Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 17, Number 27, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 25 December 1886 — Page 9

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Three of the four passengers Inside struggled at once into upright wakefulness. The fourth passenger, John Hale, bad not been sleeping, and turned impatiently toward the window. It seethed to him that two of tho 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 tho darkness.

All the passengers except Hale started. The man next to him moved bis right hand suddenly behind him, but as quickly stopped. One of the motionless trees bad apparently •closed upon tho vehicle, and what bad seemed to be a bough projecting from it at right •angles changed slowly into tho 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 hand empty to his knees. The two others perceptibly shrugged their shoulders as over a gamo 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 tho gun turned spontaneously on him, and he was vaguely conscious of a •certain contempt and impatience of him in bis companions. "Git down," repeated the voice imperatively."

Tho three passengers descended. Hale, furious, alert, but helpless of any opportunity, followed. He was surprised to And tLe «tago driver and express messenger standing beside him ho had not heard them dismount. Ho instinctively looked toward the homes. He could seo nothing. "Hold up your hands I"

Ono of the paiwongers bad already lifted bis, in a weary, perfunctory way. Tho other* did tho 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, whilo it left the intrudors in shadow, completely illuminated the faces and figures of tho passengers. In spito of tho majestic obscurity and silence of surrounding nature, tho group of humanity thus illuminated was more farcical than dramatic. A scrap of newspaper, part of a sandwich, «nd an orange peel that had fallen from tho floor of tho coach, brought into equal prominence by tho searching light, completed tho absurdity. "Tboro 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 the transaction

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is it?" Tho 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'll savo time and soorching, gentlemen, If you'll tote it out. If we've got to go through every one of you wo'll try to make It pay."

The significant threat was not unheeded. Tho passenger who had first moved when the stago stopped put his hand to his breast. "T'other pocket first, if you plea*," said the voices

Tho man laughed, drew a pistol from his hip pocket, and, under the strong light of the lantern, laid it on a spot in the rood 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 filing it by express, it would boat their own risk," he said apologetically. "As iVs going with the express now it* all the same," said the inevitable humorist of the Occasion, pointing to the despoiled express treasure box already tn the road.

The intention and deliberation of the out* rage was plain enough to HaleV inexperience now. Yet bo could not understand the coot aoquieeoeiK* of hts fellow passenger*, and was furious* His reflections were Interrupted by a voice which seemed to come from a greater distance. He fancied it was eveA softer la tone, as if a certain austerity was relaxed. "Step in as quick as you Uke, gentlemen. You've five minutes to wait, BUL"

The passengers re-entered the coach the driver and express messenger hurriedly climbed to their place*. Hale would have spokon, but an impatient gesture from his companions stopped him. They were *vi» cfonUy listening for something he listened too.

Yet the nOeooe remained unbroken. It seemed Incredible that there should be no indication near or far of that forceful presence which a moment ago bad been so dominant 2io rustle tn the wayside •brash" nor echo from the rocky canyon below beuayed a sound of their (light A faint brsess stirred the tall tips of tbe pines, a cone dropped on tho stage root, one of the in visible boras, that aeesned to be listening too, moved stigbtly tn his harness But this only appeared to accentuate tho profound stillness. The mo* meats ww* gioaiag tatauiliabh) erhan tha

4 CHARMING STORY*

1 Snow Bound at Eagle's.

sBy BRET HARTE. orifF

if [COPYRIGHTED.]

CHAPTER I

For some momenta profound silence and •darkness bad accompanied a Sierrau stage coach toward the summit. The huge, dim bulk of the vehicle, swaying noiselessly cm 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 hones 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 Mo vaguo and unreal that they might hare been tho mere phantoms of some dream of the half-sleeping passengers for the thlckly•trown 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 unconsciousness luring tho long ascent Suddenly the stage •topped.

voice, so near as tostartle Hale, broke once more from tin surrounding obscurity. "Good night!"

It was the signal that they were free. The driver's whip cracked like a pistol shot, the hones sprang furiously forward, the huge vehicle lurched ahead and then bounded violently after them. When Hale could make his voice beard in the confusion—a confusion which seemed greater from the colorless intensity of their last few moments' experience —be 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 tbe two other men got off with the treasure." "Tbe two others!" gasped Hale. "Then there were only three men, and we six."

The man shrugged his shoulders. The passenger who bad given up tbe 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 tbe 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 the 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, Til tell you what could have happened. Fr'ape 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' {hat man that held the 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 enough to have gone round, promiskiss, and satisfied the other passengers, it wouldn't do to kalkllate upon." "But the express messenger and the driver were armed," continued Hale. "They were armed, but not fixed that makes all the difference." "I don't understand." "I reckon you know what a duel Isf. "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

bead

on you, and the 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 mch chances."

Something in the man's manner, as in a certain sly a&usoment the other passengers appeared to extract from the conversation, impressed Hole, already beginning to be conscious of tho ludicrous insufficiency of his own grievance beside that of his Interlocutor. "Then you mean to say this thing is inevitable," said he bitterly, but less aggressively. "Es long ez they hunt you when you hunt them you've got the advantage, alius provided you know how to get at them es well as they know how to get ct you. This yer coach is bound to go regular, and on certain flays. They ain't By the time the sheriff gets out his posse they've skedaddled, and the loader, like as not, Is takin' bis quiet cocktail at the Bank Exchange, or mebbe lorin' his earnings to the sheriff over draw poker in Sacramento. You see you can't prove anything agin them unless you take them 'cm tbe fly.' It may be a part of Joaquim Marietta's band, though I wouldn't swear to it" "Tbe 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 chocked a little sentiment in it Didn't seem to be tbe samo thing sa 'Git, yer d—d suckers,1 on the other line." "Whoever hewas he know tho road and the men who traveled on it Like es not he weal over the line beside the driver on tbe box on the down trip, and took stock of everything. He even know I bad those greenbacks, though they were banded to toe in thobank at Sacramento. He must have been .. round them*

For sdt.nWmenta Hate remained xfteni He was a ririobred man, with an intense love of law and order the kind of man who is tbe first to tako that law and order into his own hands wben be does not find it existing to please him. He had a Bostonlan's respect for respectability, tradition and propriety, but was willing to face irregularity and impropriety to create order elsewhere. He was (Ond erf nature with these limitations, never quite trusting bo* unguided instincts, and finding her as an instructress greatly inferior to Harvard university, though possibly not to Cornell. With dauntless enterprise and energy be l»d baflt and stocked a charming cottage farm in a nook in tb* Qterra* vbaocebe opposed, like lbs lesser Englishman that be was. his own tastes to those of the alien wwt In tbe present instance be felt fit Incumbent upon him not only to assert his principles, bat to act upon thern with his usual energy. How far he was impelled by tbe half cuutemptnous pearfveoMsoi Ids companions it wonld be difficult to say. "What is to prevent tbe permit of them at oncer be mksd suddenly. «We am a few satist from tbe station, wbsrs busts can be

"Who's to do itr replied tbe other lasfly. "The stage company wiQ lodge the complaint with the authorities, but it will take twodays to get the comity officers out, and ift nobody else's funeral." "I will go for one," said Hide quietly., '1 have a horse waiting for me at the station, and can start at once."

There was an instant of sQence. The stage coach had left the obscurity of the forest, and by the stronger light Hale could perceive that his companion was examining bim with two colorless, lazy eyes. Prtsbntly he said, meeting Hale's clear glance, but ratber as if yielding to a carelesB reflection: "It might be dono with four men. "We oughter raise one man at the station." He p^iyavt "I don't know es Fd mind taking a hand myself," he added, stretching out his legs with a slight yawn. "Ye can count me in, if you're goin', kernel. I reckon I'm talkin' to Kernel Clinch," said the passenger beside Halo with sudden alacrity. "I'm Rawlins, 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 immediate business at the Summit, offered to accompany the party if they would wait a couple of hours, that CoL Clinch briefly returned to the subject "Four men will do, and ez we'll 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, had been reduced. It was true fW. 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 he 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 tbe 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 ostler into the party on equal terms with himself did not add to his satisfaction, and a remark from Rawlins seemed to complete his embarrassment "Ye had a mighty narrer escape down there just now," said that gentleman confidentially, as JIale 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 him." "Who!" *"&J "Kernel Clinch. You jist es good as allowed he hadn't any grit" "Whatever I said, I suppose I am respon-" siblo 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 1" '^1 "Howsummever," continued Rawlins, philosophically, "ez he's concluded to go with ye instead of for yo, you're likely to hev your Ideas on this matter carried out up to the handle. Hell 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 simple accessory to a lawless vendetta originating at a gambling table! "When the fiist 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 oonscious that he was thinking and acting like his companions. With this feeling a vague sympathy, before absent, faintly showed itself in their actions. The Sharped rifle put into his bands by the stableman was accompanied by a familiar word of suggestion as to an equal, which be was ashamed to find flattered him. He was able to continue the conversation with Rawlins more coolly. "Then you suspect who is tbe leader!" "Only on giniral principles. There was a finer touch, so to speak, in this yer robbery that wasn't in ibeold fashioned style. Down in my country they bed crude ideas about foam things—and to strip tbe passengers of everything, includin' their clothes. They say that at the station hotels, when tbe coaches came in, tbe folks used to stand round with blankets to wrap up the passengers so ex notto skeer the wimen. Thar's a story that tbe driver and express manager drove up oneday with only a copy of Tbe Alty Californy wrapped around ton but thin," added Rawlins grimly, "there was folks ez said the boll story was only an advertisement got up for Tbe Alty." "Time's up." "Are you ready, gentiemenf said CoL

Hale started. He lad fOi gotten his wife and family at Eagle's Court, ten miles away. They would be alarmed at his abeenos, would perhaps hear some exaggerated verrion of tbe stags coach robbery and fear the worst "Is there any way I could send a line to Eagle's Court befor* daybreakf he ashed eagerly.

Tbe station was already (drained of its and Lorna. Tbe lunhsMsnliintwl stepped forward and offered to tak» it himeatf wbsn Us luntii—» which

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL.

would dispatch as quickly as poarihte, was concluded That aint a bad idea," said Clinch, reflectively, "for ef yer hurry you'll head ton off in case they scent us, and try to double back on tbe North ridge. They'll fight shy of the trail if they see anybody on it, and one man's as good as a down."

Hale coald 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, banded it to the man, and took his place in tbe little cavalcade as it filed silently down tho road.

They had ridden in silence for nearly an 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 tbe spur where they rode. "It looks like snow," said Rawlins quietly.

Hale 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-like canyons in the long flanks of ttye 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. .. "I've 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 mile lower down over the ridge in the hollow, smoking his pipe under roees in his piazzy! Mountains is mighty uncertain they make their own weather ez they want it I reckon you aint wintered here yet"

Hide 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 thatr

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 shootln' 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 onus! 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 voice to the chase like the commonest hound of their fields, 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 ridge alight smoke lifted as of an escaping soul.

CHAPTER IL

Eagle's Court, one of the highest canyons 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 8,000 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 tbe 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 tbe tiny dwelling were trees 800 feet high tbe cultivated lawn before it, which might have been covered by the traveler's handkerchief, was afield of 1,000 acres.

The house itself was a long, low, irregular structure, chiefly 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 coolness produced by this vast extent of cover was more than the architect, who had planned it under the influence of a staling and bewildering sky, bai trustfully conceived, for it bad to be mitigated by blazing fires in open hearths when tbe thermometer marked 100 degrees in tbe field beyond. Tbe dry, restless wind that continually rocked the tall masts of the pines with a sound like tho distant sea, while it stimulated outdoor physical exertion and defied fatigue, left tbe sedentary dwellers in these altitudes chilled in the shade they courted, or scorched them with beat wben they ventured to bask supinely in tbe sun. White muslin curtains at the French windows, and rugs, skins end heavy furs dispersed in tbe interior, with certain otter charming but incongruous details of furniture, marked the Inconsistencies of tbe dimate,

There was a coquetlish indication of this In tbe costume of Miss Kate Scott as she stepped out on the veranda that morning. A man's Iwoad-brhnmed Panama hat, partly uttsexed by a twisted, gayiy adored scarf, but retaining enough character to give piquancy to the pretty curves of tbe face beneath, protected bar from tbe SUB a red flannel shirt—another spoil from tbe enemy —and a thick jacket shielded ber from the austerities of tbe morning brsess. Bot tbe next inconsistency was peculiarly her own. Miss Kate always wore tbe freshest and lightest of white cambric skirts, without tbe least reference to tbe temperature. To the practical muamy remonstrances of tar bratber-ia4ew, and to tbe

criticism of ber sister, she oppoeed the defense: "How else is one to tell when it is summer in this ridiculous climate! And then, woolen is stuffy, color draws the sun, and one at least knows when one is clean or dirty.* Artistically the result was far from unsatisfactory. It was a pretty figure under the somber pines, against tbe 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 masculine wayfarers of that locality objected to it indeed, some had betrayed an indiscreet admiration, and had curiously followed the invitation of Miss Kate% warmly colored figure until they had encountered the invincible indifference of Miss Kate's cold gray eyes. With these manifestations her brother-in-law did not concern himself be 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 20, had already subjected most of her maidenly illusions to mature critical analyses. She hod 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 hnH already discounted its valuo in tbe pages of books. She hoped to find a vague freedom in this unconventional life thus opened to her, or ratber 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 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 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, "ray 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 through dirt, and thenceforth unknowable through domestic 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. Thoee 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 understanding the ideas of their audience. Old Mrs. Scott's seal was partly religious, an inheritance from her Puritan ancestry Mrs. Hale's was the affability of a gentle woman and the obligation of her position. To this was added the slight languor 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 scepticism. She was sincerely attached to her husband, "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 attitude of John Hale in his family circle was dominant bccause it had never been subjected to criticism or comparison and perilous for tbe 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 polite interest and ladylike urbanity. The searching sun, which, as Miss Kate once intimated, was "vulgarity itself," stared at ber in return, but could not call a blush to her somewhat sallow cheek. Neither could it detract, however, from the delicate prettlnets of her refined face, with its soft gray shadows, or tho dark, gentle eyes, whose blue-veined lids were just then wrinkled into coquettishly mischievous lines by tho strong light She was taller and thinner than Kate, and bad 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, bad been distinguished by that matronly sedateness of voice and step, and completeness of figure, which indicates some members of tho gallinaceous tribe from their callow infancy. "I suppose John must have stopped at the Summit on some business," said Mrs. Hale, "or be 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 Slate's costume. "Pot on your riding habit, and take Manuel "vith you." "And take tbe only man we have, and leave you atonef returned Kate slowly. "Nor "There are &e Chinese flekTbalkls," said Mrs. Hate "you must correct your ideas, and really allow them some humanity, Kate. John says tbey have a very good compulsory school system in their own country, and can read and write." "That would be of littie use to yon here alone if—if—Kate hesitated "If whatr said Mrs. Hate, trailing. "Are yon think log of Manners dreadful story of tbe gristly tracks across tbe fields this morning! I promise you that neither I nor mother, nor Mixmie, shall stir oat of tbe boose ontil your return, if you wish it" "1 want 'thinking of that," said Kate "though I dont believe the beating of a gong and the using of strong language is tbe be* way tn frighten a grizzly team tbe boosa. Besides, tbe Chinese are gdng down fibe river to^b^toafoneral, or a waddtpf, or a fsM*

9

of stolen chicken*—they're all the same—and: wont be here." "Then take Manuel," repeated Mrs. Balk "We have tbe Chinese servants and India* Molly in tho house to protect us from Heavsa knows what! I have the greatest confld oooa in Chy-Lee as a warrior, and in Chinese wa^ fare generally. One has only to bear hi^a pipe in time of peace to imagine what a terrat 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 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 Muriettn himself should step, red handed, on that v» randa"you would gently invite him to take a cup of tea, inquire about the state of the road, and refrain delicately from any allusions to the sheriff. But I sha'nt take Manuel from you. I really cannot undertake to look after his mor&ls at. the station, and keep him from drinking aguardiente with suspicious characters at tho bar. It ii true he 'kisses my hand' in his speech, even when it is thickest, and offers his back to ma for a horso block, but I think I prefer the sober and honest familiarity of even that Pike county landlord who is satisfied to say, •Jump, girl, and I'll ketch ye!'" "I hope you didnt change your liltftmer to either of them for that," said Mrs. Hale with a faint sigh. "John wants to be good friends with them, and they aro behaving quite decently lately, considering that they cant speak a grammatical sentence nor know tha use of a fork." "And now the man puts on gloves and a tall hat to come here on Sundays, and tha woman wont call until you've called first,* retorted Kate "perhaps you call that improvement The fact is, Josephine," con* tinned the young girl, folding her arms darn urely, "we might as well admit it at onos —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, Joslei and that's the reason why I feel it and you dont* She checked herself, and after a pause resumed in a lighter tone: "No I sha'nt go to the station Til commune with nature to-day, and wont 'take any humanity in mine, thank you,' as Bill the driver says. Adios." "I wish Kate Would not use that dreadftoK slang, even in jest," said Mrs. Scott, in her rocking chair at the French window, when Josephine re-entered the parlor as her sister walked briskly away. "I am afraid she is being infected by the people at tho station. She ought to have a change." "I was just thinking," said Josephine, looking abstractedly at her mother, "that I would try to get John to take her to San Francisco this winter. The Careys aro expected, yon know she might visit them." "I'm afraid If she stays hero much longer ihe wont care to see them at all. She seems to care for nothing now that she ever liked before," returned the old lady ominously.

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 ana of b«f disillusions, who, giving way to his Hdwer nature, had once killed a sheep—az sho did not wish her Jacques-like contemplation of any wounded deer to be inconsistently interrupted by a fresh outrage from her companion. Tho air was really veiy chilly, and for the first time in her mountain experiencn the direct rays of the sun seemed to 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 canyon or natural gateway to Eagle's Court

To ber always a profound spectacle off mountain magnificence, it seemed to-day aft* most terrible In its cold, strong grandeur. The narrowing pass was choked for a moment between two gigantic buttresses at 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. She raised her eyes with a quickly beating heart. She knew that the interlacing trees abov* ber were as large as those she bad just quitted she knew also that the point where they met was only half way up the cliff, for sha bad once gazed down upon them, dwindled to shrubs from tbo airy summit she knew that their shaken cones fell a thousand feat perpendicularly, or bounded like shot from the scarred walls tbey bombardod. She remembered that one of these pines, dislodged from its high foundations, bad once dropped like a portcullis in the archway, blocking tha pecs, and was only carried afterward by assault of steel and fire. Bending ber head mechanically, she ran swiftly through tha shadowy passage, and halted only at the boginning of tbe ascent on the other side.

It was here that the 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 courses, so narrow as to be overlooked from tbe principal mountain range, with which it was connected by along canyon that led to tbe ridjte. At tbe outlet of this canyon—in bygone ages a mighty river—it bad tbe appearance of having bean slowly raised by the diluvium of that river, and the debris washed down from above—n suggestion repeated in miniature by the artificial plateaus of excavated soil raised before tbe mouth of mining tunnels In tbe lower flanks of the mountain. It was tbe realization of a fact—often forgotten by the dwellers in Eagle's Court—that the valley below them, which was their connecting link with tbe surrounding world, was only reached by ascending tbe mountain, and tbe nearest road was over tbe higher mountain ridge. Never before bad that impressed itself so strongly upon tbe young girl as wben she turned thai morning to look upon tbe plateau below bar. It seemed to Illustrate the conviction thai had been slowly shaping itself out of ber reflections on the conversation of that morning. It was possible that tbe perfect understanding of a higher life was only readied from a height still greater, and that to those haK way up tbe mountain the summit was nevar as truthfully revealed as to the htunbhr dwellers in the valley.

I do not know that these profound trcrifca prevented ber from gathering soma [Continued on next page.)

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