{ title: 'The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.) 1913-1925, December 19, 1924, Page 3, Image 3', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about Chronicling America - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053031/1924-12-19/ed-1/seq-3.png', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053031/1924-12-19/ed-1/seq-3.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053031/1924-12-19/ed-1/seq-3/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053031/1924-12-19/ed-1/seq-3/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
About The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.) 1913-1925 | View This Issue
The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.), 19 Dec. 1924, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053031/1924-12-19/ed-1/seq-3/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
, CHAPTER XIV— Continued \ —16— ■“Judith, Judith,’’ the girl whispered after the first outburst, when she found that she was shaking pitifully. ^‘You’ve got to do better than this; I’m ashamed of you.\ ■ She went back to her couch, where ¿he sat down seeking to hold her Jangling nerves In check. But, despite her intention, she sat shaking, lis tening, listening—praying for even the footfall of her jailer. When- Ruth was with her she at tempted in a hundred ways to gauge the woman’s warped brain, to seek some way to get the better of her, to gain her trust and so to slip away. But she found that here was the us- - tial cunning born of madness, and that Ruth’s one idea was to keep the girl who had escaped her once but who must never escape again. There were times when suspicion awakened in Ruth’s mind, and she broke into vio lent rage, so that her big body shook and her eyes in the lantern-light were cruel and murderous, when Judith shrank back, and tried to change the woman’s thoughts. For more than once had Mad Ruth cried out: “I’ll kill you! Kill you with my own hands to keep you here. To keep you mine, mine, mine!” The woman carried no weapon, but after her two hands had once gripped the girl’s shoulders, shaking her, Ju dith knew that Ruth needed no wea pon. Hers was a strength greater than Trevors’, greater than two men’s. If Mad Ruth saw fit to' kill Judith with her two hands, she could do it. Sunday passed and Sunday night; .Monday and Monday night. Judith knew that she had accomplished noth ing, except perhaps to make Ruth be- Jleve that she was very much of u coward. In Ruth’s mad brain that was little enough, since this did not .allay her cunning watchfulness. Tiien Judith began to do something else, something actively. Just to be oc cupied, was something. Her fingers »elected the largest, thickest branch •from her bed of fir-boughs. It was per- •ps a couple of inches In diameter -.and heavy, because it was green. SI , Jently, cautious of a twig snapped, she began with her fingers to strip the branch, tough and pliable. Then the limb must be cut into a length which would make It a club to be used In ■a cramped space. She found a bit o f stone, hard granite, which had -acaled from the walls and which hod a rough edge. With this, working many a quiet hour, she at last cut In two the fir-bough. She lifted it in her hands, to feel the weight of It, before «he thrust it under her bed to lie hid den there against possible need. Poor thing as it was, she felt no longer ■utterly defenseless. Once Mad Ruth, lighting the lan tern, had dropped a good match. When she had gone, Judith secured Jt hastily, hiding It as If it were golcl, She knew that now and then Mad Ruth went down the cliffs and to the cnbin across the chasm. Always at .night and at the darkest hour. When Mad Ruth, Lighting the Lantern, Had Dropped a Good Match. she heard her go, Judith rose swiftly and went to the heavy door. Always she found It locked; her shaking at it hardly budged the heavy timbers. But though she could not see It, she studied It with her fingers until she had a picture of It In her mind. A picture that only increased her hope lessness. Barehanded she could never liope to break it down or push it aside. And above It and below, and on each side, were the solid wnlls of stone. She no longer knew what day it was. She scarcely knew If it were day or night. But. setting herself something to do so that she would not go mad, mad os Mad Ruth, she secured for herself another weapon. Another .bit of stone which her groping fingers had found and hidden with her club; a jagged, ugly rock half the size of a man’s head. Some little scraps of bread and meat, -hoarded from her scanty meals, she hid in her blouse. “If I could stun her, just stun her,” she got into the way of whispering to herself. “Not kill her outright— just stun her ------ \ At last, seeing that she must work her (own. salvation with, the crude weapons given her, Judith told her self that she could wait no longer. Another day and another and she would b'e weak from the confinement and poor food and nervous, wakeful hours. She must act while the strength was in her. And, If Trev ors had spoken ‘ the truth, if there were a man to deal with outside— well, she must shut her mind to that until she came to it. Mad Ruth was gone again, and Ju dith stood by the thick door, her heart beating furiously while she waited. It seemed to her eager im patience that Ruth would never come back. Then after a long, long time she heard a little scraping sound upon the rock ledge outside, the sound of a quick step. And then, be fore she heard the snarling, ugly voice which she had heard once and had never forgotten, she knew that tills time she had waited too long, that it was not Ruth coming. . One man—and there- might be oth ers. She stepped back to her bed, hid the two weapons and waited. She must make-no mistakes-now. The door was flung open. Outside It was dark, pitch-dark. But evident ly the man entering had no fear of being seen. He threw down a bundle of dry fagots, and set fire to them. The blaze, leaping up, casting wav ering glenms to where Judith stood, showed her plainly the twisted, ugly face of Quinnlon, his red-rimmed eyes peering at her. filled with evil light. “»Ihe better to see you by, my dear!\ was Quinnion’s word of greet ing. Judith made no answer. She drew a little farther back into the shadows, a little closer to the things she had hidden among the fir- branches. “Ho,\ sneered Quinnlon, his mood from the first plain enough to read in the glimpses \of his face and in the added harshness of his voice. “Timid little fawn, huh? By G— d, a man would say from the-bluff you put' up that It was all a dream about flndln’ you an’ the han’some Lee In the cabin together! Stan’ off all you d—n please; I’ve come to tame you, you little beauty of the big innocent eyes!\ Not drunk; no, Quinnlon was never drunk. But, as he came a step closer, (lie heavy air of the cave grew heavier with the whisky he carried, whisky enough to stimulate the evil within hlmr^fint to quench it. “Stand back!” cried Judith, with a sharp intake of breath. “I want to talk with you, Chris Quinnlon.” “So you know who I am, do you? Well, much good it’ll do you,\ “I know who you are and what you are.’’ she told him defiantly, suddenly sick of her long hours of playing baby, knowing at the moment less fear than hatred and loathing. “ Listen to me: Bayne Trevors has come out In the open at last; he has made his big play and is going to lose out on it. Your one chance now is to let me go and to go yourself. Go fast and far, Chris Quinnlon. For when the law knows the sort Bayne Trevors is and how you have worked hand and glove with him, It will know just how much his word was worth when lie swore you were’ with him when father was killed! Coward and cur and mur dered !’’ Quinnlon laughed at her. “Little pussy-cat,\ he jeered. “You’ve got claws, have you? And you spit and growl, do you? Want me to let you go hack to that swaggering lover of yours, do you? Back to Lee ------ ’’ “That’s enough, Quinnlon,\ she said sharply. “Is it?\ He laughed at her again, and again came on toward her, the red-rimmed evil of his eyes driving quick fear at last into her. “Enough? Why, curse you and curse him, I haven’t begun yet! When I’m through with you I’ll go fast enough. And he can have you then an’ d—n wel come to him!” “Stop!\ cried Judith. I-Iis laughter did not reach her ears now, but as he kicked the fire at his foot and the flames leaped and showed his face, she read the laughter in his soul; read It through the gleam ing eyes, the twisted mouth which showed the teeth at one side in a hor rible leer. His long arms thrust out before him, he came on. “Oh, my G—d!\ cried Judith. “My G—d !” fl’nen suddenly she was silent She thought that she had known the ut termost of fear and -now for the first time did she fully know what terror was. His strength was many times her strength,' his brutality was un bounded, she was alone with him. There was no one to call to. not even Ruth, the mad woman. She was shaking now, shaking so that she could barely stand. Quinnlon came on, his long arms out. . . . She felt the strength die out of her hody, grew for a moment blind and dizzy and sick. She tried again to call out to him-, to plead with him. But her voice stuck In her throat. He was gloating over her, a look strangely like Mad Ruth's in his eyes. Good G—d ! He was like Mad Ruth ; the same eyes, the same long, power ful ,arms, the same look of cunning! In a flash there came to her a suspi cion which was near certainty: this man was blood of Mad Ruth’s blood, bone of her bone; her son, and, like her, tainted with madness. He shot out a long arm, his hand barely brushing her shoulder. She shrank back. He stood, content to pause a moment, to gloat further over her. “You little beauty,\- he said, pant ing. “You little white and pink and brown beauty!’’ Judith had shuddered when he touched her. But a strange thing had happened to her. His touch had angered her so that she almost for got to be afraid, angered her so that the loathing was gone in white hoi hatred, giving her back her old strength. Now, though he had the brutal force of a strong man, Quinnlon did not have the swiftness of movement of an alert, desperate girl. Before he could grasp her motive she leaped to ward him and toward the bed of boughs, found the ragged stone, and lifting it high above her head flung it full into his face. The man staggered back, crying out In throaty harshness, a cry of blind rage. But he did not fall, did not pause more- than a brief instant. A little dazed, with blood in his eyes, he lunged toward her. She had found the club now and struck with all her might, again beating into ills face and again and again. He sought to grapple with her and she beat him back. She saw his hand go to his hip and heard him curse her, and she leaped In on him and, panting with the blow, struck again. He flung up his arm. She struck once more. Tak ing the blow full across the face. Quinnlon reeled back, stumbled at an uneven spot In the rock floor, bal anced, almost falling. . . . Only a moment he held thus. But there was a chance to pass him in the narrow way, and she * took her chance, her heart beating wildly. Arid as she shot by she struck again. Site heard him after her, sitouting curses, stumbling a little, coming on. The door wns open, thank God, the door was open! She shot through. If she could but take time to close it! But there wns no time for that; he wns almost at her heels. And out side was the ledge and the dizzy cllml down. If she slipped, If she fell, well, It would just be a clean death nnd noth ing more. Quinnlon was but a few steps behind her. He had not fired Had he perhaps dropped his gun back there in the darkness? Or was lie so sure of taking her, alive and strug gling, into ills arms in another mo ment? She was on the ledge. It was dark, pitch-dark. But she found a hand hold, threw herself flat down and thrust her feet out over the ledge, less afraid of what lay below than what came on behind her. She was grip ping the ledge now with her hands, nl ready torn and bleeding, her feet swinging, touching sheer rock wall, slipping, seeking a foothold. Quinnlon was Just there, above her. She must move her hands so that he could not reach her. It seemed an eternity that she hung there, seeking a place some where to set her feet. She found it, another lesser ledge which she had almost missed, and knew that this way she had clambered upward with Bayne Trevors. If she could only find another step and an other before Quinnlon came upon her!- She held her club In ner teeth; she must not let that go. Quinnlon was over the ledge, fol lowing her. She heard his heavy breathing, heard him cursing her again. She was going so slowly, so slowly, nnd Quinnlon would know the way better than she. Quinnlon would make better time in the dark. She moved along this lower ledge. At each Instant she. wondered if It were to be her last, if she were go ing to fall, If a swift drop through the darkness would be the end of life. Suddenly there was scarce room in the girl’s breast for hatred of Chris Quinnlon, so filled wns it with the love of life. She wonted to see the sun come up again, she wanted the sweet breath of the dawn in her nos trils, the beauty of a sunlit world In her eyes. She thought of Bud Lee. Clinging to the rocks, hanging on desperately, taking a score of des perate chunces momentarily, she made her way on and down.. She found scant handhold and, almost falling, dropped her club, heard It strike, strike again. Black as the night was, its gloom was less than that of the cavern to which Judith had grown ac customed; little by IRtle she began to make out the broken surface of the cliffs. The chasm below was a pool of Ink; above were the little stars; in the eastern sky, low down, was a promise of the rising moon. The surge of quickening hope came into her heart Had she hurt Quln- nion more than she had guessed? FOr, slowly as she made her hazardous way down, It seemed to her that Quin nlon came even more slowly. Could she but once get down Into the gorge below, could she slip along the course of the racing stream, she might run nnd the sound of her steps would be lost even to her own ears In the sound of the water; the sight of her flying body would be lost to Quin nion’s eyes. Then she heard him laughing above her. Laughing, with a snarl and a curse in his laugh, and something of malicious triumph. Was he so cer tain of her then? “Ruth!’’ called Quinnlon. “Oh, Ruth! Tire girl’s gettln’ away. Goln’ down the rocks. Head her off at the bottom.\ Judith had found, because her fate was good to her, the long slanting crack in the wall of rock up which she had come that duy with Bayne Trev ors. There was still dunger of a fall, hut the danger was less now than 'it had been ten seconds ago. She could move more swiftly now and confidence had begun to come to her that she could elude Quinnlon. But now, suddenly, she heard Mad Ruth’s voice screaming a shrill answer to Quinniou’s shout; knew that Ruth had been in her cnbin across the gorge and was running to Intercept her at the foot of the cliffs. Well, still there was a race to be run nnd the odds not entirely uneven. Ruth must descend the other side of the canyon, get down into the gorge, make the crossing, which, so far as Tuditli knew, might be farther up or farther down stream, come to the cliffs below Judith before Judith her self made her way down. Again Judith took what risks the night and the rocks offered her and thanked God in her soul that It was given her to take a chance In the open, to use her own muscles in her own fight, not to lie longer, playing the part of a do-nothing. Now and then, across the void, there floated to her a little moaning cry from the mad woman’s lips. Now and then she heard a curse from Quinnlon above; >ften from above her, from below her own feet, from across the chasm, drop ping stones,-falling almost sheer, told of haste nnd death which might come from an unlucky step. Fast ns Judith went /low, having a fair sort of cliff trail under her Mad Ruth went faster. The gorge measured a scant fiftv feet between them and the girl’s alert senses told her that already Ruth wns on n level with her. . Ruth wns winning in the desperate race. She knew her way down so perfectly, her heart was so filled with madness, that danger was nothing to her. Down nnd down climbed Judith, caution wedded to haste, ns she told herself that she lmd a chance yet. flint that chance must not be tossed away in a fall, though It were but a few feet. She must have no sprained ankle If she meant to see the sun rise tomorrow. The flush had brightened in the sky where the moon wns so near the ridge. The moon, too, had joined in the race; with one quick glance to ward it, Judith again discarded cau tion for haste. She must get down into the floor o f the canyon before the moonlight did; she must be running before its radiance showed her oul to Quinnlon and Ruth. Her hands were cut nnd bleeding, her heart was beating wildly, alreadj her body wns sore nnd bruised. But these things she did not know. She only knew that Quinnlon wns still coming on above her, and coming more swiftly now, quite as swiftly as she herself moved, since his feet, too, were In the better trail; thnt Mad Ruth had completed the descent across the chasm and by now must be crossing the stream upon some fallen log or rude bridge; that one minute more, or perhaps two, would decide her fate. She could see the stream, glinting palely In the starlight. It seemed very near; its thunder filled her ears. Down she went and down, down un til at last she wns not ten feet above Its surface, with a strip of gently sloping bank just under her. She stopped, took firm hold upon a knob of boulder, prepared to swing down and drop to the bottom. And, as she stooped, she heard a little whining moan just under her and straight ened up, tense and terrified. Mad Ruth was there before her, Mad Ruth was waiting. CHAPTER XV Alone in the Wilderness And Quinnlon was coming on. She was trapped, enught between the two of them. She heard Quinnlon laugh again; he, too, had heard Ruth. \Ob God help me!\ whispered Ju dith. \God help me now!\ There was no time to hesitate. If she stood here. Quinnlon would in a moment wrap his arms about her; if she dropped down, she would be In the frenzied clutch of Mad Ruth. A second she rrouehed; peering down Into the gloom below her, seek ing to make out the form of the mad woman. Then she did not merely drop, but jumped, lnnding fair upon the waiting figure, striking with her boots on Mad Ruth’s ample shoulders. A. scream of rage from Ruth, a little, strangling cry from Judith, and the two fell together. Ruth clutched as she went down and a hand closed over the girl’s ankle. Judith rolled, struck again with the free hoot, twisted sharply and felt the grip torn loose from her ankle. She was freo. She jumped up nnd ran and knew that Ruth wns running just behind her, screaming terribly. Judith fell, nnd her heart grew sick within her. But again she wns up Just as Ruth’s hand clutched at her skirt, clutched and was torn away ns Judith run on Quinnlon cursed from above as she had not yet heard him curse. Ruth reviled both her and Quinnlon for hav ing .let her go. Judith wns running swiftly and felt thnt she could get the better of the heavier, older woman In a race of this sort. She stumbled nnd fell, and Jumpod, Striking With Her Boots, on Mad Ruth's Ample Shoulders. feur again gripped her; It seemed so long before she could rise and clamber over a fallen log nnd race on. But the dnrkness which tricked her pro tected her at the same time, playing no favorites now. Ruth, too, hnd fallen; Ruth, too, wus frenzied at the brief delay. Stumbling, falling, rising, stagger ing back from a tree Into which she had run full tilt, bruised and torn, the girl ran on. At every free step hope shot upward In her heart; at every fall she grew sick with dread. The canyon broadened rapidly, the ground underfoot grew less broken and littered with boulders and logs. 'Through tungles of brush she went blindly, throwing herself forward, failing, rising, falling, rising again. It was a nightmare of n race, with Ruth always just there, almost at her heels. She turaed ns far away from the stream ns she could, keeping under the cliffs where there wns less brush; where the way was more open, where ihe shadows were thickest. She wns outdistancing Mad Ruth. Ruth’s weird voice came from a great er distance; the woman was ten, may be twenty, feet behind her. The moon nt last rose pnie gold above the eastern ridge. And now Judith could thank God for It. For the canyon had widened more nnd more, the banks of the rtver were studded with big trees, there were wide open spaces between them through which she shot like a fright ened deer, turning this way and that, darting about a clump of little firs, plunging into the shadows under great sky-seeking cedars, running ns she had never run before and as she knew Mad Ruth could not run. Free! She wns free. The triumph of it danced in her blood. On she ran and now Quinnion’s voice and Ruth’s were confused with the roar of the river. On she ran and on and on. and but faintly there came to her the sound of breaking brush somewhere behind her. Never hnd her blood sung within her ns it sang now; never had the dim, moonlit solitudes of the mountains opened their sheltering arms to one more grateful to slip into them, like a wounded child into thp soothing dmbrace of its mother. Now again she turned so that hei flying steps brought her close to the water’s edge. Louder and louder grew its shouting voice in her ears little by little drowning out the sounds of Ruth and Quinnlon behind her Now, In all the glorious night, there was no sound to reach her but the sound of running water and her own beating feet. She was free, (TO BE CONTINUED.) Pearls consist of layers of delicate material .inclosing some foreign par tide, usually a parasite. H a l l ’ s C a t a ü f isaC o m b incd. -1 tcsct&coc^opcn^ local and internal, and haa bcen fu l In the treatment o f.C a t a n h -;4&AOV>£ forty yean. Sold by all F. J. C H E N E Y & C O . , T o l e d o , Ohio* Baby Tortured Day and Night by Eczema ” L\V - R e tinol Stopped Itching a n d . H e a led Sick Skin .Brooklyn, N. Y., May 10:—-“ I thought it might interest you to know how much Besinol has done for my baby. Her face was covered with scabs and the itching was ' so severe I had to keep stockings on her hands to keep her from scratch ing. I had to be up at' night as it bothered her .so shecould not sleep. Two doctors, one o f them a skin specialist, told me she had eczema. I tried several remedies, but noth ing helped, so when I read in the paper about Besinol, I thought I would givedt a trial. I can’t praise it enough, for it has done wonders for the baby’s skin and she sleeps all through the night now. I would advise anyone with a similar case to try Resinol Ointment.” (Signed) Mrs. Rose Goersdorf, 27 Furman Avenue. All druggists «¡11 Realnol Soap and Ointment, Vanity Cost Life The Assyrians were a luxurious and beauty-loving people, and both men and women were addicted to an elaborate use of cosmetics. According to history, tlie last monarch, by name Snrdana- palus, “dressed and painted like fils women,” and it is due to this vanity that he met his death. One of his gen erals visiting him found him penciling his eyebrows and stabbed him. Boschee’s Syrup Allays Irritation, soothes and heals throat and lung Inflammation. The constant irritation of a cough keeps the delicate mucus membrane of the throat and lungs In a congested con dition, which BOSCHEE’S SYRUP gently and quickly heals. For this reason it has been a favorite house hold remedy for colds, coughs, bron chitis and especially for lung troubles In millions of homes all over the world for the last fifty-eight years, ennbllng the patient to obtain a good night’s rest, free from coughing with easy expectoration In the morning. You can buy BOSCHEE’S SYRUP wherever medicines are sold.—Adv. Her riot’s Mascot Hungry Tiie governor of Frencii Indo-Ciilna has given Premier Herriot of France a costly pet. It is an elephant eleven years old and weighing 2,044 pounds. On the trip from Indo-Ciilna to France it ate 400 bunches of bananas for which the premier lmd to pay. In desperation be has 'sent it to the Lyons zoo. Turn flattery upside down and you have slander. Permanent roads are a good The investment —not an expense H i g h C o s t o f P o s t p o n i n g P e r m a n e n t H i g h w a y B u i l d i n g Poor motor roads stifle industry and agriculture; waste huge sums annu ally in high maintenance costs, and greatly increase gasoline, tire and repair bills. There is not a state, nov. a county, not a commu nity, that isn’t paying a heavy p r ice for having too few permanent roads. T h e re are still many eecdons o f th e co u n t r y — e v e n w h o le states— that are trying to operate tw e n t ie th c e n tu r y traffic o v e r nineteenth century roads. T h is Is costing millions o f d o l lars every year, and w ill keep o n costing millions until w e have w ell developed permanent h igh way systems everywhere. Even what w e often call the more progressive communities ere far behind the demands o f modern highway traffic w ith its 16,000,000 motor vehicles. From the A tlantic to the Pa cific, a n d from Canada to M e x ico , weneed more C oncrereroads — the roads for twentieth cen tury traffic. Y o u r highway officials want to be o f the greatest possible service t o y ou. G e t b ehind them with ways and means that w ill provide more Concrete roads and streets. S u c h an investment w ill pay you b ig dividends year after year. PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION 1 1 1 West Washington Street C H I C A G O > * %4 N a tional O r x tn ix ttion t o I mprove ; mmd E xtend t i t U * n o f C em ent», Office*In29CitUs , .... ; •' —'^ - - a » - ,M**ì
