AL mens
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Bellefonte, Pa., September 20, 1912.
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FRECKLES
By
Gene Stratton-
Porter
COPYRIGHT. 1904, BY DOUBLEDAY, PACE
& CO.
Q—— ed
SYNOPSIS.
Freckles, a homeless boy, is hired by
Boss McLean to guard the expensive tim-
ber in the Limberiost from timber thieves.
Freckles does his work faithfully, makes
friends with the birds and yearns to know
more about nature. He lives with Mr.
and Mrs, Duncan.
He resolves to get books and educate
himself. He becomes interested in a huge
pair of vultures and calls his bird friends
his “chickens.”
Some of the trees he is guarding are
worth $1,000 each. Freckles’ books arrive.
He receives a call from Wessner.
Wessner attempts to bribe Freckles to
betray his trust, and Freckles whips him.
McLean overhears them and witnesses the
fight.
Freckles’ honesty saves a precious tree.
He finds the nest of the vultures and is
visited by a beautiful young girl.
Sho calls Freckles McLean's son. Freckles
calis her “the angel” and helps the Bird
Woman in taking photographs. McLean
promises to adopt Freckles.
Freckles and the angel become very
friendly. Assisted by the Bird Woman,
they drive Wessner and Black Jack, tim-
ber thieves, from the Limberlost.
McLean fears more trouble, but Freckles
insists upon being the sole guard of the
timber. Freckles calls upon the angel's
father.
The angel receives him as her equal, and
her father is kind. Mrs. Duncan has ex-
citing adventures in the Limberlost,
The Bird Woman and the angel again
visit Freckles, and Freckles falls in love
with the angel. The angel kisses him.
Freckles is bound and gagged by Black
Jack's gang, and the timber thieves start '
felling a very valuable tree.
[Continued from last week. ]
CHAPTER XV.
THE ANGEL GOES FOR HELY,
“ I | SEE now you aren't the same |
man,” said the angel. “You |
know, we were in Coloradn
last year, and there was n
cowboy that was the handsomest man
about. He'd come riding into town
every night, and all we girls just
adored him! Oh; but he was a beauty!
I thought at first glance you were
really he, but I see now he wasn't
nearly so tall nor so broad as you and
only half as handsome. ;
The men burst into a roar of laugh-
ter, and Jack flushed crimson. The an:
ge! joined in the laugh.
“Well, I'l! leave it to you! Isn't he
handsome?" she challenged. *As for
that cowboy’s face, it couldn't be com-
pared with yours. The only trouble
with you is that your clothes are spoil.
ing you. It's the dress those cowboys
wear that makes half their looks. If
you were properly dressed you could
break the heart of the prettiest girl in
the country.”
With one accord the other men
focused on Black Jack and for the first
time realized that he was a superb
speciman of manhood. for he stood
six feet tall. was broad, well rounded
and had dark. even skin, big black
eyes and full red lips.
“I'll tell yon what!" exclaimed the
angel. “I'd just love to see you on
horseback. Nothing sets an handsome
man off so splendidly. Do you ride?”
“Yes,” sald Jack, and his eyes were
burning on the angel as if he woulG
fathom the depths of her soul,
“Well,” said the angel winsomely, “I
know what 1 just wish you'd do. 1
wish you would let your hair grow a
little longer. Then wear a blue flanne!
shirt a little open at the throat, a red
tie and a broad brimmed felt hat and
ride past my house of evenings. I'm
always at home then and almost al-
ways on the veranda, and. oh, but 1
would like to see you! Will you do!
that for me?" .
The angel was looking straight into
Jack's face, coarse and hardened with
sin and careless living, which was
now tzking on a wholly different ex-
pression. The evil lines of it were
softening and fading out under her
clear gaze. A dull red flamed into his
bronze cheeks, and his eyes were grow-
ing brightly tender.
“Yes,” he said, and the glance he
shot at the men was of such a nature
that no one saw fit even to change
countenance,
“Oh. goody!” she cried, tilting on her
toes. “I'l ask the girls to come to
see, but they needn't stick in. We can
get along without them, can't we?"
Jack leaned toward her. He was
the charmed, fluttering bird, and the
angel was the snake.
“Well, I rather guess!” he cried.
g
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' heart.
' by, everybody.”
she completely bewitched? Would she | ting into the opposite side of the tree. |
| throw herself at the man's feet before | It looked as If they could get at least
! them all? Couldn't she give him even | that tree out before McLean could
— one thought? Hadn't she seen he was |
gagged and bound? Did she truly |
think that these were McLean's men?
Why, she couldn’t. It was only a few |
days ago that she had been near |
enough this man and angry enough |
with him to peel the hat from his
bead with a shot. Suudenly a thing |
she had jestingly said to him one day '
came back with startling force, “You |
must take angels on trust.” Of course |
you must! She was his angel. She |
must have seen. His life and, what |
was far worse, her own were in her |
hands. There was nothing he could
do but trust her. Surely she was |
working out some plan. :
The angel knelt beside his flower- |
bed nnd recklessly tore up by the roots |
a big bunch of foxfire.
“These stems are so tough and
sticky,” she said. *I can't break,
them. Lend me your knife.” she or-'
dered Freckles.
As she reached for the knife her
back was one second toward the men.
She looked into his eyes and deliber-
ately winked.
She severed the stems, tossed the!
knife back to Freckles and, walking
up to Jack, laid the flowers over his |
Freckles broke into a sweat of
agony. He had said she would be safe
in a herd of howling savages. Would
she? If Black Jack even made a mo-
tion toward touching her Freckles
knew that from somewhere he would
muster the strength to kill him. He
mentally measured the distance to
where his club lay and set his muscles
for a spring. But, no! The big fellow
was baring his head with a hand that
was unsteady. The angel pulled one
of the long silver pins from her hat’
and fastened her flowers securely.
Freckles was quaking. What was to
come next?
As the angel stepped back from |
Jack she turned her head to one side
and peered up at him, just as Freckles !
had seen the little yellow fellow do!
on the line n hundred times, and said:
“Well, that does the trick! Isn't that’
fine? See how it sets him off, boys!
Don't you forget the tie is to be red |
and the first ride soon. I can't wait
very long. Now I must go. The Bird
Woman will be ready to start, and she |
will come here hunting me next, for!
she is busy today. What did I come
here for anyway?" {
She glanced inquiringly about, and!
! several of the men laughed. Oh, the |
| delight of it! She had forgot her er-
rand for him! Jack had a second in- |
helplessly about as if seeking a clew. !
Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, |
on Freckles. i
“It's mighty risky for you to be!
crossing the swamp alone,” he said.
“I know it's a little farther, but it's
begging you I am to be going back by
the trail.” ;
The angel laughed merrily.
“Oh, stop your nonsense!” she cried. |
“I'm not afraid—not in the least!"
Freckles turned to Jack imploringly.
“You tell her!” he pleaded. “Tell
her to go by the trail. She will for
you." :
The implication of this statement |
was so gratifying to Black Jack that
he seemed again to expand and take
on increase before thelr very eyes. !
“You bet!" exclaimed Jack. And to
the angel: “You better take Freckles’
word for it, miss. He knows the old
swamp better than any of us. except |
me, and if he says go by the trail
you'd best do it.”
The angel hesitated. One last glance |
at Freckles showed her the agony in!
his eyes. She would follow the trail.
“All right.” she said, giving Jack a |
killing glance. “If you say so I'll go.
back by the trail to please you. Good-
She lifted the bushes and started for
the entrance.
“Stop her!" growied Wessner. “Keep |
her till we're loaded anyhow. Can't |
you see that when this thing is found |
out there she'll be to ruin all of us.
If you let her go every man of us has
got to cut. and some of us will be:
caught sure.”
Jack sprang forward.
Freckles’
heart muffled up in his throat. The
angel seemed to divine Jack's coming. |
She was humming a little song. She
deliberately stopped and began pulling |
the heads of the curious grasses that
grew all about her. When she straight-
ened she took a step backward and
called: “Ho. Freckles, the Bird Wo-
man wants that natural history pam-
phlet returned. It belongs to a set she
is going to have bound.”
Then the angel shot a parting glance
at Jack, and she was bewitchingiy
lovely.
“You won't forget that ride and the :
red tie.” she half asserted, half ques-'
tioned.
Jack lost his head entirely. Frec-
kles was his captive, but he was the
angel's, soul and body. With head
held well up the angel walked slowly
away, and Jack wheeled on the men.
“Drop your staring and saw wood!”
he shouted. “Don’t you know any-
thing at all about how to treat a
lady?
The men muttered and threatened
among themselves, but they fell to
working with a vengeance.
Freckles sat down on one of his
benches and waited. In their haste to
get the tree down and loaded so that
ii
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| they came up.
come.
When it was down would they re-
bind him and leave him for Wessner
to wreak his insane vengeance on, or
would they take him along to the
next tree and dispose of him when
they had stolen ail the timber they
could? Jack had said that he should
not be touched until he left. Surely
he would not run all that risk for one
tree when he bad many others of far
greater value marked.
Once Jack came over to Freckles
and asked if he had any water.
| Freckles rose and showed him where
he kept his drinking water. Jack
drank in great gulps, and as he pass-
ed the bucket back he said: “When a
man's got a chance of catching a fine
| girl like tbat he ought not to be mix-
ed up in any dirty business. 1 wish I
was out of this.”
Freckles answered heartily, “I wish
| I was too.”
Jack stared at him a minute and
then broke into a roar of rough laugh-
ter.
“Blest if I blame you,” he said.
“But you had your chance. We offer-
ed you a fair thing, and you gave
Wessner his answer. 1 ain't envying
| you when he gives you his.”
“You're six to one,” answered Frec-
kles. “It will be easy enough for you
to be killing the body of me, but.
curse you all, you can't blacken me
soul!”
“I'd give anything you could name
if I had your honesty,” said Jack.
When the mighty tree fell the Lim-
berlost shivered and screamed with
the echo. Freckles groaned in despair,
but the gang took heart, That was
so much accomplished. Now, if they
cold get it out quickly they knew
| where to dispose of it safely with no
questions asked. Before the day was
over they could remove three others
worth far more than this.
On the line, the angel gave one
backward glance at Black Jack to see
that he had returned to his work.
Then she gathered her skirts above
her knees and leaped forward on the
run. In the first three yards she
passed Freckles’ wheel. Instantly sto
imagined that was why he had insist-
ed on her coming by the trail. She
seized it and .sprang on. The saddle
was too high. but she was an expert
rider and could catch the pedals as
She stopped at Dun-
can's cabin long enough to get out the
wrench and lower the saddle, telling |i
Mrs. Duncan the while what was hap-
pening and that she must follow the
j crease in height. The angel glanced | east trail until she found the Bird
Woman to teil her she had gone for
McLean and to leave the swamp as
| quickly as possible,
The angel saw Mrs. Duncan started
and then flew.
Those awful miles of corduroy!
Would they never end? The bushes
claimed her hat. and she did not stop
for it.
At last she lifted her head. Surely
it could not be more than a mile now.
She had covered two of corduroy nnd
at least three of pike, and it was only
six in all. She was reeling in the
saddle, but she gripped the bars with |
new energy and raced desperately.
The sun blistered down on her bare
head and hands. Just when she was
choking with dust and almost pros-
trate with heat and exhaustion—erash,
she ran into a broken bottle! Snap!
went the tire. "The wheel swerved
and pitched over. The tired ange!
rolled into the thick yellow dust of
! the road and lay still,
From afar Duncan began to notice
a strange, dust covered object in the
! road as he headed for town with the
first load of the day's felling. As he
neared the angel he saw it was n wo
man and a broken wheel. Many of
the formers’ daughters rode wheels,
but this face was a stranger's. He
glanced at the angel's tumbled cloth:
ing. the silkiness of her hair, with
its pale satin ribbon. and noticed that
she had lost her hat. His lips tight.
ened in an ominous quiver. He left
her and picked up the wheel. As he
had surmised. he knew it. This, then.
was Freckles’ Swamp Angel.
There was trouble in the Limber
lost, and she had broken down in rac
ing for McLean. Duncan hurried to
the nearest farmhouse to send help to
the angel. Then he put the bay to
speed and raced for camp.
The angel. left alone, lay still for a
second. then she shivered and opened
her cyes.
“Oh, poor Freckles!” she walled.
“They may be killing him by now.
Oh, how much time have 1 wasted?”
She hurried to the bay Duncan had
unharnessed, snatched a blacksnake
whip that lay on the ground, caught
the bames stretched along the horse's
neck, and. for the first time, the fine,
big fellow felt on his back the quality
of the lash that Duncan was accus-
tomed to crack over him.
At the south camp they were load-
ing a second wagon when the angel
thundered up on one of Duncan's
bays. lathered and dripping, and cried:
“Everybody go to Freckles! ‘“Ihere
are thieves stealing trees, and they
have him bound. They're going to kill
him!” '
She wheeled the horse and headed
for the Limberlost. The alarm sound-
ed over camp. McLean sprang to Nel-
lie's back and raced after the angel.
As they passed Duncan he wheeled
ead followed. Soon the pike was an
irregular procession of harebacked
riders, wildly driving flying horses
toward the swamp.
[Continued next week.]
: Explained.
“I met Nippers just now and he ex-
claimed, ‘Tis a good old world!"”
“As a rule, Nippers is not at all
optimistic.”
“I know it, but it seems that he
recently swindled a in a
shrewd business deal”
| flammation, ulceration and female weak-
| natural creed, that “we are fearfully and
| wonderfully made,” yet he has no more
| heel. ph
Christianity by the teaching of a monk
named Gerebern, and it was under his
was cruelly put to death by the savage
less of his daughter's pleading for mercy,
seized her long hair, and with one blow
cut off her head; then, without waiting
to give his victims burial, he returned to
Ireland. After a time it began to be ru-
mored that strange miracles of healing
| from sickness and disease were brought
| on the scene of this horrible crime; and,
curiously enough, it was those afflicted
mentally who derived especial benefit.
ground, and soon a church was built and
dedicated to St. Dymphna, within which
the bones of the ma were laid torest
in a vault prepared for their reception
beneath the high altar.—Alice Isaacson
in the Atlantic.
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Miss Beflat—Yes. Most of the audi-
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yy . ri-taken. He is mere-
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