Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 17, Number 26, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 18 December 1886 — Page 3

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CHAPTER

For some moments profound silence and darkness bad accompanied a Sierran stage coach toward the summit The huge, dim bulk of the vehicle, swaying noiselessly on its straps, glided onward and upward as if obeying some mysterious impulse from behind, so faint and indefinite appeared its relations 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 havo been tho mere phantoms of some dream of the half-sleeping passengers for the thicklystrewn needles of the pine, that choked the way and deadened all sound, yielded under tho silfiitly crushing wheels a faint soporific odor that seemed to benumb their senses, already slipping back into unconsciousness during the long ascent. Suddenly the stage stopped.

Three of tho four passengers inside struggled at once into upright wakefulness. Tho fourth passenger, John Hale, had not been sleeping, and turned impatiently toward the window. It seemed to him that two gt the moving trees bad suddenly become motionless outside. One of them moved again, and tho door opened quickly but quietly, as of itself. "Git down," said a voice in the dorknesa

All the passengers except Hale started. Tho man next to him moved his right hand suddenly behind bim, but as quickly stopped. Ono of the motionless trees had apparently closed upon the vehicle, and what had seemed to be a bongh projecting from it at right angles changed slowly into the faintly shining double barrels of a gun at tho window. "Drop that!" said tho voice.

The man who had moved uttered a short laugh and returned his hand empty to his knee?. Tho two others perceptibly shrugged their shoulders as over a game that was lost. The remaining passenger, John Halo, fearless by nature, inexperienced by habit, awaking suddenly to tho truth, conceived a desperate resistance. But without his making a gesture this was instinctively felt by tho others the muzzlo of tho 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,

Tho three passengers descended. Hale, furious, alert, but helpless of any opportunity, followed. He was surprised to find tLo stage driver nud express messenger standing besido him ho had not heard them dismount. IIo instinctively looked toward the honea He could see nothing. "Hold up your hands!"

Ono of tho poHSttngani had already lifted his, In a weary, perfunrtory way. The otfieri did tho same reluctantly and awkwardly, but apparently more from tho consciousness of tho ludicrousneas of their nttiuulo than from any sense of danger. The rays of a bull'* eye lantern, deftly managed by invisible hands, while it loft the intruders in shadow, completely illuminated the faces and figures of the passengers. In spite of tho majestic obscurity and silence of surrounding nature, tho group of humanity thus illuminated was more farcical than dramatic. A scrap of nowspaper, part of a sandwich, and an orange peel that, had fallen from tho floor of tho coach, brought into equal prominence by tho searching light, completed the absurdity, "There is a man here with a package of greenbacks," said a voice, with an official coolness that lent a certain suggestion of custom house inspection to tho transaction "who is it»" The passongers 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'll save time and searching, gentlemen, if you'll tote it out. If we've got to go through every one of you nc'll try to make It pay."

The significant threat was not unheeded. The passenger who had first moved when the ttage 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 pockety was laid beside it "I told tho d—d fools that gave it to me, instead of sending it by express, it would boat their own risk,* ho said apologetically. "As It's going with the express now it's all the same," said the inevitable humorist of the occasion, pointing

to

.4 CHARMING STORY.

Snow Bound at Eagle s.

BY BRET HARTE.

[COPYRIGHTED.]

the despoiled express

treasure box already tn the road. Tho intention and deliberation of the outrage was plain enough to Hale's inexperience now. Yet be coald not understand the cool acquiescence of his fellow passengers, and was furious. His reflections were interrupted by a voice which seemed to come from a greater distanc*. He fancied it was even

softer Vn tone, as if a certain austerity was relaxed. "Step in as quick as you like, gentlemen. You've five minutes to wait, Bill."

The passengers re-entered the coach the driver and express messenger hurriedly climbed to their places. Hale would bavo spoken, but an impatient gesture from his companions stopped bim. They were evidently listening for something he listened too.

Yet the tOeoce remained unbroken. It itemed incredible that there should be no indication near or far of that forceful pr seance which a moment ago had been so dominant Ho rustle in the wayside "brush* nor echo from the rocky canyon below betrayed a sound of their (light A faint breeas stirred the taU tips of the pines, a cone dropped on the stage root, one of the tnrMbie bars*, that seemed to bs listening too, moved slightly in his hsrnsss But this only appeared to accentuate the psofoond sffltn— The ao meats were growing Interminable, when ll»

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voice, so near as to startle Hale, broke once more from the surrounding obscurity. "Good night

It was the signal that they were free. The driver's whip cracked like a pistol shot, the horses sprang furiously forward, 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' experience —bo said hurriedly, 'Then that fellow was there all the timer „, "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 gian shrugged his shoulders. The passenger who had given up the greenbacks drawled, with a slow, irritating tolerance, "I reckon you're a stranger here?" "I am—to this sort of thing, certainly, though I live a 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 haven't done—to-night I've been one of six men overawed and robbed by three." "As to tho overawin', ez you call it—mebbe you know more about it than us. As to the robbin'—ez far as I kin remember, you haven't onloaded much. Ef you're talkin' about what oughter've been done, I'll tell you what could have happened. Fr'aps ye noticed that when he pulled up I made a kind of grab for my wepping behind me!" "I did and you weren't quick enough," said Hale shortly. "I wasn't quick enough, and that saved you. For ef I got that pistol out and in sight o' that man that held tho gun "Well," said Hale impatiently, "he'd have hesitated." "He'd hev blown you with both barrels outer the window, 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 of that amount would have done your business, and yet left encugh to have gone round, promiskis8,and satisfied the other passengers, it wouldn't do to kalkilate upon." "But the express messenger and the driver were armed," continued Hale. "They were armed, but not fixed that mnlfftg all the difference." "I don't understand." "I reckon you know what a duel isf "Yes." "Well, the chances agin us was about the ffirw as you'd have ef you was put up agin another chap who was allowed to draw a bead on you, and tho signal to fire 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 wouldn't go foolln' your life away on any .•tich 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 insufficiency of his own grievance besido that of his interlocutor. "Then you mean to say this thing is inevitable," said he bitterly, but less aggressively. "Est long ez they hunt you when you hunt them you've got the ad\antage, alius provided you know how to get at them ez well as they know how to get ct 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 tho 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 wouldn't swear to it" "Tho leader might havo 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 Didn't seem to be the same thing et 'Git, yer d—d suckers,' on the other line." "Whoever be was be knew tho road and the men who traveled on it Like ez not be

wcnt

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 mart have been hangin' round tbare."

For some momenta 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 into his own bands when he does not find it fixWng to please him. He bad a Bostonian's respect for respectability, tradition and propriety, bat was willing to face irregularity and impropriety to create ontar elsewhere. He was fond of nature with these limitations, never quite trusting her unguided instincts, and finding her as an instructress greatly Interior to Bamud univerdty, though possibly not to Cornell. With dauntless enterprise and energy be had baQt and stocked a charming cottage farm in a nook In the Staves. whence he opposed, like the lesaar &«lishman that be wsa, his own taxtee to thoaeof the alien weak. In the present instance be felt it incumbent upon him nol only to aasart his principles, but to act upon then with his usual energy. How far be was impelled by the half contempteoas psasiveoees of hit companions it wtsild be diflknlt to say. "What Is to piwrentDba ponmft of than aft oncer ha «fesd soddsnly. "Wo are a few mOssfrom testation, wfasn home can fa*

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slight yawn.

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Who's to do itr replied the other laxfly. would dispatch as quickly as possible, was "Tbe stage company will lodge the complaint concluded. .. .1* a with the authorities, but it will take two days to get the oiunty officers 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 start at once."

There was an instant of silence. The stage coach had left the obscurity of the forest, and coacnnaaierctneonecuncyoi weiore^iuiu —e. by the stronger light Hale could perceive that opportunity for independent action but for i.i him mtJi two his rash proposal, but it was too late to withhis companion was examining him with two colorless, lazy eyes. Presently he said, meeting Hale's dear 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 Td mind taking a band myself," he added, stretching out his legs with

count me in, if you're goin', kernel.

I reckon I'm talkin' to Kernel Clinch," said the passenger beside Hale with sadden alacrity. "I'm Rawlins, of Frisco. Heerd of ye afore, kernel, and kinder spotted yon 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 immediate business at the Summit, offered to accompany the party if they would wait a couple of hours, that CoL Clinch briefly returned to tho subject

4

"Four men will do, and ez well hev to take horses from the station we'll hev to take the fourth man from there."

With these words he resumed his uninteresting conversation with the equally uninterested Rawlins, and the undenominated passenger subsided into an admiring and dreamy contemplation of them both. With all his principle and really high minded purpose, Hale could not help feeling constrained and annoyed at the sudden, subordinate and auxiliary position to which he, the projector of the enterprise, bad been reduced. It was true •hnt. he had never offered himself as their leader it was true that the principle he wished to uphold and the effect he sought to obtain 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 withdrawn from the enterprise. There was still a chance of reasserting himself at the station, where ho was known, and where some authority might be deputed to him.

But even this prospect failed. The station, half hotel and 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 introduction of a common and illiterate iUI9 IMVl UUUVMVII vb —a ostler into the party on equal terms

him. I

This was tho last blow to Hale's ideal crusade. Hero he was—an honest, respectable citizen—engaged as simple accessory to a lawless vendetta originating at a gambling table! When tho fiist shock was over that grim philosophy which is the reaction of all imaginative and sensitive natures came to his

Then yon 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 okl fashioned style. Down in my country they bed crude ideas about

l.i .1# JU fn l,to •nH*A ITiiln anH f)in nllilfwlnhlnfll l?nwlirm himself did not add to his sat isfaction, and'a remark from Rawlins seemed to complete his embarrassment '/j "Ye had a mighty tiarrer down there just now," said that gentleman confidentially, as Halo buckled his saddle girths. "I thought, as we were not supposed to defend ourselves, there was no danger," said Hale scornfully. "Oh, I don't mean them road agents. But 3

"Who!" "Kernel Clinch. You jist ez good as-al-lowed he hadn't any grit." "Whatever I said, I suppose I am respon sibje 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." "Indeed!" "Howsummever," continued Rawlins, philosophically, "ez he's concluded to go with yo instead of for ye, you're likely to hev your ideas on this matter carried out up to the handle. He'll 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."

Ui UJ VVUUI4 UK* U«u V4UUV mvwovvh* MbUUJUittUM VUlUWi •hom things—used to strip the passengers of defied fatigue, left the sedentary dwellers in inniit)iin» irmlttailn' ThflVn.T fKonn nUifWIiw rlitllflrl ifi tlut whuHft tllCT these altitudes chilled in the shade they courted, or scorched them with beat when they ventured to bask supinely in the son.

everything, includin' their clothes They say that at the station hotels, when the coaches came in, the folks used to stand round with blankets to wrap up the passengers so ez not to skeer the wimea. Thar"8 a story that the

wrapped around Van but thin," added RawUrn grimly, "there was folks

said the hull

storv was only an advertisement get up for TheAlty." "TimaVnpi" "Are yoa ready, gentlemfenr Mid OoL

The station was already drained

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL. 3

"That aint a bad idea," said Clinch, reflectively, "for ef yer hurry you'll head 'em off In «they acent us, and try to double back on the North ridge. They'll fight shy of the trail if they see anybody on it, and one man's as good as a dozen."

TTnin could not help thinking that lie might have been that one man, and had his

hia 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, hundflH it to the man, and took Ms place in the little cavalcade as it filed silently down the road.

They had ridden in silence for nearly as hour, and had passed the scene of the robbery by a higher track. Morning 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.

Hula turned toward 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 summer foliage, mingled with the darker evergreen of pine and fir. Oven-b'ke canyons in the long flanks of the mountain seemed still to glow with the heat of yesterday's noon tho 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. "Pve seen Thomson's pass choked up with fifteen feet o' snow earlier than this," said Rawlins, answering Halo's gaze "and last September the passengers sledded over the road we came last night, and all the time Thomson,

a

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mile lowefr down over the ridge

in the hollow, smoking his pipe 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's—Hallo! 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 ostler, "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 tho 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 voice to the chase like the

yTwyinegt hound of their fields, the Order

loving Hale and tho philosophical Rawlins wheeled with the others, and in another instant the littlo 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 havo been fancy, but over the sharp line of the North ridge alight smoke lifted as of an escaping soul.

SjSPSI®!

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CHAPTER

n.

Eagle's Court, one of the highest cauyons of the Sierras, was in reality a plateau of table land, embayed like a green lake in a semi circular sweep of granite, that, lifting itself 3,000 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 ridge apparently at his feet in descending found himself separated from it by a mile long abyss and a rushing river those who sought it by a seeming direct trail at the end of an hour lost sight of it completely, or, abandoning the quest and retracing their steps, suddenly came upon the gap through which it was entered. That which from the ridge appeared to be a copse of bushes beside the tiny dwelling were trees 800 feet high the cultivated lawn before it, which might have been covered by the traveler's handkerchief, was a field of 1,000 acres.

l^fginimYD mil MISIUVP Uttiuiw tamp uia ... afcL He felt better oddly enough he began structure, chiefly of roof and veranda, pictA I I uresquely upheld by rustic pillars of pine, with the bark still adhering, and covered with vines and trailing roses. Yet it was evident that the coolness produced by thif vast extent of cover was more than the ar

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 actions. The Sharpe's rifle pat into his hands by the stableman was accompanied by a familiar word of sugges- cbitect, who had planned it under the influ tion as to an equal, which he was ashamed to find flattered him. He was able to continue the conversation with Rawlins more coolly.

The house itself was a long, low, irregular

ence of a staring and bewildering sky, baa trustfully conceived, for it bad to be mitigated by blaring fires in open hearths when the thermometer marked 100 degrees In the field beyond. Tho dry, restless wind that continually rocked the tall masts of the pines with a sound like the distant sea, while it stimulated outdoor physical exertion and

White muslin curtains at the French windows, and rags, skins and heavy furs dis-

axw W "UUSli AIMU a MM* HK UOWR, HDU rug*, HUIO wiu BW'J driver and express manager drove up onedsy persed in the interior, with certain other with only a copy of The Alty Californy charming bat incongruous details of farni- .. Imm* kn4 W P«m. 1 1 AL. mini— A# iKa *1L tore, marked the inconsistencies of tho climate.

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Hals started. He bad forgotten his wife bat retaining enough character to give and family at Eagle's Coart, ten mOes away, piquancy to the pretty curves of the face Tbey would be alarmed at his absence, would beneath, protected her from the sen a red perhaps bear some exaggerated vnrekmof the flannel shirt—another spoil from the enemy stage conch robbery and fear the worst. —and a thick jacket shielded her from the "Is there any way I conld sendaline to austerities of the morning breese. But the Eaglet Coart before daytssakf* he asiosd next incoaristency was peculiarly her own. eagerly. Miss always wore the freshest and

at

There was coquettish indication of this in tin i**of Miss Kate Scott as die stepped ont on the veranda that morning. A man's broad-brimmed Panama hat, partly unsexed by a twisted, gayly colored scarf.

its lightest erf white cambric skirts, without the

spore nan and bones. Tbs uudsmsnlnated In* reference to the tempmtnra. To tho stepptd forward sad flfcnd to practical —iiahwy rememtranoss of her .. MhrWiv, and to the

criticism of her sister, she opposed the same defense: "How else is one to tell when it is summer in this ridiculous climate! And then, woolen is stuffy, color draws the sun, ami one at least knows when ono is clean or dirty." Artistically tho result was far from unsatisfactory. It was a pretty figure under the somber 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 tJiink the few masculine 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 had encountered the invincible indifference of Miss Kate's cold gray eyes. With these manifestations her brolher-in-law did not concern himself he had perfect confidence in her unqualified disinterest in tho neighboring humanity, and permitted her to wander in her solitary picturesqueness, or accompanied her when she rode in her dark green habit, with equal freedom from anxiety*.

For Miss Scott, although only 80, had already subjected 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 contained 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 vacuo freedom in this unconventional life thus opened to her, or rather to show others that sho 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 of the women, she had met thus far, she was amazed to find, valued the conventionalities she believed she despised, and were voluntarily assuming the ohning 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 ditcheti with a copy of Homer in their pockets, and writing letters of the purest philosophy under the free air of tho pines. How, coming unexpectedly on them in their Arcadia, tho party found them unpresentable through dirt, and thenceforth unknowable through domestio complications 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 surrounded them, they accepted their duties cheerfully, and performed them conscientiously. Those duties were loyalty to Hale's interests and a vaguo missionary work among the neighbors, which, like most missionary work, consisted rather in making their own ideas understood than in understanding the ideas of their audience. Old Mrs. Scott's zeal was nartly religious, an inheritance from her Puritan ancestry: Mm Hale's was the affability of a gentle woman and the obligation of her position. To this was added the slight languor of Uncultivated American wife, whose health ba* been affected by the birth of hor first child, and whose views of marriage and maternity were slightly tinged with gentle scepticism. She was sincerely attached to her husband, "who dominated tho 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 attitude of John Hale in his family circle was dominant because it had never been subjected to criticism or comparison and perilous for the same reason,

Mrs. Hale presently joined her sister on the veranda, and, shading her eyes with a narrow white hand, glanced on the prospect with a polito 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 it detract, however, from the delicate prettinets of her refined face, with its soft gray shadows, or tho dork, 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 Mias Kate, from her earliest youth, bad been dLanguished by that matronly sedateness of voice and step, and completeness of figure, which indicates some members of the gallinar ceoas 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 Kitted costume. "Put on your riding habit, and take Manual "vith you." "And take the only man we have, and leave you alonef" returned Kate slowly. -Nor "There are the Chinese field hands," said Mrs. Hale "you mast correct your ideas, and really allow them some humanity, Kate. John says they have a very good compulsory school system in their own country, and can read and write." •That would be of little ose to you beans alone if—if"—Koto "If whatf said Mrs. Hale, anfltng. "Are you thinking of Manuel's dreadful story of tbe grizzly tracks across the fields this morning! I promise yoa that neither I nor mother, nor Minnie, shall stir oat of the bouse antil yoar retnrn, If you wish It 1 wasn't thinking of that," said Kate "though I doot beliove the beating of a gong and the using of strong language is the best way to frighten a gristly from the boose. Besides, the Chinese are going down the river tfrday to a faneral. or wedding, or afeaat

of stolen chickens—they're all the same—and wont be here." "Then take M&nuel," 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 confid nee in Chy-Lee as a warrior, and in Chinese warfare generally. One has only to bear him pipe in time of peace to imagine what a tenor be 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 nol afraid to stay alone. You know what John says: we ought to be always prepared for anything 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 cup of tea, inquire about the state of the road, and refrain delicntety from any alludons 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 suspicious characters at the bar. It is true he

,kisses#my

hand' in his speech, oven"

when it is thickest, and offers his back to ma for a horse block, but I think I prefer the" sober and honest familiarity of even that Pike countj* landlord who is satisfied to say,' 'Jump, girl, and I'll ketch ye!'" "I hope you didn'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 theJ use of a fork." "And now the man puts on gloves and tall hat to come hereon Sundays, and the woman wont call until you've called first," retorted Kate "perhaps you call that improvement The fact is, Josephine," continued the young girl, folding her arms de-: murely, "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, a I "I like them better than you do, Josie, and: that's the reason why I feel itand you don't" She checked herself, and after a pause resumed in a lighter tone: "No I sha'n't go to the station I'll commune with nature to-day, and won't 'take any humanity in mine, thank you,' as Bill tho 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 re-entered tho parlor as her 6ister walked briskly away. "I am afraid sho is being infected by tho people at the station. Sbo ought to have a change." "I was just thinking," said Josephine, looking abstractedly at her mother, "that I would try to get John to t&ko her to San Francisco this winter. Tho Careys aro expected, you know she might visit them." "I'm afraid if sho stays hero much longer she won't enre to see them at all. She 6cems to care for nothing now that 6lio ever liked before," returned the old lady ominously.

Meantime tho subject of these criticisms was carrying away her own reflections tightly buttoned up in lie^ short jacket Sho had driven back her dog Spot—another ono of her disillusions, who, giving way to Ills lower nature, had onco killed a sheep—as she did not wish her Jacques-like contemplation of' any wounded deer to be inconsistently interrupted by a fresh outrago from her companion. Tho air was really very chilly, and for the first timo in her mountain experience the direct rays of the sun seemed to be shorn of their power. This compelled her to walk more briskly than sho was conscious of, for in less than an hour she came suddenly and breathlessly upon the mouth of the canyon or natural gateway to Eagle's Court

To her always a profound spectacle of mountain magnificence, It seemed to-day moet 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 growing in opposite clefts of the rocks intermingled their branches and pointed the soaring Gothic arch of a stupendous gateway. Sho 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 whore they met was only half way up the cliff, for she bad once gazed down upon them, dwindled to shrubs from tho airy summit she knew that their shaken cones fell a thousand feet perpendicularly, or bounded like shot from the scarred walls they bombarded. She remembered that one of these pines, dislodged from its high foundations, bad once dropped like a portcullis in the archway, blocking the pass, and was only carried afterward by assault 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 tho actual position of the plateau, so indefinite of approach, began to be realized. It now appeared an independent elevation, surrounded on three sides by gorges and water courscs, so narrow as to bo overlooked from the principal mountain range, with which it was connected by along canyon that led to the rid^e. At tho outlet of this canyon—in bygone ages a mighty river—it had the appearance of having been slowly raised by the diluvium of that river, and the debris washed down from above a suggestion repeated in miniature by the artificial plateaus of excavated soil raised before the month of mining tunnels in tho lower flanks o£ the mountain. It was the rtalizfttkm of a fact—often forgotten by the dwellers In Eagle's Court—that the valky below them, which was their connecting link with ^^3 the surrounding world, was only reached by ascending the mountain, and the nearest road was over the higher mountain ridge Never before had that impressed itself so strongly opon the young girl as when she turned thai morning to look upon the plateau below her. It seemed to illustrate the conviction that had been slowly shaping itself ociof ber reflections on the conversation of that morning. It was possible that the perfect understanding of hgW life was only reached from a height still greater, and that to those half way op the mountain the summit was novsr •s truthfully revealed as to the frnmMsr dwellers in the vaDsy.

I do not know that thsee profound troths ber from gathering soma quaint [Continued on

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