, I don't need any"
"Homesick, maybe?" he sug
gested, "for that warm desert
country of yours?"
"It isn't always warm in Nevada,
or all desert" Pete smiled little,
with an effort to be brighter guest.
"There's lots of snow"
He encouraged her to talk.
"I guess, even if the place you
grow UP isn't wonderful" Pete
unused. "you imagine it's SO. Hardly
anyone ever came near Bills ranch
but l used to dream had a frienc
out in the hills somewhere. He rode
big bay horse with cream-colorec
name. When the hot wind blew
I'd imagine I was holding to tn,
saddle horn and we were leaving /;
long coil of dust into the blue water
of a mirage. I asked Bill about i
once and he said I'd been chewin
loco weed. There wasn't no such
horse in the range. He said tn,
on'y kin / had was prospectol
who'd left Nevada, and he wasn't {
man would want to remember"
The enigmatical figure of the mar
with the mukluks loomed acros:
Maitland's mind.
Sometimes, when Bill was drink
ing, he'd mutter about this prospec
tor-Dalton, he called him. HI
spoke as if he'd grubstaked hin
once, to be rid of him They hac
jealous quarrel over a woman Bill
was married to, l think, and I wa.
mixed in it someway. He never
talked of it when he was sober"
That fragment cast the shadow
: of strange triangle, though Pete
seemed unaware of anything tragi,
in it's reference to her. After thi.
breakup she had lived alone will
the brooding Owens-a secluded
life. She did not say what hac
brought him North at last to joi1
the prospector who had wrongec
him, nor what her own adventure.
had been after his death, or why
she had recently left the rafters
camp on the Lewes with the inten
ton of going out.
did you ever find Dalton?'
Maitland asked, after a silence.
"I-saw him." Pete said, in ar
| oddly withdrawn tone.
/ More hesitantly Maitland asked
"Did you remember him?"
Il don't know" Her voice hac
the same troubled constraint. "Ir
a kind of way"
"This is none of my business
Pete, but why didn't he take you
with him?"
Her hand brushed her eyes with
a shadowy gesture. 81 can't
Ny heads kind of jumbled, Bud
Anyway you're safe now, Pete -
he said. "By the time you're able to
travel, we'll figure something better
for you than going out
The cell of the Skagway jail was
a plain thick-studded box, except
for small grilled vent in the sea-
ward wall, and the cot on which
Speed was sitting, inwardly raw
with chagrin. Outwardly he wore
an air of composure for the benefit
of the heavily armed guard in the
passage, on the other side of the
grated cell door.
Being arrested on the charge of
having murdered the shell dealer in
this camp last fall, was bad enough
But he had not discerned the real
teeth in the trap until Fallon entered
the marsha1's office, just before he