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He was not old enough to realize that when the fires of desire and the fear of death begin to sear a boy's mind, adolescence is passing and manhood has all but arrived. Judith, who had accomplished her fifteenth birthday in March, a day or so before Doug arrived at the dignity of seventeen, had changed too.
Charleton Falkner, Jr.! I'll tell you, Doug, you'll never know what happiness life can hold for you till a woman like Marion gives you a son." "Say!" cried Douglas in an outraged voice. "What's all this talk you've been giving me for a year about whiskey and women and horses?" Charleton did not hear him. "Charleton Falkner, Jr.!" he was murmuring over an unlighted cigarette.
"I just stopped by to see if you and Judith wouldn't come up and have supper with the sky pilot and me. I won't let him talk religion and he's got some good stories to tell." Inez looked Douglas over. He and the tall Judith seemed to fill the kitchen. Doug finally had covered his big frame with muscles and he was a larger and handsomer man than his father.
But to-night he was not there, nor did his short bark come in response to Doug's whistling. Old Johnny and the preacher came to the door. "Stop your whistling and listen, Douglas," suggested Fowler. Douglas obeyed, and faintly on the frosty air sounded the reiterated yelps of a dog. "That's Prince and he's in trouble!" exclaimed Doug.
"Haven't you ever warned Jude about it?" demanded Douglas, with a sudden sensing of a debt mothers owed to daughters that Mary might not be discharging. Mary shrank. "O, I couldn't, Doug!" Douglas looked at her scornfully. "I don't see why that isn't your job." Mary rose from her knees. She twisted her work-scarred hands together and looked at the boy with pathetic wistfulness.
But when it repeated, he started to his feet and concentrated in an agony of attention on the sound. Once more it came, longdrawn, troubled, the howl of a dog. Doug dropped the blankets and strode from the shelter of the trees to deliver a long coo-ee. The wind was against him. There was no response. He hurriedly dragged his entire supply of firewood before the shelter and set it to blazing.
"Yes," replied Fowler, with a sudden clearing of his somber face. "I saw her when " and he plunged into a tale that, matched by one from Grandma, consumed the evening. At nine o'clock the old lady rose. "I'll ride down the trail with you," said Douglas. "You fool!" sniffed the old lady. "Since when have folks begun nursing me over these trails?" "That's not the point," returned Doug.
I have an idea they are going to be surprised before they are through with this." Douglas nodded and they rode down into the Valley. When they trotted past the post-office, the usual group was gathered on the steps. Doug and the preacher nodded but did not draw rein. Old Sister came out sedately and growled at Prince, but Peter did not leave the doorstep.
"If a woman is testifying for the man she loves, or for her child, she will carry the lie through to the end without faltering. Every instinct of her nature comes to her help; but a man sooner or later bungles a lie if you make him angry and keep at him." Doug was the first witness called.
Men like him as well as women, and, best proof of all, the "kids" adore him. On a recent visit to Denver, his old home town, youngsters followed him in droves, clamoring for a chance to "feel his muscle." The mayor, no less, had him address a public meeting, the feature of which, by the way, was this piped inquiry from the gallery: "Say, Doug, can youse whip William Farnum?"
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