THE BAR Z BRAND.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11501, 6 February 1903, Page 10

THE BAR Z BRAND.

Bγ Fbahk M. Bickmeli,. What with helpless rage, overwhelming horror—and the filthy gag—l nearly choked when I saw that drunken ruffian thrust the branding iron straight towards her bare white back. But I am not beginning at the right end

of my etory. All the afternoon we had bteen riding together in the Pullman, she a sixteen year old girl, and I a nineteen year old boy. We were strangers to each other, although I was able to make a ehrewd guess as to who she might be. Possibly she knew something of me in return, though 1 thought it hardly probable. She had been casting occasional ehy glances in my direction, uml I had cast others Ices shy in htns, but I had not ventured to make any move towards scraping acquaintance. (Sluts was too well guarded by that sternfaced woman, haJf maid, half companion, under whose capable escort elw was travelling. After we left the train at Dickinson and got into the stage—we three were the only passengers—the case was different, and as we had before ue a ride which would last well into the night, I trusted it might presently be enlivened by a little friendly converse. I had been awuy a week, having gone to the city to do several errands, and for the sake.of a short outing.

I was bringing back some of the less bulky of my purchases, among other things half a dozen branding irons that had been made for my grandfather's ranch, the Bar Z.

I was tolerably sure this girl was the daughter of Colonel Gregory, a neighbouring rancher with whom my grandfather was well acquainted, although 1, being lately from the East, had not yet chanced to ir.eet him. His daughter, £ krew, had been away at school, and was expected home about now. On this knowledge and assumption, therefore, I felt justified in introducing myself. As it fell out, however, 1 delayed seizing my opportunity until too late. A startling, though not unprecedented, occurrence intervened to claim our whole attention.

A gang of ruffians, email but too well armed and determined to be successfully resisted, held us up at a lonely spot almost within eight of the railway station, and after shooting the express messenger and thoroughly cowing the driver, proceeded to plunder us at their leisure. Great was their disappointment and rage to find so little worth taking. The mail and express parcels were of small account, I had only a few dollars with me, and the two women had less than I.

As some consolation for their slim haul, the desperadoes resolved to carry off the three passengers, doubtless with the design of holding Us for a ransom.

The fellows were not professional road agents, as nearly as I could make out, but merely plain, every day scoundrels, a haphazard collection of the o'ff-scourings from the ranches and mining camps, who were willing to undertake any kind of deviltry that promised to yield a reasonable profit.

As the leader of the band, a peculiarly villainous, black-visaged knave, grimly remarked :

" 'Pears like these hyer mought be ruther expensive goods; I reckon we'll jest take 'em along on chance o' bein' able to make a dollar outen 'em on spec."

In execution of their design they cut loose the four stage horses and prepared to give us <?ach a mount. Seeing iliat we had not tJie slightest show at present, I submitted to this ignominious treatment with the best grace I could muster. The girl, too, though she was very pale, showed true pluck, and gave out not the sign of a whimper.

But her companion, most unwisely as it proved, protested vigorously and in no measured term?.

"You scamp*, don't you touch that lady," she exclaimed; "don't you dare, or you'll repeni it to the last day of your miserable lives. She is Colonel Gregory's daughter, and if you presume to hurt a hair of her head he'll have you hung higher than Haman. as sure as you're bom!

The effect of these words was quite the reverse of what the wrathful speaker had expected. The burly leader uttered what may fairly be called an exultant^jvhoop. "Say, boys, did ye hear that?" he shouted, grinning widely. "This hyer is Cunnel Ike Gregory's gal. Did ye ever know euch a bit o' goldurned luck afore? Oh, this is too good to be true, seem's if. It's better nor shakin' a ripe Christmas tree, durned if 'taint.

"Say, old woman, I'll tell ye somethin'. I used to .punch, cows for Ike Greg"ry on his ranch up in Montany, an' one day he kicked me ofFiu it, with about as much ceremony 's if I'd ben a no count Injun pup—all for nothin', too. I up an' swore then I'd git even with him some d/iy, but durn ai if I s'pected my chance was due to come quite so euddint as this. Ike Greg'ry's gal, is she? Wai, we'll jest take care o' her all right, never you fear."

There was in his final words a sinister meaning that must have made Elizabeth Gregory shudder—l'm sure it did me.

As for her attendant, she immediately began such a violent remonstrance that she soon brought upon herself the inevitable humiliation of having her mouth stopped with a gag. By iind by we turned off the lonely road and struck out along a still lonelier trail, over which we rode for wliut seemed several hours, always rising, until we must have penetrated the mountains to a considerable distance.

Finally w« came to a halt in t3ie most solitary, God-forsaken spot that could have been found in all that vast expanse of wild country. We were taken from our horses, and, with our wrists and ankles securely tied, get upon the ground and bound each against the trunk of a large tree. Here for a time we were left to our own not too comfortable reflections.

The outlaw gang, of which there were a half dozen, built a fire, and, seated around it, proceeded to drink themselves into fit condition for doing the nefarious job they had before them.

All had been somewhat exhilarated at the time they made the attack on the stage; within an hour after camping they wero rearing, raging drunk and ready for any villainy. What they intended to do I Siad only tlte vaguest idea until I saw the blackbearded desperado lay one of my Bar Z branding irons in among the hottest embers of the fire.

The possibilities of that branding iron gave me a chill. What was he going to do? I had not long to wait before discovering.

Presently he drew it from the fire, and, going over to the woman, began to flourish it almost under her nose.

"D'ye see that?" he cried tauntingly. 'Wai, I'm aimin' to fix Ike Greg'ry's little filly so's. he'll be able to reco'nise her when he comes to look her over agin. She ain't never ibe'n branded, I take it. Wai, she's duo to be right soon now." The woman's features worked, and her eyee glared at him in futile wrath; she was powerless to speak or move a finger. The girl's face turned deathly pale, but she did not utter a sound of protest. I was less restrained.

"You hound! You despicable curl" I vociferated. "If you dare cause the slightest harm to that young lady, I'll—l'll

He turned and strode over to me, shak-

ing the hof iron uncomfortably near my face. "Yes, kid, you'll what? ,, he demanded, jeeringlv. "You'll do great things, won't ye? Here, you, Jake, we ein't hankerin' n'ter no more o' this fresh kid's chin music. Afore we begin operations jest stuff somethin' into hie mouth good an' hard. An', Hank, you trice up the gal agin that tree, will ye, so's I c'n git at her back (handy."

The orders were executed with ready despatch. My mouth was filled with a bunch of soiled rag, and the poor girl was placed with her face against the tree trunk, and her arms stretched and made fast around it in a position that prevented all possibility of her moving. The big ruffian went round to the other side of the fire and shoved the branding iron into it. Then he took a long knife and approached his victim. Had he not already declared his intentions regarding her I should have supposed he was about to plunge the blade into her back. Indeed, even now his action, as he held the knife poised a moment over her, bad so much that appearance that I cloeed my eyes with ji shudder in the instinctive wish to avoid seeing the spectacle that seemed about to follow.

When J opened them, after a few seconds, during which evidently nothing serious had happened, I saw that he had slit down the girl's waist from the neck so as to lay. bare a triangular expanse from her shoulders to about midway of her spine. This done, he returned to the fire and me branding iron. * *

don't get skittish, leetle gal," he said, with mock reassurance; "jest hold right still an' it'll all be over in a minute. 'Twon't hurt none to sped%rf, an' a'ter it's done it'll guarantee ye agin gittin' lost, strayed, or stole for ever an' amen a'terwards. It's this hyer right shoulder tolade I'm aimin' to ornyment. Now, one, two, three, an' here goes!" Bess Gregory was the bravest and grittiest gL-1 I have ever seen, but there are things that are too much for flesh and blood to bear.

When the diabolical villain set that instrument of torture against the tender white flesh, s he gave one awful, involuntary shriek of terror and agony. As for me, my blood seemed to freeze in my vems and my heart to stand stiJl—for a moment.

At tho next came a startling and un-hoped-for sound—a shot, the ping of a bullet unerringly directed. . Black-beard dropped the iron with a veil, and stood shaking his bloody hand. " I had wit enough left to realise that a rescue had somehow been managed, and then, overcome by the stress of my feelings, I lost consciousness.

Nearly four years had passed when I met her again. I knew that she had been very ill after her frightful experience with tne desperadoes, and, as coon as she became convalescent, had been taken by her father on a voyage around the world. -Meantime my grandfather had died leaving the Bar Z property to me. But I had no great relish for ranching, and left the management of it to other hands while I spent, mv time and money in more congenial haunts.

It was at a Saturday night hop in one of the well-known summer resort (hotels that I once more caught sight of Elizabeth Gregory. I remembered her as a very pretty girl • she had more than fulfilled early promises and had developed into an "unusually fine woman

During those four years I never had wholly forgotten her; in fact, I may as well confess that she had been in my mind rather often. I could not but recall the fact that she bore the Bar Z brand—my registered and exclusive private mark—and I cherished a fanciful notion that some time I should make good my claim to her as my She did not notice me for a whiJe. Tho ballroom was well filled, and the width of it separated us at last. Nor did I attempt to approach and make myself known until I had stood for a time afar off and gazed at her perfect loveliness. At last I set out to cross the room.

She had been facing dearly in my direction, but as I drew closer she chanced to turn so that when I, reached her immediate neighbourhood she was standing, back towards me, talking with an elderly lady who was seated against the walL

Elizabeth was in evening costume, and as she talked she bent forward co M to

beautiful shoulders eye could wish to look upon. I did look, and as I looked I was muck inclined to doubt the dearneee of my hitherto excellent vision.

The shoulders in question were as white as milk and as smooth as satin, but— etrange to say—the right one was not a shade lees so than the left.

Not the or blemish of any sort could be discerned to mar its perfect comeliness.

I was astounded beyond measure. With my own eyes I had seen that- Bar Z branding iron pushed against her right shoulder, and with my own ears I had heard the agonised scream which the atrocious pain had provoked. It should have left a terrible ecar, yet there was nothing. It seemed incomprehensible.

I could account for it in only one way. The black bearded fellow must have laid bare more of the bock and placed the brand lower down than I realised.

She turned towards me before I had been standing there many minutes- I had just time to compose my face to a more conventional expression when ehe recognised me.

The experience we had been through together , —far more dreadful for her than for me—had been such that she could not easily have forgotten me. She knew me at once, and welcomed me with even more cordiality than I could have expected or hoped for.

I need not describe tie course of my wooing. It was not too long, and it was entirely successful. One day, after we had become engaged, I ventured to speak to her on the subject of the brand. *

"I am glad the disfigurement that ruffian put upon you," I remarked, "doesn't binder your wearing those bewitching and marvellously becoming costumes, of which you seem to have such an endless variety." "Disfigurementf" ■- she repeated, staring at me in bewilderment. "There was none —didn't you know?"

"What!" I cried, incredulously. "Not the very least in the world," she assured me, smiling. "That black bearded fellow was an awful wretch, but he wasn't quite the unspeakable .fiend you give him credit for. He frightened me horribly, but he didn't actually butt me the least little bit. He somehow juggled with those branding irons so that the one he used on me was stone cold."

GQf} ' Secretary H.R.C.