^l*.' siii3iniiii»iiiiiiiiiiiiiiwitifiiiHiii,iiiliiiii]ittiiiaiiiitiiiMmij'ii;t!!iup all round. But Jim was over at San Antonio afore the Doctor's body was laid 'out ; just ran that telegraph himself for about two hours ; had a meeting of trustees and director.s afore the Coroner came ; had the Doctor's books and papers brought over here in a buggy, and another meeting before luncheon. Why, by the time the other fellows began to drop in to know if the Doctor was really dead, Jim Prince had dis- counted the whole affair two years ahead. Why, bless you, nearly everybody is in it. That Spanish woman over there, with the pretty daughter — that high-toned Greaser with the big house — you know who I mean "... " 1 don't think I do," said Carroll coldly. " I know a !ady named Saltonrstall, with several daughters." MABUJA 79 " That 's her ; thought I 'd seen you there once. Well, the Doctor 's got her into it, up to the eyes. I reckon she 's mortgnged everything to him." It required all Carroll's trained self-possession to prevent his garrulous guide from reading his emotion in his face. This, then, was the secret of Maruja's melancholy. Poor child ! how bravely she had borne up under it ; and he, in his utter selfishness, had never suspected it. Perhaps that letter was her delicate way of breaking the news to him, for he should certainly now hear it all from Aladdin's lips. And this man, who evidently had succeeded to the control of Dr. West's property, doubtless had possession of the letters too ! Humph ! He shut his lips firmly together, and strode along by the side of his innocent guide, erect and defiant. He did not have long to wait. The sound of voices, the opening of doors, and the trampling of feet indicated that the other party were being " shown over " that part of the building Carroll and his companion were approaching. " There 's Jim and his gang now," said his cicerone ; " I '11 tell him you 're here, and step out of this show busi- ness myself. So long! I reckon I'll see you at dinner." At this moment Prince and a number of ladies and gentle men appeared at the further end of the hall ; his late guide joined them, and apparently indicated Carroll's presence, as, with a certain lounging, off-duty, officer-like way, the young man sauntered on. Aladdin, like others of his class, objected to the military, theoretically and practically ; but he was not above recog- nizing their social importance in a country of no society, and of being fascinated by Carroll's quiet and secure self- possession and self-contentment in a community of restless ambition and aggressive assertion. He came forward to welcome him cordially ; he introduced him with an air of satisfaction ; he would have preferred if he had been in 80 MAEUJA uniform, but he contented himself with the fact that Carroll, like all men of disciplined limbs, carried himself equally well in mufti. " You have shown us everything," said Carroll, smiling, " except the secret chamber where you keep the magic lamp and ring. Are we not to see the spot where the incantation that produces these marvels is held, even if we are forbidden to witness the ceremony ? The ladies are dying to see your sanctum — your study — your workshop — where you really live." " You '11 find it a mere den, as plain as my bedroom," said Prince, who prided himself on the Spartan simplicity of his own habits, and was not averse to the exhibition. "Come this way." He crossed the hall, and entered a small, plainly furnished room, containing a table piled with papers, some of which were dusty and worn-looking. Carroll instantly conceived the idea that these were Dr. West's property. He took his letter quietly from his pocket; and when the attention of the others was diverted, laid it on the table, with the remark, in an undertone, audible only to Prince, " From Mrs. Saltonstall." Aladdin had that sublime audacity which so often fills the place of tact. Casting a rapid glance at Carroll, he cried, " Hallo ! " and wheeling suddenly round on his following guests, with a bewildering extravagance of play- ful brusqueness, actually bundled them from the room. " The incantation is on ! " he cried, waving his arms in the air ; " the genie is at work. No admittance except on business ! Follow Miss Wilson," he added, clapping both hands on the shoulders of the prettiest and shyest young lady of the party, with an irresistible paternal familiarity. " She 's your hostess. I '11 honor her drafts to any amount ; " and before they were aware of his purpose, or that Carroll was no longer among them, Aladdin had closed the door, that shut with a spring-lock, and was alone with MAEUJA 81 the young man. He walked quickly to his desk, took up the letter, and opened it. His face of dominant, self-satisfied good humor became set and stern. Without taking the least notice of Carroll, he rose, and stepping to a telegraph instrument at a side table, manipulated half a dozen ivory knobs with a sudden energy. Then he returned to the table, and began hur- riedly to glance over the memoranda and indorsements of the files of papers piled upon it. Carroll's quick eye caught sight of a small packet of letters in a writing of unmistaka- ble feminine delicacy, and made certain they were the ones he was in quest of. Without raising his eyes, Mr. Prince asked, almost rudely : — " Who else has she told this to ? " " If you refer to the contents of that letter, it was written and handed to me about three hours ago. It has not been out of my possession since then." " Humph ! Who 's at the casa ? There 's Buchanan, and Raymond, and Victor Guitierrez, eh ? " " I think I can say almost positively that Mrs. Saltonstall has seen no one but her daughter since the news reached her, if that is what you wish to know," said Carroll, still following the particular package of letters with his eyes, as Mr. Prince continued his examination. Prince stopped. " Are you sure ? " " Almost sure." Prince rose, this time with a greater ease of manner, and going to the table, ran his fingers over the knobs, as if me- chanically. " One would like to know at once all there is to know about a transaction that changes the front of four millions of capital in about four hours, eh. Captain ? " he said, for the first time really regarding his guest. "Just four hours ago, in this very room, we found out that the widow Saltonstall owed Dr. West about a million, tied up in investments, and we calculated to pull her through with 82 MARUJA perhaps the loss of half. If she 's got this assignment of the Doctor's property that she speaks of in her letter, as collateral security, and it 's all regular, and she — so to speak — steps ii^to Dr. West's place, by G — d, sir, we owe him about three millions, and we 've got to settle with her — and that's all about it. You've dropped a little bomb- shell in here, Captain, and the splinters are flying around as far as San Francisco, now. I confess it beats me regularly. I always thought the old man was a little keen over there at the casa — but she was a woman, and he was a man for all his sixty years, and that combination I never thought of. I only wonder she had n't gobbled him up before." Captain Carroll's face betrayed no trace of the bewilder- ment and satisfaction at this news of which he had been the unconscious bearer, nor of resentment at the coarseness of its translation. " There does not seem to be any memorandum of this assignment," continued Prince, turning over the papers. "Have you looked here?" said Carroll, taking up the packet of letters. " No — they seem to me some private letters she refers to in this letter, and that she wants back again." " Let us see," said Carroll, untying the packet. There were three or four closely written notes in Spanish and English. " Love-letters, I reckon," said Prince — " that 's why the old girl wants 'em back. She don't care to have the wheedling that fetched the Doctor trotted out to the public." "Let us look more carefully," said Carroll pleasantly, opening each letter before Prince, yet so skillfully as to frustrate any attempt of the latter to read them. " There does not seem to be any memorandum here. They are evidently only private letters." " Quite so," said Prince. MARUJA 83 Captain Carroll retied the packet and put it in his pocket. " Then I '11 return them to her," he said quietly. " Hullo ! — here — I say," said Prince, starting to his feet. " I said I would return them to her," repeated Carroll calmly. " But I never gave them to you ! I never consented to their withdrawal from the papers." " I 'm sorry you did not," said Carroll coldly ; " it would have heen more polite." " Polite ! D — n it, sir ! I call this stealing." " Stealing, Mr. Prince, is a word that might be used by the person who claims these letters to describe the act of any one who would keep them from Jieo: It really cannot apply to you or me." " Once for all, do you refuse to return them to me ? " said Prince, pale with anger. " Decidedly." " Very well, sir ! We shall see." He stepped to the corner and rang a bell. " I have summoned my manager, and will charge you with the theft in his presence." " I think not." " And why, sir ? " " Because the presence of a third party would enable me to throw this glove in your face, which, as a gentleman, I could n't do without witnesses." Steps were heard along the passage ; Prince was no coward in a certain way ; neither was he a fool. He knew that Carroll would keep his word ; he knew that he should have to fight him ; that, whatever the issue of the duel was, the cause of the quarrel would be known, and scarcely redound to his credit. At present there were no witnesses to the offered insult, and none would be wiser. The letters were not worth it. He stepped to the door, opened it, said, "No matter," and closed it again. 84 MAEUJA He returned with an afifectation of carelessness. " You are right. I don't know that I 'm called upon to make a scene here which the law can do for me as well elsewhere. It will settle pretty quick whether you 've got the right to those letters, and whether you 've taken the right way to get them, sir." " I have no desire to evade any responsibility in this mat ter, legal or otherwise," said Carroll coldly, rising to his feet. " Look here," said Prince suddenly, with a return of his brusque frankness ; " you might have asked me for those letters, you know." " And you would n't have given them to me," said Car- roll. Prince laughed. " That 's so ! I say, Captain. Did they teach you this sort of strategy at West Point ? " " They taught me that I could neither receive nor give an insult under a white flag," said Carroll pleasantly. " And they allowed me to make exchanges under the same rule. I picked up this pocket-book on the spot where the accident occurred to Dr. West. It is evidently his. I leave it with you, who are his executor." The instinct of reticence before a man with whom he could never be confidential kept him from alluding to his other discovery. Prince took the pocket-book, and opened it mechanically. After a moment's scrutiny of the memoranda it contained, his face assumed something of the same concentrated atten- tion it wore at the beginning of the interview. Raising his eyes suddenly to Carroll, he said quickly : — " You have examined it ? " " Only so far as to see that it contained nothing of impor- tance to the person I represent;" returned Carroll simply. Tlie capitalist looked at the young officer's clear eyes. Something of embarrassment came into his own as he turned them away. MAECJJA 85 " Certainly. Only memoranda of the Doctor's business. Quite important to ua, you know. But nothing referring to your principal." He laughed. "Thank you for the ex- change. I say — take a drink ! " "Thank you — no!" returned Carroll, going to the door. " Well, good-by." He held out his hand. Carroll, with his clear eyes still regarding him, passed quietly by the outstretched hand, opened the door, bowed and made his exit. A slight flush came into Prince's cheek. Then, as the door closed, he burst into a half laugh. Had he been a dramatic villain, he would have added to it several lines of soliloquy, in which he would have rehearsed the fact that the opportunity for revenge had " come at last ; " that the " haughty victor who had just left with his ill-gotten spoil had put into his hands the weapon of his friend's destruc- tion ; " that the " hour had come ; " and possibly he might have said, " Ha ! ha ! " But being a practical, good-na- tured, selfish rascal, not much better or worse than his neighbors, he sat himself down at his desk and began to carefully consider how he could best make use of the mem- oranda jotted down by Dr. West of the proofs of the ex- istence of his son, and the consequent discovery of a legal heir to his property CHAPTEE VIII When Faquita had made sure that her young mistress was so securely closeted with Dona Maria that morning as to be inaccessible to curious eyes and ears, she saw fit to bewail to her fellow servants this further evidence of the decay of the old feudal and patriarchal mutual family confidences. " Time was, thou rememberest, Pepita, when an afiair of this kind was openly discussed at chocolate with everybody present and before us all. When Joaquin Padilla was shot at Monterey, it was the Dona herself who told us, who read aloud the letters describing it and the bullet-holes in his clothes, and made it quite a gala day — and he was a first cousin of Guitierrez. And now, when this American goat of a doctor is kicked to death by a mule, the family must shut themselves up, that never a question is asked or an- swered." " Ay," responded Pepita ; "and as regards that, Sanchez there knows as much as they do, for it was he that almost saw the whole affair." " How ? — sawest it ? " inquired Faquita eagerly. " Why, was it not he that was bringing home Pereo, who had been lying in one of his trances or visions — blessed St. Antonio preserve us ! " said Pepita, hastily crossing herself — "on Koorotora's grave, when the Doctor's mus- tang charged down upon them like a wild bull, and the Doctor's foot half out of the stirrups, and he not yet fast in his seat ? And Pereo laughs a wild laugh and says : ' Watch if the coyote does not drag yet at his mustang's heels ; ' and Sanchez ran and watched the Doctor out of sight, careering and galloping to his death ! — ay, as Pereo prophesied. MARUJA 87 For it was only half an hour afterwards that Sanchez again heard the tramp of his hoofs — as if it were here — and knowing it two miles away — thou understandest, he said to himself ' It is over.' " The two women shuddered and crossed themselves. " And what says Perec of the fulfillment of his pro- phecy ? " asked Faquita, hugging herself in her shawl with a certain titillating shrug of fascinating horror. " It is even possible he understands it not. Thou know- est how dazed and dumb he ever is after these visions — that he comes from them as one from the grave, remember- ing nothing. He has lain like a log all the morning." " Ay ; but this news should awaken him, if aught can. He loved not this sneaking Doctor. Let us seek him ; mayhap, Sanchez may be there. Come ! The mistress lacks us not just now ; the guests are provided for. Come ! " She led the way to the eastern angle of the casa com- municating by a low corridor with the corral and stables. This was the old " gate-keep " or quarters of the major- domo, who, among his functions, was supposed to exercise a supervision over the exits and entrances of the house. A large steward's room or office, beyond it a room of gen- eral assembly, half guard-room, half servants' hall, and Pereo's sleeping-room, constituted his domain. A few peons were gathered in the hall near the open door of the apartment where Pereo lay. Stretched on a low pallet, his face yellow as wax, a light burning under a crucifix near his head, and a spray of blessed palm, popularly supposed to avert the attempts of evil spirits to gain possession of his suspended faculties, Pereo looked not unlike a corpse. Two muffled and shawled domestics, who sat by his side, might have been mourners, but for their voluble and incessant chattering. " So thou art here, Faquita," said a stout virago. " It is a wonder thou couldst spare time from prayers for the 88 MAEUJA repose of the American Doctor's soul to look after the health of thy superior, poor Pereo ! Is it, then, true that Dona Maria said she would have naught more to do with the drunken brute of her major-domo ? " The awful fascination of Pereo's upturned face did not prevent Faquita from tossing her head as she replied, pertly, that she was not there to defend her mistress from lazy gossip. " Nay, but what said she ? " asked the other attendant. " She said Ptreo was to want for nothing ; but at pre- sent she could not see him." A murmur of indignation and sympathy passed through the company. It was followed by a long sigh from the insensible man. "His lips move," said Faquita, still fas- cinated by curiosity. " Hush ! he would speak." " His lips move, but bis soul is still asleep," said San- chez oracularly. "Thus they have moved since early morning, when I came to speak with him, and found him lying here in a fit upon the floor. He was half dressed, thou seest, as if he had risen to go forth, and had beea struck down so " — " Hush ! I tell thee he speaks," said Faquita. The sick man was faintly articulating through a few tiny bubbles that broke upon his rigid lips. " He — dared — me ! He — said — I was old — too old." " Who dared thee ? Who said thou wast too old ? " a. ked the eager Faquita, bending over him. "He, Koorotora himself! in the shape of a coyote." Faquita fell back with a little giggle, half of shame, half of awe. "It is ever thus," said Sanchez sententiously ; "it is what he said last night, when I picked him up on the mound. He will sleep now — thou shalt see. He will get no further than Koorotora and the coyote — and then he will sleep." MAEUJA 89 And to the awe of the group, and the increased respect for Sanchez's wisdom, Pereo seemed to fall again into a lethargic slumber. It was late in the evening when he appeared to regain perfect consciousness. " Ah — what is this ? " he said roughly, sitting up in bed, and eying the watchers around him, some of whom had succumbed to sleep, and others were engaged in playing cards. " Ca- ramba ! are ye mad ? Thou, Sanchez, here ; who shouldst be at thy work in the stables ! Thou, Pepita, is thy mis- tress asleep or dead, that thou sittest here ? Blessed San Antonio ! would ye drive me mad ? " He lifted his hand to his head, with a dull movement of pain, and attempted to rise from the bed. " Softly, good Pereo ; lie still," said Sanchez, approach- ing him. " Thou hast been ill — so ill. These, thy friends, have been waiting only for this moment to be assured that thou art better. For this idleness there is no blame — truly none. The Dofia Maria has said that thou shouldst lack no care ; and, truly, since the terrible news there has been little to do." " The terrible ne\ys ? " repeated Pereo. Sanchez cast a meaning glance upon the others, as if to indicate tViis confirmation of his diagnosis. " Ay, terrible news ! The Dr. West was found this morning dead two miles from the casa." " Dr. West dead ! " repeated Pereo slowly, as if endea- voring to master the real meaning of the words. Then, seeing the vacuity of his question reflected on the faces of those around him, he added hurriedly, with a feeble smile, " — ay — dead ! Yes ! I remember. And he has been ill — very ill, eh ?" " It was an accident. He was thrown from his horse, and so killed," returned Sanchez gravely. " Killed — by his horse ! sayest thou ? " said Pereo, with a sudden fixed look in his eye. 90 MARUJA " Ay, good Pereo. Dost thou not remember when the mustang bolted with him down upon us in the lane, and then thou didst say he would come to evil with the brute ? He did — blessed San Antonio ! — within half an hour ! " " How — thou sawest it ? " " Nay ; for the mustang was running away and I did not follow. Bueno ! it happened all the same. The Alcalde, Coroner, who knows all about it, has said so an hour ago. Juan brought the news from the rancho where the inquest was. There will be a funeral the day after to-morrow ! and so it is that some of the family will go. Fancy, Pereo, a Guitierrez at the funeral of the Americano Doctor ! Nay, I doubt not that the Dona Maria will ask thee to say a prayer over his bier." " Peace, fool ! and speak not of thy lady mistress,'' thundered the old man, sitting upright. " Begone to the stables. Dost thou hear me ? Go ! " " Now, by the Mother of Miracles," said Sanchez, has- tening from the room as the ^aunt figure of the old man rose, like a sheeted spectre, from the bed, " that was his old self again ! Blessed San Antonio ! Pereo has recov- ered." The next day he was at his usual duties, with perhaps a slight increase of sternness in his manner. The fulfillment of his prophecy related by Sanchez added to the supersti- tious reputation in which he was held, although Faquita voiced the opinions of a growing skeptical party in the statement that it was easy to prophesy the Doctor's acci- dent, with the spectacle of the horse actually running away before the prophet's eyes. It was even said that Doiia Maria's aversion to Pereo since the accident arose from a belief that some assistance might have been rendered by him. But it was pointed out by Sanchez that Pereo had, a few moments before, fallen under one of those singular, epileptic-like strokes to which he was subject, and not only MARUJA 91 was unfit, but even required the entire care of Sanchez at the time. He did not attend the funeral, nor did Mrs. Saltonstall ; but the family was represented by Maruja and Amita, accompanied by one or two dark-faced cousins, Cap- tain Carroll, and Eaymond. A number of friends and business associates from the neighboring towns, Aladdin and a party from his house, the farm laborers, and a crowd of workingmen from his mills in the foot-hills, swelled the assemblage that met in and around the rude agricultural sheds and outhouses which formed the only pastoral habi- tation of the Ranoho of San Antonio. It had been a char- acteristic injunction of the deceased that he should be buried in the midst of one of his most prolific grain-fields, as a grim return to that nature he was impoverishing, with neither mark nor monument to indicate the spot ; and that even the temporary mound above him should, at the fitting season of the year, be leveled with the rest of the field by the obliterating ploughshares. A grave was accordingly dug about a quarter of a mile from his office, amidst a " volun- teer " crop so dense that the large space mown around the narrow opening, to admit of the presence of the multitude, seemed like a golden amphitheatre. A distinguished clergyman from San Francisco officiated. A man of tact and politic adaptation, he dwelt upon the blameless life of the deceased, on his practical benefit for civilization in the county, and even treated his grim Pan- theism in the selection of his grave as a formal recognition of the text, " dust to dust.'' He paid a not ungrateful compliment to the business associates of the deceased, and, without actually claiming in the usual terms " a continu- ance of past favors " for their successors, managed to in- terpolate so strong a recommendation of the late Doctor's commercial projects as to elicit from Aladdin the expressive commendation that his sermon was " as good as five per pent, in the stock." 92 MAEUJA Maruja, who had been standing near the carriage, Ian. guidly silent and abstracted even under the tender atten- tions of Carroll, suddenly felt the consciousness of another pair of eyes fixed upon her. Looking up, she was surprised to find herself regarded by the man she had twice met, once as a tramp and once as a wayfarer at the fonda, who had quietly joined a group not far from her. At once im- pressed by the idea that this was the first time that he had really looked at her, she felt a singular shyness creeping over her, until, to her own astonishment and indignation, she was obliged to lower her eyes before his gaze. In vain she tried to lift them, with her old supreme power of fas- cination. If she had ever blushed, she felt she would have done so now. She knew that her face must betray her consciousness ; and at last she — Maruja, the self-poised and all-sufiBcient goddess — actually turned, in half-hysteri- cal and girlish bashfulness, to Carroll for relief in an affected and exaggerated absorption of his attentions. She scarcely knew that the clergyman had finished speaking, when Raymond approached them softly from behind. " Pray don't believe," he said appealingly, " that all the human virtues are about to be buried — I should say sown — in that wheat-field. A few will still survive, and creep about above the Doctor's grave. Listen to a story just told me, and disbelieve — if you dare — in human grati- tude. Do you see that picturesque young ruffian over there ? " Maruja did not lift her eyes. She felt herself breath- lessly hanging on the speaker's next words. " Why, that 's the young man of the fonda, who picked up your fan," said Carroll, " is n't it ? " " Perhaps," said Maruja indifferently. She would have given worlds to have been able to turn coldly and stare at him at that moment with the others, but she dared not. She contented herself with softly brushing some dust from MAEUJA 93 Captain Carroll's arm with her fan, and a feminine sug- gestion of tender care which thrilled that gentleman. " Well," continued Raymond, " that Eohert Macaire over yonder came here some three or four days ago as a tramp, in want of everything but honest labor. Our la- mented friend consented to parley with him, which was something remarkable in the Doctor; still more remark- able, he gave him a suit of clothes, and, it is said, some money, and sent him on his way. Now, more remarkable than all, our friend, on hearing of his benefactor's death, actually tramps back here to attend his funeral. The Doc- tor being dead, his executors not of a kind to emulate the Doctor's spasmodic generosity, and there being no chance of future favors, the act must be recorded as purely and simply gratitude. By Jove ! I don't know but that he is the only one here who can be called a real mourner. I 'm here because your sister is here ; Carroll comes because you do, and you come because your mother cannot." " And who tells you these pretty stories ? " asked Ma- tuja, with her face still turned towards Carroll. " The foreman, Harrison, who, with an extensive practi- cal experience of tramps, was struck with this exception to the general rule." " Poor man ; one ought to do something for him," said Amita compassionately. " What ! " said Raymond; with affected terror, " and spoil this perfect story ? Never ! If I should offer him ten dollars, I 'd expect him to kick me ; if he took it, I 'd expect to kick him." " He is not so bad-looking, is he, Maruja ? " asked Amita of her sister. But Maruja had already moved a few paces off with Carroll, and seemed to be listening to him only. Raymond smiled at the pretty perplexity of Amita's eyebrows over this pronounced indiscretion. " Don't mind them," he whispered. ; " you really cannot 94 MAEUJA expect to duena your elder sister. Tell me, would you actually like me to see if I could assist the virtuous tramp ? You have only to speak." But Amita's interest appeared to be so completely appeased with Raymond's simple offer that she only smiled, blushed, and said " No." Maruja's quick ears had taken in every word of these asides, and for an instant she hated her sister for her aim- less declination of Kaymond's proposal. But becoming conscious — under her eyelids — that the stranger was moving away with the dispersing crowd, she rejoined Amita with her usual manner. The others had reentered the carriage, but Maruja took it into her head to proceed on foot to the rude building whence the mourners had is- sued. The foreman, Hanison, flushed and startled by this apparition of inaccessible beauty at his threshold, came eagerly forward. "I shall not trouble you now, Mr. Har- r-r-rison," she said, with a polite exaggeration of the con- sonants ; " but some day I shall ride over here, and ask you to show me your wonderful machines." She smiled, and turned back to seek her carriage. But before she had gone many yards she found that she had completely lost it in the intervening billows of grain. She stopped, with an impatient little Spanish ejaculation. The next moment the stalks of wheat parted before her and a figure emerged. It was the stranger. She fell back a step in utter helplessness. He, on his side, retreated again into the wheat, holding it back with extended arms to let her pass. As she moved forward mechanically, without a word he moved backward, making a path for her until she was able to discern the coachman's whip above the bending heads of the grain just beyond her. He stopped here and drew to one side, his arms still extended, to give her free passage. She tried to speak, but could only bow her head, and slipped by him with a strange feeling — suggested by his attitude — that MARUJA 95 she was evading his embrace. But the next moment his arms were lowered, the grain closed around him, and he was lost to her view. She reached the carriage almost un- perceived by the inmates, and pounced upon her sister with a laugh. " Blessed Virgin ! " said Amita, " where did you come from ? " " From there ! " said Maruja, with a slight nervous shiver, pointing to the clustering graia " We were afraid you were lost." " So was I," said Maruja, raising her pretty lashes heavenwards, as she drew a shawl tightly round her shoul- ders. " Has anything happened ? You look strange," said Carroll, drawing closer to her. Her eyes were sparkling, but she was very pale. " Nothing, nothing ! " she said hastily, glancing at the grain again. " If it were not that the haste would have been abso- lutely indecent, I should say that the late Doctor had made you a ghostly visit," said Raymond, looking at her curi- ously. " He would have been polite enough not to have com- mented on my looks," said Maruja. " Am I really such a fright ? " Carroll thought he had never seen her so beautiful. Her eyelids were quivering over their fires as if they had been brushed by the passing wing of a strong passion. " What are you thinking of ? " said Carroll, as they drove on. She was thinking that the stranger had looked at her admiringly, and that his eyes were blue. But she looked quietly into her lover's face, and said sweetly, "Nothing, I fear, that would interest you ! " CHAPTEE rX The news of the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. Saltonstall was followed by the still more astonishing discovery that the Doctor's will further bequeathed to her his entire property, after payment of his debts and liabili- ties. It was given in recognition of her talents and busi- ness integrity during their late association, and as an evidence of the confidence and " undying affection " of the testator. Nevertheless, after the first surprise, the fact was accepted by the community as both natural and proper under that singular instinct of humanity which acquiesces without scruple in the union of two large fortunes, but sharply questions the conjunction of poverty and aiHuence, and looks only for interested motives where there is dis- parity of wealth. Had Mrs. Saltonstall been a poor widow instead of a rich one ; had she been the Doctor's house- keeper instead of his business friend, the bequest would have been strongly criticised — if not legally tested. But this combination, which placed the entire valley of San Antonio in the control of a single individual, appeared to be perfectly legitimate. More than that, some vague rumor of the Doctor's past and his early entanglements only seemed to make this eminently practical disposition of his property the more respectable, and condoned for any moral irregulari- ties of his youth. The effect upon the collateral branches of the Guitierrez family and the servants and retainers was even more impres- sive. Tor once, it seemed that the fortunes and traditions of the family were changed ; the female Guitierrez, instead MAKTJJA 97 of impoverishing the property, had augmented it ; the for- eigner and intruder had been despoiled ; the fate of La Mision Perdida had been changed ; the curse of Koorotora had proved a blessing ; his prophet and descendant, Pereo, the major-domo, moved in an atmosphere of superstitious adulation and respect among the domestics and common people. This recognition of his power he received at times with a certain exaltation of grandiloquent pride beyond the conception of any but a Spanish servant, and at times with a certain dull, pained vacancy of perception and an expres- sion of frightened bewilderment which also went far to establish his reputation as an unconscious seer and thauma- tnrgist. "Thou seest," said Sanchez to the partly skeptical Faquita, " he does not know more than an infant what is his power. That is the proof of it." The Dona Maria alone did not participate in this appreciation of Pereo, and when it was proposed that a feast or celebration of rejoicing should be given under the old pear-tree by the Indian's mound, her indignation Avas long remembered by those that witnessed it. " It is not enough that we have been made ridiculous in the past," she said to Maruja, " by the inter- ference of this solemn fool, but that the memory of our friend is to be insulted by his generosity being made into a triumph of Pereo's idiotic ancestor. One would have thought those coyotes and Koorotora's bones had been buried with the cruel gossip of your relations " — (it had been the recent habit of Dona Maria to allude to " the family " as being particularly related to Maruja alone) — " over my poor friend. Let him beware that his ancestor's mound is not uprooted with the pear-tree, and his heathenish temple destroyed. If, as the engineer says, a branch of the new railroad can be established for La Mision Perdida, I agree with him that it can better pass at that point with less sacrifice to the domain. It is the one uncultivated part of the park, and lies at the proper angle." 98 MAEUJA " You surely would not consent to this, my mother ? " said Maruja, with a sudden impression of a newly found force in her mother's character. " Why not, child ? " said the relict of Mr. Saltonstall and the mourner of Dr. West coldly. " I admit it was discreet of thee in old times to have thy sentimental pas- sages there with cahalleros who, like the guests of the hi- dalgo that kept a skeleton at his feast, were reminded of the mutability of their hopes by Koorotora's bones and the legend. But with the explosion of this idea of a primal curse, like Eve's, on the property," added the Doria Ma- ria, with a slight bitterness, " thou mayst have thy citas — elsewhere. Thou canst scarcely keep this Captain Car- roll any longer at a distance by rattling those bones of Koorotora in his face. And of a truth, child, since the affair of the letters, and his discreet and honorable conduct since, I see not why thou shouldst. He has thy mother's reputation in his hands." " He is a gentleman, my mother," said Maruja quietly. " And they are scarce, child, and should be rewarded and preserved. That is what I meant, silly one ; this Cap- tain is not rich — but then, thou hast enough for both." " But it was Amita that first brought him here," said Maruja, looking down with an air of embarrassed thought- fulness, which Dofia Maria chose to instantly accept as exaggerated coyness. " Do not think to deceive me or thyself, child, with this folly. Thou art old enough to know a man's mind, if not thine own. Besides, I do not know that I shall object to her liking for Eaymond. He is very clever, and would be a relief to some of thy relatives. He would be invaluable to us in the emergencies that may grow out of these mechani- cal affairs that I do not understand — such as the mill and the railroad." " And you propose to take a few husbands as partners MARUJA 99 in the business ? " said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits. " I warn you that Captain Carroll is as stupid as a gentleman could be. I wonder that he has not blundered in other things as badly as he has in preferring me to Amita. He confided to me only last night, that he had picked up a pocket-book belonging to tlie Doctor and given it to Aladdin, without a witness or receipt, and evidently of his own accord." " A pocket-book of the Doctor's ? " repeated Dona Maria. " Ay ; but it contained nothing of thine," said Maruja. " The poor child had sense enough to think of that. But I am in no hurry to ask your consent and your blessing yet, little mother. I could even bear that Amita should pre- cede me to the altar, if the exigencies of thy ' business ' require it. It might also secure Captain Carroll for me. Nay, look not at me in that cheapening, commercial way — with (!ompound interest in thine eyes. I am not so poor an investment, truly, of thy original capital." " Thou art thy father's child," said her mother, suddenly kissing her ; " and that is saying enough, the Blessed Vir- gin knows. Go now," she continued, gently pushing her from the room, " and send Amita hither." She watched the disappearance of Maruja's slightly rebellious shoulders, and added to herself, " And this is the child that Amita really believes is pining with lovesickness for Carroll, so that she can neither sleep nor eat. This is the girl that Faquita would have me think hath no longer any heart in her dress or in her finery ! Soul of Joseph Saltonstall ! " ejaculated the widow, lifting her shoulders and her eyes together, "thou hast much to account for." Two weeks later she again astonished her daughter. " Why dost thou not join the party that drives over to see the wonders of Aladdin's Palace to-day ? It would seem more proper that thou shouldst accompany thy guests than Raymond and Amita." 100 MARUJA " I have never entered his doors since the day he was disrespectful to my mother's daughter," said Maruja, in surprise. " Disrespectful ! " repeated Dona Maria impatiently. " Thy father's daughter ought to know that such as he may he ignorant and vulgar, but cannot he disrespectful to her. And there are offenses, child, it is much more crushing to forget than to remember. As long as he has not the pre- sumption to apologise, I see no reason why thou mayst not go. He has not been here since that affair of the let- ters. I .shall not permit him to be uncivil over that — ■ dost thou understand ? He is of use to me in business. Thou mayst take Carroll with thee ; he will understand that." " But Carroll will not go," said Maruja. " He will not say what passed between them, but I suspect they quar- reled." " All the better, then, that thou goest alone. He need not be reminded of it. Fear not but that he will be only too proud of thy visit to think of aught else." Maruja, who seemed relieved at this prospect of being unaccompanied by Captain Carroll, shrugged her shoulders and assented. When the party that afternoon drove into the courtyard of Aladdin's Palace, the announcement that its hospitable proprietor was absent, and would not return until dinner, did not abate either their pleasure or their curiosity. As already intimated to the reader, Mr. Prince's functions as host were characteristically irregular ; and the servant's suggestion, that Mr. Prince's private secretary would attend to do the honors, created little interest, and was laughingly waived by Maruja. " There really is not the slightest ne- cessity to trouble the gentleman," she said politely. " I know the house thoroughly, and I think I have shown it once or twice before for your master. Indeed," she added. MAEUJA 101 turning to her party, "I have heen already complimented on my skill as a cicerone." After a pause, she continued, with a slight exaggeration of action and in her deepest con- tralto, "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen, the hall and court in M'hich we are now standing is a perfect copy of the Court of Lions at tlie Alhamhra, and was finished in fourteen days in white pine, gold, and plaster, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. A photograph of the original structure hangs on the wall ; you will observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the reproduction is perfect. The Alhambra is in Granada, a province of Spain, which is said in some respects to resem- ble California, where you have probably observed the Spanish language is still spoken by the old settlers. We now cross the stable-yard on a bridge which is a facsimile in appearance and dimensions of the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, connecting the Doge's Palace with the State Prison. Here, on the contrary, instead of being ushered into a dreary dungeon, as in the great original, a fresh sur- prise awaits us. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to pre- cede you for the surprise. We open a door thus — and — presto ! " — She stopped, speechless, on the threshold ; the fan fell from her gesticulating hand. In the centre of a brilliantly lit conservatory, with golden columns, a young man was standing. As her fan dropped on the tessellated pavement, he came forward, picked it up, and put it in her rigid and mechanical fingers. The party, who had applauded her apparently artistic climax, laugh- ingly pushed by her into the conservatory, without noticing her agitation. It was the same face and figure she remembered as last standing before her, holding back the crowding grain in the San Antonio field. But here he was appareled and ap- pointed like a gentleman, and even seemed to be superior to the garish glitter of his new surroundings. 102 MARUJA " I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss Sai- tonstall," he said, with the faintest suggestion of his for- mer manner in his half-resentful sidelong glance. " I hear that you offered to dispense with my services, but I knew that Mr. Prince would scarcely be satisfied if I did not urge it once more upon you in person. I am his private secre- tary." At the same moment, Amita and Raymond, attracted by the conversation, turned towards him. Their recognition of the man they had seen at Dr. West's was equally dis- tinct. The silence became embarrassing. Two pretty girls of the party pressed to Amita's side, with half-audible whispers. " What is it ? " " Who 's your handsome and wicked-looking friend ? " " Is this the surprise ? " At the sound of their voices, Maruja recovered herself coldly. " Ladies," she said, with a slight wave of her fan, " this is Mr. Prince's private secretary. I believe it is hardly fair to take up his valuable time. Allow me to thank you, sir, foe picking up mt fan ! " With a single subtle flash of the eye she swept by him, taking her companions to the other end of the conservatory. When she turned, he was gone. " This was certainly an unexpected climax," said Kay- mond mischievously. " Did you really arrange it before- hand ? We leave a picturesque tramp at the edge of a grave ; we pass over six weeks and a Bridge of Sighs, and hey, presto ! we find a private secretary in a conservatory ! This is quite the regular Aladdin business." " You may laugh," said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits, " but if you were really clever you 'd find out what it all means. Don't you see that Amita is dying of curi- osity ? " " Let us fly at once and discover the secret, then," said Eaymond, slipping Amita's arm through his. "We will consult the oracle in the stables. Corae." MAEUJA 103 The others followed, leaving Manija for an instant aloiie. She was about to rejoin them when she heard footsteps in the passage they had just crossed, and then perceived that the young stranger had merely withdrawn to allow the party to precede him before he returned to the other build- ing through the conservatory, which he was just entering. In turning quickly to escape, the black lace of her over- skirt caught in the spines of a snaky-looking cactus. She stopped to disengage herself with feverish haste in vain. She was about to sacrifice the delicate material, in her im- patience, when the young man stepped quietly to her side. " Allow me. Perhaps I have more patience, even if I have less time," he said, stooping down. Their ungloved hands touched. Maruja stopped in her efforts and stood up. He continued until he had freed the luckless flounce, conscious of the soft fire of her eyes on his head and neck. " There," he said, rising, and encountering her glance. As she did not speak, he continued : '•' You are thinking, Miss Saltonstall, that you have seen me before, are you not ? Well — you have ; I asked you the road to San Josd one morning when I was tramping by your hedge." " And as you probably were looking for something bet- ter — which you seem to have found — you did n't care to listen to my directions," said Maruja quickly. "I found a man — almost the only one who ever offered me a gratuitous kindness — at whose grave I afterwards met you. I found another man who befriended me here — where I meet you again." She was beginning to be hysterically nervous lest any one should return and find them together. She was con- scious of a tingling of vague shame. Yet she lingered. The strange fascination of his half-savage melancholy, and a reproachfulness that seemed to arraign her, with the rest of the world, at the bar of his vague resentment, held the delicate fibres of her sensitive being as cruelly, and relent; J 04 MAKUJA lessly as the thorns of the cactus had gripped her silken lace. Without knowing what she was saying, she stam- mered that she " was glad he connected her with his bet- ter fortune," and began to move away. He noticed it with his sidelong lids, and added, with a slight bitterness : — " I don't think I should have intruded here again, hut I thought you had gone. But I — I — am afraid you have not seen the last of me. It was the intention of my employer, Mr. Prince, to introduce me to you and your mother. I suppose he considers it part of my duties here. I must warn you that, if you are here when he returns, he will insist upon it, and upon your meeting me with these ladies at dinner." " Perhaps so — he is my mother's friend," said Maruja ; " but you have the advantage of us — you can always take to the road, you know." The smile with which she had intended to accompany this speech did not come as readily in execution as it had in conception, and she would have given worlds to have recalled her words. But he said, " That 's so " quietly, and turned away, as if to give hor an opportunity to escape. She moved hesitatingly towards the passage and stopped. The sound of the returning voices gave her a sudden courage. " Mr." — " Guest," said the young man. " If we do conclude to stay to dinner, as Mr. Prince has said nothing of introducing you to my sister, you must let me have that pleasure." He lifted his eyes to hers with a sudden flush. But she had fled. She reached her party, displaying her torn flounce as the cause of her delay, and there was a slight quickness in her breathing and her speech which was attributed to the same grave reason. " But, only listen," said Amita, " we 've MARUJA 105 got it all out of the butler and the grooms. It 's such a romantic story ! " " What is ? " said Maruja suddenly. "Why, the private tramp's." " The peripatetic secretary," suggested Raymond. " Yes," continued Amita, " Mr. Prince was so struck with his gratitude to the old Doctor that he hunted him up in San Jose, and brought him here. Since then Prince has been so interested in him — it appears he was some- body in the States, or has rich relations — that he has been telegraphing and making all sorts of inquiries about him, and has even sent out his own lawyer to hunt up everything about him. Are you listening ? " "Yes." " You seem abstracted." "I am hungry." " Why not dine here ; it 's an hour earlier than at home. Aladdin would fall at your feet for the honor. Do ! " Maruja looked at them with innocent vagueness, as if the possibility were just beginning to dawn upon her. " And Clara Wilson is just dying to see the mysterious unknown again. Say yes, little Maruja." Little Maruja glanced at them with a large maternal compassion. " We shall see." Mr. Prince, on his return an hour later, was unexpect- edly delighted with Maruja's gracious acceptance of his invitation to dinner. He was thoroughly sensible of the significance which his neighbors had attached to the avoid- ance by the Saltonstall heiress of his various parties and gorgeous festivities ever since a certain act of indiscretion — now alleged to have been produced by the exaltation of wine — had placed him under ban. Whatever his feelings were towards her mother, he could not fail to appreciate fully this act of the daughter, which rehabilitated him. It was with more than his usual extravagance — shown 106 MARUJA even in a certain exaggeration of respect towards Maruja ^ that he welcomed the party, and made preparations for the dinner. The telegraph and mounted messengers were put into rapid requisition. The bridal suite was placed at the disposal of the young ladies for a dressing-room. The at- tendant genii surpassed themselves. The evening dresses of Maruja, Amita, and the Misses Wilson, summoned by electricity from La Mision Perdida, and dispatched by the fleetest conveyances, were placed in the arms of their maids, smothered with bouquets, an hour before dinner. An operatic concert troupe, passing through the nearest town, were diverted from their course by the slaves of the ring to discourse hidden music in the music-room during dinner. " Bite my finger, Sweetlips," said Miss Clara Wilson, who had a neat taste for apt quotation, to Maruja, " that I may see if I am awake. It 's the Arabian Nights all over again ! " The dinner was a marvel, even in a land of gastronomic marvels ; the dessert a miracle of fruits, even in a climate that bore the products of two zones. Maruja, from her seat beside her satisfied host, looked across a bank of yellow roses at her sister and Raymond, and was timidly conscious of the eyes of young Guest, who was seated at the other end of the table, between the two Misses Wilson. With a strange haunting of his appearance on the day she first met him, she stole glances of half -frightened curiosity at him while he was eating, and was relieved to find that he used his knife and fork like the others, and that his appetite was far from voracious. It was his employer who was the first to recall the experiences of his past life, with a certain enthusiasm and the air of a host anxious to contribute to the entertainment of his guests. " You 'd hardly believe, Miss Saltonstall, that that young gentleman over there walked across the continent — and two thousand odd miles, was n't it ? — all alone, and with not much more in the MARUJA 107 way of traps than he 's got on now. Tell 'em, Harry, how the Apaches nearly gobbled you np, and then let you go because they thought you as good an Injun as any one of them, and how you lived a week in the desert on two bis- cuits as big as that." A chorus of entreaty and delighted anticipation followed the suggestion. The old expression of being at bay returned for an instant to Guest's face, but, lifting his eyes, he caught a look of almost sympathetic anxiety from Maruja's, who had not spoken. " It became necessary for me, some time ago," said Guest, half explanatorily, to Maruja, " to be rather explicit in the details of my journey here, and I told Mr. Prince some things which he seems to think interesting to others. That is all. To save my life on one occasion, I was obliged to show myself as good as an Indian, in his own way, and I lived among them and traveled with them for Swo weeks. I have been hungry, as I suppose others have on like occa- sions, but nothing more." Nevertheless, in spite of his evident reticence, he was obliged to give way to their entreaties, and with a certain grim and uncompromising truthfulness of statement, re- counted some episodes of his journey. It was none the less thrilling that he did it reluctantly, and in much the same manner as he had answered his father's questions, and as ho had probably responded to the later cross-examination of Mr. Prince. He did not tell it emotionally, but rather with the dogged air of one who had been subjected to a personal grievance for which he neither asked nor expected sympathy. When he did not raise his eyes to Maruja's, he kept them fixed on his plate. "Well," said Prince, when a long-drawn sigh of sus- pended emotion among the guests testified to his powers as a caterer to their amusement, " what do you say to some music with our coffee to follow the story ? " " It 's more like a play," said Amita to Eaymond. 108 MARUJA "What a pity Captain Carroll, who knows all about In- dians, is n't here to have enjoyed it. But I suppose Maruja, who hasn't lost a word, will tell it to him." " I don't think she will," said Eaymond dryly, glancing at Maruja, who, lost in some intricate pattern of her Chinese plate, was apparently unconscious that her host was waiting her signal to withdraw. At last she raised her head, and aaid, gently but audibly, to the waiting Prince : — " It is positively a newer pattern ; the old one had not that delicate straw line in the arabesque. You must have had it made for you." " I did," said the gratified Prince, taking up the plate. " What eyes you have, Miss Saltonstall. They see every- thing." " Except that I 'm keeping you all waiting," she re- turned, with a smile, letting the eyes in question fall with a half-parting salutation on Guest as she rose. It was the first exchange of a common instinct between them, and left them as conscious as if they had pressed hands. The music gave an opportunity for some desultory conver- sation, in which Mr. Prince and his young friend received an invitation from Maruja to visit La Mision, and the party, by common consent, turned into the conservatory, where the genial host begged them each to select a flower from a few especially rare exotics. When Maruja received hers, she said, laughingly, to Prince, " Will you think me very importunate if I ask for another ? " " Take what you like — you have only to name it," he replied gallantly. " But that 's just what I can't do," responded the young girl, " unless," she added, turning to Guest, " unless you can assist me. It was the plant I was examining to-day." " I think I can show it to you," said Guest, with a slight in- crease of color, as he preceded her towards the memorable cactus near the door, " but I doubt if it has any fiower." Nevertheless, it had. A bright red blossom like a spot MARUJA 109 of blood drawn by one of its thorns. He plucked it foi her, and she placed it in her belt. " You are forgiving," he said admiringly. " Yott ought to know that," she returned, looking down, «7?_why?" " You were rude to me twice." " Twice ! " " Yes — once at the Mision of La Perdida ; once in the road at San Antonio." His eyes became downcast and gloomy. " At the Mision that morning, I, a wretched outcast, only saw in you a beautiful girl intent on overriding me with her merciless beauty. At San Antonio I handed the fan I picked up to the man whose eyes told me he loved you." She started impatiently. " You might have been more gallant, and found more difficulty in the selection," she said pertly. " But since when have you gentlemen become so observant and so punctilious ? Would you expect him to be as considerate of others ? " " I have few claims that any one seems bound to respect," he returned brusquely. Then, in a softer voice, he added, looking at her gently : — " You were in mourning Vhen you came here this after- noon. Miss Saltonstall." " Was I ? It was for Dr. West — my mother's friend." " It was very becoming to you." " You are complimenting me. But I warn you that Captain Carroll said something better than that ; he said mourning was not necessary for me. I had only to ' put my eyelashes at half-mast.' He is a soldier, you know." " He seems to be as witty as he is fortunate," said Guest bitterly. " Do you think he is fortunate ? " said Maruja, raising her eyes to his. There was so much in this apparently simple question that Guest looked in her eyes for a sugges- 110 WAUUJA tion. What he saw there for an instant made his heart stop beating. She apparently did not know it, for she be- gan to tremble too. " Is he not ? " said Guest in a low voice. " Do you think he ought to be ? " she found herself whispering. A sudden silence fell upon them. The voices of their companions seemed very far in the distance ; the warm breath of the flowers appeared to be drowning their senses ; they tried to speak, but could not ; they were so near to each other that the two long blades of a palm served to hide them. In the midst of this profound silence a voice that was like and yet unlike Maruja's said twice, " Go ! go ! " but each time seemed hushed in the stifling silence. The next moment the palms were pushed aside, the dark figure of a young man slipped like some lithe animal through the shrubbery, and Maruja found herself standing, pale and rigid, in the middle of the walk, in the full glare of the light, and looking down the corridor toward her approach- ing companions. She was furious and frightened ; she was triumphant and trembling ; without thought, sense, or reason, she had been kissed by Henry Guest, and — had returned it. . The fleetest horses of Aladdin's stud that night could not carry her far enough or fast enough to take her away from that moment, that scene, and that sensation. "Wise and experienced, confident in her beauty, secure in her selfish- ness, strong over others' weaknesses, weighing accurately the deeds and words of men and women, recognizing all there was in position and tradition, seeing with her father's clear eyes the practical meaning of any divergence from that conventionality which as a woman of the world she valued, she returned again and again to the trembling joy of that intoxicating moment. . She thought of her mother and sisters, of Eaymond and Gamier, of Aladdin — she MAKUJA 111 even forced herself to think of Carroll — only to shut her eyes, with a faint smile, and dream again the brief but thrilling dream of Guest that began and ended in their joined and parted lips. Small wonder that, hidden and silent in her enwrappings, as she lay back in the carriage, with her pale face against the cold starry sky, two other stars came out and glistened and trembled on her passion" fringed lashes. CHAPTER X The rainy season had set in early. The last three weeks of summer drought had drained the great valley of its life- blood ; the dead stalks of grain rustled like dry bones over Dr. West's grave. The desiccating wind and sun had wrought some disenchanting cracks and fissures in Aladdin's Palace, and otherwise disjoined it, so that it not only looked as if it were ready to be packed away, but had become finally untenable in the furious onset of the southwesterly rains. The gorgeous furniture of the reception-rooms was wrapped in mackintoshes, the conservatory was changed into an aquarium, the Bridge of Sighs crossed an actual canal in the stable-yard. Only the billiard-room and Mr. Prince's bedroom and office remained intact, and in the latter, one stormy afternoon, Mr. Prince himself sat busy over his books and papers. His station-wagon, splashed and streaked with mud, stood in the courtyard, just as it had been driven from the station, and the smell of the smoke of newly lit fires showed that the house had been opened only for this hurried visit of its owner. The tramping of horse hoofs in the courtyard was soon followed by steps along the corridor, and the servant ushered Captain Carroll into the presence of his master. The Cap- tain did not remove his military overcoat, but remained standing erect in the centre of the room, with his forage cap in his hand. " I could have given you a lift from the station," said Prince, "if you had come that way. I've only just got in myself." MAKUJA 113 " I preferred to ride," said Carroll dryly. " Sit down by the fire," said Prince, motioning to a chair, "and dry yourself." "I must ask you first the purport of this interview," said Carroll curtly, "before I prolong it further. You have asked me to come here in reference to certain letters I returned to their rightful owner some months ago. If you seek to reclaim them again, or to refer to a subject which must remain forgotten, I decline to proceed further." " It does refer to the letters, and it rests with you whether they shall be forgotten or not. It is not my fault if the subject has been dropped. You must remember that until yesterday you had been absent on a tour of inspection and could not be applied to before." Carroll cast a cold glance at Prince, and then threw him- self into a chair, with his overcoat still on and his long military boots crossed before the fire. Sitting there in pro- file, Prince could not but notice that he looked older and sterner than at their last interview, and his cheeks were thinned as if by something more than active service. " When you were here last summer," began Prince, lean- ing forward over his desk, " you brought me a piece of news that astounded me, as it did many others. It was the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. Saltonstall. That was something there was no gainsaying ; it was a purely business affair, and involved nobody's rights but the assignor. But this was followed, a day or two after, by the announcement of the Doctor's will, making the same lady the absolute and sole inheritor of the same property. That seemed all right too ; for there were, apparently, no legal heirs. Since then, however, it has been discovered that there is a legal heir — none other than the Doctor's only son. Now, as no allusion to the son's existence was made in that will — which was a great oversight of the Doctor's — it is a fiction of the law that such an omission is an act 114 MAEUJA of forgetfulness, and therefore leaves the son the same rights as if there had been no will at all. In other words, if the Docter had seen fit to throw his scapegrace son a hundred dollar bill, it would have been legal evidence that he remembered him. As he did not, it 's a fair legal pre- sumption that he forgot him, or that the will is incom- plete." "This seems to be a question for Mrs. Saltonstall's lawyers — not for her friends," said Carroll coldly. " Excuse me ; that remains for you to decide — when you hear all. You understand at present, then, that Dr.- West's property, both by assignment and will, was made over, in the event of his death, not to his legal heirs, but to a comparative stranger. It looked queer to a good many people, but the only explanation was, that the Doc- tor had fallen very much in love with the widow — that he would have probably married her — had he lived." With an unpleasant recollection that this was almost exactly Maruja's explanation of her mother's relations to Dr. West, Carroll returned impatiently, " If you mean that their private relations may be made the subject of legal discussion, in the event of litigation in regard to the property, that again is a matter for Mrs. Saltonstall to de- cide — and not her friends. It is purely a matter of taste." " It may be a matter of discretion. Captain Carroll." " Of discretion ! " repeated Carroll superciliously. " Well," said Prince, leaving his desk and coming to the fireplace, with his hands in his pockets, " what would you call it, if it could be found that Dr. West, on leaving Mrs. Saltonstall's that night, did not meet with an accident, was not thrown from his horse, but was coolly and deliberately murdered ! " Captain Carroll's swift recollection of the discovery he himself had made in the road, and its inconsistency with the accepted theory of the accident, unmistakably showed MAEUJA 115 itself in his face. It was a moment before he recovered himself. " But even if it can be proved to have been a murder and not an accident, what has that to do with Mrs. Salton- stall or her claim to the property ? " " Only that she was the one person directly benefited by his death." Captain Carroll looked at him steadily, and then rose to his feet. " Do I understand that you have called me here to listen to this infamous aspersion of a lady ? " " I have called you here, Captain Carroll, to listen to the arguments that may be used to set aside Dr. West's will, and return the property to the legal heir. You are to listen to them or not, as you choose ; but I warn you that your opportunity to hear them in confidence and con- vey them to your friend will end here. I have no opin- ion in the case. I only tell you that it will be argued that Dr. West was unduly influenced to make a will in Mrs. Saltonstall's favor ; that, after having done so, it will be shown that, just before his death, he became aware of the existence of his son and heir, and actually had an in- terview with him ; that he visited Mrs. Saltonstall that evening, with the records of his son's identity and a memo- randum of his interview in his pocket-book ; and that, an hour after leaving the house, he was foully murdered. That is the theory which Mrs. Saltonstall has to consider. I told you I have no opinion. I only know that there ire witnesses to the interview of the Doctor and his son ; there is evidence of murder, and the murderer is suspected ; there is the evidence of the pocket-book, with the memo- randum picked up on the spot, which you handed me yourself." " Do you mean to say that you will permit this pocket- book, handed you in confidence, to be used for such an infamous purpose ? " said Carroll. 116 MAKUJA " I think you offered it to me in exchange for Dr. West's letters to Mrs. Saltonstall," returned Prince dryly. "The less said about that, the less is likely to be said about com- promising letters written by the widow to the Doctor, which she got you to recover — letters which they may claim had a bearing on the case, and even lured him to his fate." For an instant Captain Carroll recoiled before the gulf which seemed to open at the feet of the unhappy family. For an instant a terrible doubt possessed him, and in that doubt he found a new reason for a certain changed and altered tone in Maruja's later correspondence with him, and the vague hints she had thrown out of the impossibility of their union. "I beg you will not press me to greater candor," she had written, " and try to forget me before you learn to hate me." For an instant he believed — and even took a miserable comfort in the belief — that it was this hideous secret, and not some coquettish caprice, to which she vaguely alluded. But it was only for a moment ; the next instant the monstrous doubt passed from the mind of the simple gentleman, with only a slight flush of shame at his momentary disloyalty. Prince, however, had noticed it, not without a faint sense of sympathy. " Look here ! " he said, with a certain brusqueness, which in a man of his character was less dangerous than his smoothness. " I know your feelings to that family, — at least to one of them, — and if I 've been playing it pretty rough on you, it 's only because you played it rather rough on me the last time you were here. Let's understand each other. I '11 go so far as to say / don't believe that Mrs. Saltonstall had anything to do with that murder, but, as a business man, I 'm bound to say that these circumstances and ber own indiscretion are quite enough to bring the biggest pressure down on her. I would n't want any better ' bear ' on the market value of her rights than this. Take it at its best. Say that the Coroner's verdict MAEUJA 117 is set aside, and a charge of murder against unknown parties is made" — " One moment, Mr. Prince," said Carroll. " I shall be one of the first to insist that this is done, and I have confi- dence enough in Mrs. Saltonstall's honest friendship for the Doctor to know that she will lose no time in pursuing his murderers." Prince looked at Carroll with a feeling of half envy and half pity. " I think not," he said dryly ; " for all suspicion points to one man as the perpetrator, and that man was Mrs. Saltonstall's confidential servant — the major-domo, Pereo." He waited for a moment for the effect of this announcement on Carroll, and then went on : " You now understand that, even if Mrs. Saltonstall is acquitted of any connivance with or even knowledge of the deed, she will hardly enjoy the prosecution of her confidential servant for murder." " But how can this be prevented ? If, as you say, there are actual proofs, why have they not been acted upon before ? What can keep them from being acted upon now ? " " The proofs have been collected by one man, have been in possession of one man, and will only pass out of his possession when it is for the benefit of the legal heir — who does not yet even know of their existence." " And who is this one man ? " " Myself." " You ? — You ? " said Carroll, advancing towards him. " Then this is your work ! " "Captain Carroll," said Prince, without moving, but drawing his lips tightly together and putting his head on one side, " I don't propose to have another scene like the one we had at our last meeting. If you try on anything of that kind, I shall put the whole matter into a lawyer's hands. I don't say that you won't regret it ; I don't say that / sha'n't be disappointed, too, for 1 have been managing this thing purely as a matter of business, with a view to H8 MAEUJA profiting by it. It so happens that we can both work to the same end, even if our motives are not the same. I don't call myself an officer and a gentleman, but I reckon I 've run this affair about as delicately as the best of them, and with a d — d sight more horse sense. I want this thing hushed up and compromised, to get some control of the property again, and to prevent it depreciating, as it would, in litigation ; you want it hushed up for the sake of the girl and your future mother-in-law. I don't know anything about your laws of honor, but I 've laid my cards on the table for you to see, without asking what you 've got in your hand. You can play the game or leave the board, as you choose." He turned and walked to the window — not without leaving on Carroll's mind a certain sense of firmness, truthfulness, and sincerity which commanded his respect " I withdraw any remark that might have seemed to reflect on your business integrity, Mr. Prince," said Carroll quietly. " I am willing to admit that you have managed this thing better than I could, and if I join you in an act to suppress these revelations, I have no right to judge of your intentions. What do you propose to have me do ? " " To state the whole case to Mrs. Saltonstall, and to ask her to acknowledge the young man's legal claim without litigation." " But how do you know that she would not do this with- out — excuse me — without intimidation ? " " I only reckon that a woman clever enough to get hold ,if a million, would be clever enough to keep it — against others." " I hope to show you are mistaken. But where is this heir ? " "Here." « Here ? " " Yes. For the last six months he has been my private secretary. I know what you are thinking of, Captain Car- MARUJA 119 roll. You would consider it indelicate — eh ? Well, that 's just where we differ. By this means I have kept everything in my own hands — prevented him from getting into the hands of outsiders — and I intend to dispose of just as much of the facts to him as may he necessary for him to prove his title. What bargain I make with him — is my affair." " Does he suspect the murder ? " " No. I did not think it necessary for his good or mine. He can be an ugly devil if he likes, and although there was n't much love lost between him and the old man, it would n't pay to have any revenge mixed up with business. He knows nothing of it. It was only by accident that, looking after his movements while he was here, I ran across the tracks of the murderer." " But what has kept him from making known his claim to the Saltonstalls ? Are you sure he has not ? " said Car- roll, with a sudden tliought that it might account for Ma- ruja's strangeness. " Positive. He 's too proud to make a claim unless he could thoroughly prove it, and only a month ago he made me promise to keep it dark. He 's too lazy to trouble him- self about it much anyway — as far as I can see. D — d if I don't think his being a tramp has made him lose his taste for everything ! Don't worry yourself about him. He is n't likely to make confidences with the Salton.stalls, for he don't like 'em, and never went there but once. Instinctively or not, the widow did n't cotton to him ; and I fancy Miss Maruja has some old grudge against him for that fan business on the road. She is n't a girl to forgive or forget anything, as I happen to know," he added, with an uneasy laugh. Carroll was too preoccupied with the danger that seemed to threaten his friends from this surly pretender to resent Prince's tactless allusion. He was thinking of Maruja's 120 MAEUJA ominous agitation at his presence at Dr. West's graveu " Do they suspect him at all ? " he asked hurriedly. "How should they ? He goes hy the name of Guest — which was his father's real name until changed by an act of legislation when he first came here. Nobody remembers it. We only found it out from his papers. It was quite legal, as all his property was acquired under the name of West." Carroll rose and buttoned his overcoat. " I presume you are able to offer conclusive proofs of everything you have asserted ? " " Perfectly." " I am going to the Mision Perdida now," said Captain Carroll quietly. " To-morrow I will bring you the answer — Peace or War." He walked to the door, lifted his hand to his cap, with a brief military salutation, and disappeared. CHAPTER XI As Captain Carroll urged his horse along the miry road to La Mision Perdida, he was struck with certain changes in the landscape before him other than those wrought by the winter rains. There were the usual deep gullies and trenches, half iilled with water, in the fields and along the road, but there were ominous embankments and ridges of freshly turned soil, and a scattered fringe of timbers follow- ing a cruel, undeviating furrow on the broad grazing lands of the Mision. But it was not until he had crossed the arroyo that he felt the full extent of the late improvements. A quick rumbling in the distance, a light flash of steam above the willow copse, that drifted across the field on his right, and he knew that the railroad was already in operation. Captain Carroll reined in his frightened charger, and passed his hand across his brow with a dazed sense of loss. He had been gone only four months — yet he already felt strange and forgotten. It was with a feeling of relief that he at last turned from the highroad into the lane. Here everything was un- changed, except that the ditches were more thickly strewn with the sodden leaves of fringing oaks and sycamores. Giving his horse to a servant in the courtyard, he did not enter the patio, but, crossing the lawn, stepped upon the long veranda. The rain was dripping from its eaves and striking a minute spray from the vines that clung to its columns ; his footfall awoke a hollow echo as he passed, as if the outer shell of the house were deserted ; the formal yews and hemlocks that in summer had relieved the daz- 122 MARUJA zling glare of six months' sunshine had now taken gloomy possession of the garden, and the evening shadows, thick- ened by rain, seemed to lie in wait at every corner. The servant, who had, with old-fashioned courtesy, placed the keys and the " disposition " of that wing of the house at his service, said that Dona Maria would wait upon him in the salon before dinner. Knowing the difficulty of break- ing the usual rigid etiquette, and trusting to the happy in- tervention of Maruja, — though here, again, custom debarred him from asking for her, — he allowed the servant to re- move his wet overcoat, and followed him to the stately and solemn chamber prepared for him. The silence and gloom of the great house, so grateful and impressive in the ardent summer, began to weigh upon him under this shadow of an overcast sky. He walked to the window and gazed out on the cloister-like veranda. A melancholy willow at an angle of the stables seemed to be wringing its hands in the rising wind. He turned for relief to the dim fire that flickered like 51 votive taper in the vault-like hearth, and drew a chair towards it. In spite of the impatience and preoccupation of a lover, he found himself again and again recurring to the story he had just heard, until the vengeful spirit of the murdered Doctor seemed to darken and possess the house. He was striving to shake off the feeling, when his atten- tion was attracted to stealthy footsteps in the passage. Could it be Maruja ? He rose to his feet, with his eye upon the door. The footsteps ceased — it remained closed. But another door, which had escaped his attention in the darkened corner, slowly swung on its hinges, and with a stealthy step, Pereo, the major-domo, entered the room. Courageous and self-possessed as Captain Carroll was by nature and education, this malevolent vision, and incarna- tion of the thought uppermost in his mind, turned him cold. He had half drawn a derringer from his breast, when hii eye fell on the grizzled locks and wrinkled face of tliu MAEUJA 123 old man, and his hand dropped to his side. But Pereo, with the quick observation of insanity, had noticed the •weapon, and rubbed his hands together, with a malicious laugh. " Good ! good ! good ! " he whispered rapidly in a strange bodiless voice; "'twill serve! 'twill serve! And you are a soldier too — and know how to use it ! Good, it is a Providence ! " He lifted his hollow eyes to heaven, and then added, "Come ! come ! " Carroll stepped towards him. He was alone and in the presence of an undoubted madman — one strong enough, in spite of his years, to inflict a deadly injury, and one whom he now began to realize might have done so once before. Nevertheless, he laid his hand on the old man's arm, and looking him calmly in the eye, said quietly, " Come ? "Where, Pereo ? I have only just arrived." " I know it," whispered the old man, nodding his head violently. " I was watching them, when you rode up. That is why I lost the scent ; but together we can track them still — we can track them. Eh, Captain, eh ! Come ! come ! " and he moved slowly backward, waving his hand towards the door. " Track whom, Pereo ? " said Carroll soothingly. " Whom do you seek ? " "Whom ? " said the old man, startled for a moment and passing his hand over his wrinkled forehead. " Whom ? Eh ! Why, the Dona Maruja and the little black cat — her maid — Faquita ! " " Yes, but why seek them ? Why track them ? " " Why ? " said the old man, with a sudden burst of im- )./otent passion. " You ask me why ! Because they are going to the rendezvous again. They are going to seek him. Do you understand — to seek him — the Coyote ! " Carroll smiled a faint smile of relief. " So — the Coyote ! " 124 MAEUJA " Ay," said the old man in a confidential whisper ; " the Coyote ! But not the hig one — you understand — the little one. The big one is dead — dead — dead ! But the little one lives yet. You shall do for hhn what I, Pereo — listen " he glanced around the room furtively — " what I — the good old Pereo, did for the big one ! Good, it is a Providence. Come ! " — Of the terrible thoughts that crossed Carroll's mind at this unexpected climax one alone was uppermost. The trembling irresponsible wretch before him meditated some deep crime — and Maruja was in danger. He did not allow himself to dwell upon any other suspicion suggested by that speech ; he quickly conceived a plan of action. To have rung the bell and given Pereo into the hands of the servants would have only exposed to them the lunatic's secret — if he had any — and he might either escape in his fury or relapse into useless imbecility. To humor him and follow him, and trust afterwards to his own quickness and courage to avert any calamity, seemed to be the only plan. Captain Carroll turned his clear glance on the restless eyes of Pereo, and said, without emotion, " Let us go, then, and quickly. You shall track them for me ; but remember^ good Pereo, you must leave the rest to me." In spite of himself, some accidental significance in this ostentatious adjuration to lull Pereo's suspicions struck him with pain. But the old man's eyes glittered with gratified passion as he said, " Ay, good ! I will keep my word. Thou shalt work thy will on the little one as I have said. Truly it is a Providence ! Come ! " Seeing Captain Car- roll glance round for his overcoat, he seized a poncho from the wall, wrapped it round him, and grasped his hand. Carroll, who would have evaded this semblance of disguise, had no time to parley, and they turned together, through the door by which Pereo had entered, into a long dark pas- sage, which seemed to be made through the outer shell of MAEUJA 125 the building that flanked the park. Following his guide in the profound obscurity, perfectly conscious that any change in his madness might be followed by a struggle in the dark, where no help could reach them, they presently came to a door that opened upon the fresh smell of rain and leaves. They were standing at the bottom of a secluded alley, be- tween two high hedges that hid it from the end of the garden. Its grass-grown walk and untrimmed hedges showed that it was seldom used. Carroll, still keeping close to Pereo's side, felt him suddenly stop and treilible. " Look ! " he said, pointing to a shadowy figure some distance before them ; " look, 'tis Maruja, and alone ! " With a dexterous movement, Carroll managed to slip his arm securely through the old man's, and even to throw him- self before him, as if in his eagerness to discern the figure. " 'T is Maruja — and alone ! " said Pereo, trembling. " Alone ! Eh ! And the Coyote is not here ! " He passed his hand over his staring eyes. " So." Suddenly he turned upon Carroll. " Ah, do you not see, it is a trick ! The Coyote is escaping with Faquita ! Come ! Nay ; thou wilt not ? Then will I ! " With an unexpected strength born of his madness, he freed his arm from Carroll and darted down the alley. The figure of Maruja, evidently alarmed at his approach, glided into the hedge, as Pereo passed swiftly by, intent only on his one wild fancy. Without a further thought of his companion or even the luckless Faquita, Carroll also plunged through the hedge, to intercept Maruja. But by that time she was already crossing the upper end of the lawn, hurrying towards the entrance to the patio. Carroll did not hesitate to follow. Keeping in view the lithe, dark, active little figure, now hidden by an intervening cluster of bushes, now fading ii; the gathering evening shadows, he nevertheless did not succeed in gaining upon her until she had nearly reached the patio. Here he lost ground, as, turning to the right, 126 MARUJA instead of entering the courtyard, she kept her way toward the stables. He was near enough, however, to speak. " One moment, Miss Saltonstall," he said hurriedly ; " there is no danger. I am alone. But I must speak with you." The young girl seemed only to redouble her exertions. At last she stopped before a narrow door hidden in the wall, and fumbled in her pocket for a key. That moment Carroll was upon her. " Forgive me, Miss Saltonstall — Maruja ; but you must hear me ! You are safe, but I fear for your maid, Taquita ! " A little laugh followed his speech ; the door yielded and opened to her vanishing figure. For an instant the lace shawl mulHing her face was lifted, as the door closed and locked behind her. Carroll drew back in consternation. It was the laughing eyes and saucy face of Faquita. CHAPTER XII When Captain Carroll turned from the highroad into the lane, an hour before, Maruja and Faqiiita had already left the house by the same secret passage and garden-door that opened afterwards upon himself and Pereo. The young women had evidently changed dresses : Maruja was wearing the costume of her maid ; Faquita was closely veiled and habited like her mistress ; but it was character- istic that, while Faquita appeared awkward and overdressed in her borrowed plumes, Maruja's short saya and trim bod- ice, with the striped shawl that hid her fair hair, looked infinitely more coquettish and bewitching than on their legitimate owner. They passed hurriedly down the long alley, and at its further end turned at right angles to a small gate half hid- den in the shrubbery. It opened upon a venerable vine- yard, that dated back to the occupation of the padres, but was now given over to the chance cultivation of peons and domestics. Its long, broken rows of low vines, knotted and overgrown with age, reached to the thicketed hillside of buckeye that marked the beginning of the canada. Jlere Maruja parted from her maid, and muffling the shawl more closely round her head, hastily passed between the vine rows to a ruined adobe building near the hillside. It was originally part of the refectory of the old Mision, but had been more recently used as a viSadero's cottage. As she neared it, her steps grew slower, until, reaching its door, she hesitated, with her hand timidly on the latch. The next moment she opened it gently ; it was closed 128 MAEUJA quickly behind her, and with a little stifled cry, she found herself in the arms of Henry Guest. It was only for an instant ; the pleading of her white hands, disengaged from his neck, where at iirst they had found themselves, and uplifted before her face, touched him more than the petitioning eyes or the sweet voiceless mouth, whose breath even was forgotten. Letting her sink into the chair from which he had just risen, he drew back a step, with his hands clasped before him, and his dark half-savage eyes bent earnestly upon her. Well might he have gazed. It was no longer the conscious beauty, proud and regnant, seated before him ; but a timid, frightened girl, struggling with her first deep passion. All that was wise and gentle that she had intended to say, all that her clear intellect and experience had taught her, died upon her lips with that kiss. And all that she could do of womanly dignity and higli-bred decorum was to tuck her small feet under her chair, in the desperate at- tempt to lengthen her short skirt, and beg him not to look at her. " I have had to change dresses with Faquita, because we were watched," she said, leaning forward in her chair and drawing the striped shawl around her shoulders. " I have had to steal out of my mother's house and through the fields, as if I was a gypsy. If I only were a gypsy, Harry, and not " — " And not the proudest heiress in the land," he inter- rupted, with something of his old bitterness. "True, I- had forgot." " But I never reminded you of it," she said, lifting her eyes to his. "I did not remind you of it on that day — in — in — in the conservatory, nor at the time you first spoke of — of — love to me — nor from the time I first consented to meet you here. It is you, Harry, who have spoken of the difference of our condition, you who have MAEUJA 129 talked of my wealth, my family, my position — until I would gladly have changed places with Faquita as I have garments, if I had thought it would make you happier." " Forgive me, darling ! " he said, dropping on one knee before her and bending over the cold little hand he had taken, until his dark head almost rested in her lap. " For- give me ! You are too proud, Maruja, to admit, even to yourself, that you have given your heart where your hand and fortune could not follow. But others may not think so. I am proud, too, and will not have it said that I have won you before I was worthy of you." " You have no right to be more proud than I, sir," she said, rising to her feet, with a touch of her old supreme assertion. " No — don't, Harry — please, Harry — there ! " Nevertheless, she succumbed ; and when she went on, it was with her head resting on his shoulder. " It 's this deceit and secrecy that is so shameful, Harry. I think I could bear everything with you, if it were all known — if you came to woo me like — like — the others. Even if they abused you — if they spoke of your doubtful origin — of your poverty — of your hardships ! When they aspersed you, I could fight them ; when they spoke of your having no father that you could claim, I could even lie for you, I think, Harry, and say that you had ; if they spoke of your poverty, I would speak of my wealth ; if they talked of your hardships, T should only be proud of your endurance — if I could only keep the tears from my eyes ! " They were there now. He kissed them away. " But if they threatened you ? If they drove me from the house ? " " I should fly with you," she said, hiding her head in his breast. " What if I were to ask you to fly with me now ? " he said gloomily. " Now ! " she repeated, lifting her frightened eyes to his> 130 MARDJA TTia face darkened, with its old look of savage resent- ment. " Hear me, Maruja," he said, taking her hands tightly in his own. " When I forgot myself — when I was mad that day in the conservatory, the only expiation I could think of was to swear in my inmost soul that I would never take advantage of your forgiveness, that I would never tempt you to forget yourself, your friends, your family, for me, an unknown outcast. When I found you pitied me, and listened to my love — I was too weak to forego the one ray of sunshine in my wretched life — and thinking that I had a prospect before me in an idea I promised to reveal to you later, I swore never to beguile you or myself in that hope by any act that might bring you to repent it — or myself to dishonor. But I taxed myself too much, Maruja. I have asked too much of you. You are right, darling ; this secrecy — this deceit — is un- worth}' of us ! Every hour of it — blest as it has been to me — every moment — sweet as it is — blackens the purity of our only defense, makes you false and me a coward ! It must end here — to-day ! Maruja, darling, my precious one ! God knows what may be the success of my plans. We have but one chance now. I must leave here to-day, never to return, or I must take you with me. Do not start, Maruja — but hear me out. Dare you risk all? Dare you fly with me now, to-night, to the old Padre at the ruined Mi.sion, and let him bind us in those bonds that none dare break ? We can take Faquita with us — it is but a few miles — and we can return and throw ourselves at your mother's feet. She can only drive us forth together. Or we can fly from this cursed wealth, and all the misery it has entailed — forever." She raised her head, and with her two hands on his shoulders, gazed at him with her father's searching eyes, as if to read his very soul. " Are you mad, Harry ! — think what you propose ! Is MARtTJA 131 this not tempting me ? Think again, dearest," she said, half convulsively, seizing his arm when her grasp had slipped from his shoulder. There was a momentary silence as she stood with her eyes fixed almost wildly on his set face. But a sudden shock against the bolted door and an inarticulate outcry startled them. With an instinctive movement, Guest threw his arm round her. " It 's Pereo," she said in a hurried whisper, but once more mistress of her strength and resolution. "He is seeking you ! Fly at once. He is mad, Harry ; a raving lunatic. He watched us the last time. He has tracked us here. He suspects you. You must not meet him. You can escape through the other door, that opens upon the Canada. If you love me — fly ! " " And leave you exposed to his fury — are you mad ! No. Fly yourself by the other door, lock it behind you, and alarm the servants. I will open this door to him, secure him here, and then be gone. Do not fear for me. There is no danger — and if I mistake not," he added, with a strange significance, " he will hardly attack me ! " " But he may have already alarmed the household. Hark ! " There was the noise of a struggle outside the door, and then the voice of Captain Carroll, calm and collected, rose clearly for an instant. " You are quite safe. Miss Salton- stall. I think I have him secure, but perhaps you had better not open the door until assistance comes." They gazed at each other, without a word. A grim challenge played on Guest's lips. Maruja lifted her little hands deliberately, and clasped them round his defiant neck. " Listen, darling," she said softly and quietly, as if only the security of silence and darkness encompassed them. 'You asked me just now if I would fly with you — if I 132 MAEUJA would marry you without the consent of my family — . against the protest of my friends — and at once ! I hesi- tated, Harry, for I was frightened and foolish. But I say to you now that I will marry you when and where you like — for I love you, Harry, and you alone." " Then let us go at once," he said, passionately seiz- ing her ; " we can reach the road by the caiiada before assistance comes — before we are discovered. Come ! " " And you will remember in the years to come, Harry," she said, still composedly, and with her arms still around his neck, " that I never loved any but you — that I never knew what love was before, and that since I have loved you — I have never thought of any other. Will you not ? " " I will — and now " — " And now," she said, with a superb gesture towards the barrier which separated them from Cairoll, " open the DOOB ! " CHAPTER XIII With a swift glance of admiration at Maruja, Guest flung open the door. The hastily summoned servants were already bearing away the madman, exhausted by his efforts. Captain Carroll alone remained there, erect and motionless, before the threshold. At a sign from Maruja, he entered the room. In the flash of light made by the opening door, he had been per- fectly conscious of her companion, but not a motion of his eye or the movement of a muscle of his face betrayed it. The trained discipline of his youth stood him in good ser- vice, and for the moment left him master of the situation. " I think no apology is needed for this intrusion," he said, with cool composure. " Pereo seemed intent on mur- dering somebody or something, and I followed him here. I suppose I might have got him away more quietly, but I was afraid you might have thoughtlessly opened the door." He stopped, and added, " I see now how unfounded was the supposition." It was a fatal addition. In the next instant, the Maruja who had been standing beside Guest, conscious-stricken and remorseful in the presence of the man she had deceived, and calmly awaiting her punishment, changed at this luck- less exhibition of her own peculiar womanly weapons. The old Maruja, supreme, ready, undaunted, and passionless, returned to the fray. " You were wrong, Captain," she said sweetly ; " fortu- nately, Mr Guest — whom I see you have forgotten in your absence — was with me, and I think would have felt it his 134 MAEUJA duty to have protected me. But I thank you all the same, and I think even Mr. Guest will not allow his envy of your good fortune in coming so gallantly to my rescue to prevent his appreciating its full value. I am only sorry that on your return to La Mision Perdida you should have fallen into the arms of a madman before extending your hands to your friends." Their eyes met. She saw that he hated her — and felt relieved. ■' It may not have been so entirely unfortunate," he said, with a coldness strongly in contrast with his gradually blazing eyes, "fori was charged with a message to you, in which this madman is supposed by some to play an important part." " Is it a matter of business ? " said Maruja lightly, yet with a sudden instinctive premonition of coming evil in the relentless tones of his voice. "It is business. Miss Saltonstall — purely and simply business," said Carroll dryly, " under whatever oth&r name it may have been since presented to you." " Perhaps you have no objection to tell it before Mr. Guest," said Maruja, with an inspiration of audacity ; " it sounds so mysterious that it must be interesting. Otherwise, Captain Carroll, who abhors business, would not have under- taken it with more than his usual enthusiasm." "As the business does interest Mr. Guest, or Mr. West, or whatever name he may have decided upon since I had the pleasure of meeting him," said Carroll — for the first time striking iire from the eyes of his rival — "I see no reason why I should not, even at the risk of telling you what you already know. Briefly, then, Mr. Prince charged me to advise you and your mother to avoid litigation with this gentleman, and admit his claim, as the son of Dr. West, to his share of the property." Th(5 utter consternation and bewilderment shown in the MARUJA 135 face of Mar\ija convinced Carroll of his fatal error. She had received the addresses of this man without knowing his real position ! The wild theory that had seemed to justify his resentment — that she had sold herself to Guest to possess the property — now recoiled upon him in its utter baseness. She had loved Guest for himself alone ; by this base revelation he had helped to throw her into his arms. But he did not even yet know Maruja. Turning to Guest, with flashing eyes, she said, " Is it true — are you the son of Dr. West, and " — she hesitated — " kept out of your inheritance by us ? " " I am the son of Dr. West," he said earnestly, " though I alone had the right to tell you that at the proper time and occasion. Believe me that I have given no one the right — least of all any tool of Prince — to trade upon it." " Then," said Carroll fiercely, forgetting everything in his anger, " perhaps you will disclaim before this young lady the charge made by your employer that Pereo was instigated to Dr. West's murder by her mother ? " Again he had overshot the mark. The horror and indig- nation depicted in Guest's face were too plainly visible to Maruja, as well as himself, to permit a doubt that the idea was as new as the accusatiin. Forgetting her bewilderment at these revelations, her wounded pride, a torturing doubt suggested by Guest's want of confidence in her — indeed everything but the outraged feelings of her lover, she flew to his side. " Not a word," she said proudly, lifting her little hand before his darkening face. " Do not insult nie by replying to such an accusation in my presence. Captain Carroll," she continued, turning towards him, "I cannot forget that you were introduced into my mother's house as an officer and a gentleman. When you return to it as such, and not as a man of business, you will be welcome. Until then, farewell ! " 136 MAEUJA She remained standing, erect and passionless, as Carroll, with a cold salutation, stepped back and disappeared in the darkness ; and then she turned, and with tottering step and a little cry, fell upon Guest's breast. " O Harry — Harry ! — why have you deceived me ! " " I thought it for the best, darling," he said, lifting her face to his. " You know now the prospect I spoke of — the hope that buoyed ine up ! I wanted to win you my- self alone, without appealing to your sense of justice or even your sympathies ! I did win you. God knows, if I had not, you would never have learned through me that a son of Dr. West had ever lived. But that was not enough. When I found that I could establish my right to my father's pro- perty, I wanted you to marry me before you knew it ; so that it never could be said that you were influenced by any- thing but love for me. That was why I came here to-day. That was why I pressed you to fly with me ! " He ceased. She was fumbling with the buttons of his waistcoat. " Harry," she said softly, " did you think of the property when — when — you kissed me in the conser- vatory ? " " I thought of nothing but you," he answered tenderly. Suddenly she started from his embrace. " But Pereo ! — Harry — tell me quick — no one — nobody can think that this poor demented old man could — that Dr. West was — that — it 's all a trick — is n't it ? Harry — speak ! " He was silent for a moment, and then said gravely, "Tliere were strange men at the fonda that night, and — my father was supposed to carry money with him. My own life was attempted at the Mision the same evening for the sake of some paltry gold pieces that I had imprudently shown. I was saved solely by the interference of one man. That man was Pereo, your major-domo ! " She seized his hand and raised it joyfully to her lips. " Thank you for those words ! And you will come to him MAEUJA 137 with me at ^nce ; and he will recognize you ; and we will laugh at those lies ; won't we, Harry ? " He did not reply. Perhaps he was listening to a con- fused sound of voices rapidly approaching the cottage. Together they stepped out into the gathering night. A number of figures were coming towards them, among them Faquita, who ran a little ahead to meet her mistress. " Oh, Dona Maruja, he has escaped ! " '■' Who ? Not Pereo ! " " Truly. And on his horse. It was saddled and bridled in the stable all day. One knew it not. He was walking like a cat, when suddenly he parted the peons around him, like grain before a mad bull — and behold ! he was on the pinto's back and away. And, alas ! there is no horse that can keep up with the pinto. God grant he may not get in tlie way of the r-r-railroad, that, in his very madness, he will even despise." " My own horse is in the thicket," whispered Guest, hur- ii*,dly, in Maruja's ear. "I have measured him with the pinto before now. Give me your blessing, and I will bring him back if he be alive." She pressed his hand and said, " Go." Before the aston- ished, servants could identify the strange escort of their mis- tress, he was gone. It was already quite dark. To any but Guest, who had made the topography of La Mision Perdida a practical study, and who had known the habitual circuit of the major-domo in his efforts to avoid him, the search would have been hopeless. But rightly conjecturing that he would in his demented condition follow the force of habit, he spurred his horse along the highroad until he reached the lane leading to the grassy amphitheatre already described, which was once his favorite resort. Since then it had participated in the terrible transformation already wrought in the valley by the railroad. A deep cutting through one of the grassy i38 MARUJA hills had been made for the line that now crossed the lower arc of the amphitheatre. His conjecture was justified on entering it by the appear- ance of a shadowy horseman in full career round the circle, and he had no difficulty in recognizing Pereo. As there was no other exit than the one by which he came, the other being inaccessible by reason of the railroad track, he calmly watched him twice make the circuit of the arena, ready to ride towards him when he showed symptoms of slackening his speed. Suddenly he became aware of some strange exercise on the part of the mysterious rider ; and as the latter swept by on the nearer side of the circle. Guest saw that he was throw- ing a lasso ! A horrible thought that he was witnessing an insane rehearsal of the murder of his father flashed across his mind. A far-off whistle from the distant woods recalled him to his calmer senses at the same moment that it seemed also to check the evolutions of the furious rider. Guest felt confi- dent that the wretched man could not escape him now. It was the approaching train, whose appearance would undoubt- edly frighten Pereo toward the entrance of the little valley guarded by him. The hillside was already alive with the clattering echoes of the oncoming monster, when, to his horror, he saw the madman advancing rapidly towards the cutting. He put spurs to his. horse, and started in pursuit ; but the train was already emerging from the narrow passage, followed by the furious rider, who had wheeled abreast of the engine, and was, for a moment or two, madly keeping up with it. Guest shouted to him, but his voice was lost in the roar of the rushing caravan. Something seemed to fly from Pereo's hand. The next moment the train had passed ; rider and horse, crushed and battered out of all life, were rolling in the ditch, while the murderer^s empty saddle dangled at the end of a lasso, caught MARUJA 139 on the smoke-stack of one of the murdered man's avenging improvements ! The marriage of Maruja and the son of the late Dr. West was received in the valley of San Antonio as one of the most admirably conceived and skillfully matured plans of that lamented genius. There -were many who were ready to state that the Doctor had confided it to them years before ; and it was generally accepted that the widow Saltonstall had been simply made a trustee for the benefit of the prospective young couple. Only one person, perhaps, did not entirely accept these views ; it was Mr. James Prince — otherwise known as Aladdin. In later years, he is said to have stated authoritatively " that the only combination in business that was uncertain — was man and woman." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S CHAPTER I Fob some moments profound silence and darkness had accompanied a Sierran stagecoach towards the Summit. The huge, dim bulk of the vehicle, swaying noiselessly oit its straps, glided onward and upward as if obeying .some mysterious impulse from behind, so faint and indefinite ap- peared its relation to the viewless and silent horses ahead. The shadowy trunks of tall trees that seemed to approach the coach windows, look in, and then move hurriedly away, were the only distinguishable objects. Yet even these were so vague and unreal that they might have been the mere phantoms of some dream of the half-sleeping pas- sengers ; for the thickly strewn needles of the pine, that choked the way and deadened all sound, yielded under the silently crushing wheels a faint soporific odor that seemed to benumb their senses, already slipping back into uncon- sciousness during the long ascent. Suddenly the stage stopped. Three of the fouv passengers inside struggled at once into upright wakefulness. The fourth passenger, John Hale, had not been sleeping, and turned impatiently towards the window. It seemed to him that two of the moving trees had suddenly become motionless outside. One of them moved again, and the door opened quickly but quietly, as of itself. " Git down," said a voice in the darkness. All the passengers except Hale started. The man next SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 141 to him moved his right hand suddenly behind him, but as quickly stopped. One of the motionless trees had appar- ently closed upon the vehicle, and what had seemed to be a bough projecting from it at right angles changed slowly into the faintly shining double-barrels of a gun at the window. " Drop that ! " said the voice. The man who had moved uttered a short laugh, and returned his band empty to his knees. The two others perceptibly shrugged their shoulders as over a game that was lost. The remaining passenger, John Hale, fearless by nature, inexperienced by habit, awaking suddenly to the truth, conceived a desperate resistance. But without his making a gesture this was instinctively felt by the others ; the muzzle of the gun turned spontaneously on him, and he was vaguely conscious of a certain contempt and impatience of him in his companions. " Git down," repeated the voice imperatively. The three passengers descended. Hale, furious, alert, but helpless of any opportunity, followed. He was sur- prised to find the stage-driver and express messenger stand- ing beside him ; he had not heard them dismount. He instinctively looked toward the horses. He could see nothing. " Hold up your hands ! " One of the passengers had already lifted his, in a weary, perfunctory way. The others did the same reluctantly and awkwardly, but apparently more from the consciousness of the ludicrousness of their attitude than from any sense of danger. The rays of a bull's-eye lantern, deftly managed by invisible hands, while it left the intruders in shadow, completely illuminated the faces and figures of the passen- gers. In spite of the majestic obscurity and silence of surrounding nature, the group of humanity thus illuminated was more farcical than dramatic. A scrap of newspaper, 142 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES part of a sandwich, and an orange peel that had fallen from the floor of the coach, brought into equal prominence by the searching light, completed the absurdity. " There 's a man here with a package of greenbacks," said the voice, with an official coolness that lent a certain suggestion of Custom House inspection to the transaction ; " who is it ? " The passengers looked at each other, and their glance finally settled on Hale. " It 's not him," continued the voice, with a slight tinge of contempt on the emphasis. " You 'U save time and searching, gentlemen, if you '11 tote it out. If we 've got to go through every one of you we '11 try to make it pay." The significant threat was not unheeded. The passenger who had first moved when the stage stopped put his hand to his breast. " T'other pocket first, if you please," said the voice. The man laughed, drew a pistol from his hip pocket, and, under the strong light of the lantern, laid it on a spot in the road indicated by the voice. A thick envelope, taken from his breast pocket, was laid beside it. " I told the d — d fools that gave it to me, instead of sending it by express, it would be at their own risk," he said apologeti- cally. " As it 's going with the express now, it 's all the same," said the inevitable humorist of the occasion, pointing to the despoiled express treasure-box already in the road. The intention and deliberation of the outrage was plain enough to Hale's inexperience now. Yet he could not un- derstand the cool acquiescence of his fellow passengers, and was furious. His reflections were interrupted by a voice which seemed to come from a greater, distance. He fancied it was even softer in tone, as if a certain austerity was relaxed. " Step in as quick as you like, gentlemen. You 've five minutes to wait. Bill." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 143 The passengers reentered the coach ; the driver and ex- press messenger hurriedly climhed to their places. Hale would have spoken, biit an impatient gesture from his com- panions stopped him. They were evidently listening for something ; he listened too. Yet the silence remained unbroken. It seemed incredi- ble that there should be no indication near or far of that forceful presence which a moment ago had been so domi- nant. No rustle in the wayside " brush," nor echo from the rocky canon below, betrayed a sound of their flight. A faint breeze stirred the tall tips of the pines, a cone dropped on the stage roof, one of the invisible horses that seemed to be listening too moved slightly in his harness. But this only appeared to accentuate the profound stillness. The moments were growing interminable, when the voice, so near as to startle Hale, broke once more from the sur- rounding obscurity. " Good-night ! " It was the signal that they were free. The driver's whip cracked like a pistol-shot, the horses sprang furiously for- ward, the huge vehicle lurched ahead, and then bounded violently after them. When Hale could make his voice heard in the confusion — a confusion which seemed greater from the colorless intensity of their last few moments' ex- perience — he said hurriedly, " Then that fellow was there all the time ? " " I reckon," returned his companion, " he stopped five minutes to cover the driver with his double-barrel, until the two other men got off with the treasure." " The two others ! " gasped Hale. " Then there were only three men, and we six." The man shrugged his shoulders. The passenger who had given up the greenbacks drawled, with a slow, irritat- ing tolerance, " I reckon you 're a stranger here ? " "I am — to this sort of thing, certainly, though I live a 144 SNOW-BOXTND AT EAGLE'S dozen miles from here, at Eagle's Court," returned Hale scornfully. " Then you 're the chap that 's doin' that fancy ranchin' over at Eagle's ? " continued the man lazily. " Whatever I 'm doing at Eagle's Court, I 'm not ashamed of it," said Hale tartly ; " and that 's more than I can say of what I 've done — or have n't done — to-night. I 've been one of six men overawed and robbed by three." " As to the over-awin', ez you call it — mebbe you know more about it than us. As to the robbin' — ez far as I kin remember, you have n't onloaded much. Ef you 're talkin' about what oughter been done, I '11 tell you what could have happened. P'r'aps ye noticed that when he pulled up I made a kind of grab for my wepping behind me?" " I did ; and you were n't quick enough," said Hale shortly. " I was n't quick enough, and that saved you. For ef I got that pistol out and in sight o' that man that held the gun " — " Well," said Hale impatiently, " he 'd have hesitated." " He 'd hev blown you with both barrels outer the win- dow, and that before I 'd got a half-cock on my revolver." " But that would have been only one man gone, and there would have been five of you left," said Hale haughtily, " That might have been, ef you 'd contracted to take the hull charge of two handfuls of buckshot and slugs ; but ez one eighth o' that amount would have done your business, and yet left enough to have gone round, promiskiss, and satisfied the other passengers, it would n't do to kalkilate upon." " But the express messenger and the driver were armed," continued Hale. "They were armed, but noi fixed ; that make„ aU the difference." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 145 " I don't understand." " I reckon you know what a duel is ? " « Yes." " Well, the chances agin us was about the same as you 'd have ef you was put up agin another chap who was allowed to draw a head on you, and the signal to tire was your drawin' your weapon. You may be a stranger to this sort o' thing, and p'r'aps you never fought a duel, but even then you would n't go foolin' your life away on any such chances." Something in the man's manner, as in a certain sly amusement the other passengers appeared to extract from the conversation, impressed Hale, already beginning to be conscious of the ludicrous insuflficieucy of his own grievance beside that of his interlocutor. " Then you mean to say this thing is inevitable," said he bitterly, but less aggressively. " Ez long ez they hunt you ; when you hunt theTn you 've got the advantage, alius provided you know how to get at them ez well as they know how to get at you. This yer coach is bound to go regular, and on certain days. They ain't. By the time the sheriff gets out his posse they 've skedaddled, and the leader, like as not, is takin' his quiet cocktail at the Bank Exchange, or mebbe losin' his earnings to the sheriff over draw-poker, in Sacramento. You see, you can't prove anything agin them unless you take them ' on the fly.' It may be a part of Joaquim Murietta's band, though I would n't swear to it." " The leader might have been Gentleman George, from up-country," interposed a passenger. "He seemed to throw in a few fancy touches, particlerly in that ' Good-night.' Sorter chucked a little sentiment in it. Did n't seem to be the same thing ez ' Git, yer d — d suckers ! ' on the other line." " Whoever he was, he knew the road and the men who 146 SNOW-BOCND AT EAGLE'S traveled on it. Like ez not, lie went over the line beside the driver on the box on the down trip, and took stock of everything. He even knew I had those greenbacks ; though they were handed to me in the bank at Sacramento. He must have been hangin' round there." Tor some moments Hale remained silent. He was a civic-bred man, with an intense love of law and order ; the kind of man who is the first to take that law and order intu his own hands when he does not find it existing to please him. He had a Bostonian's respect for respectability, tra- dition, and propriety, but was willing to face irregularity and impropriety to create order elsewhere. He was fond of Nature with these limitations, never quite trusting her unguided instincts, and finding her as an instructress greatly inferior to Harvard University, though possibly not to Cor- nell. With dauntless enterprise and energy he had built and stocked a charming cottage farm in a nook in the Sierras, whence he opposed, like the lesser Englishman that he was, his own tastes to those of the alien West. In the present instance he felt it incumbent upon him not only to assert his principles, but to act upon them with his usual energy. How far he was impelled by the half-contemptu- ous passiveness of his companions it would be difficult to say. " What is to prevent the pursuit of them at once ? " he asked suddenly. " We are a few miles from the station, where horses can be procured." "Who's to do it?" replied the other lazily. "The stage company will lodge the complaint with the authori- ties, but it will take two days to get the county oiiicers out, and it 's nobody else's funeral." " I will go for one," said Hale quietly. " I have a horse waiting for me at the station, and can start at once." There was an instant of silence. The stagecoach had left the obscurity of the forest, and by the stronger light SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 147 Hale could perceive that his companion was examining him with two colorless, lazy eyes. Presently he said, meeting Hale's clear glance, but rather as if yielding to a careless reflection : — " It might be done with four men. We oughter raise one man at the station." He paused. " I don't know ez I 'd mind taking a hand myself," he added, stretching out his legs with a slight yawn. i " Ye can count me in, if you 're goin'. Kernel. I reckon I 'm talkin' to Kernel Clinch," said the passenger beside Hale with sudden alacrity. " I 'm Eawlins, of 'Frisco. Heerd of ye afore. Kernel, and kinder spotted you jist now from your talk." To Hale's surprise, the two men, after awkwardly and perfunctorily grasping each other's hand, entered at once into a languid conversation on the recent election at Fresno, without the slightest further reference to the pursuit of the robbers. It was not until the remaining and undenominated passenger turned to Hale, and, regretting that he had im- mediate business at the Summit, offered to accompany the party if they would wait a couple of hours, that Colonel Clinch briefly returned to the subject. " Four men will do, and ez we '11 hev to take horses from the station we '11 hev to take the fourth man from there." With these words he resumed his uninteresting conver- sation with the equally uninterested Rawlins, and the undenominated passenger subsided into an admiring and dreamy contemplation of them both. With all his princi- ple and really high-miuded purpose. Hale could not help feeling constrained and annoyed at the sudden subordinate and auxiliary position to which he, the projector of the en- terprise, had been reduced. It was true that he had never offered himself as their leader ; it was true that the princi- ple he wished to uphold and the effect he sought to obtain 148 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S would be equally demonstrated under another ; it was true that the execution of his own conception gravitated by some occult impulse to the man who had not sought it, and whom he had always regarded as an incapable. But all this was so unlike precedent or tradition that, after the fashion of conservative men, he was suspicious of it, and only that his honor was now involved he would have with- drawn from the enterprise. There was still a chance of reasserting himself at the station, where he was known, and where some authority might be deputed to him. But even this prospect failed. The station, half stable, contained only the landlord, who was also express agent, and the new volunteer whom Clinch had suggested would be found among the stable-men. The nearest justice of the peace was ten miles away, and Hale had to abandon even his hope of being sworn in as a deputy constable. This in- troduction of a common and illiterate hostler into the party on equal terms with himself did not add to his satisfaction, and a remark from Eawlins seemed to complete his embar- rassment. " Ye had a mighty narrer escape down there just now,'' said that gentleman confidentially, as Hale buckled his sad- dle-girths. " I thought, as we were not supposed to defend our- selves, there was no danger," said Hale scornfully. " Oh, I don't mean them road agents. But him." " Who ? " " Kernel Clinch. You jist ez good as allowed he had n't any grit.'" " Whatever I said, I suppose I am responsible for it," answered Hale haughtily. " That 's what gits me," was the imperturbable reply. " He 's the best shot in Southern California, and hez let daylight through a dozen chaps afore now for half what you said." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 149 " Indeed ! " " Howsummever," continued Eawlins philosophically, '' ez he 's concluded to go iv'ith ye instead oi for ye, you 're likely to hev your ideas on this matter carried out up to the handle. He '11 make short work of it, you bet. Ef, ez I suspect, the leader is an airy young feller from 'Frisco, who hez took to the road lately. Clinch hez got a personal grudge agin him from a quarrel over draw-poker." This was the last blow to Hale's ideal crusade. Here he was — an honest, respectable citizen — engaged as sim- ple accessory to a lawless vendetta originating at a gam- bling-table ! When the first shock was over that grim philosophy which is the reaction of all imaginative and sensitive natures came to his aid. He felt better ; oddly enough he began to be conscious that he was thinking and acting like his companions. With this feeling a vague sympathy, before absent, faintly showed itself in their ac- tions. The Sharpe's rifle put into his hands by the stable- man was accompanied by a familiar word of suggestion as to an equal, which he was ashamed to find flattered him. He was able to continue the conversation with Eawlins more coolly. " Then you suspect who is the leader ? " " Only on giniral principles. There was a finer touch, so to speak, in this yer robbery that wasn't in the old- fashioned style. Down in my country they hed crude ideas about them things — used to strip the passengers of everything, includin' their clothes. They say that at the station hotels, when the coach came in, the folks used to stand round with blankets to wrap up the passengers so ez not to skeer the wimen. Thar 's a story that the driver and express manager drove up one day with only a copy of the ' Alty Californy ' wrapped around 'em ; but thin," added Rawlins grimly, " there was folks ez said the hull story was only an advertisement got up for the ' Alty.' " 150 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's "Time 'sup." " Are you ready, gentlemen ? " said Colonel Clinch. Hale started. He had forgotten his wife and family at Eagle's Court, ten miles away. They would he alarmed at his absence, would perhaps hear some exaggerated version of the stagecoach robbery, and fear the worst. " Is there any way I could send a line to Eagle's Court before daybreak ? " he asked eagerly. The station was already drained of its spare men and horses. The undenominated passenger stepped forward and offered to take it himself when his business, which he would dispatch as quickly as possible, was concluded. " That ain't a bad idea," said Clinch reflectively, " for ef yer hurry you '11 head 'em off in case they scent us, and try to double-back on the North Eidge. They '11 fight shy of the trail if they see anybody on it, and one man 's as good as a dozen." Hale could not help thinking that he might have been ■ that one man, and had his opportunity for independent action but for his rash proposal, but it was too late to withdraw now. He hastily scribbled a few lines to his wife on a sheet of the station paper, handed it to the man, and took his place in the little cavalcade as it filed silently down the road. They had ridden in silence for nearly an hour, and had passed the scene of the robbery by a higher track. Morn- ing had long ago advanced its colors on the cold white peaks to their right, and was taking possession of the spur where they rode. " It looks like snow," said Rawlins quietly. Hale turned towards him in astonishment. Nothing on earth or sky looked less likely. It had been cold, but that might have been only a current from the frozen peaks beyond, reaching the lower valley. The ridge on which they had halted was still thick with yellowish-green sum- SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 151 mei foliage, mingled with the darker evergreen of pine and fir. Oven-like canons in the long flanks of the mountain seemed still to glow with the heat of yesterday's noon ; the breathless air yet trembled and quivered over stifling gorges and passes in the granite rocks, while far at their feet sixty miles of perpetual summer stretched away over the winding American River, now and then lost in a gossamer haze. It was scarcely ripe October where they stood ; they could see the plenitude of August still lingering in the valleys. " I 've seen Thomson's Pass choked up with fifteen feet o' snow earlier than this," said Rawlins, answering Hale's gaze ; " and last September the passengers sledded over the road we came last night, and all the time Thomson, a mile lower down over the ridge in the hollow, smoking his pipes under roses in his piazzy ! Mountains is mighty uncertain ; they make their own weather ez they want it. I reckon you ain't wintered here yet ? " Hale was obliged to admit that he had only taken Eagle's Court in the early spring. "Oh, you're all right at Eagle's — when you're there! But it 's like Thomson's — it 's the gettin' there that — Hall ) ! What 's that ? " A shot, distant but distinct, had rung through the keen air. It was followed by another so alike as to seem an echo. " That 's over yon, on the North Ridge," said the hostler, " about two miles as the crow flies and five by the trail. Somebody 's shootin' b'ar." " Not with a shot-gun," said Clinch, quickly wheeling his horse with a gesture that electrified them. " It 's them, and they 've doubled on us ! To the North Ridge, gentlemen, and ride all you know ! " It needed no second challenge to completely transform that quiet cavalcade. The wild man-hunting instinct, inseparable to most humanity, rose at their leader's look and word. With an incoherent and unintelligible cry, giving 152 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S voice to the chase like the commonest hound of their fieldsj the order-loving Hale and the philosophical Rawlins wheeled with the others, and in another instant the little band swept out of sight in the forest. An immense and immeasurable quiet succeeded. The sunlight glistened silently on cliff and scar, the vast distance below seemed to stretch out and broaden into repose. It might have been fancy, but over the sharp line of the North Sidge a light smoke lifted as of an escaping soul. CHAPTEE II Eagle's Coxiet, one of the highest canons of the Sierras, was in reality a plateau of table-land, embayed like a green lake in a semicircular sweep of granite, that, lifting itself three thousand feet higher, became a foundation for the eternal snows. The mountain genii of space and atmosphere jealously guarded its seclusion and surrounded it with illusions ; it never looked to be exactly what it was : the traveler who saw it from the North Eidge apparently at his feet in descending found himself separated from it by a iiule-long abyss and a rushing river ; those who sought it by (\ seeming direct trail at the end of an hour lost sight of it t\^mpletely, or, abandoning the quest and retracing their steps, suddenly came upon the gap through which it was entered. That which from the Eidge appeared to be a copse of bushes beside the tiny dwelling were trees three hundred feet high ; the cultivated lawn before it, which might have been covered by the traveler's handkerchief, was a field of a thousand acres. The house itself was a long, low, irregular structure, d.iiefly of roof and veranda, picturesquely upheld by rustic pillars of pine, with the bark still adhering, and covered with vines and trailing roses. Yet it was evident that the cool- ness produced by this vast extent of cover was more than the architect, who had planned it under the influence of a staring and bewildering sky, had trustfully conceived, for it had to be mitigated by blazing fires in open hearths when the thermometer marked a hundred degrees in the field beyond. The dry, restless wind that continually rocked the 154 SNOW-BOCND AT EAGLES tall masts of the pines with a sound like the distant sea, •while it stimulated outdoor physical exertion and defied fatigue, left the sedentary dwellers in these altitudes chilled in the shade they courted, or scorched them with heat when they ventured to bask supinely in the sun. White muslin curtains at the French windows, and rugs, skins, and heavy furs dispersed in the interior, with certain other charming but incongruous details of furniture, marked the inconsist- encies of the climate. There was a coquettish indication of this in the costume of Miss Kate- Scott as she stepped out on the veranda that morning. A man's broad-brimmed Panama hat, partly un- sexed by a twisted gayly colored scarf, but retaining enough character to give piquancy to the pretty curves of the face- beneath, protected her from the sun ; a red flannel shirt — another spoil from the enemy — and a thick jacket shielded her from the austerities of the morning breeze. But the next inconsistency was peculiarly her own. Miss Kate always wore the freshest and lightest of white cambric skirts, without the least reference to the temperature. To the practical sanatory remonstrances of her brother-in-law. and to the conventional criticism of her sister, she opposed the same defense : " How else is one to tell when it is sum- mer in this ridiculous climate ? And then, woolen is stuffy, color draws the sun, and one at least knows when one if clean or dirty." Artistically the result was far from un- satisfactory. It was a pretty figure under the sombre pines, against the gray granite and the steely sky, and seemed to lend the yellowing fields from which the flowers had already fled a floral relief of color. I do not think the few mascu- line wayfarers of that locality objected to it ; indeed, some had betrayed an indiscreet admiration, and had curiously followed the invitation of Miss Kate's warmly colored figure until they bad encountered the invincible indifference of Miss Kiite's cold gray eyes. With these manifestations her SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S X55 brother-in-law did not concern himself ; he had perfect con- fidence in her unqualiiied disinterest in the neighboring humanity, and permitted her to wander in her solitary pic- turesqueness, or accompanied her when she rode in her dark green habit, with equal freedom from anxiety. For Miss Scott, although only twenty, had already sub- jected most of her maidenly illusions to mature critical analyses. She had voluntarily accompanied her sister and mother to California, in the earnest hope that nature con- tained something worth saying to her, and was disappointed to find she had already discounted its value in the pages of books. She hoped to find a vague freedom in this uncon- ventional life thus opened to her, or rather to show others that she knew how intelligently to appreciate it, but as yet she was only able to express it in the one detail of dress already alluded to. Some of the men, and nearly all the women, she had met thus far, she was amazed to find, valued the conventionalities she believed she despised, and were voluntarily assuming the chains she thought she had thrown off. Instead of learning anything from them, these children of nature had bored her with eager questionings regarding the civilization she had abandoned, or irritated her with crude imitations of it for her benefit. " Fancy," she had written to a friend in Boston, " my calling on Sue Murphy, who remembered the Donner tragedy, and who once shot a grizzly that was prowling round her cabin, and think of her begging me to lend her my sack for a pattern, and wanting to know if ' polonays ' were still worn." She remembered more bitterly the romance that had tickled her earlier fancy, told of two college friends of her brother-in- law's who were living the " perfect life " in the mines, laboring in the ditches with a copy of Homer in their pockets, and writing letters of the purest philosophy under the free air of the pines. How, coming unexpectedly on them in their Arcadia, the party found them unpresentable 156 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S through dirt, and thenceforth unknowable through domestic lomplications that had filled their Arcadian cabin with half- bred children. Much of this disillusion she had kept within her own heart, from a feeling of pride, or only lightly touched upon it in her relations with her mother and sister. For Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Scott had no idols to shatter, no enthusiasm to subdue. Firmly and unalterably conscious of their own superiority to the life they led and the community that sur- rounded them, they accepted their duties cheerfully, and performed them conscientiously. Those duties were loyalty to Hale's interests and a vague missionary work among the neighbors, which, like most missionary work, consisted rather in making their own ideas understood than in under- standing the ideas of their audience. Old Mrs. Scott's zeal was partly religious, an inheritance from her Puritan an- cestry ; Mrs. Hale's was the affability of a gentlewoman and the obligation of her position. To this was added the slight langour of the cultivated American wife, whose health has been affected by the birth of her first child, and whose views of marriage and maternity were slightly tinged with gentle skepticism. She was sincerely attached to her hus- band, " who dominated the household " like the rest of his " women-folk," with the faint consciousness of that division of service which renders the position of the sultan of a seraglio at once so prominent and so precarious. The atti- tude of John Hale in his family circle was dominant be- cause it had never been subjected to criticism or compari- son ; and perilous for the same reason. Mrs. Hale presently joined her sister in the veranda, and, shading her eyes with a narrow white hand, glanced on the prospect with a polite interest and ladylike urbanity. The searching sun, which, as Miss Kate once intimated, was "vulgarity itself," stared at her in return, but could not call a blush to her somewhat sallow cheek. Neither could SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S Ibl it detract, however, from the delicate prettiness of her re- fined face with its soft gray shadows, or the dark gentle eyes, whose blue-veined lids were just then wrinkled into coquettishly mischievous lines by the strong light. She was taller and thinner than Kate, and had at times a certain shy, coy sinuosity of movement which gave her a more virginal suggestion than her unmarried sister. For Miss Kate, from her earliest youth, had been distinguished by that matronly sedateness of voice and step, and complete- ness of figure, which indicates some members of the gal- linaceous tribe from their callow infancy. " I suppose John must have stopped at the Summit on some business," said Mrs. Hale, " or he would have been here already. It's scarcely worth while waiting for him, unless you choose to ride over and meet him. You might change your dress," she continued, looking doubtfully at Kate's costume. " Put on your riding-habit, and take Manuel with you." " And take the only man we have, and leave you alone ? " returned Kate slowly. " No ! " " There are the Chinese field-hands," said Mrs. Hale ; " you must correct your ideas, and really allow them some humanity, Kate. John says they have a very good com- pulsory school system in their own country, and can read and write." " That would be of little use to you here alone if — if " • — Kate hesitated. " If what ? " said Mrs. Hale, smiling. " Are you think- ing of Manuel's dreadful story of the grizzly tracks across the fields this morning ? I promise you that neither I, nor mother, nor Minnie shall stir out of the house until you return, if you wish it." " I was n't thinking of that," said Kate ; " though I don't believe the beating of a gong and the using of strong language is the best way to frighten a grizzly from the 158 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S house, xjesides, the Chinese are going down the river to- day to a funeral, or a wedding, or a feast of stolen chickens — they 're all the same — and won't be here." " Then take Manuel," repeated Mrs. Hale. " We have the Chinese servants and Indian Molly in the house to protect us from Heaven knows what ! I have the greatest confidence in Chy-Lee as a warrior, and in Chinese warfare generally. One has only to hear him pipe in time of peace to imagine what a terror he might become in war time. Indeed, anything more deadly and soul-harrowing than that love-song he sang for us last night I cannot conceive. But really, Kate, I am not afraid to stay alone. You know what John says : we ought to be always prepared for any- thing that might happen." " My dear Josie," returned Kate, putting her arm around her sister's waist, " I am perfectly convinced that if three- fingered Jack, or two-toed Bill, or even Joaquim Murietta himself, should step, red-handed, on that veranda, you would gently invite him to take a cupof tea, inquire about the state of the road, and refrain delicately from any allu- sions to the sheriff. But I sha'n't take Manuel from you. I really cannot undertake to look after his morals at the station, and keep him from drinking aguardiente with sus- picious characters at the bar. It is true he ' kisses my hand ' in his speech, even when it is thickest, and offers his back to me for a horse-block, but I think I prefer the sober and honest familiarity of even that Pike County land- lord who is satisfied to say, ' Jump, girl, and I '11 ketch ye ! '" " I hope you did n't change your manner to either of them for that," said Mrs. Hale, with a faint sigh. " John wants to be good friends with them, and they are behaving quite decently lately, considering that they can't speak a grammatical sentence nor know the use of a fork." *' And now th& man puts on gloves and a tall hat to SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 159 come here on Sundays, and the woman won't call until you 've called first," retorted Kate ; " perhaps you call that improvement. The fact is, Josephine," continued the young girl, folding her arms demurely, " we might as well admit it at once — these people don't like us." " That 's impossible ! " said Mrs. Hale, with sublime simplicity. " You don't like them, you mean." " I like them better than you do, Josie, and that 's the reason why / feel it and ijou don't." She checked herself, and after a pause resumed in a lighter tone : " No ; I sha'n't go to the station ; I '11 commune with nature to-day, and won't ' take any humanity in mine, thank you,' as Bill the driver says. Adios." " I wish Kate would not use that dreadful slang, even in jest," said Mrs. Scott, in her rocking-chair at the French window, when Josephine reentered the parlor as her sister walked briskly away. " I am afraid she is being infected by the people at the station. She ought to have a change." "I was just thinkjng," said Josephine, looking abstract- edly at her mother, " that I would try to get John to take her to San Francisco this winter. The Careys are expected, you know ; she might visit them." " I 'm afraid, if she stays here much longer, she won't care to see them at all. She seems to care for nothing now that she ever liked before," returned the old lady omi- nously. Meantime the subject of these criticisms was carrying away her own reflections tightly buttoned up in her short jacket. She had driven back her dog Spot — another one of her disillusions, who, giving way to his lower nature, had once killed a sheep — as she did not wish her Jacques- like contemplation of any wounded deer to be inconsistently interrupted by a fresh outrage from her companion. The air was really very chilly, and for the first time in her mountain experience the direct rays of the sun seemed to 160 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S be shorn of their power. This compelled her to walk more briskly than she was conscious of, for in less than an hour she came suddenly and breathlessly upon the mouth of the canon, or natural gateway to Eagle's Court. To her always a profound spectacle of mountain magnifi- cence, it seemed to-day almost terrible in its cold, strong grandeur. The narrowing pass was choked for a moment between two gigantic buttresses of granite, approaching each other so closely at their towering summits that trees grow- ing in opposite clefts of the rock intermingled their branches and pointed the soaring Gothic arch of a stupendous gate- way. She raised her eyes with a quickly beating heart. She knew that the interlacing trees above her were as large as those she had just quitted ; she knew also that the point where they met was only halfway up the cliff, for she had once gazed down upon them, dwindled to shrubs from the airy summit ; she knew that their shaken cones fell a thou- sand feet perpendicularly, or bounded like shot from the scarred walls they bombarded. She remembered that one of these pines, dislodged from its high foundations, had once dropped like a portcullis in the archway, blocking the pass, and was only carried afterwards by assaults of steel and fire. Bending her head mechanically, she ran swiftly through the shadowy passage, and halted only at the beginning of the ascent on the other side. It was here that the actual position of the plateau, so in- definite of approach, began to be realized. It now appeared an independent elevation, surrounded on three sides by gorges and watercourses, so narrow as to be overlooked from the principal mountain range, with which it was connected by a long canon that led to the Eidge. At the outlet of this canon — in bygone ages a mighty river — it had the appearance of having been slowly raised by the diluvium of that river, and the ddbris washed down from above — a suggestion repeated in miniature by the artificial plateaus of SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 161 excavated soil raised before the mouths of mining tunnels in the lower flanks of the mountain. _ It was the realization of a fact — often forgotten by the dwellers in Eagle's Court — that the valley below them, which was their connecting link with the surrounding world, was only reached by ascending the mountain, and the nearest road was over the higher mountain ridge. Never before had this impressed itself so strongly upon the young girl as when she turned that morn- ing to look upon the plateau below her. It seemed to illus- trate the conviction that had been slowly shaping itself out of her reflections on the conversation of that morning. It was possible that the perfect understanding of a higher life was only reached from a height still greater, and that to those halfway up the mountain the summit was never as truthfully revealed as to the humbler dwellers in the valley. I do not know^ that these profound truths prevented her from gathering some quaint ferns and berries, or from keep- ing her calm gray eyes open to certain practical changes that were taking place around her. She had noticed a singular thickening in the atmosphere that seemed to pre- vent the passage of the sun's rays, yet without diminishing the transparent quality of the air. The distant snow-peaks were as plainly seen, though they appeared as if in moon- light. This seemed due to no cloud or mist, but rather to a fading of the sun itself. The occasional flurry of wings overhead, the whirring of larger birds in the cover, and a frequent rustling in the undergrowth, as of the passage of some stealthy animal, began equally to attract her attention. It was so diff'erent from the habitual silence of these sedate solitudes. Kate had no vague fear of wild beasts ; she had been long enough a mountaineer to understand the general immunity enjoyed by the unmolesting wayfarer, and kept her way undismayed. She was descending an abrupt trail when she was stopped by a sudden crash in 162 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES the bushes. It seemed to come from the opposite incline, directly in a line with her,- and apparently on the very trail that she was pursuing. The crash was then repeated again and again lower down, as of a descending body. Expecting the apparition of some fallen tree, or detached boulder bursting through the thicket, in its way to the bottom of the gulch, she waited. The foliage was suddenly brushed aside, and a large grizzly bear half rolled, half waddled, into the trail on the opposite side of the hill. A few moments more would have brought them face to face at the foot of the gulch ; when she stopped there were not fifty yards between them. She did not scream ; she did not faint ; she was not even frightened. There did not seem to be anything ter- rifying in this huge, stupid beast, who, arrested by the rustle of a stone displaced by her descending feet, rose slowly on his haunches and gazed at her with small, won- dering eyes. Nor did it seem strange to her, seeing that he was in her way, to pick up a stone, throw it in his di- rection, and say simply, " Sho ! get away ! " as she would have done to an intruding cow. Nor did it seem odd that he should actually " go away " as he did, scrambling back into the bushes again, and disappearing like some grotesque figure in a transformation scene. It was not until after he had gone that she was taken with a slight nervousness and giddiness, and retraced her steps somewhat hurriedly, shy- ing a little at every rustle in the thicket. By the time she had reached the great gateway she was doubtful whether to be pleased or frightened at the incident, but she concluded to keep -it to herself. It was still intensely cold. The light of the midday Bun had decreased still more, and on reaching the plateau again she saw that a dark cloud, not unlike the precursor of a thunder-storm, was brooding over the snowy peaks beyond. In spite of the cold tliis singular suggestion of SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLK'S 163 summer phenomena was still borne out by the distant smil- ing valley, and even in the soft grasses at her feet. It seemed to her the crowning inconsistency of the climate, and with a half-serious, half-playful protest on her lips she hurried forward to seek the shelter of the house. CHAPTEE in To Kate's surprise, the lower part of the house was de- serted, but there was an unusual activity on the floor above, and the sound of heavy steps. There were alien marks of dusty feet on the scrupulously clean passage, and on the first step of the stairs a spot of blood. With a sudden genuine alarm that drove her previous adventure from her mind, she impatiently called her sister's name. There was a hasty yet subdued rustle of skirts on the staircase, and Mrs. Hale, with her finger on her lip, swept Kate uncere- moniously into the sitting-room, closed the door, and leaned back against it, with a faint smile. She had a crumpled paper in her hand. " Don't be alarmed, but read that first," she said, hand- ing her sister the paper. " It was brought just now." Kate instantly recognized her brother's distinct hand. She read hurriedly, " The coach was robbed last night ; no- body hurt. I 've lost nothing but a day's time, as this business will keep me here until to-morrow, when Manuel can join me with a fresh horse. No cause for alarm. As the bearer goes out of his way to bring you this, see that he wants for nothing." " Well," said Kate expectantly. " Well, the ' bearer ' was fired upon by the robbers, who were lurking on the Eidge. He was wounded in the leg. Luckily he was picked up by his friend, who was coming to meet him, and brought here as the nearest place. He's upstairs in the spare bed in the spare room, with his friend, who won't leave his side. He won't even have mother in SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 165 the room. They 've stopped the bleeding with John's ambulance things, and now, Kate, here 's a chance for you to show the value of your education in the ambulance class. The ball has got to be extracted. Here's your oppor- tunity." Kate looked at her sister curiously. There was a faint pink flush on her pale cheeks, and her eyes were gently sparkling. She had never seen her look so pretty before. " Why not have sent Manuel for a doctor at once ? " asked Kate. " The nearest doctor is iifteen miles away, and Manuel is nowhere to be found. Perhaps he 's gone to look after the stock. There 's some talk of snow ; imagine the absurdity of it ! " " But who are they ? " "They speak of themselves as 'friends,' as if it were a profession. The wounded one was a passenger, I suppose." " But what are they like ? " continued Kate. " I sup- pose they 're like them all." Mrs. Hale shrugged her shoulders. " The wounded one, when he 's not fainting away, is laughing. The other is a creature with a mustache, and gloomy beyond expression." " What are you going to do with them ? " said Kate. " What should I do ? Even without John's letter I could not refuse the shelter of my house to a wounded and helpless man. I shall keep him, of course, until John comes. Why, Kate, I really believe you are so prejudiced against these people you 'd like to turn them out. But I forget ! It 's because you like them so well. Well, you need not fear to expose yourself to the fascinations of the wounded Christy Minstrel — I 'm sure he 's that — or to the unspeak- able one, who is shyness itself, and would not dare to raise his eyes to you." There was a timid. Hesitating step in the passage. It 166 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S paused before the door, moved away, returned, and finally asserted its intentions in the gentlest of taps. " It 's him ; I 'm sure of it," said Mrs. Hale, with a suppressed smile. Kate threw open the door smartly, to the extreme dis- comfiture of a tall, dark figure that already had slunk away from it. For all that, he was a good-looking enough fellow, with a mustache as long and almost as flexible as a ringlet. Kate could not help noticing also that his hand, which was nervously pulling the mustache, was white and thin. "Excuse me," he stammered, without raising his eyes, " I was looking for — for — the old lady. I — I beg your pardon. I did n't know that you — the young ladies — company — were here. I intended — I only wanted to say that my friend " — He stopped at the slight smile that passed quickly over Mrs. Hale's mouth, and his pale face reddened with an angry flush. " I hope he is not worse," said Mrs. Hale, with more than ner usual languid gentleness. "My mother is not here at present. Can I — can we — this is my sister — do as well?" Without looking up he made a constrained recognition of Kate's presence, that, embarrassed and curt as it was, had uone of the awkwardness of rusticity. " Thank you ; you 're very kind. But my friend is a little stronger, and if you can lend me an extra horse I '11 try to get him on the Summit to-night." "But you surely will not take him away from us so soon ? " said Mrs. Hale, with a languid look of alarm, in which Kate, however, detected a certain real feeling. " Wait at least until my husband returns to-morrow." " He won't be here to-morrow," said the stranger hastily. He stopped, and as quickly corrected himself. " That is, his business is so very uncertain, my friend says." Only Kate noticed the slip; but she noticed also that her SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 167 sister was apparently unconscious of it. " You think," she said, " that Mr. Hale may be delayed ? " He turned upon her almost brusquely. " I mean that it is already snowing up there ; " he pointed through the window to the cloud Kate had noticed ; " if it comes down lower in the pass the roads will be blocked up. That is why it would be better for us to try and get on at once." " But if Mr. Hale is likely to be stopped by snow, so are you," said Mrs. Hale playfully ; " and you had better let lis try to make your friend comfortable here rather than expose him to that uncertainty in his weak condition. We will do our best for him. My sister is dying for an oppor- tunity to show her skill in surgery," she continued, with an unexpected mischievousness that only added to Kate's surprised embarrassment. " Are n't you, Kate ? " Equivocal as the young girl knew her silence appeared, she was unable to utter the simplest polite evasion. Some unaccountable impulse kept her constrained and speechless. The stranger did not, however, wait for her reply, but, cast- ing a swift, hurried glance around the room, said, " It 's impossible ; we must go. In fact, I 've already taken the liberty to order the horses round. They are at the door now. You may be certain," he added, with quick earnestness, suddenly lifting his dark eyes to Mrs. Hale, and as rapidly withdrawing them, " that your horse will be returned at once, and — and — we won't forget your kindness." He stopped and turned towards the hall. "I — I have brought my friend downstairs. He wants to thank you before he As he remained standing in the hall the two women stepped to the door. To their surprise, half reclining on a cane sofa was the wounded man, and what could be seen of his slight figure was wrapped in a dark serapo. His beard- less face gave him a quaint boyishness quite inconsistent with the mature lines of his temples and forehead. Pale; 168 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES and in pain, as he evidently was, his hlue eyes twinkled with intense amusement. Not only did his manner offer a marked contrast to the sombre uneasiness of his companion, hut he seemed to be the only one perfectly at his ease in the group around him. " It 's rather rough making you come out here to see me off," he said, with a not unmusical laugh that was very infectious, "but Ned there, who carried me downstairs, wanted to tote me round the house in his arms like a baby to say ta-ta to you all. Excuse my not rising, but I feel as uncertain below as a mermaid, and as out of my ele- ment," he added, with a mischievous glance at his friend. " Ned concluded I must go on. But I must say good-by to the old lady first. Ah ! here she is." To Kate 's complete bewilderment, not only did the utter familiarity of this speech pass unnoticed and unrebuked by her sister, but actually her own mother advanced quickly with every expression of lively sympathy, and with the authority of her years and an almost maternal anxiety en- deavored to dissuade the invalid from going. " This is not my house," she said, looking at her daughter, " but if it were I should not hear of your leaving, not only to-night, but until you were out of danger. Josephine ! Kate ! What are you thinking of to permit it ? Well, then, 1 forbid it — there ! " Had they become suddenly insane, or were they be- witched by this morose intruder and his insufferably fa- miliar confidant ? The man was wounded, it was true; they might have to put him up in common humanity ; but here was her austere mother, who would n't come in the room when Whiskey Dick called on business, actually pressing both of the invalid's hands, while her sister, who never extended a finger to the ordinary visiting humanity of the neighborhood, looked on with evident complacency. The wounded man suddenly raised Mrs. Scott's hand to SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 169 his lips, kipsed it gently, and, with his smile quite vanished, endeavored to rise to his feet. " It 's of no use — we must go. Give me your arm, Ned. Quick ! Are the horses there ? " " Dear me," said Mrs. Scott quickly, " I forgot to say the horse cannot be found anywhere. Manuel must have taken him this morning to look up the stock. But he will be back to-night certainly, and if to-morrow " — The wounded man sank back to a sitting position. " Is Manuel your man ? " he asked grimly. « Yes." The two men exchanged glances. " Marked on his left cheek and drinks a good deal ? " " Yes," said Kate, finding her voice. " Why ? " The amused look came back to the man's eyes. " That kind of man is n't safe to wait for. We must take our own horse, Ned. Are you ready ? " " Yes." The wounded man again attempted to rise. He fell back, but this time quite heavily. He had fainted. Involuntarily and simultaneously the three women rushed to his side. " He cannot go," said Kate suddenly. " He will be better in a moment." " But only for a moment. Will nothing induce you to change your mind ? " As if in reply a sudden gust of wind brought a volley of rain against the window. "That will," said the stranger bitterly. " The rain ? " " A mile from here it is snow ; and before we could reach the Summit with these horses the road would be im- passable." He made a slight gesture to himself, as if accepting an in- evitable defeat, and turned to his companion, who was slowly revivincr under the active ministration of the two women. 170 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE S The wounded man looked around with a weak smile. " This is one way of going off," he said faintly, " but I could do this sort of thing as well on the road." " You can do nothing now," said his friend decidedly- " Before we get to the Grate the road will be impassable for our horses." " For any horses ? " asked Kate. "For any horses. For any man or beast I might say. Where we cannot get out, no one can get in," he added, as if answering her thoughts. " I am afraid that you won't see your brother to-m'irrow morning. But I '11 reconnoitre as soon as I can do so without torturing him," he said, looking anxiously at the helpless man ; " he 's got about his share of pain, I reckon, and the first thing is to get him easier." It was the longest speech he had made to her ; it was the first time he had fairly looked her in the face. His shy restlessness had suddenly given way to dogged resignation, less abstracted, but scarcely more flat- tering to his entertainers. Lifting his companion gently in his arms, as if he had been a child, he reascended the stair- case, Mrs. Scott and the hastily summoned Molly following with overflowing solicitude. As soon as they were alone in the parlor Mrs. Hale turned to her sister : " Only that our guests seemed to be as anxious to go just now as you were to pack them off, I should have been shocked at your in- hospitality. What has come over you, Kate ? These are the very people you have reproached me so often with not being civil enough to." " But wlho are they ? " " How do I know ? There is your brother's letter." She usually spoke of her husband as "John." Thij slight shifting of relationship and responsibility to the feminine mind was significant. Kate was a little frightened and remorseful. " I only meant you don't even know their names." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 171 ' " That was n't necessary for giving them a bed and band- ages. Do you suppose the good Samaritan ever asked the wounded Jew's name, and that the Levite did not excuse himself because the thieves had taken the poor man's card- case ? Do the directions, ' In case of accident,' in your ambulance rules, read, ' First lay the sufferer on his back and inquire his name and family connections ' ? Besides, you can call one ' Ned ' and the other ' George,' if you like." " Oh, you know what I mean," said Kate irrelevantly. '' Which is George ? " " George is the wounded man," said Mrs. Hale ; " not the one who talked to you more than he did to any one else. I suppose the poor man was frightened and read dismissal in your eyes." " I wish John were here." " I don't think we have anytliing to fear in his absence from men whose only wish is to get away from us. If it is a question of propriety, my dear Kate, surely there is the presence of mother to prevent any scandal — although really her own conduct with the wounded one is not above suspicion," she added, with that novel mischievousness that seemed a return of her lost girlhood. " We must try to do the best we can with them and for them," she said decidedly, " and meantime I '11 see if I can't arrange John's room for them." " John's room ? " " Oh, mother is perfectly satisfied ; indeed, suggested it. It *s larger and will hold two beds, for ' Ned,' the friend, must attend to him at night. And, Kate, don't you think, if you 're not going out again, you might change your cos- tume ? It does very well while we are alone " — " Well," said Kate indignantly, " as I am not going into his room " — " I 'm not so sure about that, if we can't get a regular 172 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES doctor. But he is very restless, and wanders all over the house like a timid and apologetic spaniel." " Who ? " " Why ' Ned.' But I must go and look after the pa- tient. I suppose they 've got him safe in his hed again," and with a nod to her sister she tripped upstairs. Uncomfortahle and embarrassed, she knew not why, Kate sought her mother. But that good lady was already in attendance on the patient, and Kate hurried past that bale- ful centre of attraction with a feeling of loneliness and strangeness she had never experienced before. Entering her own room she went to the window — that first and last refuge of the troubled mind — and gazed out. Turn- ing her eyes in the direction of her morning's walk, she started back with a sense of being dazzled. She rubbed first her eyes and then the rain-dimmed pane. It was no illusion ! The whole landscape, so familiar to her, was one vast field of dead, colorless white ! Trees, rocks, even distance itself, had vanished in those few hours. An even, shadowless, motionless white sea filled the horizon. On either side a vast wall of snow seemed to shut out the world like a shroud. Only the green plateau before her, with its sloping meadows and fringe of pines and cotton- wood, lay alone like a summer island in this frozen sea. A sudden desire to view this phenomenon more closely, and to learn for herself the limits of this new tethered life, completely possessed her, and, accustomed to act upon her independent impulses, she seized a hooded waterproof cloak, and slipped out of the house unperceived. The rain was falling steadily along the descending trail where she walked, but beyond, scarcely a mile across the chasm, the wintry distance began to confuse her brain with the inex- tricable swarming of snow. Hurrying down with feverish excitement, she at last came in sight of the arching granite portals of their domain. But her first glance through the SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 173 gateway showed it closed as if with a white portcullis. Kate remembered that the trail began to ascend beyond the arch, and knew that what she saw was only the mountain side she had partly climbed this morning. But the snow had already crept down its flank, and the exit by trail was practically closed. Breathlessly making her way back to the highest part of the plateau — the cliff behind the house that here descended abruptly to the rain-dimmed valley — she gazed at the dizzy depths in vain for some undiscovered or forgotten trail along its face.. But a single glance con- vinced her of its inaccessibility. The gateway was indeed their only outlet to the plain below. She looked back at the falling snow beyond, until she fancied she could see in the crossing and recrossing lines the moving meshes of a fateful web woven around them by viewless but inexorable fingers. Half frightened, she was turning away, when she per- ceived, a few paces distant, the figure of the stranger, "Ned," also apparently absorbed in the gloomy prospect. He was wrapped in the clinging folds of a black serape braided with silver ; the broad flap of a slouched hat beaten back by the wind exposed the dark, glistening curls on his white forehead. He was certainly very handsome and picturesque, and that apparently without effort or con- sciousness. Neither was there anything in his costume or appearance inconsistent with his surroundings, or even with what Kate could judge were his habits or position. Never- theless, she instantly decided that he was too handsome and too picturesque, without suspecting that, her ideas of the limits of masculine beauty were merely personal experi- ence. As he turned away from the cliff they were brought face to face. " It does n't look very encouraging over there," he said quietly, as if the inevitableness of the situation had relieved him of his previous shyness and effort; "it 's even 174 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S worse than I expected. The snow must have begun there last night, and it looks as if it meant to stay." He stopped for a moment, and then, lifting his eyes to her, said, " I suppose j'ou know what this means ? " " I don't understand you." " I thought not. Well ! it means that you are abso- lutely cut ofiF here from any communication or intercourse with any one outside of tliat canon. By this time the snow is five feet deep over the only trail by which one can pass in and out of that gateway. I am not alarming you, I hope, for there is no real physical danger ; a place like this ought to be well garrisoned, and certainly is self- supporting so far as the mere necessities and even comforts are concerned. You have wood, water, cattle, and game at your command, but for two weeks at least you are com- pletely isolated." " For two weeks ! " said Kate, growing pale — " and my brother ! " " He knows all by this time, and is probably as assured as I am of the safety of his family." " For two weeks ! " continued Kate ; " impossible ! Tou don't know my brother ! He will find some way to get to us." " I hope so," returned the stranger gravely, " for what is possible for him is possible for us." " Then you are anxious to get away ? " Kate could not help saying. " Very." The reply was not discourteous in manner, but was so far from gallant that Kate felt a new and inconsistent re- sentment. Before she could say anything he added, " And I hope you will remember, whatever may happen, that I did my best to avoid staying here longer than was necessary to keep my friend from bleeding to death in the road." "Certainly," said Kate; then added awkwardly, "I SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 175 hope he '11 he better soon." She was silent, and then, quickening her pace, said hurriedly, " I must tell my sis- ter this dreadful news." " I think she is prepared for it. If there is anything I can do to help you I hope you will let me know. Perhaps I may be of some service. I shall begin by exploring the trails to-morrow, for the best service we can do you possi- bly is to take ourselves off ; but I can carry a gun, and the woods are full of game driven down from the mountains. Let me show you something you may not have noticed." He stopped, and pointed to a small knoll of sheltered shrubbery and granite on the opposite mountain, which still remained black against the surrounding snow. It seemed to be thickly covered with moving objects. "They are wild animals driven out of the snow," said the stranger. " That larger one is a grizzly ; there is a panther, wolves, wildcats, a fox, and some mountain goats." " An ill-assorted party," said the young girl. " 111 luck makes them companions. They are too fright- ened to hurt one another now." " But they will eat each other later on," said Kate, steal- ing a glance at her companion. He lifted his long lashes and met her eyes. " Not on a haven of refuge." CHAPTEE rV Kate found her sister, as the stranger had intimated, fully prepared. A hasty inventory of provisions and means of suhsistence showed that they had ample resources for a much longer isolation. " They tell me it is hy no means an uncommon case, Kate ; somebody over at somebody's place was snowed in for four weeks, and now it appears that even the Summit House is not always accessible. John ought to have known it when he bought the place ; in fact, I was ashamed to ad- mit that he did not. But that is like John to prefer his own theories to the experience of others. However, I don't suppose we should even notice the privation except for the mails. It will be a lesson to John, though. As Mr. Lee says, he is on the outside, and can probably go wherever he likes from the Summit except to come here." "Mr. Lee?" echoed Kate. " Yes, the wounded one ; and the other's name is Falk- ner. I asked them in order that you might be properly introduced. There were very respectable Falkners in Charlestown, you remember ; I thought you might warm to the name, and perhaps trace the connection, now that you are such good friends. It 's providential they are here, as we have n't got a horse or a man in the place since Manuel disappeared, though Mr. Falkner says he can't be far away, or they would have met him on the trail if he had gone towards the Summit." " Did they say anything more of Manuel ? " " Nothing ; though I am inclined to agree with you that SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 177 he is n't trustworthy. But that again is the result of John's idea of employing native skill at the expense of retaining native habits." The evening closed early, and vfith no diminution in the falling rain and rising wind. Falkner kept his word, and unostentatiously performed the outdoor work in the barn and stables, assisted by the only Chinese servant remaining, and under the advice and supervision of Kate. Although he seemed to understand horses, she was surprised to find that he betrayed a civic ignorance of the ordinary details of the farm and rustic household. It was quite impossible that she should retain her distrustful attitude, or he his re- serve in their enforced companionship. They talked freely of subjects suggested by the situation, Falkner exhibiting a general knowledge and intuition of things without parade or dogmatism. Doubtful of all versatility as Kate was, she could not help admitting to herself that his truths were none the less true for their quantity or that he got at them without ostentatious processes. His talk certainly was more picturesque than her brother's, and less subduing to her faculties. John had always crushed her. When they returned to the house he did not linger in the parlor or sitting-room, but at once rejoined his friend. When dinner was ready in the dining-room, a little more deliberately arranged and ornamented than usual, the two women were somewhat surprised to receive an excuse from Falkner, begging them to allow him for the present to take his meals with the patient, and thus save the necessity of another attendant. '' It is all shyness, Kate," said Mrs. Hale confidently, " and must not be permitted for a moment." " I 'm sure I should be quite willing to stay with the poor boy myself," said Mrs. Scott simply, " and take Mr. Falkner's place while he dines." " You are too willing, mother," said Mrs. Hale pertly. 178 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE S " and your ' poor boy,' as you call him, will never see thirty-five again." "He will never see any other birthday," retorted her mother, " unless you keep him more quiet. He only talks when you're in the room." " He wants some relief to his friend's long face and mustaches that make him look prematurely in mourn- ing," said Mrs. Hale, with a slight increase of animation. " I don't propose to leave them too much together. After dinner we '11 adjourn to their room and lighten it up a little. You must come, Kate, to look at the patient, and counteract the baleful efi'ects of my frivolity." Mrs. Hale's instincts were truer than her mother's ex- perience ; not only that the wounded man's eyes became brighter under the provocation of her presence, but it was evident that his naturally exuberant spirits were a part of his vital strength, and were absolutely essential to his quick recovery. Encouraged by Falkner's grave and prac- tical assistance, which she could not ignore, Kate ventured to make an examination of Lee's wound. Even to her un- practiced eye it was less serious than at first appeared. The great loss of blood had been due to the laceration of certain small vessels below the knee, but neither artery nor bone was injured. A recurrence of the hemorrhage or fever was the only thing to be feared, and these could be averted by bandaging, repose, and simple nursing. The unfailing good humor of the patient under this manipulation, the quaint originality of his speech, the freedom of his fancy, which was, however, always con- trolled by a certain instinctive tact, began to afi'ect Kate nearly as it had the others. She found herself laughing over the work she had undertaken in a pure sense of duty •, she joined in the hilarity produced by Lee's affected terror of her surgical mania, and offered to undo the bandages in search of the thimble he declared she had left in the wound with a view to further experiments. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 179 "You ought to broaden your practice," he suggested. " A good deal might be made out of Ned and a piece of soap left carelessly on the first step of the staircase, -while mountains of surgical opportunities lie in a humble orange peel judiciously exposed. Only I warn you that you would n't find him as docile as I am. Decoyed into a snowdrift and frozen, you might get some valuable experi- ences in resuscitation by thawing him." " I fancied you had done that already, Kate," whispered Mrs. Hale. " Freezing is the new suggestion for painless surgery," said Lee, coming to Kate's relief with ready tact, " only the knowledge should be more generally spread. There was a man up at Strawberry fell under a sledge-load of wood in the snow. Stunned by the shock, he was slowly freezing to death, when, with a tremendous effort, he suc- ceeded in freeing himself all but his right leg, pinned down by a small log. His axe happened to have fallen within reach, and a few blows on the log freed him." " And saved the poor fellow's life," said Mrs. Scott, who was listening with sympathizing intensity. " At the' expense of his left leg, which he had unknow- ingly cut off under the pleasing supposition that it was a log," returned Lee demurely. Nevertheless, in a few moments he managed to divert the slightly shocked siisceptibilities of the old lady with some raillery of himself, and did not again interrupt the even good-humored communion of the party. The rain beating against the windows and the fire sparkling on the hearth seemed to lend a charm to their peculiar isolation, and it was not until Mrs. Scott rose with a warning that they were trespassing upon the rest of their patient that they discovered that the evening had slipped by unnoticed. When the door at last closed on the bright, sympathetio eyes of the two young women and the motherly benedio- 180 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S tion of the elder, Talkner walked to the window, and re- mained silent, looking into the darkness. Suddenly he turned bitterly to his companion. " This is just h— 11, George." George Lee, with a smile still on his boyish face, lazily moved his head. " I don't know ! If it was n't for the old woman, who is the one solid chunk of absolute goodness here, expecting nothing, wanting nothing, it would be good fun enough ! These two women, cooped up in this house, wanted excite- ment. They 've got it ! That man Hale wanted to show off by going for us ; he 's had his chance, and will have it again before I 've done with him. That d — d fool of a messenger wanted to go out of his way to exchange shots with me ; I reckon he 's the most satisfied of the lot ! I don't know why you should growl. You did your level best to get away from here, and the result is, that little Puritan is ready to worship you." " Yes — but this playing it on them — George — this " — " Who 's playing it ? Not you ; I see you 've given away our names already." " I could n't lie, and they know nothing by that." " Do you think they would be happier by knowing it ? Do you think that soft little creature would be as happy as she was to-night if she knew that her husband had been in- directly the means of laying me by the heels here ? "Where is the swindle ? This hole in my leg ? If you had been five minutes under that girl's d — d sympathetic fingers you 'd have thought it was genuine. Is it in our trying to get away ? Do you call that ten-feet drift in the pass a swindle ? Is it in the chance of Hale getting back while we 're here? That's real enough, isn't it ? I say, Ned, did you ever give your unfettered intellect to the contem- plation of that? " SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 181 Falkner did not reply. There was an interval of silence, but he could see from the movement of George's shoulders that he was shaking with suppressed laughter. " Fancy Mrs. Hale archly introducing her husband ! My offering him a chair, but being all the time obliged to cover him with a derringer under the bedclothes. Your rushing in from your peaceful pastoral pursuits in the barn, with a pitchfork in one hand and the girl in the other, and dear old mammy sympathizing all round and trying to make everything comfortable." " I should not be alive to see it, George," said Falkner gloomily. " You 'd manage to pitchfork me and those two women on Hale's horse and ride away ; that 's what you 'd do, or I don't know you ! Look here, Ned," he added more seri- ously, " the only swindling was our bringing that note here. That was your idea. You thought it would remove sus- picion, and as you believed I was bleeding to death you played that game for all it was worth to save me. You might have done what I asked you to do — propped me up in the bushes, and got away yourself. I was good for a couple of shots yet, and after that — what mattered ? That night, the next day, the next time I take the road, or a year hence ? It will come when it will come, all the same ! " He did not speak bitterly, nor relax his smile. ¥alk- ner, without speaking, slid his hand along the coverlet. Lee grasped it, and their hands remained clasped together for a few moments in silence. " How is this to end ? We cannot go on here in this way," said Falliner suddenly. " If we cannot get away it must go on. Look here, Ned. I don't reckon to take anything out of tbis house that I did n't bring in it, or is n't freely oifered to me ; yet I don't otherwise, you understand, intend making myself l82 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S out a d — d bit better than I am. That 's the only excuse I have for not making myself out just what I am. I don't know the fellow who 's obliged to tell every one the last company he was in, or the last thing he did! Do you suppose even these pretty little women tell us their whole story ? Do you fancy that this St. John in the wilderness is canonized in his family ? Perhaps, when I take the liberty to intrude in his affairs, as he has in mine, he 'd see he isn't. I don't blame you for being sensitive, Ned. It 's natural. When a man lives outside the revised stat- utes of his own State "he is apt to be awfully fine on points of etiquette in his own household. As for me, I find it rather comfortable here. The beds of other people's mak- ing strike me as being more satisfactory than my own. Good-night." In a few moments he was sleeping the peaceful sleep of that youth which seemed to be his own dominant quality. Falkner stood for a little space and watched him, following the boyish lines of his cheek on the pillow, from the shadow of the light brown lashes under his closed lids to the lifting of his short upper lip over his white teeth, with his regular respiration. Only a sharp accenting of the line of nostril and jaw and a faint depression of the temple betrayed his already tried manhood. The house had long sunk to repose when Falkner returned to the window, and remained looking out upon the storm. Suddenly he extinguished the light, and passing quickly to the bed laid his hand upon the sleeper. Lee opened his eyes instantly. " Are you awake ? " " Perfectly." " Somebody is trying to get into the house ! " " Not him, eh ? " said Lee gayly. "No; two men. Mexicans, I think. One looks like Manuel." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 183 " Ah," said Lee, drawing himself up to a sitting posture. " Well ? " " Don't you see ? He believes the women are alone." " The dog — d— d hound ! " " Speak respectfully of one of my people, if you please, and hand me ray derringer. Light the candle again, and open the door. Let them get in quietly. They '11 come here first. It 's his room, you understand, and if there 's any money it 's here. Anyway, they must pass here to get to the women's rooms. Leave Manuel to me, and you take care of the other." " I see." " Manuel knows the house, and will come first. When he 's fairly in the room shut the door and go for the other. But no noise. This is just one of the sw-eetest things out — if it 's done properly." " But you, George ? " " If I could n't manage that fellow without turning down the bedclothes I 'd kick myself. Hush. Steady now." He lay down and shut his eyes as if in natural repose. Only his right hand, carelessly placed under his pillow, closed on the handle of his pistol. Falkner qiiietly slipped into the passage. The light of the candle faintly illuminated the floor and opposite wall, but left it on either side in pitchy obscurity. For some moments, the silence was broken only by the sound of the rain without. The recumbent figure in bed seemed to have actually succumbed to sleep. The multi- tudinous small noises of a house in repose might have been misinterpreted by ears less keen than the sleeper's; but when the apparent creaking of a far-off shutter was followed by the sliding apparition of a dark head of tangled hair at the door, Lee had not been deceived, and was as prepared as if he had seen it. Another step, and the figure entered the room. The door closed instantly behind it. The sound 184 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S of a heavy body struggling against the partition outside followed, and then suddenly ceased. The intruder turned, and violently grasped the handle oi the door, but recoiled at a quiet voice from the bed. " Drop that, and come here." He started back with an exclamation. The sleeper's eyes were wide open ; the sleeper's extended arm and pis- tol covered him. " Silence ! or I '11 let that candle shine through you." " Yes, captain ! " growled the astounded and frightened half-breed. " I did n't know you were here." Lee raised himself, and grasped the long whip in his left hand and whirled it round his head. " Will you dry up ? " The man sank back against the wall in silent terror. " Open that door now — softly." Manuel obeyed with trembling fingers. " Ned," said Lee in a low voice, " bring him in here — quick." There was a slight rustle, and Falkner appeared, back- ing in another gasping figure, whose eyes were starting under the strong grasp of the captor at his throat. " Silence," said Lee, " all of you." There was a breathless pause. The sound of a door hesitatingly opened in the passage broke the stillness, fol- lowed by the gentle voice of Mrs. Scott. " Is anything the matter ? " Lee made a slight gesture of warning to Falkner, of menace to the others. " Everything 's the matter," he called out cheerily. " Ned 's managed to half pull down the house trying to get at something from my saddle-bags." " I hope he has not hurt himself," broke in another voice mischievously. " Answer, you clumsy villain," whispered Lee^ with twinkling eyes. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 185 " I 'm all right, thank you," responded Falkner, with unaffected awkwardness. There was a slight murmuring of voices, and then the door was heard to close. Lee turned to Falkner. " Disarm that hound and turn him loose outside, and make no noise. And you, Manuel ! tell him what his and your chances are if he shows his black face here again." Manuel cast a single, terrified, supplicating glance, more suggestive than words, at his confederate, as Falkner shoved him before him from the room. The next moment they ■were silently descending the stairs. " May I go too, captain ? " entreated Manuel. " I swear to God " — " Shut the door ! " The man obeyed. " Now, then,", said Lee, with a broad, gratified smile, laying down his whip and pistol within reach, and com- fortably settling the pillows behind his back, " we '11 have a quiet confab. A sort of old-fashioned talk, eh ? You 're not looking well, Manuel. You 're drinking too much again. It spoils your complexion." " Let me go, captain," pleaded the man, emboldened by the good-humored voice, but not near enough to notice a peculiar light in the speaker's eye. "You've only just come, Manuel; and at considerable trouble, too. Well, what have you got to say ? What 's nil this about ? What are you doing here ? " The captured man shuffled his feet nervously, and only uttered an uneasy la,ngh of coarse discomfiture. " I see. You 're bashful. Well, I '11 help you along. Come ! You knew that Hale was away and these women were here without a man to help them. You thought you 'd find some money here, and have your own way generally, eh ? " The tone of Lee's voice inspired him to confidence ; ud fortunately, it inspired him witli familiarity also. 186 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES " I reckoned I had the right to a little fun on my own account, cap. I reckoned ez one gentleman in the profes- sion wouldn't interfere with another gentleman's little game," he continued coarsely. " Stand up." " Wot for ? " " Up, I say ! " Manuel stood up and glanced at him. " Utter a cry that might frighten these women, and by the living God they '11 rush in here only to find you lying dead on the floor of the house you 'd have polluted." He grasped the whip and laid the lash of it heavily twice over the ruffian's shoulders. Writhing in suppressed agony, the man fell imploringly on his knees. " Now, listen ! " said Lee, softly twirling the whip in the air. " I want to refresh your memory. Did you ever learn, when you were with me — before I was obliged to kick you out of gentlemen's company — to break into a private house ? Answer ! " "No," stammered the wretch. " Did you ever learn to rob a woman, a child, or any but a man, and that face to face ? " " No," repeated Manuel. "Did you ever learn from me to lay a finger upon a woman, old or young, in anger or kindness ? " "No." " Then, my poor Manuel, it 's as I feared ; civilization has ruined you. Farming and a simple, bucolic life have perverted your morals. So you were running off with the stock and that mustang, when you got stuck in the snow ; and the luminous idea of this little game struck you ? Eh ? That was another mistake, Manuel ; I never allowed you to think when you were with me." " No, captain." " Who 's your friend ? " SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE S 187 " A d — d cowardly nigger from the Summit." " I agree with you for once ; but he has n't had a very brilliant example. Where 's he gone now ? " " To h— 11, for all I care ! " " Then I want you to go with him. Listen. If there 's a way out of the place, you know it or can find it. I give you two days to do it — you and he. At the end of that time the order will be to shoot you on sight. Now take off your boots." The man's dark face visibly whitened, his teeth chattered in superstitious terror. " I 'm not going to shoot you now," said Lee, smiling, " so you will have a chance to die with your boots on,^ if you are superstitious. I only want you to exchange them for that pair of Hale's in the corner. The fact is I have taken a fancy to yours. That fashion of wearing the stock- ings outside strikes me as one of the neatest things out." Manuel sullenly drew off his boots with their muffled covering, and put on the ones designated. " Now open the door." He did so. Falkner was already waiting at the thresh- old. " Turn Manuel loose with the other, Ned, but dis- arm him first. They might quarrel. The habit of carry- ing arms, Manuel," added Lee, as Falkner took a pistol and bowie-knife from the half-breed, " is of itself provo- cative of violence, and inconsistent with a bucolic and pastoral life." When Falkner returned he said hurriedly to his compan- ion, " Do you think it wise, George, to let those hell-hounds loose ? Good God ! I could scarcely let my grip of his throat go, when I thought of what they were hunting." " My dear Ned," said Lee, luxuriously ensconcing him- 1 "To die with one's boots on." A synonym for death by violence, popular among Southwestern desperadoes, and the subject of superstitious dread. 188 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S self under the bedclothes again with a slight shiver of deli. cious warmth, " I must warn you against allowing the nat- ural pride of a higher walk to prejudice you against the general level of our profession. Indeed, I was quite struck with the justice of Manuel's protest that I was interfering with certain rude processes of his own towards results aimed at by others." " George ! " interrupted Falkner, almost savagely. " Well. I admit it 's getting rather late in the evening for pure philosophical inquiry, and you are tired. Practi- cally, then, it was wise to let them get away before they discovered two things. One, our exact relations here with these women ; and the other, how many of us were here. At present they think we are three or four in possession and with the consent of the women." "The dogs!" " They are paying us the highest compliment they can con- ceive of by supposing us cleverer scoundrels than themselves. You are very unjust, Ned." " If they escape and tell their story ? " " We shall have the rare pleasure of knowing we are bet- ter than people believe us. And now put those boots away somewhere where we can produce them if necessary, as evi- dence of Manuel's evening call. At present we '11 keep the thing quiet, and in the early morning you can find out where they got in and remove any traces they have left. It is no use to frighten the women. There 's no fear of their returning." " And if they get away ? " " We can follow in their tracks." " If Manuel gives the alarm ? " " With his burglarious boots left behind in the house ? Not much ! Good-night, Ned. Go to bed." With these words Lee turned on his side and quietly re- sumed his interrupted slumber. Falkner did not, however. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 189 follow this sensible advice. When he was satisfied that his friend was sleeping he opened the door softly and looked out. He did not appear to be listening, for his eyes were fixed upon a small pencil of light that stole across the passage from the foot of Kate's door. He watched it until it sud- denly disappeared, when, leaving the door partly open, he threw himself on his couch without removing his clothes. The slight movement awakened the sleeper, who was begin- ning to feel the accession of fever. He moved restlessly. " George," said Falkner softly. " Yes." " Where was it we passed that old Mission Church on the road one dark night, and saw the light burning before the figure of the Virgin through the window ? " There was a moment of crushing silence. " Does that mean you 're wanting to light the candle again ? " " No." " Then don't lie there inventing sacrilegious conundrums, but go to sleep." Nevertheless, in the morning his fever was slightly worse. Mrs. Hale, offering her condolence, said, " I know that you have not been resting well, for even after your friend met with that mishap in the hall, I heard your voices, and Kate says your door was open all night. You have a little fever too, Mr. Falkner." George looked curiously at Falkner's pale face — it was burning. CHAPTEE V The speed and fury with which Clinch's cavalcade swept on in the direction of the mysterious shot left Hale no chance for reflection. He was conscious of shouting incoherently with the others, of urging his horse irresistibly forward, of momentarily expecting to meet or overtake something, hut without any further thought. The figures of Clinch and Rawlins immediately before him shut out the prospect of the narrowing trail. Once only, taking advantage of a sud- den halt that threw them confusedly together, he managed to ask a question. " Lost their track — found it again ! " shouted the hostler, as Clinch, with a cry like the baying of a hound, again darted forward. Their horses were panting and trembling under them, the ascent seemed to be growing steeper, a sin- gular darkness, which even the density of the wood did not sufficiently account for, surrounded them, but still their leader madly urged them on. To Hale's returning senses they did not seem in a condition to engage a single resolute man, who might have ambushed in the woods or beaten them in detail in the narrow gorge, but in another instant the reason of their furious haste was manifest. Spurring his horse ahead. Clinch dashed out into the open with a cheer- ing shout — a shout that as quickly changed to a yell of imprecation. They were on the Ridge in a blinding snow- storm ! The road had already vanished under their feet, and with it the fresh trail they had so closely followed! They stood helplessly on the shore of a trackless white sea, blank and spotless of any trace or sign of the fugitives. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 191 " 'Pears to me, boys," said the liostler, suddenly ranging before them, " ef you 're not kalkilatin' on gittin' another party to dig ye out, ye 'd better be huutin' fodder and cover instead of road agents. 'Skuse me, gentlemen, but I 'm responsible for the bosses, and this ain't no time for circus- ridin'. We 're a matter o' six miles from the station in a bee-line." "Back to the trail, then," said Clinch, wheeling his horse towards the road they had just quitted. " 'Skuse me. Kernel," said the hostler, laying his hand on Clinch's rein, " but that way only brings us back the road we kem — the stage road — three miles further from home. That three miles is on the divide, and by the time we get there it will be snowed up worse nor this. The shortest cut is along the Ridge. If we hump ourselves we ken cross the divide afore the road is blocked. And that, 'skuse me, gentlemen, is my road." There was no time for discussion. The road was already palpably thickening under their feet. Hale's arm was stiffened to his side by a wet, clinging snow-wreath. The figures of the others were almost obliterated and shapeless. It was not snowing — it was snow-balling ! The huge flakes, shaken like enormous feathers out of a vast blue- black cloud, commingled and fell in sprays and patches. All idea of their former pursuit T'as forgotten ; the blind rage and enthusiasm that had possessed them was gone. They dashed after their new leader with only an instinct for shelter and succor. They had not ridden long when fortunately, as it seemed to Hale, the character of the storm changed. The snow no longer fell in such large flakes, nor as heavily. A bitter wind succeeded ; the soft snow began to stiffen and crackle under the horses' hoofs ; they were no longer weighted and encumbered by the drifts upon their bodies ; the smaller flakes now rustled and rasped against them like sand, or 192 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES bounded from them like hail. They seemed to he moving more easily and rapidly, their spirits were rising with the stimulus of cold and motion, when suddenly their leader halted. " It 's no use, boys. It can't be done ! This is no blizzard, but a regular two days' snifter ! It 's no longer meltiu', but packin' and driftin' now. Even if we get over the divide, we 're sure to be blocked up in the pass." It was true ! To their bitter disappointment they could now see that the snow had not really diminished in quan- tity, but that the now finely powdered particles were rapidly filling all inequalities of the surface, packing closely against projections, and swirling in long furrows across the levels. They looked with anxiety at their self-constituted leader. " We must make a break to get down in the woods again before it 's too late," he said briefly. But they had already drifted away from the fringe of larches and dwarf pines that marked the sides of the Ridge, and lower down merged into the dense forest that clothed the flank of the mountain they had lately climbed, and it was with the greatest difiiculty that they again reached it, only to find that at that point it was too precipitous for the descent of their horses. Benumbed and speechless, they continued to toil on, opposed to the full fury of the sting- ing snow, and at times obliged to turn their horses to the blast to keep from being blown over the Eidge. At the end of half an hour the hostler dismounted, and, beckoning to the others, took his horse by the bridle, and began the descent. When it came to Hale's turn to dismount he could not help at first recoiling from the prospect before hin^. The trail — if it could be so called — was merely the track or furrow of some fallen tree dragged, by accident or design, diagonally across the sides of the mountain. At times it appeared scarcely a foot in width ; at other times SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 198 a mere crumbling gully, or a narrow shelf made by the pro- jections of dead boughs and collected ddbris. It seemed perilous for a foot passenger, it appeared impossible for a horse. Nevertheless, he had taken a step forward when Clinch laid his hand on his arm. " You '11 bring up the rear," he said not unkindly, " ez you 're a stranger here. Wait until we sing out to you." " But if I prefer to take the same risks as you all ? " said Hale stiffly. " You kin," said Clinch grimly. " But I reckoned, as you were n't familiar with this sort o' thing, you would n't keer, by any foolishness o' yours, to stampede the rocks ahead of us, and break down the trail, or send down an avalanche on top of us. But just ez you like." " I will wait, then," said Hale hastily. The rebuke, however, did him good service. It preoc- cupied his mind, so that it remained unaffected by the dizzy depths, and enabled him to abandon himself mechan- ically to the sagacity of his horse, who was contented simply to follow the hoof-prints of the preceding animal, and in a few moments they reached the broader trail below without a mishap. A discussion regarding their future movements was already taking place. The impossibility of regaining the station at the Summit was admitted ; the way down the mountain to the next settlement was still left to them, or the adjacent woods, if they wished for an encampment. The hostler once more assumed authority. " 'Skuse me, gentlemen, but them horses don't take no pasear down the mountain to-night. The stage road ain't a mile off, and I kalkilate to wait here till the up stage comes. She 's bound to stop on account of the snow ; and I 've done my dooty when I hand the horses over to the driver." " But if she hears of the block up yer, and waits at the lower station ? " said Kawlins. 194 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " Then I 've done my dooty all the same. 'Skuse me, gentlemen, but them ez hez their own horses kin do ez they like." As this clearly pointed to Hale, he briefly assured his com- panions that he had no intention of deserting them. " If I cannot reach Eagle's Court, I shall at least keep as near it as possible. I suppose any messenger from my house to the Summit will learn where I am and why I am delayed ? " " Messenger from your house ! " gasped Rawlins. " Are you crazy, stranger ? Only a bird would get outer Eagle's now ; and it would hev to be an eagle at that ! Between your house and tlie Summit the snow must be ten feet by this time, to say nothing of the drift in the pass." Hale felt it was the truth. At any other time he would have worried over this unexpected situation, and utter vio- lation of all his traditions. He was past that now, and even felt a certain relief. He knew his family were safe ; it was enough. That they were locked up securely, and incapable of interfering with him, seemed to enhance his new, half-conscious, half-shy enjoyment of an adventurous existence. The hostler, who had been apparently lost in contempla- tion of the steep trail he had just descended, suddenly clapped his hand to his leg with an ejaculation of gratified astonishment. " Waal, darn my skin ef that ain't Hennicker's ' slide ' all the time ! I heard it was somewhat about here." Eawlins briefly explained to Hale that a slide was a rude incline for the transit of heavy goods that could not be carried down a trail. " And Hennicker's," continued the man, "ain't more nor a mile away. Ye might try Hennicker's at a push, eh ? " By a common instinct the whole party looked dubiously at Hale. " Who 's Hennicker ? " he felt compelled to ask. The hostler hesitated, and glanced at the others to reply. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 195 " There are folks," he said lazily, at last, " ez beleeves that Hennicker ain't much better nor the crowd we 're hunting ; but they don't say it to Hennicker. We needn't let on ■what we 're after." " I for one," said Hale stoutly, " decidedly object to any concealment of our purpose." " It don't follow," said Eawlins carelessly, " that Hen- nicker even knows of this yer robbery. It 's his gineral gait we refer to. Ef yer think it more polite, and it makes it more sociable to discuss this matter afore him, I'm agreed." " Hale means," said Clinch, " that it would n't be on the square to take and make use of any points we might pick up there agin the road agents." " Certainly," said Hale. It was not at all what he had meant, but he felt singularly relieved at the compromise. "And ez I reckon Hennicker ain't such a fool ez not to know who we are and what we 're out for," continued Clinch, " I reckon there ain't any concealment." " Then it 's Hennicker's ? " said the hostler, with swift deduction. " Hennicker it is ! Lead on." The hostler remounted his horse, and the others followed. The trail presently turned into a broader track, that bore some signs of approaching habitations, and at the end of five minutes they came upon a clearing. It was part of one of the fragmentary mountain terraces, and formed by itself a vast niche, or bracketed shelf, in the hollow flank of the mountain that, to Hale's first glance, bore a rude resemblance to Eagle's Court. But there was neither meadow nor open field ; the few acres of ground had been wrested from the forest by axe and fire, and unsightly stumps everywhere marked the rude and difficult attempts at cultivation. Two or three rough buildings of unplaned and unpainted boards, connected by rambling sheds, stood in the centre of the amphitheatre. Far from being protected by the encircling 196 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES rampart, it seemed to be the selected arena for the combating elements. A whirlwind from the outer abyss continually filled this cave of jEoIus with driving snow, which, however, melted as it fell, or was quickly whirled away again. A few dogs barked and ran out to meet the cavalcade, but there was no other sign of any life disturbed or concerned at their approach. " I reckon Hennicker ain't home, or he 'd hev been on the lookout afore this," said the hostler, dismounting and rapping at the door. After a silence, a female voice, unintelligible to the others, apparently had some colloquy with the hostler, who returned to the party. " Must go in through the kitchin — can't open the door for the wind." Leaving their horses in the shed, they entered the kitchen, which communicated, and presently came upon a square room filled with smoke from a fire of green pine logs. The doors and windows were tightly fastened ; the only air came in through the large-throated chimney in voluminous gusts, which seemed to make the hollow shell of the apartment .swell and expand to the point of bursting. Despite the .stinging of the resinous smoke, the temperature was grateful to the benumbed travelers. Several cushionless armchairs, such as were used in bar-rooms, two tables, a sideboard, half bar and half cupboard, and a rocking-chair comprised the furniture, and a few bear and buffalo skins covered the floor. Hale sank into one of the armchairs, and, with a lazy satis- faction, partly born of his fatigue and partly from some newly discovered appreciative faculty, gazed around the room, and then at the mistress of the house, with whom the others were talking. She was tall, gaunt, and withered ; in spite of her evi- dent years, her twisted hair was still dark and full, and her eyes bright and piercing; her complexion and teeth had SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLK'S 197 long since succumbed to the vitiating effects of frontier cookery, and her lips were stained with the yellow juice of a brier-wood pipe she held in her mouth. The hostler had explained their intrusion, and veiled their character under the vague epithet of a "hunting party," and was now evidently describing them personally. In his new-found philosophy the fact that the interest of his hostess seemed to be excited only by the names of his companions, that he himself was carelessly, and even deprecatingly, alluded to as the " stranger from Eagle's " by the hostler, and completely overlooked by the old woman, gave him no concern. " You '11 have to talk to Zenobia yourself. Dod rot ef I 'm gine to interfere. She knows Hennicker's ways, and if she chooses to take in transients it ain't no funeral o' mine. Zeenie ! You, Zeenie ! Look yer ! " A tall, lazy-looking, handsome girl appeared on the thresh- old of the next room, and with a hand on each door-post slowly swung herself backwards and forwards, without en- tering. " Well, maw ? " The old woman briefly and unalluringly pictured the con- dition of the travelers. " Paw ain't here," began the girl doubtfully, " and — Howdy, Dick ! is that you ? " The interruption was caused by her recognition of the hostler, and she lounged into the room. In spite of a skimp, slatternly gown, whose straight skirt clung to her lower limbs, there was a quaint, nymph-like contour to her iigure. Whether from languor, ill health, or more probably from a morbid consciousness of her own lieight, she moved with a slightly affected stoop that had become a habit. It did not seem ungraceful to Hale, already attracted by her delicate profile, her large dark eyes, and a certain weird resemblance she had to some half-domesticated dryad. " That '11 do, maw," she said, dismissing her parent with a nod. " I '11 talk to Dick." 198 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S As the door closed on the old woman, Zenohia leaned her hands on the back of a chair, and confronted the admir- ing eyes of Dick with a goddess-like indifference. " Now wot 's the use of your playin' this yer game on me, Dick ? Wot 's the good of your ladlin' out that hog- wash about huntin' ? Huntin' ! I '11 tell yer the huntin' you-uns hev been at ! You 've been huntin' George Lee and his boys since an hour before sun-up. You 've been followin' a blind trail up to the Kidge, until the snow got up and hunted you right here ! You 've been whoopin' and yellin' and circus-ridin' on the roads like ez yer wos Comanches, and frightening all the women-folk within miles — that 's your huntin' ! You 've been climbin' down paw's old slide at last, and makin' tracks for here to save the skins of them condemned government horses of the Kempany ! And that's your huntin' ! " To Hale's surprise, a burst of laughter from the party followed this speech. He tried to join in, but this ridicu- lous summary of the result of his enthusiastic sense of duty left him — the only earnest believer — mortified and em- barrassed. Nor was he the less concerned as he found the girl's dark eyes had rested once or twice upon him curiously. Zenobia laughed too, and, lazily turning the chair around, dropped into it. " And by this time George Lee 's loungin' back in his chyar and smokin' his cigyar somewhar in Sac- ramento," she added, stretching her feet out to the fire, and suiting the action to the word with an imaginary cigar between the long fingers of a thin and not over-clean hand. " We cave, Zeenie ! " said Rawlins, when their hilarity had subsided to a more subdued and scarcely less flattering admiration of the unconcerned goddess before them. -' That 's about the size of it. You kin rake down the pile. I forgot you 're an old friend pf George's." " He 's a white man ! " said the girl decidedly. " Ye used to know him ? " continued Eawlins. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 199 " Once. Paw ain't in that line now," she said simply. There was such a sublime unconsciousness of any moral degradation involved in this allusion that even Hale ac- cepted it without a shock. She rose presently, and, going to the little sideboard, brought out a number of glasses ; these she handed to each of the party, and then, producing a demijohn of whiskey, slung it dexterously and gracefully over her arm, so that it rested on her elbow like a cradle, and, going to each one in succession, filled their glasses. It obliged each one to rise to accept the libation, and as Hale did so in his turn he met the dark eyes of the girl full on his own. There was a pleased curiosity in her glance that made this married man of thirty-five color as awkwardly as a boy. The tender of refreshment being understood as a tacit recognition of their claims to a larger hospitality, all further restraint was removed. Zenobia resumed her seat, and pla- cing her elbow on the arm of her chair, and her small round chin in her hand, looked thoughtfully in the fire. " When I say George Lee 's a white man, it ain't because I know him. It 's his general gait. Wot 's he ever done that 's underhanded or mean ? ISTothin' ! You can't show the poor man he 's ever took a picayune from. When he 's helped himself to a pile it 's been outer them banks or them express companies, that think it mighty fine to bust up themselves, and swindle the poor folks o' their last cent, and nobody talks o' huntin' them / And does he keep their money ? No ; he passes it round among the boys that help him, and they put it in circulation. He don't keep it for himself ; he ain't got fine houses in 'Frisco ; he don't keep fast horses for show. Like ez not the critter he did that job with — ef it was him — none of you boys would have rid ! And he takes all the risks himself ; you keH bet your life that every man with him was safe and away afore he turned his back on you-uns." 200 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLr/s " He certainly drops a little of his money at draw-poker, Zeenie," said Clinch, laughing. "He lost five thousand dollars to Sheriff Kelly last week." " Well, I don't hear of the sheriff huntin' him to give it back, nor do I reckon Kelly handed it over to the Express it was taken from. I heard you won suthin' from him a spell ago. I reckon you've been huntin' him to find out whar you should return it." The laugh was clearly against Clinch. He was about to make some rallying rejoinder when the young girl suddenly interrupted him. " Ef you 're wantin' to hunt somebody, why don't you take higher game ? Thar 's that Jim Harkins : go for him, and 1 '11 join you." " Harkins ! " exclaimed Clinch and Hale simultaneously. " Yes, Jim Harkins ; do you know him ? " she said, glancing from the one to the other. " One of my friends does," said Clinch, laughing ; " but don't let that stop you." " And you — over there," continued Zenobia, bending her head and eyes towards Hale. " The fact is — I believe he was my banker," said Hale, with a smile. " I don't know him personally." " Then you 'd better hunt him before he does you." "What's he. done, Zeenie?" asked Eawlins, keenly enjoying the discomfiture of the others. " What ? " She stopped, threw her long black braids over her shoulder, clasped her knee with her hands, and rocking backwards and forwards, sublimely unconscious of the apparition of a slim ankle and half-dropped-off slipper from under her shortened gown, continued, " It might n't please him," she said slyly, nodding towards Hale. "Pray don't mind me," said Hale, with unnecessary eagerness. " Well," said Zenobia, " I reckon you all know Ned Falkner and the Excelsior Ditch ? " SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 201 " Yes, Falkner 's the superintendent of it," said Eaw- lins. " And a square man too. Thar ain't anything mean about him." " Shake," said Zenobia, extending her hand. Eawlins shook the proffered hand with eager spontaneousness, and the girl resumed : " He 's about ez good ez they make 'em — you bet. Well, you know Ned has put all his money, and all his strength, and all his sabe, and " — " His good looks," added Clinch mischievously. " Into that Ditch," continued Zenobia, ignoring the in- terruption. " It 's his mother, it 's his sweetheart, it 's his everything ! When other chaps of his age was cavortin' round 'Frisco, and havin' high jinks, Ned was in his Ditch. ' Wait till the Ditch is done,' he used to say. ' Wait till she begins to boom, and then you just stand round.' Mor'n that, he got all the boys to put in their last cent — for they loved Ned, and love him now, like ez ef he wos a woman." " That 's so," said Clinch and Eawlins simultaneously, " and he 's worth it." " Well," continued Zenobia, " the Ditch did n't boom ez soon ez they kalkilated. And then the boys kept gettin' poorer and poorer, and Ned he kept gettin' poorer and poorer in everything but his hopefulness and grit. Then he looks around for more capital. And about this time, that coyote Harkins smelt suthin' nice up there, and he gits Ned to give him control of it, and he '11 lend him his name and fix up a company. Soon ez he gets control, the first thing he does is to say that it wants half a million o' money to make it pay, and levies an assessment of two hundred dol- lars a share. That 's nothin' for them rich fellows to pay, or pretend to pay, but for boys on grub wages it meant only ruin. They could n't pay, and had to forfeit their shares for next to nothing. And Ned made one more desper- ate attempt to save them and himself by borrowing money 202 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S on his shares ; when that hound Harkins got wind of it, and let it he buzzed around that the Ditch is a failure, and that he was gain' out of it ; that brought the shares down to nothing. As Ned could n't raise a dollar, the new com- pany swooped down on his shares for the debts they had put up, and left him and the boys to help themselves. Ned could n't bear to face the boys that he 'd helped to ruin, and put out, and ain't been heard from since. After Harkins had got rid of Ned and the boys he manages to pay off that wonderful debt, and sells out for a hundred thousand dol- lars. That money — Ned's money — he sends to Sacra- mento, for he don't dare to travel with it himself, and is kalkilatin' to leave the kentry, for some of the boys allow to kill him on sight. So ef you 're wantin' to hunt suthin', thar 's yer chance, and you need n't go inter the snow to do it." " But surely the law can recover this money ? " said Hale indignantly. " It is as infamous a robbery as " — He stopped as he caught Zenobia's eye. " Ez last night's, you were goin' to say. I '11 call it more. Them road, agents don't pretend to be your friend — but take yer money and run their risks. For ez to the law — that can't help yer." " It 's a skin game, and you might ez well expect to re- cover a gambling debt from a short card sharp," explained Clinch ; " Falkner oughter shot him on sight." " Or the boys lynched him," suggested Eawlins. " I think," said Hale, more reflectively, " that in the absence of legal remedy a man of that kind should have been forced under strong physical menace to give up his ill- gotten gains. The money was the primary object, and if that could be got without bloodshed — which seems to me a useless crime — it would be quite as effective. Of course, if there was resistance or retaliation, it might be necessary to kill him." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 203 He had unconsciously fallen into his old didactic and dogmatic habit of speech, and perhaps, under the spur of Zenobia's eyes, he had given it some natural emphasis. A dead silence followed, in which the others regarded him with amused and gratified surprise, and it was broken only by Zenobia rising and holding out her hand. " Shake ! " Hale raised it gallantly, and pressed his lips on the one spotless finger. " That 's gospel truth. And you ain't the first white man to say it." " Indeed," laughed Hale. " Who was the other ? " " George Lee ! " CHAPTER VI The laughter that followed was interrupted by a sudden barking of the dogs in the outer clearing. Zenobia rose lazily and strode to the window. It relieved Hale of cer- tain embarrassing reflections suggested by her comment. " Ef it ain't that God-forsaken fool Dick bringing up passengers from the snow-bound up stage in the road ! I reckon I've got suthin' to say to that!" But the later appearance of the apologetic Dick, with the assurance that the party carried a permission from her father, granted at the lower station in view of such an emergency, checked her active opposition. " That 's like paw," she solilo- quized aggrievedly ; " shuttin' us up and settin' dogs on everybody for a week, and then lettin' the whole stage ser- vice pass through one door and out at another. Well, it 's his house and his whiskey, and they kin take it, but they don't get me to help 'em." They certainly were not a prepossessing or good-natured acquisition to the party. Apart from the natural antago- nism which, on such occasions, those in possession always feel towards the newcomer, they were strongly inclined to resist the dissatisfied querulousness and aggressive attitude of these fresh applicants for hospitality. The most ofien- sive one was a person who appeared to exercise some au- thority over the others. He was loud, assuming, and drpssed with vulgar pretension. He quickly disposed him- self in the chair vacated by Zenobia, and called for some liquor. " I reckon you '11 bev to help yourself," said Eawlins SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 205 dryly, as the summons met with no response. " There are only two women in the house, and I reckon their hands are full already." " 1 call it d — d uncivil treatment," said the man, raising his voice ; " and Hennicker had better sing smaller if he don't want his old den pulled down some day. He ain't any better than men that hev been picked up afore now." " You oughter told him that, and mebbe he 'd hev come over with yer," returned Rawlins. " He 's a mild, soft, easy-going man, is Hennicker ! Ain't he Colonel Clinch ? " The casual mention of Clinch's name produced the effect which the speaker probably intended. The stranger stared at Clinch, who, apparently oblivious of the conversation, was blinking his cold gray eyes at the fire. Dropping his aggressive tone to mere querulousness, the man sought the whiskey demijohn, and helped himself and his companions. Fortified by liquor he returned to the fire. '•' I reckon you 've heard about this yer robbery. Colonel," he said, addressing Clinch, with an attempt at easy famil- iarity. Without raising his eyes from the fire. Clinch briefly assented, " I reckon." " I'm up yer, examining into it, for the Express." " Lost much ? " asked Rawlins. " Not so much ez they might hev. That fool Harkins had a hundred thousand dollars in greenbacks sealed up like an ordinary package of a thousand dollars, and gave it to a friend. Bill Guthrie, in the bank to pick out some un- likely chap among the passengers to take charge of it to Reno. He would n't trust the Express. Ha ! ha ! " The dead, oppressive silence that followed his empty laughter made it seem almost artificial. Rawlins held his breath, and looked at Clinch. Hale, with the instincts of a refined, sensitive man, turned hot with the embarrassment Clinch should have shown. For that gentleman, without 206 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S lifting his eyes from the fire, and with no apparent change in his demeanor, lazily asked : — " Ye did n't ketch the name o' that passenger ? " " Naturally, no ! For when Guthrie hears what was said agin him he wouldn't give his name until he heard from him." " And what was said agin him ? " asked Clinch mus- ingly. " What would he said agin a man that give up that sum o' money, like a chaw of tobacco, for the asking ! Why, there were but three men, as far ez we kin hear, that did the job. And there were four passengers inside, armed, and the driver and express messenger on the box. Six were robbed by three ! — they were a sweet-scented lot ! Reckon they must hev felt mighty small, for I hear they got up and skedaddled from the station under the pretext of lookin' for the robbers." He laughed again, and the laugh was noisily repeated by his five companions at the other end of the room. Hale, who had forgotten that the stranger was only echoing a part of his own criticism of eight hours before, was on the point of rising with burning cheeks and angry indignation, when the lazily iiplifted eye of Clinch caught his, and absolutely held him down with its paralyzing and deadly significance. Murder itself seemed to look from those cruelly quiet and remorseless gray pupils. For a moment he forgot his own rage in this glimpse of Clinch's implacable resentment ; for a moment he felt a thrill of pity for the wretch who had provoked it. He remained motionless and fascinated in his chair as the lazy lids closed like a sheath over Clinch's eyes again. Eawlins, who had probably received the same glance of warning, remained equally still. " They have n't heard the last of it yet, you bet," con tinned the infatuated stranger. " I 've got a little state- SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 207 ment here for the newspaper," he added, drawing some papers from his pocket ; " suthin' I just run off in the coach as I came along. I reckon it '11 show things up in a new light. It 's time there should be some change. All the cussin' that 's been usually done hez been by the pas- sengers agin the express and stage companies. I propose that the Company should do a little cussin' themselves. See ? P'r'aps you don't mind my readin' it to ye ? It 's just spicy enough to suit them newspaper chaps." " Go on," said Colonel Clinch quietly. The man cleared his throat, with the preliminary pose of authorship, and his five friends, to whom the composi- tion was evidently not unfamiliar, assumed anticipatory smiles. " I call it ' Prize Pusillanimous Passengers.' Sort of runs easy off the tongue, you know. " ' It now appears that the success of the late stages- coach robbery near the Summit was largely due to the pusillanimity — not to use a more serious word ' " — He stopped, and looked explanatorily towards Clinch : " Ye '11 see in a minit what I 'm gettin' at by that pusillanimity of the passengers themselves. ' It now transpires that there were only three robbers who attacked the coach, and that although passengers, driver, and express messenger were fully armed, and were double the number of their assail- ants, not a shot was fired. We mean no reflections upon the well-known courage of Yuba Bill, nor the experience and coolness of Bracy Tibbetts, the courteous express mes- senger, both of whom have since confessed to have been more than astonished at the Christian and lamb-like sub- mission of the insiders. Amusing stories of some laugh- able yet sickening incidents of the occasion — such as grown men kneeling in the road, and offering to strip them- selves completely, if their lives were only spared ; of one of the passengers hiding under the seat, and only being 208 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S dislodged by pulling his coat-tails; of incredible sums promised, and even offers of menial service, for the preser- vation of their wretched carcases — are received with the greatest gusto; but we are in possession of facts which may lead to more serious accusations. Although one of the passengers is said to have lost a large sum of money intrusted to him, while attempting with barefaced effront- sr}' to establish a rival " carrying " business in one of the Express Company's own coaches ' — I call that a good point." He interrupted himself to allow the unrestrained applause of his own party. " Don't you ? " " It 's just h — 11," said Clinch musingly. " ' Yet the affair,' " resumed the stranger, from his man^ uscript, " ' is locked up in great and suspicious mystery. The presence of Jackson N. Stanner, Esq.' (that 's me), ' special detective agent to the Company, and his staff in town, is a guaranty that the mystery will be thoroughly probed.' Hed to put that in to please the Company," he again deprecatingly explained. " ' We are indebted to this gentleman for the facts.' " " The pint you want to make in that article," said Clinch, rising, but still directing his face and his conversation to the fire, " ez far ez I ken see ez that no three men kin back down six unless they be cowards, or are willing to be backed down." " That 's the point what I start from," rejoined Stanner, " and work up. I leave it to you ef it ain't so." " I can't say ez I agree with you," said the Colonel dryly. He turned, and still without lifting his eyes walked towards the door of the room which Zenobia had entered. The key was on the inside, but Clinch gently opened the door, removed the key, and closing the door again locked it from his side. Hale and Rawlins felt their hearts beat quickly ; the others followed Clinch's slow movements and downcast mien with amused curiosity. After locking the other out- SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 209 let from the room, and putting the keys in his pocket, Clinch returned to the fire. For the first time he lifted his eyes ; the man nearest him shrank back in terror. " I am the man," he said slowly, taking deliberate breath between his sentences, " who gave up those greenbacks to the robbers. I am one of the three passengers you have lampooned in that paper, and these gentlemen beside me are the other two." He stopped and looked around him. " You don't believe that three men can back down six ! Well, I '11 show you how it can be done. More than that, I '11 show you how one man can do it ; for, by the living G — J, if you don't hand over that paper I '11 kill you where you sit ! I '11 give you until I count ten ; if one of you moves he and you are dead men — but you first ! " Before he had finished speaking Hale and Rawlins had both risen, as if in concert, with their weapons drawn. Hale could not tell how or why he had done so, but he was equally conscious, without knowing why, of fixing his eye on one of the other party, and that he should, in the event of an affray, try to kill him. He did not attempt to reason ; he only knew that he should do his best to kill that man and perhaps others. " One," said Clinch, lifting his derringer, " two — three " — "Look here, Colonel — I swear I didn't know it was you. Come — d — n it! I say — see here," stammered Stanner, with white cheeks, not daring to glance for aid to his stupefied party. " Four — five — six " — " Wait ! Here ! " He produced the paper and threw it on the floor. " Pick it up and hand it to me. Seven — eight " — Stanner hastily scrambled to his feet, picked up the paper, and handed it to the Colonel. " I was only joking, Colonel," he said, with a forced laugh. 210 SNOW-BOOND AT EAGLE'S " I 'm glad to hear it. But as this joke is in black and white, you would n't mind saying so in the same fashion. Take that pen and ink and write as I dictate. ' I certify that I am satisfied that the above statement is a base calumny against the characters of Kingwood Clinch, Kobert Rawlins, and John Hale, passengers, and that I do hereby apologize to the same.' Sign it. That'll do. Now let the rest of your party sign as witnesses." They complied without hesitation ; some, seizing the opportunity of treating the affair as a joke, suggested a drink. " Excuse me," said Clinch quietly, " but ez this house ain't big enough for me and that man, and ez I 've got busi- ness at Wild Cat Station with this paper, I think I '11 go without drinkin'." He took the keys from his pocket, un- locked the doors, and taking up his overcoat and rifle turned as if to go. Rawlins rose to follow him ; Hale alone hesitated. The rapid occurrences of the last half hour gave him no time for reflection. But he was by no means satisfied of the legality of the last act he had aided and abetted, although he admitted its rude justice, and felt he would have done so again. A fear of this, and an instinct that he might be led into further complications if he continued to identify himself with Clinch and Rawlins ; the fact that they had professedly abandoned their quest, and that it was really supplanted by the presence of an authorized party whom they had already come in conflict with — all this urged him to remain behind. On the other hand, the apparent de- sertion of his comrades at the last moment was opposed both to his sense of honor and the liking he had taken to them. But he reflected that he had already shown his ac- tive partisanship, that he could be of little service to them at Wild Cat Station, and would be only increasing the dis- tance from his home ; and above all, an impatient longing SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 211 for independent action finally decided him. "I think 1 will stay here," he said to Clinch, "unless you want me." Clinch cast a swift and meaning glance at the enemy, but looked approval. " Keep your eyes skinned, and you 're good for a dozen of 'em," he said, sotto voce, and then turned to Stanner. " I 'm going to take this paper to Wild Cat. If you want to communicate with me hereafter, you know where I am to be found, unless " — he smiled grimly — " you 'd like to see me outside for a few minutes before I go?" " It is a matter that concerns the Stage Company, not me," said Stanner, with an attempt to appear at his ease. Hale accompanied Clinch and Rawlins through the kitchen to the stables. The hostler, Dick, had already returned to the rescue of the snow-bound coach. " I should n't like to leave many men alone with that crowd," said Clinch, pressing Hale's hand ; "and I would n't have allowed your staying behind ef I didn't know I could bet my pile on you. Your offerin' to stay just puts a clean finish on it. Look yer. Hale, I did n't cotton much to you at first ; but ef you ever want a friend, call on Eingwood Clinch." " The same here, old man," said Rawlins, extending his hand as he appeared from a hurried conference with the old woman at the woodshed, " and trust to Zeenie to give you a hint ef there 's anythin' underhanded goin' on. So long." Half inclined to resent this implied suggestion of protec- tion, yet half pleased at the idea of a confidence with the handsome girl he had seen. Hale returned to the room. A whispered discussion among the party ceased on his enter- ing, and an awkward silence followed, which Hale did not attempt to break as he quietly took his seat again by the fire. He was presently confronted by Stanner, who with an affectation of easy familiarity crossed over to the hearth. 212 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " The old Kernel 's d — d peppery and high-toned when he 's got a little more than his reg'lar three fingers o' com juice, eh ? " " I must heg you to understand distinctly, Mr. Stanner," said Hale, with a return of his hahitual precision of state- ment, " that I regard any slighting allusion to the gentle- man who has just left not only as in exceedingly had taste coining from you, hut very offensive to myself. If you mean to imply that he was under the influence of liquor, it is my duty to undeceive you ; he was so perfectly in pos- session of his faculties as to express not only his own but my opinion of your conduct. You must also admit that he was discriminating enough to show his objection to your company by leaving it. I regret that circumstances do not make it convenient for me to exercise that privilege ; hut if I am obliged to put up with your presence in this room, I strongly insist that it is not made unendurable with the addition of your conversation." The effect of this deliberate and passionless declaration was more discomposing to the party than Clinch's fury. Utterly unaccustomed to the ideas and language suddenly confronting them, they were unable to determine whether it was the real expression of the speaker, or whether it was a vague badinage or affectation to which any reply would in- volve them in ridicule. In a country terrorized by practical joking, they did not doubt that this was a new form of hoaxing calculated to provoke some response that would constitute them as victims. The immediate effect upon them H-as that complete silence in regard to himself that Hale desired. They drew together again and conversed in whis- pers, while Hale, with his eyes fixed on the fire, gave him- self up to somewhat late and useless reflection. He could scarcely realize his position. For however he might look at it, within a space of twelve hours he had not only changed some of his most cherished opinions, but he SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 213 had acted in accordance with that change in a way that made it seem almost impossible for him ever to recant. In the interests of law and order he had engaged in an unlaw- ful and disorderly pursuit of criminals, and had actually come in conflict not with the criminals, but with the only party apparently authorized to pursue them. More than that, he was finding himself committed to a certain sympa- thy with the criminals. Twenty-four hours ago, if any one had told him that he would have condoned an illegal act for its abstract justice, or assisted to commit an illegal act for the same purpose, he would have felt himself insulted. That he knew he would not now feel it as an insult per- plexed him still more. In these circumstances the fact that he was separated from his family, and as it were from all his past life and traditions, by a chance accident, did not disturb him greatly ; indeed, he was for the first time a little doubtful of their probable criticism on his inconsist- ency, and was by no means in a hurry to subject himself to it. Lifting his eyes, he was suddenly aware that the door leading to the kitchen was slowly opening. He had thought he heard it creak once or twice during his deliberate reply to Stanner. It was evidently moving now so as to attract his attention, without disturbing the others. It presently opened sufficiently wide to show the face of Zeenie, who, with a gesture of caution towards his companions, beckoned him to join her. He rose carelessly as if going out, and, putting on his hat, entered the kitchen as the retreating fitrure of the young girl glided lightly towards the stables. She ascended a few open steps as if to a hay-loft, but stopped before a low door. Pushing it open; she preceded him into a small room, apparently under the roof, which scarcely allowed her to stand upright. By the light of a stable lantern hanging from a beam he saw that, though poorly furnished, it bore some evidence of feminine taste and hah- 214 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S itation. Motioning to the only chair, she seated herself on the edge of the bed, with her hands clasping her knees in her familiar attitude. Her face bore traces of recent agita- tion, and her eyes were shining with tears. By the closer light of the lantern he was surprised to find it was from laughter. " I reckoned you 'd be right lonely down there with that Stanner crowd, particklerly after that little speech o' yourn, so I sez to maw I 'd get you up yer for a spell. Maw and I heerd you exhort 'em ! Maw allowed you woz talkin' a furrin' tongue all along, but I — sakes alive ! — I bed to hump myself to keep from bustin' into a yell when yer jist drawed them Webster-unabridged sentences on 'em." She stopped and rocked backwards and forwards with a laugh that, subdued by the proximity of the roof and the fear of being overheard, was by no means unmusi- cal. " I 'II tell ye whot got me, though ! That part commencing, ' Suckamstances over which I 've no con- trouL' " " Oh, come ! I did n't say that," interrupted Hale, laughing. " ' Don't make it convenient for me to exercise the priv- ilege of kickin' yer out to that extent,' " she continued ; " ' but if I cannot dispense with your room, the least I can say is that it 's a d — d sight better than your company ' — or suthin' like that ! And then the way you minded your stops, and let your voice rise and fall just ez easy ez if you woa a First Eeader in large type. Why, the Kernel was n't nowhere. His cussin' did n't come within a mile o' yourn. That Stanner jist turned yaller." " I 'm afraid you are laughing at me," said Hale, not knowing whether to be pleased or vexed at the girl's amusement. " I reckon I 'm the only one that dare do it, then," said the girl simply. " The Kernel sez the way you turned SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 215 round after he 'd done his cussin', and said yer helieved you 'd stay and take the responsibility of the whole thing — and did in that kam, soft, did-anybody-speak-to-me style — was the neatest thing he 'd seen yet ! No ! Maw- says I ain't much on manners, but I know a man when I see him." For an instant Hale gave himself up to the delicious flattery of unexpected, unintended, and apparently unin- terested compliment. Becoming at last a little embarrassed under the frank curiosity of the girl's dark eyes, he changed the subject. " Do you always come up here through the stables ? " he asked, glancing round the room, which was evidently her own. " I reckon," she answered half abstractedly. " There 's a ladder down thar to maw's room " — pointing to a trap- door beside the broad chimney that served as a wall — " but it 's handier the other way, and nearer the bosses ef you want to get away quick." This palpable suggestion — borne out by what he re- membered of the other domestic details — that the house had been planned with reference to sudden foray or escape reawakened his former uneasy reflections. Zeenie, who bad been watching his face, added, " It 's no slouch, when b'ar or painters hang round nights and stampede the stock, to be able to swing yourself on to a boss whenever you hear a row goin' on outside." " Do you mean that you " — "Paw used, and I do now, sense I've come into the room." She pointed to a nondescript garment, half cloak, half habit, hanging on the wall. " I 've been outer bed and on Pitch pine's back as far ez the trail five minutes arter I heard the first bellow." Hale regarded her with undisguised astonishment. There was nothing at all Amazonian or horsey in her manners, 216 SNOW-BOUND A.T EAGLES nor was there even the rohust physical contour that might have been developed through such experiences. On the contrary, she seemed to be lazily effeminate in body and mind. Heedless of his critical survey of her, she beckoned him to draw his chair nearer, and, looking into his eyes, said : — " Whatever possessed you to take to huntin' men ? " Hale was staggered by the question, but nevertheless endeavored to explain. But he was surprised to find that his explanation appeared stilted even to himself, and, he could not doubt, was utterly incomprehensible to the girl. She nodded her head, however, and continued : — " Then you haven't any thin' agin George ? " " I don't know George," said Hale, smiling. " My pro- ceeding was against the highwayman." "Well, he was the highwayman." " I mean, it was the principle I objected to — a principle that I consider highly dangerous." " Well, he is the principal, for the others only helped, I reckon," said Zeenie, with a sigh, " and I reckon he is dangerous." Hale saw it was useless to explain. The girl con- tinued : — " What made you stay here instead of going on with the Kernel ? There was suthin' else besides your wanting to make that Stanner take water. What is it ? " A light sense of the propinquity of beauty, of her con- fidence, of their isolation, of the eloquence of her dark eyes, at first tempted Hale to a reply of simple gallantry ; a graver consideration of the same circumstances froze it upon his lips. " I don't know," he returned awkwardly. " Well, I '11 tell you," she said. " You did n't cotton to the Kernel and Rawlins much more than you did to Stanner. They ain't your kind." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 217 In his embarrassment Hale blundered upon the thought he had honorably avoided. "Suppose," he said, with a constrained laugh, "I had stayed to see you ? " "I reckon / ain't your kind, neither," she replied promptly. There was a momentary pause when she rose and walked to the chimney. " It 's very quiet down there," she said, stooping and listening over the roughly boarded floor that formed the ceiling of the room below. " I wonder what 's going on ? " In the belief that this was a delicate hint for his return to the party he had left, Hale rose, but the girl passed him hurriedly, and, opening the door, cast a quick glance into the stable beyond. " Just as I reckoned -^ the horses are gone too. They 've skedaddled," she said blankly. Hale did not reply. In his embarrassment a moment ago the idea of taking an equally sudden departvire had flashed upon him. Should he take this as a justification of that impulse, or how ? He stood irresolutely gazing at the girl, who turned and began to descend the stairs silently. He followed. When they reached the lower room they found it as they had expected — deserted. " I hope I did n't drive them away," said Hale, with an uneasy look at the troubled face of the girl. " For I really had an idea of going myself a moment ago." She remained silent, gazing out of the window. Then, turning with a slight shrug of her shoulders, said half defiantly : " What 's the use now ? Oh, maw ! the Stanner crowd has vamosed the ranch, and this yer stranger kalki- lates to stay ! " CHAPTER VII A WEEK had passed at Eagle's Court — a week of mingled clouds and sunshine by day, of rain over the green plateau and snow on the mountain by night. Each morning had brought its fresh greenness to the winter-girt domain, and a fresh coat of dazzling white to the barrier that separated its dwellers from the world beyond. There was little change in the encompassing wall of their prison ; if anything, the snowy circle round them seemed to have drawn its lines nearer day by day. The immediate result of this restricted limit had been to confine the range of cattle to the meadows nearer the house, and at a safe distance from the fringe of wilderness now invaded by the prowling tread of predatory animals. Nevertheless, the two figures lounging on the slope at sunset gave very little indication of any serious quality in the situation. Indeed, so far as appearances were con- cerned, Kate, who was returning from an afternoon stroll with Falkner, exhibited, with feminine inconsistency, a decided return to the world of fashion and conventionality apparently just as she was effectually excluded from it. She had not only discarded her white dress as a concession to the practical evidence of the surrounding winter, but she had also brought out a feather hat and sable muff which had once graced a fashionable suburb of Boston. Even Falkner had exchanged his slouch hat and picturesque serape for a beaver overcoat and fur cap of Hale's which had been pressed upon him by Kate, under the excuse of the exigencies of the season. Within a stone's throw of SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 219 the thicket, turbulent with the savage forces of nature, they walked with the abstraction of people hearing only their own voices ; in the face of the solemn peaks clothed with white austerity they talked gravely of dress. " I don't mean to say," said Kate demurely, " that you 're to give up the serape entirely ; you can wear it on rainy nights and when you ride over here from your friend's house to spend the evening — for the sake of old times," she added, with an unconscious air of referring to an already antiquated friendship ; " but you must admit it 's a little too gorgeous and theatrical for the sunlight of day and the public high- way." " But why should that make it wrong, if the experience of a people has shown it to be a garment best fitted for their wants and requirements ? "said Falkner argumentatively. " But you are not one of those people," said Kate, " and that makes all the difference. You look differently and act differently, so that there is something irreconcilable between your clothes and you that makes you look odd." "And to look odd, according to your civilized prejudices, is to be wrong," said Falkner bitterly. " It is to seem different from what one really is — which is wrong. Now, you are a mining superintendent, you tell me. Then you don't want to look like a Spanish brigand, as you do in that serape. I am sure if you had ridden up to a stagecoach while I was in it, I 'd have handed you my watch and purse without a word. There ! you are not offended ? " she added, with a laugh, which did not, how- ever, conceal a certain earnestness. " I suppose I ought to have said I would have given it gladly to such a romantic figure, and perhaps have got out and danced a saraband or bolero with you — if that is the thing to do nowadays. Well ! " she said, after a dangerous pause, " consider that I 've said it." He had been walking a little before her, with his face 220 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES turned towards the distant mountain. Suddenly he stopped and faced her. " You would have given enough of your time to the highwayman, Miss Scott, as would have enabled you to identify him for the police — and no more. Like your brother, you would have been willing to sacrifice yourself for the benefit of the laws of civilization and good order." If a denial to this assertion could have been expressed without the use of speech, it was certainly transparent in the face and eyes of the young girl at that moment. If Falkner had been less self-conscious he would have seen it plainly. But Kate only buried her face in her lifted muff, slightly raised her pretty shoulders, and, dropping her tremulous eyelids, walked on. " It seems a pity," she said, after a pause, " that we cannot preserve our own miserable existence ■without taking something from others — sometimes even a life ! " He started. " And it 's horrid to have to remind you that you have yet to kill something for the invalid's supper," she continued. " I saw a hare in the field yonder." " You mean that jackass-rabbit ? " he said abstractedly. " What you please. It 's a pity you did n't take your gun instead of your rifle." " I brought the rifle for protection." " And a shot-gun is only aggressive, I suppose ? " Palkner looked at her for a moment, and then, as the hare suddenly started across the open a hundred yards away, brought the rifle to his shoulder. A long interval — as it seemed to Kate — elapsed ; the animal appeared to be already safely out of range, when the rifle suddenly cracked ; the hare bounded in the air like a ball, and dropped motion- less. The girl looked at the marksman in undisguised admiration. " Is it quite dead ? " she said timidly. " It never knew what struck it." " It certainly looks less brutal than shooting it with a shot-gun, as John does, and then not killing it outright," said Kate. " I hate what is called sport and sportsmen, but a rifle seems " — SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 221 " What ? " said Falkner. " More — gentlemanly." She had raised her pretty head in the air, and, with her hand shading her eyes, was looking around the clear ether, and said meditatively, " I wonder — no matter." " What is it ? " " Oh, nothing." " It is something," said Falkner, with an amused smile, reloading his rifle. " Well, you once promised me an eagle's feather for my hat. Isn't that thing an eagle? " " I am afraid it is only a hawk." " Well, that will do. Shoot that ! " Her eyes were sparkling. Falkner withdrew his own with a slight smile, and raised his rifle with provoking deliheration. " Are you quite sure it 's what you want ? " he asked demurely. « Yes — quick ! " Nevertheless, it was some minutes before the rifle cracked figain. The wheeling bird suddenly struck the wind with its wings aslant, and then fell like a plummet at a distance which showed the difficulty of the feat. Falkner started from her side before the bird reached the ground. He re- turned to her after a lapse of a few moments, bearing a trailing wing in his hand. " You shall make your choice," he said gayly. " Are you sure it was killed outright ? " "Head shot off." said Falkner briefly. "And besides, the fall would have killed it," said Kate conclusively. " It 's lovely. I suppose they call you a very good shot ? " " They — who ? " " Oh ! the people you know — your friends, and their fiisters." 222 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " George shoots better than I do, and has had more expe- rience. I 've seen him do that with a pistol. Of course not such a long shot, but a more difficult one." Kate did not reply, but her face showed a conviction that as an artistic and gentlemanly performance it was probably inferior to the one she had witnessed. Falkner, who had picked up the hare also, again took his place by her side, as they turned towards the house. " Do you remember the day you came, when we were walking here, you pointed out that rock on the mountain where the poor animals had taken refuge from the snow ? " said Kate suddenly. "Yes," answered Falkner ; "they seem to have dimin- ished. I am afraid you were right ; they have either eaten each other or escaped. Let us hope the latter." " I looked at them with a glass every day," said Kate, " and they 've got down to only four. There 's a bear and that shabby, overgrown cat you call a California lion, and a wolf, and a creature like a fox or a squirrel." " It 's a pity they 're not all of a kind," said Falkner. " Why ? " " There 'd be nothing to keep them from being comfort- able together." " On the contrary. I should think it would be simply awful to be shut up entirely with one's own kind." " Then you believe it is possible for them, with their different natures asd habits, to be happy together ? " said Falkner, with sudden earnestness. " I believe," said Kate hurriedly, " that the bear and the lion find the fox and the wolf very amusing, and that the fox and the wolf " — " Well ? " said Falkner, stopping short. "Well, the fox and the wolf will carry away a much better opinion of the lion and bear than they had before." They had reached the house by this time, and for some SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 223 occult reason Kate did not immediately enter the parlor, where she had left her sister and the invalid, who had al- ready been promoted to a sofa and a cushion by the win- dow, but proceeded directly to her own room. As a manoeuvre to avoid meeting Mrs. Hale, it was scarcely ne- cessary, for that lady was already in advance of her on the staircase, as if she had left the parlor a moment before they entered the house. Falkner, too, would have preferred the company of his own thoughts, but Lee, apparently the only unpreoccupied, all-pervading, and boyishly alert spirit in the party, hailed him from within, and obliged him to present himself on the threshold of the parlor with the bare and hawk's wing he was still carrying. Eying the latter with affected concern, Lee said gravely : " Of course, I can eat it, Ned, and I dare say it 's the best part of the fowl, and the hare is n't more than enough for the women, but I had no idea we were so reduced. Three hours and a half gunning, and only one hare and a hawk's wing. It 's terrible." Perceiving that his friend was alone, Falkner dropped his burden in the hall and strode rapidly to his side. " Look here, George, we must, I must, leave this place at once. It 's no use talking ; I can stand this sort of thing no longer." " Nor can I, with the door open. Shut it, and say what you want quick, before Mrs. Hale comes back. Have you found a trail ? " " No, no ; that 's not what I mean." " Well, it strikes me it ought to be, if you expect to get away. Have you proposed to Beacon Street, and she thinks it rather premature on a week's acquaintance ? " "No; but" — " But you will, you mean ? Don't, just yet." " But I cannot live this perpetual lie." " That depends. I don't know how you 're lying when 224 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S I 'm not with you. If you 're walking round with that girl, singing hymns and talking of your class in Sunday- school, or if you 're insinuating that you 're a millionaire, and think of buying the place for a summer hotel, I should say you'd better quit that kind of lying. But, on the other hand, I don't see the necessity of your dancing round here with a shot-gun, and yelling for Harkins's blood, or counting that package of greenbacks in the lap of Miss Scott, to be truthful. It seems to me there ought to be something between the two." " But, George, don't you think — you are on such good terms with Mrs. Hale and her mother — that you might tell them the whole story ? That is, tell it in your own way ; they will hear anything from you, and believe it." " Thank you ; but suppose I don't believe in lying, either ? " " You know what I mean ! You have a way, d — n it, of making everything seem like a matter of course, and the most natural thing going." " Well, suppose I did. Are you prepared for the worst ? " Falkner was silent for a moment, and then replied, " Yes, anything would be better than this suspense." " I don't agree with you. Then you would be willing to have them forgive us ? " " I don't understand you." " I mean that their forgiveness would be the worst thing that could happen. Look here, Ned. Stop a moment ; listen at that door. Mrs. Hale has the tread of an angel, with the peryading capacity of a cat. Now listen ! I don't pretend to be in love with anybody here, but if I were I should hardly take advantage of a woman's helplessness and solitude with a sensational story about myself. It 's not giving her a fair show. You know she won't turn you out of the house." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 225 "No," said Falkner, reddening ; "but I should expect to go at once, and that would be my only excuse for telling lier." " Go ! where ? In your preoccupation with that girl you have n't even found the trail by which Manuel escaped. Do you intend to camp outside the house, and make eyes at her when she comes to the window ? " " Because you think nothing of flirting with Mrs. Hale," said Falkner bitterly, " you care little " — " My dear Ned," said Lee, " the fact that Mrs. Hale has a husband, and knows that she can't marry me, puts us on equal terms. Nothing that she could learn about me hereafter would make a flirtation with me any less wrong than it would be now, or make her seem more a victim. Can you say the same of yourself and that Puritan girl ? " " But you did not advise me to keep aloof from her ; on the contrary, you " — " I thought you might make the best of the situation, and pay her some attention, because you could not go any further." " You thought I was utterly heartless and selfish like " — "Ned!" Falkner walked rapidly to the fireplace, and returned. " Forgive me, George — I 'm a fool — and an ungrateful one." Lee did not reply at once, although he took and retained the hand Falkner had impulsively extended. "Promise me," he said slowly, after a pause, " that you will say no- thing yet to either of these women. I ask it for your own sake, and this girl's, not for mine. If, on the contrary, you are tempted to do so from any Quixotic idea of honor, remember that you will only precipitate something that will oblige you, from that same sense of honor, to separate from the girl forever." " I don't understand." 22 G SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " Enough ! " said he, with a quick return of his old reckless gayety. " Shoot-Off-His-Mouth — the Beardless Boy Chief of the Sierras — has spoken ! Let the Pale Face with the black mustache ponder and beware how he talks hereafter to the Eippling Cochituate Water ! Go ! " Nevertheless, as soon as the door had closed upon Falk- ner, Lee's smile vanished. With his colorless face- turned to the fading light at the window, the hollows in his tem- ples and the lines in the corners of his eyes seemed to have grown more profound. He remained motionless and ab- sorbed in thought so deep that the light rustle of a skirt, that would at other times have thrilled his sensitive ear, passed unheeded. At last, throwing ofl' his reverie with the full and unrestrained sigh of a man who believes him- self alone, he was startled by the soft laugh of Mrs. Hale, who had entered the room unperceived. " Dear me ! How portentous ! Really, I almost feel as if I were interrupting a tete-a-tete between yourself and some old flame. I have n't heard anything so old-fashioned and conservative as that sigh since I have been in Califor- nia. I thought you never had any Past out here ? " Fortunately his face was between her and the light, and tlie unmistakable expression of annoyance and impatience which passed over it was spared her. There was, however, still enough dissonance in his manner to affect her quick feminine sense, and when she drew nearer to him it was with a certain maiden-like timidity. " You are not worse, Mr. Lee, I hope ? You have not over-exerted yourself ? " " There 's little chance of that with one leg — if not in the grave at least mummified with bandages," he replied, with a bitterness new to him. " Shall I loosen them ? Perhaps they are too tight. There is nothing so irritating to one as the sensation of being tightly bound." &NOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 227 The liglit touch of her hand upon the rug that covered his knees, the thoughtful tenderness of the blue-veined lids, and the delicate atmosphere that seemed to surround her like a perfume cleared his face of its shadow and brought back the reckless fire into his blue eyes. " I suppose I 'm intolerant of all bonds," he said, look- ing at her intently, " in others as well as myself ! " Whether or not she detected any double meaning in his •words, she was obliged to accept the challenge of his direct gaze, and, raising her eyes to his, drew back a little from him with a slight increase of color. " I was afraid you had heard bad news just now." " What would you call bad news ? " asked Lee, clasping his hands behind his head, and leaning back on the sofa, but without withdrawing his eyes from her face, " Oh, any news that would interrupt your convalescence, or break up our little family party," said Mrs. Hale. " You have been getting on so well that really it would seem cruel to hiive anything interfere with our life of for- getting and being forgotten. But," she added, with appre- hensive quickness, " has anything happened ? Is there really any news from — from the trails ? Yesterday Mr. Falkner said the snow had recommenced in the pass. Has he seen anything, noticed anything different ? " She looked so very pretty, with the rare, genuine, and youthful excitement that transfigured her wearied and Avearying regularity of feature, that Lee contented himself with drinking in her prettiness as he would have inhaled the perfume of some flower. " Why do you look at me so, Mr. Lee ? " she asked, with a slight smile. " I believe something has happened. Mr. Falkner has brought you some intelligence." " He has certainly found out something I did not fore- see." " And that troubles you ? " 228 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES " It does." " Is it a secret ? " "No." " Then I suppose you will tell it to me at dinner," she said, with a little tone of relief. " I am afraid, if I tell it at all, I must tell it now," he said, glancing at the door. " You must do as you think hast," she said coldly, " as it seems to he a secret, after all." She hesitated. "Kate is dressing, and will not he down for some time." " So much the hetter. For I 'm afraid that Ned has made a poor return to your hospitality by falling in love with her." " Impossible ! He has known her for scarcely a week." " I am afraid we won't agree as to the length of time necessary to appreciate and love a woman. I think it can be done in seven days and four hours, the exact time we have been here." " Yes ; but as Kate was not in when you arrived, and did not come until later, you must take off at least one hour,'' said Mrs. Hale gayly. " Ned can. / shall not abate a second." " But are you not mistaken in his feelings ? " she con- tinued hurriedly. " He certainly has not said anything to her." " That is his last hold on honor and reason. And to preserve that little intact he wants to run away at once." " But that would be very silly." " Do you think so ? " he said, looking at her fixedly. " Why not ? " she asked in her turn, but rather faintly. " I '11 tell you why," he said, lowering his voice with a certain intensity of passion unlike his usual boyish light- heartedness. " Think of a man whose life has been one of alternate hardness and aggression, of savage disappointment Slid equally savage successes, who has known no other SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 229 relaxation than dissipation or extravagance ; a man to whom the idea of the domestic hearth and family ties only meant weakness, effeminacy, or — worse ; who had looked for loyalty and devotion only in the man who battled for him at his right hand in danger, or shared his privations and vsufferings. Think of such a man, and imagine that an acci- dent has suddenly placed him in an atmosphere of purity, gentleness, and peace, surrounded him by the refinements of a higher life than he had ever known, and that he found himself as in a dream, on terms of equality with a pure woman who had never known any other life, and yet would understand and pity his. Imagine his loving her ! Imagine that the first effect of that love was to show him his own inferiority and the immeasurable gulf that lay between his life and hers ! Would he not fly rather than brave the disgrace of her awakening to the truth ? Would he not fly rather than accept even the pity that might tempt her to » sacrifice ? " " But — is Mr. Falkner all that ? " " Nothing of the kind, I assure you ! " feaid he demurely. " But that 's the way a man in love feels." " Eeally ! Mr. Falkner should get you to plead his cause with Kate," said Mrs. Hale, with a faint laugh. " I need all my persuasive powers in that way for my- self," said Lee boldly. Mrs. Hale rose. "I think I hear Kate coming," she said. Nevertheless, she did not move away. " It is Kate coming," she added hurriedly, stopping to pick up her work-basket, which had slipped with Lee's hand from her own. It was Kate, who at once flew to her sister's assistance, Lee deploring from the sofa his own utter inability to aid her. " It 's all my fault, too," he said to Kate, but look- ing at Mrs. Hale. " It seems I have a faculty for upsetting existing arrangements without the power of improving 230 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLES them, or even putting them hack in their places. What shall I do ? I am willing to hold any numher of skeins or re-wind any quantity of spools. I am even willing to for- give Ned for spending the whole day with you, and only bringing me the wing of a hawk for supper." " That was all my folly, Mr. Lee," said Kate, with swift mendacity ; " he was all the time looking after something for you, when I begged him to shoot a bird to get a feather for my hat. And that wing is so pretty." " It is a pity that mere beauty is not edible," said Lee gravely, " and that if the worst comes to the worst here you would probably prefer me to Ned and his mustaches, merely because I 've been tied by the leg to this sofa and slowly fattened Jike a Strasbourg goose." Nevertheless, his badinage failed somehow to amuse Kate, and she presently excused herself to rejoin her sister, who had already slipped from the room. Tor the first time during their enforced seclusion a sense of restraint and ■QXieasiness affected Mrs. Hale, her sister, and Falkner at dinner. The latter addressed himself to Mrs. Scott, almost entirely. Mrs. Hale was fain to bestow an exceptional and marked tenderness on her little daughter Minnie, who, how- ever, by some occult childish instinct, insisted upon sharing it with Lee — her great friend — to Mrs. Hale's uneasy consciousness. Nor was Lee slow to profit by the child's suggestion, but responded with certain vicarious caresses that increased the mother's embarrassment. That evening they retired early, but in the intervals of a restless night Kate was aware, from the' sound of voices in the opposite room, that the friends were equally' wakeful. A morning of bright sunshine and soft warm air did not, however, bring any change to their new and constrained relations. It only seemed to offer a reason for Falkner to leave the house very early for his daily rounds, and gave Lee that occasion for unaided exercise with an extempore SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 231 crutch on the veranda which allowed Mrs. Hale to pursue her manifold duties without the necessity of keeping him company. Kate also, as if to avoid an accidental meeting with Falknei, had remained at home with her sister. With one exception, they did not make their guests the suhject of llieir usual playful comments, nor, after the fashion of their sex, quote their ideas and opinions. That exception was made by Mrs. Hale. " You have had no difference with Mr. Falkner ? " she said carelessly. " No," said Kate quickly. " Why ? " " I only thought he seemed rather put out at dinner last night, and you did n't propose to go and meet him to-day." " He must be bored with my company at times, I dare say," said Kate, with an indifference quite inconsistent with her rising color. " I should n't wonder if he was a little vexed with Mr. Lee's chaffing him about his sport yesterday, and probably intends to go further to-day, and bring home larger game. I think Mr. Lee very amusing always, but I sometimes fancy he lacks feeling." " Feeling ! You don't know him, Kate," said Mrs. Hale quickly. She stopped herself, but with a half-smiling recollection in her dropped eyelids. " Well, he does n't look very amiable now, stamping up and down the veranda. Perhaps you 'd better go and soothe him." " I 'm really so busy just now," said Mrs. Hale, with sudden and inconsequent energy ; " things have got dread- fully behind in the last week. You had better go, Kate, and make him sit down, or he '11 be overdoing it. These men never know any medium — in anything." Contrary to Kate's expectation, Falkner returned earlier than usual, and, taking the invalid's arm, supported him in a more ambitious walk along the terrace before the house. They were apparently absorbed in conversation, but the two 232 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S ■women who observed them from the window could not help noticing the almost feminine tenderness of Palkner's man- ner towards his wounded friend, and the thoughtful tender- ness of his ministering care. " I wonder," said Mrs. Hale, following them with softly appreciative eyes, " if women are capable of as disinterested friendship as men ? I never saw anything like the devo- tion of these two creatures. Look ! if Mr. Falkner has n't got his arm round Mr. Lee's waist, and Lee, with his own arm over Falkner's neck, is looking up in his eyes. I de- clare Kate, it almost seems an indiscretion to look at them." Kate, however, to Mrs. Hale's indignation, threw her pretty head hack and sniffed the air contemptuously. " I really don't see anything but some absurd sentimeutalism of their own, or some mannish wickedness they 're concoct- ing by themselves. I am by no means certain, Josephine, that Lee's influence over that young man is the best thing for him." " On the contrary ! Lee's influence seems the only thing that checks his waywardness," said Mrs. Hale quickly. " I 'm sure, if any one makes sacrifices, it is Lee ; I should n't wonder that even now he is making some concession to Falkner, and all those caressing ways of your friend are for a purpose. They 're not much different from us, dear." " Well, I would n't stand there and let them see me looking at them as if I could n't bear them out of my sight for a moment," said Kate, whisking herself out of the room. " They 're conceited enough. Heaven knows, al- ready." That evening, at dinner, however, the two men exhibited no trace of the restraint or uneasiness of the previous day. If they were less impulsive and exuberant, they were still frank and interested, and if the term could be used in connection with men apparently trained to neither self-con- SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 233 trol nor repose, there was a certain gentle dignity in their manner which for the time had the effect of lifting them a little above the social level of their entertainers. For even with all their predisposition to the strangers, Kate and Mrs. Hale had always retained a conscious attitude of gentle con- descension and superiority towards them — an attitude not inconsistent with a stronger feeling, nor altogether unprovo- cative of it ; yet this evening they found themselves im- pressed with something more than an equality in the men who had amused and interested them, and they were per- haps a little more critical and doubtful of their own power. Mrs. Hale's little girl, who had appreciated only the seri- ousness of the situation, had made her own application of it. " Are you dow'in' away from aunt Kate and mamma ? " she asked in an interval of silence. " How else can I get you the red snow we saw at sun- set, the other day, on the peak yonder ? " said Lee gayly. " I '11 have to get up some morning very early, and catch it when it comes at sunrise." " What is this wonderful snow, Minnie, that you are tormenting Mr. Lee for ? " asked Mrs. Hale. " Oh ! it 's a fairy snow that he told me all about ; it only comes when the sun comes up and goes down, arid if you catch ever so little of it in your hand it makes all you fink you want come true ! Would n't that be nice ? " But to the child's astonishment her little circle of auditors, even while assenting, sighed. The red snow was there plain enough the next morning before the valley was warm with light, and while Minnie, her mother, and aunt Kate were still peacefully sleeping. And Mr. Lee had kept his word, and was evidently seeking it, for he and Falkner were already urging their horses through the pass, with their faces towards and lit up by its glow. CHAPTER Vni Kate was stirring early, but not as early as her sister, who met her on the threshold of her room. Her face was quite pale, and she held a letter in her hand. " What does this mean, Kate ? " " What is the matter ? " asked Kate, her own color fad- ing from her cheek. " They are gone — with their horses. Left before day, and left this." She handed Kate an open letter. The girl took it hur- riedly, and read : — When you get this we shall be no more ; perhaps not even as much. Ned found the trail yesterday, and we are taking the first advantage of it before day. We dared not trust ourselves to say " Good-by ! " last evening ; we were too cowardly to face you this morning ; we must go as we came, without warning, but not without regret. We leave a package and a letter for your husband. It is not only our poor return for your gentleness and hospitality, but, since it was accidentally the means of giving us the pleasure of your society, we beg you to keep it in safety until his re- turn. We kiss your mother's hands. Ned wants to say something more, but time presses, and I only allow him to send his love to Minnie, and to tell her that he is trying to find the red snow. George Lee. "But he is not fit to travel," said Mrs. Hale. "And the trail — it may not be passable." SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 235 " It was passable tlie day before yesterday," said Kate drearily, "for I discovered it, and went as far as the buck- eyes." "Then it was you who told them about it," said Mrs. Haie reproachfully. "No," said Kate indignantly. "Of course I didn't." She stopped, and, reading the significance of her speech in the glistening eyes of her sister, she blushed. Josephine kissed her, and said ; — "It was treating us like children, Kate, but we must make them pay for it hereafter. For that package and letter to John means something, and we shall probably see them before long. I wonder what the letter is about, and what is in the package ? " " Probably one of Mr. Lee's jokes. He is quite capable of turning the whole thing into ridicule. I dare say he considers his visit here a prolonged jest." " With his poor leg, Kate ? You are as unfair to him as you were to Falkner when they first came." Kate, however, kept her dark eyebrows knitted in a piqviant frown. " To think of his intimating what he would allow Falkner to say ! And yet you believe he has no evil influence over the young man." Mrs. Hale laughed. " Where are you going so fast, Kate ? " she called mischievously, as the young lady flounced out of the room. " Where ? Why, to tidy John's room. He may be coming at any moment now. Or do you want to do it yourself ? " "iSTo, no," returned Mrs. Hale hurriedly; "you do it. I '11 look in a little later on." She turned away with a sigh.. The sun was shining brilliantly outside. Through the half-open blinds its long shafts seemed to be searching the house for the lost guests, 236 SNOW-BOUND AT BAGLE'S and making the hollow shell appear doubly empty. What a contrast to the dear dark days of mysterious seclusion and delicious security, lit by Lee's laughter and the sparkling hearth, which had passed so quickly ! The forgotten outer world seemed to have returned to the house through those open windows and awakened its dwellers from a dream. The morning seemed interminable, and it was past noon, while they were deep in a sympathetic conference with Mrs. Scott, who had drawn a pathetic word-picture of the two friends perishing in the snow-drift, without flannels, brandy, smelling-salts, or jelly, which they had forgotten, when they were startled by the loud barking of Spot on the lawn before the house. The women looked hurriedly at each other. " They have returned," said Mrs. Hale. Kate ran to the window. A horseman was approaching the house. A single glance showed her that it was neither Falkner, Lee, nor Hale, but a stranger. " Perhaps he brings some news of them," said Mrs. Scott quickly. So complete had been their preoccupation with the loss of their guests that they could not yet conceive of anything that did not pertain to it. The stranger, who was at once ushered into the parlor, was evidently disconcerted by the presence of the three women. " I reckoned to see John Hale yer," he began awkwardly. A slight look of disappointment passed over their faces. " He has not yet returned," said Mrs. Hale briefly. " Sho ! I wanter know. He 's bed time to do it, I reckon," said the stranger. "I suppose he hasn't been able to get over from the Summit," returned Mrs. Hale. "The trail is closed." " It ain't now, for I k.em over it this mornin' myself." " You did n't — meet — any one ? " asked Mrs. Hale timidly, with a glance at the others. SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 237 « Ko." A long silence ensued. The unfortunate visitor plainly- perceived an evident abatement of interest in himself, yet he still struggled politely to say something. "Then I reckon you know what kept Hale away ? " he said dubi- ously. "Oh, certainly — the stage robbery." " I wish I 'd known that," said the stranger reflectively, " for I ez good ez rode over jist to tell it to ye. Ye see, John Hale, he sent a note to ye 'splainin' matters by a gentleman ; but the road agents tackled that man, and left him for dead in the road." " Yes," said Mrs. Hale impatiently. " Luckily he did n't die, but kem to, and managed to crawl inter the brush, whar I found him when I was Jookin' for stock, and brought him to my house " — "You found him? Your house?" interrupted Mrs. Hale. " Inter my house," continued the man doggedly. " I 'm Thompson of Thompson's Pass over yon ; mebbe it ain't much of a house ; but I brought him thar. Well, ez he could n't find the note that Hale had guv him, and like ez not the road agents had gone through him and got it, ez soon ez the weather let up I made a break over yer to tell ye." " You say Mr. Lee came to your house," repeated Mrs. Hale, " and is there now ? " "Not much," said the man grimly ; " and I never said Lee was thar. I mean that Bilson waz shot by Lee and keni " — " Certainly, Josephine ! " said Kate, suddenly stepping, between her sister and Thompson, and turning upon her a white face and eyes of silencing significance; " certainly — don't you remember ? ~ that's the story we got from the Chinaman, you know, only muddled. Go on, sir," she 238 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE S continued, turning to Thompson calmly ; " you say that the man who brought the note from my brother was shot by Lee ? " " And another fellow they call Falkner. Yes, that 's about the size of it." " Thank you ; it 's nearly the same story that we heard. But you have had a long ride, Mr. Thompson ; let me offer you a glass of whiskey in the dining-room. This way, please." The door closed upon them none too soon. For Mrs. Hale already felt the room whirling around her, and sank back into her chair with a hysterical laugh. Old Mrs. Scott did not move from her seat, but, with her eyes fixed on the door, impatiently waited Kate's return. Neither spoke, but each felt that the young, untried girl was equal to the emergency, and would get at the truth. The sound of Thompson's feet in the hall and the clos- ing of the front door was followed by Elate's reappearance. Her face was still pale, but calm. " Well ? " said the two wbmen in a breath. " Well," returned Kate slowly ; " Mr. Lee and Mr. Falkner were undoubtedly the two men who took the, paper from John's messenger and brought it here." " You are sure ? " said Mrs. Scott. " There can be no mistake, mother." " Then" said Mrs. Scott, with triumphant feminine logic, " I don't want anything more to satisfy me that they are ■perfectly innocent ! " More convincing than the most perfect masculine deduc- tion, this single expression of their common nature sent a thrill of sympathy and understanding through each. They cried for a few moments on each other's shoulders. " To think," said Mrs. Scott, " what that poor boy must have suffered to have been obliged to do — that to — to — Bilson — isn't that the creature's name? I suppose we SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 239 ought to send over there and inquire after him, with some chicken and jelly, Kate. It's only common humanity, and we must be just, my dear; for even if he shot Mr. Lee and provoked the poor boy to shoot him, he may have thought it his duty. And then, it will avert suspi- cions." " To think," murmured Mrs. Hale, " what they must have gone through while they were here — momentarily expecting John to come, and yet keeping up such a light heart." " I believe, if they had stayed longer, they would have told us everything," said Mrs. Scott. Both the younger women were silent. Kate was thinking of Falkner's significant speech as they neared the house on their last walk ; Josephine was recalling the remorseful picture drawn by Lee, which she knew was his own portrait Suddenly she started. " But John will be here soon ; what are we to tell him 1 And then that package and that letter." " Don't be in a hurry to tell him anything at present, my child," said Mrs. Scott gently. " It is unfortunate this Mr. Thompson called here, but we are not obliged to under- stand what he says now about John's message, or to connect our visitors with his story. I 'm sure, Kate, I should have treated them exactly as we did if they had come without any message from John ; so I do not know why we should lay any stress on that, or even speak of it. The simple fact is that we have opened our house to the strangers in dis- tress. Your husband," continued Mr. Hale's mother-in-law, " does not require to know more. As to the letter and package, we will keep that for further consideration. It cannot be of much importance, or they would have spoken of it before ; it is probably some trifling present as a return for your hospitality. I should use no indecorous haste in having it opened." 240 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE S The two women kissed Mrs. Scott with a feeling of re- lief, and fell back into the monotony of their household duties. It is to be feared, however, that the absence of their outlawed guests was nearly as dangerous as their pre- sence in the opportunity it afforded for uninterrupted and imaginative reflection. Both Kate and Josephine were at first shocked and wounded by the discovery of the real character of the two men with whom they had associated so familiarly, but it was no disparagement to their sense of propriety to say that the shock did not last long, and was accompanied with the fascination of danger. This was suc- ceeded by a consciousness of the delicate flattery implied in their indirect influence over the men who had undoubtedly risked their lives for the sake of remaining with them. The best woman is not above being touched by the effect of her power over the worst man, and Kate at first allowed herself to think of Falkner in that light. But if in her later reflections he suffered as a heroic experience to be forgotten, he gained something as an actual man to be remembered. Now that the proposed rides from " his friend's house " were a part of the illusion, would he ever dare to visit them again ? Would she dare to see him ? She held her breath with a sudden pain of parting that was new to her ; she tried to think of something else, to pick up the scattered threads of her life before that eventful day. But in vain ; that one week had filled the place with implacable memories, or more terrible, as it seemed to her and her sister, they had both lost their feeble, alien hold upon Eagle's Court in the sudden presence of the real genii of these solitudes, and henceforth they alone would be strangers there. They scarcely dared to confess it to each other, but this return to the dazzling sunlight and cloudless skies of the past appeared to them to be the one unreal experience ; they had never known the true wild flavor of their home, except in that week of deli- cious isolation. Without breathing it aloud, they longed SNOW-BOUNb AT EAGLE'S 241 for some vague denouement to this experience that should take them from Eagle's Court forever. It was noon the next day when the little household be- held the last shred of their illusion vanish like the melt- ing snow in the strong sunlight of John Hale's return. He was accompanied by Colonel Clinch and Eawlins, two strangers to the women. Was it fancy, or the avenging spirit of their absent companions ? but he too looked a stranger, and as the little cavalcade wound its way up the slope he appeared to sit his horse and wear his hat with a certain slouch and absence of his usual restraint that strangely shocked them. Even the old half-condescending, half-punctilious gallantry of his greeting of his wife and family was changed, as he introduced his companions with a mingling of familiarity and shyness that was new to him. Did Mrs. Hale regret it, or feel a sense of relief in the ab- sence of his usual seignorial formality ? She only knew that she was grateful for the presence of the strangers, which for the moment postponed a matrimonial confidence from which she shrunk. " Proud to know you," said Colonel Clinch, with a sud- den outbreak of the antique gallantry of some remote Hu- guenot ancestor. " My friend. Judge Hale, must be a regular Koman citizen to leave such a family and such a house at the call of public duty. Eh, Rawlins ? " " You bet," said Eawlins, looking from Kate to her sis- ter in undisguised admiration. " And I suppose the duty could not have been a veiy pleasant one," said Mrs. Hale timidly, without looking at her husband. " Gad, madam, that 's just it," said the gallant Colonel, seating himself with a comfortable air, and an easy, though by no means disrespectful familiarity. "We went into this fight a little more than a week ago. The only scrim- mace we've had has been with the detectives that were on 242 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S the robbers' track. Ha ! ha ! The best people we 've met have been the friends of the men we were huntin', and we 've generally come to the conclusion to vote the other ticket ! Ez Judge Hale and me agreed ez we came along, the two men ez we 'd most like to see just now and shake hands with are George Lee and Ned Falkner." " The two leaders of the party who robbed the coach," explained Mr. Hale, with a slight return of his usual pre- cision of statement. The three women looked at each other with a blaze of thanksgiving in their grateful eyes. Without comprehend- ing all that Colonel Clinch had said, they understood enough to know that their late guests were safe from the pursuit of that party, and that their own conduct was spared criti- cism. I hardly dare write it, but they instantly assumed the appearance of aggrieved martyrs, and felt as if they were ! "Yes, ladies!" continued the Colonel, inspired by the bright eyes fixed upon him. " We have n't taken the road ourselves yet, but — pohn honor — we would n't mind doing it in a case like this." Then with the fluent, but somewhat exaggerated phraseology of a man trained to " stump " speaking, he gave an account of the robbery and nis own connection with it. He spoke of the swindling and treachery which had undoubtedly provoked Falkner to obtain restitution of his property by an overt act of violence under the leadership of Lee. He added that he had learned since at Wild Cat Station that Harkins had fled the coun- try, that a suit had been commenced by the Excelsioi Ditch Company, and that all available property of Harkins had been seized by the sheriff. " Of course it can't be proved yet, but there 's no doubt in my mind that Lee, who is an old friend of Ned Falk- ner's, got up that job to help him, and that Ned 's off with the money by this time — and I 'm right glad of it. I SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 243 can't say ez we 've done much towards it, except to keep tumbling in the way of that detective party of Stanner's, and so throw them off the trail — ha, ha ! The Judge here, I reckon, has had his share of fun, for while he was at Hennicker's trying to get some facts from Hennicker's pretty daughter, Stanner tried to get up some sort of vigi- lance committee of the stage passengers to burn down Hen- nicker's ranch out of spite, but the Judge here stepped in and stopped that." " It was really a high-handed proceeding, Josephine, but I managed to check it," said Hale, meeting somewhat con- sciously the first direct look his wife had cast upon him, and falling back for support on his old manner. " In its way, I think it was worse than the robbery by Lee and Falkner, for it was done in the name of law and order ; while, as far as I can judge from the facts, the affair that we were following up was simply a rude and irregular restitution of property that had been morally stolen." " I have no doubt you did quite right, though I don't understand it," said Mrs. Hale languidly ; " but I trust these gentlemen will stay to luncheon, and in the mean time excuse us for running away, as we are short of ser- vants, and Manuel seems to have followed the example of the head of the house and left us, in pursuit of somebody or something." When the three women had gained the vantage-ground of the drawing-room, Kate said earnestly, " As it 's all right, had n't we better tell him now ? " " Decidedly not, child," said Mrs. Scott imperatively. " Do you sup[)ose they are in a hurry to tell us their whole story ? Who are those Hennicker people ? and they were there a week ago ! " " And did you notice John's hat when he came in, am) the vulgar familiarity of calling him ' Judge ' ? " said Mr& Hale. 244 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " Well, certainly anything like the familiarity of this man Clinch I never saw," said Kate. " Contrast his man- ner with Mr. Falkner's." At luncheon the three suffering martyrs finally succeeded in reducing Hale and his two friends to an attitude of vague apology. But their triumph was short-lived. At the end of the meal they were startled by the trampling of hoofs without, followed by loud knocking. In another moment the door was opened, and Mr. Stanner strode into the room. Hale rose with a look of indignation. " I thought, as Mr. Stanner understood that I had no desire for his company elsewhere, he would hardly venture to intrude upon me in my house, and certainly not after " — " Ef you 're alluding to the Vigilantes shakin' you and Zeenie up at Hennicker's, you can't make me responsible for that. I 'm here now on business — you understand — reg'lar business. Ef you want to see the papers yer ken. I suppose you know what a warrant is ? " "I know what you are," said Hale hotly; "and it you don't leave my house " — " Steady, boys," interrupted Stanner, as his five hench- men filed into the hall. " There 's no hackin' down here, Colonel Clinch, unless you and Hale kalkilate to back down the State of Californy ! The matter stands like this. There 's a half-breed Mexican, called Manuel, arrested over at the Summit, who swears he saw Oeorge Lee and Edward Falkner in this house the night after the robbery. He says that they were makin' themselves at home here, as if they were among friends, and considerin' the kind of help we 've had from Mr. John Hale, it looks ez if it might he true." " It 's an infamous lie ! " said Hale. " It may be true, John," said Mrs. Scott, suddenly step ping in front of her pale-cheeked daughters. " A wounded SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 245 man was brought here out of the storm by his friend, who claimed the shelter of your roof. As your mother I should have been unworthy to stay beneath it and have denied that shelter or withheld it until I knew his name and what he was. He stayed here until he could be removed. He left a letter for you. It will probably tell you if he was the man this person is seeking." " Thank you, mother," said Hale, lifting her hand to his lips quietly ; " and perhaps you will kindly tell these gen- tlemen that, as your son does not care to know who or what the stranger was, there is no necessity for opening the let- ter, or keeping Mr. Stanner a moment longer." "But you will oblige me, John, by opening it before these gentlemen," said Mrs. Hale, recovering her voice and color. " Please to follow nie," she said, preceding them to the staircase. They entered Mr. Hale's room, now restored to its origi- nal condition. On the table lay a letter and a small pack- age. The eyes of Mr. Stanner, a little abashed by the attitude of the two women, fastened upon it and glistened. Josephine handed her husband the letter. He opened it in breathless silence and read : — John Hale, — We owe you no return for voluntarily making yourself a champion of justice and pursuing us, ex- cept it was to offer you a fair field and no favor. We did n't get that much from you, but accident brought us into your house and into your family, where we did get it, and were fairly vanquished. To the victors belong the spoils. We leave the package of greenbacks which we took from Colonel Clinch in the Sierra coach, but which was first stolen by Hai'kins from forty-four shareholders of the Excelsior Ditch, We have no right to say what you should do with it, but ii you are n't tired of following the same line of justice that induced you to run after us, you will try tc restore it to its rightful owners. 246 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S We leave you another trifle as an evidence that our in- trusion into your affairs was not without some service to you, even if the service was as accidental as the intrusion. You will find a pair of boots in the corner of your closet. They were taken from the burglarious feet of Manuel, your peon, who, believing the three ladies were alone and at his mercy, entered your house with an accomplice at two o'clock on the morning of the 21st, and was kicked out by Your obedient servants, Geokge Lee & Edwaed Falknee. Hale's voice and color changed on reading this last para- graph. He turned quickly towards his wife ; Kate flew to the closet, where the mufBed boots of Manuel confronted them. " We never knew it. I always suspected some- thing that night," said Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Scott in the same breath. " That 's all very well, and like George Lee's highfalu- tin'," said Stanner, approaching the table, " but as long ez the greenbacks are here he can make what capital he likes outer Manuel. I '11 trouble you to pass over that package." " Excuse me," said Hale, " but I believe this is the pack- age taken from Colonel Clinch. Is it not ? " he added, appealing to the Colonel. " It is," said Clinch. " Then take it," said Hale, handing him the package, " The first restitution is to you, but I believe you will fulfill. Lee's instructions as well as myself." "But," said Stanner, furiously interposing, "I've a war- rant to seize that wherever found, and I dare you to disobey the law." " Mr. Stanner," said Clinch slowly, " there are ladies present. If you insist upon having that package I must ask them to withdraw, and I 'm afraid you '11 find me better prepared to resist a second robbery than I was the first SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE's 247 Your warrant, which was taken out by the Express Com- pany, is supplanted by civil proceedings taken the day before yesterday against the property of the fugitive swin- dler Harkins ! You should have consulted the sheriff before you came here." Stanner saw his mistake. But in the faces of his grin- ning followers he was obliged to keep up his bluster. " You shall hear from me again, sir," he said, turning on his heel. " I beg your pardon," said Clinch grimly, " but do I understand that at last I am to have the honor " — " You shall hear from the Company's lawyers, sir," said Stanner, turning red, and noisily leaving the room. "And so, my dear ladies," said Colonel Clinch, "you have spent a week with a highwayman. I say a highway- man, for it would be hard to call my young friend Falkner by that name for his first offense, committed under great provocation, and undoubtedly instigated by Lee, who was an old friend of his, and to whom he came, no doubt, in desperation." Kate stole a triumphant glance at her sister, who dropped her lids over her glistening eyes. " And this Mr. Lee," she continued more gently, " is he really a highwayman ? " " George Lee," said Clinch, settling himself back orator- ically in his chair, " my dear young lady, is a highwayman, but not of the common sort. He is a gentleman born, madam, comes from one of the oldest families of the East- ern Shore of Maryland. He never mixes himself up with anything but some of the biggest strikes, and he 's an educated man. He is very popular with ladies and chil- dren ; he was never known to do or say anything that could bring a blush to the cheek of beauty or a tear to the eye of innooence. I think I may say I 'm sure you found him so." " I shall never believe him anything but a gentleman," said Mrs. Scott firmly. 248 SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S " If he has a defect, it is perhaps a too reckless indul- gence in draw-poker," said the Colonel musingly ; " not unbecoming a gentleman, understand me, Mrs. Scott, but perhaps too reckless for his own good. George played a grand game, a glittering game, but pardon me if I say an uncertain game. I 've told him so ; it's the only point on which we ever differed." " Then you know him ? " said Mrs. Hale, lifting her soft eyes to the Colonel. " I have that honor." " Did his appearance, Josephine," broke in Hale, some- what ostentatiously, " appear to — er — er — correspond with these qualities ? You know what I mean." " He certainly seemed very simple and natural," said Mrs. Hale, slightly drawing her pretty lips together. " He did not wear his trousers rolled up over his boots in the company of ladies, as you 're doing now, nor did he make his first appearance in this house with such a hat as you wore this morning, or I should not have admitted him." There were a few moments of embarrassing silence. "Do you intend to give that package to Mr. Falkner yourself. Colonel ? " asked Mrs. Scott. " I shall hand it over to the Excelsior Company," said the Colonel, " but I shall inform Ned of what I have done." " Then," said Mrs. Scott " will you kindly take a mes- sage from us to him ? " " If you wish it." "You will be doing me a great favor, Colonel," said Hale politely. Whatever the message was, six months later it brought Edward Talkner, the reestablished superintendent of the Excelsior Ditch, to Eagle's Court. As he and Kate stood again on the plateau, looking towards the distant slopes onoe more green with verdure, Falkner said : — SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S 249 " Everything here looks as it did the first day I saw it, except your sister." " The place does not agree with her," said Kate hur- riedly. " That is why my brother thinks of leaving it he- fore the winter sets in." " It seems so sad," said Falkner, " for the last words poor George said to me, as he left to join his cousin's corps at Eichmond, were : ' If I 'm not killed, Ned, I hope some day to stand again beside Mrs. Hale, at the window in Eagle's Court, and watch you and Kate coming home ! ' " A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY PROLOGUE There was no mistake this time : he had struck gold at last! It had lain there before him a moment ago — a mis- shapen piece of brown-stained quartz, interspersed with dull yellow metal ; yielding enough to have allowed the points of his pick to penetrate its honeycombed recesses, yet heavy enough to drop from the point of his pick as he endeavored to lift it from the red earth. He was seeing all this plainly, although he found him- self, he knew not why, at some distance from the scene of his discovery, his heart foolishly beating, his breath impo- tently hurried. Yet he was walking slowly and vaguely ; conscious of stopping and staring at the landscape, which no longer looked familiar to him. He was hoping for some instinct or force of habit to recall him to himself ; yet when he saw a neighbor at work in an adjacent claim, he hesi- tated, and then turned his back upon him. Yet only a mo- ment before he had thought of running to him, saying, " By Jingo ! I 've struck it," or " D— n it, old man, I 've got it ; " but that moment had passed, and now it seemed to him that he could scarce raise his voice, or, if he did, the ejaculation would appear forced and artificial. Neither could he go over to him coolly and tell his good fortune ; (tud, partly from this strange shyness, and partly with a hope that another survey of the treasure might restore him to natural expression, he walked back to his tunnel. A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 251 Yes; it was there! No mere " pocket " or " deposit," but a part of the actual vein he had been so long seeking. It was there, sure enough, lying beside the pick and the debris of the " face " of the vein that he had exposed suffi- ciently, after the first shock of discovery, to assure himself of the fact and the permanence of his fortune. It was there, and with it the refutation of his enemies' sneers, the corroboration of his friends' belief, the practical demonstra- tion of his own theories, the reward of his patient labors. It was there, sure enough. But, somehow, he not only failed to recall the first joy of discovery, but was conscious of a vague sense of responsibility and unrest. It was, no doubt, an enormous fortune to a man in his circumstances : perhaps it meant a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or more, judging from the value of the old Martin lead, which was not as rich as this, but it required to be worked con- stantly and judiciously. It was with a decided sense of uneasiness that he again sought the open sunlight of the hillside. His neighbor Was still visible on the adjacent claim ; but he had apparently stopped working, and was contemplatively smoking a pipe under a large pine-tree. For an instant he envied him his apparent contentment. He had a sudden fierce and inexplicable desire to go over to him and exasperate his easy poverty by a revelation of his own new-found treasure. But even that sensation quickly passed, and left him staring blankly at the land- scape again. As soon as he had made his discovery known, and settled its value, he would send for his wife and her children in the States. He would build a fine house on the opposite hillside, if she would consent to it, unless she preferred, for the children's sake, to live in San Francisco. A sense of a loss of independence — of a change of circumstances that left him no longer his own master — began to perplex him, in the midst of his brightest projects. Certain other rela- 252 A MILLIONAIRE OF BOUGH-ANI)-READT tions with other memhers of his family, which had lapsed by absence and insignificance, must now be taken up anew. He must do something for his sister Jane, for his brother William, for his wife's poor connections. It would he un- fair to him to say that he contemplated those things with any other instinct than that of generosity ; yet he was con- scious of being already perplexed and puzzled. Meantime, however, the neighbor had apparently finished his pipe, and, knocking the ashes out of it, rose suddenly, and ended any further uncertainty of their meeting by walk- ing over directly towards him. The treasure-finder ad- vanced a few steps on his side, and then stopped irreso- lutely. " Hollo, Slinn ! " said the neighbor confidently. " Hollo, Masters," responded Slinn faintly. From the Bound of the two voices a stranger might have mistaken their relative condition. " What in thunder are you moon- ing about for ? What 's up ? " Then, catching sight of Slinn's pale and anxious face, he added abruptly, " Are you sick ? " Slinn was on the point of telling him his good fortune, but stopped. The unlucky question confirmed his con- sciousness of his physical and mental disturbance, and he dreaded the ready ridicule of his companion. He would tell him later ; Masters need not know when he had made the strike. Besides, in his present vagueness, he shrank from the brusque, practical questioning that would be sure to follow the revelation to a man of Masters's tempera- ment. " I 'm a little giddy here," he answered, putting his hand to his head, " and I thought I 'd knock off until I was bet- ter." Masters examined him with two very critical gray eyes. " Tell ye what, old man ! — if you don't quit this dog- goned foolin' of yours in that God-forsaken tunnel you '11 A MILLIONAIEj; OF ROUGH-AND-READY 253 get loony ! Times you get so tangled up in follerin' that blind lead o' yours you ain't sensible ! " Here was the opportunity to tell him all, and vindicate the justice of his theories ! But he shrank from it again ; and now, adding to the confusion, was a singular sense of dread at the mental labor of explanation. He only smiled painfully, and began to move away. " Look you ! "• said Masters peremptorily, "ye want about three fingers of straight whiskey to set you right, and you 've got to take it with me. D — n it, man, it may be the last drink we take together ! Don't look so skeered ! I mean — I made up my mind about ten minutes ago to cut the whole d — d thing, and light out for fresh diggings. I "m sick of get- ting only grub wages out o' this hill. So that 's what I mean by saying it's the last drink you and me '11 take to- gether. You know my ways : sayin' and doin' with me 's the same thing." It was true. Slinn had often envied Masters's promptness of decision and resolution. But he only looked at the grim face of his interlocutor with a feeble sense of relief. He was going. And he, Slinn, would not have to explain any- thing ! He murmured something about having to go over to the settlement on business. He dreaded lest Masters should insist upon going into the tunnel. " I suppose you want to mail that letter," said Masters dryly. "The mail don't go till to-morrow, so you've got time to finish it, and put it in an envelope." Following the direction of Masters's eyes, Slinn looked down and saw, to his utter surprise, that he was holding an unfinished penciled note in his hand. How it came there, when he had written it, he could not tell ; he dimly remem- bered that one of his first impulses was to write to his wife, but that he had already done so he had forgotten. He hastily concealed the note in his breast-pocket, with a vacant 254 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY smile. Masters eyed him half contemptuously, half com- passionately. " Don't forget yourself and drop it in some hollow tree for a letter-box," he said. " Well — so long ! — since you ■won't drink. Take care of yourself," and, turning on his heel, Masters walked away. Slinn watched him as he crossed over to his abandoned claim, saw him gather his few mining utensils, strap his blanket over his back, lift his hat on his long-handled shovel as a token of farewell, and then stride light-heartedly over the ridge. He was alone now with his secret and his treasure. The only man in the world who knew of the exact position of his tunnel had gone away forever. It was not likely that this chance companion of a few weeks would ever remember him or the locality again ; he would now leave his treasure alone — for even a day perhaps — until he had thought out some plan and sought out some friend in whom to confide. His secluded life, the singular habits of concentration which had at last proved so successful, had, at the same time, left him few acquaintances and no associates. And in all his well-laid plans and patiently digested theories for finding the treasure, the means and methods of working it and disposing of it had never entered. And now, at the hour when he most needed his faculties, what was the meaning of this strange benumbing of them ! Patience ! He only wanted a little rest — a little time to recover himself. There was a large boulder under a tree in the highway to the settlement — a sheltered spot where he had often waited for the coming of the stagecoach. He would go there, and when he was sufficiently rested and composed he would go on. Nevertheless, on his way he diverged and turned into the woods, for no other apparent purpose than to find a hollow tree. " A hollow tree." Yes ! that was what Masters had A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 255 said ; he remembered it distinctly ; and something was to be done there, but what it was, or why it should be done, he could not tell. However, it was done, and very luckily, for his limbs could scarcely support him further, and reach- ing that boulder lie dropped upon it like another stone. And now, strange to say, the uneasiness and perplexity which had possessed him ever since he had stood before his revealed wealth dropped from him like a burden laid upon the wayside. A measureless peace stole over him, in which visions of his new-found fortune, no longer a trouble and perplexity, but crowned with happiness and blessing to all around him, assumed proportions far beyond his own weak, selfish plans. In its even-handed benefaction, his wife and children, his friends and relations, even his late poor companion of the hillside, met and moved harmoniously together ; in its far-reaching consequences there was only the influence of good. It was not .strange that this poor finite mind should never have conceived the meaning of the wealth extended to him ; or that conceiving it he should faint and falter under the revelation. Enough that for a few minutes he must have tasted a joy of perfect anticipation that years of actual possession might never bring. The sun seemed to go down in a rosy dream of his own happiness, as he still sat there. Later, the shadows of the trees thickened and surrounded him, and still later fell the calm of a quiet evening sky with far-spaced passionless stars, that seemed as little troubled by what they looked upon as he was by the stealthy creeping life in the grasses and underbrush at his feet. The dull patter of soft little feet in the soft dust of the road, the gentle gleam of moist and wondering little eyes on the branches and in the mossy edges of the boulder, did not disturb him. He sat pa- tiently through it all, as if he had not yet made up his mind. But when the stage came with the flashing sun the next 256 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADT morning, and the irresistible clamor of life and action, the driver suddenly laid his four spirited horses on their haunches before the quiet spot. The express messenger clambered down from the box, and approached what seemed to be a heap of cast-off clothes upon the boulder. " He don't seem to be drunk," he said, in reply to a querulous interrogation from the passengers. " I can't make him out. His eyes are open, but he cannot speak or move. Take a look at him. Doc." A rough, unprofessional-looking man here descended from the inside of the coach, and, carelessly thrusting aside the other curious passengers, suddenly leant over the heap of clothes in a professional attitude. " He is dead," said one of the passengers. The rough man let the passive head sink softly down again. "No such luck for him," he said curtly, but not unkindly. " It 's a stroke of paralysis — and about as big as they make 'em. It 's a toss-up if he ever speaks or moves again as long as he lives." CHAPTER I When Alvin Mulrady announced his intention of grow- ing potatoes and garden " truck " on the green slopes of Los Gatos, the mining community of that region, and the adjacent hamlet of Rough-and-Ready, regarded it with the contemptuous indifference usually shown by those ad- venturers towards all bucolic pursuits. There was cer- tainly no active objection to the occupation of two hillsides, which gave so little promise to the prospector for gold that it was currently reported that a single prospector, called " Slinn," had once gone mad or imbecile through repeated failures. The only opposition came, incongruously enough, from the original pastoral owner of the soil, one Don Ramon Alvarado, whose claim for seven leagues of hill and valley, including the now prosperous towns of Rough- and-Ready and Red Dog, was met with simple derision from the squatters and miners. " Looks ez ef we woz goin' to travel three thousand miles to open np his d — d old wilderness, and then pay for the increased valoo we give it — don't it ? Oh, yes, certainly ! " was their ironical commentary. Mulrady might have been pardoned for adopting this popular opinion ; but by an equally incon- gruous sentiment, peculiar, however, to the man, he called upon Don Ramon, and actually offered to purchase the land, or " go shares " with him in the agricultural profits. It was alleged that the don was so struck with this con- cession that he not only granted the land, but struck up a quaint reserved friendship for the simple-minded agricul- turist and his family. It is scarcely necessary to add that 258 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY this intimacy was viewed by the miners with the contempt that it deserved. They would have been more contemp- tuous, however, had they known the opinion that Don Ramon entertained of their particular vocation, and which he early confided to Mulrady. " They are savages, who expect to reap where they have not sown ; to take out of the earth without returning anything to it but their precious carcasses ; heathens, who worship the mere stones they dig up." " And was there no Spaniard who ever dug gold ? " asked Mulrady simply. "Ah, there are Spaniards and Moors," responded Don Ramon sententiously. " Gold has been dug, and by cabal- leros ; but no good ever came of it. There were Alvara- dos in Sonora, look you, who had mines of silver, and worked them with peons and mules, and lost their money — a gold mine to work a silver one — like gentlemen ! But this grubbing in the dirt with one's fingers, that a little gold may stick to them, is not for caballeros. And then, one says nothing of the curse." " The curse ! " echoed Mary Mulrady, with youthful feminine superstition. " What is that ? " " You knew not, friend Mulrady, that when these lands were given to my ancestors by Charles V., the Bishop of Monterey laid a curse upon any who should desecrate them. Good ! Let us see ! Of the three Americanos who founded yonder town, one was shot, another died of a fever, — poisoned, you understand, by the soil, — and the last got himself crazy of aguardiente. Even the scientifico,! who came here years ago and spied into the trees and the herbs — he was afterwards punished for his profanation, and died of an accident in other lands. But," added Don Ramon, with grave courtesy, " this touches not yourself. Through me, 2/oM are of the soil." 3 Don Kamon probably alluded to the eminent naturalist Douglas, who visited California before the gold excitement, and died of an accident in the Sandwich Islands. A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-READY 259 Indeed, it would seem as if a secure if not a rapid pros- perity was the result of Don Eanion's manorial patronage. The potato patch and market garden flourished exceedingly ; the rich soil responded with magnificent vagaries of growth ; the even sunshine set the seasons at defiance with extraor- dinary and premature crops. The salt pork and biscuit consuming settlers did not allow their contempt of Mul- rady's occupation to prevent their profiting by this opportu- nity for changing their diet. The gold they had taken from the soil presently began to flow into his pockets in exchange for his more modest treasures. The little cabin, which barely sheltered his family, — a wife, son, and daughter, — was enlarged, extended, and refitted, but in turn abandoned for a more pretentious house on the opposite hill. A white- washed fence replaced the rudely split rails, which had kept out the wilderness. By degrees, the first evidences of cul- tivation — the gashes of red soil, the piles of brush and undergrowth, the bared boulders, and heaps of stone — melted away, and were lost under a carpet of lighter green, which made an oasis in the tawny desert of wild oats on the hillside. Water was the only free boon denied this Garden of Eden ; what was necessary for irrigation had to be brought from a mining ditch at great expense, and was of insufficient quantity. In this emergency Mulrady thought of sinking an artesian well on the sunny slope beside his house ; not, however, without serious consultation and much objection from his Spanish patron. With great austerity Don Ramon pointed out that trifling with the entrails of the earth was not only an indignity to Nature almost equal to shaft-sinking and tunneling, but was a disturbance of vested interests. " I and my fathers — San Diego rest them!" said Don Eamon, crossing himself — "were con- tent with wells and cisterns, filled by Heaven at its appointed seasons ; the cattle, dumb brutes though they were, knew where to find water when they wanted it. But thou sayest 260 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY truly," he added with a sigh, " that was before streams and rain were choked with hellish engines, and poisoned with their spume. Go on, friend Miilrady, dig and bore if thou wilt, but in a seemly fashion, and not with impious earth- quakes of devilish gunpowder." With this concession Alvin Mulrady began to sink his first artesian shaft. Being debarred the auxiliaries of steam and gunpowder, the work went on slowly. The market garden did not suffer meantime, as Mulrady had employed two Chinamen to take charge of the ruder tillage, while he superintended the engineering work of the well. This trifling incident marked an epoch in the social condition of the family. Mrs. Mulrady at once assumed a conscious importance among her neighbors. She spoke of her hus- band's " men ; " she alluded to the well as " the works ; " she checked the easy frontier familiarity of her customers With pretty Mary Mulrady, her seventeen-year-old daughter. Simple Alvin Mulrady looked with astonishment at this sudden development of the germ planted in all feminine nature to expand in the slightest sunshine of prosperity. " Look yer, Malviny ; ain't ye rather puttin' on airs with the boys that want to be civil to Mamie ? Like as not one of 'em may be makin' up to her already." " You don't mean to say, Alvin Mulrady," responded Mrs. Mulrady, with sudden severity, " that you ever thought of givin' your daughter to a common miner, or that I 'm goin' to allow her to marry out of our own set ? " " Our own set ! " echoed Mulrady feebly, blinking at her in astonishment, and then glancing hurriedly across at his freckle-faced son and the two Chinamen at work in the cabbages. " Oh, you know what I mean," said Mrs. Mulrady sharply ; " the set that we move in. The Alvarados and their friends ! Doesn't the old don come here every day, and ain't his son the right age for Mamie ? And ain't they the real first families here — all the same as if they were noblemen ? A MILLIONAIEK OF ROUGH-AND-READY 261 No, leave Mamie to me, and keep to your shaft; there never was a man yet had the least sabe about these things, or knew what was due to his family." Like most of his larger-minded, but feebler-equipped sex, Mulrady was too glad to accept the truth of the latter proposition, which left the meannesses of life to feminine manipulation, and went off to his shaft on the hillside. But during that after- noon he was perplexed and troubled. He was too loyal a husband not to be pleased with this proof of an unexpected and superior foresight in his wife, although he was, like all husbands, a little startled by it. He tried to dismiss it from his mind. But looking down from the hillside upon his little venture, wliere gradual increase and prosperity had not been beyond his faculties to control and understand, he found himself haunted by the more ambitious projects of his helpmate. From his own knowledge of men, he doubted if Don Ramon, any more than himself, had ever thought of the possibility of a matrimonial connection between the families. He doubted if he would consent to it. And unfortunately it was this very doubt that, touch- ing his own pride as a self-made man, made him first seri- ously consider his wife's proposition. He was as good as Don Ramon, any day ! AVith this subtle feminine poison instilled in his veins, carried completely away by the logic of his wife's illogical premise?, he almost hated his old benefactor. He looked down upon the little Garden of Eden, where his Eve had just tempted him with the fatal fruit, and felt a curious consciousness that he was losing its simple and innocent enjoyment forever. Happily, about this time Don Ramon died. It is not probable that he ever knew the amiable intentions of Mrs. Mulrady in regard to his son, who now succeeded to the paternal estate, sadly partitioned by relatives and lawsuits. The feminine Mulradys attended the funeral, in expensive mourning from Sacramento ; even the gentle Alvin was 262 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY forced into ready-made broadcloth, which accented his good- natured but unmistakably common presence. Mrs. Mul- rady spoke openly of her " loss ; " declared that the old families were dying out ; and impressed the wives of a few new arrivals at Red Dog with the belief that her own family was contemporary with the Alvarados, and that her husband's health was far from perfect. She extended a motherly sympathy to the orphaned Don Cffisar. Reserved, like his father, in natural disposition, he was still more gravely ceremonious from his loss ; and, perhaps from the shyness of an evident partiality for Mamie Mulrady, he rarely availed himself of her mother's sympathizing hospi- tality. But he carried out the intentions of his father by consenting to sell to Mulrady, for a small sum, the property he had leased. The idea of purchasing had originated with Mrs. Mulrady. " It '11 be all in the family," had observed that astute lady, " and it 's better for the looks of the things that we should n't be his tenants." It was only a few weeks later that she was startled by hearing her husband's voice calling her from the hillside as he rapidly approached the house. Mamie was in her room putting on a new pink cotton gown, in honor of an expected visit from young Don Caesar, and Mrs. Mulrady was tidy- ing the house in view of the same event. Something in the tone of her good man's voice, and the unusual circum- stance of his return to the house before work was done, caused her, however, to drop her dusting cloth, and run to the kitchen door to meet him. She saw him running through the rows of cabbages, his face shining with perspiration and excitement, a light in his eyes which she had not seen for years. She recalled, without sentiment, that he looked like that when she had called him — a poor farm hand of her father's — out of the brush heap at the back of their former home, in Illinois, to learn the consent of her par* A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 263 ents. The recollection was the more embarrassing as he threw his arms around her, and pressed a resounding kiss upon her sallow cheek. '■' Sakes alive, Mulrady ! " she said, exorcising the ghost of a blush that had also been recalled from the past with her housewife's apron, " what are you doin', and company expected every miuit ? " " Malviny, I 've struck it ; and struck it rich ! " She disengaged herself from his arms, without excite- ment, and looked at him with bright but shrewdly obser- vant eyes. " I 've struck it in the well — the regular vein that the boys have been looking fer. There 's a fortin' fer you and Mamie — thousands and tens of thousands ! " " Wait a minit." She left him quickly, and went to the foot of the stairs. He could hear her wonderingly and distinctly. " Ye can take off that new frock, Mamie," she called out. There was a sound of undisguised expostulation from Mamie. " I 'm speaking," said Mrs. Mulrady emphatically. The murmuring ceased. Mrs. Mulrady returned to her husband. The interruption seemed to have taken off the keen edge of his enjoyment. He at once abdicated his momentary elevation as a discoverer, and waited for her to speak. " Ye have n't told any one yet ? " she asked. " No. I was alone, down in the shaft. Ye see, Mal- viny, I was n't expectin' of anything." He began, with an attempt at fresh enjoyment, "I was just clearin' out, and hadn't reckoned on anythin'." " You see, I was right when I advised your taking the land," she said, without heeding him. Mulrady's face fell. " I hope Don Caesar won't think " — he began hesitatingly. "I reckon, perhaps, I oughtei make some sorter compensation — you know." 264 A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY " Stuff ! " said Mrs Mulrady decidedly. " Don't be a fool. Any gold discovery, anyhow, would have been youis — that 's the law. And you bought the land without any restrictions. Besides, you never had any idea of this ! " — she stopped, and looked him suddenly in the face, — " had you ? " Mulrady opened his honest, pale gray eyes widely. " Why, Malviny ! You know I had n't. I could swear ! " " Don't swear, and don't let on to anybody but what you did know it was there. Now, Alvin Mulrady, listen to me." Her Voice here took the strident form of action. " Knock off work at the shaft, and send your man away at once. Put on your things, catch the next stage to Sacra- mento at four o'clock, and take Mamie with you." " Mamie ! " echoed Mulrady feebly. " You want to see Lawyer Cole and my brother Jim at once," she went on, without heeding him, " and Mamie wants change and some proper clothes. Leave the rest to me and Abner. I '11 break it to Mamie, and get her ready.'' Mulrady passed his hands through his tangled hair, wet with perspiration. He was proud of his wife's energy and action ; he did not dream of opposing her, but somehow he was disappointed. The charming glamour and joy of his discovery had vanished before he could fairly dazzle her with it ; or, rather, she was not dazzled with it at all. It had become like business, and the expression " breaking it " to Mamie jarred upon him. He would have preferred to tell her himself ; to watch the color come into her deli- cate oval face, to have seen her soft eyes light with an innocent joy he had not seen in his wife's ; and he felt a sinking conviction that his wife was the last one to awaken it. " You ain't got any time to lose," she said impatiently, as he hesitated. A MILLIONAIKE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 265 Perhaps it was her impatience that struck harshly upon him ; perhaps, if she had not accepted her good fortune so confidently, he would not have spoken what was in his mind at the time ; but he said gravely, " Wait a minit, Malviny ; I 've suthin' to tell you 'bout this find of mine that 's sin- g'lar." " Go on," she said quickly. " Lyin' among the rotten quartz of the vein was a pick," he said constrainedly ; " and the face of the vein sorter looked ez if it had been worked at. Follering the line out- side to the base of the hill there was digns of there having been an old tunnel ; but it had fallen in, and was blocked up." " Well ? " said Mrs. Mulrady contemptuously. " Well," returned her husband somewhat disconnectedly, " it kinder looked as if some feller might have discovered it before." " And went away, and left it for others ! That 's likely, ain't it ? " interrupted his wife, with ill-disguised intoler- ance. " Everybody knows the hill was n't worth that for prospectin' ; and it was abandoned when we came here. It 's your property and you 've paid for it. Are you goin' to wait to advertise for the owner, Alvin Mulrady, or are you going to Sacramento at four o'clock to-day ? " Mulrady started. He had never seriously believed in the possibility of a previous discovery ; but' his conscientious nature had prompted him to give it a fair consideration. She was probably right. What he might have thought had she treated it with equal conscientiousness he did not con- sider. " All right," he said simply. " I reckon we '11 go at once." "And when you talk to Lawyer Cole and Jim, keep that silly stuff about the pick to yourself. There 's no use of putting queer ideas into other people's heads because jou happen to have 'em yourself." 266 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOrTGK-AND-EEADT When the hurried arrangements were at last completed, and Mr. Mulrady and Mamie, accompanied by a taciturn and discreet Chinaman, carrying their scant luggage, were on their way to the highroad to meet the up stage, the father gazed somewhat anxiously and wistfully into his daughter's face. He had looked forward to those few moments to en- joy the freshness and naivete of Mamie's youthful delight and enthusiasm as a relief to his wife's practical, far-sighted realism. There was a pretty pink suffusion in her delicate cheek, the breathless happiness of a child in her half-opened little mouth, and a beautiful absorption in her large gray eyes that augured well for him, " Well, Mamie, how do we like bein' an heiress ? How do we like layin' over all the gals between this and 'Frisco ? " " Eh ? " She had not heard him. The tender beautiful eyes were engaged in an anticipatory examination of the remembered shelves in the Fancy Emporium at Sacramento ; in read- ing the admiration of the clerks ; in glancing down a little criticisingly at the broad cowhide brogues that strode at her side ; in looking up the road for the stagecoach ; in regard- ing the fit of her new gloves — everywhere but in the loving eyes of the man beside her. He, however, repeated the question, touched with her charming preoccupation, and passing his arm around her little waist. " I like it well enough, pa, you know," she said, slightly disengaging his arm, but adding a perfunctory little squeeze to his elbow to soften the separation. " I always had an idea something would happen. I suppose I 'm looking like a fright," she added ; " but ma made me hurry to get away before Don Csesar came." '' And you did n't want to go without seeing him ? " he added archly. A MILLIONAIEE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 267 " I did n't want him to see me in this frock," said Mamie simply. " I reckon that 's why ma made me change," she added, with a slight laugh, " Well, I reckon you 're alius good enough for him in any dress," said Mulrady, watching her attentively; "and more than a match for him noiv" he added triumphantly. " I don't know about that," said Mamie. " He 's been rich all the time, and his father and grandfather before him ; while we've been poor and his tenants." His face changed ; the look of bewilderment, with which ha had followed her words, gave way to one of pain, and then of anger. " Did he get off such stuff as that ? " he asked quickly. " No. I 'd like to catch him at it," responded Mamie promptly. "There 's better nor him to be had for the ask- ing now." They had walked on a few moments in aggrieved silence, and the Chinaman might have imagined some misfortune had just befallen them. But Mamie's teeth shone again between her parted lips. " La, pa ! it ain't that ! He cares everything for me, and I do for him ; and if ma had n't got new ideas " — She stopped suddenly. " What new ideas ? " queried her father anxiously. " Oh, nothing ! I wish, pa, you 'd put on your other boots ! Everybody can see these are made for the farrows. And you ain't a market gardener any more." " What am I, then ? " asked Mulrady, with a half- pleased, half-uneasy laugh. " You 're a capitalist, / say ; but ma says a landed pro- prietor." Nevertheless, the landed proprietor, when he reached the boulder on the Eed Dog highway, sat down in somewhat moody contemplation, with his head bowed over the broad cowhide brogues, that seemed to have already gathered enough of the soil to indicate his right to that title. Mamie, who had recovered her spirits, but had not 268 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY lost her preoccupation, wandered off by herself in the meadow, or ascended the hillside, as her occasional impa- tience at the delay of the coach, or the following of some ambitious fancy, alternately prompted her. She was so far away at one time that the stagecoach, which finally drew up before Mulrady, was obliged to wait for her. When she was deposited safely inside, and Mulrady had climbed to the box beside the driver, the latter remarked curtly : — " Ye gave me a right smart skeer, a minit ago, stranger." " Ez how ? " " Well, about three years ago, I was comin' down this yer grade, at just this time, and sittin' right on that stone, in just your attitude, was a man about your build and years. I pulled up to let him in, when, darn my skin ! if he ever moved, but sorter looked at me without speakin'. I called to him, and he never answered, 'cept with that idiotic stare. I then let him have my opinion of him, in mighty strong English, and drove off, leavin' him there. The next morning, when I came by on the up trip, darn my skin! if he wasn't thar, but lyin' all of a heap on the boulder. Jim drops down and picks him up. Dr Duchesne, ez was along, allowst it was a played-out pro- spector, with a big case of paralysis, and we expressed him through to the County Hospital, like so much dead freight. I 've alius been kinder superstitious about passin' that rock, and when I saw you jist now, sittin' thar, dazed like, with your head down like the other chap, it rather threw me o£E my centre." In the inexplicable and half-superstitious uneasiness that this coincidence awakened in Mulrady's unimaginative mind, he was almost on the point of disclosing his good fortune to the driver, in order to prove how preposterous was the parallel, but checked himself in time. " Did you find out who he was ? " broke in a rash A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 269 senger. " Did you ever get over it?" added another un- fortunate. With a pause of insulting scorn at the interruption, the driver resumed, pointedly, to Mulrady : " The pint of the whole thing was my cussin' a helpless man, ez could neither cuss back nor shoot ; and then afterwards takin' you for his ghost layin' for me to get even." He paused again, and then added carelessly, " They say he never kem to enuff to let on who he was or whar he kem from ; and he was eventooally taken to a 'Sylum for Doddering Idjits and Gin'ral and Permiskus Imbeciles at Sacramentq. I 've heerd it 's considered a first-class institooshun, not only for them ez is paralyzed and can't talk, as for them ez is the reverse and is too chipper. Now," he added, languidly turning for the first time to his miserable questioners, " how did you find it ? "' CHAPTER n When the news of the discovery of gold in Mulrady's shaft was finally made public, it created an excitement hitherto unknown in the history of the country. Half of Red Dog and all Eough-and-Ready were emptied upon the yellow hills surrounding Mulrady's, until their circling camp- fires looked like a besieging army that had invested his peaceful pastoral home, preparatory to carrying it by assault. Unfortunately for them, they found the various points of vantage already garrisoned with notices of " preemption " for mining purposes in the name of the various members of the Alvarado family. This stroke of business was due to Mrs. Mulrady, as a means of mollifying the conscientious scruples of her husband and of her placating the Alvarados, in view of some remote contingency. It is but fair to say that this degradation of his father's Castilian principles was opposed by Don Caesar. " You need n't work them your- self, but sell out to them that will ; it 's the only way to keep the prospectors from taking it without paying for it at all," argued Mrs. Mulrady. Don Caesar finally assented ; perhaps less to the business arguments of Mulrady's wife than to the simple suggestion of Mamie's mother. Enough that he realized a sum in money for a few acres that ex- ceeded the last ten years' income of Don Ramon's seven leagues. Equally unprecedented and extravagant was the realiza- tion of the discovery in Mulrady's shaft. It was alleged that a company hastily formed in Sacramento paid him a million of dollars down, leaving him still a controlling two- A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 271 thirds interest in the mine. With an obstinacy, however, that amounted almost to a moral conviction, he refused to include the house and potato-patch in the property. When the company had yielded the point, he declined, with equal tenacity, to part with it to outside speculators on even the most extravagant offers. In vain Mrs. Mulrady protested ; in vain she pointed out to him that the retention of the evidence of his former humble occupation was a green blot upon their social escutcheon. " If you will keep the land, build on it, and root up the garden." But Mulrady was adamant. " It 's the only thing I ever made myself, and got out of the soil with my own hands ; it 's the beginning of my for- tune, and it may be the end of it. Mebbe I '11 be glad enough to have it to come back to some day, and be thank- ful for the square meal I can dig out of it." By repeated pressure, however, Mulrady yielded the com- promise that a portion of it should be made into a vineyard and flower garden, and by a suitable coloring of ornament and luxury obliterate its vulgar part. Less successful, however, was that energetic woman in another effort to mitigate the austerities of their earlier state. It occurred to her to utilize the softer accents of Don Caesar in the pronunciation of their family name, and privately had " Mulrade " take the place of Mulrady on her visiting-card. " It might be Spanish," she argued with her husband. " Lawyer Cole says most American names are corrupted, and how do you know that yours ain't ? " Mulrady, who would not swear that his ancestors came from Ireland to the Caro- linas in '98, was helpless to refute the assertion. But the terrible JSTemesis of an un-Spanish, American provincial speech avenged the orthographical outrage at once. When Mrs. Mulrady began to be addressed orally, as well as by letter, as " Mrs. Mulraid," and when simple amatory effusions to her daughter rhymed with " lovely maid," she promptly 272 A. MILLION AIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY restored the original vowel. But she fondly clung to the Spanish courtesy which transformed her hushand's baptismal name, and usually spoke of him — in his absence — as " Don Alvino." But in the presence of his short, square figure, his orange tawny hair, his twinkling gray eyes, and retrousse nose, even that dominant woman withheld his title. It was currently reported at Red Dog that a dis- tinguished foreigner had one day approached Mulrady with the formula, " I believe I have the honor of addressing Don Alvino Mulrady ? " " You kin bet your boots, stranger, that 's me," had returned that simple hidalgo. Although Mrs. Mulrady would have preferred that Mamie should remain at Sacramento until she should join her, preparatory to a trip to " the States " and Europe, she yielded to her daughter's desire to astonish Eough - and- Keady, before she left, with her new wardrobe, and unfold in the parent nest the delicate and painted wings with which she was to fly from them forever. "I don't want them to remember me afterwards in those spotted prints, ma, and like as not say I never had a decent frock until I went away." There was something so like the daughter of her mother in this delicate foresight that the touched and gratified parent kissed her, and assented. The result was gratifying beyond her expectation. In that few weeks' sojourn at Sacramento, the young girl seemed to have adapted and assimilated herself to the latest modes of fashion with even more than the usual American girl's pliancy and taste. Equal to all emergencies of style and material, she seemed to supply, from some hitherto un- known quality she possessed, the grace and manner peculiar to each. Untrammeled by tradition, education, or prece- dent, she had the Western girl's confidence in all things being possible, which made them so often probable. Mr. Mulrady looked at his daughter with mingled sentiments of pride and awe. Was it possible that this delicate crea- A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 273 ture, so superior to him that he seemed like a degenerate scion of her remoter race, was his own flesh and blood ? Was she the daughter of her mother, who even in her re- membered youth was never equipped like this ? If the thought brought no pleasure to his simple, loving nature, it at least spared him the pain of what might have seemed ingratitude in one more akin to himself. " The fact is, we ain't quite up to her style," was his explanation and apology. A vague belief that in another and a better world than this he might approximate and understand this perfection somewhat soothed and sustained him. It was quite consistent, therefore, that the embroidered cambric dress which Mamie Mulrady wore one summer afternoon on the hillside at Los Gatos, while to the critical feminine eye at once artistic and expensive, should not seem incongruous to her surroundings or to herself in the eyes of a general audience. It certainly did not seem so to one pair of frank, humorous ones that glanced at her from time to time, as their owner, a young fellow of iive-and- twenty, walked at her side. He was the new editor of the " Rough-and-Eeady Record," and, having been her fellow passenger from Sacramento, had already once or twice availed himself of her father's invitation to call upon them. Mrs. Mulrady had not discouraged this mild flirtation. Whether she wished to disconcert Don Csesar for some occult purpose, or whether, like the rest of her sex, she had an overweening confidence in the unheroic, unseductive, and purely platonic character of masculine humor, did not appear. " When I say I 'm sorry you are going to leave us, Miss ^Mulrady," said the young fellow lightly, " you will com- prehend my unselfishness, since I frankly admit your depar- ture would be a positive relief to me as an editor and a man. The pressure in the Poet's Corner of the 'Record,' since it was unmistakingly discovered that a person of yom 274 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY name might be induced to seek the ' glade ' and ' shade ' without being ' afraid,' ' dismayed,' or ' betrayed,' has been something enormous, and, unfortunately, I am debarred from rejecting anything, on the just ground that I am my- self an interested admirer." " It is dreadful to be placarded around the country by one's own full name, is n't it ? " said Mamie, without, how- ever, expressing much horror in her face. " They think it much more respectful than to call you ' Mamie,' " he responded lightly ; " and many of your admirers are middle-aged men, with a mediaeval style of compliment. I 've discovered that amatory versifying was n't entirely a youthful passion. Colonel Cash is about as fatal with a couplet as with a double-barreled gun, and scatters as terribly. Judge Butts and Dr. Wilson have both discerned the resemblance of your gifts to those of Venus, and their own to Apollo. But don't undervalue those tributes. Miss Mulrady," he added more seriously. "You '11 have thousands of admirers where you are going ; but you '11 be willing to admit in the end, I think, that none were more honest and respectful than your subjects at Kough-and-Ready and Bed Dog." He stopped, and added in a graver tone, " Does Don Caesar write poetry ? " " He has something better to do," said the young lady pertly. " I can easily imagine that," he returned mischievously ; " it must be a pallid substitute for other opportunities." " What did you come here for ? " she asked suddenly. " To see you." " Nonsense ! You know what I mean. Why did you ever leave Sacramento to come here ? I should think it would suit you so much better than this place." " I suppose I was fired by your father's example, and wished to find a gold mine." *'Men like you never do," she said simply. A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 275 •' Is that a compliment, Miss Mulrady ? " " I don't know. But I think that you think that it is." He gave her the pleased look of one who had unexpect- edly found a sympathetic intelligence. "Do I ? This is interesting. Let's sit down." In their desultory ram- bling they had reached, quite unconsciously, the large boul- der at the roadside. Mamie hesitated a moment, looked up and down the road, and then, with an already opulent in- difference to the damaging of her spotless skirt, sat herself upon it, with her furled parasol held by her two little hands thrown over her half-drawn-up knee. The young editor, half sitting, half leaning, against the stone, began to draw figures in the sand with his cane. " On the contrary. Miss Mulrady, I hope to make some money here. You are leaving Eough-and-Eeady because you are rich. We are coming to it because we are poor." " We ? " echoed Mamie lazily, looking up the road. " Yes. My father and two sisters." " I am sorry. I might have known them if I had n't been going away." At the same moment, it flashed across her mind that, if they were like the man before her, they might prove disagreeably independent and critical. " Is your father in business ? " she asked. He shook his head. After a pause, he said, punctuating his sentences with the point of his stick in the soft dust, " He is paralyzed, and out of his mind. Miss Mulrady. I came to California to seek him, as all news of him ceased three years since ; and I found him only two weeks ago, alone, friendless — an unrecognized pauper in the county hospital." " Two weeks ago ? That was when I went to Sacra" mento." "Very probably." " It must have been very shocking to you ? " « It was." 276 A MILLIONAIEE OF EOUGH-AND EEADY " I should think you 'd feel real bad ? " " I do, at times." He smiled, and laid his stick on the stone. " You now see. Miss Mulrady, how necessary to me is this good fortune that you don't think me worthy of. Meantime I must try to make a home for them at Eough- and-Ready." Miss Mulrady put down her knee and her parasol. " We must n't stay here much longer, you know." , « Why ? " " Why, the stagecoach comes by at about this time." " And you think the passengers will observe us sitting here ? " " Of course they will." " Miss Mulrady, I implore you to stay." He was leaning over her with such apparent earnestness of voice and gesture that the color came into her cheek. For a moment she scarcely dared to lift her conscious eyes to his. When she did so, she suddenly glanced her own aside with a flash of anger. He was laughing. " If you have any pity for me, do not leave me now," he repeated. " Stay a moment longer, and my fortune is made. The passengers will report us all over Red Dog as engaged. I shall be supposed to be in your father's secrets, and shall be sought after as a director of all the new companies. The ' Record ' will double its circula- tion ; poetry will drop out of its columns, advertising rush to fill its place, and J shall receive five dollars a week more salary, if not seven and a half. Never mind the con- sequences to yourself at such a moment. I assure you there will be none. You can deny it the next day — I will deny it — nay, more, the ' Record ' itself will deny it in an extra edition of one thousand copies, at ten cents each. Linger a moment longer, Miss Mulrady. Fly, oh, fly not vet. They 're coming — hai-k ! ho ! By Jove, it 's only Don "liesar ! " A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 277 It was, indeed, only the young scion of the house of AlvaraJo, blue-eyed, sallow-skinned, and high-shouldered, coming towards them on a fiery, half-broken mustang, whose very spontaneous lawlessness seemed to accentuate and bring out the grave and decorous ease of his rider. Even in his burlesque preoccupation the editor of the " Record " did not withhold his admiration of this perfect horsemanship. Mamie, who, in her wounded amour propre, would like to have made much of it to annoy her companion, was thus estopped any ostentatious compliment. Don Csesar lifted his hat with sweet seriousness to the lady, with grave courtesy to the gentleman. While the lower half of this Centaur was apparently quivering with fury, and stamping the ground in his evident desire to charge upon the pair, the upper half, with natural dignity, looked from the one to the other, as if to leave the privi- lege of an explanation with them. But Mamie was too wise, and her companion too indifferent, to offer one. A slight shade passed over Don Csesar's face. To complicate the situation at that moment, the expected stagecoach came rattling by. With quick feminine intuition, Mamie caught in the faces of the driver and the expressman, and reflected in the mischievous eyes of her companion, a pecu- liar interpretation of their meeting, that was not removed by the whispered assurance of the editor that the passen- gers were anxiously looking back " to see the shooting." The young Spaniard, equally oblivious of humor or curi- osity, remained impassive. " You know Mr. Slinn, of the ' Eecord,' " said Mamie, « don't you ? " Don Csesar had never before met the Serior Esslinn. He was under the impression that it was a Senor Eobinson that was of the "Record." " Oh 1 he was shot," said Slinn. " I 'm taking hia place." 278 A MILLIONAIRE OF EODGH-AND-EEADY " Bueno ! To be shot too ? I trust not." Slinn looked quickly and sharply into Don Caesar's grave face. He seemed to be incapable of any double meaning. However, as he had no serious reason for awak- ening Don Caesar's jealousy, and very little desire to be- come an embarrassing third in this conversation, and possi- bly a burden to the young lady, he proceeded to take his leave of her. From a sudden feminine revulsion of sympathy, or from some unintelligible instinct of diplomacy, Mamie said, as she extended her hand, " I hope you '11 find a home for your family near here. Mamma wants pa to let our old house. Perhaps it might suit you, if not too far from your work. You might speak to ma about it." " Thank you ; I will," responded the young man, press- ing her hand with unafiected cordiality. Don CsBsar watched him until he had disappeared behind the wayside buckeyes. " He is a man of family — this one — your country- man ? " It seemed strange to her to have a mere acquaintance spoken of as " her countryman " — not the first time nor the last time in her career. As there appeared no trace or sign of jealousy in her questioner's manner, she answered briefly but vaguely. " Yes ; it 's a shocking story. His father disappeared some years ago, and he has just found him — a helpless paralytic — in the Sacramento Hospital. He '11 have to support him — and they 're very poor." '' So, then, they are not independent of each other al- ways — these fathers and children of Americans ! " " No," said Mamie shortly. Without knowing why, she felt inclined to resent Don Caesar's manner. His seri- ous gravity — gentle and high-bred as it was, undoubtedly ■ — was somewhat trying to her at times, and seemed even A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 279 more so after Slinn's irreverent humor. She picked up ber parasol a little impatiently, as if to go. But Don Csesar had already dismounted, and tied his horse to a tree with a strong lariat that hung at his saddle- bow. " Let us walk through the woods towards your home. I can return alone for the horse when you shall dismiss me." They turned in among the pines that, overcrowding the hollow, crept partly up the side of the hill of Mulrady's shaft. A disused trail, almost hidden by the waxen-hued yerba buena, led from the highway, and finally lost itself in the undergrowth. It was a lovers' walk ; they were lovers, evidently, and yet the man was too self-poised in his grav- ity, the young woman too conscious and critical, to suggest an absorbing or oblivious passion. " I should not have made myself so obtrusive to-day be- fore your friend," said Don Csasar, with proud humility, " but I could not understand from your mother whether you were alone or whether my company was desirable. It is of this I have now to speak, Mamie. Lately your mother has seemed strange to me ; avoiding any reference to our affection ; treating it lightly, and even as to-day, I fancy, patting obstacles in the way of our meeting alone. She was disappointed at your return from Sacramento, where, I have been told, she intended you to remain until you left the country ; and since your return I have seen you but twice. I may be wrong. Perhaps I do not comprehend the American mother ; I have — who knows ? — perhaps offended in some point of etiquette, omitted some ceremony that was her due. But when you told me, Mamie, that it was not necessary to speak to her first, that it was not the American fashion " — Mamie started, and blushed slightly. " Yes," she said hurriedly, " certainly ; but ma has been 280 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-READY quite queer of late, and she may think — you know — that since — since there has been so much property to dispose of, she ought to have been consulted." "Then let us consult her at once, dear child ! And as to the property, in Heaven's name, let her dispose of it as she will. Saints forbid that an Alvarado should ever inter- fere. And what is it to us, my little one ? Enough that Dona Mameta Alvarado will never have less state than the richest bride that ever came to Los Gatos." Mamie had not forgotten that scarcely a month ago, even had she loved the man before her no more than she did at present, she would still have been thrilled with delight at these words ! Even now she was moved — conscious as she had become that the " state " of a bride of the Alva- rados was not all she had imagined, and that the bare adobe court of Los Gatos was open to the sky and the free criti- cism of Sacramento capitalists ! " Yes, dear," she murmured, with a half-childlike plea- sure, that lit up her face and eyes so innocently that it stopped any minute investigation into its origin and real meaning. " Yes, dear ; but we need not have a fuss made about it at present, and perhaps put ma against us. She would n't hear of our marrying now ; and she might forbid our engagement." " But you are going away." " I should have to go to New York or Europe first, you know," she answered naively, " even if it were all settled. I should have to get things ! One could n't be decent here." With the recollection of the pink cotton gown, in which she had first pledged her troth to him, before his eyes he said, " But you are charming now. You cannot be more so to me. If I am satisfied, little one, with you as you are, let us go together, and then you can get dresses to please others." A MILLIONAIEE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 281 She had not expected this importunity. Eeally, if it came to this, she might have engaged herself to some one like Slinn ; he at least would have understood her. He was much cleverer, and certainly more of a man of the world. When Slinn had treated her like a child, it was with the humorous tolerance of an admiring superior, and not the didactic impulse of a guardian. She did not say this, nor did hev pretty eyes indicate it, as in the instance of her brief anger with Slinn. She only said gently : — "I should have thought you, of all men, would have been particular about your wife doing the proper thing. But never mind ! Don't let us talk any more about it. Perhaps, as it seems such a great thing to you, and so much trouble, there may be no necessity for it at all." I do not think that the young lady deliberately planned this charmingly illogical deduction from Don Caesar's speech, or that she calculated its effect upon him ; but it was part of her nature to say it, and profit by it. Under the unjust lash of it his pride gave way. " Ah, do you not see why I wish to go with you ? " he said, with sudden and unexpected passion. " You are beautiful ; you are good ; it has pleased Heaven to make you rich also ; but you are a child in experience, and know not your own heart. With your beauty, your goodness, and your wealth, you will attract all to you — as you do here — because you cannot help it. But you will be equally helpless, little one, if they should attract you, and you had no tie to fall back upon." It was an unfortunate speech. The words were Don Caesar's ; but the thought she had heard before from her mother, although the deduction had been of a very different kind. Mamie followed the speaker with bright but visionary eyes. There must be some truth in all this. Her mother had said it ; Mr. Slinn had laughingly admitted it. She had a brilliant future before her ! Was she right in making 282 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY it impossible by a rash and foolish tie ? He himself had said she was inexperienced. She knew it ; and yet, what was he doing now but taking advantage of that inexperience ? If he really loved her, he would be willing to submit to the test. She did not ask a similar one from him ; and was willing, if she came out of it free, to marry him just the same> There was something so noble in this thought that she felt for a moment carried away by an impulse of com- passionate unselfishness, and smiled tenderly as she looked up in his face. " Then you consent, Mamie ? " he said eagerly, passing his arm around her waist. "Not now, Caesar," she said, gently disengaging herself. "I must think it over; we are both too young to act upon it rashly ; it would be unfair to you, who are so quiet and have seen so few girls — I mean Americans — to tie yourself to the first one you have known. When I am gone you will go more into the world. There are Mr. Slinn's two sisters coming here, — I shouldn't wonder if they were far cleverer and talked far better than I do, — and think how I should feel if I knew that only a wretched pledge to me kept you from loving them ! " She stopped, and cast down her eyes. It was her first attempt at coquetry ; for, in her usual charming selfishness she was perfectly frank and open ; and it might not have been her last, but she had gone too far at first, and was not prepared for a recoil of her own argument. " If you admit that it is possible — that it is possible to you ! " he said quickly. She saw her mistake. " We may not have many oppor- tunities to Eeet alone," she answered quietly ; " and I am sure we would be happier when we meet not to accuse each other of impossibilities. Let us rather see how we can communicate together, if anything should prevent our meet- ing. Remember, it was only by chance that you were able A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 283 to see me now. If ma has believed that she ought to have been consulted, our meeting together in this secret way will only make matters worse. She is even now wondering where I am, and may be suspicious. I must go back at once- At any moment some one may come here looking for me." " But I have so much to say," he pleaded. " Our time has been so short." " You can write." " But what will your mother think of that ? " he said in grave astonishment. She colored again as she returned quickly : " Of course, you must not write to the house. You can leave a letter somewhere for me — say, somewhere about here. Stop!" she added, with a sudden girlish gayety, "see, here's the very place. Look there ! " She pointed to the decayed trunk of a blasted sycamore, ' a few feet from the trail. A cavity, breast high, half filled with skeleton leaves and pine-nuts, showed that it had formerly been a squirrel's hoard, but for some reason had been deserted. "Look! it's a regular letter-box," she continued gayly, rising on tiptoe to peep into its recesses. Don Caesar looked at her admiringly ; it seemed like a return to their first idyllic love-making in the old days, when she used to steal out of the cabbage rows in her brown linen apron and sun. bonnet to walk with him in the woods. He recalled the fact to her with the fatality of a lover already seeking to restore in past recollections something that was wanting in the present. She received it with the impatience of youth, to whom the present is all sufficient. " I wonder how you could ever have cared for me in that holland apron," she said, looking down upon her new dress. " Shall I tell you why ? " he said fondly, passing his arm around her waist, and drawing her pretty head nearer his shoulder. 284 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOTJGH-AND-EEADT " No -^ not now ! " she said laughingly, but struggling to free herself. " There 's not time. Write it, and put it in the box. There," she added hastilj', " listen ! — what 's that ? " " It 's only a squirrel," he whispered reassuringly in her ear. "No; it's somebody coming! I must go! Please! Csesar, dear ! There, then " — She met his kiss halfway, released herself with a lithe movement of her wrist and shoulder, and the next mo- ment seemed to slip into the woods, and was gone. Don Caesar listened with a sigh as the last rustling ceased, cast a look at the decayed tree as if to fix it in his memory, and then slowly retraced his steps towards his tethered mustang. He was right, however, in his surmise of the cause of that interruption. A pair of bright eyes had been watch- ing them from the bough of an adjacent tree. It was a squirrel, who, having had serious and prior intentions of making use of the cavity they had discovered, had only withheld examination by an apparent courteous discretion towards the intruding pair. Now that they were gone he slipped down the tree and ran towards the decayed stump. CHAPTER ni Apparently dissatisfied with the result of an investi- gation, which proved that the cavity was unfit as a treasure hoard for a discreet squirrel, whatever its value as a recep- tacle for the love-tokens of incautious humanity, the little animal at once set about to put things in order. He began by whisking out an immense quantity of dead leaves, dis- turbed a family of tree-spiders, dissipated a drove of patient aphides browsing in the bark, as well as their attendant dairymen, the ants, and otherwise ruled it with the high hand of dispossession and a contemptuous opinion of the previous incumbents. It must not be supposed, however, that his proceedings were altogether free from contempo- raneous criticism ; a venerable crow sitting on a branch above him displayed great interest in his occupation, and, hopping down a few moments afterwards, disposed of some ■worm-eaten nuts, a few larvae, and an insect or two, with languid dignity and without prejudice. Certain incum- brances, however, still resisted the squirrel's general evic- tion ; among them a folded square of paper with sharply defined edges, that declined investigation, and, owing to a nauseous smell of tobacco, escaped nibbling as it had appar- ently escaped insect ravages. This, owing to its sharp angles, which persisted in catching in the soft decaying wood in his whirlwind of house-cleaning, he allowed to re- main. Having thus, in a general way, prepared for the coming winter, the self-satisfied little rodent dismissed the subject from his active mind. His rage and indignation a few days later may be readily 286 A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY conceived, when he found, on returning to his new-made home, another square of paper, folded like the first, hut much fresher and whiter, lying within the cavity, on top of some moss which had evidently heen placed there for the purpose. This he felt was really more than he could bear ; but as it was smaller, with a few energetic kicks and whisks of his tail he managed to finally dislodge it through the opening, where it fell ignominionsly to the earth. The eager eyes of the ever attendant crow, however, in- stantly detected it ; he flew to the ground, and, turning it over, examined it gravelj\ It was certainly not edible, but it was exceedingly rare, and, as an old collector of curios, he felt he could not pass it by. He lifted it in his beak, and, with a desperate struggle against the superin- cumbent weight, regained the branch with his prize. Here, by one of those delicious vagaries of animal nature, he ap- parently at once discharged his mind of the whole affair, became utterly oblivious of it, allowed it to drop without the least concern, and eventually flew away with an ab- stracted air, as if he had been another bird entirely. The paper got into a manzanita bush, where it remained sus- pended until the evening, when, being dislodged by a passing wildcat on its way to Mulrady's hen-roost, it gave that delicately sensitive marauder such a turn that she fled into the adjacent county. But the troubles of the squirrel were not yet over. On. the following day the young man who had accompanied the young woman returned to the trunk, and the squirrel had barely time to make his escape before the impatient visitor approached the opening of the cavity, peered into it, and e^en passed his hand through its recesses. The delight visible upon his anxious and serious face at the disappearance of the letter, and the apparent proof that it had been called for, showed him to have been its original depositor, and probably awakened a remorseful recollection in the dark A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 287 bosom of the omnipresent crow, who uttered a conscience' stricken croak from the bough above him. But the young man quickly disappeared again, and the squirrel was once more left in undisputed possession. A week passed. A weary, anxious interval to Don Csesar, who had neither seen nor heard from Mamie since their last meeting. Too conscious of his own self-respect to call at the house after the equivocal conduct of Mrs. Mulrady, and too proud to haunt the lanes and approaches in the hope of meeting her daughter, like an ordinary lover, he hid his gloomy thoughts in the monastic shadows of the courtyard at Los Gatos, or found relief in furious riding at night and early morning on the highway. Once or twice the up stage had been overtaken and passed by a rushing figure as shadowy as a phantom horseman, with only the star-like point of a cigarette to indicate its humanity. It was in one of these fierce recreations that he was obliged to stop in early morning at the blacksmith's shop at Eoiigh-and-Keady, to have a loosened horseshoe replaced, and while waiting picked up a newspaper. Don Casar seldom read the papers ; but noticing that this was the "Record," he glanced at its columns. A familiar name suddenly flashed out of the dark type like a spark from the anvil. With a brain and heart that seemed to be beating in unison with the blacksmith's sledge, he read as follows : — " Our distinguished fellow townsman, Alvin Mulrady, Esq., left town day before yesterday to attend an important meeting of directors of the Eed Dog Ditch Company, in San Francisco. Society will regret to hear that Mrs. Mul- rady and her beautiful and accomplished daughter, who were expecting to depart for Europe at the end of the month, anticipated the event nearly a fortnight, by taking this opportunity of accompanying Mr. Mulrady as far as San Francisco, on their way to the East. Mrs. and Miss Mulrady intend to visit London, Paris, and Berlin, and 288 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADT will be absent three years. It is possible that Mr. Mut rady may joia them later at one or other of those capitals. Considerable disappointment is felt that a more extended leave-taking was not possible, and that, under the circum- stances, no opportunity was offered for a ' send-off ' suitable to the condition of the parties and the esteem in which they are held in Eough-and-Ready." The paper dropped from his hands. Gone ! and without a word ! No, that was impossible ! There must be some mistake ; she had written ; the letter had miscarried ; she must have sent word to Los Gatos, and the stupid messen- ger had blundered ; she had probably appointed another meeting, or expected him to follow to San Prancisco. " The day before yesterday ! " It was the morning's paper — she had been gone scarcely two days — it was not too late yet to receive a delayed message by post, by some forgetful hand — by — ah — the tree ! Of course it was in the tree, and he had not been there for a week ! Why had he not thought of it before ? The fault was bis, not hers. Perhaps she had gone away, be- lieving him faithless, or a country boor. " In the name of the Devil, will you keep me heii till eternity ! " The blacksmith stared at him. Don Caesar suddenly remembered that he was speaking, as he was thinking — in Spanish. " Ten dollars, my friend, if you have done in five min- utes ! " The man laughed. " That 's good enough American," he said, beginning to quicken his efforts. Don Caesar again took up the paper. There was another paragraph that re- tailed his last interview with Mamie : — " Mr. Harry Slinn, Jr., the editor of this paper, has just moved into the pioneer house formerly occupied by Alvin Mulrady, Esq., which has already become historic in the A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-READY 289 innals of the county. Mr. Slinn brings with him his father — H. J. Slinn, Esq. — and his two sisters. Mr. Slinn, Sr., who has been suffering for many years from complete paralysis, we understand is slowly improving ; and it is by the advice of his physicians that he has chosen, the invigorating air of the foot-hills as a change to the debilitating heat of Sacramento." The affair had been quickly settled, certainly, reflected Don Csesar, with a slight chill of jealousy, as he thought of Mamie's interest in the young editor. But the next mo- ment he dismissed it from his mind ; all except a dull con- sciousness that, if she really loved him — Don Caesar — as he loved her, she could not have assisted in throwing into his society the two young sisters of the editor, whom she expected might be so attractive. Within the five minites the horse was ready, and Don CsBsar in the saddle again. In less than half an hour he was at the wayside boulder. Here he picketed his horse, and took the narrow foot-trail through the hollow. It did not take him long to reach their old trysting-place. With a beating heart he approached the decaying trunk and looked into the cavity. There was no letter there ! A few blackened nuts and some of the dry moss he had put there were lying on the ground at its roots. He could not remember whether they were there when he had last visited the spot. He began to grope in the cavity with both hands. His fingers struck against the sharp angles of a flat paper packet; a thrill of joy ran through them and stopped his beating heart ; he drew out the hidden object, and was chilled with disappointment. It was an ordinary-sized envelope of yellowish-brown paper, bearing, besides the usual government stamp, the official legend of an express company, and showing its age as much by this record of a now obsolete carrying service as by the discoloration of time and atmosphere. Its weighlj 290 A MILLIONAIEE OF ROUGH-AND-READY which was heavier than that of an ordinary letter of the same size and thickness, was evidently due to some loose inclosures, that slightly rustled and could he felt hy the fingers, like minute pieces of metal or grains of gravel. It was within Don Caesar's experience that gold specimens were often sent in that manner. It was in a state of singu- lar preservation, except the address, which, heing written in pencil, was scarcely discernihle, and even when deciphered appeared to be incoherent and unfinished. The unknown correspondent had written " dear Mary," and then " Mrs. Mary Slinn," with an unintelligible scrawl following for the direction. If Don Caesar's mind had not been lately preoccupied with the name of the editor, he would hardly have guessed the superscription. In his cruel disappointment and fully aroused indigna- tion, he at once began to suspect a connection of circum- stances which at any other moment he would have thought purely accidental, or perhaps not have considered at all. The cavity in the tree had evidently been used as a secret receptacle for letters before ; did Mamie know it at the time, and how did she know it ? The apparent age of the letter made it preposterous to suppose that it pointed to any secret correspondence of hers with young Mr. Slinn ; and the address was not in her handwriting. Was there any secret previous intimacy between the families ? There was but one way in which he could connect this letter with Mamie's faithlessness. It was an infamous, a grotesquely horrible idea, a thought which sprang as much from his in- experience of the world and his habitual suspiciousness of all humor as anything else ! It was that the letter was a brutal joke of Slinn's — a joke perhaps concocted by Mamie and himself — a parting insult that should at the last moment proclaim their treachery and his own credulity. Doubtless it contained a declaration of their shame, and the reason why she had fled from him without a word of expla- A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-READY 291 nation. And the inclosure, of course, was some significant and degrading illustration. Those Americans were full of those low conceits ; it was their national vulgarity. He held the letter in his angry hand. He could break it open if he wished, and satisfy himself ; but it was not addressed to ]i,im, and the instinct of honor, strong even in his rage, was the instinct of an adversary as well. No ; Slinn should open the letter before him. Slinn should explain everything, and answer for it. If it was nothing — a mere accident — it would lead to some general explanar tion, and perhaps even news of Mamie. But he would arraign Slinn, and at once. He put the letter in his pocket, quickly retraced his steps to his horse, and, putting spurs to the animal, followed the highroad to the gate of Mul- rady's pioneer cabin. He remembered it well enough. To a cultivated taste, it was superior to the more pretentious " new house." Dur- ing the first year of Mulrady's tenancy, the plain square log-cabin had received those additions and attractions which only a tenant can conceive and actual experience suggest ; and in this way the hideous right angles were broken with sheds, " lean-to " extensions, until a certain picturesque- ness was given to the irregularity of outline, and a home- like security and companionship to the congregated buildings. It typified the former life of the great capitalist, as the tall new house illustrated the loneliness and isolation that wealth had given him. But the real points of vantage were the years of cultivation and habitation that had warmed and enriched the soil, and evoked the climbing vines and roses that already hid its unpainted boards, rounded its hard outlines, and gave projection and shadow from the pitiless glare of a summer's long sun, or broke the steady beating of the winter rains. It was true that pea and bean poles surrounded it on one side, and the only access to the house was through the cabbage rows that once 292 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY Avere the pride and sustenance of the Mulradys. It was this fact, more than any other, that had impelled Mrs. Mul- rady to abandon its site ; she did not like to read the his- tory of their humble origin reflected in the faces of their visitors as they entered. Don Csesar tied his horse to the fence, and hurriedly ap- proached the house. The door, however, hospitably opened when he was a few paces from it, and when he reached the threshold he found himself unexpectedly in the presence of two pretty girls. They were evidently Slinn's sisters, whom he had neither thought of nor included in the meet- ing he had prepared. In spite of his preoccupation, he felt himself suddenly embarrassed, not only by the actual dis- tinction of their beauty, but by a kind of likeness that they seemed to bear to Mamie. " We saw you coming," said the elder unaffectedly. " You are Don Caesar Alvarado. My brother has spoken of you." The words recalled Don Csesar to himself and a sense of courtesy. He was not here to quarrel with these fair strangers at their first meeting ; he must seek Slinn else- where, and at another time. The frankness of his re- ception and the allusion to their brother made it appear impossible that they should be either a party to his disap- pointment, or even aware of it. His excitement melted away before a certain lazy ease which the consciousness of their beauty seemed to give them. He was able to put a few courteous inquiries, and, thanks to the paragraph in the " Eecord," to congratulate them upon their father's improvement. " Oh, pa is a great deal better in his health, and has picked up even in the last few days, so that he is able to walk round with crutches," said the elder sister. " The wr here seems to invigorate him wonderfully." " And you know, Esther," said thrj younger, " I think A MILLIONAIKE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 293 he begins to take more notice of things, especially when he is out of doors. He looks around on the scenery, and his eye brightens, as if he knew all about it ; and sometimes he knits his brows, and looks down so, as if he was try- ing to remember." " You know, I suppose," explained Esther, " that since his seizure his memory has been a blank — that is, three or four years of his life seem to have been dropped out of his recollection." " It might be a mercy sometimes, senora," said Don. Csesar, with a grave sigh, as he looked at the delicate fea- tures before him, which recalled the face of the absent Mamie. " That 's not very complimentary," said the younger girl laughingly ; " for pa did n't recognize us, and only remem- bered us as little girls." "Vashti!" interrupted Esther rebukingly ; then, turn- ing to Don Caesar, she added, " My sister, Vashti, means that father remembers more what happened before he came to California, when we were quite young, than he does of the interval that elapsed. Dr. Duchesne says it 's a sin- gular case. He thinks that, with his present progress, he will recover the perfect use of his limbs ; though his mem- ory may never come back again." " Unless — You forget what the doctor told us this morning," interrupted Vashti again briskly. " I was going to say it," said Esther a little curtly. " Unless he has another stroke. Then he will either die or recover his mind entirely." Don Csesar glanced at the bright faces, a trifle heightened in color by their eager recital and the slight rivalry of nar- ration, and looked grave. He was a little shocked at a certain lack of sympathy and tenderness towards their unhappy parent. They seemed to him not only to have caught that dry, curious toleration of helplessness whicb 294 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-REABY characterizes even relationship in its attendance upon chronic suffering and weakness, but to have acquired an unconscious habit of turning it to account. In his present sensitive condition, he even fancied that they flirted mildly over their parent's infirmity. "My brother Harry has gone to Red Dog," continued Esther ; " he '11 be right sorry to have missed you. Mrs. Mulrady spoke to him about you ; you seem to have been great friends. I s'pose you knew her daughter, Mamie ; I hear she is very pretty." Although Don Csesar was now satisfied that the Slinns knew nothing of Mamie's singular behavior to him, he felt embarrassed by this conversation. " Miss Mulrady is very pretty," he said, with grave courtesy ; " it is a custom of her race. She left suddenly," he added, with aifected calmness. " I reckon she did calculate to stay here longer — so her mother said ; but the whole thing was settled a week ago. I know my brother was quite surprised to hear from Mr. Mulrady that if we were going to decide about this house we must do it at once ; he had an idea himself about moving out of the big one into this when they left." " Mamie Mulrady had n't much to keep her here, consid- erin' the money and the good looks she has, I reckon," said Vashti. " She is n't the sort of girl to throw herself away in the wilderness, when she can pick and choose elsewhere. I only wonder she ever come back from Sacramento. They talk about papa Mulrady having business at San Francisco, and that hurrying them ofi'! Depend upon it that 'business' was Mamie herself. Her wish is gospel to them. If she 'd wanted to stay and have a farewell party, old Mulrady's business would have been nowhere." " Ain't you a little rough on Mamie," said Esther, who. had been quietly watching the young man's face with hei large, languid eyes, " considering that we don't know her, and have n't even the right of friends to criticise ? " A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 295 "I don't call it rough," returned Vashti frankly, "for I 'd do the same if I were in her shoes — and they 're four- and-a-halves, for Harry told me so. Give me her money and her looks, and you would n't catch nie hanging round these diggings — goin' to choir meetings Saturdays, church Sundays, and buggy-riding once a month — for society! No — Mamie's head was level — you bet ! " Don CsBsar rose hurriedly. They would present his compliments to their father, and he would endeavor to find their brother at Eed Dog. He, alas ! had neither father, mother, nor sister ; but if they would receive his aunt, the Doiia inez Sepulvida, the next Sunday, when she came from mass, she should be honored and he would be delighted. It required all his self-possession to deliver himself of this formal courtesy before he could take his leave, and on the back of his mustang give way to the rage, disgust, and hatred of everything connected with Mamie that filled his heart. Conscious of his disturbance, but not entirely appreciating their own share in it, the two girls somewhat wickedly pro- longed the interview by following him into the garden. " Well, if you must leave now," said Esther at last, languidly, " it ain't much out of your way to go down through the garden and take a look at pa as you go. He 's somewhere down there, near the woods, and we don't like to leave him alone too long. You might pass the time of day with him ; see if he 's right side up. Vashti and I have got a heap of things to fix here yet ; but if anything 's wrong with him, you can call us. So long." Don Caesar was about to excuse himself hurriedly ; but that sudden and acute perception of all kindred sorrow, which belongs to refined sufi'ering, checked his speech. The loneliness of the helpless old man in this atmosphere of active and youthful selfishness touched him. He bowed assent, and turned aside into one of the long perspectives of bean-poles. The girls watched him until out of sight. 296 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-EEADY "Well," said Vashti, "don't tell me. But if there was ii't something between him and that Mamie Mulrady, I don't know a jilted man when I see him." " Well, you need n't have let him see that you knew it, so that any civility of ours would look as if we were ready to take up with her leavings," responded Esther astutely, as the girls reentered the house. Meantime, the unconscious object of their criticism walked sadly down the old market-garden, whose rude outlines and homely details he once clothed with the poetry of a sensitive man's first love. Well, it was a common cabbage field and potato patch after all. In his disgust he felt conscious of even the loss of that sense of patronage and superiority which had invested his affection for a girl of meaner condition. His self-respect was humiliated with his love. The soil and dirt of those wretched cabbages had clung to him, but not to her. It was she who had gone higher ; it was he ■who was left in the vulgar ruins of his misplaced passion. He reached the bottom of the garden without observing any sign of the lonely invalid. He looked up and down the cabbage rows, and through the long perspective of pea- vines, without result. There was a newer trail leading from a gap in the pines to the wooded hollow, which un- doubtedly intersected the little path that he and Mamie had once followed from the highroad. If the old man had taken this trail he had possibly overtasked his strength, and there was the more reason why he should continue his search, and render any assistance if required. There was another idea that occurred to him, which eventually decided him to go on. It was that both these trails led to the de- cayed sycamore stump, and that the older Slinn might have something to do with the mysterious letter. Quickening his steps through the field, he entered the hollow, and reached the intersecting trail as he expected. To the right it lost itself in the dense woods in the direction of the A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 297 ominous stump ; to the left it descended in nearly a straight line to the highway, now plainly visible, as was equally the boulder on which he had last discovered Mamie sitting with young Sliun. If he was not mistaken, there was a figure sitting there now ; it was surely a man. And by that half-bowed, helpless attitude, the object of his search ! It did not take him long to descend the track to the highway and approach the stranger. He was seated with his hands upon his knee, gazing in a vague, absorbed fash- ion upon the hillside, now crowned with the engine-house and chimney that marked the site of Mulrady's shaft. He started slightly, and looked up, as Don Csesar paused before him. The young man was surprised to see that the unfor- tunate man was not as old as he had expected, and that his expression was one of quiet and beatified contentment. " Your daughters told me you were here," said Don Caesar, with gentle respect. "I am Ceesar Alvarado, your not very far neighbor ; very happy to pay his respects to you as he has to them." " My daughters ? " said the old man vaguely. " Oh yes ! nice little girls. And my boy Harry. Did you see Harry ? ¥ine little fellow, Harry." " I am glad to hear that you are better," said Don" Csesar hastily, "and that the air of our country does you no harm. God benefit you, senor," he added, with a pro- foundly reverential gesture, dropping unconsciously into the religious habit of his youth. " May He protect you, and bring you back to health and happiness ! " ''• Happiness ? " said Slinn amazedly. " I am happy — i-ery happy ! I have everything I want : good air, good food, good clothes, pretty little children, kind friends " — He smiled benignantly at Don Caesar. " God is very good to me ! " Indeed, he seemed very happy ; and his face, albeit crowned with white hair, unmarked by care and any dis- 298 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY tiirbing impression, had so much of satisfied youth in it that the grave features of his questioner made him appear the elder. Nevertheless, Don Csesar noticed that his eyes, ■when withdrawn from him, sought the hillside with the same visionary abstraction. " It is a fine view, Senor Esslinn," said Don Csesar. " It is a beautiful view, sir," said Slinn, turning his happy eyes upon him for a moment, only to rest them again on the green slope opposite. " Beyond that hill which you are looking at — not far, Senor Esslinn — I live. You shall come and see me there — you and your family." "You — you — live there?" stammered the invalid, with a troubled expression — the first and only change to the complete happiness that had hitherto suffused his face. " You — and your name is — is Ma " — " Alvarado," said Don Caesar gently. " Caesar Alva- rado." " You said Masters," said the old man, with sudden querulousness. "No, good friend. I said Alvarado," returned Don Caesar gravely. " If you did n't say Masters, how could / say it ? I don't know any Masters." Don Caesar was silent. In another moment the happy tranquillity returned to Slinn's face ; and Don Caesar con- tinued : — " It is not a long walk over the hill, though it is far by the road. ■ When you are better you shall try it. Yonder little trail leads to the top of the hill, and then " — He stopped, for the invalid's face had again assumed its troubled expression. Partly to change his thoughts, and partly for some inexplicable idea that had suddenly seized him, Don Caesar continued : — " There is a strange old stump near the trail, and in it A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 299 a hole. In. the hole I found lliia letter." He stopped again — this time in alarm. Slinn had staggered to his feet with ashen and distorted features, and was glancing at the letter which Don Cassar had drawn from his pocket. The muscles of his throat swelled as if he was swallowing ; his lips moved, but no sound issued from them. At last, with a convulsive effort, he regained a disjointed speech, in a voice scarcely audible. " My letter ! my letter ! It 's mine ! Give it me ! It 's my fortune — all mine ! In the tunnel — hill ! Masters stole it — stole my fortune ! Stole it all ! See, see ! " He seized the letter from Don Csesar with trembling hands, and tore it open forcibly : a few dull yellow grains fell from it heavily, like shot, to the ground. " See, it 's true ! My letter ! My gold ! My strike ! My — my — my God ! " A tremor passed over his face. The hand that held the letter suddenly dropped sheer and heavy as the gold had fallen. The whole side of his face and body nearest Don Csesar seemed to drop and sink into itself as suddenly. At the same moment, and without a word, he slipped through Don Csesnr's outstretched hands to the ground. Don Caesar bent quickly over him, but not longer than to satisfy himself that he lived and breathed, although helpless. He then caught up the fallen letter, and, glancing over it with flashing eyes, thrust it and the few specimens in his pocket. He then sprang to his feet, so transformed with energy and intelligence that he seemed to have added the lost vitality of the man before him to his own. He glanced quickly up and down the highway. Every moment to him was precious now ; but he could not leave the stricken man in the dust of the road ; nor could he carry him to the house; nor, having alarmed his daughters, could he abandon his helplessness to their feeble arms. He remem- bered that his horse was still tied to the garden fence. He 300 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY would fetch it, and carry the unfortunate man across the saddle to the gate. He lifted him with difficulty to the boulder, and ran rapidly up the road in the direction of his tethered steed. He had not proceeded far when he heard the noise of wheels behind him. It was the up stage com- ing furiously along. He would have called to the driver for assistance, but even through that fast-sweeping cloud of dust and motion he could see that the man was utterly oblivious of anything but the speed of his rushing chariot, and had even risen in his box to lash the infuriated and frightened animals forward. An hour later, when the coach drew up at the Red Dog Hotel, the driver descended from the box, white, but taci- turn. When he had swallowed a glass of whiskey at a single gulp, he turned to the astonished express agent, who had followed him in. "One of two things, Jim, hez got to happen," he said huskily. " Either that there rock hez got to get off the road, or / have. I 've seed him on it agin ! " CHAPTER IV No further particulars of the invalid's second attack were known than those furnished by Don Caesar's brief statement, that he had found him lying insensible on the boulder. This seemed perfectly consistent with the theory of Dr. Duchesne ; and as the young Spaniard left Los Gatos the next day, he escaped not only the active report of the " Re- cord," but the perusal of a grateful paragraph in the next day's paper recording his prompt kindness and courtesy. Dr. Duchesne's prognosis, however, seemed at fault; the elder Slinn did not succumb to the second stroke, nor did he recover his reason. He apparently only relapsed into his former physical weakness, losing the little ground he had gained during the last month, and exhibiting no change in his mental condition, unless the fact that he remembered nothing of his seizure and the presence of Don Csesar could be considered as favorable. Dr. Duchesne's gravity seemed to give that significance to this symptom, and his cross-ques- tioning of the patient was characterized by more than his usual curtness. " You are sure you don't remember walking in the garden before you were ill ? " he said. " Come, think again. You must remember that." The old man's eyes wandered rest- lessly around the room, but he answered by a negative shake of his head. " And you don't remember sitting down on a stone by the road ? " The old man kept his eyes resolutely fixed on the bed- clothes before him. " No ! " he said, with a certain sharp decision that was new to him. 302 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY The doctor's eye brightened. "All right, old man ; then don't." On his way out he took the eldest Miss Slinn aside. " He '11 do," he said grimly : " he 's beginning to lie." " Why, he only said he did n't remember," responded Esther. " That was because he did n't want to remember," said the doctor authoritatively. " The brain is acting on some impression that is either painful and unpleasant, or so vague ; that he can't formulate it ; he is conscious of it, and won't attempt it yet. It 's a heap better than his old self-satisfied iucoherency." A few days later, when the fact of Slinn's identification with the paralytic of three years ago by the stage-driver became generally known, the doctor came in quite jubilant. " It 's all plain now," he said decidedly. " That second stroke was caused by the nervous shock of his coming sud- denly upon the very spot where he had the first one. It proved that his brain still retained old impressions, but as this first act of his memory was a painful one, the strain was too great. It was mighty unlucky ; but it was a good sign." " And you think, then" — hesitated Harry Slinn. " I think," said Dr. Duchesne, " that this activity still exists, and the proof of it, as I said before, is that he is now trying to forget it, and avoid thinking of it. You will find that he will fight shy of any allusion to it, and will be cunning enough to dodge it every time." He certainly did. Whether the doctor's hypothesis was fairly based or not, it was a fact that, when he was first taken out to drive with his watchful physician, he appar- ently took no notice of the boulder — which still remained on the roadside, thanks to the later practical explanation of the stage-driver's vision — and curtly refused to talk about it. But, more significant to Duchesne, and perhaps more A MILLIONAIRE OF RODGH-AND-READY 303 perplexing, was a certain morose abstraction, which took tlie place of his former vacuity of contentment, and an intolerance of his attendants, which supplanted his old liabitual trustfulness to their care, that had been varied only by the occasional querulousness of an invalid. His daughters sometimes found him regarding them with an attention little short of suspicion, and even his son detected a half • suppressed aversion in his interviews with him. Eeferring this among themselves to his unfortunate malady, his children perhaps justified this estrangement by paying very little attention to it. They were more pleasantly occupied. The two girls succeeded to the posi- tion held by Mamie Mulrady in the society of the neighbor- hood, and divided the attentions of Eough-and-Ready. The young editor of the " Record " had really achieved, through his supposed intimacy with the Mulradys, the good fortune he had jestingly prophesied. The disappearance of Don Csesar was regarded as a virtual abandonment of the, field to his rival ; and the general opinion was that he was engaged to the millionaire's daughter on a certain probation of work and influence in his prospective father-in-law's interests. He became successful in one or two speculations, the magic of the lucky Mulrady's name befriending him. In the superstition of the mining community, much of this luck was due to his having secured the old cabin. " To think," remarked one of the augurs of Eed Dog, French Pete, a polyglot jester, " that while every d — d fool went to taking up claims where the gold had already been found, no one thought of stepping into the old man's old ohoux in the cabbage garden ! " Any doubt, however, of the alliance of the families was dissipated by the intimaci that sprang up between the elder Slinn and the millioniar. after the latter's return from San Francisco. It began in a strange kind of pity for the physical weak- ness of the man, which enlisted the sympathies of Mulrady, 304 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY whose great strength had never been deteriorated by the luxuries of wealth, and who was still able to set his work- men an example of hard labor ; it was sustained by a sin- gular and superstitious reverence for his mental condition, which, to the paternal Mulrady, seemed to possess that spiritual quality with which popular ignorance invests demented people. '•' Then you mean to say that during these three years the vein o' your mind, so to speak, was a lost lead, and sorter dropped out o' sight or follerin' ? " queried Mulrady, with infinite seriousness. "Yes," returned Slinn, with less impatience than he usually showed to questions. '' And durin' that time, when you was dried up and waitin' for rain, I reckon you kinder had visions ? " A cloud passed over Slinn's face. " Of course, of course ! " said Mulrady, a little frightened at his tenacity in questioning the oracle. " Nat'rally, this was private, and not to be talked about. I meant, you had plenty of room for 'em without crowdin' ; you kin tell me some day when you 're better, and kin sorter select what 's points and what ain't." " Perhaps I may some day," said the invalid gloomily, glancing in the direction of his preoccupied daughters ; " when we 're alone." When his physical strength had improved, and his left arm and side had regained a feeble but slowly gathering vitality, Alvin Mulrady one day surprised the family by bringing the convalescent a pile of letters and accounts, and spreading them on a board before Slinn's invalid chair, with the suggestion that he should look over, arrange, and docket them. The idea seemed preposterous, until it was found that the old man was actually able to perform this service, and exhibited a degree of intellectual activity and capacity for this kind of work that was unsuspected. Dr. Duchesne A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 305 was delighted, and divided with admiration between his patient's progress and the millionaire's sagacity. " And there are envious people," said the enthusiastic doctor, " who believe that a man like him, who could conceive of Bvich a plan for occupying a weak intellect without taxing its memory or judgment, is merely a lucky fool ! Look here. Maybe it did n't require much brains to stumble on a gold mine, and it is a gift of Providence. But in my experience. Providence don't go round buyin' up d — d fools, or investin' in dead-beats." When Mr. Slinn, finally, with the aid of crutches, was able to hobble every day to the imposing counting-house and office of Mr. Mulrady, which now occupied the lower part of the new house, and contained some of its gorgeous furniture, he was installed at a rosewood desk behind Mr. Mulrady's chair, as his confidential clerk and private secre- tary. The astonishment of E,ed Dog and Eough-and- Eeady at this singular innovation knew no bounds ; but the boldness and novelty of the idea carried everything be- fore it. Judge Butts, the oracle of Eough-and-Eeady, de- livered its decision : " He 's got a man who 's physically incapable of running off with his money, and has no mem- ory to run off with his ideas. How could he do better ? " Even his own son, Harry, coming upon his father thus in stalled, was for a moment struck with a certain filial respect, and for a day or two patronized him. In this capacity Slinn became the confidant, not only of Mulrady's business secrets, but of his domestic atfairs. He knew that young Mulrady, from a freckle-faced, -slow coun- try boy, had developed into a freckle-faced fast city man, with coarse habits of drink and gambling. It was through the old man's hands that extravagant bills and shameful claims passed on their way to be cashed by Mulrady ; it was he that at last laid before the father one day his sig- nature perfectly forged by the son. 306 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY " Your eyos are not ez good ez mine, you know, Slinn," said Mulrady gravely. " It 's all right. I sometimes make my y's like that. I 'd clean forgot to cash that check. You must not think you 've got the monoply of dis- remembering," he added, with a faint laugh. Equally through Slinn's hands passed the record of the lavish expenditure of Mrs. Mulrady and the fair Mamie, as well as the chronicle of their movements and fashionable triumphs. As Mulrady had already noticed that Slinn had no confidence with his own family, he did not try to with- hold from him these domestic details, possibly as an offset to the dreary catalogue of his son's misdeeds, but more often in the hope of gaining from the taciturn old man some comment that might satisfy his innocent vanity as father and husband, and perhaps dissipate some doubts that were haunting him. " Twelve hundred dollars looks to be a good figger for a dress, ain't it ? But Malviny knows, I reckon, what ought to be worn at the Tooilleries, and she don't want our Mamie to take a back seat before them f urrin princesses and gran' dukes. It 's a slap-up affair, I kalkilate. Let 's see. I disremember whether it 's an emperor or a king that 's rulin' over thar now. It must be suthin' first-class and A 1, for Malviny ain't the ■woman to throw away twelve hundred dollars on any of them small-potato despots ! She says Mamie speaks French already like them French Petes. I don't quite make out what she means here. She met Don Caesar in Paris, and she says, ' I think Mamie is nearly off with Don Csesar, who has followed her here. I don't care about her dropping him too suddenly ; the reason I '11 tell you hereafter. I think the man might be a dangerous enemy.' Now, what do you make of this ? I alius thought Mamie rather cottoned to him, and it was the old woman who fought shy, thinkin' Mamie would do better. Now, I am agreeable that my gal should marry any one she A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 307 likes, whether it 's a dook or a poor man, as long as he 's on the square. I was ready to take Don Caesar ; but now things seem to have shifted round. As to Don Csesar's being a dangerous enemy if Mamie won't have him, that 's a little too high and mighty for me, and I wonder the old woman don't make him climb down. "What do you think ? " " Who is Don Caesar ?" asked Slinn. "The man what picked you up that day. I mean," continued Mulrady, seeing the marks of evident ignorance on the old man's face, — "I mean a sort of grave, genteel chap, suthin' between a parson and a circus-rider. You might have seen him round the house talkin' to your gals." But Slinn's entire forgetfulness of Don Caesar was evi- dently unfeigned. Whatever sudden accession of memory he had at the time of his attack, the incident that caused it had no part in his recollection. With the exception of these rare intervals of domestic confidences with his crip- pled private secretary, Mulrady gave himself up to money- getting. Without any especial faculty for it — an easy prey often to unscrupulous financiers — his unfailing luck, however, carried him safely through, until his very mis- takes seemed to be simply insignificant means to a large significant end and a part of his original plan. He sank another shaft, at a great expense, with a view to follow- ing the lead he had formerly found, against the opinions of the best mining engineers, and struck the artesian spring he did not find at that time, -with a volume of water that enabled him not only to work his own mine, but to furnish supplies to his less fortunate neighbors at a vast profit. A league of tangled forest and canon behind Rough -and-Eeady, for which he had paid Don Ramon's heirs an extravagant price in the presumption that it was auriferous, furnished the most accessible timber to build 308 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY the town, at prices which amply remunerated him. The practical schemes of experienced men, the wildest visions of daring dreams delayed or abortive for want of capital, eventually fell into his hands. Men sneered at his methods, but bought his shares. Some who affected to regard him simply as a man of money were content to get only his name to any enterprise. Courted by his superiors, quoted by his equals, and admired by his inferiors, he bore his elevation equally without ostentation or dignity. Bid- den to banquets, and forced by his position as director or president into the usual gastronomic feats of that civiliza- tion and period, he partook of simple food, and continued his old habit of taking a cup of coffee with milk and sugar, at dinner. Without professing temperance, he drank spar- ingly in a community where alcoholic stimulation was a custom. With neither refinement nor an extended vocabu- lary, he was seldom profane, and never indelicate. With nothing of the Puritan in his manner or conversation, he seemed to be as strange to the vices of civilization as he was to its virtues. That such a man should offer little to and receive little from the companionship of women of any kind was a foregone conclusion. Without the dignity of solitude, he was pathetically alone. Meantime, the days passed ; the first six months of his opulence were drawing to a close, and in that interval he had more than doubled the amount of his discovered for- tune. The rainy season set in early. Although it dissi- pated the clouds of dust under which Nature and Art seemed to be slowly disappearing, it brought little beauty to the landscape at first, and only appeared to lay bare the crudenesses of civilization. The unpainted wooden buildings of Eough-and-Eeady, soaked and dripping with rain, took upon themselves a sleek and shining ugliness, as of sec- ond-hand garments ; the absence of cornices or projections to break the monotony of the long straight lines of down- A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY 309 pour made the town appear as if it had been recently sub- merged, every vestige of ornamentation swept away, and only the bare outlines left. Mud was everyyvhere ; the outer soil seemed to have risen and invaded the houses even to their most secret recesses, as if outraged Nature was try- ing to revenge herself. Mud was brought into the saloons and bar-rooms and express offices on boots, on clothes, on bag- gage, and sometimes appeared mysteriously in splashes of red color on the walls, without visible conveyance. The dust of six months, closely packed in cornice and carving, yielded under the steady rain a thin yellow paint, that dropped on wayfarers or unexpectedly oozed out of ceilings and walls on the wretched inhabitants within. The out- skirts of Eough-and-Eeady and the dried hills round Los Gates did not appear to fare much better ; the new vegeta- tion had not yet made much headway against the dead grasses of the summer ; the pines in the hollow wept lugu- briously into a small rivulet that had sprung suddenly into life near the old trail ; everywhere was the sound of drop- ping, splashing, gurgling, or rushing waters. More hideous than ever, the new Mulrady house lifted itself against the leaden sky, and stared with all its large- framed, shutterless windows blankly on the prospect, until they seemed to the wayfarer to become mere mirrors set in the walls, reflecting only the watery landscape, and unable to give the least indication of light or heat within. Never- theless, there was a fire in Mulrady's private office that December afternoon, of a smoky, intermittent variety, that sufficed more to record the defects of hasty architecture than to comfort the millionaire and his private secretary, who had lingered after the early withdrawal of the clerks. For the next day was Christmas, and, out of deference to the near approach of this festivity, a half holiday had been given to the employees. " They '11 want, some of them, to spend their money before to-morrow; and others would 310 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOTTGH-AND-EEADy like to be able to rise up comfortably druut Christmas morn- ing," the superintendent had suggested. Mr. Mulrady had just signed a number of checks indicating his largess to those devoted adherents with the same unostentatious, undemonstrative, matter-of-fact manner that distinguished his ordinary business. The men had received it with some- thing of the same manner. A half-humorous " Thank you, sir " — as if to show that, with their patron, they tolerated this deference to a popular custom, but were a little ashamed of giving way to it — expressed their gratitude and their independence. " I reckon that the old lady and Mamie are having a high old time in some of them gilded pallises in St. Peters- burg or Berlin about this time. Them diamonds that I or- dered at Tiffany ought to have reached 'em about now, so that Mamie could cut a swell at Christmas with her war- paint. I suppose it's the style to give presents in furrin countries ez it is here, and I allowed to the old lady that whatever she orders in that way she is to do in Californy style — no dollar-jewelry and galvanized-watches business. If she wants to make a present to any of them nobles ez has been purlite to her, it 's got to be something that Rough-and-Ready ain't ashamed of. I showed you that pin Mamie bought me in Paris, did n't I ? It 's just come for my Christmas present. No ! I reckon I put it in the safe, for them kind o' things don't suit my style : but s'pose I orter sport it to-morrow. It was mighty thought- ful in Mamie, and it must cost a lump ; it 's got no slouch of a pearl in it. I wonder what Mamie gave for it ? " " You can easily tell ; the bill is here. You paid it yes- terday," said Slinn. There was no satire in the man's voice, nor was there the least perception of irony in Mul- rady's manner, as he returned quietly : — " That 's so ; it was suthin' like a thousand francs ; but French money, when you pan it out as dollars and cents, A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-EEAUY 311 don't make so much, after all." There was a few moments' silence, when he continued, in the same tone of voice : " Talkin' o' them things, Slinn, I 've got suthin' for you." He stopped suddenly. Ever watchful of any undue excite- ment in the invalid, he had noticed a slight flush of disturb- ance pass over his face, and continued carelessly, " But we '11 talk it over to-morrow ; a day or two don't make much difference to you and me in such things, you know. P'r'aps I '11 drop in and see you. We '11 be shut up here." " Then you 're going out somewhere ? " asked Slinn mechanically. "No," said Mulrady hesitatingly. It had suddenly oc- curred to him that he had nowhere to go, if he wanted to, and he -continued, half in explanation, " I ain't reckoned much on Christmas myself. Abner 's at the Springs ; it would n't pay him to come here for a day — even if there was anybody here he cared to see. I reckon I '11 hang round the shanty, and look after things generally. I have n't been over the house upstairs to put things to rights since the folks left. But you need n't come here, you know." He helped the old man to rise, assisted him in putting on his overcoat, and then handed him the cane which had lately replaced his crutches. " Good-by, old man ! You must n't trouble yourself to say ' Merry Christmas ' now, but wait until you see me again. Take care of yourself." He slapped him lightly on the shoulder, and went back into his private office. He worked for some time at his desk, and then laid his pen aside, put away his papers me- thodically, placing a large envelope on his private secre- tary's vacant table. He then opened the office door and ascended the staircase. He stopped on the first landing to listen to the sound of rain on the glass skylight, that 312 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-EEABT seemed to echo through the empty hall like the gloomy roll of a drum. It was evident that the searching water had found out the secret sins of the house's construction, for there were great fissures of discoloration in the white and gold paper in the corners of the wall. There was a strange odor of the dank forest in the mirrored drawing-room, as if the rain had brought out the sap again from the unseasoned timbers ; the blue and white satin furniture looked cold, and the marble mantels and centre-tables had taken upon themselves the clamminess of tombstones. Mr. Mulrady, who had alwaj's retained his old farmer-like habit of taking off his coat vrith his hat on entering his own house, and appearing in his shirt-sleeves, to indicate domestic ease and security, was obliged to replace it, on account of the chill. He had never felt at home in this room. Its strangeness had lately been heightened by Mrs. Mulrady's purchase of a family portrait of some one she did n't know, but who, she had alleged, resembled her " Uncle Bob," which hung on the wall beside some paintings in massive frames. Mr. Mulrady cast a hurried glance at the portrait that, on the strength of a high coat-collar and high top curl, — both rolled with equal precision and singular sameness of color, — had always glared at Mulrady as if he was the intruder, and, passing through his wife's gorgeous bedroom, entered the little dressing-room, where he still slept on the smallest of cots, with hastily improvised surroundings, as if he was a bailiff in " possession." He did n't linger here long, but, taking a key from a drawer, continued up the staircase, to the ominous funeral marches of the beating rain on the skylight, and paused on the landing to glance into his son's and daughter's bedrooms, duplicates of the bizarre extrava- gance below. If he were seeking some characteristic traces of his absent family, they certainly were not here in the painted and still damp blazoning of their later successes. Ho ascended another staircase, and, passing to the wing of A MILLIONAIEE OF KOUGH-AND-KEADY 313 the house, paused before a small door, which was locked. Already the ostentatious decorations of wall and passages were left behind, and the plain lath-and-plaster partition of the attic lay before him. He unlocked the door, and threw it open. CHAPTEK V Thb apartment he entered was really only a lumber* room or loft over the wing of the house, which had been left bare and unfinished, and which revealed in its meagre slceleton of beams and joints the hollow sham of the whole structure. But in more violent contrast to the fresher glories of the other part of the house were its contents, which were the heterogeneous collection of old furniture, old luggage, and cast-off clothing, left over from the past life in the old cabin. It was a much plainer record of the simple beginnings of the family than Mrs. Mulrady cared to have remain in evidence, and for that reason it had been relegated to the hidden recesses of the new house, in the hope that it might absorb or digest it. There were old cribs, in which the infant limbs of Mamie and Abner had been tucked up ; old looking-glasses, that had reflected their shining, soapy faces, and Mamie's best chip Sunday hat ; an old sewing-machine, that had been worn out in active service ; old patchwork quilts ; an old accordion, to whose long-drawn inspirations Mamie had sung hymns ; old pictures, books, and old toys. There were one or two old chromos, and, stuck in an old frame, a colored print from the " Illustrated London News " of a Christmas gathering in an old English country house. He stopped and picked up this print, which he had often seen before, gazing at it with a new and singular interest. He won- dered if Mamie had seen anything of this kind in England, and why could n't he have had something like it here, iii their own fine house, with themselves and a few friends ? A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 315 He remembered a past Christmas, when he had bought Mamie that now headless doll with the few coins that were left him after buying their frugal Christmas dinner. There was an old spotted hobby-horse that another Christmas had brought to Abner — Abner, who would be driving a fast trotter to-morrow at the Springs ! How everything had changed ! How they all had got up in the world, and how far beyond this kind of thing — and yet — yet il would have been rather comfortable to have all been to- gether again here. Would they have been more comfort- able ? Ko ! Yet then he might have had something to do, and been less lonely to-morrow. What of that ? He had something to do : to look after this immense fortune. What more could a man want, or should he want ? It was rather mean in him, able to give his wife and children everything they wanted, to be wanting anything more. He laid down the print gently, after dusting its glass and frame with his silk handkerchief, and slowly left the room. The drum-beat of the rain followed him down the stair- case, but he shut it out with his other thoughts, when he again closed the door of his office. He sat diligently to work by the declining winter light, until he was interrupted by the entrance of his Chinese waiter to tell him that supper — which was the meal that Mulrady religiously ad- hered to in place of the late dinner of civilization — was ready in the dining-room. Mulrady mechanically obeyed the summons ; but on entering the room, the oasis of a few plates in a desert of white table-cloth which awaited him made him hesitate. In its best aspect, the high dark Gothic mahogany ecclesiastical sideboard and chairs of this room, which looked like the appointments of a mortuary chapel, were not exhilarating ; and to-day, in the light oi the rain-iilmed windows and the feeble rays of a lamp halt obscured by the dark, shining walls, it was most depress- ing. 316 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY " You kin take up supper into my office," said Mulrady_ with a sudden inspiration. " I '11 eat it there." He ate it there, with bis usual healthy appetite, -which did not require even the stimulation of company. He had just finished, when his Irish cook — the one female ser- vant of the house — came to ask permission to he absent that evening and the next day. " I suppose the likes of your honor won't be at home on the Christmas Day ? And it 's me cousins from the old counthry at Eough-and-Keady that are invitin' me." " Why don't you ask them over here ? " said Mulrady, with another vague inspiration. " I '11 stand treat." " Lord preserve you for a jinerous gintleman ! But it 's the likes of them and myself that would n't be at bonis here on such a day." There was so much truth in this that Mulrady checked a sigh as be gave the required permission, without saying that he had intended to remain. He could cook his own breakfast : he had done it before ; and it would be some- thing to occupy him. As to his dinner, perhaps he could go to the hotel at E,ough-and-B,eady. He worked on until the night had well advanced. Then, overcome with a cer- tain restlessness that disturbed him, he was forced to put his books and papers away. It had begun to blow in fitful gusts, and occasionally the rain was driven softly across the panes like the passing of childish fingers. This dis- turbed him more than the monotony of silence, for he was not a nervous man. He seldom read a book, and the county paper furnished him only the financial and mercan- tile news which was part of his business. He knew he could not sleep if he went to bed. At last he rose, opened the window, and looked out from pure idleness of occupa- tion. A splash of wheels in the distant muddy road and fragments of a drunken song showed signs of an early wan- ^ring reveler. There were no lights to be seen at the A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 317 closed works ; a profound darkness encompassed the house, as if the distant pines in the hollow had moved up and round it. The silence was broken now only by the occa- sional sighing of wind and rain. It was not an inviting night for a perfunctory walk ; but an idea struck him — he would call upon the Slinns, and anticipate his next day's visit • They would probably have company, and be glad to see him : he could tell the girls of Mamie and her success. That he had not thought of this before was a proof of his usual self-contained isolation ; that he thought of it now was an equal proof that he was becoming at last accessible to loneliness. He was angry with himself for what seemed to him a selfish weakness. He returned to his office, and, putting the envelope that had been lying on Slinn's desk in his pocket, threw a serape over his shoulders, and locked the front door of the house behind him. It was well that the way was a familiar one to him, and that his feet instinctively found the trail, for the night was very dark. At times he was warned only by the gurgling of water of little rivulets that descended the hill and crossed his path. Without the slightest fear, and with neither imagination nor sensitiveness, he recalled how, the winter before, one of Don Caesar's vaqueros, cross- ing this hill at night, had fallen down the chasm of a land- slip caused by the rain, and was found the next morning with his neck broken in the gully. Don Csesar had to take care of the man's family. Suppose such an accident should happen to him ? Well, he had made his will. His wife and children would be provided for, and the work of the mine would go on all the same ; he had arranged for that. Would anybody miss him ? Would his wife, or his son, or his daughter ? No. He felt such a sudden and over- whelming conviction of the truth of this,, that he stopped as suddenly as if the chasm had opened before him. No ! It was the truth. If he were to disappear forever in the 318 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY darkness of the Christmas night, there was none to feel his loss. His wife would take care of Mamie ; his son would take care of himself, as he had before — relieved of even the scant paternal authority he rebelled against. A more imaginative man than Mulrady would have combated or have followed out this idea, and then dismissed it ; to the millionaire's matter-of-fact mind it was a deduction that, having once presented itself to his perception, was already a recognized fact. Tor the first time in his life he felt a sudden instinct of something like aversion towards his family, a feeling that even his son's dissipation and criminality had never provoked. He hurried on angrily through the darkness. It was very strange ; the old house should be almost before him now, across the hollow, yet there were no indi- cations of light ! It was not until he actually reached the garden-fence, and the black bulk of shadow rose out against the sky, that he saw a faint ray of light from one of the lean-to windows. He went to the front door and knocked. After waiting in vain for a reply, he knocked again. The second knock proving equally futile, he tried the door ; it was unlocked, and, pushing it open, he walked in. The narrow passage was quite dark ; but from his knowledge of the house he knew the " lean-to " was next to the kitchen, and, passing through the dining-room into it, he opened the door of the little room from which the light proceeded. It came from a single candle on a small table ; and beside it, with his eyes moodily fixed on the dying embers of the fire, sat old Slinn. There was no other light nor another human being in the whole house. For the instant Mulrady, forgetting his own feelings in the mute picture of the utter desolation of the helpless man, remained speechless on the threshold. Then, recalling himself, he stepped forward and laid his hand gayly on the bowed shoulders. A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 319 "Eouse up out o' this, old man ! Come ! this won't do. Look ! I 've run over here in the rain, jist to have a socia- ble time with you all." " I knew it," said the old man, without looking up ; "I knew you'd come." " You knew I 'd come ? " echoed Mulrady, with an uneasy return of the strange feeling of awe with which he regarded Slinn's abstraction. " Yes ; you were alone — like myself — all alone ! " " Then, why in thunder did n't you open the door or sing out just now ? " he said, with an aifected brusquerie to cover his uneasiness. " Where 's your daughters ? " " Gone to Eough-and-Eeady to a party." " And your son ? " " He never comes here when he can amuse himself else- where." " Your children might have stayed home on Christmas Eve." " So might yours." He did n't say this impatiently^ but with a certain ab- stracted conviction far beyond any suggestion of its being a retort. Mulrady did not appear to notice it. " Well, I don't see why us old folks can't enjoy ourselves without them," said Mulrady, with afifected cheerfulness. " Let 's have a good time, you and me. Let 's see — you have n't any one you can send to my house, hev you ? " " They took the servant with them," said Slinn briefly. " There is no one here." " All right," said the millionaire briskly. " I '11 go my- self. Do you think you could manage to light up a little more, and build a fire in the kitchen while I'm gone ? It used to be mighty comfortable in the old times." He helped the old man to rise from his chair, and seemed to have infused into him some of his own energy. He then added, " Now, don't you get yourself down again into that 320 A MILLIONAIEE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY chair until I come back," and darted out into the night onc« more. In a quarter of an hour he returned with a tag on his broad shoulders which one of his porters would have shrunk from lifting, and laid it before the blazing hearth of the now-lighted kitchen. " It 's something the old woman got for her party, that didn't come off," he said apologetically. " I reckon we can pick out enough for a spread. That darned Chinaman would n't come with me," he added, with a laugh, " because, he said, he 'd knocked off work ' allee same, Mellican man ! ' Look here, Slinn," he said, with a sudden decisiveness, " my pay-roll of the men around here don't run short of a hundred and fifty dollars a day, and yet I could n't get a hand to help me bring this truck over for my Christmas dinner." " Of course," said Slinn gloomily. " Of course ; so it oughter be," returned Mulrady shortly. " Why, it 's only their one day out of 364 ; and I can have 363 days off, as I am their boss. I don't mind a man's being independent," he continued, taking off his coat and beginning to unpack his sack — a common "gunny bag" — used for potatoes. " We 're independent ourselves, ain't we, Slinn ? " His good spirits, which had been at first labored and affected, had become natural. Slinn, looking at his brightened eye and fresher color, could not help thinking he was more like his own real self at this moment than in his counting- house and offices — with all his simplicity as a capitalist. A less abstracted and more observant critic than Slinn woulil have seen in this patient aptitude for real work, and the recognition of the force of petty detail, the dominance of the old market-gardener in his former humble, as well as his later more ambitious successes. " Heaven keep us from being dependent upon our chil- dren ! " said Slinn darkly. A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY 321 " Let the j'oung ones alone to-night ; we can get along without them, as they can without us," said Mulrady, with a slight twinge as he thought of his reflections on the hill- side. " But look here, there 's some champagne and them sweet cordials that women like ; there 's jellies and such like stuff, about as good as they make 'em, I reckon ; and pre- serves, and tongues, and spiced beef — take your pick ! Stop, let 's spread them out." He dragged the table to the middle of the floor, and piled the provisions upon it. They certainly were not deficient in quality or quantity. " Now, Slinn, wade in." " I don't feel hungry," said the invalid, who had lapsed again into a chair before the fire. " No more do I," said Mulrady ; " but I reckon it 's the right thing to do about this time. Some folks think they can't be happy without they 're getting outside o' suthin', and my directors down at 'Frisco can't do any business without a dinner. Take some champagne, to begin with." He opened a bottle, and filled two tumblers. " It 's past twelve o'clock, old man, so here 's a Merry Christmas to you, and both of us ez is here. And here 's another to our families — ez isn't." They both drank their wine stolidly. The rain beat against the windows sharply, but without the hollow echoes of the house on the hill. " I must write to the old woman and Mamie, and say that you and me had a high old time on Christmas Eve." " By ourselves," added the invalid. Mr. Mulrady coughed. " Nat'rally — by ourselves. And her provisions," he added, with a laugh. " We 're really beholden to her for 'em. If she had n't thought of having them " — " For somebody ■ else, you would n't have had them — would you ? " said Slinn slowly, gazing at the fire. " No," said Mulrady dubiously. After a pause he began 322 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY more vivaciously, and as if to shake off some disagreeable thought that was impressing him. " But I must n't forget to give you your Christmas, old man, and I 've got it right here with me." He took the folded envelope from his pocket, and, holding it in his hand with his elbow on the table, continued : " I don't mind telling you what idea I had in giving you what I 'm goin' to give you now. I 've been thinking about it for a day or two. A man like you don't want money — you would n't spend it. A man like you don't want stocks or fancy investments, for you could n't look after them. A man like you don't want diamonds and jewellery, nor a gold-headed cane, when it 's got to be used as a crutch. No, sir. What you want is suthin' that won't run away from you ; that is always there before you and won't wear out, and will last after you're gone. That's land ! And if it was n't that I have sworn never to sell or give away this house and that garden, if it was n't that I 've held out agin the old woman and Mamie on that point, you should have this house and that garden. But, mebbe, for the same reason that I 've told you, I want that land to keep for myself. But I 've selected four acres of the hill this side of my shaft, and here's the deed of it. As soon as you're ready, I'll put you up a house as big as this — that shall be yours, with the land, as long as you live, old man ; and after that your children's." " No ; not theirs ! " broke in the old man passionately. "Never!" Mulrady recoiled for an instant in alarm at the sudden and unexpected vehemence of his manner. " Go slow, old man; go slow," he said soothingly. "Of course, you'll do with your own as you like." Then, as if changing the subject, he went on cheerfully : " Perhaps you '11 wonder -why I picked out that spot on the hillside. Well, first, because I reserved it after my strike in case the lead should run that way, but it did n't. Next, because when you first A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY <^2S came here you seemed to like the prospect. You used to sit there looking at it, as if it reminded you of something. You never said it did. They say you was sitting on that boulder there when you had that last attack, you know ■, but," he added gently, "you've forgotten all about it." " I have forgotten nothing," said Slinn, rising, with a choking voice. " I wish to God I had ; I wish to God I could ! " He was on his feet now, supporting himself by the table. The subtle generous liquor he had drunk had evidently shaken his self-control, and burst those voluntary bonds he had put upon himself for the last six months ; the insidi- ous stimulant had also put a strange vigor into his blood and nerves. His face was flushed, but not distorted ; his eyes were brilliant, but not fixed ; he looked as he might havp looked to Masters in his strength three years before on that very hillside. "Listen to me, Alvin Mulrady," he said, leaning over him with burning eyes. " Listen, while I have brain to think and strength to utter, why I have learnt to distrust, fear, and hate them ! You think you know my story. Well, hear the truth from me to-night, Alvin Mulrady, and do not wonder if I have cause." He stopped, and, with pathetic inefficiency, passed the fingers and inward-turned thumb of his paralyzed hand across his mouth, as if to calm himself. " Three years ago I was a miner, but not a miner like you ! I had experience, I had scientific knowledge, I had a theory, and the patience and energy to carry it out. I selected a spot that had all the indications, made a tunnel, and, without aid, counsel, or assistance of any kind, worked it for six months, without rest or cessation, and with scarcely food enough to sustain my body. Well, I made a strike ; not like you, Mulrady, not a blunder of good luck, a fool's fortune — there, I don't blame you for it — but in perfect demonstration of my 324 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-EEADT theory, the reward of my labor. It was no pocket, but a vein, a lead, that I had regularly hunted down and found — a fortune ! " I never knew how hard I had worked until that morn- ing ; I never knew what privations I had undergone until that moment of my success, when I found I could scarcely think or move ! I staggered out into the open air. The only human soul near me was a disappointed prospector, a man named Masters, who had a tunnel not far away. I managed to conceal from him my good fortune and my feeble state, for I was suspicious of him — of any one; and as he was going away that day I thought I could keep my secret until he was gone. I was dizzy and confused, but I remember that I managed to write a letter to my wife, tell- ing lier of my good fortune, and begging her to come to me ; and I remember that I saw Masters go. I don't re- member anything else. They picked me up on the road, near that boulder, as you know." " I know," said Mulrady, with a swift recollection of the stage-driver's account of his discovery. " They say," continued Slinn tremblingly, " that I never recovered my senses or consciousness for nearly three years ; they say I lost my memory completely during my illness, and that by God's mercy, while I lay in that hospital, I knew no more than a babe ; they say, because I could not speak or move, and only had my food as nature required it, that I was an imbecile, and that I never really came to my senses until after my son found me in the hospital. They say that — but I tell you to-night, Alvin Mulrady," he said, raising his voice to a hoarse outcry, " I tell you that it is a lie ! I came to my senses a week after I lay on that hospital cot ; I kept my senses and memory ever after dup- ing the three years that I was there, until Harry brought his cold, hypocritical face to my bedside and recognized me. Do you understand ? I, the possessor of millions, lay there A MILLIONAIRE OF BOUGH-AND-EEADY 325 a pauper ! Deserted by wife and children — a spectacle for the curious, a sport for the doctors — and I knew it ! I heard them speculate on the cause of my helplessness. I heard them talk of excesses and indulgences — I, that never knew wine or woman ! I heard a preacher speak of the finger of God, and point to me. May God curse him ! " " Go slow, old man ; go slow," said Mulrady gently. " I heard them speak of me as a friendless man, an out- cast, a criminal, — a being whom no one would claim. They were right ; no one claimed me. The friends of others visited them ; relations came and took away their kindred ; a few lucky ones got well ; a few, equally lucky, died ! I alone lived on, uncared for, deserted. " The first year," he went on more rapidly, " I prayed for their coming. I looked for them every day. I never lost hope. I said to myself, ' She has not got my letter ; but when the time passes she will be alarmed by my silence, and then she will come or send some one to seek me.' A young student got interested in my case, and, by studying my eyes, thought that I was not entirely imbecile and un- conscious. With the aid of an alphabet, he got me to spell my name and town in Illinois, and promised by signs to write to my family. But in an evil moment I told him of my cursed fortune, and in that moment I saw that he thought me a fooi and an idiot. He went away, and I saw him no more. Yet I still hoped. I dreamed of their joy at finding me, and the reward that my wealth would give them. Perhaps I was a little weak still, perhaps a little flighty, too, at times ; but I was quite happy that year, even in my disappointment, for I still had hope ! " He paused, and again composed his face with his paralyzed hand ; but his manner had become less excited, and his voice was stronger. *' A change must have come over me the second year, foi 826 A MILLION AIKE OF KOUGH-AND-KEADY I only dreaded their coming now and finding me so altered. A horrible idea that they might, like the student, believe me crazy if I spoke of my fortune made me pray to God that they might not reach me until after I had regained my health and strength — and found my fortune. When the third year found me still there — I no longer prayed for them — I cursed them ! I swore to myself that they should never enjoy my wealth ; but I wanted to live, and let them know I had it. I found myself getting stronger ; but as I had no money, no friends, and nowhere to go, I con- cealed my real condition from the doctors, except to give them my name, and to try to get some little work to do to enable me to leave the hospital and seek my lost trea- sure. One day I found out by accident that it had been discovered ! You understand — my treasure ! — that had cost me years of labor and my reason ; had left me a help- less, forgotten pauper. That gold I had never enjoyed had been found and taken possession of by another ! " He checked an exclamation from Mulrady with his band. " They say they picked me up senseless from the floor, where I must have fallen when I heard the news — I don't remember — I recall nothing until I was confronted, nearly three weeks after, by my son, who had called at the hospi- tal, as a reporter for a paper, and had accidentally dis- covered me through my name and appearance. He thought me crazy, or a fool. I did n't undeceive him. I did not tell him the story of the mine to excite his doubts and derision, or, worse (if I could bring proof to claim it), have it perhaps pass into his ungrateful hands. No ; I said nothing. I let him bring me here. He could do no less, and common decency obliged him to do that." " And what proof could you show of your claim ? " asked Mulrady gravely. " If I had that letter — if I could find Masters," began Slinn vaguely. A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 32V " Have you any idea where the letter is, or what has he- ;onie of Masters ? " continued Mulrady, with a matter-of- fact gravity that seemed to increase Slinn's vagueness and excite his irritability. " I don't know — I sometimes think " — He stopped, sat down again, and passed his hands across his forehead. " I have seen the letter somewhere since. Yes," he went on with sudden vehemence, '< I know it, I have seen it ! I " — His brows knitted, his features began to work con- vulsively ; he suddenly brought his paralyzed hand down, partly opened, upon the table. " I will remember where." " Go slow, old man ; go slow." " You asked me once about my visions. Well, that is one of them. I remember a man somewhere showing me that letter. I have taken it from his hands and opened it, and knew it was mine by the specimens of gold that were in it. But where — or when — or what became of it, I cannot tell. It will come to me — it must come to me soon." He turned his eyes upon Mulrady, who was regarding him with an expression of grave curiosity, and said bitterly, " You think me crazy. I know it. It needed only this." " Where is this mine ? " asked Mulrady, without heed- ing him. The old man's eyes swiftly sought the ground. " It is a secret, then ? " " No." " You have spoken of it to any one ? " « N'o." " Not to the man who possesses it ? " " No." " Why ? " " Because T would n't take it from him." " Why would n't you ? " " Because that man is yourself ! " 328 A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEAI/? In the instant of complete silence that followed they could hear that the monotonous patter of lain on the roof had ceased. " Then all this was in r«y shaft, and the vein I thought I struck there was your lead, found three years ago in your tunnel. Is that your idea ? " " Yes." " Then I don't sabe why you don't want to claim it." " I have told you why I don't want it for my children. I go further, now, and I tell you, Alvin Mulrady, that I was willing that your children should squander it, as they were doing. It has only been a curse to me ; it could only be a curse to them ; but I thought you were happy in seeing it feed selfishness and vanity. You think me bitter and hard. Well, I should have left you in your fool's paradise, but that I saw to-night, when you came here, that your eyes had been opened like mine. You, the possessor of my wealth, my treasure, could not buy your children's loving care and company with your mil- lions, any more than I could keep mine in my poverty. You were to-night lonely and forsaken, as I was. We were equal, for the first time in our lives. If that cursed gold had dropped down the shaft between us into the hell from which it sprang, we might have clasped hands like brothers across the chasm." Mulrady, who in a friendly show of being at his ease had not yet resumed his coat, rose in his shirt-sleeves, and, standing before the hearth, straightened his square figure by drawing down his waistcoat on each side with two powerful thumbs. After a moment's contemplative sur- vey of the floor between him and the speaker, he raised his eyes to Slinn. They were small and colorless ; the forehead above them was low, and crowned with a shock of tawny reddish hair ; even the rude strength of his lower features was enfeebled by a long, straggling, goat-Jik^ A MILLIONAIRE OF KOUGH-AND-EEADY 329 ■beard ; but for the first time in his life the whole face was impressed and transformed with a strong and simple dig- nity. " Ez far ez I kin see, Slinn," he said gravely, " the pint between you and me ain't to he settled by our chil- dren, or wot we allow is doo and right from them to us. Afore we preach at them for playing in the slumgullion, and gettin' themselves splashed, perhaps we mout ez well remember that that thar slumgullion comes from our own sluice-hoxes, where we wash our gold. So we '11 just put them behind us, so," he continued, with a backward sweep of his powerful hand towards the chimney, " and goes on. The next thing that crops up ahead of us is your three years in the hospital, and wot you went through at that time. I ain't sayin' it was n't rough on you, and that you did n't have it about as big as it 's made ; but ez you '11 allow that you 'd hev had that for three years, whether I 'd found your mine or whether I had n't, I think we can put that behind us, too. There 's nothiu' now left to prospect but your story of your strike. Well, take your own proofs. Masters is not here ; and if he was, accordin' to your own story, he knows nothin' of your strike that day, and could only prove you were a disappointed prospector in a tunnel ; your letter — that the person you wrote to never got — you can't produce ; and if you did, would be only your own story without proof ! There is not a busi- ness man ez would look at your claim ; there is n't a friend of yours that would n't believe you were crazy, and dreamed it all ; there is n't a rival of yours ez would n't say ez (Tou 'd invented it. Slinn, I 'm a business man — I am your friend — I am your rival — but I don't think you 're lyiti' — I don't think you're crazy — and I'm not sure jour claim ain't a good one ! "Ef you reckon from that that I 'm goin' to hand you over the mine to-morrow," he went on, after a pause, raising 330 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY his hand with a deprecating gesture, " you 're mistaken. For your own sake, and the sake of my wife and children, you 've got to prove it more clearly than you hev ; but I promise you that from this night forward I will spare neither time nor money to help you to do it. I have more than doubled the amount that you would have had, had you taken the mine the day you came from the hospital. When you prove to me that your story is true — and we will find some way to prove it, if it is true — that amount will be yours at once, without the need of a word from law or law- yers. If you want my name to that in black and white, come to the office to-morrow, and you shall have it." " And you think I '11 take it now ? " said the old man passionately. " Do you think that your charity will bring back my dead wife, the three years of my lost life, the love and respect of my children ? Or do you think that your own wife and children, who deserted you in your wealth, will come back to you in your poverty ? No ! Let the mine stay, with its curse, where it is — I '11 have none of it ! " " Go slow, old man ; go slow," said Mulrady quietly, putting on his coat. " You will take the mine if it is yours ; if it is n't I '11 keep it. If it is yours, you will give your children a chance to show what they can do for you in your sudden prosperity, as I shall give mine a chance to show how they can stand reverse and disappointment. If my head is level — and I reckon it is — they '11 both pan out all right." He turned and opened the door. With a quick revulsion of feeling, Slinn suddenly seized Mulrady's hand between both of his own, and raised it to his lips. Mulrady smiled, disengaged his hand gently, and saying soothingly, " Go slow, old man ; go slow," closed the door behind him, and passed out into the clear Christinas dawn. For the stars, with the exception of one that seemed to sparkle brightly over the shaft of his former fortunes, were A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 331 slowly paling. A burden seemed to have fallen from hia square shoulders as he stepped out sturdily into the morning air. He had already forgotten the lonely man behind him, for he was thinking only of his wife and daughter. And at the same moment they were thinking of him ; and in their elaborate villa overlooking the blue Mediterranean at Cannes were discussing, in the event of Mamie's marriage with Prince Eosso e Negro, the possibility of Mr. Mulrady's pay- ing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the gambling debts of that unfortunate but deeply oonBoientious noble- man. CHAPTER VI When Alvin Mulrady reentered his own house, he no longer noticed its loneliness. Whether the events of the last few hours had driven it from his mind, or whether his late reflections had repeopled it with his family under plea- santer auspices, it would be difficult to determine. Desti- tute as he was of imagination, and matter-of-fact in his judgments, he realized his new situation as calmly as he would have considered any business proposition. While he was decided to act upon his moral convictions purely, he was prepared to submit the facts of Slinn's claim to the usual patient and laborious investigation of his practical mind. It was the least he could do to justify the ready and almost superstitious assent he had given to Slinn's story. When he had made a few memoranda at his desk by the growing light, he again took the key of the attic, and ascended to the loft that held the tangible memories of his past life. If he was still under the influence of his reflec- tions, it was with very different sensations that he now regarded them. Was it possible that these ashes might be warmed again, and these scattered embers rekindled ? His practical sense said No ! whatever his wish might have been. A sudden chill came over him ; he began to realize the terrible change that was probable, more by the impossi- bility of his accepting the old order of things than by his volnntarily abandoning the new. His wife and children would never submit. They would go away from this place, far away, where no reminiscence of either former wealth or A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADY 333 former poverty could obtrude itself upon them. Mamie — his Mamie — should never go back to the cabin, since desecrated by Slinn's daughters, and take their places. No ! Why should she? — because of the half-sick, half-crazy dreams of an old vindictive man ? He stopped suddenly. In moodily turning over a heap of mining clothing, blankets, and india-rubber boots, he had come upon an old pickaxe — the one he had found in the shaft ; the one he had carefully preserved for a year, and then forgotten ! Why had he not remembered it before ? He was frightened, not only at this sudden resurrection of the proof he was seeking, but at his own fateful forgetful- ness. Why had he never thought of this when Slinn was speaking ? A sense of shame, as if he had voluntarily with- held it from the wronged man, swept over him. He was turning away, when he was again startled. This time it was by a voice from below — a voice calling him — Slinn's voice. How had the crippled man got here so soon, and what did he want ? He hurriedly laid aside the pick, which, in his first impulse, he had taken to the door of the loft with him, and descended the stairs. The old man was standing at the door of his olfice awaiting him. As Mulrady approached, he trembled violently, and clung to the door-post for support. " I had to come over, Mulrady," he said in a choked voice ; " I could stand it there no longer. I 've come to beg you to forget all that I have said ; to drive all thought of what passed between us last night out of your head and mine forever 1 I 've come to ask you to swear with me that neither of us will ever speak of this again forever. It is not worth the happiness I have had in your friendship for the last half-year ; it is not worth the agony I have suffered in its loss in the last half-hour." Mulrady grasped his outstretched hand. " P'r'aps," he said gravely, " there may n't be any use for another word, 334 A MILLIONAIRE OF BOUGH- AND-RE AD Y if you can answer one now. Come with me. No matter," he added, as Slinn moved with difficulty ; " I will help you." He half supported, half lifted the paralyzed man up the three flights of stairs, and opened the door of the loft. The pick was leaning against the wall, where he had left it. '■ Look around, and see if you recognize anything." The old man's eyes fell upon the implement in a half- frightened way, and then lifted themselves interrogatively to Mulrady's face. " Do you know that pick ? " Slinn raised it in liis trembling hands. " I think I do : and yet " — " Slinn ! is it yours ? " " No," he said hurriedly. " Then what makes you think you know it ? " " It has a short handle like one I have seen." " And it is n't yours ? " " No. The handle of mine was broken and spliced. I was too poor to buy a new one." " Then you say that this pick which I found in my shaft is not yours ? " " Yes." " Slinn ! " The old man passed his hand across his forehead, looked at Mulrady, and dropped his eyes. " It is not mine," he said simply. " That will do," said Mulrady gravely. " And you will not speak of this again ? " said the old man timidly. " I promise you — not until I have some more evi- dence." He kept his word, but not before he had extorted from Slinn as full a description of Masters as his imperfect memory and still more imperfect knowledge of his former A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-KEADY 385 neighbor could furnish. He placed this, with a large sum of money and the promise of a still larger reward, in the hands of a trustworthy agent. When this was done he re- sumed his old relations with Slinn, with the exception that the domestic letters of Mrs. Mulrady and Mamie were no longer a subject of comment, and their bills no longer passed through his private secretary's hands. Three months passed ; the rainy season had ceased, the hillsides around Mulrady's shaft were bridal-like with flowers ; indeed, there were rumors of an approaching fashionable marriage in the air, and vague hints in the " Record " that the presence of a distinguished capitalist might soon be required abroad. The face of that distin- guished man did not, however, reflect the gayety of nature nor the anticipation of happiness ; on the contrary, for the past few weeks, he had appeared disturbed and anxious, and that rude tranquillity which had characterized him was wanting. People shook their heads ; a few suggested specu- lations ; all agreed on extravagance. One morning, after office hours, Slinn, who had been watching the careworn face of his employer, suddenly rose and limped to his side. " We promised each other," he said in a voice trem- bling with emotion, " never to allude to pur talk of Christ- mas Eve again unless we had other proofs of what I told you then. We have none ; I don't believe we '11 ever have any more. I don't care if we never do, and I break that promise now because I cannot bear to see you unhappy and know that this is the cause." Mulrady made a motion of deprecation, but the old man continued : — " You are unhappy, Alvin Mulrady. You are unhappy, because you want to give your dq,ughter a dowry of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and you will not use the fortune that you think may be mine." 836 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOXJGH-AND-EEADY " Who 's been talking about a dowry ? " asked Mulrady with an angry flush. " Don Csesar Alvarado told my daughter." " Then that is why he has thrown off on me since he re- turned," said Mulrady, with sudden small malevolence, 'Just that he might unload his gossip because Mamie would n't have him. The old woman was right in warnin' Qie agin him." The outburst was so unlike him, and so dwarfed his large though common nature with its littleness, that it was easy to detect its feminine origin, although it filled Slinn with vague alarm. " Never mind him," said the old man hastily ; " what I wanted to say now is that I abandon everything to you and yours. There are no proofs ; there never will be any more than what we know, than what we have tested and ■found wanting. I swear to you that, except to show you that I have not lied and am not crazy, I would destroy them on their way to your hands. Keep the money, and spend it as you will. Make your daughter happy, and, through her, yourself. You have made me happy through your liberality; don't make me suffer through 3'our priva- tion." " I tell you what, old man," said Mulrady, rising to his feet, with an awkward mingling of frankness and shame in his manner and accent, " I should like to pay that money for Mamie, and let her be a princess, if it would make her happy. T should like to shut the lantern jaws of that Don Csesar, who 'd be too glad if anything happened to break off Mamie's match. But I should n't touch that capital — un- less you 'd lend it to me. If you '11 take a note from me, payable if the property ever becomes yours, I 'd thank you. A mortgage on the old house and garden, and the lands I bought of Don Caesar, outside the mine, will screen you." "If that pleases you," said the old man, with a smile A MILLIOXAIKE OF EOUGH-AND-KEADY 337 " have your way ; and if I tear up the note, it does not concern you." It did please the distinguished capitalist of Eough-and- Ready ; for the next few days his face wore a brightened expression, and he seemed to have recovered his old tranquil- lity. There was, in fact, a slight touch of consequence in his manner, the first ostentation he had ever indulged in, when he was informed one morning at his private office that Don Caesar Alvarado was in the counting-house, desiring a few moments' conference. " Tell him to come in," said Mulrady shortly. The door opened upon Don Csesar — erect, sallow, and grave. Mulrady had not seen him since his return from Europe, and even his inexperienced eyes were struck with the undeniable ease and grace with which the young Spanish-American had assimilated the style and fashion of an older civilization. It seemed rather as if he had returned to a familiar condition than adopted a new one. " Take a cheer," said Mulrady. The young man looked at Slinn with quietly persistent significance. " You can talk all the same," said Mulrady, accepting the significance. " He 's my private secretary." " It seems that for that reason we might choose another moment for our conversation," returned Don Csesar haugh- tily. " Do I understand you cannot see me now ? " Mulrady hesitated. He had always revered and recognized a certain social superiority in Don Ramon Alvarado ; some- how his son — a young man of half his age, and once a possible son-in-law — appeared to claim that recognition also. He rose, without a word, and preceded Don Csesar upstairs into his drawing-room. The alien portrait on the wall seemed to evidently take sides with Don Csesar, as against the common intruder, Mulrady. " I hoped the Seriora Mulrady might have saved me this 338 A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-EEADT interview," said the young man stiffly ; " or at least have given you some intimation of the reason why I seek it. As you just now proposed my talking to you in the presence of the unfortunate Senor Esslinn himself, it appears she has not." " I don't know what you 're driving at, or what Mrs. Mulrady 's got to do with Slinn or you," said Mulrady in angry uneasiness. " Do I understand," said Don Csesar sternly, " that Senora Mulrady has not told you that I entrusted to her an important letter, belonging to Senor Esslinn, which I had the honor to discover in the wood six months ago, and which she said she would refer to you ? " " Letter ? " echoed Mulrady slowly ; " my wife had a letter of Slinn's ? " Don Csesar regarded the millionaire attentively. " It is as I feared," he said gravely. " You do not know, or you would not have remained silent." He then briefly recounted the story of his finding Slinn's letter, his exhibition of it to the invalid, its disastrous effect upon him, and his innocent discovery of the contents. " I believed myself at that time on the eve of being allied with your family, Seiior Mul- rady," he said haughtily ; " and when I found myself in possession of a secret which affected its integrity and good name, I did not choose to leave it in the helpless hands of its imbecile owner, or his sillier children, but proposed to trust it to the care of the senora, that she and you might deal with it as became your honor and mine. I followed her to Paris, and gave her the letter there. She affected to laugh at any pretension of the writer, or any claim he might have on your bounty; but she kept the letter, and, I fear, destroyed it. You will understand, Senor Mulrady, that when I found that my attentions were no longer agreeable to your daughter, I had no longer the right to speak to you on the subject, nor could I, without misapprehension, force hei A MILLIONAIRE OF EOUGH-AND-UEADY 339 to return it. I should have still kept the secret to myself, if I had not since my return here made the nearer acquaint- ance of Seiior Esslinn's daughters. I cannot present my- self at his house as a suitor for the hand of the Senorita Vashti, until I have asked his absolution for my complicity in the wrong that has been done to him. I cannot, as a caballero, do that without your permission. It is for that purpose I am here." It needed only this last blow to complete the humilia- tion that whitened Mulrady's face. But his eye was none the less clear and his voice none the less steady as he turned to Don Caesar. " You know perfectly the contents of that letter ? " " I have kept a copy of it." " Come with me." He preceded his visitor down the staircase and back into his private office. Slinn looked up at his employer's face in unrestrained anxiety. Mulrady sat down at his desk, wrote a few hurried lines, and rang a bell. A manager appeared from the counting-room. " Send that to the bank." He wiped his pen as methodically as if he had not at that moment countermanded the order to pay his daugh- ter's dowry, and turned quietly to Slinn. " Don Csesar Alvarado has found the letter you wrote your wife on the day you made your strike in the tunnel that is now my shaft. He gave the letter to Mrs. Mul- rady ; but he has kept a copy." Unheeding the frightened gesture of entreaty from Slinn, equally with the unfeigned astonishment of Don Caesar, who was entirely unprepared for this revelation of Mul- rady's and Slinn's confidences, he continued: "He has brought the copy with him. I reckon it would he only square for you to compare it with what you remember of the original." 840 A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY In obedience to a gesture from Mulrady, Don Caesar me- chanically took from his pocket a folded paper, and handed it to the paralytic. But Slinn's trembling fingers could scarcely unfold the paper; and as his eyes fell upon its contents, his convulsive lips could not articulate a word. "P'r'aps I'd better read it for you," said Mulrady gently. "You kin follow me and stop me when I go wrong." He took the paper, and, in a dead silence, read as fol- lows : — " Deak Wife, — I 've just struck gold in my tunnel, and you must get ready to come here with the children, at once. It was after six months' hard work ; and I 'm so weak I ... It 's a fortune for us all. We should he rich even if it were only a branch vein dipping west towards the next tunnel, instead of dipping east, according to my *heory " — " Stop ! " said Slinn in a voice that shook the room. Mulrady looked up. "It's wrong, ain't it?" he asked anxiously; "it should be east towards the next tunnel." " No ! It 's right ! I am wrong ! We 're all wrong ! " Slinn had risen to his feet, erect and inspired. " Don't you see," he almost screamed, with passionate vehemence, " it's Masters' s abandoned tunnel your shaft has struck ? Not mine ! It was Masters's pick you found ! I know it now ! " " And your own tunnel ? " said Mulrady, springing to his feet in his excitement. " And your strike ? " " Is still there ! " The next instant, and before another question could be asked, Slinn had darted from the room. In the exaltation of that supreme discovery he regained the full control of his mind and body. Mulrady and Don Caesar, no less ex- cited, followed him precipitately, and with difficulty kept up A MILLIONAIRE OF ROUGH-AND-READY 341 with bis feverish speed. Their way lay along the hase of the hill below Mulrady's shaft, and on a line with Masters's abandoned tunnel. Only once he stopped to snatch a pick from the hand of an astonished Chinaman at work in a ditch, as he still kept on his way, a quarter of a mile be- yond the shaft. Here he stopped before a jagged hole in the hillside. Bared to the sky and air, the very openness of its abandonment, its unpropitious position, and distance from the strike in Mulrady's shaft had no doubt preserved its integrity from wayfarer or prospector. " You can't go in there alone, and without a light," said Mulrady, laying his hand on the arm of the excited man. " Let me get more help and proiper tools." "I know every step in the dark as in the daylight," returned Slinn, struggling. " Let me go, while I have yet strength and reason ! Stand aside ! " He broke from them, and the next moment was swal- lowed up in the yawning blackness. They waited with bated breath until, after a seeming eternity of night and silence, they heard his returning footsteps, and ran forward to meet him. As he was carrying something clasped to his breast, they supported him to the opening. But at the same moment the object of his search, and his burden, a misshapen wedge of gold and quartz, dropped with him, and both fell together with equal immobility to the ground. He had still strength to turn his fading eyes to the other millionaire of Eough-and-Ready, who leaned over him. " You — see," he gasped brokenly, " I was not — crazy ! " No. He was dead I A DEIFT FROM EEDWOOD CAMP They had all known him as a shiftless, worthless crea ture. From the time he first entered Redwood Camp, car- rying his entire effects in a red handkerchief on the end of a long-handled shovel, until he lazily drifted out of it on a plank in the terrible inundation of '56, they never expected anything better of him. In a community of strong men with sullen virtues and charmingly fascinating vices, he was tolerated as possessing neither — not even rising by any dominant human weakness or ludicrous quality to the im- portance of a butt. In the dramatis persona of Redwood Camp he was a simple " super " — who had only passive, speechless roles in those fierce dramas that were sometimes unrolled beneath its green-curtained pines. Nameless and penniless, he was overlooked by the census and ignored by the tax-collector, wTule in a hotly contested election for sheriff, when even the headboards of the scant cemetery were consulted to fill the poll-lists, it was discovered that neither candidate had thought fit to avail himself of his actual vote. He was debarred the rude heraldry of a nick- name of achievement, and in a camp made up of " Euchre Bills," "Poker Dicks," "Profane Pete," and "Snap-shot Harry," was known vaguely as " him," " Skeesicks," oi " that coot." It was remembered long after, with a feeling of superstition, that he had never even met with the dig- nity of an accident, nor received the fleeting honor of a chance shot meant for somebody else in any of the liberal and broadly comprehensive encounters which distinguished the camp. And the inundation that finally carried him A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP 343 out of it was partly anticipated by his passive incompe- tency ; for while the others escaped — or were drowned in escaping — he calmly floated off on his plank without an opposing effort. For all that, Elijah Martin — which was his real name — was far from being unamiable or repellent. That he was cowardly, untruthful, seliish, and lazy, was undoubt- edly the fact ; perhaps it was his peculiar misfortune that, just then, courage, frankness, generosity, and activity were the dominant factors in the life of Redwood Camp. His submissive gentleness, his unquestioned modesty, his half refinement, and his amiable exterior consequently availed him nothing against the fact that he was missed during a raid of the Digger Indians, and lied to account for it ; or that he lost his right to a gold discovery by failing to make it good against a bully, and selfishly kept this dis- covery from the knowledge of the camp. Yet this weak- ness awakened no animosity in his companions, and it is probable that the indifference of the camp to his fate in this final catastrophe came purely from a simple forgetful- ness of one who at that supreme moment was weakly in- capable. Such was the reputation and such the antecedents of the man who, on the 15th of March, 1856, found himself adrift in a swollen tributary of the Minyo. A spring- freshet of unusual volume had flooded the adjacent river until, bursting its bounds, it escaped through the narrow, wedge-shaped valley that held Redwood Camp. For a day and a night the surcharged river poured half its waters through the straggling camp. At the end of that time every vestige of the little settlement was swept away ; all that was left was scattered far and wide in the country, caught in the hanging branches of water-side willows and alders, embayed in sluggish pools, dragged over submerged meadows, and one fragment — ■ bearing up Elijah Martin ^- S44 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP pursuing the devious courses of an unknown tributary fifty miles away. Had lie been a rash, impatient man, he would have been speedily drowned in some earlier desperate at- tempt to reach the shore ; had he been an ordinarily bold man, he would have succeeded in transferring himself to the branches of some obstructing tree ; but he was neither, and he clung to his broken raft-like berth with an endur- ance that was half the paralysis of terror and half the pa- tience of habitual misfortune. Eventually he was caught in a side current, swept to the bank, and cast ashore on an unexplored wilderness. His first consciousness was one of hunger that usurped any sentiment of gratitude for his escape from drowning. As soon as his cramped limbs permitted, he crawled out of the bushes in search of food. He did not know where he was ; there was no sign of habitation — or even occupation — anywhere. He had been too terrified to notice the direc- tion in which he had drifted — even if he had possessed the ordinary knowledge of a backwoodsman, which he did not. He was helpless. In his bewildered state, seeing a squirrel cracking a nut on the branch of a hollow tree near him, he made a half-frenzied dart at the frightened animal, which ran away. But the same association of ideas in his torpid and confused brain impelled him to search for the squirrel's hoard in the hollow of the tree. He ate the few hazel-nuts he found there ravenously. The purely animal instinct satisfied, he seemed to have borrowed from it a certain strength and intuition. He limped through the thicket not unlike some awkward, shy quadrumane, stopping here and there to peer out through the openings over the marshes that lay beyond. His sight, hearing, and even the sense of smell had become preternaturally acute. It was the latter which suddenly arrested his steps with the odor of dried fish. It had a significance beyond the mere instincts of hunger — it indicated the contiguity of some Indian en- A DRIFT FROM EEDWOOD CAMP 345 campment. And as such — it meant danger, torture, and death. He stopped, trembled violently, and tried to collect his scattered senses. Redwood Camp had embroiled itself need- lessly and brutally with the surrounding Indians, and only held its own against them by reckless courage and unerring marksmanship. The frequent use of a casual wandering Indian as a target for the practicing rifles of its members had kept up an undying hatred in the heart of the abori- gines and stimulated them to terrible and isolated reprisals. The scalped and skinned dead body of Jack Trainer, tied on his horse and held hideously upright by a cross of wood behind his saddle, had passed, one night, a slow and ghastly apparition, into camp ; the corpse of Dick Ryner had been found anchored on the river-bed, disemboweled and filled with stone and gravel. The solitary and unprotected mem- ber of Redwood Camp who fell into the enemy's hands was doomed. Elijah Martin remembered this, but his fears gradually began to subside in a certain apathy of the imagination, which perhaps dulled. his apprehensions and allowed the instinct of hunger to become again uppermost. He knew that the low bark tents, or wigwams, of the Indians were hung with strips of dried salmon, and his whole being was now centred upon an attempt to stealthily procure a deli- cious morsel. As yet he had distinguished no other sign of life or habitation ; a few moments later, however, and grown bolder with an animal-like trustfulness in his momen- tary security, he crept out of the thicket and found himself near a long, low mound or burrow-like structure of mud and bark on the river-bank. A single narrow opening, not unlike the entrance of an Esquimau hut, gave upon the- river. Martin had no difficulty in recognizing the character of the building. It was a " sweat-house," an institution common to nearly all the aboriginal tribes of California. 346 A DRIFT FKOM KEDWOOD CAMP Half a religious temple, it was also half a sanitary asylunj, was used as a Russian bath or superheated vault, from which the braves, sweltering and stifling all night, by smothered fires, at early dawn plunged, perspiring, into the ice-cold river. The heat and smoke were further utilized to dry and cure the long strips of fish hanging from the roof, and it was through the narrow aperture that served as a chimney that the odor escaped which Martin had detected. He knew that, as the bathers only occupied the house from midnight to early morn, it was now probably empty. He advanced confidently toward it. He was a little surprised to find that the small open space between it and the river was occupied by a rude scaffolding, like that on which certain tribes exposed their dead, but in this instance it only contained the feathered leggings, fringed blanket, and eagle-plumed head-dress of some brave. He did not, however, linger in this plainly visible area, but quickly dropped on all fours and crept into the interior of the house. Here he completed his feast with the fish, and warmed his chilled limbs on the embers of the still smoul- dering fires. It was while drying his tattered clothes and shoeless feet that he thought of the dead brave's useless laggings and moccasins, and it occurred to him that he would be less likely to attract the Indians' attention from a dis- tance and provoke a ready arrow, if he were disguised as one of them. Crawling out again, he quickly secured, not only the leggings, but the blanket and head-dress, and, put- ting them on, cast his own clothes into the stream. A bolder, more energetic, or more provident man would have iollowed the act by quickly making his way back to the thicket to reconnoitre, taking with him a supply of fish for • future needs. But Elijah Martin succumbed again to the recklessness of inertia ; he yielded once more to the animal instinct of momentary security. He returned to the inte- nor of the hut, curled himself again on the ashes, and, A DRIFT FEOM REDWOOD CAMP 347 weakly resolving to sleep until moonrise, and as weakly hesitating, ended by falling into uneasy but helpless stupor. "When he awoke, the rising sun, almost level with the low entrance to the sweat-house, was darting its direct rays into the interior, as if searching it with fiery spears. He had slept ten hours. He rose tremblingly to his knees. Every- thing was quiet without ; he might yet escape. He crawled to the opening. The open space before it was empty, but the scaffolding was gone. The clear, keen air revived him. As he sprang out, erect, a shout that nearly stunned him seemed to rise from the earth on all sides. He glanced around him in a helpless agony of fear. A dozen concentric circles of squatting Indians, whose heads were visible above the reeds, encompassed the banks around the sunken base of the sweat-house with successive dusky rings. Every avenue of escape seemed closed. Perhaps for that reason the atti- tude of his surrounding captors was passive rather than aggressive, and the shrewd, half-Hebraic profiles nearest him expressed only stoical waiting. There was a strange simi- larity of expression in his oWn immovable apathy of despair. His only sense of averting his fate was a confused idea of explaining his intrusion. His desperate memory yielded a few common Indian words. He pointed automatically to himself and the stream. His white lips moved. " I come — from — the river ! " A guttural cry, as if the whole assembly were clearing their throats, went round the different circles. The nearest rocked themselves to and fro and bent their feathered heads toward him. A hollow-cheeked, decrepit old man arose and said simply : — " It is he ! The great chief has come ! " He was saved. More than that, he was recreated. For by signs and intimations he was quickly made aware that since the death of their late chief, their medicine-men had B48 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP prophesied that his perfect successor should appear miracu-' lously before them, borne noiselessly on the river from, the sea, in the plumes and insignia of his predecessor. This mere coincidence of appearance and costume might not have been convincing to the braves had not Elijah Martin's actual deficiencies contributed to their unquestioned faith in him. Not only his inert possession of the sweat-house and his apathetic attitude in their presence, hut his utter and com- plete unlikeness to the white frontiersmen of their knowledge and tradition — creatures of fire and sword and malevolent activity — as well as his manifest dissimilarity to themselves, settled their conviction of his supernatural origin. His gentle, submissive voice, his yielding will, his lazy helpless- ness, the absence of strange weapons and fierce explosives in his possession, his unwonted sobriety — all proved him an exception to his apparent race that was in itself miraculous. For it must be confessed that, in spite of the cheri.shed theories of most romances and all statesmen and commanders, that fear is the great civilizer of the savage barbarian, and that he is supposed to regard the prowess of the white man and his mysterious death-dealing weapons as evidence of his supernatural origin and superior creation, the facts have generally pointed to the reverse. Elijah Martin was not long in discovering that when the Minyo hunter, with his obsolete bow, dropped dead by a bullet from a viewless and apparently noiseless space, it was not considered the light- nings of an avenging Deity, but was traced directly to the ambushed rifle of Kansas Joe, swayed by a viciousness quite as human as their own ; the spectacle of Blizzard Dick, verging on delirium tremens, and riding " amuck " into an Indian village with a revolver in each hand, did not impress them as a supernatural act, nor excite their respectful awe as much as the less harmful frenzj' of one of their own medicine-men ; they were not influenced by implacable white gods, who relaxed only to drive hard bargains and exchange A DRIFT FEOM REDWOOD CAMP 349 mildewed flour aiid shoddy blankets for their fish and furs. I am afraid they regarded these raids of Christian civiliza- tion as they looked upon grasshopper plagues, famines, inundations, and epidemics ; while an utterly impassive God washed his hands of the means he had employed, and even encouraged the faithful to resist and overcome his emissaries — the white devils ! Had Elijah Martin been a student of theology, he would have been struck with the singular resemblance of these theories — although the application thereof was reversed — to the Christian faith. But Elijah Martin had neither the imagination of a theologian nor the insight of a politician. He only saw that he, hitherto ignored and despised in a community of half-barbaric men, now translated to a community of men wholly savage, was respected and worshiped ! It might have turned a stronger head than Elijah's. He was at first frightened, fearful lest his reception concealed some hidden irony, or that, like the flower-crowned victim of ancient sacrifice, he was exalted and sustained to give importance and majesty to some impending martyrdom. Then he began to dread that his innocent deceit — if deceit . it was — should be discovered ; at last, partly from meek- ness and partly from the animal contentment of present security, he accepted the situation. Fortunately for him it was purely passive. The Great Chief of the Minyo tribe was simply an expressionless idol of flesh and blood. The previous incumbent of that office had been an old man, impotent and senseless of late years through age and disease. The chieftains and braves had consulted in coun- cil before him, and perfunctorily submitted their decisions, like off'erings, to his unresponsive shrine. In the same way, all material events — expeditions, trophies, indus- tries — were supposed to pass before the dull, impassive eyes of the great chief, for direct acceptance. On the second day of Elijah's accession, two of the braves brought 330 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP a bleeding human scalp before him. Elijah turned pale, trembled, and averted his head, and then, remembering the danger of giving way to his weakness, grew still more ghastly. The warriors watched him with impassioned faces. A grunt — but whether of astonishment, dissent, or approval, he could not tell — went round the circle. But the scalp was taken away and never again appeared in his presence. An incident still more alarming quickly followed. Two captives, white men, securely bound, were one day brought before him on their way to the stake, followed by a crowd of old and young squaws and children. The unhappy Elijah recognized in the prisoners two packers from a dis- tant settlement who sometimes passed through Redwood Camp. An agony of terror, shame, and remorse shook the pseudo-chief to his crest of high feathers, and blanched his face beneath its paint and yellow ochre. To interfere to save them from the torture they were evidently to receive at the hands of those squaws and children, according to custom, would be exjjosure and death to him as well as themselves; while to assist by his passive presence at the horrible sacrifice of his countrymen was too much for even his weak selfishness. Scarcely knowing what he did as the lugubrious procession passed before him, he hurriedly hid his face in his blanket and turned his back upon the scene. There was a dead silence. The warriors were evidently unprepared for this extraordinary conduct of their chief. AVhat might have been their action it was impossible to conjecture, for at that moment a little squaw, perhaps impatient for the sport and partly emboldened by the fact that she had been selected, only a few days before, as the betrothed of the new chief, approached him slyly from the other side. The horrified eyes of Elijah, momen- tarily raised from his blanket, saw and recognized her. The feebleness of a weak nature, that dared not measure A DRIFT FROM KBDWOOD CAMP 351 itself directly with the real cause, vented its rage on a secondary ohject. He darted a quick glance of indignation and hatred at the young girl. She ran back in startled terror to her companions, a hurried consultation followed, and in another moment the whole bevy of girls, old women, and children were on the wing, shrieking and crying, to their wigwams. " You see," said one of the prisoners coolly to the other^ in English, " I was right. They never intended to do any- thing to us. It was only a bluff. These Minyos are a dif- ferent sort from the other tribes. They never kill anybody if they can help it." " You 're wrong," said the other excitedly. " It was that big chief there, with his head in a blanket, that sent those dogs to the right-about. Hell ! did you see them run at just a look from him ? He 's a big and mighty feller, you bet. Look at his dignity ! " " That's so — he ain't no slouch," said the other, gazing at Elijah's muffled head critically. " D— d if he ain't a born king." The sudden conflict and utter revulsion of emotion that those simple words caused in Elijah's breast was almost incredible. He had been at first astounded by the revela- tion of the peaceful reputation of the unknown tribe he had been called upon to govern ; but even this comforting assurance was as nothing compared to the greater revela- tions implied in the speaker's praise of himself. He, Elijah Martin ! the despised, the rejected, the worthless out- cast of Redwood Camp, recognized as a "born king," a leader; his. power felt by the very men who had scorned him ! And he had done nothing — stop ! had he actually done nothing? Was it not possible that he was really what they thought him ? His brain reeled under the strong, unaccustomed wine of praise ; acting upon his weak selfishness, it exalted him for a moment to their measure of 352 A DKIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP his strength, even as their former belief in his inefficiency had kept him down. Courage is too often only the memory of past success. This was his first effort ; he forgot he had not earned it, even as he now ignored the danger of earning it. The few words of unconscious praise had fallen like .;he blade of knighthood on his cowering shoulders ; he had risen ennobled from the contact. Though his face was still muffled in his blanket, he stood erect and seemed to have gained in stature. The braves had remained standing irresolute, and yet watchful, a few paces from their captives. Suddenly Elijah, still keeping his back to the prisoners, turned upon the braves, with blazing eyes, violently throwing out his hands with the gesture of breaking bonds. Like all sudden de- monstrations of undemonstrative men, it was extravagant, •weird, and theatrical. But it was more potent than speech — the speech that, even if effective, would still have betrayed him to his countrymen. The braves hurriedly cut the thongs of the prisoners ; another impulsive gesture from Elijah, and they, too, fled. When he lifted his eyes cau- tiously from his blanket, captors and captives had dis- persed in opposite directions, and he was alone — and triumphant ! From that moment Elijah Martin was another man. He went to bed that night in an intoxicating dream of power ; he arose a man of will, of strength. He read it in the eyes of the braves, albeit at times averted in wonder. He under- stood, now, that although peace had been their habit and custom, they had nevertheless sought to test his theories of administration with the offering of the scalps and the cap- tives, and in this detection of their common weakness he forgot his own. Most heroes require the contrast of the unheroic to set them off; and Elijah actually found himself devising means for strengthening the defensive and offensive character of the tribe, and was himself strengthened by it A DRI¥T FROM REDWOOD CAMP 353 Meanwhile the escaped packers did not fail to heighten the importance of their adventure by elevating the character and achievements of their deliverer ; and it was presently- announced throughout the frontier settlements that the hith- erto insignificant and peaceful tribe of Minyos, who inhab- ited a large territory bordering on the Pacific Ocean, had developed into a powerful nation, only kept from the war- path by a more powerful but mysterious chief. The Gov- ernment sent an Indian agent to treat with them, in its usual half-paternal, half-aggressive, and wholly inconsistent policy. Elijah, who still retained the imitative sense and adaptability to surroundings which belong to most lazy, impressible natures, and in striped yellow and vermilion features looked the chief he personated, met the agent with silent and becoming gravity. The council was carried on by signs. Never before had an Indian treaty been entered into with such perfect knowledge of the intentions and designs of the whites by the Indians, and such profound ignorance of the qualities of the Indians by the whites. It need scarcely be said that the treaty was an unquestionable Indian success. They did not give up their arable lawds ; what they did sell to the agent they refused to exchange for extravagant-priced shoddy blankets, worthless guns, damp powder, and mouldy meal. They took pay in dol- lars, and were thus enabled to open more profitable com- merce with the traders at the settlements for better goods and better bargains ; they simply declined beads, whiskey, and Bibles at any price. The result was that the traders found it profitable to protect them from their countrymen, and the chances of wantonly shooting down a possible valu able customer stopped the old indiscriminate rifle-practice. The Indians were allowed to cultivate their fields in peace. Elijah purchased for them a few agricultural implements. The catching, curing, and smoking of salmon became an important branch of trade. They waxed prosperous and 354 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP rich ; they lost their nomadic habits — a centralized settle- ment bearing the external signs of an Indian village took the place of their old temporary encampments, but the huts were internally an improvement on the old wigwams. The dried fish were banished from the tent-poles to long sheds especially constructed for that purpose. The sweat-house was no longer utilized for worldly purposes. The wise and mighty Elijah did not attempt to reform their religion, but to preserve it in its integrity. That these improvements and changes were due to the influence of one man was undoubtedly true, but that he was necessarily a superior man did not follow. Elijah's success was due partly to the fact that he had been enabled to impress certain negative virtues, which were part of his own nature, upon a community equally constituted to re- ceive them. Each was strengthened by the recognition in each other of the unexpected value of those qualities ; each acquired a confidence begotten of their success. " He-hides- his-faxie," as Elijah Martin was known to the tribe after the episode of the released captives, was really not so much of an autocrat as many constitutional rulers. Two years of tranquil prosperity passed. Elijah Martin, foundling, outcast, without civilized ties or relationship of any kind, forgotten by his countrymen, and lifted into alien power, wealth, security, and respect, became — homesick ! It was near the close of a summer afternoon. He was sitting at the door of his lodge, which overlooked, on one side, the far-shining levels of the Pacific, and, on the other, the slow descent to the cultivated meadows and banks of the Minyo Kiver, that debouched through a waste of salt- marsh, beach-grass, sand-dunes, and foamy estuary into the nnean. The headland, or promontory — the only eminence of the Minyo territory — had been reserved by him for his lodge, partly on account of its isolation from the village at A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP 3-55 its base, and partly for the view it commanded of his ter- ritory. Yet his wearying and discontented eyes were more often found on the ocean, as a possible highway of escape from his irksome position, than on the plain and the distant range of mountains, so closely connected with the nearer past and his former detractors. In his vague longing he had no desire to return to them, even in triumph ; in his present security there still lingered a doubt of his ability to cope with the old conditions. It was more like his easy, indolent nature — which revived in his prosperity — to trust to this least practical and remote solution of his trouble. His homesickness was as vague as his plan for escape from it ; he did not know exactly what he regretted, but it was probably some life he had not enjoyed, some pleasure that had escaped his former incompetency and poverty. He had sat thus a hundred times, as aimlessly blinking at the vast possibilities of the shining sea beyond, turning his back upon the nearer and more practicable mountains, lulled by the far-off beating of monotonous rollers, the lonely cry of the curlew and plover, the drowsy changes of alternate breaths of cool, fragrant reeds and warm, spicy sands that blew across his eyelids, and succumbed to sleep, as he had done a hundred times before. The narrow strips of colored cloth, insignia of his dignity, flapped lazily from, his tent-poles, and at last seemed to slumber with him ; the shadows of the leaf-tracery thrown by the bay-tree, on the ground at his feet, scarcely changed its pattern. Nothing moved but the round, restless, berry-like eyes of Wachita, his child-wife, the former heroine of the incident with the captive packers, who sat near her lord, armed with a willow wand, watchful of intruding wasps, sand-flies, and even the more ostentatious advances of a rotund and clerical-looking humble-bee, with his monotonous homily. Content, dumb, submissive, vacant, at such times, Wachita, debarred her husband's confidences through the native customs and his S5G A DETFT FEOM EEDWOOD CAMP own indifferent taciturnity, satisfied herself by gazing at him with the wondering but ineffectual sympathy of a faith- ful dog. Unfortunately for Elijah, her purely mechanical ministration could not prevent a more dangerous intrusion upon his security. He awoke with a light start, and eyes that gradually fixed upon the woman a look of returning consciousness. Wachita pointed timidly to the village below. " The Messenger of the Great White Father has come to-day, with his wagons and horses ; he would see the chief of the Minyos, but I would not disturb my lord." Elijah's brow contracted. Eelieved of its characteristic metaphor, he knew that this meant that the new Indian agent had made his usual official visit, and had exhibited the usual anxiety to see the famous chieftain. "Good!" he said. "White Rabbit [his lieutenant] will see the Messenger and exchange gifts. It is enough." " The white messenger has brought his wangee [white] woman with him. They would look upon the face of him who hides it," continued Wachita dubiously. " They would that Wachita should bring them nearer to where my lord is, that they might see him when he knew it not." Elijah glanced moodily at his wife, with the half sus- picion with which he still regarded her alien character. " Then let Wachita go back to the squaws and old women, and let her hide herself with them until the wangee stran- gers are gone," he said curtly. " I have spoken. Go ! " Accustomed to these abrupt dismissals, which did not necessarily indicate displeasure, Wachita disappeared with- out a word. Elijah, who had risen, remained for a few moments leaning against the tent-poles,- gazing abstractedly toward the sea. The bees droned uninterruptedly in his ears, the far-off roll of the breakers came to him distinctly ; but suddenly, with greater distinctness, came the murmur of a woman's voice. A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP 357 " He don't look savage a bit ! Why, he 's real hand- some." " Hush ! you " — said a second voice in a frightened whisper. " But if he did hear he could n't understand," returned the first voice. A suppressed giggle followed. Luckily, Elijah's natural and acquired habits of repres- sion suited the emergency. He did not move, although he felt the quick blood fly to his face, and the voice of the first speaker had suffused him Yiith a strange and delicious anticipation. He restrained himself, though the vpords she had naively dropped were filling him with new and tremu- lous suggestion. He was motionless, even while he felt that the vague longing and yearning which had possessed him hitherto was now mysteriously taking some unknown form and action. The murmuring ceased. The humble-bee's drone again became ascendant — a sudden fear seized him. She was going ; he should never see her ! While he had stood there a dolt and sluggard, she had satisfied her curiosity and stolen away. With a sudden yielding to impulse, he darted quickly in the direction where he had heard her voice. The thicket moved, parted, crackled, and rustled, and then undulated tliirty feet before him in a long wave, as if from the passage of some lithe, invisible figure. But at the same moment a little cry, half of alarm, half of laughter, broke from his very feet, and a bent manzanita bush, re- laxed by frightened fingers, flew back against his breast. Thrusting it hurriedly aside, his stooping, eager face came almost in contact with the pink, flushed cheeks and tangled curls of a woman's head. He was so near, her moist and laughing eyes almost drowned his eager glance ; her parted lips and white teeth were so close to his that her quick breath took away his own. She had dropped on one knee, as her companion fled, ex- 358 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP pecting he would overlook her as he passed, but his direct onset had extracted the feminine outcry. Yet even then she did not seem greatly frightened. " It 's only a joke, sir," she said, coolly lifting herself to her feet by grasping his arm. " I '"m Mrs. Dall, the Indian agent's wife. They said you would n't let anybody see you — and /determined I would. That 's all ! " She stopped, threw back her tangled curls behind her ears, shook the briers and thorns from her skirt, and added : " Well, I reckon you are n't afraid of a woman, are you ? So no harm 's done. Good-by ! " She drew slightly back as if to retreat, but the elasticity of the manzanita against which she was leaning threw her forward once more. He again inhaled the perfume of her hair ; he saw even the tiny freckles that darkened her upper lip and brought out the moist, red curve below. A sudden recollection of a playmate of his vagabond childhood flashed across his mind ; a wild inspiration of lawlessness, begotten of his past experience, his solitude, his dictatorial power, and the beauty of the woman before him, mounted to his brain. He threw his arms passionately around her, pressed his lips to hers, and with a half-hysterical laugh drew back and disappeared in the thicket. Mrs. Dall remained for an instant dazed and stupefied. Then she lifted her arm mechanically, and with her sleeve wiped her bruised mouth and the ochre-stain that his paint had left, like blood, upon her cheek. Her laughing face had become instantly grave, but not from fear ; her dark eyes had clouded, but not entirely with indignation. She suddenly brought down her hand sharply against her side with a gesture of discovery. "That's no Injun!" she said, with prompt decision. The next minute she plunged back into the trail ngain, and the dense foliage once more closed around her. But as she did so the broad, vacant face and the mutely wonder- A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP 359 ing eyes of Wacliita rose, like a placid moon, between the branches of a tree where they liad been hidden, and shone serenely and impassively after her. A month elapsed. But it was a month filled with more experience to Elijah than his past two years of exaltation. In the first few days following his meeting with Mrs. Dall, he was possessed by terror, mingled with flashes of despera- tion, at the remembrance of his rash imprudence. His re- collection of extravagant frontier chivalry to womankind, and the swift retribution of the insulted husband or guard- ian, alternately filled him with abject fear or extravagant recklessness. At times prepared for flight, even to the desperate abandonment of himself in a canoe to the waters of the Pacific, at times he was on the point of inciting his braves to attack the Indian agency and precipitate the war that he felt would be inevitable. As the days passed, and there seemed to be no interruption to his friendly relations with the agency, with that relief a new, subtle joy crept into Elijah's heart. The image of the agent's wife framed in the leafy screen behind his lodge, the perfume of her hair and breath mingled with the spicing of the bay, the brief thrill and tantalization of the stolen kiss still haunted him. Through his long, shy abstention from society, and his two years of solitary exile, the fresh beauty of this young Western wife, in whom the frank arllessness of girl- hood still lingered, appeared to him like a superior creation. He forgot his vagne longings in the inception of a more tangible but equally unpractical passion. He remembered her unconscious and spontaneous admiration of him ; he dared to connect it with her forgiving silence. If she had withheld her confidences from her husband, he could hope — he knew not exactly what ! One afternoon Wachita put into his hand a folded note. With an instinctive presentiment of its contents, Elijah 360 A DBIFT FROM EEDWOOD CAMP turned red and embarrassed in receiving it from the woman who was • recognized as his wife. But the impassive, sub- missive manner of this household drudge, instead of touch- ing his conscience, seemed to him a vulgar and brutal accept- ance of the situation that dulled whatever compunction he might have had. He opened the note and read hurriedly as follows : — " You took a great freedom with me the other day, and I am justified in taking one with you now. I believe you understand English as well as I do. If you want to explain that, and your conduct to me, I will be at the same place this afternoon. My friend will accompany me, but she need not hear what you have to say." Elijah read the letter, which might have been written by an ordinary schoolgirl, as if it had conveyed the veiled rendezvous of a princess. The reserve, caution, and shy- ness which had been the safeguard of his weak nature were swamped in a flow of immature passion. He flew to the interview with the eagerness and inexperience of first love. He was completely at her mercy. So utterly was he sub- jugated by her presence that she did not even run the risk of his passion. Whatever sentiment might have mingled with her curiosity, she was never conscious of a necessity to guard herself against it. At this second meeting she was in full possession of his secret. He had told her everything ; she had promised nothing in return — she had not even accepted anything. Even her actual after- relations to the denouement of his passion are still shrouded in mystery. Nevertheless, Elijah lived two weeks on the unsubstan- tial memory of this meeting. What might have followed could not be known, for at the end of that time an out- rage — so atrocious that even the peaceful Minyos were thrilled with savage indignation — was committed on the outskirts of the village. An old chief, who had been sp& A DKIFT FROM KEDWOOD CAMP 361 cially selected to deal with the Indian agent, and who kept a small trading outpost, had been killed and his goods de- spoiled by a reckless Eedwood packer. The murderer had coolly said that he was only " serving out " the tool of a fraudulent imposture on the Government, and that he iared the arch-impostor himself, the so-called Minyo chief, to help himself. A wave of \ingovernable fury surged up to the very tent-poles of Elijah's lodge and demanded vengeance. Elijah trembled and hesitated. In the thrall- dom of his selfish passion for Mrs. Dall he dared not con- template a collision with her countrymen. He would have again sought refuge in his passive, non-committal attitude, but he knew the impersonal character of Indian retribution and compensation, — a sacrifice of equal value, without reference to the culpability of the victim, — and he dreaded some spontaneous outbreak. To prevent the enforced ex- piation of the crime by some innocent brother packer, he was obliged to give orders for the pursuit and arrest of the criminal, secretly hoping for his escape or the interposition of some circumstance to avert his punishment. A day of sullen expectancy to the old men and squaws in camp, of gloomy anxiety to Elijah alone in his lodge, followed the departure of the braves on the war-path. It was midnight when they returned. Elijah, who, from his habitual re- serve and the accepted etiquette of his exalted station, had remained impassive in his tent, only knew from the gut- tural rejoicings of the squaws that the expedition had been successful and the captive was in their hands. At any other time he might have thought it an evidence of some growing skepticism of his infallibility of judgment and a diminution of respect that they did not confront him with their prisoner. But he was too glad to escape from the danger of exposure and possible arraignment of his past life by the desperate captive, even though it might not have been understood by the spectators. He reflected that 362 A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP the omission might have arisen from their recollection of his previous aversion to a retaliation on other prisoners. Enough that they would wait his signal for the torture and execution at sunrise the next day. The night passed slowly. It is more than probable that the selfish and ignoble torments of the sleepless and vacil- lating judge were greater than those of the prisoner, who dozed at the stake between his curses. Yet it was part of Elijah's fatal weakness that his kinder and more human instincts were dominated even at that moment by his law- less passion for the Indian agent's wife, and his indecision as to the fate of his captive was as much due to this pre- occupation as to a selfish consideration of her relations to the result. He hated the prisoner for his infelicitous and untimely crime, yet he could not make up his mind to his death. He paced the ground before his lodge in dishonor- able incertitude. The small eyes of the submissive Wa- chita watched him with vague solicitude. Toward morning he was struck by a shameful inspira- tion. He would creep unperceived to the victim's side, unloose his bonds, and bid him fly to the Indian agency. There he was to inform Mrs. Dall that her husband's safety depended upon his absenting himself for a few days, but that she was to remain and communicate with Elijah. She would understand everything, perhaps ; at least she would ' know that the prisoner's release was to please her, but even if she did not, no harm would be done, a white man's life would be saved, and his real motive would not be sus- pected. He turned with feverish eagerness to the lodge. Wachita had disappeared — probably to join the other wo- men. It was well ; she would not suspect him. The tree to which the doomed man was bound was, by custom, selected nearest the chief's lodge, within its sacred inclosure, with no other protection than that offered by its 3:eserved seclusion and the outer semicircle of warriors' A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP 363 tents before it. To escape, the captive would therefore have to pass beside the chief's lodge to the rear and descend the hill toward the shore. Elijah would show him the way, and make it appear as if he had escaped unaided. As he glided into the shadow of a group of pines, he could dimly discern the outline of the destined victim, secured against one of the larger trees in a sitting posture, with his head fallen forward on his breast as if in sleep. But at the same moment another figure glided out from the shadow and approached the fatal tree. It was Wachita ! He stopped in amazement. But in another instant a flash of intelligence made it clear. He remembered her vague uneasiness and solicitude at his agitation, her sudden disappearance ; she had fathomed his perplexity, as she had once before. Of her own accord she was going to release the prisoner ! The knife to cut his cords glittered in her hand. Brave and faithful animal ! He held his breath as he drew nearer. But, to his hor- ror, the knife suddenly flashed in the air and darted down, again and again, upon the body of the helpless man. There was a convulsive struggle, but no outcry, and the next moment the body hung limp and inert in its cords. Elijah would himself have fallen, half-fainting, against a tree, but, by a revulsion of feeling, came the quick revela- tion that the desperate girl had rightly solved the problem ! She had done what he ought to have done — and his loy- alty and manhood were preserved. That conviction and the courage to act upon it — to have called the sleeping braves to witness his sacrifice — would have saved him, but it was ordered otherwise. As the girl rapidly passed him he threw out his hand and seized her wrist. " Who did you do this for ? " he demanded. " For you," she said stupidly. « And why ? " " Because you no kill him — you love his squaw." 364 A DRIFT FROM EEDWOOD CAMP " His squaw ! " He staggered back. A terrible sus- picion flashed upon him. He dashed Wachita aside and ran to the tree. It was the body of the Indian agent ! Aboriginal justice had been satisfied. The warriors had not caught the murderer, but, true to their idea of vica- rious retribution, had determined upon the expiatory sacri- fice of a life as valuable and innocent as the one they had lost. " So the Gov'r'ment hev at last woke up and wiped out them cussed Digger Minyos," said Snap-shot Harry, as he laid down the newspaper, in the brand-new saloon of the •brand-new town of Eedwood. " I see they 've stampeded both banks of the Minyo River, and sent off a lot to the reservation. I reckon the soldiers at I"ort Cass got sick o' sentiment after those hounds killed the Injun agent, and are beginning to agree with us that the only ' good Injun ' is a dead one." " And it turns out that that wonderful chief, that them two packers used to rave about, woz about as big a devil ez any, and tried to run off with the agent's wife, only the warriors killed her. I 'd like to know what become of him. Some says he was killed, others allow that he got away. I 've heerd tell that he was originally some kind of Methodist preacher ! — a kind o' saint that got a sort o' spiritooal holt on the old squaws and children." " Why don't you ask old Skeesioks ? I see he 's back here agin — and grubbin' along at a dollar a day on tailin's. He 's been somewhere up north, they say." " What, Skeesicks ? that shiftlessj o'n'ry cuss ! You bet he wus n't anywhere where there was danger or fighting. Why, you might as well hev suspected him of being the big chief himself ! There he comes — ask him." And the laughter was so general that Elijah Martin — alias Skeesicks — lounging shyly into the bar-room, joined in it weakly. CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND Hakdly one of us, I think, really believed in the auriferous probabilities of Eureka Gulch. EoUowing a little stream, we had one day drifted into it, very much as we imagined the river-gold might have done in remoter ages, with the difference that ive remained there, while the river- gold to all appearances had not. At first it was tacitly agreed to ignore this fact, and we made the most of the charming locality, with its rare watercourse that lost itself in tangled depths of manzanita and alder, its laurel-choked pass, its flower-strewn hillside, and its summit crested with rocking pines. " You see," said the optimistic Rowley, " water 's the main thing after all. If we happen to strike river-gold, thar 's the stream for washing it ; if we happen to drop into quartz — and that thar rock looks mighty likely — thar ain't a more natural-born site for a mill than that right bank, with water enough to run fifty stamps. That hillside is an original dump for your tailings, and a ready found inclined road for your trucks, fresh from the hands of Providence ; and that road we 're kalkilatin' to build to the turnpike will run just easy along that ridge." Later, when we were forced to accept the fact that finding gold was really the primary object of a gold-mining company, we still remained there, excusing our youthful laziness ani incertitude by brilliant and effective sarcasms upon the unremunerative attractions of the gulch. Nevertheless, 366 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND when Captain Jim, returning one day from the nearest settlement and post-office, twenty miles away, burst upon us with "Well, the hull thing '11 be settled now, boys; Lacy Bassett is coming down yer to look round," we felt con- siderably relieved. And yet, perhaps, we had as little reason for it as we had for remaining there. There was no warrant for any belief in the special divining power of the unknown Lacy Bassett, except Captain Jim's extravagant faith in his general supe- riority, and even that had always been a source of amused skepticism to the camp. We were already impatiently familiar with the opinions of this unseen oracle ; he was always impending in Captain Jim's speech as a fragrant memory or an unquestioned authority. When Captain Jim began, "Ez Lacy was one day telliu' me," or, "Ez Lacy Bassett allows," or more formally, when strangers were present, "Ez a partickler friend o' mine, Lacy Bassett — maybe ez you know him — sez," the youthful and lighter members of the Eureka Mining Company glanced at each other in furtive enjoyment. Nevertheless no one looked iijore eagerly forward to the arrival of this apocryphal sage than these indolent skeptics. It was at least an excitement ; they were equally ready to accept his condemnation of the locality or his justification of their original selection. He came. He was received by the Eureka Mining Com- pany lying on their backs on the grassy site of the prospec- tive quartz mill, not far from the equally hj'pothetical "slide " to the gulch. He came by the future stage road — at present a thickset jungle of scrub-oaks and ferns. He was accompanied by Captain Jim, who had gone to meet him on the trail, and for a few moments all critical inspec- tion of himself was withheld by the extraordinary effect he seemed to have upon the faculties of his introducer. Anything like the absolute prepossession of Captain Jim by the stranger we had never imagined. He approached us CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 367 running a little ahead of his guest, and now and then return, ing assuringly to his side with the expression of a devoted Newfoundland dog, which in fluffiness he generally re- sembled. And now, even after the introduction was over, when he made a point of standing aside in an affectation of carelessness, with his hands in his pockets, the simulation was so apparent, and his consciousness and absorption in his friend so obvious, that it was a relief to us to recall him into the conversation. As to our own first impressions of the stranger, they were probably correct. We all disliked him ; we thought him conceited, self-opinionated, selfish, and untrustworthy. But later, reflecting that this was possibly the result of Captain Jim's over-praise, and finding none of these qualities as yet offensively opposed to our own selfishness and conceit, we were induced, like many others, to forget our first impression. We could easily correct him if he attempted to impose upon us, as he evidently had upon Captain Jim. Believ- ing, after the fashion of most humanity, that there was something about us particularly avve-inspiring and edifying to vice or weakness of any kind, we good-humoredly yielded to the cheap fascination of this showy, self-saturated, over- dressed, and underbred stranger. Even the epithet of "blower" as applied to him by Rowley had its mitigations; in that Trajan community a bully was not necessarily a coward, nor florid demonstration always a weakness. His condemnation of the gulch was sweeping, original, and striking. He laughed to scorn our half-hearted theory of a gold deposit in the bed and bars of our favorite stream. We were not to look for auriferous alluvium in the bed of any present existing stream, but in the " cement " or dried- up bed of the original prehistoric rivers that formerly ran parallel with the present bed, and which — he demon- strated with the stem of Pickney's pipe in the red dust — could be found by sinking shafts at right angles with the 368 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND stream. The theory was to us, at that time, novel and attractive. It was true that the scientific explanation, al- though full and gratuitous, sounded vague and incoherent. It was true that the geological terms were not always cor- rect, and their pronunciation defective, but we accepted such extraordinary discoveries as " ignus fatuus rock," " splendif- erous drift," " mica twist " (recalling a popular species of tobacco), " iron pirates," and " discomposed quartz " as part of what he not inaptly called a " tautological formation," and were happy. Nor was our contentment marred by the fact that the well-known scientific authority with whom the stranger had been intimate, — to the point of " sleeping together " during a survey, — and whom he described as a bent old man with spectacles, must have aged considerably since one of our party saw him three years before as a keen young fellow of twenty-five. Inaccuracies like those were only the carelessness of genius. " That 's my opinion, gentlemen," he concluded, negligently rising, and with pointed preoccupation whipping the dust of Eureka Gulch from his clothes with his handkerchief, " but of course it ain't nothin' to me." Captain Jim, who had followed every word with deep and trustful absorption, here repeated, " It ain't nothing to him, boys," with a confidential implication of the gratuitous blessing we had received, and then added, with loyal encour- agement to him, " It ain't nothing to you. Lacy, in course," and laid his hand on his shoulder with infinite tenderness. We, however, endeavored to make it something to Mr. Lacy Bassett. He was spontaneously offered a share in the company and a part of Captain Jim's tent. He ac- cepted both after a few deprecating and muttered asides to Captain Jim, which the latter afterwards explained to us was the giving up of several other important enterprises for our sake. When he finally strolled away with Eowley to look over the gulch. Captain Jim reluctantly tore himself CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 369 away from him only for the pleasure of reiterating his praise to us as if in strictest confidence and as an entirely novel proceeding. " You see, boys, I did n't like to say it afore him, we bein' old friends ; but, between us, that young feller ez worth thousands to the camp. Mebbe," he continued, with grave naivete, " I ain't said much about him afore, mebbe, bein' old friends and accustomed to him — you know how it is, boys, — I have n't appreciated him as much ez I ought, and ez you do. In fact, I don't ezakly remember how I kem to ask him down yer. It came to me suddent, one day only a week ago Friday night, thar under that buckeye ; I was thinkin' o' one of his sayin's, and sez I — thar 's Lacy, if he was here he 'd set the hull thing right. It was the ghost of a chance my findin' him free, but I did. And there he is, and yer we, are settled ! Ye noticed how he just knocked the bottom outer our plans to work. Ye noticed that quick sort o' siieerin' smile o' his, did n't ye — that 's Lacy ! I 've seen him knock over a heap o' things without sayin' anythin' — with jist that smile." It occurred to us that we might have some difficulty in utilizing this smile in our present affairs, and that we should have probably preferred something more assuring, but Cap- tain Jim's faith was contagious. " What is he, anyway ? " asked Joe Walker lazily. " Eh ! " echoed Captain Jim in astonishment. '■ What is Lacy Bassett ? " " Yes, what is he ? " repeated Walker. " Wot is — he ? " " Yes." "I 've knowed him now goin' as four year," said Captain Jim, with slow, reflective contentment. " Let 's see. It was in the fall o' '54 I first met him, and he 's alius been the same ez you see him now." " But what is his business or profession ? What does he do ? " 370 CAPTAIN JIM S FRIEND Captain Jim looked reproachfully at his questioner. " Do ? " he repeated, turning to the rest of us as if di» daining a direct reply. " Do ? — why, wot he 's doin' now. He 's alius the same, alius Lacy Bassett." Howbeit, we went to work the next day under the super- intendence of the stranger with youthful and enthusiastic energy, and began the sinking of a shaft at once. To do Captain Jim's friend justice, for the first few weeks he did not shirk a fair share of the actual labor, replacing his objectionable and unsuitable finery with a suit of service- able working clothes got together by general contribution of the camp, and assuring us of a fact we afterwards had cause to remember, that " he brought nothing but himself into Eureka Gulch." It may be added that he certainly had not brought money there, as Captain Jim advanced the small amounts necessary for his purchases in the distant settlement, and for the still smaller sums he lost at cards, which he played with characteristic self-sufficiency. Meantime the work in the shaft progressed slowly but regularly. Even when the novelty had worn off and the excitement of anticipation grew fainter, I am afraid that we clung to this new form of occupation as an apology for remaining there ; for the fascinations of our vagabond and unconventional life were more potent than we dreamed of. We were slowly fettered by our very freedom ; there was a strange spell in this very boundlessness of our license that kept us from even the desire of change ; in the wild and lawless arms of Nature herself we found an embrace as clinging, as hopeless and restraining, as the civilization from which we had fled. We were quite content after a few hours' work in the shaft to lie on our backs on the hillside staring at the unwinking sky, or to wander with a gun through the virgin forest in search of game scarcely less vagabond than ourselves. We indulged in the most extrav- agant and dreamy speculations of the fortune we should CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 37J eventually discover in the shaft, and helieved that we were practical. We broke our " saleratns bread " with appetites unimpaired by restlessness or anxiety ; we went to sleep under the grave and sedate stars with a serene consciousness of having fairly earned our rest ; we awoke the next morn- ing with unabated trustfulness, and a sweet obliviousness of even the hypothetical fortunes we had perhaps won or lost at cards overnight. We paid no heed to the fact that our little capital was slowly sinking with the shaft, and that the rainy season — wherein not only " no man could work," but even such play as ours was impossible — was momen- tarily impending. In the midst of this, one day Lacy Eassett suddenly emerged from the shaft before his " shift " of labor was over with every sign of disgust and rage in his face and in- articulate with apparent passion. In vain we gathered round him in concern ; in vain Captain Jim regarded him ■with almost feminine sympathy, as he flung away his pick and dashed his hat to the ground. " What 's up. Lacy, old pard ? What 's gone o' you ? " said Captain Jim tenderly. " Look ! " gasped Lacy at last, when every eye was on him, holding up a small fragment of rock before us and the next moment grinding it under his heel in rage. " Look ! To think that I 've been fooled agin by this blanked fos- siliferous trap — blank it ! To think that after me and Professor Parker was once caught jist in this way up on the Stanislaus at the bottom of a hundred-foot shaft by this rotten trap — that yer I am — bluffed agin ! " There was a dead silence ; we looked at each other blankly. " But, Bassett," said Walker, picking up a part of the fragment, " we 've been finding this kind of stuff for the last two weeks." " But how ? " returned Lacy, turning upon him almost 872 CAPTAIN JIM'S friend fiercely. " Did ye find it superposed on quartz, or did you find it not superposed on quartz ? Did you find it in volcanic drift, or did ye find it in old red-sandstone or coarse illuvion ? Tell me that, and then ye kin talk. But this yer blank fossiliferous trap, instead o' being superposed on top, is superposed on the bottom. And that means " — " What ? " we all asked eagerly. " Why — blank it all — that this yer convulsion of na- ture, this prehistoric volcanic earthquake, instead of acting laterally and chuckin' the stream to one side, has been revolutionary and turned the old river-bed bottom-side up, and yer d — d cement hez got half the globe atop of it ! Ye might strike it from China, but nowhere else." We continued to look at one another, the older members with darkening faces, the younger with a strong inclination to laugh. Captain Jim, who had been concerned only in his friend's emotion, and who was hanging with undisguised satisfaction on these final convincing proofs of his superior geological knowledge, murmured approvingly and confid- ingly, " He 's right, boys ! Thar ain't another man livin' ez could give you the law and gospil like that ! Ye can tie to what he says. That 's Lacy all over." Two weeks passed. We had gathered, damp and discon- solate, in the only available shelter of the camp. For the long summer had ended unexpectedly to us ; we had one day found ourselves caught like the improvident insect of the child's fable with gauzy and unseasonable wings wet and bedraggled in the first rains, homeless and hopeless. The scientific Lacy, who lately spent most of his time as a bar-room oracle in the settlement, was away, and from our dripping canvas we could see Captain Jim returning from a visit to him, slowly plodding along the trail towards us. " It 's no use, boys," said Rowley, summarizing tlie re- sult of our conference, " we must speak out to him ; and if nobody else cares to do it I will. I don't know why we CAPTAIN JIM'S FKIEND 373 should be more mealy-mouthed than they are at the settle- ment. They don't hesitate to call Bassett a dead-beat, whatever Captain Jim says to the contrary." The unfortunate Captain Jim had halted irresolutely be- fore the gloomy faces in the shelter. "Whether he felt in- stinctively some forewarning of what was coming I cannot say. There was a certain doglike consciousness in his eye and a half-backward glance over his shoulder as if he were not quite certain that Lacy was not following. The rain had somewhat subdued his characteristic flufiiness, and he cowered with a kind of sleek storm-beaten despondency over the smoking lire of green wood before our tent. Nevertheless, Rowley opened upon him with a direct- ness and decision tliat astonished us. He pointed out briefly that Lacy Bassett had been known to us only through Captain Jim's introduction. That he had been originally invited there on Captain Jim's own account, and that his later connection with the company had been wholly the result of Captain Jim's statements. That, far from be- ing any aid or assistance to them, Bassett had beguiled them by apocryphal knowledge and sham scientific theories into an expensive and gigantic piece of folly. That, in addition to this, they had just discovered that he had also been using the credit of the company for his own individ- ual expenses at the settlement while they were working on his d — d fool shaft — all of which had brought them to the verge of bankruptcy. That, as a result, they were forced now to demand his resignation — not only on their general account, but for Captain Jim's sake — believing firmly, as they did, that he had been as grossly deceived in his friend- ship for Lacy Bassett as they were in their business rela- tions with him. Instead of being mollified by this. Captain Jim, to out greater astonishment, suddenly turned upon the speaker, bristling with his old canine suggestion. 374 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND " There ! I said so ! Go on ! I 'd have sworu to it afore you opened your lips. I knowed it the day you sneaked around and wauted to know wot his business was ! I said to myself, Cap, look out for that sneakin' hound Eowley, he 's na friend o' Lacy's. And the day Lacy so far demeaned himself as to give ye that splendid explana- tion o' things, I watched ye ; ye did n't think it, hut I watched ye. Ye can't fool me ! I saw ye lookiu' at Walker there, and I said to myself, Wot 's the use, Lacy, wot 's the use o' your slingin' them words to such as thevi ? Wot do they know ? It 's just their pure jealousy and ignorance. Ef you 'd come down yer, and lazed around with us and fallen into our common ways, you 'd ha' been ez good a man ez the next. But no, it ain't your style. Lacy, you 're accustomed to high-toned men like Professor 3'arker, and you can't help showing it. No wonder you took to avoidin' us ; no wonder I 've had to foller you over the Burnt Wood Crossin' time and again, to get to see ye. I see it all now : ye can't stand the kempany I brought ye to ! Ye had to wipe the slumgullion of Eureka Gulch oif your hands. Lacy " — He stopped, gasped for breath, and then lifted his voice more savagely, " And now, what 's this ? Wot 's this hogwash ? this yer lyin' slander about his gettin' things on the kempany's credit ? Eh, speak up, some of ye ! " We were so utterly shocked and stupefied at the degra- dation of this sudden and unexpected outburst from a man usually so honorable, gentle, self-sacrificing, and forgiving, that we forgot the cause of it and could only stare at each other. What was this cheap stranger, with his shallow swindling tricks, to the ignoble change he had worked upon the man before us. Eowley and Walker, both fearless fighters and quick to resent an insult, only averted their saddened faces and turned aside without a word. ** Ye dussen't say it ! Well, hark to me then," he con- CAPTAIN JIM S FRIEND 375 tinued, with white and feverish lips. " I put him up to helpin' himself. I told him to use the kempany's name for credit. Ye kin put that down to me. And when ye talk of his resigning, I want ye to understand that I resign outer this rotten kempany and take him with me ! Ef all the gold yer lookin' for was piled up in that shaft from its bottom in hell to its top in the gulch, it ain't enough to keep me here away from him ! Ye kin- take all my share — all my rights yer above ground and below it — all I carry," — he threw his buckskin purse and revolver on the ground, — "and pay yourselves what you reckon you've lost through him. But you and me is quits from to-day." He strode away before a restraining voice or hand could reach him. His dripping figure seemed' to melt into the rain beneath the thickening shadows of the pines, and the next moment he was gone. From that day forward Eureka Gulch knew him no more. And the camp itself somehow melted away during the rainy season, even as he had done- n Thkee years had passed. The pioneer stagecoach was sweeping down the long descent to the pastoral valley of Grilead, and I was looking towards the village with some pardonable interest and anxiety. For I carried in my pocket my letters of promotion from the box seat of the coach — where I had performed the functions of treasure messenger for the Excelsior Express Company — to the resident agency of that company in the bucolic hamlet be- fore me. The few dusty right-angled streets, with their rigid and staringly new shops and dwellings, the stern for- mality of one or two obelisk-like meeting-house spires, the illimitable outlying plains of wheat and wild oats beyond, with their monotony scarcely broken by skeleton stockades, corrals, and barrack-looking farm buildings, were all cer- tainly unlike the unkempt freedom of the mountain fast- nesses in which I had lately lived and moved. Yuba Bill, the driver, whose usual expression of humorous discontent deepened into scorn as he gathered up his reins as if to charge the village and recklessly sweep it from his path, indicated a huge, rambling, obtrusively glazed, and capital- lettered building with a contemptuous flick of his whip as we passed. "Ef you're kalkilatin' we'll get our partin' drink there you 're mistaken. That 's wot they call a temperance house — wot means a place where the licker ye get underhand is only a trifle "worse than the hash ye get above-board. I suppose it 's part o' one o' the mysteries o' Providence that wherever you find a dusty hole like this — that 's naturally thirsty — ye run agin a ' temperance ■ CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 377 house. But never you mind ! I should n't wonder if thar was a demijohn o' whiskey in the closet of your back office, kept thar by the feller you 're relievin' — who was a white man and knew the ropes." A few minutes later, when my brief installation was over, we did find the demijohn in the place indicated. As Yuba Bill wiped his mouth with the back of his heavy buckskin glove, he turned to me not unkindly. " I don't like to set ye agin Gil-e-ad,< which is a scrip-too-rural place, and a God • fearin' place, and a nice dry place, and a place ez I 've heard tell whar they grow beans and pertatoes and garden sass ; but afore three weeks is over, old pard, you '11 be howlin' to get back on that box seat with me, whar you uster sit, and be ready to take your chances agin, like a little man, to get drilled through with buckshot from road agents. You hear me ! I '11 give you three weeks, sonny, just three weeks, to get your butes full o' hayseed and straws in yer ha'r ; and I '11 find ye wadin' the North Fork at high water to get out o' this." He shook my hand with grim tenderness, removing his glove — a rare favor — to give me the pressure of his large, soft, protecting palm, and strode away. The next moment he was shaking the white dust of Gilead from his scornful chariot-wheels. In the hope of familiarizing myself with the local inter- ests of the community, I took up a copy of the " Gilead Guardian " which lay on my desk, forgetting for the moment the usual custom of the country press to displace local news for long editorials on foreign subjects and national politics. I found, to my disappointment, that the " Guardian " exhibited more than the usual dearth of do- mestic intelligence, although it was singularly oracular on " The State of Europe," and " Jeffersonian Democracy." A certain cheap assurance, a copy-book dogmatism, a collo- quial familiarity, even in the impersonal plural, and a series of inaccuracies and blunders here and there, struck some 378 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND old chord in my memory. I was mutely wondering where and when I had become personally familiar with rhetoric like that, when the door of the office opened and a man entered. I was surprised to recognize Captain Jim. I had not seen him since he had indignantly left us, three years before, in Eureka Gulch. The circumstances of his defection were certainly not conducive to any volun- tary renewal of friendship on either side ; and although, even as a former member of the Eureka Mining Company, I was not conscious of retaining any sense of injury, yet the whole occurrence flashed back upon me with awkward distinctness. To my relief, however, he greeted me with his old cordiality ; to my amusement he added to it a sug- gestion of the large forgiveness of conscious rectitude and amiable toleration. I thought, however, I detected, as he glanced at the paper which was still in my hand and then back again at my face, the same uneasy canine resemblance I remembered of old. He had changed but little in appear.- anco; perhaps he was a trifle stouter, more mature, and slower in his movements. If I may return to my canine illustration, his grayer, dustier, and more wiry ensemble gave me the impression that certain pastoral and agricul- tural conditions had varied his type, and he looked more like a shepherd's dog in whose brown eyes there was an abiding consciousness of the care of straying sheep, and possibly of one black one in particular. He had, he told me, abandoned mining and taken up farming on a rather large scale. He had prospered. He had other interests at stake, " A flour-mill with some im- provements — and — and " — here his eyes wandered to the " Guardian " again, and he asked me somewhat abruptly what I thought of the paper. Something impelled me to restrain my previous fuller criticism, and I contented myself by saying briefly that I thought it rather ambitious for the locality. " Tliat 's -the word," he said, with a look of grat- CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND S79 ified relief, " ' ambitious ' — you 've just hit it. And what 's the matter with thet ? Ye can't expect a high-toned man to write down to the level of every karpin' hound, ken ye now ? That 's what he says to me " — He stopped half confused, and then added abruptly : " That 's one o' my investments." " Why, Captain Jim, I never suspected that you " — " Oh, I don't ti-rite it," he interrupted hastily. " I only furnish the money and the advertising, and run it gin'rally, you know ; and I 'm responsible for it. And I select the eddy ter — and " — he continued, with a return of the same uneasy wistful look — " thar 's suthin' in thet, you know, eh ? " I was beginning to be perplexed. The memory evoked by the style of the editorial writing and the presence of Captain Jim was assuming a suspicious relationship to each other. " And who 's your editor ? " I asked. "Oh, he's — he's — er — Lacy Bassett," he replied, blinking his eyes with a hopeless assumption of careless ness. " Let 's see ! Oh yes ! You knowed Lacy down there at Eureka. I disremembered it till now. Yes, sir ! " he repeated suddenly and almost rudely, as if to preclude any adverse criticism, " he 's the eddyter ! " To my surprise he was quite white and tremulous with nervousness. I was very sorry for him ; and as I really cared very little for the half-forgotten escapade of his friend except so far as it seemed to render him sensitive, I shook his hand again heartily and began to talk of our old life in the gulch — avoiding as far as possible any allusion to Lacy Bassett. His face brightened ; his old simple cordiality and trustfulness returned, but unfortunately with it his old disposition to refer to Bassett. " Yes, they waz high old times ; and ez I waz savin' to Lacy on'y yesterday, there is a kind o' freedom 'bout that sort o' life that runs civiliza- tion and noospapers mighty hard, however high-toned they 380 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND is. Not but what Lacy ain't right," he added quickly, " when he sez that the opposition the ' Guardian ' gets here comes from ignorant low-down fellers ez wos brought up in played-out camps, and can't tell a gentleman and a scholar and a scientific man when they sees him. No ! So I sez to Lacy, ' Never you mind, it 's high time they did, and they 've got to do it and to swaller the " Guardian," if I sink double the money I 've already put into the paper.' " I was not long in discovering from other sources that the " Guardian " was not popular with the more intelli- gent readers of Gilead, and that Captain Jim's extravagant estimate of his friend was by no means indorsed by the community. But criticism took a humorous turn even in that practical settlement, and it appeared that Lacy Bassett's vanity, assumption, and ignorance were an unfailing and weekly joy to the critical, in spite of the vague distrust they induced in the more homely-witted, and the dull ac- quiescence of that minority who accepted the paper for its respectable exterior and advertisements. I was somewhat grieved, however, to find that Captain Jim shared equally with his friend in this general verdict of incompetency, and that some of the most outrageous blunders were put down to him. But I was not prepared to believe that Lacy had directly or by innuendo helped the public to this opinion. Whether through accident or design on his part, Lacy Bassett did not personally obtrude himself upon my re- membrance until a month later. One dazzling afternoon, when the dust and heat had driven the pride of Gilead's manhood into the surreptitious shadows of the temperance hotel's back room, and had even cleared the express office of its loungers, and left me alone with darkened windows in the private office, the outer door opened and Captain Jim's friend entered as part of that garish glitter I had shut out. CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 381 To do the scamp strict justice, however, he was somewhat subdued in his dress and manner, and, possibly through some gentle chastening of epigram and revolver since I had seen him last, was less aggressive and exaggerated. I had the impression, from certain odors wafted through the apart- ment and a peculiar physical exaltation that was inconsistent with his evident moral hesitancy, that he had prepared himself for the interview by a previous visit to the hidden fountains of the temperance hotel. " We don't seem to have run agin each other since you 've been here," he said, with an assurance that was nevertheless a trifle forced, " but I reckon we 're both busy men, and there 's a heap too much loafing goin' on in Gilead. Cap- tain Jim told me he met you the day you arrived ; said you just cottoned to the ' Guardian ' at once and thought it a deal too good for Gilead ; eh ? Oh, well, jest ez likely he did n't say it — it was only his gassin'. He 's a queer man — is Captain Jim." I replied somehat sharply that I considered him a very honest man, a very simple man, and a very loyal man. " That 's all very well," said Bassett, twirling his cane with a patronizing smile, "but, as his friend, don't you find him considerable of a darned fool ? " I could not help retorting that I thought he had found that hardly an objection. " You think so," he said querulously, apparently ignor- ing everything but the practical fact, — " and maybe others do ; but that 's where you 're mistaken. It don't pay. It may pay him to be runnin' me as his particular friend, to be quotin' me here and there, to be gettin' credit of knowin' me and my friends and ownin' me — by Gosh ! but I don't see where the benefit to me comes in. Eh ? Take your own case down there at Eureka Gulch ; did n't he send for me just to show me up to you fellers ? Did I Want to have anything to do with the Eureka Company ? 382 CAPTAIN JIMS FRIEND Did n't he set me up to give my opinion about that shaft just to show off what I knew about science and all that? And what did he get me to join the company for ? Was it for you ? No ! Was it for me ? No ! It -was just to keep me there for himself, and kinder pit me agin you fellers and crow over you ! Now that ain't my style ! It may be his — it may be honest and simple and loyal, as you say, and it may be all right for him to get me to run up accounts at the settlement and then throw off on me — but it ain't my style. I suppose he let on that I did that. No ? He did n't ? Well, then, why did he want to run me off with him, and cut the whole concern in an under- hand way and make me leave with nary a character behind me, eh ? Now, I never said anything about this before — did I ? It ain't like me. I would n't have said anything about it now, only you talked about my being benefited by his darned foolishness. Much I 've made outer him." Despicable, false, and disloyal as this was, perhaps it was the crowning meanness of such confidences that his very weakness seemed only a reflection of Captain Jim's own, and appeared in some strange way to degrade his friend as much as himself. The simplicity of his vanity and selfishness was only equaled by the simplicity of Cap- tain Jim's admiration of it. It was a part of my youthful inexperience of humanity that I was not above the common, fallacy of believing that a man is "known by the company he keeps," and that he is in a manner responsible for its weakness ; it was a part of that humanity that I felt no surprise in being more amused than shocked by this revela- tion. It seemed a good joke on Captain Jim ! " Of course you kin laugh at his darned foolishness ; but, by Gosh, it ain't a laughing matter to me ! " " But surely he 's given you a good position on the • Guardian,' " I urged. " That was disinterested, cer- tainly." CAPTAIN JIM'S friend 383 " Was it ? I call that the cheekiest thing yet. When he found he could n't make enough of me in private life, he totes me out in public as his editor, — the man who runs his paper ! And has his name in print as the pro- prietor, the only chance he 'd ever get of being before the public. And don't knovi' the whole town is laughing at him ! " " That may be because they think he writes some of the articles," I suggested. Again the insinuation glanced harmlessly from his van- ity. " That could n't be, because I do all the work, and it ain't his style," he said, with naive discontent. " And it 's always the highest style, done to please him, though between you and me it 's sorter castin' pearls before swine, — this 'Frisco editing, — and the public would be just as satisfied with anything I could rattle off that was peart and sassy, — something spicy or personal. I 'm willing to climb down and do it, for there 's nothin' stuck-up about me, you know ; but that darned fool Captain Jim has got the big head about the style of the paper, and darned if I don't think he 's afraid if there 's a lettin' down, people may think it 's him ! Ez if ! Why, you know as well as me that there 's a sort of snap I could give these things that would show it was me and no slouch did them, in a minute." I had my doubts about the elegance or playfulness of Mr. Bassett's trifling, but from some paragraphs that ap- peared in the next issue of the " Guardian " I judged that he had won over Captain Jim — if indeed that gentleman's alleged objections were not entirely the outcome of Bas- sett's fancy. The social paragraphs themselves were clumsy and vulgar. A dull-witted account of a select party at Parson Baxter's, with a pointblank compliment to Polly Baxter his daughter, might have made her pretty cheek burn but for her evident prepossession for the meretricious 384 CAPTAIN jim's friend scamp, its writer. But even this horse-play seemed more natural than the utterly artificial editorials with their pinch- beck glitter and cheap erudition ; and thus far it appeared harmless. I grieve to say that these appearances were deceptive. One afternoon, as I was returning from a business visit to the outskirts of the village, I was amazed on reentering the main street to find a crowd collected around the " Guard- ian " office, gazing at the broken glass of its windows and a quantity of type scattered on the ground. But my atten- tion was at that moment more urgently attracted by a simi- lar group around my own office, who, however, seemed more cautious, and were holding timorously aloof from the entrance. As I ran rapidly towards them, a few called out, " Look out — he 's in there ! " while others made way to let me pass. With the impression of fire or robbery in my mind, I entered precipitately, only to find Yuba Bill calmly leaning back in an armchair with his feet on the back of another, a glass of whiskey from my demijohn in one hand and a huge cigar in his mouth. Across his lap lay a stumpy shot-gun which I at once recognized as "the Left Bower," whose usual place was at his feet on the box during his journeys. He looked cool and collected, although there were one or two splashes of printer's ink on bis shirt and trousers, and from the appearance of my lavatory and towel he had evidently been removing similar stains from his hands. Putting his gun aside and grasping my hand warmly without rising, he began, with even more than his usual lazy imperturbability : — " Well, how 's Gilead lookin' to-day ? " It struck me as looking rather disturbed, but, as I was still too bewildered to reply, he continued lazily : — " Ez you did n't hunt me up, I allowed you might hev got kinder petrified and dried up down yer, and I reckoned to run down and rattle round a bit and make things lively CAPTAIN JIMS FRIEND 385. for ye. I 've jist cleared out a newspaper office over thar. They call it the ' Guar-di-an,' though it didn't seem to oifer much pertection to them fellers ez was in it. In fact, it was n't ez much a fight ez it orter hev been. It was rather monotonous for me." " But what 's the row, Bill ? What has happened ? " I asked excitedly. "Nothin' to speak of, I tell ye," replied Yuba Bill reflectively. " I jest meandered into that shop over there, and I sez, ' I want ter see the man ez runs this yer mill o' literatoor an' progress.' Thar waz two infants sittin' on high chairs havin' some innocent little game o' pickin' pieces o' lead outer pill-boxes like, and as soon ez they seed me one of 'em crawled under his desk and the other scooted outer the back door. Bimeby the door opens again, and a fluffy coyote-lookin' feller comes in and allows that he is responsible for that yer paper. When I saw the kind of ani- mal he was, and that he bad n't any weppings, I jist laid the Left Bower down on the floor. Then I sez, ' You allowed in your paper that I oughter hev a little sevility knocked inter me, and I 'm here to hev it done. You ken begin it now.' With that I reached for him, and we waltzed oncet or twicet around the room, and then I put him up on the mantelpiece and on them desks and little boxes, and took him down again, and kinder wiped the floor with him gin- 'rally, until the first thing I knowed he was outside the winder on the sidewalk. On'y blamed if I did n't forget to open the winder. Ef it had n't been for that, it would hev been all quiet and peaceful-like, and nobody hev knowed it. But the sash being in the way, it sorter created a disturbance and unpleasantness outside." " But what was it all about ? " I repeated. " What had he done to you ? " " Ye '11 find it in that paper," he said, indicating a copy of the " Guardian " that lay on my table, with a lazy nod of his 386 CAPTAIN JIM'S friend head. " P'r'aps you don't read it ? ISo more do I. But Joe Bilson sez to me yesterday. : ' Bill,' sez he, ' they 're gain' for ye in the "Guardian."' 'Wet's that?' sez I. ' Hark to this,' sez he, and reads out that bit that you '11 ind there." I had opened the paper, and he pointed to a paragraph. " There it is. Booty, ain't it ? " I read with amazement as follows : — " If the Pioneer Stage Company want to keep up with the times, and not degenerate into the old style ' one horse ' road-wagon business, they'd better make some reform on the line. They might begin by shipping oif some of the old-time whiskey-guzzling drivers who are too high and mighty to do anything but handle the ribbons, and are above speaking to a passenger unless he 's a fa.vorite or one of their set. Overpraise for an occasional scrimmage with road agents and flattery from Eastern greenhorns have given them the big head. If the fool-killer were let loose on the line with a big club, and knocked a little civility into their heads, it would n't be a bad thing, and would be a particular relief to the passengers for Gilead who have to take the stage from Simpson's Bar." " That 's my stage," said Yuba Bill quietly, when I had ended ; " and that 's me." " But it 's impossible," I said eagerly. " That insult was never written by Captain Jim." " Captain Jim," repeated Yuba Bill reflectively. " Cap- tain Jim, — yes, that was the name o' the man I was playin' with. Shortish hairy feller, suthin' between a big coyote and the old-style hair-trunk. Fought pretty well for a hay- footed man from Gil-e-ad." " But you 've whipped the wrong man, Bill," I said. " Think again ! Have you had any quarrel lately ? — run against any newspaper man ? " The recollection had flashed upon me that Lacy Bassett had lately returned from a visit to Stockton. CAPTAIN JIM'S FKIEND 38? Yuba Bill regarded his boots on the other armchair for a few moments in profound meditation. " There was a sort o' gaudy insect," he began presently, " suthin' half- way betwixt a hoss-fly and a devil's darnin'-needle, ez crawled up onter the box seat with me last week, and buzzed ! Now I think on it, he talked highfaluten' o' the inflooence of the press and sech. I may hev said ' shoo ' to him when he was hummin' the loudest. I mout hev flicked him off oncet or tvvicet with my whip. It must be him. Gosh ! " he said suddenly, rising and lifting his heavy hand to his forehead, " now I think agin, he was the feller ez crawled under the desk ivhen the fight was goin' on, and stayed there. Yes, sir, that was him. His face looked sorter familiar, but I did n't know him moultin' with his feathers off." He turned upon me with the first expression of trouble and anxiety I had ever seen him wear. " Yes, sir, that 's him. And I 've kem — me, Yuba Bill ! — kem myself, a matter of twenty miles, totin' a gun — a gun, by Gosh! — to fight that — -that — that potatar-bug ! " He walked to the window, turned, walked back again, finished his whiskey with a single gulp, and laid his hand almost despondingly on my shoulder. " Look ye, old — old fell, you and me 's ole friends. Don't give me away. Don't let on a word o' this to any one ! Say I kem down yer howlin' drunk on a gen'ral tear ! Say I mistook that newspaper office for a cigar-shop, and — got licked by the boss ! Say anythin' you like, 'cept that I took a gun down yer to chase a fly that had settled onter me. Keep the Left Bower in yer back office till I send for it. Ef you 've got a back door somewhere handy, where I can slip outer this without bein' seen, I 'd be thankful." As this desponding suggestion appeared to me as the wisest thing for him to do in the then threatening state of affairs outside, — which, had he suspected it, he would have stayed to face, — I quickly opened a door into a courtyard 388 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND that communicated through an alley with a side street. Here we shook hands and parted ; his last dejected ejacula- tion being, " That potatar-bug ! " Later I ascertained that Captain Jim had retired to his ranch some four miles distant. He was not seriously hurt, but looked, to use the words of my informant, " ez ef he 'd been hugged by a playful b'ar." As the " Guardian " made its appearance the next week without the slightest allusion to the fracas, I did not deem it necessary to divulge the real facts. When I called to inquire about Captain Jim's condition, he himself, however, volunteered an explanation. "I don't mind tellin' you, ez an old friend o' mine and Lacy's, that the secret of that there attack on me and the ' Guardian ' was perlitikal. Yes, sir ! There was a power- ful orginization in the interest o' Halkins for assemblyman ez did n't like our high-toned editorials on caucus corrup- tion, and hired a bully to kem down here and suppress us. Why, this yer Lacy spotted the idea to oncet ; yer know how keen he is." " Was Lacy present ? " I asked as carelessly as I could. Captain Jim glanced his eyes over his shoulder quite in his old furtive canine fashion, and then blinked them at me rapidly. " He war ! And if it warn't for his pluck and his science and his strength, I don't know whar I'd hev been now ! Howsomever, it 's all right. I 've had a fair ofi'er to sell the ' Guardian ' over at Simpson's Bar, and it's time I quit throwin' away the work of a man like Lacy Bassett upon it. And between you and me, I 've got an idea and suthin' better to put his talens into." in It was not long before it became evident that the "talens" of Mr. Lacy Bassett, as indicated by Captain Jim, were to grasp at a seat in the State legislature. An editorial in the " Simpson's Bar Clarion " boldly advocated his pretensions. At first it was believed that the article emanated from the gifted pen of Lacy himself, but the style was so unmistak- ably that of Colonel Starbottle, an eminent political " war- horse " of the district, that a graver truth was at once sug- gested, namely, that the " Guardian " had simply been transferred to Simpson's Bar, and merged into the "Clarion" solely on this condition. At least it was recognized that it was the hand of Captain Jim which guided the editorial fingers of the colonel, and Captain Jim's money that dis- tended the pockets of that gallant political leader. Howbeit Lacy Bassett was never elected ; in fact, he was only for one brief moment a candidate. It was related that upon his first ascending the platform at Simpson's Bar a voice in the audience said lazily, "Come down!" That voice was Yuba Bill's. A slight confusion ensued, in which Yuba Bill whispered a few words in the colonel's ear. After a moment's hesitation the " war-horse " came forward, and in his loftiest manner regretted that the candidate had withdrawn. The next issue of the " Clarion " proclaimed with no uncertain sound that a base conspiracy gotten up by the former proprietor of the " Guardian " to undermine the prestige of the Great Express Company had been ruthlessly exposed, and the candidate, on learning it himself for the first time, withdrew his name from the canvass, as became 390 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND a high-toned gentleman. Public opinion, ignoring Lacy Bassett completely, unhesitatingly denounced Captain Jim. During this period I had paid but little heed to Lacy Bassett's social movements, or the successes which would naturally attend such a character with the susceptible sex. I had heard that he was engaged to Polly Baxter, but that they had quarreled in consequence of his flirtations with others, especially a Mrs. Sweeny, a profusely ornamented but reputationless widow. Captain Jim had often alluded with a certain respectful pride and delicacy to Polly's ardent appreciation of his friend, and had more than half hinted with the same reverential mystery to their matrimonial union later, and his intention of " doing the square thing " for the young couple. But it was presently noticed that these allu- sions became less frequent during Lacy's amorous aberrations, and an occasional depression and unusual reticence marked Captain Jim's manner when the subject was discussed in his presence. He seemed to endeavor to make up for his friend's defection by a kind of personal homage to Polly, and not Tinfrequently accompanied her to church or to singing-class. I have a vivid recollection of meeting him one afternoon crossing the fields with her, and looking into her face with that same wistful, absorbed, and uneasy canine expression that I had hitherto supposed he had reserved for Lacy alone. I do not know whether Polly was averse to the speechless devotion of these yearning brown eyes ; her manner was animated, and the pretty cheek that was nearest me mantled as I passed ; but I was struck for the first time with the idea that Captain Jim loved her ! I was surprised to have that fancy corroborated in the remark of another wayfarer whom I met, to the effect, " That now that Bassett was out o' the running it looked ez if Captain Jim was niakin' up for time ! " AVas it possible that Captain Jim had always loved her ? I did not at first know whether to be pained or pleased for his sake. But I concluded that whether the CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 391 unworthy Bassett had at last found a rival in Captain Jim OB in the girl herself, it was a displacement that was for Cap- tain Jim's welfare. But as I was about leaving Gilead for a month's transfer to the San Francisco office, I had no oppor- tunity to learn more from the confidences of Captain Jim. I was ascending the principal staircase of my San Eran- cisco hotel one rainy afternoon, when I was pointedly re- called to Gilead by the passing glitter of Mrs. Sweeny's jewelry and the sudden vanishing behind her of a gentleman who seemed to be accompanying her. A few moments after I had entered my room I heard a tap at my door, and opened it upon Lacy Bassett. I thought he looked a little confused and agitated. Nevertheless, with an assumption of cordiality and ease he said, " It appears we 're neigh- bors. Tliat's my room next to yours." He pointed to the next room, which I then remembered was a sitting-room en suite with my own, and communicating with it by a second door, which was always locked. It had not been occupied since my tenancy. As I suppose my face did not show any extravagant delight at the news of his contiguity, he added hastily, " There 's a transom over the door, and I thought I 'd tell you you kin hear everything from the one room to the other." I thanked him, and told him dryly that, as I had no se- crets to divulge and none that I cared to hear, it made no difference to me. As this seemed to increase his confusion and he still hesitated before the door, I asked him if Cap- tain Jim was with him. " No," he said quickly. " I have n't seen him for a month, and don't want to. Look here, I want to talk to you a bit about him." He walked into the room, and closed the door behind him. " I want to tell you that me and Captain Jim is played ! All this runnin' o' me and interferin' with nie is played ! I 'm tired of it. You kin teil him so from me." 392 CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND " Then you have quarreled ? " " Yes. As much as any man can quarrel with a darned fool who can't take a hint." " One moment. Have you quarreled ahout Polly Bax- ter ? " " Yes," he answered querulously. " Of course I have. What does he mean by interfering ? " " Now listen to me, Mr. Bassett," I interrupted. " I have no desire to concern myself in your association with Captain Jim, but since you persist in dragging me unto it, you must allow me to speak plainly. Erom all that I can ascertain you have no serious intentions of marrying Polly Baxter. You have come here from Gilead to follow Mrs. Sweeny, whom I saw you with a moment ago. Now, why do you not frankly give up Miss Baxter to Captain Jim, who will make her a good husband, and go your own way with Mrs. Sweeny ? If you really wish to break oiF your connection with Captain Jim, that 's the only way to do it." His face, which had exhibited the weakest and most piti- able consciousness at the mention of Mrs. Sweeny, changed to an expression of absolute stupefaction as I concluded. " Wot stuff are you tryin' to fool me with ? " he said at last roughly. " I mean," I replied sharply, " that this double game of yours is disgraceful. Your association with Mrs. Sweeny demands the withdrawal of any claim you have upon Miss Baxter at once. If you have no respect for Captain Jim's friendship, you must at least show common decency to her." He burst into a half-relieved, half-hysteric laugh. " Are you crazy ? " gasped he. " Why, Captain Jim 's just hunt- in' me down to make me marry Polly. That 's just what the row 's about. That ^s just what he 's interferin' for — just to carry out his darned fool ideas o' gettin' a wife for CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 393 me ; just his vanity to say he 's made the match. It 's me that he wants to marry to that Baxter girl, — not himself. He 's too cursed selfish for that." I suppose I was not different from ordinary humanity, for in my unexpected discomfiture I despised Captain Jim quite as much as I did the man before me. Reiterating my remark that I had no desire to mix myself further in their quarrels, I got rid of him with as little ceremony as possible. But a few minutes later, when the farcical side of the situa- tion struck me, my irritation was somewhat mollified, with- out however increasing my respect for either of the actors. The whole affair had assumed a triviality that was simply amusing, nothing more, and I even looked forward to a meeting with Captain Jim and his exposition of the matter — which I knew would follow — with pleasurable anticipa- tion. But I was mistaken. One afternoon, when I was watching the slanting volleys of rain driven by a strong southwester against the windows of the hotel reading-room, I was struck by the erratic movements of a dripping figure outside that seemed to be hesitating over the entrance to the hotel. At times furtively penetrat- ing the porch as far as the vestibule, and again shyly recoil- ing from it, its manner was so strongly suggestive of some timid animal that I found myself suddenly reminded of Captain Jim and the memorable evening of his exodus from Eureka Gulch. As the figure chanced to glance up to the window where I stood I saw to my astonishment that it was Captain Jim himself, but so changed and haggard that I scarcely knew him. I instantly ran out into the hall and vestibule, but when I reached the porch he had disappeared. Either he had seen me and wished to avoid me, or he had encountered the object of his quest, which I at once con- cluded must be Lacy Bassett. I was so much impressed and worried by his appearance and manner, that in this be- lief, I overcame my aversion to meeting Bassett, and even 394 CAPTAIN JIM'S FKIEND sought him through the public room and lobbies in the hope of finding Captain Jim with him. But in vain ; possibly he had succeeded in escaping his relentless friend. As the wind and rain increased at nightfall and grew into a tempestuous night, with deserted streets and swollen waterways, I did not go out again, but retired early, inex- plicably haunted by the changed and brooding face of Captain Jim. Even in my dreams he pursued me in his favorite likeness of a wistful, anxious, and uneasy hound, who, on my tnrning to caress him familiarly, snapped at me viciously, and appeared to have suddenly developed a snarl- ing rabid fury. I seemed to be awakened at last by the sound of his voioo. For an instant I believed the delusion a part of my dream. But I was mistaken ; I was lying broad awake, and the voice clearly had come from the next room, and was distinctly audible over the transom. " I 've had enough of it," he said, " and I 'm givin' ye now — this night — yer last chance. Quit this hotel and that woman, and go back to Gilead and marry Polly. Don't do it and 1 '11 kill ye, ez sure ez you sit there gapin' in that chair. If I can't get ye to fight mo like a man, — and I '11 spit in yer face or put some insult onto you afore that wo- man, afore everybody, ez would make a bigger skunk nor you turn, — I '11 hunt ye down and kill ye in your tracks." There was a querulous murmur of interruption in Lacy's voice, but whether of defiance or appeal I could not distin- guish. Captain Jim's voice again rose, dogged and distinct. " Ef you kill me it 's all the same, and I don't say that I won't thank ye. This yer world is too crowded for yer and me. Lacy Bassett. I've believed in ye, trusted in ye, lied for ye, and fought for ye. From the time I took ye up — a feller-passenger to 'Fresco — believin' there wor the makin's of a man in ye, to now, you fooled me, — fooled me afore the Eureka boys ; fooled me afore Gilead ; fooled me afore her ; fooled me afore God ! It 's got to end here CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND 893 Ye 've got to take the curse of that foolishness off o' me ! You 've got to do one single thiug that's like the man I took ye for, or you 've got to die. Times waz when I 'd have wished it for your account — that's gone, Lacy Bas- sett ! You 've got to do it for me. You've got to do it so I don't see ' d — d fool ' writ in the eyes of every man ez looks at me." He had apparently risen and walked towards the door. His voice sounded from another part of the room. " I '11 give ye till to-morrow mornin' to do suthin' to lift this curse off o' me. Ef you refoose, then, by the living God, I '11 slap yer face in the dinin'-room, or in the office afore them all ! You hear me ! " There was a pause, and then a quick sharp explosion that seemed to fill and expand both rooms until the windows were almost lifted from their casements, a hysterical inartic- ulate cry from Lacy, the violent opening of a door, hurried voices, and the tramping of many feet in the passage. I sprang out of bed, partly dressed myself, and ran into the hall. But by that time I found a crowd of guests and servants around the next door, some grasping Bassett, who was white and trembling, and others kneeling by Captain Jim, who was half lying in the doorway against the wall. " He heard it all," Bassett gasped hysterically, pointing to me. " He knows that this man wanted to kill me." Before I could reply. Captain Jim partly raised himself with a convulsive effort. Wiping away the blood that, oozing from his lips, already showed the desperate character of his internal wound, he said in a husky and hurried voice : " It 's all right, boys ! It 's my fault. It was m.e who done it. I went for him in a mean underhanded way just now, when he had n't a weppin nor any show to defend himself. We gripped. He got a holt o' my derringer — you see that 's ■my pistol there, I swear it — and turned it agin me in self- defense, and sarved me right. I swear to God, gentlemen, 396 CAPTAIN JIM'S FEIEND it 's so ! " Catching sight of my face, he looked at me, I fancied half imploringly and half triumphantly, and cdded, " I might hev knowed it ! I allers allowed Lacy Bassett was game ! — game, gentlemen — and he was. If it 's my last word, I say it — he was game ! " And with this devoted falsehood upon his lips and some- thing of the old canine instinct in his failing heart,' as his head sank hack he seemed to turn it towards Bassett, as if to stretch himself out at his feet. Then the light failed from his yearning upward glance, and the curse of foolish- ness was lifted from him forever. So conclusive were the facts, that the coroner's jury did not deem it necessary to detain Mr. Bassett for a single moment after the inquest. But he returned to Gilead, married Polly Baxter, and probably on the strength of hav- ing "killed his man," was imopposed on the platform next year, and triumphantly elected to the legislature ! THE HEEITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH I The sun was going down on the Dedlow Marshes. The tide was following it fast as if to meet the reddening lines of sky and water in the west, leaving the foreground to grow blacker and blacker every moment, and to bring out in startling contrast the few half-filled and half-lit pools left behind and forgotten. The strong breath of the Pacific fanning their surfaces at times kindled them into a dull glow like dying embers. A cloud of sandpipers rose white from one of the nearer lagoons, swept in a long eddying ring against the sunset, and became a black and dropping i-ain to seaward. The long sinuous line of channel, fading with the light and ebbing with the tide, began to give off here and there light puffs of gray-winged birds like sudden exhalations. High in the darkening sky the long arrow- headed lines of geese and " brant " pointed towards the upland. As the light grew more uncertain the air at times was filled with the rush of viewless and melancholy wings, or became plaintive with far-off cries and lamentations. As the Marsh grew blacker the far-scattered tussocks and accretions on its level surface began to loom in exaggerated outline, and two human figures, suddenly emerging erect on the bank of the hidden channel, assumed the proportion of giants. When they had moored their unseen boat, they still ap- peared for some moments to be moving vaguely and aim- iessly round tlie spot where they had disembarked. But as 398 THE HERITAGE OF DEULOW MARSH the eye became familiar with the darkness it was seen that they were really advancing inland, yet with a slowness of progression and deviousness of course that appeared inex- plicable to the distant spectator. Presently it was evident that this seemingly even, vast, black expanse was traversed and intersected by inky creeks and small channels, which made human progression diificult and dangerous. As they appeared nearer and their figures took more natural propor- tions, it could be seen that each carried a gun ; that one was a young girl, although dressed so like her companion in shaggy pea-jacket and sou'wester as to be scarcely distin- guished from him above the short skirt that came halfway down her high india-rubber tishing-boots. By the time they had reached firmer ground, and turned to look back at the sunset, it could be also seen that the likeness between their faces was remarkable. Both had crisp, black, tightly curling hair ; both had dark eyes and heavy eyebrows ; both had quick vivid complexions, slightly heightened by the sea and wind. But more striking than their similarity of coloring was the likeness of expression and bearing. Both wore the same air of picturesque energy ; both bore themselves with a like graceful effrontery and self-posses- sion. The young man continued his way. The young girl lingered for a moment looking seaward, with her small brown hand lifted to shade her eyes, — a precaution which her heavy eyebrows and long lashes seemed to render utterly gratuitous. " Come along, Mag. What are ye waitin' for ? " said the young man impatiently. " Nothin'. Lookin' at that boat from the Fort." Her clear eyes were watching a small skis', invisible to less keen- sighted observers, aground upon a fiat near the mouth of the channel. " Them chaps will have a high ole time gunnin' thar, stuck in the mud, and the tide goin' out like sixty ! '' THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 399 " Never you mind the sodgers," returned her companion aggressively, "they kin take care o' their own precious skins, or Uncle Sam will do it for 'em, I reckon. Anyhow the people — that 's you and me, Mag — is expected to paj for their foolishness. That's what they're sent yer foi. Ye oughter to be satisfied with that," he added, with deep sarcasm. "I reckon they ain't expected to do much off o' dry land, and they can't help bein' queer on the water," re- turned the young girl, with a reflecting sense of justice. " Then they ain't no call to go gunnin', and wastin' Guv'nment powder on ducks instead o' Injins." " Thet 's so," said the girl thoughtfully. " Wonder ef Guv'nment pays tor them frocks the Kernel's girls went cavortin' round Logport in last Sunday — they looked like a cirkis." " Like ez not the old Kernel gets it outer contracts — one way or another. We pay for it all the same," he added gloomily. " Jest the same ez if they were wiy clothes," said the girl, with a quick, fiery, little laugh, " ain't it ? Wonder how they 'd like my sayin' that to 'em when they was prancin' round, eh, Jim ? " But her companion was evidently unprepared for this sweeping feminine deduction, and stopped it with masculine promptitude. " Look yer — instead o' botherin' your head about whau the Fort girls wear, you 'd better trot along a little more lively. It 's late enough now." " But these darned boots hurt like pizen," said the girl, limping. " They swallowed a lot o' water over the tops while I was wadin' down there, and my feet go swashin' around like in a churn every step." " Lean on me, baby," he returned, passing his arm around her waist, and dropping her head smartly on his 400 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH shoulder. " Thar ! " The act was hrotherly and slightly contemptuous, but it was sufficient to at once establish theii kinship. They continued on thus for some moments in silence, the girl, I fear, after the fashion of her sex, taking the fullest advantage of this slightly sentimental and caressing attitude. They were moving now along the edge of the Marsh, parallel with the line of rapidly fading horizon, following some trail only known to their keen youthful eyes. It was. growing darker and darker. The cries of the sea-birds had ceased ; even the call of a belated plover had died away in- land ; the hush of death lay over the black funereal pall of marsh at their side. The tide had run out with the day. Even the sea-breeze had lulled in this dead slack-water of all nature, as if waiting outside the bar with the ocean, the stars, and the night. Suddenly the girl stopped and halted her companion. The faint far sound of a bugle broke the silence, if the idea of interruption could have been conveyed by the two or three exquisite vibrations that seemed born of that silence itself, and to fade and die in it without break or discord. Yet it was only the " retreat " call from the Fort two miles distant and invisible. The young girl's face had become irradiated, and her small mouth half opened as she listened. " Do you know, Jim," she said, with a confidential sigh, " I alius put words to that when I hear it — it 's so pow'ful pretty. It alius goes to me like this : ' Goes the day. Far away, With the light, And the night Comes along — Comes along — Comes along — Like a-a so-o-ong.'" She here lifted her voice, &, sweet, fresh, boyish contralto, in such an admirable imita- tion of the bugle that her brother, after the fashion of more select auditors, was for a moment quite convinced that the words meant something. Nevertheless, as a brother, it was his duty to crush this weakness. " Yes ; and it says : THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 401 ' Shut your head, Go to bed,' " he returned irascibly ; " and you 'd better come along, if we 're goin' to hev any supper. There 's Yeller Bob hez got ahead of us over there with the game already." The girl glanced towards a slouching burdened figure that now appeared to be preceding them, straightened her- self suddenly, and then looked attentively towards the Marsh. " Not the sodgers again ? " said her brother impatiently. "No," she said quickly; "but if that don't beat any- thin' ! I 'd hev sworn, Jim, that Yeller Bob was some- where behind us. I saw him only jest now when ' Taps ' sounded, somewhere over thar." She pointed with a half- unea.sy expression in quite another direction from that in which the slouching Yellow Bob had just loomed. " Tell ye what, Mag, makin' poetry outer bugle-calls hez kinder muddled ye. That 's Yeller Bob ahead, and ye orter know Injins well enuff by this time to remember that they alius crop up jest when ye don't expect them. And there 's the bresh jest afore us. Come ! " The " bresh," or low bushes, was really a line of stunted willows and alders that seemed to have gradually sunk into the level of the plain, but increased in size farther inland, until they grew to the height and density of a wood. Seen from the channel it had the appearance of a green cape or promontory thrust upon the Marsh. Passing through its tangled recesses, with the aid of some unerring instinct, the two companions emerged upon another and much larger level that seemed as illimitable as the bay. The strong breath of the ocean lying jiist beyond the bar and estuary they were now facing came to them salt and humid as an- other tide. The nearer expanse of open water reflected the after-glow, and lightened the landscape. And between the two wayfarers and the horizon rose, bleak and startling, the strange outlines of their home. 402 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH At first it seemed a ruined colonnade of many pillars, whose base and pediment were buried in the earth, support- ing a long parallelogram of entablature and cornices. But a second glance sho^^■ed it to be a one-storied building, up- held above the Marsh by numberless piles placed at regular distances ; some of them sunken or inclined from the per- pendicular, increasing the first illusion. Between these pillars, which permitted a free circulation of air, and, at extraordinary tides, even the waters of the bay itself, the level waste of marsh, the bay, the surges of the bar, and finally the red horizon line, were distinctly visible. A railed gallery or platform, supported also on piles, and reached by steps from the Marsh, ran around the building, and gave access to the several rooms and offices. But if the appearance of this lacustrine and amphibious dwelling was striking, and not without a certain rude and massive grandeur, its grounds and possessions, through which the brother and sister were still picking their way, were even more grotesque and remarkable. Over a space of half a dozen acres the flotsam and jetsam of years of tidal offerings were collected, and even guarded with a cer- tain care. The blackened hulks of huge uprooted trees, scarcely distinguishable from the fragments of genuine wrecks beside them, were securely fastened by chains to stakes and piles driven in the marsh, while heaps of broken and disjointed bamboo orange crates, held together by ropes of fibre, glistened like ligamented bones heaped in the dead valley. Masts, spars, fragments of shell-encrusted boats, binnacles, round-houses and galleys, and part of the after- deck of a coasting schooner had ceased their wanderings and found rest in this vast cemetery of the sea. The legend on a wheel-house, the lettering on a stern or bow, served for mortuary inscription. Wailed over by the trade- winds, mourned by lamenting sea-birds, once every year the tide visited its lost dead and left them wet with its tears. THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 4(3 To siicli a spot and its surroundings the atmosphere of tradition and mystery was not wanting. Six years ago Boone Culpepper had built the house, and brought to it his wife — variously believed to be a gypsy, a Mexican, a bright mulatto, a Digger Indian, a South Sea jirincess from Tahiti, somebody else's wife — but in reality a little Creole woman from New Orleans, with whom he had contracted a marriage, with other gambling debts, during a winter's vacation from his home in Virginia. At the end of two years she had died, succumbing, as diiferently stated, from perpetual wet feet, or the misanthropic idiosyncrasies of her husband, and leaving behind her a girl of twelve and a boy of sixteen to console him. How futile was this bequest may be guessed from a brief summary of Mr. Culpepper's peculiarities. They were the development of a singular form of aggrandizement and misanthropy. On his arrival at Log- port he had bought a part of the apparently valueless Dedlow Marsh from the Government at less than a dollar an acre, continuing his singular investment year by year until he was the owner of three leagues of amphibious domain. It was then discovered that this property carried with it the water-front of divers valuable and convenient sites for manufactures and the commercial ports of a noble bay, as well as the natural embarcaderos of some " lumbering " inland settlements. Boone Culpepper would not sell. Boone Culpepper would not rent or lease. Boone Culpep- per held an invincible blockade of his neighbors, and the progress and improvement he despised — granting only, after a royal fashion, occasional license, revocable at plea- sure, in the shape of tolls, which amply supported him, with the game he shot in his kingfisher's eyrie on the Marsh. Even the Government that had made him power- ful was obliged to " condemn " a part of his property at an equitable price for the purposes of Fort Eedwood, in which the adjacent town of Logport shared. And Boone Culpep 404 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH per, unable to resist the act, refused to receive the compen- sation or quitclaim the town. In his scant intercourse with his neighbors he always alluded to it as his own, showed it to his children as part of their strange inheritance, and exhibited the starry flag that floated from the Port as a flaunting insult to their youthful eyes. Hated, feared, and superstitiously shunned by some, regarded as a madman by others, familiarly known as " The Kingfisher of Dedlow,'^ Boone Culpepper was one day found floating dead in his skiff, with a charge of shot through his head and shoulders. The shot-gun lying at his feet at the bottom of the boat indicated the " accident " as recorded in the verdict of the coroner's jury — but not by the people. A thousand rumors of murder or suicide prevailed, but always with the universal rider, " Served him right." So invincible was this feeling that but few attended his last rites, which took place at high water. The delay of the officiating clergy- man lost the tide ; the homely catafalque — his own boat — was left aground on the Marsh, and deserted by all mourn- ers except the two children. Whatever he had instilled into tliem by precept and example, whatever took place that night in their lonely watch by his bier on the black marshes, it was certain that those who confidently looked for any change in the administration of the Dedlow Marsh were cruelly mistaken. The old Kingfisher was dead, but he had left in the nest two young birds, more beautifu? and graceful, it was true, yet as fierce and tenacious of beaL and talon. II Akriving at the house, the young people ascended the outer flight of wooden steps, which bore an odd likeness to the corapanionway of a vessel, and the gallery, or " deck," as it was called — where a number of nets, floats, and buoys thrown over the railing completed the nautical resem- blance. This part of the building was evidently devoted to kitchen, dining-room, and domestic offices ; the principal room in the centre serving as hall or living-room, and com- municating on the other side with two sleeping apartments. It was of considerable size, with heavy lateral beams across the ceiling, — built, like the rest of the house, with a cer- tain maritime strength, — and looked not unlike a saloon cabin. An enormous open Franklin stove between the windows, as large as a chimney, blazing with driftwood, gave light and heat to the apartment, and brought into flickering relief the boarded walls hung with the spoils of sea and shore, and glittering with gun-barrels. Fowling- pieces of all sizes, from the long ducking-gun mounted on a swivel for boat use to the light single-barrel or carbine, stood in racks against the walls ; game-bags, revolvers in their holsters, hunting and fishing knives in their sheaths, depended from hooks above them. In one corner stood a harpoon ; in another, two or three Indian spears for salmon. The carpetless floor and rude chairs and settles were covered with otter, mink, beaver, and a quantity of valuable seal-skins, with a few larger pelts of the bear and elk. The only attempt at decoration was the displayed wings and breasts of the wood and harlequin duck, the 406 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH muir, the cormorant, the gull, the gannet, and the femi- ninely delicate half mourning of petrel and plover, nailed against the -wall. The influence of the sea was dominant above all, and asserted its saline odors even through the spice of the curling driftwood smoke that half veiled the ceiling. A berry-eyed old Indian woman with the complexion of dried salmon ; her daughter, also with berry eyes, and with a face that seemed wholly made of a moist laugh ; " Yellow Bob," a Digger " buck," so called from the prevail, ing ochre markings of his cheek, and " Washooh," an ex- chief ; a nondescript in a blanket, looking like a cheap and dirty doll whose fibrous hair was badly nailed on his carved wooden head, composed the Culpepper household. While the two former were preparing supper in the adjacent dining- room. Yellow Bob, relieved of his burden of game, ap- peared on the gallery and beckoned mysteriously to his master through the window. James Culpepper went out, returned quickly, and, after a minute's hesitation and an uneasy glance towards his sister, who had meantime pushed back her sou'wester from her forehead, and without taking off her jacket had dropped into a chair before the fire with her back towards him, took his gun noiselessly from the rack, and, saying carelessly that he would be back in a moment, disappeared. Left to herself, Maggie coolly pulled off her long boots and stockings, and comfortably opposed to the fire two very pretty feet and ankles, whose delicate purity was slightly blue-bleached by confinement in the tepid sea-water. The contrast of their waxen whiteness with her blue woolen skirt, and with even the skin of her sunburnt hands and wrists, apparently amused her, and she sat for some moments with her elbows on her knees, her skirts slightly raised, contemplating them, and curling her toes with evident satis- faction. The firelight playing upon the rich coloring of her THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 407 face, the fringe of jet-black curls that almost met the thick aweep of eyebrows, and left her only a white strip of fore- head, her short upper lip and small chin, rounded but resolute, completed a piquant and striking figure. The rich brown shadows on the smoke-stained walls and ceiling, the occasional starting into relief of the scutcheons of bril- liant plumage, and the momentary glitter of the steel bar- rels made a quaint background to this charming picture. Sitting there, and following some lingering memory of her tramp on the Marsh, she hummed to herself a few notes of the bugle-call that had impressed her — at first softly, and finally with the full pitch of her voice. Suddenly she stopped. There was a faint and unmistakable rapping on the floor beneath her. It was distinct, but cautiously given, as if intended to be audible to her alone. For a moment she stood upright, her feet still bare and glistening, on the otter skin that served as a rug. There were two doors to the room, one from which her brother had disappeared, which led to the steps, the other giving on the back gal- lery, looking inland. With a quick instinct she caught up her gun and ran to that one, but not before a rapid scram- ble near the railing was followed by a cautious opening of the door. She was just in time to shut it on the extended arm and light blue sleeve of an army overcoat that pro- truded through the opening, and for a moment threw her whole weight against it. " A dhrop of whiskey. Miss, for the love of God." She retained her hold, cocked her weapon, and stepped back a pace from the door. The blue sleeve was followed by the rest of the overcoat, and a blue cap with the infan- try blazoning, and the letter H on its peak. They were for the moment more distinguishable than the man beneath them — grimed and blackened with the slime of the Marsh. But what could be seen of his mud-stained face was more 408 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH grotesque than terrifying. A combination of weakness and audacit}', insinuation and timidity struggled through the dirt for expression. His small blue eyes were not ill- natured, and even the intruding arm trembled more from exhaustion than passion. " On'y a dhrop, Miss," he repeated piteously, " and av ye pleeze, quick ! afore I 'm stharved with the cold en- toirely." She looked at him intently — without lowering her gun. " Who are you ? " " Thin, it 's the truth I '11 tell ye. Miss — whisth then ! " he said in a half whisper ; " I 'm a desarter ! " " Then it was you that was doggin' us on the Marsh ? " " It was the sarjint I was lavin', Miss." She looked at him hesitatingly. " Stay outside there ; if you move a step into the room, I '11 blow you out of it." He stepped back on the gallery. She closed the door, bolted it, and, still holding the gun, opened a cupboard, poured out a glass of whiskey, and, returning to the door, opened it and handed him the liquor. She watched him drain it eagerly, saw the fiery stimu- lant put life into his shivering frame, trembling hands, and kindle his dull eye — and — quietly raised her gun again. " Ah, put it down, Miss, put it down ! Fwhot 's the use ? Sure the bullets ye carry in them oiyes of yours is more deadly ! It 's out here oi '11 sthand, glory be to God, all night, without movin' a fut till the sarjint comes to take me, av ye won't levil them oiyes at me like that. Ah, whirra ! look at that now ! but it 's a goddess she is — the livin' Jaynus of warr, standin' there like a statoo, wid her alybaster fut put forward." In her pride and conscious superiority, any suggestion of shame at thus appearing before a common man and a men- dicant was as impossible to her nature as it would have THE HKEITAGE OF DBDLOW MA.ESH 409 been to a queen or the goddess of his simile. His presence and his compliment alike passed her calm modesty unchal- lenged. The wretched scamp recognized the fact and felt its power, and it was with a superstitious reverence assert- ing itself through his native extravagance that he raised his grimy hand to his cap in military salute and became respectfully rigid. " Then the sodgers were huntin' you ? " she said thought- fully, lowering her weapon. " Thrue for you, Miss — they worr, and it 's meself that was lyin' flat in the ditch wid me faytures makin' an illigant cast in the mud — more betoken, as ye see even now — and the sarjint and his day tail thrampin' round ine. It was thin that the mortial cold sthruok through me mouth, and made me wake for the whiskey that would resthore me." " What did you desert fer ? " " Ah, list to that now ! Fwhat did I desart fer ? Shure ev there was the ghost of an inemy round, it 's meself that would be in the front now ! But it was the letthers from me ould mother, Miss, that is sthruck wid a mortial illness — long life to her ! — in County Clare, and me sisthers in Ninth Avenue in New York, fornint the daypo, that is brekken their harruts over nie listin' in the Fourth Infau- thry to do duty in a haythen wilderness. Av it was the cavalry — and it 's me own father that was in the Innish- killen Dthragoons, Miss — oi wouldn't moind. Wid a horse betune me legs, it 's on parade oi 'd be now. Miss, and not wandhering over the bare flure of the Marsh, stharved wid the cold, the thirst, and hunger, wid the mud and the moire thick on me ; facin' an illigant young leddy as is the ekal ov a Fayld Marshal's darter — not to sphake ov Kernal Preston's — ez could n't hold a candle to her." Brought up on the Spanish frontier, Maggie Culpepper was one of the few American girls who was not familiar 410 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAKSH with the Irish race. The rare smile that momentarily lit up her petulant mouth seemed to justify the intruder's praise. But it passed quickly, and she returned dryly : — " That means you want more drink, suthiu' to eat, and clothes. Suppose my brother comes back and ketches you here ? " " Shure, Miss, he 's just now hunten me, along wid his two haythen Diggers, beyond the laygoon there. It worr the yellar one that sphotted me lyin' there in the ditch ; it worr only your own oiyes. Miss — more power to their beauty for that ! — that saw me folly him unbeknownst here ; and that desaved them, ye see ! " The young girl remained for an instant silent and thoughtful. " We 're no friends of the Fort," she said finally, " but I don't reckon for that reason my brother will cotton to you. Stay out thar where ye are, till I come to ye. If you hear me singin' again, you '11 know he 's come back, and ye 'd better scoot with what you 've already got^ and be thankful." She shut the door again and locked it, went into the dining-room, returned with some provisions wrapped in paper, took a common wicker flask from the wall, passed into her brother's bedroom, and came out with a flannel shirt, overalls, and a coarse Indian blanket, and, reopening the door, placed them before the astonished and delighted vagabond. His eye glistened ; he began, " Glory be to God," but for once his habitual extravagance failed him. Nature triumphed with a more eloquent silence over his well-worn art. He hurriedly wiped his begrimed face and eyes with the shirt she had given him, and, catching the sleeve of her rough pea-jacket in his dirty hand, raised it to his lips. " Go ! " she said imperiously. " Get away while you can." THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 411 " Av it vas me last words — it 's speechless oi am," he stammered, and disappeared over the railing. She remained for a moment holding the door half open, and gazing into the darkness that seemed to flow in like a tide. Then she shut it, and going into her bedroom resumed her interrupted toilet. When she emerged again she was smartly stockinged and slippered, and even the blue serge skirt was exchanged for a bright print, with a white fichu tied around her throat. An attempt to subdue her rebel- lious curls had resulted in the construction from their ruins of a low Norman arch across her forehead with pillared abutments of ringlets. When her brother returned a few moments later she did not look up, but remained, perhaps a little ostentatiously, bending over the fire. '■' Bob allowed that the Fort boat was huntin' men — deserters, I reckon," said Jim aggrievedly. " Wanted me to believe that he saw one on the Marsh hidin'. On'y an Injin lie, I reckon, to git a little extra fire-water, for toting me out to the bresh on a fool's errand." " Oh, that's where you went ! " said Maggie, addressing the fire. " Since when hev you tuk partnership with the Guv'nment and Kernel Preston to hunt up and take keer of their property ? " " Well, I ain't goin' to hev such wreckage as they pick up and enlist set adrift on our marshes, Mag," said Jim decidedly. " What would you hev done had you ketohed him ? " said Maggie, looking suddenly into her brother's face. " Given him a dose of snipe-shot that he 'd remember, and be thankful it wasn't slugs," said Jim promptly. Observing a deeper seriousness in her attitude, he added, " Why, if it was in war-time he 'd get a hall from them sodgers on sight." " Yes ; but you ain't got no call to interfere," said Mag- gie. 412 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH " Ain't I ? Why, he 's no better than an outlaw. I ain't sure that he has n't been stealin' or killin' somebody over theer." " Not that man ! " said Maggie impulsively. " Not what man ? " said her brother, facing her quickly. " Why," returned Maggie, repairing her indiscretion with feminine dexterity, " not any man who might have knocked you and me over on the marshes in the dusk, and grabbed our guns." " Wish he 'd hev tried it," said the brother, with 9 superior smile, but a quickly rising color. " Where d' ye suppose I'd hev been all the while ? " Maggie saw her mistake, and for the first time in her life resolved to keep a secret from her brother — over night. " Supper 's gettin' cold," she said, rising. They went into the dining-room — an apartment as plainly furnished as the one they had quitted, but in its shelves, cupboards, and closely fitting boarding bearing out the general nautical suggestion of the house — and seated themselves before a small table on which their frugal meal was spread. In this tete-a-tete position Jim suddenly laid down his knife and fork and stared at his sister. " Hello ! " " What 's the matter ? " said Maggie, starting slightly. " How you do skeer one." " Who 's been prinkin', eh ? " " My ha'r was in kinks all along o' that hat," said Maggie, with a return of higher color, "and I had to straighten it. It 's a boy's hat, not a girl's." " But that necktie and that gown — and all those frills and tuckers ? " continued Jim, generalizing, with a rapid twirling of his fingers over her. " Are you expectin' Judge Martin or the Expressman this evening ? " Judge Martin was the lawyer of Logport, who bad proven her father's will, and had since raved about his THE HEKITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 413 single interview with the Kingfisher's beautiful daughter ; the Expressman was a young fellow who was popularly supposed to have left his heart while delivering another valuable package on Maggie in person, and had " never been the same man since." It was a well-worn fraternal plea- santry that had done duty many a winter's evening, as a happy combination of moral admonition and cheerfulness. Maggie usually paid it the tribute of a quick little laugh and a sisterly pinch, but that evening those marks of appro- bation were withheld. "Jim dear," said she, when their Spartan repast was concluded and they were reestablished before the living- room lire, " what was it the Kedwood Mill Kempany offered you for that piece near Dead Man's Slough ? " Jim took his pipe from his lips long enough to say, "Ten thousand dollars," and put it back again. "And what do ye kalkilate all our property, letting alone this yer house, and the driftwood front, is worth all together ? " " Includin' wot the Gov'nment owes us ? — for that 's all ours, ye know ? " said Jim quickly. "No — leavin' that out — jest for greens, you know," suggested Maggie. " Well nigh onter a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, I reckon, by and large." " That 's a heap o' money, Jim ! I reckon old Kernel Preston would n't raise that in a hundred years," continued Maggie, warming her knees by the fire. " In five million years," said Jim, promptly sweeping away further discussion. After a pause he added, " You and me, Mag, kin see anybody's pile, and go 'em fifty thou- sand better." There were a few moments of complete silence, in which Maggie smoothed her knees, and Jim's pipe, which seemed to have become gorged and apoplectic with its owner'a wealth, snored unctuously. 414 THE HEEITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH "Jim dear, what if — it's on'y an idea of mine, you know — what if you sold that piece to the Kedwood Mill, and we jest tuk that money and — and — and jest lifted the ha'r oifer them folks at Logport ? Jest astonished ^em ! Jest tuk the hest rooms in that new hotel, got a hoss and buggy, dressed ourselves, you and me, fit to kill, and made them Fort people take a back seat in the Lord's Tabernacle, oncet for all. You see what I mean, Jim," she said hastily, as her brother seemed to be succumbing, like his pipe, in apoplectic astonishment, "jest on'y to show 'em what we could do if we keerd. Lord ! when we done it and spent the money we 'd jest snap our fingers and skip back yer ez nat'ral ez life ! Ye don't think, Jim," she said, suddenly turning half fiercely upon him, " that I 'd allow to live among 'em — to stay a menet after that ! " Jim laid down his pipe and gazed at his sister with stony deliberation. "And — what — do — you — kalki- late — to make by all that ? " he said, with scornful dis- tinctness. " Why, jest to show 'em we have got money, and could buy 'em all up if we wanted to," returned Maggie, sticking, boldly to her guns, albeit with a vague conviction that her fire was weakened through elevation, and somewhat alarmed, at the deliberation of the enemy. " And you mean to say they don't know it now," he con- tinued with slow derision. " No," said Maggie. " Why, theer 's that new school- marm over at Logport, you know, Jim, the one that wanted to take your picter in your boat for a young smuggler or fancy pirate or Eyetalian fisherman, and allowed that you're handsomed some, and offered to pay you for sittin' — do you reckon she 'd believe you owned the land her schoolhouse was built on? No! Lots of 'em don't. Lots of 'em thinks we 're poor .and low down — and them ez does n't, thinks " — THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 415 " What ? " asked her trother sharply. " That we 're mean." The quick color came to Jim's cheek. " So," he said, facing her quickly, " for the sake of a lot of riff-raff and scum that 's drifted here around us — jest for the sake of cuttin' a swell before them — you '11 go out among the hounds ez allowed your mother was a Spanish nigger or a kanaka, ez called your father a pirate and landgrabber, ez much as allowed he was shot by some one or killed himself a purpose, ez said you was a heathen and a loony because you did n't go to school or church along with their trash, ez kept away from maw's sickness ez if it was smallpox, and dad's fun'ral ez if he was a hoss-thief, and left you and me to watch his coffin on the marshes all night till the tide kem back. And now you — you that jined hands with me that night over our father lyin' there cold and despised — ez if he was a dead dog thrown up by the tide — and swore that ez long ez that tide ebbed and flowed it could n't bring you to them, or them to you agin! You now want — what ? What ? W^hy, to go and cast your lot among "em, and live among 'em, and join in their God-forsaken holies: foolishness, and — and — and " — " Stop ! It 's a lie ! I did n't say that. Don't yon dare to say it ! " said the girl, springing to her feet, and facing her brother in turn, with flashing eyes. For a moment the two stared at each other — it miglit have been as in a mirror, so perfectly were their passions reflected in each line, shade, and color of the other's faje. It was as if they had each confronted their own passionate and willful souls, and were frightened. It had often occurred before, always with the same invariable ending. The young man's eyes lowered first ; the girl's filled with tears. " Well, ef ye did n't mean that, what did ye mean ? " said Jim, sinking, with sullen apology, back into his chair, 416 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH "I — only — meant it — for — for — revenge!" sobbed Maggie. " Oh ! " said Jim, as if allowing his higher nature to be touched by this noble instinct. " But I did n't jest see where the revenge kem in." " No ? But, never mind now, Jim," said Maggie, osten- tatiously ignoring, after the fashion of her sex, the trouble she had provoked ; " but to think — that — that — you thought " — (sobbing). " But I did n't, Mag " , — (caressingly). With this very vague and impotent conclusion, Maggie permitted herself to be drawn beside her brother, and for a few moments they plumed each other's ruffled feathers, and smoothed each other's lifted crests, like two beautiful young specimens of that halcyon genus to which they were popu- larly supposed to belong. At the end of half an hour Jim rose, and, yawning slightly, said in a perfunctory way : — " Where 's the book ? " The took in question was the Bible. It had been the self-imp')sed custom of these two young people to read aloud a chapter every night as their one vague formula of literary and religious discipline. When it was produced, Maggie, presuming on his affectionate and penitential con- dition, suggested that to-night he should pick out " suthin' interestin'." But this unorthodox frivolity was sternly put aside by Jim — albeit, by way of compromise, he agreed to " chance it," i. e., open its pages at random. He did so. Generally he allowed himself a moment's judicious pause for a certain chaste preliminary inspection necessary before reading aloud to a girl. To-night he omitted that modest precaution, and in a pleasant voice, which in reading was singularly free from colloquial infeli- cities of pronunciation, began at once : — " ' Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; because they came not to THE HERITAGE OE DEDLOW MARSH 417 the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.' " " Oh, you looked first," said Maggie. " I did n't now — honest Injin ! I just opened." " Go on," said Maggie, eagerly shoving him and inter- posing her neck over his shoulder. And Jim continued Deborah's wonderful song of Jael and Sisera to the bitter end of its strong monosyllabic climax. "There," he said, closing the volume, "that's what 1 call revenge. That 's the real Scripture thing — no fancy frills theer." " Yes ; but, Jim dear, don't you see that she treated him first — sorter got round him with free milk and butter, and reg'Iarly blandished him," argued Maggie earnestly. But Jim declined to accept this feminine suggestion, or to pursue the subject further, and after a fraternal embrace they separated for the night. Jim lingered long enough to look after the fastening of the door and windows, and Maggie remained for some moments at her casement, look- ing across the gallery to the Marsh beyond. The moon had risen, the tide was half up. Whatever sign or trace of alien footprint or occupation had been there was already smoothly obliterated ; even the configuration of the land had changed. A black cape had disappeared, a level line of shore had been eaten into by teeth of glisten- ing silver. The whole dark surface of the Marsh was be- ginning to be streaked with shining veins as if a new life was coursing through it. Part of the open bay before the Fort, encroaching upon the shore, seemed in the moonlight to be reaching a Avhite and outstretched arm towards the tiest of the Kingfisher. in The reveille at Fort Redwood had been supplemented full five minutes ty the voice of Lieutenant George Calvert's servant, before that young oificer struggled from his bed. His head was splitting, his tongue and lips were dry and feverish, his bloodshot eyes were shrinking from the insuffer- able light of the day, his mind a confused medley of the past night and the present morning, of cards and wild revelry, and the vision of a reproachfully trim orderly standing at his door with reports and orders which he now held composedly in his hand. For Lieutenant Calvert had been enjoying a symposium variously known as " Stag Feed " and " A Wild Stormy Night " with several of his brother officers, and a sickening conviction that it was not the first or the last time he had indulged in these festivities. At that moment he loathed himself, and then after the usual derelict fashion cursed the fate that had sent him, after graduating, to a frontier garrison — the dull monotony of whose duties made the Border horse-play of dissipation a relief. Already he had reached the miserable point of envying the veteran capacities of his superiors and equals. " If I could drink like Kirby or Crowninshield, or if there was any other cursed thing a man could do in this hole," he had wretchedly repeated to himself, after each misspent occasion, and yet already he was looking forward to them as part of a " sub's " duty and worthy his emulation. Al- ready the dream of social recreation fostered by West Point had been rudely dispelled. Beyond the garrison circle of Colonel Preston's family and two officers' wives, there was THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 419 no society. The vague distrust and civil jealousy with which some frontier communities regard the Federal power, heightened in this instance by the uncompromising attitude the Government had talcen towards tlie settlers' severe Indian policy, had kept the people of Logport aloof from the Fort. The regimental band might pipe to them on Saturdays, but they would not dance. Howbeit, Lieutenant Calvert dressed himself with uncer- tain hands but mechanical regularity and neatness, and, under the automatic training of discipline and duty, man- aged to button his tunic tightly over his feelings, to pull himself together with his sword-belt, compressing a still cadet-like waist, and to present that indescribable combina- tion of precision and jauntiness which his brother officers too often allowed to lapse into frontier carelessness. His closely clipped light hair, yet dripping from a plunge in the cold water, had been brushed and parted with military exactitude, and when surmounted by his cap, with the peak in an artful suggestion of extra smartness tipped for- ward over his eyes, only his pale face — a shade lighter than his little blonde mustache — showed his last night's excesses. He was mechanically reaching for his sword and staring confusedly at the papers on his table when his ser- vant interrupted : — " Major Bromley arranged that Lieutenant Kirby takes your sash this morning, as you 're not well, sir ; and you 're to report for special to the colonel," he added, pointing discreetly to the envelope. Touched by this consideration of his superior, Major Bromley, who had been one of the veterans of last night's engagement, Calvert mastered the contents of the envelope without the customary anathema of specials, said, " Thank you. Parks," and passed out on the veranda. The glare of the quiet sunlit quadrangle, clean as a well- swept floor, the whitewashed walls and galleries of the bap 420 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH rack buildings beyond, the white and green palisade of officers' cottages on either side, and the glitter of a sentry's bayonet, were for a moment intolerable to him. Yet, by a kind of subtle irony, never before had the genius and spirit of the vocation he had chosen seemed to be as incarnate as in the scene before him. Seclusion, self-restraint, cleanli- ness, regularity, sobriety, the atmosphere of a wholesome life, the austere reserve of a monastery without its mysteri- ous or pensive meditation, were all there. To escape which, he had of his own free will successively accepted a fool's distraction, the inevitable result of which was the viewing of them the next morning with tremulous nerves and aching eyeballs. An hour later, Lieutenant George Calvert had received his final instructions from Colonel Preston to take charge of a small detachment to recover and bring back certain deserters, but notably one, Dennis M'Caffrey of Company H, charged additionally with mutinous solicitation and ex- ample. As Calvert stood before his superior, that distin- guished officer, whose oratorical powers had been consider- ably stimulated through a long course of " returning thanks for the Army," slightly expanded his chest and said pater- nally : — " I am aware, Mr. Calvert, that duties of this kind are somewhat distasteful to young officers, and are apt to be considered in the light of police detail ; but I must remind you that no one part of a soldier's duty can be held more important or honorable than another, and that the fulfill- ment of any one, however trifling, must, with honor to himself and security to his comrades, receive his fullest de- votion. A sergeant and a file of men might perform your duty, but I require, in addition, the discretion, courtesy, and consideration of a gentleman who will command an equal respect from those with whom his duty brings him in contact. The unhappy prejudices which the settlers THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH 421 show to the military authority here render this, as you are aware, a difficult service, but I believe that you will, with- out forgetting the respect due to yourself and the Govern- ment you represent, avoid rousing these prejudices by any harshness, or inviting any conflict with the civil authority. The limits of their authority you will find in your written instructions ; but you might gain their confidence, and im- press them, Mr. Calvert, with the idea of your being their auxiliary in the interests of justice — you understand. Even if you are unsuccessful in bringing back the men, you will do your best to ascertain if their escape has been due to the sympathy of the settlers, or even with their pre- liminary connivance. They may not be aware that incit- ing enlisted men to desert is a criminal offense ; you will use your own discretion in informing them of the fact or not, as occasion may serve you. I have only to add, that while you are on the waters of this bay and the land covered by its tides, you have no opposition of authority, and are responsible to no one but your military superiors. Good- by, Mr. Calvert. Let me hear a good account of you." Considerably moved by Colonel Preston's manner, which was as paternal and real as his rhetoric was somewhat per* functory, Calvert half forgot his woes as he stepped from the commandant's piazza. But he had to face a group of his brother officers, who were awaiting him. " Good-by, Calvert," said Major Bromley ; " a day or two out on the grass won't hurt you — and a change from commissary whiskey will put you all right. By the way, if you hear of any better stuff at Westport than they 're giving us here, sample it and let us know. Take care of yourself. Give your men a chance to talk to you now and then, and you may get something from them, especially Donovan. Keep your eye on Kamon. You can trust yout sergeant straight along." " Good-by, George," said Kirby. " I suppose the old 422 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH man told you that, although no part of a soldier's duty was better than another, your service was a very delicate one, just fitted for you, eh ? He always does when he 's cut out some hellish scrub-work for a chap. And told you, too, that as long as you did n't go ashore, and kept to a dispatch-boat, or an eight-oared gig, where you could n't deploy your men, or dress a line, you 'd be invincible." " He did say something like that," smiled Calvert, with an uneasy recollection, however, that it was the part of his superior's speech that particularly impressed him. " Of course," said Kirby gravely, " that, as an infantry officer, is clearly your duty." " And don't forget, George," said Rollins still more gravely, " that, whatever may befall you, you belong to a section of that numerically small but powerfully diversified organization — the American Army. Remember that in the hour of peril you can address your men in any language, and be perfectly understood. And remember that when you proudly stand before them, the eyes not only of your own country, but of nearly all the others, are upon you ! Good-by, Georgey. I heard the major hint something about whiskey. They say that old pirate. Kingfisher Cul- pepper, had a stock of the real thing from Robertson County laid in his shebang on the Marsh just before he died. Pity we are n't on terms with them, for the cubs cannot drink it, and might be induced to sell. Should n't wonder, by the way, if your friend M'Caffrey was hanging round somewhere there ; he always had a keen scent. You might confiscate it as an ' incitement to desertion,' you know. The girl 's pretty, and ought to be growing up now." But haply at this point the sergeant stopped further raillery by reporting the detachment ready ; and drawing his sword, Calvert, with a confused head, a remorseful heart, but an unfaltering step, marched off his men on his delicate mission. THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 423 It was four o'clock when he entered Jonesville. Follow- ing a matter-of-fact idea of his own, he had brought his men the greater distance by a circuitous route through the woods, thus avoiding the ostentatious exposure of his party on the open bay in a well-manned boat to an extended view from the three leagues of shore and marsh opposite. Crossing the stream, which here separated him from the Dedlow Marsh, by the common ferry, he had thus been enabled tc halt unperceived below the settlement and occupy the two roads by which the fugitives could escape inland. He had deemed it not impossible that, after the previous visit of the sergeant, the deserters hidden in the vicinity might return to Jonesville in the belief that the visit would not be repeated so soon. Leaving a part of his small force to patrol the road and anotlier to deploy over the upland meadows, he entered the village. By the exercise of some boyish diplomacy and a certain prepossessing grace, which he knew when and how to employ, he became satisfied that the objects of his quest were not there — however their whereabouts might have been known to the people. Dividing his party again, he concluded to take a corporal and a few men and explore the lower marshes himself. The preoccupation of duty, exercise, and perhaps, above all, the keen stimulus of the iodine-laden salt air seemed to clear his mind and invigorate his body. He had never been in the Marsh before, and enjoyed its novelty with the zest of youth. It was the hour when the tide of its feathered life was at its flood. Clouds of duck and teal passing from the fresh water of the river to the salt pools of the marshes perpetually swept his path with flying shadows ; at times it seemed as if even the uncertain ground around him itself arose and sped away on dusky wings. The vicinity of hidden pools and sloughs was betrayed by startled splashings ; a few paces from their marching feet arose the sunlit pinions of a swan. The air was tilled with multitudinous small 424 THK HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH cries and pipings. In this vocal confusion it was soma minutes before he recognized the voice of one of his out- flankers calling to the other. An important discovery had been made. In a long tongue of bushes that ran down to the Marsh they had found a mud-stained uniform, complete even to the cap, bearing the initial of the deserter's company. " Is there any hut or cabin hereabouts, Schmidt ? " asked Calvert. " Dot vos schoost it, Lefdennun," replied his corporal. " Dot vos de shanty from der Kingvisher — old Gulbebber. I pet a dollar, py shimminy, dot der men haf der gekommt." He pointed through the brake to a long, low building that now raised itself, white in the sunlight, above the many blackened piles. Calvert saw in a single reconnoitring glance that it had but one approach — the flight of steps from the Marsh. Instructing his men to fall in on the outer edge of the brake and await his orders, he quickly made his way across the space and ascended the steps. Passing along the gallery he knocked at the front door. There was no response. He repeated his knock. Then the window beside it opened suddenly, and he was confronted with a double-muzzle of a long ducking-gun. Glancing instinctively along the banels, he saw at their other extremity the bright eyes, brilliant color, and small set mouth of a remarkably handsome girl. It was the fact, and to the credit of his training, that he paid more attention to the eyes than to the challenge of the shining tubes before him. " Jest stop where you are — will you 1 " said the girl determinedly. Calvert's face betrayed not the slightest terror or sur- prise. Immovable as on parade, he carried his white gloved hand to his cap, and said gently, " With pleasure." " Oh yes," said the girl quickly ; " but if you move a step I '11 jest blow you and your gloves offer that railin' inter the Marsh." THE HKKITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 425 " I trust not," returned Calvert, smiling. " And why ? " " Because it would deprive me of the pleasure of a few moments' conversation with you — and I've only one pair of gloves with me." He was still watching her beautiful eyes — respectfully, admiringly, and strategically. For he was quite convinced that if he did move she would certainly discharge one or both barrels at him. " Where 's the rest of you ? " she continued sharply. "About three hundred yards away, in the covert, not near enough to trouble you." " Will they come here ? " " I trust not." " You trust not ? " she repeated scornfully. " Why ? " " Because they would be disobeying orders." She lowered her gun slightly, but kept her black brows leveled at him. " I reckon I 'm a match for you," she said, with a slightly contemptuous glance at his slight figure, and opened the door. For a moment they stood looking at each other. He saw, besides the handsome face and eyes that had charmed him, a tall, slim figure, made broader across the shoulders by an open pea-jacket that showed a man's red flannel shirt belted at the waist over a blue skirt, with the collar knotted by a sailor's black handkerchief, and turned back over a pretty though sunburnt throat. She saw a rather undersized young fellow in a jaunty undress uniform, scant of gold braid, and bearing only the single gold shoulder-bars of his rank, but scrupulously neat and well fitting. Lightrcolored hair cropped close, the smallest of light mustaches, clear and penetrating blue eyes, and a lew freckles completed a picture that did not prepossess her. She was therefore the more inclined to resent the perfect ease and self-possession with which the stranger carried off these manifest defects before, her. 426 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH She laid aside the gun, put her hands deep in the pockets of her pea-jacket, and, slightly squaring her shoulders, said curtly, " What do you want ? " " A very little information, which I trust it will not trouble you to give me. My men have just discovered the uniform belonging to a deserter from the Fort lying in the bushes yonder. Can you give me the slightest idea how it same there ? " " What right have you traipsing over our property ? " she said, turning upon him sharply, with a slight paling of color. "None whatever." " Then what did you come for ? '' " To ask that permission, in case you would give me no information." " Why don't you ask my brother, and not a woman ? Were you afraid ? " " He could hardly have done me the honor of placing me in more peril than you have," returned Calvert, smiling. " Then I have the pleasure of addressing Miss Culpepper ? " " I 'm Jim Culpepper's sister." " And, I believe, equally able to give or refuse the permission I ask." " And what if I refuse ? " " Then I have only to ask pardon for having troubled you, go back, and return here with the tide. You don't resist that with a shot-gun, do you ? " he asked pleasantly. Maggie Culpepper was already familiar with the accepted theory of the supreme jurisdiction of the Federal Sea. She half turned her back upon him, partly to show her contempt, but partly to evade the domination of his clear, good-humored, and self-sustained little eyes. " I don't know anythin' about your deserters, nor what rags o' theirs happen to be floated up here," she said angrily, " and don't care to. You kin do what you like." THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 427 " Then I 'm afraid I should remain here a little longer, Miss Culpepper ; but my duty " — " Your wot ? " she interrupted disdainfully. "I suppose I am talking shop," he said smilingly. " Then my business " — " Your business — pickin' up half-starved runaways ! " " And, I trust, sometimes a kind friend," he suggested, with a grave bow. " You trust ? Look yer, young man," she said, with her quick, fierce, little laugh, " I reckon you trust a heap too much ! " She would like to have added, " with your freckled -face, red hair, and little eyes " — but this would have obliged her to face them again, which she did not care to do. Calvert stepped back, lifted his hand to his cap, still pleasantly, and then walked gravely along the gallery down the steps, and towards the cover. From her window, un- seen, she followed his neat little figure moving undeviat- ingly on, without looking to the left or right, and still less towards the house he had just quitted. Then she saw the sunlight flash on cross-belt plates and steel barrels, and a light blue line issued from out the dark green bushes, round the point, and disappeared. And then it suddenly occurred to her what she had been doing ! This, then, was her first step towards that fancy she had so lately conceived, quarreled over with her brother, and lay awake last night to place anew, in spite of all opposition ! This was her brilliant idea of dazzling and subduing Logport and the "Fort ! Had she grown silly, or what had happened ? Could she have dreamed of the coming of this whipper- snapper, with his insufferable airs, after that beggarly deserter ? I am afraid that for a few moments the miser- able fugitive had as small a place in Maggie's sympathy as the redoubtable whipper-snapper himself. And now the cherished dream of triumph and conquest was over ! What 428 THE HERITAGE OF DEBLOW MARSH a " loony " she had been ! Instead of inviting him in, and outdoing him in " company manners," and " fooling " liiim about the deserter, and then blazing upon him after- wards at Logport in the glory of her first spent wealth and finery, she had driven him away ! And now " he '11 go and tell — tell the Port girls of his hairbreadth escape from the claws of the Kingfisher's daughter ! " The thought brought a few bitter tears to her eyes, but she wiped them away. The thought brought also the ter- rible conviction that Jim was right, that there could be nothing but open antagonism between them and the tra- ducers of their parents, as she herself had instinctively shown ! But she presently wiped that conviction away also, as she had her tears. Half an hour later she was attracted by the appearance from the windows of certain straggling blue spots on the upland that seemed moving diagonally towards the Marsh. She did not know that it was Calvert's second " detail " joining him, but believed for a moment that he had not yet departed, and was strangely relieved. Still later the frequent disturbed cries of coot, heron, and marsh-hen, recognizing the presence of unusual invaders of their solitude, distracted her yet more, and forced her at last, with increasing color and an uneasy sense of shyness, to steal out to the gallery for a swift furtive survey of the Marsh. But an utterly unexpected sight met her eyes, and kept her motionless. The birds were rising everywhere and drifting away with querulous perturbation before a small but augmented blue detachment that was moving with monotonous regularity towards the point of bushes where she had seen the young officer previously disappear. In their midst, between two soldiers with fixed bayonets, marched the man whom even at that distance she instantly recognized as the deserter of THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAUSH 429 the preceding night, in the very clothes she had given him. To complete her consternation, a little to the right marched the young officer also, hut accompanied hy, and apparently on the most amicable terms with, Jim — her own brother ! To forget all else and dart down the steps, flying towards the point of bushes, scarcely knowing why or what she was doing, was to Maggie the impulse and work of a moment. When she had reached it the party were not twenty paces away. But here a shyness and hesitation again seized her, and she shrank back in the hushes with an instinctive cry to her brother inarticulate upon her lips. They came nearer, they were opposite to her ; her brother Jim keeping step with the invader, and even conversing with him with an anima- tion she had seldom seen upon his face — they passed ! She had been unnoticed except by one. The roving eye of the deserter had detected her handsome face among the leaves, slightly turned towards it, and poured out his whole soul in a single swift wink of eloquent but indescribable con- fidence. When they had quite gone, she crept back to the house, a little reassured, but still tremulous. When her brother returned at nightfall, he found her brooding over the fire, in the same attitude as on the previous night. " I reckon ye might hev seen me go by with the sodgers," he said, seating himself beside her, a little awkwardly, and with an unusual assumption of carelessness. Maggie, without looking up, was languidly surprised. He had been with the soldiers — and where ? " About two hours ago I met this yer Leftenant Cal- vert," he went on with increasing awkwardness, " and — oh, I say, Mag — he said he saw you, and hoped he had n't troubled ye, and — and — ye saw him, did n't ye ? " Maggie, with all the red of the fire concentrated in her cheek as she gazed at the flame, believed carelessly " that she had seen a shrimp in uniform asking questions." 430 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH " Oh, he ain't a bit stuck up," said Jim quickly ; " that 's ■what I like about him. He 's ez nat'ral ez you be, and tuck my arm, walkin' around, careless-like, laffen at what he was doin', ez ef it was a game, and he was n't sole com- mander of forty men. He 's only a year or two older than me — and — and " — he stopped and looked uneasily at Maggie. " So ye 've bin craw-fishin' agin ? " said Maggie in her deepest and most scornful contralto. " Who 's craw-fishin ' ? " he retorted angrily. " What 's this backen out o' what you said yesterday ? What 's all this trucklin' to the Fort now ? " " What ? W^ell now, look yer," said Jim, rising sud- denly, with reproachful indignation, " darned if I don't jest tell ye everythin'. I promised him I would n't. He allowed it would frighten ye." " FrigMen me ! " repeated Maggie contemptuously, never- theless with her cheek paling again. "Frighten me — with what ? " " Well, since yer so cantankerous, look yer. We 've been robbed ! " " Robbed ? " echoed Maggie, facing him. " Yes, robbed by that same deserter. Kobbed of a suit of my clothes, and my whiskey-flask, and the darned skunk had 'em on. And if it had n't bin for that Leftenant Cal- vert, and my givin' him permission to hunt him over the Marsh, we would n't have caught him." " Robbed ? " repeated Maggie again vaguely. " Yes, robbed ! Last night, afore we came home. He must hev got in yer while we was comin' from the boat." " Did, did that Leftenant say so ? " stammered Maggie. " Say it, of course he did ! and so do I," continued Jim impatiently. " Why, there were my ver}' clothes on his back, and he dare n't deny it. And if you 'd heark- ened to me jest now, instead of flyin' off in tantrums, THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 431 you 'd see that that 's jest how we got him, and how me and the Leftenant joined hands in it. I did n't give him permission to hunt deserters, but thieves. I did n't help him to ketch the man that deserted from him, but the skunk that took my clothes. For when the Leftenant found the man's old uniform in the bush, he uat'rally kal- kilated he must hev got some other duds near by in some underhand way. Don't you see ? eh ? Why, look, Mag. Darned if you ain't skeered after all ! Who 'd hev thought it? There now — sit down, dear. Why, you're white ez a gull." He had his arm round her as she sank back in the chair again with a forced smile. " There now," he said with fraternal superiority, " don't mind it, Mag, any more. Why, it 's all over now. You bet he won't trouble us agin, for the Leftenant sez that now he 's found out to be a thief, they '11 jest turn him over to the police, and he 's sure o' getten six months' state prison fer stealin' and burglarin' in our house. But " — he stopped suddenly and looked at his sister's contracted face ; " look yer, Mag, you 're sick, that 's what 's the matter. Take suthin' " — " I 'm better now," she said with an effort ; " it 's only a kind o' blind chill I must hev got on the Marsh last night. What 's that ? " She had risen, and, grasping her brother's arm tightly, had turned quickly to the window. The casement had suddenly rattled. " It 's only the wind gettin' up. It looked like a sou'- wester when I came in. Lot o' scud flyin'. But you take some quinine; Mag. Don't you go now and get down sick like maw." Perhaps it was this well-meant but infelicitous reference that brought a moisture to her dark eyes, and caused her lips to momentarily quiver. But it gave way to a quick 432 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH determined setting of her whole face as she turned it once more to the fire, and said slowly : — " I reckon I '11 sleep it ofl", if I go to bed now. What time does the tide fall ? '' " About three, unless this yer wind piles it up on the Marsh afore then. Why ? " " I was only wonderin' if the boat wus safe," said Maggie, rising. " You 'd better hoist yourself outside some quinine, in- stead o' talken about those things," said Jim, who preferred to discharge his fraternal responsibility by active medication. " You are n't fit to read to-night." " Good-night, Jim," she said suddenly, stopping before him. " Grood-night, Mag." He kissed her with protecting and amiable toleration, generously referring her hot hands and feverish lips to that vague mystery of feminine com- plaint which man admits without indorsing. They separated ; Jim, under the stimulus of the late supposed robbery, ostentatiously fastening the doors and windows with assuring comments, calculated to inspire con- fidence in his sister's startled heart. Then he went to bed. He lay awake long enough to be pleasantly conscious that the wind had increased to a gale, and to be lulled again to sleep by the cosy security of the heavily timbered and tightly sealed dwelling that seemed to ride the storm like the ship it resembled. The gale swept through the piles beneath him and along the gallery as through bared spars and over wave-washed decks. The whole structure, attacked above, below, and on all sides by the fury of the wind, seemed at times to be lifted in the air. Once or twice the creaking timbers simulated the sound of opening doors and passing footsteps, and again dilated as if the gale had forced a passage through. But Jim slept on peacefully, and was at last only aroused by the brilliant sunshine staring THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAKSH 433 through his window from the clear wind-swept blue arch beyond. Dressing himself lazily, he passed into the sitting-room and proceeded to knock at his sister's door, as was his cus- tom ; he was amazed to find it open and the room empty. Entering hurriedly, he saw that her bed was undisturbed, as if it had not been occupied, and was the more bewildered to see a note ostentatiously pinned upon the pillow, ad- dressed in pencil, in a large school-hand, " To Jim." Opening it impatiently, he was startled to read as fol- lows : — Don't be angry, Jim dear — but it was all my fault — and I did n't tell you. I knew all about the deserter, and I gave him the clothes and things that they say he stole. It was while you was out that night, and he came and begged of me, and was mournful and hidjus to behold. I thought I was helping him, and getting our revenge on the Fort, all at the same time. Don't be mad, Jim dear, and do not he frighted fer me. I 'm going over thar to make it all right — to free himot stealing — to have you left out of it all — and take it all on myself. Don't you be a bit feared for me. I ain't skeert of the wind or of going. I '11 close reef everything, clear the creek, stretch across to Injen Island, hugg the Point, and bear up fer Logport. Dear Jim — don't get mad — but I could n't bear this fooling of you nor him — and that man being took for stealing any longer ! — Your loving sister, Maggie. With a confused mingling of shame, anger, and sudden feai he ran out on the gallery. The tide was well up, half the Marsh had already vanished, and the little creek where he had moored his skift was now an empty shining river. The water was everywhere — fringing the tussocks of salt grass with concentric curves of spume and drift, or tumul- 434 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH tuously tossing its white-capped waves over the spreading expanse of the lower bay. The low thunder of breakers in the farther estuary broke monotonously on the ear. But his eye was fascinated by a dull shifting streak on the hori- zon, that, even as he gazed, shuddered, whitened along its whole line, and then grew ghastly gray again. It was the ocean bar. "Well, I must say," said Cicelj Preston, emphasizing the usual feminine imperative for perfectly gratuitous state- ment, as she pushed back her chair from the commandant's breakfast table, " I must really say that I don't see any- thing particularly heroic in doing something wrong, lying about it just to get other folks into trouble, and then rush- ing off to do penance in a high wind and an open boat. But she ""s pretty, and wears a man's shirt and coat, and of course that settles anything. But why earrings and wet white stockings and slippers ? And why that Gothic arch of front and a boy 's hat ? That 's what I simply ask ; " and the youngest daughter of Colonel Preston rose from the table, shook out the skirt of her pretty morning dress, and, placing her little thumbs in the belt of her smart waist, paused witheringly for a reply. " You are most unfair, my child," returned Colonel Preston gravely. " Her giving food and clothes to a de-. serter may have been only an ordinary instinct of humanity towards a fellow creature who appeared to be suffering, to say nothing of M'Caffrey's plausible tongue. But her periling her life to save him from an unjust accusation, and her desire to shield her brother's pride from ridicule, is altogether praiseworthy and extraordinary. And the moral influence of her kindness was strong enough to make that scamp refuse to tell the plain truth that might implicate her in an indiscretion, though it saved him from state prison." " He knew you would n't believe him if he had said the clothes were given to him," retorted Miss Cicely, " so I 436 THE HEEITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH don't- see where the moral influence comes in. As to her periling her life, those Marsh people are amphibious any- way, or would be in those clothes. And as to her motive, why, papa, I heard you say in this very room, and after- wards to Mr. Calvert, when you gave him instructions, that you believed those Culpeppers were capable of enticing away deserters ; and you forget the fuss you had with her savage brother's lawyer about that water front, and how you said it was such people who kept up the irritation be- tween the Civil and Federal power." The colonel coughed hurriedly. It is the fate of all great organizers, military as well as civil, to occasionally Buffer defeat in the family circle. " The more reason," he said soothingly, " why we should correct harsh judgments that spring from mere rumors. You should give yourself at least the chance of overcoming your prejudices, my child. Remember, too, that she is now the guest of the Fort." " And she chooses to stay with Mrs. Bromley ! I 'm sure it 's quite enough for you and mamma to do duty — and Emily, who wants to know why Mr. Calvert raves so about her — without my going over there to stare." Colonel Preston shook his head reproachfully, but event- ually retired, leaving the field to the enemy. The enemy, a little pink in the cheeks, slightly tossed the delicate rings of its blonde crest, settled its skirts again at the piano, but after turning over the leaves of its music book, rose, and walked pettishly to the window. But here a spectacle presented itself that for a moment dismissed all other thoughts from the girl's rebellious mind. Not a dozen yards away, on the wind-swept parade, a handsome young fellow, apparently halted by the sentry, had impetuously turned upon him in an attitude of indig- nant and haughty surprise. To the quick fancy of the girl THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 437 it seemed as if some disguised rustic god had been startled by the challenge of a mortal. Under an oilskin hat, like the jietasus of Hermes, pushed back from his white fore- head, crisp black curls were knotted around a head whose beardless face was perfect as a cameo cutting. In a close- fitting blue woolen jersey under his open jacket the clear outlines and youthful grace of his upper figure were revealed as clearly as in a statue. Long fishing-boots reaching to his thighs scarcely concealed the symmetry of his lower limbs. Cricket and lawn-tennis, knickerbockers and flannels had not at that period familiarized the female eye to unfettered masculine outline, and Cicely Preston, accustomed to the artificial smartness and regularity of uniform, was perhaps the more impressed by the stranger's lawless grace. The sentry had repeated his challenge ; an angry flush was deepening on the intruder's cheek. At this critical moment Cicely threw open the French windows and stopped upon the veranda. The sentry saluted the familiar little figure of his colo- nel's daughter with an explanatory glance at the stranger. The young fellow looked up — and the god became human. " I 'm looking for ray sister," he said half awkwardly, half defiantly ; " she 's here, somewhere." " Yes — and perfectly safe, Mr. Culpepper, I think, said the arch-hypocrite with dazzling sweetness ; " and we're all so delighted. And so brave and plucky and skillful in her to come all that way — and for such a pur- pose." " Then — you know — all about it " — stammered Jim, more relieved than he had imagined — "and that I" — "That you were quite ignorant of your sister helping the deserter. Oh yes, of course," said Cicely, with bewil- dering promptitude. "You see, Mr. Culpepper, we girls are so foolish. I dare say / should have done the same thing in her place, only / should never have had the cou]> , )) 438 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MAESH age to do what she did afterwards. You really must for- give her. But won't you come in — do." She stepped back, holding the window open with the half-coaxing air of a spoiled child. " This way is quickest. Bo come." As he still hesitated, glancing from her to the bouse, she added, with a demure little laugh, "Oh, I forget — this is Colonel Preston's quarters, and I'm his daughter." And this dainty little fairy, so natural in manner, so tasteful in attire, was one of the artificial over-dressed creatures that his sister had inveighed against so bitterly ! Was Maggie really to be trusted ? This new revelation coming so soon after the episode of the deserter staggered him. Nevertheless he hesitated, looking up with a certain boyish timidity into Cicely's dangerous eyes. " Is — is — my sister there ? " " I 'm expecting her with my mother every moment," responded this youthful but ingenious diplomatist sweetly ; " she might be here now ; but," she added with a sudden heart-broken flash of sympathy, " I know how anxious you both must be. Pll take you to her now. Only one mo- ment, please." The opportunity of leading this handsome savage as it were in chains across the parade, before every- body, her father, her mother, her sister, and his — was not to be lost. She darted into the house, and reappeared with the daintiest imaginable straw hat on the side of her head, and demurely took her place at his side. "It's only over there, at Major Bromley's," she said, pointing to one of the vine-clad cottage quarters ; "but you are a stranger here, you know, and might get lost." Alas ! he was already that. For keeping step with those fairy-like slippers, brushing awkwardly against that fresh and pretty skirt, and feeling the caress of the soft folds, looking down upon the brim of that beribboned little hat, and more often meeting the upturned blue eyes beneath it, Jim was suddenly struck with a terrible conviction of his THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 439 own contrasting coarseness and deficiencies. How hideous those oiled canvas fishing-trousers and pilot jacket looked beside this perfectly fitted and delicately gowned girl ! He loathed his collar, his jersey, his turned-back sou'wester, even his height, which seemed to hulk beside her — every- thing, in short, that the girl had recently admired. By the time that they had reached Major Bromley's door he had so far succumbed to the fair enchantress and realized her ambi- tion of a triumphant procession, that when she ushered him into the presence of half a dozen ladies and gentlemen he scarcely recognized his sister as the centre of attraction, or knew that MisS Cicely's effusive greeting of Maggie was her first one. " I knew he was dying to see you after all you had both passed through, and I brought him straight here," said the diminutive Machiavelli, meeting the astonished gaze of her father and the curious eyes of her sister with perfect calmness, while Maggie, full of gratitude and admi- ration of her handsome brother, forgot his momentary oblivi- ousness, and returned hei greeting warmly. Nevertheless, there was a slight movement of reserve among the gentle- men at the unlooked-for irruption of this sunburnt Adonis, until Calvert, disengaging himself from Maggie's side, came forward with his usual frank imperturbability and quiet tact, and claimed Jim as his friend and honored guest. It then came out with that unostentatious simplicity which characterized the brother and sister, and was their secure claim to perfect equality with their entertainers, that Jim, on discovering his sister's absence, and fearing that she might be carried by the current towards the bar, had actually s^oum the estuary to Indian Island, and in an ordinary Indian canoe had braved the same tempestuous passage she had taken a few hours before. Cicely, listen- ing to this recital with rapt attention, nevertheless managed to convey the impression of having fully expected it from the first. " Of course be 'd have come here ; if she 'd only waited," she said, sotto voce, to her sister Emily. 440 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH " He 's certainly the handsomer of the two," responded that young lady. " Of course," returned Cicely with a superior air, " don't you see she copies him ? " Not that this private criticism prevented either from vying with the younger officers in their attentions to Maggie, with perhaps the addition of an open eulogy of her hand- some hrother, more or less invidious in comparison to the officers. " I suppose it 's an active out-of-door life gives him that perfect grace and freedom," said Emily, with a slight sneer at the smartly helted Calvert. " Yes ; and he don't drink or keep late hours," responded Cicely signifi- cantly. " His sister says they always retire before ten o'clock, and that although his father left him some valuable whiskey he seldom takes a drop of it." " Therein," gravely concluded Captain Kirby, " lies our salvation. If, after such a confession, Calvert does n't make the most of his acquaintance with young Culpepper to remove that whiskey from his path and bring it here, he 's not the man I take him for." Indeed, for the moment it seemed as if he was not. Dur- ing the next three or four days, in which Colojiel Preston had insisted upon detaining his guests, Calvert touched no liquor, evaded the evening poker parties at quarters, and even prevailed upon some of his brother officers to give them up for the more general entertainment of the ladies. Colonel Preston was politician enough to avail himself of the popularity of Maggie's adventure to invite some of the Log- port people to assist him in honoring their neighbor. Not only was the old feud between the Fort and the people thus bridged over, but there was no doubt that the discipline of the Fort had been strengthened by Maggie's extravagant reputa- tion as a mediator among the disaffected rank and file. What- ever characteristic license the grateful Dennis M'Caifrey — let off with a nominal punishment — may have taken in his THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 441 praise of the " Quane of the Marshes," it is certain that the men worshiped her, and that the band pathetically begged permission to serenade her the last night of her stay. At the end of that time, with a dozen invitations, a dozen appointments, a dozen vows of eternal friendship, much hand-shaking, and accompanied by a number of the officers to their boat, Maggie and Jim departed. They talked but little on their way home ; by some tacit under- standing they did not discuss those projects, only recalling certain scenes and incidents of their visit. By the time they had reached the little creek the silence and nervous apathy which usually follow excitement in the young seemed to have fallen upon them. It was not until after their quiet frugal supper that, seated beside the fire, Jim looked up somewhat self-consciously in his sister's grave and thoughtful face. " Say, Mag, what was that idea o' yours about selling some land, and taking a house at Logport ? " Maggie looked up, and said passively, " Oh, that idea ■( " " Yes." " Why ? " "Well," said Jim somewhat awkwardly, "it could be done, j'ou know. I 'm willin'." As she did not immediately reply, he continued uneasily, " Miss Preston says we kin get a nice little house that is near the Fort, until we want to build." " Oh, then you have talked about it ? " " Yes — that is — why, what are ye thinkin' of, Mag ? Was n't it your idea all along ? " he said, suddenly facing her with querulous embarrassment. They had been sitting in their usual evening attitudes of Assyrian frieze profile, with even more than the usual Assyrian frieze similarity of feature. " Yes ; but, Jim dear, do you think it the best thing 442 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH for — for us to do ? " said Maggie, witli half -frightened gravity. At this sudden and startling exhibition of female incon- sistency and inconsequence, Jim was for a moment speech- less. Then he recovered himself, volubly, aggrievedly, and on his legs. What did she mean ? Was he to give up understanding girls — or was it their sole vocation in life to impede masculine processes and shipwreck masculine con- clusions ? Here, after all she said the other night, after they had nearly " quo'lled " over her " set idees," after she 'd " gone over all that foolishness about Jael and Sisera — and there was n't any use for it — after she 'd let him run on to them officers all he was goin' to do — nay, after she herself, for he had heard her, had talked to Calvert about it, she wanted to know now if it was best." He looked at the floor and the ceiling, as if expecting the tongued and grooved planks to cry out at this crowning enormity. The cause of it had resumed her sad gaze at the fire. Presently, without turning her head, she reached up her long, graceful arm, and, clasping her brother's neck, brought his face down in profile with her own, cheek against cheek, until they looked like the double outlines of a medallion. Then she said — to the fire : — " Jim, do you think she 's pretty ? " " Who ? " said Jim, albeit liis color had already an- swered the question. " You know who. Do you like her ? " Jim here vaguely murmured to the fire that he thought her "kinder nice," and that she dressed mighty purty. " Ye know, Mag," he said with patronizing efiusion, " you oughter get some gownds like hers.'' " That would n't make me like her," said Maggie gravely. " I don't know about that," said Jim politely, but with THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 443 an appalling hopelessness of tone. After a pause he added slyly, " 'Pears to me somebody else thought somebody else mighty purty — eh ? " To his discomfiture she did not solicit further informs^ tion. After a pause he continued, still more archly : — " Do you like Mm, Mag ? " " I think he 's a perfect gentleman," she said calmly. He turned his eyes quickly from the glowing fire to her face. The cheek that had been resting against his own ■was as cool as the night wind that came through the open door, and the whole face was as fixed and tranquil as the upper stars. Foe a year the tide had ehbed and flowed on the Ded low Marsh unheeded before the sealed and sightless win- dows of the " Kingfisher's Nest." Since the young hire's had flown to Logport, even the Indian caretakers had abandoned the piled dwelling for their old nomadic haunts in the " bresh." The high spring tide had again made its annual visit to the little cemetery of driftwood, and, as if recognizing another wreck in the deserted home, had hung a few memorial 'offerings on the blackened piles, softly laid a garland of grayish drift before it, and then sobbed it- self out in the salt grass. From time to time the faint echoes of the Culpeppers' life at Logport reached the uplandj and the few neighbors who had only known them by hearsay shook their heads over the extravagance they as yet only knew by report. But it was in the dead ebb of the tide and the waning day- light that the feathered tenants of the Marsh seemed to voice dismal prophecies of the ruin of their old master and mistress, and to give themselves up to gloomiest lamenta- tion and querulous foreboding. Whether the traditional " bird of the air " had intrusted his secret to a few orni- thological friends, or whether from a natural disposition to take gloomy views of life, it was certain that at this hour the vocal expression of the Marsh was hopeless and despair- ing. It was then that a dejected plover, addressing a mocking crew of sandpipers on a floating log, seemed to be- wail the fortune that was being swallowed up by the riot- ous living and gambling debts of Jim. It was then that THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 445 the quemlous crane rose, and testily protested against the selling of his favorite haunt in the sandy peninsula, which only six months of Jim's excesses had made imperative. It was then that a mournful curlew, who, with the preface that he had always been really expecting it, reiterated the story that Jim had been seen more than once staggering home with nervous hands and sodden features from a debauch with the younger officers ; it was the same desponding fowl who knew that Maggie's eyes had more than once filled with tears at Jim's failings, and had already grown more hollow with many watchings. It was a flock of wrangling teal that screamingly discussed the small scandals, jealous heart-burnings, and curious backhitings that had attended Maggie's advent into society. It was the high flying brent who, knowing how the sensitive girl, made keenly con- scious at every turn of her defective training and ingenuous ignorance, had often watched their evening flight with longing gaze, now " honked " dismally at the recollection. It was at this hour and season that the usual vague la- mentings of Dedlow Marsh seemed to find at last a preor- dained expression. And it was at such a time, when light and water were both fading, and the blackness of the Marsh was once more reasserting itself, that a small boat was creeping along one of the tortuous inlets, at times half hiding behind the bank like a wounded bird. As it slowly penetrated inland it seemed to be impelled by its solitary occupant in a hesitating, uncertain way, as if to escape ob- servation rather than as if directed to any positive bourn. Stopping beside a bank of reeds at last, the figure rose stoopingly, and drew a gun from between its feet and the bottom of the boat. As the light fell upon its face, it could be seen that it was James Culpepper ! James Cul- pepper ! hardly recognizable in the swollen features, blood- shot eyes, and tremulous hands of that ruined figure ! James Culpepper, only retaining a single trace of his former self 446 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MABSH in his look of set and passionate purpose ! And that pur- pose was to kill himself — to be found dead, as his father hnd heen before him — in an open boat, adrift upon the Marsh ! It was not the outcome of a sudden fancy. The idea had fii-Bt come to him in a taunting allusion from the drunken lips of one of his ruder companions, for which he had stricken the offender to the earth. It had since haunted hie waking hours of remorse and hopeless fatuity ; it had seemed to be the one relief and atonement he could make his devoted sister ; and, more fatuous than all, it seemed to the miserable boy the one revenge he would take upon the faithless coquette, who for a year had played with his sim- plicity, and had helped to drive him to the distraction of CHirds and drink. Only that morning Colonel Preston had forbidden him the house ; and now it seemed to him the end had come. He raised his distorted face above the rsedv bank for a last tremulous and half-frightened glance at the landscape he was leaving forever. , A glint in the western sky lit up the front of his deserted dwelling in the distance, abreast of which the windings of the inlet had unwittingly led him. As he looked he started, and involun- tarily dropped into a crouching attitude. For to his su- perstitious terror, the sealed windows of his old home were open, the bright panes were glittering with the fading light, and on the outer gallery the familiar figure of his sister stood, as of old, awaiting his return ! Was he really going mad, or had this last vision of his former youth been pur- posely vouchsafed him ? But even as he gazed, the appearance of another figure in the landscape beyond the house proved the reality of his vision, and as suddenly distracted him from all else. For it was the apparition of a man on horseback approaching the house from the upland ; and even at that distance he •^cognized its well-known outlines. It was Calvert ! Cal- THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 447 vert the traitor ! Calvert, the man whom he had long sus- pected as being the secret lover and destined husband of Cicely Preston ! Calvert, who had deceived him with his calm equanimity and his affected preference for Maggie, to conceal his deliberate understanding with Cicely. What was he doing here ? Was he a double traitor, and now trying to deceive her — as he had him ? And Maggie here ! This sudden return — this preconcerted meeting. It was infamy ! For a moment he remained stupefied, and then, with a mechanical instinct, plunged his head and face in the lazy- flowing water, and then once again rose cool and collected. The half-mad distraction of his previous resolve had given way to another, more deliberate, but not less desperate determination. He knew now why he came there — why he had brought his gun — why his boat had stopped when it did ! Lying flat in the bottom, he tore away fragments of the crumbling bank to fill his frail craft, until he had sunk it to the gunwale, and below the low level of the Marsh. Then, using his hands as noiseless paddles, he propelled this rude imitation of a floating log slowly past the line of vision, until the tongue of bushes had hidden him from view. With a rapid glance at the darkening flat, he then seized his gun, and springing to the spongy bank, half crouching, half crawling through reeds and tussocks, he made his way to the brush. A foot and eye less experi- enced would have plunged its owner helpless in the black quagmire. At one edge of the thicket he heard hoofs tram- pling the dried twigs. Calvert's horse was already there, tied to a skirting alder. He ran to the house, but, instead of attracting attention by ascending the creaking steps, made his way to the piles below the rear gallery and climbed to it noiselessly. It was the spot where the deserter had ascended a year ago, and. 448 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH like him, he could see and hear all that passed distinctly. Calvert stood near the open door as if departing. Maggie stood between him and the window, her face in shadow, her hands clasped tightly behind her. A profound sadness, partly of the dying day and waning light, and partly of some vague expiration of their own sorrow, seemed to encompass them. Without knowing why, a strange trembling took the place of James Culpepper's fierce determination, and a film of moisture stole across his staring eyes. " When I tell you that I believe all this will pass, and that you will still win your brother back to you," said Calvert's sad but clear voice, " I will tell you why — although, perhaps, it is only a part of that confidence you command me to withhold. When I first saw you, I myself had fallen into like dissolute habits; less excusable than he, for I had some experience of the world and its follies. When I met you, and fell under the influence of your pure, simple, and healthy life; when I saw that isolation, monotony, misunderstanding, even the sense of superiority to one's surroundings, could be lived down and triumphed over, with- out vulgar distractions or pitiful ambitions; when I learned to love you — hear me out. Miss Culpepper, I beg you — you saved me — I, who was nothing to you, even as I hon- estly believe you will still save your brother whom you love." "How do you know I didn't ruin him?" she said, turning upon him bitterly. "How do you know that it was n't to get rid of our monotony, our solitude, that I drove him to this vulgar distraction, this pitiful — yes, you were right — pitiful ambition ? " " Because it is n't your real nature," he said quietly. " My real nature," she repeated with a half savage vehe- mence that seemed to be goaded from her by his very gentleness, " my real nature ! What did he — what do you know of it ? — My real nature ! — I '11 tell you what it "was," she went on passionately. " It was to be revenged THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 449 on you all for your cruelty, your heartlessness, your wicked- ness to me and mine in the past. It was to pay you off for your slanders of my dead father — for the selfishness that left me and Jim alone with his dead hody on the Marsh. That was what sent me to Logport — to get even with you — to — to fool and flaunt you ! There, you have it now ! And now that God has punished me for it by crushing my brother — ■ you — you expect me to let you crush 7ne too." "But," he said eagerly, advancing toward her, "you are wronging me — you are wronging yourself cruelly." " Stop," she said, stepping back, with her hands still locked behind her. " Stay where you are. There ! That 's enough ! " She drew herself up and let her hands fall at her side. " Now, let us speak of Jim," she said coldly. Without seeming to hear her, he regarded her for the first time with hopeless sadness. " Why did you let my brother believe you were his rival with Cicely Preston ? " she asked impatiently. " Because I could not undeceive him without telling him I hopelessly loved his sister. You are proud. Miss Culpep- per," he said, with the first tinge of bitterness in his even voice. " Can you not understand that others may be proud too ? " " j!^o," she said bluntly ; " it is not pride but weakness. You could have told him what you knew to be true : that there could be nothing in common between her folk and such savages as we ; that there was a gulf as wide as that Marsh and as black between our natures, our training and theirs ; and even if they came to us across it, now and then, to suit their pleasure, light and easy as that tide — it was still there to some day ground and swamp them ! And if he doubted it, you had only to tell him your own story. You had only to tell him what you have just told me — that you yourself, an officer and a gentleman, thought you loved me, a vulgar, uneducated, savage girl, and that I, 450 THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH kinder to you than you to me or him, made you take it back across that tide, because I couldn't let you link your life with me, and drag you in the mire." '•'You need not have said that. Miss Culpepper," returned Calvert with the same gentle smile, " to prove that I am your inferior in all but one thing." " And that ? " she said quickly. " Is my love." His gentle face was as set now as her own as he moved back slowly towards the door. There he paused. " You tell me to speak of Jim, and Jim only. Then hear me. I believe that Miss Preston cares for him as far as lies in her young and giddy nature. I could not, there- fore, have crushed his hope without deceiving him, for there are as cruel deceits prompted by what we call reason as by our love. If you think that a knowledge of this plain truth would help to save him, I beg you to be kinder to him than you have been to me, — or even, let me dare to hope, to yourself." He slowly crossed the threshold, still holding his cap lightly in his hand. " When I tell you that I am going away to-morrow on a leave of absence, and that in all probability we may not meet again, you will not misunderstand why I add my prayer to the message your friends in Logport charged me with. They beg that you will give up your idea of return- ing here, and come back to them. Believe me, you have made yourself loved and respected there, in spite — I beg pardon — perhaps I should say because of your pride. Good-night and good-by." For a single instant she turned her set face to the win- dow with a sudden convulsive movement, as if she would have called him back, but at the same moment the opposite door creaked and her brother slipped into the room. Whether a quick memory of the deserter's entrance at that THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH 451 door a year ago had crossed her mind, whether there was some strange suggestion in his mud-stained garments and weak, deprecating smile, or whether it was the outcome of some desperate struggle within her, there was that in her face that changed his smile into a frightened cry for pardon, as he ran and fell on his knees at her feet. But even as he did so her stern look vanished, and with her arm around him she bent over him and mingled her tears with his. " I heard it all, Mag dearest ! All ! Forgive me ! I have been crazy ! — wild ! — I will reform ! — I will be better ! I will never disgrace you again, Mag ! Never, never ! I swear it ! " She reached down and kissed him. After a pause, a weak, boyish smile struggled into his face. " You heard what he said of her, Mag. Do you think it might be true ? " She lifted the damp curls from his forehead with a sad, half-maternal smile, but did not reply. " And Mag, dear, don't you think you were a little — just a little — hard on him ? No ! Don't look at me that way, for God's sake ! There, I did n't mean anything. Of course you knew best. There, Maggie dear, look up. Hark there ! Listen, Mag, do ! " They lifted their eyes to the dim distance seen through the open door. Borne on the fading light, and seeming to fall and die with it over marsh and river, came the last notes of the bugle from the Fort. " There ! Don't you remember what you used to say, Mag ? " The look that had frightened him had quite left her face now. " Yes," she smiled, laying her cold cheek beside his softly. " Oh yes ! It was something that came and went, ' Like a song ' — ' Like a song.' " A KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS I As Father Felipe slowly toiled up the dusty road toward the Eancho of the Blessed Innocents, he more than once stopped under the shadow of a sycamore to rest his somewhat lazy mule and to compose his own perplexed thoughts by a few snatches from his breviary. For the good padre had some reason to be troubled. The invasion of Gentile Americans that followed the gold discovery of three years before had not confined itself to the plains of the Sacramento, but stragglers had alresuly found their way to the Santa Cruz Valley, and the seclusion of even the mission itself was threatened. It was true that they had not brought their heathen engines to disembowel the earth in search of gold, but it was rumored that they had already speculated upon the agricultural productiveness of the land, and had espied " the fatness thereof." As he reached the higher plateau he could see the afternoon sea-fog — pres- ently to obliterate the fair prospect — already pulling through the gaps in the Coast Range, and on a nearer slope ■ — ■ no less ominously — the smoke of a recent but more per manently destructive Yankee saw mill was slowly drifting towards the valley. " Get up, beast ! " said the father, digging his heels into the comfortable flanks of his mule with some human impa- tience, " or art thou, too, a lazy renegade ? Thinkest thou, besotted one, that the heretic will spare thee more work than the Holy Church ? " A KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 4o3 The mule, thus apostrophized in ear and flesh, shook its head obstinately as if the question was by no means clear to its mind, but nevertheless started into a little trot, which presently brought it to the low adobe wall of the courtyard of " The Innocents," and entered the gate. A few loung- ing peons in the shadow of an archway took off their broad- brimmed hats and made way for the padre, and a half- dozen equally listless vaqueros helped him to alight. Ac- customed as he was to the indolence and superfluity of his host's retainers, to-day it nevertheless seemed to strike some note of irritation in his breast. A stout, middle-aged woman of ungirt waist and be- shawled head and shoulders appeared at the gateway as if awaiting him. After a formal salutation she drew him aside into an inner passage. " He is away again, your Reverence," she said. " Ah — always the same ? " " Yes, your Reverence — and this time to ' a meeting ' of the heretics at their pueblo, at Jonesville — where they will ask him of his land for a road." " At a meeting ? " echoed the priest uneasily. " Ah yes ! at a meeting — where Tiburcio says they shout and spit on the ground, your Reverence, and only one has a chair and him they call a ' chairman ' because of it, and yet he sits not, but shouts and spits even as the others and keeps up a tapping with a hammer like a very pico. And there it is they are ever ' resolving ' that which is not, and consider it even as done." " Then he is still the same," said the priest gloomily, as the woman paused for breath. " Only more so, your Reverence, for he reads naught but the newspaper of the Americanos that is brought in the ship, the ' New York 'errald ' — and recites to himself the orations of their legislators. Ah ! it was an evil day when the shipwrecked American sailor taught him his uncouth 454 A KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS tongue, which, as your Reverence knows, is only fit for beasts and heathen incantation." " Pray Heaven that were all he learned of him," said the priest hastily ; " for I have great fear that this sailor was little better than an atheist and an emissary from Sa- tan. But where are these newspapers and the fantasies of publicita that fill his mind ? I would see them, my daughter." " You shall, your Eeverence, and more too," she replied eagerly, leading the way along the passage to a grated door which opened upon a small cell-like apartment, whose scant light and less air came through the deeply embayed win- dows in the outer wall. " Here is his estudio." In spite of this open invitation, the padre entered with that air of furtive and minute inspection common to his order. His glance fell upon a rude surveyor's plan of the adjacent embryo town of Jonesville hanging on the wall, which he contemplated with a cold disfavor that even in- cluded the highly colored vignette of the projected Jones- ville Hotel in the left-hand corner. He then passed to a supervisor's notice hanging near it, which he examined with a Suspicion heightened by that uneasiness common to mere worldl}' humanity when opposed to an imknown and unfa- miliar language. But an exclamation broke from his lips when he confronted an election placard immediately below it. It was printed in Spanish and English, and Father Felipe had no difficvilty in reading the announcement that " Don Jose Sepulvida would preside at a meeting of the Board of Education in Jonesville as one of the trustees." " This is madness," said the padre. Observing that Dona Maria was at the moment preoccu- pied in examining the pictorial pages of an illustrated American weekly which had hitherto escaped his eyes, he took it gently from her hand. " Pardon, your Eeverence," she said with slightly acidu- A KNIGHT-ERBANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 455 lous deprecation, " but thanks to the Blessed Virgin and your Eeverence's teaching, the text is but gibberish to me and I did but glance at the pictures." " Much evil may come in with the eye," said the priest sententiously, " as I will presently show thee. We have here," he continued, pointing to an illustration of certain college athletic sports, " a number of youthful cavaliers posturing and capering in a partly nude condition before a number of shameless women, who emulate the saturnalia of heathen Eome by waving their handkerchiefs. We have here a companion picture," he said, indicating an illustra- tion of gymnastic exercises by the students of a female academy at " Commencement," " in which, as thou seest, even the aged of both sexes unblushingly assist as specta- tors with every expression of immodest satisfaction." " Have they no bull-fights or other seemly recreation that they must indulge in such wantonness ? " asked Dona Maria indignantly, gazing, however, somewhat curiously at the baleful representations. " Of all that, my daughter, has their pampered civiliza' tion long since wearied," returned the good padre ; " for see, this is what they consider a moral and even a religious ceremony." He turned to an illustration of a woman's rights convention ; " observe with what rapt attention the audience of that heathen temple watch the inspired raving.? of that elderly priestess on the dais. It is even this kind of sacrilegious performance that I am told thy nephew Don Jos^ expounds and defends." " May the blessed saints preserve us ; where will it lead to ? " murmured the horrified Dona Maria. " I will show thee," said Father Felipe, briskly fuming the pages with the same lofty ignoring of the text until he came to a representation of a labor procession. " There is one of their periodic revolutions unhappily not unknown even in Mexico. Thou pe^ceivest those complacent artisans 456 A KNIGHT-EERANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS marching with implements of their craft, accompanied hy the military, in the presence of their own stricken masters. Here we see only another instance of the instahility of all communities that are not founded on the principles of the Holy Church." " And what is to be done with my nephew ? " The good father's brow darkened with the gloomy reli- gious zeal of two centuries ago. " We must have a council of the family, the alcalde, and the archbishop at once" he said ominously. To the mere heretical observer the conclusion might have seemed lame and impotent, but it was as near the Holy Inquisition as the year of grace 1852 could offer. A few days after this colloquy the unsuspecting subject of it, Don Jose Sepulvida, was sitting alone in the same apartment. The fading glow of the western sky, through the deep embrasured windows, lit up his rapt and meditative face. He was a young man of apparently twenty-five, with a colorless satin complexion, dark eyes alternating between melancholy and restless energy, a narrow high forehead, long straight hair, and a lightly penciled mustache. He was said to resemble the well-known portrait of the Marquis of Monterey in the mission cliurch, a face that was alleged to leave a deep and lasting impression upon the observers. It was undoubtedly owing to this quality during a brief visit of the famous viceroy to a remote and married ances- tress of Don Josd at Leon that the singular resemblance may be attributed. A heavy and hesitating step along the passage stopped before the grating. Looking up, Don Jos^ beheld, to his astonishment, the slightly inflamed face of Roberto, a vaga- bond American whom he had lately taken into his employ- ment. Koberto, a polite translation of "Bob the Bucker," cleaned out at a monte-bank in Santa Cruz, penniless and A ICNIGHT-EERANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 457 profligate, had sold Lis mustang to Don Jos^ and recklessly- thrown- himself in with the bargain. Touched by the rascal's extravagance, the quality of the mare, and observing that Bob's habits had not yet affected his seat in the saddle, but rather lent a demoniac vigor to his chase of wild cattle, Don Jose had retained rider and horse in his service as vaquero. Bucking Bob, observing that his employer was alone, coolly opened the door without ceremony, shut it softly be- hind him, and then closed the wooden shutter of the grat- ing. Don Jos(S surveyed him with mild surprise and dignified composure. The man appeared perfectly sober, — it was a peculiarity of his dissipated habits that, when not actually raving with drink, he was singularly shrewd and practical. " Look yer, Don Kosay," he began in a brusque but guarded voice, " you and me is pards. When ye picked me and the mare up and set us on our legs again in this yer ranch, T allowed I 'd tie to ye whenever ye was in trouble — and wanted me. And I reckon that 's what 's the matter now. For from what I see and hear on every side, although you 're the boss of this consarn, you 're surrounded by a gang of spies and traitors. Your comings and goings, your ins and outs, is dogged and followed and blown upon. The folks you trust is playing it on ye. It ain't for me to say why or wherefore — what 's their rights and what 's yourn — but I 've come to tell ye that if you don't get up and get outer this ranch them d — d priests and your own flesh and blood — your aunts and your uncles and your cousins, will have you chucked outer your pro- perty, and run into a lunatic asylum." " Me — Don Josd Sepulvida — a lunatico ! You are yourself crazy of drink, friend Roberto." " Yes," said Roberto grimly, " but that kind ain't illegal, while your makin' ducks and drakes of your property and 458 A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS going into 'Merikin ideas and 'Merikin speculations they reckon is. And speakin' on the square, it ain't nat'ral." Don Jose sprang to his feet and began to pace np and down his cell-like study. " Ah, I remember now," he muttered, " I begin to comprehend : Father Felipe's homi- lies and discourses ! My aunt's too affectionate care ! My cousin's discreet consideration ! The prompt attention of my servants ! T see it all \ And you," he said, suddenly facing Eoberto, " why come you to tell me this ? " *' Well, boss," said the American dryly, "I reckoned to stand by you." " Ah," said Don Jose, visibly affected. " Good Eo- berto, come hither, child, yon may kiss my hand." " If ! it 's all the same to you, Don Kosay, — that kin slide." " Ah, if — yes," said Don Josd, meditatively putting his hand to his forehead, " miserable that I am ! — I re- membered not you were Americano. Pardon, my friend — embrace me — Conpanero y Amigo." With characteristic gravity he reclined for a moment upon Robert's astonished breast. Then recovering liimself with equal gravity lie paused, lifted his hand with gentle waniiiio-, marched to a recess in th« corner, unhooked a rapier hanging from the wall, and turned to his companion. " We will defend ourselves, friend. Eoberto. It is the sword of the Comandante — my ancestor. The blade is of Toledo." " An ordinary six-shooter of Colt's would lay over that," said Eoberto grimly — " but that ain't your game just now, Don Kosay. You must get up and get, and at once. You must vamose the ranch afore they lay hold of you and have you up before the alcalde. Once away from here, they dare n't follow you where there 's 'Merikin law, and when you kin fight 'em in the square." '^Good," said Don Jose with melancholy preciseness. A KNIOHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 459 " You are wise, friend Roberto. We may fight them later, as you say — on the square, or in the open Flaza. And you, caniarado, you shall go with me — you and your mare." Sincere as the American had been in his offer of service, he was somewhat staggered at this imperative command. But only for a moment. " Well," he said lazily, " I don't care if I do." " But," said Don Josd with increased gravity, " you shall care, friend Eoberto. We shall make an alliance, an union. It is true, my brother, you drink of whiskey, and at such times are even as a madman. It has been re- counted to me that it was necessary to your existence that you are a lunatic three days of the week. Who knows ? I myself, though I drink not of aguardiente, am accused of fantasies for all time. Necessary it becomes, therefore, that we should go together. My fantasies and speculations cannot injure you, my brother ; your whiskey shall not empoison me. We shall go together in the great world of your American ideas of which I am much inflamed. We shall together breathe as one the spirit of Progress and Liberty. We shall be even as neophytes making of our- selves Apostles of Truth. I absolve and renounce myself henceforth of my family. I shall take to myself the sister and the brother, the aunt and the uncle, as we proceed. I devote myself to humanity alone. I devote you, my friend, and the mare — though happily she has not a Christian soul — to this glorious mission." The few level last rays of light lit up a faint enthusiasm in the face of Don Jos^, but without altering his imper- turbable gravity. The vaquero eyed him curiously and half doubtfully. " We will go to-morrow," resumed Don Jos^ with Lolemn decision, " for it is Wednesday. It was a Sunday that thou didst ride the mare up the steps of the Fonda 460 A KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS and demanded that thy liquor should be served to thee in a pail. I remember it, for the landlord of the Fonda claimed twenty pesos for damage and the kissing of his wife. Therefore, by computation, good Roberto, thou shouldst be sober until Friday, and we shall have two clear days to fly before thy madness again seizes thee." "They kin say what they like, Don Kosay, but your head is level," returned the unabashed American, grasping Don Josh's hand. "All right, then. Hasta manana, as your folks say." " Hasta manana," repeated Don Jos^ gravely. At daybreak next morning, while slumber still weighted the lazy eyelids of " the Blessed Innocents," Don Josd Sepulvida and his trusty squire Roberto, otherwise known as " Bucking Bob," rode forth unnoticed from the corral. II Theee days had passed. At the close of the third, Don Jos^ was seated iii a cosy private apartment of the San Mateo Hotel, where they had halted for an arranged interview with his lawyer before reaching San Francisco. From his window he could see the surrounding park-like avenues of oaks and the level white highroad, now and then clouded with the dust of passing teams. But his eyes were persistently fixed upon a small copy of the American Constitution before him. Suddenly there was a quick rap on his door, and before he could reply to it a man brusquely entered. Don Jos^ raised his head slowly, and recognized the landlord. But the intruder, apparently awed by the gentle, grave, and studious figure before him, fell back for an in- stant in an attitude of surly apology. " Enter freely, my good Jenkinson," said Don Josd, with a quiet courtesy that had all the effect of irony. " The apartment, such as it is, is at your disposition. It is even yours, as is the house." " Well, I 'm darned if I know as it is," said the land- lord, recovering himself roughly, "and that's jest what's the matter. Yer 's that man of yours smashing things right and left in the bar-room and chuckin' my waiters through the window." " Softly, softly, good Jenkinson," said Don Jose, putting a mark in the pages of the volume before him. " It is necessary first that I should correct your speech. He is not my ' maw,' which I comprehend to mean a slave, a hire- 462 A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS ling, a thing obnoxious to the great American nation which / admire and to which he belongs. Therefore, good Jen- kinson, say ' friend,' ' companion,' ' guide,' ' philosopher,' if you will. As to the rest, it is of no doubt as you relate. I myself have heard the breakings of glass and small dishes as I sit here ; three times I have seen your waiters pro- jected into the road with much violence and confusion. To myself I have then said, e*eu as I say to you, good Jenkin- son, ' Patience, patience, the end is not far.' In four hours," continued Don Josd, holding up four fingers, " he shall make a finish. Until then, not." "Well, I'm d — d," ejaculated Jenkinson, gasping for breath in his indignation. " Nay, excellent Jenkinson, not dam-lied, but of a possi- bility dia,m-aged. That I shall repay when he have make a finish." "But, dam it all," broke in the landlord angrily. " Ah," said Don Josd gravely, " you would be paid be^ fore ! Good ; foi? how much shall you value all you have in your bar ? " Don Josh's imperturbability evidently shook the land- lord's faith in the soundness of his own position^ He looked at his guest critically and audaciously. " It cost me two hundred dollars to fit it up," he said curtly. Don Josd rose, and, taking a buckskin purse from his saddle-bag, counted out four slugs ^ and handed them to the stupefied Jenkinson. The next moment, however, his host recovered himsielf, and, casting the slugs back on the little table, brought his fist down with an emphasis that made them dance. " But, look yer — suppose I want this thing stopped — you hear me — stopped — now." 1 HexagoDal gold pieces valued at $50 each, issued by a private firm as coin in the early dayB. A KNIGHT-EREANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 463 " That would be interfering with the liberty of the sub- ject, my good Jenkinson — which God forbid ! " said Don Jos^ calmly. "Moreover, it is the custom of the Ameri- canos — a habit of my friend Roberto — a necessity of his existence — and so recognized of his friends. Patience and courage, Seiior Jenkinson. Stay — ah, I comprehend ! you have — of a possibility — a wife ? " '•' No, I 'm a widower," said Jenkinson sharply. " Then I congratulate you. My friend Roberto would have kissed her. It is also of his habit. Truly you have escaped much. I embrace you, Jenkinson." He threw his arms gravely around Jenkinson, in whose astounded face at last an expression of dry humor faintly dawned. After a moment's survey of Don Josh's impene- trable gravity, he coolly gathered up the gold coins, and, saying that he would assess the damages and return the dif- erence, he left the room as abruptly as he had entered it. But Don Jos^ was not destined to remain long in peace- ful study of the American Constitution. He had barely taken up the book again and renewed liis serious contem- plation of its excellencies when there was another knock at his door. This time, in obedience to his invitation to enter, the new visitor approached with more deliberation and a certain formality. He was a young man of apparently the same age as Don Jos^, handsomely dressed, and of a quiet self-possession and gravity almost equal to his host's. " I believe I am addressing Don Jos^ Sepulvida," he said with a familiar yet courteous inclination of his hand- some head. Don Jos^, who had risen in marked contrast to his reception of his former guest, answered : — " You are truly making it him a great honor." "Well, you're going it blind as far as I'm concerned certainly," said the young man, with a slight smile, " for you don't know me." 464 A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS " Pardon, my friend," said Don Jos($ gently ; " in this book, this great Testament of your glorious nation, I have read that you are all equal, one not above, one not below the other. I salute in you the Nation ! It is enough ! " " Thank you," returned the stranger, with a face that, saving the faintest twinkle in the corner of his dark eyes, was as immovable as his host's, "but for the purposes of my business I had better say I am Jack Hamlin, a gambler, and am just now dealing faro in the Florida saloon round the corner." He paused carelessly, as if to allow Don Josd the pro- test he did not make, and then continued : — " The matter is this. One of your vaqueros, who is, however, an American, was round there an hour ago buck- ing against faro, and put up and lost, not only the mare he was riding, but a horse wliich I have just learned is yours. Now we reckon, over there, that we can make enough money playing a square game, without being obliged to take property from a howling drunkard, to say nothing of it not belonging to him, and I 've come here, Don Jose, to say that if you '11 send over and bring away your man and your horse, you can have 'em both." " If I have comprehended, honest Hamlin," said Don Jos^ slowly, " this Roberto, who was my vaquero and is my brother, has approached this faro game by himself unso- licited ? " " He certainly did n't seem shy of it," said Mr. Hamlin with equal gravity. " To the best of my knowledge he looked as if he 'd been there before." " And if he had won, excellent Hamlin, you would have given him the equal of his mare and horse ? " " A hundred dollars for each, yes, certainly." " Then I see not why I should send for the property which is truly no longer mine, nor for my brother, who will amuse himself after the fashion of his country in the com- A KNIGHT-EKRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 465 pany of so honorable a caballero as yourself. Stay ! oh, imbecile that I am. I have not remembered. You would possibly say that he has no longer of horses ! Play him ; play him, admirable yet prudent Hamlin. I have two thousand horses ! Of a surety he cannot exhaust them in four hours. Therefore play him, trust to me for recompensa, and have no fear." A quick flush covered the stranger's cheek, and his eye- brows momentarily contracted. He walked carelessly to the window, however, glanced out, and then turned to Don Jos^. " May I ask, then," he said with almost sepulchral gravity, " is anybody taking care of you ? " " Truly," returned Don Jose cautiously, " there is my brother and friend Roberto." " Ah ! Roberto, certainly," said Mr. Hamlin profoundly. " Why do you ask, considerate friend ? " " Oh ! I only thought, with your kind of opinions, you must often feel lonely in California. Good-by." He shook Don Josh's hand heartily, took up his hat, inclined his head with graceful seriousness, and passed out of the room. In the hall he met the landlord. " Well," said Jenkinson, with a smile half anxious, half insinuating, " you saw him ? What do you think of him ? " Mr. Hamlin paused and regarded Jenkinson with a calmly contemplative air, as if he were trying to remember first who he was, and secondly why he should speak to him at all. " Think of whom ? " he repeated carelessly. "Why him — you know — Don Jos^." " I did not see anything the matter with him," returned Hamlin with frigid simplicity. " What ? nothing queer ? " " Well, no — except that he 's a guest in your house," said Hamlin with great cheerfulness. " But then, as you keep a hotel, you can't help occasionally admitting a — gentleman." 466 A KNIGHT-EREANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS Mr. Jenkinson smiled the uneasy smile of a man who knew that his interlocutor's playfulness occasionally ex- tended to the use of a derringer, in which he was singularly prompt and proficient ; and Mr. Hamlin, equally conscious of that knowledge on the part of his companion, descended the staircase composedly. But the day had darkened gradually into night, and Don Jose was at last compelled to put aside his volume. The sound of a large bell rung violently along the hall and pas- sages admonislied him that the American dinner was ready, and, although the viands and the mode of cooking were not entirely to his fancy, be had, in his grave enthusiasm for the national habits, attended the table d'hote regularly with Roberto. On reaching the lower hall he was informed that his henchman had early succumbed to the potency of his libations, and had already been carried by two men to bed. Receiving this information with his usual stoical composure, he entered the dining-room, but was surprised to find that a separate table had been prepared for him by the landlord, and that a rude attempt had been made to serve him with his own native dishes. " Senores y Senoritas," said Don Jos^, turning from it and with grave politeness addressing the assembled company, " if I seem to-day to partake alone and in a reserved fashion of certain viands that have been prepared for me, it is truly from no lack of courtesy to your distinguished company, but rather, I protest, to avoid the appearance of greater discourtesy to our excellent Jenkinson, who has taken some pains and trouble to comport his establishment to what he conceives to be my desires. Wherefore, my friends, in God's name fall to, the same as if I were not present, and grace be with you." A few stared at the tall, gentle, melancholy figure with some astonishment ; a few whispered to their neighbors ; but when, at the conclusion of his repast, Don Jos^ arose A KNIGHT -EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 467 and again saluted the company, one or two stood up and smilingly returned the courtesy ; and Polly Jenkinson, the landlord's youngest daughter, to the great delight of. her companions, blew him a kiss. After visiting the vaquero in his room, and with his own hand applying some native ointment to the various contu- sions and scratches which recorded the late engagements of the unconscious Roberto, Don Josd placed a gold coin in the hands of the Irish chamber-maid, and bidding her look aiter the sleeper, he threw his serape over his shoulders and passed into the road. The loungers on the veranda gazed at him curiously, yet half acknowledged his usual serious salutation, and made way for him with a certain respect. Avoiding the few narrow streets of the little town, he pursued his way meditatively along the highroad, returning to the hotel after an hour's ramble, as the even- ing stagecoach had deposited its passengers and departed. " There 's a lady waiting to see you upstairs," said the landlord with a peculiar smile. " She rather allowed it was n't the proper thing to see you alone, or she was n't quite ekal to it, I reckon, for she got my Polly to stand by her." " Your Polly, good Jenkinson ? " said Don Jose inter- rogatively. " My darter, Don Josd." " Ah, truly ! I am twice blessed," said Don Jos^ gravely ascending the staircase. On entering the room he perceived a tall, large-featured woman with an extraordinary quantity of blond hair parted on one side of her broad forehead, sitting upon the sofa. Beside her sat Polly Jenkinson, her fresh, honest, and rather pretty face beaming with delighted expectation and mischief. Don Jos^ saluted them with a formal courtesy, which, however, had no trace of the fact that he really did not remember anything of them. 468 A KNIGHT-EREANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS " I called," said the large-featured ■woman with a voice equally pronounced, " in reference to a request from you, ■which, though perhaps unconventional in the extreme, I have been able to meet by the intervention of this young lady's company. My name on this card may not be familiar to you — but I am ' Dorothy Dewdrop.' " A slight movement of abstraction and surprise passed over Don Josh's face, but as quickly vanished as he advanced towards her and gracefully raised the tips of her fingers to his lips. " Have I then, at last, the privilege of beholding that most distressed and deeply injured of women ! Or is it but a dream ! " It certainly was not, as far as concerned the substantial person of the ■woman before him, who, however, seemed somewhat vuieasy under his words as well as the demiire scrutiny of Miss Jenkinson. " I thought you might have forgotten," she said with slight acerbity, " that you desired an interview with the authoress of " — " Pardon," interrupted Don Jose, standing before her in an attitude of the deepest sympathizing dejection, " I had not forgotten. It is now three weeks since I have read in the journal ' Golden Gate ' the eloquent and touching poem of your sufferings, and your aspirations, and your miscom- prehensions by those you love. I remember as yesterday that you have said that cruel fate have linked you to a soulless state — that — but I speak not well your own beautiful language — you are in tears at evenfall ' because that you are not understood of others, and that your soul recoiled from iron bonds, until, as in a dream, you sought succor and release in some true Knight of equal plight.' " " I am told," said the large-featured woman with some satisfaction, " that the poem to which you allude has been generally admired." " Admired ! Seiiora," said Don Jose, with still darker sympathy, "it is not the word ; it is felt. I have felt it. A KNIGHT-EERANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 469 When I read those words of distress, I am touched of com- passion ! I have said, This woman, so disconsolate, so oppressed, must be relieved, protected ! I have wrote to you, at the ' Golden Gate,' to see me here." "And I have come, as you perceive," said the poetess, rising with a slight smile of constraint ; " and emboldened by your appreciation, I have brought a few trifles thrown off" — " Pardon, unhappy Sefiora," interrupted Don Jose, lift- ing his hand deprecatingly without relaxing his melancholy precision, " but to a cavalier further evidence is not required — and I have not yet make finish. I have not content myself to write to you. I have sent my trusty friend Roberto to inquire at the ' Golden Gate ' of your condition. I have found there, most unhappy and persecuted friend — that with truly angelic forbearance you have not told all — that you are married, and that of a necessity it is your husband that is cold and soulless and unsympathizing — and all that you describe." " Sir ! " said the poetess, rising in angry consternation. " I have written to him," continued Don Jose, with unheeding gravity ; " have appealed to him as a friend, I have conjured him as a caballero, I have threatened him even as a champion of the Eight, I have said to him, in effect — that this must not be as it is. I have informed him that I have made an appointment with you even at this house, and I challenged him to meet you here — ip this room — even at this instant, and, with God's help, we should make good our charges against him. It is yet early ; I have allowed time for the lateness of the stage and the fact that he will come by another conveyance. Therefore, Dona Dewdrop, tremble not like thy namesake as it were on the leaf of apprehension and expectancy. I, Don Jose, am here to protect thee. I will take these charges " — gently withdrawing the manuscripts from her astonished grasp — » 470 A KNIGHT-EERANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS "though even, as I related to thee before, I want them not, yet we will together confront him with them and make them good against him." " Are you mad ? " demanded the lady in almost stento- rious accents, " or is this an unmanly hoax ? " Suddenly she stopped in undeniable consternation. " Good heavens," she muttered, " if Abner should believe this. He is such a fool ! He has lately been queer and jealous. Oh dear ! " she said, turning to Polly Jenkinson with the first indication of feminine weakness, " is he telling the truth ? is he crazy ? what shall I do ? " Polly Jenkinson, who had witnessed the interview with, the intensest enjoyment, now rose equal to the occasion. " You have made a mistake," she said, uplifting her demure blue eyes to Don Jose's dark and melancholy gaze. " This lady is a poetess ! The sufferings she depicts, the sorrows she feels, are in the imagination, in her fancy only." "Ah ! " said Don Jos^ gloomily ; "then it is all false." "No," said Polly qviickly, "only they are not her own, you know. They are somebody else's. She only describes them for another, don't you see ? " "■ And who, then, is this unhappy one ? " asked the Don quickly. " Well — a — friend," stammered Polly hesitatingly. " A friend ! " repeated Don Jose. " Ah, I see, of possi- bility a dear one, even," he continued, gazing with tender melancholy into the untroubled cerulean depths of Polly's eyes, " even, but no, child, it could not be ! thou art too young." " Ah," said Polly, with an extraordinary gulp and a fierce nudge of the poetess, "but it was me." " You, Senorita," repeated Don Jos^, falling back in an attitude of mingled admiration and pity. " You, the child of Jenkinson ! " A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 471 " Yes, yes," joined in the poetess hurriedly ; " but that is n't going to stop the consequences of your wretched blunder. My husband will be furious, and will be here at any moment. Good gracious ! what is that ? " The violent slamming of a distant door at that instant, the sounds of quick scuffling on the staircase, and the up- lifting of an irate voice had reached her ears and thrown her back into the arms of Polly Jenkinson. Even the young girl herself turned an anxious gaze towards the door. Don Jose alone was unmoved. " Possess yourselves in peace, Seiioritas," he said calmly. " We have here only the characteristic convalescence of my friend and brother, the excellent Eoberto. He will ever recover himself from drink with violence, even as he pre- cipitates himself into it with fury. He has been prema- turely awakened. I will discover the cause." With an elaborate bow to the frightened women, he left the room. Scarcely had the door closed when the poetess turned quickly to Polly. " The man 's a stark staring lunatic, but, thank Heaven, Abner will see it at once. And now let 's get away while we can. To think," she said, snatching up her scattered manuscripts, " that iJiat was all the beast wanted." "I'm sure he 's very gentle and kind," said Polly, re- covering her dimples with a demure pout ; " but stop, he 's •joming back." It was indeed Don Jose reentering the room with the composure of a relieved and self-satisfied mind. " It is even as I said, Senora," he began, taking the poetess's hand, — " and more. You are saved ! " As the women only stared at each other, he gravely folded his arms and continued : " I will explain. For the instant I have not remember that, in imitation of your own delicacy, I have given to your husband in my letter, not the name of myself, but, as a mere Don Fulano the 472 A KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS name of my brother Roberto — ' Bucking Bob.' Your husband have this moment arrive ! Penetrating the bed- room of the excellent Roberto, he has indiscreetly seize him in his bed, vithout explanation, without introduction, without fear ! The excellent Roberto, ever ready for such distractions, have respond ! In a word, to use the lan- guage of the good Jenkinson — our host, our father — who was present, he have ' wiped the floor with your hus- band,' and have even carried him down the staircase to the street. Believe me, he will not return. You are free ! " " Fool ! Idiot! Crazy beast.! " said the poetess, dash- ing past him and out of the door. " You shall pay for this ! " Don Jos6 did not change his imperturbable and melan- choly calm. "And now, little one," he said, dropping on one knee before the half-frightened Polly, " child of Jen- kinson, now that thy perhaps too excitable sponsor has, in a poet's caprice, abandoned thee for some newer fantasy, confide in me thy distress, to me, thy Knight, and tell the story of thy sorrows." " But,'' said Polly, rising to her feet and struggling be- tween a laugh and a cry, " I have n't any sorrows. Oh, dear! don't you see, it's only her fancy to make me seem so. There 's nothing the matter with me." " Nothing the matter," repeated Don Jose slowly. " You have no distress ? You want no succor, no relief, no protector ? This, then, is but another delusion I " he said, rising sadly. " Yes, no — that is — oh, my gracious goodness ! " said Polly, hopelessly divided between a sense of the ridiculous and some strange attraction in the dark, gentle eyes that were fixed upon her half reproachfully. " You don't un- derstand." Don Jose replied only with a melancholy smile, and than going to the door opened it with a bowed head and A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 473 respectful courtesy. At the act Polly plucked up courage again, and with it a slight dash of her old audacity. " I 'm sure I 'm very sorry that I ain't got any love sorrows," she said demurely. "And I suppose it's very dreadful in me not to have been raving and broken-hearted over somebody or other as that woman has said. Only," she waited till she had gained the secure vantage of the threshold, " I never knew a gentleman to object to it be- fore ! " With this Parthian arrow from her blue eyes she slipped into the passage and vanished through the door of the op- posite parlor. For an instant Don Jose remained motion- less and reflecting. Then, recovering himself with grave precision, he deliberately picked up his narrow black gloves from the table, drew them on, took his hat in his hand, and, solemnly striding across the passage, entered the doot that had just closed behind her. m It must not be supposed that in the meantime the fiighi; of Don Jose and his follower was unattended by any com- motion at the rancho of the Blessed Innocents. At the end of three hours' deliberation, in which the retainers were severally examined, the corral searched, and the well in the courtyard sounded, scouts were dispatched in differ- ent directions, who returned with the surprising informa- tion that the fugitives were not in the vicinity. A trust- woriny messenger was sent to Monterey for " custom-house paper," on which to draw up a formal declaration of the affair. The archbishop was summoned from San Luis, and Don Victor and Don Vincente Sepulvida, with the Donas Carmen and Inez Alvarado, and a former alcalde, gathered at a family council the next day. In this serious conclave the good Father Felipe once more expounded the alienated condition and the dangerous reading of the absent man. In the midst of which the ordinary post brought a letter from Don Jos^, calmly inviting the family to dine with him and Eoberto at San. Mateo on the following Wednes- day. The document was passed gravely from hand to hand. Was it a fresh evidence of mental aberration — an audacity of frenzy — or a trick of the vaquero ? The archbishop and alcalde shook their heads — it was without doubt a lawless, even a sacrilegious and blasphemous fete. But a certain curiosity of the ladies and of Father Felipe carried the day. Without formally accepting the invitation it was decided that the family should examine the afflicted man, with a view of taking active measures hereafter. On X KNIGHT-EEEANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 475 the day appointed, the traveling carriage of the Sepulvidas, an equipage coeval with the beginning of the century, drawn by two white mules gaudily caparisoned, halted be- fore the hotel at San Mateo and disgorged Father Felipe, the DoHas Carmen and Inez Alvarado and Maria Sepulvida ; while Don Victor and Don Vincente Sepulvida, their at- tendant cavaliers on fiery mustangs, like outriders, drew rein at the same time. A slight thrill of excitement, as of the advent of a possible circus, had preceded them through the little town ; a faint blending of cigarette smoke and garlic announced their presence on the veranda. Ushered into the parlor of the hotel, apparently set apart for their reception, they wore embarrassed at not find- ing their host present. But they were still more discon- certed when a tall full-bearded stranger, with a shrewd, amused-looking face, rose from a chair by the window, and, stepping forward, -saluted them in fluent Spanish with a slight American accent. " I have to ask you, gentlemen and ladies," he began, with a certain insinuating ease and frankness that alter- nately aroused and lulled their suspicions, " to pardon the absence of our friend Don Josd Sepulvida at this prelimi- nary greeting. For to be perfectly frank with you, al- though the ultimate aim and object of our gathering is a social one, you are doubtless aware that certain infelicities and misunderstandings — common to most families — have occurred, and a free, dispassionate, unprejudiced discussion and disposal of them at the beginning will only tend to augment the good will of our gathering." " The Seiior without doubt is " — suggested the padre, with a polite interrogative pause. " Pardon me ! I forgot to introduce myself. Colonel Parker — entirely at your service and that of these charm- ing ladies." The ladies referred to allowed their eyes to rest with 476 A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS evident prepossession on the insinuating stranger. " Ab, a soldier," said Don Vinceute. " Formerly," said the American lightly ; " at present a lawyer, the counsel of Don Jas6." A sudden rigor of suspicion stiffened the company ; the ladies withdrew their eyes ; the priest and the Sepulvidas exchanged glances. " Come," said Colonel Parker, with apparent uncon- sciousness of the effect of his disclosure, " let us begin frankly. You have, I believe, some anxiety in regard to the mental condition of Don Jos^." " We believe him to be mad," said Padre Felipe promptly, " irresponsible, possessed ! " " That is your opinion ; good," said the lawyer quietly. " And ours too," clamored the party, " without doubt.'' " Good," returned the lawyer with perfect cheerfulness. " As his relations, you have no doubt had superior oppor- tunities for observing his condition. I understand also that you may think it necessary to have him legally de- clared non compos, a proceeding which, you are aware, might result in the incarceration of our distinguished friend in a madhouse." " Pardon, Seiior," interrupted Dona Maria proudly ; " you do not comprehend the family. When a Sepulvida is visited of God we do not ask the Government to confine him like a criminal. We protect him in his own house from the consequences of his frenzy." " From the machinations of the worldly and heretical," broke in the priest, " and from the waste and dispersion of inherited possessions." " Very true," continued Colonel Parker, with unalterable good humor ; "but I was only about to say that there might be conflicting evidence of his condition. For instance, our friend has been here three days. In that time he has had three interviews with three individuals under singular cir- A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 477 cumstances." Colonel Parker then briefly recounted the episodes of the landlord, the gambler, Miss Jenkinson, and the poetess, as they had been related to him. " Yet," he continued, " all but one of these individuals are willing to swear that they not only belieive Don Jos6 perfectly sane, but endowed with a singularly sound judgment. In fact, the testimony of Mr. Hamlin and Miss Jenkinson is re- markably clear on that subject." The company exchanged a supercilious smile. "Do you not see, Senor Advocate," said Don Vincente compas- sionately, " that this is but a conspiracy to avail themselves of our relative's weakness ? Of a necessity they find him sane who benefits them." " I have thought of that, and am glad to hear you say so," returned the lawyer still more cheerfully, " for your prompt opinion emboldens me to be at once perfectly frank with you. Briefly, then, Don Jose has summoned me here to make a final disposition of his property. In the carrying out of certain theories of his, which it is not my province to question, he has resolved upon comparative poverty for himself as best fitted for his purpose, and to employ his wealth solely for others. In fact, of all his vast possessions he retains for himself only an income sufficient for the bare necessaries of life." " And you have done this ? " they asked in one voice. " Not yet," said the lawyer. " Blessed San Antonio, we have come in time ! " ejacu- lated Dona Carmen. " Another day and it would have been too late ; it was an inspiration of the Blessed Inno- sents themselves," said Dofia Maria, crossing herself. "Can you longer doubt that this is the wildest madness ? " said Father Felipe with flashing eyes. " Yet," returned the lawyer, caressing his heavy beard with a meditative smile, "the ingenious fellow actually instanced the vows of your own order, reverend sir, as an 478 A KNIGHT-ERKANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS example in support of his theory. But to he brief. Con- ceiving, then, that his holding of property was a mere acci- dent of heritage, not admitted by him, unworthy his accep- tance, and a relic of superstitious ignorance " — " This is the very sacrilege of Satanic prepossession," broke in the priest indignantly. " He therefore," continued the lawyer composedly, " makes over and reverts the whole of his possessions, with the exceptions I have stated, to his family and the Church." A breathless and stupefying silence fell upon the com- pany. In the dead hush the sound of Polly Jenkinson's piano, played in a distant room, could be distinctly heard. With their vacant eyes staring at him the speaker con- tinued : — " That deed of gift I have drawn up as he dictated it. I don't mind saying that in the opinion of some he might be declared non compos upon the evidence of that alone. I need not say how relieved I am to find that your opinion coincides with my own." "But," gasped Father Felipe hurriedly, with a quick glance at the others, "it does not follow that it will be necessary to resort to these legal measures. Care, counsel, persuasion " — " The general ministering of kinship — nursing, a wo- man's care — the instincts of affection," piped Dona Maria in breathless eagerness. " Any light social distraction — a harmless flirtation — a possible attachment," suggested DoHa Carmen shyly. "Change of scene — active exercise — experiences — even as those you have related," broke in Don Vincente. " I for one have ever been opposed to legal measures," said Don Victor. "A mere consultation of friends — in fact, a. fete like this is sufficient." "Good friends," said Father Felipe, who had by this X KNIGHT-EKRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 47i» time recovered himself, taking out his snuff-box porten- tously, "it would seem truly, from the document which this discreet caballero has spoken of, that the errors of our dear Don Jose are rather of method than intent, and that while we may freely accept the one " — " Pardon," interrupted Colonel Parker with bland per- sistence, " but I must point out to you that what we call in law 'a consideration' is necessary to the legality of a conveyance, even though that consideration be frivolous and calculated to impair the validity of the document." " Truly," returned the good padre insinuatingly ; " but if a discreet advocate were to suggest the substitution of some more pious and reasonable consideration " — " But that would be making it a perfectly sane and gratuitous document, not only glaringly inconsistent with your charges, my good friends, with Don Josd's attitude towards you and his flight from home, but open to the gravest suspicion in law. In fact, its apparent propriety in the face of these facts would imply improper influence." The countenances of the company fell. The lawyer's face, however, became still more good-humored and sympa- thizing. " The case is simply this. If in the opinion of judge and jury Don Jose is declared insane, the document is worthless except as a proof of that fact or a possible in- dication of the undue influence of his relations, which might compel the court to select his guardians and trustees elsewhere than among them." "Friend Abogado," said Father Felipe with extraordi- nary deliberation, " the document thou hast just described so eloquently convinces me beyond all doubt that Don Jos^ is not only perfectly sane but endowed with a singular dis- cretion. I consider it as a delicate and high-spirited inti- mation to us, his friends and kinsmen, of his unalterable and logically just devotion to his family and religion, what- ever may seem to be his poetical and imaginative mannei 480 A KNIGHT-EEKANT OF THE EOOT-HILLS of declaring it. I think there is not one here," continued the padre, looking around him impressively, " who is not entirely satisfied of Don Jose's reason and competency to arrange his own affairs." " Entirely," " truly," " perfectly," eagerly responded the others with affecting spontaneity. "Kay, more. To prevent any misconception, we shall deem it our duty to take every opportunity of making our belief publicly known," added Father Felipe. The padre and Colonel Parker gazed long and gravely into each other's eyes. It may have been an innocent touch of the sunlight through the window, but a faint gleam seemed to steal into the pupil of the affable lawyer at the same moment that, probably from the like cause, there was a slight nervous contraction of the left eyelid of the pious father. But it passed, and the next instant the door opened to admit Don Jos^ Sepulvida. He was at once seized and effusively embraced by the en- tire company with every protest of affection and respect. Not only Mr. Hamlin and Mr. Jenkinson, who accompanied him as invited guests, but Roberto, in a new suit of clothes and guiltless of stain or trace of dissipation, shared in the pronounced friendliness of the kinsmen. Padre Pelipe took snuff. Colonel Parker blew his nose gently. Nor were they less demonstrative of their new convic- tions later at the banquet. Don Josd, with Jenkinson and the padre on his right and left, preserved his gentle and half-melancholy dignity in the midst of the noisy fraterni- zation. Even Padre Felipe, in a brief speech or exhortation proposing the health of their host, lent himself in his own tongue to this polite congeniality. " We have had also, my friends and brothers," he said in peroration, " a pleas- ing example of the compliment of imitation shown by our beloved Don Jos4. No one who has known him during his inenJly sojourn in this community but will be struck A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS 48i ■with the conviction that he has acquired that most marvel- ous faculty of your great A.merican nation, the exhibition of liumor and of the practical joke." Every eye was turned upon the imperturbahle face of Don Josd as he slowly rose to reply. " In bidding you to this fete, my friends and kinsmen," he began calmly, "it was with the intention of formally embracing the habits, customs, and spirit of American institutions by certain methods of renunciation of the past, as became a caballero of honor and resolution. Those methods may possibly be known to some of you." He paused for a moment as if to allow the members of his family to look unconscious. " Since then, in the wisdom of God, it has occurred to me that my purpose may be as honorably effected by a discreet blending of the past and the present — in a word, by the judicious combination of the interests of my native people and the American nation. In consideration of that pur- pose, friends and kinsmen, I ask you to join me in drinking the good health of my host Sefior Jenkinson, my future father-in-law, from whom I have to-day had the honor to demand the hand of the peerless Polly, his daughter, as the future mistress of the Rancho of the Blessed Inno- cents." The marriage took place shortly after. Nor was the free will and indepyndence of Don Jose Sepulvida in the least opposed by his relations. Whether they felt they had already committed themselves, or had hopes in the future, did not transpire. Enough that the escapade of a week was tacitly forgotten. The only allusion ever made to the bridegroom's peculiarities was drawn from the demure lips of the bride herself on her installation at the "Blessed Innocents." " And what, little one, didst thou find in me to admire ? '' Don Jose had asked tenderly. 482 A KNIGHT-EKRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS " Oh, you seemed to be so much like that dear old Don Quixote, you know," she answered demurely. " Don Quixote," repeated Don Jose with gentle gravity, " But, my child, that was only a mere fiction — a romance, of one Cervantes. Believe me, of a truth there never was any such "person I " THE STORY OF A MINE AND OTHER TALES CONTENTS tAoa The Story op a Mine. Chap. I. Who Sought It 1 II. Who Found It 6 III. Who Claimed It il IV. Who Took It 18 V. Who had a Lien on It 20 VI. How A Grant was got foe It ... . 24 VII. Who Plead foe It 33 VIII. Of Counsel foe It 37 IX. What the Fair had to do about It . . .45 X. Who Lobbied for It 59 XI. How It was Lobbied foe 73 XII. A Eace fok It . 81 XIII. How It became Famous 91 XIV. Who Inteigued for It 96 XV. How It became Unfinished Business . . . 105 XVE. And Who fobgot It 109 riiB Twins of Table Mountain. Part I. A Cloud on the Mountain 123 II. The Clouds Gather 133 IIL Stoem 152 IV. The Clouds Pass 173 Jeff Briggs's Love Story 183 The Great Deadwood Mysteey ...... 2(i5 Flip : A California Romance 295 Found at Blazing Stab ....... 348 At the Mission of San Cakmei, ....••< 388 THE STORY OF A MINE AND OTHER TALES THE STOEY OF A MINE ■WHO SOUGHT IT It was a steep trail leading over the Monterey Coast Eange. Concho was very tired, Concho was very dusty, Concho was very much disgusted. To Concho's mind, there was but one relief for these insurmountable difficulties, and that lay in a leathern bottle slung over the mochillas of his saddle. Concho raised the bottle to his lips, took a long draught, made a wry face, and ejaculated, — " Carajo ! " It appeared that the bottle did not contain aguardiente, but had lately been filled in a tavern near Tres Pinos by an Irishman who sold bad American whiskey under that pleasing Castilian title. Nevertheless Concho had already nearly emptied the bottle, and it fell back against the sad- dle as yellow and flaccid as his own cheeks. Thus rein- forced, Concho turned to look at the valley behind him, from which he had climbed since noon. It was a sterile waste bordered here and there by arable fringes and valdas of meadow land, but in the main dusty, dry, and forbidding. His eye rested for a moment on a low white cloud-line on the eastern horizon, but so mocking and unsubstantial that it seemed to come and go as he gazed. Concho struck his forehead and winked his hot eyelids. Was it the Sierras or the cursed American whiskey ? Again he recommenced 2 THE STORY OF A MINE the ascent. At times the half-worn, half-visible trail he- came utterly lost in the bare black outcrop of the ridge, but his sagacious mule soon found it again, until, stepping upon a loose boulder, she slipped and fell. In vain Concho tried to lift her from out the ruin of camp kettles, pros- pecting pans and picks ; she remained quietly recumbent, occasionally raising her head as if to contemplatively glance over the arid plain below. Then he had recourse to use- less blows. Then he essayed profanity of a secular kind, such as " Assassin," " Thief," " Beast with a pig's head," " Food for the bull's horns," but with no effect. Then he had recourse to the curse ecclesiastic : — " Ah, Judas Iscariot ! is it thus, renegade and traitor, thou leavest me, thy master, a league from camp, and sup- per waiting ? Stealer of the Sacrament, get up ! " Still no effect. Concho began to feel uneasy ; never be- fore had a mule of pious lineage failed to respond to this kind of exhortation. He made one more desperate attempt : " Ah, defiler of the altar ! lie not there ! Look ! " he threw his hand into the air, extending the fingers suddenly. " Behold, fiend ! I exorcise thee ! Ha ! tremblest ! Look but a little now — see! Apostate! I — I — excommuni- cate thee — Mula ! " " What are you kicking up such a devil of a row down there for ? " said a gruff voice from the rocks above. Con- cho shuddered. Could it be that the devil was really go- ing to fly away with his mule ? He dared not look up. " Come now," continued the voice, " you just let up on that mule, you d — d old Greaser ? Don't you see she 's dipped her shoulder ? " Alarmed as Concho was at the information, he could not help feeling to a certain extent relieved. She was lamed, but had not lost her standing as a good Catholic. He ventured to lift his eyes. A stranger — an Ameri- eano from his dress and accent — was descending the rocks "WHO SOUGHT IT 3 toward him. He was a slight-built man with a dark; smooth face, that would have been quite commonplace and inexpressive but for his left eye, in which all that was villainous in him apparently centred. Shut that eye, and you had the features and expression of an ordinary man ; cover up those features, and the eye shone out like Eblis' own. Nature had apparently observed this, too, and had, by a paralysis of the nerve, ironically dropped the corner of the upper lid over it like a curtain, laughed at her handi- work, and turned him loose to prey upon a credulous world. " What are you doing here ? " said the stranger after ha had assisted Concho in bringing the mule to her feet and a helpless halt. " Prospecting, Senor." The stranger turned his respectable right eye toward Concho, while his left looked unutterable scorn and wicked- ness over the landscape. " Prospecting ? what for ? " " Gold and silver, Seiior ; yet for silver most." " Alone ? " " Of us there are four." The stranger looked around. " In camp, — a league beyond," explained the Mexican. " Found anything ? " " Of this — much." Concho took from his saddle-bags a lump of greyish iron-ore, studded here and there with star-points of pyrites. The stranger said nothing, but his eye looked a diabolical suggestion. " You are lucky, friend Greaser." "'Eh?" " It is silver." " How know yoTi this ? " " It is my business. I 'm a metallurgist." " And you can say what shall be silver and what is not ? " •I Yes — see here ! " The stranger took from his saddle* i THE STORY OF A MINE bags a little leather case containing some half dozen vials. One, enwrapped in dark-blue paper, he held up to Concho. " Tliis contains a preparation of silver." Concho's eyes sparkled, but he looked doubtingly at the Btranger. " Get me some water in your pan." Concho emptied his water bottle in his prospecting pan and handed it to the stranger. He dipped a dried blade of grass in the bottle, and then let a drop fall from its tip in the water. The water remained unchanged. " Now throw a little salt in the water," said the stranger. Concho did so. Instantly a white film appeared on the surface, and presently the whole mass assumed a milky hue. Concho crossed himself hastily : " Mother of God, it is magic ! " "It is chloride of silver, you darned fool." Not content with this cheap experiment, the stranger then took Concho's breath away by reddening some litmus paper with the nitrate, and then completely knocked over the simple Mexican by restoring its color by dipping it in the salt water. " You shall try me this," said Concho, offering his iron ore to the stranger ; " you shall use the silver and the salt." " Not so fast, my friend," answered the stranger. " In the first place this ore must be melted, and then a chip taken and put in shape like this ; and that is worth some- thing, my Greaser cherub. No, sir, a man don't spend all his youth at Freiburg and Heidelberg to throw away his science gratuitously on the first Greaser he meets." " It will cost — eh ? — how much ? " said the Mexican eagerly. " Well, I should say it would take about a hundred dollars and expenses to — to — find silver in that ore. But «>nce you 've got it there, you're all right for tons of it." WHO FOUND IT 5 "You shall have it," said the now excited Mexican. " You shall have it of us, — the four ! You shall come to our camp and shall melt it — and show the silver and — enough ! Come," and in his feverishness he clutched the hand of his companion as if to lead him forth at once. " What are you going to do with your mule ? " said the stranger. " True, Holy Mother ! what, indeed ? " " Look yer," said the stranger, with a grim smile, " she ■won't stray far, I '11 be bound. I 've an extra pack-mule above here ; you can ride on her, and lead me into camp, and to-morrow come back for your beast." Poor honest Concho's heart sickened at the prospect of leaving behind the tired servant he had objurgated so strongly a moment before, but the love of gold was upper- most. "I will come back to thee, little one, to-morrow, a rich man. Meanwhile wait thou here, patient one. Adios, thou smallest of mules, Adios ! " And seizing the stranger's hand he clambered up the rocky ledge until they reached the summit. Then the stranger turned and gave one sweep of his malevolent eye over the valley. Wherefore, in after years, when their story was related, with the devotion of true Catholic pioneers, they named the mountain " La Caiiada de la Visitacion del Diablo," " The Gulch of the Visitation of the Devil," the same being now the boundary lines of one of the famous Mexican land grants. n WHO FOUND IT Concho was so impatient to reach the camp and delivei his good news to his companions that more than once the stranger was obliged to command him to slacken his para G THE STOEY OF A MINE " Is it not enough, you infernal Greaser, that you lame your own mule, hut you must try your hand on mine ? Or am I to put Jinny down among the expenses ? " he added with a grin and a slight lifting of his baleful eyelid. When they had ridden a mile along the ridge they began to descend again toward the valley. Vegetation now spar- ingly bordered the trail ; clumps of chimisal, an occasional manzanita bush, and one or two dwarfed "buckeyes" rooted their way between the interstices of the black-gray rock. Now and then, in crossing some dry gully worn by the overflow of winter torrents from above, the grayish rock gloom was relieved by dull red and brown masses of color, and almost every overhanging rock bore the mark of a miner's pick. Presently, as they rounded the curving flank of the mountain, from a rocky bench below them, a thin ghost-like stream of smoke seemed to be steadily drawn by invisible hands into the invisible ether. " It is the camp," said Concho gleefully : " I will myself forward to prepare them for the stranger ; " and before his companion could detain him he had disappeared at a sharp canter around the curve of the trail. Left to himself, the stranger took a more leisurely pace, which left him ample time for reflection. Scamp as he was, there was something in the simple credulity of poor i!oncho that made him uHeasy. Not that his moral con- sciousness was touched, but he feared that Concho's com- panions might, knowing Concho's simplicity, instantly suspect him of trading upon it. He rode on in a deep studj'. Was he reviewing his past life ? A vagabond by birth and education, a swindler by profession, an outcast by reputa- tion, without absolutely turning his back upon respectabLlity, he had trembled on the perilous edge of criminality ever since his boyhood. He did not scruple to cheat these Mexicans, they were a degraded race ; and for a moment he felt almost an accredited agent of progress and civilization t WHO FOUND IT 7 We never really understand the meaning of enlightenment until we. begin to use it aggressively. A few paces farther on, four figures appeared in the now gathering darkness of the trail. The stranger quickly recognized the beaming smile of Concho, foremost of the party. A quick glance at the faces of the others satisfied him that, while they lacked Concho's good humor, they certainly did not surpass him in intellect. " Pedro " was a stout vaquero ; " Manuel " was a slim half-breed and ex- convert of the Mission of San Carmel ; and " Miguel " a recent butcher of Monterey. Under the benign influences of Concho, that suspicion with which the ignorant regard strangers died away, and the whole party escorted the stranger — who had given his name as Mr. Joseph A¥iles — to their camp-fire. So anxious were they to begin their experiments that even the instincts of hospitality were for- gotten, and it was not until Mr. Wiles — now known as " Don Jos^ " — sharply reminded them that he wanted some " grub," that they came to their senses. When the frugal meal of tortillas, frijoles, salt pork, and chocolate was over, an oven was built of the dark-red rock brought from the ledge before them, and an earthenware jar, glazed by some peculiar local process, tightly fitted over it, and packed with clay and sods. A fire was speedily built of pine boughs continually brought from a wooded ravine below, and in a few moments the furnace was in full blast. Mr. Wiles did not participate in these active preparations, except to give occasional directions between his teeth, which 'were contemplatively fixed over a clay pipe as he lay com- fortably on his back on the ground. Whatever enjoyment the rascal may have had in their useless labors he did not show it, but it was observed that his left eye often followed the broad figure of the ex-vaquero Pedro, and often dwelt on that worthy's beetling brows and half-savage face. Meet^ ing that baleful glance once, Pedro growled out an oath, but 8 THE STORY OF A MINE could not resist a hideous fascination that caused him again and again to seek it. The scene was weird enough without Wiles' eye to add to its wild picturesqueness. The mountain towered above — a heavy Eombrandtish mass of black shadow — sharply cut here and there against a sky so inconceivably remote that the world-sick soul must have despaired of ever reach- ing so far, or of climbing its steel-blue walls. The stars were large, keen, and brilliant, but cold and steadfast. They did not dance nor twinkle in their adamantine setting. The furnace fire painted the faces of the men an Indian red, glanced on brightly-colored blanket and serape, but was eventually caught and absorbed in the waiting shadows of the black mountain, scarcely twenty feet from the furnace door. The low, half-sung, half-whispered foreign speech of the group, the roaring of the furnace, and the quick, sharp yelp of a coyote on the plain below, were the only sounds that broke the awful silence of the hills. It was almost dawn when it was announced that the ore had fused. And it was high time, for the pot was slowly sinking into the fast-crumbling oven. Concho uttered a jubilant "God and Liberty," but Don Jos^ Wiles bade him be silent and bring stakes to support the pot. Then Don Josd bent over the seething mass. It was for a moment only. But in that moment this accomplished metallurgist, Mr. Joseph Wiles, had quietly dropped a silver half dollar into the pot ! Then he charged them to keep up the fires and went to sleep — all but one eye. Dawn came with dull beacon fires on the near hill-tops,, and, far in the east, roses over the Sierran snow. Birds twittered in the alder fringes a mile below, and the creak- ing of wagon wheels — the wagon itself a mere fleck of dust in the distant road — was heard distinctly. Then the melting-pot was solemnly broken by Don Jose, and the glowing incandescent mass turned into the road to cool. WHO FOUND IT 9 And then the metallurgist chipped a small fragment from the mass and pounded it, and chipped another smaller piece and pounded that, and then subjected it to acid, and then treated it to a salt bath which became at once milky, and at last produced a white something — mirabile diotu ! — two cents' worth of silver ! Concho shouted with joy, the rest gazed at each other doubtingly and distrustfully ; companions in poverty, they began to diverge and suspect each other in prosperity. Wiles' left eye glanced ironically from the one to the other. "Here is the hundred dollars, Don Jose," said Pedro, handing the gold to Wiles with a decidedly brusque intimar tion that the services and the presence of a stranger were no longer required. Wiles took the money with a gracious smile and a wink that sent Pedro's heart into his boots, and was turning away, when a cry from Manuel stopped him. "The pot — the pot — it has leaked ! look ! behold ! see ! " He had been cleaning away the crumbled fragments of the furnace to get ready for breakfast, and had disclosed a shining pool of quicksilver ! Wiles started, cast a rapid glance around the group, saw in a flash that the metal was unknown to them, and then said quietly; — " It is not silver." " Pardon, Sefior ; it is, and still molten." Wiles stooped and ran his fingers through the shining metal. " Mother of God ! what is it, then ? — magic ? " " No, only base metal." But then Concho, emboldened by Wiles' experiment, attempted to seize a handful of the glittering mass, that instantly broke through his fingers in a thousand tiny spherules, and even sent a few globules up his shirt sleeves, until he danced around in mingled fear and childish pleasure. 10 THE STORY OF A MINE " And it is not worth the taking ? " queried Pedro of Wiles. Wiles' right eye and bland face were turned toward the speaker, but his malevolent left was glancing at the dull red-brown rook on the hillside. " No ! " And, turning abruptly away, he proceeded to saddle his mule. Manuel, Miguel, and Pedro, left to themselves, began talking earnestly together ; while Concho, now mindful of his crippled mule, made his way back to the trail where he had left her. But she was no longer there. Constant to her master through beatings and bullyings, she could not stand incivility and inattention. There are certain qualities of the sex that belong to all animated nature. Inconsolable, footsore, and remorseful, Concho returned to the camp and furnace, three miles across the rocky ridge. But what was his astonishment on arriving to find the place deserted of man, mule, and camp equipage ! Concho called aloud. Only the echoing rocks grimly answered him. Was it a trick ? Concho tried to laugh. Ah — yes — a good one — a joke — no — no — they /latZ deserted him! And then poor Concho bowed his head to the ground, and, falling on his face, cried as if his honest heart would break. The tempest passed in a moment ; it was not Concho's nature to suffer long, nor brood over an injury. As he raised his head again, his eye caught the shimmer of the quicksilver, — that pool of merry antic metal that had so delighted him an hour before. In a few moments Concho was again disporting with it ; chasing it here and there, rolling it in his palms, and laughing with boylike glee at its elusive freaks and fancies. " Ah, sprightly one — skipjack . — there thou goest — come here. This way — now I have thee, little one — come, muchacha — come and kiss me," until he had quite forgotten the defection of his companions. A-nd even when he shouldered his sorry pack he was fain to WHO CLAIMED IT 1] carry his playmate away with him in his empty leathern flask. And yet I fancy the sun looked kindly on him as he strode cheerily down the black mountain side, and his step was none the less free nor light that he carried with him neither the silver nor the crime of his late comrades. Ill WHO CLAIMED IT The fog had already closed in on Monterey, and was now rolling a white, billowy sea above, that soon shut out the blue breakers below. Once or twice in descending the mountain Concho had overhung the cliff and looked down upon the curving horseshoe of a bay below him, distant yet many miles. Earlier in the afternoon he had seen the gilt cross on the whitefaced Mission flare in the sunlight, but now all was gone. By the time he reached the high- way of the town it was quite dark, and he plunged into the first fonda at the wayside, and endeavored to forget his woes and his weariness in aguardiente. But Concho's head ached, and his back ached, and he was so generally distressed that he bethought him of a medico — an American doctor — lately come into the town, who had once treated Concho and his mule with apparently the same medicine and after the same heroic fashion. Concho reasoned, not illogically, that, if he were to be physicked at all, he ought to get the worth of his money. The grotesque extravagance of life, of fruit and vegetable, in California was inconsistent with infinitesimal doses. In Concho's previous illness the Doctor had given him a dozen 4-gr. quinine powders. The follow- ing day the grateful Mexican walked into the Doctor's office — cured. The Doctor was gratified until, on exami- nation, it appeared that to save trouble, and because his 12 THE STOKY OF A MINE memory was poor, Concho had taken all the powders in one dose. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and — altered his practice. " Well," said Dr. Guild, as Concho sank down exhaust- edly in one of the Doctor's two chairs, " what now ? Have you heen sleeping, again in the tule marshes, or are you uD' set with commissary whiskey ? Come, have it out." But Concho declared that the devil was in his stomach, that Judas Iscariot had possessed himself of his spine, that imps were in his forehead, and that his feet had been scourged by Pontius Pilate. " That means ' blue mass,' " said the Doctor, and gave it to him, a bolus as large as a musket-ball and as heavy. Concho took it on the spot and turned to go. " I have no money, Seiior Medico." " Never mind. It 's only a dollar, the price of the medicine." Concho looked guilty at having gulped down so much cash. Then he said timidly : — " I have no money, but I have got here that which is fine and jolly. It is yours," and he handed over the contents of the precious tin can he had brought with him. The Doctor took it, looked at the shivering volatile mass, and said, " Why, this is quicksilver ! " Concho laughed. " Yes, very quick silver, — so ! " and he snapped his fingers to show its sprightliness. The Doctor's face grew earnest. " Where did you get this, Concho ? " he finally asked. " It ran from the pot in the mountains beyond." The Doctor looked incredulous. Then Concho related the whole story. " Could you find that spot again ? " "Madre de Dios, yes. I have a mule there; may the devil fly away with her ! " " And you say your comrades saw this ? " WHO CLAIMED IT 13 * Why not ? " " And you say they afterwards left you — deserted you ? " " They did, ingrates ! " The Doctor arose and shut his office door. " Hark ye, Concho," he said, " that hit of medicine I gave you just now was worth a dollar. It was worth a dollar because the material of which it was composed was made from the stuff you have in that can, — quicksilver, or mercury. It is one of the most valuable of metals, especially in a gold- mining country. My good fellow, if you know where to find enough of it, your fortune is made." Concho rose to his feet. " Tell me, was the rock you built your furnace of, red ? " " Si, Seiior." " And brown ? " " Si, Seiior." " And crumbled under the heat ? " " As to nothing." " And did you see much of this red rock ? " " The mountain mother is in travail with it." " Are you sure that your comrades have not taken pos« session of the mountain mother ? " " As how ? " " By claiming its discovery under the mining laws, or by preemption ? " " They shall not." " But how will you, single-handed, fight the four ? for I doubt not your scientific friend has a hand in it." " I will fight." " Yes, my Concho ; but suppose I take the fight off your hands ? Now, here 's a proposition : I will get half a dozen Americanos to go in with you. You will have to get money to work the mine, — you will need funds. You shall share half with them. They will take the risk, raise the money, and protect you." J4 THE STOKY OF A MINE "I see," said Concho, nodding his head and winking his eyes rapidly. " Bueno ! " " I will return in ten minutes," said the Doctor, taking his hat. He was as good as his word. In ten minutes he returned with six original locaters, a board of direc- tors, a president, secretary, and a deed of incorporation of the " Blue Mass Quicksilver Mining Co." This latter was a delicate compliment to the Doctor, who was popular. The president added to these necessary articles a revolver. " Take it," he said, handing over the weapon to Concho, " take it ; niy horse is outside ; take that, ride like h — 1 and hang on until we come ! " In another moment Concho was in the saddle. Then the mining director lapsed into the physician. " I haiJly know," said Dr. Guild doubtfully, " if in your present condition you ought to travel. You have just taken a powerful medicine," and the Doctor looked hypo- critically concerned. " Ah — the devil ! " laughed Concho ; "what is the quick- silver that is in to that which is out ? Hoopa la ! Mula ! " And with a clatter of hoofs and jingle of spurs, he was presently lost in the darkness. " You were none too soon, gentlemen," said the American alcalde, as he drew up before the Doctor's door ; " another company has just been incorporated for the same location, I reckon." " Who are they ? " " Three Mexicans : Pedro, Manuel, and Miguel, headed by that d — d cockeyed Sydney Duck, Wiles." " Are they here ? " " Manuel and Miguel only. The others are over at Tres Pinos lally-gagging Eoscommon and trying to rope him in to pay off their whiskey bills at his grocery." " If that 's so we need n't start before sunrise, for they 're Bure to get rearing drunk." "WHO CLAIMED IT l5 And this legitimate successor of the grave Mexican al- caldes, having thus delivered his impartial opinion, rode away. Meanwhile Concho the redoubtable, Concho the fortu- nate, spared neither riata nor spur. The way was dark, the trail obscure and at times even dangerous, and Concho, familiar as he was with these mountain fastnesses, often regretted his surefooted " Francisquita." " Care not, Concho," he would say to himself, " 'tis but a little while, only a little while, and thou shalt have another Francis- quita to bless thee. Eh, skipjack, there was fine music to thy dancing. A dollar for an oiuice — 't is as good as silver and merrier." Yet for all his good spirits he kept a sharp lookout at certain bends of the mountain trail ; not for assassins or brigands, for Concho was physically courageous, but for the Evil One, who, in various forms, was said to lurk in the Santa Cruz Range, to the great discomfort of all true Catholics. He recalled the incident of Ignacio, a muleteer of the Franciscan Friars, who, stopping at the " Angelus" to repeat the " Credo," saw Luzbel plainly in the likeness of a monstrous grizzly bear, mocking him by sitting on his haunches and lifting his paws, clasped together, as if in prayer. ISTevertheless, with one hand grasping his reins and his rosary, and the other clutching his whiskey flask and revolver, he fared on so excellently that he reached the summit as the earlier streaks of dawn were outlining the far-off Sierran peaks. Tethering his horse on a strip of table-land, he descended cautiously afoot until he reached the bench, the wall of red rook, and the crumbled and dismantled furnace. It was as he had • left it that morning ; there was no trace of recent human visitation. Revolver in hand, Concho examined every cave, gully, and recess, peered behind trees, penetrated copses of buckeye and manzanita, and listened. There was no sound but the faint soughing of the wind over the pines below him. For a while he paced backward and forward with a vague 16 THE STOKY OF A MINE sense of being a sentinel, but his mercurial nature soon rebelled against this monotony, and soon the fatigues of the day began to tell upon him. Recourse to his whiskey flask only made him the drowsier, until at last he was fain to lie down and roll himself up tightly in his blanket. The next moment he was sound asleep. His horse neighed twice from the summit, but Concho heard him not. Then the brush crackled on the ledge above him, a small fragment of rock rolled near his feet; but he stirred not. And then two black figures were out- lined on the crags beyond. " St-t-t ! " whispered a voice. " There is one lying be- side the furnace." The speech was Spanish, but the voice was Wiles'. The other figure crept cautiously to the edge of the crag and looked over. " It is Concho, the imbecile," said Pedro contemptuously. " But if he should not be alone, or if he should waken ? " " I will watch and wait. Go you and affix the notifica- tion." Wiles disappeared. Pedro began to creep down the face of the rocky ledge, supporting himself by chimisal and brushwood. The next moment Pedro stood beside the unconscious man. Then he looked cautiously around. The figure of his companion was lost in the shadow of the rocks above ; only a slight crackle of brush betrayed his whereabouts. Suddenly Pedro flung his serape over the sleeper's head, and then threw his powerful frame and tremendous weight full upon Concho's upturned face, while his strong arms clasped the blanket-pinioned limbs of his victim. There was a momentary upheaval, a spasm, and a struggle ; but the tightly rolled blanket clung to the unfortunate man like cerements. WHO CLAIMED IT l1 There was no noise, no outcry, no sound of strug;^le. There was nothing to be seen but the peaceful, prostrate figures of the two men darkly outlined on the ledge. They might have been sleeping in each other's arms. In the black silence the stealthy tread of Wiles in the bush above was distinctly audible. Gradually the struggles grew fainter. Then a whispei from the crags : — " I can't see you. "What are you doing ? " " Watching ! " " Sleeps he ? " " He sleeps ! " « Soundly ? " " Soundly." " After the manner of the dead ? " " After the fashion of the dead ! " The last tremor had ceased. Pedro rose as Wiles de- scended. " All is ready," said Wiles ; " you are a witness of my placing the notifications ? " " I am a witness." " But of this one ? " pointing to Concho. " Shall we leave him here ? " " A drunken imbecile — why not ? " Wiles turned his left eye on the speaker. They chanced to be standing nearly in the same attitude they had stood the preceding night. Pedro uttered a cry and an impreca. tion, " Carramba ! Take your devil's eye from me ! What see you ? Eh — what ? " " Nothing, good Pedro," said Wiles, turning his bland right cheek to Pedro. The infuriated and half-frightened ex-vaquero returned the long knife he had half drawn from its sheath, and growled surlily : — " Go on, then ! But keep thou on that side and I will on this." And so, side by side, listening, watching, distrust' /8 THE STORY OF A MINE ful of all things, but mainly of each other, they stole back and np into those shadows from which they might have been evoked. A half hour passed, In which the east brightened, flashed, and again melted into gold. And then the sun oame up haughtily, and a fog that had stolen across the summit in the night arose and fled up the mountain side, tearing its white robes in its guilty haste, and leaving thein fluttering from tree and crag and scar. A thousand tiny blades, nestling in the crevices of rocks, nurtured in storms, and rocked by the trade-winds, stretched their wan and feeble arms toward him ; but Concho the strong, Concho the brave, Concho the light-hearted, spake not nor stirred. IV WHO TOOK IT There was persistent neighing in the summit. Concho's horse wanted his breakfast. This protestation reached the ears of a party ascending the mountain from its western face. To one of the party it was familiar. " Why, blank it all, that 's Chiquita. That d— d Mexi- can 's lying drunk somewhere," said the President of the B. M. Co. " I don't like the look of this at all," said Dr. Guild, as they rode up beside the indignant animal. " If it had been an American it might have been carelessness, but no Greaser ever forgets his beast. Drive ahead, boys ; we may be too late." In half an hour they came in sight of the ledge below, the crumbled furnace, and the motionless figure of Concho, wrapped in a blanket, lying prone in the sunlight. " I told you so — drunk," said ih"' President. WHO TOOK IT Lb The doctor looked grave, but did not speak. They dis- mounted and picketed their horses, then crept on all-fours to the ledge above the furnace. There was a cry from Secretary Gibbs, " Look yer. Some feller has been jumping us, boys. See these notices." There were two notices on canvas affixed to the rock, claiming the ground, and signed by Pedro, Manuel, Miguel, Wiles, and Roscommon. " This was done, Doctor, while your trustworthy Greaser locater — d — n him — lay there drunk. What 's to be done now ? " But the Doctor was making his way to the unfortunate cause of their defeat lying there quite mute to their re- proaches. The others followed him. The Doctor knelt beside Concho, unrolled him, placed his hand upon his waist, his ear over his heart, and then said, — " Dead." " Of course. He got medicine of you last night. This comes of your d — d heroic practice." But the Doctor was too much occupied to heed, the speaker's raillery. He had peered into Concho's protuber- ant eye, opened his mouth, and gazed at the swollen tongue, and then suddenly rose to his feet. " Tear down those notices, boys, but keep them. Put '.ip your own. Don't be alarmed, you will not be inter- fered with, for here is murder added to robbery." " Murder ! " " Yes," said the Doctor excitedly, " I '11 take my oath on any inquest that this man was strangled to death. He was surprised while asleep. Look here." He pointed to the revolver still in Concho's stiffening hand, which the mur- dered man had instantly cocked, but could not use in the struggle. " That 's so," said the President, " no man goes to sleep with a cocked revolver. What 's to be done ? " 20 THE STORY OF A MINE " Everything," said the Doctor. " This deed was com. mitted within the last two hours ; the body is still warm. The murderer did not come owe way, or we should have met hini on the trail. He is, if anywhere, between here and Tres Pinos." " Gentlemen," said the President with a slight prepar- atory and half-judicial cough, " two of you will stay here and stick ! The others will follow me to Tres Pinos. The law has been outraged. You understand the Court ! " By some odd influence the little group of half-cynical, half-trifling, and wholly reckless men had become suddenly sober, earnest citizens. They said, " Go on," nodded their heads, and betook themselves to their horses. " Had we not better wait for the inquest and swear out a warrant ? " said the Secretary cautiously. " How many men have we ? " « Five ! " " Then," said the President, summing up the Revised Statutes of the State of California in one strong sentence, " then we don't want no d — d warrant." WHO HAD A LIEN ON IT It was high noon at Tres Pinos. The three pines from which it gained its name, in the dusty road and hot air, seemed to smoke from their balsamic spires. There was a glare from the road, a glare from the sky, a glare from the rocks, a glare from the white canvas roofs of the few shanties and cabins which made up the village. There was even a glare from the unpainted red-wood boards of Eos- common's grocery and tavern, and a tendency on the warp- ing floor of the veranda to curl up beneath the feet of the WHO HAD A LIEN ON IT 21 intruder. A few mules, near the watering-trough, had shrunk within the scant shadow of the corral. The grocery business of Mr. Eoscommon, although ade- quate and sufficient for the village, was not exhausting nor overtaxing to the proprietor ; the refilling of the pork and flour barrel of the average miner was the work of a brief hour on Saturday nights, but the daily replenishment of the average miner with whiskey was arduous and incessant. Eoscommon spent more time behind his bar than his grocer's counter. Add to this the fact that a long shed-like extension or wing bore the legend, "Cosmopolitan Hotel, Board or Lodging by the Day or Week. M. Eoscommon," and you got an idea of the variety of the proprietor's func- tions. The " hotel," however, was more directly under the charge of Mrs. Eoscommon, a lady of thirty years, strong, truculent, and good-hearted. Mr. Eoscommon had early adopted the theory that most of his customers were insane, and were to be alternately bullied or placated, as the case might be. Nothing that occurred, no extravagance of speech or act, ever ruffled his equilibrium, which was as dogged and stubborn as it was outwardly calm. When not serving liquors, or in the in- terval while it was being drunk, he was always wiping his counter with an exceedingly dirty towel, or, indeed, any- thing that came handy. Miners, noticing this purely per- functory habit, occasionally supplied him slyly with articles inconsistent with their service, — fragments of their shirts and under-clothing, flour-sacking, tow, and once with a flannel petticoat of his wife's, stolen from the line in the back yard. Eoscommon would continue his wiping with- out looking up, but yet conscious of the presence of each customer. "And it's not another dhrop ye '11 git. Jack Brown, until ye 've wiped out the black .score that stands agin ye." " And it 's there ye are, darlint, and it 's here 's the bottle that 's been lukin' for ye sins Saturday." " And 22 THE STORY OF A MINE fwhat hev ye done with the last I sent ye, ye divil of a M'Corkle ? and here 's me back that 's bruk entoirely wid dipping intil the pork barl to give ye the best sides, — and ye spending yur last cint on a tare into Gilroy. Whist ! and if it 's fer foighting ye are, boys, there 's an 'lligant bit o' sod beyant tha corral, and it's maybe nieself '11 come out wid a shtick and be sociable." On this particular day, however. Master Roscommon was not in his usual spirits ; and when the clatter of horses' hoofs before the door announced the approach of strangers, he ab- solutely ceased wiping his counter, and looked up, as Dr. Guild, the President and Secretary of the new company, strode into the shop. ■■' We are looking," said the President, " for a man by the name of Wiles, and three Mexicans known as Pedro, Manuel, and Miguel." "Ye are?" " We are ! " •' Faix, and I hope ye '11 foind 'em. And if ye '11 git from 'em the score I 've got agin 'em, darlint, I '11 add a blessing to it." There was a laugh at this from the bystanders, who, somehow, resented the intrusion of these strangers. •' I fear you will find it no laughing matter, gentlemen," said Dr. Guild a little stiffly, " when I tell you that a murder has been committed, and the men I am seeking within an hour of that murder put up that notice signed by their names," and Dr. Guild displayed the paper. There was a breathless silence among the crowd as they eagerly pressed around the Doctor. Only Eoscommon kept on wiping his counter. " You will observe, gentlemen, that the name of Eos- common also appears on this paper as one of the original locatei'S." " And sure, darlint," said Roscommon without looking up, WHO HAD A LIEN ON IT 23 " if ye 've no better ividince agin them boys then ye have forninst me, it 's home ye 'd betther be riding to wanst. For it 's meself as has n't starred fut out of the store the day and noight — more betoken as the boys I 've sarved kin testify." " That 's so, Eoss," chorused the crowd ; " we 've been running the old man all night." " Then how comes your name on this paper ? " " Oh, murdher ! will ye listin to him, boys ! As if every felly that owed me a whiskey bill did n't come to me and say, ' Ah, Misther Eoscommon,' or ' Moike,' as the case moight be, ' sure it 's an illigant sthrike I 've made this day, and it 's meself that has put down your name as an original locater, and yer fortune 's made, Mr. Roscommon, and will yer fill me up another quart for the good luck betune you and me ? ' Ah, but ask Jack Brown over yan if it is n't sick that I am of his original locations." The laugh that followed this speech, and its practical application, convinced the party that they had blundered, that they could obtain no clue to the real culprits here, and that any attempt by threats would meet violent opposition. Nevertheless the Doctor was persistent. " When did you see these men last ? " " When did I see them, is it ? Bedad, what with sarvin' up the liquor and keeping me counters dry and swate I never see them at all." " That 's so ! " chorused the crowd again, to whom the whole proceeding was delightfully farcical. " Then I can tell you, gentlemen," said the Doctor stiffly, " that they were in Monterey last night, that they did not return on that trail this morning, and that they must have passed here at daybreak." With these words, which the Doctor regretted as soon as delivered, the party rode away. Mr Eoscommon resumed his service and counter-wiping. 24 THE STORY OF A MINE But late that night, when the bar was closed and the last loiterer summarily ejected, Mr. Eoscommon, in the conjugal privacy of his chamber, produced a legal-looking paper. '• Kead it, Maggie, darlint ; for it 's meself never had the larnin' nor the parts." Mrs. Roscommon took the paper. " Shure, it 's law papers, making over some property to yez. Moike ! ye have n't been spekilating ? " " Whist ! and f whatz that durty gray paper wid the sales and flourishes ? " " Faix, it bothers me intoirely. Shure it oin't in Eng- lish." " Whist ! Maggie, it 's a Spanish grant ! " " A Spanish grant ? Moike, and what did ye giv for it?" . Mr. Eoscommon laid his finger beside his nose and said softly, " Whishkey ! " VI HOW A GKANT WAS GOT FOR IT While the Blue Mass Company, with more zeal than discretion, were actively pursuing Pedro and Wiles over the road to Tres Pinos, Seiiores Miguel and Manuel were com- fortably seated in a fonda at Monterey, smoking cigarritos and discussing their late discovery. But they were in no better mood than their late companions, and it appeared from their conversation that in an evil moment they had sold out their interest in the alleged silver mine to Wiles and Pedro for a few hundred dollars, succumbing to what they were assured would be an active opposition on the part of the Americanos. The astute reader will easily understand that the accomplished Mr. Wiles did not in- form them of its value as a quicksilver mine, although he HOW A GRANT WAS GOT FOR IT 25 was obliged to impart his secret to Pedro as a necessary accomplice and reckless coadjutor. That Pedro felt no qualms of conscience in thus betraying his two comrades may be inferred from his recent direct and sincere treatment of Concho ; and that he would, if occasion offered or policy made it expedient, as calmly obliterate Mr. Wiles, that gentleman himself never for a moment doubted. " If we had waited but a little he would have given more, this cockeye ! " regretted Manuel querulously. " ^ot a peso," said Miguel firmly. " And why, my Miguel ? Thou knowest we could have worked the mine ourselves." " Good, and lost even that labor. Look you, little brother. Show to me now the Mexican that has ever made a real of a mine in California. How many, eh ? None ! Not a one. Who owns the Mexican's mine, eh ? Americanos ! Who takes money from the Mexican's mine ? Americanos. Thou rememberest Briones, who spent a gold mine to make a silver one ? Who has the lands and house of Briones ? Americanos ! Who has the cattle of Briones ? Americanos ! Who has the mine of Briones ? America- nos ! Who has the silver Briones never found ? America- nos ! Always the same ! Forever ! Ah ! carramba ! " Then the Evil One evidently took it into his head and horns to worry and toss these men — comparatively inno- cent as they were — still further, for a purpose. Por presently to them appeared one Victor Garcia, whilom a clerk of the Ayuntemiento, who rallied them over aguar- diente, and told them the story of the quicksilver discovery, and the two raining claims taken out that night by Concho and Wiles. Whereat Manuel exploded with profanity and burnt blue with sulphurous malediction ; but Miguel, the recent ecclesiastic, sat livid and thoughtful. Finally came a pause in Manuel's bombardment, and something like this conversation took place between the cooler actors : — i6 THE STORY OF A MINE Miguel (thoughtfully). " When was it thou didst peti tion for lands in the valley, friend Victor ? " Victor (amazedly). "Never! It is a sterile waste. Am I a fool ? " Miguel (softly). " Thou didst. Of thy Governor, Mich- eltorena. I have ueen the application." Victor (beginning to appreciate a rodential odor). " Si ! I had forgotten. Art thou sure it was in the valley ? " Miguel (persuasively). " In the valley and up the falda." 1 Victor (with decision). " Certainly. Of a verity — the falda likewise." Miguel (eyeing Victor). " And yet thou hadst not the grant. Painful is it that it should have been burned with the destruction of the other archives by the Americanos at Monterey." Victor (cautiously, feeling his way-). " Possiblemente." Miguel. " It might be wise to look into it." Victor (bluntly). " As why ? " Miguel. "For our good and thine, friend Victor. We bring thee a discovery ; thou bringest us thy skill, thy ex- perience, thy government knowledge — thy Custom-House paper." ^ Manuel (breaking in drunkardly). " But for what ? We are Mexicans. Are we not fated ? ' We shall lose. Who shall keep the Americanos off ? " Miguel. " We shall take one American in ! Ha ! seest thou ? This American comrade shall bribe his courts, his corregidores. After a little he shall supply the men who invent the machine of steam, the mill, the furnace, eh ? " 1 Falda, or valda, t. e. that part of the skirt of a ■woman*s robe that breaks upon the ground, and is also applied to the final slope of a hill, from thci angle that it makes upon the level pl.iin. 2 Grants, applications, and official notifications, under the Spanish Government, were drawn on a stamped paper known as Custom-Housfl paper. HOW A GRANT WAS GOT FOE IT 27 Victor. " But who is he — not to steal ? " Miguel. " He is that man of Ireland, a good Catholic at Tres Pinos." Victor and Manuel (omnes). " Eoscommon ? " Miguel. " Of the same. We shall give him a share for the provisions, for the tools, for the aguardiente. It is ot the Irish that the Americanos have great fear. It is of them that the votes are made, that the President is chosen. It is of him that they make the alcalde in San Francisco. And we are of the Church, like him." They said " Bueno " all together, and for the moment appeared to be upheld by a religious enthusiasm, — a joint confession of faith that meant death, destruction, and possi- bly forgery, as against the men who thought otherwise. This spiritual harmony did away with all practical con- sideration and doubt. " I have a little niece," said Victor, " whose work with the pen is marvelous. If one says to her, ' Carmen, copy me this, or the other one,' — even if it be copperplate, — look you it is done, and you cannot know of which is the original. Madre de Dios ! the other day she makes me a rubric ^ of the Governor, Pio Pico, — the same, identical. Thou knowest her, Miguel. She asked concerning thee yesterday." With the embarrassment of an underbred man, Miguel tried to appear unconcerned, but failed dismally. Indeed, I fear that the black eyes of Carmen had already done their perfect and accepted work, and had partly induced the application for Victor's aid. He, however, dissembled so far as to ask, — " But will she not know ? '' " She is a child." " But will she not talk ? " " Not if I say nay, and if thou — eh, Miguel ? " 1 The Spanish "rubric" is the complicated flourish attached to a sig« nature, and is as individual and cliaracteristic as the handwriting. 28 THE STORY OF A MINE This bit of ilattery — which, by the way, was a lie, foi Victor's niece did not incline favorably to Miguel — had its effect. They shook hands over the table. " But," said Miguel, " what is to be done must be done now." " At the moment," said Victor, " and thou shalt see it done. Eh ! Does it content thee ? then come ! " Miguel nodded to Manuel. " We will return in an hour ; wait thou here." They filed out into the dark, irregular street. Fate led them to pass the oifice of Dr. Guild at the moment that Concho mounted his horse. The shadows concealed them from their rival, but they overheard the last injunctions of the President to the unlucky Concho. " Thou hearest ? " said Miguel, clutching his companion's arm. " Yes," said Victor. " But let him ride, my friend ; in one hour we shall have that that shall arrive years before him," and with a complacent chuckle they passed unseen and unheard until, abruptly turning a corner, they stopped before a low adobe house. It had once been a somewhat pretentious dwelling, but had evidently followed the fortunes of its late owner, Don Juan Briones, who had offered it as a last sop to the three- headed Cerberus that guarded the El Eefugio Plutonian treasures, and who had swallowed it in a single gulp. It was in a very bad case. The furrows of its red-tiled roof looked as if they were the results of age and decrepitude. Its best room had a musty smell ; there was the dampness of deliquescence in its slow decay, but the Spanish Califor- nians were sensible architects, and its massive walls and partitions defied the earthquake thrill, and all the year round kept an even temperature within. Victor led Miguel through a low anteroom into a plainly furnished chamber, where Carmen sat painting. HOW A GRANT WAS GOT FOR IT 2£ Now Mistress Carmen was a bit of a painter, in a pretty little way, with all the vague longings of an artist, but with- out, I fear, the artist's steadfast soul. She recognized beauty and form as a child might, without understanding their meaning, and somehow failed to make them even interpret her woman's moods, which surely were nature's, too. So she painted everything with this innocent lust of the eye — flowers, birds, insects, landscapes, and figures — with a joyous fidelity, but no particular poetry. The bird never sang to her but one song, the flowers or trees spake but one language, and her skies never brightened except in color. She came out strong on the Catholic saints, and would toss you up a cleanly-shaven Aloysius, sweetly destitute of expression, or a dropsical, lethargic Madonna that you could n't have told from an old master, so bad it was. Her faculty of faithful reproduction even showed itself in fanciful lettering, and latterly in the imita- tion of rubrics and signatures. Indeed, with her eye for beauty of form she had always excelled in penmanship at the Convent, an accomplishment which the good Sisters held in great repute. In person she was petite, with a still unformed, girlish figure, perhaps a little too flat across the back, and with possibly a too great tendency to a boyish stride in walking. Her brow, covered by blue-black hair, was low and frank and honest ; her eyes, a very dark hazel, were not particu- larly large, but rather heavily freighted in their melancholy lids with sleeping passion ; her nose was of that unimpor- tant character which no man remembers ; her mouth was small and straight, her teeth white and regular. The whole expression of her face was piquancy that might be subdued by tenderness or made malevolent by anger. At present it was a salad in which the oil and vinegar were deftly com- bined. The astute feminine reader will of course under- stand that this is the ordinary superficial masculine criti- 80 THE STORY OF A MINE cism, and at once make up her mind both as to the char- acter of the young lady and the competency of the critic. I only know that I rather liked her. And her functions are somewhat important in this veracious history. ' She looked up, started to her feet, leveled her black brows at the intruder, but, at a sign from her uncle, showed her white teeth and spake. It was only a sentence, and a rather commonplace one at that ; but if she could have put her voice upon her can- vas she might have retrieved the Garcia fortunes. For it was so musical, so tender, so sympathizing, so melodious, so replete with the graciousness of womankind, that she seemed to have invented the language. And yet that sentence was only an exaggerated form of the " How d' ye do," whined out, doled out, lisped out, or shot out from the pretty mouths of my fair countrywomen. Miguel admired the paintings. He was struck particu- larly with a crayon drawing of a mule : " Mother of God ! it is the mule itself — observe how it will not go." Then the crafty Victor broke in with, " But it is nothing to her writing ; look, you shall tell to me which is the hand- writing of Fio Pico," and from a drawer in the secretary he drew forth two signatures. One was affixed to a yellowish paper, the other drawn on plain white foolscap. Of course Miguel took the more modern one with lover- like gallantry. " It is this is genuine ! " Victor laughed triumphantly. Carmen echoed the laugh melodiously in childlike glee, and added, with a slight toss of her piquant head, " It is mine ! " The best of the sex will not refuse a just and overdue compliment from even the man they dislike. It 's the principle they 're after, not the sentiment. But Victor was not satisfied with this proof of his niece's skill. " Say to her," he demanded of Miguel, " what name thou lik'st and it shall be done before thee here." HOW A GRANT WAS GOT FOE IT SI Miguel was not so much in love but he perceived the drift of Victor's suggestion, and remarked that the rubric of Governor Micheltorena was exceedingly complicated and difficult. " She shall do it ! " responded Victor, with decision. Erom a file of old departmental papers the Governor's signature and that involved rubric, which must have cost his late Excellency many youthful days of anxiety, was produced and laid before Carmen. Carmen took her pen in her hand, looked at the brownish- looking document and then at the virgin whiteness of the foolscap before her. " But," she said, pouting prettily, " J should have to first paint this white paper brown. And it will absorb the ink more quickly than that. When I painted the San Antonio of the Mission San Gabriel, for Father Acolti, I had to put the decay in with my oils and brushes before the good Padre would accept it." The two scamps looked at each other. It was their supreme moment. " I think I have," said Victor, with assumed carelessness, — "I think I have some of the old Custom-House paper." He produced from the secretary a sheet of brown paper with a stamp. " Try it on that." Carmen smiled with childish delight, tried it, and pro- duced a marvel ! " It is as magic," said Miguel, feigning to cross himself. Victor's role was more serious : he affected to be deeply touched ; took the paper, folded it, and placed it in his breast. " I shall make a good fool of Don Jos^ Castro," he said : " he will declare it is the Governor's own signature, for he was his friend ; but have a care. Carmen ! that you spoil it not by the opening of your red lips. When he is fooled I will tell him of this marvel, — this niece of mine, and he shall buy her pictures. Eh, little one ? " and he gave her the avuncular caress, i. e. a pat of the hand on either cheek, and a kiss. Miguel envied him, but cupidity B2 THE STORY OF A MINE outgeneraled Cupid, and presently the conversation flagged, until a convenient recollection of Victor's — that himself and comrade were due at the Posada del Toros at ten o'clock — gave them the opportunity to retire. But not without a chance shot from Carmen. " Tell to me," she said, half to Victor and half to Miguel, " what has chanced with Concho ? He was ever ready to bring to me flowers from the mountain, and insects and birds. Thou knowest how he would sit, my uncle, and talk to me of the rare rocks he had seen, and the bears and the evil spirits, and now he comes no longer, my Concho ! How is this ? Nothing evil has befallen him, surely ? " and her drooping lids closed half-pathetically. Miguel's jealousy took fire. " He is drunk, Senorita, doubtless, and has forgotten not only thee, but mayhap his mule and pack ! It is his custom, ha ! ha ! " The red died out of Carmen's ripe lips, and she shut them together with a snap like a steel purse. The dove had suddenly changed to a hawk ; the child-girl into an antique virago ; the spirit hitherto dimly outlined in her face, of some shrewish Garcia ancestress, came to the fore. She darted a quick look at her uncle, and then, with her little hands on her rigid hips, strode with two steps up to Miguel. " Possibly, Sefior Miguel Dominguez Perez [a pro- found courtesy here], it is as thou sayest. Drunkard Con- cho may be ; but, drunk or sober, he never turned his back on his friend — or — [the words grated a little here] — his enemy." Miguel would have replied, but Victor was ready. " Fool," he said, pinching his arm, " 't is an old friend. And — and — the application is still to be filled up. Are yon crazy ? " But on this point Miguel was not, and, with the revenge of a rival added to his other instincts, he permitted Victor to lead him away. "WHO PLEAD FOR IT 33 On their return to the fonda they found Master Manuel too far gone with aguardiente, and a general animosity to the average Americano, to be of any service. So they worked alone, with pen, ink, and paper, in the stuffy, cigarrito-clouded back room of the fonda. It was midnight, two hours after Concho had started, that Miguel clapped spurs to his horse for the village of Tres Pinos, with an application to Governor Micheltorena for a grant to the " Eancho of the Eed Rocks " comfortably bestowed in his pocket. VII WHO pLeab foe it There can be little doubt the coroner's jury of Fresno would have returned a verdict of " death from alcoholism," as the result of their inquest into the cause of Conclio's death, had not Dr. Guild fought nobly in support of the law and his own convictions. A majority of the jury objected to there being any inquest at all. A sincere j ury- man thought it hard that, whenever a Greaser pegged out in a sneakin' kind o' way, American citizens should be taken from their business to find out what ailed him. " 'Spose he was killed," said another, " thar ain't no time this thirty year he were n't, so to speak, just sufferin' for it, ez his nat'ral right ez a Mexican." The jury at last com- promised by bringing in a verdict of homicide against certain parties unknown. Yet it was understood tacitly that these unknown parties were severally Wiles and Pedro ; Manuel, Miguel, and Koscommon proving an unmistakable alibi. Wiles and Pedro had fled to Lower California, and Manuel, Miguel, and Roscommon deemed it advisable, in the then excited state of the public mind, to withhold the forged application and claim from the courts and the public 84 THE STORY OF A MINE comment. So that for a year after the murder of Concho and the flight of his assassins " The Blue Mass Mining Company " remained in undisturbed and actual possession of the mine, and reigned in their stead. But the spirit of the murdered Concho would not down, any more than that of the murdered Banquo, and so wrought, no doubt, in a quiet, Concho-like way, sore trouble with the " Blue Mass Company." For a Great Capitalist and Master of Avarice came down to the mine and found it fair, and, taking one of the Company aside, offered to lend his name and a certain amount of coin for a con- trolling interest, accompanying the generous ofier with a suggestion that if it were not acceded to he would be com- pelled to buy up various Mexican mines and flood the market with quicksilver, to the great detriment of the " Blue Mass Company," which thoughtful suggestion, offered by a man frequently alluded to as one of " California's great mining princes," and as one who had " done much to develop the resources of the State," was not to be lightly considered, and so, after a cautious non-consultation with the Company, and a commendable secrecy, the stockholder sold out. Whereat it was speedily spread abroad that the Great Capitalist had taken hold of " Blue Mass," and the etock went up and the other stockholders rejoiced — until the Great Capitalist found that it was necessary to put up expensive mills, to emplo}' a high-salaried superintendent, in fact to develop the mine by the spending of its earnings, so that the stock quoted at 112 was finally saddled with an assessment of $50 per share. Another assessment of $50 to enable the superintendent to proceed to Russia and Spain and examine into the workings of the quicksilver mines there, and also a general commission to the gifted and scientific Pillageman to examine into the various com- ponent parts of quicksilver, and report if it could not be manufactured from ordinary sandstone by steam or electri- WHO PLEAD FOK IT 35 city, speedily brought the other stockholders to their senses. It was at this time that the good fellow "Tom," the seri- ous-minded " Diok," and the speculative but fortunate " Harry," brokers of the Great Capitalist, found it conve- nient to buy up, for the Great Capitalist aforesaid, the various other shares at great sacrifice. I fear that I have bored my readers in thus giving the tiresome details of that ingenuous American pastime which my countrymen dismiss in their epigrammatic way as the *' freezing-out process." And lest any reader should ques- tion the ethics of the proceeding, I beg him to remember that one gentleman accomplished in this art was always a sincere and direct opponent of the late Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler. But for once the Great Master of Avarice had not taken into sufficient account the avarice of others, and was sud- denly and virtuously shocked to learn that an application for a patent for certain lands, known as the " Red Rock Eancho," was about to be -offered before the United States Land Commission. This claim covered his mining prop- erty. But the information came quietly and secretly, as all of the Great Master's information was obtained, and he took the opportunity to sell out his clouded title and his proprietorship to the only remaining member of the original " Blue Mass " Company, a young fellow of pith, before many-tongued rumor had voiced the news far and wide. The blow was a heavy one to the party left in possession. Saddled by the enormous debts and expenses of the Great Capitalist, with a credit now further injured by the defec- tion of this lucky magnate, who was admired for his skill in anticipating a loss, and whose relinquishment of any project meant ruin to it, the single-handed, impoverished possessor of the mine, whose title was contested and whose reputation was yet to be made, — poor Biggs, first secretary and only remaining officer of the " Blue Mass Company," 36 THE STORY OF A MINE ■ — looked ruefully over his books and his last transfer, and Bighed ! But I have before intimated that he was built of good stuff, and that he believed in his work — which was well — and in himself, which was better, and so, having faith even as a grain of mustard-seed, I doubt not he would have been able to remove that mountain of quicksilver beyond the over-lapping of fraudulent grants. And, again, Provi- dence — having disposed of these several scamps — raised up to him a friend. But that friend is of sufficient im- portance to this veracious history to deserve a paragraph to himself. The Pylades of this Orestes was known of ordinary mortals as Eoyal Thatcher. His genealogy, birth, and edu- cation are, I take it, of little account to this chronicle, which is only concerned with his friendship for Biggs and the result thereof. He had known Biggs a year or two previously ; they had shared each other's purses, bunks, cabins, provisions, and often friends, with that perfect freedom from obligation which belonged to the pioneer life. The varying tide of fortune had just then stranded Thatcher on a desert sand-hill in San Francisco, with an uninsured cargo of Expectations, while to Thatcher's active but not curious fancy it had apparently lifted his friend's bark over the bar in the Monterey mountains into an open quicksilver sea. So that he was considerably surprised on receiving a note from Biggs to this purport : — Dear Roy, — Run down here and help a fellow. I 've too much of a 1-oad for one. Maybe we can make a team and pull " Blue Mass " out yet. Biggsey. Thatcher, sitting in his scantily furnished lodgings, doubtful of his next meal and in arrears for rent, heard this Macedonian cry as St. Paul did. Ho wrote a promis- sory and soothing note to his landlady, but, fearing tha OF COUNSEL FOR IT 87 " sweet sorrow " of a personal parting, let his collapsed valise down from his window by a cord, and, by means of an ecouomical combination of stage-riding and pedestrianism, he presented himself, at the close of the third day, at Biggs' door. In a few moments he was in possession of the atory ; half an hour later, in possession of half the mine, its jnfelix past and its doubtful future, equally with his friend. Business over, Biggs turned to look at his partner. " You 've aged some since I saw you last," he said. " Starvation luck, I 'spose. I 'd know your eyes, old felLow, if T saw them among ten thousand, but your lips are parched and your mouth's grimmer than it used to be." Thatcher smiled, to show that he could still do so, but did not say, as he might have said, that self-coutrol, suppressed resentment, disappointment, and occasional hunger had done something in the way of correcting nature's obvious mis- takes, and shutting up a kindly mouth. He only took off his threadbare coat, rolled up his sleeves, and saying, " We 've got lots of work and some fighting before us," pitched Mito the " affairs " of the Blue Mass Company on the instant. VIII OF COUNSEL FOR IT Meanwhile Eoscommon had waited. Then, in Garcia's name and backed by him, he laid his case before the Land Commission, filing the application (with forged indorse- ments) to Governor Micheltorena, and alleging that the original grant was destroyed by fire. And why ? It seemed there was a limit to Miss Carmen's imitative talent. Admirable as it was, it did not reach to the repro- duction of that official seal, which would have been a necessary appendage to the Governor's grant. But there were letters written on stamped paper by Governor Michel- S8 THE STORY OF A MINE torena, to himself, Garcia, and to Miguel, and to Manuel's father, all of which were dvily signed by the sign manual and rubric of Mrs. Governor-Micheltorena-Carmen-de-Haro. And then there was " parol " evidence and plenty of it ; witnesses who remembered everything about it, — namely, Manuel, Miguel, and the all-recollecting De Haro ; here were details, poetical and suggestive ; and Dame-Qiiicklyish, as when his late Excellency, sitting, not " by a sea-coal fire," but with aguardiente and cigarros, had sworn to him, the ex-ecclesiastic Miguel, that he should grant and had granted Garcia's request. There were clouds of witnesses, conversations, letters and records, glib and pat to the occasion. In brief, there was nothing wanted but the seal of his Excellency. The only copy of that was in the pos- session of a rival school of renaissant art and the restoration of antiques, then doing business before the Laud Com- mission. And yet the claim was rejected ! Having lately recom- mended two separate claimants to a patent for the same land, the Land Commission became cautious and conserva- tive. Roscommon was at first astounded, then indignant, and then warlike ; he was for an " appale to oust ! " With the reader's previous knowledge of Roscommon's disposition this may seem somewhat inconsistent;' but there are certain natures to whom litigation has all the excitement of gambling, and it should be borne in mind that this was his first lawsuit. So that his lawyer, Mr. Saponaceous Wood, found him in that belligerent mood to which coun- sel are obliged to hypocritically bring all the sophistries of their profession. " Of course you have your right to an appeal, but calm yourself, my dear sir, and consider. The case was presented strongly, the evidence overwhelming on our side, but we happened to be fighting previous decisions of the Land Commission that had brought them into OF COUNSEL FOE IT 39 trouble ; so that, if Micheltorena had himself appeared in Court and testified to his giving you the grant, it would have made no diiference : no Spanish grant had a show then, nor will it have for the next six months. You see, my dear sir, the Government sent out one of its big Wash- ington lawyers to look into this business, and he reported frauds, sir, frauds, in a majority of the Spanish claims. And why, sir, why ? He was bought, sir, bought — body and soul — by the Ring ! " " And fwhat 's the Eing ? " asked his client, sharply. " The Eing is — ahem ! a combination of unprincipled but wealthy persons to defeat the ends of justice." " And sure, fwhat 's the Eing to do wid me grant as that thaving Mexican gave me as the coUatherals fer the bourd he was owin' me ? Eh, mind that now ! " " The Eing, my dear sir, is the other side. It is — ahem ! — always the Other Side." " And why the divil have n't we a Eing, too ? And ain't I payin' ye five hundred dollars — and the divil of Eing ye have — at all, at all ? Fwhat am I payin' ye fur, eh ? " " That a judicious expenditure of money," began Mr. Wood, " outside of actual disbursements, may not be of infinite service to you, I am not prepared to deny — but " — •■■' Look ye, Mr. Sappy Wood, it 's the ' appale ' I want, and the grant I '11 have, more betoken as the old woman's har-rut and me own is set on it entoirely. Get me the land and I '11 give ye the half of it — and it 's a bargain ! " " But, my dear sir, there are some rules in our profession, — technical though they may be " — " The divil fly away wid yer profession. Shure is it bet- ter nor me own ? If I 've risked me provisions and me whiskey, that cost me solid goold in 'Frisco, on the thafe. Garcia's claim, bedad ! the loikes of ye can risk yer law." " Well," said Wood, with an awkv.'ard smile, " I suppose to THE STOEY OF A MINE that a deed for one half, on the consideration of friendship; my dear sir, and a dollar in hand paid by me, might be reconcilable." " Now it 's talkin' ye are. But who 's the felly we 're fcightin, that 's got the Ring ? " " Ah, iny dear sir, it 's the United States," said the lawyer, with gravity. "The States! the Government is it? And is 't that ye 're afeard of ? Shure it 's the Gov'ment that I fought in me own counthree, it was the Gov'ment that druv me to Ameriky, and is it now that I 'm goin' back on me prin- ciples ? " " Your political sentiments do you great credit," began Mr. Wood. "But fwhat 's the Gov'ment to do wid the appale ? " "The Government," said Mr. Wood significantly, "will be represented by the District Attorney." " And who 's the spalpeen ? " " It is rumored," said Mr. Wood, slowly, " that a new one is to be appointed. I myself have had some ambition that way." His client bent a pair of cunning but not ove^-^vise gray eyes on his American lawyer. But he only said, " Ye have, eh ? " " Yes," said Wood, answering the look boldly, "and if I had the support of a number of your prominent country- men, who are so powerful with all parties, — men like you, my dear sir, — why I think you might in time become a Conservative, at least more resigned to the Government." Then the lesser and the greater scamp looked at each other, and for a moment or two felt a warm, sympathetic, friendly emotion for each other, and quietly shook hands. Depend upon it, there is a great deal more kindly human sympathy between two openly confessed scamps than there is in that calm, respectable recognition that you and I, deal OF COUNSEL FOR IT 41 reader, exhibit when we happen to oppose each other with our respective virtues. " And ye '11 get the appale ? " "I will." And he did ! And, by a singular coincidence, got the District Attorneyship also ; and with a deed for one half of the " B-ed Rock Eancho " in his pocket, sent a brother lawyer in court to appear for his client, the United States, as against himsulf, Roscommon, Garcia et al. "Wild horses could not have torn him from this noble resolution. There is an indescribable delicacy in the legal profession which we literary folk ought to imitate. The United States lost ! Which meant ruin and destruc- tion to the Blue Mass Company, who had bought from a paternal and beneficent Government lands which did n't belong to it. The Mexican grant, of course, antedated the occupation of the mine by Concho, Wiles, Pedro et al., as. well as by the " Blue Mass Company," and the solitary partners, Biggs and Thatcher. More than that, it swal- lowed up their improvements ; it made Biggs and Thatcher responsible to Garcia for all the money the Grand Mas- ter of Avarice had made out of it. Mr. District Attorney was apparently distressed, but resigned. Messrs. Biggs and Thatcher were really distressed and combative. And then, to advance a few years in this chronicle, began real litigation with earnestness, vigor, courage, zeal, and belief on the part of Biggs and Thatcher, and technicalities, delay, equivocation, and a general Fabian-like policy on the part of Garcia, Roscommon et al. Of all these tedious processes I note but one which, for originality and audacity of conception, appears to me to indicate more clearly the temper and civilization of the epoch. A subordinate officer of the District Court refused to obey the mandate ordering a transcript of the record to be sent up to the United States Supreme Court. It is to be regretted that the name 42 THE STORY OF A MINE of this Ephesian youth, who thus fired the dome of our constitutional liberties, should have been otherwise so unimportant as to be confined to the dusty records of that doubtful court of which he was a doubtful servitor, and that his claim to immortality ceased with his double-fee'd. ser- vice. But there still stands on record a letter by this young gentleman arraigning the legal wisdom of the land, which is not entirely devoid of amusement or even instruc- tion to young men desirous of obtaining publicity and capital. Howheit the Supreme Court was obliged to pro- tect itself by procuring the legislation of his functions out of his local fingers into the larger palm of its own attorney. These various processes of law and equity, which, when exercised practically in the afiairs of ordinary business, might have occupied a few months' time, dragged, clung, retrograded or advanced slowly during a period of eight or nine years. But the strong arms of Biggs and Thatcher held Possession, and, possibly by the same tactics employed on the other side, arrested or delayed ejectment, and so made and sold quicksilver, while their opponents were spending gold, until Biggs, sorely hit in the interlacings of his armor, fell in the lists, his cheek growing waxen and his strong arm feeble, and, finding himself in this sore condition, and passing, as it were, made over his share in trust to his comrade and died. Whereat, from that time henceforward. Royal Thatcher reigned in his stead. And so, having anticipated the legal record, we will go back to the various human interests that helped to make it up. To begin with Roscommon. To do justice to liis later conduct and expressions, it must be remembered that when he accepted the claim for the " Red Rock Rancho," yet unquestioned, from the hands of Garcia, he was careless, or at least unsuspicious of fraud. It was not until he had experienced the intoxication of litigation that he felt some- OF COUNSEL FOE IT 43 how that he was a wronged and defrauded man, but, with the obstinacy of defrauded men, preferred to arraign some one fact or individual as the impelling cause of his wrong, rather than the various circumstances that led to it. To his simple mind it was made patent that the " Blue Mass Company " were making money out of a mine which he claimed, and which was not yet adjudged to them. Every dollar they took out was a fresh count in this general indictment. Every delay toward this adjustment of rights — although made by his own lawyer — was a personal wrong. The mere fact that there never was or had been any quid pro quo for this immense property — that it had fallen to him for a mere song — only added zest to his struggle. The possibility of his losing this mere speculation affected him more strongly than if he had already paid down the million he. expected to get from the mine. I don't know that I have indicated as plainly as I might that universal preference on the part of mankind to get something from nothing, and to acquire the largest return for the least possible expenditure, but I question my right to say that Eoscommon was much more reprehensible than his fellows. But it told upon him, as it did upon all whom the spirit of the murdered Concho brooded, — upon all whom Avarice alternately flattered and tortured. Erom his quiet gains in his legitimate business, from the little capital accumu- lated through industry and economy, he lavished thousands on this chimera of his fancy. He grew grizzled and worn over his self-imposed delusion ; he no longer jested with liis customers, regardless of quality or station or importance ; he had cliques to mollify, enemies to placate, friends to reward. The grocery suffered ; through giving food and lodgment to clouds of unimpeachable witnesses before the Land Commission and the District Court, " Mrs. Eos." found herself losing money. Even the bar failed ; there was a party of Blue Mass employees who drank at the 44 THE STORY OF A MINE opposite fonda and cursed the Roscommon claim over the liquor. The calm, mechanical indifference with which Roscommon had served his customers was gone. The towel was no longer used after its perfunctory fashion ; the counter remained unwiped ; the disks of countless glasses marked its surface, and indicated other preoccupation on the part of the proprietor. The keen gray eye of the claimant of the Red Rock Rancho was always on the look- out for friend or enemy. Garcia comes next : that gentleman's inborn talent for historic misrepresentation culminated unpleasantly through a defective memory ; a year or two after he had sworn in his application for the Rancho, being engaged in another case, some trifling inconsistency was discovered in his statements, which had the effect of throwing the weight of evidence to the party who had paid him most, but was instantly detected by the weaker party. Garcia's preemi- nence as a witness, an expert and general historian, began to decline. He was obliged to be corroborated, and this required a liberal outlay of his fee. With the loss of his credibility as a witness, bad habits supervened. He was frequently drunk, he lost his position, he lost his house, and Carmen removed to San Francisco, supported him with her brush. And this brings us once more to that pretty painter and innocent forger, whose unconscious act bore such baleful fruit on the barren hillsides of the Red Rock Rancho, and also to a later blossom of her life, that opened, however, in kindlier sunshine. WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 45 IX WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT The house that Eoyal Thatcher so informally quitted in his exodus to tlie promised land of Biggs was one of those over-sized, under-calculated dwellings conceived and erected in the extravagance of the San Francisco builder's hopes, and occupied finally to his despair. Intended originally as the palace of some inchoate Californian Aladdin, it usually ended as a lodging-house in which some helpless widow, or hopeless spinster, managed to combine respect- ability with the hard task of bread-getting. Thatcher's landlady was one of the former class. She had unfortu- nately survived not only her husband, but his property, and, living in some deserted chamber, had, after the fashion. of the Italian nobility, let out the rest of the ruin. A ten- dency to dwell upon these facts gave her conversation a peculiar significance on the first of each month. Thatcher had noticed this with the sensitiveness of an impoverished gentleman. But when, a few days after her lodger's sudden disappearance, a note came from him containing a draft in noble excess of all arrears and charges, the widow's heart was lifted, and the rock smitten with the golden wand gushed beneficence, that shone in a new gown for the widow and a new suit for " Johnny," her son, a new oil- cloth in the hall, better service to the lodgers, and, let us be thankful, a kindlier consideration for the poor little black-eyed painter from Monterey, then dreadfully behind in her room rent. For, to tell the truth, the calls upon Miss de Haro's scant purse by her uncle had lately been frequent, perjury having declined in 'the Monterey market, through excessive and injudicious supply, until the line of demarcation between it and absolute verity was so finely 46 THE STORY OF A MINE drawn that Victor Garcia had. remarked that "he might as well tell the truth at once and save his soul, since the devil was in the market ! " Mistress Plodgitt, the landlady, could not resist the desire to acquaint Carmen de Haro with her good fortune. "He was always a friend of yours, my dear, — and I know him to be a gentleman that would never let a poor widow suffer, — and see what he says about you ! " Here she produced Thatcher's note and read : " Tell my little neighbor that I shall come back soon to carry her and her sketching-tools oflF by force, and I shall not let her return until she has caught the black mountains and the red rocks she used to talk about, and put the Blue Mass Mill in the foreground of the picture I shall order." What is this, little one ? Surely, Carmen, thou needst not blush at this, thy firp.t grand olfer. Holy Virgin ! is it of a necessity that thou shouldst stick the wrong end of thy brush in thy mouth, aud then drop it in thy lap ? Or was it taught thee by the good Sisters at the convent to stride in that boyish fashion to the side of thy elders and snatch from their hands the missive thou wouldst read ? More of this we would know, Carmen, smallest of brunettes. Speak, little one, even in thine own melodious speech, that 1 may commend thee and thy rare discretion to my own fair countrywomen. Alas ! neither the present chronicler nor Mistress Plodgitt pot any further information from the prudent Carmen, and must fain speculate upon certain facts that were already known. Mistress Carmen's little room was opposite to Thatcher's, and once or twice, the doors being open, Thatcher had a glimpse across the passage of a black-haired head and a sturdy, boyish little figure in a great blue apron, perched on a stool before an easel ; and, on the other hand, Carmen had often been conscious of the fumes of a tobacco pipe WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 47 penetrating her cloistered seclusion, and had seen across the passage, vaguely enveloped in the same nicotine cloud, an American Olympian, in a rocking-chair, with his feet on the mantel-shelf. They had once or twice met on the staircase, on which occasion Thatcher had greeted her with a word or two of respectful yet half-humorous courtesy, — a courtesy which never really olfends a true woman, al- though it often piques her self -aplomb by the slight assump- tion of superiority in the humorist. A woman is quick to recognize the fact that the great and more dangerous pas- sions are always serious, and may be excused if in self- respect she is often induced to try if there be not somewhere under the skin of this laughing Mereutio the flesh and blood of a Romeo. Thatcher was by nature a defender and protector; weakness, and weakness alone, stirred the depths of his tenderness, — often, I fear, only through its half-humorous aspects, — and on this plane he was pleased to place women and children. I mention this fact for the benefit of the more youthful members of my species, and am satisfied that an unconditional surrender, and the com- plete laying down at the feet of Beauty of all strong masculinity, is a cheap Gallicism that is untranslatable to most women worthy the winning. For a woman must always look up to the man she truly loves, — even if she has to go down on her knees to do it. Only the masculine reader will infer from this that Carmen was in love with Thatcher ; the more critical and analytical feminine eye will see nothing herein that might not have happened consistently with friendship. For Thatcher was no sentimentalist; he had hardly paid a compliment to the girl, — even in the unspoken but most delicate form of attention. There were days when his room door was closed ; there were days succeeding these blanks when he met her as frankly and naturally as if he bad seen her yesterday. Indeed, on those days following 48 THE STORY OF A MINE his flight the simple-minded Carmen, being aware — Heaven knows how — that he had not opened his door during that period, and fearing sickness, sudden death, or perhaps suicide, by her appeals to the landlady assisted unwittingly in discovering his flight and defection. As she was for a few moments as indignant as Mrs. Plodgitt, it is evident that she had but little sympathy with the delinquent. And besides, hitherto she had known only Concho — her earliest friend — and was true to his memory, as against all Ameri- canos, whom she firmly believed to be his murderers. So she dismissed the oflfer and the man from her mind, and went back to her painting, — a fancy portrait of the good Padre Junipero Serra, a great missionary, who, haply for the integrity of his bones and character, died some hundred years before the Americans took possession of Cali- fornia. The picture was fair but unsalable, and she began to think seriously of sign-painting, which was then much more jjopular and marketable. An unfinished head of San Juan de Bautista, artificially fi-amed in clouds, she disposed of to a prominent druggist for $50, where it did good ser- vice as exhibiting the effect of four bottles of '' Jones' Freckle Eradicator," and in a pleasant and unobtrusive way revived the memory of the saint. Still she felt weary and was growing despondent, and had a longing for the good Sisters and the blameless lethargy of conventual life, and then — He came ! But not as the Prince should come, on a white charger, to carry away this cruelly abused and enchanted damsel. He was sunburned ; he was bearded " like the pard ; " he vras a little careless as to his dress, and preoccupied in his ways. But his mouth and eyes were the same, and, when he repeated in his old frank, half-mischievous way the invitation of bis letter, poor little Carmen could only hesi- tate and blush. WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 49 A thought struck him and sent the color to his face. Your gentleman born is always as modest as a woman. He ran downstairs, and, seizing the widowed Plodgitt, said hastily; — " You 're just killing yourself here. Take a change. Come down to Monterey for a day or two with me, and bring Miss De Haro with you for company." The old lady recognized the situation. Thatcher was now a man of vast possibilities. In all maternal daughters of Eve there is the slightest bit of the chape rone and match- maker. It is the last way of reviving the past. She consented, and Carmen De Haro could not well refuse. The ladies found the Blue Mass Mills very much as Thatcher had previously described it to them,— " a trifle rough and mannish." But he made over to them the one tenement reserved for himself and slept with his men, or more likely under the trees. At first Mrs. Plodgitt missed gas and running water, and the several conveniences of civilization, among which I fear may be mentioned sheets and pillow-cases ; but the balsam of the mountain air soothed her neuralgia and her temper. As for Carmen, she rioted in the unlimited license of her absolute freedom from conventional restraint and the indulgence of her childlike impulses. She scoured the ledges far and wide alone ; she dipped into dark copses and scrambled over sterile patches of chimisal, and came back laden with the spoil of buckeye blossoms, manzanita berries, and laurel. But she would not make a sketch of the Blue Mass Company's mills on a Mercator's projection ; something that could be afterwards lithographed or chromoed, with the mills turning out tons of quicksilver through the energies of a happy and pictur- esque assemblage of miners, — even to please her padrone, Don Royal Thatcher. On the contrary, she made a study of the ruins of the crumbled and decayed Eed Eock furnace, 60 THE STORY OF A MINE with the black mountain above it, and the light of a dying camp-fire shining upon it and the dull red excavations in the ledge. But even this did not satisfy her until she had made some alterations, and when she finally brought her finished study to Don Royal she looked at him a little de- fiantly. Thatcher admired honestly, and then criticised a little humorously and dishonestly. " But could n't you, for a consideration, put up a sign- board on that rock with the inscription, ' Road to the Blue Mass Company's new mills to the right,' and combine business with art ? That 's the fault of you geniuses. But what 's this blanketed figure doing here, lying before the furnace ? You never saw one of my miners there — and a Mexican, too, by his serape ! " " That," quoth Mistress Carmen coolly, " was put in to fill up the foreground ; I wanted something there to balance the picture." "But," continued Thatcher, dropping into unconscious admiration again, "it 's drawn to the life. Tell me, Miss De Haro, before I ask the aid and counsel of Mrs. Plodgitt, who is my hated rival and your lay figure and model ? " "Oh," said Carmen, with a little sigh, "it's only poor Concho." " And where is Concho ? " (a little impatiently). " He 's dead, Don Royal." "Dead?" " Of a verity — very dead — murdered here by your sountrymen." " I see — and you knew him ? " " He was my friend. " " Oh ! " " Truly." " But " (wickedly), " is n't this a rather ghastly adver- "WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 51 tisement — outside of an illustrated newspaper — of my property ? " " Ghastly, Don Eoyal ? Look you, he sleeps." "Ay" (in Spanish), "as the dead." Carmen (crossing herself hastily) : " After the fashion of the dead." They were hoth feeling uncomfortable. Carmen was shivering. But, being a woman and tactful, she recovered her head first. " It is a study for myself, Don Eoyal ; I shall make to you another." And she slipped away, as she thought, out of the subject and his presence. But she was mistaken : in the evening he renewed the conversation. Carmen began to fence, not from cowardice or deceit, as the masculine reader would readily infer, but from some wonderful feminine instinct that told her to be cautious. But he got from her the fact, to him before unknown, that she was the niece of his main antagonist, and, being a gentleman, so redoubled his attentions and his courtesy that Mrs. Plodgitt made up her mind that it was a foregone conclusion, and seriously reflected as to what she should wear on the momentous occasion. But that night poor Carmen cried herself to sleep, resolving that she would hereafter cast aside her wicked uncle for this good-hearted Americano, yet never once connected her innocent penman- ship with the deadly feud between them. Women — the best of them — are strong as to collateral facts, swift of de- duction, but vague as children are to the exact statement or recognition of premises. It is hardly necessary to say that Carmen had never thought of connecting any act of hers with the claims of her uncle, and the circumstance of the signature she had totally forgotten. The masculine reader will now understand Carmen's con- fusion and blushes, and believe himself an ass to have thought them a confession of original affection. The femi- nine reader will, by this time, become satisfied that the 52 THE STORY OF A MINE deceitful minx's sole idea was to gain the affections of Thatcher. And really I don't know who is right. Nevertheless she painted a sketch for Thatcher, — which now adorns the Company's office in San Francisco, — in which the property is laid out in pleasing geometrical lines, and the rosy promise of the future instinct in every touch of the brush. Then, having earned her " wage," as she believed, she became somewhat cold and shy to Thatcher. Whereat that gentlemen redoubled his attentions, seeing only in her presence a certain meprise, which concerned her more than himself. The niece of his enemy meant nothing more to him than an interesting girl, — to be protected always, — to be feared never. But even suspicion may be insidiously placed in noble minds. Mistress Plodgitt, thus early estopped of match-making, of course put the blame on her own sex, and went over to the stronger side, — the man's. " It 's a great pity gals should be so curious," she said, sotto voce, to Thatcher, when Carmen was in one of her sullen moods. " Yet I s'pose it 's in her blood. Them Spaniards is always revengeful, — like the Eyetaliaus." Thatcher honestly looked his surprise. " Why, don't you see, she 's thinking how all these lands might have been her uncle's but for you. And, instead of trying to be sweet and " — Here she stopped to cough. " Good God ! " said Thatcher in great concern, " I never thought of that." He stopped for a moment and then added with decision, " I can't believe it ; it is n't like her." Mrs. P. was piqued. She walked away, delivering, how- ever, this Parthian arrow : " Well, I hopa H ain't nothing worse." Thatcher chuckled, then felt uneasy. When he next met Carmen she found his gray eyes fixed on hers with a curi- ous, half-inquisitorial look she had never noticed before. This only added fuel to the fire. Forgetting their relations WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 53 of host and guest, she was ahsolutely rude. Thatcher was quiet but watchful; got the Plodgitt to bed early, and, under cover of showing a moonlight view of the "Lost Chance Mill," decoyed Carmen out of ear-shot as far as the dismantled furnace. " What is the matter. Miss De Haro ? have I offended you ? " Miss Carmen was not aware that anything was the matter. If Don Eoyal preferred old friends, whose loyalty of course he knew, who were above speaking ill against a gentleman in his adversity — (0 Carmen ! fie !) if he pre- ferred their company to later friends — why — (the mascu- line reader will observe this tremendous climax and tremble) — why she did n't know why he should blame her. They turned and faced each other. The conditions for a perfect misunderstanding could not have been better ar- ranged between two people. Thatcher was a masculine rea- soner ; Carmen, a feminine feeler, — if I may be pardoned the expression. Thatcher wanted to get at certain facts, and argue therefrom. Carmen wanted to get at certain feelings, and then fit the facts to them. " But I am not blaming you, Miss Carmen," he said gravely. " It ivas stupid in me to confront you here with the property claimed by your uncle and occupied by me, but it was a mistake, — no ! " he added hastily, — " it was not a mistake. You knew it and I did n't. You overlooked it before you came, and I was too glad to overlook it after you were here." " Of coarse," said Carmen, pettishly, " I am the only one to be blamed. It 's like you -men ! " (Mem. She was just fifteen, and uttered this awful resume of experience just as if it had n't been taught to her in her cradle.) Feminine generalities always stagger a man. Thatcher said nothing. Carmen became more enraged. " Why did you want to take Uncle Victor's property, then ? " she asked triumphantly. 54 THE STORY OF A MINE " I don't know that it is your uncle's property." " You — don't — know ? Have you seen the applicatio» with Governor Micheltorena's indorsement ? Have you heard the witnesses ? " she said passionately. " Signatures may be forged and witnesses lie," said Thatcher, quietly. " What is it you call ' forged ' ? " Thatcher instantly recalled the fact that the Spanish language held no synonyme for " forgery." The act was apparently an invention of El Diable ATnencano. So he said, with a slight smile in his kindly eyes : — " Anybody wicked enough and dexterous enough can imitate another's handwriting. When this is used to benefit fraud we call it ' forgery.' I beg your pardon — Miss De Haro, Miss Carmen — what is the matter ? " She had suddenly lapsed against a tree, quite helpless, nerveless, and with staring eyes fixed on his. As yet an embryo woman, inexperienced and ignorant, the sex's instinct was potential ; she had in one plunge fathomed all that his reason had been years groping for. Thatcher saw only that she was pained, that she was helpless ; that was enough. " It is possible that your uncle may have been deceived," he began ; " many honest men have been fooled by clever but deceitful tricksters, men and women " — " Stop ! Madre de Dios ! Will you stop ? " Thatcher for an instant recoiled from the flashing eyes and white face of the little figure that had, with menacing and clenched baby fingers, strode to his side. He stopped. " Where is this application — this forgery ? " she asked. " Show it to me ! " Thatcher felt relieved, and smiled the superior smile of our sex over feminine ignorance. " You could hardly expect me to be trusted with your uncle's vouchers. His papers, of course, are in the hands of his counsel." WHAT THE FAIR HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 55 " And when can I leave this place ? " she asked, pas- Bionately. " If you consult my wishes you will stay, if only long enough to forgive me. But if I have offended you, unlmow- ingly, and you are implacable " — " I can go to-morrow, at sunrise, if I like ? " "As you will," returned Thatcher, gravely. " Gracias, Senor." They walked slowly back to the house, — Thatcher with a masculine sense of being unreasonably afflicted. Carmen ■with a woman's instinct of being hopelessly crushed. No word was spoken until they reached the door. Then Carmen suddenly, in her old impulsive way, and in a childlike treble, sang out merrily, " Good-night, Don Royal, and pleasant dreams. Hasta Manana." Thatcher stood dumb and astonished at this capricious girl. She saw his mystification instantly. " It is for the old Cat ! " she whispered, jerking her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the sleeping Mrs. P. " Good- night — go ! " He went to give orders for a peon to attend the ladies and their equipage the next day. He awoke to find Miss De Haro gone, with her escort, towards Monterey. And without the Plodgitt. He could not conceal his surprise from the latter lady. She, left alone, — a not altogether unavailable victim to the wiles of our sex, — was embarrassed. But not so much that she could not say to Thatcher : " I told you so, — gone to her uncle ... To tell him all ! " " All ? D— n it ! what can she tell him ? " roared Thatcher, stung out of his self-control. " Nothing, I hope, that she should not," said Mrs. P., and chastely retired. She was right. Miss Carmen posted to Monterey, run- ning her horse? nearly off its legs to do it, and then sent 56 THE STOEY OF A MINE back her beast and escort, saying she would rejoin Mrs, Plodgitt by steamer at San Francisco. Then she went boldly to the law office of Saponaceous Wood, District At- torney and whilom solicitor of her uncle. With the majority of masculine Monterey, Miss Carmen was known and respectfully admired, despite the infelix reputation of her kinsman. Mr. Wood was glad to see her, and awkwardly gallant. Miss Carmen was cool and busi- ness-like ; she had come from her uncle to " regard " the papers in the Eed Eock Eancho case. They were instantly produced. Carmen turned to the application for the grant. Her cheek paled slightly. With her clear memory and wonderful fidelity of perception, she could not be mistaken. The signature of Micheltorena was in her own hand- writing ! Yet she looked up to the lawyer with a smile : " May I take these papers for an hour to my nncle ? " Even an older and better man than the District Attorney could not have resisted those drooping lids and that gentle voice. " Certainly." " I will return them in an hour." She was as good as her word, and within the hour dropped the papers and a little courtesy to her uncle's legal advocate, and that night took the steamer to San Fran- cisco. The next morning Victor Garcia, a little the worse for the previous night's dissipation, reeled into Wood's office. "I have fears for my niece. Carmen. She is with the enemy," he said thickly. " Look you at this." It was an anonymous letter (in Mrs. Plodgitt's own awk- ward fist), advising him of the fact that his niece was bought by the enemy, and cautioning him against her. " Impossible," said the ■ lawyer, " it was only last week she sent thee $50." WHAT THE FAIE HAD TO DO ABOUT IT 67 Victor blushed, even through his ensanguined cheeks, and made an impatient gesture M'ith his hand. " Besides," added the lawyer coolly, " she has been here to examine the papers at thy request, and returned them of yesterday." Victor gasped — " And — you — you — gave them to her ? " " Of course ! " " All ? Even the application and the signature ? " " Certainly ! — you sent her." " Sent her ? The devil's own daughter ! " shrieked Garcia. " No ! A hundred million times, no ! Quick, before it is too late. Give to me the papers." Mr. Wood reproduced the file. Garcia ran over it with trembling fingers, until at last he clutched the fateful docu- ment. Not content with opening it and glancing at its text and signature, he took it to the window. " It is the same," he muttered with a sigh of relief. " Of course it is," said Mr. Wood sharply. " The pa- pers are all there. You 're a fool, Victor Garcia ! " And so he was. And, for the matter of that, so was Mr. Saponaceous Wood, of counsel. Meanwhile Miss De Haro returned to San Francisco and resumed her work. A day or two later she was joined by her landlady. Mrs. P. had too large a nature to permit an anonymous letter, written by her own hand, to stand be- tween her and her demeanor to her little lodger. So she coddled her and flattered her, and depicted in slightly exaggerated colors the grief of Don Royal at her sudden departure. All of which Miss Carmen received in a de- mure, kitten-like way, but still kept quietly at her work. In due time Don Eoyal's order was completed ; still she had leisure and inclination enough to add certain touches to her ghastly sketch of the crumbling furnace. Nevertheless, as Don Eoyal did not return, through 58 THE STORY OF A MINE excess of business, Mrs. Plodgitt turned an honest penny by letting his room, temporarily, to two quiet Mexicans, ■who, but for a beastly habit of cigarrito-smoking which tainted the whole house, were fair enough lodgers. If they failed in making the acquaintance of this fair country- woman. Miss De Haro, it was through that lady's preoccu- pation in her over-work, and not through their ostentatious endeavors. " Miss De Haro is peculiar," explained the politic Mrs. P. to her guests ; " she makes no acquaintances, which I consider bad for her business. If it had not been for me she would not have known Eoyal Thatcher, the great quicksilver miner, — and had his order for a picture of his mine ! " The two foreign gentlemen exchanged glances. One said, " Ah, God ! this is bad," and the other, " It is not possible ! " and then, when the landlady's back was turned, introduced themselves with a skeleton key into the then vacant bedroom and studio of their fair countrywoman, who was absent sketching. "Thou observest," said Mr. Pedro, refugee, to Miguel, ex-ecclesiastic, " that this Ameri- cano is all-powerful, and that this Victor, drunkard as he is, is right in his suspicions." " Of a verity, yes," replied Miguel, " thou dost remember it was Jovita Castro who, for her Americano lover, betrayed the Sobriente claim. It is only with us, my Pedro, that Mexican spirit, the real God and Liberty, yet lives ! " They shook hands nobly and with sentimental fervor, and then went to work, i. e. the rummaging over of the trunks, drawers, and portmanteaus of the poor little painter. Carmen De Haro, and even ripped up the mattress of her virginal cot. But they found not what they sought. " What is that yonder on the easel, covered with a cloth ? " said Miguel ; " it is a trick of these artists to put their valuables together." WHO LOBBIED FOR IT 59 Pedro strode to the easel and tore away the mUslin cur- tain that veiled it ; then uttered a shriek that appalled his comrade and brought him to his side. " In the name of God," said Miguel hastily, " are you trying to alarm the house ? " The ex-vaquero was trembling like a child. " Look," he said hoarsely, " look, do you see ? It is the hand of God," and fainted on the floor ! Miguel looked. It was Carmen's partly finished sketch of the deserted furnace. The figure of Concho, thrown out strongly by the camp-fire, occupied the left foreground. But to balance her picture she had evidently been obliged to introduce another, — the face and figure of Pedro, on all-fours, creeping toward the sleeping man. X WHO LOBBIED FOR IT It was a midsummer's day in Washington. Even at early morning, while the sun was yet level with the faces of pedestrians in its broad, shadeless avenues, it was insuffer- ably hot. Later the avenues themselves shone like the diverging rays of another sun, — ■ the Capitol, — a thing to be feared by the naked eye. Later yet it grew hotter, and then a mist arose from the Potomac, and blotted out the blazing arch above, and presently piled up along the horizon delusive thunder-clouds, that spent their strength and sub- stance elsewhere and left it hotter than before. Towards evening the sun came out invigorated, having cleared the heavenly brow of perspiration, but leaving its fever un- abated. The city was deserted. The few who remained appar- ently buried themselves from the garish light of day in some dim cloistered recess of shop, hotel, or restaurant ; and the 60 THE STORY OF A MINE perspiring stranger, dazed by the outer glare, who broke in \ipon their quiet, sequestered repose, confronted collarless and coatless spectres of the past with fans in their hands, who, after dreamilj' going through some perfunctory busi- ness, immediately retired to sleep after the stranger had gone. Congressmen and Senators had long since returned to their several constituencies with the various information that the country was going to ruin, or that the outlook never was more hopeful and cheering, as the tastes of their constituency indicated. A few Cabinet officers still lin- gered, having by this time become convinced that they could do nothing their own way, or indeed in any way but the old way, and getting gloomily resigned to their situation. A body of learned, cultivated men, representing the highest legal tribunal in the land, still lingered in a vague idea of earning the scant salary bestowed upon them by the economi- cal founders of the Government, and listened patiently to the arguments of Counsel, whose fees for advocacy of claims before them would have paid the life income of half the bench. There was Mr. Attorney-General and his assistants still protecting the Government's millions from rapacious hands, and drawing the yearly public pittance that their wealthier private antagonists would have scarce given as a retainer to their junior counsel ; and the little standing army of departmental employees, the helpless victims of the most senseless and idiotic form of discipline the world has known — a discipline so made up of Caprice, Expediency, Cowardice, and Tyranny that its reform meant Revolution, not to be tolerated by legislators and lawgivers, or a Des- potism in which half a dozen accidentally chosen men inter- preted their prejudices or preferences as being that Reform. Administration after Administration and Party after Party had persisted in their desperate attempts to fit the youth- ful colonial garments, made by our fathers after bygone fashion, over the expanded limits and generous outline of a WHO LOBBIED FOR IT 61 matured nation. There were patches here and there, there were grievous rents and holes here and there, there were ludicrous and painful exposures of growing limbs everywhere, and the Party in Power and the Party out of Power could do nothing but mend and patch, and revamp and cleanse and scour, and occasionally, in the wildness of despair, sug- gest even the cutting off the rebellious limbs that persisted ingrowing beyond the swaddling clothes of its infancy. It was a capital of Contradictions and Inconsistences. At one end of the Avenue sat the responsible High Keeper of the Military Honor, Valor, and Warlike Prestige of a Great Nation, without the power to pay Ids own troops their legal dues until some selfish quarrel between Party and Party was settled. Hard by sat another secretary, whose established functions seemed to be the misrepresen- tation of the nation abroad by the least characteristic of its classes — the politicians — and only then when they had been defeated as politicians, and when their constituents had declared them no longer worthy to be even their represen- tatives. This National Absurdity was only equaled by another, wherein an Bx-Politician was for four years ex- pected to uphold the honor of a flag of a great nation over an ocean he had never tempted, with a discipline the rudi- ments of which he could scarcely acquire before he was re- moved, or his term of office expired, receiving his orders from a superior officer as ignorant of his special duties as himself, and subjected to the revision of a Congress cogni- zant of him only as a politician. At the further end of the Avenue was another department, so vast in its extent and so varied in its functions that few of the really Great Prac- tical Workers of the land would have accepted its responsi- bility for ten times its salary, but which the most perfect Constitution in the World handed over to men who were obliged to make it a stepping-stone to future preferment. There was another department, more suggestive of its finan- 62 THE STORY OF A MINE cial functions from the occasional extravagances or econo- mies exhibited in its pay-rolls, — successive Congresses having taken other matters out of its hands, — presided over by an official who bore the title and responsibility of the Custodian and Disburser of the Nation's Purse, and re- ceived a salary that a bank president would have sniifed at. For it was part of this Constitutional Inconsistency and Ad- ministrative Absurdity that in the matter of Honor, Justice, Fidelity to Trust, and even Business Integrity, the oificial was always expected to be the superior of the Government he represented. Yet the crowning Inconsistency was that, from time to time, it was submitted to the sovereign people to declare if these various Inconsistencies were not really the perfect expression of the most perfect Government the •vorld had known. And it is to be recorded that the unani- mous voices of Representative, Orator, and Unfettered Poetry were that it was. Even the public press lent itself to the Great Inconsis- tency. It was as clear as crystal to the journal on one side of the Avenue that the country was going to the dogs unless the spirit of the fathers once more reanimated the public ; it was equally clear to the journal on the other side of the Avenue that only a rigid adherence to the letter of the fathers would save the nation from decline. It was obvious to the first-named journal that the " letter " meant Government patronage to the other journal ; it was potent to that journal that the " shekels " of Senator X. really animated the spirit of the fathers. Yet all agreed it was a great and good and perfect government, — subject only to the predatory incursions of a hydra-headed monster known as a " Ring." The Ring's origin was wrapped in secrecy, its fecundity was alarming ; but although its rapacity was preternatural, its digestion was perfect and easy. It cir- cumvolved all affairs in an atmosphere of mystery ; it clouded all things with the dust and ashes of distrust. AU WHO LOBBIED FOR IT 63 disappbintment of place, of avarice, of incompetency, or ambition was clearly attributable to it. It even per- meated private and social life : there v^ere Rings in our kitchen and household service ; in our public schools, that kept the active intelligences of our children passive ; there were Rings of engaging, handsome, dissolute young fellows, who kept us moral but unengaging seniors from the favors of the Fair ; there were subtle, conspiring Rings among our creditors, which sent us into bankruptcy and restricted our credit. In fact, it would not be hazardous to say that all that was calamitous in public and private experience was clearly traceable to that conibination of power in a minority over weakness in a majority — known as a " Ring." Haply there was a body of demigods, as yet uninvoked, who should speedily settle all that. When Smith of Minnesota, Robinson of Vermont, and Jones of Georgia returned to Congress from those rural seclusions, so potent with information and so freed from local prejudices, it was understood, vaguely, that great things would be done. This was always understood. There never was a time in the history of American politics when, to use the expression of the journals before alluded to, " the present session of Congress" did not "bid fair to be the most momentous in our history," and did not, as far as the facts go, leave a vast amount of unfinished important business lying hopelessly upon its desks, having " bolted " the rest as rashly and with as little regard to digestion or assimi- lation as the American traveler has for his railway re- freshment. In this capital, on this languid midsummer day, in an upper room of one of its second-rate hotels, the Honor- able Mr. Pratt C. Gashwiler sat at liis writing-table. There are certain large, fleshy men with whom the omission of even a necktie or collar has all the effect of an indecent 84 THE STORY OF A MINE exposure. The Honorable Mr. Gashwiler, in his trousers and shirt, was a sight to be avoided by the modest eye. There were such palpable suggestions of vast extents of unctuous flesh in the slight glimpse offered by his open throat, that his dishabille should have been as private as his business. Nevertheless, when there was a knock at his door he unhesitatingly said, " Come in ! " — pushing away a goblet crowned with a certain aromatic herb with his right hand, while he drew towards him with his left a few proof-slips of his forthcoming speech. The Gashwiler brow became, as it were, intelligently abstracted. The intruder regarded Gashwiler with a glance of familiar , recognition from his right eye, while his left took in a rapid survey of the papers on the table, and gleamed sardoni-. cally. " You are at work, I see," he said apologetically. " Yes," replied the Congressman, with an air of perfunc- tory weariness — " one of my speeches. Those d — d print- ers make such a mess of it, I suppose I don't write a very fine hand." If the gifted Gashwiler had added that he did not write a very intelligent hand, or a very grammatical hand, and that his spelling was faulty, he would have been truthful, although the copy and proof before him might not have borne him out. The near fact was, that the speech was composed and written by one Expectant Dobbs, a poor retainer of Grashwiler, and the honorable member's labor as a proof-reader was confined to the introduction of such words as " Anarchy," " Oligarchy," " Satrap," " Palla- dium," and " Argus-eyed," in the proof, with little rele- vancy as to position or place, and no perceptible effect as to argument. The stranger saw all this with his wicked left eye, but continued to beam mildly with his right. Removing the coat and waistcoat of Gashwiler from a chair, he drew ifc WHO LOBBIED FOR It 65 towards the table, pushing aside a portly, loud-ticking watch — the very image of Gashwiler — that lay beside him, and resting his elbows on the proofs, said : — " Well ? " " Have you anything new ? " asked the Parliamentary Gashwiler. " Much ! a woman ! " replied the stranger. The astute Gashwiler, waiting further information, con- cluded to receive this fact gayly and gallantly. " A woman ? — my dear Mr. Wiles — of course ! The dear creatures," he continued, with a fat, offensive chuckle, " somehow are always making their charming presence felt. Ha ! ha ! A man, sir, in public life becomes accustomed to that sort of thing, and knows when he must be agreeable — agreeable, sir, but firm! I've had my experience, sir — my own experience," — and the Congressman leaned back in his chair, not unlike a robust St. Anthony, who had withstood one temptation to thrive on another. " Yes," said Wiles impatiently, " but d — n it, she 's on the other side." " The other side ! " repeated Gashwiler vacantly. " Yes. She 's a niece of Garcia' s. A little she-devil." " But Garcia is on our side," rejoined Gashwiler. " Yes ; but she is bought by the Ring." " A woman," sneered Mr. Gashwiler ; " what can she do with men who won't be made fools of ? Is she so hand- some ? " " I never saw any great beauty in her," said Wiles shortly, " although they say that she 's rather caught that d — d Thatcher, in spite of his coldness. At any rate she is his protegee. But she is n't the sort you 're thinking of, Gash- wiler. They say she knows or pretends to know something about the grant. She may have got hold of some of her uncle's papers. Those Greasers were always d — d fools, and if he did anything foolish, like as not he bungled or 66 THE STORY OF A MINE did n't cover up his tracks. • And with his knowledge and facilities, too ! Why if I 'd " — but here Mr. Wiles stopped to sigh over the inequality of fortune that wasted oppor- tunities on the less skillful scamp. Mr. Gashwiler became dignified. " She can do nothing with us," he said potentially. Wiles turned his wicked eye on him. "Manuel and Miguel, who sold out to our man, are afraid of her. They were our witnesses. I verily believe they 'd take back every- thing if she got after them. And as for Pedro, he thinks she holds the power of life and death over him." " Pedro ! Life and death — what 's all this ? " said the astonished Gashwiler. Wiles saw his blunder, but saw also that he had gone too far to stop. "Pedro," he said, "was strongly suspected of having murdered Concho, one of the original locaters." Mr. Gashwiler turned white as a sheet, and then flushed again into an apoplectic glow. " Do you dare to say," he began as soon as he could find his tongue and his legs, — for in the exercise of his congressional functions these extreme members supported each other, — " do you mean to say," he Btammered in rising rage, " that you have dared to deceive an American lawgiver into legislating upon a measure con- nected with a capital ofi'ense ? Do I understand you to say, sir, that murder stands upon the record — stands upon the record, sir — of this cause to whicli, as a representative of Eemus, I have lent my official aid ? Do you mean to say that you have deceived my constituency, whose sacred trust I hold, in inveigling me to hiding a crime from the Argus eyes of Justice ? " And Mr. Gashwiler looked to- wards the bell-pull as if about to summon a servant to wit- ness this outrage against the established judiciary. " The murder, if it was a murder, took place before Garcia entered upon this claim or had a footing in this court," returned Wiles blandly, " and is no part of the record." WHO LOBBIED FOE IT 67 " You are sure it is not spread upon the record ? " " I am. You can judge for yourself." Mr. Gashwiler walked to the window, returned to the [able, finished his liquor in a single gulp, and then, with a slight resumption of dignity, said : — "That alters the case." Wiles glanced with his left eye at the Congressman. The right placidly looked out of the window. Presently he said quietly, "I 've brought you the certificates of stock ; do you wish them made out in your own name ? " Mr. Gashwiler tried hard to look as if he were trying to recall the meaning of Wiles' words. " Oh ! — ah ! — umph ! — let me see — Oh, yes, the certificates — certainly ! Of course you will make them out in the name of my secretary, Mr. Expectant Dobbs. They will perhaps repay him for the extra clerical labor required in the prosecution of your claim. He is a worthy young man. Although not a public officer, yet he is so near to me that perhaps I am wrong in permitting him to accept a fee for private interests. An American representative cannot be too cautious, Mr. Wiles. Perhaps you had better have also a blank transfer. The stock is, I understand, yet in the future. Mr. Dobbs, though talented and praiseworthy, is poor ; he may wish to realize. If some — ahem ! some friend — better circum- stanced should choose to advance the cash to him and run the risk — why it would only be an act of kindness." "You are proverbially generous, Mr. Gashwiler," said Wiles, opening and shutting his left eye, like a dark lan- tern,' on the benevolent representative. " Youth, when faithful and painstaking, should be en- couraged," replied Mr. Gashwiler. " I lately had occasion to point this out in a few remarks I had to make before the Sabbath-school reunion at Eemus. Thank you, I will see that they are — ahem — conveyed to him. I shall give them to him with my own hand," he concluded, falling 68 THE STOEY OF A MINE back in his chair, as if the better to contemplate the perspective of his own generosity and condescension. Mr. Wiles took his hat and turned to go. Before he reached the door Mr. Gashwiler returned to the social level with a chuckle : — " You say this woman, this Garcia's niece, is handsome and smart ? " " Yes." " I can set another woman on the track that '11 euchre her every time ! " Mr. Wiles was too clever to appear to notice the sudden lapse in the Congressman's dignity, and only said, with his right eye : — " Can you ? " "By G — d I will, or I don't know how to represent Kemus." Mr. Wiles thanked him with his right eye, looked a dagger with his left. " Good," he said, and added per- suasively : " Does she live here ? " The Congressman nodded assent. " An awfully hand- some woman — a particular friend of mine ! " Mr. Gash- wiler here looked as if he would not mind to have been rallied a little over his intimacy with the fair one, but the astute Mr. Wiles was at the same moment making up his mind, after interpreting the Congressman's look and manner, that he must know this fair incognito if he wished to sway Gashwiler. He determined to bide his time. The door was scarcely closed upon him when another knock diverted Mr. Gashwiler's attention from his proofs. The door opened to a young man with sandy hair and anxious face. He entered the room deprecatingly, as if conscious of the presence of a powerful being, to be supplicated and feared. Mr. Gashwiler did not attempt to disabuse his mind. " Busy, you see," he said shortly, " correcting your work ! " WHO LOBBIED FOR IT 69 " I hope it is acceptable ! " said the young man, timidly. "Well — yes — it will do," said Gaslivviler ; "indeed, I may say it is satisfactory on the whole," he added with the appearance of a large generosity, "quite satisfactory." " You have no news, I suppose ? " contiiuied the young man with a slight flush, born of pride or expectation. "No, nothing as yet." Mr. Gashwiler paused as if a thought had struck him. " I have thought," he said finally, " that some position — such as a secretaryship with me — would help you to a better appointment. Now, supposing that I make you my private secretary, giving you some important and confiden- tial business. Eli ? " Dobbs looked at his patron with a certain wistful, dog- like expectancy ; moved himself excitedly on his chair-seat in a peculiar canine-like anticipation of gratitude, strongly suggesting that he would have wagged his tail if he had had one. At which Mr. Gashwiler became more impressive. " Indeed, I may say I anticipated it by certain papers I have put in your charge and in your name, only taking from you a transfer — that might enable me to satisfy my conscience hereafter in recommending you as my — ahem — private secretary. Perhaps as a mere form you might now, ■while you are here, put your name to these transfers, and, so to speak, begin your duties at once." The glow of pride and hope that mantled the cheek of poor Dobbs might have melted a harder heart than Gash- wiler's. But the Senatorial toga had invested Mr. Gash- wiler with a more than Eoman stoicism towards the feelings of others, and he only fell back in his chair in the pose of conscious rectitude as Dobbs hurriedly signed the paper. " I shall place them in my portman-tell," said Gashwiler, suiting the word to the action, " for safe-keeping. I need not inform you, who are now, as it were, on the threshold of official life, that perfect and inviolable secrecy in all 70 THE STORY OF A MINE affairs of State " — Mr. G. here motioned toward his porfc manteau as if it contained a treaty at least — "is most essential and necessary." Dobbs assented: "Then my duties will keep me with you here ? " he asked doubtfully. "No — no," said Gashwiler, hastily; then, correcting himself, he added : " that is — for the present — no ! " Jpoor Dobbs' face fell. The near fact was that he had lately had notice to quit his present lodgings in consequence of arrears in his rent, and he had a hopeful reliance that his confidential occupation would carry bread and lodging with it. But he only asked if there were any new papers to make out. " Ahem ! not at present ; the fact is that I am obliged to give so much of my time to callers — I have to-day been obliged to see half a dozen — that I must lock myself up and say ' Not at home ' for the rest of the day." Feeling that this was an intimation that the interview was over, the new private secretary, a little dashed as to his near hopes, but still sanguine of the future, humbly took his leave. But here a certain Providence, perhaps mindful of poor Dobbs, threw into his simple hands — to be used or not, if he were worthy or capable of using it — a certain power and advantage. He had descended the staircase, and was passing through the lower corridor, when he was made the unwilling witness of a remarkable assault. It appeared that Mr. Wiles, who had quitted Gashwiler's presence as Dobbs was announced, had other business in the hotel, and in pursuance of it had knocked at room No. 90. In response to the gruff voice that bade him enter, Mr. Wiles opened the door and espied the figure of a tall, muscular, fiery-bearded man extended on the bed, with the bed-clothes carefully tucked under his chin and his arms lying flat by his side. WHO LOBBIED FOR IT 71 Mr. Wiles beamed with his right cheek, and advanced to the bed as if to take the hand of the stranger, who, how- ever, neither by word nor sign, responded to his salutation. " Perhaps I 'm intruding ? " said Mr. Wiles blandly. " Perhaps you are," said Ked Beard dryly. Mr. Wiles forced a smile on his right cheek, which he ttirned to the smiter, but permitted the left to indulge in unlimited malevolence. "I wanted merely to know if you- have looked into that matter ? " he said meekly. " I 've looked into it and round it, and across it and over it and through it," responded the man gravely, with his eyes fixed on Wiles. " And you have perused all the papers ? " continued Mr. Wiles. " I 've read every paper, every speech, every affidavit, every decision, every argument," said the stranger, as if repeating a formula. Mr. Wiles attempted to conceal his embarrassment by an easy, right-handed smile, that went off sardonically on the left, and continued, " Then I hope, my dear sir, that, hav- ing thoroughly mastered the case, you are inclined to be favorable to us ? " The gentleman in the bed did not reply, but apparently nestled more closely beneath the coverlids. " I have brought the shares I spoke of," continued Mr. Wiles insinuatingly. " Hev you a friend within call ? " interrupted the re- cumbent man gently. " I don't quite understand ! " smiled Mr. Wiles. " Of course any name you might suggest " — " Hev you a friend — any chap that you might waltz in here at a moment's call ? " continued the man in bed. " No ? Do you know any of them waiters in the house ? Thar 's a bell over yan ! " and he motioned with his eyes towards the wall, but did not otherwise move his body. 72 THE STORY OF A MINE " No," said Wiles, becoming sliglitly suspicious and wrathful. " Mebbe a stranger might do ? I reckon thar 's one passin' in the hall. Call him in — he '11 do ! " Wiles opened the door a little impatiently, yet inquisi- tively, as Dobbs passed. The man in bed called out, " Oh, stranger ? " and, as Dobbs stopped, said " Come 'yar.'' Dobbs entered a little timidly, as was his habit with strangers. " I don't know who you be — nor care, I reckon," said the stranger. " This yer man " — pointing to Wiles — " is Wiles. I 'm Josh Sibblee of Fresno, Member of Congress from the 4th Congressional District of Californy. I'm jist lying here, with a derringer into each hand — jist lying here kivered up and holdin' in on'y to keep from blowiu' the top o' this d — d skunk's head olf. I kinder feel I can't hold iu any longer. What I want to say to ye, stranger, is that this yer skunk — which his name is Wiles — hez bin tryin' his d — dest to get a bribe onto Josh, and Josh, out o' respect for his constituents, is jist waitin' for some stranger to waltz in and stop the d — dest fight " — " But, my dear Mr. Sibblee, there must be some mis- take," said Wiles earnestly. " Mistake ? Strip me ! " " No ! no ! " said Wiles hurriedly, as the simple-minded Dobbs was about to draw down the coverlid. " Take him away," said the Honorable Mr. Sibblee, " before I disgrace my constituency. They said I 'd be iu jail 'afore I get through the session. Ef you 've got any humanity, stranger, snake him out, and pow'ful quick, too." Dobbs, quite white and aghast, looked at Wiles and hesi- tated. There was a slight movement in the bed. Both men started for the door, and the next minute it closed verj decidedly on the member from Fresno. HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOR 73 XI HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOR The Honorable Pratt C. Gashwiler, M. C, was of course unaware of the incident described in the last chapter. His secret, even if it had been discovered by Dobbs, was safe in that gentleman's innocent and honorable hands, and cer- tainly was not of a quality that Mr. Wiles, at present, would have cared to expose. For, in spite of Mr. Wiles' discom- fiture, he still had enough experience of character to know that the irate member from Fresno would be satisfied with his own peculiar manner of vindicating his own personal integrity, and would not make a public scandal of it. Again, Wiles was convinced that Dobbs was equally impli- cated with Gashwiler, and would be silent for his own sake. So that poor Dobbs, as is too often the fate of simple but weak natures, had full credit for duplicity by every rascal in the land. From which it may be inferred that nothing occurred to disturb the security of Gashwiler. When the door closed upon Mr. Wiles, he indited a note, which with a costly but exceedingly distasteful bouquet — rearranged by his own fat fingers, and discord and incongruity visible in every combination of color — he sent off by a special messenger. Then he proceeded to make his toilet, — an operation rarely graceful or picturesque in our sex, and an insult to the spectator when obesity is superadded. When he had put on a clean shirt, of which there was grossly too much, and added a white waistcoat, that seemed to accent his rotun- dity, he completed his attire with a black frock coat of the latest style, and surveyed himself complacently before a mirror. It is to be recorded that, however satisfactory the result may have been to Mr. Gashwiler, it was not so to 74 THE STORY OF A MINE the disinterested spectator. There are some men on whom " that deformed thief, Fashion," avenges himself hy making their clothes appear perennially new. The gloss of the tailor's iron never disappears ; the creases of the shelf per- petually rise in judgment against the wearer. Novelty was the general suggestion of Mr. Gashwiler's full dress — > it was never his habitude — and " Our own Make," "Nobby," and the "Latest Style, only $15," was as patent on the legislator's broad back as if it still retained the shopman's ticket. Thus arrayed, within an hour he complacently followed the note and his floral offering. The house he sought had been once the residence of a foreign ambassador, who had loyally represented his government in a single unimportant treaty, now forgotten, and in various receptions and dinners, still actively remembered by occasional visitors to its sal6n, now the average dreary American parlor. "Dear me," the fascinating Mr. X. would say, " but do you know, love, in this very room I remember meeting the distinguished Marquis of Monte Pio," or perhaps the fashionable Jones of the State Department instantly crushed the decayed friend he was perfunctorily visiting, by saying, " 'Pon my soul, you here ! — why, the last time I was in this room I gossiped for an hour with the Countess de Castenet in that very corner." For with the recall of the aforesaid Ambas- sador the mansion had become a boarding-house, kept by the wife of a departmental clerk. Perhaps there was nothing in the history of the hous? more quaint and philosophic than the story of its present occupant. Sogar Fauquier had been a departmental clerk lor forty years. It was at once his practical good luck and his misfortune to have been early appointed to a position which required a thorough and complete knowledge of the formulas and routine of a department that expended mil- lions of the public funds. Fauquier, on a poor salary, HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOE 75 fliminishing instead of increasing with his service, had seen successive Administrations bud and blossom and decay, but had kept his position through the fact that his knowledge was a necessity to the successive chiefs and employees. Once it was true that he had been summarily removed by a new Secretary, to make room for a camp-follower, whose exhaustive and intellectual services in a political campaign had made him eminently fit for anything, but the alarming discovery that the new clerk's knowledge of grammar and etymology was even worse than that of the Secretary him- self, and that, through ignorance of detail, the business of that department was retarded to a damage to the Govern- ment of over half a million of dollars, led to the reinstate- ment of Mr. Fauquier — at a lower salary. For it was felt that something was wrong somewhere, and, as it had always been the custom of Congress and the Administra- tion to cut down salaries as the first step to reform, they made of Mr. Fauquier a moral example. A gentleman born, of somewhat expensive tastes, having lived up to his former salary, this change brought another bread-winner into the field, Mrs. Fauquier, who tried, more or less unsuc- cessfully, to turn her old Southern habits of hospitality to remunerative account. But as poor Fauquier could never be prevailed upon to present a bill to a gentleman. Sir, and as some of the scions of the best Southern families were still waiting for, or had been recently dismissed from, a position, the experiment was a pecuniary failure. Yet the house was of excellent repute and well patronized ; indeed, it was worth something to see old Fauquier sitting at ths head in his ancestral style, relating anecdotes of great men now dead and gone, interrupted only by occasional visits from importunate tradesmen. Prominent among what Mr. Fauquier called his " little family," was a black-eyed lady of great powers of fascina- tion, and considerable local reputation as a flirt. Never- 76 THE STOKY OF A MINE t/ieless, tliese social aberrations were amply condoned by d facile and complacent husband, who looked witb a lenient and even admiring eye upon the little lady's amusement, and to a certain extent lent a tacit indorsement to her conduct. Nobody minded Hopkinson ; in the blaze of Mrs. Hopkinson's fascinations he was completely lost sight of. A few married women with unduly sensitive husbands, and several single ladies of the best and longest standing, reflected severely on her conduct. The younger men of course admired her, but I think she got her chief support from old fogies like ourselves. For it is your quiet, self- conceited, complacent, philosophic, broad-waisted pater- familias who, after all, is the one to whom the gay and giddy of the proverbially impulsive, unselfish sex owe their place in the social firmament. We are not inclined to be captious; we laugh at, as a folly, what our wives and daughters condemn as a fault ; our " withers are unwriing," yet we still confess to the fascinations of a pretty face. We know, bless us, from dear experience, the exact value of one woman's opinion of another ; we want our brilliant little friend to shine ; it is only the moths who will burn their twopenny immature wings in the flame ! And why should they not ? Nature has been pleased to supply more moths than candles ! Go to ! — give the pretty creature — be she maid, wife, or widow — a show ! And so, my dear sir, while Tnater-familias bends her black brows in disgust, we smile our superior little smile, and extend to Mistress Anonyma our gracious indorsement. And if Giddiness is grateful, or if Folly is friendly — well, of course, we can't help that. Indeed, it rather proves our theory. I had intended to say something about Hopkinson, but really there is very little to say. He was invariably good- humored. A few ladies once tried to .show him that he really ought to feel worse than he did about the conduct of his wife, and it is recorded that Hopkinson, in an er.cess of HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOK 77 good-humor and kindliness, promised to do so. Indeed the good fellow was so accessible that it is said that young De Lancy of the Tape Department confided to Hopkinson his jealousy of a rival, and revealed the awful secret that I'.p (De Lancy) had reason to expect more loyalty from hiri (Hopkinson's) wife. The good fellow is reported to have been very sympathetic, and to have promised De Lancy to lend whatever influence he had with Mrs. Hopkinson in his favor. " You see," he said explanatorily to De Lancy, " she has a good deal to attend to lately, and I suppose has got rather careless — that 's women's ways. But if I can't bring her round I '11 speak to Gashwiler — I '11 get him to use his influence with Mrs. Hop. So cheer up, my boy, 7ie 'U make it all right." The appearance of a bouquet on the table of Mrs. Hop- kinson was no rare event ; nevertheless, Mr. Gashwiler's was not there. Its hideous contrasts had offended her woman's eye, — it is observable that good taste survives the wreck of all the other feminine virtues, — and she had dis- tributed it to make boutonnieres for other gentlemen. Yet when he appeared she said to him hastily, putting her little hand over the cardiac region : — " I 'm so glad you came. But you gave me such a fright an hour ago." Mr. Gashwiler was both pleased and astounded. " What have I done, my dear Mrs. Hopkinson ? " he began. " Oh, don't talk," she said sadly. " What have you done ? indeed ! Why, you sent me that beautiful bouquet. I could not mistake your taste in the arrangement of the flowers — but my husband was here. You know his jeal- ousy. I was obliged to conceal it from him. Never — promise me now — never do it again." Mr. Gashwiler gallantly protested. " No ! I am serious ! I was so agitated ; he must have seen me blush." 78 THE STORY OF A MINE Nothing but the gross flattery of this speech could have clouded its manifest absurdity to the Gashwiler conscious- ness. But Mr. Gashwiler had already succumbed to the girlish half-timidity with which it was uttered. Neverthe- less, he could not help saying, — " But why should he be so jealous now ? Only day before yesterday I saw Simpson of Duluth hand you a nose- gay right before him ! " " Ah," returned the lady, " he was outwardly calm then, but you know nothing of the scene that occurred between us after you left." "But," gasped the practical Gashwiler, "Simpson had given your husband that contract — a cool fifty thousand in his pocket ! " Mrs. Hopkinson looked as dignifiedly at Gashwiler as was consistent with five feet three (the extra three inches being a pyramidal structure of straw-colored hair), a frond of faint curls, a pair of laughing blue eyes, and a small belted waist. Then she .said, with a casting down of her lids : — " You forget that my husband loves me." And for once the minx appeared to look penitent. It was becoming, but as it had been originally practiced in a simple white dress, relieved only with pale blue ribbons, it was not entirely in keeping with beflounced lavender and rose-colored trint- mings. Yet the woman who hesitates between her moral expression and the harmony of her dress is lost. And Mrs. Hopkinson was victrix by her very audacity. Mr. Gashwiler was flattered. The most dissolute man likes the appearance of virtue. " But graces and accom- plishments like yours, dear Mrs. Hopkinson," he said oleaginously, " belong to the whole country." Which, with something between a courtesy and a strut, he endeav- ored to represent. " And I shall want to avail mysel/ of all," he added, " in the matter of the Castro claim. A little supper at Welcker's, a glass or two of champagne, HOW IT WAS LOBBIED FOE 79 and a single flash of those bright eyes, and the thing is done." "But," said Mrs. Hopkinson, "I've promised Josiah that I would give up all those frivolities, and although my conscience is clear, you know how people talk ! Josiah hears it. Why, only last night, at a reception at the Pata- gonian Minister's, every woman in the room gossiped about me because I led the German with him. As if a married woman, whose husband was interested in the Government, could not be civil to the representative of a friendly power ! " Mr. Gashwiler did not see how Mr. Hopkinson's late contract for supplying salt pork and canned provisions to the army of the United States should make his wife suscep- tible to the advances of foreign princes, but he prudently kept that to himself. Still, not being himself a diplomat, he could not help saying — " But I understood that Mr. Hopkinson did not object to your interesting yourself in this claim, and you know some of the stock " — The lady started, and said — " Stock ! Dear Mr. Gashwiler, for heaven's sake don't mention that hideous name to me. Stock!, I am sick of it ! Have you gentlemen no other topic for a lady ? " She punctuated her sentence with a mischievous look at her interlocutor. Por a second time, I regret to say that Mr. Gashwiler succumbed. The Roman constituency at Eemus, it is to be hoped, were happily ignorant of this last defection of their great legislator. Mr. Gashwiler instantly forgot his theme — began to ply the lady with a certain bovine-like gallantry, which, it is to be said to her credit, she parried with a playful, terrier-like dexterity, when the servant suddenly announced, " Mr. Wiles." Gashwiler started. Not so Mrs. Hopkinson, who how- ever, prudently and quietly removed her own chair several inches from Gashwiler's. 80 THE STOEY OF A MINE " Do you know Mr. Wiles ? " she asked pleasantly. " No ! That is, I — ah — yes, I may say I have had some business relations with him," responded Gashwiler, rising. " Won't you stay ? " she added pleadingly. " Do ! " Mr. Gashwiler's prudence always got the better of his gallantry. " Not now," he responded, in some nervousness. " Perhaps I had better go now, in view of what you have just said about gossip. You need not mention my name to this-er — this — Mr. Wiles." And with one eye on the door and an awkward dash at his lady's fingers, he with- drew. There was no introductory formula to Mr. Wiles' inter- view. He dashed at once in medias res. " Grashwiler knows a woman that, he says, can help us against that Spanish girl who is coming here with proofs, prettiness, fascinations, and what not ? You must find her out." " Why ? " asked the lady laughingly. " Because I don't trust that Gashwiler. A woman with a pretty face and an ounce of brains could sell him out; ay, and us with him." " Oh, say two ounces of brains. Mr. Wiles, Mr. Gash- wiler is no fool." " Possibly, except when your sex is concerned, and it is very likely that this woman is his superior." " I should think so," said Mrs. Hopkinson with a mis- chievous look. " Ah, you know her, then ? " "Not so well as I know him," said Mrs. H., quit* seriously. " I wish I did." " Well, you '11 find out if she 's to be trusted ! You are laughing — it is a serious matter ! This woman " — Mrs. Hopkinson dropped him a charming curtsey and id — " C'est moi ! " A RACE FOR IT 81 XII A RACE FOE IT Royal Thatcher worked hard. That the boyish little painter who shared his hospitality at the " Blue Mass " mine should afterward have little part in his active life seemed not inconsistent with his -habits. At present the mine was his only mistress, claiming his entire time, ex- asperating him with fickleness, but still requiring that supreme devotion of which his nature was capable. It is possible that Miss Carmen saw this too, and so set about with feminine tact, if not to supplement, at least to make her rival less pertinacious and absorbing. Apart from this object she zealously labored in her profession, yet witli small pecuniary result, I fear. Local art was at a discount in California. The scenery of the country had not yet become famous ; rather, it was reserved for a certain East- ern artist, already famous, to make it so, and people cared little for the reproduction, under their very noses, of that which they saw continually with their own eyes and valued not. So that little Mistress Carmen was fain to divert her artist soul to support her plump little material body, and made divers excursions into the region of ceramic art, paint- ing on velvet, illuminating missals, decorating china, and the like. I have in my possession some wax-flowers — a startling fuchsia, and a bewildering dahlia — sold for a mere pittance by this little lady, whose pictures lately took the prize at a foreign exhibition, shortly after she had been half-starved by a California public, and claimed by a Cali- fornia press as its fostered child of genius. Of these struggles and triumphs Thatcher had no know- ledge, yet he was perhaps more startled than he would 82 THE STORY OF A MINE own to himself, when one December day, he received this despatch : "Come to Washington at once. Carmen de Haro." " Carmen de Haro ! " I grieve to state that such was the preoccupation of this man, elected by fate to be the hero of the solitai'y amatory episode of this story, that for a moment he could not recall her. When the honest little figure that had so manfully stood up against him, and had proved her sex by afterwards running away from him, '^ame back at last to his memory, he was at first mystified ^nd then self-reproachful. He had been, he felt vaguely, untrue to himself. He had been remiss to the self-con- fessed daughter of his enemy. Yet why should she tele- graph to him, and what was she doing in Washington ? To all these speculations, it is to be said to his credit, that he looked for no sentimental or romantic answer. Royal Thatcher was naturally modest and self-depreciating in his relations to the other sex, as indeed most men, who are apt to be successful with women, generally are — despite a vast degree of superannuated bosh to the contrary. For the half-dozen women who are startled by sheer audacity into submission, there are scores who are piqued by a self- respectful patience. And where a woman has to do half the wooing, she generally makes a pretty sure thing of it. In his bewilderment Thatcher had overlooked a letter lying on his table. It was from his Washington lawyer. The concluding paragraph caught his eye: "Perhaps it would be well if you came here yourself ; Roscommon is here, and they say there is a niece of Garcia's, lately appeared, who is likely to get up a strong social sympathy for the old Mexican. I don't know that they expect to prove anything by her, but I 'm told she is attractive and clever, and has enlisted the sympathies of the delegation." Thatcher laid the letter down a little indignantly. Strong men are quite as liable as weak women are to sudden A RACE FOR IT 83 inconsistencies on any question tliey may have in common. What right had this poor little bud he had cherished — he was quite satisfied now that he had cherished her, and really had suffered from her absence — what right had she to suddenly blossom in the sunshine of power, to be, per- haps, plucked and worn by one of his enemies ? He did not agree with his lawyer tliat she was in any way connected with his enemies ; he trusted to her masculine loyalty that far. But here was something vaguely dangerous to the feminine mind — position, ilattery, power. He was almost as firmly satisfied now that he had been wronged and neglected as he had been positive a few moments before that he had been remiss in his attention. The irritation, although momentary, was enough to decide this strong man ; he telegraphed to San Francisco, and having missed the steamer, secured an overland passage to Washington ; thought better of it, and partly changed his mind an hour after the ticket was purchased — but, manlike, having once made a practical step in a wrong direction, he kept on rather than admit an inconsistency to himself. Yet he was not entirely satisfied that his journey was a business one. The impulsive, weak little Mistress Carmen had evidently scored one against the strong man. Only a small part of the present great transcontinental railway at this time had been built, and was but piers at either end of a desolate and wild expanse as yet unbridged. Wien the overland traveler left the rail at Reno, he left, as it were, civilization with it, and until he reached the Nebraska frontier, the rest of his road was only the old emigrant trail traversed by the coaches of the Overland Company. Excepting a part of " Devil's Caiion," the way was unpicturesque and flat, and the passage of the Eocky Mountains, far from suggesting the alleged poetry of that reo-ion, was only a reminder of those sterile distances of a level New England landscape. The journey was a dreary 64 THE STORY OF A MINE monotony, that was scarcely enlivened by its discomforts), never amounting to actual accident or incident, but utterly destructive to all nervous tissue. Insanity often super- vened. " On the third day out," said Hank Monk, driver, speaking casually but charitably of a " fare " — " on the third day out, after axing no end of questions and getting no answers, he took to chewing straws that he picked outer the cushion, and kinder cussin' to himself. From that very day I knew it was all over with him, and I handed him over to his friends at ' Shy Ann,' strapped to the back seat, and ravin' and cussin' at Ben HoUiday, the gent'manly proprietor." It is presumed that the unfortunate tourist's indignation was excited at the late Mr. Benjamin Holliday, then the proprietor of the line — an evidence of his insan- ity that no one who knew that large-hearted, fastidious, and elegantly cultured Californian, since allied to foreign nobility, will for a moment doubt. Mr. Eoyal Thatcher was too old and experienced a mountaineer to do aught but accept patiently and cynically his brother Californian's method of increasing his profits. As it was generally understood that any one who came from California by that route had some dark design, the victim received little sympathy. Thatcher's equable tem- perament and indomitable will stood him in good stead, and helped him cheerfully in this emergency. He ate his scant meals, and otherwise took care of the functions of Lis weak human nature, when and where he could, without grumbling, and at times earned even the praise of his driver by his ability to " rough it." Which " roughing it," by the way, meant the ability of the passenger to accept the incompetency of the company. It is true there were times when he regretted that he had not taken the steamer, but then he reflected that he was one of a Vigilance Com- mittee, sworn to hang that admirable man, the late Com- modore William H. Vanderbilt, for certain practices and A RACE FOE IT 85 cruelties done upon the bodies of certain steerage passengers by his line, and for divers irregularities in their transpor- tation. I mention this fact merely to show how so practical and stout a voyager as Thatcher might have confounded the perplexities attending the administration of a great steamship company with selfish greed and brutality, and that he, with other Californians, may not have known the factj since recorded by the Commodore's family clergyman, that the great millionaire was always true to the hymns of his child- hood. Nevertheless Thatcher found time to be cheerful and helpful to his fellow passengers, and even to be so far interesting to " Yuba Bill," driver, as to have the box seat placed at his disposal. " But," said Thatcher, in some concern, " the box seat was purchased by that other gentle- man in Sacramento. He paid extra for it, and his name 'a on your way-bill ! " " That," said Yuba Bill, scornfully, " don't fetch me even ef he 'd chartered the whole shebang. Look yar, do you reckon I 'm goin' to sp'ile my temper by setting next to a man with a game eye. And such an eye ! Gewhillikins ! Why, darn my skin, the other day when we war watering at Webster's, he got down and passed in front of the off-leader — that yer pinto colt that 's bin accustomed to injins, grizzlies, and buffalo, and I 'm blest ef, when her eye tackled his, ef she did n't jist git up and rar 'round, that I reckoned I 'd hev to go down and take them blinders off from he)- eyes and clap 'em on his." "But he paid his money and is entitled to his seat," persisted Thatcher. "Mebbe he is — in the office of the kempeny," growled Yuba Bill, " but it 's time some folks knowed that out in the plains I run this yer team myself." A fact which was self-evident to most of the passengers. "I suppose his authority is as absolute on this dreary waste as the captain of a ship's in mid-ocean," explained Thatcher to the balefiil- eyed stranger. Mr. Wiles —whom the reader has recognized 66 THE STORY OF A MINE — assented with the public side of his face, but looked vengeance at Yuba Bill with the other, while Thatcher, innocent of the presence of one of his worst enemies, placated Bill so far as to restore Wiles to his rights. Wiles, thanked him. " Shall I have the pleasure of your company far ? " Wiles asked insinuatingly. " To Washington," re- plied Thatcher frankly. " Washington is a gay city during the session," again suggested the stranger. " I 'm going on business," said Thatcher bluntly. A trifling incident occurred at Pine Tree Crossing which did not heighten Yuba Bill's admiration of the stranger. As Bill opened the double-locked box in the " boot " of the coach — sacred to Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express and the Overland Company's treasures — Mr. Wiles perceived a small, black, morocco portmanteau among the parcels. " Ah, you carry baggage there too ? " he said sweetly. " Not often," responded Yuba Bill shortly. " Ah, this then contains valuables ? " " It belongs to that man whose seat you've got," said Yuba Bill, who, for insulting purposes of his own, preferred to establish the fiction that Wiles was an interloper, " and ef he reckons, in a sorter mixed kempeny like this, to lock up his portmantle, I don't know who's business it is. Who," continued Bill, lashing himself into a simulated rage, " who, in blank, is running this yer team ? Hey ? Mebbe you think, sittin' up thar on the box-seat, you are. Mebbe you think you kin see 'round corners with that thar eye, and kin pull up for teams 'round corners, on down grades, a mile ahead ? " But here Thatcher, who with some- thing of Launcelot's concern for Modred, had a noble pity for all infirmities, interfered so sternly that Yuba Bill stopped. On the fourth day they struck a blinding snow-storm while ascending the dreary plateau that henceforward for six hundred miles was to be their road-bed. The horses, after floundering through the drift, gave out completely on reaching the next station, and the prospects ahead, to A EACE FOR IT 87 all but the experienced eye, looked doubtful. A few pas- sengers advised taking to sledges, others a postponement of the journey until the weather changed. Yuba Bill alone was for pressing forward as they were. " Two miles more and we 're on the high grade, whar the wind is strong enough to blow you through the windy and jist peart enough to pack away over them cliffs every inch of snow that falls. I '11 jist skirmish round in and out o' them drifts on these four wheels, whar ye can't drag one o' them flat-bottomed dry goods boxes through a drift." Bill had a California whip's contempt for a sledge. But he was ■warmly seconded by Thatcher, who had the next best thing to experience, the instinct that taught him to read character, and take advantage of another man's experience. " Them that wants to stop, kin do so," said Bill, authoritatively, cutting the Gordian knot, "them as wants to take a sledge can do so — thar 's one in the barn. Them as wants to go on with me and the relay will come on." Mr. Wiles selected the sledge and a driver, a few^ remained for the next stage, and Thatcher, with two others, decided to accompany Yuba Bill. These changes took up some valu- able time, and the storm continuing, the stage was run under the shed, the passengers gathering around the station fire, and not until after midnight did Yuba Bill put in the relays. " I wish you a good journey," said Wiles, as he drove from the shed as Bill entered. Bill vouchsafed no reply, but addressing himself to the driver, said curtly, as if giving an order for the delivery of goods, "Shove him out at Eawlings," passed contemptuously around to the tail-board of the sled and returned to the harnessing of his relay. The moon came out and shone high as Yuba Bill once more took the reins in his hands. The wind, which in- stantly attacked them as they reached the level, seemed to make the driver's theory plausible, and for half a mile the 88 THE STORY OF A MINE road-bed was swept clean and frozen hard. Farther on, a tongue of snow, extending from a boulder to the right, reached across their path to the height of two or three feet. But Yuba Bill dashed through a part of it, and by skillful manoeuvring circumvented the rest. But even as the obstacle was passed the coach dropped with an ominous lurch on one side, and the off fore wheel flew off in the darkness. Bill threw the horses back on their haunches, but before their momentum could be checked the rear hind wheel slipped away, the vehicle rocked violently, plunged backwards and forwards, and stopped. Yuba Bill was on the road in an instant with his lantern; Then followed an outbreak of profanity which I regret, for artistic purposes, exceeds that generous limit which a sym- pathizing public has already extended to me in the explica- tion. Let me state, therefore, that in a very few moments he succeeded in disparaging the characters of his employers, their male and female relatives, the coach builder, the station keeper, the road on which he traveled and the travelers themselves, with occasional broad expletives ad- dressed to himself and his own relatives. For the spirit of this and a more cultivated poetry of expression, I beg to refer the temperate reader to the 3d chapter, of Job. The passengers knew Bill, and sat, conservative, patient and expectant. As yet the cause of the catastrophe was not known. At last Thatcher's voice came from the box- seat — "What 'sup. Bill?" "Not a blank linch-pin in the whole blank coach," wai the answer. There was a dead silence. Yuba Bill executed a wild war dance of helpless rage. " Blank the blank enchanted thing to blank ! " (I beg here to refer the fastidious and cultivated readei to the only adjective I have dared transcribe of this actual A RACE FOR IT 89 oath which I once had the honor of hearing. He will, I trust, not fail to recognize the old classic dcemon in this wild Western objurgation.) " Who did it ? " asked Thatcher. Yuba Bill did not reply, but dashed up again to the box, unlocked the " boot," and screamed out — " The man that stole your portmantle — Wiles ! " Thatcher laughed. " Don't worry about that, Bill. A ' biled ' shirt, an extra collar and a few papers. Nothing more." Yuba Bill slowly descended. When he reached the ground he plucked Thatcher aside by his coat sleeve. " Ye don't mean to say ye had nothing in that bag ye ■waz trying to get away with ? " "No," said the laughing Thatcher frankly. " And that Wiles warn't one 'o them detectives ? " " Not to my knowledge, certainly." Yuba Bill sighed sadly and returned to assist in the replacing of the coach on its wheels again. "Never mind. Bill," said one of the passengers sympathiz- ingly, " we '11 catch that man Wiles at ' Eawlings ' sure," and he looked around at the inchoate vigilance committee already " rounding into form " about him. " Ketch him ! " returned Yuba Bill derisively, " why we 've got to go back to the station, and afore we 're off agin he 's pinted fur Clarmont on the relay we lose. Ketch him ! H— 11 's full of such ketches ! " There was clearly nothing to do but to go back to the station to await the repairing of the coach. While this was being done Yuba Bill again drew Thatcher aside. " I allers suspected that chap's game eye, but I did n't somehow allow for anything like this. I reckoned it was only the square thing to look arter things gen'rally, and 'specially your traps. So, to purvent trouble and keep things about 'ekal, ez he was goin' away, I sorter lifted this 90 THE STORY OF A MINE yer bag of hiz outer the tail-board of his sleigh. I don't know as its any ex-change or compensation, but it may give ye a chance to spot him agin, or him you. It strikes me as bein' far-minded and squar," and with these words he deposited at the feet of the astounded Thatcher thr black traveling bag of Mr. Wiles. " But Bill — see here ! I can't take this ! " interrupte(! Thatcher hastily. " You can't swear that he 's taken mj bag — and — and — blank it all — this won't do, you know. I 've no right to this man's things, even if " — " Hold your bosses," said Bill gravely, " I ondertook to take charge o' your traps. I did n't — at least that d — d wall eyed — Thar 's a portmantle. I don't know whose it is. Take it." Half amused, half embarrassed, 3'et still protesting, Thatcher took the bag in his hands. " Ye might open it in my presence," suggested Yuba Bill gravely. Thatcher, half -laughingly, did so. It was full of papers and semi-legal looking documents. Thatcher's own name on one of them caught his eye ; he opened the paper hastily and perused it. The smile faded from his lips. " Well," said Yuba Bill, " suppose we call it a fair ex- change at present." Thatcher was still examining the papers. Suddenly this cautious, strong-minded man looked up into Yuba Bill's waiting face, and said quietly, in the despicable slang of the epoch and region — " It 's a go ! Suppose we do." HOW IT BECAME FAMOUS 91 XIII HOW IT BECAME FAMOUS Yuba Bill was right in believing that Wiles would lose no time at Rawlings. He left there on a fleet horse before Bill had returned with the broken-down coach to the last station, and distanced the telegram sent to detain him two hours. Leaving the stage road and its dangerous tele- graphic stations, he pushed southward to Denver over the army trail, in company with a half-breed packer, crossing the Missouri before Thatcher had reached Julesburg. When Thatcher was at Omaha, Wiles was already in St. Louis, and as the Pullman car containing the hero of the " Blue Mass Mine" rolled into Chicago, Wiles was already- walking the streets of the National Capital. ISTevertheless he had time en route to sink in the waters of the North Platte, with many expressions of disgust, the little black portmanteau belonging to Thatcher, containing his dressing case, a few unimportant letters, and an extra shirt, to wonder why simple men did not travel with their important documents and valuables, and to set on foot some prudent and cautious inquiries regarding his own lost carpet-bag and its important contents. But for these trifles he had every reason to be satisfied with the progress of his plans. " It 's all right," said Mrs. Hopkinson merrily, " while you and Gashwiler have been working with your ' stock ' and treating the whole world as if it could be bribed, I 've done more with that earnest, self -believing, self-deceiving and perfectly pathetic Bos- common than, all you fellows put together. Why I 've told his pitiful dtory and drawn tears from the eyes of senators and cabiniet ministers. More than that, I 've introduced him into society, put him in a dress coat — such a figure -^ 92 THE STORY OF A MINE and you know how the best folk worship everything that is outre as the sincere thing ; I 've made him a complete suc- cess. Why, only the other night, when Senator Misnancy and Judge Fitzdawdle were here, after making him tell his story — which you know I think he really believes — I sang, ' There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin,' and my husband told me afterwards it was worth at least a dozen votes." " But about this rival of yours — this niece of Gar- cia's?" " Another of your blunders — you men know nothing of women. Firstly, she 's a swarthy little brunette, with dots for eyes, and strides like a man, dresses like a dowdy, don't wear stays and has no style. Then she 's a single woman and alone, and although she affects to be an artist and has JBohemian ways, don't you see she can't go into society without a chaperon or somebody to go with her ? Non- sense ! " " But," persisted Wiles, " she must have some power ; there 's Judge Mason and Senator Peabody, who are con- stantly talking about her, and Dinwiddle of Virginia es- corted her through the Capitol the other day." Mistress Hopkinson laughed. " Mason and Peabody aspire to be thought literary and artistic, and Dinwiddle wanted to pique me ! " " But Thatcher is no fool " — " Is Thatcher a lady's man ? " queried the lady suddenly. " Hardly, I should say," responded Wiles. " He pre- tends to be absorbed in his swindle and devoted to his mine, and I don't think that even you " — he stopped with a slight sneer. " There, you are misunderstanding me again, and what is worse, you are misunderstanding your case. Thatcher is pleased with her because he has probably seen no one else. Wait till he comes to Washington and has an opportunity HOW IT BECAME FAMOUS 93 for comparison," and she cast a frank glance at her mirror, where Wiles, with a sardonic how, left her standing. Mr. Gashwiler was quite as confident of his own success with Congress. " We are within a few days of the end of the session. We will manage to have it taken up and rushed through before that fellow Thatcher knows what he is about." " If it could be done before he gets here," said Wiles, ' it 's a reasonably sure thing. He is delayed two days — he might have been delayed longer." Here Mr. Wiles sighed ; if the accident had happened on a mountain road, and the stage had been precipitated over the abyss ? What valuable time would have been saved and success become a surety ! But Mr. Wiles' functions as an advocate did not include murder ; at least he was doubtful if it could be taxed as costs. " We need have no fears, sir," resumed Mr. Gashwiler, " the matter is now in the hands of the highest tribunal of appeal in the country. It will meet, sir, with inflexible justice. I have already prepared some remarks " — " By the way," interrupted Wiles infelicitously, " where 's your young man — your private secretary — Dobbs ? " The Congressman for a moment looked confused. " He is not here. And I must correct your error in applying that term to him. I have never put my confidence in the hands of any one." " But you introduced him to me as your secretary ? " " A mere honorary title, sir. A brevet rank. I might, it is true, have thought to repose such a trust in him. But I was deceived, sir, as I fear I am too apt to be when I permit my feelings as a man to overcome my duty as an American legislator. Mr. Dobbs enjoyed my patronage and the opportunity it gave me to introduce him into pub- lic life only to abuse it. He became, I fear, deeply in- debted. His extravagance was unlimited, his ambition 94 THE STORY OF A MINE unbounded, but without, sir, a cash basis. I advanced money to him from time to time upon the little property you so generously extended to him for his services. But it was quietly dissipated. Yet, sir, such is the ingratitude of man that his family lately appealed to me for assistance. I felt it was necessary to be stern, and I refused. I would not for the sake of his family say anything, but I have missed, sir, books from my library. On the day after he left, two volumes of Patent Office reports and a Blue Book of Congress, purchased that day by me at a store on Penn- sylvania avenue, were missinff — missing ! I had difficulty, sir, great difficulty in keeping it from the papers ! " As Mr. Wiles had heard the story already from Gash- wiler's acquaintance, with more or less free comment on the gifted legislator's economy, he could not help thinking that the difficulty had been great indeed. But he only fixed hiss malevolent eye on Gashwiler and said — " So he is gone, eh ? " " Yes." " And you 've made an enemy of him ? That 's bad." Mr. Gashwiler tried to look dignifiedly unconcerned, but something in his visitor's manner made him uneasy. " I say it 's bad, if you have. Listen. Before I left here I found at a boarding-house where he had boarded, and still owed a bill, a trunk which the landlord retained. Opening it I found some letters and papers of yours, with certain memoranda of his, which I thought ought to be in i/our possession. As an alleged friend of his I redeemed the trunk by paying the amount of his bill, and secured the more valuable papers." Gashwiler's face, which had grown apoplectically sufi'used as Wiles went on, at last gasped, " But you got the trunk and have the papers ? " " Unfortunately, no ; and that 's why it 's bad." " But good God ! what have you done with them ? " HOW IT BECAME FAMOUS 93 "I 've lost them somewhere on the Overland Eoad." Mr. Gashwiler sat for a few moments speechless, vacillat- ing between a purple rage and a pallid fear. Then he said hoarsely — " They are all blank forgeries — every one of them." " Oh no ! " said Wiles, smiling blankly on his dexter side, and enjoying the whole scene malevolently with his sinister eye. " Your papers are all genuine, and I won't say are not all right, but unfortunately I had in the same bag some memoranda of my own for the use of my client, that, you understand, might be put to some bad use if found by a clever man." The two rascals looked at each other. There is, on the whole, really very little " honor among thieves " — at least great ones ; and the inferior rascal succumbed at the reflec- tion of what he might do if he were in the other rascal's place. " See here, Wiles," he said, relaxing his dignity with the perspiration that oozed from every pore, and made the collar of his shirt a mere limp rag. " See here. We " — this first use of the plural was equivalent to a confession — " we must get them papers." " Of course," said Wiles coolly, " if we can, and if Thatcher don't get wind of them." "He cannot." " He was on the coach when I lost them, coming East." Mr. Gashwiler paled again. In the emergency he had recourse to the sideboard and a bottle, forgetting Wiles. Ten minutes before, Wiles would have remained seated ; but it is recorded that he rose, took the bottle from the gifted Gashwiler's fingers, helped himself first and then sat down. " Yes, but, my boy," said Gashwiler, now rapidly chang- ing situations with the cooler Wiles, " yes, but, old fellow," he added, poking Wiles with a fat forefinger, " don't you Bee the whole thing will be up before he gets here ? " 96 THE STORY OF A MINE " Yes," said Wiles gloomily, " but those lazj', easy, hon« est men have a way of popping up just at the nick of time. They never need hurry ; all things wait for them. Why, don't you remember that on the very day Mrs. Hopkinson and me and you got the President to sign that patent, that very day one of them d — n fellows turns up from San Francisco or Australia, having taken his own time to get here ; gets here about half an hour after the President had signed the patent and sent it over to the office, finds the right man to introduce him to the President, has a talk with him, makes him sign an order countermanding its issuance, and undoes all that has been done in six years in one hour." " Yes, but Congress is a tribunal that does not revoke its decrees," said Gashwiler with a return of his old manner ; " at least," he added, observing an incredulous shrug in the shoulders of his companion, " at least during the session." " We shall see," said Wiles, quietly taking his hat. "We shall see, sir," said the member from Eemus with dignity. XIV WHO INTKIGUED FOE IT There was at this time in the Senate of the United States an eminent and respected gentleman, scholarly, orderly, honorable and radical — the fit representative of a scholarly, orderly, honorable and radical commonwealth. For many years he had held his trust with conscious rectitude, and a slight depreciation of other forms of merit, and for as many years had been as regularly returned to his seat by his con- stituency with equally conscious rectitude' in themselves, and an equal scepticism regarding others. Removed bj his nature beyond the reach of certain temptations, and bj "WHO INTEIGUBD FOR IT 97 circumstances beyond even the knowledge of others, his social and political integrity was spotless. An orator and practical debater, his refined tastes kept him from person- ality, and the public recognition of the. complete unselfish- ness of his motives and the magnitude of his dogmas, pro- tected him from scurrility. His principles had never been appealed to by a bribe ; he had rarely been approached by an emotion. A man of polished taste in art and literature, and pos- sessing the means to gratify it, his luxurious home was filled with treasures he had himself collected, and further enhanced by the stamp of his own appreciation. His library had not only the elegance of adornment that his wealth could bring and his taste approve, but a certain refined negligence of habitual use and the eaoy dit:order ol the artist's workshop. All this was quickly notad by a young girl who stood on its threshold at the close of a divh" January day. The card that had been brought to the Senator bore the name of " Carmeti de Haro," and modestly, in the right-hand corner, in almost microscopic script, the .further description of herself as " Artist." Perhaps the pietur- esqueness of the name and its historic suggestion caught th'^ scholar's taste, for, when to bis request, through his servanf, that she would be kind enough to state her business, she replied as frankly that her business was personal to himself, he directed that she should be admitted. Then, entrench- ing himself behind his library table, overlooking a bastior of books, and a glacis of pamphlets and papers, and throw ing into his forehead and eyes an expression of utter dis- qualification for anything but the business before him, he calmly awaited the intruder. She came, and, for an instant stood, hesitatingly, framing herself as a picture in the door. Mrs. Hopkinson was right — she had " no style," unless an original and half 98 THE STOKY OF A MINE foreign quaintness could be called so. There was a de9> perate attempt visible to combine an American shawl with the habits of a mantilla, and it was always slipping from one shoulder, that was so supple and vivacious as to betray the deficiencies of an education, in stays. There was a cluster of black curls around her low forehead, fitting her so closely as to seem to be a part of the seal-skin cap she wore. Once, from the force of habit, she attempted to put her shawl over her head and talk through the folds gathered under her chin, but an astonished look from the Senator checked her. Nevertheless, he felt relieved, and, rising, motioned her to a chair with a heartiness he would have scarcely shown to a Parisian toilleta. And when, with two or three quick, long steps, she reached his side, and showed a frank, innocent, but strong and determined little face, feminine only in its flash of eye and beauty of lip and chin curves, he put down the pamphlet he had taken up somewhat ostentatiously, and gently begged to know her business. I think I have once before spoken of her voice — an organ more often cultivated by my fair countrywomen for singing than for speaking, which, considering that much of our practical relations with the sex are carried on with- out the aid of an opera score, seems a mistaken notion of theirs — and of its sweetness, gentle inflection and musical emphasis. She had the advantage of having been trained in a musical language, and came of a race with whom catarrhs and sore throats were rare. So that in a few brief phrases she sang the Senator into acquiescence as she imparted the plain libretto of her business — namely, a " desire to see some of his rare engravings." Now the engravings in question were certain etchings of the early great apprentices of the art, and were, T am happy to believe, extremely rare. From my unprofessional view they were exceedingly bad — showing the mere genesis WHO INTRIGUED FOR IT 99 of something since perfected, but dear, of course, to the true collector's soul. I don't believe that Carmen really admired them either. But the minx knew that the Senator prided himself on having the only "pot-hooks" of the great " A " or the first artistic efforts of " B " — I leave the real names to be filled in by the connoisseur — and the Senator became interested. For the last year, two or three of these abominations had been hanging in his study, ut- terly ignored by the casual visitor. But here was appre- ciation ! " She was," she added, " only a poor young artist, unable to purchase such treasures, but equally un- able to resist the opportunity afforded her, even at the risk of seeming bold, or of obtruding upon a great man's pri- vacy," etc., etc. This flattery, which, if offered in the usual legal tender of the country, would have been looked upon as counter- feit, delivered here in a foreign accent, with a slightly tropical warmth, was accepted by the Senator as genuine. These children of the Sun are so impulsive ! We, of course, feel a little pity for the person who thus transcends our standard of good taste and violates our conventional canons — but they are always sincere. The cold New Englander saw nothing wrong in one or two direct and extravagant compliments, that would have insured his visitor's early dismissal if tendered in the clipped metallic phrases of the commonwealth he represented. So that in a few moments the black, curly head of the little artist and the white, flowing locks of the Senator were close t.ogether bending over the rack that contained the engravings. It was then that Carmen, listening to a graphic description of the early rise of Art in the Nether- lands, forgot herself and put her shawl around her head, holding its folds in her little brown hand. In this situation they were, at different times during the next two hours, interrnpted by five Congressmen, three Senators, a Cabinet 100 THE STORY OF A MINE officer, and a Judge of the Supreme Bench — each of whom was quickly but courteously dismissed. Popular sentiment, however, broke out in the hall. " Well, I 'm blanked, but this gets me." (The speaker was a Territorial delegate.) " At his time o' life, too, lookin' over pictures with a gal young enough to be his grandchild." (This from a vener- able official, since suspected of various erotic irregularities.) " She don't handsome any." (The honorable member from Dakotah.) " This accounts for his protracted silence during the session." (A serious colleague from the Senator's own State.) " Oh, blank it all ! " (Omnes.) Four went home to tell their wives. There are few things more touching in the matrimonial compact than the superb frankness with which each confide to each the various irregularities of their friends. It is upon these sacred con. fidences that the firm foundations of marriage r&st un- shaken. Of course the objects of this comment, at least one of them, were quite oblivious. " I trust," said Carmen timidly, when they had for the fourth time regarded in rapt admira- tion an abominable something by some Dutch wood-chop- per, " I trust I am not keeping you from your great friends," — her pretty eyelids were cast down in tremulous distress — "I should never forgive myself. Perhaps it is impor- tant business of the State ? " " Oh dear, no ! They will come again — it 's their business." The Senator meant it kindly. It was as near the perilous edge of a compliment as your average cultivated Boston man ever ventures, and Carmen picked it up, femininely, by its sentimental end. " And I suppose I shall not trouble you again ? " WHO INTRIGUED FOR IT 101 " I sliall always be proud to place the portfolio at your disposal. Command me at any time," said the Senator, with dignity. " You are kind. You are good," said Carmen, " and I — lam but — look you — only a poor girl from California, that you know not." " Pardon me. I know your country well," And indeed he could have told her the exact number of bushels of wheat to the acre in her own county of Monterey, its voting population, its political bias. Yet of the more important product before him, after the manner of book-read men, he knew nothing. Carmen was astonished, but respectful. It transpired presently that she was not aware of the rapid growth of the silk-worm in her own district, knew nothing of the Chinese question, and very little of the American mining laws. Upon these questions the Senator enlightened her fully. " Your name is historic, by the way," he said pleasantly ; " there was a Knight of Alcantara, a ' de Haro,' one of the emigrants with Las Casas." Carmen nodded her head quickly, " Yes ; my great-great- great-g-r-e-a-t grandfather ! " The Senator stared. " Oh yes. I am the niece of Victor Castro, who married my father's sister." " The Victor Castro of the Blue Mass Mine ? " asked the Senator abruptly. " Yes," quietly. Had the Senator been of the Gashwiler type, he would have expressed himself, after the average masculine fashion, by a long-drawn whistle. But his only perceptible appre- tiation of a sudden astonishment and suspicion in his mind was a lowering of the social thermometer of the room so decided that poor Carmen looked up innocently, chilled, and drawing her shawl closer round her shoulders. 102 THE STORY OF A MINE '■■ I have sometbing more to ask," said Carmen, hanging her head — " it is a great, oh, a very great favor." The Senator had retreated behind his bastion of books again, and was visibly preparing for an assault. He saw it all now. He had been, in some vague way, deluded. He had given confidential audience to the niece of one of the Great Claimants before Congress. The inevitable axe had come to the grindstone. What might not this woman dare ask of him ? He was the more implacable that he felt he had already been prepossessed — and honestly prepossessed — in her favor. He was angry with her for having pleased him. Under the icy polish of his manner there were certain Puritan callosites caused by early strait-lacing. He was not yet quite free from his ancestor's cheerful ethics, that Nature, as represented by an Impulse, was as much to be restrained as Order represented by a Quaker. Without apparently noticing his manner, Carmen went on, with a certain potential freedom of style, gesture, and manner scarcely to be indicated in her mere words. " You know, then, I am of Spanish blood, and that, in what was my adopted country, our motto was, ' God and Liberty.' It was of you, sir — the great Emancipator — the apostle of that Liberty — the friend of the down-trodden and op- pressed — that I, as a child, first knew. In the histories of this great country I have read of you, I have learned your orations. I have longed to hear you in your own pulpit deliver the creed of my ancestors. To hear you, of yourself, speak, ah ! Madre de Dios ! what shall I say — speak the oration eloquent to make the — what you call — the debate, that is what I have for so h)ng hoped. Eh ! Pardon — you are thinking me foolish — wild, eh — a small child — eh ? " Becoming more and more dialectical as she went on, she said suddenly, " I have you of myself offended. You are mad of me as a bold, bad child ? Is it so ? " WHO INTRIGUED FOR IT 103 The Senator, as visibly becoming limp and weak again behind his entrenchments, managed to say, " Oh, no ! " then, " Eeally ! " and finally, " Tha-a-nks ! " " I am here but for a day. I return to California in a day, as it were to-morrow. I shall never — never hear you speak in your place in the Capitol of this great coun- try ? " The Senator said, hastily, that he feared, he in fact was convinced, that his duty during this session was required more at his desk, in the committee work, than in speak- ing, etc., etc. "Ah," said Carmen, sadly, "it is true, then, all this that I have heard. It is true that what they have told me — ■ that you have given up the great party — that your voice is not longer heard in the old — what you call this — eh — the old issues ? " "If any one has told you that. Miss De Haro," re- sponded the Senator, sharply, "he has spoken foolishly. You have been misinformed. May I ask who " — " Ah ! " said Carmen, " I know not ! It is in the air ! I am a stranger. Perhaps I am de-ceived. But it is of all. I say to them, When shall' I hear him speak ? I go day after day to the Capitol, I watch him — the great Emanci- pator — but it is of business, eh ? — it is the claim of that one, it is the Tax, eh ? it is the Impost, it is the Post- office, but it is the great speech of Human Eights — never, JTEVEB. I say, ' How arrives all this ? ' And some say and shake their heads, 'Never again he speaks.' He is what you call ' played ' — yes, it is so, eh ? ' played out.' I know it not — it is a word from Bos-ton, perhaps ? They say he has — eh, I speak not the English well — the party he has ' shaken,' ' shook ' — yes — he has the Party ' shaken,' eh ? It is right — it is the language of Boston, eh ? " ■■' Permit me to say. Miss De Haro," returned the Sen- 104 THE STORY OF A MINE ator, rising with some asperity, " that you seem to have been unfortunate in your selection of acquaintances, and still more so in your ideas of the derivations of the Eng- lish tongue. The — er — the — er — expressions you have quoted are not common to Boston, but emanate, I believe, from the West." Carmen De Haro contritely buried everything but hei black eyes in her shawl. "No one," he continued more gently, sitting down again, " has the right to forecast from my past what I intend to do in the future, or designate the means I may choose to serve the principles I hold or the Party I represent. Those are tmj functions. At the same time, should occasion — or opportunity — for we are within a day or two of the close of the Session " — "Yes," interrupted Carmen, sadly, "I see — it will be some business, some claim, something for somebody — ah ! Madre de Dios — you will not speak, and I" — " When do you think of returning ? " asked the Senator, with grave politeness, " when are we to lose you ? " " I shall stay to the last — to the end of the Session," said Carmen. "And now I shall go." She got up and pulled her shawl viciously over her shoulders with a pretty pettishuess, perhaps the most feminine thing she had done that evening. Possibly, the most genuine. The Senator smiled affably : " You do not deserve to be disappointed in either case ; but it is later than you imagine ; let me help you on the shorter distance with my carriage ; it is at the door." He accompanied her gravely to the carriage. As it rolled away she buried her little figure in its ample cushions and chuckled to herself, albeit a little hysterically. When she had reached her destination she found herself crying, and hastily, and somewhat angrily, dried her eyes as she drew up at the door of her lodgings. HOW IT BECAME UNFINISHED BUSINESS 105 " How have you prospered ? " asked Mr. Harlowe, of counsel for Royal Thatcher, as he gallantly assisted her from the carriage. "I have been waiting here for two hours ; your interview must have been prolonged — that was a good sign." "Don't ask me now," said Carmen, a little savagely, " I 'm worn out and tired." Mr. Harlowe bowed. "I trust you will be better to- morrow, for we expect our friend, Mr. Thatcher." Carmen's brown cheek flushed slightly. " He should have been here before. Where is he ? What was he doing ? " " He was snowed up on the plains. He is coming as fast as steam can carry him, but he may be too late." Carmen did not reply. The lawyer lingered. " How did you find the great New England Senator ? " he asked, with a slight profes- sional levity. Carmen was tired. Carmen was worried, Carmen was a little self-reproachful, and she kindled easily. Conse- quently she said icily — " I found him a gentleman ! " XV HOW IT BECAME UNFINISHED BUSINESS The closing of the LXIX Congress was not unlike the closing of the several preceding Congresses. There was the same unbusiness - like, impractical haste; the same liurried, unjust, and utterly inadequate adjustment of un- finished, ill-digested business, that would not have been tolerated for a moment by the sovereign people , in any private interest they controlled. There were frauds rushed through; there were long - suifering, righteous demands 106 THE STORY OF A MINE shelved ; there were honest, unpaid debts dishonored by scant appropriations ; there were closing scenes which only the saving sense of American humor kept from being utterly vile. The actors, the legislators themselves, knew it and laughed at it ; the commentators, the Press, knew it and laughed at it ; the audience, the great American peo- ple knew it and laughed at it. And nobody for an in- stant conceived that it ever, under any circumstances, might be otherwise. The claim of Roscommon was among the Unfinished Business. The claimant himself, haggard, pathetic, impor- tunate and obstinate, was among the Unfinished Business. Various Congressmen, more or less interested in the success of the claim, were among the Unfinished Business. The member from Fresno, who had changed his derringer for a speech against the claimant, was among the Unfinished Business. The gifted Gashwiler, uneasy in his soul ever certain other unfinished business in the shape of his missing letters, but dropping oil and honey as he mingled with his brothers, was King of Misrule and Lord of the Unfinished Business. Pretty Mrs. Hopkinson, prudently escorted by her husband, but imprudently ogled by admiring Congress- men, lent the charm of her presence to the finishing of Un- finished Business. One or two editors, who had dreams of a finished financial business, arising out of unfinished busi- ness, were there also, like ancient bards, to record with paean or threnody the completion of Unfinished Business. Various unclean birds, scenting carrion in Unfinished Busi- ness, hovered in the halls or roosted in the Lobby. The lower house, under the tutelage of their gifted Gash- wiler, drank deeply of Eoscommon and his intoxicating claim, and passed the half empty bottle to the Senate as Unfinisljed Business. But alas ! in the very rush and storm and tempest of the finishing business, an unlooked-for intef- ruption arose in the person of a great Senator whose powe.n HOW IT BECAME UNFINISHED BUSINESS 107 none could oppose, whose riglit to free and extended utter- ance at all times none could gainsay. A claim for poultry, violently seized by the army of Sherman during his march through Georgia, from the hen-coop of an alleged loyal Irishman, opened a constitutional question, and with it the lips of the great Senator. For seven hours he spoke eloquently, earnestly, con- vincingly. For seven hours the old issues of party and policy were severally taken up and dismissed in the old forcible rhetoric that had early made him famous. Inter- ruption from other Senators, now forgetful of Unfinished Business and wild with reanimated party zeal ; interruptions from certain Senators mindful of Unfinished Business, and unable to pass the Roscommon bottle, only spurred him to fresh exertion. The tocsin sounded in the Senate was heard in the lower house. Highly excited members congregated at the doors of the Senate, and left Unfinished Business to take care of itself. Left to itself for seven hours. Unfinished Business gnashed its false teeth and tore its wig in impotent fury in corridor and hall. For seven hours the gifted Gashwiler had continued the manufacture of oil and honey, whose sweetness, however, was slowly palling upon the Congres- sional lip ; for seven hours Eoscommon and friends beat with impatient feet the lobby and shook fists, more or less discolored, at the distinguished Senator. For seven hours the one or two editors were obliged to sit and calmly compli- ment the great speech which that night flashed over the wires of a continent with the old electric thrill. And, worse than all, they were obliged to record with it the closing of the LXIX Congress, with more than the usual amount of Unfinished Business. A little group of friends surrounded the great Senator with hymns of praise and congratulations. Old adversaries saluted him courteously as they passed by, with the respect 108 THE STORY OF A MINE of strong men. A little woman with a shawl drawn over her shoulders, and held with one small brown hand, approached him timidly — " I speak not the English well," she said gently, " but I have read much. I have read in the plays of your Shake- speare. I would like to say to you the words of Rosalind to Orlando, when he did fight : ' Sir, you have wrestled well, and have overthrown more than your enemies.' " And with these words she was gone. Yet not so quickly but that pretty Mrs. Hopkinson, coming — as Victrix always comes to Victor — to thank the great Senator, albeit the faces of her escorts were shrouded in gloom, saw the shawled figure disappear. " There," she said, pinching Wiles mischievously, " there ! that 's the woman you were afraid of. Look at her. Look at that dress. Ah, heavens ! look at that shawl. Did n't I tell you she had no style ? " " Who is she ? " said Wiles sullenly. '' Carmen de Haro, of course," said the lady vivaciously. " What are you hurrying away so for ? You 're absolutely pulling me along." Mr. Wiles had just caught sight of the travel-worn face of Royal Thatcher among the crowS that thronged the stair- case. Thatcher appeared pale and distrait ; Mr. Harlowe, his counsel, at his side, rallied him. " No one would think you had just got a new lease of your property, and escaped a great swindle. What's the matter with you ? Miss De Haro passed us just now. It was she who spoke to the Senator. Why did you not recognize her ? " " I was thinking," said Thatcher gloomily. " Well, you take things coolly ! And certainly you are not very demonstrative towards the woman who saved you to-day. For as sure as you live it was she who drew that speech out of the Senator." AND WHO FORGOT IT 109 Thatcher did not reply, but moved away. He had noticed Carmen de Haro, and was about to greet her with mingled pleasure and embarrassment. But he had heard her compliment to the Senator, and this strong, preoccupied, automatic man, who only ten days before had no thouglit beyond his property, was now thinking more of that compli- ment to another than of bis success — and was beginning to hate the Senator who had saved him, the lawyer who stood beside him, and even the little figure that had tripped down the steps unconscious of him. XVI AND WHO FORGOT IT It was somewhat inconsistent with Royal Thatcher's em- barrassment and sensitiveness that he should, on leaving the Capitol, order a carriage and drive directly to the lodgings of Miss De Haro. That on finding she was not at home he should become again sulky and suspicious, and even be ashamed of the honest impulse that led him there, was, I suppose, man-like and natural. He felt that he had done all that courtesy required : he had promptly answered her despatch with his presence. If she chose to be absent at such a moment, he had at least done his duty. In short, there was scarcely any absurdity of the imagination which this once practical man did not permit himself to indulge in, yet always with a certain consciousness that he was al- lowing his feelings to run away with him — a fact that did not tend to make him better humored, and rather inclined him to place the responsibility of the elopement on some- body else. If Miss De Haro had been home, etc., etc., and not going into ecstacies over speeches, etc., etc., and had attended to her business — i. e., being exactly what he had supposed her to be — all this would not- have happenee^ 110 THE STORY OF A MINE I am aware that this will not heighten the reader's re- spect for my hero. But I fancy that the imperceptible progress of a sincere passion in the matured strong man is apt to be marked with even more than the usual haste and absurdity of callous youth. The fever that runs riot in the veins of the robust is apt to pass your ailing weakling by. Possibly there may be some immunity in inoculation. It is Lothario who is always self-possessed and does and says the right thing, while poor honest Caelebs becomes ridiculous ■with genuine emotion. He rejoined his lawyer in no very gracious mood. The chambers occupied by Mr. Harlowe were in the basement of a private dwelling once occupied and made historic by an Honorable Somebody, who, however, was remembered only by the landlord and the last tenant. There were various shelves in the walls divided into compartments, sarcastically known as " pigeon-holes," in which the dove of peace had never rested, but which still perpetuated, in their legends, the feuds and animosities of suitors now but common dust together. There was a portrait, apparently of a cherub, which on nearer inspection turned out to be a famous Eng- lish Lord Chancellor in his flowing wig. There were books with dreary, unenlivening titles — egotistic always, as re- cording Smith's opinions on this, and Jones's commentaries- on that. There was a handbill tacked on the wall, which at first offered hilarious suggestions of a circus or a steamboat excursion, but which turned out only to be a sheriff's sale. There were several oddly-shaped packages in newspaper wrappings, mysterious and awful in dark corners, that might have contained forgotten law papers or the previous week's washing of the eminent counsel. There were one or two newspapers, which at first offered entertaining prospects to the waiting client, but always proved to be a laM' record or a Supreme Coiirt decision. There was the bust of a late distinguished jurist, v/hich apparently had never been dusted AND WHO FORGOT IT 111 since he himself hecame dvTst, and had already grown a per- ceptibly dusty moustache on his severely-judicial upper lip. It was a cheerless place in the sunshine of day ; at night, ivhen it ought, by every suggestion of its dusty past, to have been left to the vengeful ghosts, the greater part of whose hopes and passions were recorded and gathered there — when in the dark the dead hands of forgotten men were stretched from their dusty graves to fumble once more for their old title deeds — at night, v.'hen it was lit up by flaring gaslight, the hollow mockery of this dissipation was so apparent that people in the streets, looking through the illuminated windows, felt as if the privacy of a family vault had been intruded upon by body-snatchers. Royal Thatcher glanced around the room, took in all its dreary suggestions in a half-weary, half-indifferent sort of way, and dropped into the lawyer's own revolving chair as that gentleman entered from the adjacent room. " Well, you got back soon, I see," said Harlowe briskly. " Yes," said his client without looking up, and with this notable distinction between himself and all other previous clients, that he seemed absolutely less interested than the lawyer. "Yes, I 'm here, and upon my soul I don't exactly know why." "You told me of certain papers you had discovered," said the lawyer suggestively. " Oh yes," returned Thatcher with a slight yawn. " I've got here some papers somewhere " — he began to feel in his coat-pocket languidly — " but, by the way, this is a rather dreary and God-forsaken sort of place ! Let 's go up to Welcker's, and you can look at them over a bottle of champagne." " After I 've looked at them, I 've something to show you myself," said Harlowe, " and as for the champagne, we '11 have that in the other room, by and by. At present I want to have my head clear, and yours too — if you '11 oblige me a J 2 THE STORY OF A MINE by becoming sufficiently interested in your own affairs to talk to me about them." Thatcher was gazing abstractedly at the fire. He started. " I dare say," he began, " I 'm not very interesting ; yet it's possible that my afiairs have taken up a little too much of my time. However " — he stopped, took from his pocket an envelope and threw it on the desk — " there are some papers. I don't know what value they may be ; that is for you to determine. I don't know that I 've any legal right to their possession — that 's for you to say, too. They came to me in a queer way. On the overland journey here I lost my bag, containing my few traps and some letters and papers ' of no value,' as the advertisements always say, ' to any but the owner.' Well, the bag was lost, but the stage- driver declares that it was stolen by a fellow-passenger, a — > man by the name of Giles, or Stiles, or Biles " — "Wiles," said Harlowe earnestly. " Yes,^' continued Thatcher, suppressing a yawn ; " yes, I guess you 're right — Wiles. Well, the stage-driver, firmly believing this, goes to work and quietly and unos- tentatiously steals — I say, have you got a cigar ? " " I '11 get you one." Harlowe disappeared in the adjoining room. Thatcher dragged Harlowe's heavy revolving desk chair, which never before had been removed from its sacred position, to the fire, and began to poke the coals abstractedly. Harlowe reappeared with cigars and matches. Thatcher lit one mechanically, and said between the puffs — " Do you — ever — talk — to yourself ? " « No ! _ why ? " "I thought I heard your voice just now in the other room. Anyhow, this is an awful spooky place. If I stayed here alone half an hour I 'd fancy that the Lord Chancellor up there would step down in his robes, out of his frame, to keep me company." AND WHO FOEGOT IT US " Nonsense ! When I 'm busy I often sit here and writ until after midnight. It 's so quiet ! " " D— mnably so ! " " Well, to go back to the papers. Somebody stole your bag, or you lost it. You stole " — "The driver stole," suggested Thatcher, so languidly that it could hardly be called an interruption. " Well, we '11 say the driver stole, and passed over to you as his accomplice, confederate, or receiver, certain papers belonging " — " See here, Harlowe, I don't feel like joking in a ghostly law office after midnight. Here are your facts. Yuba Bill, tlie driver, stole a bag from this passenger. Wiles, or Smiles, and handed it to me to insure the return of my own. I found in it some papers concerning my case. There they are. Do with them what you like." Thatcher turned his eyes again abstractedly to the lire. Harlowe took out the first paper. " A-w, this seems to be a telegram. Yee, eh ? ' Come to Washington at once. Carmen de Haro.' " Thatcher started, and blushed like a girl, and hurriedly reached for the paper. " Nonsense. That 's a mistake. A despatch I mislaid in the envelope." " I see," said the lawyer drily. " I thought I had torn it up," continued Thatcher, after an awkward pause. I regret to say that here that usually truthful man elaborated a fiction. He had consulted it a dozen times a day on the journey, and it was quite worn in its enfoldings. Harlowe's quick eye had noticed this, but he speedily became interested and absorbed in the other papers. Thatcher lapsed into contemplation of the fire. " Well," said Harlowe, finally turning to his client, " here 's enough to unseat Gashwiler, or close his mouth. As to the rest, it 's good reading — but I needn't tell you '—no leffcd evidence. But it 's proof enough to stop them 114 THE STORY OF A MINE from ever trying it again — when the existence of thia record is made known. Bribery is a hard thing to fix on a man ; the only witness is naturally particeps crim.inis — ■ but it would not be easy for them to explain away this ras- cal's record. One or two things I don't understood : What 's this opposite the Hon. X.'s name, 'Took the medicine nicely, and feels better? ' — and here, just in the margin, after Y.'s, ' Must be labored with ? ' " "I suppose our California slang borrows largely from the medical and spiritual professions," returned Thatcher. " But is n't it odd that a man should keep a conscientious record of his own villainy ? " Harlowe, a little abashed at his want of knowledge of American metaphor, now felt himself at home. " Well, no. It 's not unusual. In one of those books yonder there is the record of a case where a man, "who had committed a series of nameless atrocities, extending over a period of years, absolutely kept a memorandum of them in his pocket diary. It was produced in 'Court. Why, my dear fellow, one half our business arises from the fact that men and women are in the habit of keeping letters and documents that they might — I don't say, you know, that they ought, that's a question of sentiment or ethics — but that they might destroy." Thatcher, half-mechanically, took the telegram of poor Carmen and threw it in the fire. Harlowe noticed the act and smiled. " I '11 venture to say, however, that there 's nothing in the bag that you lost that need give you a moment's un- easiness. It 's only your rascal or fool who carries with him that which makes him his own detective. " I had a friend," continued Harlowe, " a clever fellow enough, bvit who was so foolish as to seriously complicate himself with a woman. He was himself the soul of honor, and at the beginning of their correspondence he proposed AND WHO FORGOT IT 115 that they should each return the other's letters with their answer. They did so for years, but it cost him ten thou- sand dollars and no end of trouble, after all." " Why ? " asked Thatcher simply. " Because he was such an egotistical ass as to keep the letter proposing it, which she had duly returned, among his papers as a sentimental record. Of course somebody eventually found it." " Good-night," said Thatcher, rising abruptly. " If I stayed here much longer, I should begin to disbelieve my own mother." " I have known of such hereditary traits," returned Kar- lowe, with a laugh. " But come, you must not go without the champagne." He led the way to the adjacent room, ■which proved to be only the antechamber of another, on the threshold of which Thatcher stopped with genuine sur- prise. It was an elegantly furnished library. " Sybarite ! Why was I never here before ? " ". Because you came as a client ; to-night you are my guest. All who enter here leave their business, with their hats, in the hall. Look ; there is n't a law-book on those shelves ; that table never was defaced by a title-deed or parchment. You look puzzled ? Well, it was a whim of mine to put my residence and my workshop under the same roof, yet so distinct that they would never interfere with each other. You know the house above is let out to lodgers. I occupy the first floor with my mother and sister, and this is my parlor. I do my work in that severe room that fronts the street ; here is where I play. A man must have something else in life than mere business. I find it less harmful and expensive to have my pleasure here." Thatcher had sunk moodily in the embracing arms of an easy chair. He was thinking deeply ; he was fond of books too, and like all men who have fared hard and led wander- ing lives, he knew the value of cultivated repose. Like all 116 THE STORY OF A MINE men who have been obliged to sleep under blankets and in the open air, he appreciated the luxuries of linen sheets and a frescoed roof. It is, by the way, only your sick city clerk or your dyspeptic clergyman, who fancy that they have found in the bad bread, fried steaks and frowzy flannels of mountain picnicking the true art of living. And it is a somewhat notable fact that your true mountaineer or your gentleman who has been obliged to honestly " rough it," do not, as a general thing, write books about its advantages or implore their fellow mortals to come and share their soli- tude and their discomforts. Thoroughly appreciating the taste and comfort of Har- lowe's library, yet half envious of its owner, and half suspi- cious that his own earnest life for the past few years might have been diiferent, Thatcher suddenly started from his seat and walked towards a parlor easel, whereon stood a picture. It was Carmen de Haro's first sketch of the furnace and the Mine. " I see you are taken with that picture," said Harlowe, pausing with the champagne bottle in his hand. " You show your good taste. It 's been much admired. Observe how splendidly that firelight plays over the sleeping face of that figure, yet brings out by very contrast its almost death-like repose. Those rocks are powerfully handled ; what a suggestion of mystery in those shadows ? You know the painter ? " Thatcher murmured " Miss de Haro," with a new and rather odd self-consciousness in speaking her name. " Yes. And you know the story of the picture, of course ? " Thatcher thought he did n't — well no, in fact, he did net remember. " Why, this recumbent figure was an old Spanish lover of hers, whom she believed to have been murdered there. It 's a ghastly fancy, ain't it ? " AND WHO FOEGOT IT 117 Two things annoyed Thatcher ; first, the epithet "lover," as applied to Concho by another man ; second, that the picture belonged to him ; and what the d — 1 did she mean by- " Yes," he broke out finally, " but how did you get it ? " " Oh, I bought it of her. I 've been a sort of patron of hers ever since I found out how she stood toward us. As she was quite alone here in Washington, my mother and sister have taken her up, and have been doing the social thing." " How long since ? " asked Thatcher. " Oh, not long. The day she telegraphed you she came here to know what she could do for us, and when I said nothing could be done except to keep Congress off — why, she went and did it. For she, and she alone, got that speech out of the Senator. But," he added, a little mis- chievously, " you seem to know very little about her ? " "No! — I — that is — I've been very busy lately," returned Thatcher, staring at the picture, " does she come here often ? " " Yes, lately, quite often ; she was here this evening with mother — was here, I think, when you came." Thatcher looked intently at Harlowe. But that gentle- man's face betrayed no confusion. Thatcher refilled his glass a little awkwardly, tossed ofi' the liquor at a draught, and rose to his feet. " Come, old fellow, you 're not going now, T shan't permit it," said Harlowe, laying his hand kindly on his client's shoulder. " You 're out of sorts ! Stay here with me to- night. Our accommodations are not large, but are elastic. I can bestow you comfortably until morning. Wait here a moment while I give the necessary orders." Thatcher was not sorry to be left alone. In the last half-hour he had become convinced that his love for Carmen de Haro had been in some way most dreadfully 118 THE STORY OF A MINE abused. While he was hard at work in California, she was Leing introduced in Washington society by parties with eligible brothers who bought her paintings. It is a relief to the truly jealous mind to indulge in plurals. Thatcher liked to think that she was already beset by hundreds of brothers. He still kept staring at the picture. By and by it faded away in part, and a very vivid recollection of the misty, midnight, moonlit walk he had once taken with her came back and refilled the canvas with its magic. He saw the ruined furnace ; the dark, overhanging masses of rock, the trembling intricacies of foliage, and, above all, the flash of dark eyes under a mantilla at his shoulder. What a fool he had been ! Had he not really been as senseless and stupid as this very Concho, lying here like a log. And she had loved that man. What a fool she must have thought him that evening ! What a snob she must think him now ! He was startled by a slight rustling in the passage, that ceased almost as he turned. Thatcher looked towards the door of the outer oifice, as if half expecting that the Lord Chancellor, like the commander in Don Juan, might have accepted his thoughtless invitation. He listened again; everything was still. He was conscious of feeling ill at ease and a trifle nervous. What a long time Harlowe took to make his preparations. He would look out in the hall. To do this it was necessary to turn up the gas. He did so, and in his confusion turned it out ! Where were the matches ? He remembered that there was a bronze Something on the table that, in the irony of modern decorative taste, might hold ashes or matches, or anything of an unpicturesque character. He knocked something over, evidently, the ink, something else — this time a champagne glass. Becoming reckless and now groping at random in the ruins, he overturned the bronza AND "WHO FORGOT IT 119 Mercury on the centre table, and then sat down hopelesslj in his chair. And then a pair of velvet fingers slid into his with the matches, and this audible, musical state- ment — " It is a match you are seeking ? Here is of them." Thatcher flushed, embarrassed, nervous — feeling the ridiculousness of saying " Thank you " to a dark Some- body — struck the match, beheld by its brief, uncertain glimmer. Carmen de Haro beside him, burned his fingers, coughed, dropped the match, and was cast again into outer darkness. " Let me try ! " Carmen struck a match, jumped briskly on the chair, lit the gas, jumped lightly down again and said, " You do like to sit in the dark — eh ? So am I — sometimes, alone." " Miss de Haro," said Thatcher, with sudden, honest earnestness, advancing with outstretched hands, " believe me, I am sincerely delighted, overjoyed again to meet " — She had, however, quickly retreated as he approached, ensconcing herself behind the high back of a large antique chair, on the cushion of which she knelt. I regret to add also that she slapped his outstretched fingers a little sharply with her inevitable black fan as be still advanced. " We are not in California. It is Washington. It is after midnight. I am a poor girl, and I have to lose — what you call — 'a character.' You shall sit over there," she pointed to the sofa, " and I shall sit here," . she rested her boyish head on the top of the chair, " and we shall talk, for I have to speak to you — Don Eoyal." Thatcher took the seat indicated, contritely, humbly, submissively. Carmen's little heart was touched. But she still went on over the back of the chair. " Don Royal," she said, emphasizing each word with her fan at him, " before I saw you — ever knew of you — I was 120 THE STOKY OF A MINE a child. Ves, I was but a child ! I was a bold, bad child — and I was what j^ou call a — a — ' forgaire ! ' " "A what ?" asked Thatcher, hesitating between a smile and a sigh. " A forgaire ! " continued Carmen demurely. " I did of myself write the names of ozzer peoples ; " when Carmen was excited she lost the control of the English tongue; "I did write just to please myself — it was my onkle that did make of it money — you understand, eh ? Shall you not speak ? Must I again hit you ? " " Go on," said Thatcher, laughing. " I did find out, when I came to you at the Mine, that I had forged against you the name of Micheltorena. I to the lawyer went, and found that it was so — of a verity — so ! so ! all the time. Look at me not now, Don Eoyal — it is a ' forgaire ' you stare at ! " " Carmen ! " " Hoosh ! Shall I have to hit you again ? I did over- look all the papers. I found the application ; it was written by me. There." She tossed over the back of her chair an envelope to Thatcher. He opened it. "I see," he said gently, "you repossessed yourself of it!" " What is that — ' r-r-r-e — possess ? ' " " Why ! " Thatcher hesitated — " you got possession of this paper — this innocent forgery — again." " Oh ! You think me a thief as well as a ' forgaire.' Go away ! Get up. Get out." " My dear girl " — " Look at the paper ! Will you ? Oh, you Silly ! " Thatcher looked at the paper. In paper, handwriting) age and stamp it was identical with the formal, clerical application of Garcia for the grant. The indorsement of Micheltorena was unquestionably genuine. But the applir AND WHO FORGOT IT I2t eation was made for Royal Thatcher. And his own signa- ture was imitated to the life. " I had but one letter of yours wiz your name," said Carmen apologetically — " and it was the best poor me could do." "Why, you blessed little goose and angel," said Thatcher, with the bold, mixed metaphor of amatory genius, " don't you see " — " Ah, you don't like it — it is not good ? " " My darling ! " " Hoosh ! There is also an old cat upstairs. And now I have, here, a character. Will you sit down ? Is it of a necessity that up and down you should walk and awaken the whole house. There ! " she had given him a vicious dab with her fan as he passed. He sat down. "And you have not seen me nor written to me for a year ? " " Carmen ! " " Sit down, you bold, bad boy. Don't you see it is of business that you and I talk down here, and it is of busi- ness that ozzer people upstairs are thinking. Eh ? " " D — n business ! See here, Carmen, my darling, tell me " — I regret to say he had by this time got hold of the back of Carmen's chair — " tell me, my own little girl — about — about that Senator. You remember what you said to him ? " " Oh, the old man ? Oh, that was business. And you say of business d — m." " Carmen ! " " Don Koyal ! " • •••■••••• Although Miss Carmen had recourse to her fan fre- quently during this interview, the air must have been chilly. For, a moment later, on his way downstairs, poor Harlowe, i22 THE STORY OF A MINE a sufferer from bronchitis, was attacked with a violent fit of coughing, which troubled him all the way down. " Well," he said, as he entered the room, " I see you have found Mr. Thatcher and shown those papers. I trust you have, for you've certainly had time enough. I am sent by my mother to dismiss you all to bed." Carmen, still in the arm-chair, covered with her mantilla, did not speak. " I suppose you are by this time lawyer enough to know," continued Harlowe, " that Miss De Haro's papers, though ingenious, are not legally available, unless " — " I chose to make her a witness. Harlowe ! you 're a good fellow ! I don't mind saying to you that these are papers I prefer my wifn should not use. We '11 leave it for the present — Unfinished Business." They did. But one evening our hero brought Mrs. Eoyal Thatcher a paper containing a touching and beau- tiful tribute to the dead Senator. " There, Carmen, love, read that. Don't you feel a little ashamed of your — your — your lobbying " — " No," said Carmen promptly. " It was business — and, if all lobbying business was as honest — well ? " THE TWINS OP TABLE MOUNTAIJiT PART I A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN They lived on the verge of a vast stony level, upheaved so far above the surrounding country that its vague out- lines, viewed from the nearest valley, seemed a mere cloud- streak resting upon the lesser hills. The rush and roar of the turbulent river that washed its eastern base were lost at that height ; the wiiiils that strove with the giant pines that half-way climbed its flanks spent their fury below the summit. For, at variance with most meteorological specU' lation, an eternal calm seemed to invest this serene alti- tude. The few Alpine flowers seldom thrilled their petals to a passing breeze ; rain and snow fell alike perpendicu- larly, heavily, and monotonously over the granite boulders scattered along its brown expanse. Although by actual measurement an inconsiderable elevation of the Sierran range, and a mere shoulder of the nearest white-faced peak that glimmered in the west, it seemed to lie so near the quiet, passionless stars that at night it caught something of their calm remoteness. The articulate utterance of such a locality should have been a whisper ; a laugh or exclama- tion was discordant, and the ordinary tones of the human voice on the night of the 15th of May, 1868, had a gro- tesque incongruity. In the thick darkness that clothed the mountain that night, the human figure would have been lost or confounded with the outlines of outlying boulders, which at such times 124 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN took upon themselves the vague semblance of men and animals. Hence the voices in the following colloquy seemed the more grotesque and incongruous from being the apparent expression of an upright monolith, ten feet high, on the right, and another mass of granite that, reclining, peeped over the verge. " Hello ! " " Hello yourself ! " " You 're late." " I lost the trail, and climbed up the slide." Here followed a stumble, the clatter of stones down the mountain side, and an oath, so very human and undignified that it at once relieved the boulders of any complicity of expression. The voices, too, were close together now, and unexpectedly in quite another locality. " Anything up ? " " Looey Napoleon 's declared war agin Germany ! " "Sho-o-o!" Notwithstanding this exclamation, the interest of the latter speaker was evidently only polite and perfunctory. What, indeed, were the political convulsions of the Old World to the dwellers in this serene, isolated eminence of the New ? " I reckon it 's so," continued the first voice ; " French Pete and that thar feller that keeps the Dutch grocery hev hed a row over it. Emptied their six-shooters into each other. The Dutchman 's got two balls in his leg, and the Frenchman 's got an onnessary button-hole in his shirt buz- zum, and hez caved in." This concise, local corroboration of the conflict of remote nations, however confirmatory, did not appear to excite any further interest. Even the last speaker, now that he was in this calm, dispassionate atmosphere, seemed to lose his own concern in his tidings, and to have abandoned everything of a sensational and lower-worldly character in A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN 125 the pines below. There was a few moments of absolute silence, and then another stumble. But now the voices of both speakers were quite patient and philosophical. " Hold on, and I '11 strike a light," said the second speaker. " I brought a lantern along, but I did n't light up. I kem out afore sundown, and you know how it allers is up yer. I did n't want it, and did 't keer to light up. I forgot you 're always a little dazed and strange-like when you first come up." There was a crackle, a flash, and presently a steady glow which the surrounding darkness seemed to resent. The faces of the 'two men thus revealed were singularly alike. The same thin, narrow outline of jaw and temple ; the same dark, grave eyes ; the same brown growth of curly beard and moustache, wliich concealed the mouth, and hid what might have been any individual idiosyncrasy of thought or expression, showed them to be brothers, or better known as the " Twins of Table Mountain." A certain animation in the face of the second speaker — the first comer — a certain light in his eye, might have at first distinguished him ; but even this faded out in the steady glow of the lantern, and had no value as a permanent distinction, for by the time they had reached the western verge of the mountain, the two faces had settled into a homogeneous calmness and melancholy. The vague horizon of darkness that, a few feet from the lantern, still encompassed them, gave no indication of their progress until their feet actually trod the rude planks and thatch that formed the roof of their habitation. For their cabin half burrowed in the mountain, and half clung, like a swallow's nest, to the side of the deep declivity that terminated the northern limit of the summit. Had it not been for the windlass of a shaft, a coil of rope, and a few heaps of stone and gravel, which were the only indications of human labor in that stony field, there was nothing to interrupt its monotonous dead 126 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN level. And when they descended a dozen well-worn steps to the door of their cabin, they left the summit as before, lonely, silent, motionless, uninterrupted, basking in the cold light of the stars. The simile of a " nest," as applied to the cabin of the brothers, was no mere figure of speech, as the light of the lantern first flashed upon it. The narrow ledge before the door was strewn with feathers. A suggestion that it might be the home and haunt of predatory birds was promptly cheeked by the spectacle of the nailed-up carcases of a dozen hawks against the walls, and the outspread wings of an extended eagle emblazoning the gable above the door, like an armorial bearing. Within the cabin the walls and chimney-piece were dazzlingly bedecked with the parti, colored wings of jays, yellow-birds, woodpeckers, king- fishers, and the poly-tinted wood-duck. Yet in that dry, highly rarefied atmosphere there was not the slightest suggestion of odor or decay. The first speaker hung the lantern upon a hook that dangled from the rafters, and going to the broad chimney, kicked the half-dead embers into a sudden resentful blaze. He then opened a rude cupboard, and without looking around, called " Euth ! " The second speaker turned his head from the open door- way where he was leaning, as if listening to something in the darkness, and answered abstractedly — "Eand!" "I don't believe you have touched grub to-day ! " Euth grunted out some indifi'erent reply. " Thar hezent been a slice cut off that bacon since I left," continued Eand, bringing a side of bacon and some biscuits from the cupbord and applying himself to the discussion of them at the table. " You 're gettin' off yer feed, Euth. What 's up ? " Euth replied by taking an uninvited seat beside him, and A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN 127 resting his chin on the palms of his hands. He did not eat, but simply transferred his inattention from the door to the table. "You 're workin' too many hours in the shaft," continued Eand. "You 're always up to some such d — n fool business when I 'm not yer." " I dipped a little west to-day," Ruth went on, without heeding the brotherly remonstrance, " and struck quartz and pyrites." "Thet's you! — allers dippin' west or east for quartz and the color, instead of keeping on plumb down to the ' cement ! ' " i " We '"ve been three years digging for cement," said Euth, more in abstraction than reproach; "three years! " "And we may be three years more — may be only three days. Why, you could n't be more impatient if — if — if you lived in a valley." Delivering this tremendous comparison as an unanswer- able climax, Eand applied himself' once more to his repast. Euth, after a moment's pause, without speaking or looking up, disengaged his hand from under his chin and slid it along, palm uppermost, on the table beside his brother. . Thereupon Eand slowly reached forward his left hand, the right being engaged in conveying victual to his mouth, and laid it on his brother's palm. The act was evidently an habitual, half-mechanical one, for in a few moments the hands were as gently disengaged, without comment or expres- sion. At last Eand leaned back in his chair, laid down his knife and fork, and complacently loosening the belt that held his revolver, threw it and the weapon on his bed. Taking out his pipe, and chipping some tobacco on the table, lie said carelessly, "I came a piece through the woods with Mornie just now." The face that Euth turrfed upon his 1 The local name for gold-bearing alluvial drift— the bed of a pre- listoric river. . 128 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN brother was very distinct in expression at that moment, and quite belied the popular theory that the twins could not be told apart. " Thet gal," continued Rand, without looking up, " is either flighty, or — or suthin'," he added, in vague disgust, pushing the table from him as if it were the lady in question. " Don't tell me ! " Euth's eyes quickly sought his brother's, and were as quickly averted, as he asked hurriedly, " How ? " " What gets me," continued Rand in a petulant non sequitur, " is that you, my own twin brother, never lets on about her comin' yer, permiskus like, when I ain't yer, and you and her gallivantin' and promenadin', and swoppin' sentiments and mottoes." Euth tried to contradict his blushing face with a laugh of worldly indifference. " She came up yer on a sort of pasear" — " Oh yes ! — a short cut to the creek," interpolated Rand satirically. " Last Tuesday or Wednesday," continued Ruth, with afi'ected forgetfulness. " Oh, in course, Tuesday or Wednesday, or Thursday ! You 've so many folks climbing up this yer mountain to call on ye," continued the ironical Rand, " that you dis- remember ; only you remembered enough not to tell me. She did ! She took me for you, or pretended to." The color dropped from Ruth's cheek. " Took you for me ? " he asked, with an awkward laugh. " Yes,'' sneered Rand ; " chirped and chattered away about our picnic, our nosegays, and Lord knows what ! Said she'd keep them blue jay's wings, and wear 'em in her hat. Spouted poetry, too ; the same sort o' rot you get oS now and theh." Ruth laughed again, but rather ostentatiously and net vously. A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN 129 " Ruth, look yer ! " Ruth faced his brother. " What 's your little game ? Do you mean to say you don't know what thet gal is ? Do you mean to say you don't know that she 's the laughing-stock of the Ferry ; thet her father 's a d — d old fool, and her mother 's a drunkard, and worse — thet she 's got any right to be hanging round yer ? You can't mean to marry her, even if you kalkilate to turn me out to do it, for she wouldn't live alone with ye up yer. 'T ain't her kind. And if I thought you was thinking of " — " What ? " said Ruth, turning upon his brother quickly. " Oh, thet 's right ! Holler ! Swear and yell, and break things, do ! Tear round," continued Rand, kicking his boots off in a corner, "just because I ask you a civil ques- tion. That 's brotherly," he added, jerking his chair away against the side of the cabin, " ain't it ? " " She 's not to blame because her mother drinks, and her father 's a shyster," said Ruth, earnestly and strongly. " The men who make her the laughing-stock of the Ferry tried to make her something worse, and failed, and take this sneak's revenge on her. ' Laughing-stock ! ' Yes, they knew she could turn the tables on them." " Of course ; go on ! She 's better than me ; I know I 'm a fratricide, that 's what I am," said Rand, throwing himself on the upper of the two berths that formed the bedstead of the cabin. " I 've seen her three times," continued Ruth. " And you 've known me twenty years," interrupted his brother. Ruth turned on his heel, and walked towards the door. " That 's right ; go on ! Why don't you get the chalk ? " Ruth made no reply. Rand descended from the bed, and taking a piece of chalk from the shelf, drew a line on the floor, dividing the cabin in two equal parts. 130 THK TWINS ON TABLE MOUNTAIN " You can have the east half," he said, as he climbed slowly back into bed. This mysterious rite was the usual termination of a quar- rel between the twins. Each man kept his half of the cabin until the feud was forgotten. It was the mark of silence and separation, over which no words of recrimination, argument, or even explanation were delivered until it was effaced by one or the other. This was considered equiva- lent to apology or reconciliation, which each was equally bound in honor to accept. It may be remarked that the floor was much whiter at this line of demarcation, and under the fresh chalk line appeared the faint evidences of one recently effaced. Without apparently heeding this potential ceremony, Kuth remained leaning against the doorway, looking upon the night, the bulk of whose profundity and blackness seemed to be gathered below him. The vault above was serene and tranquil, with a few large far-spread stars ; the abyss beneath, untroubled by sight or sound. Stepping out upon the ledge, he leaned far over the shelf that sus- tained their cabin, and listened. A faint rhythmical roll, rising and falling in long undulations against the invisible horizon, to his accustomed ears told him the wind was blowing among the pines in the valley. Yet, mingling with the familiar sound, his ear, now morbidly acute, seemed to detect a stranger inarticulate murmur, as of confused and excited voices, swelling up from the mysterious depths to the stars above, and again swallowed up in the gulfs of silence below. He was roused from a consideration of this ])henomenon by a faint glow towards the east, which at last brightened, until the dark outline of the distant walls of the valley stood out against the sky. Were his other senses participating in the delusion of his ears ? For with the brightening light came the faint odor of burning timber. His face grew anxious as he gazed. At last he rose and A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN 131 reentered the cabin. His eyes fell upon the faint chalk mark, and taking his soft felt hat from his head, with a few practical sweeps of the brim, he brushed away the ominous record of their late estrangement. Going to the bed, whereon Rand lay stretched, open-eyed, he would have laid his hand upon his arm lightly, but the brother's fingers sought and clasped his own. " Get up," he said quietly ; *' there 's a strange fire in the Canon head that I can't make out." Rand slowly clambered from his shelf, and, hand in hand, the brothers stood upon the ledge. " It 's a right smart chance beyond the Ferry, and a piece beyond the Mill too," said Rand, shading his eyes with his hand from, force of habit. " It 's in the woods where " — lie would have added where he met Mornie, but it was a point of honor with the twins, after reconciliation, not to allude tc any topic of their recent disagreement. Ruth dropped his brother's hand. " It does n't smell like the woods," he said slowly. " Smell ! " repeated Rand incredulously. " Why, it 's twenty miles in a bee-line yonder. Smell, indeed ! " Ruth was silent, but presently fell to listening again with his former abstraction. " You don't hear anything — do you ? " he asked, after a pause. " It 's blowin' in the pines on the river," said Rand shortly. " You don't hear anything else ? " « No." " Nothing like — like — like" — Rand, who had been listening with an intensity that dis- 'sorted the left side of his face, interrupted him impatiently. « Like what ? " " Like a woman sobbin' ? " " Ruth," said Rand, suddenly looking up in his brother's face, " what 's gone of you ? " 132 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIiN Ruth laughed. " The fire 's out," he said abruptly reentering the cabin. " I 'm going to turn in." Kahd, following his brother half reproachfully, saw him divest himself of his clothing and roll himself in the blankets of his bed. " Good-night, Randy." Rand hesitated. He would have liked to ask his brothei another question ; but there was clearly nothing to be done but follow his example. " Good-night, Ruthy," he said, and put out the light. As he did so the glow in the eastern horizon faded too, and darkness seemed to well up from the depths below, and, flowing in the open door, wrapped them in deeper slumber. PAET II THE CLOUDS GATHER Twelve months had elapsed since the quarrel and recoc- ciliation, during which interval no reference was made by either of the brothers to the cause which had provoked it. Rand was at work in the shaft, Ruth having that morning undertaken the replenishment of the larder with game from the wooded skirt of the mountain. Eand had taken advantage of his brother's absence to " prospect " in the " drift " — a proceeding utterly at variance with his previous condemnation of all such speculative essay ; but Eand, despite his assumption of a superior practical nature, was not above certain local superstitions. Having that morning put on his gray flannel shirt wrong side out, an abstraction recognized among the miners as the sure forerunner of divination and treasure discovery, he could not forego that opportunity of trying his luck without hazarding a dangerous example. He was also conscious of feeling " chipper," another local expression for buoyancy of spirit, not common to men who work fifty feet below the surface, without the stimulus of air and sunshine, and not to be overlooked as an important factor in fortunate adventure. Nevertheless, noon came without the discovery of any treasure ; he had attacked the walls on either side of the lateral " drift " skill- fully, so as to expose their quality, without destroying theii cohesive integrity, but had found nothing. Once or twice, returning to the shaft for rest and air, its grim silence had seemed to him pervaded with some vague echo of cheerful holiday voices above. This set him to thinking of his i34 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN brother's equally extravagant fancy of the wailing voieea in the air on the night of the fire, and of his attributing it to a lover's abstraction. " I laid it to his being struck after that gal, and yet," Rand continued to himself, " here 's me, who have n't been foolin' round no gal, and dog my skin if I did n't think I heard one singin' up thar ! " He put his foot on the lower round of the ladder, paused, and slowly ascended a dozen steps. Here he paused again. All at once the whole shaft was filled with the musical vibrations of a woman's song. Seizing the rope that hung idly from the windlass, he half climbed, half swung himself to the surface. The voice was there, but the sudden transition to the dazzling level before him at first blinded his eyes ; so that he took in, only by degrees, the unwonted spectacle of the singer — a pretty girl standing on tiptoe on a boulder, not a dozen yards from him, utterly absorbed in tying a gayly striped neckerchief, evidently taken from her own plump throat, to the halliards of a freshly cut hickory pole, newly reared as a flag-staff beside her. The hickory pole, the halliards, the fluttering scarf, the young lady herself, were all glaring innovations on the familiar landscape ; but Eand with his hand still on the rope, silently and demurely enjoyed it. For the better understanding of the general reader, who does not live on an isolated mountain, it may be observed that the yovmg lady's position on the rock exhibited some study of pose, and a certain exaggeration of attitude that betrayed the habit of an audience ; also that her voice had an artificial accent that was not wholly unconscious even in this lofty soltitude. Yet the very next moment, when she turned and caught Rand's eye fixed upon her, she started naturally, colored slightly, uttered that feminine adjuration, ' Good Lord ! gracious ! goodness me ! " which is seldom used in reference to its effect upon the hearer, and skipped THE CLOUDS GATHEK 135 instantly from the boulder to the ground. Here, however, she alighted in a pose — brought the right heel of her neatly fitting left boot closely into the hollowed side of her right instep ; at the same moment deftly caught her flying skirt whipped it around her ankles, and slightly raising it behind, permitted the chaste display of an inch or two of frilled white petticoat. The most irreverent critic of the sex will, I think, admit that it has some movements that are auto- matic. " Hope I did n't disturb ye," said Kand, pointing to the ilag-staff. The young lady slightly turned her head. "No," she said ; " but I did n't know anybody was here, of course. Out party" — she emphasized the word, and accompanied it with a look toward the farther extremity of the plateau, to show she was not alone — " our party climbed this ridge, and put up this pole as a sign they did it." The ridicu- lous self-complacency of this record in the face of a man who was evidently a dweller on the mountain, apparently struck her for the first time. " We did n't know," she stam- mered, looking at the shaft from which Eand had emerged, " that — that " — She stopped, and glancing again towards the distant range where her friends had disappeared, began to edge away. " They can't be far off," interposed Eand quietly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for the lady to be there ; " Table Mountain ain't as big as all that. Don't you be scared ! So you thought nobody lived up here ? " She turned upon him a pair of honest hazel eyes, which not only contradicted the somewhat meretricious smartness of her dress, but was utterly inconsistent with the palpable artificial colir of her hair — an obvious imitation of a cer- tain popular fashion then known in artistic circles as the " British Blonde," — and began to ostentatiously resume a 136 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOONTAIN pair of lemon-colored kid gloves. Having, as it were, tlms indicated her standing and respectability, and put an im- measurable distance between herself and her bold inter- locutor, she said impressivelj', "We evidently made a mistake ; I will rejoin our party, who will, of course, apologize." " What 's your hurry ? " said the imperturbable Rand, disengaging himself from the rope and walking towards hei. " As long as you 're up here, you might stop a spell." " I have no wish to intrude — • that is, our party certainly has not," continued the young lady, pulling the tight gloves and smoothing the plump, almost bursting fingers, with an affectation of fashionable ease. " Oh, I have n't anything to do just now," said Band, " and it 's about grub time, I reckon. Yes, I live here, Euth and me ; right here." The young woman glanced at the shaft. " No, not down there," said Rand, following her eye, with a laugh. " Come here, and I '11 show you." A strong desire to keep up an appearance of genteel reserve, and an equally strong inclination to enjoy the adventurous company of this good-looking, hearty young fellow, made her hesitate. Perhaps she regretted having undertaken a role of such dignity at the beginning ; she could have been so perfectly natural with this perfectly natural man, whereas, any relaxation now might increase his familiarity. And yet she was not without a vague sus- picion that her dignity and her gloves were alike thrown away on him — a fact made the more evident when Rand stepped to her side, and without any apparent conscious- ness of disrespect or gallantry, laid his large hand, half persuasively, half fraternally upon her shoulder, and said, "Oh, come along, do." The simple act either exceeded the limits of her forbear- ance or decided the course of her subsequent behavior THE CLOUDS GATHER 137 She instantly stepped back a single pace, and drew her left foot slowly and deliberately after her. Then she fixed her 3yes and uplifted eyebrows upon the daring hand, and tak- ing it by the ends of her thumb and forefinger, lifted it and dropped it in mid-air. She then folded her arms. It was the indignant gesture with which " Alice," the Pride of Dumballin Village, received the loathsome advances of the bloated aristocrat, Sir Parkyns Parkyn, and had at Marys- ville, a few nights before, brought down the house. This effect was, I think, however, lost upon Eand. The slight color that rose to his cheek as he looked down upon his clay-soiled hands, was due to the belief that he had really contaminated her outward superfine person. But his color quickly passed, his frank, boyish smile returned, as he said, " It '11 rub off. Lord, don't mind that. Thar, now — come on ! " The young woman bit her lip. Then nature triumphed, aiid she laughed, although a little scornfully. And then Providence assisted her with the sudden presentation of two figures — a man and woman slowly climbing up over tie mountain verge, not far from them. With a cry of, " There 's Sol, now," she forgot her dignity and her confu- sion, and ran towards them. Hand stood looking after her neat figure, less concerned in the advent of the strangers than in her sudden caprice. He was not so young and inexperienced but that he noted certain ambiguities in her dress and manner ; he was by no means impressed by her dignity. But he could not help watching her as she appeared to be volubly recounting her late interview to her companions ; and still unconscious of any impropriety or obtrusiveness, he lounged down lazily to Awards her. Her humor had evidently changed, for she tuvned an honest pleased face upon him, as she girlishly attempted to drag the strangers forward. The man was plump and short ; unlike the natives of the 138 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN locality, he was closely cropped and shaven, as if to keep down the strong blue-blackness of his beard and hair, which nevertheless asserted itself over his round cheeks and upper lip like a tattooing of Indian ink. The woman at his side wa.j reserved and indistinctive, with that appear- ance of being an unenthusiastic family servant peculiar to some men's wives. When Kand was within a few feet of him, he started, struck a theatrical attitude, and shading his eyes with his hand, cried, " What, do me eyes deceive me ! " burst into a hearty laugh, darted forward, seized Eand's hand and shook it briskly. "Pinkney ! Pinkney, my boy, how are you ? And this is your little ' prop ' ? your quarter-section, your country seat, that we 've been trespassing on — eh ? A nice little spot — cool, sequestered, remote ! A trifle unimproved : carriage road as yet uniinished — ha ! ha ! But to think of our making a discovery of this inaccessible mountain ; climbing it, sir, for two mortal hours ; christening it ' Sol's Peak ; ' getting up a flag-pole, unfurling our standard to the breeze, sir, and then, by Jingo, winding up by finding Pinkney — the festive Pinkney — living on it at home ! " Completely surprised, but still perfectly good-humored, Rand shook one of the stranger's hands warmly, and received on his broad shoulders a welcoming thwack from the other, without question. " She don't mind her friends making free with me, evidently," said Rand to himself, as he tried to suggest that fact to the young lady in a meaning glance. The stranger noted his glance, and suddenly passed his hand thoughtfully over his shaven cheeks. " No ! " he said. " Yes, surely, I forget ! Yes, I see ; of course you don't. Rosy," turning to his wife, " of course, Pinkney does n't know Pheinie — eh ? " " No, nor me either, Sol," said that lady warningly. "Certainly," continued Sol. "It's his misfortune? THE CLOUDS GATHER 139 You were n't with me at Gold Hill. Allow me," he said, turning to Eand, " to present Mrs. Sol Saunders, wife of the undersigned, and Miss Euphemia Neville, otherwise known as the ' Marysville Pet,' the best variety-actress known on the provincial boards. Played Ophelia at Marys- ville, Friday ; domestic drama at Gold Hill, Saturday ; Sunday night, four songs in character, different dress each time, and a clog-dance. The best clog-dance on the Pacific Slope," he added, in a stage aside, " The minstrels are crazy to get her in 'Frisco. But money can't buy her — prefers the legitimate drama to this sort of thing." Here he took a few steps of a jig, to which the Marysville Pet beat time with her feet, and concluded with a laugh and a wink — the combined expression of an artist's admiration for her ability, and a man of the world's skepticism of femi- nine ambition. Miss Euphemia responded to the formal introduction by extending her hand frankly with a reassuring smile to Eand, and an utter obliviousness of her former hauteur. Eand shook it warmly, and then dropped carelessly on a rock beside them. " And you never told me you lived up here in the attic, you rascal," continued Sol with a laugh. " No," replied Eand simply. " How could I ? I never saw you before, that I remember." Miss Euphemia stared at Sol. Mrs. Sol looked up in her lord's face, and folded her arms in a resigned expres- sion. Sol rose to his feet again, and shaded his eyes with his hand, but this time quite seriously, and gazed at Band's smiling face. " Good Lord ! Do you mean to say your name is n't !Pinkney ? " he asked, with a half-embarrassed laugh. •'It M Pinkney," said Eand, "but I never met you before." " Did n't you ?ome to see a young lady that joined my 140 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN troupe at Gold Hill, last month, and say you 'd meet me at Keeler's Ferry in a day or two ? " " No-o-o," said Band, with a good-humored laugh. " I have n't left this mountain for two months." He might have added more, but his attention was di- rected to Miss Euphemia, who during this short dialogue, having stuifed alternately her handkerchief, the corner of her mantle, and her gloves into her mouth, restrained her- self no longer, but gave way to an uncontrollable fit of laughter. " Sol," she gasped explanatorily, as she threw herself alternately against him, Mrs. Sol, and a boulder, " you '11 kill me yet ! Lord ! first we take possession of this man's property, then we claim him." The contemplation of this humorous climax affected her so that she was fain at last to walk away and confide the rest of her speech to space. Sol joined in the laugh until his wife plucked his sleeve, and whispered something in his ear. In an instant his face became at once mysterious and demure. " I owe you an apology," he said, turning to Rand, but in a voice ostentatiously pitched high enough for Miss Euphemia to overhear ; " I see I have made a mistake. A resemblance — only a mere resemblance, as I look at you now — led me astray. Of course you don't know any young lady in the profession ? " " Of course he doesn't, Sol," said Miss Euphemia. " I could have told you that. He did n't even know me ! " The voice and mock-heroic attitude of the speaker was enough to relieve the general embarrassment with a laugh. E,and, now pleasantly conscious of only Miss Euphemia's presence, again offered the hospitality of his cabin — with the polite recognition of her friends in the sentence, " and you might as well come along too ! " " But won't we incommode the lady of the house ? " said Mrs. Sol politely. THE CLOCDS GATHER 141 " What lady of the house ? " said Eand, almost angrily, " Why — Kuth, you know ! " It was Rand's turn to become hilarious. " Euth," he said, " is short for Rutherford, my brother." His laugh, however, was echoed only by Enphemia. " Then you have a brother ? " said Mrs. Sol benignly. " Yes," said Rand ; " he will be here soon." A sudden thought dropped the color from his cheek. " Look here," he said, turning impulsively upon Sol. " I have a brother, a twin brother. It could n't be him " — Sol was conscious of a significant feminine pressure on his right arm. He was equal to the emergency. " I think not," he said dubiously, " unless your brother's hair is much darker than yours. Yes ! now I look at you, yours is brown. He has a mole on his right cheek — has n't he ? " The red came quickly back to Rand's boyish face. He laughed. " No, sir ; my brother's hair is, if anything, a shade lighter than mine ; and nary mole ! Come along ! " And leading the way, Rand disclosed the narrow steps winding down to the shelf on which the cabin hung. "Be careful," said Rand, taking the now unresisting hand of the " Marysville Pet" as they descended : " a step that way, and down you go, two thousand feet on the top of a pine-tree." But the girl's slight cry of alarm was presently changed to one of unaffected pleasure, as they stood on the rocky platform. "It isn't a house; it's a nest, and the love- lies! ! " said Euphemia breathlessly. " It 's a scene ! a perfect scene, sir ! " said Sol enraptured. "I shall take the liberty of bringing my scene-painter to sketch it, some day. It would do for ' The Mountaineer's Bride ' superbly, or," continued the little man, warming through the blue-black border of his face with professional enthusiasm, " it 's enough to make a play itself ! ' The Con on the Crags.' Last scene — moonlight — the struggle on the ledge ! — The Lady of the Crags throws herself from 142 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN the beetling heights ! — A shriek from the depths — a woman's wail ! " " Dry up ! " sharply interrupted Eand, to whom this speech recalled his brother's half-forgotten strangeness, " Look at the prospect." In the full noon of a cloudless day, beneath them a tumultuous sea of pines surged, heaved, rode in giant crests, stretched and spent itself in the ghostly, snow-peaked horizon. The thronging woods choked every defile, swept every crest, filled every valley with its dark-green tilting spears, and left only Table Mountain sunlit and bare. Here and there were profound olive depths, over which the gray hawk hung lazily, and into which blue jays dipped. A faint, dull, yellowish streak marked an occasional water- course ; a deeper reddish ribbon, the moTintain road and its overhanging murky cloud of dust. " Is it quite safe here ? " asked Mrs. Sol, eyeing the little cabin. " I mean from storms ? " " It never blows up here," replied Rand, " and nothing happens." " It must be lovely ! " said Euphemia, clasping her hands. " It is that," said Rand proudly. " It 's four years since Ruth and I took up this yer claim, and raised this shanty. In that four years we have n't left it alone a night, or cared to. It 's only big enough for two, and them two must be brothers. It would n't do for mere pardners to live here alone — they could n't do it. It would n't be exactly the thing for man and wife to shut themselves up here alone. But Ruth and me know each other's ways, and here we '11 stay until we 've made a pile. We sometimes — one of us — takes a pasear to the Ferry, to buy provisions, but we 're glad to crawl up to the back of old ' Table ' at night." " You 're quite out of the world here, then ? " suggested Mrs. Sol. " That 's it — just it ! We 're out of the world, out of THE CLOUDS GATHER 143 rows, out of liquor, out of cards, out of bad company, out of temptation. Cussedness and foolishness hez got to follow lis up here to find us, and there 's too many ready to climb down to them things to tempt 'em to coine up to us." There was a little boyish conceit in his tone, as he stood there, not altogether unbecoming his fresh color and sim- plicity. Yet when his eyes met those of Miss Euphemia, he colored, he hardly knew why, and the young lady her- self blushed rosily. When the neat cabin, with its decorated walls, and squirrel and wild-cat skins were duly admired, the luncheon- basket of the Saunders party was reinforced by provisions from Rand's larder, and spread upon the ledge ; the dimen- sions of the cabin not admitting four. Under the potent influence of a bottle, Sol became hilarious and professional. The " Pet " was induced to favor the company with a recitation, and, under the plea of teacliing Eand, to per- form the clog-dance with both gentlemen. Then there was an interval, in which Rand and Euphemia wandered a little way down the mountain side to gather laurel, leaving Mr. Sol to his siesta on a rock, and Mrs. Sol to take some knitting from the basket, and sit beside him. When Rand and his companion had disappeared, Mrs. Sol nudged her sleeping partner. " Do you think that was the brother ? " Sol yawned. " Sure of it. They 're as like as two peas, in looks." " Why did n't you tell him so, then ? " " Will you tell me, my dear, why you stopped me when I began ? " "Because something was said about Ruth being here and I supposed Ruth was a woman, and perhaps Pinkney's wife, and I knew you 'd be putting your foot in it by talking of that other woman. I supposed it was for fear of that he denied knov;ing you." 144 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " Well, when he, — this Band, — told me he had a twin brother, he looked so frightened that I knew he knew no- thing of his brother's doings with that woman, and I threw him off the scent. He ^s a good fellow, but awfully green, and I didn't want to worry him with tales. I like him, and I think Phemie does too." " Nonsense ! He 's a conceited prig ! Did you hear his sermon on the world and its temptations ? I wonder if he thought temptation had come up to him in the person of us professionals, out on a picnic ? I think it positively rude." " My dear woman, you 're always seeing slights and insults. I tell you, he 's taken a shine to Phemie, and he 's as good as four seats and a bouquet to that child next Wednesday evening. To say nothing of the eclat of getting this St. Simeon — what do you call him — Stalactites ? " " Stylites," suggested Mrs. Sol. " Stylites, off from his pillar here. I '11 have a paragraph in the paper, that the hermit crabs of Table Mountain " — " Don't be a fool, Sol ! " " The hermit twins of Table Mountain bespoke the chaste performance." " One of them being the protector of the well-known Mornie Nixon," responded Mrs. Sol, viciously accenting the name with her knitting-needles. " Rosy, you 're unjust. You 're prejudiced by the reports of the town. Mr. Pinkney's interest in her may be a purely artistic one, although mistaken. She '11 never make a good variety-actress — she 's too heavy. And the boys don't give her a fair show. No woman can make a debut in my ver- sion of ' Somnambula,' and have the front row in the pit say to her, in the sleep-walking scene, ' You 're out rather late, Mornie. Kinder forgot to put on your things, did n't you ? Mother sick, I suppose, and you 're goin' for more gin ? Hurry along, or you '11 ketch it when ye get home/ Why, you could n't do it yourself. Rosy ! " THE CLODDS GATHER H5 To which Mrs. Sol's illogical climax was that, " bad as Rutherford might be, this Sunday-school superintendent, Rand, was worse." Rand and his companion returned late, but in high spirits. There was an unnecessary effusiveness in the way in which Euphemia kissed Mrs. Sol — the one woman pre- sent, who understood, and was to be propitiated — which did not tend to increase her good humor. She had her basket packed already for departure, and even the earnest solicitation of Rand, that they would defer their going until sunset, produced no eifect. " Mr. Rand — Mr. Pinkney, I mean, says the sunsets here are so lovely," pleaded Euphemia. " There is a rehearsal at seven o'clock, and we have no time to lose," said Mrs. Sol significantly. " I forgot to say," said the Marysville Pet timidly, glan- cing at Mrs. Sol, " that Mr. Rand says he will bring his brother on Wednesday night, and wants four seats in front, so as not to be crowded." Sol shook the young man's hand warmly. " You '11 not regret it, sir ; it 's a surprising, a remarkable performance." " I 'd like to go a piece down the mountain with you," said Rand with evident sincerity, looking at Miss Euphemia ; " but Ruth is n't here yet, and we make a rule never to leave the place alone. I '11 show you the slide : it 's the quickest way to go down. If you meet any one who looks like me, and talks like me, call him ' Ruth,' and tell him I 'm waitin for him yer." Miss Phemia, the last to go, standing on the verge of the declivity, here remarked, with a dangerous smile, that if she met any one who bore that resemblance, she might be tempted to keep him with her — a playfulness that brought the ready color to Rand's cheek. When she added to this the greater audacity of kissing her hand to him, the young hermit actually turned away in sheer embarrassment. When 146 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN he looked around again, she was gone, and for the first time in his experience, the mountain seemed barren and lonely. The too sympathetic reader who would rashly deduce from this any newly awakened sentiment in the virgin heart of Rand would quite misapprehend that peculiar young man. That singular mixture of boyish inexperience and mature doubt and disbelief, which was partly the result of his temperament, and partly of his cloistered life on the mountain, made him regard his late companions, now that they were gone, and his intimacy with them, with remorse- ful distrust. The mountain was barren and lonely, because it was no longer his. It had become a part of the great world which, four years ago, he and his brother had put aside ; and in which, as two self-devoted men, they walked alone. More than that, he believed he had acquried some understanding of the temptations that assailed his brother, and the poor little vanities of the " Marysville Pet " were transformed into the blandishments of a Circe. Rand, who would have succumbed to a wicked, superior woman, be- lieved he was a saint in withstanding the ioolish weakness of a simple one. He did not resume his work that day. He paced the mountain^ anxiously awaiting his brother's return, and eager to relate his experiences. He would go with him to the dramatic entertainment ; from his example and wisdom Ruth should learn how easily temptation might be over- come. But, first of all, there should be the fullest ex- change of confidences and explanations. The old rule should be rescinded for once — the old discussion in regard to Mornie re-opened ; and Rand, having convinced his brother of error, would generously extend his forgiveness. The sun sank redly. Lingering long upon the ledge be- fore their cabin, it at last slipped away almost imperceptibly, leaving Rand still wrapped in reverie. Darkness, the smoke of distant fires in the woods, and the faint evening incense THE CLOUDS GATHER 147 of the pines crept slowlj' up, but Eutli came not. Tlie moon rose — a silver gleam on the farther ridge ; and Eand, becoming nneasy at his brother's prolonged absence, re- solved to break another custom and leave the summit, to seek him on the trail. He buckled on his revolver, seized his gun, vfhen a cry from the depths arrested him. He leaned over the ledge and listened. Again the cry arose, and this time more distinctly. He held his breath ; the blood settled round his heart in superstitious terror. It was the wailing voice of a woman ! " Ruth ! Ruth ! for God's sake come and help me ! " The blood flew back hotly to Rand's cheek. It was Mornie's voice ! By leaning over the ledge he could dis- tinguish something moving along the almost precipitous face of the cliff, where an abandoned trail, long since broken off and disrupted by the fall of a portion of the ledge, stopped abruptly a hundred feet below him. Rand knew the trail, a dangerous one always ; in its present condition a single misstep would be fatal. Would she make that misstep ? He shook off a horrible temptation that seemed to be seal- ing his lips and paralyzing his limbs, and almost screamed to her, " Drop on your face, hang on to the chapparal, and don't move ! " In another instant, with a coil of rope around his arm, he was dashing down the almost perpen- dicular "slide." When he had nearly reached the level of the abandoned trail, he fastened one end of the rope to a jutting splinter of granite, and began to " lay out," and work his way laterally along the face of the mountain. Presently he struck the regular trail at the point from which the woman must have diverged. "It is Rand ! " she said, without lifting her head. " It is," replied Rand coldly. " Pass the rope under your arms, and I '11 get you back to the trail." " Where is Ruth ? " she demanded again, without moving. She was trembling, but with exciteuient rather than fear. 148 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " I don't know," returned Rand impatiently. "Come! the ledge is already crumbling beneath our feet." " Let it crumble ! " said the woman passionately. Band surveyed her with profound disgust, then passed the rope around her waist, and half lifted, half swung her from her feet. In a few moments she began to mechani- cally help herself, and permitted him to guide her to a place of safety. That reached, she sauk down again. The rising moon shone full upon her face and figure. Through his growing indignation Rand was still impressed and even startled with the change the last few months had wrought upon her. In place of the silly, fanciful, half- hysterical hoyden whom he had known, a matured woman, strong in passionate self-will, fascinating in a kind of wild savage beauty, looked up at him as if to read his very soul. " What are you staring at ? " she said finally. " Why don't you help me on ? " " Where do you want to go ? " said Rand quietly. " Where ! — up there ! " — she pointed savagely to the top of the mountain, — "to him ! Where else should I go ? " she said, with a bitter laugh. " I 've told you he was n't there," said Rand roughly. " He hasn't returned." " I '11 wait for him ! — do you hear ! — wait for him ! Stay there till he comes ! If you won't help me, I '11 go alone ! " She made a step forward, but faltered, staggered, and was obliged to lean against the mountain for support. Stains of travel were on her dress ; lines of fatigue and pain, and traces of burning, passionate tears, were on her face ; her black hair flowed from beneath her gaudy bonnet ; and sliamed out of his brutality. Rand placed his strong arm round her waist, and, half carrying, half supporting her, began the ascent. Her head dropped wearily on his shoulder ; her arm encircled his neck ; her hair, as if caress- THE CLOUDS GATHER 149 ingly, lay across his breast and hands ; her grateful eyes were close to his, her breath was upon his cheek ; and yet his only consciousness was of the possibly ludicrous figure he might present to his brother should he meet him with Mornie Nixon in his arms. Not a word was spoken by either till they reached the summit. Relieved at finding his brother still absent, he turned not unkindly toward the helpless figure on his arm. " I don't see what makes Ruth so late," he said. " He 's always here by sundown. Perhaps " — ' "Perhaps he knows I'm here," said Mornie, with a bitter laugh. " I did n't say that," said Rand, " and I don't think it. What I meant was, he might have met a party that was picnicking here to-day. Sol Saunders and wife, and Miss Euphemia " — Mornie flung his arm away from her with a passionate gesture. " They here ! picnicking here ! — those people here ? " "Yes," said Rand, unconsciously a little ashamed. " They came here accidently." Mornie's quick passion had subsided ; she had sunk again wearily and helplessly on a rock beside him. " I suppose," she said, with a weak laugh — "I suppose they talked of me. I suppose they told you how — with their lies and fair promises — they tricked me out, and set me before an audience of brutes and laughing hyenas to make merry over ! Did they tell you of the insults that I re- ceived ? — how the sins of my parents were flung at me instead of bouquets ? Did they tell you they could have spared me this, but they wanted the few extra dollars taken ill at the door ? No ! " " They said nothing of the kind," replied Rand surlily. " Then you must have stopped them ! You were horri- fied enough to know that I had dared to take the only honest 150 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN ■way left nie to make a living. I know you, Eandolph Pinkney. You 'd rather see Joaquin Muriatta, the Mexi- can bandit, standing before you to-night with a revolver, than the helpless, shamed, miserable Mornie Nixon ! And you can't help yourself, unless you throw me over the cliff. Perhaps you'd better," she said, with a bitter laugh that faded from her lips as she leaned, pale and breathless, against the boulder. " Kuth will tell you " — began Rand. « D— n Emth ! " Kand turned away. " Stop ! " she said suddenly, staggering to her feet. "I'm sick — for all I know, dying. God grant that it may be so ! But, if you are a man, you will help me to your cabin — to some place where I can lie down now and be at rest. I'm very, very tired." She paused ; she would have fallen again, but Rand, seeing more in her face than her voice interpreted to his sullen ears, took her sullenly in. his arms and carried her to the cabin. Her eyes glanced around the bright parti- colored walls, and a faint smile came to her lips as she put aside her bonnet, adorned with a companion pinion of the bright wings that covered it. " Which is Ruth's bed ? " she asked. Rand pointed to it. " Lay me there ! " Rand would have hesitated, but with another look at hei face complied. She lay quite still a moment. Presently she said, " Give me some brandy or whiskey ! " Rand was silent and confused. " I forgot," she added, half bitterly ; " I know you have not that commonest and cheapest of vices." She lay quite still again. Suddenly she raised herself piutly on her elbow, and in a strong, firm voice, said — • "Rand!" THE CLOUDS GATHER 151 "Yes, Mornie." " If you are wise and practical, as you assume to be, you ■will do what I ask you without a question. If you do it at once you may save yourself and Kuth some trouble, some mortification, and perhaos some remorse and sorrow. Do you hear me ? " "Yes!" " Go to the nearest doctor and bring him here with you." " But you ! " Her voice was strong, confident, steady and patient, " You can safely leave me until then." In another moment, Eand was plunging down the " elide." But it was past midnight when he struggled over the last boulder up the ascent, dragging the half-exhausted medical wisdom of Brown's Ferry on his arm. '•'I've been gone long, doctor," said Rand feverishly, " and she looked so death-like when I left. If we should be too late ? " The doctor stopped suddenly, lifted his head, and pricked his ears like a hound on a peculiar scent. " We are too late," he said, with a slight professional laugh. Indignant and horrified, Eand turned upon him. " Listen," said the doctor, lifting his hand. Eand listened ; so intently that he heard the familiar moan of the river below, but the great stony field lay silent before him. And then, borne across its bare barren bosom, like its own articulation, came faintly the feeble wail of a new-born babe. PART III STOBM The doctor hurried ahead in the darkness. Eand, wb,^ had stopped paralyzed at the ominous sound, started for- ward again mechanically ; hut as the cry arose again more distinctly, and the full significance of the doctor's words came to him, he faltered, stopped, and with cheeks hurning with shame and helpless indignation, sank upon a stone beside the shaft, and, burying his face in his hands, fairly gave way to a burst of boyish tears. Yet even then, the recollection that he had not cried since, years ago, his mother's dying hands had joined his and Ruth's childish fingers together, stung him fiercely and dried his tears in angry heat upon his cheeks. Hovv long he sat there, he remembered not ; what he thought, he recalled not. But the wildest and most extra- vagant plans and resolves availed him nothing in the face of this forever desecrated home, and this shameful culmi- nation of his ambitious life on the mountain. Once he thought of flight, but the reflection that he would still abandon his brother to shame, perhaps a self-contented shama, checked him hopelessly. Could he avert the future ? He must — but how ? Yet he could only sit and stare into the darkness in dumb abstraction. Sitting there, his eyes fell upon a peculiar object in a crevice of the ledge beside the sliaft. It was the tin pail containing his dinner, which, according to their custom, it was the duty of the brother who stayed above ground to prepare and place for the brother who worked below. STOKM 153 Buth must, consequently, have put it there before he left that morning, and Rand had overlooked it while sharing the repast of the strangers at noon. At the sight of this dumb witness of their mutual cares and labors, Eand sighed — half in brotherly sorrow, half in a selfish sense of injury done him. He took up the pail mechanically, removed its cover and — started ! For on top of the care- fully bestowed provisions lay a little note, addressed to him in Ruth's peculiar scrawl. He opened it with feverish hands, held it in the light of the peaceful moon, and read as follows : — Dear, dear Bbothek, — When you read this 1 shall be far away. I go because I shall not stay to disgrace you, and because the girl that I brought trouble upon has gone away too, to hide her disgrace and mine ; and where she goes, Rand, I ought to follow her, and, please God, I will ! I am not as wise or as good as you are, but it seems the best I can do ; and God bless you, dear old Randy, boy ! Times and times again I 've wanted to tell you all, and reckoned to do so ; but whether you was sitting before me in the cabin, or working beside me in the drift, I could n't get to look upon your honest face, dear brother, and say what things I 'd been keeping from you so long. I '11 stay away until I 've done what I ought to do, and if you can say, " Come, Ruth," I will come ; but until you can say it, the mountain is yours. Randy boy, the mine is yours, the cabin is yours, all is yours ! Rub out the old chalk marks. Rand, as I rub them out here in my [a few words here were blurred and indistinct, as if the moon had sud- denly become dim-eyed too]. God bless you, brother. p. S. — You know I mean Mornie all the time. It 's ,jhe I 'm going to seek ; but don't you think so bad of her as you do ; I am so much worse then she. I wanted to tell you that all along, but I did n't dare. She 's run 154 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN away from the Ferry, half crazy ; said she was going to Sacramento, and I am going there to find her alive or dead. Forgive me, brother ! Don't throw this down, right away ; hold it in your hand a moment, Kandy, boy, and try hard to think it 's my hand in yours. And so good-by, and God bless you, old Randy. From your loving brother, Kuth. A deep sense of relief overpowered every other feeling in Rand's breast. It was clear that Ruth had not yet dis- covered the truth of Mornie's flight ; he was on his way to Sacramento, and before he could return, Mornie could be removed. Once despatched in some other direction, with Ruth once more returned and under his brother's guidance, the separation could be made easy and final. There was evidently no marriage as yet, and now, the fear of an im- mediate meeting over, there should be none. For Rand had already feared this ; had recalled the few infelicitous relations, legal and illegal, which were common to the adjoining camp ; the flagrantly miserable life of the hus- band of a San Francisco anonyma, who lived in style at the Ferry ; the shameful carousals and more shameful quarrels of the Frenchman and Mexican woman, who " kept house " at " the Crossing ; " the awful spectacle of the three half- breed Indian children who played before the cabin of a fellow miner and townsman. Thank heaven, the Eagle's Nest on Table Mountain should never be pointed at from the valley as another. A heavy hand upon his arm brought him trembling to his feet. He turned and met the half-anxious, half-con- temptuous glance of the doctor. "I'm sorry to disturb you," he said drily, "but it's about time you or somebody else put in an appearance at that cabin. Luckily for her, she 's one woman in a thou- sand — has had her wits nbout licr better than some folks STORM 155 I know, and has left me little to do but make her com- fortable. But she 's gone through too much — fought her little tight too gallantly — is altogether too much of a trump to be played off upon now. So rise up out of that, young man ; pick up your scattered faculties, and fetch a woman — some sensible creature of her own sex — to look after her ; for, without wishing to be personal, I 'm d — d if I trust her to the likes of you." There was no mistaking Doctor Duchesne's voice and manner, and Rand was affected by it, as most people were, throughout the valley of the Stanislaus. But he turned upon him his frank and boyish face, and said simply, " But I don't know any woman, or where to get one." The doctor looked at him again. " Well, I '11 find you some one," he said, softening. " Thank you," said Eand. The doctor was disappearing. With an effort Eand re- called him. " One moment, doctor." He hesitated, and his cheeks were glowing. " You '11 please say nothing about tliis down there" — he pointed to the valley — "for a time. And you '11 say to the woman you send " — Dr. Duchesne, whose resolute lips were sealed upon the secrets of half Tuolumne county, interrupted him scorn- fully. " I cannot answer for the woman — yoa must talk to her yourself. As for me, generally I keep my profes- sional visits to myself, but" — he laid his hand on Eand's arm — "if I find out you 're putting on any airs to that poor creature, — if on my next visit her lips or her pulse tell me you have n't been acting on the square to her, I '11 drop a hint to drunken old Nixon where his daughter is hidden. I reckon she could stand his brutality better than yours. Good-night ! " In another moment he was gone. Eand, who had held back his quick tongue, feeling himself in the power of this mpn, once more alone, sank on a rock, and burie-as riding high, the door of the cabin 158 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN was open. Stretching himself, he staggered to his feet, and looked in through the yawning crack at the hinges. He rubbed his eyes again. Was he still asleep, and followed by a dream of yesterday ? For there, even in the very attitude he remembered to have seen her sitting at hei luncheon on the previous day, with her knitting on her lap, sat Mrs. Sol Saunders ! What did it mean ? or had she really been sitting there ever since, and all the events that followed only a dream ? A hand was laid upon his arm, and turning he saw the murky black eyes and Indian-inked beard of Sol beside him. That gentleman put his finger on his lips with a theatrical gesture, and then slowly retreating in the well- known manner of the buried Majesty of Denmark waved him, like another Hamlet, to a remoter part of the ledge. This reached, he grasped Rand warmly by the hand, shook it heartily, and said, " It 's all right, my boy ; all right ! " "But" — began Rand. The hot blood flowed to his cheeks, he stammered and stopped short. " It 's all right, I say ! Don't you mind ! We '11 pull you through." " But, Mrs. Sol ! what does she " — " Rosey has taken the matter in hand, sir ; and when that woman takes a matter in hand, whether it's a baby oi a rehearsal, sir, she makes it buzz." " But how did she know ? " stammered Rand. " How ? Well, sir, the scene opened something like this," said Sol professionally. " Curtain rises on me and Mrs. Sol, Domestic interior — practicable chairs, table, books, newspapers. Enter Doctor Duchesne — eccentric character part, very popular with the boys ; tells ofi'-hand affecting story of strange woman — - ' one more unfortunate,' having baby in Eagle's Nest — lonely place on ' peaks of Snowdon,' midnight ; eagles screaming, you know, and far down unfathomable depths ; only attendant, cold-blooded STORM 159 ruffian, evidently father of child, with sinister designs on child and mother." " He did n't say that t " said Eand, w ith an agonized smile. " Order ! Sit down in front ! " continued Sol, easily. " Mrs. Sol highly interested — a mother herself — demands name of place ? ' Table Mountain ! ' No, it cannot be — it is ! Excitement. Mystery ! Eosey rises to occasion — comes to the front : ' Some one must go ; I — I — will go myself ! ' Myself, coming to the centre : ' Not alone, dearest ; I — I will accompany yon ! ' A shriek at right upper entrance. Enter the Marysville Pet. 'I have heard all. 'T is a base calumny. It cannot be he ! Ran- dolph ! Never ! ' ' Dare you accompany us ? ' 'I will ! ' Tableau ! " "Is Miss Euphemia — here?" gasped Eand, practical, even in his embarrassment. " Or-r-rder ! Scene second. Summit of mountain — moonlight. Peaks of Snowdon in distance. Eight — lonely cabin. Enter slowly up defile, Sol, Mrs. Sol, the Pet. Advance slowly to cabin. Suppressed shriek from the Pet, who rushes to recumbent figure — Left — dis- covered lying beside cabin door. ' 'T is he ! Hist ! — he sleeps ! ' Throws blanket over him and retires np stage — so." Here Sol achieved a vile imitation of the Pet's most enchanting stage manner. " Mrs. Sol advances — Centre — throws open door! Shriek! "T is Mornie — the lost found!' The Pet advances — 'And the father is — ?' ' Not Eand ! ' The Pet kneeling, ' Just Heaven, I thank thee ! ' ' No, it is ' " — " Hush ! " said Eand appealingly, looking toward the cabin. " Hush it is ! " said the actor good-naturedly ; " but it 's all right, Mr. Eand — we '11 pull you through." Later in the morning, Eand learned that Mornie's ill- 160 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN fated connection with the " Star Variety Troupe " had been a source of anxiety to Mrs. Sol, and she had reproached herself for the girl's infelicitous d6but. "But Lord bless you, Mr. Rand," said Sol, "it was all in the way of business. She came to us — was fresh and new — her chance, looking at it professionally, was as good as any amateur's ; but, what with her relations here, and her bein' known, she did n't take ! We lost money on her ! It 's natural she should feel a little ugly. We all do when we get sorter kicked back on to ourselves, and find we can't stand alone. Why, you would n't believe it," he continued, with a moist twinkle of his black eyes, " but the night I lost my little Eosey of diphtheria in Gold Hill, the child was down on the bills for a comic song, and I had to drag Mrs. Sol on, cut up as she was, and filled up with that much of old Bourbon to keep her nerves stiff, so she could do an old gag with me to gain time and make up the ' variety.' Why, sir, when I came to the front / was ugly ! And when one of the boys in the front row sang out, ' Don't expose that poor child to the night air, Sol ' — meaning Mrs. Sol, I acted ugly. , No, sir, it 's human nature ; and it was quite natural that Mornie, when she caught sight o' Mrs. Sol's face last night, should rise up and cuss us both. Lord, if she 'd only acted like that ! But the old lady got her quiet at last, and, as I said before, it 's all right, and we '11 pull her through ! But don't you thank us ; it 's a little matter betwixt us and Mornie. We 've got everything fixed, so that Mrs. Sol can stay right along. We '11 pull Mornie through, and get her away from this and her baby too, as soon as we can. You won't get mad if I tell you something ? " said Sol, with a half-apolo- getic laugh. " Mrs. Sol was rather down on you the other day — hated you on sight, and preferred your brother to you ; but when she found he 'd run off and left you — you don't mind my sayin' it — a ' mere boy,' to take what STORM 161 ougliter be his place, why she just wheeled round agin' him. I suppose he got flustered and couldn't face the music. Never left a word of explanation? Well, it was n't exactly square — though I tell the old woman it 's human nature. He might have dropped a hint where he was goin'. Well, there, I won't say a word more agin' him. I know how you feel ! Hush it is! " It was the firm conviction of the simple-minded Sol that no one knew the various natural indications of human passion better than himself ; perhaps it was one of the fallacies of his profession that the expression of all human passion was limited to certain conventional signs and sounds. Consequently, when Rand colored violently, be- came confused, stammered, and at last turned hastily away, the good-hearted fellow instantly recognized the unfailing evidence of modesty and innocence embarrassed by recogni- tion. As for Rand, I fear his shame was only momentary : confirmed in the belief of his ulterior wisdom and virtue; his first embarrassment over, he was not displeased with this half-way tribute, and really believed that the time would come when Mr. Sol should eventually praise his sagacity and reservation, and acknowledge that he was something more than a mere boy. He nevertheless shrank from meeting Mornie that morning, and was glad that the presence of Mrs. Sol relieved him from that duty. The day passed uneventfully. Rand busied himself in his usual avocations, and constructed a temporary shelter for himself and Sol beside the shaft, besides rudely shaping a few necessary articles of furniture for Mrs. Sol. " It will be a little spell yet afore Mornie 's able to be moved," suggested Sol, " and you might as well be com- fortable." Rand sighed at this prospect, yet presently forgot him- self in the good humor of his companion, whose admiration for himself he began to patronizingly admit. There was 162 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN no sense of degradation in accepting the friendship of this man who had traveled so far, seen so much, and yet, as a practical man of the world. Rand felt, was so inferior to himself. The ahsence of Miss Euphemia, who had early left the mountain, was a source of odd, half-definite relief. Indeed, when he closed his eyes to rest that night, it was with a sense that the reality of his situation was not as had as he had feared. Once only, the figure of his hrother, haggard, weary and footsore, on his hopeless quest, wander- ing in lonely trails and lonelier settlements, came across his fancy ; but with it came the greater fear of his return, and the pathetic figure was banished. " And besides, he 's in Sacramento by this time, and like as not forgotten us all," he muttered ; and twining this poppy and mandragora aroiind his pillow, he fell asleep. His spirits had quite returned the next morning, and once or twice he found himself singing while at work in the shaft. The fear that Kuth might return to the mountain before he could get rid of Mornie, and the slight anxiety that had grown upon him to know something of his brother's movements, and to be able to govern them as he wished, caused him to hit upon the plan of constructing an ingen- ious advertisement to be published in the San Francisco journals, wherein the missing Ruth should be advised that news of his quest should be communicated to him by " a friend," through the same medium, after an interval of two weeks. Full of this amiable intention, he returned to the surface to dinner. Here, to his momentary confusion, he met Miss Euphemia, who, in absence of Sol, was assisting Mrs. Sol in the details of the household. If the honest frankness with which that young lady greeted him was not enough to relieve his embarrassment, he would have forgotten it in the utterly new and changed aspect she presented. Her extravagant walking costume of the previous ilny ^vas replaced by some bright calico, a STORM 163 Uttlo white apron, and a broad-brimmed straw hat, which seemed to Eaiid, in some odd fashion, to restore her original girlish simplicity. The change was certainly not unbe- coming to her : if her waist was not as tightly pinched, a la mode, there still was an honest, youthful plumpness about it ; her step was freer for the absence of her high-heel boots ; and even the hand she extended to Rand, if not quite so small as in her tight gloves, and a little brown from expos- ure, was magnetic in its strong, kindly grasp. There was perhaps a slight suggestion of the practical Mr. Sol in her wholesome presence, and Eand could not help wondering if Mrs. Sol had ever been a Gold Hill " pet " before her marriage with Mr. Sol. The young girl noticed his curious glance. " You never saw me in my rehearsal dress before," she said, with a laugh; "but I'm not 'company' to-day, and did n't put on my best harness to knock round in. I sup- pose I look dreadful." " I don't think you look bad," said Eand simply. " Thank you," said Euphemia, with a laugh and a curt- sey. " But this is n't getting the dinner." As part of that operation evidently was the taking off of her hat, the putting up of some thick blonde locks that had escaped, and the rolling up of her sleeves over a pair of strong rounded arms, Eand lingered near her. All trace of the Pet's previous professional coquetry was gone — per- haps it was only replaced by a more natural one — but as she looked up and caught sight of Band's interested face, she laughed again and colored a little. Slight as was the blush, it was sufficient to kindle a sympathetic fire in Eand's own cheeks, which was so utterly unexpected to him that he turned on his heel in confusion. " I reckon she thinks I 'm soft and silly, like Euth," he soliloquized, and determining not to look at her again, betook himself to a distant and contemplative pipe. In vain did Miss Euphemia address 164 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN herself to the ostentatious getting of the dinner in full view of him ; in vain did she bring the coffee-pot away from the fire, and nearer Rand, with the apparent intention of exam- ining its contents in a better light ; in vain, while wiping a plate, did she, absorbed in the distant prospect, walk to the verge of the mountain, and become statuesque and forgetful. The sulky young gentleman took no outward notice of her. Mrs. Sol's attendance upon Mornie prevented her leaving the cabin, and Rand and Miss Euphemia dined in the open air alone. The ridiculousness of keeping up a formal attitude to his solitary companion caused Rand to relax ; but, to his astonishment, the Pet seemed to have become correspondingly distant and formal. After a few moments of discomfort, Rand, who had eaten little, arose, and " be- lieved he would go back to work." "Ah yes," said the Pet, with an indifferent air, " I sup- pose you must. Well, gooJ-by, Mr. Pinkney." Rand turned. " You are not going ? " he asked, in some uneasiness. " I've got some work to do, too," returned Miss Eu- phemia, a little curtly. " But," said the practical Rand, " I thought you allowed that you were fixed to stay until to-morrow ? " But here Miss Euphemia, with rising color and slight acerbity of voice, was not aware that she was " fixed to stay" anywhere, least of all when she was in the way. More than that, she must say, although perhaps it made no difference, and she ought not to say it — that she was not in the habit of intruding upon gentlemen, who plainly gave her to under- stand that her company was not desirable. She did not know why she said this — of course it could make no differ- ence to anybody who did n't, of course, care ; but she only wanted to say that she only came here because her dear friend, her adopted mother — and a better woman nevei breathed — had come and had asked her to stay. Of course. STORM 16,'i Mrs. Sol was an intruder herself — Mr. Sol was an intruder — they were all intruders ; she only wondered that Mr. Pinkney had home with them so long. She knew it was an awful thing to be here, taking care of a poor — poor, helpless woman; but perhaps Mr. Rand's brother might forgive them if he could n't. But no matter, she would go — Mr. Sol would go — all would go, and then, perhaps, Mr. Band — She stopped breathless ; she stopped with the corner of her apron against her tearful hazel eyes ; she stopped with what was more remarkable than all — Eand's arm actually around her waist, and his astonished, alarmed face within a few inches of her own. " Why, Miss Euphemia, Phemie, my dear girl ! I never meant anything like that" said Eand earnestly. " I really did n't now ! Come now ! " " You never once spoke to me when I sat down," said Miss Euphemia, feebly endeavoring to withdraw from Rand's grasp. " I really did n't ! Oh, come now, look here ! I did n't ! Don't ! There 's a dear — there ! " Tliis last conclusive exposition was a kiss. Miss Eu- phemia was not quick enough to release herself from his arms. He anticipated that act a full half-second, and had dropped his own, pale and breathless. The girl recovered herself first. " There, I declare, I 'm forgetting Mrs. Sol's coffee ! " she exclaimed, hastily, and snatching up the coifee-pot, disappeared. When she re- turned, Rand was gone. Miss Euphemia busied herself, demurely, in clearing up the dishes, with the tail of her eye sweeping the horizon of the summit level around her. But no Rand appeared. Presently she began to laugh quietly to herself. This occurred several times during her occupa- tion, which was somewhat prolonged. The result of this meditative hilarity was summed up in a somewhat grave 166 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN and thoughtful deduction, as she walked slowly back to the cabin, " I do believe I 'm the first woman that that boy ever kissed." Miss Euphemia stayed that day and the next, and Kand forgot his embarrassment. By what means, I know not, Miss Euphemia managed to restore Rand's confidence in himself and in her, and in a little ramble on the mountain side, got him to relate, albeit somewhat reluctantly, the particulars of his rescue of Mornie from her dangerous position on the broken trail. " And if you had n't got there as soon as you did, she 'd have fallen ? " asked the Pet. " I reckon," returned Eand gloomily, " she was sorter dazed and crazed like." " And you saved her life ? " "I suppose so, if you put it that way," said Rand, sulkily. " But how did you get her up the mountain again ? " " Oh, I got her up," returned Rand moodily. " But how ? Really, Mr. Rand, you don't know how interesting this is. It 's as good as a play," said the Pet, with a little excited laugh. " Oh, I carried her up ! " " In your arms ? " " Y-e-e-s." Miss Euphemia paused, and bit off the stalk of a flower, made a wry face, and threw it away from her in disgust. Then she dug a few tiny holes in the earth with her parasol, and buried bits of the flower-stalk in them, as if they had been tender memories. " I suppose you knew Mornie very well ? " she asked. "I used to run across her in the woods," responded Rand shortly, " a year ago. I did n't know her so well then as " — He stopped. " As what ? as now ? " asked the Pet abruptly. STORM 167 ■; Rand, who was coloring over his narrow escape from a topic which a delicate kindness of Sol had excluded from their intercourse on the mountain, stammered " As ijou do — I meant." The Pet tossed her head a little, " Oh, I don't know her at all — except through Bol ! " Eand stared hard at thitj. The Pet, who was looking at him intently, said, " Show me the place , where you saw Mornie clinging that night." " It 's dangerous," suggested Eand. " You mean I 'd be afraid ! Try me ! I don't believe she was so dreadfully frightened ! " " Why ? " asked Rand, in astonishment. " Oh, — because " — Rand sat down in vague wonderment. " Show it to me," continued the Pet, "or — I '11 find it alone ! " Thus challenged, he arose, and after a few moments' climbing stood with her upon the trail. "You see that thorn-bush where the rock has fallen away. It was just there ! It is not safe to go farther. Ifo, really ! Miss Euphemia ! Please don't ! It 's almost certain death ! " But the giddy girl had darted past him, and, face to the wall of the clitf, was creeping along the dangerous path. Rand followed mechanically. Once or twice the trail crumbled beneath her feet, but she clung to a projecting root of chapparal, and laughed. She had almost reached her elected goal when, slipping, the treacherous chapparal she clung to yielded in her grasp, and Rand, with a cry, sprung forward. But the next instant she quickly trans- ferred her tiold to a cleft in the cliff and was safe. Not so her companion. The soil beneath him, loosened by the impulse of his spring, slipped away ; he was falling with it, when she caught him sharply with her disengaged hand, and together they scrambled to a more secure footing. 168 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " I could have reached it alone," said the Pet, " if you 'ij left me alone." " Thank Heaven, vre 're saved," said Rand gravely. " And without a rope," said Miss Euphemia signifi- cantly. Rand did not understand her. But as they slowly returned to the summit he stammered out the always diffi- cult thanks oi a man ■vvho has been physically helped by one of the weaker sex. Miss Euphemia was quick to set her error. " I might have made you lose your footing by catching at you," she said meekly. " But I was so frightened for you, ■■ and could not help it." The superior animal, thoroughly bamboozled, thereupon complimented her on her dexterity. " Oh, that 's nothing," she said, with a sigh. " I used to do the flying-trapeze business with papa when I was a child, and I've not forgotten it." With this and other confidences of her early life, in which Rand betrayed con- siderable interest, they beguiled the tedious ascent. " I ought to have made you carry me up," said the lady, with a little laugh, when they reached the summit ; " but you have n't known me as long as you have Mornie — have you ? " With this mysterious speech she bade Rand " Good-night," and hurried off to the cabin. And so a week passed by — the week so dreaded by Randj yet passed so pleasantly, that at times it seemed as if that dread were only a trick of his fancy, or as if the circumstances that surrounded him were different from what he believed them to be. On the seventh day the doctor had stayed longer than usual, and Rand, who had been sitting with Euphemia on the ledge by the shaft, watching the sunset, had barely time to withdraw his hand from hers as Mrs. Sol, a trifle pale and wearied- looking, approached him. STORM 1 69 " I don't like to trouble you," she said — indeed they had seldom troubled him with the details of Mornie's con- valescence, or even her needs and requirements, — •' but the doctor is alarmed about Mornie, and she has asked to see you. I think you 'd better go in and speak to her. You know," continued Mrs. Sol delicately, " you have n't been in there since the night she was taken sick, and maybe a new face might do her good." The guilty blood flew to Rand's face as he stammered, "I thought I'd be in the way. I didn't believe she cared much to see me. Is she worse ? " " The doctor is looking very anxious," said Mrs. Sol simply. The blood returned from Eand's face, and settled around his heart. He turned very pale. He had consoled hini' self always for his complicity in Ruth's absence, that he was taking good care of Mornie, or, what is considered by most selfish natures an equivalent — permitting or encour. aging some one else to " take good care of her," but here was a contingency utterly unforeseen. It did not occur to him that this " taking good care " of her could result in anything but a perfect solution of her troubles, or that there could be any future to her condition but one of recovery. But what if she should die ? A sudden and helpless sense of his responsibility to Ruth — to — her — brought him trembling to his feet. He hurried to the cabin, where Mrs. Sol left him with a word of caution. " You '11 find her changed and quiet — ■ very quiet. If I was you I would n't say anything to bring back her old self." The change which Rand saw was so great, the face that was turned to him so quiet, that, with a new fear upon him, he would have preferred the savage eyes and reckless mien of the old Mornie whom he hated. With his habitual impulsiveness he tried to say something that should express 170 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN that fact not unkindly, — but faltered, and awkwardly sank iato the chair by her bedside. " I don't wonder you stare at me now," she said, in a far-off voice ; " it seems to you strange to see me lying here so quiet. You are thinking how wild I was when I came here that night. I must have been crazy, I think. I dreamed that I said dreadful things to you ; but you must forgive me, and not mind it. I was crazy then." She stopped and folded the blanket between her thin fingers. " I did n't ask you to come here to tell you that, or to remind you of it, but — but when I was crazy, I said so many worse, dreadful things of him, ; and you — you will be left behind to tell him of it." ■ Rand was vaguely murmuring something to the effect that " he knew she did n't mean anything," that " she mustn't think of it again," that "he'd forgotten all about it," when she stopped him with a tired gesture. " Perhaps I was wrong to think that, after I am gone, you would care to tell him anything. Perhaps I 'm wrong to think of it at all, or to care what he will think of me — except for the sake of the child — his child. Rand ! — that I must leave behind me. He will know that it never abused him. No, God bless its sweet heart ! it never was wild and wicked and hateful, like its cruel, crazy mother. And he will love it ; and you, perhaps, will love it too — Just a little. Rand ! Look at it ! " She tried to raise the helpless bundle beside her in her arms, but failed. " You must lean over," she said, faintly, to Rand. " It looks like him, does n't it ? " Rand, with wondering, embarrassed eyes, tried to see some resemblance in the little blue red oval, to the sad, wistful face of his brother, which even then was haunting him from some mysterious distance. He kissed the child's forehead, but even then so vaguely and perfunctorily, that the mother sighed, and drew it closer to her breast. STOEM 171 " The doctor says," she contimied, in a calmer voice, " that I 'm not doing as well as I ought to. I don't think," she faltered, with something of her old bitter laugh, " that I 'm ever doing as well as I ought to, and perhaps it 's not strange now that I don't. And he says, that in case any- thing happens to me, I ought to look ahead ! I have looked ahead ! It 's a dark look ahead, Eand — a horror of blackness, without kind faces, without the baby, without — without Mm ! " She turned her face away, and laid it on the bundle by her side. It was so quiet in the cabin, that through the open door, beyond, the faint rhythmical moan of the pines below was distinctly heard. " I know it 's foolish — but that is what ' looking ahead ' always meant to me," she said, with a sigh. " But, since the doctor has been gone, I 've talked to Mrs. Sol, and find it 's for the best. And I look ahead, and see more clearly. I look ahead, and see my disgrace removed far away from hitn and you. I look ahead, and see you and he living together, happily, as you did before I came between you. I look ahead, and see ray past life forgotten, my faults for- given, and I think I see you both loving my baby, and perhaps loving me a little for its sake. Thank you, Eand, thank you ! " For Rand's hand had caught hers beside the pillow, and he was standing over her, whiter than she. Something in the pressure of his hand emboldened her to go on, and even lent a certain strength to her voice. " When it comes to that, Hand, you '11 not let these people take the baby away. Yoii '11 keep it here with you until he comes. And something tells me that he will come when I am gone. You '11 keep it here in the pure air and sunlight of the mountain, and out of those wicked depths below ; and when I am gone, and they are gone, and only you and Euth and baby are here, maybe you '11 think that 172 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN it came to you ia a cloud on the mountain — a cloud that lingered only long enough to drop its burden, and faded, leaving the sunlight and dew behind. "What is it — Rand ? What are you looking at ? " " I was thinking," said Rand, in a strange altered voice, " that I must trouble you to let me take down those duds and furbelows that hang on the wall, so that I can get at some traps of mine behind them." He took some articles from the wall, replaced the dresses of Mrs. Sol, and answered Mornie's look of inquiry. " I was only getting at my purse and my revolver," he said, showing them. " I 've got to get some stores at the Ferry, by daylight." Mornie sighed. " I 'm giving you great trouble, Eaud, I know ; but it won't be for long." He muttered something, took her hand again, and bade her " good-night." When he reached the door he looked back. The light was shining full upon her face as she lay there with her babe on her breast, bravely " looking ahead." PAET IV THE CLOUDS PASS It was early morning at the Perry. The " up coach " had passed with lights unextinguished, and the " outsides" still asleep. The ferryman had gone up to the Ferry Mansion House, swinging his lantern, and had found the sleepy- looking " all-night " bar-keeper on the point of withdrawing for the day on a mattress under the bar. An Indian half- breed, porter of the Mansion House, was washing out the stains of recent nocturnal dissipation from the bar-room and veranda, a few birds were twittering on the cotton- woods beside the river, a bolder few had alighted upon the veranda and were trying to reconcile the existence of so much lemon-peel, and cigar stumjjs with their ideas of a beneficent Creator. A faint earthy freshness and perfume rose along the river banks. Deep shadows still lay upon the opposite shore, but in the distance, four miles away, morning along the level crest of Table Mountain walked with rosy tread. The sleeping bar-keeper was that morning doomed to dis- appointment. For scarcely had the coach passed, whep steps were heard upon the veranda, and a weary dusty traveler threw his blanket and knapsack to the porter, and then dropped into a vacant arm-chair, with his eyes fixed on the distant crest of Table Mountain. He remained motionless for some time, until the bar-keeper, who had already concocted the conventional welcome of the Mansion House, appeared with it in a glass, put it upon the table, glanced at the stranger, and then, thoroughly awake, cried out — 174 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " Ruth Pinkney — or I 'm a Chinaman ! " The stranger lifted his eyes wearily. Hollow oirclesi were around their orbits, haggard lines were in his cheeks. But it was Ruth. He took the glass and drained it at a single draught. " Yes," he said absently, " Ruth Pinkney," and fixed his eyes again on the distant rosy crest. " On yo\ir way up home ? " suggested the bar-keeper, following the direction of Ruth's eyes. " Perhaps." " Been upon a pasear — hain't yer ? Been havin' a little tear round Sacramento — seein' the sights." Ruth smiled bitterly. " Yes." The bar-keeper lingered — ostentatiously wiping a glass. But Ruth again became abstracted in the mountain, and the bar-keeper turned away. How pure and clear that summit looked to him ! how restful and steadfast with serenity and calm ! how unlike his own feverish, dusty, travel-worn self ! A week had elasped since he had last looked upon it — a week of dis- appointment, of anxious fears, of doubts, of wild imagin- ings, of utter helplessness. In his hopeless quest of the missing Mornie, he had, in fancy, seen this serene eminence haunting his remorseful passion-stricken soul. And now, without a clue to guide him to her unknown hiding-place, he was back again to face the brother whom he had de- ceived, with only the confession of his own weakness. Hard as it was to lose forever the fierce reproachful glances of the woman he loved, it was still harder to a man of Ruth's temperament to look again upon the face of the brother he feared. A hand laid upon his shoulder startled him. It was the bar-keeper. " If it 's a fair question, Ruth Pinkney, I 'd like to ask ye how long ye kalkilate to hang around the Ferry to-day ? " " Why ? " demanded Ruth haughtily. THE CLOUDS PASS 175 "BectiasQ, whatever you've been and done, I want ye to have a square show. Ole Nixon has been cavortin' roiiTid yer the last two days, swearin' to kill you on sight for runnin' off with his darter. Sabe ? Now let me ax ye two questions. First — are you heeled ? " Ruth responded to this dialectical inquiry affirmatively, by putting his hand on his revolver. " Good ! Now, second — have you got the gal along here with you ? " " No," responded Euth, in a hollow voice. " That 's better yet," said the man, without heeding the tone of the reply. " A woman — and especially the woman, in a row of this kind — handicaps a man awful." He paused and took up the empty glass. " Look yer, Euth Pinkney, I 'm a square man, and I'll be square with you. So I '11 just tell you you 've got the demdest odds agin' ye. Pr'aps ye know it, and don't keer. Well, the boys around yer are all sidin' with the old man Nixon. It 's the ilrst time the old rip ever had a hand in his favor ; so the boys will see fair play for Nixon and agin' you. But I reckon you don't mind him ? " " So little, I shall never pull trigger on him ! " said Euth gravely. The bar-keeper stared, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. " Well, thar 's that Kanaka Joe, who used to be sorter sweet on Mornie — he 's an ugly devil — he 's helpin' the old man ! " The sad look faded from Euth's eyes suddenly. A cer- tain wild Berserker rage — a taint of the blood, inherited from heaven knows what Old- World ancestry, which had made the twin brothers' Southwestern eccentricities re- spected in the settlement — glowed in its place. The bar- keeper noted it, and augured a lively future for the day's festivities. But it faded again ; and Euth, as he rose, turned hesitatingly towards him. 176 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " Have you seen my brother Eand lately ? " "Nary." " He has n't been here, or about the Ferry ? " " Nary time." " You have n't heard," said Euth, with a faint attempt as a smile, " if he 's been around here asking after me — sorter looking me up, you know ? " " Not much," returned the bar-keeper deliberatelv. " Ez far ez I know Rand — that ar brother o' yours — he 's one of yer high-toned chaps ez does n't drink, thinks bar- rooms is pizen, and ain't the sort to come round yer and sling yarns with me." Euth rose ; but the hand that he placed upon the table, albeit a powerful one, trembled so that it was with difficulty he resumed his knapsack. When he did so, his bent figure, stooping shoulders, and haggard face made him appear another man from the one who had sat down. There was a slight touch of apologetic deference and humility in his manner as he paid his reckoning, and slowly and hesitat- ingly began to descend the steps. The bar-keeper looked after him thoughtfully. "Well, dog my skin 1 " he ejaculated to himself, " ef I had n't seen that man — that same Ruth Pinkney — straddle a friend's body in this yer very room, and dare a whole crowd to come on, I 'd swar that he had n't any grit in him ! Thar* s something up ! " But here Ruth reached the last step, and turned again. " If you see old man Nixon, say I 'm in town ; if you see that " (I regret to say that I cannot repeat his exact and brief characterization of the present condition and natal antecedents of Kanaka Joe), "say I'm looking out for him," and was gone. He wandered down the road towards the one long strag- gling street of the settlement. The few people who met him at that early hour greeted him with a kind of con- THE CLOUDS PASS 177 strained civility ; certain cautious souls hurried by without seeing him ; all turned and looked after him, and a few followed him at a respectful distance. A somewhat noto- rious practical joker, and recognized wag at the Ferry, apparently awaited his coming with something of invitation and expectation, but catching sight of Euth's haggard face and blazing eyes, became instantly practical and by no means jocular in his greeting. At the top of the hill, Euth turned to look once more upon the distant mountain, now again a mere cloud-line on the horizon. In the firm belief that he would never again see the sun rise upon it, he turned aside into a hazel thicket, and tearing out a few leaves from his pocket-book, wrote two letters — one to Eand and one to Mornie ; but which, as they were never delivered, shall not burden this brief chronicle of that eventful day. For while transcribing them, he was startled by the sounds of a dozen pistol-shots, in the direction of the hotel he had recently quitted. Something in the mere sound provoked the old hereditary fighting instinct, and sent him to his feet with a bound, and a slight distension of the nostrils and sniffing of the air not unknown to certain men who become half intoxicated by the smell of powder. He quickly folded his letters and addressed them carefully, and taking off his knapsack and blanket, methodi- cally arranged them under a tree, with the letters on top. Then he examined the lock of his revolver, and then, with the step of a man ten years younger, leaped into the road. He had scarcely done so when he was seized, and by sheer force dragged into a blacksmith's shop at the roadside. He turned his savage face and drawn weapon upon his assail- ant, but was surprised to meet the anxious eyes of the bar-keeper of the Mansion House. " Don't be a d — d fool !' said the man quickly. " Thar 's fifty agin' you down thar. But why, in h— 11, did n't you wipe out old Nixon when you had such a good chance ? " 178 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " Wipe out old Nixon ? " repeated Ruth. " Yes, just now, when you had him covered ! " " What ! " The bar-keeper turned quickly upon Kuth, stared at him, and then suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. " Well ! I 've knowed you two were twins, but damn me if I ever thought I 'd be sold like this." And he again burst into a roar of laughter. " What do you mean ? " demanded Ruth savagely. " What do I mean ? " returned the bar-keeper, " why, I mean this. I mean that your brother, Rand, as you call him, he 'z bin — for a young feller, and a pious feller — doin' about the tallest kind o' fightin, to-day that 's been done at the Ferry. He 's laid out that ar Kanaka Joe and two of his chums ! He was pitched into on your quarrel, and he took it up for you like a little man ! I managed to drag him off, up yer, in the hazel bush for safety, and out you pops, and I thought you was him ! He can't be far away. Hallo ! There they 're comin' ; and thar 's the doctor trying to keep them back ! " A crowd of angry excited faces filled the road suddenly, but before them Dr. Duchesne, mounted, and with a pistol in his hand, opposed their further progress. " Back, in the bush ! " "whispered the bar-keeper. "!N"ow 's your time ! " But Ruth stirred not. " Go you back," he said, in a low voice ; " find Rand, and take him away. I will fill his place here." He drew his revolver, and stepped into the road. A shout, a report, and the spatter of red dust from a bullet near his feet, told him he was recognized. He stirred not ; but another shout, and a cry, " There they are — both of 'em ! " made him turn. His brother Rand, with a smile on his lip and fire in his eye, stood by his side ! Neither spoke. Then Rand, quietly as of old, slipped his hand into his brother's strong THE CLOUDS PASS 179 palm. Two or three bullets sang by them, a splinter flew from the blacksmith's shed, but the brothers, hard gripping each other's hands, and looking into each other's faces, -with a quiet joy, stood there, calm and imperturbable. There was a momentary pause. The voice of Dr. Du- chesne rose above the crowd. " Keep back, I say ! Keep back ! Or hear me ! — for five years I 've worked among you, and mended and patched the holes you 've drilled through each other's carcasses — Keep back, I say ! — Or the next man that pulls trigger, or steps forward, will get a hole from me that no surgeon can stop ! I 'm sick of your bungling ball practice ! Keep back ! — or, by the living Jingo, I '11 show you where a man's vitals are ! " There was a burst of laughter from the crowd, and for a moment the twins were forgotten in this audacious speech and coolly impertinent presence. " That 's right ! Now let that infernal old hypocritical drunkard. Mat Nixon, step to the front." The crowd parted right and left, and half pushed, half dragged Nixon before him. " Gentlemen," said the doctor, " this is the man who has just shot at Eand Pinkney for hiding his daughter. Now, I tell you, gentlemen, and I tell him, that for the last week his daughter, Mornie Nixon, has been under my care as a patient, and my protection as a friend. If there 's anybody to be shot, the job must begin with me ! " There was another laugh, and a cry of " Bully for old Sawbones ! " Ruth started convulsively, and Rand answered his look with a confirming pressure of his hand. "That isn't all, gentlemen, this drunken brute has just shot at a gentleman, whose only offense, to my knowledge, is that he has, for the last week, treated her with a brother's kindness, has taken her into his own home, and cared for her wants as if she were his own sister." 180 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN Ruth's hand again grasped his brother's. Hand colored, and hung his head. " There 's more yet, gentlemen. I tell you that that girl, Mornie Nixon, has, to my knowledge, been treated like a lady, has been cared for as she never was eared for in her father's house, and while that father has been proclaiming her shame in every bar-room at the Ferry, has had the sympathy and care, night and day, of two of the most accomplished ladies of the Ferry — Mrs. Sol Saunders, gentlemen, and Miss Euphemia ! " There was a shout of approbation from the crowd. Nixon would have slipped away, but the doctor stopped him. "Not yet! I've one thing more to say. I've to tell you, gentlemen, on my professional word of honor, that besides being an old hypocrite, this same old Mat Nixon is the ungrateful, unnatural grandfather of the first boy born in the district ! " A wild huzza greeted the doctor's climax. By a common consent the crowd turned toward the Twins, who, grasping each other's hands stood apart. The doctor nodded his head. The next moment the Twins were surrounded and lifted in the arms of the laughing throng, and borne in triumph to the bar-room of the Mansion House. " Gentlemen," said the bar-keeper, " call for what you like : the Mansion House treats to-day in honor of its be- ing the first time that Band Pinkney has been admitted to the Bar." It was agreed that, as her condition was still precarious, the news should be broken to her gradually and indirectly. The indefatigable Sol had a professional idea, which was not displeasing to the Twins. It being a lovely summer afternoon, the couch of Mornie was lifted out on the ledge, and she lay there basking in the sunlight, drinking in the pure air, and looking gravely ahead in the daylight as she THE CLOUDS PASS 181 had in the darkness — for her couch commanded a view of the mountain flank. And lying there she dreamed a pleasant dream, and in her dream saw Rand returning up the mountain trail. She was half conscious that he had good news for her, and when he at last reached her bed- side, he began gently and kindly to tell his news. But she heard him not, or rather in her dream was most occupied with his ways and manners, which seemed unlike him, yet inexpressibly sweet and tender. The tears were fast coming in her eyes, when he suddenly dropped on his knees beside her, threw away Rand's disguising hat and coat, and clasped her in his arms. And by that she knew it was Ruth ! But what they said ; what hurried words of mutual explanation and forgiveness passed between them ; what bitter yet tender recollections of hidden fears and doubts, now forever chased away in the rain of tears and joyous sunshine of that mountain top, were then whispered ; what- ever of this little chronicle, that to the reader seems strange and inconsistent, — as all human records must ever be strange and imperfect except to the actors — was then made clear, was never divulged by them, and must remain witli them forever. The rest of the party had withdrawn and they were alone. But when Mornie turned and placed the baby in its father's arms, they were so isolated in their happiness, that the lower world beneath them might have swung and drifted away, and left that mountain top the beginning and creation of a better planet. " You know all about it now," said Sol, the next daj explaining the previous episodes of this history of Ruth,, "you've got the whole plot before you. It dragged a little in the second act, for the actors were n't up in their parts. But, for an amateur performance, on the whole, it wasn't bad." 182 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN " I don't know, I 'm sure," said Kand impulsivelj " how we 'd have got on without Euphemia. It 's too bad, she could n't be here to-day." " She wanted to come," said Sol, " but the gentleman she 's engaged to came up from Marysville last night." " Gentleman — engaged ! ".repeated Eand, white and red by turns. " Well, yes ! I say ' gentleman,' although he 's in the Variety profession. She always said," said Sol quietly, looking at Band, " that she 'd never marry out of it." JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STOEY It was raining and blowing at Eldridge's Crossing. From the stately pine-trees on the hill-tops, which were dignifiedly protesting through their rigid spines iipward, to the hyster- ical willows in the hollow, that had whipped themselves into a maudlin fury, there was a general tumult. When the wind lulled, the rain kept up the distraction, firing long volleys across the road, letting loose miniature cataracts from the hill-sides to brawl in the ditches, and beating down the heavy heads of wild oats on the levels ; when the rain ceased for a moment the wind charged over the already defeated field, ruffled the gulleys, scattered the spray from the roadside pines, and added insult to injury. But both wind and rain concentrated their energies in a malevolent attempt to utterly disperse and scatter the " Half-way Hovise," which seemed to have wholly lost its way, and strayed into the open, where, dazed and bewildered, unpre- pared and unprotected, it was exposed to the taunting fury of the blast. A loose, shambling, disjointed, hastily built structure — representing the worst features of Pioneer renais- sance — it rattled its loose window-sashes like chattering teeth, banged its ill-hung shutters, and admitted so much of the invading storm, that it might have blown up or blown down with equal facility. Jefferson Briggs, proprietor and landlord of the " Half- way House," had just gone through the formality of closing his house for the night, hanging dangerously out of the window in the vain attempt to subdue a rebellious shutter 184: JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY that had evidently entered into conspiracy with the invaders, and shutting a door as against a sheriff's posse, was going to bed — i. e., to read himself asleep, as was his custom. As he entered his little bedroom in the attic with a highly exciting novel in his pocket and a kerosene lamp in his hand, the wind, lying in wait for him, instantly extinguished his lamp and slammed the door behind him. Jefferson Briggs re- lighted the lamp, as if confidentially, in a corner, and shield- ing it in the bosom of his red flannel shirt, which gave him the appearance of an illuminated shrine, hung a heavy bear- skin across the window, and then carefully deposited his lamp upon a chair at his bedside. This done, he kicked off his boots, flung them into a corner, and rolling himself in a blanket, lay down upon the bed. A habit of early rising, bringing with it, presumably, the proverbial accom- paniment of health, wisdom, and pecuniary emoluments, had also brought with it certain ideas of the effeminacy of separate toilettes and the virtue of readiness. In a few moments he was deep in a chapter. A vague pecking at his door — as of an unseasonable woodpecker, finally asserted itself to his consciousness. " Come in," he said, with his eye still on the page. The door opened to a gaunt figure, partly composed of bed-quilt and partly of plaid shawl. A predominance of the latter and a long wisp of iron-gray hair determined her sex. She leaned against the post with an air of fatigue, half moral and half physical. " How ye kin lie thar, abed, Jeff, and read and smoke on sich a night ! The sperrit o' the Lord abroad over the yearth — and up stage not gone by yet. Well, well ! it 's well thar ez some ez can't sleep." " The up coach, like as not, is stopped by high water on the' North Fork, ten miles away, aunty," responded Jeff, keeping to the facts. Possibly not recognizing the hand of a beneficent Creator in the rebellious window shutter, he avoided theology. JEFF BKIGGS'S LOVE STORY 185 " Well," responded the figure, with an air of delivering an unheeded and thankless warning, " it is not for me to say. P'raps it's all His wisdom that some will keep to their own mind. It 's well ez some hez n't narves, and kin luxuriate in terhacker in the night watches. But He says, ' I '11 come like a thief in the night ! ' — like a thief in the night, JeflF." Totally unable to reconcile this illustration with the de- layed " Pioneer " coach and Yuba Bill, its driver, Jeff lay silent. In his own way, perhaps, he was uneasy — not to say shocked — at his aunt's habitual freedom of scriptural quotation, as that good lady herself was with an occasional oath from his lips ; a fact, by the way, not generally under- stood by purveyors of Scripture, licensed and unlicensed. " I 'd take a pull at them bitters, aunty," said Jeff feebly, with his wandering eye still recurring to his page. " They '11 do ye a power of good in the way o' calmin' yer narves." " Ef I was like some folks I would n't want bitters — though made outer the simplest yarbs of the yearth, with jest enough sperrit to bring out the vartoos — ez Deacon Stoer's Balm 'er Gilead is — what yer meaning ? Ef I was like some folks I could lie thar and smoke in the lap o' idleness — with fourteen beds in the house empty, and nary lodger for one of 'era. Ef I was that indifferent to havin' invested my fortin in the good will o' this house, and not ez much ez a single transient lookin' in, I could lie down and take comfort in profane literatoor. But it ain't in me to do it. And it was n't your father's way, Jeff, neither ! " As the elder Briggs's way had been to seek surcease from such trouble at the gambling table, and eventually, in suicide, Jeff could not deny it. But he did not say that a full realization of his unhappy venture overcame him as he closed the blinds of the hotel that night ; and that the half desperate idea of abandoning it then and there to the war- ting elements that' had resented his trespass on Nature 186 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY seemed to him an act of simple reason and justice. He did not say this, for easy-going natures are not apt to explain the processes by which their content or resignation is reached, and are therefore supposed to have none. Keeping to the facts, he simply suggested the weather was unfavorable to travelers, and again found his place on the page before him. Fixing it with his thumb, he looked up resignedly. The figure wearily detached itself from the door-post, and Jeff's eyes fell on his book. " You won't stop, aunty ? " he asked mechanically, as if reading aloud from the page ; but she was gone. A little ashamed, although much relieved, Jeff fell back again to literature, interrupted only by the charging of the wind and the heavy volleys of rain. Presently he found himself wondering if a certain banging were really a shutter, and then, haying settled in his mind that it was, he was startled by a shout. Another, and in the road before the house ! Jeff put down his book, and marked the place by turning down the leaf, being one of that large class of readers whose mental faculties are butter-fingered, and easily slip their hold. Then he resumed his boots and was duly capari- soned. He extinguished the kerosene lamp, and braved the outer air, and strong currents of the hall and stairway in the darkness. Lighting two candles in the bar-room, he proceeded to unlock the hall door. At the same instant a furious blast shook the house, the door yielded slightly and impelled a thin, meek-looking stranger violently against Jefi who still struggled with it. " An accident has occurred," began the stranger, " and " — but here the wind charged again, blew open the door, pinned Jeff behind it back against the wall, overturned the dripping stranger, dashed up the staircase, and slammed every door in the house, ending triumphantly with No. 14 and a crash of glass in the window. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOKY 187 " Come, rouse up ! " said Jeff, still struggling with the door, " rouse up and lend a hand yer ! " Thus abjured, the stranger crept along the wall towards Jeff and began again, " AVe have met with an accident." But here another and mightier gust left him speechless, covered him with spray of a wildly disorganized water-spout that, dangling from the roof, seemed to be playing on the front door, drove him into black obscurity and again sand- wiched his host between the door and the wall. Then there was a lull, and in the midst of it, Yuba Bill, driver of the " Pioneer '' coach, quietly and coolly, impervious in waterproof, walked into the hall, entered the bar-room, took a candle, and going behind the bar, selected a bottle, critically examined it, and returning, poured out a quantity of whiskey in p. glass and gulped it in a single draught. All this while Jeff was closing the door, and the meek-looking man was coming into the light again. Yuba Bill squared his elbows behind him and rested them on the bar, crossed his legs easily and awaited them. In reply to Jeff's inquiring but respectful look, he said shortly — " Oh, you 're thar, are ye ? " "Yes, Bill." " Well, this yer new-fangled road o' yours is ten feet deep in the hollow with back water from the North Fork ! I 've taken that yar coach inter fower feet of it, and then I reck- oned I could n't hev any more. ' I '11 stand on this yer hand,' sez I ; I brought the horses up yer and landed 'em in your barn to eat their blessed heads off till the water goes down. That 's wot 's the matter old man, and jist about wot I kalkilated on from those durned old improve- ments o' yours." Coloring a little at this new count in the general indict- ment against the uselessness of the " Half-way House," Jeff' asked if there were " any passengers ? " 188 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOEY Yuba Bill indicated, the meek stranger with a jerk of his thumb. " And his wife and darter in the coach. They ^re all right and tight, ez if they was in the Fifth Avenue Hotel. But I reckon he allows to fetch 'em up yer," added Bill, as if he strongly doubted the wisdom of the transfer. The meek man, much meeker for the presence of Bill, here suggested that such indeed was his wish, and further prayed that Jeff would accompany him to the coach to assist in bringing them up. " It 's rather wet and dark," said the man apologetically ; " my daughter is not strong. Have you such a thing as a waterproof ? " Jeff had not ; but would a bear-skin do ? It would. Jeff ran, tore down his extempore window curtain, and returned with it. Yuba Bill, who had quietly and disap- provingly surveyed the proceeding, here disengaged him- self from the bar with evident reluctance. " You '11 want another man," he said to Jeff, " onless ye can carry double. Ez lie," indicating the stranger, " ez no sort o' use, he 'd better stay here and ' tend bar/ while you and me fetch the wimmen off. 'Specially ez I reckon we 've got to do some tall wadin' by this time to reach 'em." The meek man sat down helplessly in a chair indicated by Bill, who at once strode after Jeff. In another moment they were both fighting their way, step by step, against the storm, in that peculiar, drunken, spasmodic way so amusing to the spectator and so exasperating to the performer. It was no time for conversation, even interjectional profanity was dangerously exhaustive. The coach was scarcely a thousand yards away, but its bright lights were reflected in a sheet of dark silent water that stretched between it and the two men. Wading and splashing they soon reached it, and a guUey where the JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 189 Surplus water was pouring into the valley below. " Fewer feet o' water round her, but can't get any higher. So ye see she 's all right for a month o' sich weather." Inwardly admiring the perspicacity of his companion, Jeff was about to open the coach door when Bill interrupted. " I '11 pack the old woman, if you '11 look arter the darter and enny little traps." A female face, anxious and elderly, here appeared at the window. " Thet 's my little game," said Bill, sotto voce. " Is there any danger ? where is my husband ? " asked the woman impatiently. " Ez to the danger, ma'am, — thar ain't any. Yer ez safe here ez ye 'd be in a Sacramento steamer ; ez to your hus- band, he allowed I was to come yer and fetch yer up to the hotel. That's his look-out ! " With this cheering speech, Bill proceeded to make two or three ineffectual scoops into the dark interior, manifestly with the idea of scooping out the lady in question. In another instant he had caught her, lifted her gently but firmly in his arms, and was turn- ing away. " But my child ! — my daughter ! she 's asleep ! " — ex- postulated the woman ; but Bill was already swiftly splash- ing through the darkness. Jeif, left to himself, hastily examined the coach : on the back seat a slight small figure, enveloped in a shawl, lay motionless. Jeff threw the bear- skin over it gently, lifted it on one arm, and gathering a few travelling bags and baskets with the other, prepared to fol- low his quickly disappearing leader. A few feet from the coach the water appeared to deepen, and the bear-skin to draggle. Jeff drew the figure up higher, in vain. " Sis," he said softly. No reply. " Sis," shaking her gently. There was a slight movement within the wrappings. 190 JEFF BBIGGS'S LOVE STORY "Could n't ye climb up on my shoulder, honey ? that's a good child ! " Tliere were one or two spasmodic jerks of the bear-skin, and, aided by Jeff, the bundle was presently seated on his shoulder. " Are yon all right now, Sis ? " Something like a laugh came from the bear-skin. Then a childish voice said, " Thank you, I think I am ! " " Ain't you afraid yon '11 fall off ? " " A little." Jeff hesitated. It was begining to blow again. " You could n't reach down and put your arm round my neck, could ye, honey ? " "I am afraid not ! " — although there was a slight attempt to do so. " No ? " "No!" " Well, then, take a good holt, a firm strong holt, o' my hair ! Don't be afraid ! " A small hand timidly began to rummage in Jeff's thick curls. " Take a firm holt ; thar, just back o' my neck ! That 's right." The little hand closed over half a dozen curls. The little figure shook, and giggled. " Now don't you see, honey, if I 'm keerless with you, and don't keep you plump level up thar, you jist give me a pull and fetch me up all standing ! " " I see ! " " Of course you do ! That 's because you 're a little lady ! " Jeff strode on. It was pleasant to feel the soft warm fingers in his hair, pleasant to hear the faint childish voice, pleasant to draw the feet of the enwrapped figure against his broad breast. Altogether he was sorry when they JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 191 reached the dry land and the lee of the " Half-way House," where a slight movement of the figure expressed a wish to dismount. "Not yet, missy," said Jeff; "not yet! You'll get blown away, sure ! And then what '11 they say ? No. honey ! I '11 take you right in to your papa, just as ye are ! " A few steps more and Jeff strode into the hall, made his way to the sitting-room, walked to the sofa, and deposited his burden. The bear-skin fell back, the shawl fell back, and Jeff — -fell back too! For before him lay a small, slight, but beautiful and perfectly formed woman. He had time to see that the meek man, no longer meek, but apparently a stern uncompromising parent, was stand- ing at the head of the sofa ; that the elderly and nervous female was hovering at the foot, that his aunt, with every symptom of religious and moral disapproval of his conduct, sat rigidly in one of the rigid chairs — he had time to see all this before the quick, hot blood, flying to his face, sent the water into his eyes, and he could see nothing ! The cause of all this smiled — a dazzling smile though a faint one — that momentarily lit up the austere gloom of the room and its occupants. " You must thank this gentle- man, papa," said she, languidly turning to her father, " for his kindness and his trouble. He has carried me here as gently and as carefully as if I were a child." Seeing symptoms of a return of Jeflf's distress in his coloring face, she added softly, as if to herself, " It 's a great thing to be strong — a greater thing to be strong and gentle." The voice thrilled through Jeff. But into this dangerous human music twanged the accents of special spiritual revela- tion, and called him to himself again, "Be ye wise as sarpints, but harmless as duvs," .said Jeff's aunt, generally, "and let. 'em be thankful ez doesn't aboos the stren'th the Lord gives 'em, but be allers ready to answer for it at 192 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY the bar o' their Maker." Possibly some suggestion in hei figure of speech reminded her of Jeff's forgotten duties, so she added in the same breath and tone, " especially when transient customers is waiting for their licker, and Yuba Bill hammerin' on the counter with his glass ; and yer ye stand, Jeff, never even takin' up that wet bar-skin — enuff to give that young woman her death." Stammering out an incoherent apology, addressed vaguely to the occupants of the room, but looking toward the languid goddess on the sofa, Jeff seized the bear-skin and backed out the door. Then he flew to his room with it, and then returned to the bar-room ; but the impatient William of Yuba had characteristically helped liimself and gone off to the stable. Then Jeff stole into the hall and halted before the closed door of the sitting-room. A bold idea of going in again, as became a landlord of the " Half- way House," with an inquiry if they wished anything further, had seized him, but the remembrance that he had always meekly allowed that duty to devolve upon his aunt, and that she would probably resent it with scriptural author- ity and bring him to shame again, stayed his timid knuckles at the door. In this hesitation he stumbled upon his aunt coming down the stairs with an armful of blankets and pillows, attended by their small Indian servant, staggering under a mattress. " Is everything all right, aunty ? " " Ye kin be thankful to the Lord, Jeff Briggs, that this did n't happen last week when I was down on my back with rheumatiz. But ye 're never grateful." "The young lady — is she comfortable?" said Jeff, accepting his aunt's previous remark as confirmatory. " Ez well ez enny critter marked by the finger of the Lord with gallopin' consumption kin be, I reckon. And she,, ez oughter be putting off airthly vanities, askin' for a lookin'-glass ! And you ! trapesih' through the hall with her JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOKY 193 on yer shoulder, and dancin' and jouncin' her up and down ez if it was a ball-room ! " A guilty recollection that he had skipped with her through the passage struck him with remorse as his aunt went on : " It 's a mercy that betwixt you and the wet bar-skin she ain't got her deth ! " "Don't ye think, aunty," stammered Jeff, "that — that — my bein' the landlord, yer know, it would be the square thing — just out o' respect, ye know — for me to drop in thar and ask 'em if thar 's anythin' they wanted ? " His aunt stopped, and resignedly put down the pillows. " Sarah," she said meekly to the handmaiden, " ye kin leave go that mattress. Yer 's Mr. Jefferson thinks we ain't good enough to make the beds for them two city women folks, and he allows he '11 do it himself ! " "No, no! aunty!" began the horrified Jeff; but failing to placate his injured relative, took safety in flight. Once safe in his own room his eye fell on the bear-skin. It certainly was wet. Perhaps he had been careless — perhaps he had imperiled her life ! His cheeks flushed as he threw it hastily in the corner. Something fell from it to the floor. Jeff picked it up and held it to the light. It was a small, a very small, lady's slipper. Holding it within the palm of his hand as if it had been some delicate flower which the pressure of a finger might crush, he strode to the door, but stopped. Should he give it to his aunt ? Even if she overlooked this evident proof of his careless- ness, what would she think of the young lady's ? Ought lie — seductive thought ! — ^go downstairs again, knock at the door, and give it to its fair owner, with the apology he was longing to make ? Then he remembered that he had but a few moments before been dismissed the room very much as if he were the original proprietor of the skin he had taken. Perhaps they were right ; perhaps he ivas only a foolish clumsy animal ! Yet she had thanked him — she had said in her sweet childlike voice, "It is a great thing to be 194 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY strong ; a greater thing to be strong and gentle." He was strong ; strong men had said so. He did not know if he was gentle too. Had she meant that, when she turned hex strangely soft dark eyes upon him ? For some moments he held the slipper hesitatingly in his hand, then he opened his trunk, and disposing various articles around it as if it were some fragile, perishable object, laid it carefully therein. This done, he drew off his boots, and rolling himself in his blanket, lay down upon the bed. He did not open his novel — he did not follow up the exciting love episode of his favorite hero — so ungrateful is humanity to us poor romancers, in the first stages of their real passion. Ah, me ! 'tis the jongleurs and troubadours they want then, not us ! When Master Slender, sick for sweet Anne Page, would " rather than forty shillings " he had his " book of songs and sonnets " there, what availed it that the Italian Boccaccio had contemporaneously discoursed wisely and sweetly of love in prose ? I doubt not that Master Jeff would have mumbled some verse to himself had he known any : knowing none, he lay there and listened to the wind. Did she hear it ; did it keep her awake ? He had an uneasy suspicion that the shutter that was banging so oiit- rageously was the shutter of her room. Filled with this miserable thought, he arose softly, stole down the staircase, and listened. The sound was repeated. It was truly the refractory shutter of No. 7 — the best bedroom adjoining the sitting-room. The next room, No. 8, was vacant. Jeff entered it softly, as softly opened the window, and leaning far out in the tempest, essayed to secure the noc- turnal disturber. But in vain. Cord or rope he had none, nor could he procure either without alarming his aunt — an extremity not to be considered. Jeff was a man of clumsy but forceful expedients. He hung far out of the window, and with one powerful hand, lifted the shuttei JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 195 off its hinges and dragged it softly into No. 8. Then as softly he crept upstairs to bed. The wind howled and tore round the house ; the crazy water-pipe below Jeff's window creaked, the chimneys whistled, but the shutter banged no more. Jeff began to doze. "It's a great thing to be strong," the wind seemed to say as it charged upon the defenseless house, and then another voice seemed to reply, "A greater thing to be strong and gentle; " and hearing this he fell asleep. II It was not yet daylight when he awoke with an idea that brought him hurriedly to his feet. Quickly dressing him- self, he began to count the money in his pocket. Appar- ently the total was not satisfactory, as he endeavored to augment it by loose coins fished from the pockets of his other garments, and from the corner of his washstand drawer. Then he cautiously crept downstairs, seized his gun, and stole out of the still sleeping house. The wind had gone down, the rain had ceased, a few stars shone steadily in the north, and the shapeless bulk of the coach, its lamps extinguished, loomed high and dry above the lessening water, in the twilight. With a swinging tread Jeff strode up the hill and was soon upon the highway and stage road. A half-hour's brisk walk brought him to the summit, and the first rosy flashes of morning light. This enabled him to knock over half-a-dozen early quail, lured by the proverb, who were seeking their breakfast in the chapparal, and gave him courage to continue on his mis- sion, which his perplexed face and irresolute manner had for the last few moments shown to be an embarrassing one. At last the white fences and imposing outbuildings of the " Summit Hotel " rose before him, and he uttered a deep sigh. There, baslcing in the first rays of the morning sun, 5.96 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOTE STORY stood his successful rival ! Jeff looked at the ■well-built, comfortable structure, the commanding site, and the air of serene independence that seemed to possess it, and no longer wondered that the great -world passed him by to linger and refresh itself there. He was relieved to find the landlord was not present in person, and so confided his business to the bar-keeper. At first it appeared that that functionary declined inter- ference, and with many head-shakings and audible misgiv- ings was inclined to await the coming of his principal, but a nearer view of Jefif s perplexed face, and an examination of Jeff's gun, and the few coins spread before him, finally induced him to produce certain articles, which he packed in a basket and handed to Jeff, taking the gun and coins in exchange. Thus relieved, Jeff set his face homewards, and ran a race with the morning into the valley, reaching the ■ " Half-way House " as the sun laid waste its bare, bleak outlines, and relentlessly pointed out its defects one by one. It was cruel to Jeff at that moment, but he hugged his basket close and slipped to the back door and the kitchen, where his aunt was already at work. "I didn't know ye were up yet, aunty," said Jeff sub- missively. "It is n't more than six o'clock." " Thar 's four more to feed at breakfast," said his aunt severely, " and yer 's the top blown off the kitchen chimbly, and the fire only just got to go." Jeff saw that he was in time. The ordinary breakfast of the "Half-way House," not yet prepared, consisted of codfish, ham, yellow-ochre biscuit, made after a peculiar receipt of his aunt's, and potatoes. " I got a few fancy fixin's up at the Summit this morning, aunty," he began apologetically, "- seein' we bad sick folks, you know — you and the young lady — and thinkin' it might save you trouble. I 've got 'em here," and be shyly produced the basket. JEFF BEIGGSS i,OVE STOEY 19;- " If ye kin afford it, Jeff," responded his aunt resignedly, " I 'm thankful." The reply was so unexpectedly mild for Aunt Sally, that Jeff put his arms around her and kissed her hard cheek. " And I 've got some quail, aunty, knowin' you liked 'em." " I reckoned you was up to some such foolishness," said Aunt Sally, wiping her cheek with her apron, " when I missed yer gun from the hall." But the allusion was a dangerous one, and Jeff slipped away. He breakfasted early with Yuha Bill that morning ; the latter gentleman's taciturnity being intensified at such moments through a long habit of confining himself strictly to eating in the limited time allowed his daily repasts, and it was not until they had taken the horses from the stable and were harnessing them to the coach that Jeff extracted from his companion some facts about his guests. They were Mr. and Mrs. Mayfield, Eastern tourists, who had been to the Sandwich Islands for the benefit of their daughter's health, and before returning to New York, intended, under the advice of their physician, to further try the effects of mountain air at the " Summit Hotel," on the invalid. They were apparently rich people, the coach had been engaged for them solely — even the mail and express had been sent on by a separate conveyance, so that they might be more independent. It is hardly necessary to say that this fact was by no means palatable to Bill — debarring him not only the social contact and attentions of the "Express Agent," but the selection of a box-seated passenger who always " acted like a man." " Ye kin kalkilate what kind of a pardner that 'ar yaller- livered Mayfield would make up on that box, partik'ly ez I heard before we started that he 'd requested the kimpany's agent in Sacramento to select a driver ez did n't cuss, smoke, or drink. He did, sir, by gum ! " " I reckon you were very careful, then. Bill," said Jeff. 198 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY " In course," returned Bill, with a perfectly diabolical wink. " In course ! You know that ' Blue Grass,' " point- ing out a spirited leader ; " she 's a fair horse ez horses go, but she 's apt to feel her oats on a down grade, and takes a pow'ful deal o' soothin' and explanation afore she buckles down to her reg'lar work. Well, sir, I exhorted and labored in a Christian-like way with that mare to that extent that I 'm cussed if that chap did n't want to get down afore we got to the level ! " " And the ladies ? " asked Jeff, whose laugh — possibly from his morning's experience — was not as ready as formerly. " The ladies ! Ef you mean that 'ar livin' skellington I packed up to yer house," said Bill promptly, " it 's a pair of them in size and color, and ready for any first-class under- taker's team in the kintry. Why, you remember that curve on Break Neck hill, where the leaders alius look as if they was alongside o' the coach and faced the other way ? Well, that woman sticks her skull outer the window, and sez she, confidential-like to old yaller-belly, sez she, 'William Henry,' sez she, ■' tell that man his horses are running away ! ' " "You didn't get to see the — the — daughter. Bill, did you ? " asked Jeff, whose laugh had become quite un- easy. " No, I did n't," said Bill, with sudden and inexplicable vehemence, " and the less you see of her, Jefferson Briggs, tlie better for you." Too confounded and confused by Bill's manner to ques- tion further, Jeff remained silent until they drew up at the door of the " Half-way House." But here another surprise awaited him. Mr. Mayfield, erect and dignified, stood upon the front porch as the coach drove up. " Driver ! " began Mr. Mayfield. There was no reply. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 199 "Driver," said Mr. Mayfield, slightly weakening under Bill's eye, " I shall want you no longer. I have " — " Is he speaking to me ? " said Bill audibly to Jeff, " 'cause they call me ' Yuba Bill ' yer abouts." " He is," said Jeff hastily. " Mebbee he 's drunk," said Bill audibly ; " a drop or two afore breakfast sometimes upsets his kind." " I was saying, Bill," • said Mr. Mayfield, becoming utterly limp and weak again under Bill's cold gray eyes, " that I 've changed my mind, and shall stop here awhile. My daughter seems already benefited by the change. Yoxi can take my traps from the boot and leave them here." Bill laid down his lines resignedly, coolly surveyed Mr. Mayfield, the house, and the half-pleased, half-frightened Jeff, and then proceeded to remove the luggage from the boot, all the while whistling loud and offensive incredulity. Then he climbed back to his box. Mr. Mayfield, com- pletely demoralized under this treatment, as a last resort essayed patronage. " You can say to the Sacramento agents. Bill, that I am entirely satisfied, and " — " Ye need n't fear but I '11 give ye a good character," interrupted Bill coolly, gathering up his lines. The whip snapped, the six horses dashed' forward as one, the coach plunged down the road and was gone. With its disappearance, Mr. Mayfield stiffened slightly again. " I have just told your aunt, Mr. Briggs," he said, turning upon Jeff, " that my daughter has expressed a desire to remain here a few days ; she has slept well, seems to be invigorated by the air, and although we expected to go on to the ' Summit,' Mrs. Mayfield and myself are willing to accede to her wishes. Your house seems to be new and clean. Your table — judging from the breakfast this morn- ing — is quite satisfactory." Jeff, in the first flush of delight at this news, forgot what 200 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY that breakfast had cost him — forgot all his morning's experience, and, I fear, when he did remember it, was too full of a vague, hopeful courage to appreciate it. Conscious of showing too much pleasure, he affected the necessity of an immediate interview with his aunt, in the kitchen. But his short cut round the house was arrested by a voice and figure. It was Miss Mayiield, wrapped in a shawl and seated in a chair, basking in the sunlight at one of the bleakest and barest angles of the house. Jeff stopped in a delicious tremor. As we are dealing with facts, however, it would be well to look at the cause of this tremor with our own eyes and not Jeff's. To be plain, my dear madam, as she basked in that remorseless, matter-of-fact California sunshine, she looked her full age — twenty-five, if a day! There were wrinkles in the corners of her dark eyes, contracted and frowning in that strong, merciless light ; there was a nervous pallor in her complexion; but being one of those "fast- colored" brunettes, whose dyes are a part of their temperar ment, no sickness nor wear could bleach it out. The red of her small mouth was darker than yours, I wot, and there were certain faint lines from the corners of her delicate nos- trils indicating alternate repression and excitement under certain experiences, which are not found in the classic ideals. Now Jeff knew nothing of the classic ideal — did not know that a thousand years ago certain sensual idiots had, with brush and chisel, inflicted upon the world the personifica- tion of the strongest and most delicate, most controlling and most subtle passion that humanity is capable of, in the likeness of a thiok-waisted, idealess, expressionless, per- fectly contented female animal ; and that thousands of idiots had since then insisted upon perpetuating this model for the benefit of a world that had gone on sighing for, pining for, fighting for, and occasionally blowing its brains out over types far removed from that idiotic standard JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STO,RY 201 Consequently Jeff saw only a face full of possibilities and probabilities, framed in a small delicate oval, saw a slight woman's form — more than usually small — and beard a low voice, to him full of gentle pride, passion, pathos, and human weakness, and was helpless. " I only said ' Good-morning,' " said Miss Mayfield, with that slight, arch satisfaction in the observation of masculine bashfulness, which the best of her sex cannot forego. " Thank you, miss ; good-morning. I 've been wanting to say to you that I hope you was n't mad, you know," stammered Jeff, desperately intent upon getting off his apology. " It is so lovely this morning — such a change ! " con- tinued Miss Mayfield. " Yes, miss ! You know I reckoned — at least what your father said, made me kalkilate that you " — Miss Mayfield, still smiling, knitted her brows and went on : "I slept so well last night," she said gratefully, " and feel so much better this morning, that I ventured out. I seem to be drinking in health in this clear sunlight." " Certainly miss. As I was sayin', your father says his daughter is in the coach ; and Bill says, says he to me, ' I 'II pack — I '11 carry the old — I '11 bring up Mrs. May- field, if you '11 bring up the daughter ; ' and when we come to the coach I saw you asleep-like in the corner, and bein' tmall, why miss, you know how nat'ral it is, I " — "Oh, Mr. Jeff! Mr. Briggs! " said Miss Mayfield plain- tively, "don't, please — don't spoil the best compliment I 've had in many a year. You thought I was a child, I I now, and — well, you find," she said audaciously, suddenly liringing her black eyes to bear on him like a rifle, " you find— well?" What Jeff thought was inaudible but not invisible. Miss ylayfield saw eno\igh of it in his eye to protest with a faint i(,lor in her cheek. Thus does Nature betray itself to Ka-- /ure the world over. 202 JEFF BUrGGS'S LOVE STORY The color faded. " It 's a dreadful thing to be so weak and helpless, and to put everybody to such trouble, is n't it, Mr. Jeff ? I beg your pardon — your aunt calls you Jeff." " Please call me Jeff," said Jeff, to his own surprise rapidly gaining courage. " Everybody calls me that." Miss Mayfield smiled. " I suppose I must do what everybody does. So it seems that we are to give you the trouble of keeping us here until I get better or worse ? " " Yes, miss." " Therefore I won't detain you now. I only wanted to thank you for your gentleness last night, and to assure you that the bear-skin did not give me my death." She smiled and nodded her small head, and wrapped her shawl again closely around her shoulders, and turned her eyes upon the mountains, gestures which the now quick- minded Jeff interpreted as a gentle dismissal, and flew to seek his aunt. Here he grew practical. Ready money was needed ; for the " Half-way House " was such a public monument of ill-luck, that Jeff had no credit. He must keep up the table to the level of that fortunate breakfast — to do which he had $1.50 in the till, left by Bill, and $2.50 produced by his Aunt Sally from her work-basket. " Why not ask Mr. Mayfield to advance ye suthin ? " said Aunt Sally. The blood flew to Jeff's face. " Never ! Don't say that again, aunty." The tone and manner were so unlike Jeff that the old lady sat down half frightened, and taking the corners of her apron in her hands began to whimper. "Thar now, aunty! I didn't mean nothin', — only if you care to have me about the place any longer, and I reckon it 's little good I am any way," he added, with a uew-found bitterness in his tone, " ye '11 not ask me to do ihat." JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 203 « What 's gone o' ye, Jeff ? " said his aunt luguhriously ; " ye ain't nat'ral like." Jeff laughed. " See here, aunty ; I 'm goin' to take your advice. You know Rabbit ? " " The mare ? " " Yes ; I 'm going to sell her. The blacksmith offered me a hundred dollars for her last week." " Ef ye 'd done that a month ago, Jeff, ez I wanted ye to, instead o' keeping the brute to eat ye out o' house and home, ye 'd be better off." Aunt Sally never let slip an opportunity to " improve the occasion," but preferred to exhort over the prostrate body of the " improved." " AVell, I hope he may n't change his mind." Jeff smiled at such suggestion regarding the best horso within fifty miles of the " Half-way House." Neverthe- less he went briskly to the stable, led out and saddled a handsome grey mare, petting her the while, and keeping up a running commentary of caressing epithets to which Rab- bit responded with a wliinny and playful reaches after Jeff's red flannel sleeve. Whereat Jeff, having loved the horse until it was displaced by another mistress, grew grave and suddenly threw his arms around Rabbit's neck, and then taking Rabbit's nose, thrust it in the bosom of his shirt and held it there silently for a moment. Rabbit becoming uneasy, • Jeff's mood changed too, and having caparisoned himself and charger in true vaquero style, not without a little Mexican dandyism as to the set of his doeskin trousers, and the tie of his red sash, put a sombrero rakishly on his curls and leaped into the saddle. Jeff was a fair rider in a country where riding was under- stood as a natural instinct, and not as a purely artificial habit of horse and rider, consequently he was not perched up, jockey fashion, with a knee-grip for his body, and a rein-reSt for his arras on the beast's mouth, hut rode with long, loose stirrups, his legs clasping the barrel of his 204 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY horse, his single rein lying loose upon her neck, leaving her head free as the wind. After this fashion he had often emerged from a cloud of dust on the red mountain road, striking admiration into the hearts of the wayfarers and coach-passengers, and leaving a trail of pleasant incense in the dust behind him. It was therefore with considerable confidence in himself, and a little human vanity, that he dashed round the house, and threw his mare skilfully on her haunches exactly a foot before Miss Mayfield — himself a resplendent vision of flying riata, crimson scarf, fawn- colored trousers, and jingling silver spurs. " Kin I do anythin' for ye, miss, at the Forks ? " Miss Mayfield looked up quietly. " I think not," she said indifferently, as if the flaming-Jeff was a very common occurrence. Jeff here permitted the mare to bolt fifty yards, caught her up sharply, swung her round on her off hind heel, permitted her to paw the air once or twice with her white- stockinged fore-feet, and then, with another dash forward, pulled her up again just before she apparently took Miss Mayfield and her chair in a running leap. " Are you sure, miss ? " asked Jeff, with a flushed face and a rather lugubrious voice. " Quite so, thank you," she said coldly, looking past this centaur to the wooded mountain beyond. Jeff, thoroughly crushed, was pacing meekly away when a childlike voice stopped him. " If you are going near a carpenter's shop you might get a new shutter for my window ; it blew away last night." " It did, miss ? " " Yes," said the shrill voice of Aunt Sally, from the doorway, " in course it did ! Ye must be crazy, Jeff, for thar it stands in No. 8, whar ye must have put it after ye picked it up outside." Jeff, conscious that Miss Mayfield'" "">= virere on his JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 205 Buttused face, stammered " that he -vvonld attend to it," and put spurs to the mare, eager only to escape. It was not his only discomfiture ; for the blacksmith, seeing Jeff's nervousness and anxiety, was suspicious of something wrong, as the world is apt to be, and appeased his conscience after the worldly fashion, by driving a hard bargain with the doubtful brother in affliction — the morality of a horse trade residing always with the seller. Whei-eby Master Jeff received only eighty dollars for horse and outfit , — worth at least two hundred — and was also mulcted of forty dollars, principal and interest for past service of the blacksmith. Jeff walked home with forty dollars in his pocket — capital to prosecute his honest calling of inn- keeper ; the blacksmith retired to an adjoining tavern to discuss Jeff's affairs, and further reduce his credit. Yet I doubt which was the happier — ■ the blacksmith estimating his possible gains, and doubtful of some uncertain sequence in his luck, or Jeff, temporarily relieved, boundlessly hope- ful, and filled with the vague delights of a first passion. The only discontented brute in the whole transaction was poor Rabbit, who, missing certain attentions, became indig- nant, after the manner of her sex, bit a piece out of her crib, kicked a hole in her box, and receiving a bad char- acter from the blacksmith, gave a worse one to her late master. Jeff's purchases were of a temporary and ornamental qual- ity, but not always judicious as a permanent investment. Overhearing some remark from Miss Mayfield concerning the dangerous character of the two-tined steel fork, which was part of the table equipage of the " Half-way House," he purchased half a dozen of what his aunt was pleased to specify as " split spoons," and thereby lost his late good standing with her. He not only repaired the window-shut- ter, but tempered the glaring window itself with a bit of curtain; he half carpeted Miss Majfield's bed-room with 206 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOEY wild-cat skins and the now historical bear-skin, and felt hiiir self overpaid when that young lady, passing the soft tabby, skins across her cheek, declared they were " lovely." Foi Miss Mayfield, deprecating slaughter in the abstract, ac- cepted its results gratefully, like the rest of her sex, and while willing to " let the hart ungalled play," nevertheless was able to console herself with its venison. The woods, besides yielding aid and comfort of this kind to the dis- tressed damsel, were flamboyant with vivid spring blossoms, and Jeff lit up the cold, white walls of her virgin cell with demonstrative color, and made — what his aunt, a cleanly soul, whose ideas of that quality were based upon the ab- sence of any color whatever, called — "a litter." Tlie result of which was to make Miss Mayfield, other- wise languid and ennuyee, welcome Jeff's presence with a smile ; to make Jeff, otherwise anxious, eager, and keenly attentive, mute and silent in her presence. Two symptoms bad for Jeff. Meantime Mr. Mayfield's small conventional spirit pined for fellowship, only to be found in larger civilizations, and sought, under plea of business, a visit to Sacramento, where a few of the Mayfield type, still surviving, were to be found. This was a relief to Jeff, who only through his regard for the daughter, was kept from open quarrel with the father. He fancied Miss Mayfield felt relieved too, although Jeff had noticed that Mayfield had deferred to his daughter more often than his wife — over whom your conventional small autocrat is always victorious. It takes the legal matrimonial contract to properly develop the first-class tyrant, male or female. On one of these days Jeff was returning through the woods from marketing at the Forks, which, since the sale of Rabbit, had become a foot-sore and tedious business. He had reached the edge of the forest, and through the JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 207 wider-spaced trees, the bleak sunlit plateau of his house was beginning to open out, when he stopped instantly. I know not what Jeff had been thinking of, as he trudged along, but here, all at once, he was thrilled and possessed with the odor of some faint, foreign perfume. He flushed a little at first, and then turned pale. Now the woods were as full of as delicate, as subtle, as grateful, and, I wot, far healthier and purer odors than this ; but this re- presented to Jeff the physical contiguity of Miss Mayfield, who had the knack — peculiar to some of her sex — of se- lecting a perfume that ideally identified her. Jeff looked around cautiously ; at the foot of a tree hard by lay one of her wraps, still redolent of her. Jeff put down the bag which, in lieu of a market basket, he was carrying on hisi shoulder, and with a blushing face hid it behind a tree. li contained her dinner ! He took a few steps forwards with an assumption of ease/ and unconsciousness. Then he stopped, for not a hundred yards distant sat Miss Mayfield on a mossy boulder, her cloak hanging from her shoulders, her hands clasped round her crossed knees, and one little ioot out — an exasperating combination of Evangeline and little Eed Riding Hood, in everything, I fear, but credulousness and self-devotion, She looked up as he walked towards her (non constat that the little witch had not already seen him half a mile away !) and smiled sweetly as she looked at him. So sweetly, indeed, that poor Jeff felt like the hulking wolf of the old world fable, and hesitated — as that wolf did not. Thf, California faunae have possibly depreciated. " Come here ! " she cried, in a small head voice, not unlike a bird's twitter. Jeff lumbered on clumsily. His high boots had become suddenly very heavy. " I 'm so glad to see you. I 've just tired poor mother out — I'm always tiring people out — and she 's gone back 208 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOEY to the house to write letters. Sit down, Mr. Jeff, do, please ! " Jeif, feeling uncomfortably large in Miss Mayfield's presence, painfully seated himself on the edge of a vei-y low stone, which had the effect of bringing his knees up on a level with his chin, and affected an ease glaringly simu- lated. " Or lie down, there, Mr. Jeff — it is so comfortable." Jeff, with a dreadful conviction that he was crashing down like a falling pine-tree, managed at last to acquire a recumbent position at a respectful distance from the little figure. "There, isn't it nice ? " " Yes, Miss Mayfield." " But, perhaps," said Miss Mayfield, now that she had him down, " perhaps you too have got something to do. Dear me ! I 'm like that naughty boy in the story-book, who went round to all the animals, in turn, asking them to play with him. He could only find the butterfly who had nothing to do. I don't wonder he was disgusted. I hate butterflies." Love clarifies the intellect ! Jeff, astonished at himself, burst out, " Why, look yer. Miss Mayfield, the butterfly on'y hez a day or two to — to — to live and — be happy ! " Miss Mayfield crossed her knees again, and instantly, after the sublime fashion of her sex, scattered his intellect by a swift transition from the abstract to the concrete. " But t/ou 're not a butterfly, Mr. Jeff. You 're always doing something. You 've been hunting." " No-o ! " said Jeff, scarlet, as he thought of his gun in pawn at the " Summit." " But you do hunt ; I know it." " How ? " " You shot those quail for me the morning after I came I heard you go out — early — very early." JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 209 " Why, you allowed you slept so well that night, Miss Mayfield." "Yes; but there's a kind of delicious half-sleep that sick people have sometimes, when they know and are gratefully conscious that other people are doing things for them, and it makes them rest all the sweeter." There was a dead silence. Jeff, thrilling all over, dared not say anything to dispel his delicious dream. Miss Mayfield, alarmed at his readiness with the butterfly illus- tration, stopped short. They both looked at the prospect, at the distant " Summit Hotel " — a mere snow-drift on the mountain — at the clear sunlight on the barren plateau, at the bleak, uncompromising " Half-way House," and — said nothing. " I ought to be very grateful," at last began Miss May- field, in quite another voice, and a suggestion that she was now approaching real and profitable conversation, "that I 'm so much better. This mountain air has been like balm to me. I feel I am growing stronger day by day. I do not wonder that you are so healthy and so strong as you are, Mr. Jeff." Jeff, who really did not know before that he was so healthy, apologetically admitted the fact. At the same time, he was miserably conscious that Miss Mayfield's con- dition, despite her ill health, was very superior to his own. "A month ago," she continued reflectively, "my mother would never have thought it possible to leave me here alone. Perhaps she may be getting worried now." Miss Mayfield had calculated over much on Jelf's recum- bent position. To her surprise and slight mortification, he rose instantly to his feet, and said anxiously — " Ef you think so, miss, p'raps I 'm keeping you here." "Not at all, Mr. Jeff. Your being here is a sufficient excuse for my staying," she replied, with the large dignity ef a small body. 210 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY Jeff, mentally and physically crushed again, came down a little heavier than before, and reclined humbly at her feet. Second knock-down blow for Miss Mayfield. " Come, Mr. Jeff," said the triumphant goddess, in her first voice, " tell me something about yourself. How do you live here — I mean, what do you do ? You ride, of course — and very well too, I can tell you ! But you know that. And of course that scarf and the silver spurs and the whole dashing equipage are not intended entirely for yourself. No ! Some young woman is made happy by that exhibition, of course. Well, then, there 's the riding down to see her, and perhaps the riding out with her, and — what else ? " " Miss Mayfield," said Jeff, suddenly rising above his elbow and his grammar, " thar is n't no young woman ! Thar is n't another soul except yourself that I 've laid eyes on, or cared to see since I 've been yer. Ef my aunt hez been telling ye that — she 's — she — she — she — she — lies." Absolute, undiluted truth, even of a complimentary nature, is confounding to most women. Miss Mayfield was no exception to her sex. She first laughed, as she felt she ought to, and properly might with any other man than Jeff; then she got frightened, and said hurriedly, "No, no ! you misunderstand me. Your aunt has said nothing." And then she stopped with a pink spot on her cheek-bones. First blood for Jeff ! Now this would never do ; it was worse than the butter- fl.ies ! She rose to her full height — four feet eleven and a half — and drew her cloak over her shoulders. " I think I will return to the house," she said quietly; "I suppose I ought not to overtask my strength." " You 'd better let me go with you, miss," said Jeff submissively. " I will, on one condition," she said, recovering her JEFF BRIGGSS LOVE STORY 211 archness, with a little venom in it, I fear. " You were going home, too, when I called to you. Now, I do not intend to let you leave that bag behind that tree, and then have to come back for it, just because you feel obliged to go with me. Bring it with you on one arm, and I '11 take the other, or else — I'll go alone. Don't be alarmed," she added softly ; " I 'm stronger than I was the first night I came, when you carried me and all my worldly goods besides." She turned upon him her subtle magnetic eyes, and looked at him as she had the first night they met. Jeff turned away bewildered, but presently appeared again with the bag on his shoulder, and her wrap on his arm. As she slipped her little hand over his sleeve, he began, apologeti- cally and nervously — " When I said that about Aunt Sally, miss, I " — The hand immediately became limp, the grasp conven- tional. " I was mad, mi.ss," Jeff blundered on, " and I don't see how you believed it — knowing everything ez you do." " How knowing everything as I do ? " asked Miss May- field coldly. " Why, about the quail, and about the bag ! " " Oh," said Miss Mayfield. Five minutes later, Yuba Bill nearly ditched his coach in his utter amazement at an apparently simple spectacle — • a tall, good-looking young fellow, in a red shirt and high boots, carrying a bag on his back, and beside him, hanging confidentially on his arm, a small, slight, pretty girl in a red cloak. " Nothing mean about her, eh, Bill ? " said an admiring box-passenger. "Young couple, I reckon, just out from the States." " No ! " roared Bill. " Oh, well, his sweetheart, I reckon ? " suggested the box-passenger. 212 JEFF BKIGGS'S LOVE STOKY " Nary time ! " growled Bill. " Look yer ! I know 'em both, and they knows me. Did ye notiss she never drops his arm when she sees the stage comin', but kinder trapes along jist the same ? Had they been courtin', she 'd hev dropped his arm like pizen, and walked on t' other side the road." Nevertheless, for some occult reason, Bill was evidently out of humor ; and for the next few miles exhorted the impenitent Blue Grass horse with considerable fervor. Meanwhile this pair, outwardly the picture of pastoral conjugality, slowly descended the hill. In that brief time, failing to get at any further facts regarding Jeff's life, or perhaps reading the story quite plainly. Miss Mayfield had twittered prettily about herself. She painted her tropic life in the Sandwich Islands — her delicious "laziness," as she called it ; " for, you know," she added, " although I had the excuse of being an invalid, and of living in the laziest climate in the world, and of having money, I think, Mr. Jefif, that I 'm naturally lazy. Perhaps if I lived here long enough, and got well again, I might do something, but I don't think I could ever be like your aunt. And there she is now, Mr. Jefi, making signs for you to hasten. No, don't mind me, but run on ahead ; else I shall have her blaming me for demoralizing you too. Go ; I insist upon it ! I can walk the rest of the way alone. Will you go ? You won't ? Then I shall stop here and not stir another step forward until you do." She stopped, half jestingly, half earnestly, in the middle of the road, and emphasized her determination with a nod of her head — an action that, however, shook her hat first rakishly over one eye, and then on the ground. At which Jeff laughed, picked it up, presented it to her, and then ran off to the house. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 213 III His aunt met him angrily on the porch. " Thar ye are at last, and yer 's a stranger waitin' to see you. He 's been axin all sorts o' questions about the house and the business, and kinder snoopin' round permiskiss. I don't like his looks, Jeff, but thet 's no reason why ye should be galli- vantin' round in business hours." A large, thick-set man, with a mechanical smile that was an overt act of false pretense, was lounging in the bar-room. Jeff dimly remembered to have seen him at the last county election, distributing tickets at the polls. This gave Jeff a slight prejudice against him, but a greater presentiment of some vague evil in the air caused him to motion the stranger to an empty room in the angle of the house behind the bar- room, which was too near the hall through which Miss Mayfteld must presently pass. It was an infelicitous act of precaution, for at that very moment Miss Mayfield slowly passed beneath its open window, and seeing her chair in the sunny angle, dropped into it for rest and possibly meditation. Consequently she overheard every word of the following colloquy. The Stranger's voice : " Well, now, seein' ez I 've been waitin' for ye over an hour, off and on, and ez my bizness with ye is two words, it strikes me yer puttin' on a little too much style in this yer interview, Mr. Jefferson Briggs." Jeff's voice (a little husky with restraint) : " What is yer business ? " The stranger's voice (lazily) : " It 's an at-tachment on this yer property for principal, interest, and costs — one hundred and twelve dollars and seventy-five cents, at the Buit of Cyrus Parker." Jeff's voice (in quick surprise) : " Parker ? Why, I saw him only yesterday, and he agreed to wait a spell longer." 214 JEFF BBIGGS'S LOVE STOEY The Stranger's voice : " Mebbee he did ! Mebbee he heard afterwards suthin' about the goin's on up yar. Mebbee he heard suthin' o' property bein' converted into ready cash — sich property ez horses, guns, and sich ! Mebbee he heard o' gay and festive doin's — chickin every day, fresh eggs, butcher's meat, port wine, and sich ! Mebbee he allowed that his chances o' gettin' his own honest grub outer his debt was lookin' mighty slim ! Meb- bee " (louder) " he thought he 'd ask the man who bought yer horse, and the man you pawned your gun to, what was goin' on ! Mebbee he thought he 'd like to get a holt a suthin' himself, even if it was only some of that yar cliickin and port wine ! " Jeff's voice (earnestly and hastily) : " They 're not for me. I have a family boarding here, with a sick daughter. You don't think " — The Stranger's voice (lazily) : " I reckon ! I seed you and her pre-ambulating down the hill, lockin' arms. A good deal o' style, Jeff — fancy! expensive! How does Aunt Sally take it ? " A slight shaking of the floor and window — a dead silence. The Stranger's voice (very faintly) : " Eor God's sake, let me up ! " Jeff's voice (very distinctly): "Another word! raise your voice above a whisper, and by the living G — " Silence. The Stranger's voice (gasping) : "I — I — promise !" Jeff's voice (low and desperate) : " Get up out of that ! Sit down thar ! iNow hear me ! I 'm not resisting your pro- cess. If you had all h — 11 as witnesses you dare n't say that. I 've shut up your foul jaw, and kept it from poison- ing the air, and thar 's no law in Californy agin it ! Now listen. What ! You will, will you ? " Everything quiet ; a bird twittering on the window ledgej nothing more. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 215 The Stranger's voice (very huskily) : " I cave ! Gimme some whiskey." Jeffs voice : " When we 're through. Now listen ! You can take possession of the house ; you can stand, hehind the bar and take every cent that comes in ; you can pre- vent anything going out ; but as long as Mr. Mayfield and his family stay here, by the living God — law or no law — I '11 be boss here, and they shall never know it ! " The Stranger's voice (weakly and submissively) : " That sounds square. Anythin' not agin the law and in reason, Jeff!" Jeff's voice : " I mean to be square. Here is all the money I have, ten dollars. Take it for any extra trouble you may have to satisfy me." A pause — the clinking of coin. The Stranger's voice (deprecatingly) : " Well ! I reckon that would be about fair. Consider the trouble " (a weak laugh here) " just now. 'T ain't every man ez hez your grip. He ! he ! Ef ye had n't took me so suddent like — lie I he ! — well ! — how about that ar whiskey ? " JefPs voice (coolly) : " I '11 bring it." Steps, silence, coughing, spitting, and throat-clearing from the stranger. Steps again, and the click of glass. The Stranger's voice (submissively) : " In course I must go back to the Forks and fetch up my duds. Ye know what I mean ! Thar now — don't, Mr. Jeff ! " Jeff's voice (sternly) : " If I find you go back on me" — The Stranger's voice (hurriedly) : " Thar 's my hand on it. Ye can count on Jim Dodd." Steps again. Silence. A bird lights on the window ledge, and peers into the room. All is at rest. Jeff and the deputy-sheriff walked through the bar-roora 216 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY and out on the porch. Miss Mayfield in an arm-chair looked up from her book. " I 've written a letter to my father that I 'd like to have mailed at the Forks this afternoon," she said, looking from Jeff to the stranger ; " perhaps this gentleman will oblige me by taking it, if he 's going that way." " I '11 take it, miss," said Jeff hurriedly. "No," said Miss Mayfield archly, "I 've tiken up too much of your time already." " I 'm at your service, miss," said the stranger, consider- ably affected by the spectacle of this pretty girl, who certainly at that moment, in her bright eyes and slightly pink cheeks, belied the suggestion of ill health. " Thank you. Dear me ! " She was rummaging in a reticule and in her pockets. " Oh, Mr. Jeff ! " " Yes, miss ? " " I 'm so frightened ! " "How, miss?" " I have — yes ! — I have left that letter on the stump in the woods, where I was sitting when you came. Would you " — Jeff darted into the house, seized his hat, and stopped. He was thinking of the stranger. " Could you be so kind ? " Jeff looked in her agitated face, cast a meaning glance at the stranger, and was off like a shot. The fire dropped out of Miss Mayfield's eyes and cheeks. She turned toward the stranger. " Plea.se step this way." She always hated her own childish treble. But just at that moment she thought she had put force and dignity into it, and was correspondingly satisfied. The deputy- sheriff was equally pleased, and came towards the upright little figure with open admiration. " Your name is Dodd — James Dodd ? " JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE SJ'ORY 217 " Yes, miss." " You are the deputy-sheriff of the county ? Don't look round — tliere is no one here ! " " Well, miss — if you say so — yes ! " " My father — Mr. Mayfield — understood so. I regret he is not here. I regret still more I could not have seen you before you saw Mr. Briggs, as he wished me to." " Yes, miss." " My father is a friend of Mr. Briggs, and knows some- thing of his affairs. There was a debt to a Mr. Parker " (here Miss Mayfield apparently consulted an entry in her tablets) " of one hundred and twelve dollars and seventy- five cents - — am I right ? " The deputy, with great respect, " That is the figgers." " Which he wished to pay without the knowledge of Mr. Briggs, who would not have consented to it." The official opened his eyes. " Yes, miss." " Well, as Mr. Mayfield is not here, I am here to pay it for him. You can take a check on Wells, Fargo & Co., I suppose ? " " Certainly, miss." She took a check-book and pen and ink from her reti- cule, and filled up a check. She handed it to him, and the pen and ink. " You are to give me a receipt." The deputy looked at the matter-of-fact little figure, and signed and handed over the receipted bill. " My father said Mr. Briggs was not to know this." " Certainly not, miss." " It was Mr. Briggs's intention to let the judgment take its course, and give up the house. You are a man of busi- ness, Mr. Dodd, and know that this is ridiculous ! " The deputy laughed. " In course, miss." " And whatever Mr. Briggs may have proposed to you to do, when you go back to the Forks, you are to write him a letter, and say that you will simply hold the judg- ment without levj." 218 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY " All right, miss," said the deputy, not ill-pleased t« hold himself in this superior attitude to Jeff. " And " — " Yes, miss ? " She looked steadily at him. " Mr. Briggs told my father that he would pay you ten dollars for the privilege of staying here." " Yes, miss." "And of course that's not necessary now." "No-o, miss." A very small white hand — a mere child's hand — was here extended, palm uppermost. The official, demoralized completely, looked at it a moment, then went into his pockets and counted out into the palm the coins given by Jeff : they completely filled the tiny receptacle. Miss Mayfield counted the money gravely, and placed it in her portemonnaie with a snap. Certain qualities affect certain natures. This practical business act of the diminutive beauty before him — albeit he was just ten dollars out of pocket by it — struck the official into helpless admiration. He hesitated. " That 's all," said Miss Mayfield coolly ; " you need not wait. The letter was only an excuse to get Mr. Briggs out of the way." " I understand ye, miss." He hesitated still. " Do you reckon to stop in these parts long ? " " I don't know." " 'Cause ye ought to come down some day to the Forks. " " Yes." " Good morning, miss." " Good morning." Yet at the corner of the house the rascal turned and looked back at the little figure in the sunlight. He had just been physically overcome by a younger man — he had JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 219 lost ten dollars — he had a wife and three children. He for- got all this. He had been captivated by Miss Mayfield ! That practical heroine sat there five minutes. At the end of that time Jeff came hounding down the hill, his curls damp with perspiration; his fresh, honest face the picture of woe, her woe, for the letter could not he found ! "Never mind, Mr. Jeff. I wrote another and gave it to him." Two tears were standing on her cheeks. Jeff turned white. " Good God, miss ! " " It 's nothing. You were right, Mr. Jeff ! I ought not to have walked down here alone. I'm very, very tired, and — so — so miserable." What woman could withstand the anguish of that honest boyish face ? I fear ]\Iiss Mayfield could, for she looked at him over her handkerchief, and said, "Perhaps you had something to say to your friend, and I 've sent him off." " Nothing," said Jeff hurriedly ; and she saw that all his other troubles had vanished at the sight of her weak- ness. She rose tremblingly from her seat. " I think I will go in now, but I think — I think — I must ask you to — to — carry me ! " Oh, lame and impotent conclusion ! The next moment, Jeff, pale, strong, passionate, but tender as a mother lifted her in his arms and brought her into the sitting-room. A simultaneous ejaculation broke from Aunt Sally and Mrs. Mayfield — the possible com- ment of posterity on the whole episode. " Well, Jeff, I reckoned you 'd be up to suthin' like that ! " "Well, Jessie ! I knew you could n't be trusted." Mr. James Dodd did not return from the Forks that afternoon, to Jeff's vague uneasiness. Towards evening a 220 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOEY messenger brought a note from him, written on the back of a printed legal form, to this effect : — Dear Sie, — Seeing as you Intend to act on the Square in regard to that little Mater I have aranged Things so that I ant got to stop with you but I '11 drop in onct in a wile to keep up a show for a Drink — respy yours, J. DODD. In this latter suggestion our legal Cerberus exhibited all three of his heads at once. One could keep faith with Miss Mayfield, one could see her "onct in a wile," and one could drink at Jeff's expense. Innocent Jeff saw only generosity and kindness in the man he had half-choked, and a sense of remorse and shame almost outweighed the relief of his absence. " He might hev been ugly," said Jeff. Ho did not know how, in this selfish world, there is very little room for gratuitous, active ugliness. Miss Mayfield did not leave her room that afternoon. The wind was getting up, and it was growing dark when Jeff, idly sitting on his porch, hoping for her appearance, was quite astounded at the apparition of Yuba Bill as a pedestrian, dusty and thirsty, making for his usual refresh- ment. Jeff brought out the bottle, but could not refrain from mixing his verbal astonishment with the conventional cocktail. Bill, partaking of his liquor and becoming once more a speaking animal, slowly drew off his heavy, baggy driving-gloves. No one bad ever seen Bill without them — he was currently believed to sleep in them ■ — and when he laid them on the counter they .still retained the grip of his hand, which gave them an entertaining likeness to two plethoric and over-fed spiders. " Ef I concluded to pass over my lines to a friend and take a pasear up yer this evening," said Bill, eyeing Jefi sharply, " I don't know ez thar 's any law agin it ! Onless JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 221 yer keepin' a private branch o' the Occidental Ho-tel, and on'y take in fash'n'ble fammerlies ! " Jeff, with a rising color, protested against such a suppo- sition. "Because ef ye are," said Bill, lifting his voice, and crushing one of the overgrown spiders with his fist, " I 've got a word or two to say to the son of Joe Briggs of Tuolumne. Yes, sir ! Joe Briggs — yer father — ez blew his brains out for want of a man ez could stand up and say a word to him at the right time." "Bill," said Jeff, in a low, resolute tone — that tone yielded up only from the smitten chords of despair and desperation — " thar 's a sick woman in the house. I 'II listen to anything you 've got to say if you '11 say it quietly. But you must and shall speak low." Eeal men quickly recognize real men the world over ; it is only your shams who fence and spar. Bill, taking in the voice of the speaker more than his words, dropped his own. " I said I had a kepple of words to say to ye. Thar is n't any time in the last fower months — ever since ye took stock in this old shanty, for the matter o' that — that I could n't hev said them to ye. I 've knowed all your doin's. I 've knowed all your debts, 'spesh'ly that ye owe that sneakin' hound Parker ; and thar is n't a time that I could n't and would n't hev chipped in and paid 'em for ye — for your father's sake — ef I'd allowed it to be the square thing for ye. But I know ye, Jeff. I know what 's in your Mood. I knew your father — alius dreamin', hopin', waitin' ; I know you, Jeff, dreamin', hopin', waitin' till the end. And I stood by, givin' you a free rein, and let it come ! " Jeff buried his face in his hands. " It ain't your blame — it 's blood ! It ain't a week ago ez the kimpany passes me over a boss. ' Three quarters Morgan,' sez they. Sez I, ' Wot 's the other quarter ? ' L'L'2 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 3ez they, ' A Mexican half-breed.' Well, she was a fair sort of boss. Comin' down Heavytree Hill last trip, we meets a drove o' Spanish steers. In course she goes wild directly. Blood ! " Bill raised his glass, softly swirled its contents round and round, tasted it, and set it down. " The kepple o' words I had to say to ye was this : Git up and git ! " Something like this had passed through Jeff's mind the day before the Mayfields came. Something like it had haunted him once or twice since. He turned quickly upon the speaker. " Ez how ? you sez," said Bill, catching at the look. " I drives up yer some night, and you sez to me, ' Bill, her you got two seats over to the Divide for me and aunty — out on a pasear.' And I sez, ' I happen to hev one inside and one on the box with me.' And you hands out yer traps and any vallybles ye don't want ter leave, and you puts your aunt inside, and gets up on the box with me. And you sez to me, ez man to man, 'Bill,' sez you, 'might you hev a kepple o' hundred dollars about ye that ye could lend a man ez was leaving the county, dead broke ? ' and I sez, ' I 've got it, and I know of an op'nin' for such a man in the next county.' And you steps into that op'nin'^, and your creditors — 'spesh'ly Parker — slips into this, and in a week they offers to settle with ye ten cents on the dollar." Jeff started, flushed, trembled, recovered himself, and after a moment said, doggedly, " I can't do it. Bill ; I could n't." " In course," said Bill, putting his hands slowly into his pockets, and stretching his legs out — " in course ye can't because of a woman ! " Jeff turned upon him like a hunted bear. Both men rose, but Bill already had his hand on Jeff's shoulder. " I reckoned a minute ago there was a sick sal in the JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 223 house ! Who 's going to make a row now ! Who 's going to stamp and tear round, eh ? " Jeif sank back on his chair. "I said thar was a woman," continued Bill; "thar alius is one ! Let a man be hell-bei)t or heaven-bent, somewhere in his track is a woman's feet. I don't say anj'thin' agin this gal, ez a gal. The best of 'em, Jeff, is only guide- posts to p'int a fellow on his right road, and only a fool or a drunken man holds on to 'em or leans agin 'em. Allowin' this gal is all you think she is, how far is your guide-post goin' with ye, eh ? Is she goin' to leave her father and mother for ye ? Is she goin' to give up herself and her easy ways and her sicknesses for ye ? Is she willin' to take ye for a perpetooal landlord the rest of her life ? And if she is, Jeff, are ye the man to let her ? Are ye willin' to run on her errants, to fetch her dinners ez ye do ? Thar ez men ez does it ; not yer in Californy, but over in the States thar 's fellows is willing to take that situation. I 've heard," continued Bill, in a low, mysterious voice, as of one describing the habits of the Anthropophagi — "I 've heard o' fellows ez call themselves men, sellin' of them- selves to rich women in that way. I 've heard o' rich gals buyin' of men for their shape ; sometimes — but thet 's in f urrin' kintries — for their pedigree ! I 've heard o' fellows bein' in that business, and callin' themselves men instead o' bosses ! Ye ain't that kind o' man, Jeff. 'T ain't in yer blood. Yer father was a fool about women, and in course they ruined him, as they alius do the best men. It 's on'y the fools and sneaks ez a woman ever makes anythin' out of. When ye hear of a man a woman hez made, ye hears of a nincompoop ! And when they does produce 'em in the way o' nater, they ain't responsible for 'em, and sez they 're the image o' their fathers ! Ye ain't a man ez is goin' to trnst yer fate to a woman ! " "No," said Jeff darkly. 224 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY "I reckoned not," said Bill, putting his hands in his pockets again. " Ye might if ye was one o' them kind o' fellows as kem up from 'Frisco with her to Sacramento. One o' them kind o' fellows ez could sling poetry and French and Latin to her — one of her kind — but ye ain't! No, sir ! " Unwise William of Yuba ! In any other breast but Jeff's that random shot would have awakened the irregular auxiliary of love — jealousy ! But Jeff, being at once proud and humble, had neither vanity nor conceit, without which jealousy is impossible. Yet he winced a little, for he had feeling, and then said earnestly, — " Do you think that opening you spoke of would hold for a day or two longer ? " "I reckon." " Well, then, I think I can settle up matters here my own way, and go with you, Bill." He had risen, and yet hesitatingly kept his hand on the back of his chair. " Bill ! " "Jeff!" " I want to ask you a question ; speak up, and don't mind me, but say the truth." Our crafty Ulysses, believing that he was about to be entrapped, ensconced himself in his pockets, cocked one eye, and said, " Go on, Jeff." " Was my father very bad ? " Bill took his hands from his pockets. " Thar is n't a man ez crawls above his grave ez is worthy to lie in the same ground with him ! " " Thank you. Bill. Good-night ; I 'm going to turn in ! " " Look yar, boy ! G — d d — n it all, Jeff ! what do ye mean ? " There were two tears — twin sisters of those in his sweet- heart's eyes that afternoon — now standing in Jeff's ! Bill caught both his hands in his own. Had they been JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 225 of the Latin race they would have, right lionestly, taken each other in their arms, and perhaps kissed ! Being Anglo-Saxons, they gripped each other's hands hard, and one, as above stated, swore ! When Jeff ascended to his room that night, he went directly to his trunk and took out Miss Mayfield's slipper. Alack ! during the day Aunt Sally had " put things to rights " in his room, and the trunk had been moved. This had somewhat disordered its contents, and Miss Mayfield's slipper contained a dozen shot from a broken Eley's car- tridge, a few quinine pills, four postage stamps, part of a coral earring which Jeff — on the most apocryphal authority — fondly believed belonged to his mother, whom he had never seen, and a small silver school medal which Jefi' had once received for "good conduct," much to his own sur- prise, but which he still religiously kept as evidence of former conventional character. He colored a little, rubbed the medal and earring ruefully on his sleeve, replaced them in his trunk, and then hastily emptied the rest of the slipper's contents on the floor. This done, he drew off his boots, and gliding noiselessly down the stair, hung the slipper on the knob of Miss Mayfield's door, and glided back again without detection. Rolling himself in his blankets, he lay down on his bed. But not to sleep ! Staringly wide awake, he at last felt the lulling of the wind that nightly shook his casement, and listened while the great, rambling, creaking, disjointed "Half-way House" slowly settled itself to repose. He thought of many things ; of himself, of his past, of his future, but chiefly, I fear, of the pale proud face now sleep- ing contentedly in the chamber below him. He tossed with many plans and projects, more or less impracticable, and then began to doze. Whereat the moon, creeping in the window, laid a cold white arm across him, and eventu- ally dried a few foolish tears upon his sleeping lashes. 226 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOKY IV Aunt Sally was making pies in the kitchen the next morning when Jeff hesitatingly stole upon her. The mo- ment was not a felicitous one. Pie-making was usually an aggressive pursuit with Aunt Sally, entered into severely, and prosecuted unto the hitter end. After watching her a few moments Jeff came up and placed his arms tenderly around her. People very much in love find relief, I am told, in this vicarious expression. " Aunty." "Well, Jeff! Thar, now — yer gittin' all dough!" Nevertheless, the hard face relaxed a little. Something of a smile stole round her mouth, showing what she might have been before theology and bitters had supplied the natural feminine longings. " Aunty dear ! " "You — boy !" It was a boy's face — albeit bearded like the pard, with an extra fierceness in the mustaches — that looked upon hers. She could not help bestowing a grim floury kiss upon it. " Well, what is it now ? " " I 'm thinking, aunty, it 's high time you and me packed up our traps and ' shook ' this yar shanty, and located somewhere else." Jeff's voice was ostentatiously cheerful, but his eyes were a little anxious. " What for now ? " Jeff hastily recounted his ill luck, and the various rea- sons — excepting of course the dominant one — for his resolution. "And when do you kalkilate to go ? " " If you '11 look arter things here," hesitated Jeff, " I reckon I '11 go up along with Bill to-morrow, and look round a bit." JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 227 " And how long do you reckon that gal would stay hera after yar gone ? " This was a new and startling idea to Jeff. But in his humility he saw nothing in it to flatter his conceit. Eather the reverse. He colored, and then said apologetically, — " I thought that you and Jinny could get along without me. The hutcher will pack the provisions over from the Fork." Laying down her rolling-pin. Aunt Sally turned upon Jeff with ostentatious deliberation. " Ye ain't," she began slowly, " ez taking a man with wimmen ez your father was — that 's a fact, Jeff Briggs ! They used to say that no woman as he went for could get away from him. But ye don't mean to say yer think yer not good enough — such as ye are — for this snip of an old maid, ez big as a gold dollar, and as yaller ? " " Aunty," said Jeff, dropping his boyish manner, and his color as suddenly, " I 'd rather ye would n't talk that way of Miss Mayfield. Ye don't know her ; and there 's times," he added, with a sigh, " ez I reckon ye don't quite know me either. That young lady, bein' sick, likes to be looked after. Any one can do that for her. She don't mind who it is. She don't care for me except for that, and," added Jeff humbly, "it's quite natural." " I did n't say she did," returned Aunt Sally viciously ; '• but seeing ez you 've got an empty house yer on yer hands, and me a-slavin' here on jist nothin', if this gal, for the sake o' gallivantin' with ye for a spell, chooses to stay here and keep her family here, and pay high for it, I don't see why it ain't yer duty to Providence and me to take advantage of it." Jeff raised his eyes to his aunt's face. For the first time it struck him that she might be his father's sister and yet have no blood in her veins that answered to his. There are few shocks more startling and overpowering to original 228 natures than this sudden sense of loneliness. Jeflf could not speak, but remained looking fiercely at her. Aunt Sally misinterpreted his silence, and returned to her work on the pies. "The gal ain't no fool," she con- tinued, rolling out the crust as if she were laying down hroad propositions. "She reckons on it too, ez if it was charged in the bill with the board and lodging. Why, did n't she say to me, last night, that she kalkilated afore she went away to bring up some friends from 'Frisco for a few days' visit ? and did n't she say, in that pipin', affected v'ice o' hers, ' I oughter make some return for j'er kindness and yer nephew's kindness, Aunt Sally, by showing people that can help you, and keep your house full, how pleasant it is up here.' She ain't no fool, with all her faintin's and dyin's away ! No, Jeff Briggs. And if she wants to show ye off agin them city fellows ez she knows, and ye ain't got spunk enough to .stand up and show off with her — why " — she turned her head impatiently, but he was gone. If Jeff had ever wavered in his resolution he would have b,l(iyin' at me over your shoulders ! " 248 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOTE STOBY Jeff lifted a face as colorless as the gambler's own, went back to his seat, and placed his entire gains on a single card. The gambler looked at him nervously, but dealt. There was a pause, a slight movement where Jeff stood, and then a simultaneous cry from the players as they turned towards him. But his seat was vacant. " Eun after him ! Call him back ! He 's won again ! " But he had van- ished utterly. How he left, or what indeed followed, he never clearly remembered. His movements must have been automatic, for when, two hours later, he found himself at the " Pioneer " coach office, with his cai-pet-bag and blankets by his side, he could not recall how or why he had come ! He had a dumb impression that he had barely escaped some dire calamity, — rather that he had only temporarily averted it, — and that he was still in the shadow of some impending catastrophe of destiny. He must go somewhere, he must do something to be saved ! He had no money, he had no friends ; even Yuba Bill had been transferred to another route, miles away. Yet, in the midst of this stupefaction, it was a part of his strange mental condition that trivial de- tails of Miss Mayfield 's face and figure, and even apparel, were constantly before him, to the exclusion of consecutive thought. A collar she used to wear, a ribbon she had once tied around her waist, a blue vein in her dropped eyelid, a curve in her soft, full, bird-like throat, the arch of her in- step in her small boots — all these were plainer to him than the future, or even the present. But a voice in his ear, a fig- ure before his abstracted eyes, at last broke upon his reverie. " Jeff Briggs ! " •Jeff mechanically took the outstretched hand of a young clerk of the Pioneer Coach Company, who had once accompanied Yuba Bill and stopped at the " Half way House." He endeavored to collect his thoughts; here seemed to be an opportunity to go somewhere ! .IKVK 1!KU;0,S"S l.OYK Sl'OUY 'JIU "^Ylu^t iivo _\on doing' now 'i' " sjiid tlm young' luiui l.visklY. •"Nothing," s;>iil Joft" sinqily. " Oh, 1 soo — going homo I " IK'uu'! (hi> \voi\l st\ing shiu'ply through JotV's KMiinubixl eonsoionsness. "Nil," ho .st)\ni\uoi'\'d, "(hilt is " - - " Look hoi-i-. ,lotV," lu'oko in tho young n\iU\, " 1 'vo got « ohiuu'o for you that don't fidl in n nnm's wiiy ovoiy duy. ^^ oils, Kiivg'o \ Co.'s tiv;\snn> niossongov fvon\ Kohinsou's I'VrvY to Mouiphoys has slippod out.. Tho j>l;\oo is vrtoaut. 1 ivokon 1 oiin got it for you." "Whou?" " Now — ttviiight." •■ 1 'm iviuly." •■ Con\o, thou." li\ ton niiuvilos thoy woiv in tho oon>pany's otlioo, wlvoiv it.-« uisinrtgor, t\ tuau fnuunis in thiv-JO klays for his Mdnoss aiul sl\)v\vdnoss. still lingoivil iu tho' disii;itoh of husinoss. Tho young olork hriotly but dofoivntiu'ly statod oorlrtiu faots. .V fow (jnoslions rtutt answors foUowod, of which Jot! hoai\l only tho woi\ls " Tuohnuuo " iiud •• Yul\» Kill." ■• Sii down. Mr. Uriggs. (iiv^ii-night, Kolvrts." Tho young olork, with au onoouniging sniilo to.lotV, bowod hiu>solf out as tho uianagor ,-oalod hiuisolt" at his dosk tuul lH-g-:»n to writo. ■• Vou know tho oountry pivtty well Wlwoon the Fork and tho Summit, Mr. Brigg^ ? " ho Si»id, without looking ujv •• I livod thow." s;>id dotV. "That was souio months ago, wasn't it '.' " " 8i\ mo»>lhs," s;»id dolt', with a sigh. •• It 's ohangokl for tho worso sinoo your hou.so was shut up. Thoiv 's a loi\g strotoh of nnsottU-d ooxui try infos tod by Kul obaniotoi-s." lytf Silt >\lont. 250 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY "Briggs." " Sir ? " " The last man but one who preceded you was shot bj road agents." ^ " Yes, sir." " We lost sixty thousand dollars up there." " Yes ? " " Your father was Briggs of Tuolumne ? " " Yes, sir." Jeff's head dropped, but, glancing shyly up, he saw a pleasant smile on his questioner's face. He waa §till writing rapidly, but was apparently enjoying at the same time some pleasant recollection. " Your father and I lost nearly sixty thousand dollars toge- ther one night, ten years ago, when' we were both younger." " Yes, sir," said Jeff dubiously. " But it was our own money, Jeff." " Yes, sir." " Here 's your appointment," he said briefly, throwing away his pen, folding what he had written, and handing it to JefiF. It was the first time that he had looked at him since he entered. He now held out his hand, grasped Jeff's, and said, " Good-night ! " VI It was late the next evening when Jeff drew up at the coach office at Robinson's Perry, where he was to await the coming of the Summit coach. His mind, lifted only temporarily out of its benumbed condition during his in- terview with the manager, again fell back into its dull abstraction. Fully embarked npon his dangerous journey, accepting all the meaning of the trust imposed upon him, he was yet vaguely conscious that he did not realize its full importance. He had neither the dread nor the stimulation 1 Highway robbers. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOEY 251 of coming danger. He had faced death before in the boyish confidence of animal spirits ; his pulse now was scarcely stirred with anticipation. Once or twice before, in the extravagance of his passion, he had imagined himself res- cuing Miss Mayfield from danger, or even dying for her. During his journey his mind had dwelt fully and minutely on every detail of their brief acquaintance ; she was con- tinually before him, the tones of her voice were in his ears, the suggestive touch of her fingers, the thrill that his lips had felt when he kissed them — all were with him now, but only as a memory. In his coming fate, in his future life, he saw her not. He believed it was a premonition of coming death. He made a few preparations. The company's agent had told him that the treasure, letters, and dispatches, which had accumulated to a considerable amount, would be handed to him on the box ; and that the arms and ammu- nition were in the boot. A less courageous and determined man might have been affected by the cold, practical brutal- ity of certain advice and instructions offered him by the agent, but Jeff recognized this compliment to his determina- tion, even before the agent concluded his speech by saying, "But I reckon they knew what they were about in the lower office when they sent you up. I dare say you kin give me p'ints, ef ye cared to, for all ye 're soft spoken. There are only four passengers booked through ; we hev to be a little partikler, suspectin' spies ! Two of the four ye kin depend upon to get the top o' their d — d heads blowed off the first fire," he added grimly. At ten o'clock the Summit coach fiashed, rattled, glit- tered, and snapped, like a disorganized firework, up to the door of the company's office. A familiar figure, but more than usually truculent and aggressive, slowly descended with violent oaths from the box. Without seeing Jeff, it strode into the office. 252 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY "Now then," said Yuba Bill, addressing the agent, " whar 's that God-forsaken fool that Wolls, Fargo & Co. hev sent up yar to take charge o' their treasure ? Because I 'd like to introduce him to the champion idgit of Cala- \eras County, that 's been selected to go to h — II with hiin^ and that 's me Yuba Bill ! P'int him out. Don't keep mo waitin' ! " The agent grinned and pointed to Jeff. Both men recoiled in astonishment. Yuba Bill was the first to recover his speech. " It 's a lie ! ■' he roared ; " or somebody has been putting up a job on ye, Jeff ! Because I 've been twenty years in the service, and am such a nat'ral born mule that when the company strokes my back and sez, ' You 're the on'y mule we kin trust, Bill,' I starts up and goes out as a blasted wooden figgerhead for road agents to lay fur and practice on, it don't follow that you 've any call to go." " It was my own seeking. Bill," said Jeff, with one of his old, sweet, boyish smiles. " I did n't know you were to drive. But you 're not going back on me now, Bill, are you ? you're not going to send me off with another volunteer ? " " That be d — d ! " growled Bill. Nevertheless, for ten minutes he reviled the Pioneer Coach Company with picturesque imprecation, tendered his resignation repeatedly to the agent, and at the end of that time, as everybody expected, mounted the box, and with a final malediction, involving the whole settlement, was off. On the road, Jeff', in a few hurried sentences, told his story. Bill scarcely seemed to listen. " Look yar, Jeff," he said suddenly. " Yes, Bill." " If the worst happens, and ye go under, yon '11 tell your father, if I don't happen to see him first, it was n't no job of mine, and I did my best to get ye out of it." JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 253 " Yes," said Jeff, in a faint voice. " It may n't be so bad," said Bill, softening ; " they know, I — n 'em, we 've got a pile aboard, ez well as if they seed "that agent gin it ye, but they also know we 've pre-pared ! " " I was n't thinking of that, Bill ; I was thinking of my father." And he told Bill of the gambling episode at Sacramento. " D' ye mean to say ye left them hounds with a thousand dollars of yer hard-earned " r " Gambling gains. Bill," interrupted Jeff quietly. " Exactly ! Well ! " Bill subsided into an incoherent growl. After a few moments' pause, he began again. " Yer ready as ye used to be with a six-shooter, Jeff, time 's when ye was a boy, and I uster chuck half-dollars in the air fur ye to make warts on ? " " I reckon," said Jeff, with a faint smile. " Thar 's two p'ints on the road to be looked to : the woods beyond the blacksmith's shop that uster be ; the fringe of alder and buckeye by the crossing below your house — p'ints where they kin fetch you without a show. Thar 's two ways o' meetin' them thar. One way ez to pull up and trust to luck and brag. The other way is to whip up and yell, and send the whole six kiting by like h — 11 ! " " Yes," said Jeflf. " The only drawback to that plan is this : the road lies along the edge of a precipice, straight down a thousand feet into the river. Ef these devils get a shot into any one o' the six and it drops, the coach turns sharp off, and down we go, the whole kerboodle of us, plump into the Stanislaus ! " " And they don't get the money," said Jeff quietly. " Well, no ! " replied Yuba Bill, staring at Jeff, whose face was set as a flint against the darkness. " I should reckon not." He then drew a long breath, glanced at Jeff again, and said between his teeth, "Well, I 'm d— d 1 " 254 JSFF BBIGGS'S LOVE STOET At tbe next station they changed hoises^ Bill personally sapenrising. especiaUj as legaided the velfne and propel eondition of Bine Grass, who heie fras l>r>3ii?ht oat as a leader. Formerly there was no chance of horses at this station, and thfc norelfy excited Jeffs remark. " These jar chaps saj thar 's no station at the Summit now/' growled Bill, in explanation : ■■ the hotel is clsaL and it 's all private propertr. honght hr sorue chap from Trisco. Thar ought to be a law agin soch dcHn's ! " This suggested obliteratimi of the last traces of 3>Iiss liayfield seemed to Jeff as only a eorrolxRation of his pre- monition. He shonM never hear from her again ! Tet to hare stood nnder the roof teat last sheltered her; to, per- chance, hare met gome one who had seen her later — this was a fancy that had hannted him on his joomeT. It was all OTer now. Perhaps it was for the hest With the sinking behind of tte l%hts of the station, the oecapants of the coach knew that the dir^K.as part of the journey had began. The two goapis in the coach had already made ohtrasive and war-like preparations, to the ill- concealed liisgust of Taba BilL " I 'd her h*en ivillin' to get throngh this yar job withoat the btimin' of poTrier. but ef any of them devils ex is waitin' for as wonld be content with a shot at them fancy policemen inade, I'd poll vp and give 'em a show ! " Haring relieved his mind. Bill said no more, and the two men relapsed into silence^ The moon shone brightly and peacefally. a &ct pointed oat by Bill as nnfeTorably deepenii^ the shadows of the -^o-:-!?. and bringing the coach awl the road into greater relieL An hour passed. What were Ynta Bill's thoughts are not a part of this history : that they were tarlJent and agcr^essive might be inferre^i from the occasional growls and interjected oaths that broke from his lips. Bat Jeff, strinse anomaly, due perhaps to jor-.h an! moo-nlight, t^:s wrapped in a sensnons dream of Miss ^larfieli. of the scene of hex JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STORY 255 dark hair as he had drawn her to his side, of the outlines of her sweet form, that had for a moment lightly touched his own — of anything, I fear, but the death he believed he was hastening to. But — " Jeff," said Bill, in an unmistakable tone. " Yes," said Jeff. '' That ar clump o' buckeye on the i-idffe ! Ready there ! " (Leaning over the box, to the guards within.) A responsive rustle in the coach, which now bounded forward as if in- stinct with life and intelligence. " Jeff," said Bill, in an odd, altered voice, " take the lines aminit." Jeflf took them. Bill stooped towards the boot. A peaceful moment ! A peaceful outlook from the coach ; the white moonlit road stretching to the ridge, no noise but the steady gallop of the horses ! Then a yellow flash, breaking from the darkness of the buckeye ; a crack like the snap of a whip ; Yuba Bill steadying himself for a moment, and then dropping at Jeff's feet! "They got me, Jeff! But — I draived their fire! Don't drop the lines ! Don't speak ! For — they — think I 'm you and you vie ! " The flash had illuminated Jefi" as to the danger, as to Bill's sacrifice, but above all, and overwhelming all, to a thrilling sense of his own power and ability. Yet he sat like a statue. Six masked figures had appeared from the \-cry ground, clinging to the bits of tlie horses. The coach stopped. Two wild purposeless shots — the first and last fired by the guards — were answered by the muzzle of six rifles pointed into the windows, and the passengers foolishly and impotently filed out into the road. " Now, Bill," said a voice, which Jeff instantly recognized as the blacksmith's, " we won't keep ye long. So hand down the treasure." The man's foot was on the wheel; in another instant 256 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY he would be beside Jeff, and discovery was certain. Jeff leaned over and unhooked the coach lamp, as if to assist him with its light. As if in turning, he stumbled, broke the lamp, ignited the kerosene, and scattered the wick and blazing fluid over the haunches of the wheelers ! The maddened animals gave one wild plunge forwards, the coach followed twice its length, throwing the blacksmith under its wheels, and driving the other horses towards the bank. But as the lamp broke in JeflPs right hand, his practiced left hand discharged its hidden Derringer at the head of the robber who had held the bit of Blue Grass, and, throwing the useless weapon away, he laid the whip smartly on her back. She leaped forward madly, dragging the other leaders with her, and in the next moment they were free and wildly careering down the grade. A dozen shots followed them. The men were protected by the coach, but Yuba Bill groaned. " Are you hit again ? " asked Jeff hastily. He had for- gotten his saviour. " No ; but the horses are ! I felt 'em ! Look at 'em, Jeff." Jeff had gathered up the almost useless reins. The horses were running away ; but Blue Grass was limping. " For God 's sake," said Bill, desperately dragging his wounded figure above the dash-board, " keep her up ! Lift her up, Jeff, till we pass the curve. Don't let hei drop, or we 're " — " Can you hold the reins ? " said Jeff quickly. " Give 'em here ! " Jeff passed them to the wounded man. Then, with his bowie-knife between his teeth, he leaped over the dash-board on the backs of the wheelers. He extinguished the blazing drops that the wind had not blown out on their smarting haunches, and with the skill and instinct of a Mexican vaquero, made his way over their turbulent tossing backs ta JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 2o'' Blue Grass, cut her traces and reins, and as the vehicle neared the curve, with a sharp lash, drove her to the hank, where she sank even as the coach darted by. Bill uttered a feeble " Hurrah ! " but at the same moment the reins dropped from his fingers, and he sank at the bottom of the boot. Kiding postilion-wise, Jeff could control the horses. The dangerous curve was passed, but not the possibility of pur- suit. The single leader he was bestriding was panting — more than that, he was sweating, and from the evidence of Jeff's hands, sweating Mood! Back of his shoulder was a jagged hole, from which his life-blood was welling. The off-wheel horse was limping too. That last volley was no foolish outburst of useless rage, but was deliberate and'pre- meditated skill. Jeff drew the reins, and as the coach stopped, the horse he was riding fell dead. Into the silence that followed broke the measured beat of horses' hoofs on the road above. He was pursued ! To select the best horse of the remaining unscathed three, to break open the boot and place the treasure on his back, and to abandon and leave the senseless Bill lying there, was the unhesitating work of a moment. Great heroes and great lovers are invariably one-ideaed men, and Jeff was at that moment both. Eighty thousand dollars in gold-dust and Jeff's weight was a handicap. Nevertheless he flew forward like the wind. Presently he fell to listening. A certain hoof-beat in the rear was growing more distinct. A bitter thought flashed through his mind. He looked back. Over the hill appeared the foremost of his pursuers. It was the blacksmith, mounted on the fleetest horse in the county — Jeff's own horse — Rabbit ! But there are compensations in all new trials. As Jeff faced round again, he saw he had reached the open table- land, and the bleak walls and ghastly, untenanted windows 258 JEFF BKIGGS'S LOVE STORY of the " Half-way House " rose before him in the distanca Jeff was master of the ground here ! He was entering the shadow of the woods — Miss Mayfield's woods! and there was a cut off from the road, and a bridle-path, known only to himself, hard by. To find it, leap the roadside ditch, dash through the thicket, and rein up by the road again, was swiftly done. Take a gentle woman, betray her trust, outrage her best feelings, drive her into a corner, and you have a fury ! Take a gentle, trustful man, abuse him, show him the folly of this gentleness and kindness, prove to him that it is weakness, drive him into a corner, and you have a savage ! And it was this savage, with an Indian's memory, and an Indian's eye and ear, that suddenly confronted the black- smith. What more ! A single shot from a trained hand and one-ideaed intellect settled the blacksmith's business, and temporarily ended this Iliad ! I say temporarily, for Mr. Dodd, formerly deputy-sheriff, prudently pulled up at the top of the hill, and observing his principal bend his head forwards and act like a drunken man, until he reeled, limp and sideways, from the saddle, and noticing further that Jeff took his place with a well-filled saddle-bag, concluded to follow cautiously and unobtrusively in the rear. vn But Jeff saw him not. With mind and will bent on one object — to reach the first habitation, the " Summit," and send back help and assistance to his wounded comrade — he urged Rabbit forward. The mare knew her rider, but he had no time for caresses. Through the smarting of his hands he had only just noticed that they were badly burned, and the skin was peeling from them ; he had con- founded the blood that was flowing from a cut on his scalp^ JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STOKY 259 with that from the wounded horse. It was one hour yet to the " Summit," but the road was good, the moon was bright, he knew what Eabbit could do, and it was not j^et ten o'clock. As the white outbuildings and irregular outlines of the " Summit House " began to be visible, Jeff felt a singular return of his former dreamy abstraction. The hour of peril, anger, and excitement he had just passed through seemed something of years ago, or rather to he obliterated with all else that had passed since he had looked upon that scene. Yet it was all changed — strangely changed ! What Jeff had taken for the white, wooden barns and outhouses were greenhouses and conservatories. The " Summit Hotel " was a picturesque villa, nestling in the self-same trees, but approached through cultivated fields, dwellings of laborers, parklike gates and walls, and all the bountiful appointments: of wealth and security. Jeff thought of Yuba Bill's male- diction, and tinderstood it as he gazed. The barking of dogs announced his near approach to the principal entrance. Lights were still burning in the upper windows of the house and its offices. He was at once surrounded by the strange medley of a Californian ran- chero's service, peons, Chinese, and vaqueros. Jeff briefly stated his business. " Ah, Carrajo ! " This was a matter for the major-domo, or, better, the padrone — Wilson ! But the padrone, Wilson, called out by the tumult, appeared in person — a handsome, resolute, middle-aged man, who, in a twinkling, dispersed the group to barn and stable with a dozen orders of preparation, and then turned to Jeff. " You are hurt ; come in." Jeff followed him dazedly into the house. The same sense of remote abstraction, of vague dreaminess, was over- coming him. He resented it, and fought against it, but in vain ; he was only half conscious that his host had bathed his head and given him some slight restorative, had said 260 JEFF BEIGGS'S LOVE STOKY something to him soothingly, and had left him. Jeff wondered if he had fainted, or was about to faint, — he had a nervous dread of that womanish weakness, — or if he were really hurt worse than he believed. He tried to master himself and grasp the situation by minutely examining the room. It was luxuriously furnished ; Jeff had but once before sat in such an arm-chair as the one that half em- braced him, and as a boy he had dim recollections of a life like this, of which his father was part. To poor Jeff, with his throbbing head, his smarting hands, and his lapsing moments of half forgetfulness, this seemed to be a return of his old premonition. There was a vague perfume in the room, like that which he remembered when he was in the woods with Miss Mayfield. He believed he was growing faint again, and was about to rise, when the door opened behind him. " Is there anything we can do for you ? Mr. Wilson has gone to seek your friend, and has sent Manuel for a doctor." Her voice ! He rose hurriedly, turned ; she was stand- ing in the doorway .' She uttered a slight cry, turned very pale, advanced to- wards him, stopped and leaned against the chimney-piece. " I did n't know it was you. " With her actual presence Jeff's dream and weakness fled. He rose up before her, his old bashful, stammering, awkward self. "/didn't know you lived here. Miss Mayfield." " If you had sent word you were coming," said Miss Mayfield, recovering her color brightly in one cheek. The possibility of having sent a messenger in advance to advise Miss Mayfield of his projected visit did not strike Jeff as ridiculous. Your true lover is far beyond such trivialities. He accepted the rebuke meekly. He said he was sorry. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 261 "You might have known it." " What, Miss Mayfield ? " " That I was here, if you n-ished to know." Jeff did not reply. He bowed his head and clasped his burned hands together. Miss Mayfield saw their raw sur- faces, saw the ugly cut ou his head, pitied him, but went on hastily, with both cheeks burning, to say, womanlike, what was then deepest in her heart. " My brother-in-law told me your adventure ; but I did not know until I entered this room that the gentleman I wished to help was one who had once' rejected my assist- ance, who had misunderstood me, and cruelly insulted me ! Oh, forgive me, Mr. Briggs " (Jeff had risen). " I did not mean that. But, Mr. Jeff — Jeff— oh ! " (She had caught his tortured hand and had wrung a movement of pain from him.) " Oh, dear ! what did I do now ? But, Mr. Jeff, after what had passed, after what you said to me when you went away, when you were at that dreadful place, Camp- ville, when you were two months in Sacramento, you might — you ovi/ht to have let me know it / " Jeff turned. Her face, more beautiful than he had ever seen it, alive and eloquent with every thought that her vfoman's speech but half expressed, was very near his — so near, that under her honest eyes the wretched scales fell from his own, his self-wrought shackles crumbled away, and he dropped upon his knees at her feet as she sank into the chair he had quitted. Both his hands were grasped in her own. " Yoic went away, and I stayed," she said reflectively. " I had no home. Miss Mayfield." " Nor had I. I had to buy this," she said, with delicious simplicity; " and bring a family here too," she added, " in case you " — she stopped, with a slight color. "Forgive me," said Jeff, burying his face in her hands, "Jeff" " Jessie." 262 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY "Don't you think you were a little — just a little—, mean ? " " Yes." Miss Mayfield uttered a faint sigh. He looked into hei anxious cheeks and eyes, his arm stole round her ; their lips met foi" the first time in one long lingering kiss. Then, I fear, for the second time. " Jefif," said Miss Mayfield, suddenly becoming practical and sweetly possessory, " you must have your hands bound up in cotton." " Yes," said Jeff cheerfully. " And you must go instantly to bed." Jeff stared. " Because my sister will think it very late for me to be sitting up with a gentleman." The idea that Miss Mayfield was responsible to anybody was something new to Jeff. But he said hastily, " I must stay and wait for Bill. He risked his life for me." " Oh yes ! You must tell me all about it. I may wait for that." Jeff possessed himself of the chair ; in some way he also possessed himself of Miss Mayfield without entirely dispos- sessing her. Then he told his story. He hesitated over the episode of the blacksmith. " I 'm afraid I killed him, Jessie." Miss Mayfield betraj'ed little concern at this possible ex- treme measure with a dangerous neighbor. " He cut your head, Jeff," she said, passing her little hand through his curls. " No," said Jeff hastily " that must have been done before." " Well," said Miss Mayfield conclusively, " he would if he 'd dared. And you brought off that wretched money in spite of him. Poor dear Jeff ! " " Yes," said Jeff, kissing her. JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY 263 " Where is it ? " asked Jessie, looking round the room. " Oh, just out there ! " " Out where ? " "On my horse, you know, outside the door," continued Jeff, a little uneasily, as he rose. " I'll go and " — "You careless hoy," said Miss Mayfield, jumping up, " I'll go with you." They passed out on the porch together, holding each other's hands, like children. The forgotten Eabbit was not there. Miss Maytield called a vaquero. " Ah, yes ! — the caballero's horse. Of a certainty the otlier caballero had taken it ! " " The other caballero ! " gasped Jeff. " Si, seiior. The one who arrived with you, or a moment, the very next moment, after you. ' Your friend,' he said." Jeff staggered against the porch, and cast one despairing reproachful look at Miss Mayfield. "Oh, Jeff! Jeff! don't look so ! I know I ought not to have kept you ! It 's a mistake, Jeff, believe me." " It 's no mistake," said Jeff hoarsely. " Go ! " he said, turning to the vaquero, " go ! — bring " — But his speech failed. He attempted to gesticulate with his hands, ran for- ward a few steps, staggered, and fell fainting on the ground. " Help me with the caballero into the blue room," said Miss Mayfield, white as Jeff. " And hark ye, Manuel ! You know every ruffian, man or woman, on this road. That horse and tliose saddle-bags must be here to-morrow, if you have to pay double what they 're worth I " " Si, senora." Jeff went off into fever, into delirium, into helpless stupor. From time to time he moaned " Bill " and " the treasure." On the third day, in a lucid interval, as he lay staring at the wall. Miss Mayfield put in his hand a letter from the company, acknowledging the receipt of the treasure, thank- ing him for his zeal, and inclosing a handsome check. 264 JEFF BRIGGS'S LOVE STORY Jeff sat up, and put his hands to his head. " I told you it was taken by mistake, and was easily found," said Miss Mayfield, " did n't I ? " "Yes, — and Bill?" " You know he is so much better that he expects to leave us next week." " And — Jessie ! " " There — go to sleep ! " At the end of a week she introduced Jeff to her sister-in- law, having previously run her fingers through his hair to insure that becomingness to his curls which would better indicate his moral character ; i:nd spoke of him as one of her oldest Californian friends. At the end of two weeks she again presented him as her affianced husband ^ — a long engagement of a year being just passed. Mr. Wilson, who was bored by the mountain life, \indertaken to please his rich wife and richer sister, saw a chance of escape here, and bore willing testimony to the distant Mr. and Mrs. Mayfield of the excellence of Miss Jessie's choice. And Yuba Bill was Jeff's best man. The name of Briggs remained a power in Tuolumne and Calaveras County. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs never had but one word of disagreement or discussion. One day, Jeff, looking over some old accounts of his wife's, found an unreceipted, unvouched-for expenditure of twenty thousand dollars. " What is this for, Jessie ? " he asked. "Oh, it 'sail right, Jeff!" But here the no,w business-like and practical Mr. Briggs, father of a family, felt called upon to make some general re' marks regarding the necessity of exactitude in accounts, eta " But I 'd rather not tell you, Jeff." " But you ought to, Jessie." " Well then, dear, it was to get those saddle-bags of yours from that rascal, Dodd," said little Mrs. Briggs meekly. THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTEEY PART I It was growing quite dark in the telegraph office at Cottonwood, Tuolumne County, California. The office, a box-like inclosure, was separated from the public room of the Miners' Hotel by a thin partition, and the operator, who was also News and Express Agent at Cottonwood, had fclosed his window, and was lounging by his news-stand preparatory to going home. Accustomed as he was to long intervals of idleness, he was fast becoming bored. The tread of mud-muffled boots on the veranda and the entrance of two men offered a momentary excitement. He recognized in the strangers two prominent citizens of Cottonwood ; and their manner bespoke business. One of them proceeded to the desk, wrote a dispatch, and handed it to the other interrogatively. " That ''s about the way the thing p'ints," responded his companion. " I reckoned it only squar' to use his dientikal words ? " " That 's so." The first speaker turned to the operator with the dispatch. " How soon can you shove her through ? " The operator glanced professionally over the address and the length of the dispatch. " Now," he answered promptly. "And she gets there " — " To-night ; but there 's no delivery until to-morrow." " Shove her through to-niglit, and say there 's an extra swenty left here for delivery." 266 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTEEY The operator, accustomed to all kinds of extravagant outlay for expedition, replied that he would lay this pro- position, with the dispatch, before the San Francisco office. He then took it and read it — and re-read it. He pre- served the usual professional apathy — had doubtless sent many more enigmatical and mysterious messages — but, nevertheless, when he finished, he raised his eyes inquir- ingly to his customer. That gentleman, who enjoyed a reputation for equal spontaneity of temper and revolver, met his gaze a little impatiently. The operator had re- course to a trick. Under the pretense of misunderstanding the message, he obliged the sender to repeat it aloud for the sake of accuracy, and even suggested a few verbal alterations, ostensibly to insure correctness, but really to extract further information. Nevertheless, the man dog- gedly persisted in a literal transcript of his message. The operator went to his instrument hesitatingly. " I suppose," he added half questioningly, " there ain't no chance of a mistake. This address is Eightbody, that rich old Bostonian that everybody knows. There ain't but one ? " " That 's the address," responded the first speaker coolly. " Did n't know the old chap had investments out here," suggested the operator, lingering at his instrument. " No more did I," was the insufficient reply. For some few moments nothing was heard but the click of the instrument, as the operator worked the key with the usual appearance of imparting confidence to a somewhat reluctant hearer who preferred to talk himself. The two men stood by, watching his motions with the usual awe of the unprofessional. When he had finished, they laid before him two gold-pieces. As the operator took them up, he could not help saying, — " The old man went off kinder sudden, did n't he ? Had no time to write ? " THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 267 " Not sudden for that kind o' man," was the exasperat- ing reply. But the speaker was not to be disconcerted. " If ther( is an answer " — "There ain't any," replied the first speaker quietly. " Why ? " " Because the man ez sent the message is dead." "But it's signed by you two." " On'y ez witnesses — eh ? " appealed the first speaker to his comrade. " On'y ez witnesses," responded the other. The operator shrugged his shoulders. The business concluded, the first speaker slightly relaxed. He nodded to the operator, and turned to the bar-room with a pleasing social impulse. When their glasses were set down empty, the first speaker, with a cheerful condemnation of the hard times and the weather, apparently dismissed all previous proceedings from his mind, and lounged out with his com- panion. At the corner of the street they stopped. " Well, that job 's done," said the first speaker, by way of relieving the slight social embarrassment of parting. " Thet 's so," responded his companion, and shook his hand. They parted. A gust of wind swept through the pines, and struck a faint jEolian cry from the wires above their heads, and the rain and the darkness again slowly settled upon Cottonwood. The message lagged a little at San Francisco, laid ovei half an hour at Chicago, and fought longitude bhe whole way, so that it was past midnight when the " all-night " operator took it from the wires at Boston. But it was freighted "with a mandate from the San Francisco ofiice ; and a messenger was procured, who sped with it through dark snow-bound streets, between the high walls of close- shuttered rayless houses to a certain formal square, ghostly 268 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY with snow-covered statues. Here he ascended the hroad steps of a reserved and solid-looking mansion, and pulled a bronze bell-knob that, somewhere within those chaste recesses, after an apparent reflective pause, coldly commu- nicated the fact that a stranger was waiting vs'ithout — as he ought. Despite the lateness of the hour, there was a slight glow from the windows, clearly not enough to warm the messenger with indications of a festivity within, but yet bespeaking, as it were, some prolonged though subdued excitement. The sober servant, who took the dispatch and receipted for it as gravely as if witnessing a last will and testament, respectfully paused before the entrance of the drawing-room. The sound of measured and rhetorical speech, through which the occasional catarrhal cough of the New England coast struggled, as the only effort of nature not wholly repressed, came from its heavily curtained re- cesses ; for the occasion of the evening had been the recep- tion and entertainment of various distinguished persons, and, as had been epigram matically expressed by one of the guests, " the history of the country " was taking its leave in phrases more or less memorable and characteristic. Some of these valedictory axioms were clever, some witty^ a few profound, but always left as a genteel contribution to the entertainer. Some had been already prepared, and, like a card, had served and identified the guest at other mansions. The last guest departed, the last carriage rolled away, when the servant ventured to indicate the existence of the dispatch to his master, who was standing on the hearth-rug in an attitude of wearied self-righteousness. He took it, opened it, read it, re-read it, and said, — " There must be some mistake ! It is not for me ; call the boy. Waters." Waters, who was perfectly aware that the boy had left, nevertheless obediently walked towards the hall door, but was recalled by his master. THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTEKY 269 " No matter — at present ! " "It's nothing serious, William ?" asked Mrs. Eightbody, H'itli languid wifely concern. " No, nothing. Is there a light in my study ? " " Yes. But before you go, can you give me a moment or two ? " Mr. Eightbody turned a little impatiently towards his wife. She had thrown herself languidly on the sofa, her hair was slightly disarranged, and part of a slippered foot was visible. She might have been a finely formed woman, but even her careless deshabille left the general impression that she was severely flanneled throughout, and that any ostentation of womanly charm was under vigorous sanitary surveillance. " Mrs. Marvin told me to-night that her son made no secret of his serious attachment for our Alice, and that if I was satisfied Mr. Marvin would be glad to confer with you at once." The information did not seem to absorb Mr. Eightbody's wandering attention, but rather increased his impatience. He said hastily that he would speak of that to-morrow ; and, partly by way of reprisal, and partly to dismiss the subject, added, — " Positively, James must pay some attention to the reg- ister and the thermometer. It was over 70° to-night, and the ventilating draught was closed in the drawing-room." " That was because Professor Ammon sat near it, and the old gentleman's tonsils are so sensitive.'" " He ought to know from Dr. Dyer Doit that systematic and regular exposure to draughts stimulates the mucous membrane, while fixed air, over 60° invariably" — "I am afraid, William," interrupted Mrs. Eightbody, with feminine adroitness, adopting her husband's topic with a view of thereby directing him from it, — "I'm afraid that people do not yet appreciate the substitution of bouil- 270 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY Ion for punch and ices. I observed that Mr. Spondee declined it, and I fancied looked disappointed. The fibrine and wheat in liqueur-glasses passed quite unnoticed too." " And yet each half-drachm contained the half-digested substance of a pound of beef. I'm surprised at Spondee," continued Mr. Eightbody aggrievedly. " Exhausting his brain and nerve force by the highest creative eiforts of the Muse, he prefers perfumed and diluted alcohol flavored with carbonic acid gas. Even Mrs. Faringway admitted to me that the sudden lowering of the temperature of the stomach by the introduction of ice " — " Yes, but she took a lemon ice at the last Dorothea Re- ception, and asked me if I had observed that the lower animals refused their food at a temperature over 60°." Mr. Kightbody again moved impatiently toward the door. Mrs. Eightbody eyed him curiously. " You will not write, I hope ? Dr. Keppler told me to-night that your cerebral symptoms interdicted any pro- longed mental strain." " I must consult a few papers," responded Mr. Eight- body curtly, as he entered his library. It was a richly furnished apartment, morbidly severe in its decorations, which were symptomatic of a gloomy dys- pepsia of art, then quite prevalent. A few curios, very ugly, but providentially equally rare, were scattered about ; there were various bronzes, marbles, and casts, all requiring explanation, and so fulfilling their purpose of promoting conversation and exhibiting the erudition of their owner. There were souvenirs of travel with a history, old bric-k- brac with a pedigree, but little or nothing that challenged attention for itself alone. In all cases the superiority of the owner to his possessions was admitted. As a natural result nobody ever lingered there, the servants avoided the room, and no child was ever known to play in it. Mr. Eightbody turned up the gas, and from a cabinet THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 271 of drawers, precisely labeled, drew a package of letters. These he carefully examined. All were discolored, and made dignified by age; but some, in their original fresh- ness, must have appeared trifling and inconsistent with any correspondent of Mr. Rightbody. Nevertheless, that gen- tleman spent some moments in carefully perusing them, occasionally referring to the telegram in his hand. Sud- denly there was a knock at the door. Mr. Rightbody started, made a half-unconscious movement to return the letters to the drawer, turned the telegram face downwards, and then, somewhat harshly, stammered, — " Eh ? Who 's there ? Come in ! " " I beg your pardon, papa," said a very pretty girl, enter- ing, without, however, th« slightest trace of apology or awe in her manner, and taking a chair with the self-posses- sion and familiarity of an habitue of the room; " but I knew it was not your habit to write late, so I supposed you were not busy. I am on my way to bed." She was so very pretty, and withal so utterly uncon- scious of it, or perhaps so consciously superior to it, that one was provoked into a more critical examination of her face. But this only resulted in a reiteration of her beaaty, and, perhaps, the added facts that her dark eyes were very womanly, her rich complexion eloquent, and h«!r chiseled lips full enough to be passionate or capricious, notwith- standing that their general eff'ect suggested neither caprice, womanly weakness, nor passion. With the instinct of an embarrassed man, Mr. Right- body touched the topic he would have preferred to avoid. " I suppose we must talk over to-morrow," he hesitated, " this matter of yours and Mr. Marvin's ? Mrs. Marvin has formally spoken to your mother." Miss Alice lifted her bright eyes intelligently, but not joyfully, and the color of action rather than embarrass- ment rose to her round cheeks. 272 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY " Yes, he said she would," she answered simply. " At present," continued Mr. Eightbody still awkwardly, " I see no objection to the proposed arrangement." Miss Alice opened her round eyes at this. " Why, papa, I thought it had been all settled long ago. Mamma knew it, you knew it. Last July mamma and you talked it over." " Yes, yes," returned her father, fumbling his papers ; "that is — well, we will talk of it to-morrow." In fact, Mr. Eightbody had intended to give the affair a proper attitude of seriousness and solemnity by due precision of speech and some apposite reflections when he should im- part the news to his daughter, but felt himself unable to do it now. " I am glad, Alice," he said at last, " that you have quite forgotten your previous whims and fancies. You see we are right." " Oh, I dare say, papa, if I 'm to be married at all, that Mr. Marvin is in every way suitable." Mr. Eightbody looked at his daughter narrowly. There was not the slightest impatience nor bitterness in her man- ner ; it was as well regulated as the sentiment she ex- pressed. " Mr. Marvin is " — he began. " I know what Mr. Marvin is," interrupted Miss Alice, " and he has promised me that I shall be allowed to go on with my studies the same as before. I shall graduate with (ny class, and if I prefer to practice my profession, I can do so in two years after our marriage." " In two years ? " queried Mr. Eightbody curiously. " Yes. You see, in case we should have a child, that would give me time enough to wean it." Mr. Eightbody looked at this flesh of his flesh, pretty and palpable flesh as it was ; but being confronted as equally with the brain of his brain, all he could do was to say meekly, — THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 273 " Yes, certainly. We will see about all that to-morrow." Miss Alice rose. Something in the free, unfettered swing of her arms, as she rested them lightly, after a half yawn, on her lithe hips, suggested his next speech, although still distrait and impatient. " You continue your exercise with the health-lift yet, I see." " Yes, papa, but I had to give up the flannels. I don't see how mamma could wear them. But my dresses are high-necked, and by bathing I toughen my skin. See," she added, as with a child-like unconsciousness she unfastened two or three buttons of her gown, and exposed the white surface of her throat and neck to her father, " I can defy a chill." Mr. Eightbody, with something akin to a genuine play- ful, paternal laugh, leaned forward and kissed her forehead. " It 's getting late, Ally," he said parentally, but not dictatorially. "Go to bed." '•' I took a nap of three hours this afternoon," said Miss Alice, with a dazzling smile, " to anticipate this dissipation. Good-night, papa. To-morrow, then." ." To-morrow," repeated Mr. Kightbody, with his eyes still fixed upon the girl vaguely. " Good-night." Miss Alice tripped from the room, possibly a trifle the more light heartedly that she had parted from her father in one of his rare moments of illogical human weakness. And perhaps it was well for the poor girl that she kept this single remembrance of him, when, I fear, in after years, his methods, his reasoning, and indeed all he had tried to im- press upon her childhood, had faded from her memory. For, when she had left, Mr. Eightbody fell again to the examination of his old letters. This was quite absorbing ; so much so that he did not notice the footsteps of Mrs. Eightbody on the staircase as she passed to her chamber, nor that she had paused on the landing to look through 274 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY the glass hall door on her hushand, as he sat there with the letters beside him and the telegram opened before him. Had she waited a moment later, she would have seen him rise and walk to the sofa with a disturbed air and a slight confusion, so that on reaching it he seemed to hesitate to lie down, although pale and evidently faint. Had she still waited, she would have seen him rise again with an agonized effort, stagger to the table, fumblingly refold and replace the papers in the cabinet, and lock it ; and, although now but half conscious, hold the telegram over the gas-flame till it was consumed. For had she waited until this moment, she would have flown unhesitatingly to his aid, as, this act completed, he staggered again, reached his hand toward the bell, but vainly, and then fell prone upon the sofa. But, alas ! no providential nor accidental hand was raised- to save him, or anticipate the progress of this story. And when, half an hour later, Mrs. Rightbody, a little alarmed and more indignant at his violation of the doctor's rules, appeared upon the threshold, Mr. Rightbody lay upon the sofa — dead ! With bustle, with thronging feet, with the irruption of strangers, and a hurrying to and fro, but, more than all, with an impulse and em'otion unknown to the mansion when its owner was in life, Mrs. Rightbody strove to call back the vanished life ; but in vain. The highest medical in- telligence, called from its bed at this strange hour, saw only the demonstration of its theories made a year before. Mr. "Rightbody was dead — without doubt — without mysteiy — even as a correct man should die ; logically, and in- dorsed by the highest medical authority. But even in the confusion, Mrs. Rightbody managed to speed a messenger to the telegraph office for a copy of the dispatch received by Mr. Rightbody, hut now missing. In the solitude of her own room, and without a con- fidant, she read these words : — THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTEKY 275 Copy. To Mr. Adams Eightbody, Boston, Mass. Joshua Silsbee died suddenly this morning. His last request was that you should remember your sacred co'mpact ■with him of thirty years ago. (Signed) Seventy-Four. Seventy-Five. In the darkened home, and amid the formal condolements of their friends, who had called to gaze upon the scarcely cold features of their late associate, Mrs. Eightbody managed to send another dispatch. It was addressed to " Seventy-Four and Seventy-Five," Cottonwood. In a few hours she received the following enigmatical re- sponse : — " A horse-thief, named Josh Silsbee, was lynched yester- day morning by the Vigilantes at Deadwood." PART II The spring of 1874 was retarded in the Californian Sierras. So much so that certain Eastern tourists who had early ventured into the Yosemite Valley found themselves, one May morning, snow-bound against the tempestuous shoulders of El Capitan. So furious was the onset of the wind at the Upper Merced Canon, that even so respectable a lady as Mrs. Eightbody was fain to cling to the neck of her guide to keep her seat in the saddle ; while Miss Alice, scorning all masculine assist- ance, was hurled, a lovely chaos, against the snowy wall of the chasm. Mrs. Eightbody screamed ; Miss Alice raged under her breath, but scrambled to her feet again in silence. " I told you so," said Mrs. Eightbody, in an indignant 276 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY whisper as her daughter again ranged beside her. " 1 warned you especially, Alice — that — that " — " What ? " interrupted Miss Alice curtly. " That you would need your chemiloons and high boots," said Mrs. Kightbody, in a regretful undertone, slightly increasing her distance from the guides. Miss Alice shrugged her pretty shoulders scornfully, but ignored her mother's implication. " You were particularly warned against going into the valley at this season," she only replied grimly. Mrs. Rightbody raised her eyes impatiently. "You know how anxious I was to discover your poor father's strange correspondent, Alice ; you have no con- sideration." " But when you have discovered him — what then ? " queried Miss Alice. " What then ? " " Yes. My belief is that you will find the telegram only a mere business cipher, and all this quest mere nonsense." " Alice ! why, you yourself thought your father's conduct that night very strange. Have you forgotten ? " The young lady had not, but for some far-reaching feminine reason chose to ignore it at that moment, when her late tumble in the snow was still fresh in her mind. " And this woman — whoever she may be," continued Mrs. Eightbody. " How do you know there 's a woman in the case ? " interrupted Miss Alice, wickedly, I fear. " How do — I — know — there 's a woman ? " slowlj ejaculated Mrs. Eightbody, floundering in the snow and the unexpected possibility of such a ridiculous question. But here her guide flew to her assistance, and estopped further speech. And, indeed, a grave problem was before them. THE GEEAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 277 The road that led to their single place of refuge — a eahin, half hotel, half trading-post, scarce a mile away — skirted the base of the rocky dome, and passed perilously near the precipitous wall of the valley. There was a rapid descent of a hundred yards or more to this terrace-like passage, and the guides paused for a moment of consulta- tion, coolly oblivious alike to the terrified questioning of Mrs. Kightbody or the half-insolent independence of the daughter. The elder guide was russet-bearded, stout, and tumorous ; the younger was dark-bearded, slight, and serious. " Ef you kin git young Bunker Hill to let you tote her on your shoulders, I '11 git the madam to hang on to me," came to Mrs. Eightbody's horrified ears as the expression of her particular companion. " Freeze to the old gal, and don't reckon on me if the daughter starts in to play it alone," was the enigmatical response of the younger guide. Miss Alice overheard both propositions ; and before the two men returned to their side, that high-spirited young lady had urged her horse down the declivity. Alas ! at this moment a gust of whirling snow swept down upon her. There was a fiounder, a misstep, a fatal strain on the wrong rein, a fall, a few plucky but unavailing struggles, and both horse and rider slid ignominiously down toward the rocky shelf. Mrs. Eightbody screamed. Miss Alice, from a confused debris of snow and ice, up- lifted a vexed and coloring' face to the younger guide — a little the more angrily, perhaps, that she saw a shade of impatience on his face. " Don't move, but tie one end of the ' lass' under your arms and throw me the other," he said quietly. "What do you mean by 'lass' — the lasso?" asked Miss Alice disgustedly. "Yes, ma'am." 278 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTESY " Then why don't you say so ? " " Oh, Alice ! " reproachfully interpolated Mrs. Eight body, encircled by the elder guide's stalwart arm. Miss Alice deigned no reply, but drew the loop of the lasso over her shoulders, and let it drop to her round ■waist. Then she essayed to throw the other end to the guide. Dismal failure ! The first fling nearly knocked her off the ledge, the second went all wild against the rocky wall, the third caught in a thorn bush, twenty feet below her companion's feet. Miss Alice's arm sunk help- lessly to her side, at which signal of unqualified surrender the younger guide threw himself half-way down the slope, worked his way to the thorn-bush, hung for a moment perilously over the parapet, secured the lasso, and then began to pull away at his lovely burden. Miss Alice was no dead weight, however, but steadily half scrambled on her hands and knees to within a foot or two of her rescuer. At this too familiar proximity, she stood up, and leaned a little stiffly against the line, causing the guide to give an extra pull, which had the lamentable effect of landing her almost in his arms. As it was, her intelligent forehead struck his nose sharply, and, I regret to add, treating of a romantic situation, caused that somewhat prominent sign and token of a hero to bleed freely. Miss Alice instantly clapped a handful of snow over his nostrils. " Now elevate your right arm," she said commandingly. He did as he was bidden — but sulkily. " That compresses the artery." No man, with a pretty woman's hand and a handful oi snow over his mouth and nose, could effectively utter a heroic sentence, nor with his arm elevated stiffly over his head assume a heroic attitude. But when his mouth was tree again, he said half sulkily, half apologetically, — '■' I might have known a girl could n't throw worth a cent." THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 279 " Why ? " demanded Miss Alice sharply. " Because — why — because — you see — they have n't got the experience," he stammered feebly. " Nonsense, they have n't the clavicle — that 's all ! It's because I'm a woman, and smaller in the collar-bone, that I have n't the play of the forearm which you have. See ! " She squared her shoulders slightly, and turned the blaze of her dark eyes full on his. " Experience, in- deed ! A girl can learn anything a boy can." Apprehension took the place of ill humor in her hearer. He turned his eyes hastily away, and glanced above him. The elder guide had gone forward to catch Miss Alice's horse, which, relieved of his rider, was floundering toward the trail. Mrs. Rightbody was nowhere to be seen. And these two were still twenty feet below the trail! There was an awkward pause. " Shall I pull you up the same way ? " he queried. Miss Alice looked at his nose, and hesitated. " Or will you take my hand? " he added, in surly impatience. To his surprise. Miss Alice took his hand, and they began the ascent together. But the way was difficult and dangerous. Once or twice her feet slipped on the smoothly worn rock beneath, and she confessed to an inward thankfulness when her uncer- tain feminine hand-grip was exchanged for his strong arm around her waist. Not that he was ungentle, but Miss Alice angrily felt that he had once or twice exercised his superior masculine functions in a rough way ; and yet the next moment she would have probably rejected the idea that she had even noticed it. There was no doubt, how- ever, that he was a little surly. A fierce scramble finally brought them back in safety to the trail ; but in the action Miss Alice's shoulder, striking a projecting boulder, wrung from her a feminine cry of pain, her first sign of womanly weakness. The guide stopped instantly. 280 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY " I am afraid I hurt you ? " She raised her brown lashes, a trifle moist from suffering, looked in his eyes, and dropped her own. Why, die could not tell. And yet he had certainly a kind face, despite its seriousness ; and a fine face, albeit unshorn and weather- beaten. Her own eyes had never been so near to any man's before save her lover's ; and yet she had never seen so much in even his. She slipped her hand away, not with any reference to him, but rather to ponder over this singular experience, and somehow felt uncomfortable thereat. Nor was he less so. It was but a few days ago that he had accepted the charge of this young woman from the elder guide, who was the recognized escort of the Eight- body party, having been a former correspondent of her father's. He had been hired like any other guide, hut had undertaken the task with that chivalrous enthusiasm which the average Californian always extends to the sex so rare to him. But the illusion had passed, and he had dropped into a sulky practical sense of his situation, per- haps fraught with less danger to himself. Only when appealed to by his manhood or her weakness, he had for- gotten his wounded vanity. He strode moodily ahead, dutifully breaking the path for her in the direction of the distant canon, where Mrs. Eightbody and her friend awaited them. Miss Alice was first to speak. In this trackless, unchartered terra incog- nita of the passions, it is always the woman who steps out to lead the way. " You know this place very well. I suppose you have lived here long ? " " Yes." " You were not born here — no ? " A long pause. '■' I observe they call you ' Stanislaus Joe.' Of course that is not your real name ? " (Mem. Miss Alice had THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 281 never called him anything, usually prefacing any request with a languid, " Oh-er-er, please, mister-er-a ! " — explicit enough for his station.) " No." Miss Alice (trotting after him, and hawling in his ear), " What name did you say ? " The man (doggedly), " I don't know." Nevertheless, when they reached the cabin, after an half- hour's buffeting with the storm, Miss Alice applied herself to her mother's escort, Mr. Eyder. " What 's the name of the man who takes care of my horse ? " " Stanislaus Joe," responded Mr. Ryder. " Is that all ? " " No ; sometimes he 's called Joe Stanislaus." Miss Alice (satirically), " I suppose it 's the custom here to send young ladies out with gentlemen who hide their names under an alias ? " Mr. Kyder (greatly perplexed), " Why, dear me. Miss Alice, you allers 'peared to me as a gal as was able to take keer " — Miss Alice (interrupting with a wounded dove-like timid- ity), " Oh, never mind, ple'ase ! " The cabin offered but scanty accommodation to the tourists, which fact, when indignantly presented by Mrs. Eightbody, was explained by the good-humored Ryder from the circum- stance that the usual hotel was only a slight affair of boards, cloth, and paper, put up during the season and partly dis- mantled in the fall. " You could n't be kept warm enough there," he added. Nevertheless, Miss Alice noticed that both Mr. Ryder and Stanislaus Joe retired there with their pipes, after having prepared the ladies' supper with the assistance of an Indian woman, who apparently emerged from the earth at the coming of the party, and disappeared as mysteriously. 282 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY The stars came out brightly before they slept, and the next morning a clear unwinking sun beamed with almost summer power through the shutterless window of their cabin, and ironically disclosed the details of its rude inte- rior. Two or three mangy, half-eaten buffalo robes, a bear- skin, some suspicious-looking blankets, rifles and saddles, deal tables and barrels, made up its scant inventory. A strip of faded calico hung before a recess near the chimney, but so blackened by smoke and age that even feminine curiositj' respected its secret. Mrs. Rightbody was in high spirits, and informed her daughter that she was at last on the track of her husband's unknown correspondent. " Sev- enty-Four and Seventy-Five represent two members of the Vigilance Committee, my dear, and Mr. Ryder will assist me to find them." " Mr. Ryder ! " ejaculated Miss Alice, in scornful astonishment. " Alice," said Mrs. Rightbody, with a suspicious assump- tion of sudden defense, "you injure yourself — you injure me by this exclusive attitude. Mr. Ryder is a friend of your father's, an exceedingly well-informed gentleman. I have not, of course, imparted to hiiiu the extent of my sus- picions. But he can help me to what I must and will know. You might treat him a little more civilly — or, at least, a little better than you do his servant, your guide. Mr. Ryder is a gentleman, and not a paid courier." Miss Alice was suddenly attentive. When she spoke again she asked, '' Why do you not find out something about this Silsbee — who died — or was hung — ol- something of that kind ? " " Child," said Mrs. Rightbody, " don't you see, there was no Silsbee, or if there was, he was simply the confidant of that — woman ! " A knock at the door, announcing the presence of Mr. Ryder and Stanislaus Joe with the horses, checked Mrs. THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 283 Eightbody's speech. As the animals were being packed, Mrs. Rightbody for a moment withdrew in confidential conversation with Mr. Eyder, and, to the young lady's still greater annoyance, left her alone with Stanislaus Joe. Miss Alice was not in good temper, but she felt it neces- sary to say something. " I hope the hotel offers better quarters for travelers "ihan this in summer," she began. " It does." " Then this does not belong to it ? " " ZSTo, ma'am." " Who lives here, then ? " "I do." " I beg your pardon," stammered Miss Alice, '' I thought you lived where we hired — where we met you — in-- >'* — you must excuse me." " I 'm not a regular guide ; but as times were hard, and I was out of grub, I took the job." "Out of grub!" "job!" And she was the "job"! What would Henry Marvin say ? it would nearly kill him. She began herself to feel a little frightened, and walked towards the door. " One moment, miss ! " The young girl hesitated. The man's tone was surly, and yet indicated a certain kind of half-pathetic grievance. Her curiosity got the better of her prudence, and she turned back. " That morning," he began hastily, " when we were coming down the valley you picked me up twice." " I picked you up ? " repeated the astonished Alice. "Yes — contradicted me, that's what I mean. Once when you said those rocks were volcanic ; once when you said the flower you picked was a poppy. I didn't let on at the time, for it was n't my say ; but all the while you vrere talking I might have laid for you " — " I don't understand you," said Alice haughtily. 284 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY " I might have entrapped you before folks. But I only want you to know that 1 'm right, and here are the hooks to show it." He drew aside the dingy calico curtain, revealed a small shelf of bulky books, took down two large volumes, one of Botany, one of Geology, nervously sought his text, and put them in Alice's outstretched hands. " I had no intention " — she began half proudly, half embarrassed. " Am I right, miss ? " he interrupted. " I presume you are, if you say so." " That 's all, ma'am ! Thank you." Before the girl had time to reply, he was gone. When he again returned, it was with her horse, and Mrs. Eight- body and Ryder were awaiting her. But Miss Alice no- ticed that his own horse was missing. " Are you not going with us ? " she asked. "No, ma'am." " Oh, indeed ! " Miss Alice felt her speech was a feeble conventionalism, but it was all she could say. She, however, did something. Hitherto it had been her habit to systematically reject his assistance in mounting to her seat. Now she awaited him. As he approached, she smiled and put out her little foot. He instantly stooped ; she placed it in his hand, rose with a spring, and for one supreme moment Stanislaus Joe held her unresistingly in his arms. The next moment she was in the saddle, but in that brief interval of sixty seconds she had uttered a volume in a single sentence : — " I hope you will forgive me ! " He muttered a reply, and turned his face aside quickly as if to hide it. Miss Alice cantered forward with a smile, but pulled her hat down over her eyes as she joined her mother. She was blushing. THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 282 PART III Mr. Eyder was as good as his word. A day or two later he entered Mrs. Eightbody's parlor at the Chrysopolis Hotel in Stockton, with the information that he had seen the mysterious senders of the dispatch, and that they were now in the office of the hotel waiting her pleasure. Mr. Ryder further informed her that these gentlemen had only .stipulated that they should not reveal their real names, and that they should be introduced to her simply as the respec- tive Seventy-Four and Seventy-Five who had signed the dispatch sent to the late Mr. Eightbody. Mrs. Eightbody at first demurred to this ; but on the assurance from Mr. Eyder that this was the only condition on which an interview would be granted, finally consented. " You will find them square men, even if they are a little rough, ma'am ; but if you 'd like me to be present, I '11 stop ; though I reckon if ye 'd calkilated on that, you 'd have had me take care o' your business by proxy, and not come yourself three thousand miles to do it." Mrs. Eightbody believed it better to see them alone. " All right, ma'am. I '11 hang round out here, and ef ye should happen to hev a ticklin' in your throat and a bad spell o' coughin', I '11 drop in, careless like, to see if you don't want them drops. Sabe ? " And with an exceedingly arch wink, and a slight famil- iar tap on Mrs. Eightbody's shoulder, which might have caused the late Mr. Eightbody to burst his sepulchre, he withdrew. A very timid, hesitating tap on the door was followed by the entrance of two men, both of whom, in general size, strength, and uncouthness, were ludicrously inconsistent with their diffident announcement. They proceeded in Indian file to the centre of the room, faced Mrs. Eightbody, 286 THE GEEAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY acknowledged her deep courtesy by a strong shake of the hand, and drawing two chairs opposite to her, sat down side by side. " I presume I have the pleasure of addressing " — began Mrs. Eightbody. The man directly opposite Mrs. Eightbody turned to the other inquiringly. The other man nodded his head, and replied, — " Seventy-Four." " Seventy-Five," promptly followed the other. Mrs. Eightbody paused, a little confused. " I have sent for you," she began again, " to learn some- thing more of the circumstances under which you gentle- men sent a dispatch to my late husband." " The circumstances," replied Seventy-Four quietly, with a side glance at his companion, "panned out about in this yer style. "We hung a man named Josh Silsbee down at Deadwood for hoss-stealin'. When I say we, I speak for Seventy-Five yer, as is present, as well as repre- sentin', so to speak, seventy-two other gents as is scattered. We hung Josh Silsbee on squar', pretty squar' evidence. Afore he was strung up, Seventy-Five yer axed him, ac- cordin' to custom, ef there was ennything he had to say, or enny request that he allowed to make of us. He turns to Seventy-Five yer, and " — Here he paused suddenly, looking at his companion. " He sez, sez he," began Seventy-Five, taking up the narrative ; " he sez, ' Kin I write a letter ? ' sez he. Sez I, ' Not much, ole man ; ye 've got no time.' Sez he, ' Kin I send a dispatch by telegraph ? ' I sez, ' Heave ahead.' He sez, — these is his dientikal words, — ' Send to Adam Eightbody, Boston. Tell him to remember his sacred com- pack with me thirty years ago.' " " ' His sacred compack with me thirty years ago,' " echoed Seventy-Four. " His dientikal words." THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 287 "What was the compact?" asked Mrs, Righthodj anxiously. Seventy-Four looked at Seventy-Five, and then hoth arose and retired to the corner of the parlor, where they engaged in a slow hut whispered deliheration. Presently they returned, and sat down again. " We allow," said Seventy-Four, quietly but decidedly " that you know what that sacred compact was." Mrs. Eightbody lost her temper and her truthfulness together. " Of course," she said hurriedly, " I know ; hut do you mean to say that you gave this poor man no further chance to explain before you murdered him ? " Seventy-Four and Seventy-Five both rose again slowly, and retired. When they returned again and sat down, Seventy -Five, who by this time, through some subtle magne- tism, Mrs. Eightbody began to recognize as the superior power, said gravely, — " We wish to say, regarding this yer murder, that Sev- enty-Four and me is equally responsible. That we reckon also to represent, so to speak, seventy-two other gentlemen as is scattered. That we are ready, Seventy-Four and me, to take and holt that responsibility now and at any time afore every man or men as kin be fetched agin us. We wish to say that this yer say of ours holds good yer in Californy or in any part of these United States." " Or in Canady," suggested Seventy-Four. " Or in Canady. We would n't agree to cross the water or go to furrin parts, unless absolutely necessary. We leaves the chise of weppings to your principal, ma'am, or being a lady, ma'am, and interested, to any one you may fetch to act for him. An advertisement in any of the Sacramento papers, or a playcard or handbill stuck on to a tree near Deadwood, saying that Seventy-Four or Seventy- Five will communicate with this yer principal or agent of yours, will fetch us — allers." 288 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY Mrs. Eightbody, a little alarmed and desperate, saw her blunder. " I mean nothing of the kind," she said hastily. " I only expected that you might have some further details of this interview with Silsbee — that perhaps you could tell me " — a bold, bright thought crossed Mrs. Eightbody's mind — " something more about her.'' The two men looked at each other. " I suppose your society have no objection to giving me information about her," said Mrs. Eightbody eagerly. Another quiet conversation in the corner, and the return of both men. " We want to say that we've no objection." Mrs. Eightbody's heart beat high. Her boldness had made her penetration good. Yet she felt she must not alarm the men needlessly. "Will you inform me to what extent Mr. Eightbody, my late husband, was interested in her ? " This time it seemed an age to Mrs. Eightbody before the men returned from their solemn consultation in the corner. She could both hear and feel that their discussion was more animated than their previous conferences. She was a little mortified, however, when they sat down, to hear Seventy-Four say slowly, — " We wish to say that we don't allow to say how much." " Do you not think that the ' sacred compact ' between Mr. Ei^tbody and Mr. Silsbee referred to her." " We reckon it do." Mrs. Eightbody, flushed and animated, would have given worlds had her daughter been present to hear this undoubted confirmation of her theory. Yet she felt a little nervous and uncomfortable even on this threshold of dis" covery. " Is she here now ? " " She 's in Tuolumne," said Seventy-Four. THE GKEAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 289 " A little better looked arter than formerly," added Seventy-Five. " I see. Then Mr. Silsbee enticed her away ? " " Well, ma'am, it was allowed as she runned away. But it was n't proved, and it generally was n't her style." Mrs. Rightbody trifled with her next question. " She was pretty, of course ? " The eyes of both men brightened. " She was that ! " said Seventy-Four emphatically. "It would have done you good to see her," added Seventy-Five. Mrs. Eightbody inwardly doubted it; but before she could ask another question, the two men again retired to the corner for consultation. "When they came back there was a shade more of kindliness and confidence in their man- ner, and Seventy-Four opened his mind more freely. "We wish to say, ma'am, looking at the thing, by and large, in a fa'r-minded way — that ez you seem interested, and ez Mr. Eightbody was interested, and was according to all accounts de-ceived and led away by Silsbee, that we don't mind listening to any proposition you might make, as a lady — allowin' you was ekally interested." " I understand," said Mrs. Eightbody quickly, " And you will furnish me with any papers." The two men again consulted. " We wish to say, ma'am, that we think she 's got pa- pers, but " — " I Truest have them, you understand," interrupted Mrs. Eightbody, " at any price ! " "We was about to say, ma'am," said Seventy-Five slowly, " that, considerin' all things — and you being a lady — you kin have her, papers, pedigree, and guarantee for twelve hundred dollars ! " It has been alleged that Mrs. Eightbody asked only one question more, and then fainted. It is known, however. 290 THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY that by the next day it was understood in Deadwood that Mrs. Kightbody had confessed to the Vigilance Committee that her husband, a celebrated Boston millionaire, anxious to gain possession of Abner Springer's well-known sorrel mare, had incited the unfortunate Josh Silsbee to steal it ; and that finally, failing in this, the widow of the deceased Boston millionaire was now in personal negotiation with the owners. Howbeit, Miss Alice, returning home that afternoon, found her mother with a violent headache. " We will leave here by the next steamer," said Mrs. Rightbody languidly. " Mr. Kyder has promised to accom- pany us." '^But, mother" — " The climate, Alice, is overrated. My nerves are already suffering from it. The associations are unfit for you, and Mr. Marvin is naturally impatient." Miss Alice colored slightly. " But your quest, mother ? " " I 've abandoned it." "But 1 have not," said Alice quietly. "Do you re- member my guide at the Yosemite, Stanislaus Joe ? Well, Stanislaus Joe is — who do you think ? " Mrs. Rightbody was languidly indifferent. " Well, Stanislaus Joe is the son of Joshua Silsbee." Mrs. Rightbody sat vipright in astonishment. " Yes ; but, mother, he knows nothing of what we know. His father treated him shamefully, and set him cruelly adrift years ago ; and when he was hung, the poor fellow, in sheer disgrace, changed his name." "But if he knows nothing of his father's compact, of what interest is this ? " " Oh, nothing ! Only I thought it might lead to some- thing." Mrs. Rightbody suspected that " something," and asked THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY 291 sharply, " And pray how did you find it out ? You did not speak of it in the valley." " Oh, I did n't find it out till to-day," said Miss Alice, walking to the window. "He happened to be here, and — ■ told me." PART IV If Mrs. Rightbody's friends had been astounded by her singular and unexpected pilgrimage to California so soon after her husband's decease, they were still more astounded by the information a year later that she was engaged to be married to a Mr. Ryder, of whom only the scant history was known that he was a Californian, and former correspon- dent of her husband. It was undeniable that the man was wealthy, and evidently no mere adventurer ; it was rumored that he was courageous and manly ; but even those who de- lighted in his odd humor were shocked at his grammar and slang. It was said that Mr. Marvin had but one interview with his father-in-law elect, and returned so supremely dis- gusted that the match was broken off. The horse-stealing story, more or less garbled, found its way through lips that pretended to decry it, yet eagerly repeated it. Only one member of the Rightbody family — and a new one — saved them from utter ostracism. It was young Mr. Ryder, the adopted son of the prospective head of the household, whose culture, manners, and general elegance fascinated and thrilled Boston with a new sensation. It seemed to many that Miss Alice would in the vicinity of this rare exotic forget her forn.er enthusiasm for a profe.