The Hunted Woman

o awaken his boy, he found John Aldous on his knees before a small fire, slicing thin rashers of bacon into a frying-pan. The weight of his loss was in the tired packer's eyes and face and the

evens, he

you had a bad night. And the kid, too. He couldn't sleep. But I made up my mind you'd have to get up early. I've got a lot of b

Stevens sto

mean what you said last night,

n't you believe a man when he's a gentleman? Buy that outfit! Why,

in forty-eight ho

ming," he said. "Once, a long time ago

ic remark he wen

e tepee. There was something pathetic about the motherlessness of

's. Curly was pulling on his boots when they arrived, whil

me horses for sale,

'a

w m

twenty-eight-me

w m

the task of pulling

ses or looking for hi

in a hurry. How muc

y, 'r

just ten dollars apiece more than they're worth," broke in Aldous, p

uddenness of it all, Curly

Including blankets, saddles, pac

to Stevens to see if he could dete

a go,"

heck for sixteen hund

're Stevens' horses. And, look here, Curly, I'm buying them only with your agre

ously looking

l swear Stevens p'id for them! I give

one, leaving Stevens quite as much amazed as the little Eng

had given way, burying a section of track under gravel and rock. A hundred men were at work clearing it away, and it was probable they would finish by no

glow of day usually found the Ottos at breakfast, and for half an hour the sun had been shining on the top of Pyramid Mountain. He was

laughter of the gentle-hearted Scotchwoman, and the affectionate banter of her "big mountain man," who looked more like a brigand than the luckiest and most contented husband in the mountains-the luckiest, quite surely, with the one exception of his brother Clossen, who had, by some occult strategy or other, induced

himself under the spell of a joyous wonder as he looked at her. For the first time he saw her hair as he had pictured it-as he had given it to that other Joanne in the book he had called "Fair Play." She had been brushing it in the sun when he came, but now she stood poised in that tense and waiting attitude-silent-gazing in the direction of the bush, with that marve

vesdropper," he apologized. "I thought you

eaved a tremendou

exclaimed thankfully. "Jack and Bruce have just

" said Joanne, who had moved nearer the door. "You

r had she disappeared than the good-natured smile left Mrs. Otto's

cheek, and it was wet. I didn't ask any questions. This morning, at breakfast, she told us everything that happened, all about Quade-and your trouble. She told us about Quade looking in at the window, and she w

dous. "It makes me happy to t

!" gasped

e slow-growing amazement and u

-like that. Somehow I feel that in telling this to you I am confiding in a mother, or a sister. I want you to understand why I'm going on

want to discuss the situation, or waste time in listening to further advice. He was anxious to be alone again with Joanne, and tell her what he had learned from Peter Keller. For half an hour he rep

rayed something which he knew she was struggling desperately to keep from him. It was not altogether fear. It was more a betrayal of pain-a torment of the soul and not of t

what he had discovered from Keller would create some sort of a sensation. He had even come up to the final fact gradually, so that it would not appear bald and shocking. Joanne's attitude stunned him.

can go to the grave

was quiet and

ave my own horses at Tête Jaune and there need be n

dventure you were

oked at hi

d hang back to write the tail end of a book. He has lived sixty years in the mountains. His full name is Donald MacDonald. Sometimes, back in my own mind, I've called him History. He seems like that-as though he'd lived for ages in these mountains instead of sixty years. If I could only

ere lightly as they walked. Into her eyes had

od to me! And I should tell you things; you are expecting me to explain. It is only fair and honest that I should. I know what

, sweet thrill of it in his own as he pressed it more closely to his arm. Th

out a lure for you?" He did not realize the strangeness of his question until their eyes met. "Becaus

ughed

face with the truth of how little one can enjoy. My father used to say that the golden treasure at the end of the rainbow in every human life was happiness, an

suddenly aflame

ropped that, and Stevens found it," he explained, giving it to her. "I thought those figures might represent your fortune-or your income. Don't mind telling you I went over 'em carefully. There's a mistake in t

nt you, Mr. John Aldous, if I tell you that all these figures stand for riches which some one else possesses? And

dem in that respect. I've never had any fun with money. It's the money that's had fun with me. I've no use for yachts and diamonds and I'd rather travel afoot with a gun over my shoulder

oney over all creation. There's a whole lot of humour in the way men and women fight and die for money, if you only take time to stand out on the side and look on. There's nothing big or dramatic about it. I may be a heathen, but to my mind the funniest of all things is to see the wo

on his arm. Her beautiful eyes were glowing, and her re

ou can scoop gold up with a shovel," he

hat a man like you could do with unlimited wealth, the good

a great many people happy, Ladygray-a great many. I am gifted to make endowments, I think,

k what some o

ted mines. I suppose you know what a salted mine is, Ladygray? At other times I have endowed railroad stocks which were very much in need of my helping mite, two copper companies, a con

made?" she asked gently, looking down t

d to her

the de

ting the new outfit fro

w did yo

h had gathered in his face. A gl

my ran over to tell her the news. We were all there-at breakfast. He was so excited he could scarcely breathe. But it all came out, and he ran back to

e act I have done. It was my hope and desire that you, through some one else, would learn of it, and come to understand more fully what a generous and splendid biped I am. I even plotted to give this child of Stevens' a silver dollar if he would

eft Joanne. He was gone scarcely five minutes when he reappeared with a

aid, as they turned back in the direction of the Ottos

e, counting on her fingers.

leasant thing about this sort of life-washing dishes. It's not so bad in the rainy season, but it's fierce during a

es. Their purity and limpid beauty made him think of the rock violets that grew high up on the mountains. Her lips and cheeks were flushed, and the soft pressure of her hand again resting on his arm filled him with the e

Donald would follow his instructions in spite of whatever alarm he might have. There were other women at Tête Jaune, the wives of men he knew, to whom he might have taken Joanne. Under the conditions, however, he believed his own cabin would be

of a mile in the bush, and he was positive if Joanne was there that Quade, and perhaps Culver Rann, would come nosing about. This would give him the opportunity of putting into execution a

racles in the mountains. He was a friend who would fight for him if necessary. Mrs. Blackton, who preferred to be on the firing line with her husband than in her luxurious city home, was the leader of all that was decen

chance such a blunder on his part would have given Quade and Culver Rann to circulate the stories with which

d Quade's place. A veil covered her face. Through the gray film of it he caught the soft warm glow of her eyes and the shimmer of gold-brown tendrils of her hair. And he knew why she wore that veil.

no word. Not until they were in their seat in the coach did Joanne look at him after that pressure of her hand, and then she did not speak. But in the veiled glow of her eyes there was somethi

then, for a moment, her eyes turned to him again, and he knew that it would be a sacrilege to give voice to the things he wanted to say. For many minutes he was silent, gazing with her upon the wil

car. "They say you could hear the explosion fifty miles away. Jack Templeton was near-sighted, an' he didn't see a rock coming down on him that was half as big as a hou

her veil he saw her lips tighten. Until he left the car half an hour later the man in the second seat ahead talked of Templeton's grave and a dozen other graves along the right of way. He was a r

spite of this he could see that she was becoming more and more nervous as they progressed toward the end of their journey. He felt the slow dampening of his own joy, the deadening clutch of yesterd

, and he felt her throbbing beside him. She had taken her hand from his arm, and he turned suddenly. She had raised her veil. Her face was dead white. And she was staring out over the sea of faces under them in a strange questing way, and her breath came from between her slightly parted lips as if s

The faces of all were turned toward them. One he recognized-a

en him. But it was not Quade that she had looked for. It was not his face that sh

hand. Her fingers clutched his convulsively.