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diff --git a/old/hllhl10.txt b/old/hllhl10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c484d30 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hllhl10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4576 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext In a Hollow of the Hills, by Bret Harte +#5 in our series by Bret Harte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +IN A HOLLOW OF THE HILLS + +Bret Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +It was very dark, and the wind was increasing. The last gust had +been preceded by an ominous roaring down the whole mountain-side, +which continued for some time after the trees in the little valley +had lapsed into silence. The air was filled with a faint, cool, +sodden odor, as of stirred forest depths. In those intervals of +silence the darkness seemed to increase in proportion and grow +almost palpable. Yet out of this sightless and soundless void now +came the tinkle of a spur's rowels, the dry crackling of saddle +leathers, and the muffled plunge of a hoof in the thick carpet of +dust and desiccated leaves. Then a voice, which in spite of its +matter-of-fact reality the obscurity lent a certain mystery to, +said:-- + +"I can't make out anything! Where the devil have we got to, +anyway? It's as black as Tophet, here ahead!" + +"Strike a light and make a flare with something," returned a second +voice. "Look where you're shoving to--now--keep your horse off, +will ye." + +There was more muffled plunging, a silence, the rustle of paper, +the quick spurt of a match, and then the uplifting of a flickering +flame. But it revealed only the heads and shoulders of three +horsemen, framed within a nebulous ring of light, that still left +their horses and even their lower figures in impenetrable shadow. +Then the flame leaped up and died out with a few zigzagging sparks +that were falling to the ground, when a third voice, that was low +but somewhat pleasant in its cadence, said:-- + +"Be careful where you throw that. You were careless last time. +With this wind and the leaves like tinder, you might send a furnace +blast through the woods." + +"Then at least we'd see where we were." + +Nevertheless, he moved his horse, whose trampling hoofs beat out +the last fallen spark. Complete darkness and silence again +followed. Presently the first speaker continued:-- + +"I reckon we'll have to wait here till the next squall clears away +the scud from the sky? Hello! What's that?" + +Out of the obscurity before them appeared a faint light,--a dim but +perfectly defined square of radiance,--which, however, did not +appear to illuminate anything around it. Suddenly it disappeared. + +"That's a house--it's a light in a window," said the second voice. + +"House be d--d!" retorted the first speaker. "A house with a +window on Galloper's Ridge, fifteen miles from anywhere? You're +crazy!" + +Nevertheless, from the muffled plunging and tinkling that followed, +they seemed to be moving in the direction where the light had +appeared. Then there was a pause. + +"There's nothing but a rocky outcrop here, where a house couldn't +stand, and we're off the trail again," said the first speaker +impatiently. + +"Stop!--there it is again!" + +The same square of light appeared once more, but the horsemen had +evidently diverged in the darkness, for it seemed to be in a +different direction. But it was more distinct, and as they gazed a +shadow appeared upon its radiant surface--the profile of a human +face. Then the light suddenly went out, and the face vanished with +it. + +"It IS a window, and there was some one behind it," said the second +speaker emphatically. + +"It was a woman's face," said the pleasant voice. + +"Whoever it is, just hail them, so that we can get our bearings. +Sing out! All together!" + +The three voices rose in a prolonged shout, in which, however, the +distinguishing quality of the pleasant voice was sustained. But +there was no response from the darkness beyond. The shouting was +repeated after an interval with the same result: the silence and +obscurity remained unchanged. + +"Let's get out of this," said the first speaker angrily; "house or +no house, man or woman, we're not wanted, and we'll make nothing +waltzing round here!" + +"Hush!" said the second voice. "Sh-h! Listen." + +The leaves of the nearest trees were trilling audibly. Then came a +sudden gust that swept the fronds of the taller ferns into their +faces, and laid the thin, lithe whips of alder over their horses' +flanks sharply. It was followed by the distant sea-like roaring of +the mountain-side. + +"That's a little more like it!" said the first speaker joyfully. +"Another blow like that and we're all right. And look! there's a +lightenin' up over the trail we came by." + +There was indeed a faint glow in that direction, like the first +suffusion of dawn, permitting the huge shoulder of the mountain +along whose flanks they had been journeying to be distinctly seen. +The sodden breath of the stirred forest depths was slightly tainted +with an acrid fume. + +"That's the match you threw away two hours ago," said the pleasant +voice deliberately. "It's caught the dry brush in the trail round +the bend." + +"Anyhow, it's given us our bearings, boys," said the first speaker, +with satisfied accents. "We're all right now; and the wind's +lifting the sky ahead there. Forward now, all together, and let's +get out of this hell-hole while we can!" + +It was so much lighter that the bulk of each horseman could be seen +as they moved forward together. But there was no thinning of the +obscurity on either side of them. Nevertheless the profile of the +horseman with the pleasant voice seemed to be occasionally turned +backward, and he suddenly checked his horse. + +"There's the window again!" he said. "Look! There--it's gone +again." + +"Let it go and be d--d!" returned the leader. "Come on." + +They spurred forward in silence. It was not long before the +wayside trees began to dimly show spaces between them, and the +ferns to give way to lower, thick-set shrubs, which in turn yielded +to a velvety moss, with long quiet intervals of netted and tangled +grasses. The regular fall of the horses' feet became a mere +rhythmic throbbing. Then suddenly a single hoof rang out sharply +on stone, and the first speaker reined in slightly. + +"Thank the Lord we're on the ridge now! and the rest is easy. Tell +you what, though, boys, now we're all right, I don't mind saying +that I didn't take no stock in that blamed corpse light down there. +If there ever was a will-o'-the-wisp on a square up mountain, that +was one. It wasn't no window! Some of ye thought ye saw a face +too--eh?" + +"Yes, and a rather pretty one," said the pleasant voice +meditatively. + +"That's the way they'd build that sort of thing, of course. It's +lucky ye had to satisfy yourself with looking. Gosh! I feel creepy +yet, thinking of it! What are ye looking back for now like Lot's +wife? Blamed if I don't think that face bewitched ye." + +"I was only thinking about that fire you started," returned the +other quietly. "I don't see it now." + +"Well--if you did?" + +"I was wondering whether it could reach that hollow." + +"I reckon that hollow could take care of any casual nat'rel fire +that came boomin' along, and go two better every time! Why, I +don't believe there was any fire; it was all a piece of that +infernal ignis fatuus phantasmagoriana that was played upon us down +there!" + +With the laugh that followed they started forward again, relapsing +into the silence of tired men at the end of a long journey. Even +their few remarks were interjectional, or reminiscent of topics +whose freshness had been exhausted with the day. The gaining light +which seemed to come from the ground about them rather than from +the still, overcast sky above, defined their individuality more +distinctly. The man who had first spoken, and who seemed to be +their leader, wore the virgin unshaven beard, mustache, and flowing +hair of the Californian pioneer, and might have been the eldest; +the second speaker was close shaven, thin, and energetic; the +third, with the pleasant voice, in height, litheness, and +suppleness of figure appeared to be the youngest of the party. The +trail had now become a grayish streak along the level table-land +they were following, which also had the singular effect of +appearing lighter than the surrounding landscape, yet of plunging +into utter darkness on either side of its precipitous walls. +Nevertheless, at the end of an hour the leader rose in his stirrups +with a sigh of satisfaction. + +"There's the light in Collinson's Mill! There's nothing gaudy and +spectacular about that, boys, eh? No, sir! it's a square, honest +beacon that a man can steer by. We'll be there in twenty minutes." +He was pointing into the darkness below the already descending +trail. Only a pioneer's eye could have detected the few pin-pricks +of light in the impenetrable distance, and it was a signal proof of +his leadership that the others accepted it without seeing it. +"It's just ten o'clock," he continued, holding a huge silver watch +to his eye; "we've wasted an hour on those blamed spooks yonder!" + +"We weren't off the trail more than ten minutes, Uncle Dick," +protested the pleasant voice. + +"All right, my son; go down there if you like and fetch out your +Witch of Endor, but as for me, I'm going to throw myself the other +side of Collinson's lights. They're good enough for me, and a +blamed sight more stationary!" + +The grade was very steep, but they took it, California fashion, at +a gallop, being genuinely good riders, and using their brains as +well as their spurs in the understanding of their horses, and of +certain natural laws, which the more artificial riders of +civilization are apt to overlook. Hence there was no hesitation or +indecision communicated to the nervous creatures they bestrode, who +swept over crumbling stones and slippery ledges with a momentum +that took away half their weight, and made a stumble or false step, +or indeed anything but an actual collision, almost impossible. +Closing together they avoided the latter, and holding each other +well up, became one irresistible wedge-shaped mass. At times they +yelled, not from consciousness nor bravado, but from the purely +animal instinct of warning and to combat the breathlessness of +their descent, until, reaching the level, they charged across the +gravelly bed of a vanished river, and pulled up at Collinson's +Mill. The mill itself had long since vanished with the river, but +the building that had once stood for it was used as a rude hostelry +for travelers, which, however, bore no legend or invitatory sign. +Those who wanted it, knew it; those who passed it by, gave it no +offense. + +Collinson himself stood by the door, smoking a contemplative pipe. +As they rode up, he disengaged himself from the doorpost +listlessly, walked slowly towards them, said reflectively to the +leader, "I've been thinking with you that a vote for Thompson is a +vote thrown away," and prepared to lead the horses towards the +water tank. He had parted with them over twelve hours before, but +his air of simply renewing a recently interrupted conversation was +too common a circumstance to attract their notice. They knew, and +he knew, that no one else had passed that way since he had last +spoken; that the same sun had swung silently above him and the +unchanged landscape, and there had been no interruption nor +diversion to his monotonous thought. The wilderness annihilates +time and space with the grim pathos of patience. + +Nevertheless he smiled. "Ye don't seem to have got through coming +down yet," he continued, as a few small boulders, loosened in their +rapid descent, came more deliberately rolling and plunging after +the travelers along the gravelly bottom. Then he turned away with +the horses, and, after they were watered, he reentered the house. +His guests had evidently not waited for his ministration. They had +already taken one or two bottles from the shelves behind a wide bar +and helped themselves, and, glasses in hand, were now satisfying +the more imminent cravings of hunger with biscuits from a barrel +and slices of smoked herring from a box. Their equally singular +host, accepting their conduct as not unusual, joined the circle +they had comfortably drawn round the fireplace, and meditatively +kicking a brand back at the fire, said, without looking at them:-- + +"Well?" + +"Well!" returned the leader, leaning back in his chair after +carefully unloosing the buckle of his belt, but with his eyes also +on the fire,--"well! we've prospected every yard of outcrop along +the Divide, and there ain't the ghost of a silver indication +anywhere." + +"Not a smell," added the close-shaven guest, without raising his +eyes. + +They all remained silent, looking at the fire, as if it were the +one thing they had taken into their confidence. Collinson also +addressed himself to the blaze as he said presently: "It allus +seemed to me that thar was something shiny about that ledge just +round the shoulder of the spur, over the long canyon." + +The leader ejaculated a short laugh. "Shiny, eh? shiny! Ye think +THAT a sign? Why, you might as well reckon that because Key's +head, over thar, is gray and silvery that he's got sabe and +experience." As he spoke he looked towards the man with a pleasant +voice. The fire shining full upon him revealed the singular fact +that while his face was still young, and his mustache quite dark, +his hair was perfectly gray. The object of this attention, far +from being disconcerted by the comparison, added with a smile:-- + +"Or that he had any silver in his pocket." + +Another lapse of silence followed. The wind tore round the house +and rumbled in the short, adobe chimney. + +"No, gentlemen," said the leader reflectively, "this sort o' thing +is played out. I don't take no more stock in that cock-and-bull +story about the lost Mexican mine. I don't catch on to that +Sunday-school yarn about the pious, scientific sharp who collected +leaves and vegetables all over the Divide, all the while he +scientifically knew that the range was solid silver, only he +wouldn't soil his fingers with God-forsaken lucre. I ain't saying +anything agin that fine-spun theory that Key believes in about +volcanic upheavals that set up on end argentiferous rock, but I +simply say that I don't see it--with the naked eye. And I reckon +it's about time, boys, as the game's up, that we handed in our +checks, and left the board." + +There was another silence around the fire, another whirl and +turmoil without. There was no attempt to combat the opinions of +their leader; possibly the same sense of disappointed hopes was +felt by all, only they preferred to let the man of greater +experience voice it. He went on:-- + +"We've had our little game, boys, ever since we left Rawlin's a +week ago; we've had our ups and downs; we've been starved and +parched, snowed up and half drowned, shot at by road-agents and +horse-thieves, kicked by mules and played with by grizzlies. We've +had a heap o' fun, boys, for our money, but I reckon the picnic is +about over. So we'll shake hands to-morrow all round and call it +square, and go on our ways separately." + +"And what do you think you'll do, Uncle Dick?" said his close- +shaven companion listlessly. + +"I'll make tracks for a square meal, a bed that a man can +comfortably take off his boots and die in, and some violet-scented +soap. Civilization's good enough for me! I even reckon I wouldn't +mind 'the sound of the church-going bell' ef there was a theatre +handy, as there likely would be. But the wilderness is played +out." + +"You'll be back to it again in six months, Uncle Dick," retorted +the other quickly. + +Uncle Dick did not reply. It was a peculiarity of the party that +in their isolated companionship they had already exhausted +discussion and argument. A silence followed, in which they all +looked at the fire as if it was its turn to make a suggestion. + +"Collinson," said the pleasant voice abruptly, "who lives in the +hollow this side of the Divide, about two miles from the first spur +above the big canyon?" + +"Nary soul!" + +"Are you sure?" + +"Sartin! Thar ain't no one but me betwixt Bald Top and Skinner's-- +twenty-five miles." + +"Of course, YOU'D know if any one had come there lately?" persisted +the pleasant voice. + +"I reckon. It ain't a week ago that I tramped the whole distance +that you fellers just rode over." + +"There ain't," said the leader deliberately, "any enchanted castle +or cabin that goes waltzing round the road with revolving windows +and fairy princesses looking out of 'em?" + +But Collinson, recognizing this as purely irrelevant humor, with +possibly a trap or pitfall in it, moved away from the fireplace +without a word, and retired to the adjoining kitchen to prepare +supper. Presently he reappeared. + +"The pork bar'l's empty, boys, so I'll hev to fix ye up with jerked +beef, potatoes, and flapjacks. Ye see, thar ain't anybody ben over +from Skinner's store for a week." + +"All right; only hurry up!" said Uncle Dick cheerfully, settling +himself back in his chair, "I reckon to turn in as soon as I've +rastled with your hash, for I've got to turn out agin and be off at +sun-up." + +They were all very quiet again,--so quiet that they could not help +noticing that the sound of Collinson's preparations for their +supper had ceased too. Uncle Dick arose softly and walked to the +kitchen door. Collinson was sitting before a small kitchen stove, +with a fork in his hand, gazing abstractedly before him. At the +sound of his guest's footsteps he started, and the noise of +preparation recommenced. Uncle Dick returned to his chair by the +fire. Leaning towards the chair of the close-shaven man, he said +in a lower voice:-- + +"He was off agin!" + +"What?" + +"Thinkin' of that wife of his." + +"What about his wife?" asked Key, lowering his voice also. + +The three men's heads were close together. + +"When Collinson fixed up this mill he sent for his wife in the +States," said Uncle Dick, in a half whisper, "waited a year for +her, hanging round and boarding every emigrant wagon that came +through the Pass. She didn't come--only the news that she was +dead." He paused and nudged his chair still closer--the heads were +almost touching. "They say, over in the Bar"--his voice had sunk +to a complete whisper--"that it was a lie! That she ran away with +the man that was fetchin' her out. Three thousand miles and three +weeks with another man upsets some women. But HE knows nothing +about it, only he sometimes kinder goes off looney-like, thinking +of her." He stopped, the heads separated; Collinson had appeared +at the doorway, his melancholy patience apparently unchanged. + +"Grub's on, gentlemen; sit by and eat." + +The humble meal was dispatched with zest and silence. A few +interjectional remarks about the uncertainties of prospecting only +accented the other pauses. In ten minutes they were out again by +the fireplace with their lit pipes. As there were only three +chairs, Collinson stood beside the chimney. + +"Collinson," said Uncle Dick, after the usual pause, taking his +pipe from his lips, "as we've got to get up and get at sun-up, we +might as well tell you now that we're dead broke. We've been +living for the last few weeks on Preble Key's loose change--and +that's gone. You'll have to let this little account and damage +stand over." + +Collinson's brow slightly contracted, without, however, altering +his general expression of resigned patience. + +"I'm sorry for you, boys," he said slowly, "and" (diffidently) +"kinder sorry for myself, too. You see, I reckoned on goin' over +to Skinner's to-morrow, to fill up the pork bar'l and vote for +Mesick and the wagon-road. But Skinner can't let me have anything +more until I've paid suthin' on account, as he calls it." + +"D'ye mean to say thar's any mountain man as low flung and mean as +that?" said Uncle Dick indignantly. + +"But it isn't HIS fault," said Collinson gently; "you see, they +won't send him goods from Sacramento if he don't pay up, and he +CAN'T if I DON'T. Sabe?" + +"Ah! that's another thing. They ARE mean--in Sacramento," said +Uncle Dick, somewhat mollified. + +The other guests murmured an assent to this general proposition. +Suddenly Uncle Dick's face brightened. + +"Look here! I know Skinner, and I'll stop there-- No, blank it +all! I can't, for it's off my route! Well, then, we'll fix it this +way. Key will go there and tell Skinner that I say that I'LL send +the money to that Sacramento hound. That'll fix it!" + +Collinson's brow cleared; the solution of the difficulty seemed to +satisfy everybody, and the close-shaven man smiled. + +"And I'll secure it," he said, "and give Collinson a sight draft on +myself at San Francisco." + +"What's that for?" said Collinson, with a sudden suffusion on each +cheek. + +"In case of accident." + +"Wot accident?" persisted Collinson, with a dark look of suspicion +on his usually placid face. + +"In case we should forget it," said the close-shaven man, with a +laugh. + +"And do you suppose that if you boys went and forgot it that I'd +have anything to do with your d--d paper?" said Collinson, a murky +cloud coming into his eyes. + +"Why, that's only business, Colly," interposed Uncle Dick quickly; +"that's all Jim Parker means; he's a business man, don't you see. +Suppose we got killed! You've that draft to show." + +"Show who?" growled Collinson. + +"Why,--hang it!--our friends, our heirs, our relations--to get your +money, hesitated Uncle Dick. + +"And do you kalkilate," said Collinson, with deeply laboring +breath, "that if you got killed, that I'd be coming on your folks +for the worth of the d--d truck I giv ye? Go 'way! Lemme git out +o' this. You're makin' me tired." He stalked to the door, lit his +pipe, and began to walk up and down the gravelly river-bed. Uncle +Dick followed him. From time to time the two other guests heard +the sounds of alternate protest and explanation as they passed and +repassed the windows. Preble Key smiled, Parker shrugged his +shoulders. + +"He'll be thinkin' you've begrudged him your grub if you don't-- +that's the way with these business men," said Uncle Dick's voice in +one of these intervals. Presently they reentered the house, Uncle +Dick saying casually to Parker, "You can leave that draft on the +bar when you're ready to go to-morrow;" and the incident was +presumed to have ended. But Collinson did not glance in the +direction of Parker for the rest of the evening; and, indeed, +standing with his back to the chimney, more than once fell into +that stolid abstraction which was supposed to be the contemplation +of his absent wife. + +From this silence, which became infectious, the three guests were +suddenly aroused by a furious clattering down the steep descent of +the mountain, along the trail they had just ridden! It came near, +increasing in sound, until it even seemed to scatter the fine +gravel of the river-bed against the sides of the house, and then +passed in a gust of wind that shook the roof and roared in the +chimney. With one common impulse the three travelers rose and went +to the door. They opened it to a blackness that seemed to stand as +another and an iron door before them, but to nothing else. + +"Somebody went by then," said Uncle Dick, turning to Collinson. +"Didn't you hear it?" + +"Nary," said Collinson patiently, without moving from the chimney. + +"What in God's name was it, then?" + +"Only some of them boulders you loosed coming down. It's touch and +go with them for days after. When I first came here I used to +start up and rush out into the road--like as you would--yellin' and +screechin' after folks that never was there and never went by. +Then it got kinder monotonous, and I'd lie still and let 'em slide. +Why, one night I'd a'sworn that some one pulled up with a yell and +shook the door. But I sort of allowed to myself that whatever it +was, it wasn't wantin' to eat, drink, sleep, or it would come in, +and I hadn't any call to interfere. And in the mornin' I found a +rock as big as that box, lying chock-a-block agin the door. Then I +knowed I was right." + +Preble Key remained looking from the door. + +"There's a glow in the sky over Big Canyon," he said, with a +meaning glance at Uncle Dick. + +"Saw it an hour ago," said Collinson. "It must be the woods afire +just round the bend above the canyon. Whoever goes to Skinner's +had better give it a wide berth." + +Key turned towards Collinson as if to speak, but apparently changed +his mind, and presently joined his companions, who were already +rolling themselves in their blankets, in a series of wooden bunks +or berths, ranged as in a ship's cabin, around the walls of a +resinous, sawdusty apartment that had been the measuring room of +the mill. Collinson disappeared,--no one knew or seemed to care +where,--and, in less than ten minutes from the time that they had +returned from the door, the hush of sleep and rest seemed to +possess the whole house. There was no light but that of the fire +in the front room, which threw flickering and gigantic shadows on +the walls of the three empty chairs before it. An hour later it +seemed as if one of the chairs were occupied, and a grotesque +profile of Collinson's slumbering--or meditating--face and figure +was projected grimly on the rafters as though it were the hovering +guardian spirit of the house. But even that passed presently and +faded out, and the beleaguering darkness that had encompassed the +house all the evening began to slowly creep in through every chink +and cranny of the rambling, ill-jointed structure, until it at last +obliterated even the faint embers on the hearth. The cool +fragrance of the woodland depths crept in with it until the steep +of human warmth, the reek of human clothing, and the lingering +odors of stale human victual were swept away in that incorruptible +and omnipotent breath. An hour later--and the wilderness had +repossessed itself of all. + +Key, the lightest sleeper, awoke early,--so early that the dawn +announced itself only in two dim squares of light that seemed to +grow out of the darkness at the end of the room where the windows +looked out upon the valley. This reminded him of his woodland +vision of the night before, and he lay and watched them until they +brightened and began to outline the figures of his still sleeping +companions. But there were faint stirrings elsewhere,--the soft +brushing of a squirrel across the shingled roof, the tiny flutter +of invisible wings in the rafters, the "peep" and "squeak" of baby +life below the floor. And then he fell into a deeper sleep, and +awoke only when it was broad day. + +The sun was shining upon the empty bunks; his companions were +already up and gone. They had separated as they had come +together,--with the light-hearted irresponsibility of animals,-- +without regret, and scarcely reminiscence; bearing, with cheerful +philosophy and the hopefulness of a future unfettered by their +past, the final disappointment of their quest. If they ever met +again, they would laugh and remember; if they did not, they would +forget without a sigh. He hurriedly dressed himself, and went +outside to dip his face and hands in the bucket that stood beside +the door; but the clear air, the dazzling sunshine, and the +unexpected prospect half intoxicated him. + +The abandoned mill stretched beside him in all the pathos of its +premature decay. The ribs of the water-wheel appeared amid a +tangle of shrubs and driftwood, and were twined with long grasses +and straggling vines; mounds of sawdust and heaps of "brush" had +taken upon themselves a velvety moss where the trickling slime of +the vanished river lost itself in sluggish pools, discolored with +the dyes of redwood. But on the other side of the rocky ledge +dropped the whole length of the valley, alternately bathed in +sunshine or hidden in drifts of white and clinging smoke. The +upper end of the long canyon, and the crests of the ridge above +him, were lost in this fleecy cloud, which at times seemed to +overflow the summits and fall in slow leaps like lazy cataracts +down the mountain-side. Only the range before the ledge was clear; +there the green pines seemed to swell onward and upward in long +mounting billows, until at last they broke against the sky. + +In the keen stimulus of the hour and the air Key felt the +mountaineer's longing for action, and scarcely noticed that +Collinson had pathetically brought out his pork barrel to scrape +together a few remnants for his last meal. It was not until he had +finished his coffee, and Collinson had brought up his horse, that a +slight sense of shame at his own and his comrades' selfishness +embarrassed his parting with his patient host. He himself was +going to Skinner's to plead for him; he knew that Parker had left +the draft,--he had seen it lying in the bar,--but a new sense of +delicacy kept him from alluding to it now. It was better to leave +Collinson with his own peculiar ideas of the responsibilities of +hospitality unchanged. Key shook his hand warmly, and galloped up +the rocky slope. But when he had finally reached the higher level, +and fancied he could even now see the dust raised by his departing +comrades on their two diverging paths, although he knew that they +had already gone their different ways,--perhaps never to meet +again,--his thoughts and his eyes reverted only to the ruined mill +below him and its lonely occupant. + +He could see him quite distinctly in that clear air, still standing +before his door. And then he appeared to make a parting gesture +with his hand, and something like snow fluttered in the air above +his head. It was only the torn fragments of Parker's draft, which +this homely gentleman of the Sierras, standing beside his empty +pork barrel, had scattered to the four winds. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Key's attention was presently directed to something more important +to his present purpose. The keen wind which he had faced in +mounting the grade had changed, and was now blowing at his back. +His experience of forest fires had already taught him that this was +too often only the cold air rushing in to fill the vacuum made by +the conflagration, and it needed not his sensation of an acrid +smarting in his eyes, and an unaccountable dryness in the air which +he was now facing, to convince him that the fire was approaching +him. It had evidently traveled faster than he had expected, or had +diverged from its course. He was disappointed, not because it +would oblige him to take another route to Skinner's, as Collinson +had suggested, but for a very different reason. Ever since his +vision of the preceding night, he had resolved to revisit the +hollow and discover the mystery. He had kept his purpose a +secret,--partly because he wished to avoid the jesting remarks of +his companions, but particularly because he wished to go alone, +from a very singular impression that although they had witnessed +the incident he had really seen more than they did. To this was +also added the haunting fear he had felt during the night that this +mysterious habitation and its occupants were in the track of the +conflagration. He had not dared to dwell upon it openly on account +of Uncle Dick's evident responsibility for the origin of the fire; +he appeased his conscience with the reflection that the inmates of +the dwelling no doubt had ample warning in time to escape. But +still, he and his companions ought to have stopped to help them, +and then--but here he paused, conscious of another reason he could +scarcely voice then, or even now. Preble Key had not passed the +age of romance, but like other romancists he thought he had evaded +it by treating it practically. + +Meantime he had reached the fork where the trail diverged to the +right, and he must take that direction if he wished to make a +detour of the burning woods to reach Skinner's. His momentary +indecision communicated itself to his horse, who halted. Recalled +to himself, he looked down mechanically, when his attention was +attracted by an unfamiliar object lying in the dust of the trail. +It was a small slipper--so small that at first he thought it must +have belonged to some child. He dismounted and picked it up. It +was worn and shaped to the foot. It could not have lain there +long, for it was not filled nor discolored by the wind-blown dust +of the trail, as all other adjacent objects were. If it had been +dropped by a passing traveler, that traveler must have passed +Collinson's, going or coming, within the last twelve hours. It was +scarcely possible that the shoe could have dropped from the foot +without the wearer's knowing it, and it must have been dropped in +an urgent flight, or it would have been recovered. Thus +practically Key treated his romance. And having done so, he +instantly wheeled his horse and plunged into the road in the +direction of the fire. + +But he was surprised after twenty minutes' riding to find that the +course of the fire had evidently changed. It was growing clearer +before him; the dry heat seemed to come more from the right, in the +direction of the detour he should have taken to Skinner's. This +seemed almost providential, and in keeping with his practical +treatment of his romance, as was also the fact that in all +probability the fire had not yet visited the little hollow which he +intended to explore. He knew he was nearing it now; the locality +had been strongly impressed upon him even in the darkness of the +previous evening. He had passed the rocky ledge; his horse's hoofs +no longer rang out clearly; slowly and perceptibly they grew +deadened in the springy mosses, and were finally lost in the netted +grasses and tangled vines that indicated the vicinity of the +densely wooded hollow. Here were already some of the wider spaced +vanguards of that wood; but here, too, a peculiar circumstance +struck him. He was already descending the slight declivity; but +the distance, instead of deepening in leafy shadow, was actually +growing lighter. Here were the outskirting sentinels of the wood-- +but the wood itself was gone! He spurred his horse through the +tall arch between the opened columns, and pulled up in amazement. + +The wood, indeed, was gone, and the whole hollow filled with the +already black and dead stumps of the utterly consumed forest! More +than that, from the indications before him, the catastrophe must +have almost immediately followed his retreat from the hollow on the +preceding night. It was evident that the fire had leaped the +intervening shoulder of the spur in one of the unaccountable, but +by no means rare, phenomena of this kind of disaster. The circling +heights around were yet untouched; only the hollow, and the ledge +of rock against which they had blundered with their horses when +they were seeking the mysterious window in last evening's darkness, +were calcined and destroyed. He dismounted and climbed the ledge, +still warm from the spent fire. A large mass of grayish outcrop +had evidently been the focus of the furnace blast of heat which +must have raged for hours in this spot. He was skirting its +crumbling debris when he started suddenly at a discovery which made +everything else fade into utter insignificance. Before him, in a +slight depression formed by a fault or lapse in the upheaved +strata, lay the charred and incinerated remains of a dwelling-house +leveled to the earth! Originally half hidden by a natural abattis +of growing myrtle and ceanothus which covered this counter-scarp of +rock towards the trail, it must have stood within a hundred feet of +them during their halt! + +Even in its utter and complete obliteration by the furious furnace +blast that had swept across it, there was still to be seen an +unmistakable ground plan and outline of a four-roomed house. While +everything that was combustible had succumbed to that intense heat, +there was still enough half-fused and warped metal, fractured iron +plate, and twisted and broken bars to indicate the kitchen and tool +shed. Very little had, evidently, been taken away; the house and +its contents were consumed where they stood. With a feeling of +horror and desperation Key at last ventured to disturb two or three +of the blackened heaps that lay before him. But they were only +vestiges of clothing, bedding, and crockery--there was no human +trace that he could detect. Nor was there any suggestion of the +original condition and quality of the house, except its size: +whether the ordinary unsightly cabin of frontier "partners," or +some sylvan cottage--there was nothing left but the usual ignoble +and unsavory ruins of burnt-out human habitation. + +And yet its very existence was a mystery. It had been unknown at +Collinson's, its nearest neighbor, and it was presumable that it +was equally unknown at Skinner's. Neither he nor his companions +had detected it in their first journey by day through the hollow, +and only the tell-tale window at night had been a hint of what was +even then so successfully concealed that they could not discover it +when they had blundered against its rock foundation. For concealed +it certainly was, and intentionally so. But for what purpose? + +He gave his romance full play for a few minutes with this question. +Some recluse, preferring the absolute simplicity of nature, or +perhaps wearied with the artificialities of society, had secluded +himself here with the company of his only daughter. Proficient as +a pathfinder, he had easily discovered some other way of +provisioning his house from the settlements than by the ordinary +trails past Collinson's or Skinner's, which would have betrayed his +vicinity. But recluses are not usually accompanied by young +daughters, whose relations with the world, not being as +antagonistic, would make them uncertain companions. Why not a +wife? His presumption of the extreme youth of the face he had seen +at the window was after all only based upon the slipper he had +found. And if a wife, whose absolute acceptance of such confined +seclusion might be equally uncertain, why not somebody else's wife? +Here was a reason for concealment, and the end of an episode, not +unknown even in the wilderness. And here was the work of the +Nemesis who had overtaken them in their guilty contentment! The +story, even to its moral, was complete. And yet it did not +entirely satisfy him, so superior is the absolutely unknown to the +most elaborate theory. + +His attention had been once or twice drawn towards the crumbling +wall of outcrop, which during the conflagration must have felt the +full force of the fiery blast that had swept through the hollow and +spent its fury upon it. It bore evidence of the intense heat in +cracked fissures and the crumbling debris that lay at its feet. +Key picked up some of the still warm fragments, and was not +surprised that they easily broke in a gritty, grayish powder in his +hands. In spite of his preoccupation with the human interest, the +instinct of the prospector was still strong upon him, and he almost +mechanically put some of the pieces in his pockets. Then after +another careful survey of the locality for any further record of +its vanished tenants, he returned to his horse. Here he took from +his saddle-bags, half listlessly, a precious phial encased in wood, +and, opening it, poured into another thick glass vessel part of a +smoking fluid; he then crumbled some of the calcined fragments into +the glass, and watched the ebullition that followed with mechanical +gravity. When it had almost ceased he drained off the contents +into another glass, which he set down, and then proceeded to pour +some water from his drinking-flask into the ordinary tin cup which +formed part of his culinary traveling-kit. Into this he put three +or four pinches of salt from his provision store. Then dipping his +fingers into the salt and water, he allowed a drop to fall into the +glass. A white cloud instantly gathered in the colorless fluid, +and then fell in a fine film to the bottom of the glass. Key's +eyes concentrated suddenly, the listless look left his face. His +fingers trembled lightly as he again let the salt water fall into +the solution, with exactly the same result! Again and again he +repeated it, until the bottom of the glass was quite gray with the +fallen precipitate. And his own face grew as gray. + +His hand trembled no longer as he carefully poured off the solution +so as not to disturb the precipitate at the bottom. Then he drew +out his knife, scooped a little of the gray sediment upon its +point, and emptying his tin cup, turned it upside down upon his +knee, placed the sediment upon it, and began to spread it over the +dull surface of its bottom with his knife. He had intended to rub +it briskly with his knife blade. But in the very action of +spreading it, the first stroke of his knife left upon the sediment +and the cup the luminous streak of burnished silver! + +He stood up and drew a long breath to still the beatings of his +heart. Then he rapidly re-climbed the rock, and passed over the +ruins again, this time plunging hurriedly through, and kicking +aside the charred heaps without a thought of what they had +contained. Key was not an unfeeling man, he was not an unrefined +one: he was a gentleman by instinct, and had an intuitive sympathy +for others; but in that instant his whole mind was concentrated +upon the calcined outcrop! And his first impulse was to see if it +bore any evidence of previous examination, prospecting, or working +by its suddenly evicted neighbors and owners. There was none: they +had evidently not known it. Nor was there any reason to suppose +that they would ever return to their hidden home, now devastated +and laid bare to the open sunlight and open trail. They were +already far away; their guilty personal secret would keep them from +revisiting it. An immense feeling of relief came over the soul of +this moral romancer; a momentary recognition of the Most High in +this perfect poetical retribution. He ran back quickly to his +saddle-bags, drew out one or two carefully written, formal notices +of preemption and claim, which he and his former companions had +carried in their brief partnership, erased their signatures and +left only his own name, with another grateful sense of Divine +interference, as he thought of them speeding far away in the +distance, and returned to the ruins. With unconscious irony, he +selected a charred post from the embers, stuck it in the ground a +few feet from the debris of outcrop, and finally affixed his +"Notice." Then, with a conscientiousness born possibly of his new +religious convictions, he dislodged with his pickaxe enough of the +brittle outcrop to constitute that presumption of "actual work" +upon the claim which was legally required for its maintenance, and +returned to his horse. In replacing his things in his saddle-bags +he came upon the slipper, and for an instant so complete was his +preoccupation in his later discovery, that he was about to throw it +away as useless impedimenta, until it occurred to him, albeit +vaguely, that it might be of service to him in its connection with +that discovery, in the way of refuting possible false claimants. +He was not aware of any faithlessness to his momentary romance, any +more than he was conscious of any disloyalty to his old companions, +in his gratification that his good fortune had come to him alone. +This singular selection was a common experience of prospecting. +And there was something about the magnitude of his discovery that +seemed to point to an individual achievement. He had made a rough +calculation of the richness of the lode from the quantity of +precipitate in his rude experiment; he had estimated its length, +breadth, and thickness from his slight knowledge of geology and the +theories then ripe; and the yield would be colossal! Of course, he +would require capital to work it, he would have to "let in" others +to his scheme and his prosperity; but the control of it would +always be HIS OWN. + +Then he suddenly started as he had never in his life before started +at the foot of man! For there was a footfall in the charred brush; +and not twenty yards from him stood Collinson, who had just +dismounted from a mule. The blood rushed to Key's pale face. + +"Prospectin' agin?" said the proprietor of the mill, with his weary +smile. + +"No," said Key quickly, "only straightening my pack." The blood +deepened in his cheek at his instinctive lie. Had he carefully +thought it out before, he would have welcomed Collinson, and told +him all. But now a quick, uneasy suspicion flashed upon him. +Perhaps his late host had lied, and knew of the existence of the +hidden house. Perhaps--he had spoken of some "silvery rock" the +night before--he even knew something of the lode itself. He turned +upon him with an aggressive face. But Collinson's next words +dissipated the thought. + +"I'm glad I found ye, anyhow," he said. "Ye see, arter you left, I +saw ye turn off the trail and make for the burning woods instead o' +goin' round. I sez to myself, 'That fellow is making straight for +Skinner's. He's sorter worried about me and that empty pork +bar'l,'--I hadn't oughter spoke that away afore you boys, anyhow,-- +'and he's takin' risks to help me.' So I reckoned I'd throw my leg +over Jenny here, and look arter ye--and go over to Skinner's +myself--and vote." + +"Certainly," said Key with cheerful alacrity, and the one thought +of getting Collinson away; "we'll go together, and we'll see that +that pork barrel is filled!" He glowed quite honestly with this +sudden idea of remembering Collinson through his good fortune. +"Let's get on quickly, for we may find the fire between us on the +outer trail." He hastily mounted his horse. + +"Then you didn't take this as a short cut," said Collinson, with +dull perseverance in his idea. "Why not? It looks all clear +ahead." + +"Yes," said Key hurriedly, "but it's been only a leap of the fire, +it's still raging round the bend. We must go back to the cross- +trail." His face was still flushing with his very equivocating, +and his anxiety to get his companion away. Only a few steps +further might bring Collinson before the ruins and the "Notice," +and that discovery must not be made by him until Key's plans were +perfected. A sudden aversion to the man he had a moment before +wished to reward began to take possession of him. "Come on," he +added almost roughly. + +But to his surprise, Collinson yielded with his usual grim +patience, and even a slight look of sympathy with his friend's +annoyance. "I reckon you're right, and mebbee you're in a hurry to +get to Skinner's all along o' MY business, I oughtn't hev told you +boys what I did." As they rode rapidly away he took occasion to +add, when Key had reined in slightly, with a feeling of relief at +being out of the hollow, "I was thinkin', too, of what you'd asked +about any one livin' here unbeknownst to me." + +"Well," said Key, with a new nervousness. + +"Well; I only had an idea o' proposin' that you and me just took a +look around that holler whar you thought you saw suthin'!" said +Collinson tentatively. + +"Nonsense," said Key hurriedly. "We really saw nothing--it was all +a fancy; and Uncle Dick was joking me because I said I thought I +saw a woman's face," he added with a forced laugh. + +Collinson glanced at him, half sadly. "Oh! You were only funnin', +then. I oughter guessed that. I oughter have knowed it from Uncle +Dick's talk!" They rode for some moments in silence; Key +preoccupied and feverish, and eager only to reach Skinner's. +Skinner was not only postmaster but "registrar" of the district, +and the new discoverer did not feel entirely safe until he had put +his formal notification and claims "on record." This was no +publication of his actual secret, nor any indication of success, +but was only a record that would in all probability remain +unnoticed and unchallenged amidst the many other hopeful dreams of +sanguine prospectors. But he was suddenly startled from his +preoccupation. + +"Ye said ye war straightenin' up yer pack just now," said Collinson +slowly. + +"Yes!" said Key almost angrily, "and I was." + +"Ye didn't stop to straighten it up down at the forks of the trail, +did ye?" + +"I may have," said Key nervously. "But why?" + +"Ye won't mind my axin' ye another question, will ye? Ye ain't +carryin' round with ye no woman's shoe?" + +Key felt the blood drop from his cheeks. "What do you mean?" he +stammered, scarcely daring to lift his conscious eyelids to his +companion's glance. But when he did so he was amazed to find that +Collinson's face was almost as much disturbed as his own. + +"I know it ain't the square thing to ask ye, but this is how it +is," said Collinson hesitatingly. "Ye see just down by the fork of +the trail where you came I picked up a woman's shoe. It sorter got +me! For I sez to myself, 'Thar ain't no one bin by my shanty, +comin' or goin', for weeks but you boys, and that shoe, from the +looks of it, ain't bin there as many hours.' I knew there wasn't +any wimin hereabouts. I reckoned it couldn't hev bin dropped by +Uncle Dick or that other man, for you would have seen it on the +road. So I allowed it might have bin YOU. And yer it is." He +slowly drew from his pocket--what Key was fully prepared to see-- +the mate of the slipper Key had in his saddle-bags! The fair +fugitive had evidently lost them both. + +But Key was better prepared now (perhaps this kind of dissimulation +is progressive), and quickly alive to the necessity of throwing +Collinson off this unexpected scent. And his companion's own +suggestion was right to his hand, and, as it seemed, again quite +providential! He laughed, with a quick color, which, however, +appeared to help his lie, as he replied half hysterically, "You're +right, old man, I own up, it's mine! It's d--d silly, I know--but +then, we're all fools where women are concerned--and I wouldn't +have lost that slipper for a mint of money." + +He held out his hand gayly, but Collinson retained the slipper +while he gravely examined it. + +"You wouldn't mind telling me where you mought hev got that?" he +said meditatively. + +"Of course I should mind," said Key with a well-affected mingling +of mirth and indignation. "What are you thinking of, you old +rascal? What do you take me for?" + +But Collinson did not laugh. "You wouldn't mind givin' me the size +and shape and general heft of her as wore that shoe?" + +"Most decidedly I should do nothing of the kind!" said Key half +impatiently. "Enough, that it was given to me by a very pretty +girl. There! that's all you will know." + +"GIVEN to you?" said Collinson, lifting his eyes. + +"Yes," returned Key sharply. + +Collinson handed him the slipper gravely. "I only asked you," he +said slowly, but with a certain quiet dignity which Key had never +before seen in his face, "because thar was suthin' about the size, +and shape, and fillin' out o' that shoe that kinder reminded me of +some 'un; but that some 'un--her as mought hev stood up in that +shoe--ain't o' that kind as would ever stand in the shoes of her as +YOU know at all." The rebuke, if such were intended, lay quite as +much in the utter ignoring of Key's airy gallantry and levity as in +any conscious slur upon the fair fame of his invented Dulcinea. +Yet Key oddly felt a strong inclination to resent the aspersion as +well as Collinson's gratuitous morality; and with a mean +recollection of Uncle Dick's last evening's scandalous gossip, he +said sarcastically, "And, of course, that some one YOU were +thinking of was your lawful wife." + +"It war!" said Collinson gravely. + +Perhaps it was something in Collinson's manner, or his own +preoccupation, but he did not pursue the subject, and the +conversation lagged. They were nearing, too, the outer edge of the +present conflagration, and the smoke, lying low in the unburnt +woods, or creeping like an actual exhalation of the soil, blinded +them so that at times they lost the trail completely. At other +times, from the intense heat, it seemed as if they were momentarily +impinging upon the burning area, or were being caught in a closing +circle. It was remarkable that with his sudden accession of +fortune Key seemed to lose his usual frank and careless +fearlessness, and impatiently questioned his companion's woodcraft. +There were intervals when he regretted his haste to reach Skinner's +by this shorter cut, and began to bitterly attribute it to his +desire to serve Collinson. Ah, yes! it would be fine indeed, if +just as he were about to clutch the prize he should be sacrificed +through the ignorance and stupidity of this heavy-handed moralist +at his side! But it was not until, through that moralist's +guidance, they climbed a steep acclivity to a second ridge, and +were comparatively safe, that he began to feel ashamed of his surly +silence or surlier interruptions. And Collinson, either through +his unconquerable patience, or possibly in a fit of his usual +uxorious abstraction, appeared to take no notice of it. + +A sloping table-land of weather-beaten boulders now effectually +separated them from the fire on the lower ridge. They presently +began to descend on the further side of the crest, and at last +dropped upon a wagon-road, and the first track of wheels that Key +had seen for a fortnight. Rude as it was, it seemed to him the +highway to fortune, for he knew that it passed Skinner's and then +joined the great stage-road to Marysville,--now his ultimate +destination. A few rods further on they came in view of Skinner's, +lying like a dingy forgotten winter snowdrift on the mountain +shelf. + +It contained a post-office, tavern, blacksmith's shop, "general +store," and express-office, scarcely a dozen buildings in all, but +all differing from Collinson's Mill in some vague suggestion of +vitality, as if the daily regular pulse of civilization still beat, +albeit languidly, in that remote extremity. There was anticipation +and accomplishment twice a day; and as Key and Collinson rode up to +the express-office, the express-wagon was standing before the door +ready to start to meet the stagecoach at the cross-roads three +miles away. This again seemed a special providence to Key. He had +a brief official communication with Skinner as registrar, and duly +recorded his claim; he had a hasty and confidential aside with +Skinner as general storekeeper, and such was the unconscious +magnetism developed by this embryo millionaire that Skinner +extended the necessary credit to Collinson on Key's word alone. +That done, he rejoined Collinson in high spirits with the news, +adding cheerfully, "And I dare say, if you want any further +advances Skinner will give them to you on Parker's draft." + +"You mean that bit o' paper that chap left," said Collinson +gravely. + +"Yes." + +"I tore it up." + +"You tore it up?" ejaculated Key. + +"You hear me? Yes!" said Collinson. + +Key stared at him. Surely it was again providential that he had +not intrusted his secret to this utterly ignorant and prejudiced +man! The slight twinges of conscience that his lie about the +slippers had caused him disappeared at once. He could not have +trusted him even in that; it would have been like this stupid +fanatic to have prevented Key's preemption of that claim, until he, +Collinson, had satisfied himself of the whereabouts of the missing +proprietor. Was he quite sure that Collinson would not revisit the +spot when he had gone? But he was ready for the emergency. + +He had intended to leave his horse with Skinner as security for +Collinson's provisions, but Skinner's liberality had made this +unnecessary, and he now offered it to Collinson to use and keep for +him until called for. This would enable his companion to "pack" +his goods on the mule, and oblige him to return to the mill by the +wagon-road and "outside trail," as more commodious for the two +animals. + +"Ye ain't afeared o' the road agents?" suggested a bystander; "they +just swarm on galloper's Ridge, and they 'held up' the down stage +only last week." + +"They're not so lively since the deputy-sheriff's got a new idea +about them, and has been lying low in the brush near Bald Top," +returned Skinner. "Anyhow, they don't stop teams nor 'packs' +unless there's a chance of their getting some fancy horseflesh by +it; and I reckon thar ain't much to tempt them thar," he added, +with a satirical side glance at his customer's cattle. But Key was +already standing in the express-wagon, giving a farewell shake to +his patient companion's hand, and this ingenuous pleasantry passed +unnoticed. Nevertheless, as the express-wagon rolled away, his +active fancy began to consider this new danger that might threaten +the hidden wealth of his claim. But he reflected that for a time, +at least, only the crude ore would be taken out and shipped to +Marysville in a shape that offered no profit to the highwaymen. +Had it been a gold mine!--but here again was the interposition of +Providence! + +A week later Preble Key returned to Skinner's with a foreman and +ten men, and an unlimited credit to draw upon at Marysville! +Expeditions of this kind created no surprise at Skinner's. Parties +had before this entered the wilderness gayly, none knew where or +what for; the sedate and silent woods had kept their secret while +there; they had evaporated, none knew when or where--often, alas! +with an unpaid account at Skinner's. Consequently, there was +nothing in Key's party to challenge curiosity. In another week a +rambling, one-storied shed of pine logs occupied the site of the +mysterious ruins, and contained the party; in two weeks excavations +had been made, and the whole face of the outcrop was exposed; in +three weeks every vestige of former tenancy which the fire had not +consumed was trampled out by the alien feet of these toilers of the +"Sylvan Silver Hollow Company." None of Key's former companions +would have recognized the hollow in its blackened leveling and +rocky foundation; even Collinson would not have remembered this +stripped and splintered rock, with its heaps of fresh debris, as +the place where he had overtaken Key. And Key himself had +forgotten, in his triumph, everything but the chance experiment +that had led to his success. + +Perhaps it was well, therefore, that one night, when the darkness +had mercifully fallen upon this scene of sylvan desolation, and its +still more incongruous and unsavory human restoration, and the low +murmur of the pines occasionally swelled up from the unscathed +mountain-side, a loud shout and the trampling of horses' feet awoke +the dwellers in the shanty. Springing to their feet, they +hurriedly seized their weapons and rushed out, only to be +confronted by a dark, motionless ring of horsemen, two flaming +torches of pine knots, and a low but distinct voice of authority. +In their excitement, half-awakened suspicion, and confusion, they +were affected by its note of calm preparation and conscious power. + +"Drop those guns--hold up your hands! We've got every man of you +covered." + +Key was no coward; the men, though flustered, were not cravens: but +they obeyed. "Trot out your leader! Let him stand out there, +clear, beside that torch!" + +One of the gleaming pine knots disengaged itself from the dark +circle and moved to the centre, as Preble Key, cool and confident, +stepped beside it. + +"That will do," said the immutable voice. "Now, we want Jack +Riggs, Sydney Jack, French Pete, and One-eyed Charley." + +A vivid reminiscence of the former night scene in the hollow--of +his own and his companions voices raised in the darkness--flashed +across Key. With an instinctive premonition that this invasion had +something to do with the former tenant, he said calmly:-- + +"Who wants them?" + +"The State of California," said the voice. + +"The State of California must look further," returned Key in his +old pleasant voice; "there are no such names among my party." + +"Who are you?" + +"The manager of the 'Sylvan Silver Hollow Company,' and these are +my workmen. + +There was a hurried movement, and the sound of whispering in the +hitherto dark and silent circle, and then the voice rose again: + +"You have the papers to prove that?" + +"Yes, in the cabin. And you?" + +"I've a warrant to the sheriff of Sierra." + +There was a pause, and the voice went on less confidently:-- + +"How long have you been here?" + +"Three weeks. I came here the day of the fire and took up this +claim." + +"There was no other house here?" + +"There were ruins,--you can see them still. It may have been a +burnt-up cabin." + +The voice disengaged itself from the vague background and came +slowly forwards:-- + +"It was a den of thieves. It was the hiding-place of Jack Riggs +and his gang of road agents. I've been hunting this spot for three +weeks. And now the whole thing's up!" + +There was a laugh from Key's men, but it was checked as the owner +of the voice slowly ranged up beside the burning torch and they saw +his face. It was dark and set with the defeat of a brave man. + +"Won't you come in and take something?" said Key kindly. + +"No. It's enough fool work for me to have routed ye out already. +But I suppose it's all in my d--d day's work! Good-night! Forward +there! Get!" + +The two torches danced forwards, with the trailing off of vague +shadows in dim procession; there was a clatter over the rocks and +they were gone. Then, as Preble Key gazed after them, he felt that +with them had passed the only shadow that lay upon his great +fortune; and with the last tenant of the hollow a proscribed outlaw +and fugitive, he was henceforth forever safe in his claim and his +discovery. And yet, oddly enough, at that moment, as he turned +away, for the first time in three weeks there passed before his +fancy with a stirring of reproach a vision of the face that he had +seen at the window. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Of the great discovery in Sylvan Silver Hollow it would seem that +Collinson as yet knew nothing. In spite of Key's fears that he +might stray there on his return from Skinner's, he did not, nor did +he afterwards revisit the locality. Neither the news of the +registry of the claim nor the arrival of Key's workmen ever reached +him. The few travelers who passed his mill came from the valley to +cross the Divide on their way to Skinner's, and returned by the +longer but easier detour of the stage-road over Galloper's Ridge. +He had no chance to participate in the prosperity that flowed from +the opening of the mine, which plentifully besprinkled Skinner's +settlement; he was too far away to profit even by the chance custom +of Key's Sabbath wandering workmen. His isolation from +civilization (for those who came to him from the valley were rude +Western emigrants like himself) remained undisturbed. The return +of the prospecting party to his humble hospitality that night had +been an exceptional case; in his characteristic simplicity he did +not dream that it was because they had nowhere else to go in their +penniless condition. It was an incident to be pleasantly +remembered, but whose nonrecurrence did not disturb his infinite +patience. His pork barrel and flour sack had been replenished for +other travelers; his own wants were few. + +It was a day or two after the midnight visit of the sheriff to +Silver Hollow that Key galloped down the steep grade to +Collinson's. He was amused, albeit, in his new importance, a +little aggrieved also, to find that Collinson had as usual +confounded his descent with that of the generally detached boulder, +and that he was obliged to add his voice to the general uproar. +This brought Collinson to his door. + +"I've had your hoss hobbled out among the chickweed and clover in +the green pasture back o' the mill, and he's picked up that much +that he's lookin' fat and sassy," he said quietly, beginning to +mechanically unstrap Key's bridle, even while his guest was in the +act of dismounting. "His back's quite healed up." + +Key could not restrain a shrug of impatience. It was three weeks +since they had met,--three weeks crammed with excitement, energy, +achievement, and fortune to Key; and yet this place and this man +were as stupidly unchanged as when he had left them. A momentary +fancy that this was the reality, that he himself was only awakening +from some delusive dream, came over him. But Collinson's next +words were practical. + +"I reckoned that maybe you'd write from Marysville to Skinner to +send for the hoss, and forward him to ye, for I never kalkilated +you'd come back." + +It was quite plain from this that Collinson had heard nothing. But +it was also awkward, as Key would now have to tell the whole story, +and reveal the fact that he had been really experimenting when +Collinson overtook him in the hollow. He evaded this by post- +dating his discovery of the richness of the ore until he had +reached Marysville. But he found some difficulty in recounting his +good fortune: he was naturally no boaster, he had no desire to +impress Collinson with his penetration, nor the undaunted energy he +had displayed in getting up his company and opening the mine, so +that he was actually embarrassed by his own understatement; and +under the grave, patient eyes of his companion, told his story at +best lamely. Collinson's face betrayed neither profound interest +nor the slightest resentment. When Key had ended his awkward +recital, Collinson said slowly:-- + +"Then Uncle Dick and that other Parker feller ain't got no show in +this yer find." + +"No," said Key quickly. "Don't you remember we broke up our +partnership that morning and went off our own ways. You don't +suppose," he added with a forced half-laugh, "that if Uncle Dick or +Parker had struck a lead after they left me, they'd have put me in +it?" + +"Wouldn't they?" asked Collinson gravely. + +"Of course not." He laughed a little more naturally, but presently +added, with an uneasy smile, "What makes you think they would?" + +"Nuthin'!" said Collinson promptly. + +Nevertheless, when they were seated before the fire, with glasses +in their hands, Collinson returned patiently to the subject: + +"You wuz saying they went their way, and you went yours. But your +way was back on the old way that you'd all gone together." + +But Key felt himself on firmer ground here, and answered +deliberately and truthfully, "Yes, but I only went back to the +hollow to satisfy myself if there really was any house there, and +if there was, to warn the occupants of the approaching fire." + +"And there was a house there," said Collinson thoughtfully. + +"Only the ruins." He stopped and flushed quickly, for he +remembered that he had denied its existence at their former +meeting. "That is," he went on hurriedly, "I found out from the +sheriff, you know, that there had been a house there. But," he +added, reverting to his stronger position, "my going back there was +an accident, and my picking up the outcrop was an accident, and had +no more to do with our partnership prospecting than you had. In +fact," he said, with a reassuring laugh, "you'd have had a better +right to share in my claim, coming there as you did at that moment, +than they. Why, if I'd have known what the thing was worth, I +might have put you in--only it wanted capital and some experience." +He was glad that he had pitched upon that excuse (it had only just +occurred to him), and glanced affably at Collinson. But that +gentleman said soberly:-- + +"No, you wouldn't nuther." + +"Why not?" said Key half angrily. + +Collinson paused. After a moment he said, "'Cos I wouldn't hev +took anything outer thet place." + +Key felt relieved. From what he knew of Collinson's vagaries he +believed him. He was wise in not admitting him to his confidences +at the beginning; he might have thought it his duty to tell others. + +"I'm not so particular," he returned laughingly, "but the silver in +that hole was never touched, nor I dare say even imagined by mortal +man before. However, there is something else about the hollow that +I want to tell you. You remember the slipper that you picked up?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I lied to you about that; I never dropped it. On the +contrary, I had picked up the mate of it very near where you found +yours, and I wanted to know to whom it belonged. For I don't mind +telling you now, Collinson, that I believe there WAS a woman in +that house, and the same woman whose face I saw at the window. You +remember how the boys joked me about it--well, perhaps I didn't +care that you should laugh at me too, but I've had a sore +conscience over my lie, for I remembered that you seemed to have +some interest in the matter too, and I thought that maybe I might +have thrown you off the scent. It seemed to me that if you had any +idea who it was, we might now talk the matter over and compare +notes. I think you said--at least, I gathered the idea from a +remark of yours," he added hastily, as he remembered that the +suggestion was his own, and a satirical one--"that it reminded you +of your wife's slipper. Of course, as your wife is dead, that +would offer no clue, and can only be a chance resemblance, unless"-- +He stopped. + +"Have you got 'em yet?" + +"Yes, both." He took them from the pocket of his riding-jacket. + +As Collinson received them, his face took upon itself an even +graver expression. "It's mighty cur'ous," he said reflectively, +"but looking at the two of 'em the likeness is more fetchin'. Ye +see, my wife had a STRAIGHT foot, and never wore reg'lar rights and +lefts like other women, but kinder changed about; ye see, these +shoes is reg'lar rights and lefts, but never was worn as sich!" + +"There may be other women as peculiar," suggested Key. + +"There MUST be," said Collinson quietly. + +For an instant Key was touched with the manly security of the +reply, for, remembering Uncle Dick's scandal, it had occurred to +him that the unknown tenant of the robbers' den might be +Collinson's wife. He was glad to be relieved on that point, and +went on more confidently:-- + +"So, you see, this woman was undoubtedly in that house on the night +of the fire. She escaped, and in a mighty hurry too, for she had +not time to change her slippers for shoes; she escaped on +horseback, for that is how she lost them. Now what was she doing +there with those rascals, for the face I saw looked as innocent as +a saint's." + +"Seemed to ye sort o' contrairy, jist as I reckoned my wife's foot +would have looked in a slipper that you said was GIV to ye," +suggested Collinson pointedly, but with no implication of reproach +in his voice. + +"Yes," said Key impatiently. + +"I've read yarns afore now about them Eyetalian brigands stealin' +women," said Collinson reflectively, "but that ain't California +road-agent style. Great Scott! if one even so much as spoke to a +woman, they'd have been wiped outer the State long ago. No! the +woman as WAS there came there to STAY!" + +As Key's face did not seem to express either assent or satisfaction +at this last statement, Collinson, after a glance at it, went on +with a somewhat gentler gravity: "I see wot's troublin' YOU, Mr. +Key; you've bin thinkin' that mebbee that poor woman might hev bin +the better for a bit o' that fortin' that you discovered under the +very spot where them slippers of hers had often trod. You're +thinkin' that mebbee it might hev turned her and those men from +their evil ways." + +Mr. Key had been thinking nothing of the kind, but for some obscure +reason the skeptical jeer that had risen to his lips remained +unsaid. He rose impatiently. "Well, there seems to be no chance +of discovering anything now; the house is burnt, the gang +dispersed, and she has probably gone with them." He paused, and +then laid three or four large gold pieces on the table. "It's for +that old bill of our party, Collinson," he said. "I'll settle and +collect from each. Some time when you come over to the mine, and I +hope you'll give us a call, you can bring the horse. Meanwhile you +can use him; you'll find he's a little quicker than the mule. How +is business?" he added, with a perfunctory glance around the vacant +room and dusty bar. + +"Thar ain't much passin' this way," said Collinson with equal +carelessness, as he gathered up the money, "'cept those boys from +the valley, and they're most always strapped when they come here." + +Key smiled as he observed that Collinson offered him no receipt, +and, moreover, as he remembered that he had only Collinson's word +for the destruction of Parker's draft. But he merely glanced at +his unconscious host, and said nothing. After a pause he returned +in a lighter tone: "I suppose you are rather out of the world here. +Indeed, I had an idea at first of buying out your mill, Collinson, +and putting in steam power to get out timber for our new buildings, +but you see you are so far away from the wagon-road, that we +couldn't haul the timber away. That was the trouble, or I'd have +made you a fair offer." + +"I don't reckon to ever sell the mill," said Collinson simply. +Then observing the look of suspicion in his companion's face, he +added gravely, "You see, I rigged up the whole thing when I +expected my wife out from the States, and I calkilate to keep it in +memory of her." + +Key slightly lifted his brows. "But you never told us, by the way, +HOW you ever came to put up a mill here with such an uncertain +water-supply." + +"It wasn't onsartin when I came here, Mr. Key; it was a full-fed +stream straight from them snow peaks. It was the earthquake did +it." + +"The earthquake!" repeated Key. + +"Yes. Ef the earthquake kin heave up that silver-bearing rock that +you told us about the first day you kem here, and that you found +t'other day, it could play roots with a mere mill-stream, I +reckon." + +"But the convulsion I spoke of happened ages on ages ago, when this +whole mountain range was being fashioned," said Key with a laugh. + +"Well, this yer earthquake was ten years ago, just after I came. I +reckon I oughter remember it. It was a queer sort o' day in the +fall, dry and hot as if thar might hev bin a fire in the woods, +only thar wasn't no wind. Not a breath of air anywhar. The leaves +of them alders hung straight as a plumb-line. Except for that thar +stream and that thar wheel, nuthin' moved. Thar wasn't a bird on +the wing over that canyon; thar wasn't a squirrel skirmishin' in +the hull wood; even the lizards in the rocks stiffened like stone +Chinese idols. It kept gettin' quieter and quieter, ontil I walked +out on that ledge and felt as if I'd have to give a yell just to +hear my own voice. Thar was a thin veil over everything, and +betwixt and between everything, and the sun was rooted in the +middle of it as if it couldn't move neither. Everythin' seemed to +be waitin', waitin', waitin'. Then all of a suddin suthin' seemed +to give somewhar! Suthin' fetched away with a queer sort of +rumblin', as if the peg had slipped outer creation. I looked up +and kalkilated to see half a dozen of them boulders come, lickity +switch, down the grade. But, darn my skin, if one of 'em stirred! +and yet while I was looking, the whole face o' that bluff bowed +over softly, as if saying 'Good-by,' and got clean away somewhar +before I knowed it. Why, you see that pile agin the side o' the +canyon! Well, a thousand feet under that there's trees, three +hundred feet high, still upright and standin'. You know how them +pines over on that far mountain-side always seem to be climbin' up, +up, up, over each other's heads to the very top? Well, Mr. Key, I +SAW 'EM climbin'! And when I pulled myself together and got back +to the mill, everything was quiet; and, by G--d, so was the mill- +wheel, and there wasn't two inches of water in the river!" + +"And what did you think of it?" said Key, interested in spite of +his impatience. + +"I thought, Mr. Key-- No! I mustn't say I thought, for I knowed +it. I knowed that suthin' had happened to my wife!" + +Key did not smile, but even felt a faint superstitious thrill as he +gazed at him. After a pause Collinson resumed: "I heard a month +after that she had died about that time o' yaller fever in Texas +with the party she was comin' with. Her folks wrote that they died +like flies, and wuz all buried together, unbeknownst and +promiscuous, and thar wasn't no remains. She slipped away from me +like that bluff over that canyon, and that was the end of it." + +"But she might have escaped," said Key quickly, forgetting himself +in his eagerness. + +But Collinson only shook his head. "Then she'd have been here," he +said gravely. + +Key moved towards the door still abstractedly, held out his hand, +shook that of his companion warmly, and then, saddling his horse +himself, departed. A sense of disappointment--in which a vague +dissatisfaction with himself was mingled--was all that had come of +his interview. He took himself severely to task for following his +romantic quest so far. It was unworthy of the president of the +Sylvan Silver Hollow Company, and he was not quite sure but that +his confidences with Collinson might have imperiled even the +interests of the company. To atone for this momentary aberration, +and correct his dismal fancies, he resolved to attend to some +business at Skinner's before returning, and branched off on a long +detour that would intersect the traveled stage-road. But here a +singular incident overtook him. As he wheeled into the turnpike, +he heard the trampling hoof-beats and jingling harness of the +oncoming coach behind him. He had barely time to draw up against +the bank before the six galloping horses and swinging vehicle swept +heavily by. He had a quick impression of the heat and steam of +sweating horse-hide, the reek of varnish and leather, and the +momentary vision of a female face silhouetted against the glass +window of the coach! But even in that flash of perception he +recognized the profile that he had seen at the window of the +mysterious hut! + +He halted for an instant dazed and bewildered in the dust of the +departing wheels. Then, as the bulk of the vehicle reappeared, +already narrowing in the distance, without a second thought he +dashed after it. His disappointment, his self-criticism, his +practical resolutions were forgotten. He had but one idea now--the +vision was providential! The clue to the mystery was before him-- +he MUST follow it! + +Yet he had sense enough to realize that the coach would not stop to +take up a passenger between stations, and that the next station was +the one three miles below Skinner's. It would not be difficult to +reach this by a cut-off in time, and although the vehicle had +appeared to be crowded, he could no doubt obtain a seat on top. + +His eager curiosity, however, led him to put spurs to his horse, +and range up alongside of the coach as if passing it, while he +examined the stranger more closely. Her face was bent listlessly +over a book; there was unmistakably the same profile that he had +seen, but the full face was different in outline and expression. A +strange sense of disappointment that was almost a revulsion of +feeling came over him; he lingered, he glanced again; she was +certainly a very pretty woman: there was the beautifully rounded +chin, the short straight nose, and delicately curved upper lip, +that he had seen in the profile,--and yet--yet it was not the same +face he had dreamt of. With an odd, provoking sense of +disillusion, he swept ahead of the coach, and again slackened his +speed to let it pass. This time the fair unknown raised her long +lashes and gazed suddenly at this persistent horseman at her side, +and an odd expression, it seemed to him almost a glance of +recognition and expectation, came into her dark, languid eyes. The +pupils concentrated upon him with a singular significance, that was +almost, he even thought, a reply to his glance, and yet it was as +utterly unintelligible. A moment later, however, it was explained. +He had fallen slightly behind in a new confusion of hesitation, +wonder, and embarrassment, when from a wooded trail to the right, +another horseman suddenly swept into the road before him. He was a +powerfully built man, mounted on a thoroughbred horse of a quality +far superior to the ordinary roadster. Without looking at Key he +easily ranged up beside the coach as if to pass it, but Key, with a +sudden resolution, put spurs to his own horse and ranged also +abreast of him, in time to see his fair unknown start at the +apparition of this second horseman and unmistakably convey some +signal to him,--a signal that to Key's fancy now betrayed some +warning of himself. He was the more convinced as the stranger, +after continuing a few paces ahead of the coach, allowed it to pass +him at a curve of the road, and slackened his pace to permit Key to +do the same. Instinctively conscious that the stranger's object +was to scrutinize or identify him, he determined to take the +initiative, and fixed his eyes upon him as they approached. But +the stranger, who wore a loose brown linen duster over clothes that +appeared to be superior in fashion and material, also had part of +his face and head draped by a white silk handkerchief worn under +his hat, ostensibly to keep the sun and dust from his head and +neck,--and had the advantage of him. He only caught the flash of a +pair of steel-gray eyes, as the newcomer, apparently having +satisfied himself, gave rein to his spirited steed and easily +repassed the coach, disappearing in a cloud of dust before it. But +Key had by this time reached the "cut-off," which the stranger, if +he intended to follow the coach, either disdained or was ignorant +of, and he urged his horse to its utmost speed. Even with the +stranger's advantages it would be a close race to the station. + +Nevertheless, as he dashed on, he was by no means insensible to the +somewhat quixotic nature of his undertaking. If he was right in +his suspicion that a signal had been given by the lady to the +stranger, it was exceedingly probable that he had discovered not +only the fair inmate of the robbers' den, but one of the gang +itself, or at least a confederate and ally. Yet far from deterring +him, in that ingenious sophistry with which he was apt to treat his +romance, he now looked upon his adventure as a practical pursuit in +the interests of law and justice. It was true that it was said +that the band of road agents had been dispersed; it was a fact that +there had been no spoliation of coach or teams for three weeks; but +none of the depredators had ever been caught, and their booty, +which was considerable, was known to be still intact. It was to +the interest of the mine, his partners, and his workmen that this +clue to a danger which threatened the locality should be followed +to the end. As to the lady, in spite of the disappointment that +still rankled in his breast, he could be magnanimous! She might be +the paramour of the strange horseman, she might be only escaping +from some hateful companionship by his aid. And yet one thing +puzzled him: she was evidently not acquainted with the personality +of the active gang, for she had, without doubt, at first mistaken +HIM for one of them, and after recognizing her real accomplice had +communicated her mistake to him. + +It was a great relief to him when the rough and tangled "cut-off" +at last broadened and lightened into the turnpike road again, and +he beheld, scarcely a quarter of a mile before him, the dust cloud +that overhung the coach as it drew up at the lonely wayside +station. He was in time, for he knew that the horses were changed +there; but a sudden fear that the fair unknown might alight, or +take some other conveyance, made him still spur his jaded steed +forward. As he neared the station he glanced eagerly around for +the other horseman, but he was nowhere to be seen. He had +evidently either abandoned the chase or ridden ahead. + +It seemed equally a part of what he believed was a providential +intercession, that on arriving at the station he found there was a +vacant seat inside the coach. It was diagonally opposite that +occupied by the lady, and he was thus enabled to study her face as +it was bent over her book, whose pages, however, she scarcely +turned. After her first casual glance of curiosity at the new +passenger, she seemed to take no more notice of him, and Key began +to wonder if he had not mistaken her previous interrogating look. +Nor was it his only disturbing query; he was conscious of the same +disappointment now that he could examine her face more attentively, +as in his first cursory glance. She was certainly handsome; if +there was no longer the freshness of youth, there was still the +indefinable charm of the woman of thirty, and with it the delicate +curves of matured muliebrity and repose. There were lines, +particularly around the mouth and fringed eyelids, that were +deepened as by pain; and the chin, even in its rounded fullness, +had the angle of determination. From what was visible, below the +brown linen duster that she wore, she appeared to be tastefully +although not richly dressed. + +As the coach at last drove away from the station, a grizzled, +farmer-looking man seated beside her uttered a sigh of relief, so +palpable as to attract the general attention. Turning to his fair +neighbor with a smile of uncouth but good-humored apology, he said +in explanation:-- + +"You'll excuse me, miss! I don't know ezactly how YOU'RE feelin',-- +for judging from your looks and gin'ral gait, you're a stranger in +these parts,--but ez for ME, I don't mind sayin' that I never feel +ezactly safe from these yer road agents and stage robbers ontil +arter we pass Skinner's station. All along thet Galloper's Ridge +it's jest tech and go like; the woods is swarmin' with 'em. But +once past Skinner's, you're all right. They never dare go below +that. So ef you don't mind, miss, for it's bein' in your presence, +I'll jest pull off my butes and ease my feet for a spell." + +Neither the inconsequence of this singular request, nor the smile +it evoked on the faces of the other passengers, seemed to disturb +the lady's abstraction. Scarcely lifting her eyes from her book, +she bowed a grave assent. + +"You see, miss," he continued, "and you gents," he added, taking +the whole coach into his confidence, "I've got over forty ounces of +clean gold dust in them butes, between the upper and lower sole,-- +and it's mighty tight packing for my feet. Ye kin heft it," he +said, as he removed one boot and held it up before them. "I put +the dust there for safety--kalkilatin' that while these road gentry +allus goes for a man's pockets and his body belt, they never thinks +of his butes, or haven't time to go through 'em." He looked around +him with a smile of self-satisfaction. + +The murmur of admiring comment was, however, broken by a burly- +bearded miner who sat in the middle seat. "Thet's pretty fair, as +far as it goes," he said smilingly, "but I reckon it wouldn't go +far ef you started to run. I've got a simpler game than that, +gentlemen, and ez we're all friends here, and the danger's over, I +don't mind tellin' ye. The first thing these yer road agents do, +after they've covered the driver with their shot guns, is to make +the passengers get out and hold up their hands. That, ma'am,"-- +explanatorily to the lady, who betrayed only a languid interest,-- +"is to keep 'em from drawing their revolvers. A revolver is the +last thing a road agent wants, either in a man's hand or in his +holster. So I sez to myself, 'Ef a six-shooter ain't of no +account, wet's the use of carryin' it?' So I just put my shooting- +iron in my valise when I travel, and fill my holster with my gold +dust, so! It's a deuced sight heavier than a revolver, but they +don't feel its weight, and don't keer to come nigh it. And I've +been 'held up' twice on t'other side of the Divide this year, and I +passed free every time!" + +The applause that followed this revelation and the exhibition of +the holster not only threw the farmer's exploits into the shade, +but seemed to excite an emulation among the passengers. Other +methods of securing their property were freely discussed; but the +excitement culminated in the leaning forward of a passenger who +had, up to that moment, maintained a reserve almost equal to the +fair unknown. His dress and general appearance were those of a +professional man; his voice and manner corroborated the +presumption. + +"I don't think, gentlemen," he began with a pleasant smile, "that +any man of us here would like to be called a coward; but in +fighting with an enemy who never attacks, or even appears, except +with a deliberately prepared advantage on his side, it is my +opinion that a man is not only justified in avoiding an unequal +encounter with him, but in circumventing by every means the object +of his attack. You have all been frank in telling your methods. I +will be equally so in telling mine, even if I have perhaps to +confess to a little more than you have; for I have not only availed +myself of a well-known rule of the robbers who infest these +mountains, to exempt all women and children from their spoliation,-- +a rule which, of course, they perfectly understand gives them a +sentimental consideration with all Californians,--but I have, I +confess, also availed myself of the innocent kindness of one of +that charming and justly exempted sex." He paused and bowed +courteously to the fair unknown. "When I entered this coach I had +with me a bulky parcel which was manifestly too large for my +pockets, yet as evidently too small and too valuable to be +intrusted to the ordinary luggage. Seeing my difficulty, our +charming companion opposite, out of the very kindness and innocence +of her heart, offered to make a place for it in her satchel, which +was not full. I accepted the offer joyfully. When I state to you, +gentlemen, that that package contained valuable government bonds to +a considerable amount, I do so, not to claim your praise for any +originality of my own, but to make this public avowal to our fair +fellow passenger for securing to me this most perfect security and +immunity from the road agent that has been yet recorded." + +With his eyes riveted on the lady's face, Key saw a faint color +rise to her otherwise impassive face, which might have been called +out by the enthusiastic praise that followed the lawyer's +confession. But he was painfully conscious of what now seemed to +him a monstrous situation! Here was, he believed, the actual +accomplice of the road agents calmly receiving the complacent and +puerile confessions of the men who were seeking to outwit them. +Could he, in ordinary justice to them, to himself, or the mission +he conceived he was pursuing, refrain from exposing her, or warning +them privately? But was he certain? Was a vague remembrance of a +profile momentarily seen--and, as he must even now admit, +inconsistent with the full face he was gazing at--sufficient for +such an accusation? More than that, was the protection she had +apparently afforded the lawyer consistent with the function of an +accomplice! + +"Then if the danger's over," said the lady gently, reaching down to +draw her satchel from under the seat, "I suppose I may return it to +you." + +"By no means! Don't trouble yourself! Pray allow me to still +remain your debtor,--at least as far as the next station," said the +lawyer gallantly. + +The lady uttered a languid sigh, sank back in her seat, and calmly +settled herself to the perusal of her book. Key felt his cheeks +beginning to burn with the embarrassment and shame of his evident +misconception. And here he was on his way to Marysville, to follow +a woman for whom he felt he no longer cared, and for whose pursuit +he had no longer the excuse of justice. + +"Then I understand that you have twice seen these road agents," +said the professional man, turning to the miner. "Of course, you +could be able to identify them?" + +"Nary a man! You see they're all masked, and only one of 'em ever +speaks." + +"The leader or chief?" + +"No, the orator." + +"The orator?" repeated the professional man in amazement. + +"Well, you see, I call him the orator, for he's mighty glib with +his tongue, and reels off all he has to say like as if he had it by +heart. He's mighty rough on you, too, sometimes, for all his high- +toned style. Ef he thinks a man is hidin' anything he jest scalps +him with his tongue, and blamed if I don't think he likes the +chance of doin' it. He's got a regular set speech, and he's bound +to go through it all, even if he makes everything wait, and runs +the risk of capture. Yet he ain't the chief,--and even I've heard +folks say ain't got any responsibility if he is took, for he don't +tech anybody or anybody's money, and couldn't be prosecuted. I +reckon he's some sort of a broken-down lawyer--d'ye see?" + +"Not much of a lawyer, I imagine," said the professional man, +smiling, "for he'll find himself quite mistaken as to his share of +responsibility. But it's a rather clever way of concealing the +identity of the real leader." + +"It's the smartest gang that was ever started in the Sierras. They +fooled the sheriff of Sierra the other day. They gave him a sort +of idea that they had a kind of hidin'-place in the woods whar they +met and kept their booty, and, by jinks! he goes down thar with his +hull posse,--just spilin' for a fight,--and only lights upon a gang +of innocent greenhorns, who were boring for silver on the very spot +where he allowed the robbers had their den! He ain't held up his +head since." + +Key cast a quick glance at the lady to see the effect of this +revelation. But her face--if the same profile he had seen at the +window--betrayed neither concern nor curiosity. He let his eyes +drop to the smart boot that peeped from below her gown, and the +thought of his trying to identify it with the slipper he had picked +up seemed to him as ridiculous as his other misconceptions. He +sank back gloomily in his seat; by degrees the fatigue and +excitement of the day began to mercifully benumb his senses; +twilight had fallen and the talk had ceased. The lady had allowed +her book to drop in her lap as the darkness gathered, and had +closed her eyes; he closed his own, and slipped away presently into +a dream, in which he saw the profile again as he had seen it in the +darkness of the hollow, only that this time it changed to a full +face, unlike the lady's or any one he had ever seen. Then the +window seemed to open with a rattle, and he again felt the cool +odors of the forest; but he awoke to find that the lady had only +opened her window for a breath of fresh air. It was nearly eight +o' clock; it would be an hour yet before the coach stopped at the +next station for supper; the passengers were drowsily nodding; he +closed his eyes and fell into a deeper sleep, from which he awoke +with a start. + +The coach had stopped! + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +"It can't be Three Pines yet," said a passenger's voice, in which +the laziness of sleep still lingered, "or else we've snoozed over +five mile. I don't see no lights; wot are we stoppin' for?" The +other passengers struggled to an upright position. One nearest the +window opened it; its place was instantly occupied by the double +muzzle of a shot-gun! No one moved. In the awestricken silence +the voice of the driver rose in drawling protestation. + +"It ain't no business o' mine, but it sorter strikes me that you +chaps are a-playin' it just a little too fine this time! It ain't +three miles from Three Pine Station and forty men. Of course, +that's your lookout,--not mine!" + +The audacity of the thing had evidently struck even the usually +taciturn and phlegmatic driver into his first expostulation on +record. + +"Your thoughtful consideration does you great credit," said a voice +from the darkness, "and shall be properly presented to our manager; +but at the same time we wish it understood that we do not hesitate +to take any risks in strict attention to our business and our +clients. In the mean time you will expedite matters, and give your +passengers a chance to get an early tea at Three Pines, by handing +down that treasure-box and mail-pouch. Be careful in handling that +blunderbuss you keep beside it; the last time it unfortunately went +off, and I regret to say slightly wounded one of your passengers. +Accidents of this kind, interfering, as they do, with the harmony +and pleasure of our chance meetings, cannot be too highly +deplored." + +"By gosh!" ejaculated an outside passenger in an audible whisper. + +"Thank you, sir," said the voice quietly; "but as I overlooked you, +I will trouble you now to descend with the others." + +The voice moved nearer; and, by the light of a flaming bull's-eye +cast upon the coach, it could be seen to come from a stout, medium- +sized man with a black mask, which, however, showed half of a +smooth, beardless face, and an affable yet satirical mouth. The +speaker cleared his throat with the slight preparatory cough of the +practiced orator, and, approaching the window, to Key's intense +surprise, actually began in the identical professional and +rhetorical style previously indicated by the miner. + +"Circumstances over which we have no control, gentlemen, compel us +to oblige you to alight, stand in a row on one side, and hold up +your hands. You will find the attitude not unpleasant after your +cramped position in the coach, while the change from its confined +air to the wholesome night-breeze of the Sierras cannot but prove +salutary and refreshing. It will also enable us to relieve you of +such so-called valuables and treasures in the way of gold dust and +coin, which I regret to say too often are misapplied in careless +hands, and which the teachings of the highest morality distinctly +denominate as the root of all evil! I need not inform you, +gentlemen, as business men, that promptitude and celerity of +compliance will insure dispatch, and shorten an interview which has +been sometimes needlessly, and, I regret to say, painfully +protracted." + +He drew back deliberately with the same monotonous precision of +habit, and disclosed the muzzles of his confederates' weapons still +leveled at the passengers. In spite of their astonishment, +indignation, and discomfiture, his practiced effrontery and +deliberate display appeared in some way to touch their humorous +sense, and one or two smiled hysterically, as they rose and +hesitatingly filed out of the vehicle. It is possible, however, +that the leveled shot-guns contributed more or less directly to +this result. + +Two masks began to search the passengers under the combined focus +of the bull's-eyes, the shining gun-barrels, and a running but +still carefully prepared commentary from the spokesman. "It is to +be regretted that business men, instead of intrusting their +property to the custody of the regularly constituted express agent, +still continue to secrete it on their persons; a custom that, +without enhancing its security, is not only an injustice to the +express company, but a great detriment to dispatch. We also wish +to point out that while we do not as a rule interfere with the +possession of articles of ordinary personal use or adornment, such +as simple jewelry or watches, we reserve our right to restrict by +confiscation the vulgarity and unmanliness of diamonds and enormous +fob chains." + +The act of spoliation was apparently complete, yet it was evident +that the orator was restraining himself for a more effective +climax. Clearing his throat again and stepping before the +impatient but still mystified file of passengers, he reviewed them +gravely. Then in a perfectly pitched tone of mingled pain and +apology, he said slowly:-- + +"It would seem that, from no wish of our own, we are obliged on +this present occasion to suspend one or two of our usual rules. We +are not in the habit of interfering with the wearing apparel of our +esteemed clients; but in the interests of ordinary humanity we are +obliged to remove the boots of the gentleman on the extreme left, +which evidently give him great pain and impede his locomotion. We +also seldom deviate from our rule of obliging our clients to hold +up their hands during this examination; but we gladly make an +exception in favor of the gentleman next to him, and permit him to +hand us the altogether too heavily weighted holster which presses +upon his hip. Gentlemen," said the orator, slightly raising his +voice, with a deprecating gesture, "you need not be alarmed! The +indignant movement of our friend, just now, was not to draw his +revolver,--for it isn't there!" He paused while his companions +speedily removed the farmer's boots and the miner's holster, and +with a still more apologetic air approached the coach, where only +the lady remained erect and rigid in her corner. "And now," he +said with simulated hesitation, "we come to the last and to us the +most painful suspension of our rules. On these very rare +occasions, when we have been honored with the presence of the fair +sex, it has been our invariable custom not only to leave them in +the undisturbed possession of their property, but even of their +privacy as well. It is with deep regret that on this occasion we +are obliged to make an exception. For in the present instance, the +lady, out of the gentleness of her heart and the politeness of her +sex, has burdened herself not only with the weight but the +responsibility of a package forced upon her by one of the +passengers. We feel, and we believe, gentlemen, that most of you +will agree with us, that so scandalous and unmanly an attempt to +evade our rules and violate the sanctity of the lady's immunity +will never be permitted. For your own sake, madam, we are +compelled to ask you for the satchel under your seat. It will be +returned to you when the package is removed." + +"One moment," said the professional man indignantly, "there is a +man here whom you have spared,--a man who lately joined us. Is +that man," pointing to the astonished Key, "one of your +confederates?" + +"That man," returned the spokesman with a laugh, "is the owner of +the Sylvan Hollow Mine. We have spared him because we owe him some +consideration for having been turned out of his house at the dead +of night while the sheriff of Sierra was seeking us." He stopped, +and then in an entirely different voice, and in a totally changed +manner, said roughly, "Tumble in there, all of you, quick! And +you, sir" (to Key),--"I'd advise you to ride outside. Now, driver, +raise so much as a rein or a whiplash until you hear the signal-- +and by God! you'll know what next." He stepped back, and seemed to +be instantly swallowed up in the darkness; but the light of a +solitary bull's-eye--the holder himself invisible--still showed the +muzzles of the guns covering the driver. There was a momentary +stir of voices within the closed coach, but an angry roar of +"Silence!" from the darkness hushed it. + +The moments crept slowly by; all now were breathless. Then a clear +whistle rang from the distance, the light suddenly was +extinguished, the leveled muzzles vanished with it, the driver's +lash fell simultaneously on the backs of his horses, and the coach +leaped forward. + +The jolt nearly threw Key from the top, but a moment later it was +still more difficult to keep his seat in the headlong fury of their +progress. Again and again the lash descended upon the maddened +horses, until the whole coach seemed to leap, bound, and swerve +with every stroke. Cries of protest and even distress began to +come from the interior, but the driver heeded it not. A window was +suddenly let down; the voice of the professional man saying, +"What's the matter? We're not followed. You are imperiling our +lives by this speed," was answered only by, "Will some of ye +throttle that d--d fool?" from the driver, and the renewed fall of +the lash. The wayside trees appeared a solid plateau before them, +opened, danced at their side, closed up again behind them,--but +still they sped along. Rushing down grades with the speed of an +avalanche, they ascended again without drawing rein, and as if by +sheer momentum; for the heavy vehicle now seemed to have a +diabolical energy of its own. It ground scattered rocks to powder +with its crushing wheels, it swayed heavily on ticklish corners, +recovering itself with the resistless forward propulsion of the +straining teams, until the lights of Three Pine Station began to +glitter through the trees. Then a succession of yells broke from +the driver, so strong and dominant that they seemed to outstrip +even the speed of the unabated cattle. Lesser lights were +presently seen running to and fro, and on the outermost fringe of +the settlement the stage pulled up before a crowd of wondering +faces, and the driver spoke. + +"We've been held up on the open road, by G--d, not THREE MILES from +whar ye men are sittin' here yawpin'! If thar's a man among ye +that hasn't got the soul of a skunk, he'll foller and close in upon +'em before they have a chance to get into the brush." Having thus +relieved himself of his duty as an enforced noncombatant, and +allowed all further responsibility to devolve upon his recreant +fellow employees, he relapsed into his usual taciturnity, and drove +a trifle less recklessly to the station, where he grimly set down +his bruised and discomfited passengers. As Key mingled with them, +he could not help perceiving that neither the late "orator's" +explanation of his exemption from their fate, nor the driver's +surly corroboration of his respectability, had pacified them. For +a time this amused him, particularly as he could not help +remembering that he first appeared to them beside the mysterious +horseman who some one thought had been identified as one of the +masks. But he was not a little piqued to find that the fair +unknown appeared to participate in their feelings, and his first +civility to her met with a chilling response. Even then, in the +general disillusion of his romance regarding her, this would have +been only a momentary annoyance; but it strangely revived all his +previous suspicions, and set him to thinking. Was the singular +sagacity displayed by the orator in his search purely intuitive? +Could any one have disclosed to him the secret of the passengers' +hoards? Was it possible for HER while sitting alone in the coach +to have communicated with the band? Suddenly the remembrance +flashed across him of her opening the window for fresh air! She +could have easily then dropped some signal. If this were so, and +she really was the culprit, it was quite natural for her own safety +that she should encourage the passengers in the absurd suspicion of +himself! His dying interest revived; a few moments ago he had half +resolved to abandon his quest and turn back at Three Pines. Now he +determined to follow her to the end. But he did not indulge in any +further sophistry regarding his duty; yet, in a new sense of honor, +he did not dream of retaliating upon her by communicating his +suspicions to his fellow passengers. When the coach started again, +he took his seat on the top, and remained there until they reached +Jamestown in the early evening. Here a number of his despoiled +companions were obliged to wait, to communicate with their friends. +Happily, the exemption that had made them indignant enabled him to +continue his journey with a full purse. But he was content with a +modest surveillance of the lady from the top of the coach. + +On arriving at Stockton this surveillance became less easy. It was +the terminus of the stage-route, and the divergence of others by +boat and rail. If he were lucky enough to discover which one the +lady took, his presence now would be more marked, and might excite +her suspicion. But here a circumstance, which he also believed to +be providential, determined him. As the luggage was being removed +from the top of the coach, he overheard the agent tell the +expressman to check the "lady's" trunk to San Luis. Key was seized +with an idea which seemed to solve the difficulty, although it +involved a risk of losing the clue entirely. There were two routes +to San Luis, one was by stage, and direct, though slower; the other +by steamboat and rail, via San Francisco. If he took the boat, +there was less danger of her discovering him, even if she chose the +same conveyance; if she took the direct stage,--and he trusted to a +woman's avoidance of the hurry of change and transshipment for that +choice,--he would still arrive at San Luis, via San Francisco, an +hour before her. He resolved to take the boat; a careful scrutiny +from a stateroom window of the arriving passengers on the gangplank +satisfied him that she had preferred the stage. There was still +the chance that in losing sight of her she might escape him, but +the risk seemed small. And a trifling circumstance had almost +unconsciously influenced him--after his romantic and superstitious +fashion--as to this final step. + +He had been singularly moved when he heard that San Luis was the +lady's probable destination. It did not seem to bear any relation +to the mountain wilderness and the wild life she had just quitted; +it was apparently the most antipathic, incongruous, and +inconsistent refuge she could have taken. It offered no +opportunity for the disposal of booty, or for communication with +the gang. It was less secure than a crowded town. An old Spanish +mission and monastery college in a sleepy pastoral plain,--it had +even retained its old-world flavor amidst American improvements and +social revolution. He knew it well. From the quaint college +cloisters, where the only reposeful years of his adventurous youth +had been spent, to the long Alameda, or double avenues of ancient +trees, which connected it with the convent of Santa Luisa, and some +of his youthful "devotions,"--it had been the nursery of his +romance. He was amused at what seemed to be the irony of fate, in +now linking it with this folly of his maturer manhood; and yet he +was uneasily conscious of being more seriously affected by it. And +it was with a greater anxiety than this adventure had ever yet cost +him that he at last arrived at the San Jose hotel, and from a +balcony corner awaited the coming of the coach. His heart beat +rapidly as it approached. She was there! But at her side, as she +descended from the coach, was the mysterious horseman of the Sierra +road. Key could not mistake the well-built figure, whatever doubt +there had been about the features, which had been so carefully +concealed. With the astonishment of this rediscovery, there +flashed across him again the fatefulness of the inspiration which +had decided him not to go in the coach. His presence there would +have no doubt warned the stranger, and so estopped this convincing +denouement. It was quite possible that her companion, by relays of +horses and the advantage of bridle cut-offs, could have easily +followed the Three Pine coach and joined her at Stockton. But for +what purpose? The lady's trunk, which had not been disturbed +during the first part of the journey, and had been forwarded at +Stockton untouched before Key's eyes, could not have contained +booty to be disposed of in this forgotten old town. + +The register of the hotel bore simply the name of "Mrs. Barker," of +Stockton, but no record of her companion, who seemed to have +disappeared as mysteriously as he came. That she occupied a +sitting-room on the same floor as his own--in which she was +apparently secluded during the rest of the day--was all he knew. +Nobody else seemed to know her. Key felt an odd hesitation, that +might have been the result of some vague fear of implicating her +prematurely, in making any marked inquiry, or imperiling his secret +by the bribed espionage of servants. Once when he was passing her +door he heard the sounds of laughter,--albeit innocent and heart- +free,--which seemed so inconsistent with the gravity of the +situation and his own thoughts that he was strangely shocked. But +he was still more disturbed by a later occurrence. In his +watchfulness of the movements of his neighbor he had been equally +careful of his own, and had not only refrained from registering his +name, but had enjoined secrecy upon the landlord, whom he knew. +Yet the next morning after his arrival, the porter not answering +his bell promptly enough, he so far forgot himself as to walk to +the staircase, which was near the lady's room, and call to the +employee over the balustrade. As he was still leaning over the +railing, the faint creak of a door, and a singular magnetic +consciousness of being overlooked, caused him to turn slowly, but +only in time to hear the rustle of a withdrawing skirt as the door +was quickly closed. In an instant he felt the full force of his +foolish heedlessness, but it was too late. Had the mysterious +fugitive recognized him? Perhaps not; their eyes had not met, and +his face had been turned away. + +He varied his espionage by subterfuges, which his knowledge of the +old town made easy. He watched the door of the hotel, himself +unseen, from the windows of a billiard saloon opposite, which he +had frequented in former days. Yet he was surprised the same +afternoon to see her, from his coigne of vantage, reentering the +hotel, where he was sure he had left her a few moments ago. Had +she gone out by some other exit,--or had she been disguised? But +on entering his room that evening he was confounded by an incident +that seemed to him as convincing of her identity as it was +audacious. Lying on his pillow were a few dead leaves of an +odorous mountain fern, known only to the Sierras. They were tied +together by a narrow blue ribbon, and had evidently been intended +to attract his attention. As he took them in his hand, the +distinguishing subtle aroma of the little sylvan hollow in the +hills came to him like a memory and a revelation! He summoned the +chambermaid; she knew nothing of them, or indeed of any one who had +entered his room. He walked cautiously into the hall; the lady's +sitting-room door was open, the room was empty. "The occupant," +said the chambermaid, "had left that afternoon." He held the proof +of her identity in his hand, but she herself had vanished! That +she had recognized him there was now no doubt: had she divined the +real object of his quest, or had she accepted it as a mere +sentimental gallantry at the moment when she knew it was hopeless, +and she herself was perfectly safe from pursuit? In either event +he had been duped. He did not know whether to be piqued, angry,-- +or relieved of his irresolute quest. + +Nevertheless, he spent the rest of the twilight and the early +evening in fruitlessly wandering through the one long thoroughfare +of the town, until it merged into the bosky Alameda, or spacious +grove, that connected it with Santa Luisa. By degrees his chagrin +and disappointment were forgotten in the memories of the past, +evoked by the familiar pathway. The moon was slowly riding +overhead, and silvering the carriage-way between the straight ebony +lines of trees, while the footpaths were diapered with black and +white checkers. The faint tinkling of a tram-car bell in the +distance apprised him of one of the few innovations of the past. +The car was approaching him, overtook him, and was passing, with +its faintly illuminated windows, when, glancing carelessly up, he +beheld at one of them the profile of the face which he had just +thought he had lost forever! + +He stopped for an instant, not in indecision this time, but in a +grim resolution to let no chance escape him now. The car was going +slowly; it was easy to board it now, but again the tinkle of the +bell indicated that it was stopping at the corner of a road beyond. +He checked his pace,--a lady alighted,--it was she! She turned +into the cross-street, darkened with the shadows of some low +suburban tenement houses, and he boldly followed. He was fully +determined to find out her secret, and even, if necessary, to +accost her for that purpose. He was perfectly aware what he was +doing, and all its risks and penalties; he knew the audacity of +such an introduction, but he felt in his left-hand pocket for the +sprig of fern which was an excuse for it; he knew the danger of +following a possible confidante of desperadoes, but he felt in his +right-hand pocket for the derringer that was equal to it. They +were both there; he was ready. + +He was nearing the convent and the oldest and most ruinous part of +the town. He did not disguise from himself the gloomy significance +of this; even in the old days the crumbling adobe buildings that +abutted on the old garden wall of the convent were the haunts of +lawless Mexicans and vagabond peons. As the roadway began to be +rough and uneven, and the gaunt outlines of the sagging roofs of +tiles stood out against the sky above the lurking shadows of ruined +doorways, he was prepared for the worst. As the crumbling but +still massive walls of the convent garden loomed ahead, the tall, +graceful, black-gowned figure he was following presently turned +into the shadow of the wall itself. He quickened his pace, lest it +should again escape him. Suddenly it stopped, and remained +motionless. He stopped, too. At the same moment it vanished! + +He ran quickly forward to where it had stood, and found himself +before a large iron gate, with a smaller one in the centre, that +had just clanged to on its rusty hinges. He rubbed his eyes!--the +place, the gate, the wall, were all strangely familiar! Then he +stepped back into the roadway, and looked at it again. He was not +mistaken. + +He was standing before the porter's lodge of the Convent of the +Sacred Heart. + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The day following the great stagecoach robbery found the patient +proprietor of Collinson's Mill calm and untroubled in his usual +seclusion. The news that had thrilled the length and breadth of +Galloper's Ridge had not touched the leafy banks of the dried-up +river; the hue and cry had followed the stage-road, and no courier +had deemed it worth his while to diverge as far as the rocky ridge +which formed the only pathway to the mill. That day Collinson's +solitude had been unbroken even by the haggard emigrant from the +valley, with his old monotonous story of hardship and privation. +The birds had flown nearer to the old mill, as if emboldened by the +unwonted quiet. That morning there had been the half human imprint +of a bear's foot in the ooze beside the mill-wheel; and coming home +with his scant stock from the woodland pasture, he had found a +golden squirrel--a beautiful, airy embodiment of the brown woods +itself--calmly seated on his bar-counter, with a biscuit between +its baby hands. He was full of his characteristic reveries and +abstractions that afternoon; falling into them even at his wood- +pile, leaning on his axe--so still that an emerald-throated lizard, +who had slid upon the log, went to sleep under the forgotten +stroke. + +But at nightfall the wind arose,--at first as a distant murmur +along the hillside, that died away before it reached the rocky +ledge; then it rocked the tops of the tall redwoods behind the +mill, but left the mill and the dried leaves that lay in the river- +bed undisturbed. Then the murmur was prolonged, until it became +the continuous trouble of some far-off sea, and at last the wind +possessed the ledge itself; driving the smoke down the stumpy +chimney of the mill, rattling the sun-warped shingles on the roof, +stirring the inside rafters with cool breaths, and singing over the +rough projections of the outside eaves. At nine o'clock he rolled +himself up in his blankets before the fire, as was his wont, and +fell asleep. + +It was past midnight when he was awakened by the familiar clatter +of boulders down the grade, the usual simulation of a wild rush +from without that encompassed the whole mill, even to that heavy +impact against the door, which he had heard once before. In this +he recognized merely the ordinary phenomena of his experience, and +only turned over to sleep again. But this time the door rudely +fell in upon him, and a figure strode over his prostrate body, with +a gun leveled at his head. + +He sprang sideways for his own weapon, which stood by the hearth. +In another second that action would have been his last, and the +solitude of Seth Collinson might have remained henceforward +unbroken by any mortal. But the gun of the first figure was +knocked sharply upward by a second man, and the one and only shot +fired that night sped harmlessly to the roof. With the report he +felt his arms gripped tightly behind him; through the smoke he saw +dimly that the room was filled with masked and armed men, and in +another moment he was pinioned and thrust into his empty armchair. +At a signal three of the men left the room, and he could hear them +exploring the other rooms and outhouses. Then the two men who had +been standing beside him fell back with a certain disciplined +precision, as a smooth-chinned man advanced from the open door. +Going to the bar, he poured out a glass of whiskey, tossed it off +deliberately, and, standing in front of Collinson, with his +shoulder against the chimney and his hand resting lightly on his +hip, cleared his throat. Had Collinson been an observant man, he +would have noticed that the two men dropped their eyes and moved +their feet with a half impatient, perfunctory air of waiting. Had +he witnessed the stage-robbery, he would have recognized in the +smooth-faced man the presence of "the orator." But he only gazed +at him with his dull, imperturbable patience. + +"We regret exceedingly to have to use force to a gentleman in his +own house," began the orator blandly; "but we feel it our duty to +prevent a repetition of the unhappy incident which occurred as we +entered. We desire that you should answer a few questions, and are +deeply grateful that you are still able to do so,--which seemed +extremely improbable a moment or two ago." He paused, coughed, and +leaned back against the chimney. "How many men have you here +besides yourself?" + +"Nary one," said Collinson. + +The interrogator glanced at the other men, who had reentered. They +nodded significantly. + +"Good!" he resumed. "You have told the truth--an excellent habit, +and one that expedites business. Now, is there a room in this +house with a door that locks? Your front door DOESN'T." + +"No." + +"No cellar nor outhouse?" + +"No." + +"We regret that; for it will compel us, much against our wishes, to +keep you bound as you are for the present. The matter is simply +this: circumstances of a very pressing nature oblige us to occupy +this house for a few days,--possibly for an indefinite period. We +respect the sacred rites of hospitality too much to turn you out of +it; indeed, nothing could be more distasteful to our feelings than +to have you, in your own person, spread such a disgraceful report +through the chivalrous Sierras. We must therefore keep you a close +prisoner,--open, however, to an offer. It is this: we propose to +give you five hundred dollars for this property as it stands, +provided that you leave it, and accompany a pack-train which will +start to-morrow morning for the lower valley as far as Thompson's +Pass, binding yourself to quit the State for three months and keep +this matter a secret. Three of these gentlemen will go with you. +They will point out to you your duty; their shotguns will apprise +you of any dereliction from it. What do you say?" + +"Who yer talking to?" said Collinson in a dull voice. + +"You remind us," said the orator suavely, "that we have not yet the +pleasure of knowing." + +"My name's Seth Collinson." + +There was a dead silence in the room, and every eye was fixed upon +the two men. The orator's smile slightly stiffened. + +"Where from?" he continued blandly. + +"Mizzouri." + +"A very good place to go back to,--through Thompson's Pass. But +you haven't answered our proposal." + +"I reckon I don't intend to sell this house, or leave it," said +Collinson simply. + +"I trust you will not make us regret the fortunate termination of +your little accident, Mr. Collinson," said the orator with a +singular smile. "May I ask why you object to selling out? Is it +the figure?" + +"The house isn't mine," said Collinson deliberately. "I built this +yer house for my wife wot I left in Mizzouri. It's hers. I +kalkilate to keep it, and live in it ontil she comes fur it! And +when I tell ye that she is dead, ye kin reckon just what chance ye +have of ever gettin' it." + +There was an unmistakable start of sensation in the room, followed +by a silence so profound that the moaning of the wind on the +mountain-side was distinctly heard. A well-built man, with a mask +that scarcely concealed his heavy mustachios, who had been standing +with his back to the orator in half contemptuous patience, faced +around suddenly and made a step forward as if to come between the +questioner and questioned. A voice from the corner ejaculated, "By +G--d!" + +"Silence," said the orator sharply. Then still more harshly he +turned to the others "Pick him up, and stand him outside with a +guard; and then clear out, all of you!" + +The prisoner was lifted up and carried out; the room was instantly +cleared; only the orator and the man who had stepped forward +remained. Simultaneously they drew the masks from their faces, and +stood looking at each other. The orator's face was smooth and +corrupt; the full, sensual lips wrinkled at the corners with a +sardonic humor; the man who confronted him appeared to be +physically and even morally his superior, albeit gloomy and +discontented in expression. He cast a rapid glance around the +room, to assure himself that they were alone; and then, +straightening his eyebrows as he backed against the chimney, said:-- + +"D--d if I like this, Chivers! It's your affair; but it's mighty +low-down work for a man!" + +"You might have made it easier if you hadn't knocked up Bryce's +gun. That would have settled it, though no one guessed that the +cur was her husband," said Chivers hotly. + +"If you want it settled THAT WAY, there's still time," returned the +other with a slight sneer. "You've only to tell him that you're +the man that ran away with his wife, and you'll have it out +together, right on the ledge at twelve paces. The boys will see +you through. In fact," he added, his sneer deepening, "I rather +think it's what they're expecting." + +"Thank you, Mr. Jack Riggs," said Chivers sardonically. "I dare +say it would be more convenient to some people, just before our +booty is divided, if I were drilled through by a blundering shot +from that hayseed; or it would seem right to your high-toned +chivalry if a dead-shot as I am knocked over a man who may have +never fired a revolver before; but I don't exactly see it in that +light, either as a man or as your equal partner. I don't think you +quite understand me, my dear Jack. If you don't value the only man +who is identified in all California as the leader of this gang (the +man whose style and address has made it popular--yes, POPULAR, by +G--d!--to every man, woman, and child who has heard of him; whose +sayings and doings are quoted by the newspapers; whom people run +risks to see; who has got the sympathy of the crowd, so that judges +hesitate to issue warrants and constables to serve them),--if YOU +don't see the use of such a man, I do. Why, there's a column and a +half in the 'Sacramento Union' about our last job, calling me the +'Claude Duval' of the Sierras, and speaking of my courtesy to a +lady! A LADY!--HIS wife, by G--d! our confederate! My dear Jack, +you not only don't know business values, but, 'pon my soul, you +don't seem to understand humor! Ha, ha!" + +For all his cynical levity, for all his affected exaggeration, +there was the ring of an unmistakable and even pitiable vanity in +his voice, and a self-consciousness that suffused his broad cheeks +and writhed his full mouth, but seemed to deepen the frown on +Riggs's face. + +"You know the woman hates it, and would bolt if she could,--even +from you," said Riggs gloomily. "Think what she might do if she +knew her husband were here. I tell you she holds our lives in the +hollow of her hand." + +"That's your fault, Mr. Jack Riggs; you would bring your sister +with her infernal convent innocence and simplicity into our hut in +the hollow. She was meek enough before that. But this is sheer +nonsense. I have no fear of her. The woman don't live who would +go back on Godfrey Chivers--for a husband! Besides, she went off +to see your sister at the convent at Santa Clara as soon as she +passed those bonds off on Charley to get rid of! Think of her +traveling with that d--d fool lawyer all the way to Stockton, and +his bonds (which we had put back in her bag) alongside of them all +the time, and he telling her he was going to stop their payment, +and giving her the letter to mail for him!--eh? Well, we'll have +time to get rid of her husband before she gets back. If he don't +go easy--well"-- + +"None of that, Chivers, you understand, once for all!" interrupted +Riggs peremptorily. "If you cannot see that your making away with +that woman's husband would damn that boasted reputation you make so +much of and set every man's hand against us, I do, and I won't +permit it. It's a rotten business enough,--our coming on him as we +have; and if this wasn't the only God-forsaken place where we could +divide our stuff without danger and get it away off the highroads, +I'd pull up stakes at once." + +"Let her stay at the convent, then, and be d--d to her," said +Chivers roughly. "She'll be glad enough to be with your sister +again; and there's no fear of her being touched there." + +"But I want to put an end to that, too," returned Riggs sharply. +"I do not choose to have my sister any longer implicated with OUR +confederate or YOUR mistress. No more of that--you understand me?" + +The two men had been standing side by side, leaning against the +chimney. Chivers now faced his companion, his full lips wreathed +into an evil smile. + +"I think I understand you, Mr. Jack Riggs, or--I beg your pardon-- +Rivers, or whatever your real name may be," he began slowly. +"Sadie Collinson, the mistress of Judge Godfrey Chivers, formerly +of Kentucky, was good enough company for you the day you dropped +down upon us in our little house in the hollow of Galloper's Ridge. +We were living quite an idyllic, pastoral life there, weren't we?-- +she and me; hidden from the censorious eye of society and-- +Collinson, obeying only the voice of Nature and the little birds. +It was a happy time," he went on with a grimly affected sigh, +disregarding his companion's impatient gesture. "You were young +then, waging YOUR fight against society, and fresh--uncommonly +fresh, I may say--from your first exploit. And a very stupid, +clumsy, awkward exploit, too, Mr. Riggs, if you will pardon my +freedom. You wanted money, and you had an ugly temper, and you had +lost both to a gambler; so you stopped the coach to rob him, and +had to kill two men to get back your paltry thousand dollars, after +frightening a whole coach-load of passengers, and letting Wells, +Fargo, and Co.'s treasure-box with fifty thousand dollars in it +slide. It was a stupid, a blundering, a CRUEL act, Mr. Riggs, and +I think I told you so at the time. It was a waste of energy and +material, and made you, not a hero, but a stupid outcast! I think +I proved this to you, and showed you how it might have been done." + +"Dry up on that," interrupted Riggs impatiently. "You offered to +become my partner, and you did." + +"Pardon me. Observe, my impetuous friend, that my contention is +that you--YOU--poisoned our blameless Eden in the hollow; that YOU +were our serpent, and that this Sadie Collinson, over whom you have +become so fastidious, whom you knew as my mistress, was obliged to +become our confederate. You did not object to her when we formed +our gang, and her house became our hiding-place and refuge. You +took advantage of her woman's wit and fine address in disposing of +our booty; you availed yourself, with the rest, of the secrets she +gathered as MY mistress, just as you were willing to profit by the +superior address of her paramour--your humble servant--when your +own face was known to the sheriff, and your old methods pronounced +brutal and vulgar. Excuse me, but I must insist upon THIS, and +that you dropped down upon me and Sadie Collinson exactly as you +have dropped down here upon her husband." + +"Enough of this!" said Riggs angrily. "I admit the woman is part +and parcel of the gang, and gets her share,--or you get it for +her," he added sneeringly; "but that doesn't permit her to mix +herself with my family affairs." + +"Pardon me again," interrupted Chivers softly. "Your memory, my +dear Riggs, is absurdly defective. We knew that you had a young +sister in the mountains, from whom you discreetly wished to conceal +your real position. We respected, and I trust shall always +respect, your noble reticence. But do you remember the night you +were taking her to school at Santa Clara,--two nights before the +fire,--when you were recognized on the road near Skinner's, and had +to fly with her for your life, and brought her to us,--your two +dear old friends, 'Mr. and Mrs. Barker of Chicago,' who had a +pastoral home in the forest? You remember how we took her in,-- +yes, doubly took her in,--and kept your secret from her? And do +you remember how this woman (this mistress of MINE and OUR +confederate), while we were away, saved her from the fire on our +only horse, caught the stage-coach, and brought her to the +convent?" + +Riggs walked towards the window, turned, and coming back, held out +his hand. "Yes, she did it; and I thanked her, as I thank you." +He stopped and hesitated, as the other took his hand. "But, blank +it all, Chivers, don't you see that Alice is a young girl, and this +woman is--you know what I mean. Somebody might recognize HER, and +that would be worse for Alice than even if it were known what +Alice's BROTHER was. G--d! if these two things were put together, +the girl would be ruined forever." + +"Jack," said Chivers suddenly, "you want this woman out of the way. +Well--dash it all!--she nearly separated us, and I'll be frank with +you as between man and man. I'll give her up! There are women +enough in the world, and hang it, we're partners, after all!" + +"Then you abandon her?" said Riggs slowly, his eyes fixed on his +companion. + +"Yes. She's getting a little too maundering lately. It will be a +ticklish job to manage, for she knows too much; but it will be +done. There's my hand on it." + +Riggs not only took no notice of the proffered hand, but his former +look of discontent came back with an ill-concealed addition of +loathing and contempt. + +"We'll drop that now," he said shortly; "we've talked here alone +long enough already. The men are waiting for us." He turned on +his heel into the inner room. Chivers remained standing by the +chimney until his stiffened smile gave way under the working of his +writhing lips; then he turned to the bar, poured out and swallowed +another glass of whiskey at a single gulp, and followed his partner +with half-closed lids that scarcely veiled his ominous eyes. + +The men, with the exception of the sentinels stationed on the rocky +ledge and the one who was guarding the unfortunate Collinson, were +drinking and gambling away their perspective gains around a small +pile of portmanteaus and saddle-bags, heaped in the centre of the +room. They contained the results of their last successes, but one +pair of saddle-bags bore the mildewed appearance of having been +cached, or buried, some time before. Most of their treasure was in +packages of gold dust; and from the conversation that ensued, it +appeared that, owing to the difficulties of disposing of it in the +mountain towns, the plan was to convey it by ordinary pack mule to +the unfrequented valley, and thence by an emigrant wagon, on the +old emigrant trail, to the southern counties, where it could be no +longer traced. Since the recent robberies, the local express +companies and bankers had refused to receive it, except the owners +were known and identified. There had been but one box of coin, +which had already been speedily divided up among the band. Drafts, +bills, bonds, and valuable papers had been usually intrusted to one +"Charley," who acted as a flying messenger to a corrupt broker in +Sacramento, who played the role of the band's "fence." It had been +the duty of Chivers to control this delicate business, even as it +had been his peculiar function to open all the letters and +documents. This he had always lightened by characteristic levity +and sarcastic comments on the private revelations of the contents. +The rough, ill-spelt letter of the miner to his wife, inclosing a +draft, or the more sentimental effusion of an emigrant swain to his +sweetheart, with the gift of a "specimen," had always received due +attention at the hands of this elegant humorist. But the operation +was conducted to-night with business severity and silence. The two +leaders sat opposite to each other, in what might have appeared to +the rest of the band a scarcely veiled surveillance of each other's +actions. When the examination was concluded, and, the more +valuable inclosures put aside, the despoiled letters were carried +to the fire and heaped upon the coals. Presently the chimney added +its roar to the moaning of the distant hillside, a few sparks +leaped up and died out in the midnight air, as if the pathos and +sentiment of the unconscious correspondents had exhaled with them. + +"That's a d--d foolish thing to do," growled French Pete over his +cards. + +"Why?" demanded Chivers sharply. + +"Why?--why, it makes a flare in the sky that any scout can see, and +a scent for him to follow." + +"We're four miles from any traveled road," returned Chivers +contemptuously, "and the man who could see that glare and smell +that smoke would be on his way here already." + +"That reminds me that that chap you've tied up--that Collinson-- +allows he wants to see you," continued French Pete. + +"To see ME!" repeated Chivers. "You mean the Captain?" + +"I reckon he means YOU," returned French Pete; "he said the man who +talked so purty." + +The men looked at each other with a smile of anticipation, and put +down their cards. Chivers walked towards the door; one or two rose +to their feet as if to follow, but Riggs stopped them peremptorily. +"Sit down," he said roughly; then, as Chivers passed him, he added +to him in a lower tone, "Remember." + +Slightly squaring his shoulders and opening his coat, to permit a +rhetorical freedom, which did not, however, prevent him from +keeping touch with the butt of his revolver, Chivers stepped into +the open air. Collinson had been moved to the shelter of an +overhang of the roof, probably more for the comfort of the guard, +who sat cross-legged on the ground near him, than for his own. +Dismissing the man with a gesture, Chivers straightened himself +before his captive. + +"We deeply regret that your unfortunate determination, my dear sir, +has been the means of depriving US of the pleasure of your company, +and YOU of your absolute freedom; but may we cherish the hope that +your desire to see me may indicate some change in your opinion?" + +By the light of the sentry's lantern left upon the ground, Chivers +could see that Collinson's face wore a slightly troubled and even +apologetic expression. + +"I've bin thinkin'," said Collinson, raising his eyes to his captor +with a singularly new and shy admiration in them, "mebbee not so +much of WOT you said, ez HOW you said it, and it's kinder bothered +me, sittin' here, that I ain't bin actin' to you boys quite on the +square. I've said to myself, 'Collinson, thar ain't another house +betwixt Bald Top and Skinner's whar them fellows kin get a bite or +a drink to help themselves, and you ain't offered 'em neither. It +ain't no matter who they are or how they came: whether they came +crawling along the road from the valley, or dropped down upon you +like them rocks from the grade; yere they are, and it's your duty, +ez long ez you keep this yer house for your wife in trust, so to +speak, for wanderers.' And I ain't forgettin' yer ginerel soft +style and easy gait with me when you kem here. It ain't every man +as could walk into another man's house arter the owner of it had +grabbed a gun, ez soft-speakin', ez overlookin', and ez perlite ez +you. I've acted mighty rough and low-down, and I know it. And I +sent for you to say that you and your folks kin use this house and +all that's in it ez long ez you're in trouble. I've told you why I +couldn't sell the house to ye, and why I couldn't leave it. But ye +kin use it, and while ye're here, and when you go, Collinson don't +tell nobody. I don't know what ye mean by 'binding myself' to keep +your secret; when Collinson says a thing he sticks to it, and when +he passes his word with a man, or a man passes his word with him, +it don't need no bit of paper." + +There was no doubt of its truth. In the grave, upraised eyes of +his prisoner, Chivers saw the certainty that he could trust him, +even far more than he could trust any one within the house he had +just quitted. But this very certainty, for all its assurance of +safety to himself, filled him, not with remorse, which might have +been an evanescent emotion, but with a sudden alarming and terrible +consciousness of being in the presence of a hitherto unknown and +immeasurable power! He had no pity for man who trusted him; he had +no sense of shame in taking advantage of it; he even felt an +intellectual superiority in this want of sagacity in his dupe; but +he still felt in some way defeated, insulted, shocked, and +frightened. At first, like all scoundrels, he had measured the man +by himself; was suspicious and prepared for rivalry; but the grave +truthfulness of Collinson's eyes left him helpless. He was +terrified by this unknown factor. The right that contends and +fights often stimulates its adversary; the right that yields leaves +the victor vanquished. Chivers could even have killed Collinson in +his vague discomfiture, but he had a terrible consciousness that +there was something behind him that he could not make way with. +That was why this accomplished rascal felt his flaccid cheeks grow +purple and his glib tongue trip before his captive. + +But Collinson, more occupied with his own shortcomings, took no +note of this, and Chivers quickly recovered his wits, if not his +former artificiality. "All right," he said quickly, with a hurried +glance at the door behind him. "Now that you think better of it, +I'll be frank with you, and tell you I'm your friend. You +understand,--your friend. Don't talk much to those men--don't give +yourself away to them;" he laughed this time in absolute natural +embarrassment. "Don't talk about your wife, and this house, but +just say you've made the thing up with me,--with ME, you know, and +I'll see you through." An idea, as yet vague, that he could turn +Collinson's unexpected docility to his own purposes, possessed him +even in his embarrassment, and he was still more strangely +conscious of his inordinate vanity gathering a fearful joy from +Collinson's evident admiration. It was heightened by his captive's +next words. + +"Ef I wasn't tied I'd shake hands with ye on that. You're the kind +o' man, Mr. Chivers, that I cottoned to from the first. Ef this +house wasn't HERS, I'd a' bin tempted to cotton to yer offer, too, +and mebbee made yer one myself, for it seems to me your style and +mine would sorter jibe together. But I see you sabe what's in my +mind, and make allowance. WE don't want no bit o' paper to shake +hands on that. Your secret and your folk's secret is mine, and I +don't blab that any more than I'd blab to them wot you've just told +me." + +Under a sudden impulse, Chivers leaned forward, and, albeit with +somewhat unsteady hands and an embarrassed will, untied the cords +that held Collinson in his chair. As the freed man stretched +himself to his full height, he looked gravely down into the bleared +eyes of his captor, and held out his strong right hand. Chivers +took it. Whether there was some occult power in Collinson's honest +grasp, I know not; but there sprang up in Chivers's agile mind the +idea that a good way to get rid of Mrs. Collinson was to put her in +the way of her husband's finding her, and for an instant, in the +contemplation of that idea, this supreme rascal absolutely felt an +embarrassing glow of virtue. + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The astonishment of Preble Key on recognizing the gateway into +which the mysterious lady had vanished was so great that he was at +first inclined to believe her entry THERE a mere trick of his +fancy. That the confederate of a gang of robbers should be +admitted to the austere recesses of the convent, with a celerity +that bespoke familiarity, was incredible. He again glanced up and +down the length of the shadowed but still visible wall. There was +no one there. The wall itself contained no break or recess in +which one could hide, and this was the only gateway. The opposite +side of the street in the full moonlight stared emptily. No! +Unless she were an illusion herself and his whole chase a dream, +she MUST have entered here. + +But the chase was not hopeless. He had at least tracked her to a +place where she could be identified. It was not a hotel, which she +could leave at any moment unobserved. Though he could not follow +her and penetrate its seclusion now, he could later--thanks to his +old associations with the padres of the contiguous college--gain an +introduction to the Lady Superior on some pretext. She was safe +there that night. He turned away with a feeling of relief. The +incongruity of her retreat assumed a more favorable aspect to his +hopes. He looked at the hallowed walls and the slumbering +peacefulness of the gnarled old trees that hid the convent, and a +gentle reminiscence of his youth stole over him. It was not the +first time that he had gazed wistfully upon that chaste refuge +where, perhaps, the bright eyes that he had followed in the quaint +school procession under the leafy Alameda in the afternoon, were at +last closed in gentle slumber. There was the very grille through +which the wicked Conchita--or, was it Dolores?--had shot her +Parthian glance at the lingering student. And the man of thirty- +five, prematurely gray and settled in fortune, smiled as he turned +away, and forgot the adventuress of thirty who had brought him +there. + +The next morning he was up betimes and at the college of San Jose. +Father Cipriano, a trifle more snuffy and aged, remembered with +delight his old pupil. Ah! it was true, then, that he had become a +mining president, and that was why his hair was gray; but he +trusted that Don Preble had not forgot that this was not all of +life, and that fortune brought great responsibilities and cares. +But what was this, then? He HAD thought of bringing out some of +his relations from the States, and placing a niece in the convent. +That was good and wise. Ah, yes. For education in this new +country, one must turn to the church. And he would see the Lady +Superior? Ah! that was but the twist of one's finger and the +lifting of a latch to a grave superintendent and a gray head like +that. Of course, he had not forgotten the convent and the young +senoritas, nor the discipline and the suspended holidays. Ah! it +was a special grace of our Lady that he, Father Cipriano, had not +been worried into his grave by those foolish muchachos. Yet, when +he had extinguished a snuffy chuckle in his red bandana +handkerchief, Key knew that he would accompany him to the convent +that noon. + +It was with a slight stirring of shame over his elaborate pretext +that he passed the gate of the Sacred Heart with the good father. +But it is to be feared that he speedily forgot that in the +unexpected information that it elicited. The Lady Superior was +gracious, and even enthusiastic. Ah, yes, it was a growing custom +of the American caballeros--who had no homes, nor yet time to +create any--to bring their sisters, wards, and nieces here, and-- +with a dove-like side-glance towards Key--even the young senoritas +they wished to fit for their Christian brides! Unlike the +caballero, there were many business men so immersed in their +affairs that they could not find time for a personal examination of +the convent,--which was to be regretted,--but who, trusting to the +reputation of the Sacred Heart and its good friends, simply sent +the young lady there by some trusted female companion. Notably +this was the case of the Senor Rivers,--did Don Preble ever know +him?--a great capitalist in the Sierras, whose sweet young sister, +a naive, ingenuous creature, was the pride of the convent. Of +course, it was better that it was so. Discipline and seclusion had +to be maintained. The young girl should look upon this as her +home. The rules for visitors were necessarily severe. It was rare +indeed--except in a case of urgency, such as happened last night-- +that even a lady, unless the parent of a scholar, was admitted to +the hospitality of the convent. And this lady was only the friend +of that same sister of the American capitalist, although she was +the one who had brought her there. No, she was not a relation. +Perhaps Don Preble had heard of a Mrs. Barker,--the friend of +Rivers of the Sierras. It was a queer combination of names. But +what will you? The names of Americanos mean nothing. And Don +Preble knows them not. Ah! possibly?--good! The lady would be +remembered, being tall, dark, and of fine presence, though sad. A +few hours earlier and Don Preble could have judged for himself, +for, as it were, she might have passed through this visitors' room. +But she was gone--departed by the coach. It was from a telegram-- +those heathen contrivances that blurt out things to you, with never +an excuse, nor a smile, nor a kiss of the hand! For her part, she +never let her scholars receive them, but opened them herself, and +translated them in a Christian spirit, after due preparation, at +her leisure. And it was this telegram that made the Senora Barker +go, or, without doubt, she would have of herself told to the Don +Preble, her compatriot of the Sierras, how good the convent was for +his niece. + +Stung by the thought that this woman had again evaded him, and +disconcerted and confused by the scarcely intelligible information +he had acquired, Key could with difficulty maintain his composure. +"The caballero is tired of his long pasear," said the Lady Superior +gently. "We will have a glass of wine in the lodge waiting-room." +She led the way from the reception room to the outer door, but +stopped at the sound of approaching footsteps and rustling muslin +along the gravel walk. "The second class are going out," she said, +as a gentle procession of white frocks, led by two nuns, filed +before the gateway. "We will wait until they have passed. But the +senor can see that my children do not look unhappy." + +They certainly looked very cheerful, although they had halted +before the gateway with a little of the demureness of young people +who know they are overlooked by authority, and had bumped against +each other with affected gravity. Somewhat ashamed of his useless +deception, and the guileless simplicity of the good Lady Superior, +Key hesitated and began: "I am afraid that I am really giving you +too much trouble," and suddenly stopped. + +For as his voice broke the demure silence, one of the nearest--a +young girl of apparently seventeen--turned towards him with a quick +and an apparently irresistible impulse, and as quickly turned away +again. But in that instant Key caught a glimpse of a face that +might not only have thrilled him in its beauty, its freshness, but +in some vague suggestiveness. Yet it was not that which set his +pulses beating; it was the look of joyous recognition set in the +parted lips and sparkling eyes, the glow of childlike innocent +pleasure that mantled the sweet young face, the frank confusion of +suddenly realized expectancy and longing. A great truth gripped +his throbbing heart, and held it still. It was the face that he +had seen in the hollow! + +The movement of the young girl was too marked to escape the eye of +the Lady Superior, though she had translated it differently. "You +must not believe our young ladies are all so rude, Don Preble," she +said dryly; "though our dear child has still some of the mountain +freedom. And this is the Senor Rivers's sister. But possibly--who +knows?" she said gently, yet with a sudden sharpness in her clear +eyes,--"perhaps she recognized in your voice a companion of her +brother." + +Luckily for Key, the shock had been so sudden and overpowering that +he showed none of the lesser symptoms of agitation or +embarrassment. In this revelation of a secret, that he now +instinctively felt was bound up with his own future happiness, he +exhibited none of the signs of a discovered intriguer or unmasked +Lothario. He said quietly and coldly: "I am afraid I have not the +pleasure of knowing the young lady, and certainly have never before +addressed her." Yet he scarcely heard his companion's voice, and +answered mechanically, seeing only before him the vision of the +girl's bewitching face, in its still more bewitching consciousness +of his presence. With all that he now knew, or thought he knew, +came a strange delicacy of asking further questions, a vague fear +of compromising HER, a quick impatience of his present deception; +even his whole quest of her seemed now to be a profanation, for +which he must ask her forgiveness. He longed to be alone to +recover himself. Even the temptation to linger on some pretext, +and wait for her return and another glance from her joyous eyes, +was not as strong as his conviction of the necessity of cooler +thought and action. He had met his fate that morning, for good or +ill; that was all he knew. As soon as he could decently retire, he +thanked the Lady Superior, promised to communicate with her later, +and taking leave of Father Cipriano, found himself again in the +street. + +Who was she, what was she, and what meant her joyous recognition of +him? It is to be feared that it was the last question that +affected him most, now that he felt that he must have really loved +her from the first. Had she really seen him before, and had been +as mysteriously impressed as he was? It was not the reflection of +a conceited man, for Key had not that kind of vanity, and he had +already touched the humility that is at the base of any genuine +passion. But he would not think of that now. He had established +the identity of the other woman, as being her companion in the +house in the hollow on that eventful night; but it was HER profile +that he had seen at the window. The mysterious brother Rivers +might have been one of the robbers,--perhaps the one who +accompanied Mrs. Barker to San Jose. But it was plain that the +young girl had no complicity with the actions of the gang, whatever +might have been her companion's confederation. In the prescience +of a true lover, he knew that she must have been deceived and kept +in utter ignorance of it. There was no look of it in her lovely, +guileless eyes; her very impulsiveness and ingenuousness would have +long since betrayed the secret. Was it left for him, at this very +outset of his passion, to be the one to tell her? Could he bear to +see those frank, beautiful eyes dimmed with shame and sorrow? His +own grew moist. Another idea began to haunt him. Would it not be +wiser, even more manly, for him--a man over twice her years--to +leave her alone with her secret, and so pass out of her innocent +young life as chancefully as he had entered it? But was it +altogether chanceful? Was there not in her innocent happiness in +him a recognition of something in him better than he had dared to +think himself? It was the last conceit of the humility of love. + +He reached his hotel at last, unresolved, perplexed, yet singularly +happy. The clerk handed him, in passing, a business-looking +letter, formally addressed. Without opening it, he took it to his +room, and throwing himself listlessly on a chair by the window +again tried to think. But the atmosphere of his room only recalled +to him the mysterious gift he had found the day before on his +pillow. He felt now with a thrill that it must have been from HER. +How did she convey it there? She would not have intrusted it to +Mrs. Barker. The idea struck him now as distastefully as it seemed +improbable. Perhaps she had been here herself with her companion-- +the convent sometimes made that concession to a relative or well- +known friend. He recalled the fact that he had seen Mrs. Barker +enter the hotel alone, after the incident of the opening door, +while he was leaning over the balustrade. It was SHE who was alone +THEN, and had recognized his voice; and he had not known it. She +was out again to-day with the procession. A sudden idea struck +him. He glanced quickly at the letter in his hand, and hurriedly +opened it. It contained only three lines, in a large formal hand, +but they sent the swift blood to his cheeks. + +"I heard your voice to-day for the third time. I want to hear it +again. I will come at dusk. Do not go out until then." + +He sat stupefied. Was it madness, audacity, or a trick? He +summoned the waiter. The letter had been left by a boy from the +confectioner's shop in the next block. He remembered it of old,--a +resort for the young ladies of the convent. Nothing was easier +than conveying a letter in that way. He remembered with a shock of +disillusion and disgust that it was a common device of silly but +innocent assignation. Was he to be the ridiculous accomplice of a +schoolgirl's extravagant escapade, or the deluded victim of some +infamous plot of her infamous companion? He could not believe +either; yet he could not check a certain revulsion of feeling +towards her, which only a moment ago he would have believed +impossible. + +Yet whatever was her purpose, he must prevent her coming there at +any hazard. Her visit would be the culmination of her folly, or +the success of any plot. Even while he was fully conscious of the +material effect of any scandal and exposure to her, even while he +was incensed and disillusionized at her unexpected audacity, he was +unusually stirred with the conviction that she was wronging +herself, and that more than ever she demanded his help and his +consideration. Still she must not come. But how was he to prevent +her? It wanted but an hour of dusk. Even if he could again +penetrate the convent on some pretext at that inaccessible hour for +visitors,--twilight,--how could he communicate with her? He might +intercept her on the way, and persuade her to return; but she must +be kept from entering the hotel. + +He seized his hat and rushed downstairs. But here another +difficulty beset him. It was easy enough to take the ordinary road +to the convent, but would SHE follow that public one in what must +be a surreptitious escape? And might she not have eluded the +procession that morning, and even now be concealed somewhere, +waiting for the darkness to make her visit. He concluded to patrol +the block next to the hotel, yet near enough to intercept her +before she reached it, until the hour came. The time passed +slowly. He loitered before shop windows, or entered and made +purchases, with his eye on the street. The figure of a pretty +girl,--and there were many,--the fluttering ribbons on a distant +hat, or the flashing of a cambric skirt around the corner sent a +nervous thrill through him. The reflection of his grave, +abstracted face against a shop window, or the announcement of the +workings of his own mine on a bulletin board, in its incongruity +with his present occupation, gave him an hysterical impulse to +laugh. The shadows were already gathering, when he saw a slender, +graceful figure disappear in the confectioner's shop on the block +below. In his elaborate precautions, he had overlooked that common +trysting spot. He hurried thither, and entered. The object of his +search was not there, and he was compelled to make a shamefaced, +awkward survey of the tables in an inner refreshment saloon to +satisfy himself. Any one of the pretty girls seated there might +have been the one who had just entered, but none was the one he +sought. He hurried into the street again,--he had wasted a +precious moment,--and resumed his watch. The sun had sunk, the +Angelus had rung out of a chapel belfry, and shadows were darkening +the vista of the Alameda. She had not come. Perhaps she had +thought better of it; perhaps she had been prevented; perhaps the +whole appointment had been only a trick of some day-scholars, who +were laughing at him behind some window. In proportion as he +became convinced that she was not coming, he was conscious of a +keen despair growing in his heart, and a sickening remorse that he +had ever thought of preventing her. And when he at last +reluctantly reentered the hotel, he was as miserable over the +conviction that she was not coming as he had been at her expected +arrival. The porter met him hurriedly in the hall. + +"Sister Seraphina of the Sacred Heart has been here, in a hurry to +see you on a matter of importance," he said, eyeing Key somewhat +curiously. "She would not wait in the public parlor, as she said +her business was confidential, so I have put her in a private +sitting-room on your floor." + +Key felt the blood leave his cheeks. The secret was out for all +his precaution. The Lady Superior had discovered the girl's +flight,--or her attempt. One of the governing sisterhood was here +to arraign him for it, or at least prevent an open scandal. Yet he +was resolved; and seizing this last straw, he hurriedly mounted the +stairs, determined to do battle at any risk for the girl's safety, +and to perjure himself to any extent. + +She was standing in the room by the window. The light fell upon +the coarse serge dress with its white facings, on the single girdle +that scarcely defined the formless waist, on the huge crucifix that +dangled ungracefully almost to her knees, on the hideous, white- +winged coif that, with the coarse but dense white veil, was itself +a renunciation of all human vanity. It was a figure he remembered +well as a boy, and even in his excitement and half resentment +touched him now, as when a boy, with a sense of its pathetic +isolation. His head bowed with boyish deference as she approached +gently, passed him a slight salutation, and closed the door that he +had forgotten to shut behind him. + +Then, with a rapid movement, so quick that he could scarcely follow +it, the coif, veil, rosary, and crucifix were swept off, and the +young pupil of the convent stood before him. + +For all the sombre suggestiveness of her disguise and its +ungraceful contour, there was no mistaking the adorable little +head, tumbled all over with silky tendrils of hair from the hasty +withdrawal of her coif, or the blue eyes that sparkled with frank +delight beneath them. Key thought her more beautiful than ever. +Yet the very effect of her frankness and beauty was to recall him +to all the danger and incongruity of her position. + +"This is madness," he said quickly. "You may be followed here and +discovered in this costume at any moment!" Nevertheless, he caught +the two little hands that had been extended to him, and held them +tightly, and with a frank familiarity that he would have wondered +at an instant before. + +"But I won't," she said simply. "You see I'm doing a 'half- +retreat'; and I stay with Sister Seraphina in her room; and she +always sleeps two hours after the Angelus; and I got out without +anybody knowing me, in her clothes. I see what it is," she said, +suddenly bending a reproachful glance upon him, "you don't like me +in them. I know they're just horrid; but it was the only way I +could get out." + +"You don't understand me," he said eagerly. "I don't like you to +run these dreadful risks and dangers for"--He would have said +"for me," but added with sudden humility--"for nothing. Had I +dreamed that you cared to see me, I would have arranged it easily +without this indiscretion, which might make others misjudge you. +Every instant that you remain here--worse, every moment that you +are away from the convent in that disguise, is fraught with danger. +I know you never thought of it." + +"But I did," she said quietly; "I thought of it, and thought that +if Sister Seraphina woke up, and they sent for me, you would take +me away with you to that dear little hollow in the hills, where I +first heard your voice. You remember it, don't you? You were +lost, I think, in the darkness, and I used to say to myself +afterwards that I found you. That was the first time. Then the +second time I heard you, was here in the hall. I was alone in the +other room, for Mrs. Barker had gone out. I did not know you were +here, but I knew your voice. And the third time was before the +convent gate, and then I knew you knew me. And after that I didn't +think of anything but coming to you; for I knew that if I was found +out, you would take me back with you, and perhaps send word to my +brother where we were, and then"-- She stopped suddenly, with her +eyes fixed on Key's blank face. Her own grew blank, the joy faded +out of her clear eyes, she gently withdrew her hand from his, and +without a word began to resume her disguise. + +"Listen to me," said Key passionately. "I am thinking only of YOU. +I want to, and WILL, save you from any blame,--blame you do not +understand even now. There is still time. I will go back to the +convent with you at once. You shall tell me everything; I will +tell you everything on the way." + +She had already completely resumed her austere garb, and drew the +veil across her face. With the putting on her coif she seemed to +have extinguished all the joyous youthfulness of her spirit, and +moved with the deliberateness of renunciation towards the door. +They descended the staircase without a word. Those who saw them +pass made way for them with formal respect. + +When they were in the street, she said quietly, "Don't give me your +arm--Sisters don't take it." When they had reached the street +corner, she turned it, saying, "This is the shortest way." + +It was Key who was now restrained, awkward, and embarrassed. The +fire of his spirit, the passion he had felt a moment before, had +gone out of him, as if she were really the character she had +assumed. He said at last desperately:-- + +"How long did you live in the hollow?" + +"Only two days. My brother was bringing me here to school, but in +the stage coach there was some one with whom he had quarreled, and +he didn't want to meet him with me. So we got out at Skinner's, +and came to the hollow, where his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Barker, +lived." + +There was no hesitation nor affectation in her voice. Again he +felt that he would as soon have doubted the words of the Sister she +represented as her own. + +"And your brother--did you live with him?" + +"No. I was at school at Marysville until he took me away. I saw +little of him for the past two years, for he had business in the +mountains--very rough business, where he couldn't take me, for it +kept him away from the settlements for weeks. I think it had +something to do with cattle, for he was always having a new horse. +I was all alone before that, too; I had no other relations; I had +no friends. We had always been moving about so much, my brother +and I. I never saw any one that I liked, except you, and until +yesterday I had only HEARD you." + +Her perfect naivete alternately thrilled him with pain and doubt. +In his awkwardness and uneasiness he was brutal. + +"Yes, but you must have met somebody--other men--here even, when +you were out with your schoolfellows, or perhaps on an adventure +like this." + +Her white coif turned towards him quickly. "I never wanted to know +anybody else. I never cared to see anybody else. I never would +have gone out in this way but for you," she said hurriedly. After +a pause she added in a frightened tone: "That didn't sound like +your voice then. It didn't sound like it a moment ago either." + +"But you are sure that you know my voice," he said, with affected +gayety. "There were two others in the hollow with me that night." + +"I know that, too. But I know even what you said. You reproved +them for throwing a lighted match in the dry grass. You were +thinking of us then. I know it." + +"Of US?" said Key quickly. + +"Of Mrs. Barker and myself. We were alone in the house, for my +brother and her husband were both away. What you said seemed to +forewarn me, and I told her. So we were prepared when the fire +came nearer, and we both escaped on the same horse." + +"And you dropped your shoes in your flight," said Key laughingly, +"and I picked them up the next day, when I came to search for you. +I have kept them still." + +"They were HER shoes," said the girl quickly, "I couldn't find mine +in our hurry, and hers were too large for me, and dropped off." +She stopped, and with a faint return of her old gladness said, +"Then you DID come back? I KNEW you would." + +"I should have stayed THEN, but we got no reply when we shouted. +Why was that?" he demanded suddenly. + +"Oh, we were warned against speaking to any stranger, or even being +seen by any one while we were alone," returned the girl simply. + +"But why?" persisted Key. + +"Oh, because there were so many highwaymen and horse-stealers in +the woods. Why, they had stopped the coach only a few weeks +before, and only a day or two ago, when Mrs. Barker came down. SHE +saw them!" + +Key with difficulty suppressed a groan. They walked on in silence +for some moments, he scarcely daring to lift his eyes to the +decorous little figure hastening by his side. Alternately touched +by mistrust and pain, at last an infinite pity, not unmingled with +a desperate resolution, took possession of him. + +"I must make a confession to you, Miss Rivers," he began with the +bashful haste of a very boy, "that is"--he stammered with a half +hysteric laugh,--"that is--a confession as if you were really a +sister or a priest, you know--a sort of confidence to you--to your +dress. I HAVE seen you, or THOUGHT I saw you before. It was that +which brought me here, that which made me follow Mrs. Barker--my +only clue to you--to the door of that convent. That night, in the +hollow, I saw a profile at the lighted window, which I thought was +yours." + +"I never was near the window," said the young girl quickly. "It +must have been Mrs. Barker." + +"I know that now," returned Key. "But remember, it was my only +clue to you. I mean," he added awkwardly, "it was the means of my +finding you." + +"I don't see how it made you think of me, whom you never saw, to +see another woman's profile," she retorted, with the faintest touch +of asperity in her childlike voice. "But," she added, more gently +and with a relapse into her adorable naivete, "most people's +profiles look alike." + +"It was not that," protested Key, still awkwardly, "it was only +that I realized something--only a dream, perhaps." + +She did not reply, and they continued on in silence. The gray wall +of the convent was already in sight. Key felt he had achieved +nothing. Except for information that was hopeless, he had come to +no nearer understanding of the beautiful girl beside him, and his +future appeared as vague as before; and, above all, he was +conscious of an inferiority of character and purpose to this simple +creature, who had obeyed him so submissively. Had he acted wisely? +Would it not have been better if he had followed her own frankness, +and-- + +"Then it was Mrs. Barker's profile that brought you here?" resumed +the voice beneath the coif. "You know she has gone back. I +suppose you will follow?" + +"You will not understand me," said Key desperately. "But," he +added in a lower voice, "I shall remain here until you do." + +He drew a little closer to her side. + +"Then you must not begin by walking so close to me," she said, +moving slightly away; "they may see you from the gate. And you +must not go with me beyond that corner. If I have been missed +already they will suspect you." + +"But how shall I know?" he said, attempting to take her hand. "Let +me walk past the gate. I cannot leave you in this uncertainty." + +"You will know soon enough," she said gravely, evading his hand. +"You must not go further now. Good-night." + +She had stopped at the corner of the wall. He again held out his +hand. Her little fingers slid coldly between his. + +"Good-night, Miss Rivers." + +"Stop!" she said suddenly, withdrawing her veil and lifting her +clear eyes to his in the moonlight. "You must not say THAT--it +isn't the truth. I can't bear to hear it from YOUR lips, in YOUR +voice. My name is NOT Rivers!" + +"Not Rivers--why?" said Key, astounded. + +"Oh, I don't know why," she said half despairingly; "only my +brother didn't want me to use my name and his here, and I promised. +My name is 'Riggs'--there! It's a secret--you mustn't tell it; but +I could not bear to hear YOU say a lie." + +"Good-night, Miss Riggs," said Key sadly. + +"No, nor that either," she said softly. "Say Alice." + +"Good-night, Alice." + +She moved on before him. She reached the gate. For a moment her +figure, in its austere, formless garments, seemed to him to even +stoop and bend forward in the humility of age and self- +renunciation, and she vanished within as into a living tomb. + +Forgetting all precaution, he pressed eagerly forward, and stopped +before the gate. There was no sound from within; there had +evidently been no challenge nor interruption. She was safe. + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +The reappearance of Chivers in the mill with Collinson, and the +brief announcement that the prisoner had consented to a +satisfactory compromise, were received at first with a half +contemptuous smile by the party; but for the commands of their +leaders, and possibly a conviction that Collinson's fatuous +cooperation with Chivers would be safer than his wrath, which might +not expend itself only on Chivers, but imperil the safety of all, +it is probable that they would have informed the unfortunate +prisoner of his real relations to his captor. In these +circumstances, Chivers's half satirical suggestion that Collinson +should be added to the sentries outside, and guard his own +property, was surlily assented to by Riggs, and complacently +accepted by the others. Chivers offered to post him himself,--not +without an interchange of meaning glances with Riggs,--Collinson's +own gun was returned to him, and the strangely assorted pair left +the mill amicably together. + +But however humanly confident Chivers was in his companion's +faithfulness, he was not without a rascal's precaution, and +determined to select a position for Collinson where he could do the +least damage in any aberration of trust. At the top of the grade, +above the mill, was the only trail by which a party in force could +approach it. This was to Chivers obviously too strategic a +position to intrust to his prisoner, and the sentry who guarded its +approach, five hundred yards away, was left unchanged. But there +was another "blind" trail, or cut-off, to the left, through the +thickest undergrowth of the woods, known only to his party. To +place Collinson there was to insure him perfect immunity from the +approach of an enemy, as well as from any confidential advances of +his fellow sentry. This done, he drew a cigar from his pocket, and +handing it to Collinson, lighted another for himself, and leaning +back comfortably against a large boulder, glanced complacently at +his companion. + +"You may smoke until I go, Mr. Collinson, and even afterwards, if +you keep the bowl of your pipe behind a rock, so as to be out of +sight of your fellow sentry, whose advances, by the way, if I were +you, I should not encourage. Your position here, you see, is a +rather peculiar one. You were saying, I think, that a lingering +affection for your wife impelled you to keep this place for her, +although you were convinced of her death?" + +Collinson's unaffected delight in Chivers's kindliness had made his +eyes shine in the moonlight with a doglike wistfulness. "I reckon +I did say that, Mr. Chivers," he said apologetically, "though it +ain't goin' to interfere with you usin' the shanty jest now." + +"I wasn't alluding to that, Collinson," returned Chivers, with a +large rhetorical wave of the hand, and an equal enjoyment in his +companion's evident admiration of him, "but it struck me that your +remark, nevertheless, implied some doubt of your wife's death, and +I don't know but that your doubts are right." + +"Wot's that?" said Collinson, with a dull glow in his face. + +Chivers blew the smoke of his cigar lazily in the still air. +"Listen," he said. "Since your miraculous conversion a few moments +ago, I have made some friendly inquiries about you, and I find that +you lost all trace of your wife in Texas in '52, where a number of +her fellow emigrants died of yellow fever. Is that so?" + +"Yes," said Collinson quickly. + +"Well, it so happens that a friend of mine," continued Chivers +slowly, "was in a train which followed that one, and picked up and +brought on some of the survivors." + +"That was the train wot brought the news," said Collinson, +relapsing into his old patience. "That's how I knowed she hadn't +come." + +"Did you ever hear the names of any of its passengers?" said +Chivers, with a keen glance at his companion. + +"Nary one! I only got to know it was a small train of only two +wagons, and it sorter melted into Californy through a southern +pass, and kinder petered out, and no one ever heard of it agin, and +that was all." + +"That was NOT all, Collinson," said Chivers lazily. "I saw the +train arrive at South Pass. I was awaiting a friend and his wife. +There was a lady with them, one of the survivors. I didn't hear +her name, but I think my friend's wife called her 'Sadie.' I +remember her as a rather pretty woman--tall, fair, with a straight +nose and a full chin, and small slim feet. I saw her only a +moment, for she was on her way to Los Angeles, and was, I believe, +going to join her husband somewhere in the Sierras." + +The rascal had been enjoying with intense satisfaction the return +of the dull glow in Collinson's face, that even seemed to animate +the whole length of his angular frame as it turned eagerly towards +him. So he went on, experiencing a devilish zest in this +description of his mistress to her husband, apart from the pleasure +of noting the slow awakening of this apathetic giant, with a +sensation akin to having warmed him into life. Yet his triumph was +of short duration. The fire dropped suddenly out of Collinson's +eyes, the glow from his face, and the dull look of unwearied +patience returned. + +"That's all very kind and purty of yer, Mr. Chivers," he said +gravely; "you've got all my wife's pints thar to a dot, and it +seems to fit her jest like a shoe I picked up t'other day. But it +wasn't my Sadie, for ef she's living or had lived, she'd bin just +yere!" + +The same fear and recognition of some unknown reserve in this +trustful man came over Chivers as before. In his angry resentment +of it he would have liked to blurt out the infidelity of the wife +before her husband, but he knew Collinson would not believe him, +and he had another purpose now. His full lips twisted into a suave +smile. + +"While I would not give you false hopes, Mr. Collinson," he said, +with a bland smile, "my interest in you compels me to say that you +may be over confident and wrong. There are a thousand things that +may have prevented your wife from coming to you,--illness, possibly +the result of her exposure, poverty, misapprehension of your place +of meeting, and, above all, perhaps some false report of your own +death. Has it ever occurred to you that it is as possible for her +to have been deceived in that way as for you?" + +"Wot yer say?" said Collinson, with a vague suspicion. + +"What I mean. You think yourself justified in believing your wife +dead, because she did not seek you here; may she not feel herself +equally justified in believing the same of you, because you had not +sought her elsewhere?" + +"But it was writ that she was comin' yere, and--I boarded every +train that come in that fall," said Collinson, with a new +irritation, unlike his usual calm. + +"Except one, my dear Collinson,--except one," returned Chivers, +holding up a fat forefinger smilingly. "And that may be the clue. +Now, listen! There is still a chance of following it, if you will. +The name of my friends were Mr. and Mrs. Barker. I regret," he +added, with a perfunctory cough, "that poor Barker is dead. He was +not such an exemplary husband as you are, my dear Collinson, and I +fear was not all that Mrs. Barker could have wished; enough that he +succumbed from various excesses, and did not leave me Mrs. Barker's +present address. But she has a young friend, a ward, living at the +convent of Santa Luisa, whose name is Miss Rivers, who can put you +in communication with her. Now, one thing more: I can understand +your feelings, and that you would wish at once to satisfy your +mind. It is not, perhaps, to my interest nor the interest of my +party to advise you, but," he continued, glancing around him, "you +have an admirably secluded position here, on the edge of the trail, +and if you are missing from your post to-morrow morning, I shall +respect your feelings, trust to your honor to keep this secret, +and--consider it useless to pursue you!" + +There was neither shame nor pity in his heart, as the deceived man +turned towards him with tremulous eagerness, and grasped his hand +in silent gratitude. But the old rage and fear returned, as +Collinson said gravely:-- + +"You kinder put a new life inter me, Mr. Chivers, and I wish I had +yer gift o' speech to tell ye so. But I've passed my word to the +Capting thar and to the rest o' you folks that I'd stand guard out +yere, and I don't go back o' my word. I mout, and I moutn't find +my Sadie; but she wouldn't think the less o' me, arter these years +o' waitin', ef I stayed here another night, to guard the house I +keep in trust for her, and the strangers I've took in on her +account." + +"As you like, then," said Chivers, contracting his lips, "but keep +your own counsel to-night. There may be those who would like to +deter you from your search. And now I will leave you alone in this +delightful moonlight. I quite envy you your unrestricted communion +with Nature. Adios, amigo, adios!" + +He leaped lightly on a large rock that overhung the edge of the +grade, and waved his hand. + +"I wouldn't do that, Mr. Chivers," said Collinson, with a concerned +face; "them rocks are mighty ticklish, and that one in partiklar. +A tech sometimes sends 'em scooting." + +Mr. Chivers leaped quickly to the ground, turned, waved his hand +again, and disappeared down the grade. + +But Collinson was no longer alone. Hitherto his characteristic +reveries had been of the past,--reminiscences in which there was +only recollection, no imagination, and very little hope. Under the +spell of Chivers's words his fancy seemed to expand; he began to +think of his wife as she might be now,--perhaps ill, despairing, +wandering hopelessly, even ragged and footsore, or--believing HIM +dead--relapsing into the resigned patience that had been his own; +but always a new Sadie, whom he had never seen or known before. A +faint dread, the lightest of misgivings (perhaps coming from his +very ignorance), for the first time touched his steadfast heart, +and sent a chill through it. He shouldered his weapon, and walked +briskly towards the edge of the thick-set woods. There were the +fragrant essences of the laurel and spruce--baked in the long-day +sunshine that had encompassed their recesses--still coming warm to +his face; there were the strange shiftings of temperature +throughout the openings, that alternately warmed and chilled him as +he walked. It seemed so odd that he should now have to seek her +instead of her coming to him; it would never be the same meeting to +him, away from the house that he had built for her! He strolled +back, and looked down upon it, nestling on the ledge. The white +moonlight that lay upon it dulled the glitter of lights in its +windows, but the sounds of laughter and singing came to even his +unfastidious ears with a sense of vague discord. He walked back +again, and began to pace before the thick-set wood. Suddenly he +stopped and listened. + +To any other ears but those accustomed to mountain solitude it +would have seemed nothing. But, familiar as he was with all the +infinite disturbances of the woodland, and even the simulation of +intrusion caused by a falling branch or lapsing pine-cone, he was +arrested now by a recurring sound, unlike any other. It was an +occasional muffled beat--interrupted at uncertain intervals, but +always returning in regular rhythm, whenever it was audible. He +knew it was made by a cantering horse; that the intervals were due +to the patches of dead leaves in its course, and that the varying +movement was the effect of its progress through obstacles and +underbrush. It was therefore coming through some "blind" cutoff in +the thick-set wood. The shifting of the sound also showed that the +rider was unfamiliar with the locality, and sometimes wandered from +the direct course; but the unfailing and accelerating persistency +of the sound, in spite of these difficulties, indicated haste and +determination. + +He swung his gun from his shoulder, and examined its caps. As the +sound came nearer, he drew up beside a young spruce at the entrance +of the thicket. There was no necessity to alarm the house, or call +the other sentry. It was a single horse and rider, and he was +equal to that. He waited quietly, and with his usual fateful +patience. Even then his thoughts still reverted to his wife; and +it was with a singular feeling that he, at last, saw the thick +underbrush give way before a woman, mounted on a sweating but still +spirited horse, who swept out into the open. Nevertheless, he +stopped in front of her, and called:-- + +"Hold up thar!" + +The horse recoiled, nearly unseating her. Collinson caught the +reins. She lifted her whip mechanically, yet remained holding it +in the air, trembling, until she slipped, half struggling, half +helplessly, from the saddle to the ground. Here she would have +again fallen, but Collinson caught her sharply by the waist. At +his touch she started and uttered a frightened "No!" At her voice +Collinson started. + +"Sadie!" he gasped. + +"Seth!" she half whispered. + +They stood looking at each other. But Collinson was already +himself again. The man of simple directness and no imagination saw +only his wife before him--a little breathless, a little flurried, a +little disheveled from rapid riding, as he had sometimes seen her +before, but otherwise unchanged. Nor had HE changed; he took her +up where he had left her years ago. His grave face only broadened +into a smile, as he held both her hands in his. + +"Yes, it's me--Lordy! Why, I was comin' only to-morrow to find ye, +Sade!" + +She glanced hurriedly around her, "To--to find me," she said +incredulously. + +"Sartain! That ez, I was goin' to ask about ye,--goin' to ask +about ye at the convent." + +"At the convent?" she echoed with a frightened amazement. + +"Yes, why, Lordy Sade--don't you see? You thought I was dead, and +I thought you was dead,--that's what's the matter. But I never +reckoned that you'd think me dead until Chivers allowed that it +must be so." + +Her face whitened in the moonlight "Chivers?" she said blankly. + +"In course; but nat'rally you don't know him, honey. He only saw +you onc't. But it was along o' that, Sade, that he told me he +reckoned you wasn't dead, and told me how to find you. He was +mighty kind and consarned about it, and he even allowed I'd better +slip off to you this very night." + +"Chivers," she repeated, gazing at her husband with bloodless lips. + +"Yes, an awful purty-spoken man. Ye'll have to get to know him +Sade. He's here with some of his folks az hez got inter trouble-- +I'm forgettin' to tell ye. You see"-- + +"Yes, yes, yes!" she interrupted hysterically; "and this is the +Mill?" + +"Yes, lovey, the Mill--my mill--YOUR mill--the house I built for +you, dear. I'd show it to you now, but you see, Sade, I'm out here +standin' guard." + +"Are YOU one of them?" she said, clutching his hand desperately. + +"No, dear," he said soothingly,--"no; only, you see, I giv' my word +to 'em as I giv' my house to-night, and I'm bound to protect them +and see 'em through. Why, Lordy! Sade, you'd have done the same-- +for Chivers." + +"Yes, yes," she said, beating her hands together strangely, "of +course. He was so kind to bring me back to you. And you might +have never found me but for him." + +She burst into an hysterical laugh, which the simple-minded man +might have overlooked but for the tears that coursed down her +bloodless face. + +"What's gone o' ye, Sadie," he said in a sudden fear, grasping her +hands; "that laugh ain't your'n--that voice ain't your'n. You're +the old Sadie, ain't ye?" He stopped. For a moment his face +blanched as he glanced towards the mill, from which the faint sound +of bacchanalian voices came to his quick ear. "Sadie, dear, ye +ain't thinkin' anything agin' me? Ye ain't allowin' I'm keeping +anythin' back from ye?" + +Her face stiffened into rigidity; she dashed the tears from her +eyes. "No," she said quickly. Then after a moment she added, with +a faint laugh, "You see we haven't seen each other for so long-- +it's all so sudden--so unexpected." + +"But you kem here, just now, calkilatin' to find me?" said +Collinson gravely. + +"Yes, yes," she said quickly, still grasping both his hands, but +with her head slightly turned in the direction of the mill. + +"But who told ye where to find the mill?" he said, with gentle +patience. + +"A friend," she said hurriedly. "Perhaps," she added, with a +singular smile, "a friend of the friend who told you." + +"I see," said Collinson, with a relieved face and a broadening +smile, "it's a sort of fairy story. I'll bet, now, it was that old +Barker woman that Chivers knows." + +Her teeth gleamed rigidly together in the moonlight, like a +death's-head. "Yes," she said dryly, "it was that old Barker +woman. Say, Seth," she continued, moistening her lips slowly, +"you're guarding this place alone?" + +"Thar's another feller up the trail,--a sentry,--but don't you be +afeard, he can't hear us, Sade." + +"On this side of the mill?" + +"Yes! Why, Lord love ye, Sadie! t'other side o' the mill it drops +down straight to the valley; nobody comes yer that way but poor +low-down emigrants. And it's miles round to come by the valley +from the summit." + +"You didn't hear your friend Chivers say that the sheriff was out +with his posse to-night hunting them?" + +"No. Did you?" + +"I think I heard something of that kind at Skinner's, but it may +have been only a warning to me, traveling alone." + +"Thet's so," said Collinson, with a tender solicitude, "but none o' +these yer road-agents would have teched a woman. And this yer +Chivers ain't the man to insult one, either." + +"No," she said, with a return of her hysteric laugh. But it was +overlooked by Collinson, who was taking his gun from beside the +tree where he had placed it, "Where are you going?" she said +suddenly. + +"I reckon them fellers ought to be warned o' what you heard. I'll +be back in a minit." + +"And you're going to leave me now--when--when we've only just met +after these years," she said, with a faint attempt at a smile, +which, however, did not reach the cold glitter of her eyes. + +"Just for a little, honey. Besides, don't you see, I've got to get +excused; for we'll have to go off to Skinner's or somewhere, Sadie, +for we can't stay in thar along o' them." + +"So you and your wife are turned out of your home to please +Chivers," she said, still smiling. + +"That's whar you slip up, Sadie," said Collinson, with a troubled +face; "for he's that kind of a man thet if I jest as much as hinted +you was here, he'd turn 'em all out o' the house for a lady. +Thet's why I don't propose to let on anything about you till to- +morrow." + +"To-morrow will do," she said, still smiling, but with a singular +abstraction in her face. "Pray don't disturb them now. You say +there is another sentinel beyond. He is enough to warn them of any +approach from the trail. I'm tired and ill--very ill! Sit by me +here, Seth, and wait! We can wait here together--we have waited so +long, Seth,--and the end has come now." + +She suddenly lapsed against the tree, and slipped in a sitting +posture to the ground. Collinson cast himself at her side, and put +his arm round her. + +"Wot's gone o' ye, Sade? You're cold and sick. Listen. Your hoss +is just over thar feedin'. I'll put you back on him, run in and +tell 'em I'm off, and be with ye in a jiffy, and take ye back to +Skinner's." + +"Wait," she said softly. "Wait." + +"Or to the Silver Hollow--it's not so far." + +She had caught his hands again, her rigid face close to his, "What +hollow?--speak!" she said breathlessly. + +"The hollow whar a friend o' mine struck silver. He'll take yur +in." + +Her head sank against his shoulder. "Let me stay here," she +answered, "and wait." + +He supported her tenderly, feeling the gentle brushing of her hair +against his cheek as in the old days. He was content to wait, +holding her thus. They were very silent; her eyes half closed, as +if in exhaustion, yet with the strange suggestion of listening in +the vacant pupils. + +"Ye ain't hearin' anythin', deary?" he said, with a troubled face. + +"No; but everything is so deathly still," she said in a frightened +whisper. + +It certainly was very still. A singular hush seemed to have slid +over the landscape; there was no longer any sound from the mill; +there was an ominous rest in the woodland, so perfect that the tiny +rustle of an uneasy wing in the tree above them had made them +start; even the moonlight seemed to hang suspended in the air. + +"It's like the lull before the storm," she said with her strange +laugh. + +But the non-imaginative Collinson was more practical. "It's mighty +like that earthquake weather before the big shake thet dried up the +river and stopped the mill. That was just the time I got the news +o' your bein' dead with yellow fever. Lord! honey, I allus allowed +to myself thet suthin' was happenin' to ye then." + +She did not reply; but he, holding her figure closer to him, felt +it trembling with a nervous expectation. Suddenly she threw him +off, and rose to her feet with a cry. "There!" she screamed +frantically, "they've come! they've come!" + +A rabbit had run out into the moonlight before them, a gray fox had +dashed from the thicket into the wood, but nothing else. + +"Who's come?" said Collinson, staring at her. + +"The sheriff and his posse! They're surrounding them now. Don't +you hear?" she gasped. + +There was a strange rattling in the direction of the mill, a dull +rumble, with wild shouts and outcries, and the trampling of feet on +its wooden platform. Collinson staggered to his feet; but at the +same moment he was thrown violently against his wife, and they both +clung helplessly to the tree, with their eyes turned toward the +ledge. There was a dense cloud of dust and haze hanging over it. + +She uttered another cry, and ran swiftly towards the rocky grade. +Collinson ran quickly after her, but as she reached the grade he +suddenly shouted, with an awful revelation in his voice, "Come +back! Stop, Sadie, for God's sake!" But it was too late. She had +already disappeared; and as he reached the rock on which Chivers +had leaped, he felt it give way beneath him. + +But there was no sound, only a rush of wind from the valley below. +Everything lapsed again into its awful stillness. As the cloud +lifted from where the mill had stood, the moon shone only upon +empty space. There was a singular murmuring and whispering from +the woods beyond that increased in sound, and an hour later the dry +bed of the old mill-stream was filled with a rushing river. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Preble Key returned to his hotel from the convent, it is to be +feared, with very little of that righteous satisfaction which is +supposed to follow the performance of a good deed. He was by no +means certain that what he had done was best for the young girl. +He had only shown himself to her as a worldly monitor of dangers, +of which her innocence was providentially unconscious. In his +feverish haste to avert a scandal, he had no chance to explain his +real feelings; he had, perhaps, even exposed her thwarted impulses +to equally naive but more dangerous expression, which he might not +have the opportunity to check. He tossed wakefully that night upon +his pillow, tormented with alternate visions of her adorable +presence at the hotel, and her bowed, renunciating figure as she +reentered the convent gate. He waited expectantly the next day for +the message she had promised, and which he believed she would find +some way to send. But no message was forthcoming. The day passed, +and he became alarmed. The fear that her escapade had been +discovered again seized him. If she were in close restraint, she +could neither send to him, nor could he convey to her the +solicitude and sympathy that filled his heart. In her childish +frankness she might have confessed the whole truth, and this would +not only shut the doors of the convent against him, under his +former pretext, but compromise her still more if he boldly called. +He waylaid the afternoon procession; she was not among them. +Utterly despairing, the wildest plans for seeing her passed through +his brain,--plans that recalled his hot-headed youth, and a few +moments later made him smile at his extravagance, even while it +half frightened him at the reality of his passion. He reached the +hotel heart-sick and desperate. The porter met him on the steps. +It was with a thrill that sent the blood leaping to his cheeks that +he heard the man say:-- + +"Sister Seraphina is waiting for you in the sitting-room." + +There was no thought of discovery or scandal in Preble Key's mind +now; no doubt or hesitation as to what he would do, as he sprang up +the staircase. He only knew that he had found her again, and was +happy! He burst into the room, but this time remembered to shut +the door behind him. He looked eagerly towards the window where +she had stood the day before, but now she rose quickly from the +sofa in the corner, where she had been seated, and the missal she +had been reading rolled from her lap to the floor. He ran towards +her to pick it up. Her name--the name she had told him to call +her--was passionately trembling on his lips, when she slowly put +her veil aside, and displayed a pale, kindly, middle-aged face, +slightly marked by old scars of smallpox. It was not Alice; it was +the real Sister Seraphina who stood before him. + +His first revulsion of bitter disappointment was so quickly +followed by a realization that all had been discovered, and his +sacrifice of yesterday had gone for naught, that he stood before +her, stammering, but without the power to say a word. Luckily for +him, his utter embarrassment seemed to reassure her, and to calm +that timidity which his brusque man-like irruption might well +produce in the inexperienced, contemplative mind of the recluse. +Her voice was very sweet, albeit sad, as she said gently:-- + +"I am afraid I have taken you by surprise; but there was no time to +arrange for a meeting, and the Lady Superior thought that I, who +knew all the facts, had better see you confidentially. Father +Cipriano gave us your address." + +Amazed and wondering, Key bowed her to a seat. + +"You will remember," she went on softly, "that the Lady Superior +failed to get any information from you regarding the brother of one +of our dear children, whom he committed to our charge through a--a +companion or acquaintance--a Mrs. Barker. As she was armed with +his authority by letter, we accepted the dear child through her, +permitted her as his representative to have free access to his +sister, and even allowed her, as an unattended woman, to pass the +night at the convent. We were therefore surprised this morning to +receive a letter from him, absolutely forbidding any further +intercourse, correspondence, or association of his sister with this +companion, Mrs. Barker. It was necessary to inform the dear child +of this at once, as she was on the point of writing to this woman; +but we were pained and shocked at her reception of her brother's +wishes. I ought to say, in justice to the dear child, that while +she is usually docile, intelligent, and tractable to discipline, +and a devote in her religious feelings, she is singularly +impulsive. But we were not prepared for the rash and sudden step +she has taken. At noon to-day she escaped from the convent!" + +Key, who had been following her with relief, sprang to his feet at +this unexpected culmination. + +"Escaped!" he said. "Impossible! I mean," he added, hurriedly +recalling himself, "your rules, your discipline, your attendants +are so perfect." + +"The poor impulsive creature has added sacrilege to her madness--a +sacrilege we are willing to believe she did not understand, for she +escaped in a religious habit--my own." + +"But this would sufficiently identify her," he said, controlling +himself with an effort. + +"Alas, not so! There are many of us who go abroad on our missions +in these garments, and they are made all alike, so as to divert +rather than attract attention to any individuality. We have sent +private messengers in all directions, and sought her everywhere, +but without success. You will understand that we wish to avoid +scandal, which a more public inquiry would create." + +"And you come to me," said Key, with a return of his first +suspicion, in spite of his eagerness to cut short the interview and +be free to act,--"to me, almost a stranger?" + +"Not a stranger, Mr. Key," returned the religieuse gently, "but to +a well-known man--a man of affairs in the country where this +unhappy child's brother lives--a friend who seems to be sent by +Heaven to find out this brother for us, and speed this news to him. +We come to the old pupil of Father Cipriano, a friend of the Holy +Church; to the kindly gentleman who knows what it is to have dear +relations of his own, and who only yesterday was seeking the +convent to"-- + +"Enough!" interrupted Key hurriedly, with a slight color. "I will +go at once. I do not know this man, but I will do my best to find +him. And this--this--young girl? You say you have no trace of +her? May she not still be here? I should have some clue by which +to seek her--I mean that I could give to her brother." + +"Alas! we fear she is already far away from here. If she went at +once to San Luis, she could have easily taken a train to San +Francisco before we discovered her flight. We believe that it was +the poor child's intent to join her brother, so as to intercede for +her friend--or, perhaps, alas! to seek her." + +"And this friend left yesterday morning?" he said quickly, yet +concealing a feeling of relief. "Well, you may depend on me! And +now, as there is no time to be lost, I will make my arrangements to +take the next train." He held out his hand, paused, and said in +almost boyish embarrassment: "Bid me God speed, Sister Seraphina!" + +"May the Holy Virgin aid you," she said gently. Yet, as she passed +out of the door, with a grateful smile, a characteristic reaction +came over Key. His romantic belief in the interposition of +Providence was not without a tendency to apply the ordinary rules +of human evidence to such phenomena. Sister Seraphina's +application to him seemed little short of miraculous interference; +but what if it were only a trick to get rid of him, while the girl, +whose escapade had been discovered, was either under restraint in +the convent, or hiding in Santa Luisa? Yet this did not prevent +him from mechanically continuing his arrangements for departure. +When they were completed, and he had barely time to get to the +station at San Luis, he again lingered in vague expectation of some +determining event. + +The appearance of a servant with a telegraphic message at this +moment seemed to be an answer to this instinctive feeling. He tore +it open hastily. But it was only a single line from his foreman at +the mine, which had been repeated to him from the company's office +in San Francisco. It read, "Come at once--important." + +Disappointed as it left him, it determined his action; and as the +train steamed out of San Luis, it for a while diverted his +attention from the object of his pursuit. In any event, his +destination would have been Skinner's or the Hollow, as the point +from which to begin his search. He believed with Sister Seraphina +that the young girl would make her direct appeal to her brother; +but even if she sought Mrs. Barker, it would still be at some of +the haunts of the gang. The letter to the Lady Superior had been +postmarked from "Bald Top," which Key knew to be an obscure +settlement less frequented than Skinner's. Even then it was hardly +possible that the chief of the road agents would present himself at +the post-office, and it had probably been left by some less known +of the gang. A vague idea, that was hardly a suspicion, that the +girl might have a secret address of her brother's, without +understanding the reasons for its secrecy, came into his mind. A +still more vague hope, that he might meet her before she found her +brother, upheld him. It would be an accidental meeting on her +part, for he no longer dared to hope that she would seek or trust +him again. And it was with very little of his old sanguine quality +that, travel-worn and weary, he at last alighted at Skinner's. But +his half careless inquiry if any lady passengers had lately arrived +there, to his embarrassment produced a broad smile on the face of +Skinner. + +"You're the second man that asked that question, Mr. Key," he said. + +"The second man?" ejaculated Key nervously. + +"Yes the first was the sheriff of Sierra. He wanted to find a +tall, good-looking woman, about thirty, with black eyes. I hope +that ain't the kind o' girl you're looking arter--is it? for I +reckon she's gin you both the slip." + +Key protested with a forced laugh that it was not, yet suddenly +hesitated to describe Alice; for he instantly recognized the +portrait of her friend, the assumed Mrs. Barker. Skinner continued +in lazy confidence:-- + +"Ye see they say that the sheriff had sorter got the dead wood on +that gang o' road agents, and had hemmed 'em in somewhar betwixt +Bald Top and Collinson's. But that woman was one o' their spies, +and spotted his little game, and managed to give 'em the tip, so +they got clean away. Anyhow, they ain't bin heard from since. But +the big shake has made scoutin' along the ledges rather stiff work +for the sheriff. They say the valley near Long Canyon's chock full +o' rock and slumgullion that's slipped down." + +"What do you mean by the big shake?" asked Key in surprise. + +"Great Scott! you didn't hear of it? Didn't hear of the 'arthquake +that shook us up all along Galloper's the other night? Well," he +added disgustedly, "that's jist the conceit of them folks in the +bay, that can't allow that ANYTHIN' happens in the mountains!" + +The urgent telegrams of his foreman now flashed across Key's +preoccupied mind. Possibly Skinner saw his concern, "I reckon your +mine is all right, Mr. Key. One of your men was over yere last +night, and didn't say nothin'." + +But this did not satisfy Key; and in a few minutes he had mounted +his horse and was speeding towards the Hollow, with a remorseful +consciousness of having neglected his colleagues' interests. For +himself, in the utter prepossession of his passion for Alice, he +cared nothing. As he dashed down the slope to the Hollow, he +thought only of the two momentous days that she had passed there, +and the fate that had brought them so nearly together. There was +nothing to recall its sylvan beauty in the hideous works that now +possessed it, or the substantial dwelling-house that had taken the +place of the old cabin. A few hurried questions to the foreman +satisfied him of the integrity of the property. There had been +some alarm in the shaft, but there was no subsidence of the "seam," +nor any difficulty in the working. "What I telegraphed you for, +Mr. Key, was about something that has cropped up way back o' the +earthquake. We were served here the other day with a legal notice +of a claim to the mine, on account of previous work done on the +ledge by the last occupant." + +"But the cabin was built by a gang of thieves, who used it as a +hoard for their booty," returned Key hotly, "and every one of them +are outlaws, and have no standing before the law." He stopped with +a pang as he thought of Alice. And the blood rushed to his cheeks +as the foreman quietly continued:-- + +"But the claim ain't in any o' their names. It's allowed to be the +gift of their leader to his young sister, afore the outlawry, and +it's in HER name--Alice Riggs or something." + +Of the half-dozen tumultuous thoughts that passed through Key's +mind, only one remained. It was purely an act of the brother's to +secure some possible future benefit for his sister. And of this +she was perfectly ignorant! He recovered himself quickly, and said +with a smile:-- + +"But I discovered the ledge and its auriferous character myself. +There was no trace or sign of previous discovery or mining +occupation." + +"So I jedged, and so I said, and thet puts ye all right. But I +thought I'd tell ye; for mining laws is mining laws, and it's the +one thing ye can't get over," he added, with the peculiar +superstitious reverence of the Californian miner for that vested +authority. + +But Key scarcely listened. All that he had heard seemed only to +link him more fatefully and indissolubly with the young girl. He +was already impatient of even this slight delay in his quest. In +his perplexity his thoughts had reverted to Collinson's: the mill +was a good point to begin his search from; its good-natured, stupid +proprietor might be his guide, his ally, and even his confidant. + +When his horse was baited, he was again in the saddle. "If yer +going Collinson's way, yer might ask him if he's lost a horse," +said the foreman. "The morning after the shake, some of the boys +picked up a mustang, with a make-up lady's saddle on." Key +started! While it was impossible that it could have been ridden by +Alice, it might have been by the woman who had preceded her. + +"Did you make any search?" he inquired eagerly; "there may have +been an accident." + +"I reckon it wasn't no accident," returned the foreman coolly, "for +the riata was loose and trailing, as if it had been staked out, and +broken away." + +Without another word, Key put spurs to his horse and galloped away, +leaving his companion staring after him. Here was a clue: the +horse could not have strayed far; the broken tether indicated a +camp; the gang had been gathered somewhere in the vicinity where +Mrs. Barker had warned them,--perhaps in the wood beyond +Collinson's. He would penetrate it alone. He knew his danger; but +as a SINGLE unarmed man he might be admitted to the presence of the +leader, and the alleged claim was a sufficient excuse. What he +would say or do afterwards depended upon chance. It was a wild +scheme--but he was reckless. Yet he would go to Collinson's first. + +At the end of two hours he reached the thick-set wood that gave +upon the shelf at the top of the grade which descended to the mill. +As he emerged from the wood into the bursting sunlight of the +valley below, he sharply reined in his horse and stopped. Another +bound would have been his last. For the shelf, the rocky grade +itself, the ledge below, and the mill upon it, were all gone! The +crumbling outer wall of the rocky grade had slipped away into +immeasurable depths below, leaving only the sharp edge of a cliff, +which incurved towards the woods that had once stood behind the +mill, but which now bristled on the very edge of a precipice. A +mist was hanging over its brink and rising from the valley; it was +a full-fed stream that was coursing through the former dry bed of +the river and falling down the face of the bluff. He rubbed his +eyes, dismounted, crept along the edge of the precipice, and looked +below: whatever had subsided and melted down into its thousand feet +of depth, there was no trace left upon its smooth face. Scarcely +an angle of drift or debris marred the perpendicular; the burial of +all ruin was deep and compact; the erasure had been swift and sure-- +the obliteration complete. It might have been the precipitation +of ages, and not of a single night. At that remote distance it +even seemed as if grass were already growing ever this enormous +sepulchre, but it was only the tops of the buried pines. The +absolute silence, the utter absence of any mark of convulsive +struggle, even the lulling whimper of falling waters, gave the +scene a pastoral repose. + +So profound was the impression upon Key and his human passion that +it at first seemed an ironical and eternal ending of his quest. It +was with difficulty that he reasoned that the catastrophe occurred +before Alice's flight, and that even Collinson might have had time +to escape. He slowly skirted the edge of the chasm, and made his +way back through the empty woods behind the old mill-site towards +the place where he had dismounted. His horse seemed to have +strayed into the shadows of this covert; but as he approached him, +he was amazed to see that it was not his own, and that a woman's +scarf was lying over its side saddle. A wild idea seized him, and +found expression in an impulsive cry:-- + +"Alice!" + +The woods echoed it; there was an interval of silence, and then a +faint response. But it was HER voice. He ran eagerly forward in +that direction, and called again; the response was nearer this +time, and then the tall ferns parted, and her lithe, graceful +figure came running, stumbling, and limping towards him like a +wounded fawn. Her face was pale and agitated, the tendrils of her +light hair were straying over her shoulder, and one of the sleeves +of her school-gown was stained with blood and dust. He caught the +white and trembling hands that were thrust out to him eagerly. + +"It is YOU!" she gasped. "I prayed for some one to come, but I did +not dream it would be YOU. And then I heard YOUR voice--and I +thought it could be only a dream until you called a second time." + +"But you are hurt," he exclaimed passionately. "You have met with +some accident!" + +"No, no!" she said eagerly. "Not I--but a poor, poor man I found +lying on the edge of the cliff. I could not help him much, I did +not care to leave him. No one WOULD come! I have been with him +alone, all the morning! Come quick, he may be dying." + +He passed his arm around her waist unconsciously; she permitted it +as unconsciously, as he half supported her figure while they +hurried forward. + +"He had been crushed by something, and was just hanging over the +ledge, and could not move nor speak," she went on quickly. "I +dragged him away to a tree, it took me hours to move him, he was so +heavy,--and I got him some water from the stream and bathed his +face, and blooded all my sleeve." + +"But what were you doing here?" he asked quickly. + +A faint blush crossed the pallor of her delicate cheek. She looked +away quickly. "I--was going to find my brother at Bald Top," she +replied at last hurriedly. "But don't ask me now--only come quick, +do." + +"Is the wounded man conscious? Did you speak with him? Does he +know who you are?" asked Key uneasily. + +"No! he only moaned a little and opened his eyes when I dragged +him. I don't think he even knew what had happened." + +They hurried on again. The wood lightened suddenly. "Here!" she +said in a half whisper, and stepped timidly into the open light. +Only a few feet from the fatal ledge, against the roots of a +buckeye, with HER shawl thrown over him, lay the wounded man. + +Key started back. It was Collinson! + +His head and shoulders seemed uninjured; but as Key lifted the +shawl, he saw that the long, lank figure appeared to melt away +below the waist into a mass of shapeless and dirty rags. Key +hurriedly replaced the shawl, and, bending over him, listened to +his hurried respiration and the beating of his heart. Then he +pressed a drinking-flask to his lips. The spirit seemed to revive +him; he slowly opened his eyes. They fell upon Key with quick +recognition. But the look changed; one could see that he was +trying to rise, but that no movement of the limbs accompanied that +effort of will, and his old patient, resigned look returned. Key +shuddered. There was some injury to the spine. The man was +paralyzed. + +"I can't get up, Mr. Key," he said in a faint but untroubled voice, +"nor seem to move my arms, but you'll just allow that I've shook +hands with ye--all the same." + +"How did this happen?" said Key anxiously. + +"Thet's wot gets me! Sometimes I reckon I know, and sometimes I +don't. Lyin' thar on thet ledge all last night, and only jest able +to look down into the old valley, sometimes it seemed to me ez if I +fell over and got caught in the rocks trying to save my wife; but +then when I kem to think sensible, and know my wife wasn't there at +all, I get mystified. Sometimes I think I got ter thinkin' of my +wife only when this yer young gal thet's bin like an angel to me +kem here and dragged me off the ledge, for you see she don't belong +here, and hez dropped on to me like a sperrit." + +"Then you were not in the house when the shock came?" said Key. + +"No. You see the mill was filled with them fellers as the sheriff +was arter, and it went over with 'em--and I"-- + +"Alice," said Key, with a white face, "would you mind going to my +horse, which you will find somewhere near yours, and bringing me a +medicine case from my saddle-bags?" + +The innocent girl glanced quickly at her companion, saw the change +in his face, and, attributing it to the imminent danger of the +injured man, at once glided away. When she was out of hearing, Key +leaned gravely over him:-- + +"Collinson, I must trust you with a secret. I am afraid that this +poor girl who helped you is the sister of the leader of that gang +the sheriff was in pursuit of. She has been kept in perfect +ignorance of her brother's crimes. She must NEVER know them--nor +even know his fate! If he perished utterly in this catastrophe, as +it would seem--it was God's will to spare her that knowledge. I +tell you this, to warn you in anything you say before her. She +MUST believe, as I shall try to make her believe, that he has gone +back to the States--where she will perhaps, hereafter, believe that +he died. Better that she should know nothing--and keep her thought +of him unchanged." + +"I see--I see--I see, Mr. Key," murmured the injured man. "Thet's +wot I've been sayin' to myself lyin' here all night. Thet's wot I +bin sayin' o' my wife Sadie,--her that I actooally got to think kem +back to me last night. You see I'd heerd from one o' those fellars +that a woman like unto her had been picked up in Texas and brought +on yere, and that mebbe she was somewhar in Californy. I was that +foolish--and that ontrue to her, all the while knowin', as I once +told you, Mr. Key, that ef she'd been alive she'd bin yere--that I +believed it true for a minit! And that was why, afore this +happened, I had a dream, right out yer, and dreamed she kem to me, +all white and troubled, through the woods. At first I thought it +war my Sadie; but when I see she warn't like her old self, and her +voice was strange and her laugh was strange--then I knowed it +wasn't her, and I was dreamin'. You're right, Mr. Key, in wot you +got off just now--wot was it? Better to know nothin'--and keep the +old thoughts unchanged." + +"Have you any pain?" asked Key after a pause. + +"No; I kinder feel easier now." + +Key looked at his changing face. "Tell me," he said gently, "if it +does not tax your strength, all that has happened here, all you +know. It is for HER sake." + +Thus adjured, with his eyes fixed on Key, Collinson narrated his +story from the irruption of the outlaws to the final catastrophe. +Even then he palliated their outrage with his characteristic +patience, keeping still his strange fascination for Chivers, and +his blind belief in his miserable wife. The story was at times +broken by lapses of faintness, by a singular return of his old +abstraction and forgetfulness in the midst of a sentence, and at +last by a fit of coughing that left a few crimson bubbles on the +corners of his month. Key lifted his eyes anxiously; there was +some grave internal injury, which the dying man's resolute patience +had suppressed. Yet, at the sound of Alice's returning step, +Collinson's eyes brightened, apparently as much at her coming as +from the effect of the powerful stimulant Key had taken from his +medicine case. + +"I thank ye, Mr. Key," he said faintly; "for I've got an idea I +ain't got no great time before me, and I've got suthin' to say to +you, afore witnesses"--his eyes sought Alice's in half apology-- +"afore witnesses, you understand. Would you mind standin' out +thar, afore me, in the light, so I kin see you both, and you, miss, +rememberin', ez a witness, suthin' I got to tell to him? You might +take his hand, miss, to make it more regular and lawlike." + +The two did as he bade them, standing side by side, painfully +humoring what seemed to them to be wanderings of a dying man. + +"Thar was a young fellow," said Collinson in a steady voice, "ez +kem to my shanty a night ago on his way to the--the--valley. He +was a sprightly young fellow, gay and chipper-like, and he sez to +me, confidential-like, 'Collinson,' sez he, 'I'm off to the States +this very night on business of importance; mebbe I'll be away a +long time--for years! You know,' sez he, 'Mr. Key, in the Hollow! +Go to him,' sez he, 'and tell him ez how I hadn't time to get to +see him; tell him,' sez he, 'that RIVERS'--you've got the name, Mr. +Key?--you've got the name, miss?--'that RIVERS wants him to say +this to his little sister from her lovin' brother. And tell him,' +sez he, this yer RIVERS, 'to look arter her, being alone.' You +remember that, Mr. Key? you remember it, miss? You see, I +remembered it, too, being, so to speak, alone myself"--he paused, +and added in a faint whisper--"till now." + +Then he was silent. That innocent lie was the first and last upon +his honest lips; for as they stood there, hand in hand, they saw +his plain, hard face take upon itself, at first, the gray, ashen +hues of the rocks around him, and then and thereafter something of +the infinite tranquillity and peace of that wilderness in which he +had lived and died, and of which he was a part. + +Contemporaneous history was less kindly. The "Bald Top Sentinel" +congratulated its readers that the late seismic disturbance was +accompanied with very little loss of life, if any. "It is reported +that the proprietor of a low shebeen for emigrants in an obscure +hollow had succumbed from injuries; but," added the editor, with a +fine touch of Western humor, "whether this was the result of his +being forcibly mixed up with his own tanglefoot whiskey or not, we +are unable to determine from the evidence before us." For all +that, a small stone shaft was added later to the rocks near the +site of the old mill, inscribed to the memory of this obscure +proprietor," with the singular legend: "Have ye faith like to him?" +And those who knew only of the material catastrophe looking around +upon the scene of desolation it commemorated, thought grimly that +it must be faith indeed, and--were wiser than they knew. + +"You smiled, Don Preble," said the Lady Superior to Key a few weeks +later, "when I told to you that many caballeros thought it most +discreet to intrust their future brides to the maternal +guardianship and training of the Holy Church; yet, of a truth, I +meant not YOU. And yet--eh! well, we shall see." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext In a Hollow of the Hills, by Bret Harte + |