The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-01-05

thing-can happen before we're to-
gether again."
"But we have this hour, now"
Nothing can ever rob us of
thati"
Each was seeing a person he had
never seen before. He was still
whipcord and braided leather, the
saddle man who could hold his own
in the upheaval of markets and the
shifting games of the financiers; but
| Ell the barbed and dour hardness
OF him was gone, so that in the
arms of this girl it was as if he
were reborn. And in the girl the
hidden steel of the will he had not
been able to bend seemed melted,
and the curve of her body within his
arm was surrender without re-
serve.
They did not know how long they
| lay together on the bunk that for
the time was not his, but theirs, in
that lonely and deserted house; and
he learned here that she was nei-
ther east nor west, but all woman.
A harsh, taut strain that had held
them for days seemed to slacken
and go out of the night, as if guns
and cattle were unimportant things;
and in that hour that was theirs
| alone, one bitterness went out of
the world forever. 1t was not
surprise, but a consummation, when
| presently he found that she was
asleep.
He picked her up and carried her
to her own room, and put her in
her own bed; and she smiled family
in her sleep as he kissed her eyes.
Then he walked out of the house,
by a different door than the one
where Coffee sat, and stood listen
ing to the still night.
Then, while his mind was entirely
away from hatred and violence for
the first time in a week, something
| in the back of his mind found the
answer, and all in a moment he
saw through the tangle that had
roped the "a. He knew suddenly not
only who had killed Flagg at Short
Creek, but why Flagg had had more
than hunch that he was riding into
death; he knew why Marian had
been fired on; and he knew how he
could prove, inevitably and inescap-
ably, who had killed Bob Flagg-
and the taut strain of range war
came back into the night, turning
him cold.
| Wheeler walked around the house
| 4~ -4s
AS far as the naked eye could OBJ
serve Old Man Coffee had not
changed his position; he could sit
like a rock or an Indian hours on
end, as if this were his natural way
of living out his life. Wheeler sat
down slowly and stiffiy on the step
beside the old man, he ran his
hands over his face, shook his head
like fighter trying to clear away
the effects of killing right cross.
| Coffee did not speak and for lit
tie while Wheeler also sat silent,
trying to compute how much he
wished to say. Coffee" he said
at last, 81 see it. / see it ALL"
| Coffee took his pipe out of his
mouth and looked at Wheeler. "All
what?"
Il know who fred on Marian"
"Hel, son, you had that figured
out last time seen you, two hours
ago." Coffee glanced at the stars
which he used as a clock. 1.-Two
hours and fifteen minutes" he cor.
rected himself.
81 had the wrong reason" Wheel.
er said; ''this time | know. And
knowing that, know now why Boz
Flagg had forenotice that he was
near his end. And ! can prove il
ALL"
Old Man Coffee started to say
"You sound like you was full Of
but he hesitated and studied Billy
Wheeler sidelong through the thir
dark. Answer m : one thing, son, .
he said at last. "What was the thing
that showed you the killer trail?"
'sIt was two things, Coffee, ;
Wheeler said mot one. Two kline
of trivial-looking things, that knew
and then forgot. But as soon as
saw the meaning of one of them
right away I saw the meaning of the
other. Like as If the two clues were
tied together by the neck. Coffee
Marian doesn't know thing in the
world about this. But the first thing
that come to me was something
remembered that she said. You re
member after
STOP" said Old Man Coffee.
So sharply had the old man com
manded him that Wheeler at frs
thought Coffee was listening to some