THE RECORD, KENNA, NEW MEXICO.
A Man ln)tlieOpen
from that place they come, borne or
messengers. A messenger was wait
ing In these woeds, no evil spirit, my
daughter, but one who came'bearlng a
child to you. She stands august and
lovely at your back, and In her arms
the soul of a man-child, Just on the
verge of Incarnation, waits at the
boundary of the spirit lat.d.
"'The light shlneth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended It
not.'
"That light Is all around you, and I
must go. This very ground is holy.
Fare you well."
not to make a scene, f cam back to
my stool.
Pete stood in the doorway very nerv
ous about his hat, as though he tried
to hide It away. ' I remember telling
him quite gravely that I like to see a
hat.
'Cap Taylor, ma'am," he was saying,
"told me to get here by the horse trail.
fo I rode hell-forleather. They'll be
another hour comln' by road."
"Another hour?"
"A stranger's driving. Mebbe more'p
an hour."
Then Jesse came back.
V
Illustrations bu
Ellsworth Young
S3
8YN0PSI3.
The story opens with Jesse, Smith re
flating the story of hid birth, early life In
Labrador and of the death of his father.
Jesse becomes a sailor. Ilia mother mar
ch' the master of the ship and both are
!oat In the wreck of the vessel. Jesse
becomes a cowboy In Texas. He marries
Polly, a sinner of questionable morals,
Who later Is reported to have committed
suicide. Jesse becomes a rancher and
moves to British Columbia. Kate Trevor
lakea'up the narrative. Unhappily mar
ried she contemplates suicide, but changes
her mind after meeting; Jesse. Jesse res
rues Kate from her drink-maddened hus
band who attempts to kill her. Trevor
loses his life In the rapids. Kate rejects
offers of grand opera managers to return
to the stnge and marries Jesse. Their
married life starts out happily. Kate suc
cumbs to tho pleadings of a composer to
return to the stage and runs away with
him. Rha rescues Widow O'Flynn from
her burning house. Is badly burned her
' self and returns home, where Jesse re
ceives her with open arms. Cattle thieves
appear In the neighborhood. Jesse asks
Kate to go to a place of safety. To his
joy she refuses. Jesse resumealbe nar
rative. He calls on neighbors and plans
to capture the robbera. Kate Is rescued
from the hands of the bandits. The rob
bera are captured, but later make their
escape. Jesse la captured by the robhoaa,
but by a clever ruse makes prisoners of
the robbera. They are turned over to a
United States marshal, who haa arrived
with extradition papers. Jesse takes
charge of the outlaw chief's son. Billy
O'Flynn. having promised' the 'chief to
keep him out of his father's profession.
He takes Billy to Vancouver.
CHAPTER XII. Continued.
"Why, Billy daresn't say good morn
ing to my pinto colt. He was buck
ing plentiful today, and me spitting
blood before I got him conquered.
Now just you leave me to tame colta
and cowboys."
"Take him away, Jesso, dear."
, 'He bin making love to you, Kate?"
My heart stood still, -and to my
Jealous husband silence means con
sent. Then the hypocrite in me
sighed, and Jesse, flinging away his
cigar stub, said with an oath that Billy
should be on his way to Vancouver
by daybreak.
Yes, Jesse Is hard to manage, but
presently he remembered about the
check, which made-hlm for the first
time in his life feel rich. He's too
rough when I let him love me. In
deed I had to do up my hair in the
dark, though the fireflies offered the
dearest little lamps. Besides a litteo
Jealousy is good for Jesse. I should not
like to see his love go hungry.
Last night Jesse came home from
Vancouver, and .it being Sunday eve
ning, he read and expounded the
Scriptures to the amazement of the
three new ranch hands.
Afterward, the night being cold,
Jesse had his cigar beside the stove,
while I sat on the low stool so that
the fumes might rise above my un
worthy head.
"The widow believes," I said, "that
her boy will get rich In the city."
"I got Billy a Job."
i Jesse's face looked very grave.
; "At a grocery," he added.
I sighed for the romantic lad, con
demned to an apron behind the coun
ter. "And the' young hawk flew oft."
! "I'm glad!"
"Ye see it's this way, Kate. He's
shying heaps at Ashcroft, the first
town he ever seen, where there's a
tit of sidewalk, electric lights; and
waitresses. I had to kiss the fluffy
one to show htm they don't bite.
"He's willing to start to work as a
millionaire, but don't feel no holy vo
cation for groceries. So In the end he
runs away, out of that frying pan into
the wall, the rest ain't clearly known,
although the police has a clue. It
seems my wolf cub leads some Inno
cent yearling astray down by the har
bor, said victim being the crimp from
a sailors' boarding house. To prove
he's fierce, 131 fly has a skinful of mixed
drinks, and this stranger Is kind
enough to take him to see a beautiful
English bark which Is turning loose
for Cape Horn. Seems the ship takes
a notion to Billy, and the captain po
litely axes him to work.. He's been
shanghaied."
"Oh. It's awful!"
"Wall, maybe I'm a fool, Kate, but
seems to be that this young person
had to be weaned from running after
a woman, before he'd any chance to
be a man."
CHAPTER XIII.
Nativity.
Kate' i Narrative. .
Jesse allowed that the upper forest
does look "sort of wolfy." He would
post relays of ponies along the out
ward trail, sb that he and McOee
could ride the 80 miles back In a sin
gle march. If the doctor survived that,
he would he here n 48 hours, perhaps
la time.
I made Jesse take his revolver, yes,
loaded It myself, and he promised a
slgn-l shot from the rim-rock to give
me the earliest news of his return. He
put out the light, kissed me good-by,
and was gone.
From the inner edge of the bed I
could see through the window, and
watched Orion rising behind the
cliffs. The night turned pale, then for
a long time the great gaunt precipice
revealed In tender primrose light and
amber shade. I heard our riders sad
dle, mount and canter away for the
day's work. The two Chinamen went
off also on some domestic errand. The
sunrise caught the pines upon the rim-
rock into points of flame. I heard a
distant shot, and fell asleep.
The widow had stumped about near
ly all night, weary to the tip of her
wooden leg, poor soul, so when I woke
again and crept to the lean-to door,
it was a relief to find that . she had
gone to sleep. She had left me a
saucepan full of bread and milk,
which I warmed, and It warmed me
nicely.
Mra. O'Flynn asleep Is like peace
after war. Dressing In stealth) I
prayed for peace In our time, then
with a sweet enjoyment of fresh guilt,
stole out Into the sunshine.
I reached the grove, at this cool
hour so like a green lagoon where
coral piers branch up to some ribbed
vault The waves of incense, the riv
er's organ throb, the glory in the
windows, gave me peace, but the
choir of the winds had gone away, and
for once In that sweet solitude I was
lonely. My sitting is at the root of the
governess tree, and Jesse's under the
great father pine. If he were only
there, how It would ease the pain. 1
needed him so badly as I sat there,
trying to make him present In my
thoughts. He had gone away, and the
squirrel, who lives in the widow tree
had taken even his match ends. Only
'the cigar stubs were left, which would,
of course, be bad for the squirrel's
children. I wasn't well enough to
call, but I left my nut.
Close by Is the terrific verge of the
Inner canyon, and sitting at the very
edge of death I saw into the mists.
It was so foolish, why should I be
frightened of death, such a coward in
bearing pain 7 And yet I had better
confess the truth, that presently I ran
away screaming, my skirt torn by
brambles, by feet caught in the roots.
Only when 1 passed the place where
by anemones live, and beyond the
east door of the grove came out Into
full sunlight, I could go no farther but
fell to the ground exhausted. Yes, It
was very silly, and that blind panic
shamed me as I looked up at the cres
cent of silvery birch trees who hold
court at the foot of the upper cliff.
Something small and black was com
ing toward me, a clergyman, too, and
nervous, because he twiddled his little
hat.
"Are you In pain?" he asked.
"Are you a fairy?" I answered, won
dering. I couldn't think of anything
else at the moment, for our lost ranch
Is so far from everywhere.
"No, madam," he said quite gravely.
"I'm only a curate. May I sit down?"
My heart went out to htm, for he
was so little, so old, English like me,
but with the manner of the great
world. When he sat down he took
care not to hurt one of my flowers.
"I fear I'm trespassing," he said, "In
your royal gardens. May I Introduce
myself? My name Is Nlsted Jared
Nlsted, once an army chaplain, now a
tourist." '
"Are you sure," I ventured, "that
ypu're not a "
"Fairy? Believe me, dear lady, I'm
a very commonplace little person.
"A humble admirer of yours, one
Tearful George, has been kind enough
to bring me here In his buckboard,
which has complaining wheels, a
creaky body, and such a wheezy horse.
He, Tearful George, I mean, contract
ed for seventy-live dollars to bring me
to paradise and back; but as we
creaked our passage through that
weird black forest I feared my guide
had taken the pathway which leads to
the other place. I confess, the upper
forest frightened me, and now, hav
ing come to paradise, ( don't want to
go back.". He sighed. "George,"' he
added, "Is making camp up yonder.
Mrs. Smith, will you laugh at me very
much If I tell you a fairy tale? It's
quite a nice one."
'Oh, do!" I begged.
'Well," ha began, "you know where
the three birch trees are all using a
single pool as their mtrror?"
- Of course these were the Three
311 i&mjMbX
Graces. Mrs. O'Flynn and I had
known for months past that the spot
was haunted.
'Each of them," said my visitor,
"seems to think the others quite su
i. fluous." "-
That was true. I asked him If any
one was there.
"A lady, yes."
"That's the minx," I whispered.
"She's a fairy. But don't tell my hus
band. You know he laughs at me for
being so superstitious."
I explained that my dear husbstod
cannot see the minx, that my servant
dare not look.
"I doubt," said Father Jared, with
regret, "that very few fairies nowa
days are superstitious enough to be
lieve in us poor mortals."
For that fcould have kissed him.
"They used," the dear old man went
on , "to believe In our forefathers, but
there Is a very general decline of
faith. It is not for us to blame them.
What fairy, for example, could be ex
pected to believe In Tearful George?
He chews tobacco."
"Oh, tell me more about her. Did
she speak to you? She's fearfully dan
gerous. We had a ranch hand here
who went quite fey, possessed, I
think. I'm frightened of her now."
"She thinks," he retorted, "that
you're a wicked woman.' '
"Me "
"Yes, you. She said you would run
away, and you did. I am to tell you
that's very unwise."
"Please tell the minx to mind her
own business."
"What is her business?" he asked
mildly.
"Being a fairy, I suppose. I'll never
forgive her for what she did to Billy.
Besides," I added, "she makes fun of
us."
"No wonder, for we humans are so
stupid."
"She's full of mischief."
vOf course." The .old . man's eyes
twinkled and blinked as though I
can't set words to fit that puzzled
memory. He had told m twice that
he was not a fairy. "I am o tell you
from my lady, that she Is not the
minx. Winds, waves, and living
things," he said, "are full of mischief
and laughter. The sun has room to
sparkle even in a tear, and Heaven
touches our lips with every smile, for
Joy is holy. Spirits, angels, fairies,
are only thoughts which have caught
the light celestial, mirror-thoughts
which shine in Heaven's glory. Chil
dren, and happy people see that light,
which never shines on any clouded
soul." '
"My soul Is clouded. Help me."
"I wonder," he smiled with his old
kind eyes. "Have- you a sense of ha-
Pete, There'll
Murder."
mor?
never
Ah, there. Then you need
worry, Or run away. As sun
shine and rain are to the dear earth,
so are laughter and .tears to every
living soul. Humor, dear, la the
weather In which the spirit lives."
"But sorrow and tears?"
"Why, how can the sun make rain
bows without rain?"
"You'll praise pain next."
"That is a sacrament," he answered
gravely, "the outward sign of Inward
grace. For how else can God reach
through selflshnesB down to the soul In
need?"
I saw the dear priest's face through
tears, but when I brushed them away
the mist remained. He seemed re
mote, awful and beautiful.
"ThfiM Ifl a Tllaca " ha anM whnm
souls awaiting incarnation, rest, and
'Tell Her,
Two days bad passed since my dear
Jesse left, then through the long day I
waited In the house, and the blue
gloom of night swept up the glowing
cliff. It was then I heard the signal
shot from the rlm-rock, and tort my
baby David that his father was coming
home.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Locked- House.
Jenne'i Memoir.
The book of our adventures which
we began together, was to go on
through all our years. We were too
young to think how it must some time
finish at our parting, that one of us
two was to be left with only the bro
ken' end, the pity of Christ and every
word a stabbing memory.
Since I lost Kate is four years to
night, and in all that time now, I never
dared to enter the house wnere once
she lived with me, her poor fool Jesse.
Today I unlocked the door. The sun
light, glinting through chinks in the
boarded windows, fell In long dust
streaks on rat-eaten furniture, gray
cobweb, scattered ashes. There was
the puppy piano, green with mold, her
work basket, half eaten, her writing
table littered with rat-gnawed paper.
The pages are yellow, the ink Is rusty
brown, but the past Is alive In every
line, the living past, the sunny warm
scented land of memory, all full of
love and glory and delight, and agony
which cannot be taken from me.
How wonderful It Is to think that a
great lady, and this ignorant callous
brute shown up in the rotted manu
script, should ever have been man and
wife together! When I think of what I
was Illiterate, slovenly,, lazy, selfish,
brutal, meanly Jealous, lgnorantly
cruel, I see how It was right that she
should leave me. It has taken me
bitter lonely years to realize that I
was unworthy to be her servant while
she tamed me. So much the greater
mystery Is the love which made
amends for my shortcomings, made
her think me better than I was, a
something for which she sacrificed her
self, and In self sacrifice became like
the great angels which she saw in
dreams.
i Then came the letter from Polly her
self, which sent me crazy, so that my
lady read every word of It, without
being warned.
"Opium, Jesse, an overdose of opium
did the trick, and paint to make me
look like a corpse, and blood from the
butcher's shop poured over my face as
I laid there. You was no husband for
such as me with Brooke around, the
man I d kept. Shucks, did ye think I'd
be such a puke as to set, with yer
dead-line round me, screaming if men
came near, with all Abilene grinning.
and you drunk as Noah? That was no
way to treat a lady. That was no
cinch for me as could buy cowboys, all
I'd a mind to. Pshaw, it makes me
sick at the stummlck to think I mar
ried you. I only done it for a joke.
"But you Jest mark my words on the
dead thieving, no foreign woman from
London, England, shall have you
while you're mine. I heerd of this Mrs.
Trevor daring to call you her husband.
She's not your wife, she's not Mrs.
Jesse Smith, she's not a married wom
an, but a poor thing, and her child,
what's he? I've had my revenge on
her, and you, and I'm coming to rub It
in. I'm at Ashcroft, I am, coming on
the same coach as this letter, coming
to live In your home. If 1 don't love
you, no other woman shall. It's Fancy
Brooke, the man you calls Hull Dur
ham, what give you dead away, he, and
the news he got by mail, since you lot
him got off alive, you fool. That
ought to splash yer.
"And if I didn't love, d'ye reckon
that I'd care?
"Your deserted true wife,
"POLLY 8MITH.
"P. S. I'll be to jour ranch Mon
day." "
Kate's Narrative.
My husband was still ct dinner when
we heard a horseman come thundering
in, the old cargador, Pete Mathson,
spurring a weary horse across the
yard. Jesse took the letter, and while
he read, I bad a strange awful Im
pression of days, months, years pass
ing, a whirlwind of time. My man
was growing old before my eyes, and
It is true that within a few hours his
hair was flecked with silver. When
the letter fell from his hands he
walked away, making no sound at all.
I sat on my little stool and took the
letter. The paper felt like something
very offensive, so that I had to force
myself to read, and.even then without
understanding one word, I went and
washed my hands and face, why 1
don't know, except that It was better
Jee' y-arrative.
I found my larky seated on her stool,
that letter in her hands, while Pete,
uneasy', clicked his spurs In the door
way. I asked If he'd take a message.
"Burning the trail," he said.
"Say, If she comes, I'll kill her."
"Not that," my lady whispered, so I
knelt down by her, and she stroked
my forehead.
"I didn't catch your words," said
Pete.
"Promise." my lady whispered,
"there must be no murder."
'Tell her, Pete," said I, "there'll be
no murder. I can't let her off with
thatgive her fair warning."
Pete rode away slow.
"Wife," I whispered we spoke -"In
whispers, because It was the end of
the world to us two "you trust me?"
She kissed my forehead.
"Tell me," she said, "one thing.
Polly was not dead?"
' "She shammed dead. She's alive,'
Kate. She's coming here. Take Da
vid away. Take him to South Cave,
to Father Jnred's camp."
"What will you do?"
"Lock the house before It's defiled."
"And then, dear?"
"When she's gone, I'll come to the
cave, too."
Kate took David, letting me kiss
him, letting me kiss her, even knowing
everything, let me take her Into my
arms. She was very white, very quiet.
She even remembered to take her ser
vant, and the two Chinamen, making
some excuse to get them away. I
locked the house and the old cabin.
Then I made the long call to Ephrata,
and went to the Apex Rock, calling un
til he answered from among the dog
tooth violets. He climbed straight up
the steep rocks, whimpering, because
I'd scarcely called him once in four
teen months. He rubbed against me,
forgetting he hefted eleven hundred
pounds, and I had to scratch his neck
before we started up to the house,
then to the left along the wagon track
Just past Cathedral Grove.
The wagon was swinging round the
end of the grove at a canter, and when
I let out a yell for the last warning
the woman only snatched at the dri
ver's whip to flog the team faster.
Then I turned loose my bear, he rear
ing up nine feet or so to inspect that
outfit.
The horses shied Into the air, then
off at a gallop straight for the edge of
the cliffs. The woman was shot out
as the wagon overturned, the driver
caught for a moment while his wagon
went to match-wood. He lay In' the
wreckage stunned, but the horses
went blind crazy, taking that twelve
hundred feet leap Into the Fraser rap
Ids. So I had aimed, and as I'd prom
Iced my lady to do no murder, I kept
my bear beside me.
The driver was awake and stagger
ing to his feet. He would have
talked, only my bear was with me,
hard to hold by the roach hair. The
man needed no telling, and after he
escaped from my ranch I did not see
him there In the years which fol
lowed. The woman, standing In the wreck
ago of her trunks, wanted to talk.- We
herded her, Eph and I, to the foot of
the pack trail, which leads up by steep
Jags to the rlm-rock of the upper
cliffs, then on through the black pines
to Hundred Mile. We herded up the
pack trail, my bear and 1, and pointed
her on her way, alone, afoot. If she
lived through that eighty miles, she
would remember the way, the way
which Is barred.
Kate't Karrative.
I was waiting for Jesse until the low
s.un shone into the cave. All that let
ter, which had been a blur of horror,
cleared now before my mind, but
Father Jared held me by the hands,
drawing the pain awjy. He had given
me tea. he had made me a very throne
of comfort in front of his camp fire.
David slept in my lap, and now while
the dear saint held mjr hands, and I
looked through the smoke out toward
the setting sun, he spoke of quaint
sweet doings In his hermitage. He
spoke as a worldly anchorite with a
portable bath, of his clumsy attempts
to patch a worn-out cassock, and how
the squirrels tried to superintend his
prayers at even-Bong. Then the sun
caught the walls of the cave and the
roof to glowing beryl and etherea
ruby, the smoke was a - rose-hued
thread of light, and the deep canyon at
our feet filled with a shadowy sea of
flooding amethyst.
The sun bad set, and the first star
just shone out, as Jesse came, stand
ing at the mouth of the cave, dark
against the glory. I could cot see his
face.
(TO Bra CONTINUED