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diff --git a/old/crqnz10.txt b/old/crqnz10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd28cb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/crqnz10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4867 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of In The Carquinez Woods, by Bret Harte +#15 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* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +IN THE CARQUINEZ WOODS + +by Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The sun was going down on the Carquinez Woods. The few shafts of +sunlight that had pierced their pillared gloom were lost in +unfathomable depths, or splintered their ineffectual lances on +the enormous trunks of the redwoods. For a time the dull red of +their vast columns, and the dull red of their cast-off bark which +matted the echoless aisles, still seemed to hold a faint glow of +the dying day. But even this soon passed. Light and color fled +upwards. The dark interlaced treetops, that had all day made an +impenetrable shade, broke into fire here and there; their lost +spires glittered, faded, and went utterly out. A weird twilight +that did not come from the outer world, but seemed born of the +wood itself, slowly filled and possessed the aisles. The +straight, tall, colossal trunks rose dimly like columns of upward +smoke. The few fallen trees stretched their huge length into +obscurity, and seemed to lie on shadowy trestles. The strange +breath that filled these mysterious vaults had neither coldness +nor moisture; a dry, fragrant dust arose from the noiseless foot +that trod their bark-strewn floor; the aisles might have been +tombs, the fallen trees enormous mummies; the silence the +solitude of a forgotten past. + +And yet this silence was presently broken by a recurring sound +like breathing, interrupted occasionally by inarticulate and +stertorous gasps. It was not the quick, panting, listening +breath of some stealthy feline or canine animal, but indicated a +larger, slower, and more powerful organization, whose progress +was less watchful and guarded, or as if a fragment of one of the +fallen monsters had become animate. At times this life seemed to +take visible form, but as vaguely, as misshapenly, as the phantom +of a nightmare. Now it was a square object moving sideways, +endways, with neither head nor tail and scarcely visible feet; +then an arched bulk rolling against the trunks of the trees and +recoiling again, or an upright cylindrical mass, but always +oscillating and unsteady, and striking the trees on either hand. +The frequent occurrence of the movement suggested the figures of +some weird rhythmic dance to music heard by the shape alone. +Suddenly it either became motionless or faded away. + +There was the frightened neighing of a horse, the sudden jingling +of spurs, a shout and outcry, and the swift apparition of three +dancing torches in one of the dark aisles; but so intense was the +obscurity that they shed no light on surrounding objects, and +seemed to advance of their own volition without human guidance, +until they disappeared suddenly behind the interposing bulk of +one of the largest trees. Beyond its eighty feet of circumference +the light could not reach, and the gloom remained inscrutable. +But the voices and jingling spurs were heard distinctly. + +"Blast the mare! She's shied off that cursed trail again." + +"Ye ain't lost it again, hev ye?" growled a second voice. + +"That's jist what I hev. And these blasted pine-knots don't give +light an inch beyond 'em. D--d if I don't think they make this +cursed hole blacker." + +There was a laugh--a woman's laugh--hysterical, bitter, +sarcastic, exasperating. The second speaker, without heeding it, +went on:-- + +"What in thunder skeert the hosses? Did you see or hear +anything?" + +"Nothin'. The wood is like a graveyard." + +The woman's voice again broke into a hoarse, contemptuous laugh. +The man resumed angrily:-- + +"If you know anything, why in h-ll don't you say so, instead of +cackling like a d--d squaw there? P'raps you reckon you ken find +the trail too." + +"Take this rope off my wrist," said the woman's voice, "untie my +hands, let me down, and I'll find it." She spoke quickly and +with a Spanish accent. + +It was the men's turn to laugh. "And give you a show to snatch +that six-shooter and blow a hole through me, as you did to the +Sheriff of Calaveras, eh? Not if this court understands itself," +said the first speaker dryly. + +"Go to the devil, then," she said curtly. + +"Not before a lady," responded the other. There was another +laugh from the men, the spurs jingled again, the three torches +reappeared from behind the tree, and then passed away in the +darkness. + +For a time silence and immutability possessed the woods; the +great trunks loomed upwards, their fallen brothers stretched +their slow length into obscurity. The sound of breathing again +became audible; the shape reappeared in the aisle, and +recommenced its mystic dance. Presently it was lost in the +shadow of the largest tree, and to the sound of breathing +succeeded a grating and scratching of bark. Suddenly, as if +riven by lightning, a flash broke from the center of the tree- +trunk, lit up the woods, and a sharp report rang through it. +After a pause the jingling of spurs and the dancing of torches +were revived from the distance. + +"Hallo?" + +No answer. + +"Who fired that shot?" + +But there was no reply. A slight veil of smoke passed away to +the right, there was the spice of gunpowder in the air, but +nothing more. + +The torches came forward again, but this time it could be seen +they were held in the hands of two men and a woman. The woman's +hands were tied at the wrist to the horse-hair reins of her mule, +while a riata, passed around her waist and under the mule's +girth, was held by one of the men, who were both armed with +rifles and revolvers. Their frightened horses curveted, and it +was with difficulty they could be made to advance. + +"Ho! stranger, what are you shooting at?" + +The woman laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Look yonder at +the roots of the tree. You're a d--d smart man for a sheriff, +ain't you?" + +The man uttered an exclamation and spurred his horse forward, but +the animal reared in terror. He then sprang to the ground and +approached the tree. The shape lay there, a scarcely +distinguishable bulk. + +"A grizzly, by the living Jingo! Shot through the heart." + +It was true. The strange shape lit up by the flaring torches +seemed more vague, unearthly, and awkward in its dying throes, +yet the small shut eyes, the feeble nose, the ponderous +shoulders, and half-human foot armed with powerful claws were +unmistakable. The men turned by a common impulse and peered into +the remote recesses of the wood again. + +"Hi, Mister! come and pick up your game. Hallo there!" + +The challenge fell unheeded on the empty woods. + +"And yet," said he whom the woman had called the sheriff, "he +can't be far off. It was a close shot, and the bear hez dropped +in his tracks. Why, wot's this sticking in his claws?" + +The two men bent over the animal. "Why, it's sugar, brown sugar-- +look!" There was no mistake. The huge beast's fore paws and +muzzle were streaked with the unromantic household provision, and +heightened the absurd contrast of its incongruous members. The +woman, apparently indifferent, had taken that opportunity to +partly free one of her wrists. + +"If we hadn't been cavorting round this yer spot for the last +half hour, I'd swear there was a shanty not a hundred yards +away," said the sheriff. + +The other man, without replying, remounted his horse instantly. + +"If there is, and it's inhabited by a gentleman that kin make +centre shots like that in the dark, and don't care to explain +how, I reckon I won't disturb him." + +The sheriff was apparently of the same opinion, for he followed +his companion's example, and once more led the way. The spurs +tinkled, the torches danced, and the cavalcade slowly reentered +the gloom. In another moment it had disappeared. + +The wood sank again into repose, this time disturbed by neither +shape nor sound. What lower forms of life might have crept close +to its roots were hidden in the ferns, or passed with deadened +tread over the bark-strewn floor. Towards morning a coolness +like dew fell from above, with here and there a dropping twig or +nut, or the crepitant awakening and stretching-out of cramped and +weary branches. Later a dull, lurid dawn, not unlike the last +evening's sunset, filled the aisles. This faded again, and a +clear gray light, in which every object stood out in sharp +distinctness, took its place. Morning was waiting outside in all +its brilliant, youthful coloring, but only entered as the matured +and sobered day. + +Seen in that stronger light, the monstrous tree near which the +dead bear lay revealed its age in its denuded and scarred trunk, +and showed in its base a deep cavity, a foot or two from the +ground, partly hidden by hanging strips of bark which had fallen +across it. Suddenly one of these strips was pushed aside, and a +young man leaped lightly down. + +But for the rifle he carried and some modern peculiarities of +dress, he was of a grace so unusual and unconventional that he +might have passed for a faun who was quitting his ancestral home. +He stepped to the side of the bear with a light elastic movement +that was as unlike customary progression as his face and figure +were unlike the ordinary types of humanity. Even as he leaned +upon his rifle, looking down at the prostrate animal, he +unconsciously fell into an attitude that in any other mortal +would have been a pose, but with him was the picturesque and +unstudied relaxation of perfect symmetry. + +"Hallo, Mister!" + +He raised his head so carelessly and listlessly that he did not +otherwise change his attitude. Stepping from behind the tree, +the woman of the preceding night stood before him. Her hands +were free except for a thong of the riata, which was still +knotted around one wrist, the end of the thong having been torn +or burnt away. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair hung over +her shoulders in one long black braid. + +"I reckoned all along it was YOU who shot the bear," she said; +"at least some one hiding yer," and she indicated the hollow tree +with her hand. "It wasn't no chance shot." Observing that the +young man, either from misconception or indifference, did not +seem to comprehend her, she added, "We came by here, last night, +a minute after you fired." + +"Oh, that was YOU kicked up such a row, was it?" said the young +man, with a shade of interest. + +"I reckon," said the woman, nodding her head, "and them that was +with me." + +"And who are they?" + +"Sheriff Dunn, of Yolo, and his deputy." + +"And where are they now?" + +"The deputy--in h-ll, I reckon; I don't know about the sheriff." + +"I see," said the young man quietly; "and you?" + +"I--got away," she said savagely. But she was taken with a +sudden nervous shiver, which she at once repressed by tightly +dragging her shawl over her shoulders and elbows, and folding her +arms defiantly. + +"And you're going?" + +"To follow the deputy, may be," she said gloomily. "But come, I +say, ain't you going to treat? It's cursed cold here." + +"Wait a moment." The young man was looking at her, with his +arched brows slightly knit and a half smile of curiosity. "Ain't +you Teresa?" + +She was prepared for the question, but evidently was not certain +whether she would reply defiantly or confidently. After an +exhaustive scrutiny of his face she chose the latter, and said, +"You can bet your life on it, Johnny." + +"I don't bet, and my name isn't Johnny. Then you're the woman +who stabbed Dick Curson over at Lagrange's?" + +She became defiant again. + +"That's me, all the time. What are you going to do about it?" + +"Nothing. And you used to dance at the Alhambra?" She whisked +the shawl from her shoulders, held it up like a scarf, and made +one or two steps of the sembicuacua. There was not the least +gayety, recklessness, or spontaneity in the action; it was simply +mechanical bravado. It was so ineffective, even upon her own +feelings, that her arms presently dropped to her side, and she +coughed embarrassedly. "Where's that whiskey, pardner?" she +asked. + +The young man turned toward the tree he had just quitted, and +without further words assisted her to mount to the cavity. It +was an irregular-shaped vaulted chamber, pierced fifty feet above +by a shaft or cylindrical opening in the decayed trunk, which was +blackened by smoke, as if it had served the purpose of a chimney. +In one corner lay a bearskin and blanket; at the side were two +alcoves or indentations, one of which was evidently used as a +table, and the other as a cupboard. In another hollow, near the +entrance, lay a few small sacks of flour, coffee, and sugar, the +sticky contents of the latter still strewing the floor. From +this storehouse the young man drew a wicker flask of whiskey, and +handed it, with a tin cup of water, to the woman. She waved the +cup aside, placed the flask to her lips, and drank the undiluted +spirit. Yet even this was evidently bravado, for the water +started to her eyes, and she could not restrain the paroxysm of +coughing that followed. + +"I reckon that's the kind that kills at forty rods," she said, +with a hysterical laugh. "But I say, pardner, you look as if you +were fixed here to stay," and she stared ostentatiously around +the chamber. But she had already taken in its minutest details, +even to observing that the hanging strips of bark could be +disposed so as to completely hide the entrance. + +"Well, yes," he replied; "it wouldn't be very easy to pull up the +stakes and move the shanty further on." + +Seeing that either from indifference or caution he had not +accepted her meaning, she looked at him fixedly, and said,-- + +"What is your little game?" + +"Eh?" + +"What are you hiding for--here, in this tree?" + +"But I'm not hiding." + +"Then why didn't you come out when they hailed you last night?" + +"Because I didn't care to." + +Teresa whistled incredulously. "All right--then if you're not +hiding, I'm going to." As he did not reply, she went on: "If I +can keep out of sight for a couple of weeks, this thing will blow +over here, and I can get across into Yolo. I could get a fair +show there, where the boys know me. Just now the trails are all +watched, but no one would think of lookin' here." + +"Then how did you come to think of it?" he asked carelessly. + +"Because I knew that bear hadn't gone far for that sugar; because +I know he hadn't stole it from a cache--it was too fresh, and +we'd have seen the torn-up earth; because we had passed no camp; +and because I knew there was no shanty here. And, besides," she +added in a low voice, "maybe I was huntin' a hole myself to die +in--and spotted it by instinct." + +There was something in this suggestion of a hunted animal that, +unlike anything she had previously said or suggested, was not +exaggerated, and caused the young man to look at her again. She +was standing under the chimney-like opening, and the light from +above illuminated her head and shoulders. The pupils of her eyes +had lost their feverish prominence, and were slightly suffused +and softened as she gazed abstractedly before her. The only +vestige of her previous excitement was in her left-hand fingers, +which were incessantly twisting and turning a diamond ring upon +her right hand, but without imparting the least animation to her +rigid attitude. Suddenly, as if conscious of his scrutiny, she +stepped aside out of the revealing light and by a swift feminine +instinct raised her hand to her head as if to adjust her straggling +hair. It was only for a moment, however, for, as if aware of the +weakness, she struggled to resume her aggressive pose. + +"Well," she said. "Speak up. Am I goin' to stop here, or have I +got to get up and get?" + +"You can stay," said the young man quietly; "but as I've got my +provisions and ammunition here, and haven't any other place to go +to just now, I suppose we'll have to share it together." + +She glanced at him under her eyelids, and a half-bitter, half- +contemptuous smile passed across her face. "All right, old man," +she said, holding out her hand, "it's a go. We'll start in +housekeeping at once, if you like." + +"I'll have to come here once or twice a day," he said, quite +composedly, "to look after my things, and get something to eat; +but I'll be away most of the time, and what with camping out +under the trees every night I reckon my share won't incommode +you." + +She opened her black eyes upon him, at this original proposition. +Then she looked down at her torn dress. "I suppose this style of +thing ain't very fancy, is it?" she said, with a forced laugh. + +"I think I know where to beg or borrow a change for you, if you +can't get any," he replied simply. + +She stared at him again. "Are you a family man?" + +"No." + +She was silent for a moment. "Well," she said, "you can tell +your girl I'm not particular about its being in the latest +fashion." + +There was a slight flush on his forehead as he turned toward the +little cupboard, but no tremor in his voice as he went on: +"You'll find tea and coffee here, and, if you're bored, there's a +book or two. You read, don't you--I mean English?" + +She nodded, but cast a look of undisguised contempt upon the two +worn, coverless novels he held out to her. "You haven't got last +week's 'Sacramento Union,' have you? I hear they have my case +all in; only them lying reporters made it out against me all the +time." + +"I don't see the papers," he replied curtly. + +"They say there's a picture of me in the 'Police Gazette,' taken +in the act," and she laughed. + +He looked a little abstracted, and turned as if to go. "I think +you'll do well to rest a while just now, and keep as close hid as +possible until afternoon. The trail is a mile away at the +nearest point, but some one might miss it and stray over here. +You're quite safe if you're careful, and stand by the tree. You +can build a fire here," he stepped under the chimney-like +opening, "without its being noticed. Even the smoke is lost and +cannot be seen so high." + +The light from above was falling on his head and shoulders, as it +had on hers. She looked at him intently. + +"You travel a good deal on your figure, pardner, don't you?" she +said, with a certain admiration that was quite sexless in its +quality; "but I don't see how you pick up a living by it in the +Carquinez Woods. So you're going, are you? You might be more +sociable. Good-by." + +"Good-by!" He leaped from the opening. + +"I say pardner!" + +He turned a little impatiently. She had knelt down at the +entrance, so as to be nearer his level, and was holding out her +hand. But he did not notice it, and she quietly withdrew it. + +"If anybody dropped in and asked for you, what name will they say?" + +He smiled. "Don't wait to hear." + +"But suppose I wanted to sing out for you, what will I call you?" + +He hesitated. "Call me--Lo." + +"Lo, the poor Indian?"* + +"Exactly." + + +* The first word of Pope's familiar apostrophe is humorously used +in the Far West as a distinguishing title for the Indian. + + +It suddenly occurred to the woman, Teresa, that in the young +man's height, supple, yet erect carriage, color, and singular +gravity of demeanor there was a refined, aboriginal suggestion. +He did not look like any Indian she had ever seen, but rather as +a youthful chief might have looked. There was a further +suggestion in his fringed buckskin shirt and moccasins; but +before she could utter the half-sarcastic comment that rose to +her lips he had glided noiselessly away, even as an Indian might +have done. + +She readjusted the slips of hanging bark with feminine ingenuity, +dispersing them so as to completely hide the entrance. Yet this +did not darken the chamber, which seemed to draw a purer and more +vigorous light through the soaring shaft that pierced the roof +than that which came from the dim woodland aisles below. +Nevertheless, she shivered, and drawing her shawl closely around +her began to collect some half-burnt fragments of wood in the +chimney to make a fire. But the preoccupation of her thoughts +rendered this a tedious process, as she would from time to time +stop in the middle of an action and fall into an attitude of rapt +abstraction, with far-off eyes and rigid mouth. When she had at +last succeeded in kindling a fire and raising a film of pale blue +smoke, that seemed to fade and dissipate entirely before it +reached the top of the chimney shaft, she crouched beside it, +fixed her eyes on the darkest corner of the cavern, and became +motionless. + +What did she see through that shadow? + +Nothing at first but a confused medley of figures and incidents +of the preceding night; things to be put away and forgotten; +things that would not have happened but for another thing--the +thing before which everything faded! A ball-room; the sounds of +music; the one man she had cared for insulting her with the +flaunting ostentation of his unfaithfulness; herself despised, +put aside, laughed at, or worse, jilted. And then the moment of +delirium, when the light danced; the one wild act that lifted +her, the despised one, above them all--made her the supreme +figure, to be glanced at by frightened women, stared at by half- +startled, half-admiring men! "Yes," she laughed; but struck by +the sound of her own voice, moved twice round the cavern +nervously, and then dropped again into her old position. + +As they carried him away he had laughed at her--like a hound that +he was; he who had praised her for her spirit, and incited her +revenge against others; he who had taught her to strike when she +was insulted; and it was only fit he should reap what he had +sown. She was what he, what other men, had made her. And what +was she now? What had she been once? + +She tried to recall her childhood: the man and woman who might +have been her father and mother; who fought and wrangled over her +precocious little life; abused or caressed her as she sided with +either; and then left her with a circus troupe, where she first +tasted the power of her courage, her beauty, and her +recklessness. She remembered those flashes of triumph that left +a fever in her veins--a fever that when it failed must be +stimulated by dissipation, by anything, by everything that would +keep her name a wonder in men's mouths, an envious fear to women. +She recalled her transfer to the strolling players; her cheap +pleasures, and cheaper rivalries and hatred--but always Teresa! +the daring Teresa! the reckless Teresa! audacious as a woman, +invincible as a boy; dancing, flirting, fencing, shooting, +swearing, drinking, smoking, fighting Teresa! "Oh, yes; she had +been loved, perhaps--who knows?--but always feared. Why should +she change now? Ha, he should see." + +She had lashed herself in a frenzy, as was her wont, with +gestures, ejaculations, oaths, adjurations, and passionate +apostrophes, but with this strange and unexpected result. +Heretofore she had always been sustained and kept up by an +audience of some kind or quality, if only perhaps a humble +companion; there had always been some one she could fascinate or +horrify, and she could read her power mirrored in their eyes. +Even the half-abstracted indifference of her strange host had +been something. But she was alone now. Her words fell on +apathetic solitude; she was acting to viewless space. She rushed +to the opening, dashed the hanging bark aside, and leaped to the +ground. + +She ran forward wildly a few steps, and stopped. + +"Hallo!" she cried. "Look, 'tis I, Teresa!" + +The profound silence remained unbroken. Her shrillest tones were +lost in an echoless space, even as the smoke of her fire had +faded into pure ether. She stretched out her clenched fists as +if to defy the pillared austerities of the vaults around her. + +"Come and take me if you dare!" + +The challenge was unheeded. If she had thrown herself violently +against the nearest tree-trunk, she could not have been stricken +more breathless than she was by the compact, embattled solitude +that encompassed her. The hopelessness of impressing these cold +and passive vaults with her selfish passion filled her with a +vague fear. In her rage of the previous night she had not seen +the wood in its profound immobility. Left alone with the majesty +of those enormous columns, she trembled and turned faint. The +silence of the hollow tree she had just quitted seemed to her +less awful than the crushing presence of these mute and monstrous +witnesses of her weakness. Like a wounded quail with lowered +crest and trailing wing, she crept back to her hiding place. + +Even then the influence of the wood was still upon her. She +picked up the novel she had contemptuously thrown aside, only to +let it fall again in utter weariness. For a moment her feminine +curiosity was excited by the discovery of an old book, in whose +blank leaves were pressed a variety of flowers and woodland +grasses. As she could not conceive that these had been kept for +any but a sentimental purpose, she was disappointed to find that +underneath each was a sentence in an unknown tongue, that even to +her untutored eye did not appear to be the language of passion. +Finally she rearranged the couch of skins and blankets, and, +imparting to it in three clever shakes an entirely different +character, lay down to pursue her reveries. But nature asserted +herself, and ere she knew it she was asleep. + +So intense and prolonged had been her previous excitement that, +the tension once relieved, she passed into a slumber of +exhaustion so deep that she seemed scarce to breathe. High noon +succeeded morning, the central shaft received a single ray of +upper sunlight, the afternoon came and went, the shadows gathered +below, the sunset fires began to eat their way through the +groined roof, and she still slept. She slept even when the bark +hangings of the chamber were put aside, and the young man +reentered. + +He laid down a bundle he was carrying and softly approached the +sleeper. For a moment he was startled from his indifference; she +lay so still and motionless. But this was not all that struck +him; the face before him was no longer the passionate, haggard +visage that confronted him that morning; the feverish air, the +burning color, the strained muscles of mouth and brow, and the +staring eyes were gone; wiped away, perhaps, by the tears that +still left their traces on cheek and dark eyelash. It was the +face of a handsome woman of thirty, with even a suggestion of +softness in the contour of the cheek and arching of her upper +lip, no longer rigidly drawn down in anger, but relaxed by sleep +on her white teeth. + +With the lithe, soft tread that was habitual to him, the young +man moved about, examining the condition of the little chamber +and its stock of provisions and necessaries, and withdrew +presently, to reappear as noiselessly with a tin bucket of water. +This done, he replenished the little pile of fuel with an armful +of bark and pine cones, cast an approving glance about him, which +included the sleeper, and silently departed. + +It was night when she awoke. She was surrounded by a profound +darkness, except where the shaft-like opening made a nebulous +mist in the corner of her wooden cavern. Providentially she +struggled back to consciousness slowly, so that the solitude and +silence came upon her gradually, with a growing realization of +the events of the past twenty-four hours, but without a shock. +She was alone here, but safe still, and every hour added to her +chances of ultimate escape. She remembered to have seen a candle +among the articles on the shelf, and she began to grope her way +towards the matches. Suddenly she stopped. What was that panting? + +Was it her own breathing, quickened with a sudden nameless +terror? or was there something outside? Her heart seemed to stop +beating while she listened. Yes! it was a panting outside--a +panting now increased, multiplied, redoubled, mixed with the +sounds of rustling, tearing, craunching, and occasionally a +quick, impatient snarl. She crept on her hands and knees to the +opening and looked out. At first the ground seemed to be +undulating between her and the opposite tree. But a second +glance showed her the black and gray, bristling, tossing backs of +tumbling beasts of prey, charging the carcass of the bear that +lay at its roots, or contesting for the prize with gluttonous, +choked breath, sidelong snarls, arched spines, and recurved +tails. One of the boldest had leaped upon a buttressing root of +her tree within a foot of the opening. The excitement, awe, and +terror she had undergone culminated in one wild, maddened scream, +that seemed to pierce even the cold depths of the forest, as she +dropped on her face, with her hands clasped over her eyes in an +agony of fear. + +Her scream was answered, after a pause, by a sudden volley of +firebrands and sparks into the midst of the panting, crowding +pack; a few smothered howls and snaps, and a sudden dispersion of +the concourse. In another moment the young man, with a blazing +brand in either hand, leaped upon the body of the bear. + +Teresa raised her head, uttered a hysterical cry, slid down the +tree, flew wildly to his side, caught convulsively at his sleeve, +and fell on her knees beside him. + +"Save me! save me!" she gasped, in a voice broken by terror. +"Save me from those hideous creatures. No, no!" she implored, as +he endeavored to lift her to her feet. "No--let me stay here +close beside you. So," clutching the fringe of his leather +hunting-shirt, and dragging herself on her knees nearer him-- +"so--don't leave me, for God's sake!" + +"They are gone," he replied, gazing down curiously at her, as she +wound the fringe around her hand to strengthen her hold; "they're +only a lot of cowardly coyotes and wolves, that dare not attack +anything that lives and can move." + +The young woman responded with a nervous shudder. "Yes, that's +it," she whispered, in a broken voice; "it's only the dead they +want. Promise me--swear to me, if I'm caught, or hung, or shot, +you won't let me be left here to be torn and--ah! my God! what's +that?" + +She had thrown her arms around his knees, completely pinioning +him to her frantic breast. Something like a smile of disdain +passed across his face as he answered, "It's nothing. They will +not return. Get up!" + +Even in her terror she saw the change in his face. "I know, I +know!" she cried. "I'm frightened--but I cannot bear it any +longer. Hear me! Listen! Listen--but don't move! I didn't +mean to kill Curson--no! I swear to God, no! I didn't mean to +kill the sheriff--and I didn't. I was only bragging--do you +hear? I lied! I lied--don't move, I swear to God I lied. I've +made myself out worse than I was. I have. Only don't leave me +now--and if I die--and it's not far off, may be--get me away from +here--and from THEM. Swear it!" + +"All right," said the young man, with a scarcely concealed +movement of irritation. "But get up now, and go back to the +cabin." + +"No; not THERE alone." Nevertheless, he quietly but firmly +released himself. + +"I will stay here," he replied. "I would have been nearer to +you, but I thought it better for your safety that my camp-fire +should be further off. But I can build it here, and that will +keep the coyotes off." + +"Let me stay with you--beside you," she said imploringly. + +She looked so broken, crushed, and spiritless, so unlike the +woman of the morning that, albeit with an ill grace, he tacitly +consented, and turned away to bring his blankets. But in the +next moment she was at his side, following him like a dog, silent +and wistful, and even offering to carry his burden. When he had +built the fire, for which she had collected the pine-cones and +broken branches near them, he sat down, folded his arms, and +leaned back against the tree in reserved and deliberate silence. + +Humble and submissive, she did not attempt to break in upon a +reverie she could not help but feel had little kindliness to +herself. As the fire snapped and sparkled, she pillowed her head +upon a root, and lay still to watch it. + +It rose and fell, and dying away at times to a mere lurid glow, +and again, agitated by some breath scarcely perceptible to them, +quickening into a roaring flame. When only the embers remained, +a dead silence filled the wood. Then the first breath of morning +moved the tangled canopy above, and a dozen tiny sprays and +needles detached from the interlocked boughs winged their soft +way noiselessly to the earth. A few fell upon the prostrate +woman like a gentle benediction, and she slept. But even then, +the young man, looking down, saw that the slender fingers were +still aimlessly but rigidly twisted in the leather fringe of his +hunting-shirt. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +It was a peculiarity of the Carquinez Wood that it stood apart +and distinct in its gigantic individuality. Even where the +integrity of its own singular species was not entirely preserved, +it admitted no inferior trees. Nor was there any diminishing +fringe on its outskirts; the sentinels that guarded the few +gateways of the dim trails were as monstrous as the serried ranks +drawn up in the heart of the forest. Consequently, the red +highway that skirted the eastern angle was bare and shadeless, +until it slipped a league off into a watered valley and refreshed +itself under lesser sycamores and willows. It was here the newly +born city of Excelsior, still in its cradle, had, like an infant +Hercules, strangled the serpentine North Fork of the American +river, and turned its life current into the ditches and flumes of +the Excelsior mines. + +Newest of the new houses that seemed to have accidentally formed +its single, straggling street was the residence of the Rev. +Winslow Wynn, not unfrequently known as "Father Wynn," pastor of +the First Baptist church. The "pastorage," as it was cheerfully +called, had the glaring distinction of being built of brick, and +was, as had been wickedly pointed out by idle scoffers, the only +"fireproof" structure in town. This sarcasm was not, however, +supposed to be particularly distasteful to "Father Wynn," who +enjoyed the reputation of being "hail fellow, well met" with the +rough mining element, who called them by their Christian names, +had been known to drink at the bar of the Polka Saloon while +engaged in the conversion of a prominent citizen, and was +popularly said to have no "gospel starch" about him. Certain +conscious outcasts and transgressors were touched at this +apparent unbending of the spiritual authority. The rigid tenets +of Father Wynn's faith were lost in the supposed catholicity of +his humanity. "A preacher that can jine a man when he's histin' +liquor into him, without jawin' about it, ought to be allowed to +wrestle with sinners and splash about in as much cold water as he +likes," was the criticism of one of his converts. Nevertheless, +it was true that Father Wynn was somewhat loud and intolerant in +his tolerance. It was true that he was a little more rough, a +little more frank, a little more hearty, a little more impulsive +than his disciples. It was true that often the proclamation of +his extreme liberality and brotherly equality partook somewhat of +an apology. It is true that a few who might have been most +benefited by this kind of gospel regarded him with a singular +disdain. It is true that his liberality was of an ornamental, +insinuating quality, accompanied with but little sacrifice; his +acceptance of a collection taken up in a gambling saloon for the +rebuilding of his church, destroyed by fire, gave him a +popularity large enough, it must be confessed, to cover the sins +of the gamblers themselves, but it was not proven that HE had +ever organized any form of relief. But it was true that local +history somehow accepted him as an exponent of mining +Christianity, without the least reference to the opinions of the +Christian miners themselves. + +The Rev. Mr. Wynn's liberal habits and opinions were not, +however, shared by his only daughter, a motherless young lady of +eighteen. Nellie Wynn was in the eye of Excelsior an +unapproachable divinity, as inaccessible and cold as her father +was impulsive and familiar. An atmosphere of chaste and proud +virginity made itself felt even in the starched integrity of her +spotless skirts, in her neatly gloved finger-tips, in her clear +amber eyes, in her imperious red lips, in her sensitive nostrils. +Need it be said that the youth and middle age of Excelsior were +madly, because apparently hopelessly, in love with her? For the +rest, she had been expensively educated, was profoundly ignorant +in two languages, with a trained misunderstanding of music and +painting, and a natural and faultless taste in dress. + +The Rev. Mr. Wynn was engaged in a characteristic hearty parting +with one of his latest converts, upon his own doorstep, with +admirable al fresco effect. He had just clapped him on the +shoulder. "Good-by, good-by, Charley, my boy, and keep in the +right path; not up, or down, or round the gulch, you know--ha, +ha!--but straight across lots to the shining gate." He had +raised his voice under the stimulus of a few admiring spectators, +and backed his convert playfully against the wall. "You see! +we're goin' in to win, you bet. Good-by! I'd ask you to step in +and have a chat, but I've got my work to do, and so have you. +The gospel mustn't keep us from that, must it, Charley? Ha, ha!" + +The convert (who elsewhere was a profane expressman, and had +become quite imbecile under Mr. Wynn's active heartiness and +brotherly horse-play before spectators) managed, however, to +feebly stammer with a blush something about "Miss Nellie." + +"Ah, Nellie. She, too, is at her tasks--trimming her lamp--you +know, the parable of the wise virgins," continued Father Wynn +hastily, fearing that the convert might take the illustration +literally. "There, there--good-by. Keep in the right path." +And with a parting shove he dismissed Charley and entered his own +house. + +That "wise virgin," Nellie, had evidently finished with the lamp, +and was now going out to meet the bridegroom, as she was fully +dressed and gloved, and had a pink parasol in her hand, as her +father entered the sitting-room. His bluff heartiness seemed to +fade away as he removed his soft, broad-brimmed hat and glanced +across the too fresh-looking apartment. There was a smell of +mortar still in the air, and a faint suggestion that at any +moment green grass might appear between the interstices of the +red-brick hearth. The room, yielding a little in the point of +coldness, seemed to share Miss Nellie's fresh virginity, and, +barring the pink parasol, set her off as in a vestal's cell. + +"I supposed you wouldn't care to see Brace, the expressman, so I +got rid of him at the door," said her father, drawing one of the +new chairs towards him slowly, and sitting down carefully, as if +it were a hitherto untried experiment. + +Miss Nellie's face took a tint of interest. "Then he doesn't go +with the coach to Indian Spring to-day?" + +"No; why?" + +"I thought of going over myself to get the Burnham girls to come +to choir-meeting," replied Miss Nellie carelessly, "and he might +have been company." + +"He'd go now, if he knew you were going," said her father; "but +it's just as well he shouldn't be needlessly encouraged. I +rather think that Sheriff Dunn is a little jealous of him. By +the way, the sheriff is much better. I called to cheer him up +to-day" (Mr. Wynn had in fact tumultuously accelerated the sick +man's pulse), "and he talked of you, as usual. In fact, he said +he had only two things to get well for. One was to catch and +hang that woman Teresa, who shot him; the other--can't you guess +the other?" he added archly, with a faint suggestion of his other +manner. + +Miss Nellie coldly could not. + +The Rev. Mr. Wynn's archness vanished. "Don't be a fool," he +said dryly. "He wants to marry you, and you know it." + +"Most of the men here do," responded Miss Nellie, without the +least trace of coquetry. "Is the wedding or the hanging to take +place first, or together, so he can officiate at both?" + +"His share in the Union Ditch is worth a hundred thousand +dollars," continued her father; "and if he isn't nominated for +district judge this fall, he's bound to go to the legislature, +anyway. I don't think a girl with your advantages and education +can afford to throw away the chance of shining in Sacramento, San +Francisco, or, in good time, perhaps even Washington." + +Miss Nellie's eyes did not reflect entire disapproval of this +suggestion, although she replied with something of her father's +practical quality. + +"Mr. Dunn is not out of his bed yet, and they say Teresa's got +away to Arizona, so there isn't any particular hurry." + +"Perhaps not; but see here, Nellie, I've some important news for +you. You know your young friend of the Carquinez Woods--Dorman, +the botanist, eh? Well, Brace knows all about him. And what do +you think he is?" + +Miss Nellie took upon herself a few extra degrees of cold, and +didn't know. + +"An Injin! Yes, an out-and-out Cherokee. You see he calls +himself Dorman--Low Dorman. That's only French for 'Sleeping +Water,' his Injin name!--'Low Dorman.'" + +"You mean 'L'Eau Dormante,'" said Nellie. + +"That's what I said. The chief called him 'Sleeping Water' when +he was a boy, and one of them French Canadian trappers translated +it into French when he brought him to California to school. But +he's an Injin, sure. No wonder he prefers to live in the woods." + +"Well?" said Nellie. + +"Well," echoed her father impatiently, "he's an Injin, I tell +you, and you can't of course have anything to do with him. He +mustn't come here again." + +"But you forget," said Nellie imperturbably, "that it was you who +invited him here, and were so much exercised over him. You +remember you introduced him to the Bishop and those Eastern +clergymen as a magnificent specimen of a young Californian. You +forget what an occasion you made of his coming to church on +Sunday, and how you made him come in his buckskin shirt and walk +down the street with you after service!" + +"Yes, yes," said the Rev. Mr. Wynn, hurriedly. + +"And," continued Nellie carelessly, "how you made us sing out of +the same book 'Children of our Father's Fold,' and how you +preached at him until he actually got a color!" + +"Yes," said her father; "but it wasn't known then he was an +Injin, and they are frightfully unpopular with those Southwestern +men among whom we labor. Indeed, I am quite convinced that when +Brace said 'the only good Indian was a dead one' his expression, +though extravagant, perhaps, really voiced the sentiments of the +majority. It would be only kindness to the unfortunate creature +to warn him from exposing himself to their rude but conscientious +antagonism." + +"Perhaps you'd better tell him, then, in your own popular way, +which they all seem to understand so well," responded the +daughter. Mr. Wynn cast a quick glance at her, but there was no +trace of irony in her face--nothing but a half-bored indifference +as she walked toward the window. + +"I will go with you to the coach-office," said her father, who +generally gave these simple paternal duties the pronounced +character of a public Christian example. + +"It's hardly worth while," replied Miss Nellie. "I've to stop at +the Watsons', at the foot of the hill, and ask after the baby; so +I shall go on to the Crossing and pick up the coach when it +passes. Good-by." + +Nevertheless, as soon as Nellie had departed, the Rev. Mr. Wynn +proceeded to the coach-office, and publicly grasping the hand of +Yuba Bill, the driver, commended his daughter to his care in the +name of the universal brotherhood of man and the Christian +fraternity. Carried away by his heartiness, he forgot his +previous caution, and confided to the expressman Miss Nellie's +regrets that she was not to have that gentleman's company. The +result was that Miss Nellie found the coach with its passengers +awaiting her with uplifted hats and wreathed smiles at the +Crossing, and the box seat (from which an unfortunate stranger, +who had expensively paid for it, had been summarily ejected) at +her service beside Yuba Bill, who had thrown away his cigar and +donned a new pair of buckskin gloves to do her honor. But a more +serious result to the young beauty was the effect of the Rev. Mr. +Wynn's confidences upon the impulsive heart of Jack Brace, the +expressman. It has been already intimated that it was his "day +off." Unable to summarily reassume his usual functions beside +the driver without some practical reason, and ashamed to go so +palpably as a mere passenger, he was forced to let the coach +proceed without him. Discomfited for the moment, he was not, +however, beaten. He had lost the blissful journey by her side, +which would have been his professional right, but--she was going +to Indian Spring! could he not anticipate her there? Might they +not meet in the most accidental manner? And what might not come +from that meeting away from the prying eyes of their own town? +Mr. Brace did not hesitate, but saddling his fleet Buckskin, by +the time the stage-coach had passed the Crossing in the high-road +he had mounted the hill and was dashing along the "cutoff" in the +same direction, a full mile in advance. Arriving at Indian +Spring, he left his horse at a Mexican posada on the confines of +the settlement, and from the piled debris of a tunnel excavation +awaited the slow arrival of the coach. On mature reflection he +could give no reason why he had not boldly awaited it at the +express office, except a certain bashful consciousness of his own +folly, and a belief that it might be glaringly apparent to the +bystanders. When the coach arrived and he had overcome this +consciousness, it was too late. Yuba Bill had discharged his +passengers for Indian Spring and driven away. Miss Nellie was in +the settlement, but where? As time passed he became more +desperate and bolder. He walked recklessly up and down the main +street, glancing in at the open doors of shops, and even in the +windows of private dwellings. It might have seemed a poor +compliment to Miss Nellie, but it was an evidence of his complete +preoccupation, when the sight of a female face at a window, even +though it was plain or perhaps painted, caused his heart to +bound, or the glancing of a skirt in the distance quickened his +feet and his pulses. Had Jack contented himself with remaining +at Excelsior he might have vaguely regretted, but as soon become +as vaguely accustomed to, Miss Nellie's absence. But it was not +until his hitherto quiet and passive love took this first step of +action that it fully declared itself. When he had made the tour +of the town a dozen times unsuccessfully, he had perfectly made +up his mind that marriage with Nellie or the speedy death of +several people, including possibly himself, was the only +alternative. He regretted he had not accompanied her; he +regretted he had not demanded where she was going; he +contemplated a course of future action that two hours ago would +have filled him with bashful terror. There was clearly but one +thing to do--to declare his passion the instant he met her, and +return with her to Excelsior an accepted suitor, or not to return +at all. + +Suddenly he was vexatiously conscious of hearing his name lazily +called, and looking up found that he was on the outskirts of the +town, and interrogated by two horsemen. + +"Got down to walk, and the coach got away from you, Jack, eh?" + +A little ashamed of his preoccupation, Brace stammered something +about "collections." He did not recognize the men, but his own +face, name, and business were familiar to everybody for fifty +miles along the stage-road. + +"Well, you can settle a bet for us, I reckon. Bill Dacre thar +bet me five dollars and the drinks that a young gal we met at the +edge of the Carquinez Woods, dressed in a long brown duster and +half muffled up in a hood, was the daughter of Father Wynn of +Excelsior. I did not get a fair look at her, but it stands to +reason that a high-toned young lady like Nellie Wynn don't go +trap'sing along the wood like a Pike County tramp. I took the +bet. May be you know if she's here or in Excelsior?" + +Mr. Brace felt himself turning pale with eagerness and +excitement. But the near prospect of seeing her presently gave +him back his caution, and he answered truthfully that he had left +her in Excelsior, and that in his two hours' sojourn in Indian +Spring he had not met her once. "But," he added, with a +Californian's reverence for the sanctity of a bet, "I reckon +you'd better make it a stand-off for twenty-four hours, and I'll +find out and let you know." Which, it is only fair to say, he +honestly intended to do. + +With a hurried nod of parting, he continued in the direction of +the Woods. When he had satisfied himself that the strangers had +entered the settlement, and would not follow him for further +explanation, he quickened his pace. In half an hour he passed +between two of the gigantic sentinels that guarded the entrance +to a trail. Here he paused to collect his thoughts. The Woods +were vast in extent, the trail dim and uncertain--at times +apparently breaking off, or intersecting another trail as faint +as itself. Believing that Miss Nellie had diverged from the +highway only as a momentary excursion into the shade, and that +she would not dare to penetrate its more sombre and unknown +recesses, he kept within sight of the skirting plain. By degrees +the sedate influence of the silent vaults seemed to depress him. +The ardor of the chase began to flag. Under the calm of their +dim roof the fever of his veins began to subside; his pace +slackened; he reasoned more deliberately. It was by no means +probable that the young woman in a brown duster was Nellie; it +was not her habitual traveling dress; it was not like her to walk +unattended in the road; there was nothing in her tastes and +habits to take her into this gloomy forest, allowing that she had +even entered it; and on this absolute question of her identity +the two witnesses were divided. He stopped irresolutely, and +cast a last, long, half-despairing look around him. Hitherto he +had given that part of the wood nearest the plain his greatest +attention. His glance now sought its darker recesses. Suddenly +he became breathless. Was it a beam of sunlight that had pierced +the groined roof above, and now rested against the trunk of one +of the dimmer, more secluded giants? No, it was moving; even as +he gazed it slipped away, glanced against another tree, passed +across one of the vaulted aisles, and then was lost again. Brief +as was the glimpse, he was not mistaken--it was the figure of a +woman. + +In another moment he was on her track, and soon had the +satisfaction of seeing her reappear at a lesser distance. But +the continual intervention of the massive trunks made the chase +by no means an easy one, and as he could not keep her always in +sight he was unable to follow or understand the one intelligent +direction which she seemed to invariably keep. Nevertheless, he +gained upon her breathlessly, and, thanks to the bark-strewn +floor, noiselessly. He was near enough to distinguish and +recognize the dress she wore, a pale yellow, that he had admired +when he first saw her. It was Nellie, unmistakably; if it were +she of the brown duster, she had discarded it, perhaps for +greater freedom. He was near enough to call out now, but a +sudden nervous timidity overcame him; his lips grew dry. What +should he say to her? How account for his presence? "Miss +Nellie, one moment!" he gasped. She darted forward and--vanished. + +At this moment he was not more than a dozen yards from her. He +rushed to where she had been standing, but her disappearance was +perfect and complete. He made a circuit of the group of trees +within whose radius she had last appeared, but there was neither +trace of her, nor a suggestion of her mode of escape. He called +aloud to her; the vacant Woods let his helpless voice die in +their unresponsive depths. He gazed into the air and down at the +bark-strewn carpet at his feet. Like most of his vocation, he +was sparing of speech, and epigrammatic after his fashion. +Comprehending in one swift but despairing flash of intelligence +the existence of some fateful power beyond his own weak endeavor, +he accepted its logical result with characteristic grimness, +threw his hat upon the ground, put his hands in his pockets, and +said-- + +"Well, I'm d--d!" + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Out of compliment to Miss Nellie Wynn, Yuba Bill, on reaching +Indian Spring, had made a slight detour to enable him to +ostentatiously set down his fair passenger before the door of the +Burnhams. When it had closed on the admiring eyes of the +passengers and the coach had rattled away, Miss Nellie, without +any undue haste or apparent change in her usual quiet demeanor, +managed, however, to dispatch her business promptly, and, leaving +an impression that she would call again before her return to +Excelsior, parted from her friends and slipped away through a +side street to the General Furnishing Store of Indian Spring. In +passing this emporium, Miss Nellie's quick eye had discovered a +cheap brown linen duster hanging in its window. To purchase it, +and put it over her delicate cambric dress, albeit with a +shivering sense that she looked like a badly folded brown-paper +parcel, did not take long. As she left the shop it was with +mixed emotions of chagrin and security that she noticed that her +passage through the settlement no longer turned the heads of its +male inhabitants. She reached the outskirts of Indian Spring and +the high-road at about the time Mr. Brace had begun his fruitless +patrol of the main street. Far in the distance a faint olive- +green table mountain seemed to rise abruptly from the plain. It +was the Carquinez Woods. Gathering her spotless skirts beneath +her extemporized brown domino, she set out briskly towards them. + +But her progress was scarcely free or exhilarating. She was not +accustomed to walking in a country where "buggy-riding" was +considered the only genteel young-lady-like mode of progression, +and its regular provision the expected courtesy of mankind. +Always fastidiously booted, her low-quartered shoes were charming +to the eye, but hardly adapted to the dust and inequalities of +the highroad. It was true that she had thought of buying a +coarser pair at Indian Spring, but once face to face with their +uncompromising ugliness, she had faltered and fled. The sun was +unmistakably hot, but her parasol was too well known and offered +too violent a contrast to the duster for practical use. Once she +stopped with an exclamation of annoyance, hesitated, and looked +back. In half an hour she had twice lost her shoe and her +temper; a pink flush took possession of her cheeks, and her eyes +were bright with suppressed rage. Dust began to form grimy +circles around their orbits; with cat-like shivers she even felt +it pervade the roots of her blond hair. Gradually her breath +grew more rapid and hysterical, her smarting eyes became humid, +and at last, encountering two observant horsemen in the road, she +turned and fled, until, reaching the wood, she began to cry. + +Nevertheless she waited for the two horsemen to pass, to satisfy +herself that she was not followed; then pushed on vaguely, until +she reached a fallen tree, where, with a gesture of disgust, she +tore off her hapless duster and flung it on the ground. She then +sat down sobbing, but after a moment dried her eyes hurriedly and +started to her feet. A few paces distant, erect, noiseless, with +outstretched hand, the young solitary of the Carquinez Woods +advanced towards her. His hand had almost touched hers, when he +stopped. + +"What has happened?" he asked gravely. + +"Nothing," she said, turning half away, and searching the ground +with her eyes, as if she had lost something. "Only I must be +going back now." + +"You shall go back at once, if you wish it," he said, flushing +slightly. "But you have been crying; why?" + +Frank as Miss Nellie wished to be, she could not bring herself to +say that her feet hurt her, and the dust and heat were ruining +her complexion. It was therefore with a half-confident belief +that her troubles were really of a moral quality that she +answered, "Nothing--nothing, but--but--it's wrong to come here." + +"But you did not think it was wrong when you agreed to come, at +our last meeting," said the young man, with that persistent logic +which exasperates the inconsequent feminine mind. "It cannot be +any more wrong to-day." + +"But it was not so far off," murmured the young girl, without +looking up. + +"Oh, the distance makes it more improper, then," he said +abstractedly; but after a moment's contemplation of her half- +averted face, he asked gravely, "Has anyone talked to you about me?" + +Ten minutes before, Nellie had been burning to unburthen herself +of her father's warning, but now she felt she would not. "I wish +you wouldn't call yourself Low," she said at last. + +"But it's my name," he replied quietly. + +"Nonsense! It's only a stupid translation of a stupid nickname. +They might as well call you 'Water' at once." + +"But you said you liked it." + +"Well, so I do. But don't you see--I--oh dear! you don't +understand." + +Low did not reply, but turned his head with resigned gravity +towards the deeper woods. Grasping the barrel of his rifle with +his left hand, he threw his right arm across his left wrist and +leaned slightly upon it with the habitual ease of a Western +hunter--doubly picturesque in his own lithe, youthful symmetry. +Miss Nellie looked at him from under her eyelids, and then half +defiantly raised her head and her dark lashes. Gradually an +almost magical change came over her features; her eyes grew +larger and more and more yearning, until they seemed to draw and +absorb in their liquid depths the figure of the young man before +her; her cold face broke into an ecstasy of light and color; her +humid lips parted in a bright, welcoming smile, until, with an +irresistible impulse, she arose, and throwing back her head +stretched towards him two hands full of vague and trembling +passion. + +In another moment he had seized them, kissed them, and, as he +drew her closer to his embrace, felt them tighten around his +neck. "But what name do you wish to call me?" he asked, looking +down into her eyes. + +Miss Nellie murmured something confidentially to the third button +of his hunting shirt. "But that," he replied, with a smile, +"THAT wouldn't be any more practical, and you wouldn't want +others to call me dar--" Her fingers loosened around his neck, +she drew her head back, and a singular expression passed over her +face, which to any calmer observer than a lover would have +seemed, however, to indicate more curiosity than jealousy. + +"Who else DOES call you so?" she added earnestly. "How many, for +instance?" + +Low's reply was addressed not to her ear, but her lips. She did +not avoid it, but added, "And do you kiss them all like that?" +Taking him by the shoulders, she held him a little way from her, +and gazed at him from head to foot. Then drawing him again to +her embrace, she said, "I don't care, at least no woman has +kissed you like that." Happy, dazzled, and embarrassed, he was +beginning to stammer the truthful protestation that rose to his +lips, but she stopped him: "No, don't protest! say nothing! Let +ME love YOU--that is all. It is enough." He would have caught +her in his arms again, but she drew back. "We are near the +road," she said quietly. "Come! You promised to show me where +you camped. Let US make the most of our holiday. In an hour I +must leave the woods." + +"But I shall accompany you, dearest." + +"No, I must go as I came--alone." + +"But Nellie--" + +"I tell you no," she said, with an almost harsh practical +decision, incompatible with her previous abandonment. "We might +be seen together." + +"Well, suppose we are; we must be seen together eventually," he +remonstrated. + +The young girl made an involuntary gesture of impatient negation, +but checked herself. "Don't let us talk of that now. Come, +while I am here under your own roof--" she pointed to the high +interlaced boughs above them--"you must be hospitable. Show me +your home; tell me, isn't it a little gloomy sometimes?" + +"It never has been; I never thought it WOULD be until the moment +you leave it to-day." + +She pressed his hand briefly and in a half-perfunctory way, as if +her vanity had accepted and dismissed the compliment. "Take me +somewhere," she said inquisitively, "where you stay most; I do +not seem to see you HERE," she added, looking around her with a +slight shiver. "It is so big and so high. Have you no place +where you eat and rest and sleep?" + +"Except in the rainy season, I camp all over the place--at any +spot where I may have been shooting or collecting." + +"Collecting?" queried Nellie. + +"Yes; with the herbarium, you know." + +"Yes," said Nellie dubiously. "But you told me once--the first +time we ever talked together," she added, looking in his eyes-- +"something about your keeping your things like a squirrel in a +tree. Could we not go there? Is there not room for us to sit +and talk without being brow-beaten and looked down upon by these +supercilious trees?" + +"It's too far away," said Low truthfully, but with a somewhat +pronounced emphasis, "much too far for you just now; and it lies +on another trail that enters the wood beyond. But come, I will +show you a spring known only to myself, the wood ducks, and the +squirrels. I discovered it the first day I saw you, and gave it +your name. But you shall christen it yourself. It will be all +yours, and yours alone, for it is so hidden and secluded that I +defy any feet but my own or whoso shall keep step with mine to +find it. Shall that foot be yours, Nellie?" + +Her face beamed with a bright assent. "It may be difficult to +track it from here," he said, "but stand where you are a moment, +and don't move, rustle, nor agitate the air in any way. The +woods are still now." He turned at right angles with the trail, +moved a few paces into the ferns and underbrush, and then stopped +with his finger on his lips. For an instant both remained +motionless; then with his intent face bent forward and both arms +extended, he began to sink slowly upon one knee and one side, +inclining his body with a gentle, perfectly-graduated movement +until his ear almost touched the ground. Nellie watched his +graceful figure breathlessly, until, like a bow unbent, he stood +suddenly erect again, and beckoned to her without changing the +direction of his face. + +"What is it?" she asked eagerly. + +"All right; I have found it," he continued, moving forward +without turning his head. + +"But how? What did you kneel for?" He did not reply, but taking +her hand in his continued to move slowly on through the +underbrush, as if obeying some magnetic attraction. "How did you +find it?" again asked the half-awed girl, her voice unconsciously +falling to a whisper. Still silent, Low kept his rigid face and +forward tread for twenty yards further; then he stopped and +released the girl's half-impatient hand. "How did you find it?" +she repeated sharply. + +"With my ears and nose," replied Low gravely. + +"With your nose?" + +"Yes; I smelt it." + +Still fresh with the memory of his picturesque attitude, the +young man's reply seemed to involve something more irritating to +her feelings than even that absurd anticlimax. She looked at him +coldly and critically, and appeared to hesitate whether to +proceed. "Is it far?" she asked. + +"Not more than ten minutes now, as I shall go." + +"And you won't have to smell your way again?" + +"No; it is quite plain now," he answered seriously, the young +girl's sarcasm slipping harmlessly from his Indian stolidity. +"Don't you smell it yourself?" + +But Miss Nellie's thin, cold nostrils refused to take that vulgar +interest. + +"Nor hear it? Listen!" + +"You forget I suffer the misfortune of having been brought up +under a roof," she replied coldly. + +"That's true," repeated Low, in all seriousness; "it's not your +fault. But do you know, I sometimes think I am peculiarly +sensitive to water; I feel it miles away. At night, though I may +not see it or even know where it is, I am conscious of it. It is +company to me when I am alone, and I seem to hear it in my +dreams. There is no music as sweet to me as its song. When you +sang with me that day in church, I seemed to hear it ripple in +your voice. It says to me more than the birds do, more than the +rarest plants I find. It seems to live with me and for me. It +is my earliest recollection; I know it will be my last, for I +shall die in its embrace. Do you think, Nellie," he continued, +stopping short and gazing earnestly in her face--"do you think +that the chiefs knew this when they called me 'Sleeping Water'?" + +To Miss Nellie's several gifts I fear the gods had not added +poetry. A slight knowledge of English verse of a select +character, unfortunately, did not assist her in the +interpretation of the young man's speech, nor relieve her from +the momentary feeling that he was at times deficient in +intellect. She preferred, however, to take a personal view of +the question, and expressed her sarcastic regret that she had not +known before that she had been indebted to the great flume and +ditch at Excelsior for the pleasure of his acquaintance. This +pert remark occasioned some explanation, which ended in the +girl's accepting a kiss in lieu of more logical argument. +Nevertheless, she was still conscious of an inward irritation-- +always distinct from her singular and perfectly material passion-- +which found vent as the difficulties of their undeviating +progress through the underbrush increased. At last she lost her +shoe again, and stopped short. "It's a pity your Indian friends +did not christen you 'Wild Mustard' or 'Clover,'" she said +satirically, "that you might have had some sympathies and +longings for the open fields instead of these horrid jungles! I +know we will not get back in time." + +Unfortunately, Low accepted this speech literally and with his +remorseless gravity. "If my name annoys you, I can get it +changed by the legislature, you know, and I can find out what my +father's name was, and take that. My mother, who died in giving +me birth, was the daughter of a chief." + +"Then your mother was really an Indian?" said Nellie, "and you +are--" She stopped short. + +"But I told you all this the day we first met," said Low, with +grave astonishment. "Don't you remember our long talk coming +from church?" + +"No," said Nellie coldly, "you didn't tell me." But she was +obliged to drop her eyes before the unwavering, undeniable +truthfulness of his. + +"You have forgotten," he said calmly; "but it is only right you +should have your own way in disposing of a name that I have cared +little for; and as you're to have a share of it--" + +"Yes, but it's getting late, and if we are not going forward--" +interrupted the girl impatiently. + +"We ARE going forward," said Low imperturbably; "but I wanted to +tell you, as we were speaking on THAT subject" (Nellie looked at +her watch), "I've been offered the place of botanist and +naturalist in Professor Grant's survey of Mount Shasta, and if I +take it--why, when I come back, darling--well--" + +"But you're not going just yet," broke in Nellie, with a new +expression in her face. + +"No." + +"Then we need not talk of it now," she said, with animation. + +Her sudden vivacity relieved him. "I see what's the matter," he +said gently, looking down at her feet; "these little shoes were +not made to keep step with a moccasin. We must try another way." +He stooped as if to secure the erring buskin, but suddenly lifted +her like a child to his shoulder. "There," he continued, placing +her arm round his neck, "you are clear of the ferns and brambles +now, and we can go on. Are you comfortable?" He looked up, read +her answer in her burning eyes and the warm lips pressed to his +forehead at the roots of his straight dark hair, and again moved +onward as in a mesmeric dream. But he did not swerve from his +direct course, and with a final dash through the undergrowth +parted the leafy curtain before the spring. + +At first the young girl was dazzled by the strong light that came +from a rent in the interwoven arches of the wood. The breach had +been caused by the huge bulk of one of the great giants that had +half fallen, and was lying at a steep angle against one of its +mightiest brethren, having borne down a lesser tree in the arc of +its downward path. Two of the roots, as large as younger trees, +tossed their blackened and bare limbs high in the air. The +spring--the insignificant cause of this vast disruption--gurgled, +flashed, and sparkled at the base; the limpid baby fingers that +had laid bare the foundations of that fallen column played with +the still clinging rootlets, laved the fractured and twisted +limbs, and, widening, filled with sleeping water the graves from +which they had been torn. + +"It had been going on for years, down there," said Low, pointing +to a cavity from which the fresh water now slowly welled, "but it +had been quickened by the rising of the subterranean springs and +rivers which always occurs at a certain stage of the dry season. +I remember that on that very night--for it happened a little +after midnight, when all sounds are more audible--I was troubled +and oppressed in my sleep by what you would call a nightmare; a +feeling as if I was kept down by bonds and pinions that I longed +to break. And then I heard a crash in this direction, and the +first streak of morning brought me the sound and scent of water. +Six months afterwards I chanced to find my way here, as I told +you, and gave it your name. I did not dream that I should ever +stand beside it with you, and have you christen it yourself." + +He unloosened the cup from his flask, and filling it at the +spring handed it to her. But the young girl leant over the pool, +and pouring the water idly back said, "I'd rather put my feet in +it. Mayn't I?" + +"I don't understand you," he said wonderingly. + +"My feet are SO hot and dusty. The water looks deliciously cool. +May I?" + +"Certainly." + +He turned away as Nellie, with apparent unconsciousness, seated +herself on the bank, and removed her shoes and stockings. When +she had dabbled her feet a few moments in the pool, she said over +her shoulder-- + +"We can talk just as well, can't we?" + +"Certainly." + +"Well, then, why didn't you come to church more often, and why +didn't you think of telling father that you were convicted of sin +and wanted to be baptized?" + +"I don't know," hesitated the young man. + +"Well, you lost the chance of having father convert you, baptize +you, and take you into full church fellowship." + +"I never thought--" he began. + +"You never thought. Aren't you a Christian?" + +"I suppose so." + +"He supposes so! Have you no convictions--no profession?" + +"But, Nellie, I never thought that you--" + +"Never thought that I--what? Do you think that I could ever be +anything to a man who did not believe in justification by faith, +or in the covenant of church fellowship? Do you think father +would let me?" + +In his eagerness to defend himself he stepped to her side. But +seeing her little feet shining through the dark water, like +outcroppings of delicately veined quartz, he stopped embarrassed. +Miss Nellie, however, leaped to one foot, and, shaking the other +over the pool, put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself. +"You haven't got a towel--or," she said dubiously, looking at her +small handkerchief, "anything to dry them on?" + +But Low did not, as she perhaps expected, offer his own handkerchief. + +"If you take a bath after our fashion," he said gravely, "you +must learn to dry yourself after our fashion." + +Lifting her again lightly in his arms, he carried her a few steps +to the sunny opening, and bade her bury her feet in the dried +mosses and baked withered grasses that were bleaching in a +hollow. The young girl uttered a cry of childish delight, as the +soft ciliated fibres touched her sensitive skin. + +"It is healing, too," continued Low; "a moccasin filled with it +after a day on the trail makes you all right again." + +But Miss Nellie seemed to be thinking of something else. + +"Is that the way the squaws bathe and dry themselves?" + +"I don't know; you forget I was a boy when I left them." + +"And you're sure you never knew any?" + +"None." + +The young girl seemed to derive some satisfaction in moving her +feet up and down for several minutes among the grasses in the +hollow; then, after a pause, said, "You are quite certain I am +the first woman that ever touched this spring?" + +"Not only the first woman, but the first human being, except +myself." + +"How nice!" + +They had taken each other's hands; seated side by side, they +leaned against a curving elastic root that half supported, half +encompassed, them. The girl's capricious, fitful manner +succumbed as before to the near contact of her companion. +Looking into her eyes, Low fell into a sweet, selfish lover's +monologue, descriptive of his past and present feelings towards +her, which she accepted with a heightened color, a slight +exchange of sentiment, and a strange curiosity. The sun had +painted their half-embraced silhouettes against the slanting +tree-trunk, and began to decline unnoticed; the ripple of the +water mingling with their whispers came as one sound to the +listening ear; even their eloquent silences were as deep, and, I +wot, perhaps as dangerous, as the darkened pool that filled so +noiselessly a dozen yards away. So quiet were they that the +tremor of invading wings once or twice shook the silence, or the +quick scamper of frightened feet rustled the dead grass. But in +the midst of a prolonged stillness the young man sprang up so +suddenly that Nellie was still half clinging to his neck as he +stood erect. "Hush!" he whispered; "some one is near!" + +He disengaged her anxious hands gently, leaped upon the slanting +tree-trunk, and running half-way up its incline with the agility +of a squirrel, stretched himself at full length upon it and +listened. + +To the impatient, inexplicably startled girl, it seemed an age +before he rejoined her. + +"You are safe," he said; "he is going by the western trail +towards Indian Spring." + +"Who is HE?" she asked, biting her lips with a poorly restrained +gesture of mortification and disappointment. + +"Some stranger," replied Low. + +"As long as he wasn't coming here, why did you give me such a +fright?" she said pettishly. "Are you nervous because a single +wayfarer happens to stray here?" + +"It was no wayfarer, for he tried to keep near the trail," said +Low. "He was a stranger to the wood, for he lost his way every +now and then. He was seeking or expecting some one, for he +stopped frequently and waited or listened. He had not walked +far, for he wore spurs that tinkled and caught in the brush; and +yet he had not ridden here, for no horse's hoofs passed the road +since we have been here. He must have come from Indian Spring." + +"And you heard all that when you listened just now?" asked Nellie, +half disdainfully. + +Impervious to her incredulity Low turned his calm eyes on her +face. "Certainly, I'll bet my life on what I say. Tell me: do +you know anybody in Indian Spring who would likely spy upon you?" + +The young girl was conscious of a certain ill-defined uneasiness, +but answered, "No." + +"Then it was not YOU he was seeking," said Low thoughtfully. +Miss Nellie had not time to notice the emphasis, for he added, +"You must go at once, and lest you have been followed I will show +you another way back to Indian Spring. It is longer, and you +must hasten. Take your shoes and stockings with you until we are +out of the bush." + +He raised her again in his arms and strode once more out through +the covert into the dim aisles of the wood. They spoke but +little; she could not help feeling that some other discordant +element, affecting him more strongly than it did her, had come +between them, and was half perplexed and half frightened. At the +end of ten minutes he seated her upon a fallen branch, and +telling her he would return by the time she had resumed her shoes +and stockings glided from her like a shadow. She would have +uttered an indignant protest at being left alone, but he was gone +ere she could detain him. For a moment she thought she hated +him. But when she had mechanically shod herself once more, not +without nervous shivers at every falling needle, he was at her side. + +"Do you know anyone who wears a frieze coat like that?" he asked, +handing her a few torn shreds of wool affixed to a splinter of bark. + +Miss Nellie instantly recognized the material of a certain +sporting coat worn by Mr. Jack Brace on festive occasions, but a +strange yet infallible instinct that was part of her nature made +her instantly disclaim all knowledge of it. + +"No," she said. + +"Not anyone who scents himself with some doctor's stuff like +cologne?" continued Low, with the disgust of keen olfactory +sensibilities. + +Again Miss Nellie recognized the perfume with which the gallant +expressman was wont to make redolent her little parlor, but again +she avowed no knowledge of its possessor. "Well," returned Low +with some disappointment, "such a man has been here. Be on your +guard. Let us go at once." + +She required no urging to hasten her steps, but hurried +breathlessly at his side. He had taken a new trail by which they +left the wood at right angles with the highway, two miles away. +Following an almost effaced mule track along a slight depression +of the plain, deep enough, however, to hide them from view, he +accompanied her, until, rising to the level again, she saw they +were beginning to approach the highway and the distant roofs of +Indian Spring. "Nobody meeting you now," he whispered, "would +suspect where you had been. Good night! until next week--remember." + +They pressed each other's hands, and standing on the slight ridge +outlined against the paling sky, in full view of the highway, +parting carelessly, as if they had been chance met travelers. +But Nellie could not restrain a parting backward glance as she +left the ridge. Low had descended to the deserted trail, and was +running swiftly in the direction of the Carquinez Woods. + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Teresa awoke with a start. It was day already, but how far +advanced the even, unchanging, soft twilight of the woods gave no +indication. Her companion had vanished, and to her bewildered +senses so had the camp-fire, even to its embers and ashes. Was +she awake, or had she wandered away unconsciously in the night? +One glance at the tree above her dissipated the fancy. There was +the opening of her quaint retreat and the hanging strips of bark, +and at the foot of the opposite tree lay the carcass of the bear. +It had been skinned, and, as Teresa thought with an inward +shiver, already looked half its former size. + +Not yet accustomed to the fact that a few steps in either +direction around the circumference of those great trunks produced +the sudden appearance or disappearance of any figure, Teresa +uttered a slight scream as her young companion unexpectedly +stepped to her side. "You see a change here," he said; "the +stamped-out ashes of the camp-fire lie under the brush," and he +pointed to some cleverly scattered boughs and strips of bark +which completely effaced the traces of last night's bivouac. "We +can't afford to call the attention of any packer or hunter who +might straggle this way to this particular spot and this +particular tree; the more naturally," he added, "as they always +prefer to camp over an old fire." Accepting this explanation +meekly, as partly a reproach for her caprice of the previous +night, Teresa hung her head. + +"I'm very sorry," she said, "but wouldn't that," pointing to the +carcass of the bear, "have made them curious?" + +But Low's logic was relentless. + +"By this time there would have been little left to excite curiosity, +if you had been willing to leave those beasts to their work." + +"I'm very sorry," repeated the woman, her lips quivering. + +"They are the scavengers of the wood," he continued in a lighter +tone; "if you stay here you must try to use them to keep your +house clean." + +Teresa smiled nervously. + +"I mean that they shall finish their work to-night," he added, +"and I shall build another camp-fire for us a mile from here +until they do." + +But Teresa caught his sleeve. + +"No," she said hurriedly, "don't, please, for me. You must not +take the trouble, nor the risk. Hear me; do, please. I can bear +it, I WILL bear it--to-night. I would have borne it last night, +but it was so strange--and"--she passed her hands over her +forehead--"I think I must have been half mad. But I am not so +foolish now." + +She seemed so broken and despondent that he replied reassuringly: +"Perhaps it would be better that I should find another hiding- +place for you, until I can dispose of that carcass so that it +will not draw dogs after the wolves, and men after THEM. +Besides, your friend the sheriff will probably remember the bear +when he remembers anything, and try to get on its track again." + +"He's a conceited fool," broke in Teresa in a high voice, with a +slight return of her old fury, "or he'd have guessed where that +shot came from; and," she added in a lower tone, looking down at +her limp and nerveless fingers, "he wouldn't have let a poor, +weak, nervous wretch like me get away." + +"But his deputy may put two and two together, and connect your +escape with it." + +Teresa's eyes flashed. "It would be like the dog, just to save +his pride, to swear it was an ambush of my friends, and that he +was overpowered by numbers. Oh yes! I see it all!" she almost +screamed, lashing herself into a rage at the bare contemplation +of this diminution of her glory. "That's the dirty lie he tells +everywhere, and is telling now." + +She stamped her feet and glanced savagely around, as if at any +risk to proclaim the falsehood. Low turned his impassive, +truthful face towards her. + +"Sheriff Dunn," he began gravely, "is a politician, and a fool +when he takes to the trail as a hunter of man or beast. But he +is not a coward nor a liar. Your chances would be better if he +were--if he laid your escape to an ambush of your friends, than +if his pride held you alone responsible." + +"If he's such a good man, why do you hesitate?" she replied +bitterly. "Why don't you give me up at once, and do a service to +one of your friends?" + +"I do not even know him," returned Low opening his clear eyes +upon her. "I've promised to hide you here, and I shall hide you +as well from him as from anybody." + +Teresa did not reply, but suddenly dropping down upon the ground +buried her face in her hands and began to sob convulsively. Low +turned impassively away, and putting aside the bark curtain +climbed into the hollow tree. In a few moments he reappeared, +laden with provisions and a few simple cooking utensils, and +touched her lightly on the shoulder. She looked up timidly; the +paroxysm had passed, but her lashes yet glittered. + +"Come," he said, "come and get some breakfast. I find you have +eaten nothing since you have been here--twenty-four hours." + +"I didn't know it," she said, with a faint smile. Then seeing +his burden, and possessed by a new and strange desire for some +menial employment, she said hurriedly, "Let me carry something-- +do, please," and even tried to disencumber him. + +Half annoyed, Low at last yielded, and handing his rifle said, +"There, then, take that; but be careful--it's loaded!" + +A cruel blush burnt the woman's face to the roots of her hair as +she took the weapon hesitatingly in her hand. + +"No!" she stammered, hurriedly lifting her shame-suffused eyes to +his; "no! no!" + +He turned away with an impatience which showed her how completely +gratuitous had been her agitation and its significance, and said, +"Well, then, give it back if you are afraid of it." But she as +suddenly declined to return it; and shouldering it deftly, took +her place by his side. Silently they moved from the hollow tree +together. + +During their walk she did not attempt to invade his taciturnity. +Nevertheless she was as keenly alive and watchful of his every +movement and gesture as if she had hung enchanted on his lips. +The unerring way with which he pursued a viewless, undeviating +path through those trackless woods, his quick reconnaissance of +certain trees or openings, his mute inspection of some almost +imperceptible footprint of bird or beast, his critical +examination of certain plants which he plucked and deposited in +his deerskin haversack, were not lost on the quick-witted woman. +As they gradually changed the clear, unencumbered aisles of the +central woods for a more tangled undergrowth, Teresa felt that +subtle admiration which culminates in imitation, and simulating +perfectly the step, tread, and easy swing of her companion, +followed so accurately his lead that she won a gratified +exclamation from him when their goal was reached--a broken, +blackened shaft, splintered by long-forgotten lightning, in the +centre of a tangled carpet of wood-clover. + +"I don't wonder you distanced the deputy," he said cheerfully, +throwing down his burden, "if you can take the hunting-path like +that. In a few days, if you stay here, I can venture to trust +you alone for a little pasear when you are tired of the tree." + +Teresa looked pleased, but busied herself with arrangements for +the breakfast, while he gathered the fuel for the roaring fire +which soon blazed beside the shattered tree. + +Teresa's breakfast was a success. It was a revelation to the +young nomad, whose ascetic habits and simple tastes were usually +content with the most primitive forms of frontier cookery. It +was at least a surprise to him to know that without extra trouble +kneaded flour, water, and saleratus need not be essentially +heavy; that coffee need not be boiled with sugar to the +consistency of syrup; that even that rarest delicacy, small +shreds of venison covered with ashes and broiled upon the end of +a ramrod boldly thrust into the flames, would be better and even +more expeditiously cooked upon burning coals. Moved in his +practical nature, he was surprised to find this curious creature +of disorganized nerves and useless impulses informed with an +intelligence that did not preclude the welfare of humanity or the +existence of a soul. He respected her for some minutes, until in +the midst of a culinary triumph a big tear dropped and spluttered +in the saucepan. But he forgave the irrelevancy by taking no +notice of it, and by doing full justice to that particular dish. + +Nevertheless, he asked several questions based upon these +recently discovered qualities. It appeared that in the old days +of her wanderings with the circus troupe she had often been +forced to undertake this nomadic housekeeping. But she "despised +it," had never done it since, and always had refused to do it for +"him"--the personal pronoun referring, as Low understood, to her +lover, Curson. Not caring to revive these memories further, Low +briefly concluded: "I don't know what you were, or what you may +be, but from what I see of you you've got all the sabe of a +frontierman's wife." + +She stopped and looked at him, and then with an impulse of +imprudence that only half concealed a more serious vanity, asked, +"Do you think I might have made a good squaw?" + +"I don't know," he replied quietly. "I never saw enough of them +to know." + +Teresa, confident from his clear eyes that he spoke the truth, +but having nothing ready to follow this calm disposal of her +curiosity, relapsed into silence. + +The meal finished, Teresa washed their scant table equipage in a +little spring near the camp-fire; where, catching sight of her +disordered dress and collar, she rapidly threw her shawl, after +the national fashion, over her shoulder and pinned it quickly. +Low cached the remaining provisions and the few cooking utensils +under the dead embers and ashes, obliterating all superficial +indication of their camp-fire as deftly and artistically as he +had before. + +"There isn't the ghost of a chance," he said in explanation, +"that anybody but you or I will set foot here before we come back +to supper, but it's well to be on guard. I'll take you back to +the cabin now, though I bet you could find your way there as well +as I can." + +On their way back Teresa ran ahead of her companion, and plucking +a few tiny leaves from a hidden oasis in the bark-strewn trail +brought them to him. + +"That's the kind you're looking for, isn't it?" she said, half +timidly. + +"It is," responded Low, in gratified surprise; "but how did you +know it? You're not a botanist, are you?" + +"I reckon not," said Teresa; "but you picked some when we came, +and I noticed what they were." + +Here was indeed another revelation. Low stopped and gazed at her +with such frank, open, utterly unabashed curiosity that her black +eyes fell before him. + +"And do you think," he asked with logical deliberation, "that you +could find any plant from another I should give you?" + +"Yes." + +"Or from a drawing of it" + +"Yes; perhaps even if you described it to me." + +A half-confidential, half-fraternal silence followed. + +"I tell you what. I've got a book--" + +"I know it," interrupted Teresa; "full of these things." + +"Yes. Do you think you could--" + +"Of course I could," broke in Teresa, again. + +"But you don't know what I mean," said the imperturbable Low. + +"Certainly I do. Why, find 'em, and preserve all the different +ones for you to write under--that's it, isn't it?" + +Low nodded his head, gratified but not entirely convinced that +she had fully estimated the magnitude of the endeavor. + +"I suppose," said Teresa, in the feminine postscriptum voice +which it would seem entered even the philosophical calm of the +aisles they were treading--"I suppose that SHE places great value +on them?" + +Low had indeed heard Science personified before, nor was it at +all impossible that the singular woman walking by his side had +also. He said "Yes;" but added, in mental reference to the +Linnean Society of San Francisco, that "THEY were rather +particular about the rarer kinds." + +Content as Teresa had been to believe in Low's tender relations +with some favored ONE of her sex, this frank confession of a +plural devotion staggered her. + +"They?" she repeated. + +"Yes," he continued calmly. "The Botanical Society I correspond +with are more particular than the Government Survey." + +"Then you are doing this for a society?" demanded Teresa, with a +stare. + +"Certainly. I'm making a collection and classification of +specimens. I intend--but what are you looking at?" + +Teresa had suddenly turned away. Putting his hand lightly on her +shoulder, the young man brought her face to face him again. + +She was laughing. + +"I thought all the while it was for a girl," she said; "and--" +But here the mere effort of speech sent her off into an audible +and genuine outburst of laughter. It was the first time he had +seen her even smile other than bitterly. Characteristically +unconscious of any humor in her error, he remained unembarrassed. +But he could not help noticing a change in the expression of her +face, her voice, and even her intonation. It seemed as if that +fit of laughter had loosed the last ties that bound her to a +self-imposed character, had swept away the last barrier between +her and her healthier nature, had dispossessed a painful +unreality, and relieved the morbid tension of a purely nervous +attitude. The change in her utterance and the resumption of her +softer Spanish accent seemed to have come with her confidences, +and Low took leave of her before their sylvan cabin with a +comrade's heartiness, and a complete forgetfulness that her voice +had ever irritated him. + +When he returned that afternoon he was startled to find the cabin +empty. But instead of bearing any appearance of disturbance or +hurried flight, the rude interior seemed to have magically +assumed a decorous order and cleanliness unknown before. Fresh +bark hid the inequalities of the floor. The skins and blankets +were folded in the corners, the rude shelves were carefully +arranged, even a few tall ferns and bright but quickly fading +flowers were disposed around the blackened chimney. She had +evidently availed herself of the change of clothing he had +brought her, for her late garments were hanging from the hastily- +devised wooden pegs driven in the wall. The young man gazed +around him with mixed feelings of gratification and uneasiness. +His presence had been dispossessed in a single hour; his ten +years of lonely habitation had left no trace that this woman had +not effaced with a deft move of her hand. More than that, it +looked as if she had always occupied it; and it was with a +singular conviction that even when she should occupy it no longer +it would only revert to him as her dwelling that he dropped the +bark shutters athwart the opening, and left it to follow her. + +To his quick ear, fine eye, and abnormal senses, this was easy +enough. She had gone in the direction of this morning's camp. +Once or twice he paused with a half-gesture of recognition and a +characteristic "Good!" at the place where she had stopped, but +was surprised to find that her main course had been as direct as +his own. Deviating from this direct line with Indian precaution, +he first made a circuit of the camp, and approached the shattered +trunk from the opposite direction. He consequently came upon +Teresa unawares. But the momentary astonishment and +embarrassment were his alone. + +He scarcely recognized her. She was wearing the garments he had +brought her the day before--a certain discarded gown of Miss +Nellie Wynn, which he had hurriedly begged from her under the +pretext of clothing the wife of a distressed overland emigrant +then on the way to the mines. Although he had satisfied his +conscience with the intention of confessing the pious fraud to +her when Teresa was gone and safe from pursuit, it was not +without a sense of remorse that he witnessed the sacrilegious +transformation. The two women were nearly the same height and +size; and although Teresa's maturer figure accented the outlines +more strongly, it was still becoming enough to increase his +irritation. + +Of this becomingness she was doubtless unaware at the moment that +he surprised her. She was conscious of having "a change," and +this had emboldened her to "do her hair" and otherwise compose +herself. After their greeting she was the first to allude to the +dress, regretting that it was not more of a rough disguise, and +that, as she must now discard the national habit of wearing her +shawl "manta" fashion over her head, she wanted a hat. "But you +must not," she said, "borrow any more dresses for me from your +young woman. Buy them for me at some shop. They left me enough +money for that." Low gently put aside the few pieces of gold she +had drawn from her pocket, and briefly reminded her of the +suspicion such a purchase by him would produce. "That's so," she +said, with a laugh. "Caramba! what a mule I'm becoming! Ah! +wait a moment. I have it! Buy me a common felt hat--a man's +hat--as if for yourself, as a change to that animal," pointing to +the fox-tailed cap he wore summer and winter, "and I'll show you +a trick. I haven't run a theatrical wardrobe for nothing." Nor +had she, for the hat thus procured, a few days later, became, by +the aid of a silk handkerchief and a bluejay's feather, a +fascinating "pork pie." + +Whatever cause of annoyance to Low still lingered in Teresa's +dress, it was soon forgotten in a palpable evidence of Teresa's +value as a botanical assistant. It appeared that during the +afternoon she had not only duplicated his specimens, but had +discoverd one or two rare plants as yet unclassified in the flora +of the Carquinez Woods. He was delighted, and in turn, over the +campfire, yielded up some details of his present life and some of +his earlier recollections. + +"You don't remember anything of your father?" she asked. "Did he +ever try to seek you out?" + +"No! Why should he?" replied the imperturbable Low; "he was not +a Cherokee." + +"No, he was a beast," responded Teresa promptly. "And your +mother--do you remember her?" + +"No, I think she died." + +"You THINK she died? Don't you know?" + +"No!" + +"Then you're another!" said Teresa. Notwithstanding this +frankness, they shook hands for the night: Teresa nestling like a +rabbit in a hollow by the side of the campfire; Low with his feet +towards it, Indian-wise, and his head and shoulders pillowed on +his haversack, only half distinguishable in the darkness beyond. + +With such trivial details three uneventful days slipped by. +Their retreat was undisturbed, nor could Low detect, by the least +evidence to his acute perceptive faculties, that any intruding +feet had since crossed the belt of shade. The echoes of passing +events at Indian Spring had recorded the escape of Teresa as +occurring at a remote and purely imaginative distance, and her +probable direction the county of Yolo. + +"Can you remember," he one day asked her, "what time it was when +you cut the riata and got away?" + +Teresa pressed her hands upon her eyes and temples. + +"About three, I reckon." + +"And you were here at seven; you could have covered some ground +in four hours?" + +"Perhaps--I don't know," she said, her voice taking up its old +quality again. "Don't ask me--I ran all the way." + +Her face was quite pale as she removed her hands from her eyes, +and her breath came as quickly as if she had just finished that +race for life. + +"Then you think I am safe here?" she added, after a pause. + +"Perfectly--until they find you are NOT in Yolo. Then they'll +look here. And THAT'S the time for you to go THERE." Teresa +smiled timidly. + +"It will take them some time to search Yolo--unless," she added, +"you're tired of me here." The charming non sequitur did not, +however, seem to strike the young man. "I've got time yet to +find a few more plants for you," she suggested. + +"Oh, certainly!" + +"And give you a few more lessons in cooking." + +"Perhaps." + +The conscientious and literal Low was beginning to doubt if she +were really practical. How otherwise could she trifle with such +a situation? + +It must be confessed that that day and the next she did trifle +with it. She gave herself up to a grave and delicious languor +that seemed to flow from shadow and silence and permeate her +entire being. She passed hours in a thoughtful repose of mind +and spirit that seemed to fall like balm from those steadfast +guardians, and distill their gentle ether in her soul; or +breathed into her listening ear immunity from the forgotten past, +and security for the present. If there was no dream of the +future in this calm, even recurrence of placid existence, so much +the better. The simple details of each succeeding day, the +quaint housekeeping, the brief companionship and coming and going +of her young host--himself at best a crystallized personification +of the sedate and hospitable woods--satisfied her feeble +cravings. She no longer regretted the inferior position that her +fears had obliged her to take the first night she came; she began +to look up to this young man--so much younger than herself-- +without knowing what it meant; it was not until she found that +this attitude did not detract from his picturesqueness that she +discovered herself seeking for reasons to degrade him from this +seductive eminence. + +A week had elapsed with little change. On two days he had been +absent all day, returning only in time to sup in the hollow tree, +which, thanks to the final removal of the dead bear from its +vicinity, was now considered a safer retreat than the exposed +camp-fire. On the first of these occasions she received him with +some preoccupation, paying but little heed to the scant gossip he +brought from Indian Spring, and retiring early under the plea of +fatigue, that he might seek his own distant camp-fire, which, +thanks to her stronger nerves and regained courage, she no longer +required so near. On the second occasion, he found her writing a +letter more or less blotted with her tears. When it was +finished, she begged him to post it at Indian Spring, where in +two days an answer would be returned, under cover, to him. + +"I hope you will be satisfied then," she added. + +"Satisfied with what?" queried the young man. + +"You'll see," she replied, giving him her cold hand. "Good-night." + +"But can't you tell me now?" he remonstrated, retaining her hand. + +"Wait two days longer--it isn't much," was all she vouchsafed to +answer. + +The two days passed. Their former confidence and good fellowship +were fully restored when the morning came on which he was to +bring the answer from the post-office at Indian Spring. He had +talked again of his future, and had recorded his ambition to +procure the appointment of naturalist to a Government Surveying +Expedition. She had even jocularly proposed to dress herself in +man's attire and "enlist" as his assistant. + +"But you will be safe with your friends, I hope, by that time," +responded Low. + +"Safe with my friends," she repeated in a lower voice. "Safe +with my friends--yes!" An awkward silence followed; Teresa broke +it gayly: "But your girl, your sweetheart, my benefactor--will +SHE let you go?" + +"I haven't told her yet," said Low, gravely, "but I don't see why +she should object." + +"Object, indeed!" interrupted Teresa in a high voice and a sudden +and utterly gratuitous indignation; "how should she? I'd like to +see her do it!" + +She accompanied him some distance to the intersection of the +trail, where they parted in good spirits. On the dusty plain +without a gale was blowing that rocked the high tree-tops above +her, but, tempered and subdued, entered the low aisles with a +fluttering breath of morning and a sound like the cooing of +doves. Never had the wood before shown so sweet a sense of +security from the turmoil and tempest of the world beyond; never +before had an intrusion from the outer life--even in the shape of +a letter--seemed so wicked a desecration. Tempted by the +solicitation of air and shade, she lingered, with Low's herbarium +slung on her shoulder. + +A strange sensation, like a shiver, suddenly passed across her +nerves, and left them in a state of rigid tension. With every +sense morbidly acute, with every faculty strained to its utmost, +the subtle instincts of Low's woodcraft transformed and possessed +her. She knew it now! A new element was in the wood--a strange +being--another life--another man approaching! She did not even +raise her head to look about her, but darted with the precision +and fleetness of an arrow in the direction of her tree. But her +feet were arrested, her limbs paralzyed, her very existence +suspended, by the sound of a voice:-- + +"Teresa!" + +It was a voice that had rung in her ears for the last two years +in all phases of intensity, passion, tenderness, and anger; a +voice upon whose modulations, rude and unmusical though they +were, her heart and soul had hung in transport or anguish. But +it was a chime that had rung its last peal to her senses as she +entered the Carquinez Woods, and for the last week had been as +dead to her as a voice from the grave. It was the voice of her +lover--Dick Curson! + + +CHAPTER V + + +The wind was blowing towards the stranger, so that he was nearly +upon her when Teresa first took the alarm. He was a man over six +feet in height, strongly built, with a slight tendency to a +roundness of bulk which suggested reserved rather than impeded +energy. His thick beard and mustache were closely cropped around +a small and handsome mouth that lisped except when he was +excited, but always kept fellowship with his blue eyes in a +perpetual smile of half-cynical good-humor. His dress was +superior to that of the locality; his general expression that of +a man of the world, albeit a world of San Francisco, Sacramento, +and Murderer's Bar. He advanced towards her with a laugh and an +outstretched hand. + +"YOU here!" she gasped, drawing back. + +Apparently neither surprised nor mortified at this reception, he +answered frankly, "Yeth. You didn't expect me, I know. But +Doloreth showed me the letter you wrote her, and--well--here I +am, ready to help you, with two men and a thpare horthe waiting +outside the woodth on the blind trail." + +"You--YOU--here?" she only repeated. + +Curson shrugged his shoulders. "Yeth." Of courth you never +expected to thee me again, and leatht of all HERE. I'll admit +that; I'll thay I wouldn't if I'd been in your plathe. I'll go +further, and thay you didn't want to thee me again--anywhere. +But it all cometh to the thame thing; here I am. I read the +letter you wrote Doloreth. I read how you were hiding here, +under Dunn'th very nothe, with his whole pothe out, cavorting +round and barkin' up the wrong tree. I made up my mind to come +down here with a few nathty friends of mine and cut you out under +Dunn'th nothe, and run you over into Yuba--that'th all." + +"How dared she show you my letter--YOU of all men? How dared she +ask YOUR help?" continued Teresa, fiercely. + +"But she didn't athk my help," he responded coolly. "D--d if I +don't think she jutht calculated I'd be glad to know you were +being hunted down and thtarving, that I might put Dunn on your +track." + +"You lie!" said Teresa, furiously; "she was my friend. A better +friend than those who professed--more," she added, with a +contemptuous drawing away of her skirt as if she feared Curson's +contamination. + +"All right. Thettle that with her when you go back," continued +Curson philosophically. "We can talk of that on the way. The +thing now ith to get up and get out of thethe woods. Come!" + +Teresa's only reply was a gesture of scorn. + +"I know all that," continued Curson half soothingly, "but they're +waiting." + +"Let them wait. I shall not go." + +"What will you do?" + +"Stay here--till the wolves eat me." + +"Teresa, listen. D--- it all--Teresa--Tita! see here," he said +with sudden energy. "I swear to God it's all right. I'm willing +to let by-gones be by-gones and take a new deal. You shall come +back as if nothing had happened, and take your old place as +before. I don't mind doing the square thing, all round. If +that's what you mean, if that's all that stands in the way, why, +look upon the thing as settled. There, Tita, old girl, come." + +Careless or oblivious of her stony silence and starting eyes, he +attempted to take her hand. But she disengaged herself with a +quick movement, drew back, and suddenly crouched like a wild +animal about to spring. Curson folded his arms as she leaped to +her feet; the little dagger she had drawn from her garter flashed +menacingly in the air, but she stopped. + +The man before her remained erect, impassive, and silent; the +great trees around and beyond her remained erect, impassive, and +silent; there was no sound in the dim aisles but the quick +panting of her mad passion, no movement in the calm, motionless +shadow but the trembling of her uplifted steel. Her arm bent and +slowly sank, her fingers relaxed, the knife fell from her hand. + +"That'th quite enough for a thow," he said, with a return to his +former cynical ease and a perceptible tone of relief in his +voice. "It'th the thame old Theretha. Well, then, if you won't +go with me, go without me; take the led horthe and cut away. +Dick Athley and Petereth will follow you over the county line. +If you want thome money, there it ith." He took a buckskin purse +from his pocket. "If you won't take it from me--he hesitated as +she made no reply--"Athley'th flush and ready to lend you thome." + +She had not seemed to hear him, but had stooped in some +embarrassment, picked up the knife and hastily hid it, then with +averted face and nervous fingers was beginning to tear strips of +loose bark from the nearest trunk. + +"Well, what do you thay?" + +"I don't want any money, and I shall stay here." She hesitated, +looked around her, and then added, with an effort, "I suppose you +meant well. Be it so! Let by-gones be by-gones. You said just +now, 'It's the same old Teresa.' So she is, and seeing she's the +same she's better here than anywhere else." + +There was enough bitterness in her tone to call for Curson's +half-perfunctory sympathy. + +"That be d--d," he responded quickly. "Jutht thay you'll come, +Tita, and--" + +She stopped his half-spoken sentence with a negative gesture. +"You don't understand. I shall stay here." + +"But even if they don't theek you here, you can't live here +forever. The friend that you wrote about who wath tho good to +you, you know, can't keep you here alwayth; and are you thure you +can alwayth trutht her?" + +"It isn't a woman; it's a man." She stopped short, and colored +to the line of her forehead. "Who said it was a woman?" she +continued fiercely, as if to cover her confusion with a burst of +gratuitous anger. "Is that another of your lies?" + +Curson's lips, which for a moment had completely lost their +smile, were now drawn together in a prolonged whistle. He gazed +curiously at her gown, at her hat, at the bow of bright ribbon +that tied her black hair, and said, "Ah!" + +"A poor man who has kept my secret," she went on hurriedly--"a +man as friendless and lonely as myself. Yes," disregarding +Curson's cynical smile, "a man who has shared everything--" + +"Naturally," suggested Curson. + +"And turned himself out of his only shelter to give me a roof and +covering," she continued mechanically, struggling with the new +and horrible fancy that his words awakened. + +"And thlept every night at Indian Thpring to save your reputation," +said Curson. "Of courthe." + +Teresa turned very white. Curson was prepared for an outburst of +fury--perhaps even another attack. But the crushed and beaten +woman only gazed at him with frightened and imploring eyes. "For +God's sake, Dick, don't say that!" + +The amiable cynic was staggered. His good-humor and a certain +chivalrous instinct he could not repress got the better of him. +He shrugged his shoulders. "What I thay, and what you DO, +Teretha, needn't make us quarrel. I've no claim on you--I know +it. Only--" a vivid sense of the ridiculous, powerful in men of +his stamp, completed her victory--"only don't thay anything about +my coming down here to cut you out from the--the--THE SHERIFF." +He gave utterance to a short but unaffected laugh, made a slight +grimace, and turned to go. + +Teresa did not join in his mirth. Awkward as it would have been +if he had taken a severer view of the subject, she was mortified +even amidst her fears and embarrassment at his levity. Just as +she had become convinced that his jealousy had made her over- +conscious, his apparent good-humored indifference gave that over- +consciousness a guilty significance. Yet this was lost in her +sudden alarm as her companion, looking up, uttered an +exclamation, and placed his hand upon his revolver. With a +sinking conviction that the climax had come, Teresa turned her +eyes. From the dim aisles beyond, Low was approaching. The +catastrophe seemed complete. + +She had barely time to utter an imploring whisper: "In the name +of God, not a word to him." But a change had already come over +her companion. It was no longer a parley with a foolish woman; +he had to deal with a man like himself. As Low's dark face and +picturesque figure came nearer, Mr. Curson's proposed method of +dealing with him was made audible. + +"Ith it a mulatto or a Thircuth, or both?" he asked, with +affected anxiety. + +Low's Indian phlegm was impervious to such assault. He turned to +Teresa, without apparently noticing her companion. "I turned +back," he said quietly, "as soon as I knew there were strangers +here; I thought you might need me." She noticed for the first +time that, in addition to his rifle, he carried a revolver and +hunting knife in his belt. + +"Yeth," returned Curson, with an ineffectual attempt to imitate +Low's phlegm; "but ath I didn't happen to be a sthranger to this +lady, perhaps it wathn't nethethary, particularly ath I had two +friends--" + +"Waiting at the edge of the wood with a led horse," interrupted +Low, without addressing him, but apparently continuing his +explanation to Teresa. But she turned to Low with feverish +anxiety. + +"That's so--he is an old friend--" she gave a quick, imploring +glance at Curson--"an old friend who came to help me away--he is +very kind," she stammered, turning alternately from the one to +the other; "but I told him there was no hurry--at least to-day-- +that you--were--very good--too, and would hide me a little +longer, until your plan--you know YOUR plan," she added, with a +look of beseeching significance to Low--"could be tried." And +then, with a helpless conviction that her excuses, motives, and +emotions were equally and perfectly transparent to both men, she +stopped in a tremble. + +"Perhapth it 'th jutht ath well, then, that the gentleman came +thtraight here, and didn't tackle my two friendth when he pathed +them," observed Curson, half sarcastically. + +"I have not passed your friends, nor have I been near them," said +Low, looking at him for the first time, with the same +exasperating calm, "or perhaps I should not be HERE or they +THERE. I knew that one man entered the wood a few moments ago, +and that two men and four horses remained outside." + +"That's true," said Teresa to Curson excitedly--"that's true. He +knows all. He can see without looking, hear without listening. +He--he--" she stammered, colored, and stopped. + +The two men had faced each other. Curson, after his first good- +natured impulse, had retained no wish to regain Teresa, whom he +felt he no longer loved, and yet who, for that very reason +perhaps, had awakened his chivalrous instincts. Low, equally on +his side, was altogether unconscious of any feeling which might +grow into a passion, and prevent him from letting her go with +another if for her own safety. They were both men of a certain +taste and refinement. Yet, in spite of all this, some vague +instinct of the baser male animal remained with them, and they +were moved to a mutually aggressive attitude in the presence of +the female. + +One word more, and the opening chapter of a sylvan Iliad might +have begun. But this modern Helen saw it coming, and arrested it +with an inspiration of feminine genius. Without being observed, +she disengaged her knife from her bosom and let it fall as if by +accident. It struck the ground with the point of its keen blade, +bounded and rolled between them. The two men started and looked +at each other with a foolish air. Curson laughed. + +"I reckon she can take care of herthelf," he said, extending his +hand to Low. "I'm off. But if I'm wanted SHE'LL know where to +find me." Low took the proffered hand, but neither of the two +men looked at Teresa. The reserve of antagonism once broken, a +few words of caution, advice, and encouragement passed between +them, in apparent obliviousness of her presence or her personal +responsibility. As Curson at last nodded a farewell to her, Low +insisted upon accompanying him as far as the horses, and in +another moment she was again alone. + +She had saved a quarrel between them at the sacrifice of herself, +for her vanity was still keen enough to feel that this exhibition +of her old weakness had degraded her in their eyes, and, worse, +had lost the respect her late restraint had won from Low. They +had treated her like a child or a crazy woman, perhaps even now +were exchanging criticisms upon her--perhaps pitying her! Yet +she had prevented a quarrel, a fight; possibly the death of +either one or the other of these men who despised her, for none +better knew than she the trivial beginning and desperate end of +these encounters. Would they--would Low ever realize it, and +forgive her? Her small, dark hands went up to her eyes and she +sank upon the ground. She looked through tear-veiled lashes upon +the mute and giant witnesses of her deceit and passion, and tried +to draw, from their immovable calm, strength and consolation as +before. But even they seemed to stand apart, reserved and forbidding. + +When Low returned she hoped to gather from his eyes and manner +what had passed between him and her former lover. But beyond a +mere gentle abstraction at times he retained his usual calm. She +was at last forced to allude to it herself with simulated +recklessness. + +"I suppose I didn't get a very good character from my last +place?" she said, with a laugh. + +"I don't understand you," he replied, in evident sincerity. + +She bit her lip and was silent. But as they were returning home, +she said gently, "I hope you were not angry with me for the lie I +told when I spoke of 'your plan.' I could not give the real +reason for not returning with--with--that man. But it's not all +a lie. I have a plan--if you haven't. When you are ready to go +to Sacramento to take your place, dress me as an Indian boy, +paint my face, and let me go with you. You can leave me--there-- +you know." + +"It's not a bad idea," he responded gravely. "We will see." + +On the next day, and the next, the rencontre seemed to be +forgotten. The herbarium was already filled with rare specimens. +Teresa had even overcome her feminine repugnance to "bugs" and +creeping things so far as to assist in his entomological +collection. He had drawn from a sacred cache in the hollow of a +tree the few worn text-books from which he had studied. + +"They seem very precious," she said, with a smile. + +"Very," he replied gravely. "There was one with plates that the +ants ate up, and it will be six months before I can afford to buy +another." + +Teresa glanced hurriedly over his well-worn buckskin suit, at his +calico shirt with its pattern almost obliterated by countless +washings, and became thoughtful. + +"I suppose you couldn't buy one at Indian Spring?" she said +innocently. + +For once Low was startled out of his phlegm. "Indian Spring!" he +ejaculated; "perhaps not even in San Francisco. These came from +the States." + +"How did you get them?" persisted Teresa. + +"I bought them for skins I got over the ridge." + +"I didn't mean that--but no matter. Then you mean to sell that +bearskin, don't you?" she added. + +Low had, in fact, already sold it, the proceeds having been +invested in a gold ring for Miss Nellie, which she scrupulously +did not wear except in his presence. In his singular +truthfulness he would have frankly confessed it to Teresa, but +the secret was not his own. He contented himself with saying +that he had disposed of it at Indian Spring. + +Teresa started, and communicated unconsciously some of her +nervousness to her companion. They gazed in each other's eyes +with a troubled expression. + +"Do you think it was wise to sell that particular skin, which +might be identified?" she asked timidly. + +Low knitted his arched brows, but felt a strange sense of relief. +"Perhaps not," he said carelessly; "but it's too late now to mend +matters." + +That afternoon she wrote several letters, and tore them up. One, +however, she retained, and handed it to Low to post at Indian +Spring, whither he was going. She called his attention to the +superscription, being the same as the previous letter, and added, +with affected gayety, "But if the answer isn't as prompt, perhaps +it will be pleasanter than the last." Her quick feminine eye +noticed a little excitement in his manner and a more studious +attention to his dress. Only a few days before she would not +have allowed this to pass without some mischievous allusion to +his mysterious sweetheart; it troubled her greatly now to find +that she could not bring herself to this household pleasantry, +and that her lip trembled and her eye grew moist as he parted +from her. + +The afternoon passed slowly; he had said he might not return to +supper until late, nevertheless a strange restlessness took +possession of her as the day wore on. She put aside her work, +the darning of his stockings, and rambled aimlessly through the +woods. She had wandered she knew not how far, when she was +suddenly seized with the same vague sense of a foreign presence +which she had felt before. Could it be Curson again, with a word +of warning? No! she knew it was not he; so subtle had her sense +become that she even fancied that she detected in the invisible +aura projected by the unknown no significance or relation to +herself or Low, and felt no fear. Nevertheless she deemed it +wisest to seek the protection of her sylvan bower, and hurried +swiftly thither. + +But not so quickly nor directly that she did not once or twice +pause in her flight to examine the new-comer from behind a +friendly trunk. He was a stranger--a young fellow with a brown +mustache, wearing heavy Mexican spurs in his riding-boots, whose +tinkling he apparently did not care to conceal. He had perceived +her, and was evidently pursuing her, but so awkwardly and timidly +that she eluded him with ease. When she had reached the security +of the hollow tree and pulled the curtain of bark before the +narrow opening, with her eye to the interstices, she waited his +coming. He arrived breathlessly in the open space before the +tree where the bear once lay; the dazed, bewildered, and half- +awed expression of his face, as he glanced around him and through +the openings of the forest aisles, brought a faint smile to her +saddened face. At last he called in a half-embarrassed voice:-- + +"Miss Nellie!" + +The smile faded from Teresa's cheek. Who was "Miss Nellie?" She +pressed her ear to the opening. "Miss Wynn!" the voice again +called, but was lost in the echoless woods. Devoured with a new +gratuitous curiosity, in another moment Teresa felt she would +have disclosed herself at any risk, but the stranger rose and +began to retrace his steps. Long after his tinkling spurs were +lost in the distance, Teresa remained like a statue, staring at +the place where he had stood. Then she suddenly turned like a +mad woman, glanced down at the gown she was wearing, tore it from +her back as if it had been a polluted garment, and stamped upon +it in a convulsion of rage. And then, with her beautiful bare +arms clasped together over her head, she threw herself upon her +couch in a tempest of tears. + + +CHAPTER VI + + +When Miss Nellie reached the first mining extension of Indian +Spring, which surrounded it like a fosse, she descended for one +instant into one of its trenches, opened her parasol, removed her +duster, hid it under a bowlder, and with a few shivers and cat- +like strokes of her soft hands not only obliterated all material +traces of the stolen cream of Carquinez Woods, but assumed a +feline demureness quite inconsistent with any moral dereliction. +Unfortunately, she forgot to remove at the same time a certain +ring from her third finger, which she had put on with her duster +and had worn at no other time. With this slight exception, the +benignant fate which always protected that young person brought +her in contact with the Burnham girls at one end of the main +street as the returning coach to Excelsior entered the other, and +enabled her to take leave of them before the coach office with a +certain ostentation of parting which struck Mr. Jack Brace, who +was lingering at the doorway, into a state of utter bewilderment. + +Here was Miss Nellie Wynn, the belle of Excelsior, calm, quiet, +self-possessed, her chaste cambric skirts and dainty shoes as +fresh as when she had left her father's house; but where was the +woman of the brown duster, and where the yellow-dressed +apparition of the woods? He was feebly repeating to himself his +mental adjuration of a few hours before when he caught her eye, +and was taken with a blush and a fit of coughing. Could he have +been such an egregious fool, and was it not plainly written on +his embarrassed face for her to read? + +"Are we going down together?" asked Miss Nellie with an +exceptionally gracious smile. + +There was neither affectation nor coquetry in this advance. The +girl had no idea of Brace's suspicion of her, nor did any uneasy +desire to placate or deceive a possible rival of Low's prompt her +graciousness. She simply wished to shake off in this encounter +the already stale excitement of the past two hours, as she had +shaken the dust of the woods from her clothes. It was +characteristic of her irresponsible nature and transient +susceptibilities that she actually enjoyed the relief of change; +more than that, I fear, she looked upon this infidelity to a past +dubious pleasure as a moral principle. A mild, open flirtation +with a recognized man like Brace, after her secret passionate +tryst with a nameless nomad like Low, was an ethical equipoise +that seemed proper to one of her religious education. + +Brace was only too happy to profit by Miss Nellie's condescension; +he at once secured the seat by her side, and spent the four hours +and a half of their return journey to Excelsior in blissful but +timid communion with her. If he did not dare to confess his past +suspicions, he was equally afraid to venture upon the boldness he +had premeditated a few hours before. He was therefore obliged to +take a middle course of slightly egotistical narration of his own +personal adventures, with which he beguiled the young girl's ear. +This he only departed from once, to describe to her a valuable +grizzly bearskin which he had seen that day for sale at Indian +Spring, with a view to divining her possible acceptance of it +for a "buggy robe;" and once to comment upon a ring which she +had inadvertently disclosed in pulling off her glove. + +"It's only an old family keepsake," she added, with easy +mendacity; and affecting to recognize in Mr. Brace's curiosity a +not unnatural excuse for toying with her charming fingers, she +hid them in chaste and virginal seclusion in her lap, until she +could recover the ring and resume her glove. + +A week passed--a week of peculiar and desiccating heat for even +those dry Sierra table-lands. The long days were filled with +impalpable dust and acrid haze suspended in the motionless air; +the nights were breathless and dewless; the cold wind which +usually swept down from the snow line was laid to sleep over a +dark monotonous level, whose horizon was pricked with the eating +fires of burning forest crests. The lagging coach of Indian +Spring drove up at Excelsior, and precipitated its passengers +with an accompanying cloud of dust before the Excelsior Hotel. +As they emerged from the coach, Mr. Brace, standing in the +doorway, closely scanned their begrimed and almost unrecognizable +faces. They were the usual type of travelers: a single +professional man in dusty black, a few traders in tweeds and +flannels, a sprinkling of miners in red and gray shirts, a +Chinaman, a negro, and a Mexican packer or muleteer. This latter +for a moment mingled with the crowd in the bar-room, and even +penetrated the corridor and dining-room of the hotel, as if +impelled by a certain semi-civilized curiosity, and then strolled +with a lazy, dragging step--half impeded by the enormous leather +leggings, chains, and spurs, peculiar to his class--down the main +street. The darkness was gathering, but the muleteer indulged in +the same childish scrutiny of the dimly lighted shops, magazines, +and saloons, and even of the occasional groups of citizens at the +street corners. Apparently young, as far as the outlines of his +figure could be seen, he seemed to show even more than the usual +concern of masculine Excelsior in the charms of womankind. The +few female figures about at that hour, or visible at window or +veranda, received his marked attention; he respectfully followed +the two auburn-haired daughters of Deacon Johnson on their way to +choir meeting to the door of the church. Not content with that +act of discreet gallantry, after they had entered he managed to +slip unperceived behind them. + +The memorial of the Excelsior gamblers' generosity was a modern +building, large and pretentious, for even Mr. Wynn's popularity, +and had been good-humoredly known, in the characteristic language +of the generous donors, as one of the "biggest religious bluffs" +on record. Its groined rafters, which were so new and spicy that +they still suggested their native forest aisles, seldom covered +more than a hundred devotees, and in the rambling choir, with its +bare space for the future organ, the few choristers, gathered +round a small harmonium, were lost in the deepening shadow of +that summer evening. The muleteer remained hidden in the +obscurity of the vestibule. After a few moments' desultory +conversation, in which it appeared that the unexpected absence of +Miss Nellie Wynn, their leader, would prevent their practicing, +the choristers withdrew. The stranger, who had listened eagerly, +drew back in the darkness as they passed out, and remained for a +few moments a vague and motionless figure in the silent church. +Then coming cautiously to the window, the flapping broad-brimmed +hat was put aside, and the faint light of the dying day shone in +the black eyes of Teresa! Despite her face, darkened with dye +and disfigured with dust, the matted hair piled and twisted +around her head, the strange dress and boyish figure, one swift +glance from under her raised lashes betrayed her identity. + +She turned aside mechanically into the first pew, picked up and +opened a hymn-book. Her eyes became riveted on a name written on +the title-page, "Nellie Wynn." HER name, and HER book. The +instinct that had guided her here was right; the slight gossip of +her fellow-passengers was right; this was the clergyman's +daughter, whose praise filled all mouths. This was the unknown +girl the stranger was seeking, but who in turn perhaps had been +seeking Low--the girl who absorbed his fancy--the secret of his +absences, his preoccupation, his coldness! This was the girl +whom to see, perhaps in his arms, she was now periling her +liberty and her life unknown to him! A slight odor, some faint +perfume of its owner, came from the book; it was the same she had +noticed in the dress Low had given her. She flung the volume to +the ground, and, throwing her arms over the back of the pew +before her, buried her face in her hands. + +In that light and attitude she might have seemed some rapt +acolyte abandoned to self-communion. But whatever yearning her +soul might have had for higher sympathy or deeper consolation, I +fear that the spiritual Tabernacle of Excelsior and the Reverend +Mr. Wynn did not meet that requirement. She only felt the dry, +oven-like heat of that vast shell, empty of sentiment and beauty, +hollow in its pretense and dreary in its desolation. She only +saw in it a chief altar for the glorification of this girl who +had absorbed even the pure worship of her companion, and +converted and degraded his sublime paganism to her petty creed. +With a woman's withering contempt for her own art displayed in +another woman, she thought how she herself could have touched him +with the peace that the majesty of their woodland aisles--so +unlike this pillared sham--had taught her own passionate heart, +had she but dared. Mingling with this imperfect theology, she +felt she could have proved to him also that a brunette and a +woman of her experience was better than an immature blonde. She +began to loathe herself for coming hither, and dreaded to meet +his face. Here a sudden thought struck her. What if he had not +come here? What if she had been mistaken? What if her rash +interpretation of his absence from the wood that night was simple +madness? What if he should return--if he had already returned? +She rose to her feet, whitening yet joyful with the thought. She +could return at once; what was the girl to her now? Yet there +was time to satisfy herself if he were at HER house. She had +been told where it was; she could find it in the dark; an open +door or window would betray some sign or sound of the occupants. +She rose, replaced her hat over her eyes, knotted her flaunting +scarf around her throat, groped her way to the door, and glided +into the outer darkness. + + +CHAPTER VII + + +It was quite dark when Mr. Jack Brace stopped before Father +Wynn's open door. The windows were also invitingly open to the +wayfarer, as were the pastoral counsels of Father Wynn, delivered +to some favored guest within, in a tone of voice loud enough for +a pulpit. Jack Brace paused. The visitor was the convalescent +sheriff, Jim Dunn, who had publicly commemorated his recovery by +making his first call upon the father of his inamorata. The +Reverend Mr. Wynn had been expatiating upon the unremitting heat +of a possible precursor of forest fires, and exhibiting some +catholic knowledge of the designs of a Deity in that regard, and +what should be the policy of the Legislature, when Mr. Brace +concluded to enter. Mr. Wynn and the wounded man, who occupied +an arm-chair by the window, were the only occupants of the room. +But in spite of the former's ostentatious greeting, Brace could +see that his visit was inopportune and unwelcome. The sheriff +nodded a quick, impatient recognition, which, had it not been +accompanied by an anathema on the heat, might have been taken as +a personal insult. Neither spoke of Miss Nellie, although it was +patent to Brace that they were momentarily expecting her. All of +which went far to strengthen a certain wavering purpose in his +mind. + +"Ah, ha! strong language, Mr. Dunn," said Father Wynn, referring +to the sheriff's adjuration, "but 'out of the fullness of the +heart the mouth speaketh.' Job, sir, cursed, we are told, and +even expressed himself in vigorous Hebrew regarding his birthday. +Ha, ha! I'm not opposed to that. When I have often wrestled +with the spirit I confess I have sometimes said, 'D--n you.' +Yes, sir, 'D--n you.'" + +There was something so unutterably vile in the reverend +gentleman's utterance and emphasis of this oath that the two men, +albeit both easy and facile blasphemers, felt shocked; as the +purest of actresses is apt to overdo the rakishness of a gay +Lothario, Father Wynn's immaculate conception of an imprecation +was something terrible. But he added, "The law ought to +interfere with the reckless use of camp-fires in the woods in +such weather by packers and prospectors." + +"It isn't so much the work of white men," broke in Brace, "as it +is of Greasers, Chinamen, and Diggers, especially Diggers. +There's that blasted Low, ranges the whole Carquinez Woods as if +they were his. I reckon he ain't particular just where he throws +his matches." + +"But he's not a Digger; he's a Cherokee, and only a half-breed at +that," interpolated Wynn. "Unless," he added, with the artful +suggestion of the betrayed trust of a too credulous Christian, +"he deceived me in this as in other things." + +In what other things Low had deceived him he did not say; but, to +the astonishment of both men, Dunn growled a dissent to Brace's +proposition. Either from some secret irritation with that +possible rival, or impatience at the prolonged absence of Nellie, +he had "had enough of that sort of hog-wash ladled out to him for +genuine liquor." As to the Carquinez Woods, he [Dunn] "didn't +know why Low hadn't as much right there as if he'd grabbed it +under a preemption law and didn't live there." With this hint at +certain speculations of Father Wynn in public lands for a +homestead, he added that "If they [Brace and Wynn] could bring +him along any older American settler than an Indian, they might +rake down his [Dunn's] pile." Unprepared for this turn in the +conversation, Wynn hastened to explain that he did not refer to +the pure aborigine, whose gradual extinction no one regretted +more than himself, but to the mongrel, who inherited only the +vices of civilization. "There should be a law, sir, against the +mingling of races. There are men, sir, who violate the laws of +the Most High by living with Indian women--squaw men, sir, as +they are called." + +Dunn rose with a face livid with weakness and passion. "Who +dares say that? They are a d--d sight better than sneaking +Northern Abolitionists, who married their daughters to buck +niggers like--" But a spasm of pain withheld this Parthian shot +at the politics of his two companions, and he sank back +helplessly in his chair. + +An awkward silence ensued. The three men looked at each other in +embarrassment and confusion. Dunn felt that he had given way to +a gratuitous passion; Wynn had a vague presentiment that he had +said something that imperiled his daughter's prospects; and Brace +was divided between an angry retort and the secret purpose +already alluded to. + +"It's all the blasted heat," said Dunn, with a forced smile, +pushing away the whisky which Wynn had ostentatiously placed +before him. + +"Of course," said Wynn hastily; "only it's a pity Nellie ain't +here to give you her smelling-salts. She ought to be back now," +he added, no longer mindful of Brace's presence; "the coach is +over-due now, though I reckon the heat made Yuba Bill take it +easy at the up grade." + +"If you mean the coach from Indian Spring," said Brace quietly, +"it's in already; but Miss Nellie didn't come on it." + +"May be she got out at the Crossing," said Wynn cheerfully; "she +sometimes does." + +"She didn't take the coach at Indian Spring," returned Brace, +"because I saw it leave, and passed it on Buckskin ten minutes +ago, coming up the hills." + +"She's stopped over at Burnham's," said Wynn reflectively. Then, +in response to the significant silence of his guests, he added, +in a tone of chagrin which his forced heartiness could not +disguise, "Well, boys, it's a disappointment all round; but we +must take the lesson as it comes. I'll go over to the coach +office and see if she's sent any word. Make yourselves at home +until I return." + +When the door had closed behind him, Brace arose and took his hat +as if to go. With his hand on the lock, he turned to his rival, +who, half hidden in the gathering darkness, still seemed unable +to comprehend his ill-luck. + +"If you're waiting for that bald-headed fraud to come back with +the truth about his daughter," said Brace coolly, "you'd better +send for your things and take up your lodgings here." + +"What do you mean?" said Dunn sternly. + +"I mean that she's not at the Burnhams'; I mean that he either +does or does not know WHERE she is, and that in either case he is +not likely to give you information. But I can." + +"You can?" + +"Yes." + +"Then, where is she?" + +"In the Carquinez Woods, in the arms of the man you were just +defending--Low, the half-breed." + +The room had become so dark that from the road nothing could be +distinguished. Only the momentary sound of struggling feet was +heard. + +"Sit down," said Brace's voice, "and don't be a fool. You're too +weak, and it ain't a fair fight. Let go your hold. I'm not +lying--I wish to God I was!" + +There was silence, and Brace resumed, "We've been rivals, I know. +May be I thought my chance as good as yours. If what I say ain't +truth, we'll stand as we stood before; and if you're on the +shoot, I'm your man when you like, where you like, or on sight if +you choose. But I can't bear to see another man played upon as +I've been played upon--given dead away as I've been. It ain't on +the square. + +"There," he continued, after a pause, "that's right, now steady. +Listen. A week ago that girl went down just like this to Indian +Spring. It was given out, like this, that she went to the +Burnhams'. I don't mind saying, Dunn, that I went down myself, +all on the square, thinking I might get a show to talk to her, +just as YOU might have done, you know, if you had my chance. I +didn't come across her anywhere. But two men that I met thought +they recognized her in a disguise going into the woods. Not +suspecting anything, I went after her; saw her at a distance in +the middle of the woods in another dress that I can swear to, and +was just coming up to her when she vanished--went like a squirrel +up a tree, or down like a gopher in the ground, but vanished." + +"Is that all?" said Dunn's voice. "And just because you were a +d--d fool, or had taken a little too much whisky, you thought--" + +"Steady. That's just what I said to myself," interrupted Brace +coolly, "particularly when I saw her that same afternoon in +another dress, saying 'Good-by' to the Burnhams, as fresh as a +rose and as cold as those snow-peaks. Only one thing--she had a +ring on her finger she never wore before, and didn't expect me to +see." + +"What if she did? She might have bought it. I reckon she hasn't +to consult you," broke in Dunn's voice sternly. + +"She didn't buy it," continued Brace quietly. "Low gave that Jew +trader a bearskin in exchange for it, and presented it to her. I +found that out two days afterwards. I found out that out of the +whole afternoon she spent less than an hour with the Burnhams. I +found out that she bought a duster like the disguise the two men +saw her in. I found the yellow dress she wore that day hanging +up in Low's cabin--the place where I saw her go--THE RENDEZVOUS +WHERE SHE MEETS HIM. Oh, you're listenin', are you? Stop! SIT +DOWN! + +"I discovered it by accident," continued the voice of Brace when +all was again quiet; "it was hidden as only a squirrel or an +Injin can hide when they improve upon nature. When I was +satisfied that the girl had been in the woods, I was determined +to find out where she vanished, and went there again. +Prospecting around, I picked up at the foot of one of the biggest +trees this yer old memorandum-book, with grasses and herbs stuck +in it. I remembered that I'd heard old Wynn say that Low, like +the d--d Digger that he was, collected these herbs; only he +pretended it was for science. I reckoned the book was his and +that he mightn't be far away. I lay low and waited. Bimeby I +saw a lizard running down the root. When he got sight of me he +stopped." + +"D--n the lizard! What's that got to do with where she is now?" + +"Everything. That lizard had a piece of sugar in his mouth. +Where did it come from? I made him drop it, and calculated he'd +go back for more. He did. He scooted up that tree and slipped +in under some hanging strips of bark. I shoved 'em aside, and +found an opening to the hollow where they do their housekeeping." + +"But you didn't see her there--and how do you know she is there +now?" + +"I determined to make it sure. When she left to-day, I started +an hour ahead of her, and hid myself at the edge of the woods. +An hour after the coach arrived at Indian Spring, she came there +in a brown duster and was joined by him. I'd have followed them, +but the d--d hound has the ears of a squirrel, and though I was +five hundred yards from him he was on his guard." + +"Guard be blessed! Wasn't you armed? Why didn't you go for +him?" said Dunn, furiously. + +"I reckoned I'd leave that for you," said Brace coolly. "If he'd +killed me, and if he'd even covered me with his rifle, he'd been +sure to let daylight through me at double the distance. I +shouldn't have been any better off, nor you either. If I'd +killed HIM, it would have been your duty as sheriff to put me in +jail; and I reckon it wouldn't have broken your heart, Jim Dunn, +to have got rid of TWO rivals instead of one. Hullo! Where are +you going?" + +"Going?" said Dunn hoarsely. "Going to the Carquinez Woods, by +God! to kill him before her. I'LL risk it, if you daren't. Let +me succeed, and you can hang ME and take the girl yourself." + +"Sit down, sit down. Don't be a fool, Jim Dunn! You wouldn't +keep the saddle a hundred yards. Did I say I wouldn't help you? +No. If you're willing, we'll run the risk together, but it must +be in my way. Hear me. I'll drive you down there in a buggy +before daylight, and we'll surprise them in the cabin or as they +leave the wood. But you must come as if to arrest him for some +offense--say, as an escaped Digger from the Reservation, a +dangerous tramp, a destroyer of public property in the forests, a +suspected road agent, or anything to give you the right to hunt +him. The exposure of him and Nellie, don't you see, must be +accidental. If he resists, kill him on the spot, and nobody'll +blame you; if he goes peaceably with you, and you once get him in +Excelsior jail, when the story gets out that he's taken the belle +of Excelsior for his squaw, if you'd the angels for your posse +you couldn't keep the boys from hanging him to the first tree. +What's that?" + +He walked to the window, and looked out cautiously. + +"If it was the old man coming back and listening," he said, after +a pause, "it can't he helped. He'll hear it soon enough, if he +don't suspect something already." + +"Look yer, Brace," broke in Dunn hoarsely. "D--d if I understand +you or you me. That dog Low has got to answer to ME, not to the +LAW! I'll take my risk of killing him, on sight and on the +square. I don't reckon to handicap myself with a warrant, and I +am not going to draw him out with a lie. You hear me? That's me +all the time!" + +"Then you calkilate to go down thar," said Brace contemptuously, +"yell out for him and Nellie, and let him line you on a rest from +the first tree as if you were a grizzly." + +There was a pause. "What's that you were saying just now about a +bearskin he sold?" asked Dunn slowly, as if reflecting. + +"He exchanged a bearskin," replied Brace, "with a single hole +right over the heart. He's a dead shot, I tell you." + +"D--n his shooting," said Dunn. "I'm not thinking of that. How +long ago did he bring in that bearskin?" + +"About two weeks, I reckon. Why?" + +"Nothing! Look yer, Brace, you mean well--thar's my hand. I'll +go down with you there, but not as the sheriff. I'm going there +as Jim Dunn, and you can come along as a white man, to see things +fixed on the square. Come!" + +Brace hesitated. "You'll think better of my plan before you get +there; but I've said I'd stand by you, and I will. Come, then. +There's no time to lose." + +They passed out into the darkness together. + +"What are you waiting for?" said Dunn impatiently, as Brace, who +was supporting him by the arm, suddenly halted at the corner of +the house. + +"Some one was listening--did you not see him? Was it the old +man?" asked Brace hurriedly. + +"Blast the old man! It was only one of them Mexican packers +chock-full of whisky, and trying to hold up the house. What are +you thinking of? We shall be late." + +In spite of his weakness, the wounded man hurriedly urged Brace +forward, until they reached the latter's lodgings . To his +surprise, the horse and buggy were already before the door. + +"Then you reckoned to go, any way?" said Dunn, with a searching +look at his companion. + +"I calkilated SOMEBODY would go," returned Brace, evasively, +patting the impatient Buckskin; "but come in and take a drink +before we leave." + +Dunn started out of a momentary abstraction, put his hand on his +hip, and mechanically entered the house. They had scarcely +raised the glasses to their lips when a sudden rattle of wheels +was heard in the street. Brace set down his glass and ran to the +window. + +"It's the mare bolted," he said, with an oath. "We've kept her +too long standing. Follow me," and he dashed down the staircase +into the street. Dunn followed with difficulty; when he reached +the door he was already confronted by his breathless companion. +"She's gone off on a run, and I'll swear there was a man in the +buggy!" He stopped and examined the halter-strap, still fastened +to the fence. "Cut! by God!" + +Dunn turned pale with passion. "Who's got another horse and +buggy?" he demanded. + +"The new blacksmith in Main Street; but we won't get it by +borrowing," said Brace. + +"How then?" asked Dunn savagely. + +"Seize it, as the sheriff of Yuba and his deputy, pursuing a +confederate of the Injin Low--THE HORSE THIEF!" + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The brief hour of darkness that preceded the dawn was that night +intensified by a dense smoke, which, after blotting out horizon +and sky, dropped a thick veil on the high road and the silent +streets of Indian Spring. As the buggy containing Sheriff Dunn +and Brace dashed through the obscurity, Brace suddenly turned to +his companion. + +"Some one ahead!" + +The two men bent forward over the dashboard. Above the steady +plunging of their own horse-hoofs they could hear the quicker +irregular beat of other hoofs in the darkness before them. + +"It's that horse thief!" said Dunn, in a savage whisper. "Bear +to the right, and hand me the whip." + +A dozen cuts of the cruel lash, and their maddened horse, +bounding at each stroke, broke into a wild canter. The frail +vehicle swayed from side to side at each spring of the elastic +shafts. Steadying himself by one hand on the low rail, Dunn drew +his revolver with the other. "Sing out to him to pull up, or +we'll fire. My voice is clean gone," he added, in a husky whisper. + +They were so near that they could distinguish the bulk of a +vehicle careering from side to side in the blackness ahead. Dunn +deliberately raised his weapon. "Sing out!" he repeated +impatiently. But Brace, who was still keeping in the shadow, +suddenly grasped his companion's arm. + +"Hush! It's NOT Buckskin," he whispered hurriedly. + +"Are you sure?" + +"DON'T YOU SEE WE'RE GAINING ON HIM?" replied the other +contemptuously. Dunn grasped his companion's hand and pressed it +silently. Even in that supreme moment this horseman's tribute to +the fugitive Buckskin forestalled all baser considerations of +pursuit and capture! + +In twenty seconds they were abreast of the stranger, crowding his +horse and buggy nearly into the ditch; Brace keenly watchful, +Dunn suppressed and pale. In half a minute they were leading him +a length; and when their horse again settled down to his steady +work, the stranger was already lost in the circling dust that +followed them. But the victors seemed disappointed. The +obscurity had completely hidden all but the vague outlines of the +mysterious driver. + +"He's not our game, anyway," whispered Dunn. "Drive on." + +"But if it was some friend of his," suggested Brace uneasily, +"what would you do?" + +"What I SAID I'd do," responded Dunn savagely. "I don't want +five minutes to do it in, either; we'll be half an hour ahead of +that d--d fool, whoever he is. Look here; all you've got to do +is to put me in the trail to that cabin. Stand back of me, out +of gun-shot, alone, if you like, as my deputy, or with any number +you can pick up as my posse. If he gets by me as Nellie's lover, +you may shoot him or take him as a horse thief, if you like." + +"Then you won't shoot him on sight?" + +"Not till I've had a word with him." + +"But--" + +"I've chirped," said the sheriff gravely. "Drive on." + +For a few moments only the plunging hoofs and rattling wheels +were heard. A dull, lurid glow began to define the horizon. +They were silent until an abatement of the smoke, the vanishing +of the gloomy horizon line, and a certain impenetrability in the +darkness ahead showed them they were nearing the Carquinez Woods. +But they were surprised on entering them to find the dim aisles +alight with a faint mystic Aurora. The tops of the towering +spires above them had caught the gleam of the distant forest +fires, and reflected it as from a gilded dome. + +"It would be hot work if the Carquinez Woods should conclude to +take a hand in this yer little game that's going on over on the +Divide yonder," said Brace, securing his horse and glancing at +the spires overhead. "I reckon I'd rather take a back seat at +Injin Spring when the show commences." + +Dunn did not reply, but, buttoning his coat, placed one hand on +his companion's shoulder, and sullenly bade him "lead the way." +Advancing slowly and with difficulty the desperate man might have +been taken for a peaceful invalid returning from an early morning +stroll. His right hand was buried thoughtfully in the side +pocket of his coat. Only Brace knew that it rested on the handle +of his pistol. + +From time to time the latter stopped and consulted the faint +trail with a minuteness that showed recent careful study. +Suddenly he paused. "I made a blaze hereabouts to show where to +leave the trail. There it is," he added, pointing to a slight +notch cut in the trunk of an adjoining tree. + +"But we've just passed one," said Dunn, "if that's what you are +looking after, a hundred yards back." + +Brace uttered an oath, and ran back in the direction signified by +his companion. Presently he returned with a smile of triumph. + +"They've suspected something. It's a clever trick, but it won't +hold water. That blaze which was done to muddle you was cut with +an axe; this which I made was done with a bowie-knife. It's the +real one. We're not far off now. Come on." + +They proceeded cautiously, at right angles with the "blazed" +tree, for ten minutes more. The heat was oppressive; drops of +perspiration rolled from the forehead of the sheriff, and at +times, when he attempted to steady his uncertain limbs, his hands +shrank from the heated, blistering bark he touched with ungloved +palms. + +"Here we are," said Brace, pausing at last. "Do you see that +biggest tree, with the root stretching out halfway across to the +opposite one?" + +"No, it's further to the right and abreast of the dead brush," +interrupted Dunn quickly, with a sudden revelation that this was +the spot where he had found the dead bear in the night Teresa +escaped. + +"That's so," responded Brace, in astonishment. + +"And the opening is on the other side, opposite the dead brush," +said Dunn. + +"Then you know it?" said Brace suspiciously. + +"I reckon!" responded Dunn, grimly. "That's enough! Fall back!" + +To the surprise of his companion, he lifted his head erect, and +with a strong, firm step walked directly to the tree. Reaching +it, he planted himself squarely before the opening. + +"Halloo!" he said. + +There was no reply. A squirrel scampered away close to his feet. +Brace, far in the distance, after an ineffectual attempt to +distinguish his companion through the intervening trunks, took +off his coat, leaned against a tree, and lit a cigar. + +"Come out of that cabin!" continued Dunn, in a clear, resonant +voice. "Come out before I drag you out!" + +"All right, 'Captain Scott.' Don't shoot, and I'll come down," +said a voice as clear and as high as his own. The hanging strips +of bark were dashed aside, and a woman leaped lightly to the +ground. + +Dunn staggered back. "Teresa! by the Eternal!" + +It was Teresa! the old Teresa! Teresa, a hundred times more +vicious, reckless, hysterical, extravagant, and outrageous than +before. Teresa, staring with tooth and eye, sunburnt and +embrowned, her hair hanging down her shoulders, and her shawl +drawn tightly around her neck. + +"Teresa it is! the same old gal! Here we are again! Return of +the favorite in her original character! For two weeks only! +Houp la! Tshk!" and, catching her yellow skirt with her fingers, +she pirouetted before the astounded man, and ended in a pose. +Recovering himself with an effort, Dunn dashed forward and seized +her by the wrist. + +"Answer me, woman! Is that Low's cabin?" + +"It is." + +"Who occupies it besides?" + +"I do." + +"And who else?" + +"Well," drawled Teresa slowly, with an extravagant affectation of +modesty, "nobody else but us, I reckon. Two's company, you know, +and three's none." + +"Stop! Will you swear that there isn't a young girl, his--his +sweetheart--concealed there with you?" + +The fire in Teresa's eye was genuine as she answered steadily, +"Well, it ain't my style to put up with that sort of thing; at +least, it wasn't over at Yolo, and you know it, Jim Dunn, or I +wouldn't be here." + +"Yes, yes," said Dunn hurriedly. "But I'm a d--d fool, or worse, +the fool of a fool. Tell me, Teresa, is this man Low your lover?" + +Teresa lowered her eyes as if in maidenly confusion. "Well, if +I'd known that YOU had any feeling of your own about it--if you'd +spoken sooner--" + +"Answer me, you devil!" + +"He is." + +"And he has been with you here--yesterday--to-night?" + +"He has." + +"Enough." He laughed a weak, foolish laugh, and, turning pale, +suddenly lapsed against a tree. He would have fallen, but with a +quick instinct Teresa sprang to his side, and supported him +gently to a root. The action over, they both looked astounded. + +"I reckon that wasn't much like either you or me," said Dunn +slowly, "was it? But if you'd let me drop then you'd have +stretched out the biggest fool in the Sierras." He paused, and +looked at her curiously. "What's come over you; blessed if I +seem to know you now." + +She was very pale again, and quiet; that was all. + +"Teresa! d--n it, look here! When I was laid up yonder in +Excelsior I said I wanted to get well for only two things. One +was to hunt you down, the other to marry Nellie Wynn. When I +came here I thought that last thing could never be. I came here +expecting to find her here with Low, and kill him--perhaps kill +her too. I never once thought of you; not once. You might have +risen up before me--between me and him--and I'd have passed you +by. And now that I find it's all a mistake, and it was you, not +her, I was looking for, why--" + +"Why," she interrupted bitterly, "you'll just take me, of course, +to save your time and earn your salary. I'm ready." + +"But I'M not, just yet," he said faintly. "Help me up." + +She mechanically assisted him to his feet. + +"Now stand where you are," he added, "and don't move beyond this +tree till I return." + +He straightened himself with an effort, clenched his fists until +the nails were nearly buried in his palms, and strode with a +firm, steady step in the direction he had come. In a few moments +he returned and stood before her. + +"I've sent away my deputy--the man who brought me here, the fool +who thought you were Nellie. He knows now he made a mistake. +But who it was he mistook for Nellie he does not know, nor shall +ever know, nor shall any living being know, other than myself. +And when I leave the wood to-day I shall know it no longer. You +are safe here as far as I am concerned, but I cannot screen you +from others prying. Let Low take you away from here as soon as +he can." + +"Let him take me away? Ah, yes. For what?" + +"To save you," said Dunn. "Look here, Teresa! Without knowing +it, you lifted me out of hell just now, and because of the wrong +I might have done her--for HER sake, I spare you and shirk my duty." + +"For her sake!" gasped the woman--"for her sake! Oh, yes! Go on." + +"Well," said Dunn gloomily, "I reckon perhaps you'd as lieve left +me in hell, for all the love you bear me. And may be you've +grudge enough agin me still to wish I'd found her and him together." + +"You think so?" she said, turning her head away. + +"There, d--n it! I didn't mean to make you cry. May be you +wouldn't, then. Only tell that fellow to take you out of this, +and not run away the next time he sees a man coming." + +"He didn't run," said Teresa, with flashing eyes. "I--I--I sent +him away," she stammered. Then, suddenly turning with fury upon +him, she broke out, "Run! Run from you! Ha, ha! You said just +now I'd a grudge against you. Well, listen, Jim Dunn. I'd only +to bring you in range of that young man's rifle, and you'd have +dropped in your tracks like--" + +"Like that bar, the other night," said Dunn, with a short laugh. +"So THAT was your little game?" He checked his laugh suddenly--a +cloud passed over his face. "Look here, Teresa," he said, with +an assumption of carelessness that was as transparent as it was +utterly incompatible with his frank, open selfishness. "What +became of that bar? The skin--eh? That was worth something?" + +"Yes," said Teresa quietly. "Low exchanged it and got a ring for +me from that trader Isaacs. It was worth more, you bet. And the +ring didn't fit either--" + +"Yes," interrupted Dunn, with an almost childish eagerness. + +"And I made him take it back, and get the value in money. I hear +that Isaacs sold it again and made another profit; but that's +like those traders." The disingenuous candor of Teresa's manner +was in exquisite contrast to Dunn. He rose and grasped her hand +so heartily she was forced to turn her eyes away. + +"Good-by!" he said. + +"You look tired," she murmured, with a sudden gentleness that +surprised him; "let me go with you a part of the way." + +"It isn't safe for you just now," he said, thinking of the +possible consequences of the alarm Brace had raised. + +"Not the way YOU came," she replied; "but one known only to +myself." + +He hesitated only a moment. "All right, then," he said finally, +"let us go at once. It's suffocating here, and I seem to feel +this dead bark crinkle under my feet." + +She cast a rapid glance around her, and then seemed to sound with +her eyes the far-off depths of the aisles, beginning to grow pale +with the advancing day, but still holding a strange quiver of +heat in the air. When she had finished her half-abstracted +scrutiny of the distance, she cast one backward glance at her own +cabin and stopped. + +"Will you wait a moment for me?" she asked gently. + +"Yes--but--no tricks, Teresa! It isn't worth the time." + +She looked him squarely in the eyes without a word. + +"Enough," he said; "go!" + +She was absent for some moments. He was beginning to become +uneasy, when she made her appearance again, clad in her old faded +black dress. Her face was very pale, and her eyes were swollen, +but she placed his hand on her shoulder, and bidding him not to +fear to lean upon her, for she was quite strong, led the way. + +"You look more like yourself now, and yet--blast it all!--you +don't either," said Dunn, looking down upon her. "You've changed +in some way. What is it? Is it on account of that Injin? +Couldn't you have found a white man in his place?" + +"I reckon he's neither worse nor better for that," she replied +bitterly; "and perhaps he wasn't as particular in his taste as a +white man might have been. But," she added, with a sudden spasm +of her old rage, "it's a lie; he's NOT an Indian, no more than I +am. Not unless being born of a mother who scarcely knew him, of +a father who never even saw him, and being brought up among white +men and wild beasts--less cruel than they were--could make him one!" + +Dunn looked at her in surprise not unmixed with admiration. "If +Nellie," he thought, "could but love ME like that!" But he only +said: + +"For all that, he's an Injin. Why, look at his name. It ain't +Low. It's L'Eau Dormante, Sleeping Water, an Injin name." + +"And what does that prove?" returned Teresa. "Only that Indians +clap a nick-name on any stranger, white or red, who may camp with +them. Why, even his own father, a white man, the wretch who +begot him and abandoned him,--HE had an Indian name--Loup Noir." + +"What name did you say?" + +"Le Loup Noir, the Black Wolf. I suppose you'd call him an +Indian, too? Eh! What's the matter? We're walking too fast. +Stop a moment and rest. There--there, lean on me!" + +She was none too soon; for, after holding him upright a moment, +his limbs failed, and stooping gently she was obliged to support +him half reclining against a tree. + +"Its the heat!" he said. "Give me some whisky from my flask. +Never mind the water," he added faintly, with a forced laugh, +after he had taken a draught at the strong spirit. "Tell me more +about the other water--the Sleeping Water--you know. How do you +know all this about him and his--father?" + +"Partly from him and partly from Curson, who wrote to me about +him," she answered with some hesitation. + +But Dunn did not seem to notice this incongruity of correspondence +with a former lover. "And HE told you?" + +"Yes; and I saw the name on an old memorandum book he has, which +he says belonged to his father. It's full of old accounts of +some trading post on the frontier. It's been missing for a day +or two, but it will turn up. But I can swear I saw it." + +Dunn attempted to rise to his feet. "Put your hand in my +pocket," he said in a hurried whisper. "No, there!--bring out a +book. There, I haven't looked at it yet. Is that it?" he added, +handing her the book Brace had given him a few hours before. + +"Yes," said Teresa, in surprise. "Where did you find it?" + +"Never mind! Now let me see it, quick. Open it, for my sight is +failing. There--thank you--that's all!" + +"Take more whisky," said Teresa, with a strange anxiety creeping +over her. "You are faint again." + +"Wait! Listen, Teresa--lower--put your ear lower. Listen! I +came near killing that chap Low to-day. Wouldn't it have been +ridiculous?" + +He tried to smile, but his head fell back. He had fainted. + + +CHAPTER IX + + +For the first time in her life Teresa lost her presence of mind +in an emergency. She could only sit staring at the helpless man, +scarcely conscious of his condition, her mind filled with a +sudden prophetic intuition of the significance of his last words. +In the light of that new revelation she looked into his pale, +haggard face for some resemblance to Low, but in vain. Yet her +swift feminine instinct met the objection. "It's the mother's +blood that would show," she murmured, "not this man's." + +Recovering herself, she began to chafe his hands and temples, and +moistened his lips with the spirit. When his respiration +returned with a faint color to his cheeks, she pressed his hands +eagerly and leaned over him. + +"Are you sure?" she asked. + +"Of what?" he whispered faintly. + +"That Low is really your son?" + +"Who said so?" he asked, opening his round eyes upon her. + +"You did yourself, a moment ago," she said quickly. "Don't you +remember?" + +"Did I?" + +"You did. Is it not so?" + +He smiled faintly. "I reckon." + +She held her breath in expectation. But only the ludicrousness +of the discovery seemed paramount to his weakened faculties. +"Isn't it just about the ridiculousest thing all round?" he said, +with a feeble chuckle. "First YOU nearly kill me before you know +I am Low's father; then I'm just spoilin' to kill him before I +know he's my son; then that god-forsaken fool Jack Brace mistakes +you for Nellie and Nellie for you. Ain't it just the biggest +thing for the boys to get hold of? But we must keep it dark +until after I marry Nellie, don't you see? Then we'll have a +good time all round, and I'll stand the drinks. Think of it, +Teresha! You don' no me, I do' no you, nobody knowsh anybody +elsh. I try kill Lo'. Lo' wants kill Nellie. No thath no ri--'" +but the potent liquor, overtaking his exhausted senses, +thickened, impeded, and at last stopped his speech. His head +slipped to her shoulder, and he became once more unconscious. + +Teresa breathed again. In that brief moment she had abandoned +herself to a wild inspiration of hope which she could scarcely +define. Not that it was entirely a wild inspiration; she tried +to reason calmly. What if she revealed the truth to him? What +if she told the wretched man before her that she had deceived +him; that she had overheard his conversation with Brace; that she +had stolen Brace's horse to bring Low warning; that, failing to +find Low in his accustomed haunts, or at the campfire, she had +left a note for him pinned to the herbarium, imploring him to fly +with his companion from the danger that was coming; and that, +remaining on watch, she had seen them both--Brace and Dunn-- +approaching, and had prepared to meet them at the cabin? Would +this miserable and maddened man understand her self-abnegation? +Would he forgive Low and Nellie?--she did not ask for herself. +Or would the revelation turn his brain, if it did not kill him +outright? She looked at the sunken orbits of his eyes and hectic +on his cheek, and shuddered. + +Why was this added to the agony she already suffered? She had +been willing to stand between them with her life, her liberty, +and even--the hot blood dyed her cheek at the thought--with the +added shame of being thought the cast-off mistress of that man's +son. Yet all this she had taken upon herself in expiation of +something--she knew not clearly what; no, for nothing--only for +HIM. And yet this very situation offered her that gleam of hope +which had thrilled her; a hope so wild in its improbability, so +degrading in its possibility, that at first she knew not whether +despair was not preferable to its shame. And yet was it +unreasonable? She was no longer passionate; she would be calm +and think it out fairly. + +She would go to Low at once. She would find him somewhere--and +even if with that girl, what mattered?--and she would tell him +all. When he knew that the life and death of his father lay in +the scale, would he let his brief, foolish passion for Nellie +stand in the way? Even if he were not influenced by filial +affection or mere compassion, would his pride let him stoop to a +rivalry with the man who had deserted his youth? Could he take +Dunn's promised bride, who must have coquetted with him to have +brought him to this miserable plight? Was this like the calm, +proud young god she knew? Yet she had an uneasy instinct that +calm, proud young gods and goddesses did things like this, and +felt the weakness of her reasoning flush her own conscious cheek. + +"Teresa!" + +She started. Dunn was awake, and was gazing at her curiously. + +"I was reckoning it was the only square thing for Low to stop +this promiscuous picnicking here and marry you out and out." + +"Marry me!" said Teresa in a voice that, with all her efforts, +she could not make cynical. + +"Yes," he repeated, "after I've married Nellie; tote you down to +San Angeles, and there take my name like a man, and give it to +you. Nobody'll ask after TERESA, sure--you bet your life. And +if they do, and he can't stop their jaw, just you call on the old +man. It's mighty queer, ain't it, Teresa, to think of your being +my daughter-in-law?" + +It seemed here as if he was about to lapse again into unconsciousness +over the purely ludicrous aspect of the subject, but he haply +recovered his seriousness. "He'll have as much money from me as he +wants to go into business with. What's his line of business, +Teresa?" asked this prospective father-in-law, in a large, liberal way. + +"He is a botanist!" said Teresa, with a sudden childish animation +that seemed to keep up the grim humor of the paternal suggestion; +"and oh, he is too poor to buy books! I sent for one or two for +him myself, the other day--" she hesitated--"it was all the money +I had, but it wasn't enough for him to go on with his studies." + +Dunn looked at her sparkling eyes and glowing cheeks, and became +thoughtful. "Curson must have been a d--d fool," he said finally. + +Teresa remained silent. She was beginning to be impatient and +uneasy, fearing some mischance that might delay her dreaded, yet +longed-for meeting with Low. Yet she could not leave this sick +and exhausted man, HIS FATHER, now bound to her by more than mere +humanity. + +"Couldn't you manage," she said gently, "to lean on me a few +steps further, until I could bring you to a cooler spot and +nearer assistance?" + +He nodded. She lifted him almost like a child to his feet. A +spasm of pain passed over his face. "How far is it?" he asked. + +"Not more than ten minutes," she replied. + +"I can make a spurt for that time," he said coolly, and began to +walk slowly but steadily on. Only his face, which was white and +set, and the convulsive grip of his hand on her arm betrayed the +effort. At the end of ten minutes she stopped. They stood +before the splintered, lightning-scarred shaft in the opening of +the woods, where Low had built her first camp-fire. She +carefully picked up the herbarium, but her quick eye had already +detected in the distance, before she had allowed Dunn to enter +the opening with her, that her note was gone. Low had been there +before them; he had been warned, as his absence from the cabin +showed; he would not return there. They were free from +interruption--but where had he gone? + +The sick man drew a long breath of relief as she seated him in +the clover-grown hollow where she had slept the second night of +her stay. "It's cooler than those cursed woods," he said. "I +suppose it's because it's a little like a grave. What are you +going to do now?" he added, as she brought a cup of water and +placed it at his side. + +"I am going to leave you here for a little while," she said +cheerfully, but with a pale face and nervous hands. "I'm going +to leave you while I seek Low." + +The sick man raised his head. "I'm good for a spurt, Teresa, +like that I've just got through, but I don't think I'm up to a +family party. Couldn't you issue cards later on?" + +"You don't understand," she said. "I'm going to get Low to send +some one of your friends to you here. I don't think he'll +begrudge leaving HER a moment for that," she added to herself +bitterly. + +"What's that you're saying?" he queried, with the nervous +quickness of an invalid. + +"Nothing--but that I'm going now." She turned her face aside to +hide her moistened eyes. "Wish me good luck, won't you?" she +asked, half sadly, half pettishly. + +"Come here!" + +She came and bent over him. He suddenly raised his hands, and, +drawing her face down to his own, kissed her forehead. + +"Give that to HIM," he whispered, "from ME." + +She turned and fled, happily for her sentiment, not hearing the +feeble laugh that followed, as Dunn, in sheer imbecility, again +referred to the extravagant ludicrousness of the situation. "It +is about the biggest thing in the way of a sell all round," he +repeated, lying on his back, confidentially to the speck of +smoke-obscured sky above him. He pictured himself repeating it, +not to Nellie--her severe propriety might at last overlook the +fact, but would not tolerate the joke--but to her father! It +would be one of those characteristic Californian jokes Father +Wynn would admire. + +To his exhaustion fever presently succeeded, and he began to grow +restless. The heat too seemed to invade his retreat, and from +time to time the little patch of blue sky was totally obscured by +clouds of smoke. He amused himself with watching a lizard who +was investigating a folded piece of paper, whose elasticity gave +the little creature lively apprehensions of its vitality. At +last he could stand the stillness of his retreat and his supine +position no longer, and rolled himself out of the bed of leaves +that Teresa had so carefully prepared for him. He rose to his +feet stiff and sore, and, supporting himself by the nearest tree, +moved a few steps from the dead ashes of the camp-fire. The +movement frightened the lizard, who abandoned the paper and fled. +With a satirical recollection of Brace and his "ridiculous" +discovery through the medium of this animal, he stooped and +picked up the paper. "Like as not," he said to himself, with +grim irony, "these yer lizards are in the discovery business. +P'r'aps this may lead to another mystery," and he began to unfold +the paper with a smile. But the smile ceased as his eye suddenly +caught his own name. + +A dozen lines were written in pencil on what seemed to be a blank +leaf originally torn from some book. He trembled so that he was +obliged to sit down to read these words:-- + + +"When you get this keep away from the woods. Dunn and another +man are in deadly pursuit of you and your companion. I overheard +their plan to surprise you in our cabin. DON'T GO THERE, and I +will delay them and put them off the scent. Don't mind me. God +bless you, and if you never see me again think sometimes of + +"TERESA." + + +His trembling ceased; he did not start, but rose in an abstracted +way, and made a few deliberate steps in the direction Teresa had +gone. Even then he was so confused that he was obliged to refer +to the paper again, but with so little effect that he could only +repeat the last words, "think sometimes of Teresa." He was +conscious that this was not all; he had a full conviction of +being deceived, and knew that he held the proof in his hand, but +he could not formulate it beyond that sentence. "Teresa"--yes, +he would think of her. She would explain it. And here she was +returning. + +In that brief interval her face and manner had again changed. +Her face was pale and quite breathless. She cast a swift glance +at Dunn and the paper he mechanically held out, walked up to him, +and tore it from his hand. + +"Well," she said hoarsely, "what are you going to do about it?" + +He attempted to speak, but his voice failed him. Even then he +was conscious that if he had spoken he would have only repeated, +"think sometimes of Teresa." He looked longingly but helplessly +at the spot where she had thrown the paper, as if it had +contained his unuttered words. + +"Yes," she went on to herself, as if he was a mute, indifferent +spectator--"yes, they're gone. That ends it all. The game's +played out. Well!" suddenly turning upon him, "now you know it +all. Your Nellie WAS here with him, and is with him now. Do you +hear? Make the most of it; you've lost them--but here I am." + +"Yes," he said eagerly--"yes, Teresa." + +She stopped, stared at him; then taking him by the hand led him +like a child back to his couch. "Well," she said, in half-savage +explanation, "I told you the truth when I said the girl wasn't at +the cabin last night, and that I didn't know her. What are you +glowerin' at? No! I haven't lied to you, I swear to God, except +in one thing. Did you know what that was? To save him I took +upon me a shame I don't deserve. I let you think I was his +mistress. You think so now, don't you? Well, before God to-day-- +and He may take me when He likes--I'm no more to him than a +sister! I reckon your Nellie can't say as much." + +She turned away, and with the quick, impatient stride of some +caged animal made the narrow circuit of the opening, stopping a +moment mechanically before the sick man, and again, without +looking at him, continuing her monotonous round. The heat had +become excessive, but she held her shawl with both hands drawn +tightly over her shoulders. Suddenly a wood-duck darted out of +the covert blindly into the opening, struck against the blasted +trunk, fell half stunned near her feet, and then, recovering, +fluttered away. She had scarcely completed another circuit +before the irruption was followed by a whirring bevy of quail, a +flight of jays, and a sudden tumult of wings swept through the +wood like a tornado. She turned inquiringly to Dunn, who had +risen to his feet, but the next moment she caught convulsively at +his wrist; a wolf had just dashed through the underbrush not a +dozen yards away, and on either side of them they could hear the +scamper and rustle of hurrying feet like the outburst of a summer +shower. A cold wind arose from the opposite direction, as if to +contest this wild exodus, but it was followed by a blast of +sickening heat. Teresa sank at Dunn's feet in an agony of terror. + +"Don't let them touch me!" she gasped; "keep them off! Tell me, +for God's sake, what has happened!" + +He laid his hand firmly on her arm, and lifted her in his turn to +her feet like a child. In that supreme moment of physical +danger, his strength, reason, and manhood returned in their +plenitude of power. He pointed coolly to the trail she had +quitted, and said, + +"The Carquinez Woods are on fire!" + + +CHAPTER X + + +The nest of the tuneful Burnhams, although in the suburbs of +Indian Spring, was not in ordinary weather and seasons hidden +from the longing eyes of the youth of that settlement. That +night, however, it was veiled in the smoke that encompassed the +great highway leading to Excelsior. It is presumed that the +Burnham brood had long since folded their wings, for there was no +sign of life nor movement in the house as a rapidly-driven horse +and buggy pulled up before it. Fortunately, the paternal Burnham +was an early bird, in the habit of picking up the first stirring +mining worm, and a resounding knock brought him half dressed to +the street door. He was startled at seeing Father Wynn before +him, a trifle flushed and abstracted. + +"Ah ha! up betimes, I see, and ready. No sluggards here--ha, +ha!" he said heartily, slamming the door behind him, and by a +series of pokes in the ribs genially backing his host into his +own sitting-room. "I'm up, too, and am here to see Nellie. +She's here, eh--of course?" he added, darting a quick look at +Burnham. + +But Mr. Burnham was one of those large, liberal Western husbands +who classified his household under the general title of "woman +folk," for the integers of which he was not responsible. He +hesitated, and then propounded over the balusters to the upper +story the direct query-- + +"You don't happen to have Nellie Wynn up there, do ye?" + +There was an interval of inquiry proceeding from half a dozen +reluctant throats, more or less cottony and muffled, in those +various degrees of grievance and mental distress which indicate +too early roused young womanhood. The eventual reply seemed to +be affirmative, albeit accompanied with a suppressed giggle, as +if the young lady had just been discovered as an answer to an +amusing conundrum. + +"All right," said Wynn, with an apparent accession of boisterous +geniality. "Tell her I must see her, and I've only got a few +minutes to spare. Tell her to slip on anything and come down; +there's no one here but myself, and I've shut the front door on +Brother Burnham. Ha, ha!" and suiting the action to the word, he +actually bundled the admiring Brother Burnham out on his own +doorstep. There was a light pattering on the staircase, and +Nellie Wynn, pink with sleep, very tall, very slim, hastily +draped in a white counterpane with a blue border and a general +classic suggestion, slipped into the parlor. At the same moment +her father shut the door behind her, placed one hand on the knob, +and with the other seized her wrist. + +"Where were you yesterday?" he asked. + +Nellie looked at him, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Here." + +"You were in the Carquinez Woods with Low Dorman; you went there +in disguise; you've met him there before. He is your clandestine +lover; you have taken pledges of affection from him; you have--" + +"Stop!" she said. + +He stopped. + +"Did he tell you this?" she asked, with an expression of disdain. + +"No; I overheard it. Dunn and Brace were at the house waiting +for you. When the coach did not bring you, I went to the office +to inquire. As I left our door I thought I saw somebody +listening at the parlor windows. It was only a drunken Mexican +muleteer leaning against the house; but if HE heard nothing, I +did. Nellie, I heard Brace tell Dunn that he had tracked you in +your disguise to the woods--do you hear? that when you pretended +to be here with the girls you were with Low--alone; that you wear +a ring that Low got of a trader here; that there was a cabin in +the woods--" + +"Stop!" she repeated. + +Wynn again paused. + +"And what did YOU do?" she asked. + +"I heard they were starting down there to surprise you and him +together, and I harnessed up and got ahead of them in my buggy." + +"And found me here," she said, looking full into his eyes. + +He understood her and returned the look. He recognized the full +importance of the culminating fact conveyed in her words, and was +obliged to content himself with its logical and worldly +significance. It was too late now to take her to task for mere +filial disobedience; they must become allies. + +"Yes," he said hurriedly; "but if you value your reputation, if +you wish to silence both these men, answer me fully." + +"Go on," she said. + +"Did you go to the cabin in the woods yesterday?" + +"No." + +"Did you ever go there with Low?" + +"No; I do not know even where it is." + +Wynn felt that she was telling the truth. Nellie knew it; but as +she would have been equally satisfied with an equally efficacious +falsehood, her face remained unchanged. + +"And when did he leave you?" + +"At nine o'clock, here. He went to the hotel." + +"He saved his life, then, for Dunn is on his way to the woods to +kill him." + +The jeopardy of her lover did not seem to affect the young girl +with alarm, although her eyes betrayed some interest. + +"Then Dunn has gone to the woods?" she said thoughtfully. + +"He has," replied Wynn. + +"Is that all?" she asked. + +"I want to know what you are going to do?" + +"I WAS going back to bed." + +"This is no time for trifling, girl." + +"I should think not," she said, with a yawn; "it's too early, or +too late." + +Wynn grasped her wrist more tightly. "Hear me! Put whatever +face you like on this affair, you are compromised--and compromised +with a man you can't marry." + +"I don't know that I ever wanted to marry Low, if you mean him," +she said quietly. + +"And Dunn wouldn't marry you now." + +"I'm not so sure of that, either." + +"Nellie," said Wynn excitedly, "do you want to drive me mad? +Have you nothing to say--nothing to suggest?" + +"Oh, you want me to help you, do you! Why didn't you say that +first? Well, go and bring Dunn here." + +"Are you mad? The man has gone already in pursuit of your lover, +believing you with him." + +"Then he will the more readily come and talk with me without him. +Will you take the invitation--yes or no?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"Enough. On your way there you will stop at the hotel and give +Low a letter from me." + +"Nellie!" + +"You shall read it, of course," she said scornfully, "for it will +be your text for the conversation you will have with him. Will +you please take your hand from the lock and open the door?" + +Wynn mechanically opened the door. The young girl flew up- +stairs. In a very few moments she returned with two notes: one +contained a few lines of formal invitation to Dunn; the other +read as follows: + + +"DEAR MR. DORMAN,--My father will tell you how deeply I regret +that our recent botanical excursions in the Carquinez Woods have +been a source of serious misapprehensions to those who had a +claim to my consideration, and that I shall be obliged to +discontinue them for the future. At the same time he wishes me +to express my gratitude for your valuable instruction and +assistance in that pleasing study, even though approaching events +may compel me to relinquish it for other duties. May I beg you +to accept the inclosed ring as a slight recognition of my +obligations to you? + +"Your grateful pupil, + +"NELLIE WYNN." + + +When he had finished reading the letter, she handed him a ring, +which he took mechanically. He raised his eyes to hers with +perfectly genuine admiration. "You're a good girl, Nellie," he +said, and, in a moment of parental forgetfulness, unconsciously +advanced his lips towards her cheek. But she drew back in time +to recall him to a sense of that human weakness. + +"I suppose I'll have time for a nap yet," she said, as a gentle +hint to her embarrassed parent. He nodded and turned towards the +door. + +"If I were you," she continued, repressing a yawn, "I'd manage to +be seen on good terms with Low at the hotel; so perhaps you need +not give the letter to him until the last thing. Good-by." + +The sitting-room door opened and closed behind her as she slipped +up-stairs, and her father, without the formality of leave-taking, +quietly let himself out by the front door. + +When he drove into the high road again, however, an overlooked +possibility threatened for a moment to indefinitely postpone his +amiable intentions regarding Low. The hotel was at the further +end of the settlement towards the Carquinez Woods, and as Wynn +had nearly reached it he was recalled to himself by the sounds of +hoofs and wheels rapidly approaching from the direction of the +Excelsior turnpike. Wynn made no doubt it was the sheriff and +Brace. To avoid recognition at that moment, he whipped up his +horse, intending to keep the lead until he could turn into the +first cross-road. But the coming travelers had the fleetest +horse, and finding it impossible to distance them he drove close +to the ditch, pulling up suddenly as the strange vehicle was +abreast of him, and forcing them to pass him at full speed, with +the result already chronicled. When they had vanished in the +darkness, Mr. Wynn, with a heart overflowing with Christian +thankfulness and universal benevolence, wheeled round, and drove +back to the hotel he had already passed. To pull up at the +veranda with a stentorian shout, to thump loudly at the deserted +bar, to hilariously beat the panels of the landlord's door, and +commit a jocose assault and battery upon that half-dresssed and +half-awakened man, was eminently characteristic of Wynn, and part +of his amiable plans that morning. + +"Something to wash this wood smoke from my throat, Brother +Carter, and about as much again to prop open your eyes," he said, +dragging Carter before the bar, "and glasses round for as many of +the boys as are up and stirring after a hard-working Christian's +rest. How goes the honest publican's trade, and who have we here?" + +"Thar's Judge Robinson and two lawyers from Sacramento, Dick +Curson over from Yolo," said Carter, "and that ar young Injin +yarb doctor from the Carquinez Woods. I reckon he's jist up--I +noticed a light under his door as I passed." + +"He's my man for a friendly chat before breakfast," said Wynn. +"You needn't come up. I'll find the way. I don't want a light; +I reckon my eyes ain't as bright nor as young as his, but they'll +see almost as far in the dark--he! he!" And, nodding to Brother +Carter, he strode along the passage, and with no other introduction +than a playful and preliminary "Boo!" burst into one of the rooms. +Low, who by the light of a single candle was bending over the plates +of a large quarto, merely raised his eyes and looked at the intruder. +The young man's natural imperturbability, always exasperating to +Wynn, seemed accented that morning by contrast with his own +over-acted animation. + +"Ah ha!--wasting the midnight oil instead of imbibing the morning +dews," said Father Wynn archly, illustrating his metaphor with a +movement of his hand to his lips. "What have we here?" + +"An anonymous gift," replied Low simply, recognizing the father +of Nellie by rising from his chair. "It's a volume I've longed +to possess, but never could afford to buy. I cannot imagine who +sent it to me." + +Wynn was for a moment startled by the thought that this recipient +of valuable gifts might have influential friends. But a glance +at the bare room, which looked like a camp, and the strange, +unconventional garb of its occupant, restored his former +convictions. There might be a promise of intelligence, but +scarcely of prosperity, in the figure before him. + +"Ah! We must not forget that we are watched over in the night +season," he said, laying his hand on Low's shoulder, with an +illustration of celestial guardianship that would have been +impious but for its palpable grotesqueness. "No, sir, we know +not what a day may bring forth." + +Unfortunately, Low's practical mind did not go beyond a mere +human interpretation. It was enough, however, to put a new light +in his eye and a faint color in his cheek. + +"Could it have been Miss Nellie?" he asked, with half-boyish +hesitation. + +Mr. Wynn was too much of a Christian not to bow before what +appeared to him the purely providential interposition of this +suggestion. Seizing it and Low at the same moment, he playfully +forced him down again in his chair. + +"Ah, you rascal!" he said, with infinite archness; "that's your +game, is it? You want to trap poor Father Wynn. You want to +make him say 'No.' You want to tempt him to commit himself. No, +sir!--never, sir!--no, no!" + +Firmly convinced that the present was Nellie's, and that her +father only good-humoredly guessed it, the young man's simple, +truthful nature was embarrassed. He longed to express his +gratitude, but feared to betray the young girl's trust. The +Reverend Mr. Wynn speedily relieved his mind. + +"No" he continued, bestriding a chair, and familiarly confronting +Low over its back. "No, sir--no! And you want me to say 'No,' +don't you, regarding the little walks of Nellie and a certain +young man in the Carquinez Woods?--ha, ha! You'd like me to say +that I knew nothing of the botanizings, and the herb collectings, +and the picknickings there--he, he!--you sly dog! Perhaps you'd +like to tempt Father Wynn further, and make him swear he knows +nothing of his daughter disguising herself in a duster and +meeting another young man--isn't it another young man?--all +alone, eh? Perhaps you want poor old Father Wynn to say No. No, +sir, nothing of the kind ever occurred. Ah, you young rascal!" + +Slightly troubled, in spite of Wynn's hearty manner, Low, with +his usual directness, however, said, "I do not want anyone to +deny that I have seen Miss Nellie." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Wynn, abandoning his method, +considerably disconcerted by Low's simplicity, and a certain +natural reserve that shook off his familiarity. "Certainly it's +a noble thing to be able to put your hand on your heart and say +to the world, 'Come on, all of you! Observe me; I have nothing +to conceal. I walk with Miss Wynn in the woods as her +instructor--her teacher, in fact. We cull a flower here and +there; we pluck an herb fresh from the hands of the Creator. We +look, so to speak, from Nature to Nature's God.' Yes, my young +friend, we should be the first to repel the foul calumny that +could misinterpret our most innocent actions." + +"Calumny?" repeated Low, starting to his feet. "What calumny?" + +"My friend, my noble young friend, I recognize your indignation. +I know your worth. When I said to Nellie, my only child, my +perhaps too simple offspring--a mere wildflower like yourself-- +when I said to her, 'Go, my child, walk in the woods with this +young man, hand in hand. Let him instruct you from the humblest +roots, for he has trodden in the ways of the Almighty. Gather +wisdom from his lips, and knowledge from his simple woodman's +craft. Make, in fact, a collection not only of herbs, but of +moral axioms and experience'--I knew I could trust you, and, +trusting you, my young friend, I felt I could trust the world. +Perhaps I was weak, foolish. But I thought only of her welfare. +I even recall how that to preserve the purity of her garments, I +bade her don a simple duster; that, to secure her from the +trifling companionship of others, I bade her keep her own +counsel, and seek you at seasons known but to yourselves." + +"But . . . did Nellie . . . understand you?" interrupted Low +hastily. + +"I see you read her simple nature. Understand me? No, not at +first! Her maidenly instinct--perhaps her duty to another--took +the alarm. I remember her words. 'But what will Dunn say?' she +asked. 'Will he not be jealous?'" + +"Dunn! jealous! I don't understand," said Low, fixing his eyes +on Wynn. + +"That's just what I said to Nellie. 'Jealous!' I said. 'What, +Dunn, your affianced husband, jealous of a mere friend--a +teacher, a guide, a philosopher. It is impossible.' Well, sir, +she was right. He is jealous. And, more than that, he has +imparted his jealousy to others! In other words, he has made a +scandal!" + +Low's eyes flashed. "Where is your daughter now?" he said sternly. + +"At present in bed, suffering from a nervous attack brought on by +these unjust suspicions. She appreciates your anxiety, and, +knowing that you could not see her, told me to give you this." +He handed Low the ring and the letter. + +The climax had been forced, and, it must be confessed, was by no +means the one Mr. Wynn had fully arranged in his own inner +consciousness. He had intended to take an ostentatious leave of +Low in the bar-room, deliver the letter with archness, and escape +before a possible explosion. He consequently backed towards the +door for an emergency. But he was again at fault. That +unaffected stoical fortitude in acute suffering, which was the +one remaining pride and glory of Low's race, was yet to be +revealed to Wynn's civilized eyes. + +The young man took the letter, and read it without changing a +muscle, folded the ring in it, and dropped it into his haversack. +Then he picked up his blanket, threw it over his shoulder, took +his trusty rifle in his hand, and turned towards Wynn as if +coldly surprised that he was still standing there. + +"Are you--are you--going?" stammered Wynn. + +"Are you NOT?" replied Low dryly, leaning on his rifle for a +moment as if waiting for Wynn to precede him. The preacher +looked at him a moment, mumbled something, and then shambled +feebly and ineffectively down the staircase before Low, with a +painful suggestion to the ordinary observer of being occasionally +urged thereto by the moccasin of the young man behind him. + +On reaching the lower hall, however, he endeavored to create a +diversion in his favor by dashing into the bar-room and clapping +the occupants on the back with indiscriminate playfulness. But +here again he seemed to be disappointed. To his great +discomfiture, a large man not only returned his salutation with +powerful levity, but with equal playfulness seized him in his +arms, and after an ingenious simulation of depositing him in the +horse-trough set him down in affected amazement. "Bleth't if I +didn't think from the weight of your hand it wath my old friend, +Thacramento Bill," said Curson apologetically, with a wink at the +bystanders. "That'th the way Bill alwayth uthed to tackle hith +friendth, till he wath one day bounthed by a prithe-fighter in +Frithco, whom he had mithtaken for a mithionary." As Mr. +Curson's reputation was of a quality that made any form of +apology from him instantly acceptable, the amused spectators made +way for him as, recognizing Low, who was just leaving the hotel, +he turned coolly from them and walked towards him. + +"Halloo!" he said, extending his hand. "You're the man I'm +waiting for. Did you get a book from the exthpreth offithe latht +night?" + +"I did. Why?" + +"It'th all right. Ath I'm rethponthible for it, I only wanted to +know." + +"Did YOU send it?" asked Low, quickly fixing his eyes on his +face. + +"Well, not exactly ME. But it'th not worth making a mythtery of +it. Teretha gave me a commithion to buy it and thend it to you +anonymouthly. That'th a woman'th nonthenth, for how could thee +get a retheipt for it?" + +"Then it was HER present," said Low gloomily. + +"Of courthe. It wathn't mine, my boy. I'd have thent you a +Tharp'th rifle in plathe of that muthle loader you carry, or +thomething thenthible. But, I thay! what'th up? You look ath if +you had been running all night." + +Low grasped his hand. "Thank you," he said hurriedly; "but it's +nothing. Only I must be back to the woods early. Good-by." + +But Curson retained Low's hand in his own powerful grip. + +"I'll go with you a bit further," he said. "In fact, I've got +thomething to thay to you; only don't be in thuch a hurry; the +woodth can wait till you get there." Quietly compelling Low to +alter his own characteristic Indian stride to keep pace with his, +he went on: "I don't mind thaying I rather cottoned to you from +the time you acted like a white man--no offenthe--to Teretha. +She thayth you were left when a child lying round, jutht ath +promithcuouthly ath she wath; and if I can do anything towardth +putting you on the trail of your people, I'll do it. I know +thome of the voyageurth who traded with the Cherokeeth, and your +father wath one-wathn't he?" He glanced at Low's utterly +abstracted and immobile face. "I thay, you don't theem to take a +hand in thith game, pardner. What'th the row? Ith anything +wrong over there?" and he pointed to the Carquinez Woods, which +were just looming out of the morning horizon in the distance. + +Low stopped. The last words of his companion seemed to recall +him to himself. He raised his eyes automatically to the woods +and started. + +"There IS something wrong over there," he said breathlessly. +"Look!" + +"I thee nothing," said Curson, beginning to doubt Low's sanity; +"nothing more than I thaw an hour ago." + +"Look again. Don't you see that smoke rising straight up? It +isn't blown over there from the Divide; it's new smoke! The fire +is in the woods!" + +"I reckon that'th so," muttered Curson, shading his eyes with his +hand. "But, hullo! wait a minute! We'll get hortheth. I say!" +he shouted, forgetting his lisp in his excitement--"stop!" But +Low had already lowered his head and darted forward like an arrow. + +In a few moments he had left not only his companion but the last +straggling houses of the outskirts far behind him, and had struck +out in a long, swinging trot for the disused "cut-off." Already +he fancied he heard the note of clamor in Indian Spring, and +thought he distinguished the sound of hurrying hoofs on the great +highway. But the sunken trail hid it from his view. From the +column of smoke now plainly visible in the growing morning light +he tried to locate the scene of the conflagration. It was +evidently not a fire advancing regularly from the outer skirt of +the wood, communicated to it from the Divide; it was a local +outburst near its centre. It was not in the direction of his +cabin in the tree. There was no immediate danger to Teresa, +unless fear drove her beyond the confines of the wood into the +hands of those who might recognize her. The screaming of jays +and ravens above his head quickened his speed, as it heralded the +rapid advance of the flames; and the unexpected apparition of a +bounding body, flattened and flying over the yellow plain, told +him that even the secure retreat of the mountain wild-cat had +been invaded. A sudden recollection of Teresa's uncontrollable +terror that first night smote him with remorse and redoubled his +efforts. Alone in the track of these frantic and bewildered +beasts, to what madness might she not be driven! + +The sharp crack of a rifle from the high road turned his course +momentarily in that direction. The smoke was curling lazily over +the heads of the party of men in the road, while the huge hulk of +a grizzly was disappearing in the distance. A battue of the +escaping animals had commenced! In the bitterness of his heart +he caught at the horrible suggestion, and resolved to save her +from them or die with her there. + +How fast he ran, or the time it took him to reach the woods, has +never been known. Their outlines were already hidden when he +entered them. To a sense less keen, a courage less desperate, +and a purpose less unaltered than Low's, the wood would have been +impenetrable. The central fire was still confined to the lofty +tree tops, but the downward rush of wind from time to time drove +the smoke into the aisles in blinding and suffocating volumes. +To simulate the creeping animals, and fall to the ground on hands +and knees, feel his way through the underbrush when the smoke was +densest, or take advantage of its momentary lifting, and without +uncertainty, mistake, or hesitation glide from tree to tree in +one undeviating course, was possible only to an experienced +woodsman. To keep his reason and insight so clear as to be able +in the midst of this bewildering confusion to shape that course +so as to intersect the wild and unknown tract of an inexperienced, +frightened wanderer belonged to Low, and Low alone. He was making +his way against the wind towards the fire. He had reasoned that +she was either in comparative safety to windward of it, or he +should meet her being driven towards him by it, or find her +succumbed and fainting at its feet. To do this he must penetrate +the burning belt, and then pass under the blazing dome. He was +already upon it; he could see the falling fire dropping like rain +or blown like gorgeous blossoms of the conflagration across his +path. The space was lit up brilliantly. The vast shafts of dull +copper cast no shadow below, but there was no sign nor token of any +human being. For a moment the young man was at fault. It was true +this hidden heart of the forest bore no undergrowth; the cool matted +carpet of the aisles seemed to quench the glowing fragments as they +fell. Escape might be difficult, but not impossible, yet every +moment was precious. He leaned against a tree, and sent his voice +like a clarion before him: "Teresa!" There was no reply. He called +again. A faint cry at his back from the trail he had just traversed +made him turn. Only a few paces behind him, blinded and staggering, +but following like a beaten and wounded animal, Teresa, halted, +knelt, clasped her hands, and dumbly held them out before her. +"Teresa!" he cried again, and sprang to her side. + +She caught him by the knees, and lifted her face imploringly to his. + +"Say that again!" she cried, passionately. "Tell me it was +Teresa you called, and no other! You have come back for me! You +would not let me die here alone!" + +He lifted her tenderly in his arms, and cast a rapid glance +around him. It might have been his fancy, but there seemed a +dull glow in the direction he had come. + +"You do not speak!" she said. "Tell me! You did not come here +to seek her?" + +"Whom?" he said quickly. + +"Nellie!" + +With a sharp cry he let her slip to the ground. All the pent-up +agony, rage, and mortification of the last hour broke from him in +that inarticulate outburst. Then, catching her hands again, he +dragged her to his level. + +"Hear me!" he cried, disregarding the whirling smoke and the +fiery baptism that sprinkled them--"hear me! If you value your +life, if you value your soul, and if you do not want me to cast +you to the beasts like Jezebel of old, never--never take that +accursed name again upon your lips. Seek her--HER? Yes! Seek +her to tie her like a witch's daughter of hell to that blazing +tree!" He stopped. "Forgive me," he said in a changed voice. +"I'm mad, and forgetting myself and you. Come." + +Without noticing the expression of half-savage delight that had +passed across her face, he lifted her in his arms. + +"Which way are you going?" she asked, passing her hands vaguely +across his breast, as if to reassure herself of his identity. + +"To our camp by the scarred tree," he replied. + +"Not there, not there," she said, hurriedly. "I was driven from +there just now. I thought the fire began there until I came here." + +Then it was as he feared. Obeying the same mysterious law that +had launched this fatal fire like a thunderbolt from the burning +mountain crest five miles away into the heart of the Carquinez +Woods, it had again leaped a mile beyond, and was hemming them +between two narrowing lines of fire. But Low was not daunted. +Retracing his steps through the blinding smoke, he strode off at +right angles to the trail near the point where he had entered the +wood. It was the spot where he had first lifted Nellie in his +arms to carry her to the hidden spring. If any recollection of +it crossed his mind at that moment, it was only shown in his +redoubled energy. He did not glide through the thick underbrush, +as on that day, but seemed to take a savage pleasure in breaking +through it with sheer brute force. Once Teresa insisted upon +relieving him of the burden of her weight, but after a few steps +she staggered blindly against him, and would fain have recourse +once more to his strong arms. And so, alternately staggering, +bending, crouching, or bounding and crashing on, but always in +one direction, they burst through the jealous rampart, and came +upon the sylvan haunt of the hidden spring. The great angle of +the half-fallen tree acted as a harrier to the wind and drifting +smoke, and the cool spring sparkled and bubbled in the almost +translucent air. He laid her down beside the water, and bathed +her face and hands. As he did so his quick eye caught sight of a +woman's handkerchief lying at the foot of the disrupted root. +Dropping Teresa's hand, he walked towards it, and with the toe of +his moccasin gave it one vigorous kick into the ooze at the +overflow of the spring. He turned to Teresa, but she evidently +had not noticed the act. + +"Where are you?" she asked, with a smile. + +Something in her movement struck him! He came towards her, and +bending down looked into her face. "Teresa! Good God!--look at +me! What has happened?" + +She raised her eyes to his. There was a slight film across them; +the lids were blackened; the beautiful lashes gone forever! + +"I see you a little now, I think," she said, with a smile, +passing her hands vaguely over his face. "It must have happened +when he fainted, and I had to drag him through the blazing brush; +both my hands were full, and I could not cover my eyes." + +"Drag whom?" said Low, quickly. + +"Why, Dunn." + +"Dunn! He here?" said Low, hoarsely. + +"Yes; didn't you read the note I left on the herbarium? Didn't +you come to the camp-fire?" she asked hurriedly, clasping his +hands. "Tell me quickly!" + +"No!" + +"Then you were not there--then you didn't leave me to die?" + +"No! I swear it, Teresa!" the stoicism that had upheld his own +agony breaking down before her strong emotion. + +"Thank God!" She threw her arms around him, and hid her aching +eyes in his troubled breast. + +"Tell me all, Teresa," he whispered in her listening ear. "Don't +move; stay there, and tell me all." + +With her face buried in his bosom, as if speaking to his heart +alone, she told him part, but not all. With her eyes filled with +tears, but a smile on her lips, radiant with new-found happiness, +she told him how she had overheard the plans of Dunn and Brace, +how she had stolen their conveyance to warn him in time. But +here she stopped, dreading to say a word that would shatter the +hope she was building upon his sudden revulsion of feeling for +Nellie. She could not bring herself to repeat their interview-- +that would come later, when they were safe and out of danger; now +not even the secret of his birth must come between them with its +distraction, to mar their perfect communion. She faltered that +Dunn had fainted from weakness, and that she had dragged him out +of danger. "He will never interfere with us--I mean," she said +softly, "with ME again. I can promise you that as well as if he +had sworn it." + +"Let him pass, now," said Low; "that will come later on," he +added, unconsciously repeating her thought in a tone that made +her heart sick. "But tell me, Teresa, why did you go to +Excelsior?" + +She buried her head still deeper, as if to hide it. He felt her +broken heart beat against his own; he was conscious of a depth of +feeling her rival had never awakened in him. The possibility of +Teresa loving him had never occurred to his simple nature. He +bent his head and kissed her. She was frightened, and unloosed +her clinging arms; but he retained her hand, and said, "We will +leave this accursed place, and you shall go with me as you said +you would; nor need you ever leave me, unless you wish it." + +She could hear the beating of her own heart through his words; +she longed to look at the eyes and lips that told her this, and +read the meaning his voice alone could not entirely convey. For +the first time she felt the loss of her sight. She did not know +that it was, in this moment of happiness, the last blessing +vouchsafed to her miserable life. + +A few moments of silence followed, broken only by the distant +rumor of the conflagration and the crash of falling boughs. + +"It may be an hour yet," he whispered, "before the fire has swept +a path for us to the road below. We are safe here, unless some +sudden current should draw the fire down upon us. You are not +frightened?" She pressed his hand; she was thinking of the pale +face of Dunn, lying in the secure retreat she had purchased for +him at such a sacrifice. Yet the possibility of danger to him +now for a moment marred her present happiness and security. "You +think the fire will not go north of where you found me?" she +asked softly. + +"I think not," he said, "but I will reconnoitre. Stay where you +are." + +They pressed hands, and parted. He leaped upon the slanting +trunk and ascended it rapidly. She waited in mute expectation. + +There was a sudden movement of the root on which she sat, a +deafening crash, and she was thrown forward on her face. + +The vast bulk of the leaning tree, dislodged from its aerial +support by the gradual sapping of the spring at its roots, or by +the crumbling of the bark from the heat, had slipped, made a half +revolution, and, falling, overbore the lesser trees in its path, +and tore, in its resistless momentum, a broad opening to the +underbrush. + +With a cry to Low, Teresa staggered to her feet. There was an +interval of hideous silence, but no reply. She called again. +There was a sudden deepening roar, the blast of a fiery furnace +swept through the opening, a thousand luminous points around her +burst into fire, and in an instant she was lost in a whirlwind of +smoke and flame! From the onset of its fury to its culmination +twenty minutes did not elapse; but in that interval a radius of +two hundred yards around the hidden spring was swept of life and +light and motion. + +For the rest of that day and part of the night a pall of smoke +hung above the scene of desolation. It lifted only towards the +morning, when the moon, rising high, picked out in black and +silver the shrunken and silent columns of those roofless vaults, +shorn of base and capital. It flickered on the still, +overflowing pool of the hidden spring, and shone upon the white +face of Low, who, with a rootlet of the fallen tree holding him +down like an arm across his breast, seemed to be sleeping +peacefully in the sleeping water. + + . . . . . . . + +Contemporaneous history touched him as briefly, but not as +gently. "It is now definitely ascertained," said "The +Slumgullion Mirror," "that Sheriff Dunn met his fate in the +Carquinez Woods in the performance of his duty; that fearless man +having received information of the concealment of a band of horse +thieves in their recesses. The desperadoes are presumed to have +escaped, as the only remains found are those of two wretched +tramps, one of whom is said to have been a digger, who supported +himself upon roots and herbs, and the other a degraded half-white +woman. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the fire +originated through their carelessness, although Father Wynn of +the First Baptist Church, in his powerful discourse of last +Sunday, pointed at the warning and lesson of such catastrophes. +It may not be out of place here to say that the rumors regarding +an engagement between the pastor's accomplished daughter and the +late lamented sheriff are utterly without foundation, as it has +been an on dit for some time in all well-informed circles that +the indefatigable Mr. Brace, of Wells, Fargo and Co.'s Express, +will shortly lead the lady to the hymeneal altar." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of In The Carquinez Woods, by Bret Harte + |