THE PENETRATION OF PETER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 24 August 1907, Page 4

THE PENETRATION OF PETER.

Peter Logan had heard news in town that day which had, to say the least, seriously disturbed him, and Peter was not easily disturbed. He was a gtolid young man with a good opinion of himself—no one else Sad a better —and it had distinctly annoyed him to hear it rumoured that Agnes Lake was engaged to Philip Grey. It was decidedly annoying; he had almost concluded she was the one girl for him. When it is considered that Peter had been over twelve years determining this momentous question the seriousness of the situation will be at once appreciated.

He tliiught again. Yes, she would do; bn would get her a second-hand piano and she could play and sing to him after milking. Of course, he knew she had not lleen long in New Zealand and knew nothing of cows, or. indeed, of country life at all; but she was young and she would learn.

I Besides, she was the prettiest and | nicest girl in the district. He could not forget that he had given her her first riding lessons, nor "how he had enjoyed his. new role of protector. Peter was the darling son of a doting mother, who had spoiled him, and was, indeed, to blame for his worst imliosyncrasics. "My Peter" was perfect in his mother's eyes. And Peter looked at most things from his mother's point of view, but Peter's opinion of himself has already been hinted at.

Presently Peter cheered up; it might not be true. He remembered, too, her saying to her aunt she would like to see the view from the Bluff Road, but feared to go alone, being still timid on horseback. Peter smiled tolerantly at her fears and offered to take her one day. He had put it off, considering himself too busy; but now, well, lie would take her as soon as possible, and who knew what might happen! He knew it was the correct thing to go info raptures over it, and, at least, she would be grateful.

Two horses stood motionless on the giddy height, their riders silent from different emotions. Far below the river murmured; 16 the bush near By a tui burst into glorious song; far as the eye could see were miles of undulating country, with a long shimmering line in the distance, the sea. On the right towered Mount Ruapehu, grand and majestic. He could not divine her heart was too full for words; the wild beauty of the scene, the peacefulness, the throbbing music of file bush singers, all these were in such vivid contrast to life In the dull little town she had left at Home, that for the moment her sensations threatened to overpower her. Involuntarily, as the man looked, the girl's hand tightened on the reinj and when she turned to him, her eyes full of unshed tears and her whole being thrilled, it was to meet a loolf which effectually checked the words ,she would have spoken.

As Peter Lognn rode home that thinking over his wasted day, it would have' been difficult to say which feeling was upper-most in his mind—offended dignity or contempt. For honest Pefer, with his usual penetration, had ascribed the girl's emotion to fear, and decided to think again.

One bright afternoon, about a fortnight later, Peter Logan was slowly winding up the Bluff road behind his latest investment, a mob of about thirty horned Herefords, straight from the bush.

The road woun! r tmd the face of the cliff; it was, indeed, cut out of it. On the right the cliff rose, sheer, its inaccessible sides gleaming white in the sun- _ 'line,- on the left, Its flreadfulness veiled in scrub, was the precipitous front some sixty to seventy feet in depth. Peter was nearing the summit when suddenly there appeared round the corner the slender figure of a girl, walkling. Peter never forgot that moment. For an instant the seething mass of animals seemed to his eyes, then he sat his horse fascinated, watching for the tragedy which he felt must inevitably occur.

For an instant it seemed as if the girl, too, was paralysed, but only for an instant. Recovering herself she walked steadily onwards through the horned moving mass, their number was her salvation, but also her chief danger. Before the nearest ones could recover from their surprise she was gone and there were several huge bodies between. Twice she narrowly escaped being pushed over tin; qlifl';. onfn sho looked a. towering head straight in the face, and, striking him sharply with the switch she carried, passed on.

With white set face, she walked unseeingly past the man who sprang towards her with a hoarse cry, "Agnes, Miss Lake!" but Agnes did not hear him—she had fainted. Tenderly he lifted her and carried her to a grassy bank where she soon opened her eyes. "Why did you do it?" he said almost fiercely. "There was no other way," said the girl quietly. She tried to stand, but was obliged to sit down again. "I believe I was afraid," she said with a nervous little laugh. "Afraid!" lie echoed, and for the first time his armour of snug self-compla-cency was disturbed, and he realised that he had made a mistake. At that moment the sound of a horse's hoofs was heard rapidly approaching, and soon the rider, a frank-faced, wellbuilt young man, was abreast of them. He was remarkably quick, for a man, and one glance at Agnes' pale face, Peter's agitated one, and the memory of the cattle he had just passed was enough. He sprang to his feet and Agnes, with a cry of "Frank!" was in his arms. "My own brave darling," he murmured. Peter Is still thinking and looking.