Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 17, Number 27, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 25 December 1886 — Page 10

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Of wings overhead, the whirling 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 different 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 onmolestlng wayfarer, and kept her way undismayed. She was descending an abrupt trail when she was stopped by a sudden crash

In 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 bowlder 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 sho •topped 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 terrifying in this huge, stupid beast, who, ai rested by the rustle of a stone displaced by her descending feet, rose slowly on his haunches and gazed at her with small, wondering eyes. Nor did it seem strange to her, seeing that he was in her way, to pick up stone, throw it in his direction and say simply, "Sho I get away I" as she would have done to an intruding cow. Nor did it seem odd that ho hould 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 bad gone that she was taken with a slight nervousness and giddiness, and retraced her steps somewhat hurriedly, shying 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 ooncluded to keep it to herself.

It was still Intensely cold. The light of the midday sun bad decreased still more, and on reaching the plateau again she saw that a dark cloud, not unlike the precursor of a Ififfltxler storm, was brooding over the snowy »eak*^beyond. In spite of the cold this sinsuggestion of summer phenomena was ^ut by the distant smiling valley, even in the soft grasses at her feet. It to her tho drowning inconsistency of climate, and with a half serious, half yful protest on her lips she hurried forward to seek the shelter of the house.

CHAPTER HL

To Kate's surprise the lower part of the tiouso was deserted, 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 genuino alarm that drove her previous adventure from her mind, •ho 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 unceremoniously into the sitting room, closed the door and leaned back against it, with a faint smile. Bho had a crumpled paper in her hand. "Don't be alarmed, but read that first," she •aid, handing her sister the paper. "It was brought just now."

Kate instantly recognised her brother's distinct hand. Sho read hurriedly. The coach was robbed last night nobody hurt. I've lost nothing but a day's time, as this business will keep me bore 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 ho wants for nothing." "Weill" said Kate, expectantly. "Well, the 'bearer' was fired upon by the robbers, who were lurking on the ridga He was wounded in the kg. 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 wont leave his rid* He wont even have mother in 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 haU has got to be extracted. Hero's your opportunity.*

Kate looked at her sister curiously. There was a faint pink flush on her pale cheeks, and her eye* were gently sparkling. She had never seen her look so pretty before. "Why not have seat Manuel for a doctor at asked Kate. "The nearest doctor is fifteen miles awayt 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 lit" •Bet who are theyf* •Tbey speak of themmlvee as 'friends,' as if it were a profession. The wounded one was a passenger, I suppose." "But what are they Ukef con tinned Eat* •I supftos* they*re like tbem alL*

Mt^ Hate shruc her shoulders. •The mm, when he's not fainting away, It- g. The other is a creature with a mustaches and gkxwny beyond ofrweakM." •What in ym gdag to to with tbomT dKkid Kstft

A CHARMING STORYK

Snow, Bound at Eagle's.

BY BRET HARTE,

Continued from Ninth Page.

ferns and benies, or from keeping her calm gray eyes open to certain practical changes that were taking place around bar. She had I noticed a singular thickening in the atmcnpbere that seemed to prevent the panage of the nan's rays, yet without diminishing the transparent quality of the air. The distant «now peaks were as plainly seen, though they appeared as If In moonlight. This seemed doe to no cloud or mist, bat rather to a fading of the son itself. The occasional flurry

[COPYRIGHTED.]

''What should I dof Even without John^s I could not refuse the shelter of my bouse to a wounded and helpless man. «h»ii keep him, of course, until John oosnea. 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 sun he's that—or to the unspeakable one, who is shyness itself, and would not dare to raise Ids eyes to you."

There was a timid, hesitating step in the passage. It 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 discomfiture of a tall, dark figure that already had slunk away from it For all that he was a good looking enough fel low, 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 didnt know that you—the young ladies—company—wero 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 her usual languid gentleness. "My mother is not here at present Can I—can m—this Is my sister—do as wellf

Without looking up he made a constrained recognition of Kate's presence, that, embarrassed and curt as it was, had none 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'll 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-mor-row." "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 sister was apparently unconscious of it "You think," she said, "that Mr. Hale may be delayed!"

He turned upon her almost brusque'y. "J 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 us 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 opportunity to show her skill in surgery," die continued, with an unexpected mischievousness that only added to Kate's surprised embarrassment "Arent you, Katel"

Equivocal as the young girl knew her silence appeared, she was unable to utter the simplest polite evasion. Some unacoountable impulse kept her constrained and speechless. The stranger did not, however, wait for hei reply, but, casting a swift, hurried glanos around the room, said, "It's impossible we must go. In fact, Pre already taken the liberty to order the horses round. They are at the door now. Tou may be certain," be added with quick earnestness, suddenly lifting his dark eyes to Mis. 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 toward the halL "I—I have brought my friend down stain. He wants to thank yoo before he goes."

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 serape. His beardless face gave him a quaint boyishness quite inconsistent with the ma tun lines of his temples and forehead. Pale, and in pain as he evidently was, his blue eyes twinkled with intense amusement Not only did his manner offer marked contrast to

the somber uneasiness of his companion, bat 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 infections, "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 element,* he added, with a mischievous glance at his friend. "Ned concluded I must go on. But I must tay good-by to the old lady first Ah! hero she is." u.

To Kate's complete bewilderment not only did the utter familiarity of this speech pass unnoticed and ttnrebaksd by her sister, bat actually bra- own mother advanced quickly with evwry expression of lively sympathy, and with the authority of her years and on almost maternal anxiety endeavored to dissuade the invalid boa going. "This is not my how*," she said, looking at her daughter, "bet if it were I should not hear of your leaving, not only to-night, but until you ww* out of danger. Josephine! Katei What are yon thinking of to permit itl Well, then, /forbid ft—theref"

Had they Uwtvv nr V- ""y inane, or ware they bewifecb* ,:l-rasa intruder and bis insaffecabiy i'.in.:.aup cwwi^sntt lbs man was wounded, ft was true tkj might bars to pot kim up in common humanity but ten was

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TERHE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL.

wouldn't come in the room when WbUkf Dick called on business, actually both at the invalid's hands, while who nevw 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 his lips, kissed it gently, and, with his smile quite vanished, endeavored to rise to his feet. "It's of no use—we must g& Give me your arm, Ned. Quick! Are the horses there?" "Dear me," said Mrs. Scott quickly, "I forgot to say the hone cannot be found anywhere. Mannel must have taken him this morning to look up the stock. But be will be back to-night certainly, and if to-mor-row"

The wounded man sank back to a sitting position. "Is Manual your man?" he asked grimly. "Yea"'

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 at man isnt 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.

"Fou oannot go," said Kats, tuddenly.

"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. "Thatwill,"saidthestrangerbitterly. "Therein?" "A mile from here it is snow and before we could reach the Summit with these horses the road would be impassable."

He made a slight gesture to himself, as if accepting an inevitable defeat, and turned to his companion, who was slowly reviving under the active ministration of the two women. 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 Gate the road will be impassable for our horsea" "For any horses?" asked Elate. "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 wont see your brother to-morrow morning. But Fll reconnoiter, as I can do so without torturing him," he said, looking anxiously at the helplea 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 be had made to her it was the first time be bad fairly looked her in the face. His shy restlessness had suddenly given way to dodged resignation, less abstracted, but scarcely more flattering to his entertainers. Lifting Ids companion gently in his arms, as if he had been a child, he reascended the staircase, 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 now as you were to pack them off I should have been shocked at your inhospitality. What has come over you, Kate? These are the very people yoo have reproached me so often with not being civil enough to." "But who are they?" "How do I know! There is your brother's letter."

She usually spoke of her husband as "John." This 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." "That wasnt necessary for giving thjm a bed and bandages. 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 bade 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 yon more th«n he did to any one else. I suppose the poor man was frightened and read dismissal in your eyes." "I wish John wen hem* "I don't think we have anything to fear in his absence from men wbose only wish is to get away from m. If it is a question of propriety, my dear Kate, surely there is the presencoof mother to prevent any scandal— although really her own conduct with the wounded one is not abore wapickm," she added, with that novel mischievousness tint SMUtd a return at

her leak girlhood. "We

must try to do the best we can with them and for than," she said decidedly, "and meantime 111 see if I cant arrange John's rootn for them." "John* roomf* "Oh, mother is perfectly satisfied indeed, suggested it It's larger and will bold two be*, for 'Ned,'the friend, ma* attend to bin atnfacfaL And. Kate, dont you tbi&k,

if you're not going out again, you might change your costume! It does very well while we are alone"—— "Well," said Kate indignantly, "as lam not going into his room"

Tin not so sure about that, if we can't get a ngular 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 patient I suppose they've got him safe in his bed again," and with a nod to her sister she tripped up stairs.

Uncomfortable and embarrassed, she knew nut why, Kate sought her mother. But that good lady was already in attendance on the patient, and Kate hurried past that baleful center of attraction with a feeling of loneliness and strangeness she bad never experienced before. Entering her own room she went to the window—that first and last refuge of the troubled mind—and gazed out Turning 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, colorloss 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 fringes of pines and cottonwood, lay alone like a summer island in this frozen sea.

A sudden desire to view this phenomenon more closely, and to loam for herself tho 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 inextricable 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 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 mountainside she had partly climbed this morning. But the snow had 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—sho gazed at the dizzy depths in vain for some undiscovered or forgotten trail along its face. But a single glance convinced 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 t&rning away, when she perceived, a few pases distant, the figure of the stranger, "Ned," also apparently absorbed in the gloomy prospect He was wrapped in tho clinging folds of a black serapo 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 consciousness. Neither was there anything in his costume oi appearance inconsistent with his surroundings, or even with what Kate could judge were his habits or position. Never, heless 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 experience.

As he turned away from the cliff they were brought face to face. "It doesn't look very encouraging over there," be said, quietly, as if the inevitableness of the situation had relieved him of his previous shyness and effort "it's even 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, •aid: "I suppose you know what this meansT "I don't understand you." "I thought not Weill it means that you are absolutely cut off here from any communication or intercourse with any one outside of that canyon. 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-sup-porting so far as the mere necessities and even comforts are concerned. You have wood, water, cattle and game at your command, but fot two weeks at least you are completely isolated." fif .J1 "For two weeks," said Kate, growing paleP "and my brother "He knows all by this time and is probably as assured as I am of the safety of his family." "Far two weeks," continued Kate, "impossi­

ble! You dont know my brother 1 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,4* 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 resentment Before she could say anything he added, "And I hope yon will remember, whatever may bappen, 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 hope hell be better soon." She was dent, ani then, quietening her pace, said hurriedly, "I most tell my sister this dreadful news." "I think she is prepared for it If there is anything 1 can do to help you I hope you will lot me know. Perhaps I may be of some servfea. I shall begin by exploring the traik to-morrow, for the best service we can do you poaibly is to take ourselves off but I can carry a gun, and the woods are full of game driven down from the mountain*. Le* ma sbow yoa something yoa may not have noticed." He stopped and pointed to a small kaoO of sheltered shrubbery and granite on the opposite mountain, which stiS remained against the surrounding snow. It teemed to be tWckbr oorand with UMTiof

objects. "They are wild animals driven out of the snow," said the stranger. That larger one is a grizzly thane is a panther, wolves, wildcats, a fox, and some mountain goat&" "An ill-assorted party," said the young girL "HI hack makes them companions. They are too frightened to hurt one another now." "But they will eat each other later on," said Kate, stealing a glance at her companion.

He lifted his long lashes and met her eyes. "Not on a haven of refuge." [TO BX CONTINUED.]

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