FREE LAND TRIBUNE. PBHI.ISUEII EVERY MONDAY AND THI'RSDAY. TIIOS®. A. BUCKLEY, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OFFICE: MAIN STREET ABOVE CENTRE. SUBSCRIPTION ICATKS. One Year 81 5b Six Months 75 Four Months 50 Two Mouths Subscribers are requested to observe the date following the name on the labels ol' their papers. By referring to this they can tell at a glance how they stand on the books in tills office. For instance: Grover Cleveland 28JunetM means that Grover is paid up to June 28,1804. Keep the figures in advance of the present date. Report promptly to this office when your paper is not received. All arrearages must bo paid when paper is discontinued, or collection will be made ill the manner provided by law. A blue "X" on the paper is a reminder that your subscriptiou is due. DEMOCRATIC TICKET. STATE. Judge of Supreme Court, Samuel G. Thompson Philadelphia Frank C. Osbourn Allegheny COUNTY. Treasurer, Roger McGnrry Wilkcs-Barro Register of Wills, Stanley Davenport Plymouth Controller, James W. Ray White Haven Commissioners, Thomas M. Dullard Wilkes-Bnrre Thomas McGraw Reach llaven Auditors, W. E. Bennett Wilkes-Banc John F. Neary Pittston FREEI.AND, PA., OCTODKR L'li, 1893. The largest single day's attendance at the centennial was 217,52G; at Paris, 397,150; at the World's fair, on Chicago Day, 757,025. A great town is Chicago, and all who have not seen it should get there before next Tuesday, when the fair closes. Coming into the world you must have standing room; going out you require a place to rest. You can get both by paying some other fellow for the privilege. He happened to get here before you. And this is the way society interpets the equal rights of all men to nature's gifts.— Ex. In Berlin an inventor has succeeded In devising a moans for insuring a complete combustion without tho emission of smoke, and his method has, on repeated tests, proved so sat isfactory that two of tho most import ant steam shipping companies of Ger many have decided on adapting it to their steamers. The race between the English loco motive, "Queen Empress," and the American, "No. 909," will take place early next month on the tracks of the New York Central, between Buffalo and A.lbam-. * The drive wheels of the American locomotive are eighty-six inches in diameter and those of the English engine eighty-five. Senator Sherman went home to bed and declined to engage in the con tinuous session of the senate. He is quoted by the Columbus DLyxitch's Washington correspondent as assign ing this reason: "The peoplo of Ohio elected me senator to represent them and their state in legislation on this floor. If they had desired one for physical endurance they would have chosen a younger and cheaper man." The fact that the last Thursday iu November is the laet day of the month, troubles some persons who aro in doubt whether Thanksgiving Day will be appointed for the 23d or 30th. The last Thursday has always been appointed for Thanksgiving Day and it will undoubtedly be set apart this year. In 1871, 1870 and 1882 Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on November 30. It will bo so cele-1 bratod in 1803. The leading theatrical managers' throughout the country have deter mined to entirely abandon show win dow advertising—that is, the custom of displaying lithographs of playe s and scenes from plays in store win dows. The managers claim the re sults from this system of advertising are far from satisfactory and that it has become practically useless. News paper advertising, they say, brings by far the best returns and they will adopt this method exclusively. These managers spent a big pile of money in finding out this simple fact. It would be very interesting to know bow much counterfeit silver coin is in circulation. It would be more interesting to know how it is possible to prevent the circulation of counterfeit coin of like device and fineness with the dollars turned out from the mint. The business of counterfeiting has been made more respectable since it no longer involves the necessity of debasement. A pre mium of 41) per cent, is now the re ward of the counterfeiter who puts as much value in his silver coin as there is in the government coin he imitates. In the west it is reported that largo quantities of spurious coin aro in circulation. "Orange Blossom," the common-sense female remedy, draws out pain and soreness. Sold by Amandus Oswald. " A fool I am, Pierre, or I'd be in ould Ireland at this minute, with a roof o' me own over me and the friends o' mo youth round me, and brats on me knee, and the fear o' God in me heart," Thus said Shon McGann to Pretty Pierre, tho French half-breed, in the course of a discussion on the prosperity >f the Pipi Valley. "Mais, Shon," mockingly rejoined lie Frenchman, "this is not Ireland, out there is much like that to be done lere —there is a roof and there is that •voinan at Ward's Mistake and the •>rats—eh, by and by?" them's face clouded; he hesitated, then replied sharply: "That woman, lo y' say, Pierre; she that nursed me when the Honorablo and meself were taken out of .Sandy Drift, more dead than livin'; she that brought me back to life as good as ever, barrin' this scar on me forehead and a stiffness at me elbow, and the Honorable as right as the sun, more luck to him!—which he doesn't need at all, with the wind of Fortune in his back andshiftin' neither to right nor left! That woman! faith, y'd better not cut the words so sharp betuii" yer teeth, Pierre." "But I will say more—a little —just the same. She nursed you, yes, that is good; but it is good also, I think, you pay her for that aud stop the rest j Women are fools, or else they are worse. This one?—she is worse. Yes; you will take my advice, Slion Mc- | Oann." The Irishman canicto his feet with a spring, and his words were angry. 4 Tt doesn't come well from Pretty Pierre, the gambler, to be revilin' a woman, and I throw it in yer lace, though I've slept under tho same blanket with ye, an' drank out of the Ramc cup 011 many a tramp, that you lie dirty and black when ye spake ill of —my wife." This conversation had occurred in a quiet corner of the barroom of the Saints' Kcpose. The first few sentences had not been heard by the other*- present; but Shon's last speech, deliv ered in a ringing tone, drew the miners to their feet, in expectation of seoine I shots exchanged at once. The code re quired satisfaction, immediate and de cisive. Shon was not armed, and some one thrust a pistoi toward him, but he did not take it Pierre rose, and, com ing slowly toward him, laid a slender finger on his chest and said: "So! I did not know that she was your wife. That is a surprise—yes." The minors nodded assont lie con tinued: "Lucy Itivos your wife! Ha, ha, Shon McUann! that is such a joke." "It's no joke, but God's truth, and the lie is with you, Pretty Pierre." Murmurs of anticipation ran round the room: but tho Frenchmun said: ' There will be satisfaction altogether; but it is my whim,to prove what I say first; then"—fondling his revolver— "then we shall settle! Hut,* see, you will m et mo here at ten o'clock tc "TSH, I (O! 1,1) Kill, YOl\ SIION M'GAKN. BO KABY! but IT is not my whim." night, and I will, make it, mon Dibu! so clear, that tho woman is vile. Yes, I think." ' The Irishman suddenly clutched the gambler, shook him like a dog, and threw him ugainst the farther wall. Pierre's pistol was leveled from the instant Shon moved; but he did not use it Ho rose on one knee after the violent fall, und point ing it at the other's head, said coolly: "I could kill you. Shon McGann, so *asy! Hut it is not my whim. Till ten o'clock is not long to wait, and then, just here, one of us shall die. Is it not so?" The Irishman did not flinch before the pistol. He said with low fierceness: "At ten o'clock, or now, or any time, or at any place, ye'll find me ready to break the back of the lies y've spoken, or be broken mesclf. Lucy Rives is my wife, nnd she's true and straight as the sun in the sky. I'll be here at ten o'clock, and as ye say, Pierre, one of us makes the long reckoning for this." And he opened the door and went out The Frenchman moved to the bar. and, throwing down a handful of sil ver, said: "It is good we drink after so much heat Come on, come on, racs amis." r lhc miners responded to the invita tion. Their sympathy was mostly with Shon McGann; their admiration was about equally divided; for Pretty Pierre had the quality of courage in as active degree as the Irishman, and they j knew that some extraordinary motive promising greater excitement was be hind the Frenchman's refusal to send a bullet through Shon's head a moment before. King Kinkley, the best shot in the Valley next to Pierre, had watched the unusual development of the incident with interest; and when his glass had been filled he said, thoughtfully: "This isn't according to Hoyle. There's never been any trouble just like this in the Valley before. What's that Mc- Gann said about the lady being bis wife? If it's the case where hev ve been in the show? where was we when the license was around? It isn't good citizenship, and I hev my doubts." Another miner, known as the Pres byterian, ad led: "There's some skul duggery in it, I guess. The lady has i had as much protection as if she was j the sister of every citizen of the place, jest as ipuch as Lady Jane here [Lady Jane, the sister of the proprietor of the Saints' Repose, administered drinks], and she's played this stacked hand ou us, haR gone one better on the sly." "Pierre," snid King Kinkley, "you're on the track of the secret, and appear to hov the excess of the lady; blaze it —blaze it out." Pierre rejoined: "I know something; but it is good we wait until ten o'clock. Then I will show you all the cards in the pack. Yes, so.'* And though there was some grum bling, Pierre had his way. The spirit of adventure and mutual interest had thrown the Frenchman, the Irishman, and the Honorable Just Trafford, to gether, on the cold side of the Canadian Rockies; and they had journeyed to this other side, where the warm breath from the Pacific passed to its congeal ing in the ranges. They had come to the Pipi field when it was languishing. From the moment of their coming its luck changed; it became prosperous. They conquered the Valley each after his kind. The Honorable—ho was al .vays called that—mastered its re sources by a series of "great lucks," as Pierre termed it, had achieved a for tune, and made no enemies; and but two months before the day whose inci dents are hero recorded, had gone to the coast on business. Shon had won the reputation of being a "white man," to say nothing of his victories in the region of gallantry. He made no wealth; he only got that he might spend. Irishmanlike he would barter tho chances of fortune for the lilt of a voice or the clatter of a pretty foot Pierre was different "Women, ah, uo!" he would say; "they make men ;'ools or devils." Ilis temptation lay not that way. When the Three first came to the Pipi Pierre was a miner, simply; but nearly ill his life he had been something else, is many a devastated pocket on the east of tho Rockies could bear witness; :ud his now career was alien to his •oul. Temptation grew greatly on him it the Pipi, and in the days before he yielded to it ho might have been seen .it midnight in his hut playing solitaire. \Vhy he abstained at first from practis ing his real profession is accounted for in two ways: he had tasted some of the weets of honest companionship with tho Honorable and Shon, and then he had a memory of an ugly night at Par lon's Drive a year before, when he 'tood over father's body shot to death by accident in a gamblingrow vhich owed its origin to himself. These hings" hud held him back for a time; out he was weaker than his ruling passion. The Pipi was a young and compara tively virgin field; the quarry was at lis hand. He did not love gain for its nvn sake; it was the game thut en liralled him. Ho would have played lis life against the treasury of a king dom, and, having won it with loaded loublo sixes, have handed back the noil as an unredeemable national lobt 110 fell at last, and in falling con quered the Pipi Valley; at tho same tine he was considered a fearless and iberal citizen, who could shoot as traight as he played well. He made in excursion to unother field, however, it an opportune time, and it was dur ng this interval that the accident to hon and the Honorable had occurred, ilc returned but a few hours before this quarrel with Shon occurred, and in he Saints' Repose, whither he had at >ncc gone, he was told of the accident While his informant related the inei ient and the romantic sequence of Shon's infatuation, the woman passed the tavern and was pointed out to Pierre. The Frenchman had not much •xeitableness in his nature; but when no saw this beautiful woman with a touch of the Indian in her contour, his pule face Hushed, and he showed his set teeth under his slight moustache. He watched her until she entered a shop, >n the signboard of which was written written since he had left a few months ago—Lucy Rives, Tobacconist Shon had then entered the Saints' Repose; and we know the rest A couple f hours after this nervous episode, Piere might have been seen standing in the hadow of the pines not far from the house at Ward's Mistake, where, ho had been told, Lucy Rives lived with an old Indian woman. He stool, scarcely mov ing, and smoking cigarettes, until the ioor opened. Shon came out and walked ilown the hillside to the town. Then Pierre went to the door, and, without knocking, opened it, and entered. A woman started up from a seat where she was sewing and turned towards him. As she did so, the work, Shon's coat, dropped from her hands, her face paled, and her eyes filled with fear. She leaned against a chair for support; this man's presence had weakened her 40. She stood silent, save for a slight moan that broke from her lips, as the Frenchman lighted a cigarette coolly, and then said to an old Indian woman who sat upon the floor braiding a basket: "Get up, Ikni, and go away— quick." Ikni rose, came over, and peecd into the face of the half-breed. Then she muttered: "I know you—l know you. The dead has come back again." She caught his arm with her bony fingers us if to satisfy herself that he was flesh and blood, and, shaking her head dole fully, went from the room. When the door closed behind her there was a si lence, broken only by an exclamation from the man. The other drew her hand across her eyes, and dropped it with a motion of despair. Then Pierre said, sharply: "Bien?" "Francois," she replied, "you are alive." "Yes, I am alive—quite, Lucy Rives." She shuddered, then grew still again and whispered: "Why did you let it bo thought that you were drowned? Why? Oh, why?" she moaned. He raised his eyebrow slightly, and j said, between the puffs of smoke: "Ah, yes, my Lucy, why? It was so long ago. Let me see: BO —so — eight years. Eight years is a long time, to remember, eh?" Ue came towards her. She drew back; but her haadremained ou the chair. Ho touched the plain gold ring on her finger, and said: "Vou will swear it To think of that so loyal, for a woman! How she re members, mon Dieu! .... Hut shall I not kiss you?—yes, just after eight years—my wife." She breathed hard and drew back against the wall, her eyes all dazed and frightened, and said: "No, Ro, do not come near me; do not speak to mo—ah, please, stand back, for a moment please!" He shrugged his shoulders slightly, and continued, with mock tenderness: "To think that things come round so! And here you have a home. Yes, that is good. I am tired of much travel and life all alone. The prodigal goes not to the home, the home comes to the prodigal." He stretched up his arms as if with a feeling of content "Do you—do you not know," she said, "that—that—" He interrupted her: "Do I not know, Lucy, that this is your yome? Yea Hut is it not all the same? I gave you a home eight years ago—to think, eight years ago! We quarreled one night and I left you. Next morning my boat was found be low the White Cascade —yes, but that was so stale a trick. It was not worthy of Francois Rivea He would do it so much better now; but he was young then; just a boy, and foolish. Well, sit down, Lucy, it is a long story, and you have much to tell, how much— who knows?" She came slowly forward and said, with a painful effort: "You did a great wrong, Francois Hives. You have killed mo." ' Killedyou, Lucy, my wife! Pardon! Never in those days did you look so HIIE BREATHED HARD, AND DREW RACK AGAINST THE WALL charming as now—never! Hut the great surprise of seeing your husband, it has made you shy—yes, quite. There will be much time to come for you to change all that It Is quite pleasant to think on, Lucy. . . . You re member the song we used to sing on Hie Chaudiere at St Antoine? See, 1 have not forgotten it— "'lly a longtemps queje t'aime; Jamais je ne t'oublierai.'" He hummed the lines over and over, watching through his half-shut eyes the torture he was inflicting. "Oh, Mother of God," she whispered, 'have mercy! Can you not see, do you not know? lam not as you have left me!" "Yes, my wife, you are just the Mame; not an hour older. lam glad that you have come to me. Voila, how they will envy Pretty Pierre!" "Envy Pretty—Pierre," she re peated, in distress; "are you—Pretty Pierre? Ah, I might have known, 1 might have known!" "Yes, and sol Is not Pretty Pierre is good a name as Francois Rives? Is it not as good as Shon McGann?" "Oh, I see it all, I see it all now," she mournfully said. "It was with you he quarreled, and about me. lie would not tell mo what it was. You know, then, that I am—that I am married—to him!" "Quito. I know all that; but it is no marriage." lie rose to his feet slowly, dropping the cigarette from his lips as ho did so. "Yes," he continued, "and 1 know that you prefer Shon McGann to Pretty Pierre." She spread out her hand appeallngly. "Hut you are my wife, not liia Lis ten, do you know what I shall do?— 1 will tell you in two hours. It is now 8 o'clock. At 10 o'clock Shon McUann will meet me at the Saints' Repose. Then you shall know. . . . Ah, it is a pity! Shon was my good friend, but this spoils all that Wine, it has danger; cards—there is peril in that sport; women—they make trouble most of aIL" "Oh, God," she pitifully said, "what have I done? There was no sin in me. I was your faithful wife, though you were cruel to mo. You left me, cheated me, brought this upon me. It is you that have done this wickedness, not I." She buried her face in her hands, falling on her knees beside the chair. He bent above her: "You the you avocat better, eight years aga" She sprang to her feet "Ah, now I understand," she said; "that was why you quarreled with me; why you de serted me—you were not man enough to say what made you so much the —so wicked and hard; so—" "Re thankful, Lucy, that I did not kill you then," he interjected. "But it is a lie," she cried; "a lie!" She went to the door and called the Indian woman. "Ikni," she said. "110 dares to say ovil of Andre and me. Think—of Andre!" Ikni came to him and put her wrinkled face close to his, and said: "She was yours, only yours; but the spirits gave you a devil. Andre, oh, oh, Andre! The father of Andre was her father—ah, that makes your sulky eyes to open. Ikni knows how to speak. Ikni nursed them both. If you had waited you should have known. But you ran away like a wolf from a coal of fire; you shammed death like a fox; you come back like the snake to crawl into the house and strike with poison took, when you should be with the worms in the ground. But Ikniknowß —you shall be struck with poison too, • the Spirit of the Red Knife waits for you. Andre, Andre, was of her father too." He pushed her aside savagely: "Be still!" he said; "get out—quick. Mon Dieu, quick!" When they were alone again he con tinued with lesa anger in his tone: "So Andro, the avocat and you—that, eh? Well, you see how much trouble has come; and now this other —a secret too! When were you married to Shon , Meflann?" "Last night," she bitterly replied; "a priest caine over from the Indian village." "Last night" he musingly repeated "last night I lost two thousand dol lars at the little Goshen field. I did not play well last night; I was nervous. In eight years I had not lost so much at one game as I did last night It was a punishment for playing too honest or something; eh, what do you think, Lucy—or something, eh?" She said nothing, but rocked her body to and fro. "Why did you not make the marriage with Shon to be known?" "He was to have told it to-night" she said. There was silence for a moment, then a thought flashed into his eyes, and he rejoined with a jarring laugh: "Well, I will play a game to-night Lucy Hives; such a game that Pretty Pierre will never be forgotten in the Pipi \ alley; a beautiful game, just for twa And the other who will play, all, the wife of Francois Rivos shall see if she is patient; but she must be patient, more patient than her husband was eight years ago." "What will you do?—tell me, what will you do?" "I will play a game of cards —just one magnificent game; and the cards shall not be stacked. All shall be fair quite, as when you and I played in the little house by the Chaudiere—at first, Lucy—before I was a deviL" Was this peculiar softness to his last tones assumed or real? She looked at him inquiringly; but he moved away to the window and stood gazing down the hillside towards the town below. "I will die," she said to herself in whispers—"l will die." A minute passed, and then Pierre turned and said to her: "Lucy, he is coming up the hill. Listen. If you tell him that 1 have seen you, I will shoot him on sight, dead. You would save him, for a little, for an hour or two —or more? Well, do as I say; for these things must be according to the rules of the game, and I myself will tell him all at the Saints' Repose. He gave me the lie there; I will tell him the truth before them aIL Will you do as I say?" She hesitated an instant and then re plied, "I shall not tell him." "There is only one way, then," he continued; "you must go at once from here into the woods behind there, and not see him at all Then at ten o'clock you will come to the Saints' Repose, if you choose, to know how the gumehas ended." She was trembling, moaning, no longer. A set look had come into her face; her eyes were steady and hard. She quitely replied: "Yes, I shall be there." He came to her, took her hand, and drew from her finger the wedding-ring which lust night Shon McGann had placed there. She submitted passively. Then with an upward wave of his fingers he spoke in a mocking light ness, but without any of the malice that had firHt appeared in his tones, words from an old French song VI say no more, my lady— M iron too, mironton, mirontulno! I my no more, my lui\y, AH nought more cun bo Raid." He opened the door, motioned to the Indian woman, and in a few moments the broken-hearted Lucy Rives and her companion were hidden in the pines; and Pretty Pierre also disappeared into the shadow of the woods as Shon Mc- Gann appeared on the crest of the hill. The Irishman walked slowly to the door and pausing, said to himself: "I couldn't run the big risk, me darlin', without secin' you again, God held me! There's danger ahead which little I'd care if it wasn't for you." Then he stepped inside the house. The place was silent He called, but no one answered. He threw open the .loors of the rooms but they were •mpty; ho went outside and called again, but no reply came except the swish of a nighthawk's wings and the cry of a whip-poor-will. He went buck into the house and sat down with his head between his hands. So, for a moment and then ho raised his head, and said with a smile: "Faitfr, Shon, me boy, this takes the life out of ye!— ihe empty house where she ought to be, and the smile of her so sweet and I the hand of her that falls on yer shoulder like a dove on the blessed altar—gone, and lavin' a chill on y'r heart like a touch of tho dead. Sure, nlvir a wan of me saw any that could stand wid her for goodness, barrin' the angel that kissed me good-bye with one foot in the stirrup an' tho troopers behind me, now twelve years gone, in ould Donegal, and that I'll nivir see again, she lyin' where the hate of the world will vex the heart of her no more, and the masses gone up for her soul. Twice, twice in yer life, Shon McGann, has the cup of God's joy been at yer lips, and is it both times that it's to spill?— Pretty Pierre shoots straight and sudden, and may be it's aisy to see the end of it; but as tho just God is above us, I'll give him the lie in his throat again for the word he said agin me darlin'. What's tho avil thing that he has to say? What's the Satan's proof he would bring? And where is she now?—where are you, Lucy? I know the proof I've got in me heart, that the wreck of the world couldn't shake, while that light, born of Heaven, swims up to your eyes whin you look at me." He rose to his feet agaiu and walked to and fro;, t he went once more to the doors; he looked here and there through tho growing dusk, but to no purpose. She had said that she would not go to her shop this night; but if not, then where could she have gone and lkni, too? He felt there was more awry in his life than he eared to put into thought or speech. He picked up the sewing she had dropped and looked at it as one would regard a relic of tho dead; he lifted her handkerchief, kissed it, and put it in his breast He took a revolver from his pocket and examined it closely, looked round tho room as if to fasten it in his memory, and then passed out, closing the door behind him. He walked down the iiilisi le >i • ! went to her shop in the one 1 < the town, but she was not there, nor had the lad in charge seen her. Meanwhile Pretty Pierre had made his way to the Saints' Kepose, and was sitting among the minerß, indolently smoking, in vain he was asked to play cards. His one reply was: "No, par don, no! I play one game only to night, the biggest game ever played in the Pipi Valley." In vain, also, was he asked to drink. He refused the hospi tality, defying the danger that such lack of good-fellowship might briug forth. He hummed in snatches to him self the words of a song that the Brules were wont to sing when they hunted the buffalo: "Volla! It la the sport to ride; Ah, ah, tho brave hunter! To thruat tho arrow in his hide. To send tho bullet through his side— Ici, the bufl'ulo, Joli! Ah, ah, the buffalo! lie nodded here and there as men entered, but he did not stir from his seat. lie smaked incessantly, and hid eyes faced the door of the barroom that entered upon the street There was no doubt in the minds of any present that the promised excitement would occur. Shon McGann was as fearless as he was gay. The Pipi Val ley remembered the day in which he had twice risked his life to save two women from a burning building—Ladv Jane and another. And Lady Jane this evening was agitated, and once or twice furtively looked at something under the bar counter: in fact, a close observer would have noticed anger or anxiety in the eyes of the daughter of Dick Waldron, the keeper of the Saints' Iteposo; Pierre would certainly have seen it had ho been looking that way. An unusual influence was working upon the frequenters of the Saints' Re pose. Planned, premeditated excite ment was out of their line. Unexpect edness was the salt of their existence. This thing had an air of system not in accord with the suddenness of tho Pipi mind. Tho half-breed was tho ouly jnc entirely at his ease; he was lan guid and nonchalant; tho long lashes of his half-shut eyes gave his face a pensive look. At last King Kinkley walked over to him and said: ' Thero's an almighty mysteriousness about this event that isn't joyful. Pretty Pierre. We want to see this muss cleared up, of course; wo want Shon McGann to act like a high-toned citizen; and there's a general prejudice in favor of things being on the flat of your palm, as it were—this thing hangs fire, and there's a lack of animation about it, isn't there?" To this Pretty Pierre replied: "What can I do? This is not like other thiugs; one has to wait; great things take time. To shoot is easy, but to shoot is not all, as you shall see if you have pa tience a little. Ah, mon ami, where there is a woman things arc different I throw a glass in your face, we shoot, some one dies, and there it is quite plain of reason; you play a card which was dealt just now, I call you—something, and the swiftest finger does the trick; but when there is a woman one must wait for the sport" It was at this point that Shon McGann entered, looked round, nodded to all, and then came forward to the table where Pretty Pierre sat As the French man took out his watch Shon said firmly but quietly: "Pierre, I gave you the lie to-day concerning me wife, and I'm fiero, as I said I'd be, to stand by the word I passed then." Pierre waved his fingers lightly towards tho other and slowly rose. Then ho said in sharp tones: "Yes, Shon McGann, you gave mo the lie. There is but one thing for that n the Pipi Valley. You choked me; I would not take that from a saint of heaven; but there was another thing to do first Well, I have done it; I said I would bring proofs—l have them." He paused, and now there might be seen & shining moisture on his forehead, and his words came menacingly from be tween his teeth, while the room be came breathlessly still, save that in the silence a sleeping dog sighed heavily. "Shon McGann," he said, "you are living with my wife!" Twenty men drew in a deep breath of excitement, and Shon came a step nearer to the other and said in a strange voice: "I—am —living—with— your— wife?" "As I say, with my wife, Lucy Rives. Francois Rives was my name eight years ago. Wo quarreled. I left her, and I never saw her again until to night You went to see her two hours nga You did not find her. Why? She was gone because her husband, Pierre, told her to go. You want o proof? You shall have it. Here is the wedding ring you gave her last night" He handed it over, and Shon saw in side it his own name and hers. "My God!" he said, "did she know? Tell me she did not know, Pierre!" "No; she did not know. I have truth to speak to-night I was jealous, mad, and foolish, and I left her. My boat IIE I.IFTED-HER HANDKERCHIEF, KISSER IT was found upset They believed I wair drowned. Hien, she waited until yes terday, and then she took you —buV she was my wife—she is my wife —and so you see! The Irishman was deadly pale. "It's an avil heart y* had in y' then, Pretty Pierre, and it's an avil day that brought this thing to pass, anil there's only one way to the end of it" "Yes, that is true. There is only one way," was tho reply; "but what shall that way be? Someone must go; there must be no mistake. I have to propose: here on this table we lay a revolver. We will give up these which we have in our pockets. Then we will play a iramo of euchre, and the winner of the •:,me shall have the revolver. We will j p.ay for a life. That ia fair, eh—thai is fair, eh—that is fair?" he said to those around. King Kink ley, speaking* for the rest, replied: "That's about fair. It gives both a chance, and leaves only two when it's over. While the woman lives one of you is naturally in the way. Pierre left her in away that isn't hand some; but a wife's a wife, and though Shou was all in the glum about the thing, and though the woman isn't to be blamed either, there's one too many of you, and there's got to be a vaca tion for somebody. Isn't that so?" The rest nodded assent They had been so engaged that they did not see a woman enter the bar from behind, and crouch down beside Lady Jane, a woman whom the latter touched affec tionately on the shoulder and whis pered to once or twice while she TIIK LAST DEAL WAS SIION'S. watched the ominous preparations for the game. The two men satdown, fchon McGann facing the bar and Pretty Pierre with his back to it The game began, neither man show ing a sign of nervousness, though Shon was still pale. The game was to finish for ton points. Men crowded about the tables silent and keenly excited; cigars wero chewed instead of smoked, and liquor was left undrunk. At the first deal Pierre made a march, securing two. At the next Shon make a point, and at the next also a inarch. The half-breed was playing a straight game. He could have stacked the cards, but ho did not do so; deft as ho was ho might have, cheated even the vigilant eyes about him, as he had done before; but he played as squarely as a novicdT At the third, at the fourth deal he made a march; at the fifth, sixth and seventh deals Shon made a march, a poiut, and a march. Iloth now had eight pointa At the next deal both got a point, and both stood at nine! Now came the crucial play. During the progress of the game noth ing had been heard save tho sound of a knuckle on the table, tho Hip-ilip of tho pasteboard or the rasp of a heel on the floor. There was a set smile on Shon's face—a forgotten smile, for the rest of the face was stern and tragic. Pierre smoked cigarettes, pausing, while li s opponent was shuffling and dealing, to light them. Behiud tho bar a9 the game proceeded the woman who knelt beside Lady Jane listened to every sbund. Iloreyes grew more and more agonized as the num bers, whispered to her by her compan ion, climbed to the fatal ten. The last deal was Shon's; there was that much to his advantage. As he slowly dealt tho woman—Lucy Rives— rose to her feet behind Lady Jane. So absorbed were all that uone saw her. Her eyes passed from Pretty Pierre to Shon McGann and stayed. When tho cards were dealt, with but one point for either to gain and so win and save his life, there was a slight pause before the two took them up. They did not look at one another; but each glanced at the revolver, then at the men nearest to them, and lastly, for uu instant, at the cards themselves, with their pasteboard faces of life and death turned downward. As the play ers picked them up at last and spread them out fan-like, Lady Jane slipped something into tho hand of Lucy Itives. Those who stood behind Shon Mc- Gann stared with anxious astonishment at his hand; it contained only nine and ten spots. It was easy to see tho di rection of tho sympathy of Pipi Valley. Tho Irishman's face turned a slight shade paler then, but ho did not trem ble or appear disturbed. Pierre played his biggest card and took the point, lie coolly counted 0110 and said: "Game. 1 win." Tho crowd drew back. Iloth rose to their feet. In the painful silenco tho half-breed's hand was gently laid on tho revolver, lie lifted it and paused slightly, his eyes fixed on the steady look in those of Shon McGann. Ho raised tho rovolvor again till it was level with Shon's forehead, till it was even with his hair! Then there was a shot and some one fell, not Shon, but Pierre, saying, us they caught him: "Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! From behind!" Instantly there was another shot and some one crashed against the bottles in tho bar. The other factor in the game, the wife, had shot at Pierre and tlieu sent a bullet through her own lungs. Shon stood for a moment us if he was turned to stone, and then his head dropped in his arms upon the table. He had seen both shots fired, but could not speak in time. Pierre was severely, but not danger ouslj' wounded in the neck and shoul der. Hut the woman—? They brought her out from behind the counter. She still breathed; but on her eyes was tho flim of coming death. She turned to where Shon sat. Her lips framed his name, but no voice came forth. Soino one touched him on tho shoulder. Ho looked up and caught her last glance, lie came and stooped beside her; but she had die<T with that one glanco from j him bringing a faint smile to her lips. And the smile stayed when the life of | her had fled—fled through the cloud I over her eyes, irom the tide-beat of her j pulse. j Shon McGann stood sileut above tho ! dead body. One by one tho miners went out quietly. Pretty Pierre nodded towards the door also, and King Kinkley and another lifted him and carried him to wards it. Before they passed into the street he made them turn him so that he could sec Shon. lie waved his hand towards her that had been his wife and said: "She should have shot but onco and straight, Shon McGann, and then! —Eh, well!" The door closed, and Shon McGann was left alone with the dead.
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