THE MAN INSIDE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10953, 1 May 1901, Page 10

THE MAN INSIDE.

BT W. IhUfftOX ROTCK. A young girl stood there alone gazing off to the westward, across tfie wide expense of prairie grass, to where the sun was slowly sinking behind the distant mountain range. But the girl standing there shading her eyes from the last glare, sees neither the crimson nor the goid of the sun's departing glories. Her gaze is fixed intently upon the figure of a solitary horseman, who is approaching at a furious gallop across the open between her and the low range of foothills beyond. Aa the horseman draws rapidly nearer tho girl starts, and then looks somewhat surprised and perhaps a little confused. ' For first she has recognised the horse and then tiro rider. For a moment she stands there watching his as he urges his mount nearer and nearer; then with an unconscious sigh of relief she turns and walks slowly back to the little shack. j The next instant the horseman draws ap before the door and, quickly dismounting, follows the girl into the cabin. "Where's your father?" he asked, quickly j as th* girl turned to greet him. | "He's gone after supplies. He went this j morning before daylight," she replied. "What horse- did "he take?" The fellow scarcely seemed to notice that the girl still stood there with outstretched : hand'to welcome him. ; "Hβ Tode Don Juan and led old Pete ; behind," she answered. "Why?" ) "Oh, nothing, only the Vigilantes ore > after mc, that's all," he replied carelessly. ' ''But I gave 'em the slip back there J in the foothills an hour ago, and then I J rode over here to nee if I couldn't get ! a fresh mount; mine's about played out. i Fve run him hnrd since noon, "and ho , can't carry mc much further." j As he spoke the man glanced out to ! •where his juded horse stored with down- ! cast head and heaving sides. j "But the horses are both gone and ' what will you do?" she asked, coming a :' etep nearer to him. j There was an anxious look gathering ; in her dark eyes, for the girl re-tlised only too well the fate of any suspected i man who fell into the hands of the Vigi- '■ lantes. "Oh," he laughed lightly, "I'll have j to take to the epen and run my chances i of getting back into the foothills again, and then I'll be all right enough, you know." "But what is the matter? What are they alter you for? What have you done?" "They think I stole Joe Wheeler's horse last night—but I didn't. I found this \ horse tied to a tree down by the creek ; tliia morning, and when they saw mc riding him they swore I stole him, and ! they've been after mc all day. Give mc • a few cartridges, and I'll be going be- [ fore they get here-. , ' j "But "you are innocent—you did not i steal the" horse, did you?' . The girl came ' up and put her hand with a caressing •< gesture on his arm. ' "As innocent as you are," he replied frankly. "But you can't make them be- : lieve it." " * ' The girl made no reply. She turned Away and left him standing there alone. There was a suspicion of tears in her eyes as she came back a moment later, her i hands full of loaded shells. j "You are a brick!" exclaimed the young man admiringly. "If they get after mc too close now, there'll be a few less of j them to go back, I'm thinking." And he ,' proceeded to fill the magazine of his Win- ! Chester. ' 'But," began the girl hesitatingly, "they j won't trouble you if you are innocent—• ; if you tell them how "it was, will they?" ' The other laughed at her simplicity, and then said: "They'll hang mc first, and find Tm innocent afterwards. That's frontier jus- i tice, you know. But if they hang ' mc for riding a stolen horse, some of i tlwni will go first, for if I can get back ; into the foothills again, I can keep them j off just aa long as I have a shot, and then j if they bang mc, they'll have something j to hang mc for." • "Oh, why did you ever come here when j you knew they were after you «o close— '

. I why didn't you stay-in'the hills?" cried the* girl anxiously. "I wanted to see you. I couldn't keep away any longer, and then, besides, I [> I thought. I might get a fresh horse here, jyou know." j "But the hordes axe gone, and you i \ must not let mc draw you into danger. , ' Don't do it again—until- " " T • "Until when?" he asked seriously as he drew her slender form closer to him ' and looked clown into her upturned face. ' • "Until it is safe to do so. * Until you j have proven to them that you are not a horse thief." . , "God grant it may be soon then. I must K° now, or they'll be here before I ' know it." I I As he spoke he bent and kissed her, ; and then, picking up his hat, he turned 1 towards the door. ! But he had scarcely left her side, when ; ! the girl sprang suddenly forward and ' clutched him by the arm. With an ex- " , clamation of fear she pointed out across ' ; the open in the direction of the foothills. r ! A small body of horsemen were rapidly j I approacEing. 1 I "They're coming! What will you do?" ■ • she cried in alarm. "Go—you have stayed ' ' here too lone, already, and you must go ' , quick—quick." ' i Snatching up his Winchester, he ; i sprang past her toward the open door, " j but she still hung to his arm with frantic - i strength and tried to draw him back into • the room. ' "You can't go now. They'd be sure to ■ see you if you did," she cried wildly. < "And they'd" run you down in the open before you could get half way across." i "I'll " have to take the chances of it ! anyway," he replied calmly as he tried to . slip from the arms that, held him. "No, you must not,"* slio cried. "You ■ shall not risk it. You would never reach i the foothills." "But what shall I do?" he demanded. '•"They'll be her<.> in a few minutss now." "Stay. There are but seven of them 1 I and perhaps we can keep them off until i dark any way." j "Stay* here?" he repeated after her. ■ "Stay here and expose you to the shots i of those hell hounds? Never," and again he startod to leave, but as quick as he was, tho girl was quicker. She sprang before him, shut and barred the door and then standing there with her back against it, she said determinedly: "You shall not risk it. Stay here, and Til help you keep them back. Do as I say and I'll save you somehow. They are" almost here now." She glanced out of the little square window beside the door. There were but seven of them, she could see, and they were a mile away or more yet, but coming on rapidly. "Come," she cried, quickly. "You must go down into the cellar and get into the old cistern— it's deep and half full of water, and then I'll cover you up. They'd never think of looking down there for you." As ,slie spoke she stooped and lifted a small trap door in the floor and motioning for him to follow, sprang down through the opening. It was too late to think of retreating now, and knowing the folly of one trying to hold out against seven, the young man placed his rifle tip against the wall and then lowering himself into the hole, he stood there beside her in the cellar. The girl went to one corner and quickly scraping away some loose dirt, lifted up a w old boards and revealed the cistern about half full of water. "Jump down in there—quick," she commanded, almost sternly as she saw him half hesitate. * Without stopping to question or consider, the young man leaped into the cistern and stood there breast deep in ■the stagnant water. "Now," she said, as she began to replace the boards over him, "no matter what happens—no matter what you may think or hear, you must not try to get out until I come. You must stay right here and I'll save you if I can." . Hastily scattering the dirt back thickly over the boards, and with a last word of caution, she crawled up out of the cellar. Closing the trap door after her, she stood there alone in" the little kitchen trembling with apprehension just as tbe horsemen outside drew up in a body about a hundred yards from the shack. She could see them through the windows from where she stood; one of the men pointed to her lover's horse, standing out there, panting from exhaustion, too tired to even nibble the short prairie grass at his feet. Then she knew that they were certain they had run down their man at last. For a. moment longer they sat there on their horses, talking and gesticulating among themselves, then one of them rode forward and hailed the shack. The girl made no reply, but carefully she watched every movement tlrrough the little window. The man waited a while and then rode up a little nearer and hailed the shack again. There was no reply—all was still, and now, raising his revolver, the man fired three shots in rapid succession straight at the door. As if acting upon a sudden impulse, the girl seized her lover's Winchester and standing there in the centre of the kitchen she tired one shot through ! the little square window ard the man who I had knocked so unceremoniously wheeled I his horse quickly about and rode hurriedly back to his companions with a clean cut bullet hole through the top of his hat. The next instant, as if in retaliation, he raised his rifle and deliberately shot j down her lover's horse standing there be- j fore the door. And then, liko an echo to ; this report, there came a sharp crack, fol- j lowed by a puff of blue smoke from the j little square window and the man's own ] horse reared suddenly and toppled over j •backwards, shot turough the brain. i This was too much for the men to stand ; —bf-ing shot at by jin unseen foe, es- | pecially when that foe aimed so well. | They wheeled their horses quickly about, i galloped off a piece and then drew up • again at a safe distance. j The unhorsed man scrambled quickly to i his feet and ran hastily after them. * j The sv.n had gone down behind the distant ! mountains now, and the gray twilight was : slowly vrnring from daylight" into darkness, i "It is almost time for father." thought the j girl, and then a new fear stole over her— { a fear that chilled her to the heart as she ; saw the men outside separate and form a j cordon, just out of rifle shot, all around the , little shack. ; ■She knew only too well what that meant. ! That if her lover were inside the shack, he i could not escape, for under the cover of I darkness the men would probably advance cautiously upon tbe place from all sides and suddenly make a combined descent upon it. She realised that it would not be dark enough for them to dare undertake that for an hour or more yet. but in the meantime might r.ot her father return, and uncon- j scions of the men outside, walk directly j into their htmds and b? held as hostage j for her lover's surrender? j Something must be done to send the men j away at once, before her father should come. • But what could she do? One weak girl : against time and seven desperate men— : representatives of frontier justice. J Aα idea 'flashed suddenly throusrh her ' active brain, but it was such a desperate thing for her to undertake that she shudder- ; ingly tried to drive it from her mind. j She dared not risk it. for even at the last ■ moment she felt ber courage would desert ; her. .She sank down into a huddled heap ! beside ths little square window in the wall and wept. Her hope was gojie, and she was helpless : now—no longer the resolute girl to give the Vigilantes shot for shot in her lover's ; defense. j The darkness gathered, and far out in ! the long prairie grara she could hear the j quick, sharp bark of the coyotes as they j skulked along in tha dark shadows, and she ; shivered at tbe sound. ■ She was sure the men outside were creep- ! ing rearer and nearer each moment, and then ; she thought of her lover standing down there j in the water, and of her father too, who ; would surely fall into the hiinds of the ; Vigilantes if something was not done to send them away before he cnme. . J , Again her thoughts flew back to her j original plan. Desperate as it was, it was ! her ctnlv hope and she determined to risk it. Keeping watch upon the men outside as \ best sha couhl, she dragged a large box ' out into the middle of the room, and with trembling hands began to fill it with the

most valuable and important things in the shack. There was little enough of value tfcsre, to bo sure, but all that she could get into the box -went, in, then quickly nailing it up, she half dragged, half pushed it. to the door, and then, stopping a moment to breathe, looked out- of the little window through the growing darkness. The men were still in their places waitins for nigfht. She could see that they had drawn their circle slowly closer, step by step. Her heart almost failed her again, for'she realised that whatever she did must ba done at onoe—befor? the men got nearer. : She darted ap the ladder to the loft above tho one small room of the shack, and there, from her own bed, she gathered up a huge armful of straw and threw it down into the centre of the room below. Then she hurried to the cellar and emptying the contents oi the great wator cask on to the dirt over the top of the cistern, she soaked it thoroughly through. This done, she crept back up out of tho cellar and with a faint sirugqjlUns hope of success, she lit a match, and after a moment's hesitation, dropped it into the pile of straw. In another mimite a dense cloud of stifling smoki* filled tlid little shack and poursd out through the window. The smudge almost choked the girl, but ' she stood bravely over it until she saw the flames begin to leap up like hungry wolves and lick "the lower rafters overhead. The next instant the loft was a mass of curling . flames. \ The little cabin, built of old piive boards and rough slabs, topped by a thatched roof, burred fast and furiously. The heat ami smoke nearly overcome the girl as she groped her way across the room. i Quickly unbarring the door, she swung it wk3'-> and .s;izin<j_th? box, with frant:c strength tumb'ei it o'lt on -to the ground. Tbsn. rifle in hard, she leaped out over it, followed by a den.se cloud of fire and smoke. ; Ar.d hare she stood as if uncertain what I to do mxt. ! At sight of the shack in flames, the men ; outside forgot their dicinlin-e and drew •' rearer, expecting each moment to s?e their • prey leap out from the burning building and . make a clash for the open prairie. i Th.3 girl stood th?rs for a memsnt in the ■ glare of the lurid flames, regarding the Vigilantes intently. " Say! Some of you come and help mc I with this box," she cried loudly to thtm, j as they stood there i.n the semi darkness regarding her with wide open eyes. They all started towards her in a body. Sha waited until they were within easy speaking distance. "There!" she called sternly as shs raised her Winchester threateningly. "Two will be enough—the rest of you " stay where you are. I'm running no* more chances tonight." At this command the men came to an I abrupt halt and stood iookjng inquiringly at her as she stood there rifle in hand, the flames leaping about her. Then, after a j few words among themselves, two of the I men came rather cautiously forward and 1 under her directions they picked up the box between them and carried it to a safe distance. " What yer got in ther box?" asked one of the men, coming forward and looking suspiciously at it. "Nothing, except a few things I managed to save from tha fire," the girl replied quickly. The man made no reply, but stepped forward and with one blow from the butt of fhis rifle knocked off one of the boards. They all gathered about the box and looked cautiously inside, but seating nothing save a miscellaneous assortment of household goods they turned suddenly to the girl and the leader asked fiercely: "Whar did he go?" " He went into the shack," she replied as calmly as she could, yet there was a suspicious tremor in her voice. "Whar is he now?" the man demanded gruffly. Well he knew that no man had passed through their line from the shack. The girl was silent, but as they began to crowd around and look keenly at her with suspicious glances, someone repeated: "Yes, whar is he new?" Ami then she looked quickly tip, raised her hand and pointed significantly to the burning shack. At that moment its frail walls collapsed, and the roof fell in. *' I lefit him in tlure," she said at last. " He wouldn't come out." The group of rough bearded Vigilantes stood looking at one another in silence; then their leader remarked laconically: " Wall, boys, if he's thar, he's dont for. I reckon as how he'd rather burn than hang. It's all the same to us, any way. Let's be goin' 'now," and with a few last words to the girl, they mounted their horses and, lifting their hats, rod's away. They left her .standing there, leaning on the top of her rifle, and as they disappeared in the darkness, she raised her hand and waved them a silent, -mocking farewell. Then sihe turned to greet her lover, as he emerged from the smoking ruins of her home, and together they disappeared, hand in hand, in the shadow of the foothills.