Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, June 4, 1917, Page 7

© NAN O MUSIC MOUNTAIN By Frank T1.S rank T1. pearman— Author of Whispering Smith. SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I—On Frontier day at Sleepy Cat, Henry de Spain, gunman and train- master at Medicine Bend, is beaten at target shooting by Nan Morgan of Music Mountain. Jeffries, division supertntsn- gent, asks De Spain to take charge of the Thief River stage line, but he refuses. CHAPTER I]—De Spain sees Nan dan le Morgan, is later derisively 9ut to Nan on the street by Gale, yed to change his mind and ac- CHAPTER IlI—De Spain and Lefever ride to‘Calabasas inn and there meet Gale Morgan with Deaf Sandusky and Bassoon, gunmen and retainers of an clan. matin of a stage driver and De Spain re ses. De Spain meets Nan but falls to overcome her aversion to him. CHAPTER IV—Sassoon knifes Elpaso, the stage Grivor, and escapes to Morgan's the stronghold of the Morgans Le pain, Lefever and Scott go in after him and De Spain brings out Sasson alone. CHAPTER V—He meets Nan. who de lays him until nearly overtaken by the Morgans, but lands his captive in jail CHAPTER VI-—Sassoon breaks jai]. De Spain beards the Morgans in a saloon and is shot at through the window. He meets Nan again. CHAPTER VII—He prevents her going into a gambling hall to find her Uncle Duke and inside faces Sandusky and Lo- ge who prudently decline to fight at oe time. CHAPTER VIII—De Spain, anxious to make peace with Nan, arranges a little plan with McAlpin, the barn man, to érive her out to waiting for © goes down to the inn to get a cup ef Coffee. CHAPTER IX—In the deserted barroom he ts trapped. He kills Sandusky and Logan, wounds Gale and Sassoon and es- capes, badly wounded. CHAPTER X—Bewildered and weak, he wanders into MOrean SL ESR and is dis- covered on Music mountain by Nan. CHAPTER XI—Nan, to prevent further | fighting, does not tell, but finds out from McAlpin that De Spain had really been trapped and Nad left his cartridge belt behind when he went into the fight at the inn. CHAPTER X1I—While De Spain ts un- able to travel Nan brings food to him He tells her that he became a gunman t find and deal with his father’s unknow: murderer. He gives Nan his last cart- ridge. CHAPTER XIII—Gale almost stumbler over De Spain's hiding him away and to stop Gale's rough woo- ing De Spain bluffs him out with an empty gun. Nan plans De Spain's escape. CHAPTER XIV—De Spain crawls out of the over the face of El Capitan st night, Nen meets him with a horse and \bis cartri from McAlpin, and De Spain rides into Calabasas. CHAPTER XV—De 8; hires old Bul) Links and gaing « valuable aid. After two igitiy visits to the gap, De Spain gets a with Nem She telis him to forget and he asks her to shoot him. CHAPTER XVi—Nan attends ber Uncle @-in the hoepital at Sleepy Cat. and Spain wgoe and wins her love. CHAPTER XVII—Lefever manifests an | |Interest in De Spain's cartridge belt, and | expresses surprise at his unreadiness to ig Sasgoon. Bassoon almost discoverer | lovers at their trysting place. CHAPTER XVIII—In Morgan's gap Gale tells Duke of Nan's meetings with De rein and Duke warns Nan that he will il De Bpain if she tries to marry him. CHAPTER XIX. Meeting with Duke and tries to make friends with him without success. CHAPTER XX—Gale persists wooing of Nan. CHAPTER XX1—De Spain enlists a spy. He hears that Nan is kept in the house lana that her uncle is trying to force her |%© marry Gale. | CHAPTER XXI1I—A mysterious messaxe \comes from Nan to take her away. LS Beot im ade tho ater 1 rena: t Vi ie aD s' he i Spain alone walks into Duke's house in his ped Preventing @ forced marriage, takes! Nan away. CHAPTER XXIV—They escape over El \Capitan, De Spain Kills Sassoon. | CHAPTER XXV—Lefever rides in and out of the gap. r CHAPTER XXVI—Pardaloe, who has been working for Duke, tells De in that had said that Duke killed Ror sain’s father. Nan overhears the CHAPTER XXVII—Nan gocs ge the straight story from Duke. De Pain sends spy into the gap. “You have been very kind to me, Henry, you’ve been the only man I've! ‘ver known that always, everywhere, thought of me first. 1 told you I didn't | deserve it, L wasn't worthy of it—” His hands slipped silently over her hands. He gathered her close into his ars, and his tears fell on her up- turned face, CHAPTER XXVII. Hope Forlorn. There were hours in that night that each had reason long to remember; & ight that seemed to bring them, in *pite of their devotion, to the end of their dream. They parted late, each ‘tying to soften the blow as it fell on the other, each professing a courage Which, in the face of the revelation, helther could clearly feel. In the morning Jeffries brought down to De Spain, who had spent @ Sleepless night at the office, a letter om Nan, De Spain opened it with acute mis- sivings. Hardly able to believe his *yes, he slowly read: Dearest—A wild hope has come to me. Perhaps we don't knew the truth of this prektde story as it really is. Suppose we wid be condemning poor Uncle Duke Yithout haying the real facts? Sassoon Mo 2 wretch, Henry, if ever one lived— cous’? 0 everyone. What purpose he a serve by repeating this story, which don nUst have kept very secret till now, T nt know; but there was some reason. a know the whole trnt the | Morgan demands the dis- | organ’s gip, and while! lace. Nan draws | belt, which she had sneaked | De Spain arranges & back to SOPFRIONT 0" CHARLES SCRIPNER'S SONS | 1, alone; can get hold-of {f> and that you would approve what I am doing if you were here with me in this little room where Iam writing at daybreak, to show you my heart. ) before you get this I shall be toward the gap. I am going Duke to get from him the ex- Uncle Duke ts breaking— and now that the very worst and we must face it, he will té what I ask. Whether I can get him to repeat this to you, to come to you, to Speeding to Uncle uth ; come me throw himself on your pity, my dear one, I don’t know. But it is for this 4m going to try, and for this I beg of your love—the love of which 80 proud! I have been that you will let me stay with him until I at least learn everyuiing and can bring the whole story to you. If I can bring him, I And I shall be s: with him—perfectly safe. Gale has been driven away. Pard aloe, I know I can trust, and he will be under the roof with me. Please, do not try to come to me. It might ruin every- thing. Only forgive me, and I shall be back with what I hope for, or what I fear, very, very soon. Not till then can I bear to look into your eyes. You have 4 better right than anyone in the world to know the whole truth, cost what it may. Be patient for only a little while with NAN. It was Jeffries who suid, afterward, | he hoped never again to be the bearer of a letter such as that. Never until he hud read and grasped the contents of Nun’s uote hud Jeffries seen the bundle of resource and nerve | Sinew, that men called Henry de Spain, go to pieces. Lor once, trouble overbore him. When he was able to speak he told| Jeffries everything. he said hopelessly. so stunned, she must have thought—I “It is my fault,” ‘see it now—that I was making ready) to ride out by daybreak and shoot Duke down on sight. It’s the price a mun must pay, Jeffries, for the abil- ity to defend himself aguinst this bunch of holdup men and assassins. | Because they can’t get me, I'm a ‘gun- | min’ Oo, you're not a ‘gunmun,’” “A gunman and nothing else. That's} what everybody, friends and enemies, reckon me—a gunman. You put me | not because of my good looks, but because I’ve been, so far, a fraction of a second quicker on a trigger than these double-d——d crooks." | Jeffries, from behind his pipe, re- garded De Spain's rundor talk calmly. “I do feel hard over my father’s death,” he went on moodily. “Who wouldn't? If God meunt me to forget | it, why did he put this mark on my face, Jeff? I did talk pretty strong to Nan about it on Music mountain, | “1 did feel, for a long time, I'd Uke to kili with my own hands the man that murdered my father, Jeff. My mother must have realised that her babe, if a wan-child, was doomed to a} life of bloodshed. I've been trying to think most of the night what she’d want me to do now. I don't know what “God Pity the Men That Put It Over.” I can do, or can't do, when I set eyes on thé old scoundrel. He's got to tell the truth—that’s all I say now. If he lies, after what he made my mother suffer, he ought to die like a dog—no matter who he is. i ‘an I do? Hanging him ‘here in anny Cat if I could do it, wouldn't help her feelings a whole lot. It 1 could see the fellow— De Spain's hands, spread before him on the table, drew up tight, “if I could get my fin- | gers on his throat, for a minute, and talk to him, tell him what I think of ) him—I might know what I would want } to do—Nan might be there to see and | judge between us. I'd be almost will- | ing to leave things oo i eet? 5 ly want what's right. road ‘aint ‘that recorded his spans threat was collected and pitiless, “f \any harm comes to that girl now ogi | this wild trip back among those wo res God pity the men that put it oxer, > : wipe out the whole accursed clan) Bs have to swing for it right here Sleepy Cat!” John Lefever, took him in hand t three days, to restrain resentment, and keep to the gap in a temp But, Jeffries, Scott in turn o hold him during the fury of his him from riding er that each of and | “I wus so crippled, | here to clean out this Cutabasas gang, | THE CASPER DAILY ) them knew would mean only a tragedy | Worse than what had gone before. | Even three days of tactful representa- ; tion and patient admonition from cool- | headed counselors did not accomplish all they hoped for in De Spain's atti- ‘tude. His rage subsided, but only to be followed by a settled gloom that they knew might burst into uncon- trollable anger ut any moment. A report reached McAlpin that Gale Morgan was making ready to return to Music mountain with the remnant of Sandusky’s gang, to make a demand {en Duke for certain property sand partnership adjustments. This rumor he telephoned to Jeffries. Before talk- ing with De Spuin, Jeffries went over the information with Lefever, The two Tgreed it was right, in the cireum- Siunces, that De Spuin should be near- er than Sleepy Cat to Nan. Moreove the period of waiting she bad enjoined on him was almost complete, Without giving De Spain the story fully, the two men talking before him let the discussion drift toward a pro- rt to go down to Cals usas, Where he could more eusily keep track of any movement to or from the und this they approved. De Spain, chafing under a hardly en- int, lost no time in start- ting Lefever to al on his 5 ing for follow next day. It added nothing to his peace of mind in the morning to learn definitely from McAlpin that Gale Morgan, with- in twenty-four hours, had really disap- peared from Calabasas. No word of any kind had come from Music moun- tain for days. No one at Culntasas Was aware even that Nun had yone into the gup again. Bob Scott was at Thief River. De Spain telephoned to him to come up on the eurly stage, and turned his attention toward getting in- formation froin Music mountain with- frustrate her most delicate effort with her uncle, As a possible scout to look into her present situation and report on it, Me- Alpin could point only t» Bull Page. Bull was a ready instrument, but his present value as an assistant had be- come a matter of doubt, since prac- Ucally every man in the gap had threatened within the week to blow his | head off—though Bull himself felt no scruples against making an attempt to reach Music mountain and get back aguin It was proposed by the canny McAlpin to send him in with a team and light wagon, ostensibly to bring out his trunk, which, if it had not been | fed to the horses, was still in Duke's | barn. As svon as a rig could be got up Page started out. It was late November. A far, clear alr drew the snow-capped ranges | shurply down to the eye of the desert— | as if the speckless sky, Hghted by the | radiunt sun, were but a monster glass rigged to trick the credulous retina. De Spain, in the saddle in front of the barn, his broad hat brim set on the ) Impassive level of the western horse- | man, his ips seeming to compress his | thoughts, his Unes over his fervearm, jand his hands half-slipped into the | pockets of his snug leather coat, watched Puge with his light wagon and horses drive away. Idling around the neighborhood of the barns in the saddle, De Spain saw him gradually recede into the long desert perspective, the perspective | which almost alone enabled the watch- | er to realize as he curtained his eyes | behind their long, steady lashes from the blazing sun, that it was a good bit | of a way to the foot of the great out- | post of the Superstition range, | De Spain’s restlessness prevented his | remalning quietly anywhere for long. | As the morning advanced’ he cantered out on the Music mountain trail, think- ng of and wishing for a sight of Nan. | The deadly shock of Pardaloe's story ‘nad been dulled by days and nights of {onin. His deep-rooted love and his toneliness had quieted his impulse for vengeance and overborne him with a profound sadness. He realized how | different his feelings were now from | what they had been when she knelt be- fore him in the darkened room and, not daring to plead for mercy for her uncle, had asked him only for the pity for herself that he had seemed so slow co give. Something reproached him aow for his coldness at the momenc that he should have thought of her suffering before his own, It was while riding in this way that us eyes, reading mechanically the wagon trail he was aimlessly following —for no reason other than that it orought him, though forbidden, a Httle sloser to her—arrested his attention. He checked his horse. Something, the trail told him, had happened. Page had stopped his horses. Page had met two men on horseback coming from the gap. After a parley—for the horses had tramped around long enough for out violating Nan’s injunction not to | | No trail and no habits in the } direction they had en—and it} seemed clearer to De Sy that the second horse was a led horse. There was a story in the incident. but his in- | terest lay in following Page's ments, and he spurred swiftiy fory to see whether his messenger had re- sumed the gap trail and gone on with his mission. He followed this quest ul most to the mountains, without rr ering any trace of age’s rig. halted. It was certain now that had not gone into the gup. Perplexed and annoyed, De Spain, from the high ground on which hy his horse, cast bis eyes far over the desert. The brilliant sunshine flooded it as far as the eye could reach. scanned the vust space without de ing a sign of fe anywhere, the better than move He Page sat He none he knew that any ‘abundance of it might be there. But his gaze caught something of interest on the farthest northern horiz on this his scrutiny rested a lor A soft brown curtain rose the earth Hne aguinst the bl ward the east it died away : the west it was cut off by Stition peaks, De Spain, with: oward the Super- giving the weather signs much th: recognize their import, but his mind was filled with his own anxieties and he snuirt- ly buck toward Calabasas, t use he was not at ease over the puzzles in the trail. When he reached the depression where the horsemen had, without any apparent reason, turned south, he halt- jed. Should he follow them or | north to follow Page's wanderings? Pees had been scared away from the | gap, for a time, he probably hud po in- | forioution that De Spain wanted, and De Spain knew his cunning and per- sistence well enough to be confident he would be on the gap road, and within the cover of the mountains, be- | fore a storm should overtuke him. On the north the brown curtain had risen fast and already enveloped the farthest peaks of the range. Lettimg his horse | stretch its neck, he hesitated a mo- | ment longer trying to decide whether | to follow the men to the south or the | wagon to the north. A woman might have done better. But no good angel | was there to guide his decision, and in | another moment he was riding rapidly | to the south with the even, brown, | misty cloud behind him rolling higher into the northern sky. CHAPTER XXVIII. De Spain Rides Alone. He had ridden the tral! but a short time when it led him in a wide angle backward aud around toward Cala- basas, and he found, presently, that the men he was riding ufter were uppar- ently heading for the stage barns. In the north the rising curtain had dark- ened. Toward Sleepy Cat the land- scape was already obliterated. In the south the sun shone, but the air hud grown suddenly cold, and tu the sharp drop De Spain realized what was coin- ing. His first thought was of the south- ern stages, which must be warned, and “They've Got Your Rig!” Cried 273 Spain. as he galloped up to big barn, with this thought in mind he saw, standing in the doorway, Bull Page. De Spain regarded him with aston- ishment. “How did you get here?” was his sharp question. Page grinned. “Got what I was aft- er, and c'm’ back sooner'n I expected. Half-way over to the gap, I met Duke and the young gal on horseback, head- ed for Calabasas. They pulled up. I } pulled up. Old Duke looked kind o’ | If | | strongest legs in the stable. | lose ' fusil her turn | | steadied the Lady as she sidestepped “T don’t want to break Nan’s heart. | ttle her- | one—the wagon had turned completely | ga’nted, and it seemed like Nan was in |from the trail and struck across the ‘a considerable hurry to get to Sleepy Jesert, north; the two horsemen, or Cat with him, and he couldn't stand yne with 1 led horse, had started back the saddle. Anyway, they was heading | for the gap. for Calabasas to get a rig from MeAl- | All of this De Spain gathered with- plm I knowed McAlpin would never | out moving his horse outside a circleof give old Duke # rig, not if he was | a-dyin’ in the saddle.” thirty feet. What did it mean? Page| “They've got your rig!” cried De might have fallen in with cronies from | Spain. the gap, abandoned his job, and stare “The gal asked me if I'd mind uc- ed for Sleepy Cat, but this was unlike-| commodutin’ ’em,” explained Bull dep- ly. He might have encountered ene | recatingly, “to save time.” mies, been pointedly advised to keep! “They headed north!” exclaimed De away from the gap, and pretended to , Spain. The light from the fast-chang-' | start for Sleepy Cat, to avoid trouble‘ ing sky fell copper-colored across eo | with them. Deeming the second the horse und figure. McAlpin, followed by more probable conclusion, De Spain, a hostler, appeared at the barn door. absorbed in his speculations, continued Bull nodded to De Spain. “Said they | toward the gap to see whether he could wanted to get there quick. She fig’erd | not pick up the trail of Page’s rig far- on savin’ a few miles by strikin’ the ther on. hill trail in. So 1 takes their horses! Within a mile a further surprise and lets on I was headin’ for the gap. | awaited him. The two horsmen, who When they got out of sight, L turned |had headed for the gap after stopping ‘round—” | | Page, had left the trail, turned to the Even as he spoke, the swift-rollirg | south, down a small draw, which would | screen them from sight, and set out Sun_ont_of the. i curtain of mist overhead blotted the from his saddle “Get De Spain sprang with « ringing order to McAlpin. | up a fresh saddle-horse !” “A horse!” boss, whirling cried the startled barn on the hostler, “The and don't | Ludy Ju up with bellowing his areal in with his hands io a& second! her he velled, into the echoing his mouth. “Up with her for Mr. de : bin a second! Marmont! Becker! | auuizon! What tn h-——-l are you all do- | in he roared, rust back with a| ade of ouths. body !” ‘Look alive, every- | “Coming!” yelled one voice after an- other from the depths of the distant stalls, De Spain ran into the office, Page caught his horse, stripped the rifle} from its holster, und hurriedly began uncinching. Hostlers running through the burn called shrilly back and forth, and De Spain springing up the stairs to his room provided what he wanted for his hurried flight. When h hed down with counts on his arw the hoofs | of Lady down the | long gungwuay. June were cl A stub side -boy siid from back on one as Bull Page threw the saddle ss her from the other; hostlers caught at the cinche while others hurriedly rubbed the of the quivering mare, De Spain, his} hand on MecAlpin'’s shoulder, was giv- | ing his parting injunctions, and the barn boss, head cocked down, and ey | cast furtively on the scattering snow- flukes outside, was listening with an at- tention that recorded indelibly every uttered syllable. Once only, he interrupted: “Henry, you're ridin’ out into this thing alone— don't do it.” “I can't help it,” snapped De Spain impatiently. “It's a man killer.” “I can't help it.” “Bob Scott, if he w’s here, ‘ud never let you do it. I'll ride wi’ ye myself, Henry. I worked for your father—" “You're too old a man, Jim—” “Henry—” “Don't talk to me! Do as I tell you!” thundered De Spain. McAlpin bowed his head. “Ready!” yelled Page, buckling the | rifle holster in place. Still talking, and | | | with McAlpin glued to his elbow, De Spain vaulted into the saddle, caught the lines from Bull's hands, and nervously—McAlpin following close | and dodging the dancing hoofs as he | looked earnestly up to catch the last word. De Spain touched the horse with the lines, She leaped through the door- way and he raised a backward hand to those behind. Running outside the door, they yelled a chorus of cries after the swift-moving horseman, and, clustered in an excited group, watched the Lady with a dozen great strides round the Calabasas trail and disap- pear with her rider into the whirling | snow. She fell at once into an easy reach- | ing step, and De Spain, busy with his | reflections, hardly gave thought to} what she was doing, and little more to | what was going on about him. No moving figure reflects the hupas- sive more than a horseman of the mountains, on a long ride. Though never so swift-borne, the man, looking | oelther to the right nor to the left, | moving evenly and stutuelike against | the sky, # part of the wiry beast under | him, presents the very picture of in- difference to the world arqund hin. | The great, swift. wind spreading over | The Wyoming National Bank | the wagon wheels. | looked. | sweeps YOUR Country Calls YOU Everyone cannot serve at the Front, but EVERYONE, rich or poor, in proportion to his means, can serve the gov- ernment by lending it money IF NOT, DO YOUR DUTY AT ONCE IBERTY BOND IF NOT, DO YOUR DUTY AT ONCE any kind whatever to itself, will aid those who cannot pay for a bond all at once to do their duty by buying on small monthly payments, charging only three and one-half per cent (the earning rate of the Bond) on deferred payments BONDS ISSUED IN DENOMINATION OF $50, - $100 -$500 - and $1,000 For further particulars call Wyoming National Bank the desert emptied on it snow-laden puffs that whirled and wrapped a cloud of flakes about horse and rider in the symbol of a shroud. De Spain gave no heed to these skirmishing eddies, but he knew what was behind them, and for the wind, he only wished it might keep the snow In the alr till he caught sight of Nan. The even reach of the horse brought him to the point where Nan haé changed te the stage wagon. Without a break In r long stride, Lady Jane took the hint of her swerving rider, put her nose into the wind, and headed north, De Spain, alive to the difficul- ties of his venture, his hat lower und bent forward to follow the wagon along the sand. With the first of the white flurries passed, he found himself in a snowless pocket, as it were, of the advancing storm. He hoped for noth- ing from the prospect ahead; but ev- ery moment of respite from the bjind- ing whirl was a gain, and with his eyes » trail that bad carried Nan he urged the Lady on. set close op ¢ Into When the snow again closed down about him he enlculated from the roughne of the country that he should be within a mile of the road that Nan was trying to reach, from the gap to Sleepy Cat. But the broken ground straight ahead would prevent her from driving directly to it. He knew she must hold to the right, an€ her curving track, now becoming diffi- cult to trail, confirmed his conclusion. A fresh drive of the wind buffeted him as he turned directly north. Only at intervals could he see any trace of The driving snow compelled him more than once to dis mount and search for the trail. Baek time he lost it the effort to regain it was more prolonged. At times he was compelled to ride the desert in wide | circles to find the tracks, and this cost time when minutes might mean life. But as long as he could he clung te the struggle to track her exaetly. He saw ulmost where the storm had struck the twe wayfarers. Neither, be knew, | was insensible to Its dangers. What amazed him was that a man like Duke Morgan should be out in it. He founé a spot where they had balted and, with a start that checked the beating of his heart, bis eyes fell on her footprint not yet obliterated, beside the wagon] track. { The sight of it was an electric shock. Throwing himself from bis horse, he knelt over it in the storm, oblivious for! an instant of everything but that thie, tracery meant her presence, where he) now bent, hardly half an hovr before He swung, after » moment's keen serv tiny, into his saddle, with fresh re-| solve. Pressed by the rising fury of the wind, the wayfarers had become froin this point, De Spain saw toe Plainly, hardly more than fugitives, Good ground to the left, where their hope of safety lay, had been. over Their tracks wandered on the open desert like those who, losing cour- age, lose their course in the confusion and fear of the impending peril. Aud with this increasing uncertainty in their direction vanished De Spain's last hopes of tracking them. The wind Swept the desert now as a hurricane the open sen, snatehing the fallen snow from the face of the earth as the sea-gule, flattening the face of the waters, rips the foam from the frantic waves to drive it tn wild, seud- ding fragments across them, ‘ “nued Tomorrow) of Casper, without profit ef lang? ct ene Kemer mnto mines.