III THE STUFF OF HEROES 87
IV ARCADIA IN AVERNUS 109
Chapter I Prelude
Chapter II The Leap
Chapter III The Wonder of Prairie
Chapter IV A Revelation
Chapter V The Dominance of the Evolved
Chapter VI By a Candle's Flame
Chapter VII The Price of the Leap
V JOURNEY'S END 239
VI A PRAIRIE IDYL 265
VII THE MADNESS OF WHISTLING WINGS 279
Chapter I Sandford the Exemplary
Chapter II The Presage of the Wings
Chapter III The Other Man
Chapter IV Capitulation
Chapter V Anticipation
Chapter VI "Mark the Right, Sandford!"
Chapter VII The Bacon What Am!
Chapter VIII Feathered Bullets
Chapter IX Oblivion
Chapter X Upon "Wiping the Eye"
Chapter XI The Cold Gray Dawn
VIII A FRONTIER ROMANCE: A TALE OF JUMEL MANSION 309
IX THE CUP THAT O'ERFLOWED: AN OUTLINE 339
X UNJUDGED 347
XI THE TOUCH HUMAN 367
XII A DARK HORSE 373
XIII THE WORTH OF THE PRICE 393

ILLUSTRATIONS

She wheeled swiftly round, confronting him. Frontispiece
They saw the hands which had gone to hips flash up and
forward like pistons, and two puffs of smoke like
escaping steam. 74
"You'll apologize." 190
The two men went East together. 326
He heard a voice ... and glanced back. 388

A BREATH OF PRAIRIE

AND OTHER STORIES

A BREATH OF PRAIRIE

I

Dense darkness of early morning wrapped all things within and without
a square, story-and-a-half prairie farm-house. Silence, all-pervading,
dense as the darkness, its companion, needed but a human ear to become
painfully noticeable.

Up-stairs in the half-story attic was Life. From one corner of the
room deep, regular breathing marked the unvarying time of healthy
physical life asleep. Nearby a clock beat