North Carolina Newspapers

sue The Opart A Modem Indian Reservation Story by Robert Ames Eennet Capt. Floyd Hardy, U. S. A., coming to take charge of the agency at Lakotah Indian reservation, following the murder of Agent Nogen, res cues a quarterbreed girl and two men from an Indian attack. They are Reginald Vandervyn, agency clerk and nephew of Senator Clemmer; Jacques Dupont, post trader, and his daughter Marie. Hardy learns that Vandervyn had been promised the agency position, discovers that the Indians are disaffected because they have been cheated in a tribal mine which Vandervyn and Dupont have been working, is puz zled when his friendly speech to tribesmen, interpreted by Vander vyn's tool, angers the Indians, and determines to make further inves tigation. New influences arising at this point make his position difficult. How his life and honor are endangered through dark plot ting is graphically described in this installment CHAPTER VIII Continued. Vandervyn had arranged to be gone a week. There was no cause to dis cuss the time of his return, and as Ma rie seldom mentioned him, Hardy was not often annoyed by the vision of the handsome young fellow interposing be tween himself and the girl. From day to day it could plainly be seen how the rides In the pure moun tain air and the delight of the girl's companionship were bringing back strength and vigor to the officer's tropic-weakened body. Soon a healthy red appeared under the tan of his cheeks. The lines of severity and re pressed grief began to smooth away. On the morning of the seventh day, wkD he rode over to join Marie for a ride out to the butte on Wolf river, ten years seemed to have dropped from him. Even when he lifted his hat to the girl and exposed the silvered hair at his temples, he looked nearer twenty-five than thirty. He had shaved off his bristly mustache! "Positively, captain," she bantered, "you startle me. You are growing so young! First thing I know, I shall be feeling myself a grandmother in contrast" "Impossible," he gallantly replied. "You are the Spirit of Youth. Being with you is what makes me seem so much younger than I am. Yet I shall never see thirty-two again." "You're barely of age this morning!" she said, smiling at his shapely clean shaven lip. "In that case you must humor callowness by pretending you my aid to mount" She put one small booted foo hand, rose with the llghtm feather and perched herself on her man's saddle. Unu strange behavior, the pon buck. Hardy sprang to se Kiv the hpfl1. Mnrlp wnv and proceeded to give aif exhibition of her skill an. With one knee cro horn of her saddle, fit cult seat like a circr pony subsided. J "You've ridden Hardy as the gir they started off df She smiled witf gie never nott you The fil saddle I thou I On their wa met no one, tot police had mova , camp site opposite tKA L. suggested that they clfmb U)ffb With subtle coquetry, she gave Ha the privilege of assisting her up , ledges, though, had she chosen. could have outclimbed him. mounted to the top of the highest where they sat down on the bare to view the plains and mounta through Hardy's glasses. The utt stillness and solitude, the immensity the cloudless blue dome above thei the great sweep of the landscape al tended to quiet the excitement of the lively ascent. A hush fell upon they Marie let the hand that held 1, glasses sink into her lap. She gaz off up the river, droaray-eyed. After a prolonged silence Haray murmured in a half-whisper: "How alone we are ! The world is young it Is the beginning of time. And in all the new, young world, you and I are alone Marie." It was the first time that he had ever used her given name in speaking to her. She started from her day dream, the color deepening in her cheeks. In the same moment she be came aware that she had been looking at a moving object. "Look !" she said, lifting the glasses to her eyes. "That must be the head and shoulders of a man. He is rid ing along on the far side of the ridge an Indian; his head is muffled in a blanket." "Marie !" softly repeated Hardy. The girl sprang to her feet. "He has disappeared but we are no longer alone in the world, Captain Hardy. Let us go down." With instant repression of his dis appointment, Hardy took the glasses and offered his hand to assist her down the first ledge. She ignored the offer. Nor did she permit him to help her at all during the descent. Her pony leaped away with tbjp jumping start of a bronco. T stepped clear of the lovf the rill edge, out uion y nf the coulee bottom. uct of breaking intp r .- ft r i or 1 3 rider's hat whirled from his head and he pitched sideways out of the saddle as if struck by lightning. A moment later the report of the shot reached Marie. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Hardy outstretched on the ground, flaccid and inert. With a suddenness that almost threw her pony off his nimble feet, she wrenched him around. The mare had stopped within two strides, and twist ed her head about to look at her fallen master. The manner in which he had fallen showed that the shot had come from up the coulee. Flinging herself from her pony, she plucked Hardy's rifle out of its sheath and leveled it across the saddle. But she could see no sign of the assassin, and no sec ond bullet came whirring across the coulee. Without a second look up the coulee, she bent over to rip the hem from her underskirt. This gave her a bandage. Her own and Hardy's hand kerchiefs served for a compress. Swift ly she bound them on the long wound above his temple and stopped the bleeding. When at last he opened his eyes, his head was in her lap. He gazed up into her down-bent face, his mind still in a daze. A frown of pain creased his forehead. He murmured, In the queru lous tone of a sick child: "Mother mother !" Instinctively her soft hand began to smooth away the frown with a gentle, caressing touch. His eyes closed in restful contentment. The girl con tinued to stroke his forehead. Sud denly his eyelids lifted, and he looked up with the clear, bright gaze of full consciousness. He saw the womanlv mpassion in her beautiful face. Her es were tender and lustrous with lpathy for his suffering. j'luiici ue uiuruiureu. xi la you J Yought my mother " ish!" she said. "You have been in the head. I do not know how Vs it is." St? In the head?" He lay still, ing this. Her look had not finder his gaze. From her utter self-consciousness he divined J thought him dangerously If fly wounded. After a pause, he jA.o speak with the calmness that limes masks the most profound K..I.III V. J UTi scarcely Enow me Dut, in tne stances, I trust you will pardon not waiting. I love you. From 1 1 thought you the most beautl- 1 I had ever seen. Now I know rMurmured. "It Is You!w most lovely your soul as our face. Do not shake is the truth." d her shame-flushed face. permit you to speak to me jo good and kind to refuse he replied in the same "I know about him. I no chance, dear. He is some ; while I". The in a quizzical smile. som heaved. The tears rimming eyes. "You are I did not think any e so generous I" d lips curved whimsically. am generous because there Is no other course open. I would ask you would urge you to marry me, if I thought I had even a fighting chance ("Vinning you." i hi Miy you ! You would ask me? Yet V what my father Is like; and people are so proud. I, an -rterbreed, and my father 1r passed away only a few months ago. She was all I had. Now I shall always have the thought of your goodness In addition to the dear memory of her." The girl turned her face still farther away from him. "I cannot endure You shall not think of me that way !" "I beg your pardon, Miss Dupont," he apologized. "It is most inconsiderate and ungenerous of me to lie here claim ing your sympathy on false pretenses. I feel my strength coining back. It must be that the bullet merely grazed my head." Before she could prevent liim, he twisted about and raised himself on his elbow. "Oh!" she remonstrated. "You should not move." He forced a laugh between his clenched teeth. "No. it's what I thought only a scratch. All right now, except for a little dizziness. I have been imposing on your sympathy Did you see whore the shot came from? I must go and rout out the rascal." The girl grasped his rifle and sprang up away from him. "You shall not go," she declared. "I'm sure he ran away the moment you fell." llardy straightened on his knees and rose unsteadily to his feet. His voice was as firm as his pose was tottery: "Be so kind as to help me to mount." llardy turned his mare down the cou lee. Marie, despite his protests, rode between him and the ridge behind which she had seen the blanketed man. CHAPTER IX. The Coquette. Unable to endure the jar of a trot or gallop, Hardy urged the mare to her fastest walk. They had gone less than a mile when a horseman came loping up the slope from Sioux creek. "It is Mr. Vandervyn," said Hardy in an even tone." "Yes," she replied. She handed back the glasses, but did not look at him until Vandervyn rode up. The young man's face was flushed, as if he had been drinking. When he pulled up before them, he was seeming ly so struck with Hardy's appearance that he scarcely heeded Marie's joyful greeting. "What's the matter, captain?" he ex claimed. "You're as white as a ghost and your head tied up! You must have come a nasty cropper." "Bit of an accident. Not serious," replied Hardy. "It could not well have been closer," said Marie. "Captain Hardy has been shot." "Shot?" cried Vandervyn. "The bullet grazed the bone above the temple. Had It been half an inch lower or farther back, it must have killed him." "Half an inch," repeated Vandervyn. His face crimsoned, and the veins of his forehead began to swell. "Where is the fellow? Did he get away? How long ago was it? Loan me the mare, Hardy. I'll run him down." "Very good of you to offer," said Hardy. "But the rascal might ambush you. We'll order out a squad of po lice. Besides, I wish your report on your trip. 1 presume KeuDear is ai the agency." "No." Vandervyn turned a scowling face towards the butte, as if angrily eager to be off in pursuit of the would be assassin. "Charlie went back to Thunderbolt's camp to see if his sis ter was getting along all right with the old chief. I told him that if he was welcomed, he had better stay a few days. If he and the girl make them selves agreeable, we shall have a bet ter chance to quiet the tribe." "You found conditions still unfavor able?" "Yes. All the chiefs took a violent dislike to you ; and they had stirred up the whole tribe. Charlie and I talked and talked. You know a white man can talk Indians into anything, if he keeps at it." "What result?" snapped Hardy. Vandervyn shrugged. "I know we made some impression, especially on old Thunderbolt. The chiefs no doubt would be willing to let you visit the camps on safe conduct, so to speak ; but I doubt if they could keep the wild est of the youne bucks in hand. This j shooting proves it. I tell you, captain, ! none of us here would think any the less of you if you cut the whole busi ness." "I shall start for the mountains to morrow." "Tomorrow?" remonstrated Marie. "Your wound you must wait at least until It has begun to heal. And In the meantime Redbear and Oinna will be talking Ti-owa-konza and his camp into a milder mood." "That last is a most excellent argu ment," said Hardy, and his firmly compressed lips curved in a smile at the girl. "I shall take your advice, Miss Dupont." Vandervyn had frowned over the concern in Marie's voice. Hardy's re sponse started the veins of his fore head swelling. He looked off away from the two, and remarked in a cas ual voice: "I'll ride in ahead and or der out a squad of policemen to track down the scoundrel. Jake can inter pret, if I'm unable to make them un derstand." "Good!" said Hardy. Vandervyn shot at Marie a glance of jealous Anger, and put spurs to his pinto. But when they reached the valley and saw through the glasses the squad of police only just leaving the agency, Marie conjectured that the jaded pinto had slowed to a walk while going up the valley. At last Marie and Hardy reached the agency. With the assistance of Van dervyn, who came out of the Dupont house to meet them, he was helped down from his mare to a cot in the shady porch. Here in the open air Marie washed the wound and took sev eral stitches to draw the edges to gether. During the operation, which nardy endured without a groan, Vandervyn stood by, watching Marie's face with sullen jealousy. The moment she had rebandaged the wound, he. suggested that it would be well to leave Hardy quiet. In reply she asked him to go for ice. When he returned, he found her sitting beside the cot, fan in hand. Hardy hat fallen asleep. She rose and went into the house, and Vander vyn followed her. The young man made no attempt to conceal his auger. He closed the par lor door and turned upon her accus ingly. "So that's what you've been up to all the time I've been away?" "Up to what, pray?" "Coquetting with that oid fossil of a tin soldier." "Am I not a dutiful daughter?" the girl parried. "Mon pere said I must make myself agreeable to the agent." "He did?" "Why not go and ask him, if you doubt what I say?" "I don't. That's just it damn it all !" The girl's eyes flashed with resent ment, but her voice was sweetly mock ing: "Oh, Mr. Vandervyn, how can you? Captain Hardy never swore once during all our delightful rides." "You've been riding with him every day?" "All except one. I've been sorry ever since that I missed that one. He was invariably courteous. He is a gentleman." "You infer that I am not!" ex claimed Vandervyn. "So he's courteous and smoV mil slick, is he? One might know that you've been raised in the backwoods." "You forget I spent four years at the capital of Canada." "In a convent! No wonder you've let hlra play you." The girl met the jeer with a tantaliz ing smile. "It has been a most amusing game. He treats me with as much respect as if I were a young lady of his own set." "There's no one else here for him to flirt with." "That is an advantage, is it not?" The girl dropped Into her English man ner. "I daresay he will forget me as soon as he gets back to civilization unless I decide to accept his pronosal." Vandervyn stared at her cynically. "You needn't try to rag me, Marie." She smiled. "So you do doubt what I say. Yet It is true. Captain Hardy did me the honor of declaring that he wished to marry me." "Hardy asked you? he, a captain in the regular army!" "And I a quarterbreed, the daughter of my father. Amazing, is it not?" Vandervyn caught himself up as he saw the proud humility of her expres sion. It was a new look to him. He had often seen her proud, but never humble. His jealousy flared: "How did you answer him? You didn't ac cept you refused the old board back !" "Yes and no, that is, not yet," the girl teased. Vandervyn stepped close and grasped her arm. "Be so kind as to release me, Mr. Vandervyn." ' "You . coquette ! You're trying to play me against him." "So that is what you think of me?" The girl wrenched herself free and turned from him haughtily. He stepped forward, and again grasped her arm. His voice shook with jealous anger: "You shall have nothing to do with him ! He shall not have you !" "Indeed ! May I ask what right you have to dictate?" "You love me, that is why," he flung back at her. "You love me, Marie. You can't deny it." His voice sank to a deep, ardent, golden note that sent a tremor through her. "You are mine mine! ' You know It. Your arm quivers that look in your eyes! You cannot hide your love, Marie sweet heart !" He sought to embrace her. But again Bhe wrenched herself free from him. She could no longer feign hau teur. Her face was rosy with blushes ; her bosom heaved; her eyes, behind their veiling lashes, glowed with ten der passion. Yet she kept her head despite the intoxicating ardor of his look. Unlike Oinna, she was not so unsophisticated as he persisted in thinking her. "You take a good deal for granted, Mr. Vandervyn," she attempted a mocking tone. "I am not yet your sweetheart, nor am I so sure I shall be." He came nearer to her, his eyes the color of violets and sparkling with tiny golden gleams. lie held out his arms. His voice was low and enticing: "Sweetheart sweetheart !" She swayed toward him, checked herself in the act of yielding, and eluded his grasp. "No !" she cried. "You're a bit too sure. I've no mother, halfbreed or otherwise, to advise me, my dear Reg gie. I must be my own chaperon. You charge Captain llardy with trying to play me. Yet when he spoke to me of his love he also spoke of marriage." Vandervyn's eyes narrowed and as quickly widened in their most child like stare. "How can you, Marie?" he re proached. "You say that as if you think I have been trifling with you all these months, when you know as well as I But of course, if you do not trust me, I have no show against him. "You've Been Riding With Him Every Day?" He is free. I am, as you know, tied down by the uncertainty of my posi tion." "That is quite sad, is it not?" she mocked. "I am rather more fortu nate. Whether or not there Is any uncertainty about my position, I am not bound to anyone, nor am I bound to bind myself to anyone." "Why are you so hard to me?" he pleaded. "You know that if my uncle got even a hint that I am interested in a girl out here it would be all off with me. He doesn't know what you are like, and It would be impossible in writing to convince him how charming you are." "What a misfortune! Only, as It happens, I have no wish to marry Sen ator Clemmer. He already has a wife." "That's just it a wife and half a dozen daughters. It's all cut and dried that I am to marry Ella, the oldest un married one." "Ah so that is why" faltered Marie, the rich color ebbing from her cheeks. But she was only momentar ily overcome. Her spirit rallied al most as soon as it drooped. "It is most kind of you, Mr. Vandervyn, to tell me the delightful secret. Permit me to congratulate you." His brows peaked In a doleful frown. "You are cruel to take It that way. I don't love the girl. You ought to know that you do know itl Can't you see the hole I'm In? Even If it wasn't for Ella, they'd all think of you as a an agency girl. I wouldn't stand a ghost of a show of being appointed agent when Hardy quits." "Does he intend to quit?" "If you turn him down, he'll leave just as soon as he finds the tribe still against hiin. Then don't you see, sweetheart? I shall get the appoint ment as agent. Your father and I can rip Into the little old mine as fast as we please. It's a real mine, sweet heart. In a few months we'll have enough ore shipped to the smelter for me to cut loose from my uncle and do as I please. You know what that means." Again he came toward her, his ejes softly glowing, his arms open to em brace her. And again she eluded him, this time with no hesitancy or waver ing. Her smile showed she was once more in control of her emotions. "Aren't you rather previous, Reg gie?" she asked, from the other side of the tea table. "We are not yet en gaged." "You coquette!" he cried. "You know I can't formally propose to you until I have got rid of Ella." "How honorable you are!" she praised him, and he could detect no irony in her voice or look. Vandervyn stifled an oath. "By I'll have you yet! You shan't get away from me !" "Indeed?" she mocked, though she quivered from the passionate ardor in his voice. To cover her emotion she shrugged as only a woman of French blood can shrug. "That is to be seen, Mr. Vandervyn. And now, If you'll kindly excuse me, I must give a fair share of my time to my other devoted suitor." She slipped out onto the porch be fore Vandervyn could interfere. He muttered a curse and went into the dining room to get one of Dupont's whisky bottles out of the dainty littl sideboard. CHAPTER X. At the Broken Mountain. When, at dusk, Dupont rode up to his house, llardy was still on the cot on the porch. Vandervyn stood at the far end, pulling hard at a cigar as he watched Dupont approach. The sound of the trader's bluff vole wakened Hardy from his doze and brought Marie to the door. "No, not a track ; not one single sign nowhere," Dupont was saying to Van dervyn. "Thought I'd ride in and send out more of the p'leece with food." "Very good," said Hardy. "We must track down the man, else others may follow his example." The next day the search for the would-be assassin was continued, with no better results than the first. It was the same on the two succeeding days. At last Dupont declared that there was no hope of finding the mysterious lost trail, and Hardy called in the track ers. The period of the search had been as agreeable to Hardy as it had been annoying to Vandervyn. To check Vandervyn's wooing or it may have been to redoume nis arcior tnrougn jealousy she spent as much time as possible in Hardy's company. She was so gracious that Hardy began to show openly that he thought he might have a fighting chance to win her. This made Vandervyn furious. Yet he had to restrain himself from any outburst. Noon of the fourth day Hardy stated at dinner that he was quite himself again and would start on the trip into the mountains the next morning. Red bear had not yet returned to the agency, and Dupont, in his friendliest manner, offered his services as inter preter until the halfbreed should join the party. When Hardy accepted this offer, Vandervyn looked at him in his guile less way and remarked In a casus.1 tone: "With the tribe so uneasy, I suppose you will want me to stay here and look after Marie." , V.ln,1 . I1T UA- m ' iuuiic iujcticu. x uui a. uiemuvr ui the tribe. If Pere is going into the mountains, I am going with him." "No!" cried Vandervyn. "I cannot permit that," declared Hardy. "Oh, yes, you can and will," confi dently replied the girl. "I shall be in no danger. If anyone is attacked, it will be you only." Unobservant of Vandervyn's look, Dupont paused with a knlfeful of food halfway to his mouth to agree with his daughter: "Ain't none of 'em what wants to lift her scalp. She'd be safer 'n me and you, Mr. Van which i9 good as saying dead safe." "Yet if I should be attacked?" said Hardy. "If you are, it won't be no general outbreak, Cap. It will be a few young bloods a-laying for you, or mebbe just one, like the buck done down at the coulee." "You see," argued Marie. "You are the only one in danger of attack. If Reggie and I go, as well as Pere, tlre I'll 1 - 1 1 r win ue uiai iuucn less cnance or small party firing at you." "Very well," acquiesced Hardy. "I rely on your father's judgment. If there is the slightest chance of daoer to you. he should know it. But as ou are to be with the party, I shall take along a squad of police. Mr. Vander vyn, you may remain In charge of the agency, if you prefer." "No, thanks," snapped Vandervyn "If you intend to let Marie run the risk of getting into a massacre, I moat certainly shall go along." The girl was unusually gracious to Hardy at supper. At breakfast she dl vided her smiles between the two with strict impartiality. But when, shortly before sunrise, the party started off up the valley. Hardy began talking about tribal customs th Dupont and be calm so engrossed In the discussion that he failed to glre his usual court eous attention to Marie. Vandervyn was quick to make the most of the girl's pique. The half-dozen Indian po lice of the escort were strung out In front with the pack horses. He sug gested that it would be well to avoid the dust by getting In the lead. Do you believe that Marie is deliberately aiding the plotters against Hardy, and do you fear an ambuscade for the new agent on this visit to the Indians? 41"? -HP CONTINUED.)