The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-10-07

talking about?"
s'I found this TRAIL" she said with
an odd, tremulous stubbornness,
"and l mean to follow it out"
"Look here, Marian! This man is
mixed up somewhat with the killing
of Bob Flagg. He may even be
guilty himself. For all we know,
he'll fight like cornered wolf"
"I'm going on" she said again.
Wheeler saw that the girl was
grave, nervous. He said suddenly,
"Are you afraid to ride back
alone?"
eff you were going back, would
still 60 up this trail"
'In Gods name Marian, what's
the matter with your"
"Nothing's the matter with me. =
"She was pale and quiet, and she
sat very still in her saddle; but
strangely, he thought he had never
seen her more alive. Suddenly it
seemed to him that great unsus-
'eBut I'm Not Going Back"
pected strength linked this girl to
the desert hills; and that behind it
perhaps lay fires he had never seen.
The twilight was deepening in the
broad reaches of the canyon, and
little time was left. Even an worn
out horse could get away if the dark
closed down. "Take my word for
it," he said brusquely, you're 60
ing back-now, right now!"
"Are you ordering me?"
Call it that"
II Think" she said, "you can't do
that"
'You think I can't?"
what can you do?"
For moment it seemed to him
that there was nothing he could do.
In the face of an immediate neces-
sity he found himself helpless. Then
it occurred to him that there might,
after all, be one way, only one. His
mouth and eyes set hard, and he
kicked his pony sideways, close to
hers.
'You think I can't send you out
of this?" he said.
He leaned out of his saddle and
with one arm clampedt her hard
against him. With the other hand
he turned her face upward! and he
kissed her mouth, certain that she
would ride him no farther.
For a moment she was motion
less except that he felt a sharp
CULVER run through her body, and
her lips trembled under his.
Since the first-only-time he had
kissed her, two years ago, he had
thought that he could never forget
the soft warmth of her lips, the
fragile residence of her slim body;
but now the actuality of the girl in
his arms half stunned him, she had
been untouched as dream for so
long. The thought he swayed in the
saddle, and the twilight about them
turned suddenly dark and unreal. A
strand of her fine hair touched his
eyes, lightly as the touch of
breath; he felt the faint pulsation of
her breast. He did not know that
his arm frightened about her so that
he almost broke her in two.
Then her body twisted and she
struck spurs to her pony, so that
he had to release her to avoid drag
ging her out of the saddle. His
voice shook with the curbed pres
sure of an emotion he mistook for
anger as he said savagely, "Now
go on back!"
She sat little apart from him,
and her pony stood head high, very
shaky from the sharp unsteadiness
of her hand upon the curb. She
said, 81 suppose that's the bitterest
thing that ever happened to me.
Can't you ever do anything but hurt
and destroy and break up?"
evil you go back?" he said be-
tween his teeth.
mo I most certainly will not!"
Her voice was repressed, but
there was smoky fire in her eyes,
and the upward twitch of her eye
brows as she spoke out of her an
ger was strangely suggestive of
Horse Dunn. He looked her in the
eyes, and he knew that he could in
no way bend her will.
A great sense of fatalism over
came him. This had been his posi-