Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain)

automobile rugs. For a moment her brain, still sodden with sleep, struggled helplessly with her surroundings. She looked at the smoky rafters without understanding, an

und his penciled note, weighted for secur

to be back in an hour, and he had not come, but the strong chirography of the note, recalling the resolute strength

y-line. She shuddered at the arctic desolation of the vast snow-fields. The mountains were sheeted with

range. It had come tearing along the divide with the black storm in its vanguard, and she had heard fearfully

had cried out with terror at this strange wake

to be afraid of," he had said cheerfully,

er rug, she had smiled sleepily at him and fallen asleep

ay out. That he should have tried to find his way through such an untracked desolation amazed her. He could never do it. No puny human atom could fight successfully against the barriers nature had dropped so sull

Here and there were scattered muddy boots and overalls, just as their owner, the prospector, had left them before he had gone to the nea

e door to him upon a house swept and garnished. She would show him that she could be of some us

rdness, the girl went about her unaccustomed tasks with a light heart. It was for her new-found hero that she played at housekeeping. For his commendation she filled the tea-kettle, enveloped herself in a cloud of dust as she wielded the stub of a broom she discovered, and washed the greasy dishes after the water was hot. A childish pleasure suffused her. All her lif

her birdlike carol in the clear frosty air. He emptied his chest in a deep sho

ing," she cried from the open

ve feature was alert with interest, so that the man th

eem long?

must be frozen to an ici

as toast," he

o miles through drifts from three to five feet deep, battling with them every

ack on your back, it's like Santa Cl

nture we may think that box a sure

ing and scattering of snow, he came in. She fluttered about him, dragging a chair up to the fire for him, and taking his h

the firm that has been working. Dishes washed, floor swept, bed made, kitchen fire lit. You've certainly been going some, unless the fairies helped you.

hol to show that I've really been of some

are here simply to decorate the world. Hard world. Hard work is for those who can't gi

. "I can get them in plenty back in the drawing-rooms where I am suppose

he maintained. "I was merely

going to refute the application of your principle and show how useful I've been. No

the fire, had been to make inventory of such provisions as the prospector had left in his cabin. A knuckle of ham, part of a sack of flour, some navy beans, and some tea siftings at the bottom of a tin can;

er she had done so, he marveled alou

he commanded, setting herself ta

should like to make an adventure of it,

scoffed. "That won't do at all. I want to know a

eedn't be afraid that anybody will run away with it for a day or

owerful frame. "I am afraid it must have been a

w a finer, more bracing morning. It's a

nly none with so compelling a vitality. "Such a warm, kind light in

o had attended to the packing of it, had fortunately been used to reckon with outdoor Montana appetites instead of cloyed New

led up in tissue-paper? Deviled eggs and ham sandwiches AND caviar, not to speak of claret frappe. I'm certainly grateful to the gentl

and cake," she said,

k of a special brand! I was expecting to put up at

ested shyly. "Because you bro

mself when he came to think of it. She elected him captain of Fort Salvation, with full power of life and death over th

kling with excitement. "Are we really s

to last. If it should set in to snow, we may be here several days before the relief-party reaches us." But, though he spok

rank from a tin cup, and used a tin spoon the worse for rust. What mattered it to her that the teapot was grimy and the fryingpan black with soot! It was all part of the wonderful new vista that had

sentry fashion to take the deep breaths of clear sharp air he insisted upon. He made it wide enough so that her skirt would not sweep against the snow-bank, and trod down the trench till the footing was hard and solid. T

awing, still piling load after load in the shed. Now and again she came out and watched him, la

fell upon them in earnest and buried them deep with his frozen blanket, and she was a

und her legs, and let her drag wood to the house on a pine branch which served for a sled. She wore her gauntlets to pro

again, making fun of him and the

ned upon him, and she was not satisfied

m with an immediate fall of temperature t

house, but she was

to," she annou

itude he gave raucous m

ficer's orders

tiny," she informed him,

hing already. He picked her up in his arms and ran with her toward the house, setting her down in th

was beginning whe

utenant," came briskly from lips

eels together, saluted, a

er his face was turned her way. He worked like a Titan, reveling in the joy of physi

dlike whimsicality of her imagination. She believed in fairies and heroes with all her heart, which with her was an org

er experience for the most part had been limited. She delighted in his masterful strength, in the confidence of his careless dominance. She liked to see that look of power in his gray-blue eyes softened to the droll, half-tender, expression with which he played the game of make-believe. There wer

rrows that lay before them. Afterward they sat before the fire, in the shadow and shine of the flickering logs, happy and content in each other's presence. She drea

n of her, had stirred his imagination more potently than if he had been the veriest schoolboy nursing a downy lip. He could not keep his eyes from this slender, exquisite girl, so dainty and graceful in

he meaning of this sweet content that filled her. And the voices that should have warned