The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1937-11-11

He noticed that she called it "oul
dry land" now.
"And so"
"Im going to stay with my brand
until there isn't one bit of the 81
left. After all, I'm my fathers
daughter. The country is part Of
me, bred in"
81 know how you feel" he said
slowly. Butt isn't as if you
could really do anything here
now"
"I'll be able to keep you in
formed of what's happening here
at least. 1 hardly think Val Doug
las would take much interest In
that, left to himself. But it isn't
that. It's simply can't always
run away from too many things
and sometime afterward I've been
sorry"
He could understand that, but il
surprised him to find her looking
at things in that way. He had to
respect her for it, but it didn't make
the set-up any easier for him. y
surrcse there irsn't. anything
can do" he admitted regretfully.
you've already shown me that
when you set out to do thing.
you'll do it in spite of all hall and
the drouth-"
Wouldn't you rather have me
that way?"
81 don't know as I could ever
bring myself to went you any diff
ferent than you are"
He made a cigarette, and lit It,
and gloomily studied its smoke. He
was thinking that it was pretty
near too much to ask of man to
90 off on a long trail the way
things Were here, and leave this
child
Suddenly he realized that this
girl was not any longer child. He
had not known that he had always
before seen her as child, until
now he saw her as something else,
Her face had a color that was Ike
a child's color, clear and lovely
but its contours no longer suggest
ed a little girl It was quiet face,
thoughtful and awake, and somehow
competent looking; and her eyes,
looking into that distance beyond
the walls, were looking into the flu
-understandingly, even SOM
berly, but unafraid.
He wondered why he had not
realized before how changed she
was. Every movement she made,
every pose she took, was different
from what he had seen in the girl
he had made love to two years
before. Two years ago Marian Dunn
would not have been able to lounge
relaxed upon his bunk in pajamas
and an Indian blanket, thinking
about the factors of range war, and
the business affairs of men; she
would have been nerviously con-
scious then of the fact that the man
she was with loved her-would have
worried about what he would do
or say.
This girl did not worry, but
steadily faced the situation in which
they found themselves.
He looked away from her, un-:
able any longer to think OF murder
clues OF cow mortgages while she
was in his eyes. He fixed his gaze
upon his thrown-down gunbelt and
tried to think of what he must do.
Bitterly he was blaming himself
that he could not see through this
killing case; for he had persistent
bunch thSt everything necessary
for solution was in his hands. He
blamed only himself that he must
now take a long trail to discover
what might be obvious, here and
now, to a more brilliant deduction.
He tried to set his mind to the
factors he had discussed with COT
fee, in one more supreme effort to
shortcut the case, but his mind
would not work for him. Even with
his eyes upon q saddle or gun he
could still see nothing but the girl
every CLINT of light in the loose
bush of her hair, the slim cordings
of a wrist, the resting look of a
hand that lay palm up upon the
blanket.
It was impossible for him not to
wonder if things between them
might not have been different had
he never known her two years be-
fore at all, but could have started
over again now, to win her in a
new way. Then it occurred to him
that it was waste of time to be
looking at gun or saddle blan-
ket, trying to think, when he might
be looking at her. Perhaps it would
be a long time before he would see
her again; perhaps he would never
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