The Golden Woman A Story of the Montana Hills   By: Ridgwell Cullum (1867-1943)

A Story of the Montana Hills

By RIDGWELL CULLUM

AUTHOR OF "The Way of the Strong," "The Law Breakers," "The Trail of the Axe," Etc.

With Frontispiece in Colors

A. L. BURT COMPANY

Publishers New York

Published by Arrangement with GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY

Copyright, 1913, by GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY Published February, 1916

All rights reserved Printed in U. S. A.

[Illustration: "It's the same book, dear, only a different chapter."]

Contents

I. AUNT MERCY 9 II. OVER THE TELEPHONE 20 III. THE PARIAH 26 IV. TWO MEN OF THE WILDERNESS 39 V. THE STEEPS OF LIFE 54 VI. OUT OF THE STORM 73 VII. A SIMPLE MANHOOD 85 VIII. THE SECRET OF THE HILL 96 IX. GATHERING FOR THE FEAST 106 X. SOLVING THE RIDDLE 110 XI. THE SHADOW OF THE PAST 121 XII. THE GOLDEN WOMAN 133 XIII. THE CALL OF YOUTH 149 XIV. A WHIRLWIND VISIT 158 XV. THE CLAIMS OF DUTY 165 XVI. GOLD AND ALLOY 177 XVII. TWO POINTS OF VIEW 187 XVIII. WHEN LIFE HOLDS NO SHADOWS 204 XIX. A STUDY IN MISCHIEF 217 XX. THE ABILITIES OF MRS. RANSFORD 229 XXI. THE MEETING ON THE TRAIL 240 XXII. A MAN'S SUPPORT 246 XXIII. THE BRIDGING OF YEARS 258 XXIV. BEASLEY PLAYS THE GAME 273 XXV. BUCK LAUGHS AT FATE 286 XXVI. IRONY 301 XXVII. THE WEB OF FATE 313 XXVIII. A BLACK NIGHT 325 XXIX. BEASLEY IN HIS ELEMENT 334 XXX. THE MOVING FINGER 356 XXXI. THE JOY OF BEASLEY 364 XXXII. STRONGER THAN DEATH 374 XXXIII. THE TEMPEST BREAKS 389 XXXIV. THE EYES OF THE HILLS 402 XXXV. FROM OUT OF THE ABYSS 407 XXXVI. THE CATACLYSM 420 XXXVII. ALONE 427 XXXVIII. IN THE WILDERNESS 432 XXXIX. LOVE'S VICTORY 439

The Golden Woman

CHAPTER I

AUNT MERCY

An elderly woman looked up from the crystal globe before her. The sound of horse's hoofs, clattering up to the veranda, had caught her attention. But the hard, gray eyes had not yet recovered their normal frigidity of expression. There were still traces in them of the groping mind, searching on, amidst the chaos of a world unseen. Nor was Mercy Lascelles posing at the trade which yielded her something more than her daily bread. She had no reason for pose. She was an ardent and proficient student of that remote science which has for its field of research the border land between earthly life and the ultimate.

For some moments she gazed half vacantly through the window. Then alertness and interest came back to her eyes, and her look resumed its normal hardness. It was an unlovely face, but its unloveliness lay in its expression. There was something so unyielding in the keen, aquiline nose and pointed chin. The gray eyes were so cold. The pronounced brows were almost threatening in their marking and depression. There was not a feature in her face that was not handsome, and yet, collectively, they gave her a look at once forbidding, and even cruel.