The Law-Breakers

tar of the moral welfare of a village which reveled in every form of iniquity within its reach. Furthermore, she threw in a brief homily on the subject

t suddenly awoke to the claims of the work at his ranch.

ng without protest. Truth to tell, she never failed to experien

was the leading woman in the village, and, incidentally, the wife of its chief citizen, who also owned a small lumber yard, was of a lukewarm cha

manded the utmost exercise of her ready wit to extricate her from. No, serious contemplation of her surroundings would have certainly bored her, had it been possible to shadow her sunny nature. Fortunately,

he remembered how beautiful the valley really was. Of course, it was beautiful. She knew it. Was

they had no real claims. They borrowed their beauty from the wealth of the valley, she told herself. Like the people who lived in them, they had no claims to anything bordering on the refinements or virtues of life. No, they were

ature of a tragic farce. The worst thing was that the farce of it all could only be detected by the

as a beacon marking the village. It was higher up on the slope of t

Its torn crown, so sparse and weary looking, its barren trunk, too, dark and forbidding against the dwarfed surroundings of green, were they not a fit beacon f

d old legend associated with it, some old Indian folklore. But

t once her attention became absorbed. Here was a scene which thoroughly appealed to h

, it would have been called a Cathedral. There was nothing half-hearted about these people. They recognized t

enough as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough. They realized the journey might be very long and the ultimate destination uncertain. A Chapel had its claims in their minds, but Church seemed much stronger, bigger, more powerful to help them in those realms of darkness to which they must all eventually descend

e to help. They rarely were beset with any desire to help anybody. They simply clustered together in small groups, chewing tobacco, or smoking, and, to a man, their hands were in

hese weapons were loaded in every chamber, an

ey had it. Woe betide-but, was there ever such a ga

in Rocky Springs, who had not contributed something toward it. Those who had wherewithal to give in money or kind, had given. Those who had nothing else to give gave their labor. Sh

ld her flattering attention. As yet there was no roof on it, but the walls were up, and the picturesqueness of the design of the buildi

originality of design, merely the delightful picturesqueness which unstripped logs never fail to yield. She knew that every detail of the bu

hewn in the valley and milled in John Day's yard. The entire labor of hauling and building was to be done by the citizens of Rocky Springs. The draperies, necessary for the interior, would be made by the busy needles of t

ins of its citizens. It was the pouring of a flood of oil upon the turbulent waters of an after life which Rocky Springs knew was waiting to engulf its little craft la

of the men, until they finally came to rest u

ed on to

was much that of the rest of the men, with the exception that he made no display of offensive weapons. It was not this, however, that drew Helen in hi

ed him cheerfully, as she came u

ing. With an adept twist of the tongue his chew of tobacco

s much amiability as it was

the direction of

rest you all take in the

ss you'd be mighty int'rested if you was sittin' on a roof with the house afire under you, an' yo

eyes t

should," s

d sure. But most of them boys are feelin' mighty good. You see, the ladde

of the enthusiasm one might have expected in men who considered that

d, with a satirical laugh. "Do you think th

his discolored teeth part

ggone city. Standin' right here I seem to sort o' see a vision o' things comin' on like a pernicious fever. I seem to see all them boys-good boys, mind you, as far as they go-only they don't travel

ike that," Helen protested hastily

e denied. He promptly cut her

feathered fowl. They'll get that out o' hand with their own glory, they'll get shootin' up creation in the name of religion by way o' pastime, and robbin' the stages an' smugglin' liquor fer the fun o' gettin' around this blamed church an' braggin' of it to the parson. Say, if I know anything o' the boys, in a week they'll be shootin' craps with the parson fer his wages, an', in a month, they'll set up tables around in the

t it?" said Helen, stifling a vio

scrupulous. He laughe

stance. Guess you've never seen a 'Jonah-man'

per spat out his chew of tobacco with al

finally admitted impressively, before clipping of

denied, and partly to watch the approach of a team of horses hauli

em. "Look, Dirty! That's our tea

e direction in whic

agreed in

" retorted Helen sharply; "

kable in the matter, and his fa

drive your team?" he inq

be right out in the hay sloughs-cuttin

deep chuckle came from somewh

red, with cordial appreciat

of angry, bewildered eyes upo

odded sig

busy workin' on it. Guess work never did come welcome to Mister Peter Clancy and Nick. They hate work worse'n washin'-an' t

impertinent ras

tion left her al

h a compliment to th

e of humor utter

e' them both. I'm-I'm sure they're going to get us into trouble when-when the police come here. I hate the sight of them both. Last t

he man's cur

cally. "An' I guess it ain't goin' to be 'emselves, neither. But wh

had suddenly

ie Bryant," she

an no

city. Ther's Kid Blaney, the faro sharp, who broke penitentiary in Dakota twelve months back. Ther's Macaddo, the train 'hold-up,' mighty badly wanted in Minnesota. Ther's Stormy Longton, full of scalps to his gun, a bad man by nature. Ther's Holy Dick, over there," he went on, pointing at a gray-bearded, mild-looking man, sitting on a log beside a small group of lounging spectators. "He owes the States Government seven good years for robbing

help. She knew that all he said of them was true. She had known it for months. Now she was think

hey'd give-a

shook

long nose smudging the ink on it. You an' Miss Kate are jest about two o' the most wholesome bits o' women in this township, an' there ain't many of us as wouldn't fix ourselves up clean an' neat to pay our respec's to either of you. Wal, Miss Kate's got a hell of a notion for that drunken bum, Charlie Bryant. T

rest of the male portion of Rocky Springs, he possessed a soft spot in his vicious heart for the two sisters, who, in the mire of iniquity which flooded the township, contrived a clean, wholesome living out of the soil, and were w

to pass a few cheery greetings with the rest of

shrewdest man in the place. A warning from him was more than significant. What should she do? Tell her sister? Certainly she would do that, but she felt it to be well-nigh useless. Kate was the gen

a dozen times? It was all quite useless. Kate was something of an enigma, a

ust put in an appearance at Mrs. John Day's house. Mrs. John Day was the social pivot of Rocky Springs, and, to dis

for her to remember that she had imprisoned herself in such a

g those people amid whom she had been brought up. She craved for the society of cultured folks-of men. Yes, she admitted it, she wanted all those things which make a young girl's life enjoyable-theatres, dances, skating, hockey and-

the valley, she beheld her sister leaving the Meeting House, which sto

d in a big gingham apron. No doubt her beautiful, artistic hands were all messed up with the stains of scrubbing out a Meeting House, which, in turn, right back to the miserable Indian days, had served the purposes of saloon, a trader's store, the home of a

the pretentious portals of Mrs. John Day's home, her real nature asser