ONLY A BLACK SHEEP

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 11

ONLY A BLACK SHEEP

There was a dance at Berwick Station. Miners, railroad employees, cow-punchers, anybody, everybody—that is, those who were young —were collected in the din-ing-room of the hotel, the space they occupied having been cleared for them by piling the tables and chairs against the walls. On a porch outside in the moonlight stood a man and a girl. For the girl the mixed assembty had no interest except as a spectacle. The man would have apueared equally refined had it not been for the “plains” apparel lie wore and a dissipated look on his face. He was the son of an eastern capitalist and had gone to tho bad, which meant in liis case that he was a fighting, gambling, drinking spendthrift. Mild mannered when sober and unruffled, lie was a very devil when drunk or spurred to fight. “I have heard that you go back east to-morrow, Daisy/’ he said. “I do, Paul.” “And' this is the last I shall see of you as a girl. You marry the clergyman this fall?” “I do.” The man gave a slight shiver. “You can’t feel it more than I do, Paul. You have brought this upon yourself.” “Yes, and on you.” Tho music within ceased suddenly, revealing the sound of a galloping horse in the distance. It came rapidly nearer, and a man, dashing up before the door, called cut.:

. “The red devils are coming! Broken loose from the reservation! Lights out!’’ Teu minutes later- Daisy and Paul

Kenyon were riding for dear life. Each' mounted on a good horse,, the girl’s skirts fluttering in the wind, the mart spurring his own mount and belabouring hers to keep the pace. He knew they would distance the enemy following, but the road they were on joined another a few mile 3 ahead, and there was no telling if they would be cut off at the junction. As they neared it they heard the gutteral voices of Indians to the right. Urging on their horses, they cleared the junction, but the redskins had heard them and gave chase. The white couple’s horses bad been, using tlioir strength and had it not been that they were the best of stock could not have raced even with the ordinary Indian pony. The savage yells behind added a new vigour, and for a time they gained on their pursuers. One of the braves mounted a fleeter pony than the rest distanced his fellow 3, and they could hear him coming upon them. “Ride on, Daisy',,” said the man, “I’ll turn and settle this fellow, then I’ll rejoin yoti.” “Must you?” said the girl. “Yes. Go on, sweethoart; don’t fear. I’ll be with you in a moment.” He turned, and the girl rode on a! short distance, then drew rein and listened. Two shots, one following close on the ether; then no sound except the oncoming ponies, a matter of half a mile away, and a single horse nearby. Was it life or death? The quick thud of the horses’ hoofs tbld her that it was either the one or the other.. Then, the moonlight revealed Paul Kenyon, and she swooned in his arms. When she came to herself she wad riding, her back supported by Kenyon’s chest. A consciousness that there was yet hope revived her. Seizing the reins, she bent forward, and the speed was increased. For miles they rode, permitting their horses to pick their way, now leaving the blood curdling yells further away, now bearing them near behind. Then suddenly the girl’s horse, which was of a more delicate mould than the man’s suddenly collapsed and fell dead. Daisy landed on a soft road and was unhurt. Kenyon sprang to the ground. “Here, quick! Take my mount!” “And you?” “I shall beat them off and join you.” He spoke as confidently as if he had but an easy job before him. But he did not deceive the girl. She knew that but one of them could live, and he would be the one to die? “Come, you®fool! No time to change saddles! Give him his head and hold on to the pommel*” " _

He Bad her on the I«>?se’s bach before ehe could utter a protest. throw her anna SSU“ 9 1 and Xfng the horse a slap on the haunch saw the girl he was to die for vanish minutes before she heard a shot and was sure herhad ambushed an Indian; then another. then two in quick succession, then one. There were five of them, which, with the one he had used on the way, made six, all he had. Then there was no more firing. But by this time the clattering of the ponies’ hoofs, the yells were more remote. Paul Kenyon had stayed the puisuit. Then she recognised her surroundings—a clump of trees, under which nas a water trough fed by a spring and knew she was within a mile of hei father’s ranch.. , *A_ • . . When she reached her ' home m the east she heard that there ' vas . re \K e * among the Kenyons that the family black sheep had given over disgracing them. They would have brought his body eastward and given it sepulchre in the family mausoleum, but the Indians had left nothing of it that they coaid thus honour. _ . , Daisy married the clergyman, but there was something in the humdrum life of a parson’s wife that was unsuited to her. Her duty was to the man of-God; her heart was buried with the black sheep of the Kenyon family.