the O
reat
Hy KA1N irDAKi;
Illustrations h CF.OHCE CLARK
I N one of those turbulcat yean whrn wom
en were fighting for the right to vole.
9 Ana Leary wu bora ia the richness ol a
, great mansion.
When Ann was old enough to receive
her first impressions, she dearly observed that at
the bead of the great household was a huge man.
A burly man. A man who thundered his com
mands. A man with shiny hoots, and shiny spurs
that dripped blood from his great black horse.
Awed, Ann would ofttimes hide behind the
giant colonnades" of the great mansion to watch
this man ride to and fro in a cloud of dust. Some
times from the back of the black steed he would
spy her hiding place and smile down at her.
Other times, because of her elusive new from one
colonnade to another, he would scowl and cry
out and shake his fist at her.
He was a thing that needed watching. He
was a killing giant in her otherwise beautiful
fairyland. And as childhood ripened, and Ann
sensed hate and love, she hated the man on the
horse.
In course of time she became aware of the
fact that the horse hated the man. This aroused
in the heart of Ann a deep love for the horse.
She fairly worshiped the animal' who dared to
stand on his hind feet and paw at the master try
ing to bridle him. -
But this reverence of Ann's was not without
its price. For the horse was ever bridled, ever
subdued, and ever bloodied with the shiny spurs.
To the little girl of the great mansion this
power of brute over brute brought many heart
pangs. And bunded with tears she came to
know that the enemy who had aroused all this
deep emotion was her father. Burr Leary.
. Burr Leary. however, was not the only notable
influence in young Ann's life. In striking con
trast, Ann's mother was a nature full to the brim
with love and tenderness.
These two distinct persona lilies, exerting their
every-day influence, caused Ann to distrust all
men. and to trust all women.
Very little else could be expected in the early
stages of Ann's career. The reason for this was
that most of the men folk about were employes
on the great Burr Leary ranch, and under the
constant influence of their employer, while most
of the women in Ann's vicinity were wives and
kin to 'these men, and under the constant in
fluence of Ann's mother.
" '
f LBEIT, a little later in Ann's life an as-
founding fact unveiled itself. She came to
know that most of the women seemed to
be very fond of their burly rough-riding and
rough-talking men. Even when the women were
openly abused, and they verbally struck back at
such abuse, they eternally submitted to their
masters as the black horse submitted to his.
This knowledge caused a riot in Ann's young
soul. She swore to the independent little lady
arising within herself that she would never sub
mit to any abuse. As far as that was concerned,
she would never give any man or anything a
chance to abuse her.
An innocent declaration this, for Ann was too
young to know the meaning of marriage. .Too
young to know the value of the stern law and
brute force civilizing the vast Panhaadle plains
of West Texas.
When Ann entered her teens, a private in
structress was employed as chaperone to Ann
while she attended the public schools in Dalhart.
It was here where Ann bloomed into maiden
hood, and where her intelligent chaperone readily
observed a kink in the normalcy of her ward.
With a view to untangling this kink, the
chaperone one night tried to broach a rather
delicate subject gracefully.
"I have noticed, Ann," she said, "that you sel
dom attend any of the parties of your class.
Aren't your friends here in Dalhart agreeable, or
what is the trouble?''
"Oh, the girls are agreeable enough. "Aunt
Sue," " readily admitted Ann. ; "But but I
guess I'd rather be by myself."
"But k is not good to be too much with one's
self," advised Aunt Sue. "To round out oui
character, and 'to gain a true perspective on life. '
we need to rub elbows with those living it."
"And every day of my life I do that, don't
I ?" interrogated Ann, without lifting her eyes .
from a book nestling in her lap.
(unt Sue noticed this, and purposely walked
to the side of .Ann to spy the nature of the eo-'
crossing volume.
Across the top of a page she read:
"THE RIGHT of WOMEN to VOTE."
Aunt Sue sinned down at her ward, and then,
"H'os. Are you a student of Jane Cabot "
Ann looked up and replied. "Perhaps I am.
since you inquire."
"That's well enough, my dear girl," smiled
Aunt Sue. "I'm, well, I'm merely a bit sur
prised." "Over what"
. "To be frank. Ann. I thought because of
the reason that you are Sweet Sixteen that per
haps you were reading a love story."
Ann closed her book with a snap, and nor
mally enough for one of her age laughed hysteri-
"Aunt Sue." she finally blurted out.' "are
you really sincere, or are you talking just to hear
yourself talk)"
"No, I'm not talking just to bear myself talk.
And while we're about it, 1 want you to tell me
point-blank why you try to evade all the social
functions'of your class where the boys of your
class are invited." .... .
Without hesitation, Ann replied :J'For the
mere reason that i don't hlK-them."
AT the end of that school season, Ann proved
that she didn't lite the boys. She won
every award for which they were competing.
No such brilliancy for a girl had evei been
recorded in the history of the Dalhart high
school. And for the whole week prior to vaca
tion. Ann was feasted and dined and petted by
the faculty of that school.
West Texas had a new light: its first femi
nine prodigy. Papers as far distant as Dallas
and Fort Worth were front-paging her. A real
stir in femininity was taking place in the great
burly rough-riding and rough-talking man coun
try. By the time Ann arrived home, her fame had
preceded her. The mother was delighted. But
Burr Leary scratched his head, clinked his spurs,
and mumbled:
"Sure 'nuf, gal, you're a wonder. But I
don't know."
"Don't know what?" inquired Ann, smiling
rather superciliously at her mother,, and sealing
it with a wink.
"I don't know, explained Burr, "whether
it'll do you any good to be smart, or plain damn
ignoramus like the rest of us."
"I suppose." said Ann. ruffling up, "that you
would much rather have me one of the common
run. Have me marry Jake Lucifer, or Johnny
bow. and bake their hot biscuits for them."
"Many a country," philosophized Burr, "has
been civilized by hot biscuits."
"Perhaps so." conceded Ann; "but I don't
intend to stay in the alpha of this eternal civiliza
tion process of yours. That's the trouble with
you men, you want to carry on, but you always
want your women to lag behind."
"Somebody hal got to be behind the battle
line," declared Burr, rising from a chair and
pacing nervously. r
"I suppose so, Mr. Leary," agreed Ann, cold
ly. "But let those who are only fitted for the
rear be of the rear."
Bug Leary stopped his pacing, to stare down
at his own daughter who had called him "Mis
ter." "Is that 'mister' of yours some new education
in Dalhart?" he inquired.
"Perhaps so," replied Ann. "If not so, figure
it out."
That night under the stars, by the side of his
corral. Burr Leary did try to figure it out. For
the, reason that he had been born in the rough
country, however, and knew only its ways, he
was left with an enigma. And tears came to
his eyes, which had been dry for years.
It was. midnight when Burr went back into
(he house. For some reason or other he didn't
want to go to bed. His bed that night, anyway,
seemed like a strange chamber.
The great mansion itself was strange. Even
though he had partly constructed it with his own ,
hands, and the rest with his hard-earned fortune,
it was strange. Ann, with her brilliancy, had
suddenly made his whole world strange.
Noiselessly he made his way into the living
room, stirred the ashes in the open fireplace, arid
A n o I a r
'.; peat hulk
ran head-en
into the tar
' . o severed
horn zipped through
the air kg Atm't
cUcfd the uiMield and" hang on. '
M-t""Z"K'lt? ,f" machin '""'""'xl
dymg. outdoing the storm in it, feirdness.
wearily tested hiuuclf down on a lounge. As
he did, his hand came in contact with neck
piece. Ann's I
OLD BL'RR. big old roukh-neck Burr as
his men usually spoke of him. picked up the
fur. It was sort of a soft little thing, luffy
Utile thing, but cost like bell as he finally recol
lected. Burr hid sent the check for it. Not that he
gave a damn about the check, but it seemed like
,a lot of value wrapped up in such 4 little thing.
Then he got to thinking about little thing.
And the more he thought about them, the more
little tilings came out of the past to liim. It sud
denly occurred to him that perhaps Ann was one
of those Utile things that was hurt by little things.
Klaybe Ann didn't like his cussing and such,
being educated and everything. She was a trim
little lady at that a little flower she was, in a
rough-neck country.
Prairie flower. The poetical thought startled
Burr. But he seemed to like it. He also took
quite a notion to the little fur nestling in his huge
hands. It was perfumy and like, fvinda bur
nished gold, loo. Something like Ann's hair.
s By gad I No Jake Lucifer or Johnny Bow .
ever would have his goldcnrod to bake their
damn hot biscuits!
Burr jumped up. He was going suddenly
insane and knew it. But he paced to and fro
in the fire light, meditatively.
Then came a peculiar noise, uncanny like, and
working on the nerves of the usual iron-strung
Burr. Merely the night breeze. Burr quickly
observed, rattling a faulty casement. . . . But
a door, on the opposite side of the room, had
felt thai breeze, too, and had paltry opened.
Burr paused in his pacing, to make sure no
one was spying to make sure that Ann was not
spying. The open door led to her bedroom. It
also led to a lovely moonbeam, caressing her
coverlets and golden-burnished hair.
Burr stood fixed. His heart pounding. Then
came a flood of tears that had accumulated back
of the fortress that his hard career had made
necessary. Blinded with these he stumbled bis
way to the open door, and stretched out to the
unconscious Ann both of bis huge arms.
Ann Leary, of course, knew nothing about
this. Dawn came and she knew nothing about
it. Days and weeks and months followed, and
she knew nothing about it. The only thing that
Ann knew was her great calling in life to eman
cipate the oppressed women of the cattle lands
of West Texas 1
The full bloom of this ardent desire came al
the time Ann graduated with full honors from
the high school at Dalhart.
On her arrival home, she immediately made
known to her mother that Austin, the stale's
capitol city, was the most logical place tor her to '
further her studies. Perhaps as secretary to some
state senator.
Burr Leary was advised of this by the mother.
This gave him a chance for which he had long
been waiting.
((A LL right, daughter," he announced t
short time laler.
"All 'right, what?" inquired Ann, .
giving her mother another supercilious smile, and
sealing it with a wink.
"This here," enlightened Burr, handing Ann
a long envelope with the state's seal on it,
Ann gave her father a blank stare, but ex
tracted the letter from the envelope. Therein
was written:
"My dear Mr. Leary,
In answer to your request of recent date,
it affords me great pleasure to offer your
daughter a position as secretary in my
office. Along with that goes the offer of my
home, and my wife and .daughter as her
companions.
With the best of good wishes to my old
riding pal Burr, I am.
Very sincerely yours,
M. L. ATKINSON."
Ann folded the letter and sat motionless.
"Why I thank you," she finally said.
Burr said he was glad to do it, seeing that
the senator was an old friend of his'n, and had
once worked on the ranch. Then he awkwardly
left the room.
(Copyright, 1MI, NEA Magailna). .
A week from that day was the day Ann hal
v decided on to leave for Auilin. Dun had been
advised of this midways of thai week.
"Ma." he said to the wile, "you'd betlet
go along with her, seein' it's her fust trip avav
from borne for 'any distance."
"I mentioned that very thing lo 'Ann." tji!
Mrs. Leary. "Hut Ann seems In think that site i
perfectly capable of taking care ol heucll."
"Pei haps so. ma. Perhaps so. I don'l know.
l ou women folks know more about women a II .mi
than I do. . . . Anyhow, here's a check I i
five hundred to kinda tide hei over till Atkinson
starts paying her somelhin'."
"Anr.'ll love you for that, Butt." -
"You ihink so. ma?"
"Sure she will, Hurr. You just don't unilei '
stand her."
"Maybe I don't, nu. . . . L.ooks kind.
slormy out, don't it. ma? Maybe I'd belle
drive Ann into Dalhait lor the train."
"You might ask her. Burr. She's funnv abnui ,
such t!...igs, having men help her and like that."
Ann, true lo her objectite in life, refused lo In
driven to Dalhart by Buir, or any ol his men.
Nw. Ann Leary. would lake the little car. I loin
- Dalhart the would send it back by some cne ol
the men or women in from the ranch.
"Now. mollicr, kiss me. Don't worry. All
of the b J achievements in life have come through
sacrifice.
Burr was hearing this as he stood, in soil ol an
outer world, by the side of his conal. His eyes
were luined south toward Dalhart. however, as
mother an. I daughter embraced. . . . But there
Mas a step oming. a minute or two later a Hep
toward him. Ann's step. It was sort ol light,
feathery, something like die neck-piece.
"Well, I must be going." It was Ana speak
ing. Burr turned to face her.
"I wish you plenty of good luck, little wo
man," Burr said, but knowing little what he did
. say. The heart of hiin was pounding. So was
distant thunder, way over west next to the New
. Mexico border.
. Ann turned hei eyes that way. So did Buir.
"You're liable lo get wet. Ann," Bun finally
rpoke again. " Hi: car ain't got no lop and you
better let me or eomeone drive you in, in tlie lop
wagon or buggy."
"Oh, it's quite all right." Ann assured him.
smiling at her mother who had joined them.
"You've been out in that car in many a stoim.
did you ever think of that?"
Buir tried to smile, but he made a mess ol il.
"Yes, Ann, I guess I have." he slowly ad
milted, but not very heartily. "But I'm stronger
and bigger than you. And you must remember
you gol to let fences down in six places, and that
th' first house south is twenty miles."
Ann did look serious fcr a minute as she
studied the distant lightning and great thunder
clap. But then, true to Ann Leary. she ex
tended her hand to Burr Leary and merely said:
"Goodby."
ANN was ten miles away. A mysterious
night had fallen down out of the heavens
in broad daylight. The thunder had sud
denly gone ssiU. Even the lightning had van
ished. , Startled, Ann leaned ov the little car and
. . , At the head of the great household vat a
hurl) man ... a man uith thin) booti and
sinji tpurt that dripped blood from hit great
black horse.
held her watch within the glow of a bulb over
a dial. Night had not overtaken her. It was
still two hours to sunset, and her train. What of
this night this night m the day I
In reply there came a distant rumbling. It
was not thunder. Nor was it the stampede of
cattle. It was more like the drums of an army,
advancing to battle. Hundreds of drums. Thou
sands of drums. Then millions of them.
Frantically, Ann stepped on the throttle of lh
little 'car, advanced the spark, advanced every
thing that she could get hold of to beat those
drums drumming her way.
For once she was frightened. Chilled to the
bone. But worthy of the blood of the Learys she
shook this off, gritted her teeth, and gripped the
wheel of the swaying ear as it shot like a rocket
through the engulfing hell about her.
But the drums were coming. No mailer how
fast she ran thirty forty fifty miles an hour
over the slippery prairie trail, they were coming.
Then came a sudden gust of wind, a blinding
llaih ol lightning, a simultaneous il.ip ot I,,
der. and then a deluge ol icy pellets.
"Mail I" Ann unearned the word, duelled be
head, and tiled lo nurse the car to suly. .She
Jul. But tlit hail stayed with liei, the mighty
diuiiis stayed Willi hei. So did llw now re
renei.ited lightning, lliumlei .huuicaue ol a wind,
ail the awc-stiriing night in the day.
Ann tried to philosophize, tiled lo tbcorils.
tiled lo do evciylhing that her schooling had
taught her. Now was the lime to piove her we
iiutihood. Beat the stoim. Stand the tlpio).
fight it nut like a man. Kr.nh Dalhart wil'i a
inule. Alakr light of the aHair. I hp il over '
her shoulder like any great woman should. Like
Jane Caliol would I
Wlul an inspiration t Jane Cabot. She would
write Jane Cabot all about it. fell hei how the
v on her first big battle on hei May lu Aulm. oa
her way lo a senalnrship in lier slate. Down in
the annals ol hiilory would go Ann l-cary Ann
l.eary die Great! . '
But the drums. The damnable diurn.'. I he) .
weie deafening. They were honililr. Ami tlie
hail was hurting. I ler neck, hei shuuldirs. I lies
were raw. A thousand knives wort ilickmn into
her body. . , . I Jut on. htll wornan--c;il Cn,
Ann Leaty. on I '
That was the war cry. Columbus
cried il crowing the oce.m. And Ann lr.us
would cry it ciosaing the e-eat plains ol Weil
I exas.
Bui ihe drums. The daa-nable drums. 1 he
hail. The night. And ll. rsVhl was growinj
darker, the storm more fierce, an I the piairi.' tri
was hardly discernible, l ln i it vaniiiedt
4 NN became suddenly t.-:.se.
lie lea-rJ
r Ur
over and tried to ice t!-' oio'.t t elore
ner. v ouIU she have : Mop' or God i
sake, would she have lo sliJW Tien she d.j
lop, as she crashed through a lin--'c,ee 'l,j
should have been let down.
Tlie sudden impact hid lliiown A-n I om ir
ear. Something was the l.ouiiij .i:!i her a Me.
hut her shoulders and back hu.l r.i-,-. :ilie. .
crawling, down on her hands and rees . M
tlie sod, down next lo Use ser? h. -rt ol West
I exas.
She found the ear. and it secmej awfully
to find the car. It formed a little i jol uver her
head as she ciawled under it. Jm like a little
flop-lent of the line-fence rulers on the gieat liun
Leary ranch.
Why hada't she thought of it brio.e Il was
awfully nice and cozy there, but die was aching,
tired and sore.
She was weary, too. Weory . Himrlhing,
she didn't know whot. "PerhaH of life. Il was
so dark, out there in the world beyond Ihe eai.
And so lonely. If someone would Mily sieak.
If someone would come tiding along even m
man.
The drums were still playing, but now they
were playing on lop of the ear. Still vicious as
ever was the terrible hail, but not hurling. And
still the lightning Rallied, and ihe thunder roaied.
Then there came the roar of something new.
Ann listened tensely. Suddenly her heart
skiped a beat, and she clutched at her throat.
Cattle were coming, stampeding, oul of ihe night
toward her very path. Ifieir grtal hulks were
in sight. Ann screamed and roiled hersell oul
ftom under the car. ' '
Huge burly heads flashed by her in lightning
play. Horns fairly ripped by her frail body.
One great hulk ran head-on into the car, tore off
a fender and dismantled ihe hoed.
Ann frantically climbed into the machine that
had nearly lipped over. On lop of its seat she
screamed and waved her aims at the killing mob
of brutes engulfing her.
Heaven and earth had now loin loose in ill
its fury. There was no lime for philorophiing.
theorizing, or carrying on the flag ol Jane Cabot.
Ann. al last, had arrived in the land of men.
Their battle was now hers. Il was flesh against
flesh, brawn against brawn, brutt force against
brute force. The plains of West Texas had sud
denly leajied up and were whipping her in the
face.
. 'I .- .
ANOTHER great hulk ran head-on into the
car. A severed horn zipped through the '
air by Ann's face. She would have fallen,
had she not clutched the windihield and hung on.
Below her was I fallen steer, bleeding, moan
ing pitifully. Ann cried, as she saw its eyes pili- '
fully turned up toward hers in the lightning play.
I he poor brute was dying. Maybe she was dying.
The whole world was brute. Everything was
brute, misery, death.
Other brutes came plunging into the car. piling
up over the fallen one. Moaning, dying, out
doing the storm in its weirdnesi. And gradually
encompassing Ann in a death trap.
The car was tipping. . Ann was sliding. Hot
breaths from the squirming, groaning, dying ani
mals were smothering her. Something was slick
ing up in the night Is her. A horn. She clutched
it. and hung on. But the car was tipping, gradu
ally going over under the force of the living flood
in which death ran.
One of her feel was already on squirming flesh
and slippery hair. As if hades was about lo wel
come her, there came a blinding flash of lighlning
and a terrific roar of thunder. And in the mo
ment of that duration, Ann saw in Ihe midsl of
the oncoming stampede a great black horse and a
huge man astride hit back.
The black horse was on his hind feet, pawing
the death in front of him. Pawing as had his sire
at ihe huge man now astride of him.
Ann tried to scream. The car was down. Her
feet, and legs and body were slipping oul of sight
in the deathly vortex of squirming, dying steers.
"I hen came huge arm down out of ihe
night, a hoarse cry, an iron grip on the shoulder
of Ann Leary. And then came:
"Daddy. . . . Daddy. . . . My daddy I"
(THE END)