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diff --git a/2459.txt b/2459.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e63a6f --- /dev/null +++ b/2459.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8763 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Trent's Trust and Other Stories, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Trent's Trust and Other Stories + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 16, 2006 [EBook #2459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRENT'S TRUST AND OTHER STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +TRENT'S TRUST AND OTHER STORIES + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CONTENTS + + +TRENT'S TRUST + +MR. MACGLOWRIE'S WIDOW + +A WARD OF COLONEL STARBOTTLE + +PROSPER'S "OLD MOTHER" + +THE CONVALESCENCE OF JACK HAMLIN + +A PUPIL OF CHESTNUT RIDGE + +DICK BOYLE'S BUSINESS CARD + + + + + +TRENT'S TRUST + +I + +Randolph Trent stepped from the Stockton boat on the San Francisco +wharf, penniless, friendless, and unknown. Hunger might have been added +to his trials, for, having paid his last coin in passage money, he had +been a day and a half without food. Yet he knew it only by an occasional +lapse into weakness as much mental as physical. Nevertheless, he was +first on the gangplank to land, and hurried feverishly ashore, in that +vague desire for action and change of scene common to such irritation; +yet after mixing for a few moments with the departing passengers, each +selfishly hurrying to some rendezvous of rest or business, he insensibly +drew apart from them, with the instinct of a vagabond and outcast. +Although he was conscious that he was neither, but merely an +unsuccessful miner suddenly reduced to the point of soliciting work or +alms of any kind, he took advantage of the first crossing to plunge into +a side street, with a vague sense of hiding his shame. + +A rising wind, which had rocked the boat for the last few hours, had now +developed into a strong sou'wester, with torrents of rain which swept +the roadway. His well-worn working clothes, fitted to the warmer +Southern mines, gave him more concern from their visible, absurd +contrast to the climate than from any actual sense of discomfort, +and his feverishness defied the chill of his soaking garments, as he +hurriedly faced the blast through the dimly lighted street. At the next +corner he paused; he had reached another, and, from its dilapidated +appearance, apparently an older wharf than that where he had landed, +but, like the first, it was still a straggling avenue leading toward the +higher and more animated part of the city. He again mechanically--for a +part of his trouble was a vague, undefined purpose--turned toward it. + +In his feverish exaltation his powers of perception seemed to be +quickened: he was vividly alive to the incongruous, half-marine, +half-backwoods character of the warehouses and commercial buildings; +to the hull of a stranded ship already built into a block of rude +tenements; to the dark stockaded wall of a house framed of corrugated +iron, and its weird contiguity to a Swiss chalet, whose galleries were +used only to bear the signs of the shops, and whose frame had been +carried across seas in sections to be set up at random here. + +Moving past these, as in a nightmare dream, of which even the turbulency +of the weather seemed to be a part, he stumbled, blinded, panting, +and unexpectedly, with no consciousness of his rapid pace beyond his +breathlessness, upon the dazzling main thoroughfare of the city. In +spite of the weather, the slippery pavements were thronged by +hurrying crowds of well-dressed people, again all intent on their own +purposes,--purposes that seemed so trifling and unimportant beside his +own. The shops were brilliantly lighted, exposing their brightest wares +through plate-glass windows; a jeweler's glittered with precious stones; +a fashionable apothecary's next to it almost outrivaled it with its +gorgeous globes, the gold and green precision of its shelves, and +the marble and silver soda fountain like a shrine before it. All this +specious show of opulence came upon him with the shock of contrast, and +with it a bitter revulsion of feeling more hopeless than his feverish +anxiety,--the bitterness of disappointment. + +For during his journey he had been buoyed up with the prospect of +finding work and sympathy in this youthful city,--a prospect founded +solely on his inexperienced hopes. For this he had exchanged the poverty +of the mining district,--a poverty that had nothing ignoble about it, +that was a part of the economy of nature, and shared with his fellow men +and the birds and beasts in their rude encampments. He had given up the +brotherhood of the miner, and that practical help and sympathy which +brought no degradation with it, for this rude shock of self-interested, +self-satisfied civilization. He, who would not have shrunk from asking +rest, food, or a night's lodging at the cabin of a brother miner or +woodsman, now recoiled suddenly from these well-dressed citizens. What +madness had sent him here, an intruder, or, even, as it seemed to him in +his dripping clothes, an impostor? And yet these were the people to whom +he had confidently expected to tell his story, and who would cheerfully +assist him with work! He could almost anticipate the hard laugh or +brutal hurried negative in their faces. In his foolish heart he thanked +God he had not tried it. Then the apathetic recoil which is apt to +follow any keen emotion overtook him. He was dazedly conscious of being +rudely shoved once or twice, and even heard the epithet "drunken lout" +from one who had run against him. + +He found himself presently staring vacantly in the apothecary's window. +How long he stood there he could not tell, for he was aroused only by +the door opening in front of him, and a young girl emerging with some +purchase in her hand. He could see that she was handsomely dressed and +quite pretty, and as she passed out she lifted to his withdrawing figure +a pair of calm, inquiring eyes, which, however, changed to a look of +half-wondering, half-amused pity as she gazed. Yet that look of pity +stung his pride more deeply than all. With a deliberate effort he +recovered his energy. No, he would not beg, he would not ask assistance +from these people; he would go back--anywhere! To the steamboat first; +they might let him sleep there, give him a meal, and allow him to work +his passage back to Stockton. He might be refused. Well, what then? +Well, beyond, there was the bay! He laughed bitterly--his mind was sane +enough for that--but he kept on repeating it vaguely to himself, as he +crossed the street again, and once more made his way to the wharf. + +The wind and rain had increased, but he no longer heeded them in his +feverish haste and his consciousness that motion could alone keep away +that dreadful apathy which threatened to overcloud his judgment. And he +wished while he was able to reason logically to make up his mind to end +this unsupportable situation that night. He was scarcely twenty, yet it +seemed to him that it had already been demonstrated that his life was +a failure; he was an orphan, and when he left college to seek his own +fortune in California, he believed he had staked his all upon that +venture--and lost. + +That bitterness which is the sudden recoil of boyish enthusiasm, and is +none the less terrible for being without experience to justify it,--that +melancholy we are too apt to look back upon with cynical jeers and +laughter in middle age,--is more potent than we dare to think, and +it was in no mere pose of youthful pessimism that Randolph Trent now +contemplated suicide. Such scraps of philosophy as his education had +given him pointed to that one conclusion. And it was the only refuge +that pride--real or false--offered him from the one supreme terror of +youth--shame. + +The street was deserted, and the few lights he had previously noted in +warehouses and shops were extinguished. It had grown darker with the +storm; the incongruous buildings on either side had become misshapen +shadows; the long perspective of the wharf was a strange gloom from +which the spars of a ship stood out like the cross he remembered as a +boy to have once seen in a picture of the tempest-smitten Calvary. It +was his only fancy connected with the future--it might have been his +last, for suddenly one of the planks of the rotten wharf gave way +beneath his feet, and he felt himself violently precipitated toward +the gurgling and oozing tide below. He threw out his arms desperately, +caught at a strong girder, drew himself up with the energy of +desperation, and staggered to his feet again, safe--and sane. For with +this terrible automatic struggle to avoid that death he was courting +came a flash of reason. If he had resolutely thrown himself from the +pier head as he intended, would he have undergone a hopeless revulsion +like this? Was he sure that this might not be, after all, the terrible +penalty of self-destruction--this inevitable fierce protest of mind and +body when TOO LATE? He was momentarily touched with a sense of gratitude +at his escape, but his reason told him it was not from his ACCIDENT, but +from his intention. + +He was trying carefully to retrace his steps, but as he did so he saw +the figure of a man dimly lurching toward him out of the darkness of the +wharf and the crossed yards of the ship. A gleam of hope came over him, +for the emotion of the last few minutes had rudely displaced his pride +and self-love. He would appeal to this stranger, whoever he was; there +was more chance that in this rude locality he would be a belated sailor +or some humbler wayfarer, and the darkness and solitude made him feel +less ashamed. By the last flickering street lamp he could see that he +was a man about his own size, with something of the rolling gait of a +sailor, which was increased by the weight of a traveling portmanteau +he was swinging in his hand. As he approached he evidently detected +Randolph's waiting figure, slackened his speed slightly, and changed his +portmanteau from his right hand to his left as a precaution for defense. + +Randolph felt the blood flush his cheek at this significant proof of +his disreputable appearance, but determined to accost him. He scarcely +recognized the sound of his own voice now first breaking the silence for +hours, but he made his appeal. The man listened, made a slight gesture +forward with his disengaged hand, and impelled Randolph slowly up to the +street lamp until it shone on both their faces. Randolph saw a man a +few years his senior, with a slightly trimmed beard on his dark, +weather-beaten cheeks, well-cut features, a quick, observant eye, and a +sailor's upward glance and bearing. The stranger saw a thin, youthful, +anxious, yet refined and handsome face beneath straggling damp curls, +and dark eyes preternaturally bright with suffering. Perhaps his +experienced ear, too, detected some harmony with all this in Randolph's +voice. + +"And you want something to eat, a night's lodging, and a chance of work +afterward," the stranger repeated with good-humored deliberation. + +"Yes," said Randolph. + +"You look it." + +Randolph colored faintly. + +"Do you ever drink?" + +"Yes," said Randolph wonderingly. + +"I thought I'd ask," said the stranger, "as it might play hell with you +just now if you were not accustomed to it. Take that. Just a swallow, +you know--that's as good as a jugful." + +He handed him a heavy flask. Randolph felt the burning liquor scald his +throat and fire his empty stomach. The stranger turned and looked down +the vacant wharf to the darkness from which he came. Then he turned to +Randolph again and said abruptly,-- + +"Strong enough to carry this bag?" + +"Yes," said Randolph. The whiskey--possibly the relief--had given him +new strength. Besides, he might earn his alms. + +"Take it up to room 74, Niantic Hotel--top of next street to this, one +block that way--and wait till I come." + +"What name shall I say?" asked Randolph. + +"Needn't say any. I ordered the room a week ago. Stop; there's the key. +Go in; change your togs; you'll find something in that bag that'll fit +you. Wait for me. Stop--no; you'd better get some grub there first." +He fumbled in his pockets, but fruitlessly. "No matter. You'll find a +buckskin purse, with some scads in it, in the bag. So long." And before +Randolph could thank him, he lurched away again into the semi-darkness +of the wharf. + +Overflowing with gratitude at a hospitality so like that of his reckless +brethren of the mines, Randolph picked up the portmanteau and started +for the hotel. He walked warily now, with a new interest in life, +and then, suddenly thinking of his own miraculous escape, he paused, +wondering if he ought not to warn his benefactor of the perils of the +rotten wharf; but he had already disappeared. The bag was not heavy, but +he found that in his exhausted state this new exertion was telling, +and he was glad when he reached the hotel. Equally glad was he in his +dripping clothes to slip by the porter, and with the key in his pocket +ascend unnoticed to 74. + +Yet had his experience been larger he might have spared himself that +sensitiveness. For the hotel was one of those great caravansaries +popular with the returning miner. It received him and his gold dust in +his worn-out and bedraggled working clothes, and returned him the next +day as a well-dressed citizen on Montgomery Street. It was hard indeed +to recognize the unshaven, unwashed, and unkempt "arrival" one met on +the principal staircase at night in the scrupulously neat stranger one +sat opposite to at breakfast the next morning. In this daily whirl of +mutation all identity was swamped, as Randolph learned to know. + +At present, finding himself in a comfortable bedroom, his first act +was to change his wet clothes, which in the warmer temperature and +the decline of his feverishness now began to chill him. He opened the +portmanteau and found a complete suit of clothing, evidently a foreign +make, well preserved, as if for "shore-going." His pride would have +preferred a humbler suit as lessening his obligation, but there was no +other. He discovered the purse, a chamois leather bag such as miners and +travelers carried, which contained a dozen gold pieces and some paper +notes. Taking from it a single coin to defray the expenses of a meal, he +restrapped the bag, and leaving the key in the door lock for the benefit +of his returning host, made his way to the dining room. + +For a moment he was embarrassed when the waiter approached him +inquisitively, but it was only to learn the number of his room to +"charge" the meal. He ate it quickly, but not voraciously, for his +appetite had not yet returned, and he was eager to get back to the +room and see the stranger again and return to him the coin which was no +longer necessary. + +But the stranger had not yet arrived when he reached the room. Over an +hour had elapsed since their strange meeting. A new fear came upon +him: was it possible he had mistaken the hotel, and his benefactor was +awaiting him elsewhere, perhaps even beginning to suspect not only his +gratitude but his honesty! The thought made him hot again, but he was +helpless. Not knowing the stranger's name, he could not inquire without +exposing his situation to the landlord. But again, there was the key, +and it was scarcely possible that it fitted another 74 in another +hotel. He did not dare to leave the room, but sat by the window, peering +through the streaming panes into the storm-swept street below. Gradually +the fatigue his excitement had hitherto kept away began to overcome him; +his eyes once or twice closed during his vigil, his head nodded against +the pane. He rose and walked up and down the room to shake off his +drowsiness. Another hour passed--nine o'clock, blown in fitful, far-off +strokes from some wind-rocked steeple. Still no stranger. How inviting +the bed looked to his weary eyes! The man had told him he wanted rest; +he could lie down on the bed in his clothes until he came. He would +waken quickly and be ready for his benefactor's directions. It was a +great temptation. He yielded to it. His head had scarcely sunk upon the +pillow before he slipped into a profound and dreamless sleep. + +He awoke with a start, and for a few moments lay vaguely staring at the +sunbeams that stretched across his bed before he could recall himself. +The room was exactly as before, the portmanteau strapped and pushed +under the table as he had left it. There came a tap at the door--the +chambermaid to do up the room. She had been there once already, +but seeing him asleep, she had forborne to wake him. Apparently the +spectacle of a gentleman lying on the bed fully dressed, even to his +boots, was not an unusual one at that hotel, for she made no comment. It +was twelve o'clock, but she would come again later. + +He was bewildered. He had slept the round of the clock--that was natural +after his fatigue--but where was his benefactor? The lateness of the +time forbade the conclusion that he had merely slept elsewhere; he +would assuredly have returned by this time to claim his portmanteau. The +portmanteau! He unstrapped it and examined the contents again. They were +undisturbed as he had left them the night before. There was a further +change of linen, the buckskin bag, which he could see now contained +a couple of Bank of England notes, with some foreign gold mixed with +American half-eagles, and a cheap, rough memorandum book clasped with +elastic, containing a letter in a boyish hand addressed "Dear Daddy" +and signed "Bobby," and a photograph of a boy taken by a foreign +photographer at Callao, as the printed back denoted, but nothing giving +any clue whatever to the name of the owner. + +A strange idea seized him: did the portmanteau really belong to the man +who had given it to him? Had he been the innocent receiver of stolen +goods from some one who wished to escape detection? He recalled now that +he had heard stories of robbery of luggage by thieves "Sydney ducks"--on +the deserted wharves, and remembered, too,--he could not tell why the +thought had escaped him before,--that the man had spoken with an English +accent. But the next moment he recalled his frank and open manner, and +his mind cleared of all unworthy suspicion. It was more than likely that +his benefactor had taken this delicate way of making a free, permanent +gift for that temporary service. Yet he smiled faintly at the return of +that youthful optimism which had caused him so much suffering. + +Nevertheless, something must be done: he must try to find the man; still +more important, he must seek work before this dubious loan was further +encroached upon. He restrapped the portmanteau and replaced it under the +table, locked the door, gave the key to the office clerk, saying that +any one who called upon him was to await his return, and sallied forth. +A fresh wind and a blue sky of scudding clouds were all that remained +of last night's storm. As he made his way to the fateful wharf, still +deserted except by an occasional "wharf-rat,"--as the longshore vagrant +or petty thief was called,--he wondered at his own temerity of last +night, and the trustfulness of his friend in yielding up his portmanteau +to a stranger in such a place. A low drinking saloon, feebly disguised +as a junk shop, stood at the corner, with slimy green steps leading to +the water. + +The wharf was slowly decaying, and here and there were occasional gaps +in the planking, as dangerous as the one from which he had escaped the +night before. He thought again of the warning he might have given to +the stranger; but he reflected that as a seafaring man he must have been +familiar with the locality where he had landed. But had he landed there? +To Randolph's astonishment, there was no sign or trace of any late +occupation of the wharf, and the ship whose crossyards he had seen dimly +through the darkness the night before was no longer there. She might +have "warped out" in the early morning, but there was no trace of her +in the stream or offing beyond. A bark and brig quite dismantled at an +adjacent wharf seemed to accent the loneliness. Beyond, the open channel +between him and Verba Buena Island was racing with white-maned seas and +sparkling in the shifting sunbeams. The scudding clouds above him drove +down the steel-blue sky. The lateen sails of the Italian fishing boats +were like shreds of cloud, too, blown over the blue and distant bay. +His ears sang, his eyes blinked, his pulses throbbed, with the untiring, +fierce activity of a San Francisco day. + +With something of its restlessness he hurried back to the hotel. Still +the stranger was not there, and no one had called for him. The room had +been put in order; the portmanteau, that sole connecting link with his +last night's experience, was under the table. He drew it out again, and +again subjected it to a minute examination. A few toilet articles, not +of the best quality, which he had overlooked at first, the linen, the +buckskin purse, the memorandum book, and the suit of clothes he stood +in, still comprised all he knew of his benefactor. He counted the money +in the purse; it amounted, with the Bank of England notes, to about +seventy dollars, as he could roughly guess. There was a scrap of paper, +the torn-off margin of a newspaper, lying in the purse, with an address +hastily scribbled in pencil. It gave, however, no name, only a number: +"85 California Street." It might be a clue. He put it, with the purse, +carefully in his pocket, and after hurriedly partaking of his forgotten +breakfast, again started out. + +He presently found himself in the main thoroughfare of last night, which +he now knew to be Montgomery Street. It was more thronged than then, +but he failed to be impressed, as then, with the selfish activity of +the crowd. Yet he was half conscious that his own brighter fortune, +more decent attire, and satisfied hunger had something to do with this +change, and he glanced hurriedly at the druggist's broad plate-glass +windows, with a faint hope that the young girl whose amused pity he had +awakened might be there again. He found California Street quickly, and +in a few moments he stood before No. 85. He was a little disturbed +to find it a rather large building, and that it bore the inscription +"Bank." Then came the usual shock to his mercurial temperament, and for +the first time he began to consider the absurd hopelessness of his clue. + +He, however, entered desperately, and approaching the window of the +receiving teller, put the question he had formulated in his mind: Could +they give him any information concerning a customer or correspondent +who had just arrived in San Francisco and was putting up at the Niantic +Hotel, room 74? He felt his face flushing, but, to his astonishment, the +clerk manifested no surprise. "And you don't know his name?" said the +clerk quietly. "Wait a moment." He moved away, and Randolph saw him +speaking to one of the other clerks, who consulted a large register. +In a few minutes he returned. "We don't have many customers," he began +politely, "who leave only their hotel-room addresses," when he was +interrupted by a mumbling protest from one of the other clerks. "That's +very different," he replied to his fellow clerk, and then turned to +Randolph. "I'm afraid we cannot help you; but I'll make other inquiries +if you'll come back in ten minutes." Satisfied to be relieved from the +present perils of his questioning, and doubtful of returning, Randolph +turned away. But as he left the building he saw a written notice on +the swinging door, "Wanted: a Night Porter;" and this one chance of +employment determined his return. + +When he again presented himself at the window the clerk motioned him to +step inside through a lifted rail. Here he found himself confronted by +the clerk and another man, distinguished by a certain air of authority, +a keen gray eye, and singularly compressed lips set in a closely clipped +beard. The clerk indicated him deferentially but briefly--everybody +was astonishingly brief and businesslike there--as the president. The +president absorbed and possessed Randolph with eyes that never seemed +to leave him. Then leaning back against the counter, which he lightly +grasped with both hands, he said: "We've sent to the Niantic Hotel to +inquire about your man. He ordered his room by letter, giving no name. +He arrived there on time last night, slept there, and has occupied the +room No. 74 ever since. WE don't know him from Adam, but"--his eyes +never left Randolph's--"from the description the landlord gave our +clerk, you're the man himself." + +For an instant Randolph flushed crimson. The natural mistake of +the landlord flashed upon him, his own stupidity in seeking this +information, the suspicious predicament in which he was now placed, and +the necessity of telling the whole truth. But the president's eye was at +once a threat and an invitation. He felt himself becoming suddenly cool, +and, with a business brevity equal to their own, said:-- + +"I was looking for work last night on the wharf. He employed me to carry +his bag to the hotel, saying I was to wait for him. I have waited since +nine o'clock last night in his room, and he has not come." + +"What are you in such a d----d hurry for? He's trusted you; can't you +trust him? You've got his bag?" returned the president. + +Randolph was silent for a moment. "I want to know what to do with it," +he said. + +"Hang on to it. What's in it?" + +"Some clothes and a purse containing about seventy dollars." + +"That ought to pay you for carrying it and storage afterward," said the +president decisively. "What made you come here?" + +"I found this address in the purse," said Randolph, producing it. + +"Is that all?" + +"Yes." + +"And that's the only reason you came here, to find an owner for that +bag?" + +"Yes." + +The president disengaged himself from the counter. + +"I'm sorry to have given you so much trouble," said Randolph +concludingly. "Thank you and good-morning." + +"Good-morning." + +As Randolph turned away he remembered the advertisement for the night +watchman. He hesitated and turned back. He was a little surprised to +find that the president had not gone away, but was looking after him. + +"I beg your pardon, but I see you want a night watchman. Could I do?" +said Randolph resolutely. + +"No. You're a stranger here, and we want some one who knows the +city,--Dewslake," he returned to the receiving teller, "who's taken +Larkin's place?" + +"No one yet," returned the teller, "but," he added parenthetically, +"Judge Boompointer, you know, was speaking to you about his son." + +"Yes, I know that." To Randolph: "Go round to my private room and wait +for me. I won't be as long as your friend last night." Then he added to +a negro porter, "Show him round there." + +He moved away, stopping at one or two desks to give an order to the +clerks, and once before the railing to speak to a depositor. Randolph +followed the negro into the hall, through a "board room," and into a +handsomely furnished office. He had not to wait long. In a few moments +the president appeared with an older man whose gray side whiskers, cut +with a certain precision, and whose black and white checked neckerchief, +tied in a formal bow, proclaimed the English respectability of the +period. At the president's dictation he took down Randolph's name, +nativity, length of residence, and occupation in California. This +concluded, the president, glancing at his companion, said briefly,-- + +"Well?" + +"He had better come to-morrow morning at nine," was the answer. + +"And ask for Mr. Dingwall, the deputy manager," added the president, +with a gesture that was at once an introduction and a dismissal to both. + +Randolph had heard before of this startling brevity of San Francisco +business detail, yet he lingered until the door closed on Mr. Dingwall. +His heart was honestly full. + +"You have been very kind, sir," he stammered. + +"I haven't run half the risks of that chap last night," said the +president grimly, the least tremor of a smile on his set mouth. + +"If you would only let me know what I can do to thank you," persisted +Randolph. + +"Trust the man that trusts you, and hang on to your trust," returned the +president curtly, with a parting nod. + +Elated and filled with high hopes as Randolph was, he felt some +trepidation in returning to his hotel. He had to face his landlord with +some explanation of the bank's inquiry. The landlord might consider him +an impostor, and request him to leave, or, more dreadful still, insist +upon keeping the bag. He thought of the parting words of the president, +and resolved upon "hanging on to his trust," whatever happened. But he +was agreeably surprised to find that he was received at the office with +a certain respect not usually shown to the casual visitor. "Your caller +turned up to-day"--Randolph started--"from the Eureka bank," continued +the clerk. "Sorry we could not give your name, but you know you +only left a deposit in your letter and sent a messenger for your key +yesterday afternoon. When you came you went straight to your room. +Perhaps you would like to register now." Randolph no longer hesitated, +reflecting that he could explain it all later to his unknown benefactor, +and wrote his name boldly. But he was still more astonished when the +clerk continued: "I reckon it was a case of identifying you for a +draft--it often happens here--and we'd have been glad to do it for you. +But the bank clerk seemed satisfied with out description of you--you're +easily described, you know" (this in a parenthesis, complimentarily +intended)--"so it's all right. We can give you a better room lower down, +if you're going to stay longer." Not knowing whether to laugh or to be +embarrassed at this extraordinary conclusion of the blunder, Randolph +answered that he had just come from the bank, adding, with a pardonable +touch of youthful pride, that he was entering the bank's employment the +next day. + +Another equally agreeable surprise met him on his arrival there the next +morning. Without any previous examination or trial he was installed at +once as a corresponding clerk in the place of one just promoted to +a sub-agency in the interior. His handwriting, his facility of +composition, had all been taken for granted, or perhaps predicated +upon something the president had discerned in that one quick, absorbing +glance. He ventured to express the thought to his neighbor. + +"The boss," said that gentleman, "can size a man in and out, and all +through, in about the time it would take you and me to tell the color of +his hair. HE don't make mistakes, you bet; but old Dingy--the dep--you +settled with your clothes." + +"My clothes!" echoed Randolph, with a faint flush. + +"Yes, English cut--that fetched him." + +And so his work began. His liberal salary, which seemed to him +munificent in comparison with his previous earnings in the mines, +enabled him to keep the contents of the buckskin purse intact, and +presently to return the borrowed suit of clothes to the portmanteau. The +mysterious owner should find everything as when he first placed it in +his hands. With the quick mobility of youth and his own rather mercurial +nature, he had begun to forget, or perhaps to be a little ashamed of his +keen emotions and sufferings the night of his arrival, until that night +was recalled to him in a singular way. + +One Sunday a vague sense of duty to his still missing benefactor +impelled him to spend part of his holiday upon the wharves. He had +rambled away among the shipping at the newer pier slips, and had gazed +curiously upon decks where a few seamen or officers in their Sunday +apparel smoked, paced, or idled, trying vainly to recognize the face +and figure which had once briefly flashed out under the flickering wharf +lamp. Was the stranger a shipmaster who had suddenly transferred himself +to another vessel on another voyage? A crowd which had gathered around +some landing steps nearer shore presently attracted his attention. He +lounged toward it and looked over the shoulders of the bystanders down +upon the steps. A boat was lying there, which had just towed in the body +of a man found floating on the water. Its features were already +swollen and defaced like a hideous mask; its body distended beyond all +proportion, even to the bursting of its sodden clothing. A tremulous +fascination came over Randolph as he gazed. The bystanders made their +brief comments, a few authoritatively and with the air of nautical +experts. + +"Been in the water about a week, I reckon." + +"'Bout that time; just rucked up and floated with the tide." + +"Not much chance o' spottin' him by his looks, eh?" + +"Nor anything else, you bet. Reg'larly cleaned out. Look at his +pockets." + +"Wharf-rats or shanghai men?" + +"Betwixt and between, I reckon. Man who found him says he's got an ugly +cut just back of his head. Ye can't see it for his floating hair." + +"Wonder if he got it before or after he got in the water." + +"That's for the coroner to say." + +"Much he knows or cares," said another cynically. "It'll just be a case +of 'Found drowned' and the regular twenty-five dollars to HIM, and five +to the man who found the body. That's enough for him to know." + +Thrilled with a vague anxiety, Randolph edged forward for a nearer view +of the wretched derelict still gently undulating on the towline. The +closer he looked the more he was impressed by the idea of some frightful +mask that hid a face that refused to be recognized. But his attention +became fixed on a man who was giving some advice or orders and examining +the body scrutinizingly. Without knowing why, Randolph felt a sudden +aversion to him, which was deepened when the man, lifting his head, met +Randolph's eyes with a pair of shifting yet aggressive ones. He bore, +nevertheless, an odd, weird likeness to the missing man Randolph was +seeking, which strangely troubled him. As the stranger's eyes followed +him and lingered with a singular curiosity on Randolph's dress, he +remembered with a sudden alarm that he was wearing the suit of the +missing man. A quick impulse to conceal himself came upon him, but he as +quickly conquered it, and returned the man's cold stare with an anger he +could not account for, but which made the stranger avert his eyes. Then +the man got into the boat beside the boatman, and the two again towed +away the corpse. The head rose and fell with the swell, as if nodding a +farewell. But it was still defiant, under its shapeless mask, that even +wore a smile, as if triumphant in its hideous secret. + + +II + + +The opinion of the cynical bystander on the wharf proved to be a correct +one. The coroner's jury brought in the usual verdict of "Found drowned," +which was followed by the usual newspaper comment upon the insecurity of +the wharves and the inadequate protection of the police. + +Randolph Trent read it with conflicting emotions. The possibility he had +conceived of the corpse being that of his benefactor was dismissed when +he had seen its face, although he was sometimes tortured with doubt, and +a wonder if he might not have learned more by attending the inquest. And +there was still the suggestion that the mysterious disappearance might +have been accomplished by violence like this. He was satisfied that if +he had attempted publicly to identify the corpse as his missing friend +he would have laid himself open to suspicion with a story he could +hardly corroborate. + +He had once thought of confiding his doubts to Mr. Revelstoke, the bank +president, but he had a dread of that gentleman's curt conclusions +and remembered his injunction to "hang on to his trust." Since his +installation, Mr. Revelstoke had merely acknowledged his presence by +a good-humored nod now and then, although Randolph had an instinctive +feeling that he was perfectly informed as to his progress. It was wiser +for Randolph to confine himself strictly to his duty and keep his own +counsel. + +Yet he was young, and it was not strange that in his idle moments his +thoughts sometimes reverted to the pretty girl he had seen on the night +of his arrival, nor that he should wish to parade his better fortune +before her curious eyes. Neither was it strange that in this city, whose +day-long sunshine brought every one into the public streets, he should +presently have that opportunity. It chanced that one afternoon, being +in the residential quarter, he noticed a well-dressed young girl walking +before him in company with a delicate looking boy of seven or eight +years. Something in the carriage of her graceful figure, something in +a certain consciousness and ostentation of coquetry toward her youthful +escort, attracted his attention. Yet it struck him that she was neither +related to the child nor accustomed to children's ways, and that she +somewhat unduly emphasized this to the passers-by, particularly those of +his own sex, who seemed to be greatly attracted by her evident beauty. +Presently she ascended the steps of a handsome dwelling, evidently their +home, and as she turned he saw her face. It was the girl he remembered. +As her eye caught his, he blushed with the consciousness of their former +meeting; yet, in the very embarrassment of the moment, he lifted his +hat in recognition. But the salutation was met only by a cold, critical +stare. Randolph bit his lip and passed on. His reason told him she +was right, his instinct told him she was unfair; the contradiction +fascinated him. + +Yet he was destined to see her again. A month later, while seated at his +desk, which overlooked the teller's counter, he was startled to see her +enter the bank and approach the counter. She was already withdrawing +a glove from her little hand, ready to affix her signature to the +receipted form to be proffered by the teller. As she received the gold +in exchange, he could see, by the increased politeness of that official, +his evident desire to prolong the transaction, and the sidelong +glances of his fellow clerks, that she was apparently no stranger but a +recognized object of admiration. Although her face was slightly flushed +at the moment, Randolph observed that she wore a certain proud reserve, +which he half hoped was intended as a check to these attentions. Her +eyes were fixed upon the counter, and this gave him a brief opportunity +to study her delicate beauty. For in a few moments she was gone; whether +she had in her turn observed him he could not say. Presently he rose and +sauntered, with what he believed was a careless air, toward the paying +teller's counter and the receipt, which, being the last, was plainly +exposed on the file of that day's "taking." He was startled by a titter +of laughter from the clerks and by the teller ironically lifting the +file and placing it before him. + +"That's her name, sonny, but I didn't think that you'd tumble to it +quite as quick as the others. Every new man manages to saunter round +here to get a sight of that receipt, and I've seen hoary old depositors +outside edge around inside, pretendin' they wanted to see the dep, jest +to feast their eyes on that girl's name. Take a good look at it and +paste a copy in your hat, for that's all you'll know of her, you bet. +Perhaps you think she's put her address and her 'at home' days on the +receipt. Look hard and maybe you'll see 'em." + +The instinct of youthful retaliation to say he knew her address already +stirred Randolph, but he shut his lips in time, and moved away. His desk +neighbor informed him that the young lady came there once a month and +drew a hundred dollars from some deposit to her credit, but that was all +they knew. Her name was Caroline Avondale, yet there was no one of that +name in the San Francisco Directory. + +But Randolph's romantic curiosity would not allow the incident to rest +there. A favorable impression he had produced on Mr. Dingwall enabled +him to learn more, and precipitated what seemed to him a singular +discovery. "You will find," said the deputy manager, "the statement +of the first deposit to Miss Avondale's credit in letters in your +own department. The account was opened two years ago through a South +American banker. But I am afraid it will not satisfy your curiosity." +Nevertheless, Randolph remained after office hours and spent some time +in examining the correspondence of two years ago. He was rewarded at +last by a banker's letter from Callao advising the remittance of one +thousand dollars to the credit of Miss Avondale of San Francisco. The +letter was written in Spanish, of which Randolph had a fair knowledge, +but it was made plainer by a space having been left in the formal letter +for the English name, which was written in another hand, together with +a copy of Miss Avondale's signature for identification--the usual +proceeding in those early days, when personal identification was +difficult to travelers, emigrants, and visitors in a land of strangers. + +But here he was struck by a singular resemblance which he at first put +down to mere coincidence of names. The child's photograph which he +had found in the portmanteau was taken at Callao. That was a mere +coincidence, but it suggested to his mind a more singular one--that the +handwriting of the address was, in some odd fashion, familiar to him. +That night when he went home he opened the portmanteau and took from the +purse the scrap of paper with the written address of the bank, and on +comparing it with the banker's letter the next day he was startled to +find that the handwriting of the bank's address and that in which the +girl's name was introduced in the banker's letter were apparently the +same. The letters in the words "Caroline" and "California" appeared as +if formed by the same hand. How this might have struck a chirographical +expert he did not know. He could not consult the paying teller, who was +supposed to be familiar with signatures, without exposing his secret and +himself to ridicule. And, after all, what did it prove? Nothing. Even +if this girl were cognizant of the man who supplied her address to the +Callao banker two years ago, and he was really the missing owner of the +portmanteau, would she know where he was now? It might make an opening +for conversation if he ever met her familiarly, but nothing more. Yet +I am afraid another idea occasionally took possession of Randolph's +romantic fancy. It was pleasant to think that the patron of his own +fortunes might be in some mysterious way the custodian of hers. The +money was placed to her credit--a liberal sum for a girl so young. The +large house in which she lived was sufficient to prove to the optimistic +Randolph that this income was something personal and distinct from her +family. That his unknown benefactor was in the habit of mysteriously +rewarding deserving merit after the fashion of a marine fairy godmother, +I fear did not strike him as being ridiculous. + +But an unfortunate query in that direction, addressed to a cynical +fellow clerk, who had the exhaustive experience with the immature +mustaches of twenty-three, elicited a reply which shocked him. To his +indignant protest the young man continued:-- + +"Look here; a girl like that who draws money regularly from some man +who doesn't show up by name, who comes for it herself, and hasn't any +address, and calls herself 'Avondale'--only an innocent from Dutch Flat, +like you, would swallow." + +"Impossible," said Randolph indignantly. "Anybody could see she's a lady +by her dress and bearing." + +"Dress and bearing!" echoed the clerk, with the derision of blase youth. +"If that's your test, you ought to see Florry ----." + +But here one may safely leave the young gentleman as abruptly as +Randolph did. Yet a drop of this corrosive criticism irritated his +sensitiveness, and it was not until he recalled his last meeting with +her and her innocent escort that he was himself again. Fortunately, he +did not relate it to the critic, who would in all probability have added +a precocious motherhood to the young lady's possible qualities. + +He could now only look forward to her reappearance at the bank, and here +he was destined to a more serious disappointment. For when she made her +customary appearance at the counter, he noticed a certain businesslike +gravity in the paying teller's reception of her, and that he was +consulting a small register before him instead of handing her the usual +receipt form. "Perhaps you are unaware, Miss Avondale, that your account +is overdrawn," Randolph distinctly heard him say, although in a politely +lowered voice. + +The young girl stopped in taking off her glove; her delicate face +expressed her wonder, and paled slightly; she cast a quick and +apparently involuntary glance in the direction of Randolph, but said +quietly,-- + +"I don't think I understand." + +"I thought you did not--ladies so seldom do," continued the paying +teller suavely. "But there are no funds to your credit. Has not your +banker or correspondent advised you?" + +The girl evidently did not comprehend. "I have no correspondent or +banker," she said. "I mean--I have heard nothing." + +"The original credit was opened from Callao," continued the official, +"but since then it has been added to by drafts from Melbourne. There may +be one nearly due now." + +The young girl seemed scarcely to comprehend, yet her face remained +pale and thoughtful. It was not until the paying teller resumed with +suggestive politeness that she roused herself: "If you would like to see +the president, he might oblige you until you hear from your friends. Of +course, my duty is simply to"-- + +"I don't think I require you to exceed it," returned the young girl +quietly, "or that I wish to see the president." Her delicate little face +was quite set with resolution and a mature dignity, albeit it was still +pale, as she drew away from the counter. + +"If you would leave your address," continued the official with +persistent politeness, "we could advise you of any later deposit to your +credit." + +"It is hardly necessary," returned the young lady. "I should learn it +myself, and call again. Thank you. Good-morning." And settling her veil +over her face, she quietly passed out. + +The pain and indignation with which Randolph overheard this colloquy he +could with the greatest difficulty conceal. For one wild moment he +had thought of calling her back while he made a personal appeal to +Revelstoke; but the conviction borne in upon him by her resolute bearing +that she would refuse it, and he would only lay himself open to another +rebuff, held him to his seat. Yet he could not entirely repress his +youthful indignation. + +"Where I come from," he said in an audible voice to his neighbor, "a +young lady like that would have been spared this public disappointment. +A dozen men would have made up that sum and let her go without knowing +anything about her account being overdrawn." And he really believed it. + +"Nice, comf'able way of doing banking business in Dutch Flat," returned +the cynic. "And I suppose you'd have kept it up every month? Rather +a tall price to pay for looking at a pretty girl once a month! But I +suppose they're scarcer up there than here. All the same, it ain't too +late now. Start up your subscription right here, sonny, and we'll all +ante up." + +But Randolph, who seldom followed his heroics to their ultimate prosaic +conclusions, regretted he had spoken, although still unconvinced. +Happily for his temper, he did not hear the comment of the two tellers. + +"Won't see HER again, old boy," said one. + +"I reckon not," returned the other, "now that she's been chucked by her +fancy man--until she gets another. But cheer up; a girl like that won't +want friends long." + +It is not probable that either of these young gentlemen believed what +they said, or would have been personally disrespectful or uncivil to any +woman; they were fairly decent young fellows, but the rigors of business +demanded this appearance of worldly wisdom between themselves. Meantime, +for a week after, Randolph indulged in wild fancies of taking his +benefactor's capital of seventy dollars, adding thirty to it from his +own hard-earned savings, buying a draft with it from the bank for one +hundred dollars, and in some mysterious way getting it to Miss Avondale +as the delayed remittance. + +The brief wet winter was nearly spent; the long dry season was due, +although there was still the rare beauty of cloud scenery in the +steel-blue sky, and the sudden return of quick but transient showers. +It was on a Sunday of weather like this that the nature-loving Randolph +extended his usual holiday excursion as far as Contra Costa by the +steamer after his dutiful round of the wharves and shipping. It was with +a gayety born equally of his youth and the weather that he overcame his +constitutional shyness, and not only mingled without restraint among +the pleasure-seekers that thronged the crowded boat, but, in the +consciousness of his good looks and a new suit of clothes, +even penetrated into the aristocratic seclusion of the "ladies' +cabin"--sacred to the fair sex and their attendant swains or chaperones. + +But he found every seat occupied, and was turning away, when he suddenly +recognized Miss Avondale sitting beside her little escort. She appeared, +however, in a somewhat constrained attitude, sustaining with one hand +the boy, who had clambered on the seat. He was looking out of the cabin +window, which she was also trying to do, with greater difficulty on +account of her position. He could see her profile presented with such +marked persistency that he was satisfied she had seen him and was +avoiding him. He turned and left the cabin. + +Yet, once on the deck again, he repented his haste. Perhaps she had not +actually recognized him; perhaps she wished to avoid him only because +she was in plainer clothes--a circumstance that, with his knowledge of +her changed fortunes, struck him to the heart. It seemed to him that +even as a humble employee of the bank he was in some way responsible for +it, and wondered if she associated him with her humiliation. He longed +to speak with her and assure her of his sympathy, and yet he was equally +conscious that she would reject it. + +When the boat reached the Alameda wharf she slipped away with the other +passengers. He wandered about the hotel garden and the main street in +the hope of meeting her again, although he was instinctively conscious +that she would not follow the lines of the usual Sunday sight-seers, but +had her own destination. He penetrated the depths of the Alameda, and +lost himself among its low, trailing oaks, to no purpose. The hope of +the morning had died within him; the fire of adventure was quenched, and +when the clouds gathered with a rising wind he felt that the promise of +that day was gone. He turned to go back to the ferry, but on consulting +his watch he found that he had already lost so much time in his devious +wanderings that he must run to catch the last boat. The few drops that +spattered through the trees presently increased to a shower; he put up +his umbrella without lessening his speed, and finally dashed into the +main street as the last bell was ringing. But at the same moment a +slight, graceful figure slipped out of the woods just ahead of him, with +no other protection from the pelting storm than a handkerchief tied over +her hat, and ran as swiftly toward the wharf. It needed only one glance +for Randolph to recognize Miss Avondale. The moment had come, the +opportunity was here, and the next instant he was panting at her side, +with the umbrella over her head. + +The girl lifted her head quickly, gave a swift look of recognition, a +brief smile of gratitude, and continued her pace. She had not taken +his arm, but had grasped the handle of the umbrella, which linked them +together. Not a word was spoken. Two people cannot be conversational or +sentimental flying at the top of their speed beneath a single umbrella, +with a crowd of impatient passengers watching and waiting for them. +And I grieve to say that, being a happy American crowd, there was some +irreverent humor. "Go it, sis! He's gainin' on you!" "Keep it up!" +"Steady, sonny! Don't prance!" "No fancy licks! You were nearly over the +traces that time!" "Keep up to the pole!" (i. e. the umbrella). "Don't +crowd her off the track! Just swing on together; you'll do it." + +Randolph had glanced quickly at his companion. She was laughing, yet +looking at him shyly as if wondering how HE was taking it. The paddle +wheels were beginning to revolve. Another rush, and they were on board +as the plank was drawn in. + +But they were only on the edge of a packed and seething crowd. Randolph +managed, however, to force a way for her to an angle of the paddle box, +where they were comparatively alone although still exposed to the rain. +She recognized their enforced companionship by dropping her grasp of the +umbrella, which she had hitherto been holding over him with a singular +kind of mature superiority very like--as Randolph felt--her manner to +the boy. + +"You have left your little friend?" he said, grasping at the idea for a +conversational opening. + +"My little cousin? Yes," she said. "I left him with friends. I could not +bear to make him run any risk in this weather. But," she hesitated half +apologetically, half mischievously, "perhaps I hurried you." + +"Oh, no," said Randolph quickly. "This is the last boat, and I must be +at the bank to-morrow morning at nine." + +"And I must be at the shop at eight," she said. She did not speak +bitterly or pointedly, nor yet with the entire familiarity of custom. +He noticed that her dress was indeed plainer, and yet she seemed quite +concerned over the water-soaked state of that cheap thin silk pelerine +and merino skirt. A big lump was in his throat. + +"Do you know," he said desperately, yet trying to laugh, "that this is +not the first time you have seen me dripping?" + +"Yes," she returned, looking at him interestedly; "it was outside of the +druggist's in Montgomery Street, about four months ago. You were wetter +then even than you are now." + +"I was hungry, friendless, and penniless, Miss Avondale." He had spoken +thus abruptly in the faint hope that the revelation might equalize their +present condition; but somehow his confession, now that it was uttered, +seemed exceedingly weak and impotent. Then he blundered in a different +direction. "Your eyes were the only kind ones I had seen since I +landed." He flushed a little, feeling himself on insecure ground, +and ended desperately: "Why, when I left you, I thought of committing +suicide." + +"Oh, dear, not so bad as that, I hope!" she said quickly, smiling +kindly, yet with a certain air of mature toleration, as if she were +addressing her little cousin. "You only fancied it. And it isn't very +complimentary to my eyes if their kindness drove you to such horrid +thoughts. And then what happened?" she pursued smilingly. + +"I had a job to carry a man's bag, and it got me a night's lodging and +a meal," said Randolph, almost brusquely, feeling the utter collapse of +his story. + +"And then?" she said encouragingly. + +"I got a situation at the bank." + +"When?" + +"The next day," faltered Randolph, expecting to hear her laugh. But Miss +Avondale heaved the faintest sigh. + +"You are very lucky," she said. + +"Not so very," returned Randolph quickly, "for the next time you saw me +you cut me dead." + +"I believe I did," she said smilingly. + +"Would you mind telling me why?" + +"Are you sure you won't be angry?" + +"I may be pained," said Randolph prudently. + +"I apologize for that beforehand. Well, that first night I saw a young +man looking very anxious, very uncomfortable, and very weak. The second +time--and not very long after--I saw him well dressed, lounging like any +other young man on a Sunday afternoon, and I believed that he took the +liberty of bowing to me then because I had once looked at him under a +misapprehension." + +"Oh, Miss Avondale!" + +"Then I took a more charitable view, and came to the conclusion that the +first night he had been drinking. But," she added, with a faint smile at +Randolph's lugubrious face, "I apologize. And you have had your revenge; +for if I cut you on account of your smart clothes, you have tried to do +me a kindness on account of my plain ones." + +"Oh, Miss Avondale," burst out Randolph, "if you only knew how sorry +and indignant I was at the bank--when--you know--the other day"--he +stammered. "I wanted to go with you to Mr. Revelstoke, you know, who had +been so generous to me, and I know he would have been proud to befriend +you until you heard from your friends." + +"And I am very glad you did nothing so foolish," said the young +lady seriously, "or"--with a smile--"I should have been still more +aggravating to you when we met. The bank was quite right. Nor have I any +pathetic story like yours. Some years ago my little half-cousin whom +you saw lost his mother and was put in my charge by his father, with +a certain sum to my credit, to be expended for myself and the child. +I lived with an uncle, with whom, for some family reasons, the child's +father was not on good terms, and this money and the charge of the child +were therefore intrusted entirely to me; perhaps, also, because Bobby +and I were fond of each other and I was a friend of his mother. The +father was a shipmaster, always away on long voyages, and has been home +but once in the three years I have had charge of his son. I have not +heard from him since. He is a good-hearted man, but of a restless, +roving disposition, with no domestic tastes. Why he should suddenly +cease to provide for my little cousin--if he has done so--or if his +omission means only some temporary disaster to himself or his fortunes, +I do not know. My anxiety was more for the poor boy's sake than for +myself, for as long as I live I can provide for him." She said this +without the least display of emotion, and with the same mature air of +also repressing any emotion on the part of Randolph. But for her size +and girlish figure, but for the dripping tangles of her hair and her +soft eyes, he would have believed he was talking to a hard, middle-aged +matron. + +"Then you--he--has no friends here?" asked Randolph. + +"No. We are all from Callao, where Bobby was born. My uncle was a +merchant there, who came here lately to establish an agency. We lived +with him in Sutter Street--where you remember I was so hateful to you," +she interpolated, with a mischievous smile--"until his enterprise failed +and he was obliged to return; but I stayed here with Bobby, that he +might be educated in his father's own tongue. It was unfortunate, +perhaps," she said, with a little knitting of her pretty brows, "that +the remittances ceased and uncle left about the same time; but, like +you, I was lucky, and I managed to get a place in the Emporium." + +"The Emporium!" repeated Randolph in surprise. It was a popular "magasin +of fashion" in Montgomery Street. To connect this refined girl with its +garish display and vulgar attendants seemed impossible. + +"The Emporium," reiterated Miss Avondale simply. "You see, we used +to dress a good deal in Callao and had the Paris fashions, and that +experience was of great service to me. I am now at the head of what they +call the 'mantle department,' if you please, and am looked up to as +an authority." She made him a mischievous bow, which had the effect of +causing a trickle from the umbrella to fall across his budding mustache, +and another down her own straight little nose--a diversion that made +them laugh together, although Randolph secretly felt that the young +girl's quiet heroism was making his own trials appear ridiculous. But +her allusion to Callao and the boy's name had again excited his fancy +and revived his romantic dream of their common benefactor. As soon as +they could get a more perfect shelter and furl the umbrella, he plunged +into the full story of the mysterious portmanteau and its missing owner, +with the strange discovery that he had made of the similarity of the +two handwritings. The young lady listened intently, eagerly, checking +herself with what might have been a half smile at his enthusiasm. + +"I remember the banker's letter, certainly," she said, "and Captain +Dornton--that was the name of Bobby's father--asked me to sign my name +in the body of it where HE had also written it with my address. But the +likeness of the handwriting to your slip of paper may be only a fancied +one. Have you shown it to any one," she said quickly--"I mean," she +corrected herself as quickly, "any one who is an expert?" + +"Not the two together," said Randolph, explaining how he had shown the +paper to Mr. Revelstoke. + +But Miss Avondale had recovered herself, and laughed. "That that bit of +paper should have been the means of getting you a situation seems to me +the more wonderful occurrence. Of course it is quite a coincidence that +there should be a child's photograph and a letter signed 'Bobby' in +the portmanteau. But"--she stopped suddenly and fixed her dark eyes on +his--"you have seen Bobby. Surely you can say if it was his likeness?" + +Randolph was embarrassed. The fact was he had always been so absorbed +in HER that he had hardly glanced at the child. He ventured to say this, +and added a little awkwardly, and coloring, that he had seen Bobby only +twice. + +"And you still have this remarkable photograph and letter?" she said, +perhaps a little too carelessly. + +"Yes. Would you like to see them?" + +"Very much," she returned quickly; and then added, with a laugh, "you +are making me quite curious." + +"If you would allow me to see you home," said Randolph, "we have to pass +the street where my room is, and," he added timidly, "I could show them +to you." + +"Certainly," she replied, with sublime unconsciousness of the cause of +his hesitation; "that will be very nice?" + +Randolph was happy, albeit he could not help thinking that she was +treating him like the absent Bobby. + +"It's only on Commercial Street, just above Montgomery," he went on. "We +go straight up from the wharf"--he stopped short here, for the bulk of a +bystander, a roughly clad miner, was pressing him so closely that he was +obliged to resist indignantly--partly from discomfort, and partly from a +sense that the man was overhearing him. The stranger muttered a kind of +apology, and moved away. + +"He seems to be perpetually in your way," said Miss Avondale, smiling. +"He was right behind you, and you nearly trod on his toes, when you +bolted out of the cabin this morning." + +"Ah, then you DID see me!" said Randolph, forgetting all else in his +delight at the admission. + +But Miss Avondale was not disconcerted. "Thanks to your collision, I saw +you both." + +It was still raining when they disembarked at the wharf, a little behind +the other Passengers, who had crowded on the bow of the steamboat. It +was only a block or two beyond the place where Randolph had landed that +eventful night. He had to pass it now; but with Miss Avondale clinging +to his arm, with what different feelings! The rain still fell, the day +was fading, but he walked in an enchanted dream, of which the prosaic +umbrella was the mystic tent and magic pavilion. He must needs even +stop at the corner of the wharf, and show her the exact spot where his +unknown benefactor appeared. + +"Coming out of the shadow like that man there," she added brightly, +pointing to a figure just emerging from the obscurity of an overhanging +warehouse. "Why, it's your friend the miner!" + +Randolph looked. It was indeed the same man, who had probably reached +the wharf by a cross street. + +"Let us go on, do!" said Miss Avondale, suddenly tightening her hold of +Randolph's arm in some instinctive feminine alarm. "I don't like this +place." + +But Randolph, with the young girl's arm clinging to his, felt supremely +daring. Indeed, I fear he was somewhat disappointed when the stranger +peacefully turned into the junk shop at the corner and left them to +pursue their way. + +They at last stopped before some business offices on a central +thoroughfare, where Randolph had a room on the third story. When they +had climbed the flight of stairs he unlocked a door and disclosed a +good-sized apartment which had been intended for an office, but which +was now neatly furnished as a study and bedroom. Miss Avondale smiled at +the singular combination. + +"I should fancy," she said, "you would never feel as if you had quite +left the bank behind you." Yet, with her air of protection and mature +experience, she at once began to move one or two articles of furniture +into a more tasteful position, while Randolph, nevertheless a little +embarrassed at his audacity in asking this goddess into his humble +abode, hurriedly unlocked a closet, brought out the portmanteau, and +handed her the letter and photograph. + +Woman-like, Miss Avondale looked at the picture first. If she +experienced any surprise, she repressed it. "It is LIKE Bobby," she said +meditatively, "but he was stouter then; and he's changed sadly since he +has been in this climate. I don't wonder you didn't recognize him. His +father may have had it taken some day when they were alone together. I +didn't know of it, though I know the photographer." She then looked at +the letter, knit her pretty brows, and with an abstracted air sat down +on the edge of Randolph's bed, crossed her little feet, and looked +puzzled. But he was unable to detect the least emotion. + +"You see," she said, "the handwriting of most children who are learning +to write is very much alike, for this is the stage of development when +they 'print.' And their composition is the same: they talk only of +things that interest all children--pets, toys, and their games. This +is only ANY child's letter to ANY father. I couldn't really say it WAS +Bobby's. As to the photograph, they have an odd way in South America +of selling photographs of anybody, principally of pretty women, by the +packet, to any one who wants them. So that it does not follow that the +owner of this photograph had any personal interest in it. Now, as to +your mysterious patron himself, can you describe him?" She looked at +Randolph with a certain feline intensity. + +He became embarrassed. "You know I only saw him once, under a street +lamp"--he began. + +"And I have only seen Captain Dornton--if it were he--twice in three +years," she said. "But go on." + +Again Randolph was unpleasantly impressed with her cold, dryly practical +manner. He had never seen his benefactor but once, but he could not +speak of him in that way. + +"I think," he went on hesitatingly, "that he had dark, pleasant eyes, a +thick beard, and the look of a sailor." + +"And there were no other papers in the portmanteau?" she said, with the +same intense look. + +"None." + +"These are mere coincidences," said Miss Avondale, after a pause, "and, +after all, they are not as strange as the alternative. For we would have +to believe that Captain Dornton arrived here--where he knew his son and +I were living--without a word of warning, came ashore for the purpose of +going to a hotel and the bank also, and then unaccountably changed his +mind and disappeared." + +The thought of the rotten wharf, his own escape, and the dead body were +all in Randolph's mind; but his reasoning was already staggered by +the girl's conclusions, and he felt that it might only pain, without +convincing her. And was he convinced himself? She smiled at his blank +face and rose. "Thank you all the same. And now I must go." + +Randolph rose also. "Would you like to take the photograph and letter to +show your cousin?" + +"Yes. But I should not place much reliance on his memory." Nevertheless, +she took up the photograph and letter, and Randolph, putting the +portmanteau back in the closet, locked it, and stood ready to accompany +her. + +On their way to her house they talked of other things. Randolph learned +something of her life in Callao: that she was an orphan like himself, +and had been brought from the Eastern States when a child to live with +a rich uncle in Callao who was childless; that her aunt had died and her +uncle had married again; that the second wife had been at variance with +his family, and that it was consequently some relief to Miss Avondale +to be independent as the guardian of Bobby, whose mother was a sister +of the first wife; that her uncle had objected as strongly as a +brother-in-law could to his wife's sister's marriage with Captain +Dornton on account of his roving life and unsettled habits, and that +consequently there would be little sympathy for her or for Bobby in his +mysterious disappearance. The wind blew and the rain fell upon these +confidences, yet Randolph, walking again under that umbrella of +felicity, parted with her at her own doorstep all too soon, although +consoled with the permission to come and see her when the child +returned. + +He went back to his room a very hopeful, foolish, but happy youth. As he +entered he seemed to feel the charm of her presence again in the humble +apartment she had sanctified. The furniture she had moved with her +own little hands, the bed on which she had sat for a half moment, was +glorified to his youthful fancy. And even that magic portmanteau which +had brought him all this happiness, that, too,--but he gave a sudden +start. The closet door, which he had shut as he went out, was unlocked +and open, the portmanteau--his "trust"--gone! + + +III + + +Randolph Trent's consternation at the loss of the portmanteau was partly +superstitious. For, although it was easy to make up the small sum +taken, and the papers were safe in Miss Avondale's possession, yet this +displacement of the only link between him and his missing benefactor, +and the mystery of its disappearance, raised all his old doubts and +suspicions. A vague uneasiness, a still more vague sense of some +remissness on his own part, possessed him. + +That the portmanteau was taken from his room during his absence with +Miss Avondale that afternoon was evident. The door had been opened by a +skeleton key, and as the building was deserted on Sunday, there had been +no chance of interference with the thief. If mere booty had been his +object, the purse would have satisfied him without his burdening himself +with a portmanteau which might be identified. Nothing else in the room +had been disturbed. The thief must have had some cognizance of its +location, and have kept some espionage over Randolph's movements--a +circumstance which added to the mystery and his disquiet. He placed a +description of his loss with the police authorities, but their only idea +of recovering it was by leaving that description with pawnbrokers and +second-hand dealers, a proceeding that Randolph instinctively felt was +in vain. + +A singular but instinctive reluctance to inform Miss Avondale of his +loss kept him from calling upon her for the first few days. When he did, +she seemed concerned at the news, although far from participating in his +superstition or his suspicions. + +"You still have the letter and photograph--whatever they may be +worth--for identification," she said dryly, "although Bobby cannot +remember about the letter. He thinks he went once with his father to a +photographer and had a picture taken, but he cannot remember seeing +it afterward." She was holding them in her hand, and Randolph almost +mechanically took them from her and put them in his pocket. He would +not, perhaps, have noticed his own brusqueness had she not looked a +little surprised, and, he thought, annoyed. "Are you quite sure you +won't lose them?" she said gently. "Perhaps I had better keep them for +you." + +"I shall seal them up and put them in the bank safe," he said quickly. +He could not tell whether his sudden resolution was an instinct or the +obstinacy that often comes to an awkward man. "But," he added, coloring, +"I shall always regret the loss of the portmanteau, for it was the means +of bringing us together." + +"I thought it was the umbrella," said Miss Avondale dryly. + +She had once before halted him on the perilous edge of sentiment by a +similar cynicism, but this time it cut him deeply. For he could not +be blind to the fact that she treated him like a mere boy, and in +dispelling the illusions of his instincts and beliefs seemed as if +intent upon dispelling his illusions of HER; and in her half-smiling +abstraction he read only the well-bred toleration of one who is +beginning to be bored. He made his excuses early and went home. +Nevertheless, although regretting he had not left her the letter and +photograph, he deposited them in the bank safe the next day, and tried +to feel that he had vindicated his character for grown-up wisdom. + +Then, in his conflicting emotions, he punished himself, after the +fashion of youth, by avoiding the beloved one's presence for several +days. He did this in the belief that it would enable him to make up his +mind whether to reveal his real feelings to her, and perhaps there +was the more alluring hope that his absence might provoke some +manifestations of sentiment on her part. But she made no sign. And then +came a reaction in his feelings, with a heightened sense of loyalty +to his benefactor. For, freed of any illusion or youthful fancy now, a +purely unselfish gratitude to the unknown man filled his heart. In the +lapse of his sentiment he clung the more closely to this one honest +romance of his life. + +One afternoon, at the close of business, he was a little astonished to +receive a message from Mr. Dingwall, the deputy manager, that he wished +to see him in his private office. He was still more astonished when Mr. +Dingwall, after offering him a chair, stood up with his hands under his +coat tails before the fireplace, and, with a hesitancy half reserved, +half courteous, but wholly English, said,-- + +"I--er--would be glad, Mr. Trent, if you would--er--give me the pleasure +of your company at dinner to-morrow." + +Randolph, still amazed, stammered his acceptance. + +"There will be--er--a young lady in whom you were--er--interested some +time ago. Er--Miss Avondale." + +Randolph, feeling he was coloring, and uncertain whether he should speak +of having met her since, contented himself with expressing his delight. + +"In fact," continued Mr. Dingwall, clearing his throat as if he were +also clearing his conscience of a tremendous secret, "she--er--mentioned +your name. There is Sir William Dornton coming also. Sir William +has recently succeeded his elder brother, who--er--it seems, was the +gentleman you were inquiring about when you first came here, and who, +it is now ascertained, was drowned in the bay a few months ago. In +fact--er--it is probable that you were the last one who saw him alive. +I thought I would tell you," continued Mr. Dingwall, settling his chin +more comfortably in his checked cravat, "in case Sir William should +speak of him to you." + +Randolph was staggered. The abrupt revelation of his benefactor's name +and fate, casually coupled with an invitation to dinner, shocked and +confounded him. Perhaps Mr. Dingwall noticed it and misunderstood the +cause, for he added in parenthetical explanation: "Yes, the man whose +portmanteau you took charge of is dead; but you did your duty, Mr. +Trent, in the matter, although the recovery of the portmanteau was +unessential to the case." + +"Dead," repeated Randolph, scarcely heeding him. "But is it true? Are +they sure?" + +Mr. Dingwall elevated his eyebrows. "The large property at stake of +course rendered the most satisfactory proofs of it necessary. His father +had died only a month previous, and of course they were seeking the +presumptive heir, the so-called 'Captain John Dornton'--your man--when +they made the discovery of his death." + +Randolph thought of the strange body at the wharf, of the coroner's +vague verdict, and was unconvinced. "But," he said impulsively, "there +was a child." He checked himself as he remembered this was one of Miss +Avondale's confidences to him. + +"Ah--Miss Avondale has spoken of a child?" said Mr. Dingwall dryly. + +"I saw her with one which she said was Captain Dornton's, which had been +left in her care after the death of his wife," said Randolph in hurried +explanation. + +"John Dornton had no WIFE," said Mr. Dingwall severely. "The boy is a +natural son. Captain John lived a wild, rough, and--er--an eccentric +life." + +"I thought--I understood from Miss Avondale that he was married," +stammered the young man. + +"In your rather slight acquaintance with that young lady I should +imagine she would have had some delicacy in telling you otherwise," +returned Mr. Dingwall primly. + +Randolph felt the truth of this, and was momentarily embarrassed. Yet he +lingered. + +"Has Miss Avondale known of this discovery long?" he asked. + +"About two weeks, I should say," returned Mr. Dingwall. "She was of some +service to Sir William in getting up certain proofs he required." + +It was three weeks since she had seen Randolph, yet it would have been +easy for her to communicate the news to him. In these three weeks his +romance of their common interest in his benefactor--even his own dream +of ever seeing him again--had been utterly dispelled. + +It was in no social humor that he reached Dingwall's house the next +evening. Yet he knew the difficulty of taking an aggressive attitude +toward his previous idol or of inviting a full explanation from her +then. + +The guests, with the exception of himself and Miss Avondale, were all +English. She, self-possessed and charming in evening dress, nodded to +him with her usual mature patronage, but did not evince the least +desire to seek him for any confidential aside. He noticed the undoubted +resemblance of Sir William Dornton to his missing benefactor, and yet +it produced a singular repulsion in him, rather than any sympathetic +predilection. At table he found that Miss Avondale was separated from +him, being seated beside the distinguished guest, while he was placed +next to the young lady he had taken down--a Miss Eversleigh, the cousin +of Sir William. She was tall, and Randolph's first impression of her was +that she was stiff and constrained--an impression he quickly corrected +at the sound of her voice, her frank ingenuousness, and her unmistakable +youth. In the habit of being crushed by Miss Avondale's unrelenting +superiority, he found himself apparently growing up beside this tall +English girl, who had the naivete of a child. After a few commonplaces +she suddenly turned her gray eyes on his, and said,-- + +"Didn't you like Jack? I hope you did. Oh, say you did--do!" + +"You mean Captain John Dornton?" said Randolph, a little confused. + +"Yes, of course; HIS brother"--glancing toward Sir William. "We always +called him Jack, though I was ever so little when he went away. No one +thought of calling him anything else but Jack. Say you liked him!" + +"I certainly did," returned Randolph impulsively. Then checking himself, +he added, "I only saw him once, but I liked his face and manner--and--he +was very kind to me." + +"Of course he was," said the young girl quickly. "That was only like +him, and yet"--lowering her voice slightly--"would you believe that +they all say he was wild and wicked and dissipated? And why? Fancy! Just +because he didn't care to stay at home and shoot and hunt and race and +make debts, as heirs usually do. No, he wanted to see the world and do +something for himself. Why, when he was quite young, he could manage a +boat like any sailor. Dornton Hall, their place, is on the coast, you +know, and they say that, just for adventure's sake, after he went away, +he shipped as first mate somewhere over here on the Pacific, and made +two or three voyages. You know--don't you?--and how every one was +shocked at such conduct in the heir." + +Her face was so girlishly animated, with such sparkle of eye and +responsive color, that he could hardly reconcile it with her first +restraint or with his accepted traditions of her unemotional race, or, +indeed, with her relationship to the principal guest. His latent feeling +of gratitude to the dead man warmed under the young girl's voice. + +"It's so dreadful to think of him as drowned, you know, though even +that they put against him," she went on hurriedly, "for they say he +was probably drowned in some drunken fit--fell through the wharf or +something shocking and awful--worse than suicide. But"--she turned her +frank young eyes upon him again--"YOU saw him on the wharf that night, +and you could tell how he looked." + +"He was as sober as I was," returned Randolph indignantly, as he +recalled the incident of the flask and the dead man's caution. From +recalling it to repeating it followed naturally, and he presently +related the whole story of his meeting with Captain Dornton to the +brightly interested eyes beside him. When he had finished, she leaned +toward him in girlish confidence, and said:-- + +"Yes; but EVEN THAT they tell to show how intoxicated be must have been +to have given up his portmanteau to an utter stranger like you." She +stopped, colored, and yet, reflecting his own half smile, she added: +"You know what I mean. For they all agree how nice it was of you not to +take any advantage of his condition, and Dingwall said your honesty and +faithfulness struck Revelstoke so much that he made a place for you at +the bank. Now I think," she continued, with delightful naivete, "it was +a proof of poor Jack's BEING PERFECTLY SOBER, that he knew whom he was +trusting, and saw just what you were, at once. There! But I suppose you +must not talk to me any longer, but must make yourself agreeable to some +one else. But it was very nice of you to tell me all this. I wish you +knew my guardian. You'd like him. Do you ever go to England? Do come and +see us." + +These confidences had not been observed by the others, and Miss Avondale +appeared to confine her attentions to Sir William, who seemed to be +equally absorbed, except that once he lifted his eyes toward Randolph, +as if in answer to some remark from her. It struck Randolph that he was +the subject of their conversation, and this did not tend to allay the +irritation of a mind already wounded by the contrast of HER lack of +sympathy for the dead man who had befriended and trusted her to the +simple faith of the girl beside him, who was still loyal to a mere +childish recollection. + +After the ladies had rustled away, Sir William moved his seat beside +Randolph. His manner seemed to combine Mr. Dingwall's restraint with +a certain assumption of the man of the world, more notable for its +frankness than its tactfulness. + +"Sad business this of my brother's, eh," he said, lighting a cigar; +"any way you take it, eh? You saw him last, eh?" The interrogating word, +however, seemed to be only an exclamation of habit, for he seldom waited +for an answer. + +"I really don't know," said Randolph, "as I saw him only ONCE, and he +left me on the wharf. I know no more where he went to then than where he +came from before. Of course you must know all the rest, and how he came +to be drowned." + +"Yes; it really did not matter much. The whole question was +identification and proof of death, you know. Beastly job, eh?" + +"Was that his body YOU were helping to get ashore at the wharf one +Sunday?" asked Randolph bluntly, now fully recognizing the likeness that +had puzzled him in Sir William. "I didn't see any resemblance." + +"Precious few would. I didn't--though it's true I hadn't seen him for +eight years. Poor old chap been knocked about so he hadn't a feature +left, eh? But his shipmate knew him, and there were his traps on the +ship." + +Then, for the first time, Randolph heard the grim and sordid details +of John Dornton's mysterious disappearance. He had arrived the morning +before that eventful day on an Australian bark as the principal +passenger. The vessel itself had an evil repute, and was believed to +have slipped from the hands of the police at Melbourne. John Dornton +had evidently amassed a considerable fortune in Australia, although +an examination of his papers and effects showed it to be in drafts and +letters of credit and shares, and that he had no ready money--a fact +borne out by the testimony of his shipmates. The night he arrived was +spent in an orgy on board ship, which he did not leave until the early +evening of the next day, although, after his erratic fashion, he had +ordered a room at a hotel. That evening he took ashore a portmanteau, +evidently intending to pass the night at his hotel. He was never seen +again, although some of the sailors declared that they had seen him on +the wharf WITHOUT THE PORTMANTEAU, and they had drunk together at a low +grog shop on the street corner. He had evidently fallen through some +hole in the wharf. As he was seen only with the sailors, who also knew +he had no ready money on his person, there was no suspicion of foul +play. + +"For all that, don't you know," continued Sir William, with a forced +laugh, which struck Randolph as not only discordant, but as having an +insolent significance, "it might have been a deuced bad business +for YOU, eh? Last man who was with him, eh? In possession of his +portmanteau, eh? Wearing his clothes, eh? Awfully clever of you to +go straight to the bank with it. 'Pon my word, my legal man wanted to +pounce down on you as 'accessory' until I and Dingwall called him off. +But it's all right now." + +Randolph's antagonism to the man increased. "The investigation seems to +have been peculiar," he said dryly, "for, if I remember rightly, at the +coroner's inquest on the body I saw you with, the verdict returned was +of the death of an UNKNOWN man." + +"Yes; we hadn't clear proof of identity then," he returned coolly, "but +we had a reexamination of the body before witnesses afterward, and +a verdict according to the facts. That was kept out of the papers +in deference to the feelings of the family and friends. I fancy you +wouldn't have liked to be cross-examined before a stupid jury about what +you were doing with Jack's portmanteau, even if WE were satisfied with +it." + +"I should have been glad to testify to the kindness of your brother, +at any risk," returned Randolph stoutly. "You have heard that the +portmanteau was stolen from me, but the amount of money it contained has +been placed in Mr. Dingwall's hands for disposal." + +"Its contents were known, and all that's been settled," returned Sir +William, rising. "But," he continued, with his forced laugh, which to +Randolph's fancy masked a certain threatening significance, "I say, +it would have been a beastly business, don't you know, if you HAD been +called upon to produce it again--ha, ha!--eh?" + +Returning to the dining room, Randolph found Miss Avondale alone on a +corner of the sofa. She swept her skirts aside as he approached, as an +invitation for him to sit beside her. Still sore from his experience, +he accepted only in the hope that she was about to confide to him her +opinion of this strange story. But, to his chagrin, she looked at him +over her fan with a mischievous tolerance. "You seemed more interested +in the cousin than the brother of your patron." + +Once Randolph might have been flattered at this. But her speech +seemed to him only an echo of the general heartlessness. "I found Miss +Eversleigh very sympathetic over the fate of the unfortunate man, whom +nobody else here seems to care for," said Randolph coldly. + +"Yes," returned Miss Avondale composedly; "I believe she was a great +friend of Captain Dornton when she was quite a child, and I don't think +she can expect much from Sir William, who is very different from his +brother. In fact, she was one of the relatives who came over here in +quest of the captain, when it was believed he was living and the heir. +He was quite a patron of hers." + +"But was he not also one of yours?" said Randolph bluntly. + +"I think I told you I was the friend of the boy and of poor Paquita, the +boy's mother," said Miss Avondale quietly. "I never saw Captain Dornton +but twice." + +Randolph noticed that she had not said "wife," although in her previous +confidences she had so described the mother. But, as Dingwall had said, +why should she have exposed the boy's illegitimacy to a comparative +stranger; and if she herself had been deceived about it, why should he +expect her to tell him? And yet--he was not satisfied. + +He was startled by a little laugh. "Well, I declare, you look as if +you resented the fact that your benefactor had turned out to be a +baronet--just as in some novel--and that you have rendered a service +to the English aristocracy. If you are thinking of poor Bobby," she +continued, without the slightest show of self-consciousness, "Sir +William will provide for him, and thinks of taking him to England to +restore his health. Now"--with her smiling, tolerant superiority--"you +must go and talk to Miss Eversleigh. I see her looking this way, and I +don't think she half likes me as it is." + +Randolph, who, however, also saw that Sir William was lounging toward +them, here rose formally, as if permitting the latter to take the +vacated seat. This partly imposed on him the necessity of seeking Miss +Eversleigh, who, having withdrawn to the other end of the room, was +turning over the leaves of an album. As Randolph joined her, she said, +without looking up, "Is Miss Avondale a friend of yours?" + +The question was so pertinent to his reflections at the moment that he +answered impulsively, "I really don't know." + +"Yes, that's the answer, I think, most of her acquaintances would give, +if they were asked the same question and replied honestly," said the +young girl, as if musing. + +"Even Sir William?" suggested Randolph, half smiling, yet wondering at +her unlooked-for serious shrewdness as he glanced toward the sofa. + +"Yes; but HE wouldn't care. You see, there would be a pair of them." She +stopped with a slight blush, as if she had gone too far, but corrected +herself in her former youthful frankness: "You don't mind my saying what +I did of her? You're not such a PARTICULAR friend?" + +"We both owe a debt of gratitude to your cousin Jack," said Randolph, in +some embarrassment. + +"Yes, but YOU feel it and she doesn't. So that doesn't make you +friends." + +"But she has taken good care of Captain Dornton's child," suggested +Randolph loyally. + +He stopped, however, feeling that he was on dangerous ground. But Miss +Eversleigh put her own construction on his reticence, and said,-- + +"I don't think she cares for it much--or for ANY children." + +Randolph remembered his own impression the only time he had ever seen +her with the child, and was struck with the young girl's instinct again +coinciding with his own. But, possibly because he knew he could never +again feel toward Miss Avondale as he had, he was the more anxious to +be just, and he was about to utter a protest against this general +assumption, when the voice of Sir William broke in upon them. He was +taking his leave--and the opportunity of accompanying Miss Avondale +to her lodgings on the way to his hotel. He lingered a moment over his +handshaking with Randolph. + +"Awfully glad to have met you, and I fancy you're awfully glad to get +rid of what they call your 'trust.' Must have given you a beastly lot of +bother, eh--might have given you more?" + +He nodded familiarly to Miss Eversleigh, and turned away with Miss +Avondale, who waved her usual smiling patronage to Randolph, even +including his companion in that half-amused, half-superior salutation. +Perhaps it was this that put a sudden hauteur into the young girl's +expression as she stared at Miss Avondale's departing figure. + +"If you ever come to England, Mr. Trent," she said, with a pretty +dignity in her youthful face, "I hope you will find some people not +quite so rude as my cousin and"-- + +"Miss Avondale, you would say," returned Randolph quietly. "As to HER, +I am quite accustomed to her maturer superiority, which, I am afraid, +is the effect of my own youth and inexperience; and I believe that, in +course of time, your cousin's brusqueness might be as easily understood +by me. I dare say," he added, with a laugh, "that I must seem to them +a very romantic visionary with my 'trust,' and the foolish importance I +have put upon a very trivial occurrence." + +"I don't think so," said the girl quickly, "and I consider Bill very +rude, and," she added, with a return of her boyish frankness, "I shall +tell him so. As for Miss Avondale, she's AT LEAST thirty, I understand; +perhaps she can't help showing it in that way, too." + +But here Randolph, to evade further personal allusions, continued +laughingly: "And as I've LOST my 'trust,' I haven't even that to show in +defense. Indeed, when you all are gone I shall have nothing to remind me +of my kind benefactor. It will seem like a dream." + +Miss Eversleigh was silent for a moment, and then glanced quickly +around her. The rest of the company were their elders, and, engaged in +conversation at the other end of the apartment, had evidently left the +young people to themselves. + +"Wait a moment," she said, with a youthful air of mystery and +earnestness. Randolph saw that she had slipped an Indian bracelet, +profusely hung with small trinkets, from her arm to her wrist, and was +evidently selecting one. It proved to be a child's tiny ring with a +small pearl setting. "This was given to me by Cousin Jack," said Miss +Eversleigh in a low voice, "when I was a child, at some frolic or +festival, and I have kept it ever since. I brought it with me when we +came here as a kind of memento to show him. You know that is impossible +now. You say you have nothing of his to keep. Will you accept this? +I know he would be glad to know you had it. You could wear it on your +watch chain. Don't say no, but take it." + +Protesting, yet filled with a strange joy and pride, Randolph took it +from the young girl's hand. The little color which had deepened on +her cheek cleared away as he thanked her gratefully, and with a quiet +dignity she arose and moved toward the others. Randolph did not linger +long after this, and presently took his leave of his host and hostess. + +It seemed to him that he walked home that night in the whirling clouds +of his dispelled dream. The airy structure he had built up for the last +three months had collapsed. The enchanted canopy under which he had +stood with Miss Avondale was folded forever. The romance he had evolved +from his strange fortune had come to an end, not prosaically, as such +romances are apt to do, but with a dramatic termination which, however, +was equally fatal to his hopes. At any other time he might have +projected the wildest hopes from the fancy that he and Miss Avondale +were orphaned of a common benefactor; but it was plain that her +interests were apart from his. And there was an indefinable something he +did not understand, and did not want to understand, in the story she had +told him. How much of it she had withheld, not so much from delicacy or +contempt for his understanding as a desire to mislead him, he did not +know. His faith in her had gone with his romance. It was not strange +that the young English girl's unsophisticated frankness and simple +confidences lingered longest in his memory, and that when, a few days +later, Mr. Dingwall informed him that Miss Avondale had sailed for +England with the Dornton family, he was more conscious of a loss in the +stranger girl's departure. + +"I suppose Miss Avondale takes charge of--of the boy, sir?" he said +quietly. + +Mr. Dingwall gave him a quick glance. "Possibly. Sir William has behaved +with great--er--consideration," he replied briefly. + + +IV + + +Randolph's nature was too hopeful and recuperative to allow him to +linger idly in the past. He threw himself into his work at the bank with +his old earnestness and a certain simple conscientiousness which, while +it often provoked the raillery of his fellow clerks, did not escape the +eyes of his employers. He was advanced step by step, and by the end +of the year was put in charge of the correspondence with banks and +agencies. He had saved some money, and had made one or two profitable +investments. He was enabled to take better apartments in the same +building he had occupied. He had few of the temptations of youth. His +fear of poverty and his natural taste kept him from the speculative and +material excesses of the period. A distrust of his romantic weakness +kept him from society and meaner entanglements which might have beset +his good looks and good nature. He worked in his rooms at night and +forbore his old evening rambles. + +As the year wore on to the anniversary of his arrival, he thought much +of the dead man who had inspired his fortunes, and with it a sense of +his old doubts and suspicions revived. His reason had obliged him to +accept the loss of the fateful portmanteau as an ordinary theft; his +instinct remained unconvinced. There was no superstition connected +with his loss. His own prosperity had not been impaired by it. On the +contrary, he reflected bitterly that the dead man had apparently died +only to benefit others. At such times he recalled, with a pleasure that +he knew might become perilous, the tall English girl who had defended +Dornton's memory and echoed his own sympathy. But that was all over now. + +One stormy night, not unlike that eventful one of his past experience, +Randolph sought his rooms in the teeth of a southwest gale. As he +buffeted his way along the rain-washed pavement of Montgomery Street, it +was not strange that his thoughts reverted to that night and the memory +of his dead protector. But reaching his apartment, he sternly banished +them with the vanished romance they revived, and lighting his lamp, laid +out his papers in the prospect of an evening of uninterrupted work. +He was surprised, however, after a little interval, by the sound of +uncertain and shuffling steps on the half-lighted passage outside, the +noise of some heavy article set down on the floor, and then a tentative +knock at his door. A little impatiently he called, "Come in." + +The door opened slowly, and out of the half obscurity of the passage +a thickset figure lurched toward him into the full light of the room. +Randolph half rose, and then sank back into his chair, awed, spellbound, +and motionless. He saw the figure standing plainly before him; he saw +distinctly the familiar furniture of his room, the storm-twinkling +lights in the windows opposite, the flash of passing carriage lamps in +the street below. But the figure before him was none other than the dead +man of whom he had just been thinking. + +The figure looked at him intently, and then burst into a fit of +unmistakable laughter. It was neither loud nor unpleasant, and yet +it provoked a disagreeable recollection. Nevertheless, it dissipated +Randolph's superstitious tremor, for he had never before heard of a +ghost who laughed heartily. + +"You don't remember me," said the man. "Belay there, and I'll freshen +your memory." He stepped back to the door, opened it, put his arm +out into the hall, and brought in a portmanteau, closed the door, and +appeared before Randolph again with the portmanteau in his hand. It was +the one that had been stolen. "There!" he said. + +"Captain Dornton," murmured Randolph. + +The man laughed again and flung down the portmanteau. "You've got +my name pat enough, lad, I see; but I reckoned you'd have spotted ME +without that portmanteau." + +"I see you've got it back," stammered Randolph in his embarrassment. "It +was--stolen from me." + +Captain Dornton laughed again, dropped into a chair, rubbed his hands on +his knees, and turned his face toward Randolph. "Yes; I stole it--or had +it stolen--the same thing, for I'm responsible." + +"But I would have given it up to YOU at once," said Randolph +reproachfully, clinging to the only idea he could understand in his +utter bewilderment. "I have religiously and faithfully kept it for you, +with all its contents, ever since--you disappeared." + +"I know it, lad," said Captain Dornton, rising, and extending a brown, +weather-beaten hand which closed heartily on the young man's; "no need +to say that. And you've kept it even better than you know. Look here!" + +He lifted the portmanteau to his lap and disclosed BEHIND the usual +small pouch or pocket in the lid a slit in the lining. "Between the +lining and the outer leather," he went on grimly, "I had two or three +bank notes that came to about a thousand dollars, and some papers, lad, +that, reckoning by and large, might be worth to me a million. When I got +that portmanteau back they were all there, gummed in, just as I had left +them. I didn't show up and come for them myself, for I was lying low at +the time, and--no offense, lad--I didn't know how you stood with a party +who was no particular friend of mine. An old shipmate whom I set to +watch that party quite accidentally run across your bows in the ferry +boat, and heard enough to make him follow in your wake here, where he +got the portmanteau. It's all right," he said, with a laugh, waving +aside with his brown hand Randolph's protesting gesture. "The old +bag's only got back to its rightful owner. It mayn't have been got in +shipshape 'Frisco style, but when a man's life is at stake, at least, +when it's a question of his being considered dead or alive, he's got to +take things as he finds 'em, and I found 'em d--- bad." + +In a flash of recollection Randolph remembered the obtruding miner on +the ferry boat, the same figure on the wharf corner, and the advantage +taken of his absence with Miss Avondale. And Miss Avondale was the +"party" this man's shipmate was watching! He felt his face crimsoning, +yet he dared not question him further, nor yet defend her. Captain +Dornton noticed it, and with a friendly tact, which Randolph had not +expected of him, rising again, laid his hand gently on the young man's +shoulder. + +"Look here, lad," he said, with his pleasant smile; "don't you worry +your head about the ways or doings of the Dornton family, or any of +their friends. They're a queer lot--including your humble servant. +You've done the square thing accordin' to your lights. You've ridden +straight from start to finish, with no jockeying, and I shan't forget +it. There are only two men who haven't failed me when I trusted them. +One was you when I gave you my portmanteau; the other was Jack Redhill +when he stole it from you." + +He dropped back in his chair again, and laughed silently. + +"Then you did not fall overboard as they supposed," stammered Randolph +at last. + +"Not much! But the next thing to it. It wasn't the water that I took in +that knocked me out, my lad, but something stronger. I was shanghaied." + +"Shanghaied?" repeated Randolph vacantly. + +"Yes, shanghaied! Hocused! Drugged at that gin mill on the wharf by +a lot of crimps, who, mistaking me for a better man, shoved me, +blind drunk and helpless, down the steps into a boat, and out to a +short-handed brig in the stream. When I came to I was outside the Heads, +pointed for Guayaquil. When they found they'd captured, not a poor Jack, +but a man who'd trod a quarterdeck, who knew, and was known at every +port on the trading line, and who could make it hot for them, they were +glad to compromise and set me ashore at Acapulco, and six weeks later I +landed in 'Frisco." + +"Safe and sound, thank Heaven!" said Randolph joyously. + +"Not exactly, lad," said Captain Dornton grimly, "but dead and sat +upon by the coroner, and my body comfortably boxed up and on its way to +England." + +"But that was nine months ago. What have you been doing since? Why +didn't you declare yourself then?" said Randolph impatiently, a little +irritated by the man's extreme indifference. He really talked like an +amused spectator of his own misfortunes. + +"Steady, lad. I know what you're going to say. I know all that happened. +But the first thing I found when I got back was that the shanghai +business had saved my life; that but for that I would have really been +occupying that box on its way to England, instead of the poor devil who +was taken for me." + +A cold tremor passed over Randolph. Captain Dornton, however, was +tolerantly smiling. + +"I don't understand," said Randolph breathlessly. + +Captain Dornton rose and, walking to the door, looked out into the +passage; then he shut the door carefully and returned, glancing about +the room and at the storm-washed windows. "I thought I heard some one +outside. I'm lying low just now, and only go out at night, for I don't +want this thing blown before I'm ready. Got anything to drink here?" + +Randolph replied by taking a decanter of whiskey and glasses from a +cupboard. The captain filled his glass, and continued with the same +gentle but exasperating nonchalance, "Mind my smoking?" + +"Not at all," said Randolph, pushing a cigar toward him. But the captain +put it aside, drew from his pocket a short black clay pipe, stuffed it +with black "Cavendish plug," which he had first chipped off in the +palm of his hand with a large clasp knife, lighted it, and took a few +meditative whiffs. Then, glancing at Randolph's papers, he said, "I'm +not keeping you from your work, lad?" and receiving a reply in the +negative, puffed at his pipe and once more settled himself comfortably +in his chair, with his dark, bearded profile toward Randolph. + +"You were saying just now you didn't understand," he went on slowly, +without looking up; "so you must take your own bearings from what +I'm telling you. When I met you that night I had just arrived from +Melbourne. I had been lucky in some trading speculations I had out +there, and I had some bills with me, but no money except what I had +tucked in the skin of that portmanteau and a few papers connected with +my family at home. When a man lives the roving kind of life I have, he +learns to keep all that he cares for under his own hat, and isn't apt +to blab to friends. But it got out in some way on the voyage that I had +money, and as there was a mixed lot of 'Sydney ducks' and 'ticket of +leave men' on board, it seems they hatched a nice little plot to waylay +me on the wharf on landing, rob me, and drop me into deep water. To make +it seem less suspicious, they associated themselves with a lot of crimps +who were on the lookout for our sailors, who were going ashore that +night too. I'd my suspicions that a couple of those men might be waiting +for me at the end of the wharf. I left the ship just a minute or two +before the sailors did. Then I met you. That meeting, my lad, was +my first step toward salvation. For the two men let you pass with my +portmanteau, which they didn't recognize, as I knew they would ME, and +supposed you were a stranger, and lay low, waiting for me. I, who went +into the gin-mill with the other sailors, was foolish enough to drink, +and was drugged and crimped as they were. I hadn't thought of that. A +poor devil of a ticket of leave man, about my size, was knocked down +for me, and," he added, suppressing a laugh, "will be buried, deeply +lamented, in the chancel of Dornton Church. While the row was going on, +the skipper, fearing to lose other men, warped out into the stream, +and so knew nothing of what happened to me. When they found what they +thought was my body, he was willing to identify it in the hope that +the crime might be charged to the crimps, and so did the other sailor +witnesses. But my brother Bill, who had just arrived here from Callao, +where he had been hunting for me, hushed it up to prevent a scandal. +All the same, Bill might have known the body wasn't mine, even though he +hadn't seen me for years." + +"But it was frightfully disfigured, so that even I, who saw you only +once, could not have sworn it was NOT you," said Randolph quickly. + +"Humph!" said Captain Dornton musingly. "Bill may have acted on the +square--though he was in a d----d hurry." + +"But," said Randolph eagerly, "you will put an end to all this now. You +will assert yourself. You have witnesses to prove your identity." + +"Steady, lad," said the captain, waving his pipe gently. "Of course I +have. But"--he stopped, laid down his pipe, and put his hands doggedly +in his pockets--"IS IT WORTH IT?" Seeing the look of amazement in +Randolph's face, he laughed his low laugh, and settled himself back in +his chair again. "No," he said quietly, "if it wasn't for my son, and +what's due him as my heir, I suppose--I reckon I'd just chuck the whole +d----d thing." + +"What!" said Randolph. "Give up the property, the title, the family +honor, the wrong done to your reputation, the punishment"--He hesitated, +fearing he had gone too far. + +Captain Dornton withdrew his pipe from his mouth with a gesture of +caution, and holding it up, said: "Steady, lad. We'll come to THAT by +and by. As to the property and title, I cut and run from THEM ten +years ago. To me they meant only the old thing--the life of a country +gentleman, the hunting, the shooting, the whole beastly business that +the land, over there, hangs like a millstone round your neck. They meant +all this to me, who loved adventure and the sea from my cradle. I cut +the property, for I hated it, and I hate it still. If I went back I +should hear the sea calling me day and night; I should feel the breath +of the southwest trades in every wind that blew over that tight little +island yonder; I should be always scenting the old trail, lad, the trail +that leads straight out of the Gate to swoop down to the South Seas. Do +you think a man who has felt his ship's bows heave and plunge under him +in the long Pacific swell--just ahead of him a reef breaking white into +the lagoon, and beyond a fence of feathery palms--cares to follow hounds +over gray hedges under a gray November sky? And the society? A man who's +got a speaking acquaintance in every port from Acapulco to Melbourne, +who knows every den and every longshoreman in it from a South American +tienda to a Samoan beach-comber's hut,--what does he want with society?" +He paused as Randolph's eyes were fixed wonderingly on the first sign +of emotion on his weather-beaten face, which seemed for a moment to glow +with the strength and freshness of the sea, and then said, with a laugh: +"You stare, lad. Well, for all the Dorntons are rather proud of their +family, like as not there was some beastly old Danish pirate among them +long ago, and I've got a taste of his blood in me. But I'm not quite as +bad as that yet." + +He laughed, and carelessly went on: "As to the family honor, I don't +see that it will be helped by my ripping up the whole thing and perhaps +showing that Bill was a little too previous in identifying me. As to my +reputation, that was gone after I left home, and if I hadn't been the +legal heir they wouldn't have bothered their heads about me. My father +had given me up long ago, and there isn't a man, woman, or child that +wouldn't now welcome Bill in my place." + +"There is one who wouldn't," said Randolph impulsively. + +"You mean Caroline Avondale?" said Captain Dornton dryly. + +Randolph colored. "No; I mean Miss Eversleigh, who was with your +brother." + +Captain Dornton reflected. "To be sure! Sibyl Eversleigh! I haven't seen +her since she was so high. I used to call her my little sweetheart. So +Sybby remembered Cousin Jack and came to find him? But when did you +meet her?" he asked suddenly, as if this was the only detail of the past +which had escaped him, fixing his frank eyes upon Randolph. + +The young man recounted at some length the dinner party at Dingwall's, +his conversation with Miss Eversleigh, and his interview with Sir +William, but spoke little of Miss Avondale. To his surprise, the captain +listened smilingly, and only said: "That was like Billy to take a rise +out of you by pretending you were suspected. That's his way--a little +rough when you don't know him and he's got a little grog amidships. All +the same, I'd have given something to have heard him 'running' you, when +all the while you had the biggest bulge on him, only neither of you +knew it." He laughed again, until Randolph, amazed at his levity and +indifference, lost his patience. + +"Do you know," he said bluntly, "that they don't believe you were +legally married?" + +But Captain Dornton only continued to laugh, until, seeing his +companion's horrified face, he became demure. "I suppose Bill didn't, +for Bill had sense enough to know that otherwise he would have to take a +back seat to Bobby." + +"But did Miss Avondale know you were legally married, and that your son +was the heir?" asked Randolph bluntly. + +"She had no reason to suspect otherwise, although we were married +secretly. She was an old friend of my wife, not particularly of mine." + +Randolph sat back amazed and horrified. Those were HER own words. Or was +this man deceiving him as the others had? + +But the captain, eying him curiously, but still amusedly, added: "I even +thought of bringing her as one of my witnesses, until"-- + +"Until what?" asked Randolph quickly, as he saw the captain had +hesitated. + +"Until I found she wasn't to be trusted; until I found she was too thick +with Bill," said the captain bluntly. "And now she's gone to England +with him and the boy, I suppose she'll make him come to terms." + +"Come to terms?" echoed Randolph. "I don't understand." Yet he had an +instinctive fear that he did. + +"Well," said the captain slowly, "suppose she might prefer the chance of +being the wife of a grown-up baronet to being the governess of one who +was only a minor? She's a cute girl," he added dryly. + +"But," said Randolph indignantly, "you have other witnesses, I hope." + +"Of course I have. I've got the Spanish records now from the Callao +priest, and they're put in a safe place should anything happen to me--if +anything could happen to a dead man!" he added grimly. "These proofs +were all I was waiting for before I made up my mind whether I should +blow the whole thing, or let it slide." + +Randolph looked again with amazement at this strange man who seemed so +indifferent to the claims of wealth, position, and even to revenge. It +seemed inconceivable, and yet he could not help being impressed with his +perfect sincerity. He was relieved, however, when Captain Dornton rose +with apparent reluctance and put away his pipe. + +"Now look here, my lad, I'm right glad to have overhauled you again, +whatever happened or is going to happen, and there's my hand upon it! +Now, to come to business. I'm going over to England on this job, and I +want you to come and help me." + +Randolph's heart leaped. The appeal revived all his old boyish +enthusiasm, with his secret loyalty to the man before him. But he +suddenly remembered his past illusions, and for an instant he hesitated. + +"But the bank," he stammered, scarce knowing what to say. + +The captain smiled. "I will pay you better than the bank; and at the end +of four months, in whatever way this job turns out, if you still wish to +return here, I will see that you are secured from any loss. Perhaps you +may be able to get a leave of absence. But your real object must be kept +a secret from every one. Not a word of my existence or my purpose must +be blown before I am ready. You and Jack Redhill are all that know it +now." + +"But you have a lawyer?" said the surprised Randolph. + +"Not yet. I'm my own lawyer in this matter until I get fairly under way. +I've studied the law enough to know that as soon as I prove that I'm +alive the case must go on on account of my heir, whether I choose to cry +quits or not. And it's just THAT that holds my hand." + +Randolph stared at the extraordinary man before him. For a moment, as +the strange story of his miraculous escape and his still more wonderful +indifference to it all recurred to his mind, he felt a doubt of the +narrator's truthfulness or his sanity. But another glance at the +sailor's frank eyes dispelled that momentary suspicion. He held out his +hand as frankly, and grasping Captain Dornton's, said, "I will go." + + +V + + +Randolph's request for a four months' leave of absence was granted with +little objection and no curiosity. He had acquired the confidence of his +employers, and beyond Mr. Revelstoke's curt surprise that a young fellow +on the road to fortune should sacrifice so much time to irrelevant +travel, and the remark, "But you know your own business best," there was +no comment. It struck the young man, however, that Mr. Dingwall's slight +coolness on receiving the news might be attributed to a suspicion that +he was following Miss Avondale, whom he had fancied Dingwall disliked, +and he quickly made certain inquiries in regard to Miss Eversleigh and +the possibility of his meeting her. As, without intending it, and to his +own surprise, he achieved a blush in so doing, which Dingwall noted, he +received a gracious reply, and the suggestion that it was "quite proper" +for him, on arriving, to send the young lady his card. + +Captain Dornton, under the alias of "Captain Johns," was ready to catch +the next steamer to the Isthmus, and in two days they sailed. The voyage +was uneventful, and if Randolph had expected any enthusiasm on the part +of the captain in the mission on which he was now fairly launched, he +would have been disappointed. Although his frankness was unchanged, he +volunteered no confidences. It was evident he was fully acquainted with +the legal strength of his claim, yet he, as evidently, deferred making +any plan of redress until he reached England. Of Miss Eversleigh he was +more communicative. "You would have liked her better, my lad, it you +hadn't been bewitched by the Avondale woman, for she is the whitest of +the Dorntons." In vain Randolph protested truthfully, yet with an even +more convincing color, that it had made no difference, and he HAD +liked her. The captain laughed. "Ay, lad! But she's a poor orphan, with +scarcely a hundred pounds a year, who lives with her guardian, an +old clergyman. And yet," he added grimly, "there are only three lives +between her and the property--mine, Bobby's, and Bill's--unless HE +should marry and have an heir." + +"The more reason why you should assert yourself and do what you can for +her now," said Randolph eagerly. + +"Ay," returned the captain, with his usual laugh, "when she was a child +I used to call her my little sweetheart, and gave her a ring, and I +reckon I promised to marry her, too, when she grew up." + +The truthful Randolph would have told him of Miss Evereleigh's gift, +but unfortunately he felt himself again blushing, and fearful lest the +captain would misconstrue his confusion, he said nothing. + +Except on this occasion, the captain talked with Randolph chiefly of his +later past,--of voyages he had made, of places they were passing, and +ports they visited. He spent much of the time with the officers, and +even the crew, over whom he seemed to exercise a singular power, +and with whom he exhibited an odd freemasonry. To Randolph's eyes he +appeared to grow in strength and stature in the salt breath of the sea, +and although he was uniformly kind, even affectionate, to him, he was +brusque to the other passengers, and at times even with his friends the +sailors. Randolph sometimes wondered how he would treat a crew of his +own. He found some answer to that question in the captain's manner to +Jack Redhill, the abstractor of the portmanteau, and his old shipmate, +who was accompanying the captain in some dependent capacity, but who +received his master's confidences and orders with respectful devotion. + +It was a cold, foggy morning, nearly two months later, that they landed +at Plymouth. The English coast had been a vague blank all night, only +pierced, long hours apart, by dim star-points or weird yellow beacon +flashes against the horizon. And this vagueness and unreality increased +on landing, until it seemed to Randolph that they had slipped into a +land of dreams. The illusion was kept up as they walked in the weird +shadows through half-lit streets into a murky railway station throbbing +with steam and sudden angry flashes in the darkness, and then drew away +into what ought to have been the open country, but was only gray plains +of mist against a lost horizon. Sometimes even the vague outlook was +obliterated by passing trains coming from nowhere and slipping into +nothingness. As they crept along with the day, without, however, any +lightening of the opaque vault overhead to mark its meridian, there +came at times a thinning of the gray wall on either side of the track, +showing the vague bulk of a distant hill, the battlemented sky line of +an old-time hall, or the spires of a cathedral, but always melting back +into the mist again as in a dream. Then vague stretches of gloom +again, foggy stations obscured by nebulous light and blurred and moving +figures, and the black relief of a tunnel. Only once the captain, +catching sight of Randolph's awed face under the lamp of the smoking +carriage, gave way to his long, low laugh. "Jolly place, England--so +very 'Merrie.'" And then they came to a comparatively lighter, broader, +and more brilliantly signaled tunnel filled with people, and as they +remained in it, Randolph was told it was London. With the sensation +of being only half awake, he was guided and put into a cab by his +companion, and seemed to be completely roused only at the hotel. + + +It had been arranged that Randolph should first go down to Chillingworth +rectory and call on Miss Eversleigh, and, without disclosing his +secret, gather the latest news from Dornton Hall, only a few miles from +Chillingworth. For this purpose he had telegraphed to her that evening, +and had received a cordial response. The next morning he arose early, +and, in spite of the gloom, in the glow of his youthful optimism entered +the bedroom of the sleeping Captain Dornton, and shook him by the +shoulder in lieu of the accolade, saying: "Rise, Sir John Dornton!" + +The captain, a light sleeper, awoke quickly. "Thank you, my lad, all the +same, though I don't know that I'm quite ready yet to tumble up to that +kind of piping. There's a rotten old saying in the family that only +once in a hundred years the eldest son succeeds. That's why Bill was so +cocksure, I reckon. Well?" + +"In an hour I'm off to Chillingworth to begin the campaign," said +Randolph cheerily. + +"Luck to you, my boy, whatever happens. Clap a stopper on your jaws, +though, now and then. I'm glad you like Sybby, but I don't want you to +like her so much as to forget yourself and give me away." + +Half an hour out of London the fog grew thinner, breaking into lace-like +shreds in the woods as the train sped by, or expanding into lustrous +tenuity above him. Although the trees were leafless, there was some +recompense in the glimpses their bare boughs afforded of clustering +chimneys and gables nestling in ivy. An infinite repose had been laid +upon the landscape with the withdrawal of the fog, as of a veil lifted +from the face of a sleeper. All his boyish dreams of the mother country +came back to him in the books he had read, and re-peopled the vast +silence. Even the rotting leaves that lay thick in the crypt-like woods +seemed to him the dead laurels of its past heroes and sages. Quaint +old-time villages, thatched roofs, the ever-recurring square towers of +church or hall, the trim, ordered parks, tiny streams crossed by heavy +stone bridges much too large for them--all these were only pages of +those books whose leaves he seemed to be turning over. Two hours of this +fancy, and then the train stopped at a station within a mile or two of +a bleak headland, a beacon, and the gray wash of a pewter-colored sea, +where a hilly village street climbed to a Norman church tower and the +ivied gables of a rectory. + +Miss Eversleigh, dignifiedly tall, but youthfully frank, as he +remembered her, was waiting to drive him in a pony trap to the rectory. +A little pink, with suppressed consciousness and the responsibilities of +presenting a stranger guest to her guardian, she seemed to Randolph more +charming than ever. + +But her first word of news shocked and held him breathless. Bobby, the +little orphan, a frail exotic, had succumbed to the Northern winter. A +cold caught in New York had developed into pneumonia, and he died on the +passage. Miss Avondale, although she had received marked attention from +Sir William, returned to America in the same ship. + +"I really don't think she was quite as devoted to the poor child as all +that, you know," she continued with innocent frankness, "and Cousin Bill +was certainly most kind to them both, yet there really seemed to be some +coolness between them after the child's death. But," she added suddenly, +for the first time observing her companion's evident distress, and +coloring in confusion, "I beg your pardon--I've been horribly rude and +heartless. I dare say the poor boy was very dear to you, and of course +Miss Avondale was your friend. Please forgive me!" + +Randolph, intent only on that catastrophe which seemed to wreck all +Captain Dornton's hopes and blunt his only purpose for declaring +himself, hurriedly reassured her, yet was not sorry his agitation had +been misunderstood. And what was to be done? There was no train back to +London for four hours. He dare not telegraph, and if he did, could he +trust to his strange patron's wise conduct under the first shock of this +news to his present vacillating purpose? He could only wait. + +Luckily for his ungallant abstraction, they were speedily at the +rectory, where a warm welcome from Mr. Brunton, Sibyl's guardian, and +his family forced him to recover himself, and showed him that the +story of his devotion to John Dornton had suffered nothing from Miss +Eversleigh's recital. Distraught and anxious as he was, he could not +resist the young girl's offer after luncheon to show him the church with +the vault of the Dorntons and the tablet erected to John Dornton, and, +later, the Hall, only two miles distant. But here Randolph hesitated. + +"I would rather not call on Sir William to-day," he said. + +"You need not. He is over at the horse show at Fern Dyke, and won't be +back till late. And if he has been forgathering with his boon companions +he won't be very pleasant company." + +"Sibyl!" said the rector in good-humored protest. + +"Oh, Mr. Trent has had a little of Cousin Bill's convivial manners +before now," said the young girl vivaciously, "and isn't shocked. But we +can see the Hall from the park on our way to the station." + +Even in his anxious preoccupation he could see that the church itself +was a quaint and wonderful preservation of the past. For four centuries +it had been sacred to the tombs of the Dorntons and their effigies in +brass and marble, yet, as Randolph glanced at the stately sarcophagus of +the unknown ticket of leave man, its complacent absurdity, combined with +his nervousness, made him almost hysterical. Yet again, it seemed to him +that something of the mystery and inviolability of the past now invested +that degraded dust, and it would be an equal impiety to disturb it. Miss +Eversleigh, again believing his agitation caused by the memory of +his old patron, tactfully hurried him away. Yet it was a more bitter +thought, I fear, that not only were his lips sealed to his charming +companion on the subject in which they could sympathize, but his anxiety +prevented him from availing himself of that interview to exchange the +lighter confidences he had eagerly looked forward to. It seemed cruel +that he was debarred this chance of knitting their friendship closer by +another of those accidents that had brought them together. And he was +aware that his gloomy abstraction was noticed by her. At first she +drew herself up in a certain proud reserve, and then, perhaps, his own +nervousness infecting her in turn, he was at last terrified to observe +that, as she stood before the tomb, her clear gray eyes filled with +tears. + +"Oh, please don't do that--THERE, Miss Eversleigh," he burst out +impulsively. + +"I was thinking of Cousin Jack," she said, a little startled at his +abruptness. "Sometimes it seems so strange that he is dead--I scarcely +can believe it." + +"I meant," stammered Randolph, "that he is much happier--you know"--he +grew almost hysterical again as he thought of the captain lying +cheerfully in his bed at the hotel--"much happier than you or I," he +added bitterly; "that is--I mean, it grieves me so to see YOU grieve, +you know." + +Miss Eversleigh did NOT know, but there was enough sincerity and real +feeling in the young fellow's voice and eyes to make her color slightly +and hurry him away to a locality less fraught with emotions. In a few +moments they entered the park, and the old Hall rose before them. It was +a great Tudor house of mullioned windows, traceries, and battlements; of +stately towers, moss-grown balustrades, and statues darkening with the +fog that was already hiding the angles and wings of its huge bulk. A +peacock spread its ostentatious tail on the broad stone steps before the +portal; a flight of rooks from the leafless elms rose above its stacked +and twisted chimneys. After all, how little had this stately incarnation +of the vested rights and sacred tenures of the past in common with the +laughing rover he had left in London that morning! And thinking of the +destinies that the captain held so lightly in his hand, and perhaps not +a little of the absurdity of his own position to the confiding young +girl beside him, for a moment he half hated him. + +The fog deepened as they reached the station, and, as it seemed to +Randolph, made their parting still more vague and indefinite, and it +was with difficulty that he could respond to the young girl's frank hope +that he would soon return to them. Yet he half resolved that he would +not until he could tell her all. + +Nevertheless, as the train crept more and more slowly, with halting +signals, toward London, he buoyed himself up with the hope that Captain +Dornton would still try conclusions for his patrimony, or at least come +to some compromise by which he might be restored to his rank and name. +But upon these hopes the vision of that great house settled firmly upon +its lands, held there in perpetuity by the dead and stretched-out hands +of those that lay beneath its soil, always obtruded itself. Then the +fog deepened, and the crawling train came to a dead stop at the next +station. The whole line was blocked. Four precious hours were hopelessly +lost. + +Yet despite his impatience, he reentered London with the same dazed +semi-consciousness of feeling as on the night he had first arrived. +There seemed to have been no interim; his visit to the rectory and Hall, +and even his fateful news, were only a dream. He drove through the same +shadow to the hotel, was received by the same halo-encircled lights that +had never been put out. After glancing through the halls and reading +room he hurriedly made his way to his companion's room. The captain was +not there. He quickly summoned the waiter. The gentleman? Yes; Captain +Dornton had left with his servant, Redhill, a few hours after Mr. Trent +went away. He had left no message. + +Again condemned to wait in inactivity, Randolph tried to resist a +certain uneasiness that was creeping over him, by attributing the +captain's absence to some unexpected legal consultation or the gathering +of evidence, his prolonged detention being due to the same fog that had +delayed his own train. But he was somewhat surprised to find that the +captain had ordered his luggage into the porter's care in the hall below +before leaving, and that nothing remained in his room but a few toilet +articles and the fateful portmanteau. The hours passed slowly. Owing to +that perpetual twilight in which he had passed the day, there seemed +no perceptible flight of time, and at eleven o'clock, the captain not +arriving, he determined to wait in the latter's room so as to be sure +not to miss him. Twelve o'clock boomed from an adjacent invisible +steeple, but still he came not. Overcome by the fatigue and excitement +of the day, Randolph concluded to lie down in his clothes on +the captain's bed, not without a superstitious and uncomfortable +recollection of that night, about a year before, when he had awaited +him vainly at the San Francisco hotel. Even the fateful portmanteau was +there to assist his gloomy fancy. Nevertheless, with the boom of one +o'clock in his drowsy ears as his last coherent recollection, he sank +into a dreamless sleep. + +He was awakened by a tapping at his door, and jumped up to realize by +his watch and the still burning gaslight that it was nine o'clock. But +the intruder was only a waiter with a letter which he had brought to +Randolph's room in obedience to the instructions the latter had +given overnight. Not doubting it was from the captain, although the +handwriting of the address was unfamiliar, he eagerly broke the seal. +But he was surprised to read as follows:-- + + +DEAR MR. TRENT,--We had such sad news from the Hall after you left. +Sir William was seized with a kind of fit. It appears that he had just +returned from the horse show, and had given his mare to the groom while +he walked to the garden entrance. The groom saw him turn at the yew +hedge, and was driving to the stables when he heard a queer kind of cry, +and turning back to the garden front, found poor Sir William lying on +the ground in convulsions. The doctor was sent for, and Mr. Brunton +and I went over to the Hall. The doctor thinks it was something like a +stroke, but he is not certain, and Sir William is quite delirious, and +doesn't recognize anybody. I gathered from the groom that he had been +DRINKING HEAVILY. Perhaps it was well that you did not see him, but I +thought you ought to know what had happened in case you came down again. +It's all very dreadful, and I wonder if that is why I was so nervous all +the afternoon. It may have been a kind of presentiment. Don't you think +so? + +Yours faithfully, + +SIBYL EVERSLEIGH. + + +I am afraid Randolph thought more of the simple-minded girl who, in the +midst of her excitement, turned to him half unconsciously, than he did +of Sir William. Had it not been for the necessity of seeing the captain, +he would probably have taken the next train to the rectory. Perhaps +he might later. He thought little of Sir William's illness, and was +inclined to accept the young girl's naive suggestion of its cause. +He read and reread the letter, staring at the large, grave, childlike +handwriting--so like herself--and obeying a sudden impulse, raised the +signature, as gravely as if it had been her hand, to his lips. + +Still the day advanced and the captain came not. Randolph found the +inactivity insupportable. He knew not where to seek him; he had no +more clue to his resorts or his friends--if, indeed, he had any +in London--than he had after their memorable first meeting in San +Francisco. He might, indeed, be the dupe of an impostor, who, at the +eleventh hour, had turned craven and fled. He might be, in the captain's +indifference, a mere instrument set aside at his pleasure. Yet he could +take advantage of Miss Eversleigh's letter and seek her, and confess +everything, and ask her advice. It was a great and at the moment it +seemed to him an overwhelming temptation. But only for the moment. +He had given his word to the captain--more, he had given his youthful +FAITH. And, to his credit, he never swerved again. It seemed to him, +too, in his youthful superstition, as he looked at the abandoned +portmanteau, that he had again to take up his burden--his "trust." + +It was nearly four o'clock when the spell was broken. A large packet, +bearing the printed address of a London and American bank, was brought +to him by a special messenger; but the written direction was in +the captain's hand. Randolph tore it open. It contained one or two +inclosures, which he hastily put aside for the letter, two pages of +foolscap, which he read breathlessly:-- + + +DEAR TRENT,--Don't worry your head if I have slipped my cable without +telling you. I'm all right, only I got the news you are bringing me, +JUST AFTER YOU LEFT, by Jack Redhill, whom I had sent to Dornton Hall +to see how the land lay the night before. It was not that I didn't trust +YOU, but HE had ways of getting news that you wouldn't stoop to. You +can guess, from what I have told you already, that, now Bobby is gone, +there's nothing to keep me here, and I'm following my own idea of +letting the whole blasted thing slide. I only worked this racket for +the sake of him. I'm sorry for him, but I suppose the poor little beggar +couldn't stand these sunless, God-forsaken longitudes any more than +I could. Besides that, as I didn't want to trust any lawyer with my +secret, I myself had hunted up some books on the matter, and found that, +by the law of entail, I'd have to rip up the whole blessed thing, and +Bill would have had to pay back every blessed cent of what rents he had +collected since he took hold--not to ME, but the ESTATE--with interest, +and that no arrangement I could make with HIM would be legal on account +of the boy. At least, that's the way the thing seemed to pan out to me. +So that when I heard of Bobby's death I was glad to jump the rest, and +that's what I made up my mind to do. + +But, like a blasted lubber, now that I COULD do it and cut right away, +I must needs think that I'd like first to see Bill on the sly, without +letting on to any one else, and tell him what I was going to do. I'd no +fear that he'd object, or that he'd hesitate a minute to fall in with my +plan of dropping my name and my game, and giving him full swing, while I +stood out to sea and the South Pacific, and dropped out of his mess for +the rest of my life. Perhaps I wanted to set his mind at rest, if he'd +ever had any doubts; perhaps I wanted to have a little fun out of him +for his d----d previousness; perhaps, lad, I had a hankering to see the +old place for the last time. At any rate, I allowed to go to Dornton +Hall. I timed myself to get there about the hour you left, to keep +out of sight until I knew he was returning from the horse show, and to +waylay him ALONE and have our little talk without witnesses. I daren't +go to the Hall, for some of the old servants might recognize me. + +I went down there with Jack Redhill, and we separated at the station. I +hung around in the fog. I even saw you pass with Sibyl in the dogcart, +but you didn't see me. I knew the place, and just where to hide where +I could have the chance of seeing him alone. But it was a beastly job +waiting there. I felt like a d----d thief instead of a man who was +simply visiting his own. Yet, you mayn't believe me, lad, but I hated +the place and all it meant more than ever. Then, by and by, I heard him +coming. I had arranged it all with myself to get into the yew hedge, and +step out as he came to the garden entrance, and as soon as he recognized +me to get him round the terrace into the summer house, where we could +speak without danger. + +I heard the groom drive away to the stable with the cart, and, sure +enough, in a minute he came lurching along toward the garden door. He +was mighty unsteady on his pins, and I reckon he was more than half +full, which was a bad lookout for our confab. But I calculated that the +sight of me, when I slipped out, would sober him. And, by ---, it +did! For his eyes bulged out of his head and got fixed there; his jaw +dropped; he tried to strike at me with a hunting crop he was carrying, +and then he uttered an ungodly yell you might have heard at the station, +and dropped down in his tracks. I had just time to slip back into the +hedge again before the groom came driving back, and then all hands were +piped, and they took him into the house. + +And of course the game was up, and I lost my only chance. I was thankful +enough to get clean away without discovering myself, and I have to trust +now to the fact of Bill's being drunk, and thinking it was my ghost that +he saw, in a touch of the jimjams! And I'm not sorry to have given him +that start, for there was that in his eye, and that in the stroke he +made, my lad, that showed a guilty conscience I hadn't reckoned on. And +it cured me of my wish to set his mind at ease. He's welcome to all the +rest. + +And that's why I'm going away--never to return. I'm sorry I couldn't +take you with me, but it's better that I shouldn't see you again, and +that you didn't even know WHERE I was gone. When you get this I shall +be on blue water and heading for the sunshine. You'll find two letters +inclosed. One you need not open unless you hear that my secret was +blown, and you are ever called upon to explain your relations with me. +The other is my thanks, my lad, in a letter of credit on the bank, for +the way you have kept your trust, and I believe will continue to keep +it, to + +JOHN DORNTON. + +P.S. I hope you dropped a tear over my swell tomb at Dornton Church. +All the same, I don't begrudge it to the poor devil who lost his life +instead of me. + +J. D. + + +As Randolph read, he seemed to hear the captain's voice throughout the +letter, and even his low, characteristic laugh in the postscript. Then +he suddenly remembered the luggage which the porter had said the captain +had ordered to be taken below; but on asking that functionary he was +told a conveyance for the Victoria Docks had called with an order, and +taken it away at daybreak. It was evident that the captain had intended +the letter should be his only farewell. Depressed and a little hurt +at his patron's abruptness, Randolph returned to his room. Opening the +letter of credit, he found it was for a thousand pounds--a munificent +beneficence, as it seemed to Randolph, for his dubious services, and +a proof of his patron's frequent declarations that he had money enough +without touching the Dornton estates. + +For a long time he sat with these sole evidences of the reality of his +experience in his hands, a prey to a thousand surmises and conflicting +thoughts. Was he the self-deceived disciple of a visionary, a generous, +unselfish, but weak man, whose eccentricity passed even the bounds of +reason? Who would believe the captain's story or the captain's motives? +Who comprehend his strange quest and its stranger and almost ridiculous +termination? Even if the seal of secrecy were removed in after years, +what had he, Randolph, to show in corroboration of his patron's claim? + +Then it occurred to him that there was no reason why he should not go +down to the rectory and see Miss Eversleigh again under pretense of +inquiring after the luckless baronet, whose title and fortune had, +nevertheless, been so strangely preserved. He began at once his +preparations for the journey, and was nearly ready when a servant +entered with a telegram. Randolph's heart leaped. The captain had sent +him news--perhaps had changed his mind! He tore off the yellow cover, +and read,-- + + +Sir William died at twelve o'clock without recovering consciousness. + +S. EVERSLEIGH. + + +VI + + +For a moment Randolph gazed at the dispatch with a half-hysterical +laugh, and then became as suddenly sane and cool. One thought alone was +uppermost in his mind: the captain could not have heard this news yet, +and if he was still within reach, or accessible by any means whatever, +however determined his purpose, he must know it at once. The only clue +to his whereabouts was the Victoria Docks. But that was something. In +another moment Randolph was in the lower hall, had learned the quickest +way of reaching the docks, and plunged into the street. + +The fog here swooped down, and to the embarrassment of his mind was +added the obscurity of light and distance, which halted him after a few +hurried steps, in utter perplexity. Indistinct figures were here and +there approaching him out of nothingness and melting away again into the +greenish gray chaos. He was in a busy thoroughfare; he could hear the +slow trample of hoofs, the dull crawling of vehicles, and the warning +outcries of a traffic he could not see. Trusting rather to his own speed +than that of a halting conveyance, he blundered on until he reached +the railway station. A short but exasperating journey of impulses and +hesitations, of detonating signals and warning whistles, and he at last +stood on the docks, beyond him a vague bulk or two, and a soft, opaque +flowing wall--the river! + +But one steamer had left that day--the Dom Pedro, for the River +Plate--two hours before, but until the fog thickened, a quarter of an +hour ago, she could be seen, so his informant said, still lying, with +steam up, in midstream. Yes, it was still possible to board her. But +even as the boatman spoke, and was leading the way toward the landing +steps, the fog suddenly lightened; a soft salt breath stole in from the +distant sea, and a veil seemed to be lifted from the face of the gray +waters. The outlines of the two shores came back; the spars of nearer +vessels showed distinctly, but the space where the huge hulk had rested +was empty and void. There was a trail of something darker and more +opaque than fog itself lying near the surface of the water, but the Dom +Pedro was a mere speck in the broadening distance. + + +A bright sun and a keen easterly wind were revealing the curling ridges +of the sea beyond the headland when Randolph again passed the gates of +Dornton Hall on his way to the rectory. Now, for the first time, he was +able to see clearly the outlines of that spot which had seemed to him +only a misty dream, and even in his preoccupation he was struck by its +grave beauty. The leafless limes and elms in the park grouped themselves +as part of the picturesque details of the Hall they encompassed, and +the evergreen slope of firs and larches rose as a background to the +gray battlements, covered with dark green ivy, whose rich shadows were +brought out by the unwonted sunshine. With a half-repugnant curiosity he +had tried to identify the garden entrance and the fateful yew hedge the +captain had spoken of as he passed. But as quickly he fell back upon the +resolution he had taken in coming there--to dissociate his secret, his +experience, and his responsibility to his patron from his relations +to Sibyl Eversleigh; to enjoy her companionship without an obtruding +thought of the strange circumstances that had brought them together +at first, or the stranger fortune that had later renewed their +acquaintance. He had resolved to think of her as if she had merely +passed into his life in the casual ways of society, with only her +personal charms to set her apart from others. Why should his exclusive +possession of a secret--which, even if confided to her, would only give +her needless and hopeless anxiety--debar them from an exchange of those +other confidences of youth and sympathy? Why could he not love her and +yet withhold from her the knowledge of her cousin's existence? So he had +determined to make the most of his opportunity during his brief holiday; +to avail himself of her naive invitation, and even of what he dared +sometimes to think was her predilection for his companionship. And if, +before he left, he had acquired a right to look forward to a time +when her future and his should be one--but here his glowing fancy was +abruptly checked by his arrival at the rectory door. + +Mr. Brunton received him cordially, yet with a slight business +preoccupation and a certain air of importance that struck him as +peculiar. Sibyl, he informed him, was engaged at that moment with some +friends who had come over from the Hall. Mr. Trent would understand that +there was a great deal for her to do--in her present position. +Wondering why SHE should be selected to do it instead of older and more +experienced persons, Randolph, however, contented himself with inquiries +regarding the details of Sir William's seizure and death. He learned, as +he expected, that nothing whatever was known of the captain's visit, nor +was there the least suspicion that the baronet's attack was the result +of any predisposing emotion. Indeed, it seemed more possible that his +medical attendants, knowing something of his late excesses and their +effect upon his constitution, preferred, for the sake of avoiding +scandal, to attribute the attack to long-standing organic disease. + +Randolph, who had already determined, as a forlorn hope, to write +a cautious letter to the captain (informing him briefly of the news +without betraying his secret, and directed to the care of the consignees +of the Dom Pedro in Brazil, by the next post), was glad to be able to +add this medical opinion to relieve his patron's mind of any fear of +having hastened his brother's death by his innocent appearance. But here +the entrance of Sibyl Eversleigh with her friends drove all else from +his mind. + +She looked so tall and graceful in her black dress, which set off her +dazzling skin, and, with her youthful gravity, gave to her figure the +charming maturity of a young widow, that he was for a moment awed and +embarrassed. But he experienced a relief when she came eagerly toward +him in all her old girlish frankness, and with even something of +yearning expectation in her gray eyes. + +"It was so good of you to come," she said. "I thought you would imagine +how I was feeling"--She stopped, as if she were conscious, as Randolph +was, of a certain chill of unresponsiveness in the company, and said +in an undertone, "Wait until we are alone." Then, turning with a slight +color and a pretty dignity toward her friends, she continued: "Lady +Ashbrook, this is Mr. Trent, an old friend of both my cousins when they +were in America." + +In spite of the gracious response of the ladies, Randolph was aware +of their critical scrutiny of both himself and Miss Eversleigh, of +the exchange of significant glances, and a certain stiffness in +her guardian's manner. It was quite enough to affect Randolph's +sensitiveness and bring out his own reserve. + +Fancying, however, that his reticence disturbed Miss Eversleigh, he +forced himself to converse with Lady Ashbrook--avoiding many of her +pointed queries as to himself, his acquaintance with Sibyl, and the +length of time he expected to stay in England--and even accompanied her +to her carriage. And here he was rewarded by Sibyl running out with a +crape veil twisted round her throat and head, and the usual femininely +forgotten final message to her visitor. As the carriage drove away, she +turned to Randolph, and said quickly,-- + +"Let us go in by way of the garden." + +It was a slight detour, but it gave them a few moments alone. + +"It was so awful and sudden," she said, looking gravely at Randolph, +"and to think that only an hour before I had been saying unkind things +of him! Of course," she added naively, "they were true, and the groom +admitted to me that the mare was overdriven and Sir William could +hardly stand. And only to think of it! he never recovered complete +consciousness, but muttered incoherently all the time. I was with him to +the last, and he never said a word I could understand--only once." + +"What did he say?" asked Randolph uneasily. + +"I don't like to say--it was TOO dreadful!" + +Randolph did not press her. Yet, after a pause, she said in a low voice, +with a naivete impossible to describe, "It was, 'Jack, damn you!'" + +He did not dare to look at her, even with this grim mingling of farce +and tragedy which seemed to invest every scene of that sordid drama. +Miss Eversleigh continued gravely: "The groom's name was Robert, but +Jack might have been the name of one of his boon companions." + +Convinced that she suspected nothing, yet in the hope of changing the +subject, Randolph said quietly: "I thought your guardian perhaps a +little less frank and communicative to-day." + +"Yes," said the young girl suddenly, with a certain impatience, and +yet in half apology to her companion, "of course. He--THEY--all and +everybody--are much more concerned and anxious about my new position +than I am. It's perfectly dreadful--this thinking of it all the time, +arranging everything, criticising everything in reference to it, and the +poor man who is the cause of it all not yet at rest in his grave! The +whole thing is inhuman and unchristian!" + +"I don't understand," stammered Randolph vaguely. "What IS your new +position? What do you mean?" + +The girl looked up in his face with surprise. "Why, didn't you know? I'm +the next of kin--I'm the heiress--and will succeed to the property in +six months, when I am of age." + +In a flash of recollection Randolph suddenly recalled the captain's +words, "There are only three lives between her and the property." +Their meaning had barely touched his comprehension before. She was the +heiress. Yes, save for the captain! + +She saw the change, the wonder, even the dismay, in his face, and her +own brightened frankly. "It's so good to find one who never thought of +it, who hadn't it before him as the chief end for which I was born! Yes, +I was the next of kin after dear Jack died and Bill succeeded, but +there was every chance that he would marry and have an heir. And yet the +moment he was taken ill that idea was uppermost in my guardian's mind, +good man as he is, and even forced upon me. If this--this property +had come from poor Cousin Jack, whom I loved, there would have been +something dear in it as a memory or a gift, but from HIM, whom I +couldn't bear--I know it's wicked to talk that way, but it's simply +dreadful!" + +"And yet," said Randolph, with a sudden seriousness he could not +control, "I honestly believe that Captain Dornton would be perfectly +happy--yes, rejoiced!--if he knew the property had come to YOU." + +There was such an air of conviction, and, it seemed to the simple girl, +even of spiritual insight, in his manner that her clear, handsome eyes +rested wonderingly on his. + +"Do you really think so?" she said thoughtfully. "And yet HE knows +that I am like him. Yes," she continued, answering Randolph's look of +surprise, "I am just like HIM in that. I loathe and despise the life +that this thing would condemn me to; I hate all that it means, and all +that it binds me to, as he used to; and if I could, I would cut and run +from it as HE did." + +She spoke with a determined earnestness and warmth, so unlike her usual +grave naivete that he was astonished. There was a flush on her cheek and +a frank fire in her eye that reminded him strangely of the captain; and +yet she had emphasized her words with a little stamp of her narrow foot +and a gesture of her hand that was so untrained and girlish that he +smiled, and said, with perhaps the least touch of bitterness in his +tone, "But you will get over that when you come into the property." + +"I suppose I shall," she returned, with an odd lapse to her former +gravity and submissiveness. "That's what they all tell me." + +"You will be independent and your own mistress," he added. + +"Independent," she repeated impatiently, "with Dornton Hall and twenty +thousand a year! Independent, with every duty marked out for me! +Independent, with every one to criticise my smallest actions--every one +who would never have given a thought to the orphan who was contented +and made her own friends on a hundred a year! Of course you, who are +a stranger, don't understand; yet I thought that you"--she +hesitated,--"would have thought differently." + +"Why?" + +"Why, with your belief that one should make one's own fortune," she +said. + +"That would do for a man, and in that I respected Captain Dornton's +convictions, as you told them to me. But for a girl, how could she be +independent, except with money?" + +She shook her head as if unconvinced, but did not reply. They were +nearing the garden porch, when she looked up, and said: "And as YOU'RE +a man, you will be making your way in the world. Mr. Dingwall said you +would." + +There was something so childishly trustful and confident in her +assurance that he smiled. "Mr. Dingwall is too sanguine, but it gives me +hope to hear YOU say so." + +She colored slightly, and said gravely: "We must go in now." Yet she +lingered for a moment before the door. For a long time afterward he had +a very vivid recollection of her charming face, in its childlike +gravity and its quaint frame of black crape, standing out against the +sunset-warmed wall of the rectory. "Promise me you will not mind what +these people say or do," she said suddenly. + +"I promise," he returned, with a smile, "to mind only what YOU say or +do." + +"But I might not be always quite right, you know," she said naively. + +"I'll risk that." + +"Then, when we go in now, don't talk much to me, but make yourself +agreeable to all the others, and then go straight home to the inn, and +don't come here until after the funeral." + +The faintest evasive glint of mischievousness in her withdrawn eyes at +this moment mitigated the austerity of her command as they both passed +in. + +Randolph had intended not to return to London until after the funeral, +two days later, and spent the interesting day at the neighboring town, +whence he dispatched his exploring and perhaps hopeless letter to +the captain. The funeral was a large and imposing one, and impressed +Randolph for the first time with the local importance and solid +standing of the Dorntons. All the magnates and old county families were +represented. The inn yard and the streets of the little village were +filled with their quaint liveries, crested paneled carriages, and +silver-cipher caparisoned horses, with a sprinkling of fashion from +London. He could not close his ears to the gossip of the villagers +regarding the suddenness of the late baronet's death, the extinction of +the title, the accession of the orphaned girl to the property, and even, +to his greater exasperation, speculations upon her future and probable +marriage. "Some o' they gay chaps from Lunnon will be lordin' it over +the Hall afore long," was the comment of the hostler. + +It was with some little bitterness that Randolph took his seat in the +crowded church. But this feeling, and even his attempts to discover Miss +Eversleigh's face in the stately family pew fenced off from the chancel, +presently passed away. And then his mind began to be filled with strange +and weird fancies. What grim and ghostly revelations might pass between +this dead scion of the Dorntons lying on the trestles before them and +the obscure, nameless ticket of leave man awaiting his entrance in the +vault below! The incongruity of this thought, with the smug complacency +of the worldly minded congregation sitting around him, and the probable +smiling carelessness of the reckless rover--the cause of all--even now +idly pacing the deck on the distant sea, touched him with horror. And +when added to this was the consciousness that Sibyl Eversleigh was +forced to become an innocent actor in this hideous comedy, it seemed +as much as he could bear. Again he questioned himself, Was he right to +withhold his secret from her? In vain he tried to satisfy his conscience +that she was happier in her ignorance. The resolve he had made to +keep his relations with her apart from his secret, he knew now, was +impossible. But one thing was left to him. Until he could disclose his +whole story--until his lips were unsealed by Captain Dornton--he must +never see her again. And the grim sanctity of the edifice seemed to make +that resolution a vow. + +He did not dare to raise his eyes again toward her pew, lest a sight of +her sweet, grave face might shake his resolution, and he slipped away +first among the departing congregation. He sent her a brief note from +the inn saying that he was recalled to London by an earlier train, and +that he would be obliged to return to California at once, but hoping +that if he could be of any further assistance to her she would write +to him to the care of the bank. It was a formal letter, and yet he had +never written otherwise than formally to her. That night he reached +London. On the following night he sailed from Liverpool for America. + + +Six months had passed. It was difficult, at first, for Randolph to pick +up his old life again; but his habitual earnestness and singleness of +purpose stood him in good stead, and a vague rumor that he had made some +powerful friends abroad, with the nearer fact that he had a letter of +credit for a thousand pounds, did not lessen his reputation. He was +reinstalled and advanced at the bank. Mr. Dingwall was exceptionally +gracious, and minute in his inquiries regarding Miss Eversleigh's +succession to the Dornton property, with an occasional shrewdness of eye +in his interrogations which recalled to Randolph the questioning of Miss +Eversleigh's friends, and which he responded to as cautiously. For the +young fellow remained faithful to his vow even in thinking of her, and +seemed to be absorbed entirely in his business. Yet there was a vague +ambition of purpose in this absorption that would probably have startled +the more conservative Englishman had he known it. + +He had not heard from Miss Eversleigh since he left, nor had he received +any response from the captain. Indeed, he had indulged in little hopes +of either. But he kept stolidly at work, perhaps with a larger trust +than he knew. And then, one day, he received a letter addressed in a +handwriting that made his heart leap, though he had seen it but once, +when it conveyed the news of Sir William Dornton's sudden illness. It +was from Miss Eversleigh, but the postmark was Callao! He tore open the +envelope, and for the next few moments forgot everything--his business +devotion, his lofty purpose, even his solemn vow. + +It read as follows:-- + + +DEAR MR. TRENT,--I should not be writing to you now if I did not believe +that I NOW understand why you left us so abruptly on the day of the +funeral, and why you were at times so strange. You might have been a +little less hard and cold even if you knew all that you did know. But +I must write now, for I shall be in San Francisco a few days after this +reaches you, and I MUST see you and have YOUR help, for I can have no +other, as you know. You are wondering what this means, and why I am +here. I know ALL and EVERYTHING. I know HE is alive and never was dead. +I know I have no right to what I have, and never had, and I have come +here to seek him and make him take it back. I could do no other. I could +not live and do anything but that, and YOU might have known it. But I +have not found him here as I hoped I should, though perhaps it was a +foolish hope of mine, and I am coming to you to help me seek him, for +he MUST BE FOUND. You know I want to keep his and your secret, and +therefore the only one I can turn to for assistance and counsel is YOU. + +You are wondering how I know what I do. Two months ago I GOT A LETTER +FROM HIM--the strangest, quaintest, and yet THE KINDEST LETTER--exactly +like himself and the way he used to talk! He had just heard of his +brother's death, and congratulated me on coming into the property, and +said he was now perfectly happy, and should KEEP DEAD, and never, never +come to life again; that he never thought things would turn out as +splendidly as they had--for Sir William MIGHT have had an heir--and that +now he should REALLY DIE HAPPY. He said something about everything being +legally right, and that I could do what I liked with the property. As +if THAT would satisfy me! Yet it was all so sweet and kind, and so like +dear old Jack, that I cried all night. And then I resolved to come here, +where his letter was dated from. Luckily I was of age now, and could +do as I liked, and I said I wanted to travel in South America and +California; and I suppose they didn't think it very strange that +I should use my liberty in that way. Some said it was quite like a +Dornton! I knew something of Callao from your friend Miss Avondale, and +could talk about it, which impressed them. So I started off with only a +maid--my old nurse. I was a little frightened at first, when I came to +think what I was doing, but everybody was very kind, and I really feel +quite independent now. So, you see, a girl may be INDEPENDENT, after +all! Of course I shall see Mr. Dingwall in San Francisco, but he need +not know anything more than that I am traveling for pleasure. And I may +go to the Sandwich Islands or Sydney, if I think HE is there. Of course +I have had to use some money--some of HIS rents--but it shall be paid +back. I will tell you everything about my plans when I see you. + +Yours faithfully, + +SIBYL EVERSLEIGH. + +P. S. Why did you let me cry over that man's tomb in the church? + + +Randolph looked again at the date, and then hurriedly consulted the +shipping list. She was due in ten days. Yet, delighted as he was with +that prospect, and touched as he had been with her courage and naive +determination, after his first joy he laid the letter down with a sigh. +For whatever was his ultimate ambition, he was still a mere salaried +clerk; whatever was her self-sacrificing purpose, she was still the rich +heiress. The seal of secrecy had been broken, yet the situation remained +unchanged; their association must still be dominated by it. And he +shrank from the thought of making her girlish appeal to him for help an +opportunity for revealing his real feelings. + +This instinct was strengthened by the somewhat formal manner in which +Mr. Dingwall announced her approaching visit. "Miss Eversleigh will stay +with Mrs. Dingwall while she is here, on account of her--er--position, +and the fact that she is without a chaperon. Mrs. Dingwall will, of +course, be glad to receive any friends Miss Eversleigh would like to +see." + +Randolph frankly returned that Miss Eversleigh had written to him, and +that he would be glad to present himself. Nothing more was said, but as +the days passed he could not help noticing that, in proportion as Mr. +Dingwall's manner became more stiff and ceremonious, Mr. Revelstoke's +usually crisp, good-humored suggestions grew more deliberate, and +Randolph found himself once or twice the subject of the president's +penetrating but smiling scrutiny. And the day before Miss Eversleigh's +arrival his natural excitement was a little heightened by a summons to +Mr. Revelstoke's private office. + +As he entered, the president laid aside his pen and closed the door. + +"I have never made it my business, Trent," he said, with good-humored +brusqueness, "to interfere in my employees' private affairs, unless they +affect their relations to the bank, and I haven't had the least occasion +to do so with you. Neither has Mr. Dingwall, although it is on HIS +behalf that I am now speaking." As Randolph listened with a contracted +brow, he went on with a grim smile: "But he is an Englishman, you know, +and has certain ideas of the importance of 'position,' particularly +among his own people. He wishes me, therefore, to warn you of what +HE calls the 'disparity' of your position and that of a young English +lady--Miss Eversleigh--with whom you have some acquaintance, and in +whom," he added with a still grimmer satisfaction, "he fears you are too +deeply interested." + +Randolph blazed. "If Mr. Dingwall had asked ME, sir," he said hotly, "I +would have told him that I have never yet had to be reminded that Miss +Eversleigh is a rich heiress and I only a poor clerk, but as to his +using her name in such a connection, or dictating to me the manner of"-- + +"Hold hard," said Revelstoke, lifting his hand deprecatingly, yet with +his unchanged smile. "I don't agree with Mr. Dingwall, and I have every +reason to know the value of YOUR services, yet I admit something is due +to HIS prejudices. And in this matter, Trent, the Bank of Eureka, while +I am its president, doesn't take a back seat. I have concluded to make +you manager of the branch bank at Marysville, an independent position +with its salary and commissions. And if that doesn't suit Dingwall, +why," he added, rising from his desk with a short laugh, "he has a +bigger idea of the value of property than the bank has." + +"One moment, sir, I implore you," burst out Randolph breathlessly, "if +your kind offer is based upon the mistaken belief that I have the least +claim upon Miss Eversleigh's consideration more than that of simple +friendship--if anybody has dared to give you the idea that I have +aspired by word or deed to more, or that the young lady has ever +countenanced or even suspected such aspirations, it is utterly false, +and grateful as I am for your kindness, I could not accept it." + +"Look here, Trent," returned Revelstoke curtly, yet laying his hand on +the young man's shoulder not unkindly. "All that is YOUR private affair, +which, as I told you, I don't interfere with. The other is a question +between Mr. Dingwall and myself of your comparative value. It won't hurt +you with ANYBODY to know how high we've assessed it. Don't spoil a good +thing!" + +Grateful even in his uncertainty, Randolph could only thank him and +withdraw. Yet this fateful forcing of his hand in a delicate question +gave him a new courage. It was with a certain confidence now in his +capacity as HER friend and qualified to advise HER that he called at Mr. +Dingwall's the evening she arrived. It struck him that in the Dingwalls' +reception of him there was mingled with their formality a certain +respect. + +Thanks to this, perhaps, he found her alone. She seemed to him more +beautiful than his recollection had painted her, in the development that +maturity, freedom from restraint, and time had given her. For a moment +his new, fresh courage was staggered. But she had retained her youthful +simplicity, and came toward him with the same naive and innocent +yearning in her clear eyes that he remembered at their last meeting. +Their first words were, naturally, of their great secret, and Randolph +told her the whole story of his unexpected and startling meeting with +the captain, and the captain's strange narrative, of his undertaking the +journey with him to recover his claim, establish his identity, and, as +Randolph had hoped, restore to her that member of the family whom she +had most cared for. He recounted the captain's hesitation on arriving; +his own journey to the rectory; the news she had given him; the +reason of his singular behavior; his return to London; and the second +disappearance of the captain. He read to her the letter he had received +from him, and told her of his hopeless chase to the docks only to find +him gone. She listened to him breathlessly, with varying color, with +an occasional outburst of pity, or a strange shining of the eyes, that +sometimes became clouded and misty, and at the conclusion with a calm +and grave paleness. + +"But," she said, "you should have told me all." + +"It was not my secret," he pleaded. + +"You should have trusted me." + +"But the captain had trusted ME." + +She looked at him with grave wonder, and then said with her old +directness: "But if I had been told such a secret affecting you, I +should have told you." She stopped suddenly, seeing his eyes fixed on +her, and dropped her own lids with a slight color. "I mean," she said +hesitatingly, "of course you have acted nobly, generously, kindly, +wisely--but I hate secrets! Oh, why cannot one be always frank?" + +A wild idea seized Randolph. "But I have another secret--you have not +guessed--and I have not dared to tell you. Do you wish me to be frank +now?" + +"Why not?" she said simply, but she did not look up. + +Then he told her! But, strangest of all, in spite of his fears and +convictions, it flowed easily and naturally as a part of his other +secret, with an eloquence he had not dreamed of before. But when he told +her of his late position and his prospects, she raised her eyes to his +for the first time, yet without withdrawing her hand from his, and said +reproachfully,-- + +"Yet but for THAT you would never have told me." + +"How could I?" he returned eagerly. "For but for THAT how could I help +you to carry out YOUR trust? How could I devote myself to your plans, +and enable you to carry them out without touching a dollar of that +inheritance which you believe to be wrongfully yours?" + +Then, with his old boyish enthusiasm, he sketched a glowing picture of +their future: how they would keep the Dornton property intact until the +captain was found and communicated with; and how they would cautiously +collect all the information accessible to find him until such time +as Randolph's fortunes would enable them both to go on a voyage of +discovery after him. And in the midst of this prophetic forecast, which +brought them so closely together that she was enabled to examine his +watch chain, she said,-- + +"I see you have kept Cousin Jack's ring. Did he ever see it?" + +"He told me he had given it to you as his little sweetheart, and that +he"-- + +There was a singular pause here. + +"He never did THAT--at least, not in that way!" said Sybil Eversleigh. + + +And, strangely enough, the optimistic Randolph's prophecies came true. +He was married a month later to Sibyl Eversleigh, Mr. Dingwall giving +away the bride. He and his wife were able to keep their trust in regard +to the property, for, without investing a dollar of it in the bank, +the mere reputation of his wife's wealth brought him a flood of other +investors and a confidence which at once secured his success. In two +years he was able to take his wife on a six months' holiday to Europe +via Australia, but of the details of that holiday no one knew. It is, +however, on record that ten or twelve years ago Dornton Hall, which had +been leased or unoccupied for a long time, was refitted for the heiress, +her husband, and their children during a brief occupancy, and that +in that period extensive repairs were made to the interior of the +old Norman church, and much attention given to the redecoration and +restoration of its ancient tombs. + + + + + +MR. MACGLOWRIE'S WIDOW + + +Very little was known of her late husband, yet that little was of a +sufficiently awe-inspiring character to satisfy the curiosity of +Laurel Spring. A man of unswerving animosity and candid belligerency, +untempered by any human weakness, he had been actively engaged as +survivor in two or three blood feuds in Kentucky, and some desultory +dueling, only to succumb, through the irony of fate, to an attack of +fever and ague in San Francisco. Gifted with a fine sense of humor, he +is said, in his last moments, to have called the simple-minded clergyman +to his bedside to assist him in putting on his boots. The kindly divine, +although pointing out to him that he was too weak to rise, much +less walk, could not resist the request of a dying man. When it was +fulfilled, Mr. MacGlowrie crawled back into bed with the remark that his +race had always "died with their boots on," and so passed smilingly and +tranquilly away. + +It is probable that this story was invented to soften the ignominy of +MacGlowrie's peaceful end. The widow herself was also reported to be +endowed with relations of equally homicidal eccentricities. Her two +brothers, Stephen and Hector Boompointer, had Western reputations that +were quite as lurid and remote. Her own experiences of a frontier life +had been rude and startling, and her scalp--a singularly beautiful one +of blond hair--had been in peril from Indians on several occasions. A +pair of scissors, with which she had once pinned the intruding hand of +a marauder to her cabin doorpost, was to be seen in her sitting room at +Laurel Spring. A fair-faced woman with eyes the color of pale sherry, +a complexion sallowed by innutritious food, slight and tall figure, she +gave little suggestion of this Amazonian feat. But that it exercised a +wholesome restraint over the many who would like to have induced her +to reenter the married state, there is little reason to doubt. Laurel +Spring was a peaceful agricultural settlement. Few of its citizens +dared to aspire to the dangerous eminence of succeeding the defunct +MacGlowrie; few could hope that the sister of living Boompointers +would accept an obvious mesalliance with them. However sincere their +affection, life was still sweet to the rude inhabitants of Laurel +Spring, and the preservation of the usual quantity of limbs necessary to +them in their avocations. With their devotion thus chastened by caution, +it would seem as if the charming mistress of Laurel Spring House was +secure from disturbing attentions. + +It was a pleasant summer afternoon, and the sun was beginning to strike +under the laurels around the hotel into the little office where the +widow sat with the housekeeper--a stout spinster of a coarser Western +type. Mrs. MacGlowrie was looking wearily over some accounts on the +desk before her, and absently putting back some tumbled sheaves from the +stack of her heavy hair. For the widow had a certain indolent Southern +negligence, which in a less pretty woman would have been untidiness, +and a characteristic hook and eyeless freedom of attire which on less +graceful limbs would have been slovenly. One sleeve cuff was unbuttoned, +but it showed the blue veins of her delicate wrist; the neck of her +dress had lost a hook, but the glimpse of a bit of edging round the +white throat made amends. Of all which, however, it should be said that +the widow, in her limp abstraction, was really unconscious. + +"I reckon we kin put the new preacher in Kernel Starbottle's room," said +Miss Morvin, the housekeeper. "The kernel's going to-night." + +"Oh," said the widow in a tone of relief, but whether at the early +departure of the gallant colonel or at the successful solution of the +problem of lodging the preacher, Miss Morvin could not determine. But +she went on tentatively:-- + +"The kernel was talkin' in the bar room, and kind o' wonderin' why you +hadn't got married agin. Said you'd make a stir in Sacramento--but you +was jest berried HERE." + +"I suppose he's heard of my husband?" said the widow indifferently. + +"Yes--but he said he couldn't PLACE YOU," returned Miss Morvin. + +The widow looked up. "Couldn't place ME?" she repeated. + +"Yes--hadn't heard o' MacGlowrie's wife and disremembered your +brothers." + +"The colonel doesn't know everybody, even if he is a fighting man," said +Mrs. MacGlowrie with languid scorn. + +"That's just what Dick Blair said," returned Miss Morvin. "And though +he's only a doctor, he jest stuck up agin' the kernel, and told that +story about your jabbin' that man with your scissors--beautiful; and +how you once fought off a bear with a red-hot iron, so that you'd have +admired to hear him. He's awfully gone on you!" + +The widow took that opportunity to button her cuff. + +"And how long does the preacher calculate to stay?" she added, returning +to business details. + +"Only a day. They'll have his house fixed up and ready for him +to-morrow. They're spendin' a heap o' money on it. He ought to be the +pow'ful preacher they say he is--to be worth it." + +But here Mrs. MacGlowrie's interest in the conversation ceased, and it +dropped. + +In her anxiety to further the suit of Dick Blair, Miss Morvin had +scarcely reported the colonel with fairness. + +That gentleman, leaning against the bar in the hotel saloon with a +cocktail in his hand, had expatiated with his usual gallantry upon +Mrs. MacGlowrie's charms, and on his own "personal" responsibility +had expressed the opinion that they were thrown away on Laurel Spring. +That--blank it all--she reminded him of the blankest beautiful woman +he had seen even in Washington--old Major Beveridge's daughter from +Kentucky. Were they sure she wasn't from Kentucky? Wasn't her name +Beveridge--and not Boompointer? Becoming more reminiscent over his +second drink, the colonel could vaguely recall only one Boompointer--a +blank skulking hound, sir--a mean white shyster--but, of course, he +couldn't have been of the same breed as such a blank fine woman as the +widow! It was here that Dick Blair interrupted with a heightened color +and a glowing eulogy of the widow's relations and herself, which, +however, only increased the chivalry of the colonel--who would be the +last man, sir, to detract from--or suffer any detraction of--a lady's +reputation. It was needless to say that all this was intensely diverting +to the bystanders, and proportionally discomposing to Blair, who already +experienced some slight jealousy of the colonel as a man whose fighting +reputation might possibly attract the affections of the widow of the +belligerent MacGlowrie. He had cursed his folly and relapsed into gloomy +silence until the colonel left. + +For Dick Blair loved the widow with the unselfishness of a generous +nature and a first passion. He had admired her from the first day +his lot was cast in Laurel Spring, where coming from a rude frontier +practice he had succeeded the district doctor in a more peaceful and +domestic ministration. A skillful and gentle surgeon rather than a +general household practitioner, he was at first coldly welcomed by the +gloomy dyspeptics and ague-haunted settlers from riparian lowlands. The +few bucolic idlers who had relieved the monotony of their lives by the +stimulus of patent medicines and the exaltation of stomach bitters, also +looked askance at him. A common-sense way of dealing with their ailments +did not naturally commend itself to the shopkeepers who vended these +nostrums, and he was made to feel the opposition of trade. But he was +gentle to women and children and animals, and, oddly enough, it was +to this latter dilection that he owed the widow's interest in him--an +interest that eventually made him popular elsewhere. + +The widow had a pet dog--a beautiful spaniel, who, however, had +assimilated her graceful languor to his own native love of ease to such +an extent that he failed in a short leap between a balcony and a window, +and fell to the ground with a fractured thigh. The dog was supposed to +be crippled for life even if that life were worth preserving--when Dr. +Blair came to the rescue, set the fractured limb, put it in splints and +plaster after an ingenious design of his own, visited him daily, and +eventually restored him to his mistress's lap sound in wind and limb. +How far this daily ministration and the necessary exchange of sympathy +between the widow and himself heightened his zeal was not known. There +were those who believed that the whole thing was an unmanly trick to get +the better of his rivals in the widow's good graces; there were others +who averred that his treatment of a brute beast like a human being was +sinful and unchristian. "He couldn't have done more for a regularly +baptized child," said the postmistress. "And what mo' would a regularly +baptized child have wanted?" returned Mrs. MacGlowrie, with the drawling +Southern intonation she fell back upon when most contemptuous. + +But Dr. Blair's increasing practice and the widow's preoccupation +presently ended their brief intimacy. It was well known that she +encouraged no suitors at the hotel, and his shyness and sensitiveness +shrank from ostentatious advances. There seemed to be no chance of her +becoming, herself, his patient; her sane mind, indolent nerves, and calm +circulation kept her from feminine "vapors" of feminine excesses. She +retained the teeth and digestion of a child in her thirty odd years, and +abused neither. Riding and the cultivation of her little garden gave +her sufficient exercise. And yet the unexpected occurred! The day after +Starbottle left, Dr. Blair was summoned hastily to the hotel. Mrs. +MacGlowrie had been found lying senseless in a dead faint in the +passage outside the dining room. In his hurried flight thither with the +messenger he could learn only that she had seemed to be in her usual +health that morning, and that no one could assign any cause for her +fainting. + +He could find out little more when he arrived and examined her as she +lay pale and unconscious on the sofa of her sitting room. It had not +been thought necessary to loosen her already loose dress, and indeed he +could find no organic disturbance. The case was one of sudden nervous +shock--but this, with his knowledge of her indolent temperament, seemed +almost absurd. They could tell him nothing but that she was evidently on +the point of entering the dining room when she fell unconscious. Had +she been frightened by anything? A snake or a rat? Miss Morvin +was indignant! The widow of MacGlowrie--the repeller of +grizzlies--frightened at "sich"! Had she been upset by any previous +excitement, passion, or the receipt of bad news? No!--she "wasn't that +kind," as the doctor knew. And even as they were speaking he felt the +widow's healthy life returning to the pulse he was holding, and giving +a faint tinge to her lips. Her blue-veined eyelids quivered slightly +and then opened with languid wonder on the doctor and her surroundings. +Suddenly a quick, startled look contracted the yellow brown pupils of +her eyes, she lifted herself to a sitting posture with a hurried glance +around the room and at the door beyond. Catching the quick, observant +eyes of Dr. Blair, she collected herself with an effort, which Dr. Blair +felt in her pulse, and drew away her wrist. + +"What is it? What happened?" she said weakly. + +"You had a slight attack of faintness," said the doctor cheerily, "and +they called me in as I was passing, but you're all right now." + +"How pow'ful foolish," she said, with returning color, but her eyes +still glancing at the door, "slumping off like a green gyrl at nothin'." + +"Perhaps you were startled?" said the doctor. + +Mrs. MacGlowrie glanced up quickly and looked away. "No!--Let me see! +I was just passing through the hall, going into the dining room, +when--everything seemed to waltz round me--and I was off! Where did they +find me?" she said, turning to Miss Morvin. + +"I picked you up just outside the door," replied the housekeeper. + +"Then they did not see me?" said Mrs. MacGlowrie. + +"Who's they?" responded the housekeeper with more directness than +grammatical accuracy. + +"The people in the dining room. I was just opening the door--and I felt +this coming on--and--I reckon I had just sense enough to shut the door +again before I went off." + +"Then that accounts for what Jim Slocum said," uttered Miss Morvin +triumphantly. "He was in the dining room talkin' with the new preacher, +when he allowed he heard the door open and shut behind him. Then he +heard a kind of slump outside and opened the door again just to find you +lyin' there, and to rush off and get me. And that's why he was so mad +at the preacher!--for he says he just skurried away without offerin' +to help. He allows the preacher may be a pow'ful exhorter--but he ain't +worth much at 'works.'" + +"Some men can't bear to be around when a woman's up to that sort of +foolishness," said the widow, with a faint attempt at a smile, but a +return of her paleness. + +"Hadn't you better lie down again?" said the doctor solicitously. + +"I'm all right now," returned Mrs. MacGlowrie, struggling to her feet; +"Morvin will look after me till the shakiness goes. But it was mighty +touching and neighborly to come in, Doctor," she continued, succeeding +at last in bringing up a faint but adorable smile, which stirred Blair's +pulses. "If I were my own dog--you couldn't have treated me better!" + +With no further excuse for staying longer, Blair was obliged to +depart--yet reluctantly, both as lover and physician. He was by no means +satisfied with her condition. He called to inquire the next day--but she +was engaged and sent word to say she was "better." + +In the excitement attending the advent of the new preacher the slight +illness of the charming widow was forgotten. He had taken the +settlement by storm. His first sermon at Laurel Spring exceeded even +the extravagant reputation that had preceded him. Known as the "Inspired +Cowboy," a common unlettered frontiersman, he was said to have developed +wonderful powers of exhortatory eloquence among the Indians, and +scarcely less savage border communities where he had lived, half +outcast, half missionary. He had just come up from the Southern +agricultural districts, where he had been, despite his rude antecedents, +singularly effective with women and young people. The moody dyspeptics +and lazy rustics of Laurel Spring were stirred as with a new patent +medicine. Dr. Blair went to the first "revival" meeting. Without +undervaluing the man's influence, he was instinctively repelled by +his appearance and methods. The young physician's trained powers of +observation not only saw an overwrought emotionalism in the speaker's +eloquence, but detected the ring of insincerity in his more lucid speech +and acts. Nevertheless, the hysteria of the preacher was communicated to +the congregation, who wept and shouted with him. Tired and discontented +housewives found their vague sorrows and vaguer longings were only the +result of their "unregenerate" state; the lazy country youths felt +that the frustration of their small ambitions lay in their not being +"convicted of sin." The mourners' bench was crowded with wildly +emulating sinners. Dr. Blair turned away with mingled feelings of +amusement and contempt. At the door Jim Slocum tapped him on the +shoulder: "Fetches the wimmin folk every time, don't he, Doctor?" said +Jim. + +"So it seems," said Blair dryly. + +"You're one o' them scientific fellers that look inter things--what do +YOU allow it is?" + +The young doctor restrained the crushing answer that rose to his lips. +He had learned caution in that neighborhood. "I couldn't say," he said +indifferently. + +"'Tain't no religion," said Slocum emphatically; "it's jest pure +fas'nation. Did ye look at his eye? It's like a rattlesnake's, and them +wimmin are like birds. They're frightened of him--but they hev to do +jest what he 'wills' 'em. That's how he skeert the widder the other +day." + +The doctor was alert and on fire at once. "Scared the widow?" he +repeated indignantly. + +"Yes. You know how she swooned away. Well, sir, me and that preacher, +Brown, was the only one in that dinin' room at the time. The widder +opened the door behind me and sorter peeked in, and that thar preacher +give a start and looked up; and then, that sort of queer light come in +his eyes, and she shut the door, and kinder fluttered and flopped down +in the passage outside, like a bird! And he crawled away like a snake, +and never said a word! My belief is that either he hadn't time to turn +on the hull influence, or else she, bein' smart, got the door shut +betwixt her and it in time! Otherwise, sure as you're born, she'd +hev been floppin' and crawlin' and sobbin' arter him--jist like them +critters we've left." + +"Better not let the brethren hear you talk like that, or they'll lynch +you," said the doctor, with a laugh. "Mrs. MacGlowrie simply had an +attack of faintness from some overexertion, that's all." + +Nevertheless, he was uneasy as he walked away. Mrs. MacGlowrie had +evidently received a shock which was still unexplained, and, in spite of +Slocum's exaggerated fancy, there might be some foundation in his story. +He did not share the man's superstition, although he was not a skeptic +regarding magnetism. Yet even then, the widow's action was one of +repulsion, and as long as she was strong enough not to come to these +meetings, she was not in danger. A day or two later, as he was passing +the garden of the hotel on horseback, he saw her lithe, graceful, +languid figure bending over one of her favorite flower beds. The high +fence partially concealed him from view, and she evidently believed +herself alone. Perhaps that was why she suddenly raised herself from her +task, put back her straying hair with a weary, abstracted look, remained +for a moment quite still staring at the vacant sky, and then, with +a little catching of her breath, resumed her occupation in a dull, +mechanical way. In that brief glimpse of her charming face, Blair was +shocked at the change; she was pale, the corners of her pretty mouth +were drawn, there were deeper shades in the orbits of her eyes, and in +spite of her broad garden hat with its blue ribbon, her light flowered +frock and frilled apron, she looked as he fancied she might have looked +in the first crushing grief of her widowhood. Yet he would have passed +on, respecting her privacy of sorrow, had not her little spaniel +detected him with her keener senses. And Fluffy being truthful--as dogs +are--and recognizing a dear friend in the intruder, barked joyously. + +The widow looked up, her eyes met Blair's, and she reddened. But he was +too acute a lover to misinterpret what he knew, alas! was only confusion +at her abstraction being discovered. Nevertheless, there was something +else in her brown eyes he had never seen before. A momentary lighting +up of RELIEF--of even hopefulness--in his presence. It was enough for +Blair; he shook off his old shyness like the dust of his ride, and +galloped around to the front door. + +But she met him in the hall with only her usual languid good humor. +Nevertheless, Blair was not abashed. + +"I can't put you in splints and plaster like Fluffy, Mrs. MacGlowrie," +he said, "but I can forbid you to go into the garden unless you're +looking better. It's a positive reflection on my professional skill, and +Laurel Spring will be shocked, and hold me responsible." + +Mrs. MacGlowrie had recovered enough of her old spirit to reply that she +thought Laurel Spring could be in better business than looking at her +over her garden fence. + +"But your dog, who knows you're not well, and doesn't think me quite a +fool, had the good sense to call me. You heard him." + +But the widow protested that she was as strong as a horse, and that +Fluffy was like all puppies, conceited to the last degree. + +"Well," said Blair cheerfully, "suppose I admit you are all right, +physically, you'll confess you have some trouble on your mind, won't +you? If I can't make you SHOW me your tongue, you'll let me hear you USE +it to tell me what worries you. If," he added more earnestly, "you won't +confide in your physician--you will perhaps--to--to--a--FRIEND." + +But Mrs. MacGlowrie, evading his earnest eyes as well as his appeal, was +wondering what good it would do either a doctor, or--a--a--she herself +seemed to hesitate over the word--"a FRIEND, to hear the worriments of a +silly, nervous old thing--who had only stuck a little too closely to her +business." + +"You are neither nervous nor old, Mrs. MacGlowrie," said the doctor +promptly, "though I begin to think you HAVE been too closely confined +here. You want more diversion, or--excitement. You might even go to +hear this preacher"--he stopped, for the word had slipped from his mouth +unawares. + +But a swift look of scorn swept her pale face. "And you'd like me to +follow those skinny old frumps and leggy, limp chits, that slobber and +cry over that man!" she said contemptuously. "No! I reckon I only want a +change--and I'll go away, or get out of this for a while." + +The poor doctor had not thought of this possible alternative. His heart +sank, but he was brave. "Yes, perhaps you are right," he said sadly, +"though it would be a dreadful loss--to Laurel Spring--to us all--if you +went." + +"Do I look so VERY bad, doctor?" she said, with a half-mischievous, +half-pathetic smile. + +The doctor thought her upturned face very adorable, but restrained his +feelings heroically, and contented himself with replying to the pathetic +half of her smile. "You look as if you had been suffering," he said +gravely, "and I never saw you look so before. You seem as if you had +experienced some great shock. Do you know," he went on, in a lower tone +and with a half-embarrassed smile, "that when I saw you just now in the +garden, you looked as I imagined you might have looked in the first days +of your widowhood--when your husband's death was fresh in your heart." + +A strange expression crossed her face. Her eyelids dropped instantly, +and with both hands she caught up her frilled apron as if to meet +them and covered her face. A little shudder seemed to pass over +her shoulders, and then a cry that ended in an uncontrollable and +half-hysterical laugh followed from the depths of that apron, until +shaking her sides, and with her head still enveloped in its covering, +she fairly ran into the inner room and closed the door behind her. + +Amazed, shocked, and at first indignant, Dr. Blair remained fixed to +the spot. Then his indignation gave way to a burning mortification as he +recalled his speech. He had made a frightful faux pas! He had been fool +enough to try to recall the most sacred memories of that dead husband +he was trying to succeed--and her quick woman's wit had detected his +ridiculous stupidity. Her laugh was hysterical--but that was only +natural in her mixed emotions. He mounted his horse in confusion and +rode away. + +For a few days he avoided the house. But when he next saw her she had +a charming smile of greeting and an air of entire obliviousness of his +past blunder. She said she was better. She had taken his advice and +was giving herself some relaxation from business. She had been riding +again--oh, so far! Alone?--of course; she was always alone--else what +would Laurel Spring say? + +"True," said Blair smilingly; "besides, I forgot that you are quite able +to take care of yourself in an emergency. And yet," he added, admiringly +looking at her lithe figure and indolent grace, "do you know I never can +associate you with the dreadful scenes they say you have gone through." + +"Then please don't!" she said quickly; "really, I'd rather you wouldn't. +I'm sick and tired of hearing of it!" She was half laughing and yet half +in earnest, with a slight color on her cheek. + +Blair was a little embarrassed. "Of course, I don't mean your +heroism--like that story of the intruder and the scissors," he +stammered. + +"Oh, THAT'S the worst of all! It's too foolish--it's sickening!" she +went on almost angrily. "I don't know who started that stuff." She +paused, and then added shyly, "I really am an awful coward and horribly +nervous--as you know." + +He would have combated this--but she looked really disturbed, and he +had no desire to commit another imprudence. And he thought, too, that he +again had seen in her eyes the same hopeful, wistful light he had once +seen before, and was happy. + +This led him, I fear, to indulge in wilder dreams. His practice, +although increasing, barely supported him, and the widow was rich. Her +business had been profitable, and she had repaid the advances made her +when she first took the hotel. But this disparity in their fortunes +which had frightened him before now had no fears for him. He felt that +if he succeeded in winning her affections she could afford to wait for +him, despite other suitors, until his talents had won an equal position. +His rivals had always felt as secure in his poverty as they had in his +peaceful profession. How could a poor, simple doctor aspire to the hand +of the rich widow of the redoubtable MacGlowrie? + +It was late one afternoon, and the low sun was beginning to strike +athwart the stark columns and down the long aisles of the redwoods on +the High Ridge. The doctor, returning from a patient at the loggers' +camp in its depths, had just sighted the smaller groves of Laurel +Springs, two miles away. He was riding fast, with his thoughts filled +with the widow, when he heard a joyous bark in the underbrush, and +Fluffy came bounding towards him. Blair dismounted to caress him, as +was his wont, and then, wisely conceiving that his mistress was not far +away, sauntered forward exploringly, leading his horse, the dog hounding +before him and barking, as if bent upon both leading and announcing him. +But the latter he effected first, for as Blair turned from the trail +into the deeper woods, he saw the figures of a man and woman walking +together suddenly separate at the dog's warning. The woman was Mrs. +MacGlowrie--the man was the revival preacher! + +Amazed, mystified, and indignant, Blair nevertheless obeyed his first +instinct, which was that of a gentleman. He turned leisurely aside as +if not recognizing them, led his horse a few paces further, mounted him, +and galloped away without turning his head. But his heart was filled +with bitterness and disgust. This woman--who but a few days before +had voluntarily declared her scorn and contempt for that man and his +admirers--had just been giving him a clandestine meeting like one of the +most infatuated of his devotees! The story of the widow's fainting, +the coarse surmises and comments of Slocum, came back to him with +overwhelming significance. But even then his reason forbade him to +believe that she had fallen under the preacher's influence--she, with +her sane mind and indolent temperament. Yet, whatever her excuse or +purpose was, she had deceived him wantonly and cruelly! His abrupt +avoidance of her had prevented him from knowing if she, on her part, had +recognized him as he rode away. If she HAD, she would understand why he +had avoided her, and any explanation must come from her. + +Then followed a few days of uncertainty, when his thoughts again +reverted to the preacher with returning jealousy. Was she, after all, +like other women, and had her gratuitous outburst of scorn of THEIR +infatuation been prompted by unsuccessful rivalry? He was too proud to +question Slocum again or breathe a word of his fears. Yet he was not +strong enough to keep from again seeking the High Ridge, to discover +any repetition of that rendezvous. But he saw her neither there, nor +elsewhere, during his daily rounds. And one night his feverish anxiety +getting the better of him, he entered the great "Gospel Tent" of the +revival preacher. + +It chanced to be an extraordinary meeting, and the usual enthusiastic +audience was reinforced by some sight-seers from the neighboring county +town--the district judge and officials from the court in session, among +them Colonel Starbottle. The impassioned revivalist--his eyes ablaze +with fever, his lank hair wet with perspiration, hanging beside his +heavy but weak jaws--was concluding a fervent exhortation to his +auditors to confess their sins, "accept conviction," and regenerate then +and there, without delay. They must put off "the old Adam," and put on +the flesh of righteousness at once! They were to let no false shame +or worldly pride keep them from avowing their guilty past before their +brethren. Sobs and groans followed the preacher's appeals; his own +agitation and convulsive efforts seemed to spread in surging waves +through the congregation, until a dozen men and women arose, +staggering like drunkards blindly, or led or dragged forward by sobbing +sympathizers towards the mourners' bench. And prominent among them, but +stepping jauntily and airily forward, was the redoubtable and worldly +Colonel Starbottle! + +At this proof of the orator's power the crowd shouted--but stopped +suddenly, as the colonel halted before the preacher, and ascended the +rostrum beside him. Then taking a slight pose with his gold-headed cane +in one hand and the other thrust in the breast of his buttoned coat, he +said in his blandest, forensic voice:-- + +"If I mistake not, sir, you are advising these ladies and gentlemen to +a free and public confession of their sins and a--er--denunciation +of their past life--previous to their conversion. If I am +mistaken I--er--ask your pardon, and theirs and--er--hold myself +responsible--er--personally responsible!" + +The preacher glanced uneasily at the colonel, but replied, still in the +hysterical intonation of his exordium:-- + +"Yes! a complete searching of hearts--a casting out of the seven Devils +of Pride, Vain Glory"-- + +"Thank you--that is sufficient," said the colonel blandly. "But might +I--er--be permitted to suggest that you--er--er--SET THEM THE EXAMPLE! +The statement of the circumstances attending your own past life and +conversion would be singularly interesting and exemplary." + +The preacher turned suddenly and glanced at the colonel with furious +eyes set in an ashy face. + +"If this is the flouting and jeering of the Ungodly and Dissolute," he +screamed, "woe to you! I say--woe to you! What have such as YOU to do +with my previous state of unregeneracy?" + +"Nothing," said the colonel blandly, "unless that state were also the +STATE OF ARKANSAS! Then, sir, as a former member of the Arkansas BAR--I +might be able to assist your memory--and--er--even corroborate your +confession." + +But here the enthusiastic adherents of the preacher, vaguely conscious +of some danger to their idol, gathered threateningly round the platform +from which he had promptly leaped into their midst, leaving the colonel +alone, to face the sea of angry upturned faces. But that gallant warrior +never altered his characteristic pose. Behind him loomed the reputation +of the dozen duels he had fought, the gold-headed stick on which he +leaned was believed to contain eighteen inches of shining steel--and the +people of Laurel Spring had discretion. + +He smiled suavely, stepped jauntily down, and made his way to the +entrance without molestation. + +But here he was met by Blair and Slocum, and a dozen eager questions:-- + +"What was it?" "What had he done?" "WHO was he?" + +"A blank shyster, who had swindled the widows and orphans in Arkansas +and escaped from jail." + +"And his name isn't Brown?" + +"No," said the colonel curtly. + +"What is it?" + +"That is a matter which concerns only myself and him, sir," said the +colonel loftily; "but for which I am--er--personally responsible." + +A wild idea took possession of Blair. + +"And you say he was a noted desperado?" he said with nervous hesitation. + +The colonel glared. + +"Desperado, sir! Never! Blank it all!--a mean, psalm-singing, crawling, +sneak thief!" + +And Blair felt relieved without knowing exactly why. + +The next day it was known that the preacher, Gabriel Brown, had left +Laurel Spring on an urgent "Gospel call" elsewhere. + +Colonel Starbottle returned that night with his friends to the county +town. Strange to say, a majority of the audience had not grasped the +full significance of the colonel's unseemly interruption, and those who +had, as partisans, kept it quiet. Blair, tortured by doubt, had a new +delicacy added to his hesitation, which left him helpless until the +widow should take the initiative in explanation. + +A sudden summons from his patient at the loggers' camp the next +day brought him again to the fateful redwoods. But he was vexed and +mystified to find, on arriving at the camp, that he had been made the +victim of some stupid blunder, and that no message had been sent from +there. He was returning abstractedly through the woods when he was +amazed at seeing at a little distance before him the flutter of Mrs. +MacGlowrie's well-known dark green riding habit and the figure of +the lady herself. Her dog was not with her, neither was the revival +preacher--or he might have thought the whole vision a trick of his +memory. But she slackened her pace, and he was obliged to rein up +abreast of her in some confusion. + +"I hope I won't shock you again by riding alone through the woods with a +man," she said with a light laugh. + +Nevertheless, she was quite pale as he answered, somewhat coldly, that +he had no right to be shocked at anything she might choose to do. + +"But you WERE shocked, for you rode away the last time without +speaking," she said; "and yet"--she looked up suddenly into his eyes +with a smileless face--"that man you saw me with once had a better right +to ride alone with me than any other man. He was"-- + +"Your lover?" said Blair with brutal brevity. + +"My husband!" returned Mrs. MacGlowrie slowly. + +"Then you are NOT a widow," gasped Blair. + +"No. I am only a divorced woman. That is why I have had to live a lie +here. That man--that hypocrite--whose secret was only half exposed +the other night, was my husband--divorced from me by the law, when, an +escaped convict, he fled with another woman from the State three years +ago." Her face flushed and whitened again; she put up her hand blindly +to her straying hair, and for an instant seemed to sway in the saddle. + +But Blair as quickly leaped from his horse, and was beside her. "Let +me help you down," he said quickly, "and rest yourself until you are +better." Before she could reply, he lifted her tenderly to the ground +and placed her on a mossy stump a little distance from the trail. Her +color and a faint smile returned to her troubled face. + +"Had we not better go on?" she said, looking around. "I never went so +far as to sit down in the woods with HIM that day." + +"Forgive me," he said pleadingly, "but, of course, I knew nothing. I +disliked the man from instinct--I thought he had some power over you." + +"He has none--except the secret that would also have exposed himself." + +"But others knew it. Colonel Starbottle must have known his name? And +yet"--as he remembered he stammered--"he refused to tell me." + +"Yes, but not because he knew he was my husband, but because he knew he +bore the same name. He thinks, as every one does, that my husband died +in San Francisco. The man who died there was my husband's cousin--a +desperate man and a noted duelist." + +"And YOU assumed to be HIS widow?" said the astounded Blair. + +"Yes, but don't blame me too much," she said pathetically. "It was a +wild, a silly deceit, but it was partly forced upon me. For when I +first arrived across the plains, at the frontier, I was still bearing +my husband's name, and although I was alone and helpless, I found myself +strangely welcomed and respected by those rude frontiersmen. It was not +long before I saw it was because I was presumed to be the widow of ALLEN +MacGlowrie--who had just died in San Francisco. I let them think so, for +I knew--what they did not--that Allen's wife had separated from him and +married again, and that my taking his name could do no harm. I accepted +their kindness; they gave me my first start in business, which brought +me here. It was not much of a deceit," she continued, with a slight +tremble of her pretty lip, "to prefer to pass as the widow of a dead +desperado than to be known as the divorced wife of a living convict. It +has hurt no one, and it has saved me just now." + +"You were right! No one could blame you," said Blair eagerly, seizing +her hand. + +But she disengaged it gently, and went on:-- + +"And now you wonder why I gave him a meeting here?" + +"I wonder at nothing but your courage and patience in all this +suffering!" said Blair fervently; "and at your forgiving me for so +cruelly misunderstanding you." + +"But you must learn all. When I first saw MacGlowrie under his assumed +name, I fainted, for I was terrified and believed he knew I was here +and had come to expose me even at his own risk. That was why I hesitated +between going away or openly defying him. But it appears he was more +frightened than I at finding me here--he had supposed I had changed my +name after the divorce, and that Mrs. MacGlowrie, Laurel Spring, was his +cousin's widow. When he found out who I was he was eager to see me +and agree upon a mutual silence while he was here. He thought only of +himself," she added scornfully, "and Colonel Starbottle's recognition +of him that night as the convicted swindler was enough to put him to +flight." + +"And the colonel never suspected that you were his wife?" said Blair. + +"Never! He supposed from the name that he was some relation of my +husband, and that was why he refused to tell it--for my sake. The +colonel is an old fogy--and pompous--but a gentleman--as good as they +make them!" + +A slightly jealous uneasiness and a greater sense of shame came over +Blair. + +"I seem to have been the only one who suspected and did not aid you," he +said sadly, "and yet God knows"-- + +The widow had put up her slim hand in half-smiling, half-pathetic +interruption. + +"Wait! I have not told you everything. When I took over the +responsibility of being Allen MacGlowrie's widow, I had to take over +HER relations and HER history as I gathered it from the frontiersmen. I +never frightened any grizzly--I never jabbed anybody with the scissors; +it was SHE who did it. I never was among the Injins--I never had any +fighting relations; my paw was a plain farmer. I was only a peaceful +Blue Grass girl--there! I never thought there was any harm in it; it +seemed to keep the men off, and leave me free--until I knew you! And you +know I didn't want you to believe it--don't you?" + +She hid her flushed face and dimples in her handkerchief. + +"But did you never think there might be another way to keep the men off, +and sink the name of MacGlowrie forever?" said Blair in a lower voice. + +"I think we must be going back now," said the widow timidly, withdrawing +her hand, which Blair had again mysteriously got possession of in her +confusion. + +"But wait just a few minutes longer to keep me company," said Blair +pleadingly. "I came here to see a patient, and as there must have been +some mistake in the message--I must try to discover it." + +"Oh! Is that all?" said the widow quickly. "Why?"--she flushed again and +laughed faintly--"Well! I am that patient! I wanted to see you alone to +explain everything, and I could think of no other way. I'm afraid I've +got into the habit of thinking nothing of being somebody else." + +"I wish you would let me select who you should be," said the doctor +boldly. + +"We really must go back--to the horses," said the widow. + +"Agreed--if we will ride home together." + +They did. And before the year was over, although they both remained, the +name of MacGlowrie had passed out of Laurel Spring. + + + + + +A WARD OF COLONEL STARBOTTLE'S + + +"The kernel seems a little off color to-day," said the barkeeper as +he replaced the whiskey decanter, and gazed reflectively after the +departing figure of Colonel Starbottle. + +"I didn't notice anything," said a bystander; "he passed the time o' day +civil enough to me." + +"Oh, he's allus polite enough to strangers and wimmin folk even when he +is that way; it's only his old chums, or them ez like to be thought so, +that he's peppery with. Why, ez to that, after he'd had that quo'll with +his old partner, Judge Pratt, in one o' them spells, I saw him the next +minit go half a block out of his way to direct an entire stranger; and +ez for wimmin!--well, I reckon if he'd just got a head drawn on a man, +and a woman spoke to him, he'd drop his battery and take off his hat to +her. No--ye can't judge by that!" + +And perhaps in his larger experience the barkeeper was right. He might +have added, too, that the colonel, in his general outward bearing and +jauntiness, gave no indication of his internal irritation. Yet he was +undoubtedly in one of his "spells," suffering from a moody cynicism +which made him as susceptible of affront as he was dangerous in +resentment. + +Luckily, on this particular morning he reached his office and entered +his private room without any serious rencontre. Here he opened his desk, +and arranging his papers, he at once set to work with grim persistency. +He had not been occupied for many minutes before the door opened to Mr. +Pyecroft--one of a firm of attorneys who undertook the colonel's office +work. + +"I see you are early to work, Colonel," said Mr. Pyecroft cheerfully. + +"You see, sir," said the colonel, correcting him with a slow +deliberation that boded no good--"you see a Southern gentleman--blank +it!--who has stood at the head of his profession for thirty-five years, +obliged to work like a blank nigger, sir, in the dirty squabbles of +psalm-singing Yankee traders, instead of--er--attending to the affairs +of--er--legislation!" + +"But you manage to get pretty good fees out of it--Colonel?" continued +Pyecroft, with a laugh. + +"Fees, sir! Filthy shekels! and barely enough to satisfy a debt of +honor with one hand, and wipe out a tavern score for the entertainment +of--er--a few lady friends with the other!" + +This allusion to his losses at poker, as well as an oyster supper +given to the two principal actresses of the "North Star Troupe," then +performing in the town, convinced Mr. Pyecroft that the colonel was in +one of his "moods," and he changed the subject. + +"That reminds me of a little joke that happened in Sacramento last week. +You remember Dick Stannard, who died a year ago--one of your friends?" + +"I have yet to learn," interrupted the colonel, with the same deadly +deliberation, "what right HE--or ANYBODY--had to intimate that he +held such a relationship with me. Am I to understand, sir, that +he--er--publicly boasted of it?" + +"Don't know!" resumed Pyecroft hastily; "but it don't matter, for if he +wasn't a friend it only makes the joke bigger. Well, his widow didn't +survive him long, but died in the States t'other day, leavin' the +property in Sacramento--worth about three thousand dollars--to +her little girl, who is at school at Santa Clara. The question of +guardianship came up, and it appears that the widow--who only knew you +through her husband--had, some time before her death, mentioned YOUR +name in that connection! He! he!" + +"What!" said Colonel Starbottle, starting up. + +"Hold on!" said Pyecroft hilariously. "That isn't all! Neither the +executors nor the probate judge knew you from Adam, and the Sacramento +bar, scenting a good joke, lay low and said nothing. Then the old fool +judge said that 'as you appeared to be a lawyer, a man of mature years, +and a friend of the family, you were an eminently fit person, and ought +to be communicated with'--you know his hifalutin' style. Nobody says +anything. So that the next thing you'll know you'll get a letter from +that executor asking you to look after that kid. Ha! ha! The boys said +they could fancy they saw you trotting around with a ten year old girl +holding on to your hand, and the Senorita Dolores or Miss Bellamont +looking on! Or your being called away from a poker deal some night by +the infant, singing, 'Gardy, dear gardy, come home with me now, the +clock in the steeple strikes one!' And think of that old fool judge not +knowing you! Ha! ha!" + +A study of Colonel Starbottle's face during this speech would have +puzzled a better physiognomist than Mr. Pyecroft. His first look of +astonishment gave way to an empurpled confusion, from which a single +short Silenus-like chuckle escaped, but this quickly changed again into +a dull coppery indignation, and, as Pyecroft's laugh continued, faded +out into a sallow rigidity in which his murky eyes alone seemed to keep +what was left of his previous high color. But what was more singular, +in spite of his enforced calm, something of his habitual old-fashioned +loftiness and oratorical exaltation appeared to be returning to him as +he placed his hand on his inflated breast and faced Pyceroft. + +"The ignorance of the executor of Mrs. Stannard and the--er--probate +judge," he began slowly, "may be pardonable, Mr. Pyecroft, since his +Honor would imply that, although unknown to HIM personally, I am at +least amicus curiae in this question of--er--guardianship. But I am +grieved--indeed I may say shocked--Mr. Pyecroft, that the--er--last +sacred trust of a dying widow--perhaps the holiest trust that can +be conceived by man--the care and welfare of her helpless orphaned +girl--should be made the subject of mirth, sir, by yourself and the +members of the Sacramento bar! I shall not allude, sir, to my own +feelings in regard to Dick Stannard, one of my most cherished friends," +continued the colonel, in a voice charged with emotion, "but I can +conceive of no nobler trust laid upon the altar of friendship than the +care and guidance of his orphaned girl! And if, as you tell me, the +utterly inadequate sum of three thousand dollars is all that is left for +her maintenance through life, the selection of a guardian sufficiently +devoted to the family to be willing to augment that pittance out of his +own means from time to time would seem to be most important." + +Before the astounded Pyecroft could recover himself, Colonel Starbottle +leaned back in his chair, half closing his eyes, and abandoned himself, +quite after his old manner, to one of his dreamy reminiscences. + +"Poor Dick Stannard! I have a vivid recollection, sir, of driving out +with him on the Shell Road at New Orleans in '54, and of his saying, +'Star'--the only man, sir, who ever abbreviated my name--'Star, if +anything happens to me or her, look after our child! It was during that +very drive, sir, that, through his incautious neglect to fortify himself +against the swampy malaria by a glass of straight Bourbon with a pinch +of bark in it, he caught that fever which undermined his constitution. +Thank you, Mr. Pyecroft, for--er--recalling the circumstance. I shall," +continued the colonel, suddenly abandoning reminiscence, sitting up, and +arranging his papers, "look forward with great interest to--er--letter +from the executor." + +The next day it was universally understood that Colonel Starbottle +had been appointed guardian of Pansy Stannard by the probate judge of +Sacramento. + + +There are of record two distinct accounts of Colonel Starbottle's first +meeting with his ward after his appointment as her guardian. One, given +by himself, varying slightly at times, but always bearing unvarying +compliment to the grace, beauty, and singular accomplishments of this +apparently gifted child, was nevertheless characterized more by vague, +dreamy reminiscences of the departed parents than by any personal +experience of the daughter. + +"I found the young lady, sir," he remarked to Mr. Pyecroft, +"recalling my cherished friend Stannard in--er--form and features, +and--although--er--personally unacquainted with her deceased mother--who +belonged, sir, to one of the first families of Virginia--I am told that +she is--er--remarkably like her. Miss Stannard is at present a pupil in +one of the best educational establishments in Santa Clara, where she is +receiving tuition in--er--the English classics, foreign belles +lettres, embroidery, the harp, and--er--the use of the--er--globes, +and--er--blackboard--under the most fastidious care, and my own personal +supervision. The principal of the school, Miss Eudoxia Tish--associated +with--er--er--Miss Prinkwell--is--er--remarkably gifted woman; and as +I was present at one of the school exercises, I had the opportunity of +testifying to her excellence in--er--short address I made to the young +ladies." From such glittering but unsatisfying generalities as these +I prefer to turn to the real interview, gathered from contemporary +witnesses. + +It was the usual cloudless, dazzling, Californian summer day, tempered +with the asperity of the northwest trades that Miss Tish, looking +through her window towards the rose-embowered gateway of the seminary, +saw an extraordinary figure advancing up the avenue. It was that of +a man slightly past middle age, yet erect and jaunty, whose costume +recalled the early water-color portraits of her own youthful days. His +tightly buttoned blue frock coat with gilt buttons was opened far enough +across the chest to allow the expanding of a frilled shirt, black stock, +and nankeen waistcoat, and his immaculate white trousers were smartly +strapped over his smart varnished boots. A white bell-crowned hat, +carried in his hand to permit the wiping of his forehead with a silk +handkerchief, and a gold-headed walking stick hooked over his arm, +completed this singular equipment. He was followed, a few paces in the +rear, by a negro carrying an enormous bouquet, and a number of small +boxes and parcels tied up with ribbons. As the figure paused before the +door, Miss Tish gasped, and cast a quick restraining glance around the +classroom. But it was too late; a dozen pairs of blue, black, round, +inquiring, or mischievous eyes were already dancing and gloating over +the bizarre stranger through the window. + +"A cirkiss--or nigger minstrels--sure as you're born!" said Mary Frost, +aged nine, in a fierce whisper. + +"No!--a agent from 'The Emporium,' with samples," returned Miss Briggs, +aged fourteen. + +"Young ladies, attend to your studies," said Miss Tish, as the servant +brought in a card. Miss Tish glanced at it with some nervousness, and +read to herself, "Colonel Culpeper Starbottle," engraved in script, and +below it in pencil, "To see Miss Pansy Stannard, under favor of Miss +Tish." Rising with some perturbation, Miss Tish hurriedly intrusted +the class to an assistant, and descended to the reception room. She had +never seen Pansy's guardian before (the executor had brought the child); +and this extraordinary creature, whose visit she could not deny, might +be ruinous to school discipline. It was therefore with an extra degree +of frigidity of demeanor that she threw open the door of the reception +room, and entered majestically. But to her utter astonishment, the +colonel met her with a bow so stately, so ceremonious, and so commanding +that she stopped, disarmed and speechless. + +"I need not ask if I am addressing Miss Tish," said the colonel loftily, +"for without having the pleasure of--er--previous acquaintance, I can +at once recognize the--er--Lady Superior and--er--chatelaine of +this--er--establishment." Miss Tish here gave way to a slight cough and +an embarrassed curtsy, as the colonel, with a wave of his white hand +towards the burden carried by his follower, resumed more lightly: "I +have brought--er--few trifles and gewgaws for my ward--subject, of +course, to your rules and discretion. They include some--er--dainties, +free from any deleterious substance, as I am informed--a sash--a ribbon +or two for the hair, gloves, mittens, and a nosegay--from which, I +trust, it will be HER pleasure, as it is my own, to invite you to cull +such blossoms as may suit your taste. Boy, you may set them down and +retire!" + +"At the present moment," stammered Miss Tish, "Miss Stannard is engaged +on her lessons. But"--She stopped again, hopelessly. + +"I see," said the colonel, with an air of playful, poetical +reminiscence--"her lessons! Certainly! + + 'We will--er--go to our places, + With smiles on our faces, + And say all our lessons distinctly and slow.' + +Certainly! Not for worlds would I interrupt them; until they are done, +we will--er--walk through the classrooms and inspect"-- + +"No! no!" interrupted the horrified, principal, with a dreadful +presentiment of the appalling effect of the colonel's entry upon the +class. "No!--that is--I mean--our rules exclude--except on days of +public examination"-- + +"Say no more, my dear madam," said the colonel politely. "Until she is +free I will stroll outside, through--er--the groves of the Academus"-- + +But Miss Tish, equally alarmed at the diversion this would create at the +classroom windows, recalled herself with an effort. "Please wait here +a moment," she said hurriedly; "I will bring her down;" and before the +colonel could politely open the door for her, she had fled. + +Happily unconscious of the sensation he had caused, Colonel Starbottle +seated himself on the sofa, his white hands resting easily on the +gold-headed cane. Once or twice the door behind him opened and closed +quietly, scarcely disturbing him; or again opened more ostentatiously +to the words, "Oh, excuse, please," and the brief glimpse of a flaxen +braid, or a black curly head--to all of which the colonel nodded +politely--even rising later to the apparition of a taller, demure young +lady--and her more affected "Really, I beg your pardon!" The only result +of this evident curiosity was slightly to change the colonel's attitude, +so as to enable him to put his other hand in his breast in his favorite +pose. But presently he was conscious of a more active movement in the +hall, of the sounds of scuffling, of a high youthful voice saying "I +won't" and "I shan't!" of the door opening to a momentary apparition of +Miss Tish dragging a small hand and half of a small black-ribboned arm +into the room, and her rapid disappearance again, apparently pulled back +by the little hand and arm; of another and longer pause, of a whispered +conference outside, and then the reappearance of Miss Tish majestically, +reinforced and supported by the grim presence of her partner, Miss +Prinkwell. + +"This--er--unexpected visit," began Miss Tish--"not previously arranged +by letter"-- + +"Which is an invariable rule of our establishment," supplemented Miss +Prinkwell-- + +"And the fact that you are personally unknown to us," continued Miss +Tish-- + +"An ignorance shared by the child, who exhibits a distaste for an +interview," interpolated Miss Prinkwell, in a kind of antiphonal +response-- + +"For which we have had no time to prepare her," continued Miss Tish-- + +"Compels us most reluctantly"--But here she stopped short. Colonel +Starbottle, who had risen with a deep bow at their entrance and remained +standing, here walked quietly towards them. His usually high color +had faded except from his eyes, but his exalted manner was still more +pronounced, with a dreadful deliberation superadded. + +"I believe--er--I had--the honah--to send up my kyard!" (In his supreme +moments the colonel's Southern accent was always in evidence.) "I +may--er--be mistaken--but--er--that is my impression." The colonel +paused, and placed his right hand statuesquely on his heart. + +The two women trembled--Miss Tish fancied the very shirt frill of the +colonel was majestically erecting itself--as they stammered in one +voice,-- + +"Ye-e-es!" + +"That kyard contained my full name--with a request to see my ward--Miss +Stannard," continued the colonel slowly. "I believe that is the fact." + +"Certainly! certainly!" gasped the women feebly. + +"Then may I--er--point out to you that I AM--er--WAITING?" + +Although nothing could exceed the laborious simplicity and husky +sweetness of the colonel's utterance, it appeared to demoralize utterly +his two hearers--Miss Prinkwell seemed to fade into the pattern of the +wall paper, Miss Tish to droop submissively forward like a pink wax +candle in the rays of the burning sun. + +"We will bring her instantly. A thousand pardons, sir," they uttered in +the same breath, backing towards the door. + +But here the unexpected intervened. Unnoticed by the three during the +colloquy, a little figure in a black dress had peeped through the door, +and then glided into the room. It was a girl of about ten, who, in all +candor, could scarcely be called pretty, although the awkward change of +adolescence had not destroyed the delicate proportions of her hands and +feet nor the beauty of her brown eyes. These were, just then, round and +wondering, and fixed alternately on the colonel and the two women. But +like many other round and wondering eyes, they had taken in the full +meaning of the situation, with a quickness the adult mind is not apt to +give them credit for. They saw the complete and utter subjugation of +the two supreme autocrats of the school, and, I grieve to say, they were +filled with a secret and "fearful joy." But the casual spectator saw +none of this; the round and wondering eyes, still rimmed with recent and +recalcitrant tears, only looked big and innocently shining. + +The relief of the two women was sudden and unaffected. + +"Oh, here you are, dearest, at last!" said Miss Tish eagerly. "This is +your guardian, Colonel Starbottle. Come to him, dear!" + +She took the hand of the child, who hung back with an odd mingling of +shamefacedness and resentment of the interference, when the voice of +Colonel Starbottle, in the same deadly calm deliberation, said,-- + +"I--er--will speak with her--alone." + +The round eyes again saw the complete collapse of authority, as the two +women shrank back from the voice, and said hurriedly,-- + +"Certainly, Colonel Starbottle; perhaps it would be better," and +ingloriously quitted the room. + +But the colonel's triumph left him helpless. He was alone with a +simple child, an unprecedented, unheard-of situation, which left him +embarrassed and--speechless. Even his vanity was conscious that his +oratorical periods, his methods, his very attitude, were powerless here. +The perspiration stood out on his forehead; he looked at her vaguely, +and essayed a feeble smile. The child saw his embarrassment, even as +she had seen and understood his triumph, and the small woman within her +exulted. She put her little hands on her waist, and with the fingers +turned downwards and outwards pressed them down her hips to her bended +knees until they had forced her skirts into an egregious fullness before +and behind, as if she were making a curtsy, and then jumped up and +laughed. + +"You did it! Hooray!" + +"Did what?" said the colonel, pleased yet mystified. + +"Frightened 'em!--the two old cats! Frightened 'em outen their slippers! +Oh, jiminy! Never, never, NEVER before was they so skeert! Never since +school kept did they have to crawl like that! They was skeert enough +FIRST when you come, but just now!--Lordy! They wasn't a-goin' to let +you see me--but they had to! had to! HAD TO!" and she emphasized each +repetition with a skip. + +"I believe--er," said the colonel blandly, "that I--er--intimated with +some firmness"-- + +"That's it--just it!" interrupted the child delightedly. +"You--you--overdid 'em" + +"What?" + +"OVERDID 'EM! Don't you know? They're always so high and mighty! Kinder +'Don't tech me. My mother's an angel; my father's a king'--all that sort +of thing. They did THIS"--she drew herself up in a presumable imitation +of the two women's majestic entrance--"and then," she continued, +"you--YOU jest did this"--here she lifted her chin, and puffing out her +small chest, strode towards the colonel in evident simulation of his +grandest manner. + +A short, deep chuckle escaped him--although the next moment his face +became serious again. But Pansy in the mean time had taken possession of +his coat sleeve and was rubbing her cheek against it like a young colt. +At which the colonel succumbed feebly and sat down on the sofa, the +child standing beside him, leaning over and transferring her little +hands to the lapels of his frock coat, which she essayed to button over +his chest as she looked into his murky eyes. + +"The other girls said," she began, tugging at the button, "that you was +a 'cirkiss'"--another tug--"'a nigger minstrel'"--and a third tug--"'a +agent with samples'--but that showed all they knew!" + +"Ah," said the colonel with exaggerated blandness, "and--er--what did +YOU--er--say?" + +The child smiled. "I said you was a Stuffed Donkey--but that was BEFORE +I knew you. I was a little skeert too; but NOW"--she succeeded in +buttoning the coat and making the colonel quite apoplectic,--"NOW I +ain't frightened one bit--no, not one TINY bit! But," she added, after a +pause, unbuttoning the coat again and smoothing down the lapels between +her fingers, "you're to keep on frightening the old cats--mind! Never +mind about the GIRLS. I'll tell them." + +The colonel would have given worlds to be able to struggle up into an +upright position with suitable oral expression. Not that his vanity was +at all wounded by these irresponsible epithets, which only excited an +amused wonder, but he was conscious of an embarrassed pleasure in the +child's caressing familiarity, and her perfect trustfulness in him +touched his extravagant chivalry. He ought to protect her, and yet +correct her. In the consciousness of these duties he laid his white hand +upon her head. Alas! she lifted her arm and instantly transferred his +hand and part of his arm around her neck and shoulders, and comfortably +snuggled against him. The colonel gasped. Nevertheless, something must +be said, and he began, albeit somewhat crippled in delivery:-- + +"The--er--use of elegant and precise language by--er--young ladies +cannot be too sedulously cultivated"-- + +But here the child laughed, and snuggling still closer, gurgled: "That's +right! Give it to her when she comes down! That's the style!" and +the colonel stopped, discomfited. Nevertheless, there was a certain +wholesome glow in the contact of this nestling little figure. + +Presently he resumed tentativery: "I have--er--brought you a few +dainties." + +"Yes," said Pansy, "I see; but they're from the wrong shop, you dear old +silly! They're from Tomkins's, and we girls just abominate his things. +You oughter have gone to Emmons's. Never mind. I'll show you when we go +out. We're going out, aren't we?" she said suddenly, lifting her head +anxiously. "You know it's allowed, and it's RIGHTS 'to parents and +guardians'!" + +"Certainly, certainly," said the colonel. He knew he would feel a little +less constrained in the open air. + +"Then we'll go now," said Pansy, jumping up. "I'll just run upstairs and +put on my things. I'll say it's 'orders' from you. And I'll wear my new +frock--it's longer." (The colonel was slightly relieved at this; it had +seemed to him, as a guardian, that there was perhaps an abnormal display +of Pansy's black stockings.) "You wait; I won't be long." + +She darted to the door, but reaching it, suddenly stopped, returned to +the sofa, where the colonel still sat, imprinted a swift kiss on his +mottled cheek, and fled, leaving him invested with a mingled flavor +of freshly ironed muslin, wintergreen lozenges, and recent bread and +butter. He sat still for some time, staring out of the window. It was +very quiet in the room; a bumblebee blundered from the jasmine outside +into the open window, and snored loudly at the panes. But the colonel +heeded it not, and remained abstracted and silent until the door opened +to Miss Tish and Pansy--in her best frock and sash, at which the colonel +started and became erect again and courtly. + +"I am about to take my ward out," he said deliberately, +"to--er--taste the air in the Alameda, and--er--view the shops. We +may--er--also--indulge in--er--slight suitable refreshment;--er--seed +cake--or--bread and butter--and--a dish of tea." + +Miss Tish, now thoroughly subdued, was delighted to grant Miss Stannard +the half holiday permitted on such occasions. She begged the colonel to +suit his own pleasure, and intrusted "the dear child" to her guardian +"with the greatest confidence." + +The colonel made a low bow, and Pansy, demurely slipping her hand +into his, passed with him into the hall; there was a slight rustle of +vanishing skirts, and Pansy pressed his hand significantly. When they +were well outside, she said, in a lower voice:-- + +"Don't look up until we're under the gymnasium windows." The colonel, +mystified but obedient, strutted on. "Now!" said Pansy. He looked up, +beheld the windows aglow with bright young faces, and bewildering with +many handkerchiefs and clapping hands, stopped, and then taking off his +hat, acknowledged the salute with a sweeping bow. Pansy was delighted. +"I knew they'd be there; I'd already fixed 'em. They're just dyin' to +know you." + +The colonel felt a certain glow of pleasure, "I--er--had already +intimated a--er--willingness to--er--inspect the classes; +but--I--er--understood that the rules"-- + +"They're sick old rules," interrupted the child. "Tish and Prinkwell are +the rules! You say just right out that you WILL! Just overdo her!" + +The colonel had a vague sense that he ought to correct both the spirit +and language of this insurrectionary speech, but Pansy pulled him along, +and then swept him quite away with a torrent of prattle of the school, +of her friends, of the teachers, of her life and its infinitely small +miseries and pleasures. Pansy was voluble; never before had the +colonel found himself relegated to the place of a passive listener. +Nevertheless, he liked it, and as they passed on, under the shade of +the Alameda, with Pansy alternately swinging from his hand and skipping +beside him, there was a vague smile of satisfaction on his face. +Passers-by turned to look after the strangely assorted pair, or smiled, +accepting them, as the colonel fancied, as father and daughter. An odd +feeling, half of pain and half of pleasure, gripped at the heart of the +empty and childless man. + +And now, as they approached the more crowded thoroughfares, the +instinct of chivalrous protection was keen in his breast. He piloted her +skillfully; he jauntily suited his own to her skipping step; he lifted +her with scrupulous politeness over obstacles; strutting beside her on +crowded pavements, he made way for her with his swinging stick. All +the while, too, he had taken note of the easy carriage of her head and +shoulders, and most of all of her small, slim feet and hands, that, to +his fastidious taste, betokened her race. "Ged, sir," he muttered +to himself, "she's 'Blue Grass' stock, all through." To admiration +succeeded pride, with a slight touch of ownership. When they went into +a shop, which, thanks to the ingenuous Pansy, they did pretty often, +he would introduce her with a wave of the hand and the remark, "I +am--er--seeking nothing to-day, but if you will kindly--er--serve my +WARD--Miss Stannard!" Later, when they went into the confectioner's for +refreshment, and Pansy frankly declared for "ice cream and cream cakes," +instead of the "dish of tea and bread and butter" he had ordered in +pursuance of his promise, he heroically took it himself--to satisfy +his honor. Indeed, I know of no more sublime figure than Colonel +Starbottle--rising superior to a long-withstood craving for a +"cocktail," morbidly conscious also of the ridiculousness of his +appearance to any of his old associates who might see him--drinking +luke-warm tea and pecking feebly at his bread and butter at a small +table, beside his little tyrant. + +And this domination of the helpless continued on their way home. +Although Miss Pansy no longer talked of herself, she was equally +voluble in inquiry as to the colonel's habits, ways of life, friends +and acquaintances, happily restricting her interrogations, in regard to +those of her own sex, to "any LITTLE girls that he knew." Saved by this +exonerating adjective, the colonel saw here a chance to indulge +his postponed monitorial duty, as well as his vivid imagination. He +accordingly drew elaborate pictures of impossible children he had +known--creatures precise in language and dress, abstinent of play and +confectionery, devoted to lessons and duties, and otherwise, in Pansy's +own words, "loathsome to the last degree!" As "daughters of oldest +and most cherished friends," they might perhaps have excited Pansy's +childish jealousy but for the singular fact that they had all long ago +been rewarded by marriage with senators, judges, and generals--also +associates of the colonel. This remoteness of presence somewhat marred +their effect as an example, and the colonel was mortified, though not +entirely displeased, to observe that their surprising virtues did not +destroy Pansy's voracity for sweets, the recklessness of her skipping, +nor the freedom of her language. The colonel was remorseful--but happy. + +When they reached the seminary again, Pansy retired with her various +purchases, but reappeared after an interval with Miss Tish. + +"I remember," hesitated that lady, trembling under the fascination of +the colonel's profound bow, "that you were anxious to look over the +school, and although it was not possible then, I shall be glad to show +you now through one of the classrooms." + +The colonel, glancing at Pansy, was momentarily shocked by a distortion +of one side of her face, which seemed, however, to end in a wink of her +innocent brown eyes, but recovering himself, gallantly expressed his +gratitude. The next moment he was ascending the stairs, side by side +with Miss Tish, and had a distinct impression that he had been pinched +in the calf by Pansy, who was following close behind. + +It was recess, but the large classroom was quite filled with pupils, +many of them older and prettier girls, inveigled there, as it afterwards +appeared, by Pansy, in some precocious presentiment of her guardian's +taste. The colonel's apologetic yet gallant bow on entering, and his +erect, old-fashioned elegance, instantly took their delighted attention. +Indeed, all would have gone well had not Miss Prinkwell, with the view +of impressing the colonel as well as her pupils, majestically introduced +him as "a distinguished jurist deeply interested in the cause of +education, as well as guardian of their fellow pupil." That opportunity +was not thrown away on Colonel Starbottle. + +Stepping up to the desk of the astounded principal, he laid the points +of his fingers delicately upon it, and, with a preparatory inclination +of his head towards her, placed his other hand in his breast, and with +an invocatory glance at the ceiling, began. + +It was the colonel's habit at such moments to state at first, with great +care and precision, the things that he "would not say," that he "NEED +not say," and apparently that it was absolutely unnecessary even to +allude to. It was therefore, not strange that the colonel informed them +that he need not say that he counted his present privilege among +the highest that had been granted him; for besides the privilege of +beholding the galaxy of youthful talent and excellence before him, +besides the privilege of being surrounded by a garland of the blossoms +of the school in all their freshness and beauty, it was well understood +that he had the greater privilege of--er--standing in loco parentis to +one of these blossoms. It was not for him to allude to the high trust +imposed upon him by--er--deceased and cherished friend, and daughter of +one of the first families of Virginia, by the side of one who must feel +that she was the recipient of trusts equally supreme (here the colonel +paused, and statuesquely regarded the alarmed Miss Prinkwell as if he +were in doubt of it), but he would say that it should be HIS devoted +mission to champion the rights of the orphaned and innocent whenever and +wherever the occasion arose, against all odds, and even in the face of +misguided authority. (Having left the impression that Miss Prinkwell +contemplated an invasion of those rights, the colonel became more +lenient and genial.) He fully recognized her high and noble office; he +saw in her the worthy successor of those two famous instructresses of +Athens--those Greek ladies--er--whose names had escaped his memory, +but which--er--no doubt Miss Prinkwell would be glad to recall to her +pupils, with some account of their lives. (Miss Prinkwell colored; she +had never heard of them before, and even the delight of the class in the +colonel's triumph was a little dampened by this prospect of hearing more +about them.) But the colonel was only too content with seeing before him +these bright and beautiful faces, destined, as he firmly believed, in +after years to lend their charm and effulgence to the highest +places as the happy helpmeets of the greatest in the land. He +was--er--leaving a--er--slight testimonial of his regard in the form +of some--er--innocent refreshments in the hands of his ward, who +would--er--act as--er--his proxy in their distribution; and the +colonel sat down to the flutter of handkerchiefs, an applause only half +restrained, and the utter demoralization of Miss Prinkwell. + +But the time of his departure had come by this time, and he was too +experienced a public man to risk the possibility of an anticlimax by +protracting his leave-taking. And in an ominous shining of Pansy's big +eyes as the time approached he felt an embarrassment as perplexing as +the odd presentiment of loneliness that was creeping over him. But +with an elaborate caution as to the dangers of self-indulgence, and the +private bestowal of a large gold piece slipped into her hand, a promise +to come again soon, and an exaction that she would write to him often, +the colonel received in return a wet kiss, a great deal of wet cheek +pressed against his own, and a momentary tender clinging, like that +which attends the pulling up of some small flower, as he passed out +into the porch. In the hall, on the landing above him, there was a close +packing of brief skirts against the railing, and a voice, apparently +proceeding from a pair of very small mottled legs protruding through the +balusters, said distinctly, "Free cheers for Ternel Tarbottle!" And to +this benediction the colonel, hat in hand, passed out of this Eden into +the world again. + + +The colonel's next visit to the seminary did not produce the same +sensation as the first, although it was accompanied with equal +disturbance to the fair principals. Had he been a less conceited man he +might have noticed that their antagonism, although held in restraint by +their wholesome fear of him, was in danger of becoming more a conviction +than a mere suspicion. He was made aware of it through Pansy's +resentment towards them, and her revelation of a certain inquisition +that she had been subjected to in regard to his occupation, habits, and +acquaintances. Naturally of these things Pansy knew very little, but +this had not prevented her from saying a great deal. There had been +enough in her questioners' manner to make her suspect that her guardian +was being attacked, and to his defense she brought the mendacity +and imagination of a clever child. What she had really said did not +transpire except through her own comments to the colonel: "And of course +you've killed people--for you're a kernel, you know?" (Here the colonel +admitted, as a point of fact, that he had served in the Mexican war.) +"And you kin PREACH, for they heard you do it when you was here before," +she added confidently; "and of course you own niggers--for there's +'Jim.'" (The colonel here attempted to explain that Jim, being in a free +State, was now a free man, but Pansy swept away such fine distinctions.) +"And you're rich, you know, for you gave me that ten-dollar gold piece +all for myself. So I jest gave 'em as good as they sent--the old spies +and curiosity shops!" The colonel, more pleased at Pansy's devotion than +concerned over the incident itself, accepted this interpretation of his +character as a munificent, militant priest with a smiling protest. But a +later incident caused him to remember it more seriously. + +They had taken their usual stroll through the Alameda, and had made the +round of the shops, where the colonel had exhibited his usual liberality +of purchase and his exalted parental protection, and so had passed on to +their usual refreshment at the confectioner's, the usual ices and cakes +for Pansy, but this time--a concession also to the tyrant Pansy--a glass +of lemon soda and a biscuit for the colonel. He was coughing over his +unaccustomed beverage, and Pansy, her equanimity and volubility restored +by sweets, was chirruping at his side; the large saloon was filling up +with customers--mainly ladies and children, embarrassing to him as +the only man present, when suddenly Pansy's attention was diverted +by another arrival. It was a good-looking young woman, overdressed, +striking, and self-conscious, who, with an air of one who was in the +habit of challenging attention, affectedly seated herself with a male +companion at an empty table, and began to pull off an overtight glove. + +"My!" said Pansy in admiring wonder, "ain't she fine?" + +Colonel Starbottle looked up abstractedly, but at the first glance +his face flushed redly, deepened to a purple, and then became gray and +stern. He had recognized in the garish fair one Miss Flora Montague, the +"Western Star of Terpsichore and Song," with whom he had supped a few +days before at Sacramento. The lady was "on tour" with her "Combination +troupe." + +The colonel leaned over and fixed his murky eyes on Pansy. "The room +is filling up; the place is stifling; I must--er--request you +to--er--hurry." + +There was a change in the colonel's manner, which the quick-witted +child heeded. But she had not associated it with the entrance of the +strangers, and as she obediently gulped down her ice, she went on +innocently,-- + +"That fine lady's smilin' and lookin' over here. Seems to know you; so +does the man with her." + +"I--er--must request you," said the colonel, with husky precision, "NOT +to look that way, but finish your--er--repast." + +His tone was so decided that the child's lips pouted, but before she +could speak a shadow leaned over their table. It was the companion of +the "fine lady." + +"Don't seem to see us, Colonel," he said with coarse familiarity, laying +his hand on the colonel's shoulder. "Florry wants to know what's up." + +The colonel rose at the touch. "Tell her, sir," he said huskily, but +with slow deliberation, "that I 'am up' and leaving this place with +my ward, Miss Stannard. Good-morning." He lifted Pansy with infinite +courtesy from her chair, took her hand, strolled to the counter, threw +down a gold piece, and passing the table of the astonished fair one with +an inflated breast, swept with Pansy out of the shop. In the street he +paused, bidding the child go on; and then, finding he was not followed +by the woman's escort, rejoined his little companion. + +For a few moments they walked silently side by side. Then Pansy's +curiosity, getting the better of her pout, demanded information. She had +applied a child's swift logic to the scene. The colonel was angry, and +had punished the woman for something. She drew closer to his side, and +looking up with her big eyes, said confidentially. + +"What had she been a-doing?" + +The colonel was amazed, embarrassed, and speechless. He was totally +unprepared for the question, and as unable to answer it. His abrupt +departure from the shop had been to evade the very truth now demanded of +him. Only a supreme effort of mendacity was left him. He wiped his brow +with his handkerchief, coughed, and began deliberately:-- + +"The--er--lady in question is in the habit of using a scent +called--er--patchouli, a--er--perfume exceedingly distressing to me. +I detected it instantly on her entrance. I wished to avoid it--without +further contact. It is--er--singular but accepted fact that some people +are--er--peculiarly affected by odors. I had--er--old cherished friend +who always--er--fainted at the odor of jasmine; and I was intimately +acquainted with General Bludyer, who--er--dropped like a shot on the +presentation of a simple violet. The--er--habit of using such perfumes +excessively in public," continued the colonel, looking down upon the +innocent Pansy, and speaking in tones of deadly deliberation, "cannot be +too greatly condemned, as well as the habit of--er--frequenting +places of public resort in extravagant costumes, with--er--individuals +who--er--intrude upon domestic privacy. I trust you will eschew such +perfumes, places, costumes, and--er--companions FOREVER and--ON ALL +OCCASIONS!" The colonel had raised his voice to his forensic emphasis, +and Pansy, somewhat alarmed, assented. Whether she entirely accepted the +colonel's explanation was another matter. + +The incident, although not again alluded to, seemed to shadow the +rest of their brief afternoon holiday, and the colonel's manner was +unmistakably graver. But it seemed to the child more affectionate and +thoughtful. He had previously at parting submitted to be kissed by +Pansy with stately tolerance and an immediate resumption of his loftiest +manner. On this present leave-taking he laid his straight closely shaven +lips on the crown of her dark head, and as her small arms clipped his +neck, drew her closely to his side. The child uttered a slight cry; the +colonel hurriedly put his hand to his breast. Her round cheek had +come in contact with his derringer--a small weapon of beauty and +precision--which invariably nestled also at his side, in his waistcoat +pocket. The child laughed; so did the colonel, but his cheek flushed +mightily. + + +It was four months later, and a turbulent night. The early rains, +driven by a strong southwester against the upper windows of the Magnolia +Restaurant, sometimes blurred the radiance of the bright lights within, +and the roar of the encompassing pines at times drowned the sounds +of song and laughter that rose from a private supper room. Even the +clattering arrival and departure of the Sacramento stage coach, which +disturbed the depths below, did not affect these upper revelers. For +Colonel Starbottle, Jack Hamlin, Judge Beeswinger, and Jo Wynyard, +assisted by Mesdames Montague, Montmorency, Bellefield, and "Tinky" +Clifford, of the "Western Star Combination Troupe," then performing "on +tour," were holding "high jinks" in the supper room. The colonel had +been of late moody, irritable, and easily upset. In the words of a +friend and admirer, "he was kam only at twelve paces." + +In a lull in the general tumult a Chinese waiter was seen at the door +vainly endeavoring to attract the attention of the colonel by signs +and interjections. Mr. Hamlin's quick eye first caught sight of the +intruder. "Come in, Confucius," said Jack pleasantly; "you're a trifle +late for a regular turn, but any little thing in the way of knife +swallowing"-- + +"Lill missee to see connle! Waitee waitee, bottom side housee," +interrupted the Chinaman, dividing his speech between Jack and the +colonel. + +"What! ANOTHER lady? This is no place for me!" said Jack, rising with +finely simulated decorum. + +"Ask her up," chirped "Tinky" Clifford. + +But at this moment the door opened against the Chinaman, and a small +figure in a cloak and hat, dripping with raindrops, glided swiftly in. +After a moment's half-frightened, half-admiring glance at the party, +she darted forward with a little cry and threw her wet arms round the +colonel. The rest of the company, arrested in their festivity, gasped +with vague and smiling wonder; the colonel became purple and gasped. +But only for a moment. The next instant he was on his legs, holding the +child with one hand, while with the other he described a stately sweep +of the table. + +"My ward--Miss Pansy Stannard," he said with husky brevity. But drawing +the child aside, he whispered quickly, "What has happened? Why are you +here?" + +But Pansy, child-like, already diverted by the lights, the table piled +with delicacies, the gayly dressed women, and the air of festivity, +answered half abstractedly, and as much, perhaps, to the curious eyes +about her as to the colonel's voice,-- + +"I runned away!" + +"Hush!" whispered the colonel, aghast. + +But Pansy, responding again to the company rather than her guardian's +counsel, and as if appealing to them, went on half poutingly: "Yes! I +runned away because they teased me! Because they didn't like you and +said horrid things. Because they told awful, dreadful lies! Because they +said I wasn't no orphan!--that my name wasn't Stannard, and that you'd +made it all up. Because they said I was a liar--and YOU WAS MY FATHER!" + +A sudden outbreak of laughter here shook the room, and even drowned +the storm outside; again and again it rose, as the colonel staggered +gaspingly to his feet. For an instant it seemed as if his struggles to +restrain himself would end in an apoplectic fit. Perhaps it was for this +reason that Jack Hamlin checked his own light laugh and became alert +and grave. Yet the next moment Colonel Starbottle went as suddenly dead +white, as leaning over the table he said huskily, but deliberately, "I +must request the ladies present to withdraw." + +"Don't mind US, Colonel," said Judge Beeswinger, "it's all in the family +here, you know! And now I look at the girl--hang it all! she DOES favor +you, old man. Ha! ha!" + +"And as for the ladies," said Wynyard with a weak, vinous laugh, "unless +any of 'em is inclined to take the matter as PERSONAL--eh?" + +"Stop!" roared the colonel. + +There was no mistaking his voice nor his intent now. The two men, +insulted and instantly sobered, were silent. Mr. Hamlin rose, playfully +but determinedly tapped his fair companions on the shoulders, saying, +"Run away and play, girls," actually bundled them, giggling and +protesting, from the room, closed the door, and stood with his back +against it. Then it was seen that the colonel, still very white, was +holding the child by the hand, as she shrank back wonderingly and a +little frightened against him. + +"I thank YOU, Mr. Hamlin," said the colonel in a lower voice--yet with a +slight touch of his habitual stateliness in it, "for being here to bear +witness, in the presence of this child, to my unqualified statement that +a more foul, vile, and iniquitous falsehood never was uttered than that +which has been poured into her innocent ears!" He paused, walked to the +door, still holding her hand, and, as Mr. Hamlin stepped aside, opened +it, told her to await him in the public parlor, closed the door again, +and once more faced the two men. "And," he continued more deliberately, +"for the infamous jests that you, Judge Beeswinger, and you, Mr. +Wynyard, have dared to pass in her presence and mine, I shall expect +from each of you the fullest satisfaction--personal satisfaction. My +seconds will wait on you in the morning!" + +The two men stood up sobered--yet belligerent. + +"As you like, sir," said Beeswinger, flashing. + +"The sooner the better for me," added Wynyard curtly. + +They passed the unruffled Jack Hamlin with a smile and a vaguely +significant air, as if calling him as a witness to the colonel's +madness, and strode out of the room. + +As the door closed behind them, Mr. Hamlin lightly settled his white +waistcoat, and, with his hands on his hips, lounged towards the colonel. +"And THEN?" he said quietly. + +"Eh?" said the colonel. + +"After you've shot one or both of these men, or one of 'em has knocked +you out, what's to become of that child?" + +"If--I am--er--spared, sir," said the colonel huskily, "I shall continue +to defend her--against calumny and sneers"-- + +"In this style, eh? After her life has been made a hell by her +association with a man of your reputation, you propose to whitewash it +by a quarrel with a couple of drunken scallawags like Beeswinger and +Wynyard, in the presence of three painted trollops and a d----d scamp +like myself! Do you suppose this won't be blown all over California +before she can be sent back to school? Do you suppose those cackling +hussies in the next room won't give the whole story away to the next man +who stands treat?" (A fine contempt for the sex in general was one of +Mr. Hamlin's most subtle attractions for them.) + +"Nevertheless, sir," stammered the colonel, "the prompt punishment of +the man who has dared"-- + +"Punishment!" interrupted Hamlin, "who's to punish the man who has +dared most? The one man who is responsible for the whole thing? Who's to +punish YOU?" + +"Mr. Hamlin--sir!" gasped the colonel, falling back, as his hand +involuntarily rose to the level of his waistcoat pocket and his +derringer. + +But Mr. Hamlin only put down the wine glass he had lifted from the table +and was delicately twirling between his fingers, and looked fixedly at +the colonel. + +"Look here," he said slowly. "When the boys said that you accepted the +guardianship of that child NOT on account of Dick Stannard, but only as +a bluff against the joke they'd set up at you, I didn't believe them! +When these men and women to-night tumbled to that story of the child +being YOURS, I didn't believe that! When it was said by others that you +were serious about making her your ward, and giving her your property, +because you doted on her like a father, I didn't believe that." + +"And--why not THAT?" said the colonel quickly, yet with an odd tremor in +his voice. + +"Because," said Hamlin, becoming suddenly as grave as the colonel, "I +could not believe that any one who cared a picayune for the child could +undertake a trust that might bring her into contact with a life and +company as rotten as ours. I could not believe that even the most +God-forsaken, conceited fool would, for the sake of a little sentimental +parade and splurge among people outside his regular walk, allow the +prospects of that child to be blasted. I couldn't believe it, even if +he thought he was acting like a father. I didn't believe it--but I'm +beginning to believe it now!" + +There was little to choose between the attitudes and expressions of the +two set stern faces now regarding each other, silently, a foot apart. +But the colonel was the first to speak:-- + +"Mr. Hamlin--sir! You said a moment ago that I +was--er--ahem--responsible for this evening's affair--but you +expressed a doubt as to who could--er--punish me for it. I accept the +responsibility you have indicated, sir, and offer you that chance. But +as this matter between us must have precedence over--my engagements with +that canaille, I shall expect you with your seconds at sunrise on Burnt +Ridge. Good-evening, sir." + +With head erect the colonel left the room. Mr. Hamlin slightly shrugged +his shoulders, turned to the door of the room whither he had just +banished the ladies, and in a few minutes his voice was heard +melodiously among the gayest. + +For all that he managed to get them away early. When he had bundled them +into a large carryall, and watched them drive away through the storm, +he returned for a minute to the waiting room for his overcoat. He was +surprised to hear the sound of the child's voice in the supper room, and +the door being ajar, he could see quite distinctly that she was seated +at the table, with a plate full of sweets before her, while Colonel +Starbottle, with his back to the door, was sitting opposite to her, his +shoulders slightly bowed as he eagerly watched her. It seemed to Mr. +Hamlin that it was the close of an emotional interview, for Pansy's +voice was broken, partly by sobs, and partly, I grieve to say, by the +hurried swallowing of the delicacies before her. Yet, above the beating +of the storm outside, he could hear her saying,-- + +"Yes! I promise to be good--(sob)--and to go with Mrs. +Pyecroft--(sob)--and to try to like another guardian--(sob)--and not to +cry any more--(sob)--and--oh, please, DON'T YOU DO IT EITHER!" + +But here Mr. Hamlin slipped out of the room and out of the house, with +a rather grave face. An hour later, when the colonel drove up to the +Pyecrofts' door with Pansy, he found that Mr. Pyecroft was slightly +embarrassed, and a figure, which, in the darkness, seemed to resemble +Mr. Hamlin's, had just emerged from the door as he entered. + +Yet the sun was not up on Burnt Ridge earlier than Mr. Hamlin. The storm +of the night before had blown itself out; a few shreds of mist hung +in the valleys from the Ridge, that lay above coldly reddening. Then a +breeze swept over it, and out of the dissipating mist fringe Mr. Hamlin +saw two black figures, closely buttoned up like himself, emerge, which +he recognized as Beeswinger and Wynyard, followed by their seconds. +But the colonel came not, Hamlin joined the others in an animated +confidential conversation, attended by a watchful outlook for the +missing adversary. Five, ten minutes elapsed, and yet the usually prompt +colonel was not there. Mr. Hamlin looked grave; Wynyard and Beeswinger +exchanged interrogatory glances. Then a buggy was seen driving furiously +up the grade, and from it leaped Colonel Starbottle, accompanied by Dick +MacKinstry, his second, carrying his pistol case. And then--strangely +enough for men who were waiting the coming of an antagonist who was a +dead shot--they drew a breath of relief! + +MacKinstry slightly preceded his principal, and the others could see +that Starbottle, though erect, was walking slowly. They were surprised +also to observe that he was haggard and hollow eyed, and seemed, in the +few hours that had elapsed since they last saw him, to have aged ten +years. MacKinstry, a tall Kentuckian, saluted, and was the first one to +speak. + +"Colonel Starbottle," he said formally, "desires to express his regrets +at this delay, which was unavoidable, as he was obliged to attend +his ward, who was leaving by the down coach for Sacramento with Mrs. +Pyecroft, this morning." Hamlin, Wynyard, and Beeswinger exchanged +glances. "Colonel Starbottle," continued MacKinstry, turning to his +principal, "desires to say a word to Mr. Hamlin." + +As Mr. Hamlin would have advanced from the group, Colonel Starbottle +lifted his hand deprecatingly. "What I have to say must be said before +these gentlemen," he began slowly. "Mr. Hamlin--sir! when I solicited +the honor of this meeting I was under a grievous misapprehension of the +intent and purpose of your comments on my action last evening. I +think," he added, slightly inflating his buttoned-up figure, "that +the reputation I have always borne in--er--meetings of this kind +will prevent any--er--misunderstanding of my present action--which is +to--er--ask permission to withdraw my challenge--and to humbly beg your +pardon." + +The astonishment produced by this unexpected apology, and Mr. Hamlin's +prompt grasp of the colonel's hand, had scarcely passed before the +colonel drew himself up again, and turning to his second said, "And now +I am at the service of Judge Beeswinger and Mr. Wynyard--whichever may +elect to honor me first." + +But the two men thus addressed looked for a moment strangely foolish and +embarrassed. Yet the awkwardness was at last broken by Judge Beeswinger +frankly advancing towards the colonel with an outstretched hand. "We +came here only to apologize, Colonel Starbottle. Without possessing your +reputation and experience in these matters, we still think we can claim, +as you have, an equal exemption from any misunderstanding when we +say that we deeply regret our foolish and discourteous conduct last +evening." + +A quick flush mounted to the colonel's haggard cheek as he drew back +with a suspicious glance at Hamlin. + +"Mr. Hamlin!--gentlemen!--if this is--er--!" + +But before he could finish his sentence Hamlin had clapped his hand +on the colonel's shoulder. "You'll take my word, colonel, that these +gentlemen honestly intended to apologize, and came here for that +purpose;--and--SO DID I--only you anticipated me!" + +In the laughter that followed Mr. Hamlin's frankness the colonel's +features relaxed grimly, and he shook the hands of his late possible +antagonists. + +"And now," said Mr. Hamlin gayly, "you'll all adjourn to breakfast with +me--and try to make up for the supper we left unfinished last night." + +It was the only allusion to that interruption and its consequences, for +during the breakfast the colonel said nothing in regard to his ward, +and the other guests were discreetly reticent. But Mr. Hamlin was not +satisfied. He managed to get the colonel's servant, Jim, aside, and +extracted from the negro that Colonel Starbottle had taken the child +that night to Pyecroft's; that he had had a long interview with +Pyecroft; had written letters and "walked de flo'" all night; that he +(Jim) was glad the child was gone! + +"Why?" asked Hamlin, with affected carelessness. + +"She was just makin' de kernel like any o' de low-down No'th'n +folks--keerful, and stingy, and mighty 'fraid o' de opinions o' de +biggety people. And fo' what? Jess to strut round wid dat child like he +was her 'spectable go to meeting fader!" + +"And was the child sorry to leave him?" asked Hamlin. + +"Wull--no, sah. De mighty curos thing, Marse Jack, about the gals--big +and little--is dey just USE de kernel--dat's all! Dey just use de ole +man like a pole to bring down deir persimmons--see?" + +But Mr. Hamlin did not smile. + +Later it was known that Colonel Starbottle had resigned his guardianship +with the consent of the court. Whether he ever again saw his late ward +was not known, nor if he remained loyal to his memories of her. + +Readers of these chronicles may, however, remember that years after, +when the colonel married the widow of a certain Mr. Tretherick, both in +his courtship and his short married life he was singularly indifferent +to the childish graces of Carrie Tretherick, her beloved little +daughter, and that his obtuseness in that respect provoked the widow's +ire. + + + + + +PROSPER'S "OLD MOTHER" + + +"It's all very well," said Joe Wynbrook, "for us to be sittin' here, +slingin' lies easy and comfortable, with the wind whistlin' in the pines +outside, and the rain just liftin' the ditches to fill our sluice boxes +with gold ez we're smokin' and waitin', but I tell you what, boys--it +ain't home! No, sir, it ain't HOME!" + +The speaker paused, glanced around the bright, comfortable barroom, +the shining array of glasses beyond, and the circle of complacent faces +fronting the stove, on which his own boots were cheerfully steaming, +lifted a glass of whiskey from the floor under his chair, and in spite +of his deprecating remark, took a long draught of the spirits with every +symptom of satisfaction. + +"If ye mean," returned Cyrus Brewster, "that it ain't the old farmhouse +of our boyhood, 'way back in the woods, I'll agree with you; but ye'll +just remember that there wasn't any gold placers lying round on the +medder on that farm. Not much! Ef thar had been, we wouldn't have left +it." + +"I don't mean that," said Joe Wynbrook, settling himself comfortably +back in his chair; "it's the family hearth I'm talkin' of. The soothin' +influence, ye know--the tidiness of the women folks." + +"Ez to the soothin' influence," remarked the barkeeper, leaning his +elbows meditatively on his counter, "afore I struck these diggin's I +had a grocery and bar, 'way back in Mizzoori, where there was five +old-fashioned farms jined. Blame my skin ef the men folks weren't a +darned sight oftener over in my grocery, sittin' on barrils and histin' +in their reg'lar corn-juice, than ever any of you be here--with all +these modern improvements." + +"Ye don't catch on, any of you," returned Wynbrook impatiently. "Ef it +was a mere matter o' buildin' houses and becomin' family men, I reckon +that this yer camp is about prosperous enough to do it, and able to get +gals enough to marry us, but that would be only borryin' trouble and +lettin' loose a lot of jabberin' women to gossip agin' each other and +spile all our friendships. No, gentlemen! What we want here--each of +us--is a good old mother! Nothin' new-fangled or fancy, but the reg'lar +old-fashioned mother we was used to when we was boys!" + +The speaker struck a well-worn chord--rather the worse for wear, and one +that had jangled falsely ere now, but which still produced its effect. +The men were silent. Thus encouraged, Wynbrook proceeded:-- + +"Think o' comin' home from the gulch a night like this and findin' yer +old mother a-waitin' ye! No fumblin' around for the matches ye'd left in +the gulch; no high old cussin' because the wood was wet or you forgot +to bring it in; no bustlin' around for your dry things and findin' you +forgot to dry 'em that mornin'--but everything waitin' for ye and ready. +And then, mebbe, she brings ye in some doughnuts she's just cooked for +ye--cooked ez only SHE kin cook 'em! Take Prossy Riggs--alongside of me +here--for instance! HE'S made the biggest strike yet, and is puttin' +up a high-toned house on the hill. Well! he'll hev it finished off and +furnished slap-up style, you bet! with a Chinese cook, and a Biddy, and +a Mexican vaquero to look after his horse--but he won't have no mother +to housekeep! That is," he corrected himself perfunctorily, turning to +his companion, "you've never spoke o' your mother, so I reckon you're +about fixed up like us." + +The young man thus addressed flushed slightly, and then nodded his head +with a sheepish smile. He had, however, listened to the conversation +with an interest almost childish, and a reverent admiration of his +comrades--qualities which, combined with an intellect not particularly +brilliant, made him alternately the butt and the favorite of the camp. +Indeed, he was supposed to possess that proportion of stupidity +and inexperience which, in mining superstition, gives "luck" to its +possessor. And this had been singularly proven in the fact that he had +made the biggest "strike" of the season. + +Joe Wynbrook's sentimentalism, albeit only argumentative and half +serious, had unwittingly touched a chord of simple history, and the +flush which had risen to his cheek was not entirely bashfulness. The +home and relationship of which they spoke so glibly, HE had never +known; he was a foundling! As he lay awake that night he remembered the +charitable institution which had protected his infancy, the master +to whom he had later been apprenticed; that was all he knew of his +childhood. In his simple way he had been greatly impressed by the +strange value placed by his companions upon the family influence, and he +had received their extravagance with perfect credulity. In his absolute +ignorance and his lack of humor he had detected no false quality in +their sentiment. And a vague sense of his responsibility, as one who had +been the luckiest, and who was building the first "house" in the camp, +troubled him. He lay staringly wide awake, hearing the mountain wind, +and feeling warm puffs of it on his face through the crevices of the log +cabin, as he thought of the new house on the hill that was to be +lathed and plastered and clapboarded, and yet void and vacant of that +mysterious "mother"! And then, out of the solitude and darkness, a +tremendous idea struck him that made him sit up in his bunk! + +A day or two later "Prossy" Riggs stood on a sand-blown, wind-swept +suburb of San Francisco, before a large building whom forbidding +exterior proclaimed that it was an institution of formal charity. It +was, in fact, a refuge for the various waifs and strays of ill-advised +or hopeless immigration. As Prosper paused before the door, certain told +recollections of a similar refuge were creeping over him, and, oddly +enough, he felt as embarrassed as if he had been seeking relief for +himself. The perspiration stood out on his forehead as he entered the +room of the manager. + +It chanced, however, that this official, besides being a man of shrewd +experience of human weakness, was also kindly hearted, and having, after +his first official scrutiny of his visitor and his resplendent watch +chain, assured himself that he was not seeking personal relief, +courteously assisted him in his stammering request. + +"If I understand you, you want some one to act as your housekeeper?" + +"That's it! Somebody to kinder look arter things--and me--ginrally," +returned Prosper, greatly relieved. + +"Of what age?" continued the manager, with a cautious glance at the +robust youth and good-looking, simple face of Prosper. + +"I ain't nowise partickler--ez long ez she's old--ye know. Ye follow me? +Old--ez of--betwixt you an' me, she might be my own mother." + +The manager smiled inwardly. A certain degree of discretion was +noticeable in this rustic youth! "You are quite right," he answered +gravely, "as yours is a mining camp where there are no other women, +Still, you don't want any one TOO old or decrepit. There is an elderly +maiden lady"--But a change was transparently visible on Prosper's simple +face, and the manager paused. + +"She oughter be kinder married, you know--ter be like a mother," +stammered Prosper. + +"Oh, ay. I see," returned the manager, again illuminated by Prosper's +unexpected wisdom. + +He mused for a moment. "There is," he began tentatively, "a lady in +reduced circumstances--not an inmate of this house, but who has received +some relief from us. She was the wife of a whaling captain who died some +years ago, and broke up her home. She was not brought up to work, and +this, with her delicate health, has prevented her from seeking active +employment. As you don't seem to require that of her, but rather want +an overseer, and as your purpose, I gather, is somewhat philanthropical, +you might induce her to accept a 'home' with you. Having seen better +days, she is rather particular," he added, with a shrewd smile. + +Simple Prosper's face was radiant. "She'll have a Chinaman and a Biddy +to help her," he said quickly. Then recollecting the tastes of his +comrades, he added, half apologetically, half cautiously, "Ef she could, +now and then, throw herself into a lemming pie or a pot of doughnuts, +jest in a motherly kind o' way, it would please the boys." + +"Perhaps you can arrange that, too," returned the manager, "but I shall +have to broach the whole subject to her, and you had better call again +to-morrow, when I will give you her answer." + +"Ye kin say," said Prosper, lightly fingering his massive gold chain and +somewhat vaguely recalling the language of advertisement, "that she kin +have the comforts of a home and no questions asked, and fifty dollars a +month." + +Rejoiced at the easy progress of his plan, and half inclined to believe +himself a miracle of cautious diplomacy, Prosper, two days later, +accompanied the manager to the cottage on Telegraph Hill where the +relict of the late Captain Pottinger lamented the loss of her spouse, in +full view of the sea he had so often tempted. On their way thither the +manager imparted to Prosper how, according to hearsay, that lamented +seaman had carried into the domestic circle those severe habits +of discipline which had earned for him the prefix of "Bully" and +"Belaying-pin" Pottinger during his strenuous life. "They say that +though she is very quiet and resigned, she once or twice stood up to the +captain; but that's not a bad quality to have, in a rough community, as +I presume yours is, and would insure her respect." + +Ushered at last into a small tank-like sitting room, whose chief +decorations consisted of large abelone shells, dried marine algae, +coral, and a swordfish's broken weapon, Prosper's disturbed fancy +discovered the widow, sitting, apparently, as if among her husband's +remains at the bottom of the sea. She had a dejected yet somewhat ruddy +face; her hair was streaked with white, but primly disposed over her +ears like lappets, and her garb was cleanly but sombre. There was no +doubt but that she was a lugubrious figure, even to Prosper's optimistic +and inexperienced mind. He could not imagine her as beaming on his +hearth! It was with some alarm that, after the introduction had been +completed, he beheld the manager take his leave. As the door closed, +the bashful Prosper felt the murky eyes of the widow fixed upon him. A +gentle cough, accompanied with the resigned laying of a black mittened +hand upon her chest, suggested a genteel prelude to conversation, with +possible pulmonary complications. + +"I am induced to accept your proposal temporarily," she said, in a voice +of querulous precision, "on account of pressing pecuniary circumstances +which would not have happened had my claim against the shipowners for +my dear husband's loss been properly raised. I hope you fully understand +that I am unfitted both by ill health and early education from doing +any menial or manual work in your household. I shall simply oversee and +direct. I shall expect that the stipend you offer shall be paid monthly +in advance. And as my medical man prescribes a certain amount of +stimulation for my system, I shall expect to be furnished with such +viands--or even"--she coughed slightly--"such beverages as may be +necessary. I am far from strong--yet my wants are few." + +"Ez far ez I am ketchin' on and followin' ye, ma'am," returned Prosper +timidly, "ye'll hev everything ye want--jest like it was yer own home. +In fact," he went on, suddenly growing desperate as the difficulties of +adjusting this unexpectedly fastidious and superior woman to his plan +seemed to increase, "ye'll jest consider me ez yer"--But here her murky +eyes were fixed on his and he faltered. Yet he had gone too far to +retreat. "Ye see," he stammered, with a hysterical grimness that was +intended to be playful--"ye see, this is jest a little secret betwixt +and between you and me; there'll be only you and me in the house, and it +would kinder seem to the boys more homelike--ef--ef--you and me +had--you bein' a widder, you know--a kind of--of"--here his smile became +ghastly--"close relationship." + +The widow of Captain Pottinger here sat up so suddenly that she seemed +to slip through her sombre and precise enwrappings with an exposure +of the real Mrs. Pottinger that was almost improper. Her high color +deepened; the pupils of her black eyes contracted in the light the +innocent Prosper had poured into them. Leaning forward, with her fingers +clasped on her bosom, she said: "Did you tell this to the manager?" + +"Of course not," said Prosper; "ye see, it's only a matter 'twixt you +and me." + +Mrs. Pottinger looked at Prosper, drew a deep breath, and then gazed +at the abelone shells for moral support. A smile, half querulous, +half superior, crossed her face as she said: "This is very abrupt and +unusual. There is, of course, a disparity in our ages! You have never +seen me before--at least to my knowledge--although you may have heard +of me. The Spraggs of Marblehead are well known--perhaps better than the +Pottingers. And yet, Mr. Griggs"-- + +"Riggs," suggested Prosper hurriedly. + +"Riggs. Excuse me! I was thinking of young Lieutenant Griggs of the +Navy, whom I knew in the days now past. Mr. Riggs, I should say. Then +you want me to"-- + +"To be my old mother, ma'am," said Prosper tremblingly. "That is, to +pretend and look ez ef you was! You see, I haven't any, but I thought it +would be nice for the boys, and make it more like home in my new house, +ef I allowed that my old mother would be comin' to live with me. They +don't know I never had a mother to speak of. They'll never find it out! +Say ye will, Mrs. Pottinger! Do!" + +And here the unexpected occurred. Against all conventional rules and +all accepted traditions of fiction, I am obliged to state that Mrs. +Pottinger did NOT rise up and order the trembling Prosper to leave the +house! She only gripped the arm of her chair a little tighter, leaned +forward, and disdaining her usual precision and refinement of speech, +said quietly: "It's a bargain. If THAT'S what you're wanting, my +son, you can count upon me as becoming your old mother, Cecilia Jane +Pottinger Riggs, every time!" + +A few days later the sentimentalist Joe Wynbrook walked into the Wild +Cat saloon, where his comrades were drinking, and laid a letter down on +the bar with every expression of astonishment and disgust. "Look," he +said, "if that don't beat all! Ye wouldn't believe it, but here's Prossy +Riggs writin' that he came across his mother--his MOTHER, gentlemen--in +'Frisco; she hevin', unbeknownst to him, joined a party visiting the +coast! And what does this blamed fool do? Why, he's goin' to bring +her--that old woman--HERE! Here--gentlemen--to take charge of that new +house--and spoil our fun. And the God-forsaken idiot thinks that we'll +LIKE it!" + +It was one of those rare mornings in the rainy season when there was a +suspicion of spring in the air, and after a night of rainfall the sun +broke through fleecy clouds with little islets of blue sky--when +Prosper Riggs and his mother drove into Wild Cat camp. An expression +of cheerfulness was on the faces of his old comrades. For it had been +recognized that, after all, "Prossy" had a perfect right to bring his +old mother there--his well-known youth and inexperience preventing this +baleful performance from being established as a precedent. For these +reasons hats were cheerfully doffed, and some jackets put on, as the +buggy swept up the hill to the pretty new cottage, with its green blinds +and white veranda, on the crest. + +Yet I am afraid that Prosper was not perfectly happy, even in the +triumphant consummation of his plans. Mrs. Pottinger's sudden and +business-like acquiescence in it, and her singular lapse from her +genteel precision, were gratifying but startling to his ingenuousness. +And although from the moment she accepted the situation she was +fertile in resources and full of precaution against any possibility of +detection, he saw, with some uneasiness, that its control had passed out +of his hands. + +"You say your comrades know nothing of your family history?" she had +said to him on the journey thither. "What are you going to tell them?" + +"Nothin', 'cept your bein' my old mother," said Prosper hopelessly. + +"That's not enough, my son." (Another embarrassment to Prosper was her +easy grasp of the maternal epithets.) "Now listen! You were born just +six months after your father, Captain Riggs (formerly Pottinger) sailed +on his first voyage. You remember very little of him, of course, as he +was away so much." + +"Hadn't I better know suthin about his looks?" said Prosper +submissively. + +"A tall dark man, that's enough," responded Mrs. Pottinger sharply. + +"Hadn't he better favor me?" said Prosper, with his small cunning +recognizing the fact that he himself was a decided blond. + +"Ain't at all necessary," said the widow firmly. "You were always wild +and ungovernable," she continued, "and ran away from school to join some +Western emigration. That accounts for the difference of our styles." + +"But," continued Prosper, "I oughter remember suthin about our old +times--runnin' arrants for you, and bringin' in the wood o' frosty +mornin's, and you givin' me hot doughnuts," suggested Prosper dubiously. + +"Nothing of the sort," said Mrs. Pottinger promptly. "We lived in the +city, with plenty of servants. Just remember, Prosper dear, your mother +wasn't THAT low-down country style." + +Glad to be relieved from further invention, Prosper was, nevertheless, +somewhat concerned at this shattering of the ideal mother in the +very camp that had sung her praises. But he could only trust to her +recognizing the situation with her usual sagacity, of which he stood in +respectful awe. + +Joe Wynbrook and Cyrus Brewster had, as older members of the camp, +purposely lingered near the new house to offer any assistance to "Prossy +and his mother," and had received a brief and passing introduction to +the latter. So deep and unexpected was the impression she made upon +them that these two oracles of the camp retired down the hill in awkward +silence for some time, neither daring to risk his reputation by comment +or oversurprise. + +But when they approached the curious crowd below awaiting them, Cyrus +Brewster ventured to say, "Struck me ez ef that old gal was rather +high-toned for Prossy's mother." + +Joe Wynbrook instantly seized the fatal admission to show the advantage +of superior insight:-- + +"Struck YOU! Why, it was no more than I expected all along! What did we +know of Prossy? Nothin'! What did he ever tell us'? Nothin'! And why'? +'Cos it was his secret. Lord! a blind mule could see that. All this +foolishness and simplicity o' his come o' his bein' cuddled and pampered +as a baby. Then, like ez not, he was either kidnapped or led away by +some feller--and nearly broke his mother's heart. I'll bet my bottom +dollar he has been advertised for afore this--only we didn't see the +paper. Like as not they had agents out seekin' him, and he jest ran into +their hands in 'Frisco! I had a kind o' presentiment o' this when he +left, though I never let on anything." + +"I reckon, too, that she's kinder afraid he'll bolt agin. Did ye notice +how she kept watchin' him all the time, and how she did the bossin' o' +everything? And there's ONE thing sure! He's changed--yes! He don't look +as keerless and free and foolish ez he uster." + +Here there was an unmistakable chorus of assent from the crowd that had +joined them. Every one--even those who had not been introduced to +the mother--had noticed his strange restraint and reticence. In the +impulsive logic of the camp, conduct such as this, in the face of that +superior woman--his mother--could only imply that her presence was +distasteful to him; that he was either ashamed of their noticing his +inferiority to her, or ashamed of THEM! Wild and hasty as was their +deduction, it was, nevertheless, voiced by Joe Wynbrook in a tone of +impartial and even reluctant conviction. "Well, gentlemen, some of ye +may remember that when I heard that Prossy was bringin' his mother here +I kicked--kicked because it only stood to reason that, being HIS mother, +she'd be that foolish she'd upset the camp. There wasn't room enough for +two such chuckle-heads--and one of 'em being a woman, she couldn't be +shut up or sat upon ez we did to HIM. But now, gentlemen, ez we see she +ain't that kind, but high-toned and level-headed, and that she's got the +grip on Prossy--whether he likes it or not--we ain't goin' to let him +go back on her! No, sir! we ain't goin' to let him break her heart the +second time! He may think we ain't good enough for her, but ez long ez +she's civil to us, we'll stand by her." + +In this conscientious way were the shackles of that unhallowed +relationship slowly riveted on the unfortunate Prossy. In his +intercourse with his comrades during the next two or three days their +attitude was shown in frequent and ostentatious praise of his mother, +and suggestive advice, such as: "I wouldn't stop at the saloon, Prossy; +your old mother is wantin' ye;" or, "Chuck that 'ere tarpolin over your +shoulders, Pross, and don't take your wet duds into the house that yer +old mother's bin makin' tidy." Oddly enough, much of this advice was +quite sincere, and represented--for at least twenty minutes--the honest +sentiments of the speaker. Prosper was touched at what seemed a revival +of the sentiment under which he had acted, forgot his uneasiness, and +became quite himself again--a fact also noticed by his critics. "Ye've +only to keep him up to his work and he'll be the widder's joy agin," +said Cyrus Brewster. Certainly he was so far encouraged that he had a +long conversation with Mrs. Pottinger that night, with the result that +the next morning Joe Wynbrook, Cyrus Brewster, Hank Mann, and Kentucky +Ike were invited to spend the evening at the new house. As the men, +clean shirted and decently jacketed, filed into the neat sitting room +with its bright carpet, its cheerful fire, its side table with a snowy +cloth on which shining tea and coffee pots were standing, their hearts +thrilled with satisfaction. In a large stuffed rocking chair, Prossy's +old mother, wrapped up in a shawl and some mysterious ill health which +seemed to forbid any exertion, received them with genteel languor and an +extended black mitten. + +"I cannot," said Mrs. Pottinger, with sad pensiveness, "offer you the +hospitality of my own home, gentlemen--you remember, Prosper, dear, the +large salon and our staff of servants at Lexington Avenue!--but since my +son has persuaded me to take charge of his humble cot, I hope you will +make all allowances for its deficiencies--even," she added, casting a +look of mild reproach on the astonished Prosper--"even if HE cannot." + +"I'm sure he oughter to be thankful to ye, ma'am," said Joe Wynbrook +quickly, "for makin' a break to come here to live, jest ez we're +thankful--speakin' for the rest of this camp--for yer lightin' us up ez +you're doin'! I reckon I'm speakin' for the crowd," he added, looking +round him. + +Murmurs of "That's so" and "You bet" passed through the company, and one +or two cast a half-indignant glance at Prosper. + +"It's only natural," continued Mrs. Pottinger resignedly, "that having +lived so long alone, my dear Prosper may at first be a little impatient +of his old mother's control, and perhaps regret his invitation." + +"Oh no, ma'am," said the embarrassed Prosper. + +But here the mercurial Wynbrook interposed on behalf of amity and the +camp's esprit de corps. "Why, Lord! ma'am, he's jest bin longin' for ye! +Times and times agin he's talked about ye; sayin' how ef he could only +get ye out of yer Fifth Avenue saloon to share his humble lot with him +here, he'd die happy! YOU'VE heard him talk, Brewster?" + +"Frequent," replied the accommodating Brewster. + +"Part of the simple refreshment I have to offer you," continued Mrs. +Pottinger, ignoring further comment, "is a viand the exact quality of +which I am not familiar with, but which my son informs me is a great +favorite with you. It has been prepared by Li Sing, under my direction. +Prosper, dear, see that the--er--doughnuts--are brought in with the +coffee." + +Satisfaction beamed on the faces of the company, with perhaps the sole +exception of Prosper. As a dish containing a number of brown glistening +spheres of baked dough was brought in, the men's eyes shone in +sympathetic appreciation. Yet that epicurean light was for a moment +dulled as each man grasped a sphere, and then sat motionless with it +in his hand, as if it was a ball and they were waiting the signal for +playing. + +"I am told," said Mrs. Pottinger, with a glance of Christian tolerance +at Prosper, "that lightness is considered desirable by some--perhaps you +gentlemen may find them heavy." + +"Thar is two kinds," said the diplomatic Joe cheerfully, as he began to +nibble his, sideways, like a squirrel, "light and heavy; some likes 'em +one way, and some another." + +They were hard and heavy, but the men, assisted by the steaming coffee, +finished them with heroic politeness. "And now, gentlemen," said Mrs. +Pottinger, leaning back in her chair and calmly surveying the party, +"you have my permission to light your pipes while you partake of some +whiskey and water." + +The guests looked up--gratified but astonished. "Are ye sure, ma'am, you +don't mind it?" said Joe politely. + +"Not at all," responded Mrs. Pottinger briefly. "In fact, as my +physician advises the inhalation of tobacco smoke for my asthmatic +difficulties, I will join you." After a moment's fumbling in a beaded +bag that hung from her waist, she produced a small black clay pipe, +filled it from the same receptacle, and lit it. + +A thrill of surprise went round the company, and it was noticed that +Prosper seemed equally confounded. Nevertheless, this awkwardness was +quickly overcome by the privilege and example given them, and with, a +glass of whiskey and water before them, the men were speedily at their +ease. Nor did Mrs. Pottinger disdain to mingle in their desultory talk. +Sitting there with her black pipe in her mouth, but still precise and +superior, she told a thrilling whaling adventure of Prosper's father +(drawn evidently from the experience of the lamented Pottinger), which +not only deeply interested her hearers, but momentarily exalted Prosper +in their minds as the son of that hero. "Now you speak o' that, ma'am," +said the ingenuous Wynbrook, "there's a good deal o' Prossy in that yarn +o' his father's; same kind o' keerless grit! You remember, boys, that +day the dam broke and he stood thar, the water up to his neck, heavin' +logs in the break till he stopped it." Briefly, the evening, in spite +of its initial culinary failure and its surprises, was a decided social +success, and even the bewildered and doubting Prosper went to bed +relieved. It was followed by many and more informal gatherings at the +house, and Mrs Pottinger so far unbent--if that term could be used of +one who never altered her primness of manner--as to join in a game of +poker--and even permitted herself to win. + +But by the end of six weeks another change in their feelings towards +Prosper seemed to creep insidiously over the camp. He had been received +into his former fellowship, and even the presence of his mother had +become familiar, but he began to be an object of secret commiseration. +They still frequented the house, but among themselves afterwards they +talked in whispers. There was no doubt to them that Prosper's old mother +drank not only what her son had provided, but what she surreptitiously +obtained from the saloon. There was the testimony of the barkeeper, +himself concerned equally with the camp in the integrity of the Riggs +household. And there was an even darker suspicion. But this must be +given in Joe Wynbrook's own words:-- + +"I didn't mind the old woman winnin' and winnin' reg'lar--for poker's +an unsartin game;--it ain't the money that we're losin'--for it's all +in the camp. But when she's developing a habit o' holdin' FOUR aces when +somebody else hez TWO, who don't like to let on because it's Prosper's +old mother--it's gettin' rough! And dangerous too, gentlemen, if there +happened to be an outsider in, or one of the boys should kick. Why, I +saw Bilson grind his teeth--he holdin' a sequence flush--ace high--when +the dear old critter laid down her reg'lar four aces and raked in the +pile. We had to nearly kick his legs off under the table afore he'd +understand--not havin' an old mother himself." + +"Some un will hev to tackle her without Prossy knowin' it. For it would +jest break his heart, arter all he's gone through to get her here!" said +Brewster significantly. + +"Onless he DID know it and it was that what made him so sorrowful when +they first came. B'gosh! I never thought o' that," said Wynbrook, with +one of his characteristic sudden illuminations. + +"Well, gentlemen, whether he did or not," said the barkeeper stoutly, +"he must never know that WE know it. No, not if the old gal cleans out +my bar and takes the last scad in the camp." + +And to this noble sentiment they responded as one man. + +How far they would have been able to carry out that heroic resolve was +never known, for an event occurred which eclipsed its importance. One +morning at breakfast Mrs. Pottinger fixed a clouded eye upon Prosper. + +"Prosper," she said, with fell deliberation "you ought to know you have +a sister." + +"Yes, ma'am," returned Prosper, with that meekness with which he usually +received these family disclosures. + +"A sister," continued the lady, "whom you haven't seen since you were +a child; a sister who for family reasons has been living with other +relatives; a girl of nineteen." + +"Yea, ma'am," said Prosper humbly. "But ef you wouldn't mind writin' all +that down on a bit o' paper--ye know my short memory! I would get it by +heart to-day in the gulch. I'd have it all pat enough by night, ef," he +added, with a short sigh, "ye was kalkilatin' to make any illusions to +it when the boys are here." + +"Your sister Augusta," continued Mrs. Pottinger, calmly ignoring these +details, "will be here to-morrow to make me a visit." + +But here the worm Prosper not only turned, but stood up, nearly +upsetting the table. "It can't be did, ma'am it MUSTN'T be did!" he said +wildly. "It's enough for me to have played this camp with YOU--but now +to run in"-- + +"Can't be did!" repeated Mrs. Pottinger, rising in her turn and fixing +upon the unfortunate Prosper a pair of murky piratical eyes that had +once quelled the sea-roving Pottinger. "Do you, my adopted son, dare to +tell me that I can't have my own flesh and blood beneath my roof?" + +"Yes! I'd rather tell the whole story--I'd rather tell the boys I fooled +them--than go on again!" burst out the excited Prosper. + +But Mrs. Pottinger only set her lips implacably together. "Very well, +tell them then," she said rigidly; "tell them how you lured me from my +humble dependence in San Francisco with the prospect of a home with you; +tell them how you compelled me to deceive their trusting hearts with +your wicked falsehoods; tell them how you--a foundling--borrowed me for +your mother, my poor dead husband for your father, and made me invent +falsehood upon falsehood to tell them while you sat still and listened!" + +Prosper gasped. + +"Tell them," she went on deliberately, "that when I wanted to bring +my helpless child to her only home--THEN, only then--you determined +to break your word to me, either because you meanly begrudged her that +share of your house, or to keep your misdeeds from her knowledge! Tell +them that, Prossy, dear, and see what they'll say!" + +Prosper sank back in his chair aghast. In his sudden instinct of revolt +he had forgotten the camp! He knew, alas, too well what they would say! +He knew that, added to their indignation at having been duped, their +chivalry and absurd sentiment would rise in arms against the abandonment +of two helpless women! + +"P'r'aps ye're right, ma'am," he stammered. "I was only thinkin'," he +added feebly, "how SHE'D take it." + +"She'll take it as I wish her to take it," said Mrs. Pottinger firmly. + +"Supposin', ez the camp don't know her, and I ain't bin talkin' o' +havin' any SISTER, you ran her in here as my COUSIN? See? You bein' her +aunt?" + +Mrs. Pottinger regarded him with compressed lips for some time. Then +she said, slowly and half meditatively: "Yes, it might be done! She will +probably be willing to sacrifice her nearer relationship to save herself +from passing as your sister. It would be less galling to her pride, and +she wouldn't have to treat you so familiarly." + +"Yes, ma'am," said Prosper, too relieved to notice the uncomplimentary +nature of the suggestion. "And ye see I could call her 'Miss Pottinger,' +which would come easier to me." + +In its high resolve to bear with the weaknesses of Prosper's mother, +the camp received the news of the advent of Prosper's cousin solely with +reference to its possible effect upon the aunt's habits, and very little +other curiosity. Prosper's own reticence, they felt, was probably due to +the tender age at which he had separated from his relations. But when +it was known that Prosper's mother had driven to the house with a very +pretty girl of eighteen, there was a flutter of excitement in that +impressionable community. Prosper, with his usual shyness, had evaded an +early meeting with her, and was even loitering irresolutely on his way +home from work, when, as he approached the house, to his discomfiture +the door suddenly opened, the young lady appeared and advanced directly +towards him. + +She was slim, graceful, and prettily dressed, and at any other moment +Prosper might have been impressed by her good looks. But her brows were +knit, her dark eyes--in which there was an unmistakable reminiscence +of Mrs. Pottinger--were glittering, and although she was apparently +anticipating their meeting, it was evidently with no cousinly interest. +When within a few feet of him she stopped. Prosper with a feeble smile +offered his hand. She sprang back. + +"Don't touch me! Don't come a step nearer or I'll scream!" + +Prosper, still with smiling inanity, stammered that he was only "goin' +to shake hands," and moved sideways towards the house. + +"Stop!" she said, with a stamp of her slim foot. "Stay where you are! +We must have our talk out HERE. I'm not going to waste words with you in +there, before HER." + +Prosper stopped. + +"What did you do this for?" she said angrily. "How dared you? How could +you? Are you a man, or the fool she takes you for?" + +"Wot did I do WOT for?" said Prosper sullenly. + +"This! Making my mother pretend you were her son! Bringing her here +among these men to live a lie!" + +"She was willin'," said Prosper gloomily. "I told her what she had to +do, and she seemed to like it." + +"But couldn't you see she was old and weak, and wasn't responsible for +her actions? Or were you only thinking of yourself?" + +This last taunt stung him. He looked up. He was not facing a helpless, +dependent old woman as he had been the day before, but a handsome, +clever girl, in every way his superior--and in the right! In his vague +sense of honor it seemed more creditable for him to fight it out with +HER. He burst out: "I never thought of myself! I never had an old +mother; I never knew what it was to want one--but the men did! And as +I couldn't get one for them, I got one for myself--to share and share +alike--I thought they'd be happier ef there was one in the camp!" + +There was the unmistakable accent of truth in his voice. There came a +faint twitching of the young girl's lips and the dawning of a smile. But +it only acted as a goad to the unfortunate Prosper. "Ye kin laugh, Miss +Pottinger, but it's God's truth! But one thing I didn't do. No! When +your mother wanted to bring you in here as my sister, I kicked! I did! +And you kin thank me, for all your laughin', that you're standing in +this camp in your own name--and ain't nothin' but my cousin." + +"I suppose you thought your precious friends didn't want a SISTER too?" +said the girl ironically. + +"It don't make no matter wot they want now," he said gloomily. "For," he +added, with sudden desperation, "it's come to an end! Yes! You and your +mother will stay here a spell so that the boys don't suspicion nothin' +of either of ye. Then I'll give it out that you're takin' your aunt away +on a visit. Then I'll make over to her a thousand dollars for all the +trouble I've given her, and you'll take her away. I've bin a fool, Miss +Pottinger, mebbe I am one now, but what I'm doin' is on the square, and +it's got to be done!" + +He looked so simple and so good--so like an honest schoolboy confessing +a fault and abiding by his punishment, for all his six feet of altitude +and silky mustache--that Miss Pottinger lowered her eyes. But she +recovered herself and said sharply:-- + +"It's all very well to talk of her going away! But she WON'T. You have +made her like you--yes! like you better than me--than any of us! She +says you're the only one who ever treated her like a mother--as a mother +should be treated. She says she never knew what peace and comfort +were until she came to you. There! Don't stare like that! Don't +you understand? Don't you see? Must I tell you again that she is +strange--that--that she was ALWAYS queer and strange--and queerer on +account of her unfortunate habits--surely you knew THEM, Mr. Riggs! She +quarreled with us all. I went to live with my aunt, and she took herself +off to San Francisco with a silly claim against my father's shipowners. +Heaven only knows how she managed to live there; but she always +impressed people with her manners, and some one always helped her! At +last I begged my aunt to let me seek her, and I tracked her here. +There! If you've confessed everything to me, you have made me confess +everything to you, and about my own mother, too! Now, what is to be +done?" + +"Whatever is agreeable to you is the same to me, Miss Pottinger," he +said formally. + +"But you mustn't call me 'Miss Pottinger' so loud. Somebody might hear +you," she returned mischievously. + +"All right--'cousin,' then," he said, with a prodigious blush. +"Supposin' we go in." + +In spite of the camp's curiosity, for the next few days they delicately +withheld their usual evening visits to Prossy's mother. "They'll be +wantin' to talk o' old times, and we don't wanter be too previous," +suggested Wynbrook. But their verdict, when they at last met the +new cousin, was unanimous, and their praises extravagant. To their +inexperienced eyes she seemed to possess all her aunt's gentility and +precision of language, with a vivacity and playfulness all her own. In +a few days the whole camp was in love with her. Yet she dispensed +her favors with such tactful impartiality and with such innocent +enjoyment--free from any suspicion of coquetry--that there were no +heartburnings, and the unlucky man who nourished a fancied slight +would have been laughed at by his fellows. She had a town-bred girl's +curiosity and interest in camp life, which she declared was like a +"perpetual picnic," and her slim, graceful figure halting beside a ditch +where the men were working seemed to them as grateful as the new spring +sunshine. The whole camp became tidier; a coat was considered de rigueur +at "Prossy's mother" evenings; there was less horseplay in the trails, +and less shouting. "It's all very well to talk about 'old mothers,'" +said the cynical barkeeper, "but that gal, single handed, has done more +in a week to make the camp decent than old Ma'am Riggs has in a month o' +Sundays." + +Since Prosper's brief conversation with Miss Pottinger before the house, +the question "What is to be done?" had singularly lapsed, nor had it +been referred to again by either. The young lady had apparently thrown +herself into the diversions of the camp with the thoughtless gayety of +a brief holiday maker, and it was not for him to remind her--even had he +wished to--that her important question had never been answered. He had +enjoyed her happiness with the relief of a secret shared by her. Three +weeks had passed; the last of the winter's rains had gone. Spring was +stirring in underbrush and wildwood, in the pulse of the waters, in the +sap of the great pines, in the uplifting of flowers. Small wonder if +Prosper's boyish heart had stirred a little too. + +In fact, he had been possessed by another luminous idea--a wild idea +that to him seemed almost as absurd as the one which had brought him +all this trouble. It had come to him like that one--out of a starlit +night--and he had risen one morning with a feverish intent to put it +into action! It brought him later to take an unprecedented walk alone +with Miss Pottinger, to linger under green leaves in unfrequented woods, +and at last seemed about to desert him as he stood in a little hollow +with her hand in his--their only listener an inquisitive squirrel. Yet +this was all the disappointed animal heard him stammer,-- + +"So you see, dear, it would THEN be no lie--for--don't you see?--she'd +be really MY mother as well as YOURS." + + +The marriage of Prosper Riggs and Miss Pottinger was quietly celebrated +at Sacramento, but Prossy's "old mother" did not return with the happy +pair. + +Of Mrs. Pottinger's later career some idea may be gathered from a letter +which Prosper received a year after his marriage. "Circumstances," wrote +Mrs. Pottinger, "which had induced me to accept the offer of a widower +to take care of his motherless household, have since developed into a +more enduring matrimonial position, so that I can always offer my dear +Prosper a home with his mother, should he choose to visit this locality, +and a second father in Hiram W. Watergates, Esq., her husband." + + + + + +THE CONVALESCENCE OF JACK HAMLIN + + +The habitually quiet, ascetic face of Seth Rivers was somewhat disturbed +and his brows were knitted as he climbed the long ascent of Windy Hill +to its summit and his own rancho. Perhaps it was the effect of the +characteristic wind, which that afternoon seemed to assault him from all +points at once and did not cease its battery even at his front door, but +hustled him into the passage, blew him into the sitting room, and then +celebrated its own exit from the long, rambling house by the banging +of doors throughout the halls and the slamming of windows in the remote +distance. + +Mrs. Rivers looked up from her work at this abrupt onset of her +husband, but without changing her own expression of slightly fatigued +self-righteousness. Accustomed to these elemental eruptions, she laid +her hands from force of habit upon the lifting tablecloth, and then rose +submissively to brush together the scattered embers and ashes from the +large hearthstone, as she had often done before. + +"You're in early, Seth," she said. + +"Yes. I stopped at the Cross Roads Post Office. Lucky I did, or you'd +hev had kempany on your hands afore you knowed it--this very night! I +found this letter from Dr. Duchesne," and he produced a letter from his +pocket. + +Mrs. Rivers looked up with an expression of worldly interest. Dr. +Duchesne had brought her two children into the world with some +difficulty, and had skillfully attended her through a long illness +consequent upon the inefficient maternity of soulful but fragile +American women of her type. The doctor had more than a mere local +reputation as a surgeon, and Mrs. Rivers looked up to him as her sole +connecting link with a world of thought beyond Windy Hill. + +"He's comin' up yer to-night, bringin' a friend of his--a patient that +he wants us to board and keep for three weeks until he's well agin," +continued Mr. Rivers. "Ye know how the doctor used to rave about the +pure air on our hill." + +Mrs. Rivers shivered slightly, and drew her shawl over her shoulders, +but nodded a patient assent. + +"Well, he says it's just what that patient oughter have to cure him. +He's had lung fever and other things, and this yer air and gin'ral quiet +is bound to set him up. We're to board and keep him without any fuss or +feathers, and the doctor sez he'll pay liberal for it. This yer's what +he sez," concluded Mr. Rivers, reading from the letter: "'He is now +fully convalescent, though weak, and really requires no other medicine +than the--ozone'--yes, that's what the doctor calls it--'of Windy Hill, +and in fact as little attendance as possible. I will not let him keep +even his negro servant with him. He'll give you no trouble, if he can be +prevailed upon to stay the whole time of his cure.'" + +"There's our spare room--it hasn't been used since Parson Greenwood was +here," said Mrs. Rivers reflectively. "Melinda could put it to rights in +an hour. At what time will he come?" + +"He'd come about nine. They drive over from Hightown depot. But," he +added grimly, "here ye are orderin' rooms to be done up and ye don't +know who for." + +"You said a friend of Dr. Duchesne," returned Mrs. Rivers simply. + +"Dr. Duchesne has many friends that you and me mightn't cotton to," +said her husband. "This man is Jack Hamlin." As his wife's remote and +introspective black eyes returned only vacancy, he added quickly. "The +noted gambler!" + +"Gambler?" echoed his wife, still vaguely. + +"Yes--reg'lar; it's his business." + +"Goodness, Seth! He can't expect to do it here." + +"No," said Seth quickly, with that sense of fairness to his fellow +man which most women find it so difficult to understand. "No--and he +probably won't mention the word 'card' while he's here." + +"Well?" said Mrs. Rivers interrogatively. + +"And," continued Seth, seeing that the objection was not pressed, "he's +one of them desprit men! A reg'lar fighter! Killed two or three men in +dools!" + +Mrs. Rivers stared. "What could Dr. Duchesne have been thinking of? Why, +we wouldn't be safe in the house with him!" + +Again Seth's sense of equity triumphed. "I never heard of his fightin' +anybody but his own kind, and when he was bullyragged. And ez to women +he's quite t'other way in fact, and that's why I think ye oughter know +it afore you let him come. He don't go round with decent women. In +fact"--But here Mr. Rivers, in the sanctity of conjugal confidences and +the fullness of Bible reading, used a few strong scriptural substantives +happily unnecessary to repeat here. + +"Seth!" said Mrs. Rivers suddenly, "you seem to know this man." + +The unexpectedness and irrelevancy of this for a moment startled Seth. +But that chaste and God-fearing man had no secrets. "Only by hearsay, +Jane," he returned quietly; "but if ye say the word I'll stop his comin' +now." + +"It's too late," said Mrs. Rivers decidedly. + +"I reckon not," returned her husband, "and that's why I came straight +here. I've only got to meet them at the depot and say this thing can't +be done--and that's the end of it. They'll go off quiet to the hotel." + +"I don't like to disappoint the doctor, Seth," said Mrs. Rivers. "We +might," she added, with a troubled look of inquiry at her husband, "we +might take that Mr. Hamlin on trial. Like as not he won't stay, anyway, +when he sees what we're like, Seth. What do you think? It would be only +our Christian duty, too." + +"I was thinkin' o' that as a professin' Christian, Jane," said her +husband. "But supposin' that other Christians don't look at it in that +light. Thar's Deacon Stubbs and his wife and the parson. Ye remember +what he said about 'no covenant with sin'?" + +"The Stubbses have no right to dictate who I'll have in my house," said +Mrs. Rivers quickly, with a faint flush in her rather sallow cheeks. + +"It's your say and nobody else's," assented her husband with grim +submissiveness. "You do what you like." + +Mrs. Rivers mused. "There's only myself and Melinda here," she said with +sublime naivete; "and the children ain't old enough to be corrupted. I +am satisfied if you are, Seth," and she again looked at him inquiringly. + +"Go ahead, then, and get ready for 'em," said Seth, hurrying away +with unaffected relief. "If you have everything fixed by nine o'clock, +that'll do." + +Mrs. Rivers had everything "fixed" by that hour, including herself +presumably, for she had put on a gray dress which she usually wore +when shopping in the county town, adding a prim collar and cuffs. A +pearl-encircled brooch, the wedding gift of Seth, and a solitaire ring +next to her wedding ring, with a locket containing her children's hair, +accented her position as a proper wife and mother. At a quarter to nine +she had finished tidying the parlor, opening the harmonium so that +the light might play upon its polished keyboard, and bringing from +the forgotten seclusion of her closet two beautifully bound volumes of +Tupper's "Poems" and Pollok's "Course of Time," to impart a literary +grace to the centre table. She then drew a chair to the table and sat +down before it with a religious magazine in her lap. The wind roared +over the deep-throated chimney, the clock ticked monotonously, and then +there came the sound of wheels and voices. + +But Mrs. Rivers was not destined to see her guest that night. Dr. +Duchesne, under the safe lee of the door, explained that Mr. Hamlin +had been exhausted by the journey, and, assisted by a mild opiate, was +asleep in the carriage; that if Mrs. Rivers did not object, they would +carry him at once to his room. In the flaring and guttering of candles, +the flashing of lanterns, the flapping of coats and shawls, and the +bewildering rush of wind, Mrs. Rivers was only vaguely conscious of a +slight figure muffled tightly in a cloak carried past her in the arms +of a grizzled negro up the staircase, followed by Dr. Duchesne. With +the closing of the front door on the tumultuous world without, a silence +fell again on the little parlor. + +When the doctor made his reappearance it was to say that his patient was +being undressed and put to bed by his negro servant, who, however, would +return with the doctor to-night, but that the patient would be left with +everything that was necessary, and that he would require no attention +from the family until the next day. Indeed, it was better that he +should remain undisturbed. As the doctor confined his confidences and +instructions entirely to the physical condition of their guest, Mrs. +Rivers found it awkward to press other inquiries. + +"Of course," she said at last hesitatingly, but with a certain primness +of expression, "Mr. Hamlin must expect to find everything here very +different from what he is accustomed to--at least from what my husband +says are his habits." + +"Nobody knows that better than he, Mrs. Rivers," returned the doctor +with an equally marked precision of manner, "and you could not have a +guest who would be less likely to make you remind him of it." + +A little annoyed, yet not exactly knowing why, Mrs. Rivers abandoned the +subject, and as the doctor shortly afterwards busied himself in the care +of his patient, with whom he remained until the hour of his departure, +she had no chance of renewing it. But as he finally shook hands with his +host and hostess, it seemed to her that he slightly recurred to it. "I +have the greatest hope of the curative effect of this wonderful locality +on my patient, but even still more of the beneficial effect of the +complete change of his habits, his surroundings, and their influences." +Then the door closed on the man of science and the grizzled negro +servant, the noise of the carriage wheels was shut out with the song of +the wind in the pine tops, and the rancho of Windy Hill possessed Mr. +Jack Hamlin in peace. Indeed, the wind was now falling, as was its +custom at that hour, and the moon presently arose over a hushed and +sleeping landscape. + +For the rest of the evening the silent presence in the room above +affected the household; the half-curious servants and ranch hands spoke +in whispers in the passages, and at evening prayers, in the dining room, +Seth Rivers, kneeling before and bowed over a rush-bottomed chair whose +legs were clutched by his strong hands, included "the stranger within +our gates" in his regular supplications. When the hour for retiring +came, Seth, with a candle in his hand, preceded his wife up the +staircase, but stopped before the door of their guest's room. "I +reckon," he said interrogatively to Mrs. Rivers, "I oughter see ef he's +wantin' anythin'?" + +"You heard what the doctor said," returned Mrs. Rivers cautiously. +At the same time she did not speak decidedly, and the frontiersman's +instinct of hospitality prevailed. He knocked lightly; there was no +response. He turned the door handle softly. The door opened. A faint +clean perfume--an odor of some general personality rather than any +particular thing--stole out upon them. The light of Seth's candle struck +a few glints from some cut-glass and silver, the contents of the guest's +dressing case, which had been carefully laid out upon a small table by +his negro servant. There was also a refined neatness in the disposition +of his clothes and effects which struck the feminine eye of even the +tidy Mrs. Rivers as something new to her experience. Seth drew nearer +the bed with his shaded candle, and then, turning, beckoned his wife to +approach. Mrs. Rivers hesitated--but for the necessity of silence +she would have openly protested--but that protest was shut up in her +compressed lips as she came forward. + +For an instant that awe with which absolute helplessness invests the +sleeping and dead was felt by both husband and wife. Only the upper part +of the sleeper's face was visible above the bedclothes, held in position +by a thin white nervous hand that was encircled at the wrist by a +ruffle. Seth stared. Short brown curls were tumbled over a forehead damp +with the dews of sleep and exhaustion. But what appeared more singular, +the closed eyes of this vessel of wrath and recklessness were fringed +with lashes as long and silky as a woman's. Then Mrs. Rivers gently +pulled her husband's sleeve, and they both crept back with a greater +sense of intrusion and even more cautiously than they had entered. Nor +did they speak until the door was closed softly and they were alone on +the landing. Seth looked grimly at his wife. + +"Don't look much ez ef he could hurt anybody." + +"He looks like a sick man," returned Mrs. Rivers calmly. + + +The unconscious object of this criticism and attention slept until late; +slept through the stir of awakened life within and without, through the +challenge of early cocks in the lean-to shed, through the creaking +of departing ox teams and the lazy, long-drawn commands of teamsters, +through the regular strokes of the morning pump and the splash of water +on stones, through the far-off barking of dogs and the half-intelligible +shouts of ranchmen; slept through the sunlight on his ceiling, through +its slow descent of his wall, and awoke with it in his eyes! He woke, +too, with a delicious sense of freedom from pain, and of even drawing +a long breath without difficulty--two facts so marvelous and dreamlike +that he naturally closed his eyes again lest he should waken to a world +of suffering and dyspnoea. Satisfied at last that this relief was real, +he again opened his eyes, but upon surroundings so strange, so wildly +absurd and improbable, that he again doubted their reality. He was +lying in a moderately large room, primly and severely furnished, but +his attention was for the moment riveted to a gilt frame upon the wall +beside him bearing the text, "God Bless Our Home," and then on another +frame on the opposite wall which admonished him to "Watch and Pray." +Beside them hung an engraving of the "Raising of Lazarus," and a +Hogarthian lithograph of "The Drunkard's Progress." Mr. Hamlin closed +his eyes; he was dreaming certainly--not one of those wild, fantastic +visions that had so miserably filled the past long nights of pain and +suffering, but still a dream! At last, opening one eye stealthily, he +caught the flash of the sunlight upon the crystal and silver articles +of his dressing case, and that flash at once illuminated his memory. He +remembered his long weeks of illness and the devotion of Dr. Duchesne. +He remembered how, when the crisis was past, the doctor had urged a +complete change and absolute rest, and had told him of a secluded rancho +in some remote locality kept by an honest Western pioneer whose family +he had attended. He remembered his own reluctant assent, impelled by +gratitude to the doctor and the helplessness of a sick man. He +now recalled the weary journey thither, his exhaustion and the +semi-consciousness of his arrival in a bewildering wind on a shadowy +hilltop. And this was the place! + +He shivered slightly, and ducked his head under the cover again. But the +brightness of the sun and some exhilarating quality in the air tempted +him to have another outlook, avoiding as far as possible the grimly +decorated walls. If they had only left him his faithful servant he +could have relieved himself of that mischievous badinage which always +alternately horrified and delighted that devoted negro. But he was +alone--absolutely alone--in this conventicle! + +Presently he saw the door open slowly. It gave admission to the small +round face and yellow ringlets of a little girl, and finally to her +whole figure, clasping a doll nearly as large as herself. For a moment +she stood there, arrested by the display of Mr. Hamlin's dressing case +on the table. Then her glances moved around the room and rested upon the +bed. Her blue eyes and Mr. Hamlin's brown ones met and mingled. Without +a moment's hesitation she moved to the bedside. Taking her doll's hands +in her own, she displayed it before him. + +"Isn't it pitty?" + +Mr. Hamlin was instantly his old self again. Thrusting his hand +comfortably under the pillow, he lay on his side and gazed at it long +and affectionately. "I never," he said in a faint voice, but with +immovable features, "saw anything so perfectly beautiful. Is it alive?" + +"It's a dolly," she returned gravely, smoothing down its frock and +straightening its helpless feet. Then seized with a spontaneous idea, +like a young animal she suddenly presented it to him with both hands and +said,-- + +"Kiss it." + +Mr. Hamlin implanted a chaste salute on its vermilion cheek. "Would you +mind letting me hold it for a little?" he said with extreme diffidence. + +The child was delighted, as he expected. Mr. Hamlin placed it in a +sitting posture on the edge of his bed, and put an ostentatious paternal +arm around it. + +"But you're alive, ain't you?" he said to the child. + +This subtle witticism convulsed her. "I'm a little girl," she gurgled. + +"I see; her mother?" + +"Ess." + +"And who's your mother?" + +"Mammy." + +"Mrs. Rivers?" + +The child nodded until her ringlets were shaken on her cheek. After +a moment she began to laugh bashfully and with repression, yet as +Mr. Hamlin thought a little mischievously. Then as he looked at her +interrogatively she suddenly caught hold of the ruffle of his sleeve. + +"Oo's got on mammy's nighty." + +Mr. Hamlin started. He saw the child's obvious mistake and actually felt +himself blushing. It was unprecedented--it was the sheerest weakness--it +must have something to do with the confounded air. + +"I grieve to say you are deeply mistaken--it is my very own," he +returned with great gravity. Nevertheless, he drew the coverlet close +over his shoulder. But here he was again attracted by another face at +the half-opened door--a freckled one, belonging to a boy apparently a +year or two older than the girl. He was violently telegraphing to her to +come away, although it was evident that he was at the same time deeply +interested in the guest's toilet articles. Yet as his bright gray eyes +and Mr. Hamlin's brown ones met, he succumbed, as the girl had, and +walked directly to the bedside. But he did it bashfully--as the girl had +not. He even attempted a defensive explanation. + +"She hadn't oughter come in here, and mar wouldn't let her, and she +knows it," he said with superior virtue. + +"But I asked her to come as I'm asking you," said Mr. Hamlin promptly, +"and don't you go back on your sister or you'll never be president of +the United States." With this he laid his hand on the boy's tow head, +and then, lifting himself on his pillow to a half-sitting posture, put +an arm around each of the children, drawing them together, with the doll +occupying the central post of honor. "Now," continued Mr. Hamlin, albeit +in a voice a little faint from the exertion, "now that we're comfortable +together I'll tell you the story of the good little boy who became a +pirate in order to save his grandmother and little sister from being +eaten by a wolf at the door." + +But, alas! that interesting record of self-sacrifice never was told. For +it chanced that Melinda Bird, Mrs. Rivers's help, following the trail of +the missing children, came upon the open door and glanced in. There, to +her astonishment, she saw the domestic group already described, and to +her eyes dominated by the "most beautiful and perfectly elegant" young +man she had ever seen. But let not the incautious reader suppose that +she succumbed as weakly as her artless charges to these fascinations. +The character and antecedents of that young man had been already +delivered to her in the kitchen by the other help. With that single +glance she halted; her eyes sought the ceiling in chaste exaltation. +Falling back a step, she called in ladylike hauteur and precision, "Mary +Emmeline and John Wesley." + +Mr. Hamlin glanced at the children. "It's Melindy looking for us," +said John Wesley. But they did not move. At which Mr. Hamlin called out +faintly but cheerfully, "They're here, all right." + +Again the voice arose with still more marked and lofty distinctness, +"John Wesley and Mary Em-me-line." It seemed to Mr. Hamlin that human +accents could not convey a more significant and elevated ignoring of +some implied impropriety in his invitation. He was for a moment crushed. + +But he only said to his little friends with a smile, "You'd better go +now and we'll have that story later." + +"Affer beckus?" suggested Mary Emmeline. + +"In the woods," added John Wesley. + +Mr. Hamlin nodded blandly. The children trotted to the door. It closed +upon them and Miss Bird's parting admonition, loud enough for Mr. Hamlin +to hear, "No more freedoms, no more intrudings, you hear." + +The older culprit, Hamlin, retreated luxuriously under his blankets, +but presently another new sensation came over him--absolutely, hunger. +Perhaps it was the child's allusion to "beckus," but he found himself +wondering when it would be ready. This anxiety was soon relieved by the +appearance of his host himself bearing a tray, possibly in deference to +Miss Bird's sense of propriety. It appeared also that Dr. Duchesne had +previously given suitable directions for his diet, and Mr. Hamlin found +his repast simple but enjoyable. Always playfully or ironically polite +to strangers, he thanked his host and said he had slept splendidly. + +"It's this yer 'ozone' in the air that Dr. Duchesne talks about," said +Seth complacently. + +"I am inclined to think it is also those texts," said Mr. Hamlin +gravely, as he indicated them on the wall. "You see they reminded me of +church and my boyhood's slumbers there. I have never slept so peacefully +since." Seth's face brightened so interestedly at what he believed to +be a suggestion of his guest's conversion that Mr. Hamlin was fain to +change the subject. When his host had withdrawn he proceeded to dress +himself, but here became conscious of his weakness and was obliged +to sit down. In one of those enforced rests he chanced to be near the +window, and for the first time looked on the environs of his place +of exile. For a moment he was staggered. Everything seemed to pitch +downward from the rocky outcrop on which the rambling house and farm +sheds stood. Even the great pines around it swept downward like a green +wave, to rise again in enormous billows as far as the eye could reach. +He could count a dozen of their tumbled crests following each other on +their way to the distant plain. In some vague point of that shimmering +horizon of heat and dust was the spot he came from the preceding night. +Yet the recollection of it and his feverish past seemed to confuse him, +and he turned his eyes gladly away. + +Pale, a little tremulous, but immaculate and jaunty in his white +flannels and straw hat, he at last made his way downstairs. To his +great relief he found the sitting room empty, as he would have willingly +deferred his formal acknowledgments to his hostess later. A single +glance at the interior determined him not to linger, and he slipped +quietly into the open air and sunshine. The day was warm and still, as +the wind only came up with the going down of the sun, and the atmosphere +was still redolent with the morning spicing of pine and hay and a +stronger balm that seemed to fill his breast with sunshine. He walked +toward the nearest shade--a cluster of young buckeyes--and having with +a certain civic fastidiousness flicked the dust from a stump with his +handkerchief he sat down. It was very quiet and calm. The life and +animation of early morning had already vanished from the hill, or seemed +to be suspended with the sun in the sky. He could see the ranchmen and +oxen toiling on the green terraced slopes below, but no sound reached +his ears. Even the house he had just quitted seemed empty of life +throughout its rambling length. His seclusion was complete. Could he +stand it for three weeks? Perhaps it need not be for so long; he +was already stronger! He foresaw that the ascetic Seth might become +wearisome. He had an intuition that Mrs. Rivers would be equally so; he +should certainly quarrel with Melinda, and this would probably debar him +from the company of the children--his only hope. + +But his seclusion was by no means so complete as he expected. +He presently was aware of a camp-meeting hymn hummed somewhat +ostentatiously by a deep contralto voice, which he at once recognized as +Melinda's, and saw that severe virgin proceeding from the kitchen along +the ridge until within a few paces of the buckeyes, when she stopped +and, with her hand shading her eyes, apparently began to examine the +distant fields. She was a tall, robust girl, not without certain rustic +attractions, of which she seemed fully conscious. This latter weakness +gave Mr. Hamlin a new idea. He put up the penknife with which he had +been paring his nails while wondering why his hands had become so thin, +and awaited events. She presently turned, approached the buckeyes, +plucked a spike of the blossoms with great girlish lightness, and then +apparently discovering Mr. Hamlin, started in deep concern and said with +somewhat stentorian politeness: "I BEG your pardon--didn't know I was +intruding!" + +"Don't mention it," returned Jack promptly, but without moving. "I saw +you coming and was prepared; but generally--as I have something the +matter with my heart--a sudden joy like this is dangerous." + +Somewhat mystified, but struggling between an expression of rigorous +decorum and gratified vanity, Miss Melinda stammered, "I was only"-- + +"I knew it--I saw what you were doing," interrupted Jack gravely, "only +I wouldn't do it if I were you. You were looking at one of those young +men down the hill. You forgot that if you could see him he could see +you looking too, and that would only make him conceited. And a girl with +YOUR attractions don't require that." + +"Ez if," said Melinda, with lofty but somewhat reddening scorn, "there +was a man on this hull rancho that I'd take a second look at." + +"It's the first look that does the business," returned Jack simply. "But +maybe I was wrong. Would you mind--as you're going straight back to +the house" (Miss Melinda had certainly expressed no such +intention)--"turning those two little kids loose out here? I've a sort +of engagement with them." + +"I will speak to their mar," said Melinda primly, yet with a certain +sign of relenting, as she turned away. + +"You can say to her that I regretted not finding her in the sitting room +when I came down," continued Jack tactfully. + +Apparently the tact was successful, for he was delighted a few moments +later by the joyous onset of John Wesley and Mary Emmeline upon the +buckeyes, which he at once converted into a game of hide and seek, +permitting himself at last to be shamelessly caught in the open. +But here he wisely resolved upon guarding against further grown-up +interruption, and consulting with his companions found that on one +of the lower terraces there was a large reservoir fed by a mountain +rivulet, but they were not allowed to play there. Thither, however, the +reckless Jack hied with his playmates and was presently ensconced under +a willow tree, where he dexterously fashioned tiny willow canoes with +his penknife and sent them sailing over a submerged expanse of nearly +an acre. But half an hour of this ingenious amusement was brought to an +abrupt termination. While cutting bark, with his back momentarily turned +on his companions, he heard a scream, and turned quickly to see +John Wesley struggling in the water, grasping a tree root, and Mary +Emmeline--nowhere! In another minute he saw the strings of her pinafore +appear on the surface a few yards beyond, and in yet another minute, +with a swift rueful glance at his white flannels, he had plunged after +her. A disagreeable shock of finding himself out of his depths was, +however, followed by contact with the child's clothing, and clutching +her firmly, a stroke or two brought him panting to the bank. Here +a gasp, a gurgle, and then a roar from Mary Emmeline, followed by a +sympathetic howl from John Wesley, satisfied him that the danger was +over. Rescuing the boy from the tree root, he laid them both on the +grass and contemplated them exercising their lungs with miserable +satisfaction. But here he found his own breathing impeded in addition to +a slight faintness, and was suddenly obliged to sit down beside them, at +which, by some sympathetic intuition, they both stopped crying. + +Encouraged by this, Mr. Hamlin got them to laughing again, and then +proposed a race home in their wet clothes, which they accepted, Mr. +Hamlin, for respiratory reasons, lagging in their rear until he had the +satisfaction of seeing them captured by the horrified Melinda in front +of the kitchen, while he slipped past her and regained his own room. +Here he changed his saturated clothes, tried to rub away a certain +chilliness that was creeping over him, and lay down in his dressing +gown to miserable reflections. He had nearly drowned the children and +overexcited himself, in spite of his promise to the doctor! He would +never again be intrusted with the care of the former nor be believed by +the latter! + +But events are not always logical in sequence. Mr. Hamlin went +comfortably to sleep and into a profuse perspiration. He was awakened by +a rapping at his door, and opening it, was surprised to find Mrs. Rivers +with anxious inquiries as to his condition. "Indeed," she said, with an +emotion which even her prim reserve could not conceal, "I did not know +until now how serious the accident was, and how but for you and Divine +Providence my little girl might have been drowned. It seems Melinda saw +it all." + +Inwardly objurgating the spying Melinda, but relieved that his playmates +hadn't broken their promise of secrecy, Mr. Hamlin laughed. + +"I'm afraid that your little girl wouldn't have got into the water at +all but for me--and you must give all the credit of getting her out +to the other fellow." He stopped at the severe change in Mrs. Rivers's +expression, and added quite boyishly and with a sudden drop from his +usual levity, "But please don't keep the children away from me for all +that, Mrs. Rivers." + +Mrs. Rivers did not, and the next day Jack and his companions sought +fresh playing fields and some new story-telling pastures. Indeed, it was +a fine sight to see this pale, handsome, elegantly dressed young fellow +lounging along between a blue-checkered pinafored girl on one side and +a barefooted boy on the other. The ranchmen turned and looked after +him curiously. One, a rustic prodigal, reduced by dissipation to the +swine-husks of ranching, saw fit to accost him familiarly. + +"The last time I saw you dealing poker in Sacramento, Mr. Hamlin, I did +not reckon to find you up here playing with a couple of kids." + +"No!" responded Mr. Hamlin suavely, "and yet I remember I was playing +with some country idiots down there, and you were one of them. Well! +understand that up here I prefer the kids. Don't let me have to remind +you of it." + +Nevertheless, Mr. Hamlin could not help noticing that for the next +two or three days there were many callers at the ranch and that he was +obliged in his walks to avoid the highroad on account of the impertinent +curiosity of wayfarers. Some of them were of that sex which he would not +have contented himself with simply calling "curious." + +"To think," said Melinda confidently to her mistress, "that that thar +Mrs. Stubbs, who wouldn't go to the Hightown Hotel because there was a +play actress thar, has been snoopin' round here twice since that young +feller came." + +Of this fact, however, Mr. Hamlin was blissfully unconscious. + +Nevertheless, his temper was growing uncertain; the angle of his smart +straw hat was becoming aggressive to strangers; his politeness sardonic. +And now Sunday morning had come with an atmosphere of starched piety and +well-soaped respectability at the rancho, and the children were to be +taken with the rest of the family to the day-long service at Hightown. +As these Sabbath pilgrimages filled the main road, he was fain to take +himself and his loneliness to the trails and byways, and even to invade +the haunts of some other elegant outcasts like himself--to wit, a +crested hawk, a graceful wild cat beautifully marked, and an eloquently +reticent rattlesnake. Mr. Hamlin eyed them without fear, and certainly +without reproach. They were not out of their element. + +Suddenly he heard his name called in a stentorian contralto. An +impatient ejaculation rose to his lips, but died upon them as he turned. +It was certainly Melinda, but in his present sensitive loneliness it +struck him for the first time that he had never actually seen her before +as she really was. Like most men in his profession he was a quick reader +of thoughts and faces when he was interested, and although this was the +same robust, long-limbed, sunburnt girl he had met, he now seemed to see +through her triple incrustation of human vanity, conventional piety, +and outrageous Sabbath finery an honest, sympathetic simplicity that +commanded his respect. + +"You are back early from church," he said. + +"Yes. One service is good enough for me when thar ain't no special +preacher," she returned, "so I jest sez to Silas, 'as I ain't here to +listen to the sisters cackle ye kin put to the buckboard and drive me +home ez soon ez you please.'" + +"And so his name is Silas," suggested Mr. Hamlin cheerfully. + +"Go 'long with you, Mr. Hamlin, and don't pester," she returned, with +heifer-like playfulness. "Well, Silas put to, and when we rose the hill +here I saw your straw hat passin' in the gulch, and sez to Silas, sez I, +'Ye kin pull up here, for over yar is our new boarder, Jack Hamlin, and +I'm goin' to talk with him.' 'All right,' sez he, 'I'd sooner trust +ye with that gay young gambolier every day of the week than with them +saints down thar on Sunday. He deals ez straight ez he shoots, and is +about as nigh onto a gentleman as they make 'em.'" + +For one moment or two Miss Bird only saw Jack's long lashes. When his +eyes once more lifted they were shining. "And what did you say?" he +said, with a short laugh. + +"I told him he needn't be Christopher Columbus to have discovered that." +She turned with a laugh toward Jack, to be met by the word "shake," and +an outstretched thin white hand which grasped her large red one with a +frank, fraternal pressure. + +"I didn't come to tell ye that," remarked Miss Bird as she sat down on a +boulder, took off her yellow hat, and restacked her tawny mane under +it, "but this: I reckoned I went to Sunday meetin' as I ought ter. I +kalkilated to hear considerable about 'Faith' and 'Works,' and sich, +but I didn't reckon to hear all about you from the Lord's Prayer to the +Doxology. You were in the special prayers ez a warnin', in the sermon +ez a text; they picked out hymns to fit ye! And always a drefful example +and a visitation. And the rest o' the tune it was all gabble, gabble by +the brothers and sisters about you. I reckon, Mr. Hamlin, that they know +everything you ever did since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, and a +good deal more than you ever thought of doin'. The women is all dead set +on convertin' ye and savin' ye by their own precious selves, and the men +is ekally dead set on gettin' rid o' ye on that account." + +"And what did Seth and Mrs. Rivers say?" asked Hamlin composedly, but +with kindling eyes. + +"They stuck up for ye ez far ez they could. But ye see the parson +hez got a holt upon Seth, havin' caught him kissin' a convert at camp +meeting; and Deacon Turner knows suthin about Mrs. Rivers's sister, who +kicked over the pail and jumped the fence years ago, and she's afeard a' +him. But what I wanted to tell ye was that they're all comin' up here to +take a look at ye--some on 'em to-night. You ain't afeard, are ye?" she +added, with a loud laugh. + +"Well, it looks rather desperate, doesn't it?" returned Jack, with +dancing eyes. + +"I'll trust ye for all that," said Melinda. "And now I reckon I'll trot +along to the rancho. Ye needn't offer ter see me home," she added, +as Jack made a movement to accompany her. "Everybody up here ain't as +fair-minded ez Silas and you, and Melinda Bird hez a character to +lose! So long!" With this she cantered away, a little heavily, perhaps, +adjusting her yellow hat with both hands as she clattered down the steep +hill. + +That afternoon Mr. Hamlin drew largely on his convalescence to mount a +half-broken mustang, and in spite of the rising afternoon wind to gallop +along the highroad in quite as mischievous and breezy a fashion. He was +wont to allow his mustang's nose to hang over the hind rails of wagons +and buggies containing young couples, and to dash ahead of sober +carryalls that held elderly "members in good standing." + +An accomplished rider, he picked up and brought back the flying parasol +of Mrs. Deacon Stubbs without dismounting. He finally came home a little +blown, but dangerously composed. + +There was the usual Sunday evening gathering at Windy Hill +Rancho--neighbors and their wives, deacons and the pastor--but their +curiosity was not satisfied by the sight of Mr. Hamlin, who kept his own +room and his own counsel. There was some desultory conversation, chiefly +on church topics, for it was vaguely felt that a discussion of the +advisability or getting rid of the guest of their host was somewhat +difficult under this host's roof, with the guest impending at any +moment. Then a diversion was created by some of the church choir +practicing the harmonium with the singing of certain more or less +lugubrious anthems. Mrs. Rivers presently joined in, and in a somewhat +faded soprano, which, however, still retained considerable musical taste +and expression, sang, "Come, ye disconsolate." The wind moaned over the +deep-throated chimney in a weird harmony with the melancholy of that +human appeal as Mrs. Rivers sang the first verse:-- + + "Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish, + Come to the Mercy Seat, fervently kneel; + Here bring your wounded hearts--here tell your anguish, + Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal!" + +A pause followed, and the long-drawn, half-human sigh of the mountain +wind over the chimney seemed to mingle with the wail of the harmonium. +And then, to their thrilled astonishment, a tenor voice, high, clear, +but tenderly passionate, broke like a skylark over their heads in the +lines of the second verse:-- + + "Joy of the desolate, Light of the straying, + Hope of the penitent--fadeless and pure; + Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying, + Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure!" + +The hymn was old and familiar enough, Heaven knows. It had been +quite popular at funerals, and some who sat there had had its strange +melancholy borne upon them in time of loss and tribulations, but +never had they felt its full power before. Accustomed as they were to +emotional appeal and to respond to it, as the singer's voice died away +above them, their very tears flowed and fell with that voice. A few +sobbed aloud, and then a voice asked tremulously,-- + +"Who is it?" + +"It's Mr. Hamlin," said Seth quietly. "I've heard him often hummin' +things before." + +There was another silence, and the voice of Deacon Stubbs broke in +harshly,-- + +"It's rank blasphemy." + +"If it's rank blasphemy to sing the praise o' God, not only better than +some folks in the choir, but like an angel o' light, I wish you'd do a +little o' that blaspheming on Sundays, Mr. Stubbs." + +The speaker was Mrs. Stubbs, and as Deacon Stubbs was a notoriously bad +singer the shot told. + +"If he's sincere, why does he stand aloof? Why does he not join us?" +asked the parson. + +"He hasn't been asked," said Seth quietly. "If I ain't mistaken this yer +gathering this evening was specially to see how to get rid of him." + +There was a quick murmur of protest at this. The parson exchanged +glances with the deacon and saw that they were hopelessly in the +minority. + +"I will ask him myself," said Mrs. Rivers suddenly. + +"So do, Sister Rivers; so do," was the unmistakable response. + +Mrs. Rivers left the room and returned in a few moments with a handsome +young man, pale, elegant, composed, even to a grave indifference. +What his eyes might have said was another thing; the long lashes were +scarcely raised. + +"I don't mind playing a little," he said quietly to Mrs. Rivers, as if +continuing a conversation, "but you'll have to let me trust my memory." + +"Then you--er--play the harmonium?" said the parson, with an attempt at +formal courtesy. + +"I was for a year or two the organist in the choir of Dr. Todd's church +at Sacramento," returned Mr. Hamlin quietly. + +The blank amazement on the faces of Deacons Stubbs and Turner and the +parson was followed by wreathed smiles from the other auditors and +especially from the ladies. Mr. Hamlin sat down to the instrument, +and in another moment took possession of it as it had never been held +before. He played from memory as he had implied, but it was the memory +of a musician. He began with one or two familiar anthems, in which they +all joined. A fragment of a mass and a Latin chant followed. An "Ave +Maria" from an opera was his first secular departure, but his delighted +audience did not detect it. Then he hurried them along in unfamiliar +language to "O mio Fernando" and "Spiritu gentil," which they fondly +imagined were hymns, until, with crowning audacity, after a few +preliminary chords of the "Miserere," he landed them broken-hearted in +the Trovatore's donjon tower with "Non te scordar de mi." + +Amidst the applause he heard the preacher suavely explain that those +Popish masses were always in the Latin language, and rose from the +instrument satisfied with his experiment. Excusing himself as an invalid +from joining them in a light collation in the dining room, and begging +his hostess's permission to retire, he nevertheless lingered a few +moments by the door as the ladies filed out of the room, followed by +the gentlemen, until Deacon Turner, who was bringing up the rear, was +abreast of him. Here Mr. Hamlin became suddenly deeply interested in +a framed pencil drawing which hung on the wall. It was evidently a +schoolgirl's amateur portrait, done by Mrs. Rivers. Deacon Turner halted +quickly by his side as the others passed out--which was exactly what Mr. +Hamlin expected. + +"Do you know the face?" said the deacon eagerly. + +Thanks to the faithful Melinda, Mr. Hamlin did know it perfectly. It was +a pencil sketch of Mrs. Rivers's youthfully erring sister. But he only +said he thought he recognized a likeness to some one he had seen in +Sacramento. + +The deacon's eye brightened. "Perhaps the same one--perhaps," he added +in a submissive and significant tone "a--er--painful story." + +"Rather--to him," observed Hamlin quietly. + +"How?--I--er--don't understand," said Deacon Turner. + +"Well, the portrait looks like a lady I knew in Sacramento who had been +in some trouble when she was a silly girl, but had got over it quietly. +She was, however, troubled a good deal by some mean hound who was every +now and then raking up the story wherever she went. Well, one of her +friends--I might have been among them, I don't exactly remember just +now--challenged him, but although he had no conscientious convictions +about slandering a woman, he had some about being shot for it, and +declined. The consequence was he was cowhided once in the street, and +the second time tarred and feathered and ridden on a rail out of town. +That, I suppose, was what you meant by your 'painful story.' But is this +the woman?" + +"No, no," said the deacon hurriedly, with a white face, "you have quite +misunderstood." + +"But whose is this portrait?" persisted Jack. + +"I believe that--I don't know exactly--but I think it is a sister of +Mrs. Rivers's," stammered the deacon. + +"Then, of course, it isn't the same woman," said Jack in simulated +indignation. + +"Certainly--of course not," returned the deacon. + +"Phew!" said Jack. "That was a mighty close call. Lucky we were alone, +wasn't it?" + +"Yes," said the deacon, with a feeble smile. + +"Seth," continued Jack, with a thoughtful air, "looks like a quiet man, +but I shouldn't like to have made that mistake about his sister-in-law +before him. These quiet men are apt to shoot straight. Better keep this +to ourselves." + +Deacon Turner not only kept the revelation to himself but apparently his +own sacred person also, as he did not call again at Windy Hill +Rancho during Mr. Hamlin's stay. But he was exceedingly polite in his +references to Jack, and alluded patronizingly to a "little chat" they +had had together. And when the usual reaction took place in Mr. Hamlin's +favor and Jack was actually induced to perform on the organ at Hightown +Church next Sunday, the deacon's voice was loudest in his praise. Even +Parson Greenwood allowed himself to be non-committal as to the truth of +the rumor, largely circulated, that one of the most desperate gamblers +in the State had been converted through his exhortations. + +So, with breezy walks and games with the children, occasional +confidences with Melinda and Silas, and the Sabbath "singing of +anthems," Mr. Hamlin's three weeks of convalescence drew to a close. He +had lately relaxed his habit of seclusion so far as to mingle with the +company gathered for more social purposes at the rancho, and once or +twice unbent so far as to satisfy their curiosity in regard to certain +details of his profession. + +"I have no personal knowledge of games of cards," said Parson Greenwood +patronizingly, "and think I am right in saying that our brothers and +sisters are equally inexperienced. I am--ahem--far from believing, +however, that entire ignorance of evil is the best preparation for +combating it, and I should be glad if you'd explain to the company the +intricacies of various games. There is one that you mentioned, with +a--er--scriptural name." + +"Faro," said Hamlin, with an unmoved face. + +"Pharaoh," repeated the parson gravely; "and one which you call 'poker,' +which seems to require great self-control." + +"I couldn't make you understand poker without your playing it," said +Jack decidedly. + +"As long as we don't gamble--that is, play for money--I see no +objection," returned the parson. + +"And," said Jack musingly, "you could use beans." + +It was agreed finally that there would be no falling from grace in their +playing among themselves, in an inquiring Christian spirit, under Jack's +guidance, he having decided to abstain from card playing during his +convalescence, and Jack permitted himself to be persuaded to show them +the following evening. + +It so chanced, however, that Dr. Duchesne, finding the end of Jack's +"cure" approaching, and not hearing from that interesting invalid, +resolved to visit him at about this time. Having no chance to apprise +Jack of his intention, on coming to Hightown at night he procured a +conveyance at the depot to carry him to Windy Hill Rancho. The wind blew +with its usual nocturnal rollicking persistency, and at the end of +his turbulent drive it seemed almost impossible to make himself heard +amongst the roaring of the pines and some astounding preoccupation of +the inmates. After vainly knocking, the doctor pushed open the front +door and entered. He rapped at the closed sitting room door, but +receiving no reply, pushed it open upon the most unexpected and +astounding scene he had ever witnessed. Around the centre table several +respectable members of the Hightown Church, including the parson, were +gathered with intense and eager faces playing poker, and behind the +parson, with his hands in his pockets, carelessly lounged the doctor's +patient, the picture of health and vigor. A disused pack of cards was +scattered on the floor, and before the gentle and precise Mrs. Rivers +was heaped a pile of beans that would have filled a quart measure. + +When Dr. Duchesne had tactfully retreated before the hurried and +stammering apologies of his host and hostess, and was alone with Jack +in his rooms, he turned to him with a gravity that was more than half +affected and said, "How long, sir, did it take you to effect this +corruption?" + +"Upon my honor," said Jack simply, "they played last night for the +first time. And they forced me to show them. But," added Jack after a +significant pause, "I thought it would make the game livelier and be +more of a moral lesson if I gave them nearly all good pat hands. So I +ran in a cold deck on them--the first time I ever did such a thing in +my life. I fixed up a pack of cards so that one had three tens, another +three jacks, and another three queens, and so on up to three aces. In a +minute they had all tumbled to the game, and you never saw such betting. +Every man and woman there believed he or she had struck a sure thing, +and staked accordingly. A new panful of beans was brought on, and Seth, +your friend, banked for them. And at last the parson raked in the whole +pile." + +"I suppose you gave him the three aces," said Dr. Duchesne gloomily. + +"The parson," said Jack slowly, "HADN'T A SINGLE PAIR IN HIS HAND. +It was the stoniest, deadest, neatest BLUFF I ever saw. And when he'd +frightened off the last man who held out and laid that measly hand of +his face down on that pile of kings, queens, and aces, and looked +around the table as he raked in the pile, there was a smile of humble +self-righteousness on his face that was worth double the money." + + + + + +A PUPIL OF CHESTNUT RIDGE + + +The schoolmaster of Chestnut Ridge was interrupted in his after-school +solitude by the click of hoof and sound of voices on the little bridle +path that led to the scant clearing in which his schoolhouse stood. He +laid down his pen as the figures of a man and woman on horseback +passed the windows and dismounted before the porch. He recognized the +complacent, good-humored faces of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover, who owned a +neighboring ranch of some importance and who were accounted well to do +people by the community. Being a childless couple, however, while they +generously contributed to the support of the little school, they had +not added to its flock, and it was with some curiosity that the young +schoolmaster greeted them and awaited the purport of their visit. This +was protracted in delivery through a certain polite dalliance with the +real subject characteristic of the Southwestern pioneer. + +"Well, Almiry," said Mr. Hoover, turning to his wife after the first +greeting with the schoolmaster was over, "this makes me feel like +old times, you bet! Why, I ain't bin inside a schoolhouse since I was +knee-high to a grasshopper. Thar's the benches, and the desks, and the +books and all them 'a b, abs,' jest like the old days. Dear! Dear! But +the teacher in those days was ez old and grizzled ez I be--and some o' +the scholars--no offense to you, Mr. Brooks--was older and bigger nor +you. But times is changed: yet look, Almiry, if thar ain't a hunk o' +stale gingerbread in that desk jest as it uster be! Lord! how it all +comes back! Ez I was sayin' only t'other day, we can't be too grateful +to our parents for givin' us an eddication in our youth;" and Mr. +Hoover, with the air of recalling an alma mater of sequestered gloom and +cloistered erudition, gazed reverently around the new pine walls. + +But Mrs. Hoover here intervened with a gracious appreciation of the +schoolmaster's youth after her usual kindly fashion. "And don't you +forget it, Hiram Hoover, that these young folks of to-day kin teach the +old schoolmasters of 'way back more'n you and I dream of. We've heard +of your book larnin', Mr. Brooks, afore this, and we're proud to hev you +here, even if the Lord has not pleased to give us the children to send +to ye. But we've always paid our share in keeping up the school +for others that was more favored, and now it looks as if He had not +forgotten us, and ez if"--with a significant, half-shy glance at her +husband and a corroborating nod from that gentleman--"ez if, reelly, we +might be reckonin' to send you a scholar ourselves." + +The young schoolmaster, sympathetic and sensitive, felt somewhat +embarrassed. The allusion to his extreme youth, mollified though it was +by the salve of praise from the tactful Mrs. Hoover, had annoyed him, +and perhaps added to his slight confusion over the information she +vouchsafed. He had not heard of any late addition to the Hoover family, +he would not have been likely to, in his secluded habits; and although +he was accustomed to the naive and direct simplicity of the pioneer, +he could scarcely believe that this good lady was announcing a maternal +expectation. He smiled vaguely and begged them to be seated. + +"Ye see," said Mr. Hoover, dropping upon a low bench, "the way the thing +pans out is this. Almiry's brother is a pow'ful preacher down the coast +at San Antonio and hez settled down thar with a big Free Will Baptist +Church congregation and a heap o' land got from them Mexicans. Thar's +a lot o' poor Spanish and Injin trash that belong to the land, and +Almiry's brother hez set about convertin' 'em, givin' 'em convickshion +and religion, though the most of 'em is Papists and followers of the +Scarlet Woman. Thar was an orphan, a little girl that he got outer the +hands o' them priests, kinder snatched as a brand from the burnin', and +he sent her to us to be brought up in the ways o' the Lord, knowin' +that we had no children of our own. But we thought she oughter get the +benefit o' schoolin' too, besides our own care, and we reckoned to bring +her here reg'lar to school." + +Relieved and pleased to help the good-natured couple in the care of the +homeless waif, albeit somewhat doubtful of their religious methods, the +schoolmaster said he would be delighted to number her among his little +flock. Had she already received any tuition? + +"Only from them padres, ye know, things about saints, Virgin Marys, +visions, and miracles," put in Mrs. Hoover; "and we kinder thought ez +you know Spanish you might be able to get rid o' them in exchange for +'conviction o' sins' and 'justification by faith,' ye know." + +"I'm afraid," said Mr. Brooks, smiling at the thought of displacing the +Church's "mysteries" for certain corybantic displays and thaumaturgical +exhibitions he had witnessed at the Dissenters' camp meeting, "that I +must leave all that to you, and I must caution you to be careful +what you do lest you also shake her faith in the alphabet and the +multiplication table." + +"Mebbee you're right," said Mrs. Hoover, mystified but good-natured; +"but thar's one thing more we oughter tell ye. She's--she's a trifle +dark complected." + +The schoolmaster smiled. "Well?" he said patiently. + +"She isn't a nigger nor an Injin, ye know, but she's kinder a +half-Spanish, half-Mexican Injin, what they call 'mes--mes'"-- + +"Mestiza," suggested Mr. Brooks; "a half-breed or mongrel." + +"I reckon. Now thar wouldn't be any objection to that, eh?" said Mr. +Hoover a little uneasily. + +"Not by me," returned the schoolmaster cheerfully. "And although this +school is state-aided it's not a 'public school' in the eye of the law, +so you have only the foolish prejudices of your neighbors to deal with." +He had recognized the reason of their hesitation and knew the strong +racial antagonism held towards the negro and Indian by Mr. Hoover's +Southwestern compatriots, and he could not refrain from "rubbing it in." + +"They kin see," interposed Mrs. Hoover, "that she's not a nigger, for +her hair don't 'kink,' and a furrin Injin, of course, is different from +one o' our own." + +"If they hear her speak Spanish, and you simply say she is a foreigner, +as she is, it will be all right," said the schoolmaster smilingly. "Let +her come, I'll look after her." + +Much relieved, after a few more words the couple took their departure, +the schoolmaster promising to call the next afternoon at the Hoovers' +ranch and meet his new scholar. "Ye might give us a hint or two how she +oughter be fixed up afore she joins the school." + +The ranch was about four miles from the schoolhouse, and as Mr. Brooks +drew rein before the Hoovers' gate he appreciated the devotion of the +couple who were willing to send the child that distance twice a day. +The house, with its outbuildings, was on a more liberal scale than its +neighbors, and showed few of the makeshifts and half-hearted advances +towards permanent occupation common to the Southwestern pioneers, who +were more or less nomads in instinct and circumstance. He was ushered +into a well-furnished sitting room, whose glaring freshness was subdued +and repressed by black-framed engravings of scriptural subjects. As Mr. +Brooks glanced at them and recalled the schoolrooms of the old missions, +with their monastic shadows which half hid the gaudy, tinseled saints +and flaming or ensanguined hearts upon the walls, he feared that the +little waif of Mother Church had not gained any cheerfulness in the +exchange. + +As she entered the room with Mrs. Hoover, her large dark eyes--the most +notable feature in her small face--seemed to sustain the schoolmaster's +fanciful fear in their half-frightened wonder. She was clinging closely +to Mrs. Hoover's side, as if recognizing the good woman's maternal +kindness even while doubtful of her purpose; but on the schoolmaster +addressing her in Spanish, a singular change took place in their +relative positions. A quick look of intelligence came into her +melancholy eyes, and with it a slight consciousness of superiority to +her protectors that was embarrassing to him. For the rest he observed +merely that she was small and slightly built, although her figure was +hidden in a long "check apron" or calico pinafore with sleeves--a local +garment--which was utterly incongruous with her originality. Her skin +was olive, inclining to yellow, or rather to that exquisite shade of +buff to be seen in the new bark of the madrono. Her face was oval, and +her mouth small and childlike, with little to suggest the aboriginal +type in her other features. + +The master's questions elicited from the child the fact that she could +read and write, that she knew her "Hail Mary" and creed (happily the +Protestant Mrs. Hoover was unable to follow this questioning), but he +also elicited the more disturbing fact that her replies and confidences +suggested a certain familiarity and equality of condition which he could +only set down to his own youthfulness of appearance. He was apprehensive +that she might even make some remark regarding Mrs. Hoover, and was not +sorry that the latter did not understand Spanish. But before he left he +managed to speak with Mrs. Hoover alone and suggested a change in +the costume of the pupil when she came to school. "The better she is +dressed," suggested the wily young diplomat, "the less likely is she to +awaken any suspicion of her race." + +"Now that's jest what's botherin' me, Mr. Brooks," returned Mrs. Hoover, +with a troubled face, "for you see she is a growin' girl," and she +concluded, with some embarrassment, "I can't quite make up my mind how +to dress her." + +"How old is she?" asked the master abruptly. + +"Goin' on twelve, but,"--and Mrs. Hoover again hesitated. + +"Why, two of my scholars, the Bromly girls, are over fourteen," said the +master, "and you know how they are dressed;" but here he hesitated in +his turn. It had just occurred to him that the little waif was from the +extreme South, and the precocious maturity of the mixed races there was +well known. He even remembered, to his alarm, to have seen brides of +twelve and mothers of fourteen among the native villagers. This might +also account for the suggestion of equality in her manner, and even for +a slight coquettishness which he thought he had noticed in her when +he had addressed her playfully as a muchacha. "I should dress her in +something Spanish," he said hurriedly, "something white, you know, with +plenty of flounces and a little black lace, or a black silk skirt and +a lace scarf, you know. She'll be all right if you don't make her look +like a servant or a dependent," he added, with a show of confidence he +was far from feeling. "But you haven't told me her name," he concluded. + +"As we're reckonin' to adopt her," said Mrs. Hoover gravely, "you'll +give her ours." + +"But I can't call her 'Miss Hoover,'" suggested the master; "what's her +first name?" + +"We was thinkin' o' 'Serafina Ann,'" said Mrs. Hoover with more gravity. + +"But what is her name?" persisted the master. + +"Well," returned Mrs. Hoover, with a troubled look, "me and Hiram +consider it's a heathenish sort of name for a young gal, but you'll find +it in my brother's letter." She took a letter from under the lid of a +large Bible on the table and pointed to a passage in it. + +"The child was christened 'Concepcion,'" read the master. "Why, that's +one of the Marys!" + +"The which?" asked Mrs. Hoover severely. + +"One of the titles of the Virgin Mary; 'Maria de la Concepcion,'" said +Mr. Brooks glibly. + +"It don't sound much like anythin' so Christian and decent as 'Maria' or +'Mary,'" returned Mrs. Hoover suspiciously. + +"But the abbreviation, 'Concha,' is very pretty. In fact it's just the +thing, it's so very Spanish," returned the master decisively. "And +you know that the squaw who hangs about the mining camp is called +'Reservation Ann,' and old Mrs. Parkins's negro cook is called 'Aunt +Serafina,' so 'Serafina Ann' is too suggestive. 'Concha Hoover' 's the +name." + +"P'r'aps you're right," said Mrs. Hoover meditatively. + +"And dress her so she'll look like her name and you'll be all right," +said the master gayly as he took his departure. + +Nevertheless, it was with some anxiety the next morning he heard the +sound of hoofs on the rocky bridle path leading to the schoolhouse. He +had already informed his little flock of the probable addition to their +numbers and their breathless curiosity now accented the appearance +of Mr. Hoover riding past the window, followed by a little figure on +horseback, half hidden in the graceful folds of a serape. The next +moment they dismounted at the porch, the serape was cast aside, and the +new scholar entered. + +A little alarmed even in his admiration, the master nevertheless thought +he had never seen a more dainty figure. Her heavily flounced white skirt +stopped short just above her white-stockinged ankles and little +feet, hidden in white satin, low-quartered slippers. Her black silk, +shell-like jacket half clasped her stayless bust clad in an under-bodice +of soft muslin that faintly outlined a contour which struck him as +already womanly. A black lace veil which had protected her head, she +had on entering slipped down to her shoulders with a graceful gesture, +leaving one end of it pinned to her hair by a rose above her little +yellow ear. The whole figure was so inconsistent with its present +setting that the master inwardly resolved to suggest a modification of +it to Mrs. Hoover as he, with great gravity, however, led the girl to +the seat he had prepared for her. Mr. Hoover, who had been assisting +discipline as he conscientiously believed by gazing with hushed, +reverent reminiscence on the walls, here whispered behind his large +hand that he would call for her at "four o'clock" and tiptoed out of the +schoolroom. The master, who felt that everything would depend upon +his repressing the children's exuberant curiosity and maintaining the +discipline of the school for the next few minutes, with supernatural +gravity addressed the young girl in Spanish and placed before her a +few slight elementary tasks. Perhaps the strangeness of the language, +perhaps the unwonted seriousness of the master, perhaps also the +impassibility of the young stranger herself, all contributed to arrest +the expanding smiles on little faces, to check their wandering eyes, +and hush their eager whispers. By degrees heads were again lowered +over their tasks, the scratching of pencils on slates, and the +far-off rapping of Woodpeckers again indicated the normal quiet of the +schoolroom, and the master knew he had triumphed, and the ordeal was +past. + +But not as regarded himself, for although the new pupil had accepted his +instructions with childlike submissiveness, and even as it seemed to +him with childlike comprehension, he could not help noticing that +she occasionally glanced at him with a demure suggestion of some +understanding between them, or as if they were playing at master and +pupil. This naturally annoyed him and perhaps added a severer dignity to +his manner, which did not appear to be effective, however, and which +he fancied secretly amused her. Was she covertly laughing at him? Yet +against this, once or twice, as her big eyes wandered from her task over +the room, they encountered the curious gaze of the other children, and +he fancied he saw an exchange of that freemasonry of intelligence common +to children in the presence of their elders even when strangers to each +other. He looked forward to recess to see how she would get on with her +companions; he knew that this would settle her status in the school, and +perhaps elsewhere. Even her limited English vocabulary would not in any +way affect that instinctive, childlike test of superiority, but he was +surprised when the hour of recess came and he had explained to her in +Spanish and English its purpose, to see her quietly put her arm around +the waist of Matilda Bromly, the tallest girl in the school, as the two +whisked themselves off to the playground. She was a mere child after +all! + +Other things seemed to confirm this opinion. Later, when the children +returned from recess, the young stranger had instantly become a popular +idol, and had evidently dispensed her favors and patronage generously. +The elder Bromly girl was wearing her lace veil, another had possession +of her handkerchief, and a third displayed the rose which had adorned +her left ear, things of which the master was obliged to take note with a +view of returning them to the prodigal little barbarian at the close of +school. Later he was, however, much perplexed by the mysterious passage +under the desks of some unknown object which apparently was making +the circuit of the school. With the annoyed consciousness that he was +perhaps unwittingly participating in some game, he finally "nailed it" +in the possession of Demosthenes Walker, aged six, to the spontaneous +outcry of "Cotched!" from the whole school. When produced from Master +Walker's desk in company with a horned toad and a piece of gingerbread, +it was found to be Concha's white satin slipper, the young girl herself, +meanwhile, bending demurely over her task with the bereft foot tucked up +like a bird's under her skirt. The master, reserving reproof of this +and other enormities until later, contented himself with commanding the +slipper to be brought to him, when he took it to her with the satirical +remark in Spanish that the schoolroom was not a dressing room--Camara +para vestirse. To his surprise, however, she smilingly held out the tiny +stockinged foot with a singular combination of the spoiled child and the +coquettish senorita, and remained with it extended as if waiting for him +to kneel and replace the slipper. But he laid it carefully on her desk. + +"Put it on at once," he said in English. + +There was no mistaking the tone of his voice, whatever his language. +Concha darted a quick look at him like the momentary resentment of +an animal, but almost as quickly her eyes became suffused, and with a +hurried movement she put on the slipper. + +"Please, sir, it dropped off and Jimmy Snyder passed it on," said a +small explanatory voice among the benches. + +"Silence!" said the master. + +Nevertheless, he was glad to see that the school had not noticed the +girl's familiarity even though they thought him "hard." He was not +sure upon reflection but that he had magnified her offense and had been +unnecessarily severe, and this feeling was augmented by his occasionally +finding her looking at him with the melancholy, wondering eyes of a +chidden animal. Later, as he was moving among the desks' overlooking +the tasks of the individual pupils, he observed from a distance that her +head was bent over her desk while her lips were moving as if repeating +to herself her lesson, and that afterwards, with a swift look around the +room to assure herself that she was unobserved, she made a hurried sign +of the cross. It occurred to him that this might have followed some +penitential prayer of the child, and remembering her tuition by the +padres it gave him an idea. He dismissed school a few moments earlier in +order that he might speak to her alone before Mr. Hoover arrived. + +Referring to the slipper incident and receiving her assurances that +"she" (the slipper) was much too large and fell often "so," a fact +really established by demonstration, he seized his opportunity. "But +tell me, when you were with the padre and your slipper fell off, you did +not expect him to put it on for you?" + +Concha looked at him coyly and then said triumphantly, "Ah, no! but he +was a priest, and you are a young caballero." + +Yet even after this audacity Mr. Brooks found he could only recommend +to Mr. Hoover a change in the young girl's slippers, the absence of the +rose-pinned veil, and the substitution of a sunbonnet. For the rest +he must trust to circumstances. As Mr. Hoover--who with large paternal +optimism had professed to see already an improvement in her--helped her +into the saddle, the schoolmaster could not help noticing that she had +evidently expected him to perform that act of courtesy, and that she +looked correspondingly reproachful. + +"The holy fathers used sometimes to let me ride with them on their +mules," said Concha, leaning over her saddle towards the schoolmaster. + +"Eh, what, missy?" said the Protestant Mr. Hoover, pricking up his ears. +"Now you just listen to Mr. Brooks's doctrines, and never mind them +Papists," he added as he rode away, with the firm conviction that the +master had already commenced the task of her spiritual conversion. + +The next day the master awoke to find his little school famous. Whatever +were the exaggerations or whatever the fancies carried home to their +parents by the children, the result was an overwhelming interest in the +proceedings and personnel of the school by the whole district. People +had already called at the Hoover ranch to see Mrs. Hoover's pretty +adopted daughter. The master, on his way to the schoolroom that morning, +had found a few woodmen and charcoal burners lounging on the bridle +path that led from the main road. Two or three parents accompanied +their children to school, asserting they had just dropped in to see how +"Aramanta" or "Tommy" were "gettin' on." As the school began to assemble +several unfamiliar faces passed the windows or were boldly flattened +against the glass. The little schoolhouse had not seen such a gathering +since it had been borrowed for a political meeting in the previous +autumn. And the master noticed with some concern that many of the faces +were the same which he had seen uplifted to the glittering periods of +Colonel Starbottle, "the war horse of the Democracy." + +For he could not shut his eyes to the fact that they came from no +mere curiosity to see the novel and bizarre; no appreciation of +mere picturesqueness or beauty; and alas! from no enthusiasm for the +progression of education. He knew the people among whom he had lived, +and he realized the fatal question of "color" had been raised in some +mysterious way by those Southwestern emigrants who had carried into this +"free state" their inherited prejudices. A few words convinced him that +the unhappy children had variously described the complexion of their new +fellow pupil, and it was believed that the "No'th'n" schoolmaster, aided +and abetted by "capital" in the person of Hiram Hoover, had introduced +either a "nigger wench," a "Chinese girl," or an "Injin baby" to the +same educational privileges as the "pure whites," and so contaminated +the sons of freemen in their very nests. He was able to reassure many +that the child was of Spanish origin, but a majority preferred the +evidence of their own senses, and lingered for that purpose. As the hour +for her appearance drew near and passed, he was seized with a sudden +fear that she might not come, that Mr. Hoover had been prevailed upon +by his compatriots, in view of the excitement, to withdraw her from the +school. But a faint cheer from the bridle path satisfied him, and the +next moment a little retinue swept by the window, and he understood. +The Hoovers had evidently determined to accent the Spanish character +of their little charge. Concha, with a black riding skirt over her +flounces, was now mounted on a handsome pinto mustang glittering with +silver trappings, accompanied by a vaquero in a velvet jacket, Mr. +Hoover bringing up the rear. He, as he informed the master, had +merely come to show the way to the vaquero, who hereafter would always +accompany the child to and from school. Whether or not he had been +induced to this display by the excitement did not transpire. Enough that +the effect was a success. The riding skirt and her mustang's fripperies +had added to Concha's piquancy, and if her origin was still doubted by +some, the child herself was accepted with enthusiasm. The parents who +were spectators were proud of this distinguished accession to their +children's playmates, and when she dismounted amid the acclaim of her +little companions, it was with the aplomb of a queen. + +The master alone foresaw trouble in this encouragement of her precocious +manner. He received her quietly, and when she had removed her riding +skirt, glancing at her feet, said approvingly, "I am glad to see you +have changed your slippers; I hope they fit you more firmly than the +others." + +The child shrugged her shoulders. "Quien sabe. But Pedro (the vaquero) +will help me now on my horse when he comes for me." + +The master understood the characteristic non sequitur as an allusion +to his want of gallantry on the previous day, but took no notice of it. +Nevertheless, he was pleased to see during the day that she was paying +more attention to her studies, although they were generally rehearsed +with the languid indifference to all mental accomplishment which +belonged to her race. Once he thought to stimulate her activity through +her personal vanity. + +"Why can you not learn as quickly as Matilda Bromly? She is only two +years older than you," he suggested. + +"Ah! Mother of God!--why does she then try to wear roses like me? And +with that hair. It becomes her not." + +The master became thus aware for the first time that the elder Bromly +girl, in "the sincerest form of flattery" to her idol, was wearing a +yellow rose in her tawny locks, and, further, that Master Bromly with +exquisite humor had burlesqued his sister's imitation with a very small +carrot stuck above his left ear. This the master promptly removed, +adding an additional sum to the humorist's already overflowing slate by +way of penance, and returned to Concha. "But wouldn't you like to be as +clever as she?--you can if you will only learn." + +"What for should I? Look you; she has a devotion for the tall one--the +boy Brown! Ah! I want him not." + +Yet, notwithstanding this lack of noble ambition, Concha seemed to have +absorbed the "devotion" of the boys, big and little, and as the master +presently discovered even that of many of the adult population. There +were always loungers on the bridle path at the opening and closing +of school, and the vaquero, who now always accompanied her, became an +object of envy. Possibly this caused the master to observe him closely. +He was tall and thin, with a smooth complexionless face, but to +the master's astonishment he had the blue gray eye of the higher or +Castilian type of native Californian. Further inquiry proved that he was +a son of one of the old impoverished Spanish grant holders whose leagues +and cattle had been mortgaged to the Hoovers, who now retained the son +to control the live stock "on shares." "It looks kinder ez ef he might +hev an eye on that poorty little gal when she's an age to marry," +suggested a jealous swain. For several days the girl submitted to her +school tasks with her usual languid indifference and did not again +transgress the ordinary rules. Nor did Mr. Brooks again refer to their +hopeless conversation. But one afternoon he noticed that in the silence +and preoccupation of the class she had substituted another volume for +her text-book and was perusing it with the articulating lips of the +unpracticed reader. He demanded it from her. With blazing eyes and +both hands thrust into her desk she refused and defied him. Mr. +Brooks slipped his arms around her waist, quietly lifted her from the +bench--feeling her little teeth pierce the back of his hand as he did +so, but secured the book. Two of the elder boys and girls had risen with +excited faces. + +"Sit down!" said the master sternly. + +They resumed their places with awed looks. The master examined the book. +It was a little Spanish prayer book. "You were reading this?" he said in +her own tongue. + +"Yes. You shall not prevent me!" she burst out. "Mother of God! THEY +will not let me read it at the ranch. They would take it from me. And +now YOU!" + +"You may read it when and where you like, except when you should be +studying your lessons," returned the master quietly. "You may keep it +here in your desk and peruse it at recess. Come to me for it then. You +are not fit to read it now." + +The girl looked up with astounded eyes, which in the capriciousness of +her passionate nature the next moment filled with tears. Then dropping +on her knees she caught the master's bitten hand and covered it with +tears and kisses. But he quietly disengaged it and lifted her to her +seat. There was a sniffling sound among the benches, which, however, +quickly subsided as he glanced around the room, and the incident ended. + +Regularly thereafter she took her prayer book back at recess and +disappeared with the children, finding, as he afterwards learned, a seat +under a secluded buckeye tree, where she was not disturbed by them until +her orisons were concluded. The children must have remained loyal to +some command of hers, for the incident and this custom were never told +out of school, and the master did not consider it his duty to inform Mr. +or Mrs. Hoover. If the child could recognize some check--even if it were +deemed by some a superstitious one--over her capricious and precocious +nature, why should he interfere? + +One day at recess he presently became conscious of the ceasing of those +small voices in the woods around the schoolhouse, which were always +as familiar and pleasant to him in his seclusion as the song of their +playfellows--the birds themselves. The continued silence at last +awakened his concern and curiosity. He had seldom intruded upon or +participated in their games or amusements, remembering when a boy +himself the heavy incompatibility of the best intentioned adult intruder +to even the most hypocritically polite child at such a moment. A sense +of duty, however, impelled him to step beyond the schoolhouse, where to +his astonishment he found the adjacent woods empty and soundless. He was +relieved, however, after penetrating its recesses, to hear the distant +sound of small applause and the unmistakable choking gasps of Johnny +Stidger's pocket accordion. Following the sound he came at last upon a +little hollow among the sycamores, where the children were disposed in +a ring, in the centre of which, with a handkerchief in each hand, Concha +the melancholy!--Concha the devout!--was dancing that most extravagant +feat of the fandango--the audacious sembicuaca! + +Yet, in spite of her rude and uncertain accompaniment, she was dancing +it with a grace, precision, and lightness that was wonderful; in spite +of its doubtful poses and seductive languors she was dancing it with the +artless gayety and innocence--perhaps from the suggestion of her tiny +figure--of a mere child among an audience of children. Dancing it alone +she assumed the parts of the man and woman; advancing, retreating, +coquetting, rejecting, coyly bewitching, and at last yielding as lightly +and as immaterially as the flickering shadows that fell upon them from +the waving trees overhead. The master was fascinated yet troubled. +What if there had been older spectators? Would the parents take the +performance as innocently as the performer and her little audience? He +thought it necessary later to suggest this delicately to the child. Her +temper rose, her eyes flashed. + +"Ah, the slipper, she is forbidden. The prayer book--she must not. The +dance, it is not good. Truly, there is nothing." + +For several days she sulked. One morning she did not come to school, +nor the next. At the close of the third day the master called at the +Hoovers' ranch. + +Mrs. Hoover met him embarrassedly in the hall. "I was sayin' to Hiram +he ought to tell ye, but he didn't like to till it was certain. Concha's +gone." + +"Gone?" echoed the master. + +"Yes. Run off with Pedro. Married to him yesterday by the Popish priest +at the mission." + +"Married! That child?" + +"She wasn't no child, Mr. Brooks. We were deceived. My brother was +a fool, and men don't understand these things. She was a grown +woman--accordin' to these folks' ways and ages--when she kem here. And +that's what bothered me." + +There was a week's excitement at Chestnut Ridge, but it pleased the +master to know that while the children grieved for the loss of Concha +they never seemed to understand why she had gone. + + + + + +DICK BOYLE'S BUSINESS CARD + + +The Sage Wood and Dead Flat stage coach was waiting before the station. +The Pine Barrens mail wagon that connected with it was long overdue, +with its transfer passengers, and the station had relapsed into listless +expectation. Even the humors of Dick Boyle, the Chicago "drummer,"--and, +so far, the solitary passenger--which had diverted the waiting loungers, +began to fail in effect, though the cheerfulness of the humorist was +unabated. The ostlers had slunk back into the stables, the station +keeper and stage driver had reduced their conversation to impatient +monosyllables, as if each thought the other responsible for the delay. +A solitary Indian, wrapped in a commissary blanket and covered by a +cast-off tall hat, crouched against the wall of the station looking +stolidly at nothing. The station itself, a long, rambling building +containing its entire accommodation for man and beast under one +monotonous, shed-like roof, offered nothing to attract the eye. Still +less the prospect, on the one side two miles of arid waste to the +stunted, far-spaced pines in the distance, known as the "Barrens;" on +the other an apparently limitless level with darker patches of sage +brush, like the scars of burnt-out fires. + +Dick Boyle approached the motionless Indian as a possible relief. "YOU +don't seem to care much if school keeps or not, do you, Lo?" + +The Indian, who had been half crouching on his upturned soles, here +straightened himself with a lithe, animal-like movement, and stood up. +Boyle took hold of a corner of his blanket and examined it critically. + +"Gov'ment ain't pampering you with A1 goods, Lo! I reckon the agent +charged 'em four dollars for that. Our firm could have delivered them to +you for 2 dols. 37 cents, and thrown in a box of beads in the bargain. +Suthin like this!" He took from his pocket a small box containing a +gaudy bead necklace and held it up before the Indian. + +The savage, who had regarded him--or rather looked beyond him--with +the tolerating indifference of one interrupted by a frisking inferior +animal, here suddenly changed his expression. A look of childish +eagerness came into his gloomy face; he reached out his hand for the +trinket. + +"Hol' on!" said Boyle, hesitating for a moment; then he suddenly +ejaculated, "Well! take it, and one o' these," and drew a business card +from his pocket, which he stuck in the band of the battered tall hat +of the aborigine. "There! show that to your friends, and when you're +wantin' anything in our line"-- + +The interrupting roar of laughter, coming from the box seat of the +coach, was probably what Boyle was expecting, for he turned away +demurely and walked towards the coach. "All right, boys! I've squared +the noble red man, and the star of empire is taking its westward way. +And I reckon our firm will do the 'Great Father' business for him at +about half the price that it is done in Washington." + +But at this point the ostlers came hurrying out of the stables. "She's +comin'," said one. "That's her dust just behind the Lone Pine--and by +the way she's racin' I reckon she's comin' in mighty light." + +"That's so," said the mail agent, standing up on the box seat for a +better view, "but darned ef I kin see any outside passengers. I reckon +we haven't waited for much." + +Indeed, as the galloping horses of the incoming vehicle pulled out of +the hanging dust in the distance, the solitary driver could be seen +urging on his team. In a few moments more they had halted at the lower +end of the station. + +"Wonder what's up!" said the mail agent. + +"Nothin'! Only a big Injin scare at Pine Barrens," said one of the +ostlers. "Injins doin' ghost dancin'--or suthin like that--and the +passengers just skunked out and went on by the other line. Thar's only +one ez dar come--and she's a lady." + +"A lady?" echoed Boyle. + +"Yes," answered the driver, taking a deliberate survey of a tall, +graceful girl who, waiving the gallant assistance of the station keeper, +had leaped unaided from the vehicle. "A lady--and the fort commandant's +darter at that! She's clar grit, you bet--a chip o' the old block. And +all this means, sonny, that you're to give up that box seat to HER. Miss +Julia Cantire don't take anythin' less when I'm around." + +The young lady was already walking, directly and composedly, towards +the waiting coach--erect, self-contained, well gloved and booted, and +clothed, even in her dust cloak and cape of plain ashen merino, with +the unmistakable panoply of taste and superiority. A good-sized aquiline +nose, which made her handsome mouth look smaller; gray eyes, with +an occasional humid yellow sparkle in their depths; brown penciled +eyebrows, and brown tendrils of hair, all seemed to Boyle to be +charmingly framed in by the silver gray veil twisted around her neck +and under her oval chin. In her sober tints she appeared to him to have +evoked a harmony even out of the dreadful dust around them. What HE +appeared to her was not so plain; she looked him over--he was rather +short; through him--he was easily penetrable; and then her eyes rested +with a frank recognition on the driver. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Foster," she said, with a smile. + +"Mornin', miss. I hear they're havin' an Injin scare over at the +Barrens. I reckon them men must feel mighty mean at bein' stumped by a +lady!" + +"I don't think they believed I would go, and some of them had their +wives with them," returned the young lady indifferently; "besides, +they are Eastern people, who don't know Indians as well as WE do, Mr. +Foster." + +The driver blushed with pleasure at the association. "Yes, ma'am," he +laughed, "I reckon the sight of even old 'Fleas in the Blanket' over +there," pointing to the Indian, who was walking stolidly away from the +station, "would frighten 'em out o' their boots. And yet he's got inside +his hat the business card o' this gentleman--Mr. Dick Boyle, traveling +for the big firm o' Fletcher & Co. of Chicago"--he interpolated, rising +suddenly to the formal heights of polite introduction; "so it sorter +looks ez ef any SKELPIN' was to be done it might be the other way round, +ha! ha!" + +Miss Cantire accepted the introduction and the joke with polite but cool +abstraction, and climbed lightly into the box seat as the mail bags +and a quantity of luggage--evidently belonging to the evading +passengers--were quickly transferred to the coach. But for his fair +companion, the driver would probably have given profane voice to his +conviction that his vehicle was used as a "d----d baggage truck," but +he only smiled grimly, gathered up his reins, and flicked his whip. The +coach plunged forward into the dust, which instantly rose around it, and +made it thereafter a mere cloud in the distance. Some of that dust for +a moment overtook and hid the Indian, walking stolidly in its track, +but he emerged from it at an angle, with a quickened pace and a peculiar +halting trot. Yet that trot was so well sustained that in an hour he had +reached a fringe of rocks and low bushes hitherto invisible through the +irregularities of the apparently level plain, into which he plunged and +disappeared. The dust cloud which indicated the coach--probably owing +to these same irregularities--had long since been lost on the visible +horizon. + +The fringe which received him was really the rim of a depression quite +concealed from the surface of the plain,--which it followed for +some miles through a tangled trough-like bottom of low trees and +underbrush,--and was a natural cover for wolves, coyotes, and +occasionally bears, whose half-human footprint might have deceived a +stranger. This did not, however, divert the Indian, who, trotting +still doggedly on, paused only to examine another footprint--much more +frequent--the smooth, inward-toed track of moccasins. The thicket grew +more dense and difficult as he went on, yet he seemed to glide through +its density and darkness--an obscurity that now seemed to be stirred +by other moving objects, dimly seen, and as uncertain and intangible as +sunlit leaves thrilled by the wind, yet bearing a strange resemblance to +human figures! Pressing a few yards further, he himself presently became +a part of this shadowy procession, which on closer scrutiny revealed +itself as a single file of Indians, following each other in the same +tireless trot. The woods and underbrush were full of them; all moving +on, as he had moved, in a line parallel with the vanishing coach. +Sometimes through the openings a bared painted limb, a crest of +feathers, or a strip of gaudy blanket was visible, but nothing more. +And yet only a few hundred yards away stretched the dusky, silent +plain--vacant of sound or motion! + + +Meanwhile the Sage Wood and Pine Barren stage coach, profoundly +oblivious--after the manner of all human invention--of everything but +its regular function, toiled dustily out of the higher plain and +began the grateful descent of a wooded canyon, which was, in fact, the +culminating point of the depression, just described, along which the +shadowy procession was slowly advancing, hardly a mile in the rear and +flank of the vehicle. Miss Julia Cantire, who had faced the dust volleys +of the plain unflinchingly, as became a soldier's daughter, here stood +upright and shook herself--her pretty head and figure emerging like a +goddess from the enveloping silver cloud. At least Mr. Boyle, relegated +to the back seat, thought so--although her conversation and attentions +had been chiefly directed to the driver and mail agent. Once, when he +had light-heartedly addressed a remark to her, it had been received +with a distinct but unpromising politeness that had made him desist +from further attempts, yet without abatement of his cheerfulness, or +resentment of the evident amusement his two male companions got out +of his "snub." Indeed, it is to be feared that Miss Julia had certain +prejudices of position, and may have thought that a "drummer"--or +commercial traveler--was no more fitting company for the daughter of +a major than an ordinary peddler. But it was more probable that Mr. +Boyle's reputation as a humorist--a teller of funny stories and a boon +companion of men--was inconsistent with the feminine ideal of high and +exalted manhood. The man who "sets the table in a roar" is apt to +be secretly detested by the sex, to say nothing of the other obvious +reasons why Juliets do not like Mercutios! + +For some such cause as this Dick Boyle was obliged to amuse himself +silently, alone on the back seat, with those liberal powers of +observation which nature had given him. On entering the canyon he had +noticed the devious route the coach had taken to reach it, and had +already invented an improved route which should enter the depression at +the point where the Indians had already (unknown to him) plunged into +it, and had conceived a road through the tangled brush that would +shorten the distance by some miles. He had figured it out, and believed +that it "would pay." But by this time they were beginning the somewhat +steep and difficult ascent of the canyon on the other side. The vehicle +had not crawled many yards before it stopped. Dick Boyle glanced around. +Miss Cantire was getting down. She had expressed a wish to walk the rest +of the ascent, and the coach was to wait for her at the top. Foster had +effusively begged her to take her own time--"there was no hurry!" Boyle +glanced a little longingly after her graceful figure, released from her +cramped position on the box, as it flitted youthfully in and out of the +wayside trees; he would like to have joined her in the woodland ramble, +but even his good nature was not proof against her indifference. At a +turn in the road they lost sight of her, and, as the driver and mail +agent were deep in a discussion about the indistinct track, Boyle lapsed +into his silent study of the country. Suddenly he uttered a slight +exclamation, and quietly slipped from the back of the toiling coach to +the ground. The action was, however, quickly noted by the driver, who +promptly put his foot on the brake and pulled up. "Wot's up now?" he +growled. + +Boyle did not reply, but ran back a few steps and began searching +eagerly on the ground. + +"Lost suthin?" asked Foster. + +"Found something," said Boyle, picking up a small object. "Look at that! +D----d if it isn't the card I gave that Indian four hours ago at the +station!" He held up the card. + +"Look yer, sonny," retorted Foster gravely, "ef yer wantin' to get out +and hang round Miss Cantire, why don't yer say so at oncet? That story +won't wash!" + +"Fact!" continued Boyle eagerly. "It's the same card I stuck in his +hat--there's the greasy mark in the corner. How the devil did it--how +did HE get here?" + +"Better ax him," said Foster grimly, "ef he's anywhere round." + +"But I say, Foster, I don't like the look of this at all! Miss Cantire +is alone, and"-- + +But a burst of laughter from Foster and the mail agent interrupted him. +"That's so," said Foster. "That's your best holt! Keep it up! You +jest tell her that! Say thar's another Injin skeer on; that that thar +bloodthirsty ole 'Fleas in His Blanket' is on the warpath, and you're +goin' to shed the last drop o' your blood defendin' her! That'll fetch +her, and she ain't bin treatin' you well! G'lang!" + +The horses started forward under Foster's whip, leaving Boyle standing +there, half inclined to join in the laugh against himself, and yet +impelled by some strange instinct to take a more serious view of his +discovery. There was no doubt it was the same card he had given to the +Indian. True, that Indian might have given it to another--yet by what +agency had it been brought there faster than the coach traveled on the +same road, and yet invisibly to them? For an instant the humorous +idea of literally accepting Foster's challenge, and communicating his +discovery to Miss Cantire, occurred to him; he could have made a funny +story out of it, and could have amused any other girl with it, but he +would not force himself upon her, and again doubted if the discovery +were a matter of amusement. If it were really serious, why should he +alarm her? He resolved, however, to remain on the road, and within +convenient distance of her, until she returned to the coach; she +could not be far away. With this purpose he walked slowly on, halting +occasionally to look behind. + +Meantime the coach continued its difficult ascent, a difficulty made +greater by the singular nervousness of the horses, that only with great +trouble and some objurgation from the driver could be prevented from +shying from the regular track. + +"Now, wot's gone o' them critters?" said the irate Foster, straining at +the reins until he seemed to lift the leader back into the track again. + +"Looks as ef they smelt suthin--b'ar or Injin ponies," suggested the +mail agent. + +"Injin ponies?" repeated Foster scornfully. + +"Fac'! Injin ponies set a hoss crazy--jest as wild hosses would!" + +"Whar's yer Injin ponies?" demanded Foster incredulously. + +"Dunno," said the mail agent simply. + +But here the horses again swerved so madly from some point of the +thicket beside them that the coach completely left the track on the +right. Luckily it was a disused trail and the ground fairly good, and +Foster gave them their heads, satisfied of his ability to regain the +regular road when necessary. It took some moments for him to recover +complete control of the frightened animals, and then their nervousness +having abated with their distance from the thicket, and the trail being +less steep though more winding than the regular road, he concluded to +keep it until he got to the summit, when he would regain the highway +once more and await his passengers. Having done this, the two men stood +up on the box, and with an anxiety they tried to conceal from each other +looked down the canyon for the lagging pedestrians. + +"I hope Miss Cantire hasn't been stampeded from the track by any skeer +like that," said the mail agent dubiously. + +"Not she! She's got too much grit and sabe for that, unless that drummer +hez caught up with her and unloaded his yarn about that kyard." + +They were the last words the men spoke. For two rifle shots cracked from +the thicket beside the road; two shots aimed with such deliberateness +and precision that the two men, mortally stricken, collapsed where they +stood, hanging for a brief moment over the dashboard before they rolled +over on the horses' backs. Nor did they remain there long, for the next +moment they were seized by half a dozen shadowy figures and with the +horses and their cut traces dragged into the thicket. A half dozen and +then a dozen other shadows flitted and swarmed over, in, and through the +coach, reinforced by still more, until the whole vehicle seemed to be +possessed, covered, and hidden by them, swaying and moving with their +weight, like helpless carrion beneath a pack of ravenous wolves. Yet +even while this seething congregation was at its greatest, at some +unknown signal it as suddenly dispersed, vanished, and disappeared, +leaving the coach empty--vacant and void of all that had given it life, +weight, animation, and purpose--a mere skeleton on the roadside. The +afternoon wind blew through its open doors and ravaged rack and box as +if it had been the wreck of weeks instead of minutes, and the level rays +of the setting sun flashed and blazed into its windows as though fire +had been added to the ruin. But even this presently faded, leaving the +abandoned coach a rigid, lifeless spectre on the twilight plain. + +An hour later there was the sound of hurrying hoofs and jingling +accoutrements, and out of the plain swept a squad of cavalrymen bearing +down upon the deserted vehicle. For a few moments they, too, seemed to +surround and possess it, even as the other shadows had done, penetrating +the woods and thicket beside it. And then as suddenly at some signal +they swept forward furiously in the track of the destroying shadows. + + +Miss Cantire took full advantage of the suggestion "not to hurry" in her +walk, with certain feminine ideas of its latitude. She gathered a few +wild flowers and some berries in the underwood, inspected some birds' +nests with a healthy youthful curiosity, and even took the opportunity +of arranging some moist tendrils of her silky hair with something she +took from the small reticule that hung coquettishly from her girdle. It +was, indeed, some twenty minutes before she emerged into the road again; +the vehicle had evidently disappeared in a turn of the long, winding +ascent, but just ahead of her was that dreadful man, the "Chicago +drummer." She was not vain, but she made no doubt that he was waiting +there for her. There was no avoiding him, but his companionship could be +made a brief one. She began to walk with ostentatious swiftness. + +Boyle, whose concern for her safety was secretly relieved at this, began +to walk forward briskly too without looking around. Miss Cantire was not +prepared for this; it looked so ridiculously as if she were chasing him! +She hesitated slightly, but now as she was nearly abreast of him she was +obliged to keep on. + +"I think you do well to hurry, Miss Cantire," he said as she passed. +"I've lost sight of the coach for some time, and I dare say they're +already waiting for us at the summit." + +Miss Cantire did not like this any better. To go on beside this dreadful +man, scrambling breathlessly after the stage--for all the world like an +absorbed and sentimentally belated pair of picnickers--was really TOO +much. "Perhaps if YOU ran on and told them I was coming as fast as I +could," she suggested tentatively. + +"It would be as much as my life is worth to appear before Foster without +you," he said laughingly. "You've only got to hurry on a little faster." + +But the young lady resented this being driven by a "drummer." She began +to lag, depressing her pretty brows ominously. + +"Let me carry your flowers," said Boyle. He had noticed that she was +finding some difficulty in holding up her skirt and the nosegay at the +same time. + +"No! No!" she said in hurried horror at this new suggestion of their +companionship. "Thank you very much--but they're really not worth +keeping--I am going to throw them away. There!" she added, tossing them +impatiently in the dust. + +But she had not reckoned on Boyle's perfect good-humor. That gentle +idiot stooped down, actually gathered them up again, and was following! +She hurried on; if she could only get to the coach first, ignoring him! +But a vulgar man like that would be sure to hand them to her with some +joke! Then she lagged again--she was getting tired, and she could see +no sign of the coach. The drummer, too, was also lagging behind--at +a respectful distance, like a groom or one of her father's troopers. +Nevertheless this did not put her in a much better humor, and halting +until he came abreast of her, she said impatiently: "I don't see why Mr. +Foster should think it necessary to send any one to look after me." + +"He didn't," returned Boyle simply. "I got down to pick up something." + +"To pick up something?" she returned incredulously. + +"Yes. THAT." He held out the card. "It's the card of our firm." + +Miss Cantire smiled ironically. "You are certainly devoted to your +business." + +"Well, yes," returned Boyle good-humoredly. "You see I reckon it don't +pay to do anything halfway. And whatever I do, I mean to keep my eyes +about me." In spite of her prejudice, Miss Cantire could see that these +necessary organs, if rather flippant, were honest. "Yes, I suppose there +isn't much on that I don't take in. Why now, Miss Cantire, there's that +fancy dust cloak you're wearing--it isn't in our line of goods--nor in +anybody's line west of Chicago; it came from Boston or New York, and was +made for home consumption! But your hat--and mighty pretty it is too, as +YOU'VE fixed it up--is only regular Dunstable stock, which we could +put down at Pine Barrens for four and a half cents a piece, net. Yet I +suppose you paid nearly twenty-five cents for it at the Agency!" + +Oddly enough this cool appraisement of her costume did not incense the +young lady as it ought to have done. On the contrary, for some occult +feminine reason, it amused and interested her. It would be such a good +story to tell her friends of a "drummer's" idea of gallantry; and to +tease the flirtatious young West Pointer who had just joined. And the +appraisement was truthful--Major Cantire had only his pay--and Miss +Cantire had been obliged to select that hat from the government stores. + +"Are you in the habit of giving this information to ladies you meet in +traveling?" she asked. + +"Well, no!" answered Boyle--"for that's just where you have to keep your +eyes open. Most of 'em wouldn't like it, and it's no use aggravating a +possible customer. But you are not that kind." + +Miss Cantire was silent. She knew she was not of that kind, but she +did not require his vulgar indorsement. She pushed on for some moments +alone, when suddenly he hailed her. She turned impatiently. He was +carefully examining the road on both sides. + +"We have either lost our way," he said, rejoining her, "or the coach has +turned off somewhere. These tracks are not fresh, and as they are all +going the same way, they were made by the up coach last night. They're +not OUR tracks; I thought it strange we hadn't sighted the coach by this +time." + +"And then"--said Miss Cantire impatiently. + +"We must turn back until we find them again." + +The young lady frowned. "Why not keep on until we get to the top?" she +said pettishly. "I'm sure I shall." She stopped suddenly as she caught +sight of his grave face and keen, observant eyes. "Why can't we go on as +we are?" + +"Because we are expected to come back to the COACH--and not to the +summit merely. These are the 'orders,' and you know you are a soldier's +daughter!" He laughed as he spoke, but there was a certain quiet +deliberation in his manner that impressed her. When he added, after +a pause, "We must go back and find where the tracks turned off," she +obeyed without a word. + +They walked for some time, eagerly searching for signs of the missing +vehicle. A curious interest and a new reliance in Boyle's judgment +obliterated her previous annoyance, and made her more natural. She ran +ahead of him with youthful eagerness, examining the ground, following +a false clue with great animation, and confessing her defeat with a +charming laugh. And it was she who, after retracing their steps for ten +minutes, found the diverging track with a girlish cry of triumph. Boyle, +who had followed her movements quite as interestedly as her discovery, +looked a little grave as he noticed the deep indentations made by the +struggling horses. Miss Cantire detected the change in his face; ten +minutes before she would never have observed it. "I suppose we had +better follow the new track," she said inquiringly, as he seemed to +hesitate. + +"Certainly," he said quickly, as if coming to a prompt decision. "That +is safest." + +"What do you think has happened? The ground looks very much cut up," she +said in a confidential tone, as new to her as her previous observation +of him. + +"A horse has probably stumbled and they've taken the old trail as less +difficult," said Boyle promptly. In his heart he did not believe it, +yet he knew that if anything serious had threatened them the coach would +have waited in the road. "It's an easier trail for us, though I suppose +it's a little longer," he added presently. + +"You take everything so good-humoredly, Mr. Boyle," she said after a +pause. + +"It's the way to do business, Miss Cantire," he said. "A man in my line +has to cultivate it." + +She wished he hadn't said that, but, nevertheless, she returned a little +archly: "But you haven't any business with the stage company nor with +ME, although I admit I intend to get my Dunstable hereafter from your +firm at the wholesale prices." + +Before he could reply, the detonation of two gunshots, softened by +distance, floated down from the ridge above them. "There!" said Miss +Cantire eagerly. "Do you hear that?" + +His face was turned towards the distant ridge, but really that she might +not question his eyes. She continued with animation: "That's from the +coach--to guide us--don't you see?" + +"Yes," he returned, with a quick laugh, "and it says hurry up--mighty +quick--we're tired waiting--so we'd better push on." + +"Why don't you answer back with your revolver?" she asked. + +"Haven't got one," he said. + +"Haven't got one?" she repeated in genuine surprise. "I thought +you gentlemen who are traveling always carried one. Perhaps it's +inconsistent with your gospel of good-humor." + +"That's just it, Miss Cantire," he said with a laugh. "You've hit it." + +"Why," she said hesitatingly, "even I have a derringer--a very little +one, you know, which I carry in my reticule. Captain Richards gave it to +me." She opened her reticule and showed a pretty ivory-handled pistol. +The look of joyful surprise which came into his face changed quickly as +she cocked it and lifted it into the air. He seized her arm quickly. + +"No, please don't, you might want it--I mean the report won't carry far +enough. It's a very useful little thing, for all that, but it's only +effective at close quarters." He kept the pistol in his hand as they +walked on. But Miss Cantire noticed this, also his evident satisfaction +when she had at first produced it, and his concern when she was about to +discharge it uselessly. She was a clever girl, and a frank one to those +she was inclined to trust. And she began to trust this stranger. A smile +stole along her oval cheek. + +"I really believe you're afraid of something, Mr. Boyle," she said, +without looking up. "What is it? You haven't got that Indian scare too?" + +Boyle had no false shame. "I think I have," he returned, with equal +frankness. "You see, I don't understand Indians as well as you--and +Foster." + +"Well, you take my word and Foster's that there is not the least danger +from them. About here they are merely grown-up children, cruel and +destructive as most children are; but they know their masters by this +time, and the old days of promiscuous scalping are over. The only other +childish propensity they keep is thieving. Even then they only steal +what they actually want,--horses, guns, and powder. A coach can go where +an ammunition or an emigrant wagon can't. So your trunk of samples is +quite safe with Foster." + +Boyle did not think it necessary to protest. Perhaps he was thinking of +something else. + +"I've a mind," she went on slyly, "to tell you something more. +Confidence for confidence: as you've told me YOUR trade secrets, I'll +tell you one of OURS. Before we left Pine Barrens, my father ordered a +small escort of cavalrymen to be in readiness to join that coach if +the scouts, who were watching, thought it necessary. So, you see, I'm +something of a fraud as regards my reputation for courage." + +"That doesn't follow," said Boyle admiringly, "for your father must +have thought there was some danger, or he wouldn't have taken that +precaution." + +"Oh, it wasn't for me," said the young girl quickly. + +"Not for you?" repeated Boyle. + +Miss Cantire stopped short, with a pretty flush of color and an adorable +laugh. "There! I've done it, so I might as well tell the whole story. +But I can trust you, Mr. Boyle." (She faced him with clear, penetrating +eyes.) "Well," she laughed again, "you might have noticed that we had a +quantity of baggage of passengers who didn't go? Well, those passengers +never intended to go, and hadn't any baggage! Do you understand? Those +innocent-looking heavy trunks contained carbines and cartridges from +our post for Fort Taylor"--she made him a mischievous curtsy--"under +MY charge! And," she added, enjoying his astonishment, "as you saw, I +brought them through safe to the station, and had them transferred to +this coach with less fuss and trouble than a commissary transport and +escort would have made." + +"And they were in THIS coach?" repeated Boyle abstractedly. + +"Were? They ARE!" said Miss Cantire. + +"Then the sooner I get you back to your treasure again the better," said +Boyle with a laugh. "Does Foster know it?" + +"Of course not! Do you suppose I'd tell it to anybody but a stranger +to the place? Perhaps, like you, I know when and to whom to impart +information," she said mischievously. + +Whatever was in Boyle's mind he had space for profound and admiring +astonishment of the young lady before him. The girlish simplicity and +trustfulness of her revelation seemed as inconsistent with his previous +impression of her reserve and independence as her girlish reasoning and +manner was now delightfully at variance with her tallness, her aquiline +nose, and her erect figure. Mr. Boyle, like most short men, was apt to +overestimate the qualities of size. + +They walked on for some moments in silence. The ascent was comparatively +easy but devious, and Boyle could see that this new detour would take +them still some time to reach the summit. Miss Cantire at last voiced +the thought in his own mind. "I wonder what induced them to turn off +here? and if you hadn't been so clever as to discover their tracks, how +could we have found them? But," she added, with feminine logic, "that, +of course, is why they fired those shots." + +Boyle remembered, however, that the shots came from another direction, +but did not correct her conclusion. Nevertheless he said lightly: +"Perhaps even Foster might have had an Indian scare." + +"He ought to know 'friendlies' or 'government reservation men' better by +this time," said Miss Cantire; "however, there is something in that. Do +you know," she added with a laugh, "though I haven't your keen eyes +I'm gifted with a keen scent, and once or twice I've thought I SMELT +Indians--that peculiar odor of their camps, which is unlike anything +else, and which one detects even in their ponies. I used to notice it +when I rode one; no amount of grooming could take it away." + +"I don't suppose that the intensity or degree of this odor would give +you any idea of the hostile or friendly feelings of the Indians towards +you?" asked Boyle grimly. + +Although the remark was consistent with Boyle's objectionable reputation +as a humorist, Miss Cantire deigned to receive it with a smile, at which +Boyle, who was a little relieved by their security so far, and their +nearness to their journey's end, developed further ingenious trifling +until, at the end of an hour, they stood upon the plain again. + +There was no sign of the coach, but its fresh track was visible leading +along the bank of the ravine towards the intersection of the road they +should have come by, and to which the coach had indubitably returned. +Mr. Boyle drew a long breath. They were comparatively safe from any +invisible attack now. At the end of ten minutes Miss Cantire, from her +superior height, detected the top of the missing vehicle appearing above +the stunted bushes at the junction of the highway. + +"Would you mind throwing those old flowers away now?" she said, glancing +at the spoils which Boyle still carried. + +"Why?" he asked. + +"Oh, they're too ridiculous. Please do." + +"May I keep one?" he asked, with the first intonation of masculine +weakness in his voice. + +"If you like," she said, a little coldly. + +Boyle selected a small spray of myrtle and cast the other flowers +obediently aside. + +"Dear me, how ridiculous!" she said. + +"What is ridiculous?" he asked, lifting his eyes to hers with a slight +color. But he saw that she was straining her eyes in the distance. + +"Why, there don't seem to be any horses to the coach!" + +He looked. Through a gap in the furze he could see the vehicle now quite +distinctly, standing empty, horseless and alone. He glanced hurriedly +around them; on the one side a few rocks protected them from the tangled +rim of the ridge; on the other stretched the plain. "Sit down, don't +move until I return," he said quickly. "Take that." He handed back her +pistol, and ran quickly to the coach. It was no illusion; there it stood +vacant, abandoned, its dropped pole and cut traces showing too plainly +the fearful haste of its desertion! A light step behind him made him +turn. It was Miss Cantire, pink and breathless, carrying the cocked +derringer in her hand. "How foolish of you--without a weapon," she +gasped in explanation. + +Then they both stared at the coach, the empty plain, and at each +other! After their tedious ascent, their long detour, their protracted +expectancy and their eager curiosity, there was such a suggestion of +hideous mockery in this vacant, useless vehicle--apparently left to them +in what seemed their utter abandonment--that it instinctively affected +them alike. And as I am writing of human nature I am compelled to say +that they both burst into a fit of laughter that for the moment stopped +all other expression! + +"It was so kind of them to leave the coach," said Miss Cantire faintly, +as she took her handkerchief from her wet and mirthful eyes. "But what +made them run away?" + +Boyle did not reply; he was eagerly examining the coach. In that brief +hour and a half the dust of the plain had blown thick upon it, and +covered any foul stain or blot that might have suggested the awful +truth. Even the soft imprint of the Indians' moccasined feet had been +trampled out by the later horse hoofs of the cavalrymen. It was these +that first attracted Boyle's attention, but he thought them the marks +made by the plunging of the released coach horses. + +Not so his companion! She was examining them more closely, and suddenly +lifted her bright, animated face. "Look!" she said; "our men have been +here, and have had a hand in this--whatever it is." + +"Our men?" repeated Boyle blankly. + +"Yes!--troopers from the post--the escort I told you of. These are the +prints of the regulation cavalry horseshoe--not of Foster's team, nor of +Indian ponies, who never have any! Don't you see?" she went on eagerly; +"our men have got wind of something and have galloped down here--along +the ridge--see!" she went on, pointing to the hoof prints coming +from the plain. "They've anticipated some Indian attack and secured +everything." + +"But if they were the same escort you spoke of, they must have known you +were here, and have"--he was about to say "abandoned you," but checked +himself, remembering they were her father's soldiers. + +"They knew I could take care of myself, and wouldn't stand in the way +of their duty," said the young girl, anticipating him with quick +professional pride that seemed to fit her aquiline nose and tall figure. +"And if they knew that," she added, softening with a mischievous smile, +"they also knew, of course, that I was protected by a gallant stranger +vouched for by Mr. Foster! No!" she added, with a certain blind, devoted +confidence, which Boyle noticed with a slight wince that she had never +shown before, "it's all right! and 'by orders,' Mr. Boyle, and when +they've done their work they'll be back." + +But Boyle's masculine common sense was, perhaps, safer than Miss +Cantire's feminine faith and inherited discipline, for in an instant +he suddenly comprehended the actual truth! The Indians had been there +FIRST; THEY had despoiled the coach and got off safely with their booty +and prisoners on the approach of the escort, who were now naturally +pursuing them with a fury aroused by the belief that their commander's +daughter was one of their prisoners. This conviction was a dreadful one, +yet a relief as far as the young girl was concerned. But should he tell +her? No! Better that she should keep her calm faith in the triumphant +promptness of the soldiers--and their speedy return. + +"I dare say you are right," he said cheerfully, "and let us be thankful +that in the empty coach you'll have at least a half-civilized shelter +until they return. Meantime I'll go and reconnoitre a little." + +"I will go with you," she said. + +But Boyle pointed out to her so strongly the necessity of her remaining +to wait for the return of the soldiers that, being also fagged out +by her long climb, she obediently consented, while he, even with +his inspiration of the truth, did not believe in the return of the +despoilers, and knew she would be safe. + +He made his way to the nearest thicket, where he rightly believed the +ambush had been prepared, and to which undoubtedly they first retreated +with their booty. He expected to find some signs or traces of their +spoil which in their haste they had to abandon. He was more successful +than he anticipated. A few steps into the thicket brought him full +upon a realization of more than his worst convictions--the dead body of +Foster! Near it lay the body of the mail agent. Both had been evidently +dragged into the thicket from where they fell, scalped and half +stripped. There was no evidence of any later struggle; they must have +been dead when they were brought there. + +Boyle was neither a hard-hearted nor an unduly sensitive man. His +vocation had brought him peril enough by land and water; he had often +rendered valuable assistance to others, his sympathy never confusing his +directness and common sense. He was sorry for these two men, and would +have fought to save them. But he had no imaginative ideas of death. And +his keen perception of the truth was consequently sensitively alive only +to that grotesqueness of aspect which too often the hapless victims of +violence are apt to assume. He saw no agony in the vacant eyes of the +two men lying on their backs in apparently the complacent abandonment of +drunkenness, which was further simulated by their tumbled and disordered +hair matted by coagulated blood, which, however, had lost its sanguine +color. He thought only of the unsuspecting girl sitting in the lonely +coach, and hurriedly dragged them further into the bushes. In doing this +he discovered a loaded revolver and a flask of spirits which had been +lying under them, and promptly secured them. A few paces away lay the +coveted trunks of arms and ammunition, their lids wrenched off and +their contents gone. He noticed with a grim smile that his own trunks of +samples had shared a like fate, but was delighted to find that while the +brighter trifles had attracted the Indians' childish cupidity they +had overlooked a heavy black merino shawl of a cheap but serviceable +quality. It would help to protect Miss Cantire from the evening wind, +which was already rising over the chill and stark plain. It also +occurred to him that she would need water after her parched journey, and +he resolved to look for a spring, being rewarded at last by a trickling +rill near the ambush camp. But he had no utensil except the spirit +flask, which he finally emptied of its contents and replaced with the +pure water--a heroic sacrifice to a traveler who knew the comfort of a +stimulant. He retraced his steps, and was just emerging from the thicket +when his quick eye caught sight of a moving shadow before him close to +the ground, which set the hot blood coursing through his veins. + +It was the figure of an Indian crawling on his hands and knees towards +the coach, scarcely forty yards away. For the first time that afternoon +Boyle's calm good-humor was overswept by a blind and furious rage. Yet +even then he was sane enough to remember that a pistol shot would alarm +the girl, and to keep that weapon as a last resource. For an instant he +crept forward as silently and stealthily as the savage, and then, with +a sudden bound, leaped upon him, driving his head and shoulders down +against the rocks before he could utter a cry, and sending the scalping +knife he was carrying between his teeth flying with the shock from his +battered jaw. Boyle seized it--his knee still in the man's back--but +the prostrate body never moved beyond a slight contraction of the lower +limbs. The shock had broken the Indian's neck. He turned the inert +man on his back--the head hung loosely on the side. But in that brief +instant Boyle had recognized the "friendly" Indian of the station to +whom he had given the card. + +He rose dizzily to his feet. The whole action had passed in a few +seconds of time, and had not even been noticed by the sole occupant of +the coach. He mechanically cocked his revolver, but the man beneath him +never moved again. Neither was there any sign of flight or reinforcement +from the thicket around him. Again the whole truth flashed upon him. +This spy and traitor had been left behind by the marauders to return to +the station and avert suspicion; he had been lurking around, but being +without firearms, had not dared to attack the pair together. + +It was a moment or two before Boyle regained his usual elastic +good-humor. Then he coolly returned to the spring, "washed himself of +the Indian," as he grimly expressed it to himself, brushed his clothes, +picked up the shawl and flask, and returned to the coach. It was getting +dark now, but the glow of the western sky shone unimpeded through +the windows, and the silence gave him a great fear. He was relieved, +however, on opening the door, to find Miss Cantire sitting stiffly in +a corner. "I am sorry I was so long," he said, apologetically to her +attitude, "but"-- + +"I suppose you took your own time," she interrupted in a voice of +injured tolerance. "I don't blame you; anything's better than being +cooped up in this tiresome stage for goodness knows how long!" + +"I was hunting for water," he said humbly, "and have brought you some." +He handed her the flask. + +"And I see you have had a wash," she said a little enviously. "How spick +and span you look! But what's the matter with your necktie?" + +He put his hand to his neck hurriedly. His necktie was loose, and had +twisted to one side in the struggle. He colored quite as much from the +sensitiveness of a studiously neat man as from the fear of discovery. +"And what's that?" she added, pointing to the shawl. + +"One of my samples that I suppose was turned out of the coach and +forgotten in the transfer," he said glibly. "I thought it might keep you +warm." + +She looked at it dubiously and laid it gingerly aside. "You don't mean +to say you go about with such things OPENLY?" she said querulously. + +"Yes; one mustn't lose a chance of trade, you know," he resumed with a +smile. + +"And you haven't found this journey very profitable," she said +dryly. "You certainly are devoted to your business!" After a pause, +discontentedly: "It's quite night already--we can't sit here in the +dark." + +"We can take one of the coach lamps inside; they're still there. I've +been thinking the matter over, and I reckon if we leave one lighted +outside the coach it may guide your friends back." He HAD considered it, +and believed that the audacity of the act, coupled with the knowledge +the Indians must have of the presence of the soldiers in the vicinity, +would deter rather than invite their approach. + +She brightened considerably with the coach lamp which he lit and brought +inside. By its light she watched him curiously. His face was slightly +flushed and his eyes very bright and keen looking. Man killing, except +with old professional hands, has the disadvantage of affecting the +circulation. + +But Miss Cantire had noticed that the flask smelt of whiskey. The poor +man had probably fortified himself from the fatigues of the day. + +"I suppose you are getting bored by this delay," she said tentatively. + +"Not at all," he replied. "Would you like to play cards? I've got a +pack in my pocket. We can use the middle seat as a table, and hang the +lantern by the window strap." + +She assented languidly from the back seat; he was on the front seat, +with the middle seat for a table between them. First Mr. Boyle showed +her some tricks with the cards and kindled her momentary and flashing +interest in a mysteriously evoked but evanescent knave. Then they played +euchre, at which Miss Cantire cheated adorably, and Mr. Boyle lost game +after game shamelessly. Then once or twice Miss Cantire was fain to +put her cards to her mouth to conceal an apologetic yawn, and her +blue-veined eyelids grew heavy. Whereupon Mr. Boyle suggested that she +should make herself comfortable in the corner of the coach with as many +cushions as she liked and the despised shawl, while he took the night +air in a prowl around the coach and a lookout for the returning party. +Doing so, he was delighted, after a turn or two, to find her asleep, and +so returned contentedly to his sentry round. + +He was some distance from the coach when a low moaning sound in the +thicket presently increased until it rose and fell in a prolonged howl +that was repeated from the darkened plains beyond. He recognized the +voice of wolves; he instinctively felt the sickening cause of it. They +had scented the dead bodies, and he now regretted that he had left his +own victim so near the coach. He was hastening thither when a cry, this +time human and more terrifying, came from the coach. He turned towards +it as its door flew open and Miss Cantire came rushing toward him. Her +face was colorless, her eyes wild with fear, and her tall, slim figure +trembled convulsively as she frantically caught at the lapels of his +coat, as if to hide herself within its folds, and gasped breathlessly,-- + +"What is it? Oh! Mr. Boyle, save me!" + +"They are wolves," he said hurriedly. "But there is no danger; they +would never attack you; you were safe where you were; let me lead you +back." + +But she remained rooted to the spot, still clinging desperately to his +coat. "No, no!" she said, "I dare not! I heard that awful cry in my +sleep. I looked out and saw it--a dreadful creature with yellow eyes +and tongue, and a sickening breath as it passed between the wheels +just below me. Ah! What's that?" and she again lapsed in nervous terror +against him. + +Boyle passed his arm around her promptly, firmly, masterfully. She +seemed to feel the implied protection, and yielded to it gratefully, +with the further breakdown of a sob. "There is no danger," he repeated +cheerfully. "Wolves are not good to look at, I know, but they wouldn't +have attacked you. The beast only scents some carrion on the plain, +and you probably frightened him more than he did you. Lean on me," he +continued as her step tottered; "you will be better in the coach." + +"And you won't leave me alone again?" she said in hesitating terror. + +"No!" + +He supported her to the coach gravely, gently--her master and still more +his own for all that her beautiful loosened hair was against his cheek +and shoulder, its perfume in his nostrils, and the contour of her lithe +and perfect figure against his own. He helped her back into the coach, +with the aid of the cushions and shawl arranged a reclining couch for +her on the back seat, and then resumed his old place patiently. By +degrees the color came back to her face--as much of it as was not hidden +by her handkerchief. + +Then a tremulous voice behind it began a half-smothered apology. "I +am SO ashamed, Mr. Boyle--I really could not help it! But it was so +sudden--and so horrible--I shouldn't have been afraid of it had it been +really an Indian with a scalping knife--instead of that beast! I don't +know why I did it--but I was alone--and seemed to be dead--and you were +dead too and they were coming to eat me! They do, you know--you said so +just now! Perhaps I was dreaming. I don't know what you must think of +me--I had no idea I was such a coward!" + +But Boyle protested indignantly. He was sure if HE had been asleep +and had not known what wolves were before, he would have been equally +frightened. She must try to go to sleep again--he was sure she +could--and he would not stir from the coach until she waked, or her +friends came. + +She grew quieter presently, and took away the handkerchief from a mouth +that smiled though it still quivered; then reaction began, and her tired +nerves brought her languor and finally repose. Boyle watched the shadows +thicken around her long lashes until they lay softly on the faint flush +that sleep was bringing to her cheek; her delicate lips parted, and her +quick breath at last came with the regularity of slumber. + +So she slept, and he, sitting silently opposite her, dreamed--the old +dream that comes to most good men and true once in their lives. He +scarcely moved until the dawn lightened with opal the dreary plain, +bringing back the horizon and day, when he woke from his dream with a +sigh, and then a laugh. Then he listened for the sound of distant hoofs, +and hearing them, crept noiselessly from the coach. A compact body of +horsemen were bearing down upon it. He rose quickly to meet them, and +throwing up his hand, brought them to a halt at some distance from the +coach. They spread out, resolving themselves into a dozen troopers and a +smart young cadet-like officer. + +"If you are seeking Miss Cantire," he said in a quiet, businesslike +tone, "she is quite safe in the coach and asleep. She knows nothing yet +of what has happened, and believes it is you who have taken everything +away for security against an Indian attack. She has had a pretty rough +night--what with her fatigue and her alarm at the wolves--and I thought +it best to keep the truth from her as long as possible, and I would +advise you to break it to her gently." He then briefly told the story +of their experiences, omitting only his own personal encounter with +the Indian. A new pride, which was perhaps the result of his vigil, +prevented him. + +The young officer glanced at him with as much courtesy as might be +afforded to a civilian intruding upon active military operations. "I am +sure Major Cantire will be greatly obliged to you when he knows it," he +said politely, "and as we intend to harness up and take the coach +back to Sage Wood Station immediately, you will have an opportunity of +telling him." + +"I am not going back by the coach to Sage Wood," said Boyle quietly. "I +have already lost twelve hours of my time--as well as my trunk--on this +picnic, and I reckon the least Major Cantire can do is to let me take +one of your horses to the next station in time to catch the down coach. +I can do it, if I set out at once." + +Boyle heard his name, with the familiar prefix of "Dicky," given to the +officer by a commissary sergeant, whom he recognized as having met at +the Agency, and the words "Chicago drummer" added, while a perceptible +smile went throughout the group. "Very well, sir," said the officer, +with a familiarity a shade less respectful than his previous formal +manner. "You can take the horse, as I believe the Indians have already +made free with your samples. Give him a mount, sergeant." + +The two men walked towards the coach. Boyle lingered a moment at +the window to show him the figure of Miss Cantire still peacefully +slumbering among her pile of cushions, and then turned quietly away. A +moment later he was galloping on one of the troopers' horses across the +empty plain. + + +Miss Cantire awoke presently to the sound of a familiar voice and the +sight of figures that she knew. But the young officer's first words of +explanation--a guarded account of the pursuit of the Indians and the +recapture of the arms, suppressing the killing of Foster and the mail +agent--brought a change to her brightened face and a wrinkle to her +pretty brow. + +"But Mr. Boyle said nothing of this to me," she said, sitting up. "Where +is he?" + +"Already on his way to the next station on one of our horses! Wanted +to catch the down stage and get a new box of samples, I fancy, as the +braves had rigged themselves out with his laces and ribbons. Said he'd +lost time enough on this picnic," returned the young officer, with a +laugh. "Smart business chap; but I hope he didn't bore you?" + +Miss Cantire felt her cheek flush, and bit her lip. "I found him most +kind and considerate, Mr. Ashford," she said coldly. "He may have +thought the escort could have joined the coach a little earlier, and +saved all this; but he was too much of a gentleman to say anything about +it to ME," she added dryly, with a slight elevation of her aquiline +nose. + +Nevertheless Boyle's last words stung her deeply. To hurry off, too, +without saying "good-by," or even asking how she slept! No doubt he +HAD lost time, and was tired of her company, and thought more of his +precious samples than of her! After all, it was like him to rush off for +an order! + +She was half inclined to call the young officer back and tell him how +Boyle had criticised her costume on the road. But Mr. Ashford was at +that time entirely preoccupied with his men around a ledge of rock and +bushes some yards from the coach, yet not so far away but that she could +hear what they said. "I'll swear there was no dead Injin here when we +came yesterday! We searched the whole place--by daylight, too--for any +sign. The Injin was killed in his tracks by some one last night. It's +like Dick Boyle, lieutenant, to have done it, and like him to have said +nothin' to frighten the young lady. He knows when to keep his mouth +shut--and when to open it." + +Miss Cantire sank back in her corner as the officer turned and +approached the coach. The incident of the past night flashed back upon +her--Mr. Boyle's long absence, his flushed face, twisted necktie, +and enforced cheerfulness. She was shocked, amazed, discomfited--and +admiring! And this hero had been sitting opposite to her, silent all the +rest of the night! + +"Did Mr. Boyle say anything of an Indian attack last night?" asked +Ashford. "Did you hear anything?" + +"Only the wolves howling," said Miss Cantire. "Mr. Boyle was away +twice." She was strangely reticent--in complimentary imitation of her +missing hero. + +"There's a dead Indian here who has been killed," began Ashford. + +"Oh, please don't say anything more, Mr. Ashford," interrupted the young +lady, "but let us get away from this horrid place at once. Do get the +horses in. I can't stand it." + +But the horses were already harnessed and mounted, postilion-wise, by +the troopers. The vehicle was ready to start when Miss Cantire called +"Stop!" + +When Ashford presented himself at the door, the young lady was upon her +hands and knees, searching the bottom of the coach. "Oh, dear! I've lost +something. I must have dropped it on the road," she said breathlessly, +with pink cheeks. "You must positively wait and let me go back and find +it. I won't be long. You know there's 'no hurry.'" + +Mr. Ashford stared as Miss Cantire skipped like a schoolgirl from the +coach and ran down the trail by which she and Boyle had approached the +coach the night before. She had not gone far before she came upon the +withered flowers he had thrown away at her command. "It must be about +here," she murmured. Suddenly she uttered a cry of delight, and picked +up the business card that Boyle had shown her. Then she looked furtively +around her, and, selecting a sprig of myrtle among the cast-off flowers, +concealed it in her mantle and ran back, glowing, to the coach. "Thank +you! All right, I've found it," she called to Ashford, with a dazzling +smile, and leaped inside. + +The coach drove on, and Miss Cantire, alone in its recesses, drew the +myrtle from her mantle and folding it carefully in her handkerchief, +placed it in her reticule. Then she drew out the card, read its dryly +practical information over and over again, examined the soiled edges, +brushed them daintily, and held it for a moment, with eyes that saw not, +motionless in her hand. Then she raised it slowly to her lips, rolled it +into a spiral, and, loosening a hook and eye, thrust it gently into her +bosom. + +And Dick Boyle, galloping away to the distant station, did not know +that the first step towards a realization of his foolish dream had been +taken! + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Trent's Trust and Other Stories, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRENT'S TRUST AND OTHER STORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 2459.txt or 2459.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/5/2459/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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