Burned Bridges

thither by pure pressure of loneliness, born of three days' solitary communion within the limits of his own shack. He wanted to hear a human voice again. And it was a vagrant,

k before he came up, and when he came noiselessly down to the grassy bank s

teasingly mischievous. But he had never seen her in quite the same pit

sed excitement that kindled a glow in her gray eyes,

ut of Thompson, afflicting him with a maddening s

asked abruptly. "

ose sweet familiarities-to himself. But he had blurted out the question before he was aware. He was standing so close to her that a little

secret. I'm just bursting to talk about it, but I mustn't. Talking might break the

swered simpl

softly, deep in her throat,

I ever knew you to indu

answered moodily. "It

think a simple backwoods maiden could make such a profound

r, tantalizingly close. She was smiling. Her lips parted redly over white, even teeth, and as Thompson bent that moody somber gaze on her, her breath seemed to come sudd

rmant lurk in every strong man. He twisted her head roughly, and as naturally as water flows down hill their lips met. He felt the girl's body nestle with a little tremor closer to

it's so," he whispered h

p at Thompson, and a wave of red swept up over her fresh young face and dyed it to the roots of her sunny hair. For a brief instant he

d Tommy sat in the stern, his wet paddle poised as if he had halted it midway o

hite and hard and ugly, his eyes smoldering. Thompson felt his own face hardening into the same ugly lines. He felt himself threatened. Without being fully aware of his act he had dropped into a belligerent pose, head

it part of your system of savi

like an open powder keg. And Tommy Ashe had supplied the spark. A most unchristian flash of anger shot through him. His reply was an earnest, if ill-directed blow. This Tommy

was in deadly earnest, as a man is when matters of sex lead him to a personal clash. But he found pitted against him a man equal

ded sickeningly against his ribs, and that every breath was a rasping gasp. Nor was he conscious of pity when he saw that Tommy Ashe was in no better case. It seemed fit and proper that they should struggle like that. There was a strange sort of pleasure in it. It seemed natural, as natural an act as he had ever performed. The shock of his clenched fist driven with all his force against the other

s feet. Thereafter he kept clear of grips. Quick, with some skill at boxing, he could get home two blows to Thompson's one. But he could not down his man. No

ery. And failing that, there came a moment when they staggered apart and stood

ough bird-f

ped th

son, as if he had proved himself upon a doubtful matter. He was ready to go on. But w

id. "I'm willing to finish it, if you wan

he said with a gleam of his old humor. "Let's call

the status quo. He had not the least rancor against Tommy Ashe. It had all seeped away in the blind fury of that clash. He thrust out a hand upon

tted on the bank of the creek to lave

kerchiefs upon their faces. The blood ceased to ooze from Thompson's nost

f capital idiot

was swelling rapidly and was in no condition for

making such asses of ourselve

urned. "It couldn't have been the sort o

omething," he looked up at the surrounding depths of forest, down along the dusky channel of Lone Moose, curving away among the spruce, "there's something about this infernal solitude that brings out the savage. I've noticed it in little things. We're loosed, in a way

hompson understood. Tommy Ashe was thinking out loud, that was

ack to my own diggings," h

rd. In a minute he was gone around the bend, dri

erienced nothing more than an astonishing feeling of exhilaration. Why, he could not determine. It was un-Christian, undignified, brutal, to give and take blows, to feel that vicious determination to smash another man with his bare fists, to know the unholy joy of getting a blow home with all the weight of his body behind it. Mr. Thompson was a trifle dazed, a trifle uncertain. His face was

ophie Carr's warm lips on his

e creek bank to a point well down stream, whence h