The evening world. Newspaper, December 30, 1915, Page 13

The Romance of a Cave-Man and a Pretty School Teacher CHAPTER VIII. (Contin ved.) The House That Jack Built. | 3 UT she would not take up the cudgels against him, would not seem to countenance or condone his offense by dis. cussing {t from any ang! ‘whatsoever, And sho was the more 4e- termined to allow no degres of friend- Uness, even in conversation, because @he recognised the masterful quality of the man. She told herself that she could have liked Roaring Bill Wa: Staff very well if he had not violat what she considered the rules of the game. And she had no mind to allow bls personality to sweep her off her feet in the same determined manner that he had carried hor into the wil- derness, She was no longer afraid of him, She occasionally forgot, in spite of herself, that she had a deep-seated Grievance against him. At such times the wild land, the changing vistas the Journey opened up, charmed her into genuine enjoyment. She would find herself smiling at Bill's quaint tricks of speech. Then she would reovllect that she was, to all intents and pur- poses, a prisoner, the captive of his bow and spear, That was madden- ing. After a lapse of time they dropped Into another valley, and faced west- ward to a mountain range which Bill told her was the Rockies. Tho next day a snowstorm struck them. At daybreak the clouds were mussed overhead, lowering, and a dirty gray. An uncommon chill, a rawness of i Mosphere foretold the change. And Shortly after they broke camp the iret snowflakes began to drift down, slowly at first, then more rapidly, un- til the grayness of the sky and the Woods were enveloped in the White swirl of the storm. It was not jcularly cold. Bill wrapped her @ heavy canvas coat, and plodded om. Noon passed, and he wade no stop. If anything, he increased his pace. Suddenly, late tn the afternoon, they stepped out of the timber into a litle clearing, in which the blurred outline of a cabin showed under the wide arms of a leatless tree. The melting snow had soaked through the coat; her feet were wot with the clinging flakes, and the chill of a lowering temperature had set Hazel chattering. Roaring Bill halted at the door and lfted her down from Siik’s back with it the formality of asking leave fe pulled tho latchstring, and led } fm, Beside the rude stone, fireplace wood and kindling were piled in Teadiness for use. Bill kicked the door ehut, dropped on his knees, and etarted the fire. In five minutes a blaze leaped and crackled Into wide throat of the chimney. Then he piled on more wood and turned to “This ts the house that Jack built,” he said, with a sober face and a twinkle in his gray eyes. “This ts the man that lives in the house that Jack built, And this"—-he pointed mis- chievously at her—"“is the woman ‘who's going to love the man that lives im the house that Jack built “That's a ie!" she flashed stormily "thro: er chattering teeth. Well, well see,” he answered cheer- fully, “Cet up here close to the fire and take off those wet things while I way the horses.” Png wetth that he went whistling. CHAPTER IX. A Little Personal History. AZEL discarded the wet coat, and, drawing a chair up to the fire, took off her sopping footgear and toasted ber bare fect at the blaze. ue ashe clothing was also wet, an wondered pettishly how in the world she was going to manage with only the garments on her back—and those dirty and torn from hacking through the brush for a matter of two weeks, According to her standards that was roughing It with a senenne But presently she gave over thinking of her plight. The fire warmed her, gnd, with the chill gone from her ody, she bestowed a curious glance roundings. eMmnere, wus furniture of a sort Uae ‘xnown to her, tables and chairs fas) x foned by hand with infinite labor an rude skill, massive in structure, Bes holstered ‘with the skins of wi ts common to the region. Upon 6 walla hung pictures, dainty blacks and-white prints, and a water color Gr two. And between the pictures Were nailed heads of mountain sbcep and goat, tho antlers of deer and cari uu. Above tho fireplace spread the huge shovel horns of a moose, bear. ing across the prongs @ shotsun and fishing rods, The center of the floor itself, as she could see, of hand- amoothed logs—was lightened with Great black and red and yellow rug Of curious weave, Covering up the bare surface surrounding it were beanskins, black and brown. Her feot rested in the fur of a monster silver. tip, fur thicker and softer than the pile of any carpet ever fabricated by Fan. All around the walls raa Bhelves filled with books, A guitar ‘stood in one corner, & mandolin in another, The room was all of six- feen by twenty feet, and it was Milled with trophies of the wild—and books, Except for the dust that had gath- ered lightly in its owner's absence, the place was as neat and glean as it the Pousemaid had but gone over it, Hazel shrugged her shoulders, Roar- ing Bill Wasstatt became, if any- out, 2 and threw his wet outer clothing, bo: YES, | BouGHT IT TO MATCH THAT You HAVE NEW New PILLOW CURTAINS thing, more of an enigma than in the ght of his dwelling. recollected that Cariboo Meadows had atid him askance, and wondered why. Ho camo in while her gaz6 was still roving from one object to anoth fashion, on the nearest hair. Well,” ho said, “we're here.” “Please don't forget, Mr. Wagstaf! she replied coldly, “that I would much prefer not to be here.” He stood for a moment regarding her with his odd smile. Then he went into the adjoining room. Out of this he Ngo emerged dragging a email steamer trunk. He opened it, got down on his knees and pawed over the contents, Hazel, looking over her shoulder, saw that the trunk ‘was filled with woman's garments, and sat ai . , Uttle person,” Bill finally re- marked, “it looks to me as if you jamal outfit yourself completely right ere.” "I don’t know that I care to deck myself {n anot' er woman's finery, thank you,” sh. returned perversely. “You'll feel a whole lot better able to cope with the situation,” he told her smilingly, “when you get some decent clothes on and your hair fixed. That's & woman, And you don't need to feel squeamish about these things. This trunk’s got a history, let me tell you. A bunch of simon-pure tenderfeet strayed into the mountains west of here @ couple of summers There were two women in the bi h. The youngest one, who was about your age and size, must hi had e than her share of vanit gue: ie figured on charming the bear and the moose, or the simple aborigines who dwell in this neck of the woods. Any- how, she had all kinds of unneces- sary fixings along, that trunkful of stuff in the lot. You can imagine what a nice time thelr guides had YES | BOUGHT IT To MATCH THE NEW CURTAINS IT 18 BEING RE . UPHOLSTERED To MATCH THE NEW RUG z that on a horse, eh? YES (HAD THE BERS Sat a pile ech 5 we caraaroent || my Malan TAnceR among other things the sens Me arene yy: Fea lg Agog NeW Te mare | |OUR ts oo told me to help myself to the stuff. So I did after they were out of the| OURS IS Too DINGY For iE OF THE NEW NEW SCHEM countr: hat's how you come to ECORATIO' t Ser etek a ob eee UPHOLSTERY | | USita To MATCH © hand. Now, you'd be awful foolish to act like a mean and atiff-necked fe- male person. You're not going to, are you? be wheedied. “Hecause | want to make you comfortable. What's the use of getting on your dignity over a little thing Hke clothes?” He disappeared into the kitchen end of the house, and came back with a washbasin and a pail of water, ‘ room is now ready, madam, an’ it please you.” He bowed with mock dignity, and went back into the kitchen, Hazel heard him rattling pote and dishes, whisUing cheerfully the while. She closed the door, and busied her- self with an inventory of the tender- foot lady's trunk, In it she found eve is needful for a complete and a variety of garments to boot, Folded in the bottom of the trunk was a gray cloth skirt and a short blue #ilk kimono. There was a at and skirt, too, of brown cordu- PILLOW SHE xX me away against my will. You can't wallow through snow to your waist in expl. or excuse that.” When Roaring Bill came in, an hour forefinger, and looked et her thought- 40 below zero weather.” after dark, he found her with cheeks fully over the book. roy. But the’ feminine instinct ag- “I’m not attempting excuses,” Bill rosy from’ leaning over tho fire, and “Weill,” he said, “there are one er serted itself, and she laid out the gray Made answer. ‘There are two things CHAPTER X. a better meal than he could prepare two good and sullictont reasons with skirt and the kimono, I never do—apologizo or bully d all waiting for him. He washed and which you, of course, may not agree, Tora dresser Roaring Bill had fash. 44P@ Say that's one reason the Mead- Winter—and a Truce. eat down, Hagel discarded her flour- first, though, Ll venture to assert foned @ wide shelf, and on it she OWS Rive mi found @ toilet set’ complete—hand mirror, military brushes and sundry articles, backed with silver and en- graved with his initials. Perhaps with uch a black eye, In N the first place @ very great Injustic aud ive never taken the trouble to explain to them wherein they were wrong. I came into this country with a spice of malice, she put ona fev @ Partner six years ago—a white man, extra touches. There would be some {f ever one lived—about the only real small satisfaction in tantalizing Bill man friend IT ever had. Ho was Wagstatf—even if she could not help Known to have over three thousand fecling that it might-be a danerous dollars on his person, He took sick game, And, thus arrayed in. the @nd died the second year, at the head weapons of ‘her sex, she alipped on of the Peace, in midwinter, 1 buried the kimono, and went into the Mving im; couldn’t take him out. me- room to the cheerful glow of the fire, RoW. the yarn got to going in the As a cook Roaring Bill Wagstatt Meadows that I'd murdered him for had no causo to be wahamed of hia, bis money. The gossip started there self, and Havel erioyed the creat, rar, because We had an argument about ticularly since she had eaten nothing Outfitting while we were there, and Gee Ee theta tescaing: roasted each other as only real pals “T try to make the place homelike,” 42: So they got it into their heads he told her as they finished dinner, £ Killed bim, and tried to have the “Up te now it hus lacked only one Provincial police investigate. tt mado thing. De you ever build alr case ™® hot, and #0 I wouldn't explain to anybody the circumstances, nor what became of Dave's three thousand, which happened to be five thousand by that time, and which I sent to his mother and aister in New York, as he told me to do when he was dying When they got to hinting things; the next time I hit the Meadows I start- ed in to clean out the town, I think I whipped about a dozen men that time. And once or twice every season since I've been in the habit of drop- ping in there and raising the very devil out of sheer resentment. It's @ wonder some fellow hasn't killed me, for It’s a fact that I've thrashed every man in the blamed place except Jim’ Briggs—and some of them two or threo times, And I make them line up at the bar and drink at my ox- sack apron and took her place oppo- site, Bill made no comment until he had finished and lighted a cigarette. u're certainly @ je le per- he drawled then, “How many more accomplishments have you got up your sleeve “Do you consider ordinary cooking an accomplishment?” she returned Nghtly. “I surely do,” he replied, “when f remember what an awful moss I made of it on the start, ertainiy did spoil a lot of good grub. After that they divided the house- hold duties, and Hazel forgot that she had vowed to make Bill Wagstaff wait on her hand and foot as the only aurora flaunted its shimmering ban- Penalty she could inflict for his mjs- ners across the northern sky. deeds, It seemed petty when she con- But within the cabin they were Sidered the matter, and there was snug and warm. Bill's axe kept the othing petty about Hagel Welr, If woodpile high. The two fireplaces the chance ever offered she would shone red the twenty-four hours make him suffer, but in the mean- through. Of flour, tea, coffee, sugar, time there was no use to be childish. beans and such stuff as could only be | She did not once experience the gotten from the outside he had @ rear loneliness that had sat on her plentiful supply. Potatoes and cer- like a dead weight the last month tain vegetables that he had grown in before she turned her back on Gran- @ oultivated patch behind the cabin Ville and its unhappy associations, were stored in a deep cellar, He For one thing, Bill Wagstaff kept her could always sally forth and get meat, intellectually on the jump, He was ‘And the ice was no bar to fishing, for always precipitating an argument or he would cut @ hole, sink a small net, discussion of some sort, in which she and secure overnight a week's supply !nvarlably came off second best, His of trout and whitefish, Thus their Scope of knowledge astonished her, as material wants were provided for, did his language, Bil mixed slang, As time passed 1 gradually the colloquialisms of the frontier, and shook off a measure of her depression, the terminology of modern sclentific thrust her uneasiness and resentment thought with quaint impartiality, As @ matter of There were times when he talked fact, she resigned herself to getting Clear over her head. And he was by line with Roaring Bill's forecast, the weather cleared for @ brief span, and then winter shut down in ear- nest. Successive falls of snow overlaid the earth with @ three- foot covering, loose and feathery in the depths of the forest, piled in hard, undulating windrows in the acat- tered openings. Datly the cold in- creased, Lill a half-inch layer of frost stood on the cabin panes, The ovld, intense, unremitting, lorded it over a vast realm of wood and stream; lakes and rivers were locked fast under ici and through the clear, sull nights thi that your idea of the nature and purs pose of life a we humans know and experience it is rather hazy, Have you ever seriously asked yourself why we exist as entilies at all? And, see- ing that we do find ourselves pos- sessed of this existence, what con- Straing us to act along certain lings?” Hazel shook her head, ‘That was an abstraction which she had never con- sidered, She had been too busy living to make @ critical analysis of Life, She had the average girl's conception of life, when she thought of It at all, as @ state of being born, of growing up, of marrying, of trying to be hap- py, and ultinately—very remotely—of dying. And she had also the conven- tonal tdea that activity in the world, the world as she knew it, the doing of big things in a public or seml-public way, was the proper sphere for people of exceptional ability, But why this whould be eo, what law, natural or fabricated by man, made it go she had never asked herself, She had found it #0, and taken tt for granted, Roaring Bill Wagetaff was the first man to cross her path who viewed the struggio for wealth and fame and power as other than tnevituvle and desirable. “You see, little person,” he went on, we have some very definite require- ments, which come of the will to live that dominates all life. We must eat, we must protect our bodies against the elements, and we need for comfort some sort of xhelter, But in securing these essentials to self-preservation where is the difference, method, between the ban! Hazel answered untruthfully, uneasy at the trend of his talk, “Well, I do,” he continued, unper- turbed, “Lots of ‘em. But mostly around one thing—a woman—a dream woman—because I never saw one that seemed to fit in until I ran across you, ‘You had no right to kidnap me,” Hazel cried, . “You had no business getting lost and making {t possible for me to carry you off,” Bill replied. “Isn't that logic?” “Cll never forgive you,” Hazel “It was treacherous and un- flashed manly, There are other ways of win- ning a woman,” except in who ma- into the background. ipulates millions and the on ; through the winter, since that was in. turna serious and boyish, with always 7 ‘There wasn't any other wi pense, and that sort of foolish- 1 digger on the farm? Not a da to me” Bil Tren teen eae ery evitable, She was out of the world, & #aving sense of humor. So that she We canter Mayes woes after ean the only world she knew, and by rea- Was eternally discovering new sides Blk Not with you In Cariboo Meadows. “That may sound to you like real son of the distance and the snows to him, Rai ces paenole dimmere eine Tim taboo there. You'd have got a depravity,” he concluded, “but it's a there was scant chance of getting ‘The other refuge for her was his pyc Noa aN anieetG anya history of me that would have made fact in nature that a man has to blow back to that world while winter store of books, Upon the shelves she js getting the sa result you cut me dead; vou may have had the steam off his chest about every so gripped the north. The spring might found many a treasure-trove—books banker, whose standard of the tale of my misdeods, for all I know. often. I have got drunk in Cariboo bring salvation, But spring was far that she had promised herself to read erowds his bir income, Having wee No, it was Impossible for me to get Meadows and | have raised all manner in the future, too far ahead to dwell some day when she could buy them cured the essentials, then, what ta the acquainted with you in the conven- of disturbances there, partly out of upon, As much as possible she re- and had leisure. Roaring Bill had next urge of life? Happiness, That, tional way. I knew that, and so I pure animal epirity and mostly be- frained from thinking, wisely con- collected bits of the world’s best in however, brings us to a more absirast didn't make any effort. Why, I'd have cause I had @ grudge against them. tenting herself with getting through poetry and fiction; and last, but by ion . been at your elbow when you left the Consequently I really have given one day after another. no means least, the books that stand the main, though, that's my an- supper table at Jim Briggs’s that night them reason to look askance at any And in so doing ahe fell into the way for evolution and revolution, philo- swer to your question. Here Lean et if I hadn't known how It would be, I one—particularly a nice girl from the of doing little things about the house, sophy, economics, sociology and the cure myself a 1 living 4a mat went there out of sheer curiosity to ast—who would have anything todo finding speedily that time flew when kindred sciences, Bill was not or- tor of fact, Loan easily get the wher take a look at you-maybe out of a With me, If they weren't a good deal sha busied herself at some task in the derly,. He could put his finger on any withal to purchan ixtries that spirit of defiance, too, because I knew @fratd of me and always laying for \ intervals of delving in Roaring Bill's book he wanted, but on his shelves 1 des and it is gotten without a that I was certainly not welcome even Chance to do me up they wouldn't let |ippary, Nke as not she would find a volume petty larceny struggle with my fellow if they were willing to take my money Me stay in the town overnight. So you — She could cook—and she did, Her of Haeckel and another of Hobbie men. Here I exploit only ne 1 re fora meal. And I came away all up O50 808 Want 8 paneioae. 2 Was unger first meal came about by grace of Burns #lde by aide or a last year's sources, take only what the earth has i hen goa aut ee esthin t - R ng Bill’ . L. 2 ling up against a treatise ly provided. Why. shoul Hh rte es RUN, Was Rome ng quaintanos and couriiag vou ta the ‘oaring Bill's absence, He was hunt- novel snuggling up ag I 11 . ing and supper time drew nigh. She on social psyo! grow hungry, and on the impulse of er . the moment turned herself loose in said bitterly, “if you think you've re- the kitchen—largely in a mood for ex- moved the handicap, I've suffered a 4 great deal at the hands of men in the Porlment. She bad watched fill! make ast Six Mm ths, I'm beginning to be- = hology. She could ne understand why @ man—a young mi ) i —with the intellectual capacity to d 4 The best citizen is the digest the stuff that Roaring EB nu ind mind 1 frequently became immersed in y bo should choose to bury himself tn the / a us ha enon & orthodox mann “You've made @ great mistake,” she way your proud little head te set on your shoulders, your make-up in gon- eral—that sent me away with a large ch at myself, at Cariboo and at you for coming In ar and sordid clutter when [ love the clean ou x eat y g to be; ovens, and observed how he prepared wilderness, And once, In an un- b ty mm ie aaked in wonder, Howe {hat ali men are brutes at heart meat over the glowing goals often guarded moment, she Voloed that wills the greater part of th “Because you'd have believed what hands over his knees and stared fixed, CnoUsH to Ket the hang of It. Where- query. Bill closed a volume of Nietz- keep my muscles tn trim, a they told you, and Cariboo Meadows ly into the fire, " “ fore, her first meal was @ success, sche, marking the place with his @!ways food for myself and can't tell anything about me that ten't — chance wayfarer—and I can “No,” he gald slowly “all men are ” ” erybody in the eye and tell them to «ro pede aS oe quieny. Pa not brutes—any more than all women | ‘elt to the fiery regions if I happen to feel late with—that would have been your “Taquyee ss gt y convince you of that) Begin the New Year with a treat to yourself, by reading that "way "What busines would 1 eriec 4 nave running & grocery «#fore or conclusion, And I wanted to be with forlornly, “That's the only way. you THE TARZAN MAN'S GREAT STORY bank or a real estate office when all you, to talk to you, to take you by can convince me or make amends,” y Instincts rebel against it? What storm and make you like me aa I felt “No,” Bill murmured, “that isn’t the way. Wait till you know me better. Besides, 1 couldn't take you out now izing that you do attract men very jf I wanted to without exposing you strongly. All women do, but some far to greater hardships than you'll have more than others.” to endure here. Do you realize that Perhaps, admitted coldly. it's fall and we're in the high lati- “Men have annoyed me with their un- tudes? This snow may not go off at| 4 wolcome attentions, But none of them all, Even if it does it will storm ever dared go the length of carrying again before @ week, You couldn't! depririvivirivhy normal being wants to be chained to a desk between four walls etcht or ten hours a day fifty weeks in the year? I'll bet a nickel there was many @ when you were clacking @ type- r for a Nving th wd have anything to get out in the Ian't that By EDGAR RICE BORROUGHS ‘x This Will Be Next Week's Complete Novel in The Evening World It Is perhaps the strangest and most original of all the splendid tales told by TARZAN’S creator inbeletebebieiniet The Evening World Daily Magazine, Thursday: December 30, 1915 Seay ee “You see,” Bill concluded, “this otv- iMzation of ours, with its peculiar business ethics and its funny Iittle alr of Importance, is a comparatively re- cent thing—a product of the last two, three thousand years, to give it its full historio value, And mankind has been a great many millions of years to the making, all of which has been spent under primitive conditions, So that we are ag yet barbarians, sav- ages even, with just a little veneer, Why, man, aa such, is only beginning to get a glimmering of his relation to the universe, Pshaw, though! [didn’t not out to deliver a lecture on evolu. Fe mee peleve me, Ud pit A) I at any great good or hap- ae doula result from my being from scrapping with my the world crush, I'd be there with both feet. Do you think you'd be more apt to care for mo if I ‘were to get out and try to set the world afire with great deeds?” “That wasn't the question,” she re- turned, distantly, trying, as she al- ways did, to keep htm off the per- sonal note, “But it ts the question with me,” he declared. “I don't know why I let you go on flouting me.” He reached over and caught her arm with a grip that made her wince. The sudden leap of assion into his eyes quickeoned the t of her heart. “I could break you in two with my ee cnee half cS metry you a# the cave men Nis their women, by main strength. But I don't—by reason of the same peculiar feeling that would keep me from kicking a oh oe he we down, 1 suppose. Li ‘son, can't you ike me potter? “Reoause you tricked me,” she re- torted, hotly. “Because I trusted you, and you used that trust to lead me lurther astray, Any woman woul ty a man for that. What do you su) ‘ou, with your knowledge of lfe-—the world will think of me when I get out of here?” But Roaring Bill had collected him- self, and sat emiling, and made no reply. He looked at her thoughtfully for a few seconds, then resumed his reading of the Mad Philosopher, out of whose essays ho seemed to extract fa great deal of quiet amusement. A day or two after t Hazel came into the kitchen and féund Bill piling towels, napkins and a great quantity of other eiled, arnaiee op an out. read tableciot é oPewell” sho, inquire ore are ping to - vetreke ven to the laundry,” he hed, “Collect _ dirty duds and bring them forth." " “Laundry!” Hazel . I rath far-fetobed joke. You don't suppose we can wogined “sure: ever without having Logger he 1” he replied. yashed, do you ST aon mind housework, but I do draw the line at a laundry job when 1 don't have to do 1, Go on—set eo She brought ‘out her ecoumula- tion of garments and laid them on the pile. Bill tied up the four cor- ners of the tablecloth, a “Now,” said he, “let's see if we oa: fit you out for @ more or leas extended tay im the house altogether too much these days, That's bad Nothing like exercise in the ¥ in @ few minutes Hazel fared fort, wrapped in Bill's fur coat, a fiap-ared cap on her head, and on her foot several paire of stockings inside mocoasing that Bill had procured from nome mysterious source &@ day or two oer day was eunny, albeit the air was hazy with multitudes of floating frost particles, and the tramp through the forest speedily brought the roses back to her cheeks, Bill carried t! bundle of nen on hie back, and trudged steadily through the woods. But the riddle of his destination was noon read to her, for a two-mile walk brought them out on the shore of a fair-mized lake, on the further side of which loomed the conical lodges of an indian camp. intyou mde now?" said he crossed the ico, "This bunch comes in here about this time, and stays till spring. I get the squaws to wash for me. r Mr. Indian on his native heath?” Hazel never had, and ahe wae duly Intereated, even if @ trifle shy of the red brother who stared so fixedly, She entered a lodge wiih Btll, and istened to him make laundry arrangements in broken English with a withered old beldame whose features resembled a ham that had hung overlong in the smoke-house, Two or three blanketed bucks squatted by the fire that sent its blue smoke streaming out the apex of the lodge, “Heap fine equaw!" one suddenly addresees Bill, “Where you ketch- um?" Bill laughed at Hazel's confusion, “Away off.” Hoe gestured southward, and the Indian grunted some unintel- lgtble remark {n his own tongue—at which Roaring Bill laughed again, Before they started home Bill suo- ceeded in purchasing, after much talk, @ pair of moccasins that Hazel coneed. ed to be a work of art, what with the dainty pattern of beads and the orna- mentation of colored porcupine quilla, ler feminine soul could not cavtl when Fill thrust them tn the pocket of her coat, even if her mind was aot againat accepting any peace tokens at his hands, And so {n the nearing sunset they went home through the frostbitten vLore the snow erunched and saveaked under thelr foet, and the branches broke off with a ‘pistol-like snap wl y were bent aside hundred yards from the cabin ! challenged her to a race, She refused to run, and he picked her up bodily, and ran with her to the very Id her a se and Hazol's could feel his b and she could f and the rapid beat of his an instant she thought Wagstaff was about to yssal mistake of trying toor, He to Kiss her, Put he set her gently on her fect and opened the door. And by the time he had his heavy outer clothes off and the fires started up he was talking whimsically about their dian nelghbors, and Hazel breathed more fr The clearest impression that she had, aside from her brief panic, was of his strength. |} ad run with her as easily as if she bad been a child Afier that they went out many times together, Bill took her hunt- ing, initiated her into the mysteries of rifle shooting and the manipulation of a six shooter. taught her to walk on snowshoes, ightly over the < WEEK'S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD By EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS surface of the crusted snow, through Ich otherwise she floundered. A sort of truce arose between them, and the days drifted by without untoward incident. BIil tended to his Borses, chopped wood, carried water, She took upon herself the care of the house. And through the long eve- nings, in default of conversation, they would sit with a book on either side of the fireplace that roared de- flance to the storm gods without, And sometimes Hagel would find herself wondering why Roaring BID Wagstaff could not hove come into her life in @ differont manner, As it was—she never, never Ww forgive him. CHAPTER XI. The Fires of Spring. HERE came a day when the metallic brilllancy went out of the sky, and it became softly, mistily blue. Ali that forenoon Hazel prowled Testlenely out of doors without cap or coat. There was a new feel in the air, The deep winter snow had sud- denly lost its harshness, A tentative otiliness wrapped the North as tf the land rested a moment, gathering ét= force for some titanic effart, Toward evening @ mild breese freshened from the southwest, The tender blue of the sky faded at eum down to a slaty gray. Long wraiths of cloud floated up with the rising wind, At 10 o'clock @ gale whooped rictously through the trees, midnight Hazel wakened to that ehe had not heard in montha She rose and groped her way to the window. The encrusting frost had vanished from the panes. They were wet to the touch of her fingers. She unhooked the fastening, and the window out, A great gust damp, warm wind blew strands hair across her She leaned through the casement, and drops of cold water struck her bare neck. That which she had beard was the drip- ping eaves, The chinook wind droned ‘te spring song, and the bare boughs of the tree beside the cabin waved and creaked the time. Somewhere, distantly, @ wolf lifted up his voice. and the long, throaty how! swelled in @ lull of the wind. It was black and shostly outside, and strange, mur- muring sounds rose and fell in the @urrounding forest, as though all dormant life of the North was aw. ening. at the seasonal change. Sly 7 (he Window aud went back to At dawn the eaves had ceased their rip, and the dirt roof was luid bare to the cloud-banked sky. From the southweet the wind still blew strong and warm. ‘The thick winter gar- ment of the earth softened to sluah and vanished with amazing swiftness. Stroams of water poured down every dopression. Pools stood between the house and stable. Spring had leaned atrong-armed upon old winter and vanquished him at the first onslaught. All that day the chinook biew, working {ts magic upon the land When day broke again with a clear- ing sky, and the aun pecred between the cloud rifts, his beams fell upon vast areas of brown and green, where but forty-eight hours gone there was the cold revelry of frost sprites upon far flung field of snow. Patches of earth steamed wherever a hilistde lay bare to the sun. From eome mys- terlous distance a lone crow winged his way, and, perching on a ni treo top, cawed raucous greeting, Hazol cleared away the breakfast things and etood looking out the kitchen window, Roaring Bill eat on a log, shirt sleeved, smoking his pi Presently he went over to the st Jed out his horses and ave them thetr Uberty, For twenty minutes or so he stood watching their mad capers as they ran and leaped and pranced back and forth over the clearing. ‘Then he walked off into the timber, his rife over one shoulder, Hazel washed her dishes and went outside, The cabin sat on a bench-HHke formation, a shoulder of the mountain behind, and she coutd look away westward across miles and miles of timber, darkly green and merging Into purple in the distance, It was @ beautiful land—and lonely, She aid not know why, but all at once a ter- rible feeling of utter forlornness seized her. It was epring—and also it was spring in other lands, The wilderness suddenly took on the char- acteristics of a prison, and she sen- tenced to solitary confinement therein. She rebelled against it, rebelled against her surroundings, against the manner of her being there, against everything. She hated the North, she wished to be gone from it, and most of all she hated BN) Wagstaff for con~ straining her presence there. In six months she had not seen a white face, nor spoken to a woman of her own blood. Out beyond that sea of forest lay the big, active world in which she belonged, of which she was a part, and she felt that she must get some- where, do something, or go mad. ‘All the heaviness of heart, all the resentment she had felt in the first fow days when she followed him per- fores away from Cariboo Meadows, came hack to her with redoubled force that forenoon, She went back * into the house, now gloomy without a fire, slumped forlornly into a chair, and cried herself into a condition ap- proaching hysteria, And she was sitting there, her head bowed on her hands, when Bill returned from his hunting. The sun sent a shaft through the south window, a shaft which met- ed on her drooping head, Roaring Bill 1 softly up behind her and put don her shoulder, at iy it, little person?” he asked “fused to answer. fe's too short to waste any of It in being uselessly miserable, Come on out and go for a ride on Silk, I'll take you up on & mountainside, and show you a waterfall that leaps three hun- dred feet in the clear. ‘The woods are waking up and putting on their Bast- There's beauty every- where, Come along!” Sho wrenched herself away from “L want to go home!" she walled. “T hate you and the North, and every- iing in it. If you've got a spark of manhood left In you, you'll take me out of here.” Roaring Bill backed away trem her, j (To Be Continued.) 7 gate agian sentian ) bl