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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2676-0.txt b/2676-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8671f89 --- /dev/null +++ b/2676-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7044 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's 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: The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2676] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + +JOHNNYBOY + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA + +CHU CHU + +MY FIRST BOOK + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful +grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain, +there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies +like a small island in the stream. To the strongly-marked heroics of +Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and +gray mosses from the overhanging rocks and feathery alders trail their +filaments in its slow current, and between the woodland openings there +are glimpses of vivid velvet sward, even at times when the wild oats and +“wire-grasses” of the plains are already yellowing. The placid river, +unstained at this point by mining sluices or mill drift, runs clear +under its contemplative shadows. Originally the camping-ground of a +Digger Chief, it passed from his tenancy with the American rifle bullet +that terminated his career. The pioneer who thus succeeded to its +attractive calm gave way in turn to a well-directed shot from the +revolver of a quartz-prospector, equally impressed with the charm of +its restful tranquillity. How long he might have enjoyed its riparian +seclusion is not known. A sudden rise of the river one March night +quietly removed him, together with the overhanging post oak beneath +which he was profoundly but unconsciously meditating. The demijohn of +whiskey was picked up further down. But no other suggestion of these +successive evictions was ever visible in the reposeful serenity of the +spot. + +It was later occupied, and a cabin built upon the spot, by one Alexander +McGee, better known as “the Bell-ringer of Angel's.” This euphonious +title, which might have suggested a consistently peaceful occupation, +however, referred to his accuracy of aim at a mechanical target, where +the piercing of the bull's eye was celebrated by the stroke of a bell. +It is probable that this singular proficiency kept his investment of +that gentle seclusion unchallenged. At all events it was uninvaded. He +shared it only with the birds. Perhaps some suggestion of nest building +may have been in his mind, for one pleasant spring morning he brought +hither a wife. It was his OWN; and in this way he may be said to have +introduced that morality which is supposed to be the accompaniment and +reflection of pastoral life. Mrs. McGee's red petticoat was sometimes +seen through the trees--a cheerful bit of color. Mrs. McGee's red +cheeks, plump little figure, beribboned hat and brown, still-girlish +braids were often seen at sunset on the river bank, in company with +her husband, who seemed to be pleased with the discreet and distant +admiration that followed them. Strolling under the bland shadows of the +cotton-woods, by the fading gold of the river, he doubtless felt that +peace which the mere world cannot give, and which fades not away before +the clear, accurate eye of the perfect marksman. + +Their nearest neighbors were the two brothers Wayne, who took up +a claim, and built themselves a cabin on the river bank near the +promontory. Quiet, simple men, suspected somewhat of psalm-singing, and +undue retirement on Sundays, they attracted but little attention. But +when, through some original conception or painstaking deliberation, they +turned the current of the river so as to restrict the overflow between +the promontory and the river bank, disclosing an auriferous “bar” of +inconceivable richness, and establishing their theory that it was really +the former channel of the river, choked and diverted though ages of +alluvial drift, they may be said to have changed, also, the fortunes +of the little settlement. Popular feeling and the new prosperity which +dawned upon the miners recognized the two brothers by giving the name of +Wayne's Bar to the infant settlement and its post-office. The peaceful +promontory, although made easier of access, still preserved its calm +seclusion, and pretty Mrs. McGee could contemplate through the leaves of +her bower the work going on at its base, herself unseen. Nevertheless, +this Arcadian retreat was being slowly and surely invested; more than +that, the character of its surroundings was altered, and the complexion +of the river had changed. The Wayne engines on the point above had +turned the drift and debris into the current that now thickened and ran +yellow around the wooded shore. The fringes of this Eden were already +tainted with the color of gold. + +It is doubtful, however, if Mrs. McGee was much affected by this +sentimental reflection, and her husband, in a manner, lent himself to +the desecration of his exclusive domain by accepting a claim along +the shore--tendered by the conscientious Waynes in compensation for +restricting the approach to the promontory--and thus participated in +the fortunes of the Bar. Mrs. McGee amused herself by watching from +her eyrie, with a presumably childish interest, the operations of +the red-shirted brothers on the Bar; her husband, however, always +accompanying her when she crossed the Bar to the bank. Some two or three +other women--wives of miners--had joined the camp, but it was evident +that McGee was as little inclined to intrust his wife to their +companionship as to that of their husbands. An opinion obtained that +McGee, being an old resident, with alleged high connections in Angel's, +was inclined to be aristocratic and exclusive. + +Meantime, the two brothers who had founded the fortunes of the Bar were +accorded an equally high position, with an equal amount of reserve. +Their ways were decidedly not those of the other miners, and were as +efficacious in keeping them from familiar advances as the reputation of +Mr. McGee was in isolating his wife. Madison Wayne, the elder, was +tall, well-knit and spare, reticent in speech and slow in deduction; +his brother, Arthur, was of rounder outline, but smaller and of a more +delicate and perhaps a more impressible nature. It was believed by some +that it was within the range of possibility that Arthur would yet be +seen “taking his cocktail like a white man,” or “dropping his scads” + at draw poker. At present, however, they seemed content to spend their +evenings in their own cabin, and their Sundays at a grim Presbyterian +tabernacle in the next town, to which they walked ten miles, where, it +was currently believed, “hell fire was ladled out free,” and “infants +damned for nothing.” When they did not go to meeting it was also +believed that the minister came to them, until it was ascertained that +the sound of sacred recitation overheard in their cabin was simply +Madison Wayne reading the Bible to his younger brother. McGee is said +to have stopped on one of these occasions--unaccompanied by his +wife--before their cabin, moving away afterwards with more than his +usual placid contentment. + +It was about eleven o'clock one morning, and Madison Wayne was at work +alone on the Bar. Clad in a dark gray jersey and white duck trousers +rolled up over high india-rubber boots, he looked not unlike a peaceful +fisherman digging stakes for his nets, as he labored in the ooze and +gravel of the still half-reclaimed river bed. He was far out on the Bar, +within a stone's throw of the promontory. Suddenly his quick ear caught +an unfamiliar cry and splash. Looking up hastily, he saw Mrs. McGee's +red petticoat in the water under the singularly agitated boughs of an +overhanging tree. Madison Wayne ran to the bank, threw off his heavy +boots, and sprang into the stream. A few strokes brought him to Mrs. +McGee's petticoat, which, as he had wisely surmised, contained Mrs. +McGee, who was still clinging to a branch of the tree. Grasping her +waist with one hand and the branch with the other, he obtained a +foothold on the bank, and dragged her ashore. A moment later they both +stood erect and dripping at the foot of the tree. + +“Well?” said the lady. + +Wayne glanced around their seclusion with his habitual caution, slightly +knit his brows perplexedly, and said: “You fell in?” + +“I didn't do nothin' of the sort. I JUMPED in.” + +Wayne again looked around him, as if expecting her companion, and +squeezed the water out of his thick hair. “Jumped in?” he repeated +slowly. “What for?” + +“To make you come over here, Mad Wayne,” she said, with a quick laugh, +putting her arms akimbo. + +They stood looking at each other, dripping like two river gods. Like +them, also, Wayne had apparently ignored the fact that his trousers were +rolled up above his bare knees, and Mrs. McGee that her red petticoat +clung closely to her rather pretty figure. But he quickly recovered +himself. “You had better go in and change your clothes,” he said, with +grave concern. “You'll take cold.” + +She only shook herself disdainfully. “I'm all right,” she said; “but +YOU, Mad Wayne, what do you mean by not speaking to me--not knowing me? +You can't say that I've changed like that.” She passed her hand down her +long dripping braids as if to press the water from them, and yet with a +half-coquettish suggestion in the act. + +Something struggled up into the man's face which was not there before. +There was a new light in his grave eyes. “You look the same,” he said +slowly; “but you are married--you have a husband.” + +“You think that changes a girl?” she said, with a laugh “That's where +all you men slip up! You're afraid of his rifle--THAT'S the change that +bothers you, Mad.” + +“You know I care little for carnal weapons,” he said quietly. She DID +know it; but it is the privilege of the sex to invent its facts and then +to graciously abandon them as if they were only arguments. “Then why do +you keep off from me? Why do you look the other way when I pass?” she +said quickly. + +“Because you are married,” he said slowly. + +She again shook the water from her like a Newfoundland dog. “That's it. +You're mad because I got married. You're mad because I wouldn't marry +you and your church over on the cross roads, and sing hymns with you and +become SISTER Wayne. You wanted me to give up dancing and buggy ridin' +Sundays--and you're just mad because I didn't. Yes, mad--just mean, baby +mad, Mr. Maddy Wayne, for all your CHRISTIAN resignation! That's what's +the matter with you.” Yet she looked very pretty and piquant in her +small spitefulness, which was still so general and superficial that +she seemed to shake it out of her wet petticoats in a vicious flap that +disclosed her neat ankles. + +“You preferred McGee to me,” he said grimly. “I didn't blame you.” + +“Who said I PREFERRED him?” she retorted quickly. “Much you know!” + Then, with swift feminine abandonment of her position, she added, with a +little laugh, “It's all the same whether you're guarded with a rifle or +a Church Presbytery, only”-- + +“Only what?” said Madison earnestly. + +“There's men who'd risk being SHOT for a girl, that couldn't stand +psalm-singin' palaver.” + +The quick expression of pain that passed over his hard, dark face seemed +only to heighten her pretty mischievousness. But he simply glanced again +around the solitude, passed his hand over his wet sleeve, and said, “I +must go now; your husband wouldn't like me being here.” + +“He's workin' in the claim,--the claim YOU gave him,” said Mrs. McGee, +with cheerful malice. “Wonder what he'd say if he knew it was given to +him by the man who used to spark his wife only two years ago? How does +that suit your Christian conscience, Mad?” + +“I should have told him, had I not believed that everything was over +between us, or that it was possible that you and me should ever meet +again,” he returned, in a tone so measured that the girl seemed to hear +the ring of the conventicle in it. + +“Should you, BROTHER Wayne?” she said, imitating him. “Well, let me tell +you that you are the one man on the Bar that Sandy has taken a fancy +to.” + +Madison's sallow cheek colored a little, but he did not speak. + +“Well!” continued Mrs. McGee impatiently. “I don't believe he'd object +to your comin' here to see me--if you cared.” + +“But I wouldn't care to come, unless he first knew that I had been once +engaged to you,” said Madison gravely. + +“Perhaps he might not think as much of that as you do,” retorted the +woman pertly. “Every one isn't as straitlaced as you, and every girl has +had one or two engagements. But do as you like--stay at home if you want +to, and sing psalms and read the Scriptures to that younger brother of +yours! All the same, I'm thinkin' he'd rather be out with the boys.” + +“My brother is God-fearing and conscientious,” said Madison quickly. +“You do not know him. You have never seen him.” + +“No,” said Mrs. McGee shortly. She then gave a little shiver (that was, +however, half simulated) in her wet garments, and added: “ONE saint was +enough for me; I couldn't stand the whole church, Mad.” + +“You are catching cold,” he said quickly, his whole face brightening +with a sudden tenderness that seemed to transfigure the dark features. +“I am keeping you here when you should be changing your clothes. Go, I +beg you, at once.” + +She stood still provokingly, with an affectation of wiping her arms and +shoulders and sopping her wet dress with clusters of moss. + +“Go, please do--Safie, please!” + +“Ah!”--she drew a quick, triumphant breath. “Then you'll come again to +see me, Mad?” + +“Yes,” he said slowly, and even more gravely than before. + +“But you must let me show you the way out--round under those +trees--where no one can see you come.” She held out her hand. + +“I'll go the way I came,” he said quietly, swinging himself silently +from the nearest bough into the stream. And before she could utter a +protest he was striking out as silently, hand over hand, across the +current. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +A week later Madison Wayne was seated alone in his cabin. His supper +table had just been cleared by his Chinese coolie, as it was getting +late, and the setting sun, which for half an hour had been persistently +making a vivid beacon of his windows for the benefit of wayfarers along +the river bank, had at last sunk behind the cottonwoods. His head was +resting on his hand; the book he had been reading when the light faded +was lying open on the table before him. In this attitude he became aware +of a hesitating step on the gravel outside his open door. He had been +so absorbed that the approach of any figure along the only highway--the +river bank--had escaped his observation. Looking up, he discovered +that Mr. Alexander McGee was standing in the doorway, his hand resting +lightly on the jamb. A sudden color suffused Wayne's cheek; his hand +reached for his book, which he drew towards him hurriedly, yet half +automatically, as he might have grasped some defensive weapon. + +The Bell-ringer of Angel's noticed the act, but not the blush, and +nodded approvingly. “Don't let me disturb ye. I was only meanderin' +by and reckoned I'd say 'How do?' in passin'.” He leaned gently back +against the door-post, to do which comfortably he was first obliged to +shift the revolver on his hip. The sight of the weapon brought a slight +contraction to the brows of Wayne, but he gravely said: “Won't you come +in?” + +“It ain't your prayin' time?” said McGee politely. + +“No.” + +“Nor you ain't gettin' up lessons outer the Book?” he continued +thoughtfully. + +“No.” + +“Cos it don't seem, so to speak, you see, the square thing to be +botherin' a man when he might be doin' suthin' else, don't you see? You +understand what I mean?” + +It was his known peculiarity that he always seemed to be suffering from +an inability to lucid expression, and the fear of being misunderstood in +regard to the most patent or equally the most unimportant details of his +speech. All of which, however, was in very remarkable contrast to his +perfectly clear and penetrating eyes. + +Wayne gravely assured him that he was not interrupting him in any way. + +“I often thought--that is, I had an idea, you understand what I mean--of +stoppin' in passing. You and me, you see, are sorter alike; we don't +seem to jibe in with the gin'ral gait o' the camp. You understand what I +mean? We ain't in the game, eh? You see what I'm after?” + +Madison Wayne glanced half mechanically at McGee's revolver. McGee's +clear eyes at once took in the glance. + +“That's it! You understand? You with them books of yours, and me with +my shootin' iron--we're sort o' different from the rest, and ought to be +kinder like partners. You understand what I mean? We keep this camp in +check. We hold a full hand, and don't stand no bluffing.” + +“If you mean there is some effect in Christian example and the life of a +God-fearing man”--began Madison gravely. + +“That's it! God-fearin' or revolver-fearin', it amounts to the same when +you come down to the hard pan and bed-rock,” interrupted McGee. “I ain't +expectin' you to think much of my style, but I go a heap on yours, even +if I can't play your game. And I sez to my wife, 'Safie'--her that trots +around with me sometimes--I sez, 'Safie, I oughter know that man, and +shall. And I WANT YOU to know him.' Hol' on,” he added quickly, as +Madison rose with a flushed face and a perturbed gesture. “Ye don't +understand! I see wot's in your mind--don't you see? When I married +my wife and brought her down here, knowin' this yer camp, I sez: 'No +flirtin', no foolin', no philanderin' here, my dear! You're young and +don't know the ways o' men. The first man I see you talking with, I +shoot. You needn't fear, my dear, for accidents. I kin shoot all round +you, under your arm, across your shoulders, over your head and between +your fingers, my dear, and never start skin or fringe or ruffle. But I +don't miss HIM. You sorter understand what I mean,' sez I, 'so don't!' Ye +noticed how my wife is respected, Mr. Wayne? Queen Victoria sittin' on +her throne ain't in it with my Safie. But when I see YOU not herdin' +with that cattle, never liftin' your eyes to me or Safie as we pass, +never hangin' round the saloons and jokin', nor winkin', nor slingin' +muddy stories about women, but prayin' and readin' Scripter stories, +here along with your brother, I sez to myself, I sez, 'Sandy, ye kin +take off your revolver and hang up your shot gun when HE'S around. For +'twixt HIM and your wife ain't no revolver, but the fear of God and hell +and damnation and the world to come!' You understand what I mean, don't +ye? Ye sorter follow my lead, eh? Ye can see what I'm shootin' round, +don't ye? So I want you to come up neighborly like, and drop in to see +my wife.” + +Madison Wayne's face became set and hard again, but he advanced towards +McGee with the book against his breast, and his finger between the +leaves. “I already know your wife, Mr. McGee! I saw her before YOU ever +met her. I was engaged to her; I loved her, and--as far as man may +love the wife of another and keep the commands of this book--I love her +still!” + +To his surprise, McGee, whose calm eyes had never dimmed or blenched, +after regarding him curiously, took the volume from him, laid it on the +table, opened it, turned its leaves critically, said earnestly, “That's +the law here, is it?” and then held out his hand. + +“Shake!” + +Madison Wayne hesitated--and then grasped his hand. + +“Ef I had known this,” continued McGee, “I reckon I wouldn't have +been so hard on Safie and so partikler. She's better than I took her +for--havin' had you for a beau! You understand what I mean. You follow +me--don't ye? I allus kinder wondered why she took me, but sens you've +told me that YOU used to spark her, in your God-fearin' way, I reckon it +kinder prepared her for ME. You understand? Now you come up, won't ye?” + +“I will call some evening with my brother,” said Wayne embarrassedly. + +“With which?” demanded McGee. + +“My brother Arthur. We usually spend the evenings together.” + +McGee paused, leaned against the doorpost, and, fixing his clear eyes on +Wayne, said: “Ef it's all the same to you, I'd rather you did not bring +him. You understand what I mean? You follow me; no other man but you and +me. I ain't sayin' anything agin' your brother, but you see how it is, +don't you? Just me and you.” + +“Very well, I will come,” said Wayne gloomily. But as McGee backed out +of the door, he followed him, hesitatingly. Then, with an effort he +seemed to recover himself, and said almost harshly: “I ought to tell you +another thing--that I have seen and spoken to Mrs. McGee since she +came to the Bar. She fell into the water last week, and I swam out and +dragged her ashore. We talked and spoke of the past.” + +“She fell in,” echoed McGee. + +Wayne hesitated; then a murky blush came into his face as he slowly +repeated, “She FELL in.” + +McGee's eyes only brightened. “I have been too hard on her. She might +have drowned ef you hadn't took risks. You see? You understand what I +mean? And she never let out anything about it--and never boasted o' YOU +helpin' her out. All right--you'll come along and see her agin'.” He +turned and walked cheerfully away. + +Wayne re-entered the cabin. He sat for a long time by the window until +the stars came out above the river, and another star, with which he had +been long familiar, took its place apparently in the heart of the wooded +crest of the little promontory. Then the fringing woods on the opposite +shore became a dark level line across the landscape, and the color +seemed to fade out of the moist shining gravel before his cabin. +Presently the silhouette of his dark face disappeared from the window, +and Mr. McGee might have been gratified to know that he had slipped to +his knees before the chair whereon he had been sitting, and that his +head was bowed before it on his clasped hands. In a little while he rose +again, and, dragging a battened old portmanteau from the corner, took +out a number of letters tied up in a package, with which, from time to +time, he slowly fed the flame that flickered on his hearth. In this way +the windows of the cabin at times sprang into light, making a somewhat +confusing beacon for the somewhat confused Arthur Wayne, who was +returning from a visit to Angel's, and who had fallen into that slightly +morose and irritated state which follows excessive hilarity, and is also +apt to indicate moral misgivings. + +But the last letter was burnt and the cabin quite dark when he entered. +His brother was sitting by the slowly dying fire, and he trusted that +in that uncertain light any observation of his expression or manner--of +which he himself was uneasily conscious--would pass unheeded. + +“You are late,” said Madison gravely. + +At which his brother rashly assumed the aggressive. He was no later than +the others, and if the Rogers boys were good enough to walk with him +for company he couldn't run ahead of them just because his brother was +waiting! He didn't want any supper, he had something at the Cross Roads +with the others. Yes! WHISKEY, if he wanted to know. People couldn't +keep coffee and temperance drinks just to please him and his brother, +and he wasn't goin' to insult the others by standing aloof. Anyhow, he +had never taken the pledge, and as long as he hadn't he couldn't see +why he should refuse a single glass. As it was, everybody said he was a +milksop, and a tender-foot, and he was just sick of it. + +Madison rose and lit a candle and held it up before his brother's face. +It was a handsome, youthful face that looked into his, flushed with the +excitement of novel experiences and perhaps a more material stimulation. +The little silken moustache was ostentatiously curled, the brown curls +were redolent of bear's grease. Yet there was a certain boyish timidity +and nervousness in the defiance of his blue eyes that momentarily +touched the elder brother. + +“I've been too hand with him,” he said to himself, half consciously +recalling what McGee had said of Safie. He put the candle down, laid +his hand gently on Arthur's shoulder, and said, with a certain cautious +tenderness, “Come, Arty, sit down and tell me all about it.” + +Whereupon the mercurial Arthur, not only relieved of his nervousness but +of his previous ethical doubts and remorse, became gay and voluble. +He had finished his purchases at Angel's, and the storekeeper had +introduced him to Colonel Starbottle, of Kentucky, as one of “the Waynes +who had made Wayne's Bar famous.” Colonel Starbottle had said in his +pompous fashion--yet he was not such a bad fellow, after all--that the +Waynes ought to be represented in the Councils of the State, and +that he, Starbottle, would be proud to nominate Madison for the next +Legislature and run him, too. “And you know, really, Mad, if you mixed +a little more with folks, and they weren't--well, sorter AFRAID of +you--you could do it. Why, I've made a heap o' friends over there, +just by goin' round a little, and one of old Selvedge's girls--the +storekeeper, you know--said from what she'd heard of us, she always +thought I was about fifty, and turned up the whites of my eyes instead +of the ends of my moustache! She's mighty smart! Then the Postmaster has +got his wife and three daughters out from the States, and they've asked +me to come over to their church festival next week. It isn't our church, +of course, but I suppose it's all right.” + +This and much more with the volubility of relieved feelings. When he +stopped, out of breath, Madison said, “I have had a visitor since you +left--Mr. McGee.” + +“And his wife?” asked Arthur quickly. Madison flushed slightly. “No; but +he asked me to go and see her.” + +“That's HER doin', then,” returned Arthur, with a laugh. “She's always +lookin' round the corners of her eyes at me when she passes. Why, John +Rogers was joking me about her only yesterday, and said McGee would blow +a hole through me some of these days if I didn't look out! Of course,” + he added, affectedly curling his moustache, “that's nonsense! But you +know how they talk, and she's too pretty for that fellow McGee.” + +“She has found a careful helpmeet in her husband,” said Madison sternly, +“and it's neither seemly nor Christian in you, Arthur, to repeat the +idle, profane gossip of the Bar. I knew her before her marriage, and if +she was not a professing Christian, she was, and is, a pure, good woman! +Let us have no more of this.” + +Whether impressed by the tone of his brother's voice, or only affected +by his own mercurial nature, Arthur changed the subject to further +voluble reminiscences of his trip to Angel's. Yet he did not seem +embarrassed nor disconcerted when his brother, in the midst of his +speech, placed the candle and the Bible on the table, with two chairs +before it. He listened to Madison's monotonous reading of the evening +exercise with equally monotonous respect. Then they both arose, without +looking at each other, but with equally set and stolid faces, and knelt +down before their respective chairs, clasping the back with both hands, +and occasionally drawing the hard, wooden frames against their breasts +convulsively, as if it were a penitential act. It was the elder brother +who that night prayed aloud. It was his voice that rose higher by +degrees above the low roof and encompassing walls, the level river camp +lights that trembled through the window, the dark belt of riverside +trees, and the light on the promontory's crest--up to the tranquil, +passionless stars themselves. + +With those confidences to his Maker this chronicle does not +lie--obtrusive and ostentatious though they were in tone and attitude. +Enough that they were a general arraignment of humanity, the Bar, +himself, and his brother, and indeed much that the same Maker had +created and permitted. That through this hopeless denunciation still +lingered some human feeling and tenderness might have been shown by the +fact that at its close his hands trembled and his face was bedewed by +tears. And his brother was so deeply affected that he resolved hereafter +to avoid all evening prayers. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +It was a week later that Madison Wayne and Mr. McGee were seen, to the +astonishment of the Bar, leisurely walking together in the direction of +the promontory. Here they disappeared, entering a damp fringe of willows +and laurels that seemed to mark its limits, and gradually ascending some +thickly-wooded trail, until they reached its crest, which, to Madison's +surprise, was cleared and open, and showed an acre or two of rude +cultivation. Here, too, stood the McGees' conjugal home--a small, +four-roomed house, but so peculiar and foreign in aspect that it at +once challenged even Madison's abstracted attention. It was a tiny Swiss +chalet, built in sections, and originally packed in cases, one of the +early importations from Europe to California after the gold discovery, +when the country was supposed to be a woodless wilderness. Mr. McGee +explained, with his usual laborious care, how he had bought it at +Marysville, not only for its picturesqueness, but because in its +unsuggestive packing-cases it offered no indication to the curious +miners, and could be put up by himself and a single uncommunicative +Chinaman, without any one else being aware of its existence. There was, +indeed, something quaint in this fragment of Old World handicraft, with +its smooth-jointed paneling, in two colors, its little lozenge fretwork, +its lapped roof, overhanging eaves, and miniature gallery. Inartistic +as Madison was--like most men of rigidly rectangular mind and +principle--and accustomed to the bleak and economic sufficiency of the +Californian miner's cabin, he was touched strangely by its novel grace +and freshness. It reminded him of HER; he had a new respect for this +rough, sinful man who had thus idealized his wife in her dwelling. +Already a few Madeira vines and a Cherokee rose clambered up the +gallery. And here Mrs. McGee was sitting. + +In the face that she turned upon the two men Madison could see that she +was not expecting them, and even in the slight curiosity with which +she glanced at her husband, that evidently he had said nothing of his +previous visit or invitation. And this conviction became certainty at +Mr. McGee's first words. + +“I've brought you an ole friend, Safie. He used to spark ye once at +Angel's afore my time--he told me so; he picked ye outer the water +here--he told me that, too. Ye mind that I said afore that he was the +only man I wanted ter know; I reckon now it seems the square thing that +he should be the one man YOU wanted ter know, too. You understand what I +mean--you follow me, don't you?” + +Whether or not Mrs. McGee DID follow him, she exhibited neither concern, +solicitude, nor the least embarrassment. An experienced lover might have +augured ill from this total absence of self-consciousness. But Madison +was not an experienced lover. He accepted her amused smile as a +recognition of his feelings, trembled at the touch of her cool hands, +as if it had been a warm pressure, and scarcely dared to meet her +maliciously laughing eyes. When he had followed Mr. McGee to the little +gallery, the previous occupation of Mrs. McGee when they arrived was +explained. From that slight elevation there was a perfect view over the +whole landscape and river below; the Bar stretched out as a map at her +feet; in that clear, transparent air she could see every movement and +gesture of Wayne's brother, all unconscious of that surveillance, at +work on the Bar. For an instant Madison's sallow cheek reddened, he knew +not why; a remorseful feeling that he ought to be there with Arthur came +over him. Mrs. McGee's voice seemed to answer his thought. “You can see +everything that's going on down there without being seen yourself. It's +good fun for me sometimes. The other day I saw that young Carpenter +hanging round Mrs. Rogers's cabin in the bush when old Rogers was away. +And I saw her creep out and join him, never thinking any one could see +her!” + +She laughed, seeking Madison's averted eyes, yet scarcely noticing his +suddenly contracted brows. Mr. McGee alone responded. + +“That's why,” he said, explanatorily, to Madison, “I don't allow to have +my Safie go round with those women. Not as I ever see anything o' +that sort goin' on, or keer to look, but on gin'ral principles. You +understand what I mean.” + +“That's your brother over there, isn't it?” said Mrs. McGee, turning to +Madison and calmly ignoring her husband's explanation, as she indicated +the distant Arthur. “Why didn't you bring him along with you?” + +Madison hesitated, and looked at McGee. “He wasn't asked,” said that +gentleman cheerfully. “One's company, two's none! You don't know him, +my dear; and this yer ain't a gin'ral invitation to the Bar. You follow +me?” + +To this Mrs. McGee made no comment, but proceeded to show Madison over +the little cottage. Yet in a narrow passage she managed to touch his +hand, lingered to let her husband precede them from one room to another, +and once or twice looked meaningly into his eyes over McGee's shoulder. +Disconcerted and embarrassed, he tried to utter a few commonplaces, but +so constrainedly that even McGee presently noticed it. And the result +was still more embarrassing. + +“Look yer,” he said, suddenly turning to them both. “I reckon as how you +two wanter talk over old times, and I'll just meander over to the claim, +and do a spell o' work. Don't mind ME. And if HE”--indicating Madison +with his finger--“gets on ter religion, don't you mind him. It won't +hurt you, Safie,--no more nor my revolver,--but it's pow'ful persuadin', +and you understand me? You follow me? Well, so long!” + +He turned away quickly, and was presently lost among the trees. For an +instant the embarrassed Madison thought of following him; but he was +confronted by Mrs. McGee's wicked eyes and smiling face between him +and the door. Composing herself, however, with a simulation of perfect +gravity she pointed to a chair. + +“Sit down, Brother Wayne. If you're going to convert me, it may take +some time, you know, and you might as well make yourself comfortable. +As for me, I'll take the anxious bench.” She laughed with a certain +girlishness, which he well remembered, and leaped to a sitting posture +on the table with her hands on her knees, swinging her smart shoes +backwards and forwards below it. + +Madison looked at her in hopeless silence, with a pale, disturbed face +and shining eyes. + +“Or, if you want to talk as we used to talk, Mad, when we sat on the +front steps at Angel's and pa and ma went inside to give us a show, ye +can hop up alongside o' me.” She made a feint of gathering her skirts +beside her. + +“Safie!” broke out the unfortunate man, in a tone that seemed to +increase in formal solemnity with his manifest agitation, “this is +impossible. The laws of God that have joined you and this man”-- + +“Oh, it's the prayer-meeting, is it?” said Safie, settling her skirts +again, with affected resignation. “Go on.” + +“Listen, Safie,” said Madison, turning despairingly towards her. “Let +us for His sake, let us for the sake of our dear blessed past, talk +together earnestly and prayerfully. Let us take this time to root out of +our feeble hearts all yearnings that are not prompted by Him--yearnings +that your union with this man makes impossible and sinful. Let us for +the sake of the past take counsel of each other, even as brother and +sister.” + +“Sister McGee!” she interrupted mockingly. “It wasn't as brother and +sister you made love to me at Angel's.” + +“No! I loved you then, and would have made you my wife.” + +“And you don't love me any more,” she said, audaciously darting a wicked +look into his eyes, “only because I didn't marry you? And you think that +Christian?” + +“You know I love you as I have loved you always,” he said passionately. + +“Hush!” she said mockingly; “suppose he should hear you.” + +“He knows it!” said Madison bitterly. “I told him all!” + +She stared at him fixedly. + +“You have--told--him--that--you STILL love me?” she repeated slowly. + +“Yes, or I wouldn't be here now. It was due to him--to my own +conscience.” + +“And what did he say?” + +“He insisted upon my coming, and, as God is my Judge and witness--he +seemed satisfied and content.” + +She drew her pretty lips together with a long whistle, and then leaped +from the table. Her face was hard and her eyes were bright as she went +to the window and looked out. He followed her timidly. + +“Don't touch me,” she said, sharply striking away his proffered hand. +He turned with a flushed cheek and walked slowly towards the door. Her +laugh stopped him. + +“Come! I reckon that squeezin' hands ain't no part of your contract with +Sandy?” she said, glancing down at her own. “Well, so you're goin'?” + +“I only wished to talk seriously and prayerfully with you for a few +moments, Safie, and then--to see you no more.” + +“And how would that suit him,” she said dryly, “if he wants your company +here? Then, just because you can't convert me and bring me to your ways +of thinkin' in one visit, I suppose you think it is Christian-like to +run away like this! Or do you suppose that, if you turn tail now, he +won't believe that your Christian strength and Christian resignation is +all humbug?” + +Madison dropped into the chair, put his elbows on the table, and buried +his face in his hands. She came a little nearer, and laid her hand +lightly on his arm. He made a movement as if to take it, but she +withdrew it impatiently. + +“Come,” she said brusquely; “now you're in for it you must play the game +out. He trusts you; if he sees you can't trust yourself, he'll shoot you +on sight. That don't frighten you? Well, perhaps this will then! He'll +SAY your religion is a sham and you a hypocrite--and everybody will +believe him. How do you like that, Brother Wayne? How will that help +the Church? Come! You're a pair of cranks together; but he's got the +whip-hand of you this time. All you can do is to keep up to his idea +of you. Put a bold face on it, and come here as often as you can--the +oftener the better; the sooner you'll both get sick of each other--and +of ME. That's what you're both after, ain't it? Well! I can tell you +now, you needn't either of you be the least afraid of me.” + +She walked away to the window again, not angrily, but smoothing down the +folds of her bright print dress as if she were wiping her hands of her +husband and his guest. Something like a very material and man-like sense +of shame struggled up through his crust of religion. He stammered, “You +don't understand me, Safie.” + +“Then talk of something I do understand,” she said pertly. “Tell me +some news of Angel's. Your brother was over there the other day. He +made himself quite popular with the young ladies--so I hear from Mrs. +Selvedge. You can tell me as we walk along the bank towards Sandy's +claim. It's just as well that you should move on now, as it's your FIRST +call, and next time you can stop longer.” She went to the corner of the +room, removed her smart slippers, and put on a pair of walking-shoes, +tying them, with her foot on a chair, in a quiet disregard of her +visitor's presence; took a brown holland sunbonnet from the wall, +clapped it over her browner hair and hanging braids, and tied it under +her chin with apparently no sense of coquetry in the act--becoming +though it was--and without glancing at him. Alas for Madison's ethics! +The torment of her worldly speech and youthful contempt was nothing to +this tacit ignoring of the manhood of her lover--this silent acceptance +of him as something even lower than her husband. He followed her with a +burning cheek and a curious revolting of his whole nature that it is to +be feared were scarcely Christian. The willows opened to let them pass +and closed behind them. + +An hour later Mrs. McGee returned to her leafy bower alone. She took off +her sunbonnet, hung it on its nail on the wall, shook down her braids, +took off her shoes, stained with the mud of her husband's claim, and put +on her slippers. Then she ascended to her eyrie in the little gallery, +and gazed smilingly across the sunlit Bar. The two gaunt shadows of +her husband and lover, linked like twins, were slowly passing along the +river bank on their way to the eclipsing obscurity of the cottonwoods. +Below her--almost at her very feet--the unconscious Arthur Wayne was +pushing his work on the river bed, far out to the promontory. The +sunlight fell upon his vivid scarlet shirt, his bared throat, and head +clustering with perspiring curls. The same sunlight fell upon Mrs. +McGee's brown head too, and apparently put a wicked fancy inside it. She +ran to her bedroom, and returned with a mirror from its wall, and, after +some trials in getting the right angle, sent a searching reflection upon +the spot where Arthur was at work. + +For an instant a diamond flash played around him. Then he lifted his +head and turned it curiously towards the crest above him. But the next +moment he clapped his hands over his dazzled but now smiling eyes, as +Mrs. McGee, secure in her leafy obscurity, fell back and laughed to +herself, like a very schoolgirl. + +It was three weeks later, and Madison Wayne was again sitting alone in +his cabin. This solitude had become of more frequent occurrence lately, +since Arthur had revolted and openly absented himself from his religious +devotions for lighter diversions of the Bar. Keenly as Madison felt his +defection, he was too much preoccupied with other things to lay much +stress upon it, and the sting of Arthur's relapse to worldliness and +folly lay in his own consciousness that it was partly his fault. He +could not chide his brother when he felt that his own heart was absorbed +in his neighbor's wife, and although he had rigidly adhered to his own +crude ideas of self-effacement and loyalty to McGee, he had been again +and again a visitor at his house. It was true that Mrs. McGee had +made this easier by tacitly accepting his conditions of their +acquaintanceship, by seeming more natural, by exhibiting a gayety, and +at times even a certain gentleness and thoughtfulness of conduct that +delighted her husband and astonished her lover. Whether this wonderful +change had really been effected by the latter's gloomy theology and +still more hopeless ethics, he could not say. She certainly showed no +disposition to imitate their formalities, nor seemed to be impressed by +them on the rare occasions when he now offered them. Yet she appeared to +link the two men together--even physically--as on these occasions when, +taking an arm of each, she walked affectionately between them along the +river bank promenade, to the great marveling and admiration of the Bar. +It was said, however, that Mr. Jack Hamlin, a gambler, at that moment +professionally visiting Wayne's Bar, and a great connoisseur of feminine +charms and weaknesses, had glanced at them under his handsome lashes, +and asked a single question, evidently so amusing to the younger members +of the Bar that Madison Wayne knit his brow and Arthur Wayne blushed. +Mr. Hamlin took no heed of the elder brother's frown, but paid some +slight attention to the color of the younger brother, and even more to +a slightly coquettish glance from the pretty Mrs. McGee. Whether or +not--as has been ingeniously alleged by some moralists--the light +and trifling of either sex are prone to recognize each other by some +mysterious instinct, is not a necessary consideration of this chronicle; +enough that the fact is recorded. + +And yet Madison Wayne should have been satisfied with his work! His +sacrifice was accepted; his happy issue from a dangerous situation, and +his happy triumph over a more dangerous temptation, was complete and +perfect, and even achieved according to his own gloomy theories of +redemption and regeneration. Yet he was not happy. The human heart is +at times strangely unappeasable. And as he sat that evening in the +gathering shadows, the Book which should have yielded him balm and +comfort lay unopened in his lap. + +A step upon the gravel outside had become too familiar to startle him. +It was Mr. McGee lounging into the cabin like a gaunt shadow. It must be +admitted that the friendship of these strangely contrasted men, however +sincere and sympathetic, was not cheerful. A belief in the thorough +wickedness of humanity, kept under only through fear of extreme penalty +and punishment, material and spiritual, was not conducive to light and +amusing conversation. Their talk was mainly a gloomy chronicle of life +at the Bar, which was in itself half an indictment. To-night, Mr. McGee +spoke of the advent of Mr. Jack Hamlin, and together they deplored the +diversion of the hard-earned gains and valuable time of the Bar through +the efforts of that ingenious gentleman. “Not,” added McGee cautiously, +“but what he can shoot straight enough, and I've heard tell that he +don't LIE. That mout and it moutn't be good for your brother who goes +around with him considerable, there's different ways of lookin' at +that; you understand what I mean? You follow me?” For all that, the +conversation seemed to languish this evening, partly through some +abstraction on the part of Wayne and partly some hesitation in McGee, +who appeared to have a greater fear than usual of not expressing himself +plainly. It was quite dark in the cabin when at last, detaching himself +from his usual lounging place, the door-post, he walked to the window +and leaned, more shadowy than ever, over Wayne's chair. “I want to +tell you suthin',” he said slowly, “that I don't want you to +misunderstand--you follow me? and that ain't no ways carpin' or +criticisin' nor reflectin' on YOU--you understand what I mean? Ever sens +you and me had that talk here about you and Safie, and ever sens I got +the hang of your ways and your style o' thinkin', I've been as sure +of you and her as if I'd been myself trottin' round with you and +a revolver. And I'm as sure of you now--you sabe what I mean? you +understand? You've done me and her a heap o' good; she's almost another +woman sens you took hold of her, and ef you ever want me to stand up +and 'testify,' as you call it, in church, Sandy McGee is ready. What +I'm tryin' to say to ye is this. Tho' I understand you and your work and +your ways--there's other folks ez moutn't--you follow? You understand +what I mean? And it's just that I'm coming to. Now las' night, when you +and Safie was meanderin' along the lower path by the water, and I kem +across you”-- + +“But,” interrupted Madison quickly, “you're mistaken. I wasn't”-- + +“Hol' on,” said McGee, quietly; “I know you got out o' the way without +you seein' me or me you, because you didn't know it was me, don't you +see? don't you follow? and that's just it! It mout have bin some one +from the Bar as seed you instead o' ME. See? That's why you lit out +before I could recognize you, and that's why poor Safie was so mighty +flustered at first and was for runnin' away until she kem to herself +agin. When, of course, she laughed, and agreed you must have mistook +me.” + +“But,” gasped Madison quickly, “I WASN'T THERE AT ALL LAST NIGHT.” + +“What?” + +The two men had risen simultaneously and were facing each other. McGee, +with a good-natured, half-critical expression, laid his hand on Wayne's +shoulder and slightly turned him towards the window, that he might see +his face. It seemed to him white and dazed. + +“You--wasn't there--last night?” he repeated, with a slow tolerance. + +Scarcely a moment elapsed, but the agony of an hour may have thrilled +through Wayne's consciousness before he spoke. Then all the blood of his +body rushed to his face with his first lie as he stammered, “No! Yes! Of +course. I have made a mistake--it WAS I.” + +“I see--you thought I was riled?” said McGee quietly. + +“No; I was thinking it was NIGHT BEFORE LAST! Of course it was last +night. I must be getting silly.” He essayed a laugh--rare at any +time with him--and so forced now that it affected McGee more than his +embarrassment. He looked at Wayne thoughtfully, and then said slowly: “I +reckon I did come upon you a little too sudden last night, but, you see, +I was thinkin' of suthin' else and disremembered you might be there. But +I wasn't mad--no! no! and I only spoke about it now that you might be +more keerful before folks. You follow me? You understand what I mean?” + +He turned and walked to the door, when he halted. “You follow me, don't +you? It ain't no cussedness o' mine, or want o' trustin', don't you see? +Mebbe I oughtened have spoken. I oughter remembered that times this +sort o' thing must be rather rough on you and her. You follow me? You +understand what I mean? Good-night.” + +He walked slowly down the path towards the river. Had Madison Wayne been +watching him, he would have noticed that his head was bent and his step +less free. But Madison Wayne was at that moment sitting rigidly in his +chair, nursing, with all the gloomy concentration of a monastic nature, +a single terrible suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Howbeit the sun shone cheerfully over the Bar the next morning and the +next; the breath of life and activity was in the air; the settlement +never had been more prosperous, and the yield from the opened placers +on the drained river-bed that week was enormous. The Brothers Wayne +were said to be “rolling in gold.” It was thought to be consistent with +Madison Wayne's nature that there was no trace of good fortune in his +face or manner--rather that he had become more nervous, restless, and +gloomy. This was attributed to the joylessness of avarice as contrasted +with the spendthrift gayety of the more liberal Arthur, and he was +feared and RESPECTED as a miser. His long, solitary walks around the +promontory, his incessant watchfulness, his reticence when questioned, +were all recognized as the indications of a man whose soul was absorbed +in money-getting. The reverence they failed to yield to his religious +isolation they were willing to freely accord to his financial +abstraction. But Mr. McGee was not so deceived. Overtaking him one +day under the fringe of willows, he characteristically chided him +with absenting himself from Mrs. McGee and her house since their last +interview. + +“I reckon you did not harbor malice in your Christianity,” he said; +“but it looks mighty like ez if ye was throwing off on Safie and me on +account of what I said.” + +In vain Madison gloomily and almost sternly protested. + +McGee looked him all over with his clear measuring eye, and for some +minutes was singularly silent. At last he said slowly: “I've been +thinkin' suthin' o' goin' down to 'Frisco, and I'd be a heap easier in +my mind ef you'd promise to look arter Safie now and then.” + +“You surely are not going to leave her here ALONE?” said Wayne roughly. + +“Why not?” + +For an instant Wayne hesitated. Then he burst out. “For a hundred +reasons! If she ever wanted your protection, before, she surely does +now. Do you suppose the Bar is any less heathen or more regenerated than +it was when you thought it necessary to guard her with your revolver? +Man! It is a hundred times worse than then! The new claims have +filled it with spying adventurers--with wolves like Hamlin and his +friends--idolaters who would set up Baal and Ashteroth here--and fill +your tents with the curses of Sodom!” + +Perhaps it was owing to the Scriptural phrasing, perhaps it was from +some unusual authority of the man's manner, but a look of approving +relief and admiration came into McGee's clear eyes. + +“And YOU'RE just the man to tackle 'em,” he said, clapping his hand on +Wayne's shoulder. “That's your gait--keep it up! But,” he added, in +a lower voice, “me and my revolver are played out.” There was a +strangeness in the tone that arrested Wayne's attention. “Yes,” + continued McGee, stroking his beard slowly, “men like me has their day, +and revolvers has theirs; the world turns round and the Bar fills up, +and this yer river changes its course--and it's all in the day's work. +You understand what I mean--you follow me? And if anything should happen +to me--not that it's like to; but it's in the way o' men--I want you +to look arter Safie. It ain't every woman ez has two men, ez like and +unlike, to guard her. You follow me--you understand what I mean, don't +you?” With these words he parted somewhat abruptly from Wayne, turning +into the steep path to the promontory crest and leaving his companion +lost in gloomy abstraction. The next day Alexander McGee had departed on +a business trip to San Francisco. + +In his present frame of mind, with his new responsibility and the +carrying out of a plan which he had vaguely conceived might remove the +terrible idea that had taken possession of him, Madison Wayne was even +relieved when his brother also announced his intention of going to +Angel's for a few days. + +For since his memorable interview with McGee he had been convinced that +Safie had been clandestinely visited by some one. Whether it was the +thoughtless and momentary indiscretion of a willful woman, or the sequel +to some deliberately planned intrigue, did not concern him so much as +the falsity of his own position, and the conniving lie by which he had +saved her and her lover. That at this crucial moment he had failed to +“testify” to guilt and wickedness; that he firmly believed--such is the +inordinate vanity of the religious zealot--that he had denied Him in his +effort to shield HER; and that he had broken faith with the husband who +had entrusted to him the custody of his wife's honor, seemed to him more +terrible than her faithlessness. In his first horror he had dreaded +to see her, lest her very confession--he knew her reckless frankness +towards himself--should reveal to him the extent of his complicity. But +since then, and during her husband's absence, he had convinced himself +that it was his duty to wrestle and strive with her weak spirit, to +implore her to reveal her new intrigue to her husband, and then he would +help her to sue for his forgiveness. It was a part of the inconsistency +of his religious convictions; in his human passion he was perfectly +unselfish, and had already forgiven her the offense against himself. He +would see her at once! + +But it happened to be a quiet, intense night, with the tremulous +opulence of a full moon that threw quivering shafts of light like summer +lightning over the blue river, and laid a wonderful carpet of intricate +lace along the path that wound through the willows to the crest. There +was the dry, stimulating dust and spice of heated pines from below; the +languorous odors of syringa; the faint, feminine smell of southernwood, +and the infinite mystery of silence. This silence was at times softly +broken with the tender inarticulate whisper of falling leaves, broken +sighs from the tree-tops, and the languid stretching of wakened and +unclasping boughs. Madison Wayne had not, alas! taken into account this +subtle conspiracy of Night and Nature, and as he climbed higher, his +steps began to falter with new and strange sensations. The rigidity +of purpose which had guided the hard religious convictions that always +sustained him, began to relax. A tender sympathy stole over him; a +loving mercy to himself as well as others stole into his heart. He +thought of HER as she had nestled at his side, hand in hand, upon the +moonlit veranda of her father's house, before his hard convictions had +chilled and affrighted her. He thought of her fresh simplicity, and what +had seemed to him her wonderful girlish beauty, and lo! in a quick turn +of the path he stood breathless and tremulous before the house. The +moonbeams lay tenderly upon the peaceful eaves; the long blossoms of the +Madeira vine seemed sleeping also. The pink flush of the Cherokee rose +in the unreal light had become chastely white. + +But he was evidently too late for an interview. The windows were blank +in the white light; only one--her bedroom--showed a light behind the +lowered muslin blind. Her draped shadow once or twice passed across it. +He was turning away with soft steps and even bated breath when suddenly +he stopped. The exaggerated but unmistakable shadow of a man stood +beside her on the blind. + +With a fierce leap as of a maniac, he was at the door, pounding, +rattling, and uttering hoarse and furious outcries. Even through his +fury he heard quickened footsteps--her light, reckless, half-hysterical +laugh--a bound upon the staircase--the hurried unbolting and opening of +distant doors, as the lighter one with which he was struggling at last +yielded to his blind rage, and threw him crashing into the sitting-room. +The back door was wide open. He could hear the rustling and crackling of +twigs and branches in different directions down the hillside, where the +fugitives had separated as they escaped. And yet he stood there for an +instant, dazed and wondering, “What next?” + +His eyes fell upon McGee's rifle standing upright in the corner. It was +a clean, beautiful, precise weapon, even to the unprofessional eye, +its long, laminated hexagonal barrel taking a tenderer blue in the +moonlight. He snatched it up. It was capped and loaded. Without a pause +he dashed down the hill. + +Only one thought was in his mind now--the crudest, simplest duty. He +was there in McGee's place; he should do what McGee would do. God had +abandoned him, but McGee's rifle remained. + +In a few minutes' downward plunging he had reached the river bank. The +tranquil silver surface quivered and glittered before him. He saw what +he knew he would see, the black target of a man's head above it, making +for the Bar. He took deliberate aim and fired. There was no echo to that +sharp detonation; a distant dog barked, there was a slight whisper +in the trees beside him, that was all! But the head of the man was no +longer visible, and the liquid silver filmed over again, without a speck +or stain. + +He shouldered the rifle, and with the automatic action of men in great +crises returned slowly and deliberately to the house and carefully +replaced the rifle in its old position. He had no concern for the +miserable woman who had fled; had she appeared before him at the moment, +he would not have noticed her. Yet a strange instinct--it seemed to him +the vaguest curiosity--made him ascend the stairs and enter her +chamber. The candle was still burning on the table with that awful +unconsciousness and simplicity of detail which makes the scene of real +tragedy so terrible. Beside it lay a belt and leather pouch. Madison +Wayne suddenly dashed forward and seized it, with a wild, inarticulate +cry; staggered, fell over the chair, rose to his feet, blindly groped +his way down the staircase, burst into the road, and, hugging the pouch +to his bosom, fled like a madman down the hill. + +***** + +The body of Arthur Wayne was picked up two days later a dozen miles down +the river. Nothing could be more evident and prosaic than the manner +in which he had met his fate. His body was only partly clothed, and +the money pouch and belt, which had been securely locked next his skin, +after the fashion of all miners, was gone. He was known to have left the +Bar with a considerable sum of money; he was undoubtedly dogged, robbed, +and murdered during his journey on the river bank by the desperadoes who +were beginning to infest the vicinity. The grief and agony of his only +brother, sole survivor of that fraternal and religious partnership so +well known to the camp, although shown only by a grim and speechless +melancholy,--broken by unintelligible outbursts of religious +raving,--was so real, that it affected even the callous camp. But +scarcely had it regained its feverish distraction, before it was +thrilled by another sensation. Alexander McGee had fallen from the deck +of a Sacramento steamboat in the Straits of Carquinez, and his body had +been swept out to sea. The news had apparently been first to reach the +ears of his devoted wife, for when the camp--at this lapse of the old +prohibition--climbed to her bower with their rude consolations, the +house was found locked and deserted. The fateful influence of the +promontory had again prevailed, the grim record of its seclusion was +once more unbroken. + +For with it, too, drooped and faded the fortunes of the Bar. Madison +Wayne sold out his claim, endowed the church at the Cross Roads with the +proceeds, and the pulpit with his grim, hopeless, denunciatory presence. +The first rains brought a freshet to the Bar. The river leaped the +light barriers that had taken the place of Wayne's peaceful engines, +and regained the old channel. The curse that the Rev. Madison Wayne had +launched on this riverside Sodom seemed to have been fulfilled. But even +this brought no satisfaction to the gloomy prophet, for it was presently +known that he had abandoned his terror-stricken flock to take the +circuit as revivalist preacher and camp-meeting exhorter, in the rudest +and most lawless of gatherings. Desperate ruffians writhed at his feet +in impotent terror or more impotent rage; murderers and thieves listened +to him with blanched faces and set teeth, restrained only by a more +awful fear. Over and over again he took his life with his Bible into his +own hands when he rose above the excited multitude; he was shot at, he +was rail-ridden, he was deported, but never silenced. And so, sweeping +over the country, carrying fear and frenzy with him, scouting life and +mercy, and crushing alike the guilty and innocent, he came one Sabbath +to a rocky crest of the Sierras--the last tattered and frayed and soiled +fringe of civilization on the opened tract of a great highway. And here +he was to “testify,” as was his wont. + +But not as he expected. For as he stood up on a boulder above the thirty +or forty men sitting or lying upon other rocks and boulders around him, +on the craggy mountain shelf where they had gathered, a man also rose, +elbowed past them, and with a hurried impulse tried to descend +the declivity. But a cry was suddenly heard from others, quick and +clamoring, which called the whole assembly to its feet, and it was seen +that the fugitive had in some blundering way fallen from the precipice. + +He was brought up cruelly maimed and mangled, his ribs crushed, and one +lung perforated, but still breathing and conscious. He had asked to see +the preacher. Death impending, and even then struggling with his breath, +made this request imperative. Madison Wayne stopped the service, and +stalked grimly and inflexibly to where the dying man lay. But there he +started. + +“McGee!” he said breathlessly. + +“Send these men away,” said McGee faintly. “I've got suthin' to tell +you.” + +The men drew back without a word. “You thought I was dead,” said McGee, +with eyes still undimmed and marvelously clear. “I orter bin, but it +don't need no doctor to say it ain't far off now. I left the Bar to get +killed; I tried to in a row, but the fellows were skeert to close with +me, thinkin' I'd shoot. My reputation was agin me, there! You follow me? +You understand what I mean?” + +Kneeling beside him now and grasping both his hands, the changed and +horror-stricken Wayne gasped, “But”-- + +“Hold on! I jumped off the Sacramento boat--I was goin' down the third +time--they thought on the boat I was gone--they think so now! But a +passin' fisherman dived for me. I grappled him--he was clear grit and +would have gone down with me, but I couldn't let him die too--havin' so +to speak no cause. You follow me--you understand me? I let him save me. +But it was all the same, for when I got to 'Frisco I read as how I was +drowned. And then I reckoned it was all right, and I wandered HERE, +where I wasn't known--until I saw you.” + +“But why should you want to die?” said Wayne, almost fiercely. “What +right have you to die while others--double-dyed and blood-stained, are +condemned to live, 'testify,' and suffer?” + +The dying man feebly waved a deprecation with his maimed hand, and even +smiled faintly. “I knew you'd say that. I knew what you'd think about +it, but it's all the same now. I did it for you and Safie! I knew I was +in the way; I knew you was the man she orter had; I knew you was the man +who had dragged her outer the mire and clay where I was leavin' her, as +you did when she fell in the water. I knew that every day I lived I was +makin' YOU suffer and breakin' HER heart--for all she tried to be gentle +and gay.” + +“Great God in heaven! Will you stop!” said Wayne, springing to his feet +in agony. A frightened look--the first that any one had ever seen in +the clear eyes of the Bell-ringer of Angel's--passed over them, and he +murmured tremulously: “All right--I'm stoppin'!” + +So, too, was his heart, for the wonderful eyes were now slowly glazing. +Yet he rallied once more--coming up again the third time as it seemed +to Wayne--and his lips moved slowly. The preacher threw himself +despairingly on the ground beside him. + +“Speak, brother! For God's sake, speak!” + +It was his last whisper--so faint it might have been the first of his +freed soul. But he only said:-- + +“You're--followin'--me? You--understand--what--I--mean?” + + + + +JOHNNYBOY. + + +The vast dining-room of the Crustacean Hotel at Greyport, U. S., was +empty and desolate. It was so early in the morning that there was a +bedroom deshabille in the tucked-up skirts and bare legs of the +little oval breakfast-tables as they had just been left by the dusting +servants. The most stirring of travelers was yet abed, the most +enterprising of first-train catchers had not yet come down; there was +a breath of midsummer sleep still in the air; through the half-opened +windows that seemed to be yawning, the pinkish blue Atlantic beyond +heaved gently and slumberously, and drowsy early bathers crept into it +as to bed. Yet as I entered the room I saw that one of the little +tables in the corner was in reality occupied by a very small and very +extraordinary child. Seated in a high chair, attended by a dreamily +abstracted nurse on one side, an utterly perfunctory negro waiter on the +other, and an incongruous assortment of disregarded viands before +him, he was taking--or, rather, declining--his solitary breakfast. He +appeared to be a pale, frail, but rather pretty boy, with a singularly +pathetic combination of infant delicacy of outline and maturity of +expression. His heavily fringed eyes expressed an already weary and +discontented intelligence, and his willful, resolute little mouth was, I +fancied, marked with lines of pain at either corner. He struck me as not +only being physically dyspeptic, but as morally loathing his attendants +and surroundings. + +My entrance did not disturb the waiter, with whom I had no financial +relations; he simply concealed an exaggerated yawn professionally behind +his napkin until my own servitor should appear. The nurse slightly awoke +from her abstraction, shoved the child mechanically,--as if starting +up some clogged machinery,--said, “Eat your breakfast, Johnnyboy,” and +subsided into her dream. I think the child had at first some faint hope +of me, and when my waiter appeared with my breakfast he betrayed some +interest in my selection, with a view of possible later appropriation, +but, as my repast was simple, that hope died out of his infant mind. +Then there was a silence, broken at last by the languid voice of the +nurse:-- + +“Try some milk then--nice milk.” + +“No! No mik! Mik makes me sick--mik does!” + +In spite of the hurried infantine accent the protest was so emphatic, +and, above all, fraught with such pent-up reproach and disgust, that I +turned about sympathetically. But Johnnyboy had already thrown down his +spoon, slipped from his high chair, and was marching out of the room as +fast as his little sandals would carry him, with indignation bristling +in every line of the crisp bows of his sash. + +I, however, gathered from Mr. Johnson, my waiter, that the unfortunate +child owned a fashionable father and mother, one or two blocks of +houses in New York, and a villa at Greyport, which he consistently and +intelligently despised. That he had imperiously brought his parents +here on account of his health, and had demanded that he should breakfast +alone in the big dining-room. That, however, he was not happy. “Nuffin +peahs to agree wid him, Sah, but he doan' cry, and he speaks his mind, +Sah; he speaks his mind.” + +Unfortunately, I did not keep Johnnyboy's secret, but related the scene +I had witnessed to some of the lighter-hearted Crustaceans of either +sex, with the result that his alliterative protest became a sort of +catchword among them, and that for the next few mornings he had a large +audience of early breakfasters, who fondly hoped for a repetition of +his performance. I think that Johnnyboy for the time enjoyed +this companionship, yet without the least affectation or +self-consciousness--so long as it was unobtrusive. It so chanced, +however, that the Rev. Mr. Belcher, a gentleman with bovine lightness +of touch, and a singular misunderstanding of childhood, chose to +presume upon his paternal functions. Approaching the high chair in which +Johnnyboy was dyspeptically reflecting, with a ponderous wink at the +other guests, and a fat thumb and forefinger on Johnnyboy's table, he +leaned over him, and with slow, elephantine playfulness said:-- + +“And so, my dear young friend, I understand that 'mik makes you +sick--mik does.'” + +Anything approaching to the absolute likeness of this imitation of +Johnnyboy's accents it is impossible to conceive. Possibly Johnnyboy +felt it. But he simply lifted his lovely lashes, and said with great +distinctness:-- + +“Mik don't--you devil!” + +After this, closely as it had knitted us together, Johnnyboy's morning +presence was mysteriously withdrawn. It was later pointed out to us by +Mr. Belcher, upon the veranda, that, although Wealth had its privileges, +it was held in trust for the welfare of Mankind, and that the children +of the Rich could not too early learn the advantages of Self-restraint +and the vanity of a mere gratification of the Senses. Early and frequent +morning ablutions, brisk morning toweling, half of a Graham biscuit in +a teacup of milk, exercise with the dumb-bells, and a little +rough-and-tumble play in a straw hat, check apron, and overalls would +eventually improve that stamina necessary for his future Position, and +repress a dangerous cerebral activity and tendency to give way to--He +suddenly stopped, coughed, and absolutely looked embarrassed. Johnnyboy, +a moving cloud of white pique, silk, and embroidery, had just turned +the corner of the veranda. He did not speak, but as he passed raised +his blue-veined lids to the orator. The look of ineffable scorn and +superiority in those beautiful eyes surpassed anything I had ever seen. +At the next veranda column he paused, and, with his baby thumbs inserted +in his silk sash, again regarded him under his half-dropped lashes as +if he were some curious animal, and then passed on. But Belcher was +silenced for the second time. + +I think I have said enough to show that Johnnyboy was hopelessly +worshiped by an impressible and illogical sex. I say HOPELESSLY, for +he slipped equally from the proudest silken lap and the humblest one +of calico, and carried his eyelashes and small aches elsewhere. I think +that a secret fear of his alarming frankness, and his steady rejection +of the various tempting cates they offered him, had much to do with +their passion. “It won't hurt you, dear,” said Miss Circe, “and it's so +awfully nice. See!” she continued, putting one of the delicacies in +her own pretty mouth with every assumption of delight. “It's SO good!” + Johnnyboy rested his elbows on her knees, and watched her with a grieved +and commiserating superiority. “Bimeby, you'll have pains in youse +tommick, and you'll be tookt to bed,” he said sadly, “and then +you'll--have to dit up and”--But as it was found necessary here to +repress further details, he escaped other temptation. + +Two hours later, as Miss Circe was seated in the drawing-room with her +usual circle of enthusiastic admirers around her, Johnnyboy--who was +issued from his room for circulation, two or three times a day, as a +genteel advertisement of his parents--floated into the apartment in a +new dress and a serious demeanor. Sidling up to Miss Circe he laid a +phial--evidently his own pet medicine--on her lap, said, “For youse +tommikake to-night,” and vanished. Yet I have reason to believe that +this slight evidence of unusual remembrance on Johnnyboy's part more +than compensated for its publicity, and for a few days Miss Circe was +quite “set up” by it. + +It was through some sympathy of this kind that I first gained +Johnnyboy's good graces. I had been presented with a small pocket case +of homoeopathic medicines, and one day on the beach I took out one of +the tiny phials and, dropping two or three of the still tinier pellets +in my hand, swallowed them. To my embarrassment, a small hand presently +grasped my trouser-leg. I looked down; it was Johnnyboy, in a new and +ravishing smuggler suit, with his questioning eyes fixed on mine. + +“Howjer do dat?” + +“Eh?” + +“Wajer do dat for?” + +“That?--Oh, that's medicine. I've got a headache.” + +He searched the inmost depths of my soul with his wonderful eyes. Then, +after a pause, he held out his baby palm. + +“You kin give Johnny some.” + +“But you haven't got headache--have you?” + +“Me alluz has.” + +“Not ALWAYS.” + +He nodded his head rapidly. Then added slowly, and with great +elaboration, “Et mo'nins, et affernoons, et nights, 'nd mo'nins adain. +'N et becker” (i. e., breakfast). + +There was no doubt it was the truth. Those eyes did not seem to be in +the habit of lying. After all, the medicine could not hurt him. His +nurse was at a little distance gazing absently at the sea. I sat down +on a bench, and dropped a few of the pellets into his palm. He ate +them seriously, and then turned around and backed--after the well-known +appealing fashion of childhood--against my knees. I understood the +movement--although it was unlike my idea of Johnnyboy. However, I +raised him to my lap--with the sensation of lifting a dozen lace-edged +handkerchiefs, and with very little more effort--where he sat silently +for a moment, with his sandals crossed pensively before him. + +“Wouldn't you like to go and play with those children?” I asked, +pointing to a group of noisy sand levelers not far away. + +“No!” After a pause, “You wouldn't neither.” + +“Why?” + +“Hediks.” + +“But,” I said, “perhaps if you went and played with them and ran up and +down as they do, you wouldn't have headache.” + +Johnnyboy did not answer for a moment; then there was a perceptible +gentle movement of his small frame. I confess I felt brutally like +Belcher. He was getting down. + +Once down he faced me, lifted his frank eyes, said, “Do way and play +den,” smoothed down his smuggler frock, and rejoined his nurse. + +But although Johnnyboy afterwards forgave my moral defection, he did not +seem to have forgotten my practical medical ministration, and our brief +interview had a surprising result. From that moment he confounded his +parents and doctors by resolutely and positively refusing to take any +more of their pills, tonics, or drops. Whether from a sense of +loyalty to me, or whether he was not yet convinced of the efficacy of +homoeopathy, he did not suggest a substitute, declare his preferences, +or even give his reasons, but firmly and peremptorily declined his +present treatment. And, to everybody's astonishment, he did not seem a +bit the worse for it. + +Still he was not strong, and his continual aversion to childish sports +and youthful exercise provoked the easy criticism of that large part +of humanity who are ready to confound cause and effect, and such brief +moments as the Sluysdaels could spare him from their fashionable duties +were made miserable to them by gratuitous suggestions and plans for +their child's improvement. It was noticeable, however, that few of them +were ever offered to Johnnyboy personally. He had a singularly direct +way of dealing with them, and a precision of statement that was +embarrassing. + +One afternoon, Jack Bracy drove up to the veranda of the Crustacean +with a smart buggy and spirited thoroughbred for Miss Circe's especial +driving, and his own saddle-horse on which he was to accompany her. +Jack had dismounted, a groom held his saddle-horse until the young lady +should appear, and he himself stood at the head of the thoroughbred. As +Johnnyboy, leaning against the railing, was regarding the turnout +with ill-concealed disdain, Jack, in the pride of his triumph over his +rivals, good-humoredly offered to put him in the buggy, and allow him to +take the reins. Johnnyboy did not reply. + +“Come along!” continued Jack, “it will do you a heap of good! It's +better than lazing there like a girl! Rouse up, old man!” + +“Me don't like that geegee,” said Johnnyboy calmly. “He's a silly fool.” + +“You're afraid,” said Jack. + +Johnnyboy lifted his proud lashes, and toddled to the steps. Jack +received him in his arms, swung him into the seat, and placed the slim +yellow reins in his baby hands. + +“Now you feel like a man, and not like a girl!” said Jack. “Eh, what? +Oh, I beg your pardon.” + +For Miss Circe had appeared--had absolutely been obliged to wait a +whole half-minute unobserved--and now stood there a dazzling but pouting +apparition. In eagerly turning to receive her, Jack's foot slipped on +the step, and he fell. The thoroughbred started, gave a sickening plunge +forward, and was off! But so, too, was Jack, the next moment, on his own +horse, and before Miss Circe's screams had died away. + +For two blocks on Ocean Avenue, passersby that afternoon saw a strange +vision. A galloping horse careering before a light buggy, in which a +small child, seated upright, was grasping the tightened reins. But so +erect and composed was the little face and figure--albeit as white +as its own frock--that for an instant they did not grasp its awful +significance. Those further along, however, read the whole awful story +in the drawn face and blazing eyes of Jack Bracy as he, at last, swung +into the Avenue. For Jack had the brains as well as the nerve of your +true hero, and, knowing the dangerous stimulus of a stern chase to +a frightened horse, had kept a side road until it branched into the +Avenue. So furious had been his pace, and so correct his calculation, +that he ranged alongside of the runaway even as it passed, grasped the +reins, and, in half a block, pulled up on even wheels. + +“I never saw such pluck in a mite like that,” he whispered afterwards to +his anxious auditory. “He never dropped those ribbons, by G--, until I +got alongside, and then he just hopped down and said, as short and cool +as you please, 'Dank you!'” + +“Me didn't,” uttered a small voice reproachfully. + +“Didn't you, dear! What DID you say then, darling?” exclaimed a +sympathizing chorus. + +“Me said: 'Damn you!' Me don't like silly fool geegees. Silly fool +geegees make me sick--silly fool geegees do!” + +Nevertheless, in spite of this incident, the attempts at Johnnyboy's +physical reformation still went on. More than that, it was argued by +some complacent casuists that the pluck displayed by the child was the +actual result of this somewhat heroic method of taking exercise, and NOT +an inherent manliness distinct from his physical tastes. So he was made +to run when he didn't want to--to dance when he frankly loathed his +partners--to play at games that he despised. His books and pictures were +taken away; he was hurried past hoardings and theatrical posters that +engaged his fancy; the public was warned against telling him fairy +tales, except those constructed on strictly hygienic principles. +His fastidious cleanliness was rebuked, and his best frocks taken +away--albeit at a terrible sacrifice of his parents' vanity--to suit +the theories of his critics. How long this might have continued is not +known--for the theory and practice were suddenly arrested by another +sensation. + +One morning a children's picnic party was given on a rocky point only +accessible at certain states of the tide, whither they were taken in a +small boat under the charge of a few hotel servants, and, possibly as +part of his heroic treatment, Johnnyboy, who was included in the party, +was not allowed to be attended by his regular nurse. + +Whether this circumstance added to his general disgust of the whole +affair, and his unwillingness to go, I cannot say, but it is to be +regretted, since the omission deprived Johnnyboy of any impartial +witness to what subsequently occurred. That he was somewhat roughly +handled by several of the larger children appeared to be beyond doubt, +although there was conflicting evidence as to the sequel. Enough that +at noon screams were heard in the direction of certain detached rocks +on the point, and the whole party proceeding thither found three of the +larger boys on the rocks, alone and cut off by the tide, having been +left there, as they alleged, by Johnnyboy, WHO HAD RUN AWAY WITH THE +BOAT. They subsequently admitted that THEY had first taken the boat and +brought Johnnyboy with them, “just to frighten him,” but they adhered to +the rest. And certainly Johnnyboy and the boat were nowhere to be found. +The shore was communicated with, the alarm was given, the telegraph, +up and down the coast trilled with excitement, other boats were +manned--consternation prevailed. + +But that afternoon the captain of the “Saucy Jane,” mackerel fisher, +lying off the point, perceived a derelict “Whitehall” boat drifting +lazily towards the Gulf Stream. On boarding it he was chagrined to find +the expected flotsam already in the possession of a very small child, +who received him with a scornful reticence as regarded himself and his +intentions, and some objurgation of a person or persons unknown. It was +Johnnyboy. But whether he had attempted the destruction of the three +other boys by “marooning” them upon the rocks--as their parents firmly +believed--or whether he had himself withdrawn from their company simply +because he did not like them, was never known. Any further attempt to +improve his education by the roughing gregarious process was, however, +abandoned. The very critics who had counseled it now clamored for +restraint and perfect isolation. It was ably pointed out by the Rev. +Mr. Belcher that the autocratic habits begotten by wealth and pampering +should be restricted, and all intercourse with their possessor promptly +withheld. + +But the season presently passed with much of this and other criticism, +and the Sluysdaels passed too, carrying Johnnyboy and his small aches +and long eyelashes beyond these Crustacean voices, where it was to be +hoped there was peace. I did not hear of him again for five years, +and then, oddly enough, from the lips of Mr. Belcher on the deck of +a transatlantic steamer, as he was being wafted to Europe for his +recreation by the prayers and purses of a grateful and enduring flock. +“Master John Jacob Astor Sluysdael,” said Mr. Belcher, speaking +slowly, with great precision of retrospect, “was taken from his private +governess--I may say by my advice--and sent to an admirable school in +New York, fashioned upon the English system of Eton and Harrow, and +conducted by English masters from Oxford and Cambridge. Here--I may +also say at my suggestion--he was subjected to the wholesome discipline +equally of his schoolmates and his masters; in fact, sir, as you are +probably aware, the most perfect democracy that we have yet known, +in which the mere accidents of wealth, position, luxury, effeminacy, +physical degeneration, and over-civilized stimulation, are not +recognized. He was put into compulsory cricket, football, and rounders. +As an undersized boy he was subjected to that ingenious preparation for +future mastership by the pupillary state of servitude known, I think, +as 'fagging.' His physical inertia was stimulated and quickened, and his +intellectual precocity repressed, from time to time, by the exuberant +playfulness of his fellow-students, which occasionally took the form +of forced ablutions and corporal discomfort, and was called, I am +told, 'hazing.' It is but fair to state that our young friend had some +singular mental endowments, which, however, were promptly checked to +repress the vanity and presumption that would follow.” The Rev. Mr. +Belcher paused, closed his eyes resignedly, and added, “Of course, you +know the rest.” + +“Indeed, I do not,” I said anxiously. + +“A most deplorable affair--indeed, a most shocking incident! It was +hushed up, I believe, on account of the position of his parents.” He +glanced furtively around, and in a lower and more impressive voice said, +“I am not myself a believer in heredity, and I am not personally aware +that there was a MURDERER among the Sluysdael ancestry, but it seems +that this monstrous child, in some clandestine way, possessed himself of +a huge bowie-knife, sir, and on one of those occasions actually rushed +furiously at the larger boys--his innocent play-fellows--and absolutely +forced them to flee in fear of their lives. More than that, sir, a +LOADED REVOLVER was found in his desk, and he boldly and shamelessly +avowed his intention to eviscerate, or--to use his own revolting +language--'to cut the heart out' of the first one who again 'laid a +finger on him.'” He paused again, and, joining his two hands together +with the fingers pointing to the deck, breathed hard and said, “His +instantaneous withdrawal from the school was a matter of public +necessity. He was afterwards taken, in the charge of a private tutor, to +Europe, where, I trust, we shall NOT meet.” + +I could not resist saying cheerfully that, at least, Johnnyboy had for a +short time made it lively for the big boys. + +The Rev. Mr. Belcher rose slowly, but painfully, said with a deeply +grieved expression, “I don't think that I entirely follow you,” and +moved gently away. + +The changes of youth are apt to be more bewildering than those of age, +and a decade scarcely perceptible in an old civilization often means +utter revolution to the new. It did not seem strange to me, therefore, +on meeting Jack Bracy twelve years after, to find that he had forgotten +Miss Circe, or that SHE had married, and was living unhappily with a +middle-aged adventurer by the name of Jason, who was reputed to have had +domestic relations elsewhere. But although subjugated and exorcised, +she at least was reminiscent. To my inquiries about the Sluysdaels, she +answered with a slight return of her old vivacity:-- + +“Ah, yes, dear fellow, he was one of my greatest admirers.” + +“He was about four years old when you knew him, wasn't he?” suggested +Jason meanly. “Yes, they usually WERE young, but so kind of you to +recollect them. Young Sluysdael,” he continued, turning to me, “is--but +of course you know that disgraceful story.” + +I felt that I could stand this no longer. “Yes,” I said indignantly, +“I know all about the school, and I don't call his conduct disgraceful +either.” + +Jason stared. “I don't know what you mean about the school,” he +returned. “I am speaking of his stepfather.” + +“His STEPFATHER!” + +“Yes; his father, Van Buren Sluysdael, died, you know--a year after they +left Greyport. The widow was left all the money in trust for Johnny, +except about twenty-five hundred a year which he was in receipt of as a +separate income, even as a boy. Well, a glib-tongued parson, a fellow by +the name of Belcher, got round the widow--she was a desperate fool--and, +by Jove! made her marry him. He made ducks and drakes of not only her +money, but Johnny's too, and had to skip to Spain to avoid the trustees. +And Johnny--for the Sluysdaels are all fools or lunatics--made over his +whole separate income to that wretched, fashionable fool of a mother, +and went into a stockbroker's office as a clerk.” + +“And walks to business before eight every morning, and they say even +takes down the shutters and sweeps out,” broke in Circe impulsively. +“Works like a slave all day, wears out his old clothes, has given up his +clubs and amusements, and shuns society.” + +“But how about his health?” I asked. “Is he better and stronger?” + +“I don't know,” said Circe, “but he LOOKS as beautiful as Endymion.” + +***** + +At his bank, in Wall Street, Bracy that afternoon confirmed all that +Jason had told me of young Sluysdael. “But his temper?” I asked. “You +remember his temper--surely.” + +“He's as sweet as a lamb, never quarrels, never whines, never alludes to +his lost fortune, and is never put out. For a youngster, he's the most +popular man in the street. Shall we nip round and see him?” + +“By all means.” + +“Come. It isn't far.” + +A few steps down the crowded street we dived into a den of plate-glass +windows, of scraps of paper, of rattling, ticking machines, more voluble +and excited than the careworn, abstracted men who leaned over them. But +“Johnnyboy”--I started at the familiar name again--was not there. He was +at luncheon. + +“Let us join him,” I said, as we gained the street again and turned +mechanically into Delmonico's. + +“Not there,” said Bracy with a laugh. “You forget! That's not +Johnnyboy's gait just now. Come here.” He was descending a few steps +that led to a humble cake-shop. As we entered I noticed a young fellow +standing before the plain wooden counter with a cake of gingerbread in +one hand and a glass of milk in the other. His profile was before me; +I at once recognized the long lashes. But the happy, boyish, careless +laugh that greeted Bracy, as he presented me, was a revelation. + +Yet he was pleased to remember me. And then--it may have been +embarrassment that led me to such tactlessness, but as I glanced at him +and the glass of milk he was holding, I could not help reminding him of +the first words I had ever heard him utter. + +He tossed off the glass, colored slightly, as I thought, and said with a +light laugh:-- + +“I suppose I have changed a good deal since then, sir.” + +I looked at his demure and resolute mouth, and wondered if he had. + + + + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY. + + +The good American barque Skyscraper was swinging at her moorings in +the Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But that good American +barque--although owned in Baltimore--had not a plank of American timber +in her hulk, nor a native American in her crew, and even her nautical +“goodness” had been called into serious question by divers of that +crew during her voyage, and answered more or less inconclusively +with belaying-pins, marlin-spikes, and ropes' ends at the hands of an +Irish-American captain and a Dutch and Danish mate. So much so, that +the mysterious powers of the American consul at St. Kentigern had been +evoked to punish mutiny on the one hand, and battery and starvation +on the other; both equally attested by manifestly false witness and +subornation on each side. In the exercise of his functions the consul +had opened and shut some jail doors, and otherwise effected the usual +sullen and deceitful compromise, and his flag was now flying, on a final +visit, from the stern sheets of a smart boat alongside. It was with a +feeling of relief at the end of the interview that he at last lifted his +head above an atmosphere of perjury and bilge-water and came on deck. +The sun and wind were ruffling and glinting on the broadening river +beyond the “measured mile”; a few gulls were wavering and dipping near +the lee scuppers, and the sound of Sabbath bells, mellowed by a distance +that secured immunity of conscience, came peacefully to his ear. + +“Now that job's over ye'll be takin' a partin' dhrink,” suggested the +captain. + +The consul thought not. Certain incidents of “the job” were fresh in his +memory, and he proposed to limit himself to his strict duty. + +“You have some passengers, I see,” he said, pointing to a group of two +men and a young girl, who had apparently just come aboard. + +“Only wan; an engineer going out to Rio. Them's just his friends seein' +him off, I'm thinkin',” returned the captain, surveying them somewhat +contemptuously. + +The consul was a little disturbed. He wondered if the passenger knew +anything of the quality and reputation of the ship to which he was +entrusting his fortunes. But he was only a PASSENGER, and the consul's +functions--like those of the aloft-sitting cherub of nautical song--were +restricted exclusively to looking after “Poor Jack.” However, he asked a +few further questions, eliciting the fact that the stranger had already +visited the ship with letters from the eminently respectable consignees +at St. Kentigern, and contented himself with lingering near them. The +young girl was accompanied by her father, a respectably rigid-looking +middle-class tradesman, who, however, seemed to be more interested in +the novelty of his surroundings than in the movements of his daughter +and their departing friend. So it chanced that the consul re-entered +the cabin--ostensibly in search of a missing glove, but really with the +intention of seeing how the passenger was bestowed--just behind them. +But to his great embarrassment he at once perceived that, owing to the +obscurity of the apartment, they had not noticed him, and before he +could withdraw, the man had passed his arm around the young girl's half +stiffened, yet half yielding figure. + +“Only one, Ailsa,” he pleaded in a slow, serious voice, pathetic from +the very absence of any youthful passion in it; “just one now. It'll be +gey lang before we meet again. Ye'll not refuse me now.” + +The young girl's lips seemed to murmur some protest that, however, was +lost in the beginning of a long and silent kiss. + +The consul slipped out softly. His smile had died away. That +unlooked-for touch of human weakness seemed to purify the stuffy and +evil-reeking cabin, and the recollection of its brutal past to drop with +a deck-load of iniquity behind him to the bottom of the Clyde. It is +to be feared that in his unofficial moments he was inclined to be +sentimental, and it seemed to him that the good ship Skyscraper +henceforward carried an innocent freight not mentioned in her manifest, +and that a gentle, ever-smiling figure, not entered on her books, had +invisibly taken a place at her wheel. + +But he was recalled to himself by a slight altercation on deck. The +young girl and the passenger had just returned from the cabin. The +consul, after a discreetly careless pause, had lifted his eyes to the +young girl's face, and saw that it was singularly pretty in color and +outline, but perfectly self-composed and serenely unconscious. And he +was a little troubled to observe that the passenger was a middle-aged +man, whose hard features were already considerably worn with trial and +experience. + +Both he and the girl were listening with sympathizing but cautious +interest to her father's contention with the boatman who had brought +them from shore, and who was now inclined to demand an extra fee for +returning with them. The boatman alleged that he had been detained +beyond “kirk time,” and that this imperiling of his salvation could +only be compensated by another shilling. To the consul's surprise, +this extraordinary argument was recognized by the father, who, however, +contented himself by simply contending that it had not been stipulated +in the bargain. The issue was, therefore, limited, and the discussion +progressed slowly and deliberately, with a certain calm dignity and +argumentative satisfaction on both sides that exalted the subject, +though it irritated the captain. + +“If ye accept the premisses that I've just laid down, that it's a +contract”---began the boatman. + +“Dry up! and haul off,” said the captain. + +“One moment,” interposed the consul, with a rapid glance at the slight +trouble in the young girl's face. Turning to the father, he went on: +“Will you allow me to offer you and your daughter a seat in my boat?” + +It was an unlooked-for and tempting proposal. The boatman was lazily +lying on his oars, secure in self-righteousness and the conscious +possession of the only available boat to shore; on the other hand, the +smart gig of the consul, with its four oars, was not only a providential +escape from a difficulty, but even to some extent a quasi-official +endorsement of his contention. Yet he hesitated. + +“It'll be costin' ye no more?” he said interrogatively, glancing at the +consul's boat crew, “or ye'll be askin' me a fair proportion.” + +“It will be the gentleman's own boat,” said the girl, with a certain shy +assurance, “and he'll be paying his boatmen by the day.” + +The consul hastened to explain that their passage would involve no +additional expense to anybody, and added, tactfully, that he was glad to +enable them to oppose extortion. + +“Ay, but it's a preencipel,” said the father proudly, “and I'm pleased, +sir, to see ye recognize it.” + +He proceeded to help his daughter into the boat without any further +leave-taking of the passenger, to the consul's great surprise, and with +only a parting nod from the young girl. It was as if this momentous +incident were a sufficient reason for the absence of any further trivial +sentiment. + +Unfortunately the father chose to add an exordium for the benefit of the +astonished boatsman still lying on his oars. + +“Let this be a lesson to ye, ma frien', when ye're ower sure! Ye'll +ne'er say a herrin' is dry until it be reestit an' reekit.” + +“Ay,” said the boatman, with a lazy, significant glance at the consul, +“it wull be a lesson to me not to trust to a lassie's GANGIN' jo, when +thair's anither yin comin'.” + +“Give way,” said the consul sharply. + +Yet his was the only irritated face in the boat as the men bent over +their oars. The young girl and her father looked placidly at the +receding ship, and waved their hands to the grave, resigned face over +the taffrail. The consul examined them more attentively. The father's +face showed intelligence and a certain probity in its otherwise +commonplace features. The young girl had more distinction, with, +perhaps, more delicacy of outline than of texture. Her hair was dark, +with a burnished copper tint at its roots, and eyes that had the same +burnished metallic lustre in their brown pupils. Both sat respectfully +erect, as if anxious to record the fact that the boat was not their +own to take their ease in; and both were silently reserved, answering +briefly to the consul's remarks as if to indicate the formality of +their presence there. But a distant railway whistle startled them into +emotion. + +“We've lost the train, father!” said the young girl. + +The consul followed the direction of her anxious eyes; the train was +just quitting the station at Bannock. + +“If ye had not lingered below with Jamie, we'd have been away in time, +ay, and in our own boat,” said the father, with marked severity. + +The consul glanced quickly at the girl. But her face betrayed no +consciousness, except of their present disappointment. + +“There's an excursion boat coming round the Point,” he said, pointing +to the black smoke trail of a steamer at the entrance of a loch, “and it +will be returning to St. Kentigern shortly. If you like, we'll pull over +and put you aboard.” + +“Eh! but it's the Sabbath-breaker!” said the old man harshly. + +The consul suddenly remembered that that was the name which the +righteous St. Kentigerners had given to the solitary bold, bad +pleasure-boat that defied their Sabbatical observances. + +“Perhaps you won't find very pleasant company on board,” said the consul +smiling; “but, then, you're not seeking THAT. And as you would be only +using the boat to get back to your home, and not for Sunday recreation, +I don't think your conscience should trouble you.” + +“Ay, that's a fine argument, Mr. Consul, but I'm thinkin' it's none the +less sopheestry for a' that,” said the father grimly. “No; if ye'll just +land us yonder at Bannock pier, we'll be ay thankin' ye the same.” + +“But what will you do there? There's no other train to-day.” + +“Ay, we'll walk on a bit.” + +The consul was silent. After a pause the young girl lifted her clear +eyes, and with a half pathetic, half childish politeness, said: “We'll +be doing very well--my father and me. You're far too kind.” + +Nothing further was said as they began to thread their way between a +few large ships and an ocean steamer at anchor, from whose decks a few +Sunday-clothed mariners gazed down admiringly on the smart gig and the +pretty girl in a Tam o' Shanter in its stern sheets. But here a new +idea struck the consul. A cable's length ahead lay a yacht, owned by an +American friend, and at her stern a steam launch swung to its painter. +Without intimating his intention to his passengers he steered for it. +“Bow!--way enough,” he called out as the boat glided under the yacht's +counter, and, grasping the companion-ladder ropes, he leaped aboard. In +a few hurried words he explained the situation to Mr. Robert Gray, her +owner, and suggested that he should send the belated passengers to St. +Kentigern by the launch. Gray assented with the easy good-nature of +youth, wealth, and indolence, and lounged from his cabin to the side. +The consul followed. Looking down upon the boat he could not help +observing that his fair young passenger, sitting in her demure stillness +at her father's side, made a very pretty picture. It was possible that +“Bob Gray” had made the same observation, for he presently swung himself +over the gangway into the gig, hat in hand. The launch could easily take +them; in fact, he added unblushingly, it was even then getting up steam +to go to St. Kentigern. Would they kindly come on board until it was +ready? At an added word or two of explanation from the consul, the +father accepted, preserving the same formal pride and stiffness, and the +transfer was made. The consul, looking back as his gig swept round again +towards Bannock pier, received their parting salutations, and the first +smile he had seen on the face of his grave little passenger. He thought +it very sweet and sad. + +He did not return to the Consulate at St. Kentigern until the next day. +But he was somewhat surprised to find Mr. Robert Gray awaiting him, and +upon some business which the young millionaire could have easily deputed +to his captain or steward. As he still lingered, the consul pleasantly +referred to his generosity on the previous day, and hoped the passengers +had given him no trouble. + +“No,” said Gray with a slight simulation of carelessness. “In fact I +came up with them myself. I had nothing to do; it was Sunday, you know.” + +The consul lifted his eyebrows slightly. + +“Yes, I saw them home,” continued Gray lightly. “In one of those +by-streets not far from here; neat-looking house outside; inside, +corkscrew stone staircase like a lighthouse; fourth floor, no lift, but +SHE circled up like a swallow! Flat--sitting-room, two bedrooms, and +a kitchen--mighty snug and shipshape and pretty as a pink. They OWN it +too--fancy OWNING part of a house! Seems to be a way they have here in +St. Kentigern.” He paused and then added: “Stayed there to a kind of +high tea!” + +“Indeed,” said the consul. + +“Why not? The old man wanted to return my 'hospitality' and square the +account! He wasn't going to lie under any obligation to a stranger, and, +by Jove! he made it a special point of honor! A Spanish grandee couldn't +have been more punctilious. And with an accent, Jerusalem! like a +northeaster off the Banks! But the feed was in good taste, and he only a +mathematical instrument maker, on about twelve hundred dollars a year!” + +“You seem to know all about him,” said the consul smilingly. + +“Not so much as he does about me,” returned Gray, with a half perplexed +face; “for he saw enough to admonish me about my extravagance, and even +to intimate that that rascal Saunderson, my steward, was imposing on me. +SHE took me to task, too, for not laying the yacht up on Sunday that the +men could go 'to kirk,' and for swearing at a bargeman who ran across +our bows. It's their perfect simplicity and sincerity in all this that +gets me! You'd have thought that the old man was my guardian, and the +daughter my aunt.” After a pause he uttered a reminiscent laugh. “She +thought we ate and drank too much on the yacht, and wondered what we +could find to do all day. All this, you know, in the gentlest, caressing +sort of voice, as if she was really concerned, like one's own sister. +Well, not exactly like mine”--he interrupted himself grimly--“but, hang +it all, you know what I mean. You know that our girls over there haven't +got THAT trick of voice. Too much self-assertion, I reckon; things made +too easy for them by us men. Habit of race, I dare say.” He laughed a +little. “Why, I mislaid my glove when I was coming away, and it was as +good as a play to hear her commiserating and sympathizing, and hunting +for it as if it were a lost baby.” + +“But you've seen Scotch girls before this,” said the consul. “There were +Lady Glairn's daughters, whom you took on a cruise.” + +“Yes, but the swell Scotch all imitate the English, as everybody else +does, for the matter of that, our girls included; and they're all alike. +Society makes 'em fit in together like tongued and grooved planks that +will take any amount of holy-stoning and polish. It's like dropping into +a dead calm, with every rope and spar that you know already reflected +back from the smooth water upon you. It's mighty pretty, but it isn't +getting on, you know.” After a pause he added: “I asked them to take a +little holiday cruise with me.” + +“And they declined,” interrupted the consul. + +Gray glanced at him quickly. + +“Well, yes; that's all right enough. They don't know me, you see, but +they do know you; and the fact is, I was thinking that as you're our +consul here, don't you see, and sort of responsible for me, you might +say that it was all right, you know. Quite the customary thing with us +over there. And you might say, generally, who I am.” + +“I see,” said the consul deliberately. “Tell them you're Bob Gray, with +more money and time than you know what to do with; that you have a +fine taste for yachting and shooting and racing, and amusing yourself +generally; that you find that THEY amuse you, and you would like your +luxury and your dollars to stand as an equivalent to their independence +and originality; that, being a good republican yourself, and recognizing +no distinction of class, you don't care what this may mean to them, who +are brought up differently; that after their cruise with you you don't +care what life, what friends, or what jealousies they return to; that +you know no ties, no responsibilities beyond the present, and that you +are not a marrying man.” + +“Look here, I say, aren't you making a little too much of this?” said +Gray stiffly. + +The consul laughed. “I should be glad to know that I am.” + +Gray rose. “We'll be dropping down the river to-morrow,” he said, with +a return of his usual lightness, “and I reckon I'll be toddling down to +the wharf. Good-bye, if I don't see you again.” + +He passed out. As the consul glanced from the window he observed, +however, that Mr. Gray was “toddling” in quite another direction than +the wharf. For an instant he half regretted that he had not suggested, +in some discreet way, the conclusion he had arrived at after witnessing +the girl's parting with the middle-aged passenger the day before. But he +reflected that this was something he had only accidentally overseen, and +was the girl's own secret. + + +II. + + +When the summer had so waxed in its fullness that the smoke of factory +chimneys drifted high, permitting glimpses of fairly blue sky; when the +grass in St. Kentigern's proudest park took on a less sober green in the +comfortable sun, and even in the thickest shade there was no chilliness, +the good St. Kentigerners recognized that the season had arrived to go +“down the river,” and that it was time for them to betake themselves, +with rugs, mackintoshes, and umbrellas, to the breezy lochs and misty +hillsides for which the neighborhood of St. Kentigern is justly famous. +So when it came to pass that the blinds were down in the highest places, +and the most exclusive pavements of St. Kentigern were echoless and +desolate, the consul heroically tore himself from the weak delight of +basking in the sunshine, and followed the others. + +He soon found himself settled at the furthest end of a long narrow loch, +made longer and narrower by the steep hillside of rock and heather which +flanked its chilly surface on either side, and whose inequalities were +lost in the firs and larches that filled ravine and chasm. The fragrant +road which ran sinuously through their shadowy depths was invisible from +the loch; no protuberance broke the seemingly sheer declivity; the even +sky-line was indented in two places--one where it was cracked into a +fanciful resemblance to a human profile, the other where it was curved +like a bowl. Need it be said that one was distinctly recognized as +the silhouette of a prehistoric giant, and that the other was his +drinking-cup; need it be added that neither lent the slightest human +suggestion to the solitude? A toy-like pier extending into the loch, +midway from the barren shore, only heightened the desolation. And when +the little steamboat that occasionally entered the loch took away a +solitary passenger from the pier-head, the simplest parting was invested +with a dreary loneliness that might have brought tears to the most +hardened eye. + +Still, when the shadow of either hillside was not reaching across the +loch, the meridian sun, chancing upon this coy mirror, made the most of +it. Then it was that, seen from above, it flashed like a falchion lying +between the hills; then its reflected glory, striking up, transfigured +the two acclivities, tipped the cold heather with fire, gladdened the +funereal pines, and warmed the ascetic rocks. And it was in one of those +rare, passionate intervals that the consul, riding along the wooded +track and turning his eyes from their splendors, came upon a little +house. + +It had once been a sturdy cottage, with a grim endurance and +inflexibility which even some later and lighter additions had softened +rather than changed. On either side of the door, against the bleak +whitewashed wall, two tall fuchsias relieved the rigid blankness with a +show of color. The windows were prettily draped with curtains caught up +with gay ribbons. In a stony pound-like enclosure there was some attempt +at floral cultivation, but all quite recent. So, too, were a wicker +garden seat, a bright Japanese umbrella, and a tropical hammock +suspended between two arctic-looking bushes, which the rude and rigid +forefathers of the hamlet would have probably resented. + +He had just passed the house when a charming figure slipped across the +road before him. To his surprise it was the young girl he had met a few +months before on the Skyscraper. But the Tam o' Shanter was replaced by +a little straw hat; and a light dress, summery in color and texture, +but more in keeping with her rustic surroundings, seemed as grateful and +rare as the sunshine. Without knowing why, he had an impression that +it was of her own making--a gentle plagiarism of the style of her more +fortunate sisters, but with a demure restraint all her own. As she +recognized him a faint color came to her cheek, partly from surprise, +partly from some association. To his delighted greeting she responded by +informing him that her father had taken the cottage he had just passed, +where they were spending a three weeks' vacation from his business. It +was not so far from St. Kentigern but that he could run up for a day to +look after the shop. Did the consul not think it was wise? + +Quite ready to assent to any sagacity in those clear brown eyes, the +consul thought it was. But was it not, like wisdom, sometimes lonely? + +Ah! no. There was the loch and the hills and the heather; there were her +flowers; did he not think they were growing well? and at the head of the +loch there was the old tomb of the McHulishes, and some of the coffins +were still to be seen. + +Perhaps emboldened by the consul's smile, she added, with a more serious +precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing caress of her +voice, “And would you not be getting off and coming in and resting a wee +bit before you go further? It would be so good of you, and father would +think it so kind. And he will be there now, if you're looking.” + +The consul looked. The old man was standing in the doorway of the +cottage, as respectably uncompromising as ever, with the slight +concession to his rural surroundings of wearing a Tam o' Shanter and +easy slippers. The consul dismounted and entered. The interior was +simply, but tastefully furnished. It struck him that the Scotch prudence +and economy, which practically excluded display and meretricious +glitter, had reached the simplicity of the truest art and the most +refined wealth. He felt he could understand Gray's enthusiasm, and by an +odd association of ideas he found himself thinking of the resigned face +of the lonely passenger on the Skyscraper. + +“Have you heard any news of your friend who went to Rio?” he asked +pleasantly, but without addressing himself particularly to either. + +There was a perceptible pause; doubtless of deference to her father +on the part of the young girl, and of the usual native conscientious +caution on the part of the father, but neither betrayed any +embarrassment or emotion. “No; he would not be writing yet,” she at +length said simply, “he would be waiting until he was settled to his +business. Jamie would be waiting until he could say how he was doing, +father?” she appealed interrogatively to the old man. + +“Ay, James Gow would not fash himself to write compliments and gossip +till he knew his position and work,” corroborated the old man. “He'll +not be going two thousand miles to send us what we can read in the +'St. Kentigern Herald.' But,” he added, suddenly, with a recall of +cautiousness, “perhaps YOU will be hearing of the ship?” + +“The consul will not be remembering what he hears of all the ships,” + interposed the young girl, with the same gentle affectation of superior +worldly knowledge which had before amused him. “We'll be wearying him, +father,” and the subject dropped. + +The consul, glancing around the room again, but always returning to the +sweet and patient seriousness of the young girl's face and the grave +decorum of her father, would have liked to ask another question, but it +was presently anticipated; for when he had exhausted the current topics, +in which both father and daughter displayed a quiet sagacity, and he had +gathered a sufficient knowledge of their character to seem to justify +Gray's enthusiasm, and was rising to take his leave, the young girl said +timidly:-- + +“Would ye not let Bessie take your horse to the grass field over yonder, +and yourself stay with us to dinner? It would be most kind, and you +would meet a great friend of yours who will be here.” + +“Mr. Gray?” suggested the consul audaciously. Yet he was greatly +surprised when the young girl said quietly, “Ay.” + +“He'll be coming in the loch with his yacht,” said the old man. “It's +not so expensive lying here as at Bannock, I'm thinking; and the men +cannot gang ashore for drink. Eh, but it's an awful waste o' pounds, +shillings, and pence, keeping these gowks in idleness with no feeshin' +nor carrying of passengers.” + +“Ay, but it's better Mr. Gray should pay them for being decent and +well-behaved on board his ship, than that they should be out of work +and rioting in taverns and lodging-houses. And you yourself, father, +remember the herrin' fishers that come ashore at Ardie, and the deck +hands of the excursion boat, and the language they'll be using.” + +“Have you had a cruise in the yacht?” asked the consul quickly. + +“Ay,” said the father, “we have been up and down the loch, and around +the far point, but not for boardin' or lodgin' the night, nor otherwise +conteenuing or parteecipating. I have explained to Mr. Gray that we +must return to our own home and our own porridge at evening, and he has +agreed, and even come with us. He's a decent enough lad, and not above +instructin', but extraordinar' extravagant.” + +“Ye know, father,” interposed the young girl, “he talks of fitting up +the yacht for the fishing, and taking some of his most decent men on +shares. He says he was very fond of fishing off the Massachusetts coast, +in America. It will be, I'm thinking,” she said, suddenly turning to the +consul with an almost pathetic appeal in her voice, “a great occupation +for the rich young men over there.” + +The consul, desperately struggling with a fanciful picture of Mr. Robert +Gray as a herring fisher, thought gravely that it “might be.” But he +thought still more gravely, though silently, of this singular companion +ship, and was somewhat anxious to confront his friend with his new +acquaintances. He had not long to wait. The sun was just dipping behind +the hill when the yacht glided into the lonely loch. A boat was put off, +and in a few moments Robert Gray was climbing the little path from the +loch. + +Had the consul expected any embarrassment or lover-like consciousness +on the face of Mr. Gray at their unexpected meeting, he would have been +disappointed. Nor was the young man's greeting of father and daughter, +whom he addressed as Mr. and Miss Callender, marked by any tenderness or +hesitation. On the contrary, a certain seriousness and quiet reticence, +unlike Gray, which might have been borrowed from his new friends, +characterized his speech and demeanor. Beyond this freemasonry of sad +repression there was no significance of look or word passed between +these two young people. The girl's voice retained its even pathos. +Gray's grave politeness was equally divided between her and her father. +He corroborated what Callender had said of his previous visits without +affectation or demonstration; he spoke of the possibilities of his +fitting up the yacht for the fishing season with a practical detail and +economy that left the consul's raillery ineffective. Even when, after +dinner, the consul purposely walked out in the garden with the father, +Gray and Ailsa presently followed them without lingering or undue +precipitation, and with no change of voice or manner. The consul was +perplexed. Had the girl already told Gray of her lover across the sea, +and was this singular restraint their joint acceptance of their fate; +or was he mistaken in supposing that their relations were anything more +than the simple friendship of patron and protegee? Gray was rich enough +to indulge in such a fancy, and the father and daughter were too proud +to ever allow it to influence their own independence. In any event the +consul's right to divulge the secret he was accidentally possessed +of seemed more questionable than ever. Nor did there appear to be any +opportunity for a confidential talk with Gray, since it was proposed +that the whole party should return to the yacht for supper, after +which the consul should be dropped at the pier-head, distant only a few +minutes from his hotel, and his horse sent to him the next day. + +A faint moon was shimmering along the surface of Loch Dour in icy little +ripples when they pulled out from the shadows of the hillside. By the +accident of position, Gray, who was steering, sat beside Ailsa in the +stern, while the consul and Mr. Callender were further forward, although +within hearing. The faces of the young people were turned towards each +other, yet in the cold moonlight the consul fancied they looked as +impassive and unemotional as statues. The few distant, far-spaced lights +that trembled on the fading shore, the lonely glitter of the water, +the blackness of the pine-clad ravines seemed to be a part of this +repression, until the vast melancholy of the lake appeared to meet and +overflow them like an advancing tide. Added to this, there came from +time to time the faint sound and smell of the distant, desolate sea. + +The consul, struggling manfully to keep up a spasmodic discussion on +Scotch diminutives in names, found himself mechanically saying: + +“And James you call Jamie?” + +“Ay; but ye would say, to be pure Scotch, 'Hamish,'” said Mr. Callender +precisely. The girl, however, had not spoken; but Gray turned to her +with something of his old gayety. + +“And I suppose you would call me 'Robbie'?” + +“Ah, no!” + +“What then?” + +“Robin.” + +Her voice was low yet distinct, but she had thrown into the two +syllables such infinite tenderness, that the consul was for an instant +struck with an embarrassment akin to that he had felt in the cabin of +the Skyscraper, and half expected the father to utter a shocked protest. +And to save what he thought would be an appalling silence, he said with +a quiet laugh:-- + +“That's the fellow who 'made the assembly shine' in the song, isn't it?” + +“That was Robin Adair,” said Gray quietly; “unfortunately I would only +be 'Robin Gray,' and that's quite another song.” + +“AULD Robin Gray, sir, deestinctly 'auld' in the song,” interrupted Mr. +Callender with stern precision; “and I'm thinking he was not so very +unfortunate either.” + +The discussion of Scotch diminutives halting here, the boat sped on +silently to the yacht. But although Robert Gray, as host, recovered some +of his usual lightheartedness, the consul failed to discover anything +in his manner to indicate the lover, nor did Miss Ailsa after her single +lapse of tender accent exhibit the least consciousness. It was true that +their occasional frank allusions to previous conversations seemed to +show that their opportunities had not been restricted, but nothing more. +He began again to think he was mistaken. + +As he wished to return early, and yet not hasten the Callenders, he +prevailed upon Gray to send him to the pier-head first, and not disturb +the party. As he stepped into the boat, something in the appearance +of the coxswain awoke an old association in his mind. The man at first +seemed to avoid his scrutiny, but when they were well away from the +yacht, he said hesitatingly:-- + +“I see you remember me, sir. But if it's all the same to you, I've got a +good berth here and would like to keep it.” + +The consul had a flash of memory. It was the boatswain of the +Skyscraper, one of the least objectionable of the crew. “But what are +you doing here? you shipped for the voyage,” he said sharply. + +“Yes, but I got away at Key West, when I knew what was coming. I wasn't +on her when she was abandoned.” + +“Abandoned!” repeated the consul. “What the d---l! Do you mean to say she +was wrecked?” + +“Well, yes--you know what I mean, sir. It was an understood thing. She +was over-insured and scuttled in the Bahamas. It was a put-up job, and I +reckoned I was well out of it.” + +“But there was a passenger! What of him?” demanded the consul anxiously. + +“Dnnno! But I reckon he got away. There wasn't any of the crew lost that +I know of. Let's see, he was an engineer, wasn't he? I reckon he had to +take a hand at the pumps, and his chances with the rest.” + +“Does Mr. Gray know of this?” asked the consul after a pause. + +The man stared. + +“Not from me, sir. You see it was nothin' to him, and I didn't care +talking much about the Skyscraper. It was hushed up in the papers. You +won't go back on me, sir?” + +“You don't know what became of the passenger?” + +“No! But he was a Scotchman, and they're bound to fall on their feet +somehow!” + + +III. + + +The December fog that overhung St. Kentigern had thinned sufficiently to +permit the passage of a few large snowflakes, soiled in their descent, +until in color and consistency they spotted the steps of the Consulate +and the umbrellas of the passers-by like sprinklings of gray mortar. +Nevertheless the consul thought the streets preferable to the persistent +gloom of his office, and sallied out. Youthful mercantile St. Kentigern +strode sturdily past him in the lightest covert coats; collegiate St. +Kentigern fluttered by in the scantiest of red gowns, shaming the furs +that defended his more exotic blood; and the bare red feet of a few +factory girls, albeit their heads and shoulders were draped and hooded +in thick shawls, filled him with a keen sense of his effeminacy. +Everything of earth, air, and sky, and even the faces of those he looked +upon, seemed to be set in the hard, patient endurance of the race. +Everywhere on that dismal day, he fancied he could see this energy +without restlessness, this earnestness without geniality, all grimly set +against the hard environment of circumstance and weather. + +The consul turned into one of the main arteries of St. Kentigern, a wide +street that, however, began and ended inconsequently, and with half a +dozen social phases in as many blocks. Here the snow ceased, the fog +thickened suddenly with the waning day, and the consul found himself +isolated and cut off on a block which he did not remember, with the +clatter of an invisible tramway in his ears. It was a block of small +houses with smaller shop-fronts. The one immediately before him seemed +to be an optician's, but the dimly lighted windows also displayed the +pathetic reinforcement of a few watches, cheap jewelry on cards, and +several cairngorm brooches and pins set in silver. It occurred to him +that he wanted a new watch crystal, and that he would procure it here +and inquire his way. Opening the door he perceived that there was no one +in the shop, but from behind the counter another open door disclosed +a neat sitting-room, so close to the street that it gave the casual +customer the sensation of having intruded upon domestic privacy. The +consul's entrance tinkled a small bell which brought a figure to the +door. It was Ailsa Callender. + +The consul was startled. He had not seen her since he had brought to +their cottage the news of the shipwreck with a precaution and delicacy +that their calm self-control and patient resignation, however, seemed to +make almost an impertinence. But this was no longer the handsome shop in +the chief thoroughfare with its two shopmen, which he previously knew as +“Callender's.” And Ailsa here! What misfortune had befallen them? + +Whatever it was, there was no shadow of it in her clear eyes and frank +yet timid recognition of him. Falling in with her stoical and reticent +acceptance of it, he nevertheless gathered that the Callenders had lost +money in some invention which James Gow had taken with him to Rio, but +which was sunk in the ship. With this revelation of a business interest +in what he had believed was only a sentimental relation, the consul +ventured to continue his inquiries. Mr. Gow had escaped with his life +and had reached Honduras, where he expected to try his fortunes anew. +It might be a year or two longer before there were any results. Did the +consul know anything of Honduras? There was coffee there--so she and her +father understood. All this with little hopefulness, no irritation, +but a divine patience in her eyes. The consul, who found that his watch +required extensive repairing, and had suddenly developed an inordinate +passion for cairngorms, watched her as she opened the show-case with no +affectation of unfamiliarity with her occupation, but with all her old +serious concern. Surely she would have made as thorough a shop-girl as +she would--His half-formulated thought took the shape of a question. + +“Have you seen Mr. Gray since his return from the Mediterranean?” + +Ah! one of the brooches had slipped from her fingers to the bottom of +the case. There was an interval or two of pathetic murmuring, with her +fair head under the glass, before she could find it; then she lifted +her eyes to the consul. They were still slightly suffused with her +sympathetic concern. The stone, which was set in a thistle--the national +emblem--did he not know it?--had dropped out. But she could put it in. +It was pretty and not expensive. It was marked twelve shillings on the +card, but he could have it for ten shillings. No, she had not seen Mr. +Gray since they had lost their fortune. (It struck the consul as none +the less pathetic that she seemed really to believe in their former +opulence.) They could not be seeing him there in a small shop, and they +could not see him elsewhere. It was far better as it was. Yet she +paused a moment when she had wrapped up the brooch. “You'd be seeing him +yourself some time?” she added gently. + +“Perhaps.” + +“Then you'll not mind saying how my father and myself are sometimes +thinking of his goodness and kindness,” she went on, in a voice whose +tenderness seemed to increase with the formal precision of her speech. + +“Certainly.” + +“And you'll say we're not forgetting him.” + +“I promise.” + +As she handed him the parcel her lips softly parted in what might have +been equally a smile or a sigh. + +He was able to keep his promise sooner than he had imagined. It was only +a few weeks later that, arriving in London, he found Gray's hatbox and +bag in the vestibule of his club, and that gentleman himself in the +smoking-room. He looked tanned and older. + +“I only came from Southampton an hour ago, where I left the yacht. And,” + shaking the consul's hand cordially, “how's everything and everybody up +at old St. Kentigern?” + +The consul thought fit to include his news of the Callenders in +reference to that query, and with his eyes fixed on Gray dwelt at some +length on their change of fortune. Gray took his cigar from his mouth, +but did not lift his eyes from the fire. Presently he said, “I suppose +that's why Callender declined to take the shares I offered him in the +fishing scheme. You know I meant it, and would have done it.” + +“Perhaps he had other reasons.” + +“What do you mean?” said Gray, facing the consul suddenly. + +“Look here, Gray,” said the consul, “did Miss Callender or her father +ever tell you she was engaged?” + +“Yes; but what's that to do with it?” + +“A good deal. Engagements, you know, are sometimes forced, unsuitable, +or unequal, and are broken by circumstances. Callender is proud.” + +Gray turned upon the consul the same look of gravity that he had worn +on the yacht--the same look that the consul even fancied he had seen +in Ailsa's eyes. “That's exactly where you're mistaken in her,” he said +slowly. “A girl like that gives her word and keeps it. She waits, hopes, +accepts what may come--breaks her heart, if you will, but not her word. +Come, let's talk of something else. How did he--that man Gow--lose +Callender's money?” + +The consul did not see the Callenders again on his return, and perhaps +did not think it necessary to report the meeting. But one morning he +was delighted to find an official document from New York upon his desk, +asking him to communicate with David Callender of St. Kentigern, and, +on proof of his identity, giving him authority to draw the sum of five +thousand dollars damages awarded for the loss of certain property on +the Skyscraper, at the request of James Gow. Yet it was with mixed +sensations that the consul sought the little shop of the optician with +this convincing proof of Gow's faithfulness and the indissolubility of +Ailsa's engagement. That there was some sad understanding between the +girl and Gray he did not doubt, and perhaps it was not strange that he +felt a slight partisanship for his friend, whose nature had so strangely +changed. Miss Ailsa was not there. Her father explained that her health +had required a change, and she was visiting some friends on the river. + +“I'm thinkin' that the atmosphere is not so pure here. It is deficient +in ozone. I noticed it myself in the early morning. No! it was not the +confinement of the shop, for she never cared to go out.” + +He received the announcement of his good fortune with unshaken calm and +great practical consideration of detail. He would guarantee his identity +to the consul. As for James Gow, it was no more than fair; and what he +had expected of him. As to its being an equivalent of his loss, he could +not tell until the facts were before him. + +“Miss Ailsa,” suggested the consul venturously, “will be pleased to hear +again from her old friend, and know that he is succeeding.” + +“I'm not so sure that ye could call it 'succeeding,'” returned the old +man, carefully wiping the glasses of a pair of spectacles that he held +critically to the light, “when ye consider that, saying nothing of the +waste of valuable time, it only puts James Gow back where he was when he +went away.” + +“But any man who has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss Callender +would be glad to be on that footing,” said the consul, with polite +significance. + +“I'm not agreeing with you there,” said Mr. Callender quietly; “and I'm +observing in ye of late a tendency to combine business wi' +compleement. But it was kind of ye to call; and I'll be sending ye the +authorization.” + +Which he did. But the consul, passing through the locality a few weeks +later, was somewhat concerned to find the shop closed, with others +on the same block, behind a hoarding that indicated rebuilding and +improvement. Further inquiry elicited the fact that the small leases +had been bought up by some capitalist, and that Mr. Callender, with the +others, had benefited thereby. But there was no trace nor clew to his +present locality. He and his daughter seemed to have again vanished with +this second change in their fortunes. + +It was a late March morning when the streets were dumb with snow, and +the air was filled with flying granulations that tinkled against the +windows of the Consulate like fairy sleigh-bells, when there was the +stamping of snow-clogged feet in the outer hall, and the door was opened +to Mr. and Miss Callender. For an instant the consul was startled. The +old man appeared as usual--erect, and as frigidly respectable as one +of the icicles that fringed the window, but Miss Ailsa was, to his +astonishment, brilliant with a new-found color, and sparkling with +health and only half-repressed animation. The snow-flakes, scarcely +melting on the brown head of this true daughter of the North, still +crowned her hood; and, as she threw back her brown cloak and disclosed a +plump little scarlet jacket and brown skirt, the consul could not resist +her suggested likeness to some bright-eyed robin redbreast, to whom the +inclement weather had given a charming audacity. And shy and demure as +she still was, it was evident that some change had been wrought in her +other than that evoked by the stimulus of her native sky and air. + +To his eager questioning, the old man replied briefly that he had bought +the old cottage at Loch Dour, where they were living, and where he +had erected a small manufactory and laboratory for the making of his +inventions, which had become profitable. The consul reiterated his +delight at meeting them again. + +“I'm not so sure of that, sir, when you know the business on which I +come,” said Mr. Callender, dropping rigidly into a chair, and clasping +his hands over the crutch of a shepherd-like staff. “Ye mind, perhaps, +that ye conveyed to me, osteensibly at the request of James Gow, +a certain sum of money, for which I gave ye a good and sufficient +guarantee. I thought at the time that it was a most feckless and +unbusiness-like proceeding on the part of James, as it was without +corroboration or advice by letter; but I took the money.” + +“Do you mean to say that he made no allusion to it in his other +letters?” interrupted the consul, glancing at Ailsa. + +“There were no other letters at the time,” said Callender dryly. “But +about a month afterwards we DID receive a letter from him enclosing a +draft and a full return of the profits of the invention, which HE HAD +SOLD IN HONDURAS. Ye'll observe the deescrepancy! I then wrote to the +bank on which I had drawn as you authorized me, and I found that they +knew nothing of any damages awarded, but that the sum I had drawn had +been placed to my credit by Mr. Robert Gray.” + +In a flash the consul recalled the one or two questions that Gray had +asked him, and saw it all. For an instant he felt the whole bitterness +of Gray's misplaced generosity--its exposure and defeat. He glanced +again hopelessly at Ailsa. In the eye of that fresh, glowing, yet +demure, young goddess, unhallowed as the thought might be, there was +certainly a distinctly tremulous wink. + +The consul took heart. “I believe I need not say, Mr. Callender,” he +began with some stiffness, “that this is as great a surprise to me as +to you. I had no reason to believe the transaction other than bona +fide, and acted accordingly. If my friend, deeply sympathizing with your +previous misfortune, has hit upon a delicate, but unbusiness-like way of +assisting you temporarily--I say TEMPORARILY, because it must have +been as patent to him as to you, that you would eventually find out his +generous deceit--you surely can forgive him for the sake of his kind +intention. Nay, more; may I point out to you that you have no right to +assume that this benefaction was intended exclusively for you; if Mr. +Gray, in his broader sympathy with you and your daughter, has in this +way chosen to assist and strengthen the position of a gentleman so +closely connected with you, but still struggling with hard fortune”-- + +“I'd have ye know, sir,” interrupted the old man, rising to his feet, +“that ma frien' Mr. James Gow is as independent of yours as he is of +me and mine. He has married, sir, a Mrs. Hernandez, the rich widow of +a coffee-planter, and now is the owner of the whole estate, minus the +encumbrance of three children. And now, sir, you'll take this,”--he drew +from his pocket an envelope. “It's a draft for five thousand dollars, +with the ruling rate of interest computed from the day I received it +till this day, and ye'll give it to your frien' when ye see him. And +ye'll just say to him from me”-- + +But Miss Ailsa, with a spirit and independence that challenged her +father's, here suddenly fluttered between them with sparkling eyes and +outstretched hands. + +“And ye'll say to him from ME that a more honorable, noble, and generous +man, and a kinder, truer, and better friend than he, cannot be found +anywhere! And that the foolishest and most extravagant thing he ever did +is better than the wisest and most prudent thing that anybody else ever +did, could, or would do! And if he was a bit overproud--it was only +because those about him were overproud and foolish. And you'll tell him +that we're wearying for him! And when you give him that daft letter from +father you'll give him this bit line from me,” she went on rapidly as +she laid a tiny note in his hand. “And,” with wicked dancing eyes that +seemed to snap the last bond of repression, “ye'll give him THAT too, +and say I sent it!” + +There was a stir in the official apartment! The portraits of Lincoln and +Washington rattled uneasily in their frames; but it was no doubt only a +discreet blast of the north wind that drowned the echo of a kiss. + +“Ailsa!” gasped the shocked Mr. Callender. + +“Ah! but, father, if it had not been for HIM we would not have known +Robin.” + +***** + +It was the last that the consul saw of Ailsa Callender; for the next +summer when he called at Loch Dour she was Mrs. Gray. + + + + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU. + + +I. + + +On the fifteenth of August, 1854, what seemed to be the entire +population of Wynyard's Bar was collected upon a little bluff which +overlooked the rude wagon road that was the only approach to the +settlement. In general appearance the men differed but little from +ordinary miners, although the foreign element, shown in certain Spanish +peculiarities of dress and color, predominated, and some of the men +were further distinguished by the delicacy of education and sedentary +pursuits. Yet Wynyard's Bar was a city of refuge, comprised among its +inhabitants a number who were “wanted” by the State authorities, and +its actual attitude at that moment was one of open rebellion against the +legal power, and of particular resistance to the apprehension by warrant +of one of its prominent members. This gentleman, Major Overstone, then +astride of a gray mustang, and directing the movements of the crowd, +had, a few days before, killed the sheriff of Siskyou county, who had +attempted to arrest him for the double offense of misappropriating +certain corporate funds of the State and the shooting of the editor who +had imprudently exposed him. The lesser crime of homicide might have +been overlooked by the authorities, but its repetition upon the body +of their own over-zealous and misguided official could not pass +unchallenged if they expected to arrest Overstone for the more serious +offense against property. So it was known that a new sheriff had been +appointed and was coming to Wynyard's Bar with an armed posse. But it +was also understood that this invasion would be resisted by the Bar to +its last man. + +All eyes were turned upon a fringe of laurel and butternut that +encroached upon the road half a mile away, where it seemed that such +of the inhabitants who were missing from the bluff were hidden to give +warning or retard the approach of the posse. A gray haze, slowly rising +between the fringe and the distant hillside, was recognized as the +dust of a cavalcade passing along the invisible highway. In the hush +of expectancy that followed, the irregular clatter of hoofs, the sharp +crack of a rifle, and a sudden halt were faintly audible. The +men, scattered in groups on the bluff, exchanged a smile of grim +satisfaction. + +Not so their leader! A quick start and an oath attracted attention to +him. To their surprise he was looking in another direction, but as +they looked too they saw and understood the cause. A file of horsemen, +hitherto undetected, were slowly passing along the little ridge on their +right. Their compact accoutrements and the yellow braid on their +blue jackets, distinctly seen at that distance, showed them to be a +detachment of United States cavalry. + +Before the assemblage could realize this new invasion, a nearer clatter +of hoofs was heard along the high road, and one of the ambuscading party +dashed up from the fringe of woods below. His face was flushed, but +triumphant. + +“A reg'lar skunk--by the living hokey!” he panted, pointing to the faint +haze that was again slowly rising above the invisible road. “They backed +down as soon as they saw our hand, and got a hole through their new +sheriff's hat. But what are you lookin' at? What's up?” + +The leader impatiently pointed with a darkening face to the distant +file. + +“Reg'lars, by gum!” ejaculated the other. “But Uncle Sam ain't in this +game. Wot right have THEY”-- + +“Dry up!” said the leader. + +The detachment was now moving at right angles with the camp, but +suddenly halted, almost doubling upon itself in some evident commotion. +A dismounted figure was seen momentarily flying down the hillside +dodging from bush to bush until lost in the underbrush. A dozen shots +were fired over its head, and then the whole detachment wheeled and +came clattering down the trail in the direction of the camp. A single +riderless horse, evidently that of the fugitive, followed. + +“Spread yourselves along the ridge, every man of you, and cover them as +they enter the gulch!” shouted the leader. “But not a shot until I give +the word. Scatter!” + +The assemblage dispersed like a startled village of prairie dogs, +squatting behind every available bush and rock along the line of bluff. +The leader alone trotted quietly to the head of the gulch. + +The nine cavalrymen came smartly up in twos, a young officer leading. +The single figure of Major Overstone opposed them with a command to +halt. Looking up, the young officer drew rein, said a word to his file +leader, and the four files closed in a compact square motionless on the +road. The young officer's unsworded hand hung quietly at his thigh, +the men's unslung carbines rested easily on their saddles. Yet at that +moment every man of them knew that they were covered by a hundred +rifles and shot guns leveled from every bush, and that they were caught +helplessly in a trap. + +“Since when,” said Major Overstone with an affectation of tone and +manner different from that in which he had addressed his previous +companions, “have the Ninth United States Cavalry helped to serve a +State court's pettifogging process?” + +“We are hunting a deserter--a half-breed agent--who has just escaped +us,” returned the officer. His voice was boyish--so, too, was his figure +in its slim, cadet-like smartness of belted tunic--but very quiet and +level, although his face was still flushed with the shock and shame of +his surprise. + +The relaxation of relief went through the wrought and waiting camp. The +soldiers were not seeking THEM. Ready as these desperate men had been to +do their leader's bidding, they were well aware that a momentary victory +over the troopers would not pass unpunished, and meant the ultimate +dispersion of the camp. And quiet as these innocent invaders seemed +to be they would no doubt sell their lives dearly. The embattled +desperadoes glanced anxiously at their leader; the soldiers, on the +contrary, looked straight before them. + +“Process or no process,” said Major Overstone with a sneer, “you've +come to the last place to recover your deserter. We don't give up men in +Wynyard's Bar. And they didn't teach you at the Academy, sir, to stop to +take prisoners when you were outflanked and outnumbered.” + +“Bedad! They didn't teach YOU, Captain Overstone, to engage a battery at +Cerro Gordo with a half company, but you did it; more shame to you now, +sorr, commandin' the thayves and ruffians you do.” + +“Silence!” said the young officer. + +The sleeve of the sergeant who had spoken--with the chevrons of long +service upon it--went up to a salute, and dropped again over his carbine +as he stared stolidly before him. But his shot had told. A flush of +mingled pride and shame passed over Overstone's face. + +“Oh! it's YOU, Murphy,” he said with an affected laugh, “and you haven't +improved with your stripes.” + +The young officer turned his head slightly. + +“Attention!” + +“One moment more,” said Overstone coming forward. “I have told you that +we don't give up any man who seeks our protection. But,” he added with +a half-careless, half-contemptuous wave of his hand, and a significant +glance at his followers, “we don't prevent you from seeking him. The +road is clear; the camp is before you.” + +The young officer continued without looking at him. “Forward--in two +files--open order. Ma-arch!” + +The little troop moved forward, passed Major Overstone at the head of +the gully, and spread out on the hillside. The assembled camp, still +armed, lounging out of ambush here and there, ironically made way for +them to pass. A few moments of this farcical quest, and a glance at +the impenetrably wooded heights around, apparently satisfied the young +officer, and he turned his files again into the gully. Major Overstone +was still lingering there. + +“I hope you are satisfied,” he said grimly. He then paused, and in a +changed and more hesitating voice added: “I am an older soldier than +you, sir, but I am always glad to make the acquaintance of West Point.” + He paused and held out his hand. + +West Point, still red and rigid, glanced at him with bright clear eyes +under light lashes and the peak of a smartly cocked cap, looked coolly +at the proffered hand, raised his own to a stiff salute, said, “Good +afternoon, sir,” and rode away. + +Major Overstone wheeled angrily, but in doing so came sharply upon his +coadjutor--the leader of the ambushed party. + +“Well, Dawson,” he said impatiently. “Who was it?” + +“Only one of them d----d half-breed Injin agents. He's just over there +in the brush with Simpson, lying low till the soldiers clear out.” + +“Did you talk to him?” + +“Not much!” returned Dawson scornfully. “He ain't my style.” + +“Fetch him up to my cabin; he may be of some use to us.” + +Dawson looked skeptical. “I reckon he ain't no more gain here than he +was over there,” he said, and turned away. + + +II. + + +The cabin of Major Overstone differed outwardly but little from those of +his companions. It was the usual structure of logs, laid lengthwise, and +rudely plastered at each point of contact with adobe, the material from +which the chimney, which entirely occupied one gable, was built. It +was pierced with two windows and a door, roofed with smaller logs, and +thatched with long half cylinders of spruce bark. But the interior +gave certain indications of the distinction as well as the peculiar +experiences of its occupant. In place of the usual bunk or berth built +against the wall stood a small folding camp bedstead, and upon a rude +deal table that held a tin wash-basin and pail lay two ivory-handled +brushes, combs, and other elegant toilet articles, evidently the +contents of the major's dressing-bag. A handsome leather trunk occupied +one corner, with a richly caparisoned silver-mounted Mexican saddle, +a mahogany case of dueling pistols, a leather hat-box, locked and +strapped, and a gorgeous gold and quartz handled ebony “presentation” + walking stick. There was a certain dramatic suggestion in this +revelation of the sudden and hurried transition from a life of +ostentatious luxury to one of hidden toil and privation, and a further +significance in the slow and gradual distribution and degradation of +these elegant souvenirs. A pair of silver boot-hooks had been used +for raking the hearth and lifting the coffee kettle; the ivory of the +brushes was stained with coffee; the cut-glass bottles had lost their +stoppers, and had been utilized for vinegar and salt; a silver-framed +hand mirror hung against the blackened wall. For the major's occupancy +was the sequel of a hurried flight from his luxurious hotel at +Sacramento--a transfer that he believed was only temporary until +the affair blew over, and he could return in safety to brow-beat his +accusers, as was his wont. But this had not been so easy as he had +imagined; his prosecutors were bitter, and his enforced seclusion had +been prolonged week by week until the fracas which ended in the shooting +of the sheriff had apparently closed the door upon his return to +civilization forever. Only here was his life and person secure. For +Wynyard's Bar had quickly succumbed to the domination of his reckless +courage, and the eminence of his double crime had made him respected +among spendthrifts, gamblers, and gentlemen whose performances had +never risen above a stage-coach robbery or a single assassination. Even +criticism of his faded luxuries had been delicately withheld. + +He was leaning over his open trunk--which the camp popularly supposed +to contain State bonds and securities of fabulous amount--and had taken +some letters from it, when a figure darkened the doorway. He looked up, +laying his papers carelessly aside. WITHIN Wynyard's Bar property was +sacred. + +It was the late fugitive. Although some hours had already elapsed since +his arrival in camp, and he had presumably refreshed himself inwardly, +his outward appearance was still disheveled and dusty. Brier and +milkweed clung to his frayed blouse and trousers. What could be seen of +the skin of his face and hands under its stains and begriming was of +a dull yellow. His light eyes had all the brightness without the +restlessness of the mongrel race. They leisurely took in the whole +cabin, the still open trunk before the major, and then rested +deliberately on the major himself. + +“Well,” said Major Overstone abruptly, “what brought you here?” + +“Same as brought you, I reckon,” responded the man almost as abruptly. + +The major knew something of the half-breed temper, and neither the +retort nor its tone affected him. + +“You didn't come here just because you deserted,” said the major coolly. +“You've been up to something else.” + +“I have,” said the man with equal coolness. + +“I thought so. Now, you understand you can't try anything of that kind +HERE. If you do, up you go on the first tree. That's Rule 1.” + +“I see you ain't pertickler about waiting for the sheriff here, you +fellers.” + +The major glanced at him quickly. He seemed to be quite unconscious of +any irony in his remark, and continued grimly, “And what's Rule 2?” + +“I reckon you needn't trouble yourself beyond No. 1,” returned the major +with dry significance. Nevertheless, he opened a rude cupboard in the +corner and brought out a rich silver-mounted cut-glass drinking-flask, +which he handed to the stranger. + +“I say,” said the half-breed, admiringly, “yours?” + +“Certainly.” + +“Certainly NOW, but BEFORE, eh?” + +Rule No. 2 may have indicated that references to the past held no +dishonor. The major, although accustomed to these pleasantries, laughed +a little harshly. + +“Mine always,” he said. “But you don't drink?” + +The half-breed's face darkened under its grime. + +“Wot you're givin' us? I've been filled chock up by Simpson over thar. I +reckon I know when I've got a load on.” + +“Were you ever in Sacramento?” + +“Yes.” + +“When?” + +“Last week.” + +“Did you hear anything about me?” + +The half-breed glanced through his tangled hair at the major in some +wonder, not only at the question, but at the almost childish eagerness +with which it was asked. + +“I didn't hear much of anything else,” he answered grimly. + +“And--what did they SAY?” + +“Said you'd got to be TOOK anyhow! They allowed the new sheriff would do +it too.” + +The major laughed. “Well, you heard HOW the new sheriff did it--skunked +away with his whole posse before one-eighth of my men! You saw how the +rest of this camp held up your nine troopers, and that sap-headed cub +of a lieutenant--didn't you? You wouldn't have been standing here if +you hadn't. No; there isn't the civil process nor the civil power in all +California that can take me out of this camp.” + +But neither his previous curiosity nor present bravado seemed to impress +the ragged stranger with much favor. He glanced sulkily around the cabin +and began to shuffle towards the door. + +“Stop! Where are you going to? Sit down. I want to talk to you.” + +The fugitive hesitated for a moment, and then dropped ungraciously on +the edge of a camp-stool near the door. The major looked at him. + +“I may have to remind you that I run this camp, and the boys hereabouts +do pretty much as I say. What's your name?” + +“Tom.” + +“Tom? Well, look here, Tom! D--n it all! Can't you see that when a man +is stuck here alone, as I am, he wants to know what's going on outside, +and hear a little fresh talk?” + +The singular weakness of this blended command and appeal apparently +struck the fugitive curiously. He fixed his lowering eyes on the major +as if in gloomy doubt if he were really the reckless desperado he had +been represented. That this man--twice an assassin and the ruler +of outlaws as reckless as himself--should approach him in this +half-confidential way evidently puzzled him. + +“Wot you wanter know?” he asked gruffly. + +“Well, what's my party saying or doing about me?” said the major +impatiently. “What's the 'Express' saying about me?” + +“I reckon they're throwing off on you all round; they allow you never +represented the party, but worked for yourself,” said the man shortly. + +Here the major lashed out. A set of traitors and hirelings! He had +bought and paid for them all! He had sunk two thousand dollars in the +“Express” and saved the editor from being horsewhipped and jailed for +libel! Half the cursed bonds that they were making such a blanked +fuss about were handled by these hypocrites--blank them! They were a +low-lived crew of thieves and deserters! It is presumed that the major +had forgotten himself in this infelicitous selection of epithets, but +the stranger's face only relaxed into a grim smile. More than that, the +major had apparently forgotten his desire to hear his guest talk, for he +himself at once launched into an elaborate exposition of his own affairs +and a specious and equally elaborate defense and justification of +himself and denunciation of his accusers. For nearly half an hour he +reviewed step by step and detail by detail the charges against him--with +plausible explanation and sophistical argument, but always with +a singular prolixity and reiteration that spoke of incessant +self-consciousness and self-abstraction. Of that dashing +self-sufficiency which had dazzled his friends and awed his enemies +there was no trace! At last, even the set smile of the degraded +recipient of these confidences darkened with a dull, bewildered disgust. +Then, to his relief, a step was heard without. The major's manner +instantly changed. + +“Well?” he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered. + +“I came to know what you want done with HIM,” said Dawson, indicating +the fugitive with a contemptuous finger. + +“Take him to your cabin!” + +“My cabin! HIM?” ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief. + +The major's light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a straight +line. “I don't think you understand me, Dawson, and another time you'd +better wait until I'm done. I want you to take him to your cabin--and +then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You understand? I want him NEAR ME AND +ALONE!” + + +III. + + +Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone and +the half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had already +come to the conclusion that the major was planning some extraordinary +reprisals against the invaders, that would ensure the perpetual security +of the camp. That he should use so insignificant and unimportant a tool +now appeared to him to be quite natural, particularly as the service +was probably one in which the man would be sacrificed. “The major,” he +suggested to his companions, “ain't going to risk a white man's skin, +when he can get an Injun's hide handy.” + +The reluctant hesitating step of the half-breed as they walked along +seemed to give some color to this hypothesis. He listened sullenly to +the major as he pointed out the strategic position of the Bar. “That +wagon road is the only approach to Wynyard's, and a dozen men along the +rocks could hold it against a hundred. The trail that you came by, over +the ridge, drops straight into this gully, and you saw what that would +mean to any blanked fools who might try it. Of course we could be +shelled from that ridge if the sheriff had a howitzer, or the men who +knew how to work one, but even then we could occupy the ridge before +them.” He paused a moment and then added: “I used to be in the army, +Tom; I saw service in Mexico before that cub you got away from had his +first trousers. I was brought up as a gentleman--blank it all--and HERE +I am!” + +The man slouched on by his side, casting his surly, furtive glances +from left to right, as if seeking to escape from these confidences. +Nevertheless, the major kept on through the gully, until reaching the +wagon road they crossed it, and began to ascend the opposite slope, half +hidden by the underbrush and larches. Here the major paused again and +faced about. The cabins of the settlement were already behind the bluff; +the little stream which indicated the “bar”--on which some perfunctory +mining was still continued--now and then rang out quite clearly at their +feet, although the bar itself had disappeared. The sounds of occupation +and labor had at last died away in the distance. They were quite alone. +The major sat down on a boulder, and pointed to another. The man, +however, remained sullenly standing where he was, as if to accent as +strongly as possible the enforced companionship. Either the major +was too self-absorbed to notice it, or accepted it as a satisfactory +characteristic of the half-breed's race. He continued confidently:-- + +“Now look here, Tom. I want to leave this cursed hole, and get clear out +of the State! Anywhere; over the Oregon line into British Columbia, or +to the coast, where I can get a coasting vessel down to Mexico. It will +cost money, but I've got it. It will cost a lot of risks, but I'll take +them. I want somebody to help me, some one to share risks with me, and +some one to share my luck if I succeed. Help to put me on the other side +of the border line, by sea or land, and I'll give you a thousand dollars +down BEFORE WE START and a thousand dollars when I'm safe.” + +The half-breed had changed his slouching attitude. It seemed more +indolent on account of the loosely hanging strap that had once held his +haversack, which was still worn in a slovenly fashion over his shoulder +as a kind of lazy sling for his shiftless hand. + +“Well, Tom, is it a go? You can trust ME, for you'll have the thousand +in your pocket before you start. I can trust YOU, for I'll kill you +quicker than lightning if you say a word of this to any one before I go, +or play a single trick on me afterwards.” + +Suddenly the two men were rolling over and over in the underbrush. The +half-breed had thrown himself upon the major, bearing him down to the +ground. The haversack strap for an instant whirled like the loop of a +lasso in the air, and descended over the major's shoulders, pinioning +his arms to his side. Then the half-breed, tearing open his ragged +blouse, stripped off his waist-belt, and as dexterously slipped it over +the ankles of the struggling man. + +It was all over in a moment. Neither had spoken a word. Only their rapid +panting broke the profound silence. Each probably knew that no outcry +would be overheard. + +For the first time the half-breed sat down. But there was no trace of +triumph or satisfaction in his face, which wore the same lowering look +of disgust, as he gazed upon the prostrate man. + +“I want to tell you first,” he said, slowly wiping his face, “that I +didn't kalkilate upon doin' this in this yer kind o' way. I expected +more of a stan' up fight from you--more risk in gettin' you out o' that +hole--and a different kind of a man to tackle. I never expected you +to play into my hand like this--and it goes against me to hev to take +advantage of it.” + +“Who are you?” said the major, pantingly. + +“I'm the new sheriff of Siskyou!” + +He drew from beneath his begrimed shirt a paper wrapping, from which +he gingerly extracted with the ends of his dirty fingers a clean, +legal-looking folded paper. + +“That's my warrant! I've kept it fresh for you. I reckon you don't care +to read it--you've seen it afore. It's just the same as t'other sheriff +had--what you shot.” + +“Then this was a plant of yours, and that whelp's troopers?” said the +major. + +“Neither him nor the sojers knows any more about it than you,” returned +the sheriff slowly. “I enlisted as Injin guide or scout ten days ago. +I deserted just as reg'lar and nat'ral like when we passed that ridge +yesterday. I could be took to-morrow by the sojers if they caught sight +o' me and court-martialed--it's as reg'lar as THAT! But I timed to have +my posse, under a deputy, draw you off by an attack just as the escort +reached the ridge. And here I am.” + +“And you're no half-breed?” + +“There's nothin' Injin about me that water won't wash off. I kalkilated +you wouldn't suspect anything so insignificant as an INJIN, when I fixed +myself up. You saw Dawson didn't hanker after me much. But I didn't +reckon on YOUR tumbling to me so quick. That's what gets me! You must +hev been pretty low down for kempany when you took a man like me inter +your confidence. I don't see it yet.” + +He looked inquiringly at his captive--with the same wondering surliness. +Nor could he understand another thing which was evident. After the first +shock of resistance the major had exhibited none of the indignation of +a betrayed man, but actually seemed to accept the situation with a +calmness that his captor lacked. His voice was quite unemotional as he +said: + +“And how are you going to get me away from here?” + +“That's MY look out, and needn't trouble you, major; but, seein' as how +confidential you've been to me, I don't mind tellin' you. Last night +that posse of mine that you 'skunked,' you know, halted at the cross +roads till them sojers went by. They has only to SEE THEM to know that I +had got away. They'll hang round the cross roads till they see my signal +on top of the ridge, and then they'll make another show against that +pass. Your men will have their hands full, I reckon, without huntin' for +YOU, or noticin' the three men o' mine that will come along this ridge +where the sojers come yesterday--to help me get you down in the same +way. You see, major, your little trap in that gully ain't in this +fight--WE'RE THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. I ain't much of a sojer, but I +reckon I've got you there! And it's all owing to YOU. I ain't,” he added +gloomily, “takin' much pride in it MYSELF.” + +“I shouldn't think you would,” said the major, “and look here! I'll +double that offer I made you just now. Set me down just as I am on the +deck of some coasting vessel, and I'll pay you four thousand dollars. +You may have all the glory of having captured me, HERE, and of making +your word good before your posse. But you can arrange afterwards on the +way to let me give you the slip somewhere near Sacramento.” + +The sheriff's face actually brightened. “Thanks for that, major. I was +gettin' a little sick of my share in this job, but, by God, you've put +some sand in me. Well, then! there ain't gold enough in all Californy to +make me let you go. You hear me; so drop that. I've TOOK you, and TOOK +ye'll remain until I land you in Sacramento jail. I don't want to kill +you, though your life's forfeit a dozen times over, and I reckon you +don't care for it either way, but if you try any tricks on me I may have +to MAIM ye to make you come along comf'able and easy. I ain't hankerin' +arter THAT either, but come you shall!” + +“Give your signal and have an end of this,” said the major curtly. + +The sheriff looked at him again curiously. “I never had my hands in +another man's pockets before, major, but I reckon I'll have to take your +derringers from yours.” He slipped his hand into the major's waistcoat +and secured the weapons. “I'll have to trouble you for your sash, too,” + he said, unwinding the knitted silken girdle from the captive's waist. +“You won't want it, for you ain't walking, and it'll come in handy to me +just now.” + +He bent over, and, passing it across the major's breast with more +gentleness and solicitude than he had yet shown, secured him in an easy +sitting posture against the tree. Then, after carefully trying the knots +and straps that held his prisoner, he turned and lightly bounded up the +hill. + +He was absent scarcely ten minutes, yet when he returned the major's +eyes were half closed. But not his lips. “If you expect to hold me until +your posse comes you had better take me to some less exposed position,” + he said dryly. “There's a man just crossed the gully, coming into the +brush below in the wood.” + +“None of your tricks, major!” + +“Look for yourself.” + +The sheriff glanced quickly below him. A man with an axe on his shoulder +could be seen plainly making his way through the underbrush not a +hundred yards away. The sheriff instantly clapped his hand upon his +captive's mouth, but at a look from his eyes took it away again. + +“I see,” he said grimly, “you don't want to lure that man within reach +of my revolver by calling to him.” + +“I could have called him while you were away,” returned the major +quietly. + +The sheriff with a darkened face loosened the sash that bound his +prisoner to the tree, and then, lifting him in his arms, began to ascend +the hill cautiously, dipping into the heavier shadows. But the ascent +was difficult, the load a heavy one, and the sheriff was agile rather +than muscular. After a few minutes' climbing he was forced to pause and +rest his burden at the foot of a tree. But the valley and the man in the +underbrush were no longer in view. + +“Come,” said the major quietly, “unstrap my ankles and I'll WALK up. +We'll never get there at this rate.” + +The sheriff paused, wiped his grimy face with his grimier blouse, and +stood looking at his prisoner. Then he said slowly:-- + +“Look yer! Wot's your little game? Blessed if I kin follow suit.” + +For the first time the major burst into a rage. “Blast it all! Don't you +see that if I'm discovered HERE, in this way, there's not a man on the +Bar who would believe that I walked into your trap, not a man, by God, +who wouldn't think it was a trick of yours and mine together?” + +“Or,” interrupted the sheriff slowly, fixing his eyes on his prisoner, +“not a man who would ever trust Major Overstone for a leader again?” + +“Perhaps,” said the major, unmovedly again, “I don't think EITHER OF US +would ever get a chance of being trusted again by any one.” + +The sheriff still kept his eyes fixed on his prisoner, his gloomy face +growing darker under its grime. “THAT ain't the reason, major. Life and +death don't mean much more to you than they do to me in this yer game. I +know that you'd kill me quicker nor lightning if you got the chance; YOU +know that I'm takin' you to the gallows.” + +“The reason is that I want to leave Wynyard's Bar,” said the major +coolly; “and even this way out of it will suit me.” + +The sheriff took his revolver from his pocket and deliberately cocked +it. Then, leaning down, he unbuckled the strap from the major's ankles. +A wild hope that his incomprehensible captive might seize that moment to +develop his real intent--that he might fly, fight, or in some way act up +to his reckless reputation--sustained him for a moment, but in the next +proved futile. The major only said, “Thank you, Tom,” and stretched his +cramped legs. + +“Get up and go on,” said the sheriff roughly. + +The major began to slowly ascend the hill, the sheriff close on his +heels, alert, tingling, and watchful of every movement. For a few +moments this strain upon his faculties seemed to invigorate him, and his +gloom relaxed, but presently it became too evident that the prisoner's +pinioned arms made it impossible for him to balance or help himself on +that steep trail, and once or twice he stumbled and reeled dangerously +to one side. With an oath the sheriff caught him, and tore from his arms +the only remaining bonds that fettered him. “There!” he said savagely; +“go on; we're equal!” + +Without replying, the major continued his ascent; it became steeper +as they neared the crest, and at last they were both obliged to drag +themselves up by clutching the vines and underbrush. Suddenly the major +stopped with a listening gesture. A strange roaring--as of wind or +water--was distinctly audible. + +“How did you signal?” asked the major abruptly. + +“Made a smoke,” said the sheriff as abruptly. + +“I thought so--well! you've set the woods on fire.” + +They both plunged upwards again, now quite abreast, vying with each +other to reach the summit as if with the one thought only. Already the +sting and smart of acrid fumes were in their eyes and nostrils; when +they at last stood on level ground again, it was hidden by a thin film +of grayish blue haze that seemed to be creeping along it. But above +was the clear sky, seen through the interlacing boughs, and to +their surprise--they who had just come from the breathless, stagnant +hillside--a fierce wind was blowing! But the roaring was louder than +before. + +“Unless your three men are already here, your game is up,” said the +major calmly. “The wind blows dead along the ridge where they should +come, and they can't get through the smoke and fire.” + +It was indeed true! In the scarce twenty minutes that had elapsed since +the sheriff's return the dry and brittle underbrush for half a mile on +either side had been converted into a sheet of flame, which at times +rose to a furnace blast through the tall chimney-like conductors of tree +shafts, from whose shriveled sides bark was crackling, and lighted dead +limbs falling in all directions. The whole valley, the gully, the Bar, +the very hillside they had just left, were blotted out by a creeping, +stifling smoke-fog that scarcely rose breast high, but was beaten down +or cut off cleanly by the violent wind that swept the higher level +of the forest. At times this gale became a sirocco in temperature, +concentrating its heat in withering blasts which they could not face, or +focusing its intensity upon some mass of foliage that seemed to shrink +at its touch and open a scathed and quivering aisle to its approach. The +enormous skeleton of a dead and rotten redwood, not a hundred yards to +their right, broke suddenly like a gigantic firework into sparks and +flame. + +The sheriff had grasped the full meaning of their situation. In spite of +his first error--the very carelessness of familiarity--his knowledge +of woodcraft was greater than his companion's, and he saw their danger. +“Come,” he said quickly, “we must make for an opening or we shall be +caught.” + +The major smiled in misapprehension. + +“Who could catch us here?” + +The sheriff pointed to the blazing tree. + +“THAT,” he said. “In five minutes IT will have a posse that will wipe us +both out.” + +He caught the major by the arm and rushed him into the smoke, +apparently in the direction of the greatest mass of flame. The heat was +suffocating, but it struck the major that the more they approached the +actual scene of conflagration the heat and smoke became less, until he +saw that the fire was retreating before them and the following wind. +In a few moments their haven of safety--the expanse already burnt +over--came in sight. Here and there, seen dimly through the drifting +smoke, the scattered embers that still strewed the forest floor glowed +in weird nebulous spots like will-o'-the-wisps. For an instant the major +hesitated; the sheriff cast a significant glance behind them. + +“Go on; it's our only chance,” he said imperatively. + +They darted on, skimming the blackened or smouldering surface, which at +times struck out sparks and flame from their heavier footprints as they +passed. Their boots crackled and scorched beneath them; their shreds +of clothing were on fire; their breathing became more difficult, until, +providentially, they fell upon an abrupt, fissure-like depression of the +soil, which the fire had leaped, and into which they blindly plunged and +rolled together. A moment of relief and coolness followed, as they crept +along the fissure, filled with damp and rotting leaves. + +“Why not stay here?” said the exhausted prisoner. + +“And be roasted like sweet potatoes when these trees catch,” returned +the sheriff grimly. “No.” Even as he spoke, a dropping rain of +fire spattered through the leaves from a splintered redwood, before +overlooked, that was now blazing fiercely in the upper wind. A vague and +indefinable terror was in the air. The conflagration no longer seemed +to obey any rule of direction. The incendiary torch had passed +invisibly everywhere. They scrambled out of the hollow, and again dashed +desperately forward. + +Beaten, bruised, blackened, and smoke-grimed--looking less human than +the animals who had long since deserted the crest--they at last limped +into a “wind opening” in the woods that the fire had skirted. The major +sank exhaustedly to the ground; the sheriff threw himself beside him. +Their strange relations to each other seemed to have been forgotten; +they looked and acted as if they no longer thought of anything beyond +the present. And when the sheriff finally arose and, disappearing for +several minutes, brought his hat full of water for his prisoner from a +distant spring that they had passed in their flight, he found him where +he had left him--unchanged and unmoved. + +He took the water gratefully, and after a pause fixed his eyes earnestly +upon his captor. “I want you to do a favor to me,” he said slowly. “I'm +not going to offer you a bribe to do it either, nor ask you anything +that isn't in a line with your duty. I think I understand you now, if I +didn't before. Do you know Briggs's restaurant in Sacramento?” + +The sheriff nodded. + +“Well! over the restaurant are my private rooms, the finest in +Sacramento. Nobody knows it but Briggs, and he has never told. They've +been locked ever since I left; I've got the key still in my pocket. Now +when we get to Sacramento, instead of taking me straight to jail, I want +you to hold me THERE as your prisoner for a day and a night. I don't +want to get away; you can take what precautions you like--surround the +house with policemen, and sleep yourself in the ante-room. I don't want +to destroy any papers or evidence; you can go through the rooms and +examine everything before and after; I only want to stay there a day and +a night; I want to be in my old rooms, have my meals from the restaurant +as I used to, and sleep in my own bed once more. I want to live for one +day like a gentleman, as I used to live before I came here. That's all! +It isn't much, Tom. You can do it and say you require to do it to get +evidence against me, or that you want to search the rooms.” + +The expression of wonder which had come into the sheriff's face at +the beginning of this speech deepened into his old look of surly +dissatisfaction. “And that's all ye want?” he said gloomily. “Ye don't +want no friends--no lawyer? For I tell you, straight out, major, there +ain't no hope for ye, when the law once gets hold of ye in Sacramento.” + +“That's all. Will you do it?” + +The sheriff's face grew still darker. After a pause he said: “I don't +say 'no,' and I don't say 'yes.' But,” he added grimly, “it strikes me +we'd better wait till we get clear o' these woods afore you think o' +your Sacramento lodgings.” + +The major did not reply. The day had worn on, but the fire, now +completely encircling them, opposed any passage in or out of that +fateful barrier. The smoke of the burning underbrush hung low around +them in a bank equally impenetrable to vision. They were as alone as +shipwrecked sailors on an island, girded by a horizon of clouds. + +“I'm going to try to sleep,” said the major; “if your men come you can +waken me.” + +“And if YOUR men come?” said the sheriff dryly. + +“Shoot me.” + +He lay down, closed his eyes, and to the sheriff's astonishment +presently fell asleep. The sheriff, with his chin in his grimy hands, +sat and watched him as the day slowly darkened around them and the +distant fires came out in more lurid intensity. The face of the captive +and outlawed murderer was singularly peaceful; that of the captor and +man of duty was haggard, wild, and perplexed. + +But even this changed soon. The sleeping man stirred restlessly and +uneasily; his face began to work, his lips to move. “Tom,” he gasped +suddenly, “Tom!” + +The sheriff bent over him eagerly. The sleeping man's eyes were still +closed; beads of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was dreaming. + +“Tom,” he whispered, “take me out of this place--take me out from +these dogs and pimps and beggars! Listen, Tom!--they're Sydney ducks, +ticket-of-leave men, short card sharps, and sneak thieves! There isn't a +gentleman among 'em! There isn't one I don't loathe and hate--and would +grind under my heel, elsewhere. I'm a gentleman, Tom--yes, by God--an +officer and a gentleman! I've served my country in the 9th Cavalry. +That cub of West Point knows it and despises me, seeing me here in such +company. That sergeant knows it--I recommended him for his first stripes +for all he taunts me,--d--n him!” + +“Come, wake up!” said the sheriff harshly. + +The prisoner did not heed him; the sheriff shook him roughly, so roughly +that the major's waistcoat and shirt dragged open, disclosing his fine +silk undershirt, delicately worked and embroidered with golden thread. +At the sight of this abased and faded magnificence the sheriff's hand +was stayed; his eye wandered over the sleeping form before him. Yes, the +hair was dyed too; near the roots it was quite white and grizzled; the +pomatum was coming off the pointed moustache and imperial; the face in +the light was very haggard; the lines from the angles of the nostril and +mouth were like deep, half-healed gashes. The major was, without doubt, +prematurely worn and played out. + +The sheriff's persistent eyes, however, seemed to effect what his ruder +hand could not. The sleeping man stirred, awoke to full consciousness, +and sat up. + +“Are they here? I'm ready,” he said calmly. + +“No,” said the sheriff deliberately; “I only woke ye to say that I've +been thinkin' over what ye asked me, and if we get to Sacramento all +right, why, I'll do it and give ye that day and night at your old +lodgings.” + +“Thank you.” + +The major reached out his hand; the sheriff hesitated, and then extended +his own. The hands of the two men clasped for the first, and it would +seem, the last time. + +For the “cub of West Point” was, like most cubs, irritable when +thwarted. And having been balked of his prey, the deserter, and possibly +chaffed by his comrades for his profitless invasion of Wynyard's Bar, he +had persuaded his commanding officer to give him permission to effect a +recapture. Thus it came about that at dawn, filing along the ridge, on +the outskirts of the fire, his heart was gladdened by the sight of +the half-breed--with his hanging haversack belt and tattered army +tunic--evidently still a fugitive, not a hundred yards away on the other +side of the belt of fire, running down the hill with another ragged +figure at his side. The command to “halt” was enforced by a single rifle +shot over the fugitives' heads--but they still kept on their flight. +Then the boy-officer snatched a carbine from one of his men, a volley +rang out from the little troop--the shots of the privates mercifully +high, those of the officer and sergeant leveled with wounded pride and +full of deliberate purpose. The half-breed fell; so did his companion, +and, rolling over together, both lay still. + +But between the hunters and their fallen quarry reared a cheval de +frise of flame and fallen timber impossible to cross. The young officer +hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, wheeled his men about, and left the +fire to correct any irregularity in his action. + +It did not, however, change contemporaneous history, for a week later, +when Wynyard's Bar discovered Major Overstone lying beside the man now +recognized by them as the disguised sheriff of Siskyou, they rejoiced at +this unfailing evidence of their lost leader's unequaled prowess. That +he had again killed a sheriff and fought a whole posse, yielding only +with his life, was never once doubted, and kept his memory green in +Sierran chronicles long after Wynyard's Bar had itself become a memory. + + + + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE. + + +The American consul at St. Kentigern stepped gloomily from the train at +Whistlecrankie station. For the last twenty minutes his spirits had been +slowly sinking before the drifting procession past the carriage windows +of dull gray and brown hills--mammiform in shape, but so cold and +sterile in expression that the swathes of yellow mist which lay in +their hollows, like soiled guipure, seemed a gratuitous affectation of +modesty. And when the train moved away, mingling its escaping steam +with the slower mists of the mountain, he found himself alone on the +platform--the only passenger and apparently the sole occupant of the +station. He was gazing disconsolately at his trunk, which had taken upon +itself a human loneliness in the emptiness of the place, when a railway +porter stepped out of the solitary signal-box, where he had evidently +been performing a double function, and lounged with exasperating +deliberation towards him. He was a hard-featured man, with a thin fringe +of yellow-gray whiskers that met under his chin like dirty strings to +tie his cap on with. + +“Ye'll be goin' to Glenbogie House, I'm thinkin'?” he said moodily. + +The consul said that he was. + +“I kenned it. Ye'll no be gettin' any machine to tak' ye there. They'll +be sending a carriage for ye--if ye're EXPECTED.” He glanced half +doubtfully at the consul as if he was not quite so sure of it. + +But the consul believed he WAS expected, and felt relieved at the +certain prospect of a conveyance. The porter meanwhile surveyed him +moodily. + +“Ye'll be seein' Mistress MacSpadden there!” + +The consul was surprised into a little over-consciousness. Mrs. +MacSpadden was a vivacious acquaintance at St. Kentigern, whom he +certainly--and not without some satisfaction--expected to meet at +Glenbogie House. He raised his eyes inquiringly to the porter's. + +“Ye'll no be rememberin' me. I had a machine in St. Kentigern and drove +ye to MacSpadden's ferry often. Far, far too often! She's a strange +flagrantitious creature; her husband's but a puir fule, I'm thinkin', +and ye did yersel' nae guid gaunin' there.” + +It was a besetting weakness of the consul's that his sense of the +ludicrous was too often reached before his more serious perceptions. The +absurd combination of the bleak, inhospitable desolation before him, and +the sepulchral complacency of his self-elected monitor, quite upset his +gravity. + +“Ay, ye'll be laughin' THE NOO,” returned the porter with gloomy +significance. + +The consul wiped his eyes. “Still,” he said demurely, “I trust you won't +object to my giving you sixpence to carry my box to the carriage when +it comes, and let the morality of this transaction devolve entirely +upon me. Unless,” he continued, even more gravely, as a spick and span +brougham, drawn by two thoroughbreds, dashed out of the mist up to +the platform, “unless you prefer to state the case to those two +gentlemen”--pointing to the smart coachman and footman on the box--“and +take THEIR opinion as to the propriety of my proceeding any further. +It seems to me that their consciences ought to be consulted as well +as yours. I'm only a stranger here, and am willing to do anything to +conform to the local custom.” + +“It's a saxpence ye'll be payin' anyway,” said the porter, grimly +shouldering the trunk, “but I'll be no takin' any other mon's opinion on +matters of my am dooty and conscience.” + +“Ah,” said the consul gravely, “then you'll perhaps be allowing ME the +same privilege.” + +The porter's face relaxed, and a gleam of approval--purely intellectual, +however,--came into his eyes. + +“Ye were always a smooth deevel wi' your tongue, Mr. Consul,” he said, +shouldering the box and walking off to the carriage. + +Nevertheless, as soon as he was fairly seated and rattling away from the +station, the consul had a flashing conviction that he had not only +been grievously insulted but also that he had allowed the wife of an +acquaintance to be spoken of disrespectfully in his presence. And he had +done nothing! Yes--it was like him!--he had LAUGHED at the absurdity of +the impertinence without resenting it! Another man would have slapped +the porter's face! For an instant he hung out of the carriage window, +intent upon ordering the coachman to drive back to the station, but the +reflection--again a ludicrous one--that he would now be only bringing +witnesses to a scene which might provoke a scandal more invidious to his +acquaintance, checked him in time. But his spirits, momentarily diverted +by the porter's effrontery, sunk to a lower ebb than before. + +The clattering of his horses' hoofs echoed back from the rocky walls +that occasionally hemmed in the road was not enlivening, but was less +depressing than the recurring monotony of the open. The scenery did not +suggest wildness to his alien eyes so much as it affected him with a +vague sense of scorbutic impoverishment. It was not the loneliness of +unfrequented nature, for there was a well-kept carriage road traversing +its dreariness; and even when the hillside was clothed with scanty +verdure, there were “outcrops” of smooth glistening weather-worn rocks +showing like bare brown knees under the all too imperfectly kilted +slopes. And at a little distance, lifting above a black drift of firs, +were the square rigid sky lines of Glenbogie House, standing starkly +against the cold, lingering northern twilight. As the vehicle turned, +and rolled between two square stone gate-posts, the long avenue before +him, though as well kept as the road, was but a slight improvement upon +the outer sterility, and the dark iron-gray rectangular mansion beyond, +guiltless of external decoration, even to the outlines of its small +lustreless windows, opposed the grim inhospitable prospect with an +equally grim inhospitable front. There were a few moments more of rapid +driving, a swift swishing over soft gravel, the opening of a heavy +door into a narrow vestibule, and then--a sudden sense of exquisitely +diffused light and warmth from an arched and galleried central hall, the +sounds of light laughter and subdued voices half lost in the airy space +between the lofty pictured walls; the luxury of color in trophies, +armor, and hangings; one or two careless groups before the recessed +hearth or at the centre table, and the halted figure of a pretty woman +on the broad, slow staircase. The contrast was sharp, ironical, and +bewildering. + +So much so that the consul, when he had followed the servant to his +room, was impelled to draw aside the heavy window-curtains and look out +again upon the bleak prospect it had half obliterated. The wing in which +he was placed overhung a dark ravine or gully choked with shrubs and +brambles that grew in a new luxuriance. As he gazed a large black bird +floated upwards slowly from its depths, circled around the house with a +few quick strokes of its wing, and then sped away--a black bolt--in one +straight undeviating line towards the paling north. He still gazed into +the abyss--half expecting another, even fancying he heard the occasional +stir and flutter of obscure life below, and the melancholy call of +nightfowl. A long-forgotten fragment of old English verse began to haunt +him-- + + Hark! the raven flaps hys wing + In the briered dell belowe, + Hark! the dethe owl loude doth synge + To the night maers as thaie goe. + +“Now, what put that stuff in my head?” he said as he turned impatiently +from the window. “And why does this house, with all its interior luxury, +hypocritically oppose such a forbidding front to its neighbors?” Then +it occurred to him that perhaps the architect instinctively felt that +a more opulent and elaborate exterior would only bring the poverty of +surrounding nature into greater relief. But he was not in the habit of +troubling himself with abstruse problems. A nearer recollection of the +pretty frock he had seen on the staircase--in whose wearer he had +just recognized his vivacious friend--turned his thoughts to her. He +remembered how at their first meeting he had been interested in her +bright audacity, unconventionality, and high spirits, which did not, +however, amuse him as greatly as his later suspicion that she was +playing a self-elected role, often with difficulty, opposition, and +feverishness, rather than spontaneity. He remembered how he had watched +her in the obtrusive assumption of a new fashion, in some reckless +departure from an old one, or in some ostentatious disregard of certain +hard and set rules of St. Kentigern; but that it never seemed to him +that she was the happier for it. He even fancied that her mirth at such +times had an undue nervousness; that her pluck--which was undoubted--had +something of the defiance of despair, and that her persistence often had +the grimness of duty rather than the thoughtlessness of pure amusement. +What was she trying to do?--what was she trying to UNDO or forget? Her +married life was apparently happy and even congenial. Her young husband +was clever, complaisant, yet honestly devoted to her, even to the +extension of a certain camaraderie to her admirers and a chivalrous +protection by half-participation in her maddest freaks. Nor could he +honestly say that her attitude towards his own sex--although marked by a +freedom that often reached the verge of indiscretion--conveyed the least +suggestion of passion or sentiment. The consul, more perceptive than +analytical, found her a puzzle--who was, perhaps, the least mystifying +to others who were content to sum up her eccentricities under the single +vague epithet, “fast.” Most women disliked her: she had a few associates +among them, but no confidante, and even these were so unlike her, +again, as to puzzle him still more. And yet he believed himself strictly +impartial. + +He walked to the window again, and looked down upon the ravine from +which the darkness now seemed to be slowly welling up and obliterating +the landscape, and then, taking a book from his valise, settled himself +in the easy-chair by the fire. He was in no hurry to join the party +below, whom he had duly recognized and greeted as he passed through. +They or their prototypes were familiar friends. There was the recently +created baronet, whose “bloody hand” had apparently wiped out the +stains of his earlier Radicalism, and whose former provincial +self-righteousness had been supplanted by an equally provincial +skepticism; there was his wife, who through all the difficulties of +her changed position had kept the stalwart virtues of the Scotch +bourgeoisie, and was--“decent”; there were the two native lairds that +reminded him of “parts of speech,” one being distinctly alluded to as +a definite article, and the other being “of” something, and apparently +governed always by that possessive case. There were two or three +“workers”--men of power and ability in their several vocations; indeed, +there was the general over-proportion of intellect, characteristic of +such Scotch gatherings, and often in excess of minor social qualities. +There was the usual foreigner, with Latin quickness, eagerness, +and misapprehending adaptability. And there was the solitary +Englishman--perhaps less generously equipped than the others--whom +everybody differed from, ridiculed, and then looked up to and imitated. +There were the half-dozen smartly frocked women, who, far from being +the females of the foregoing species, were quite indistinctive, with +the single exception of an American wife, who was infinitely more Scotch +than her Scotch husband. + +Suddenly he became aware of a faint rustling at his door, and what +seemed to be a slight tap on the panel. He rose and opened it--the long +passage was dark and apparently empty, but he fancied he could detect +the quick swish of a skirt in the distance. As he re-entered his room, +his eye fell for the first time on a rose whose stalk was thrust through +the keyhole of his door. The consul smiled at this amiable solution of a +mystery. It was undoubtedly the playful mischievousness of the vivacious +MacSpadden. He placed it in water--intending to wear it in his coat at +dinner as a gentle recognition of the fair donor's courtesy. + +Night had thickened suddenly as from a passing cloud. He lit the two +candles on his dressing-table, gave a glance into the now scarcely +distinguishable abyss below his window, as he drew the curtains, and by +the more diffused light for the first time surveyed his room critically. +It was a larger apartment than that usually set aside for bachelors; +the heavy four-poster had a conjugal reserve about it, and a tall cheval +glass and certain minor details of the furniture suggested that it had +been used for a married couple. He knew that the guest-rooms in country +houses, as in hotels, carried no suggestion or flavor of the last +tenant, and therefore lacked color and originality, and he was +consequently surprised to find himself impressed with some distinctly +novel atmosphere. He was puzzling himself to discover what it might +be, when he again became aware of cautious footsteps apparently halting +outside his door. This time he was prepared. With a half smile he +stepped softly to the door and opened it suddenly. To his intense +surprise he was face to face with a man. + +But his discomfiture was as nothing compared to that of the +stranger--whom he at once recognized as one of his fellow-guests--the +youthful Laird of Whistlecrankie. The young fellow's healthy color at +once paled, then flushed a deep crimson, and a forced smile stiffened +his mouth. + +“I--beg your par-r-rdon,” he said with a nervous brusqueness that +brought out his accent. “I couldna find ma room. It'll be changed, and +I--” + +“Perhaps I have got it,” interrupted the consul smilingly. “I've only +just come, and they've put me in here.” + +“Nae! Nae!” said the young man hurriedly, “it's no' thiss. That is, it's +no' mine noo.” + +“Won't you come in?” suggested the consul politely, holding open the +door. + +The young man entered the room with the quick strides but the mechanical +purposelessness of embarrassment. Then he stiffened and stood erect. Yet +in spite of all this he was strikingly picturesque and unconventional in +his Highland dress, worn with the freedom of long custom and a +certain lithe, barbaric grace. As the consul continued to gaze at him +encouragingly, the quick resentful pride of a shy man suddenly mantled +his high cheekbones, and with an abrupt “I'll not deesturb ye longer,” + he strode out of the room. + +The consul watched the easy swing of his figure down the passage, and +then closed the door. “Delightful creature,” he said musingly, “and not +so very unlike an Apache chief either! But what was he doing outside +my door? And was it HE who left that rose--not as a delicate Highland +attention to an utter stranger, but”--the consul's mouth suddenly +expanded--“to some fair previous occupant? Or was it really HIS room--he +looked as if he were lying--and”--here the consul's mouth expanded even +more wickedly--“and Mrs. MacSpadden had put the flower there for him.” + This implied snub to his vanity was, however, more than compensated by +his wicked anticipation of the pretty perplexity of his fair friend when +HE should appear at dinner with the flower in his own buttonhole. It +would serve her right, the arrant flirt! But here he was interrupted by +the entrance of a tall housemaid with his hot water. + +“I am afraid I've dispossessed Mr.--Mr.--Kilcraithie rather +prematurely,” said the consul lightly. + +To his infinite surprise the girl answered with grim decision, “Nane too +soon.” + +The consul stared. “I mean,” he explained, “that I found him hesitating +here in the passage, looking for his room.” + +“Ay, he's always hoaverin' and glowerin' in the passages--but it's no' +for his ROOM! And it's a deesgrace to decent Christian folk his carryin' +on wi' married weemen--mebbee they're nae better than he!” + +“That will do,” said the consul curtly. He had no desire to encourage a +repetition of the railway porter's freedom. + +“Ye'll no fash yoursel' aboot HIM,” continued the girl, without heeding +the rebuff. “It's no' the meestreess' wish that he's keepit here in the +wing reserved for married folk, and she's no' sorry for the excuse to +pit ye in his place. Ye'll be married yoursel', I'm hearin'. But, I ken +ye's nae mair to be lippened tae for THAT.” + +This was too much for the consul's gravity. “I'm afraid,” he said with +diplomatic gayety, “that although I am married, as I haven't my wife +with me, I've no right to this superior accommodation and comfort. But +you can assure your mistress that I'll try to deserve them.” + +“Ay,” said the girl, but with no great confidence in her voice as she +grimly quitted the room. + +“When our foot's upon our native heath, whether our name's Macgregor or +Kilcraithie, it would seem that we must tread warily,” mused the consul +as he began to dress. “But I'm glad she didn't see that rose, or MY +reputation would have been ruined.” Here another knock at the door +arrested him. He opened it impatiently to a tall gillie, who instantly +strode into the room. There was such another suggestion of Kilcraithie +in the man and his manner that the consul instantly divined that he was +Kilcraithie's servant. + +“I'll be takin' some bit things that yon Whistlecrankie left,” said the +gillie gravely, with a stolid glance around the room. + +“Certainly,” said the consul; “help yourself.” He continued his dressing +as the man began to rummage in the empty drawers. The consul had his +back towards him, but, looking in the glass of the dressing-table, he +saw that the gillie was stealthily watching him. Suddenly he passed +before the mantelpiece and quickly slipped the rose from its glass into +his hand. + +“I'll trouble you to put that back,” said the consul quietly, without +turning round. The gillie slid a quick glance towards the door, but the +consul was before him. “I don't think THAT was left by your master,” he +said in an ostentatiously calm voice, for he was conscious of an absurd +and inexplicable tumult in his blood, “and perhaps you'd better put it +back.” + +The man looked at the flower with an attention that might have been +merely ostentatious, and replaced it in the glass. + +“A thocht it was hiss.” + +“And I think it isn't,” said the consul, opening the door. + +Yet when the man had passed out he was by no means certain that the +flower was not Kilcraithie's. He was even conscious that if the young +Laird had approached him with a reasonable explanation or appeal he +would have yielded it up. Yet here he was--looking angrily pale in the +glass, his eyes darker than they should be, and with an unmistakable +instinct to do battle for this idiotic gage! Was there some morbid +disturbance in the air that was affecting him as it had Kilcraithie? +He tried to laugh, but catching sight of its sardonic reflection in +the glass became grave again. He wondered if the gillie had been +really looking for anything his master had left--he had certainly TAKEN +nothing. He opened one or two of the drawers, and found only a woman's +tortoiseshell hairpin--overlooked by the footman when he had emptied +them for the consul's clothes. It had been probably forgotten by some +fair and previous tenant to Kilcraithie. The consul looked at his +watch--it was time to go down. He grimly pinned the fateful flower in +his buttonhole, and half-defiantly descended to the drawing-room. + +Here, however, he was inclined to relax when, from a group of pretty +women, the bright gray eyes of Mrs. MacSpadden caught his, were suddenly +diverted to the lapel of his coat, and then leaped up to his again with +a sparkle of mischief. But the guests were already pairing off in dinner +couples, and as they passed out of the room, he saw that she was on the +arm of Kilcraithie. Yet, as she passed him, she audaciously turned her +head, and in a mischievous affectation of jealous reproach, murmured:-- + +“So soon!” + +At dinner she was too far removed for any conversation with him, +although from his seat by his hostess he could plainly see her saucy +profile midway up the table. But, to his surprise, her companion, +Kilcraithie, did not seem to be responding to her gayety. By turns +abstracted and feverish, his glances occasionally wandered towards the +end of the table where the consul was sitting. For a few moments he +believed that the affair of the flower, combined, perhaps, with the +overhearing of Mrs. MacSpadden's mischievous sentence, rankled in the +Laird's barbaric soul. But he became presently aware that Kilcraithie's +eyes eventually rested upon a quiet-looking blonde near the hostess. Yet +the lady not only did not seem to be aware of it, but her face was more +often turned towards the consul, and their eyes had once or twice met. +He had been struck by the fact that they were half-veiled but singularly +unimpassioned eyes, with a certain expression of cold wonderment and +criticism quite inconsistent with their veiling. Nor was he surprised +when, after a preliminary whispering over the plates, his hostess +presented him. The lady was the young wife of the middle-aged dignitary +who, seated further down the table, opposite Mrs. MacSpadden, was +apparently enjoying that lady's wildest levities. The consul bowed, the +lady leaned a little forward. + +“We were saying what a lovely rose you had.” + +The consul's inward response was “Hang that flower!” His outward +expression was the modest query:-- + +“Is it SO peculiar?” + +“No; but it's very pretty. Would you allow me to see it?” + +Disengaging the flower from his buttonhole he handed it to her. Oddly +enough, it seemed to him that half the table was watching and listening +to them. Suddenly the lady uttered a little cry. “Dear me! it's full +of thorns; of course you picked and arranged it yourself, for any lady +would have wrapped something around the stalk!” + +But here there was a burlesque outcry and a good-humored protest from +the gentlemen around her against this manifestly leading question. “It's +no fair! Ye'll not answer her--for the dignity of our sex.” Yet in the +midst of it, it suddenly occurred to the consul that there HAD been a +slip of paper wrapped around it, which had come off and remained in the +keyhole. The blue eyes of the lady were meanwhile sounding his, but he +only smiled and said:-- + +“Then it seems it IS peculiar?” + +When the conversation became more general he had time to observe other +features of the lady than her placid eyes. Her light hair was very long, +and grew low down the base of her neck. Her mouth was firm, the upper +lip slightly compressed in a thin red line, but the lower one, although +equally precise at the corners, became fuller in the centre and turned +over like a scarlet leaf, or, as it struck him suddenly, like the +tell-tale drop of blood on the mouth of a vampire. Yet she was +very composed, practical, and decorous, and as the talk grew more +animated--and in the vicinity of Mrs. MacSpadden, more audacious--she +kept a smiling reserve of expression,--which did not, however, prevent +her from following that lively lady, whom she evidently knew, with a +kind of encouraging attention. + +“Kate is in full fling to-night,” she said to the hostess. Lady +Macquoich smiled ambiguously--so ambiguously that the consul thought it +necessary to interfere for his friend. “She seems to say what most of +us think, but I am afraid very few of us could voice as innocently,” he +smilingly suggested. + +“She is a great friend of yours,” returned the lady, looking at him +through her half-veiled lids. “She has made us quite envy her.” + +“And I am afraid made it impossible for ME to either sufficiently thank +her or justify her taste,” he said quietly. Yet he was vexed at an +unaccountable resentment which had taken possession of him--who but a +few hours before had only laughed at the porter's criticism. + +After the ladies had risen, the consul with an instinct of sympathy was +moving up towards “Jock” MacSpadden, who sat nearer the host, when he +was stopped midway of the table by the dignitary who had sat opposite +to Mrs. MacSpadden. “Your frien' is maist amusing wi' her audacious +tongue--ay, and her audacious ways,” he said with large official +patronage; “and we've enjoyed her here immensely, but I hae mae doots +if mae Leddy Macquoich taks as kindly to them. You and I--men of the +wurrld, I may say--we understand them for a' their worth; ay!--ma wife +too, with whom I observed ye speakin'--is maist tolerant of her, but +man! it's extraordinar'”--he lowered his voice slightly--“that yon +husband of hers does na' check her freedoms with Kilcraithie. I wadna' +say anythin' was wrong, ye ken, but is he no' over confident and +conceited aboot his wife?” + +“I see you don't know him,” said the consul smilingly, “and I'd be +delighted to make you acquainted. Jock,” he continued, raising his +voice as he turned towards MacSpadden, “let me introduce you to Sir +Alan Deeside, who don't know YOU, although he's a great admirer of your +wife;” and unheeding the embarrassed protestations of Sir Alan and the +laughing assertions of Jock that they were already acquainted, he moved +on beside his host. That hospitable knight, who had been airing his +knowledge of London smart society to his English guest with a singular +mixture of assertion and obsequiousness, here stopped short. “Ay, sit +down, laddie, it was so guid of ye to come, but I'm thinkin' at your end +of the table ye lost the bit fun of Mistress MacSpadden. Eh, but she was +unco' lively to-night. 'Twas all Kilcraithie could do to keep her from +proposin' your health with Hieland honors, and offerin' to lead off with +her ain foot on the table! Ay, and she'd ha' done it. And that's a +braw rose she's been givin' ye--and ye got out of it claverly wi' Lady +Deeside.” + +When he left the table with the others to join the ladies, the same +unaccountable feeling of mingled shyness and nervous irascibility still +kept possession of him. He felt that in his present mood he could not +listen to any further criticisms of his friend without betraying some +unwonted heat, and as his companions filed into the drawing-room he +slipped aside in the hope of recovering his equanimity by a few moments' +reflection in his own room. He glided quickly up the staircase and +entered the corridor. The passage that led to his apartment was quite +dark, especially before his door, which was in a bay that really ended +the passage. He was consequently surprised and somewhat alarmed at +seeing a shadowy female figure hovering before it. He instinctively +halted; the figure became more distinct from some luminous halo that +seemed to encompass it. It struck him that this was only the light of +his fire thrown through his open door, and that the figure was probably +that of a servant before it, who had been arranging his room. He started +forward again, but at the sound of his advancing footsteps the figure +and the luminous glow vanished, and he arrived blankly face to face with +his own closed door. He looked around the dim bay; it was absolutely +vacant. It was equally impossible for any one to have escaped +without passing him. There was only his room left. A half-nervous, +half-superstitious thrill crept over him as he suddenly grasped the +handle of the door and threw it open. The leaping light of his fire +revealed its emptiness: no one was there! He lit the candle and peered +behind the curtains and furniture and under the bed; the room was as +vacant and undisturbed as when he left it. + +Had it been a trick of his senses or a bona-fide apparition? He had +never heard of a ghost at Glenbogie--the house dated back some +fifty years; Sir John Macquoich's tardy knighthood carried no such +impedimenta. He looked down wonderingly on the flower in his buttonhole. +Was there something uncanny in that innocent blossom? But here he was +struck by another recollection, and examined the keyhole of his door. +With the aid of the tortoiseshell hairpin he dislodged the paper he had +forgotten. It was only a thin spiral strip, apparently the white outer +edge of some newspaper, and it certainly seemed to be of little service +as a protection against the thorns of the rose-stalk. He was holding it +over the fire, about to drop it into the blaze, when the flame revealed +some pencil-marks upon it. Taking it to the candle he read, deeply +bitten into the paper by a hard pencil-point: “At half-past one.” + There was nothing else--no signature; but the handwriting was NOT Mrs. +MacSpadden's! + +Then whose? Was it that of the mysterious figure whom he had just seen? +Had he been selected as the medium of some spiritual communication, and, +perhaps, a ghostly visitation later on? Or was he the victim of some +clever trick? He had once witnessed such dubious attempts to relieve the +monotony of a country house. He again examined the room carefully, but +without avail. Well! the mystery or trick would be revealed at half-past +one. It was a somewhat inconvenient hour, certainly. He looked down at +the baleful gift in his buttonhole, and for a moment felt inclined +to toss it in the fire. But this was quickly followed by his former +revulsion of resentment and defiance. No! he would wear it, no matter +what happened, until its material or spiritual owner came for it. He +closed the door and returned to the drawing-room. + +Midway of the staircase he heard the droning of pipes. There was dancing +in the drawing-room to the music of the gorgeous piper who had marshaled +them to dinner. He was not sorry, as he had no inclination to talk, and +the one confidence he had anticipated with Mrs. MacSpadden was out of +the question now. He had no right to reveal his later discovery. He +lingered a few moments in the hall. The buzzing of the piper's drones +gave him that impression of confused and blindly aggressive intoxication +which he had often before noticed in this barbaric instrument, and had +always seemed to him as the origin of its martial inspiration. From this +he was startled by voices and steps in the gallery he had just +quitted, but which came from the opposite direction to his room. It was +Kilcraithie and Mrs. MacSpadden. As she caught sight of him, he fancied +she turned slightly and aggressively pale, with a certain hardening of +her mischievous eyes. Nevertheless, she descended the staircase +more deliberately than her companion, who brushed past him with an +embarrassed self-consciousness, quite in advance of her. She lingered +for an instant. + +“You are not dancing?” she said. + +“No.” + +“Perhaps you are more agreeably employed?” + +“At this exact moment, certainly.” + +She cast a disdainful glance at him, crossed the hall, and followed +Kilcraithie. + +“Hang me, if I understand it all!” mused the consul, by no means +good-humoredly. “Does she think I have been spying upon her and her +noble chieftain? But it's just as well that I didn't tell her anything.” + +He turned to follow them. In the vestibule he came upon a figure which +had halted before a large pier-glass. He recognized M. Delfosse, the +French visitor, complacently twisting the peak of his Henri Quatre +beard. He would have passed without speaking, but the Frenchman glanced +smilingly at the consul and his buttonhole. Again the flower! + +“Monsieur is decore,” he said gallantly. + +The consul assented, but added, not so gallantly, that though they were +not in France he might still be unworthy of it. The baleful flower had +not improved his temper. Nor did the fact that, as he entered the room, +he thought the people stared at him--until he saw that their attention +was directed to Lady Deeside, who had entered almost behind him. From +his hostess, who had offered him a seat beside her, he gathered that +M. Delfosse and Kilcraithie had each temporarily occupied his room, but +that they had been transferred to the other wing, apart from the married +couples and young ladies, because when they came upstairs from +the billiard and card room late, they sometimes disturbed the fair +occupants. No!--there were no ghosts at Glenbogie. Mysterious footsteps +had sometimes been heard in the ladies' corridor, but--with peculiar +significance--she was AFRAID they could be easily accounted for. Sir +Alan, whose room was next to the MacSpaddens', had been disturbed by +them. + +He was glad when it was time to escape to the billiard-room and tobacco. +For a while he forgot the evening's adventure, but eventually found +himself listening to a discussion--carried on over steaming tumblers of +toddy--in regard to certain predispositions of the always debatable sex. + +“Ye'll not always judge by appearances,” said Sir Alan. “Ye'll mind the +story o' the meenester's wife of Aiblinnoch. It was thocht that she +was ower free wi' one o' the parishioners--ay! it was the claish o' the +whole kirk, while none dare tell the meenester hisself--bein' a bookish, +simple, unsuspectin' creeter. At last one o' the elders bethocht him of +a bit plan of bringing it home to the wife, through the gospel lips +of her ain husband! So he intimated to the meenester his suspicions +of grievous laxity amang the female flock, and of the necessity of a +special sermon on the Seventh Command. The puir man consented--although +he dinna ken why and wherefore--and preached a gran' sermon! Ay, man! it +was crammed wi' denunciation and an emptyin' o' the vials o' wrath! The +congregation sat dumb as huddled sheep--when they were no' starin' and +gowpin' at the meenester's wife settin' bolt upright in her place. And +then, when the air was blue wi' sulphur frae tae pit, the meenester's +wife up rises! Man! Ivry eye was spearin' her--ivry lug was prickt +towards her! And she goes out in the aisle facin' the meenester, and--” + +Sir Alan paused. + +“And what?” demanded the eager auditory. + +“She pickit up the elder's wife, sobbin' and tearin' her hair in strong +hysterics.” + +At the end of a relieved pause Sir Alan slowly concluded: “It was said +that the elder removed frae Aiblinnoch wi' his wife, but no' till he had +effected a change of meenesters.” + +It was already past midnight, and the party had dropped off one by one, +with the exception of Deeside, Macquoich, the young Englishman, and a +Scotch laird, who were playing poker--an amusement which he understood +they frequently protracted until three in the morning. It was nearly +time for him to expect his mysterious visitant. Before he went upstairs +he thought he would take a breath of the outer evening air, and throwing +a mackintosh over his shoulders, passed out of the garden door of the +billiard-room. To his surprise it gave immediately upon the fringe of +laurel that hung over the chasm. + +It was quite dark; the few far-spread stars gave scarcely any light, +and the slight auroral glow towards the north was all that outlined the +fringe of the abyss, which might have proved dangerous to any unfamiliar +wanderer. A damp breath of sodden leaves came from its depths. Beside +him stretched the long dark facade of the wing he inhabited, his own +window the only one that showed a faint light. A few paces beyond, a +singular structure of rustic wood and glass, combining the peculiarities +of a sentry-box, a summer-house, and a shelter, was built against the +blank wall of the wing. He imagined the monotonous prospect from +its windows of the tufted chasm, the coldly profiled northern hills +beyond,--and shivered. A little further on, sunk in the wall like a +postern, was a small door that evidently gave easy egress to seekers +of this stern retreat. In the still air a faint grating sound like the +passage of a foot across gravel came to him as from the distance. He +paused, thinking he had been followed by one of the card-players, but +saw no one, and the sound was not repeated. + +It was past one. He re-entered the billiard-room, passed the unchanged +group of card-players, and taking a candlestick from the hall ascended +the dark and silent staircase into the corridor. The light of his candle +cast a flickering halo around him--but did not penetrate the gloomy +distance. He at last halted before his door, gave a scrutinizing glance +around the embayed recess, and opened the door half expectantly. But the +room was empty as he had left it. + +It was a quarter past one. He threw himself on the bed without +undressing, and fixed his eyes alternately on the door and his watch. +Perhaps the unwonted seriousness of his attitude struck him, but a +sudden sense of the preposterousness of the whole situation, of his +solemnly ridiculous acceptance of a series of mere coincidences as +a foregone conclusion, overcame him, and he laughed. But in the same +breath he stopped. + +There WERE footsteps approaching--cautious footsteps--but not at his +door! They were IN THE ROOM--no! in the WALL just behind him! They were +descending some staircase at the back of his bed--he could hear the +regular tap of a light slipper from step to step and the rustle of +a skirt seemingly in his very ear. They were becoming less and less +distinct--they were gone! He sprang to his feet, but almost at the +same instant he was conscious of a sudden chill--that seemed to him +as physical as it was mental. The room was slowly suffused with a cool +sodden breath and the dank odor of rotten leaves. He looked at the +candle--its flame was actually deflecting in this mysterious blast. +It seemed to come from a recess for hanging clothes topped by a heavy +cornice and curtain. He had examined it before, but he drew the +curtain once more aside. The cold current certainly seemed to be more +perceptible there. He felt the red-clothed backing of the interior, +and his hand suddenly grasped a doorknob. It turned, and the whole +structure--cornice and curtains--swung inwards towards him with THE DOOR +ON WHICH IT WAS HUNG! Behind it was a dark staircase leading from the +floor above to some outer door below, whose opening had given ingress to +the chill humid current from the ravine. This was the staircase where he +had just heard the footsteps--and this was, no doubt, the door through +which the mysterious figure had vanished from his room a few hours +before! + +Taking his candle, he cautiously ascended the stairs until he found +himself on the landing of the suites of the married couples and directly +opposite to the rooms of the MacSpaddens and Deesides. He was about to +descend again when he heard a far-off shout, a scuffling sound on the +outer gravel, and the frenzied shaking of the handle of the lower door. +He had hardly time to blow out his candle and flatten himself against +the wall, when the door was flung open and a woman frantically flew up +the staircase. His own door was still open; from within its depths the +light of his fire projected a flickering beam across the steps. As she +rushed past it the light revealed her face; it needed not the peculiar +perfume of her garments as she swept by his concealed figure to make him +recognize--Lady Deeside! + +Amazed and confounded, he was about to descend, when he heard the lower +door again open. But here a sudden instinct bade him pause, turn, and +reascend to the upper landing. There he calmly relit his candle, and +made his way down to the corridor that overlooked the central hall. The +sound of suppressed voices--speaking with the exhausted pauses that come +from spent excitement--made him cautious again, and he halted. It was +the card party slowly passing from the billiard-room to the hall. + +“Ye owe it yoursel'--to your wife--not to pit up with it a day longer,” + said the subdued voice of Sir Alan. “Man! ye war in an ace o' havin' a +braw scandal.” + +“Could ye no' get your wife to speak till her,” responded Macquoich, “to +gie her a hint that she's better awa' out of this? Lady Deeside has some +influence wi' her.” + +The consul ostentatiously dropped the extinguisher from his candlestick. +The party looked up quickly. Their faces were still flushed and +agitated, but a new restraint seemed to come upon them on seeing him. + +“I thought I heard a row outside,” said the consul explanatorily. + +They each looked at their host without speaking. + +“Oh, ay,” said Macquoich, with simulated heartiness, “a bit fuss between +the Kilcraithie and yon Frenchman; but they're baith goin' in the +mornin'.” + +“I thought I heard MacSpadden's voice,” said the consul quietly. + +There was a dead silence. Then Macquoich said hurriedly:-- + +“Is he no' in his room--in bed--asleep,--man?” + +“I really don't know; I didn't inquire,” said the consul with a slight +yawn. “Good night!” + +He turned, not without hearing them eagerly whispering again, and +entered the passage leading to his own room. As he opened the door +he was startled to find the subject of his inquiry--Jock +MacSpadden--quietly seated in his armchair by his fire. + +“Jock!” + +“Don't be alarmed, old man; I came up by that staircase and saw the door +open, and guessed you'd be returning soon. But it seemed you went ROUND +BY THE CORRIDOR,” he said, glancing curiously at the consul's face. “Did +you meet the crowd?” + +“Yes, Jock! WHAT does it all mean?” + +MacSpadden laughed. “It means that I was just in time to keep +Kilbraithie from chucking Delfosse down that ravine; but they both +scooted when they saw me. By Jove! I don't know which was the most +frightened.” + +“But,” said the consul slowly, “what was it all about, Jock?” + +“Some gallantry of that d----d Frenchman, who's trying to do some +woman-stalking up here, and jealousy of Kilcraithie's, who's just got +enough of his forbears' blood in him to think nothing of sticking three +inches of his dirk in the wame of the man that crosses him. But I say,” + continued Jock, leaning easily back in his chair, “YOU ought to know +something of all this. This room, old man, was used as a sort of +rendezvous, having two outlets, don't you see, when they couldn't get at +the summer-house below. By Jove! they both had it in turns--Kilcraithie +and the Frenchman--until Lady Macquoich got wind of something, swept +them out, and put YOU in it.” + +The consul rose and approached his friend with a grave face. “Jock, I +DO know something about it--more about it than any one thinks. You and I +are old friends. Shall I tell you WHAT I know?” + +Jock's handsome face became a trifle paler, but his frank, clear eyes +rested steadily on the consul's. + +“Go on!” he said. + +“I know that this flower which I am wearing was the signal for the +rendezvous this evening,” said the consul slowly, “and this paper,” + taking it from his pocket, “contained the time of the meeting, written +in the lady's own hand. I know who she was, for I saw her face as +plainly as I see yours now, by the light of the same fire; it was as +pale, but not as frank as yours, old man. That is what I know. But I +know also what people THINK they know, and for that reason I put that +paper in YOUR hand. It is yours--your vindication--your REVENGE, if you +choose. Do with it what you like.” + +Jock, with unchanged features and undimmed eyes, took the paper from the +consul's hand, without looking at it. + +“I may do with it what I like?” he repeated. + +“Yes.” + +He was about to drop it into the fire, but the consul stayed his hand. + +“Are you not going to LOOK at the handwriting first?” + +There was a moment of silence. Jock raised his eyes with a sudden flash +of pride in them and said, “No!” + +The friends stood side by side, grasping each other's hands, as the +burning paper leaped up the chimney in a vanishing flame. + +“Do you think you have done quite right, Jock, in view of any scandal +you may hear?” + +“Quite! You see, old man, I know MY WIFE--but I don't think that Deeside +KNOWS HIS.” + + + + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA. + + +Dick Bracy gazed again at the Hacienda de los Osos, and hesitated. There +it lay--its low whitewashed walls looking like a quartz outcrop of the +long lazy hillside--unmistakably hot, treeless, and staring broadly in +the uninterrupted Californian sunlight. Yet he knew that behind those +blistering walls was a reposeful patio, surrounded by low-pitched +verandas; that the casa was full of roomy corridors, nooks, and +recesses, in which lurked the shadows of a century, and that hidden by +the further wall was a lonely old garden, hoary with gnarled pear-trees, +and smothered in the spice and dropping leaves of its baking roses. He +knew that, although the unwinking sun might glitter on its red tiles, +and the unresting trade winds whistle around its angles, it always kept +one unvarying temperature and untroubled calm, as if the dignity of +years had triumphed over the changes of ephemeral seasons. But would +others see it with his eyes? Would his practical, housekeeping aunt, and +his pretty modern cousin-- + +“Well, what do you say? Speak the word, and you can go into it with your +folks to-morrow. And I reckon you won't want to take anything either, +for you'll find everything there--just as the old Don left it. I don't +want it; the land is good enough for me; I shall have my vaqueros and +rancheros to look after the crops and the cattle, and they won't trouble +you, for their sheds and barns will be two miles away. You can stay +there as long as you like, and go when you choose. You might like to try +it for a spell; it's all the same to me. But I should think it the sort +of thing a man like you would fancy, and it seems the right thing to +have you there. Well,--what shall it be? Is it a go?” + +Dick knew that the speaker was sincere. It was an offer perfectly +characteristic of his friend, the Western millionaire, who had halted +by his side. And he knew also that the slow lifting of his bridle-rein, +preparatory to starting forward again, was the business-like gesture of +a man who wasted no time even over his acts of impulsive liberality. +In another moment he would dismiss the unaccepted offer from his +mind--without concern and without resentment. + +“Thank you--it is a go,” said Dick gratefully. + +Nevertheless, when he reached his own little home in the outskirts of +San Francisco that night, he was a trifle nervous in confiding to the +lady, who was at once his aunt and housekeeper, the fact that he was +now the possessor of a huge mansion in whose patio alone the little +eight-roomed villa where they had lived contentedly might be casually +dropped. “You see, Aunt Viney,” he hurriedly explained, “it would have +been so ungrateful to have refused him--and it really was an offer as +spontaneous as it was liberal. And then, you see, we need occupy only a +part of the casa.” + +“And who will look after the other part?” said Aunt Viney grimly. “That +will have to be kept tidy, too; and the servants for such a house, where +in heaven are they to come from? Or do they go with it?” + +“No,” said Dick quickly; “the servants left with their old master, when +Ringstone bought the property. But we'll find servants enough in the +neighborhood--Mexican peons and Indians, you know.” + +Aunt Viney sniffed. “And you'll have to entertain--if it's a big house. +There are all your Spanish neighbors. They'll be gallivanting in and out +all the time.” + +“They won't trouble us,” he returned, with some hesitation. “You +see, they're furious at the old Don for disposing of his lands to an +American, and they won't be likely to look upon the strangers in the new +place as anything but interlopers.” + +“Oh, that is it, is it?” ejaculated Aunt Viney, with a slight puckering +of her lips. “I thought there was SOMETHING.” + +“My dear aunt,” said Dick, with a sudden illogical heat which he tried +to suppress; “I don't know what you mean by 'it' and 'something.' +Ringstone's offer was perfectly unselfish; he certainly did not suppose +that I would be affected, any more than he would he, by the childish +sentimentality of these people over a legitimate, every-day business +affair. The old Don made a good bargain, and simply sold the land he +could no longer make profitable with his obsolete method of farming, his +gang of idle retainers, and his Noah's Ark machinery, to a man who knew +how to use steam reapers, and hired sensible men to work on shares.” + Nevertheless he was angry with himself for making any explanation, and +still more disturbed that he was conscious of a certain feeling that it +was necessary. + +“I was thinking,” said Aunt Viney quietly, “that if we invited anybody +to stay with us--like Cecily, for example--it might be rather dull for +her if we had no neighbors to introduce her to.” + +Dick started; he had not thought of this. He had been greatly influenced +by the belief that his pretty cousin, who was to make them a visit, +would like the change and would not miss excitement. “We can always +invite some girls down there and make our own company,” he answered +cheerfully. Nevertheless, he was dimly conscious that he had already +made an airy castle of the old hacienda, in which Cecily and her aunt +moved ALONE. It was to Cecily that he would introduce the old garden, it +was Cecily whom he would accompany through the dark corridors, and +with whom he would lounge under the awnings of the veranda. All this +innocently, and without prejudice or ulterior thought. He was not yet +in love with the pretty cousin whom he had seen but once or twice +during the past few years, but it was a possibility not unpleasant to +occasionally contemplate. Yet it was equally possible that she might +yearn for lighter companionship and accustomed amusement; that the +passion-fringed garden and shadow-haunted corridor might be profaned by +hoydenish romping and laughter, or by that frivolous flirtation which, +in others, he had always regarded as commonplace and vulgar. + +Howbeit, at the end of two weeks he found himself regularly installed +in the Hacienda de los Osos. His little household, re-enforced by +his cousin Cecily and three peons picked up at Los Pinos, bore +their transplantation with a singular equanimity that seemed to him +unaccountable. Then occurred one of those revelations of character with +which Nature is always ready to trip up merely human judgment. Aunt +Viney, an unrelenting widow of calm but unshaken Dutch prejudices, +high but narrow in religious belief, merged without a murmur into the +position of chatelaine of this unconventional, half-Latin household. +Accepting the situation without exaltation or criticism, placid but +unresponsive amidst the youthful enthusiasm of Dick and Cecily over +each quaint detail, her influence was, nevertheless, felt throughout +the lingering length and shadowy breadth of the strange old house. The +Indian and Mexican servants, at first awed by her practical superiority, +succumbed to her half-humorous toleration of their incapacity, and +became her devoted slaves. Dick was astonished, and even Cecily was +confounded. “Do you know,” she said confidentially to her cousin, +“that when that brown Conchita thought to please Aunty by wearing white +stockings instead of going round as usual with her cinnamon-colored +bare feet in yellow slippers--which I was afraid would be enough to send +Aunty into conniption fits--she actually told her, very quietly, to take +them off, and dress according to her habits and her station? And you +remember that in her big, square bedroom there is a praying-stool and +a ghastly crucifix, at least three feet long, in ivory and black, +quite too human for anything? Well, when I offered to put them in the +corridor, she said I 'needn't trouble'; that really she hadn't noticed +them, and they would do very well where they were. You'd think she had +been accustomed to this sort of thing all her life. It's just too sweet +of her, any way, even if she's shamming. And if she is, she just does +it to the life too, and could give those Spanish women points. Why, she +rode en pillion on Manuel's mule, behind him, holding on by his +sash, across to the corral yesterday; and you should have seen Manuel +absolutely scrape the ground before her with his sombrero when he let +her down.” Indeed, her tall, erect figure in black lustreless silk, +appearing in a heavily shadowed doorway, or seated in a recessed window, +gave a new and patrician dignity to the melancholy of the hacienda. It +was pleasant to follow this quietly ceremonious shadow gliding along +the rose garden at twilight, halting at times to bend stiffly over the +bushes, garden-shears in hand, and carrying a little basket filled with +withered but still odorous petals, as if she were grimly gathering the +faded roses of her youth. + +It was also probable that the lively Cecily's appreciation of her aunt +might have been based upon another virtue of that lady--namely, her +exquisite tact in dealing with the delicate situation evolved from the +always possible relations of the two cousins. It was not to be supposed +that the servants would fail to invest the young people with Southern +romance, and even believe that the situation was prearranged by the +aunt with a view to their eventual engagement. To deal with the problem +openly, yet without startling the consciousness of either Dick or +Cecily; to allow them the privileges of children subject to the +occasional restraints of childhood; to find certain household duties +for the young girl that kept them naturally apart until certain hours +of general relaxation; to calmly ignore the meaning of her retainers' +smiles and glances, and yet to good-humoredly accept their interest as a +kind of feudal loyalty, was part of Aunt Viney's deep diplomacy. Cecily +enjoyed her freedom and companionship with Dick, as she enjoyed the +novel experiences of the old house, the quaint, faded civilization that +it represented, and the change and diversion always acceptable to youth. +She did not feel the absence of other girls of her own age; neither was +she aware that through this omission she was spared the necessity of +a confidante or a rival--both equally revealing to her thoughtless +enjoyment. They took their rides together openly and without +concealment, relating their adventures afterwards to Aunt Viney with +a naivete and frankness that dreamed of no suppression. The city-bred +Cecily, accustomed to horse exercise solely as an ornamental and +artificial recreation, felt for the first time the fearful joy of a dash +across a league-long plain, with no onlookers but the scattered wild +horses she might startle up to scurry before her, or race at her side. +Small wonder that, mounted on her fiery little mustang, untrammeled by +her short gray riding-habit, free as the wind itself that blew through +the folds of her flannel blouse, with her brown hair half-loosed beneath +her slouched felt hat, she seemed to Dick a more beautiful and womanly +figure than the stiff buckramed simulation of man's angularity and +precision he had seen in the parks. Perhaps one day she detected this +consciousness too plainly in his persistent eyes. Up to that moment +she had only watched the glittering stretches of yellow grain, in which +occasional wind-shorn evergreen oaks stood mid-leg deep like cattle in +water, the distant silhouette of the Sierras against the steely blue, or +perhaps the frankly happy face of the good-looking young fellow at her +side. But it seemed to her now that an intruder had entered the field--a +stranger before whom she was impelled to suddenly fly--half-laughingly, +half-affrightedly--the anxious Dick following wonderingly at her +mustang's heels, until she reached the gates of the hacienda, where she +fell into a gravity and seriousness that made him wonder still more. He +did not dream that his guileless cousin had discovered, with a woman's +instinct, a mysterious invader who sought to share their guileless +companionship, only to absorb it entirely, and that its name was--love! + +The next day she was so greatly preoccupied with her household duties +that she could not ride with him. Dick felt unaccountably lost. Perhaps +this check to their daily intercourse was no less accelerating to his +feelings than the vague motive that induced Cecily to withhold herself. +He moped in the corridor; he rode out alone, bullying his mustang in +proportion as he missed his cousin's gentle companionship, and circling +aimlessly, but still unconsciously, around the hacienda as a centre of +attraction. The sun at last was sinking to the accompaniment of a +rising wind, which seemed to blow and scatter its broad rays over the +shimmering plain until every slight protuberance was burnished +into startling brightness; the shadows of the short green oaks grew +disproportionally long, and all seemed to point to the white-walled +casa. Suddenly he started and instantly reined up. + +The figure of a young girl, which he had not before noticed, was slowly +moving down the half-shadowed lane made by the two walls of the garden +and the corral. Cecily! Perhaps she had come out to meet him. He spurred +forward; but, as he came nearer, he saw that the figure and its attire +were surely not hers. He reined up again abruptly, mortified at his +disappointment, and a little ashamed lest he should have seemed to have +been following an evident stranger. He vaguely remembered, too, that +there was a trail to the high road, through a little swale clothed +with myrtle and thorn bush which he had just passed, and that she was +probably one of his reserved and secluded neighbors--indeed, her dress, +in that uncertain light, looked half Spanish. This was more confusing, +since his rashness might have been taken for an attempt to force an +acquaintance. He wheeled and galloped towards the front of the casa as +the figure disappeared at the angle of the wall. + +“I don't suppose you ever see any of our neighbors?” said Dick to his +aunt casually. + +“I really can't say,” returned the lady with quiet equanimity. “There +were some extraordinary-looking foreigners on the road to San Gregorio +yesterday. Manuel, who was driving me, may have known who they were--he +is a kind of Indian Papist himself, you know--but I didn't. They might +have been relations of his, for all I know.” + +At any other time Dick would have been amused at this serene relegation +of the lofty Estudillos and Peraltas to the caste of the Indian convert, +but he was worried to think that perhaps Cecily was really being bored +by the absence of neighbors. After dinner, when they sought the rose +garden, he dropped upon the little lichen-scarred stone bench by her +side. It was still warm from the sun; the hot musk of the roses filled +the air; the whole garden, shielded from the cool evening trade winds by +its high walls, still kept the glowing memory of the afternoon sunshine. +Aunt Viney, with her garden basket on her arm, moved ghost-like among +the distant bushes. + +“I hope you are not getting bored here?” he said, after a slight +inconsequent pause. + +“Does that mean that YOU are?” she returned, raising her mischievous +eyes to his. + +“No; but I thought you might find it lonely, without neighbors.” + +“I stayed in to-day,” she said, femininely replying to the unasked +question, “because I fancied Aunt Viney might think it selfish of me to +leave her alone so much.” + +“But YOU are not lonely?” + +Certainly not! The young lady was delighted with the whole place, with +the quaint old garden, the mysterious corridors, the restful quiet of +everything, the picture of dear Aunt Viney--who was just the sweetest +soul in the world--moving about like the genius of the casa. It was +such a change to all her ideas, she would never forget it. It was so +thoughtful of him, Dick, to have given them all that pleasure. + +“And the rides,” continued Dick, with the untactful pertinacity of the +average man at such moments--“you are not tired of THEM?” + +No; she thought them lovely. Such freedom and freshness in the exercise; +so different from riding in the city or at watering-places, where it was +one-half show, and one was always thinking of one's habit or one's self. +One quite forgot one's self on that lovely plain--with everything so far +away, and only the mountains to look at in the distance. Nevertheless +she did not lift her eyes from the point of the little slipper which had +strayed beyond her skirt. + +Dick was relieved, but not voluble; he could only admiringly follow the +curves of her pretty arms and hands, clasped lightly in her lap, down to +the point of the little slipper. But even that charming vanishing point +was presently withdrawn--possibly through some instinct--for the young +lady had apparently not raised her eyes. + +“I'm so glad you like it,” said Dick earnestly, yet with a nervous +hesitation that made his speech seem artificial to his own ears. “You +see I--that is--I had an idea that you might like an occasional change +of company. It's a great pity we're not on speaking terms with one +of these Spanish families. Some of the men, you know, are really fine +fellows, with an old-world courtesy that is very charming.” + +He was surprised to see that she had lifted her head suddenly, with a +quick look that however changed to an amused and half coquettish smile. + +“I am finding no fault with my present company,” she said demurely, +dropping her head and eyelids until a faint suffusion seemed to +follow the falling lashes over her cheek. “I don't think YOU ought to +undervalue it.” + +If he had only spoken then! The hot scent of the roses hung suspended in +the air, which seemed to be hushed around them in mute expectancy; the +shadows which were hiding Aunt Viney from view were also closing round +the bench where they sat. He was very near her; he had only to reach +out his hand to clasp hers, which lay idly in her lap. He felt himself +glowing with a strange emanation; he even fancied that she was turning +mechanically towards him, as a flower might turn towards the fervent +sunlight. But he could not speak; he could scarcely collect his +thoughts, conscious though he was of the absurdity of his silence. What +was he waiting for? what did he expect? He was not usually bashful, he +was no coward; there was nothing in her attitude to make him hesitate to +give expression to what he believed was his first real passion. But he +could do nothing. He even fancied that his face, turned towards hers, +was stiffening into a vacant smile. + +The young girl rose. “I think I heard Aunt Viney call me,” she said +constrainedly, and made a hesitating step forward. The spell which had +held Dick seemed to be broken suddenly; he stretched forth his arm +to detain her. But the next step appeared to carry her beyond his +influence; and it was even with a half movement of rejection that +she quickened her pace and disappeared down the path. Dick fell back +dejectedly into his seat, yet conscious of a feeling of RELIEF that +bewildered him. + +But only for a moment. A recollection of the chance that he had +impotently and unaccountably thrown away returned to him. He tried to +laugh, albeit with a glowing cheek, over the momentary bashfulness which +he thought had overtaken him, and which must have made him ridiculous +in her eyes. He even took a few hesitating steps in the direction of the +path where she had disappeared. The sound of voices came to his ear, and +the light ring of Cecily's laughter. The color deepened a little on his +cheek; he re-entered the house and went to his room. + +The red sunset, still faintly showing through the heavily recessed +windows to the opposite wall, made two luminous aisles through the +darkness of the long low apartment. From his easy-chair he watched the +color drop out of the sky, the yellow plain grow pallid and seem to +stretch itself to infinite rest; then a black line began to deepen and +creep towards him from the horizon edge; the day was done. It seemed to +him a day lost. He had no doubt now but that he loved his cousin, and +the opportunity of telling her so--of profiting by her predisposition of +the moment--had passed. She would remember herself, she would remember +his weak hesitancy, she would despise him. He rose and walked uneasily +up and down. And yet--and it disgusted him with himself still more--he +was again conscious of the feeling of relief he had before experienced. +A vague formula, “It's better as it is,” “Who knows what might have +come of it?” he found himself repeating, without reason and without +resignation. + +Ashamed even of his seclusion, he rose to join the little family circle, +which now habitually gathered around a table on the veranda of the +patio under the rays of a swinging lamp to take their chocolate. To his +surprise the veranda was empty and dark; a light shining from the inner +drawing-room showed him his aunt in her armchair reading, alone. A +slight thrill ran over him: Cecily might be still in the garden! He +noiselessly passed the drawing-room door, turned into a long corridor, +and slipped through a grating in the wall into the lane that separated +it from the garden. The gate was still open; a few paces brought him +into the long alley of roses. Their strong perfume--confined in the +high, hot walls--at first made him giddy. This was followed by an +inexplicable languor; he turned instinctively towards the stone bench +and sank upon it. The long rows of calla lilies against the opposite +wall looked ghostlike in the darkness, and seemed to have turned their +white faces towards him. Then he fancied that ONE had detached itself +from the rank and was moving away. He looked again: surely there was +something gliding along the wall! A quick tremor of anticipation passed +over him. It was Cecily, who had lingered in the garden--perhaps to +give him one more opportunity! He rose quickly, and stepped towards the +apparition, which had now plainly resolved itself into a slight girlish +figure; it slipped on beneath the trees; he followed quickly--his +nervous hesitancy had vanished before what now seemed to be a half-coy, +half-coquettish evasion of him. He called softly, “Cecily!” but she did +not heed him; he quickened his pace--she increased hers. They were both +running. She reached the angle of the wall where the gate opened upon +the road. Suddenly she stopped, as if intentionally, in the clear open +space before it. He could see her distinctly. The lace mantle slipped +from her head and shoulders. It was NOT Cecily! + +But it was a face so singularly beautiful and winsome that he was as +quickly arrested. It was a woman's deep, passionate eyes and heavy hair, +joined to a childish oval of cheek and chin, an infantine mouth, and a +little nose whose faintly curved outline redeemed the lower face from +weakness and brought it into charming harmony with the rest. A yellow +rose was pinned in the lustrous black hair above the little ear; a +yellow silk shawl or mantle, which had looked white in the shadows, was +thrown over one shoulder and twisted twice or thrice around the plump +but petite bust. The large black velvety eyes were fixed on his in +half wonderment, half amusement; the lovely lips were parted in half +astonishment and half a smile. And yet she was like a picture, a +dream,--a materialization of one's most fanciful imaginings,--like +anything, in fact, but the palpable flesh and blood she evidently was, +standing only a few feet before him, whose hurried breath he could see +even now heaving her youthful breast. + +His own breath appeared suspended, although his heart beat rapidly as +he stammered out: “I beg your pardon--I thought--” He stopped at the +recollection that this was the SECOND time he had followed her. + +She did not speak, although her parted lips still curved with their +faint coy smile. Then she suddenly lifted her right hand, which had +been hanging at her side, clasping some long black object like a stick. +Without any apparent impulse from her fingers, the stick slowly seemed +to broaden in her little hand into the segment of an opening disk, that, +lifting to her face and shoulders, gradually eclipsed the upper part of +her figure, until, mounting higher, the beautiful eyes and the yellow +rose of her hair alone remained above--a large unfurled fan! Then +the long eyelashes drooped, as if in a mute farewell, and they too +disappeared as the fan was lifted higher. The half-hidden figure +appeared to glide to the gateway, lingered for an instant, and vanished. +The astounded Dick stepped quickly into the road, but fan and figure +were swallowed up in the darkness. + +Amazed and bewildered, he stood for a moment, breathless and irresolute. +It was no doubt the same stranger that he had seen before. But WHO was +she, and what was she doing there? If she were one of their Spanish +neighbors, drawn simply by curiosity to become a trespasser, why had she +lingered to invite a scrutiny that would clearly identify her? It was +not the escapade of that giddy girl which the lower part of her face had +suggested, for such a one would have giggled and instantly flown; it was +not the deliberate act of a grave woman of the world, for its sequel +was so purposeless. Why had she revealed herself to HIM alone? Dick +felt himself glowing with a half-shamed, half-secret pleasure. Then he +remembered Cecily, and his own purpose in coming into the garden. He +hurriedly made a tour of the walks and shrubbery, ostentatiously calling +her, yet seeing, as in a dream, only the beautiful eyes of the stranger +still before him, and conscious of an ill-defined remorse and disloyalty +he had never known before. But Cecily was not there; and again he +experienced the old sensation of relief! + +He shut the garden gate, crossed the road, and found the grille just +closing behind a slim white figure. He started, for it was Cecily; but +even in his surprise he was conscious of wondering how he could have +ever mistaken the stranger for her. She appeared startled too; she +looked pale and abstracted. Could she have been a witness of his strange +interview? + +Her first sentence dispelled the idea. + +“I suppose you were in the garden?” she said, with a certain timidity. +“I didn't go there--it seemed so close and stuffy--but walked a little +down the lane.” + +A moment before he would have eagerly told her his adventure; but in the +presence of her manifest embarrassment his own increased. He concluded +to tell her another time. He murmured vaguely that he had been looking +for her in the garden, yet he had a flushing sense of falsehood in his +reserve; and they passed silently along the corridor and entered the +patio together. She lit the hanging lamp mechanically. She certainly +WAS pale; her slim hand trembled slightly. Suddenly her eyes met his, +a faint color came into her cheek, and she smiled. She put up her hand +with a girlish gesture towards the back of her head. + +“What are you looking at? Is my hair coming down?” + +“No,” hesitated Dick, “but--I--thought--you were looking just a LITTLE +pale.” + +An aggressive ray slipped into her blue eyes. + +“Strange! I thought YOU were. Just now at the grille you looked as if +the roses hadn't agreed with you.” + +They both laughed, a little nervously, and Conchita brought the +chocolate. When Aunt Viney came from the drawing-room she found the two +young people together, and Cecily in a gale of high spirits. + +She had had SUCH a wonderfully interesting walk, all by herself, alone +on the plain. It was really so queer and elfish to find one's self where +one could see nothing above or around one anywhere but stars. Stars +above one, to right and left of one, and some so low down they seemed +as if they were picketed on the plain. It was so odd to find the horizon +line at one's very feet, like a castaway at sea. And the wind! it seemed +to move one this way and that way, for one could not see anything, +and might really be floating in the air. Only once she thought she saw +something, and was quite frightened. + +“What was it?” asked Dick quickly. + +“Well, it was a large black object; but--it turned out only to be a +horse.” + +She laughed, although she had evidently noticed her cousin's eagerness, +and her own eyes had a nervous brightness. + +“And where was Dick all this while?” asked Aunt Viney quietly. + +Cecily interrupted, and answered for him briskly. “Oh, he was trying to +make attar of rose of himself in the garden. He's still stupefied by his +own sweetness.” + +“If this means,” said Aunt Viney, with matter-of-fact precision, “that +you've been gallivanting all alone, Cecily, on that common plain, where +you're likely to meet all sorts of foreigners and tramps and savages, +and Heaven knows what other vermin, I shall set my face against a +repetition of it. If you MUST go out, and Dick can't go with you--and +I must say that even you and he going out together there at night +isn't exactly the kind of American Christian example to set to our +neighbors--you had better get Concepcion to go with you and take a +lantern.” + +“But there is nobody one meets on the plain--at least, nobody likely to +harm one,” protested Cecily. + +“Don't tell ME,” said Aunt Viney decidedly; “haven't I seen all sorts +of queer figures creeping along by the brink after nightfall between San +Gregorio and the next rancho? Aren't they always skulking backwards and +forwards to mass and aguardiente?” + +“And I don't know why WE should set any example to our neighbors. We +don't see much of them, or they of us.” + +“Of course not,” returned Aunt Viney; “because all proper Spanish young +ladies are shut up behind their grilles at night. You don't see THEM +traipsing over the plain in the darkness, WITH or WITHOUT cavaliers! +Why, Don Rafael would lock one of HIS sisters up in a convent and +consider her disgraced forever, if he heard of it.” + +Dick felt his cheeks burning; Cecily slightly paled. Yet both said +eagerly together: “Why, what do YOU know about it, Aunty?” + +“A great deal,” returned Aunt Viney quietly, holding her tatting up to +the light and examining the stitches with a critical eye. “I've got +my eyes about me, thank heaven! even if my ears don't understand the +language. And there's a great deal, my dears, that you young people +might learn from these Papists.” + +“And do you mean to say,” continued Dick, with a glowing cheek and an +uneasy smile, “that Spanish girls don't go out alone?” + +“No young LADY goes out without her duenna,” said Aunt Viney +emphatically. “Of course there's the Concha variety, that go out without +even stockings.” + +As the conversation flagged after this, and the young people once or +twice yawned nervously, Aunt Viney thought they had better go to bed. + +But Dick did not sleep. The beautiful face beamed out again from the +darkness of his room; the light that glimmered through his deep-set +curtainless windows had an odd trick of bringing out certain hanging +articles, or pieces of furniture, into a resemblance to a mantled +figure. The deep, velvety eyes, fringed with long brown lashes, again +looked into his with amused, childlike curiosity. He scouted the harsh +criticisms of Aunt Viney, even while he shrank from proving to her her +mistake in the quality of his mysterious visitant. Of course she was +a lady--far superior to any of her race whom he had yet met. Yet how +should he find WHO she was? His pride and a certain chivalry forbade his +questioning the servants--before whom it was the rule of the +household to avoid all reference to their neighbors. He would make the +acquaintance of the old padre--perhaps HE might talk. He would ride +early along the trail in the direction of the nearest rancho,--Don Jose +Amador's,--a thing he had hitherto studiously refrained from doing. It +was three miles away. She must have come that distance, but not ALONE. +Doubtless she had kept her duenna in waiting in the road. Perhaps it +was she who had frightened Cecily. Had Cecily told ALL she had seen? Her +embarrassed manner certainly suggested more than she had told. He felt +himself turning hot with an indefinite uneasiness. Then he tried to +compose himself. After all, it was a thing of the past. The fair unknown +had bribed the duenna for once, no doubt--had satisfied her girlish +curiosity--she would not come again! But this thought brought with +it such a sudden sense of utter desolation, a deprivation so new and +startling, that it frightened him. Was his head turned by the witcheries +of some black-eyed schoolgirl whom he had seen but once? Or--he felt his +cheeks glowing in the darkness--was it really a case of love at first +sight, and she herself had been impelled by the same yearning that now +possessed him? A delicious satisfaction followed, that left a smile on +his lips as if it had been a kiss. He knew now why he had so strangely +hesitated with Cecily. He had never really loved her--he had never known +what love was till now! + +He was up early the next morning, skimming the plain on the back of +“Chu Chu,” before the hacienda was stirring. He did not want any one to +suspect his destination, and it was even with a sense of guilt that +he dashed along the swale in the direction of the Amador rancho. A +few vaqueros, an old Digger squaw carrying a basket, two little Indian +acolytes on their way to mass passed him. He was surprised to find that +there were no ruts of carriage wheels within three miles of the casa, +and evidently no track for carriages through the swale. SHE must have +come on HORSEBACK. A broader highway, however, intersected the trail at +a point where the low walls of the Amador rancho came in view. Here he +was startled by the apparition of an old-fashioned family carriage drawn +by two large piebald mules. But it was unfortunately closed. Then, with +a desperate audacity new to his reserved nature, he ranged close beside +it, and even stared in the windows. A heavily mantled old woman, whose +brown face was in high contrast to her snow-white hair, sat in the back +seat. Beside her was a younger companion, with the odd blonde hair and +blue eyes sometimes seen in the higher Castilian type. For an instant +the blue eyes caught his, half-coquettishly. But the girl was NOT at all +like his mysterious visitor, and he fell, discomfited, behind. + +He had determined to explain his trespass on the grounds of his +neighbor, if questioned, by the excuse that he was hunting a strayed +mustang. But his presence, although watched with a cold reserve by the +few peons who were lounging near the gateway, provoked no challenge from +them; and he made a circuit of the low adobe walls, with their barred +windows and cinnamon-tiled roofs, without molestation--but equally +without satisfaction. He felt he was a fool for imagining that he would +see her in that way. He turned his horse towards the little Mission +half a mile away. There he had once met the old padre, who spoke a +picturesque but limited English; now he was only a few yards ahead of +him, just turning into the church. The padre was pleased to see Don +Ricardo; it was an unusual thing for the Americanos, he observed, to +be up so early: for himself, he had his functions, of course. No, the +ladies that the caballero had seen had not been to mass! They were Donna +Maria and her daughter, going to San Gregorio. They comprised ALL the +family at the rancho,--there were none others, unless the caballero, of +a possibility, meant Donna Inez, a maiden aunt of sixty--an admirable +woman, a saint on earth! He trusted that he would find his estray; there +was no doubt a mark upon it, otherwise the plain was illimitable; there +were many horses--the world was wide! + +Dick turned his face homewards a little less adventurously, and it must +be confessed, with a growing sense of his folly. The keen, dry morning +air brushed away his fancies of the preceding night; the beautiful eyes +that had lured him thither seemed to flicker and be blown out by its +practical breath. He began to think remorsefully of his cousin, of his +aunt,--of his treachery to that reserve which the little alien household +had maintained towards their Spanish neighbors. He found Aunt Viney and +Cecily at breakfast--Cecily, he thought, looking a trifle pale. Yet (or +was it only his fancy?) she seemed curious about his morning ride. And +he became more reticent. + +“You must see a good many of our neighbors when you are out so early?” + +“Why?” he asked shortly, feeling his color rise. + +“Oh, because--because we don't see them at any other time.” + +“I saw a very nice chap--I think the best of the lot,” he began, with +assumed jocularity; then, seeing Cecily's eyes suddenly fixed on him, he +added, somewhat lamely, “the padre! There were also two women in a queer +coach.” + +“Donna Maria Amador, and Dona Felipa Peralta--her daughter by her first +husband,” said Aunt Viney quietly. “When you see the horses you think +it's a circus; when you look inside the carriage you KNOW it's a +funeral.” + +Aunt Viney did not condescend to explain how she had acquired her +genealogical knowledge of her neighbor's family, but succeeded in +breaking the restraint between the young people. Dick proposed a ride +in the afternoon, which was cheerfully accepted by Cecily. Their +intercourse apparently recovered its old frankness and freedom, marred +only for a moment when they set out on the plain. Dick, really to forget +his preoccupation of the morning, turned his horse's head AWAY from +the trail, to ride in another direction; but Cecily oddly, and with an +exhibition of caprice quite new to her, insisted upon taking the old +trail. Nevertheless they met nothing, and soon became absorbed in the +exercise. Dick felt something of his old tenderness return to this +wholesome, pretty girl at his side; perhaps he betrayed it in his voice, +or in an unconscious lingering by her bridle-rein, but she accepted it +with a naive reserve which he naturally attributed to the effect of +his own previous preoccupation. He bore it so gently, however, that it +awakened her interest, and, possibly, her pique. Her reserve relaxed, +and by the time they returned to the hacienda they had regained +something of their former intimacy. The dry, incisive breath of the +plains swept away the last lingering remnants of yesterday's illusions. +Under this frankly open sky, in this clear perspective of the remote +Sierras, which admitted no fanciful deception of form or distance--there +remained nothing but a strange incident--to be later explained or +forgotten. Only he could not bring himself to talk to HER about it. + +After dinner, and a decent lingering for coffee on the veranda, Dick +rose, and leaning half caressingly, half mischievously, over his aunt's +rocking-chair, but with his eyes on Cecily, said:-- + +“I've been deeply considering, dear Aunty, what you said last evening +of the necessity of our offering a good example to our neighbors. Now, +although Cecily and I are cousins, yet, as I am HEAD of the house, +lord of the manor, and padron, according to the Spanish ideas I am her +recognised guardian and protector, and it seems to me it is my positive +DUTY to accompany her if she wishes to walk out this evening.” + +A momentary embarrassment--which, however, changed quickly into an +answering smile to her cousin--came over Cecily's face. She turned to +her aunt. + +“Well, don't go too far,” said that lady quietly. + +When they closed the grille behind them and stepped into the lane, +Cecily shot a quick glance at her cousin. + +“Perhaps you'd rather walk in the garden?” + +“I? Oh, no,” he answered honestly. “But”--he hesitated--“would you?” + +“Yes,” she said faintly. + +He impulsively offered his arm; her slim hand slipped lightly through +it and rested on his sleeve. They crossed the lane together, and entered +the garden. A load appeared to be lifted from his heart; the moment +seemed propitious,--here was a chance to recover his lost ground, to +regain his self-respect and perhaps his cousin's affection. By a common +instinct, however, they turned to the right, and AWAY from the stone +bench, and walked slowly down the broad allee. + +They talked naturally and confidingly of the days when they had met +before, of old friends they had known and changes that had crept into +their young lives; they spoke affectionately of the grim, lonely, but +self-contained old woman they had just left, who had brought them thus +again together. Cecily talked of Dick's studies, of the scientific work +on which he was engaged, that was to bring him, she was sure, fame and +fortune! They talked of the thoughtful charm of the old house, of its +quaint old-world flavor. They spoke of the beauty of the night, the +flowers and the stars, in whispers, as one is apt to do--as fearing to +disturb a super-sensitiveness in nature. + +They had come out later than on the previous night; and the moon, +already risen above the high walls of the garden, seemed a vast silver +shield caught in the interlacing tops of the old pear-trees, whose +branches crossed its bright field like dark bends or bars. As it rose +higher, it began to separate the lighter shrubbery, and open white lanes +through the olive-trees. Damp currents of air, alternating with drier +heats, on what appeared to be different levels, moved across the +whole garden, or gave way at times to a breathless lull and hush of +everything, in which the long rose alley seemed to be swooning in its +own spices. They had reached the bottom of the garden, and had turned, +facing the upper moonlit extremity and the bare stone bench. Cecily's +voice faltered, her hand leaned more heavily on his arm, as if she were +overcome by the strong perfume. His right hand began to steal towards +hers. But she had stopped; she was trembling. + +“Go on,” she said in a half whisper. “Leave me a moment; I'll join you +afterwards.” + +“You are ill, Cecily! It's those infernal flowers!” said Dick earnestly. +“Let me help you to the bench.” + +“No--it's nothing. Go on, please. Do! Will you go!” + +She spoke with imperiousness, unlike herself. He walked on mechanically +a dozen paces and turned. She had disappeared. He remembered there was a +smaller gate opening upon the plain near where they had stopped. Perhaps +she had passed through that. He continued on, slowly, towards the upper +end of the garden, occasionally turning to await her return. In this way +he gradually approached the stone bench. He was facing about to continue +his walk, when his heart seemed to stop beating. The beautiful visitor +of last night was sitting alone on the bench before him! + +She had not been there a moment before; he could have sworn it. Yet +there was no illusion now of shade or distance. She was scarcely six +feet from him, in the bright moonlight. The whole of her exquisite +little figure was visible, from her lustrous hair down to the tiny, +black satin, low-quartered slipper, held as by two toes. Her face was +fully revealed; he could see even the few minute freckles, like powdered +allspice, that heightened the pale satin sheen of her beautifully +rounded cheek; he could detect even the moist shining of her parted red +lips, the white outlines of her little teeth, the length of her curved +lashes, and the meshes of the black lace veil that fell from the yellow +rose above her ear to the black silk camisa; he noted even the thick +yellow satin saya, or skirt, heavily flounced with black lace and +bugles, and that it was a different dress from that worn on the +preceding night, a half-gala costume, carried with the indescribable air +of a woman looking her best and pleased to do so: all this he had noted, +drawing nearer and nearer, until near enough to forget it all and drown +himself in the depths of her beautiful eyes. For they were no +longer childlike and wondering: they were glowing with expectancy, +anticipation--love! + +He threw himself passionately on the bench beside her. Yet, even if he +had known her language, he could not have spoken. She leaned towards +him; their eyes seemed to meet caressingly, as in an embrace. Her little +hand slipped from the yellow folds of her skirt to the bench. He eagerly +seized it. A subtle thrill ran through his whole frame. There was +no delusion here; it was flesh and blood, warm, quivering, and even +tightening round his own. He was about to carry it to his lips, when she +rose and stepped backwards. He pressed eagerly forward. Another backward +step brought her to the pear-tree, where she seemed to plunge into its +shadow. Dick Bracy followed--and the same shadow seemed to fold them in +its embrace. + +***** + +He did not return to the veranda and chocolate that evening, but sent +word from his room that he had retired, not feeling well. + +Cecily, herself a little nervously exalted, corroborated the fact of +his indisposition by telling Aunt Viney that the close odors of the rose +garden had affected them both. Indeed, she had been obliged to leave +before him. Perhaps in waiting for her return--and she really was not +well enough to go back--he was exposed to the night air too long. She +was very sorry. + +Aunt Viney heard this with a slight contraction of her brows and a +renewed scrutiny of her knitting; and, having satisfied herself by +a personal visit to Dick's room that he was not alarmingly ill, set +herself to find out what was really the matter with the young people; +for there was no doubt that Cecily was in some vague way as disturbed +and preoccupied as Dick. He rode out again early the next morning, +returning to his studies in the library directly after breakfast; and +Cecily was equally reticent, except when, to Aunt Viney's perplexity, +she found excuses for Dick's manner on the ground of his absorption in +his work, and that he was probably being bored by want of society. She +proposed that she should ask an old schoolfellow to visit them. + +“It would give Dick a change of ideas, and he would not be perpetually +obliged to look so closely after me.” She blushed slightly under Aunt +Viney's gaze, and added hastily, “I mean, of course, he would not feel +it his DUTY.” + +She even induced her aunt to drive with her to the old mission church, +where she displayed a pretty vivacity and interest in the people they +met, particularly a few youthful and picturesque caballeros. Aunt Viney +smiled gravely. Was the poor child developing an unlooked-for coquetry, +or preparing to make the absent-minded Dick jealous? Well, the idea was +not a bad one. In the evening she astonished the two cousins by offering +to accompany them into the garden--a suggestion accepted with eager and +effusive politeness by each, but carried out with great awkwardness by +the distrait young people later. Aunt Viney clearly saw that it was not +her PRESENCE that was required. In this way two or three days elapsed +without apparently bringing the relations of Dick and Cecily to any more +satisfactory conclusion. The diplomatic Aunt Viney confessed herself +puzzled. + +One night it was very warm; the usual trade winds had died away before +sunset, leaving an unwonted hush in sky and plain. There was something +so portentous in this sudden withdrawal of that rude stimulus to the +otherwise monotonous level, that a recurrence of such phenomena was +always known as “earthquake weather.” The wild cattle moved uneasily in +the distance without feeding; herds of unbroken mustangs approached +the confines of the hacienda in vague timorous squads. The silence and +stagnation of the old house was oppressive, as if the life had really +gone out of it at last; and Aunt Viney, after waiting impatiently for +the young people to come in to chocolate, rose grimly, set her lips +together, and went out into the lane. The gate of the rose garden +opposite was open. She walked determinedly forward and entered. + +In that doubly stagnant air the odor of the roses was so suffocating +and overpowering that she had to stop to take breath. The whole garden, +except a near cluster of pear-trees, was brightly illuminated by the +moonlight. No one was to be seen along the length of the broad allee, +strewn an inch deep with scattered red and yellow petals--colorless in +the moonbeams. She was turning away, when Dick's familiar voice, but +with a strange accent of entreaty in it, broke the silence. It seemed to +her vaguely to come from within the pear-tree shadow. + +“But we must understand one another, my darling! Tell me all. This +suspense, this mystery, this brief moment of happiness, and these hours +of parting and torment, are killing me!” + +A slight cough broke from Aunt Viney. She had heard enough--she did not +wish to hear more. The mystery was explained. Dick loved Cecily; the +coyness or hesitation was not on HIS part. Some idiotic girlish caprice, +quite inconsistent with what she had noticed at the mission church, +was keeping Cecily silent, reserved, and exasperating to her lover. She +would have a talk with the young lady, without revealing the fact that +she had overheard them. She was perhaps a little hurt that affairs +should have reached this point without some show of confidence to her +from the young people. Dick might naturally be reticent--but Cecily! + +She did not even look towards the pear-tree, but turned and walked +stiffly out of the gate. As she was crossing the lane she suddenly +started back in utter dismay and consternation! For Cecily, her +niece,--in her own proper person,--was actually just coming OUT OF THE +HOUSE! + +Aunt Viney caught her wrist. “Where have you been?” she asked quickly. + +“In the house,” stammered Cecily, with a frightened face. + +“You have not been in the garden with Dick?” continued Aunt Viney +sharply--yet with a hopeless sense of the impossibility of the +suggestion. + +“No, I was not even going there. I thought of just strolling down the +lane.” + +The girl's accents were truthful; more than that, she absolutely looked +relieved by her aunt's question. “Do you want me, Aunty?” she added +quickly. + +“Yes--no. Run away, then--but don't go far.” + +At any other time Aunt Viney might have wondered at the eagerness with +which Cecily tripped away; now she was only anxious to get rid of her. +She entered the casa hurriedly. + +“Send Josefa to me at once,” she said to Manuel. + +Josefa, the housekeeper,--a fat Mexican woman,--appeared. “Send Concha +and the other maids here.” They appeared, mutely wondering. Aunt Viney +glanced hurriedly over them--they were all there--a few comely, but not +too attractive, and all stupidly complacent. “Have you girls any friends +here this evening--or are you expecting any?” she demanded. Of a surety, +no!--as the padrona knew--it was not night for church. “Very well,” + returned Aunt Viney; “I thought I heard your voices in the garden; +understand, I want no gallivanting there. Go to bed.” + +She was relieved! Dick certainly was not guilty of a low intrigue with +one of the maids. But who and what was she? + +Dick was absent again from chocolate; there was unfinished work to do. +Cecily came in later, just as Aunt Viney was beginning to be anxious. +Had she appeared distressed or piqued by her cousin's conduct, Aunt +Viney might have spoken; but there was a pretty color on her cheek--the +result, she said, of her rapid walking, and the fresh air; did Aunt +Viney know that a cool breeze had just risen?--and her delicate lips +were wreathed at times in a faint retrospective smile. Aunt Viney +stared; certainly the girl was not pining! What young people were made +of now-a-days she really couldn't conceive. She shrugged her shoulders +and resumed her tatting. + +Nevertheless, as Dick's unfinished studies seemed to have whitened his +cheek and impaired his appetite the next morning, she announced her +intention of driving out towards the mission alone. When she returned at +luncheon she further astonished the young people by casually informing +them they would have Spanish visitors to dinner--namely, their +neighbors, Donna Maria Amador and the Dona Felipa Peralta. + +Both faces were turned eagerly towards her; both said almost in the same +breath, “But, Aunt Viney! you don't know them! However did you--What +does it all mean?” + +“My dears,” said Aunt Viney placidly, “Mrs. Amador and I have always +nodded to each other, and I knew they were only waiting for the +slightest encouragement. I gave it, and they're coming.” + +It was difficult to say whether Cecily's or Dick's face betrayed the +greater delight and animation. Aunt Viney looked from the one to the +other. It seemed as if her attempt at diversion had been successful. + +“Tell us all about it, you dear, clever, artful Aunty!” said Cecily +gayly. + +“There's nothing whatever to tell, my love! It seems, however, that the +young one, Dona Felipa, has seen Dick, and remembers him.” She shot a +keen glance at Dick, but was obliged to admit that the rascal's face +remained unchanged. “And I wanted to bring a cavalier for YOU, dear, but +Don Jose's nephew isn't at home now.” Yet here, to her surprise, Cecily +was faintly blushing. + +Early in the afternoon the piebald horses and dark brown chariot of the +Amadors drew up before the gateway. The young people were delighted +with Dona Felipa, and thought her blue eyes and tawny hair gave an added +piquancy to her colorless satin skin and otherwise distinctively +Spanish face and figure. Aunt Viney, who entertained Donna Maria, was +nevertheless watchful of the others; but failed to detect in Dick's +effusive greeting, or the Dona's coquettish smile of recognition, any +suggestion of previous confidences. It was rather to Cecily that +Dona Felipa seemed to be characteristically exuberant and childishly +feminine. Both mother and stepdaughter spoke a musical infantine +English, which the daughter supplemented with her eyes, her eyebrows, +her little brown fingers, her plump shoulders, a dozen charming +intonations of voice, and a complete vocabulary in her active and +emphatic fan. + +The young lady went over the house with Cecily curiously, as if +recalling some old memories. “Ah, yes, I remember it--but it was long +ago and I was very leetle--you comprehend, and I have not arrive mooch +when the old Don was alone. It was too--too--what you call melank-oaly. +And the old man have not make mooch to himself of company.” + +“Then there were no young people in the house, I suppose?” said Cecily, +smiling. + +“No--not since the old man's father lif. Then there were TWO. It is a +good number, this two, eh?” She gave a single gesture, which took in, +with Cecily, the distant Dick, and with a whole volume of suggestion +in her shoulders, and twirling fan, continued: “Ah! two sometime make +one--is it not? But not THEN in the old time--ah, no! It is a sad story. +I shall tell it to you some time, but not to HIM.” + +But Cecily's face betrayed no undue bashful consciousness, and she only +asked, with a quiet smile, “Why not to--to my cousin?” + +“Imbecile!” responded that lively young lady. + +After dinner the young people proposed to take Dona Felipa into the rose +garden, while Aunt Viney entertained Donna Maria on the veranda. The +young girl threw up her hands with an affectation of horror. “Santa +Maria!--in the rose garden? After the Angelus, you and him? Have you not +heard?” + +But here Donna Maria interposed. Ah! Santa Maria! What was all that! +Was it not enough to talk old woman's gossip and tell vaqueros tales at +home, without making uneasy the strangers? She would have none of it. +“Vamos!” + +Nevertheless Dona Felipa overcame her horror of the rose garden at +infelicitous hours, so far as to permit herself to be conducted by the +cousins into it, and to be installed like a rose queen on the stone +bench, while Dick and Cecily threw themselves in submissive and +imploring attitudes at her little feet. The young girl looked +mischievously from one to the other. + +“It ees very pret-ty, but all the same I am not a rose: I am what you +call a big goose-berry! Eh--is it not?” + +The cousins laughed, but without any embarrassed consciousness. “Dona +Felipa knows a sad story of this house,” said Cecily; “but she will not +tell it before you, Dick.” + +Dick, looking up at the coquettish little figure, with Heaven knows what +OTHER memories in his mind, implored and protested. + +“Ah! but this little story--she ees not so mooch sad of herself as she +ees str-r-r-ange!” She gave an exaggerated little shiver under her lace +shawl, and closed her eyes meditatively. + +“Go on,” said Dick, smiling in spite of his interested expectation. + +Dona Felipa took her fan in both hands, spanning her knees, leaned +forward, and after a preliminary compressing of her lips and knitting of +her brows, said:-- + +“It was a long time ago. Don Gregorio he have his daughter Rosita here, +and for her he will fill all thees rose garden and gif to her; for she +like mooch to lif with the rose. She ees very pret-ty. You shall have +seen her picture here in the casa. No? It have hang under the crucifix +in the corner room, turn around to the wall--WHY, you shall comprehend +when I have made finish thees story. Comes to them here one day Don +Vincente, Don Gregorio's nephew, to lif when his father die. He was +yong, a pollio--same as Rosita. They were mooch together; they have +make lofe. What will you?--it ees always the same. The Don Gregorio have +comprehend; the friends have all comprehend; in a year they will make +marry. Dona Rosita she go to Monterey to see his family. There ees +an English warship come there; and Rosita she ees very gay with the +officers, and make the flirtation very mooch. Then Don Vincente he is +onhappy, and he revenge himself to make lofe with another. When Rosita +come back it is very miserable for them both, but they say nossing. The +warship he have gone away; the other girl Vincente he go not to no more. +All the same, Rosita and Vincente are very triste, and the family will +not know what to make. Then Rosita she is sick and eat nossing, and walk +to herself all day in the rose garden, until she is as white and +fade away as the rose. And Vincente he eat nossing, but drink mooch +aguardiente. Then he have fever and go dead. And Rosita she have +fainting and fits; and one day they have look for her in the rose +garden, and she is not! And they poosh and poosh in the ground for her, +and they find her with so mooch rose-leaves--so deep--on top of her. SHE +has go dead. It is a very sad story, and when you hear it you are very, +very mooch dissatisfied.” + +It is to be feared that the two Americans were not as thrilled by this +sad recital as the fair narrator had expected, and even Dick ventured to +point out that those sort of things happened also to his countrymen, and +were not peculiar to the casa. + +“But you said that there was a terrible sequel,” suggested Cecily +smilingly: “tell us THAT. Perhaps Mr. Bracy may receive it a little more +politely.” + +An expression of superstitious gravity, half real, half simulated, came +over Dona Felipa's face, although her vivacity of gesticulation and +emphasis did not relax. She cast a hurried glance around her, and leaned +a little forward towards the cousins. + +“When there are no more young people in the casa because they are dead,” + she continued, in a lower voice, “Don Gregorio he is very melank-oaly, +and he have no more company for many years. Then there was a rodeo near +the hacienda, and there came five or six caballeros to stay with him +for the feast. Notabilimente comes then Don Jorge Martinez. He is a bad +man--so weeked--a Don Juan for making lofe to the ladies. He lounge in +the garden, he smoke his cigarette, he twist the moustache--so! One day +he came in, and he laugh and wink so and say, 'Oh, the weeked, sly Don +Gregorio! He have hid away in the casa a beautiful, pret-ty girl, and +he will nossing say.' And the other caballeros say, 'Mira! what is this? +there is not so mooch as one young lady in the casa.' And Don Jorge he +wink, and he say, 'Imbeciles! pigs!' And he walk in the garden and twist +his moustache more than ever. And one day, behold! he walk into the +casa, very white and angry, and he swear mooch to himself; and he orders +his horse, and he ride away, and never come back no more, never-r-r! +And one day another caballero, Don Esteban Briones, he came in, and say, +'Hola! Don Jorge has forgotten his pret-ty girl: he have left her over +on the garden bench. Truly I have seen.' And they say, 'We will too.' +And they go, and there is nossing. And they say, 'Imbecile and pig!' But +he is not imbecile and pig; for he has seen, and Don Jorge has seen; and +why? For it is not a girl, but what you call her--a ghost! And they will +that Don Esteban should make a picture of her--a design; and he make +one. And old Don Gregorio he say, 'madre de Dios! it is Rosita'--the +same that hung under the crucifix in the big room.” + +“And is that all?” asked Dick, with a somewhat pronounced laugh, but a +face that looked quite white in the moonlight. + +“No, it ees NOT all. For when Don Gregorio got himself more company +another time--it ees all yonge ladies, and my aunt she is invite too; +for she was yonge then, and she herself have tell to me this:-- + +“One night she is in the garden with the other girls, and when they want +to go in the casa one have say, 'Where is Francisca Pacheco? Look, +she came here with us, and now she is not.' Another one say, 'She have +conceal herself to make us affright.' And my aunt she say, 'I will +go seek that I shall find her.' And she go. And when she came to the +pear-tree, she heard Francisca's voice, and it say to some one she see +not, 'Fly! vamos! some one have come.' And then she come at the moment +upon Francisca, very white and trembling, and--alone. And Francisca she +have run away and say nossing, and shut herself in her room. And one of +the other girls say: 'It is the handsome caballero with the little black +moustache and sad white face that I have seen in the garden that make +this. It is truly that he is some poor relation of Don Gregorio, or +some mad kinsman that he will not we should know.' And my aunt ask Don +Gregorio; for she is yonge. And he have say: 'What silly fool ees thees? +There is not one caballero here, but myself.' And when the other young +girl have tell to him how the caballero look, he say: 'The saints save +us! I cannot more say. It ees Don Vincente, who haf gone dead.' And +he cross himself, and--But look! Madre de Dios! Mees Cecily, you are +ill--you are affrighted. I am a gabbling fool! Help her, Don Ricardo; +she is falling!” + +But it was too late: Cecily had tried to rise to her feet, had staggered +forward and fallen in a faint on the bench. + +***** + +Dick did not remember how he helped to carry the insensible Cecily to +the casa, nor what explanation he had given to the alarmed inmates of +her sudden attack. He recalled vaguely that something had been said of +the overpowering perfumes of the garden at that hour, that the lively +Felipa had become half hysterical in her remorseful apologies, and that +Aunt Viney had ended the scene by carrying Cecily into her own +room, where she presently recovered a still trembling but reticent +consciousness. But the fainting of his cousin and the presence of a real +emergency had diverted his imagination from the vague terror that +had taken possession of it, and for the moment enabled him to control +himself. With a desperate effort he managed to keep up a show of +hospitable civility to his Spanish friends until their early departure. +Then he hurried to his own room. So bewildered and horrified he had +become, and a prey to such superstitious terrors, that he could not at +that moment bring himself to the test of looking for the picture of the +alleged Rosita, which might still be hanging in his aunt's room. If +it were really the face of his mysterious visitant--in his present +terror--he felt that his reason might not stand the shock. He would look +at it to-morrow, when he was calmer! Until then he would believe that +the story was some strange coincidence with what must have been his +hallucination, or a vulgar trick to which he had fallen a credulous +victim. Until then he would believe that Cecily's fright had been only +the effect of Dona Felipa's story, acting upon a vivid imagination, and +not a terrible confirmation of something she had herself seen. He threw +himself, without undressing, upon his bed in a benumbing agony of doubt. + +The gentle opening of his door and the slight rustle of a skirt started +him to his feet with a feeling of new and overpowering repulsion. But it +was a familiar figure that he saw in the long aisle of light which led +from his recessed window, whose face was white enough to have been a +spirit's, and whose finger was laid upon its pale lips, as it softly +closed the door behind it. + +“Cecily!” + +“Hush!” she said, in a distracted whisper: “I felt I must see you +to-night. I could not wait until day--no, not another hour! I could +not speak to you before them. I could not go into that dreadful garden +again, or beyond the walls of this house. Dick, I want to--I MUST tell +you something! I would have kept it from every one--from you most of +all! I know you will hate me, and despise me; but, Dick, listen!”--she +caught his hand despairingly, drawing it towards her--“that girl's awful +story was TRUE!” She threw his hand away. + +“And you have seen HER!” said Dick, frantically. “Good God!” + +The young girl's manner changed. “HER!” she said, half scornfully, “you +don't suppose I believe THAT story? No. I--I--don't blame me, Dick,--I +have seen HIM.” + +“Him?” + +She pushed him nervously into a seat, and sat down beside him. In the +half light of the moon, despite her pallor and distraction, she was +still very human, womanly, and attractive in her disorder. + +“Listen to me, Dick. Do you remember one afternoon, when we were riding +together, I got ahead of you, and dashed off to the casa. I don't know +what possessed me, or WHY I did it. I only know I wanted to get home +quickly, and get away from you. No, I was not angry, Dick, at YOU; +it did not seem to be THAT; I--well, I confess I was FRIGHTENED--at +something, I don't know what. When I wheeled round into the lane, I +saw--a man--a young gentleman standing by the garden-wall. He was very +picturesque-looking, in his red sash, velvet jacket, and round silver +buttons; handsome, but oh, so pale and sad! He looked at me very +eagerly, and then suddenly drew back, and I heard you on Chu Chu coming +at my heels. You must have seen him and passed him too, I thought: but +when you said nothing of it, I--I don't know why, Dick, I said nothing +of it too. Don't speak!” she added, with a hurried gesture: “I know NOW +why you said nothing,--YOU had not seen him.” + +She stopped, and put back a wisp of her disordered chestnut hair. + +“The next time was the night YOU were so queer, Dick, sitting on that +stone bench. When I left you--I thought you didn't care to have me +stay--I went to seek Aunt Viney at the bottom of the garden. I was very +sad, but suddenly I found myself very gay, talking and laughing with +her in a way I could not account for. All at once, looking up, I saw HIM +standing by the little gate, looking at me very sadly. I think I would +have spoken to Aunt Viney, but he put his finger to his lips--his +hand was so slim and white, quite like a hand in one of those Spanish +pictures--and moved slowly backwards into the lane, as if he wished to +speak with ME only--out there. I know I ought to have spoken to Aunty; I +knew it was wrong what I did, but he looked so earnest, so appealing, so +awfully sad, Dick, that I slipped past Aunty and went out of the gate. +Just then she missed me, and called. He made a kind of despairing +gesture, raising his hand Spanish fashion to his lips, as if to say +good-night. You'll think me bold, Dick, but I was so anxious to know +what it all meant, that I gave a glance behind to see if Aunty was +following, before I should go right up to him and demand an explanation. +But when I faced round again, he was gone! I walked up and down the lane +and out on the plain nearly half an hour, seeking him. It was strange, I +know; but I was not a bit FRIGHTENED, Dick--that was so queer--but I was +only amazed and curious.” + +The look of spiritual terror in Dick's face here seemed to give way to a +less exalted disturbance, as he fixed his eyes on Cecily's. + +“You remember I met YOU coming in: you seemed so queer then that I +did not say anything to you, for I thought you would laugh at me, or +reproach me for my boldness; and I thought, Dick, that--that--that--this +person wished to speak only to ME.” She hesitated. + +“Go on,” said Dick, in a voice that had also undergone a singular +change. + +The chestnut head was bent a little lower, as the young girl nervously +twisted her fingers in her lap. + +“Then I saw him again--and--again,” she went on hesitatingly. “Of course +I spoke to him, to--to--find out what he wanted; but you know, Dick, I +cannot speak Spanish, and of course he didn't understand me, and didn't +reply.” + +“But his manner, his appearance, gave you some idea of his meaning?” + said Dick suddenly. + +Cecily's head drooped a little lower. “I thought--that is, I fancied I +knew what he meant.” + +“No doubt,” said Dick, in a voice which, but for the superstitious +horror of the situation, might have impressed a casual listener as +indicating a trace of human irony. + +But Cecily did not seem to notice it. “Perhaps I was excited that night, +perhaps I was bolder because I knew you were near me; but I went up to +him and touched him! And then, Dick!--oh, Dick! think how awful--” + +Again Dick felt the thrill of superstitious terror creep over him. “And +he vanished!” he said hoarsely. + +“No--not at once,” stammered Cecily, with her head almost buried in her +lap; “for he--he--he took me in his arms and--” + +“And kissed you?” said Dick, springing to his feet, with every trace +of his superstitious agony gone from his indignant face. But Cecily, +without raising her head, caught at his gesticulating hand. + +“Oh, Dick, Dick! do you think he really did it? The horror of it, Dick! +to be kissed by a--a--man who has been dead a hundred years!” + +“A hundred fiddlesticks!” said Dick furiously. “We have been deceived! +No,” he stammered, “I mean YOU have been deceived--insulted!” + +“Hush! Aunty will hear you,” murmured the girl despairingly. + +Dick, who had thrown away his cousin's hand, caught it again, and +dragged her along the aisle of light to the window. The moon shone upon +his flushed and angry face. + +“Listen!” he said; “you have been fooled, tricked--infamously tricked +by these people, and some confederate, whom--whom I shall horsewhip if I +catch. The whole story is a lie!” + +“But you looked as if you believed it--about the girl,” said Cecily; +“you acted so strangely. I even thought, Dick,--sometimes--you had seen +HIM.” + +Dick shuddered, trembled; but it is to be feared that the lower, more +natural human element in him triumphed. + +“Nonsense!” he stammered; “the girl was a foolish farrago of +absurdities, improbable on the face of things, and impossible to prove. +But that infernal, sneaking rascal was flesh and blood.” + +It seemed to him to relieve the situation and establish his own +sanity to combat one illusion with another. Cecily had already been +deceived--another lie wouldn't hurt her. But, strangely enough, he was +satisfied that Cecily's visitant was real, although he still had doubts +about his own. + +“Then you think, Dick, it was actually some real man?” she said +piteously. “Oh, Dick, I have been so foolish!” + +Foolish she no doubt had been; pretty she certainly was, sitting there +in her loosened hair, and pathetic, appealing earnestness. Surely the +ghostly Rosita's glances were never so pleading as these actual honest +eyes behind their curving lashes. Dick felt a strange, new-born sympathy +of suffering, mingled tantalizingly with a new doubt and jealousy, that +was human and stimulating. + +“Oh, Dick, what are WE to do?” + +The plural struck him as deliciously sweet and subtle. Had they +really been singled out for this strange experience, or still stranger +hallucination? His arm crept around her; she gently withdrew from it. + +“I must go now,” she murmured; “but I couldn't sleep until I told you +all. You know, Dick, I have no one else to come to, and it seemed to me +that YOU ought to know it first. I feel better for telling you. You will +tell me to-morrow what you think we ought to do.” + +They reached the door, opening it softly. She lingered for a moment on +the threshold. + +“Tell me, Dick” (she hesitated), “if that--that really were a spirit, +and not a real man,--you don't think that--that kiss” (she shuddered) +“could do me harm!” + +He shuddered too, with a strange and sympathetic consciousness that, +happily, she did not even suspect. But he quickly recovered himself +and said, with something of bitterness in his voice, “I should be more +afraid if it really were a man.” + +“Oh, thank you, Dick!” + +Her lips parted in a smile of relief; the color came faintly back to her +cheek. + +A wild thought crossed his fancy that seemed an inspiration. They would +share the risks alike. He leaned towards her: their lips met in their +first kiss. + +“Oh, Dick!” + +“Dearest!” + +“I think--we are saved.” + +“Why?” + +“It wasn't at all like that.” + +He smiled as she flew swiftly down the corridor. Perhaps he thought so +too. + +***** + +No picture of the alleged Rosita was ever found. Dona Felipa, when the +story was again referred to, smiled discreetly, but was apparently too +preoccupied with the return of Don Jose's absent nephew for further +gossiping visits to the hacienda; and Dick and Cecily, as Mr. and Mrs. +Bracy, would seem to have survived--if they never really solved--the +mystery of the Hacienda de los Osos. Yet in the month of June, when the +moon is high, one does not sit on the stone bench in the rose garden +after the last stroke of the Angelus. + + + + +CHU CHU. + + +I do not believe that the most enthusiastic lover of that “useful and +noble animal,” the horse, will claim for him the charm of geniality, +humor, or expansive confidence. Any creature who will not look you +squarely in the eye--whose only oblique glances are inspired by fear, +distrust, or a view to attack; who has no way of returning caresses, and +whose favorite expression is one of head-lifting disdain, may be “noble” + or “useful,” but can be hardly said to add to the gayety of nations. +Indeed it may be broadly stated that, with the single exception of +gold-fish, of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the +horse is alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely +hopeless. I deem these general remarks necessary to prove that my +unreciprocated affection for “Chu Chu” was not purely individual or +singular. And I may add that to these general characteristics she +brought the waywardness of her capricious sex. + +She came to me out of the rolling dust of an emigrant wagon, behind +whose tailboard she was gravely trotting. She was a half-broken colt--in +which character she had at different times unseated everybody in the +train--and, although covered with dust, she had a beautiful coat, and +the most lambent gazelle-like eyes I had ever seen. I think she kept +these latter organs purely for ornament--apparently looking at things +with her nose, her sensitive ears, and, sometimes, even a slight lifting +of her slim near fore-leg. On our first interview I thought she favored +me with a coy glance, but as it was accompanied by an irrelevant “Look +out!” from her owner, the teamster, I was not certain. I only know that +after some conversation, a good deal of mental reservation, and the +disbursement of considerable coin, I found myself standing in the dust +of the departing emigrant-wagon with one end of a forty-foot riata in my +hand, and Chu Chu at the other. + +I pulled invitingly at my own end, and even advanced a step or two +towards her. She then broke into a long disdainful pace, and began to +circle round me at the extreme limit of her tether. I stood admiring +her free action for some moments--not always turning with her, which was +tiring--until I found that she was gradually winding herself up ON ME! +Her frantic astonishment when she suddenly found herself thus brought up +against me was one of the most remarkable things I ever saw, and nearly +took me off my legs. Then when she had pulled against the riata until +her narrow head and prettily arched neck were on a perfectly straight +line with it, she as suddenly slackened the tension and condescended to +follow me, at an angle of her own choosing. Sometimes it was on one +side of me, sometimes on the other. Even then the sense of my dreadful +contiguity apparently would come upon her like a fresh discovery, and +she would become hysterical. But I do not think that she really SAW me. +She looked at the riata and sniffed it disparagingly, she pawed some +pebbles that were near me tentatively with her small hoof; she started +back with a Robinson Crusoe-like horror of my footprints in the wet +gully, but my actual personal presence she ignored. She would sometimes +pause, with her head thoughtfully between her fore-legs, and apparently +say: “There is some extraordinary presence here: animal, vegetable, or +mineral--I can't make out which--but it's not good to eat, and I loathe +and detest it.” + +When I reached my house in the suburbs, before entering the “fifty vara” + lot inclosure, I deemed it prudent to leave her outside while I informed +the household of my purchase; and with this object I tethered her by the +long riata to a solitary sycamore which stood in the centre of the road, +the crossing of two frequented thoroughfares. It was not long, however, +before I was interrupted by shouts and screams from that vicinity, and +on returning thither I found that Chu Chu, with the assistance of her +riata, had securely wound up two of my neighbors to the tree, where they +presented the appearance of early Christian martyrs. When I released +them it appeared that they had been attracted by Chu Chu's graces, +and had offered her overtures of affection, to which she had +characteristically rotated with this miserable result. I led her, with +some difficulty, warily keeping clear of the riata, to the inclosure, +from whose fence I had previously removed several bars. Although the +space was wide enough to have admitted a troop of cavalry she affected +not to notice it, and managed to kick away part of another section on +entering. She resisted the stable for some time, but after carefully +examining it with her hoofs, and an affectedly meek outstretching of +her nose, she consented to recognize some oats in the feed-box--without +looking at them--and was formally installed. All this while she had +resolutely ignored my presence. As I stood watching her she suddenly +stopped eating; the same reflective look came over her. “Surely I am not +mistaken, but that same obnoxious creature is somewhere about here!” she +seemed to say, and shivered at the possibility. + +It was probably this which made me confide my unreciprocated affection +to one of my neighbors--a man supposed to be an authority on horses, and +particularly of that wild species to which Chu Chu belonged. It was he +who, leaning over the edge of the stall where she was complacently and, +as usual, obliviously munching, absolutely dared to toy with a pet lock +of hair which she wore over the pretty star on her forehead. “Ye see, +captain,” he said with jaunty easiness, “hosses is like wimmen; ye don't +want ter use any standoffishness or shyness with THEM; a stiddy but +keerless sort o' familiarity, a kind o' free but firm handlin', jess +like this, to let her see who's master”-- + +We never clearly knew HOW it happened; but when I picked up my neighbor +from the doorway, amid the broken splinters of the stall rail, and a +quantity of oats that mysteriously filled his hair and pockets, Chu Chu +was found to have faced around the other way, and was contemplating her +forelegs, with her hind ones in the other stall. My neighbor spoke of +damages while he was in the stall, and of physical coercion when he +was out of it again. But here Chu Chu, in some marvelous way, righted +herself, and my neighbor departed hurriedly with a brimless hat and an +unfinished sentence. + +My next intermediary was Enriquez Saltello--a youth of my own age, +and the brother of Consuelo Saltello, whom I adored. As a Spanish +Californian he was presumed, on account of Chu Chu's half-Spanish +origin, to have superior knowledge of her character, and I even vaguely +believed that his language and accent would fall familiarly on her ear. +There was the drawback, however, that he always preferred to talk in +a marvelous English, combining Castilian precision with what he fondly +believed to be Californian slang. + +“To confer then as to thees horse, which is not--observe me--a Mexican +plug! Ah, no! you can your boots bet on that. She is of Castilian +stock--believe me and strike me dead! I will myself at different times +overlook and affront her in the stable, examine her as to the assault, +and why she should do thees thing. When she is of the exercise I will +also accost and restrain her. Remain tranquil, my friend! When a few +days shall pass much shall be changed, and she will be as another. Trust +your oncle to do thees thing! Comprehend me? Everything shall be lovely, +and the goose hang high!” + +Conformably with this he “overlooked” her the next day, with a cigarette +between his yellow-stained finger-tips, which made her sneeze in a +silent pantomimic way, and certain Spanish blandishments of speech which +she received with more complacency. But I don't think she ever even +looked at him. In vain he protested that she was the “dearest” and +“littlest” of his “little loves”--in vain he asserted that she was his +patron saint, and that it was his soul's delight to pray to her; she +accepted the compliment with her eyes fixed upon the manger. When he had +exhausted his whole stock of endearing diminutives, adding a few playful +and more audacious sallies, she remained with her head down, as if +inclined to meditate upon them. This he declared was at least an +improvement on her former performances. It may have been my own +jealousy, but I fancied she was only saying to herself, “Gracious! can +there be TWO of them?” + +“Courage and patience, my friend,” he said, as we were slowly quitting +the stable. “Thees horse is yonge, and has not yet the habitude of the +person. To-morrow, at another season, I shall give to her a foundling” + (“fondling,” I have reason to believe, was the word intended by +Enriquez)--“and we shall see. It shall be as easy as to fall away from +a log. A leetle more of this chin music which your friend Enriquez +possesses, and some tapping of the head and neck, and you are there. +You are ever the right side up. Houp la! But let us not precipitate this +thing. The more haste, we do not so much accelerate ourselves.” + +He appeared to be suiting the action to the word as he lingered in the +doorway of the stable. “Come on,” I said. + +“Pardon,” he returned, with a bow that was both elaborate and evasive, +“but you shall yourself precede me--the stable is YOURS.” + +“Oh, come along!” I continued impatiently. To my surprise he seemed to +dodge back into the stable again. After an instant he reappeared. + +“Pardon! but I am re-strain! Of a truth, in this instant I am grasp by +the mouth of thees horse in the coat-tail of my dress! She will that I +should remain. It would seem”--he disappeared again--“that”--he was out +once more--“the experiment is a sooccess! She reciprocate! She is, of a +truth, gone on me. It is lofe!”--a stronger pull from Chu Chu here sent +him in again--“but”--he was out now triumphantly with half his garment +torn away--“I shall coquet.” + +Nothing daunted, however, the gallant fellow was back next day with +a Mexican saddle, and attired in the complete outfit of a vaquero. +Overcome though HE was by heavy deerskin trousers, open at the side +from the knees down, and fringed with bullion buttons, an enormous +flat sombrero, and a stiff, short embroidered velvet jacket, I was more +concerned at the ponderous saddle and equipments intended for the slim +Chu Chu. That these would hide and conceal her beautiful curves and +contour, as well as overweight her, seemed certain; that she would +resist them all to the last seemed equally clear. Nevertheless, to my +surprise, when she was led out, and the saddle thrown deftly across her +back, she was passive. Was it possible that some drop of her old Spanish +blood responded to its clinging embrace? She did not either look at it +nor smell it. But when Enriquez began to tighten the “cinch” or girth +a more singular thing occurred. Chu Chu visibly distended her slender +barrel to twice its dimensions; the more he pulled the more she swelled, +until I was actually ashamed of her. Not so Enriquez. He smiled at us, +and complacently stroked his thin moustache. + +“Eet is ever so! She is the child of her grandmother! Even when you +shall make saddle thees old Castilian stock, it will make large--it will +become a balloon! Eet is a trick--eet is a leetle game--believe me. For +why?” + +I had not listened, as I was at that moment astonished to see the saddle +slowly slide under Chu Chu's belly, and her figure resume, as if by +magic, its former slim proportions. Enriquez followed my eyes, lifted +his shoulders, shrugged them, and said smilingly, “Ah, you see!” + +When the girths were drawn in again with an extra pull or two from the +indefatigable Enriquez, I fancied that Chu Chu nevertheless secretly +enjoyed it, as her sex is said to appreciate tight-lacing. She drew a +deep sigh, possibly of satisfaction, turned her neck, and apparently +tried to glance at her own figure--Enriquez promptly withdrawing to +enable her to do so easily. Then the dread moment arrived. Enriquez, +with his hand on her mane, suddenly paused and, with exaggerated +courtesy, lifted his hat and made an inviting gesture. + +“You will honor me to precede.” + +I shook my head laughingly. + +“I see,” responded Enriquez gravely. “You have to attend the obsequies +of your aunt who is dead, at two of the clock. You have to meet your +broker who has bought you feefty share of the Comstock lode--at thees +moment--or you are loss! You are excuse! Attend! Gentlemen, make your +bets! The band has arrived to play! 'Ere we are!” + +With a quick movement the alert young fellow had vaulted into the +saddle. But, to the astonishment of both of us, the mare remained +perfectly still. There was Enriquez bolt upright in the stirrups, +completely overshadowing by his saddle-flaps, leggings, and gigantic +spurs the fine proportions of Chu Chu, until she might have been a +placid Rosinante, bestridden by some youthful Quixote. She closed her +eyes, she was going to sleep! We were dreadfully disappointed. This +clearly would not do. Enriquez lifted the reins cautiously! Chu Chu +moved forward slowly--then stopped, apparently lost in reflection. + +“Affront her on thees side.” + +I approached her gently. She shot suddenly into the air, coming down +again on perfectly stiff legs with a springless jolt. This she instantly +followed by a succession of other rocket-like propulsions, utterly +unlike a leap, all over the inclosure. The movements of the unfortunate +Enriquez were equally unlike any equitation I ever saw. He appeared +occasionally over Chu Chu's head, astride of her neck and tail, or in +the free air, but never IN the saddle. His rigid legs, however, never +lost the stirrups, but came down regularly, accentuating her springless +hops. More than that, the disproportionate excess of rider, saddle, +and accoutrements was so great that he had, at times, the appearance of +lifting Chu Chu forcibly from the ground by superior strength, and of +actually contributing to her exercise! As they came towards me, a wild +tossing and flying mass of hoofs and spurs, it was not only difficult +to distinguish them apart, but to ascertain how much of the jumping was +done by Enriquez separately. At last Chu Chu brought matters to a close +by making for the low-stretching branches of an oak-tree which stood at +the corner of the lot. In a few moments she emerged from it--but without +Enriquez. + +I found the gallant fellow disengaging himself from the fork of a branch +in which he had been firmly wedged, but still smiling and confident, and +his cigarette between his teeth. Then for the first time he removed it, +and seating himself easily on the branch with his legs dangling down, he +blandly waved aside my anxious queries with a gentle reassuring gesture. + +“Remain tranquil, my friend. Thees does not count! I have conquer--you +observe--for why? I have NEVER for once ARRIVE AT THE GROUND! Consequent +she is disappoint! She will ever that I SHOULD! But I have got her when +the hair is not long! Your oncle Henry”--with an angelic wink--“is fly! +He is ever a bully boy, with the eye of glass! Believe me. Behold! I am +here! Big Injin! Whoop!” + +He leaped lightly to the ground. Chu Chu, standing watchfully at a +little distance, was evidently astonished at his appearance. She threw +out her hind hoofs violently, shot up into the air until the stirrups +crossed each other high above the saddle, and made for the stable in a +succession of rabbit-like bounds--taking the precaution to remove the +saddle, on entering, by striking it against the lintel of the door. “You +observe,” said Enriquez blandly, “she would make that thing of ME. Not +having the good occasion, she ees dissatisfied. Where are you now?” + +Two or three days afterwards he rode her again with the same +result--accepted by him with the same heroic complacency. As we did not, +for certain reasons, care to use the open road for this exercise, and as +it was impossible to remove the tree, we were obliged to submit to the +inevitable. On the following day I mounted her--undergoing the same +experience as Enriquez, with the individual sensation of falling from a +third-story window on top of a counting-house stool, and the variation +of being projected over the fence. When I found that Chu Chu had not +accompanied me, I saw Enriquez at my side. “More than ever is become +necessary that we should do thees things again,” he said gravely, as +he assisted me to my feet. “Courage, my noble General! God and Liberty! +Once more on to the breach! Charge, Chestare, charge! Come on, Don +Stanley! 'Ere we are!” + +He helped me none too quickly to catch my seat again, for it apparently +had the effect of the turned peg on the enchanted horse in the Arabian +Nights, and Chu Chu instantly rose into the air. But she came down this +time before the open window of the kitchen, and I alighted easily on the +dresser. The indefatigable Enriquez followed me. + +“Won't this do?” I asked meekly. + +“It ees BETTER--for you arrive NOT on the ground,” he said cheerfully; +“but you should not once but a thousand times make trial! Ha! Go and +win! Nevare die and say so! 'Eave ahead! 'Eave! There you are!” + +Luckily, this time I managed to lock the rowels of my long spurs under +her girth, and she could not unseat me. She seemed to recognize the fact +after one or two plunges, when, to my great surprise, she suddenly +sank to the ground and quietly rolled over me. The action disengaged +my spurs, but, righting herself without getting up, she turned her +beautiful head and absolutely LOOKED at me!--still in the saddle. I felt +myself blushing! But the voice of Enriquez was at my side. + +“Errise, my friend; you have conquer! It is SHE who has arrive at the +ground! YOU are all right. It is done; believe me, it is feenish! No +more shall she make thees thing. From thees instant you shall ride her +as the cow--as the rail of thees fence--and remain tranquil. For she is +a-broke! Ta-ta! Regain your hats, gentlemen! Pass in your checks! It is +ovar! How are you now?” He lit a fresh cigarette, put his hands in his +pockets, and smiled at me blandly. + +For all that, I ventured to point out that the habit of alighting in the +fork of a tree, or the disengaging of one's self from the saddle on the +ground, was attended with inconvenience, and even ostentatious display. +But Enriquez swept the objections away with a single gesture. “It is +the PREENCIPAL--the bottom fact--at which you arrive. The next come of +himself! Many horse have achieve to mount the rider by the knees, and +relinquish after thees same fashion. My grandfather had a barb of thees +kind--but she has gone dead, and so have my grandfather. Which is sad +and strange! Otherwise I shall make of them both an instant example!” + +I ought to have said that although these performances were never +actually witnessed by Enriquez's sister--for reasons which he and I +thought sufficient--the dear girl displayed the greatest interest in +them, and, perhaps aided by our mutually complimentary accounts of each +other, looked upon us both as invincible heroes. It is possible also +that she over-estimated our success, for she suddenly demanded that I +should RIDE Chu Chu to her house, that she might see her. It was +not far; by going through a back lane I could avoid the trees which +exercised such a fatal fascination for Chu Chu. There was a pleading, +child-like entreaty in Consuelo's voice that I could not resist, with +a slight flash from her lustrous dark eyes that I did not care to +encourage. So I resolved to try it at all hazards. + +My equipment for the performance was modeled after Enriquez's previous +costume, with the addition of a few fripperies of silver and stamped +leather out of compliment to Consuelo, and even with a faint hope +that it might appease Chu Chu. SHE certainly looked beautiful in her +glittering accoutrements, set off by her jet-black shining coat. With an +air of demure abstraction she permitted me to mount her, and even for +a hundred yards or so indulged in a mincing maidenly amble that was not +without a touch of coquetry. Encouraged by this, I addressed a few terms +of endearment to her, and in the exuberance of my youthful enthusiasm I +even confided to her my love for Consuelo, and begged her to be “good” + and not disgrace herself and me before my Dulcinea. In my foolish +trustfulness I was rash enough to add a caress, and to pat her soft +neck. She stopped instantly with a hysteric shudder. I knew what was +passing through her mind: she had suddenly become aware of my baleful +existence. + +The saddle and bridle Chu Chu was becoming accustomed to, but who was +this living, breathing object that had actually touched her? Presently +her oblique vision was attracted by the fluttering movement of a fallen +oak-leaf in the road before her. She had probably seen many oak-leaves +many times before; her ancestors had no doubt been familiar with them on +the trackless hills and in field and paddock, but this did not alter her +profound conviction that I and the leaf were identical, that our baleful +touch was something indissolubly connected. She reared before that +innocent leaf, she revolved round it, and then fled from it at the top +of her speed. + +The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden. +Unfortunately, at the angle of the fence stood a beautiful Madrono-tree, +brilliant with its scarlet berries, and endeared to me as Consuelo's +favorite haunt, under whose protecting shade I had more than once avowed +my youthful passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu caught sight of it, +and with a succession of spirited bounds instantly made for it. In +another moment I was beneath it, and Chu Chu shot like a rocket into the +air. I had barely time to withdraw my feet from the stirrups, to throw +up one arm to protect my glazed sombrero and grasp an overhanging branch +with the other, before Chu Chu darted off. But to my consternation, as +I gained a secure perch on the tree, and looked about me, I saw +her--instead of running away--quietly trot through the open gate into +Saltello's garden. + +Need I say that it was to the beneficent Enriquez that I again owed my +salvation? Scarcely a moment elapsed before his bland voice rose in +a concentrated whisper from the corner of the garden below me. He had +divined the dreadful truth! + +“For the love of God, collect to yourself many kinds of thees berry! All +you can! Your full arms round! Rest tranquil. Leave to your ole oncle to +make for you a delicate exposure. At the instant!” + +He was gone again. I gathered, wonderingly, a few of the larger clusters +of parti-colored fruit and patiently waited. Presently he reappeared, +and with him the lovely Consuelo--her dear eyes filled with an adorable +anxiety. + +“Yes,” continued Enriquez to his sister, with a confidential lowering +of tone but great distinctness of utterance, “it is ever so with the +American! He will ever make FIRST the salutation of the flower or the +fruit, picked to himself by his own hand, to the lady where he call. It +is the custom of the American hidalgo! My God--what will you? I make it +not--it is so! Without doubt he is in this instant doing thees thing. +That is why he have let go his horse to precede him here; it is always +the etiquette to offer these things on the feet. Ah! Behold! it is +he!--Don Francisco! Even now he will descend from thees tree! Ah! You +make the blush, little sister (archly)! I will retire! I am discreet; +two is not company for the one! I make tracks! I am gone!” + +How far Consuelo entirely believed and trusted her ingenious brother +I do not know, nor even then cared to inquire. For there was a pretty +mantling of her olive cheek, as I came forward with my offering, and a +certain significant shyness in her manner that were enough to throw +me into a state of hopeless imbecility. And I was always miserably +conscious that Consuelo possessed an exalted sentimentality, and a +predilection for the highest mediaeval romance, in which I knew I was +lamentably deficient. Even in our most confidential moments I was +always aware that I weakly lagged behind this daughter of a gloomily +distinguished ancestry, in her frequent incursions into a vague +but poetic past. There was something of the dignity of the Spanish +chatelaine in the sweetly grave little figure that advanced to accept my +specious offering. I think I should have fallen on my knees to present +it, but for the presence of the all seeing Enriquez. But why did I even +at that moment remember that he had early bestowed upon her the nickname +of “Pomposa”? This, as Enriquez himself might have observed, was “sad +and strange.” + +I managed to stammer out something about the Madrono berries being at +her “disposicion” (the tree was in her own garden!), and she took the +branches in her little brown hand with a soft response to my unutterable +glances. + +But here Chu Chu, momentarily forgotten, executed a happy diversion. To +our astonishment she gravely walked up to Consuelo and, stretching out +her long slim neck, not only sniffed curiously at the berries, but even +protruded a black underlip towards the young girl herself. In another +instant Consuelo's dignity melted. Throwing her arms around Chu Chu's +neck she embraced and kissed her. Young as I was, I understood the +divine significance of a girl's vicarious effusiveness at such a moment, +and felt delighted. But I was the more astonished that the usually +sensitive horse not only submitted to these caresses, but actually +responded to the extent of affecting to nip my mistress's little right +ear. + +This was enough for the impulsive Consuelo. She ran hastily into the +house, and in a few moments reappeared in a bewitching riding-skirt +gathered round her jimp waist. In vain Enriquez and myself joined in +earnest entreaty: the horse was hardly broken for even a man's riding +yet; the saints alone could tell what the nervous creature might do +with a woman's skirt flapping at her side! We begged for delay, for +reflection, for at least time to change the saddle--but with no avail! +Consuelo was determined, indignant, distressingly reproachful! Ah, well! +if Don Pancho (an ingenious diminutive of my Christian name) valued +his horse so highly--if he were jealous of the evident devotion of the +animal to herself, he would--but here I succumbed! And then I had the +felicity of holding that little foot for one brief moment in the hollow +of my hand, of readjusting the skirt as she threw her knee over +the saddle-horn, of clasping her tightly--only half in fear--as I +surrendered the reins to her grasp. And to tell the truth, as Enriquez +and I fell back, although I had insisted upon still keeping hold of the +end of the riata, it was a picture to admire. The petite figure of the +young girl, and the graceful folds of her skirt, admirably harmonized +with Chu Chu's lithe contour, and as the mare arched her slim neck and +raised her slender head under the pressure of the reins, it was so like +the lifted velvet-capped toreador crest of Consuelo herself, that they +seemed of one race. + +“I would not that you should hold the riata,” said Consuelo petulantly. + +I hesitated--Chu Chu looked certainly very amiable--I let go. She began +to amble towards the gate, not mincingly as before, but with a freer and +fuller stride. In spite of the incongruous saddle the young girl's seat +was admirable. As they neared the gate she cast a single mischievous +glance at me, jerked at the rein, and Chu Chu sprang into the road at +a rapid canter. I watched them fearfully and breathlessly, until at the +end of the lane I saw Consuelo rein in slightly, wheel easily, and come +flying back. There was no doubt about it; the horse was under perfect +control. Her second subjugation was complete and final! + +Overjoyed and bewildered, I overwhelmed them with congratulations; +Enriquez alone retaining the usual brotherly attitude of criticism, and +a superior toleration of a lover's enthusiasm. I ventured to hint to +Consuelo (in what I believed was a safe whisper) that Chu Chu only +showed my own feelings towards her. “Without doubt,” responded Enriquez +gravely. “She have of herself assist you to climb to the tree to pull +to yourself the berry for my sister.” But I felt Consuelo's little hand +return my pressure, and I forgave and even pitied him. + +From that day forward, Chu Chu and Consuelo were not only firm friends +but daily companions. In my devotion I would have presented the horse +to the young girl, but with flattering delicacy she preferred to call it +mine. “I shall erride it for you, Pancho,” she said; “I shall feel,” she +continued with exalted although somewhat vague poetry, “that it is of +YOU! You lofe the beast--it is therefore of a necessity YOU, my Pancho! +It is YOUR soul I shall erride like the wings of the wind--your lofe in +this beast shall be my only cavalier for ever.” I would have preferred +something whose vicarious qualities were less uncertain than I still +felt Chu Chu's to be, but I kissed the girl's hand submissively. It was +only when I attempted to accompany her in the flesh, on another horse, +that I felt the full truth of my instinctive fears. Chu Chu would not +permit any one to approach her mistress's side. My mounted presence +revived in her all her old blind astonishment and disbelief in my +existence; she would start suddenly, face about, and back away from me +in utter amazement as if I had been only recently created, or with an +affected modesty as if I had been just guilty of some grave indecorum +towards her sex which she really could not stand. The frequency of these +exhibitions in the public highway were not only distressing to me as +a simple escort, but as it had the effect on the casual spectators of +making Consuelo seem to participate in Chu Chu's objections, I felt +that, as a lover, it could not be borne. Any attempt to coerce Chu Chu +ended in her running away. And my frantic pursuit of her was open to +equal misconstruction. “Go it, Miss, the little dude is gainin' on you!” + shouted by a drunken teamster to the frightened Consuelo, once checked +me in mid career. Even the dear girl herself saw the uselessness of my +real presence, and after a while was content to ride with “my soul.” + +Notwithstanding this, I am not ashamed to say that it was my custom, +whenever she rode out, to keep a slinking and distant surveillance of +Chu Chu on another horse, until she had fairly settled down to her pace. +A little nod of Consuelo's round black-and-red toreador hat or a kiss +tossed from her riding-whip was reward enough! + +I remember a pleasant afternoon when I was thus awaiting her in the +outskirts of the village. The eternal smile of the Californian summer +had begun to waver and grow less fixed; dust lay thick on leaf and +blade; the dry hills were clothed in russet leather; the trade winds +were shifting to the south with an ominous warm humidity; a few days +longer and the rains would be here. It so chanced that this afternoon my +seclusion on the roadside was accidentally invaded by a village belle--a +Western young lady somewhat older than myself, and of flirtatious +reputation. As she persistently and--as I now have reason to +believe--mischievously lingered, I had only a passing glimpse of +Consuelo riding past at an unaccustomed speed which surprised me at +the moment. But as I reasoned later that she was only trying to avoid +a merely formal meeting, I thought no more about it. It was not until I +called at the house to fetch Chu Chu at the usual hour, and found that +Consuelo had not yet returned, that a recollection of Chu Chu's furious +pace again troubled me. An hour passed--it was getting towards sunset, +but there were no signs of Chu Chu nor her mistress. I became seriously +alarmed. I did not care to reveal my fears to the family, for I felt +myself responsible for Chu Chu. At last I desperately saddled my horse, +and galloped off in the direction she had taken. It was the road to +Rosario and the hacienda of one of her relations, where she sometimes +halted. + +The road was a very unfrequented one, twisting like a mountain river; +indeed, it was the bed of an old watercourse, between brown hills of +wild oats, and debouching at last into a broad blue lake-like expanse of +alfalfa meadows. In vain I strained my eyes over the monotonous level; +nothing appeared to rise above or move across it. In the faint hope that +she might have lingered at the hacienda, I was spurring on again when I +heard a slight splashing on my left. I looked around. A broad patch +of fresher-colored herbage and a cluster of dwarfed alders indicated +a hidden spring. I cautiously approached its quaggy edges, when I was +shocked by what appeared to be a sudden vision! Mid-leg deep in the +centre of a greenish pool stood Chu Chu! But without a strap or buckle +of harness upon her--as naked as when she was foaled! + +For a moment I could only stare at her in bewildered terror. Far from +recognizing me, she seemed to be absorbed in a nymph-like contemplation +of her own graces in the pool. Then I called “Consuelo!” and galloped +frantically around the spring. But there was no response, nor was there +anything to be seen but the all-unconscious Chu Chu. The pool, thank +Heaven! was not deep enough to have drowned any one; there were no signs +of a struggle on its quaggy edges. The horse might have come from a +distance! I galloped on, still calling. A few hundred yards further +I detected the vivid glow of Chu Chu's scarlet saddle-blanket, in the +brush near the trail. My heart leaped--I was on the track. I called +again; this time a faint reply, in accents I knew too well, came from +the field beside me! + +Consuelo was there! reclining beside a manzanita bush which screened +her from the road, in what struck me, even at that supreme moment, as a +judicious and picturesquely selected couch of scented Indian grass and +dry tussocks. The velvet hat with its balls of scarlet plush was laid +carefully aside; her lovely blue-black hair retained its tight coils +undisheveled, her eyes were luminous and tender. Shocked as I was at her +apparent helplessness, I remember being impressed with the fact that it +gave so little indication of violent usage or disaster. + +I threw myself frantically on the ground beside her. + +“You are hurt, Consita! For Heaven's sake, what has happened?” + +She pushed my hat back with her little hand, and tumbled my hair gently. + +“Nothing. YOU are here, Pancho--eet is enofe! What shall come after +thees--when I am perhaps gone among the grave--make nothing! YOU are +here--I am happy. For a little, perhaps--not mooch.” + +“But,” I went on desperately, “was it an accident? Were you thrown? Was +it Chu Chu?”--for somehow, in spite of her languid posture and voice, I +could not, even in my fears, believe her seriously hurt. + +“Beat not the poor beast, Pancho. It is not from HER comes thees thing. +She have make nothing--believe me! I have come upon your assignation +with Miss Essmith! I make but to pass you--to fly--to never come back! +I have say to Chu Chu, 'Fly!' We fly many miles. Sometimes together, +sometimes not so mooch! Sometimes in the saddle, sometimes on the neck! +Many things remain in the road; at the end, I myself remain! I have +say, 'Courage, Pancho will come!' Then I say, 'No, he is talk with Miss +Essmith!' I remember not more. I have creep here on the hands. Eet is +feenish!” + +I looked at her distractedly. She smiled tenderly, and slightly smoothed +down and rearranged a fold of her dress to cover her delicate little +boot. + +“But,” I protested, “you are not much hurt, dearest. You have broken no +bones. Perhaps,” I added, looking at the boot, “only a slight sprain. +Let me carry you to my horse; I will walk beside you, home. Do, dearest +Consita!” + +She turned her lovely eyes towards me sadly. “You comprehend not, my +poor Pancho! It is not of the foot, the ankle, the arm, or the head that +I can say, 'She is broke!' I would it were even so. But”--she lifted her +sweet lashes slowly--“I have derrange my inside. It is an affair of my +family. My grandfather have once toomble over the bull at a rodeo. He +speak no more; he is dead. For why? He has derrange his inside. Believe +me, it is of the family. You comprehend? The Saltellos are not as the +other peoples for this. When I am gone, you will bring to me the berry +to grow upon my tomb, Pancho; the berry you have picked for me. The +little flower will come too, the little star will arrive, but Consuelo, +who lofe you, she will come not more! When you are happy and talk in the +road to the Essmith, you will not think of me. You will not see my eyes, +Pancho; thees little grass”--she ran her plump little fingers through a +tussock--“will hide them; and the small animals in the black coats that +lif here will have much sorrow--but you will not. It ees better so! My +father will not that I, a Catholique, should marry into a camp-meeting, +and lif in a tent, and make howl like the coyote.” (It was one +of Consuelo's bewildering beliefs that there was only one form of +dissent--Methodism!) “He will not that I should marry a man who possess +not the many horses, ox, and cow, like him. But I care not. YOU are my +only religion, Pancho! I have enofe of the horse, and ox, and cow when +YOU are with me! Kiss me, Pancho. Perhaps it is for the last time--the +feenish! Who knows?” + +There were tears in her lovely eyes; I felt that my own were growing +dim; the sun was sinking over the dreary plain to the slow rising of the +wind; an infinite loneliness had fallen upon us, and yet I was miserably +conscious of some dreadful unreality in it all. A desire to laugh, which +I felt must be hysterical, was creeping over me; I dared not speak. But +her dear head was on my shoulder, and the situation was not unpleasant. + +Nevertheless, something must be done! This was the more difficult as it +was by no means clear what had already been done. Even while I supported +her drooping figure I was straining my eyes across her shoulder for +succor of some kind. Suddenly the figure of a rapid rider appeared +upon the road. It seemed familiar. I looked again--it was the blessed +Enriquez! A sense of deep relief came over me. I loved Consuelo; but +never before had lover ever hailed the irruption of one of his beloved's +family with such complacency. + +“You are safe, dearest; it is Enriquez!” + +I thought she received the information coldly. Suddenly she turned upon +me her eyes, now bright and glittering. “Swear to me at the instant, +Pancho, that you will not again look upon Miss Essmith, even for once.” + +I was simple and literal. Miss Smith was my nearest neighbor, and, +unless I was stricken with blindness, compliance was impossible. I +hesitated--but swore. + +“Enofe--you have hesitate--I will no more.” + +She rose to her feet with grave deliberation. For an instant, with the +recollection of the delicate internal organization of the Saltellos +on my mind, I was in agony lest she should totter and fall, even then, +yielding up her gentle spirit on the spot. But when I looked again she +had a hairpin between her white teeth, and was carefully adjusting her +toreador hat. And beside us was Enriquez--cheerful, alert, voluble, and +undaunted. + +“Eureka! I have found! We are all here! Eet is a leetle public--eh! a +leetle too much of a front seat for a tete-a-tete, my yonge friends,” + he said, glancing at the remains of Consuelo's bower, “but for the +accounting of taste there is none. What will you? The meat of the one +man shall envenom the meat of the other. But” (in a whisper to me) +“as to thees horse--thees Chu Chu, which I have just pass--why is she +undress? Surely you would not make an exposition of her to the traveler +to suspect! And if not, why so?” + +I tried to explain, looking at Consuelo, that Chu Chu had run away, that +Consuelo had met with a terrible accident, had been thrown, and I feared +had suffered serious internal injury. But to my embarrassment Consuelo +maintained a half scornful silence, and an inconsistent freshness of +healthful indifference, as Enriquez approached her with an engaging +smile. “Ah, yes, she have the headache, and the molligrubs. She will sit +on the damp stone when the gentle dew is falling. I comprehend. Meet +me in the lane when the clock strike nine! But,” in a lower voice, +“of thees undress horse I comprehend nothing! Look you--it is sad and +strange.” + +He went off to fetch Chu Chu, leaving me and Consuelo alone. I do not +think I ever felt so utterly abject and bewildered before in my life. +Without knowing why, I was miserably conscious of having in some way +offended the girl for whom I believed I would have given my life, and +I had made her and myself ridiculous in the eyes of her brother. I had +again failed in my slower Western nature to understand her high romantic +Spanish soul! Meantime she was smoothing out her riding-habit, and +looking as fresh and pretty as when she first left her house. + +“Consita,” I said hesitatingly, “you are not angry with me?” + +“Angry?” she repeated haughtily, without looking at me. “Oh, no! Of a +possibility eet is Mees Essmith who is angry that I have interroopt her +tete-a-tete with you, and have send here my brother to make the same +with me.” + +“But,” I said eagerly, “Miss Smith does not even know Enriquez!” + +Consuelo turned on me a glance of unutterable significance. “Ah!” she +said darkly, “you TINK!” + +Indeed I KNEW. But here I believed I understood Consuelo, and was +relieved. I even ventured to say gently, “And you are better?” + +She drew herself up to her full height, which was not much. “Of my +health, what is it? A nothing. Yes! Of my soul let us not speak.” + +Nevertheless, when Enriquez appeared with Chu Chu she ran towards her +with outstretched arms. Chu Chu protruded about six inches of upper +lip in response--apparently under the impression, which I could quite +understand, that her mistress was edible. And, I may have been mistaken, +but their beautiful eyes met in an absolute and distinct glance of +intelligence! + +During the home journey Consuelo recovered her spirits, and parted from +me with a magnanimous and forgiving pressure of the hand. I do not know +what explanation of Chu Chu's original escapade was given to Enriquez +and the rest of the family; the inscrutable forgiveness extended to me +by Consuelo precluded any further inquiry on my part. I was willing +to leave it a secret between her and Chu Chu. But, strange to say, it +seemed to complete our own understanding, and precipitated, not only our +lovemaking, but the final catastrophe which culminated that romance. +For we had resolved to elope. I do not know that this heroic remedy was +absolutely necessary from the attitude of either Consuelo's family or +my own; I am inclined to think we preferred it, because it involved no +previous explanation or advice. Need I say that our confidant and firm +ally was Consuelo's brother--the alert, the linguistic, the ever-happy, +ever-ready Enriquez! It was understood that his presence would not only +give a certain mature respectability to our performance--but I do not +think we would have contemplated this step without it. During one of our +riding excursions we were to secure the services of a Methodist minister +in the adjoining county, and, later, that of the Mission padre--when the +secret was out. “I will gif her away,” said Enriquez confidently, “it +will on the instant propitiate the old shadbelly who shall perform the +affair, and withhold his jaw. A little chin-music from your oncle 'Arry +shall finish it! Remain tranquil and forgot not a ring! One does not +always, in the agony and dissatisfaction of the moment, a ring remember. +I shall bring two in the pocket of my dress.” + +If I did not entirely participate in this roseate view it may have +been because Enriquez, although a few years my senior, was much +younger-looking, and with his demure deviltry of eye, and his upper lip +close shaven for this occasion, he suggested a depraved acolyte rather +than a responsible member of a family. Consuelo had also confided to +me that her father--possibly owing to some rumors of our previous +escapade--had forbidden any further excursions with me alone. The +innocent man did not know that Chu Chu had forbidden it also, and that +even on this momentous occasion both Enriquez and myself were obliged to +ride in opposite fields like out flankers. But we nevertheless felt the +full guilt of disobedience added to our desperate enterprise. Meanwhile, +although pressed for time, and subject to discovery at any moment, I +managed at certain points of the road to dismount and walk beside Chu +Chu (who did not seem to recognize me on foot), holding Consuelo's hand +in my own, with the discreet Enriquez leading my horse in the distant +field. I retain a very vivid picture of that walk--the ascent of a +gentle slope towards a prospect as yet unknown, but full of glorious +possibilities; the tender dropping light of an autumn sky, slightly +filmed with the promise of the future rains, like foreshadowed tears, +and the half frightened, half serious talk into which Consuelo and I +had insensibly fallen. And then, I don't know how it happened, but as we +reached the summit Chu Chu suddenly reared, wheeled, and the next moment +was flying back along the road we had just traveled, at the top of her +speed! It might have been that, after her abstracted fashion, she only +at that moment detected my presence; but so sudden and complete was +her evolution that before I could regain my horse from the astonished +Enriquez she was already a quarter of a mile on the homeward stretch, +with the frantic Consuelo pulling hopelessly at the bridle. We started +in pursuit. But a horrible despair seized us. To attempt to overtake +her, to even follow at the same rate of speed would only excite Chu +Chu and endanger Consuelo's life. There was absolutely no help for +it, nothing could be done; the mare had taken her determined long, +continuous stride, the road was a straight, steady descent all the way +back to the village, Chu Chu had the bit between her teeth, and there +was no prospect of swerving her. We could only follow hopelessly, +idiotically, furiously, until Chu Chu dashed triumphantly into the +Saltellos' courtyard, carrying the half-fainting Consuelo back to the +arms of her assembled and astonished family. + +It was our last ride together. It was the last I ever saw of Consuelo +before her transfer to the safe seclusion of a convent in Southern +California. It was the last I ever saw of Chu Chu, who in the confusion +of that rencontre was overlooked in her half-loosed harness, and allowed +to escape though the back gate to the fields. Months afterwards it was +said that she had been identified among a band of wild horses in the +Coast Range, as a strange and beautiful creature who had escaped the +brand of the rodeo and had become a myth. There was another legend that +she had been seen, sleek, fat, and gorgeously caparisoned, issuing from +the gateway of the Rosario patio, before a lumbering Spanish cabriole in +which a short, stout matron was seated--but I will have none of it. For +there are days when she still lives, and I can see her plainly still +climbing the gentle slope towards the summit, with Consuelo on her back, +and myself at her side, pressing eagerly forward towards the illimitable +prospect that opens in the distance. + + + + +MY FIRST BOOK. + + +When I say that my “First Book” was NOT my own, and contained beyond the +title-page not one word of my own composition, I trust that I will not +be accused of trifling with paradox, or tardily unbosoming myself of +youthful plagiary. But the fact remains that in priority of publication +the first book for which I became responsible, and which probably +provoked more criticism than anything I have written since, was a small +compilation of Californian poems indited by other hands. + +A well-known bookseller of San Francisco one day handed me a collection +of certain poems which had already appeared in Pacific Coast magazines +and newspapers, with the request that I should, if possible, secure +further additions to them, and then make a selection of those which I +considered the most notable and characteristic, for a single volume to +be issued by him. I have reason to believe that this unfortunate man was +actutated by a laudable desire to publish a pretty Californian book--HIS +first essay in publication--and at the same time to foster Eastern +immigration by an exhibit of the Californian literary product; but, +looking back upon his venture, I am inclined to think that the little +volume never contained anything more poetically pathetic or touchingly +imaginative than that gentle conception. Equally simple and trustful +was his selection of myself as compiler. It was based somewhat, I think, +upon the fact that “the artless Helicon” I boasted “was Youth,” but I +imagine it was chiefly owing to the circumstance that I had from the +outset, with precocious foresight, confided to him my intention of not +putting any of my own verses in the volume. Publishers are appreciative; +and a self-abnegation so sublime, to say nothing of its security, was +not without its effect. + +We settled to our work with fatuous self-complacency, and no suspicion +of the trouble in store for us, or the storm that was to presently +hurtle around our devoted heads. I winnowed the poems, and he exploited +a preliminary announcement to an eager and waiting press, and we moved +together unwittingly to our doom. I remember to have been early struck +with the quantity of material coming in--evidently the result of some +popular misunderstanding of the announcement. I found myself in daily +and hourly receipt of sere and yellow fragments, originally torn from +some dead and gone newspaper, creased and seamed from long folding in +wallet or pocketbook. Need I say that most of them were of an emotional +or didactic nature; need I add any criticism of these homely souvenirs, +often discolored by the morning coffee, the evening tobacco, or, heaven +knows! perhaps blotted by too easy tears! Enough that I knew now what +had become of those original but never recopied verses which filled the +“Poet's Corner” of every country newspaper on the coast. I knew now +the genesis of every didactic verse that “coldly furnished forth the +marriage table” in the announcement of weddings in the rural press. I +knew now who had read--and possibly indited--the dreary hic jacets of +the dead in their mourning columns. I knew now why certain letters +of the alphabet had been more tenderly considered than others, and +affectionately addressed. I knew the meaning of the “Lines to Her who +can best understand them,” and I knew that they HAD been understood. +The morning's post buried my table beneath these withered leaves of +posthumous passion. They lay there like the pathetic nosegays of +quickly fading wild flowers, gathered by school children, inconsistently +abandoned upon roadsides, or as inconsistently treasured as limp and +flabby superstitions in their desks. The chill wind from the Bay blowing +in at the window seemed to rustle them into sad articulate appeal. I +remember that when one of them was whisked from the window by a stronger +gust than usual, and was attaining a circulation it had never known +before, I ran a block or two to recover it. I was young then, and in an +exalted sense of editorial responsibility which I have since survived, +I think I turned pale at the thought that the reputation of some unknown +genius might have thus been swept out and swallowed by the all-absorbing +sea. + +There were other difficulties arising from this unexpected wealth of +material. There were dozens of poems on the same subject. “The Golden +Gate,” “Mount Shasta,” “The Yosemite,” were especially provocative. A +beautiful bird known as the “Californian Canary” appeared to have been +shot at and winged by every poet from Portland to San Diego. Lines to +the “Mariposa” flower were as thick as the lovely blossoms themselves in +the Merced valley, and the Madrone tree was as “berhymed” as Rosalind. +Again, by a liberal construction of the publisher's announcement, +MANUSCRIPT poems, which had never known print, began to coyly unfold +their virgin blossoms in the morning's mail. They were accompanied by +a few lines stating, casually, that their sender had found them lying +forgotten in his desk, or, mendaciously, that they were “thrown off” on +the spur of the moment a few hours before. Some of the names appended +to them astonished me. Grave, practical business men, sage financiers, +fierce speculators, and plodding traders, never before suspected of +poetry, or even correct prose, were among the contributors. It seemed as +if most of the able-bodied inhabitants of the Pacific Coast had been in +the habit at some time of expressing themselves in verse. Some sought +confidential interviews with the editor. The climax was reached when, +in Montgomery Street, one day, I was approached by a well known and +venerable judicial magnate. After some serious preliminary conversation, +the old gentleman finally alluded to what he was pleased to call a task +of “great delicacy and responsibility laid upon my young shoulders.” + “In fact,” he went on paternally, adding the weight of his judicial +hand to that burden, “I have thought of speaking to you about it. In +my leisure moments on the Bench I have, from time to time, polished and +perfected a certain college poem begun years ago, but which may now be +said to have been finished in California, and thus embraced in the scope +of your proposed selection. If a few extracts, selected by myself, to +save you all trouble and responsibility, be of any benefit to you, my +dear young friend, consider them at your service.” + +In this fashion the contributions had increased to three times the +bulk of the original collection, and the difficulties of selection +were augmented in proportion. The editor and publisher eyed each other +aghast. “Never thought there were so many of the blamed things alive,” + said the latter with great simplicity, “had you?” The editor had not. +“Couldn't you sorter shake 'em up and condense 'em, you know? keep their +ideas--and their names--separate, so that they'd have proper credit. +See?” The editor pointed out that this would infringe the rule he had +laid down. “I see,” said the publisher thoughtfully; “well, couldn't +you pare 'em down; give the first verse entire and sorter sample the +others?” The editor thought not. There was clearly nothing to do but to +make a more rigid selection--a difficult performance when the material +was uniformly on a certain dead level, which it is not necessary to +define here. Among the rejections were, of course, the usual plagiarisms +from well-known authors imposed upon an inexperienced country press; +several admirable pieces detected as acrostics of patent medicines, +and certain veiled libels and indecencies such as mark the “first” + publications on blank walls and fences of the average youth. Still the +bulk remained too large, and the youthful editor set to work reducing +it still more with a sympathizing concern which the good-natured, but +unliterary, publisher failed to understand, and which, alas! proved to +be equally unappreciated by the rejected contributors. + +The book appeared--a pretty little volume typographically, and +externally a credit to pioneer book-making. Copies were liberally +supplied to the press, and authors and publishers self-complacently +awaited the result. To the latter this should have been satisfactory; +the book sold readily from his well-known counters to purchasers who +seemed to be drawn by a singular curiosity, unaccompanied, however, by +any critical comment. People would lounge in to the shop, turn over the +leaves of other volumes, say carelessly, “Got a new book of California +poetry out, haven't you?” purchase it, and quietly depart. There were +as yet no notices from the press; the big dailies were silent; there was +something ominous in this calm. + +Out of it the bolt fell. A well-known mining weekly, which I here +poetically veil under the title of the Red Dog “Jay Hawk,” was first to +swoop down upon the tuneful and unsuspecting quarry. At this century-end +of fastidious and complaisant criticism, it may be interesting to +recall the direct style of the Californian “sixties.” “The hogwash and +'purp'-stuff ladled out from the slop-bucket of Messrs. ---- and Co., of +'Frisco, by some lop-eared Eastern apprentice, and called 'A Compilation +of Californian Verse,' might be passed over, so far as criticism goes. A +club in the hands of any able-bodied citizen of Red Dog, and a steamboat +ticket to the Bay, cheerfully contributed from this office, would +be all-sufficient. But when an imported greenhorn dares to call his +flapdoodle mixture 'Californian,' it is an insult to the State that has +produced the gifted 'Yellow Hammer,' whose lofty flights have from time +to time dazzled our readers in the columns of the 'Jay Hawk.' That this +complacent editorial jackass, browsing among the dock and thistles which +he has served up in this volume, should make no allusion to California's +greatest bard, is rather a confession of his idiocy than a slur upon the +genius of our esteemed contributor.” I turned hurriedly to my pile of +rejected contributions--the nom de plume of “Yellow Hammer” did NOT +appear among them; certainly I had never heard of its existence. Later, +when a friend showed me one of that gifted bard's pieces, I was inwardly +relieved! It was so like the majority of the other verses, in and out of +the volume, that the mysterious poet might have written under a hundred +aliases. But the Dutch Flat “Clarion,” following, with no uncertain +sound, left me small time for consideration. “We doubt,” said that +journal, “if a more feeble collection of drivel could have been made, +even if taken exclusively from the editor's own verses, which we note he +has, by an equal editorial incompetency, left out of the volume. When +we add that, by a felicity of idiotic selection, this person has chosen +only one, and the least characteristic, of the really clever poems of +Adoniram Skaggs, which have so often graced these columns, we have +said enough to satisfy our readers.” The Mormon Hill “Quartz Crusher” + relieved this simple directness with more fancy: “We don't know +why Messrs. ---- and Co. send us, under the title of 'Selections of +Californian Poetry,' a quantity of slumgullion which really belongs +to the sluices of a placer mining camp, or the ditches of the rural +districts. We have sometimes been compelled to run a lot of tailings +through our stamps, but never of the grade of the samples offered, +which, we should say, would average about 33-1/3 cents per ton. We have, +however, come across a single specimen of pure gold evidently overlooked +by the serene ass who has compiled this volume. We copy it with +pleasure, as it has already shone in the 'Poet's Corner' of the +'Crusher' as the gifted effusion of the talented Manager of the +Excelsior Mill, otherwise known to our delighted readers as 'Outcrop.'” + The Green Springs “Arcadian” was no less fanciful in imagery: “Messrs. +---- and Co. send us a gaudy green-and-yellow, parrot-colored volume, +which is supposed to contain the first callow 'cheepings' and 'peepings' +of Californian songsters. From the flavor of the specimens before us we +should say that the nest had been disturbed prematurely. There seems to +be a good deal of the parrot inside as well as outside the covers, and +we congratulate our own sweet singer 'Blue Bird,' who has so often made +these columns melodious, that she has escaped the ignominy of being +exhibited in Messrs. ---- and Co.'s aviary.” I should add that this +simile of the aviary and its occupants was ominous, for my tuneful choir +was relentlessly slaughtered; the bottom of the cage was strewn with +feathers! The big dailies collected the criticisms and published them +in their own columns with the grim irony of exaggerated head-lines. The +book sold tremendously on account of this abuse, but I am afraid that +the public was disappointed. The fun and interest lay in the criticisms, +and not in any pointedly ludicrous quality in the rather commonplace +collection, and I fear I cannot claim for it even that merit. And it +will be observed that the animus of the criticism appeared to be the +omission rather than the retention of certain writers. + +But this brings me to the most extraordinary feature of this singular +demonstration. I do not think that the publishers were at all troubled +by it; I cannot conscientiously say that I was; I have every reason to +believe that the poets themselves, in and out of the volume, were not +displeased at the notoriety they had not expected, and I have long since +been convinced that my most remorseless critics were not in earnest, but +were obeying some sudden impulse started by the first attacking journal. +The extravagance of the Red Dog “Jay Hawk” was emulated by others: +it was a large, contagious joke, passed from journal to journal in +a peculiar cyclonic Western fashion. And there still lingers, not +unpleasantly, in my memory the conclusion of a cheerfully scathing +review of the book which may make my meaning clearer: “If we have +said anything in this article which might cause a single pang to the +poetically sensitive nature of the youthful individual calling himself +Mr. Francis Bret Harte--but who, we believe, occasionally parts his name +and his hair in the middle--we will feel that we have not labored in +vain, and are ready to sing Nunc Dimittis, and hand in our checks. We +have no doubt of the absolutely pellucid and lacteal purity of Franky's +intentions. He means well to the Pacific Coast, and we return the +compliment. But he has strayed away from his parents and guardians while +he was too fresh. He will not keep without a little salt.” + +It was thirty years ago. The book and its Rabelaisian criticisms have +been long since forgotten. Alas! I fear that even the capacity for that +Gargantuan laughter which met them, in those days, exists no longer. +The names I have used are necessarily fictitious, but where I have been +obliged to quote the criticisms from memory I have, I believe, only +softened their asperity. I do not know that this story has any moral. +The criticisms here recorded never hurt a reputation nor repressed a +single honest aspiration. A few contributors to the volume, who were +of original merit, have made their mark, independently of it or its +critics. The editor, who was for two months the most abused man on the +Pacific slope, within the year became the editor of its first successful +magazine. Even the publisher prospered, and died respected! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other +Stories, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + +***** This file should be named 2676-0.txt or 2676-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/7/2676/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2676-0.zip b/2676-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a05160 --- /dev/null +++ b/2676-0.zip diff --git a/2676-h.zip b/2676-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f110170 --- /dev/null +++ b/2676-h.zip diff --git a/2676-h/2676-h.htm b/2676-h/2676-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e81114 --- /dev/null +++ b/2676-h/2676-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8030 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Bell-ringer of Angel's, by Bret Harte + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's 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: The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2676] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Bret Harte + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S</b></big> + </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> JOHNNYBOY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> YOUNG ROBIN GRAY. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> CHU CHU. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> MY FIRST BOOK. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. + </h2> + <p> + Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful + grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain, + there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies + like a small island in the stream. To the strongly-marked heroics of + Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and gray + mosses from the overhanging rocks and feathery alders trail their + filaments in its slow current, and between the woodland openings there are + glimpses of vivid velvet sward, even at times when the wild oats and + “wire-grasses” of the plains are already yellowing. The placid river, + unstained at this point by mining sluices or mill drift, runs clear under + its contemplative shadows. Originally the camping-ground of a Digger + Chief, it passed from his tenancy with the American rifle bullet that + terminated his career. The pioneer who thus succeeded to its attractive + calm gave way in turn to a well-directed shot from the revolver of a + quartz-prospector, equally impressed with the charm of its restful + tranquillity. How long he might have enjoyed its riparian seclusion is not + known. A sudden rise of the river one March night quietly removed him, + together with the overhanging post oak beneath which he was profoundly but + unconsciously meditating. The demijohn of whiskey was picked up further + down. But no other suggestion of these successive evictions was ever + visible in the reposeful serenity of the spot. + </p> + <p> + It was later occupied, and a cabin built upon the spot, by one Alexander + McGee, better known as “the Bell-ringer of Angel's.” This euphonious + title, which might have suggested a consistently peaceful occupation, + however, referred to his accuracy of aim at a mechanical target, where the + piercing of the bull's eye was celebrated by the stroke of a bell. It is + probable that this singular proficiency kept his investment of that gentle + seclusion unchallenged. At all events it was uninvaded. He shared it only + with the birds. Perhaps some suggestion of nest building may have been in + his mind, for one pleasant spring morning he brought hither a wife. It was + his OWN; and in this way he may be said to have introduced that morality + which is supposed to be the accompaniment and reflection of pastoral life. + Mrs. McGee's red petticoat was sometimes seen through the trees—a + cheerful bit of color. Mrs. McGee's red cheeks, plump little figure, + beribboned hat and brown, still-girlish braids were often seen at sunset + on the river bank, in company with her husband, who seemed to be pleased + with the discreet and distant admiration that followed them. Strolling + under the bland shadows of the cotton-woods, by the fading gold of the + river, he doubtless felt that peace which the mere world cannot give, and + which fades not away before the clear, accurate eye of the perfect + marksman. + </p> + <p> + Their nearest neighbors were the two brothers Wayne, who took up a claim, + and built themselves a cabin on the river bank near the promontory. Quiet, + simple men, suspected somewhat of psalm-singing, and undue retirement on + Sundays, they attracted but little attention. But when, through some + original conception or painstaking deliberation, they turned the current + of the river so as to restrict the overflow between the promontory and the + river bank, disclosing an auriferous “bar” of inconceivable richness, and + establishing their theory that it was really the former channel of the + river, choked and diverted though ages of alluvial drift, they may be said + to have changed, also, the fortunes of the little settlement. Popular + feeling and the new prosperity which dawned upon the miners recognized the + two brothers by giving the name of Wayne's Bar to the infant settlement + and its post-office. The peaceful promontory, although made easier of + access, still preserved its calm seclusion, and pretty Mrs. McGee could + contemplate through the leaves of her bower the work going on at its base, + herself unseen. Nevertheless, this Arcadian retreat was being slowly and + surely invested; more than that, the character of its surroundings was + altered, and the complexion of the river had changed. The Wayne engines on + the point above had turned the drift and debris into the current that now + thickened and ran yellow around the wooded shore. The fringes of this Eden + were already tainted with the color of gold. + </p> + <p> + It is doubtful, however, if Mrs. McGee was much affected by this + sentimental reflection, and her husband, in a manner, lent himself to the + desecration of his exclusive domain by accepting a claim along the shore—tendered + by the conscientious Waynes in compensation for restricting the approach + to the promontory—and thus participated in the fortunes of the Bar. + Mrs. McGee amused herself by watching from her eyrie, with a presumably + childish interest, the operations of the red-shirted brothers on the Bar; + her husband, however, always accompanying her when she crossed the Bar to + the bank. Some two or three other women—wives of miners—had + joined the camp, but it was evident that McGee was as little inclined to + intrust his wife to their companionship as to that of their husbands. An + opinion obtained that McGee, being an old resident, with alleged high + connections in Angel's, was inclined to be aristocratic and exclusive. + </p> + <p> + Meantime, the two brothers who had founded the fortunes of the Bar were + accorded an equally high position, with an equal amount of reserve. Their + ways were decidedly not those of the other miners, and were as efficacious + in keeping them from familiar advances as the reputation of Mr. McGee was + in isolating his wife. Madison Wayne, the elder, was tall, well-knit and + spare, reticent in speech and slow in deduction; his brother, Arthur, was + of rounder outline, but smaller and of a more delicate and perhaps a more + impressible nature. It was believed by some that it was within the range + of possibility that Arthur would yet be seen “taking his cocktail like a + white man,” or “dropping his scads” at draw poker. At present, however, + they seemed content to spend their evenings in their own cabin, and their + Sundays at a grim Presbyterian tabernacle in the next town, to which they + walked ten miles, where, it was currently believed, “hell fire was ladled + out free,” and “infants damned for nothing.” When they did not go to + meeting it was also believed that the minister came to them, until it was + ascertained that the sound of sacred recitation overheard in their cabin + was simply Madison Wayne reading the Bible to his younger brother. McGee + is said to have stopped on one of these occasions—unaccompanied by + his wife—before their cabin, moving away afterwards with more than + his usual placid contentment. + </p> + <p> + It was about eleven o'clock one morning, and Madison Wayne was at work + alone on the Bar. Clad in a dark gray jersey and white duck trousers + rolled up over high india-rubber boots, he looked not unlike a peaceful + fisherman digging stakes for his nets, as he labored in the ooze and + gravel of the still half-reclaimed river bed. He was far out on the Bar, + within a stone's throw of the promontory. Suddenly his quick ear caught an + unfamiliar cry and splash. Looking up hastily, he saw Mrs. McGee's red + petticoat in the water under the singularly agitated boughs of an + overhanging tree. Madison Wayne ran to the bank, threw off his heavy + boots, and sprang into the stream. A few strokes brought him to Mrs. + McGee's petticoat, which, as he had wisely surmised, contained Mrs. McGee, + who was still clinging to a branch of the tree. Grasping her waist with + one hand and the branch with the other, he obtained a foothold on the + bank, and dragged her ashore. A moment later they both stood erect and + dripping at the foot of the tree. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” said the lady. + </p> + <p> + Wayne glanced around their seclusion with his habitual caution, slightly + knit his brows perplexedly, and said: “You fell in?” + </p> + <p> + “I didn't do nothin' of the sort. I JUMPED in.” + </p> + <p> + Wayne again looked around him, as if expecting her companion, and squeezed + the water out of his thick hair. “Jumped in?” he repeated slowly. “What + for?” + </p> + <p> + “To make you come over here, Mad Wayne,” she said, with a quick laugh, + putting her arms akimbo. + </p> + <p> + They stood looking at each other, dripping like two river gods. Like them, + also, Wayne had apparently ignored the fact that his trousers were rolled + up above his bare knees, and Mrs. McGee that her red petticoat clung + closely to her rather pretty figure. But he quickly recovered himself. + “You had better go in and change your clothes,” he said, with grave + concern. “You'll take cold.” + </p> + <p> + She only shook herself disdainfully. “I'm all right,” she said; “but YOU, + Mad Wayne, what do you mean by not speaking to me—not knowing me? + You can't say that I've changed like that.” She passed her hand down her + long dripping braids as if to press the water from them, and yet with a + half-coquettish suggestion in the act. + </p> + <p> + Something struggled up into the man's face which was not there before. + There was a new light in his grave eyes. “You look the same,” he said + slowly; “but you are married—you have a husband.” + </p> + <p> + “You think that changes a girl?” she said, with a laugh “That's where all + you men slip up! You're afraid of his rifle—THAT'S the change that + bothers you, Mad.” + </p> + <p> + “You know I care little for carnal weapons,” he said quietly. She DID know + it; but it is the privilege of the sex to invent its facts and then to + graciously abandon them as if they were only arguments. “Then why do you + keep off from me? Why do you look the other way when I pass?” she said + quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Because you are married,” he said slowly. + </p> + <p> + She again shook the water from her like a Newfoundland dog. “That's it. + You're mad because I got married. You're mad because I wouldn't marry you + and your church over on the cross roads, and sing hymns with you and + become SISTER Wayne. You wanted me to give up dancing and buggy ridin' + Sundays—and you're just mad because I didn't. Yes, mad—just + mean, baby mad, Mr. Maddy Wayne, for all your CHRISTIAN resignation! + That's what's the matter with you.” Yet she looked very pretty and piquant + in her small spitefulness, which was still so general and superficial that + she seemed to shake it out of her wet petticoats in a vicious flap that + disclosed her neat ankles. + </p> + <p> + “You preferred McGee to me,” he said grimly. “I didn't blame you.” + </p> + <p> + “Who said I PREFERRED him?” she retorted quickly. “Much you know!” Then, + with swift feminine abandonment of her position, she added, with a little + laugh, “It's all the same whether you're guarded with a rifle or a Church + Presbytery, only”— + </p> + <p> + “Only what?” said Madison earnestly. + </p> + <p> + “There's men who'd risk being SHOT for a girl, that couldn't stand + psalm-singin' palaver.” + </p> + <p> + The quick expression of pain that passed over his hard, dark face seemed + only to heighten her pretty mischievousness. But he simply glanced again + around the solitude, passed his hand over his wet sleeve, and said, “I + must go now; your husband wouldn't like me being here.” + </p> + <p> + “He's workin' in the claim,—the claim YOU gave him,” said Mrs. + McGee, with cheerful malice. “Wonder what he'd say if he knew it was given + to him by the man who used to spark his wife only two years ago? How does + that suit your Christian conscience, Mad?” + </p> + <p> + “I should have told him, had I not believed that everything was over + between us, or that it was possible that you and me should ever meet + again,” he returned, in a tone so measured that the girl seemed to hear + the ring of the conventicle in it. + </p> + <p> + “Should you, BROTHER Wayne?” she said, imitating him. “Well, let me tell + you that you are the one man on the Bar that Sandy has taken a fancy to.” + </p> + <p> + Madison's sallow cheek colored a little, but he did not speak. + </p> + <p> + “Well!” continued Mrs. McGee impatiently. “I don't believe he'd object to + your comin' here to see me—if you cared.” + </p> + <p> + “But I wouldn't care to come, unless he first knew that I had been once + engaged to you,” said Madison gravely. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps he might not think as much of that as you do,” retorted the woman + pertly. “Every one isn't as straitlaced as you, and every girl has had one + or two engagements. But do as you like—stay at home if you want to, + and sing psalms and read the Scriptures to that younger brother of yours! + All the same, I'm thinkin' he'd rather be out with the boys.” + </p> + <p> + “My brother is God-fearing and conscientious,” said Madison quickly. “You + do not know him. You have never seen him.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Mrs. McGee shortly. She then gave a little shiver (that was, + however, half simulated) in her wet garments, and added: “ONE saint was + enough for me; I couldn't stand the whole church, Mad.” + </p> + <p> + “You are catching cold,” he said quickly, his whole face brightening with + a sudden tenderness that seemed to transfigure the dark features. “I am + keeping you here when you should be changing your clothes. Go, I beg you, + at once.” + </p> + <p> + She stood still provokingly, with an affectation of wiping her arms and + shoulders and sopping her wet dress with clusters of moss. + </p> + <p> + “Go, please do—Safie, please!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!”—she drew a quick, triumphant breath. “Then you'll come again + to see me, Mad?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” he said slowly, and even more gravely than before. + </p> + <p> + “But you must let me show you the way out—round under those trees—where + no one can see you come.” She held out her hand. + </p> + <p> + “I'll go the way I came,” he said quietly, swinging himself silently from + the nearest bough into the stream. And before she could utter a protest he + was striking out as silently, hand over hand, across the current. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. + </h2> + <p> + A week later Madison Wayne was seated alone in his cabin. His supper table + had just been cleared by his Chinese coolie, as it was getting late, and + the setting sun, which for half an hour had been persistently making a + vivid beacon of his windows for the benefit of wayfarers along the river + bank, had at last sunk behind the cottonwoods. His head was resting on his + hand; the book he had been reading when the light faded was lying open on + the table before him. In this attitude he became aware of a hesitating + step on the gravel outside his open door. He had been so absorbed that the + approach of any figure along the only highway—the river bank—had + escaped his observation. Looking up, he discovered that Mr. Alexander + McGee was standing in the doorway, his hand resting lightly on the jamb. A + sudden color suffused Wayne's cheek; his hand reached for his book, which + he drew towards him hurriedly, yet half automatically, as he might have + grasped some defensive weapon. + </p> + <p> + The Bell-ringer of Angel's noticed the act, but not the blush, and nodded + approvingly. “Don't let me disturb ye. I was only meanderin' by and + reckoned I'd say 'How do?' in passin'.” He leaned gently back against the + door-post, to do which comfortably he was first obliged to shift the + revolver on his hip. The sight of the weapon brought a slight contraction + to the brows of Wayne, but he gravely said: “Won't you come in?” + </p> + <p> + “It ain't your prayin' time?” said McGee politely. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Nor you ain't gettin' up lessons outer the Book?” he continued + thoughtfully. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Cos it don't seem, so to speak, you see, the square thing to be botherin' + a man when he might be doin' suthin' else, don't you see? You understand + what I mean?” + </p> + <p> + It was his known peculiarity that he always seemed to be suffering from an + inability to lucid expression, and the fear of being misunderstood in + regard to the most patent or equally the most unimportant details of his + speech. All of which, however, was in very remarkable contrast to his + perfectly clear and penetrating eyes. + </p> + <p> + Wayne gravely assured him that he was not interrupting him in any way. + </p> + <p> + “I often thought—that is, I had an idea, you understand what I mean—of + stoppin' in passing. You and me, you see, are sorter alike; we don't seem + to jibe in with the gin'ral gait o' the camp. You understand what I mean? + We ain't in the game, eh? You see what I'm after?” + </p> + <p> + Madison Wayne glanced half mechanically at McGee's revolver. McGee's clear + eyes at once took in the glance. + </p> + <p> + “That's it! You understand? You with them books of yours, and me with my + shootin' iron—we're sort o' different from the rest, and ought to be + kinder like partners. You understand what I mean? We keep this camp in + check. We hold a full hand, and don't stand no bluffing.” + </p> + <p> + “If you mean there is some effect in Christian example and the life of a + God-fearing man”—began Madison gravely. + </p> + <p> + “That's it! God-fearin' or revolver-fearin', it amounts to the same when + you come down to the hard pan and bed-rock,” interrupted McGee. “I ain't + expectin' you to think much of my style, but I go a heap on yours, even if + I can't play your game. And I sez to my wife, 'Safie'—her that trots + around with me sometimes—I sez, 'Safie, I oughter know that man, and + shall. And I WANT YOU to know him.' Hol' on,” he added quickly, as Madison + rose with a flushed face and a perturbed gesture. “Ye don't understand! I + see wot's in your mind—don't you see? When I married my wife and + brought her down here, knowin' this yer camp, I sez: 'No flirtin', no + foolin', no philanderin' here, my dear! You're young and don't know the + ways o' men. The first man I see you talking with, I shoot. You needn't + fear, my dear, for accidents. I kin shoot all round you, under your arm, + across your shoulders, over your head and between your fingers, my dear, + and never start skin or fringe or ruffle. But I don't miss HIM. You sorter + understand what I mean,' sez I,so don't!' Ye noticed how my wife is + respected, Mr. Wayne? Queen Victoria sittin' on her throne ain't in it + with my Safie. But when I see YOU not herdin' with that cattle, never + liftin' your eyes to me or Safie as we pass, never hangin' round the + saloons and jokin', nor winkin', nor slingin' muddy stories about women, + but prayin' and readin' Scripter stories, here along with your brother, I + sez to myself, I sez, 'Sandy, ye kin take off your revolver and hang up + your shot gun when HE'S around. For 'twixt HIM and your wife ain't no + revolver, but the fear of God and hell and damnation and the world to + come!' You understand what I mean, don't ye? Ye sorter follow my lead, eh? + Ye can see what I'm shootin' round, don't ye? So I want you to come up + neighborly like, and drop in to see my wife.” + </p> + <p> + Madison Wayne's face became set and hard again, but he advanced towards + McGee with the book against his breast, and his finger between the leaves. + “I already know your wife, Mr. McGee! I saw her before YOU ever met her. I + was engaged to her; I loved her, and—as far as man may love the wife + of another and keep the commands of this book—I love her still!” + </p> + <p> + To his surprise, McGee, whose calm eyes had never dimmed or blenched, + after regarding him curiously, took the volume from him, laid it on the + table, opened it, turned its leaves critically, said earnestly, “That's + the law here, is it?” and then held out his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Shake!” + </p> + <p> + Madison Wayne hesitated—and then grasped his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Ef I had known this,” continued McGee, “I reckon I wouldn't have been so + hard on Safie and so partikler. She's better than I took her for—havin' + had you for a beau! You understand what I mean. You follow me—don't + ye? I allus kinder wondered why she took me, but sens you've told me that + YOU used to spark her, in your God-fearin' way, I reckon it kinder + prepared her for ME. You understand? Now you come up, won't ye?” + </p> + <p> + “I will call some evening with my brother,” said Wayne embarrassedly. + </p> + <p> + “With which?” demanded McGee. + </p> + <p> + “My brother Arthur. We usually spend the evenings together.” + </p> + <p> + McGee paused, leaned against the doorpost, and, fixing his clear eyes on + Wayne, said: “Ef it's all the same to you, I'd rather you did not bring + him. You understand what I mean? You follow me; no other man but you and + me. I ain't sayin' anything agin' your brother, but you see how it is, + don't you? Just me and you.” + </p> + <p> + “Very well, I will come,” said Wayne gloomily. But as McGee backed out of + the door, he followed him, hesitatingly. Then, with an effort he seemed to + recover himself, and said almost harshly: “I ought to tell you another + thing—that I have seen and spoken to Mrs. McGee since she came to + the Bar. She fell into the water last week, and I swam out and dragged her + ashore. We talked and spoke of the past.” + </p> + <p> + “She fell in,” echoed McGee. + </p> + <p> + Wayne hesitated; then a murky blush came into his face as he slowly + repeated, “She FELL in.” + </p> + <p> + McGee's eyes only brightened. “I have been too hard on her. She might have + drowned ef you hadn't took risks. You see? You understand what I mean? And + she never let out anything about it—and never boasted o' YOU helpin' + her out. All right—you'll come along and see her agin'.” He turned + and walked cheerfully away. + </p> + <p> + Wayne re-entered the cabin. He sat for a long time by the window until the + stars came out above the river, and another star, with which he had been + long familiar, took its place apparently in the heart of the wooded crest + of the little promontory. Then the fringing woods on the opposite shore + became a dark level line across the landscape, and the color seemed to + fade out of the moist shining gravel before his cabin. Presently the + silhouette of his dark face disappeared from the window, and Mr. McGee + might have been gratified to know that he had slipped to his knees before + the chair whereon he had been sitting, and that his head was bowed before + it on his clasped hands. In a little while he rose again, and, dragging a + battened old portmanteau from the corner, took out a number of letters + tied up in a package, with which, from time to time, he slowly fed the + flame that flickered on his hearth. In this way the windows of the cabin + at times sprang into light, making a somewhat confusing beacon for the + somewhat confused Arthur Wayne, who was returning from a visit to Angel's, + and who had fallen into that slightly morose and irritated state which + follows excessive hilarity, and is also apt to indicate moral misgivings. + </p> + <p> + But the last letter was burnt and the cabin quite dark when he entered. + His brother was sitting by the slowly dying fire, and he trusted that in + that uncertain light any observation of his expression or manner—of + which he himself was uneasily conscious—would pass unheeded. + </p> + <p> + “You are late,” said Madison gravely. + </p> + <p> + At which his brother rashly assumed the aggressive. He was no later than + the others, and if the Rogers boys were good enough to walk with him for + company he couldn't run ahead of them just because his brother was + waiting! He didn't want any supper, he had something at the Cross Roads + with the others. Yes! WHISKEY, if he wanted to know. People couldn't keep + coffee and temperance drinks just to please him and his brother, and he + wasn't goin' to insult the others by standing aloof. Anyhow, he had never + taken the pledge, and as long as he hadn't he couldn't see why he should + refuse a single glass. As it was, everybody said he was a milksop, and a + tender-foot, and he was just sick of it. + </p> + <p> + Madison rose and lit a candle and held it up before his brother's face. It + was a handsome, youthful face that looked into his, flushed with the + excitement of novel experiences and perhaps a more material stimulation. + The little silken moustache was ostentatiously curled, the brown curls + were redolent of bear's grease. Yet there was a certain boyish timidity + and nervousness in the defiance of his blue eyes that momentarily touched + the elder brother. + </p> + <p> + “I've been too hand with him,” he said to himself, half consciously + recalling what McGee had said of Safie. He put the candle down, laid his + hand gently on Arthur's shoulder, and said, with a certain cautious + tenderness, “Come, Arty, sit down and tell me all about it.” + </p> + <p> + Whereupon the mercurial Arthur, not only relieved of his nervousness but + of his previous ethical doubts and remorse, became gay and voluble. He had + finished his purchases at Angel's, and the storekeeper had introduced him + to Colonel Starbottle, of Kentucky, as one of “the Waynes who had made + Wayne's Bar famous.” Colonel Starbottle had said in his pompous fashion—yet + he was not such a bad fellow, after all—that the Waynes ought to be + represented in the Councils of the State, and that he, Starbottle, would + be proud to nominate Madison for the next Legislature and run him, too. + “And you know, really, Mad, if you mixed a little more with folks, and + they weren't—well, sorter AFRAID of you—you could do it. Why, + I've made a heap o' friends over there, just by goin' round a little, and + one of old Selvedge's girls—the storekeeper, you know—said + from what she'd heard of us, she always thought I was about fifty, and + turned up the whites of my eyes instead of the ends of my moustache! She's + mighty smart! Then the Postmaster has got his wife and three daughters out + from the States, and they've asked me to come over to their church + festival next week. It isn't our church, of course, but I suppose it's all + right.” + </p> + <p> + This and much more with the volubility of relieved feelings. When he + stopped, out of breath, Madison said, “I have had a visitor since you left—Mr. + McGee.” + </p> + <p> + “And his wife?” asked Arthur quickly. Madison flushed slightly. “No; but + he asked me to go and see her.” + </p> + <p> + “That's HER doin', then,” returned Arthur, with a laugh. “She's always + lookin' round the corners of her eyes at me when she passes. Why, John + Rogers was joking me about her only yesterday, and said McGee would blow a + hole through me some of these days if I didn't look out! Of course,” he + added, affectedly curling his moustache, “that's nonsense! But you know + how they talk, and she's too pretty for that fellow McGee.” + </p> + <p> + “She has found a careful helpmeet in her husband,” said Madison sternly, + “and it's neither seemly nor Christian in you, Arthur, to repeat the idle, + profane gossip of the Bar. I knew her before her marriage, and if she was + not a professing Christian, she was, and is, a pure, good woman! Let us + have no more of this.” + </p> + <p> + Whether impressed by the tone of his brother's voice, or only affected by + his own mercurial nature, Arthur changed the subject to further voluble + reminiscences of his trip to Angel's. Yet he did not seem embarrassed nor + disconcerted when his brother, in the midst of his speech, placed the + candle and the Bible on the table, with two chairs before it. He listened + to Madison's monotonous reading of the evening exercise with equally + monotonous respect. Then they both arose, without looking at each other, + but with equally set and stolid faces, and knelt down before their + respective chairs, clasping the back with both hands, and occasionally + drawing the hard, wooden frames against their breasts convulsively, as if + it were a penitential act. It was the elder brother who that night prayed + aloud. It was his voice that rose higher by degrees above the low roof and + encompassing walls, the level river camp lights that trembled through the + window, the dark belt of riverside trees, and the light on the + promontory's crest—up to the tranquil, passionless stars themselves. + </p> + <p> + With those confidences to his Maker this chronicle does not lie—obtrusive + and ostentatious though they were in tone and attitude. Enough that they + were a general arraignment of humanity, the Bar, himself, and his brother, + and indeed much that the same Maker had created and permitted. That + through this hopeless denunciation still lingered some human feeling and + tenderness might have been shown by the fact that at its close his hands + trembled and his face was bedewed by tears. And his brother was so deeply + affected that he resolved hereafter to avoid all evening prayers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. + </h2> + <p> + It was a week later that Madison Wayne and Mr. McGee were seen, to the + astonishment of the Bar, leisurely walking together in the direction of + the promontory. Here they disappeared, entering a damp fringe of willows + and laurels that seemed to mark its limits, and gradually ascending some + thickly-wooded trail, until they reached its crest, which, to Madison's + surprise, was cleared and open, and showed an acre or two of rude + cultivation. Here, too, stood the McGees' conjugal home—a small, + four-roomed house, but so peculiar and foreign in aspect that it at once + challenged even Madison's abstracted attention. It was a tiny Swiss + chalet, built in sections, and originally packed in cases, one of the + early importations from Europe to California after the gold discovery, + when the country was supposed to be a woodless wilderness. Mr. McGee + explained, with his usual laborious care, how he had bought it at + Marysville, not only for its picturesqueness, but because in its + unsuggestive packing-cases it offered no indication to the curious miners, + and could be put up by himself and a single uncommunicative Chinaman, + without any one else being aware of its existence. There was, indeed, + something quaint in this fragment of Old World handicraft, with its + smooth-jointed paneling, in two colors, its little lozenge fretwork, its + lapped roof, overhanging eaves, and miniature gallery. Inartistic as + Madison was—like most men of rigidly rectangular mind and principle—and + accustomed to the bleak and economic sufficiency of the Californian + miner's cabin, he was touched strangely by its novel grace and freshness. + It reminded him of HER; he had a new respect for this rough, sinful man + who had thus idealized his wife in her dwelling. Already a few Madeira + vines and a Cherokee rose clambered up the gallery. And here Mrs. McGee + was sitting. + </p> + <p> + In the face that she turned upon the two men Madison could see that she + was not expecting them, and even in the slight curiosity with which she + glanced at her husband, that evidently he had said nothing of his previous + visit or invitation. And this conviction became certainty at Mr. McGee's + first words. + </p> + <p> + “I've brought you an ole friend, Safie. He used to spark ye once at + Angel's afore my time—he told me so; he picked ye outer the water + here—he told me that, too. Ye mind that I said afore that he was the + only man I wanted ter know; I reckon now it seems the square thing that he + should be the one man YOU wanted ter know, too. You understand what I mean—you + follow me, don't you?” + </p> + <p> + Whether or not Mrs. McGee DID follow him, she exhibited neither concern, + solicitude, nor the least embarrassment. An experienced lover might have + augured ill from this total absence of self-consciousness. But Madison was + not an experienced lover. He accepted her amused smile as a recognition of + his feelings, trembled at the touch of her cool hands, as if it had been a + warm pressure, and scarcely dared to meet her maliciously laughing eyes. + When he had followed Mr. McGee to the little gallery, the previous + occupation of Mrs. McGee when they arrived was explained. From that slight + elevation there was a perfect view over the whole landscape and river + below; the Bar stretched out as a map at her feet; in that clear, + transparent air she could see every movement and gesture of Wayne's + brother, all unconscious of that surveillance, at work on the Bar. For an + instant Madison's sallow cheek reddened, he knew not why; a remorseful + feeling that he ought to be there with Arthur came over him. Mrs. McGee's + voice seemed to answer his thought. “You can see everything that's going + on down there without being seen yourself. It's good fun for me sometimes. + The other day I saw that young Carpenter hanging round Mrs. Rogers's cabin + in the bush when old Rogers was away. And I saw her creep out and join + him, never thinking any one could see her!” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, seeking Madison's averted eyes, yet scarcely noticing his + suddenly contracted brows. Mr. McGee alone responded. + </p> + <p> + “That's why,” he said, explanatorily, to Madison, “I don't allow to have + my Safie go round with those women. Not as I ever see anything o' that + sort goin' on, or keer to look, but on gin'ral principles. You understand + what I mean.” + </p> + <p> + “That's your brother over there, isn't it?” said Mrs. McGee, turning to + Madison and calmly ignoring her husband's explanation, as she indicated + the distant Arthur. “Why didn't you bring him along with you?” + </p> + <p> + Madison hesitated, and looked at McGee. “He wasn't asked,” said that + gentleman cheerfully. “One's company, two's none! You don't know him, my + dear; and this yer ain't a gin'ral invitation to the Bar. You follow me?” + </p> + <p> + To this Mrs. McGee made no comment, but proceeded to show Madison over the + little cottage. Yet in a narrow passage she managed to touch his hand, + lingered to let her husband precede them from one room to another, and + once or twice looked meaningly into his eyes over McGee's shoulder. + Disconcerted and embarrassed, he tried to utter a few commonplaces, but so + constrainedly that even McGee presently noticed it. And the result was + still more embarrassing. + </p> + <p> + “Look yer,” he said, suddenly turning to them both. “I reckon as how you + two wanter talk over old times, and I'll just meander over to the claim, + and do a spell o' work. Don't mind ME. And if HE”—indicating Madison + with his finger—“gets on ter religion, don't you mind him. It won't + hurt you, Safie,—no more nor my revolver,—but it's pow'ful + persuadin', and you understand me? You follow me? Well, so long!” + </p> + <p> + He turned away quickly, and was presently lost among the trees. For an + instant the embarrassed Madison thought of following him; but he was + confronted by Mrs. McGee's wicked eyes and smiling face between him and + the door. Composing herself, however, with a simulation of perfect gravity + she pointed to a chair. + </p> + <p> + “Sit down, Brother Wayne. If you're going to convert me, it may take some + time, you know, and you might as well make yourself comfortable. As for + me, I'll take the anxious bench.” She laughed with a certain girlishness, + which he well remembered, and leaped to a sitting posture on the table + with her hands on her knees, swinging her smart shoes backwards and + forwards below it. + </p> + <p> + Madison looked at her in hopeless silence, with a pale, disturbed face and + shining eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Or, if you want to talk as we used to talk, Mad, when we sat on the front + steps at Angel's and pa and ma went inside to give us a show, ye can hop + up alongside o' me.” She made a feint of gathering her skirts beside her. + </p> + <p> + “Safie!” broke out the unfortunate man, in a tone that seemed to increase + in formal solemnity with his manifest agitation, “this is impossible. The + laws of God that have joined you and this man”— + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it's the prayer-meeting, is it?” said Safie, settling her skirts + again, with affected resignation. “Go on.” + </p> + <p> + “Listen, Safie,” said Madison, turning despairingly towards her. “Let us + for His sake, let us for the sake of our dear blessed past, talk together + earnestly and prayerfully. Let us take this time to root out of our feeble + hearts all yearnings that are not prompted by Him—yearnings that + your union with this man makes impossible and sinful. Let us for the sake + of the past take counsel of each other, even as brother and sister.” + </p> + <p> + “Sister McGee!” she interrupted mockingly. “It wasn't as brother and + sister you made love to me at Angel's.” + </p> + <p> + “No! I loved you then, and would have made you my wife.” + </p> + <p> + “And you don't love me any more,” she said, audaciously darting a wicked + look into his eyes, “only because I didn't marry you? And you think that + Christian?” + </p> + <p> + “You know I love you as I have loved you always,” he said passionately. + </p> + <p> + “Hush!” she said mockingly; “suppose he should hear you.” + </p> + <p> + “He knows it!” said Madison bitterly. “I told him all!” + </p> + <p> + She stared at him fixedly. + </p> + <p> + “You have—told—him—that—you STILL love me?” she + repeated slowly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, or I wouldn't be here now. It was due to him—to my own + conscience.” + </p> + <p> + “And what did he say?” + </p> + <p> + “He insisted upon my coming, and, as God is my Judge and witness—he + seemed satisfied and content.” + </p> + <p> + She drew her pretty lips together with a long whistle, and then leaped + from the table. Her face was hard and her eyes were bright as she went to + the window and looked out. He followed her timidly. + </p> + <p> + “Don't touch me,” she said, sharply striking away his proffered hand. He + turned with a flushed cheek and walked slowly towards the door. Her laugh + stopped him. + </p> + <p> + “Come! I reckon that squeezin' hands ain't no part of your contract with + Sandy?” she said, glancing down at her own. “Well, so you're goin'?” + </p> + <p> + “I only wished to talk seriously and prayerfully with you for a few + moments, Safie, and then—to see you no more.” + </p> + <p> + “And how would that suit him,” she said dryly, “if he wants your company + here? Then, just because you can't convert me and bring me to your ways of + thinkin' in one visit, I suppose you think it is Christian-like to run + away like this! Or do you suppose that, if you turn tail now, he won't + believe that your Christian strength and Christian resignation is all + humbug?” + </p> + <p> + Madison dropped into the chair, put his elbows on the table, and buried + his face in his hands. She came a little nearer, and laid her hand lightly + on his arm. He made a movement as if to take it, but she withdrew it + impatiently. + </p> + <p> + “Come,” she said brusquely; “now you're in for it you must play the game + out. He trusts you; if he sees you can't trust yourself, he'll shoot you + on sight. That don't frighten you? Well, perhaps this will then! He'll SAY + your religion is a sham and you a hypocrite—and everybody will + believe him. How do you like that, Brother Wayne? How will that help the + Church? Come! You're a pair of cranks together; but he's got the whip-hand + of you this time. All you can do is to keep up to his idea of you. Put a + bold face on it, and come here as often as you can—the oftener the + better; the sooner you'll both get sick of each other—and of ME. + That's what you're both after, ain't it? Well! I can tell you now, you + needn't either of you be the least afraid of me.” + </p> + <p> + She walked away to the window again, not angrily, but smoothing down the + folds of her bright print dress as if she were wiping her hands of her + husband and his guest. Something like a very material and man-like sense + of shame struggled up through his crust of religion. He stammered, “You + don't understand me, Safie.” + </p> + <p> + “Then talk of something I do understand,” she said pertly. “Tell me some + news of Angel's. Your brother was over there the other day. He made + himself quite popular with the young ladies—so I hear from Mrs. + Selvedge. You can tell me as we walk along the bank towards Sandy's claim. + It's just as well that you should move on now, as it's your FIRST call, + and next time you can stop longer.” She went to the corner of the room, + removed her smart slippers, and put on a pair of walking-shoes, tying + them, with her foot on a chair, in a quiet disregard of her visitor's + presence; took a brown holland sunbonnet from the wall, clapped it over + her browner hair and hanging braids, and tied it under her chin with + apparently no sense of coquetry in the act—becoming though it was—and + without glancing at him. Alas for Madison's ethics! The torment of her + worldly speech and youthful contempt was nothing to this tacit ignoring of + the manhood of her lover—this silent acceptance of him as something + even lower than her husband. He followed her with a burning cheek and a + curious revolting of his whole nature that it is to be feared were + scarcely Christian. The willows opened to let them pass and closed behind + them. + </p> + <p> + An hour later Mrs. McGee returned to her leafy bower alone. She took off + her sunbonnet, hung it on its nail on the wall, shook down her braids, + took off her shoes, stained with the mud of her husband's claim, and put + on her slippers. Then she ascended to her eyrie in the little gallery, and + gazed smilingly across the sunlit Bar. The two gaunt shadows of her + husband and lover, linked like twins, were slowly passing along the river + bank on their way to the eclipsing obscurity of the cottonwoods. Below her—almost + at her very feet—the unconscious Arthur Wayne was pushing his work + on the river bed, far out to the promontory. The sunlight fell upon his + vivid scarlet shirt, his bared throat, and head clustering with perspiring + curls. The same sunlight fell upon Mrs. McGee's brown head too, and + apparently put a wicked fancy inside it. She ran to her bedroom, and + returned with a mirror from its wall, and, after some trials in getting + the right angle, sent a searching reflection upon the spot where Arthur + was at work. + </p> + <p> + For an instant a diamond flash played around him. Then he lifted his head + and turned it curiously towards the crest above him. But the next moment + he clapped his hands over his dazzled but now smiling eyes, as Mrs. McGee, + secure in her leafy obscurity, fell back and laughed to herself, like a + very schoolgirl. + </p> + <p> + It was three weeks later, and Madison Wayne was again sitting alone in his + cabin. This solitude had become of more frequent occurrence lately, since + Arthur had revolted and openly absented himself from his religious + devotions for lighter diversions of the Bar. Keenly as Madison felt his + defection, he was too much preoccupied with other things to lay much + stress upon it, and the sting of Arthur's relapse to worldliness and folly + lay in his own consciousness that it was partly his fault. He could not + chide his brother when he felt that his own heart was absorbed in his + neighbor's wife, and although he had rigidly adhered to his own crude + ideas of self-effacement and loyalty to McGee, he had been again and again + a visitor at his house. It was true that Mrs. McGee had made this easier + by tacitly accepting his conditions of their acquaintanceship, by seeming + more natural, by exhibiting a gayety, and at times even a certain + gentleness and thoughtfulness of conduct that delighted her husband and + astonished her lover. Whether this wonderful change had really been + effected by the latter's gloomy theology and still more hopeless ethics, + he could not say. She certainly showed no disposition to imitate their + formalities, nor seemed to be impressed by them on the rare occasions when + he now offered them. Yet she appeared to link the two men together—even + physically—as on these occasions when, taking an arm of each, she + walked affectionately between them along the river bank promenade, to the + great marveling and admiration of the Bar. It was said, however, that Mr. + Jack Hamlin, a gambler, at that moment professionally visiting Wayne's + Bar, and a great connoisseur of feminine charms and weaknesses, had + glanced at them under his handsome lashes, and asked a single question, + evidently so amusing to the younger members of the Bar that Madison Wayne + knit his brow and Arthur Wayne blushed. Mr. Hamlin took no heed of the + elder brother's frown, but paid some slight attention to the color of the + younger brother, and even more to a slightly coquettish glance from the + pretty Mrs. McGee. Whether or not—as has been ingeniously alleged by + some moralists—the light and trifling of either sex are prone to + recognize each other by some mysterious instinct, is not a necessary + consideration of this chronicle; enough that the fact is recorded. + </p> + <p> + And yet Madison Wayne should have been satisfied with his work! His + sacrifice was accepted; his happy issue from a dangerous situation, and + his happy triumph over a more dangerous temptation, was complete and + perfect, and even achieved according to his own gloomy theories of + redemption and regeneration. Yet he was not happy. The human heart is at + times strangely unappeasable. And as he sat that evening in the gathering + shadows, the Book which should have yielded him balm and comfort lay + unopened in his lap. + </p> + <p> + A step upon the gravel outside had become too familiar to startle him. It + was Mr. McGee lounging into the cabin like a gaunt shadow. It must be + admitted that the friendship of these strangely contrasted men, however + sincere and sympathetic, was not cheerful. A belief in the thorough + wickedness of humanity, kept under only through fear of extreme penalty + and punishment, material and spiritual, was not conducive to light and + amusing conversation. Their talk was mainly a gloomy chronicle of life at + the Bar, which was in itself half an indictment. To-night, Mr. McGee spoke + of the advent of Mr. Jack Hamlin, and together they deplored the diversion + of the hard-earned gains and valuable time of the Bar through the efforts + of that ingenious gentleman. “Not,” added McGee cautiously, “but what he + can shoot straight enough, and I've heard tell that he don't LIE. That + mout and it moutn't be good for your brother who goes around with him + considerable, there's different ways of lookin' at that; you understand + what I mean? You follow me?” For all that, the conversation seemed to + languish this evening, partly through some abstraction on the part of + Wayne and partly some hesitation in McGee, who appeared to have a greater + fear than usual of not expressing himself plainly. It was quite dark in + the cabin when at last, detaching himself from his usual lounging place, + the door-post, he walked to the window and leaned, more shadowy than ever, + over Wayne's chair. “I want to tell you suthin',” he said slowly, “that I + don't want you to misunderstand—you follow me? and that ain't no + ways carpin' or criticisin' nor reflectin' on YOU—you understand + what I mean? Ever sens you and me had that talk here about you and Safie, + and ever sens I got the hang of your ways and your style o' thinkin', I've + been as sure of you and her as if I'd been myself trottin' round with you + and a revolver. And I'm as sure of you now—you sabe what I mean? you + understand? You've done me and her a heap o' good; she's almost another + woman sens you took hold of her, and ef you ever want me to stand up and + 'testify,' as you call it, in church, Sandy McGee is ready. What I'm + tryin' to say to ye is this. Tho' I understand you and your work and your + ways—there's other folks ez moutn't—you follow? You understand + what I mean? And it's just that I'm coming to. Now las' night, when you + and Safie was meanderin' along the lower path by the water, and I kem + across you”— + </p> + <p> + “But,” interrupted Madison quickly, “you're mistaken. I wasn't”— + </p> + <p> + “Hol' on,” said McGee, quietly; “I know you got out o' the way without you + seein' me or me you, because you didn't know it was me, don't you see? + don't you follow? and that's just it! It mout have bin some one from the + Bar as seed you instead o' ME. See? That's why you lit out before I could + recognize you, and that's why poor Safie was so mighty flustered at first + and was for runnin' away until she kem to herself agin. When, of course, + she laughed, and agreed you must have mistook me.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” gasped Madison quickly, “I WASN'T THERE AT ALL LAST NIGHT.” + </p> + <p> + “What?” + </p> + <p> + The two men had risen simultaneously and were facing each other. McGee, + with a good-natured, half-critical expression, laid his hand on Wayne's + shoulder and slightly turned him towards the window, that he might see his + face. It seemed to him white and dazed. + </p> + <p> + “You—wasn't there—last night?” he repeated, with a slow + tolerance. + </p> + <p> + Scarcely a moment elapsed, but the agony of an hour may have thrilled + through Wayne's consciousness before he spoke. Then all the blood of his + body rushed to his face with his first lie as he stammered, “No! Yes! Of + course. I have made a mistake—it WAS I.” + </p> + <p> + “I see—you thought I was riled?” said McGee quietly. + </p> + <p> + “No; I was thinking it was NIGHT BEFORE LAST! Of course it was last night. + I must be getting silly.” He essayed a laugh—rare at any time with + him—and so forced now that it affected McGee more than his + embarrassment. He looked at Wayne thoughtfully, and then said slowly: “I + reckon I did come upon you a little too sudden last night, but, you see, I + was thinkin' of suthin' else and disremembered you might be there. But I + wasn't mad—no! no! and I only spoke about it now that you might be + more keerful before folks. You follow me? You understand what I mean?” + </p> + <p> + He turned and walked to the door, when he halted. “You follow me, don't + you? It ain't no cussedness o' mine, or want o' trustin', don't you see? + Mebbe I oughtened have spoken. I oughter remembered that times this sort + o' thing must be rather rough on you and her. You follow me? You + understand what I mean? Good-night.” + </p> + <p> + He walked slowly down the path towards the river. Had Madison Wayne been + watching him, he would have noticed that his head was bent and his step + less free. But Madison Wayne was at that moment sitting rigidly in his + chair, nursing, with all the gloomy concentration of a monastic nature, a + single terrible suspicion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. + </h2> + <p> + Howbeit the sun shone cheerfully over the Bar the next morning and the + next; the breath of life and activity was in the air; the settlement never + had been more prosperous, and the yield from the opened placers on the + drained river-bed that week was enormous. The Brothers Wayne were said to + be “rolling in gold.” It was thought to be consistent with Madison Wayne's + nature that there was no trace of good fortune in his face or manner—rather + that he had become more nervous, restless, and gloomy. This was attributed + to the joylessness of avarice as contrasted with the spendthrift gayety of + the more liberal Arthur, and he was feared and RESPECTED as a miser. His + long, solitary walks around the promontory, his incessant watchfulness, + his reticence when questioned, were all recognized as the indications of a + man whose soul was absorbed in money-getting. The reverence they failed to + yield to his religious isolation they were willing to freely accord to his + financial abstraction. But Mr. McGee was not so deceived. Overtaking him + one day under the fringe of willows, he characteristically chided him with + absenting himself from Mrs. McGee and her house since their last + interview. + </p> + <p> + “I reckon you did not harbor malice in your Christianity,” he said; “but + it looks mighty like ez if ye was throwing off on Safie and me on account + of what I said.” + </p> + <p> + In vain Madison gloomily and almost sternly protested. + </p> + <p> + McGee looked him all over with his clear measuring eye, and for some + minutes was singularly silent. At last he said slowly: “I've been thinkin' + suthin' o' goin' down to 'Frisco, and I'd be a heap easier in my mind ef + you'd promise to look arter Safie now and then.” + </p> + <p> + “You surely are not going to leave her here ALONE?” said Wayne roughly. + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” + </p> + <p> + For an instant Wayne hesitated. Then he burst out. “For a hundred reasons! + If she ever wanted your protection, before, she surely does now. Do you + suppose the Bar is any less heathen or more regenerated than it was when + you thought it necessary to guard her with your revolver? Man! It is a + hundred times worse than then! The new claims have filled it with spying + adventurers—with wolves like Hamlin and his friends—idolaters + who would set up Baal and Ashteroth here—and fill your tents with + the curses of Sodom!” + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it was owing to the Scriptural phrasing, perhaps it was from some + unusual authority of the man's manner, but a look of approving relief and + admiration came into McGee's clear eyes. + </p> + <p> + “And YOU'RE just the man to tackle 'em,” he said, clapping his hand on + Wayne's shoulder. “That's your gait—keep it up! But,” he added, in a + lower voice, “me and my revolver are played out.” There was a strangeness + in the tone that arrested Wayne's attention. “Yes,” continued McGee, + stroking his beard slowly, “men like me has their day, and revolvers has + theirs; the world turns round and the Bar fills up, and this yer river + changes its course—and it's all in the day's work. You understand + what I mean—you follow me? And if anything should happen to me—not + that it's like to; but it's in the way o' men—I want you to look + arter Safie. It ain't every woman ez has two men, ez like and unlike, to + guard her. You follow me—you understand what I mean, don't you?” + With these words he parted somewhat abruptly from Wayne, turning into the + steep path to the promontory crest and leaving his companion lost in + gloomy abstraction. The next day Alexander McGee had departed on a + business trip to San Francisco. + </p> + <p> + In his present frame of mind, with his new responsibility and the carrying + out of a plan which he had vaguely conceived might remove the terrible + idea that had taken possession of him, Madison Wayne was even relieved + when his brother also announced his intention of going to Angel's for a + few days. + </p> + <p> + For since his memorable interview with McGee he had been convinced that + Safie had been clandestinely visited by some one. Whether it was the + thoughtless and momentary indiscretion of a willful woman, or the sequel + to some deliberately planned intrigue, did not concern him so much as the + falsity of his own position, and the conniving lie by which he had saved + her and her lover. That at this crucial moment he had failed to “testify” + to guilt and wickedness; that he firmly believed—such is the + inordinate vanity of the religious zealot—that he had denied Him in + his effort to shield HER; and that he had broken faith with the husband + who had entrusted to him the custody of his wife's honor, seemed to him + more terrible than her faithlessness. In his first horror he had dreaded + to see her, lest her very confession—he knew her reckless frankness + towards himself—should reveal to him the extent of his complicity. + But since then, and during her husband's absence, he had convinced himself + that it was his duty to wrestle and strive with her weak spirit, to + implore her to reveal her new intrigue to her husband, and then he would + help her to sue for his forgiveness. It was a part of the inconsistency of + his religious convictions; in his human passion he was perfectly + unselfish, and had already forgiven her the offense against himself. He + would see her at once! + </p> + <p> + But it happened to be a quiet, intense night, with the tremulous opulence + of a full moon that threw quivering shafts of light like summer lightning + over the blue river, and laid a wonderful carpet of intricate lace along + the path that wound through the willows to the crest. There was the dry, + stimulating dust and spice of heated pines from below; the languorous + odors of syringa; the faint, feminine smell of southernwood, and the + infinite mystery of silence. This silence was at times softly broken with + the tender inarticulate whisper of falling leaves, broken sighs from the + tree-tops, and the languid stretching of wakened and unclasping boughs. + Madison Wayne had not, alas! taken into account this subtle conspiracy of + Night and Nature, and as he climbed higher, his steps began to falter with + new and strange sensations. The rigidity of purpose which had guided the + hard religious convictions that always sustained him, began to relax. A + tender sympathy stole over him; a loving mercy to himself as well as + others stole into his heart. He thought of HER as she had nestled at his + side, hand in hand, upon the moonlit veranda of her father's house, before + his hard convictions had chilled and affrighted her. He thought of her + fresh simplicity, and what had seemed to him her wonderful girlish beauty, + and lo! in a quick turn of the path he stood breathless and tremulous + before the house. The moonbeams lay tenderly upon the peaceful eaves; the + long blossoms of the Madeira vine seemed sleeping also. The pink flush of + the Cherokee rose in the unreal light had become chastely white. + </p> + <p> + But he was evidently too late for an interview. The windows were blank in + the white light; only one—her bedroom—showed a light behind + the lowered muslin blind. Her draped shadow once or twice passed across + it. He was turning away with soft steps and even bated breath when + suddenly he stopped. The exaggerated but unmistakable shadow of a man + stood beside her on the blind. + </p> + <p> + With a fierce leap as of a maniac, he was at the door, pounding, rattling, + and uttering hoarse and furious outcries. Even through his fury he heard + quickened footsteps—her light, reckless, half-hysterical laugh—a + bound upon the staircase—the hurried unbolting and opening of + distant doors, as the lighter one with which he was struggling at last + yielded to his blind rage, and threw him crashing into the sitting-room. + The back door was wide open. He could hear the rustling and crackling of + twigs and branches in different directions down the hillside, where the + fugitives had separated as they escaped. And yet he stood there for an + instant, dazed and wondering, “What next?” + </p> + <p> + His eyes fell upon McGee's rifle standing upright in the corner. It was a + clean, beautiful, precise weapon, even to the unprofessional eye, its + long, laminated hexagonal barrel taking a tenderer blue in the moonlight. + He snatched it up. It was capped and loaded. Without a pause he dashed + down the hill. + </p> + <p> + Only one thought was in his mind now—the crudest, simplest duty. He + was there in McGee's place; he should do what McGee would do. God had + abandoned him, but McGee's rifle remained. + </p> + <p> + In a few minutes' downward plunging he had reached the river bank. The + tranquil silver surface quivered and glittered before him. He saw what he + knew he would see, the black target of a man's head above it, making for + the Bar. He took deliberate aim and fired. There was no echo to that sharp + detonation; a distant dog barked, there was a slight whisper in the trees + beside him, that was all! But the head of the man was no longer visible, + and the liquid silver filmed over again, without a speck or stain. + </p> + <p> + He shouldered the rifle, and with the automatic action of men in great + crises returned slowly and deliberately to the house and carefully + replaced the rifle in its old position. He had no concern for the + miserable woman who had fled; had she appeared before him at the moment, + he would not have noticed her. Yet a strange instinct—it seemed to + him the vaguest curiosity—made him ascend the stairs and enter her + chamber. The candle was still burning on the table with that awful + unconsciousness and simplicity of detail which makes the scene of real + tragedy so terrible. Beside it lay a belt and leather pouch. Madison Wayne + suddenly dashed forward and seized it, with a wild, inarticulate cry; + staggered, fell over the chair, rose to his feet, blindly groped his way + down the staircase, burst into the road, and, hugging the pouch to his + bosom, fled like a madman down the hill. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + The body of Arthur Wayne was picked up two days later a dozen miles down + the river. Nothing could be more evident and prosaic than the manner in + which he had met his fate. His body was only partly clothed, and the money + pouch and belt, which had been securely locked next his skin, after the + fashion of all miners, was gone. He was known to have left the Bar with a + considerable sum of money; he was undoubtedly dogged, robbed, and murdered + during his journey on the river bank by the desperadoes who were beginning + to infest the vicinity. The grief and agony of his only brother, sole + survivor of that fraternal and religious partnership so well known to the + camp, although shown only by a grim and speechless melancholy,—broken + by unintelligible outbursts of religious raving,—was so real, that + it affected even the callous camp. But scarcely had it regained its + feverish distraction, before it was thrilled by another sensation. + Alexander McGee had fallen from the deck of a Sacramento steamboat in the + Straits of Carquinez, and his body had been swept out to sea. The news had + apparently been first to reach the ears of his devoted wife, for when the + camp—at this lapse of the old prohibition—climbed to her bower + with their rude consolations, the house was found locked and deserted. The + fateful influence of the promontory had again prevailed, the grim record + of its seclusion was once more unbroken. + </p> + <p> + For with it, too, drooped and faded the fortunes of the Bar. Madison Wayne + sold out his claim, endowed the church at the Cross Roads with the + proceeds, and the pulpit with his grim, hopeless, denunciatory presence. + The first rains brought a freshet to the Bar. The river leaped the light + barriers that had taken the place of Wayne's peaceful engines, and + regained the old channel. The curse that the Rev. Madison Wayne had + launched on this riverside Sodom seemed to have been fulfilled. But even + this brought no satisfaction to the gloomy prophet, for it was presently + known that he had abandoned his terror-stricken flock to take the circuit + as revivalist preacher and camp-meeting exhorter, in the rudest and most + lawless of gatherings. Desperate ruffians writhed at his feet in impotent + terror or more impotent rage; murderers and thieves listened to him with + blanched faces and set teeth, restrained only by a more awful fear. Over + and over again he took his life with his Bible into his own hands when he + rose above the excited multitude; he was shot at, he was rail-ridden, he + was deported, but never silenced. And so, sweeping over the country, + carrying fear and frenzy with him, scouting life and mercy, and crushing + alike the guilty and innocent, he came one Sabbath to a rocky crest of the + Sierras—the last tattered and frayed and soiled fringe of + civilization on the opened tract of a great highway. And here he was to + “testify,” as was his wont. + </p> + <p> + But not as he expected. For as he stood up on a boulder above the thirty + or forty men sitting or lying upon other rocks and boulders around him, on + the craggy mountain shelf where they had gathered, a man also rose, + elbowed past them, and with a hurried impulse tried to descend the + declivity. But a cry was suddenly heard from others, quick and clamoring, + which called the whole assembly to its feet, and it was seen that the + fugitive had in some blundering way fallen from the precipice. + </p> + <p> + He was brought up cruelly maimed and mangled, his ribs crushed, and one + lung perforated, but still breathing and conscious. He had asked to see + the preacher. Death impending, and even then struggling with his breath, + made this request imperative. Madison Wayne stopped the service, and + stalked grimly and inflexibly to where the dying man lay. But there he + started. + </p> + <p> + “McGee!” he said breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + “Send these men away,” said McGee faintly. “I've got suthin' to tell you.” + </p> + <p> + The men drew back without a word. “You thought I was dead,” said McGee, + with eyes still undimmed and marvelously clear. “I orter bin, but it don't + need no doctor to say it ain't far off now. I left the Bar to get killed; + I tried to in a row, but the fellows were skeert to close with me, + thinkin' I'd shoot. My reputation was agin me, there! You follow me? You + understand what I mean?” + </p> + <p> + Kneeling beside him now and grasping both his hands, the changed and + horror-stricken Wayne gasped, “But”— + </p> + <p> + “Hold on! I jumped off the Sacramento boat—I was goin' down the + third time—they thought on the boat I was gone—they think so + now! But a passin' fisherman dived for me. I grappled him—he was + clear grit and would have gone down with me, but I couldn't let him die + too—havin' so to speak no cause. You follow me—you understand + me? I let him save me. But it was all the same, for when I got to 'Frisco + I read as how I was drowned. And then I reckoned it was all right, and I + wandered HERE, where I wasn't known—until I saw you.” + </p> + <p> + “But why should you want to die?” said Wayne, almost fiercely. “What right + have you to die while others—double-dyed and blood-stained, are + condemned to live, 'testify,' and suffer?” + </p> + <p> + The dying man feebly waved a deprecation with his maimed hand, and even + smiled faintly. “I knew you'd say that. I knew what you'd think about it, + but it's all the same now. I did it for you and Safie! I knew I was in the + way; I knew you was the man she orter had; I knew you was the man who had + dragged her outer the mire and clay where I was leavin' her, as you did + when she fell in the water. I knew that every day I lived I was makin' YOU + suffer and breakin' HER heart—for all she tried to be gentle and + gay.” + </p> + <p> + “Great God in heaven! Will you stop!” said Wayne, springing to his feet in + agony. A frightened look—the first that any one had ever seen in the + clear eyes of the Bell-ringer of Angel's—passed over them, and he + murmured tremulously: “All right—I'm stoppin'!” + </p> + <p> + So, too, was his heart, for the wonderful eyes were now slowly glazing. + Yet he rallied once more—coming up again the third time as it seemed + to Wayne—and his lips moved slowly. The preacher threw himself + despairingly on the ground beside him. + </p> + <p> + “Speak, brother! For God's sake, speak!” + </p> + <p> + It was his last whisper—so faint it might have been the first of his + freed soul. But he only said:— + </p> + <p> + “You're—followin'—me? You—understand—what—I—mean?” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + JOHNNYBOY. + </h2> + <p> + The vast dining-room of the Crustacean Hotel at Greyport, U. S., was empty + and desolate. It was so early in the morning that there was a bedroom + deshabille in the tucked-up skirts and bare legs of the little oval + breakfast-tables as they had just been left by the dusting servants. The + most stirring of travelers was yet abed, the most enterprising of + first-train catchers had not yet come down; there was a breath of + midsummer sleep still in the air; through the half-opened windows that + seemed to be yawning, the pinkish blue Atlantic beyond heaved gently and + slumberously, and drowsy early bathers crept into it as to bed. Yet as I + entered the room I saw that one of the little tables in the corner was in + reality occupied by a very small and very extraordinary child. Seated in a + high chair, attended by a dreamily abstracted nurse on one side, an + utterly perfunctory negro waiter on the other, and an incongruous + assortment of disregarded viands before him, he was taking—or, + rather, declining—his solitary breakfast. He appeared to be a pale, + frail, but rather pretty boy, with a singularly pathetic combination of + infant delicacy of outline and maturity of expression. His heavily fringed + eyes expressed an already weary and discontented intelligence, and his + willful, resolute little mouth was, I fancied, marked with lines of pain + at either corner. He struck me as not only being physically dyspeptic, but + as morally loathing his attendants and surroundings. + </p> + <p> + My entrance did not disturb the waiter, with whom I had no financial + relations; he simply concealed an exaggerated yawn professionally behind + his napkin until my own servitor should appear. The nurse slightly awoke + from her abstraction, shoved the child mechanically,—as if starting + up some clogged machinery,—said, “Eat your breakfast, Johnnyboy,” + and subsided into her dream. I think the child had at first some faint + hope of me, and when my waiter appeared with my breakfast he betrayed some + interest in my selection, with a view of possible later appropriation, + but, as my repast was simple, that hope died out of his infant mind. Then + there was a silence, broken at last by the languid voice of the nurse:— + </p> + <p> + “Try some milk then—nice milk.” + </p> + <p> + “No! No mik! Mik makes me sick—mik does!” + </p> + <p> + In spite of the hurried infantine accent the protest was so emphatic, and, + above all, fraught with such pent-up reproach and disgust, that I turned + about sympathetically. But Johnnyboy had already thrown down his spoon, + slipped from his high chair, and was marching out of the room as fast as + his little sandals would carry him, with indignation bristling in every + line of the crisp bows of his sash. + </p> + <p> + I, however, gathered from Mr. Johnson, my waiter, that the unfortunate + child owned a fashionable father and mother, one or two blocks of houses + in New York, and a villa at Greyport, which he consistently and + intelligently despised. That he had imperiously brought his parents here + on account of his health, and had demanded that he should breakfast alone + in the big dining-room. That, however, he was not happy. “Nuffin peahs to + agree wid him, Sah, but he doan' cry, and he speaks his mind, Sah; he + speaks his mind.” + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, I did not keep Johnnyboy's secret, but related the scene I + had witnessed to some of the lighter-hearted Crustaceans of either sex, + with the result that his alliterative protest became a sort of catchword + among them, and that for the next few mornings he had a large audience of + early breakfasters, who fondly hoped for a repetition of his performance. + I think that Johnnyboy for the time enjoyed this companionship, yet + without the least affectation or self-consciousness—so long as it + was unobtrusive. It so chanced, however, that the Rev. Mr. Belcher, a + gentleman with bovine lightness of touch, and a singular misunderstanding + of childhood, chose to presume upon his paternal functions. Approaching + the high chair in which Johnnyboy was dyspeptically reflecting, with a + ponderous wink at the other guests, and a fat thumb and forefinger on + Johnnyboy's table, he leaned over him, and with slow, elephantine + playfulness said:— + </p> + <p> + “And so, my dear young friend, I understand that 'mik makes you sick—mik + does.'” + </p> + <p> + Anything approaching to the absolute likeness of this imitation of + Johnnyboy's accents it is impossible to conceive. Possibly Johnnyboy felt + it. But he simply lifted his lovely lashes, and said with great + distinctness:— + </p> + <p> + “Mik don't—you devil!” + </p> + <p> + After this, closely as it had knitted us together, Johnnyboy's morning + presence was mysteriously withdrawn. It was later pointed out to us by Mr. + Belcher, upon the veranda, that, although Wealth had its privileges, it + was held in trust for the welfare of Mankind, and that the children of the + Rich could not too early learn the advantages of Self-restraint and the + vanity of a mere gratification of the Senses. Early and frequent morning + ablutions, brisk morning toweling, half of a Graham biscuit in a teacup of + milk, exercise with the dumb-bells, and a little rough-and-tumble play in + a straw hat, check apron, and overalls would eventually improve that + stamina necessary for his future Position, and repress a dangerous + cerebral activity and tendency to give way to—He suddenly stopped, + coughed, and absolutely looked embarrassed. Johnnyboy, a moving cloud of + white pique, silk, and embroidery, had just turned the corner of the + veranda. He did not speak, but as he passed raised his blue-veined lids to + the orator. The look of ineffable scorn and superiority in those beautiful + eyes surpassed anything I had ever seen. At the next veranda column he + paused, and, with his baby thumbs inserted in his silk sash, again + regarded him under his half-dropped lashes as if he were some curious + animal, and then passed on. But Belcher was silenced for the second time. + </p> + <p> + I think I have said enough to show that Johnnyboy was hopelessly worshiped + by an impressible and illogical sex. I say HOPELESSLY, for he slipped + equally from the proudest silken lap and the humblest one of calico, and + carried his eyelashes and small aches elsewhere. I think that a secret + fear of his alarming frankness, and his steady rejection of the various + tempting cates they offered him, had much to do with their passion. “It + won't hurt you, dear,” said Miss Circe, “and it's so awfully nice. See!” + she continued, putting one of the delicacies in her own pretty mouth with + every assumption of delight. “It's SO good!” Johnnyboy rested his elbows + on her knees, and watched her with a grieved and commiserating + superiority. “Bimeby, you'll have pains in youse tommick, and you'll be + tookt to bed,” he said sadly, “and then you'll—have to dit up and”—But + as it was found necessary here to repress further details, he escaped + other temptation. + </p> + <p> + Two hours later, as Miss Circe was seated in the drawing-room with her + usual circle of enthusiastic admirers around her, Johnnyboy—who was + issued from his room for circulation, two or three times a day, as a + genteel advertisement of his parents—floated into the apartment in a + new dress and a serious demeanor. Sidling up to Miss Circe he laid a phial—evidently + his own pet medicine—on her lap, said, “For youse tommikake + to-night,” and vanished. Yet I have reason to believe that this slight + evidence of unusual remembrance on Johnnyboy's part more than compensated + for its publicity, and for a few days Miss Circe was quite “set up” by it. + </p> + <p> + It was through some sympathy of this kind that I first gained Johnnyboy's + good graces. I had been presented with a small pocket case of homoeopathic + medicines, and one day on the beach I took out one of the tiny phials and, + dropping two or three of the still tinier pellets in my hand, swallowed + them. To my embarrassment, a small hand presently grasped my trouser-leg. + I looked down; it was Johnnyboy, in a new and ravishing smuggler suit, + with his questioning eyes fixed on mine. + </p> + <p> + “Howjer do dat?” + </p> + <p> + “Eh?” + </p> + <p> + “Wajer do dat for?” + </p> + <p> + “That?—Oh, that's medicine. I've got a headache.” + </p> + <p> + He searched the inmost depths of my soul with his wonderful eyes. Then, + after a pause, he held out his baby palm. + </p> + <p> + “You kin give Johnny some.” + </p> + <p> + “But you haven't got headache—have you?” + </p> + <p> + “Me alluz has.” + </p> + <p> + “Not ALWAYS.” + </p> + <p> + He nodded his head rapidly. Then added slowly, and with great elaboration, + “Et mo'nins, et affernoons, et nights, 'nd mo'nins adain. 'N et becker” + (i. e., breakfast). + </p> + <p> + There was no doubt it was the truth. Those eyes did not seem to be in the + habit of lying. After all, the medicine could not hurt him. His nurse was + at a little distance gazing absently at the sea. I sat down on a bench, + and dropped a few of the pellets into his palm. He ate them seriously, and + then turned around and backed—after the well-known appealing fashion + of childhood—against my knees. I understood the movement—although + it was unlike my idea of Johnnyboy. However, I raised him to my lap—with + the sensation of lifting a dozen lace-edged handkerchiefs, and with very + little more effort—where he sat silently for a moment, with his + sandals crossed pensively before him. + </p> + <p> + “Wouldn't you like to go and play with those children?” I asked, pointing + to a group of noisy sand levelers not far away. + </p> + <p> + “No!” After a pause, “You wouldn't neither.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Hediks.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” I said, “perhaps if you went and played with them and ran up and + down as they do, you wouldn't have headache.” + </p> + <p> + Johnnyboy did not answer for a moment; then there was a perceptible gentle + movement of his small frame. I confess I felt brutally like Belcher. He + was getting down. + </p> + <p> + Once down he faced me, lifted his frank eyes, said, “Do way and play den,” + smoothed down his smuggler frock, and rejoined his nurse. + </p> + <p> + But although Johnnyboy afterwards forgave my moral defection, he did not + seem to have forgotten my practical medical ministration, and our brief + interview had a surprising result. From that moment he confounded his + parents and doctors by resolutely and positively refusing to take any more + of their pills, tonics, or drops. Whether from a sense of loyalty to me, + or whether he was not yet convinced of the efficacy of homoeopathy, he did + not suggest a substitute, declare his preferences, or even give his + reasons, but firmly and peremptorily declined his present treatment. And, + to everybody's astonishment, he did not seem a bit the worse for it. + </p> + <p> + Still he was not strong, and his continual aversion to childish sports and + youthful exercise provoked the easy criticism of that large part of + humanity who are ready to confound cause and effect, and such brief + moments as the Sluysdaels could spare him from their fashionable duties + were made miserable to them by gratuitous suggestions and plans for their + child's improvement. It was noticeable, however, that few of them were + ever offered to Johnnyboy personally. He had a singularly direct way of + dealing with them, and a precision of statement that was embarrassing. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon, Jack Bracy drove up to the veranda of the Crustacean with a + smart buggy and spirited thoroughbred for Miss Circe's especial driving, + and his own saddle-horse on which he was to accompany her. Jack had + dismounted, a groom held his saddle-horse until the young lady should + appear, and he himself stood at the head of the thoroughbred. As + Johnnyboy, leaning against the railing, was regarding the turnout with + ill-concealed disdain, Jack, in the pride of his triumph over his rivals, + good-humoredly offered to put him in the buggy, and allow him to take the + reins. Johnnyboy did not reply. + </p> + <p> + “Come along!” continued Jack, “it will do you a heap of good! It's better + than lazing there like a girl! Rouse up, old man!” + </p> + <p> + “Me don't like that geegee,” said Johnnyboy calmly. “He's a silly fool.” + </p> + <p> + “You're afraid,” said Jack. + </p> + <p> + Johnnyboy lifted his proud lashes, and toddled to the steps. Jack received + him in his arms, swung him into the seat, and placed the slim yellow reins + in his baby hands. + </p> + <p> + “Now you feel like a man, and not like a girl!” said Jack. “Eh, what? Oh, + I beg your pardon.” + </p> + <p> + For Miss Circe had appeared—had absolutely been obliged to wait a + whole half-minute unobserved—and now stood there a dazzling but + pouting apparition. In eagerly turning to receive her, Jack's foot slipped + on the step, and he fell. The thoroughbred started, gave a sickening + plunge forward, and was off! But so, too, was Jack, the next moment, on + his own horse, and before Miss Circe's screams had died away. + </p> + <p> + For two blocks on Ocean Avenue, passersby that afternoon saw a strange + vision. A galloping horse careering before a light buggy, in which a small + child, seated upright, was grasping the tightened reins. But so erect and + composed was the little face and figure—albeit as white as its own + frock—that for an instant they did not grasp its awful significance. + Those further along, however, read the whole awful story in the drawn face + and blazing eyes of Jack Bracy as he, at last, swung into the Avenue. For + Jack had the brains as well as the nerve of your true hero, and, knowing + the dangerous stimulus of a stern chase to a frightened horse, had kept a + side road until it branched into the Avenue. So furious had been his pace, + and so correct his calculation, that he ranged alongside of the runaway + even as it passed, grasped the reins, and, in half a block, pulled up on + even wheels. + </p> + <p> + “I never saw such pluck in a mite like that,” he whispered afterwards to + his anxious auditory. “He never dropped those ribbons, by G—, until + I got alongside, and then he just hopped down and said, as short and cool + as you please, 'Dank you!'” + </p> + <p> + “Me didn't,” uttered a small voice reproachfully. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't you, dear! What DID you say then, darling?” exclaimed a + sympathizing chorus. + </p> + <p> + “Me said: 'Damn you!' Me don't like silly fool geegees. Silly fool geegees + make me sick—silly fool geegees do!” + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, in spite of this incident, the attempts at Johnnyboy's + physical reformation still went on. More than that, it was argued by some + complacent casuists that the pluck displayed by the child was the actual + result of this somewhat heroic method of taking exercise, and NOT an + inherent manliness distinct from his physical tastes. So he was made to + run when he didn't want to—to dance when he frankly loathed his + partners—to play at games that he despised. His books and pictures + were taken away; he was hurried past hoardings and theatrical posters that + engaged his fancy; the public was warned against telling him fairy tales, + except those constructed on strictly hygienic principles. His fastidious + cleanliness was rebuked, and his best frocks taken away—albeit at a + terrible sacrifice of his parents' vanity—to suit the theories of + his critics. How long this might have continued is not known—for the + theory and practice were suddenly arrested by another sensation. + </p> + <p> + One morning a children's picnic party was given on a rocky point only + accessible at certain states of the tide, whither they were taken in a + small boat under the charge of a few hotel servants, and, possibly as part + of his heroic treatment, Johnnyboy, who was included in the party, was not + allowed to be attended by his regular nurse. + </p> + <p> + Whether this circumstance added to his general disgust of the whole + affair, and his unwillingness to go, I cannot say, but it is to be + regretted, since the omission deprived Johnnyboy of any impartial witness + to what subsequently occurred. That he was somewhat roughly handled by + several of the larger children appeared to be beyond doubt, although there + was conflicting evidence as to the sequel. Enough that at noon screams + were heard in the direction of certain detached rocks on the point, and + the whole party proceeding thither found three of the larger boys on the + rocks, alone and cut off by the tide, having been left there, as they + alleged, by Johnnyboy, WHO HAD RUN AWAY WITH THE BOAT. They subsequently + admitted that THEY had first taken the boat and brought Johnnyboy with + them, “just to frighten him,” but they adhered to the rest. And certainly + Johnnyboy and the boat were nowhere to be found. The shore was + communicated with, the alarm was given, the telegraph, up and down the + coast trilled with excitement, other boats were manned—consternation + prevailed. + </p> + <p> + But that afternoon the captain of the “Saucy Jane,” mackerel fisher, lying + off the point, perceived a derelict “Whitehall” boat drifting lazily + towards the Gulf Stream. On boarding it he was chagrined to find the + expected flotsam already in the possession of a very small child, who + received him with a scornful reticence as regarded himself and his + intentions, and some objurgation of a person or persons unknown. It was + Johnnyboy. But whether he had attempted the destruction of the three other + boys by “marooning” them upon the rocks—as their parents firmly + believed—or whether he had himself withdrawn from their company + simply because he did not like them, was never known. Any further attempt + to improve his education by the roughing gregarious process was, however, + abandoned. The very critics who had counseled it now clamored for + restraint and perfect isolation. It was ably pointed out by the Rev. Mr. + Belcher that the autocratic habits begotten by wealth and pampering should + be restricted, and all intercourse with their possessor promptly withheld. + </p> + <p> + But the season presently passed with much of this and other criticism, and + the Sluysdaels passed too, carrying Johnnyboy and his small aches and long + eyelashes beyond these Crustacean voices, where it was to be hoped there + was peace. I did not hear of him again for five years, and then, oddly + enough, from the lips of Mr. Belcher on the deck of a transatlantic + steamer, as he was being wafted to Europe for his recreation by the + prayers and purses of a grateful and enduring flock. “Master John Jacob + Astor Sluysdael,” said Mr. Belcher, speaking slowly, with great precision + of retrospect, “was taken from his private governess—I may say by my + advice—and sent to an admirable school in New York, fashioned upon + the English system of Eton and Harrow, and conducted by English masters + from Oxford and Cambridge. Here—I may also say at my suggestion—he + was subjected to the wholesome discipline equally of his schoolmates and + his masters; in fact, sir, as you are probably aware, the most perfect + democracy that we have yet known, in which the mere accidents of wealth, + position, luxury, effeminacy, physical degeneration, and over-civilized + stimulation, are not recognized. He was put into compulsory cricket, + football, and rounders. As an undersized boy he was subjected to that + ingenious preparation for future mastership by the pupillary state of + servitude known, I think, as 'fagging.' His physical inertia was + stimulated and quickened, and his intellectual precocity repressed, from + time to time, by the exuberant playfulness of his fellow-students, which + occasionally took the form of forced ablutions and corporal discomfort, + and was called, I am told, 'hazing.' It is but fair to state that our + young friend had some singular mental endowments, which, however, were + promptly checked to repress the vanity and presumption that would follow.” + The Rev. Mr. Belcher paused, closed his eyes resignedly, and added, “Of + course, you know the rest.” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed, I do not,” I said anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “A most deplorable affair—indeed, a most shocking incident! It was + hushed up, I believe, on account of the position of his parents.” He + glanced furtively around, and in a lower and more impressive voice said, + “I am not myself a believer in heredity, and I am not personally aware + that there was a MURDERER among the Sluysdael ancestry, but it seems that + this monstrous child, in some clandestine way, possessed himself of a huge + bowie-knife, sir, and on one of those occasions actually rushed furiously + at the larger boys—his innocent play-fellows—and absolutely + forced them to flee in fear of their lives. More than that, sir, a LOADED + REVOLVER was found in his desk, and he boldly and shamelessly avowed his + intention to eviscerate, or—to use his own revolting language—'to + cut the heart out' of the first one who again 'laid a finger on him.'” He + paused again, and, joining his two hands together with the fingers + pointing to the deck, breathed hard and said, “His instantaneous + withdrawal from the school was a matter of public necessity. He was + afterwards taken, in the charge of a private tutor, to Europe, where, I + trust, we shall NOT meet.” + </p> + <p> + I could not resist saying cheerfully that, at least, Johnnyboy had for a + short time made it lively for the big boys. + </p> + <p> + The Rev. Mr. Belcher rose slowly, but painfully, said with a deeply + grieved expression, “I don't think that I entirely follow you,” and moved + gently away. + </p> + <p> + The changes of youth are apt to be more bewildering than those of age, and + a decade scarcely perceptible in an old civilization often means utter + revolution to the new. It did not seem strange to me, therefore, on + meeting Jack Bracy twelve years after, to find that he had forgotten Miss + Circe, or that SHE had married, and was living unhappily with a + middle-aged adventurer by the name of Jason, who was reputed to have had + domestic relations elsewhere. But although subjugated and exorcised, she + at least was reminiscent. To my inquiries about the Sluysdaels, she + answered with a slight return of her old vivacity:— + </p> + <p> + “Ah, yes, dear fellow, he was one of my greatest admirers.” + </p> + <p> + “He was about four years old when you knew him, wasn't he?” suggested + Jason meanly. “Yes, they usually WERE young, but so kind of you to + recollect them. Young Sluysdael,” he continued, turning to me, “is—but + of course you know that disgraceful story.” + </p> + <p> + I felt that I could stand this no longer. “Yes,” I said indignantly, “I + know all about the school, and I don't call his conduct disgraceful + either.” + </p> + <p> + Jason stared. “I don't know what you mean about the school,” he returned. + “I am speaking of his stepfather.” + </p> + <p> + “His STEPFATHER!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; his father, Van Buren Sluysdael, died, you know—a year after + they left Greyport. The widow was left all the money in trust for Johnny, + except about twenty-five hundred a year which he was in receipt of as a + separate income, even as a boy. Well, a glib-tongued parson, a fellow by + the name of Belcher, got round the widow—she was a desperate fool—and, + by Jove! made her marry him. He made ducks and drakes of not only her + money, but Johnny's too, and had to skip to Spain to avoid the trustees. + And Johnny—for the Sluysdaels are all fools or lunatics—made + over his whole separate income to that wretched, fashionable fool of a + mother, and went into a stockbroker's office as a clerk.” + </p> + <p> + “And walks to business before eight every morning, and they say even takes + down the shutters and sweeps out,” broke in Circe impulsively. “Works like + a slave all day, wears out his old clothes, has given up his clubs and + amusements, and shuns society.” + </p> + <p> + “But how about his health?” I asked. “Is he better and stronger?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know,” said Circe, “but he LOOKS as beautiful as Endymion.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + At his bank, in Wall Street, Bracy that afternoon confirmed all that Jason + had told me of young Sluysdael. “But his temper?” I asked. “You remember + his temper—surely.” + </p> + <p> + “He's as sweet as a lamb, never quarrels, never whines, never alludes to + his lost fortune, and is never put out. For a youngster, he's the most + popular man in the street. Shall we nip round and see him?” + </p> + <p> + “By all means.” + </p> + <p> + “Come. It isn't far.” + </p> + <p> + A few steps down the crowded street we dived into a den of plate-glass + windows, of scraps of paper, of rattling, ticking machines, more voluble + and excited than the careworn, abstracted men who leaned over them. But + “Johnnyboy”—I started at the familiar name again—was not + there. He was at luncheon. + </p> + <p> + “Let us join him,” I said, as we gained the street again and turned + mechanically into Delmonico's. + </p> + <p> + “Not there,” said Bracy with a laugh. “You forget! That's not Johnnyboy's + gait just now. Come here.” He was descending a few steps that led to a + humble cake-shop. As we entered I noticed a young fellow standing before + the plain wooden counter with a cake of gingerbread in one hand and a + glass of milk in the other. His profile was before me; I at once + recognized the long lashes. But the happy, boyish, careless laugh that + greeted Bracy, as he presented me, was a revelation. + </p> + <p> + Yet he was pleased to remember me. And then—it may have been + embarrassment that led me to such tactlessness, but as I glanced at him + and the glass of milk he was holding, I could not help reminding him of + the first words I had ever heard him utter. + </p> + <p> + He tossed off the glass, colored slightly, as I thought, and said with a + light laugh:— + </p> + <p> + “I suppose I have changed a good deal since then, sir.” + </p> + <p> + I looked at his demure and resolute mouth, and wondered if he had. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + YOUNG ROBIN GRAY. + </h2> + <p> + The good American barque Skyscraper was swinging at her moorings in the + Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But that good American barque—although + owned in Baltimore—had not a plank of American timber in her hulk, + nor a native American in her crew, and even her nautical “goodness” had + been called into serious question by divers of that crew during her + voyage, and answered more or less inconclusively with belaying-pins, + marlin-spikes, and ropes' ends at the hands of an Irish-American captain + and a Dutch and Danish mate. So much so, that the mysterious powers of the + American consul at St. Kentigern had been evoked to punish mutiny on the + one hand, and battery and starvation on the other; both equally attested + by manifestly false witness and subornation on each side. In the exercise + of his functions the consul had opened and shut some jail doors, and + otherwise effected the usual sullen and deceitful compromise, and his flag + was now flying, on a final visit, from the stern sheets of a smart boat + alongside. It was with a feeling of relief at the end of the interview + that he at last lifted his head above an atmosphere of perjury and + bilge-water and came on deck. The sun and wind were ruffling and glinting + on the broadening river beyond the “measured mile”; a few gulls were + wavering and dipping near the lee scuppers, and the sound of Sabbath + bells, mellowed by a distance that secured immunity of conscience, came + peacefully to his ear. + </p> + <p> + “Now that job's over ye'll be takin' a partin' dhrink,” suggested the + captain. + </p> + <p> + The consul thought not. Certain incidents of “the job” were fresh in his + memory, and he proposed to limit himself to his strict duty. + </p> + <p> + “You have some passengers, I see,” he said, pointing to a group of two men + and a young girl, who had apparently just come aboard. + </p> + <p> + “Only wan; an engineer going out to Rio. Them's just his friends seein' + him off, I'm thinkin',” returned the captain, surveying them somewhat + contemptuously. + </p> + <p> + The consul was a little disturbed. He wondered if the passenger knew + anything of the quality and reputation of the ship to which he was + entrusting his fortunes. But he was only a PASSENGER, and the consul's + functions—like those of the aloft-sitting cherub of nautical song—were + restricted exclusively to looking after “Poor Jack.” However, he asked a + few further questions, eliciting the fact that the stranger had already + visited the ship with letters from the eminently respectable consignees at + St. Kentigern, and contented himself with lingering near them. The young + girl was accompanied by her father, a respectably rigid-looking + middle-class tradesman, who, however, seemed to be more interested in the + novelty of his surroundings than in the movements of his daughter and + their departing friend. So it chanced that the consul re-entered the cabin—ostensibly + in search of a missing glove, but really with the intention of seeing how + the passenger was bestowed—just behind them. But to his great + embarrassment he at once perceived that, owing to the obscurity of the + apartment, they had not noticed him, and before he could withdraw, the man + had passed his arm around the young girl's half stiffened, yet half + yielding figure. + </p> + <p> + “Only one, Ailsa,” he pleaded in a slow, serious voice, pathetic from the + very absence of any youthful passion in it; “just one now. It'll be gey + lang before we meet again. Ye'll not refuse me now.” + </p> + <p> + The young girl's lips seemed to murmur some protest that, however, was + lost in the beginning of a long and silent kiss. + </p> + <p> + The consul slipped out softly. His smile had died away. That unlooked-for + touch of human weakness seemed to purify the stuffy and evil-reeking + cabin, and the recollection of its brutal past to drop with a deck-load of + iniquity behind him to the bottom of the Clyde. It is to be feared that in + his unofficial moments he was inclined to be sentimental, and it seemed to + him that the good ship Skyscraper henceforward carried an innocent freight + not mentioned in her manifest, and that a gentle, ever-smiling figure, not + entered on her books, had invisibly taken a place at her wheel. + </p> + <p> + But he was recalled to himself by a slight altercation on deck. The young + girl and the passenger had just returned from the cabin. The consul, after + a discreetly careless pause, had lifted his eyes to the young girl's face, + and saw that it was singularly pretty in color and outline, but perfectly + self-composed and serenely unconscious. And he was a little troubled to + observe that the passenger was a middle-aged man, whose hard features were + already considerably worn with trial and experience. + </p> + <p> + Both he and the girl were listening with sympathizing but cautious + interest to her father's contention with the boatman who had brought them + from shore, and who was now inclined to demand an extra fee for returning + with them. The boatman alleged that he had been detained beyond “kirk + time,” and that this imperiling of his salvation could only be compensated + by another shilling. To the consul's surprise, this extraordinary argument + was recognized by the father, who, however, contented himself by simply + contending that it had not been stipulated in the bargain. The issue was, + therefore, limited, and the discussion progressed slowly and deliberately, + with a certain calm dignity and argumentative satisfaction on both sides + that exalted the subject, though it irritated the captain. + </p> + <p> + “If ye accept the premisses that I've just laid down, that it's a + contract”—-began the boatman. + </p> + <p> + “Dry up! and haul off,” said the captain. + </p> + <p> + “One moment,” interposed the consul, with a rapid glance at the slight + trouble in the young girl's face. Turning to the father, he went on: “Will + you allow me to offer you and your daughter a seat in my boat?” + </p> + <p> + It was an unlooked-for and tempting proposal. The boatman was lazily lying + on his oars, secure in self-righteousness and the conscious possession of + the only available boat to shore; on the other hand, the smart gig of the + consul, with its four oars, was not only a providential escape from a + difficulty, but even to some extent a quasi-official endorsement of his + contention. Yet he hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “It'll be costin' ye no more?” he said interrogatively, glancing at the + consul's boat crew, “or ye'll be askin' me a fair proportion.” + </p> + <p> + “It will be the gentleman's own boat,” said the girl, with a certain shy + assurance, “and he'll be paying his boatmen by the day.” + </p> + <p> + The consul hastened to explain that their passage would involve no + additional expense to anybody, and added, tactfully, that he was glad to + enable them to oppose extortion. + </p> + <p> + “Ay, but it's a preencipel,” said the father proudly, “and I'm pleased, + sir, to see ye recognize it.” + </p> + <p> + He proceeded to help his daughter into the boat without any further + leave-taking of the passenger, to the consul's great surprise, and with + only a parting nod from the young girl. It was as if this momentous + incident were a sufficient reason for the absence of any further trivial + sentiment. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately the father chose to add an exordium for the benefit of the + astonished boatsman still lying on his oars. + </p> + <p> + “Let this be a lesson to ye, ma frien', when ye're ower sure! Ye'll ne'er + say a herrin' is dry until it be reestit an' reekit.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay,” said the boatman, with a lazy, significant glance at the consul, “it + wull be a lesson to me not to trust to a lassie's GANGIN' jo, when thair's + anither yin comin'.” + </p> + <p> + “Give way,” said the consul sharply. + </p> + <p> + Yet his was the only irritated face in the boat as the men bent over their + oars. The young girl and her father looked placidly at the receding ship, + and waved their hands to the grave, resigned face over the taffrail. The + consul examined them more attentively. The father's face showed + intelligence and a certain probity in its otherwise commonplace features. + The young girl had more distinction, with, perhaps, more delicacy of + outline than of texture. Her hair was dark, with a burnished copper tint + at its roots, and eyes that had the same burnished metallic lustre in + their brown pupils. Both sat respectfully erect, as if anxious to record + the fact that the boat was not their own to take their ease in; and both + were silently reserved, answering briefly to the consul's remarks as if to + indicate the formality of their presence there. But a distant railway + whistle startled them into emotion. + </p> + <p> + “We've lost the train, father!” said the young girl. + </p> + <p> + The consul followed the direction of her anxious eyes; the train was just + quitting the station at Bannock. + </p> + <p> + “If ye had not lingered below with Jamie, we'd have been away in time, ay, + and in our own boat,” said the father, with marked severity. + </p> + <p> + The consul glanced quickly at the girl. But her face betrayed no + consciousness, except of their present disappointment. + </p> + <p> + “There's an excursion boat coming round the Point,” he said, pointing to + the black smoke trail of a steamer at the entrance of a loch, “and it will + be returning to St. Kentigern shortly. If you like, we'll pull over and + put you aboard.” + </p> + <p> + “Eh! but it's the Sabbath-breaker!” said the old man harshly. + </p> + <p> + The consul suddenly remembered that that was the name which the righteous + St. Kentigerners had given to the solitary bold, bad pleasure-boat that + defied their Sabbatical observances. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you won't find very pleasant company on board,” said the consul + smiling; “but, then, you're not seeking THAT. And as you would be only + using the boat to get back to your home, and not for Sunday recreation, I + don't think your conscience should trouble you.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay, that's a fine argument, Mr. Consul, but I'm thinkin' it's none the + less sopheestry for a' that,” said the father grimly. “No; if ye'll just + land us yonder at Bannock pier, we'll be ay thankin' ye the same.” + </p> + <p> + “But what will you do there? There's no other train to-day.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay, we'll walk on a bit.” + </p> + <p> + The consul was silent. After a pause the young girl lifted her clear eyes, + and with a half pathetic, half childish politeness, said: “We'll be doing + very well—my father and me. You're far too kind.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing further was said as they began to thread their way between a few + large ships and an ocean steamer at anchor, from whose decks a few + Sunday-clothed mariners gazed down admiringly on the smart gig and the + pretty girl in a Tam o' Shanter in its stern sheets. But here a new idea + struck the consul. A cable's length ahead lay a yacht, owned by an + American friend, and at her stern a steam launch swung to its painter. + Without intimating his intention to his passengers he steered for it. + “Bow!—way enough,” he called out as the boat glided under the + yacht's counter, and, grasping the companion-ladder ropes, he leaped + aboard. In a few hurried words he explained the situation to Mr. Robert + Gray, her owner, and suggested that he should send the belated passengers + to St. Kentigern by the launch. Gray assented with the easy good-nature of + youth, wealth, and indolence, and lounged from his cabin to the side. The + consul followed. Looking down upon the boat he could not help observing + that his fair young passenger, sitting in her demure stillness at her + father's side, made a very pretty picture. It was possible that “Bob Gray” + had made the same observation, for he presently swung himself over the + gangway into the gig, hat in hand. The launch could easily take them; in + fact, he added unblushingly, it was even then getting up steam to go to + St. Kentigern. Would they kindly come on board until it was ready? At an + added word or two of explanation from the consul, the father accepted, + preserving the same formal pride and stiffness, and the transfer was made. + The consul, looking back as his gig swept round again towards Bannock + pier, received their parting salutations, and the first smile he had seen + on the face of his grave little passenger. He thought it very sweet and + sad. + </p> + <p> + He did not return to the Consulate at St. Kentigern until the next day. + But he was somewhat surprised to find Mr. Robert Gray awaiting him, and + upon some business which the young millionaire could have easily deputed + to his captain or steward. As he still lingered, the consul pleasantly + referred to his generosity on the previous day, and hoped the passengers + had given him no trouble. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Gray with a slight simulation of carelessness. “In fact I came + up with them myself. I had nothing to do; it was Sunday, you know.” + </p> + <p> + The consul lifted his eyebrows slightly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I saw them home,” continued Gray lightly. “In one of those + by-streets not far from here; neat-looking house outside; inside, + corkscrew stone staircase like a lighthouse; fourth floor, no lift, but + SHE circled up like a swallow! Flat—sitting-room, two bedrooms, and + a kitchen—mighty snug and shipshape and pretty as a pink. They OWN + it too—fancy OWNING part of a house! Seems to be a way they have + here in St. Kentigern.” He paused and then added: “Stayed there to a kind + of high tea!” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed,” said the consul. + </p> + <p> + “Why not? The old man wanted to return my 'hospitality' and square the + account! He wasn't going to lie under any obligation to a stranger, and, + by Jove! he made it a special point of honor! A Spanish grandee couldn't + have been more punctilious. And with an accent, Jerusalem! like a + northeaster off the Banks! But the feed was in good taste, and he only a + mathematical instrument maker, on about twelve hundred dollars a year!” + </p> + <p> + “You seem to know all about him,” said the consul smilingly. + </p> + <p> + “Not so much as he does about me,” returned Gray, with a half perplexed + face; “for he saw enough to admonish me about my extravagance, and even to + intimate that that rascal Saunderson, my steward, was imposing on me. SHE + took me to task, too, for not laying the yacht up on Sunday that the men + could go 'to kirk,' and for swearing at a bargeman who ran across our + bows. It's their perfect simplicity and sincerity in all this that gets + me! You'd have thought that the old man was my guardian, and the daughter + my aunt.” After a pause he uttered a reminiscent laugh. “She thought we + ate and drank too much on the yacht, and wondered what we could find to do + all day. All this, you know, in the gentlest, caressing sort of voice, as + if she was really concerned, like one's own sister. Well, not exactly like + mine”—he interrupted himself grimly—“but, hang it all, you + know what I mean. You know that our girls over there haven't got THAT + trick of voice. Too much self-assertion, I reckon; things made too easy + for them by us men. Habit of race, I dare say.” He laughed a little. “Why, + I mislaid my glove when I was coming away, and it was as good as a play to + hear her commiserating and sympathizing, and hunting for it as if it were + a lost baby.” + </p> + <p> + “But you've seen Scotch girls before this,” said the consul. “There were + Lady Glairn's daughters, whom you took on a cruise.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but the swell Scotch all imitate the English, as everybody else + does, for the matter of that, our girls included; and they're all alike. + Society makes 'em fit in together like tongued and grooved planks that + will take any amount of holy-stoning and polish. It's like dropping into a + dead calm, with every rope and spar that you know already reflected back + from the smooth water upon you. It's mighty pretty, but it isn't getting + on, you know.” After a pause he added: “I asked them to take a little + holiday cruise with me.” + </p> + <p> + “And they declined,” interrupted the consul. + </p> + <p> + Gray glanced at him quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Well, yes; that's all right enough. They don't know me, you see, but they + do know you; and the fact is, I was thinking that as you're our consul + here, don't you see, and sort of responsible for me, you might say that it + was all right, you know. Quite the customary thing with us over there. And + you might say, generally, who I am.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said the consul deliberately. “Tell them you're Bob Gray, with + more money and time than you know what to do with; that you have a fine + taste for yachting and shooting and racing, and amusing yourself + generally; that you find that THEY amuse you, and you would like your + luxury and your dollars to stand as an equivalent to their independence + and originality; that, being a good republican yourself, and recognizing + no distinction of class, you don't care what this may mean to them, who + are brought up differently; that after their cruise with you you don't + care what life, what friends, or what jealousies they return to; that you + know no ties, no responsibilities beyond the present, and that you are not + a marrying man.” + </p> + <p> + “Look here, I say, aren't you making a little too much of this?” said Gray + stiffly. + </p> + <p> + The consul laughed. “I should be glad to know that I am.” + </p> + <p> + Gray rose. “We'll be dropping down the river to-morrow,” he said, with a + return of his usual lightness, “and I reckon I'll be toddling down to the + wharf. Good-bye, if I don't see you again.” + </p> + <p> + He passed out. As the consul glanced from the window he observed, however, + that Mr. Gray was “toddling” in quite another direction than the wharf. + For an instant he half regretted that he had not suggested, in some + discreet way, the conclusion he had arrived at after witnessing the girl's + parting with the middle-aged passenger the day before. But he reflected + that this was something he had only accidentally overseen, and was the + girl's own secret. + </p> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + When the summer had so waxed in its fullness that the smoke of factory + chimneys drifted high, permitting glimpses of fairly blue sky; when the + grass in St. Kentigern's proudest park took on a less sober green in the + comfortable sun, and even in the thickest shade there was no chilliness, + the good St. Kentigerners recognized that the season had arrived to go + “down the river,” and that it was time for them to betake themselves, with + rugs, mackintoshes, and umbrellas, to the breezy lochs and misty hillsides + for which the neighborhood of St. Kentigern is justly famous. So when it + came to pass that the blinds were down in the highest places, and the most + exclusive pavements of St. Kentigern were echoless and desolate, the + consul heroically tore himself from the weak delight of basking in the + sunshine, and followed the others. + </p> + <p> + He soon found himself settled at the furthest end of a long narrow loch, + made longer and narrower by the steep hillside of rock and heather which + flanked its chilly surface on either side, and whose inequalities were + lost in the firs and larches that filled ravine and chasm. The fragrant + road which ran sinuously through their shadowy depths was invisible from + the loch; no protuberance broke the seemingly sheer declivity; the even + sky-line was indented in two places—one where it was cracked into a + fanciful resemblance to a human profile, the other where it was curved + like a bowl. Need it be said that one was distinctly recognized as the + silhouette of a prehistoric giant, and that the other was his + drinking-cup; need it be added that neither lent the slightest human + suggestion to the solitude? A toy-like pier extending into the loch, + midway from the barren shore, only heightened the desolation. And when the + little steamboat that occasionally entered the loch took away a solitary + passenger from the pier-head, the simplest parting was invested with a + dreary loneliness that might have brought tears to the most hardened eye. + </p> + <p> + Still, when the shadow of either hillside was not reaching across the + loch, the meridian sun, chancing upon this coy mirror, made the most of + it. Then it was that, seen from above, it flashed like a falchion lying + between the hills; then its reflected glory, striking up, transfigured the + two acclivities, tipped the cold heather with fire, gladdened the funereal + pines, and warmed the ascetic rocks. And it was in one of those rare, + passionate intervals that the consul, riding along the wooded track and + turning his eyes from their splendors, came upon a little house. + </p> + <p> + It had once been a sturdy cottage, with a grim endurance and inflexibility + which even some later and lighter additions had softened rather than + changed. On either side of the door, against the bleak whitewashed wall, + two tall fuchsias relieved the rigid blankness with a show of color. The + windows were prettily draped with curtains caught up with gay ribbons. In + a stony pound-like enclosure there was some attempt at floral cultivation, + but all quite recent. So, too, were a wicker garden seat, a bright + Japanese umbrella, and a tropical hammock suspended between two + arctic-looking bushes, which the rude and rigid forefathers of the hamlet + would have probably resented. + </p> + <p> + He had just passed the house when a charming figure slipped across the + road before him. To his surprise it was the young girl he had met a few + months before on the Skyscraper. But the Tam o' Shanter was replaced by a + little straw hat; and a light dress, summery in color and texture, but + more in keeping with her rustic surroundings, seemed as grateful and rare + as the sunshine. Without knowing why, he had an impression that it was of + her own making—a gentle plagiarism of the style of her more + fortunate sisters, but with a demure restraint all her own. As she + recognized him a faint color came to her cheek, partly from surprise, + partly from some association. To his delighted greeting she responded by + informing him that her father had taken the cottage he had just passed, + where they were spending a three weeks' vacation from his business. It was + not so far from St. Kentigern but that he could run up for a day to look + after the shop. Did the consul not think it was wise? + </p> + <p> + Quite ready to assent to any sagacity in those clear brown eyes, the + consul thought it was. But was it not, like wisdom, sometimes lonely? + </p> + <p> + Ah! no. There was the loch and the hills and the heather; there were her + flowers; did he not think they were growing well? and at the head of the + loch there was the old tomb of the McHulishes, and some of the coffins + were still to be seen. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps emboldened by the consul's smile, she added, with a more serious + precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing caress of her + voice, “And would you not be getting off and coming in and resting a wee + bit before you go further? It would be so good of you, and father would + think it so kind. And he will be there now, if you're looking.” + </p> + <p> + The consul looked. The old man was standing in the doorway of the cottage, + as respectably uncompromising as ever, with the slight concession to his + rural surroundings of wearing a Tam o' Shanter and easy slippers. The + consul dismounted and entered. The interior was simply, but tastefully + furnished. It struck him that the Scotch prudence and economy, which + practically excluded display and meretricious glitter, had reached the + simplicity of the truest art and the most refined wealth. He felt he could + understand Gray's enthusiasm, and by an odd association of ideas he found + himself thinking of the resigned face of the lonely passenger on the + Skyscraper. + </p> + <p> + “Have you heard any news of your friend who went to Rio?” he asked + pleasantly, but without addressing himself particularly to either. + </p> + <p> + There was a perceptible pause; doubtless of deference to her father on the + part of the young girl, and of the usual native conscientious caution on + the part of the father, but neither betrayed any embarrassment or emotion. + “No; he would not be writing yet,” she at length said simply, “he would be + waiting until he was settled to his business. Jamie would be waiting until + he could say how he was doing, father?” she appealed interrogatively to + the old man. + </p> + <p> + “Ay, James Gow would not fash himself to write compliments and gossip till + he knew his position and work,” corroborated the old man. “He'll not be + going two thousand miles to send us what we can read in the 'St. Kentigern + Herald.' But,” he added, suddenly, with a recall of cautiousness, “perhaps + YOU will be hearing of the ship?” + </p> + <p> + “The consul will not be remembering what he hears of all the ships,” + interposed the young girl, with the same gentle affectation of superior + worldly knowledge which had before amused him. “We'll be wearying him, + father,” and the subject dropped. + </p> + <p> + The consul, glancing around the room again, but always returning to the + sweet and patient seriousness of the young girl's face and the grave + decorum of her father, would have liked to ask another question, but it + was presently anticipated; for when he had exhausted the current topics, + in which both father and daughter displayed a quiet sagacity, and he had + gathered a sufficient knowledge of their character to seem to justify + Gray's enthusiasm, and was rising to take his leave, the young girl said + timidly:— + </p> + <p> + “Would ye not let Bessie take your horse to the grass field over yonder, + and yourself stay with us to dinner? It would be most kind, and you would + meet a great friend of yours who will be here.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Gray?” suggested the consul audaciously. Yet he was greatly surprised + when the young girl said quietly, “Ay.” + </p> + <p> + “He'll be coming in the loch with his yacht,” said the old man. “It's not + so expensive lying here as at Bannock, I'm thinking; and the men cannot + gang ashore for drink. Eh, but it's an awful waste o' pounds, shillings, + and pence, keeping these gowks in idleness with no feeshin' nor carrying + of passengers.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay, but it's better Mr. Gray should pay them for being decent and + well-behaved on board his ship, than that they should be out of work and + rioting in taverns and lodging-houses. And you yourself, father, remember + the herrin' fishers that come ashore at Ardie, and the deck hands of the + excursion boat, and the language they'll be using.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you had a cruise in the yacht?” asked the consul quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Ay,” said the father, “we have been up and down the loch, and around the + far point, but not for boardin' or lodgin' the night, nor otherwise + conteenuing or parteecipating. I have explained to Mr. Gray that we must + return to our own home and our own porridge at evening, and he has agreed, + and even come with us. He's a decent enough lad, and not above + instructin', but extraordinar' extravagant.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye know, father,” interposed the young girl, “he talks of fitting up the + yacht for the fishing, and taking some of his most decent men on shares. + He says he was very fond of fishing off the Massachusetts coast, in + America. It will be, I'm thinking,” she said, suddenly turning to the + consul with an almost pathetic appeal in her voice, “a great occupation + for the rich young men over there.” + </p> + <p> + The consul, desperately struggling with a fanciful picture of Mr. Robert + Gray as a herring fisher, thought gravely that it “might be.” But he + thought still more gravely, though silently, of this singular companion + ship, and was somewhat anxious to confront his friend with his new + acquaintances. He had not long to wait. The sun was just dipping behind + the hill when the yacht glided into the lonely loch. A boat was put off, + and in a few moments Robert Gray was climbing the little path from the + loch. + </p> + <p> + Had the consul expected any embarrassment or lover-like consciousness on + the face of Mr. Gray at their unexpected meeting, he would have been + disappointed. Nor was the young man's greeting of father and daughter, + whom he addressed as Mr. and Miss Callender, marked by any tenderness or + hesitation. On the contrary, a certain seriousness and quiet reticence, + unlike Gray, which might have been borrowed from his new friends, + characterized his speech and demeanor. Beyond this freemasonry of sad + repression there was no significance of look or word passed between these + two young people. The girl's voice retained its even pathos. Gray's grave + politeness was equally divided between her and her father. He corroborated + what Callender had said of his previous visits without affectation or + demonstration; he spoke of the possibilities of his fitting up the yacht + for the fishing season with a practical detail and economy that left the + consul's raillery ineffective. Even when, after dinner, the consul + purposely walked out in the garden with the father, Gray and Ailsa + presently followed them without lingering or undue precipitation, and with + no change of voice or manner. The consul was perplexed. Had the girl + already told Gray of her lover across the sea, and was this singular + restraint their joint acceptance of their fate; or was he mistaken in + supposing that their relations were anything more than the simple + friendship of patron and protegee? Gray was rich enough to indulge in such + a fancy, and the father and daughter were too proud to ever allow it to + influence their own independence. In any event the consul's right to + divulge the secret he was accidentally possessed of seemed more + questionable than ever. Nor did there appear to be any opportunity for a + confidential talk with Gray, since it was proposed that the whole party + should return to the yacht for supper, after which the consul should be + dropped at the pier-head, distant only a few minutes from his hotel, and + his horse sent to him the next day. + </p> + <p> + A faint moon was shimmering along the surface of Loch Dour in icy little + ripples when they pulled out from the shadows of the hillside. By the + accident of position, Gray, who was steering, sat beside Ailsa in the + stern, while the consul and Mr. Callender were further forward, although + within hearing. The faces of the young people were turned towards each + other, yet in the cold moonlight the consul fancied they looked as + impassive and unemotional as statues. The few distant, far-spaced lights + that trembled on the fading shore, the lonely glitter of the water, the + blackness of the pine-clad ravines seemed to be a part of this repression, + until the vast melancholy of the lake appeared to meet and overflow them + like an advancing tide. Added to this, there came from time to time the + faint sound and smell of the distant, desolate sea. + </p> + <p> + The consul, struggling manfully to keep up a spasmodic discussion on + Scotch diminutives in names, found himself mechanically saying: + </p> + <p> + “And James you call Jamie?” + </p> + <p> + “Ay; but ye would say, to be pure Scotch, 'Hamish,'” said Mr. Callender + precisely. The girl, however, had not spoken; but Gray turned to her with + something of his old gayety. + </p> + <p> + “And I suppose you would call me 'Robbie'?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, no!” + </p> + <p> + “What then?” + </p> + <p> + “Robin.” + </p> + <p> + Her voice was low yet distinct, but she had thrown into the two syllables + such infinite tenderness, that the consul was for an instant struck with + an embarrassment akin to that he had felt in the cabin of the Skyscraper, + and half expected the father to utter a shocked protest. And to save what + he thought would be an appalling silence, he said with a quiet laugh:— + </p> + <p> + “That's the fellow who 'made the assembly shine' in the song, isn't it?” + </p> + <p> + “That was Robin Adair,” said Gray quietly; “unfortunately I would only be + 'Robin Gray,' and that's quite another song.” + </p> + <p> + “AULD Robin Gray, sir, deestinctly 'auld' in the song,” interrupted Mr. + Callender with stern precision; “and I'm thinking he was not so very + unfortunate either.” + </p> + <p> + The discussion of Scotch diminutives halting here, the boat sped on + silently to the yacht. But although Robert Gray, as host, recovered some + of his usual lightheartedness, the consul failed to discover anything in + his manner to indicate the lover, nor did Miss Ailsa after her single + lapse of tender accent exhibit the least consciousness. It was true that + their occasional frank allusions to previous conversations seemed to show + that their opportunities had not been restricted, but nothing more. He + began again to think he was mistaken. + </p> + <p> + As he wished to return early, and yet not hasten the Callenders, he + prevailed upon Gray to send him to the pier-head first, and not disturb + the party. As he stepped into the boat, something in the appearance of the + coxswain awoke an old association in his mind. The man at first seemed to + avoid his scrutiny, but when they were well away from the yacht, he said + hesitatingly:— + </p> + <p> + “I see you remember me, sir. But if it's all the same to you, I've got a + good berth here and would like to keep it.” + </p> + <p> + The consul had a flash of memory. It was the boatswain of the Skyscraper, + one of the least objectionable of the crew. “But what are you doing here? + you shipped for the voyage,” he said sharply. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but I got away at Key West, when I knew what was coming. I wasn't on + her when she was abandoned.” + </p> + <p> + “Abandoned!” repeated the consul. “What the d—-l! Do you mean to say + she was wrecked?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, yes—you know what I mean, sir. It was an understood thing. + She was over-insured and scuttled in the Bahamas. It was a put-up job, and + I reckoned I was well out of it.” + </p> + <p> + “But there was a passenger! What of him?” demanded the consul anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “Dnnno! But I reckon he got away. There wasn't any of the crew lost that I + know of. Let's see, he was an engineer, wasn't he? I reckon he had to take + a hand at the pumps, and his chances with the rest.” + </p> + <p> + “Does Mr. Gray know of this?” asked the consul after a pause. + </p> + <p> + The man stared. + </p> + <p> + “Not from me, sir. You see it was nothin' to him, and I didn't care + talking much about the Skyscraper. It was hushed up in the papers. You + won't go back on me, sir?” + </p> + <p> + “You don't know what became of the passenger?” + </p> + <p> + “No! But he was a Scotchman, and they're bound to fall on their feet + somehow!” + </p> + <p> + III. + </p> + <p> + The December fog that overhung St. Kentigern had thinned sufficiently to + permit the passage of a few large snowflakes, soiled in their descent, + until in color and consistency they spotted the steps of the Consulate and + the umbrellas of the passers-by like sprinklings of gray mortar. + Nevertheless the consul thought the streets preferable to the persistent + gloom of his office, and sallied out. Youthful mercantile St. Kentigern + strode sturdily past him in the lightest covert coats; collegiate St. + Kentigern fluttered by in the scantiest of red gowns, shaming the furs + that defended his more exotic blood; and the bare red feet of a few + factory girls, albeit their heads and shoulders were draped and hooded in + thick shawls, filled him with a keen sense of his effeminacy. Everything + of earth, air, and sky, and even the faces of those he looked upon, seemed + to be set in the hard, patient endurance of the race. Everywhere on that + dismal day, he fancied he could see this energy without restlessness, this + earnestness without geniality, all grimly set against the hard environment + of circumstance and weather. + </p> + <p> + The consul turned into one of the main arteries of St. Kentigern, a wide + street that, however, began and ended inconsequently, and with half a + dozen social phases in as many blocks. Here the snow ceased, the fog + thickened suddenly with the waning day, and the consul found himself + isolated and cut off on a block which he did not remember, with the + clatter of an invisible tramway in his ears. It was a block of small + houses with smaller shop-fronts. The one immediately before him seemed to + be an optician's, but the dimly lighted windows also displayed the + pathetic reinforcement of a few watches, cheap jewelry on cards, and + several cairngorm brooches and pins set in silver. It occurred to him that + he wanted a new watch crystal, and that he would procure it here and + inquire his way. Opening the door he perceived that there was no one in + the shop, but from behind the counter another open door disclosed a neat + sitting-room, so close to the street that it gave the casual customer the + sensation of having intruded upon domestic privacy. The consul's entrance + tinkled a small bell which brought a figure to the door. It was Ailsa + Callender. + </p> + <p> + The consul was startled. He had not seen her since he had brought to their + cottage the news of the shipwreck with a precaution and delicacy that + their calm self-control and patient resignation, however, seemed to make + almost an impertinence. But this was no longer the handsome shop in the + chief thoroughfare with its two shopmen, which he previously knew as + “Callender's.” And Ailsa here! What misfortune had befallen them? + </p> + <p> + Whatever it was, there was no shadow of it in her clear eyes and frank yet + timid recognition of him. Falling in with her stoical and reticent + acceptance of it, he nevertheless gathered that the Callenders had lost + money in some invention which James Gow had taken with him to Rio, but + which was sunk in the ship. With this revelation of a business interest in + what he had believed was only a sentimental relation, the consul ventured + to continue his inquiries. Mr. Gow had escaped with his life and had + reached Honduras, where he expected to try his fortunes anew. It might be + a year or two longer before there were any results. Did the consul know + anything of Honduras? There was coffee there—so she and her father + understood. All this with little hopefulness, no irritation, but a divine + patience in her eyes. The consul, who found that his watch required + extensive repairing, and had suddenly developed an inordinate passion for + cairngorms, watched her as she opened the show-case with no affectation of + unfamiliarity with her occupation, but with all her old serious concern. + Surely she would have made as thorough a shop-girl as she would—His + half-formulated thought took the shape of a question. + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen Mr. Gray since his return from the Mediterranean?” + </p> + <p> + Ah! one of the brooches had slipped from her fingers to the bottom of the + case. There was an interval or two of pathetic murmuring, with her fair + head under the glass, before she could find it; then she lifted her eyes + to the consul. They were still slightly suffused with her sympathetic + concern. The stone, which was set in a thistle—the national emblem—did + he not know it?—had dropped out. But she could put it in. It was + pretty and not expensive. It was marked twelve shillings on the card, but + he could have it for ten shillings. No, she had not seen Mr. Gray since + they had lost their fortune. (It struck the consul as none the less + pathetic that she seemed really to believe in their former opulence.) They + could not be seeing him there in a small shop, and they could not see him + elsewhere. It was far better as it was. Yet she paused a moment when she + had wrapped up the brooch. “You'd be seeing him yourself some time?” she + added gently. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you'll not mind saying how my father and myself are sometimes + thinking of his goodness and kindness,” she went on, in a voice whose + tenderness seemed to increase with the formal precision of her speech. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly.” + </p> + <p> + “And you'll say we're not forgetting him.” + </p> + <p> + “I promise.” + </p> + <p> + As she handed him the parcel her lips softly parted in what might have + been equally a smile or a sigh. + </p> + <p> + He was able to keep his promise sooner than he had imagined. It was only a + few weeks later that, arriving in London, he found Gray's hatbox and bag + in the vestibule of his club, and that gentleman himself in the + smoking-room. He looked tanned and older. + </p> + <p> + “I only came from Southampton an hour ago, where I left the yacht. And,” + shaking the consul's hand cordially, “how's everything and everybody up at + old St. Kentigern?” + </p> + <p> + The consul thought fit to include his news of the Callenders in reference + to that query, and with his eyes fixed on Gray dwelt at some length on + their change of fortune. Gray took his cigar from his mouth, but did not + lift his eyes from the fire. Presently he said, “I suppose that's why + Callender declined to take the shares I offered him in the fishing scheme. + You know I meant it, and would have done it.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps he had other reasons.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” said Gray, facing the consul suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Gray,” said the consul, “did Miss Callender or her father ever + tell you she was engaged?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; but what's that to do with it?” + </p> + <p> + “A good deal. Engagements, you know, are sometimes forced, unsuitable, or + unequal, and are broken by circumstances. Callender is proud.” + </p> + <p> + Gray turned upon the consul the same look of gravity that he had worn on + the yacht—the same look that the consul even fancied he had seen in + Ailsa's eyes. “That's exactly where you're mistaken in her,” he said + slowly. “A girl like that gives her word and keeps it. She waits, hopes, + accepts what may come—breaks her heart, if you will, but not her + word. Come, let's talk of something else. How did he—that man Gow—lose + Callender's money?” + </p> + <p> + The consul did not see the Callenders again on his return, and perhaps did + not think it necessary to report the meeting. But one morning he was + delighted to find an official document from New York upon his desk, asking + him to communicate with David Callender of St. Kentigern, and, on proof of + his identity, giving him authority to draw the sum of five thousand + dollars damages awarded for the loss of certain property on the + Skyscraper, at the request of James Gow. Yet it was with mixed sensations + that the consul sought the little shop of the optician with this + convincing proof of Gow's faithfulness and the indissolubility of Ailsa's + engagement. That there was some sad understanding between the girl and + Gray he did not doubt, and perhaps it was not strange that he felt a + slight partisanship for his friend, whose nature had so strangely changed. + Miss Ailsa was not there. Her father explained that her health had + required a change, and she was visiting some friends on the river. + </p> + <p> + “I'm thinkin' that the atmosphere is not so pure here. It is deficient in + ozone. I noticed it myself in the early morning. No! it was not the + confinement of the shop, for she never cared to go out.” + </p> + <p> + He received the announcement of his good fortune with unshaken calm and + great practical consideration of detail. He would guarantee his identity + to the consul. As for James Gow, it was no more than fair; and what he had + expected of him. As to its being an equivalent of his loss, he could not + tell until the facts were before him. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Ailsa,” suggested the consul venturously, “will be pleased to hear + again from her old friend, and know that he is succeeding.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not so sure that ye could call it 'succeeding,'” returned the old + man, carefully wiping the glasses of a pair of spectacles that he held + critically to the light, “when ye consider that, saying nothing of the + waste of valuable time, it only puts James Gow back where he was when he + went away.” + </p> + <p> + “But any man who has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss Callender + would be glad to be on that footing,” said the consul, with polite + significance. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not agreeing with you there,” said Mr. Callender quietly; “and I'm + observing in ye of late a tendency to combine business wi' compleement. + But it was kind of ye to call; and I'll be sending ye the authorization.” + </p> + <p> + Which he did. But the consul, passing through the locality a few weeks + later, was somewhat concerned to find the shop closed, with others on the + same block, behind a hoarding that indicated rebuilding and improvement. + Further inquiry elicited the fact that the small leases had been bought up + by some capitalist, and that Mr. Callender, with the others, had benefited + thereby. But there was no trace nor clew to his present locality. He and + his daughter seemed to have again vanished with this second change in + their fortunes. + </p> + <p> + It was a late March morning when the streets were dumb with snow, and the + air was filled with flying granulations that tinkled against the windows + of the Consulate like fairy sleigh-bells, when there was the stamping of + snow-clogged feet in the outer hall, and the door was opened to Mr. and + Miss Callender. For an instant the consul was startled. The old man + appeared as usual—erect, and as frigidly respectable as one of the + icicles that fringed the window, but Miss Ailsa was, to his astonishment, + brilliant with a new-found color, and sparkling with health and only + half-repressed animation. The snow-flakes, scarcely melting on the brown + head of this true daughter of the North, still crowned her hood; and, as + she threw back her brown cloak and disclosed a plump little scarlet jacket + and brown skirt, the consul could not resist her suggested likeness to + some bright-eyed robin redbreast, to whom the inclement weather had given + a charming audacity. And shy and demure as she still was, it was evident + that some change had been wrought in her other than that evoked by the + stimulus of her native sky and air. + </p> + <p> + To his eager questioning, the old man replied briefly that he had bought + the old cottage at Loch Dour, where they were living, and where he had + erected a small manufactory and laboratory for the making of his + inventions, which had become profitable. The consul reiterated his delight + at meeting them again. + </p> + <p> + “I'm not so sure of that, sir, when you know the business on which I + come,” said Mr. Callender, dropping rigidly into a chair, and clasping his + hands over the crutch of a shepherd-like staff. “Ye mind, perhaps, that ye + conveyed to me, osteensibly at the request of James Gow, a certain sum of + money, for which I gave ye a good and sufficient guarantee. I thought at + the time that it was a most feckless and unbusiness-like proceeding on the + part of James, as it was without corroboration or advice by letter; but I + took the money.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean to say that he made no allusion to it in his other letters?” + interrupted the consul, glancing at Ailsa. + </p> + <p> + “There were no other letters at the time,” said Callender dryly. “But + about a month afterwards we DID receive a letter from him enclosing a + draft and a full return of the profits of the invention, which HE HAD SOLD + IN HONDURAS. Ye'll observe the deescrepancy! I then wrote to the bank on + which I had drawn as you authorized me, and I found that they knew nothing + of any damages awarded, but that the sum I had drawn had been placed to my + credit by Mr. Robert Gray.” + </p> + <p> + In a flash the consul recalled the one or two questions that Gray had + asked him, and saw it all. For an instant he felt the whole bitterness of + Gray's misplaced generosity—its exposure and defeat. He glanced + again hopelessly at Ailsa. In the eye of that fresh, glowing, yet demure, + young goddess, unhallowed as the thought might be, there was certainly a + distinctly tremulous wink. + </p> + <p> + The consul took heart. “I believe I need not say, Mr. Callender,” he began + with some stiffness, “that this is as great a surprise to me as to you. I + had no reason to believe the transaction other than bona fide, and acted + accordingly. If my friend, deeply sympathizing with your previous + misfortune, has hit upon a delicate, but unbusiness-like way of assisting + you temporarily—I say TEMPORARILY, because it must have been as + patent to him as to you, that you would eventually find out his generous + deceit—you surely can forgive him for the sake of his kind + intention. Nay, more; may I point out to you that you have no right to + assume that this benefaction was intended exclusively for you; if Mr. + Gray, in his broader sympathy with you and your daughter, has in this way + chosen to assist and strengthen the position of a gentleman so closely + connected with you, but still struggling with hard fortune”— + </p> + <p> + “I'd have ye know, sir,” interrupted the old man, rising to his feet, + “that ma frien' Mr. James Gow is as independent of yours as he is of me + and mine. He has married, sir, a Mrs. Hernandez, the rich widow of a + coffee-planter, and now is the owner of the whole estate, minus the + encumbrance of three children. And now, sir, you'll take this,”—he + drew from his pocket an envelope. “It's a draft for five thousand dollars, + with the ruling rate of interest computed from the day I received it till + this day, and ye'll give it to your frien' when ye see him. And ye'll just + say to him from me”— + </p> + <p> + But Miss Ailsa, with a spirit and independence that challenged her + father's, here suddenly fluttered between them with sparkling eyes and + outstretched hands. + </p> + <p> + “And ye'll say to him from ME that a more honorable, noble, and generous + man, and a kinder, truer, and better friend than he, cannot be found + anywhere! And that the foolishest and most extravagant thing he ever did + is better than the wisest and most prudent thing that anybody else ever + did, could, or would do! And if he was a bit overproud—it was only + because those about him were overproud and foolish. And you'll tell him + that we're wearying for him! And when you give him that daft letter from + father you'll give him this bit line from me,” she went on rapidly as she + laid a tiny note in his hand. “And,” with wicked dancing eyes that seemed + to snap the last bond of repression, “ye'll give him THAT too, and say I + sent it!” + </p> + <p> + There was a stir in the official apartment! The portraits of Lincoln and + Washington rattled uneasily in their frames; but it was no doubt only a + discreet blast of the north wind that drowned the echo of a kiss. + </p> + <p> + “Ailsa!” gasped the shocked Mr. Callender. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! but, father, if it had not been for HIM we would not have known + Robin.” + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + It was the last that the consul saw of Ailsa Callender; for the next + summer when he called at Loch Dour she was Mrs. Gray. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU. + </h2> + <p> + I. + </p> + <p> + On the fifteenth of August, 1854, what seemed to be the entire population + of Wynyard's Bar was collected upon a little bluff which overlooked the + rude wagon road that was the only approach to the settlement. In general + appearance the men differed but little from ordinary miners, although the + foreign element, shown in certain Spanish peculiarities of dress and + color, predominated, and some of the men were further distinguished by the + delicacy of education and sedentary pursuits. Yet Wynyard's Bar was a city + of refuge, comprised among its inhabitants a number who were “wanted” by + the State authorities, and its actual attitude at that moment was one of + open rebellion against the legal power, and of particular resistance to + the apprehension by warrant of one of its prominent members. This + gentleman, Major Overstone, then astride of a gray mustang, and directing + the movements of the crowd, had, a few days before, killed the sheriff of + Siskyou county, who had attempted to arrest him for the double offense of + misappropriating certain corporate funds of the State and the shooting of + the editor who had imprudently exposed him. The lesser crime of homicide + might have been overlooked by the authorities, but its repetition upon the + body of their own over-zealous and misguided official could not pass + unchallenged if they expected to arrest Overstone for the more serious + offense against property. So it was known that a new sheriff had been + appointed and was coming to Wynyard's Bar with an armed posse. But it was + also understood that this invasion would be resisted by the Bar to its + last man. + </p> + <p> + All eyes were turned upon a fringe of laurel and butternut that encroached + upon the road half a mile away, where it seemed that such of the + inhabitants who were missing from the bluff were hidden to give warning or + retard the approach of the posse. A gray haze, slowly rising between the + fringe and the distant hillside, was recognized as the dust of a cavalcade + passing along the invisible highway. In the hush of expectancy that + followed, the irregular clatter of hoofs, the sharp crack of a rifle, and + a sudden halt were faintly audible. The men, scattered in groups on the + bluff, exchanged a smile of grim satisfaction. + </p> + <p> + Not so their leader! A quick start and an oath attracted attention to him. + To their surprise he was looking in another direction, but as they looked + too they saw and understood the cause. A file of horsemen, hitherto + undetected, were slowly passing along the little ridge on their right. + Their compact accoutrements and the yellow braid on their blue jackets, + distinctly seen at that distance, showed them to be a detachment of United + States cavalry. + </p> + <p> + Before the assemblage could realize this new invasion, a nearer clatter of + hoofs was heard along the high road, and one of the ambuscading party + dashed up from the fringe of woods below. His face was flushed, but + triumphant. + </p> + <p> + “A reg'lar skunk—by the living hokey!” he panted, pointing to the + faint haze that was again slowly rising above the invisible road. “They + backed down as soon as they saw our hand, and got a hole through their new + sheriff's hat. But what are you lookin' at? What's up?” + </p> + <p> + The leader impatiently pointed with a darkening face to the distant file. + </p> + <p> + “Reg'lars, by gum!” ejaculated the other. “But Uncle Sam ain't in this + game. Wot right have THEY”— + </p> + <p> + “Dry up!” said the leader. + </p> + <p> + The detachment was now moving at right angles with the camp, but suddenly + halted, almost doubling upon itself in some evident commotion. A + dismounted figure was seen momentarily flying down the hillside dodging + from bush to bush until lost in the underbrush. A dozen shots were fired + over its head, and then the whole detachment wheeled and came clattering + down the trail in the direction of the camp. A single riderless horse, + evidently that of the fugitive, followed. + </p> + <p> + “Spread yourselves along the ridge, every man of you, and cover them as + they enter the gulch!” shouted the leader. “But not a shot until I give + the word. Scatter!” + </p> + <p> + The assemblage dispersed like a startled village of prairie dogs, + squatting behind every available bush and rock along the line of bluff. + The leader alone trotted quietly to the head of the gulch. + </p> + <p> + The nine cavalrymen came smartly up in twos, a young officer leading. The + single figure of Major Overstone opposed them with a command to halt. + Looking up, the young officer drew rein, said a word to his file leader, + and the four files closed in a compact square motionless on the road. The + young officer's unsworded hand hung quietly at his thigh, the men's + unslung carbines rested easily on their saddles. Yet at that moment every + man of them knew that they were covered by a hundred rifles and shot guns + leveled from every bush, and that they were caught helplessly in a trap. + </p> + <p> + “Since when,” said Major Overstone with an affectation of tone and manner + different from that in which he had addressed his previous companions, + “have the Ninth United States Cavalry helped to serve a State court's + pettifogging process?” + </p> + <p> + “We are hunting a deserter—a half-breed agent—who has just + escaped us,” returned the officer. His voice was boyish—so, too, was + his figure in its slim, cadet-like smartness of belted tunic—but + very quiet and level, although his face was still flushed with the shock + and shame of his surprise. + </p> + <p> + The relaxation of relief went through the wrought and waiting camp. The + soldiers were not seeking THEM. Ready as these desperate men had been to + do their leader's bidding, they were well aware that a momentary victory + over the troopers would not pass unpunished, and meant the ultimate + dispersion of the camp. And quiet as these innocent invaders seemed to be + they would no doubt sell their lives dearly. The embattled desperadoes + glanced anxiously at their leader; the soldiers, on the contrary, looked + straight before them. + </p> + <p> + “Process or no process,” said Major Overstone with a sneer, “you've come + to the last place to recover your deserter. We don't give up men in + Wynyard's Bar. And they didn't teach you at the Academy, sir, to stop to + take prisoners when you were outflanked and outnumbered.” + </p> + <p> + “Bedad! They didn't teach YOU, Captain Overstone, to engage a battery at + Cerro Gordo with a half company, but you did it; more shame to you now, + sorr, commandin' the thayves and ruffians you do.” + </p> + <p> + “Silence!” said the young officer. + </p> + <p> + The sleeve of the sergeant who had spoken—with the chevrons of long + service upon it—went up to a salute, and dropped again over his + carbine as he stared stolidly before him. But his shot had told. A flush + of mingled pride and shame passed over Overstone's face. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! it's YOU, Murphy,” he said with an affected laugh, “and you haven't + improved with your stripes.” + </p> + <p> + The young officer turned his head slightly. + </p> + <p> + “Attention!” + </p> + <p> + “One moment more,” said Overstone coming forward. “I have told you that we + don't give up any man who seeks our protection. But,” he added with a + half-careless, half-contemptuous wave of his hand, and a significant + glance at his followers, “we don't prevent you from seeking him. The road + is clear; the camp is before you.” + </p> + <p> + The young officer continued without looking at him. “Forward—in two + files—open order. Ma-arch!” + </p> + <p> + The little troop moved forward, passed Major Overstone at the head of the + gully, and spread out on the hillside. The assembled camp, still armed, + lounging out of ambush here and there, ironically made way for them to + pass. A few moments of this farcical quest, and a glance at the + impenetrably wooded heights around, apparently satisfied the young + officer, and he turned his files again into the gully. Major Overstone was + still lingering there. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you are satisfied,” he said grimly. He then paused, and in a + changed and more hesitating voice added: “I am an older soldier than you, + sir, but I am always glad to make the acquaintance of West Point.” He + paused and held out his hand. + </p> + <p> + West Point, still red and rigid, glanced at him with bright clear eyes + under light lashes and the peak of a smartly cocked cap, looked coolly at + the proffered hand, raised his own to a stiff salute, said, “Good + afternoon, sir,” and rode away. + </p> + <p> + Major Overstone wheeled angrily, but in doing so came sharply upon his + coadjutor—the leader of the ambushed party. + </p> + <p> + “Well, Dawson,” he said impatiently. “Who was it?” + </p> + <p> + “Only one of them d——d half-breed Injin agents. He's just over + there in the brush with Simpson, lying low till the soldiers clear out.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you talk to him?” + </p> + <p> + “Not much!” returned Dawson scornfully. “He ain't my style.” + </p> + <p> + “Fetch him up to my cabin; he may be of some use to us.” + </p> + <p> + Dawson looked skeptical. “I reckon he ain't no more gain here than he was + over there,” he said, and turned away. + </p> + <p> + II. + </p> + <p> + The cabin of Major Overstone differed outwardly but little from those of + his companions. It was the usual structure of logs, laid lengthwise, and + rudely plastered at each point of contact with adobe, the material from + which the chimney, which entirely occupied one gable, was built. It was + pierced with two windows and a door, roofed with smaller logs, and + thatched with long half cylinders of spruce bark. But the interior gave + certain indications of the distinction as well as the peculiar experiences + of its occupant. In place of the usual bunk or berth built against the + wall stood a small folding camp bedstead, and upon a rude deal table that + held a tin wash-basin and pail lay two ivory-handled brushes, combs, and + other elegant toilet articles, evidently the contents of the major's + dressing-bag. A handsome leather trunk occupied one corner, with a richly + caparisoned silver-mounted Mexican saddle, a mahogany case of dueling + pistols, a leather hat-box, locked and strapped, and a gorgeous gold and + quartz handled ebony “presentation” walking stick. There was a certain + dramatic suggestion in this revelation of the sudden and hurried + transition from a life of ostentatious luxury to one of hidden toil and + privation, and a further significance in the slow and gradual distribution + and degradation of these elegant souvenirs. A pair of silver boot-hooks + had been used for raking the hearth and lifting the coffee kettle; the + ivory of the brushes was stained with coffee; the cut-glass bottles had + lost their stoppers, and had been utilized for vinegar and salt; a + silver-framed hand mirror hung against the blackened wall. For the major's + occupancy was the sequel of a hurried flight from his luxurious hotel at + Sacramento—a transfer that he believed was only temporary until the + affair blew over, and he could return in safety to brow-beat his accusers, + as was his wont. But this had not been so easy as he had imagined; his + prosecutors were bitter, and his enforced seclusion had been prolonged + week by week until the fracas which ended in the shooting of the sheriff + had apparently closed the door upon his return to civilization forever. + Only here was his life and person secure. For Wynyard's Bar had quickly + succumbed to the domination of his reckless courage, and the eminence of + his double crime had made him respected among spendthrifts, gamblers, and + gentlemen whose performances had never risen above a stage-coach robbery + or a single assassination. Even criticism of his faded luxuries had been + delicately withheld. + </p> + <p> + He was leaning over his open trunk—which the camp popularly supposed + to contain State bonds and securities of fabulous amount—and had + taken some letters from it, when a figure darkened the doorway. He looked + up, laying his papers carelessly aside. WITHIN Wynyard's Bar property was + sacred. + </p> + <p> + It was the late fugitive. Although some hours had already elapsed since + his arrival in camp, and he had presumably refreshed himself inwardly, his + outward appearance was still disheveled and dusty. Brier and milkweed + clung to his frayed blouse and trousers. What could be seen of the skin of + his face and hands under its stains and begriming was of a dull yellow. + His light eyes had all the brightness without the restlessness of the + mongrel race. They leisurely took in the whole cabin, the still open trunk + before the major, and then rested deliberately on the major himself. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Major Overstone abruptly, “what brought you here?” + </p> + <p> + “Same as brought you, I reckon,” responded the man almost as abruptly. + </p> + <p> + The major knew something of the half-breed temper, and neither the retort + nor its tone affected him. + </p> + <p> + “You didn't come here just because you deserted,” said the major coolly. + “You've been up to something else.” + </p> + <p> + “I have,” said the man with equal coolness. + </p> + <p> + “I thought so. Now, you understand you can't try anything of that kind + HERE. If you do, up you go on the first tree. That's Rule 1.” + </p> + <p> + “I see you ain't pertickler about waiting for the sheriff here, you + fellers.” + </p> + <p> + The major glanced at him quickly. He seemed to be quite unconscious of any + irony in his remark, and continued grimly, “And what's Rule 2?” + </p> + <p> + “I reckon you needn't trouble yourself beyond No. 1,” returned the major + with dry significance. Nevertheless, he opened a rude cupboard in the + corner and brought out a rich silver-mounted cut-glass drinking-flask, + which he handed to the stranger. + </p> + <p> + “I say,” said the half-breed, admiringly, “yours?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly NOW, but BEFORE, eh?” + </p> + <p> + Rule No. 2 may have indicated that references to the past held no + dishonor. The major, although accustomed to these pleasantries, laughed a + little harshly. + </p> + <p> + “Mine always,” he said. “But you don't drink?” + </p> + <p> + The half-breed's face darkened under its grime. + </p> + <p> + “Wot you're givin' us? I've been filled chock up by Simpson over thar. I + reckon I know when I've got a load on.” + </p> + <p> + “Were you ever in Sacramento?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “When?” + </p> + <p> + “Last week.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you hear anything about me?” + </p> + <p> + The half-breed glanced through his tangled hair at the major in some + wonder, not only at the question, but at the almost childish eagerness + with which it was asked. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't hear much of anything else,” he answered grimly. + </p> + <p> + “And—what did they SAY?” + </p> + <p> + “Said you'd got to be TOOK anyhow! They allowed the new sheriff would do + it too.” + </p> + <p> + The major laughed. “Well, you heard HOW the new sheriff did it—skunked + away with his whole posse before one-eighth of my men! You saw how the + rest of this camp held up your nine troopers, and that sap-headed cub of a + lieutenant—didn't you? You wouldn't have been standing here if you + hadn't. No; there isn't the civil process nor the civil power in all + California that can take me out of this camp.” + </p> + <p> + But neither his previous curiosity nor present bravado seemed to impress + the ragged stranger with much favor. He glanced sulkily around the cabin + and began to shuffle towards the door. + </p> + <p> + “Stop! Where are you going to? Sit down. I want to talk to you.” + </p> + <p> + The fugitive hesitated for a moment, and then dropped ungraciously on the + edge of a camp-stool near the door. The major looked at him. + </p> + <p> + “I may have to remind you that I run this camp, and the boys hereabouts do + pretty much as I say. What's your name?” + </p> + <p> + “Tom.” + </p> + <p> + “Tom? Well, look here, Tom! D—n it all! Can't you see that when a + man is stuck here alone, as I am, he wants to know what's going on + outside, and hear a little fresh talk?” + </p> + <p> + The singular weakness of this blended command and appeal apparently struck + the fugitive curiously. He fixed his lowering eyes on the major as if in + gloomy doubt if he were really the reckless desperado he had been + represented. That this man—twice an assassin and the ruler of + outlaws as reckless as himself—should approach him in this + half-confidential way evidently puzzled him. + </p> + <p> + “Wot you wanter know?” he asked gruffly. + </p> + <p> + “Well, what's my party saying or doing about me?” said the major + impatiently. “What's the 'Express' saying about me?” + </p> + <p> + “I reckon they're throwing off on you all round; they allow you never + represented the party, but worked for yourself,” said the man shortly. + </p> + <p> + Here the major lashed out. A set of traitors and hirelings! He had bought + and paid for them all! He had sunk two thousand dollars in the “Express” + and saved the editor from being horsewhipped and jailed for libel! Half + the cursed bonds that they were making such a blanked fuss about were + handled by these hypocrites—blank them! They were a low-lived crew + of thieves and deserters! It is presumed that the major had forgotten + himself in this infelicitous selection of epithets, but the stranger's + face only relaxed into a grim smile. More than that, the major had + apparently forgotten his desire to hear his guest talk, for he himself at + once launched into an elaborate exposition of his own affairs and a + specious and equally elaborate defense and justification of himself and + denunciation of his accusers. For nearly half an hour he reviewed step by + step and detail by detail the charges against him—with plausible + explanation and sophistical argument, but always with a singular prolixity + and reiteration that spoke of incessant self-consciousness and + self-abstraction. Of that dashing self-sufficiency which had dazzled his + friends and awed his enemies there was no trace! At last, even the set + smile of the degraded recipient of these confidences darkened with a dull, + bewildered disgust. Then, to his relief, a step was heard without. The + major's manner instantly changed. + </p> + <p> + “Well?” he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered. + </p> + <p> + “I came to know what you want done with HIM,” said Dawson, indicating the + fugitive with a contemptuous finger. + </p> + <p> + “Take him to your cabin!” + </p> + <p> + “My cabin! HIM?” ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief. + </p> + <p> + The major's light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a straight + line. “I don't think you understand me, Dawson, and another time you'd + better wait until I'm done. I want you to take him to your cabin—and + then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You understand? I want him NEAR ME AND + ALONE!” + </p> + <p> + III. + </p> + <p> + Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone and the + half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had already come + to the conclusion that the major was planning some extraordinary reprisals + against the invaders, that would ensure the perpetual security of the + camp. That he should use so insignificant and unimportant a tool now + appeared to him to be quite natural, particularly as the service was + probably one in which the man would be sacrificed. “The major,” he + suggested to his companions, “ain't going to risk a white man's skin, when + he can get an Injun's hide handy.” + </p> + <p> + The reluctant hesitating step of the half-breed as they walked along + seemed to give some color to this hypothesis. He listened sullenly to the + major as he pointed out the strategic position of the Bar. “That wagon + road is the only approach to Wynyard's, and a dozen men along the rocks + could hold it against a hundred. The trail that you came by, over the + ridge, drops straight into this gully, and you saw what that would mean to + any blanked fools who might try it. Of course we could be shelled from + that ridge if the sheriff had a howitzer, or the men who knew how to work + one, but even then we could occupy the ridge before them.” He paused a + moment and then added: “I used to be in the army, Tom; I saw service in + Mexico before that cub you got away from had his first trousers. I was + brought up as a gentleman—blank it all—and HERE I am!” + </p> + <p> + The man slouched on by his side, casting his surly, furtive glances from + left to right, as if seeking to escape from these confidences. + Nevertheless, the major kept on through the gully, until reaching the + wagon road they crossed it, and began to ascend the opposite slope, half + hidden by the underbrush and larches. Here the major paused again and + faced about. The cabins of the settlement were already behind the bluff; + the little stream which indicated the “bar”—on which some + perfunctory mining was still continued—now and then rang out quite + clearly at their feet, although the bar itself had disappeared. The sounds + of occupation and labor had at last died away in the distance. They were + quite alone. The major sat down on a boulder, and pointed to another. The + man, however, remained sullenly standing where he was, as if to accent as + strongly as possible the enforced companionship. Either the major was too + self-absorbed to notice it, or accepted it as a satisfactory + characteristic of the half-breed's race. He continued confidently:— + </p> + <p> + “Now look here, Tom. I want to leave this cursed hole, and get clear out + of the State! Anywhere; over the Oregon line into British Columbia, or to + the coast, where I can get a coasting vessel down to Mexico. It will cost + money, but I've got it. It will cost a lot of risks, but I'll take them. I + want somebody to help me, some one to share risks with me, and some one to + share my luck if I succeed. Help to put me on the other side of the border + line, by sea or land, and I'll give you a thousand dollars down BEFORE WE + START and a thousand dollars when I'm safe.” + </p> + <p> + The half-breed had changed his slouching attitude. It seemed more indolent + on account of the loosely hanging strap that had once held his haversack, + which was still worn in a slovenly fashion over his shoulder as a kind of + lazy sling for his shiftless hand. + </p> + <p> + “Well, Tom, is it a go? You can trust ME, for you'll have the thousand in + your pocket before you start. I can trust YOU, for I'll kill you quicker + than lightning if you say a word of this to any one before I go, or play a + single trick on me afterwards.” + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the two men were rolling over and over in the underbrush. The + half-breed had thrown himself upon the major, bearing him down to the + ground. The haversack strap for an instant whirled like the loop of a + lasso in the air, and descended over the major's shoulders, pinioning his + arms to his side. Then the half-breed, tearing open his ragged blouse, + stripped off his waist-belt, and as dexterously slipped it over the ankles + of the struggling man. + </p> + <p> + It was all over in a moment. Neither had spoken a word. Only their rapid + panting broke the profound silence. Each probably knew that no outcry + would be overheard. + </p> + <p> + For the first time the half-breed sat down. But there was no trace of + triumph or satisfaction in his face, which wore the same lowering look of + disgust, as he gazed upon the prostrate man. + </p> + <p> + “I want to tell you first,” he said, slowly wiping his face, “that I + didn't kalkilate upon doin' this in this yer kind o' way. I expected more + of a stan' up fight from you—more risk in gettin' you out o' that + hole—and a different kind of a man to tackle. I never expected you + to play into my hand like this—and it goes against me to hev to take + advantage of it.” + </p> + <p> + “Who are you?” said the major, pantingly. + </p> + <p> + “I'm the new sheriff of Siskyou!” + </p> + <p> + He drew from beneath his begrimed shirt a paper wrapping, from which he + gingerly extracted with the ends of his dirty fingers a clean, + legal-looking folded paper. + </p> + <p> + “That's my warrant! I've kept it fresh for you. I reckon you don't care to + read it—you've seen it afore. It's just the same as t'other sheriff + had—what you shot.” + </p> + <p> + “Then this was a plant of yours, and that whelp's troopers?” said the + major. + </p> + <p> + “Neither him nor the sojers knows any more about it than you,” returned + the sheriff slowly. “I enlisted as Injin guide or scout ten days ago. I + deserted just as reg'lar and nat'ral like when we passed that ridge + yesterday. I could be took to-morrow by the sojers if they caught sight o' + me and court-martialed—it's as reg'lar as THAT! But I timed to have + my posse, under a deputy, draw you off by an attack just as the escort + reached the ridge. And here I am.” + </p> + <p> + “And you're no half-breed?” + </p> + <p> + “There's nothin' Injin about me that water won't wash off. I kalkilated + you wouldn't suspect anything so insignificant as an INJIN, when I fixed + myself up. You saw Dawson didn't hanker after me much. But I didn't reckon + on YOUR tumbling to me so quick. That's what gets me! You must hev been + pretty low down for kempany when you took a man like me inter your + confidence. I don't see it yet.” + </p> + <p> + He looked inquiringly at his captive—with the same wondering + surliness. Nor could he understand another thing which was evident. After + the first shock of resistance the major had exhibited none of the + indignation of a betrayed man, but actually seemed to accept the situation + with a calmness that his captor lacked. His voice was quite unemotional as + he said: + </p> + <p> + “And how are you going to get me away from here?” + </p> + <p> + “That's MY look out, and needn't trouble you, major; but, seein' as how + confidential you've been to me, I don't mind tellin' you. Last night that + posse of mine that you 'skunked,' you know, halted at the cross roads till + them sojers went by. They has only to SEE THEM to know that I had got + away. They'll hang round the cross roads till they see my signal on top of + the ridge, and then they'll make another show against that pass. Your men + will have their hands full, I reckon, without huntin' for YOU, or noticin' + the three men o' mine that will come along this ridge where the sojers + come yesterday—to help me get you down in the same way. You see, + major, your little trap in that gully ain't in this fight—WE'RE THE + OTHER SIDE OF IT. I ain't much of a sojer, but I reckon I've got you + there! And it's all owing to YOU. I ain't,” he added gloomily, “takin' + much pride in it MYSELF.” + </p> + <p> + “I shouldn't think you would,” said the major, “and look here! I'll double + that offer I made you just now. Set me down just as I am on the deck of + some coasting vessel, and I'll pay you four thousand dollars. You may have + all the glory of having captured me, HERE, and of making your word good + before your posse. But you can arrange afterwards on the way to let me + give you the slip somewhere near Sacramento.” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff's face actually brightened. “Thanks for that, major. I was + gettin' a little sick of my share in this job, but, by God, you've put + some sand in me. Well, then! there ain't gold enough in all Californy to + make me let you go. You hear me; so drop that. I've TOOK you, and TOOK + ye'll remain until I land you in Sacramento jail. I don't want to kill + you, though your life's forfeit a dozen times over, and I reckon you don't + care for it either way, but if you try any tricks on me I may have to MAIM + ye to make you come along comf'able and easy. I ain't hankerin' arter THAT + either, but come you shall!” + </p> + <p> + “Give your signal and have an end of this,” said the major curtly. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff looked at him again curiously. “I never had my hands in + another man's pockets before, major, but I reckon I'll have to take your + derringers from yours.” He slipped his hand into the major's waistcoat and + secured the weapons. “I'll have to trouble you for your sash, too,” he + said, unwinding the knitted silken girdle from the captive's waist. “You + won't want it, for you ain't walking, and it'll come in handy to me just + now.” + </p> + <p> + He bent over, and, passing it across the major's breast with more + gentleness and solicitude than he had yet shown, secured him in an easy + sitting posture against the tree. Then, after carefully trying the knots + and straps that held his prisoner, he turned and lightly bounded up the + hill. + </p> + <p> + He was absent scarcely ten minutes, yet when he returned the major's eyes + were half closed. But not his lips. “If you expect to hold me until your + posse comes you had better take me to some less exposed position,” he said + dryly. “There's a man just crossed the gully, coming into the brush below + in the wood.” + </p> + <p> + “None of your tricks, major!” + </p> + <p> + “Look for yourself.” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff glanced quickly below him. A man with an axe on his shoulder + could be seen plainly making his way through the underbrush not a hundred + yards away. The sheriff instantly clapped his hand upon his captive's + mouth, but at a look from his eyes took it away again. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” he said grimly, “you don't want to lure that man within reach of + my revolver by calling to him.” + </p> + <p> + “I could have called him while you were away,” returned the major quietly. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff with a darkened face loosened the sash that bound his prisoner + to the tree, and then, lifting him in his arms, began to ascend the hill + cautiously, dipping into the heavier shadows. But the ascent was + difficult, the load a heavy one, and the sheriff was agile rather than + muscular. After a few minutes' climbing he was forced to pause and rest + his burden at the foot of a tree. But the valley and the man in the + underbrush were no longer in view. + </p> + <p> + “Come,” said the major quietly, “unstrap my ankles and I'll WALK up. We'll + never get there at this rate.” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff paused, wiped his grimy face with his grimier blouse, and + stood looking at his prisoner. Then he said slowly:— + </p> + <p> + “Look yer! Wot's your little game? Blessed if I kin follow suit.” + </p> + <p> + For the first time the major burst into a rage. “Blast it all! Don't you + see that if I'm discovered HERE, in this way, there's not a man on the Bar + who would believe that I walked into your trap, not a man, by God, who + wouldn't think it was a trick of yours and mine together?” + </p> + <p> + “Or,” interrupted the sheriff slowly, fixing his eyes on his prisoner, + “not a man who would ever trust Major Overstone for a leader again?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps,” said the major, unmovedly again, “I don't think EITHER OF US + would ever get a chance of being trusted again by any one.” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff still kept his eyes fixed on his prisoner, his gloomy face + growing darker under its grime. “THAT ain't the reason, major. Life and + death don't mean much more to you than they do to me in this yer game. I + know that you'd kill me quicker nor lightning if you got the chance; YOU + know that I'm takin' you to the gallows.” + </p> + <p> + “The reason is that I want to leave Wynyard's Bar,” said the major coolly; + “and even this way out of it will suit me.” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff took his revolver from his pocket and deliberately cocked it. + Then, leaning down, he unbuckled the strap from the major's ankles. A wild + hope that his incomprehensible captive might seize that moment to develop + his real intent—that he might fly, fight, or in some way act up to + his reckless reputation—sustained him for a moment, but in the next + proved futile. The major only said, “Thank you, Tom,” and stretched his + cramped legs. + </p> + <p> + “Get up and go on,” said the sheriff roughly. + </p> + <p> + The major began to slowly ascend the hill, the sheriff close on his heels, + alert, tingling, and watchful of every movement. For a few moments this + strain upon his faculties seemed to invigorate him, and his gloom relaxed, + but presently it became too evident that the prisoner's pinioned arms made + it impossible for him to balance or help himself on that steep trail, and + once or twice he stumbled and reeled dangerously to one side. With an oath + the sheriff caught him, and tore from his arms the only remaining bonds + that fettered him. “There!” he said savagely; “go on; we're equal!” + </p> + <p> + Without replying, the major continued his ascent; it became steeper as + they neared the crest, and at last they were both obliged to drag + themselves up by clutching the vines and underbrush. Suddenly the major + stopped with a listening gesture. A strange roaring—as of wind or + water—was distinctly audible. + </p> + <p> + “How did you signal?” asked the major abruptly. + </p> + <p> + “Made a smoke,” said the sheriff as abruptly. + </p> + <p> + “I thought so—well! you've set the woods on fire.” + </p> + <p> + They both plunged upwards again, now quite abreast, vying with each other + to reach the summit as if with the one thought only. Already the sting and + smart of acrid fumes were in their eyes and nostrils; when they at last + stood on level ground again, it was hidden by a thin film of grayish blue + haze that seemed to be creeping along it. But above was the clear sky, + seen through the interlacing boughs, and to their surprise—they who + had just come from the breathless, stagnant hillside—a fierce wind + was blowing! But the roaring was louder than before. + </p> + <p> + “Unless your three men are already here, your game is up,” said the major + calmly. “The wind blows dead along the ridge where they should come, and + they can't get through the smoke and fire.” + </p> + <p> + It was indeed true! In the scarce twenty minutes that had elapsed since + the sheriff's return the dry and brittle underbrush for half a mile on + either side had been converted into a sheet of flame, which at times rose + to a furnace blast through the tall chimney-like conductors of tree + shafts, from whose shriveled sides bark was crackling, and lighted dead + limbs falling in all directions. The whole valley, the gully, the Bar, the + very hillside they had just left, were blotted out by a creeping, stifling + smoke-fog that scarcely rose breast high, but was beaten down or cut off + cleanly by the violent wind that swept the higher level of the forest. At + times this gale became a sirocco in temperature, concentrating its heat in + withering blasts which they could not face, or focusing its intensity upon + some mass of foliage that seemed to shrink at its touch and open a scathed + and quivering aisle to its approach. The enormous skeleton of a dead and + rotten redwood, not a hundred yards to their right, broke suddenly like a + gigantic firework into sparks and flame. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff had grasped the full meaning of their situation. In spite of + his first error—the very carelessness of familiarity—his + knowledge of woodcraft was greater than his companion's, and he saw their + danger. “Come,” he said quickly, “we must make for an opening or we shall + be caught.” + </p> + <p> + The major smiled in misapprehension. + </p> + <p> + “Who could catch us here?” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff pointed to the blazing tree. + </p> + <p> + “THAT,” he said. “In five minutes IT will have a posse that will wipe us + both out.” + </p> + <p> + He caught the major by the arm and rushed him into the smoke, apparently + in the direction of the greatest mass of flame. The heat was suffocating, + but it struck the major that the more they approached the actual scene of + conflagration the heat and smoke became less, until he saw that the fire + was retreating before them and the following wind. In a few moments their + haven of safety—the expanse already burnt over—came in sight. + Here and there, seen dimly through the drifting smoke, the scattered + embers that still strewed the forest floor glowed in weird nebulous spots + like will-o'-the-wisps. For an instant the major hesitated; the sheriff + cast a significant glance behind them. + </p> + <p> + “Go on; it's our only chance,” he said imperatively. + </p> + <p> + They darted on, skimming the blackened or smouldering surface, which at + times struck out sparks and flame from their heavier footprints as they + passed. Their boots crackled and scorched beneath them; their shreds of + clothing were on fire; their breathing became more difficult, until, + providentially, they fell upon an abrupt, fissure-like depression of the + soil, which the fire had leaped, and into which they blindly plunged and + rolled together. A moment of relief and coolness followed, as they crept + along the fissure, filled with damp and rotting leaves. + </p> + <p> + “Why not stay here?” said the exhausted prisoner. + </p> + <p> + “And be roasted like sweet potatoes when these trees catch,” returned the + sheriff grimly. “No.” Even as he spoke, a dropping rain of fire spattered + through the leaves from a splintered redwood, before overlooked, that was + now blazing fiercely in the upper wind. A vague and indefinable terror was + in the air. The conflagration no longer seemed to obey any rule of + direction. The incendiary torch had passed invisibly everywhere. They + scrambled out of the hollow, and again dashed desperately forward. + </p> + <p> + Beaten, bruised, blackened, and smoke-grimed—looking less human than + the animals who had long since deserted the crest—they at last + limped into a “wind opening” in the woods that the fire had skirted. The + major sank exhaustedly to the ground; the sheriff threw himself beside + him. Their strange relations to each other seemed to have been forgotten; + they looked and acted as if they no longer thought of anything beyond the + present. And when the sheriff finally arose and, disappearing for several + minutes, brought his hat full of water for his prisoner from a distant + spring that they had passed in their flight, he found him where he had + left him—unchanged and unmoved. + </p> + <p> + He took the water gratefully, and after a pause fixed his eyes earnestly + upon his captor. “I want you to do a favor to me,” he said slowly. “I'm + not going to offer you a bribe to do it either, nor ask you anything that + isn't in a line with your duty. I think I understand you now, if I didn't + before. Do you know Briggs's restaurant in Sacramento?” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff nodded. + </p> + <p> + “Well! over the restaurant are my private rooms, the finest in Sacramento. + Nobody knows it but Briggs, and he has never told. They've been locked + ever since I left; I've got the key still in my pocket. Now when we get to + Sacramento, instead of taking me straight to jail, I want you to hold me + THERE as your prisoner for a day and a night. I don't want to get away; + you can take what precautions you like—surround the house with + policemen, and sleep yourself in the ante-room. I don't want to destroy + any papers or evidence; you can go through the rooms and examine + everything before and after; I only want to stay there a day and a night; + I want to be in my old rooms, have my meals from the restaurant as I used + to, and sleep in my own bed once more. I want to live for one day like a + gentleman, as I used to live before I came here. That's all! It isn't + much, Tom. You can do it and say you require to do it to get evidence + against me, or that you want to search the rooms.” + </p> + <p> + The expression of wonder which had come into the sheriff's face at the + beginning of this speech deepened into his old look of surly + dissatisfaction. “And that's all ye want?” he said gloomily. “Ye don't + want no friends—no lawyer? For I tell you, straight out, major, + there ain't no hope for ye, when the law once gets hold of ye in + Sacramento.” + </p> + <p> + “That's all. Will you do it?” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff's face grew still darker. After a pause he said: “I don't say + 'no,' and I don't say 'yes.' But,” he added grimly, “it strikes me we'd + better wait till we get clear o' these woods afore you think o' your + Sacramento lodgings.” + </p> + <p> + The major did not reply. The day had worn on, but the fire, now completely + encircling them, opposed any passage in or out of that fateful barrier. + The smoke of the burning underbrush hung low around them in a bank equally + impenetrable to vision. They were as alone as shipwrecked sailors on an + island, girded by a horizon of clouds. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to try to sleep,” said the major; “if your men come you can + waken me.” + </p> + <p> + “And if YOUR men come?” said the sheriff dryly. + </p> + <p> + “Shoot me.” + </p> + <p> + He lay down, closed his eyes, and to the sheriff's astonishment presently + fell asleep. The sheriff, with his chin in his grimy hands, sat and + watched him as the day slowly darkened around them and the distant fires + came out in more lurid intensity. The face of the captive and outlawed + murderer was singularly peaceful; that of the captor and man of duty was + haggard, wild, and perplexed. + </p> + <p> + But even this changed soon. The sleeping man stirred restlessly and + uneasily; his face began to work, his lips to move. “Tom,” he gasped + suddenly, “Tom!” + </p> + <p> + The sheriff bent over him eagerly. The sleeping man's eyes were still + closed; beads of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was dreaming. + </p> + <p> + “Tom,” he whispered, “take me out of this place—take me out from + these dogs and pimps and beggars! Listen, Tom!—they're Sydney ducks, + ticket-of-leave men, short card sharps, and sneak thieves! There isn't a + gentleman among 'em! There isn't one I don't loathe and hate—and + would grind under my heel, elsewhere. I'm a gentleman, Tom—yes, by + God—an officer and a gentleman! I've served my country in the 9th + Cavalry. That cub of West Point knows it and despises me, seeing me here + in such company. That sergeant knows it—I recommended him for his + first stripes for all he taunts me,—d—n him!” + </p> + <p> + “Come, wake up!” said the sheriff harshly. + </p> + <p> + The prisoner did not heed him; the sheriff shook him roughly, so roughly + that the major's waistcoat and shirt dragged open, disclosing his fine + silk undershirt, delicately worked and embroidered with golden thread. At + the sight of this abased and faded magnificence the sheriff's hand was + stayed; his eye wandered over the sleeping form before him. Yes, the hair + was dyed too; near the roots it was quite white and grizzled; the pomatum + was coming off the pointed moustache and imperial; the face in the light + was very haggard; the lines from the angles of the nostril and mouth were + like deep, half-healed gashes. The major was, without doubt, prematurely + worn and played out. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff's persistent eyes, however, seemed to effect what his ruder + hand could not. The sleeping man stirred, awoke to full consciousness, and + sat up. + </p> + <p> + “Are they here? I'm ready,” he said calmly. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the sheriff deliberately; “I only woke ye to say that I've been + thinkin' over what ye asked me, and if we get to Sacramento all right, + why, I'll do it and give ye that day and night at your old lodgings.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you.” + </p> + <p> + The major reached out his hand; the sheriff hesitated, and then extended + his own. The hands of the two men clasped for the first, and it would + seem, the last time. + </p> + <p> + For the “cub of West Point” was, like most cubs, irritable when thwarted. + And having been balked of his prey, the deserter, and possibly chaffed by + his comrades for his profitless invasion of Wynyard's Bar, he had + persuaded his commanding officer to give him permission to effect a + recapture. Thus it came about that at dawn, filing along the ridge, on the + outskirts of the fire, his heart was gladdened by the sight of the + half-breed—with his hanging haversack belt and tattered army tunic—evidently + still a fugitive, not a hundred yards away on the other side of the belt + of fire, running down the hill with another ragged figure at his side. The + command to “halt” was enforced by a single rifle shot over the fugitives' + heads—but they still kept on their flight. Then the boy-officer + snatched a carbine from one of his men, a volley rang out from the little + troop—the shots of the privates mercifully high, those of the + officer and sergeant leveled with wounded pride and full of deliberate + purpose. The half-breed fell; so did his companion, and, rolling over + together, both lay still. + </p> + <p> + But between the hunters and their fallen quarry reared a cheval de frise + of flame and fallen timber impossible to cross. The young officer + hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, wheeled his men about, and left the + fire to correct any irregularity in his action. + </p> + <p> + It did not, however, change contemporaneous history, for a week later, + when Wynyard's Bar discovered Major Overstone lying beside the man now + recognized by them as the disguised sheriff of Siskyou, they rejoiced at + this unfailing evidence of their lost leader's unequaled prowess. That he + had again killed a sheriff and fought a whole posse, yielding only with + his life, was never once doubted, and kept his memory green in Sierran + chronicles long after Wynyard's Bar had itself become a memory. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE. + </h2> + <p> + The American consul at St. Kentigern stepped gloomily from the train at + Whistlecrankie station. For the last twenty minutes his spirits had been + slowly sinking before the drifting procession past the carriage windows of + dull gray and brown hills—mammiform in shape, but so cold and + sterile in expression that the swathes of yellow mist which lay in their + hollows, like soiled guipure, seemed a gratuitous affectation of modesty. + And when the train moved away, mingling its escaping steam with the slower + mists of the mountain, he found himself alone on the platform—the + only passenger and apparently the sole occupant of the station. He was + gazing disconsolately at his trunk, which had taken upon itself a human + loneliness in the emptiness of the place, when a railway porter stepped + out of the solitary signal-box, where he had evidently been performing a + double function, and lounged with exasperating deliberation towards him. + He was a hard-featured man, with a thin fringe of yellow-gray whiskers + that met under his chin like dirty strings to tie his cap on with. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll be goin' to Glenbogie House, I'm thinkin'?” he said moodily. + </p> + <p> + The consul said that he was. + </p> + <p> + “I kenned it. Ye'll no be gettin' any machine to tak' ye there. They'll be + sending a carriage for ye—if ye're EXPECTED.” He glanced half + doubtfully at the consul as if he was not quite so sure of it. + </p> + <p> + But the consul believed he WAS expected, and felt relieved at the certain + prospect of a conveyance. The porter meanwhile surveyed him moodily. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll be seein' Mistress MacSpadden there!” + </p> + <p> + The consul was surprised into a little over-consciousness. Mrs. MacSpadden + was a vivacious acquaintance at St. Kentigern, whom he certainly—and + not without some satisfaction—expected to meet at Glenbogie House. + He raised his eyes inquiringly to the porter's. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll no be rememberin' me. I had a machine in St. Kentigern and drove ye + to MacSpadden's ferry often. Far, far too often! She's a strange + flagrantitious creature; her husband's but a puir fule, I'm thinkin', and + ye did yersel' nae guid gaunin' there.” + </p> + <p> + It was a besetting weakness of the consul's that his sense of the + ludicrous was too often reached before his more serious perceptions. The + absurd combination of the bleak, inhospitable desolation before him, and + the sepulchral complacency of his self-elected monitor, quite upset his + gravity. + </p> + <p> + “Ay, ye'll be laughin' THE NOO,” returned the porter with gloomy + significance. + </p> + <p> + The consul wiped his eyes. “Still,” he said demurely, “I trust you won't + object to my giving you sixpence to carry my box to the carriage when it + comes, and let the morality of this transaction devolve entirely upon me. + Unless,” he continued, even more gravely, as a spick and span brougham, + drawn by two thoroughbreds, dashed out of the mist up to the platform, + “unless you prefer to state the case to those two gentlemen”—pointing + to the smart coachman and footman on the box—“and take THEIR opinion + as to the propriety of my proceeding any further. It seems to me that + their consciences ought to be consulted as well as yours. I'm only a + stranger here, and am willing to do anything to conform to the local + custom.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a saxpence ye'll be payin' anyway,” said the porter, grimly + shouldering the trunk, “but I'll be no takin' any other mon's opinion on + matters of my am dooty and conscience.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah,” said the consul gravely, “then you'll perhaps be allowing ME the + same privilege.” + </p> + <p> + The porter's face relaxed, and a gleam of approval—purely + intellectual, however,—came into his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Ye were always a smooth deevel wi' your tongue, Mr. Consul,” he said, + shouldering the box and walking off to the carriage. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, as soon as he was fairly seated and rattling away from the + station, the consul had a flashing conviction that he had not only been + grievously insulted but also that he had allowed the wife of an + acquaintance to be spoken of disrespectfully in his presence. And he had + done nothing! Yes—it was like him!—he had LAUGHED at the + absurdity of the impertinence without resenting it! Another man would have + slapped the porter's face! For an instant he hung out of the carriage + window, intent upon ordering the coachman to drive back to the station, + but the reflection—again a ludicrous one—that he would now be + only bringing witnesses to a scene which might provoke a scandal more + invidious to his acquaintance, checked him in time. But his spirits, + momentarily diverted by the porter's effrontery, sunk to a lower ebb than + before. + </p> + <p> + The clattering of his horses' hoofs echoed back from the rocky walls that + occasionally hemmed in the road was not enlivening, but was less + depressing than the recurring monotony of the open. The scenery did not + suggest wildness to his alien eyes so much as it affected him with a vague + sense of scorbutic impoverishment. It was not the loneliness of + unfrequented nature, for there was a well-kept carriage road traversing + its dreariness; and even when the hillside was clothed with scanty + verdure, there were “outcrops” of smooth glistening weather-worn rocks + showing like bare brown knees under the all too imperfectly kilted slopes. + And at a little distance, lifting above a black drift of firs, were the + square rigid sky lines of Glenbogie House, standing starkly against the + cold, lingering northern twilight. As the vehicle turned, and rolled + between two square stone gate-posts, the long avenue before him, though as + well kept as the road, was but a slight improvement upon the outer + sterility, and the dark iron-gray rectangular mansion beyond, guiltless of + external decoration, even to the outlines of its small lustreless windows, + opposed the grim inhospitable prospect with an equally grim inhospitable + front. There were a few moments more of rapid driving, a swift swishing + over soft gravel, the opening of a heavy door into a narrow vestibule, and + then—a sudden sense of exquisitely diffused light and warmth from an + arched and galleried central hall, the sounds of light laughter and + subdued voices half lost in the airy space between the lofty pictured + walls; the luxury of color in trophies, armor, and hangings; one or two + careless groups before the recessed hearth or at the centre table, and the + halted figure of a pretty woman on the broad, slow staircase. The contrast + was sharp, ironical, and bewildering. + </p> + <p> + So much so that the consul, when he had followed the servant to his room, + was impelled to draw aside the heavy window-curtains and look out again + upon the bleak prospect it had half obliterated. The wing in which he was + placed overhung a dark ravine or gully choked with shrubs and brambles + that grew in a new luxuriance. As he gazed a large black bird floated + upwards slowly from its depths, circled around the house with a few quick + strokes of its wing, and then sped away—a black bolt—in one + straight undeviating line towards the paling north. He still gazed into + the abyss—half expecting another, even fancying he heard the + occasional stir and flutter of obscure life below, and the melancholy call + of nightfowl. A long-forgotten fragment of old English verse began to + haunt him— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Hark! the raven flaps hys wing + In the briered dell belowe, + Hark! the dethe owl loude doth synge + To the night maers as thaie goe. +</pre> + <p> + “Now, what put that stuff in my head?” he said as he turned impatiently + from the window. “And why does this house, with all its interior luxury, + hypocritically oppose such a forbidding front to its neighbors?” Then it + occurred to him that perhaps the architect instinctively felt that a more + opulent and elaborate exterior would only bring the poverty of surrounding + nature into greater relief. But he was not in the habit of troubling + himself with abstruse problems. A nearer recollection of the pretty frock + he had seen on the staircase—in whose wearer he had just recognized + his vivacious friend—turned his thoughts to her. He remembered how + at their first meeting he had been interested in her bright audacity, + unconventionality, and high spirits, which did not, however, amuse him as + greatly as his later suspicion that she was playing a self-elected role, + often with difficulty, opposition, and feverishness, rather than + spontaneity. He remembered how he had watched her in the obtrusive + assumption of a new fashion, in some reckless departure from an old one, + or in some ostentatious disregard of certain hard and set rules of St. + Kentigern; but that it never seemed to him that she was the happier for + it. He even fancied that her mirth at such times had an undue nervousness; + that her pluck—which was undoubted—had something of the + defiance of despair, and that her persistence often had the grimness of + duty rather than the thoughtlessness of pure amusement. What was she + trying to do?—what was she trying to UNDO or forget? Her married + life was apparently happy and even congenial. Her young husband was + clever, complaisant, yet honestly devoted to her, even to the extension of + a certain camaraderie to her admirers and a chivalrous protection by + half-participation in her maddest freaks. Nor could he honestly say that + her attitude towards his own sex—although marked by a freedom that + often reached the verge of indiscretion—conveyed the least + suggestion of passion or sentiment. The consul, more perceptive than + analytical, found her a puzzle—who was, perhaps, the least + mystifying to others who were content to sum up her eccentricities under + the single vague epithet, “fast.” Most women disliked her: she had a few + associates among them, but no confidante, and even these were so unlike + her, again, as to puzzle him still more. And yet he believed himself + strictly impartial. + </p> + <p> + He walked to the window again, and looked down upon the ravine from which + the darkness now seemed to be slowly welling up and obliterating the + landscape, and then, taking a book from his valise, settled himself in the + easy-chair by the fire. He was in no hurry to join the party below, whom + he had duly recognized and greeted as he passed through. They or their + prototypes were familiar friends. There was the recently created baronet, + whose “bloody hand” had apparently wiped out the stains of his earlier + Radicalism, and whose former provincial self-righteousness had been + supplanted by an equally provincial skepticism; there was his wife, who + through all the difficulties of her changed position had kept the stalwart + virtues of the Scotch bourgeoisie, and was—“decent”; there were the + two native lairds that reminded him of “parts of speech,” one being + distinctly alluded to as a definite article, and the other being “of” + something, and apparently governed always by that possessive case. There + were two or three “workers”—men of power and ability in their + several vocations; indeed, there was the general over-proportion of + intellect, characteristic of such Scotch gatherings, and often in excess + of minor social qualities. There was the usual foreigner, with Latin + quickness, eagerness, and misapprehending adaptability. And there was the + solitary Englishman—perhaps less generously equipped than the others—whom + everybody differed from, ridiculed, and then looked up to and imitated. + There were the half-dozen smartly frocked women, who, far from being the + females of the foregoing species, were quite indistinctive, with the + single exception of an American wife, who was infinitely more Scotch than + her Scotch husband. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he became aware of a faint rustling at his door, and what seemed + to be a slight tap on the panel. He rose and opened it—the long + passage was dark and apparently empty, but he fancied he could detect the + quick swish of a skirt in the distance. As he re-entered his room, his eye + fell for the first time on a rose whose stalk was thrust through the + keyhole of his door. The consul smiled at this amiable solution of a + mystery. It was undoubtedly the playful mischievousness of the vivacious + MacSpadden. He placed it in water—intending to wear it in his coat + at dinner as a gentle recognition of the fair donor's courtesy. + </p> + <p> + Night had thickened suddenly as from a passing cloud. He lit the two + candles on his dressing-table, gave a glance into the now scarcely + distinguishable abyss below his window, as he drew the curtains, and by + the more diffused light for the first time surveyed his room critically. + It was a larger apartment than that usually set aside for bachelors; the + heavy four-poster had a conjugal reserve about it, and a tall cheval glass + and certain minor details of the furniture suggested that it had been used + for a married couple. He knew that the guest-rooms in country houses, as + in hotels, carried no suggestion or flavor of the last tenant, and + therefore lacked color and originality, and he was consequently surprised + to find himself impressed with some distinctly novel atmosphere. He was + puzzling himself to discover what it might be, when he again became aware + of cautious footsteps apparently halting outside his door. This time he + was prepared. With a half smile he stepped softly to the door and opened + it suddenly. To his intense surprise he was face to face with a man. + </p> + <p> + But his discomfiture was as nothing compared to that of the stranger—whom + he at once recognized as one of his fellow-guests—the youthful Laird + of Whistlecrankie. The young fellow's healthy color at once paled, then + flushed a deep crimson, and a forced smile stiffened his mouth. + </p> + <p> + “I—beg your par-r-rdon,” he said with a nervous brusqueness that + brought out his accent. “I couldna find ma room. It'll be changed, and I—” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps I have got it,” interrupted the consul smilingly. “I've only just + come, and they've put me in here.” + </p> + <p> + “Nae! Nae!” said the young man hurriedly, “it's no' thiss. That is, it's + no' mine noo.” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you come in?” suggested the consul politely, holding open the door. + </p> + <p> + The young man entered the room with the quick strides but the mechanical + purposelessness of embarrassment. Then he stiffened and stood erect. Yet + in spite of all this he was strikingly picturesque and unconventional in + his Highland dress, worn with the freedom of long custom and a certain + lithe, barbaric grace. As the consul continued to gaze at him + encouragingly, the quick resentful pride of a shy man suddenly mantled his + high cheekbones, and with an abrupt “I'll not deesturb ye longer,” he + strode out of the room. + </p> + <p> + The consul watched the easy swing of his figure down the passage, and then + closed the door. “Delightful creature,” he said musingly, “and not so very + unlike an Apache chief either! But what was he doing outside my door? And + was it HE who left that rose—not as a delicate Highland attention to + an utter stranger, but”—the consul's mouth suddenly expanded—“to + some fair previous occupant? Or was it really HIS room—he looked as + if he were lying—and”—here the consul's mouth expanded even + more wickedly—“and Mrs. MacSpadden had put the flower there for + him.” This implied snub to his vanity was, however, more than compensated + by his wicked anticipation of the pretty perplexity of his fair friend + when HE should appear at dinner with the flower in his own buttonhole. It + would serve her right, the arrant flirt! But here he was interrupted by + the entrance of a tall housemaid with his hot water. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid I've dispossessed Mr.—Mr.—Kilcraithie rather + prematurely,” said the consul lightly. + </p> + <p> + To his infinite surprise the girl answered with grim decision, “Nane too + soon.” + </p> + <p> + The consul stared. “I mean,” he explained, “that I found him hesitating + here in the passage, looking for his room.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay, he's always hoaverin' and glowerin' in the passages—but it's + no' for his ROOM! And it's a deesgrace to decent Christian folk his + carryin' on wi' married weemen—mebbee they're nae better than he!” + </p> + <p> + “That will do,” said the consul curtly. He had no desire to encourage a + repetition of the railway porter's freedom. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll no fash yoursel' aboot HIM,” continued the girl, without heeding + the rebuff. “It's no' the meestreess' wish that he's keepit here in the + wing reserved for married folk, and she's no' sorry for the excuse to pit + ye in his place. Ye'll be married yoursel', I'm hearin'. But, I ken ye's + nae mair to be lippened tae for THAT.” + </p> + <p> + This was too much for the consul's gravity. “I'm afraid,” he said with + diplomatic gayety, “that although I am married, as I haven't my wife with + me, I've no right to this superior accommodation and comfort. But you can + assure your mistress that I'll try to deserve them.” + </p> + <p> + “Ay,” said the girl, but with no great confidence in her voice as she + grimly quitted the room. + </p> + <p> + “When our foot's upon our native heath, whether our name's Macgregor or + Kilcraithie, it would seem that we must tread warily,” mused the consul as + he began to dress. “But I'm glad she didn't see that rose, or MY + reputation would have been ruined.” Here another knock at the door + arrested him. He opened it impatiently to a tall gillie, who instantly + strode into the room. There was such another suggestion of Kilcraithie in + the man and his manner that the consul instantly divined that he was + Kilcraithie's servant. + </p> + <p> + “I'll be takin' some bit things that yon Whistlecrankie left,” said the + gillie gravely, with a stolid glance around the room. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” said the consul; “help yourself.” He continued his dressing + as the man began to rummage in the empty drawers. The consul had his back + towards him, but, looking in the glass of the dressing-table, he saw that + the gillie was stealthily watching him. Suddenly he passed before the + mantelpiece and quickly slipped the rose from its glass into his hand. + </p> + <p> + “I'll trouble you to put that back,” said the consul quietly, without + turning round. The gillie slid a quick glance towards the door, but the + consul was before him. “I don't think THAT was left by your master,” he + said in an ostentatiously calm voice, for he was conscious of an absurd + and inexplicable tumult in his blood, “and perhaps you'd better put it + back.” + </p> + <p> + The man looked at the flower with an attention that might have been merely + ostentatious, and replaced it in the glass. + </p> + <p> + “A thocht it was hiss.” + </p> + <p> + “And I think it isn't,” said the consul, opening the door. + </p> + <p> + Yet when the man had passed out he was by no means certain that the flower + was not Kilcraithie's. He was even conscious that if the young Laird had + approached him with a reasonable explanation or appeal he would have + yielded it up. Yet here he was—looking angrily pale in the glass, + his eyes darker than they should be, and with an unmistakable instinct to + do battle for this idiotic gage! Was there some morbid disturbance in the + air that was affecting him as it had Kilcraithie? He tried to laugh, but + catching sight of its sardonic reflection in the glass became grave again. + He wondered if the gillie had been really looking for anything his master + had left—he had certainly TAKEN nothing. He opened one or two of the + drawers, and found only a woman's tortoiseshell hairpin—overlooked + by the footman when he had emptied them for the consul's clothes. It had + been probably forgotten by some fair and previous tenant to Kilcraithie. + The consul looked at his watch—it was time to go down. He grimly + pinned the fateful flower in his buttonhole, and half-defiantly descended + to the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Here, however, he was inclined to relax when, from a group of pretty + women, the bright gray eyes of Mrs. MacSpadden caught his, were suddenly + diverted to the lapel of his coat, and then leaped up to his again with a + sparkle of mischief. But the guests were already pairing off in dinner + couples, and as they passed out of the room, he saw that she was on the + arm of Kilcraithie. Yet, as she passed him, she audaciously turned her + head, and in a mischievous affectation of jealous reproach, murmured:— + </p> + <p> + “So soon!” + </p> + <p> + At dinner she was too far removed for any conversation with him, although + from his seat by his hostess he could plainly see her saucy profile midway + up the table. But, to his surprise, her companion, Kilcraithie, did not + seem to be responding to her gayety. By turns abstracted and feverish, his + glances occasionally wandered towards the end of the table where the + consul was sitting. For a few moments he believed that the affair of the + flower, combined, perhaps, with the overhearing of Mrs. MacSpadden's + mischievous sentence, rankled in the Laird's barbaric soul. But he became + presently aware that Kilcraithie's eyes eventually rested upon a + quiet-looking blonde near the hostess. Yet the lady not only did not seem + to be aware of it, but her face was more often turned towards the consul, + and their eyes had once or twice met. He had been struck by the fact that + they were half-veiled but singularly unimpassioned eyes, with a certain + expression of cold wonderment and criticism quite inconsistent with their + veiling. Nor was he surprised when, after a preliminary whispering over + the plates, his hostess presented him. The lady was the young wife of the + middle-aged dignitary who, seated further down the table, opposite Mrs. + MacSpadden, was apparently enjoying that lady's wildest levities. The + consul bowed, the lady leaned a little forward. + </p> + <p> + “We were saying what a lovely rose you had.” + </p> + <p> + The consul's inward response was “Hang that flower!” His outward + expression was the modest query:— + </p> + <p> + “Is it SO peculiar?” + </p> + <p> + “No; but it's very pretty. Would you allow me to see it?” + </p> + <p> + Disengaging the flower from his buttonhole he handed it to her. Oddly + enough, it seemed to him that half the table was watching and listening to + them. Suddenly the lady uttered a little cry. “Dear me! it's full of + thorns; of course you picked and arranged it yourself, for any lady would + have wrapped something around the stalk!” + </p> + <p> + But here there was a burlesque outcry and a good-humored protest from the + gentlemen around her against this manifestly leading question. “It's no + fair! Ye'll not answer her—for the dignity of our sex.” Yet in the + midst of it, it suddenly occurred to the consul that there HAD been a slip + of paper wrapped around it, which had come off and remained in the + keyhole. The blue eyes of the lady were meanwhile sounding his, but he + only smiled and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Then it seems it IS peculiar?” + </p> + <p> + When the conversation became more general he had time to observe other + features of the lady than her placid eyes. Her light hair was very long, + and grew low down the base of her neck. Her mouth was firm, the upper lip + slightly compressed in a thin red line, but the lower one, although + equally precise at the corners, became fuller in the centre and turned + over like a scarlet leaf, or, as it struck him suddenly, like the + tell-tale drop of blood on the mouth of a vampire. Yet she was very + composed, practical, and decorous, and as the talk grew more animated—and + in the vicinity of Mrs. MacSpadden, more audacious—she kept a + smiling reserve of expression,—which did not, however, prevent her + from following that lively lady, whom she evidently knew, with a kind of + encouraging attention. + </p> + <p> + “Kate is in full fling to-night,” she said to the hostess. Lady Macquoich + smiled ambiguously—so ambiguously that the consul thought it + necessary to interfere for his friend. “She seems to say what most of us + think, but I am afraid very few of us could voice as innocently,” he + smilingly suggested. + </p> + <p> + “She is a great friend of yours,” returned the lady, looking at him + through her half-veiled lids. “She has made us quite envy her.” + </p> + <p> + “And I am afraid made it impossible for ME to either sufficiently thank + her or justify her taste,” he said quietly. Yet he was vexed at an + unaccountable resentment which had taken possession of him—who but a + few hours before had only laughed at the porter's criticism. + </p> + <p> + After the ladies had risen, the consul with an instinct of sympathy was + moving up towards “Jock” MacSpadden, who sat nearer the host, when he was + stopped midway of the table by the dignitary who had sat opposite to Mrs. + MacSpadden. “Your frien' is maist amusing wi' her audacious tongue—ay, + and her audacious ways,” he said with large official patronage; “and we've + enjoyed her here immensely, but I hae mae doots if mae Leddy Macquoich + taks as kindly to them. You and I—men of the wurrld, I may say—we + understand them for a' their worth; ay!—ma wife too, with whom I + observed ye speakin'—is maist tolerant of her, but man! it's + extraordinar'”—he lowered his voice slightly—“that yon husband + of hers does na' check her freedoms with Kilcraithie. I wadna' say + anythin' was wrong, ye ken, but is he no' over confident and conceited + aboot his wife?” + </p> + <p> + “I see you don't know him,” said the consul smilingly, “and I'd be + delighted to make you acquainted. Jock,” he continued, raising his voice + as he turned towards MacSpadden, “let me introduce you to Sir Alan + Deeside, who don't know YOU, although he's a great admirer of your wife;” + and unheeding the embarrassed protestations of Sir Alan and the laughing + assertions of Jock that they were already acquainted, he moved on beside + his host. That hospitable knight, who had been airing his knowledge of + London smart society to his English guest with a singular mixture of + assertion and obsequiousness, here stopped short. “Ay, sit down, laddie, + it was so guid of ye to come, but I'm thinkin' at your end of the table ye + lost the bit fun of Mistress MacSpadden. Eh, but she was unco' lively + to-night. 'Twas all Kilcraithie could do to keep her from proposin' your + health with Hieland honors, and offerin' to lead off with her ain foot on + the table! Ay, and she'd ha' done it. And that's a braw rose she's been + givin' ye—and ye got out of it claverly wi' Lady Deeside.” + </p> + <p> + When he left the table with the others to join the ladies, the same + unaccountable feeling of mingled shyness and nervous irascibility still + kept possession of him. He felt that in his present mood he could not + listen to any further criticisms of his friend without betraying some + unwonted heat, and as his companions filed into the drawing-room he + slipped aside in the hope of recovering his equanimity by a few moments' + reflection in his own room. He glided quickly up the staircase and entered + the corridor. The passage that led to his apartment was quite dark, + especially before his door, which was in a bay that really ended the + passage. He was consequently surprised and somewhat alarmed at seeing a + shadowy female figure hovering before it. He instinctively halted; the + figure became more distinct from some luminous halo that seemed to + encompass it. It struck him that this was only the light of his fire + thrown through his open door, and that the figure was probably that of a + servant before it, who had been arranging his room. He started forward + again, but at the sound of his advancing footsteps the figure and the + luminous glow vanished, and he arrived blankly face to face with his own + closed door. He looked around the dim bay; it was absolutely vacant. It + was equally impossible for any one to have escaped without passing him. + There was only his room left. A half-nervous, half-superstitious thrill + crept over him as he suddenly grasped the handle of the door and threw it + open. The leaping light of his fire revealed its emptiness: no one was + there! He lit the candle and peered behind the curtains and furniture and + under the bed; the room was as vacant and undisturbed as when he left it. + </p> + <p> + Had it been a trick of his senses or a bona-fide apparition? He had never + heard of a ghost at Glenbogie—the house dated back some fifty years; + Sir John Macquoich's tardy knighthood carried no such impedimenta. He + looked down wonderingly on the flower in his buttonhole. Was there + something uncanny in that innocent blossom? But here he was struck by + another recollection, and examined the keyhole of his door. With the aid + of the tortoiseshell hairpin he dislodged the paper he had forgotten. It + was only a thin spiral strip, apparently the white outer edge of some + newspaper, and it certainly seemed to be of little service as a protection + against the thorns of the rose-stalk. He was holding it over the fire, + about to drop it into the blaze, when the flame revealed some pencil-marks + upon it. Taking it to the candle he read, deeply bitten into the paper by + a hard pencil-point: “At half-past one.” There was nothing else—no + signature; but the handwriting was NOT Mrs. MacSpadden's! + </p> + <p> + Then whose? Was it that of the mysterious figure whom he had just seen? + Had he been selected as the medium of some spiritual communication, and, + perhaps, a ghostly visitation later on? Or was he the victim of some + clever trick? He had once witnessed such dubious attempts to relieve the + monotony of a country house. He again examined the room carefully, but + without avail. Well! the mystery or trick would be revealed at half-past + one. It was a somewhat inconvenient hour, certainly. He looked down at the + baleful gift in his buttonhole, and for a moment felt inclined to toss it + in the fire. But this was quickly followed by his former revulsion of + resentment and defiance. No! he would wear it, no matter what happened, + until its material or spiritual owner came for it. He closed the door and + returned to the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + Midway of the staircase he heard the droning of pipes. There was dancing + in the drawing-room to the music of the gorgeous piper who had marshaled + them to dinner. He was not sorry, as he had no inclination to talk, and + the one confidence he had anticipated with Mrs. MacSpadden was out of the + question now. He had no right to reveal his later discovery. He lingered a + few moments in the hall. The buzzing of the piper's drones gave him that + impression of confused and blindly aggressive intoxication which he had + often before noticed in this barbaric instrument, and had always seemed to + him as the origin of its martial inspiration. From this he was startled by + voices and steps in the gallery he had just quitted, but which came from + the opposite direction to his room. It was Kilcraithie and Mrs. + MacSpadden. As she caught sight of him, he fancied she turned slightly and + aggressively pale, with a certain hardening of her mischievous eyes. + Nevertheless, she descended the staircase more deliberately than her + companion, who brushed past him with an embarrassed self-consciousness, + quite in advance of her. She lingered for an instant. + </p> + <p> + “You are not dancing?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you are more agreeably employed?” + </p> + <p> + “At this exact moment, certainly.” + </p> + <p> + She cast a disdainful glance at him, crossed the hall, and followed + Kilcraithie. + </p> + <p> + “Hang me, if I understand it all!” mused the consul, by no means + good-humoredly. “Does she think I have been spying upon her and her noble + chieftain? But it's just as well that I didn't tell her anything.” + </p> + <p> + He turned to follow them. In the vestibule he came upon a figure which had + halted before a large pier-glass. He recognized M. Delfosse, the French + visitor, complacently twisting the peak of his Henri Quatre beard. He + would have passed without speaking, but the Frenchman glanced smilingly at + the consul and his buttonhole. Again the flower! + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur is decore,” he said gallantly. + </p> + <p> + The consul assented, but added, not so gallantly, that though they were + not in France he might still be unworthy of it. The baleful flower had not + improved his temper. Nor did the fact that, as he entered the room, he + thought the people stared at him—until he saw that their attention + was directed to Lady Deeside, who had entered almost behind him. From his + hostess, who had offered him a seat beside her, he gathered that M. + Delfosse and Kilcraithie had each temporarily occupied his room, but that + they had been transferred to the other wing, apart from the married + couples and young ladies, because when they came upstairs from the + billiard and card room late, they sometimes disturbed the fair occupants. + No!—there were no ghosts at Glenbogie. Mysterious footsteps had + sometimes been heard in the ladies' corridor, but—with peculiar + significance—she was AFRAID they could be easily accounted for. Sir + Alan, whose room was next to the MacSpaddens', had been disturbed by them. + </p> + <p> + He was glad when it was time to escape to the billiard-room and tobacco. + For a while he forgot the evening's adventure, but eventually found + himself listening to a discussion—carried on over steaming tumblers + of toddy—in regard to certain predispositions of the always + debatable sex. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll not always judge by appearances,” said Sir Alan. “Ye'll mind the + story o' the meenester's wife of Aiblinnoch. It was thocht that she was + ower free wi' one o' the parishioners—ay! it was the claish o' the + whole kirk, while none dare tell the meenester hisself—bein' a + bookish, simple, unsuspectin' creeter. At last one o' the elders bethocht + him of a bit plan of bringing it home to the wife, through the gospel lips + of her ain husband! So he intimated to the meenester his suspicions of + grievous laxity amang the female flock, and of the necessity of a special + sermon on the Seventh Command. The puir man consented—although he + dinna ken why and wherefore—and preached a gran' sermon! Ay, man! it + was crammed wi' denunciation and an emptyin' o' the vials o' wrath! The + congregation sat dumb as huddled sheep—when they were no' starin' + and gowpin' at the meenester's wife settin' bolt upright in her place. And + then, when the air was blue wi' sulphur frae tae pit, the meenester's wife + up rises! Man! Ivry eye was spearin' her—ivry lug was prickt towards + her! And she goes out in the aisle facin' the meenester, and—” + </p> + <p> + Sir Alan paused. + </p> + <p> + “And what?” demanded the eager auditory. + </p> + <p> + “She pickit up the elder's wife, sobbin' and tearin' her hair in strong + hysterics.” + </p> + <p> + At the end of a relieved pause Sir Alan slowly concluded: “It was said + that the elder removed frae Aiblinnoch wi' his wife, but no' till he had + effected a change of meenesters.” + </p> + <p> + It was already past midnight, and the party had dropped off one by one, + with the exception of Deeside, Macquoich, the young Englishman, and a + Scotch laird, who were playing poker—an amusement which he + understood they frequently protracted until three in the morning. It was + nearly time for him to expect his mysterious visitant. Before he went + upstairs he thought he would take a breath of the outer evening air, and + throwing a mackintosh over his shoulders, passed out of the garden door of + the billiard-room. To his surprise it gave immediately upon the fringe of + laurel that hung over the chasm. + </p> + <p> + It was quite dark; the few far-spread stars gave scarcely any light, and + the slight auroral glow towards the north was all that outlined the fringe + of the abyss, which might have proved dangerous to any unfamiliar + wanderer. A damp breath of sodden leaves came from its depths. Beside him + stretched the long dark facade of the wing he inhabited, his own window + the only one that showed a faint light. A few paces beyond, a singular + structure of rustic wood and glass, combining the peculiarities of a + sentry-box, a summer-house, and a shelter, was built against the blank + wall of the wing. He imagined the monotonous prospect from its windows of + the tufted chasm, the coldly profiled northern hills beyond,—and + shivered. A little further on, sunk in the wall like a postern, was a + small door that evidently gave easy egress to seekers of this stern + retreat. In the still air a faint grating sound like the passage of a foot + across gravel came to him as from the distance. He paused, thinking he had + been followed by one of the card-players, but saw no one, and the sound + was not repeated. + </p> + <p> + It was past one. He re-entered the billiard-room, passed the unchanged + group of card-players, and taking a candlestick from the hall ascended the + dark and silent staircase into the corridor. The light of his candle cast + a flickering halo around him—but did not penetrate the gloomy + distance. He at last halted before his door, gave a scrutinizing glance + around the embayed recess, and opened the door half expectantly. But the + room was empty as he had left it. + </p> + <p> + It was a quarter past one. He threw himself on the bed without undressing, + and fixed his eyes alternately on the door and his watch. Perhaps the + unwonted seriousness of his attitude struck him, but a sudden sense of the + preposterousness of the whole situation, of his solemnly ridiculous + acceptance of a series of mere coincidences as a foregone conclusion, + overcame him, and he laughed. But in the same breath he stopped. + </p> + <p> + There WERE footsteps approaching—cautious footsteps—but not at + his door! They were IN THE ROOM—no! in the WALL just behind him! + They were descending some staircase at the back of his bed—he could + hear the regular tap of a light slipper from step to step and the rustle + of a skirt seemingly in his very ear. They were becoming less and less + distinct—they were gone! He sprang to his feet, but almost at the + same instant he was conscious of a sudden chill—that seemed to him + as physical as it was mental. The room was slowly suffused with a cool + sodden breath and the dank odor of rotten leaves. He looked at the candle—its + flame was actually deflecting in this mysterious blast. It seemed to come + from a recess for hanging clothes topped by a heavy cornice and curtain. + He had examined it before, but he drew the curtain once more aside. The + cold current certainly seemed to be more perceptible there. He felt the + red-clothed backing of the interior, and his hand suddenly grasped a + doorknob. It turned, and the whole structure—cornice and curtains—swung + inwards towards him with THE DOOR ON WHICH IT WAS HUNG! Behind it was a + dark staircase leading from the floor above to some outer door below, + whose opening had given ingress to the chill humid current from the + ravine. This was the staircase where he had just heard the footsteps—and + this was, no doubt, the door through which the mysterious figure had + vanished from his room a few hours before! + </p> + <p> + Taking his candle, he cautiously ascended the stairs until he found + himself on the landing of the suites of the married couples and directly + opposite to the rooms of the MacSpaddens and Deesides. He was about to + descend again when he heard a far-off shout, a scuffling sound on the + outer gravel, and the frenzied shaking of the handle of the lower door. He + had hardly time to blow out his candle and flatten himself against the + wall, when the door was flung open and a woman frantically flew up the + staircase. His own door was still open; from within its depths the light + of his fire projected a flickering beam across the steps. As she rushed + past it the light revealed her face; it needed not the peculiar perfume of + her garments as she swept by his concealed figure to make him recognize—Lady + Deeside! + </p> + <p> + Amazed and confounded, he was about to descend, when he heard the lower + door again open. But here a sudden instinct bade him pause, turn, and + reascend to the upper landing. There he calmly relit his candle, and made + his way down to the corridor that overlooked the central hall. The sound + of suppressed voices—speaking with the exhausted pauses that come + from spent excitement—made him cautious again, and he halted. It was + the card party slowly passing from the billiard-room to the hall. + </p> + <p> + “Ye owe it yoursel'—to your wife—not to pit up with it a day + longer,” said the subdued voice of Sir Alan. “Man! ye war in an ace o' + havin' a braw scandal.” + </p> + <p> + “Could ye no' get your wife to speak till her,” responded Macquoich, “to + gie her a hint that she's better awa' out of this? Lady Deeside has some + influence wi' her.” + </p> + <p> + The consul ostentatiously dropped the extinguisher from his candlestick. + The party looked up quickly. Their faces were still flushed and agitated, + but a new restraint seemed to come upon them on seeing him. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I heard a row outside,” said the consul explanatorily. + </p> + <p> + They each looked at their host without speaking. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, ay,” said Macquoich, with simulated heartiness, “a bit fuss between + the Kilcraithie and yon Frenchman; but they're baith goin' in the + mornin'.” + </p> + <p> + “I thought I heard MacSpadden's voice,” said the consul quietly. + </p> + <p> + There was a dead silence. Then Macquoich said hurriedly:— + </p> + <p> + “Is he no' in his room—in bed—asleep,—man?” + </p> + <p> + “I really don't know; I didn't inquire,” said the consul with a slight + yawn. “Good night!” + </p> + <p> + He turned, not without hearing them eagerly whispering again, and entered + the passage leading to his own room. As he opened the door he was startled + to find the subject of his inquiry—Jock MacSpadden—quietly + seated in his armchair by his fire. + </p> + <p> + “Jock!” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be alarmed, old man; I came up by that staircase and saw the door + open, and guessed you'd be returning soon. But it seemed you went ROUND BY + THE CORRIDOR,” he said, glancing curiously at the consul's face. “Did you + meet the crowd?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Jock! WHAT does it all mean?” + </p> + <p> + MacSpadden laughed. “It means that I was just in time to keep Kilbraithie + from chucking Delfosse down that ravine; but they both scooted when they + saw me. By Jove! I don't know which was the most frightened.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” said the consul slowly, “what was it all about, Jock?” + </p> + <p> + “Some gallantry of that d——d Frenchman, who's trying to do + some woman-stalking up here, and jealousy of Kilcraithie's, who's just got + enough of his forbears' blood in him to think nothing of sticking three + inches of his dirk in the wame of the man that crosses him. But I say,” + continued Jock, leaning easily back in his chair, “YOU ought to know + something of all this. This room, old man, was used as a sort of + rendezvous, having two outlets, don't you see, when they couldn't get at + the summer-house below. By Jove! they both had it in turns—Kilcraithie + and the Frenchman—until Lady Macquoich got wind of something, swept + them out, and put YOU in it.” + </p> + <p> + The consul rose and approached his friend with a grave face. “Jock, I DO + know something about it—more about it than any one thinks. You and I + are old friends. Shall I tell you WHAT I know?” + </p> + <p> + Jock's handsome face became a trifle paler, but his frank, clear eyes + rested steadily on the consul's. + </p> + <p> + “Go on!” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I know that this flower which I am wearing was the signal for the + rendezvous this evening,” said the consul slowly, “and this paper,” taking + it from his pocket, “contained the time of the meeting, written in the + lady's own hand. I know who she was, for I saw her face as plainly as I + see yours now, by the light of the same fire; it was as pale, but not as + frank as yours, old man. That is what I know. But I know also what people + THINK they know, and for that reason I put that paper in YOUR hand. It is + yours—your vindication—your REVENGE, if you choose. Do with it + what you like.” + </p> + <p> + Jock, with unchanged features and undimmed eyes, took the paper from the + consul's hand, without looking at it. + </p> + <p> + “I may do with it what I like?” he repeated. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + He was about to drop it into the fire, but the consul stayed his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Are you not going to LOOK at the handwriting first?” + </p> + <p> + There was a moment of silence. Jock raised his eyes with a sudden flash of + pride in them and said, “No!” + </p> + <p> + The friends stood side by side, grasping each other's hands, as the + burning paper leaped up the chimney in a vanishing flame. + </p> + <p> + “Do you think you have done quite right, Jock, in view of any scandal you + may hear?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite! You see, old man, I know MY WIFE—but I don't think that + Deeside KNOWS HIS.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA. + </h2> + <p> + Dick Bracy gazed again at the Hacienda de los Osos, and hesitated. There + it lay—its low whitewashed walls looking like a quartz outcrop of + the long lazy hillside—unmistakably hot, treeless, and staring + broadly in the uninterrupted Californian sunlight. Yet he knew that behind + those blistering walls was a reposeful patio, surrounded by low-pitched + verandas; that the casa was full of roomy corridors, nooks, and recesses, + in which lurked the shadows of a century, and that hidden by the further + wall was a lonely old garden, hoary with gnarled pear-trees, and smothered + in the spice and dropping leaves of its baking roses. He knew that, + although the unwinking sun might glitter on its red tiles, and the + unresting trade winds whistle around its angles, it always kept one + unvarying temperature and untroubled calm, as if the dignity of years had + triumphed over the changes of ephemeral seasons. But would others see it + with his eyes? Would his practical, housekeeping aunt, and his pretty + modern cousin— + </p> + <p> + “Well, what do you say? Speak the word, and you can go into it with your + folks to-morrow. And I reckon you won't want to take anything either, for + you'll find everything there—just as the old Don left it. I don't + want it; the land is good enough for me; I shall have my vaqueros and + rancheros to look after the crops and the cattle, and they won't trouble + you, for their sheds and barns will be two miles away. You can stay there + as long as you like, and go when you choose. You might like to try it for + a spell; it's all the same to me. But I should think it the sort of thing + a man like you would fancy, and it seems the right thing to have you + there. Well,—what shall it be? Is it a go?” + </p> + <p> + Dick knew that the speaker was sincere. It was an offer perfectly + characteristic of his friend, the Western millionaire, who had halted by + his side. And he knew also that the slow lifting of his bridle-rein, + preparatory to starting forward again, was the business-like gesture of a + man who wasted no time even over his acts of impulsive liberality. In + another moment he would dismiss the unaccepted offer from his mind—without + concern and without resentment. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you—it is a go,” said Dick gratefully. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, when he reached his own little home in the outskirts of San + Francisco that night, he was a trifle nervous in confiding to the lady, + who was at once his aunt and housekeeper, the fact that he was now the + possessor of a huge mansion in whose patio alone the little eight-roomed + villa where they had lived contentedly might be casually dropped. “You + see, Aunt Viney,” he hurriedly explained, “it would have been so + ungrateful to have refused him—and it really was an offer as + spontaneous as it was liberal. And then, you see, we need occupy only a + part of the casa.” + </p> + <p> + “And who will look after the other part?” said Aunt Viney grimly. “That + will have to be kept tidy, too; and the servants for such a house, where + in heaven are they to come from? Or do they go with it?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Dick quickly; “the servants left with their old master, when + Ringstone bought the property. But we'll find servants enough in the + neighborhood—Mexican peons and Indians, you know.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Viney sniffed. “And you'll have to entertain—if it's a big + house. There are all your Spanish neighbors. They'll be gallivanting in + and out all the time.” + </p> + <p> + “They won't trouble us,” he returned, with some hesitation. “You see, + they're furious at the old Don for disposing of his lands to an American, + and they won't be likely to look upon the strangers in the new place as + anything but interlopers.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, that is it, is it?” ejaculated Aunt Viney, with a slight puckering of + her lips. “I thought there was SOMETHING.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear aunt,” said Dick, with a sudden illogical heat which he tried to + suppress; “I don't know what you mean by 'it' and 'something.' Ringstone's + offer was perfectly unselfish; he certainly did not suppose that I would + be affected, any more than he would he, by the childish sentimentality of + these people over a legitimate, every-day business affair. The old Don + made a good bargain, and simply sold the land he could no longer make + profitable with his obsolete method of farming, his gang of idle + retainers, and his Noah's Ark machinery, to a man who knew how to use + steam reapers, and hired sensible men to work on shares.” Nevertheless he + was angry with himself for making any explanation, and still more + disturbed that he was conscious of a certain feeling that it was + necessary. + </p> + <p> + “I was thinking,” said Aunt Viney quietly, “that if we invited anybody to + stay with us—like Cecily, for example—it might be rather dull + for her if we had no neighbors to introduce her to.” + </p> + <p> + Dick started; he had not thought of this. He had been greatly influenced + by the belief that his pretty cousin, who was to make them a visit, would + like the change and would not miss excitement. “We can always invite some + girls down there and make our own company,” he answered cheerfully. + Nevertheless, he was dimly conscious that he had already made an airy + castle of the old hacienda, in which Cecily and her aunt moved ALONE. It + was to Cecily that he would introduce the old garden, it was Cecily whom + he would accompany through the dark corridors, and with whom he would + lounge under the awnings of the veranda. All this innocently, and without + prejudice or ulterior thought. He was not yet in love with the pretty + cousin whom he had seen but once or twice during the past few years, but + it was a possibility not unpleasant to occasionally contemplate. Yet it + was equally possible that she might yearn for lighter companionship and + accustomed amusement; that the passion-fringed garden and shadow-haunted + corridor might be profaned by hoydenish romping and laughter, or by that + frivolous flirtation which, in others, he had always regarded as + commonplace and vulgar. + </p> + <p> + Howbeit, at the end of two weeks he found himself regularly installed in + the Hacienda de los Osos. His little household, re-enforced by his cousin + Cecily and three peons picked up at Los Pinos, bore their transplantation + with a singular equanimity that seemed to him unaccountable. Then occurred + one of those revelations of character with which Nature is always ready to + trip up merely human judgment. Aunt Viney, an unrelenting widow of calm + but unshaken Dutch prejudices, high but narrow in religious belief, merged + without a murmur into the position of chatelaine of this unconventional, + half-Latin household. Accepting the situation without exaltation or + criticism, placid but unresponsive amidst the youthful enthusiasm of Dick + and Cecily over each quaint detail, her influence was, nevertheless, felt + throughout the lingering length and shadowy breadth of the strange old + house. The Indian and Mexican servants, at first awed by her practical + superiority, succumbed to her half-humorous toleration of their + incapacity, and became her devoted slaves. Dick was astonished, and even + Cecily was confounded. “Do you know,” she said confidentially to her + cousin, “that when that brown Conchita thought to please Aunty by wearing + white stockings instead of going round as usual with her cinnamon-colored + bare feet in yellow slippers—which I was afraid would be enough to + send Aunty into conniption fits—she actually told her, very quietly, + to take them off, and dress according to her habits and her station? And + you remember that in her big, square bedroom there is a praying-stool and + a ghastly crucifix, at least three feet long, in ivory and black, quite + too human for anything? Well, when I offered to put them in the corridor, + she said I 'needn't trouble'; that really she hadn't noticed them, and + they would do very well where they were. You'd think she had been + accustomed to this sort of thing all her life. It's just too sweet of her, + any way, even if she's shamming. And if she is, she just does it to the + life too, and could give those Spanish women points. Why, she rode en + pillion on Manuel's mule, behind him, holding on by his sash, across to + the corral yesterday; and you should have seen Manuel absolutely scrape + the ground before her with his sombrero when he let her down.” Indeed, her + tall, erect figure in black lustreless silk, appearing in a heavily + shadowed doorway, or seated in a recessed window, gave a new and patrician + dignity to the melancholy of the hacienda. It was pleasant to follow this + quietly ceremonious shadow gliding along the rose garden at twilight, + halting at times to bend stiffly over the bushes, garden-shears in hand, + and carrying a little basket filled with withered but still odorous + petals, as if she were grimly gathering the faded roses of her youth. + </p> + <p> + It was also probable that the lively Cecily's appreciation of her aunt + might have been based upon another virtue of that lady—namely, her + exquisite tact in dealing with the delicate situation evolved from the + always possible relations of the two cousins. It was not to be supposed + that the servants would fail to invest the young people with Southern + romance, and even believe that the situation was prearranged by the aunt + with a view to their eventual engagement. To deal with the problem openly, + yet without startling the consciousness of either Dick or Cecily; to allow + them the privileges of children subject to the occasional restraints of + childhood; to find certain household duties for the young girl that kept + them naturally apart until certain hours of general relaxation; to calmly + ignore the meaning of her retainers' smiles and glances, and yet to + good-humoredly accept their interest as a kind of feudal loyalty, was part + of Aunt Viney's deep diplomacy. Cecily enjoyed her freedom and + companionship with Dick, as she enjoyed the novel experiences of the old + house, the quaint, faded civilization that it represented, and the change + and diversion always acceptable to youth. She did not feel the absence of + other girls of her own age; neither was she aware that through this + omission she was spared the necessity of a confidante or a rival—both + equally revealing to her thoughtless enjoyment. They took their rides + together openly and without concealment, relating their adventures + afterwards to Aunt Viney with a naivete and frankness that dreamed of no + suppression. The city-bred Cecily, accustomed to horse exercise solely as + an ornamental and artificial recreation, felt for the first time the + fearful joy of a dash across a league-long plain, with no onlookers but + the scattered wild horses she might startle up to scurry before her, or + race at her side. Small wonder that, mounted on her fiery little mustang, + untrammeled by her short gray riding-habit, free as the wind itself that + blew through the folds of her flannel blouse, with her brown hair + half-loosed beneath her slouched felt hat, she seemed to Dick a more + beautiful and womanly figure than the stiff buckramed simulation of man's + angularity and precision he had seen in the parks. Perhaps one day she + detected this consciousness too plainly in his persistent eyes. Up to that + moment she had only watched the glittering stretches of yellow grain, in + which occasional wind-shorn evergreen oaks stood mid-leg deep like cattle + in water, the distant silhouette of the Sierras against the steely blue, + or perhaps the frankly happy face of the good-looking young fellow at her + side. But it seemed to her now that an intruder had entered the field—a + stranger before whom she was impelled to suddenly fly—half-laughingly, + half-affrightedly—the anxious Dick following wonderingly at her + mustang's heels, until she reached the gates of the hacienda, where she + fell into a gravity and seriousness that made him wonder still more. He + did not dream that his guileless cousin had discovered, with a woman's + instinct, a mysterious invader who sought to share their guileless + companionship, only to absorb it entirely, and that its name was—love! + </p> + <p> + The next day she was so greatly preoccupied with her household duties that + she could not ride with him. Dick felt unaccountably lost. Perhaps this + check to their daily intercourse was no less accelerating to his feelings + than the vague motive that induced Cecily to withhold herself. He moped in + the corridor; he rode out alone, bullying his mustang in proportion as he + missed his cousin's gentle companionship, and circling aimlessly, but + still unconsciously, around the hacienda as a centre of attraction. The + sun at last was sinking to the accompaniment of a rising wind, which + seemed to blow and scatter its broad rays over the shimmering plain until + every slight protuberance was burnished into startling brightness; the + shadows of the short green oaks grew disproportionally long, and all + seemed to point to the white-walled casa. Suddenly he started and + instantly reined up. + </p> + <p> + The figure of a young girl, which he had not before noticed, was slowly + moving down the half-shadowed lane made by the two walls of the garden and + the corral. Cecily! Perhaps she had come out to meet him. He spurred + forward; but, as he came nearer, he saw that the figure and its attire + were surely not hers. He reined up again abruptly, mortified at his + disappointment, and a little ashamed lest he should have seemed to have + been following an evident stranger. He vaguely remembered, too, that there + was a trail to the high road, through a little swale clothed with myrtle + and thorn bush which he had just passed, and that she was probably one of + his reserved and secluded neighbors—indeed, her dress, in that + uncertain light, looked half Spanish. This was more confusing, since his + rashness might have been taken for an attempt to force an acquaintance. He + wheeled and galloped towards the front of the casa as the figure + disappeared at the angle of the wall. + </p> + <p> + “I don't suppose you ever see any of our neighbors?” said Dick to his aunt + casually. + </p> + <p> + “I really can't say,” returned the lady with quiet equanimity. “There were + some extraordinary-looking foreigners on the road to San Gregorio + yesterday. Manuel, who was driving me, may have known who they were—he + is a kind of Indian Papist himself, you know—but I didn't. They + might have been relations of his, for all I know.” + </p> + <p> + At any other time Dick would have been amused at this serene relegation of + the lofty Estudillos and Peraltas to the caste of the Indian convert, but + he was worried to think that perhaps Cecily was really being bored by the + absence of neighbors. After dinner, when they sought the rose garden, he + dropped upon the little lichen-scarred stone bench by her side. It was + still warm from the sun; the hot musk of the roses filled the air; the + whole garden, shielded from the cool evening trade winds by its high + walls, still kept the glowing memory of the afternoon sunshine. Aunt + Viney, with her garden basket on her arm, moved ghost-like among the + distant bushes. + </p> + <p> + “I hope you are not getting bored here?” he said, after a slight + inconsequent pause. + </p> + <p> + “Does that mean that YOU are?” she returned, raising her mischievous eyes + to his. + </p> + <p> + “No; but I thought you might find it lonely, without neighbors.” + </p> + <p> + “I stayed in to-day,” she said, femininely replying to the unasked + question, “because I fancied Aunt Viney might think it selfish of me to + leave her alone so much.” + </p> + <p> + “But YOU are not lonely?” + </p> + <p> + Certainly not! The young lady was delighted with the whole place, with the + quaint old garden, the mysterious corridors, the restful quiet of + everything, the picture of dear Aunt Viney—who was just the sweetest + soul in the world—moving about like the genius of the casa. It was + such a change to all her ideas, she would never forget it. It was so + thoughtful of him, Dick, to have given them all that pleasure. + </p> + <p> + “And the rides,” continued Dick, with the untactful pertinacity of the + average man at such moments—“you are not tired of THEM?” + </p> + <p> + No; she thought them lovely. Such freedom and freshness in the exercise; + so different from riding in the city or at watering-places, where it was + one-half show, and one was always thinking of one's habit or one's self. + One quite forgot one's self on that lovely plain—with everything so + far away, and only the mountains to look at in the distance. Nevertheless + she did not lift her eyes from the point of the little slipper which had + strayed beyond her skirt. + </p> + <p> + Dick was relieved, but not voluble; he could only admiringly follow the + curves of her pretty arms and hands, clasped lightly in her lap, down to + the point of the little slipper. But even that charming vanishing point + was presently withdrawn—possibly through some instinct—for the + young lady had apparently not raised her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I'm so glad you like it,” said Dick earnestly, yet with a nervous + hesitation that made his speech seem artificial to his own ears. “You see + I—that is—I had an idea that you might like an occasional + change of company. It's a great pity we're not on speaking terms with one + of these Spanish families. Some of the men, you know, are really fine + fellows, with an old-world courtesy that is very charming.” + </p> + <p> + He was surprised to see that she had lifted her head suddenly, with a + quick look that however changed to an amused and half coquettish smile. + </p> + <p> + “I am finding no fault with my present company,” she said demurely, + dropping her head and eyelids until a faint suffusion seemed to follow the + falling lashes over her cheek. “I don't think YOU ought to undervalue it.” + </p> + <p> + If he had only spoken then! The hot scent of the roses hung suspended in + the air, which seemed to be hushed around them in mute expectancy; the + shadows which were hiding Aunt Viney from view were also closing round the + bench where they sat. He was very near her; he had only to reach out his + hand to clasp hers, which lay idly in her lap. He felt himself glowing + with a strange emanation; he even fancied that she was turning + mechanically towards him, as a flower might turn towards the fervent + sunlight. But he could not speak; he could scarcely collect his thoughts, + conscious though he was of the absurdity of his silence. What was he + waiting for? what did he expect? He was not usually bashful, he was no + coward; there was nothing in her attitude to make him hesitate to give + expression to what he believed was his first real passion. But he could do + nothing. He even fancied that his face, turned towards hers, was + stiffening into a vacant smile. + </p> + <p> + The young girl rose. “I think I heard Aunt Viney call me,” she said + constrainedly, and made a hesitating step forward. The spell which had + held Dick seemed to be broken suddenly; he stretched forth his arm to + detain her. But the next step appeared to carry her beyond his influence; + and it was even with a half movement of rejection that she quickened her + pace and disappeared down the path. Dick fell back dejectedly into his + seat, yet conscious of a feeling of RELIEF that bewildered him. + </p> + <p> + But only for a moment. A recollection of the chance that he had impotently + and unaccountably thrown away returned to him. He tried to laugh, albeit + with a glowing cheek, over the momentary bashfulness which he thought had + overtaken him, and which must have made him ridiculous in her eyes. He + even took a few hesitating steps in the direction of the path where she + had disappeared. The sound of voices came to his ear, and the light ring + of Cecily's laughter. The color deepened a little on his cheek; he + re-entered the house and went to his room. + </p> + <p> + The red sunset, still faintly showing through the heavily recessed windows + to the opposite wall, made two luminous aisles through the darkness of the + long low apartment. From his easy-chair he watched the color drop out of + the sky, the yellow plain grow pallid and seem to stretch itself to + infinite rest; then a black line began to deepen and creep towards him + from the horizon edge; the day was done. It seemed to him a day lost. He + had no doubt now but that he loved his cousin, and the opportunity of + telling her so—of profiting by her predisposition of the moment—had + passed. She would remember herself, she would remember his weak hesitancy, + she would despise him. He rose and walked uneasily up and down. And yet—and + it disgusted him with himself still more—he was again conscious of + the feeling of relief he had before experienced. A vague formula, “It's + better as it is,” “Who knows what might have come of it?” he found himself + repeating, without reason and without resignation. + </p> + <p> + Ashamed even of his seclusion, he rose to join the little family circle, + which now habitually gathered around a table on the veranda of the patio + under the rays of a swinging lamp to take their chocolate. To his surprise + the veranda was empty and dark; a light shining from the inner + drawing-room showed him his aunt in her armchair reading, alone. A slight + thrill ran over him: Cecily might be still in the garden! He noiselessly + passed the drawing-room door, turned into a long corridor, and slipped + through a grating in the wall into the lane that separated it from the + garden. The gate was still open; a few paces brought him into the long + alley of roses. Their strong perfume—confined in the high, hot walls—at + first made him giddy. This was followed by an inexplicable languor; he + turned instinctively towards the stone bench and sank upon it. The long + rows of calla lilies against the opposite wall looked ghostlike in the + darkness, and seemed to have turned their white faces towards him. Then he + fancied that ONE had detached itself from the rank and was moving away. He + looked again: surely there was something gliding along the wall! A quick + tremor of anticipation passed over him. It was Cecily, who had lingered in + the garden—perhaps to give him one more opportunity! He rose + quickly, and stepped towards the apparition, which had now plainly + resolved itself into a slight girlish figure; it slipped on beneath the + trees; he followed quickly—his nervous hesitancy had vanished before + what now seemed to be a half-coy, half-coquettish evasion of him. He + called softly, “Cecily!” but she did not heed him; he quickened his pace—she + increased hers. They were both running. She reached the angle of the wall + where the gate opened upon the road. Suddenly she stopped, as if + intentionally, in the clear open space before it. He could see her + distinctly. The lace mantle slipped from her head and shoulders. It was + NOT Cecily! + </p> + <p> + But it was a face so singularly beautiful and winsome that he was as + quickly arrested. It was a woman's deep, passionate eyes and heavy hair, + joined to a childish oval of cheek and chin, an infantine mouth, and a + little nose whose faintly curved outline redeemed the lower face from + weakness and brought it into charming harmony with the rest. A yellow rose + was pinned in the lustrous black hair above the little ear; a yellow silk + shawl or mantle, which had looked white in the shadows, was thrown over + one shoulder and twisted twice or thrice around the plump but petite bust. + The large black velvety eyes were fixed on his in half wonderment, half + amusement; the lovely lips were parted in half astonishment and half a + smile. And yet she was like a picture, a dream,—a materialization of + one's most fanciful imaginings,—like anything, in fact, but the + palpable flesh and blood she evidently was, standing only a few feet + before him, whose hurried breath he could see even now heaving her + youthful breast. + </p> + <p> + His own breath appeared suspended, although his heart beat rapidly as he + stammered out: “I beg your pardon—I thought—” He stopped at + the recollection that this was the SECOND time he had followed her. + </p> + <p> + She did not speak, although her parted lips still curved with their faint + coy smile. Then she suddenly lifted her right hand, which had been hanging + at her side, clasping some long black object like a stick. Without any + apparent impulse from her fingers, the stick slowly seemed to broaden in + her little hand into the segment of an opening disk, that, lifting to her + face and shoulders, gradually eclipsed the upper part of her figure, + until, mounting higher, the beautiful eyes and the yellow rose of her hair + alone remained above—a large unfurled fan! Then the long eyelashes + drooped, as if in a mute farewell, and they too disappeared as the fan was + lifted higher. The half-hidden figure appeared to glide to the gateway, + lingered for an instant, and vanished. The astounded Dick stepped quickly + into the road, but fan and figure were swallowed up in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + Amazed and bewildered, he stood for a moment, breathless and irresolute. + It was no doubt the same stranger that he had seen before. But WHO was + she, and what was she doing there? If she were one of their Spanish + neighbors, drawn simply by curiosity to become a trespasser, why had she + lingered to invite a scrutiny that would clearly identify her? It was not + the escapade of that giddy girl which the lower part of her face had + suggested, for such a one would have giggled and instantly flown; it was + not the deliberate act of a grave woman of the world, for its sequel was + so purposeless. Why had she revealed herself to HIM alone? Dick felt + himself glowing with a half-shamed, half-secret pleasure. Then he + remembered Cecily, and his own purpose in coming into the garden. He + hurriedly made a tour of the walks and shrubbery, ostentatiously calling + her, yet seeing, as in a dream, only the beautiful eyes of the stranger + still before him, and conscious of an ill-defined remorse and disloyalty + he had never known before. But Cecily was not there; and again he + experienced the old sensation of relief! + </p> + <p> + He shut the garden gate, crossed the road, and found the grille just + closing behind a slim white figure. He started, for it was Cecily; but + even in his surprise he was conscious of wondering how he could have ever + mistaken the stranger for her. She appeared startled too; she looked pale + and abstracted. Could she have been a witness of his strange interview? + </p> + <p> + Her first sentence dispelled the idea. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you were in the garden?” she said, with a certain timidity. “I + didn't go there—it seemed so close and stuffy—but walked a + little down the lane.” + </p> + <p> + A moment before he would have eagerly told her his adventure; but in the + presence of her manifest embarrassment his own increased. He concluded to + tell her another time. He murmured vaguely that he had been looking for + her in the garden, yet he had a flushing sense of falsehood in his + reserve; and they passed silently along the corridor and entered the patio + together. She lit the hanging lamp mechanically. She certainly WAS pale; + her slim hand trembled slightly. Suddenly her eyes met his, a faint color + came into her cheek, and she smiled. She put up her hand with a girlish + gesture towards the back of her head. + </p> + <p> + “What are you looking at? Is my hair coming down?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” hesitated Dick, “but—I—thought—you were looking + just a LITTLE pale.” + </p> + <p> + An aggressive ray slipped into her blue eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Strange! I thought YOU were. Just now at the grille you looked as if the + roses hadn't agreed with you.” + </p> + <p> + They both laughed, a little nervously, and Conchita brought the chocolate. + When Aunt Viney came from the drawing-room she found the two young people + together, and Cecily in a gale of high spirits. + </p> + <p> + She had had SUCH a wonderfully interesting walk, all by herself, alone on + the plain. It was really so queer and elfish to find one's self where one + could see nothing above or around one anywhere but stars. Stars above one, + to right and left of one, and some so low down they seemed as if they were + picketed on the plain. It was so odd to find the horizon line at one's + very feet, like a castaway at sea. And the wind! it seemed to move one + this way and that way, for one could not see anything, and might really be + floating in the air. Only once she thought she saw something, and was + quite frightened. + </p> + <p> + “What was it?” asked Dick quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Well, it was a large black object; but—it turned out only to be a + horse.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, although she had evidently noticed her cousin's eagerness, + and her own eyes had a nervous brightness. + </p> + <p> + “And where was Dick all this while?” asked Aunt Viney quietly. + </p> + <p> + Cecily interrupted, and answered for him briskly. “Oh, he was trying to + make attar of rose of himself in the garden. He's still stupefied by his + own sweetness.” + </p> + <p> + “If this means,” said Aunt Viney, with matter-of-fact precision, “that + you've been gallivanting all alone, Cecily, on that common plain, where + you're likely to meet all sorts of foreigners and tramps and savages, and + Heaven knows what other vermin, I shall set my face against a repetition + of it. If you MUST go out, and Dick can't go with you—and I must say + that even you and he going out together there at night isn't exactly the + kind of American Christian example to set to our neighbors—you had + better get Concepcion to go with you and take a lantern.” + </p> + <p> + “But there is nobody one meets on the plain—at least, nobody likely + to harm one,” protested Cecily. + </p> + <p> + “Don't tell ME,” said Aunt Viney decidedly; “haven't I seen all sorts of + queer figures creeping along by the brink after nightfall between San + Gregorio and the next rancho? Aren't they always skulking backwards and + forwards to mass and aguardiente?” + </p> + <p> + “And I don't know why WE should set any example to our neighbors. We don't + see much of them, or they of us.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not,” returned Aunt Viney; “because all proper Spanish young + ladies are shut up behind their grilles at night. You don't see THEM + traipsing over the plain in the darkness, WITH or WITHOUT cavaliers! Why, + Don Rafael would lock one of HIS sisters up in a convent and consider her + disgraced forever, if he heard of it.” + </p> + <p> + Dick felt his cheeks burning; Cecily slightly paled. Yet both said eagerly + together: “Why, what do YOU know about it, Aunty?” + </p> + <p> + “A great deal,” returned Aunt Viney quietly, holding her tatting up to the + light and examining the stitches with a critical eye. “I've got my eyes + about me, thank heaven! even if my ears don't understand the language. And + there's a great deal, my dears, that you young people might learn from + these Papists.” + </p> + <p> + “And do you mean to say,” continued Dick, with a glowing cheek and an + uneasy smile, “that Spanish girls don't go out alone?” + </p> + <p> + “No young LADY goes out without her duenna,” said Aunt Viney emphatically. + “Of course there's the Concha variety, that go out without even + stockings.” + </p> + <p> + As the conversation flagged after this, and the young people once or twice + yawned nervously, Aunt Viney thought they had better go to bed. + </p> + <p> + But Dick did not sleep. The beautiful face beamed out again from the + darkness of his room; the light that glimmered through his deep-set + curtainless windows had an odd trick of bringing out certain hanging + articles, or pieces of furniture, into a resemblance to a mantled figure. + The deep, velvety eyes, fringed with long brown lashes, again looked into + his with amused, childlike curiosity. He scouted the harsh criticisms of + Aunt Viney, even while he shrank from proving to her her mistake in the + quality of his mysterious visitant. Of course she was a lady—far + superior to any of her race whom he had yet met. Yet how should he find + WHO she was? His pride and a certain chivalry forbade his questioning the + servants—before whom it was the rule of the household to avoid all + reference to their neighbors. He would make the acquaintance of the old + padre—perhaps HE might talk. He would ride early along the trail in + the direction of the nearest rancho,—Don Jose Amador's,—a + thing he had hitherto studiously refrained from doing. It was three miles + away. She must have come that distance, but not ALONE. Doubtless she had + kept her duenna in waiting in the road. Perhaps it was she who had + frightened Cecily. Had Cecily told ALL she had seen? Her embarrassed + manner certainly suggested more than she had told. He felt himself turning + hot with an indefinite uneasiness. Then he tried to compose himself. After + all, it was a thing of the past. The fair unknown had bribed the duenna + for once, no doubt—had satisfied her girlish curiosity—she + would not come again! But this thought brought with it such a sudden sense + of utter desolation, a deprivation so new and startling, that it + frightened him. Was his head turned by the witcheries of some black-eyed + schoolgirl whom he had seen but once? Or—he felt his cheeks glowing + in the darkness—was it really a case of love at first sight, and she + herself had been impelled by the same yearning that now possessed him? A + delicious satisfaction followed, that left a smile on his lips as if it + had been a kiss. He knew now why he had so strangely hesitated with + Cecily. He had never really loved her—he had never known what love + was till now! + </p> + <p> + He was up early the next morning, skimming the plain on the back of “Chu + Chu,” before the hacienda was stirring. He did not want any one to suspect + his destination, and it was even with a sense of guilt that he dashed + along the swale in the direction of the Amador rancho. A few vaqueros, an + old Digger squaw carrying a basket, two little Indian acolytes on their + way to mass passed him. He was surprised to find that there were no ruts + of carriage wheels within three miles of the casa, and evidently no track + for carriages through the swale. SHE must have come on HORSEBACK. A + broader highway, however, intersected the trail at a point where the low + walls of the Amador rancho came in view. Here he was startled by the + apparition of an old-fashioned family carriage drawn by two large piebald + mules. But it was unfortunately closed. Then, with a desperate audacity + new to his reserved nature, he ranged close beside it, and even stared in + the windows. A heavily mantled old woman, whose brown face was in high + contrast to her snow-white hair, sat in the back seat. Beside her was a + younger companion, with the odd blonde hair and blue eyes sometimes seen + in the higher Castilian type. For an instant the blue eyes caught his, + half-coquettishly. But the girl was NOT at all like his mysterious + visitor, and he fell, discomfited, behind. + </p> + <p> + He had determined to explain his trespass on the grounds of his neighbor, + if questioned, by the excuse that he was hunting a strayed mustang. But + his presence, although watched with a cold reserve by the few peons who + were lounging near the gateway, provoked no challenge from them; and he + made a circuit of the low adobe walls, with their barred windows and + cinnamon-tiled roofs, without molestation—but equally without + satisfaction. He felt he was a fool for imagining that he would see her in + that way. He turned his horse towards the little Mission half a mile away. + There he had once met the old padre, who spoke a picturesque but limited + English; now he was only a few yards ahead of him, just turning into the + church. The padre was pleased to see Don Ricardo; it was an unusual thing + for the Americanos, he observed, to be up so early: for himself, he had + his functions, of course. No, the ladies that the caballero had seen had + not been to mass! They were Donna Maria and her daughter, going to San + Gregorio. They comprised ALL the family at the rancho,—there were + none others, unless the caballero, of a possibility, meant Donna Inez, a + maiden aunt of sixty—an admirable woman, a saint on earth! He + trusted that he would find his estray; there was no doubt a mark upon it, + otherwise the plain was illimitable; there were many horses—the + world was wide! + </p> + <p> + Dick turned his face homewards a little less adventurously, and it must be + confessed, with a growing sense of his folly. The keen, dry morning air + brushed away his fancies of the preceding night; the beautiful eyes that + had lured him thither seemed to flicker and be blown out by its practical + breath. He began to think remorsefully of his cousin, of his aunt,—of + his treachery to that reserve which the little alien household had + maintained towards their Spanish neighbors. He found Aunt Viney and Cecily + at breakfast—Cecily, he thought, looking a trifle pale. Yet (or was + it only his fancy?) she seemed curious about his morning ride. And he + became more reticent. + </p> + <p> + “You must see a good many of our neighbors when you are out so early?” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” he asked shortly, feeling his color rise. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, because—because we don't see them at any other time.” + </p> + <p> + “I saw a very nice chap—I think the best of the lot,” he began, with + assumed jocularity; then, seeing Cecily's eyes suddenly fixed on him, he + added, somewhat lamely, “the padre! There were also two women in a queer + coach.” + </p> + <p> + “Donna Maria Amador, and Dona Felipa Peralta—her daughter by her + first husband,” said Aunt Viney quietly. “When you see the horses you + think it's a circus; when you look inside the carriage you KNOW it's a + funeral.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Viney did not condescend to explain how she had acquired her + genealogical knowledge of her neighbor's family, but succeeded in breaking + the restraint between the young people. Dick proposed a ride in the + afternoon, which was cheerfully accepted by Cecily. Their intercourse + apparently recovered its old frankness and freedom, marred only for a + moment when they set out on the plain. Dick, really to forget his + preoccupation of the morning, turned his horse's head AWAY from the trail, + to ride in another direction; but Cecily oddly, and with an exhibition of + caprice quite new to her, insisted upon taking the old trail. Nevertheless + they met nothing, and soon became absorbed in the exercise. Dick felt + something of his old tenderness return to this wholesome, pretty girl at + his side; perhaps he betrayed it in his voice, or in an unconscious + lingering by her bridle-rein, but she accepted it with a naive reserve + which he naturally attributed to the effect of his own previous + preoccupation. He bore it so gently, however, that it awakened her + interest, and, possibly, her pique. Her reserve relaxed, and by the time + they returned to the hacienda they had regained something of their former + intimacy. The dry, incisive breath of the plains swept away the last + lingering remnants of yesterday's illusions. Under this frankly open sky, + in this clear perspective of the remote Sierras, which admitted no + fanciful deception of form or distance—there remained nothing but a + strange incident—to be later explained or forgotten. Only he could + not bring himself to talk to HER about it. + </p> + <p> + After dinner, and a decent lingering for coffee on the veranda, Dick rose, + and leaning half caressingly, half mischievously, over his aunt's + rocking-chair, but with his eyes on Cecily, said:— + </p> + <p> + “I've been deeply considering, dear Aunty, what you said last evening of + the necessity of our offering a good example to our neighbors. Now, + although Cecily and I are cousins, yet, as I am HEAD of the house, lord of + the manor, and padron, according to the Spanish ideas I am her recognised + guardian and protector, and it seems to me it is my positive DUTY to + accompany her if she wishes to walk out this evening.” + </p> + <p> + A momentary embarrassment—which, however, changed quickly into an + answering smile to her cousin—came over Cecily's face. She turned to + her aunt. + </p> + <p> + “Well, don't go too far,” said that lady quietly. + </p> + <p> + When they closed the grille behind them and stepped into the lane, Cecily + shot a quick glance at her cousin. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you'd rather walk in the garden?” + </p> + <p> + “I? Oh, no,” he answered honestly. “But”—he hesitated—“would + you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said faintly. + </p> + <p> + He impulsively offered his arm; her slim hand slipped lightly through it + and rested on his sleeve. They crossed the lane together, and entered the + garden. A load appeared to be lifted from his heart; the moment seemed + propitious,—here was a chance to recover his lost ground, to regain + his self-respect and perhaps his cousin's affection. By a common instinct, + however, they turned to the right, and AWAY from the stone bench, and + walked slowly down the broad allee. + </p> + <p> + They talked naturally and confidingly of the days when they had met + before, of old friends they had known and changes that had crept into + their young lives; they spoke affectionately of the grim, lonely, but + self-contained old woman they had just left, who had brought them thus + again together. Cecily talked of Dick's studies, of the scientific work on + which he was engaged, that was to bring him, she was sure, fame and + fortune! They talked of the thoughtful charm of the old house, of its + quaint old-world flavor. They spoke of the beauty of the night, the + flowers and the stars, in whispers, as one is apt to do—as fearing + to disturb a super-sensitiveness in nature. + </p> + <p> + They had come out later than on the previous night; and the moon, already + risen above the high walls of the garden, seemed a vast silver shield + caught in the interlacing tops of the old pear-trees, whose branches + crossed its bright field like dark bends or bars. As it rose higher, it + began to separate the lighter shrubbery, and open white lanes through the + olive-trees. Damp currents of air, alternating with drier heats, on what + appeared to be different levels, moved across the whole garden, or gave + way at times to a breathless lull and hush of everything, in which the + long rose alley seemed to be swooning in its own spices. They had reached + the bottom of the garden, and had turned, facing the upper moonlit + extremity and the bare stone bench. Cecily's voice faltered, her hand + leaned more heavily on his arm, as if she were overcome by the strong + perfume. His right hand began to steal towards hers. But she had stopped; + she was trembling. + </p> + <p> + “Go on,” she said in a half whisper. “Leave me a moment; I'll join you + afterwards.” + </p> + <p> + “You are ill, Cecily! It's those infernal flowers!” said Dick earnestly. + “Let me help you to the bench.” + </p> + <p> + “No—it's nothing. Go on, please. Do! Will you go!” + </p> + <p> + She spoke with imperiousness, unlike herself. He walked on mechanically a + dozen paces and turned. She had disappeared. He remembered there was a + smaller gate opening upon the plain near where they had stopped. Perhaps + she had passed through that. He continued on, slowly, towards the upper + end of the garden, occasionally turning to await her return. In this way + he gradually approached the stone bench. He was facing about to continue + his walk, when his heart seemed to stop beating. The beautiful visitor of + last night was sitting alone on the bench before him! + </p> + <p> + She had not been there a moment before; he could have sworn it. Yet there + was no illusion now of shade or distance. She was scarcely six feet from + him, in the bright moonlight. The whole of her exquisite little figure was + visible, from her lustrous hair down to the tiny, black satin, + low-quartered slipper, held as by two toes. Her face was fully revealed; + he could see even the few minute freckles, like powdered allspice, that + heightened the pale satin sheen of her beautifully rounded cheek; he could + detect even the moist shining of her parted red lips, the white outlines + of her little teeth, the length of her curved lashes, and the meshes of + the black lace veil that fell from the yellow rose above her ear to the + black silk camisa; he noted even the thick yellow satin saya, or skirt, + heavily flounced with black lace and bugles, and that it was a different + dress from that worn on the preceding night, a half-gala costume, carried + with the indescribable air of a woman looking her best and pleased to do + so: all this he had noted, drawing nearer and nearer, until near enough to + forget it all and drown himself in the depths of her beautiful eyes. For + they were no longer childlike and wondering: they were glowing with + expectancy, anticipation—love! + </p> + <p> + He threw himself passionately on the bench beside her. Yet, even if he had + known her language, he could not have spoken. She leaned towards him; + their eyes seemed to meet caressingly, as in an embrace. Her little hand + slipped from the yellow folds of her skirt to the bench. He eagerly seized + it. A subtle thrill ran through his whole frame. There was no delusion + here; it was flesh and blood, warm, quivering, and even tightening round + his own. He was about to carry it to his lips, when she rose and stepped + backwards. He pressed eagerly forward. Another backward step brought her + to the pear-tree, where she seemed to plunge into its shadow. Dick Bracy + followed—and the same shadow seemed to fold them in its embrace. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + He did not return to the veranda and chocolate that evening, but sent word + from his room that he had retired, not feeling well. + </p> + <p> + Cecily, herself a little nervously exalted, corroborated the fact of his + indisposition by telling Aunt Viney that the close odors of the rose + garden had affected them both. Indeed, she had been obliged to leave + before him. Perhaps in waiting for her return—and she really was not + well enough to go back—he was exposed to the night air too long. She + was very sorry. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Viney heard this with a slight contraction of her brows and a renewed + scrutiny of her knitting; and, having satisfied herself by a personal + visit to Dick's room that he was not alarmingly ill, set herself to find + out what was really the matter with the young people; for there was no + doubt that Cecily was in some vague way as disturbed and preoccupied as + Dick. He rode out again early the next morning, returning to his studies + in the library directly after breakfast; and Cecily was equally reticent, + except when, to Aunt Viney's perplexity, she found excuses for Dick's + manner on the ground of his absorption in his work, and that he was + probably being bored by want of society. She proposed that she should ask + an old schoolfellow to visit them. + </p> + <p> + “It would give Dick a change of ideas, and he would not be perpetually + obliged to look so closely after me.” She blushed slightly under Aunt + Viney's gaze, and added hastily, “I mean, of course, he would not feel it + his DUTY.” + </p> + <p> + She even induced her aunt to drive with her to the old mission church, + where she displayed a pretty vivacity and interest in the people they met, + particularly a few youthful and picturesque caballeros. Aunt Viney smiled + gravely. Was the poor child developing an unlooked-for coquetry, or + preparing to make the absent-minded Dick jealous? Well, the idea was not a + bad one. In the evening she astonished the two cousins by offering to + accompany them into the garden—a suggestion accepted with eager and + effusive politeness by each, but carried out with great awkwardness by the + distrait young people later. Aunt Viney clearly saw that it was not her + PRESENCE that was required. In this way two or three days elapsed without + apparently bringing the relations of Dick and Cecily to any more + satisfactory conclusion. The diplomatic Aunt Viney confessed herself + puzzled. + </p> + <p> + One night it was very warm; the usual trade winds had died away before + sunset, leaving an unwonted hush in sky and plain. There was something so + portentous in this sudden withdrawal of that rude stimulus to the + otherwise monotonous level, that a recurrence of such phenomena was always + known as “earthquake weather.” The wild cattle moved uneasily in the + distance without feeding; herds of unbroken mustangs approached the + confines of the hacienda in vague timorous squads. The silence and + stagnation of the old house was oppressive, as if the life had really gone + out of it at last; and Aunt Viney, after waiting impatiently for the young + people to come in to chocolate, rose grimly, set her lips together, and + went out into the lane. The gate of the rose garden opposite was open. She + walked determinedly forward and entered. + </p> + <p> + In that doubly stagnant air the odor of the roses was so suffocating and + overpowering that she had to stop to take breath. The whole garden, except + a near cluster of pear-trees, was brightly illuminated by the moonlight. + No one was to be seen along the length of the broad allee, strewn an inch + deep with scattered red and yellow petals—colorless in the + moonbeams. She was turning away, when Dick's familiar voice, but with a + strange accent of entreaty in it, broke the silence. It seemed to her + vaguely to come from within the pear-tree shadow. + </p> + <p> + “But we must understand one another, my darling! Tell me all. This + suspense, this mystery, this brief moment of happiness, and these hours of + parting and torment, are killing me!” + </p> + <p> + A slight cough broke from Aunt Viney. She had heard enough—she did + not wish to hear more. The mystery was explained. Dick loved Cecily; the + coyness or hesitation was not on HIS part. Some idiotic girlish caprice, + quite inconsistent with what she had noticed at the mission church, was + keeping Cecily silent, reserved, and exasperating to her lover. She would + have a talk with the young lady, without revealing the fact that she had + overheard them. She was perhaps a little hurt that affairs should have + reached this point without some show of confidence to her from the young + people. Dick might naturally be reticent—but Cecily! + </p> + <p> + She did not even look towards the pear-tree, but turned and walked stiffly + out of the gate. As she was crossing the lane she suddenly started back in + utter dismay and consternation! For Cecily, her niece,—in her own + proper person,—was actually just coming OUT OF THE HOUSE! + </p> + <p> + Aunt Viney caught her wrist. “Where have you been?” she asked quickly. + </p> + <p> + “In the house,” stammered Cecily, with a frightened face. + </p> + <p> + “You have not been in the garden with Dick?” continued Aunt Viney sharply—yet + with a hopeless sense of the impossibility of the suggestion. + </p> + <p> + “No, I was not even going there. I thought of just strolling down the + lane.” + </p> + <p> + The girl's accents were truthful; more than that, she absolutely looked + relieved by her aunt's question. “Do you want me, Aunty?” she added + quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—no. Run away, then—but don't go far.” + </p> + <p> + At any other time Aunt Viney might have wondered at the eagerness with + which Cecily tripped away; now she was only anxious to get rid of her. She + entered the casa hurriedly. + </p> + <p> + “Send Josefa to me at once,” she said to Manuel. + </p> + <p> + Josefa, the housekeeper,—a fat Mexican woman,—appeared. “Send + Concha and the other maids here.” They appeared, mutely wondering. Aunt + Viney glanced hurriedly over them—they were all there—a few + comely, but not too attractive, and all stupidly complacent. “Have you + girls any friends here this evening—or are you expecting any?” she + demanded. Of a surety, no!—as the padrona knew—it was not + night for church. “Very well,” returned Aunt Viney; “I thought I heard + your voices in the garden; understand, I want no gallivanting there. Go to + bed.” + </p> + <p> + She was relieved! Dick certainly was not guilty of a low intrigue with one + of the maids. But who and what was she? + </p> + <p> + Dick was absent again from chocolate; there was unfinished work to do. + Cecily came in later, just as Aunt Viney was beginning to be anxious. Had + she appeared distressed or piqued by her cousin's conduct, Aunt Viney + might have spoken; but there was a pretty color on her cheek—the + result, she said, of her rapid walking, and the fresh air; did Aunt Viney + know that a cool breeze had just risen?—and her delicate lips were + wreathed at times in a faint retrospective smile. Aunt Viney stared; + certainly the girl was not pining! What young people were made of + now-a-days she really couldn't conceive. She shrugged her shoulders and + resumed her tatting. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, as Dick's unfinished studies seemed to have whitened his + cheek and impaired his appetite the next morning, she announced her + intention of driving out towards the mission alone. When she returned at + luncheon she further astonished the young people by casually informing + them they would have Spanish visitors to dinner—namely, their + neighbors, Donna Maria Amador and the Dona Felipa Peralta. + </p> + <p> + Both faces were turned eagerly towards her; both said almost in the same + breath, “But, Aunt Viney! you don't know them! However did you—What + does it all mean?” + </p> + <p> + “My dears,” said Aunt Viney placidly, “Mrs. Amador and I have always + nodded to each other, and I knew they were only waiting for the slightest + encouragement. I gave it, and they're coming.” + </p> + <p> + It was difficult to say whether Cecily's or Dick's face betrayed the + greater delight and animation. Aunt Viney looked from the one to the + other. It seemed as if her attempt at diversion had been successful. + </p> + <p> + “Tell us all about it, you dear, clever, artful Aunty!” said Cecily gayly. + </p> + <p> + “There's nothing whatever to tell, my love! It seems, however, that the + young one, Dona Felipa, has seen Dick, and remembers him.” She shot a keen + glance at Dick, but was obliged to admit that the rascal's face remained + unchanged. “And I wanted to bring a cavalier for YOU, dear, but Don Jose's + nephew isn't at home now.” Yet here, to her surprise, Cecily was faintly + blushing. + </p> + <p> + Early in the afternoon the piebald horses and dark brown chariot of the + Amadors drew up before the gateway. The young people were delighted with + Dona Felipa, and thought her blue eyes and tawny hair gave an added + piquancy to her colorless satin skin and otherwise distinctively Spanish + face and figure. Aunt Viney, who entertained Donna Maria, was nevertheless + watchful of the others; but failed to detect in Dick's effusive greeting, + or the Dona's coquettish smile of recognition, any suggestion of previous + confidences. It was rather to Cecily that Dona Felipa seemed to be + characteristically exuberant and childishly feminine. Both mother and + stepdaughter spoke a musical infantine English, which the daughter + supplemented with her eyes, her eyebrows, her little brown fingers, her + plump shoulders, a dozen charming intonations of voice, and a complete + vocabulary in her active and emphatic fan. + </p> + <p> + The young lady went over the house with Cecily curiously, as if recalling + some old memories. “Ah, yes, I remember it—but it was long ago and I + was very leetle—you comprehend, and I have not arrive mooch when the + old Don was alone. It was too—too—what you call melank-oaly. + And the old man have not make mooch to himself of company.” + </p> + <p> + “Then there were no young people in the house, I suppose?” said Cecily, + smiling. + </p> + <p> + “No—not since the old man's father lif. Then there were TWO. It is a + good number, this two, eh?” She gave a single gesture, which took in, with + Cecily, the distant Dick, and with a whole volume of suggestion in her + shoulders, and twirling fan, continued: “Ah! two sometime make one—is + it not? But not THEN in the old time—ah, no! It is a sad story. I + shall tell it to you some time, but not to HIM.” + </p> + <p> + But Cecily's face betrayed no undue bashful consciousness, and she only + asked, with a quiet smile, “Why not to—to my cousin?” + </p> + <p> + “Imbecile!” responded that lively young lady. + </p> + <p> + After dinner the young people proposed to take Dona Felipa into the rose + garden, while Aunt Viney entertained Donna Maria on the veranda. The young + girl threw up her hands with an affectation of horror. “Santa Maria!—in + the rose garden? After the Angelus, you and him? Have you not heard?” + </p> + <p> + But here Donna Maria interposed. Ah! Santa Maria! What was all that! Was + it not enough to talk old woman's gossip and tell vaqueros tales at home, + without making uneasy the strangers? She would have none of it. “Vamos!” + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless Dona Felipa overcame her horror of the rose garden at + infelicitous hours, so far as to permit herself to be conducted by the + cousins into it, and to be installed like a rose queen on the stone bench, + while Dick and Cecily threw themselves in submissive and imploring + attitudes at her little feet. The young girl looked mischievously from one + to the other. + </p> + <p> + “It ees very pret-ty, but all the same I am not a rose: I am what you call + a big goose-berry! Eh—is it not?” + </p> + <p> + The cousins laughed, but without any embarrassed consciousness. “Dona + Felipa knows a sad story of this house,” said Cecily; “but she will not + tell it before you, Dick.” + </p> + <p> + Dick, looking up at the coquettish little figure, with Heaven knows what + OTHER memories in his mind, implored and protested. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! but this little story—she ees not so mooch sad of herself as + she ees str-r-r-ange!” She gave an exaggerated little shiver under her + lace shawl, and closed her eyes meditatively. + </p> + <p> + “Go on,” said Dick, smiling in spite of his interested expectation. + </p> + <p> + Dona Felipa took her fan in both hands, spanning her knees, leaned + forward, and after a preliminary compressing of her lips and knitting of + her brows, said:— + </p> + <p> + “It was a long time ago. Don Gregorio he have his daughter Rosita here, + and for her he will fill all thees rose garden and gif to her; for she + like mooch to lif with the rose. She ees very pret-ty. You shall have seen + her picture here in the casa. No? It have hang under the crucifix in the + corner room, turn around to the wall—WHY, you shall comprehend when + I have made finish thees story. Comes to them here one day Don Vincente, + Don Gregorio's nephew, to lif when his father die. He was yong, a pollio—same + as Rosita. They were mooch together; they have make lofe. What will you?—it + ees always the same. The Don Gregorio have comprehend; the friends have + all comprehend; in a year they will make marry. Dona Rosita she go to + Monterey to see his family. There ees an English warship come there; and + Rosita she ees very gay with the officers, and make the flirtation very + mooch. Then Don Vincente he is onhappy, and he revenge himself to make + lofe with another. When Rosita come back it is very miserable for them + both, but they say nossing. The warship he have gone away; the other girl + Vincente he go not to no more. All the same, Rosita and Vincente are very + triste, and the family will not know what to make. Then Rosita she is sick + and eat nossing, and walk to herself all day in the rose garden, until she + is as white and fade away as the rose. And Vincente he eat nossing, but + drink mooch aguardiente. Then he have fever and go dead. And Rosita she + have fainting and fits; and one day they have look for her in the rose + garden, and she is not! And they poosh and poosh in the ground for her, + and they find her with so mooch rose-leaves—so deep—on top of + her. SHE has go dead. It is a very sad story, and when you hear it you are + very, very mooch dissatisfied.” + </p> + <p> + It is to be feared that the two Americans were not as thrilled by this sad + recital as the fair narrator had expected, and even Dick ventured to point + out that those sort of things happened also to his countrymen, and were + not peculiar to the casa. + </p> + <p> + “But you said that there was a terrible sequel,” suggested Cecily + smilingly: “tell us THAT. Perhaps Mr. Bracy may receive it a little more + politely.” + </p> + <p> + An expression of superstitious gravity, half real, half simulated, came + over Dona Felipa's face, although her vivacity of gesticulation and + emphasis did not relax. She cast a hurried glance around her, and leaned a + little forward towards the cousins. + </p> + <p> + “When there are no more young people in the casa because they are dead,” + she continued, in a lower voice, “Don Gregorio he is very melank-oaly, and + he have no more company for many years. Then there was a rodeo near the + hacienda, and there came five or six caballeros to stay with him for the + feast. Notabilimente comes then Don Jorge Martinez. He is a bad man—so + weeked—a Don Juan for making lofe to the ladies. He lounge in the + garden, he smoke his cigarette, he twist the moustache—so! One day + he came in, and he laugh and wink so and say, 'Oh, the weeked, sly Don + Gregorio! He have hid away in the casa a beautiful, pret-ty girl, and he + will nossing say.' And the other caballeros say, 'Mira! what is this? + there is not so mooch as one young lady in the casa.' And Don Jorge he + wink, and he say, 'Imbeciles! pigs!' And he walk in the garden and twist + his moustache more than ever. And one day, behold! he walk into the casa, + very white and angry, and he swear mooch to himself; and he orders his + horse, and he ride away, and never come back no more, never-r-r! And one + day another caballero, Don Esteban Briones, he came in, and say, 'Hola! + Don Jorge has forgotten his pret-ty girl: he have left her over on the + garden bench. Truly I have seen.' And they say, 'We will too.' And they + go, and there is nossing. And they say, 'Imbecile and pig!' But he is not + imbecile and pig; for he has seen, and Don Jorge has seen; and why? For it + is not a girl, but what you call her—a ghost! And they will that Don + Esteban should make a picture of her—a design; and he make one. And + old Don Gregorio he say, 'madre de Dios! it is Rosita'—the same that + hung under the crucifix in the big room.” + </p> + <p> + “And is that all?” asked Dick, with a somewhat pronounced laugh, but a + face that looked quite white in the moonlight. + </p> + <p> + “No, it ees NOT all. For when Don Gregorio got himself more company + another time—it ees all yonge ladies, and my aunt she is invite too; + for she was yonge then, and she herself have tell to me this:— + </p> + <p> + “One night she is in the garden with the other girls, and when they want + to go in the casa one have say, 'Where is Francisca Pacheco? Look, she + came here with us, and now she is not.' Another one say, 'She have conceal + herself to make us affright.' And my aunt she say, 'I will go seek that I + shall find her.' And she go. And when she came to the pear-tree, she heard + Francisca's voice, and it say to some one she see not, 'Fly! vamos! some + one have come.' And then she come at the moment upon Francisca, very white + and trembling, and—alone. And Francisca she have run away and say + nossing, and shut herself in her room. And one of the other girls say: 'It + is the handsome caballero with the little black moustache and sad white + face that I have seen in the garden that make this. It is truly that he is + some poor relation of Don Gregorio, or some mad kinsman that he will not + we should know.' And my aunt ask Don Gregorio; for she is yonge. And he + have say: 'What silly fool ees thees? There is not one caballero here, but + myself.' And when the other young girl have tell to him how the caballero + look, he say: 'The saints save us! I cannot more say. It ees Don Vincente, + who haf gone dead.' And he cross himself, and—But look! Madre de + Dios! Mees Cecily, you are ill—you are affrighted. I am a gabbling + fool! Help her, Don Ricardo; she is falling!” + </p> + <p> + But it was too late: Cecily had tried to rise to her feet, had staggered + forward and fallen in a faint on the bench. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Dick did not remember how he helped to carry the insensible Cecily to the + casa, nor what explanation he had given to the alarmed inmates of her + sudden attack. He recalled vaguely that something had been said of the + overpowering perfumes of the garden at that hour, that the lively Felipa + had become half hysterical in her remorseful apologies, and that Aunt + Viney had ended the scene by carrying Cecily into her own room, where she + presently recovered a still trembling but reticent consciousness. But the + fainting of his cousin and the presence of a real emergency had diverted + his imagination from the vague terror that had taken possession of it, and + for the moment enabled him to control himself. With a desperate effort he + managed to keep up a show of hospitable civility to his Spanish friends + until their early departure. Then he hurried to his own room. So + bewildered and horrified he had become, and a prey to such superstitious + terrors, that he could not at that moment bring himself to the test of + looking for the picture of the alleged Rosita, which might still be + hanging in his aunt's room. If it were really the face of his mysterious + visitant—in his present terror—he felt that his reason might + not stand the shock. He would look at it to-morrow, when he was calmer! + Until then he would believe that the story was some strange coincidence + with what must have been his hallucination, or a vulgar trick to which he + had fallen a credulous victim. Until then he would believe that Cecily's + fright had been only the effect of Dona Felipa's story, acting upon a + vivid imagination, and not a terrible confirmation of something she had + herself seen. He threw himself, without undressing, upon his bed in a + benumbing agony of doubt. + </p> + <p> + The gentle opening of his door and the slight rustle of a skirt started + him to his feet with a feeling of new and overpowering repulsion. But it + was a familiar figure that he saw in the long aisle of light which led + from his recessed window, whose face was white enough to have been a + spirit's, and whose finger was laid upon its pale lips, as it softly + closed the door behind it. + </p> + <p> + “Cecily!” + </p> + <p> + “Hush!” she said, in a distracted whisper: “I felt I must see you + to-night. I could not wait until day—no, not another hour! I could + not speak to you before them. I could not go into that dreadful garden + again, or beyond the walls of this house. Dick, I want to—I MUST + tell you something! I would have kept it from every one—from you + most of all! I know you will hate me, and despise me; but, Dick, listen!”—she + caught his hand despairingly, drawing it towards her—“that girl's + awful story was TRUE!” She threw his hand away. + </p> + <p> + “And you have seen HER!” said Dick, frantically. “Good God!” + </p> + <p> + The young girl's manner changed. “HER!” she said, half scornfully, “you + don't suppose I believe THAT story? No. I—I—don't blame me, + Dick,—I have seen HIM.” + </p> + <p> + “Him?” + </p> + <p> + She pushed him nervously into a seat, and sat down beside him. In the half + light of the moon, despite her pallor and distraction, she was still very + human, womanly, and attractive in her disorder. + </p> + <p> + “Listen to me, Dick. Do you remember one afternoon, when we were riding + together, I got ahead of you, and dashed off to the casa. I don't know + what possessed me, or WHY I did it. I only know I wanted to get home + quickly, and get away from you. No, I was not angry, Dick, at YOU; it did + not seem to be THAT; I—well, I confess I was FRIGHTENED—at + something, I don't know what. When I wheeled round into the lane, I saw—a + man—a young gentleman standing by the garden-wall. He was very + picturesque-looking, in his red sash, velvet jacket, and round silver + buttons; handsome, but oh, so pale and sad! He looked at me very eagerly, + and then suddenly drew back, and I heard you on Chu Chu coming at my + heels. You must have seen him and passed him too, I thought: but when you + said nothing of it, I—I don't know why, Dick, I said nothing of it + too. Don't speak!” she added, with a hurried gesture: “I know NOW why you + said nothing,—YOU had not seen him.” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, and put back a wisp of her disordered chestnut hair. + </p> + <p> + “The next time was the night YOU were so queer, Dick, sitting on that + stone bench. When I left you—I thought you didn't care to have me + stay—I went to seek Aunt Viney at the bottom of the garden. I was + very sad, but suddenly I found myself very gay, talking and laughing with + her in a way I could not account for. All at once, looking up, I saw HIM + standing by the little gate, looking at me very sadly. I think I would + have spoken to Aunt Viney, but he put his finger to his lips—his + hand was so slim and white, quite like a hand in one of those Spanish + pictures—and moved slowly backwards into the lane, as if he wished + to speak with ME only—out there. I know I ought to have spoken to + Aunty; I knew it was wrong what I did, but he looked so earnest, so + appealing, so awfully sad, Dick, that I slipped past Aunty and went out of + the gate. Just then she missed me, and called. He made a kind of + despairing gesture, raising his hand Spanish fashion to his lips, as if to + say good-night. You'll think me bold, Dick, but I was so anxious to know + what it all meant, that I gave a glance behind to see if Aunty was + following, before I should go right up to him and demand an explanation. + But when I faced round again, he was gone! I walked up and down the lane + and out on the plain nearly half an hour, seeking him. It was strange, I + know; but I was not a bit FRIGHTENED, Dick—that was so queer—but + I was only amazed and curious.” + </p> + <p> + The look of spiritual terror in Dick's face here seemed to give way to a + less exalted disturbance, as he fixed his eyes on Cecily's. + </p> + <p> + “You remember I met YOU coming in: you seemed so queer then that I did not + say anything to you, for I thought you would laugh at me, or reproach me + for my boldness; and I thought, Dick, that—that—that—this + person wished to speak only to ME.” She hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Go on,” said Dick, in a voice that had also undergone a singular change. + </p> + <p> + The chestnut head was bent a little lower, as the young girl nervously + twisted her fingers in her lap. + </p> + <p> + “Then I saw him again—and—again,” she went on hesitatingly. + “Of course I spoke to him, to—to—find out what he wanted; but + you know, Dick, I cannot speak Spanish, and of course he didn't understand + me, and didn't reply.” + </p> + <p> + “But his manner, his appearance, gave you some idea of his meaning?” said + Dick suddenly. + </p> + <p> + Cecily's head drooped a little lower. “I thought—that is, I fancied + I knew what he meant.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt,” said Dick, in a voice which, but for the superstitious horror + of the situation, might have impressed a casual listener as indicating a + trace of human irony. + </p> + <p> + But Cecily did not seem to notice it. “Perhaps I was excited that night, + perhaps I was bolder because I knew you were near me; but I went up to him + and touched him! And then, Dick!—oh, Dick! think how awful—” + </p> + <p> + Again Dick felt the thrill of superstitious terror creep over him. “And he + vanished!” he said hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + “No—not at once,” stammered Cecily, with her head almost buried in + her lap; “for he—he—he took me in his arms and—” + </p> + <p> + “And kissed you?” said Dick, springing to his feet, with every trace of + his superstitious agony gone from his indignant face. But Cecily, without + raising her head, caught at his gesticulating hand. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Dick, Dick! do you think he really did it? The horror of it, Dick! to + be kissed by a—a—man who has been dead a hundred years!” + </p> + <p> + “A hundred fiddlesticks!” said Dick furiously. “We have been deceived! + No,” he stammered, “I mean YOU have been deceived—insulted!” + </p> + <p> + “Hush! Aunty will hear you,” murmured the girl despairingly. + </p> + <p> + Dick, who had thrown away his cousin's hand, caught it again, and dragged + her along the aisle of light to the window. The moon shone upon his + flushed and angry face. + </p> + <p> + “Listen!” he said; “you have been fooled, tricked—infamously tricked + by these people, and some confederate, whom—whom I shall horsewhip + if I catch. The whole story is a lie!” + </p> + <p> + “But you looked as if you believed it—about the girl,” said Cecily; + “you acted so strangely. I even thought, Dick,—sometimes—you + had seen HIM.” + </p> + <p> + Dick shuddered, trembled; but it is to be feared that the lower, more + natural human element in him triumphed. + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense!” he stammered; “the girl was a foolish farrago of absurdities, + improbable on the face of things, and impossible to prove. But that + infernal, sneaking rascal was flesh and blood.” + </p> + <p> + It seemed to him to relieve the situation and establish his own sanity to + combat one illusion with another. Cecily had already been deceived—another + lie wouldn't hurt her. But, strangely enough, he was satisfied that + Cecily's visitant was real, although he still had doubts about his own. + </p> + <p> + “Then you think, Dick, it was actually some real man?” she said piteously. + “Oh, Dick, I have been so foolish!” + </p> + <p> + Foolish she no doubt had been; pretty she certainly was, sitting there in + her loosened hair, and pathetic, appealing earnestness. Surely the ghostly + Rosita's glances were never so pleading as these actual honest eyes behind + their curving lashes. Dick felt a strange, new-born sympathy of suffering, + mingled tantalizingly with a new doubt and jealousy, that was human and + stimulating. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Dick, what are WE to do?” + </p> + <p> + The plural struck him as deliciously sweet and subtle. Had they really + been singled out for this strange experience, or still stranger + hallucination? His arm crept around her; she gently withdrew from it. + </p> + <p> + “I must go now,” she murmured; “but I couldn't sleep until I told you all. + You know, Dick, I have no one else to come to, and it seemed to me that + YOU ought to know it first. I feel better for telling you. You will tell + me to-morrow what you think we ought to do.” + </p> + <p> + They reached the door, opening it softly. She lingered for a moment on the + threshold. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me, Dick” (she hesitated), “if that—that really were a spirit, + and not a real man,—you don't think that—that kiss” (she + shuddered) “could do me harm!” + </p> + <p> + He shuddered too, with a strange and sympathetic consciousness that, + happily, she did not even suspect. But he quickly recovered himself and + said, with something of bitterness in his voice, “I should be more afraid + if it really were a man.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, thank you, Dick!” + </p> + <p> + Her lips parted in a smile of relief; the color came faintly back to her + cheek. + </p> + <p> + A wild thought crossed his fancy that seemed an inspiration. They would + share the risks alike. He leaned towards her: their lips met in their + first kiss. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Dick!” + </p> + <p> + “Dearest!” + </p> + <p> + “I think—we are saved.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “It wasn't at all like that.” + </p> + <p> + He smiled as she flew swiftly down the corridor. Perhaps he thought so + too. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + No picture of the alleged Rosita was ever found. Dona Felipa, when the + story was again referred to, smiled discreetly, but was apparently too + preoccupied with the return of Don Jose's absent nephew for further + gossiping visits to the hacienda; and Dick and Cecily, as Mr. and Mrs. + Bracy, would seem to have survived—if they never really solved—the + mystery of the Hacienda de los Osos. Yet in the month of June, when the + moon is high, one does not sit on the stone bench in the rose garden after + the last stroke of the Angelus. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHU CHU. + </h2> + <p> + I do not believe that the most enthusiastic lover of that “useful and + noble animal,” the horse, will claim for him the charm of geniality, + humor, or expansive confidence. Any creature who will not look you + squarely in the eye—whose only oblique glances are inspired by fear, + distrust, or a view to attack; who has no way of returning caresses, and + whose favorite expression is one of head-lifting disdain, may be “noble” + or “useful,” but can be hardly said to add to the gayety of nations. + Indeed it may be broadly stated that, with the single exception of + gold-fish, of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the horse is + alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely hopeless. I + deem these general remarks necessary to prove that my unreciprocated + affection for “Chu Chu” was not purely individual or singular. And I may + add that to these general characteristics she brought the waywardness of + her capricious sex. + </p> + <p> + She came to me out of the rolling dust of an emigrant wagon, behind whose + tailboard she was gravely trotting. She was a half-broken colt—in + which character she had at different times unseated everybody in the train—and, + although covered with dust, she had a beautiful coat, and the most lambent + gazelle-like eyes I had ever seen. I think she kept these latter organs + purely for ornament—apparently looking at things with her nose, her + sensitive ears, and, sometimes, even a slight lifting of her slim near + fore-leg. On our first interview I thought she favored me with a coy + glance, but as it was accompanied by an irrelevant “Look out!” from her + owner, the teamster, I was not certain. I only know that after some + conversation, a good deal of mental reservation, and the disbursement of + considerable coin, I found myself standing in the dust of the departing + emigrant-wagon with one end of a forty-foot riata in my hand, and Chu Chu + at the other. + </p> + <p> + I pulled invitingly at my own end, and even advanced a step or two towards + her. She then broke into a long disdainful pace, and began to circle round + me at the extreme limit of her tether. I stood admiring her free action + for some moments—not always turning with her, which was tiring—until + I found that she was gradually winding herself up ON ME! Her frantic + astonishment when she suddenly found herself thus brought up against me + was one of the most remarkable things I ever saw, and nearly took me off + my legs. Then when she had pulled against the riata until her narrow head + and prettily arched neck were on a perfectly straight line with it, she as + suddenly slackened the tension and condescended to follow me, at an angle + of her own choosing. Sometimes it was on one side of me, sometimes on the + other. Even then the sense of my dreadful contiguity apparently would come + upon her like a fresh discovery, and she would become hysterical. But I do + not think that she really SAW me. She looked at the riata and sniffed it + disparagingly, she pawed some pebbles that were near me tentatively with + her small hoof; she started back with a Robinson Crusoe-like horror of my + footprints in the wet gully, but my actual personal presence she ignored. + She would sometimes pause, with her head thoughtfully between her + fore-legs, and apparently say: “There is some extraordinary presence here: + animal, vegetable, or mineral—I can't make out which—but it's + not good to eat, and I loathe and detest it.” + </p> + <p> + When I reached my house in the suburbs, before entering the “fifty vara” + lot inclosure, I deemed it prudent to leave her outside while I informed + the household of my purchase; and with this object I tethered her by the + long riata to a solitary sycamore which stood in the centre of the road, + the crossing of two frequented thoroughfares. It was not long, however, + before I was interrupted by shouts and screams from that vicinity, and on + returning thither I found that Chu Chu, with the assistance of her riata, + had securely wound up two of my neighbors to the tree, where they + presented the appearance of early Christian martyrs. When I released them + it appeared that they had been attracted by Chu Chu's graces, and had + offered her overtures of affection, to which she had characteristically + rotated with this miserable result. I led her, with some difficulty, + warily keeping clear of the riata, to the inclosure, from whose fence I + had previously removed several bars. Although the space was wide enough to + have admitted a troop of cavalry she affected not to notice it, and + managed to kick away part of another section on entering. She resisted the + stable for some time, but after carefully examining it with her hoofs, and + an affectedly meek outstretching of her nose, she consented to recognize + some oats in the feed-box—without looking at them—and was + formally installed. All this while she had resolutely ignored my presence. + As I stood watching her she suddenly stopped eating; the same reflective + look came over her. “Surely I am not mistaken, but that same obnoxious + creature is somewhere about here!” she seemed to say, and shivered at the + possibility. + </p> + <p> + It was probably this which made me confide my unreciprocated affection to + one of my neighbors—a man supposed to be an authority on horses, and + particularly of that wild species to which Chu Chu belonged. It was he + who, leaning over the edge of the stall where she was complacently and, as + usual, obliviously munching, absolutely dared to toy with a pet lock of + hair which she wore over the pretty star on her forehead. “Ye see, + captain,” he said with jaunty easiness, “hosses is like wimmen; ye don't + want ter use any standoffishness or shyness with THEM; a stiddy but + keerless sort o' familiarity, a kind o' free but firm handlin', jess like + this, to let her see who's master”— + </p> + <p> + We never clearly knew HOW it happened; but when I picked up my neighbor + from the doorway, amid the broken splinters of the stall rail, and a + quantity of oats that mysteriously filled his hair and pockets, Chu Chu + was found to have faced around the other way, and was contemplating her + forelegs, with her hind ones in the other stall. My neighbor spoke of + damages while he was in the stall, and of physical coercion when he was + out of it again. But here Chu Chu, in some marvelous way, righted herself, + and my neighbor departed hurriedly with a brimless hat and an unfinished + sentence. + </p> + <p> + My next intermediary was Enriquez Saltello—a youth of my own age, + and the brother of Consuelo Saltello, whom I adored. As a Spanish + Californian he was presumed, on account of Chu Chu's half-Spanish origin, + to have superior knowledge of her character, and I even vaguely believed + that his language and accent would fall familiarly on her ear. There was + the drawback, however, that he always preferred to talk in a marvelous + English, combining Castilian precision with what he fondly believed to be + Californian slang. + </p> + <p> + “To confer then as to thees horse, which is not—observe me—a + Mexican plug! Ah, no! you can your boots bet on that. She is of Castilian + stock—believe me and strike me dead! I will myself at different + times overlook and affront her in the stable, examine her as to the + assault, and why she should do thees thing. When she is of the exercise I + will also accost and restrain her. Remain tranquil, my friend! When a few + days shall pass much shall be changed, and she will be as another. Trust + your oncle to do thees thing! Comprehend me? Everything shall be lovely, + and the goose hang high!” + </p> + <p> + Conformably with this he “overlooked” her the next day, with a cigarette + between his yellow-stained finger-tips, which made her sneeze in a silent + pantomimic way, and certain Spanish blandishments of speech which she + received with more complacency. But I don't think she ever even looked at + him. In vain he protested that she was the “dearest” and “littlest” of his + “little loves”—in vain he asserted that she was his patron saint, + and that it was his soul's delight to pray to her; she accepted the + compliment with her eyes fixed upon the manger. When he had exhausted his + whole stock of endearing diminutives, adding a few playful and more + audacious sallies, she remained with her head down, as if inclined to + meditate upon them. This he declared was at least an improvement on her + former performances. It may have been my own jealousy, but I fancied she + was only saying to herself, “Gracious! can there be TWO of them?” + </p> + <p> + “Courage and patience, my friend,” he said, as we were slowly quitting the + stable. “Thees horse is yonge, and has not yet the habitude of the person. + To-morrow, at another season, I shall give to her a foundling” + (“fondling,” I have reason to believe, was the word intended by Enriquez)—“and + we shall see. It shall be as easy as to fall away from a log. A leetle + more of this chin music which your friend Enriquez possesses, and some + tapping of the head and neck, and you are there. You are ever the right + side up. Houp la! But let us not precipitate this thing. The more haste, + we do not so much accelerate ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + He appeared to be suiting the action to the word as he lingered in the + doorway of the stable. “Come on,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Pardon,” he returned, with a bow that was both elaborate and evasive, + “but you shall yourself precede me—the stable is YOURS.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come along!” I continued impatiently. To my surprise he seemed to + dodge back into the stable again. After an instant he reappeared. + </p> + <p> + “Pardon! but I am re-strain! Of a truth, in this instant I am grasp by the + mouth of thees horse in the coat-tail of my dress! She will that I should + remain. It would seem”—he disappeared again—“that”—he + was out once more—“the experiment is a sooccess! She reciprocate! + She is, of a truth, gone on me. It is lofe!”—a stronger pull from + Chu Chu here sent him in again—“but”—he was out now + triumphantly with half his garment torn away—“I shall coquet.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing daunted, however, the gallant fellow was back next day with a + Mexican saddle, and attired in the complete outfit of a vaquero. Overcome + though HE was by heavy deerskin trousers, open at the side from the knees + down, and fringed with bullion buttons, an enormous flat sombrero, and a + stiff, short embroidered velvet jacket, I was more concerned at the + ponderous saddle and equipments intended for the slim Chu Chu. That these + would hide and conceal her beautiful curves and contour, as well as + overweight her, seemed certain; that she would resist them all to the last + seemed equally clear. Nevertheless, to my surprise, when she was led out, + and the saddle thrown deftly across her back, she was passive. Was it + possible that some drop of her old Spanish blood responded to its clinging + embrace? She did not either look at it nor smell it. But when Enriquez + began to tighten the “cinch” or girth a more singular thing occurred. Chu + Chu visibly distended her slender barrel to twice its dimensions; the more + he pulled the more she swelled, until I was actually ashamed of her. Not + so Enriquez. He smiled at us, and complacently stroked his thin moustache. + </p> + <p> + “Eet is ever so! She is the child of her grandmother! Even when you shall + make saddle thees old Castilian stock, it will make large—it will + become a balloon! Eet is a trick—eet is a leetle game—believe + me. For why?” + </p> + <p> + I had not listened, as I was at that moment astonished to see the saddle + slowly slide under Chu Chu's belly, and her figure resume, as if by magic, + its former slim proportions. Enriquez followed my eyes, lifted his + shoulders, shrugged them, and said smilingly, “Ah, you see!” + </p> + <p> + When the girths were drawn in again with an extra pull or two from the + indefatigable Enriquez, I fancied that Chu Chu nevertheless secretly + enjoyed it, as her sex is said to appreciate tight-lacing. She drew a deep + sigh, possibly of satisfaction, turned her neck, and apparently tried to + glance at her own figure—Enriquez promptly withdrawing to enable her + to do so easily. Then the dread moment arrived. Enriquez, with his hand on + her mane, suddenly paused and, with exaggerated courtesy, lifted his hat + and made an inviting gesture. + </p> + <p> + “You will honor me to precede.” + </p> + <p> + I shook my head laughingly. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” responded Enriquez gravely. “You have to attend the obsequies of + your aunt who is dead, at two of the clock. You have to meet your broker + who has bought you feefty share of the Comstock lode—at thees moment—or + you are loss! You are excuse! Attend! Gentlemen, make your bets! The band + has arrived to play! 'Ere we are!” + </p> + <p> + With a quick movement the alert young fellow had vaulted into the saddle. + But, to the astonishment of both of us, the mare remained perfectly still. + There was Enriquez bolt upright in the stirrups, completely overshadowing + by his saddle-flaps, leggings, and gigantic spurs the fine proportions of + Chu Chu, until she might have been a placid Rosinante, bestridden by some + youthful Quixote. She closed her eyes, she was going to sleep! We were + dreadfully disappointed. This clearly would not do. Enriquez lifted the + reins cautiously! Chu Chu moved forward slowly—then stopped, + apparently lost in reflection. + </p> + <p> + “Affront her on thees side.” + </p> + <p> + I approached her gently. She shot suddenly into the air, coming down again + on perfectly stiff legs with a springless jolt. This she instantly + followed by a succession of other rocket-like propulsions, utterly unlike + a leap, all over the inclosure. The movements of the unfortunate Enriquez + were equally unlike any equitation I ever saw. He appeared occasionally + over Chu Chu's head, astride of her neck and tail, or in the free air, but + never IN the saddle. His rigid legs, however, never lost the stirrups, but + came down regularly, accentuating her springless hops. More than that, the + disproportionate excess of rider, saddle, and accoutrements was so great + that he had, at times, the appearance of lifting Chu Chu forcibly from the + ground by superior strength, and of actually contributing to her exercise! + As they came towards me, a wild tossing and flying mass of hoofs and + spurs, it was not only difficult to distinguish them apart, but to + ascertain how much of the jumping was done by Enriquez separately. At last + Chu Chu brought matters to a close by making for the low-stretching + branches of an oak-tree which stood at the corner of the lot. In a few + moments she emerged from it—but without Enriquez. + </p> + <p> + I found the gallant fellow disengaging himself from the fork of a branch + in which he had been firmly wedged, but still smiling and confident, and + his cigarette between his teeth. Then for the first time he removed it, + and seating himself easily on the branch with his legs dangling down, he + blandly waved aside my anxious queries with a gentle reassuring gesture. + </p> + <p> + “Remain tranquil, my friend. Thees does not count! I have conquer—you + observe—for why? I have NEVER for once ARRIVE AT THE GROUND! + Consequent she is disappoint! She will ever that I SHOULD! But I have got + her when the hair is not long! Your oncle Henry”—with an angelic + wink—“is fly! He is ever a bully boy, with the eye of glass! Believe + me. Behold! I am here! Big Injin! Whoop!” + </p> + <p> + He leaped lightly to the ground. Chu Chu, standing watchfully at a little + distance, was evidently astonished at his appearance. She threw out her + hind hoofs violently, shot up into the air until the stirrups crossed each + other high above the saddle, and made for the stable in a succession of + rabbit-like bounds—taking the precaution to remove the saddle, on + entering, by striking it against the lintel of the door. “You observe,” + said Enriquez blandly, “she would make that thing of ME. Not having the + good occasion, she ees dissatisfied. Where are you now?” + </p> + <p> + Two or three days afterwards he rode her again with the same result—accepted + by him with the same heroic complacency. As we did not, for certain + reasons, care to use the open road for this exercise, and as it was + impossible to remove the tree, we were obliged to submit to the + inevitable. On the following day I mounted her—undergoing the same + experience as Enriquez, with the individual sensation of falling from a + third-story window on top of a counting-house stool, and the variation of + being projected over the fence. When I found that Chu Chu had not + accompanied me, I saw Enriquez at my side. “More than ever is become + necessary that we should do thees things again,” he said gravely, as he + assisted me to my feet. “Courage, my noble General! God and Liberty! Once + more on to the breach! Charge, Chestare, charge! Come on, Don Stanley! + 'Ere we are!” + </p> + <p> + He helped me none too quickly to catch my seat again, for it apparently + had the effect of the turned peg on the enchanted horse in the Arabian + Nights, and Chu Chu instantly rose into the air. But she came down this + time before the open window of the kitchen, and I alighted easily on the + dresser. The indefatigable Enriquez followed me. + </p> + <p> + “Won't this do?” I asked meekly. + </p> + <p> + “It ees BETTER—for you arrive NOT on the ground,” he said + cheerfully; “but you should not once but a thousand times make trial! Ha! + Go and win! Nevare die and say so! 'Eave ahead! 'Eave! There you are!” + </p> + <p> + Luckily, this time I managed to lock the rowels of my long spurs under her + girth, and she could not unseat me. She seemed to recognize the fact after + one or two plunges, when, to my great surprise, she suddenly sank to the + ground and quietly rolled over me. The action disengaged my spurs, but, + righting herself without getting up, she turned her beautiful head and + absolutely LOOKED at me!—still in the saddle. I felt myself + blushing! But the voice of Enriquez was at my side. + </p> + <p> + “Errise, my friend; you have conquer! It is SHE who has arrive at the + ground! YOU are all right. It is done; believe me, it is feenish! No more + shall she make thees thing. From thees instant you shall ride her as the + cow—as the rail of thees fence—and remain tranquil. For she is + a-broke! Ta-ta! Regain your hats, gentlemen! Pass in your checks! It is + ovar! How are you now?” He lit a fresh cigarette, put his hands in his + pockets, and smiled at me blandly. + </p> + <p> + For all that, I ventured to point out that the habit of alighting in the + fork of a tree, or the disengaging of one's self from the saddle on the + ground, was attended with inconvenience, and even ostentatious display. + But Enriquez swept the objections away with a single gesture. “It is the + PREENCIPAL—the bottom fact—at which you arrive. The next come + of himself! Many horse have achieve to mount the rider by the knees, and + relinquish after thees same fashion. My grandfather had a barb of thees + kind—but she has gone dead, and so have my grandfather. Which is sad + and strange! Otherwise I shall make of them both an instant example!” + </p> + <p> + I ought to have said that although these performances were never actually + witnessed by Enriquez's sister—for reasons which he and I thought + sufficient—the dear girl displayed the greatest interest in them, + and, perhaps aided by our mutually complimentary accounts of each other, + looked upon us both as invincible heroes. It is possible also that she + over-estimated our success, for she suddenly demanded that I should RIDE + Chu Chu to her house, that she might see her. It was not far; by going + through a back lane I could avoid the trees which exercised such a fatal + fascination for Chu Chu. There was a pleading, child-like entreaty in + Consuelo's voice that I could not resist, with a slight flash from her + lustrous dark eyes that I did not care to encourage. So I resolved to try + it at all hazards. + </p> + <p> + My equipment for the performance was modeled after Enriquez's previous + costume, with the addition of a few fripperies of silver and stamped + leather out of compliment to Consuelo, and even with a faint hope that it + might appease Chu Chu. SHE certainly looked beautiful in her glittering + accoutrements, set off by her jet-black shining coat. With an air of + demure abstraction she permitted me to mount her, and even for a hundred + yards or so indulged in a mincing maidenly amble that was not without a + touch of coquetry. Encouraged by this, I addressed a few terms of + endearment to her, and in the exuberance of my youthful enthusiasm I even + confided to her my love for Consuelo, and begged her to be “good” and not + disgrace herself and me before my Dulcinea. In my foolish trustfulness I + was rash enough to add a caress, and to pat her soft neck. She stopped + instantly with a hysteric shudder. I knew what was passing through her + mind: she had suddenly become aware of my baleful existence. + </p> + <p> + The saddle and bridle Chu Chu was becoming accustomed to, but who was this + living, breathing object that had actually touched her? Presently her + oblique vision was attracted by the fluttering movement of a fallen + oak-leaf in the road before her. She had probably seen many oak-leaves + many times before; her ancestors had no doubt been familiar with them on + the trackless hills and in field and paddock, but this did not alter her + profound conviction that I and the leaf were identical, that our baleful + touch was something indissolubly connected. She reared before that + innocent leaf, she revolved round it, and then fled from it at the top of + her speed. + </p> + <p> + The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden. Unfortunately, + at the angle of the fence stood a beautiful Madrono-tree, brilliant with + its scarlet berries, and endeared to me as Consuelo's favorite haunt, + under whose protecting shade I had more than once avowed my youthful + passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu caught sight of it, and with a + succession of spirited bounds instantly made for it. In another moment I + was beneath it, and Chu Chu shot like a rocket into the air. I had barely + time to withdraw my feet from the stirrups, to throw up one arm to protect + my glazed sombrero and grasp an overhanging branch with the other, before + Chu Chu darted off. But to my consternation, as I gained a secure perch on + the tree, and looked about me, I saw her—instead of running away—quietly + trot through the open gate into Saltello's garden. + </p> + <p> + Need I say that it was to the beneficent Enriquez that I again owed my + salvation? Scarcely a moment elapsed before his bland voice rose in a + concentrated whisper from the corner of the garden below me. He had + divined the dreadful truth! + </p> + <p> + “For the love of God, collect to yourself many kinds of thees berry! All + you can! Your full arms round! Rest tranquil. Leave to your ole oncle to + make for you a delicate exposure. At the instant!” + </p> + <p> + He was gone again. I gathered, wonderingly, a few of the larger clusters + of parti-colored fruit and patiently waited. Presently he reappeared, and + with him the lovely Consuelo—her dear eyes filled with an adorable + anxiety. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” continued Enriquez to his sister, with a confidential lowering of + tone but great distinctness of utterance, “it is ever so with the + American! He will ever make FIRST the salutation of the flower or the + fruit, picked to himself by his own hand, to the lady where he call. It is + the custom of the American hidalgo! My God—what will you? I make it + not—it is so! Without doubt he is in this instant doing thees thing. + That is why he have let go his horse to precede him here; it is always the + etiquette to offer these things on the feet. Ah! Behold! it is he!—Don + Francisco! Even now he will descend from thees tree! Ah! You make the + blush, little sister (archly)! I will retire! I am discreet; two is not + company for the one! I make tracks! I am gone!” + </p> + <p> + How far Consuelo entirely believed and trusted her ingenious brother I do + not know, nor even then cared to inquire. For there was a pretty mantling + of her olive cheek, as I came forward with my offering, and a certain + significant shyness in her manner that were enough to throw me into a + state of hopeless imbecility. And I was always miserably conscious that + Consuelo possessed an exalted sentimentality, and a predilection for the + highest mediaeval romance, in which I knew I was lamentably deficient. + Even in our most confidential moments I was always aware that I weakly + lagged behind this daughter of a gloomily distinguished ancestry, in her + frequent incursions into a vague but poetic past. There was something of + the dignity of the Spanish chatelaine in the sweetly grave little figure + that advanced to accept my specious offering. I think I should have fallen + on my knees to present it, but for the presence of the all seeing + Enriquez. But why did I even at that moment remember that he had early + bestowed upon her the nickname of “Pomposa”? This, as Enriquez himself + might have observed, was “sad and strange.” + </p> + <p> + I managed to stammer out something about the Madrono berries being at her + “disposicion” (the tree was in her own garden!), and she took the branches + in her little brown hand with a soft response to my unutterable glances. + </p> + <p> + But here Chu Chu, momentarily forgotten, executed a happy diversion. To + our astonishment she gravely walked up to Consuelo and, stretching out her + long slim neck, not only sniffed curiously at the berries, but even + protruded a black underlip towards the young girl herself. In another + instant Consuelo's dignity melted. Throwing her arms around Chu Chu's neck + she embraced and kissed her. Young as I was, I understood the divine + significance of a girl's vicarious effusiveness at such a moment, and felt + delighted. But I was the more astonished that the usually sensitive horse + not only submitted to these caresses, but actually responded to the extent + of affecting to nip my mistress's little right ear. + </p> + <p> + This was enough for the impulsive Consuelo. She ran hastily into the + house, and in a few moments reappeared in a bewitching riding-skirt + gathered round her jimp waist. In vain Enriquez and myself joined in + earnest entreaty: the horse was hardly broken for even a man's riding yet; + the saints alone could tell what the nervous creature might do with a + woman's skirt flapping at her side! We begged for delay, for reflection, + for at least time to change the saddle—but with no avail! Consuelo + was determined, indignant, distressingly reproachful! Ah, well! if Don + Pancho (an ingenious diminutive of my Christian name) valued his horse so + highly—if he were jealous of the evident devotion of the animal to + herself, he would—but here I succumbed! And then I had the felicity + of holding that little foot for one brief moment in the hollow of my hand, + of readjusting the skirt as she threw her knee over the saddle-horn, of + clasping her tightly—only half in fear—as I surrendered the + reins to her grasp. And to tell the truth, as Enriquez and I fell back, + although I had insisted upon still keeping hold of the end of the riata, + it was a picture to admire. The petite figure of the young girl, and the + graceful folds of her skirt, admirably harmonized with Chu Chu's lithe + contour, and as the mare arched her slim neck and raised her slender head + under the pressure of the reins, it was so like the lifted velvet-capped + toreador crest of Consuelo herself, that they seemed of one race. + </p> + <p> + “I would not that you should hold the riata,” said Consuelo petulantly. + </p> + <p> + I hesitated—Chu Chu looked certainly very amiable—I let go. + She began to amble towards the gate, not mincingly as before, but with a + freer and fuller stride. In spite of the incongruous saddle the young + girl's seat was admirable. As they neared the gate she cast a single + mischievous glance at me, jerked at the rein, and Chu Chu sprang into the + road at a rapid canter. I watched them fearfully and breathlessly, until + at the end of the lane I saw Consuelo rein in slightly, wheel easily, and + come flying back. There was no doubt about it; the horse was under perfect + control. Her second subjugation was complete and final! + </p> + <p> + Overjoyed and bewildered, I overwhelmed them with congratulations; + Enriquez alone retaining the usual brotherly attitude of criticism, and a + superior toleration of a lover's enthusiasm. I ventured to hint to + Consuelo (in what I believed was a safe whisper) that Chu Chu only showed + my own feelings towards her. “Without doubt,” responded Enriquez gravely. + “She have of herself assist you to climb to the tree to pull to yourself + the berry for my sister.” But I felt Consuelo's little hand return my + pressure, and I forgave and even pitied him. + </p> + <p> + From that day forward, Chu Chu and Consuelo were not only firm friends but + daily companions. In my devotion I would have presented the horse to the + young girl, but with flattering delicacy she preferred to call it mine. “I + shall erride it for you, Pancho,” she said; “I shall feel,” she continued + with exalted although somewhat vague poetry, “that it is of YOU! You lofe + the beast—it is therefore of a necessity YOU, my Pancho! It is YOUR + soul I shall erride like the wings of the wind—your lofe in this + beast shall be my only cavalier for ever.” I would have preferred + something whose vicarious qualities were less uncertain than I still felt + Chu Chu's to be, but I kissed the girl's hand submissively. It was only + when I attempted to accompany her in the flesh, on another horse, that I + felt the full truth of my instinctive fears. Chu Chu would not permit any + one to approach her mistress's side. My mounted presence revived in her + all her old blind astonishment and disbelief in my existence; she would + start suddenly, face about, and back away from me in utter amazement as if + I had been only recently created, or with an affected modesty as if I had + been just guilty of some grave indecorum towards her sex which she really + could not stand. The frequency of these exhibitions in the public highway + were not only distressing to me as a simple escort, but as it had the + effect on the casual spectators of making Consuelo seem to participate in + Chu Chu's objections, I felt that, as a lover, it could not be borne. Any + attempt to coerce Chu Chu ended in her running away. And my frantic + pursuit of her was open to equal misconstruction. “Go it, Miss, the little + dude is gainin' on you!” shouted by a drunken teamster to the frightened + Consuelo, once checked me in mid career. Even the dear girl herself saw + the uselessness of my real presence, and after a while was content to ride + with “my soul.” + </p> + <p> + Notwithstanding this, I am not ashamed to say that it was my custom, + whenever she rode out, to keep a slinking and distant surveillance of Chu + Chu on another horse, until she had fairly settled down to her pace. A + little nod of Consuelo's round black-and-red toreador hat or a kiss tossed + from her riding-whip was reward enough! + </p> + <p> + I remember a pleasant afternoon when I was thus awaiting her in the + outskirts of the village. The eternal smile of the Californian summer had + begun to waver and grow less fixed; dust lay thick on leaf and blade; the + dry hills were clothed in russet leather; the trade winds were shifting to + the south with an ominous warm humidity; a few days longer and the rains + would be here. It so chanced that this afternoon my seclusion on the + roadside was accidentally invaded by a village belle—a Western young + lady somewhat older than myself, and of flirtatious reputation. As she + persistently and—as I now have reason to believe—mischievously + lingered, I had only a passing glimpse of Consuelo riding past at an + unaccustomed speed which surprised me at the moment. But as I reasoned + later that she was only trying to avoid a merely formal meeting, I thought + no more about it. It was not until I called at the house to fetch Chu Chu + at the usual hour, and found that Consuelo had not yet returned, that a + recollection of Chu Chu's furious pace again troubled me. An hour passed—it + was getting towards sunset, but there were no signs of Chu Chu nor her + mistress. I became seriously alarmed. I did not care to reveal my fears to + the family, for I felt myself responsible for Chu Chu. At last I + desperately saddled my horse, and galloped off in the direction she had + taken. It was the road to Rosario and the hacienda of one of her + relations, where she sometimes halted. + </p> + <p> + The road was a very unfrequented one, twisting like a mountain river; + indeed, it was the bed of an old watercourse, between brown hills of wild + oats, and debouching at last into a broad blue lake-like expanse of + alfalfa meadows. In vain I strained my eyes over the monotonous level; + nothing appeared to rise above or move across it. In the faint hope that + she might have lingered at the hacienda, I was spurring on again when I + heard a slight splashing on my left. I looked around. A broad patch of + fresher-colored herbage and a cluster of dwarfed alders indicated a hidden + spring. I cautiously approached its quaggy edges, when I was shocked by + what appeared to be a sudden vision! Mid-leg deep in the centre of a + greenish pool stood Chu Chu! But without a strap or buckle of harness upon + her—as naked as when she was foaled! + </p> + <p> + For a moment I could only stare at her in bewildered terror. Far from + recognizing me, she seemed to be absorbed in a nymph-like contemplation of + her own graces in the pool. Then I called “Consuelo!” and galloped + frantically around the spring. But there was no response, nor was there + anything to be seen but the all-unconscious Chu Chu. The pool, thank + Heaven! was not deep enough to have drowned any one; there were no signs + of a struggle on its quaggy edges. The horse might have come from a + distance! I galloped on, still calling. A few hundred yards further I + detected the vivid glow of Chu Chu's scarlet saddle-blanket, in the brush + near the trail. My heart leaped—I was on the track. I called again; + this time a faint reply, in accents I knew too well, came from the field + beside me! + </p> + <p> + Consuelo was there! reclining beside a manzanita bush which screened her + from the road, in what struck me, even at that supreme moment, as a + judicious and picturesquely selected couch of scented Indian grass and dry + tussocks. The velvet hat with its balls of scarlet plush was laid + carefully aside; her lovely blue-black hair retained its tight coils + undisheveled, her eyes were luminous and tender. Shocked as I was at her + apparent helplessness, I remember being impressed with the fact that it + gave so little indication of violent usage or disaster. + </p> + <p> + I threw myself frantically on the ground beside her. + </p> + <p> + “You are hurt, Consita! For Heaven's sake, what has happened?” + </p> + <p> + She pushed my hat back with her little hand, and tumbled my hair gently. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing. YOU are here, Pancho—eet is enofe! What shall come after + thees—when I am perhaps gone among the grave—make nothing! YOU + are here—I am happy. For a little, perhaps—not mooch.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” I went on desperately, “was it an accident? Were you thrown? Was it + Chu Chu?”—for somehow, in spite of her languid posture and voice, I + could not, even in my fears, believe her seriously hurt. + </p> + <p> + “Beat not the poor beast, Pancho. It is not from HER comes thees thing. + She have make nothing—believe me! I have come upon your assignation + with Miss Essmith! I make but to pass you—to fly—to never come + back! I have say to Chu Chu, 'Fly!' We fly many miles. Sometimes together, + sometimes not so mooch! Sometimes in the saddle, sometimes on the neck! + Many things remain in the road; at the end, I myself remain! I have say, + 'Courage, Pancho will come!' Then I say, 'No, he is talk with Miss + Essmith!' I remember not more. I have creep here on the hands. Eet is + feenish!” + </p> + <p> + I looked at her distractedly. She smiled tenderly, and slightly smoothed + down and rearranged a fold of her dress to cover her delicate little boot. + </p> + <p> + “But,” I protested, “you are not much hurt, dearest. You have broken no + bones. Perhaps,” I added, looking at the boot, “only a slight sprain. Let + me carry you to my horse; I will walk beside you, home. Do, dearest + Consita!” + </p> + <p> + She turned her lovely eyes towards me sadly. “You comprehend not, my poor + Pancho! It is not of the foot, the ankle, the arm, or the head that I can + say, 'She is broke!' I would it were even so. But”—she lifted her + sweet lashes slowly—“I have derrange my inside. It is an affair of + my family. My grandfather have once toomble over the bull at a rodeo. He + speak no more; he is dead. For why? He has derrange his inside. Believe + me, it is of the family. You comprehend? The Saltellos are not as the + other peoples for this. When I am gone, you will bring to me the berry to + grow upon my tomb, Pancho; the berry you have picked for me. The little + flower will come too, the little star will arrive, but Consuelo, who lofe + you, she will come not more! When you are happy and talk in the road to + the Essmith, you will not think of me. You will not see my eyes, Pancho; + thees little grass”—she ran her plump little fingers through a + tussock—“will hide them; and the small animals in the black coats + that lif here will have much sorrow—but you will not. It ees better + so! My father will not that I, a Catholique, should marry into a + camp-meeting, and lif in a tent, and make howl like the coyote.” (It was + one of Consuelo's bewildering beliefs that there was only one form of + dissent—Methodism!) “He will not that I should marry a man who + possess not the many horses, ox, and cow, like him. But I care not. YOU + are my only religion, Pancho! I have enofe of the horse, and ox, and cow + when YOU are with me! Kiss me, Pancho. Perhaps it is for the last time—the + feenish! Who knows?” + </p> + <p> + There were tears in her lovely eyes; I felt that my own were growing dim; + the sun was sinking over the dreary plain to the slow rising of the wind; + an infinite loneliness had fallen upon us, and yet I was miserably + conscious of some dreadful unreality in it all. A desire to laugh, which I + felt must be hysterical, was creeping over me; I dared not speak. But her + dear head was on my shoulder, and the situation was not unpleasant. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, something must be done! This was the more difficult as it + was by no means clear what had already been done. Even while I supported + her drooping figure I was straining my eyes across her shoulder for succor + of some kind. Suddenly the figure of a rapid rider appeared upon the road. + It seemed familiar. I looked again—it was the blessed Enriquez! A + sense of deep relief came over me. I loved Consuelo; but never before had + lover ever hailed the irruption of one of his beloved's family with such + complacency. + </p> + <p> + “You are safe, dearest; it is Enriquez!” + </p> + <p> + I thought she received the information coldly. Suddenly she turned upon me + her eyes, now bright and glittering. “Swear to me at the instant, Pancho, + that you will not again look upon Miss Essmith, even for once.” + </p> + <p> + I was simple and literal. Miss Smith was my nearest neighbor, and, unless + I was stricken with blindness, compliance was impossible. I hesitated—but + swore. + </p> + <p> + “Enofe—you have hesitate—I will no more.” + </p> + <p> + She rose to her feet with grave deliberation. For an instant, with the + recollection of the delicate internal organization of the Saltellos on my + mind, I was in agony lest she should totter and fall, even then, yielding + up her gentle spirit on the spot. But when I looked again she had a + hairpin between her white teeth, and was carefully adjusting her toreador + hat. And beside us was Enriquez—cheerful, alert, voluble, and + undaunted. + </p> + <p> + “Eureka! I have found! We are all here! Eet is a leetle public—eh! a + leetle too much of a front seat for a tete-a-tete, my yonge friends,” he + said, glancing at the remains of Consuelo's bower, “but for the accounting + of taste there is none. What will you? The meat of the one man shall + envenom the meat of the other. But” (in a whisper to me) “as to thees + horse—thees Chu Chu, which I have just pass—why is she + undress? Surely you would not make an exposition of her to the traveler to + suspect! And if not, why so?” + </p> + <p> + I tried to explain, looking at Consuelo, that Chu Chu had run away, that + Consuelo had met with a terrible accident, had been thrown, and I feared + had suffered serious internal injury. But to my embarrassment Consuelo + maintained a half scornful silence, and an inconsistent freshness of + healthful indifference, as Enriquez approached her with an engaging smile. + “Ah, yes, she have the headache, and the molligrubs. She will sit on the + damp stone when the gentle dew is falling. I comprehend. Meet me in the + lane when the clock strike nine! But,” in a lower voice, “of thees undress + horse I comprehend nothing! Look you—it is sad and strange.” + </p> + <p> + He went off to fetch Chu Chu, leaving me and Consuelo alone. I do not + think I ever felt so utterly abject and bewildered before in my life. + Without knowing why, I was miserably conscious of having in some way + offended the girl for whom I believed I would have given my life, and I + had made her and myself ridiculous in the eyes of her brother. I had again + failed in my slower Western nature to understand her high romantic Spanish + soul! Meantime she was smoothing out her riding-habit, and looking as + fresh and pretty as when she first left her house. + </p> + <p> + “Consita,” I said hesitatingly, “you are not angry with me?” + </p> + <p> + “Angry?” she repeated haughtily, without looking at me. “Oh, no! Of a + possibility eet is Mees Essmith who is angry that I have interroopt her + tete-a-tete with you, and have send here my brother to make the same with + me.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” I said eagerly, “Miss Smith does not even know Enriquez!” + </p> + <p> + Consuelo turned on me a glance of unutterable significance. “Ah!” she said + darkly, “you TINK!” + </p> + <p> + Indeed I KNEW. But here I believed I understood Consuelo, and was + relieved. I even ventured to say gently, “And you are better?” + </p> + <p> + She drew herself up to her full height, which was not much. “Of my health, + what is it? A nothing. Yes! Of my soul let us not speak.” + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, when Enriquez appeared with Chu Chu she ran towards her with + outstretched arms. Chu Chu protruded about six inches of upper lip in + response—apparently under the impression, which I could quite + understand, that her mistress was edible. And, I may have been mistaken, + but their beautiful eyes met in an absolute and distinct glance of + intelligence! + </p> + <p> + During the home journey Consuelo recovered her spirits, and parted from me + with a magnanimous and forgiving pressure of the hand. I do not know what + explanation of Chu Chu's original escapade was given to Enriquez and the + rest of the family; the inscrutable forgiveness extended to me by Consuelo + precluded any further inquiry on my part. I was willing to leave it a + secret between her and Chu Chu. But, strange to say, it seemed to complete + our own understanding, and precipitated, not only our lovemaking, but the + final catastrophe which culminated that romance. For we had resolved to + elope. I do not know that this heroic remedy was absolutely necessary from + the attitude of either Consuelo's family or my own; I am inclined to think + we preferred it, because it involved no previous explanation or advice. + Need I say that our confidant and firm ally was Consuelo's brother—the + alert, the linguistic, the ever-happy, ever-ready Enriquez! It was + understood that his presence would not only give a certain mature + respectability to our performance—but I do not think we would have + contemplated this step without it. During one of our riding excursions we + were to secure the services of a Methodist minister in the adjoining + county, and, later, that of the Mission padre—when the secret was + out. “I will gif her away,” said Enriquez confidently, “it will on the + instant propitiate the old shadbelly who shall perform the affair, and + withhold his jaw. A little chin-music from your oncle 'Arry shall finish + it! Remain tranquil and forgot not a ring! One does not always, in the + agony and dissatisfaction of the moment, a ring remember. I shall bring + two in the pocket of my dress.” + </p> + <p> + If I did not entirely participate in this roseate view it may have been + because Enriquez, although a few years my senior, was much + younger-looking, and with his demure deviltry of eye, and his upper lip + close shaven for this occasion, he suggested a depraved acolyte rather + than a responsible member of a family. Consuelo had also confided to me + that her father—possibly owing to some rumors of our previous + escapade—had forbidden any further excursions with me alone. The + innocent man did not know that Chu Chu had forbidden it also, and that + even on this momentous occasion both Enriquez and myself were obliged to + ride in opposite fields like out flankers. But we nevertheless felt the + full guilt of disobedience added to our desperate enterprise. Meanwhile, + although pressed for time, and subject to discovery at any moment, I + managed at certain points of the road to dismount and walk beside Chu Chu + (who did not seem to recognize me on foot), holding Consuelo's hand in my + own, with the discreet Enriquez leading my horse in the distant field. I + retain a very vivid picture of that walk—the ascent of a gentle + slope towards a prospect as yet unknown, but full of glorious + possibilities; the tender dropping light of an autumn sky, slightly filmed + with the promise of the future rains, like foreshadowed tears, and the + half frightened, half serious talk into which Consuelo and I had + insensibly fallen. And then, I don't know how it happened, but as we + reached the summit Chu Chu suddenly reared, wheeled, and the next moment + was flying back along the road we had just traveled, at the top of her + speed! It might have been that, after her abstracted fashion, she only at + that moment detected my presence; but so sudden and complete was her + evolution that before I could regain my horse from the astonished Enriquez + she was already a quarter of a mile on the homeward stretch, with the + frantic Consuelo pulling hopelessly at the bridle. We started in pursuit. + But a horrible despair seized us. To attempt to overtake her, to even + follow at the same rate of speed would only excite Chu Chu and endanger + Consuelo's life. There was absolutely no help for it, nothing could be + done; the mare had taken her determined long, continuous stride, the road + was a straight, steady descent all the way back to the village, Chu Chu + had the bit between her teeth, and there was no prospect of swerving her. + We could only follow hopelessly, idiotically, furiously, until Chu Chu + dashed triumphantly into the Saltellos' courtyard, carrying the + half-fainting Consuelo back to the arms of her assembled and astonished + family. + </p> + <p> + It was our last ride together. It was the last I ever saw of Consuelo + before her transfer to the safe seclusion of a convent in Southern + California. It was the last I ever saw of Chu Chu, who in the confusion of + that rencontre was overlooked in her half-loosed harness, and allowed to + escape though the back gate to the fields. Months afterwards it was said + that she had been identified among a band of wild horses in the Coast + Range, as a strange and beautiful creature who had escaped the brand of + the rodeo and had become a myth. There was another legend that she had + been seen, sleek, fat, and gorgeously caparisoned, issuing from the + gateway of the Rosario patio, before a lumbering Spanish cabriole in which + a short, stout matron was seated—but I will have none of it. For + there are days when she still lives, and I can see her plainly still + climbing the gentle slope towards the summit, with Consuelo on her back, + and myself at her side, pressing eagerly forward towards the illimitable + prospect that opens in the distance. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MY FIRST BOOK. + </h2> + <p> + When I say that my “First Book” was NOT my own, and contained beyond the + title-page not one word of my own composition, I trust that I will not be + accused of trifling with paradox, or tardily unbosoming myself of youthful + plagiary. But the fact remains that in priority of publication the first + book for which I became responsible, and which probably provoked more + criticism than anything I have written since, was a small compilation of + Californian poems indited by other hands. + </p> + <p> + A well-known bookseller of San Francisco one day handed me a collection of + certain poems which had already appeared in Pacific Coast magazines and + newspapers, with the request that I should, if possible, secure further + additions to them, and then make a selection of those which I considered + the most notable and characteristic, for a single volume to be issued by + him. I have reason to believe that this unfortunate man was actutated by a + laudable desire to publish a pretty Californian book—HIS first essay + in publication—and at the same time to foster Eastern immigration by + an exhibit of the Californian literary product; but, looking back upon his + venture, I am inclined to think that the little volume never contained + anything more poetically pathetic or touchingly imaginative than that + gentle conception. Equally simple and trustful was his selection of myself + as compiler. It was based somewhat, I think, upon the fact that “the + artless Helicon” I boasted “was Youth,” but I imagine it was chiefly owing + to the circumstance that I had from the outset, with precocious foresight, + confided to him my intention of not putting any of my own verses in the + volume. Publishers are appreciative; and a self-abnegation so sublime, to + say nothing of its security, was not without its effect. + </p> + <p> + We settled to our work with fatuous self-complacency, and no suspicion of + the trouble in store for us, or the storm that was to presently hurtle + around our devoted heads. I winnowed the poems, and he exploited a + preliminary announcement to an eager and waiting press, and we moved + together unwittingly to our doom. I remember to have been early struck + with the quantity of material coming in—evidently the result of some + popular misunderstanding of the announcement. I found myself in daily and + hourly receipt of sere and yellow fragments, originally torn from some + dead and gone newspaper, creased and seamed from long folding in wallet or + pocketbook. Need I say that most of them were of an emotional or didactic + nature; need I add any criticism of these homely souvenirs, often + discolored by the morning coffee, the evening tobacco, or, heaven knows! + perhaps blotted by too easy tears! Enough that I knew now what had become + of those original but never recopied verses which filled the “Poet's + Corner” of every country newspaper on the coast. I knew now the genesis of + every didactic verse that “coldly furnished forth the marriage table” in + the announcement of weddings in the rural press. I knew now who had read—and + possibly indited—the dreary hic jacets of the dead in their mourning + columns. I knew now why certain letters of the alphabet had been more + tenderly considered than others, and affectionately addressed. I knew the + meaning of the “Lines to Her who can best understand them,” and I knew + that they HAD been understood. The morning's post buried my table beneath + these withered leaves of posthumous passion. They lay there like the + pathetic nosegays of quickly fading wild flowers, gathered by school + children, inconsistently abandoned upon roadsides, or as inconsistently + treasured as limp and flabby superstitions in their desks. The chill wind + from the Bay blowing in at the window seemed to rustle them into sad + articulate appeal. I remember that when one of them was whisked from the + window by a stronger gust than usual, and was attaining a circulation it + had never known before, I ran a block or two to recover it. I was young + then, and in an exalted sense of editorial responsibility which I have + since survived, I think I turned pale at the thought that the reputation + of some unknown genius might have thus been swept out and swallowed by the + all-absorbing sea. + </p> + <p> + There were other difficulties arising from this unexpected wealth of + material. There were dozens of poems on the same subject. “The Golden + Gate,” “Mount Shasta,” “The Yosemite,” were especially provocative. A + beautiful bird known as the “Californian Canary” appeared to have been + shot at and winged by every poet from Portland to San Diego. Lines to the + “Mariposa” flower were as thick as the lovely blossoms themselves in the + Merced valley, and the Madrone tree was as “berhymed” as Rosalind. Again, + by a liberal construction of the publisher's announcement, MANUSCRIPT + poems, which had never known print, began to coyly unfold their virgin + blossoms in the morning's mail. They were accompanied by a few lines + stating, casually, that their sender had found them lying forgotten in his + desk, or, mendaciously, that they were “thrown off” on the spur of the + moment a few hours before. Some of the names appended to them astonished + me. Grave, practical business men, sage financiers, fierce speculators, + and plodding traders, never before suspected of poetry, or even correct + prose, were among the contributors. It seemed as if most of the + able-bodied inhabitants of the Pacific Coast had been in the habit at some + time of expressing themselves in verse. Some sought confidential + interviews with the editor. The climax was reached when, in Montgomery + Street, one day, I was approached by a well known and venerable judicial + magnate. After some serious preliminary conversation, the old gentleman + finally alluded to what he was pleased to call a task of “great delicacy + and responsibility laid upon my young shoulders.” “In fact,” he went on + paternally, adding the weight of his judicial hand to that burden, “I have + thought of speaking to you about it. In my leisure moments on the Bench I + have, from time to time, polished and perfected a certain college poem + begun years ago, but which may now be said to have been finished in + California, and thus embraced in the scope of your proposed selection. If + a few extracts, selected by myself, to save you all trouble and + responsibility, be of any benefit to you, my dear young friend, consider + them at your service.” + </p> + <p> + In this fashion the contributions had increased to three times the bulk of + the original collection, and the difficulties of selection were augmented + in proportion. The editor and publisher eyed each other aghast. “Never + thought there were so many of the blamed things alive,” said the latter + with great simplicity, “had you?” The editor had not. “Couldn't you sorter + shake 'em up and condense 'em, you know? keep their ideas—and their + names—separate, so that they'd have proper credit. See?” The editor + pointed out that this would infringe the rule he had laid down. “I see,” + said the publisher thoughtfully; “well, couldn't you pare 'em down; give + the first verse entire and sorter sample the others?” The editor thought + not. There was clearly nothing to do but to make a more rigid selection—a + difficult performance when the material was uniformly on a certain dead + level, which it is not necessary to define here. Among the rejections + were, of course, the usual plagiarisms from well-known authors imposed + upon an inexperienced country press; several admirable pieces detected as + acrostics of patent medicines, and certain veiled libels and indecencies + such as mark the “first” publications on blank walls and fences of the + average youth. Still the bulk remained too large, and the youthful editor + set to work reducing it still more with a sympathizing concern which the + good-natured, but unliterary, publisher failed to understand, and which, + alas! proved to be equally unappreciated by the rejected contributors. + </p> + <p> + The book appeared—a pretty little volume typographically, and + externally a credit to pioneer book-making. Copies were liberally supplied + to the press, and authors and publishers self-complacently awaited the + result. To the latter this should have been satisfactory; the book sold + readily from his well-known counters to purchasers who seemed to be drawn + by a singular curiosity, unaccompanied, however, by any critical comment. + People would lounge in to the shop, turn over the leaves of other volumes, + say carelessly, “Got a new book of California poetry out, haven't you?” + purchase it, and quietly depart. There were as yet no notices from the + press; the big dailies were silent; there was something ominous in this + calm. + </p> + <p> + Out of it the bolt fell. A well-known mining weekly, which I here + poetically veil under the title of the Red Dog “Jay Hawk,” was first to + swoop down upon the tuneful and unsuspecting quarry. At this century-end + of fastidious and complaisant criticism, it may be interesting to recall + the direct style of the Californian “sixties.” “The hogwash and + 'purp'-stuff ladled out from the slop-bucket of Messrs. —— and + Co., of 'Frisco, by some lop-eared Eastern apprentice, and called 'A + Compilation of Californian Verse,' might be passed over, so far as + criticism goes. A club in the hands of any able-bodied citizen of Red Dog, + and a steamboat ticket to the Bay, cheerfully contributed from this + office, would be all-sufficient. But when an imported greenhorn dares to + call his flapdoodle mixture 'Californian,' it is an insult to the State + that has produced the gifted 'Yellow Hammer,' whose lofty flights have + from time to time dazzled our readers in the columns of the 'Jay Hawk.' + That this complacent editorial jackass, browsing among the dock and + thistles which he has served up in this volume, should make no allusion to + California's greatest bard, is rather a confession of his idiocy than a + slur upon the genius of our esteemed contributor.” I turned hurriedly to + my pile of rejected contributions—the nom de plume of “Yellow + Hammer” did NOT appear among them; certainly I had never heard of its + existence. Later, when a friend showed me one of that gifted bard's + pieces, I was inwardly relieved! It was so like the majority of the other + verses, in and out of the volume, that the mysterious poet might have + written under a hundred aliases. But the Dutch Flat “Clarion,” following, + with no uncertain sound, left me small time for consideration. “We doubt,” + said that journal, “if a more feeble collection of drivel could have been + made, even if taken exclusively from the editor's own verses, which we + note he has, by an equal editorial incompetency, left out of the volume. + When we add that, by a felicity of idiotic selection, this person has + chosen only one, and the least characteristic, of the really clever poems + of Adoniram Skaggs, which have so often graced these columns, we have said + enough to satisfy our readers.” The Mormon Hill “Quartz Crusher” relieved + this simple directness with more fancy: “We don't know why Messrs. —— + and Co. send us, under the title of 'Selections of Californian Poetry,' a + quantity of slumgullion which really belongs to the sluices of a placer + mining camp, or the ditches of the rural districts. We have sometimes been + compelled to run a lot of tailings through our stamps, but never of the + grade of the samples offered, which, we should say, would average about + 33-1/3 cents per ton. We have, however, come across a single specimen of + pure gold evidently overlooked by the serene ass who has compiled this + volume. We copy it with pleasure, as it has already shone in the 'Poet's + Corner' of the 'Crusher' as the gifted effusion of the talented Manager of + the Excelsior Mill, otherwise known to our delighted readers as + 'Outcrop.'” The Green Springs “Arcadian” was no less fanciful in imagery: + “Messrs. —— and Co. send us a gaudy green-and-yellow, + parrot-colored volume, which is supposed to contain the first callow + 'cheepings' and 'peepings' of Californian songsters. From the flavor of + the specimens before us we should say that the nest had been disturbed + prematurely. There seems to be a good deal of the parrot inside as well as + outside the covers, and we congratulate our own sweet singer 'Blue Bird,' + who has so often made these columns melodious, that she has escaped the + ignominy of being exhibited in Messrs. —— and Co.'s aviary.” I + should add that this simile of the aviary and its occupants was ominous, + for my tuneful choir was relentlessly slaughtered; the bottom of the cage + was strewn with feathers! The big dailies collected the criticisms and + published them in their own columns with the grim irony of exaggerated + head-lines. The book sold tremendously on account of this abuse, but I am + afraid that the public was disappointed. The fun and interest lay in the + criticisms, and not in any pointedly ludicrous quality in the rather + commonplace collection, and I fear I cannot claim for it even that merit. + And it will be observed that the animus of the criticism appeared to be + the omission rather than the retention of certain writers. + </p> + <p> + But this brings me to the most extraordinary feature of this singular + demonstration. I do not think that the publishers were at all troubled by + it; I cannot conscientiously say that I was; I have every reason to + believe that the poets themselves, in and out of the volume, were not + displeased at the notoriety they had not expected, and I have long since + been convinced that my most remorseless critics were not in earnest, but + were obeying some sudden impulse started by the first attacking journal. + The extravagance of the Red Dog “Jay Hawk” was emulated by others: it was + a large, contagious joke, passed from journal to journal in a peculiar + cyclonic Western fashion. And there still lingers, not unpleasantly, in my + memory the conclusion of a cheerfully scathing review of the book which + may make my meaning clearer: “If we have said anything in this article + which might cause a single pang to the poetically sensitive nature of the + youthful individual calling himself Mr. Francis Bret Harte—but who, + we believe, occasionally parts his name and his hair in the middle—we + will feel that we have not labored in vain, and are ready to sing Nunc + Dimittis, and hand in our checks. We have no doubt of the absolutely + pellucid and lacteal purity of Franky's intentions. He means well to the + Pacific Coast, and we return the compliment. But he has strayed away from + his parents and guardians while he was too fresh. He will not keep without + a little salt.” + </p> + <p> + It was thirty years ago. The book and its Rabelaisian criticisms have been + long since forgotten. Alas! I fear that even the capacity for that + Gargantuan laughter which met them, in those days, exists no longer. The + names I have used are necessarily fictitious, but where I have been + obliged to quote the criticisms from memory I have, I believe, only + softened their asperity. I do not know that this story has any moral. The + criticisms here recorded never hurt a reputation nor repressed a single + honest aspiration. A few contributors to the volume, who were of original + merit, have made their mark, independently of it or its critics. The + editor, who was for two months the most abused man on the Pacific slope, + within the year became the editor of its first successful magazine. Even + the publisher prospered, and died respected! + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other +Stories, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + +***** This file should be named 2676-h.htm or 2676-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/7/2676/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +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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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: The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2676] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + +JOHNNYBOY + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA + +CHU CHU + +MY FIRST BOOK + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful +grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain, +there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies +like a small island in the stream. To the strongly-marked heroics of +Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and +gray mosses from the overhanging rocks and feathery alders trail their +filaments in its slow current, and between the woodland openings there +are glimpses of vivid velvet sward, even at times when the wild oats and +"wire-grasses" of the plains are already yellowing. The placid river, +unstained at this point by mining sluices or mill drift, runs clear +under its contemplative shadows. Originally the camping-ground of a +Digger Chief, it passed from his tenancy with the American rifle bullet +that terminated his career. The pioneer who thus succeeded to its +attractive calm gave way in turn to a well-directed shot from the +revolver of a quartz-prospector, equally impressed with the charm of +its restful tranquillity. How long he might have enjoyed its riparian +seclusion is not known. A sudden rise of the river one March night +quietly removed him, together with the overhanging post oak beneath +which he was profoundly but unconsciously meditating. The demijohn of +whiskey was picked up further down. But no other suggestion of these +successive evictions was ever visible in the reposeful serenity of the +spot. + +It was later occupied, and a cabin built upon the spot, by one Alexander +McGee, better known as "the Bell-ringer of Angel's." This euphonious +title, which might have suggested a consistently peaceful occupation, +however, referred to his accuracy of aim at a mechanical target, where +the piercing of the bull's eye was celebrated by the stroke of a bell. +It is probable that this singular proficiency kept his investment of +that gentle seclusion unchallenged. At all events it was uninvaded. He +shared it only with the birds. Perhaps some suggestion of nest building +may have been in his mind, for one pleasant spring morning he brought +hither a wife. It was his OWN; and in this way he may be said to have +introduced that morality which is supposed to be the accompaniment and +reflection of pastoral life. Mrs. McGee's red petticoat was sometimes +seen through the trees--a cheerful bit of color. Mrs. McGee's red +cheeks, plump little figure, beribboned hat and brown, still-girlish +braids were often seen at sunset on the river bank, in company with +her husband, who seemed to be pleased with the discreet and distant +admiration that followed them. Strolling under the bland shadows of the +cotton-woods, by the fading gold of the river, he doubtless felt that +peace which the mere world cannot give, and which fades not away before +the clear, accurate eye of the perfect marksman. + +Their nearest neighbors were the two brothers Wayne, who took up +a claim, and built themselves a cabin on the river bank near the +promontory. Quiet, simple men, suspected somewhat of psalm-singing, and +undue retirement on Sundays, they attracted but little attention. But +when, through some original conception or painstaking deliberation, they +turned the current of the river so as to restrict the overflow between +the promontory and the river bank, disclosing an auriferous "bar" of +inconceivable richness, and establishing their theory that it was really +the former channel of the river, choked and diverted though ages of +alluvial drift, they may be said to have changed, also, the fortunes +of the little settlement. Popular feeling and the new prosperity which +dawned upon the miners recognized the two brothers by giving the name of +Wayne's Bar to the infant settlement and its post-office. The peaceful +promontory, although made easier of access, still preserved its calm +seclusion, and pretty Mrs. McGee could contemplate through the leaves of +her bower the work going on at its base, herself unseen. Nevertheless, +this Arcadian retreat was being slowly and surely invested; more than +that, the character of its surroundings was altered, and the complexion +of the river had changed. The Wayne engines on the point above had +turned the drift and debris into the current that now thickened and ran +yellow around the wooded shore. The fringes of this Eden were already +tainted with the color of gold. + +It is doubtful, however, if Mrs. McGee was much affected by this +sentimental reflection, and her husband, in a manner, lent himself to +the desecration of his exclusive domain by accepting a claim along +the shore--tendered by the conscientious Waynes in compensation for +restricting the approach to the promontory--and thus participated in +the fortunes of the Bar. Mrs. McGee amused herself by watching from +her eyrie, with a presumably childish interest, the operations of +the red-shirted brothers on the Bar; her husband, however, always +accompanying her when she crossed the Bar to the bank. Some two or three +other women--wives of miners--had joined the camp, but it was evident +that McGee was as little inclined to intrust his wife to their +companionship as to that of their husbands. An opinion obtained that +McGee, being an old resident, with alleged high connections in Angel's, +was inclined to be aristocratic and exclusive. + +Meantime, the two brothers who had founded the fortunes of the Bar were +accorded an equally high position, with an equal amount of reserve. +Their ways were decidedly not those of the other miners, and were as +efficacious in keeping them from familiar advances as the reputation of +Mr. McGee was in isolating his wife. Madison Wayne, the elder, was +tall, well-knit and spare, reticent in speech and slow in deduction; +his brother, Arthur, was of rounder outline, but smaller and of a more +delicate and perhaps a more impressible nature. It was believed by some +that it was within the range of possibility that Arthur would yet be +seen "taking his cocktail like a white man," or "dropping his scads" +at draw poker. At present, however, they seemed content to spend their +evenings in their own cabin, and their Sundays at a grim Presbyterian +tabernacle in the next town, to which they walked ten miles, where, it +was currently believed, "hell fire was ladled out free," and "infants +damned for nothing." When they did not go to meeting it was also +believed that the minister came to them, until it was ascertained that +the sound of sacred recitation overheard in their cabin was simply +Madison Wayne reading the Bible to his younger brother. McGee is said +to have stopped on one of these occasions--unaccompanied by his +wife--before their cabin, moving away afterwards with more than his +usual placid contentment. + +It was about eleven o'clock one morning, and Madison Wayne was at work +alone on the Bar. Clad in a dark gray jersey and white duck trousers +rolled up over high india-rubber boots, he looked not unlike a peaceful +fisherman digging stakes for his nets, as he labored in the ooze and +gravel of the still half-reclaimed river bed. He was far out on the Bar, +within a stone's throw of the promontory. Suddenly his quick ear caught +an unfamiliar cry and splash. Looking up hastily, he saw Mrs. McGee's +red petticoat in the water under the singularly agitated boughs of an +overhanging tree. Madison Wayne ran to the bank, threw off his heavy +boots, and sprang into the stream. A few strokes brought him to Mrs. +McGee's petticoat, which, as he had wisely surmised, contained Mrs. +McGee, who was still clinging to a branch of the tree. Grasping her +waist with one hand and the branch with the other, he obtained a +foothold on the bank, and dragged her ashore. A moment later they both +stood erect and dripping at the foot of the tree. + +"Well?" said the lady. + +Wayne glanced around their seclusion with his habitual caution, slightly +knit his brows perplexedly, and said: "You fell in?" + +"I didn't do nothin' of the sort. I JUMPED in." + +Wayne again looked around him, as if expecting her companion, and +squeezed the water out of his thick hair. "Jumped in?" he repeated +slowly. "What for?" + +"To make you come over here, Mad Wayne," she said, with a quick laugh, +putting her arms akimbo. + +They stood looking at each other, dripping like two river gods. Like +them, also, Wayne had apparently ignored the fact that his trousers were +rolled up above his bare knees, and Mrs. McGee that her red petticoat +clung closely to her rather pretty figure. But he quickly recovered +himself. "You had better go in and change your clothes," he said, with +grave concern. "You'll take cold." + +She only shook herself disdainfully. "I'm all right," she said; "but +YOU, Mad Wayne, what do you mean by not speaking to me--not knowing me? +You can't say that I've changed like that." She passed her hand down her +long dripping braids as if to press the water from them, and yet with a +half-coquettish suggestion in the act. + +Something struggled up into the man's face which was not there before. +There was a new light in his grave eyes. "You look the same," he said +slowly; "but you are married--you have a husband." + +"You think that changes a girl?" she said, with a laugh "That's where +all you men slip up! You're afraid of his rifle--THAT'S the change that +bothers you, Mad." + +"You know I care little for carnal weapons," he said quietly. She DID +know it; but it is the privilege of the sex to invent its facts and then +to graciously abandon them as if they were only arguments. "Then why do +you keep off from me? Why do you look the other way when I pass?" she +said quickly. + +"Because you are married," he said slowly. + +She again shook the water from her like a Newfoundland dog. "That's it. +You're mad because I got married. You're mad because I wouldn't marry +you and your church over on the cross roads, and sing hymns with you and +become SISTER Wayne. You wanted me to give up dancing and buggy ridin' +Sundays--and you're just mad because I didn't. Yes, mad--just mean, baby +mad, Mr. Maddy Wayne, for all your CHRISTIAN resignation! That's what's +the matter with you." Yet she looked very pretty and piquant in her +small spitefulness, which was still so general and superficial that +she seemed to shake it out of her wet petticoats in a vicious flap that +disclosed her neat ankles. + +"You preferred McGee to me," he said grimly. "I didn't blame you." + +"Who said I PREFERRED him?" she retorted quickly. "Much you know!" +Then, with swift feminine abandonment of her position, she added, with a +little laugh, "It's all the same whether you're guarded with a rifle or +a Church Presbytery, only"-- + +"Only what?" said Madison earnestly. + +"There's men who'd risk being SHOT for a girl, that couldn't stand +psalm-singin' palaver." + +The quick expression of pain that passed over his hard, dark face seemed +only to heighten her pretty mischievousness. But he simply glanced again +around the solitude, passed his hand over his wet sleeve, and said, "I +must go now; your husband wouldn't like me being here." + +"He's workin' in the claim,--the claim YOU gave him," said Mrs. McGee, +with cheerful malice. "Wonder what he'd say if he knew it was given to +him by the man who used to spark his wife only two years ago? How does +that suit your Christian conscience, Mad?" + +"I should have told him, had I not believed that everything was over +between us, or that it was possible that you and me should ever meet +again," he returned, in a tone so measured that the girl seemed to hear +the ring of the conventicle in it. + +"Should you, BROTHER Wayne?" she said, imitating him. "Well, let me tell +you that you are the one man on the Bar that Sandy has taken a fancy +to." + +Madison's sallow cheek colored a little, but he did not speak. + +"Well!" continued Mrs. McGee impatiently. "I don't believe he'd object +to your comin' here to see me--if you cared." + +"But I wouldn't care to come, unless he first knew that I had been once +engaged to you," said Madison gravely. + +"Perhaps he might not think as much of that as you do," retorted the +woman pertly. "Every one isn't as straitlaced as you, and every girl has +had one or two engagements. But do as you like--stay at home if you want +to, and sing psalms and read the Scriptures to that younger brother of +yours! All the same, I'm thinkin' he'd rather be out with the boys." + +"My brother is God-fearing and conscientious," said Madison quickly. +"You do not know him. You have never seen him." + +"No," said Mrs. McGee shortly. She then gave a little shiver (that was, +however, half simulated) in her wet garments, and added: "ONE saint was +enough for me; I couldn't stand the whole church, Mad." + +"You are catching cold," he said quickly, his whole face brightening +with a sudden tenderness that seemed to transfigure the dark features. +"I am keeping you here when you should be changing your clothes. Go, I +beg you, at once." + +She stood still provokingly, with an affectation of wiping her arms and +shoulders and sopping her wet dress with clusters of moss. + +"Go, please do--Safie, please!" + +"Ah!"--she drew a quick, triumphant breath. "Then you'll come again to +see me, Mad?" + +"Yes," he said slowly, and even more gravely than before. + +"But you must let me show you the way out--round under those +trees--where no one can see you come." She held out her hand. + +"I'll go the way I came," he said quietly, swinging himself silently +from the nearest bough into the stream. And before she could utter a +protest he was striking out as silently, hand over hand, across the +current. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +A week later Madison Wayne was seated alone in his cabin. His supper +table had just been cleared by his Chinese coolie, as it was getting +late, and the setting sun, which for half an hour had been persistently +making a vivid beacon of his windows for the benefit of wayfarers along +the river bank, had at last sunk behind the cottonwoods. His head was +resting on his hand; the book he had been reading when the light faded +was lying open on the table before him. In this attitude he became aware +of a hesitating step on the gravel outside his open door. He had been +so absorbed that the approach of any figure along the only highway--the +river bank--had escaped his observation. Looking up, he discovered +that Mr. Alexander McGee was standing in the doorway, his hand resting +lightly on the jamb. A sudden color suffused Wayne's cheek; his hand +reached for his book, which he drew towards him hurriedly, yet half +automatically, as he might have grasped some defensive weapon. + +The Bell-ringer of Angel's noticed the act, but not the blush, and +nodded approvingly. "Don't let me disturb ye. I was only meanderin' +by and reckoned I'd say 'How do?' in passin'." He leaned gently back +against the door-post, to do which comfortably he was first obliged to +shift the revolver on his hip. The sight of the weapon brought a slight +contraction to the brows of Wayne, but he gravely said: "Won't you come +in?" + +"It ain't your prayin' time?" said McGee politely. + +"No." + +"Nor you ain't gettin' up lessons outer the Book?" he continued +thoughtfully. + +"No." + +"Cos it don't seem, so to speak, you see, the square thing to be +botherin' a man when he might be doin' suthin' else, don't you see? You +understand what I mean?" + +It was his known peculiarity that he always seemed to be suffering from +an inability to lucid expression, and the fear of being misunderstood in +regard to the most patent or equally the most unimportant details of his +speech. All of which, however, was in very remarkable contrast to his +perfectly clear and penetrating eyes. + +Wayne gravely assured him that he was not interrupting him in any way. + +"I often thought--that is, I had an idea, you understand what I mean--of +stoppin' in passing. You and me, you see, are sorter alike; we don't +seem to jibe in with the gin'ral gait o' the camp. You understand what I +mean? We ain't in the game, eh? You see what I'm after?" + +Madison Wayne glanced half mechanically at McGee's revolver. McGee's +clear eyes at once took in the glance. + +"That's it! You understand? You with them books of yours, and me with +my shootin' iron--we're sort o' different from the rest, and ought to be +kinder like partners. You understand what I mean? We keep this camp in +check. We hold a full hand, and don't stand no bluffing." + +"If you mean there is some effect in Christian example and the life of a +God-fearing man"--began Madison gravely. + +"That's it! God-fearin' or revolver-fearin', it amounts to the same when +you come down to the hard pan and bed-rock," interrupted McGee. "I ain't +expectin' you to think much of my style, but I go a heap on yours, even +if I can't play your game. And I sez to my wife, 'Safie'--her that trots +around with me sometimes--I sez, 'Safie, I oughter know that man, and +shall. And I WANT YOU to know him.' Hol' on," he added quickly, as +Madison rose with a flushed face and a perturbed gesture. "Ye don't +understand! I see wot's in your mind--don't you see? When I married +my wife and brought her down here, knowin' this yer camp, I sez: 'No +flirtin', no foolin', no philanderin' here, my dear! You're young and +don't know the ways o' men. The first man I see you talking with, I +shoot. You needn't fear, my dear, for accidents. I kin shoot all round +you, under your arm, across your shoulders, over your head and between +your fingers, my dear, and never start skin or fringe or ruffle. But I +don't miss HIM. You sorter understand what I mean,' sez I,'so don't!' Ye +noticed how my wife is respected, Mr. Wayne? Queen Victoria sittin' on +her throne ain't in it with my Safie. But when I see YOU not herdin' +with that cattle, never liftin' your eyes to me or Safie as we pass, +never hangin' round the saloons and jokin', nor winkin', nor slingin' +muddy stories about women, but prayin' and readin' Scripter stories, +here along with your brother, I sez to myself, I sez, 'Sandy, ye kin +take off your revolver and hang up your shot gun when HE'S around. For +'twixt HIM and your wife ain't no revolver, but the fear of God and hell +and damnation and the world to come!' You understand what I mean, don't +ye? Ye sorter follow my lead, eh? Ye can see what I'm shootin' round, +don't ye? So I want you to come up neighborly like, and drop in to see +my wife." + +Madison Wayne's face became set and hard again, but he advanced towards +McGee with the book against his breast, and his finger between the +leaves. "I already know your wife, Mr. McGee! I saw her before YOU ever +met her. I was engaged to her; I loved her, and--as far as man may +love the wife of another and keep the commands of this book--I love her +still!" + +To his surprise, McGee, whose calm eyes had never dimmed or blenched, +after regarding him curiously, took the volume from him, laid it on the +table, opened it, turned its leaves critically, said earnestly, "That's +the law here, is it?" and then held out his hand. + +"Shake!" + +Madison Wayne hesitated--and then grasped his hand. + +"Ef I had known this," continued McGee, "I reckon I wouldn't have +been so hard on Safie and so partikler. She's better than I took her +for--havin' had you for a beau! You understand what I mean. You follow +me--don't ye? I allus kinder wondered why she took me, but sens you've +told me that YOU used to spark her, in your God-fearin' way, I reckon it +kinder prepared her for ME. You understand? Now you come up, won't ye?" + +"I will call some evening with my brother," said Wayne embarrassedly. + +"With which?" demanded McGee. + +"My brother Arthur. We usually spend the evenings together." + +McGee paused, leaned against the doorpost, and, fixing his clear eyes on +Wayne, said: "Ef it's all the same to you, I'd rather you did not bring +him. You understand what I mean? You follow me; no other man but you and +me. I ain't sayin' anything agin' your brother, but you see how it is, +don't you? Just me and you." + +"Very well, I will come," said Wayne gloomily. But as McGee backed out +of the door, he followed him, hesitatingly. Then, with an effort he +seemed to recover himself, and said almost harshly: "I ought to tell you +another thing--that I have seen and spoken to Mrs. McGee since she +came to the Bar. She fell into the water last week, and I swam out and +dragged her ashore. We talked and spoke of the past." + +"She fell in," echoed McGee. + +Wayne hesitated; then a murky blush came into his face as he slowly +repeated, "She FELL in." + +McGee's eyes only brightened. "I have been too hard on her. She might +have drowned ef you hadn't took risks. You see? You understand what I +mean? And she never let out anything about it--and never boasted o' YOU +helpin' her out. All right--you'll come along and see her agin'." He +turned and walked cheerfully away. + +Wayne re-entered the cabin. He sat for a long time by the window until +the stars came out above the river, and another star, with which he had +been long familiar, took its place apparently in the heart of the wooded +crest of the little promontory. Then the fringing woods on the opposite +shore became a dark level line across the landscape, and the color +seemed to fade out of the moist shining gravel before his cabin. +Presently the silhouette of his dark face disappeared from the window, +and Mr. McGee might have been gratified to know that he had slipped to +his knees before the chair whereon he had been sitting, and that his +head was bowed before it on his clasped hands. In a little while he rose +again, and, dragging a battened old portmanteau from the corner, took +out a number of letters tied up in a package, with which, from time to +time, he slowly fed the flame that flickered on his hearth. In this way +the windows of the cabin at times sprang into light, making a somewhat +confusing beacon for the somewhat confused Arthur Wayne, who was +returning from a visit to Angel's, and who had fallen into that slightly +morose and irritated state which follows excessive hilarity, and is also +apt to indicate moral misgivings. + +But the last letter was burnt and the cabin quite dark when he entered. +His brother was sitting by the slowly dying fire, and he trusted that +in that uncertain light any observation of his expression or manner--of +which he himself was uneasily conscious--would pass unheeded. + +"You are late," said Madison gravely. + +At which his brother rashly assumed the aggressive. He was no later than +the others, and if the Rogers boys were good enough to walk with him +for company he couldn't run ahead of them just because his brother was +waiting! He didn't want any supper, he had something at the Cross Roads +with the others. Yes! WHISKEY, if he wanted to know. People couldn't +keep coffee and temperance drinks just to please him and his brother, +and he wasn't goin' to insult the others by standing aloof. Anyhow, he +had never taken the pledge, and as long as he hadn't he couldn't see +why he should refuse a single glass. As it was, everybody said he was a +milksop, and a tender-foot, and he was just sick of it. + +Madison rose and lit a candle and held it up before his brother's face. +It was a handsome, youthful face that looked into his, flushed with the +excitement of novel experiences and perhaps a more material stimulation. +The little silken moustache was ostentatiously curled, the brown curls +were redolent of bear's grease. Yet there was a certain boyish timidity +and nervousness in the defiance of his blue eyes that momentarily +touched the elder brother. + +"I've been too hand with him," he said to himself, half consciously +recalling what McGee had said of Safie. He put the candle down, laid +his hand gently on Arthur's shoulder, and said, with a certain cautious +tenderness, "Come, Arty, sit down and tell me all about it." + +Whereupon the mercurial Arthur, not only relieved of his nervousness but +of his previous ethical doubts and remorse, became gay and voluble. +He had finished his purchases at Angel's, and the storekeeper had +introduced him to Colonel Starbottle, of Kentucky, as one of "the Waynes +who had made Wayne's Bar famous." Colonel Starbottle had said in his +pompous fashion--yet he was not such a bad fellow, after all--that the +Waynes ought to be represented in the Councils of the State, and +that he, Starbottle, would be proud to nominate Madison for the next +Legislature and run him, too. "And you know, really, Mad, if you mixed +a little more with folks, and they weren't--well, sorter AFRAID of +you--you could do it. Why, I've made a heap o' friends over there, +just by goin' round a little, and one of old Selvedge's girls--the +storekeeper, you know--said from what she'd heard of us, she always +thought I was about fifty, and turned up the whites of my eyes instead +of the ends of my moustache! She's mighty smart! Then the Postmaster has +got his wife and three daughters out from the States, and they've asked +me to come over to their church festival next week. It isn't our church, +of course, but I suppose it's all right." + +This and much more with the volubility of relieved feelings. When he +stopped, out of breath, Madison said, "I have had a visitor since you +left--Mr. McGee." + +"And his wife?" asked Arthur quickly. Madison flushed slightly. "No; but +he asked me to go and see her." + +"That's HER doin', then," returned Arthur, with a laugh. "She's always +lookin' round the corners of her eyes at me when she passes. Why, John +Rogers was joking me about her only yesterday, and said McGee would blow +a hole through me some of these days if I didn't look out! Of course," +he added, affectedly curling his moustache, "that's nonsense! But you +know how they talk, and she's too pretty for that fellow McGee." + +"She has found a careful helpmeet in her husband," said Madison sternly, +"and it's neither seemly nor Christian in you, Arthur, to repeat the +idle, profane gossip of the Bar. I knew her before her marriage, and if +she was not a professing Christian, she was, and is, a pure, good woman! +Let us have no more of this." + +Whether impressed by the tone of his brother's voice, or only affected +by his own mercurial nature, Arthur changed the subject to further +voluble reminiscences of his trip to Angel's. Yet he did not seem +embarrassed nor disconcerted when his brother, in the midst of his +speech, placed the candle and the Bible on the table, with two chairs +before it. He listened to Madison's monotonous reading of the evening +exercise with equally monotonous respect. Then they both arose, without +looking at each other, but with equally set and stolid faces, and knelt +down before their respective chairs, clasping the back with both hands, +and occasionally drawing the hard, wooden frames against their breasts +convulsively, as if it were a penitential act. It was the elder brother +who that night prayed aloud. It was his voice that rose higher by +degrees above the low roof and encompassing walls, the level river camp +lights that trembled through the window, the dark belt of riverside +trees, and the light on the promontory's crest--up to the tranquil, +passionless stars themselves. + +With those confidences to his Maker this chronicle does not +lie--obtrusive and ostentatious though they were in tone and attitude. +Enough that they were a general arraignment of humanity, the Bar, +himself, and his brother, and indeed much that the same Maker had +created and permitted. That through this hopeless denunciation still +lingered some human feeling and tenderness might have been shown by the +fact that at its close his hands trembled and his face was bedewed by +tears. And his brother was so deeply affected that he resolved hereafter +to avoid all evening prayers. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +It was a week later that Madison Wayne and Mr. McGee were seen, to the +astonishment of the Bar, leisurely walking together in the direction of +the promontory. Here they disappeared, entering a damp fringe of willows +and laurels that seemed to mark its limits, and gradually ascending some +thickly-wooded trail, until they reached its crest, which, to Madison's +surprise, was cleared and open, and showed an acre or two of rude +cultivation. Here, too, stood the McGees' conjugal home--a small, +four-roomed house, but so peculiar and foreign in aspect that it at +once challenged even Madison's abstracted attention. It was a tiny Swiss +chalet, built in sections, and originally packed in cases, one of the +early importations from Europe to California after the gold discovery, +when the country was supposed to be a woodless wilderness. Mr. McGee +explained, with his usual laborious care, how he had bought it at +Marysville, not only for its picturesqueness, but because in its +unsuggestive packing-cases it offered no indication to the curious +miners, and could be put up by himself and a single uncommunicative +Chinaman, without any one else being aware of its existence. There was, +indeed, something quaint in this fragment of Old World handicraft, with +its smooth-jointed paneling, in two colors, its little lozenge fretwork, +its lapped roof, overhanging eaves, and miniature gallery. Inartistic +as Madison was--like most men of rigidly rectangular mind and +principle--and accustomed to the bleak and economic sufficiency of the +Californian miner's cabin, he was touched strangely by its novel grace +and freshness. It reminded him of HER; he had a new respect for this +rough, sinful man who had thus idealized his wife in her dwelling. +Already a few Madeira vines and a Cherokee rose clambered up the +gallery. And here Mrs. McGee was sitting. + +In the face that she turned upon the two men Madison could see that she +was not expecting them, and even in the slight curiosity with which +she glanced at her husband, that evidently he had said nothing of his +previous visit or invitation. And this conviction became certainty at +Mr. McGee's first words. + +"I've brought you an ole friend, Safie. He used to spark ye once at +Angel's afore my time--he told me so; he picked ye outer the water +here--he told me that, too. Ye mind that I said afore that he was the +only man I wanted ter know; I reckon now it seems the square thing that +he should be the one man YOU wanted ter know, too. You understand what I +mean--you follow me, don't you?" + +Whether or not Mrs. McGee DID follow him, she exhibited neither concern, +solicitude, nor the least embarrassment. An experienced lover might have +augured ill from this total absence of self-consciousness. But Madison +was not an experienced lover. He accepted her amused smile as a +recognition of his feelings, trembled at the touch of her cool hands, +as if it had been a warm pressure, and scarcely dared to meet her +maliciously laughing eyes. When he had followed Mr. McGee to the little +gallery, the previous occupation of Mrs. McGee when they arrived was +explained. From that slight elevation there was a perfect view over the +whole landscape and river below; the Bar stretched out as a map at her +feet; in that clear, transparent air she could see every movement and +gesture of Wayne's brother, all unconscious of that surveillance, at +work on the Bar. For an instant Madison's sallow cheek reddened, he knew +not why; a remorseful feeling that he ought to be there with Arthur came +over him. Mrs. McGee's voice seemed to answer his thought. "You can see +everything that's going on down there without being seen yourself. It's +good fun for me sometimes. The other day I saw that young Carpenter +hanging round Mrs. Rogers's cabin in the bush when old Rogers was away. +And I saw her creep out and join him, never thinking any one could see +her!" + +She laughed, seeking Madison's averted eyes, yet scarcely noticing his +suddenly contracted brows. Mr. McGee alone responded. + +"That's why," he said, explanatorily, to Madison, "I don't allow to have +my Safie go round with those women. Not as I ever see anything o' +that sort goin' on, or keer to look, but on gin'ral principles. You +understand what I mean." + +"That's your brother over there, isn't it?" said Mrs. McGee, turning to +Madison and calmly ignoring her husband's explanation, as she indicated +the distant Arthur. "Why didn't you bring him along with you?" + +Madison hesitated, and looked at McGee. "He wasn't asked," said that +gentleman cheerfully. "One's company, two's none! You don't know him, +my dear; and this yer ain't a gin'ral invitation to the Bar. You follow +me?" + +To this Mrs. McGee made no comment, but proceeded to show Madison over +the little cottage. Yet in a narrow passage she managed to touch his +hand, lingered to let her husband precede them from one room to another, +and once or twice looked meaningly into his eyes over McGee's shoulder. +Disconcerted and embarrassed, he tried to utter a few commonplaces, but +so constrainedly that even McGee presently noticed it. And the result +was still more embarrassing. + +"Look yer," he said, suddenly turning to them both. "I reckon as how you +two wanter talk over old times, and I'll just meander over to the claim, +and do a spell o' work. Don't mind ME. And if HE"--indicating Madison +with his finger--"gets on ter religion, don't you mind him. It won't +hurt you, Safie,--no more nor my revolver,--but it's pow'ful persuadin', +and you understand me? You follow me? Well, so long!" + +He turned away quickly, and was presently lost among the trees. For an +instant the embarrassed Madison thought of following him; but he was +confronted by Mrs. McGee's wicked eyes and smiling face between him +and the door. Composing herself, however, with a simulation of perfect +gravity she pointed to a chair. + +"Sit down, Brother Wayne. If you're going to convert me, it may take +some time, you know, and you might as well make yourself comfortable. +As for me, I'll take the anxious bench." She laughed with a certain +girlishness, which he well remembered, and leaped to a sitting posture +on the table with her hands on her knees, swinging her smart shoes +backwards and forwards below it. + +Madison looked at her in hopeless silence, with a pale, disturbed face +and shining eyes. + +"Or, if you want to talk as we used to talk, Mad, when we sat on the +front steps at Angel's and pa and ma went inside to give us a show, ye +can hop up alongside o' me." She made a feint of gathering her skirts +beside her. + +"Safie!" broke out the unfortunate man, in a tone that seemed to +increase in formal solemnity with his manifest agitation, "this is +impossible. The laws of God that have joined you and this man"-- + +"Oh, it's the prayer-meeting, is it?" said Safie, settling her skirts +again, with affected resignation. "Go on." + +"Listen, Safie," said Madison, turning despairingly towards her. "Let +us for His sake, let us for the sake of our dear blessed past, talk +together earnestly and prayerfully. Let us take this time to root out of +our feeble hearts all yearnings that are not prompted by Him--yearnings +that your union with this man makes impossible and sinful. Let us for +the sake of the past take counsel of each other, even as brother and +sister." + +"Sister McGee!" she interrupted mockingly. "It wasn't as brother and +sister you made love to me at Angel's." + +"No! I loved you then, and would have made you my wife." + +"And you don't love me any more," she said, audaciously darting a wicked +look into his eyes, "only because I didn't marry you? And you think that +Christian?" + +"You know I love you as I have loved you always," he said passionately. + +"Hush!" she said mockingly; "suppose he should hear you." + +"He knows it!" said Madison bitterly. "I told him all!" + +She stared at him fixedly. + +"You have--told--him--that--you STILL love me?" she repeated slowly. + +"Yes, or I wouldn't be here now. It was due to him--to my own +conscience." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He insisted upon my coming, and, as God is my Judge and witness--he +seemed satisfied and content." + +She drew her pretty lips together with a long whistle, and then leaped +from the table. Her face was hard and her eyes were bright as she went +to the window and looked out. He followed her timidly. + +"Don't touch me," she said, sharply striking away his proffered hand. +He turned with a flushed cheek and walked slowly towards the door. Her +laugh stopped him. + +"Come! I reckon that squeezin' hands ain't no part of your contract with +Sandy?" she said, glancing down at her own. "Well, so you're goin'?" + +"I only wished to talk seriously and prayerfully with you for a few +moments, Safie, and then--to see you no more." + +"And how would that suit him," she said dryly, "if he wants your company +here? Then, just because you can't convert me and bring me to your ways +of thinkin' in one visit, I suppose you think it is Christian-like to +run away like this! Or do you suppose that, if you turn tail now, he +won't believe that your Christian strength and Christian resignation is +all humbug?" + +Madison dropped into the chair, put his elbows on the table, and buried +his face in his hands. She came a little nearer, and laid her hand +lightly on his arm. He made a movement as if to take it, but she +withdrew it impatiently. + +"Come," she said brusquely; "now you're in for it you must play the game +out. He trusts you; if he sees you can't trust yourself, he'll shoot you +on sight. That don't frighten you? Well, perhaps this will then! He'll +SAY your religion is a sham and you a hypocrite--and everybody will +believe him. How do you like that, Brother Wayne? How will that help +the Church? Come! You're a pair of cranks together; but he's got the +whip-hand of you this time. All you can do is to keep up to his idea +of you. Put a bold face on it, and come here as often as you can--the +oftener the better; the sooner you'll both get sick of each other--and +of ME. That's what you're both after, ain't it? Well! I can tell you +now, you needn't either of you be the least afraid of me." + +She walked away to the window again, not angrily, but smoothing down the +folds of her bright print dress as if she were wiping her hands of her +husband and his guest. Something like a very material and man-like sense +of shame struggled up through his crust of religion. He stammered, "You +don't understand me, Safie." + +"Then talk of something I do understand," she said pertly. "Tell me +some news of Angel's. Your brother was over there the other day. He +made himself quite popular with the young ladies--so I hear from Mrs. +Selvedge. You can tell me as we walk along the bank towards Sandy's +claim. It's just as well that you should move on now, as it's your FIRST +call, and next time you can stop longer." She went to the corner of the +room, removed her smart slippers, and put on a pair of walking-shoes, +tying them, with her foot on a chair, in a quiet disregard of her +visitor's presence; took a brown holland sunbonnet from the wall, +clapped it over her browner hair and hanging braids, and tied it under +her chin with apparently no sense of coquetry in the act--becoming +though it was--and without glancing at him. Alas for Madison's ethics! +The torment of her worldly speech and youthful contempt was nothing to +this tacit ignoring of the manhood of her lover--this silent acceptance +of him as something even lower than her husband. He followed her with a +burning cheek and a curious revolting of his whole nature that it is to +be feared were scarcely Christian. The willows opened to let them pass +and closed behind them. + +An hour later Mrs. McGee returned to her leafy bower alone. She took off +her sunbonnet, hung it on its nail on the wall, shook down her braids, +took off her shoes, stained with the mud of her husband's claim, and put +on her slippers. Then she ascended to her eyrie in the little gallery, +and gazed smilingly across the sunlit Bar. The two gaunt shadows of +her husband and lover, linked like twins, were slowly passing along the +river bank on their way to the eclipsing obscurity of the cottonwoods. +Below her--almost at her very feet--the unconscious Arthur Wayne was +pushing his work on the river bed, far out to the promontory. The +sunlight fell upon his vivid scarlet shirt, his bared throat, and head +clustering with perspiring curls. The same sunlight fell upon Mrs. +McGee's brown head too, and apparently put a wicked fancy inside it. She +ran to her bedroom, and returned with a mirror from its wall, and, after +some trials in getting the right angle, sent a searching reflection upon +the spot where Arthur was at work. + +For an instant a diamond flash played around him. Then he lifted his +head and turned it curiously towards the crest above him. But the next +moment he clapped his hands over his dazzled but now smiling eyes, as +Mrs. McGee, secure in her leafy obscurity, fell back and laughed to +herself, like a very schoolgirl. + +It was three weeks later, and Madison Wayne was again sitting alone in +his cabin. This solitude had become of more frequent occurrence lately, +since Arthur had revolted and openly absented himself from his religious +devotions for lighter diversions of the Bar. Keenly as Madison felt his +defection, he was too much preoccupied with other things to lay much +stress upon it, and the sting of Arthur's relapse to worldliness and +folly lay in his own consciousness that it was partly his fault. He +could not chide his brother when he felt that his own heart was absorbed +in his neighbor's wife, and although he had rigidly adhered to his own +crude ideas of self-effacement and loyalty to McGee, he had been again +and again a visitor at his house. It was true that Mrs. McGee had +made this easier by tacitly accepting his conditions of their +acquaintanceship, by seeming more natural, by exhibiting a gayety, and +at times even a certain gentleness and thoughtfulness of conduct that +delighted her husband and astonished her lover. Whether this wonderful +change had really been effected by the latter's gloomy theology and +still more hopeless ethics, he could not say. She certainly showed no +disposition to imitate their formalities, nor seemed to be impressed by +them on the rare occasions when he now offered them. Yet she appeared to +link the two men together--even physically--as on these occasions when, +taking an arm of each, she walked affectionately between them along the +river bank promenade, to the great marveling and admiration of the Bar. +It was said, however, that Mr. Jack Hamlin, a gambler, at that moment +professionally visiting Wayne's Bar, and a great connoisseur of feminine +charms and weaknesses, had glanced at them under his handsome lashes, +and asked a single question, evidently so amusing to the younger members +of the Bar that Madison Wayne knit his brow and Arthur Wayne blushed. +Mr. Hamlin took no heed of the elder brother's frown, but paid some +slight attention to the color of the younger brother, and even more to +a slightly coquettish glance from the pretty Mrs. McGee. Whether or +not--as has been ingeniously alleged by some moralists--the light +and trifling of either sex are prone to recognize each other by some +mysterious instinct, is not a necessary consideration of this chronicle; +enough that the fact is recorded. + +And yet Madison Wayne should have been satisfied with his work! His +sacrifice was accepted; his happy issue from a dangerous situation, and +his happy triumph over a more dangerous temptation, was complete and +perfect, and even achieved according to his own gloomy theories of +redemption and regeneration. Yet he was not happy. The human heart is +at times strangely unappeasable. And as he sat that evening in the +gathering shadows, the Book which should have yielded him balm and +comfort lay unopened in his lap. + +A step upon the gravel outside had become too familiar to startle him. +It was Mr. McGee lounging into the cabin like a gaunt shadow. It must be +admitted that the friendship of these strangely contrasted men, however +sincere and sympathetic, was not cheerful. A belief in the thorough +wickedness of humanity, kept under only through fear of extreme penalty +and punishment, material and spiritual, was not conducive to light and +amusing conversation. Their talk was mainly a gloomy chronicle of life +at the Bar, which was in itself half an indictment. To-night, Mr. McGee +spoke of the advent of Mr. Jack Hamlin, and together they deplored the +diversion of the hard-earned gains and valuable time of the Bar through +the efforts of that ingenious gentleman. "Not," added McGee cautiously, +"but what he can shoot straight enough, and I've heard tell that he +don't LIE. That mout and it moutn't be good for your brother who goes +around with him considerable, there's different ways of lookin' at +that; you understand what I mean? You follow me?" For all that, the +conversation seemed to languish this evening, partly through some +abstraction on the part of Wayne and partly some hesitation in McGee, +who appeared to have a greater fear than usual of not expressing himself +plainly. It was quite dark in the cabin when at last, detaching himself +from his usual lounging place, the door-post, he walked to the window +and leaned, more shadowy than ever, over Wayne's chair. "I want to +tell you suthin'," he said slowly, "that I don't want you to +misunderstand--you follow me? and that ain't no ways carpin' or +criticisin' nor reflectin' on YOU--you understand what I mean? Ever sens +you and me had that talk here about you and Safie, and ever sens I got +the hang of your ways and your style o' thinkin', I've been as sure +of you and her as if I'd been myself trottin' round with you and +a revolver. And I'm as sure of you now--you sabe what I mean? you +understand? You've done me and her a heap o' good; she's almost another +woman sens you took hold of her, and ef you ever want me to stand up +and 'testify,' as you call it, in church, Sandy McGee is ready. What +I'm tryin' to say to ye is this. Tho' I understand you and your work and +your ways--there's other folks ez moutn't--you follow? You understand +what I mean? And it's just that I'm coming to. Now las' night, when you +and Safie was meanderin' along the lower path by the water, and I kem +across you"-- + +"But," interrupted Madison quickly, "you're mistaken. I wasn't"-- + +"Hol' on," said McGee, quietly; "I know you got out o' the way without +you seein' me or me you, because you didn't know it was me, don't you +see? don't you follow? and that's just it! It mout have bin some one +from the Bar as seed you instead o' ME. See? That's why you lit out +before I could recognize you, and that's why poor Safie was so mighty +flustered at first and was for runnin' away until she kem to herself +agin. When, of course, she laughed, and agreed you must have mistook +me." + +"But," gasped Madison quickly, "I WASN'T THERE AT ALL LAST NIGHT." + +"What?" + +The two men had risen simultaneously and were facing each other. McGee, +with a good-natured, half-critical expression, laid his hand on Wayne's +shoulder and slightly turned him towards the window, that he might see +his face. It seemed to him white and dazed. + +"You--wasn't there--last night?" he repeated, with a slow tolerance. + +Scarcely a moment elapsed, but the agony of an hour may have thrilled +through Wayne's consciousness before he spoke. Then all the blood of his +body rushed to his face with his first lie as he stammered, "No! Yes! Of +course. I have made a mistake--it WAS I." + +"I see--you thought I was riled?" said McGee quietly. + +"No; I was thinking it was NIGHT BEFORE LAST! Of course it was last +night. I must be getting silly." He essayed a laugh--rare at any +time with him--and so forced now that it affected McGee more than his +embarrassment. He looked at Wayne thoughtfully, and then said slowly: "I +reckon I did come upon you a little too sudden last night, but, you see, +I was thinkin' of suthin' else and disremembered you might be there. But +I wasn't mad--no! no! and I only spoke about it now that you might be +more keerful before folks. You follow me? You understand what I mean?" + +He turned and walked to the door, when he halted. "You follow me, don't +you? It ain't no cussedness o' mine, or want o' trustin', don't you see? +Mebbe I oughtened have spoken. I oughter remembered that times this +sort o' thing must be rather rough on you and her. You follow me? You +understand what I mean? Good-night." + +He walked slowly down the path towards the river. Had Madison Wayne been +watching him, he would have noticed that his head was bent and his step +less free. But Madison Wayne was at that moment sitting rigidly in his +chair, nursing, with all the gloomy concentration of a monastic nature, +a single terrible suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Howbeit the sun shone cheerfully over the Bar the next morning and the +next; the breath of life and activity was in the air; the settlement +never had been more prosperous, and the yield from the opened placers +on the drained river-bed that week was enormous. The Brothers Wayne +were said to be "rolling in gold." It was thought to be consistent with +Madison Wayne's nature that there was no trace of good fortune in his +face or manner--rather that he had become more nervous, restless, and +gloomy. This was attributed to the joylessness of avarice as contrasted +with the spendthrift gayety of the more liberal Arthur, and he was +feared and RESPECTED as a miser. His long, solitary walks around the +promontory, his incessant watchfulness, his reticence when questioned, +were all recognized as the indications of a man whose soul was absorbed +in money-getting. The reverence they failed to yield to his religious +isolation they were willing to freely accord to his financial +abstraction. But Mr. McGee was not so deceived. Overtaking him one +day under the fringe of willows, he characteristically chided him +with absenting himself from Mrs. McGee and her house since their last +interview. + +"I reckon you did not harbor malice in your Christianity," he said; +"but it looks mighty like ez if ye was throwing off on Safie and me on +account of what I said." + +In vain Madison gloomily and almost sternly protested. + +McGee looked him all over with his clear measuring eye, and for some +minutes was singularly silent. At last he said slowly: "I've been +thinkin' suthin' o' goin' down to 'Frisco, and I'd be a heap easier in +my mind ef you'd promise to look arter Safie now and then." + +"You surely are not going to leave her here ALONE?" said Wayne roughly. + +"Why not?" + +For an instant Wayne hesitated. Then he burst out. "For a hundred +reasons! If she ever wanted your protection, before, she surely does +now. Do you suppose the Bar is any less heathen or more regenerated than +it was when you thought it necessary to guard her with your revolver? +Man! It is a hundred times worse than then! The new claims have +filled it with spying adventurers--with wolves like Hamlin and his +friends--idolaters who would set up Baal and Ashteroth here--and fill +your tents with the curses of Sodom!" + +Perhaps it was owing to the Scriptural phrasing, perhaps it was from +some unusual authority of the man's manner, but a look of approving +relief and admiration came into McGee's clear eyes. + +"And YOU'RE just the man to tackle 'em," he said, clapping his hand on +Wayne's shoulder. "That's your gait--keep it up! But," he added, in +a lower voice, "me and my revolver are played out." There was a +strangeness in the tone that arrested Wayne's attention. "Yes," +continued McGee, stroking his beard slowly, "men like me has their day, +and revolvers has theirs; the world turns round and the Bar fills up, +and this yer river changes its course--and it's all in the day's work. +You understand what I mean--you follow me? And if anything should happen +to me--not that it's like to; but it's in the way o' men--I want you +to look arter Safie. It ain't every woman ez has two men, ez like and +unlike, to guard her. You follow me--you understand what I mean, don't +you?" With these words he parted somewhat abruptly from Wayne, turning +into the steep path to the promontory crest and leaving his companion +lost in gloomy abstraction. The next day Alexander McGee had departed on +a business trip to San Francisco. + +In his present frame of mind, with his new responsibility and the +carrying out of a plan which he had vaguely conceived might remove the +terrible idea that had taken possession of him, Madison Wayne was even +relieved when his brother also announced his intention of going to +Angel's for a few days. + +For since his memorable interview with McGee he had been convinced that +Safie had been clandestinely visited by some one. Whether it was the +thoughtless and momentary indiscretion of a willful woman, or the sequel +to some deliberately planned intrigue, did not concern him so much as +the falsity of his own position, and the conniving lie by which he had +saved her and her lover. That at this crucial moment he had failed to +"testify" to guilt and wickedness; that he firmly believed--such is the +inordinate vanity of the religious zealot--that he had denied Him in his +effort to shield HER; and that he had broken faith with the husband who +had entrusted to him the custody of his wife's honor, seemed to him more +terrible than her faithlessness. In his first horror he had dreaded +to see her, lest her very confession--he knew her reckless frankness +towards himself--should reveal to him the extent of his complicity. But +since then, and during her husband's absence, he had convinced himself +that it was his duty to wrestle and strive with her weak spirit, to +implore her to reveal her new intrigue to her husband, and then he would +help her to sue for his forgiveness. It was a part of the inconsistency +of his religious convictions; in his human passion he was perfectly +unselfish, and had already forgiven her the offense against himself. He +would see her at once! + +But it happened to be a quiet, intense night, with the tremulous +opulence of a full moon that threw quivering shafts of light like summer +lightning over the blue river, and laid a wonderful carpet of intricate +lace along the path that wound through the willows to the crest. There +was the dry, stimulating dust and spice of heated pines from below; the +languorous odors of syringa; the faint, feminine smell of southernwood, +and the infinite mystery of silence. This silence was at times softly +broken with the tender inarticulate whisper of falling leaves, broken +sighs from the tree-tops, and the languid stretching of wakened and +unclasping boughs. Madison Wayne had not, alas! taken into account this +subtle conspiracy of Night and Nature, and as he climbed higher, his +steps began to falter with new and strange sensations. The rigidity +of purpose which had guided the hard religious convictions that always +sustained him, began to relax. A tender sympathy stole over him; a +loving mercy to himself as well as others stole into his heart. He +thought of HER as she had nestled at his side, hand in hand, upon the +moonlit veranda of her father's house, before his hard convictions had +chilled and affrighted her. He thought of her fresh simplicity, and what +had seemed to him her wonderful girlish beauty, and lo! in a quick turn +of the path he stood breathless and tremulous before the house. The +moonbeams lay tenderly upon the peaceful eaves; the long blossoms of the +Madeira vine seemed sleeping also. The pink flush of the Cherokee rose +in the unreal light had become chastely white. + +But he was evidently too late for an interview. The windows were blank +in the white light; only one--her bedroom--showed a light behind the +lowered muslin blind. Her draped shadow once or twice passed across it. +He was turning away with soft steps and even bated breath when suddenly +he stopped. The exaggerated but unmistakable shadow of a man stood +beside her on the blind. + +With a fierce leap as of a maniac, he was at the door, pounding, +rattling, and uttering hoarse and furious outcries. Even through his +fury he heard quickened footsteps--her light, reckless, half-hysterical +laugh--a bound upon the staircase--the hurried unbolting and opening of +distant doors, as the lighter one with which he was struggling at last +yielded to his blind rage, and threw him crashing into the sitting-room. +The back door was wide open. He could hear the rustling and crackling of +twigs and branches in different directions down the hillside, where the +fugitives had separated as they escaped. And yet he stood there for an +instant, dazed and wondering, "What next?" + +His eyes fell upon McGee's rifle standing upright in the corner. It was +a clean, beautiful, precise weapon, even to the unprofessional eye, +its long, laminated hexagonal barrel taking a tenderer blue in the +moonlight. He snatched it up. It was capped and loaded. Without a pause +he dashed down the hill. + +Only one thought was in his mind now--the crudest, simplest duty. He +was there in McGee's place; he should do what McGee would do. God had +abandoned him, but McGee's rifle remained. + +In a few minutes' downward plunging he had reached the river bank. The +tranquil silver surface quivered and glittered before him. He saw what +he knew he would see, the black target of a man's head above it, making +for the Bar. He took deliberate aim and fired. There was no echo to that +sharp detonation; a distant dog barked, there was a slight whisper +in the trees beside him, that was all! But the head of the man was no +longer visible, and the liquid silver filmed over again, without a speck +or stain. + +He shouldered the rifle, and with the automatic action of men in great +crises returned slowly and deliberately to the house and carefully +replaced the rifle in its old position. He had no concern for the +miserable woman who had fled; had she appeared before him at the moment, +he would not have noticed her. Yet a strange instinct--it seemed to him +the vaguest curiosity--made him ascend the stairs and enter her +chamber. The candle was still burning on the table with that awful +unconsciousness and simplicity of detail which makes the scene of real +tragedy so terrible. Beside it lay a belt and leather pouch. Madison +Wayne suddenly dashed forward and seized it, with a wild, inarticulate +cry; staggered, fell over the chair, rose to his feet, blindly groped +his way down the staircase, burst into the road, and, hugging the pouch +to his bosom, fled like a madman down the hill. + +***** + +The body of Arthur Wayne was picked up two days later a dozen miles down +the river. Nothing could be more evident and prosaic than the manner +in which he had met his fate. His body was only partly clothed, and +the money pouch and belt, which had been securely locked next his skin, +after the fashion of all miners, was gone. He was known to have left the +Bar with a considerable sum of money; he was undoubtedly dogged, robbed, +and murdered during his journey on the river bank by the desperadoes who +were beginning to infest the vicinity. The grief and agony of his only +brother, sole survivor of that fraternal and religious partnership so +well known to the camp, although shown only by a grim and speechless +melancholy,--broken by unintelligible outbursts of religious +raving,--was so real, that it affected even the callous camp. But +scarcely had it regained its feverish distraction, before it was +thrilled by another sensation. Alexander McGee had fallen from the deck +of a Sacramento steamboat in the Straits of Carquinez, and his body had +been swept out to sea. The news had apparently been first to reach the +ears of his devoted wife, for when the camp--at this lapse of the old +prohibition--climbed to her bower with their rude consolations, the +house was found locked and deserted. The fateful influence of the +promontory had again prevailed, the grim record of its seclusion was +once more unbroken. + +For with it, too, drooped and faded the fortunes of the Bar. Madison +Wayne sold out his claim, endowed the church at the Cross Roads with the +proceeds, and the pulpit with his grim, hopeless, denunciatory presence. +The first rains brought a freshet to the Bar. The river leaped the +light barriers that had taken the place of Wayne's peaceful engines, +and regained the old channel. The curse that the Rev. Madison Wayne had +launched on this riverside Sodom seemed to have been fulfilled. But even +this brought no satisfaction to the gloomy prophet, for it was presently +known that he had abandoned his terror-stricken flock to take the +circuit as revivalist preacher and camp-meeting exhorter, in the rudest +and most lawless of gatherings. Desperate ruffians writhed at his feet +in impotent terror or more impotent rage; murderers and thieves listened +to him with blanched faces and set teeth, restrained only by a more +awful fear. Over and over again he took his life with his Bible into his +own hands when he rose above the excited multitude; he was shot at, he +was rail-ridden, he was deported, but never silenced. And so, sweeping +over the country, carrying fear and frenzy with him, scouting life and +mercy, and crushing alike the guilty and innocent, he came one Sabbath +to a rocky crest of the Sierras--the last tattered and frayed and soiled +fringe of civilization on the opened tract of a great highway. And here +he was to "testify," as was his wont. + +But not as he expected. For as he stood up on a boulder above the thirty +or forty men sitting or lying upon other rocks and boulders around him, +on the craggy mountain shelf where they had gathered, a man also rose, +elbowed past them, and with a hurried impulse tried to descend +the declivity. But a cry was suddenly heard from others, quick and +clamoring, which called the whole assembly to its feet, and it was seen +that the fugitive had in some blundering way fallen from the precipice. + +He was brought up cruelly maimed and mangled, his ribs crushed, and one +lung perforated, but still breathing and conscious. He had asked to see +the preacher. Death impending, and even then struggling with his breath, +made this request imperative. Madison Wayne stopped the service, and +stalked grimly and inflexibly to where the dying man lay. But there he +started. + +"McGee!" he said breathlessly. + +"Send these men away," said McGee faintly. "I've got suthin' to tell +you." + +The men drew back without a word. "You thought I was dead," said McGee, +with eyes still undimmed and marvelously clear. "I orter bin, but it +don't need no doctor to say it ain't far off now. I left the Bar to get +killed; I tried to in a row, but the fellows were skeert to close with +me, thinkin' I'd shoot. My reputation was agin me, there! You follow me? +You understand what I mean?" + +Kneeling beside him now and grasping both his hands, the changed and +horror-stricken Wayne gasped, "But"-- + +"Hold on! I jumped off the Sacramento boat--I was goin' down the third +time--they thought on the boat I was gone--they think so now! But a +passin' fisherman dived for me. I grappled him--he was clear grit and +would have gone down with me, but I couldn't let him die too--havin' so +to speak no cause. You follow me--you understand me? I let him save me. +But it was all the same, for when I got to 'Frisco I read as how I was +drowned. And then I reckoned it was all right, and I wandered HERE, +where I wasn't known--until I saw you." + +"But why should you want to die?" said Wayne, almost fiercely. "What +right have you to die while others--double-dyed and blood-stained, are +condemned to live, 'testify,' and suffer?" + +The dying man feebly waved a deprecation with his maimed hand, and even +smiled faintly. "I knew you'd say that. I knew what you'd think about +it, but it's all the same now. I did it for you and Safie! I knew I was +in the way; I knew you was the man she orter had; I knew you was the man +who had dragged her outer the mire and clay where I was leavin' her, as +you did when she fell in the water. I knew that every day I lived I was +makin' YOU suffer and breakin' HER heart--for all she tried to be gentle +and gay." + +"Great God in heaven! Will you stop!" said Wayne, springing to his feet +in agony. A frightened look--the first that any one had ever seen in +the clear eyes of the Bell-ringer of Angel's--passed over them, and he +murmured tremulously: "All right--I'm stoppin'!" + +So, too, was his heart, for the wonderful eyes were now slowly glazing. +Yet he rallied once more--coming up again the third time as it seemed +to Wayne--and his lips moved slowly. The preacher threw himself +despairingly on the ground beside him. + +"Speak, brother! For God's sake, speak!" + +It was his last whisper--so faint it might have been the first of his +freed soul. But he only said:-- + +"You're--followin'--me? You--understand--what--I--mean?" + + + + +JOHNNYBOY. + + +The vast dining-room of the Crustacean Hotel at Greyport, U. S., was +empty and desolate. It was so early in the morning that there was a +bedroom deshabille in the tucked-up skirts and bare legs of the +little oval breakfast-tables as they had just been left by the dusting +servants. The most stirring of travelers was yet abed, the most +enterprising of first-train catchers had not yet come down; there was +a breath of midsummer sleep still in the air; through the half-opened +windows that seemed to be yawning, the pinkish blue Atlantic beyond +heaved gently and slumberously, and drowsy early bathers crept into it +as to bed. Yet as I entered the room I saw that one of the little +tables in the corner was in reality occupied by a very small and very +extraordinary child. Seated in a high chair, attended by a dreamily +abstracted nurse on one side, an utterly perfunctory negro waiter on the +other, and an incongruous assortment of disregarded viands before +him, he was taking--or, rather, declining--his solitary breakfast. He +appeared to be a pale, frail, but rather pretty boy, with a singularly +pathetic combination of infant delicacy of outline and maturity of +expression. His heavily fringed eyes expressed an already weary and +discontented intelligence, and his willful, resolute little mouth was, I +fancied, marked with lines of pain at either corner. He struck me as not +only being physically dyspeptic, but as morally loathing his attendants +and surroundings. + +My entrance did not disturb the waiter, with whom I had no financial +relations; he simply concealed an exaggerated yawn professionally behind +his napkin until my own servitor should appear. The nurse slightly awoke +from her abstraction, shoved the child mechanically,--as if starting +up some clogged machinery,--said, "Eat your breakfast, Johnnyboy," and +subsided into her dream. I think the child had at first some faint hope +of me, and when my waiter appeared with my breakfast he betrayed some +interest in my selection, with a view of possible later appropriation, +but, as my repast was simple, that hope died out of his infant mind. +Then there was a silence, broken at last by the languid voice of the +nurse:-- + +"Try some milk then--nice milk." + +"No! No mik! Mik makes me sick--mik does!" + +In spite of the hurried infantine accent the protest was so emphatic, +and, above all, fraught with such pent-up reproach and disgust, that I +turned about sympathetically. But Johnnyboy had already thrown down his +spoon, slipped from his high chair, and was marching out of the room as +fast as his little sandals would carry him, with indignation bristling +in every line of the crisp bows of his sash. + +I, however, gathered from Mr. Johnson, my waiter, that the unfortunate +child owned a fashionable father and mother, one or two blocks of +houses in New York, and a villa at Greyport, which he consistently and +intelligently despised. That he had imperiously brought his parents +here on account of his health, and had demanded that he should breakfast +alone in the big dining-room. That, however, he was not happy. "Nuffin +peahs to agree wid him, Sah, but he doan' cry, and he speaks his mind, +Sah; he speaks his mind." + +Unfortunately, I did not keep Johnnyboy's secret, but related the scene +I had witnessed to some of the lighter-hearted Crustaceans of either +sex, with the result that his alliterative protest became a sort of +catchword among them, and that for the next few mornings he had a large +audience of early breakfasters, who fondly hoped for a repetition of +his performance. I think that Johnnyboy for the time enjoyed +this companionship, yet without the least affectation or +self-consciousness--so long as it was unobtrusive. It so chanced, +however, that the Rev. Mr. Belcher, a gentleman with bovine lightness +of touch, and a singular misunderstanding of childhood, chose to +presume upon his paternal functions. Approaching the high chair in which +Johnnyboy was dyspeptically reflecting, with a ponderous wink at the +other guests, and a fat thumb and forefinger on Johnnyboy's table, he +leaned over him, and with slow, elephantine playfulness said:-- + +"And so, my dear young friend, I understand that 'mik makes you +sick--mik does.'" + +Anything approaching to the absolute likeness of this imitation of +Johnnyboy's accents it is impossible to conceive. Possibly Johnnyboy +felt it. But he simply lifted his lovely lashes, and said with great +distinctness:-- + +"Mik don't--you devil!" + +After this, closely as it had knitted us together, Johnnyboy's morning +presence was mysteriously withdrawn. It was later pointed out to us by +Mr. Belcher, upon the veranda, that, although Wealth had its privileges, +it was held in trust for the welfare of Mankind, and that the children +of the Rich could not too early learn the advantages of Self-restraint +and the vanity of a mere gratification of the Senses. Early and frequent +morning ablutions, brisk morning toweling, half of a Graham biscuit in +a teacup of milk, exercise with the dumb-bells, and a little +rough-and-tumble play in a straw hat, check apron, and overalls would +eventually improve that stamina necessary for his future Position, and +repress a dangerous cerebral activity and tendency to give way to--He +suddenly stopped, coughed, and absolutely looked embarrassed. Johnnyboy, +a moving cloud of white pique, silk, and embroidery, had just turned +the corner of the veranda. He did not speak, but as he passed raised +his blue-veined lids to the orator. The look of ineffable scorn and +superiority in those beautiful eyes surpassed anything I had ever seen. +At the next veranda column he paused, and, with his baby thumbs inserted +in his silk sash, again regarded him under his half-dropped lashes as +if he were some curious animal, and then passed on. But Belcher was +silenced for the second time. + +I think I have said enough to show that Johnnyboy was hopelessly +worshiped by an impressible and illogical sex. I say HOPELESSLY, for +he slipped equally from the proudest silken lap and the humblest one +of calico, and carried his eyelashes and small aches elsewhere. I think +that a secret fear of his alarming frankness, and his steady rejection +of the various tempting cates they offered him, had much to do with +their passion. "It won't hurt you, dear," said Miss Circe, "and it's so +awfully nice. See!" she continued, putting one of the delicacies in +her own pretty mouth with every assumption of delight. "It's SO good!" +Johnnyboy rested his elbows on her knees, and watched her with a grieved +and commiserating superiority. "Bimeby, you'll have pains in youse +tommick, and you'll be tookt to bed," he said sadly, "and then +you'll--have to dit up and"--But as it was found necessary here to +repress further details, he escaped other temptation. + +Two hours later, as Miss Circe was seated in the drawing-room with her +usual circle of enthusiastic admirers around her, Johnnyboy--who was +issued from his room for circulation, two or three times a day, as a +genteel advertisement of his parents--floated into the apartment in a +new dress and a serious demeanor. Sidling up to Miss Circe he laid a +phial--evidently his own pet medicine--on her lap, said, "For youse +tommikake to-night," and vanished. Yet I have reason to believe that +this slight evidence of unusual remembrance on Johnnyboy's part more +than compensated for its publicity, and for a few days Miss Circe was +quite "set up" by it. + +It was through some sympathy of this kind that I first gained +Johnnyboy's good graces. I had been presented with a small pocket case +of homoeopathic medicines, and one day on the beach I took out one of +the tiny phials and, dropping two or three of the still tinier pellets +in my hand, swallowed them. To my embarrassment, a small hand presently +grasped my trouser-leg. I looked down; it was Johnnyboy, in a new and +ravishing smuggler suit, with his questioning eyes fixed on mine. + +"Howjer do dat?" + +"Eh?" + +"Wajer do dat for?" + +"That?--Oh, that's medicine. I've got a headache." + +He searched the inmost depths of my soul with his wonderful eyes. Then, +after a pause, he held out his baby palm. + +"You kin give Johnny some." + +"But you haven't got headache--have you?" + +"Me alluz has." + +"Not ALWAYS." + +He nodded his head rapidly. Then added slowly, and with great +elaboration, "Et mo'nins, et affernoons, et nights, 'nd mo'nins adain. +'N et becker" (i. e., breakfast). + +There was no doubt it was the truth. Those eyes did not seem to be in +the habit of lying. After all, the medicine could not hurt him. His +nurse was at a little distance gazing absently at the sea. I sat down +on a bench, and dropped a few of the pellets into his palm. He ate +them seriously, and then turned around and backed--after the well-known +appealing fashion of childhood--against my knees. I understood the +movement--although it was unlike my idea of Johnnyboy. However, I +raised him to my lap--with the sensation of lifting a dozen lace-edged +handkerchiefs, and with very little more effort--where he sat silently +for a moment, with his sandals crossed pensively before him. + +"Wouldn't you like to go and play with those children?" I asked, +pointing to a group of noisy sand levelers not far away. + +"No!" After a pause, "You wouldn't neither." + +"Why?" + +"Hediks." + +"But," I said, "perhaps if you went and played with them and ran up and +down as they do, you wouldn't have headache." + +Johnnyboy did not answer for a moment; then there was a perceptible +gentle movement of his small frame. I confess I felt brutally like +Belcher. He was getting down. + +Once down he faced me, lifted his frank eyes, said, "Do way and play +den," smoothed down his smuggler frock, and rejoined his nurse. + +But although Johnnyboy afterwards forgave my moral defection, he did not +seem to have forgotten my practical medical ministration, and our brief +interview had a surprising result. From that moment he confounded his +parents and doctors by resolutely and positively refusing to take any +more of their pills, tonics, or drops. Whether from a sense of +loyalty to me, or whether he was not yet convinced of the efficacy of +homoeopathy, he did not suggest a substitute, declare his preferences, +or even give his reasons, but firmly and peremptorily declined his +present treatment. And, to everybody's astonishment, he did not seem a +bit the worse for it. + +Still he was not strong, and his continual aversion to childish sports +and youthful exercise provoked the easy criticism of that large part +of humanity who are ready to confound cause and effect, and such brief +moments as the Sluysdaels could spare him from their fashionable duties +were made miserable to them by gratuitous suggestions and plans for +their child's improvement. It was noticeable, however, that few of them +were ever offered to Johnnyboy personally. He had a singularly direct +way of dealing with them, and a precision of statement that was +embarrassing. + +One afternoon, Jack Bracy drove up to the veranda of the Crustacean +with a smart buggy and spirited thoroughbred for Miss Circe's especial +driving, and his own saddle-horse on which he was to accompany her. +Jack had dismounted, a groom held his saddle-horse until the young lady +should appear, and he himself stood at the head of the thoroughbred. As +Johnnyboy, leaning against the railing, was regarding the turnout +with ill-concealed disdain, Jack, in the pride of his triumph over his +rivals, good-humoredly offered to put him in the buggy, and allow him to +take the reins. Johnnyboy did not reply. + +"Come along!" continued Jack, "it will do you a heap of good! It's +better than lazing there like a girl! Rouse up, old man!" + +"Me don't like that geegee," said Johnnyboy calmly. "He's a silly fool." + +"You're afraid," said Jack. + +Johnnyboy lifted his proud lashes, and toddled to the steps. Jack +received him in his arms, swung him into the seat, and placed the slim +yellow reins in his baby hands. + +"Now you feel like a man, and not like a girl!" said Jack. "Eh, what? +Oh, I beg your pardon." + +For Miss Circe had appeared--had absolutely been obliged to wait a +whole half-minute unobserved--and now stood there a dazzling but pouting +apparition. In eagerly turning to receive her, Jack's foot slipped on +the step, and he fell. The thoroughbred started, gave a sickening plunge +forward, and was off! But so, too, was Jack, the next moment, on his own +horse, and before Miss Circe's screams had died away. + +For two blocks on Ocean Avenue, passersby that afternoon saw a strange +vision. A galloping horse careering before a light buggy, in which a +small child, seated upright, was grasping the tightened reins. But so +erect and composed was the little face and figure--albeit as white +as its own frock--that for an instant they did not grasp its awful +significance. Those further along, however, read the whole awful story +in the drawn face and blazing eyes of Jack Bracy as he, at last, swung +into the Avenue. For Jack had the brains as well as the nerve of your +true hero, and, knowing the dangerous stimulus of a stern chase to +a frightened horse, had kept a side road until it branched into the +Avenue. So furious had been his pace, and so correct his calculation, +that he ranged alongside of the runaway even as it passed, grasped the +reins, and, in half a block, pulled up on even wheels. + +"I never saw such pluck in a mite like that," he whispered afterwards to +his anxious auditory. "He never dropped those ribbons, by G--, until I +got alongside, and then he just hopped down and said, as short and cool +as you please, 'Dank you!'" + +"Me didn't," uttered a small voice reproachfully. + +"Didn't you, dear! What DID you say then, darling?" exclaimed a +sympathizing chorus. + +"Me said: 'Damn you!' Me don't like silly fool geegees. Silly fool +geegees make me sick--silly fool geegees do!" + +Nevertheless, in spite of this incident, the attempts at Johnnyboy's +physical reformation still went on. More than that, it was argued by +some complacent casuists that the pluck displayed by the child was the +actual result of this somewhat heroic method of taking exercise, and NOT +an inherent manliness distinct from his physical tastes. So he was made +to run when he didn't want to--to dance when he frankly loathed his +partners--to play at games that he despised. His books and pictures were +taken away; he was hurried past hoardings and theatrical posters that +engaged his fancy; the public was warned against telling him fairy +tales, except those constructed on strictly hygienic principles. +His fastidious cleanliness was rebuked, and his best frocks taken +away--albeit at a terrible sacrifice of his parents' vanity--to suit +the theories of his critics. How long this might have continued is not +known--for the theory and practice were suddenly arrested by another +sensation. + +One morning a children's picnic party was given on a rocky point only +accessible at certain states of the tide, whither they were taken in a +small boat under the charge of a few hotel servants, and, possibly as +part of his heroic treatment, Johnnyboy, who was included in the party, +was not allowed to be attended by his regular nurse. + +Whether this circumstance added to his general disgust of the whole +affair, and his unwillingness to go, I cannot say, but it is to be +regretted, since the omission deprived Johnnyboy of any impartial +witness to what subsequently occurred. That he was somewhat roughly +handled by several of the larger children appeared to be beyond doubt, +although there was conflicting evidence as to the sequel. Enough that +at noon screams were heard in the direction of certain detached rocks +on the point, and the whole party proceeding thither found three of the +larger boys on the rocks, alone and cut off by the tide, having been +left there, as they alleged, by Johnnyboy, WHO HAD RUN AWAY WITH THE +BOAT. They subsequently admitted that THEY had first taken the boat and +brought Johnnyboy with them, "just to frighten him," but they adhered to +the rest. And certainly Johnnyboy and the boat were nowhere to be found. +The shore was communicated with, the alarm was given, the telegraph, +up and down the coast trilled with excitement, other boats were +manned--consternation prevailed. + +But that afternoon the captain of the "Saucy Jane," mackerel fisher, +lying off the point, perceived a derelict "Whitehall" boat drifting +lazily towards the Gulf Stream. On boarding it he was chagrined to find +the expected flotsam already in the possession of a very small child, +who received him with a scornful reticence as regarded himself and his +intentions, and some objurgation of a person or persons unknown. It was +Johnnyboy. But whether he had attempted the destruction of the three +other boys by "marooning" them upon the rocks--as their parents firmly +believed--or whether he had himself withdrawn from their company simply +because he did not like them, was never known. Any further attempt to +improve his education by the roughing gregarious process was, however, +abandoned. The very critics who had counseled it now clamored for +restraint and perfect isolation. It was ably pointed out by the Rev. +Mr. Belcher that the autocratic habits begotten by wealth and pampering +should be restricted, and all intercourse with their possessor promptly +withheld. + +But the season presently passed with much of this and other criticism, +and the Sluysdaels passed too, carrying Johnnyboy and his small aches +and long eyelashes beyond these Crustacean voices, where it was to be +hoped there was peace. I did not hear of him again for five years, +and then, oddly enough, from the lips of Mr. Belcher on the deck of +a transatlantic steamer, as he was being wafted to Europe for his +recreation by the prayers and purses of a grateful and enduring flock. +"Master John Jacob Astor Sluysdael," said Mr. Belcher, speaking +slowly, with great precision of retrospect, "was taken from his private +governess--I may say by my advice--and sent to an admirable school in +New York, fashioned upon the English system of Eton and Harrow, and +conducted by English masters from Oxford and Cambridge. Here--I may +also say at my suggestion--he was subjected to the wholesome discipline +equally of his schoolmates and his masters; in fact, sir, as you are +probably aware, the most perfect democracy that we have yet known, +in which the mere accidents of wealth, position, luxury, effeminacy, +physical degeneration, and over-civilized stimulation, are not +recognized. He was put into compulsory cricket, football, and rounders. +As an undersized boy he was subjected to that ingenious preparation for +future mastership by the pupillary state of servitude known, I think, +as 'fagging.' His physical inertia was stimulated and quickened, and his +intellectual precocity repressed, from time to time, by the exuberant +playfulness of his fellow-students, which occasionally took the form +of forced ablutions and corporal discomfort, and was called, I am +told, 'hazing.' It is but fair to state that our young friend had some +singular mental endowments, which, however, were promptly checked to +repress the vanity and presumption that would follow." The Rev. Mr. +Belcher paused, closed his eyes resignedly, and added, "Of course, you +know the rest." + +"Indeed, I do not," I said anxiously. + +"A most deplorable affair--indeed, a most shocking incident! It was +hushed up, I believe, on account of the position of his parents." He +glanced furtively around, and in a lower and more impressive voice said, +"I am not myself a believer in heredity, and I am not personally aware +that there was a MURDERER among the Sluysdael ancestry, but it seems +that this monstrous child, in some clandestine way, possessed himself of +a huge bowie-knife, sir, and on one of those occasions actually rushed +furiously at the larger boys--his innocent play-fellows--and absolutely +forced them to flee in fear of their lives. More than that, sir, a +LOADED REVOLVER was found in his desk, and he boldly and shamelessly +avowed his intention to eviscerate, or--to use his own revolting +language--'to cut the heart out' of the first one who again 'laid a +finger on him.'" He paused again, and, joining his two hands together +with the fingers pointing to the deck, breathed hard and said, "His +instantaneous withdrawal from the school was a matter of public +necessity. He was afterwards taken, in the charge of a private tutor, to +Europe, where, I trust, we shall NOT meet." + +I could not resist saying cheerfully that, at least, Johnnyboy had for a +short time made it lively for the big boys. + +The Rev. Mr. Belcher rose slowly, but painfully, said with a deeply +grieved expression, "I don't think that I entirely follow you," and +moved gently away. + +The changes of youth are apt to be more bewildering than those of age, +and a decade scarcely perceptible in an old civilization often means +utter revolution to the new. It did not seem strange to me, therefore, +on meeting Jack Bracy twelve years after, to find that he had forgotten +Miss Circe, or that SHE had married, and was living unhappily with a +middle-aged adventurer by the name of Jason, who was reputed to have had +domestic relations elsewhere. But although subjugated and exorcised, +she at least was reminiscent. To my inquiries about the Sluysdaels, she +answered with a slight return of her old vivacity:-- + +"Ah, yes, dear fellow, he was one of my greatest admirers." + +"He was about four years old when you knew him, wasn't he?" suggested +Jason meanly. "Yes, they usually WERE young, but so kind of you to +recollect them. Young Sluysdael," he continued, turning to me, "is--but +of course you know that disgraceful story." + +I felt that I could stand this no longer. "Yes," I said indignantly, +"I know all about the school, and I don't call his conduct disgraceful +either." + +Jason stared. "I don't know what you mean about the school," he +returned. "I am speaking of his stepfather." + +"His STEPFATHER!" + +"Yes; his father, Van Buren Sluysdael, died, you know--a year after they +left Greyport. The widow was left all the money in trust for Johnny, +except about twenty-five hundred a year which he was in receipt of as a +separate income, even as a boy. Well, a glib-tongued parson, a fellow by +the name of Belcher, got round the widow--she was a desperate fool--and, +by Jove! made her marry him. He made ducks and drakes of not only her +money, but Johnny's too, and had to skip to Spain to avoid the trustees. +And Johnny--for the Sluysdaels are all fools or lunatics--made over his +whole separate income to that wretched, fashionable fool of a mother, +and went into a stockbroker's office as a clerk." + +"And walks to business before eight every morning, and they say even +takes down the shutters and sweeps out," broke in Circe impulsively. +"Works like a slave all day, wears out his old clothes, has given up his +clubs and amusements, and shuns society." + +"But how about his health?" I asked. "Is he better and stronger?" + +"I don't know," said Circe, "but he LOOKS as beautiful as Endymion." + +***** + +At his bank, in Wall Street, Bracy that afternoon confirmed all that +Jason had told me of young Sluysdael. "But his temper?" I asked. "You +remember his temper--surely." + +"He's as sweet as a lamb, never quarrels, never whines, never alludes to +his lost fortune, and is never put out. For a youngster, he's the most +popular man in the street. Shall we nip round and see him?" + +"By all means." + +"Come. It isn't far." + +A few steps down the crowded street we dived into a den of plate-glass +windows, of scraps of paper, of rattling, ticking machines, more voluble +and excited than the careworn, abstracted men who leaned over them. But +"Johnnyboy"--I started at the familiar name again--was not there. He was +at luncheon. + +"Let us join him," I said, as we gained the street again and turned +mechanically into Delmonico's. + +"Not there," said Bracy with a laugh. "You forget! That's not +Johnnyboy's gait just now. Come here." He was descending a few steps +that led to a humble cake-shop. As we entered I noticed a young fellow +standing before the plain wooden counter with a cake of gingerbread in +one hand and a glass of milk in the other. His profile was before me; +I at once recognized the long lashes. But the happy, boyish, careless +laugh that greeted Bracy, as he presented me, was a revelation. + +Yet he was pleased to remember me. And then--it may have been +embarrassment that led me to such tactlessness, but as I glanced at him +and the glass of milk he was holding, I could not help reminding him of +the first words I had ever heard him utter. + +He tossed off the glass, colored slightly, as I thought, and said with a +light laugh:-- + +"I suppose I have changed a good deal since then, sir." + +I looked at his demure and resolute mouth, and wondered if he had. + + + + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY. + + +The good American barque Skyscraper was swinging at her moorings in +the Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But that good American +barque--although owned in Baltimore--had not a plank of American timber +in her hulk, nor a native American in her crew, and even her nautical +"goodness" had been called into serious question by divers of that +crew during her voyage, and answered more or less inconclusively +with belaying-pins, marlin-spikes, and ropes' ends at the hands of an +Irish-American captain and a Dutch and Danish mate. So much so, that +the mysterious powers of the American consul at St. Kentigern had been +evoked to punish mutiny on the one hand, and battery and starvation +on the other; both equally attested by manifestly false witness and +subornation on each side. In the exercise of his functions the consul +had opened and shut some jail doors, and otherwise effected the usual +sullen and deceitful compromise, and his flag was now flying, on a final +visit, from the stern sheets of a smart boat alongside. It was with a +feeling of relief at the end of the interview that he at last lifted his +head above an atmosphere of perjury and bilge-water and came on deck. +The sun and wind were ruffling and glinting on the broadening river +beyond the "measured mile"; a few gulls were wavering and dipping near +the lee scuppers, and the sound of Sabbath bells, mellowed by a distance +that secured immunity of conscience, came peacefully to his ear. + +"Now that job's over ye'll be takin' a partin' dhrink," suggested the +captain. + +The consul thought not. Certain incidents of "the job" were fresh in his +memory, and he proposed to limit himself to his strict duty. + +"You have some passengers, I see," he said, pointing to a group of two +men and a young girl, who had apparently just come aboard. + +"Only wan; an engineer going out to Rio. Them's just his friends seein' +him off, I'm thinkin'," returned the captain, surveying them somewhat +contemptuously. + +The consul was a little disturbed. He wondered if the passenger knew +anything of the quality and reputation of the ship to which he was +entrusting his fortunes. But he was only a PASSENGER, and the consul's +functions--like those of the aloft-sitting cherub of nautical song--were +restricted exclusively to looking after "Poor Jack." However, he asked a +few further questions, eliciting the fact that the stranger had already +visited the ship with letters from the eminently respectable consignees +at St. Kentigern, and contented himself with lingering near them. The +young girl was accompanied by her father, a respectably rigid-looking +middle-class tradesman, who, however, seemed to be more interested in +the novelty of his surroundings than in the movements of his daughter +and their departing friend. So it chanced that the consul re-entered +the cabin--ostensibly in search of a missing glove, but really with the +intention of seeing how the passenger was bestowed--just behind them. +But to his great embarrassment he at once perceived that, owing to the +obscurity of the apartment, they had not noticed him, and before he +could withdraw, the man had passed his arm around the young girl's half +stiffened, yet half yielding figure. + +"Only one, Ailsa," he pleaded in a slow, serious voice, pathetic from +the very absence of any youthful passion in it; "just one now. It'll be +gey lang before we meet again. Ye'll not refuse me now." + +The young girl's lips seemed to murmur some protest that, however, was +lost in the beginning of a long and silent kiss. + +The consul slipped out softly. His smile had died away. That +unlooked-for touch of human weakness seemed to purify the stuffy and +evil-reeking cabin, and the recollection of its brutal past to drop with +a deck-load of iniquity behind him to the bottom of the Clyde. It is +to be feared that in his unofficial moments he was inclined to be +sentimental, and it seemed to him that the good ship Skyscraper +henceforward carried an innocent freight not mentioned in her manifest, +and that a gentle, ever-smiling figure, not entered on her books, had +invisibly taken a place at her wheel. + +But he was recalled to himself by a slight altercation on deck. The +young girl and the passenger had just returned from the cabin. The +consul, after a discreetly careless pause, had lifted his eyes to the +young girl's face, and saw that it was singularly pretty in color and +outline, but perfectly self-composed and serenely unconscious. And he +was a little troubled to observe that the passenger was a middle-aged +man, whose hard features were already considerably worn with trial and +experience. + +Both he and the girl were listening with sympathizing but cautious +interest to her father's contention with the boatman who had brought +them from shore, and who was now inclined to demand an extra fee for +returning with them. The boatman alleged that he had been detained +beyond "kirk time," and that this imperiling of his salvation could +only be compensated by another shilling. To the consul's surprise, +this extraordinary argument was recognized by the father, who, however, +contented himself by simply contending that it had not been stipulated +in the bargain. The issue was, therefore, limited, and the discussion +progressed slowly and deliberately, with a certain calm dignity and +argumentative satisfaction on both sides that exalted the subject, +though it irritated the captain. + +"If ye accept the premisses that I've just laid down, that it's a +contract"---began the boatman. + +"Dry up! and haul off," said the captain. + +"One moment," interposed the consul, with a rapid glance at the slight +trouble in the young girl's face. Turning to the father, he went on: +"Will you allow me to offer you and your daughter a seat in my boat?" + +It was an unlooked-for and tempting proposal. The boatman was lazily +lying on his oars, secure in self-righteousness and the conscious +possession of the only available boat to shore; on the other hand, the +smart gig of the consul, with its four oars, was not only a providential +escape from a difficulty, but even to some extent a quasi-official +endorsement of his contention. Yet he hesitated. + +"It'll be costin' ye no more?" he said interrogatively, glancing at the +consul's boat crew, "or ye'll be askin' me a fair proportion." + +"It will be the gentleman's own boat," said the girl, with a certain shy +assurance, "and he'll be paying his boatmen by the day." + +The consul hastened to explain that their passage would involve no +additional expense to anybody, and added, tactfully, that he was glad to +enable them to oppose extortion. + +"Ay, but it's a preencipel," said the father proudly, "and I'm pleased, +sir, to see ye recognize it." + +He proceeded to help his daughter into the boat without any further +leave-taking of the passenger, to the consul's great surprise, and with +only a parting nod from the young girl. It was as if this momentous +incident were a sufficient reason for the absence of any further trivial +sentiment. + +Unfortunately the father chose to add an exordium for the benefit of the +astonished boatsman still lying on his oars. + +"Let this be a lesson to ye, ma frien', when ye're ower sure! Ye'll +ne'er say a herrin' is dry until it be reestit an' reekit." + +"Ay," said the boatman, with a lazy, significant glance at the consul, +"it wull be a lesson to me not to trust to a lassie's GANGIN' jo, when +thair's anither yin comin'." + +"Give way," said the consul sharply. + +Yet his was the only irritated face in the boat as the men bent over +their oars. The young girl and her father looked placidly at the +receding ship, and waved their hands to the grave, resigned face over +the taffrail. The consul examined them more attentively. The father's +face showed intelligence and a certain probity in its otherwise +commonplace features. The young girl had more distinction, with, +perhaps, more delicacy of outline than of texture. Her hair was dark, +with a burnished copper tint at its roots, and eyes that had the same +burnished metallic lustre in their brown pupils. Both sat respectfully +erect, as if anxious to record the fact that the boat was not their +own to take their ease in; and both were silently reserved, answering +briefly to the consul's remarks as if to indicate the formality of +their presence there. But a distant railway whistle startled them into +emotion. + +"We've lost the train, father!" said the young girl. + +The consul followed the direction of her anxious eyes; the train was +just quitting the station at Bannock. + +"If ye had not lingered below with Jamie, we'd have been away in time, +ay, and in our own boat," said the father, with marked severity. + +The consul glanced quickly at the girl. But her face betrayed no +consciousness, except of their present disappointment. + +"There's an excursion boat coming round the Point," he said, pointing +to the black smoke trail of a steamer at the entrance of a loch, "and it +will be returning to St. Kentigern shortly. If you like, we'll pull over +and put you aboard." + +"Eh! but it's the Sabbath-breaker!" said the old man harshly. + +The consul suddenly remembered that that was the name which the +righteous St. Kentigerners had given to the solitary bold, bad +pleasure-boat that defied their Sabbatical observances. + +"Perhaps you won't find very pleasant company on board," said the consul +smiling; "but, then, you're not seeking THAT. And as you would be only +using the boat to get back to your home, and not for Sunday recreation, +I don't think your conscience should trouble you." + +"Ay, that's a fine argument, Mr. Consul, but I'm thinkin' it's none the +less sopheestry for a' that," said the father grimly. "No; if ye'll just +land us yonder at Bannock pier, we'll be ay thankin' ye the same." + +"But what will you do there? There's no other train to-day." + +"Ay, we'll walk on a bit." + +The consul was silent. After a pause the young girl lifted her clear +eyes, and with a half pathetic, half childish politeness, said: "We'll +be doing very well--my father and me. You're far too kind." + +Nothing further was said as they began to thread their way between a +few large ships and an ocean steamer at anchor, from whose decks a few +Sunday-clothed mariners gazed down admiringly on the smart gig and the +pretty girl in a Tam o' Shanter in its stern sheets. But here a new +idea struck the consul. A cable's length ahead lay a yacht, owned by an +American friend, and at her stern a steam launch swung to its painter. +Without intimating his intention to his passengers he steered for it. +"Bow!--way enough," he called out as the boat glided under the yacht's +counter, and, grasping the companion-ladder ropes, he leaped aboard. In +a few hurried words he explained the situation to Mr. Robert Gray, her +owner, and suggested that he should send the belated passengers to St. +Kentigern by the launch. Gray assented with the easy good-nature of +youth, wealth, and indolence, and lounged from his cabin to the side. +The consul followed. Looking down upon the boat he could not help +observing that his fair young passenger, sitting in her demure stillness +at her father's side, made a very pretty picture. It was possible that +"Bob Gray" had made the same observation, for he presently swung himself +over the gangway into the gig, hat in hand. The launch could easily take +them; in fact, he added unblushingly, it was even then getting up steam +to go to St. Kentigern. Would they kindly come on board until it was +ready? At an added word or two of explanation from the consul, the +father accepted, preserving the same formal pride and stiffness, and the +transfer was made. The consul, looking back as his gig swept round again +towards Bannock pier, received their parting salutations, and the first +smile he had seen on the face of his grave little passenger. He thought +it very sweet and sad. + +He did not return to the Consulate at St. Kentigern until the next day. +But he was somewhat surprised to find Mr. Robert Gray awaiting him, and +upon some business which the young millionaire could have easily deputed +to his captain or steward. As he still lingered, the consul pleasantly +referred to his generosity on the previous day, and hoped the passengers +had given him no trouble. + +"No," said Gray with a slight simulation of carelessness. "In fact I +came up with them myself. I had nothing to do; it was Sunday, you know." + +The consul lifted his eyebrows slightly. + +"Yes, I saw them home," continued Gray lightly. "In one of those +by-streets not far from here; neat-looking house outside; inside, +corkscrew stone staircase like a lighthouse; fourth floor, no lift, but +SHE circled up like a swallow! Flat--sitting-room, two bedrooms, and +a kitchen--mighty snug and shipshape and pretty as a pink. They OWN it +too--fancy OWNING part of a house! Seems to be a way they have here in +St. Kentigern." He paused and then added: "Stayed there to a kind of +high tea!" + +"Indeed," said the consul. + +"Why not? The old man wanted to return my 'hospitality' and square the +account! He wasn't going to lie under any obligation to a stranger, and, +by Jove! he made it a special point of honor! A Spanish grandee couldn't +have been more punctilious. And with an accent, Jerusalem! like a +northeaster off the Banks! But the feed was in good taste, and he only a +mathematical instrument maker, on about twelve hundred dollars a year!" + +"You seem to know all about him," said the consul smilingly. + +"Not so much as he does about me," returned Gray, with a half perplexed +face; "for he saw enough to admonish me about my extravagance, and even +to intimate that that rascal Saunderson, my steward, was imposing on me. +SHE took me to task, too, for not laying the yacht up on Sunday that the +men could go 'to kirk,' and for swearing at a bargeman who ran across +our bows. It's their perfect simplicity and sincerity in all this that +gets me! You'd have thought that the old man was my guardian, and the +daughter my aunt." After a pause he uttered a reminiscent laugh. "She +thought we ate and drank too much on the yacht, and wondered what we +could find to do all day. All this, you know, in the gentlest, caressing +sort of voice, as if she was really concerned, like one's own sister. +Well, not exactly like mine"--he interrupted himself grimly--"but, hang +it all, you know what I mean. You know that our girls over there haven't +got THAT trick of voice. Too much self-assertion, I reckon; things made +too easy for them by us men. Habit of race, I dare say." He laughed a +little. "Why, I mislaid my glove when I was coming away, and it was as +good as a play to hear her commiserating and sympathizing, and hunting +for it as if it were a lost baby." + +"But you've seen Scotch girls before this," said the consul. "There were +Lady Glairn's daughters, whom you took on a cruise." + +"Yes, but the swell Scotch all imitate the English, as everybody else +does, for the matter of that, our girls included; and they're all alike. +Society makes 'em fit in together like tongued and grooved planks that +will take any amount of holy-stoning and polish. It's like dropping into +a dead calm, with every rope and spar that you know already reflected +back from the smooth water upon you. It's mighty pretty, but it isn't +getting on, you know." After a pause he added: "I asked them to take a +little holiday cruise with me." + +"And they declined," interrupted the consul. + +Gray glanced at him quickly. + +"Well, yes; that's all right enough. They don't know me, you see, but +they do know you; and the fact is, I was thinking that as you're our +consul here, don't you see, and sort of responsible for me, you might +say that it was all right, you know. Quite the customary thing with us +over there. And you might say, generally, who I am." + +"I see," said the consul deliberately. "Tell them you're Bob Gray, with +more money and time than you know what to do with; that you have a +fine taste for yachting and shooting and racing, and amusing yourself +generally; that you find that THEY amuse you, and you would like your +luxury and your dollars to stand as an equivalent to their independence +and originality; that, being a good republican yourself, and recognizing +no distinction of class, you don't care what this may mean to them, who +are brought up differently; that after their cruise with you you don't +care what life, what friends, or what jealousies they return to; that +you know no ties, no responsibilities beyond the present, and that you +are not a marrying man." + +"Look here, I say, aren't you making a little too much of this?" said +Gray stiffly. + +The consul laughed. "I should be glad to know that I am." + +Gray rose. "We'll be dropping down the river to-morrow," he said, with +a return of his usual lightness, "and I reckon I'll be toddling down to +the wharf. Good-bye, if I don't see you again." + +He passed out. As the consul glanced from the window he observed, +however, that Mr. Gray was "toddling" in quite another direction than +the wharf. For an instant he half regretted that he had not suggested, +in some discreet way, the conclusion he had arrived at after witnessing +the girl's parting with the middle-aged passenger the day before. But he +reflected that this was something he had only accidentally overseen, and +was the girl's own secret. + + +II. + + +When the summer had so waxed in its fullness that the smoke of factory +chimneys drifted high, permitting glimpses of fairly blue sky; when the +grass in St. Kentigern's proudest park took on a less sober green in the +comfortable sun, and even in the thickest shade there was no chilliness, +the good St. Kentigerners recognized that the season had arrived to go +"down the river," and that it was time for them to betake themselves, +with rugs, mackintoshes, and umbrellas, to the breezy lochs and misty +hillsides for which the neighborhood of St. Kentigern is justly famous. +So when it came to pass that the blinds were down in the highest places, +and the most exclusive pavements of St. Kentigern were echoless and +desolate, the consul heroically tore himself from the weak delight of +basking in the sunshine, and followed the others. + +He soon found himself settled at the furthest end of a long narrow loch, +made longer and narrower by the steep hillside of rock and heather which +flanked its chilly surface on either side, and whose inequalities were +lost in the firs and larches that filled ravine and chasm. The fragrant +road which ran sinuously through their shadowy depths was invisible from +the loch; no protuberance broke the seemingly sheer declivity; the even +sky-line was indented in two places--one where it was cracked into a +fanciful resemblance to a human profile, the other where it was curved +like a bowl. Need it be said that one was distinctly recognized as +the silhouette of a prehistoric giant, and that the other was his +drinking-cup; need it be added that neither lent the slightest human +suggestion to the solitude? A toy-like pier extending into the loch, +midway from the barren shore, only heightened the desolation. And when +the little steamboat that occasionally entered the loch took away a +solitary passenger from the pier-head, the simplest parting was invested +with a dreary loneliness that might have brought tears to the most +hardened eye. + +Still, when the shadow of either hillside was not reaching across the +loch, the meridian sun, chancing upon this coy mirror, made the most of +it. Then it was that, seen from above, it flashed like a falchion lying +between the hills; then its reflected glory, striking up, transfigured +the two acclivities, tipped the cold heather with fire, gladdened the +funereal pines, and warmed the ascetic rocks. And it was in one of those +rare, passionate intervals that the consul, riding along the wooded +track and turning his eyes from their splendors, came upon a little +house. + +It had once been a sturdy cottage, with a grim endurance and +inflexibility which even some later and lighter additions had softened +rather than changed. On either side of the door, against the bleak +whitewashed wall, two tall fuchsias relieved the rigid blankness with a +show of color. The windows were prettily draped with curtains caught up +with gay ribbons. In a stony pound-like enclosure there was some attempt +at floral cultivation, but all quite recent. So, too, were a wicker +garden seat, a bright Japanese umbrella, and a tropical hammock +suspended between two arctic-looking bushes, which the rude and rigid +forefathers of the hamlet would have probably resented. + +He had just passed the house when a charming figure slipped across the +road before him. To his surprise it was the young girl he had met a few +months before on the Skyscraper. But the Tam o' Shanter was replaced by +a little straw hat; and a light dress, summery in color and texture, +but more in keeping with her rustic surroundings, seemed as grateful and +rare as the sunshine. Without knowing why, he had an impression that +it was of her own making--a gentle plagiarism of the style of her more +fortunate sisters, but with a demure restraint all her own. As she +recognized him a faint color came to her cheek, partly from surprise, +partly from some association. To his delighted greeting she responded by +informing him that her father had taken the cottage he had just passed, +where they were spending a three weeks' vacation from his business. It +was not so far from St. Kentigern but that he could run up for a day to +look after the shop. Did the consul not think it was wise? + +Quite ready to assent to any sagacity in those clear brown eyes, the +consul thought it was. But was it not, like wisdom, sometimes lonely? + +Ah! no. There was the loch and the hills and the heather; there were her +flowers; did he not think they were growing well? and at the head of the +loch there was the old tomb of the McHulishes, and some of the coffins +were still to be seen. + +Perhaps emboldened by the consul's smile, she added, with a more serious +precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing caress of her +voice, "And would you not be getting off and coming in and resting a wee +bit before you go further? It would be so good of you, and father would +think it so kind. And he will be there now, if you're looking." + +The consul looked. The old man was standing in the doorway of the +cottage, as respectably uncompromising as ever, with the slight +concession to his rural surroundings of wearing a Tam o' Shanter and +easy slippers. The consul dismounted and entered. The interior was +simply, but tastefully furnished. It struck him that the Scotch prudence +and economy, which practically excluded display and meretricious +glitter, had reached the simplicity of the truest art and the most +refined wealth. He felt he could understand Gray's enthusiasm, and by an +odd association of ideas he found himself thinking of the resigned face +of the lonely passenger on the Skyscraper. + +"Have you heard any news of your friend who went to Rio?" he asked +pleasantly, but without addressing himself particularly to either. + +There was a perceptible pause; doubtless of deference to her father +on the part of the young girl, and of the usual native conscientious +caution on the part of the father, but neither betrayed any +embarrassment or emotion. "No; he would not be writing yet," she at +length said simply, "he would be waiting until he was settled to his +business. Jamie would be waiting until he could say how he was doing, +father?" she appealed interrogatively to the old man. + +"Ay, James Gow would not fash himself to write compliments and gossip +till he knew his position and work," corroborated the old man. "He'll +not be going two thousand miles to send us what we can read in the +'St. Kentigern Herald.' But," he added, suddenly, with a recall of +cautiousness, "perhaps YOU will be hearing of the ship?" + +"The consul will not be remembering what he hears of all the ships," +interposed the young girl, with the same gentle affectation of superior +worldly knowledge which had before amused him. "We'll be wearying him, +father," and the subject dropped. + +The consul, glancing around the room again, but always returning to the +sweet and patient seriousness of the young girl's face and the grave +decorum of her father, would have liked to ask another question, but it +was presently anticipated; for when he had exhausted the current topics, +in which both father and daughter displayed a quiet sagacity, and he had +gathered a sufficient knowledge of their character to seem to justify +Gray's enthusiasm, and was rising to take his leave, the young girl said +timidly:-- + +"Would ye not let Bessie take your horse to the grass field over yonder, +and yourself stay with us to dinner? It would be most kind, and you +would meet a great friend of yours who will be here." + +"Mr. Gray?" suggested the consul audaciously. Yet he was greatly +surprised when the young girl said quietly, "Ay." + +"He'll be coming in the loch with his yacht," said the old man. "It's +not so expensive lying here as at Bannock, I'm thinking; and the men +cannot gang ashore for drink. Eh, but it's an awful waste o' pounds, +shillings, and pence, keeping these gowks in idleness with no feeshin' +nor carrying of passengers." + +"Ay, but it's better Mr. Gray should pay them for being decent and +well-behaved on board his ship, than that they should be out of work +and rioting in taverns and lodging-houses. And you yourself, father, +remember the herrin' fishers that come ashore at Ardie, and the deck +hands of the excursion boat, and the language they'll be using." + +"Have you had a cruise in the yacht?" asked the consul quickly. + +"Ay," said the father, "we have been up and down the loch, and around +the far point, but not for boardin' or lodgin' the night, nor otherwise +conteenuing or parteecipating. I have explained to Mr. Gray that we +must return to our own home and our own porridge at evening, and he has +agreed, and even come with us. He's a decent enough lad, and not above +instructin', but extraordinar' extravagant." + +"Ye know, father," interposed the young girl, "he talks of fitting up +the yacht for the fishing, and taking some of his most decent men on +shares. He says he was very fond of fishing off the Massachusetts coast, +in America. It will be, I'm thinking," she said, suddenly turning to the +consul with an almost pathetic appeal in her voice, "a great occupation +for the rich young men over there." + +The consul, desperately struggling with a fanciful picture of Mr. Robert +Gray as a herring fisher, thought gravely that it "might be." But he +thought still more gravely, though silently, of this singular companion +ship, and was somewhat anxious to confront his friend with his new +acquaintances. He had not long to wait. The sun was just dipping behind +the hill when the yacht glided into the lonely loch. A boat was put off, +and in a few moments Robert Gray was climbing the little path from the +loch. + +Had the consul expected any embarrassment or lover-like consciousness +on the face of Mr. Gray at their unexpected meeting, he would have been +disappointed. Nor was the young man's greeting of father and daughter, +whom he addressed as Mr. and Miss Callender, marked by any tenderness or +hesitation. On the contrary, a certain seriousness and quiet reticence, +unlike Gray, which might have been borrowed from his new friends, +characterized his speech and demeanor. Beyond this freemasonry of sad +repression there was no significance of look or word passed between +these two young people. The girl's voice retained its even pathos. +Gray's grave politeness was equally divided between her and her father. +He corroborated what Callender had said of his previous visits without +affectation or demonstration; he spoke of the possibilities of his +fitting up the yacht for the fishing season with a practical detail and +economy that left the consul's raillery ineffective. Even when, after +dinner, the consul purposely walked out in the garden with the father, +Gray and Ailsa presently followed them without lingering or undue +precipitation, and with no change of voice or manner. The consul was +perplexed. Had the girl already told Gray of her lover across the sea, +and was this singular restraint their joint acceptance of their fate; +or was he mistaken in supposing that their relations were anything more +than the simple friendship of patron and protegee? Gray was rich enough +to indulge in such a fancy, and the father and daughter were too proud +to ever allow it to influence their own independence. In any event the +consul's right to divulge the secret he was accidentally possessed +of seemed more questionable than ever. Nor did there appear to be any +opportunity for a confidential talk with Gray, since it was proposed +that the whole party should return to the yacht for supper, after +which the consul should be dropped at the pier-head, distant only a few +minutes from his hotel, and his horse sent to him the next day. + +A faint moon was shimmering along the surface of Loch Dour in icy little +ripples when they pulled out from the shadows of the hillside. By the +accident of position, Gray, who was steering, sat beside Ailsa in the +stern, while the consul and Mr. Callender were further forward, although +within hearing. The faces of the young people were turned towards each +other, yet in the cold moonlight the consul fancied they looked as +impassive and unemotional as statues. The few distant, far-spaced lights +that trembled on the fading shore, the lonely glitter of the water, +the blackness of the pine-clad ravines seemed to be a part of this +repression, until the vast melancholy of the lake appeared to meet and +overflow them like an advancing tide. Added to this, there came from +time to time the faint sound and smell of the distant, desolate sea. + +The consul, struggling manfully to keep up a spasmodic discussion on +Scotch diminutives in names, found himself mechanically saying: + +"And James you call Jamie?" + +"Ay; but ye would say, to be pure Scotch, 'Hamish,'" said Mr. Callender +precisely. The girl, however, had not spoken; but Gray turned to her +with something of his old gayety. + +"And I suppose you would call me 'Robbie'?" + +"Ah, no!" + +"What then?" + +"Robin." + +Her voice was low yet distinct, but she had thrown into the two +syllables such infinite tenderness, that the consul was for an instant +struck with an embarrassment akin to that he had felt in the cabin of +the Skyscraper, and half expected the father to utter a shocked protest. +And to save what he thought would be an appalling silence, he said with +a quiet laugh:-- + +"That's the fellow who 'made the assembly shine' in the song, isn't it?" + +"That was Robin Adair," said Gray quietly; "unfortunately I would only +be 'Robin Gray,' and that's quite another song." + +"AULD Robin Gray, sir, deestinctly 'auld' in the song," interrupted Mr. +Callender with stern precision; "and I'm thinking he was not so very +unfortunate either." + +The discussion of Scotch diminutives halting here, the boat sped on +silently to the yacht. But although Robert Gray, as host, recovered some +of his usual lightheartedness, the consul failed to discover anything +in his manner to indicate the lover, nor did Miss Ailsa after her single +lapse of tender accent exhibit the least consciousness. It was true that +their occasional frank allusions to previous conversations seemed to +show that their opportunities had not been restricted, but nothing more. +He began again to think he was mistaken. + +As he wished to return early, and yet not hasten the Callenders, he +prevailed upon Gray to send him to the pier-head first, and not disturb +the party. As he stepped into the boat, something in the appearance +of the coxswain awoke an old association in his mind. The man at first +seemed to avoid his scrutiny, but when they were well away from the +yacht, he said hesitatingly:-- + +"I see you remember me, sir. But if it's all the same to you, I've got a +good berth here and would like to keep it." + +The consul had a flash of memory. It was the boatswain of the +Skyscraper, one of the least objectionable of the crew. "But what are +you doing here? you shipped for the voyage," he said sharply. + +"Yes, but I got away at Key West, when I knew what was coming. I wasn't +on her when she was abandoned." + +"Abandoned!" repeated the consul. "What the d---l! Do you mean to say she +was wrecked?" + +"Well, yes--you know what I mean, sir. It was an understood thing. She +was over-insured and scuttled in the Bahamas. It was a put-up job, and I +reckoned I was well out of it." + +"But there was a passenger! What of him?" demanded the consul anxiously. + +"Dnnno! But I reckon he got away. There wasn't any of the crew lost that +I know of. Let's see, he was an engineer, wasn't he? I reckon he had to +take a hand at the pumps, and his chances with the rest." + +"Does Mr. Gray know of this?" asked the consul after a pause. + +The man stared. + +"Not from me, sir. You see it was nothin' to him, and I didn't care +talking much about the Skyscraper. It was hushed up in the papers. You +won't go back on me, sir?" + +"You don't know what became of the passenger?" + +"No! But he was a Scotchman, and they're bound to fall on their feet +somehow!" + + +III. + + +The December fog that overhung St. Kentigern had thinned sufficiently to +permit the passage of a few large snowflakes, soiled in their descent, +until in color and consistency they spotted the steps of the Consulate +and the umbrellas of the passers-by like sprinklings of gray mortar. +Nevertheless the consul thought the streets preferable to the persistent +gloom of his office, and sallied out. Youthful mercantile St. Kentigern +strode sturdily past him in the lightest covert coats; collegiate St. +Kentigern fluttered by in the scantiest of red gowns, shaming the furs +that defended his more exotic blood; and the bare red feet of a few +factory girls, albeit their heads and shoulders were draped and hooded +in thick shawls, filled him with a keen sense of his effeminacy. +Everything of earth, air, and sky, and even the faces of those he looked +upon, seemed to be set in the hard, patient endurance of the race. +Everywhere on that dismal day, he fancied he could see this energy +without restlessness, this earnestness without geniality, all grimly set +against the hard environment of circumstance and weather. + +The consul turned into one of the main arteries of St. Kentigern, a wide +street that, however, began and ended inconsequently, and with half a +dozen social phases in as many blocks. Here the snow ceased, the fog +thickened suddenly with the waning day, and the consul found himself +isolated and cut off on a block which he did not remember, with the +clatter of an invisible tramway in his ears. It was a block of small +houses with smaller shop-fronts. The one immediately before him seemed +to be an optician's, but the dimly lighted windows also displayed the +pathetic reinforcement of a few watches, cheap jewelry on cards, and +several cairngorm brooches and pins set in silver. It occurred to him +that he wanted a new watch crystal, and that he would procure it here +and inquire his way. Opening the door he perceived that there was no one +in the shop, but from behind the counter another open door disclosed +a neat sitting-room, so close to the street that it gave the casual +customer the sensation of having intruded upon domestic privacy. The +consul's entrance tinkled a small bell which brought a figure to the +door. It was Ailsa Callender. + +The consul was startled. He had not seen her since he had brought to +their cottage the news of the shipwreck with a precaution and delicacy +that their calm self-control and patient resignation, however, seemed to +make almost an impertinence. But this was no longer the handsome shop in +the chief thoroughfare with its two shopmen, which he previously knew as +"Callender's." And Ailsa here! What misfortune had befallen them? + +Whatever it was, there was no shadow of it in her clear eyes and frank +yet timid recognition of him. Falling in with her stoical and reticent +acceptance of it, he nevertheless gathered that the Callenders had lost +money in some invention which James Gow had taken with him to Rio, but +which was sunk in the ship. With this revelation of a business interest +in what he had believed was only a sentimental relation, the consul +ventured to continue his inquiries. Mr. Gow had escaped with his life +and had reached Honduras, where he expected to try his fortunes anew. +It might be a year or two longer before there were any results. Did the +consul know anything of Honduras? There was coffee there--so she and her +father understood. All this with little hopefulness, no irritation, +but a divine patience in her eyes. The consul, who found that his watch +required extensive repairing, and had suddenly developed an inordinate +passion for cairngorms, watched her as she opened the show-case with no +affectation of unfamiliarity with her occupation, but with all her old +serious concern. Surely she would have made as thorough a shop-girl as +she would--His half-formulated thought took the shape of a question. + +"Have you seen Mr. Gray since his return from the Mediterranean?" + +Ah! one of the brooches had slipped from her fingers to the bottom of +the case. There was an interval or two of pathetic murmuring, with her +fair head under the glass, before she could find it; then she lifted +her eyes to the consul. They were still slightly suffused with her +sympathetic concern. The stone, which was set in a thistle--the national +emblem--did he not know it?--had dropped out. But she could put it in. +It was pretty and not expensive. It was marked twelve shillings on the +card, but he could have it for ten shillings. No, she had not seen Mr. +Gray since they had lost their fortune. (It struck the consul as none +the less pathetic that she seemed really to believe in their former +opulence.) They could not be seeing him there in a small shop, and they +could not see him elsewhere. It was far better as it was. Yet she +paused a moment when she had wrapped up the brooch. "You'd be seeing him +yourself some time?" she added gently. + +"Perhaps." + +"Then you'll not mind saying how my father and myself are sometimes +thinking of his goodness and kindness," she went on, in a voice whose +tenderness seemed to increase with the formal precision of her speech. + +"Certainly." + +"And you'll say we're not forgetting him." + +"I promise." + +As she handed him the parcel her lips softly parted in what might have +been equally a smile or a sigh. + +He was able to keep his promise sooner than he had imagined. It was only +a few weeks later that, arriving in London, he found Gray's hatbox and +bag in the vestibule of his club, and that gentleman himself in the +smoking-room. He looked tanned and older. + +"I only came from Southampton an hour ago, where I left the yacht. And," +shaking the consul's hand cordially, "how's everything and everybody up +at old St. Kentigern?" + +The consul thought fit to include his news of the Callenders in +reference to that query, and with his eyes fixed on Gray dwelt at some +length on their change of fortune. Gray took his cigar from his mouth, +but did not lift his eyes from the fire. Presently he said, "I suppose +that's why Callender declined to take the shares I offered him in the +fishing scheme. You know I meant it, and would have done it." + +"Perhaps he had other reasons." + +"What do you mean?" said Gray, facing the consul suddenly. + +"Look here, Gray," said the consul, "did Miss Callender or her father +ever tell you she was engaged?" + +"Yes; but what's that to do with it?" + +"A good deal. Engagements, you know, are sometimes forced, unsuitable, +or unequal, and are broken by circumstances. Callender is proud." + +Gray turned upon the consul the same look of gravity that he had worn +on the yacht--the same look that the consul even fancied he had seen +in Ailsa's eyes. "That's exactly where you're mistaken in her," he said +slowly. "A girl like that gives her word and keeps it. She waits, hopes, +accepts what may come--breaks her heart, if you will, but not her word. +Come, let's talk of something else. How did he--that man Gow--lose +Callender's money?" + +The consul did not see the Callenders again on his return, and perhaps +did not think it necessary to report the meeting. But one morning he +was delighted to find an official document from New York upon his desk, +asking him to communicate with David Callender of St. Kentigern, and, +on proof of his identity, giving him authority to draw the sum of five +thousand dollars damages awarded for the loss of certain property on +the Skyscraper, at the request of James Gow. Yet it was with mixed +sensations that the consul sought the little shop of the optician with +this convincing proof of Gow's faithfulness and the indissolubility of +Ailsa's engagement. That there was some sad understanding between the +girl and Gray he did not doubt, and perhaps it was not strange that he +felt a slight partisanship for his friend, whose nature had so strangely +changed. Miss Ailsa was not there. Her father explained that her health +had required a change, and she was visiting some friends on the river. + +"I'm thinkin' that the atmosphere is not so pure here. It is deficient +in ozone. I noticed it myself in the early morning. No! it was not the +confinement of the shop, for she never cared to go out." + +He received the announcement of his good fortune with unshaken calm and +great practical consideration of detail. He would guarantee his identity +to the consul. As for James Gow, it was no more than fair; and what he +had expected of him. As to its being an equivalent of his loss, he could +not tell until the facts were before him. + +"Miss Ailsa," suggested the consul venturously, "will be pleased to hear +again from her old friend, and know that he is succeeding." + +"I'm not so sure that ye could call it 'succeeding,'" returned the old +man, carefully wiping the glasses of a pair of spectacles that he held +critically to the light, "when ye consider that, saying nothing of the +waste of valuable time, it only puts James Gow back where he was when he +went away." + +"But any man who has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss Callender +would be glad to be on that footing," said the consul, with polite +significance. + +"I'm not agreeing with you there," said Mr. Callender quietly; "and I'm +observing in ye of late a tendency to combine business wi' +compleement. But it was kind of ye to call; and I'll be sending ye the +authorization." + +Which he did. But the consul, passing through the locality a few weeks +later, was somewhat concerned to find the shop closed, with others +on the same block, behind a hoarding that indicated rebuilding and +improvement. Further inquiry elicited the fact that the small leases +had been bought up by some capitalist, and that Mr. Callender, with the +others, had benefited thereby. But there was no trace nor clew to his +present locality. He and his daughter seemed to have again vanished with +this second change in their fortunes. + +It was a late March morning when the streets were dumb with snow, and +the air was filled with flying granulations that tinkled against the +windows of the Consulate like fairy sleigh-bells, when there was the +stamping of snow-clogged feet in the outer hall, and the door was opened +to Mr. and Miss Callender. For an instant the consul was startled. The +old man appeared as usual--erect, and as frigidly respectable as one +of the icicles that fringed the window, but Miss Ailsa was, to his +astonishment, brilliant with a new-found color, and sparkling with +health and only half-repressed animation. The snow-flakes, scarcely +melting on the brown head of this true daughter of the North, still +crowned her hood; and, as she threw back her brown cloak and disclosed a +plump little scarlet jacket and brown skirt, the consul could not resist +her suggested likeness to some bright-eyed robin redbreast, to whom the +inclement weather had given a charming audacity. And shy and demure as +she still was, it was evident that some change had been wrought in her +other than that evoked by the stimulus of her native sky and air. + +To his eager questioning, the old man replied briefly that he had bought +the old cottage at Loch Dour, where they were living, and where he +had erected a small manufactory and laboratory for the making of his +inventions, which had become profitable. The consul reiterated his +delight at meeting them again. + +"I'm not so sure of that, sir, when you know the business on which I +come," said Mr. Callender, dropping rigidly into a chair, and clasping +his hands over the crutch of a shepherd-like staff. "Ye mind, perhaps, +that ye conveyed to me, osteensibly at the request of James Gow, +a certain sum of money, for which I gave ye a good and sufficient +guarantee. I thought at the time that it was a most feckless and +unbusiness-like proceeding on the part of James, as it was without +corroboration or advice by letter; but I took the money." + +"Do you mean to say that he made no allusion to it in his other +letters?" interrupted the consul, glancing at Ailsa. + +"There were no other letters at the time," said Callender dryly. "But +about a month afterwards we DID receive a letter from him enclosing a +draft and a full return of the profits of the invention, which HE HAD +SOLD IN HONDURAS. Ye'll observe the deescrepancy! I then wrote to the +bank on which I had drawn as you authorized me, and I found that they +knew nothing of any damages awarded, but that the sum I had drawn had +been placed to my credit by Mr. Robert Gray." + +In a flash the consul recalled the one or two questions that Gray had +asked him, and saw it all. For an instant he felt the whole bitterness +of Gray's misplaced generosity--its exposure and defeat. He glanced +again hopelessly at Ailsa. In the eye of that fresh, glowing, yet +demure, young goddess, unhallowed as the thought might be, there was +certainly a distinctly tremulous wink. + +The consul took heart. "I believe I need not say, Mr. Callender," he +began with some stiffness, "that this is as great a surprise to me as +to you. I had no reason to believe the transaction other than bona +fide, and acted accordingly. If my friend, deeply sympathizing with your +previous misfortune, has hit upon a delicate, but unbusiness-like way of +assisting you temporarily--I say TEMPORARILY, because it must have +been as patent to him as to you, that you would eventually find out his +generous deceit--you surely can forgive him for the sake of his kind +intention. Nay, more; may I point out to you that you have no right to +assume that this benefaction was intended exclusively for you; if Mr. +Gray, in his broader sympathy with you and your daughter, has in this +way chosen to assist and strengthen the position of a gentleman so +closely connected with you, but still struggling with hard fortune"-- + +"I'd have ye know, sir," interrupted the old man, rising to his feet, +"that ma frien' Mr. James Gow is as independent of yours as he is of +me and mine. He has married, sir, a Mrs. Hernandez, the rich widow of +a coffee-planter, and now is the owner of the whole estate, minus the +encumbrance of three children. And now, sir, you'll take this,"--he drew +from his pocket an envelope. "It's a draft for five thousand dollars, +with the ruling rate of interest computed from the day I received it +till this day, and ye'll give it to your frien' when ye see him. And +ye'll just say to him from me"-- + +But Miss Ailsa, with a spirit and independence that challenged her +father's, here suddenly fluttered between them with sparkling eyes and +outstretched hands. + +"And ye'll say to him from ME that a more honorable, noble, and generous +man, and a kinder, truer, and better friend than he, cannot be found +anywhere! And that the foolishest and most extravagant thing he ever did +is better than the wisest and most prudent thing that anybody else ever +did, could, or would do! And if he was a bit overproud--it was only +because those about him were overproud and foolish. And you'll tell him +that we're wearying for him! And when you give him that daft letter from +father you'll give him this bit line from me," she went on rapidly as +she laid a tiny note in his hand. "And," with wicked dancing eyes that +seemed to snap the last bond of repression, "ye'll give him THAT too, +and say I sent it!" + +There was a stir in the official apartment! The portraits of Lincoln and +Washington rattled uneasily in their frames; but it was no doubt only a +discreet blast of the north wind that drowned the echo of a kiss. + +"Ailsa!" gasped the shocked Mr. Callender. + +"Ah! but, father, if it had not been for HIM we would not have known +Robin." + +***** + +It was the last that the consul saw of Ailsa Callender; for the next +summer when he called at Loch Dour she was Mrs. Gray. + + + + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU. + + +I. + + +On the fifteenth of August, 1854, what seemed to be the entire +population of Wynyard's Bar was collected upon a little bluff which +overlooked the rude wagon road that was the only approach to the +settlement. In general appearance the men differed but little from +ordinary miners, although the foreign element, shown in certain Spanish +peculiarities of dress and color, predominated, and some of the men +were further distinguished by the delicacy of education and sedentary +pursuits. Yet Wynyard's Bar was a city of refuge, comprised among its +inhabitants a number who were "wanted" by the State authorities, and +its actual attitude at that moment was one of open rebellion against the +legal power, and of particular resistance to the apprehension by warrant +of one of its prominent members. This gentleman, Major Overstone, then +astride of a gray mustang, and directing the movements of the crowd, +had, a few days before, killed the sheriff of Siskyou county, who had +attempted to arrest him for the double offense of misappropriating +certain corporate funds of the State and the shooting of the editor who +had imprudently exposed him. The lesser crime of homicide might have +been overlooked by the authorities, but its repetition upon the body +of their own over-zealous and misguided official could not pass +unchallenged if they expected to arrest Overstone for the more serious +offense against property. So it was known that a new sheriff had been +appointed and was coming to Wynyard's Bar with an armed posse. But it +was also understood that this invasion would be resisted by the Bar to +its last man. + +All eyes were turned upon a fringe of laurel and butternut that +encroached upon the road half a mile away, where it seemed that such +of the inhabitants who were missing from the bluff were hidden to give +warning or retard the approach of the posse. A gray haze, slowly rising +between the fringe and the distant hillside, was recognized as the +dust of a cavalcade passing along the invisible highway. In the hush +of expectancy that followed, the irregular clatter of hoofs, the sharp +crack of a rifle, and a sudden halt were faintly audible. The +men, scattered in groups on the bluff, exchanged a smile of grim +satisfaction. + +Not so their leader! A quick start and an oath attracted attention to +him. To their surprise he was looking in another direction, but as +they looked too they saw and understood the cause. A file of horsemen, +hitherto undetected, were slowly passing along the little ridge on their +right. Their compact accoutrements and the yellow braid on their +blue jackets, distinctly seen at that distance, showed them to be a +detachment of United States cavalry. + +Before the assemblage could realize this new invasion, a nearer clatter +of hoofs was heard along the high road, and one of the ambuscading party +dashed up from the fringe of woods below. His face was flushed, but +triumphant. + +"A reg'lar skunk--by the living hokey!" he panted, pointing to the faint +haze that was again slowly rising above the invisible road. "They backed +down as soon as they saw our hand, and got a hole through their new +sheriff's hat. But what are you lookin' at? What's up?" + +The leader impatiently pointed with a darkening face to the distant +file. + +"Reg'lars, by gum!" ejaculated the other. "But Uncle Sam ain't in this +game. Wot right have THEY"-- + +"Dry up!" said the leader. + +The detachment was now moving at right angles with the camp, but +suddenly halted, almost doubling upon itself in some evident commotion. +A dismounted figure was seen momentarily flying down the hillside +dodging from bush to bush until lost in the underbrush. A dozen shots +were fired over its head, and then the whole detachment wheeled and +came clattering down the trail in the direction of the camp. A single +riderless horse, evidently that of the fugitive, followed. + +"Spread yourselves along the ridge, every man of you, and cover them as +they enter the gulch!" shouted the leader. "But not a shot until I give +the word. Scatter!" + +The assemblage dispersed like a startled village of prairie dogs, +squatting behind every available bush and rock along the line of bluff. +The leader alone trotted quietly to the head of the gulch. + +The nine cavalrymen came smartly up in twos, a young officer leading. +The single figure of Major Overstone opposed them with a command to +halt. Looking up, the young officer drew rein, said a word to his file +leader, and the four files closed in a compact square motionless on the +road. The young officer's unsworded hand hung quietly at his thigh, +the men's unslung carbines rested easily on their saddles. Yet at that +moment every man of them knew that they were covered by a hundred +rifles and shot guns leveled from every bush, and that they were caught +helplessly in a trap. + +"Since when," said Major Overstone with an affectation of tone and +manner different from that in which he had addressed his previous +companions, "have the Ninth United States Cavalry helped to serve a +State court's pettifogging process?" + +"We are hunting a deserter--a half-breed agent--who has just escaped +us," returned the officer. His voice was boyish--so, too, was his figure +in its slim, cadet-like smartness of belted tunic--but very quiet and +level, although his face was still flushed with the shock and shame of +his surprise. + +The relaxation of relief went through the wrought and waiting camp. The +soldiers were not seeking THEM. Ready as these desperate men had been to +do their leader's bidding, they were well aware that a momentary victory +over the troopers would not pass unpunished, and meant the ultimate +dispersion of the camp. And quiet as these innocent invaders seemed +to be they would no doubt sell their lives dearly. The embattled +desperadoes glanced anxiously at their leader; the soldiers, on the +contrary, looked straight before them. + +"Process or no process," said Major Overstone with a sneer, "you've +come to the last place to recover your deserter. We don't give up men in +Wynyard's Bar. And they didn't teach you at the Academy, sir, to stop to +take prisoners when you were outflanked and outnumbered." + +"Bedad! They didn't teach YOU, Captain Overstone, to engage a battery at +Cerro Gordo with a half company, but you did it; more shame to you now, +sorr, commandin' the thayves and ruffians you do." + +"Silence!" said the young officer. + +The sleeve of the sergeant who had spoken--with the chevrons of long +service upon it--went up to a salute, and dropped again over his carbine +as he stared stolidly before him. But his shot had told. A flush of +mingled pride and shame passed over Overstone's face. + +"Oh! it's YOU, Murphy," he said with an affected laugh, "and you haven't +improved with your stripes." + +The young officer turned his head slightly. + +"Attention!" + +"One moment more," said Overstone coming forward. "I have told you that +we don't give up any man who seeks our protection. But," he added with +a half-careless, half-contemptuous wave of his hand, and a significant +glance at his followers, "we don't prevent you from seeking him. The +road is clear; the camp is before you." + +The young officer continued without looking at him. "Forward--in two +files--open order. Ma-arch!" + +The little troop moved forward, passed Major Overstone at the head of +the gully, and spread out on the hillside. The assembled camp, still +armed, lounging out of ambush here and there, ironically made way for +them to pass. A few moments of this farcical quest, and a glance at +the impenetrably wooded heights around, apparently satisfied the young +officer, and he turned his files again into the gully. Major Overstone +was still lingering there. + +"I hope you are satisfied," he said grimly. He then paused, and in a +changed and more hesitating voice added: "I am an older soldier than +you, sir, but I am always glad to make the acquaintance of West Point." +He paused and held out his hand. + +West Point, still red and rigid, glanced at him with bright clear eyes +under light lashes and the peak of a smartly cocked cap, looked coolly +at the proffered hand, raised his own to a stiff salute, said, "Good +afternoon, sir," and rode away. + +Major Overstone wheeled angrily, but in doing so came sharply upon his +coadjutor--the leader of the ambushed party. + +"Well, Dawson," he said impatiently. "Who was it?" + +"Only one of them d----d half-breed Injin agents. He's just over there +in the brush with Simpson, lying low till the soldiers clear out." + +"Did you talk to him?" + +"Not much!" returned Dawson scornfully. "He ain't my style." + +"Fetch him up to my cabin; he may be of some use to us." + +Dawson looked skeptical. "I reckon he ain't no more gain here than he +was over there," he said, and turned away. + + +II. + + +The cabin of Major Overstone differed outwardly but little from those of +his companions. It was the usual structure of logs, laid lengthwise, and +rudely plastered at each point of contact with adobe, the material from +which the chimney, which entirely occupied one gable, was built. It +was pierced with two windows and a door, roofed with smaller logs, and +thatched with long half cylinders of spruce bark. But the interior +gave certain indications of the distinction as well as the peculiar +experiences of its occupant. In place of the usual bunk or berth built +against the wall stood a small folding camp bedstead, and upon a rude +deal table that held a tin wash-basin and pail lay two ivory-handled +brushes, combs, and other elegant toilet articles, evidently the +contents of the major's dressing-bag. A handsome leather trunk occupied +one corner, with a richly caparisoned silver-mounted Mexican saddle, +a mahogany case of dueling pistols, a leather hat-box, locked and +strapped, and a gorgeous gold and quartz handled ebony "presentation" +walking stick. There was a certain dramatic suggestion in this +revelation of the sudden and hurried transition from a life of +ostentatious luxury to one of hidden toil and privation, and a further +significance in the slow and gradual distribution and degradation of +these elegant souvenirs. A pair of silver boot-hooks had been used +for raking the hearth and lifting the coffee kettle; the ivory of the +brushes was stained with coffee; the cut-glass bottles had lost their +stoppers, and had been utilized for vinegar and salt; a silver-framed +hand mirror hung against the blackened wall. For the major's occupancy +was the sequel of a hurried flight from his luxurious hotel at +Sacramento--a transfer that he believed was only temporary until +the affair blew over, and he could return in safety to brow-beat his +accusers, as was his wont. But this had not been so easy as he had +imagined; his prosecutors were bitter, and his enforced seclusion had +been prolonged week by week until the fracas which ended in the shooting +of the sheriff had apparently closed the door upon his return to +civilization forever. Only here was his life and person secure. For +Wynyard's Bar had quickly succumbed to the domination of his reckless +courage, and the eminence of his double crime had made him respected +among spendthrifts, gamblers, and gentlemen whose performances had +never risen above a stage-coach robbery or a single assassination. Even +criticism of his faded luxuries had been delicately withheld. + +He was leaning over his open trunk--which the camp popularly supposed +to contain State bonds and securities of fabulous amount--and had taken +some letters from it, when a figure darkened the doorway. He looked up, +laying his papers carelessly aside. WITHIN Wynyard's Bar property was +sacred. + +It was the late fugitive. Although some hours had already elapsed since +his arrival in camp, and he had presumably refreshed himself inwardly, +his outward appearance was still disheveled and dusty. Brier and +milkweed clung to his frayed blouse and trousers. What could be seen of +the skin of his face and hands under its stains and begriming was of +a dull yellow. His light eyes had all the brightness without the +restlessness of the mongrel race. They leisurely took in the whole +cabin, the still open trunk before the major, and then rested +deliberately on the major himself. + +"Well," said Major Overstone abruptly, "what brought you here?" + +"Same as brought you, I reckon," responded the man almost as abruptly. + +The major knew something of the half-breed temper, and neither the +retort nor its tone affected him. + +"You didn't come here just because you deserted," said the major coolly. +"You've been up to something else." + +"I have," said the man with equal coolness. + +"I thought so. Now, you understand you can't try anything of that kind +HERE. If you do, up you go on the first tree. That's Rule 1." + +"I see you ain't pertickler about waiting for the sheriff here, you +fellers." + +The major glanced at him quickly. He seemed to be quite unconscious of +any irony in his remark, and continued grimly, "And what's Rule 2?" + +"I reckon you needn't trouble yourself beyond No. 1," returned the major +with dry significance. Nevertheless, he opened a rude cupboard in the +corner and brought out a rich silver-mounted cut-glass drinking-flask, +which he handed to the stranger. + +"I say," said the half-breed, admiringly, "yours?" + +"Certainly." + +"Certainly NOW, but BEFORE, eh?" + +Rule No. 2 may have indicated that references to the past held no +dishonor. The major, although accustomed to these pleasantries, laughed +a little harshly. + +"Mine always," he said. "But you don't drink?" + +The half-breed's face darkened under its grime. + +"Wot you're givin' us? I've been filled chock up by Simpson over thar. I +reckon I know when I've got a load on." + +"Were you ever in Sacramento?" + +"Yes." + +"When?" + +"Last week." + +"Did you hear anything about me?" + +The half-breed glanced through his tangled hair at the major in some +wonder, not only at the question, but at the almost childish eagerness +with which it was asked. + +"I didn't hear much of anything else," he answered grimly. + +"And--what did they SAY?" + +"Said you'd got to be TOOK anyhow! They allowed the new sheriff would do +it too." + +The major laughed. "Well, you heard HOW the new sheriff did it--skunked +away with his whole posse before one-eighth of my men! You saw how the +rest of this camp held up your nine troopers, and that sap-headed cub +of a lieutenant--didn't you? You wouldn't have been standing here if +you hadn't. No; there isn't the civil process nor the civil power in all +California that can take me out of this camp." + +But neither his previous curiosity nor present bravado seemed to impress +the ragged stranger with much favor. He glanced sulkily around the cabin +and began to shuffle towards the door. + +"Stop! Where are you going to? Sit down. I want to talk to you." + +The fugitive hesitated for a moment, and then dropped ungraciously on +the edge of a camp-stool near the door. The major looked at him. + +"I may have to remind you that I run this camp, and the boys hereabouts +do pretty much as I say. What's your name?" + +"Tom." + +"Tom? Well, look here, Tom! D--n it all! Can't you see that when a man +is stuck here alone, as I am, he wants to know what's going on outside, +and hear a little fresh talk?" + +The singular weakness of this blended command and appeal apparently +struck the fugitive curiously. He fixed his lowering eyes on the major +as if in gloomy doubt if he were really the reckless desperado he had +been represented. That this man--twice an assassin and the ruler +of outlaws as reckless as himself--should approach him in this +half-confidential way evidently puzzled him. + +"Wot you wanter know?" he asked gruffly. + +"Well, what's my party saying or doing about me?" said the major +impatiently. "What's the 'Express' saying about me?" + +"I reckon they're throwing off on you all round; they allow you never +represented the party, but worked for yourself," said the man shortly. + +Here the major lashed out. A set of traitors and hirelings! He had +bought and paid for them all! He had sunk two thousand dollars in the +"Express" and saved the editor from being horsewhipped and jailed for +libel! Half the cursed bonds that they were making such a blanked +fuss about were handled by these hypocrites--blank them! They were a +low-lived crew of thieves and deserters! It is presumed that the major +had forgotten himself in this infelicitous selection of epithets, but +the stranger's face only relaxed into a grim smile. More than that, the +major had apparently forgotten his desire to hear his guest talk, for he +himself at once launched into an elaborate exposition of his own affairs +and a specious and equally elaborate defense and justification of +himself and denunciation of his accusers. For nearly half an hour he +reviewed step by step and detail by detail the charges against him--with +plausible explanation and sophistical argument, but always with +a singular prolixity and reiteration that spoke of incessant +self-consciousness and self-abstraction. Of that dashing +self-sufficiency which had dazzled his friends and awed his enemies +there was no trace! At last, even the set smile of the degraded +recipient of these confidences darkened with a dull, bewildered disgust. +Then, to his relief, a step was heard without. The major's manner +instantly changed. + +"Well?" he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered. + +"I came to know what you want done with HIM," said Dawson, indicating +the fugitive with a contemptuous finger. + +"Take him to your cabin!" + +"My cabin! HIM?" ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief. + +The major's light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a straight +line. "I don't think you understand me, Dawson, and another time you'd +better wait until I'm done. I want you to take him to your cabin--and +then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You understand? I want him NEAR ME AND +ALONE!" + + +III. + + +Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone and +the half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had already +come to the conclusion that the major was planning some extraordinary +reprisals against the invaders, that would ensure the perpetual security +of the camp. That he should use so insignificant and unimportant a tool +now appeared to him to be quite natural, particularly as the service +was probably one in which the man would be sacrificed. "The major," he +suggested to his companions, "ain't going to risk a white man's skin, +when he can get an Injun's hide handy." + +The reluctant hesitating step of the half-breed as they walked along +seemed to give some color to this hypothesis. He listened sullenly to +the major as he pointed out the strategic position of the Bar. "That +wagon road is the only approach to Wynyard's, and a dozen men along the +rocks could hold it against a hundred. The trail that you came by, over +the ridge, drops straight into this gully, and you saw what that would +mean to any blanked fools who might try it. Of course we could be +shelled from that ridge if the sheriff had a howitzer, or the men who +knew how to work one, but even then we could occupy the ridge before +them." He paused a moment and then added: "I used to be in the army, +Tom; I saw service in Mexico before that cub you got away from had his +first trousers. I was brought up as a gentleman--blank it all--and HERE +I am!" + +The man slouched on by his side, casting his surly, furtive glances +from left to right, as if seeking to escape from these confidences. +Nevertheless, the major kept on through the gully, until reaching the +wagon road they crossed it, and began to ascend the opposite slope, half +hidden by the underbrush and larches. Here the major paused again and +faced about. The cabins of the settlement were already behind the bluff; +the little stream which indicated the "bar"--on which some perfunctory +mining was still continued--now and then rang out quite clearly at their +feet, although the bar itself had disappeared. The sounds of occupation +and labor had at last died away in the distance. They were quite alone. +The major sat down on a boulder, and pointed to another. The man, +however, remained sullenly standing where he was, as if to accent as +strongly as possible the enforced companionship. Either the major +was too self-absorbed to notice it, or accepted it as a satisfactory +characteristic of the half-breed's race. He continued confidently:-- + +"Now look here, Tom. I want to leave this cursed hole, and get clear out +of the State! Anywhere; over the Oregon line into British Columbia, or +to the coast, where I can get a coasting vessel down to Mexico. It will +cost money, but I've got it. It will cost a lot of risks, but I'll take +them. I want somebody to help me, some one to share risks with me, and +some one to share my luck if I succeed. Help to put me on the other side +of the border line, by sea or land, and I'll give you a thousand dollars +down BEFORE WE START and a thousand dollars when I'm safe." + +The half-breed had changed his slouching attitude. It seemed more +indolent on account of the loosely hanging strap that had once held his +haversack, which was still worn in a slovenly fashion over his shoulder +as a kind of lazy sling for his shiftless hand. + +"Well, Tom, is it a go? You can trust ME, for you'll have the thousand +in your pocket before you start. I can trust YOU, for I'll kill you +quicker than lightning if you say a word of this to any one before I go, +or play a single trick on me afterwards." + +Suddenly the two men were rolling over and over in the underbrush. The +half-breed had thrown himself upon the major, bearing him down to the +ground. The haversack strap for an instant whirled like the loop of a +lasso in the air, and descended over the major's shoulders, pinioning +his arms to his side. Then the half-breed, tearing open his ragged +blouse, stripped off his waist-belt, and as dexterously slipped it over +the ankles of the struggling man. + +It was all over in a moment. Neither had spoken a word. Only their rapid +panting broke the profound silence. Each probably knew that no outcry +would be overheard. + +For the first time the half-breed sat down. But there was no trace of +triumph or satisfaction in his face, which wore the same lowering look +of disgust, as he gazed upon the prostrate man. + +"I want to tell you first," he said, slowly wiping his face, "that I +didn't kalkilate upon doin' this in this yer kind o' way. I expected +more of a stan' up fight from you--more risk in gettin' you out o' that +hole--and a different kind of a man to tackle. I never expected you +to play into my hand like this--and it goes against me to hev to take +advantage of it." + +"Who are you?" said the major, pantingly. + +"I'm the new sheriff of Siskyou!" + +He drew from beneath his begrimed shirt a paper wrapping, from which +he gingerly extracted with the ends of his dirty fingers a clean, +legal-looking folded paper. + +"That's my warrant! I've kept it fresh for you. I reckon you don't care +to read it--you've seen it afore. It's just the same as t'other sheriff +had--what you shot." + +"Then this was a plant of yours, and that whelp's troopers?" said the +major. + +"Neither him nor the sojers knows any more about it than you," returned +the sheriff slowly. "I enlisted as Injin guide or scout ten days ago. +I deserted just as reg'lar and nat'ral like when we passed that ridge +yesterday. I could be took to-morrow by the sojers if they caught sight +o' me and court-martialed--it's as reg'lar as THAT! But I timed to have +my posse, under a deputy, draw you off by an attack just as the escort +reached the ridge. And here I am." + +"And you're no half-breed?" + +"There's nothin' Injin about me that water won't wash off. I kalkilated +you wouldn't suspect anything so insignificant as an INJIN, when I fixed +myself up. You saw Dawson didn't hanker after me much. But I didn't +reckon on YOUR tumbling to me so quick. That's what gets me! You must +hev been pretty low down for kempany when you took a man like me inter +your confidence. I don't see it yet." + +He looked inquiringly at his captive--with the same wondering surliness. +Nor could he understand another thing which was evident. After the first +shock of resistance the major had exhibited none of the indignation of +a betrayed man, but actually seemed to accept the situation with a +calmness that his captor lacked. His voice was quite unemotional as he +said: + +"And how are you going to get me away from here?" + +"That's MY look out, and needn't trouble you, major; but, seein' as how +confidential you've been to me, I don't mind tellin' you. Last night +that posse of mine that you 'skunked,' you know, halted at the cross +roads till them sojers went by. They has only to SEE THEM to know that I +had got away. They'll hang round the cross roads till they see my signal +on top of the ridge, and then they'll make another show against that +pass. Your men will have their hands full, I reckon, without huntin' for +YOU, or noticin' the three men o' mine that will come along this ridge +where the sojers come yesterday--to help me get you down in the same +way. You see, major, your little trap in that gully ain't in this +fight--WE'RE THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. I ain't much of a sojer, but I +reckon I've got you there! And it's all owing to YOU. I ain't," he added +gloomily, "takin' much pride in it MYSELF." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said the major, "and look here! I'll +double that offer I made you just now. Set me down just as I am on the +deck of some coasting vessel, and I'll pay you four thousand dollars. +You may have all the glory of having captured me, HERE, and of making +your word good before your posse. But you can arrange afterwards on the +way to let me give you the slip somewhere near Sacramento." + +The sheriff's face actually brightened. "Thanks for that, major. I was +gettin' a little sick of my share in this job, but, by God, you've put +some sand in me. Well, then! there ain't gold enough in all Californy to +make me let you go. You hear me; so drop that. I've TOOK you, and TOOK +ye'll remain until I land you in Sacramento jail. I don't want to kill +you, though your life's forfeit a dozen times over, and I reckon you +don't care for it either way, but if you try any tricks on me I may have +to MAIM ye to make you come along comf'able and easy. I ain't hankerin' +arter THAT either, but come you shall!" + +"Give your signal and have an end of this," said the major curtly. + +The sheriff looked at him again curiously. "I never had my hands in +another man's pockets before, major, but I reckon I'll have to take your +derringers from yours." He slipped his hand into the major's waistcoat +and secured the weapons. "I'll have to trouble you for your sash, too," +he said, unwinding the knitted silken girdle from the captive's waist. +"You won't want it, for you ain't walking, and it'll come in handy to me +just now." + +He bent over, and, passing it across the major's breast with more +gentleness and solicitude than he had yet shown, secured him in an easy +sitting posture against the tree. Then, after carefully trying the knots +and straps that held his prisoner, he turned and lightly bounded up the +hill. + +He was absent scarcely ten minutes, yet when he returned the major's +eyes were half closed. But not his lips. "If you expect to hold me until +your posse comes you had better take me to some less exposed position," +he said dryly. "There's a man just crossed the gully, coming into the +brush below in the wood." + +"None of your tricks, major!" + +"Look for yourself." + +The sheriff glanced quickly below him. A man with an axe on his shoulder +could be seen plainly making his way through the underbrush not a +hundred yards away. The sheriff instantly clapped his hand upon his +captive's mouth, but at a look from his eyes took it away again. + +"I see," he said grimly, "you don't want to lure that man within reach +of my revolver by calling to him." + +"I could have called him while you were away," returned the major +quietly. + +The sheriff with a darkened face loosened the sash that bound his +prisoner to the tree, and then, lifting him in his arms, began to ascend +the hill cautiously, dipping into the heavier shadows. But the ascent +was difficult, the load a heavy one, and the sheriff was agile rather +than muscular. After a few minutes' climbing he was forced to pause and +rest his burden at the foot of a tree. But the valley and the man in the +underbrush were no longer in view. + +"Come," said the major quietly, "unstrap my ankles and I'll WALK up. +We'll never get there at this rate." + +The sheriff paused, wiped his grimy face with his grimier blouse, and +stood looking at his prisoner. Then he said slowly:-- + +"Look yer! Wot's your little game? Blessed if I kin follow suit." + +For the first time the major burst into a rage. "Blast it all! Don't you +see that if I'm discovered HERE, in this way, there's not a man on the +Bar who would believe that I walked into your trap, not a man, by God, +who wouldn't think it was a trick of yours and mine together?" + +"Or," interrupted the sheriff slowly, fixing his eyes on his prisoner, +"not a man who would ever trust Major Overstone for a leader again?" + +"Perhaps," said the major, unmovedly again, "I don't think EITHER OF US +would ever get a chance of being trusted again by any one." + +The sheriff still kept his eyes fixed on his prisoner, his gloomy face +growing darker under its grime. "THAT ain't the reason, major. Life and +death don't mean much more to you than they do to me in this yer game. I +know that you'd kill me quicker nor lightning if you got the chance; YOU +know that I'm takin' you to the gallows." + +"The reason is that I want to leave Wynyard's Bar," said the major +coolly; "and even this way out of it will suit me." + +The sheriff took his revolver from his pocket and deliberately cocked +it. Then, leaning down, he unbuckled the strap from the major's ankles. +A wild hope that his incomprehensible captive might seize that moment to +develop his real intent--that he might fly, fight, or in some way act up +to his reckless reputation--sustained him for a moment, but in the next +proved futile. The major only said, "Thank you, Tom," and stretched his +cramped legs. + +"Get up and go on," said the sheriff roughly. + +The major began to slowly ascend the hill, the sheriff close on his +heels, alert, tingling, and watchful of every movement. For a few +moments this strain upon his faculties seemed to invigorate him, and his +gloom relaxed, but presently it became too evident that the prisoner's +pinioned arms made it impossible for him to balance or help himself on +that steep trail, and once or twice he stumbled and reeled dangerously +to one side. With an oath the sheriff caught him, and tore from his arms +the only remaining bonds that fettered him. "There!" he said savagely; +"go on; we're equal!" + +Without replying, the major continued his ascent; it became steeper +as they neared the crest, and at last they were both obliged to drag +themselves up by clutching the vines and underbrush. Suddenly the major +stopped with a listening gesture. A strange roaring--as of wind or +water--was distinctly audible. + +"How did you signal?" asked the major abruptly. + +"Made a smoke," said the sheriff as abruptly. + +"I thought so--well! you've set the woods on fire." + +They both plunged upwards again, now quite abreast, vying with each +other to reach the summit as if with the one thought only. Already the +sting and smart of acrid fumes were in their eyes and nostrils; when +they at last stood on level ground again, it was hidden by a thin film +of grayish blue haze that seemed to be creeping along it. But above +was the clear sky, seen through the interlacing boughs, and to +their surprise--they who had just come from the breathless, stagnant +hillside--a fierce wind was blowing! But the roaring was louder than +before. + +"Unless your three men are already here, your game is up," said the +major calmly. "The wind blows dead along the ridge where they should +come, and they can't get through the smoke and fire." + +It was indeed true! In the scarce twenty minutes that had elapsed since +the sheriff's return the dry and brittle underbrush for half a mile on +either side had been converted into a sheet of flame, which at times +rose to a furnace blast through the tall chimney-like conductors of tree +shafts, from whose shriveled sides bark was crackling, and lighted dead +limbs falling in all directions. The whole valley, the gully, the Bar, +the very hillside they had just left, were blotted out by a creeping, +stifling smoke-fog that scarcely rose breast high, but was beaten down +or cut off cleanly by the violent wind that swept the higher level +of the forest. At times this gale became a sirocco in temperature, +concentrating its heat in withering blasts which they could not face, or +focusing its intensity upon some mass of foliage that seemed to shrink +at its touch and open a scathed and quivering aisle to its approach. The +enormous skeleton of a dead and rotten redwood, not a hundred yards to +their right, broke suddenly like a gigantic firework into sparks and +flame. + +The sheriff had grasped the full meaning of their situation. In spite of +his first error--the very carelessness of familiarity--his knowledge +of woodcraft was greater than his companion's, and he saw their danger. +"Come," he said quickly, "we must make for an opening or we shall be +caught." + +The major smiled in misapprehension. + +"Who could catch us here?" + +The sheriff pointed to the blazing tree. + +"THAT," he said. "In five minutes IT will have a posse that will wipe us +both out." + +He caught the major by the arm and rushed him into the smoke, +apparently in the direction of the greatest mass of flame. The heat was +suffocating, but it struck the major that the more they approached the +actual scene of conflagration the heat and smoke became less, until he +saw that the fire was retreating before them and the following wind. +In a few moments their haven of safety--the expanse already burnt +over--came in sight. Here and there, seen dimly through the drifting +smoke, the scattered embers that still strewed the forest floor glowed +in weird nebulous spots like will-o'-the-wisps. For an instant the major +hesitated; the sheriff cast a significant glance behind them. + +"Go on; it's our only chance," he said imperatively. + +They darted on, skimming the blackened or smouldering surface, which at +times struck out sparks and flame from their heavier footprints as they +passed. Their boots crackled and scorched beneath them; their shreds +of clothing were on fire; their breathing became more difficult, until, +providentially, they fell upon an abrupt, fissure-like depression of the +soil, which the fire had leaped, and into which they blindly plunged and +rolled together. A moment of relief and coolness followed, as they crept +along the fissure, filled with damp and rotting leaves. + +"Why not stay here?" said the exhausted prisoner. + +"And be roasted like sweet potatoes when these trees catch," returned +the sheriff grimly. "No." Even as he spoke, a dropping rain of +fire spattered through the leaves from a splintered redwood, before +overlooked, that was now blazing fiercely in the upper wind. A vague and +indefinable terror was in the air. The conflagration no longer seemed +to obey any rule of direction. The incendiary torch had passed +invisibly everywhere. They scrambled out of the hollow, and again dashed +desperately forward. + +Beaten, bruised, blackened, and smoke-grimed--looking less human than +the animals who had long since deserted the crest--they at last limped +into a "wind opening" in the woods that the fire had skirted. The major +sank exhaustedly to the ground; the sheriff threw himself beside him. +Their strange relations to each other seemed to have been forgotten; +they looked and acted as if they no longer thought of anything beyond +the present. And when the sheriff finally arose and, disappearing for +several minutes, brought his hat full of water for his prisoner from a +distant spring that they had passed in their flight, he found him where +he had left him--unchanged and unmoved. + +He took the water gratefully, and after a pause fixed his eyes earnestly +upon his captor. "I want you to do a favor to me," he said slowly. "I'm +not going to offer you a bribe to do it either, nor ask you anything +that isn't in a line with your duty. I think I understand you now, if I +didn't before. Do you know Briggs's restaurant in Sacramento?" + +The sheriff nodded. + +"Well! over the restaurant are my private rooms, the finest in +Sacramento. Nobody knows it but Briggs, and he has never told. They've +been locked ever since I left; I've got the key still in my pocket. Now +when we get to Sacramento, instead of taking me straight to jail, I want +you to hold me THERE as your prisoner for a day and a night. I don't +want to get away; you can take what precautions you like--surround the +house with policemen, and sleep yourself in the ante-room. I don't want +to destroy any papers or evidence; you can go through the rooms and +examine everything before and after; I only want to stay there a day and +a night; I want to be in my old rooms, have my meals from the restaurant +as I used to, and sleep in my own bed once more. I want to live for one +day like a gentleman, as I used to live before I came here. That's all! +It isn't much, Tom. You can do it and say you require to do it to get +evidence against me, or that you want to search the rooms." + +The expression of wonder which had come into the sheriff's face at +the beginning of this speech deepened into his old look of surly +dissatisfaction. "And that's all ye want?" he said gloomily. "Ye don't +want no friends--no lawyer? For I tell you, straight out, major, there +ain't no hope for ye, when the law once gets hold of ye in Sacramento." + +"That's all. Will you do it?" + +The sheriff's face grew still darker. After a pause he said: "I don't +say 'no,' and I don't say 'yes.' But," he added grimly, "it strikes me +we'd better wait till we get clear o' these woods afore you think o' +your Sacramento lodgings." + +The major did not reply. The day had worn on, but the fire, now +completely encircling them, opposed any passage in or out of that +fateful barrier. The smoke of the burning underbrush hung low around +them in a bank equally impenetrable to vision. They were as alone as +shipwrecked sailors on an island, girded by a horizon of clouds. + +"I'm going to try to sleep," said the major; "if your men come you can +waken me." + +"And if YOUR men come?" said the sheriff dryly. + +"Shoot me." + +He lay down, closed his eyes, and to the sheriff's astonishment +presently fell asleep. The sheriff, with his chin in his grimy hands, +sat and watched him as the day slowly darkened around them and the +distant fires came out in more lurid intensity. The face of the captive +and outlawed murderer was singularly peaceful; that of the captor and +man of duty was haggard, wild, and perplexed. + +But even this changed soon. The sleeping man stirred restlessly and +uneasily; his face began to work, his lips to move. "Tom," he gasped +suddenly, "Tom!" + +The sheriff bent over him eagerly. The sleeping man's eyes were still +closed; beads of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was dreaming. + +"Tom," he whispered, "take me out of this place--take me out from +these dogs and pimps and beggars! Listen, Tom!--they're Sydney ducks, +ticket-of-leave men, short card sharps, and sneak thieves! There isn't a +gentleman among 'em! There isn't one I don't loathe and hate--and would +grind under my heel, elsewhere. I'm a gentleman, Tom--yes, by God--an +officer and a gentleman! I've served my country in the 9th Cavalry. +That cub of West Point knows it and despises me, seeing me here in such +company. That sergeant knows it--I recommended him for his first stripes +for all he taunts me,--d--n him!" + +"Come, wake up!" said the sheriff harshly. + +The prisoner did not heed him; the sheriff shook him roughly, so roughly +that the major's waistcoat and shirt dragged open, disclosing his fine +silk undershirt, delicately worked and embroidered with golden thread. +At the sight of this abased and faded magnificence the sheriff's hand +was stayed; his eye wandered over the sleeping form before him. Yes, the +hair was dyed too; near the roots it was quite white and grizzled; the +pomatum was coming off the pointed moustache and imperial; the face in +the light was very haggard; the lines from the angles of the nostril and +mouth were like deep, half-healed gashes. The major was, without doubt, +prematurely worn and played out. + +The sheriff's persistent eyes, however, seemed to effect what his ruder +hand could not. The sleeping man stirred, awoke to full consciousness, +and sat up. + +"Are they here? I'm ready," he said calmly. + +"No," said the sheriff deliberately; "I only woke ye to say that I've +been thinkin' over what ye asked me, and if we get to Sacramento all +right, why, I'll do it and give ye that day and night at your old +lodgings." + +"Thank you." + +The major reached out his hand; the sheriff hesitated, and then extended +his own. The hands of the two men clasped for the first, and it would +seem, the last time. + +For the "cub of West Point" was, like most cubs, irritable when +thwarted. And having been balked of his prey, the deserter, and possibly +chaffed by his comrades for his profitless invasion of Wynyard's Bar, he +had persuaded his commanding officer to give him permission to effect a +recapture. Thus it came about that at dawn, filing along the ridge, on +the outskirts of the fire, his heart was gladdened by the sight of +the half-breed--with his hanging haversack belt and tattered army +tunic--evidently still a fugitive, not a hundred yards away on the other +side of the belt of fire, running down the hill with another ragged +figure at his side. The command to "halt" was enforced by a single rifle +shot over the fugitives' heads--but they still kept on their flight. +Then the boy-officer snatched a carbine from one of his men, a volley +rang out from the little troop--the shots of the privates mercifully +high, those of the officer and sergeant leveled with wounded pride and +full of deliberate purpose. The half-breed fell; so did his companion, +and, rolling over together, both lay still. + +But between the hunters and their fallen quarry reared a cheval de +frise of flame and fallen timber impossible to cross. The young officer +hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, wheeled his men about, and left the +fire to correct any irregularity in his action. + +It did not, however, change contemporaneous history, for a week later, +when Wynyard's Bar discovered Major Overstone lying beside the man now +recognized by them as the disguised sheriff of Siskyou, they rejoiced at +this unfailing evidence of their lost leader's unequaled prowess. That +he had again killed a sheriff and fought a whole posse, yielding only +with his life, was never once doubted, and kept his memory green in +Sierran chronicles long after Wynyard's Bar had itself become a memory. + + + + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE. + + +The American consul at St. Kentigern stepped gloomily from the train at +Whistlecrankie station. For the last twenty minutes his spirits had been +slowly sinking before the drifting procession past the carriage windows +of dull gray and brown hills--mammiform in shape, but so cold and +sterile in expression that the swathes of yellow mist which lay in +their hollows, like soiled guipure, seemed a gratuitous affectation of +modesty. And when the train moved away, mingling its escaping steam +with the slower mists of the mountain, he found himself alone on the +platform--the only passenger and apparently the sole occupant of the +station. He was gazing disconsolately at his trunk, which had taken upon +itself a human loneliness in the emptiness of the place, when a railway +porter stepped out of the solitary signal-box, where he had evidently +been performing a double function, and lounged with exasperating +deliberation towards him. He was a hard-featured man, with a thin fringe +of yellow-gray whiskers that met under his chin like dirty strings to +tie his cap on with. + +"Ye'll be goin' to Glenbogie House, I'm thinkin'?" he said moodily. + +The consul said that he was. + +"I kenned it. Ye'll no be gettin' any machine to tak' ye there. They'll +be sending a carriage for ye--if ye're EXPECTED." He glanced half +doubtfully at the consul as if he was not quite so sure of it. + +But the consul believed he WAS expected, and felt relieved at the +certain prospect of a conveyance. The porter meanwhile surveyed him +moodily. + +"Ye'll be seein' Mistress MacSpadden there!" + +The consul was surprised into a little over-consciousness. Mrs. +MacSpadden was a vivacious acquaintance at St. Kentigern, whom he +certainly--and not without some satisfaction--expected to meet at +Glenbogie House. He raised his eyes inquiringly to the porter's. + +"Ye'll no be rememberin' me. I had a machine in St. Kentigern and drove +ye to MacSpadden's ferry often. Far, far too often! She's a strange +flagrantitious creature; her husband's but a puir fule, I'm thinkin', +and ye did yersel' nae guid gaunin' there." + +It was a besetting weakness of the consul's that his sense of the +ludicrous was too often reached before his more serious perceptions. The +absurd combination of the bleak, inhospitable desolation before him, and +the sepulchral complacency of his self-elected monitor, quite upset his +gravity. + +"Ay, ye'll be laughin' THE NOO," returned the porter with gloomy +significance. + +The consul wiped his eyes. "Still," he said demurely, "I trust you won't +object to my giving you sixpence to carry my box to the carriage when +it comes, and let the morality of this transaction devolve entirely +upon me. Unless," he continued, even more gravely, as a spick and span +brougham, drawn by two thoroughbreds, dashed out of the mist up to +the platform, "unless you prefer to state the case to those two +gentlemen"--pointing to the smart coachman and footman on the box--"and +take THEIR opinion as to the propriety of my proceeding any further. +It seems to me that their consciences ought to be consulted as well +as yours. I'm only a stranger here, and am willing to do anything to +conform to the local custom." + +"It's a saxpence ye'll be payin' anyway," said the porter, grimly +shouldering the trunk, "but I'll be no takin' any other mon's opinion on +matters of my am dooty and conscience." + +"Ah," said the consul gravely, "then you'll perhaps be allowing ME the +same privilege." + +The porter's face relaxed, and a gleam of approval--purely intellectual, +however,--came into his eyes. + +"Ye were always a smooth deevel wi' your tongue, Mr. Consul," he said, +shouldering the box and walking off to the carriage. + +Nevertheless, as soon as he was fairly seated and rattling away from the +station, the consul had a flashing conviction that he had not only +been grievously insulted but also that he had allowed the wife of an +acquaintance to be spoken of disrespectfully in his presence. And he had +done nothing! Yes--it was like him!--he had LAUGHED at the absurdity of +the impertinence without resenting it! Another man would have slapped +the porter's face! For an instant he hung out of the carriage window, +intent upon ordering the coachman to drive back to the station, but the +reflection--again a ludicrous one--that he would now be only bringing +witnesses to a scene which might provoke a scandal more invidious to his +acquaintance, checked him in time. But his spirits, momentarily diverted +by the porter's effrontery, sunk to a lower ebb than before. + +The clattering of his horses' hoofs echoed back from the rocky walls +that occasionally hemmed in the road was not enlivening, but was less +depressing than the recurring monotony of the open. The scenery did not +suggest wildness to his alien eyes so much as it affected him with a +vague sense of scorbutic impoverishment. It was not the loneliness of +unfrequented nature, for there was a well-kept carriage road traversing +its dreariness; and even when the hillside was clothed with scanty +verdure, there were "outcrops" of smooth glistening weather-worn rocks +showing like bare brown knees under the all too imperfectly kilted +slopes. And at a little distance, lifting above a black drift of firs, +were the square rigid sky lines of Glenbogie House, standing starkly +against the cold, lingering northern twilight. As the vehicle turned, +and rolled between two square stone gate-posts, the long avenue before +him, though as well kept as the road, was but a slight improvement upon +the outer sterility, and the dark iron-gray rectangular mansion beyond, +guiltless of external decoration, even to the outlines of its small +lustreless windows, opposed the grim inhospitable prospect with an +equally grim inhospitable front. There were a few moments more of rapid +driving, a swift swishing over soft gravel, the opening of a heavy +door into a narrow vestibule, and then--a sudden sense of exquisitely +diffused light and warmth from an arched and galleried central hall, the +sounds of light laughter and subdued voices half lost in the airy space +between the lofty pictured walls; the luxury of color in trophies, +armor, and hangings; one or two careless groups before the recessed +hearth or at the centre table, and the halted figure of a pretty woman +on the broad, slow staircase. The contrast was sharp, ironical, and +bewildering. + +So much so that the consul, when he had followed the servant to his +room, was impelled to draw aside the heavy window-curtains and look out +again upon the bleak prospect it had half obliterated. The wing in which +he was placed overhung a dark ravine or gully choked with shrubs and +brambles that grew in a new luxuriance. As he gazed a large black bird +floated upwards slowly from its depths, circled around the house with a +few quick strokes of its wing, and then sped away--a black bolt--in one +straight undeviating line towards the paling north. He still gazed into +the abyss--half expecting another, even fancying he heard the occasional +stir and flutter of obscure life below, and the melancholy call of +nightfowl. A long-forgotten fragment of old English verse began to haunt +him-- + + Hark! the raven flaps hys wing + In the briered dell belowe, + Hark! the dethe owl loude doth synge + To the night maers as thaie goe. + +"Now, what put that stuff in my head?" he said as he turned impatiently +from the window. "And why does this house, with all its interior luxury, +hypocritically oppose such a forbidding front to its neighbors?" Then +it occurred to him that perhaps the architect instinctively felt that +a more opulent and elaborate exterior would only bring the poverty of +surrounding nature into greater relief. But he was not in the habit of +troubling himself with abstruse problems. A nearer recollection of the +pretty frock he had seen on the staircase--in whose wearer he had +just recognized his vivacious friend--turned his thoughts to her. He +remembered how at their first meeting he had been interested in her +bright audacity, unconventionality, and high spirits, which did not, +however, amuse him as greatly as his later suspicion that she was +playing a self-elected role, often with difficulty, opposition, and +feverishness, rather than spontaneity. He remembered how he had watched +her in the obtrusive assumption of a new fashion, in some reckless +departure from an old one, or in some ostentatious disregard of certain +hard and set rules of St. Kentigern; but that it never seemed to him +that she was the happier for it. He even fancied that her mirth at such +times had an undue nervousness; that her pluck--which was undoubted--had +something of the defiance of despair, and that her persistence often had +the grimness of duty rather than the thoughtlessness of pure amusement. +What was she trying to do?--what was she trying to UNDO or forget? Her +married life was apparently happy and even congenial. Her young husband +was clever, complaisant, yet honestly devoted to her, even to the +extension of a certain camaraderie to her admirers and a chivalrous +protection by half-participation in her maddest freaks. Nor could he +honestly say that her attitude towards his own sex--although marked by a +freedom that often reached the verge of indiscretion--conveyed the least +suggestion of passion or sentiment. The consul, more perceptive than +analytical, found her a puzzle--who was, perhaps, the least mystifying +to others who were content to sum up her eccentricities under the single +vague epithet, "fast." Most women disliked her: she had a few associates +among them, but no confidante, and even these were so unlike her, +again, as to puzzle him still more. And yet he believed himself strictly +impartial. + +He walked to the window again, and looked down upon the ravine from +which the darkness now seemed to be slowly welling up and obliterating +the landscape, and then, taking a book from his valise, settled himself +in the easy-chair by the fire. He was in no hurry to join the party +below, whom he had duly recognized and greeted as he passed through. +They or their prototypes were familiar friends. There was the recently +created baronet, whose "bloody hand" had apparently wiped out the +stains of his earlier Radicalism, and whose former provincial +self-righteousness had been supplanted by an equally provincial +skepticism; there was his wife, who through all the difficulties of +her changed position had kept the stalwart virtues of the Scotch +bourgeoisie, and was--"decent"; there were the two native lairds that +reminded him of "parts of speech," one being distinctly alluded to as +a definite article, and the other being "of" something, and apparently +governed always by that possessive case. There were two or three +"workers"--men of power and ability in their several vocations; indeed, +there was the general over-proportion of intellect, characteristic of +such Scotch gatherings, and often in excess of minor social qualities. +There was the usual foreigner, with Latin quickness, eagerness, +and misapprehending adaptability. And there was the solitary +Englishman--perhaps less generously equipped than the others--whom +everybody differed from, ridiculed, and then looked up to and imitated. +There were the half-dozen smartly frocked women, who, far from being +the females of the foregoing species, were quite indistinctive, with +the single exception of an American wife, who was infinitely more Scotch +than her Scotch husband. + +Suddenly he became aware of a faint rustling at his door, and what +seemed to be a slight tap on the panel. He rose and opened it--the long +passage was dark and apparently empty, but he fancied he could detect +the quick swish of a skirt in the distance. As he re-entered his room, +his eye fell for the first time on a rose whose stalk was thrust through +the keyhole of his door. The consul smiled at this amiable solution of a +mystery. It was undoubtedly the playful mischievousness of the vivacious +MacSpadden. He placed it in water--intending to wear it in his coat at +dinner as a gentle recognition of the fair donor's courtesy. + +Night had thickened suddenly as from a passing cloud. He lit the two +candles on his dressing-table, gave a glance into the now scarcely +distinguishable abyss below his window, as he drew the curtains, and by +the more diffused light for the first time surveyed his room critically. +It was a larger apartment than that usually set aside for bachelors; +the heavy four-poster had a conjugal reserve about it, and a tall cheval +glass and certain minor details of the furniture suggested that it had +been used for a married couple. He knew that the guest-rooms in country +houses, as in hotels, carried no suggestion or flavor of the last +tenant, and therefore lacked color and originality, and he was +consequently surprised to find himself impressed with some distinctly +novel atmosphere. He was puzzling himself to discover what it might +be, when he again became aware of cautious footsteps apparently halting +outside his door. This time he was prepared. With a half smile he +stepped softly to the door and opened it suddenly. To his intense +surprise he was face to face with a man. + +But his discomfiture was as nothing compared to that of the +stranger--whom he at once recognized as one of his fellow-guests--the +youthful Laird of Whistlecrankie. The young fellow's healthy color at +once paled, then flushed a deep crimson, and a forced smile stiffened +his mouth. + +"I--beg your par-r-rdon," he said with a nervous brusqueness that +brought out his accent. "I couldna find ma room. It'll be changed, and +I--" + +"Perhaps I have got it," interrupted the consul smilingly. "I've only +just come, and they've put me in here." + +"Nae! Nae!" said the young man hurriedly, "it's no' thiss. That is, it's +no' mine noo." + +"Won't you come in?" suggested the consul politely, holding open the +door. + +The young man entered the room with the quick strides but the mechanical +purposelessness of embarrassment. Then he stiffened and stood erect. Yet +in spite of all this he was strikingly picturesque and unconventional in +his Highland dress, worn with the freedom of long custom and a +certain lithe, barbaric grace. As the consul continued to gaze at him +encouragingly, the quick resentful pride of a shy man suddenly mantled +his high cheekbones, and with an abrupt "I'll not deesturb ye longer," +he strode out of the room. + +The consul watched the easy swing of his figure down the passage, and +then closed the door. "Delightful creature," he said musingly, "and not +so very unlike an Apache chief either! But what was he doing outside +my door? And was it HE who left that rose--not as a delicate Highland +attention to an utter stranger, but"--the consul's mouth suddenly +expanded--"to some fair previous occupant? Or was it really HIS room--he +looked as if he were lying--and"--here the consul's mouth expanded even +more wickedly--"and Mrs. MacSpadden had put the flower there for him." +This implied snub to his vanity was, however, more than compensated by +his wicked anticipation of the pretty perplexity of his fair friend when +HE should appear at dinner with the flower in his own buttonhole. It +would serve her right, the arrant flirt! But here he was interrupted by +the entrance of a tall housemaid with his hot water. + +"I am afraid I've dispossessed Mr.--Mr.--Kilcraithie rather +prematurely," said the consul lightly. + +To his infinite surprise the girl answered with grim decision, "Nane too +soon." + +The consul stared. "I mean," he explained, "that I found him hesitating +here in the passage, looking for his room." + +"Ay, he's always hoaverin' and glowerin' in the passages--but it's no' +for his ROOM! And it's a deesgrace to decent Christian folk his carryin' +on wi' married weemen--mebbee they're nae better than he!" + +"That will do," said the consul curtly. He had no desire to encourage a +repetition of the railway porter's freedom. + +"Ye'll no fash yoursel' aboot HIM," continued the girl, without heeding +the rebuff. "It's no' the meestreess' wish that he's keepit here in the +wing reserved for married folk, and she's no' sorry for the excuse to +pit ye in his place. Ye'll be married yoursel', I'm hearin'. But, I ken +ye's nae mair to be lippened tae for THAT." + +This was too much for the consul's gravity. "I'm afraid," he said with +diplomatic gayety, "that although I am married, as I haven't my wife +with me, I've no right to this superior accommodation and comfort. But +you can assure your mistress that I'll try to deserve them." + +"Ay," said the girl, but with no great confidence in her voice as she +grimly quitted the room. + +"When our foot's upon our native heath, whether our name's Macgregor or +Kilcraithie, it would seem that we must tread warily," mused the consul +as he began to dress. "But I'm glad she didn't see that rose, or MY +reputation would have been ruined." Here another knock at the door +arrested him. He opened it impatiently to a tall gillie, who instantly +strode into the room. There was such another suggestion of Kilcraithie +in the man and his manner that the consul instantly divined that he was +Kilcraithie's servant. + +"I'll be takin' some bit things that yon Whistlecrankie left," said the +gillie gravely, with a stolid glance around the room. + +"Certainly," said the consul; "help yourself." He continued his dressing +as the man began to rummage in the empty drawers. The consul had his +back towards him, but, looking in the glass of the dressing-table, he +saw that the gillie was stealthily watching him. Suddenly he passed +before the mantelpiece and quickly slipped the rose from its glass into +his hand. + +"I'll trouble you to put that back," said the consul quietly, without +turning round. The gillie slid a quick glance towards the door, but the +consul was before him. "I don't think THAT was left by your master," he +said in an ostentatiously calm voice, for he was conscious of an absurd +and inexplicable tumult in his blood, "and perhaps you'd better put it +back." + +The man looked at the flower with an attention that might have been +merely ostentatious, and replaced it in the glass. + +"A thocht it was hiss." + +"And I think it isn't," said the consul, opening the door. + +Yet when the man had passed out he was by no means certain that the +flower was not Kilcraithie's. He was even conscious that if the young +Laird had approached him with a reasonable explanation or appeal he +would have yielded it up. Yet here he was--looking angrily pale in the +glass, his eyes darker than they should be, and with an unmistakable +instinct to do battle for this idiotic gage! Was there some morbid +disturbance in the air that was affecting him as it had Kilcraithie? +He tried to laugh, but catching sight of its sardonic reflection in +the glass became grave again. He wondered if the gillie had been +really looking for anything his master had left--he had certainly TAKEN +nothing. He opened one or two of the drawers, and found only a woman's +tortoiseshell hairpin--overlooked by the footman when he had emptied +them for the consul's clothes. It had been probably forgotten by some +fair and previous tenant to Kilcraithie. The consul looked at his +watch--it was time to go down. He grimly pinned the fateful flower in +his buttonhole, and half-defiantly descended to the drawing-room. + +Here, however, he was inclined to relax when, from a group of pretty +women, the bright gray eyes of Mrs. MacSpadden caught his, were suddenly +diverted to the lapel of his coat, and then leaped up to his again with +a sparkle of mischief. But the guests were already pairing off in dinner +couples, and as they passed out of the room, he saw that she was on the +arm of Kilcraithie. Yet, as she passed him, she audaciously turned her +head, and in a mischievous affectation of jealous reproach, murmured:-- + +"So soon!" + +At dinner she was too far removed for any conversation with him, +although from his seat by his hostess he could plainly see her saucy +profile midway up the table. But, to his surprise, her companion, +Kilcraithie, did not seem to be responding to her gayety. By turns +abstracted and feverish, his glances occasionally wandered towards the +end of the table where the consul was sitting. For a few moments he +believed that the affair of the flower, combined, perhaps, with the +overhearing of Mrs. MacSpadden's mischievous sentence, rankled in the +Laird's barbaric soul. But he became presently aware that Kilcraithie's +eyes eventually rested upon a quiet-looking blonde near the hostess. Yet +the lady not only did not seem to be aware of it, but her face was more +often turned towards the consul, and their eyes had once or twice met. +He had been struck by the fact that they were half-veiled but singularly +unimpassioned eyes, with a certain expression of cold wonderment and +criticism quite inconsistent with their veiling. Nor was he surprised +when, after a preliminary whispering over the plates, his hostess +presented him. The lady was the young wife of the middle-aged dignitary +who, seated further down the table, opposite Mrs. MacSpadden, was +apparently enjoying that lady's wildest levities. The consul bowed, the +lady leaned a little forward. + +"We were saying what a lovely rose you had." + +The consul's inward response was "Hang that flower!" His outward +expression was the modest query:-- + +"Is it SO peculiar?" + +"No; but it's very pretty. Would you allow me to see it?" + +Disengaging the flower from his buttonhole he handed it to her. Oddly +enough, it seemed to him that half the table was watching and listening +to them. Suddenly the lady uttered a little cry. "Dear me! it's full +of thorns; of course you picked and arranged it yourself, for any lady +would have wrapped something around the stalk!" + +But here there was a burlesque outcry and a good-humored protest from +the gentlemen around her against this manifestly leading question. "It's +no fair! Ye'll not answer her--for the dignity of our sex." Yet in the +midst of it, it suddenly occurred to the consul that there HAD been a +slip of paper wrapped around it, which had come off and remained in the +keyhole. The blue eyes of the lady were meanwhile sounding his, but he +only smiled and said:-- + +"Then it seems it IS peculiar?" + +When the conversation became more general he had time to observe other +features of the lady than her placid eyes. Her light hair was very long, +and grew low down the base of her neck. Her mouth was firm, the upper +lip slightly compressed in a thin red line, but the lower one, although +equally precise at the corners, became fuller in the centre and turned +over like a scarlet leaf, or, as it struck him suddenly, like the +tell-tale drop of blood on the mouth of a vampire. Yet she was +very composed, practical, and decorous, and as the talk grew more +animated--and in the vicinity of Mrs. MacSpadden, more audacious--she +kept a smiling reserve of expression,--which did not, however, prevent +her from following that lively lady, whom she evidently knew, with a +kind of encouraging attention. + +"Kate is in full fling to-night," she said to the hostess. Lady +Macquoich smiled ambiguously--so ambiguously that the consul thought it +necessary to interfere for his friend. "She seems to say what most of +us think, but I am afraid very few of us could voice as innocently," he +smilingly suggested. + +"She is a great friend of yours," returned the lady, looking at him +through her half-veiled lids. "She has made us quite envy her." + +"And I am afraid made it impossible for ME to either sufficiently thank +her or justify her taste," he said quietly. Yet he was vexed at an +unaccountable resentment which had taken possession of him--who but a +few hours before had only laughed at the porter's criticism. + +After the ladies had risen, the consul with an instinct of sympathy was +moving up towards "Jock" MacSpadden, who sat nearer the host, when he +was stopped midway of the table by the dignitary who had sat opposite +to Mrs. MacSpadden. "Your frien' is maist amusing wi' her audacious +tongue--ay, and her audacious ways," he said with large official +patronage; "and we've enjoyed her here immensely, but I hae mae doots +if mae Leddy Macquoich taks as kindly to them. You and I--men of the +wurrld, I may say--we understand them for a' their worth; ay!--ma wife +too, with whom I observed ye speakin'--is maist tolerant of her, but +man! it's extraordinar'"--he lowered his voice slightly--"that yon +husband of hers does na' check her freedoms with Kilcraithie. I wadna' +say anythin' was wrong, ye ken, but is he no' over confident and +conceited aboot his wife?" + +"I see you don't know him," said the consul smilingly, "and I'd be +delighted to make you acquainted. Jock," he continued, raising his +voice as he turned towards MacSpadden, "let me introduce you to Sir +Alan Deeside, who don't know YOU, although he's a great admirer of your +wife;" and unheeding the embarrassed protestations of Sir Alan and the +laughing assertions of Jock that they were already acquainted, he moved +on beside his host. That hospitable knight, who had been airing his +knowledge of London smart society to his English guest with a singular +mixture of assertion and obsequiousness, here stopped short. "Ay, sit +down, laddie, it was so guid of ye to come, but I'm thinkin' at your end +of the table ye lost the bit fun of Mistress MacSpadden. Eh, but she was +unco' lively to-night. 'Twas all Kilcraithie could do to keep her from +proposin' your health with Hieland honors, and offerin' to lead off with +her ain foot on the table! Ay, and she'd ha' done it. And that's a +braw rose she's been givin' ye--and ye got out of it claverly wi' Lady +Deeside." + +When he left the table with the others to join the ladies, the same +unaccountable feeling of mingled shyness and nervous irascibility still +kept possession of him. He felt that in his present mood he could not +listen to any further criticisms of his friend without betraying some +unwonted heat, and as his companions filed into the drawing-room he +slipped aside in the hope of recovering his equanimity by a few moments' +reflection in his own room. He glided quickly up the staircase and +entered the corridor. The passage that led to his apartment was quite +dark, especially before his door, which was in a bay that really ended +the passage. He was consequently surprised and somewhat alarmed at +seeing a shadowy female figure hovering before it. He instinctively +halted; the figure became more distinct from some luminous halo that +seemed to encompass it. It struck him that this was only the light of +his fire thrown through his open door, and that the figure was probably +that of a servant before it, who had been arranging his room. He started +forward again, but at the sound of his advancing footsteps the figure +and the luminous glow vanished, and he arrived blankly face to face with +his own closed door. He looked around the dim bay; it was absolutely +vacant. It was equally impossible for any one to have escaped +without passing him. There was only his room left. A half-nervous, +half-superstitious thrill crept over him as he suddenly grasped the +handle of the door and threw it open. The leaping light of his fire +revealed its emptiness: no one was there! He lit the candle and peered +behind the curtains and furniture and under the bed; the room was as +vacant and undisturbed as when he left it. + +Had it been a trick of his senses or a bona-fide apparition? He had +never heard of a ghost at Glenbogie--the house dated back some +fifty years; Sir John Macquoich's tardy knighthood carried no such +impedimenta. He looked down wonderingly on the flower in his buttonhole. +Was there something uncanny in that innocent blossom? But here he was +struck by another recollection, and examined the keyhole of his door. +With the aid of the tortoiseshell hairpin he dislodged the paper he had +forgotten. It was only a thin spiral strip, apparently the white outer +edge of some newspaper, and it certainly seemed to be of little service +as a protection against the thorns of the rose-stalk. He was holding it +over the fire, about to drop it into the blaze, when the flame revealed +some pencil-marks upon it. Taking it to the candle he read, deeply +bitten into the paper by a hard pencil-point: "At half-past one." +There was nothing else--no signature; but the handwriting was NOT Mrs. +MacSpadden's! + +Then whose? Was it that of the mysterious figure whom he had just seen? +Had he been selected as the medium of some spiritual communication, and, +perhaps, a ghostly visitation later on? Or was he the victim of some +clever trick? He had once witnessed such dubious attempts to relieve the +monotony of a country house. He again examined the room carefully, but +without avail. Well! the mystery or trick would be revealed at half-past +one. It was a somewhat inconvenient hour, certainly. He looked down at +the baleful gift in his buttonhole, and for a moment felt inclined +to toss it in the fire. But this was quickly followed by his former +revulsion of resentment and defiance. No! he would wear it, no matter +what happened, until its material or spiritual owner came for it. He +closed the door and returned to the drawing-room. + +Midway of the staircase he heard the droning of pipes. There was dancing +in the drawing-room to the music of the gorgeous piper who had marshaled +them to dinner. He was not sorry, as he had no inclination to talk, and +the one confidence he had anticipated with Mrs. MacSpadden was out of +the question now. He had no right to reveal his later discovery. He +lingered a few moments in the hall. The buzzing of the piper's drones +gave him that impression of confused and blindly aggressive intoxication +which he had often before noticed in this barbaric instrument, and had +always seemed to him as the origin of its martial inspiration. From this +he was startled by voices and steps in the gallery he had just +quitted, but which came from the opposite direction to his room. It was +Kilcraithie and Mrs. MacSpadden. As she caught sight of him, he fancied +she turned slightly and aggressively pale, with a certain hardening of +her mischievous eyes. Nevertheless, she descended the staircase +more deliberately than her companion, who brushed past him with an +embarrassed self-consciousness, quite in advance of her. She lingered +for an instant. + +"You are not dancing?" she said. + +"No." + +"Perhaps you are more agreeably employed?" + +"At this exact moment, certainly." + +She cast a disdainful glance at him, crossed the hall, and followed +Kilcraithie. + +"Hang me, if I understand it all!" mused the consul, by no means +good-humoredly. "Does she think I have been spying upon her and her +noble chieftain? But it's just as well that I didn't tell her anything." + +He turned to follow them. In the vestibule he came upon a figure which +had halted before a large pier-glass. He recognized M. Delfosse, the +French visitor, complacently twisting the peak of his Henri Quatre +beard. He would have passed without speaking, but the Frenchman glanced +smilingly at the consul and his buttonhole. Again the flower! + +"Monsieur is decore," he said gallantly. + +The consul assented, but added, not so gallantly, that though they were +not in France he might still be unworthy of it. The baleful flower had +not improved his temper. Nor did the fact that, as he entered the room, +he thought the people stared at him--until he saw that their attention +was directed to Lady Deeside, who had entered almost behind him. From +his hostess, who had offered him a seat beside her, he gathered that +M. Delfosse and Kilcraithie had each temporarily occupied his room, but +that they had been transferred to the other wing, apart from the married +couples and young ladies, because when they came upstairs from +the billiard and card room late, they sometimes disturbed the fair +occupants. No!--there were no ghosts at Glenbogie. Mysterious footsteps +had sometimes been heard in the ladies' corridor, but--with peculiar +significance--she was AFRAID they could be easily accounted for. Sir +Alan, whose room was next to the MacSpaddens', had been disturbed by +them. + +He was glad when it was time to escape to the billiard-room and tobacco. +For a while he forgot the evening's adventure, but eventually found +himself listening to a discussion--carried on over steaming tumblers of +toddy--in regard to certain predispositions of the always debatable sex. + +"Ye'll not always judge by appearances," said Sir Alan. "Ye'll mind the +story o' the meenester's wife of Aiblinnoch. It was thocht that she +was ower free wi' one o' the parishioners--ay! it was the claish o' the +whole kirk, while none dare tell the meenester hisself--bein' a bookish, +simple, unsuspectin' creeter. At last one o' the elders bethocht him of +a bit plan of bringing it home to the wife, through the gospel lips +of her ain husband! So he intimated to the meenester his suspicions +of grievous laxity amang the female flock, and of the necessity of a +special sermon on the Seventh Command. The puir man consented--although +he dinna ken why and wherefore--and preached a gran' sermon! Ay, man! it +was crammed wi' denunciation and an emptyin' o' the vials o' wrath! The +congregation sat dumb as huddled sheep--when they were no' starin' and +gowpin' at the meenester's wife settin' bolt upright in her place. And +then, when the air was blue wi' sulphur frae tae pit, the meenester's +wife up rises! Man! Ivry eye was spearin' her--ivry lug was prickt +towards her! And she goes out in the aisle facin' the meenester, and--" + +Sir Alan paused. + +"And what?" demanded the eager auditory. + +"She pickit up the elder's wife, sobbin' and tearin' her hair in strong +hysterics." + +At the end of a relieved pause Sir Alan slowly concluded: "It was said +that the elder removed frae Aiblinnoch wi' his wife, but no' till he had +effected a change of meenesters." + +It was already past midnight, and the party had dropped off one by one, +with the exception of Deeside, Macquoich, the young Englishman, and a +Scotch laird, who were playing poker--an amusement which he understood +they frequently protracted until three in the morning. It was nearly +time for him to expect his mysterious visitant. Before he went upstairs +he thought he would take a breath of the outer evening air, and throwing +a mackintosh over his shoulders, passed out of the garden door of the +billiard-room. To his surprise it gave immediately upon the fringe of +laurel that hung over the chasm. + +It was quite dark; the few far-spread stars gave scarcely any light, +and the slight auroral glow towards the north was all that outlined the +fringe of the abyss, which might have proved dangerous to any unfamiliar +wanderer. A damp breath of sodden leaves came from its depths. Beside +him stretched the long dark facade of the wing he inhabited, his own +window the only one that showed a faint light. A few paces beyond, a +singular structure of rustic wood and glass, combining the peculiarities +of a sentry-box, a summer-house, and a shelter, was built against the +blank wall of the wing. He imagined the monotonous prospect from +its windows of the tufted chasm, the coldly profiled northern hills +beyond,--and shivered. A little further on, sunk in the wall like a +postern, was a small door that evidently gave easy egress to seekers +of this stern retreat. In the still air a faint grating sound like the +passage of a foot across gravel came to him as from the distance. He +paused, thinking he had been followed by one of the card-players, but +saw no one, and the sound was not repeated. + +It was past one. He re-entered the billiard-room, passed the unchanged +group of card-players, and taking a candlestick from the hall ascended +the dark and silent staircase into the corridor. The light of his candle +cast a flickering halo around him--but did not penetrate the gloomy +distance. He at last halted before his door, gave a scrutinizing glance +around the embayed recess, and opened the door half expectantly. But the +room was empty as he had left it. + +It was a quarter past one. He threw himself on the bed without +undressing, and fixed his eyes alternately on the door and his watch. +Perhaps the unwonted seriousness of his attitude struck him, but a +sudden sense of the preposterousness of the whole situation, of his +solemnly ridiculous acceptance of a series of mere coincidences as +a foregone conclusion, overcame him, and he laughed. But in the same +breath he stopped. + +There WERE footsteps approaching--cautious footsteps--but not at his +door! They were IN THE ROOM--no! in the WALL just behind him! They were +descending some staircase at the back of his bed--he could hear the +regular tap of a light slipper from step to step and the rustle of +a skirt seemingly in his very ear. They were becoming less and less +distinct--they were gone! He sprang to his feet, but almost at the +same instant he was conscious of a sudden chill--that seemed to him +as physical as it was mental. The room was slowly suffused with a cool +sodden breath and the dank odor of rotten leaves. He looked at the +candle--its flame was actually deflecting in this mysterious blast. +It seemed to come from a recess for hanging clothes topped by a heavy +cornice and curtain. He had examined it before, but he drew the +curtain once more aside. The cold current certainly seemed to be more +perceptible there. He felt the red-clothed backing of the interior, +and his hand suddenly grasped a doorknob. It turned, and the whole +structure--cornice and curtains--swung inwards towards him with THE DOOR +ON WHICH IT WAS HUNG! Behind it was a dark staircase leading from the +floor above to some outer door below, whose opening had given ingress to +the chill humid current from the ravine. This was the staircase where he +had just heard the footsteps--and this was, no doubt, the door through +which the mysterious figure had vanished from his room a few hours +before! + +Taking his candle, he cautiously ascended the stairs until he found +himself on the landing of the suites of the married couples and directly +opposite to the rooms of the MacSpaddens and Deesides. He was about to +descend again when he heard a far-off shout, a scuffling sound on the +outer gravel, and the frenzied shaking of the handle of the lower door. +He had hardly time to blow out his candle and flatten himself against +the wall, when the door was flung open and a woman frantically flew up +the staircase. His own door was still open; from within its depths the +light of his fire projected a flickering beam across the steps. As she +rushed past it the light revealed her face; it needed not the peculiar +perfume of her garments as she swept by his concealed figure to make him +recognize--Lady Deeside! + +Amazed and confounded, he was about to descend, when he heard the lower +door again open. But here a sudden instinct bade him pause, turn, and +reascend to the upper landing. There he calmly relit his candle, and +made his way down to the corridor that overlooked the central hall. The +sound of suppressed voices--speaking with the exhausted pauses that come +from spent excitement--made him cautious again, and he halted. It was +the card party slowly passing from the billiard-room to the hall. + +"Ye owe it yoursel'--to your wife--not to pit up with it a day longer," +said the subdued voice of Sir Alan. "Man! ye war in an ace o' havin' a +braw scandal." + +"Could ye no' get your wife to speak till her," responded Macquoich, "to +gie her a hint that she's better awa' out of this? Lady Deeside has some +influence wi' her." + +The consul ostentatiously dropped the extinguisher from his candlestick. +The party looked up quickly. Their faces were still flushed and +agitated, but a new restraint seemed to come upon them on seeing him. + +"I thought I heard a row outside," said the consul explanatorily. + +They each looked at their host without speaking. + +"Oh, ay," said Macquoich, with simulated heartiness, "a bit fuss between +the Kilcraithie and yon Frenchman; but they're baith goin' in the +mornin'." + +"I thought I heard MacSpadden's voice," said the consul quietly. + +There was a dead silence. Then Macquoich said hurriedly:-- + +"Is he no' in his room--in bed--asleep,--man?" + +"I really don't know; I didn't inquire," said the consul with a slight +yawn. "Good night!" + +He turned, not without hearing them eagerly whispering again, and +entered the passage leading to his own room. As he opened the door +he was startled to find the subject of his inquiry--Jock +MacSpadden--quietly seated in his armchair by his fire. + +"Jock!" + +"Don't be alarmed, old man; I came up by that staircase and saw the door +open, and guessed you'd be returning soon. But it seemed you went ROUND +BY THE CORRIDOR," he said, glancing curiously at the consul's face. "Did +you meet the crowd?" + +"Yes, Jock! WHAT does it all mean?" + +MacSpadden laughed. "It means that I was just in time to keep +Kilbraithie from chucking Delfosse down that ravine; but they both +scooted when they saw me. By Jove! I don't know which was the most +frightened." + +"But," said the consul slowly, "what was it all about, Jock?" + +"Some gallantry of that d----d Frenchman, who's trying to do some +woman-stalking up here, and jealousy of Kilcraithie's, who's just got +enough of his forbears' blood in him to think nothing of sticking three +inches of his dirk in the wame of the man that crosses him. But I say," +continued Jock, leaning easily back in his chair, "YOU ought to know +something of all this. This room, old man, was used as a sort of +rendezvous, having two outlets, don't you see, when they couldn't get at +the summer-house below. By Jove! they both had it in turns--Kilcraithie +and the Frenchman--until Lady Macquoich got wind of something, swept +them out, and put YOU in it." + +The consul rose and approached his friend with a grave face. "Jock, I +DO know something about it--more about it than any one thinks. You and I +are old friends. Shall I tell you WHAT I know?" + +Jock's handsome face became a trifle paler, but his frank, clear eyes +rested steadily on the consul's. + +"Go on!" he said. + +"I know that this flower which I am wearing was the signal for the +rendezvous this evening," said the consul slowly, "and this paper," +taking it from his pocket, "contained the time of the meeting, written +in the lady's own hand. I know who she was, for I saw her face as +plainly as I see yours now, by the light of the same fire; it was as +pale, but not as frank as yours, old man. That is what I know. But I +know also what people THINK they know, and for that reason I put that +paper in YOUR hand. It is yours--your vindication--your REVENGE, if you +choose. Do with it what you like." + +Jock, with unchanged features and undimmed eyes, took the paper from the +consul's hand, without looking at it. + +"I may do with it what I like?" he repeated. + +"Yes." + +He was about to drop it into the fire, but the consul stayed his hand. + +"Are you not going to LOOK at the handwriting first?" + +There was a moment of silence. Jock raised his eyes with a sudden flash +of pride in them and said, "No!" + +The friends stood side by side, grasping each other's hands, as the +burning paper leaped up the chimney in a vanishing flame. + +"Do you think you have done quite right, Jock, in view of any scandal +you may hear?" + +"Quite! You see, old man, I know MY WIFE--but I don't think that Deeside +KNOWS HIS." + + + + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA. + + +Dick Bracy gazed again at the Hacienda de los Osos, and hesitated. There +it lay--its low whitewashed walls looking like a quartz outcrop of the +long lazy hillside--unmistakably hot, treeless, and staring broadly in +the uninterrupted Californian sunlight. Yet he knew that behind those +blistering walls was a reposeful patio, surrounded by low-pitched +verandas; that the casa was full of roomy corridors, nooks, and +recesses, in which lurked the shadows of a century, and that hidden by +the further wall was a lonely old garden, hoary with gnarled pear-trees, +and smothered in the spice and dropping leaves of its baking roses. He +knew that, although the unwinking sun might glitter on its red tiles, +and the unresting trade winds whistle around its angles, it always kept +one unvarying temperature and untroubled calm, as if the dignity of +years had triumphed over the changes of ephemeral seasons. But would +others see it with his eyes? Would his practical, housekeeping aunt, and +his pretty modern cousin-- + +"Well, what do you say? Speak the word, and you can go into it with your +folks to-morrow. And I reckon you won't want to take anything either, +for you'll find everything there--just as the old Don left it. I don't +want it; the land is good enough for me; I shall have my vaqueros and +rancheros to look after the crops and the cattle, and they won't trouble +you, for their sheds and barns will be two miles away. You can stay +there as long as you like, and go when you choose. You might like to try +it for a spell; it's all the same to me. But I should think it the sort +of thing a man like you would fancy, and it seems the right thing to +have you there. Well,--what shall it be? Is it a go?" + +Dick knew that the speaker was sincere. It was an offer perfectly +characteristic of his friend, the Western millionaire, who had halted +by his side. And he knew also that the slow lifting of his bridle-rein, +preparatory to starting forward again, was the business-like gesture of +a man who wasted no time even over his acts of impulsive liberality. +In another moment he would dismiss the unaccepted offer from his +mind--without concern and without resentment. + +"Thank you--it is a go," said Dick gratefully. + +Nevertheless, when he reached his own little home in the outskirts of +San Francisco that night, he was a trifle nervous in confiding to the +lady, who was at once his aunt and housekeeper, the fact that he was +now the possessor of a huge mansion in whose patio alone the little +eight-roomed villa where they had lived contentedly might be casually +dropped. "You see, Aunt Viney," he hurriedly explained, "it would have +been so ungrateful to have refused him--and it really was an offer as +spontaneous as it was liberal. And then, you see, we need occupy only a +part of the casa." + +"And who will look after the other part?" said Aunt Viney grimly. "That +will have to be kept tidy, too; and the servants for such a house, where +in heaven are they to come from? Or do they go with it?" + +"No," said Dick quickly; "the servants left with their old master, when +Ringstone bought the property. But we'll find servants enough in the +neighborhood--Mexican peons and Indians, you know." + +Aunt Viney sniffed. "And you'll have to entertain--if it's a big house. +There are all your Spanish neighbors. They'll be gallivanting in and out +all the time." + +"They won't trouble us," he returned, with some hesitation. "You +see, they're furious at the old Don for disposing of his lands to an +American, and they won't be likely to look upon the strangers in the new +place as anything but interlopers." + +"Oh, that is it, is it?" ejaculated Aunt Viney, with a slight puckering +of her lips. "I thought there was SOMETHING." + +"My dear aunt," said Dick, with a sudden illogical heat which he tried +to suppress; "I don't know what you mean by 'it' and 'something.' +Ringstone's offer was perfectly unselfish; he certainly did not suppose +that I would be affected, any more than he would he, by the childish +sentimentality of these people over a legitimate, every-day business +affair. The old Don made a good bargain, and simply sold the land he +could no longer make profitable with his obsolete method of farming, his +gang of idle retainers, and his Noah's Ark machinery, to a man who knew +how to use steam reapers, and hired sensible men to work on shares." +Nevertheless he was angry with himself for making any explanation, and +still more disturbed that he was conscious of a certain feeling that it +was necessary. + +"I was thinking," said Aunt Viney quietly, "that if we invited anybody +to stay with us--like Cecily, for example--it might be rather dull for +her if we had no neighbors to introduce her to." + +Dick started; he had not thought of this. He had been greatly influenced +by the belief that his pretty cousin, who was to make them a visit, +would like the change and would not miss excitement. "We can always +invite some girls down there and make our own company," he answered +cheerfully. Nevertheless, he was dimly conscious that he had already +made an airy castle of the old hacienda, in which Cecily and her aunt +moved ALONE. It was to Cecily that he would introduce the old garden, it +was Cecily whom he would accompany through the dark corridors, and +with whom he would lounge under the awnings of the veranda. All this +innocently, and without prejudice or ulterior thought. He was not yet +in love with the pretty cousin whom he had seen but once or twice +during the past few years, but it was a possibility not unpleasant to +occasionally contemplate. Yet it was equally possible that she might +yearn for lighter companionship and accustomed amusement; that the +passion-fringed garden and shadow-haunted corridor might be profaned by +hoydenish romping and laughter, or by that frivolous flirtation which, +in others, he had always regarded as commonplace and vulgar. + +Howbeit, at the end of two weeks he found himself regularly installed +in the Hacienda de los Osos. His little household, re-enforced by +his cousin Cecily and three peons picked up at Los Pinos, bore +their transplantation with a singular equanimity that seemed to him +unaccountable. Then occurred one of those revelations of character with +which Nature is always ready to trip up merely human judgment. Aunt +Viney, an unrelenting widow of calm but unshaken Dutch prejudices, +high but narrow in religious belief, merged without a murmur into the +position of chatelaine of this unconventional, half-Latin household. +Accepting the situation without exaltation or criticism, placid but +unresponsive amidst the youthful enthusiasm of Dick and Cecily over +each quaint detail, her influence was, nevertheless, felt throughout +the lingering length and shadowy breadth of the strange old house. The +Indian and Mexican servants, at first awed by her practical superiority, +succumbed to her half-humorous toleration of their incapacity, and +became her devoted slaves. Dick was astonished, and even Cecily was +confounded. "Do you know," she said confidentially to her cousin, +"that when that brown Conchita thought to please Aunty by wearing white +stockings instead of going round as usual with her cinnamon-colored +bare feet in yellow slippers--which I was afraid would be enough to send +Aunty into conniption fits--she actually told her, very quietly, to take +them off, and dress according to her habits and her station? And you +remember that in her big, square bedroom there is a praying-stool and +a ghastly crucifix, at least three feet long, in ivory and black, +quite too human for anything? Well, when I offered to put them in the +corridor, she said I 'needn't trouble'; that really she hadn't noticed +them, and they would do very well where they were. You'd think she had +been accustomed to this sort of thing all her life. It's just too sweet +of her, any way, even if she's shamming. And if she is, she just does +it to the life too, and could give those Spanish women points. Why, she +rode en pillion on Manuel's mule, behind him, holding on by his +sash, across to the corral yesterday; and you should have seen Manuel +absolutely scrape the ground before her with his sombrero when he let +her down." Indeed, her tall, erect figure in black lustreless silk, +appearing in a heavily shadowed doorway, or seated in a recessed window, +gave a new and patrician dignity to the melancholy of the hacienda. It +was pleasant to follow this quietly ceremonious shadow gliding along +the rose garden at twilight, halting at times to bend stiffly over the +bushes, garden-shears in hand, and carrying a little basket filled with +withered but still odorous petals, as if she were grimly gathering the +faded roses of her youth. + +It was also probable that the lively Cecily's appreciation of her aunt +might have been based upon another virtue of that lady--namely, her +exquisite tact in dealing with the delicate situation evolved from the +always possible relations of the two cousins. It was not to be supposed +that the servants would fail to invest the young people with Southern +romance, and even believe that the situation was prearranged by the +aunt with a view to their eventual engagement. To deal with the problem +openly, yet without startling the consciousness of either Dick or +Cecily; to allow them the privileges of children subject to the +occasional restraints of childhood; to find certain household duties +for the young girl that kept them naturally apart until certain hours +of general relaxation; to calmly ignore the meaning of her retainers' +smiles and glances, and yet to good-humoredly accept their interest as a +kind of feudal loyalty, was part of Aunt Viney's deep diplomacy. Cecily +enjoyed her freedom and companionship with Dick, as she enjoyed the +novel experiences of the old house, the quaint, faded civilization that +it represented, and the change and diversion always acceptable to youth. +She did not feel the absence of other girls of her own age; neither was +she aware that through this omission she was spared the necessity of +a confidante or a rival--both equally revealing to her thoughtless +enjoyment. They took their rides together openly and without +concealment, relating their adventures afterwards to Aunt Viney with +a naivete and frankness that dreamed of no suppression. The city-bred +Cecily, accustomed to horse exercise solely as an ornamental and +artificial recreation, felt for the first time the fearful joy of a dash +across a league-long plain, with no onlookers but the scattered wild +horses she might startle up to scurry before her, or race at her side. +Small wonder that, mounted on her fiery little mustang, untrammeled by +her short gray riding-habit, free as the wind itself that blew through +the folds of her flannel blouse, with her brown hair half-loosed beneath +her slouched felt hat, she seemed to Dick a more beautiful and womanly +figure than the stiff buckramed simulation of man's angularity and +precision he had seen in the parks. Perhaps one day she detected this +consciousness too plainly in his persistent eyes. Up to that moment +she had only watched the glittering stretches of yellow grain, in which +occasional wind-shorn evergreen oaks stood mid-leg deep like cattle in +water, the distant silhouette of the Sierras against the steely blue, or +perhaps the frankly happy face of the good-looking young fellow at her +side. But it seemed to her now that an intruder had entered the field--a +stranger before whom she was impelled to suddenly fly--half-laughingly, +half-affrightedly--the anxious Dick following wonderingly at her +mustang's heels, until she reached the gates of the hacienda, where she +fell into a gravity and seriousness that made him wonder still more. He +did not dream that his guileless cousin had discovered, with a woman's +instinct, a mysterious invader who sought to share their guileless +companionship, only to absorb it entirely, and that its name was--love! + +The next day she was so greatly preoccupied with her household duties +that she could not ride with him. Dick felt unaccountably lost. Perhaps +this check to their daily intercourse was no less accelerating to his +feelings than the vague motive that induced Cecily to withhold herself. +He moped in the corridor; he rode out alone, bullying his mustang in +proportion as he missed his cousin's gentle companionship, and circling +aimlessly, but still unconsciously, around the hacienda as a centre of +attraction. The sun at last was sinking to the accompaniment of a +rising wind, which seemed to blow and scatter its broad rays over the +shimmering plain until every slight protuberance was burnished +into startling brightness; the shadows of the short green oaks grew +disproportionally long, and all seemed to point to the white-walled +casa. Suddenly he started and instantly reined up. + +The figure of a young girl, which he had not before noticed, was slowly +moving down the half-shadowed lane made by the two walls of the garden +and the corral. Cecily! Perhaps she had come out to meet him. He spurred +forward; but, as he came nearer, he saw that the figure and its attire +were surely not hers. He reined up again abruptly, mortified at his +disappointment, and a little ashamed lest he should have seemed to have +been following an evident stranger. He vaguely remembered, too, that +there was a trail to the high road, through a little swale clothed +with myrtle and thorn bush which he had just passed, and that she was +probably one of his reserved and secluded neighbors--indeed, her dress, +in that uncertain light, looked half Spanish. This was more confusing, +since his rashness might have been taken for an attempt to force an +acquaintance. He wheeled and galloped towards the front of the casa as +the figure disappeared at the angle of the wall. + +"I don't suppose you ever see any of our neighbors?" said Dick to his +aunt casually. + +"I really can't say," returned the lady with quiet equanimity. "There +were some extraordinary-looking foreigners on the road to San Gregorio +yesterday. Manuel, who was driving me, may have known who they were--he +is a kind of Indian Papist himself, you know--but I didn't. They might +have been relations of his, for all I know." + +At any other time Dick would have been amused at this serene relegation +of the lofty Estudillos and Peraltas to the caste of the Indian convert, +but he was worried to think that perhaps Cecily was really being bored +by the absence of neighbors. After dinner, when they sought the rose +garden, he dropped upon the little lichen-scarred stone bench by her +side. It was still warm from the sun; the hot musk of the roses filled +the air; the whole garden, shielded from the cool evening trade winds by +its high walls, still kept the glowing memory of the afternoon sunshine. +Aunt Viney, with her garden basket on her arm, moved ghost-like among +the distant bushes. + +"I hope you are not getting bored here?" he said, after a slight +inconsequent pause. + +"Does that mean that YOU are?" she returned, raising her mischievous +eyes to his. + +"No; but I thought you might find it lonely, without neighbors." + +"I stayed in to-day," she said, femininely replying to the unasked +question, "because I fancied Aunt Viney might think it selfish of me to +leave her alone so much." + +"But YOU are not lonely?" + +Certainly not! The young lady was delighted with the whole place, with +the quaint old garden, the mysterious corridors, the restful quiet of +everything, the picture of dear Aunt Viney--who was just the sweetest +soul in the world--moving about like the genius of the casa. It was +such a change to all her ideas, she would never forget it. It was so +thoughtful of him, Dick, to have given them all that pleasure. + +"And the rides," continued Dick, with the untactful pertinacity of the +average man at such moments--"you are not tired of THEM?" + +No; she thought them lovely. Such freedom and freshness in the exercise; +so different from riding in the city or at watering-places, where it was +one-half show, and one was always thinking of one's habit or one's self. +One quite forgot one's self on that lovely plain--with everything so far +away, and only the mountains to look at in the distance. Nevertheless +she did not lift her eyes from the point of the little slipper which had +strayed beyond her skirt. + +Dick was relieved, but not voluble; he could only admiringly follow the +curves of her pretty arms and hands, clasped lightly in her lap, down to +the point of the little slipper. But even that charming vanishing point +was presently withdrawn--possibly through some instinct--for the young +lady had apparently not raised her eyes. + +"I'm so glad you like it," said Dick earnestly, yet with a nervous +hesitation that made his speech seem artificial to his own ears. "You +see I--that is--I had an idea that you might like an occasional change +of company. It's a great pity we're not on speaking terms with one +of these Spanish families. Some of the men, you know, are really fine +fellows, with an old-world courtesy that is very charming." + +He was surprised to see that she had lifted her head suddenly, with a +quick look that however changed to an amused and half coquettish smile. + +"I am finding no fault with my present company," she said demurely, +dropping her head and eyelids until a faint suffusion seemed to +follow the falling lashes over her cheek. "I don't think YOU ought to +undervalue it." + +If he had only spoken then! The hot scent of the roses hung suspended in +the air, which seemed to be hushed around them in mute expectancy; the +shadows which were hiding Aunt Viney from view were also closing round +the bench where they sat. He was very near her; he had only to reach +out his hand to clasp hers, which lay idly in her lap. He felt himself +glowing with a strange emanation; he even fancied that she was turning +mechanically towards him, as a flower might turn towards the fervent +sunlight. But he could not speak; he could scarcely collect his +thoughts, conscious though he was of the absurdity of his silence. What +was he waiting for? what did he expect? He was not usually bashful, he +was no coward; there was nothing in her attitude to make him hesitate to +give expression to what he believed was his first real passion. But he +could do nothing. He even fancied that his face, turned towards hers, +was stiffening into a vacant smile. + +The young girl rose. "I think I heard Aunt Viney call me," she said +constrainedly, and made a hesitating step forward. The spell which had +held Dick seemed to be broken suddenly; he stretched forth his arm +to detain her. But the next step appeared to carry her beyond his +influence; and it was even with a half movement of rejection that +she quickened her pace and disappeared down the path. Dick fell back +dejectedly into his seat, yet conscious of a feeling of RELIEF that +bewildered him. + +But only for a moment. A recollection of the chance that he had +impotently and unaccountably thrown away returned to him. He tried to +laugh, albeit with a glowing cheek, over the momentary bashfulness which +he thought had overtaken him, and which must have made him ridiculous +in her eyes. He even took a few hesitating steps in the direction of the +path where she had disappeared. The sound of voices came to his ear, and +the light ring of Cecily's laughter. The color deepened a little on his +cheek; he re-entered the house and went to his room. + +The red sunset, still faintly showing through the heavily recessed +windows to the opposite wall, made two luminous aisles through the +darkness of the long low apartment. From his easy-chair he watched the +color drop out of the sky, the yellow plain grow pallid and seem to +stretch itself to infinite rest; then a black line began to deepen and +creep towards him from the horizon edge; the day was done. It seemed to +him a day lost. He had no doubt now but that he loved his cousin, and +the opportunity of telling her so--of profiting by her predisposition of +the moment--had passed. She would remember herself, she would remember +his weak hesitancy, she would despise him. He rose and walked uneasily +up and down. And yet--and it disgusted him with himself still more--he +was again conscious of the feeling of relief he had before experienced. +A vague formula, "It's better as it is," "Who knows what might have +come of it?" he found himself repeating, without reason and without +resignation. + +Ashamed even of his seclusion, he rose to join the little family circle, +which now habitually gathered around a table on the veranda of the +patio under the rays of a swinging lamp to take their chocolate. To his +surprise the veranda was empty and dark; a light shining from the inner +drawing-room showed him his aunt in her armchair reading, alone. A +slight thrill ran over him: Cecily might be still in the garden! He +noiselessly passed the drawing-room door, turned into a long corridor, +and slipped through a grating in the wall into the lane that separated +it from the garden. The gate was still open; a few paces brought him +into the long alley of roses. Their strong perfume--confined in the +high, hot walls--at first made him giddy. This was followed by an +inexplicable languor; he turned instinctively towards the stone bench +and sank upon it. The long rows of calla lilies against the opposite +wall looked ghostlike in the darkness, and seemed to have turned their +white faces towards him. Then he fancied that ONE had detached itself +from the rank and was moving away. He looked again: surely there was +something gliding along the wall! A quick tremor of anticipation passed +over him. It was Cecily, who had lingered in the garden--perhaps to +give him one more opportunity! He rose quickly, and stepped towards the +apparition, which had now plainly resolved itself into a slight girlish +figure; it slipped on beneath the trees; he followed quickly--his +nervous hesitancy had vanished before what now seemed to be a half-coy, +half-coquettish evasion of him. He called softly, "Cecily!" but she did +not heed him; he quickened his pace--she increased hers. They were both +running. She reached the angle of the wall where the gate opened upon +the road. Suddenly she stopped, as if intentionally, in the clear open +space before it. He could see her distinctly. The lace mantle slipped +from her head and shoulders. It was NOT Cecily! + +But it was a face so singularly beautiful and winsome that he was as +quickly arrested. It was a woman's deep, passionate eyes and heavy hair, +joined to a childish oval of cheek and chin, an infantine mouth, and a +little nose whose faintly curved outline redeemed the lower face from +weakness and brought it into charming harmony with the rest. A yellow +rose was pinned in the lustrous black hair above the little ear; a +yellow silk shawl or mantle, which had looked white in the shadows, was +thrown over one shoulder and twisted twice or thrice around the plump +but petite bust. The large black velvety eyes were fixed on his in +half wonderment, half amusement; the lovely lips were parted in half +astonishment and half a smile. And yet she was like a picture, a +dream,--a materialization of one's most fanciful imaginings,--like +anything, in fact, but the palpable flesh and blood she evidently was, +standing only a few feet before him, whose hurried breath he could see +even now heaving her youthful breast. + +His own breath appeared suspended, although his heart beat rapidly as +he stammered out: "I beg your pardon--I thought--" He stopped at the +recollection that this was the SECOND time he had followed her. + +She did not speak, although her parted lips still curved with their +faint coy smile. Then she suddenly lifted her right hand, which had +been hanging at her side, clasping some long black object like a stick. +Without any apparent impulse from her fingers, the stick slowly seemed +to broaden in her little hand into the segment of an opening disk, that, +lifting to her face and shoulders, gradually eclipsed the upper part of +her figure, until, mounting higher, the beautiful eyes and the yellow +rose of her hair alone remained above--a large unfurled fan! Then +the long eyelashes drooped, as if in a mute farewell, and they too +disappeared as the fan was lifted higher. The half-hidden figure +appeared to glide to the gateway, lingered for an instant, and vanished. +The astounded Dick stepped quickly into the road, but fan and figure +were swallowed up in the darkness. + +Amazed and bewildered, he stood for a moment, breathless and irresolute. +It was no doubt the same stranger that he had seen before. But WHO was +she, and what was she doing there? If she were one of their Spanish +neighbors, drawn simply by curiosity to become a trespasser, why had she +lingered to invite a scrutiny that would clearly identify her? It was +not the escapade of that giddy girl which the lower part of her face had +suggested, for such a one would have giggled and instantly flown; it was +not the deliberate act of a grave woman of the world, for its sequel +was so purposeless. Why had she revealed herself to HIM alone? Dick +felt himself glowing with a half-shamed, half-secret pleasure. Then he +remembered Cecily, and his own purpose in coming into the garden. He +hurriedly made a tour of the walks and shrubbery, ostentatiously calling +her, yet seeing, as in a dream, only the beautiful eyes of the stranger +still before him, and conscious of an ill-defined remorse and disloyalty +he had never known before. But Cecily was not there; and again he +experienced the old sensation of relief! + +He shut the garden gate, crossed the road, and found the grille just +closing behind a slim white figure. He started, for it was Cecily; but +even in his surprise he was conscious of wondering how he could have +ever mistaken the stranger for her. She appeared startled too; she +looked pale and abstracted. Could she have been a witness of his strange +interview? + +Her first sentence dispelled the idea. + +"I suppose you were in the garden?" she said, with a certain timidity. +"I didn't go there--it seemed so close and stuffy--but walked a little +down the lane." + +A moment before he would have eagerly told her his adventure; but in the +presence of her manifest embarrassment his own increased. He concluded +to tell her another time. He murmured vaguely that he had been looking +for her in the garden, yet he had a flushing sense of falsehood in his +reserve; and they passed silently along the corridor and entered the +patio together. She lit the hanging lamp mechanically. She certainly +WAS pale; her slim hand trembled slightly. Suddenly her eyes met his, +a faint color came into her cheek, and she smiled. She put up her hand +with a girlish gesture towards the back of her head. + +"What are you looking at? Is my hair coming down?" + +"No," hesitated Dick, "but--I--thought--you were looking just a LITTLE +pale." + +An aggressive ray slipped into her blue eyes. + +"Strange! I thought YOU were. Just now at the grille you looked as if +the roses hadn't agreed with you." + +They both laughed, a little nervously, and Conchita brought the +chocolate. When Aunt Viney came from the drawing-room she found the two +young people together, and Cecily in a gale of high spirits. + +She had had SUCH a wonderfully interesting walk, all by herself, alone +on the plain. It was really so queer and elfish to find one's self where +one could see nothing above or around one anywhere but stars. Stars +above one, to right and left of one, and some so low down they seemed +as if they were picketed on the plain. It was so odd to find the horizon +line at one's very feet, like a castaway at sea. And the wind! it seemed +to move one this way and that way, for one could not see anything, +and might really be floating in the air. Only once she thought she saw +something, and was quite frightened. + +"What was it?" asked Dick quickly. + +"Well, it was a large black object; but--it turned out only to be a +horse." + +She laughed, although she had evidently noticed her cousin's eagerness, +and her own eyes had a nervous brightness. + +"And where was Dick all this while?" asked Aunt Viney quietly. + +Cecily interrupted, and answered for him briskly. "Oh, he was trying to +make attar of rose of himself in the garden. He's still stupefied by his +own sweetness." + +"If this means," said Aunt Viney, with matter-of-fact precision, "that +you've been gallivanting all alone, Cecily, on that common plain, where +you're likely to meet all sorts of foreigners and tramps and savages, +and Heaven knows what other vermin, I shall set my face against a +repetition of it. If you MUST go out, and Dick can't go with you--and +I must say that even you and he going out together there at night +isn't exactly the kind of American Christian example to set to our +neighbors--you had better get Concepcion to go with you and take a +lantern." + +"But there is nobody one meets on the plain--at least, nobody likely to +harm one," protested Cecily. + +"Don't tell ME," said Aunt Viney decidedly; "haven't I seen all sorts +of queer figures creeping along by the brink after nightfall between San +Gregorio and the next rancho? Aren't they always skulking backwards and +forwards to mass and aguardiente?" + +"And I don't know why WE should set any example to our neighbors. We +don't see much of them, or they of us." + +"Of course not," returned Aunt Viney; "because all proper Spanish young +ladies are shut up behind their grilles at night. You don't see THEM +traipsing over the plain in the darkness, WITH or WITHOUT cavaliers! +Why, Don Rafael would lock one of HIS sisters up in a convent and +consider her disgraced forever, if he heard of it." + +Dick felt his cheeks burning; Cecily slightly paled. Yet both said +eagerly together: "Why, what do YOU know about it, Aunty?" + +"A great deal," returned Aunt Viney quietly, holding her tatting up to +the light and examining the stitches with a critical eye. "I've got +my eyes about me, thank heaven! even if my ears don't understand the +language. And there's a great deal, my dears, that you young people +might learn from these Papists." + +"And do you mean to say," continued Dick, with a glowing cheek and an +uneasy smile, "that Spanish girls don't go out alone?" + +"No young LADY goes out without her duenna," said Aunt Viney +emphatically. "Of course there's the Concha variety, that go out without +even stockings." + +As the conversation flagged after this, and the young people once or +twice yawned nervously, Aunt Viney thought they had better go to bed. + +But Dick did not sleep. The beautiful face beamed out again from the +darkness of his room; the light that glimmered through his deep-set +curtainless windows had an odd trick of bringing out certain hanging +articles, or pieces of furniture, into a resemblance to a mantled +figure. The deep, velvety eyes, fringed with long brown lashes, again +looked into his with amused, childlike curiosity. He scouted the harsh +criticisms of Aunt Viney, even while he shrank from proving to her her +mistake in the quality of his mysterious visitant. Of course she was +a lady--far superior to any of her race whom he had yet met. Yet how +should he find WHO she was? His pride and a certain chivalry forbade his +questioning the servants--before whom it was the rule of the +household to avoid all reference to their neighbors. He would make the +acquaintance of the old padre--perhaps HE might talk. He would ride +early along the trail in the direction of the nearest rancho,--Don Jose +Amador's,--a thing he had hitherto studiously refrained from doing. It +was three miles away. She must have come that distance, but not ALONE. +Doubtless she had kept her duenna in waiting in the road. Perhaps it +was she who had frightened Cecily. Had Cecily told ALL she had seen? Her +embarrassed manner certainly suggested more than she had told. He felt +himself turning hot with an indefinite uneasiness. Then he tried to +compose himself. After all, it was a thing of the past. The fair unknown +had bribed the duenna for once, no doubt--had satisfied her girlish +curiosity--she would not come again! But this thought brought with +it such a sudden sense of utter desolation, a deprivation so new and +startling, that it frightened him. Was his head turned by the witcheries +of some black-eyed schoolgirl whom he had seen but once? Or--he felt his +cheeks glowing in the darkness--was it really a case of love at first +sight, and she herself had been impelled by the same yearning that now +possessed him? A delicious satisfaction followed, that left a smile on +his lips as if it had been a kiss. He knew now why he had so strangely +hesitated with Cecily. He had never really loved her--he had never known +what love was till now! + +He was up early the next morning, skimming the plain on the back of +"Chu Chu," before the hacienda was stirring. He did not want any one to +suspect his destination, and it was even with a sense of guilt that +he dashed along the swale in the direction of the Amador rancho. A +few vaqueros, an old Digger squaw carrying a basket, two little Indian +acolytes on their way to mass passed him. He was surprised to find that +there were no ruts of carriage wheels within three miles of the casa, +and evidently no track for carriages through the swale. SHE must have +come on HORSEBACK. A broader highway, however, intersected the trail at +a point where the low walls of the Amador rancho came in view. Here he +was startled by the apparition of an old-fashioned family carriage drawn +by two large piebald mules. But it was unfortunately closed. Then, with +a desperate audacity new to his reserved nature, he ranged close beside +it, and even stared in the windows. A heavily mantled old woman, whose +brown face was in high contrast to her snow-white hair, sat in the back +seat. Beside her was a younger companion, with the odd blonde hair and +blue eyes sometimes seen in the higher Castilian type. For an instant +the blue eyes caught his, half-coquettishly. But the girl was NOT at all +like his mysterious visitor, and he fell, discomfited, behind. + +He had determined to explain his trespass on the grounds of his +neighbor, if questioned, by the excuse that he was hunting a strayed +mustang. But his presence, although watched with a cold reserve by the +few peons who were lounging near the gateway, provoked no challenge from +them; and he made a circuit of the low adobe walls, with their barred +windows and cinnamon-tiled roofs, without molestation--but equally +without satisfaction. He felt he was a fool for imagining that he would +see her in that way. He turned his horse towards the little Mission +half a mile away. There he had once met the old padre, who spoke a +picturesque but limited English; now he was only a few yards ahead of +him, just turning into the church. The padre was pleased to see Don +Ricardo; it was an unusual thing for the Americanos, he observed, to +be up so early: for himself, he had his functions, of course. No, the +ladies that the caballero had seen had not been to mass! They were Donna +Maria and her daughter, going to San Gregorio. They comprised ALL the +family at the rancho,--there were none others, unless the caballero, of +a possibility, meant Donna Inez, a maiden aunt of sixty--an admirable +woman, a saint on earth! He trusted that he would find his estray; there +was no doubt a mark upon it, otherwise the plain was illimitable; there +were many horses--the world was wide! + +Dick turned his face homewards a little less adventurously, and it must +be confessed, with a growing sense of his folly. The keen, dry morning +air brushed away his fancies of the preceding night; the beautiful eyes +that had lured him thither seemed to flicker and be blown out by its +practical breath. He began to think remorsefully of his cousin, of his +aunt,--of his treachery to that reserve which the little alien household +had maintained towards their Spanish neighbors. He found Aunt Viney and +Cecily at breakfast--Cecily, he thought, looking a trifle pale. Yet (or +was it only his fancy?) she seemed curious about his morning ride. And +he became more reticent. + +"You must see a good many of our neighbors when you are out so early?" + +"Why?" he asked shortly, feeling his color rise. + +"Oh, because--because we don't see them at any other time." + +"I saw a very nice chap--I think the best of the lot," he began, with +assumed jocularity; then, seeing Cecily's eyes suddenly fixed on him, he +added, somewhat lamely, "the padre! There were also two women in a queer +coach." + +"Donna Maria Amador, and Dona Felipa Peralta--her daughter by her first +husband," said Aunt Viney quietly. "When you see the horses you think +it's a circus; when you look inside the carriage you KNOW it's a +funeral." + +Aunt Viney did not condescend to explain how she had acquired her +genealogical knowledge of her neighbor's family, but succeeded in +breaking the restraint between the young people. Dick proposed a ride +in the afternoon, which was cheerfully accepted by Cecily. Their +intercourse apparently recovered its old frankness and freedom, marred +only for a moment when they set out on the plain. Dick, really to forget +his preoccupation of the morning, turned his horse's head AWAY from +the trail, to ride in another direction; but Cecily oddly, and with an +exhibition of caprice quite new to her, insisted upon taking the old +trail. Nevertheless they met nothing, and soon became absorbed in the +exercise. Dick felt something of his old tenderness return to this +wholesome, pretty girl at his side; perhaps he betrayed it in his voice, +or in an unconscious lingering by her bridle-rein, but she accepted it +with a naive reserve which he naturally attributed to the effect of +his own previous preoccupation. He bore it so gently, however, that it +awakened her interest, and, possibly, her pique. Her reserve relaxed, +and by the time they returned to the hacienda they had regained +something of their former intimacy. The dry, incisive breath of the +plains swept away the last lingering remnants of yesterday's illusions. +Under this frankly open sky, in this clear perspective of the remote +Sierras, which admitted no fanciful deception of form or distance--there +remained nothing but a strange incident--to be later explained or +forgotten. Only he could not bring himself to talk to HER about it. + +After dinner, and a decent lingering for coffee on the veranda, Dick +rose, and leaning half caressingly, half mischievously, over his aunt's +rocking-chair, but with his eyes on Cecily, said:-- + +"I've been deeply considering, dear Aunty, what you said last evening +of the necessity of our offering a good example to our neighbors. Now, +although Cecily and I are cousins, yet, as I am HEAD of the house, +lord of the manor, and padron, according to the Spanish ideas I am her +recognised guardian and protector, and it seems to me it is my positive +DUTY to accompany her if she wishes to walk out this evening." + +A momentary embarrassment--which, however, changed quickly into an +answering smile to her cousin--came over Cecily's face. She turned to +her aunt. + +"Well, don't go too far," said that lady quietly. + +When they closed the grille behind them and stepped into the lane, +Cecily shot a quick glance at her cousin. + +"Perhaps you'd rather walk in the garden?" + +"I? Oh, no," he answered honestly. "But"--he hesitated--"would you?" + +"Yes," she said faintly. + +He impulsively offered his arm; her slim hand slipped lightly through +it and rested on his sleeve. They crossed the lane together, and entered +the garden. A load appeared to be lifted from his heart; the moment +seemed propitious,--here was a chance to recover his lost ground, to +regain his self-respect and perhaps his cousin's affection. By a common +instinct, however, they turned to the right, and AWAY from the stone +bench, and walked slowly down the broad allee. + +They talked naturally and confidingly of the days when they had met +before, of old friends they had known and changes that had crept into +their young lives; they spoke affectionately of the grim, lonely, but +self-contained old woman they had just left, who had brought them thus +again together. Cecily talked of Dick's studies, of the scientific work +on which he was engaged, that was to bring him, she was sure, fame and +fortune! They talked of the thoughtful charm of the old house, of its +quaint old-world flavor. They spoke of the beauty of the night, the +flowers and the stars, in whispers, as one is apt to do--as fearing to +disturb a super-sensitiveness in nature. + +They had come out later than on the previous night; and the moon, +already risen above the high walls of the garden, seemed a vast silver +shield caught in the interlacing tops of the old pear-trees, whose +branches crossed its bright field like dark bends or bars. As it rose +higher, it began to separate the lighter shrubbery, and open white lanes +through the olive-trees. Damp currents of air, alternating with drier +heats, on what appeared to be different levels, moved across the +whole garden, or gave way at times to a breathless lull and hush of +everything, in which the long rose alley seemed to be swooning in its +own spices. They had reached the bottom of the garden, and had turned, +facing the upper moonlit extremity and the bare stone bench. Cecily's +voice faltered, her hand leaned more heavily on his arm, as if she were +overcome by the strong perfume. His right hand began to steal towards +hers. But she had stopped; she was trembling. + +"Go on," she said in a half whisper. "Leave me a moment; I'll join you +afterwards." + +"You are ill, Cecily! It's those infernal flowers!" said Dick earnestly. +"Let me help you to the bench." + +"No--it's nothing. Go on, please. Do! Will you go!" + +She spoke with imperiousness, unlike herself. He walked on mechanically +a dozen paces and turned. She had disappeared. He remembered there was a +smaller gate opening upon the plain near where they had stopped. Perhaps +she had passed through that. He continued on, slowly, towards the upper +end of the garden, occasionally turning to await her return. In this way +he gradually approached the stone bench. He was facing about to continue +his walk, when his heart seemed to stop beating. The beautiful visitor +of last night was sitting alone on the bench before him! + +She had not been there a moment before; he could have sworn it. Yet +there was no illusion now of shade or distance. She was scarcely six +feet from him, in the bright moonlight. The whole of her exquisite +little figure was visible, from her lustrous hair down to the tiny, +black satin, low-quartered slipper, held as by two toes. Her face was +fully revealed; he could see even the few minute freckles, like powdered +allspice, that heightened the pale satin sheen of her beautifully +rounded cheek; he could detect even the moist shining of her parted red +lips, the white outlines of her little teeth, the length of her curved +lashes, and the meshes of the black lace veil that fell from the yellow +rose above her ear to the black silk camisa; he noted even the thick +yellow satin saya, or skirt, heavily flounced with black lace and +bugles, and that it was a different dress from that worn on the +preceding night, a half-gala costume, carried with the indescribable air +of a woman looking her best and pleased to do so: all this he had noted, +drawing nearer and nearer, until near enough to forget it all and drown +himself in the depths of her beautiful eyes. For they were no +longer childlike and wondering: they were glowing with expectancy, +anticipation--love! + +He threw himself passionately on the bench beside her. Yet, even if he +had known her language, he could not have spoken. She leaned towards +him; their eyes seemed to meet caressingly, as in an embrace. Her little +hand slipped from the yellow folds of her skirt to the bench. He eagerly +seized it. A subtle thrill ran through his whole frame. There was +no delusion here; it was flesh and blood, warm, quivering, and even +tightening round his own. He was about to carry it to his lips, when she +rose and stepped backwards. He pressed eagerly forward. Another backward +step brought her to the pear-tree, where she seemed to plunge into its +shadow. Dick Bracy followed--and the same shadow seemed to fold them in +its embrace. + +***** + +He did not return to the veranda and chocolate that evening, but sent +word from his room that he had retired, not feeling well. + +Cecily, herself a little nervously exalted, corroborated the fact of +his indisposition by telling Aunt Viney that the close odors of the rose +garden had affected them both. Indeed, she had been obliged to leave +before him. Perhaps in waiting for her return--and she really was not +well enough to go back--he was exposed to the night air too long. She +was very sorry. + +Aunt Viney heard this with a slight contraction of her brows and a +renewed scrutiny of her knitting; and, having satisfied herself by +a personal visit to Dick's room that he was not alarmingly ill, set +herself to find out what was really the matter with the young people; +for there was no doubt that Cecily was in some vague way as disturbed +and preoccupied as Dick. He rode out again early the next morning, +returning to his studies in the library directly after breakfast; and +Cecily was equally reticent, except when, to Aunt Viney's perplexity, +she found excuses for Dick's manner on the ground of his absorption in +his work, and that he was probably being bored by want of society. She +proposed that she should ask an old schoolfellow to visit them. + +"It would give Dick a change of ideas, and he would not be perpetually +obliged to look so closely after me." She blushed slightly under Aunt +Viney's gaze, and added hastily, "I mean, of course, he would not feel +it his DUTY." + +She even induced her aunt to drive with her to the old mission church, +where she displayed a pretty vivacity and interest in the people they +met, particularly a few youthful and picturesque caballeros. Aunt Viney +smiled gravely. Was the poor child developing an unlooked-for coquetry, +or preparing to make the absent-minded Dick jealous? Well, the idea was +not a bad one. In the evening she astonished the two cousins by offering +to accompany them into the garden--a suggestion accepted with eager and +effusive politeness by each, but carried out with great awkwardness by +the distrait young people later. Aunt Viney clearly saw that it was not +her PRESENCE that was required. In this way two or three days elapsed +without apparently bringing the relations of Dick and Cecily to any more +satisfactory conclusion. The diplomatic Aunt Viney confessed herself +puzzled. + +One night it was very warm; the usual trade winds had died away before +sunset, leaving an unwonted hush in sky and plain. There was something +so portentous in this sudden withdrawal of that rude stimulus to the +otherwise monotonous level, that a recurrence of such phenomena was +always known as "earthquake weather." The wild cattle moved uneasily in +the distance without feeding; herds of unbroken mustangs approached +the confines of the hacienda in vague timorous squads. The silence and +stagnation of the old house was oppressive, as if the life had really +gone out of it at last; and Aunt Viney, after waiting impatiently for +the young people to come in to chocolate, rose grimly, set her lips +together, and went out into the lane. The gate of the rose garden +opposite was open. She walked determinedly forward and entered. + +In that doubly stagnant air the odor of the roses was so suffocating +and overpowering that she had to stop to take breath. The whole garden, +except a near cluster of pear-trees, was brightly illuminated by the +moonlight. No one was to be seen along the length of the broad allee, +strewn an inch deep with scattered red and yellow petals--colorless in +the moonbeams. She was turning away, when Dick's familiar voice, but +with a strange accent of entreaty in it, broke the silence. It seemed to +her vaguely to come from within the pear-tree shadow. + +"But we must understand one another, my darling! Tell me all. This +suspense, this mystery, this brief moment of happiness, and these hours +of parting and torment, are killing me!" + +A slight cough broke from Aunt Viney. She had heard enough--she did not +wish to hear more. The mystery was explained. Dick loved Cecily; the +coyness or hesitation was not on HIS part. Some idiotic girlish caprice, +quite inconsistent with what she had noticed at the mission church, +was keeping Cecily silent, reserved, and exasperating to her lover. She +would have a talk with the young lady, without revealing the fact that +she had overheard them. She was perhaps a little hurt that affairs +should have reached this point without some show of confidence to her +from the young people. Dick might naturally be reticent--but Cecily! + +She did not even look towards the pear-tree, but turned and walked +stiffly out of the gate. As she was crossing the lane she suddenly +started back in utter dismay and consternation! For Cecily, her +niece,--in her own proper person,--was actually just coming OUT OF THE +HOUSE! + +Aunt Viney caught her wrist. "Where have you been?" she asked quickly. + +"In the house," stammered Cecily, with a frightened face. + +"You have not been in the garden with Dick?" continued Aunt Viney +sharply--yet with a hopeless sense of the impossibility of the +suggestion. + +"No, I was not even going there. I thought of just strolling down the +lane." + +The girl's accents were truthful; more than that, she absolutely looked +relieved by her aunt's question. "Do you want me, Aunty?" she added +quickly. + +"Yes--no. Run away, then--but don't go far." + +At any other time Aunt Viney might have wondered at the eagerness with +which Cecily tripped away; now she was only anxious to get rid of her. +She entered the casa hurriedly. + +"Send Josefa to me at once," she said to Manuel. + +Josefa, the housekeeper,--a fat Mexican woman,--appeared. "Send Concha +and the other maids here." They appeared, mutely wondering. Aunt Viney +glanced hurriedly over them--they were all there--a few comely, but not +too attractive, and all stupidly complacent. "Have you girls any friends +here this evening--or are you expecting any?" she demanded. Of a surety, +no!--as the padrona knew--it was not night for church. "Very well," +returned Aunt Viney; "I thought I heard your voices in the garden; +understand, I want no gallivanting there. Go to bed." + +She was relieved! Dick certainly was not guilty of a low intrigue with +one of the maids. But who and what was she? + +Dick was absent again from chocolate; there was unfinished work to do. +Cecily came in later, just as Aunt Viney was beginning to be anxious. +Had she appeared distressed or piqued by her cousin's conduct, Aunt +Viney might have spoken; but there was a pretty color on her cheek--the +result, she said, of her rapid walking, and the fresh air; did Aunt +Viney know that a cool breeze had just risen?--and her delicate lips +were wreathed at times in a faint retrospective smile. Aunt Viney +stared; certainly the girl was not pining! What young people were made +of now-a-days she really couldn't conceive. She shrugged her shoulders +and resumed her tatting. + +Nevertheless, as Dick's unfinished studies seemed to have whitened his +cheek and impaired his appetite the next morning, she announced her +intention of driving out towards the mission alone. When she returned at +luncheon she further astonished the young people by casually informing +them they would have Spanish visitors to dinner--namely, their +neighbors, Donna Maria Amador and the Dona Felipa Peralta. + +Both faces were turned eagerly towards her; both said almost in the same +breath, "But, Aunt Viney! you don't know them! However did you--What +does it all mean?" + +"My dears," said Aunt Viney placidly, "Mrs. Amador and I have always +nodded to each other, and I knew they were only waiting for the +slightest encouragement. I gave it, and they're coming." + +It was difficult to say whether Cecily's or Dick's face betrayed the +greater delight and animation. Aunt Viney looked from the one to the +other. It seemed as if her attempt at diversion had been successful. + +"Tell us all about it, you dear, clever, artful Aunty!" said Cecily +gayly. + +"There's nothing whatever to tell, my love! It seems, however, that the +young one, Dona Felipa, has seen Dick, and remembers him." She shot a +keen glance at Dick, but was obliged to admit that the rascal's face +remained unchanged. "And I wanted to bring a cavalier for YOU, dear, but +Don Jose's nephew isn't at home now." Yet here, to her surprise, Cecily +was faintly blushing. + +Early in the afternoon the piebald horses and dark brown chariot of the +Amadors drew up before the gateway. The young people were delighted +with Dona Felipa, and thought her blue eyes and tawny hair gave an added +piquancy to her colorless satin skin and otherwise distinctively +Spanish face and figure. Aunt Viney, who entertained Donna Maria, was +nevertheless watchful of the others; but failed to detect in Dick's +effusive greeting, or the Dona's coquettish smile of recognition, any +suggestion of previous confidences. It was rather to Cecily that +Dona Felipa seemed to be characteristically exuberant and childishly +feminine. Both mother and stepdaughter spoke a musical infantine +English, which the daughter supplemented with her eyes, her eyebrows, +her little brown fingers, her plump shoulders, a dozen charming +intonations of voice, and a complete vocabulary in her active and +emphatic fan. + +The young lady went over the house with Cecily curiously, as if +recalling some old memories. "Ah, yes, I remember it--but it was long +ago and I was very leetle--you comprehend, and I have not arrive mooch +when the old Don was alone. It was too--too--what you call melank-oaly. +And the old man have not make mooch to himself of company." + +"Then there were no young people in the house, I suppose?" said Cecily, +smiling. + +"No--not since the old man's father lif. Then there were TWO. It is a +good number, this two, eh?" She gave a single gesture, which took in, +with Cecily, the distant Dick, and with a whole volume of suggestion +in her shoulders, and twirling fan, continued: "Ah! two sometime make +one--is it not? But not THEN in the old time--ah, no! It is a sad story. +I shall tell it to you some time, but not to HIM." + +But Cecily's face betrayed no undue bashful consciousness, and she only +asked, with a quiet smile, "Why not to--to my cousin?" + +"Imbecile!" responded that lively young lady. + +After dinner the young people proposed to take Dona Felipa into the rose +garden, while Aunt Viney entertained Donna Maria on the veranda. The +young girl threw up her hands with an affectation of horror. "Santa +Maria!--in the rose garden? After the Angelus, you and him? Have you not +heard?" + +But here Donna Maria interposed. Ah! Santa Maria! What was all that! +Was it not enough to talk old woman's gossip and tell vaqueros tales at +home, without making uneasy the strangers? She would have none of it. +"Vamos!" + +Nevertheless Dona Felipa overcame her horror of the rose garden at +infelicitous hours, so far as to permit herself to be conducted by the +cousins into it, and to be installed like a rose queen on the stone +bench, while Dick and Cecily threw themselves in submissive and +imploring attitudes at her little feet. The young girl looked +mischievously from one to the other. + +"It ees very pret-ty, but all the same I am not a rose: I am what you +call a big goose-berry! Eh--is it not?" + +The cousins laughed, but without any embarrassed consciousness. "Dona +Felipa knows a sad story of this house," said Cecily; "but she will not +tell it before you, Dick." + +Dick, looking up at the coquettish little figure, with Heaven knows what +OTHER memories in his mind, implored and protested. + +"Ah! but this little story--she ees not so mooch sad of herself as she +ees str-r-r-ange!" She gave an exaggerated little shiver under her lace +shawl, and closed her eyes meditatively. + +"Go on," said Dick, smiling in spite of his interested expectation. + +Dona Felipa took her fan in both hands, spanning her knees, leaned +forward, and after a preliminary compressing of her lips and knitting of +her brows, said:-- + +"It was a long time ago. Don Gregorio he have his daughter Rosita here, +and for her he will fill all thees rose garden and gif to her; for she +like mooch to lif with the rose. She ees very pret-ty. You shall have +seen her picture here in the casa. No? It have hang under the crucifix +in the corner room, turn around to the wall--WHY, you shall comprehend +when I have made finish thees story. Comes to them here one day Don +Vincente, Don Gregorio's nephew, to lif when his father die. He was +yong, a pollio--same as Rosita. They were mooch together; they have +make lofe. What will you?--it ees always the same. The Don Gregorio have +comprehend; the friends have all comprehend; in a year they will make +marry. Dona Rosita she go to Monterey to see his family. There ees +an English warship come there; and Rosita she ees very gay with the +officers, and make the flirtation very mooch. Then Don Vincente he is +onhappy, and he revenge himself to make lofe with another. When Rosita +come back it is very miserable for them both, but they say nossing. The +warship he have gone away; the other girl Vincente he go not to no more. +All the same, Rosita and Vincente are very triste, and the family will +not know what to make. Then Rosita she is sick and eat nossing, and walk +to herself all day in the rose garden, until she is as white and +fade away as the rose. And Vincente he eat nossing, but drink mooch +aguardiente. Then he have fever and go dead. And Rosita she have +fainting and fits; and one day they have look for her in the rose +garden, and she is not! And they poosh and poosh in the ground for her, +and they find her with so mooch rose-leaves--so deep--on top of her. SHE +has go dead. It is a very sad story, and when you hear it you are very, +very mooch dissatisfied." + +It is to be feared that the two Americans were not as thrilled by this +sad recital as the fair narrator had expected, and even Dick ventured to +point out that those sort of things happened also to his countrymen, and +were not peculiar to the casa. + +"But you said that there was a terrible sequel," suggested Cecily +smilingly: "tell us THAT. Perhaps Mr. Bracy may receive it a little more +politely." + +An expression of superstitious gravity, half real, half simulated, came +over Dona Felipa's face, although her vivacity of gesticulation and +emphasis did not relax. She cast a hurried glance around her, and leaned +a little forward towards the cousins. + +"When there are no more young people in the casa because they are dead," +she continued, in a lower voice, "Don Gregorio he is very melank-oaly, +and he have no more company for many years. Then there was a rodeo near +the hacienda, and there came five or six caballeros to stay with him +for the feast. Notabilimente comes then Don Jorge Martinez. He is a bad +man--so weeked--a Don Juan for making lofe to the ladies. He lounge in +the garden, he smoke his cigarette, he twist the moustache--so! One day +he came in, and he laugh and wink so and say, 'Oh, the weeked, sly Don +Gregorio! He have hid away in the casa a beautiful, pret-ty girl, and +he will nossing say.' And the other caballeros say, 'Mira! what is this? +there is not so mooch as one young lady in the casa.' And Don Jorge he +wink, and he say, 'Imbeciles! pigs!' And he walk in the garden and twist +his moustache more than ever. And one day, behold! he walk into the +casa, very white and angry, and he swear mooch to himself; and he orders +his horse, and he ride away, and never come back no more, never-r-r! +And one day another caballero, Don Esteban Briones, he came in, and say, +'Hola! Don Jorge has forgotten his pret-ty girl: he have left her over +on the garden bench. Truly I have seen.' And they say, 'We will too.' +And they go, and there is nossing. And they say, 'Imbecile and pig!' But +he is not imbecile and pig; for he has seen, and Don Jorge has seen; and +why? For it is not a girl, but what you call her--a ghost! And they will +that Don Esteban should make a picture of her--a design; and he make +one. And old Don Gregorio he say, 'madre de Dios! it is Rosita'--the +same that hung under the crucifix in the big room." + +"And is that all?" asked Dick, with a somewhat pronounced laugh, but a +face that looked quite white in the moonlight. + +"No, it ees NOT all. For when Don Gregorio got himself more company +another time--it ees all yonge ladies, and my aunt she is invite too; +for she was yonge then, and she herself have tell to me this:-- + +"One night she is in the garden with the other girls, and when they want +to go in the casa one have say, 'Where is Francisca Pacheco? Look, +she came here with us, and now she is not.' Another one say, 'She have +conceal herself to make us affright.' And my aunt she say, 'I will +go seek that I shall find her.' And she go. And when she came to the +pear-tree, she heard Francisca's voice, and it say to some one she see +not, 'Fly! vamos! some one have come.' And then she come at the moment +upon Francisca, very white and trembling, and--alone. And Francisca she +have run away and say nossing, and shut herself in her room. And one of +the other girls say: 'It is the handsome caballero with the little black +moustache and sad white face that I have seen in the garden that make +this. It is truly that he is some poor relation of Don Gregorio, or +some mad kinsman that he will not we should know.' And my aunt ask Don +Gregorio; for she is yonge. And he have say: 'What silly fool ees thees? +There is not one caballero here, but myself.' And when the other young +girl have tell to him how the caballero look, he say: 'The saints save +us! I cannot more say. It ees Don Vincente, who haf gone dead.' And +he cross himself, and--But look! Madre de Dios! Mees Cecily, you are +ill--you are affrighted. I am a gabbling fool! Help her, Don Ricardo; +she is falling!" + +But it was too late: Cecily had tried to rise to her feet, had staggered +forward and fallen in a faint on the bench. + +***** + +Dick did not remember how he helped to carry the insensible Cecily to +the casa, nor what explanation he had given to the alarmed inmates of +her sudden attack. He recalled vaguely that something had been said of +the overpowering perfumes of the garden at that hour, that the lively +Felipa had become half hysterical in her remorseful apologies, and that +Aunt Viney had ended the scene by carrying Cecily into her own +room, where she presently recovered a still trembling but reticent +consciousness. But the fainting of his cousin and the presence of a real +emergency had diverted his imagination from the vague terror that +had taken possession of it, and for the moment enabled him to control +himself. With a desperate effort he managed to keep up a show of +hospitable civility to his Spanish friends until their early departure. +Then he hurried to his own room. So bewildered and horrified he had +become, and a prey to such superstitious terrors, that he could not at +that moment bring himself to the test of looking for the picture of the +alleged Rosita, which might still be hanging in his aunt's room. If +it were really the face of his mysterious visitant--in his present +terror--he felt that his reason might not stand the shock. He would look +at it to-morrow, when he was calmer! Until then he would believe that +the story was some strange coincidence with what must have been his +hallucination, or a vulgar trick to which he had fallen a credulous +victim. Until then he would believe that Cecily's fright had been only +the effect of Dona Felipa's story, acting upon a vivid imagination, and +not a terrible confirmation of something she had herself seen. He threw +himself, without undressing, upon his bed in a benumbing agony of doubt. + +The gentle opening of his door and the slight rustle of a skirt started +him to his feet with a feeling of new and overpowering repulsion. But it +was a familiar figure that he saw in the long aisle of light which led +from his recessed window, whose face was white enough to have been a +spirit's, and whose finger was laid upon its pale lips, as it softly +closed the door behind it. + +"Cecily!" + +"Hush!" she said, in a distracted whisper: "I felt I must see you +to-night. I could not wait until day--no, not another hour! I could +not speak to you before them. I could not go into that dreadful garden +again, or beyond the walls of this house. Dick, I want to--I MUST tell +you something! I would have kept it from every one--from you most of +all! I know you will hate me, and despise me; but, Dick, listen!"--she +caught his hand despairingly, drawing it towards her--"that girl's awful +story was TRUE!" She threw his hand away. + +"And you have seen HER!" said Dick, frantically. "Good God!" + +The young girl's manner changed. "HER!" she said, half scornfully, "you +don't suppose I believe THAT story? No. I--I--don't blame me, Dick,--I +have seen HIM." + +"Him?" + +She pushed him nervously into a seat, and sat down beside him. In the +half light of the moon, despite her pallor and distraction, she was +still very human, womanly, and attractive in her disorder. + +"Listen to me, Dick. Do you remember one afternoon, when we were riding +together, I got ahead of you, and dashed off to the casa. I don't know +what possessed me, or WHY I did it. I only know I wanted to get home +quickly, and get away from you. No, I was not angry, Dick, at YOU; +it did not seem to be THAT; I--well, I confess I was FRIGHTENED--at +something, I don't know what. When I wheeled round into the lane, I +saw--a man--a young gentleman standing by the garden-wall. He was very +picturesque-looking, in his red sash, velvet jacket, and round silver +buttons; handsome, but oh, so pale and sad! He looked at me very +eagerly, and then suddenly drew back, and I heard you on Chu Chu coming +at my heels. You must have seen him and passed him too, I thought: but +when you said nothing of it, I--I don't know why, Dick, I said nothing +of it too. Don't speak!" she added, with a hurried gesture: "I know NOW +why you said nothing,--YOU had not seen him." + +She stopped, and put back a wisp of her disordered chestnut hair. + +"The next time was the night YOU were so queer, Dick, sitting on that +stone bench. When I left you--I thought you didn't care to have me +stay--I went to seek Aunt Viney at the bottom of the garden. I was very +sad, but suddenly I found myself very gay, talking and laughing with +her in a way I could not account for. All at once, looking up, I saw HIM +standing by the little gate, looking at me very sadly. I think I would +have spoken to Aunt Viney, but he put his finger to his lips--his +hand was so slim and white, quite like a hand in one of those Spanish +pictures--and moved slowly backwards into the lane, as if he wished to +speak with ME only--out there. I know I ought to have spoken to Aunty; I +knew it was wrong what I did, but he looked so earnest, so appealing, so +awfully sad, Dick, that I slipped past Aunty and went out of the gate. +Just then she missed me, and called. He made a kind of despairing +gesture, raising his hand Spanish fashion to his lips, as if to say +good-night. You'll think me bold, Dick, but I was so anxious to know +what it all meant, that I gave a glance behind to see if Aunty was +following, before I should go right up to him and demand an explanation. +But when I faced round again, he was gone! I walked up and down the lane +and out on the plain nearly half an hour, seeking him. It was strange, I +know; but I was not a bit FRIGHTENED, Dick--that was so queer--but I was +only amazed and curious." + +The look of spiritual terror in Dick's face here seemed to give way to a +less exalted disturbance, as he fixed his eyes on Cecily's. + +"You remember I met YOU coming in: you seemed so queer then that I +did not say anything to you, for I thought you would laugh at me, or +reproach me for my boldness; and I thought, Dick, that--that--that--this +person wished to speak only to ME." She hesitated. + +"Go on," said Dick, in a voice that had also undergone a singular +change. + +The chestnut head was bent a little lower, as the young girl nervously +twisted her fingers in her lap. + +"Then I saw him again--and--again," she went on hesitatingly. "Of course +I spoke to him, to--to--find out what he wanted; but you know, Dick, I +cannot speak Spanish, and of course he didn't understand me, and didn't +reply." + +"But his manner, his appearance, gave you some idea of his meaning?" +said Dick suddenly. + +Cecily's head drooped a little lower. "I thought--that is, I fancied I +knew what he meant." + +"No doubt," said Dick, in a voice which, but for the superstitious +horror of the situation, might have impressed a casual listener as +indicating a trace of human irony. + +But Cecily did not seem to notice it. "Perhaps I was excited that night, +perhaps I was bolder because I knew you were near me; but I went up to +him and touched him! And then, Dick!--oh, Dick! think how awful--" + +Again Dick felt the thrill of superstitious terror creep over him. "And +he vanished!" he said hoarsely. + +"No--not at once," stammered Cecily, with her head almost buried in her +lap; "for he--he--he took me in his arms and--" + +"And kissed you?" said Dick, springing to his feet, with every trace +of his superstitious agony gone from his indignant face. But Cecily, +without raising her head, caught at his gesticulating hand. + +"Oh, Dick, Dick! do you think he really did it? The horror of it, Dick! +to be kissed by a--a--man who has been dead a hundred years!" + +"A hundred fiddlesticks!" said Dick furiously. "We have been deceived! +No," he stammered, "I mean YOU have been deceived--insulted!" + +"Hush! Aunty will hear you," murmured the girl despairingly. + +Dick, who had thrown away his cousin's hand, caught it again, and +dragged her along the aisle of light to the window. The moon shone upon +his flushed and angry face. + +"Listen!" he said; "you have been fooled, tricked--infamously tricked +by these people, and some confederate, whom--whom I shall horsewhip if I +catch. The whole story is a lie!" + +"But you looked as if you believed it--about the girl," said Cecily; +"you acted so strangely. I even thought, Dick,--sometimes--you had seen +HIM." + +Dick shuddered, trembled; but it is to be feared that the lower, more +natural human element in him triumphed. + +"Nonsense!" he stammered; "the girl was a foolish farrago of +absurdities, improbable on the face of things, and impossible to prove. +But that infernal, sneaking rascal was flesh and blood." + +It seemed to him to relieve the situation and establish his own +sanity to combat one illusion with another. Cecily had already been +deceived--another lie wouldn't hurt her. But, strangely enough, he was +satisfied that Cecily's visitant was real, although he still had doubts +about his own. + +"Then you think, Dick, it was actually some real man?" she said +piteously. "Oh, Dick, I have been so foolish!" + +Foolish she no doubt had been; pretty she certainly was, sitting there +in her loosened hair, and pathetic, appealing earnestness. Surely the +ghostly Rosita's glances were never so pleading as these actual honest +eyes behind their curving lashes. Dick felt a strange, new-born sympathy +of suffering, mingled tantalizingly with a new doubt and jealousy, that +was human and stimulating. + +"Oh, Dick, what are WE to do?" + +The plural struck him as deliciously sweet and subtle. Had they +really been singled out for this strange experience, or still stranger +hallucination? His arm crept around her; she gently withdrew from it. + +"I must go now," she murmured; "but I couldn't sleep until I told you +all. You know, Dick, I have no one else to come to, and it seemed to me +that YOU ought to know it first. I feel better for telling you. You will +tell me to-morrow what you think we ought to do." + +They reached the door, opening it softly. She lingered for a moment on +the threshold. + +"Tell me, Dick" (she hesitated), "if that--that really were a spirit, +and not a real man,--you don't think that--that kiss" (she shuddered) +"could do me harm!" + +He shuddered too, with a strange and sympathetic consciousness that, +happily, she did not even suspect. But he quickly recovered himself +and said, with something of bitterness in his voice, "I should be more +afraid if it really were a man." + +"Oh, thank you, Dick!" + +Her lips parted in a smile of relief; the color came faintly back to her +cheek. + +A wild thought crossed his fancy that seemed an inspiration. They would +share the risks alike. He leaned towards her: their lips met in their +first kiss. + +"Oh, Dick!" + +"Dearest!" + +"I think--we are saved." + +"Why?" + +"It wasn't at all like that." + +He smiled as she flew swiftly down the corridor. Perhaps he thought so +too. + +***** + +No picture of the alleged Rosita was ever found. Dona Felipa, when the +story was again referred to, smiled discreetly, but was apparently too +preoccupied with the return of Don Jose's absent nephew for further +gossiping visits to the hacienda; and Dick and Cecily, as Mr. and Mrs. +Bracy, would seem to have survived--if they never really solved--the +mystery of the Hacienda de los Osos. Yet in the month of June, when the +moon is high, one does not sit on the stone bench in the rose garden +after the last stroke of the Angelus. + + + + +CHU CHU. + + +I do not believe that the most enthusiastic lover of that "useful and +noble animal," the horse, will claim for him the charm of geniality, +humor, or expansive confidence. Any creature who will not look you +squarely in the eye--whose only oblique glances are inspired by fear, +distrust, or a view to attack; who has no way of returning caresses, and +whose favorite expression is one of head-lifting disdain, may be "noble" +or "useful," but can be hardly said to add to the gayety of nations. +Indeed it may be broadly stated that, with the single exception of +gold-fish, of all animals kept for the recreation of mankind the +horse is alone capable of exciting a passion that shall be absolutely +hopeless. I deem these general remarks necessary to prove that my +unreciprocated affection for "Chu Chu" was not purely individual or +singular. And I may add that to these general characteristics she +brought the waywardness of her capricious sex. + +She came to me out of the rolling dust of an emigrant wagon, behind +whose tailboard she was gravely trotting. She was a half-broken colt--in +which character she had at different times unseated everybody in the +train--and, although covered with dust, she had a beautiful coat, and +the most lambent gazelle-like eyes I had ever seen. I think she kept +these latter organs purely for ornament--apparently looking at things +with her nose, her sensitive ears, and, sometimes, even a slight lifting +of her slim near fore-leg. On our first interview I thought she favored +me with a coy glance, but as it was accompanied by an irrelevant "Look +out!" from her owner, the teamster, I was not certain. I only know that +after some conversation, a good deal of mental reservation, and the +disbursement of considerable coin, I found myself standing in the dust +of the departing emigrant-wagon with one end of a forty-foot riata in my +hand, and Chu Chu at the other. + +I pulled invitingly at my own end, and even advanced a step or two +towards her. She then broke into a long disdainful pace, and began to +circle round me at the extreme limit of her tether. I stood admiring +her free action for some moments--not always turning with her, which was +tiring--until I found that she was gradually winding herself up ON ME! +Her frantic astonishment when she suddenly found herself thus brought up +against me was one of the most remarkable things I ever saw, and nearly +took me off my legs. Then when she had pulled against the riata until +her narrow head and prettily arched neck were on a perfectly straight +line with it, she as suddenly slackened the tension and condescended to +follow me, at an angle of her own choosing. Sometimes it was on one +side of me, sometimes on the other. Even then the sense of my dreadful +contiguity apparently would come upon her like a fresh discovery, and +she would become hysterical. But I do not think that she really SAW me. +She looked at the riata and sniffed it disparagingly, she pawed some +pebbles that were near me tentatively with her small hoof; she started +back with a Robinson Crusoe-like horror of my footprints in the wet +gully, but my actual personal presence she ignored. She would sometimes +pause, with her head thoughtfully between her fore-legs, and apparently +say: "There is some extraordinary presence here: animal, vegetable, or +mineral--I can't make out which--but it's not good to eat, and I loathe +and detest it." + +When I reached my house in the suburbs, before entering the "fifty vara" +lot inclosure, I deemed it prudent to leave her outside while I informed +the household of my purchase; and with this object I tethered her by the +long riata to a solitary sycamore which stood in the centre of the road, +the crossing of two frequented thoroughfares. It was not long, however, +before I was interrupted by shouts and screams from that vicinity, and +on returning thither I found that Chu Chu, with the assistance of her +riata, had securely wound up two of my neighbors to the tree, where they +presented the appearance of early Christian martyrs. When I released +them it appeared that they had been attracted by Chu Chu's graces, +and had offered her overtures of affection, to which she had +characteristically rotated with this miserable result. I led her, with +some difficulty, warily keeping clear of the riata, to the inclosure, +from whose fence I had previously removed several bars. Although the +space was wide enough to have admitted a troop of cavalry she affected +not to notice it, and managed to kick away part of another section on +entering. She resisted the stable for some time, but after carefully +examining it with her hoofs, and an affectedly meek outstretching of +her nose, she consented to recognize some oats in the feed-box--without +looking at them--and was formally installed. All this while she had +resolutely ignored my presence. As I stood watching her she suddenly +stopped eating; the same reflective look came over her. "Surely I am not +mistaken, but that same obnoxious creature is somewhere about here!" she +seemed to say, and shivered at the possibility. + +It was probably this which made me confide my unreciprocated affection +to one of my neighbors--a man supposed to be an authority on horses, and +particularly of that wild species to which Chu Chu belonged. It was he +who, leaning over the edge of the stall where she was complacently and, +as usual, obliviously munching, absolutely dared to toy with a pet lock +of hair which she wore over the pretty star on her forehead. "Ye see, +captain," he said with jaunty easiness, "hosses is like wimmen; ye don't +want ter use any standoffishness or shyness with THEM; a stiddy but +keerless sort o' familiarity, a kind o' free but firm handlin', jess +like this, to let her see who's master"-- + +We never clearly knew HOW it happened; but when I picked up my neighbor +from the doorway, amid the broken splinters of the stall rail, and a +quantity of oats that mysteriously filled his hair and pockets, Chu Chu +was found to have faced around the other way, and was contemplating her +forelegs, with her hind ones in the other stall. My neighbor spoke of +damages while he was in the stall, and of physical coercion when he +was out of it again. But here Chu Chu, in some marvelous way, righted +herself, and my neighbor departed hurriedly with a brimless hat and an +unfinished sentence. + +My next intermediary was Enriquez Saltello--a youth of my own age, +and the brother of Consuelo Saltello, whom I adored. As a Spanish +Californian he was presumed, on account of Chu Chu's half-Spanish +origin, to have superior knowledge of her character, and I even vaguely +believed that his language and accent would fall familiarly on her ear. +There was the drawback, however, that he always preferred to talk in +a marvelous English, combining Castilian precision with what he fondly +believed to be Californian slang. + +"To confer then as to thees horse, which is not--observe me--a Mexican +plug! Ah, no! you can your boots bet on that. She is of Castilian +stock--believe me and strike me dead! I will myself at different times +overlook and affront her in the stable, examine her as to the assault, +and why she should do thees thing. When she is of the exercise I will +also accost and restrain her. Remain tranquil, my friend! When a few +days shall pass much shall be changed, and she will be as another. Trust +your oncle to do thees thing! Comprehend me? Everything shall be lovely, +and the goose hang high!" + +Conformably with this he "overlooked" her the next day, with a cigarette +between his yellow-stained finger-tips, which made her sneeze in a +silent pantomimic way, and certain Spanish blandishments of speech which +she received with more complacency. But I don't think she ever even +looked at him. In vain he protested that she was the "dearest" and +"littlest" of his "little loves"--in vain he asserted that she was his +patron saint, and that it was his soul's delight to pray to her; she +accepted the compliment with her eyes fixed upon the manger. When he had +exhausted his whole stock of endearing diminutives, adding a few playful +and more audacious sallies, she remained with her head down, as if +inclined to meditate upon them. This he declared was at least an +improvement on her former performances. It may have been my own +jealousy, but I fancied she was only saying to herself, "Gracious! can +there be TWO of them?" + +"Courage and patience, my friend," he said, as we were slowly quitting +the stable. "Thees horse is yonge, and has not yet the habitude of the +person. To-morrow, at another season, I shall give to her a foundling" +("fondling," I have reason to believe, was the word intended by +Enriquez)--"and we shall see. It shall be as easy as to fall away from +a log. A leetle more of this chin music which your friend Enriquez +possesses, and some tapping of the head and neck, and you are there. +You are ever the right side up. Houp la! But let us not precipitate this +thing. The more haste, we do not so much accelerate ourselves." + +He appeared to be suiting the action to the word as he lingered in the +doorway of the stable. "Come on," I said. + +"Pardon," he returned, with a bow that was both elaborate and evasive, +"but you shall yourself precede me--the stable is YOURS." + +"Oh, come along!" I continued impatiently. To my surprise he seemed to +dodge back into the stable again. After an instant he reappeared. + +"Pardon! but I am re-strain! Of a truth, in this instant I am grasp by +the mouth of thees horse in the coat-tail of my dress! She will that I +should remain. It would seem"--he disappeared again--"that"--he was out +once more--"the experiment is a sooccess! She reciprocate! She is, of a +truth, gone on me. It is lofe!"--a stronger pull from Chu Chu here sent +him in again--"but"--he was out now triumphantly with half his garment +torn away--"I shall coquet." + +Nothing daunted, however, the gallant fellow was back next day with +a Mexican saddle, and attired in the complete outfit of a vaquero. +Overcome though HE was by heavy deerskin trousers, open at the side +from the knees down, and fringed with bullion buttons, an enormous +flat sombrero, and a stiff, short embroidered velvet jacket, I was more +concerned at the ponderous saddle and equipments intended for the slim +Chu Chu. That these would hide and conceal her beautiful curves and +contour, as well as overweight her, seemed certain; that she would +resist them all to the last seemed equally clear. Nevertheless, to my +surprise, when she was led out, and the saddle thrown deftly across her +back, she was passive. Was it possible that some drop of her old Spanish +blood responded to its clinging embrace? She did not either look at it +nor smell it. But when Enriquez began to tighten the "cinch" or girth +a more singular thing occurred. Chu Chu visibly distended her slender +barrel to twice its dimensions; the more he pulled the more she swelled, +until I was actually ashamed of her. Not so Enriquez. He smiled at us, +and complacently stroked his thin moustache. + +"Eet is ever so! She is the child of her grandmother! Even when you +shall make saddle thees old Castilian stock, it will make large--it will +become a balloon! Eet is a trick--eet is a leetle game--believe me. For +why?" + +I had not listened, as I was at that moment astonished to see the saddle +slowly slide under Chu Chu's belly, and her figure resume, as if by +magic, its former slim proportions. Enriquez followed my eyes, lifted +his shoulders, shrugged them, and said smilingly, "Ah, you see!" + +When the girths were drawn in again with an extra pull or two from the +indefatigable Enriquez, I fancied that Chu Chu nevertheless secretly +enjoyed it, as her sex is said to appreciate tight-lacing. She drew a +deep sigh, possibly of satisfaction, turned her neck, and apparently +tried to glance at her own figure--Enriquez promptly withdrawing to +enable her to do so easily. Then the dread moment arrived. Enriquez, +with his hand on her mane, suddenly paused and, with exaggerated +courtesy, lifted his hat and made an inviting gesture. + +"You will honor me to precede." + +I shook my head laughingly. + +"I see," responded Enriquez gravely. "You have to attend the obsequies +of your aunt who is dead, at two of the clock. You have to meet your +broker who has bought you feefty share of the Comstock lode--at thees +moment--or you are loss! You are excuse! Attend! Gentlemen, make your +bets! The band has arrived to play! 'Ere we are!" + +With a quick movement the alert young fellow had vaulted into the +saddle. But, to the astonishment of both of us, the mare remained +perfectly still. There was Enriquez bolt upright in the stirrups, +completely overshadowing by his saddle-flaps, leggings, and gigantic +spurs the fine proportions of Chu Chu, until she might have been a +placid Rosinante, bestridden by some youthful Quixote. She closed her +eyes, she was going to sleep! We were dreadfully disappointed. This +clearly would not do. Enriquez lifted the reins cautiously! Chu Chu +moved forward slowly--then stopped, apparently lost in reflection. + +"Affront her on thees side." + +I approached her gently. She shot suddenly into the air, coming down +again on perfectly stiff legs with a springless jolt. This she instantly +followed by a succession of other rocket-like propulsions, utterly +unlike a leap, all over the inclosure. The movements of the unfortunate +Enriquez were equally unlike any equitation I ever saw. He appeared +occasionally over Chu Chu's head, astride of her neck and tail, or in +the free air, but never IN the saddle. His rigid legs, however, never +lost the stirrups, but came down regularly, accentuating her springless +hops. More than that, the disproportionate excess of rider, saddle, +and accoutrements was so great that he had, at times, the appearance of +lifting Chu Chu forcibly from the ground by superior strength, and of +actually contributing to her exercise! As they came towards me, a wild +tossing and flying mass of hoofs and spurs, it was not only difficult +to distinguish them apart, but to ascertain how much of the jumping was +done by Enriquez separately. At last Chu Chu brought matters to a close +by making for the low-stretching branches of an oak-tree which stood at +the corner of the lot. In a few moments she emerged from it--but without +Enriquez. + +I found the gallant fellow disengaging himself from the fork of a branch +in which he had been firmly wedged, but still smiling and confident, and +his cigarette between his teeth. Then for the first time he removed it, +and seating himself easily on the branch with his legs dangling down, he +blandly waved aside my anxious queries with a gentle reassuring gesture. + +"Remain tranquil, my friend. Thees does not count! I have conquer--you +observe--for why? I have NEVER for once ARRIVE AT THE GROUND! Consequent +she is disappoint! She will ever that I SHOULD! But I have got her when +the hair is not long! Your oncle Henry"--with an angelic wink--"is fly! +He is ever a bully boy, with the eye of glass! Believe me. Behold! I am +here! Big Injin! Whoop!" + +He leaped lightly to the ground. Chu Chu, standing watchfully at a +little distance, was evidently astonished at his appearance. She threw +out her hind hoofs violently, shot up into the air until the stirrups +crossed each other high above the saddle, and made for the stable in a +succession of rabbit-like bounds--taking the precaution to remove the +saddle, on entering, by striking it against the lintel of the door. "You +observe," said Enriquez blandly, "she would make that thing of ME. Not +having the good occasion, she ees dissatisfied. Where are you now?" + +Two or three days afterwards he rode her again with the same +result--accepted by him with the same heroic complacency. As we did not, +for certain reasons, care to use the open road for this exercise, and as +it was impossible to remove the tree, we were obliged to submit to the +inevitable. On the following day I mounted her--undergoing the same +experience as Enriquez, with the individual sensation of falling from a +third-story window on top of a counting-house stool, and the variation +of being projected over the fence. When I found that Chu Chu had not +accompanied me, I saw Enriquez at my side. "More than ever is become +necessary that we should do thees things again," he said gravely, as +he assisted me to my feet. "Courage, my noble General! God and Liberty! +Once more on to the breach! Charge, Chestare, charge! Come on, Don +Stanley! 'Ere we are!" + +He helped me none too quickly to catch my seat again, for it apparently +had the effect of the turned peg on the enchanted horse in the Arabian +Nights, and Chu Chu instantly rose into the air. But she came down this +time before the open window of the kitchen, and I alighted easily on the +dresser. The indefatigable Enriquez followed me. + +"Won't this do?" I asked meekly. + +"It ees BETTER--for you arrive NOT on the ground," he said cheerfully; +"but you should not once but a thousand times make trial! Ha! Go and +win! Nevare die and say so! 'Eave ahead! 'Eave! There you are!" + +Luckily, this time I managed to lock the rowels of my long spurs under +her girth, and she could not unseat me. She seemed to recognize the fact +after one or two plunges, when, to my great surprise, she suddenly +sank to the ground and quietly rolled over me. The action disengaged +my spurs, but, righting herself without getting up, she turned her +beautiful head and absolutely LOOKED at me!--still in the saddle. I felt +myself blushing! But the voice of Enriquez was at my side. + +"Errise, my friend; you have conquer! It is SHE who has arrive at the +ground! YOU are all right. It is done; believe me, it is feenish! No +more shall she make thees thing. From thees instant you shall ride her +as the cow--as the rail of thees fence--and remain tranquil. For she is +a-broke! Ta-ta! Regain your hats, gentlemen! Pass in your checks! It is +ovar! How are you now?" He lit a fresh cigarette, put his hands in his +pockets, and smiled at me blandly. + +For all that, I ventured to point out that the habit of alighting in the +fork of a tree, or the disengaging of one's self from the saddle on the +ground, was attended with inconvenience, and even ostentatious display. +But Enriquez swept the objections away with a single gesture. "It is +the PREENCIPAL--the bottom fact--at which you arrive. The next come of +himself! Many horse have achieve to mount the rider by the knees, and +relinquish after thees same fashion. My grandfather had a barb of thees +kind--but she has gone dead, and so have my grandfather. Which is sad +and strange! Otherwise I shall make of them both an instant example!" + +I ought to have said that although these performances were never +actually witnessed by Enriquez's sister--for reasons which he and I +thought sufficient--the dear girl displayed the greatest interest in +them, and, perhaps aided by our mutually complimentary accounts of each +other, looked upon us both as invincible heroes. It is possible also +that she over-estimated our success, for she suddenly demanded that I +should RIDE Chu Chu to her house, that she might see her. It was +not far; by going through a back lane I could avoid the trees which +exercised such a fatal fascination for Chu Chu. There was a pleading, +child-like entreaty in Consuelo's voice that I could not resist, with +a slight flash from her lustrous dark eyes that I did not care to +encourage. So I resolved to try it at all hazards. + +My equipment for the performance was modeled after Enriquez's previous +costume, with the addition of a few fripperies of silver and stamped +leather out of compliment to Consuelo, and even with a faint hope +that it might appease Chu Chu. SHE certainly looked beautiful in her +glittering accoutrements, set off by her jet-black shining coat. With an +air of demure abstraction she permitted me to mount her, and even for +a hundred yards or so indulged in a mincing maidenly amble that was not +without a touch of coquetry. Encouraged by this, I addressed a few terms +of endearment to her, and in the exuberance of my youthful enthusiasm I +even confided to her my love for Consuelo, and begged her to be "good" +and not disgrace herself and me before my Dulcinea. In my foolish +trustfulness I was rash enough to add a caress, and to pat her soft +neck. She stopped instantly with a hysteric shudder. I knew what was +passing through her mind: she had suddenly become aware of my baleful +existence. + +The saddle and bridle Chu Chu was becoming accustomed to, but who was +this living, breathing object that had actually touched her? Presently +her oblique vision was attracted by the fluttering movement of a fallen +oak-leaf in the road before her. She had probably seen many oak-leaves +many times before; her ancestors had no doubt been familiar with them on +the trackless hills and in field and paddock, but this did not alter her +profound conviction that I and the leaf were identical, that our baleful +touch was something indissolubly connected. She reared before that +innocent leaf, she revolved round it, and then fled from it at the top +of her speed. + +The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden. +Unfortunately, at the angle of the fence stood a beautiful Madrono-tree, +brilliant with its scarlet berries, and endeared to me as Consuelo's +favorite haunt, under whose protecting shade I had more than once avowed +my youthful passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu caught sight of it, +and with a succession of spirited bounds instantly made for it. In +another moment I was beneath it, and Chu Chu shot like a rocket into the +air. I had barely time to withdraw my feet from the stirrups, to throw +up one arm to protect my glazed sombrero and grasp an overhanging branch +with the other, before Chu Chu darted off. But to my consternation, as +I gained a secure perch on the tree, and looked about me, I saw +her--instead of running away--quietly trot through the open gate into +Saltello's garden. + +Need I say that it was to the beneficent Enriquez that I again owed my +salvation? Scarcely a moment elapsed before his bland voice rose in +a concentrated whisper from the corner of the garden below me. He had +divined the dreadful truth! + +"For the love of God, collect to yourself many kinds of thees berry! All +you can! Your full arms round! Rest tranquil. Leave to your ole oncle to +make for you a delicate exposure. At the instant!" + +He was gone again. I gathered, wonderingly, a few of the larger clusters +of parti-colored fruit and patiently waited. Presently he reappeared, +and with him the lovely Consuelo--her dear eyes filled with an adorable +anxiety. + +"Yes," continued Enriquez to his sister, with a confidential lowering +of tone but great distinctness of utterance, "it is ever so with the +American! He will ever make FIRST the salutation of the flower or the +fruit, picked to himself by his own hand, to the lady where he call. It +is the custom of the American hidalgo! My God--what will you? I make it +not--it is so! Without doubt he is in this instant doing thees thing. +That is why he have let go his horse to precede him here; it is always +the etiquette to offer these things on the feet. Ah! Behold! it is +he!--Don Francisco! Even now he will descend from thees tree! Ah! You +make the blush, little sister (archly)! I will retire! I am discreet; +two is not company for the one! I make tracks! I am gone!" + +How far Consuelo entirely believed and trusted her ingenious brother +I do not know, nor even then cared to inquire. For there was a pretty +mantling of her olive cheek, as I came forward with my offering, and a +certain significant shyness in her manner that were enough to throw +me into a state of hopeless imbecility. And I was always miserably +conscious that Consuelo possessed an exalted sentimentality, and a +predilection for the highest mediaeval romance, in which I knew I was +lamentably deficient. Even in our most confidential moments I was +always aware that I weakly lagged behind this daughter of a gloomily +distinguished ancestry, in her frequent incursions into a vague +but poetic past. There was something of the dignity of the Spanish +chatelaine in the sweetly grave little figure that advanced to accept my +specious offering. I think I should have fallen on my knees to present +it, but for the presence of the all seeing Enriquez. But why did I even +at that moment remember that he had early bestowed upon her the nickname +of "Pomposa"? This, as Enriquez himself might have observed, was "sad +and strange." + +I managed to stammer out something about the Madrono berries being at +her "disposicion" (the tree was in her own garden!), and she took the +branches in her little brown hand with a soft response to my unutterable +glances. + +But here Chu Chu, momentarily forgotten, executed a happy diversion. To +our astonishment she gravely walked up to Consuelo and, stretching out +her long slim neck, not only sniffed curiously at the berries, but even +protruded a black underlip towards the young girl herself. In another +instant Consuelo's dignity melted. Throwing her arms around Chu Chu's +neck she embraced and kissed her. Young as I was, I understood the +divine significance of a girl's vicarious effusiveness at such a moment, +and felt delighted. But I was the more astonished that the usually +sensitive horse not only submitted to these caresses, but actually +responded to the extent of affecting to nip my mistress's little right +ear. + +This was enough for the impulsive Consuelo. She ran hastily into the +house, and in a few moments reappeared in a bewitching riding-skirt +gathered round her jimp waist. In vain Enriquez and myself joined in +earnest entreaty: the horse was hardly broken for even a man's riding +yet; the saints alone could tell what the nervous creature might do +with a woman's skirt flapping at her side! We begged for delay, for +reflection, for at least time to change the saddle--but with no avail! +Consuelo was determined, indignant, distressingly reproachful! Ah, well! +if Don Pancho (an ingenious diminutive of my Christian name) valued +his horse so highly--if he were jealous of the evident devotion of the +animal to herself, he would--but here I succumbed! And then I had the +felicity of holding that little foot for one brief moment in the hollow +of my hand, of readjusting the skirt as she threw her knee over +the saddle-horn, of clasping her tightly--only half in fear--as I +surrendered the reins to her grasp. And to tell the truth, as Enriquez +and I fell back, although I had insisted upon still keeping hold of the +end of the riata, it was a picture to admire. The petite figure of the +young girl, and the graceful folds of her skirt, admirably harmonized +with Chu Chu's lithe contour, and as the mare arched her slim neck and +raised her slender head under the pressure of the reins, it was so like +the lifted velvet-capped toreador crest of Consuelo herself, that they +seemed of one race. + +"I would not that you should hold the riata," said Consuelo petulantly. + +I hesitated--Chu Chu looked certainly very amiable--I let go. She began +to amble towards the gate, not mincingly as before, but with a freer and +fuller stride. In spite of the incongruous saddle the young girl's seat +was admirable. As they neared the gate she cast a single mischievous +glance at me, jerked at the rein, and Chu Chu sprang into the road at +a rapid canter. I watched them fearfully and breathlessly, until at the +end of the lane I saw Consuelo rein in slightly, wheel easily, and come +flying back. There was no doubt about it; the horse was under perfect +control. Her second subjugation was complete and final! + +Overjoyed and bewildered, I overwhelmed them with congratulations; +Enriquez alone retaining the usual brotherly attitude of criticism, and +a superior toleration of a lover's enthusiasm. I ventured to hint to +Consuelo (in what I believed was a safe whisper) that Chu Chu only +showed my own feelings towards her. "Without doubt," responded Enriquez +gravely. "She have of herself assist you to climb to the tree to pull +to yourself the berry for my sister." But I felt Consuelo's little hand +return my pressure, and I forgave and even pitied him. + +From that day forward, Chu Chu and Consuelo were not only firm friends +but daily companions. In my devotion I would have presented the horse +to the young girl, but with flattering delicacy she preferred to call it +mine. "I shall erride it for you, Pancho," she said; "I shall feel," she +continued with exalted although somewhat vague poetry, "that it is of +YOU! You lofe the beast--it is therefore of a necessity YOU, my Pancho! +It is YOUR soul I shall erride like the wings of the wind--your lofe in +this beast shall be my only cavalier for ever." I would have preferred +something whose vicarious qualities were less uncertain than I still +felt Chu Chu's to be, but I kissed the girl's hand submissively. It was +only when I attempted to accompany her in the flesh, on another horse, +that I felt the full truth of my instinctive fears. Chu Chu would not +permit any one to approach her mistress's side. My mounted presence +revived in her all her old blind astonishment and disbelief in my +existence; she would start suddenly, face about, and back away from me +in utter amazement as if I had been only recently created, or with an +affected modesty as if I had been just guilty of some grave indecorum +towards her sex which she really could not stand. The frequency of these +exhibitions in the public highway were not only distressing to me as +a simple escort, but as it had the effect on the casual spectators of +making Consuelo seem to participate in Chu Chu's objections, I felt +that, as a lover, it could not be borne. Any attempt to coerce Chu Chu +ended in her running away. And my frantic pursuit of her was open to +equal misconstruction. "Go it, Miss, the little dude is gainin' on you!" +shouted by a drunken teamster to the frightened Consuelo, once checked +me in mid career. Even the dear girl herself saw the uselessness of my +real presence, and after a while was content to ride with "my soul." + +Notwithstanding this, I am not ashamed to say that it was my custom, +whenever she rode out, to keep a slinking and distant surveillance of +Chu Chu on another horse, until she had fairly settled down to her pace. +A little nod of Consuelo's round black-and-red toreador hat or a kiss +tossed from her riding-whip was reward enough! + +I remember a pleasant afternoon when I was thus awaiting her in the +outskirts of the village. The eternal smile of the Californian summer +had begun to waver and grow less fixed; dust lay thick on leaf and +blade; the dry hills were clothed in russet leather; the trade winds +were shifting to the south with an ominous warm humidity; a few days +longer and the rains would be here. It so chanced that this afternoon my +seclusion on the roadside was accidentally invaded by a village belle--a +Western young lady somewhat older than myself, and of flirtatious +reputation. As she persistently and--as I now have reason to +believe--mischievously lingered, I had only a passing glimpse of +Consuelo riding past at an unaccustomed speed which surprised me at +the moment. But as I reasoned later that she was only trying to avoid +a merely formal meeting, I thought no more about it. It was not until I +called at the house to fetch Chu Chu at the usual hour, and found that +Consuelo had not yet returned, that a recollection of Chu Chu's furious +pace again troubled me. An hour passed--it was getting towards sunset, +but there were no signs of Chu Chu nor her mistress. I became seriously +alarmed. I did not care to reveal my fears to the family, for I felt +myself responsible for Chu Chu. At last I desperately saddled my horse, +and galloped off in the direction she had taken. It was the road to +Rosario and the hacienda of one of her relations, where she sometimes +halted. + +The road was a very unfrequented one, twisting like a mountain river; +indeed, it was the bed of an old watercourse, between brown hills of +wild oats, and debouching at last into a broad blue lake-like expanse of +alfalfa meadows. In vain I strained my eyes over the monotonous level; +nothing appeared to rise above or move across it. In the faint hope that +she might have lingered at the hacienda, I was spurring on again when I +heard a slight splashing on my left. I looked around. A broad patch +of fresher-colored herbage and a cluster of dwarfed alders indicated +a hidden spring. I cautiously approached its quaggy edges, when I was +shocked by what appeared to be a sudden vision! Mid-leg deep in the +centre of a greenish pool stood Chu Chu! But without a strap or buckle +of harness upon her--as naked as when she was foaled! + +For a moment I could only stare at her in bewildered terror. Far from +recognizing me, she seemed to be absorbed in a nymph-like contemplation +of her own graces in the pool. Then I called "Consuelo!" and galloped +frantically around the spring. But there was no response, nor was there +anything to be seen but the all-unconscious Chu Chu. The pool, thank +Heaven! was not deep enough to have drowned any one; there were no signs +of a struggle on its quaggy edges. The horse might have come from a +distance! I galloped on, still calling. A few hundred yards further +I detected the vivid glow of Chu Chu's scarlet saddle-blanket, in the +brush near the trail. My heart leaped--I was on the track. I called +again; this time a faint reply, in accents I knew too well, came from +the field beside me! + +Consuelo was there! reclining beside a manzanita bush which screened +her from the road, in what struck me, even at that supreme moment, as a +judicious and picturesquely selected couch of scented Indian grass and +dry tussocks. The velvet hat with its balls of scarlet plush was laid +carefully aside; her lovely blue-black hair retained its tight coils +undisheveled, her eyes were luminous and tender. Shocked as I was at her +apparent helplessness, I remember being impressed with the fact that it +gave so little indication of violent usage or disaster. + +I threw myself frantically on the ground beside her. + +"You are hurt, Consita! For Heaven's sake, what has happened?" + +She pushed my hat back with her little hand, and tumbled my hair gently. + +"Nothing. YOU are here, Pancho--eet is enofe! What shall come after +thees--when I am perhaps gone among the grave--make nothing! YOU are +here--I am happy. For a little, perhaps--not mooch." + +"But," I went on desperately, "was it an accident? Were you thrown? Was +it Chu Chu?"--for somehow, in spite of her languid posture and voice, I +could not, even in my fears, believe her seriously hurt. + +"Beat not the poor beast, Pancho. It is not from HER comes thees thing. +She have make nothing--believe me! I have come upon your assignation +with Miss Essmith! I make but to pass you--to fly--to never come back! +I have say to Chu Chu, 'Fly!' We fly many miles. Sometimes together, +sometimes not so mooch! Sometimes in the saddle, sometimes on the neck! +Many things remain in the road; at the end, I myself remain! I have +say, 'Courage, Pancho will come!' Then I say, 'No, he is talk with Miss +Essmith!' I remember not more. I have creep here on the hands. Eet is +feenish!" + +I looked at her distractedly. She smiled tenderly, and slightly smoothed +down and rearranged a fold of her dress to cover her delicate little +boot. + +"But," I protested, "you are not much hurt, dearest. You have broken no +bones. Perhaps," I added, looking at the boot, "only a slight sprain. +Let me carry you to my horse; I will walk beside you, home. Do, dearest +Consita!" + +She turned her lovely eyes towards me sadly. "You comprehend not, my +poor Pancho! It is not of the foot, the ankle, the arm, or the head that +I can say, 'She is broke!' I would it were even so. But"--she lifted her +sweet lashes slowly--"I have derrange my inside. It is an affair of my +family. My grandfather have once toomble over the bull at a rodeo. He +speak no more; he is dead. For why? He has derrange his inside. Believe +me, it is of the family. You comprehend? The Saltellos are not as the +other peoples for this. When I am gone, you will bring to me the berry +to grow upon my tomb, Pancho; the berry you have picked for me. The +little flower will come too, the little star will arrive, but Consuelo, +who lofe you, she will come not more! When you are happy and talk in the +road to the Essmith, you will not think of me. You will not see my eyes, +Pancho; thees little grass"--she ran her plump little fingers through a +tussock--"will hide them; and the small animals in the black coats that +lif here will have much sorrow--but you will not. It ees better so! My +father will not that I, a Catholique, should marry into a camp-meeting, +and lif in a tent, and make howl like the coyote." (It was one +of Consuelo's bewildering beliefs that there was only one form of +dissent--Methodism!) "He will not that I should marry a man who possess +not the many horses, ox, and cow, like him. But I care not. YOU are my +only religion, Pancho! I have enofe of the horse, and ox, and cow when +YOU are with me! Kiss me, Pancho. Perhaps it is for the last time--the +feenish! Who knows?" + +There were tears in her lovely eyes; I felt that my own were growing +dim; the sun was sinking over the dreary plain to the slow rising of the +wind; an infinite loneliness had fallen upon us, and yet I was miserably +conscious of some dreadful unreality in it all. A desire to laugh, which +I felt must be hysterical, was creeping over me; I dared not speak. But +her dear head was on my shoulder, and the situation was not unpleasant. + +Nevertheless, something must be done! This was the more difficult as it +was by no means clear what had already been done. Even while I supported +her drooping figure I was straining my eyes across her shoulder for +succor of some kind. Suddenly the figure of a rapid rider appeared +upon the road. It seemed familiar. I looked again--it was the blessed +Enriquez! A sense of deep relief came over me. I loved Consuelo; but +never before had lover ever hailed the irruption of one of his beloved's +family with such complacency. + +"You are safe, dearest; it is Enriquez!" + +I thought she received the information coldly. Suddenly she turned upon +me her eyes, now bright and glittering. "Swear to me at the instant, +Pancho, that you will not again look upon Miss Essmith, even for once." + +I was simple and literal. Miss Smith was my nearest neighbor, and, +unless I was stricken with blindness, compliance was impossible. I +hesitated--but swore. + +"Enofe--you have hesitate--I will no more." + +She rose to her feet with grave deliberation. For an instant, with the +recollection of the delicate internal organization of the Saltellos +on my mind, I was in agony lest she should totter and fall, even then, +yielding up her gentle spirit on the spot. But when I looked again she +had a hairpin between her white teeth, and was carefully adjusting her +toreador hat. And beside us was Enriquez--cheerful, alert, voluble, and +undaunted. + +"Eureka! I have found! We are all here! Eet is a leetle public--eh! a +leetle too much of a front seat for a tete-a-tete, my yonge friends," +he said, glancing at the remains of Consuelo's bower, "but for the +accounting of taste there is none. What will you? The meat of the one +man shall envenom the meat of the other. But" (in a whisper to me) +"as to thees horse--thees Chu Chu, which I have just pass--why is she +undress? Surely you would not make an exposition of her to the traveler +to suspect! And if not, why so?" + +I tried to explain, looking at Consuelo, that Chu Chu had run away, that +Consuelo had met with a terrible accident, had been thrown, and I feared +had suffered serious internal injury. But to my embarrassment Consuelo +maintained a half scornful silence, and an inconsistent freshness of +healthful indifference, as Enriquez approached her with an engaging +smile. "Ah, yes, she have the headache, and the molligrubs. She will sit +on the damp stone when the gentle dew is falling. I comprehend. Meet +me in the lane when the clock strike nine! But," in a lower voice, +"of thees undress horse I comprehend nothing! Look you--it is sad and +strange." + +He went off to fetch Chu Chu, leaving me and Consuelo alone. I do not +think I ever felt so utterly abject and bewildered before in my life. +Without knowing why, I was miserably conscious of having in some way +offended the girl for whom I believed I would have given my life, and +I had made her and myself ridiculous in the eyes of her brother. I had +again failed in my slower Western nature to understand her high romantic +Spanish soul! Meantime she was smoothing out her riding-habit, and +looking as fresh and pretty as when she first left her house. + +"Consita," I said hesitatingly, "you are not angry with me?" + +"Angry?" she repeated haughtily, without looking at me. "Oh, no! Of a +possibility eet is Mees Essmith who is angry that I have interroopt her +tete-a-tete with you, and have send here my brother to make the same +with me." + +"But," I said eagerly, "Miss Smith does not even know Enriquez!" + +Consuelo turned on me a glance of unutterable significance. "Ah!" she +said darkly, "you TINK!" + +Indeed I KNEW. But here I believed I understood Consuelo, and was +relieved. I even ventured to say gently, "And you are better?" + +She drew herself up to her full height, which was not much. "Of my +health, what is it? A nothing. Yes! Of my soul let us not speak." + +Nevertheless, when Enriquez appeared with Chu Chu she ran towards her +with outstretched arms. Chu Chu protruded about six inches of upper +lip in response--apparently under the impression, which I could quite +understand, that her mistress was edible. And, I may have been mistaken, +but their beautiful eyes met in an absolute and distinct glance of +intelligence! + +During the home journey Consuelo recovered her spirits, and parted from +me with a magnanimous and forgiving pressure of the hand. I do not know +what explanation of Chu Chu's original escapade was given to Enriquez +and the rest of the family; the inscrutable forgiveness extended to me +by Consuelo precluded any further inquiry on my part. I was willing +to leave it a secret between her and Chu Chu. But, strange to say, it +seemed to complete our own understanding, and precipitated, not only our +lovemaking, but the final catastrophe which culminated that romance. +For we had resolved to elope. I do not know that this heroic remedy was +absolutely necessary from the attitude of either Consuelo's family or +my own; I am inclined to think we preferred it, because it involved no +previous explanation or advice. Need I say that our confidant and firm +ally was Consuelo's brother--the alert, the linguistic, the ever-happy, +ever-ready Enriquez! It was understood that his presence would not only +give a certain mature respectability to our performance--but I do not +think we would have contemplated this step without it. During one of our +riding excursions we were to secure the services of a Methodist minister +in the adjoining county, and, later, that of the Mission padre--when the +secret was out. "I will gif her away," said Enriquez confidently, "it +will on the instant propitiate the old shadbelly who shall perform the +affair, and withhold his jaw. A little chin-music from your oncle 'Arry +shall finish it! Remain tranquil and forgot not a ring! One does not +always, in the agony and dissatisfaction of the moment, a ring remember. +I shall bring two in the pocket of my dress." + +If I did not entirely participate in this roseate view it may have +been because Enriquez, although a few years my senior, was much +younger-looking, and with his demure deviltry of eye, and his upper lip +close shaven for this occasion, he suggested a depraved acolyte rather +than a responsible member of a family. Consuelo had also confided to +me that her father--possibly owing to some rumors of our previous +escapade--had forbidden any further excursions with me alone. The +innocent man did not know that Chu Chu had forbidden it also, and that +even on this momentous occasion both Enriquez and myself were obliged to +ride in opposite fields like out flankers. But we nevertheless felt the +full guilt of disobedience added to our desperate enterprise. Meanwhile, +although pressed for time, and subject to discovery at any moment, I +managed at certain points of the road to dismount and walk beside Chu +Chu (who did not seem to recognize me on foot), holding Consuelo's hand +in my own, with the discreet Enriquez leading my horse in the distant +field. I retain a very vivid picture of that walk--the ascent of a +gentle slope towards a prospect as yet unknown, but full of glorious +possibilities; the tender dropping light of an autumn sky, slightly +filmed with the promise of the future rains, like foreshadowed tears, +and the half frightened, half serious talk into which Consuelo and I +had insensibly fallen. And then, I don't know how it happened, but as we +reached the summit Chu Chu suddenly reared, wheeled, and the next moment +was flying back along the road we had just traveled, at the top of her +speed! It might have been that, after her abstracted fashion, she only +at that moment detected my presence; but so sudden and complete was +her evolution that before I could regain my horse from the astonished +Enriquez she was already a quarter of a mile on the homeward stretch, +with the frantic Consuelo pulling hopelessly at the bridle. We started +in pursuit. But a horrible despair seized us. To attempt to overtake +her, to even follow at the same rate of speed would only excite Chu +Chu and endanger Consuelo's life. There was absolutely no help for +it, nothing could be done; the mare had taken her determined long, +continuous stride, the road was a straight, steady descent all the way +back to the village, Chu Chu had the bit between her teeth, and there +was no prospect of swerving her. We could only follow hopelessly, +idiotically, furiously, until Chu Chu dashed triumphantly into the +Saltellos' courtyard, carrying the half-fainting Consuelo back to the +arms of her assembled and astonished family. + +It was our last ride together. It was the last I ever saw of Consuelo +before her transfer to the safe seclusion of a convent in Southern +California. It was the last I ever saw of Chu Chu, who in the confusion +of that rencontre was overlooked in her half-loosed harness, and allowed +to escape though the back gate to the fields. Months afterwards it was +said that she had been identified among a band of wild horses in the +Coast Range, as a strange and beautiful creature who had escaped the +brand of the rodeo and had become a myth. There was another legend that +she had been seen, sleek, fat, and gorgeously caparisoned, issuing from +the gateway of the Rosario patio, before a lumbering Spanish cabriole in +which a short, stout matron was seated--but I will have none of it. For +there are days when she still lives, and I can see her plainly still +climbing the gentle slope towards the summit, with Consuelo on her back, +and myself at her side, pressing eagerly forward towards the illimitable +prospect that opens in the distance. + + + + +MY FIRST BOOK. + + +When I say that my "First Book" was NOT my own, and contained beyond the +title-page not one word of my own composition, I trust that I will not +be accused of trifling with paradox, or tardily unbosoming myself of +youthful plagiary. But the fact remains that in priority of publication +the first book for which I became responsible, and which probably +provoked more criticism than anything I have written since, was a small +compilation of Californian poems indited by other hands. + +A well-known bookseller of San Francisco one day handed me a collection +of certain poems which had already appeared in Pacific Coast magazines +and newspapers, with the request that I should, if possible, secure +further additions to them, and then make a selection of those which I +considered the most notable and characteristic, for a single volume to +be issued by him. I have reason to believe that this unfortunate man was +actutated by a laudable desire to publish a pretty Californian book--HIS +first essay in publication--and at the same time to foster Eastern +immigration by an exhibit of the Californian literary product; but, +looking back upon his venture, I am inclined to think that the little +volume never contained anything more poetically pathetic or touchingly +imaginative than that gentle conception. Equally simple and trustful +was his selection of myself as compiler. It was based somewhat, I think, +upon the fact that "the artless Helicon" I boasted "was Youth," but I +imagine it was chiefly owing to the circumstance that I had from the +outset, with precocious foresight, confided to him my intention of not +putting any of my own verses in the volume. Publishers are appreciative; +and a self-abnegation so sublime, to say nothing of its security, was +not without its effect. + +We settled to our work with fatuous self-complacency, and no suspicion +of the trouble in store for us, or the storm that was to presently +hurtle around our devoted heads. I winnowed the poems, and he exploited +a preliminary announcement to an eager and waiting press, and we moved +together unwittingly to our doom. I remember to have been early struck +with the quantity of material coming in--evidently the result of some +popular misunderstanding of the announcement. I found myself in daily +and hourly receipt of sere and yellow fragments, originally torn from +some dead and gone newspaper, creased and seamed from long folding in +wallet or pocketbook. Need I say that most of them were of an emotional +or didactic nature; need I add any criticism of these homely souvenirs, +often discolored by the morning coffee, the evening tobacco, or, heaven +knows! perhaps blotted by too easy tears! Enough that I knew now what +had become of those original but never recopied verses which filled the +"Poet's Corner" of every country newspaper on the coast. I knew now +the genesis of every didactic verse that "coldly furnished forth the +marriage table" in the announcement of weddings in the rural press. I +knew now who had read--and possibly indited--the dreary hic jacets of +the dead in their mourning columns. I knew now why certain letters +of the alphabet had been more tenderly considered than others, and +affectionately addressed. I knew the meaning of the "Lines to Her who +can best understand them," and I knew that they HAD been understood. +The morning's post buried my table beneath these withered leaves of +posthumous passion. They lay there like the pathetic nosegays of +quickly fading wild flowers, gathered by school children, inconsistently +abandoned upon roadsides, or as inconsistently treasured as limp and +flabby superstitions in their desks. The chill wind from the Bay blowing +in at the window seemed to rustle them into sad articulate appeal. I +remember that when one of them was whisked from the window by a stronger +gust than usual, and was attaining a circulation it had never known +before, I ran a block or two to recover it. I was young then, and in an +exalted sense of editorial responsibility which I have since survived, +I think I turned pale at the thought that the reputation of some unknown +genius might have thus been swept out and swallowed by the all-absorbing +sea. + +There were other difficulties arising from this unexpected wealth of +material. There were dozens of poems on the same subject. "The Golden +Gate," "Mount Shasta," "The Yosemite," were especially provocative. A +beautiful bird known as the "Californian Canary" appeared to have been +shot at and winged by every poet from Portland to San Diego. Lines to +the "Mariposa" flower were as thick as the lovely blossoms themselves in +the Merced valley, and the Madrone tree was as "berhymed" as Rosalind. +Again, by a liberal construction of the publisher's announcement, +MANUSCRIPT poems, which had never known print, began to coyly unfold +their virgin blossoms in the morning's mail. They were accompanied by +a few lines stating, casually, that their sender had found them lying +forgotten in his desk, or, mendaciously, that they were "thrown off" on +the spur of the moment a few hours before. Some of the names appended +to them astonished me. Grave, practical business men, sage financiers, +fierce speculators, and plodding traders, never before suspected of +poetry, or even correct prose, were among the contributors. It seemed as +if most of the able-bodied inhabitants of the Pacific Coast had been in +the habit at some time of expressing themselves in verse. Some sought +confidential interviews with the editor. The climax was reached when, +in Montgomery Street, one day, I was approached by a well known and +venerable judicial magnate. After some serious preliminary conversation, +the old gentleman finally alluded to what he was pleased to call a task +of "great delicacy and responsibility laid upon my young shoulders." +"In fact," he went on paternally, adding the weight of his judicial +hand to that burden, "I have thought of speaking to you about it. In +my leisure moments on the Bench I have, from time to time, polished and +perfected a certain college poem begun years ago, but which may now be +said to have been finished in California, and thus embraced in the scope +of your proposed selection. If a few extracts, selected by myself, to +save you all trouble and responsibility, be of any benefit to you, my +dear young friend, consider them at your service." + +In this fashion the contributions had increased to three times the +bulk of the original collection, and the difficulties of selection +were augmented in proportion. The editor and publisher eyed each other +aghast. "Never thought there were so many of the blamed things alive," +said the latter with great simplicity, "had you?" The editor had not. +"Couldn't you sorter shake 'em up and condense 'em, you know? keep their +ideas--and their names--separate, so that they'd have proper credit. +See?" The editor pointed out that this would infringe the rule he had +laid down. "I see," said the publisher thoughtfully; "well, couldn't +you pare 'em down; give the first verse entire and sorter sample the +others?" The editor thought not. There was clearly nothing to do but to +make a more rigid selection--a difficult performance when the material +was uniformly on a certain dead level, which it is not necessary to +define here. Among the rejections were, of course, the usual plagiarisms +from well-known authors imposed upon an inexperienced country press; +several admirable pieces detected as acrostics of patent medicines, +and certain veiled libels and indecencies such as mark the "first" +publications on blank walls and fences of the average youth. Still the +bulk remained too large, and the youthful editor set to work reducing +it still more with a sympathizing concern which the good-natured, but +unliterary, publisher failed to understand, and which, alas! proved to +be equally unappreciated by the rejected contributors. + +The book appeared--a pretty little volume typographically, and +externally a credit to pioneer book-making. Copies were liberally +supplied to the press, and authors and publishers self-complacently +awaited the result. To the latter this should have been satisfactory; +the book sold readily from his well-known counters to purchasers who +seemed to be drawn by a singular curiosity, unaccompanied, however, by +any critical comment. People would lounge in to the shop, turn over the +leaves of other volumes, say carelessly, "Got a new book of California +poetry out, haven't you?" purchase it, and quietly depart. There were +as yet no notices from the press; the big dailies were silent; there was +something ominous in this calm. + +Out of it the bolt fell. A well-known mining weekly, which I here +poetically veil under the title of the Red Dog "Jay Hawk," was first to +swoop down upon the tuneful and unsuspecting quarry. At this century-end +of fastidious and complaisant criticism, it may be interesting to +recall the direct style of the Californian "sixties." "The hogwash and +'purp'-stuff ladled out from the slop-bucket of Messrs. ---- and Co., of +'Frisco, by some lop-eared Eastern apprentice, and called 'A Compilation +of Californian Verse,' might be passed over, so far as criticism goes. A +club in the hands of any able-bodied citizen of Red Dog, and a steamboat +ticket to the Bay, cheerfully contributed from this office, would +be all-sufficient. But when an imported greenhorn dares to call his +flapdoodle mixture 'Californian,' it is an insult to the State that has +produced the gifted 'Yellow Hammer,' whose lofty flights have from time +to time dazzled our readers in the columns of the 'Jay Hawk.' That this +complacent editorial jackass, browsing among the dock and thistles which +he has served up in this volume, should make no allusion to California's +greatest bard, is rather a confession of his idiocy than a slur upon the +genius of our esteemed contributor." I turned hurriedly to my pile of +rejected contributions--the nom de plume of "Yellow Hammer" did NOT +appear among them; certainly I had never heard of its existence. Later, +when a friend showed me one of that gifted bard's pieces, I was inwardly +relieved! It was so like the majority of the other verses, in and out of +the volume, that the mysterious poet might have written under a hundred +aliases. But the Dutch Flat "Clarion," following, with no uncertain +sound, left me small time for consideration. "We doubt," said that +journal, "if a more feeble collection of drivel could have been made, +even if taken exclusively from the editor's own verses, which we note he +has, by an equal editorial incompetency, left out of the volume. When +we add that, by a felicity of idiotic selection, this person has chosen +only one, and the least characteristic, of the really clever poems of +Adoniram Skaggs, which have so often graced these columns, we have +said enough to satisfy our readers." The Mormon Hill "Quartz Crusher" +relieved this simple directness with more fancy: "We don't know +why Messrs. ---- and Co. send us, under the title of 'Selections of +Californian Poetry,' a quantity of slumgullion which really belongs +to the sluices of a placer mining camp, or the ditches of the rural +districts. We have sometimes been compelled to run a lot of tailings +through our stamps, but never of the grade of the samples offered, +which, we should say, would average about 33-1/3 cents per ton. We have, +however, come across a single specimen of pure gold evidently overlooked +by the serene ass who has compiled this volume. We copy it with +pleasure, as it has already shone in the 'Poet's Corner' of the +'Crusher' as the gifted effusion of the talented Manager of the +Excelsior Mill, otherwise known to our delighted readers as 'Outcrop.'" +The Green Springs "Arcadian" was no less fanciful in imagery: "Messrs. +---- and Co. send us a gaudy green-and-yellow, parrot-colored volume, +which is supposed to contain the first callow 'cheepings' and 'peepings' +of Californian songsters. From the flavor of the specimens before us we +should say that the nest had been disturbed prematurely. There seems to +be a good deal of the parrot inside as well as outside the covers, and +we congratulate our own sweet singer 'Blue Bird,' who has so often made +these columns melodious, that she has escaped the ignominy of being +exhibited in Messrs. ---- and Co.'s aviary." I should add that this +simile of the aviary and its occupants was ominous, for my tuneful choir +was relentlessly slaughtered; the bottom of the cage was strewn with +feathers! The big dailies collected the criticisms and published them +in their own columns with the grim irony of exaggerated head-lines. The +book sold tremendously on account of this abuse, but I am afraid that +the public was disappointed. The fun and interest lay in the criticisms, +and not in any pointedly ludicrous quality in the rather commonplace +collection, and I fear I cannot claim for it even that merit. And it +will be observed that the animus of the criticism appeared to be the +omission rather than the retention of certain writers. + +But this brings me to the most extraordinary feature of this singular +demonstration. I do not think that the publishers were at all troubled +by it; I cannot conscientiously say that I was; I have every reason to +believe that the poets themselves, in and out of the volume, were not +displeased at the notoriety they had not expected, and I have long since +been convinced that my most remorseless critics were not in earnest, but +were obeying some sudden impulse started by the first attacking journal. +The extravagance of the Red Dog "Jay Hawk" was emulated by others: +it was a large, contagious joke, passed from journal to journal in +a peculiar cyclonic Western fashion. And there still lingers, not +unpleasantly, in my memory the conclusion of a cheerfully scathing +review of the book which may make my meaning clearer: "If we have +said anything in this article which might cause a single pang to the +poetically sensitive nature of the youthful individual calling himself +Mr. Francis Bret Harte--but who, we believe, occasionally parts his name +and his hair in the middle--we will feel that we have not labored in +vain, and are ready to sing Nunc Dimittis, and hand in our checks. We +have no doubt of the absolutely pellucid and lacteal purity of Franky's +intentions. He means well to the Pacific Coast, and we return the +compliment. But he has strayed away from his parents and guardians while +he was too fresh. He will not keep without a little salt." + +It was thirty years ago. The book and its Rabelaisian criticisms have +been long since forgotten. Alas! I fear that even the capacity for that +Gargantuan laughter which met them, in those days, exists no longer. +The names I have used are necessarily fictitious, but where I have been +obliged to quote the criticisms from memory I have, I believe, only +softened their asperity. I do not know that this story has any moral. +The criticisms here recorded never hurt a reputation nor repressed a +single honest aspiration. A few contributors to the volume, who were +of original merit, have made their mark, independently of it or its +critics. The editor, who was for two months the most abused man on the +Pacific slope, within the year became the editor of its first successful +magazine. Even the publisher prospered, and died respected! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other +Stories, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S *** + +***** This file should be named 2676.txt or 2676.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/7/2676/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + +by Bret Harte + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + +JOHNNYBOY + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA + +CHU CHU + +MY FIRST BOOK + + + + +THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S + +CHAPTER I. + + +Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its +youthful grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into +the plain, there is a little promontory which at certain high stages +of water lies like a small island in the stream. To the strongly- +marked heroics of Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, +pastoral calm. White and gray mosses from the overhanging rocks and +feathery alders trail their filaments in its slow current, and +between the woodland openings there are glimpses of vivid velvet +sward, even at times when the wild oats and "wire-grasses" of the +plains are already yellowing. The placid river, unstained at this +point by mining sluices or mill drift, runs clear under its +contemplative shadows. Originally the camping-ground of a Digger +Chief, it passed from his tenancy with the American rifle bullet +that terminated his career. The pioneer who thus succeeded to its +attractive calm gave way in turn to a well-directed shot from the +revolver of a quartz-prospector, equally impressed with the charm +of its restful tranquillity. How long he might have enjoyed its +riparian seclusion is not known. A sudden rise of the river one +March night quietly removed him, together with the overhanging post +oak beneath which he was profoundly but unconsciously meditating. +The demijohn of whiskey was picked up further down. But no other +suggestion of these successive evictions was ever visible in the +reposeful serenity of the spot. + +It was later occupied, and a cabin built upon the spot, by one +Alexander McGee, better known as "the Bell-ringer of Angel's." +This euphonious title, which might have suggested a consistently +peaceful occupation, however, referred to his accuracy of aim at +a mechanical target, where the piercing of the bull's eye was +celebrated by the stroke of a bell. It is probable that this +singular proficiency kept his investment of that gentle seclusion +unchallenged. At all events it was uninvaded. He shared it only +with the birds. Perhaps some suggestion of nest building may have +been in his mind, for one pleasant spring morning he brought hither +a wife. It was his OWN; and in this way he may be said to have +introduced that morality which is supposed to be the accompaniment +and reflection of pastoral life. Mrs. McGee's red petticoat was +sometimes seen through the trees--a cheerful bit of color. Mrs. +McGee's red cheeks, plump little figure, beribboned hat and brown, +still-girlish braids were often seen at sunset on the river bank, +in company with her husband, who seemed to be pleased with the +discreet and distant admiration that followed them. Strolling +under the bland shadows of the cotton-woods, by the fading gold of +the river, he doubtless felt that peace which the mere world cannot +give, and which fades not away before the clear, accurate eye of +the perfect marksman. + +Their nearest neighbors were the two brothers Wayne, who took up a +claim, and built themselves a cabin on the river bank near the +promontory. Quiet, simple men, suspected somewhat of psalm- +singing, and undue retirement on Sundays, they attracted but little +attention. But when, through some original conception or +painstaking deliberation, they turned the current of the river so +as to restrict the overflow between the promontory and the river +bank, disclosing an auriferous "bar" of inconceivable richness, and +establishing their theory that it was really the former channel of +the river, choked and diverted though ages of alluvial drift, they +may be said to have changed, also, the fortunes of the little +settlement. Popular feeling and the new prosperity which dawned +upon the miners recognized the two brothers by giving the name of +Wayne's Bar to the infant settlement and its post-office. The +peaceful promontory, although made easier of access, still +preserved its calm seclusion, and pretty Mrs. McGee could +contemplate through the leaves of her bower the work going on at +its base, herself unseen. Nevertheless, this Arcadian retreat was +being slowly and surely invested; more than that, the character of +its surroundings was altered, and the complexion of the river had +changed. The Wayne engines on the point above had turned the drift +and debris into the current that now thickened and ran yellow +around the wooded shore. The fringes of this Eden were already +tainted with the color of gold. + +It is doubtful, however, if Mrs. McGee was much affected by this +sentimental reflection, and her husband, in a manner, lent himself +to the desecration of his exclusive domain by accepting a claim +along the shore--tendered by the conscientious Waynes in +compensation for restricting the approach to the promontory--and +thus participated in the fortunes of the Bar. Mrs. McGee amused +herself by watching from her eyrie, with a presumably childish +interest, the operations of the red-shirted brothers on the Bar; +her husband, however, always accompanying her when she crossed the +Bar to the bank. Some two or three other women--wives of miners-- +had joined the camp, but it was evident that McGee was as little +inclined to intrust his wife to their companionship as to that of +their husbands. An opinion obtained that McGee, being an old +resident, with alleged high connections in Angel's, was inclined +to be aristocratic and exclusive. + +Meantime, the two brothers who had founded the fortunes of the Bar +were accorded an equally high position, with an equal amount of +reserve. Their ways were decidedly not those of the other miners, +and were as efficacious in keeping them from familiar advances as +the reputation of Mr. McGee was in isolating his wife. Madison +Wayne, the elder, was tall, well-knit and spare, reticent in speech +and slow in deduction; his brother, Arthur, was of rounder outline, +but smaller and of a more delicate and perhaps a more impressible +nature. It was believed by some that it was within the range of +possibility that Arthur would yet be seen "taking his cocktail like +a white man," or "dropping his scads" at draw poker. At present, +however, they seemed content to spend their evenings in their own +cabin, and their Sundays at a grim Presbyterian tabernacle in the +next town, to which they walked ten miles, where, it was currently +believed, "hell fire was ladled out free," and "infants damned for +nothing." When they did not go to meeting it was also believed +that the minister came to them, until it was ascertained that the +sound of sacred recitation overheard in their cabin was simply +Madison Wayne reading the Bible to his younger brother. McGee is +said to have stopped on one of these occasions--unaccompanied by +his wife--before their cabin, moving away afterwards with more than +his usual placid contentment. + +It was about eleven o'clock one morning, and Madison Wayne was at +work alone on the Bar. Clad in a dark gray jersey and white duck +trousers rolled up over high india-rubber boots, he looked not +unlike a peaceful fisherman digging stakes for his nets, as he +labored in the ooze and gravel of the still half-reclaimed river +bed. He was far out on the Bar, within a stone's throw of the +promontory. Suddenly his quick ear caught an unfamiliar cry and +splash. Looking up hastily, he saw Mrs. McGee's red petticoat in +the water under the singularly agitated boughs of an overhanging +tree. Madison Wayne ran to the bank, threw off his heavy boots, +and sprang into the stream. A few strokes brought him to Mrs. +McGee's petticoat, which, as he had wisely surmised, contained Mrs. +McGee, who was still clinging to a branch of the tree. Grasping +her waist with one hand and the branch with the other, he obtained +a foothold on the bank, and dragged her ashore. A moment later +they both stood erect and dripping at the foot of the tree. + +"Well?" said the lady. + +Wayne glanced around their seclusion with his habitual caution, +slightly knit his brows perplexedly, and said: "You fell in?" + +"I didn't do nothin' of the sort. I JUMPED in." + +Wayne again looked around him, as if expecting her companion, and +squeezed the water out of his thick hair. "Jumped in?" he repeated +slowly. "What for?" + +"To make you come over here, Mad Wayne," she said, with a quick +laugh, putting her arms akimbo. + +They stood looking at each other, dripping like two river gods. +Like them, also, Wayne had apparently ignored the fact that his +trousers were rolled up above his bare knees, and Mrs. McGee that +her red petticoat clung closely to her rather pretty figure. But +he quickly recovered himself. "You had better go in and change +your clothes," he said, with grave concern. "You'll take cold." + +She only shook herself disdainfully. "I'm all right," she said; +"but YOU, Mad Wayne, what do you mean by not speaking to me--not +knowing me? You can't say that I've changed like that." She +passed her hand down her long dripping braids as if to press the +water from them, and yet with a half-coquettish suggestion in the +act. + +Something struggled up into the man's face which was not there +before. There was a new light in his grave eyes. "You look the +same," he said slowly; "but you are married--you have a husband." + +"You think that changes a girl?" she said, with a laugh "That's +where all you men slip up! You're afraid of his rifle--THAT'S the +change that bothers you, Mad." + +"You know I care little for carnal weapons," he said quietly. She +DID know it; but it is the privilege of the sex to invent its facts +and then to graciously abandon them as if they were only arguments. +"Then why do you keep off from me? Why do you look the other way +when I pass?" she said quickly. + +"Because you are married," he said slowly. + +She again shook the water from her like a Newfoundland dog. +"That's it. You're mad because I got married. You're mad because +I wouldn't marry you and your church over on the cross roads, and +sing hymns with you and become SISTER Wayne. You wanted me to give +up dancing and buggy ridin' Sundays--and you're just mad because I +didn't. Yes, mad--just mean, baby mad, Mr. Maddy Wayne, for all +your CHRISTIAN resignation! That's what's the matter with you." +Yet she looked very pretty and piquant in her small spitefulness, +which was still so general and superficial that she seemed to shake +it out of her wet petticoats in a vicious flap that disclosed her +neat ankles. + +"You preferred McGee to me," he said grimly. "I didn't blame you." + +"Who said I PREFERRED him?" she retorted quickly. "Much you know!" +Then, with swift feminine abandonment of her position, she added, +with a little laugh, "It's all the same whether you're guarded with +a rifle or a Church Presbytery, only"-- + +"Only what?" said Madison earnestly. + +"There's men who'd risk being SHOT for a girl, that couldn't stand +psalm-singin' palaver." + +The quick expression of pain that passed over his hard, dark face +seemed only to heighten her pretty mischievousness. But he simply +glanced again around the solitude, passed his hand over his wet +sleeve, and said, "I must go now; your husband wouldn't like me +being here." + +"He's workin' in the claim,--the claim YOU gave him," said Mrs. +McGee, with cheerful malice. "Wonder what he'd say if he knew it +was given to him by the man who used to spark his wife only two +years ago? How does that suit your Christian conscience, Mad?" + +"I should have told him, had I not believed that everything was +over between us, or that it was possible that you and me should +ever meet again," he returned, in a tone so measured that the girl +seemed to hear the ring of the conventicle in it. + +"Should you, BROTHER Wayne?" she said, imitating him. "Well, let +me tell you that you are the one man on the Bar that Sandy has +taken a fancy to." + +Madison's sallow cheek colored a little, but he did not speak. + +"Well!" continued Mrs. McGee impatiently. "I don't believe he'd +object to your comin' here to see me--if you cared." + +"But I wouldn't care to come, unless he first knew that I had been +once engaged to you," said Madison gravely. + +"Perhaps he might not think as much of that as you do," retorted +the woman pertly. "Every one isn't as straitlaced as you, and +every girl has had one or two engagements. But do as you like-- +stay at home if you want to, and sing psalms and read the +Scriptures to that younger brother of yours! All the same, I'm +thinkin' he'd rather be out with the boys." + +"My brother is God-fearing and conscientious," said Madison +quickly. "You do not know him. You have never seen him." + +"No," said Mrs. McGee shortly. She then gave a little shiver (that +was, however, half simulated) in her wet garments, and added: "ONE +saint was enough for me; I couldn't stand the whole church, Mad." + +"You are catching cold," he said quickly, his whole face +brightening with a sudden tenderness that seemed to transfigure the +dark features. "I am keeping you here when you should be changing +your clothes. Go, I beg you, at once." + +She stood still provokingly, with an affectation of wiping her arms +and shoulders and sopping her wet dress with clusters of moss. + +"Go, please do--Safie, please!" + +"Ah!"--she drew a quick, triumphant breath. "Then you'll come +again to see me, Mad?" + +"Yes," he said slowly, and even more gravely than before. + +"But you must let me show you the way out--round under those trees-- +where no one can see you come." She held out her hand. + +"I'll go the way I came," he said quietly, swinging himself +silently from the nearest bough into the stream. And before she +could utter a protest he was striking out as silently, hand over +hand, across the current. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +A week later Madison Wayne was seated alone in his cabin. His +supper table had just been cleared by his Chinese coolie, as it was +getting late, and the setting sun, which for half an hour had been +persistently making a vivid beacon of his windows for the benefit +of wayfarers along the river bank, had at last sunk behind the +cottonwoods. His head was resting on his hand; the book he had +been reading when the light faded was lying open on the table +before him. In this attitude he became aware of a hesitating step +on the gravel outside his open door. He had been so absorbed that +the approach of any figure along the only highway--the river bank-- +had escaped his observation. Looking up, he discovered that Mr. +Alexander McGee was standing in the doorway, his hand resting +lightly on the jamb. A sudden color suffused Wayne's cheek; his +hand reached for his book, which he drew towards him hurriedly, yet +half automatically, as he might have grasped some defensive weapon. + +The Bell-ringer of Angel's noticed the act, but not the blush, and +nodded approvingly. "Don't let me disturb ye. I was only +meanderin' by and reckoned I'd say 'How do?' in passin'." He +leaned gently back against the door-post, to do which comfortably +he was first obliged to shift the revolver on his hip. The sight +of the weapon brought a slight contraction to the brows of Wayne, +but he gravely said: "Won't you come in?" + +"It ain't your prayin' time?" said McGee politely. + +"No." + +"Nor you ain't gettin' up lessons outer the Book?" he continued +thoughtfully. + +"No." + +"Cos it don't seem, so to speak, you see, the square thing to be +botherin' a man when he might be doin' suthin' else, don't you see? +You understand what I mean?" + +It was his known peculiarity that he always seemed to be suffering +from an inability to lucid expression, and the fear of being +misunderstood in regard to the most patent or equally the most +unimportant details of his speech. All of which, however, was in +very remarkable contrast to his perfectly clear and penetrating +eyes. + +Wayne gravely assured him that he was not interrupting him in any +way. + +"I often thought--that is, I had an idea, you understand what I +mean--of stoppin' in passing. You and me, you see, are sorter +alike; we don't seem to jibe in with the gin'ral gait o' the camp. +You understand what I mean? We ain't in the game, eh? You see +what I'm after?" + +Madison Wayne glanced half mechanically at McGee's revolver. +McGee's clear eyes at once took in the glance. + +"That's it! You understand? You with them books of yours, and me +with my shootin' iron--we're sort o' different from the rest, and +ought to be kinder like partners. You understand what I mean? We +keep this camp in check. We hold a full hand, and don't stand no +bluffing." + +"If you mean there is some effect in Christian example and the life +of a God-fearing man"--began Madison gravely. + +"That's it! God-fearin' or revolver-fearin', it amounts to the same +when you come down to the hard pan and bed-rock," interrupted +McGee. "I ain't expectin' you to think much of my style, but I go +a heap on yours, even if I can't play your game. And I sez to my +wife, 'Safie'--her that trots around with me sometimes--I sez, +'Safie, I oughter know that man, and shall. And I WANT YOU to know +him.' Hol' on," he added quickly, as Madison rose with a flushed +face and a perturbed gesture. "Ye don't understand! I see wot's +in your mind--don't you see? When I married my wife and brought +her down here, knowin' this yer camp, I sez: 'No flirtin', no +foolin', no philanderin' here, my dear! You're young and don't +know the ways o' men. The first man I see you talking with, I +shoot. You needn't fear, my dear, for accidents. I kin shoot all +round you, under your arm, across your shoulders, over your head +and between your fingers, my dear, and never start skin or fringe +or ruffle. But I don't miss HIM. You sorter understand what I +mean,' sez I,'so don't!' Ye noticed how my wife is respected, Mr. +Wayne? Queen Victoria sittin' on her throne ain't in it with my +Safie. But when I see YOU not herdin' with that cattle, never +liftin' your eyes to me or Safie as we pass, never hangin' round +the saloons and jokin', nor winkin', nor slingin' muddy stories +about women, but prayin' and readin' Scripter stories, here along +with your brother, I sez to myself, I sez, 'Sandy, ye kin take off +your revolver and hang up your shot gun when HE'S around. For +'twixt HIM and your wife ain't no revolver, but the fear of God and +hell and damnation and the world to come!' You understand what I +mean, don't ye? Ye sorter follow my lead, eh? Ye can see what I'm +shootin' round, don't ye? So I want you to come up neighborly +like, and drop in to see my wife." + +Madison Wayne's face became set and hard again, but he advanced +towards McGee with the book against his breast, and his finger +between the leaves. "I already know your wife, Mr. McGee! I saw +her before YOU ever met her. I was engaged to her; I loved her, +and--as far as man may love the wife of another and keep the +commands of this book--I love her still!" + +To his surprise, McGee, whose calm eyes had never dimmed or +blenched, after regarding him curiously, took the volume from him, +laid it on the table, opened it, turned its leaves critically, said +earnestly, "That's the law here, is it?" and then held out his +hand. + +"Shake!" + +Madison Wayne hesitated--and then grasped his hand. + +"Ef I had known this," continued McGee, "I reckon I wouldn't have +been so hard on Safie and so partikler. She's better than I took +her for--havin' had you for a beau! You understand what I mean. +You follow me--don't ye? I allus kinder wondered why she took me, +but sens you've told me that YOU used to spark her, in your God- +fearin' way, I reckon it kinder prepared her for ME. You understand? +Now you come up, won't ye?" + +"I will call some evening with my brother," said Wayne embarrassedly. + +"With which?" demanded McGee. + +"My brother Arthur. We usually spend the evenings together." + +McGee paused, leaned against the doorpost, and, fixing his clear +eyes on Wayne, said: "Ef it's all the same to you, I'd rather you +did not bring him. You understand what I mean? You follow me; no +other man but you and me. I ain't sayin' anything agin' your +brother, but you see how it is, don't you? Just me and you." + +"Very well, I will come," said Wayne gloomily. But as McGee backed +out of the door, he followed him, hesitatingly. Then, with an +effort he seemed to recover himself, and said almost harshly: "I +ought to tell you another thing--that I have seen and spoken to +Mrs. McGee since she came to the Bar. She fell into the water last +week, and I swam out and dragged her ashore. We talked and spoke +of the past." + +"She fell in," echoed McGee. + +Wayne hesitated; then a murky blush came into his face as he slowly +repeated, "She FELL in." + +McGee's eyes only brightened. "I have been too hard on her. She +might have drowned ef you hadn't took risks. You see? You +understand what I mean? And she never let out anything about it-- +and never boasted o' YOU helpin' her out. All right--you'll come +along and see her agin'." He turned and walked cheerfully away. + +Wayne re-entered the cabin. He sat for a long time by the window +until the stars came out above the river, and another star, with +which he had been long familiar, took its place apparently in the +heart of the wooded crest of the little promontory. Then the +fringing woods on the opposite shore became a dark level line +across the landscape, and the color seemed to fade out of the moist +shining gravel before his cabin. Presently the silhouette of his +dark face disappeared from the window, and Mr. McGee might have +been gratified to know that he had slipped to his knees before the +chair whereon he had been sitting, and that his head was bowed +before it on his clasped hands. In a little while he rose again, +and, dragging a battened old portmanteau from the corner, took out +a number of letters tied up in a package, with which, from time to +time, he slowly fed the flame that flickered on his hearth. In +this way the windows of the cabin at times sprang into light, +making a somewhat confusing beacon for the somewhat confused Arthur +Wayne, who was returning from a visit to Angel's, and who had +fallen into that slightly morose and irritated state which follows +excessive hilarity, and is also apt to indicate moral misgivings. + +But the last letter was burnt and the cabin quite dark when he +entered. His brother was sitting by the slowly dying fire, and he +trusted that in that uncertain light any observation of his +expression or manner--of which he himself was uneasily conscious-- +would pass unheeded. + +"You are late," said Madison gravely. + +At which his brother rashly assumed the aggressive. He was no +later than the others, and if the Rogers boys were good enough to +walk with him for company he couldn't run ahead of them just +because his brother was waiting! He didn't want any supper, he had +something at the Cross Roads with the others. Yes! WHISKEY, if he +wanted to know. People couldn't keep coffee and temperance drinks +just to please him and his brother, and he wasn't goin' to insult +the others by standing aloof. Anyhow, he had never taken the +pledge, and as long as he hadn't he couldn't see why he should +refuse a single glass. As it was, everybody said he was a milksop, +and a tender-foot, and he was just sick of it. + +Madison rose and lit a candle and held it up before his brother's +face. It was a handsome, youthful face that looked into his, +flushed with the excitement of novel experiences and perhaps a +more material stimulation. The little silken moustache was +ostentatiously curled, the brown curls were redolent of bear's +grease. Yet there was a certain boyish timidity and nervousness in +the defiance of his blue eyes that momentarily touched the elder +brother. + +"I've been too hand with him," he said to himself, half consciously +recalling what McGee had said of Safie. He put the candle down, +laid his hand gently on Arthur's shoulder, and said, with a certain +cautious tenderness, "Come, Arty, sit down and tell me all about +it." + +Whereupon the mercurial Arthur, not only relieved of his nervousness +but of his previous ethical doubts and remorse, became gay and +voluble. He had finished his purchases at Angel's, and the +storekeeper had introduced him to Colonel Starbottle, of Kentucky, +as one of "the Waynes who had made Wayne's Bar famous." Colonel +Starbottle had said in his pompous fashion--yet he was not such a +bad fellow, after all--that the Waynes ought to be represented in +the Councils of the State, and that he, Starbottle, would be proud +to nominate Madison for the next Legislature and run him, too. "And +you know, really, Mad, if you mixed a little more with folks, and +they weren't--well, sorter AFRAID of you--you could do it. Why, I've +made a heap o' friends over there, just by goin' round a little, and +one of old Selvedge's girls--the storekeeper, you know--said from +what she'd heard of us, she always thought I was about fifty, and +turned up the whites of my eyes instead of the ends of my moustache! +She's mighty smart! Then the Postmaster has got his wife and three +daughters out from the States, and they've asked me to come over to +their church festival next week. It isn't our church, of course, +but I suppose it's all right." + +This and much more with the volubility of relieved feelings. When +he stopped, out of breath, Madison said, "I have had a visitor +since you left--Mr. McGee." + +"And his wife?" asked Arthur quickly. Madison flushed slightly. +"No; but he asked me to go and see her." + +"That's HER doin', then," returned Arthur, with a laugh. "She's +always lookin' round the corners of her eyes at me when she passes. +Why, John Rogers was joking me about her only yesterday, and said +McGee would blow a hole through me some of these days if I didn't +look out! Of course," he added, affectedly curling his moustache, +"that's nonsense! But you know how they talk, and she's too pretty +for that fellow McGee." + +"She has found a careful helpmeet in her husband," said Madison +sternly, "and it's neither seemly nor Christian in you, Arthur, to +repeat the idle, profane gossip of the Bar. I knew her before her +marriage, and if she was not a professing Christian, she was, and +is, a pure, good woman! Let us have no more of this." + +Whether impressed by the tone of his brother's voice, or only +affected by his own mercurial nature, Arthur changed the subject to +further voluble reminiscences of his trip to Angel's. Yet he did +not seem embarrassed nor disconcerted when his brother, in the midst +of his speech, placed the candle and the Bible on the table, with +two chairs before it. He listened to Madison's monotonous reading +of the evening exercise with equally monotonous respect. Then they +both arose, without looking at each other, but with equally set +and stolid faces, and knelt down before their respective chairs, +clasping the back with both hands, and occasionally drawing the +hard, wooden frames against their breasts convulsively, as if it +were a penitential act. It was the elder brother who that night +prayed aloud. It was his voice that rose higher by degrees above +the low roof and encompassing walls, the level river camp lights +that trembled through the window, the dark belt of riverside trees, +and the light on the promontory's crest--up to the tranquil, +passionless stars themselves. + +With those confidences to his Maker this chronicle does not lie-- +obtrusive and ostentatious though they were in tone and attitude. +Enough that they were a general arraignment of humanity, the Bar, +himself, and his brother, and indeed much that the same Maker had +created and permitted. That through this hopeless denunciation +still lingered some human feeling and tenderness might have been +shown by the fact that at its close his hands trembled and his face +was bedewed by tears. And his brother was so deeply affected that +he resolved hereafter to avoid all evening prayers. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +It was a week later that Madison Wayne and Mr. McGee were seen, to +the astonishment of the Bar, leisurely walking together in the +direction of the promontory. Here they disappeared, entering a +damp fringe of willows and laurels that seemed to mark its limits, +and gradually ascending some thickly-wooded trail, until they +reached its crest, which, to Madison's surprise, was cleared and +open, and showed an acre or two of rude cultivation. Here, too, +stood the McGees' conjugal home--a small, four-roomed house, but so +peculiar and foreign in aspect that it at once challenged even +Madison's abstracted attention. It was a tiny Swiss chalet, built +in sections, and originally packed in cases, one of the early +importations from Europe to California after the gold discovery, +when the country was supposed to be a woodless wilderness. Mr. +McGee explained, with his usual laborious care, how he had bought +it at Marysville, not only for its picturesqueness, but because in +its unsuggestive packing-cases it offered no indication to the +curious miners, and could be put up by himself and a single +uncommunicative Chinaman, without any one else being aware of its +existence. There was, indeed, something quaint in this fragment of +Old World handicraft, with its smooth-jointed paneling, in two +colors, its little lozenge fretwork, its lapped roof, overhanging +eaves, and miniature gallery. Inartistic as Madison was--like most +men of rigidly rectangular mind and principle--and accustomed to +the bleak and economic sufficiency of the Californian miner's +cabin, he was touched strangely by its novel grace and freshness. +It reminded him of HER; he had a new respect for this rough, sinful +man who had thus idealized his wife in her dwelling. Already a few +Madeira vines and a Cherokee rose clambered up the gallery. And +here Mrs. McGee was sitting. + +In the face that she turned upon the two men Madison could see that +she was not expecting them, and even in the slight curiosity with +which she glanced at her husband, that evidently he had said +nothing of his previous visit or invitation. And this conviction +became certainty at Mr. McGee's first words. + +"I've brought you an ole friend, Safie. He used to spark ye once +at Angel's afore my time--he told me so; he picked ye outer the +water here--he told me that, too. Ye mind that I said afore that +he was the only man I wanted ter know; I reckon now it seems the +square thing that he should be the one man YOU wanted ter know, +too. You understand what I mean--you follow me, don't you?" + +Whether or not Mrs. McGee DID follow him, she exhibited neither +concern, solicitude, nor the least embarrassment. An experienced +lover might have augured ill from this total absence of self- +consciousness. But Madison was not an experienced lover. He +accepted her amused smile as a recognition of his feelings, +trembled at the touch of her cool hands, as if it had been a warm +pressure, and scarcely dared to meet her maliciously laughing eyes. +When he had followed Mr. McGee to the little gallery, the previous +occupation of Mrs. McGee when they arrived was explained. From +that slight elevation there was a perfect view over the whole +landscape and river below; the Bar stretched out as a map at her +feet; in that clear, transparent air she could see every movement +and gesture of Wayne's brother, all unconscious of that surveillance, +at work on the Bar. For an instant Madison's sallow cheek reddened, +he knew not why; a remorseful feeling that he ought to be there with +Arthur came over him. Mrs. McGee's voice seemed to answer his +thought. "You can see everything that's going on down there without +being seen yourself. It's good fun for me sometimes. The other day +I saw that young Carpenter hanging round Mrs. Rogers's cabin in the +bush when old Rogers was away. And I saw her creep out and join +him, never thinking any one could see her!" + +She laughed, seeking Madison's averted eyes, yet scarcely noticing +his suddenly contracted brows. Mr. McGee alone responded. + +"That's why," he said, explanatorily, to Madison, "I don't allow to +have my Safie go round with those women. Not as I ever see +anything o' that sort goin' on, or keer to look, but on gin'ral +principles. You understand what I mean." + +"That's your brother over there, isn't it?" said Mrs. McGee, +turning to Madison and calmly ignoring her husband's explanation, +as she indicated the distant Arthur. "Why didn't you bring him +along with you?" + +Madison hesitated, and looked at McGee. "He wasn't asked," said +that gentleman cheerfully. "One's company, two's none! You don't +know him, my dear; and this yer ain't a gin'ral invitation to the +Bar. You follow me?" + +To this Mrs. McGee made no comment, but proceeded to show Madison +over the little cottage. Yet in a narrow passage she managed to +touch his hand, lingered to let her husband precede them from one +room to another, and once or twice looked meaningly into his eyes +over McGee's shoulder. Disconcerted and embarrassed, he tried to +utter a few commonplaces, but so constrainedly that even McGee +presently noticed it. And the result was still more embarrassing. + +"Look yer," he said, suddenly turning to them both. "I reckon as +how you two wanter talk over old times, and I'll just meander over +to the claim, and do a spell o' work. Don't mind ME. And if HE"-- +indicating Madison with his finger--"gets on ter religion, don't +you mind him. It won't hurt you, Safie,--no more nor my revolver,-- +but it's pow'ful persuadin', and you understand me? You follow +me? Well, so long!" + +He turned away quickly, and was presently lost among the trees. +For an instant the embarrassed Madison thought of following him; +but he was confronted by Mrs. McGee's wicked eyes and smiling face +between him and the door. Composing herself, however, with a +simulation of perfect gravity she pointed to a chair. + +"Sit down, Brother Wayne. If you're going to convert me, it may +take some time, you know, and you might as well make yourself +comfortable. As for me, I'll take the anxious bench." She laughed +with a certain girlishness, which he well remembered, and leaped to +a sitting posture on the table with her hands on her knees, +swinging her smart shoes backwards and forwards below it. + +Madison looked at her in hopeless silence, with a pale, disturbed +face and shining eyes. + +"Or, if you want to talk as we used to talk, Mad, when we sat on +the front steps at Angel's and pa and ma went inside to give us a +show, ye can hop up alongside o' me." She made a feint of +gathering her skirts beside her. + +"Safie!" broke out the unfortunate man, in a tone that seemed to +increase in formal solemnity with his manifest agitation, "this is +impossible. The laws of God that have joined you and this man"-- + +"Oh, it's the prayer-meeting, is it?" said Safie, settling her +skirts again, with affected resignation. "Go on." + +"Listen, Safie," said Madison, turning despairingly towards her. +"Let us for His sake, let us for the sake of our dear blessed past, +talk together earnestly and prayerfully. Let us take this time to +root out of our feeble hearts all yearnings that are not prompted +by Him--yearnings that your union with this man makes impossible +and sinful. Let us for the sake of the past take counsel of each +other, even as brother and sister." + +"Sister McGee!" she interrupted mockingly. "It wasn't as brother +and sister you made love to me at Angel's." + +"No! I loved you then, and would have made you my wife." + +"And you don't love me any more," she said, audaciously darting a +wicked look into his eyes, "only because I didn't marry you? And +you think that Christian?" + +"You know I love you as I have loved you always," he said +passionately. + +"Hush!" she said mockingly; "suppose he should hear you." + +"He knows it!" said Madison bitterly. "I told him all!" + +She stared at him fixedly. + +"You have--told--him--that--you STILL love me?" she repeated +slowly. + +"Yes, or I wouldn't be here now. It was due to him--to my own +conscience." + +"And what did he say?" + +"He insisted upon my coming, and, as God is my Judge and witness-- +he seemed satisfied and content." + +She drew her pretty lips together with a long whistle, and then +leaped from the table. Her face was hard and her eyes were bright +as she went to the window and looked out. He followed her timidly. + +"Don't touch me," she said, sharply striking away his proffered +hand. He turned with a flushed cheek and walked slowly towards the +door. Her laugh stopped him. + +"Come! I reckon that squeezin' hands ain't no part of your contract +with Sandy?" she said, glancing down at her own. "Well, so you're +goin'?" + +"I only wished to talk seriously and prayerfully with you for a few +moments, Safie, and then--to see you no more." + +"And how would that suit him," she said dryly, "if he wants your +company here? Then, just because you can't convert me and bring me +to your ways of thinkin' in one visit, I suppose you think it is +Christian-like to run away like this! Or do you suppose that, if +you turn tail now, he won't believe that your Christian strength +and Christian resignation is all humbug?" + +Madison dropped into the chair, put his elbows on the table, and +buried his face in his hands. She came a little nearer, and laid +her hand lightly on his arm. He made a movement as if to take it, +but she withdrew it impatiently. + +"Come," she said brusquely; "now you're in for it you must play the +game out. He trusts you; if he sees you can't trust yourself, +he'll shoot you on sight. That don't frighten you? Well, perhaps +this will then! He'll SAY your religion is a sham and you a +hypocrite--and everybody will believe him. How do you like that, +Brother Wayne? How will that help the Church? Come! You're a +pair of cranks together; but he's got the whip-hand of you this +time. All you can do is to keep up to his idea of you. Put a bold +face on it, and come here as often as you can--the oftener the +better; the sooner you'll both get sick of each other--and of ME. +That's what you're both after, ain't it? Well! I can tell you now, +you needn't either of you be the least afraid of me." + +She walked away to the window again, not angrily, but smoothing +down the folds of her bright print dress as if she were wiping her +hands of her husband and his guest. Something like a very material +and man-like sense of shame struggled up through his crust of +religion. He stammered, "You don't understand me, Safie." + +"Then talk of something I do understand," she said pertly. "Tell +me some news of Angel's. Your brother was over there the other +day. He made himself quite popular with the young ladies--so I +hear from Mrs. Selvedge. You can tell me as we walk along the bank +towards Sandy's claim. It's just as well that you should move on +now, as it's your FIRST call, and next time you can stop longer." +She went to the corner of the room, removed her smart slippers, and +put on a pair of walking-shoes, tying them, with her foot on a +chair, in a quiet disregard of her visitor's presence; took a brown +holland sunbonnet from the wall, clapped it over her browner hair +and hanging braids, and tied it under her chin with apparently no +sense of coquetry in the act--becoming though it was--and without +glancing at him. Alas for Madison's ethics! The torment of her +worldly speech and youthful contempt was nothing to this tacit +ignoring of the manhood of her lover--this silent acceptance of him +as something even lower than her husband. He followed her with a +burning cheek and a curious revolting of his whole nature that it +is to be feared were scarcely Christian. The willows opened to let +them pass and closed behind them. + +An hour later Mrs. McGee returned to her leafy bower alone. She +took off her sunbonnet, hung it on its nail on the wall, shook down +her braids, took off her shoes, stained with the mud of her +husband's claim, and put on her slippers. Then she ascended to her +eyrie in the little gallery, and gazed smilingly across the sunlit +Bar. The two gaunt shadows of her husband and lover, linked like +twins, were slowly passing along the river bank on their way to the +eclipsing obscurity of the cottonwoods. Below her--almost at her +very feet--the unconscious Arthur Wayne was pushing his work on the +river bed, far out to the promontory. The sunlight fell upon his +vivid scarlet shirt, his bared throat, and head clustering with +perspiring curls. The same sunlight fell upon Mrs. McGee's brown +head too, and apparently put a wicked fancy inside it. She ran to +her bedroom, and returned with a mirror from its wall, and, after +some trials in getting the right angle, sent a searching reflection +upon the spot where Arthur was at work. + +For an instant a diamond flash played around him. Then he lifted +his head and turned it curiously towards the crest above him. But +the next moment he clapped his hands over his dazzled but now +smiling eyes, as Mrs. McGee, secure in her leafy obscurity, fell +back and laughed to herself, like a very schoolgirl. + +It was three weeks later, and Madison Wayne was again sitting alone +in his cabin. This solitude had become of more frequent occurrence +lately, since Arthur had revolted and openly absented himself from +his religious devotions for lighter diversions of the Bar. Keenly +as Madison felt his defection, he was too much preoccupied with +other things to lay much stress upon it, and the sting of Arthur's +relapse to worldliness and folly lay in his own consciousness that +it was partly his fault. He could not chide his brother when he +felt that his own heart was absorbed in his neighbor's wife, and +although he had rigidly adhered to his own crude ideas of self- +effacement and loyalty to McGee, he had been again and again a +visitor at his house. It was true that Mrs. McGee had made this +easier by tacitly accepting his conditions of their acquaintanceship, +by seeming more natural, by exhibiting a gayety, and at times even a +certain gentleness and thoughtfulness of conduct that delighted her +husband and astonished her lover. Whether this wonderful change had +really been effected by the latter's gloomy theology and still more +hopeless ethics, he could not say. She certainly showed no +disposition to imitate their formalities, nor seemed to be impressed +by them on the rare occasions when he now offered them. Yet she +appeared to link the two men together--even physically--as on these +occasions when, taking an arm of each, she walked affectionately +between them along the river bank promenade, to the great marveling +and admiration of the Bar. It was said, however, that Mr. Jack +Hamlin, a gambler, at that moment professionally visiting Wayne's +Bar, and a great connoisseur of feminine charms and weaknesses, had +glanced at them under his handsome lashes, and asked a single +question, evidently so amusing to the younger members of the Bar +that Madison Wayne knit his brow and Arthur Wayne blushed. Mr. +Hamlin took no heed of the elder brother's frown, but paid some +slight attention to the color of the younger brother, and even more +to a slightly coquettish glance from the pretty Mrs. McGee. Whether +or not--as has been ingeniously alleged by some moralists--the light +and trifling of either sex are prone to recognize each other by some +mysterious instinct, is not a necessary consideration of this +chronicle; enough that the fact is recorded. + +And yet Madison Wayne should have been satisfied with his work! +His sacrifice was accepted; his happy issue from a dangerous +situation, and his happy triumph over a more dangerous temptation, +was complete and perfect, and even achieved according to his own +gloomy theories of redemption and regeneration. Yet he was not +happy. The human heart is at times strangely unappeasable. And as +he sat that evening in the gathering shadows, the Book which should +have yielded him balm and comfort lay unopened in his lap. + +A step upon the gravel outside had become too familiar to startle +him. It was Mr. McGee lounging into the cabin like a gaunt shadow. +It must be admitted that the friendship of these strangely +contrasted men, however sincere and sympathetic, was not cheerful. +A belief in the thorough wickedness of humanity, kept under only +through fear of extreme penalty and punishment, material and +spiritual, was not conducive to light and amusing conversation. +Their talk was mainly a gloomy chronicle of life at the Bar, which +was in itself half an indictment. To-night, Mr. McGee spoke of the +advent of Mr. Jack Hamlin, and together they deplored the diversion +of the hard-earned gains and valuable time of the Bar through +the efforts of that ingenious gentleman. "Not," added McGee +cautiously, "but what he can shoot straight enough, and I've heard +tell that he don't LIE. That mout and it moutn't be good for your +brother who goes around with him considerable, there's different +ways of lookin' at that; you understand what I mean? You follow +me?" For all that, the conversation seemed to languish this +evening, partly through some abstraction on the part of Wayne and +partly some hesitation in McGee, who appeared to have a greater +fear than usual of not expressing himself plainly. It was quite +dark in the cabin when at last, detaching himself from his usual +lounging place, the door-post, he walked to the window and leaned, +more shadowy than ever, over Wayne's chair. "I want to tell you +suthin'," he said slowly, "that I don't want you to misunderstand-- +you follow me? and that ain't no ways carpin' or criticisin' nor +reflectin' on YOU--you understand what I mean? Ever sens you and +me had that talk here about you and Safie, and ever sens I got the +hang of your ways and your style o' thinkin', I've been as sure of +you and her as if I'd been myself trottin' round with you and a +revolver. And I'm as sure of you now--you sabe what I mean? you +understand? You've done me and her a heap o' good; she's almost +another woman sens you took hold of her, and ef you ever want me to +stand up and 'testify,' as you call it, in church, Sandy McGee is +ready. What I'm tryin' to say to ye is this. Tho' I understand +you and your work and your ways--there's other folks ez moutn't-- +you follow? You understand what I mean? And it's just that I'm +coming to. Now las' night, when you and Safie was meanderin' along +the lower path by the water, and I kem across you"-- + +"But," interrupted Madison quickly, "you're mistaken. I wasn't"-- + +"Hol' on," said McGee, quietly; "I know you got out o' the way +without you seein' me or me you, because you didn't know it was me, +don't you see? don't you follow? and that's just it! It mout have +bin some one from the Bar as seed you instead o' ME. See? That's +why you lit out before I could recognize you, and that's why poor +Safie was so mighty flustered at first and was for runnin' away +until she kem to herself agin. When, of course, she laughed, and +agreed you must have mistook me." + +"But," gasped Madison quickly, "I WASN'T THERE AT ALL LAST NIGHT." + +"What?" + +The two men had risen simultaneously and were facing each other. +McGee, with a good-natured, half-critical expression, laid his hand +on Wayne's shoulder and slightly turned him towards the window, +that he might see his face. It seemed to him white and dazed. + +"You--wasn't there--last night?" he repeated, with a slow +tolerance. + +Scarcely a moment elapsed, but the agony of an hour may have +thrilled through Wayne's consciousness before he spoke. Then all +the blood of his body rushed to his face with his first lie as he +stammered, "No! Yes! Of course. I have made a mistake--it WAS I." + +"I see--you thought I was riled?" said McGee quietly. + +"No; I was thinking it was NIGHT BEFORE LAST! Of course it was +last night. I must be getting silly." He essayed a laugh--rare at +any time with him--and so forced now that it affected McGee more +than his embarrassment. He looked at Wayne thoughtfully, and then +said slowly: "I reckon I did come upon you a little too sudden last +night, but, you see, I was thinkin' of suthin' else and disremembered +you might be there. But I wasn't mad--no! no! and I only spoke +about it now that you might be more keerful before folks. You +follow me? You understand what I mean?" + +He turned and walked to the door, when he halted. "You follow me, +don't you? It ain't no cussedness o' mine, or want o' trustin', +don't you see? Mebbe I oughtened have spoken. I oughter +remembered that times this sort o' thing must be rather rough on +you and her. You follow me? You understand what I mean? Good- +night." + +He walked slowly down the path towards the river. Had Madison +Wayne been watching him, he would have noticed that his head was +bent and his step less free. But Madison Wayne was at that moment +sitting rigidly in his chair, nursing, with all the gloomy +concentration of a monastic nature, a single terrible suspicion. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Howbeit the sun shone cheerfully over the Bar the next morning and +the next; the breath of life and activity was in the air; the +settlement never had been more prosperous, and the yield from the +opened placers on the drained river-bed that week was enormous. +The Brothers Wayne were said to be "rolling in gold." It was +thought to be consistent with Madison Wayne's nature that there was +no trace of good fortune in his face or manner--rather that he had +become more nervous, restless, and gloomy. This was attributed to +the joylessness of avarice as contrasted with the spendthrift +gayety of the more liberal Arthur, and he was feared and RESPECTED +as a miser. His long, solitary walks around the promontory, his +incessant watchfulness, his reticence when questioned, were all +recognized as the indications of a man whose soul was absorbed in +money-getting. The reverence they failed to yield to his religious +isolation they were willing to freely accord to his financial +abstraction. But Mr. McGee was not so deceived. Overtaking him +one day under the fringe of willows, he characteristically chided +him with absenting himself from Mrs. McGee and her house since +their last interview. + +"I reckon you did not harbor malice in your Christianity," he said; +"but it looks mighty like ez if ye was throwing off on Safie and me +on account of what I said." + +In vain Madison gloomily and almost sternly protested. + +McGee looked him all over with his clear measuring eye, and for +some minutes was singularly silent. At last he said slowly: "I've +been thinkin' suthin' o' goin' down to 'Frisco, and I'd be a heap +easier in my mind ef you'd promise to look arter Safie now and +then." + +"You surely are not going to leave her here ALONE?" said Wayne +roughly. + +"Why not?" + +For an instant Wayne hesitated. Then he burst out. "For a hundred +reasons! If she ever wanted your protection, before, she surely +does now. Do you suppose the Bar is any less heathen or more +regenerated than it was when you thought it necessary to guard her +with your revolver? Man! It is a hundred times worse than then! +The new claims have filled it with spying adventurers--with wolves +like Hamlin and his friends--idolaters who would set up Baal and +Ashteroth here--and fill your tents with the curses of Sodom!" + +Perhaps it was owing to the Scriptural phrasing, perhaps it was +from some unusual authority of the man's manner, but a look of +approving relief and admiration came into McGee's clear eyes. + +"And YOU'RE just the man to tackle 'em," he said, clapping his hand +on Wayne's shoulder. "That's your gait--keep it up! But," he +added, in a lower voice, "me and my revolver are played out." +There was a strangeness in the tone that arrested Wayne's +attention. "Yes," continued McGee, stroking his beard slowly, "men +like me has their day, and revolvers has theirs; the world turns +round and the Bar fills up, and this yer river changes its course-- +and it's all in the day's work. You understand what I mean--you +follow me? And if anything should happen to me--not that it's like +to; but it's in the way o' men--I want you to look arter Safie. It +ain't every woman ez has two men, ez like and unlike, to guard her. +You follow me--you understand what I mean, don't you?" With these +words he parted somewhat abruptly from Wayne, turning into the +steep path to the promontory crest and leaving his companion lost +in gloomy abstraction. The next day Alexander McGee had departed +on a business trip to San Francisco. + +In his present frame of mind, with his new responsibility and the +carrying out of a plan which he had vaguely conceived might remove +the terrible idea that had taken possession of him, Madison Wayne +was even relieved when his brother also announced his intention of +going to Angel's for a few days. + +For since his memorable interview with McGee he had been convinced +that Safie had been clandestinely visited by some one. Whether it +was the thoughtless and momentary indiscretion of a willful woman, +or the sequel to some deliberately planned intrigue, did not +concern him so much as the falsity of his own position, and the +conniving lie by which he had saved her and her lover. That at +this crucial moment he had failed to "testify" to guilt and +wickedness; that he firmly believed--such is the inordinate vanity +of the religious zealot--that he had denied Him in his effort to +shield HER; and that he had broken faith with the husband who had +entrusted to him the custody of his wife's honor, seemed to him +more terrible than her faithlessness. In his first horror he had +dreaded to see her, lest her very confession--he knew her reckless +frankness towards himself--should reveal to him the extent of his +complicity. But since then, and during her husband's absence, he +had convinced himself that it was his duty to wrestle and strive +with her weak spirit, to implore her to reveal her new intrigue to +her husband, and then he would help her to sue for his forgiveness. +It was a part of the inconsistency of his religious convictions; in +his human passion he was perfectly unselfish, and had already +forgiven her the offense against himself. He would see her at +once! + +But it happened to be a quiet, intense night, with the tremulous +opulence of a full moon that threw quivering shafts of light like +summer lightning over the blue river, and laid a wonderful carpet +of intricate lace along the path that wound through the willows to +the crest. There was the dry, stimulating dust and spice of heated +pines from below; the languorous odors of syringa; the faint, +feminine smell of southernwood, and the infinite mystery of +silence. This silence was at times softly broken with the tender +inarticulate whisper of falling leaves, broken sighs from the tree- +tops, and the languid stretching of wakened and unclasping boughs. +Madison Wayne had not, alas! taken into account this subtle +conspiracy of Night and Nature, and as he climbed higher, his steps +began to falter with new and strange sensations. The rigidity of +purpose which had guided the hard religious convictions that always +sustained him, began to relax. A tender sympathy stole over him; a +loving mercy to himself as well as others stole into his heart. He +thought of HER as she had nestled at his side, hand in hand, upon +the moonlit veranda of her father's house, before his hard +convictions had chilled and affrighted her. He thought of her +fresh simplicity, and what had seemed to him her wonderful girlish +beauty, and lo! in a quick turn of the path he stood breathless and +tremulous before the house. The moonbeams lay tenderly upon the +peaceful eaves; the long blossoms of the Madeira vine seemed +sleeping also. The pink flush of the Cherokee rose in the unreal +light had become chastely white. + +But he was evidently too late for an interview. The windows were +blank in the white light; only one--her bedroom--showed a light +behind the lowered muslin blind. Her draped shadow once or twice +passed across it. He was turning away with soft steps and even +bated breath when suddenly he stopped. The exaggerated but +unmistakable shadow of a man stood beside her on the blind. + +With a fierce leap as of a maniac, he was at the door, pounding, +rattling, and uttering hoarse and furious outcries. Even through +his fury he heard quickened footsteps--her light, reckless, half- +hysterical laugh--a bound upon the staircase--the hurried unbolting +and opening of distant doors, as the lighter one with which he +was struggling at last yielded to his blind rage, and threw him +crashing into the sitting-room. The back door was wide open. He +could hear the rustling and crackling of twigs and branches in +different directions down the hillside, where the fugitives had +separated as they escaped. And yet he stood there for an instant, +dazed and wondering, "What next?" + +His eyes fell upon McGee's rifle standing upright in the corner. +It was a clean, beautiful, precise weapon, even to the unprofessional +eye, its long, laminated hexagonal barrel taking a tenderer blue in +the moonlight. He snatched it up. It was capped and loaded. +Without a pause he dashed down the hill. + +Only one thought was in his mind now--the crudest, simplest duty. +He was there in McGee's place; he should do what McGee would do. +God had abandoned him, but McGee's rifle remained. + +In a few minutes' downward plunging he had reached the river bank. +The tranquil silver surface quivered and glittered before him. He +saw what he knew he would see, the black target of a man's head +above it, making for the Bar. He took deliberate aim and fired. +There was no echo to that sharp detonation; a distant dog barked, +there was a slight whisper in the trees beside him, that was all! +But the head of the man was no longer visible, and the liquid +silver filmed over again, without a speck or stain. + +He shouldered the rifle, and with the automatic action of men in +great crises returned slowly and deliberately to the house and +carefully replaced the rifle in its old position. He had no +concern for the miserable woman who had fled; had she appeared +before him at the moment, he would not have noticed her. Yet a +strange instinct--it seemed to him the vaguest curiosity--made him +ascend the stairs and enter her chamber. The candle was still +burning on the table with that awful unconsciousness and simplicity +of detail which makes the scene of real tragedy so terrible. +Beside it lay a belt and leather pouch. Madison Wayne suddenly +dashed forward and seized it, with a wild, inarticulate cry; +staggered, fell over the chair, rose to his feet, blindly groped +his way down the staircase, burst into the road, and, hugging the +pouch to his bosom, fled like a madman down the hill. + + . . . . . . + +The body of Arthur Wayne was picked up two days later a dozen miles +down the river. Nothing could be more evident and prosaic than the +manner in which he had met his fate. His body was only partly +clothed, and the money pouch and belt, which had been securely +locked next his skin, after the fashion of all miners, was gone. +He was known to have left the Bar with a considerable sum of money; +he was undoubtedly dogged, robbed, and murdered during his journey +on the river bank by the desperadoes who were beginning to infest +the vicinity. The grief and agony of his only brother, sole +survivor of that fraternal and religious partnership so well known +to the camp, although shown only by a grim and speechless +melancholy,--broken by unintelligible outbursts of religious +raving,--was so real, that it affected even the callous camp. But +scarcely had it regained its feverish distraction, before it was +thrilled by another sensation. Alexander McGee had fallen from the +deck of a Sacramento steamboat in the Straits of Carquinez, and his +body had been swept out to sea. The news had apparently been first +to reach the ears of his devoted wife, for when the camp--at this +lapse of the old prohibition--climbed to her bower with their rude +consolations, the house was found locked and deserted. The fateful +influence of the promontory had again prevailed, the grim record of +its seclusion was once more unbroken. + +For with it, too, drooped and faded the fortunes of the Bar. +Madison Wayne sold out his claim, endowed the church at the Cross +Roads with the proceeds, and the pulpit with his grim, hopeless, +denunciatory presence. The first rains brought a freshet to the +Bar. The river leaped the light barriers that had taken the place +of Wayne's peaceful engines, and regained the old channel. The +curse that the Rev. Madison Wayne had launched on this riverside +Sodom seemed to have been fulfilled. But even this brought no +satisfaction to the gloomy prophet, for it was presently known that +he had abandoned his terror-stricken flock to take the circuit as +revivalist preacher and camp-meeting exhorter, in the rudest and +most lawless of gatherings. Desperate ruffians writhed at his feet +in impotent terror or more impotent rage; murderers and thieves +listened to him with blanched faces and set teeth, restrained only +by a more awful fear. Over and over again he took his life with +his Bible into his own hands when he rose above the excited +multitude; he was shot at, he was rail-ridden, he was deported, but +never silenced. And so, sweeping over the country, carrying fear +and frenzy with him, scouting life and mercy, and crushing alike +the guilty and innocent, he came one Sabbath to a rocky crest of +the Sierras--the last tattered and frayed and soiled fringe of +civilization on the opened tract of a great highway. And here he +was to "testify," as was his wont. + +But not as he expected. For as he stood up on a boulder above the +thirty or forty men sitting or lying upon other rocks and boulders +around him, on the craggy mountain shelf where they had gathered, a +man also rose, elbowed past them, and with a hurried impulse tried +to descend the declivity. But a cry was suddenly heard from +others, quick and clamoring, which called the whole assembly to its +feet, and it was seen that the fugitive had in some blundering way +fallen from the precipice. + +He was brought up cruelly maimed and mangled, his ribs crushed, and +one lung perforated, but still breathing and conscious. He had +asked to see the preacher. Death impending, and even then +struggling with his breath, made this request imperative. Madison +Wayne stopped the service, and stalked grimly and inflexibly to +where the dying man lay. But there he started. + +"McGee!" he said breathlessly. + +"Send these men away," said McGee faintly. "I've got suthin' to +tell you." + +The men drew back without a word. "You thought I was dead," said +McGee, with eyes still undimmed and marvelously clear. "I orter +bin, but it don't need no doctor to say it ain't far off now. I +left the Bar to get killed; I tried to in a row, but the fellows +were skeert to close with me, thinkin' I'd shoot. My reputation +was agin me, there! You follow me? You understand what I mean?" + +Kneeling beside him now and grasping both his hands, the changed +and horror-stricken Wayne gasped, "But"-- + +"Hold on! I jumped off the Sacramento boat--I was goin' down the +third time--they thought on the boat I was gone--they think so now! +But a passin' fisherman dived for me. I grappled him--he was clear +grit and would have gone down with me, but I couldn't let him die +too--havin' so to speak no cause. You follow me--you understand +me? I let him save me. But it was all the same, for when I got to +'Frisco I read as how I was drowned. And then I reckoned it was +all right, and I wandered HERE, where I wasn't known--until I saw +you." + +"But why should you want to die?" said Wayne, almost fiercely. +"What right have you to die while others--double-dyed and blood- +stained, are condemned to live, 'testify,' and suffer?" + +The dying man feebly waved a deprecation with his maimed hand, and +even smiled faintly. "I knew you'd say that. I knew what you'd +think about it, but it's all the same now. I did it for you and +Safie! I knew I was in the way; I knew you was the man she orter +had; I knew you was the man who had dragged her outer the mire and +clay where I was leavin' her, as you did when she fell in the +water. I knew that every day I lived I was makin' YOU suffer and +breakin' HER heart--for all she tried to be gentle and gay." + +"Great God in heaven! Will you stop!" said Wayne, springing to his +feet in agony. A frightened look--the first that any one had ever +seen in the clear eyes of the Bell-ringer of Angel's--passed over +them, and he murmured tremulously: "All right--I'm stoppin'!" + +So, too, was his heart, for the wonderful eyes were now slowly +glazing. Yet he rallied once more--coming up again the third time +as it seemed to Wayne--and his lips moved slowly. The preacher +threw himself despairingly on the ground beside him. + +"Speak, brother! For God's sake, speak!" + +It was his last whisper--so faint it might have been the first of +his freed soul. But he only said:-- + +"You're--followin'--me? You--understand--what--I--mean?" + + + +JOHNNYBOY. + + +The vast dining-room of the Crustacean Hotel at Greyport, U. S., +was empty and desolate. It was so early in the morning that there +was a bedroom deshabille in the tucked-up skirts and bare legs of +the little oval breakfast-tables as they had just been left by the +dusting servants. The most stirring of travelers was yet abed, the +most enterprising of first-train catchers had not yet come down; +there was a breath of midsummer sleep still in the air; through the +half-opened windows that seemed to be yawning, the pinkish blue +Atlantic beyond heaved gently and slumberously, and drowsy early +bathers crept into it as to bed. Yet as I entered the room I saw +that one of the little tables in the corner was in reality occupied +by a very small and very extraordinary child. Seated in a high +chair, attended by a dreamily abstracted nurse on one side, an +utterly perfunctory negro waiter on the other, and an incongruous +assortment of disregarded viands before him, he was taking--or, +rather, declining--his solitary breakfast. He appeared to be a +pale, frail, but rather pretty boy, with a singularly pathetic +combination of infant delicacy of outline and maturity of +expression. His heavily fringed eyes expressed an already weary +and discontented intelligence, and his willful, resolute little +mouth was, I fancied, marked with lines of pain at either corner. +He struck me as not only being physically dyspeptic, but as morally +loathing his attendants and surroundings. + +My entrance did not disturb the waiter, with whom I had no +financial relations; he simply concealed an exaggerated yawn +professionally behind his napkin until my own servitor should +appear. The nurse slightly awoke from her abstraction, shoved the +child mechanically,--as if starting up some clogged machinery,-- +said, "Eat your breakfast, Johnnyboy," and subsided into her dream. +I think the child had at first some faint hope of me, and when my +waiter appeared with my breakfast he betrayed some interest in my +selection, with a view of possible later appropriation, but, as my +repast was simple, that hope died out of his infant mind. Then +there was a silence, broken at last by the languid voice of the +nurse:-- + +"Try some milk then--nice milk." + +"No! No mik! Mik makes me sick--mik does!" + +In spite of the hurried infantine accent the protest was so +emphatic, and, above all, fraught with such pent-up reproach and +disgust, that I turned about sympathetically. But Johnnyboy had +already thrown down his spoon, slipped from his high chair, and was +marching out of the room as fast as his little sandals would carry +him, with indignation bristling in every line of the crisp bows of +his sash. + +I, however, gathered from Mr. Johnson, my waiter, that the +unfortunate child owned a fashionable father and mother, one or two +blocks of houses in New York, and a villa at Greyport, which he +consistently and intelligently despised. That he had imperiously +brought his parents here on account of his health, and had demanded +that he should breakfast alone in the big dining-room. That, +however, he was not happy. "Nuffin peahs to agree wid him, Sah, +but he doan' cry, and he speaks his mind, Sah; he speaks his mind." + +Unfortunately, I did not keep Johnnyboy's secret, but related the +scene I had witnessed to some of the lighter-hearted Crustaceans of +either sex, with the result that his alliterative protest became a +sort of catchword among them, and that for the next few mornings he +had a large audience of early breakfasters, who fondly hoped for a +repetition of his performance. I think that Johnnyboy for the time +enjoyed this companionship, yet without the least affectation or +self-consciousness--so long as it was unobtrusive. It so chanced, +however, that the Rev. Mr. Belcher, a gentleman with bovine +lightness of touch, and a singular misunderstanding of childhood, +chose to presume upon his paternal functions. Approaching the high +chair in which Johnnyboy was dyspeptically reflecting, with a +ponderous wink at the other guests, and a fat thumb and forefinger +on Johnnyboy's table, he leaned over him, and with slow, +elephantine playfulness said:-- + +"And so, my dear young friend, I understand that 'mik makes you +sick--mik does.'" + +Anything approaching to the absolute likeness of this imitation of +Johnnyboy's accents it is impossible to conceive. Possibly +Johnnyboy felt it. But he simply lifted his lovely lashes, and +said with great distinctness:-- + +"Mik don't--you devil!" + +After this, closely as it had knitted us together, Johnnyboy's +morning presence was mysteriously withdrawn. It was later pointed +out to us by Mr. Belcher, upon the veranda, that, although Wealth +had its privileges, it was held in trust for the welfare of +Mankind, and that the children of the Rich could not too early +learn the advantages of Self-restraint and the vanity of a mere +gratification of the Senses. Early and frequent morning ablutions, +brisk morning toweling, half of a Graham biscuit in a teacup of +milk, exercise with the dumb-bells, and a little rough-and-tumble +play in a straw hat, check apron, and overalls would eventually +improve that stamina necessary for his future Position, and repress +a dangerous cerebral activity and tendency to give way to-- He +suddenly stopped, coughed, and absolutely looked embarrassed. +Johnnyboy, a moving cloud of white pique, silk, and embroidery, had +just turned the corner of the veranda. He did not speak, but as he +passed raised his blue-veined lids to the orator. The look of +ineffable scorn and superiority in those beautiful eyes surpassed +anything I had ever seen. At the next veranda column he paused, +and, with his baby thumbs inserted in his silk sash, again regarded +him under his half-dropped lashes as if he were some curious +animal, and then passed on. But Belcher was silenced for the +second time. + +I think I have said enough to show that Johnnyboy was hopelessly +worshiped by an impressible and illogical sex. I say HOPELESSLY, +for he slipped equally from the proudest silken lap and the +humblest one of calico, and carried his eyelashes and small aches +elsewhere. I think that a secret fear of his alarming frankness, +and his steady rejection of the various tempting cates they offered +him, had much to do with their passion. "It won't hurt you, dear," +said Miss Circe, "and it's so awfully nice. See!" she continued, +putting one of the delicacies in her own pretty mouth with every +assumption of delight. "It's SO good!" Johnnyboy rested his +elbows on her knees, and watched her with a grieved and +commiserating superiority. "Bimeby, you'll have pains in youse +tommick, and you'll be tookt to bed," he said sadly, "and then +you'll--have to dit up and"-- But as it was found necessary here +to repress further details, he escaped other temptation. + +Two hours later, as Miss Circe was seated in the drawing-room with +her usual circle of enthusiastic admirers around her, Johnnyboy-- +who was issued from his room for circulation, two or three times a +day, as a genteel advertisement of his parents--floated into the +apartment in a new dress and a serious demeanor. Sidling up to +Miss Circe he laid a phial--evidently his own pet medicine--on her +lap, said, "For youse tommikake to-night," and vanished. Yet I +have reason to believe that this slight evidence of unusual +remembrance on Johnnyboy's part more than compensated for its +publicity, and for a few days Miss Circe was quite "set up" by it. + +It was through some sympathy of this kind that I first gained +Johnnyboy's good graces. I had been presented with a small pocket +case of homoeopathic medicines, and one day on the beach I took out +one of the tiny phials and, dropping two or three of the still +tinier pellets in my hand, swallowed them. To my embarrassment, +a small hand presently grasped my trouser-leg. I looked down; it +was Johnnyboy, in a new and ravishing smuggler suit, with his +questioning eyes fixed on mine. + +"Howjer do dat?" + +"Eh?" + +"Wajer do dat for?" + +"That?--Oh, that's medicine. I've got a headache." + +He searched the inmost depths of my soul with his wonderful eyes. +Then, after a pause, he held out his baby palm. + +"You kin give Johnny some." + +"But you haven't got headache--have you?" + +"Me alluz has." + +"Not ALWAYS." + +He nodded his head rapidly. Then added slowly, and with great +elaboration, "Et mo'nins, et affernoons, et nights, 'nd mo'nins +adain. 'N et becker" (i. e., breakfast). + +There was no doubt it was the truth. Those eyes did not seem to be +in the habit of lying. After all, the medicine could not hurt him. +His nurse was at a little distance gazing absently at the sea. I +sat down on a bench, and dropped a few of the pellets into his +palm. He ate them seriously, and then turned around and backed-- +after the well-known appealing fashion of childhood--against my +knees. I understood the movement--although it was unlike my idea +of Johnnyboy. However, I raised him to my lap--with the sensation +of lifting a dozen lace-edged handkerchiefs, and with very little +more effort--where he sat silently for a moment, with his sandals +crossed pensively before him. + +"Wouldn't you like to go and play with those children?" I asked, +pointing to a group of noisy sand levelers not far away. + +"No!" After a pause, "You wouldn't neither." + +"Why?" + +"Hediks." + +"But," I said, "perhaps if you went and played with them and ran up +and down as they do, you wouldn't have headache." + +Johnnyboy did not answer for a moment; then there was a perceptible +gentle movement of his small frame. I confess I felt brutally like +Belcher. He was getting down. + +Once down he faced me, lifted his frank eyes, said, "Do way and +play den," smoothed down his smuggler frock, and rejoined his +nurse. + +But although Johnnyboy afterwards forgave my moral defection, he +did not seem to have forgotten my practical medical ministration, +and our brief interview had a surprising result. From that moment +he confounded his parents and doctors by resolutely and positively +refusing to take any more of their pills, tonics, or drops. +Whether from a sense of loyalty to me, or whether he was not yet +convinced of the efficacy of homoeopathy, he did not suggest a +substitute, declare his preferences, or even give his reasons, but +firmly and peremptorily declined his present treatment. And, to +everybody's astonishment, he did not seem a bit the worse for it. + +Still he was not strong, and his continual aversion to childish +sports and youthful exercise provoked the easy criticism of that +large part of humanity who are ready to confound cause and effect, +and such brief moments as the Sluysdaels could spare him from their +fashionable duties were made miserable to them by gratuitous +suggestions and plans for their child's improvement. It was +noticeable, however, that few of them were ever offered to +Johnnyboy personally. He had a singularly direct way of dealing +with them, and a precision of statement that was embarrassing. + +One afternoon, Jack Bracy drove up to the veranda of the Crustacean +with a smart buggy and spirited thoroughbred for Miss Circe's +especial driving, and his own saddle-horse on which he was to +accompany her. Jack had dismounted, a groom held his saddle-horse +until the young lady should appear, and he himself stood at the +head of the thoroughbred. As Johnnyboy, leaning against the +railing, was regarding the turnout with ill-concealed disdain, +Jack, in the pride of his triumph over his rivals, good-humoredly +offered to put him in the buggy, and allow him to take the reins. +Johnnyboy did not reply. + +"Come along!" continued Jack, "it will do you a heap of good! It's +better than lazing there like a girl! Rouse up, old man!" + +"Me don't like that geegee," said Johnnyboy calmly. "He's a silly +fool." + +"You're afraid," said Jack. + +Johnnyboy lifted his proud lashes, and toddled to the steps. Jack +received him in his arms, swung him into the seat, and placed the +slim yellow reins in his baby hands. + +"Now you feel like a man, and not like a girl!" said Jack. "Eh, +what? Oh, I beg your pardon." + +For Miss Circe had appeared--had absolutely been obliged to wait a +whole half-minute unobserved--and now stood there a dazzling but +pouting apparition. In eagerly turning to receive her, Jack's foot +slipped on the step, and he fell. The thoroughbred started, gave a +sickening plunge forward, and was off! But so, too, was Jack, the +next moment, on his own horse, and before Miss Circe's screams had +died away. + +For two blocks on Ocean Avenue, passersby that afternoon saw a +strange vision. A galloping horse careering before a light buggy, +in which a small child, seated upright, was grasping the tightened +reins. But so erect and composed was the little face and figure-- +albeit as white as its own frock--that for an instant they did not +grasp its awful significance. Those further along, however, read +the whole awful story in the drawn face and blazing eyes of Jack +Bracy as he, at last, swung into the Avenue. For Jack had the +brains as well as the nerve of your true hero, and, knowing the +dangerous stimulus of a stern chase to a frightened horse, had kept +a side road until it branched into the Avenue. So furious had been +his pace, and so correct his calculation, that he ranged alongside +of the runaway even as it passed, grasped the reins, and, in half a +block, pulled up on even wheels. + +"I never saw such pluck in a mite like that," he whispered +afterwards to his anxious auditory. "He never dropped those +ribbons, by G--, until I got alongside, and then he just hopped +down and said, as short and cool as you please, 'Dank you!'" + +"Me didn't," uttered a small voice reproachfully. + +"Didn't you, dear! What DID you say then, darling?" exclaimed a +sympathizing chorus. + +"Me said: 'Damn you!' Me don't like silly fool geegees. Silly +fool geegees make me sick--silly fool geegees do!" + +Nevertheless, in spite of this incident, the attempts at Johnnyboy's +physical reformation still went on. More than that, it was argued +by some complacent casuists that the pluck displayed by the child +was the actual result of this somewhat heroic method of taking +exercise, and NOT an inherent manliness distinct from his physical +tastes. So he was made to run when he didn't want to--to dance when +he frankly loathed his partners--to play at games that he despised. +His books and pictures were taken away; he was hurried past +hoardings and theatrical posters that engaged his fancy; the public +was warned against telling him fairy tales, except those constructed +on strictly hygienic principles. His fastidious cleanliness was +rebuked, and his best frocks taken away--albeit at a terrible +sacrifice of his parents' vanity--to suit the theories of his +critics. How long this might have continued is not known--for the +theory and practice were suddenly arrested by another sensation. + +One morning a children's picnic party was given on a rocky point +only accessible at certain states of the tide, whither they were +taken in a small boat under the charge of a few hotel servants, +and, possibly as part of his heroic treatment, Johnnyboy, who was +included in the party, was not allowed to be attended by his +regular nurse. + +Whether this circumstance added to his general disgust of the whole +affair, and his unwillingness to go, I cannot say, but it is to be +regretted, since the omission deprived Johnnyboy of any impartial +witness to what subsequently occurred. That he was somewhat +roughly handled by several of the larger children appeared to be +beyond doubt, although there was conflicting evidence as to the +sequel. Enough that at noon screams were heard in the direction of +certain detached rocks on the point, and the whole party proceeding +thither found three of the larger boys on the rocks, alone and cut +off by the tide, having been left there, as they alleged, by +Johnnyboy, WHO HAD RUN AWAY WITH THE BOAT. They subsequently +admitted that THEY had first taken the boat and brought Johnnyboy +with them, "just to frighten him," but they adhered to the rest. +And certainly Johnnyboy and the boat were nowhere to be found. The +shore was communicated with, the alarm was given, the telegraph, +up and down the coast trilled with excitement, other boats were +manned--consternation prevailed. + +But that afternoon the captain of the "Saucy Jane," mackerel +fisher, lying off the point, perceived a derelict "Whitehall" boat +drifting lazily towards the Gulf Stream. On boarding it he was +chagrined to find the expected flotsam already in the possession of +a very small child, who received him with a scornful reticence as +regarded himself and his intentions, and some objurgation of a +person or persons unknown. It was Johnnyboy. But whether he had +attempted the destruction of the three other boys by "marooning" +them upon the rocks--as their parents firmly believed--or whether +he had himself withdrawn from their company simply because he did +not like them, was never known. Any further attempt to improve +his education by the roughing gregarious process was, however, +abandoned. The very critics who had counseled it now clamored for +restraint and perfect isolation. It was ably pointed out by the +Rev. Mr. Belcher that the autocratic habits begotten by wealth and +pampering should be restricted, and all intercourse with their +possessor promptly withheld. + +But the season presently passed with much of this and other +criticism, and the Sluysdaels passed too, carrying Johnnyboy and +his small aches and long eyelashes beyond these Crustacean voices, +where it was to be hoped there was peace. I did not hear of him +again for five years, and then, oddly enough, from the lips of Mr. +Belcher on the deck of a transatlantic steamer, as he was being +wafted to Europe for his recreation by the prayers and purses of a +grateful and enduring flock. "Master John Jacob Astor Sluysdael," +said Mr. Belcher, speaking slowly, with great precision of +retrospect, "was taken from his private governess--I may say by my +advice--and sent to an admirable school in New York, fashioned upon +the English system of Eton and Harrow, and conducted by English +masters from Oxford and Cambridge. Here--I may also say at my +suggestion--he was subjected to the wholesome discipline equally of +his schoolmates and his masters; in fact, sir, as you are probably +aware, the most perfect democracy that we have yet known, in which +the mere accidents of wealth, position, luxury, effeminacy, +physical degeneration, and over-civilized stimulation, are not +recognized. He was put into compulsory cricket, football, and +rounders. As an undersized boy he was subjected to that ingenious +preparation for future mastership by the pupillary state of +servitude known, I think, as 'fagging.' His physical inertia was +stimulated and quickened, and his intellectual precocity repressed, +from time to time, by the exuberant playfulness of his fellow- +students, which occasionally took the form of forced ablutions and +corporal discomfort, and was called, I am told, 'hazing.' It is +but fair to state that our young friend had some singular mental +endowments, which, however, were promptly checked to repress the +vanity and presumption that would follow." The Rev. Mr. Belcher +paused, closed his eyes resignedly, and added, "Of course, you know +the rest." + +"Indeed, I do not," I said anxiously. + +"A most deplorable affair--indeed, a most shocking incident! +It was hushed up, I believe, on account of the position of his +parents." He glanced furtively around, and in a lower and more +impressive voice said, "I am not myself a believer in heredity, and +I am not personally aware that there was a MURDERER among the +Sluysdael ancestry, but it seems that this monstrous child, in some +clandestine way, possessed himself of a huge bowie-knife, sir, and +on one of those occasions actually rushed furiously at the larger +boys--his innocent play-fellows--and absolutely forced them to flee +in fear of their lives. More than that, sir, a LOADED REVOLVER was +found in his desk, and he boldly and shamelessly avowed his +intention to eviscerate, or--to use his own revolting language--'to +cut the heart out' of the first one who again 'laid a finger on +him.'" He paused again, and, joining his two hands together with +the fingers pointing to the deck, breathed hard and said, "His +instantaneous withdrawal from the school was a matter of public +necessity. He was afterwards taken, in the charge of a private +tutor, to Europe, where, I trust, we shall NOT meet." + +I could not resist saying cheerfully that, at least, Johnnyboy had +for a short time made it lively for the big boys. + +The Rev. Mr. Belcher rose slowly, but painfully, said with a deeply +grieved expression, "I don't think that I entirely follow you," and +moved gently away. + +The changes of youth are apt to be more bewildering than those of +age, and a decade scarcely perceptible in an old civilization often +means utter revolution to the new. It did not seem strange to me, +therefore, on meeting Jack Bracy twelve years after, to find that +he had forgotten Miss Circe, or that SHE had married, and was +living unhappily with a middle-aged adventurer by the name of +Jason, who was reputed to have had domestic relations elsewhere. +But although subjugated and exorcised, she at least was +reminiscent. To my inquiries about the Sluysdaels, she answered +with a slight return of her old vivacity:-- + +"Ah, yes, dear fellow, he was one of my greatest admirers." + +"He was about four years old when you knew him, wasn't he?" +suggested Jason meanly. "Yes, they usually WERE young, but so kind +of you to recollect them. Young Sluysdael," he continued, turning +to me, "is--but of course you know that disgraceful story." + +I felt that I could stand this no longer. "Yes," I said +indignantly, "I know all about the school, and I don't call his +conduct disgraceful either." + +Jason stared. "I don't know what you mean about the school," he +returned. "I am speaking of his stepfather." + +"His STEPFATHER!" + +"Yes; his father, Van Buren Sluysdael, died, you know--a year after +they left Greyport. The widow was left all the money in trust for +Johnny, except about twenty-five hundred a year which he was in +receipt of as a separate income, even as a boy. Well, a glib- +tongued parson, a fellow by the name of Belcher, got round the +widow--she was a desperate fool--and, by Jove! made her marry him. +He made ducks and drakes of not only her money, but Johnny's too, +and had to skip to Spain to avoid the trustees. And Johnny--for +the Sluysdaels are all fools or lunatics--made over his whole +separate income to that wretched, fashionable fool of a mother, +and went into a stockbroker's office as a clerk." + +"And walks to business before eight every morning, and they say +even takes down the shutters and sweeps out," broke in Circe +impulsively. "Works like a slave all day, wears out his old +clothes, has given up his clubs and amusements, and shuns society." + +"But how about his health?" I asked. "Is he better and stronger?" + +"I don't know," said Circe, "but he LOOKS as beautiful as Endymion." + + . . . . . . + +At his bank, in Wall Street, Bracy that afternoon confirmed all +that Jason had told me of young Sluysdael. "But his temper?" I +asked. "You remember his temper--surely." + +"He's as sweet as a lamb, never quarrels, never whines, never +alludes to his lost fortune, and is never put out. For a +youngster, he's the most popular man in the street. Shall we nip +round and see him?" + +"By all means." + +"Come. It isn't far." + +A few steps down the crowded street we dived into a den of plate- +glass windows, of scraps of paper, of rattling, ticking machines, +more voluble and excited than the careworn, abstracted men who +leaned over them. But "Johnnyboy"--I started at the familiar name +again--was not there. He was at luncheon. + +"Let us join him," I said, as we gained the street again and turned +mechanically into Delmonico's. + +"Not there," said Bracy with a laugh. "You forget! That's not +Johnnyboy's gait just now. Come here." He was descending a few +steps that led to a humble cake-shop. As we entered I noticed a +young fellow standing before the plain wooden counter with a cake +of gingerbread in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. His +profile was before me; I at once recognized the long lashes. But +the happy, boyish, careless laugh that greeted Bracy, as he +presented me, was a revelation. + +Yet he was pleased to remember me. And then--it may have been +embarrassment that led me to such tactlessness, but as I glanced at +him and the glass of milk he was holding, I could not help +reminding him of the first words I had ever heard him utter. + +He tossed off the glass, colored slightly, as I thought, and said +with a light laugh:-- + +"I suppose I have changed a good deal since then, sir." + +I looked at his demure and resolute mouth, and wondered if he had. + + + +YOUNG ROBIN GRAY. + + +The good American barque Skyscraper was swinging at her moorings in +the Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But that good American +barque--although owned in Baltimore--had not a plank of American +timber in her hulk, nor a native American in her crew, and even her +nautical "goodness" had been called into serious question by divers +of that crew during her voyage, and answered more or less +inconclusively with belaying-pins, marlin-spikes, and ropes' ends +at the hands of an Irish-American captain and a Dutch and Danish +mate. So much so, that the mysterious powers of the American +consul at St. Kentigern had been evoked to punish mutiny on the +one hand, and battery and starvation on the other; both equally +attested by manifestly false witness and subornation on each side. +In the exercise of his functions the consul had opened and shut +some jail doors, and otherwise effected the usual sullen and +deceitful compromise, and his flag was now flying, on a final +visit, from the stern sheets of a smart boat alongside. It was +with a feeling of relief at the end of the interview that he at +last lifted his head above an atmosphere of perjury and bilge-water +and came on deck. The sun and wind were ruffling and glinting on +the broadening river beyond the "measured mile"; a few gulls were +wavering and dipping near the lee scuppers, and the sound of +Sabbath bells, mellowed by a distance that secured immunity of +conscience, came peacefully to his ear. + +"Now that job's over ye'll be takin' a partin' dhrink," suggested +the captain. + +The consul thought not. Certain incidents of "the job" were fresh +in his memory, and he proposed to limit himself to his strict duty. + +"You have some passengers, I see," he said, pointing to a group of +two men and a young girl, who had apparently just come aboard. + +"Only wan; an engineer going out to Rio. Them's just his friends +seein' him off, I'm thinkin'," returned the captain, surveying them +somewhat contemptuously. + +The consul was a little disturbed. He wondered if the passenger +knew anything of the quality and reputation of the ship to which he +was entrusting his fortunes. But he was only a PASSENGER, and the +consul's functions--like those of the aloft-sitting cherub of +nautical song--were restricted exclusively to looking after "Poor +Jack." However, he asked a few further questions, eliciting the +fact that the stranger had already visited the ship with letters +from the eminently respectable consignees at St. Kentigern, and +contented himself with lingering near them. The young girl was +accompanied by her father, a respectably rigid-looking middle-class +tradesman, who, however, seemed to be more interested in the +novelty of his surroundings than in the movements of his daughter +and their departing friend. So it chanced that the consul +re-entered the cabin--ostensibly in search of a missing glove, but +really with the intention of seeing how the passenger was bestowed-- +just behind them. But to his great embarrassment he at once +perceived that, owing to the obscurity of the apartment, they had +not noticed him, and before he could withdraw, the man had passed +his arm around the young girl's half stiffened, yet half yielding +figure. + +"Only one, Ailsa," he pleaded in a slow, serious voice, pathetic +from the very absence of any youthful passion in it; "just one now. +It'll be gey lang before we meet again. Ye'll not refuse me now." + +The young girl's lips seemed to murmur some protest that, however, +was lost in the beginning of a long and silent kiss. + +The consul slipped out softly. His smile had died away. That +unlooked-for touch of human weakness seemed to purify the stuffy +and evil-reeking cabin, and the recollection of its brutal past to +drop with a deck-load of iniquity behind him to the bottom of the +Clyde. It is to be feared that in his unofficial moments he was +inclined to be sentimental, and it seemed to him that the good ship +Skyscraper henceforward carried an innocent freight not mentioned +in her manifest, and that a gentle, ever-smiling figure, not +entered on her books, had invisibly taken a place at her wheel. + +But he was recalled to himself by a slight altercation on deck. +The young girl and the passenger had just returned from the cabin. +The consul, after a discreetly careless pause, had lifted his eyes +to the young girl's face, and saw that it was singularly pretty in +color and outline, but perfectly self-composed and serenely +unconscious. And he was a little troubled to observe that the +passenger was a middle-aged man, whose hard features were already +considerably worn with trial and experience. + +Both he and the girl were listening with sympathizing but cautious +interest to her father's contention with the boatman who had +brought them from shore, and who was now inclined to demand an +extra fee for returning with them. The boatman alleged that he had +been detained beyond "kirk time," and that this imperiling of his +salvation could only be compensated by another shilling. To the +consul's surprise, this extraordinary argument was recognized by +the father, who, however, contented himself by simply contending +that it had not been stipulated in the bargain. The issue was, +therefore, limited, and the discussion progressed slowly and +deliberately, with a certain calm dignity and argumentative +satisfaction on both sides that exalted the subject, though it +irritated the captain. + +"If ye accept the premisses that I've just laid down, that it's a +contract"---began the boatman. + +"Dry up! and haul off," said the captain. + +"One moment," interposed the consul, with a rapid glance at the +slight trouble in the young girl's face. Turning to the father, he +went on: "Will you allow me to offer you and your daughter a seat +in my boat?" + +It was an unlooked-for and tempting proposal. The boatman was +lazily lying on his oars, secure in self-righteousness and the +conscious possession of the only available boat to shore; on the +other hand, the smart gig of the consul, with its four oars, was +not only a providential escape from a difficulty, but even to some +extent a quasi-official endorsement of his contention. Yet he +hesitated. + +"It'll be costin' ye no more?" he said interrogatively, glancing at +the consul's boat crew, "or ye'll be askin' me a fair proportion." + +"It will be the gentleman's own boat," said the girl, with a +certain shy assurance, "and he'll be paying his boatmen by the +day." + +The consul hastened to explain that their passage would involve no +additional expense to anybody, and added, tactfully, that he was +glad to enable them to oppose extortion. + +"Ay, but it's a preencipel," said the father proudly, "and I'm +pleased, sir, to see ye recognize it." + +He proceeded to help his daughter into the boat without any further +leave-taking of the passenger, to the consul's great surprise, and +with only a parting nod from the young girl. It was as if this +momentous incident were a sufficient reason for the absence of any +further trivial sentiment. + +Unfortunately the father chose to add an exordium for the benefit +of the astonished boatsman still lying on his oars. + +"Let this be a lesson to ye, ma frien', when ye're ower sure! +Ye'll ne'er say a herrin' is dry until it be reestit an' reekit." + +"Ay," said the boatman, with a lazy, significant glance at the +consul, "it wull be a lesson to me not to trust to a lassie's +GANGIN' jo, when thair's anither yin comin'." + +"Give way," said the consul sharply. + +Yet his was the only irritated face in the boat as the men bent +over their oars. The young girl and her father looked placidly at +the receding ship, and waved their hands to the grave, resigned +face over the taffrail. The consul examined them more attentively. +The father's face showed intelligence and a certain probity in its +otherwise commonplace features. The young girl had more distinction, +with, perhaps, more delicacy of outline than of texture. Her hair +was dark, with a burnished copper tint at its roots, and eyes that +had the same burnished metallic lustre in their brown pupils. Both +sat respectfully erect, as if anxious to record the fact that the +boat was not their own to take their ease in; and both were silently +reserved, answering briefly to the consul's remarks as if to +indicate the formality of their presence there. But a distant +railway whistle startled them into emotion. + +"We've lost the train, father!" said the young girl. + +The consul followed the direction of her anxious eyes; the train +was just quitting the station at Bannock. + +"If ye had not lingered below with Jamie, we'd have been away in +time, ay, and in our own boat," said the father, with marked +severity. + +The consul glanced quickly at the girl. But her face betrayed no +consciousness, except of their present disappointment. + +"There's an excursion boat coming round the Point," he said, +pointing to the black smoke trail of a steamer at the entrance of a +loch, "and it will be returning to St. Kentigern shortly. If you +like, we'll pull over and put you aboard." + +"Eh! but it's the Sabbath-breaker!" said the old man harshly. + +The consul suddenly remembered that that was the name which the +righteous St. Kentigerners had given to the solitary bold, bad +pleasure-boat that defied their Sabbatical observances. + +"Perhaps you won't find very pleasant company on board," said the +consul smiling; "but, then, you're not seeking THAT. And as you +would be only using the boat to get back to your home, and not for +Sunday recreation, I don't think your conscience should trouble +you." + +"Ay, that's a fine argument, Mr. Consul, but I'm thinkin' it's none +the less sopheestry for a' that," said the father grimly. "No; if +ye'll just land us yonder at Bannock pier, we'll be ay thankin' ye +the same." + +"But what will you do there? There's no other train to-day." + +"Ay, we'll walk on a bit." + +The consul was silent. After a pause the young girl lifted her +clear eyes, and with a half pathetic, half childish politeness, +said: "We'll be doing very well--my father and me. You're far too +kind." + +Nothing further was said as they began to thread their way between +a few large ships and an ocean steamer at anchor, from whose decks +a few Sunday-clothed mariners gazed down admiringly on the smart +gig and the pretty girl in a Tam o' Shanter in its stern sheets. +But here a new idea struck the consul. A cable's length ahead lay +a yacht, owned by an American friend, and at her stern a steam +launch swung to its painter. Without intimating his intention to +his passengers he steered for it. "Bow!--way enough," he called +out as the boat glided under the yacht's counter, and, grasping the +companion-ladder ropes, he leaped aboard. In a few hurried words +he explained the situation to Mr. Robert Gray, her owner, and +suggested that he should send the belated passengers to St. +Kentigern by the launch. Gray assented with the easy good-nature +of youth, wealth, and indolence, and lounged from his cabin to the +side. The consul followed. Looking down upon the boat he could +not help observing that his fair young passenger, sitting in her +demure stillness at her father's side, made a very pretty picture. +It was possible that "Bob Gray" had made the same observation, for +he presently swung himself over the gangway into the gig, hat in +hand. The launch could easily take them; in fact, he added +unblushingly, it was even then getting up steam to go to St. +Kentigern. Would they kindly come on board until it was ready? At +an added word or two of explanation from the consul, the father +accepted, preserving the same formal pride and stiffness, and the +transfer was made. The consul, looking back as his gig swept round +again towards Bannock pier, received their parting salutations, and +the first smile he had seen on the face of his grave little +passenger. He thought it very sweet and sad. + +He did not return to the Consulate at St. Kentigern until the next +day. But he was somewhat surprised to find Mr. Robert Gray +awaiting him, and upon some business which the young millionaire +could have easily deputed to his captain or steward. As he still +lingered, the consul pleasantly referred to his generosity on the +previous day, and hoped the passengers had given him no trouble. + +"No," said Gray with a slight simulation of carelessness. "In fact +I came up with them myself. I had nothing to do; it was Sunday, +you know." + +The consul lifted his eyebrows slightly. + +"Yes, I saw them home," continued Gray lightly. "In one of those +by-streets not far from here; neat-looking house outside; inside, +corkscrew stone staircase like a lighthouse; fourth floor, no lift, +but SHE circled up like a swallow! Flat--sitting-room, two +bedrooms, and a kitchen--mighty snug and shipshape and pretty as a +pink. They OWN it too--fancy OWNING part of a house! Seems to be +a way they have here in St. Kentigern." He paused and then added: +"Stayed there to a kind of high tea!" + +"Indeed," said the consul. + +"Why not? The old man wanted to return my 'hospitality' and square +the account! He wasn't going to lie under any obligation to a +stranger, and, by Jove! he made it a special point of honor! A +Spanish grandee couldn't have been more punctilious. And with an +accent, Jerusalem! like a northeaster off the Banks! But the feed +was in good taste, and he only a mathematical instrument maker, on +about twelve hundred dollars a year!" + +"You seem to know all about him," said the consul smilingly. + +"Not so much as he does about me," returned Gray, with a half +perplexed face; "for he saw enough to admonish me about my +extravagance, and even to intimate that that rascal Saunderson, my +steward, was imposing on me. SHE took me to task, too, for not +laying the yacht up on Sunday that the men could go 'to kirk,' and +for swearing at a bargeman who ran across our bows. It's their +perfect simplicity and sincerity in all this that gets me! You'd +have thought that the old man was my guardian, and the daughter my +aunt." After a pause he uttered a reminiscent laugh. "She thought +we ate and drank too much on the yacht, and wondered what we could +find to do all day. All this, you know, in the gentlest, caressing +sort of voice, as if she was really concerned, like one's own +sister. Well, not exactly like mine"--he interrupted himself +grimly--"but, hang it all, you know what I mean. You know that our +girls over there haven't got THAT trick of voice. Too much self- +assertion, I reckon; things made too easy for them by us men. +Habit of race, I dare say." He laughed a little. "Why, I mislaid +my glove when I was coming away, and it was as good as a play to +hear her commiserating and sympathizing, and hunting for it as if +it were a lost baby." + +"But you've seen Scotch girls before this," said the consul. +"There were Lady Glairn's daughters, whom you took on a cruise." + +"Yes, but the swell Scotch all imitate the English, as everybody +else does, for the matter of that, our girls included; and they're +all alike. Society makes 'em fit in together like tongued and +grooved planks that will take any amount of holy-stoning and +polish. It's like dropping into a dead calm, with every rope and +spar that you know already reflected back from the smooth water +upon you. It's mighty pretty, but it isn't getting on, you know." +After a pause he added: "I asked them to take a little holiday +cruise with me." + +"And they declined," interrupted the consul. + +Gray glanced at him quickly. + +"Well, yes; that's all right enough. They don't know me, you see, +but they do know you; and the fact is, I was thinking that as +you're our consul here, don't you see, and sort of responsible for +me, you might say that it was all right, you know. Quite the +customary thing with us over there. And you might say, generally, +who I am." + +"I see," said the consul deliberately. "Tell them you're Bob Gray, +with more money and time than you know what to do with; that you +have a fine taste for yachting and shooting and racing, and amusing +yourself generally; that you find that THEY amuse you, and you +would like your luxury and your dollars to stand as an equivalent +to their independence and originality; that, being a good +republican yourself, and recognizing no distinction of class, +you don't care what this may mean to them, who are brought up +differently; that after their cruise with you you don't care what +life, what friends, or what jealousies they return to; that you +know no ties, no responsibilities beyond the present, and that you +are not a marrying man." + +"Look here, I say, aren't you making a little too much of this?" +said Gray stiffly. + +The consul laughed. "I should be glad to know that I am." + +Gray rose. "We'll be dropping down the river to-morrow," he said, +with a return of his usual lightness, "and I reckon I'll be +toddling down to the wharf. Good-bye, if I don't see you again." + +He passed out. As the consul glanced from the window he observed, +however, that Mr. Gray was "toddling" in quite another direction +than the wharf. For an instant he half regretted that he had not +suggested, in some discreet way, the conclusion he had arrived at +after witnessing the girl's parting with the middle-aged passenger +the day before. But he reflected that this was something he had +only accidentally overseen, and was the girl's own secret. + + +II. + + +When the summer had so waxed in its fullness that the smoke of +factory chimneys drifted high, permitting glimpses of fairly blue +sky; when the grass in St. Kentigern's proudest park took on a less +sober green in the comfortable sun, and even in the thickest shade +there was no chilliness, the good St. Kentigerners recognized that +the season had arrived to go "down the river," and that it was +time for them to betake themselves, with rugs, mackintoshes, and +umbrellas, to the breezy lochs and misty hillsides for which the +neighborhood of St. Kentigern is justly famous. So when it came to +pass that the blinds were down in the highest places, and the most +exclusive pavements of St. Kentigern were echoless and desolate, +the consul heroically tore himself from the weak delight of basking +in the sunshine, and followed the others. + +He soon found himself settled at the furthest end of a long narrow +loch, made longer and narrower by the steep hillside of rock and +heather which flanked its chilly surface on either side, and whose +inequalities were lost in the firs and larches that filled ravine +and chasm. The fragrant road which ran sinuously through their +shadowy depths was invisible from the loch; no protuberance broke +the seemingly sheer declivity; the even sky-line was indented in +two places--one where it was cracked into a fanciful resemblance to +a human profile, the other where it was curved like a bowl. Need +it be said that one was distinctly recognized as the silhouette of +a prehistoric giant, and that the other was his drinking-cup; need +it be added that neither lent the slightest human suggestion to the +solitude? A toy-like pier extending into the loch, midway from the +barren shore, only heightened the desolation. And when the little +steamboat that occasionally entered the loch took away a solitary +passenger from the pier-head, the simplest parting was invested +with a dreary loneliness that might have brought tears to the most +hardened eye. + +Still, when the shadow of either hillside was not reaching across +the loch, the meridian sun, chancing upon this coy mirror, made the +most of it. Then it was that, seen from above, it flashed like a +falchion lying between the hills; then its reflected glory, +striking up, transfigured the two acclivities, tipped the cold +heather with fire, gladdened the funereal pines, and warmed the +ascetic rocks. And it was in one of those rare, passionate +intervals that the consul, riding along the wooded track and +turning his eyes from their splendors, came upon a little house. + +It had once been a sturdy cottage, with a grim endurance and +inflexibility which even some later and lighter additions had +softened rather than changed. On either side of the door, against +the bleak whitewashed wall, two tall fuchsias relieved the rigid +blankness with a show of color. The windows were prettily draped +with curtains caught up with gay ribbons. In a stony pound-like +enclosure there was some attempt at floral cultivation, but all +quite recent. So, too, were a wicker garden seat, a bright +Japanese umbrella, and a tropical hammock suspended between two +arctic-looking bushes, which the rude and rigid forefathers of the +hamlet would have probably resented. + +He had just passed the house when a charming figure slipped across +the road before him. To his surprise it was the young girl he had +met a few months before on the Skyscraper. But the Tam o' Shanter +was replaced by a little straw hat; and a light dress, summery in +color and texture, but more in keeping with her rustic surroundings, +seemed as grateful and rare as the sunshine. Without knowing why, +he had an impression that it was of her own making--a gentle +plagiarism of the style of her more fortunate sisters, but with +a demure restraint all her own. As she recognized him a faint +color came to her cheek, partly from surprise, partly from some +association. To his delighted greeting she responded by informing +him that her father had taken the cottage he had just passed, where +they were spending a three weeks' vacation from his business. It +was not so far from St. Kentigern but that he could run up for a day +to look after the shop. Did the consul not think it was wise? + +Quite ready to assent to any sagacity in those clear brown eyes, +the consul thought it was. But was it not, like wisdom, sometimes +lonely? + +Ah! no. There was the loch and the hills and the heather; there +were her flowers; did he not think they were growing well? and at +the head of the loch there was the old tomb of the McHulishes, and +some of the coffins were still to be seen. + +Perhaps emboldened by the consul's smile, she added, with a more +serious precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing +caress of her voice, "And would you not be getting off and coming +in and resting a wee bit before you go further? It would be so +good of you, and father would think it so kind. And he will be +there now, if you're looking." + +The consul looked. The old man was standing in the doorway of the +cottage, as respectably uncompromising as ever, with the slight +concession to his rural surroundings of wearing a Tam o' Shanter +and easy slippers. The consul dismounted and entered. The +interior was simply, but tastefully furnished. It struck him that +the Scotch prudence and economy, which practically excluded display +and meretricious glitter, had reached the simplicity of the truest +art and the most refined wealth. He felt he could understand +Gray's enthusiasm, and by an odd association of ideas he found +himself thinking of the resigned face of the lonely passenger on +the Skyscraper. + +"Have you heard any news of your friend who went to Rio?" he asked +pleasantly, but without addressing himself particularly to either. + +There was a perceptible pause; doubtless of deference to her father +on the part of the young girl, and of the usual native conscientious +caution on the part of the father, but neither betrayed any +embarrassment or emotion. "No; he would not be writing yet," she at +length said simply, "he would be waiting until he was settled to his +business. Jamie would be waiting until he could say how he was +doing, father?" she appealed interrogatively to the old man. + +"Ay, James Gow would not fash himself to write compliments and +gossip till he knew his position and work," corroborated the old +man. "He'll not be going two thousand miles to send us what we can +read in the 'St. Kentigern Herald.' But," he added, suddenly, with +a recall of cautiousness, "perhaps YOU will be hearing of the ship?" + +"The consul will not be remembering what he hears of all the +ships," interposed the young girl, with the same gentle affectation +of superior worldly knowledge which had before amused him. "We'll +be wearying him, father," and the subject dropped. + +The consul, glancing around the room again, but always returning to +the sweet and patient seriousness of the young girl's face and the +grave decorum of her father, would have liked to ask another +question, but it was presently anticipated; for when he had +exhausted the current topics, in which both father and daughter +displayed a quiet sagacity, and he had gathered a sufficient +knowledge of their character to seem to justify Gray's enthusiasm, +and was rising to take his leave, the young girl said timidly:-- + +"Would ye not let Bessie take your horse to the grass field over +yonder, and yourself stay with us to dinner? It would be most +kind, and you would meet a great friend of yours who will be here." + +"Mr. Gray?" suggested the consul audaciously. Yet he was greatly +surprised when the young girl said quietly, "Ay." + +"He'll be coming in the loch with his yacht," said the old man. +"It's not so expensive lying here as at Bannock, I'm thinking; and +the men cannot gang ashore for drink. Eh, but it's an awful waste +o' pounds, shillings, and pence, keeping these gowks in idleness +with no feeshin' nor carrying of passengers." + +"Ay, but it's better Mr. Gray should pay them for being decent and +well-behaved on board his ship, than that they should be out of +work and rioting in taverns and lodging-houses. And you yourself, +father, remember the herrin' fishers that come ashore at Ardie, and +the deck hands of the excursion boat, and the language they'll be +using." + +"Have you had a cruise in the yacht?" asked the consul quickly. + +"Ay," said the father, "we have been up and down the loch, and +around the far point, but not for boardin' or lodgin' the night, +nor otherwise conteenuing or parteecipating. I have explained to +Mr. Gray that we must return to our own home and our own porridge +at evening, and he has agreed, and even come with us. He's a +decent enough lad, and not above instructin', but extraordinar' +extravagant." + +"Ye know, father," interposed the young girl, "he talks of fitting +up the yacht for the fishing, and taking some of his most decent +men on shares. He says he was very fond of fishing off the +Massachusetts coast, in America. It will be, I'm thinking," she +said, suddenly turning to the consul with an almost pathetic appeal +in her voice, "a great occupation for the rich young men over +there." + +The consul, desperately struggling with a fanciful picture of Mr. +Robert Gray as a herring fisher, thought gravely that it "might +be." But he thought still more gravely, though silently, of this +singular companion ship, and was somewhat anxious to confront his +friend with his new acquaintances. He had not long to wait. The +sun was just dipping behind the hill when the yacht glided into the +lonely loch. A boat was put off, and in a few moments Robert Gray +was climbing the little path from the loch. + +Had the consul expected any embarrassment or lover-like consciousness +on the face of Mr. Gray at their unexpected meeting, he would have +been disappointed. Nor was the young man's greeting of father and +daughter, whom he addressed as Mr. and Miss Callender, marked by any +tenderness or hesitation. On the contrary, a certain seriousness +and quiet reticence, unlike Gray, which might have been borrowed +from his new friends, characterized his speech and demeanor. Beyond +this freemasonry of sad repression there was no significance of look +or word passed between these two young people. The girl's voice +retained its even pathos. Gray's grave politeness was equally +divided between her and her father. He corroborated what Callender +had said of his previous visits without affectation or demonstration; +he spoke of the possibilities of his fitting up the yacht for the +fishing season with a practical detail and economy that left the +consul's raillery ineffective. Even when, after dinner, the consul +purposely walked out in the garden with the father, Gray and Ailsa +presently followed them without lingering or undue precipitation, +and with no change of voice or manner. The consul was perplexed. +Had the girl already told Gray of her lover across the sea, and was +this singular restraint their joint acceptance of their fate; or was +he mistaken in supposing that their relations were anything more +than the simple friendship of patron and protegee? Gray was rich +enough to indulge in such a fancy, and the father and daughter were +too proud to ever allow it to influence their own independence. +In any event the consul's right to divulge the secret he was +accidentally possessed of seemed more questionable than ever. Nor +did there appear to be any opportunity for a confidential talk with +Gray, since it was proposed that the whole party should return to +the yacht for supper, after which the consul should be dropped at +the pier-head, distant only a few minutes from his hotel, and his +horse sent to him the next day. + +A faint moon was shimmering along the surface of Loch Dour in icy +little ripples when they pulled out from the shadows of the +hillside. By the accident of position, Gray, who was steering, sat +beside Ailsa in the stern, while the consul and Mr. Callender were +further forward, although within hearing. The faces of the young +people were turned towards each other, yet in the cold moonlight +the consul fancied they looked as impassive and unemotional as +statues. The few distant, far-spaced lights that trembled on the +fading shore, the lonely glitter of the water, the blackness of the +pine-clad ravines seemed to be a part of this repression, until the +vast melancholy of the lake appeared to meet and overflow them like +an advancing tide. Added to this, there came from time to time the +faint sound and smell of the distant, desolate sea. + +The consul, struggling manfully to keep up a spasmodic discussion +on Scotch diminutives in names, found himself mechanically saying: + +"And James you call Jamie?" + +"Ay; but ye would say, to be pure Scotch, 'Hamish,'" said Mr. +Callender precisely. The girl, however, had not spoken; but Gray +turned to her with something of his old gayety. + +"And I suppose you would call me 'Robbie'?" + +"Ah, no!" + +"What then?" + +"Robin." + +Her voice was low yet distinct, but she had thrown into the two +syllables such infinite tenderness, that the consul was for an +instant struck with an embarrassment akin to that he had felt in +the cabin of the Skyscraper, and half expected the father to utter +a shocked protest. And to save what he thought would be an +appalling silence, he said with a quiet laugh:-- + +"That's the fellow who 'made the assembly shine' in the song, isn't +it?" + +"That was Robin Adair," said Gray quietly; "unfortunately I would +only be 'Robin Gray,' and that's quite another song." + +"AULD Robin Gray, sir, deestinctly 'auld' in the song," interrupted +Mr. Callender with stern precision; "and I'm thinking he was not so +very unfortunate either." + +The discussion of Scotch diminutives halting here, the boat sped on +silently to the yacht. But although Robert Gray, as host, recovered +some of his usual lightheartedness, the consul failed to discover +anything in his manner to indicate the lover, nor did Miss Ailsa +after her single lapse of tender accent exhibit the least +consciousness. It was true that their occasional frank allusions to +previous conversations seemed to show that their opportunities had +not been restricted, but nothing more. He began again to think he +was mistaken. + +As he wished to return early, and yet not hasten the Callenders, he +prevailed upon Gray to send him to the pier-head first, and not +disturb the party. As he stepped into the boat, something in the +appearance of the coxswain awoke an old association in his mind. +The man at first seemed to avoid his scrutiny, but when they were +well away from the yacht, he said hesitatingly:-- + +"I see you remember me, sir. But if it's all the same to you, I've +got a good berth here and would like to keep it." + +The consul had a flash of memory. It was the boatswain of the +Skyscraper, one of the least objectionable of the crew. "But what +are you doing here? you shipped for the voyage," he said sharply. + +"Yes, but I got away at Key West, when I knew what was coming. I +wasn't on her when she was abandoned." + +Abandoned!" repeated the consul. "What the d---l! Do you mean to +say she was wrecked?" + +"Well, yes--you know what I mean, sir. It was an understood thing. +She was over-insured and scuttled in the Bahamas. It was a put-up +job, and I reckoned I was well out of it." + +"But there was a passenger! What of him?" demanded the consul +anxiously. + +"Dnnno! But I reckon he got away. There wasn't any of the crew +lost that I know of. Let's see, he was an engineer, wasn't he? I +reckon he had to take a hand at the pumps, and his chances with the +rest." + +"Does Mr. Gray know of this?" asked the consul after a pause. + +The man stared. + +"Not from me, sir. You see it was nothin' to him, and I didn't +care talking much about the Skyscraper. It was hushed up in the +papers. You won't go back on me, sir?" + +"You don't know what became of the passenger?" + +"No! But he was a Scotchman, and they're bound to fall on their +feet somehow!" + + +III. + + +The December fog that overhung St. Kentigern had thinned sufficiently +to permit the passage of a few large snowflakes, soiled in their +descent, until in color and consistency they spotted the steps of +the Consulate and the umbrellas of the passers-by like sprinklings +of gray mortar. Nevertheless the consul thought the streets +preferable to the persistent gloom of his office, and sallied out. +Youthful mercantile St. Kentigern strode sturdily past him in the +lightest covert coats; collegiate St. Kentigern fluttered by in the +scantiest of red gowns, shaming the furs that defended his more +exotic blood; and the bare red feet of a few factory girls, albeit +their heads and shoulders were draped and hooded in thick shawls, +filled him with a keen sense of his effeminacy. Everything of +earth, air, and sky, and even the faces of those he looked upon, +seemed to be set in the hard, patient endurance of the race. +Everywhere on that dismal day, he fancied he could see this energy +without restlessness, this earnestness without geniality, all grimly +set against the hard environment of circumstance and weather. + +The consul turned into one of the main arteries of St. Kentigern, a +wide street that, however, began and ended inconsequently, and with +half a dozen social phases in as many blocks. Here the snow +ceased, the fog thickened suddenly with the waning day, and the +consul found himself isolated and cut off on a block which he did +not remember, with the clatter of an invisible tramway in his ears. +It was a block of small houses with smaller shop-fronts. The one +immediately before him seemed to be an optician's, but the dimly +lighted windows also displayed the pathetic reinforcement of a few +watches, cheap jewelry on cards, and several cairngorm brooches and +pins set in silver. It occurred to him that he wanted a new watch +crystal, and that he would procure it here and inquire his way. +Opening the door he perceived that there was no one in the shop, +but from behind the counter another open door disclosed a neat +sitting-room, so close to the street that it gave the casual +customer the sensation of having intruded upon domestic privacy. +The consul's entrance tinkled a small bell which brought a figure +to the door. It was Ailsa Callender. + +The consul was startled. He had not seen her since he had brought +to their cottage the news of the shipwreck with a precaution and +delicacy that their calm self-control and patient resignation, +however, seemed to make almost an impertinence. But this was no +longer the handsome shop in the chief thoroughfare with its two +shopmen, which he previously knew as "Callender's." And Ailsa +here! What misfortune had befallen them? + +Whatever it was, there was no shadow of it in her clear eyes and +frank yet timid recognition of him. Falling in with her stoical +and reticent acceptance of it, he nevertheless gathered that the +Callenders had lost money in some invention which James Gow had +taken with him to Rio, but which was sunk in the ship. With this +revelation of a business interest in what he had believed was only +a sentimental relation, the consul ventured to continue his +inquiries. Mr. Gow had escaped with his life and had reached +Honduras, where he expected to try his fortunes anew. It might be +a year or two longer before there were any results. Did the consul +know anything of Honduras? There was coffee there--so she and her +father understood. All this with little hopefulness, no irritation, +but a divine patience in her eyes. The consul, who found that his +watch required extensive repairing, and had suddenly developed an +inordinate passion for cairngorms, watched her as she opened the +show-case with no affectation of unfamiliarity with her occupation, +but with all her old serious concern. Surely she would have made as +thorough a shop-girl as she would-- His half-formulated thought +took the shape of a question. + +"Have you seen Mr. Gray since his return from the Mediterranean?" + +Ah! one of the brooches had slipped from her fingers to the bottom +of the case. There was an interval or two of pathetic murmuring, +with her fair head under the glass, before she could find it; then +she lifted her eyes to the consul. They were still slightly +suffused with her sympathetic concern. The stone, which was set in +a thistle--the national emblem--did he not know it?--had dropped +out. But she could put it in. It was pretty and not expensive. +It was marked twelve shillings on the card, but he could have it +for ten shillings. No, she had not seen Mr. Gray since they had +lost their fortune. (It struck the consul as none the less +pathetic that she seemed really to believe in their former +opulence.) They could not be seeing him there in a small shop, +and they could not see him elsewhere. It was far better as it was. +Yet she paused a moment when she had wrapped up the brooch. "You'd +be seeing him yourself some time?" she added gently. + +"Perhaps." + +"Then you'll not mind saying how my father and myself are sometimes +thinking of his goodness and kindness," she went on, in a voice +whose tenderness seemed to increase with the formal precision of +her speech. + +"Certainly." + +"And you'll say we're not forgetting him." + +"I promise." + +As she handed him the parcel her lips softly parted in what might +have been equally a smile or a sigh. + +He was able to keep his promise sooner than he had imagined. It +was only a few weeks later that, arriving in London, he found +Gray's hatbox and bag in the vestibule of his club, and that +gentleman himself in the smoking-room. He looked tanned and older. + +"I only came from Southampton an hour ago, where I left the yacht. +And," shaking the consul's hand cordially, "how's everything and +everybody up at old St. Kentigern?" + +The consul thought fit to include his news of the Callenders in +reference to that query, and with his eyes fixed on Gray dwelt at +some length on their change of fortune. Gray took his cigar from +his mouth, but did not lift his eyes from the fire. Presently he +said, "I suppose that's why Callender declined to take the shares I +offered him in the fishing scheme. You know I meant it, and would +have done it." + +"Perhaps he had other reasons." + +"What do you mean?" said Gray, facing the consul suddenly. + +"Look here, Gray," said the consul, "did Miss Callender or her +father ever tell you she was engaged?" + +"Yes; but what's that to do with it?" + +"A good deal. Engagements, you know, are sometimes forced, +unsuitable, or unequal, and are broken by circumstances. Callender +is proud." + +Gray turned upon the consul the same look of gravity that he had +worn on the yacht--the same look that the consul even fancied he +had seen in Ailsa's eyes. "That's exactly where you're mistaken in +her," he said slowly. "A girl like that gives her word and keeps +it. She waits, hopes, accepts what may come--breaks her heart, if +you will, but not her word. Come, let's talk of something else. +How did he--that man Gow--lose Callender's money?" + +The consul did not see the Callenders again on his return, and +perhaps did not think it necessary to report the meeting. But one +morning he was delighted to find an official document from New York +upon his desk, asking him to communicate with David Callender of +St. Kentigern, and, on proof of his identity, giving him authority +to draw the sum of five thousand dollars damages awarded for the +loss of certain property on the Skyscraper, at the request of James +Gow. Yet it was with mixed sensations that the consul sought the +little shop of the optician with this convincing proof of Gow's +faithfulness and the indissolubility of Ailsa's engagement. That +there was some sad understanding between the girl and Gray he did +not doubt, and perhaps it was not strange that he felt a slight +partisanship for his friend, whose nature had so strangely changed. +Miss Ailsa was not there. Her father explained that her health had +required a change, and she was visiting some friends on the river. + +"I'm thinkin' that the atmosphere is not so pure here. It is +deficient in ozone. I noticed it myself in the early morning. No! +it was not the confinement of the shop, for she never cared to go +out." + +He received the announcement of his good fortune with unshaken calm +and great practical consideration of detail. He would guarantee +his identity to the consul. As for James Gow, it was no more than +fair; and what he had expected of him. As to its being an +equivalent of his loss, he could not tell until the facts were +before him. + +"Miss Ailsa," suggested the consul venturously, "will be pleased to +hear again from her old friend, and know that he is succeeding." + +"I'm not so sure that ye could call it 'succeeding,'" returned the +old man, carefully wiping the glasses of a pair of spectacles that +he held critically to the light, "when ye consider that, saying +nothing of the waste of valuable time, it only puts James Gow back +where he was when he went away." + +"But any man who has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss +Callender would be glad to be on that footing," said the consul, +with polite significance. + +"I'm not agreeing with you there," said Mr. Callender quietly; "and +I'm observing in ye of late a tendency to combine business wi' +compleement. But it was kind of ye to call; and I'll be sending ye +the authorization." + +Which he did. But the consul, passing through the locality a few +weeks later, was somewhat concerned to find the shop closed, with +others on the same block, behind a hoarding that indicated +rebuilding and improvement. Further inquiry elicited the fact that +the small leases had been bought up by some capitalist, and that +Mr. Callender, with the others, had benefited thereby. But there +was no trace nor clew to his present locality. He and his daughter +seemed to have again vanished with this second change in their +fortunes. + +It was a late March morning when the streets were dumb with snow, +and the air was filled with flying granulations that tinkled +against the windows of the Consulate like fairy sleigh-bells, when +there was the stamping of snow-clogged feet in the outer hall, and +the door was opened to Mr. and Miss Callender. For an instant the +consul was startled. The old man appeared as usual--erect, and as +frigidly respectable as one of the icicles that fringed the window, +but Miss Ailsa was, to his astonishment, brilliant with a new-found +color, and sparkling with health and only half-repressed animation. +The snow-flakes, scarcely melting on the brown head of this true +daughter of the North, still crowned her hood; and, as she threw +back her brown cloak and disclosed a plump little scarlet jacket +and brown skirt, the consul could not resist her suggested likeness +to some bright-eyed robin redbreast, to whom the inclement weather +had given a charming audacity. And shy and demure as she still +was, it was evident that some change had been wrought in her other +than that evoked by the stimulus of her native sky and air. + +To his eager questioning, the old man replied briefly that he had +bought the old cottage at Loch Dour, where they were living, and +where he had erected a small manufactory and laboratory for the +making of his inventions, which had become profitable. The consul +reiterated his delight at meeting them again. + +"I'm not so sure of that, sir, when you know the business on which +I come," said Mr. Callender, dropping rigidly into a chair, and +clasping his hands over the crutch of a shepherd-like staff. "Ye +mind, perhaps, that ye conveyed to me, osteensibly at the request +of James Gow, a certain sum of money, for which I gave ye a good +and sufficient guarantee. I thought at the time that it was a most +feckless and unbusiness-like proceeding on the part of James, as +it was without corroboration or advice by letter; but I took the +money." + +"Do you mean to say that he made no allusion to it in his other +letters?" interrupted the consul, glancing at Ailsa. + +"There were no other letters at the time," said Callender dryly. +"But about a month afterwards we DID receive a letter from him +enclosing a draft and a full return of the profits of the +invention, which HE HAD SOLD IN HONDURAS. Ye'll observe the +deescrepancy! I then wrote to the bank on which I had drawn as you +authorized me, and I found that they knew nothing of any damages +awarded, but that the sum I had drawn had been placed to my credit +by Mr. Robert Gray." + +In a flash the consul recalled the one or two questions that Gray +had asked him, and saw it all. For an instant he felt the whole +bitterness of Gray's misplaced generosity--its exposure and defeat. +He glanced again hopelessly at Ailsa. In the eye of that fresh, +glowing, yet demure, young goddess, unhallowed as the thought might +be, there was certainly a distinctly tremulous wink. + +The consul took heart. "I believe I need not say, Mr. Callender," +he began with some stiffness, "that this is as great a surprise to +me as to you. I had no reason to believe the transaction other +than bona fide, and acted accordingly. If my friend, deeply +sympathizing with your previous misfortune, has hit upon a +delicate, but unbusiness-like way of assisting you temporarily-- +I say TEMPORARILY, because it must have been as patent to him as to +you, that you would eventually find out his generous deceit--you +surely can forgive him for the sake of his kind intention. Nay, +more; may I point out to you that you have no right to assume that +this benefaction was intended exclusively for you; if Mr. Gray, in +his broader sympathy with you and your daughter, has in this way +chosen to assist and strengthen the position of a gentleman so +closely connected with you, but still struggling with hard +fortune"-- + +"I'd have ye know, sir," interrupted the old man, rising to his +feet, "that ma frien' Mr. James Gow is as independent of yours as +he is of me and mine. He has married, sir, a Mrs. Hernandez, the +rich widow of a coffee-planter, and now is the owner of the whole +estate, minus the encumbrance of three children. And now, sir, +you'll take this,"--he drew from his pocket an envelope. "It's a +draft for five thousand dollars, with the ruling rate of interest +computed from the day I received it till this day, and ye'll give +it to your frien' when ye see him. And ye'll just say to him from +me"-- + +But Miss Ailsa, with a spirit and independence that challenged her +father's, here suddenly fluttered between them with sparkling eyes +and outstretched hands. + +"And ye'll say to him from ME that a more honorable, noble, and +generous man, and a kinder, truer, and better friend than he, +cannot be found anywhere! And that the foolishest and most +extravagant thing he ever did is better than the wisest and most +prudent thing that anybody else ever did, could, or would do! And +if he was a bit overproud--it was only because those about him were +overproud and foolish. And you'll tell him that we're wearying for +him! And when you give him that daft letter from father you'll +give him this bit line from me," she went on rapidly as she laid a +tiny note in his hand. "And," with wicked dancing eyes that seemed +to snap the last bond of repression, "ye'll give him THAT too, and +say I sent it!" + +There was a stir in the official apartment! The portraits of +Lincoln and Washington rattled uneasily in their frames; but it was +no doubt only a discreet blast of the north wind that drowned the +echo of a kiss. + +"Ailsa!" gasped the shocked Mr. Callender. + +"Ah! but, father, if it had not been for HIM we would not have +known Robin." + + . . . . . . + +It was the last that the consul saw of Ailsa Callender; for the +next summer when he called at Loch Dour she was Mrs. Gray. + + + +THE SHERIFF OF SISKYOU. + + +I. + + +On the fifteenth of August, 1854, what seemed to be the entire +population of Wynyard's Bar was collected upon a little bluff which +overlooked the rude wagon road that was the only approach to the +settlement. In general appearance the men differed but little from +ordinary miners, although the foreign element, shown in certain +Spanish peculiarities of dress and color, predominated, and some of +the men were further distinguished by the delicacy of education and +sedentary pursuits. Yet Wynyard's Bar was a city of refuge, +comprised among its inhabitants a number who were "wanted" by the +State authorities, and its actual attitude at that moment was one +of open rebellion against the legal power, and of particular +resistance to the apprehension by warrant of one of its prominent +members. This gentleman, Major Overstone, then astride of a gray +mustang, and directing the movements of the crowd, had, a few days +before, killed the sheriff of Siskyou county, who had attempted to +arrest him for the double offense of misappropriating certain +corporate funds of the State and the shooting of the editor who had +imprudently exposed him. The lesser crime of homicide might have +been overlooked by the authorities, but its repetition upon the +body of their own over-zealous and misguided official could not +pass unchallenged if they expected to arrest Overstone for the more +serious offense against property. So it was known that a new +sheriff had been appointed and was coming to Wynyard's Bar with an +armed posse. But it was also understood that this invasion would +be resisted by the Bar to its last man. + +All eyes were turned upon a fringe of laurel and butternut that +encroached upon the road half a mile away, where it seemed that +such of the inhabitants who were missing from the bluff were hidden +to give warning or retard the approach of the posse. A gray haze, +slowly rising between the fringe and the distant hillside, was +recognized as the dust of a cavalcade passing along the invisible +highway. In the hush of expectancy that followed, the irregular +clatter of hoofs, the sharp crack of a rifle, and a sudden halt +were faintly audible. The men, scattered in groups on the bluff, +exchanged a smile of grim satisfaction. + +Not so their leader! A quick start and an oath attracted attention +to him. To their surprise he was looking in another direction, but +as they looked too they saw and understood the cause. A file of +horsemen, hitherto undetected, were slowly passing along the little +ridge on their right. Their compact accoutrements and the yellow +braid on their blue jackets, distinctly seen at that distance, +showed them to be a detachment of United States cavalry. + +Before the assemblage could realize this new invasion, a nearer +clatter of hoofs was heard along the high road, and one of the +ambuscading party dashed up from the fringe of woods below. His +face was flushed, but triumphant. + +"A reg'lar skunk--by the living hokey!" he panted, pointing to the +faint haze that was again slowly rising above the invisible road. +"They backed down as soon as they saw our hand, and got a hole +through their new sheriff's hat. But what are you lookin' at? +What's up?" + +The leader impatiently pointed with a darkening face to the distant +file. + +"Reg'lars, by gum!" ejaculated the other. "But Uncle Sam ain't in +this game. Wot right have THEY"-- + +"Dry up!" said the leader. + +The detachment was now moving at right angles with the camp, but +suddenly halted, almost doubling upon itself in some evident +commotion. A dismounted figure was seen momentarily flying down +the hillside dodging from bush to bush until lost in the underbrush. +A dozen shots were fired over its head, and then the whole +detachment wheeled and came clattering down the trail in the +direction of the camp. A single riderless horse, evidently that +of the fugitive, followed. + +"Spread yourselves along the ridge, every man of you, and cover +them as they enter the gulch!" shouted the leader. "But not a shot +until I give the word. Scatter!" + +The assemblage dispersed like a startled village of prairie dogs, +squatting behind every available bush and rock along the line of +bluff. The leader alone trotted quietly to the head of the gulch. + +The nine cavalrymen came smartly up in twos, a young officer +leading. The single figure of Major Overstone opposed them with a +command to halt. Looking up, the young officer drew rein, said a +word to his file leader, and the four files closed in a compact +square motionless on the road. The young officer's unsworded hand +hung quietly at his thigh, the men's unslung carbines rested easily +on their saddles. Yet at that moment every man of them knew that +they were covered by a hundred rifles and shot guns leveled from +every bush, and that they were caught helplessly in a trap. + +"Since when," said Major Overstone with an affectation of tone and +manner different from that in which he had addressed his previous +companions, "have the Ninth United States Cavalry helped to serve a +State court's pettifogging process?" + +"We are hunting a deserter--a half-breed agent--who has just +escaped us," returned the officer. His voice was boyish--so, too, +was his figure in its slim, cadet-like smartness of belted tunic-- +but very quiet and level, although his face was still flushed with +the shock and shame of his surprise. + +The relaxation of relief went through the wrought and waiting camp. +The soldiers were not seeking THEM. Ready as these desperate men +had been to do their leader's bidding, they were well aware that a +momentary victory over the troopers would not pass unpunished, and +meant the ultimate dispersion of the camp. And quiet as these +innocent invaders seemed to be they would no doubt sell their lives +dearly. The embattled desperadoes glanced anxiously at their +leader; the soldiers, on the contrary, looked straight before them. + +"Process or no process," said Major Overstone with a sneer, "you've +come to the last place to recover your deserter. We don't give up +men in Wynyard's Bar. And they didn't teach you at the Academy, +sir, to stop to take prisoners when you were outflanked and +outnumbered." + +"Bedad! They didn't teach YOU, Captain Overstone, to engage a +battery at Cerro Gordo with a half company, but you did it; more +shame to you now, sorr, commandin' the thayves and ruffians you +do." + +"Silence!" said the young officer. + +The sleeve of the sergeant who had spoken--with the chevrons of +long service upon it--went up to a salute, and dropped again over +his carbine as he stared stolidly before him. But his shot had +told. A flush of mingled pride and shame passed over Overstone's +face. + +"Oh! it's YOU, Murphy," he said with an affected laugh, "and you +haven't improved with your stripes." + +The young officer turned his head slightly. + +"Attention!" + +"One moment more," said Overstone coming forward. "I have told you +that we don't give up any man who seeks our protection. But," he +added with a half-careless, half-contemptuous wave of his hand, and +a significant glance at his followers, "we don't prevent you from +seeking him. The road is clear; the camp is before you." + +The young officer continued without looking at him. "Forward--in +two files--open order. Ma-arch!" + +The little troop moved forward, passed Major Overstone at the head +of the gully, and spread out on the hillside. The assembled camp, +still armed, lounging out of ambush here and there, ironically made +way for them to pass. A few moments of this farcical quest, and a +glance at the impenetrably wooded heights around, apparently +satisfied the young officer, and he turned his files again into the +gully. Major Overstone was still lingering there. + +"I hope you are satisfied," he said grimly. He then paused, and in +a changed and more hesitating voice added: "I am an older soldier +than you, sir, but I am always glad to make the acquaintance of +West Point." He paused and held out his hand. + +West Point, still red and rigid, glanced at him with bright clear +eyes under light lashes and the peak of a smartly cocked cap, +looked coolly at the proffered hand, raised his own to a stiff +salute, said, "Good afternoon, sir," and rode away. + +Major Overstone wheeled angrily, but in doing so came sharply upon +his coadjutor--the leader of the ambushed party. + +"Well, Dawson," he said impatiently. "Who was it?" + +"Only one of them d----d half-breed Injin agents. He's just over +there in the brush with Simpson, lying low till the soldiers clear +out." + +"Did you talk to him?" + +"Not much!" returned Dawson scornfully. "He ain't my style." + +"Fetch him up to my cabin; he may be of some use to us." + +Dawson looked skeptical. "I reckon he ain't no more gain here than +he was over there," he said, and turned away. + + +II. + + +The cabin of Major Overstone differed outwardly but little from +those of his companions. It was the usual structure of logs, laid +lengthwise, and rudely plastered at each point of contact with +adobe, the material from which the chimney, which entirely occupied +one gable, was built. It was pierced with two windows and a door, +roofed with smaller logs, and thatched with long half cylinders of +spruce bark. But the interior gave certain indications of the +distinction as well as the peculiar experiences of its occupant. +In place of the usual bunk or berth built against the wall stood a +small folding camp bedstead, and upon a rude deal table that held a +tin wash-basin and pail lay two ivory-handled brushes, combs, and +other elegant toilet articles, evidently the contents of the +major's dressing-bag. A handsome leather trunk occupied one +corner, with a richly caparisoned silver-mounted Mexican saddle, +a mahogany case of dueling pistols, a leather hat-box, locked and +strapped, and a gorgeous gold and quartz handled ebony "presentation" +walking stick. There was a certain dramatic suggestion in this +revelation of the sudden and hurried transition from a life of +ostentatious luxury to one of hidden toil and privation, and a +further significance in the slow and gradual distribution and +degradation of these elegant souvenirs. A pair of silver boot-hooks +had been used for raking the hearth and lifting the coffee kettle; +the ivory of the brushes was stained with coffee; the cut-glass +bottles had lost their stoppers, and had been utilized for vinegar +and salt; a silver-framed hand mirror hung against the blackened +wall. For the major's occupancy was the sequel of a hurried flight +from his luxurious hotel at Sacramento--a transfer that he believed +was only temporary until the affair blew over, and he could return +in safety to brow-beat his accusers, as was his wont. But this had +not been so easy as he had imagined; his prosecutors were bitter, +and his enforced seclusion had been prolonged week by week until the +fracas which ended in the shooting of the sheriff had apparently +closed the door upon his return to civilization forever. Only here +was his life and person secure. For Wynyard's Bar had quickly +succumbed to the domination of his reckless courage, and the +eminence of his double crime had made him respected among +spendthrifts, gamblers, and gentlemen whose performances had never +risen above a stage-coach robbery or a single assassination. Even +criticism of his faded luxuries had been delicately withheld. + +He was leaning over his open trunk--which the camp popularly +supposed to contain State bonds and securities of fabulous amount-- +and had taken some letters from it, when a figure darkened the +doorway. He looked up, laying his papers carelessly aside. WITHIN +Wynyard's Bar property was sacred. + +It was the late fugitive. Although some hours had already elapsed +since his arrival in camp, and he had presumably refreshed himself +inwardly, his outward appearance was still disheveled and dusty. +Brier and milkweed clung to his frayed blouse and trousers. What +could be seen of the skin of his face and hands under its stains +and begriming was of a dull yellow. His light eyes had all the +brightness without the restlessness of the mongrel race. They +leisurely took in the whole cabin, the still open trunk before the +major, and then rested deliberately on the major himself. + +"Well," said Major Overstone abruptly, "what brought you here?" + +"Same as brought you, I reckon," responded the man almost as +abruptly. + +The major knew something of the half-breed temper, and neither the +retort nor its tone affected him. + +"You didn't come here just because you deserted," said the major +coolly. "You've been up to something else." + +"I have," said the man with equal coolness. + +"I thought so. Now, you understand you can't try anything of that +kind HERE. If you do, up you go on the first tree. That's Rule 1." + +"I see you ain't pertickler about waiting for the sheriff here, you +fellers." + +The major glanced at him quickly. He seemed to be quite unconscious +of any irony in his remark, and continued grimly, "And what's +Rule 2?" + +"I reckon you needn't trouble yourself beyond No. 1," returned the +major with dry significance. Nevertheless, he opened a rude +cupboard in the corner and brought out a rich silver-mounted cut- +glass drinking-flask, which he handed to the stranger. + +"I say," said the half-breed, admiringly, "yours?" + +"Certainly." + +"Certainly NOW, but BEFORE, eh?" + +Rule No. 2 may have indicated that references to the past held no +dishonor. The major, although accustomed to these pleasantries, +laughed a little harshly. + +"Mine always," he said. "But you don't drink?" + +The half-breed's face darkened under its grime. + +"Wot you're givin' us? I've been filled chock up by Simpson over +thar. I reckon I know when I've got a load on." + +"Were you ever in Sacramento?" + +"Yes." + +"When?" + +"Last week." + +"Did you hear anything about me?" + +The half-breed glanced through his tangled hair at the major in +some wonder, not only at the question, but at the almost childish +eagerness with which it was asked. + +"I didn't hear much of anything else," he answered grimly. + +"And--what did they SAY?" + +"Said you'd got to be TOOK anyhow! They allowed the new sheriff +would do it too." + +The major laughed. "Well, you heard HOW the new sheriff did it-- +skunked away with his whole posse before one-eighth of my men! You +saw how the rest of this camp held up your nine troopers, and that +sap-headed cub of a lieutenant--didn't you? You wouldn't have been +standing here if you hadn't. No; there isn't the civil process nor +the civil power in all California that can take me out of this +camp." + +But neither his previous curiosity nor present bravado seemed to +impress the ragged stranger with much favor. He glanced sulkily +around the cabin and began to shuffle towards the door. + +"Stop! Where are you going to? Sit down. I want to talk to you." + +The fugitive hesitated for a moment, and then dropped ungraciously +on the edge of a camp-stool near the door. The major looked at +him. + +"I may have to remind you that I run this camp, and the boys +hereabouts do pretty much as I say. What's your name?" + +"Tom." + +"Tom? Well, look here, Tom! D--n it all! Can't you see that when +a man is stuck here alone, as I am, he wants to know what's going +on outside, and hear a little fresh talk?" + +The singular weakness of this blended command and appeal apparently +struck the fugitive curiously. He fixed his lowering eyes on the +major as if in gloomy doubt if he were really the reckless +desperado he had been represented. That this man--twice an +assassin and the ruler of outlaws as reckless as himself--should +approach him in this half-confidential way evidently puzzled him. + +"Wot you wanter know?" he asked gruffly. + +"Well, what's my party saying or doing about me?" said the major +impatiently. "What's the 'Express' saying about me?" + +"I reckon they're throwing off on you all round; they allow you +never represented the party, but worked for yourself," said the man +shortly. + +Here the major lashed out. A set of traitors and hirelings! He +had bought and paid for them all! He had sunk two thousand dollars +in the "Express" and saved the editor from being horsewhipped and +jailed for libel! Half the cursed bonds that they were making such +a blanked fuss about were handled by these hypocrites--blank them! +They were a low-lived crew of thieves and deserters! It is +presumed that the major had forgotten himself in this infelicitous +selection of epithets, but the stranger's face only relaxed into a +grim smile. More than that, the major had apparently forgotten his +desire to hear his guest talk, for he himself at once launched into +an elaborate exposition of his own affairs and a specious and +equally elaborate defense and justification of himself and +denunciation of his accusers. For nearly half an hour he reviewed +step by step and detail by detail the charges against him--with +plausible explanation and sophistical argument, but always with a +singular prolixity and reiteration that spoke of incessant self- +consciousness and self-abstraction. Of that dashing self- +sufficiency which had dazzled his friends and awed his enemies +there was no trace! At last, even the set smile of the degraded +recipient of these confidences darkened with a dull, bewildered +disgust. Then, to his relief, a step was heard without. The +major's manner instantly changed. + +"Well?" he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered. + +"I came to know what you want done with HIM," said Dawson, +indicating the fugitive with a contemptuous finger. + +"Take him to your cabin!" + +"My cabin! HIM?" ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief. + +The major's light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a +straight line. "I don't think you understand me, Dawson, and +another time you'd better wait until I'm done. I want you to +take him to your cabin--and then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You +understand? I want him NEAR ME AND ALONE!" + + +III. + + +Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone +and the half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had +already come to the conclusion that the major was planning some +extraordinary reprisals against the invaders, that would ensure the +perpetual security of the camp. That he should use so insignificant +and unimportant a tool now appeared to him to be quite natural, +particularly as the service was probably one in which the man would +be sacrificed. "The major," he suggested to his companions, "ain't +going to risk a white man's skin, when he can get an Injun's hide +handy." + +The reluctant hesitating step of the half-breed as they walked +along seemed to give some color to this hypothesis. He listened +sullenly to the major as he pointed out the strategic position of +the Bar. "That wagon road is the only approach to Wynyard's, and a +dozen men along the rocks could hold it against a hundred. The +trail that you came by, over the ridge, drops straight into this +gully, and you saw what that would mean to any blanked fools who +might try it. Of course we could be shelled from that ridge if the +sheriff had a howitzer, or the men who knew how to work one, but +even then we could occupy the ridge before them." He paused a +moment and then added: "I used to be in the army, Tom; I saw +service in Mexico before that cub you got away from had his first +trousers. I was brought up as a gentleman--blank it all--and HERE +I am!" + +The man slouched on by his side, casting his surly, furtive glances +from left to right, as if seeking to escape from these confidences. +Nevertheless, the major kept on through the gully, until reaching +the wagon road they crossed it, and began to ascend the opposite +slope, half hidden by the underbrush and larches. Here the major +paused again and faced about. The cabins of the settlement were +already behind the bluff; the little stream which indicated the +"bar"--on which some perfunctory mining was still continued--now +and then rang out quite clearly at their feet, although the bar +itself had disappeared. The sounds of occupation and labor had at +last died away in the distance. They were quite alone. The major +sat down on a boulder, and pointed to another. The man, however, +remained sullenly standing where he was, as if to accent as +strongly as possible the enforced companionship. Either the +major was too self-absorbed to notice it, or accepted it as a +satisfactory characteristic of the half-breed's race. He continued +confidently:-- + +"Now look here, Tom. I want to leave this cursed hole, and get +clear out of the State! Anywhere; over the Oregon line into +British Columbia, or to the coast, where I can get a coasting +vessel down to Mexico. It will cost money, but I've got it. It +will cost a lot of risks, but I'll take them. I want somebody to +help me, some one to share risks with me, and some one to share my +luck if I succeed. Help to put me on the other side of the border +line, by sea or land, and I'll give you a thousand dollars down +BEFORE WE START and a thousand dollars when I'm safe." + +The half-breed had changed his slouching attitude. It seemed more +indolent on account of the loosely hanging strap that had once held +his haversack, which was still worn in a slovenly fashion over his +shoulder as a kind of lazy sling for his shiftless hand. + +"Well, Tom, is it a go? You can trust ME, for you'll have the +thousand in your pocket before you start. I can trust YOU, for +I'll kill you quicker than lightning if you say a word of this to +any one before I go, or play a single trick on me afterwards." + +Suddenly the two men were rolling over and over in the underbrush. +The half-breed had thrown himself upon the major, bearing him down +to the ground. The haversack strap for an instant whirled like the +loop of a lasso in the air, and descended over the major's +shoulders, pinioning his arms to his side. Then the half-breed, +tearing open his ragged blouse, stripped off his waist-belt, and as +dexterously slipped it over the ankles of the struggling man. + +It was all over in a moment. Neither had spoken a word. Only +their rapid panting broke the profound silence. Each probably knew +that no outcry would be overheard. + +For the first time the half-breed sat down. But there was no trace +of triumph or satisfaction in his face, which wore the same +lowering look of disgust, as he gazed upon the prostrate man. + +"I want to tell you first," he said, slowly wiping his face, "that +I didn't kalkilate upon doin' this in this yer kind o' way. I +expected more of a stan' up fight from you--more risk in gettin' +you out o' that hole--and a different kind of a man to tackle. I +never expected you to play into my hand like this--and it goes +against me to hev to take advantage of it." + +"Who are you?" said the major, pantingly. + +"I'm the new sheriff of Siskyou!" + +He drew from beneath his begrimed shirt a paper wrapping, from +which he gingerly extracted with the ends of his dirty fingers a +clean, legal-looking folded paper. + +"That's my warrant! I've kept it fresh for you. I reckon you +don't care to read it--you've seen it afore. It's just the same as +t'other sheriff had--what you shot." + +"Then this was a plant of yours, and that whelp's troopers?" said +the major. + +"Neither him nor the sojers knows any more about it than you," +returned the sheriff slowly. "I enlisted as Injin guide or scout +ten days ago. I deserted just as reg'lar and nat'ral like when we +passed that ridge yesterday. I could be took to-morrow by the +sojers if they caught sight o' me and court-martialed--it's as +reg'lar as THAT! But I timed to have my posse, under a deputy, +draw you off by an attack just as the escort reached the ridge. +And here I am." + +"And you're no half-breed?" + +"There's nothin' Injin about me that water won't wash off. I +kalkilated you wouldn't suspect anything so insignificant as an +INJIN, when I fixed myself up. You saw Dawson didn't hanker after +me much. But I didn't reckon on YOUR tumbling to me so quick. +That's what gets me! You must hev been pretty low down for kempany +when you took a man like me inter your confidence. I don't see it +yet." + +He looked inquiringly at his captive--with the same wondering +surliness. Nor could he understand another thing which was +evident. After the first shock of resistance the major had +exhibited none of the indignation of a betrayed man, but actually +seemed to accept the situation with a calmness that his captor +lacked. His voice was quite unemotional as he said: + +"And how are you going to get me away from here?" + +"That's MY look out, and needn't trouble you, major; but, seein' as +how confidential you've been to me, I don't mind tellin' you. Last +night that posse of mine that you 'skunked,' you know, halted at +the cross roads till them sojers went by. They has only to SEE +THEM to know that I had got away. They'll hang round the cross +roads till they see my signal on top of the ridge, and then they'll +make another show against that pass. Your men will have their +hands full, I reckon, without huntin' for YOU, or noticin' the +three men o' mine that will come along this ridge where the sojers +come yesterday--to help me get you down in the same way. You see, +major, your little trap in that gully ain't in this fight--WE'RE +THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. I ain't much of a sojer, but I reckon I've +got you there! And it's all owing to YOU. I ain't," he added +gloomily, "takin' much pride in it MYSELF." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said the major, "and look here! +I'll double that offer I made you just now. Set me down just as I +am on the deck of some coasting vessel, and I'll pay you four +thousand dollars. You may have all the glory of having captured +me, HERE, and of making your word good before your posse. But you +can arrange afterwards on the way to let me give you the slip +somewhere near Sacramento." + +The sheriff's face actually brightened. "Thanks for that, major. +I was gettin' a little sick of my share in this job, but, by God, +you've put some sand in me. Well, then! there ain't gold enough in +all Californy to make me let you go. You hear me; so drop that. +I've TOOK you, and TOOK ye'll remain until I land you in Sacramento +jail. I don't want to kill you, though your life's forfeit a dozen +times over, and I reckon you don't care for it either way, but if +you try any tricks on me I may have to MAIM ye to make you come +along comf'able and easy. I ain't hankerin' arter THAT either, but +come you shall!" + +"Give your signal and have an end of this," said the major curtly. + +The sheriff looked at him again curiously. "I never had my hands +in another man's pockets before, major, but I reckon I'll have to +take your derringers from yours." He slipped his hand into the +major's waistcoat and secured the weapons. "I'll have to trouble +you for your sash, too," he said, unwinding the knitted silken +girdle from the captive's waist. "You won't want it, for you ain't +walking, and it'll come in handy to me just now." + +He bent over, and, passing it across the major's breast with more +gentleness and solicitude than he had yet shown, secured him in an +easy sitting posture against the tree. Then, after carefully +trying the knots and straps that held his prisoner, he turned and +lightly bounded up the hill. + +He was absent scarcely ten minutes, yet when he returned the +major's eyes were half closed. But not his lips. "If you expect +to hold me until your posse comes you had better take me to some +less exposed position," he said dryly. "There's a man just crossed +the gully, coming into the brush below in the wood." + +"None of your tricks, major!" + +"Look for yourself." + +The sheriff glanced quickly below him. A man with an axe on his +shoulder could be seen plainly making his way through the +underbrush not a hundred yards away. The sheriff instantly clapped +his hand upon his captive's mouth, but at a look from his eyes took +it away again. + +"I see," he said grimly, "you don't want to lure that man within +reach of my revolver by calling to him." + +"I could have called him while you were away," returned the major +quietly. + +The sheriff with a darkened face loosened the sash that bound his +prisoner to the tree, and then, lifting him in his arms, began to +ascend the hill cautiously, dipping into the heavier shadows. But +the ascent was difficult, the load a heavy one, and the sheriff was +agile rather than muscular. After a few minutes' climbing he was +forced to pause and rest his burden at the foot of a tree. But the +valley and the man in the underbrush were no longer in view. + +"Come," said the major quietly, "unstrap my ankles and I'll WALK +up. We'll never get there at this rate." + +The sheriff paused, wiped his grimy face with his grimier blouse, +and stood looking at his prisoner. Then he said slowly:-- + +"Look yer! Wot's your little game? Blessed if I kin follow suit." + +For the first time the major burst into a rage. "Blast it all! +Don't you see that if I'm discovered HERE, in this way, there's not +a man on the Bar who would believe that I walked into your trap, +not a man, by God, who wouldn't think it was a trick of yours and +mine together?" + +"Or," interrupted the sheriff slowly, fixing his eyes on his +prisoner, "not a man who would ever trust Major Overstone for a +leader again?" + +"Perhaps," said the major, unmovedly again, "I don't think EITHER +OF US would ever get a chance of being trusted again by any one." + +The sheriff still kept his eyes fixed on his prisoner, his gloomy +face growing darker under its grime. "THAT ain't the reason, +major. Life and death don't mean much more to you than they do to +me in this yer game. I know that you'd kill me quicker nor +lightning if you got the chance; YOU know that I'm takin' you to +the gallows." + +"The reason is that I want to leave Wynyard's Bar," said the major +coolly; "and even this way out of it will suit me." + +The sheriff took his revolver from his pocket and deliberately +cocked it. Then, leaning down, he unbuckled the strap from the +major's ankles. A wild hope that his incomprehensible captive +might seize that moment to develop his real intent--that he might +fly, fight, or in some way act up to his reckless reputation-- +sustained him for a moment, but in the next proved futile. The +major only said, "Thank you, Tom," and stretched his cramped legs. + +"Get up and go on," said the sheriff roughly. + +The major began to slowly ascend the hill, the sheriff close on his +heels, alert, tingling, and watchful of every movement. For a few +moments this strain upon his faculties seemed to invigorate him, +and his gloom relaxed, but presently it became too evident that the +prisoner's pinioned arms made it impossible for him to balance or +help himself on that steep trail, and once or twice he stumbled and +reeled dangerously to one side. With an oath the sheriff caught +him, and tore from his arms the only remaining bonds that fettered +him. "There!" he said savagely; "go on; we're equal!" + +Without replying, the major continued his ascent; it became steeper +as they neared the crest, and at last they were both obliged to +drag themselves up by clutching the vines and underbrush. Suddenly +the major stopped with a listening gesture. A strange roaring--as +of wind or water--was distinctly audible. + +"How did you signal?" asked the major abruptly. + +"Made a smoke," said the sheriff as abruptly. + +"I thought so--well! you've set the woods on fire." + +They both plunged upwards again, now quite abreast, vying with each +other to reach the summit as if with the one thought only. Already +the sting and smart of acrid fumes were in their eyes and nostrils; +when they at last stood on level ground again, it was hidden by a +thin film of grayish blue haze that seemed to be creeping along it. +But above was the clear sky, seen through the interlacing boughs, +and to their surprise--they who had just come from the breathless, +stagnant hillside--a fierce wind was blowing! But the roaring was +louder than before. + +"Unless your three men are already here, your game is up," said the +major calmly. "The wind blows dead along the ridge where they +should come, and they can't get through the smoke and fire." + +It was indeed true! In the scarce twenty minutes that had elapsed +since the sheriff's return the dry and brittle underbrush for half +a mile on either side had been converted into a sheet of flame, +which at times rose to a furnace blast through the tall chimney- +like conductors of tree shafts, from whose shriveled sides bark was +crackling, and lighted dead limbs falling in all directions. The +whole valley, the gully, the Bar, the very hillside they had just +left, were blotted out by a creeping, stifling smoke-fog that +scarcely rose breast high, but was beaten down or cut off cleanly +by the violent wind that swept the higher level of the forest. At +times this gale became a sirocco in temperature, concentrating its +heat in withering blasts which they could not face, or focusing its +intensity upon some mass of foliage that seemed to shrink at its +touch and open a scathed and quivering aisle to its approach. The +enormous skeleton of a dead and rotten redwood, not a hundred yards +to their right, broke suddenly like a gigantic firework into sparks +and flame. + +The sheriff had grasped the full meaning of their situation. In +spite of his first error--the very carelessness of familiarity--his +knowledge of woodcraft was greater than his companion's, and he saw +their danger. "Come," he said quickly, "we must make for an +opening or we shall be caught." + +The major smiled in misapprehension. + +"Who could catch us here?" + +The sheriff pointed to the blazing tree. + +"THAT," he said. "In five minutes IT will have a posse that will +wipe us both out." + +He caught the major by the arm and rushed him into the smoke, +apparently in the direction of the greatest mass of flame. The +heat was suffocating, but it struck the major that the more they +approached the actual scene of conflagration the heat and smoke +became less, until he saw that the fire was retreating before them +and the following wind. In a few moments their haven of safety-- +the expanse already burnt over--came in sight. Here and there, +seen dimly through the drifting smoke, the scattered embers that +still strewed the forest floor glowed in weird nebulous spots like +will-o'-the-wisps. For an instant the major hesitated; the sheriff +cast a significant glance behind them. + +"Go on; it's our only chance," he said imperatively. + +They darted on, skimming the blackened or smouldering surface, +which at times struck out sparks and flame from their heavier +footprints as they passed. Their boots crackled and scorched +beneath them; their shreds of clothing were on fire; their +breathing became more difficult, until, providentially, they fell +upon an abrupt, fissure-like depression of the soil, which the fire +had leaped, and into which they blindly plunged and rolled +together. A moment of relief and coolness followed, as they crept +along the fissure, filled with damp and rotting leaves. + +"Why not stay here?" said the exhausted prisoner. + +"And be roasted like sweet potatoes when these trees catch," +returned the sheriff grimly. "No." Even as he spoke, a dropping +rain of fire spattered through the leaves from a splintered +redwood, before overlooked, that was now blazing fiercely in the +upper wind. A vague and indefinable terror was in the air. The +conflagration no longer seemed to obey any rule of direction. The +incendiary torch had passed invisibly everywhere. They scrambled +out of the hollow, and again dashed desperately forward. + +Beaten, bruised, blackened, and smoke-grimed--looking less human +than the animals who had long since deserted the crest--they at +last limped into a "wind opening" in the woods that the fire had +skirted. The major sank exhaustedly to the ground; the sheriff +threw himself beside him. Their strange relations to each other +seemed to have been forgotten; they looked and acted as if they no +longer thought of anything beyond the present. And when the +sheriff finally arose and, disappearing for several minutes, +brought his hat full of water for his prisoner from a distant +spring that they had passed in their flight, he found him where he +had left him--unchanged and unmoved. + +He took the water gratefully, and after a pause fixed his eyes +earnestly upon his captor. "I want you to do a favor to me," he +said slowly. "I'm not going to offer you a bribe to do it either, +nor ask you anything that isn't in a line with your duty. I think +I understand you now, if I didn't before. Do you know Briggs's +restaurant in Sacramento?" + +The sheriff nodded. + +"Well! over the restaurant are my private rooms, the finest in +Sacramento. Nobody knows it but Briggs, and he has never told. +They've been locked ever since I left; I've got the key still in my +pocket. Now when we get to Sacramento, instead of taking me +straight to jail, I want you to hold me THERE as your prisoner for +a day and a night. I don't want to get away; you can take what +precautions you like--surround the house with policemen, and sleep +yourself in the ante-room. I don't want to destroy any papers or +evidence; you can go through the rooms and examine everything +before and after; I only want to stay there a day and a night; I +want to be in my old rooms, have my meals from the restaurant as I +used to, and sleep in my own bed once more. I want to live for one +day like a gentleman, as I used to live before I came here. That's +all! It isn't much, Tom. You can do it and say you require to do +it to get evidence against me, or that you want to search the rooms." + +The expression of wonder which had come into the sheriff's face at +the beginning of this speech deepened into his old look of surly +dissatisfaction. "And that's all ye want?" he said gloomily. "Ye +don't want no friends--no lawyer? For I tell you, straight out, +major, there ain't no hope for ye, when the law once gets hold of +ye in Sacramento." + +"That's all. Will you do it?" + +The sheriff's face grew still darker. After a pause he said: "I +don't say 'no,' and I don't say 'yes.' But," he added grimly, "it +strikes me we'd better wait till we get clear o' these woods afore +you think o' your Sacramento lodgings." + +The major did not reply. The day had worn on, but the fire, now +completely encircling them, opposed any passage in or out of that +fateful barrier. The smoke of the burning underbrush hung low +around them in a bank equally impenetrable to vision. They were as +alone as shipwrecked sailors on an island, girded by a horizon of +clouds. + +"I'm going to try to sleep," said the major; "if your men come you +can waken me." + +"And if YOUR men come?" said the sheriff dryly. + +"Shoot me." + +He lay down, closed his eyes, and to the sheriff's astonishment +presently fell asleep. The sheriff, with his chin in his grimy +hands, sat and watched him as the day slowly darkened around them +and the distant fires came out in more lurid intensity. The face +of the captive and outlawed murderer was singularly peaceful; that +of the captor and man of duty was haggard, wild, and perplexed. + +But even this changed soon. The sleeping man stirred restlessly +and uneasily; his face began to work, his lips to move. "Tom," he +gasped suddenly, "Tom!" + +The sheriff bent over him eagerly. The sleeping man's eyes were +still closed; beads of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was +dreaming. + +"Tom," he whispered, "take me out of this place--take me out from +these dogs and pimps and beggars! Listen, Tom!--they're Sydney +ducks, ticket-of-leave men, short card sharps, and sneak thieves! +There isn't a gentleman among 'em! There isn't one I don't loathe +and hate--and would grind under my heel, elsewhere. I'm a +gentleman, Tom--yes, by God--an officer and a gentleman! I've +served my country in the 9th Cavalry. That cub of West Point knows +it and despises me, seeing me here in such company. That sergeant +knows it--I recommended him for his first stripes for all he taunts +me,--d--n him!" + +"Come, wake up!" said the sheriff harshly. + +The prisoner did not heed him; the sheriff shook him roughly, so +roughly that the major's waistcoat and shirt dragged open, +disclosing his fine silk undershirt, delicately worked and +embroidered with golden thread. At the sight of this abased and +faded magnificence the sheriff's hand was stayed; his eye wandered +over the sleeping form before him. Yes, the hair was dyed too; +near the roots it was quite white and grizzled; the pomatum was +coming off the pointed moustache and imperial; the face in the +light was very haggard; the lines from the angles of the nostril +and mouth were like deep, half-healed gashes. The major was, +without doubt, prematurely worn and played out. + +The sheriff's persistent eyes, however, seemed to effect what his +ruder hand could not. The sleeping man stirred, awoke to full +consciousness, and sat up. + +"Are they here? I'm ready," he said calmly. + +"No," said the sheriff deliberately; "I only woke ye to say that +I've been thinkin' over what ye asked me, and if we get to +Sacramento all right, why, I'll do it and give ye that day and +night at your old lodgings." + +"Thank you." + +The major reached out his hand; the sheriff hesitated, and then +extended his own. The hands of the two men clasped for the first, +and it would seem, the last time. + +For the "cub of West Point" was, like most cubs, irritable when +thwarted. And having been balked of his prey, the deserter, and +possibly chaffed by his comrades for his profitless invasion of +Wynyard's Bar, he had persuaded his commanding officer to give him +permission to effect a recapture. Thus it came about that at dawn, +filing along the ridge, on the outskirts of the fire, his heart was +gladdened by the sight of the half-breed--with his hanging +haversack belt and tattered army tunic--evidently still a fugitive, +not a hundred yards away on the other side of the belt of fire, +running down the hill with another ragged figure at his side. The +command to "halt" was enforced by a single rifle shot over the +fugitives' heads--but they still kept on their flight. Then the +boy-officer snatched a carbine from one of his men, a volley rang +out from the little troop--the shots of the privates mercifully +high, those of the officer and sergeant leveled with wounded pride +and full of deliberate purpose. The half-breed fell; so did his +companion, and, rolling over together, both lay still. + +But between the hunters and their fallen quarry reared a cheval de +frise of flame and fallen timber impossible to cross. The young +officer hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, wheeled his men about, +and left the fire to correct any irregularity in his action. + +It did not, however, change contemporaneous history, for a week +later, when Wynyard's Bar discovered Major Overstone lying beside +the man now recognized by them as the disguised sheriff of Siskyou, +they rejoiced at this unfailing evidence of their lost leader's +unequaled prowess. That he had again killed a sheriff and fought a +whole posse, yielding only with his life, was never once doubted, +and kept his memory green in Sierran chronicles long after +Wynyard's Bar had itself become a memory. + + + +A ROSE OF GLENBOGIE. + + +The American consul at St. Kentigern stepped gloomily from the +train at Whistlecrankie station. For the last twenty minutes his +spirits had been slowly sinking before the drifting procession past +the carriage windows of dull gray and brown hills--mammiform in +shape, but so cold and sterile in expression that the swathes of +yellow mist which lay in their hollows, like soiled guipure, seemed +a gratuitous affectation of modesty. And when the train moved +away, mingling its escaping steam with the slower mists of the +mountain, he found himself alone on the platform--the only +passenger and apparently the sole occupant of the station. He was +gazing disconsolately at his trunk, which had taken upon itself a +human loneliness in the emptiness of the place, when a railway +porter stepped out of the solitary signal-box, where he had +evidently been performing a double function, and lounged with +exasperating deliberation towards him. He was a hard-featured man, +with a thin fringe of yellow-gray whiskers that met under his chin +like dirty strings to tie his cap on with. + +"Ye'll be goin' to Glenbogie House, I'm thinkin'?" he said moodily. + +The consul said that he was. + +"I kenned it. Ye'll no be gettin' any machine to tak' ye there. +They'll be sending a carriage for ye--if ye're EXPECTED." He +glanced half doubtfully at the consul as if he was not quite so +sure of it. + +But the consul believed he WAS expected, and felt relieved at the +certain prospect of a conveyance. The porter meanwhile surveyed +him moodily. + +"Ye'll be seein' Mistress MacSpadden there!" + +The consul was surprised into a little over-consciousness. Mrs. +MacSpadden was a vivacious acquaintance at St. Kentigern, whom he +certainly--and not without some satisfaction--expected to meet at +Glenbogie House. He raised his eyes inquiringly to the porter's. + +"Ye'll no be rememberin' me. I had a machine in St. Kentigern and +drove ye to MacSpadden's ferry often. Far, far too often! She's a +strange flagrantitious creature; her husband's but a puir fule, I'm +thinkin', and ye did yersel' nae guid gaunin' there." + +It was a besetting weakness of the consul's that his sense of the +ludicrous was too often reached before his more serious +perceptions. The absurd combination of the bleak, inhospitable +desolation before him, and the sepulchral complacency of his self- +elected monitor, quite upset his gravity. + +"Ay, ye'll be laughin' THE NOO," returned the porter with gloomy +significance. + +The consul wiped his eyes. "Still," he said demurely, "I trust you +won't object to my giving you sixpence to carry my box to the +carriage when it comes, and let the morality of this transaction +devolve entirely upon me. Unless," he continued, even more +gravely, as a spick and span brougham, drawn by two thoroughbreds, +dashed out of the mist up to the platform, "unless you prefer to +state the case to those two gentlemen"--pointing to the smart +coachman and footman on the box--"and take THEIR opinion as to the +propriety of my proceeding any further. It seems to me that their +consciences ought to be consulted as well as yours. I'm only a +stranger here, and am willing to do anything to conform to the +local custom." + +"It's a saxpence ye'll be payin' anyway," said the porter, grimly +shouldering the trunk, "but I'll be no takin' any other mon's +opinion on matters of my am dooty and conscience." + +"Ah," said the consul gravely, "then you'll perhaps be allowing ME +the same privilege." + +The porter's face relaxed, and a gleam of approval--purely +intellectual, however,--came into his eyes. + +"Ye were always a smooth deevel wi' your tongue, Mr. Consul," he +said, shouldering the box and walking off to the carriage. + +Nevertheless, as soon as he was fairly seated and rattling away +from the station, the consul had a flashing conviction that he had +not only been grievously insulted but also that he had allowed the +wife of an acquaintance to be spoken of disrespectfully in his +presence. And he had done nothing! Yes--it was like him!--he had +LAUGHED at the absurdity of the impertinence without resenting it! +Another man would have slapped the porter's face! For an instant +he hung out of the carriage window, intent upon ordering the +coachman to drive back to the station, but the reflection--again a +ludicrous one--that he would now be only bringing witnesses to a +scene which might provoke a scandal more invidious to his +acquaintance, checked him in time. But his spirits, momentarily +diverted by the porter's effrontery, sunk to a lower ebb than +before. + +The clattering of his horses' hoofs echoed back from the rocky +walls that occasionally hemmed in the road was not enlivening, but +was less depressing than the recurring monotony of the open. The +scenery did not suggest wildness to his alien eyes so much as it +affected him with a vague sense of scorbutic impoverishment. It +was not the loneliness of unfrequented nature, for there was a +well-kept carriage road traversing its dreariness; and even when +the hillside was clothed with scanty verdure, there were "outcrops" +of smooth glistening weather-worn rocks showing like bare brown +knees under the all too imperfectly kilted slopes. And at a little +distance, lifting above a black drift of firs, were the square +rigid sky lines of Glenbogie House, standing starkly against the +cold, lingering northern twilight. As the vehicle turned, and +rolled between two square stone gate-posts, the long avenue before +him, though as well kept as the road, was but a slight improvement +upon the outer sterility, and the dark iron-gray rectangular +mansion beyond, guiltless of external decoration, even to the +outlines of its small lustreless windows, opposed the grim +inhospitable prospect with an equally grim inhospitable front. +There were a few moments more of rapid driving, a swift swishing +over soft gravel, the opening of a heavy door into a narrow +vestibule, and then--a sudden sense of exquisitely diffused light +and warmth from an arched and galleried central hall, the sounds of +light laughter and subdued voices half lost in the airy space +between the lofty pictured walls; the luxury of color in trophies, +armor, and hangings; one or two careless groups before the recessed +hearth or at the centre table, and the halted figure of a pretty +woman on the broad, slow staircase. The contrast was sharp, +ironical, and bewildering. + +So much so that the consul, when he had followed the servant to his +room, was impelled to draw aside the heavy window-curtains and look +out again upon the bleak prospect it had half obliterated. The +wing in which he was placed overhung a dark ravine or gully choked +with shrubs and brambles that grew in a new luxuriance. As he +gazed a large black bird floated upwards slowly from its depths, +circled around the house with a few quick strokes of its wing, and +then sped away--a black bolt--in one straight undeviating line +towards the paling north. He still gazed into the abyss--half +expecting another, even fancying he heard the occasional stir +and flutter of obscure life below, and the melancholy call of +nightfowl. A long-forgotten fragment of old English verse began +to haunt him-- + + + Hark! the raven flaps hys wing + In the briered dell belowe, + Hark! the dethe owl loude doth synge + To the night maers as thaie goe. + + +"Now, what put that stuff in my head?" he said as he turned +impatiently from the window. "And why does this house, with all +its interior luxury, hypocritically oppose such a forbidding front +to its neighbors?" Then it occurred to him that perhaps the +architect instinctively felt that a more opulent and elaborate +exterior would only bring the poverty of surrounding nature into +greater relief. But he was not in the habit of troubling himself +with abstruse problems. A nearer recollection of the pretty frock +he had seen on the staircase--in whose wearer he had just recognized +his vivacious friend--turned his thoughts to her. He remembered +how at their first meeting he had been interested in her bright +audacity, unconventionality, and high spirits, which did not, +however, amuse him as greatly as his later suspicion that she was +playing a self-elected role, often with difficulty, opposition, and +feverishness, rather than spontaneity. He remembered how he had +watched her in the obtrusive assumption of a new fashion, in some +reckless departure from an old one, or in some ostentatious +disregard of certain hard and set rules of St. Kentigern; but that +it never seemed to him that she was the happier for it. He even +fancied that her mirth at such times had an undue nervousness; that +her pluck--which was undoubted--had something of the defiance of +despair, and that her persistence often had the grimness of duty +rather than the thoughtlessness of pure amusement. What was she +trying to do?--what was she trying to UNDO or forget? Her married +life was apparently happy and even congenial. Her young husband was +clever, complaisant, yet honestly devoted to her, even to the +extension of a certain camaraderie to her admirers and a chivalrous +protection by half-participation in her maddest freaks. Nor could +he honestly say that her attitude towards his own sex--although +marked by a freedom that often reached the verge of indiscretion-- +conveyed the least suggestion of passion or sentiment. The consul, +more perceptive than analytical, found her a puzzle--who was, +perhaps, the least mystifying to others who were content to sum up +her eccentricities under the single vague epithet, "fast." Most +women disliked her: she had a few associates among them, but no +confidante, and even these were so unlike her, again, as to puzzle +him still more. And yet he believed himself strictly impartial. + +He walked to the window again, and looked down upon the ravine +from which the darkness now seemed to be slowly welling up and +obliterating the landscape, and then, taking a book from his +valise, settled himself in the easy-chair by the fire. He was in +no hurry to join the party below, whom he had duly recognized and +greeted as he passed through. They or their prototypes were +familiar friends. There was the recently created baronet, whose +"bloody hand" had apparently wiped out the stains of his earlier +Radicalism, and whose former provincial self-righteousness had been +supplanted by an equally provincial skepticism; there was his wife, +who through all the difficulties of her changed position had kept +the stalwart virtues of the Scotch bourgeoisie, and was--"decent"; +there were the two native lairds that reminded him of "parts of +speech," one being distinctly alluded to as a definite article, and +the other being "of" something, and apparently governed always by +that possessive case. There were two or three "workers"--men of +power and ability in their several vocations; indeed, there was the +general over-proportion of intellect, characteristic of such Scotch +gatherings, and often in excess of minor social qualities. There +was the usual foreigner, with Latin quickness, eagerness, and +misapprehending adaptability. And there was the solitary +Englishman--perhaps less generously equipped than the others-- +whom everybody differed from, ridiculed, and then looked up to and +imitated. There were the half-dozen smartly frocked women, who, +far from being the females of the foregoing species, were quite +indistinctive, with the single exception of an American wife, who +was infinitely more Scotch than her Scotch husband. + +Suddenly he became aware of a faint rustling at his door, and what +seemed to be a slight tap on the panel. He rose and opened it--the +long passage was dark and apparently empty, but he fancied he could +detect the quick swish of a skirt in the distance. As he re-entered +his room, his eye fell for the first time on a rose whose stalk was +thrust through the keyhole of his door. The consul smiled at this +amiable solution of a mystery. It was undoubtedly the playful +mischievousness of the vivacious MacSpadden. He placed it in +water--intending to wear it in his coat at dinner as a gentle +recognition of the fair donor's courtesy. + +Night had thickened suddenly as from a passing cloud. He lit the +two candles on his dressing-table, gave a glance into the now +scarcely distinguishable abyss below his window, as he drew the +curtains, and by the more diffused light for the first time +surveyed his room critically. It was a larger apartment than that +usually set aside for bachelors; the heavy four-poster had a +conjugal reserve about it, and a tall cheval glass and certain +minor details of the furniture suggested that it had been used for +a married couple. He knew that the guest-rooms in country houses, +as in hotels, carried no suggestion or flavor of the last tenant, +and therefore lacked color and originality, and he was consequently +surprised to find himself impressed with some distinctly novel +atmosphere. He was puzzling himself to discover what it might be, +when he again became aware of cautious footsteps apparently halting +outside his door. This time he was prepared. With a half smile he +stepped softly to the door and opened it suddenly. To his intense +surprise he was face to face with a man. + +But his discomfiture was as nothing compared to that of the +stranger--whom he at once recognized as one of his fellow-guests-- +the youthful Laird of Whistlecrankie. The young fellow's healthy +color at once paled, then flushed a deep crimson, and a forced +smile stiffened his mouth. + +"I--beg your par-r-rdon," he said with a nervous brusqueness that +brought out his accent. "I couldna find ma room. It'll be +changed, and I--" + +"Perhaps I have got it," interrupted the consul smilingly. "I've +only just come, and they've put me in here." + +"Nae! Nae!" said the young man hurriedly, "it's no' thiss. That +is, it's no' mine noo." + +"Won't you come in?" suggested the consul politely, holding open +the door. + +The young man entered the room with the quick strides but the +mechanical purposelessness of embarrassment. Then he stiffened +and stood erect. Yet in spite of all this he was strikingly +picturesque and unconventional in his Highland dress, worn with the +freedom of long custom and a certain lithe, barbaric grace. As the +consul continued to gaze at him encouragingly, the quick resentful +pride of a shy man suddenly mantled his high cheekbones, and with +an abrupt "I'll not deesturb ye longer," he strode out of the room. + +The consul watched the easy swing of his figure down the passage, +and then closed the door. "Delightful creature," he said musingly, +"and not so very unlike an Apache chief either! But what was he +doing outside my door? And was it HE who left that rose--not as +a delicate Highland attention to an utter stranger, but"--the +consul's mouth suddenly expanded--"to some fair previous occupant? +Or was it really HIS room--he looked as if he were lying--and"-- +here the consul's mouth expanded even more wickedly--"and Mrs. +MacSpadden had put the flower there for him." This implied snub to +his vanity was, however, more than compensated by his wicked +anticipation of the pretty perplexity of his fair friend when HE +should appear at dinner with the flower in his own buttonhole. It +would serve her right, the arrant flirt! But here he was +interrupted by the entrance of a tall housemaid with his hot water. + +"I am afraid I've dispossessed Mr.--Mr.--Kilcraithie rather +prematurely," said the consul lightly. + +To his infinite surprise the girl answered with grim decision, +"Nane too soon." + +The consul stared. "I mean," he explained, "that I found him +hesitating here in the passage, looking for his room." + +"Ay, he's always hoaverin' and glowerin' in the passages--but it's +no' for his ROOM! And it's a deesgrace to decent Christian folk +his carryin' on wi' married weemen--mebbee they're nae better than +he!" + +"That will do," said the consul curtly. He had no desire to +encourage a repetition of the railway porter's freedom. + +"Ye'll no fash yoursel' aboot HIM," continued the girl, without +heeding the rebuff. "It's no' the meestreess' wish that he's +keepit here in the wing reserved for married folk, and she's no' +sorry for the excuse to pit ye in his place. Ye'll be married +yoursel', I'm hearin'. But, I ken ye's nae mair to be lippened tae +for THAT." + +This was too much for the consul's gravity. "I'm afraid," he said +with diplomatic gayety, "that although I am married, as I haven't +my wife with me, I've no right to this superior accommodation and +comfort. But you can assure your mistress that I'll try to deserve +them." + +"Ay," said the girl, but with no great confidence in her voice as +she grimly quitted the room. + +"When our foot's upon our native heath, whether our name's +Macgregor or Kilcraithie, it would seem that we must tread warily," +mused the consul as he began to dress. "But I'm glad she didn't +see that rose, or MY reputation would have been ruined." Here +another knock at the door arrested him. He opened it impatiently +to a tall gillie, who instantly strode into the room. There was +such another suggestion of Kilcraithie in the man and his manner +that the consul instantly divined that he was Kilcraithie's +servant. + +"I'll be takin' some bit things that yon Whistlecrankie left," said +the gillie gravely, with a stolid glance around the room. + +"Certainly," said the consul; "help yourself." He continued his +dressing as the man began to rummage in the empty drawers. The +consul had his back towards him, but, looking in the glass of the +dressing-table, he saw that the gillie was stealthily watching him. +Suddenly he passed before the mantelpiece and quickly slipped the +rose from its glass into his hand. + +"I'll trouble you to put that back," said the consul quietly, +without turning round. The gillie slid a quick glance towards the +door, but the consul was before him. "I don't think THAT was left +by your master," he said in an ostentatiously calm voice, for he +was conscious of an absurd and inexplicable tumult in his blood, +"and perhaps you'd better put it back." + +The man looked at the flower with an attention that might have been +merely ostentatious, and replaced it in the glass. + +"A thocht it was hiss." + +"And I think it isn't," said the consul, opening the door. + +Yet when the man had passed out he was by no means certain that the +flower was not Kilcraithie's. He was even conscious that if the +young Laird had approached him with a reasonable explanation or +appeal he would have yielded it up. Yet here he was--looking +angrily pale in the glass, his eyes darker than they should be, and +with an unmistakable instinct to do battle for this idiotic gage! +Was there some morbid disturbance in the air that was affecting him +as it had Kilcraithie? He tried to laugh, but catching sight of +its sardonic reflection in the glass became grave again. He +wondered if the gillie had been really looking for anything his +master had left--he had certainly TAKEN nothing. He opened one or +two of the drawers, and found only a woman's tortoiseshell hairpin-- +overlooked by the footman when he had emptied them for the +consul's clothes. It had been probably forgotten by some fair and +previous tenant to Kilcraithie. The consul looked at his watch--it +was time to go down. He grimly pinned the fateful flower in his +buttonhole, and half-defiantly descended to the drawing-room. + +Here, however, he was inclined to relax when, from a group of +pretty women, the bright gray eyes of Mrs. MacSpadden caught his, +were suddenly diverted to the lapel of his coat, and then leaped up +to his again with a sparkle of mischief. But the guests were +already pairing off in dinner couples, and as they passed out of +the room, he saw that she was on the arm of Kilcraithie. Yet, as +she passed him, she audaciously turned her head, and in a +mischievous affectation of jealous reproach, murmured:-- + +"So soon!" + +At dinner she was too far removed for any conversation with him, +although from his seat by his hostess he could plainly see her +saucy profile midway up the table. But, to his surprise, her +companion, Kilcraithie, did not seem to be responding to her +gayety. By turns abstracted and feverish, his glances occasionally +wandered towards the end of the table where the consul was sitting. +For a few moments he believed that the affair of the flower, +combined, perhaps, with the overhearing of Mrs. MacSpadden's +mischievous sentence, rankled in the Laird's barbaric soul. But he +became presently aware that Kilcraithie's eyes eventually rested +upon a quiet-looking blonde near the hostess. Yet the lady not +only did not seem to be aware of it, but her face was more often +turned towards the consul, and their eyes had once or twice met. +He had been struck by the fact that they were half-veiled but +singularly unimpassioned eyes, with a certain expression of cold +wonderment and criticism quite inconsistent with their veiling. +Nor was he surprised when, after a preliminary whispering over the +plates, his hostess presented him. The lady was the young wife of +the middle-aged dignitary who, seated further down the table, +opposite Mrs. MacSpadden, was apparently enjoying that lady's +wildest levities. The consul bowed, the lady leaned a little +forward. + +"We were saying what a lovely rose you had." + +The consul's inward response was "Hang that flower!" His outward +expression was the modest query:-- + +"Is it SO peculiar?" + +"No; but it's very pretty. Would you allow me to see it?" + +Disengaging the flower from his buttonhole he handed it to her. +Oddly enough, it seemed to him that half the table was watching and +listening to them. Suddenly the lady uttered a little cry. "Dear +me! it's full of thorns; of course you picked and arranged it +yourself, for any lady would have wrapped something around the +stalk!" + +But here there was a burlesque outcry and a good-humored protest +from the gentlemen around her against this manifestly leading +question. "It's no fair! Ye'll not answer her--for the dignity of +our sex." Yet in the midst of it, it suddenly occurred to the +consul that there HAD been a slip of paper wrapped around it, which +had come off and remained in the keyhole. The blue eyes of the +lady were meanwhile sounding his, but he only smiled and said:-- + +"Then it seems it IS peculiar?" + +When the conversation became more general he had time to observe +other features of the lady than her placid eyes. Her light hair +was very long, and grew low down the base of her neck. Her mouth +was firm, the upper lip slightly compressed in a thin red line, but +the lower one, although equally precise at the corners, became +fuller in the centre and turned over like a scarlet leaf, or, as it +struck him suddenly, like the tell-tale drop of blood on the mouth +of a vampire. Yet she was very composed, practical, and decorous, +and as the talk grew more animated--and in the vicinity of Mrs. +MacSpadden, more audacious--she kept a smiling reserve of +expression,--which did not, however, prevent her from following +that lively lady, whom she evidently knew, with a kind of +encouraging attention. + +"Kate is in full fling to-night," she said to the hostess. Lady +Macquoich smiled ambiguously--so ambiguously that the consul +thought it necessary to interfere for his friend. "She seems to +say what most of us think, but I am afraid very few of us could +voice as innocently," he smilingly suggested. + +"She is a great friend of yours," returned the lady, looking at him +through her half-veiled lids. "She has made us quite envy her." + +"And I am afraid made it impossible for ME to either sufficiently +thank her or justify her taste," he said quietly. Yet he was vexed +at an unaccountable resentment which had taken possession of him-- +who but a few hours before had only laughed at the porter's +criticism. + +After the ladies had risen, the consul with an instinct of sympathy +was moving up towards "Jock" MacSpadden, who sat nearer the host, +when he was stopped midway of the table by the dignitary who had +sat opposite to Mrs. MacSpadden. "Your frien' is maist amusing wi' +her audacious tongue--ay, and her audacious ways," he said with +large official patronage; "and we've enjoyed her here immensely, +but I hae mae doots if mae Leddy Macquoich taks as kindly to them. +You and I--men of the wurrld, I may say--we understand them for a' +their worth; ay!--ma wife too, with whom I observed ye speakin'--is +maist tolerant of her, but man! it's extraordinar'"--he lowered his +voice slightly--"that yon husband of hers does na' check her +freedoms with Kilcraithie. I wadna' say anythin' was wrong, ye +ken, but is he no' over confident and conceited aboot his wife?" + +"I see you don't know him," said the consul smilingly, "and I'd be +delighted to make you acquainted. Jock," he continued, raising his +voice as he turned towards MacSpadden, "let me introduce you to Sir +Alan Deeside, who don't know YOU, although he's a great admirer of +your wife;" and unheeding the embarrassed protestations of Sir Alan +and the laughing assertions of Jock that they were already +acquainted, he moved on beside his host. That hospitable knight, +who had been airing his knowledge of London smart society to +his English guest with a singular mixture of assertion and +obsequiousness, here stopped short. "Ay, sit down, laddie, it was +so guid of ye to come, but I'm thinkin' at your end of the table ye +lost the bit fun of Mistress MacSpadden. Eh, but she was unco' +lively to-night. 'Twas all Kilcraithie could do to keep her from +proposin' your health with Hieland honors, and offerin' to lead off +with her ain foot on the table! Ay, and she'd ha' done it. And +that's a braw rose she's been givin' ye--and ye got out of it +claverly wi' Lady Deeside." + +When he left the table with the others to join the ladies, the same +unaccountable feeling of mingled shyness and nervous irascibility +still kept possession of him. He felt that in his present mood he +could not listen to any further criticisms of his friend without +betraying some unwonted heat, and as his companions filed into +the drawing-room he slipped aside in the hope of recovering his +equanimity by a few moments' reflection in his own room. He glided +quickly up the staircase and entered the corridor. The passage +that led to his apartment was quite dark, especially before his +door, which was in a bay that really ended the passage. He was +consequently surprised and somewhat alarmed at seeing a shadowy +female figure hovering before it. He instinctively halted; the +figure became more distinct from some luminous halo that seemed to +encompass it. It struck him that this was only the light of his +fire thrown through his open door, and that the figure was probably +that of a servant before it, who had been arranging his room. He +started forward again, but at the sound of his advancing footsteps +the figure and the luminous glow vanished, and he arrived blankly +face to face with his own closed door. He looked around the dim +bay; it was absolutely vacant. It was equally impossible for any +one to have escaped without passing him. There was only his room +left. A half-nervous, half-superstitious thrill crept over him as +he suddenly grasped the handle of the door and threw it open. The +leaping light of his fire revealed its emptiness: no one was there! +He lit the candle and peered behind the curtains and furniture and +under the bed; the room was as vacant and undisturbed as when he +left it. + +Had it been a trick of his senses or a bona-fide apparition? He +had never heard of a ghost at Glenbogie--the house dated back some +fifty years; Sir John Macquoich's tardy knighthood carried no such +impedimenta. He looked down wonderingly on the flower in his +buttonhole. Was there something uncanny in that innocent blossom? +But here he was struck by another recollection, and examined the +keyhole of his door. With the aid of the tortoiseshell hairpin he +dislodged the paper he had forgotten. It was only a thin spiral +strip, apparently the white outer edge of some newspaper, and it +certainly seemed to be of little service as a protection against +the thorns of the rose-stalk. He was holding it over the fire, +about to drop it into the blaze, when the flame revealed some +pencil-marks upon it. Taking it to the candle he read, deeply +bitten into the paper by a hard pencil-point: "At half-past one." +There was nothing else--no signature; but the handwriting was NOT +Mrs. MacSpadden's! + +Then whose? Was it that of the mysterious figure whom he had just +seen? Had he been selected as the medium of some spiritual +communication, and, perhaps, a ghostly visitation later on? Or was +he the victim of some clever trick? He had once witnessed such +dubious attempts to relieve the monotony of a country house. He +again examined the room carefully, but without avail. Well! the +mystery or trick would be revealed at half-past one. It was a +somewhat inconvenient hour, certainly. He looked down at the +baleful gift in his buttonhole, and for a moment felt inclined to +toss it in the fire. But this was quickly followed by his former +revulsion of resentment and defiance. No! he would wear it, no +matter what happened, until its material or spiritual owner came +for it. He closed the door and returned to the drawing-room. + +Midway of the staircase he heard the droning of pipes. There was +dancing in the drawing-room to the music of the gorgeous piper who +had marshaled them to dinner. He was not sorry, as he had no +inclination to talk, and the one confidence he had anticipated with +Mrs. MacSpadden was out of the question now. He had no right to +reveal his later discovery. He lingered a few moments in the hall. +The buzzing of the piper's drones gave him that impression of +confused and blindly aggressive intoxication which he had often +before noticed in this barbaric instrument, and had always seemed +to him as the origin of its martial inspiration. From this he was +startled by voices and steps in the gallery he had just quitted, +but which came from the opposite direction to his room. It was +Kilcraithie and Mrs. MacSpadden. As she caught sight of him, he +fancied she turned slightly and aggressively pale, with a certain +hardening of her mischievous eyes. Nevertheless, she descended the +staircase more deliberately than her companion, who brushed past +him with an embarrassed self-consciousness, quite in advance of +her. She lingered for an instant. + +"You are not dancing?" she said. + +"No." + +"Perhaps you are more agreeably employed?" + +"At this exact moment, certainly." + +She cast a disdainful glance at him, crossed the hall, and followed +Kilcraithie. + +"Hang me, if I understand it all!" mused the consul, by no means +good-humoredly. "Does she think I have been spying upon her and +her noble chieftain? But it's just as well that I didn't tell her +anything." + +He turned to follow them. In the vestibule he came upon a figure +which had halted before a large pier-glass. He recognized M. +Delfosse, the French visitor, complacently twisting the peak of his +Henri Quatre beard. He would have passed without speaking, but the +Frenchman glanced smilingly at the consul and his buttonhole. +Again the flower! + +"Monsieur is decore," he said gallantly. + +The consul assented, but added, not so gallantly, that though they +were not in France he might still be unworthy of it. The baleful +flower had not improved his temper. Nor did the fact that, as he +entered the room, he thought the people stared at him--until he saw +that their attention was directed to Lady Deeside, who had entered +almost behind him. From his hostess, who had offered him a seat +beside her, he gathered that M. Delfosse and Kilcraithie had each +temporarily occupied his room, but that they had been transferred +to the other wing, apart from the married couples and young ladies, +because when they came upstairs from the billiard and card room +late, they sometimes disturbed the fair occupants. No!--there were +no ghosts at Glenbogie. Mysterious footsteps had sometimes been +heard in the ladies' corridor, but--with peculiar significance--she +was AFRAID they could be easily accounted for. Sir Alan, whose +room was next to the MacSpaddens', had been disturbed by them. + +He was glad when it was time to escape to the billiard-room and +tobacco. For a while he forgot the evening's adventure, but +eventually found himself listening to a discussion--carried on over +steaming tumblers of toddy--in regard to certain predispositions of +the always debatable sex. + +"Ye'll not always judge by appearances," said Sir Alan. "Ye'll mind +the story o' the meenester's wife of Aiblinnoch. It was thocht +that she was ower free wi' one o' the parishioners--ay! it was the +claish o' the whole kirk, while none dare tell the meenester +hisself--bein' a bookish, simple, unsuspectin' creeter. At last +one o' the elders bethocht him of a bit plan of bringing it home to +the wife, through the gospel lips of her ain husband! So he +intimated to the meenester his suspicions of grievous laxity amang +the female flock, and of the necessity of a special sermon on the +Seventh Command. The puir man consented--although he dinna ken why +and wherefore--and preached a gran' sermon! Ay, man! it was +crammed wi' denunciation and an emptyin' o' the vials o' wrath! +The congregation sat dumb as huddled sheep--when they were no' +starin' and gowpin' at the meenester's wife settin' bolt upright in +her place. And then, when the air was blue wi' sulphur frae tae +pit, the meenester's wife up rises! Man! Ivry eye was spearin' +her--ivry lug was prickt towards her! And she goes out in the +aisle facin' the meenester, and--" + +Sir Alan paused. + +"And what?" demanded the eager auditory. + +"She pickit up the elder's wife, sobbin' and tearin' her hair in +strong hysterics." + +At the end of a relieved pause Sir Alan slowly concluded: "It was +said that the elder removed frae Aiblinnoch wi' his wife, but no' +till he had effected a change of meenesters." + +It was already past midnight, and the party had dropped off one by +one, with the exception of Deeside, Macquoich, the young Englishman, +and a Scotch laird, who were playing poker--an amusement which he +understood they frequently protracted until three in the morning. +It was nearly time for him to expect his mysterious visitant. +Before he went upstairs he thought he would take a breath of the +outer evening air, and throwing a mackintosh over his shoulders, +passed out of the garden door of the billiard-room. To his +surprise it gave immediately upon the fringe of laurel that hung +over the chasm. + +It was quite dark; the few far-spread stars gave scarcely any +light, and the slight auroral glow towards the north was all that +outlined the fringe of the abyss, which might have proved dangerous +to any unfamiliar wanderer. A damp breath of sodden leaves came +from its depths. Beside him stretched the long dark facade of the +wing he inhabited, his own window the only one that showed a faint +light. A few paces beyond, a singular structure of rustic wood and +glass, combining the peculiarities of a sentry-box, a summer-house, +and a shelter, was built against the blank wall of the wing. He +imagined the monotonous prospect from its windows of the tufted +chasm, the coldly profiled northern hills beyond,--and shivered. +A little further on, sunk in the wall like a postern, was a small +door that evidently gave easy egress to seekers of this stern +retreat. In the still air a faint grating sound like the passage +of a foot across gravel came to him as from the distance. He +paused, thinking he had been followed by one of the card-players, +but saw no one, and the sound was not repeated. + +It was past one. He re-entered the billiard-room, passed the +unchanged group of card-players, and taking a candlestick from the +hall ascended the dark and silent staircase into the corridor. The +light of his candle cast a flickering halo around him--but did not +penetrate the gloomy distance. He at last halted before his door, +gave a scrutinizing glance around the embayed recess, and opened +the door half expectantly. But the room was empty as he had left +it. + +It was a quarter past one. He threw himself on the bed without +undressing, and fixed his eyes alternately on the door and his +watch. Perhaps the unwonted seriousness of his attitude struck +him, but a sudden sense of the preposterousness of the whole +situation, of his solemnly ridiculous acceptance of a series of +mere coincidences as a foregone conclusion, overcame him, and he +laughed. But in the same breath he stopped. + +There WERE footsteps approaching--cautious footsteps--but not at +his door! They were IN THE ROOM--no! in the WALL just behind him! +They were descending some staircase at the back of his bed--he +could hear the regular tap of a light slipper from step to step and +the rustle of a skirt seemingly in his very ear. They were +becoming less and less distinct--they were gone! He sprang to his +feet, but almost at the same instant he was conscious of a sudden +chill--that seemed to him as physical as it was mental. The room +was slowly suffused with a cool sodden breath and the dank odor of +rotten leaves. He looked at the candle--its flame was actually +deflecting in this mysterious blast. It seemed to come from a +recess for hanging clothes topped by a heavy cornice and curtain. +He had examined it before, but he drew the curtain once more aside. +The cold current certainly seemed to be more perceptible there. He +felt the red-clothed backing of the interior, and his hand suddenly +grasped a doorknob. It turned, and the whole structure--cornice +and curtains--swung inwards towards him with THE DOOR ON WHICH IT +WAS HUNG! Behind it was a dark staircase leading from the floor +above to some outer door below, whose opening had given ingress to +the chill humid current from the ravine. This was the staircase +where he had just heard the footsteps--and this was, no doubt, the +door through which the mysterious figure had vanished from his room +a few hours before! + +Taking his candle, he cautiously ascended the stairs until he found +himself on the landing of the suites of the married couples and +directly opposite to the rooms of the MacSpaddens and Deesides. +He was about to descend again when he heard a far-off shout, a +scuffling sound on the outer gravel, and the frenzied shaking of +the handle of the lower door. He had hardly time to blow out his +candle and flatten himself against the wall, when the door was +flung open and a woman frantically flew up the staircase. His own +door was still open; from within its depths the light of his fire +projected a flickering beam across the steps. As she rushed past +it the light revealed her face; it needed not the peculiar perfume +of her garments as she swept by his concealed figure to make him +recognize--Lady Deeside! + +Amazed and confounded, he was about to descend, when he heard the +lower door again open. But here a sudden instinct bade him pause, +turn, and reascend to the upper landing. There he calmly relit his +candle, and made his way down to the corridor that overlooked the +central hall. The sound of suppressed voices--speaking with the +exhausted pauses that come from spent excitement--made him cautious +again, and he halted. It was the card party slowly passing from +the billiard-room to the hall. + +"Ye owe it yoursel'--to your wife--not to pit up with it a day +longer," said the subdued voice of Sir Alan. "Man! ye war in an +ace o' havin' a braw scandal." + +"Could ye no' get your wife to speak till her," responded +Macquoich, "to gie her a hint that she's better awa' out of this? +Lady Deeside has some influence wi' her." + +The consul ostentatiously dropped the extinguisher from his +candlestick. The party looked up quickly. Their faces were still +flushed and agitated, but a new restraint seemed to come upon them +on seeing him. + +"I thought I heard a row outside," said the consul explanatorily. + +They each looked at their host without speaking. + +"Oh, ay," said Macquoich, with simulated heartiness, "a bit fuss +between the Kilcraithie and yon Frenchman; but they're baith goin' +in the mornin'." + +"I thought I heard MacSpadden's voice," said the consul quietly. + +There was a dead silence. Then Macquoich said hurriedly:-- + +"Is he no' in his room--in bed--asleep,--man?" + +"I really don't know; I didn't inquire," said the consul with a +slight yawn. "Good night!" + +He turned, not without hearing them eagerly whispering again, and +entered the passage leading to his own room. As he opened the door +he was startled to find the subject of his inquiry--Jock MacSpadden-- +quietly seated in his armchair by his fire. + +"Jock!" + +"Don't be alarmed, old man; I came up by that staircase and saw the +door open, and guessed you'd be returning soon. But it seemed you +went ROUND BY THE CORRIDOR," he said, glancing curiously at the +consul's face. "Did you meet the crowd?" + +"Yes, Jock! WHAT does it all mean?" + +MacSpadden laughed. "It means that I was just in time to keep +Kilbraithie from chucking Delfosse down that ravine; but they both +scooted when they saw me. By Jove! I don't know which was the +most frightened." + +"But," said the consul slowly, "what was it all about, Jock?" + +"Some gallantry of that d----d Frenchman, who's trying to do some +woman-stalking up here, and jealousy of Kilcraithie's, who's just +got enough of his forbears' blood in him to think nothing of +sticking three inches of his dirk in the wame of the man that +crosses him. But I say," continued Jock, leaning easily back in +his chair, "YOU ought to know something of all this. This room, +old man, was used as a sort of rendezvous, having two outlets, +don't you see, when they couldn't get at the summer-house below. +By Jove! they both had it in turns--Kilcraithie and the Frenchman-- +until Lady Macquoich got wind of something, swept them out, and put +YOU in it." + +The consul rose and approached his friend with a grave face. +"Jock, I DO know something about it--more about it than any one +thinks. You and I are old friends. Shall I tell you WHAT I know?" + +Jock's handsome face became a trifle paler, but his frank, clear +eyes rested steadily on the consul's. + +"Go on!" he said. + +"I know that this flower which I am wearing was the signal for the +rendezvous this evening," said the consul slowly, "and this paper," +taking it from his pocket, "contained the time of the meeting, +written in the lady's own hand. I know who she was, for I saw her +face as plainly as I see yours now, by the light of the same fire; +it was as pale, but not as frank as yours, old man. That is what +I know. But I know also what people THINK they know, and for +that reason I put that paper in YOUR hand. It is yours--your +vindication--your REVENGE, if you choose. Do with it what you +like." + +Jock, with unchanged features and undimmed eyes, took the paper +from the consul's hand, without looking at it. + +"I may do with it what I like?" he repeated. + +"Yes." + +He was about to drop it into the fire, but the consul stayed his +hand. + +"Are you not going to LOOK at the handwriting first?" + +There was a moment of silence. Jock raised his eyes with a sudden +flash of pride in them and said, "No!" + +The friends stood side by side, grasping each other's hands, as the +burning paper leaped up the chimney in a vanishing flame. + +"Do you think you have done quite right, Jock, in view of any +scandal you may hear?" + +"Quite! You see, old man, I know MY WIFE--but I don't think that +Deeside KNOWS HIS." + + + +THE MYSTERY OF THE HACIENDA. + + +Dick Bracy gazed again at the Hacienda de los Osos, and hesitated. +There it lay--its low whitewashed walls looking like a quartz +outcrop of the long lazy hillside--unmistakably hot, treeless, and +staring broadly in the uninterrupted Californian sunlight. Yet he +knew that behind those blistering walls was a reposeful patio, +surrounded by low-pitched verandas; that the casa was full of roomy +corridors, nooks, and recesses, in which lurked the shadows of a +century, and that hidden by the further wall was a lonely old +garden, hoary with gnarled pear-trees, and smothered in the spice +and dropping leaves of its baking roses. He knew that, although +the unwinking sun might glitter on its red tiles, and the unresting +trade winds whistle around its angles, it always kept one unvarying +temperature and untroubled calm, as if the dignity of years had +triumphed over the changes of ephemeral seasons. But would others +see it with his eyes? Would his practical, housekeeping aunt, and +his pretty modern cousin-- + +"Well, what do you say? Speak the word, and you can go into it +with your folks to-morrow. And I reckon you won't want to take +anything either, for you'll find everything there--just as the old +Don left it. I don't want it; the land is good enough for me; I +shall have my vaqueros and rancheros to look after the crops and +the cattle, and they won't trouble you, for their sheds and barns +will be two miles away. You can stay there as long as you like, +and go when you choose. You might like to try it for a spell; it's +all the same to me. But I should think it the sort of thing a man +like you would fancy, and it seems the right thing to have you +there. Well,--what shall it be? Is it a go?" + +Dick knew that the speaker was sincere. It was an offer perfectly +characteristic of his friend, the Western millionaire, who had +halted by his side. And he knew also that the slow lifting of his +bridle-rein, preparatory to starting forward again, was the +business-like gesture of a man who wasted no time even over his +acts of impulsive liberality. In another moment he would dismiss +the unaccepted offer from his mind--without concern and without +resentment. + +"Thank you--it is a go," said Dick gratefully. + +Nevertheless, when he reached his own little home in the outskirts +of San Francisco that night, he was a trifle nervous in confiding +to the lady, who was at once his aunt and housekeeper, the fact +that he was now the possessor of a huge mansion in whose patio +alone the little eight-roomed villa where they had lived +contentedly might be casually dropped. "You see, Aunt Viney," he +hurriedly explained, "it would have been so ungrateful to have +refused him--and it really was an offer as spontaneous as it was +liberal. And then, you see, we need occupy only a part of the +casa." + +"And who will look after the other part?" said Aunt Viney grimly. +"That will have to be kept tidy, too; and the servants for such a +house, where in heaven are they to come from? Or do they go with +it?" + +"No," said Dick quickly; "the servants left with their old master, +when Ringstone bought the property. But we'll find servants enough +in the neighborhood--Mexican peons and Indians, you know." + +Aunt Viney sniffed. "And you'll have to entertain--if it's a +big house. There are all your Spanish neighbors. They'll be +gallivanting in and out all the time." + +"They won't trouble us," he returned, with some hesitation. "You +see, they're furious at the old Don for disposing of his lands to +an American, and they won't be likely to look upon the strangers in +the new place as anything but interlopers." + +"Oh, that is it, is it?" ejaculated Aunt Viney, with a slight +puckering of her lips. "I thought there was SOMETHING." + +"My dear aunt," said Dick, with a sudden illogical heat which he +tried to suppress; "I don't know what you mean by 'it' and +'something.' Ringstone's offer was perfectly unselfish; he +certainly did not suppose that I would be affected, any more than +he would he, by the childish sentimentality of these people over a +legitimate, every-day business affair. The old Don made a good +bargain, and simply sold the land he could no longer make +profitable with his obsolete method of farming, his gang of idle +retainers, and his Noah's Ark machinery, to a man who knew how to +use steam reapers, and hired sensible men to work on shares." +Nevertheless he was angry with himself for making any explanation, +and still more disturbed that he was conscious of a certain feeling +that it was necessary. + +"I was thinking," said Aunt Viney quietly, "that if we invited +anybody to stay with us--like Cecily, for example--it might be +rather dull for her if we had no neighbors to introduce her to." + +Dick started; he had not thought of this. He had been greatly +influenced by the belief that his pretty cousin, who was to make +them a visit, would like the change and would not miss excitement. +"We can always invite some girls down there and make our own +company," he answered cheerfully. Nevertheless, he was dimly +conscious that he had already made an airy castle of the old +hacienda, in which Cecily and her aunt moved ALONE. It was to +Cecily that he would introduce the old garden, it was Cecily whom +he would accompany through the dark corridors, and with whom he +would lounge under the awnings of the veranda. All this innocently, +and without prejudice or ulterior thought. He was not yet in love +with the pretty cousin whom he had seen but once or twice during +the past few years, but it was a possibility not unpleasant to +occasionally contemplate. Yet it was equally possible that she +might yearn for lighter companionship and accustomed amusement; that +the passion-fringed garden and shadow-haunted corridor might be +profaned by hoydenish romping and laughter, or by that frivolous +flirtation which, in others, he had always regarded as commonplace +and vulgar. + +Howbeit, at the end of two weeks he found himself regularly +installed in the Hacienda de los Osos. His little household, +re-enforced by his cousin Cecily and three peons picked up at Los +Pinos, bore their transplantation with a singular equanimity +that seemed to him unaccountable. Then occurred one of those +revelations of character with which Nature is always ready to trip +up merely human judgment. Aunt Viney, an unrelenting widow of calm +but unshaken Dutch prejudices, high but narrow in religious belief, +merged without a murmur into the position of chatelaine of this +unconventional, half-Latin household. Accepting the situation +without exaltation or criticism, placid but unresponsive amidst the +youthful enthusiasm of Dick and Cecily over each quaint detail, her +influence was, nevertheless, felt throughout the lingering length +and shadowy breadth of the strange old house. The Indian and +Mexican servants, at first awed by her practical superiority, +succumbed to her half-humorous toleration of their incapacity, and +became her devoted slaves. Dick was astonished, and even Cecily +was confounded. "Do you know," she said confidentially to her +cousin, "that when that brown Conchita thought to please Aunty by +wearing white stockings instead of going round as usual with her +cinnamon-colored bare feet in yellow slippers--which I was afraid +would be enough to send Aunty into conniption fits--she actually +told her, very quietly, to take them off, and dress according to +her habits and her station? And you remember that in her big, +square bedroom there is a praying-stool and a ghastly crucifix, at +least three feet long, in ivory and black, quite too human for +anything? Well, when I offered to put them in the corridor, she +said I 'needn't trouble'; that really she hadn't noticed them, and +they would do very well where they were. You'd think she had been +accustomed to this sort of thing all her life. It's just too sweet +of her, any way, even if she's shamming. And if she is, she just +does it to the life too, and could give those Spanish women points. +Why, she rode en pillion on Manuel's mule, behind him, holding on +by his sash, across to the corral yesterday; and you should have +seen Manuel absolutely scrape the ground before her with his +sombrero when he let her down." Indeed, her tall, erect figure in +black lustreless silk, appearing in a heavily shadowed doorway, or +seated in a recessed window, gave a new and patrician dignity to +the melancholy of the hacienda. It was pleasant to follow this +quietly ceremonious shadow gliding along the rose garden at +twilight, halting at times to bend stiffly over the bushes, garden- +shears in hand, and carrying a little basket filled with withered +but still odorous petals, as if she were grimly gathering the faded +roses of her youth. + +It was also probable that the lively Cecily's appreciation of her +aunt might have been based upon another virtue of that lady-- +namely, her exquisite tact in dealing with the delicate situation +evolved from the always possible relations of the two cousins. It +was not to be supposed that the servants would fail to invest the +young people with Southern romance, and even believe that the +situation was prearranged by the aunt with a view to their eventual +engagement. To deal with the problem openly, yet without startling +the consciousness of either Dick or Cecily; to allow them the +privileges of children subject to the occasional restraints of +childhood; to find certain household duties for the young girl that +kept them naturally apart until certain hours of general relaxation; +to calmly ignore the meaning of her retainers' smiles and glances, +and yet to good-humoredly accept their interest as a kind of feudal +loyalty, was part of Aunt Viney's deep diplomacy. Cecily enjoyed her +freedom and companionship with Dick, as she enjoyed the novel +experiences of the old house, the quaint, faded civilization that it +represented, and the change and diversion always acceptable to +youth. She did not feel the absence of other girls of her own age; +neither was she aware that through this omission she was spared the +necessity of a confidante or a rival--both equally revealing to her +thoughtless enjoyment. They took their rides together openly and +without concealment, relating their adventures afterwards to Aunt +Viney with a naivete and frankness that dreamed of no suppression. +The city-bred Cecily, accustomed to horse exercise solely as an +ornamental and artificial recreation, felt for the first time the +fearful joy of a dash across a league-long plain, with no onlookers +but the scattered wild horses she might startle up to scurry before +her, or race at her side. Small wonder that, mounted on her fiery +little mustang, untrammeled by her short gray riding-habit, free as +the wind itself that blew through the folds of her flannel blouse, +with her brown hair half-loosed beneath her slouched felt hat, she +seemed to Dick a more beautiful and womanly figure than the stiff +buckramed simulation of man's angularity and precision he had seen +in the parks. Perhaps one day she detected this consciousness too +plainly in his persistent eyes. Up to that moment she had only +watched the glittering stretches of yellow grain, in which occasional +wind-shorn evergreen oaks stood mid-leg deep like cattle in water, +the distant silhouette of the Sierras against the steely blue, or +perhaps the frankly happy face of the good-looking young fellow at +her side. But it seemed to her now that an intruder had entered the +field--a stranger before whom she was impelled to suddenly fly-- +half-laughingly, half-affrightedly--the anxious Dick following +wonderingly at her mustang's heels, until she reached the gates of +the hacienda, where she fell into a gravity and seriousness that +made him wonder still more. He did not dream that his guileless +cousin had discovered, with a woman's instinct, a mysterious invader +who sought to share their guileless companionship, only to absorb it +entirely, and that its name was--love! + +The next day she was so greatly preoccupied with her household +duties that she could not ride with him. Dick felt unaccountably +lost. Perhaps this check to their daily intercourse was no less +accelerating to his feelings than the vague motive that induced +Cecily to withhold herself. He moped in the corridor; he rode out +alone, bullying his mustang in proportion as he missed his cousin's +gentle companionship, and circling aimlessly, but still unconsciously, +around the hacienda as a centre of attraction. The sun at last was +sinking to the accompaniment of a rising wind, which seemed to blow +and scatter its broad rays over the shimmering plain until every +slight protuberance was burnished into startling brightness; the +shadows of the short green oaks grew disproportionally long, and all +seemed to point to the white-walled casa. Suddenly he started and +instantly reined up. + +The figure of a young girl, which he had not before noticed, was +slowly moving down the half-shadowed lane made by the two walls of +the garden and the corral. Cecily! Perhaps she had come out to +meet him. He spurred forward; but, as he came nearer, he saw that +the figure and its attire were surely not hers. He reined up again +abruptly, mortified at his disappointment, and a little ashamed +lest he should have seemed to have been following an evident +stranger. He vaguely remembered, too, that there was a trail to +the high road, through a little swale clothed with myrtle and thorn +bush which he had just passed, and that she was probably one of +his reserved and secluded neighbors--indeed, her dress, in that +uncertain light, looked half Spanish. This was more confusing, +since his rashness might have been taken for an attempt to force an +acquaintance. He wheeled and galloped towards the front of the +casa as the figure disappeared at the angle of the wall. + +"I don't suppose you ever see any of our neighbors?" said Dick to +his aunt casually. + +"I really can't say," returned the lady with quiet equanimity. +"There were some extraordinary-looking foreigners on the road to +San Gregorio yesterday. Manuel, who was driving me, may have known +who they were--he is a kind of Indian Papist himself, you know--but +I didn't. They might have been relations of his, for all I know." + +At any other time Dick would have been amused at this serene +relegation of the lofty Estudillos and Peraltas to the caste of the +Indian convert, but he was worried to think that perhaps Cecily was +really being bored by the absence of neighbors. After dinner, when +they sought the rose garden, he dropped upon the little lichen- +scarred stone bench by her side. It was still warm from the sun; +the hot musk of the roses filled the air; the whole garden, +shielded from the cool evening trade winds by its high walls, +still kept the glowing memory of the afternoon sunshine. Aunt +Viney, with her garden basket on her arm, moved ghost-like among +the distant bushes. + +"I hope you are not getting bored here?" he said, after a slight +inconsequent pause. + +"Does that mean that YOU are?" she returned, raising her mischievous +eyes to his. + +"No; but I thought you might find it lonely, without neighbors." + +"I stayed in to-day," she said, femininely replying to the unasked +question, "because I fancied Aunt Viney might think it selfish of +me to leave her alone so much." + +"But YOU are not lonely?" + +Certainly not! The young lady was delighted with the whole place, +with the quaint old garden, the mysterious corridors, the restful +quiet of everything, the picture of dear Aunt Viney--who was just +the sweetest soul in the world--moving about like the genius of the +casa. It was such a change to all her ideas, she would never +forget it. It was so thoughtful of him, Dick, to have given them +all that pleasure. + +"And the rides," continued Dick, with the untactful pertinacity of +the average man at such moments--"you are not tired of THEM?" + +No; she thought them lovely. Such freedom and freshness in the +exercise; so different from riding in the city or at watering- +places, where it was one-half show, and one was always thinking of +one's habit or one's self. One quite forgot one's self on that +lovely plain--with everything so far away, and only the mountains +to look at in the distance. Nevertheless she did not lift her eyes +from the point of the little slipper which had strayed beyond her +skirt. + +Dick was relieved, but not voluble; he could only admiringly follow +the curves of her pretty arms and hands, clasped lightly in her +lap, down to the point of the little slipper. But even that +charming vanishing point was presently withdrawn--possibly through +some instinct--for the young lady had apparently not raised her +eyes. + +"I'm so glad you like it," said Dick earnestly, yet with a nervous +hesitation that made his speech seem artificial to his own ears. +"You see I--that is--I had an idea that you might like an +occasional change of company. It's a great pity we're not on +speaking terms with one of these Spanish families. Some of the +men, you know, are really fine fellows, with an old-world courtesy +that is very charming." + +He was surprised to see that she had lifted her head suddenly, with +a quick look that however changed to an amused and half coquettish +smile. + +"I am finding no fault with my present company," she said demurely, +dropping her head and eyelids until a faint suffusion seemed to +follow the falling lashes over her cheek. "I don't think YOU ought +to undervalue it." + +If he had only spoken then! The hot scent of the roses hung +suspended in the air, which seemed to be hushed around them in mute +expectancy; the shadows which were hiding Aunt Viney from view were +also closing round the bench where they sat. He was very near her; +he had only to reach out his hand to clasp hers, which lay idly in +her lap. He felt himself glowing with a strange emanation; he even +fancied that she was turning mechanically towards him, as a flower +might turn towards the fervent sunlight. But he could not speak; +he could scarcely collect his thoughts, conscious though he was of +the absurdity of his silence. What was he waiting for? what did he +expect? He was not usually bashful, he was no coward; there was +nothing in her attitude to make him hesitate to give expression to +what he believed was his first real passion. But he could do +nothing. He even fancied that his face, turned towards hers, was +stiffening into a vacant smile. + +The young girl rose. "I think I heard Aunt Viney call me," she +said constrainedly, and made a hesitating step forward. The spell +which had held Dick seemed to be broken suddenly; he stretched +forth his arm to detain her. But the next step appeared to carry +her beyond his influence; and it was even with a half movement of +rejection that she quickened her pace and disappeared down the +path. Dick fell back dejectedly into his seat, yet conscious of a +feeling of RELIEF that bewildered him. + +But only for a moment. A recollection of the chance that he had +impotently and unaccountably thrown away returned to him. He +tried to laugh, albeit with a glowing cheek, over the momentary +bashfulness which he thought had overtaken him, and which must have +made him ridiculous in her eyes. He even took a few hesitating +steps in the direction of the path where she had disappeared. The +sound of voices came to his ear, and the light ring of Cecily's +laughter. The color deepened a little on his cheek; he re-entered +the house and went to his room. + +The red sunset, still faintly showing through the heavily recessed +windows to the opposite wall, made two luminous aisles through the +darkness of the long low apartment. From his easy-chair he watched +the color drop out of the sky, the yellow plain grow pallid and +seem to stretch itself to infinite rest; then a black line began to +deepen and creep towards him from the horizon edge; the day was +done. It seemed to him a day lost. He had no doubt now but that +he loved his cousin, and the opportunity of telling her so--of +profiting by her predisposition of the moment--had passed. She +would remember herself, she would remember his weak hesitancy, she +would despise him. He rose and walked uneasily up and down. And +yet--and it disgusted him with himself still more--he was again +conscious of the feeling of relief he had before experienced. A +vague formula, "It's better as it is," "Who knows what might have +come of it?" he found himself repeating, without reason and without +resignation. + +Ashamed even of his seclusion, he rose to join the little family +circle, which now habitually gathered around a table on the veranda +of the patio under the rays of a swinging lamp to take their +chocolate. To his surprise the veranda was empty and dark; a light +shining from the inner drawing-room showed him his aunt in her +armchair reading, alone. A slight thrill ran over him: Cecily +might be still in the garden! He noiselessly passed the drawing- +room door, turned into a long corridor, and slipped through a +grating in the wall into the lane that separated it from the +garden. The gate was still open; a few paces brought him into the +long alley of roses. Their strong perfume--confined in the high, +hot walls--at first made him giddy. This was followed by an +inexplicable languor; he turned instinctively towards the stone +bench and sank upon it. The long rows of calla lilies against the +opposite wall looked ghostlike in the darkness, and seemed to have +turned their white faces towards him. Then he fancied that ONE had +detached itself from the rank and was moving away. He looked +again: surely there was something gliding along the wall! A quick +tremor of anticipation passed over him. It was Cecily, who had +lingered in the garden--perhaps to give him one more opportunity! +He rose quickly, and stepped towards the apparition, which had now +plainly resolved itself into a slight girlish figure; it slipped on +beneath the trees; he followed quickly--his nervous hesitancy had +vanished before what now seemed to be a half-coy, half-coquettish +evasion of him. He called softly," Cecily!" but she did not heed +him; he quickened his pace--she increased hers. They were both +running. She reached the angle of the wall where the gate opened +upon the road. Suddenly she stopped, as if intentionally, in the +clear open space before it. He could see her distinctly. The lace +mantle slipped from her head and shoulders. It was NOT Cecily! + +But it was a face so singularly beautiful and winsome that he was +as quickly arrested. It was a woman's deep, passionate eyes and +heavy hair, joined to a childish oval of cheek and chin, an +infantine mouth, and a little nose whose faintly curved outline +redeemed the lower face from weakness and brought it into charming +harmony with the rest. A yellow rose was pinned in the lustrous +black hair above the little ear; a yellow silk shawl or mantle, +which had looked white in the shadows, was thrown over one shoulder +and twisted twice or thrice around the plump but petite bust. The +large black velvety eyes were fixed on his in half wonderment, +half amusement; the lovely lips were parted in half astonishment +and half a smile. And yet she was like a picture, a dream,-- +a materialization of one's most fanciful imaginings,--like anything, +in fact, but the palpable flesh and blood she evidently was, +standing only a few feet before him, whose hurried breath he could +see even now heaving her youthful breast. + +His own breath appeared suspended, although his heart beat rapidly +as he stammered out: "I beg your pardon--I thought--" He stopped +at the recollection that this was the SECOND time he had followed +her. + +She did not speak, although her parted lips still curved with their +faint coy smile. Then she suddenly lifted her right hand, which +had been hanging at her side, clasping some long black object like +a stick. Without any apparent impulse from her fingers, the stick +slowly seemed to broaden in her little hand into the segment of an +opening disk, that, lifting to her face and shoulders, gradually +eclipsed the upper part of her figure, until, mounting higher, the +beautiful eyes and the yellow rose of her hair alone remained +above--a large unfurled fan! Then the long eyelashes drooped, as +if in a mute farewell, and they too disappeared as the fan was +lifted higher. The half-hidden figure appeared to glide to the +gateway, lingered for an instant, and vanished. The astounded Dick +stepped quickly into the road, but fan and figure were swallowed up +in the darkness. + +Amazed and bewildered, he stood for a moment, breathless and +irresolute. It was no doubt the same stranger that he had seen +before. But WHO was she, and what was she doing there? If she +were one of their Spanish neighbors, drawn simply by curiosity to +become a trespasser, why had she lingered to invite a scrutiny that +would clearly identify her? It was not the escapade of that giddy +girl which the lower part of her face had suggested, for such a one +would have giggled and instantly flown; it was not the deliberate +act of a grave woman of the world, for its sequel was so purposeless. +Why had she revealed herself to HIM alone? Dick felt himself +glowing with a half-shamed, half-secret pleasure. Then he +remembered Cecily, and his own purpose in coming into the garden. +He hurriedly made a tour of the walks and shrubbery, ostentatiously +calling her, yet seeing, as in a dream, only the beautiful eyes of +the stranger still before him, and conscious of an ill-defined +remorse and disloyalty he had never known before. But Cecily was +not there; and again he experienced the old sensation of relief! + +He shut the garden gate, crossed the road, and found the grille +just closing behind a slim white figure. He started, for it was +Cecily; but even in his surprise he was conscious of wondering how +he could have ever mistaken the stranger for her. She appeared +startled too; she looked pale and abstracted. Could she have been +a witness of his strange interview? + +Her first sentence dispelled the idea. + +"I suppose you were in the garden?" she said, with a certain +timidity. "I didn't go there--it seemed so close and stuffy--but +walked a little down the lane." + +A moment before he would have eagerly told her his adventure; but +in the presence of her manifest embarrassment his own increased. +He concluded to tell her another time. He murmured vaguely that he +had been looking for her in the garden, yet he had a flushing sense +of falsehood in his reserve; and they passed silently along the +corridor and entered the patio together. She lit the hanging lamp +mechanically. She certainly WAS pale; her slim hand trembled +slightly. Suddenly her eyes met his, a faint color came into her +cheek, and she smiled. She put up her hand with a girlish gesture +towards the back of her head. + +"What are you looking at? Is my hair coming down?" + +"No," hesitated Dick, "but--I--thought--you were looking just a +LITTLE pale." + +An aggressive ray slipped into her blue eyes. + +"Strange! I thought YOU were. Just now at the grille you looked +as if the roses hadn't agreed with you." + +They both laughed, a little nervously, and Conchita brought the +chocolate. When Aunt Viney came from the drawing-room she found +the two young people together, and Cecily in a gale of high +spirits. + +She had had SUCH a wonderfully interesting walk, all by herself, +alone on the plain. It was really so queer and elfish to find +one's self where one could see nothing above or around one anywhere +but stars. Stars above one, to right and left of one, and some so +low down they seemed as if they were picketed on the plain. It was +so odd to find the horizon line at one's very feet, like a castaway +at sea. And the wind! it seemed to move one this way and that way, +for one could not see anything, and might really be floating in the +air. Only once she thought she saw something, and was quite +frightened. + +"What was it?" asked Dick quickly. + +"Well, it was a large black object; but--it turned out only to be a +horse." + +She laughed, although she had evidently noticed her cousin's +eagerness, and her own eyes had a nervous brightness. + +"And where was Dick all this while?" asked Aunt Viney quietly. + +Cecily interrupted, and answered for him briskly. "Oh, he was +trying to make attar of rose of himself in the garden. He's still +stupefied by his own sweetness." + +"If this means," said Aunt Viney, with matter-of-fact precision, +"that you've been gallivanting all alone, Cecily, on that common +plain, where you're likely to meet all sorts of foreigners and +tramps and savages, and Heaven knows what other vermin, I shall set +my face against a repetition of it. If you MUST go out, and Dick +can't go with you--and I must say that even you and he going out +together there at night isn't exactly the kind of American +Christian example to set to our neighbors--you had better get +Concepcion to go with you and take a lantern." + +"But there is nobody one meets on the plain--at least, nobody +likely to harm one," protested Cecily. + +"Don't tell ME," said Aunt Viney decidedly; "haven't I seen all +sorts of queer figures creeping along by the brink after nightfall +between San Gregorio and the next rancho? Aren't they always +skulking backwards and forwards to mass and aguardiente?" + +"And I don't know why WE should set any example to our neighbors. +We don't see much of them, or they of us." + +"Of course not," returned Aunt Viney; "because all proper Spanish +young ladies are shut up behind their grilles at night. You don't +see THEM traipsing over the plain in the darkness, WITH or WITHOUT +cavaliers! Why, Don Rafael would lock one of HIS sisters up in a +convent and consider her disgraced forever, if he heard of it." + +Dick felt his cheeks burning; Cecily slightly paled. Yet both said +eagerly together: "Why, what do YOU know about it, Aunty?" + +"A great deal," returned Aunt Viney quietly, holding her tatting up +to the light and examining the stitches with a critical eye. "I've +got my eyes about me, thank heaven! even if my ears don't understand +the language. And there's a great deal, my dears, that you young +people might learn from these Papists." + +"And do you mean to say," continued Dick, with a glowing cheek and +an uneasy smile, "that Spanish girls don't go out alone?" + +"No young LADY goes out without her duenna," said Aunt Viney +emphatically. "Of course there's the Concha variety, that go out +without even stockings." + +As the conversation flagged after this, and the young people once +or twice yawned nervously, Aunt Viney thought they had better go to +bed. + +But Dick did not sleep. The beautiful face beamed out again from +the darkness of his room; the light that glimmered through his +deep-set curtainless windows had an odd trick of bringing out +certain hanging articles, or pieces of furniture, into a +resemblance to a mantled figure. The deep, velvety eyes, fringed +with long brown lashes, again looked into his with amused, +childlike curiosity. He scouted the harsh criticisms of Aunt +Viney, even while he shrank from proving to her her mistake in the +quality of his mysterious visitant. Of course she was a lady--far +superior to any of her race whom he had yet met. Yet how should he +find WHO she was? His pride and a certain chivalry forbade his +questioning the servants--before whom it was the rule of the +household to avoid all reference to their neighbors. He would make +the acquaintance of the old padre--perhaps HE might talk. He would +ride early along the trail in the direction of the nearest rancho,-- +Don Jose Amador's,--a thing he had hitherto studiously refrained +from doing. It was three miles away. She must have come that +distance, but not ALONE. Doubtless she had kept her duenna in +waiting in the road. Perhaps it was she who had frightened Cecily. +Had Cecily told ALL she had seen? Her embarrassed manner certainly +suggested more than she had told. He felt himself turning hot with +an indefinite uneasiness. Then he tried to compose himself. After +all, it was a thing of the past. The fair unknown had bribed the +duenna for once, no doubt--had satisfied her girlish curiosity--she +would not come again! But this thought brought with it such a +sudden sense of utter desolation, a deprivation so new and +startling, that it frightened him. Was his head turned by the +witcheries of some black-eyed schoolgirl whom he had seen but once? +Or--he felt his cheeks glowing in the darkness--was it really a +case of love at first sight, and she herself had been impelled by +the same yearning that now possessed him? A delicious satisfaction +followed, that left a smile on his lips as if it had been a kiss. +He knew now why he had so strangely hesitated with Cecily. He had +never really loved her--he had never known what love was till now! + +He was up early the next morning, skimming the plain on the back of +"Chu Chu," before the hacienda was stirring. He did not want any +one to suspect his destination, and it was even with a sense of +guilt that he dashed along the swale in the direction of the Amador +rancho. A few vaqueros, an old Digger squaw carrying a basket, two +little Indian acolytes on their way to mass passed him. He was +surprised to find that there were no ruts of carriage wheels within +three miles of the casa, and evidently no track for carriages +through the swale. SHE must have come on HORSEBACK. A broader +highway, however, intersected the trail at a point where the low +walls of the Amador rancho came in view. Here he was startled by +the apparition of an old-fashioned family carriage drawn by two +large piebald mules. But it was unfortunately closed. Then, with +a desperate audacity new to his reserved nature, he ranged close +beside it, and even stared in the windows. A heavily mantled old +woman, whose brown face was in high contrast to her snow-white +hair, sat in the back seat. Beside her was a younger companion, +with the odd blonde hair and blue eyes sometimes seen in the higher +Castilian type. For an instant the blue eyes caught his, half- +coquettishly. But the girl was NOT at all like his mysterious +visitor, and he fell, discomfited, behind. + +He had determined to explain his trespass on the grounds of his +neighbor, if questioned, by the excuse that he was hunting a +strayed mustang. But his presence, although watched with a cold +reserve by the few peons who were lounging near the gateway, +provoked no challenge from them; and he made a circuit of the low +adobe walls, with their barred windows and cinnamon-tiled roofs, +without molestation--but equally without satisfaction. He felt he +was a fool for imagining that he would see her in that way. He +turned his horse towards the little Mission half a mile away. +There he had once met the old padre, who spoke a picturesque but +limited English; now he was only a few yards ahead of him, just +turning into the church. The padre was pleased to see Don Ricardo; +it was an unusual thing for the Americanos, he observed, to be up +so early: for himself, he had his functions, of course. No, the +ladies that the caballero had seen had not been to mass! They +were Donna Maria and her daughter, going to San Gregorio. They +comprised ALL the family at the rancho,--there were none others, +unless the caballero, of a possibility, meant Donna Inez, a maiden +aunt of sixty--an admirable woman, a saint on earth! He trusted +that he would find his estray; there was no doubt a mark upon it, +otherwise the plain was illimitable; there were many horses--the +world was wide! + +Dick turned his face homewards a little less adventurously, and it +must be confessed, with a growing sense of his folly. The keen, +dry morning air brushed away his fancies of the preceding night; +the beautiful eyes that had lured him thither seemed to flicker +and be blown out by its practical breath. He began to think +remorsefully of his cousin, of his aunt,--of his treachery to that +reserve which the little alien household had maintained towards +their Spanish neighbors. He found Aunt Viney and Cecily at +breakfast--Cecily, he thought, looking a trifle pale. Yet (or was +it only his fancy?) she seemed curious about his morning ride. And +he became more reticent. + +"You must see a good many of our neighbors when you are out so +early?" + +"Why?" he asked shortly, feeling his color rise. + +"Oh, because--because we don't see them at any other time." + +"I saw a very nice chap--I think the best of the lot," he began, +with assumed jocularity; then, seeing Cecily's eyes suddenly fixed +on him, he added, somewhat lamely, "the padre! There were also two +women in a queer coach." + +"Donna Maria Amador, and Dona Felipa Peralta--her daughter by her +first husband," said Aunt Viney quietly. "When you see the horses +you think it's a circus; when you look inside the carriage you KNOW +it's a funeral." + +Aunt Viney did not condescend to explain how she had acquired her +genealogical knowledge of her neighbor's family, but succeeded in +breaking the restraint between the young people. Dick proposed a +ride in the afternoon, which was cheerfully accepted by Cecily. +Their intercourse apparently recovered its old frankness and +freedom, marred only for a moment when they set out on the plain. +Dick, really to forget his preoccupation of the morning, turned his +horse's head AWAY from the trail, to ride in another direction; but +Cecily oddly, and with an exhibition of caprice quite new to her, +insisted upon taking the old trail. Nevertheless they met nothing, +and soon became absorbed in the exercise. Dick felt something of +his old tenderness return to this wholesome, pretty girl at his +side; perhaps he betrayed it in his voice, or in an unconscious +lingering by her bridle-rein, but she accepted it with a naive +reserve which he naturally attributed to the effect of his own +previous preoccupation. He bore it so gently, however, that it +awakened her interest, and, possibly, her pique. Her reserve +relaxed, and by the time they returned to the hacienda they had +regained something of their former intimacy. The dry, incisive +breath of the plains swept away the last lingering remnants of +yesterday's illusions. Under this frankly open sky, in this clear +perspective of the remote Sierras, which admitted no fanciful +deception of form or distance--there remained nothing but a strange +incident--to be later explained or forgotten. Only he could not +bring himself to talk to HER about it. + +After dinner, and a decent lingering for coffee on the veranda, +Dick rose, and leaning half caressingly, half mischievously, over +his aunt's rocking-chair, but with his eyes on Cecily, said:-- + +"I've been deeply considering, dear Aunty, what you said last +evening of the necessity of our offering a good example to our +neighbors. Now, although Cecily and I are cousins, yet, as I am +HEAD of the house, lord of the manor, and padron, according to the +Spanish ideas I am her recognised guardian and protector, and it +seems to me it is my positive DUTY to accompany her if she wishes +to walk out this evening." + +A momentary embarrassment--which, however, changed quickly into an +answering smile to her cousin--came over Cecily's face. She turned +to her aunt. + +"Well, don't go too far," said that lady quietly. + +When they closed the grille behind them and stepped into the lane, +Cecily shot a quick glance at her cousin. + +"Perhaps you'd rather walk in the garden?" + +"I? Oh, no," he answered honestly. "But"--he hesitated--"would +you?" + +"Yes," she said faintly. + +He impulsively offered his arm; her slim hand slipped lightly +through it and rested on his sleeve. They crossed the lane +together, and entered the garden. A load appeared to be lifted +from his heart; the moment seemed propitious,--here was a chance to +recover his lost ground, to regain his self-respect and perhaps his +cousin's affection. By a common instinct, however, they turned to +the right, and AWAY from the stone bench, and walked slowly down +the broad allee. + +They talked naturally and confidingly of the days when they had met +before, of old friends they had known and changes that had crept +into their young lives; they spoke affectionately of the grim, +lonely, but self-contained old woman they had just left, who had +brought them thus again together. Cecily talked of Dick's studies, +of the scientific work on which he was engaged, that was to bring +him, she was sure, fame and fortune! They talked of the thoughtful +charm of the old house, of its quaint old-world flavor. They spoke +of the beauty of the night, the flowers and the stars, in whispers, +as one is apt to do--as fearing to disturb a super-sensitiveness in +nature. + +They had come out later than on the previous night; and the moon, +already risen above the high walls of the garden, seemed a vast +silver shield caught in the interlacing tops of the old pear-trees, +whose branches crossed its bright field like dark bends or bars. +As it rose higher, it began to separate the lighter shrubbery, and +open white lanes through the olive-trees. Damp currents of air, +alternating with drier heats, on what appeared to be different +levels, moved across the whole garden, or gave way at times to a +breathless lull and hush of everything, in which the long rose +alley seemed to be swooning in its own spices. They had reached +the bottom of the garden, and had turned, facing the upper moonlit +extremity and the bare stone bench. Cecily's voice faltered, her +hand leaned more heavily on his arm, as if she were overcome by the +strong perfume. His right hand began to steal towards hers. But +she had stopped; she was trembling. + +"Go on," she said in a half whisper. "Leave me a moment; I'll join +you afterwards." + +"You are ill, Cecily! It's those infernal flowers!" said Dick +earnestly. "Let me help you to the bench." + +"No--it's nothing. Go on, please. Do! Will you go!" + +She spoke with imperiousness, unlike herself. He walked on +mechanically a dozen paces and turned. She had disappeared. He +remembered there was a smaller gate opening upon the plain near +where they had stopped. Perhaps she had passed through that. +He continued on, slowly, towards the upper end of the garden, +occasionally turning to await her return. In this way he gradually +approached the stone bench. He was facing about to continue his +walk, when his heart seemed to stop beating. The beautiful visitor +of last night was sitting alone on the bench before him! + +She had not been there a moment before; he could have sworn it. +Yet there was no illusion now of shade or distance. She was +scarcely six feet from him, in the bright moonlight. The whole of +her exquisite little figure was visible, from her lustrous hair +down to the tiny, black satin, low-quartered slipper, held as by +two toes. Her face was fully revealed; he could see even the few +minute freckles, like powdered allspice, that heightened the pale +satin sheen of her beautifully rounded cheek; he could detect even +the moist shining of her parted red lips, the white outlines of her +little teeth, the length of her curved lashes, and the meshes of +the black lace veil that fell from the yellow rose above her ear to +the black silk camisa; he noted even the thick yellow satin saya, +or skirt, heavily flounced with black lace and bugles, and that it +was a different dress from that worn on the preceding night, a +half-gala costume, carried with the indescribable air of a woman +looking her best and pleased to do so: all this he had noted, +drawing nearer and nearer, until near enough to forget it all and +drown himself in the depths of her beautiful eyes. For they were +no longer childlike and wondering: they were glowing with expectancy, +anticipation--love! + +He threw himself passionately on the bench beside her. Yet, even +if he had known her language, he could not have spoken. She leaned +towards him; their eyes seemed to meet caressingly, as in an +embrace. Her little hand slipped from the yellow folds of her +skirt to the bench. He eagerly seized it. A subtle thrill ran +through his whole frame. There was no delusion here; it was flesh +and blood, warm, quivering, and even tightening round his own. He +was about to carry it to his lips, when she rose and stepped +backwards. He pressed eagerly forward. Another backward step +brought her to the pear-tree, where she seemed to plunge into its +shadow. Dick Bracy followed--and the same shadow seemed to fold +them in its embrace. + + . . . . . . + +He did not return to the veranda and chocolate that evening, but +sent word from his room that he had retired, not feeling well. + +Cecily, herself a little nervously exalted, corroborated the fact +of his indisposition by telling Aunt Viney that the close odors of +the rose garden had affected them both. Indeed, she had been +obliged to leave before him. Perhaps in waiting for her return-- +and she really was not well enough to go back--he was exposed to +the night air too long. She was very sorry. + +Aunt Viney heard this with a slight contraction of her brows and a +renewed scrutiny of her knitting; and, having satisfied herself by +a personal visit to Dick's room that he was not alarmingly ill, set +herself to find out what was really the matter with the young +people; for there was no doubt that Cecily was in some vague way as +disturbed and preoccupied as Dick. He rode out again early the +next morning, returning to his studies in the library directly +after breakfast; and Cecily was equally reticent, except when, to +Aunt Viney's perplexity, she found excuses for Dick's manner on the +ground of his absorption in his work, and that he was probably +being bored by want of society. She proposed that she should ask +an old schoolfellow to visit them. + +"It would give Dick a change of ideas, and he would not be +perpetually obliged to look so closely after me." She blushed +slightly under Aunt Viney's gaze, and added hastily, "I mean, of +course, he would not feel it his DUTY." + +She even induced her aunt to drive with her to the old mission +church, where she displayed a pretty vivacity and interest in the +people they met, particularly a few youthful and picturesque +caballeros. Aunt Viney smiled gravely. Was the poor child +developing an unlooked-for coquetry, or preparing to make the +absent-minded Dick jealous? Well, the idea was not a bad one. In +the evening she astonished the two cousins by offering to accompany +them into the garden--a suggestion accepted with eager and effusive +politeness by each, but carried out with great awkwardness by the +distrait young people later. Aunt Viney clearly saw that it was +not her PRESENCE that was required. In this way two or three days +elapsed without apparently bringing the relations of Dick and +Cecily to any more satisfactory conclusion. The diplomatic Aunt +Viney confessed herself puzzled. + +One night it was very warm; the usual trade winds had died away +before sunset, leaving an unwonted hush in sky and plain. There +was something so portentous in this sudden withdrawal of that rude +stimulus to the otherwise monotonous level, that a recurrence of +such phenomena was always known as "earthquake weather." The wild +cattle moved uneasily in the distance without feeding; herds of +unbroken mustangs approached the confines of the hacienda in vague +timorous squads. The silence and stagnation of the old house was +oppressive, as if the life had really gone out of it at last; and +Aunt Viney, after waiting impatiently for the young people to come +in to chocolate, rose grimly, set her lips together, and went out +into the lane. The gate of the rose garden opposite was open. She +walked determinedly forward and entered. + +In that doubly stagnant air the odor of the roses was so suffocating +and overpowering that she had to stop to take breath. The whole +garden, except a near cluster of pear-trees, was brightly +illuminated by the moonlight. No one was to be seen along the +length of the broad allee, strewn an inch deep with scattered red +and yellow petals--colorless in the moonbeams. She was turning +away, when Dick's familiar voice, but with a strange accent of +entreaty in it, broke the silence. It seemed to her vaguely to come +from within the pear-tree shadow. + +"But we must understand one another, my darling! Tell me all. +This suspense, this mystery, this brief moment of happiness, and +these hours of parting and torment, are killing me!" + +A slight cough broke from Aunt Viney. She had heard enough--she +did not wish to hear more. The mystery was explained. Dick loved +Cecily; the coyness or hesitation was not on HIS part. Some +idiotic girlish caprice, quite inconsistent with what she had +noticed at the mission church, was keeping Cecily silent, reserved, +and exasperating to her lover. She would have a talk with the +young lady, without revealing the fact that she had overheard them. +She was perhaps a little hurt that affairs should have reached this +point without some show of confidence to her from the young people. +Dick might naturally be reticent--but Cecily! + +She did not even look towards the pear-tree, but turned and walked +stiffly out of the gate. As she was crossing the lane she suddenly +started back in utter dismay and consternation! For Cecily, her +niece,--in her own proper person,--was actually just coming OUT OF +THE HOUSE! + +Aunt Viney caught her wrist. "Where have you been?" she asked +quickly. + +"In the house," stammered Cecily, with a frightened face. + +"You have not been in the garden with Dick?" continued Aunt Viney +sharply--yet with a hopeless sense of the impossibility of the +suggestion. + +"No, I was not even going there. I thought of just strolling down +the lane." + +The girl's accents were truthful; more than that, she absolutely +looked relieved by her aunt's question. "Do you want me, Aunty?" +she added quickly. + +"Yes--no. Run away, then--but don't go far." + +At any other time Aunt Viney might have wondered at the eagerness +with which Cecily tripped away; now she was only anxious to get rid +of her. She entered the casa hurriedly. + +"Send Josefa to me at once," she said to Manuel. + +Josefa, the housekeeper,--a fat Mexican woman,--appeared. "Send +Concha and the other maids here." They appeared, mutely wondering. +Aunt Viney glanced hurriedly over them--they were all there--a few +comely, but not too attractive, and all stupidly complacent. "Have +you girls any friends here this evening--or are you expecting any?" +she demanded. Of a surety, no!--as the padrona knew--it was not +night for church. "Very well," returned Aunt Viney; "I thought I +heard your voices in the garden; understand, I want no gallivanting +there. Go to bed." + +She was relieved! Dick certainly was not guilty of a low intrigue +with one of the maids. But who and what was she? + +Dick was absent again from chocolate; there was unfinished work to +do. Cecily came in later, just as Aunt Viney was beginning to be +anxious. Had she appeared distressed or piqued by her cousin's +conduct, Aunt Viney might have spoken; but there was a pretty color +on her cheek--the result, she said, of her rapid walking, and the +fresh air; did Aunt Viney know that a cool breeze had just risen?-- +and her delicate lips were wreathed at times in a faint retrospective +smile. Aunt Viney stared; certainly the girl was not pining! What +young people were made of now-a-days she really couldn't conceive. +She shrugged her shoulders and resumed her tatting. + +Nevertheless, as Dick's unfinished studies seemed to have whitened +his cheek and impaired his appetite the next morning, she announced +her intention of driving out towards the mission alone. When she +returned at luncheon she further astonished the young people by +casually informing them they would have Spanish visitors to dinner-- +namely, their neighbors, Donna Maria Amador and the Dona Felipa +Peralta. + +Both faces were turned eagerly towards her; both said almost in the +same breath, "But, Aunt Viney! you don't know them! However did +you-- What does it all mean?" + +"My dears," said Aunt Viney placidly, "Mrs. Amador and I have +always nodded to each other, and I knew they were only waiting for +the slightest encouragement. I gave it, and they're coming." + +It was difficult to say whether Cecily's or Dick's face betrayed +the greater delight and animation. Aunt Viney looked from the one +to the other. It seemed as if her attempt at diversion had been +successful. + +"Tell us all about it, you dear, clever, artful Aunty!" said Cecily +gayly. + +"There's nothing whatever to tell, my love! It seems, however, +that the young one, Dona Felipa, has seen Dick, and remembers him." +She shot a keen glance at Dick, but was obliged to admit that the +rascal's face remained unchanged. "And I wanted to bring a +cavalier for YOU, dear, but Don Jose's nephew isn't at home now." +Yet here, to her surprise, Cecily was faintly blushing. + +Early in the afternoon the piebald horses and dark brown chariot of +the Amadors drew up before the gateway. The young people were +delighted with Dona Felipa, and thought her blue eyes and tawny +hair gave an added piquancy to her colorless satin skin and +otherwise distinctively Spanish face and figure. Aunt Viney, who +entertained Donna Maria, was nevertheless watchful of the others; +but failed to detect in Dick's effusive greeting, or the Dona's +coquettish smile of recognition, any suggestion of previous +confidences. It was rather to Cecily that Dona Felipa seemed to be +characteristically exuberant and childishly feminine. Both mother +and stepdaughter spoke a musical infantine English, which the +daughter supplemented with her eyes, her eyebrows, her little brown +fingers, her plump shoulders, a dozen charming intonations of +voice, and a complete vocabulary in her active and emphatic fan. + +The young lady went over the house with Cecily curiously, as if +recalling some old memories. "Ah, yes, I remember it--but it was +long ago and I was very leetle--you comprehend, and I have not +arrive mooch when the old Don was alone. It was too--too--what you +call melank-oaly. And the old man have not make mooch to himself +of company." + +"Then there were no young people in the house, I suppose?" said +Cecily, smiling. + +"No--not since the old man's father lif. Then there were TWO. It +is a good number, this two, eh?" She gave a single gesture, which +took in, with Cecily, the distant Dick, and with a whole volume of +suggestion in her shoulders, and twirling fan, continued: "Ah! two +sometime make one--is it not? But not THEN in the old time--ah, +no! It is a sad story. I shall tell it to you some time, but not +to HIM." + +But Cecily's face betrayed no undue bashful consciousness, and she +only asked, with a quiet smile, "Why not to--to my cousin?" + +"Imbecile!" responded that lively young lady. + +After dinner the young people proposed to take Dona Felipa into +the rose garden, while Aunt Viney entertained Donna Maria on the +veranda. The young girl threw up her hands with an affectation of +horror. "Santa Maria!--in the rose garden? After the Angelus, you +and him? Have you not heard?" + +But here Donna Maria interposed. Ah! Santa Maria! What was all +that! Was it not enough to talk old woman's gossip and tell +vaqueros tales at home, without making uneasy the strangers? She +would have none of it. "Vamos!" + +Nevertheless Dona Felipa overcame her horror of the rose garden at +infelicitous hours, so far as to permit herself to be conducted by +the cousins into it, and to be installed like a rose queen on the +stone bench, while Dick and Cecily threw themselves in submissive +and imploring attitudes at her little feet. The young girl looked +mischievously from one to the other. + +"It ees very pret-ty, but all the same I am not a rose: I am what +you call a big goose-berry! Eh--is it not?" + +The cousins laughed, but without any embarrassed consciousness. +"Dona Felipa knows a sad story of this house," said Cecily; "but +she will not tell it before you, Dick." + +Dick, looking up at the coquettish little figure, with Heaven knows +what OTHER memories in his mind, implored and protested. + +"Ah! but this little story--she ees not so mooch sad of herself as +she ees str-r-r-ange!" She gave an exaggerated little shiver under +her lace shawl, and closed her eyes meditatively. + +"Go on," said Dick, smiling in spite of his interested expectation. + +Dona Felipa took her fan in both hands, spanning her knees, leaned +forward, and after a preliminary compressing of her lips and +knitting of her brows, said:-- + +"It was a long time ago. Don Gregorio he have his daughter Rosita +here, and for her he will fill all thees rose garden and gif to +her; for she like mooch to lif with the rose. She ees very pret-ty. +You shall have seen her picture here in the casa. No? It have +hang under the crucifix in the corner room, turn around to the +wall--WHY, you shall comprehend when I have made finish thees +story. Comes to them here one day Don Vincente, Don Gregorio's +nephew, to lif when his father die. He was yong, a pollio--same as +Rosita. They were mooch together; they have make lofe. What will +you?--it ees always the same. The Don Gregorio have comprehend; +the friends have all comprehend; in a year they will make marry. +Dona Rosita she go to Monterey to see his family. There ees an +English warship come there; and Rosita she ees very gay with the +officers, and make the flirtation very mooch. Then Don Vincente he +is onhappy, and he revenge himself to make lofe with another. When +Rosita come back it is very miserable for them both, but they say +nossing. The warship he have gone away; the other girl Vincente he +go not to no more. All the same, Rosita and Vincente are very +triste, and the family will not know what to make. Then Rosita she +is sick and eat nossing, and walk to herself all day in the rose +garden, until she is as white and fade away as the rose. And +Vincente he eat nossing, but drink mooch aguardiente. Then he have +fever and go dead. And Rosita she have fainting and fits; and one +day they have look for her in the rose garden, and she is not! And +they poosh and poosh in the ground for her, and they find her with +so mooch rose-leaves--so deep--on top of her. SHE has go dead. It +is a very sad story, and when you hear it you are very, very mooch +dissatisfied." + +It is to be feared that the two Americans were not as thrilled by +this sad recital as the fair narrator had expected, and even Dick +ventured to point out that those sort of things happened also to +his countrymen, and were not peculiar to the casa. + +"But you said that there was a terrible sequel," suggested Cecily +smilingly: "tell us THAT. Perhaps Mr. Bracy may receive it a +little more politely." + +An expression of superstitious gravity, half real, half simulated, +came over Dona Felipa's face, although her vivacity of gesticulation +and emphasis did not relax. She cast a hurried glance around her, +and leaned a little forward towards the cousins. + +"When there are no more young people in the casa because they are +dead," she continued, in a lower voice, "Don Gregorio he is very +melank-oaly, and he have no more company for many years. Then +there was a rodeo near the hacienda, and there came five or six +caballeros to stay with him for the feast. Notabilimente comes +then Don Jorge Martinez. He is a bad man--so weeked--a Don Juan +for making lofe to the ladies. He lounge in the garden, he smoke +his cigarette, he twist the moustache--so! One day he came in, and +he laugh and wink so and say, 'Oh, the weeked, sly Don Gregorio! +He have hid away in the casa a beautiful, pret-ty girl, and he will +nossing say.' And the other caballeros say, 'Mira! what is this? +there is not so mooch as one young lady in the casa.' And Don +Jorge he wink, and he say, 'Imbeciles! pigs!' And he walk in the +garden and twist his moustache more than ever. And one day, +behold! he walk into the casa, very white and angry, and he swear +mooch to himself; and he orders his horse, and he ride away, and +never come back no more, never-r-r! And one day another caballero, +Don Esteban Briones, he came in, and say, 'Hola! Don Jorge has +forgotten his pret-ty girl: he have left her over on the garden +bench. Truly I have seen.' And they say, 'We will too.' And they +go, and there is nossing. And they say, 'Imbecile and pig!' But +he is not imbecile and pig; for he has seen, and Don Jorge has +seen; and why? For it is not a girl, but what you call her--a +ghost! And they will that Don Esteban should make a picture of +her--a design; and he make one. And old Don Gregorio he say, +'madre de Dios! it is Rosita'--the same that hung under the +crucifix in the big room." + +"And is that all?" asked Dick, with a somewhat pronounced laugh, +but a face that looked quite white in the moonlight. + +"No, it ees NOT all. For when Don Gregorio got himself more +company another time--it ees all yonge ladies, and my aunt she is +invite too; for she was yonge then, and she herself have tell to me +this:-- + +"One night she is in the garden with the other girls, and when they +want to go in the casa one have say, 'Where is Francisca Pacheco? +Look, she came here with us, and now she is not.' Another one say, +'She have conceal herself to make us affright.' And my aunt she +say, 'I will go seek that I shall find her.' And she go. And when +she came to the pear-tree, she heard Francisca's voice, and it say +to some one she see not, 'Fly! vamos! some one have come.' And +then she come at the moment upon Francisca, very white and +trembling, and--alone. And Francisca she have run away and say +nossing, and shut herself in her room. And one of the other girls +say: 'It is the handsome caballero with the little black moustache +and sad white face that I have seen in the garden that make this. +It is truly that he is some poor relation of Don Gregorio, or some +mad kinsman that he will not we should know.' And my aunt ask Don +Gregorio; for she is yonge. And he have say: 'What silly fool ees +thees? There is not one caballero here, but myself.' And when the +other young girl have tell to him how the caballero look, he say: +'The saints save us! I cannot more say. It ees Don Vincente, who +haf gone dead.' And he cross himself, and-- But look! Madre de +Dios! Mees Cecily, you are ill--you are affrighted. I am a +gabbling fool! Help her, Don Ricardo; she is falling!" + +But it was too late: Cecily had tried to rise to her feet, had +staggered forward and fallen in a faint on the bench. + + . . . . . . + +Dick did not remember how he helped to carry the insensible Cecily +to the casa, nor what explanation he had given to the alarmed +inmates of her sudden attack. He recalled vaguely that something +had been said of the overpowering perfumes of the garden at that +hour, that the lively Felipa had become half hysterical in her +remorseful apologies, and that Aunt Viney had ended the scene by +carrying Cecily into her own room, where she presently recovered a +still trembling but reticent consciousness. But the fainting of +his cousin and the presence of a real emergency had diverted his +imagination from the vague terror that had taken possession of it, +and for the moment enabled him to control himself. With a +desperate effort he managed to keep up a show of hospitable +civility to his Spanish friends until their early departure. Then +he hurried to his own room. So bewildered and horrified he had +become, and a prey to such superstitious terrors, that he could not +at that moment bring himself to the test of looking for the picture +of the alleged Rosita, which might still be hanging in his aunt's +room. If it were really the face of his mysterious visitant--in +his present terror--he felt that his reason might not stand the +shock. He would look at it to-morrow, when he was calmer! Until +then he would believe that the story was some strange coincidence +with what must have been his hallucination, or a vulgar trick to +which he had fallen a credulous victim. Until then he would +believe that Cecily's fright had been only the effect of Dona +Felipa's story, acting upon a vivid imagination, and not a terrible +confirmation of something she had herself seen. He threw himself, +without undressing, upon his bed in a benumbing agony of doubt. + +The gentle opening of his door and the slight rustle of a skirt +started him to his feet with a feeling of new and overpowering +repulsion. But it was a familiar figure that he saw in the long +aisle of light which led from his recessed window, whose face was +white enough to have been a spirit's, and whose finger was laid +upon its pale lips, as it softly closed the door behind it. + +"Cecily!" + +"Hush!" she said, in a distracted whisper: "I felt I must see you +to-night. I could not wait until day--no, not another hour! I +could not speak to you before them. I could not go into that +dreadful garden again, or beyond the walls of this house. Dick, I +want to--I MUST tell you something! I would have kept it from +every one--from you most of all! I know you will hate me, and +despise me; but, Dick, listen!"--she caught his hand despairingly, +drawing it towards her--"that girl's awful story was TRUE!" She +threw his hand away. + +"And you have seen HER!" said Dick, frantically. "Good God!" + +The young girl's manner changed. "HER!" she said, half scornfully, +"you don't suppose I believe THAT story? No. I--I--don't blame +me, Dick,--I have seen HIM." + +"Him?" + +She pushed him nervously into a seat, and sat down beside him. In +the half light of the moon, despite her pallor and distraction, she +was still very human, womanly, and attractive in her disorder. + +"Listen to me, Dick. Do you remember one afternoon, when we were +riding together, I got ahead of you, and dashed off to the casa. +I don't know what possessed me, or WHY I did it. I only know I +wanted to get home quickly, and get away from you. No, I was not +angry, Dick, at YOU; it did not seem to be THAT; I--well, I confess +I was FRIGHTENED--at something, I don't know what. When I wheeled +round into the lane, I saw--a man--a young gentleman standing by +the garden-wall. He was very picturesque-looking, in his red sash, +velvet jacket, and round silver buttons; handsome, but oh, so pale +and sad! He looked at me very eagerly, and then suddenly drew +back, and I heard you on Chu Chu coming at my heels. You must have +seen him and passed him too, I thought: but when you said nothing +of it, I--I don't know why, Dick, I said nothing of it too. Don't +speak!" she added, with a hurried gesture: "I know NOW why you said +nothing,--YOU had not seen him." + +She stopped, and put back a wisp of her disordered chestnut hair. + +"The next time was the night YOU were so queer, Dick, sitting on +that stone bench. When I left you--I thought you didn't care to +have me stay--I went to seek Aunt Viney at the bottom of the +garden. I was very sad, but suddenly I found myself very gay, +talking and laughing with her in a way I could not account for. +All at once, looking up, I saw HIM standing by the little gate, +looking at me very sadly. I think I would have spoken to Aunt +Viney, but he put his finger to his lips--his hand was so slim and +white, quite like a hand in one of those Spanish pictures--and +moved slowly backwards into the lane, as if he wished to speak with +ME only--out there. I know I ought to have spoken to Aunty; I knew +it was wrong what I did, but he looked so earnest, so appealing, so +awfully sad, Dick, that I slipped past Aunty and went out of the +gate. Just then she missed me, and called. He made a kind of +despairing gesture, raising his hand Spanish fashion to his lips, +as if to say good-night. You'll think me bold, Dick, but I was so +anxious to know what it all meant, that I gave a glance behind to +see if Aunty was following, before I should go right up to him and +demand an explanation. But when I faced round again, he was gone! +I walked up and down the lane and out on the plain nearly half an +hour, seeking him. It was strange, I know; but I was not a bit +FRIGHTENED, Dick--that was so queer--but I was only amazed and +curious." + +The look of spiritual terror in Dick's face here seemed to give way +to a less exalted disturbance, as he fixed his eyes on Cecily's. + +"You remember I met YOU coming in: you seemed so queer then that I +did not say anything to you, for I thought you would laugh at me, +or reproach me for my boldness; and I thought, Dick, that--that-- +that--this person wished to speak only to ME." She hesitated. + +"Go on," said Dick, in a voice that had also undergone a singular +change. + +The chestnut head was bent a little lower, as the young girl +nervously twisted her fingers in her lap. + +"Then I saw him again--and--again," she went on hesitatingly. "Of +course I spoke to him, to--to--find out what he wanted; but you +know, Dick, I cannot speak Spanish, and of course he didn't +understand me, and didn't reply." + +"But his manner, his appearance, gave you some idea of his +meaning?" said Dick suddenly. + +Cecily's head drooped a little lower. "I thought--that is, I +fancied I knew what he meant." + +"No doubt," said Dick, in a voice which, but for the superstitious +horror of the situation, might have impressed a casual listener as +indicating a trace of human irony. + +But Cecily did not seem to notice it. "Perhaps I was excited that +night, perhaps I was bolder because I knew you were near me; but I +went up to him and touched him! And then, Dick!--oh, Dick! think +how awful--" + +Again Dick felt the thrill of superstitious terror creep over him. +"And he vanished!" he said hoarsely. + +"No--not at once," stammered Cecily, with her head almost buried in +her lap; "for he--he--he took me in his arms and--" + +"And kissed you?" said Dick, springing to his feet, with every +trace of his superstitious agony gone from his indignant face. But +Cecily, without raising her head, caught at his gesticulating hand. + +"Oh, Dick, Dick! do you think he really did it? The horror of it, +Dick! to be kissed by a--a--man who has been dead a hundred years!" + +"A hundred fiddlesticks!" said Dick furiously. "We have been +deceived! No," he stammered, "I mean YOU have been deceived-- +insulted!" + +"Hush! Aunty will hear you," murmured the girl despairingly. + +Dick, who had thrown away his cousin's hand, caught it again, and +dragged her along the aisle of light to the window. The moon shone +upon his flushed and angry face. + +"Listen!" he said; "you have been fooled, tricked--infamously +tricked by these people, and some confederate, whom--whom I shall +horsewhip if I catch. The whole story is a lie!" + +"But you looked as if you believed it--about the girl," said +Cecily; "you acted so strangely. I even thought, Dick,--sometimes-- +you had seen HIM." + +Dick shuddered, trembled; but it is to be feared that the lower, +more natural human element in him triumphed. + +"Nonsense!" he stammered; "the girl was a foolish farrago of +absurdities, improbable on the face of things, and impossible to +prove. But that infernal, sneaking rascal was flesh and blood." + +It seemed to him to relieve the situation and establish his own +sanity to combat one illusion with another. Cecily had already +been deceived--another lie wouldn't hurt her. But, strangely +enough, he was satisfied that Cecily's visitant was real, although +he still had doubts about his own. + +"Then you think, Dick, it was actually some real man?" she said +piteously. "Oh, Dick, I have been so foolish!" + +Foolish she no doubt had been; pretty she certainly was, sitting +there in her loosened hair, and pathetic, appealing earnestness. +Surely the ghostly Rosita's glances were never so pleading as these +actual honest eyes behind their curving lashes. Dick felt a +strange, new-born sympathy of suffering, mingled tantalizingly with +a new doubt and jealousy, that was human and stimulating. + +"Oh, Dick, what are WE to do?" + +The plural struck him as deliciously sweet and subtle. Had they +really been singled out for this strange experience, or still +stranger hallucination? His arm crept around her; she gently +withdrew from it. + +"I must go now," she murmured; "but I couldn't sleep until I told +you all. You know, Dick, I have no one else to come to, and it +seemed to me that YOU ought to know it first. I feel better for +telling you. You will tell me to-morrow what you think we ought to +do." + +They reached the door, opening it softly. She lingered for a +moment on the threshold. + +"Tell me, Dick" (she hesitated), "if that--that really were a +spirit, and not a real man,--you don't think that--that kiss" (she +shuddered) "could do me harm!" + +He shuddered too, with a strange and sympathetic consciousness +that, happily, she did not even suspect. But he quickly recovered +himself and said, with something of bitterness in his voice, "I +should be more afraid if it really were a man." + +"Oh, thank you, Dick!" + +Her lips parted in a smile of relief; the color came faintly back +to her cheek. + +A wild thought crossed his fancy that seemed an inspiration. They +would share the risks alike. He leaned towards her: their lips met +in their first kiss. + +"Oh, Dick!" + +"Dearest!" + +"I think--we are saved." + +"Why?" + +"It wasn't at all like that." + +He smiled as she flew swiftly down the corridor. Perhaps he +thought so too. + + . . . . . . + +No picture of the alleged Rosita was ever found. Dona Felipa, +when the story was again referred to, smiled discreetly, but was +apparently too preoccupied with the return of Don Jose's absent +nephew for further gossiping visits to the hacienda; and Dick and +Cecily, as Mr. and Mrs. Bracy, would seem to have survived--if they +never really solved--the mystery of the Hacienda de los Osos. Yet +in the month of June, when the moon is high, one does not sit on +the stone bench in the rose garden after the last stroke of the +Angelus. + + + +CHU CHU. + + +I do not believe that the most enthusiastic lover of that "useful +and noble animal," the horse, will claim for him the charm of +geniality, humor, or expansive confidence. Any creature who will +not look you squarely in the eye--whose only oblique glances are +inspired by fear, distrust, or a view to attack; who has no way of +returning caresses, and whose favorite expression is one of head- +lifting disdain, may be "noble" or "useful," but can be hardly said +to add to the gayety of nations. Indeed it may be broadly stated +that, with the single exception of gold-fish, of all animals kept +for the recreation of mankind the horse is alone capable of +exciting a passion that shall be absolutely hopeless. I deem these +general remarks necessary to prove that my unreciprocated affection +for "Chu Chu" was not purely individual or singular. And I may add +that to these general characteristics she brought the waywardness +of her capricious sex. + +She came to me out of the rolling dust of an emigrant wagon, behind +whose tailboard she was gravely trotting. She was a half-broken +colt--in which character she had at different times unseated +everybody in the train--and, although covered with dust, she had a +beautiful coat, and the most lambent gazelle-like eyes I had ever +seen. I think she kept these latter organs purely for ornament-- +apparently looking at things with her nose, her sensitive ears, +and, sometimes, even a slight lifting of her slim near fore-leg. +On our first interview I thought she favored me with a coy glance, +but as it was accompanied by an irrelevant "Look out!" from her +owner, the teamster, I was not certain. I only know that after +some conversation, a good deal of mental reservation, and the +disbursement of considerable coin, I found myself standing in the +dust of the departing emigrant-wagon with one end of a forty-foot +riata in my hand, and Chu Chu at the other. + +I pulled invitingly at my own end, and even advanced a step or two +towards her. She then broke into a long disdainful pace, and began +to circle round me at the extreme limit of her tether. I stood +admiring her free action for some moments--not always turning with +her, which was tiring--until I found that she was gradually winding +herself up ON ME! Her frantic astonishment when she suddenly found +herself thus brought up against me was one of the most remarkable +things I ever saw, and nearly took me off my legs. Then when she +had pulled against the riata until her narrow head and prettily +arched neck were on a perfectly straight line with it, she as +suddenly slackened the tension and condescended to follow me, at an +angle of her own choosing. Sometimes it was on one side of me, +sometimes on the other. Even then the sense of my dreadful +contiguity apparently would come upon her like a fresh discovery, +and she would become hysterical. But I do not think that she +really SAW me. She looked at the riata and sniffed it disparagingly, +she pawed some pebbles that were near me tentatively with her small +hoof; she started back with a Robinson Crusoe-like horror of my +footprints in the wet gully, but my actual personal presence she +ignored. She would sometimes pause, with her head thoughtfully +between her fore-legs, and apparently say: "There is some +extraordinary presence here: animal, vegetable, or mineral--I can't +make out which--but it's not good to eat, and I loathe and detest +it." + +When I reached my house in the suburbs, before entering the "fifty +vara" lot inclosure, I deemed it prudent to leave her outside while +I informed the household of my purchase; and with this object I +tethered her by the long riata to a solitary sycamore which stood +in the centre of the road, the crossing of two frequented +thoroughfares. It was not long, however, before I was interrupted +by shouts and screams from that vicinity, and on returning thither +I found that Chu Chu, with the assistance of her riata, had +securely wound up two of my neighbors to the tree, where they +presented the appearance of early Christian martyrs. When I +released them it appeared that they had been attracted by Chu Chu's +graces, and had offered her overtures of affection, to which she +had characteristically rotated with this miserable result. I led +her, with some difficulty, warily keeping clear of the riata, to +the inclosure, from whose fence I had previously removed several +bars. Although the space was wide enough to have admitted a troop +of cavalry she affected not to notice it, and managed to kick away +part of another section on entering. She resisted the stable for +some time, but after carefully examining it with her hoofs, and an +affectedly meek outstretching of her nose, she consented to +recognize some oats in the feed-box--without looking at them--and +was formally installed. All this while she had resolutely ignored +my presence. As I stood watching her she suddenly stopped eating; +the same reflective look came over her. "Surely I am not mistaken, +but that same obnoxious creature is somewhere about here!" she +seemed to say, and shivered at the possibility. + +It was probably this which made me confide my unreciprocated +affection to one of my neighbors--a man supposed to be an authority +on horses, and particularly of that wild species to which Chu Chu +belonged. It was he who, leaning over the edge of the stall +where she was complacently and, as usual, obliviously munching, +absolutely dared to toy with a pet lock of hair which she wore over +the pretty star on her forehead. "Ye see, captain," he said with +jaunty easiness, "hosses is like wimmen; ye don't want ter use any +standoffishness or shyness with THEM; a stiddy but keerless sort o' +familiarity, a kind o' free but firm handlin', jess like this, to +let her see who's master"-- + +We never clearly knew HOW it happened; but when I picked up my +neighbor from the doorway, amid the broken splinters of the stall +rail, and a quantity of oats that mysteriously filled his hair and +pockets, Chu Chu was found to have faced around the other way, and +was contemplating her forelegs, with her hind ones in the other +stall. My neighbor spoke of damages while he was in the stall, and +of physical coercion when he was out of it again. But here Chu +Chu, in some marvelous way, righted herself, and my neighbor +departed hurriedly with a brimless hat and an unfinished sentence. + +My next intermediary was Enriquez Saltello--a youth of my own age, +and the brother of Consuelo Saltello, whom I adored. As a Spanish +Californian he was presumed, on account of Chu Chu's half-Spanish +origin, to have superior knowledge of her character, and I even +vaguely believed that his language and accent would fall familiarly +on her ear. There was the drawback, however, that he always +preferred to talk in a marvelous English, combining Castilian +precision with what he fondly believed to be Californian slang. + +"To confer then as to thees horse, which is not--observe me--a +Mexican plug! Ah, no! you can your boots bet on that. She is of +Castilian stock--believe me and strike me dead! I will myself at +different times overlook and affront her in the stable, examine her +as to the assault, and why she should do thees thing. When she is +of the exercise I will also accost and restrain her. Remain +tranquil, my friend! When a few days shall pass much shall be +changed, and she will be as another. Trust your oncle to do thees +thing! Comprehend me? Everything shall be lovely, and the goose +hang high!" + +Conformably with this he "overlooked" her the next day, with a +cigarette between his yellow-stained finger-tips, which made +her sneeze in a silent pantomimic way, and certain Spanish +blandishments of speech which she received with more complacency. +But I don't think she ever even looked at him. In vain he +protested that she was the "dearest" and "littlest" of his "little +loves"--in vain he asserted that she was his patron saint, and +that it was his soul's delight to pray to her; she accepted the +compliment with her eyes fixed upon the manger. When he had +exhausted his whole stock of endearing diminutives, adding a few +playful and more audacious sallies, she remained with her head +down, as if inclined to meditate upon them. This he declared was +at least an improvement on her former performances. It may have +been my own jealousy, but I fancied she was only saying to herself, +"Gracious! can there be TWO of them?" + +"Courage and patience, my friend," he said, as we were slowly +quitting the stable. "Thees horse is yonge, and has not yet the +habitude of the person. To-morrow, at another season, I shall give +to her a foundling" ("fondling," I have reason to believe, was the +word intended by Enriquez)--"and we shall see. It shall be as easy +as to fall away from a log. A leetle more of this chin music which +your friend Enriquez possesses, and some tapping of the head and +neck, and you are there. You are ever the right side up. Houp la! +But let us not precipitate this thing. The more haste, we do not +so much accelerate ourselves." + +He appeared to be suiting the action to the word as he lingered in +the doorway of the stable. "Come on," I said. + +"Pardon," he returned, with a bow that was both elaborate and +evasive, "but you shall yourself precede me--the stable is YOURS." + +"Oh, come along!" I continued impatiently. To my surprise he +seemed to dodge back into the stable again. After an instant he +reappeared. + +"Pardon! but I am re-strain! Of a truth, in this instant I am +grasp by the mouth of thees horse in the coat-tail of my dress! +She will that I should remain. It would seem"--he disappeared +again--"that"--he was out once more--"the experiment is a sooccess! +She reciprocate! She is, of a truth, gone on me. It is lofe!"--a +stronger pull from Chu Chu here sent him in again--"but"--he was +out now triumphantly with half his garment torn away--"I shall +coquet." + +Nothing daunted, however, the gallant fellow was back next day with +a Mexican saddle, and attired in the complete outfit of a vaquero. +Overcome though HE was by heavy deerskin trousers, open at the side +from the knees down, and fringed with bullion buttons, an enormous +flat sombrero, and a stiff, short embroidered velvet jacket, I was +more concerned at the ponderous saddle and equipments intended for +the slim Chu Chu. That these would hide and conceal her beautiful +curves and contour, as well as overweight her, seemed certain; +that she would resist them all to the last seemed equally clear. +Nevertheless, to my surprise, when she was led out, and the saddle +thrown deftly across her back, she was passive. Was it possible +that some drop of her old Spanish blood responded to its clinging +embrace? She did not either look at it nor smell it. But when +Enriquez began to tighten the "cinch" or girth a more singular +thing occurred. Chu Chu visibly distended her slender barrel to +twice its dimensions; the more he pulled the more she swelled, +until I was actually ashamed of her. Not so Enriquez. He smiled +at us, and complacently stroked his thin moustache. + +"Eet is ever so! She is the child of her grandmother! Even when +you shall make saddle thees old Castilian stock, it will make +large--it will become a balloon! Eet is a trick--eet is a leetle +game--believe me. For why?" + +I had not listened, as I was at that moment astonished to see the +saddle slowly slide under Chu Chu's belly, and her figure resume, +as if by magic, its former slim proportions. Enriquez followed my +eyes, lifted his shoulders, shrugged them, and said smilingly, "Ah, +you see!" + +When the girths were drawn in again with an extra pull or two from +the indefatigable Enriquez, I fancied that Chu Chu nevertheless +secretly enjoyed it, as her sex is said to appreciate tight-lacing. +She drew a deep sigh, possibly of satisfaction, turned her neck, +and apparently tried to glance at her own figure--Enriquez promptly +withdrawing to enable her to do so easily. Then the dread moment +arrived. Enriquez, with his hand on her mane, suddenly paused and, +with exaggerated courtesy, lifted his hat and made an inviting +gesture. + +"You will honor me to precede." + +I shook my head laughingly. + +"I see," responded Enriquez gravely. "You have to attend the +obsequies of your aunt who is dead, at two of the clock. You have +to meet your broker who has bought you feefty share of the Comstock +lode--at thees moment--or you are loss! You are excuse! Attend! +Gentlemen, make your bets! The band has arrived to play! 'Ere we +are!" + +With a quick movement the alert young fellow had vaulted into the +saddle. But, to the astonishment of both of us, the mare remained +perfectly still. There was Enriquez bolt upright in the stirrups, +completely overshadowing by his saddle-flaps, leggings, and +gigantic spurs the fine proportions of Chu Chu, until she might +have been a placid Rosinante, bestridden by some youthful Quixote. +She closed her eyes, she was going to sleep! We were dreadfully +disappointed. This clearly would not do. Enriquez lifted the +reins cautiously! Chu Chu moved forward slowly--then stopped, +apparently lost in reflection. + +"Affront her on thees side." + +I approached her gently. She shot suddenly into the air, coming +down again on perfectly stiff legs with a springless jolt. This +she instantly followed by a succession of other rocket-like +propulsions, utterly unlike a leap, all over the inclosure. The +movements of the unfortunate Enriquez were equally unlike any +equitation I ever saw. He appeared occasionally over Chu Chu's +head, astride of her neck and tail, or in the free air, but never +IN the saddle. His rigid legs, however, never lost the stirrups, +but came down regularly, accentuating her springless hops. More +than that, the disproportionate excess of rider, saddle, and +accoutrements was so great that he had, at times, the appearance of +lifting Chu Chu forcibly from the ground by superior strength, and +of actually contributing to her exercise! As they came towards me, +a wild tossing and flying mass of hoofs and spurs, it was not only +difficult to distinguish them apart, but to ascertain how much of +the jumping was done by Enriquez separately. At last Chu Chu +brought matters to a close by making for the low-stretching +branches of an oak-tree which stood at the corner of the lot. +In a few moments she emerged from it--but without Enriquez. + +I found the gallant fellow disengaging himself from the fork of a +branch in which he had been firmly wedged, but still smiling and +confident, and his cigarette between his teeth. Then for the first +time he removed it, and seating himself easily on the branch with +his legs dangling down, he blandly waved aside my anxious queries +with a gentle reassuring gesture. + +"Remain tranquil, my friend. Thees does not count! I have +conquer--you observe--for why? I have NEVER for once ARRIVE AT THE +GROUND! Consequent she is disappoint! She will ever that I +SHOULD! But I have got her when the hair is not long! Your oncle +Henry"--with an angelic wink--"is fly! He is ever a bully boy, +with the eye of glass! Believe me. Behold! I am here! Big +Injin! Whoop!" + +He leaped lightly to the ground. Chu Chu, standing watchfully at a +little distance, was evidently astonished at his appearance. She +threw out her hind hoofs violently, shot up into the air until the +stirrups crossed each other high above the saddle, and made for the +stable in a succession of rabbit-like bounds--taking the precaution +to remove the saddle, on entering, by striking it against the +lintel of the door. "You observe," said Enriquez blandly, "she +would make that thing of ME. Not having the good occasion, she ees +dissatisfied. Where are you now?" + +Two or three days afterwards he rode her again with the same +result--accepted by him with the same heroic complacency. As we +did not, for certain reasons, care to use the open road for this +exercise, and as it was impossible to remove the tree, we were +obliged to submit to the inevitable. On the following day I +mounted her--undergoing the same experience as Enriquez, with the +individual sensation of falling from a third-story window on top of +a counting-house stool, and the variation of being projected over +the fence. When I found that Chu Chu had not accompanied me, I saw +Enriquez at my side. "More than ever is become necessary that we +should do thees things again," he said gravely, as he assisted me +to my feet. "Courage, my noble General! God and Liberty! Once +more on to the breach! Charge, Chestare, charge! Come on, Don +Stanley! 'Ere we are!" + +He helped me none too quickly to catch my seat again, for it +apparently had the effect of the turned peg on the enchanted horse +in the Arabian Nights, and Chu Chu instantly rose into the air. +But she came down this time before the open window of the kitchen, +and I alighted easily on the dresser. The indefatigable Enriquez +followed me. + +"Won't this do?" I asked meekly. + +"It ees BETTER--for you arrive NOT on the ground," he said +cheerfully; "but you should not once but a thousand times make +trial! Ha! Go and win! Nevare die and say so! 'Eave ahead! +'Eave! There you are! " + +Luckily, this time I managed to lock the rowels of my long spurs +under her girth, and she could not unseat me. She seemed to +recognize the fact after one or two plunges, when, to my great +surprise, she suddenly sank to the ground and quietly rolled over +me. The action disengaged my spurs, but, righting herself without +getting up, she turned her beautiful head and absolutely LOOKED at +me!--still in the saddle. I felt myself blushing! But the voice +of Enriquez was at my side. + +"Errise, my friend; you have conquer! It is SHE who has arrive at +the ground! YOU are all right. It is done; believe me, it is +feenish! No more shall she make thees thing. From thees instant +you shall ride her as the cow--as the rail of thees fence--and +remain tranquil. For she is a-broke! Ta-ta! Regain your hats, +gentlemen! Pass in your checks! It is ovar! How are you now?" +He lit a fresh cigarette, put his hands in his pockets, and smiled +at me blandly. + +For all that, I ventured to point out that the habit of alighting +in the fork of a tree, or the disengaging of one's self from the +saddle on the ground, was attended with inconvenience, and even +ostentatious display. But Enriquez swept the objections away with +a single gesture. "It is the PREENCIPAL--the bottom fact--at which +you arrive. The next come of himself! Many horse have achieve +to mount the rider by the knees, and relinquish after thees same +fashion. My grandfather had a barb of thees kind--but she has gone +dead, and so have my grandfather. Which is sad and strange! +Otherwise I shall make of them both an instant example!" + +I ought to have said that although these performances were never +actually witnessed by Enriquez's sister--for reasons which he and I +thought sufficient--the dear girl displayed the greatest interest +in them, and, perhaps aided by our mutually complimentary accounts +of each other, looked upon us both as invincible heroes. It is +possible also that she over-estimated our success, for she suddenly +demanded that I should RIDE Chu Chu to her house, that she might +see her. It was not far; by going through a back lane I could +avoid the trees which exercised such a fatal fascination for Chu +Chu. There was a pleading, child-like entreaty in Consuelo's voice +that I could not resist, with a slight flash from her lustrous dark +eyes that I did not care to encourage. So I resolved to try it at +all hazards. + +My equipment for the performance was modeled after Enriquez's +previous costume, with the addition of a few fripperies of silver +and stamped leather out of compliment to Consuelo, and even with a +faint hope that it might appease Chu Chu. SHE certainly looked +beautiful in her glittering accoutrements, set off by her jet-black +shining coat. With an air of demure abstraction she permitted me +to mount her, and even for a hundred yards or so indulged in a +mincing maidenly amble that was not without a touch of coquetry. +Encouraged by this, I addressed a few terms of endearment to her, +and in the exuberance of my youthful enthusiasm I even confided to +her my love for Consuelo, and begged her to be "good" and not +disgrace herself and me before my Dulcinea. In my foolish +trustfulness I was rash enough to add a caress, and to pat her soft +neck. She stopped instantly with a hysteric shudder. I knew what +was passing through her mind: she had suddenly become aware of my +baleful existence. + +The saddle and bridle Chu Chu was becoming accustomed to, but who +was this living, breathing object that had actually touched her? +Presently her oblique vision was attracted by the fluttering +movement of a fallen oak-leaf in the road before her. She had +probably seen many oak-leaves many times before; her ancestors had +no doubt been familiar with them on the trackless hills and in +field and paddock, but this did not alter her profound conviction +that I and the leaf were identical, that our baleful touch was +something indissolubly connected. She reared before that innocent +leaf, she revolved round it, and then fled from it at the top of +her speed. + +The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden. +Unfortunately, at the angle of the fence stood a beautiful Madrono- +tree, brilliant with its scarlet berries, and endeared to me as +Consuelo's favorite haunt, under whose protecting shade I had more +than once avowed my youthful passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu +caught sight of it, and with a succession of spirited bounds +instantly made for it. In another moment I was beneath it, and Chu +Chu shot like a rocket into the air. I had barely time to withdraw +my feet from the stirrups, to throw up one arm to protect my glazed +sombrero and grasp an overhanging branch with the other, before Chu +Chu darted off. But to my consternation, as I gained a secure +perch on the tree, and looked about me, I saw her--instead of +running away--quietly trot through the open gate into Saltello's +garden. + +Need I say that it was to the beneficent Enriquez that I again owed +my salvation? Scarcely a moment elapsed before his bland voice +rose in a concentrated whisper from the corner of the garden below +me. He had divined the dreadful truth! + +"For the love of God, collect to yourself many kinds of thees +berry! All you can! Your full arms round! Rest tranquil. Leave +to your ole oncle to make for you a delicate exposure. At the +instant!" + +He was gone again. I gathered, wonderingly, a few of the larger +clusters of parti-colored fruit and patiently waited. Presently he +reappeared, and with him the lovely Consuelo--her dear eyes filled +with an adorable anxiety. + +"Yes," continued Enriquez to his sister, with a confidential +lowering of tone but great distinctness of utterance, "it is ever +so with the American! He will ever make FIRST the salutation of +the flower or the fruit, picked to himself by his own hand, to the +lady where he call. It is the custom of the American hidalgo! My +God--what will you? I make it not--it is so! Without doubt he is +in this instant doing thees thing. That is why he have let go his +horse to precede him here; it is always the etiquette to offer +these things on the feet. Ah! Behold! it is he!--Don Francisco! +Even now he will descend from thees tree! Ah! You make the blush, +little sister (archly)! I will retire! I am discreet; two is not +company for the one! I make tracks! I am gone!" + +How far Consuelo entirely believed and trusted her ingenious +brother I do not know, nor even then cared to inquire. For there +was a pretty mantling of her olive cheek, as I came forward with my +offering, and a certain significant shyness in her manner that were +enough to throw me into a state of hopeless imbecility. And I was +always miserably conscious that Consuelo possessed an exalted +sentimentality, and a predilection for the highest mediaeval +romance, in which I knew I was lamentably deficient. Even in our +most confidential moments I was always aware that I weakly lagged +behind this daughter of a gloomily distinguished ancestry, in her +frequent incursions into a vague but poetic past. There was +something of the dignity of the Spanish chatelaine in the sweetly +grave little figure that advanced to accept my specious offering. +I think I should have fallen on my knees to present it, but for the +presence of the all seeing Enriquez. But why did I even at that +moment remember that he had early bestowed upon her the nickname of +"Pomposa"? This, as Enriquez himself might have observed, was "sad +and strange." + +I managed to stammer out something about the Madrono berries being +at her "disposicion" (the tree was in her own garden!), and she +took the branches in her little brown hand with a soft response to +my unutterable glances. + +But here Chu Chu, momentarily forgotten, executed a happy diversion. +To our astonishment she gravely walked up to Consuelo and, stretching +out her long slim neck, not only sniffed curiously at the berries, +but even protruded a black underlip towards the young girl herself. +In another instant Consuelo's dignity melted. Throwing her arms +around Chu Chu's neck she embraced and kissed her. Young as I +was, I understood the divine significance of a girl's vicarious +effusiveness at such a moment, and felt delighted. But I was the +more astonished that the usually sensitive horse not only submitted +to these caresses, but actually responded to the extent of affecting +to nip my mistress's little right ear. + +This was enough for the impulsive Consuelo. She ran hastily into +the house, and in a few moments reappeared in a bewitching riding- +skirt gathered round her jimp waist. In vain Enriquez and myself +joined in earnest entreaty: the horse was hardly broken for even a +man's riding yet; the saints alone could tell what the nervous +creature might do with a woman's skirt flapping at her side! We +begged for delay, for reflection, for at least time to change the +saddle--but with no avail! Consuelo was determined, indignant, +distressingly reproachful! Ah, well! if Don Pancho (an ingenious +diminutive of my Christian name) valued his horse so highly--if he +were jealous of the evident devotion of the animal to herself, he +would--but here I succumbed! And then I had the felicity of +holding that little foot for one brief moment in the hollow of my +hand, of readjusting the skirt as she threw her knee over the +saddle-horn, of clasping her tightly--only half in fear--as I +surrendered the reins to her grasp. And to tell the truth, as +Enriquez and I fell back, although I had insisted upon still +keeping hold of the end of the riata, it was a picture to admire. +The petite figure of the young girl, and the graceful folds of her +skirt, admirably harmonized with Chu Chu's lithe contour, and as +the mare arched her slim neck and raised her slender head under the +pressure of the reins, it was so like the lifted velvet-capped +toreador crest of Consuelo herself, that they seemed of one race. + +"I would not that you should hold the riata," said Consuelo +petulantly. + +I hesitated--Chu Chu looked certainly very amiable--I let go. She +began to amble towards the gate, not mincingly as before, but with +a freer and fuller stride. In spite of the incongruous saddle the +young girl's seat was admirable. As they neared the gate she cast +a single mischievous glance at me, jerked at the rein, and Chu Chu +sprang into the road at a rapid canter. I watched them fearfully +and breathlessly, until at the end of the lane I saw Consuelo rein +in slightly, wheel easily, and come flying back. There was no +doubt about it; the horse was under perfect control. Her second +subjugation was complete and final! + +Overjoyed and bewildered, I overwhelmed them with congratulations; +Enriquez alone retaining the usual brotherly attitude of criticism, +and a superior toleration of a lover's enthusiasm. I ventured to +hint to Consuelo (in what I believed was a safe whisper) that Chu +Chu only showed my own feelings towards her. "Without doubt," +responded Enriquez gravely. "She have of herself assist you to +climb to the tree to pull to yourself the berry for my sister." +But I felt Consuelo's little hand return my pressure, and I forgave +and even pitied him. + +From that day forward, Chu Chu and Consuelo were not only firm +friends but daily companions. In my devotion I would have +presented the horse to the young girl, but with flattering delicacy +she preferred to call it mine. "I shall erride it for you, +Pancho," she said; "I shall feel," she continued with exalted +although somewhat vague poetry, "that it is of YOU! You lofe the +beast--it is therefore of a necessity YOU, my Pancho! It is YOUR +soul I shall erride like the wings of the wind--your lofe in this +beast shall be my only cavalier for ever." I would have preferred +something whose vicarious qualities were less uncertain than I +still felt Chu Chu's to be, but I kissed the girl's hand +submissively. It was only when I attempted to accompany her in +the flesh, on another horse, that I felt the full truth of my +instinctive fears. Chu Chu would not permit any one to approach +her mistress's side. My mounted presence revived in her all her +old blind astonishment and disbelief in my existence; she would +start suddenly, face about, and back away from me in utter +amazement as if I had been only recently created, or with an +affected modesty as if I had been just guilty of some grave +indecorum towards her sex which she really could not stand. The +frequency of these exhibitions in the public highway were not only +distressing to me as a simple escort, but as it had the effect on +the casual spectators of making Consuelo seem to participate in Chu +Chu's objections, I felt that, as a lover, it could not be borne. +Any attempt to coerce Chu Chu ended in her running away. And my +frantic pursuit of her was open to equal misconstruction. "Go it, +Miss, the little dude is gainin' on you!" shouted by a drunken +teamster to the frightened Consuelo, once checked me in mid career. +Even the dear girl herself saw the uselessness of my real presence, +and after a while was content to ride with "my soul." + +Notwithstanding this, I am not ashamed to say that it was my +custom, whenever she rode out, to keep a slinking and distant +surveillance of Chu Chu on another horse, until she had fairly +settled down to her pace. A little nod of Consuelo's round black- +and-red toreador hat or a kiss tossed from her riding-whip was +reward enough! + +I remember a pleasant afternoon when I was thus awaiting her in the +outskirts of the village. The eternal smile of the Californian +summer had begun to waver and grow less fixed; dust lay thick on +leaf and blade; the dry hills were clothed in russet leather; the +trade winds were shifting to the south with an ominous warm +humidity; a few days longer and the rains would be here. It so +chanced that this afternoon my seclusion on the roadside was +accidentally invaded by a village belle--a Western young lady +somewhat older than myself, and of flirtatious reputation. As she +persistently and--as I now have reason to believe--mischievously +lingered, I had only a passing glimpse of Consuelo riding past at +an unaccustomed speed which surprised me at the moment. But as I +reasoned later that she was only trying to avoid a merely formal +meeting, I thought no more about it. It was not until I called at +the house to fetch Chu Chu at the usual hour, and found that +Consuelo had not yet returned, that a recollection of Chu Chu's +furious pace again troubled me. An hour passed--it was getting +towards sunset, but there were no signs of Chu Chu nor her +mistress. I became seriously alarmed. I did not care to reveal +my fears to the family, for I felt myself responsible for Chu Chu. +At last I desperately saddled my horse, and galloped off in the +direction she had taken. It was the road to Rosario and the +hacienda of one of her relations, where she sometimes halted. + +The road was a very unfrequented one, twisting like a mountain +river; indeed, it was the bed of an old watercourse, between brown +hills of wild oats, and debouching at last into a broad blue lake- +like expanse of alfalfa meadows. In vain I strained my eyes over +the monotonous level; nothing appeared to rise above or move across +it. In the faint hope that she might have lingered at the +hacienda, I was spurring on again when I heard a slight splashing +on my left. I looked around. A broad patch of fresher-colored +herbage and a cluster of dwarfed alders indicated a hidden spring. +I cautiously approached its quaggy edges, when I was shocked by +what appeared to be a sudden vision! Mid-leg deep in the centre of +a greenish pool stood Chu Chu! But without a strap or buckle of +harness upon her--as naked as when she was foaled! + +For a moment I could only stare at her in bewildered terror. Far +from recognizing me, she seemed to be absorbed in a nymph-like +contemplation of her own graces in the pool. Then I called +"Consuelo!" and galloped frantically around the spring. But there +was no response, nor was there anything to be seen but the all- +unconscious Chu Chu. The pool, thank Heaven! was not deep enough +to have drowned any one; there were no signs of a struggle on its +quaggy edges. The horse might have come from a distance! I +galloped on, still calling. A few hundred yards further I detected +the vivid glow of Chu Chu's scarlet saddle-blanket, in the brush +near the trail. My heart leaped--I was on the track. I called +again; this time a faint reply, in accents I knew too well, came +from the field beside me! + +Consuelo was there! reclining beside a manzanita bush which +screened her from the road, in what struck me, even at that supreme +moment, as a judicious and picturesquely selected couch of scented +Indian grass and dry tussocks. The velvet hat with its balls of +scarlet plush was laid carefully aside; her lovely blue-black hair +retained its tight coils undisheveled, her eyes were luminous and +tender. Shocked as I was at her apparent helplessness, I remember +being impressed with the fact that it gave so little indication of +violent usage or disaster. + +I threw myself frantically on the ground beside her. + +"You are hurt, Consita! For Heaven's sake, what has happened?" + +She pushed my hat back with her little hand, and tumbled my hair +gently. + +"Nothing. YOU are here, Pancho--eet is enofe! What shall come +after thees--when I am perhaps gone among the grave--make nothing! +YOU are here--I am happy. For a little, perhaps--not mooch." + +"But," I went on desperately, "was it an accident? Were you +thrown? Was it Chu Chu?"--for somehow, in spite of her languid +posture and voice, I could not, even in my fears, believe her +seriously hurt. + +"Beat not the poor beast, Pancho. It is not from HER comes thees +thing. She have make nothing--believe me! I have come upon your +assignation with Miss Essmith! I make but to pass you--to fly--to +never come back! I have say to Chu Chu, 'Fly!' We fly many miles. +Sometimes together, sometimes not so mooch! Sometimes in the +saddle, sometimes on the neck! Many things remain in the road; at +the end, I myself remain! I have say, 'Courage, Pancho will come!' +Then I say, 'No, he is talk with Miss Essmith!' I remember not +more. I have creep here on the hands. Eet is feenish!" + +I looked at her distractedly. She smiled tenderly, and slightly +smoothed down and rearranged a fold of her dress to cover her +delicate little boot. + +"But," I protested, "you are not much hurt, dearest. You have +broken no bones. Perhaps," I added, looking at the boot, "only a +slight sprain. Let me carry you to my horse; I will walk beside +you, home. Do, dearest Consita!" + +She turned her lovely eyes towards me sadly. "You comprehend not, +my poor Pancho! It is not of the foot, the ankle, the arm, or the +head that I can say, 'She is broke!' I would it were even so. +But"--she lifted her sweet lashes slowly--"I have derrange my +inside. It is an affair of my family. My grandfather have once +toomble over the bull at a rodeo. He speak no more; he is dead. +For why? He has derrange his inside. Believe me, it is of the +family. You comprehend? The Saltellos are not as the other +peoples for this. When I am gone, you will bring to me the berry +to grow upon my tomb, Pancho; the berry you have picked for me. +The little flower will come too, the little star will arrive, but +Consuelo, who lofe you, she will come not more! When you are happy +and talk in the road to the Essmith, you will not think of me. You +will not see my eyes, Pancho; thees little grass"--she ran her +plump little fingers through a tussock--"will hide them; and the +small animals in the black coats that lif here will have much +sorrow--but you will not. It ees better so! My father will not +that I, a Catholique, should marry into a camp-meeting, and lif in +a tent, and make howl like the coyote." (It was one of Consuelo's +bewildering beliefs that there was only one form of dissent-- +Methodism!) "He will not that I should marry a man who possess not +the many horses, ox, and cow, like him. But I care not. YOU are +my only religion, Pancho! I have enofe of the horse, and ox, and +cow when YOU are with me! Kiss me, Pancho. Perhaps it is for the +last time--the feenish! Who knows?" + +There were tears in her lovely eyes; I felt that my own were +growing dim; the sun was sinking over the dreary plain to the slow +rising of the wind; an infinite loneliness had fallen upon us, and +yet I was miserably conscious of some dreadful unreality in it all. +A desire to laugh, which I felt must be hysterical, was creeping +over me; I dared not speak. But her dear head was on my shoulder, +and the situation was not unpleasant. + +Nevertheless, something must be done! This was the more difficult +as it was by no means clear what had already been done. Even while +I supported her drooping figure I was straining my eyes across her +shoulder for succor of some kind. Suddenly the figure of a rapid +rider appeared upon the road. It seemed familiar. I looked again-- +it was the blessed Enriquez! A sense of deep relief came over me. +I loved Consuelo; but never before had lover ever hailed the +irruption of one of his beloved's family with such complacency. + +"You are safe, dearest; it is Enriquez!" + +I thought she received the information coldly. Suddenly she turned +upon me her eyes, now bright and glittering. "Swear to me at the +instant, Pancho, that you will not again look upon Miss Essmith, +even for once." + +I was simple and literal. Miss Smith was my nearest neighbor, and, +unless I was stricken with blindness, compliance was impossible. I +hesitated--but swore. + +"Enofe--you have hesitate--I will no more." + +She rose to her feet with grave deliberation. For an instant, with +the recollection of the delicate internal organization of the +Saltellos on my mind, I was in agony lest she should totter and +fall, even then, yielding up her gentle spirit on the spot. But +when I looked again she had a hairpin between her white teeth, and +was carefully adjusting her toreador hat. And beside us was +Enriquez--cheerful, alert, voluble, and undaunted. + +"Eureka! I have found! We are all here! Eet is a leetle public-- +eh! a leetle too much of a front seat for a tete-a-tete, my yonge +friends," he said, glancing at the remains of Consuelo's bower, +"but for the accounting of taste there is none. What will you? +The meat of the one man shall envenom the meat of the other. But" +(in a whisper to me) "as to thees horse--thees Chu Chu, which I +have just pass--why is she undress? Surely you would not make an +exposition of her to the traveler to suspect! And if not, why so?" + +I tried to explain, looking at Consuelo, that Chu Chu had run away, +that Consuelo had met with a terrible accident, had been thrown, +and I feared had suffered serious internal injury. But to my +embarrassment Consuelo maintained a half scornful silence, and an +inconsistent freshness of healthful indifference, as Enriquez +approached her with an engaging smile. "Ah, yes, she have the +headache, and the molligrubs. She will sit on the damp stone when +the gentle dew is falling. I comprehend. Meet me in the lane when +the clock strike nine! But," in a lower voice, "of thees undress +horse I comprehend nothing! Look you--it is sad and strange." + +He went off to fetch Chu Chu, leaving me and Consuelo alone. I do +not think I ever felt so utterly abject and bewildered before in my +life. Without knowing why, I was miserably conscious of having in +some way offended the girl for whom I believed I would have given +my life, and I had made her and myself ridiculous in the eyes of +her brother. I had again failed in my slower Western nature to +understand her high romantic Spanish soul! Meantime she was +smoothing out her riding-habit, and looking as fresh and pretty +as when she first left her house. + +"Consita," I said hesitatingly, "you are not angry with me?" + +"Angry?" she repeated haughtily, without looking at me. "Oh, no! +Of a possibility eet is Mees Essmith who is angry that I have +interroopt her tete-a-tete with you, and have send here my brother +to make the same with me." + +"But," I said eagerly, "Miss Smith does not even know Enriquez!" + +Consuelo turned on me a glance of unutterable significance. "Ah!" +she said darkly, "you TINK!" + +Indeed I KNEW. But here I believed I understood Consuelo, and was +relieved. I even ventured to say gently, "And you are better?" + +She drew herself up to her full height, which was not much. "Of my +health, what is it? A nothing. Yes! Of my soul let us not +speak." + +Nevertheless, when Enriquez appeared with Chu Chu she ran towards +her with outstretched arms. Chu Chu protruded about six inches of +upper lip in response--apparently under the impression, which I +could quite understand, that her mistress was edible. And, I may +have been mistaken, but their beautiful eyes met in an absolute and +distinct glance of intelligence! + +During the home journey Consuelo recovered her spirits, and parted +from me with a magnanimous and forgiving pressure of the hand. I +do not know what explanation of Chu Chu's original escapade was +given to Enriquez and the rest of the family; the inscrutable +forgiveness extended to me by Consuelo precluded any further +inquiry on my part. I was willing to leave it a secret between her +and Chu Chu. But, strange to say, it seemed to complete our own +understanding, and precipitated, not only our lovemaking, but the +final catastrophe which culminated that romance. For we had +resolved to elope. I do not know that this heroic remedy was +absolutely necessary from the attitude of either Consuelo's family +or my own; I am inclined to think we preferred it, because it +involved no previous explanation or advice. Need I say that our +confidant and firm ally was Consuelo's brother--the alert, the +linguistic, the ever-happy, ever-ready Enriquez! It was understood +that his presence would not only give a certain mature respectability +to our performance--but I do not think we would have contemplated +this step without it. During one of our riding excursions we were +to secure the services of a Methodist minister in the adjoining +county, and, later, that of the Mission padre--when the secret was +out. "I will gif her away," said Enriquez confidently, "it will on +the instant propitiate the old shadbelly who shall perform the +affair, and withhold his jaw. A little chin-music from your oncle +'Arry shall finish it! Remain tranquil and forgot not a ring! One +does not always, in the agony and dissatisfaction of the moment, a +ring remember. I shall bring two in the pocket of my dress." + +If I did not entirely participate in this roseate view it may have +been because Enriquez, although a few years my senior, was much +younger-looking, and with his demure deviltry of eye, and his upper +lip close shaven for this occasion, he suggested a depraved acolyte +rather than a responsible member of a family. Consuelo had also +confided to me that her father--possibly owing to some rumors of +our previous escapade--had forbidden any further excursions with me +alone. The innocent man did not know that Chu Chu had forbidden it +also, and that even on this momentous occasion both Enriquez and +myself were obliged to ride in opposite fields like out flankers. +But we nevertheless felt the full guilt of disobedience added to +our desperate enterprise. Meanwhile, although pressed for time, +and subject to discovery at any moment, I managed at certain points +of the road to dismount and walk beside Chu Chu (who did not seem +to recognize me on foot), holding Consuelo's hand in my own, with +the discreet Enriquez leading my horse in the distant field. I +retain a very vivid picture of that walk--the ascent of a gentle +slope towards a prospect as yet unknown, but full of glorious +possibilities; the tender dropping light of an autumn sky, slightly +filmed with the promise of the future rains, like foreshadowed +tears, and the half frightened, half serious talk into which +Consuelo and I had insensibly fallen. And then, I don't know how +it happened, but as we reached the summit Chu Chu suddenly reared, +wheeled, and the next moment was flying back along the road we had +just traveled, at the top of her speed! It might have been that, +after her abstracted fashion, she only at that moment detected my +presence; but so sudden and complete was her evolution that before +I could regain my horse from the astonished Enriquez she was +already a quarter of a mile on the homeward stretch, with the +frantic Consuelo pulling hopelessly at the bridle. We started in +pursuit. But a horrible despair seized us. To attempt to overtake +her, to even follow at the same rate of speed would only excite Chu +Chu and endanger Consuelo's life. There was absolutely no help for +it, nothing could be done; the mare had taken her determined long, +continuous stride, the road was a straight, steady descent all the +way back to the village, Chu Chu had the bit between her teeth, +and there was no prospect of swerving her. We could only follow +hopelessly, idiotically, furiously, until Chu Chu dashed triumphantly +into the Saltellos' courtyard, carrying the half-fainting Consuelo +back to the arms of her assembled and astonished family. + +It was our last ride together. It was the last I ever saw of +Consuelo before her transfer to the safe seclusion of a convent in +Southern California. It was the last I ever saw of Chu Chu, who in +the confusion of that rencontre was overlooked in her half-loosed +harness, and allowed to escape though the back gate to the fields. +Months afterwards it was said that she had been identified among a +band of wild horses in the Coast Range, as a strange and beautiful +creature who had escaped the brand of the rodeo and had become a +myth. There was another legend that she had been seen, sleek, fat, +and gorgeously caparisoned, issuing from the gateway of the Rosario +patio, before a lumbering Spanish cabriole in which a short, stout +matron was seated--but I will have none of it. For there are days +when she still lives, and I can see her plainly still climbing the +gentle slope towards the summit, with Consuelo on her back, and +myself at her side, pressing eagerly forward towards the +illimitable prospect that opens in the distance. + + + +MY FIRST BOOK. + + +When I say that my "First Book" was NOT my own, and contained +beyond the title-page not one word of my own composition, I trust +that I will not be accused of trifling with paradox, or tardily +unbosoming myself of youthful plagiary. But the fact remains that +in priority of publication the first book for which I became +responsible, and which probably provoked more criticism than +anything I have written since, was a small compilation of +Californian poems indited by other hands. + +A well-known bookseller of San Francisco one day handed me a +collection of certain poems which had already appeared in Pacific +Coast magazines and newspapers, with the request that I should, +if possible, secure further additions to them, and then make a +selection of those which I considered the most notable and +characteristic, for a single volume to be issued by him. I have +reason to believe that this unfortunate man was actutated by a +laudable desire to publish a pretty Californian book--HIS first +essay in publication--and at the same time to foster Eastern +immigration by an exhibit of the Californian literary product; but, +looking back upon his venture, I am inclined to think that the +little volume never contained anything more poetically pathetic or +touchingly imaginative than that gentle conception. Equally simple +and trustful was his selection of myself as compiler. It was based +somewhat, I think, upon the fact that "the artless Helicon" I +boasted "was Youth," but I imagine it was chiefly owing to the +circumstance that I had from the outset, with precocious foresight, +confided to him my intention of not putting any of my own verses in +the volume. Publishers are appreciative; and a self-abnegation so +sublime, to say nothing of its security, was not without its effect. + +We settled to our work with fatuous self-complacency, and no +suspicion of the trouble in store for us, or the storm that was to +presently hurtle around our devoted heads. I winnowed the poems, +and he exploited a preliminary announcement to an eager and waiting +press, and we moved together unwittingly to our doom. I remember +to have been early struck with the quantity of material coming in-- +evidently the result of some popular misunderstanding of the +announcement. I found myself in daily and hourly receipt of sere +and yellow fragments, originally torn from some dead and gone +newspaper, creased and seamed from long folding in wallet or +pocketbook. Need I say that most of them were of an emotional or +didactic nature; need I add any criticism of these homely souvenirs, +often discolored by the morning coffee, the evening tobacco, or, +heaven knows! perhaps blotted by too easy tears! Enough that I knew +now what had become of those original but never recopied verses +which filled the "Poet's Corner" of every country newspaper on the +coast. I knew now the genesis of every didactic verse that "coldly +furnished forth the marriage table" in the announcement of weddings +in the rural press. I knew now who had read--and possibly indited-- +the dreary hic jacets of the dead in their mourning columns. I knew +now why certain letters of the alphabet had been more tenderly +considered than others, and affectionately addressed. I knew the +meaning of the "Lines to Her who can best understand them," and I +knew that they HAD been understood. The morning's post buried my +table beneath these withered leaves of posthumous passion. They lay +there like the pathetic nosegays of quickly fading wild flowers, +gathered by school children, inconsistently abandoned upon roadsides, +or as inconsistently treasured as limp and flabby superstitions in +their desks. The chill wind from the Bay blowing in at the window +seemed to rustle them into sad articulate appeal. I remember that +when one of them was whisked from the window by a stronger gust than +usual, and was attaining a circulation it had never known before, I +ran a block or two to recover it. I was young then, and in an +exalted sense of editorial responsibility which I have since +survived, I think I turned pale at the thought that the reputation +of some unknown genius might have thus been swept out and swallowed +by the all-absorbing sea. + +There were other difficulties arising from this unexpected wealth +of material. There were dozens of poems on the same subject. "The +Golden Gate," "Mount Shasta," "The Yosemite," were especially +provocative. A beautiful bird known as the "Californian Canary" +appeared to have been shot at and winged by every poet from +Portland to San Diego. Lines to the "Mariposa" flower were as +thick as the lovely blossoms themselves in the Merced valley, and +the Madrone tree was as "berhymed" as Rosalind. Again, by a +liberal construction of the publisher's announcement, MANUSCRIPT +poems, which had never known print, began to coyly unfold their +virgin blossoms in the morning's mail. They were accompanied by a +few lines stating, casually, that their sender had found them lying +forgotten in his desk, or, mendaciously, that they were "thrown +off" on the spur of the moment a few hours before. Some of the +names appended to them astonished me. Grave, practical business +men, sage financiers, fierce speculators, and plodding traders, +never before suspected of poetry, or even correct prose, were +among the contributors. It seemed as if most of the able-bodied +inhabitants of the Pacific Coast had been in the habit at some time +of expressing themselves in verse. Some sought confidential +interviews with the editor. The climax was reached when, in +Montgomery Street, one day, I was approached by a well known and +venerable judicial magnate. After some serious preliminary +conversation, the old gentleman finally alluded to what he was +pleased to call a task of "great delicacy and responsibility" laid +upon my young shoulders." "In fact," he went on paternally, adding +the weight of his judicial hand to that burden, "I have thought of +speaking to you about it. In my leisure moments on the Bench I +have, from time to time, polished and perfected a certain college +poem begun years ago, but which may now be said to have been +finished in California, and thus embraced in the scope of your +proposed selection. If a few extracts, selected by myself, to save +you all trouble and responsibility, be of any benefit to you, my +dear young friend, consider them at your service." + +In this fashion the contributions had increased to three times the +bulk of the original collection, and the difficulties of selection +were augmented in proportion. The editor and publisher eyed each +other aghast. "Never thought there were so many of the blamed +things alive," said the latter with great simplicity, "had you?" +The editor had not. "Couldn't you sorter shake 'em up and condense +'em, you know? keep their ideas--and their names--separate, so that +they'd have proper credit. See?" The editor pointed out that this +would infringe the rule he had laid down. "I see," said the +publisher thoughtfully; "well, couldn't you pare 'em down; give the +first verse entire and sorter sample the others?" The editor +thought not. There was clearly nothing to do but to make a more +rigid selection--a difficult performance when the material was +uniformly on a certain dead level, which it is not necessary to +define here. Among the rejections were, of course, the usual +plagiarisms from well-known authors imposed upon an inexperienced +country press; several admirable pieces detected as acrostics of +patent medicines, and certain veiled libels and indecencies such as +mark the "first" publications on blank walls and fences of the +average youth. Still the bulk remained too large, and the youthful +editor set to work reducing it still more with a sympathizing +concern which the good-natured, but unliterary, publisher failed to +understand, and which, alas! proved to be equally unappreciated by +the rejected contributors. + +The book appeared--a pretty little volume typographically, and +externally a credit to pioneer book-making. Copies were liberally +supplied to the press, and authors and publishers self-complacently +awaited the result. To the latter this should have been +satisfactory; the book sold readily from his well-known counters +to purchasers who seemed to be drawn by a singular curiosity, +unaccompanied, however, by any critical comment. People would +lounge in to the shop, turn over the leaves of other volumes, say +carelessly, "Got a new book of California poetry out, haven't you?" +purchase it, and quietly depart. There were as yet no notices from +the press; the big dailies were silent; there was something ominous +in this calm. + +Out of it the bolt fell. A well-known mining weekly, which I here +poetically veil under the title of the Red Dog "Jay Hawk," was +first to swoop down upon the tuneful and unsuspecting quarry. At +this century-end of fastidious and complaisant criticism, it may be +interesting to recall the direct style of the Californian "sixties." +"The hogwash and 'purp'-stuff ladled out from the slop-bucket of +Messrs. ---- and Co., of 'Frisco, by some lop-eared Eastern +apprentice, and called 'A Compilation of Californian Verse,' might +be passed over, so far as criticism goes. A club in the hands of +any able-bodied citizen of Red Dog, and a steamboat ticket to the +Bay, cheerfully contributed from this office, would be all-sufficient. +But when an imported greenhorn dares to call his flapdoodle mixture +'Californian,' it is an insult to the State that has produced the +gifted 'Yellow Hammer,' whose lofty flights have from time to time +dazzled our readers in the columns of the 'Jay Hawk.' That this +complacent editorial jackass, browsing among the dock and thistles +which he has served up in this volume, should make no allusion to +California's greatest bard, is rather a confession of his idiocy +than a slur upon the genius of our esteemed contributor." I turned +hurriedly to my pile of rejected contributions--the nom de plume of +"Yellow Hammer" did NOT appear among them; certainly I had never +heard of its existence. Later, when a friend showed me one of that +gifted bard's pieces, I was inwardly relieved! It was so like the +majority of the other verses, in and out of the volume, that the +mysterious poet might have written under a hundred aliases. But the +Dutch Flat "Clarion," following, with no uncertain sound, left me +small time for consideration. "We doubt," said that journal, "if a +more feeble collection of drivel could have been made, even if taken +exclusively from the editor's own verses, which we note he has, by +an equal editorial incompetency, left out of the volume. When we +add that, by a felicity of idiotic selection, this person has chosen +only one, and the least characteristic, of the really clever poems +of Adoniram Skaggs, which have so often graced these columns, we +have said enough to satisfy our readers." The Mormon Hill "Quartz +Crusher" relieved this simple directness with more fancy: "We don't +know why Messrs. ---- and Co. send us, under the title of +'Selections of Californian Poetry,' a quantity of slumgullion which +really belongs to the sluices of a placer mining camp, or the +ditches of the rural districts. We have sometimes been compelled to +run a lot of tailings through our stamps, but never of the grade of +the samples offered, which, we should say, would average about +33-1/3 cents per ton. We have, however, come across a single +specimen of pure gold evidently overlooked by the serene ass who has +compiled this volume. We copy it with pleasure, as it has already +shone in the 'Poet's Corner' of the 'Crusher' as the gifted effusion +of the talented Manager of the Excelsior Mill, otherwise known to +our delighted readers as 'Outcrop.'" The Green Springs "Arcadian" +was no less fanciful in imagery: "Messrs. ---- and Co. send us a +gaudy green-and-yellow, parrot-colored volume, which is supposed to +contain the first callow 'cheepings' and 'peepings' of Californian +songsters. From the flavor of the specimens before us we should say +that the nest had been disturbed prematurely. There seems to be a +good deal of the parrot inside as well as outside the covers, and we +congratulate our own sweet singer 'Blue Bird,' who has so often made +these columns melodious, that she has escaped the ignominy of being +exhibited in Messrs. ---- and Co.'s aviary." I should add that this +simile of the aviary and its occupants was ominous, for my tuneful +choir was relentlessly slaughtered; the bottom of the cage was +strewn with feathers! The big dailies collected the criticisms +and published them in their own columns with the grim irony of +exaggerated head-lines. The book sold tremendously on account of +this abuse, but I am afraid that the public was disappointed. The +fun and interest lay in the criticisms, and not in any pointedly +ludicrous quality in the rather commonplace collection, and I fear I +cannot claim for it even that merit. And it will be observed that +the animus of the criticism appeared to be the omission rather than +the retention of certain writers. + +But this brings me to the most extraordinary feature of this +singular demonstration. I do not think that the publishers were at +all troubled by it; I cannot conscientiously say that I was; I have +every reason to believe that the poets themselves, in and out of +the volume, were not displeased at the notoriety they had not +expected, and I have long since been convinced that my most +remorseless critics were not in earnest, but were obeying some +sudden impulse started by the first attacking journal. The +extravagance of the Red Dog "Jay Hawk" was emulated by others: it +was a large, contagious joke, passed from journal to journal in a +peculiar cyclonic Western fashion. And there still lingers, not +unpleasantly, in my memory the conclusion of a cheerfully scathing +review of the book which may make my meaning clearer: "If we have +said anything in this article which might cause a single pang to +the poetically sensitive nature of the youthful individual calling +himself Mr. Francis Bret Harte--but who, we believe, occasionally +parts his name and his hair in the middle--we will feel that we +have not labored in vain, and are ready to sing Nunc Dimittis, and +hand in our checks. We have no doubt of the absolutely pellucid +and lacteal purity of Franky's intentions. He means well to the +Pacific Coast, and we return the compliment. But he has strayed +away from his parents and guardians while he was too fresh. He +will not keep without a little salt." + +It was thirty years ago. The book and its Rabelaisian criticisms +have been long since forgotten. Alas! I fear that even the +capacity for that Gargantuan laughter which met them, in those +days, exists no longer. The names I have used are necessarily +fictitious, but where I have been obliged to quote the criticisms +from memory I have, I believe, only softened their asperity. +I do not know that this story has any moral. The criticisms here +recorded never hurt a reputation nor repressed a single honest +aspiration. A few contributors to the volume, who were of original +merit, have made their mark, independently of it or its critics. The +editor, who was for two months the most abused man on the Pacific +slope, within the year became the editor of its first successful +magazine. Even the publisher prospered, and died respected! + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Bell-Ringer of Angel's, by Harte + diff --git a/old/tbroa10.zip b/old/tbroa10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ecb2a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tbroa10.zip |