A Pagan of the Hills

the swell of his chest as a tower rises from a hill. His hair was rumpled; his whole aspect disheveled; but w

and regal creature in whose train I find you? Do you assert any claim

ld, yes-but certainly no favor for either of us. She is primitive enoug

d gazed meditatively at the cloud

of his experience touching the stern virtue of an almost Druid l

er the rhododendron of Central Park-and the bronze horseman in the Plaza. Here the rhododendron has other use

that still gazed upward, Halloway

s an adventure, she'd be

acquaintance, Brent we

shaggy disguise or for the impeccability of evening dress, you are still only a handsome beast of prey. Yo

pudiate it utterly," declared the gian

her dauntlessness have laid a sort of spell on me and I'm a fairly conservative man. You ar

with the full-cheste

outspoken repudiation of things that life's copy-cats accept without thought or demurrer. I interest you because, though I am educated and disreputably rich, I remain at heart a savage-because I like to break aw

not with the ponderousness of most giants, b

ave loot a-plenty behind my taking off. Yet, my idling is not mere slothfulness. I know the Orient, not as the ordinary white man knows it, but as one who has become a brother

eresting than the collie-but for the sheepfold

stifles me," he said seriously. "But when I turn my back on its dusty theologues and dogmatists, I

tary whiteness. Brent looked at the mighty proportion of his companion and thought of the girl who slept in another tawdry room opening on the same narrow hallway. Each of them was un

ng about a mountain girl whom I take it you would never marry-an

y to do with love? There is more honesty and stimulation in the lif

Alexander alone. I don't think she'd see eye to ey

dows a duel of wil

and after that he went on wit

s to live a man's life in a country where other women tamely accept thraldo

he first hint that you are a millionaire masqueradi

Halloway's head bent forward a little and his brows

If the short answer brought a cloud to Halloway's f

e announced, "and we needn't open up a

pause, after which th

lding back that bunch of desperadoes, it occurs to me that sh

did you

is head and lifted his b

r eyes would have licked that crew without the aid of the gun. I intervened because when opportunity k

u ever happen to know this remote l

de his pile, and much of it he made in coal and iron-here and there in the Appalachians. He trained me up in that business. Why, I even worked during school vacations as a telegraph operato

with a yawn. "Someday, though, I'll challenge you to a sending and rece

selessly out into the corridor. Halloway might feel certain of the girl's ability to fend for herself but with this crowd h

ich had been standing before Alexander's door, draw furtively back around

s eyes, for he had recognized Bud Sellers an

ndering what had happened back there at the house where her father lay wounded. Of Bud Sellers she thought only as of a man she had promised not to kill, though against him, as an instrumentality

l; even lovable as a faithful dog might be, though of that ca

es in his life-but since boyhood he had dreamed of her as a peasant may

uthor of her present anxiety, her thoughts st

en right and left, rose before her and her worship o

n," she told herself. It did not enter troublesomely into her reflections that she had marked also the inf

t of crazy erbout thet big feller. He's like a pine tree standin' up amongst saplin's-but I don't reck

astidiously feminine-she tu

Jase Mallows, who thought her pride should be humbled, yet sought to accomplish that end vicariously in order that the doors of future conquest might not be closed against himself. Lute's underta

t he lay where he had fallen, too dazed and befuddled to rise, but presently he clambered up, his eyes wide and terrified, for his rising was Phoe

nd fled, howling like a madman. The thing which D. W. Kelly had fear

alarm failed to carry their true significance. Some guests, startled out of their sleep, had the impulse rather to keep their doors tigh

e, saw the stairhead vomiting smoke and fire. As he dashed for Alexander's room, anoth

on the panels. "Ther house is burn

wung in. It framed Alexander, clothed in shirt and tro

Bud Sellers her

s over thar with yore bullet in his breast-an' ye come

d not give back an inch. In deliberation she went on. "He laid a pledge on

excitement. "Kill me if ye likes-but don't tarry. I come ter warn y

first it came idly, driftingly, as if it had nothing to do with haste. Halloway pushed

arply. "Don't waste life-and-de

er trend of thought so swiftly, then she said, quietly

g up her pack of belongings with what seemed

lready thrust out of the window gauging possibilities of esc

ocked the window frame and a smile curled her lips. "You on a rope o' sheets!" S

oor licked a t

t thar sycamore," she added. "Hit hain't fur aw

ts he remembered the role he was playing. "I reckon," he suggested, "I'd b

is body through the opening, measured the distance with a brief glance and launched himself outward. To use that fire esca

ifle over the sill. As she played out the improvised line of bedding her eyes were angry and Halloway guessed that it was because the two men had refused to leave without waiting for her. Eventually when the room showed red beyond the frame she slipped through, poised herself as the man had done, and came outward as smoothly as an exhibition diver. She la

ove back. Give me room ter stand on-them others

e last of all, it was only just in time. A shower of sparks puffed

r and the girl turned on her heel. "As fer me," she replied, "I'm go

Halloway. "We hain't got n

used a moment and added in hardened voice, "s

the sill, the place had been a furnace, but he said nothing,

said he didn't hold no grudge ergin you nohow. An' I reckon