Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, June 5, 1917, Page 7

ea ss Sa at =nes re = . | Kid ' So much snow had fallen that in | Bend—some little money in bank at | more heavily. He pulled himself up | ake it, I say. You und I will settle spite of the blizzurd, driving with an | Sleepy Cat—goes to my wife, Nan Mor- | this time by the stirrup strap, get his Author of Whi 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 Mountain. Jeffries, di jon su dent, asks De Spain to e char Thiet River stage line, but he re Mus CHAPTER Il—De Spain sees Nan danc- ing with Gale Morgan, is later derisiv pointed ou Nan on the street t e, d is moved to change his mind and ac- cept the stage line job De Spain and Left Morgan c gunmen é Morgan demands the driver and De Sy De Spain meets Nan but me her aversion to him. clan PTER IV—Sassoon knifes uce driver, and escapes to » stronghold of the Morg ver and Scott go in a in brings out 5a, TER V—He m nm until nearly but lands his CHAPTER VI-—Sassoon breaks j Bpain beards the Morgans In a d is shot at through the window pets Nan again. CHAPTER VII—He prevents her going into a gambling hall to find her le Duke and inside faces Sandusky and Lo- who prudently decline to fight at Be time. CHAPTER VIII—De Spain, anxious to make peace with Nan, arranges plan with McAlpin, the barn 7 érive her out to Morgan’s gap, and while weiting for her goes down to the inn to get a cup of Coffee. CHAPTER IX—In the deserted barroom he is trapped. He kills Sandusky and logan, wounds Gale and Sassoon and es- capes, badly wounded. CHAPTER X—Bewlldered and weak, he wanders into Morgan's gap and is dis- covered on Music mountain by Nan CHAPTER XI—Nan, to prevent further fighting, does not tell, but finds out from McAjpin that De Spain had really been trapped and had left his cartridge belt behind when he went into the fight at the inp CHAPTER XII—While De Spain ts ur able to travel Nan brings food to him He tells her that he became a gunman tu find and deal with Mis father's unknow: morderer. He gives Nan his last cart- ridge CHAPTER XIII—Gale almost stumbles ever De Spain's hiding ‘him away and to atop tng De Spain bluffs him out with anermpty gun Nan plang De Spain's escape. CHAPTER XIV—De Spain crawls ot over the face of E! Capitun en meets him with a horse and 6 belt, which she had sneaked and De Spain rides into CHAPTER XV¥—De in hires old Buli jPage and a= valuable aid. After two ‘ly visits te the gap, De Spain gete with Nan. She telie him to forget ber and he asks her to shoot him. CHAPYOR XVi—Nan aitends her Uncle at Sloegy” Cat, and wins her leve. CHAPTER XVIi—Lefever manifests au \interest in De Spain's belt, and eipresses surprise at his unreadiness 10 Bassoo almost discovers n. Sasecen levers at their trysting place. CHAPTER XVIII—In Morgan'’® £8p Gale tells Duke of Nan's meetings with De f an¢ Duke warns Nan that he will ‘SD De Spain if she tries to marry him. CHAPTER XiX—De Spain arrange: & Meeting with Duke and tries to make friends with him without success. CHAPTER KX—Gale persiets in hie {Woolng of Naa. CHAPTER XX1-—De Spain enlists e epy He bears that Nan ts apt in the house ead that her uncle is te force ber te marry Gale. | CHAPTER XXI1~—A mysterious meesuse leomee from Nan to take her away. i s invade ie an Bs nol. [De Spain alone walks inte Dukes bouse | preventing @ forced marriage, taker Wan away. | CHAPTER XXIV—They escape over El Capitan. De ‘Spain Kills’ Sassoon, CHAPTER XXV—Lefever rides in and leut of the gap. CHAPTER XXVI—Pardaloe. who has been working for Duke, tells De a that that Duke killed ry sald De Spain's father. Nan overhears the ory. iAPTER XXVII—Nan goes back to the siralght story from Duke. in sends spy into the gap. |, {HAPTER XXVIII—Nan and Duke ge! tin a blizzard. De Spain trails and 48 them, \eaugt fin CHAPTER XXIX—De Spain irom, Duke that he Is not absolute! the evide kin hears y sure id not kill De Spain’s father, but evidence proves that Sassoon did the De Spain, urging his horse forward, Uibuckled his rifle holster, threw away the Scabbard, and holding the weapon %) in one hund, fired shot after shot &t meusured intervals to attract the attention of the two he sought. He ex- hausted his rifle ammunition without “leiting any answer. al 2 roar against which even a rifle ‘tC vould hardly carry, and the * swept down the sinks in a mad . Flakes torn by the fury of the Ee Were stiffened by the bitter wind Sto Dowdered ice thut stung horse and Wine: Casting away the useless car- lan and pressing his horse to the the ye her strength and endurance, Site, ng pursuer rode in great, in, in {ireles into the storm, to cut 7 Possible, ahend of its victim fring "ing stot upon shot from his revolver, nea butting his ear intently against Ha Wind for the faint hope of an un- er, ¢ tddenty the Lady stumbled and, as era and reined her, slid helpless and eae ling along the face of a flat back, De Spain, leaping from her lookea Steadied her trembling and Htrae underfoot. The mare had Dra wi, ape rock of the upper lava bed. ors a his revolver, he fired signal tom where he stood. It could e far, he knew, from the junction © NAN MUSICM Frank 11. Spearman Spering lace. Nan draws | ales rough woo- | The wind drove, Jf o UNTAIN Smith. IOWT O°” CHARLES SCRIBNER'S sone Hoping Against Hope for ar: Answer. of the two great desert Calabusus road and the felt sure Nan could not have got much north of this, for he had ridden in des- peration to get ab of or be her, und if she south, where, he asked, in the name of ‘God, could she be? we He climbed again into the saddle— the cold was gripping his limbs—and, watching the rocky lundinarks nurrow- | tried to circle half-buried ly the dead waste of the flow. With ehilled, awkward fingers he filled the revolver aguin and rode on, discharging it every ninute, und listening—hoping uguinst for an auswer, It was when he uad almost completed, as well as he sould compute, the wide circu't he had set out on, that u faint shot answered aie continuing signals. With the sound of thut shot and | dose that followed it his courage all jeame back. But he hud yet to trac | chrough the confusion of the wind and | the blinding snow the direcdou of the | answering reports, hope | Hither and thither he rode, this way- | Jand that, testing out the location of ithe slowly repeated shots, and signal- | ng at intervals in return. Slowly and | Joggedly be kept on, shooting, Msten- | BE. wheeltng and advancing until, as ae raised bis revolver to fire it again, I; ery close af band came out of the aterm, Ti wae a wotan’s voice borne m The wind. Riding swiftly to the eft, « horse's outline revesled itself at moments tn the driving snow ahead, De Spain cried out, and from behing the furious curtain heard his name, | | Joudly called. He pushed his stam | bling burse on. The dim ouuine of @ second berse, the background of » wag: en, 4 storm-beaten man—all this passed ‘his eyes unheeded. ‘They were bent on a girlish figure running toward him as he slid stiffly from the saddle. ‘The next instant Nan wee in his arms. CHAPTER XXIX. The Truth. With the desperation of a Joy ‘born | of despair she laid ber burning cheek | hysterically against his cheek. She | rained kisses on bis ice-crusted brows | and suow-beaten sis pre TS him rigidly. He cou | peat ‘ant she would fet him, Trans- | formed, this mountain girl who gave | herself so shyly, forgot everything. Ger | words crowded ob his eara, She re- peated his name in an eestasy of wel- come, drew down bis lips, laughed, re- | Jolced, knew BO shamefacedness and no restraint—she was one freed from the stroke of a descending knife. A | moment before she had faced death i it was still death she faced— { alone; she realized this—but it wus death, at | least, together, and her joy and tears ruse from her heart in one stream. | . De Spain comforted her, quieted her, }eut away ove of the coats from his | horse, slipped it over her shoulders, in- | cased her in the heavy fur, and turned | his eyes to Duke. ue T man's set, squar anata pothlitg of implucability to {the dangers Con eT pare De in looked for none of that | SeTanne Morgan record too long, and | faced the Morgan men too often, to | fancy they would flinc! | beat of death. | The two men, snow, eyed euch ot } man’s deep-set {ance of a hundred But he was caught oy 1 nd he knew he apacnier little to fear. fem pe Spaiy | regarded him, something like Dp: a uy ‘have mixed with his hatred. The oi joutlaw was thinly clad, Hs oped ‘throat was beaten with dhe es | standing beside the wagon, be aes ne teain reins in a bare hand, De: pi : {cut the other cout from his saddle an \held it out. Duke pretended oe i see, and, when not longer i rH keeping up the shoo) s head, - “Take it,” suid De in the deadly, driving her. Out of the old burned the resist- storms faced before. pretense, Spain curtly, id | Her arms held | ace sur- | He hud ! ho at the drum- | jour affairs when we get Nan out of i this,” he insisted. “De Spain!” Duke's voice, as was its wont, cracked like a pistol. “I can Say all I've got to you right | sere.” to suy * cried the old man. isten, Henry,” pleaded Nan, seek- ng shelter from the furious blast Within his arm, “just for a moment, listen!” “Not now, I tell you!” cried De Spain. “He was coming, Henr —und he is sick—just to say it to you. t him say it here, 5 Spain on!” cried De roughly. “Tm not afraid of you, De shouted the old man, his neck he tying ice, “Don't think it! You're er man than I am, better than 1 was—don't think I don’t know But I'mn nu afraid of eer a nun J fueed, De Spain; theyll tell you that when [Pm dead. All the ded our 1 them. never did us no hari, but my brother, Bay Morgan, was shot in that raid by 4 man oame of Jennings. I started out to get the man that shot him. Sas- soon trailed him to the Bur M, the De Spuin ranch, working for yeur fa- the The words fell fast und in a fury. They came us if they had been ct back li they strangled. took me over the Toward ni got in sight of the ranchhouse. We saw a man down at the corral, “That's Jennings, I never laid eyes on him before—I never laid eyes on your father before. Both of us fired. Next day we heard your father was killed, and Jennings had left the untry. Sassoon or J, one of us, killed Sussoon si your father, De Spain. If it was 1, I did it ne knowing who he was, hever tneaning to touch him. I was after the man that killed my brother. Sassoon didn’t care which it was, never did, then por never. But he heid it over me to make trouble sometime ‘twixt you and me. I was a young fel- low. I thought I was revenging my brother. And if your father was killed by a patched bullet, his blood is not on me, De Spain, and never war. Sassoon always shot a patched bullet. I never shot one in my life. And rd never told you this of my own eelf.| Nan said it was the whole truth from | me to you, or her life. She's as much | mine #s she is yours. J nursed ber. | I took care of her when there weren't | no other living soul to do it. She got | me and herself out into this, this, | morning. I'd never been cuught like | this if I'd had my way. 1 told her! ‘fore we'd been out an hour we'd never | see the end of it. She said she'd rather | die in it thap you'd think she quit soal| I told her I'd go on with her and do! | a8 she said—that’s why we're here and that’s the whole truth, so help me God! | “l ain't afraid of you, De Spain. Tit give you whatever you think’s coming | to you with a rifle or a gun uny time, | anywhere—you're a better man than 1) ain or ever was, I know thut—and ead | ought to satisfy you. Or, Pl stand | niy trial, if you say so, and tell the truth.” The ice-laden wind, as De Spain stood still, swept past the little group with a sinister roar, inseusible alike te its emotions and its deadly peril Within the shelter of his arm he felt the yielding form of the indomitable girl who, by the power of love, uad wrung from the outlaw his reluctant story—the story of the murder that had stained with its red strands the relations of each of their lives to both | | the others, He felt agalust his heart | } the faint trembling of ber frail body. | Se, when a boy, he had held in his hunod « fluttering bird and felt the whirring beat of its frightened heart ugainst his strong, cruel fingers. A sudden aversion to more biood- shed, a sickening of vengeance, swept over him as her heart mutely beat for ! { { | | janercy aguinst his heart. She had | done more than any man could do. | Now she waited on him. Both his arms wrnpped round her, In the breath- Jess embrace that drew her closer she reud her unswer from him, She looked up into his eyes and waited. “There's more thun what's becween you und me, | Duke, facing us now,” said De Spain | sternly, when he turned. “We've got ‘to get Nan out of this—-even if we don’t get out ourselves. Where do you | figure we ure?” he cried. “J figure we're two miles north of | the Inva beds, De Spain,” shouted Mor- | gan. De Spuin shook his head in dissent. |“Then where are we?” demanded the ‘older man rudely. “I ought not to say, aguinst you. | But if I've got to guess, I say two miles east. Hither way, we must try for Sleepy Cat. Is your team all | right?” “Team is all right. | | | We tore a wheel ike a wolf ib near off getting out of the lava. The had little to | wagon’s done for.” De Spain threw the fur coat at him. “We'll look at i {“Pput it on,” he said. | the wheel.” They tried together to wrench It into shape, but worked without avail. |In the end they lashed it, put Nan on | the Lady, and walked behind while the team pushed into the pitiless wind. | Morgan wanted to cut the wagon awuy land take to the borses, but De Spain snid, not till they found a trai) or the stage roud. unrelenting fury, the dri ening, packing, and mah incrensingly difficult. impossible to | storm, and D more unxious ey an hour's supert | In hard waves. /men stowed Nan. The horses were fts w It 1 with ever After half to re- n a trail that should restore their bearings, they halted, and De Spit riding up to the y . Spoke to Mor- gun, who was driving: “How long is this gotng to last? “All ¢ ind all night.” Nan lea closely over to hear the curt question und answer, N for #9 moment. her nuin spoke agnuin “We'll have to have help,” suid De Spain after a pause. “Help echoed scornufully. Morgar “Where's help cor De Vas not hurried ‘One after Nan looke¢ Duk j z hurtling ie on the fork “Vil he snapped retu 1 De Spai KOZ the while the the himself, entitled he anywhere you reneh, wou two men, told “It's D Du said evenly that our men, du’t give you “I'll Go for It,” He Snapped. the same attention they weukd me. And it isn’t saying Uut you're net the better man fer the job—yeou've trav- eled the sinks longer thun I have. But between you and me, Duke, it's twenty- eight years against fifty. 1 ought to hoid out a while the longer, that’s all. Let's work farther to the east.” Quartering against the mad hurri- cane, they dreve and rode on until the team could hardly be urged to further effort against the infuriaie? elements —De Spain riding at intervals as far to the right and the Jeft as he dared in vain quest of a landmark, Wheo he halted beside the wagon for the Jast time he was a mass af enew and ice; horse and rider were froven to each other. He got down te the ground with a visible effort, and in the singing wind told Duke hix plan and purpose. He had chosen an the open desert a hollow falllag sumewhat abruptly from the north, and beneath its shoul- der, while Morgan loosened the horses, he scooped and kicked away « mass of snow. The wagon had beeu drawn Just above the point of refuge, und the two men, with the aid ef the wind, dumped it over sidewise, making of the body a windbreak over the hollow, a sort of roof, around which (he snow, driven by the gale, would heap itself Within this shelter the driven down behind it, and from one of them De Spain took the collar, the tugs and the whiffetrees. He stuck a hitching strap in his pocket, and while Morgan steadied ‘the Lady's head, De Spain buckled the collar on her, | doubled the tugs around the whiffle- tree, and fastened the roll at her side in front of the saddle. Nan came out and stood beside him as he worked, When he had finished she put her hand on his sleeve. He held her close, Duke listening, to tell her what he meant to try to do. Bach knew it well might be the last moment together. “One thing and another haye kept us from murriage vows, Nan,” suid De Spain, beckoning at length to Morgan to step closer that he might clearly hear. “Nothing must keep us longer. WU you marry me?” She looked up into his eyes. “I've promised you I would. I will promise every time you usk me. have but one answer to that, Henry— it must always be yes!” “Then take me, Henry,” he said slowly, “here and now for your wedded husband. Will you do this, Nan?’ Still looking into his ¢ , she an- awered without surprise or fear: “Hen- ry, I do take you.” ‘And I, Henry, take you, Nan, here and now for my wedded wife, for bet- tér for worse, for richer for poorer, from this day forward, until death us do part.” They sealed their pact with a silent embrace. De Spain turned to Duke. “You are the witness of this marriage, Duke. You will see, if an accident happens, that anything, everything [ have—some personal property—imy fa- I never could | gan de Spain. Will you see to it?” “Iwill, And if it comes to me—yon, De Spain, will see to it that what stock uinds and arms up to the pommel, an@ ‘lung to it for a few paces more. But | he fell at lust, and could no longer rise Tt have in the up Ss to my niece, rom the ground. ‘The storm swept ure Nan, your wife. | usingly on. She looked om one to the other of The Lady, checked by the lines the two men, All that 1 she | wrapped on his arm, stopped. De sald in turn » ev | Spain Iny a moment, then backed hee srywhere are ’ . £0 lap a step, pulled ber head down by to you two + ther, which- | the bridle, clasped his wooden arras ever survives yen both live, ground her neck, spoke to Tr, and, und To de not t mes- * ir wer head, the mare dragged him iz to his feet. Clurasily and helplessty ‘ ’s Of | he loosened the tugs and the whiffle the saddl ! La tore, un- tree, beat his hands together with idi- loosed 5 . om the otie effort, hooked the middle point horse's shou r examined each buckle | of the whiille into the elbow of his of the co! d every of the two left arm, brought the forearm amd strips of feather, the re-enforced faus- | hand against his shoulder, and with lings on theowhillle *, rolled all up | the hitet strap lashed his forearm ilu, st oa t stood by the and upper arm tightly together around head til De Ee n sy up into the of to his wife. headed the Trane he rm. CHAPTER XXX. Gambling With Death. safe he s horse er, De Spain her. He had cho- becnuse she was s not, but because ed of the thre rorses the cl instinet to brit ber through the fight for the lives that | | | { } \ They Seaied Their Pact With a Silent | Embrace. } were at stuke, He did not deceive him- | self with the idea he could do anything to help the beast find a way to snecor; that instinct rested wholly In the La- | minands, but only two Insensible musses | dy’s head, not In bis. He only knew that if she could not get back to help, he could not. His own part in the effort was quite outside any sid to the | Lady—it was nu more thin to reach tlive whatever sid she could find, that se might direct it te whore Non and ! ber companio:, dure oa few ours longer tis ef the stern | would i ‘ ry Mis own struggle for life, he real} ized, was with the wind—the roaring wind that hurled its broadsides of fro- 2ef spow in menstrous waves across the muddened sky, challenging every living thing. It drove icy knives Into} his face and eurs, paralyzed in Its swift grasp his muscles and sinews, | Tought the stout tlow of bleed through his veins, and searched his very heart de still it. Encouruging the Lady with kind words, and caressing her in her grop- ing efforts as she turned head and tail from the blinding sheets of snow and fee, De Spain let her drift, hoping she might bring them through, what he confessed ip his heart to be, the nar- rowest of chances. He bent low in his saddle under the unending blasts. He buffeted his legs } and arms to fight off the fatal cold. He } sUpped more than once from his seut, and with a hand on the pommel trumped beside the horse to revive his failing circulation, there would come a time, he realized, when he could no; longer climb up again, but he staved that issue off to the last possible mo- ment of endurance, because the Lady mnude better time when he was on her back. When the struggle to remount had been repeated until nature could no lounger by any staggering effort be made to respond to his will, until his legs were no longer a part of his be- nuinbed being—until below his hips he had no body answerable to his com- of lead thut anchored him to the { ground—he still forced the frozen feet to carry him, in a feeble, monstrous gait beside the Lady, while he dragged with his hands on the saddle fer her | patient aid. One by one eyery thought, as if con- geuled in their brain cells, deserted his mind—sive the thought that he must uot freeze to death, More than ence he had hoped the insensate fury of the blizzard might abute. The Lady had long since ceased to try to face it— like a stripped vessel before a hurri- | cane, she was drifting under it. Dé ther’s old ranch north of Medicine | ah Spuin realized that his helpless legs would not carry him farther. His hands, freezing to the pommel, no longer supported him. They finally slipped from it and he fell prostrate In the snow beside his horse. When he would ery out to her his frozen lips could mumble no words. It was the fight no longer of a man against na- ture, but only of an indomitable soul ngainst a cruel, hateful death. He struggled to his feet only_to fall again the whiffletree. sinking | Senses. stilly over the the cinches of the unloosed He drew tugs Lady’s back, the saddle, pushed it off the horse and snow behind her! free arm at her feet. 1ddle, the Lundy once into the struck with his Relieved of the more started, d ng slowly behing her through the snow a still breathing human being. Less than an hour be f it had been man. It was hardly more now, as the Lady plodded on than an insensate log. But not ever death could part It again from the horse to which De Spain, alive, bad fastened it. The fearful pain from the tortured! arm, torn at times almost from its socket, the gradual snapping of strain Ing ligaments, the constant rupture of capillaries and veins sustained his consciousness for a while. Then the torturing pain abated, the rough drage ging shattered the bruised body less It was as if the Lady and the storm together were making easier for the slowly dying mun his hist trail ucrose the desert, He still struggled to keep j alive, by sheer will power, fillckering usness, and to do se h sparks of conse concentrated every thought on Nan. lw as a poignant happiness to summer her picture to his fainting senses; he knew he should held to life as long as he could think of her. Love, stronger than Genth, welled in his heart. The bitter cold and the merc less wind were kinder as he called her image from out of the storm. She seemed to speak—to lift bim on her arms. Ahead, distant mountains rose, white-peaked, The sun shone. He rode with her through green flekis, and a great peace rested on his weary . * . . ° . ~ Lady Jane, pushing on and on, en- | lightened by that instinet before which | the reason of man Is weak and pitiful, seeing, as it were, through the im penetrable curtain of the storm where | refuge lny, herself a slow-moving crust of frozen snow, dragged to her jour- ney's end—to the tight-shut doors of the Calabasas baro—her unconsciour burden, and stood before them patient ly waiting until! someone shonld open for her. It was one of the heartbreaks of tragic day that no one ever knew just when the Lady reached the door or how long she and her uneensclous master waited in the storm for admis sion, A startled exelamation from fobn Lefever, who had pertedically vweoanxionsiy Teft the red-hot stove ta the office to walk moody to tne window, bronght the tumbling ever one another as he rap frem his companions to throw open the outer door and pull the drooping herse inte the burn. It was the Iman, Seott, whe, read- ing first of o}} the men everything im the dread story, sprang forward with a stifled exclamation, as the horse dragged in the snow-vovered log, whipped a knife frem his-peekei, cut the incumbered arm and white hand free from the whiMletree, and, ecarry- ing the stiffened body into the office, began with Insane haste to eut away the clothing. Lefever, perceiving it was De Spain thus drawn to their feet, shouted, while he tore from the blade of Scott's knife the frozen garments, the erders for the sno the heated water, the warm blankets, the alcohol and bran dy, and, stripped to his waist, ehafed the marble feet. ‘The Indian, better than a staff of doctors, used the eun- ning of a sorcerer to revive the spark of inanimate life not yet inguished by the storm, A fearful ferval of suspense followed the silence inte which the work settled, a silence bre ken only by the footsteps of mep rum ning to and from the couch over whick Scott, Lefever and MeAlpin, half nuked, worked in mad ¢ rt. De Spain opened is eyes to wand from one to the other of the faces. Hi half rose up, struggling in a frenzy, with the hands that restrained him. While his companions pleaded to qulet him, he fonght them until, restored to Its seat of reas his mind reassert- ed itself, und, tying exhausted, he told them in his exquisite torture of whom he had left, and what oust be done to find and bring them in. While the relief wagons, equipped with straining teams and flunked ‘by } veteran horsemen, were dashing out of the barn, he lapsed inte uncen- sciousness. But he had been able to hold Scott’s hand long enough to tell him he must find Nan and bring her in, or never come back. It was Scott who found her. In their gropings through the blizzard the three had wandered nearer Calabasas than, any one of them dreamed. Aud on the open desert, fur south and east of the upper lava beds, it was Seett's horse that put a foot through the bottom of the overturned wagon box. ‘The sus- pected mound of snow, with the buried horses scrambling to their feet, rose upright at the crash. Duke erouched, hall-co: 208, Under the rude shelton Taek Neh Y oe! ner emer A x r e I ' é