A Breath of Prairie and other stories

by Will Lillibridge

“Dr. Lillibridge’s field of romance was his own. Others have told of the Western mountains and pictured viii the great desert of the Southwest, but none has painted with so masterful a hand the great prairies of the Northwest, shown the lavish hand with which Nature pours out her gifts upon the pioneer, and again the calm cruelty with which she effaces him. In the midst of these scenes his actors played their parts and there he played his own part, clean in life and thought, a man to the last, slipping away upon the wings of the great storm which had just swept over his much-loved land, wrapped in the snowy mantle of his own prairies.”

Edith Keller-Lillibridge

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CONTENTS

I	A BREATH OF PRAIRIE	[13]
II	THE DOMINANT IMPULSE	[61]
III	THE STUFF OF HEROES	[87]
IV	ARCADIA IN AVERNUS	[109]
	ChapterIPrelude
Chapter	I	Prelude
	ChapterIIThe Leap
Chapter	II	The Leap
	ChapterIIIThe Wonder of Prairie
Chapter	III	The Wonder of Prairie
	ChapterIVA Revelation
Chapter	IV	A Revelation
	ChapterVThe Dominance of the Evolved
Chapter	V	The Dominance of the Evolved
	ChapterVIBy a Candle’s Flame
Chapter	VI	By a Candle’s Flame
	ChapterVIIThe Price of the Leap
Chapter	VII	The Price of the Leap
V	JOURNEY’S END	[239]
VI	A PRAIRIE IDYL	[265]
VII	THE MADNESS OF WHISTLING WINGS	[279]
	ChapterISandford the Exemplary
Chapter	I	Sandford the Exemplary
	ChapterIIThe Presage of the Wings
Chapter	II	The Presage of the Wings
	ChapterIIIThe Other Man
Chapter	III	The Other Man
	ChapterIVCapitulation
Chapter	IV	Capitulation
	ChapterVAnticipation
Chapter	V	Anticipation
	ChapterVI“Mark the Right, Sandford!”
Chapter	VI	“Mark the Right, Sandford!”
	ChapterVIIThe Bacon What Am!
Chapter	VII	The Bacon What Am!
	ChapterVIIIFeathered Bullets
Chapter	VIII	Feathered Bullets
	ChapterIXOblivion
Chapter	IX	Oblivion
	ChapterXUpon “Wiping the Eye”
Chapter	X	Upon “Wiping the Eye”
	ChapterXIThe Cold Gray Dawn
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]

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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]