Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 28, Number 169, Decatur, Adams County, 18 July 1930 — Page 3

blue murder - WILBUR DANIEL STEELE

T mill crossing It w :u> a' rea dy Al * post nuns»'l- The | rave -till «»><’ ! M ■/ tire along the WL® woods crowning | */T ■ the stony "lopee >• f / I A- Jim Bluedge e I f Im \ J pastures; but X-Z then the line of 1 11 #ll, ' d blue the buildings scatbrothers Cam was the | °L J. He seldom had anyW ‘.“^ M H w “* Providential ■JX'LT, that of the three en-. at the Crossing one was for while he was a| * bie hungry-muscled fel- * pn L never would have had the °* \ >. to run the store or the I b m* He was better at pounding * rm am.? while ’he fire reddened snirks flew, and thinking. £ letting Other people wonder •hat he was thinking of X- B<“*d«e. wife sat penh'-d on the top bar of Lfc paddock gate, bedding her k'rts around her ankles with a ! * ri fle too much care to be quite unconscious, and watched him work "'You'd have thought Jim would 6, home before this wouldn't you.| brother-in-law said nothing He was too dumb tor any use , He was as dumb as this when all Ihre . ot the Hlu-dge boy. were after her a year ago Frank, -he' rtorekeeper h.d brought her candy: chocolates wrapped In sit-j ver foil in a two-pound Boston box. Jim had laid before her the Blu-1 edge term and with It the domi-J ,„nceof the valley And Camden! . To the daughter of Ed Beck, the apple grower. Camden had brought | , but Os apples/-and been be-| wtldered. too when, for all she could help it. she had to clap a hand over her moutii and run into the house to have her gigg'e ■Camden.'' she reverted sudden- I ly "Tell me one thing, did you hear —" She Stopped there Some people •ere coming into the kitchen vard. ' dark forms in the growing darkness Most of them lingered at the 1 porch, sitting on the steps and lighting their pipes The one that came out was Frank, the second of her brothers-ln-law She was glad Frank wasn't like Camden, he would talk. Turning and tak- I Ing care of her skirts, she gave him a bright and sisterly smile "Well, Frankie. what's the crowd?” Far from avoiding the smile, as Camden's habit was. the storekeeper returned It with a brotherly wink for good measure "Oh. they're tired of waiting down the road, so they < ome up here to see the grand arrival." He was something of a man of he world; In his calling he had acquired a fine turn of skepticism "Don't want to miss being or. hand to see what flaws they can pick In 'Jim's five hundred dollars' wurth of expirlment.'” "Frank, ain't you the least bit worried over Jim’ So late’" "Don't see why Had all the men from Perry's stables there In Twinshead to help him get «the animal off the freight, and he took an extra rope and the log chain and the heavy wagon, so I guess j ho matter how wild and woolly the devil is he’ll scarcely be climbing ' In over the tailboard Besides, them Western horses ain't such a big I breed, even a stallion." "All the same—(look the other way. Frankie) " Flipping her | ankles over the rail. Blossom jumped down beside him "Listen. Frank, tell me something, did you 1 hear— did you hear the reason Jim's getting him cheap was betause he killed a man out West there, what's- its - name. Wyoming?" Frank was taking oft his sleeve Protectors, the pins In his mouth. H was Camden, at the bars, speak--wJ n su 'lden deep rough way. Who the hell told you that ?” Frank got the pins out of his mout.i j g uegs what (t B)os _ ‘l’ what's mixed you up Is his saving that name 'Blue Murder.'" JIM had arrived With a clat- '««■ of hoofs and a rattle of wheels he was In the yard and ’ ,0 ,. a ’tandstlll. calling aloud team .re7 W the llnes over »he Well friends, here we are" \ Furious began to edge Th “" d ' cloßln g a cautious circle was ham , art deepened 80 tha t « hard to make anything at any wason'a ouet,e anchored at the I here Jlm ' 1 m 80 glad you comedo so worried: gr me a kIHO re cloud L ,IJen ''d. eyeing the ward ? r Bl3 He felt awk " •alted She CoUld have you M| n „ r. ? long ' <,ldn ’ t I of the Xd ' C " W W “ h a trace In the ku ,emper “Go wait *■l about Phen then ’ 81l tell you ,n' abou ' everyt hlng soot's I come r.„s Well ' now —wife— " still ,re" 7 aßn ’ t '“Mng at them '•o-flsted Ind h7*’? h ' B hammer "bln down d h S egs s P rpad his himself ith an a hl " tho ' J st h,s lo 1001,l "s at b’ lub m “7“” he wa " ’he otUd B L Murder ' “toring a » high 00 th Unibhead ' wh,ch - raised ’he atallioJ lnot,on, es» column of Wn?Mk' ~eck' BPPm *‘d heark•ounds o V." ’ doub ' to the Ing with new u »l verse. fastthe wind , noFtrll! ’ the taint In "uOylng w th’e " tn,n ' t " r ’ and ,ar horiX Bye ’ apl ' Uß,uri, ed >o that Went t . beSe dark Pastures wen t up in the air.

Whatever the smith's coglta-1 tiona, presently he let the hammer down and said aloud. "So you're him, eh?" Jim had put Blossom aside, saying. “Got supper ready? I'm hun gry!" Excited by the act of kissing and the sense of witnesses to it, she fussed her hair and started kitchenward as he turned to his brothers. "Well, what do you make of' him?" "Five hundred dollars.” said : Frank. "However, it's your money ” Camden was shorter "Better put him in." "All right; let them bars down while I and Frank lead him around." “No. thanks!” The storekeeper kept his hands in his pockets. "I just cleaned up, thanks Cain's the boy for horses " "He's none o' my horses!" Camden wet his lips, shook his shoulders, and scowled "Be damned, no!" "Unless," Frank put in slyly, "unless Cam’s vca ed " "Scared?" And still, to the brothers' enduring wonder, the big dense fellow would rise to that boyhood bait "Scared" The hell I'm seared of any horse ever wore a shoe! Come on. I'll show you!” Well, be gentle with him. boys ihe may be brittle” As Frank sauntered off around the rh-d he whistled the latest tune In the warmth and light of the kitchen he began to fool with his pretty sister-in-law feigning , princely impatience and growling with a wink at the assembled neighbors. 'When do we eat?" Rut she protested. "Land I had j everything readv since five, ain't I’ And now. if It ain’t you. It's ■them to wait for" At last one of the gossips got jin a word "What you make of Jim's purchase. Frank?" "Well it's Jim's m >ney. Darred If I had the running of this farm I ” Frank began drawing up • hairs noisily, leaving It at that. Darred persisted "Don’t look to me much like an animal for women and children to handle, not , yet awhile." Blossom put the kettle back, protesting, 'Leave off. or you’ll get me worried to death; all your talk 1 declare, where are those bad hovs?" Opening the door she called Into the dark. "Jim! Cam!” Subdued by distance and the in- ; tervening sheds, she could hear them at their business—sounds muffled and fragmentary. soft thunder of hoofs, snorts, puffings, and the short words of men in action: “Aw. leave him be in the paddock to-nlgl«"." . "With them mares there, you damn fool?” . . . "Damn fool, eh? Try getting htm in at that door and ee who's the damn fool!" . “Come on. don't so scared " “Scared, eh ?” Whv was It she always felt that curious tightening of all her powers of attention when Camden spoke? Probably because he spoke so rarely. and ’hen so roughly, as if his own thickness made him mad. Never mind. “Last call for supper tn the dining car. boys!" she called, and closed the door Turning back to the stove she was about to replace the tea water for the third time when, straightening up. she said. "What's that?” No one else had heard anything They looked at one another. "Frank, go—go see what—go tell the boys to come tn.” Frank hesitated, feeling foolish, •hen went to the door. Then everyone in the room was I out of his ehair. There were three sounds The , first was human and incoherent The second was Incoherent, too. but it wasn't human. The third was a crash, a ripping and splintering of wood When they got to the paddock they found Camden crawling from beneath the wreckage of the fence where a gap was opened on the pasture side He must have received a blow on the head, for he seemed dazed He didn’t seem to 1 ; know they were there At a prei carious balance —one hand at the back of his neck —he stood facing up the hill, gaping after the diminuendo of floundering hoofs, invisible above So seconds passed. Again the beast gave tongue, a high wild horning note, and on the black of the stony hill to the right of it s ’ faint shower of sparks blew like fireflies where the herding mares wheeled It seemed to awaken ’he dazed smith He opened his mouth. “Almighty Go<i!“ Swinging. he : flung his arms toward the shed i "Therrt There I” At last someone brought a lantern. They found Jim Bluedge ’ lying on his back In the corner of i the paddock near the door to the shed. In the lantern light, and i still better in the kitchen when I they had carried him in they read 1 the record of the thing which : Camden, dumb In good earnest now, seemed unable to tell them 1 with anything but his strange unfocussed stare The bloody offense to the skull would have been enough to kill i the man. but it wi s the second, full i on the cnest above the heart, that I toid the tale On the caved grating of the ribs, already turning blue under the yellowish down, the 'iron shoe had left Its mark, and when, laying back the rag of shirt, i they saw that the toe of the shoe was upward and the cutting caulkends down they knew al) they wanted to know of that swift. ' black, crushing episode. i No outlash here of heels In fright. Here waa a forefoot An

DECATUR Daily DEMOCRAT FRIDAY, JULY IX, 1930.

WSto TV--w/T® ■ |B m I'H ■: / sit il llk " z ' w'■ V mbm Ectb I sST" ML- b.jßl l. ■> . - ' I “Even then he didn’t seem to comprehend her return but stood blinking at her, and at the rifle she carried.”

attack aimed and an onIslaught reared, erect; beast turned biped; red eyes mad to white eyes aghast. ... And only afterward, when it was done, the blood-fright that serves the horses for conscience, the blind rush across the enclosure; the fence gone down. . . . No one had much to say. No one seemed to know what to do. As for Camden, he was no help. He simply stood propped on top of his logs of legs where someone had left him. IT was lucky that Frank was a man of affairs His brother was dead, and irightfully dead, but there was to-morrow for grief Just now there were many things to do. There were people to be gotten rid of. W ith short words and angry gestures he cleared j them out. all but Darred and a man named White, and to these he said. "Now, first thing. Jim can’t stay here.” He ran and got a i blanket from a closet “Give me a hand and we'll lay him in the ice--1 house overnight Don . sound good. I but it's best, poor fellow Cam. come along 1 ” He waited a moment and as he j studied the wooden fool the blood poured back into his face "Wake up. Cam! You great big scared stiff, you!" Camden brought his eyes out of nothingness and looked at his brother. A twinge passed over his face, convulsing the mouth muscles "Scared?” "Yes, you re scared!” Frank's j lip lifted, showing the tips of his j teeth "And I’ll warrant you something: if you wasn t the j scared stiff you was. this hellish damn thing wou'dn't have happened. majbe. Scared! you a blacksmith! Scared of a horse!” “Horsel" Again that convulsion of the mouth muscles, something between irony and an idiot craft. "Why don’t you go catch 'lm?“ "Hush it! Don’t waste time by going loony now. for God's sake. Come!" n "Mv advice to anybody Camden looked crazier than ever, knotting his brows "My advice to anybody Is to let somebody else go I catch that—that ” Opening the ' door he faced out Into the night, i his head sunk between his shoulders and the fingers working at the ends of his hanging arms: and before they knew it be began to swear He stopped only when at a sharp word from Frank he was made aware that Blossom had come back into the room Even then he didn't seem to comprehend her return but rtood blinking at her. and at the rifle she carried. with his distraught bloodshot cy? B Wank comprehended. Hysteria had followed the girl’s blankness. Stepping between her and the body on the floor, he spoke tn a persuasive unhurried way. "What you doing with that gun. Blossle? Now. now. you don't want that gun. you know you don't " It worked. Her rigidity lessened appreciably ’ Confusion gained "Yes. yes. Blossle —now. yes—.only you best give me that gun: 'that's the girlie." When he had | got the weapon he put an arm | around her shoulders "Yes. ves. ' course we're going to shoot htm what you think? Don't want an | ! animal like that running round jNow first thing In the morning—Hysteria returned With Ite ( 'strength she resisted his leading I "No now! Note/ He's gone and , killed Jim! Killed my husband!; I won't hsve him left alive another minute! I won't! Nou, No sir. | I’m going myself. I am! Frank.. I am! Cam!" At his name, appealed ,®n m that queer screeching wa ' , ''"j | man in the doorway shivered all

over, wet his lips, and walked out into the dark. "There, you see?” Frank was , quick to capitalize anything. "Cam’s gone to de It Cam’s gone, Blossle! . . . Here, one of you—i Darred, take this gun and run and i give it to Camden, that’s the boy." “You sure he’ll kill him, Frank? i You s-uref "Sure as daylight Now you . come along back to your room like i a good girl and get some rest ■ Come. I'll go with you." When Frank returned to the kitchen ten minutes later, Darred i was back. i "Well, now. let's get at It and I carry out poor Jlm. he can't lay here. . . . Where's Cam gone now, i damn him!" : j "Up the pasture, like you said." i' "Like I ” Frank went an odd I ' color. He walked to the door, i j Between the light on the sill and 1 j the beginnings of the stars where : the woods crowned the mountain i was all one blacknesa One stlll- , ness, too. He turned on Darred. "But. look, you never gave him , that gun, even." , “He didn't want it" "The damned fool!” i Poor dead Jim! Poor fool CamI den! As the storekeeper went i about his business and afterward I when, the Icehouse Joor closed on its tragic tenant and White and ’ Darred had gone off nome. he i roamed the yard, driven here and i there, soft-footed, waiting, hearkening—hfs mind was tor a time not his own property but the playi thing of thoughts diverse and wayi ward • Jim gone. . . . And Camden, at i any moment . . . i His face grew hot An Impulse carried him a dozen steps. "I ought 'to go up. Ought to take the gun and go up ” But there :hrewd sanity put i on the brakes "Where’s the use? ; I Couldn't find him in this dark Besides. I oughtn't to leave Blossom here alone." With that he wenr around toward the kitchen thinking to go In But the sight of the lantern. ' left burning out near the sheds. , sent his Ideas off on another course > At any rate, it would give his mus- > cles and nerves something to work ■ on. Taking the lantern and entering the paddock, he fell to patching the gap into the pasture, using broken boards from the wreck. As jhe worked his eyes chanced to fall ' on footprints in the dung-mixed earth — Camden's footprints, leadi fng away beyond the little ring of light. And beside them, taking off from the landing-place of that prodigious leap, he discerned the trail of the stallion. After a moment h*> got down on his knees ! where the earth was softest, hoid- ■ Ing the lantern so that Its light fell full He gave ozer Ms fence-building Returning to the house his gait was no longer that of the roamer; ; his face, caught by the periodic flare of the sx’.iglng lantern, was the face of another man. Tn ft’ expression there was a Mnd of fright and a kind of calculating eagerness He looked at the clock on the kitchen shelf, shook it. and read it again He went .o the telephone and fumbled at the receiver. |He waited till his hand quit shaking then remjved It from the i hook "Listen. Darred." e said when 'he had got the farmer at last, "get 'White and whatever others you can and come over f.rst thing It’s I light. Come a-ridlng and bring your guns No Cam ain’t back.” ; He beard Blossom calling OutIslde her door he passed one hand 'down over his face. a« *e might 'have passed a wash-rag. to wipe [off what was there Then he went In "What’s the matter with Bloa'sie? Can’t sleep?”

He sat down beside the bed. "Oh, Frankie, Frankie, bold my hand IPretty Blossom Beck. Here, for a wonder, he sat in her bedroom and held her hand. One brother was dead and the other was on the mountain. But little by little, ta he sat and dreamed so, nightmare crept over his brain. He had to arouse and shake himself. He bad to set his thoughts resolutely in other roads. . . . Perhaps there would be even the smithy. The smithy, the store, the farm. Complete The farm, j the farmhouse, the room tn the I farmhouse, the bed in the room, the wife in the bed. Complete be- . yond belief. If ~ . Worth dodging horror for. If .. , FAR from rounding up their quarry In the early hours after I dawn. It took riders, five of them, tin almost noon simply to make certain that he wasn't to be found—not in any of the pastures. Then, when they discovered the hole in the fence far up it. the woods beyond the crest, where Blue Murder had led the mares in a break for the open country of hills and ravines to the south, they were only at the beginning. Frank did the trailing. Hopeless of getting anywhere before sundown in that unkempt wilderness of a hundred square miles of scrub, his comr- nions slouched In their saddles and rode more and more mecha.ilcally, knee to knee, and it was he who mads *he casts td recover the lost trail and, dismounting to read the dust, cried back: "He’s still with ’em." and with gestures of Imperious excitement beckoned them on "Which you mean?" Darred asked him once. "Cam or the horse?” Frank wheeled hts beast and spurred back at the speaker. It was extraotdinary. “You don't know what you're talkl-.g about!” he cried, with a causelessness and a disordered vehemence which set them first staring, then speculating. “Come on. you dumbheads: don’t talk — ridet" They were a good six miles to the south of the fence. Already the road back home ould have to be followed three parts In the dark. Darred was the spokesman. "Frank, I'm going to call it a day." The others reined up with him but the man ahead rode on. He didn't seem to hear. Darred lifted his voice. “Come on. cal! It a day. Frank. To-morrow, maybe. But you see we've run it out and they're not here." "Walt,” saia Frank over Ms shoulder, still riding on into the pocket. White's mount —a mare — laid back her ears, shied, and slood trembling After a moment she whinnied It was as If she tad whinnied for a dozen A crashing in the I woods, above them to the left land the avalanche came—downstream. erupting, whe-ling. wheeling away with volleying norts, a dark rout Darred. reining his horse, began to shout, “Here they go this way. 'Frank!” But Frank was yelling, | "Up here, bovs! This way. quick!" It was ’he same note, excited, feverla* dtenrdered. breaking like a child'*. When tb’v nreted Mm thev saw he was off his horse, rifle jtr hard, aed down on his kn»re to ■ study the ground where the woods began By the time they reached his animal the Imp’tuoua fehow hud started op into the cover, h's voice trailing. “Come on: spread out ni:d corrie on'" White spoke hl’ time 'Be darned if I do!” He lifted a protesting halt “Come back here.

Frank! You're crazy! It’s getting dark!" It was Frank’s own fault. They told him plainly to come back and he wouldn't listen. For a while they could hear his crackle in the mounting underbrush. Then that stopped, whether he had gone too far for their ears or whether he had come to a halt to give his own ears a chance. . . . Once, off to hls right a little higher up under the low ceiling of the trees that darkened moment by moment with the rush of night, they heard another movement, another restlessness of leaves and stunes. Then that was still, and everything was still. Darred ran a sleeve over his face and swung down. "God alive, boys!” It was the silence. The first they heard was the shot. No voice. Just the one report. Then after five breaths of another silence a crashing of growth, a charge In the darkness under the withered scrub, continuous and diminishing. They shouted, "Frank!" No answer. They called, “Frank Bluedge!' Now, since they had to, they did. Keeping contact by word, and guided partly by directional memory tand mostly In the end by luck), after a time they found the storekeeper In a brake of terns, lying across hls gun They got him down to the openwatching behind them all the while. Only then, by the flares of successive matches, under the noses of the snorting horses, did they look for the damage done. They remembered the stillness and the gloom; it must have been quite black in there. The attack had come from behind—equine and pantherine at once, and planned and cunning. A deliberate lunge with a forefoot again: the shoe which had crushed the backbone between the shoulder blades was a foreshoe, that much the saw by the match flares In .he red wreck. They took no longer getting home than they had tv, but it was longer than they would have wished. With Frank across hls oWn saddle, walking their horses and with one or another ahead to pick the road (it was going to rain, and even the stars were lost), they made no more than a creeping speed. None of them had much to say on the journey. Finding the break In the boundary fence and feeling through the last of the woods, the lights of their farms began to show In the pool of blackness below. and Darred uttered a part of what had lain In the minds of them all during the return: “Well, that leaves Cam." None followed it up. J’one cared to go any closer than he was to the real question. It answered -tself. Camden was at home when they got there. He had come In n little before them, emptv-handed. Emptyheaded. too. When Blossom, who had waited al! day, part of the time with neighbor women who had come In and part of the time alone to the point of going mad—when she saw him coming down tho pas- | ture. his fset stumbling and his l shoulders dejected. ier first feeling was relief. Her first words, however, were, “Did you get him. Cam?" And al' he would answer was. “Gi’ me something to eat. e&n’t you? Gt' me a few hours’ sleep, can't you? Ther wait!" Then he relapsed Into hls stupldIty, and not even the arrival of the party bringing his brother’s body seemed able to shake him so far clear of ft again. At first, when they *iad laid Frank on the floor where on the night before they hac laid Jlm. he seemed hardly to comprehend.

"What’s wrong with Frank?" I "Some mors of Jims 'explriment' ’’ "Frank see him? he's seared, Frank is. ixiok at his face there ” “He's dead, Cam." "Dead, you tuty? Frank dead? Dead of fright, is that it’" Even when, rolling the body over, they showed him what was what, he appeared Incapable of comprehension, of amazement of passion, or of any adde.. grief He looked at them all with i kind of befuddled pro'est Hetu’iilng ’o his chair and his plate, he grumbled. 'Le' me eat first, can't you? Can't you gl' me a 1' tie time to sleep?” "Well, you wouldn t do much tonight anyway, i guess’ At White’s words Blossom o|s*ned her mouth for the first time "No, nothing to-night, Cnm. Cam! Camden! Say! Promise!" "And then to-morrow. Cam what we’ll do Is to get every last man In the valley, and well go at this right. We’ll lay hand on that devil " Camden swallowed his mouthful of cold sti«ik with dlffi-ulty His obscession touched. he showtsi them the rims of his eyes again "You do and Hi wring your necks The man ihat louche* that animal before I do gets his neck wrang That's all you need to re- j member." “Yes, yes—no —that Is " Poor Blossom. "Yes, Mr White, thanks' no. Cam's not going out to-night. 1 . . . No. Cam, nobody's going to Interfere —nor ncthlng Don't you worry there. " Lightning filled the windows. After a moment the thunder came avalanching down the pasture and brought up against the clapboards of the house. At this she was behind his chair. She put out a hand. She touched his shoulder. Camden blundered up. "What the hell!" He started off two steps and wheeled on her "Why don’t you get off to bed. for Goll sake!" "Yes. Cam. yes—right off. yes" "Well, I m going, I can tell you. For Goll sake. I need some sleep!" It took her no time to get along then—quick and quiet as a mouse As It had taken her no time to go. It took Blossom no time to undress and get in bed. When Camden was on his way to his room he heard her calling. "Cam! Just a second. Cam! ” “Yes? What?" "Cam. set by me a minute, won't you? And Cam. oh. Cam. hold my hand.” As he slouched down, his fist enclosing her fingers, thoughts awakened and ran and fastened on things. They fastened, tentatively at first upon the farm Jlm gone Frank gone. The smithy, the store, and the farm. The whole of Mill Crossing. The trinity. The three tn one. . . . “Tight Cam. for pity's sake! Hold it tight!" His eyes, falling to his fist strayed up along the arm It held The sleeve, rumpled near the shoulder, was trimmed with pretty lace. . . . "Tighter, Cam!” A box of apples. That memory hidden away in the cellar of his mind. Hidden away, clamped down In the dark, till the noxious vapors, the murderous vapors of its rotting had filled the shut-up house he was ... A box of red apples for the apple-grower’s gtr! ... the girl who sniggered and ran away from him to laugh at him. . . . And there, by the unfolding of a devious destiny, he sat In that girl's bedroom, holding that girl's hand. Jim who had got her, Frank who nad wanted her lay side by side out there in the icehouse under the lightning While he, the "dumb one”—the last to be thought of with anything but amusement and the last to be feared—his big hot fist Inclosing her imprecating hand now. and bls eyes on the pretty lace at her shoulder He Jumped up with a gulp and a clatter of Iron "What the ’’ He flung her band away. "What the—hell!” He swallowed. He moderated his voice with an effort, wiping his brow. "Goodnight You must excuse me, Blossie; I wasn't meaning—I mean—l hope you sleep good. I shall. . . . Good-night! “ In his own brain was the one word "Hurry!” She lay and listened to his boots going along the hall and heard the closing of his door. She ought to have put out the lamp Rut even with the shades drawn, the lightning around the edges of the window unnerved her; in the dark alone it would have been more than she could bear She lay sc till she felt herself nearing exhaustion from the sus talned rigidity of her limbs. Rain came and with the rain, wind Around the eaves It neighed like wild stallions; down the chimneys It moaned like mon. Slipping out of bed and pulling on a bathrobe she ran from her room, barefooted, and along the hall to Camden’s door. “Cam!" she called. “Oh. Cam!” she begged. "Please please f” And now he wouldn’t answer her. She pushed the door open. The lamp was burning on the bureau, but the room was empty and the bed untouched. CAMDEN had reached the woods when the rain came Lighting the lantern he had brought, he made his way on to the boundary fence. There, about a mile to the eact of the path the others had taken that day. he pulled the rails down and

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tumbled the stones together tn s pile. Then he proceeded another hundred yards, holding Ihe I.intern high and peering through the streaming crystals of the ruin Blue Murder waa there. Nelth- r the chain nor the sapling had glvin way. The I ntern and. better thon lantern, a globe of lightning showed the tethered stallion glistening and quivering, his eyes ail whites at the mail's approach 'Gentle. boy; steady. boy!” Talking all the while In the way he had with horses. Camden put a hand on the tarn chain and bore with u gradually progressive weight, bringing the dark head nearer "Steauy. boy. gentle there damn you. gentle!" Was he afraid of horses’ Who was it said he was afraid of horses? "Steady, Got) damn you. you're going to get yours. Cheer up cheer up. the worst is yet to come Come now 1 Come easy' Gome along! “ When he had unloosed the chain he felt for and founu with his free hand his hamr.F’ hidden behind the tree Throwing the lantern Into the bru“h instant before dying, he led the stallion back as far as the break he had made in the fence. Taking a turn with the chain around the animal's nose, like an improvised hackamore, he swung from the stone pile to the slippery back. A moment s shying, a sliding caracole of amazement and distrust, a crushing of knees, a lash of the chain-end. and that was all there was to that. Blue Murder had been ridden before. . . . IV the smithy, Camden sang as he pumped his bellows, filling the cave beneath the rafters with red. The air was nothing, the words were mumbo-jumbo, but they swelled his chest. His eyes, cast from time to time at his wheeling prisoner, had lost their look of helplessness and surly distraction. I Scared? He? No. no. no! Now ' that he wasn't any longer afraid of time, he wasn't afraid of anything on earth "Shy. you devil!" He wagged his exalted head "Whicker, you bellion! Whicker all you wan' to. stud horse! To-morrow they’re going to get you. the numb fools! To-morrow they can have you / got you to-night I” He was more than other men: he was enormous. Fishing an Iron shoe from that Inseparable apron pocket of his. he t’’rust it Into the coals and blew and blew He tried it and it was burning red He I tried it again and t was searing white. Taking It out on the anvil lie began to beat It. swinging his I hammer one-handed, gigantic So In the crimson light, irradiating I iron sparks, he was at his greatest. Pounding, pounding. A man In the dark of night with a hammer about him can do wonders: with a horseshoe about him he ran cover up a sin. And if the dark of night tn a paddock won't hold It. then the dark of undergrowth on a mountains!*' ’’l . . . Pounding ’lng: thinking i thinking, in 'at halo of hot stars. Feeding his hungry, his In satiable muscles What he did not realize tn hl’ feverish exaltation was that hl’ muscles were not Insatiable Tn the thirty-odd hours past they had had a feast spread before them and 'they had had their fill. . . More than their fill. As with the scorching Iron In his tongs he approached the stallion. he had to step over the riallbox he had stepped over five thou- ! sand times in the routine of every j day. His foot was heavier of a snd den than it should have been This five thousand and first time, hv the ' drag of the tenth of an inch, the heel caught the lip of the nail-box He tried to save himself from stumbling At the same time. In- : stinctively. he held the Iron flame in his tongs away. There was a scream cut of a l horse's throat; a whiff of hair and 1 burnt flesh. There was a lash of something tn the red shadows There was [another sound and another wisp of [ stench. . . . WIEN, guided by the stallion's whinnying, they found the smith next day, they 1 saw by the cant of his head that !Ms neck was broken, and thev I perceived that he. too, had on Mm I the mark of a shoe. It lay un n.i» ! side of his throat and the broad jof a cheek It wasn't blue this time, however—lt was red It took them some instants in the sun- ! shine pouring through the wide 'oor to comprehend this phenomenon. It wasn’t sunk In hv a blow this time: it was burned In. a brand. Darred called them to look at the stallion, chained behind the forge “Almighty God!” The word’ sounded funny in his mouth They sounded the funnier tn that they were the same ones the blundering smith had uttered when, staring uphill from his clever wreckage of the paddock fence, he hao seen the mares striking sparks from the stones where the stallion struck none. And he. of all men. a smith! “Almighty God!” called Darred. "What you make of these here feet?” One fore-hoof was freshly pared for shoeing: the other three hoofs were as virgin as any yearling's on the plains. Blue Murdei had never been shod. . . * (c) McClure News paper Hyndicate