The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1942-06-04

IulneSS I1al ne nau always ndQ, dS
though the need of it had been
burned in him since the beginning.
Darkness rolled tidally down the
hills, filling War Pass. Lights CLINT
ed through window and doorway and
made yellow fanwise pools on the
walks and the night breeze bore in
sage scent and pine scent from the
stage stood before the hotel, ready
to go. Morgan's attention clung to
the dark area around Gentry's cor
raj a long while. Afterwards he
said, to Janet: you're staying here
for a few days Let's take a little
walk before I start home"
Ann McGarrah knew where they
were going. Paused by the stores
doorway, she watched these two,
the tall shape of the man and the
slender figure of the girl side by
side, go down into Old Town, jan
cts small hand gripping her IA
theirs. One light illumined them a
moment, then they were lost be-
yond Old Town as they walked to-
WdTu the cGfIlGleIy.
Beyond Old Town a creek came
out of the hills and crossed under
the road with liquid tapping. Past
the creek the round-topped wooden
headboards of the cemetery glowed
vaguely white under the moonlight.
Following the irregular row, Nor
gan stopped before his wife's grave.
Janet's hand gripped his fingers
more tightly and she stood quite
close to him.
He heard her soft, long sigh. 'It
would be so nice to have a mother"
This was the thing that hit him
SO hard, his daughters loneliness for
a mother. He stood at the foot of
the grave, with his hat removed,
thinking back to that long-gone night
when Lila Durrie, so full of life
and laughter and recklessness, had
smiled to him across the dance
halls width, putting everything into
her round black eyes. AT eighteen
a man was like the blowing wind;
he had gone over, knowing there
would be a fight. Ben Herendeen
had brought her to the dance and
Ben Herendeen stood by, quietly
raging. When the music started
Lila Durrie looked up at the sullen
Herendeen, laughed at him and took
Clay Morgans arm, dancing away.
At the doorway they had stepped
out; down by the row of buggies, in
the bland black night, they had
stood moment, no longer cool and
no longer laughing. Even now Nor
gan remembered the sharpness, the
wild intensity of his feelings as he
kissed her and heard her whisper
in his ears. "Clay-Clay, do you
love me?" They had gone immedi-
ately to his rig. At daylight they
were married.
| There hadn't been time for a pic
ture or for much of anything else.
At that time he owned a small ranch
in the Lost Hills and ran a few
cows on it. This was where they
set up housekeeping, a long way
from town, long way from dances
or from her friends. She had been
used to better things and couldn't
help remembering it. She was a
stormy girl, SO rash in anger, so
quick to seek laughter, by turns so
terribly forlorn and SO tempestuous-
ly happy. Four months after their
marriage Herendeen rode up to the
place and stepped from the saddle.
From the far corner of the mead
ow, Clay had seen this. When he
reached the house Herendeen was
laughing and she was laughing but
that laughter stopped soon enough,
for Herendeen said: "Why stick so
close to the house, Clay? Don't you
trust your wife?"
Morgan drew the cigar from his
mouth, feeling some of the fury of
that fight He had rushed against
Herendeen, hearing his wlfe's
scream of protest. Herendeen start
ed laughing again, but when they
were finished, both exhausted and
drained dry and badly beaten, there
was no amusement in Herendeen.
That hurt still came back to plague
Morgan, even now; he remembered
how he walked to the corral and
hung his elbows against it to keep
from falling, and how blindly Her.
endeen staggered toward his horse.
He had whipped Herendeen in that
fight and yet he had lost; for, five
months later, shortly after Janet's
birth, Lila had looked up from her