THE TILLAMOOK
HEADLIGHT
Friday, August 11, iq ,,
—did you get the Idea that the old to him. And sometimes lie drew ?»- many hoars of almost overwhelming unexpected, His host had not yet log, and he found a eomfortabl.
Ilans and cowboys. And i * m day— iooellneea. Alao there were many seen his face, Yet the man knew, on the ground beside it. hl* v
Woman was Linda?“
‘
“I didn't get that Idea.” Barney an- <beo be wasn't half watehlag *h‘l thoughts such as are not especially before the door was opened, who it ■gainst Its bark. Then h.
the dawn to come out.
awered. "She spoke of Linda as slie he was doing—be drew something good for the spirits of growing boys. was that had come.
The place where the Duncan* lived
quite different.
The night hours passed. The«,
might a young girl.”
The reason went back to a certain
Perhaps he wouldn't have looked at was a bouse, but under no liberal In quickening of the senses that is the of peace seemed to deepen on the »
“And how do you get there?"
“Buy a ticket for Deer Creek, in it twice, if the teacher hadn't stepi«ed terpretation of the word could it be I peculiar right and property of most He sat relaxed, his brown face J.
southern Oregon.” There was no need I up behind him and taken It out of his called a home. There was nothing men who are really residents of the hl* eyes lifted. Th« stars beg»?
for Bruce to write the name. It was hand*. It » as “geography” then. not homelike in It to little Bruce.
wilderness, This man was the son dim and draw back farther Into ,
The other lasting memory was of
branded. Ineflfaceably, in his conscious “drawing." and be sh. uld have been
of
the wild as much i as the wolves that I recesses of the sky. The round .
ness. “Then take up the long road “paying anent.ou.' And he had every Linda. She represented the one liv ran In the paeks.
Soft though it line of the moon seemed les»
ing
creature
In
all
his
assemblage
of
of the Divide, clear to a little store— reason to think that the teacher would
I the sound of ap- nounced. And a faint ribbon of a
was,
he
had
heard
Martin's, they call it—fifty miles back. crumple up bls picture and send him phantoms—the one person with whom preaching feet in tlio pine needles. began to grow in the east
he could claim real kinship. He had
Then ask directions from there, Ask. to the cloak-room for punishment,
It widened. The light grew i
As surely as he would have recognized
she told me to tell you. for Mrs. Ross.”
But she did no such thing. When done a bold thing, after bis first few the dark face of the man in the door- night wind played one more' *|t
years
with
the
Duncans.
He
planned
Bruce leuped up and turned swiftly her eyes glanced down, her fingers
way, he recognized the sound as game between the tree trunks
through the door. Barney called a slowly straightened. Then she looked It long and carried it out with Infinite Dave’s step.
slipped away to th* Home of W|
care as to details. He wrote to Linda,
question to bls vanishing figure. Just »gain—carefully.
an that lies somewhere above the m(
and
at
once
The
man
came
in,
"What is this. Bruce?" she asked. In care of the superintendent of the observer would have detected an air tains. The little night sounds «
for an instant Bruce turned—his dark
orphanage.
eyes glowing beneuth bls straight “What have you been drawing?”
slowly stilled.
The answer only deepened the of deference in his attitude. Very
brows.
“I—I don't know," the child an
Bruce closed his eyes, not knowin
j
plainly
he
had
come
to
see
his
chief.
“I'm 'phoning—asking for reserva swered. He looked and for an Instant mystery. Linda was missing. Whether He was a year or two older than his why. His blood----
was ' leaping in hl
tions on the first tram west," he an- let his thoughts go wandering here she had run away, or whether some
host,
less
powerful
q/
physique,
and
swered.
and there. "Those are rrees,” he one had come by in a closed car and
Copyright bq Littl«. Brown,and Co
«•Id. A word caught at his throat and carried her off as she played on the his eyes did not hold quite so straight
be blurted it out. “Pine*: I’ine trees, lawns, the superintendent could not There was less savagery but more
CHAPTER II
“I won’t be u mystery long. He’s
teil. They had never been able to cunning In his sharp features.
growing
on a mountain."
BOOK ONE
not, eh—that's what the old hag said.
trace
her. He had been fifteen then, i j He blurted out his news at once.
Before
the
gray
dawn
came
over
the
“
Not
had
for
a
six-year-old
boy,"
Excuse me, old man, for saying 'bag.'
a
tall
boy with rather unusual muscu “Old Elmira has got word down to
THE CALL OF THE BLOOD
land
Bruce
Duncan
bad
started
«est-
the teacher commented “But where,
But she was one. If there Is any such.
■ the settlements at last," he said.
Lord knows who she is, or whether or Ward. He had no self-amazemetit at Rmoe. have you ever seen or heard lar development, and the girl was
There was no muscular response In
eleven.
And
In
the
year
nineteen
hun-
i
the
lightning
decision.
He
wa*
,gjy
.if
such
pines?"
But
Bruce
did
not
CHAPTER I
not she’s a relation of yours. But I’U
the larger man. Dave, was plainly
strangely
aud
deeply
exultant.
dred
and
twenty,
ten
years
after
the
know.
begin at the beginning. You know I
disappointed. He wanted his news
The reasons why went
lee;
Another puzzling adventure that reply to his letter, Bruce had heard
Bruce was wa! uoed by the sharp was way back on the Oregon frontier
to
cause a stir. It was true, however,
within
him
to
be
easily
seen
In
the
no
word
from
her.
He
had
given
up
j
stuck in Bruce's memory had happened
ring of fils telephone bell. Instantly —back In the Cascades. I was fishing
that his host slowly raised his eyes.
he was fully arou ed. In complete con for steelhead In a river they call the first place, it was adienr-ure—and only a few months after his arrival all hope of ever hearing .from her Dave glanced away.
trol of all hl* faultier And this Is Rogue. While way up on the upper Bruce’s life bad not been very odven- at the Square house when a man had again. "! ‘My little sister,” he said
"What do you mean?" the man de
not especially cot mon to men bred in waters I beard of a place called Trail's turous heretofore. Then there wus a taken him home on trial «1th the Idea softly to a memory. Then bitterness manded.
sens«
of
lmir.«asura!ile
relief
at
his
black
flood
of
It
—
would
—
a
whole
of adoption.
the security of civilization. Rather End—a place where wise men do not
"Mean—I mean just what I said. We
sudden and unexpected frw lom from
it Is a trait of t! e wild creatures; a go.”
AU the incidents and details of the come upon him. "Good -Lord, I don’t
the financial problems his fi.rlier had excursion with this prospective parent even know that she was my sister.” should have watched closer. Bill-
little matter that Is quite necessary
"And of course you went?"
Young Bill, I mean—saw a city chap
If they care at al! about living. Fron
"Of course. The name sounds silly left. He w 'nld hare no more consul were extremely dim and vague. He But now he was going to find her just in the act of going in to see
tation*
with
impatient
creditors,
no
and
his
heart
was
full
of
joy
aud
eager
tiersmen learn tie trait, too; but as now, but It won’t if you ever go there.
did nor know to what city he went,
her. lie had come onto the plateaus
Bruce was a dweller of cities It There are only a few families, Bruce, more would he strive to gt»»li««r to- nor hud be any rec< action whatever anticipation.
with his guide—Wegan was the man’s
gether
the
ruins
of
the
busiuesn. and of the people he*met there. But he did
seemed somewhat strange In him.
miles und miles apart, in the whole
name—und Bill said he stayed a lot
CHAPTER III
Then he grun *d rebelllously and region. And it’s enormous—no one attempt to salvage the small remain remember, with remarkable clearness,
longer than he would have if he hadn’t
glanced at his w tch beneath the pil knows bow big. Just ridge on ridge. ing fragments af his father’* fortune. the perplexing talk that the man and
taken
a message from ner.”
He
had
no
plans,
he
didn't
know
which
There
had
not
been
time
to
make
In
low. He hud gone to bed early; it One day my guide stopped at a broken-
the superintendent of the Square
"How long ago was this?"
quiry ns to the land Bruce was going
wa« Just midnight now.
down old cabin on the hillside fur a way to turn. Al! at oace, through tiie house had together on his return.
“Week ago Tuesday.”
He had no doubts whatever concern drink of water, I was four mile* message that Barney had brought him.
"He wun't do” the stranger had to. lie only knew one thing—that
“And why have you been so long
ing the nature of this call. There had away tn camp, The guide came back he had seen a clear trail ahead. It said. “I tried him out and he won’t It was the wilderness. The fact that
been one hundred like it during the and asked me if I was from this very was something to do, something at fill in in my family. Aud I've fetched he had no business plans for the future In telling me?”
When Dave’s Vhlef asked questions
last that mattered.
and no financial resources except a
previous month. Illa foster father had city.
him back.
In this tone, answers always came
Finally there remained the eminent
recently died, hlf estate was being set-
“I told him yes, and asked him why
“I t>elieve in being frank, and I tell few hundred dollars that he carried quickly. They rolled so fast from the
tied up. and Bruce had been having u he wanted to know. He said that this fact that thl* was an answer to his you there's something vicious In that In his pocket did not matter one way
somewhat strenuous time with his old woman sent word, secretly, to dream. He was going toward Linda, boy'* nature. It came out the very or another. He was willing to spend mouth that they blurred and ran to
creditors. He vnderstvod the man's every stranger that came to fish or at last. The girl had been the one first moment be was In the house, all the money he had; after it was gether. “Why, Simon—you ain’t been
real financial situation at last; nt his hunt in the region of Trail's End, living creature in his memory that he when the Missus was introducing him gone, he would take up some work In where I could see you. Anyway, there The Night Hours Passed. The Sense
was nothin’ we could have done.”
of Peace Seemed to Deepen on the
death the whole business structure wanting to know If they came from had cared for and who cared for him to my eight-year-old son. 'This is lit life anew.
“There wasn't, eh? I don't suppose
He had a moment's wonder at the
Man.
collapsed like the eggshell It wus. here. I was the first one that an —the one person.whose interest in him tle Turner,’ she said—and this boy
Bruce had supposed that most of the swered ‘yes.’
And the guide said was real. Linda, the little "spitfire" sprang right at him. I'd never let effect his departure would have upon you ever thought that there's yet two
debts had been paid now; he won that she wanted me to come to her of his boyhood, had suddenly become little Turner learn to fight, and this the financial problem that had been months before we can clinch this veins. An unfamiliar excitement, al
the one reality in his world, and as he boy was on top of him and was pound his father's sole ‘legacy to him. He thin«- ,nr good, and young Folger most an exultation, had come upon
dered, as he fumbled Into his bedroom cabin and see her.
»Uppers, whether the thousund or so
"I went—and I won't describe to you thought of her, his memory reviewed ing him with his fists before we could laughed a little as he thought of It. might—I say might—have kicking him. He lowered his head nearly to
dollars that were left would cover the how she looked. I’ll let you *ee for the few impressions he Dad retained pull him oft. I didn’t understand it But the idea that others also—having about somewhere in his belongings his hands that rested in his lap, then
no business relations with his father the very document we’ve all of us waited a full five minutes more.
claim of the man who was now call yourself. If you cure to follow out her of his childhood.
at all."
been worrying about for twenty
Then he opened his eyes,
First was the Square house—the
ing him to the telephone.
Instructions, And now the strange
Nor did the superintendent under- —might be Interested in this western years.” Simon cursed—a single, fiery
light had grown around him.
t. "This Is Mr Duqcun," he said cold part comes In. The old witch raised orj >ha n u g«;—w here the Woman had stand; nor—In these later years— journey of his did not even occur
oath. "But we are yelling before hands were quite plain. Slowly, as
to him.
ly Into the transmitter.
her ann, pointed her cane at m6, and tifrned him otbr to the nurse in Bruce either.
But the paths men take, seemingly, we're hurt. It Isn’t worth a cussword a man raises his eyes to a miracle,
Sometimes, when tobacco
“How do you do, Mr, Duncan,” a asked me If I knew Newton Duncan. charge.
He was quite a big boy, nearly ten. with wholly different alms, crisscross Like as not, this Wegan will never he lifted his face.
"I told her there might be several »moke was heavy upon him. Bruce when be finally left th* Square bouse.
voice answered. “I'ardon me If I got
The forest was no longer obscured
you up. I want to talk to your sou, Newton Duncans In a city this size. could catch a very dim and fleeting And there was nothing flickering or and become Intertwined much more take the trouble to hunt him up. And
You should have seen the pain grow glimpse of the Woman's face. It was dim about the memory .-f this occasion. than Bruce knew. Even as he lay In if he does—well, it’s nothing to worry In darkness. Tht| great trees had
Bruce."
his berth, the first sweet drifting of about, either. There is one back door emerged, and only the dusk as of
Bruce emitted a little gasp of on her face. 'After so long, after so only a glimpse, only the faintest blur
A tall, exceedingly slender man sat sleep upon him, he was the subject that has been opened many times to twilight was left between. He saw
in
half-tone,
and
then
quite
gone.
Yet
long
1
’
she
cried,
In
the
queerest,
sob
amazement. Whoever talked at the
beside the window—a man well of a discussion in a far-distant moun let his people go through, and it may them
plainly,—their
symmetrical
end of the line obviously didn't know bing way. Then she took heart and he never gave up trying.
dressed but with hard lines about his tain home; and sleep would not have easily be opened again."
forms, their declining limbs, their tall
The
few
times
that
her
memory
began
again.
that the eldei* Duncan was dead,
mouth and hard eyes. Yet the superin fallen so easily and sweetly If he
Dave's eyes filled with admiration. tops piercing the sky. He saw them
“ 'This Newton Duncan had a son— picture did come to him. it brought tendent seemed particularly anxious
Bruce had a moment of grim humor
Then he turned and gazed out through as they were,—those ancient, eternal
In which he mused that this voice a foster-son—named Bruce,' she told a number of things with it. One of i to please him. "You will like this had heard it. •
•
•
•
a
the window. Against the eastern sky, symbols and watchmen of the wilder
them was a great and overwhelming sturdy fellow," he said, as Bruce was
would have done rather well If It me. And then I said I knew you.
already wan and pale from the en ness. And he knew them at last, ac
have
been
a
It
might
different
world.
realization
of
some
terrible
tragedy
"You can't Imagine the change that
•£6uld arouse his foster father to an-
ushered In.
Only a glimpse of It, illumined by the croaching dawn, the long ridge of a quaintances long forgotten but re-
•wer it. “ 'The
'
elder Mr. Duncan died came over her. I thought she'd die and terror the nature of which he
The man's eyes traveled slowly from moon, could be seen through the soiled mountain stood In vivid and startling membered now.
last month," he answered simply. of heart failure. The whole thing, could not even guess.
the child's curly heatf to his rapidly
silhouqjte. .The edge of It was curi
“The pines!” he cried. He leaped
"She’s been through fire," the nurse growing feet; but no gleam of Inter and besmirched window pane; lrut
There was not the slightest tTnce of Bruce—If yoq must know—gave me
ously jagged with many little upright to his feet with flashing eyes,
that
was
enough
to
tell
the
story.
told
the
doctor
when
he
came
in
and
emotion In hl* tone. No wayfarer on the creeps. 'Tell him to come here,'
est came Into the thin face. “I sup There were no tall buildings, lighted points.
have come back to the pines!”
the street could have been, as far a* she begged me. 'Don't lose a moment. the door had close«) behinil the Woman. pose he'll do—as good as any. It was
There was only one person who
facts went, more of a stranger to him; As soon ns you get home, tell him to Bruce did remember these words, be the wife's Idea, anyway, you know. by a thousand electric lights, such would have been greatly amazed by
CHAPTER V
cause many years elapsed before he What about parentage? Anything de as Bruce* could see through the wln- that outline of the ridge; and the
there was no sense of loss ut hl* death come here.’
dows of his bedroom at night, Tlie
■nd no cause for pretense now. "Thia
“Of course I asked why she hadn't completely puzzled them out. The cent at all?”
years
and
distance
had
obscured
her
lights that could be discerned In this
The dawn revenled a narrow road
1* Bruce speaking."
written to Dunean. The answer was nurse hndn't meant such tires as sw ept
The superintendent seemed to wait strange, dark sky were largely
long ago. This was a teacher at an or along tile hank of Deer creek—a
simple enough—that she didn't know through the far-spread ever-green'l a long time before answering. Little familiar to Bruce, because of un phanage In a distant city, who once
He heard the other gnsp.
tile
brown little wanderer which, winding
man. I'm sorry." bls contrite
how to write. Those In the mountains forests of the Northwest. It was some Bruce, alfcrady full of secret eoiijv- smoke-clouds that had always hung
had taken a crude drawing from the here and there, did not seem to know
other,
dread
tire
that
sear««l
the
spirit
that could write wouldn’t, or couldn’t
came. "I didn't know of your
tures as to his own parentage, thought
hands of a child. Here was the original
—she was n trifle vague on that point auil burned the bloom out of the face that some key might be given him at above the city where be lived. Tlier«^ at last. Jt was /the same ridge, exactly where it wished to go. I’.ruce
This is Barn*
Barney Wegan-
were
just
«tars,
but
there
were
so
didn't know which direction to take,
1 just got In f 'll) the West,
—dlspnteh n letter. Something Is up, and all tlo* gentle lights out of the last, "There is nothing that we can
many of them that the mind was un- covered with pines, that little Bruce whether up or down the creek.
Bruce, and I don't know what. But eyes, It did, however, leave certain tell you. Mr. Dunean.” he said
had a bit of news for month*,
had drawn.
iprehend their number.
He gave the problem a moment's
my earnest «»
,.»■»..«!.i««—••
iy iiipiithles
«he said—fo
to come back and lights, but they were such that their Inst, “A woman brought him hi
a
moon
that
cast
a
i
I
remen
brance
brought
no
pleasure
to
thought.
"Take the road up th*
with an infant
"II
Of course.” The delight find—Linda."
CHAPTER
¡V
a fairy j
Divide,” Barney Wegan had said; ¡.nd
grew
rwn rd
’« face; for Barney We-
about four. I
Bruce si
at once Bruce knew that the c nr«e
bom he jiad un
mother—mid
e brown
ipil 11
The train came to’ a «lldinc halt lay up the creek, rather than down.
to me
iv w- the gym fl,
r Creel:, paused an infinitesimal A divide means simply the high i • es
anil out lai
lite near to belli
"WllHl
a second, and roared on In between one watershed and nr
n too h bar
filen
ilmt's up, B
jounu
and of course Trail’s End la?
ice change«
where beyond the source of the <-r
its same
The creek Itself was app'arei V a
II
-¡sod tone,
«loWll oil to 111» sub-tributary of the Rogue, the reat
¡'.U.'l -
tell you,
lis bag, hurled river to the south.
ig in the big
er tlie I
followed him.
fireplace
bad
Bruce was In a mood to be delh
must «
rrlght away, Muy I?"
impression was one these early morning hours. He w OU
phteu a ker •sene lamp.
“C»f |
solitude.
He
hadn
’
t
rea«1
The light prevented nny further
>Ut
the way to Linda; a dream was
lind no memories of
'TH be theie ill u minute."
■ks about Deer Creek, and to come true. The whole ndventur*
scrutiny of the moon and stars. And
her that first day. nor for the first
BHice hung up, slowly descended to
what remained to look at was not ■ e I.. ¡1 expected some sort of^to'.vn. was of th. most thrilling and joy-
years. But all Inter memories of the
his library. nn<l flushed on the lights.
nearly so pleasing to the spirit. It But here \v:is one little wooden struc ous anticipations. He did not feel
Square
house
nl
ways
Included
her
For the fir-t time he whs revealed
was
a great, white-walled room that ture with only three sides.—the open the load of his heavy sultcnsc. It
She
must
have
been
nearly
four
years
plainly. Ills wa* a fnmlllar type; but
would
have been beautiful had it not ing facing the track. It was evidently was nothing to his magnificent young
younger than himself; thus when he
at the mime time the best type. too.
been
for
certain unfortunate attempts the waiting room used by the moun strength.
wa« taken to tl»> house she was only
He had the face and the body of nil
to
beautify
it. Jhere was a »tone tain men as they waited for their
an
Infant,
But
thereafter,
the
nurses
'The sun rose higher, and be began
athlete. n man who keeps himself tit;
and
certain massive, dusf- local trains.
fireplace,
put
them
together
often
;
and
when
to feel Its power. The sweat cam*
and there whs nothing mawkish or ef
There
were
no
porters
to
carry
his
covered chairs groui>ed about it. But
Linda was able to tnlk, she culled him
out on his bronze face, but he never
feminate about him. It I* true that
the eyes never would have got to bag. There were no shouting officials. felt better in his life. There was but
something that sounded like Bvvova-
men did look twice at Bruce-* eyes,
His
only
companions
were
the
stars
these. They would have been held and
boo. She called him that so often thut
one great need, and that was break
set In a brown, clean-cut face, never
fascinated by the face and the form an<l the ni«w>n and. farther up the fast.
for a long time he couldn't be sure
know lug exactly why they did so
slope,
certain
tall
trees
that
tapered
of the man who had just lighted the
that wasn't his real name. Now, in
They had startling poientlnlltle*.
A man of his physique feels hungei
to Incredible points almost In the re
lamp.
manhood, he Interpreted.
quickly. The sensation Increased I d
They were quite clear now, wide
gion
where
the
stars
began.
No one could look twlae at that mas
"Brother Bruce, of course. Linda
■wall and cool, yet they bad a
The whole scene, for causes deeper Intensity, and the suitcase grew cor
sive physique and .question Its might,
was of course a »later."
at range depth of expression and
than
any words may ever seek and re respondingly heavy. And all at once
seemed almost gigantic In the yel-
Linda had been homely;
shadow' that might mean, somewhere
veal.
moved him past any experience he stopped short In the road. Th*
lampllght.
In
reality
he
stood
small boy could notice that. Besides
impulse along his nerves to his leg
beneath the bland and cool exterior, a
In Ills life. It was wholly new.
feet
and
almost
three
Inches,
and
Linda was nearly six when Bruce had
capaclty for great emotion* and pas-
muscles was checked, like an elec
He
turmsl
about
until
the
wind
was
frame was perfectly In proportion,
left for good; mid he was then at an
tric current at the closing of a switch,
aton*
h's
face.
It
was
full
of
fragrances.
—
in
moved slowly, lazily, anil the
age iu which Impressions begin t<
lie had only a few minutes to wait;
strange, imlcscribahle smells that and an Instinct of unknown origin*
thought
flashed
to
some
great
monster
be lasting. Her hair was quite blond
struggled for expression within him.
then Barney Wegan tapped ut hl*
of the forest that could uproot a tree «eem«! to call up a forgotten world.
then, and her features rather Irregular
door Tills limn was bronzed by the
In an Instant he had It He didn't
They
carried
a
message
to
him,
hut
as
with a blow.
But there had been a light In her eyes'
■un. never more fit, never straighter
yet lie hadn't ma<le out Its meaning, know whence It came. It was noth
The
face
was
huge,
big
and
gnunt
lly
his
word,
there
had
been
!
■nd taller and more lithe, lie hud just
of bone; and particularly one would lie only knew It was something mys ing he bi>d read or that any one ha«^»,
She had been angry at him times in
collie from the fur places. The em-
told him. It seemed to be rather the
notice the mouth. It would be noticed terious ami profound: great truths
plenty -over some childish game am'
harrsssnient that Bruce had detected
result of some experience In his owt
that
flickered,
like
dim
lights,
in
his
even before the dark, deep-sunken
i
he remembered bow that light ha«'
In Id* voice wa* In hl* face and man
i*onsci<>u»ii«*s. hut whose outline he Immediate life, an occurrence of *<
eyes.
It
whs * bloodhound mouth,
grown
and
brlghteue<l
She
had
fiun»
ner, too.
long ago that he had forgotten it. He
'll Take th* Littl* Beggar, Any
the mouth of a man of great and ter- could not quite dlsce-n.
He laughed at th*
"You'll think I'm cra*y for routing The Man** Vole* Broke and Changed. at him too.
suddenly knew where he could find
Perhaps
there
were
sounds,
but
they
rlble
passions.
and
there
was
an
un-
way."
memory of her sudden, erphmlve feroc
you out al this time of night, Bruce,"
‘•Isn’t That Queer, Bruce?"
mistakable measure of cruelty and • inly s.-emed part of the silence. The his breakfast. He set his »ultras*
ity—the way her hands hail stnaeke«
he began. "And I'm going to get tht*
nable.
”
he
»aid
significantly.
"But I'll savagery about it. But there was faintest rustle In the world reached down, and with the confidence of a
against
hl*
cheek*,
and
her
sharp
littl*
mutter off luy chest as main a* poealble there was no time to lose.” The man’*
take the little beggar, anyway "
strength, too. No eye could doubt him from the forests above of many man who hears the dinner call in
■nd let you go to t«e«t It'* all batty, vole« broke and changed. “Isn't that nail* had aemtehed him “Little Spit
own home, he struck off into the
And
thus
Bruce
went
to
the
cold
that. Rut it wa* not an ugly face, little winds playing a running gam*
fire," he aomctlmes called her; but
anyway. But I was cautioned by *11 queer, llruee?"
thickets
beside the creek bed. In
between
the
trunks,
and
the
stir
of
fireelde
of
the
Duncan*
—
a
house
In
for all the brutality of the features
Bruce alowly stiffened; the only sign no one else could call her anything
the devil* of the deep to see you—the
a great and distant city where. In the It was even handsome In the hard, rhe Little People, moving in their mid stinct—and really, after all. Instinct
but
Linda
For
llrui-e
hnd
been
ar
of
emotlou
waa
one
that
even
Harney'*
moment I «aiue here.”
vean« that had passed, many things
night ociupationa
Each of these Is nothing but memory—led his step»
“Cigarettes on the smoking-stand." •yea, trained to the dimness of the wtl- able little fighter, even in those day* , scarcely worth remembering had tran mountain way. One would notice sounds had Its message for Bruce. true.
straight, black hair—the man's age
lie was fond of drawing picture*
Bruce said steadily. “And tell away." denies» failed to see It wus Just an
They al! - emed to be trying to tell
He glanced here and there, not even
spired. It was a gentlemau'a house—
"But tell me something first. Was •ver tightening clasp of his handa over This wa* nothing In Itself; many lit as far as the iueanlng“of the word was about thirty-nine—long over rather liltn something,
wondering at the singular fact that
to
make
clear
some
dark
ears,
and
a
great,
gnarled
throat.
the
chair
arms
until
the
blue
vein*
tie
boy*
ar«
fond
of
drawing
picture*
Dunean your real father? If he waa.
usually goes— and Bruce had been af-
grea« iruth that was dawning in his he did not know exactly what manner
I'll know I'm up a wrong tre«. I don't •tood out. There was nothing else Nor w»r« hl* utiuqually good Theti ft»rded a gentleman's duration. There The words when he spoke seemed to «•onscloiisness.
of food he was seeking. In • mo
come from deep within It
about hliu to Indicate that the dead ■trungenes* lay In hto subject*, H«
Biotin 1» le |H-rwonal—"
ment he came to ■ growth of thorw
waa
alao,
for
a
while,
a
certain
amount
He
w
as
not
In
the
least
afraid.
“
Com*
In.
Dave,"
he
*ald.
had
spoken
to
hliu
—
that
one
of
the
llk««l
to
draw
animal*
In
particular-
ft I thought you knew It
great dream* of hla Ilf« waa Coming th« animal* he read about m aehoo of rather doubtful prosperity, a wom
In this little remark lay sttnethlng felt at peace as never before. He covered bushes, a thicket that alj
Il er I» «•»••WMag ||he j
an who died after a few months or •f the man * power The vlaltor bad plcke«l up his bag, and with stealing the »be-bear knew how to penetrata
I I«..««, Il* »..ok* raiUor ¡sitnfu'i? “Did and In *u«'h books i»s were htougfei'
ni«ml Merest ‘n him. *n1 men? ' oom* nnannmtneed HI* vWt had been i I step* approached the long «lope be- But it waa enough for Brace 'aM
•-•nd T1 • m-- n showed h!m ■ fallen to stand at Ita edgaa. The basbet
The Strength
Of The Pines
Edteon Marshall
Author of*TheVbice of the Pack
niujtrafion* by
Irwin Myers