FAQH THE IUCND BULLETIN, DAILY EDITION, UKND OIUMXW, SATVKDAY, JANVARY It'J, 1DUI. OJFTZE COPyK-fT OflX LTTTLE. CHAPTER III Dnn Fnlllng was ronlly nnl hadlv hurt. The quick, Insttlng blows hml not done more thnn severely bruise tho flesh of tils fnee; mid the mists of unconsciousness that had been fulling over hltn were more nearly the result of his own tremendous physical ex ertion. Now these mists were rising. 'Vo go away." the girl was com manding. "I think you've killed him." Pan opened his eyes to And her kneeling close heslde him. hut still covering Cranston with her pistol. Her hand was resting on his bruised cheek. He couldn't have believed that a hu man face could be as white, while life still remained, as hers was then. All lite lovely tints that hu1 been such a delight to him. the play of soft reds and browns, had faded as an after glow fades on the snow. Dan'a glance moved with hers to Cranston. He was standing easily at a distance of a dozen feet ; and except for the faintest tremble all over lils body, a muscular reaction from the violence of his passion, be had entire ly regained his self-composure. This was quite characteristic of the moun tain men. They share with the heasta a passion of living that Is wholly un known on the plains; hut yet they have a certain quality of Imperturbability known nowhere else. Nor Is It limited to the native-born mountaineers. No man who Intimately knows a member of that curious, keen-eyed little army of naturalists and big-game hunters who go to the north woods every fall, as regularly and seemingly as Inex orably as the waterfowl go In spring, can doubt this fact. They seem to have acquired from the silence and the snows an Impregnation of that eternal calm and imperturbability that Is the wilderness Itself. Cranston wasn't In the least afraid. Fear Is usually a matter of uncertainty, aud be knew exactly where be stood. It 1r ertrenielv riniihtful tf ft nlnlnn- man would have possessed this knowl edge. But a plainsman has not the knowledge of life Itself that the mono talneer has, simply because he does uot see It In the raw. And he has not half the Intimate knowledge of death, an absolute requisite of self-com posure. The mountnlneer knows life In Its simple phases with little tradl tion or convention to blur the vision. Death Is a very Intimate acquaintance that may be met In any snowdrift, on any rocky trail ; and these conditions Bre very deadly to any delusions that he has in regard to himself. He ac quires an ability to see Just where he stands, and of course that means self possession. Tbls quality bad something to do with the remarkable record that the mountuln men, such as tbut mag nificent warrior from Tennessee, made in the late war. Cranston knew exactly what Snow Dlrd would do. Although of a higher order, ehe was a mountain creature, even as himself. She meant exactly what sbe said. If be hadn't climbed from Dan's prone body, she would have shot quickly and very straight If he tried to attack either of them now, her finger would press back before he could blink an eye, and she wouldn't weep any hysterical tears over his dead body. If he kept bis distance, she wouldn't shoot at all. He meant to keep bis distance. But he did know that be could Insult her without dan ger to himself. And by now his Hps bad acquired their old curl of scorn. L. "in go, Bnowblrd," be saw. "l n leave you with your sissy. But I guess ill mm &XCW! AJV73 CO'?12 you saw what 1 did to liliu In two minutes." "1 saw. But you must remember he's sick. Now go." "If he's sick, let him stay In bed aud have a wet uursu. Maybe you enn be that." The lids drooped halfway over her gray eyes, and the slim linger curled more tightly about the trigger. "Oh. I wish I could shoot you. Bert!" she said. Sbe didn't whisper It, or hiss It, or hurl It, or do any of the things most people are supposed to do In moments of violent emotion. She simply said It, and her meaning was all tlu clearer, "But you can't. And I'll pound that milk-sop of yours to a Jelly every time I see him I'd thlntr, Siiowl.tr.) thH( you'd want a man." He started up the trail; and then she did a strange thing. "He's more ol a man than you are. right now, Bert," she told him. "He'll prove It some day." Then her nrm went about Dan's neck and lifted his head upon her breast ; and In Cranston's plain sight, she bent and kissed him, softly, on the lips. Cranston's answer was an oath. It dripped from bis Hps, more poisonous, more malicious than the venom of a snake. His features seemed to tight en, the dark lips drew away from his teeth. No words could have made him uch an effective answer as this little action of hers. And ns he turned up the trail, he called down to her a name that most dreadful epithet that foul tongues have always used to women held In greatest scorn. Dan struggled In her arms. The kiss on his Hps, the Instant before, had not called him out of his half consciousness. It bud scarcely seemed real, rather Just an Incident In a bliss ful dream. But the word called down the trail shot out clear and vivid from the silence. Just as a physician's face will often leap from the darkness af ter the anesthesia. Something Infinite ly warm and tender was holding him. pressing him back against a holy place that throbbed and gave him life and strength; but be knew that this word bad to be answered. And only actions, not other words, could be Its payment. All the voices of his body called to him to lie still, but the voices of the spirit, those higher, nobler promptings from which no man, to the glory of the breed from which he sprung, enn ever quite escape, were stronger yet. He tugged upward, straining. But he didn't even have the strength to break the hold that the soft arm had about bis neck. "Oh. If I could only pull the trig ger!" she was crying. "If 1 could only kill him" "Let me," he pleaded. "Give me the pistol. I'll kill him" And he would. There was no nincn Ing In the gray eyes that looked up to her. She leaned forward, as If to put the weapon In his hands, but at once drew It back. And then a single sob caught at her thront. An Instant Inter they heard Cranston's laughter ns he vanished around the turn or the trail. For long minutes the two of them were still. The girl still held the man's head upon her breast. The pistol had fallen In the pine needles, and her nervous hand plucked strangely at the leaves of a mountain flower. To Dan's eyes, there was something trancelike, a hint of paralysis and Insensibility about her posture. He had never seen her eyes like this. The light that he had always beheld In them had van ished. Their otter darkness startled him. ffe sat up straight, and her arm that had been about his neck felt at her side. He took her hand firmly In his. and their eyes met ' "We must go home. Snowbird," he told her simply. "I'm not so badly hurt hut that I can make It." Sbe nodded; but otherwise scarcely seemed lo hear, ner eyes still flowed with darkness. And then, before his own eyes, their dnrk pupils began to contract. The hnnd he held filled and throbbed with life, and the fingers closed around his. She leaned toward him. "Listen, Dnn." she said quickly. "You heard didn't you the Inst thing that be said?" "I couldn't help but hear, Snow bird." ner other hnnd Bought for his. "Then If you heard payment must be made. Vou see what I mean, Dan. Maybe you can't see, knowing the girls that live on the plains. You were the cause of his saying It, and you must answer " It Boemer to Dan. that some stern code of the hills, unwritten except In the hearts of their children. Inexorable as night, was- speaking through ber lips. This was no personal thing. In some dim, hn If understood way, It went back to the basic rode of lire. "People must Jlghtjthelr own lights. up here," she told htm. "The Inwi of tho courts that llio 'plains people can appeal to are all too far away. There's no one that can do It, except you. Not my father. My father can't fight your buttles hero, If your honor Is going to stand. It's up to you, Dnn. You Can't pretend that you didn't hear him. Such as you are, weak and slclt to be beaten to a pulp In two minutes, you alone will havo to mako him an swer for It. I enmo to your nld aud now you must come to mine." ' Her fingers no longer clasped his. Strength had come back to him, and bis fingers closed down until the blond went out of hcra, but she was wholly unconscious of tho pain. In reality, she was conscious of nothing except I lie growing flame In his face. It held her eyes In passionate fascination. Ills pupils were contracting to Httlo bright dots In tho gray Irises. Tho Jaw wita setting, ns she had never seen It bo fore, "Do you think, Snowbird, that you'd even have to ask me 7" he demanded. "Dou't you think I understand? And It won't he In your ilefenso ouly my own duty." "But ho Is so strong and you are so weak" "I won't be so weak forever. I nev er really cared much about living bo fore. I'll try now, and you'll see oh. Snowbird, wait and trust mo: I understand everything. It's my own tight when you kissed me. nnd he cried down that word In nnger and Jealousy, It put the whole thing on me. No one else can mnko hltn answer; no one else hns the right. It's my honor, no one else's, thnt stnnds or falls." He lifted her hand to hla Hps and kissed II again and again. And for the first time he saw the tears gathering In her dnrk eyes. "But you fought, here, didn't you, Dan?" sbe asked with painful slowness. "You dldn'l put up your arms or try to run away? I didn't come till he bnd yon done, so I didn't see." Sho looked at him ns If her wholo Joy of life hung on his answer. "Fought I I would have fought till I dledl But thnt Isn't enough. Snow bird. It Isn't enough Just to light. In a case like this. A man's got to win I I would have died If you hadn't come. And that's another debt thnt I have to pay only thnt debt I owe to you." She nodded slowly, Tho lives of the mountain men are not saved by their women without Incurring obliga tion. She attempted no barren de nials. Sbe made no effort to pretend he had not Incurred a tremendous debt when she bnd come with ber pistol. It was an unavoidable fact. A life for a life Is the rode of the mountains. "Two things I must do heforo I enn ever dure to die," bo told ber soberly. "One of them Is to pay you ; tho other Is to pay Cranston for the thing he said. Maybe the chance will never come for the first of tho two; only I'll pray that It will. Maybe It would be kinder to you to pray thnt It wouldn't; yet I pray that It will! Maybe I can pay that debt only by being always ready, always watching for a chance to save you from any danger, always trying to protect you. You didn't come In time to see the fight I made. Besides I lost, nnd little else mat ters. And that debt to you can't be paid until sometime I fight again for you and win." He gasped from bis weakness, but went on bravely. "I'll never be nbie to feel at pence. Snow bird, until I'm tested In the lire before your eyes! I want lo show you the things Cranston said of me nrc not true that my courage will stand the test. "It wouldn't be tho same, perhaps, with an Eastern girl. Other things matter In the valleys. But I see how It Is here; that there Is only one standard for men nnd by thnt stand ard they rise or fall. Things In the mountains are down to the essen tials." He paused nnd struggled for strength to continue. "And I know what you snld to him," ho went on. "Ilnlf-unconsclous as I was. I remem ber every word. Ench word Just seems to burn Into me. Snowbird, nnd I'll make every one of them good. You snld I am a better man thnn he. and sometime It would be proved nnd It's the truth I Maybe In a month, maybe In a year. I'm not going to die from this malady of mine now. Snowbird. I've got too much to live for too many debts to pay. In the end, I'll prove your words to him." Ills eyes grew earnest, nnd the hard fire went out of them. "It's almost as If you were a queen, a real queen of some great kingdom," he told her, tremulous with a great awe that was stealing over blm, as a mist steals over water. "And because I hnd kissed your fingers, for ever and ever I was your subject, living only to fight your fights maybe with a dream In the end to kiss your Angers ngnln. When you hent nnd kissed me on that hill side for blm to see It wus the same: that I was sworn to you. and nothing mattered In my life except the service nnd love I could give you. And It's more than you ever dream. Snowbird. It's nil yours, for your battles and your happiness." The great pines were silent above Ihotn. shadowed nnd dnrk. Perhaps they were listening to an nge-old story, those vows of service nnd self gulned worth by which the race has struggled upward from the darkness. "But I kissed you once before." she reminded blm. The voice was Just a whisper, hardly louder than the stir of the leaves In the wind. "But thnt kiss didn't count." he told her. "It wtisn't nt all the same. I loved you then. I think, but It didn't mean what It did today." ' "And what " Bhe leaned toward him. her eyes full on "doea It mean now?" "All that's worth while In life, ell Hull ma Hera when tyeritlilng Ij snjd. thnt can bo iutd, nnd nil I ilono Hint enn bo done. And It moans, plenso Hod. when tho debts nro paid, that I may havo such n klsa ngnln." "Not until then," sho told him. whispering. "Until then, I mnkn oath that I won't even nk It, nr receive II If you should glvo It, It goes too deep, dear est and II moans Ion much." This was their pad. Not until the debts were paid anil ber word' made good would those Hps bo bin ngnln. There wns no need for further words. Both of them knew. In the sklea. tho gray cloud wero gathering swiftly, ns alwi'V In I hi' mountains. Tho raindrops were fall ing one and ono. over the forest. Tim summer wns dono, and fall had coiuo In earnest. Tho rains fell unceasingly for seven days: not a downpour but a constant ilrlr.r.le thnt made tho distant rlilgea smoke. The parched rnrlb seemed to smack Its Hps.' nod little rivulets be gan to fall and tiimhto over the beds of tho dry streams. All danger of for est tiro wns nt onco removed, nnd Snowbird wns no longer needed as a lookout on old Bald mountuln. She went to ber own borne, her companion hack to the valley: and now that hla sister had taken his place aa house keeper, Bill hail gone down to tho lower foothills with a great part of the live stock. Dan spent these rainy days In lull on tho hillsides, building himself physically so Hint ho might pnjr his debts. (To bo Continued) The Circus. Tho clowns disport themselves as of yore. Tho band plays Its tuneful music. Acrobats swing high on shining trapexes. The clephr-nm go through their ponderous moves. The seals flap their way to children' hearts. All Is tho sumo as twenty years ago tho circus does not change. But with the passing of the years, the effect has ehanired. The trappings seem less bright. Their tawdry tinsel no longer seems pure gold. The quaint ness of exotic cloaks no longer trans ports the mind lo faraway lands. Tho acrobats seem much the same as thoso the dally atago brings us. Tho ele phants, for nil their heavy training, seem but commonplace. Kven tho clowns seem less funny than In days gone by. Time hns passed. Indeed. Tho circus tinea not change. Itut we. feeling tho heavy band of passing time, have changed. No longer do wo feel as children. Through the glamor, wo see the sadness. Forsooth, since our childhood flays, wo havo progress ed. Milwaukee Journal. Orris Found In Only Two Zones. Orris root, ihth Is uaod ns a basis of many per'-noee. Is obtained only tirtund Florenca and In tho neighbor hood of Verona, The Phllco Retainer as it looks to the add If you plan to Y OU want snappy brilliant lights and sure-fire ignition during the months you keep your A two-year battery is certain way to get it. n J WitK the PHILCO Slotted Retainer ' THE "CORD TIRE" BATTERY ' We are now offering a snappy reduction in the price of new batteries. Bend Battery Station iuauiiiiaiiaiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiainiiiuBiiaaiiiuiiniiiniiMiij Jit the ffiurci biiiaatiiiiaiamniiiimi aiiiiiiiaaiiiuaiiiiiiimiaiaiMiI Molliodlst Episcopal J. IMgar I'unly, pastor. Tho musical Sunday ovoiilng, lumorrow at 7: SO o'clock, will prove it musical Ireat of unus ual Intercut. Tho choir, under tho loudcrshlh tit Professor II. II. Hess, will present Haul's "Tho Holy City" In lis entirely. This Biinred oratorio Is ono of tho most beautiriil compo sitions over undertaken In Bund. Tim choir has boon preparing for "Vl"' two months for Its presentation. From tlino to time special selections from II havo been sung. Professor Boss announces that Ihla will un doubtedly ho by far I bo host of the musical Sunday evenings presented so far. Come anil hear It. "Was Man, too, Kvolvotl!" will bo tho thomu of thu puHtor's morning sermon ul II o'clock. Thorn will bo (ho usual splendid muslo and tho spirit of cordial welcome. Try to romo to Sunday school to morrow. Tho "I, lllhi Brown Church" performs a real service to I ho com munity, as do till tho churches of Bond, In maintaining efficient schools for tho religious training of youth. Our school is organised lo meet thu needs of yourself anil your family. Tho Knworlb loamm. u lolly group of wldo-awuko young people, will bo glad lo see you thero nt 0:30 p. m. Baptist Corner Oregon nnd Haw thorne, ono block eust of First Na tional Bank. Sunday school, 0:45; regular morning worship, II; llup tlst Young People's union, 0:30 p. m.; regular evening worship, 7:30 p. m. Tho Baptist Women's Missionary union, an auxiliary of tho church, moots tho first nnd third Thursday of ouch mouth, Tho first meeting Is given over to tho regular business of tho union. Tho second meeting Is devoted to missionary work. Tho announcement of tho plnro of meet ing Is always given out nt tho Sunday sorvlcos preceding tho ditto of mcot ln. On Sunday morning. January 23, tho Womon's union will havo charge of tho morning services. A mission ary program will bo given, to which al friends of tho church and tho pub lie aro invited. B. Y. 1. U. topic for Sunday evo nlng, "Baptist Young Peoplo's t'nlon: sell your car, buy a starting, remaining car. the most MSB! L. M. KING, Prop. Accomplishments mill Possibilities;" script tiro lesson la found In Phil. 3:7 I I, leader, Miss Mlhitl (llngrlcli, A warm welcome will bo given nil young people who deslio In moot wlih thu Young Pooplii'a union, ' Tho Idtui scams to ho prevalent among u part of lh public thai, be cause of the flro which destroyed Hut main structure, llio church no lunger holds services, Fortunately lliu nno whig which formerly boused tho Hand Public library was saved. This has been remodeled and repapercd and will bo used for worship until sue It Hum that n suitable edifice rail hn emitted. Tho church will always havo a welcome for till who desire to como and worship with us, First Lutheran H. A. Htitnseth, pastor. Sunday school, with lllbln class, 10 a. tn.: services In Kngllsh, II u. m., and In Norwegian, 7: SO p. in. Seek tint Lord while Hn tuny bit found. Como lo the church of Uod. ChiMlan lllblii arhoitl. 10 a. m. Como early and Join In tho happy in minutes of hnud-shnkliiR before tho school opens. Communion and so cial meeting, 11 a. in. Will In our numbers aro Increasing, our hoys and 4 girls nro becoming more powerful In 'tho servlrn of (lotl. The reason He In tbnlr utter unselfishness. Tho world Is quick to detect our motives. Kven oloquoiiro Is empty and f tit Ho without unselfish devotion In our hearts. Tho point In nil Cblrstliin work and testimony Is to throw one's self Into tho work, not for self's sake, but for tho work's sake; not lo seek prnisn, hut lo ndd lo tho glory of thn Muster's cause. Fathers and moth ers, wn have a fine lllbln class, ('onto f and Join hands with the boys and girls. Bend's Hvo-wlro Illblo class. KpUcopnl Sunday school will be held In Satbnr's hall at 10:30 o'clock -Sunday itiornlnu, Dr. George II. Van Waters, nrrh deacon of tho ICplsropnl church In Knstern Oregon, will bo In Bond lo lerturo and hold services at 8 o'clock Sunday evening In Mother's hall. Put II In Thn Bulletin. M ali It It grow. Having Is mario easy with one of our little homo safe. For your rttllflrrn'a sake, start litem saving; money In one of our Mile banks. The first National Bunk. two - year battery Do you want to be spared the expense and annoyance of laying your battery up for repairs? A two-year battery will keep you away, from the repair shop. Do you want to increase the resale price, of the car? The Philadelphia guarantee is transferable. Your pur chaser is not buying an un known quantity. A two year battery increases resale value just as surely as good rubber and good paint. Guaranteed for Two Years ai -I