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diff --git a/old/affot10.txt b/old/affot10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eaaf766 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/affot10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6718 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext A First Family of Tasajara, by Bret Harte +#41 in our series by Bret Harte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA + +by Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"It blows," said Joe Wingate. + +As if to accent the words of the speaker a heavy gust of wind at +that moment shook the long light wooden structure which served as +the general store of Sidon settlement, in Contra Costa. Even after +it had passed a prolonged whistle came through the keyhole, sides, +and openings of the closed glass front doors, that served equally +for windows, and filled the canvas ceiling which hid the roof above +like a bellying sail. A wave of enthusiastic emotion seemed to be +communicated to a line of straw hats and sou-westers suspended from +a cross-beam, and swung them with every appearance of festive +rejoicing, while a few dusters, overcoats, and "hickory" shirts +hanging on the side walls exhibited such marked though idiotic +animation that it had the effect of a satirical comment on the +lazy, purposeless figures of the four living inmates of the store. + +Ned Billings momentarily raised his head and shoulders depressed in +the back of his wooden armchair, glanced wearily around, said, "You +bet, it's no slouch of a storm," and then lapsed again with further +extended legs and an added sense of comfort. + +Here the third figure, which had been leaning listlessly against +the shelves, putting aside the arm of a swaying overcoat that +seemed to be emptily embracing him, walked slowly from behind the +counter to the door, examined its fastenings, and gazed at the +prospect. He was the owner of the store, and the view was a +familiar one,--a long stretch of treeless waste before him meeting +an equal stretch of dreary sky above, and night hovering somewhere +between the two. This was indicated by splashes of darker shadow +as if washed in with india ink, and a lighter low-lying streak that +might have been the horizon, but was not. To the right, on a line +with the front door of the store, were several scattered, widely +dispersed objects, that, although vague in outline, were rigid +enough in angles to suggest sheds or barns, but certainly not +trees. + +"There's a heap more wet to come afore the wind goes down," he +said, glancing at the sky. "Hark to that, now!" + +They listened lazily. There was a faint murmur from the shingles +above; then suddenly the whole window was filmed and blurred as if +the entire prospect had been wiped out with a damp sponge. The man +turned listlessly away. + +"That's the kind that soaks in; thar won't be much teamin' over +Tasajara for the next two weeks, I reckon," said the fourth +lounger, who, seated on a high barrel, was nibbling--albeit +critically and fastidiously--biscuits and dried apples alternately +from open boxes on the counter. "It's lucky you've got in your +winter stock, Harkutt." + +The shrewd eyes of Mr. Harkutt, proprietor, glanced at the +occupation of the speaker as if even his foresight might have its +possible drawbacks, but he said nothing. + +"There'll be no show for Sidon until you've got a wagon road from +here to the creek," said Billings languidly, from the depths of his +chair. "But what's the use o' talkin'? Thar ain't energy enough +in all Tasajara to build it. A God-forsaken place, that two months +of the year can only be reached by a mail-rider once a week, don't +look ez if it was goin' to break its back haulin' in goods and +settlers. I tell ye what, gentlemen, it makes me sick!" And +apparently it had enfeebled him to the extent of interfering with +his aim in that expectoration of disgust against the stove with +which he concluded his sentence. + +"Why don't YOU build it?" asked Wingate, carelessly. + +"I wouldn't on principle," said Billings. "It's gov'ment work. +What did we whoop up things here last spring to elect Kennedy to +the legislation for? What did I rig up my shed and a thousand feet +of lumber for benches at the barbecue for? Why, to get Kennedy +elected and make him get a bill passed for the road! That's MY +share of building it, if it comes to that. And I only wish some +folks, that blow enough about what oughter be done to bulge out +that ceiling, would only do as much as I have done for Sidon." + +As this remark seemed to have a personal as well as local +application, the storekeeper diplomatically turned it. "There's a +good many as DON'T believe that a road from here to the creek is +going to do any good to Sidon. It's very well to say the creek is +an embarcadero, but callin' it so don't put anough water into it to +float a steamboat from the bay, nor clear out the reeds and tules +in it. Even if the State builds you roads, it ain't got no call to +make Tasajara Creek navigable for ye; and as that will cost as much +as the road, I don't see where the money's comin' from for both." + +"There's water enough in front of 'Lige Curtis's shanty, and his +location is only a mile along the bank," returned Billings. + +"Water enough for him to laze away his time fishin' when he's +sober, and deep enough to drown him when he's drunk," said Wingate. +"If you call that an embarcadero, you kin buy it any day from +'Lige,--title, possession, and shanty thrown in,--for a demijohn o' +whiskey." + +The fourth man here distastefully threw back a half-nibbled biscuit +into the box, and languidly slipped from the barrel to the floor, +fastidiously flicking the crumbs from his clothes as he did so. "I +reckon somebody'll get it for nothing, if 'Lige don't pull up +mighty soon. He'll either go off his head with jim-jams or jump +into the creek. He's about as near desp'rit as they make 'em, and +havin' no partner to look after him, and him alone in the tules, +ther' 's no tellin' WHAT he may do." + +Billings, stretched at full length in his chair, here gurgled +derisively. "Desp'rit!--ketch him! Why, that's his little game! +He's jist playin' off his desp'rit condition to frighten Sidon. +Whenever any one asks him why he don't go to work, whenever he's +hard up for a drink, whenever he's had too much or too little, he's +workin' that desp'rit dodge, and even talkin' o' killin' himself! +Why, look here," he continued, momentarily raising himself to a +sitting posture in his disgust, "it was only last week he was over +at Rawlett's trying to raise provisions and whiskey outer his water +rights on the creek! Fact, sir,--had it all written down lawyer- +like on paper. Rawlett didn't exactly see it in that light, and +told him so. Then he up with the desp'rit dodge and began to work +that. Said if he had to starve in a swamp like a dog he might as +well kill himself at once, and would too if he could afford the +weppins. Johnson said it was not a bad idea, and offered to lend +him his revolver; Bilson handed up his shot-gun, and left it +alongside of him, and turned his head away considerate-like and +thoughtful while Rawlett handed him a box of rat pizon over the +counter, in case he preferred suthin' more quiet. Well, what did +'Lige do? Nothin'! Smiled kinder sickly, looked sorter wild, and +shut up. He didn't suicide much. No, sir! He didn't kill +himself,--not he. Why, old Bixby--and he's a deacon in good +standin'--allowed, in 'Lige's hearin' and for 'Lige's benefit, that +self-destruction was better nor bad example, and proved it by +Scripture too. And yet 'Lige did nothin'! Desp'rit! He's only +desp'rit to laze around and fish all day off a log in the tules, +and soak up with whiskey, until, betwixt fever an' ague and the +jumps, he kinder shakes hisself free o' responsibility." + +A long silence followed; it was somehow felt that the subject was +incongruously exciting; Billings allowed himself to lapse again +behind the back of his chair. Meantime it had grown so dark that +the dull glow of the stove was beginning to outline a faint halo on +the ceiling even while it plunged the further lines of shelves +behind the counter into greater obscurity. + +"Time to light up, Harkutt, ain't it?" said Wingate, tentatively. + +"Well, I was reckoning ez it's such a wild night there wouldn't be +any use keepin' open, and when you fellows left I'd just shut up +for good and make things fast," said Harkutt, dubiously. Before +his guests had time to fully weigh this delicate hint, another gust +of wind shook the tenement, and even forced the unbolted upper part +of the door to yield far enough to admit an eager current of humid +air that seemed to justify the wisdom of Harkutt's suggestion. +Billings slowly and with a sigh assumed a sitting posture in the +chair. The biscuit-nibbler selected a fresh dainty from the +counter, and Wingate abstractedly walked to the window and rubbed +the glass. Sky and water had already disappeared behind a curtain +of darkness that was illuminated by a single point of light--the +lamp in the window of some invisible but nearer house--which threw +its rays across the glistening shallows in the road. "Well," said +Wingate, buttoning up his coat in slow dejection, "I reckon I +oughter be travelin' to help the old woman do the chores before +supper." He had just recognized the light in his own dining-room, +and knew by that sign that his long-waiting helpmeet had finally +done the chores herself. + +"Some folks have it mighty easy," said Billings, with long-drawn +discontent, as he struggled to his feet. "You've only a step to +go, and yer's me and Peters there"--indicating the biscuit-nibbler, +who was beginning to show alarming signs of returning to the barrel +again--"hev got to trapse five times that distance." + +"More'n half a mile, if it comes to that," said Peters, gloomily. +He paused in putting on his overcoat as if thinking better of it, +while even the more fortunate and contiguous Wingate languidly +lapsed against the counter again. + +The moment was a critical one. Billings was evidently also +regretfully eying the chair he had just quitted. Harkutt resolved +on a heroic effort. + +"Come, boys," he said, with brisk conviviality, "take a parting +drink with me before you go." Producing a black bottle from some +obscurity beneath the counter that smelt strongly of india-rubber +boots, he placed it with four glasses before his guests. Each made +a feint of holding his glass against the opaque window while +filling it, although nothing could be seen. A sudden tumult of +wind and rain again shook the building, but even after it had +passed the glass door still rattled violently. + +"Just see what's loose, Peters," said Billings; "you're nearest +it." + +Peters, still holding the undrained glass in his hand, walked +slowly towards it. + +"It's suthin'--or somebody outside," he said, hesitatingly. + +The three others came eagerly to his side. Through the glass, +clouded from within by their breath, and filmed from without by the +rain, some vague object was moving, and what seemed to be a mop of +tangled hair was apparently brushing against the pane. The door +shook again, but less strongly. Billings pressed his face against +the glass. "Hol' on," he said in a quick whisper,--"it's 'Lige!" +But it was too late. Harkutt had already drawn the lower bolt, and +a man stumbled from the outer obscurity into the darker room. + +The inmates drew away as he leaned back for a moment against the +door that closed behind him. Then dimly, but instinctively, +discerning the glass of liquor which Wingate still mechanically +held in his hand, he reached forward eagerly, took it from +Wingate's surprised and unresisting fingers, and drained it at a +gulp. The four men laughed vaguely, but not as cheerfully as they +might. + +"I was just shutting up," began Harkutt, dubiously. + +"I won't keep you a minit," said the intruder, nervously fumbling +in the breast pocket of his hickory shirt. "It's a matter of +business--Harkutt--I"-- But he was obliged to stop here to wipe +his face and forehead with the ends of a loose handkerchief tied +round his throat. From the action, and what could be seen of his +pale, exhausted face, it was evident that the moisture upon it was +beads of perspiration, and not the rain which some abnormal heat of +his body was converting into vapor from his sodden garments as he +stood there. + +"I've got a document here," he began again, producing a roll of +paper tremblingly from his pocket, "that I'd like you to glance +over, and perhaps you'd"-- His voice, which had been feverishly +exalted, here broke and rattled with a cough. + +Billings, Wingate, and Peters fell apart and looked out of the +window. "It's too dark to read anything now, 'Lige," said Harkutt, +with evasive good humor, "and I ain't lightin' up to-night." + +"But I can tell you the substance of it," said the man, with a +faintness that however had all the distinctness of a whisper, "if +you'll just step inside a minute. It's a matter of importance and +a bargain"-- + +"I reckon we must be goin'," said Billings to the others, with +marked emphasis. "We're keepin' Harkutt from shuttin' up." "Good- +night!" "Good-night!" added Peters and Wingate, ostentatiously +following Billings hurriedly through the door. "So long!" + +The door closed behind them, leaving Harkutt alone with his +importunate intruder. Possibly his resentment at his customers' +selfish abandonment of him at this moment developed a vague spirit +of opposition to them and mitigated his feeling towards 'Lige. He +groped his way to the counter, struck a match, and lit a candle. +Its feeble rays faintly illuminated the pale, drawn face of the +applicant, set in a tangle of wet, unkempt, party-colored hair. It +was not the face of an ordinary drunkard; although tremulous and +sensitive from some artificial excitement, there was no ENGORGEMENT +or congestion in the features or complexion, albeit they were +morbid and unhealthy. The expression was of a suffering that was +as much mental as physical, and yet in some vague way appeared +unmeaning--and unheroic. + +"I want to see you about selling my place on the creek. I want you +to take it off my hands for a bargain. I want to get quit of it, +at once, for just enough to take me out o' this. I don't want any +profit; only money enough to get away." His utterance, which had a +certain kind of cultivation, here grew thick and harsh again, and +he looked eagerly at the bottle which stood on the counter. + +"Look here, 'Lige," said Harkutt, not unkindly. "It's too late to +do anythin' tonight. You come in to-morrow." He would have added +"when you're sober," but for a trader's sense of politeness to a +possible customer, and probably some doubt of the man's actual +condition. + +"God knows where or what I may be tomorrow! It would kill me to go +back and spend another night as the last, if I don't kill myself on +the way to do it." + +Harkutt's face darkened grimly. It was indeed as Billings had +said. The pitiable weakness of the man's manner not only made his +desperation inadequate and ineffective, but even lent it all the +cheapness of acting. And, as if to accent his simulation of a +part, his fingers, feebly groping in his shirt bosom, slipped +aimlessly and helplessly from the shining handle of a pistol in his +pocket to wander hesitatingly towards the bottle on the counter. + +Harkutt took the bottle, poured out a glass of the liquor, and +pushed it before his companion, who drank it eagerly. Whether it +gave him more confidence, or his attention was no longer diverted, +he went on more collectedly and cheerfully, and with no trace of +his previous desperation in his manner. "Come, Harkutt, buy my +place. It's a bargain, I tell you. I'll sell it cheap. I only +want enough to get away with. Give me twenty-five dollars and it's +yours. See, there's the papers--the quitclaim--all drawn up and +signed." He drew the roll of paper from his pocket again, +apparently forgetful of the adjacent weapon. + +"Look here, 'Lige," said Harkutt, with a business-like straightening +of his lips, "I ain't buyin' any land in Tasajara,--least of all +yours on the creek. I've got more invested here already than I'll +ever get back again. But I tell you what I'll do. You say you +can't go back to your shanty. Well, seein' how rough it is outside, +and that the waters of the creek are probably all over the trail by +this time, I reckon you're about right. Now, there's five dollars!" +He laid down a coin sharply on the counter. "Take that and go over +to Rawlett's and get a bed and some supper. In the mornin' you may +be able to strike up a trade with somebody else--or change your +mind. How did you get here? On your hoss?" + +"Yes." + +"He ain't starved yet?" + +"No; he can eat grass. I can't." + +Either the liquor or Harkutt's practical unsentimental treatment of +the situation seemed to give him confidence. He met Harkutt's eye +more steadily as the latter went on. "You kin turn your hoss for +the night into my stock corral next to Rawlett's. It'll save you +payin' for fodder and stablin'." + +The man took up the coin with a certain slow gravity which was +almost like dignity. "Thank you," he said, laying the paper on the +counter. "I'll leave that as security." + +"Don't want it, 'Lige," said Harkutt, pushing it back. + +"I'd rather leave it." + +"But suppose you have a chance to sell it to somebody at Rawlett's?" +continued Harkutt, with a precaution that seemed ironical. + +"I don't think there's much chance of that." + +He remained quiet, looking at Harkutt with an odd expression as he +rubbed the edge of the coin that he held between his fingers +abstractedly on the counter. Something in his gaze--rather perhaps +the apparent absence of anything in it approximate to the present +occasion--was beginning to affect Harkutt with a vague uneasiness. +Providentially a resumed onslaught of wind and rain against the +panes effected a diversion. "Come," he said, with brisk +practicality, "you'd better hurry on to Rawlett's before it gets +worse. Have your clothes dried by his fire, take suthin' to eat, +and you'll be all right." He rubbed his hands cheerfully, as if +summarily disposing of the situation, and incidentally of all +'Lige's troubles, and walked with him to the door. Nevertheless, +as the man's look remained unchanged, he hesitated a moment with +his hand on the handle, in the hope that he would say something, +even if only to repeat his appeal, but he did not. Then Harkutt +opened the door; the man moved mechanically out, and at the +distance of a few feet seemed to melt into the rain and darkness. +Harkutt remained for a moment with his face pressed against the +glass. After an interval he thought he heard the faint splash of +hoofs in the shallows of the road; he opened the door softly and +looked out. + +The light had disappeared from the nearest house; only an uncertain +bulk of shapeless shadows remained. Other remoter and more vague +outlines near the horizon seemed to have a funereal suggestion of +tombs and grave mounds, and one--a low shed near the road--looked +not unlike a halted bier. He hurriedly put up the shutters in a +momentary lulling of the wind, and re-entering the store began to +fasten them from within. + +While thus engaged an inner door behind the counter opened softly +and cautiously, projecting a brighter light into the deserted +apartment from some sacred domestic interior with the warm and +wholesome incense of cooking. It served to introduce also the +equally agreeable presence of a young girl, who, after assuring +herself of the absence of every one but the proprietor, idly +slipped into the store, and placing her rounded elbows, from which +her sleeves were uprolled, upon the counter, leaned lazily upon +them, with both hands supporting her dimpled chin, and gazed +indolently at him; so indolently that, with her pretty face once +fixed in this comfortable attitude, she was constrained to follow +his movements with her eyes alone, and often at an uncomfortable +angle. It was evident that she offered the final but charming +illustration of the enfeebling listlessness of Sidon. + +"So those loafers have gone at last," she said, meditatively. +"They'll take root here some day, pop. The idea of three strong +men like that lazing round for two mortal hours doin' nothin'. +Well!" As if to emphasize her disgust she threw her whole weight +upon the counter by swinging her feet from the floor to touch the +shelves behind her. + +Mr. Harkutt only replied by a slight grunt as he continued to screw +on the shutters. + +"Want me to help you, dad?" she said, without moving. + +Mr. Harkutt muttered something unintelligible, which, however, +seemed to imply a negative, and her attention here feebly wandered +to the roll of paper, and she began slowly and lazily to read it +aloud. + +"'For value received, I hereby sell, assign, and transfer to Daniel +D. Harkutt all my right, titles and interest in, and to the +undivided half of, Quarter Section 4, Range 5, Tasajara Township'-- +hum--hum," she murmured, running her eyes to the bottom of the +page. "Why, Lord! It's that 'Lige Curtis!" she laughed. "The +idea of HIM having property! Why, dad, you ain't been THAT silly!" + +"Put down that paper, miss," he said, aggrievedly; "bring the +candle here, and help me to find one of these infernal screws +that's dropped." + +The girl indolently disengaged herself from the counter and Elijah +Curtis's transfer, and brought the candle to her father. The screw +was presently found and the last fastening secured. "Supper +gettin' cold, dad," she said, with a slight yawn. Her father +sympathetically responded by stretching himself from his stooping +position, and the two passed through the private door into inner +domesticity, leaving the already forgotten paper lying with other +articles of barter on the counter. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +With the closing of the little door behind them they seemed to have +shut out the turmoil and vibration of the storm. The reason became +apparent when, after a few paces, they descended half a dozen steps +to a lower landing. This disclosed the fact that the dwelling part +of the Sidon General Store was quite below the level of the shop +and the road, and on the slope of the solitary undulation of the +Tasajara plain,--a little ravine that fell away to a brawling +stream below. The only arboreous growth of Tasajara clothed its +banks in the shape of willows and alders that set compactly around +the quaint, irregular dwelling which straggled down the ravine and +looked upon a slope of bracken and foliage on either side. The +transition from the black, treeless, storm-swept plain to this +sheltered declivity was striking and suggestive. From the opposite +bank one might fancy that the youthful and original dwelling had +ambitiously mounted the crest, but, appalled at the dreary prospect +beyond, had gone no further; while from the road it seemed as if +the fastidious proprietor had tried to draw a line between the +vulgar trading-post, with which he was obliged to face the coarser +civilization of the place, and the privacy of his domestic life. +The real fact, however, was that the ravine furnished wood and +water; and as Nature also provided one wall of the house,--as in +the well-known example of aboriginal cave dwellings,--its peculiar +construction commended itself to Sidon on the ground of involving +little labor. + +Howbeit, from the two open windows of the sitting-room which they +had entered only the faint pattering of dripping boughs and a +slight murmur from the swollen brook indicated the storm that shook +the upper plain, and the cool breath of laurel, syringa, and alder +was wafted through the neat apartment. Passing through that +pleasant rural atmosphere they entered the kitchen, a much larger +room, which appeared to serve occasionally as a dining-room, and +where supper was already laid out. A stout, comfortable-looking +woman--who had, however, a singularly permanent expression of +pained sympathy upon her face--welcomed them in tones of gentle +commiseration. + +"Ah, there you be, you two! Now sit ye right down, dears; DO. You +must be tired out; and you, Phemie, love, draw up by your poor +father. There--that's right. You'll be better soon." + +There was certainly no visible sign of suffering or exhaustion on +the part of either father or daughter, nor the slightest apparent +earthly reason why they should be expected to exhibit any. But, +as already intimated, it was part of Mrs. Harkutt's generous +idiosyncrasy to look upon all humanity as suffering and toiling; to +be petted, humored, condoled with, and fed. It had, in the course +of years, imparted a singularly caressing sadness to her voice, and +given her the habit of ending her sentences with a melancholy cooing +and an unintelligible murmur of agreement. It was undoubtedly +sincere and sympathetic, but at times inappropriate and distressing. +It had lost her the friendship of the one humorist of Tasajara, +whose best jokes she had received with such heartfelt commiseration +and such pained appreciation of the evident labor involved as to +reduce him to silence. + +Accustomed as Mr. Harkutt was to his wife's peculiarity, he was not +above assuming a certain slightly fatigued attitude befitting it. +"Yes," he said, with a vague sigh, "where's Clemmie?" + +"Lyin' down since dinner; she reckoned she wouldn't get up to +supper," she returned soothingly. "Phemie's goin' to take her up +some sass and tea. The poor dear child wants a change." + +"She wants to go to 'Frisco, and so do I, pop," said Phemie, +leaning her elbow half over her father's plate. "Come, pop, say +do,--just for a week." + +"Only for a week," murmured the commiserating Mrs. Harkutt. + +"Perhaps," responded Harkutt, with gloomy sarcasm, "ye wouldn't +mind tellin' me how you're goin' to get there, and where the +money's comin' from to take you? There's no teamin' over Tasajara +till the rain stops, and no money comin' in till the ranchmen can +move their stuff. There ain't a hundred dollars in all Tasajara; +at least there ain't been the first red cent of it paid across my +counter for a fortnit! Perhaps if you do go you wouldn't mind +takin' me and the store along with ye, and leavin' us there." + +"Yes, dear," said Mrs. Harkutt, with sympathetic but shameless +tergiversation. "Don't bother your poor father, Phemie, love; +don't you see he's just tired out? And you're not eatin' anything, +dad." + +As Mr. Harkutt was uneasily conscious that he had been eating +heartily in spite of his financial difficulties, he turned the +subject abruptly. "Where's John Milton?" + +Mrs. Harkutt shaded her eyes with her hand, and gazed meditatively +on the floor before the fire and in the chimney corner for her only +son, baptized under that historic title. "He was here a minit +ago," she said doubtfully. "I really can't think where he's gone. +But," assuringly, "it ain't far." + +"He's skipped with one o' those story-books he's borrowed," said +Phemie. "He's always doin' it. Like as not he's reading with a +candle in the wood-shed. We'll all be burnt up some night." + +"But he's got through his chores," interposed Mrs. Harkutt +deprecatingly. + +"Yes," continued Harkutt, aggrievedly, "but instead of goin' to +bed, or addin' up bills, or takin' count o' stock, or even doin' +sums or suthin' useful, he's ruinin' his eyes and wastin' his time +over trash." He rose and walked slowly into the sitting-room, +followed by his daughter and a murmur of commiseration from his +wife. But Mrs. Harkutt's ministration for the present did not pass +beyond her domain, the kitchen. + +"I reckon ye ain't expectin' anybody tonight, Phemie?" said Mr. +Harkutt, sinking into a chair, and placing his slippered feet +against the wall. + +"No," said Phemie, "unless something possesses that sappy little +Parmlee to make one of his visitations. John Milton says that out +on the road it blows so you can't stand up. It's just like that +idiot Parmlee to be blown in here, and not have strength of mind +enough to get away again." + +Mr. Harkutt smiled. It was that arch yet approving, severe yet +satisfied smile with which the deceived male parent usually +receives any depreciation of the ordinary young man by his +daughters. Euphemia was no giddy thing to be carried away by young +men's attentions,--not she! Sitting back comfortably in his +rocking-chair, he said, "Play something." + +The young girl went to the closet and took from the top shelf an +excessively ornamented accordion,--the opulent gift of a reckless +admirer. It was so inordinately decorated, so gorgeous in the +blaze of papier mache, mother-of-pearl, and tortoise-shell on keys +and keyboard, and so ostentatiously radiant in the pink silk of its +bellows that it seemed to overawe the plainly furnished room with +its splendors. "You ought to keep it on the table in a glass vase, +Phemie," said her father admiringly. + +"And have HIM think I worshiped it! Not me, indeed! He's conceited +enough already," she returned, saucily. + +Mr. Harkutt again smiled his approbation, then deliberately closed +his eyes and threw his head back in comfortable anticipation of the +coming strains. + +It is to be regretted that in brilliancy, finish, and even +cheerfulness of quality they were not up to the suggestions of the +keys and keyboard. The most discreet and cautious effort on the +part of the young performer seemed only to produce startlingly +unexpected, but instantly suppressed complaints from the +instrument, accompanied by impatient interjections of "No, no," +from the girl herself. Nevertheless, with her pretty eyebrows +knitted in some charming distress of memory, her little mouth half +open between an apologetic smile and the exertion of working the +bellows, with her white, rounded arms partly lifted up and waving +before her, she was pleasantly distracting to the eye. Gradually, +as the scattered strains were marshaled into something like an air, +she began to sing also, glossing over the instrumental weaknesses, +filling in certain dropped notes and omissions, and otherwise +assisting the ineffectual accordion with a youthful but not +unmusical voice. The song was a lugubrious religious chant; under +its influence the house seemed to sink into greater quiet, +permitting in the intervals the murmur of the swollen creek to +appear more distinct, and even the far moaning of the wind on the +plain to become faintly audible. At last, having fairly mastered +the instrument, Phemie got into the full swing of the chant. +Unconstrained by any criticism, carried away by the sound of her +own voice, and perhaps a youthful love for mere uproar, or possibly +desirous to drown her father's voice, which had unexpectedly joined +in with a discomposing bass, the conjoined utterances seemed to +threaten the frail structure of their dwelling, even as the gale +had distended the store behind them. When they ceased at last it +was in an accession of dripping from the apparently stirred leaves +outside. And then a voice, evidently from the moist depths of the +abyss below, called out,-- + +"Hullo, there!" + +Phemie put down the accordion, said, "Who's that now?" went to the +window, lazily leaned her elbows on the sill, and peered into the +darkness. Nothing was to be seen; the open space of dimly outlined +landscape had that blank, uncommunicative impenetrability with +which Nature always confronts and surprises us at such moments. It +seemed to Phemie that she was the only human being present. Yet +after the feeling had passed she fancied she heard the wash of the +current against some object in the stream, half stationary and half +resisting. + +"Is any one down there? Is that you, Mr. Parmlee?" she called. + +There was a pause. Some invisible auditor said to another, "It's a +young lady." Then the first voice rose again in a more deferential +tone: "Are we anywhere near Sidon?" + +"This is Sidon," answered Harkutt, who had risen, and was now quite +obliterating his daughter's outline at the window. + +"Thank you," said the voice. "Can we land anywhere here, on this +bank?" + +"Run down, pop; they're strangers," said the girl, with excited, +almost childish eagerness. + +"Hold on," called out Harkutt, "I'll be thar in a moment!" He +hastily thrust his feet into a pair of huge boots, clapped on an +oilskin hat and waterproof, and disappeared through a door that led +to a lower staircase. Phemie, still at the window, albeit with a +newly added sense of self-consciousness, hung out breathlessly. +Presently a beam of light from the lower depths of the house shot +out into the darkness. It was her father with a bull's-eye +lantern. As he held it up and clambered cautiously down the bank, +its rays fell upon the turbid rushing stream, and what appeared to +be a rough raft of logs held with difficulty against the bank by +two men with long poles. In its centre was a roll of blankets, a +valise and saddle-bags, and the shining brasses of some odd-looking +instruments. + +As Mr. Harkutt, supporting himself by a willow branch that overhung +the current, held up the lantern, the two men rapidly transferred +their freight from the raft to the bank, and leaped ashore. The +action gave an impulse to the raft, which, no longer held in +position by the poles, swung broadside to the current and was +instantly swept into the darkness. + +Not a word had been spoken, but now the voices of the men rose +freely together. Phemie listened with intense expectation. The +explanation was simple. They were surveyors who had been caught by +the overflow on Tasajara plain, had abandoned their horses on the +bank of Tasajara Creek, and with a hastily constructed raft had +intrusted themselves and their instruments to the current. "But," +said Harkutt quickly, "there is no connection between Tasajara +Creek and this stream." + +The two men laughed. "There is NOW," said one of them. + +"But Tasajara Creek is a part of the bay," said the astonished +Harkutt, "and this stream rises inland and only runs into the bay +four miles lower down. And I don't see how-- + +"You're almost twelve feet lower here than Tasajara Creek," said +the first man, with a certain professional authority, "and that's +WHY. There's more water than Tasajara Creek can carry, and it's +seeking the bay this way. Look," he continued, taking the lantern +from Harkutt's hand and casting its rays on the stream, "that's +salt drift from the upper bay, and part of Tasajara Creek's running +by your house now! Don't be alarmed," he added reassuringly, +glancing at the staring storekeeper. "You're all right here; this +is only the overflow and will find its level soon." + +But Mr. Harkutt remained gazing abstractedly at the smiling +speaker. From the window above the impatient Phemie was wondering +why he kept the strangers waiting in the rain while he talked about +things that were perfectly plain. It was so like a man! + +"Then there's a waterway straight to Tasajara Creek?" he said +slowly. + +"There is, as long as this flood lasts," returned the first speaker +promptly; "and a cutting through the bank of two or three hundred +yards would make it permanent. Well, what's the matter with that?" + +"Nothin'," said Harkutt hurriedly. "I am only considerin'! But +come in, dry yourselves, and take suthin'." + +The light over the rushing water was withdrawn, and the whole +prospect sank back into profound darkness. Mr. Harkutt had +disappeared with his guests. Then there was the familiar shuffle +of his feet on the staircase, followed by other more cautious +footsteps that grew delicately and even courteously deliberate as +they approached. At which the young girl, in some new sense of +decorum, drew in her pretty head, glanced around the room quickly, +reset the tidy on her father's chair, placed the resplendent +accordion like an ornament in the exact centre of the table, and +then vanished into the hall as Mr. Harkutt entered with the +strangers. + +They were both of the same age and appearance, but the principal +speaker was evidently the superior of his companion, and although +their attitude to each other was equal and familiar, it could be +easily seen that he was the leader. He had a smooth, beardless +face, with a critical expression of eye and mouth that might have +been fastidious and supercilious but for the kindly, humorous +perception that tempered it. His quick eye swept the apartment and +then fixed itself upon the accordion, but a smile lit up his face +as he said quietly,-- + +"I hope we haven't frightened the musician away. It was bad enough +to have interrupted the young lady." + +"No, no," said Mr. Harkutt, who seemed to have lost his abstraction +in the nervousness of hospitality. "I reckon she's only lookin' +after her sick sister. But come into the kitchen, both of you, +straight off, and while you're dryin' your clothes, mother'll fix +you suthin' hot." + +"We only need to change our boots and stockings; we've some dry +ones in our pack downstairs," said the first speaker hesitatingly. + +"I'll fetch 'em up and you can change in the kitchen. The old +woman won't mind," said Harkutt reassuringly. "Come along." He +led the way to the kitchen; the two strangers exchanged a glance of +humorous perplexity and followed. + +The quiet of the little room was once more unbroken. A far-off +commiserating murmur indicated that Mrs. Harkutt was receiving her +guests. The cool breath of the wet leaves without slightly stirred +the white dimity curtains, and somewhere from the darkened eaves +there was a still, somnolent drip. Presently a hurried whisper and +a half-laugh appeared to be suppressed in the outer passage or +hall. There was another moment of hesitation and the door opened +suddenly and ostentatiously, disclosing Phemie, with a taller and +slighter young woman, her elder sister, at her side. Perceiving +that the room was empty, they both said "Oh!" yet with a certain +artificiality of manner that was evidently a lingering trace of +some previous formal attitude they had assumed. Then without +further speech they each selected a chair and a position, having +first shaken out their dresses, and gazed silently at each other. + +It may be said briefly that sitting thus--in spite of their +unnatural attitude, or perhaps rather because of its suggestion of +a photographic pose--they made a striking picture, and strongly +accented their separate peculiarities. They were both pretty, but +the taller girl, apparently the elder, had an ideal refinement and +regularity of feature which was not only unlike Phemie, but +gratuitously unlike the rest of her family, and as hopelessly and +even wantonly inconsistent with her surroundings as was the +elaborately ornamented accordion on the centre-table. She was one +of those occasional creatures, episodical in the South and West, +who might have been stamped with some vague ante-natal impression +of a mother given to over-sentimental contemplation of books of +beauty and albums rather than the family features; offspring of +typical men and women, and yet themselves incongruous to any known +local or even general type. The long swan-like neck, tendriled +hair, swimming eyes, and small patrician head, had never lived or +moved before in Tasajara or the West, nor perhaps even existed +except as a personified "Constancy," "Meditation," or the "Baron's +Bride," in mezzotint or copperplate. Even the girl's common pink +print dress with its high sleeves and shoulders could not +conventionalize these original outlines; and the hand that rested +stiffly on the back of her chair, albeit neither over-white nor +well kept, looked as if it had never held anything but a lyre, a +rose, or a good book. Even the few sprays of wild jessamine which +she had placed in the coils of her waving hair, although a local +fashion, became her as a special ornament. + +The two girls kept their constrained and artificially elaborated +attitude for a few moments, accompanied by the murmur of voices in +the kitchen, the monotonous drip of the eaves before the window, +and the far-off sough of the wind. Then Phemie suddenly broke into +a constrained giggle, which she however quickly smothered as she +had the accordion, and with the same look of mischievous distress. + +"I'm astonished at you, Phemie," said Clementina in a deep contralto +voice, which seemed even deeper from its restraint. "You don't seem +to have any sense. Anybody'd think you never had seen a stranger +before." + +"Saw him before you did," retorted Phemie pertly. But here a +pushing of chairs and shuffling of feet in the kitchen checked her. +Clementina fixed an abstracted gaze on the ceiling; Phemie regarded +a leaf on the window sill with photographic rigidity as the door +opened to the strangers and her father. + +The look of undisguised satisfaction which lit the young men's +faces relieved Mr. Harkutt's awkward introduction of any +embarrassment, and almost before Phemie was fully aware of it, she +found herself talking rapidly and in a high key with Mr. Lawrence +Grant, the surveyor, while her sister was equally, although more +sedately, occupied with Mr. Stephen Rice, his assistant. But the +enthusiasm of the strangers, and the desire to please and be +pleased was so genuine and contagious that presently the accordion +was brought into requisition, and Mr. Grant exhibited a surprising +faculty of accompaniment to Mr. Rice's tenor, in which both the +girls joined. + +Then a game of cards with partners followed, into which the rival +parties introduced such delightful and shameless obviousness of +cheating, and displayed such fascinating and exaggerated +partisanship that the game resolved itself into a hilarious melee, +to which peace was restored only by an exhibition of tricks of +legerdemain with the cards by the young surveyor. All of which +Mr. Harkutt supervised patronizingly, with occasional fits of +abstraction, from his rocking-chair; and later Mrs. Harkutt from her +kitchen threshold, wiping her arms on her apron and commiseratingly +observing that she "declared, the young folks looked better +already." + +But it was here a more dangerous element of mystery and suggestion +was added by Mr. Lawrence Grant in the telling of Miss Euphemia's +fortune from the cards before him, and that young lady, pink with +excitement, fluttered her little hands not unlike timid birds over +the cards to be drawn, taking them from him with an audible twitter +of anxiety and great doubts whether a certain "fair-haired +gentleman" was in hearts or diamonds. + +"Here are two strangers," said Mr. Grant, with extraordinary +gravity laying down the cards, "and here is a 'journey;' this is +'unexpected news,' and this ten of diamonds means 'great wealth' to +you, which you see follows the advent of the two strangers and is +some way connected with them." + +"Oh, indeed," said the young lady with great pertness and a toss of +her head. "I suppose they've got the money with them." + +"No, though it reaches you through them," he answered with +unflinching solemnity. "Wait a bit, I have it! I see, I've made a +mistake with this card. It signifies a journey or a road. Queer! +isn't it, Steve? It's THE ROAD." + +"It is queer," said Rice with equal gravity; "but it's so. The +road, sure!" Nevertheless he looked up into the large eyes of +Clementina with a certain confidential air of truthfulness. + +"You see, ladies," continued the surveyor, appealing to them with +unabashed rigidity of feature, "the cards don't lie! Luckily we +are in a position to corroborate them. The road in question is a +secret known only to us and some capitalists in San Francisco. In +fact even THEY don't know that it is feasible until WE report to +them. But I don't mind telling you now, as a slight return for +your charming hospitality, that the road is a RAILROAD from Oakland +to Tasajara Creek of which we've just made the preliminary survey. +So you see what the cards mean is this: You're not far from +Tasajara Creek; in fact with a very little expense your father +could connect this stream with the creek, and have a WATERWAY +STRAIGHT TO THE RAILROAD TERMINUS. That's the wealth the cards +promise; and if your father knows how to take a hint he can make +his fortune!" + +It was impossible to say which was the most dominant in the face of +the speaker, the expression of assumed gravity or the twinkling of +humor in his eyes. The two girls with superior feminine perception +divined that there was much truth in what he said, albeit they +didn't entirely understand it, and what they did understand--except +the man's good-humored motive--was not particularly interesting. +In fact they were slightly disappointed. What had promised to be +an audaciously flirtatious declaration, and even a mischievous +suggestion of marriage, had resolved itself into something absurdly +practical and business-like. + +Not so Mr. Harkutt. He quickly rose from his chair, and, leaning +over the table, with his eyes fixed on the card as if it really +signified the railroad, repeated quickly: "Railroad, eh! What's +that? A railroad to Tasajara Creek? Ye don't mean it!--That is-- +it ain't a SURE thing?" + +"Perfectly sure. The money is ready in San Francisco now, and by +this time next year--" + +"A railroad to Tasajara Creek!" continued Harkutt hurriedly. "What +part of it? Where?" + +"At the embarcadero naturally," responded Grant. "There isn't but +the one place for the terminus. There's an old shanty there now +belongs to somebody." + +"Why, pop!" said Phemie with sudden recollection, "ain't it 'Lige +Curtis's house? The land he offered"-- + +"Hush!" said her father. + +"You know, the one written in that bit of paper," continued the +innocent Phemie. + +"Hush! will you? God A'mighty! are you goin' to mind me? Are you +goin' to keep up your jabber when I'm speakin' to the gentlemen? +Is that your manners? What next, I wonder!" + +The sudden and unexpected passion of the speaker, the incomprehensible +change in his voice, and the utterly disproportionate exaggeration +of his attitude towards his daughters, enforced an instantaneous +silence. The rain began to drip audibly at the window, the rush of +the river sounded distinctly from without, even the shaking of the +front part of the dwelling by the distant gale became perceptible. +An angry flash sprang for an instant to the young assistant's eye, +but it met the cautious glance of his friend, and together both +discreetly sought the table. The two girls alone remained white and +collected. "Will you go on with my fortune, Mr. Grant?" said Phemie +quietly. + +A certain respect, perhaps not before observable, was suggested in +the surveyor's tone as he smilingly replied, "Certainly, I was only +waiting for you to show your confidence in me," and took up the +cards. + +Mr. Harkutt coughed. "It looks as if that blamed wind had blown +suthin' loose in the store," he said affectedly. "I reckon I'll go +and see." He hesitated a moment and then disappeared in the +passage. Yet even here he stood irresolute, looking at the closed +door behind him, and passing his hand over his still flushed face. +Presently he slowly and abstractedly ascended the flight of steps, +entered the smaller passage that led to the back door of the shop +and opened it. + +He was at first a little startled at the halo of light from the +still glowing stove, which the greater obscurity of the long room +had heightened rather than diminished. Then he passed behind the +counter, but here the box of biscuits which occupied the centre and +cast a shadow over it compelled him to grope vaguely for what he +sought. Then he stopped suddenly, the paper he had just found +dropping from his fingers, and said sharply,-- + +"Who's there?" + +"Me, pop." + +"John Milton?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"What the devil are you doin' there, sir?" + +"Readin'." + +It was true. The boy was half reclining in a most distorted +posture on two chairs, his figure in deep shadow, but his book was +raised above his head so as to catch the red glow of the stove on +the printed page. Even then his father's angry interruption +scarcely diverted his preoccupation; he raised himself in his chair +mechanically, with his eyes still fixed on his book. Seeing which +his father quickly regained the paper, but continued his objurgation. + +"How dare you? Clear off to bed, will you! Do you hear me? +Pretty goin's on," he added as if to justify his indignation. +"Sneakin' in here and--and lyin' 'round at this time o' night! +Why, if I hadn't come in here to"-- + +"What?" asked the boy mechanically, catching vaguely at the +unfinished sentence and staring automatically at the paper in his +father's hand. + +"Nothin', sir! Go to bed, I tell you! Will you? What are you +standin' gawpin' at?" continued Harkutt furiously. + +The boy regained his feet slowly and passed his father, but not +without noticing with the same listless yet ineffaceable perception +of childhood that he was hurriedly concealing the paper in his +pocket. With the same youthful inconsequence, wondering at this +more than at the interruption, which was no novel event, he went +slowly out of the room. + +Harkutt listened to the retreating tread of his bare feet in the +passage and then carefully locked the door. Taking the paper from +his pocket, and borrowing the idea he had just objurgated in his +son, he turned it towards the dull glow of the stove and attempted +to read it. But perhaps lacking the patience as well as the keener +sight of youth, he was forced to relight the candle which he had +left on the counter, and reperused the paper. Yes! there was +certainly no mistake! Here was the actual description of the +property which the surveyor had just indicated as the future +terminus of the new railroad, and here it was conveyed to him-- +Daniel Harkutt! What was that? Somebody knocking? What did this +continual interruption mean? An odd superstitious fear now mingled +with his irritation. + +The sound appeared to come from the front shutters. It suddenly +occurred to him that the light might be visible through the +crevices. He hurriedly extinguished it, and went to the door. + +"Who's there?" + +"Me,--Peters. Want to speak to you." + +Mr. Harkutt with evident reluctance drew the bolts. The wind, +still boisterous and besieging, did the rest, and precipitately +propelled Peters through the carefully guarded opening. But his +surprise at finding himself in the darkness seemed to forestall any +explanation of his visit. + +"Well," he said with an odd mingling of reproach and suspicion. "I +declare I saw a light here just this minit! That's queer." + +"Yes, I put it out just now. I was goin' away," replied Harkutt, +with ill-disguised impatience. + +"What! been here ever since?" + +"No," said Harkutt curtly. + +"Well, I want to speak to ye about 'Lige. Seein' the candle +shinin' through the chinks I thought he might be still with ye. If +he ain't, it looks bad. Light up, can't ye! I want to show you +something." + +There was a peremptoriness in his tone that struck Harkutt +disagreeably, but observing that he was carrying something in his +hand, he somewhat nervously re-lit the candle and faced him. +Peters had a hat in his hand. It was 'Lige's! + +"'Bout an hour after we fellers left here," said Peters, "I heard +the rattlin' of hoofs on the road, and then it seemed to stop just +by my house. I went out with a lantern, and, darn my skin! if +there warn't 'Lige's hoss, the saddle empty, and 'Lige nowhere! I +looked round and called him--but nothing were to be seen. Thinkin' +he might have slipped off--tho' ez a general rule drunken men +don't, and he is a good rider--I followed down the road, lookin' +for him. I kept on follerin' it down to your run, half a mile +below." + +"But," began Harkutt, with a quick nervous laugh, "you don't reckon +that because of that he"-- + +"Hold on!" said Peters, grimly producing a revolver from his side- +pocket with the stock and barrel clogged and streaked with mud. "I +found THAT too,--and look! one barrel discharged! And," he added +hurriedly, as approaching a climax, "look ye,--what I nat'rally +took for wet from the rain--inside that hat--was--blood!" + +"Nonsense!" said Harkutt, putting the hat aside with a new +fastidiousness. "You don't think"-- + +"I think," said Peters, lowering his voice, "I think, by God! HE'S +BIN AND DONE IT!" + +"No!" + +"Sure! Oh, it's all very well for Billings and the rest of that +conceited crowd to sneer and sling their ideas of 'Lige gen'rally +as they did jess now here,--but I'd like 'em to see THAT." It was +difficult to tell if Mr. Peters' triumphant delight in confuting +his late companions' theories had not even usurped in his mind the +importance of the news he brought, as it had of any human sympathy +with it. + +"Look here," returned Harkutt earnestly, yet with a singularly +cleared brow and a more natural manner. "You ought to take them +things over to Squire Kerby's, right off, and show 'em to him. You +kin tell him how you left 'Lige here, and say that I can prove by +my daughter that he went away about ten minutes after,--at least, +not more than fifteen." Like all unprofessional humanity, Mr. +Harkutt had an exaggerated conception of the majesty of unimportant +detail in the eye of the law. "I'd go with you myself," he added +quickly, "but I've got company--strangers--here." + +"How did he look when he left,--kinder wild?" suggested Peters. + +Harkutt had begun to feel the prudence of present reticence. +"Well," he said, cautiously, "YOU saw how he looked." + +"You wasn't rough with him?--that might have sent him off, you +know," said Peters. + +"No," said Harkutt, forgetting himself in a quick indignation, "no, +I not only treated him to another drink, but gave him"--he stopped +suddenly and awkwardly. + +"Eh?" said Peters. + +"Some good advice,--you know," said Harkutt, hastily. "But come, +you'd better hurry over to the squire's. You know YOU'VE made the +discovery; YOUR evidence is important, and there's a law that +obliges you to give information at once." + +The excitement of discovery and the triumph over his disputants +being spent, Peters, after the Sidon fashion, evidently did not +relish activity as a duty. "You know," he said dubiously, "he +mightn't be dead, after all." + +Harkutt became a trifle distant. "You know your own opinion of the +thing," he replied after a pause. "You've circumstantial evidence +enough to see the squire, and set others to work on it; and," he +added significantly, "you've done your share then, and can wipe +your hands of it, eh?" + +"That's so," said Peters, eagerly. "I'll just run over to the +squire." + +"And on account of the women folks, you know, and the strangers +here, I'll say nothin' about it to-night," added Harkutt. + +Peters nodded his head, and taking up the hat of the unfortunate +Elijah with a certain hesitation, as if he feared it had already +lost its dramatic intensity as a witness, disappeared into the +storm and darkness again. A lurking gust of wind lying in ambush +somewhere seemed to swoop down on him as if to prevent further +indecision and whirl him away in the direction of the justice's +house; and Mr. Harkutt shut the door, bolted it, and walked +aimlessly back to the counter. + +From a slow, deliberate and cautious man, he seemed to have changed +within an hour to an irresolute and capricious one. He took the +paper from his pocket, and, unlocking the money drawer of his +counter, folded into a small compass that which now seemed to be +the last testament of Elijah Curtis, and placed it in a recess. +Then he went to the back door and paused, then returned, reopened +the money drawer, took out the paper and again buttoned it in his +hip pocket, standing by the stove and staring abstractedly at the +dull glow of the fire. He even went through the mechanical process +of raking down the ashes,--solely to gain time and as an excuse for +delaying some other necessary action. + +He was thinking what he should do. Had the question of his right +to retain and make use of that paper been squarely offered to him +an hour ago, he would without doubt have decided that he ought not +to keep it. Even now, looking at it as an abstract principle, he +did not deceive himself in the least. But Nature has the +reprehensible habit of not presenting these questions to us +squarely and fairly, and it is remarkable that in most of our +offending the abstract principle is never the direct issue. Mr. +Harkutt was conscious of having been unwillingly led step by step +into a difficult, not to say dishonest, situation, and against his +own seeking. He had never asked Elijah to sell him the property; +he had distinctly declined it; it had even been forced upon him as +security for the pittance he so freely gave him. This proved (to +himself) that he himself was honest; it was only the circumstances +that were queer. Of course if Elijah had lived, he, Harkutt, might +have tried to drive some bargain with him before the news of the +railroad survey came out--for THAT was only business. But now that +Elijah was dead, who would be a penny the worse or better but +himself if he chose to consider the whole thing as a lucky +speculation, and his gift of five dollars as the price he paid for +it? Nobody could think that he had calculated upon 'Lige's +suicide, any more than that the property would become valuable. In +fact if it came to that, if 'Lige had really contemplated killing +himself as a hopeless bankrupt after taking Harkutt's money as a +loan, it was a swindle on his--Harkutt's--good-nature. He worked +himself into a rage, which he felt was innately virtuous, at this +tyranny of cold principle over his own warm-hearted instincts, but +if it came to the LAW, he'd stand by law and not sentiment. He'd +just let them--by which he vaguely meant the world, Tasajara, and +possibly his own conscience--see that he wasn't a sentimental fool, +and he'd freeze on to that paper and that property! + +Only he ought to have spoken out before. He ought to have told the +surveyor at once that he owned the land. He ought to have said: +"Why, that's my land. I bought it of that drunken 'Lige Curtis for +a song and out of charity." Yes, that was the only real trouble, +and that came from his own goodness, his own extravagant sense of +justice and right,--his own cursed good-nature. Yet, on second +thoughts, he didn't know why he was obliged to tell the surveyor. +Time enough when the company wanted to buy the land. As soon as it +was settled that 'Lige was dead he'd openly claim the property. +But what if he wasn't dead? or they couldn't find his body? or he +had only disappeared? His plain, matter-of-fact face contracted +and darkened. Of course he couldn't ask the company to wait for +him to settle that point. He had the power to dispose of the +property under that paper, and--he should do it. If 'Lige turned +up, that was another matter, and he and 'Lige could arrange it +between them. He was quite firm here, and oddly enough quite +relieved in getting rid of what appeared only a simple question of +detail. He never suspected that he was contemplating the one +irretrievable step, and summarily dismissing the whole ethical +question. + +He turned away from the stove, opened the back door, and walked +with a more determined step through the passage to the sitting- +room. But here he halted again on the threshold with a quick +return of his old habits of caution. The door was slightly open; +apparently his angry outbreak of an hour ago had not affected the +spirits of his daughters, for he could hear their hilarious voices +mingling with those of the strangers. They were evidently still +fortune-telling, but this time it was the prophetic and divining +accents of Mr. Rice addressed to Clementina which were now plainly +audible. + +"I see heaps of money and a great many friends in the change that +is coming to you. Dear me! how many suitors! But I cannot promise +you any marriage as brilliant as my friend has just offered your +sister. You may be certain, however, that you'll have your own +choice in this, as you have in all things." + +"Thank you for nothing," said Clementina's voice. "But what are +those horrid black cards beside them?--that's trouble, I'm sure." + +"Not for you, though near you. Perhaps some one you don't care +much for and don't understand will have a heap of trouble on your +account,--yes, on account of these very riches; see, he follows the +ten of diamonds. It may be a suitor; it may be some one now in the +house, perhaps." + +"He means himself, Miss Clementina," struck in Grant's voice +laughingly. + +"You're not listening, Miss Harkutt," said Rice with half-serious +reproach. "Perhaps you know who it is?" + +But Miss Clementina's reply was simply a hurried recognition of her +father's pale face that here suddenly confronted her with the +opening door. + +"Why, it's father!" + + +CHAPTER III. + + +In his strange mental condition even the change from Harkutt's +feeble candle to the outer darkness for a moment blinded Elijah +Curtis, yet it was part of that mental condition that he kept +moving steadily forward as in a trance or dream, though at first +purposelessly. Then it occurred to him that he was really looking +for his horse, and that the animal was not there. This for a +moment confused and frightened him, first with the supposition that +he had not brought him at all, but that it was part of his +delusion; secondly, with the conviction that without his horse he +could neither proceed on the course suggested by Harkutt, nor take +another more vague one that was dimly in his mind. Yet in his +hopeless vacillation it seemed a relief that now neither was +practicable, and that he need do nothing. Perhaps it was a +mysterious providence! + +The explanation, however, was much simpler. The horse had been +taken by the luxurious and indolent Billings unknown to his +companions. Overcome at the dreadful prospect of walking home in +that weather, this perfect product of lethargic Sidon had artfully +allowed Peters and Wingate to precede him, and, cautiously +unloosing the tethered animal, had safely passed them in the +darkness. When he gained his own inclosure he had lazily +dismounted, and, with a sharp cut on the mustang's haunches, sent +him galloping back to rejoin his master, with what result has been +already told by the unsuspecting Peters in the preceding chapter. + +Yet no conception of this possibility entered 'Lige Curtis's +alcoholized consciousness, part of whose morbid phantasy it was to +distort or exaggerate all natural phenomena. He had a vague idea +that he could not go back to Harkutt's; already his visit seemed to +have happened long, long ago, and could not be repeated. He would +walk on, enwrapped in this uncompromising darkness which concealed +everything, suggested everything, and was responsible for +everything. + +It was very dark, for the wind, having lulled, no longer thinned +the veil of clouds above, nor dissipated a steaming mist that +appeared to rise from the sodden plain. Yet he moved easily +through the darkness, seeming to be upheld by it as something +tangible, upon which he might lean. At times he thought he heard +voices,--not a particular voice he was thinking of, but strange +voices--of course unreal to his present fancy. And then he heard +one of these voices, unlike any voice in Sidon, and very faint and +far off, asking if it "was anywhere near Sidon?"--evidently some +one lost like himself. He answered in a voice that seemed quite as +unreal and as faint, and turned in the direction from which it +came. There was a light moving like a will-o'-the-wisp far before +him, yet below him as if coming out of the depths of the earth. It +must be fancy, but he would see--ah! + +He had fallen violently forward, and at the same moment felt his +revolver leap from his breast pocket like a living thing, and an +instant after explode upon the rock where it struck, blindingly +illuminating the declivity down which he was plunging. The +sulphurous sting of burning powder was in his eyes and nose, yet in +that swift revealing flash he had time to clutch the stems of a +trailing vine beside him, but not to save his head from sharp +contact with the same rocky ledge that had caught his pistol. The +pain and shock gave way to a sickening sense of warmth at the roots +of his hair. Giddy and faint, his fingers relaxed, he felt himself +sinking, with a languor that was half acquiescence, down, down,-- +until, with another shock, a wild gasping for air, and a swift +reaction, he awoke in the cold, rushing water! + +Clear and perfectly conscious now, though frantically fighting for +existence with the current, he could dimly see a floating black +object shooting by the shore, at times striking the projections of +the bank, until in its recoil it swung half round and drifted +broadside on towards him. He was near enough to catch the frayed +ends of a trailing rope that fastened the structure, which seemed +to be a few logs, together. With a convulsive effort he at last +gained a footing upon it, and then fell fainting along its length. +It was the raft which the surveyors from the embarcadero had just +abandoned. + +He did not know this, nor would he have thought it otherwise +strange that a raft might be a part of the drift of the overflow, +even had he been entirely conscious; but his senses were failing, +though he was still able to keep a secure position on the raft, and +to vaguely believe that it would carry him to some relief and +succor. How long he lay unconscious he never knew; in his after- +recollections of that night, it seemed to have been haunted by +dreams of passing dim banks and strange places; of a face and voice +that had been pleasant to him; of a terror coming upon him as he +appeared to be nearing a place like that home that he had abandoned +in the lonely tules. He was roused at last by a violent headache, +as if his soft felt hat had been changed into a tightening crown of +iron. Lifting his hand to his head to tear off its covering, he +was surprised to find that he was wearing no hat, but that his +matted hair, stiffened and dried with blood and ooze, was clinging +like a cap to his skull in the hot morning sunlight. His eyelids +and lashes were glued together and weighted down by the same +sanguinary plaster. He crawled to the edge of his frail raft, not +without difficulty, for it oscillated and rocked strangely, and +dipped his hand in the current. When he had cleared his eyes he +lifted them with a shock of amazement. Creeks, banks, and plain +had disappeared; he was alone on a bend of the tossing bay of San +Francisco! + +His first and only sense--cleared by fasting and quickened by +reaction--was one of infinite relief. He was not only free from +the vague terrors of the preceding days and nights, but his whole +past seemed to be lost and sunk forever in this illimitable +expanse. The low plain of Tasajara, with its steadfast monotony of +light and shadow, had sunk beneath another level, but one that +glistened, sparkled, was instinct with varying life, and moved and +even danced below him. The low palisades of regularly recurring +tules that had fenced in, impeded, but never relieved the blankness +of his horizon, were forever swallowed up behind him. All trail of +past degradation, all record of pain and suffering, all footprints +of his wandering and misguided feet were smoothly wiped out in that +obliterating sea. He was physically helpless, and he felt it; he +was in danger, and he knew it,--but he was free! + +Happily there was but little wind and the sea was slight. The raft +was still intact so far as he could judge, but even in his +ignorance he knew it would scarcely stand the surges of the lower +bay. Like most Californians who had passed the straits of +Carquinez at night in a steamer, he did not recognize the locality, +nor even the distant peak of Tamalpais. There were a few dotting +sails that seemed as remote, as uncertain, and as unfriendly as sea +birds. The raft was motionless, almost as motionless as he was in +his cramped limbs and sun-dried, stiffened clothes. Too weak to +keep an upright position, without mast, stick, or oar to lift a +signal above that vast expanse, it seemed impossible for him to +attract attention. Even his pistol was gone. + +Suddenly, in an attempt to raise himself, he was struck by a flash +so blinding that it seemed to pierce his aching eyes and brain and +turned him sick. It appeared to come from a crevice between the +logs at the further end of the raft. Creeping painfully towards it +he saw that it was a triangular slip of highly polished metal that +he had hitherto overlooked. He did not know that it was a +"flashing" mirror used in topographical observation, which had +slipped from the surveyors' instruments when they abandoned the +raft, but his excited faculties instinctively detected its value to +him. He lifted it, and, facing the sun, raised it at different +angles with his feeble arms. But the effort was too much for him; +the raft presently seemed to be whirling with his movement, and he +again fell. + + . . . . . . + +"Ahoy there!" + +The voice was close upon--in his very ears. He opened his eyes. +The sea still stretched emptily before him; the dotting sails still +unchanged and distant. Yet a strange shadow lay upon the raft. He +turned his head with difficulty. On the opposite side--so close +upon him as to be almost over his head--the great white sails of a +schooner hovered above him like the wings of some enormous sea +bird. Then a heavy boom swung across the raft, so low that it +would have swept him away had he been in an upright position; the +sides of the vessel grazed the raft and she fell slowly off. A +terrible fear of abandonment took possession of him; he tried to +speak, but could not. The vessel moved further away, but the raft +followed! He could see now it was being held by a boat-hook,-- +could see the odd, eager curiosity on two faces that were raised +above the taffrail, and with that sense of relief his eyes again +closed in unconsciousness. + +A feeling of chilliness, followed by a grateful sensation of +drawing closer under some warm covering, a stinging taste in his +mouth of fiery liquor and the aromatic steam of hot coffee, were +his first returning sensations. His head and neck were swathed in +coarse bandages, and his skin stiffened and smarting with soap. He +was lying in a rude berth under a half-deck from which he could see +the sky and the bellying sail, and presently a bearded face filled +with rough and practical concern that peered down upon him. + +"Hulloo! comin' round, eh? Hold on!" The next moment the stranger +had leaped down beside Elijah. He seemed to be an odd mingling of +the sailor and ranchero with the shrewdness of a seaport trader. + +"Hulloo, boss! What was it? A free fight, or a wash-out?" + +"A wash-out!"* Elijah grasped the idea as an inspiration. Yes, +his cabin had been inundated, he had taken to a raft, had been +knocked off twice or thrice, and had lost everything--even his +revolver! + + +* A mining term for the temporary inundation of a claim by flood; +also used for the sterilizing effect of flood on fertile soil. + + +The man looked relieved. "Then it ain't a free fight, nor havin' +your crust busted and bein' robbed by beach combers, eh?" + +"No," said Elijah, with his first faint smile. + +"Glad o' that," said the man bluntly. "Then thar ain't no police +business to tie up to in 'Frisco? We were stuck thar a week once, +just because we chanced to pick up a feller who'd been found gagged +and then thrown overboard by wharf thieves. Had to dance +attendance at court thar and lost our trip." He stopped and looked +half-pathetically at the prostrate Elijah. "Look yer! ye ain't +just dyin' to go ashore NOW and see yer friends and send messages, +are ye?" + +Elijah shuddered inwardly, but outwardly smiled faintly as he +replied, "No!" + +"And the tide and wind jest servin' us now, ye wouldn't mind +keepin' straight on with us this trip?" + +"Where to?" asked Elijah. + +"Santy Barbara." + +"No," said Elijah, after a moment's pause. "I'll go with you." + +The man leaped to his feet, lifted his head above the upper deck, +shouted "Let her go free, Jerry!" and then turned gratefully to his +passenger. "Look yer! A wash-out is a wash-out, I reckon, put it +any way you like; it don't put anything back into the land, or +anything back into your pocket afterwards, eh? No! And yer well +out of it, pardner! Now there's a right smart chance for locatin' +jest back of Santy Barbara, where thar ain't no God-forsaken tules +to overflow; and ez far ez the land and licker lies ye 'needn't +take any water in yours' ef ye don't want it. You kin start fresh +thar, pardner, and brail up. What's the matter with you, old man, +is only fever 'n' agur ketched in them tules! I kin see it in your +eyes. Now you hold on whar you be till I go forrard and see +everything taut, and then I'll come back and we'll have a talk." + +And they did. The result of which was that at the end of a week's +tossing and seasickness, Elijah Curtis was landed at Santa Barbara, +pale, thin, but self-contained and resolute. And having found +favor in the eyes of the skipper of the Kitty Hawk, general trader, +lumber-dealer, and ranch-man, a week later he was located on the +skipper's land and installed in the skipper's service. And from +that day, for five years Sidon and Tasajara knew him no more. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +It was part of the functions of John Milton Harkutt to take down +the early morning shutters and sweep out the store for his father +each day before going to school. It was a peculiarity of this +performance that he was apt to linger over it, partly from the fact +that it put off the evil hour of lessons, partly that he imparted +into the process a purely imaginative and romantic element gathered +from his latest novel-reading. In this he was usually assisted by +one or two school-fellows on their way to school, who always envied +him his superior menial occupation. To go to school, it was felt, +was a common calamity of boyhood that called into play only the +simplest forms of evasion, whereas to take down actual shutters in +a bona fide store, and wield a real broom that raised a palpable +cloud of dust, was something that really taxed the noblest +exertions. And it was the morning after the arrival of the +strangers that Johh Milton stood on the veranda of the store +ostentatiously examining the horizon, with his hand shading his +eyes, as one of his companions appeared. + +"Hollo, Milt! wot yer doin'?" + +John Milton started dramatically, and then violently dashed at one +of the shutters and began to detach it. "Ha!" he said hoarsely. +"Clear the ship for action! Open the ports! On deck there! +Steady, you lubbers!" In an instant his enthusiastic school-fellow +was at his side attacking another shutter. "A long, low schooner +bearing down upon us! Lively, lads, lively!" continued John +Milton, desisting a moment to take another dramatic look at the +distant plain. "How does she head now?" he demanded fiercely. + +"Sou' by sou'east, sir," responded the other boy, frantically +dancing before the window. "But she'll weather it." + +They each then wrested another shutter away, violently depositing +them, as they ran to and fro, in a rack at the corner of the +veranda. Added to an extraordinary and unnecessary clattering with +their feet, they accompanied their movements with a singular +hissing sound, supposed to indicate in one breath the fury of the +elements, the bustle of the eager crew, and the wild excitement of +the coming conflict. When the last shutter was cleared away, John +Milton, with the cry "Man the starboard guns!" dashed into the +store, whose floor was marked by the muddy footprints of yesterday's +buyers, seized a broom and began to sweep violently. A cloud of +dust arose, into which his companion at once precipitated himself +with another broom and a loud BANG! to indicate the somewhat belated +sound of cannon. For a few seconds the two boys plied their brooms +desperately in that stifling atmosphere, accompanying each long +sweep and puff of dust out of the open door with the report of +explosions and loud HA'S! of defiance, until not only the store, +but the veranda was obscured with a cloud which the morning sun +struggled vainly to pierce. In the midst of this tumult and dusty +confusion--happily unheard and unsuspected in the secluded domestic +interior of the building--a shrill little voice arose from the road. + +"Think you're mighty smart, don't ye?" + +The two naval heroes stopped in their imaginary fury. and, as the +dust of conflict cleared away, recognized little Johnny Peters +gazing at them with mingled inquisitiveness and envy. + +"Guess ye don't know what happened down the run last night," he +continued impatiently. "'Lige Curtis got killed, or killed +hisself! Blood all over the rock down thar. Seed it, myseff. Dad +picked up his six-shooter,--one barrel gone off. My dad was the +first to find it out, and he's bin to Squire Kerby tellin' him." + +The two companions, albeit burning with curiosity, affected +indifference and pre-knowledge. + +"Dad sez your father druv 'Lige outer the store lass night! Dad +sez your father's 'sponsible. Dad sez your father ez good ez +killed him. Dad sez the squire'll set the constable on your +father. Yah!" But here the small insulter incontinently fled, +pursued by both the boys. Nevertheless, when he had made good his +escape, John Milton showed neither a disposition to take up his +former nautical role, nor to follow his companion to visit the +sanguinary scene of Elijah's disappearance. He walked slowly back +to the store and continued his work of sweeping and putting in +order with an abstracted regularity, and no trace of his former +exuberant spirits. + +The first one of those instinctive fears which are common to +imaginative children, and often assume the functions of premonition, +had taken possession of him. The oddity of his father's manner the +evening before, which had only half consciously made its indelible +impression on his sensitive fancy, had recurred to him with Johnny +Peters's speech. He had no idea of literally accepting the boy's +charges; he scarcely understood their gravity; but he had a +miserable feeling that his father's anger and excitement last night +was because he had been discovered hunting in the dark for that +paper of 'Lige Curtis's. It WAS 'Lige Curtis's paper, for he had +seen it lying there. A sudden dreadful conviction came over him +that he must never, never let any one know that he had seen his +father take up that paper; that he must never admit it, even to HIM. +It was not the boy's first knowledge of that attitude of hypocrisy +which the grownup world assumes towards childhood, and in which the +innocent victims eventually acquiesce with a Machiavellian subtlety +that at last avenges them,--but it was his first knowledge that that +hypocrisy might not be so innocent. His father had concealed +something from him, because it was not right. + +But if childhood does not forget, it seldom broods and is not above +being diverted. And the two surveyors--of whose heroic advent in a +raft John Milton had only heard that morning with their traveled +ways, their strange instruments and stranger talk, captured his +fancy. Kept in the background by his sisters when visitors came, +as an unpresentable feature in the household, he however managed to +linger near the strangers when, in company with Euphemia and +Clementina, after breakfast they strolled beneath the sparkling +sunlight in the rude garden inclosure along the sloping banks of +the creek. It was with the average brother's supreme contempt that +he listened to his sisters' "practicin'" upon the goodness of these +superior beings; it was with an exceptional pity that he regarded +the evident admiration of the strangers in return. He felt that in +the case of Euphemia, who sometimes evinced a laudable curiosity in +his pleasures, and a flattering ignorance of his reading, this +might be pardonable; but what any one could find in the useless +statuesque Clementina passed his comprehension. Could they not see +at once that she was "just that kind of person" who would lie abed +in the morning, pretending she was sick, in order to make Phemie do +the housework, and make him, John Milton, clean her boots and fetch +things for her? Was it not perfectly plain to them that her +present sickening politeness was solely with a view to extract from +them caramels, rock-candy, and gum drops, which she would meanly +keep herself, and perhaps some "buggy-riding" later? Alas, John +Milton, it was not! For standing there with her tall, perfectly- +proportioned figure outlined against a willow, an elastic branch of +which she had drawn down by one curved arm above her head, and on +which she leaned--as everybody leaned against something in Sidon-- +the two young men saw only a straying goddess in a glorified +rosebud print. Whether the clearly-cut profile presented to Rice, +or the full face that captivated Grant, each suggested possibilities +of position, pride, poetry, and passion that astonished while it +fascinated them. By one of those instincts known only to the +freemasonry of the sex, Euphemia lent herself to this advertisement +of her sister's charms by subtle comparison with her own +prettinesses, and thus combined against their common enemy, man. + +"Clementina certainly is perfect, to keep her supremacy over that +pretty little sister," thought Rice. + +"What a fascinating little creature to hold her own against that +tall, handsome girl," thought Grant. + +"They're takin' stock o' them two fellers so as to gabble about 'em +when their backs is turned," said John Milton gloomily to himself, +with a dismal premonition of the prolonged tea-table gossip he +would be obliged to listen to later. + +"We were very fortunate to make a landing at all last night," said +Rice, looking down upon the still swollen current, and then raising +his eyes to Clementina. "Still more fortunate to make it where we +did. I suppose it must have been the singing that lured us on to +the bank,--as, you know, the sirens used to lure people,--only with +less disastrous consequences." + +John Milton here detected three glaring errors; first, it was NOT +Clementina who had sung; secondly, he knew that neither of his +sisters had ever read anything about sirens, but he had; thirdly, +that the young surveyor was glaringly ignorant of local phenomena +and should be corrected. + +"It's nothin' but the current," he said, with that feverish youthful +haste that betrays a fatal experience of impending interruption. +"It's always leavin' drift and rubbish from everywhere here. There +ain't anythin' that's chucked into the creek above that ain't bound +to fetch up on this bank. Why, there was two sheep and a dead hoss +here long afore YOU thought of coming!" He did not understand why +this should provoke the laughter that it did, and to prove that he +had no ulterior meaning, added with pointed politeness, "So IT ISN'T +YOUR FAULT, you know--YOU couldn't help it;" supplementing this +with the distinct courtesy, "otherwise you wouldn't have come." + +"But it would seem that your visitors are not all as accidental as +your brother would imply, and one, at least, seems to have been +expected last evening. You remember you thought we were a Mr. +Parmlee," said Mr. Rice looking at Clementina. + +It would be strange indeed, he thought, if the beautiful girl were +not surrounded by admirers. But without a trace of self- +consciousness, or any change in her reposeful face, she indicated +her sister with a slight gesture, and said: "One of Phemie's +friends. He gave her the accordion. She's very popular." + +"And I suppose YOU are very hard to please?" he said with a +tentative smile. + +She looked at him with her large, clear eyes, and that absence of +coquetry or changed expression in her beautiful face which might +have stood for indifference or dignity as she said: "I don't know. +I am waiting to see." + +But here Miss Phemie broke in saucily with the assertion that Mr. +Parmlee might not have a railroad in his pocket, but that at least +he didn't have to wait for the Flood to call on young ladies, nor +did he usually come in pairs, for all the world as if he had been +let out of Noah's Ark, but on horseback and like a Christian by the +front door. All this provokingly and bewitchingly delivered, +however, and with a simulated exaggeration that was incited +apparently more by Mr. Lawrence Grant's evident enjoyment of it, +than by any desire to defend the absent Parmlee. + +"But where is the front door?" asked Grant laughingly. + +The young girl pointed to a narrow zigzag path that ran up the bank +beside the house until it stopped at a small picketed gate on the +level of the road and store. + +"But I should think it would be easier to have a door and private +passage through the store," said Grant. + +"WE don't," said the young lady pertly, "we have nothing to do with +the store. I go in to see paw sometimes when he's shutting up and +there's nobody there, but Clem has never set foot in it since we +came. It's bad enough to have it and the lazy loafers that hang +around it as near to us as they are; but paw built the house in +such a fashion that we ain't troubled by their noise, and we might +be t'other side of the creek as far as our having to come across +them. And because paw has to sell pork and flour, we haven't any +call to go there and watch him do it." + +The two men glanced at each other. This reserve and fastidiousness +were something rare in a pioneer community. Harkutt's manners +certainly did not indicate that he was troubled by this +sensitiveness; it must have been some individual temperament of his +daughters. Stephen felt his respect increase for the goddess-like +Clementina; Mr. Lawrence Grant looked at Miss Phemie with a +critical smile. + +"But you must be very limited in your company," he said; "or is Mr. +Parmlee not a customer of your father's?" + +"As Mr. Parmlee does not come to us through the store, and don't +talk trade to me, we don't know," responded Phemie saucily. + +"But have you no lady acquaintances--neighbors--who also avoid the +store and enter only at the straight and narrow gate up there?" +continued Grant mischievously, regardless of the uneasy, half- +reproachful glances of Rice. + +But Phemie, triumphantly oblivious of any satire, answered +promptly: "If you mean the Pike County Billingses who live on the +turnpike road as much as they do off it, or the six daughters of +that Georgia Cracker who wear men's boots and hats, we haven't." + +"And Mr. Parmlee, your admirer?" suggested Rice. "Hasn't he a +mother or sisters here?" + +"Yes, but they don't want to know us, and have never called here." + +The embarrassment of the questioner at this unexpected reply, which +came from the faultless lips of Clementina, was somewhat mitigated +by the fact that the young woman's voice and manner betrayed +neither annoyance nor anger. + +Here, however, Harkutt appeared from the house with the information +that he had secured two horses for the surveyors and their +instruments, and that he would himself accompany them a part of the +way on their return to Tasajara Creek, to show them the road. His +usual listless deliberation had given way to a certain nervous but +uneasy energy. If they started at once it would be better, before +the loungers gathered at the store and confused them with lazy +counsel and languid curiosity. He took it for granted that Mr. +Grant wished the railroad survey to be a secret, and he had said +nothing, as they would be pestered with questions. "Sidon was +inquisitive--and old-fashioned." The benefit its inhabitants would +get from the railroad would not prevent them from throwing +obstacles in its way at first; he remembered the way they had acted +with a proposed wagon road,--in fact, an idea of his own, something +like the railroad; he knew them thoroughly, and if he might advise +them, it would be to say nothing here until the thing was settled. + +"He evidently does not intend to give us a chance," said Grant +good-humoredly to his companion, as they turned to prepare for +their journey; "we are to be conducted in silence to the outskirts +of the town like horse-thieves." + +"But you gave him the tip for himself," said Rice reproachfully; +"you cannot blame him for wanting to keep it." + +"I gave it to him in trust for his two incredible daughters," said +Grant with a grimace. "But, hang it! if I don't believe the fellow +has more concern in it than I imagined." + +"But isn't she perfect?" said Rice, with charming abstraction. + +"Who?" + +"Clementina, and so unlike her father." + +"Discomposingly so," said Grant quietly. "One feels in calling her +'Miss Harkutt' as if one were touching upon a manifest indiscretion. +But here comes John Milton. Well, my lad, what can I do for you?" + +The boy, who had been regarding them from a distance with wistful +and curious eyes as they replaced their instruments for the +journey, had gradually approached them. After a moment's timid +hesitation he said, looking at Grant: "You don't know anybody in +this kind o' business," pointing to the instruments, "who'd like a +boy, about my size?" + +"I'm afraid not, J. M.," said Grant, cheerfully, without suspending +his operation. "The fact is, you see, it's not exactly the kind of +work for a boy of your size." + +John Milton was silent for a moment, shifting himself slowly from +one leg to another as he watched the surveyor. After a pause he +said, "There don't seem to be much show in this world for boys o' +my size. There don't seem to be much use for 'em any way." This +not bitterly, but philosophically, and even politely, as if to +relieve Grant's rejection of any incivility. + +"Really you quite pain me, John Milton," said Grant, looking up as +he tightened a buckle. "I never thought of it before, but you're +right." + +"Now," continued the boy slowly, "with girls it's just different. +Girls of my size everybody does things for. There's Clemmy,--she's +only two years older nor me, and don't know half that I do, and yet +she kin lie about all day, and hasn't to get up to breakfast. And +Phemie,--who's jest the same age, size, and weight as me,--maw and +paw lets her do everything she wants to. And so does everybody. +And so would you." + +"But you surely don't want to be like a girl?" said Grant, smiling. + +It here occurred to John Milton's youthful but not illogical mind +that this was not argument, and he turned disappointedly away. As +his father was to accompany the strangers a short distance, he, +John Milton, was to-day left in charge of the store. That duty, +however, did not involve any pecuniary transactions--the taking of +money or making of change but a simple record on a slate behind the +counter of articles selected by those customers whose urgent needs +could not wait Mr. Harkutt's return. Perhaps on account of this +degrading limitation, perhaps for other reasons, the boy did not +fancy the task imposed upon him. The presence of the idle loungers +who usually occupied the armchairs near the stove, and occasionally +the counter, dissipated any romance with which he might have +invested his charge; he wearied of the monotony of their dull +gossip, but mostly he loathed the attitude of hypercritical counsel +and instruction which they saw fit to assume towards him at such +moments. "Instead o' lazin' thar behind the counter when your +father ain't here to see ye, John," remarked Billings from the +depths of his armchair a few moments after Harkutt had ridden away, +"ye orter be bustlin' round, dustin' the shelves. Ye'll never come +to anythin' when you're a man ef you go on like that. Ye never +heard o' Harry Clay--that was called 'the Mill-boy of the Slashes'-- +sittin' down doin' nothin' when he was a boy." + +"I never heard of him loafin' round in a grocery store when he was +growned up either," responded John Milton, darkly. + +"P'r'aps you reckon he got to be a great man by standin' up sassin' +his father's customers," said Peters, angrily. "I kin tell ye, +young man, if you was my boy"-- + +"If I was YOUR boy, I'd be playin' hookey instead of goin' to +school, jest as your boy is doin' now," interrupted John Milton, +with a literal recollection of his quarrel and pursuit of the youth +in question that morning. + +An undignified silence on the part of the adults followed, the +usual sequel to those passages; Sidon generally declining to expose +itself to the youthful Harkutt's terrible accuracy of statement. + +The men resumed their previous lazy gossip about Elijah Curtis's +disappearance, with occasional mysterious allusions in a lower +tone, which the boy instinctively knew referred to his father, but +which either from indolence or caution, the two great conservators +of Sidon, were never formulated distinctly enough for his +relentless interference. The morning sunshine was slowly +thickening again in an indolent mist that seemed to rise from the +saturated plain. A stray lounger shuffled over from the +blacksmith's shop to the store to take the place of another idler +who had joined an equally lethargic circle around the slumbering +forge. A dull intermittent sound of hammering came occasionally +from the wheelwright's shed--at sufficiently protracted intervals +to indicate the enfeebled progress of Sidon's vehicular repair. A +yellow dog left his patch of sunlight on the opposite side of the +way and walked deliberately over to what appeared to be more +luxurious quarters on the veranda; was manifestly disappointed but +not equal to the exertion of returning, and sank down with blinking +eyes and a regretful sigh without going further. A procession of +six ducks got well into a line for a laborious "march past" the +store, but fell out at the first mud puddle and gave it up. A +highly nervous but respectable hen, who had ventured upon the +veranda evidently against her better instincts, walked painfully on +tiptoe to the door, apparently was met by language which no mother +of a family could listen to, and retired in strong hysterics. A +little later the sun became again obscured, the wind arose, rain +fell, and the opportunity for going indoors and doing nothing was +once more availed of by all Sidon. + +It was afternoon when Mr. Harkutt returned. He did not go into the +store, but entered the dwelling from the little picket-gate and +steep path. There he called a family council in the sitting-room +as being the most reserved and secure. Mrs. Harkutt, sympathizing +and cheerfully ready for any affliction, still holding a dust-cloth +in her hand, took her seat by the window, with Phemie breathless +and sparkling at one side of her, while Clementina, all faultless +profile and repose, sat on the other. To Mrs. Harkutt's motherly +concern at John Milton's absence, it was pointed out that he was +wanted at the store,--was a mere boy anyhow, and could not be +trusted. Mr. Harkutt, a little ruddier from weather, excitement, +and the unusual fortification of a glass of liquor, a little more +rugged in the lines of his face, and with an odd ring of defiant +self-assertion in his voice, stood before them in the centre of the +room. + +He wanted them to listen to him carefully, to remember what he +said, for it was important; it might be a matter of "lawing" +hereafter,--and he couldn't be always repeating it to them,--he +would have enough to do. There was a heap of it that, as women- +folks, they couldn't understand, and weren't expected to. But he'd +got it all clear now, and what he was saying was gospel. He'd +always known to himself that the only good that could ever come to +Sidon would come by railroad. When those fools talked wagon road +he had said nothing, but he had his own ideas; he had worked for +that idea without saying anything to anybody; that idea was to get +possession of all the land along the embarcadero, which nobody +cared for, and 'Lige Curtis was ready to sell for a song. Well, +now, considering what had happened, he didn't mind telling them +that he had been gradually getting possession of it, little by +little, paying 'Lige Curtis in advances and installments, until it +was his own! They had heard what those surveyors said; how that it +was the only fit terminus for the railroad. Well, that land, and +that water-front, and the terminus were HIS! And all from his own +foresight and prudence. + +It is needless to say that this was not the truth. But it is +necessary to point out that this fabrication was the result of his +last night's cogitations and his morning's experience. He had +resolved upon a bold course. He had reflected that his neighbors +would be more ready to believe in and to respect a hard, mercenary, +and speculative foresight in his taking advantage of 'Lige's +necessities than if he had--as was the case--merely benefited by +them through an accident of circumstance and good humor. In the +latter case he would be envied and hated; in the former he would be +envied and feared. By logic of circumstance the greater wrong +seemed to be less obviously offensive than the minor fault. It was +true that it involved the doing of something he had not contemplated, +and the certainty of exposure if 'Lige ever returned, but he was +nevertheless resolved. The step from passive to active wrong-doing +is not only easy, it is often a relief; it is that return to +sincerity which we all require. Howbeit, it gave that ring of +assertion to Daniel Harkutt's voice already noted, which most women +like, and only men are prone to suspect or challenge. The +incompleteness of his statement was, for the same reason, overlooked +by his feminine auditors. + +"And what is it worth, dad?" asked Phemie eagerly. + +"Grant says I oughter get at least ten thousand dollars for the +site of the terminus from the company, but of course I shall hold +on to the rest of the land. The moment they get the terminus +there, and the depot and wharf built, I can get my own price and +buyers for the rest. Before the year is out Grant thinks it ought +to go up ten per cent on the value of the terminus, and that a +hundred thousand." + +"Oh, dad!" gasped Phemie, frantically clasping her knees with both +hands as if to perfectly assure herself of this good fortune. + +Mrs. Harkutt audibly murmured "Poor dear Dan'l," and stood, as it +were, sympathetically by, ready to commiserate the pains and +anxieties of wealth as she had those of poverty. Clementina alone +remained silent, clear-eyed, and unchanged. + +"And to think it all came through THEM!" continued Phemie. "I +always had an idea that Mr. Grant was smart, dad. And it was real +kind of him to tell you." + +"I reckon father could have found it out without them. I don't +know why we should be beholden to them particularly. I hope he +isn't expected to let them think that he is bound to consider them +our intimate friends just because they happened to drop in here at +a time when his plans have succeeded." + +The voice was Clementina's, unexpected but quiet, unemotional and +convincing. "It seemed," as Mrs. Harkutt afterwards said, "as if +the child had already touched that hundred thousand." Phemie +reddened with a sense of convicted youthful extravagance. + +"You needn't fear for me," said Harkutt, responding to Clementina's +voice as if it were an echo of his own, and instinctively +recognizing an unexpected ally. "I've got my own ideas of this +thing, and what's to come of it. I've got my own ideas of openin' +up that property and showin' its resources. I'm goin' to run it my +own way. I'm goin' to have a town along the embarcadero that'll +lay over any town in Contra Costa. I'm goin' to have the court- +house and county seat there, and a couple of hotels as good as any +in the Bay. I'm goin' to build that wagon road through here that +those lazy louts slipped up on, and carry it clear over to Five +Mile Corner, and open up the whole Tasajara Plain!" + +They had never seen him look so strong, so resolute, so intelligent +and handsome. A dimly prophetic vision of him in a black +broadcloth suit and gold watch-chain addressing a vague multitude, +as she remembered to have seen the Hon. Stanley Riggs of Alasco at +the "Great Barbecue," rose before Phemie's blue enraptured eyes. +With the exception of Mrs. Harkutt,--equal to any possibilities on +the part of her husband,--they had honestly never expected it of +him. They were pleased with their father's attitude in prosperity, +and felt that perhaps he was not unworthy of being proud of them +hereafter. + +"But we're goin' to leave Sidon," said Phemie, "ain't we, paw?" + +"As soon as I can run up a new house at the embarcadero," said +Harkutt peevishly, "and that's got to be done mighty quick if I +want to make a show to the company and be in possession." + +"And that's easier for you to do, dear, now that 'Lige's +disappeared," said Mrs. Harkutt consolingly. + +"What do ye mean by that? What the devil are ye talkin' about?" +demanded Harkutt suddenly with unexpected exasperation. + +"I mean that that drunken 'Lige would be mighty poor company for +the girls if he was our only neighbor," returned Mrs. Harkutt +submissively. + +Harkutt, after a fixed survey of his wife, appeared mollified. The +two girls, who were mindful of his previous outburst the evening +before, exchanged glances which implied that his manners needed +correction for prosperity. + +"You'll want a heap o' money to build there, Dan'l," said Mrs. +Harkutt in plaintive diffidence. + +"Yes! Yes!" said Harkutt impatiently. "I've kalkilated all that, +and I'm goin' to 'Frisco to-morrow to raise it and put this bill of +sale on record." He half drew Elijah Curtis's paper from his +pocket, but paused and put it back again. + +"Then THAT WAS the paper, dad," said Phemie triumphantly. + +"Yes," said her father, regarding her fixedly, "and you know now +why I didn't want anything said about it last night--nor even now." + +"And 'Lige had just given it to you! Wasn't it lucky?" + +"He HADN'T just given it to me!" said her father with another +unexpected outburst. "God Amighty! ain't I tellin' you all the +time it was an old matter! But you jabber, jabber all the time and +don't listen! Where's John Milton?" It had occurred to him that +the boy might have read the paper--as his sister had--while it lay +unheeded on the counter. + +"In the store,--you know. You said he wasn't to hear anything of +this, but I'll call him," said Mrs. Harkutt, rising eagerly. + +"Never mind," returned her husband, stopping her reflectively, +"best leave it as it is; if it's necessary I'll tell him. But +don't any of you say anything, do you hear?" + +Nevertheless a few hours later, when the store was momentarily free +of loungers, and Harkutt had relieved his son of his monotonous +charge, he made a pretense, while abstractedly listening to an +account of the boy's stewardship, to look through a drawer as if in +search of some missing article. + +"You didn't see anything of a paper I left somewhere about here +yesterday?" he asked carelessly. + +"The one you picked up when you came in last night?" said the boy +with discomposing directness. + +Harkutt flushed slightly and drew his breath between his set teeth. +Not only could he place no reliance upon ordinary youthful +inattention, but he must be on his guard against his own son as +from a spy! But he restrained himself. + +"I don't remember," he said with affected deliberation, "what it +was I picked up. Do you? Did you read it?" + +The meaning of his father's attitude instinctively flashed upon the +boy. He HAD read the paper, but he answered, as he had already +determined, "No." + +An inspiration seized Mr. Harkutt. He drew 'Lige Curtis's bill of +sale from his pocket, and opening it before John Milton said, "Was +it that?" + +"I don't know," said the boy. "I couldn't tell." He walked away +with affected carelessness, already with a sense of playing some +part like his father, and pretended to whistle for the dog across +the street. Harkutt coughed ostentatiously, put the paper back in +his pocket, set one or two boxes straight on the counter, locked +the drawer, and disappeared into the back passage. John Milton +remained standing in the doorway looking vacantly out. But he did +not see the dull familiar prospect beyond. He only saw the paper +his father had opened and unfolded before him. It was the same +paper he had read last night. But there were three words written +there THAT WERE NOT THERE BEFORE! After the words "Value received" +there had been a blank. He remembered that distinctly. This was +filled in by the words, "Five hundred dollars." The handwriting +did not seem like his father's, nor yet entirely like 'Lige +Curtis's. What it meant he did not know,--he would not try to +think. He should forget it, as he had tried to forget what had +happened before, and he should never tell it to any one! + +There was a feverish gayety in his sisters' manner that afternoon +that he did not understand; short colloquies that were suspended +with ill concealed impatience when he came near them, and resumed +when he was sent, on equally palpable excuses, out of the room. He +had been accustomed to this exclusion when there were strangers +present, but it seemed odd to him now, when the conversation did +not even turn upon the two superior visitors who had been there, +and of whom he confidently expected they would talk. Such +fragments as he overheard were always in the future tense, and +referred to what they intended to do. His mother, whose affection +for him had always been shown in excessive and depressing +commiseration of him in even his lightest moments, that afternoon +seemed to add a prophetic and Cassandra-like sympathy for some +vague future of his that would require all her ministration. "You +won't need them new boots, Milty dear, in the changes that may be +comin' to ye; so don't be bothering your poor father in his +worriments over his new plans." + +"What new plans, mommer?" asked the boy abruptly. "Are we goin' +away from here?" + +"Hush, dear, and don't ask questions that's enough for grown folks +to worry over, let alone a boy like you. Now be good,"--a quality +in Mrs. Harkutt's mind synonymous with ceasing from troubling,-- +"and after supper, while I'm in the parlor with your father and +sisters, you kin sit up here by the fire with your book." + +"But," persisted the boy in a flash of inspiration, "is popper +goin' to join in business with those surveyors,--a surveyin'?" + +"No, child, what an idea! Run away there,--and mind!--don't bother +your father." + +Nevertheless John Milton's inspiration had taken a new and +characteristic shape. All this, he reflected, had happened since +the surveyors came--since they had weakly displayed such a +shameless and unmanly interest in his sisters! It could have but +one meaning. He hung around the sitting-room and passages until he +eventually encountered Clementina, taller than ever, evidently +wearing a guilty satisfaction in her face, engrafted upon that +habitual bearing of hers which he had always recognized as +belonging to a vague but objectionable race whose members were +individually known to him as "a proudy." + +"Which of those two surveyor fellows is it, Clemmy?" he said with +an engaging smile, yet halting at a strategic distance. + +"Is what?" + +"Wot you're goin' to marry." + +"Idiot!" + +"That ain't tellin' which," responded the boy darkly. + +Clementina swept by him into the sitting-room, where he heard her +declare that "really that boy was getting too low and vulgar for +anything." Yet it struck him, that being pressed for further +explanation, she did NOT specify why. This was "girls' meanness!" + +Howbeit he lingered late in the road that evening, hearing his +father discuss with the search-party that had followed the banks of +the creek, vainly looking for further traces of the missing 'Lige, +the possibility of his being living or dead, of the body having +been carried away by the current to the bay or turning up later in +some distant marsh when the spring came with low water. One who +had been to his cabin beside the embarcadero reported that it was, +as had been long suspected, barely habitable, and contained neither +books, papers, nor records which would indicate his family or +friends. It was a God-forsaken, dreary, worthless place; he +wondered how a white man could ever expect to make a living there. +If Elijah never turned up again it certainly would be a long time +before any squatter would think of taking possession of it. John +Milton knew instinctively, without looking up, that his father's +eyes were fixed upon him, and he felt himself constrained to appear +to be abstracted in gazing down the darkening road. Then he heard +his father say, with what he felt was an equal assumption of +carelessness: "Yes, I reckon I've got somewhere a bill of sale of +that land that I had to take from 'Lige for an old bill, but I +kalkilate that's all I'll ever see of it." + +Rain fell again as the darkness gathered, but he still loitered on +the road and the sloping path of the garden, filled with a half +resentful sense of wrong, and hugging with gloomy pride an +increasing sense of loneliness and of getting dangerously wet. The +swollen creek still whispered, murmured and swirled beside the +bank. At another time he might have had wild ideas of emulating +the surveyors on some extempore raft and so escaping his present +dreary home existence; but since the disappearance of 'Lige, who +had always excited an odd boyish antipathy in his heart, although +he had never seen him, he shunned the stream contaminated with the +missing man's unheroic fate. Presently the light from the open +window of the sitting-room glittered on the wet leaves and sprays +where he stood, and the voices of the family conclave came fitfully +to his ear. They didn't want him there. They had never thought of +asking him to come in. Well!--who cared? And he wasn't going to +be bought off with a candle and a seat by the kitchen fire. No! + +Nevertheless he was getting wet to no purpose. There was the tool- +house and carpenter's shed near the bank; its floor was thickly +covered with sawdust and pine-wood shavings, and there was a mouldy +buffalo skin which he had once transported thither from the old +wagon-bed. There, too, was his secret cache of a candle in a +bottle, buried with other piratical treasures in the presence of +the youthful Peters, who consented to be sacrificed on the spot in +buccaneering fashion to complete the unhallowed rites. He +unearthed the candle, lit it, and clearing away a part of the +shavings stood it up on the floor. He then brought a prized, +battered, and coverless volume from a hidden recess in the rafters, +and lying down with the buffalo robe over him, and his cap in his +hand ready to extinguish the light at the first footstep of a +trespasser, gave himself up--as he had given himself up, I fear, +many other times--to the enchantment of the page before him. + +The current whispered, murmured, and sang, unheeded at his side. +The voices of his mother and sisters, raised at times in eagerness +or expectation of the future, fell upon his unlistening ears. For +with the spell that had come upon him, the mean walls of his +hiding-place melted away; the vulgar stream beside him might have +been that dim, subterraneous river down which Sindbad and his bale +of riches were swept out of the Cave of Death to the sunlight of +life and fortune, so surely and so simply had it transported him +beyond the cramped and darkened limits of his present life. He was +in the better world of boyish romance,--of gallant deeds and high +emprises; of miraculous atonement and devoted sacrifice; of brave +men, and those rarer, impossible women,--the immaculate conception +of a boy's virgin heart. What mattered it that behind that +glittering window his mother and sisters grew feverish and excited +over the vulgar details of their real but baser fortune? From the +dark tool-shed by the muddy current, John Milton, with a battered +dogs'-eared chronicle, soared on the wings of fancy far beyond +their wildest ken! + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Prosperity had settled upon the plains of Tasajara. Not only had +the embarcadero emerged from the tules of Tasajara Creek as a +thriving town of steamboat wharves, warehouses, and outlying mills +and factories, but in five years the transforming railroad had +penetrated the great plain itself and revealed its undeveloped +fertility. The low-lying lands that had been yearly overflowed by +the creek, now drained and cultivated, yielded treasures of wheat +and barley that were apparently inexhaustible. Even the helpless +indolence of Sidon had been surprised into activity and change. +There was nothing left of the straggling settlement to recall its +former aspect. The site of Harkutt's old store and dwelling was +lost and forgotten in the new mill and granary that rose along the +banks of the creek. Decay leaves ruin and traces for the memory to +linger over; prosperity is unrelenting in its complete and smiling +obliteration of the past. + +But Tasajara City, as the embarcadero was now called, had no +previous record, and even the former existence of an actual settler +like the forgotten Elijah Curtis was unknown to the present +inhabitants. It was Daniel Harkutt's idea carried out in Daniel +Harkutt's land, with Daniel Harkutt's capital and energy. But +Daniel Harkutt had become Daniel Harcourt, and Harcourt Avenue, +Harcourt Square, and Harcourt House, ostentatiously proclaimed the +new spelling of his patronymic. When the change was made and for +what reason, who suggested it and under what authority, were not +easy to determine, as the sign on his former store had borne +nothing but the legend, Goods and Provisions, and his name did not +appear on written record until after the occupation of Tasajara; +but it is presumed that it was at the instigation of his daughters, +and there was no one to oppose it. Harcourt was a pretty name for +a street, a square, or a hotel; even the few in Sidon who had +called it Harkutt admitted that it was an improvement quite +consistent with the change from the fever-haunted tules and sedges +of the creek to the broad, level, and handsome squares of Tasajara +City. + +This might have been the opinion of a visitor at the Harcourt +House, who arrived one summer afternoon from the Stockton boat, but +whose shrewd, half-critical, half-professional eyes and quiet +questionings betrayed some previous knowledge of the locality. +Seated on the broad veranda of the Harcourt House, and gazing out +on the well-kept green and young eucalyptus trees of the Harcourt +Square or Plaza, he had elicited a counter question from a +prosperous-looking citizen who had been lounging at his side. + +"I reckon you look ez if you might have been here before, +stranger." + +"Yes," said the stranger quietly, "I have been. But it was when +the tules grew in the square opposite, and the tide of the creek +washed them." + +"Well," said the Tasajaran, looking curiously at the stranger, "I +call myself a pioneer of Tasajara. My name's Peters,--of Peters +and Co.,--and those warehouses along the wharf, where you landed +just now, are mine; but I was the first settler on Harcourt's land, +and built the next cabin after him. I helped to clear out them +tules and dredged the channels yonder. I took the contract with +Harcourt to build the last fifteen miles o' railroad, and put up +that depot for the company. Perhaps you were here before that?" + +"I was," returned the stranger quietly. + +"I say," said Peters, hitching his chair a little nearer to his +companion, "you never knew a kind of broken-down feller, called +Curtis--'Lige Curtis--who once squatted here and sold his right to +Harkutt? He disappeared; it was allowed he killed hisself, but +they never found his body, and, between you and me, I never took +stock in that story. You know Harcourt holds under him, and all +Tasajara rests on that title." + +"I've heard so," assented the stranger carelessly, "but I never +knew the original settler. Then Harcourt has been lucky?" + +"You bet. He's got three millions right about HERE, or within this +quarter section, to say nothing of his outside speculations." + +"And lives here?" + +"Not for two years. That's his old house across the plaza, but his +women-folks live mostly in 'Frisco and New York, where he's got +houses too. They say they sorter got sick of Tasajara after his +youngest daughter ran off with a feller." + +"Hallo!" said the stranger with undisguised interest. "I never +heard of that! You don't mean that she eloped"--he hesitated. + +"Oh, it was a square enough marriage. I reckon too square to suit +some folks; but the fellow hadn't nothin', and wasn't worth +shucks,--a sort of land surveyor, doin' odd jobs, you know; and the +old man and old woman were agin it, and the tother daughter worse +of all. It was allowed here--you know how women-folks talk!--that +the surveyor had been sweet on Clementina, but had got tired of +being played by her, and took up with Phemie out o' spite. Anyhow +they got married, and Harcourt gave them to understand they +couldn't expect anything from him. P'raps that's why it didn't +last long, for only about two months ago she got a divorce from +Rice and came back to her family again." + +"Rice?" queried the stranger. "Was that her husband's name, +Stephen Rice?" + +"I reckon! You knew him?" + +"Yes,--when the tide came up to the tules, yonder," answered the +stranger musingly. "And the other daughter,--I suppose she has +made a good match, being a beauty and the sole heiress?" + +The Tasajaran made a grimace. "Not much! I reckon she's waitin' +for the Angel Gabriel,--there ain't another good enough to suit her +here. They say she's had most of the big men in California waitin' +in a line with their offers, like that cue the fellows used to make +at the 'Frisco post-office steamer days--and she with nary a letter +or answer for any of them." + +"Then Harcourt doesn't seem to have been as fortunate in his family +affairs as in his speculations?" + +Peters uttered a grim laugh. "Well, I reckon you know all about +his son's stampeding with that girl last spring?" + +"His son?" interrupted the stranger. "Do you mean the boy they +called John Milton? Why, he was a mere child!" + +"He was old enough to run away with a young woman that helped in +his mother's house, and marry her afore a justice of the peace. +The old man just snorted with rage, and swore he'd have the +marriage put aside, for the boy was under age. He said it was a +put-up job of the girl's; that she was older by two years, and only +wanted to get what money might be comin' some day, but that they'd +never see a red cent of it. Then, they say, John Milton up and +sassed the old man to his face, and allowed that he wouldn't take +his dirty money if he starved first, and that if the old man broke +the marriage he'd marry her again next year; that true love and +honorable poverty were better nor riches, and a lot more o' that +stuff he picked out o' them ten-cent novels he was allus reading. +My women-folks say that he actually liked the girl, because she was +the only one in the house that was ever kind to him; they say the +girls were just ragin' mad at the idea o' havin' a hired gal who +had waited on 'em as a sister-in-law, and they even got old Mammy +Harcourt's back up by sayin' that John's wife would want to rule +the house, and run her out of her own kitchen. Some say he shook +THEM, talked back to 'em mighty sharp, and held his head a heap +higher nor them. Anyhow, he's livin' with his wife somewhere in +'Frisco, in a shanty on a sand lot, and workin' odd jobs for the +newspapers. No! takin' it by and large--it don't look as if +Harcourt had run his family to the same advantage that he has his +land." + +"Perhaps he doesn't understand them as well," said the stranger +smiling. + +"Mor'n likely the material ain't thar, or ain't as vallyble for a +new country," said Peters grimly. "I reckon the trouble is that he +lets them two daughters run him, and the man who lets any woman or +women do that, lets himself in for all their meannesses, and all he +gets in return is a woman's result,--show!" + +Here the stranger, who was slowly rising from his chair with the +polite suggestion of reluctantly tearing himself from the speaker's +spell, said: "And Harcourt spends most of his time in San +Francisco, I suppose?" + +"Yes! but to-day he's here to attend a directors' meeting and the +opening of the Free Library and Tasajara Hall. I saw the windows +open, and the blinds up in his house across the plaza as I passed +just now." + +The stranger had by this time quite effected his courteous +withdrawal. "Good-afternoon, Mr. Peters," he said, smilingly +lifting his hat, and turned away. + +Peters, who was obliged to take his legs off the chair, and half +rise to the stranger's politeness, here reflected that he did not +know his interlocutor's name and business, and that he had really +got nothing in return for his information. This must be remedied. +As the stranger passed through the hall into the street, followed +by the unwonted civilities of the spruce hotel clerk and the +obsequious attentions of the negro porter, Peters stepped to the +window of the office. "Who was that man who just passed out?" he +asked. + +The clerk stared in undisguised astonishment. "You don't mean to +say you didn't know WHO he was--all the while you were talking to +him?" + +"No," returned Peters, impatiently. + +"Why, that was Professor Lawrence Grant!--THE Lawrence Grant--don't +you know?--the biggest scientific man and recognized expert on the +Pacific slope. Why, that's the man whose single word is enough to +make or break the biggest mine or claim going! That man!--why, +that's the man whose opinion's worth thousands, for it carries +millions with it--and can't be bought. That's him who knocked the +bottom outer El Dorado last year, and next day sent Eureka up +booming! Ye remember that, sure?" + +"Of course--but"--stammered Peters. + +"And to think you didn't know him!" repeated the hotel clerk +wonderingly. "And here I was reckoning you were getting points +from him all the time! Why, some men would have given a thousand +dollars for your chance of talking to him--yes!--of even being SEEN +talking to him. Why, old Wingate once got a tip on his Prairie +Flower lead worth five thousand dollars while just changing seats +with him in the cars and passing the time of day, sociable like. +Why, what DID you talk about?" + +Peters, with a miserable conviction that he had thrown away a +valuable opportunity in mere idle gossip, nevertheless endeavored +to look mysterious as he replied, "Oh, business gin'rally." Then +in the faint hope of yet retrieving his blunder he inquired, "How +long will he be here?" + +"Don't know. I reckon he and Harcourt's got something on hand. He +just asked if he was likely to be at home or at his office. I told +him I reckoned at the house, for some of the family--I didn't get +to see who they were--drove up in a carriage from the 3.40 train +while you were sitting there." + +Meanwhile the subject of this discussion, quite unconscious of the +sensation he had created, or perhaps like most heroes philosophically +careless of it, was sauntering indifferently towards Harcourt's +house. But he had no business with his former host, his only object +was to pass an idle hour before his train left. He was, of course, +not unaware that he himself was largely responsible for Harcourt's +success; that it was HIS hint which had induced the petty trader of +Sidon to venture his all in Tasajara; HIS knowledge of the +topography and geology of the plain that had stimulated Harcourt's +agricultural speculations; HIS hydrographic survey of the creek that +had made Harcourt's plan of widening the channel to commerce +practicable and profitable. This he could not help but know. But +that it was chiefly owing to his own clear, cool, far-seeing, but +never visionary, scientific observation,--his own accurate analysis, +unprejudiced by even a savant's enthusiasm, and uninfluenced by any +personal desire or greed of gain,--that Tasajara City had risen from +the stagnant tules, was a speculation that had never occurred to +him. There was a much more uneasy consciousness of what he had done +in Mr. Harcourt's face a few moments later, when his visitor's name +was announced, and it is to be feared that if that name had been +less widely honored and respected than it was, no merely grateful +recollection of it would have procured Grant an audience. As it +was, it was with a frown and a touch of his old impatient asperity +that he stepped to the threshold of an adjoining room and called, +"Clemmy!" + +Clementina appeared at the door. + +"There's that man Grant in the parlor. What brings HIM here, I +wonder? Who does he come to see?" + +"Who did he ask for?" + +"Me,--but that don't mean anything." + +"Perhaps he wants to see you on some business." + +"No. That isn't his high-toned style. He makes other people go to +him for that," he said bitterly. "Anyhow--don't you think it's +mighty queer his coming here after his friend--for it was he who +introduced Rice to us--had behaved so to your sister, and caused +all this divorce and scandal?" + +"Perhaps he may know nothing about it; he and Rice separated long +ago, even before Grant became so famous. We never saw much of him, +you know, after we came here. Suppose you leave him to ME. I'll +see him." + +Mr. Harcourt reflected. "Didn't he used to be rather attentive to +Phemie?" + +Clementina shrugged her shoulders carelessly. "I dare say--but I +don't think that NOW"-- + +"Who said anything about NOW?" retorted her father, with a return +of his old abruptness. After a pause he said: "I'll go down and +see him first, and then send for you. You can keep him for the +opening and dinner, if you like." + +Meantime Lawrence Grant, serenely unsuspicious of these domestic +confidences, had been shown into the parlor--a large room furnished +in the same style as the drawing-room of the hotel he had just +quitted. He had ample time to note that it was that wonderful +Second Empire furniture which he remembered that the early San +Francisco pioneers in the first flush of their wealth had imported +directly from France, and which for years after gave an unexpected +foreign flavor to the western domesticity and a tawdry gilt +equality to saloons and drawing-rooms, public and private. But he +was observant of a corresponding change in Harcourt, when a moment +later he entered the room. That individuality which had kept the +former shopkeeper of Sidon distinct from, although perhaps not +superior to, his customers--was strongly marked. He was perhaps +now more nervously alert than then; he was certainly more impatient +than before,--but that was pardonable in a man of large affairs and +action. Grant could not deny that he seemed improved,--rather +perhaps that the setting of fine clothes, cleanliness, and the +absence of petty worries, made his characteristics respectable. +That which is ill breeding in homespun, is apt to become mere +eccentricity in purple and fine linen; Grant felt that Harcourt +jarred on him less than he did before, and was grateful without +superciliousness. Harcourt, relieved to find that Grant was +neither critical nor aggressively reminiscent, and above all not +inclined to claim the credit of creating him and Tasajara, became +more confident, more at his ease, and, I fear, in proportion more +unpleasant. It is the repose and not the struggle of the parvenu +that confounds us. + +"And YOU, Grant,--you have made yourself famous, and, I hear, have +got pretty much your own prices for your opinions ever since it was +known that you--you--er--were connected with the growth of Tasajara." + +Grant smiled; he was not quite prepared for this; but it was +amusing and would pass the time. He murmured a sentence of half +ironical deprecation, and Mr. Harcourt continued:-- + +"I haven't got my San Francisco house here to receive you in, but I +hope some day, sir, to see you there. We are only here for the day +and night, but if you care to attend the opening ceremonies at the +new hall, we can manage to give you dinner afterwards. You can +escort my daughter Clementina,--she's here with me." + +The smile of apologetic declination which had begun to form on +Grant's lips was suddenly arrested. "Then your daughter is here?" +he asked, with unaffected interest. + +"Yes,--she is in fact a patroness of the library and sewing-circle, +and takes the greatest interest in it. The Reverend Doctor +Pilsbury relies upon her for everything. She runs the society, +even to the training of the young ladies, sir. You shall see their +exercises." + +This was certainly a new phase of Clementina's character. Yet why +should she not assume the role of Lady Bountiful with the other +functions of her new condition. "I should have thought Miss +Harcourt would have found this rather difficult with her other +social duties," he said, "and would have left it to her married +sister." He thought it better not to appear as if avoiding +reference to Euphemia, although quietly ignoring her late +experiences. Mr. Harcourt was less easy in his response. + +"Now that Euphemia is again with her own family," he said +ponderously, with an affectation of social discrimination that was +in weak contrast to his usual direct business astuteness, "I +suppose she may take her part in these things, but just now she +requires rest. You may have heard some rumor that she is going +abroad for a time? The fact is she hasn't the least intention of +doing so, nor do we consider there is the slightest reason for her +going." He paused as if to give great emphasis to a statement that +seemed otherwise unimportant. "But here's Clementina coming, and I +must get you to excuse ME. I've to meet the trustees of the church +in ten minutes, but I hope she'll persuade you to stay, and I'll +see you later at the hall." + +As Clementina entered the room her father vanished and, I fear, as +completely dropped out of Mr. Grant's mind. For the daughter's +improvement was greater than her father's, yet so much more refined +as to be at first only delicately perceptible. Grant had been +prepared for the vulgar enhancement of fine clothes and personal +adornment, for the specious setting of luxurious circumstances and +surroundings, for the aplomb that came from flattery and conscious +power. But he found none of these; her calm individuality was +intensified rather than subdued; she was dressed simply, with an +economy of ornament, rich material, and jewelry, but an accuracy of +taste that was always dominant. Her plain gray merino dress, +beautifully fitting her figure, suggested, with its pale blue +facings, some uniform, as of the charitable society she patronized. +She came towards him with a graceful movement of greeting, yet her +face showed no consciousness of the interval that had elapsed since +they met; he almost fancied himself transported back to the +sitting-room at Sidon with the monotonous patter of the leaves +outside, and the cool moist breath of the bay and alder coming in +at the window. + +"Father says that you are only passing through Tasajara to-day, as +you did through Sidon five years ago," she said with a smiling +earnestness that he fancied however was the one new phase of her +character. "But I won't believe it! At least we will not accept +another visit quite as accidental as that, even though you brought +us twice the good fortune you did then. You see, we have not +forgotten it if you have, Mr. Grant. And unless you want us to +believe that your fairy gifts will turn some day to leaves and +ashes, you will promise to stay with us tonight, and let me show +you some of the good we have done with them. Perhaps you don't +know, or don't want to know, that it was I who got up this 'Library +and Home Circle of the Sisters of Tasajara' which we are to open +to-day. And can you imagine why? You remember--or have you +forgotten--that you once affected to be concerned at the social +condition of the young ladies on the plains of Sidon? Well, Mr. +Grant, this is gotten up in order that the future Mr. Grants who +wander may find future Miss Billingses who are worthy to converse +with them and entertain them, and who no longer wear men's hats and +live on the public road." + +It was such a long speech for one so taciturn as he remembered +Clementina to have been; so unexpected in tone considering her +father's attitude towards him, and so unlooked for in its reference +to a slight incident of the past, that Grant's critical contemplation +of her gave way to a quiet and grateful glance of admiration. How +could he have been so mistaken in her character? He had always +preferred the outspoken Euphemia, and yet why should he not have +been equally mistaken in her? Without having any personal knowledge +of Rice's matrimonial troubles--for their intimate companionship had +not continued after the survey--he had been inclined to blame him; +now he seemed to find excuses for him. He wondered if she really had +liked him as Peters had hinted; he wondered if she knew that he, +Grant, was no longer intimate with him and knew nothing of her +affairs. All this while he was accepting her proffered hospitality +and sending to the hotel for his luggage. Then he drifted into a +conversation, which he had expected would be brief, pointless, and +confined to a stupid resume of their mutual and social progress +since they had left Sidon. But here he was again mistaken; she was +talking familiarly of present social topics, of things that she knew +clearly and well, without effort or attitude. She had been to New +York and Boston for two winters; she had spent the previous summer +at Newport; it might have been her whole youth for the fluency, +accuracy, and familiarity of her detail, and the absence of +provincial enthusiasm. She was going abroad, probably in the +spring. She had thought of going to winter in Italy, but she would +wait now until her sister was ready to go with her. Mr. Grant of +course knew that Euphemia was separated from Mr. Rice--no--not until +her father told him? Well--the marriage had been a wild and foolish +thing for both. But Euphemia was back again with them in the San +Francisco house; she had talked of coming to Tasajara to-day, +perhaps she might be there tonight. And, good heavens! it was +actually three o'clock already, and they must start at once for the +Hall. She would go and get her hat and return instantly. + +It was true; he had been talking with her an hour--pleasantly, +intelligently, and yet with a consciousness of an indefinite +satisfaction beyond all this. It must have been surprise at her +transformation, or his previous misconception of her character. +He had been watching her features and wondering why he had ever +thought them expressionless. There was also the pleasant +suggestion--common to humanity in such instances--that he himself +was in some way responsible for the change; that it was some +awakened sympathy to his own nature that had breathed into this +cold and faultless statue the warmth of life. In an odd flash of +recollection he remembered how, five years ago, when Rice had +suggested to her that she was "hard to please," she had replied +that she "didn't know, but that she was waiting to see." It did +not occur to him to wonder why she had not awakened then, or if +this awakening had anything to do with her own volition. It was +not probable that they would meet again after to-day, or if they +did, that she would not relapse into her former self and fail to +impress him as she had now. But--here she was--a paragon of +feminine promptitude--already standing in the doorway, accurately +gloved and booted, and wearing a demure gray hat that modestly +crowned her decorously elegant figure. + +They crossed the plaza side by side, in the still garish sunlight +that seemed to mock the scant shade of the youthful eucalyptus +trees, and presently fell in with the stream of people going in +their direction. The former daughters of Sidon, the Billingses, +the Peterses, and Wingates, were there bourgeoning and expanding in +the glare of their new prosperity, with silk and gold; there were +newer faces still, and pretty ones,--for Tasajara as a "Cow County" +had attracted settlers with large families,--and there were already +the contrasting types of East and West. Many turned to look after +the tall figure of the daughter of the Founder of Tasajara,--a +spectacle lately rare to the town; a few glanced at her companion, +equally noticeable as a stranger. Thanks, however, to some +judicious preliminary advertising from the hotel clerk, Peters, and +Daniel Harcourt himself, by the time Grant and Miss Harcourt had +reached the Hall his name and fame were already known, and +speculation had already begun whether this new stroke of Harcourt's +shrewdness might not unite Clementina to a renowned and profitable +partner. + +The Hall was in one of the further and newly opened suburbs, and +its side and rear windows gave immediately upon the outlying and +illimitable plain of Tasajara. It was a tasteful and fair-seeming +structure of wood, surprisingly and surpassingly new. In fact that +was its one dominant feature; nowhere else had youth and freshness +ever shown itself as unconquerable and all-conquering. The spice +of virgin woods and trackless forests still rose from its pine +floors, and breathed from its outer shell of cedar that still oozed +its sap, and redwood that still dropped its life-blood. Nowhere +else were the plastered walls and ceilings as white and dazzling in +their unstained purity, or as redolent of the outlying quarry in +their clear cool breath of lime and stone. Even the turpentine of +fresh and spotless paint added to this sense of wholesome +germination, and as the clear and brilliant Californian sunshine +swept through the open windows west and east, suffusing the whole +palpitating structure with its searching and resistless radiance, +the very air seemed filled with the aroma of creation. + +The fresh colors of the young Republic, the bright blazonry of the +newest State, the coat-of-arms of the infant County of Tasajara--(a +vignette of sunset-tules cloven by the steam of an advancing +train)--hanging from the walls, were all a part of this invincible +juvenescence. Even the newest silks, ribbons and prints of the +latest holiday fashions made their first virgin appearance in the +new building as if to consecrate it, until it was stirred by the +rustle of youth, as with the sound and movement of budding spring. + +A strain from the new organ--whose heart, however, had prematurely +learned its own bitterness--and a thin, clear, but somewhat shrill +chanting from a choir of young ladies were followed by a prayer +from the Reverend Mr. Pilsbury. Then there was a pause of +expectancy, and Grant's fair companion, who up to that moment had +been quietly acting as guide and cicerone to her father's guest, +excused herself with a little grimace of mock concern and was led +away by one of the committee. Grant's usually keen eyes were +wandering somewhat abstractedly over the agitated and rustling +field of ribbons, flowers and feathers before him, past the +blazonry of banner on the walls, and through the open windows to +the long sunlit levels beyond, when he noticed a stir upon the +raised dais or platform at the end of the room, where the notables +of Tasajara were formally assembled. The mass of black coats +suddenly parted and drew back against the wall to allow the coming +forward of a single graceful figure. A thrill of nervousness as +unexpected as unaccountable passed over him as he recognized +Clementina. In the midst of a sudden silence she read the report +of the committee from a paper in her hand, in a clear, untroubled +voice--the old voice of Sidon--and formally declared the building +opened. The sunlight, nearly level, streamed through the western +window across the front of the platform where she stood and +transfigured her slight but noble figure. The hush that had fallen +upon the Hall was as much the effect of that tranquil, ideal +presence as of the message with which it was charged. And yet that +apparition was as inconsistent with the clear, searching light +which helped to set it off, as it was with the broad new blazonry +of decoration, the yet unsullied record of the white walls, or even +the frank, animated and pretty faces that looked upon it. Perhaps +it was some such instinct that caused the applause which hesitatingly +and tardily followed her from the platform to appear polite and half +restrained rather than spontaneous. + +Nevertheless Grant was honestly and sincerely profuse in his +congratulations. "You were far cooler and far more self-contained +than I should have been in your place," he said, "than in fact I +actually WAS, only as your auditor. But I suppose you have done it +before?" + +She turned her beautiful eyes on his wonderingly. "No,--this is +the first time I ever appeared in public,--not even at school, for +even there I was always a private pupil." + +"You astonish me," said Grant; "you seemed like an old hand at it." + +"Perhaps I did, or rather as if I didn't think anything of it +myself,--and that no doubt is why the audience didn't think +anything of it either." + +So she HAD noticed her cold reception, and yet there was not the +slightest trace of disappointment, regret, or wounded vanity in her +tone or manner. "You must take me to the refreshment room now," +she said pleasantly, "and help me to look after the young ladies +who are my guests. I'm afraid there are still more speeches to +come, and father and Mr. Pilsbury are looking as if they +confidently expected something more would be 'expected' of them." + +Grant at once threw himself into the task assigned to him, with his +natural gallantry and a certain captivating playfulness which he +still retained. Perhaps he was the more anxious to please in order +that his companion might share some of his popularity, for it was +undeniable that Miss Harcourt still seemed to excite only a +constrained politeness among those with whom she courteously +mingled. And this was still more distinctly marked by the contrast +of a later incident. + +For some moments the sound of laughter and greeting had risen near +the door of the refreshment room that opened upon the central hall, +and there was a perceptible movement of the crowd--particularly of +youthful male Tasajara--in that direction. It was evident that it +announced the unexpected arrival of some popular resident. +Attracted like the others, Grant turned and saw the company making +way for the smiling, easy, half-saucy, half-complacent entry of a +handsomely dressed young girl. As she turned from time to time to +recognize with rallying familiarity or charming impertinence some +of her admirers, there was that in her tone and gesture which +instantly recalled to him the past. It was unmistakably Euphemia! +His eyes instinctively sought Clementina's. She was gazing at him +with such a grave, penetrating look,--half doubting, half wistful,-- +a look so unlike her usual unruffled calm that he felt strangely +stirred. But the next moment, when she rejoined him, the look had +entirely gone. "You have not seen my sister since you were at +Sidon, I believe?" she said quietly. "She would be sorry to miss +you." But Euphemia and her train were already passing them on the +opposite side of the long table. She had evidently recognized +Grant, yet the two sisters were looking intently into each other's +eyes when he raised his own. Then Euphemia met his bow with a +momentary accession of color, a coquettish wave of her hand across +the table, a slight exaggeration of her usual fascinating +recklessness, and smilingly moved away. He turned to Clementina, +but here an ominous tapping at the farther end of the long table +revealed the fact that Mr. Harcourt was standing on a chair with +oratorical possibilities in his face and attitude. There was +another forward movement in the crowd and--silence. In that solid, +black-broadclothed, respectable figure, that massive watchchain, +that white waistcoat, that diamond pin glistening in the satin +cravat, Euphemia might have seen the realization of her prophetic +vision at Sidon five years before. + +He spoke for ten minutes with a fluency and comprehensive business- +like directness that surprised Grant. He was not there, he said, +to glorify what had been done by himself, his family, or his +friends in Tasajara. Others who were to follow him might do that, +or at least might be better able to explain and expatiate upon the +advantages of the institution they had just opened, and its social, +moral, and religious effect upon the community. He was there as a +business man to demonstrate to them--as he had always done and +always hoped to do--the money value of improvement; the profit--if +they might choose to call it--of well-regulated and properly +calculated speculation. The plot of land upon which they stood, of +which the building occupied only one eighth, was bought two years +before for ten thousand dollars. When the plans of the building +were completed a month afterwards, the value of the remaining seven +eighths had risen enough to defray the cost of the entire +construction. He was in a position to tell them that only that +morning the adjacent property, subdivided and laid out in streets +and building-plots, had been admitted into the corporate limits of +the city; and that on the next anniversary of the building they +would approach it through an avenue of finished dwellings! An +outburst of applause followed the speaker's practical climax; the +fresh young faces of his auditors glowed with invincible +enthusiasm; the afternoon trade-winds, freshening over the +limitless plain beyond, tossed the bright banners at the windows as +with sympathetic rejoicing, and a few odorous pine shavings, +overlooked in a corner in the hurry of preparation, touched by an +eddying zephyr, crept out and rolled in yellow ringlets across the +floor. + +The Reverend Doctor Pilsbury arose in a more decorous silence. He +had listened approvingly, admiringly, he might say even reverently, +to the preceding speaker. But although his distinguished friend +had, with his usual modesty, made light of his own services and +those of his charming family, he, the speaker, had not risen to +sing his praises. No; it was not in this Hall, projected by his +foresight and raised by his liberality; in this town, called into +existence by his energy and stamped by his attributes; in this +county, developed by his genius and sustained by his capital; ay, +in this very State whose grandeur was made possible by such giants +as he,--it was not in any of these places that it was necessary to +praise Daniel Harcourt, or that a panegyric of him would be more +than idle repetition. Nor would he, as that distinguished man had +suggested, enlarge upon the social, moral, and religious benefits +of the improvement they were now celebrating. It was written on +the happy, innocent faces, in the festive garb, in the decorous +demeanor, in the intelligent eyes that sparkled around him, in the +presence of those of his parishioners whom he could meet as freely +here to-day as in his own church on Sunday. What then could he +say? What then was there to say? Perhaps he should say nothing if +it were not for the presence of the young before him.--He stopped +and fixed his eyes paternally on the youthful Johnny Billings, who +with a half dozen other Sunday-school scholars had been marshaled +before the reverend speaker.--And what was to be the lesson THEY +were to learn from it? They had heard what had been achieved by +labor, enterprise, and diligence. Perhaps they would believe, and +naturally too, that what labor, enterprise, and diligence had done +could be done again. But was that all? Was there nothing behind +these qualities--which, after all, were within the reach of every +one here? Had they ever thought that back of every pioneer, every +explorer, every pathfinder, every founder and creator, there was +still another? There was no terra incognita so rare as to be +unknown to one; no wilderness so remote as to be beyond a greater +ken than theirs; no waste so trackless but that one had already +passed that way! Did they ever reflect that when the dull sea +ebbed and flowed in the tules over the very spot where they were +now standing, who it was that also foresaw, conceived, and ordained +the mighty change that would take place; who even guided and +directed the feeble means employed to work it; whose spirit moved, +as in still older days of which they had read, over the face of the +stagnant waters? Perhaps they had. Who then was the real pioneer +of Tasajara,--back of the Harcourts, the Peterses, the Billingses, +and Wingates? The reverend gentleman gently paused for a reply. +It was given in the clear but startled accents of the half +frightened, half-fascinated Johnny Billings, in three words:-- + +"'Lige Curtis, sir!" + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The trade wind, that, blowing directly from the Golden Gate, seemed +to concentrate its full force upon the western slope of Russian +Hill, might have dismayed any climber less hopeful and sanguine +than that most imaginative of newspaper reporters and most youthful +of husbands, John Milton Harcourt. But for all that it was an +honest wind, and its dry, practical energy and salt-pervading +breath only seemed to sting him to greater and more enthusiastic +exertions, until, quite at the summit of the hill and last of a +straggling line of little cottages half submerged in drifting sand, +he stood upon his own humble porch. + +"I was thinking, coming up the hill, Loo," he said, bursting into +the sitting-room, pantingly, "of writing something about the future +of the hill! How it will look fifty years from now, all terraced +with houses and gardens!--and right up here a kind of Acropolis, +don't you know. I had quite a picture of it in my mind just now." + +A plainly-dressed young woman with a pretty face, that, however, +looked as if it had been prematurely sapped of color and vitality, +here laid aside some white sewing she had in her lap, and said:-- + +"But you did that once before, Milty, and you know the "Herald" +wouldn't take it because they said it was a free notice of Mr. +Boorem's building lots, and he didn't advertise in the "Herald." I +always told you that you ought to have seen Boorem first." + +The young fellow blinked his eyes with a momentary arrest of that +buoyant hopefulness which was their peculiar characteristic, but +nevertheless replied with undaunted cheerfulness, "I forgot. +Anyhow, it's all the same, for I worked it into that 'Sunday Walk.' +And it's just as easy to write it the other way, you see,--looking +back, DOWN THE HILL, you know. Something about the old Padres +toiling through the sand just before the Angelus; or as far back as +Sir Francis Drake's time, and have a runaway boat's crew, coming +ashore to look for gold that the Mexicans had talked of. Lord! +that's easy enough! I tell you what, Loo, it's worth living up +here just for the inspiration." Even while boyishly exhaling this +enthusiasm he was also divesting himself of certain bundles whose +contents seemed to imply that he had brought his dinner with him,-- +the youthful Mrs. Harcourt setting the table in a perfunctory, +listless way that contrasted oddly with her husband's cheerful +energy. + +"You haven't heard of any regular situation yet?" she asked +abstractedly. + +"No,--not exactly," he replied. "But [buoyantly] it's a great deal +better for me not to take anything in a hurry and tie myself to any +particular line. Now, I'm quite free." + +"And I suppose you haven't seen that Mr. Fletcher again?" she +continued. + +"No. He only wanted to know something about me. That's the way +with them all, Loo. Whenever I apply for work anywhere it's +always: 'So you're Dan'l Harcourt's son, eh? Quarreled with the +old man? Bad job; better make it up! You'll make more stickin' to +him. He's worth millions!' Everybody seems to think everything of +HIM, as if I had no individuality beyond that, I've a good mind to +change my name." + +"And pray what would mine be then?" + +There was so much irritation in her voice that he drew nearer her +and gently put his arm around her waist. "Why, whatever mine was, +darling," he said with a tender smile. "You didn't fall in love +with any particular name, did you, Loo?" + +"No, but I married a particular one," she said quickly. + +His eyelids quivered again, as if he was avoiding some unpleasantly +staring suggestion, and she stopped. + +"You know what I mean, dear," she said, with a quick little laugh. +"Just because your father's an old crosspatch, YOU haven't lost +your rights to his name and property. And those people who say you +ought to make it up perhaps know what's for the best." + +"But you remember what he said of you, Loo?" said the young man +with a flashing eye. "Do you think I can ever forget that?" + +"But you DO forget it, dear; you forget it when you go in town +among fresh faces and people; when you are looking for work. You +forget it when you're at work writing your copy,--for I've seen you +smile as you wrote. You forget it climbing up the dreadful sand, +for you were thinking just now of what happened years ago, or is to +happen years to come. And I want to forget it too, Milty. I don't +want to sit here all day, thinking of it, with the wind driving the +sand against the window, and nothing to look at but those white +tombs in Lone Mountain Cemetery, and those white caps that might be +gravestones too, and not a soul to talk to or even see pass by +until I feel as if I were dead and buried also. If you were me-- +you--you--you--couldn't help crying too!" + +Indeed he was very near it now. For as he caught her in his arms, +suddenly seeing with a lover's sympathy and the poet's swifter +imagination all that she had seen and even more, he was aghast at +the vision conjured. In her delicate health and loneliness how +dreadful must have been these monotonous days, and this glittering, +cruel sea! What a selfish brute he was! Yet as he stood there +holding her, silently and rhythmically marking his tenderness and +remorseful feelings by rocking her from side to side like a languid +metronome, she quietly disengaged her wet lashes from his shoulder +and said in quite another tone:-- + +"So they were all at Tasajara last week?" + +"Who, dear?" + +"Your father and sisters." + +"Yes," said John Milton, hesitatingly. + +"And they've taken back your sister after her divorce?" + +The staring obtrusiveness of this fact apparently made her +husband's bright sympathetic eye blink as before. + +"And if you were to divorce me, YOU would be taken back too," she +added quickly, suddenly withdrawing herself with a pettish movement +and walking to the window. + +But he followed. "Don't talk in that way, Loo! Don't look in that +way, dear!" he said, taking her hand gently, yet not without a +sense of some inconsistency in her conduct that jarred upon his own +simple directness. "You know that nothing can part us now. I was +wrong to let my little girl worry herself all alone here, but I--I-- +thought it was all so--so bright and free out on this hill,-- +looking far away beyond the Golden Gate,--as far as Cathay, you +know, and such a change from those dismal flats of Tasajara and +that awful stretch of tules. But it's all right now. And now that +I know how you feel, we'll go elsewhere." + +She did not reply. Perhaps she found it difficult to keep up her +injured attitude in the face of her husband's gentleness. Perhaps +her attention had been attracted by the unusual spectacle of a +stranger, who had just mounted the hill and was now slowly passing +along the line of cottages with a hesitating air of inquiry. "He +may be looking for this house,--for you," she said in an entirely +new tone of interest. "Run out and see. It may be some one who +wants"-- + +"An article," said Milton cheerfully. "By Jove! he IS coming +here." + +The stranger was indeed approaching the little cottage, and with +apparently some confidence. He was a well-dressed, well-made man, +whose age looked uncertain from the contrast between his heavy +brown moustache and his hair, that, curling under the brim of his +hat, was almost white in color. The young man started, and said, +hurriedly: "I really believe it is Fletcher,--they say his hair +turned white from the Panama fever." + +It was indeed Mr. Fletcher who entered and introduced himself,-- +a gentle reserved man, with something of that colorlessness of +premature age in his speech which was observable in his hair. He +had heard of Mr. Harcourt from a friend who had recommended him +highly. As Mr. Harcourt had probably been told, he, the speaker, +was about to embark some capital in a first-class newspaper in San +Francisco, and should select the staff himself. He wanted to +secure only first-rate talent,--but above all, youthfulness, +directness, and originality. The "Clarion," for that was to be +its name, was to have nothing "old fogy" about it. No. It was +distinctly to be the organ of Young California! This and much more +from the grave lips of the elderly young man, whose speech seemed +to be divided between the pretty, but equally faded, young wife, +and the one personification of invincible youth present,--her +husband. + +"But I fear I have interrupted your household duties," he said +pleasantly. "You were preparing dinner. Pray go on. And let me +help you,--I'm not a bad cook,--and you can give me my reward by +letting me share it with you, for the climb up here has sharpened +my appetite. We can talk as we go on." + +It was in vain to protest; there was something paternal as well as +practical in the camaraderie of this actual capitalist and possible +Maecenas and patron as he quietly hung up his hat and overcoat, and +helped to set the table with a practiced hand. Nor, as he +suggested, did the conversation falter, and before they had taken +their seats at the frugal board he had already engaged John Milton +Harcourt as assistant editor of the "Clarion" at a salary that +seemed princely to this son of a millionaire! The young wife +meantime had taken active part in the discussion; whether it was +vaguely understood that the possession of poetical and imaginative +faculties precluded any capacity for business, or whether it was +owing to the apparent superior maturity of Mrs. Harcourt and the +stranger, it was certain that THEY arranged the practical details +of the engagement, and that the youthful husband sat silent, merely +offering his always hopeful and sanguine consent. + +"You'll take a house nearer to town, I suppose?" continued Mr. +Fletcher to the lady, "though you've a charming view here. I +suppose it was quite a change from Tasajara and your father-in- +law's house? I daresay he had as fine a place there--on his own +homestead--as he has here?" + +Young Harcourt dropped his sensitive eyelids again. It seemed hard +that he could never get away from these allusions to his father! +Perhaps it was only to that relationship that he was indebted for +his visitor's kindness. In his simple honesty he could not bear +the thought of such a misapprehension. "Perhaps, Mr. Fletcher, you +do not know," he said, "that my father is not on terms with me, and +that we neither expect anything nor could we ever take anything +from him. Could we, Loo?" He added the useless question partly +because he saw that his wife's face betrayed little sympathy with +him, and partly that Fletcher was looking at her curiously, as if +for confirmation. But this was another of John Milton's trials as +an imaginative reporter; nobody ever seemed to care for his +practical opinions or facts! + +"Mr. Fletcher is not interested in our little family differences, +Milty," she said, looking at Mr. Fletcher, however, instead of him. +"You're Daniel Harcourt's SON whatever happens." + +The cloud that had passed over the young man's face and eyes did +not, however, escape Mr. Fletcher's attention, for he smiled, and +added gayly, "And I hope my valued lieutenant in any case." +Nevertheless John Milton was quite ready to avail himself of an +inspiration to fetch some cigars for his guest from the bar of the +Sea-View House on the slope of the hill beyond, and thereby avoid a +fateful subject. Once in the fresh air again he promptly recovered +his boyish spirits. The light flying scud had already effaced the +first rising stars; the lower creeping sea-fog had already blotted +out the western shore and sea; but below him to the east the +glittering lights of the city seemed to start up with a new, +mysterious, and dazzling brilliancy. It was the valley of diamonds +that Sindbad saw lying almost at his feet! Perhaps somewhere there +the light of his own fame and fortune was already beginning to +twinkle! + +He returned to his humble roof joyous and inspired. As he entered +the hall he heard his wife's voice and his own name mentioned, +followed by that awkward, meaningless silence on his entrance which +so plainly indicated either that he had been the subject of +conversation or that it was not for his ears. It was a dismal +reminder of his boyhood at Sidon and Tasajara. But he was too full +of hope and ambition to heed it to-night, and later, when Mr. +Fletcher had taken his departure, his pent-up enthusiasm burst out +before his youthful partner. Had she realized that their struggles +were over now, that their future was secure? They need no longer +fear ever being forced to take bounty from the family; they were +independent of them all! He would make a name for himself that +should be distinct from his father's as he should make a fortune +that would be theirs alone. The young wife smiled. "But all that +need not prevent you, dear, from claiming your RIGHTS when the time +comes." + +"But if I scorn to make the claim or take a penny of his, Loo?" + +"You say you scorn to take the money you think your father got by a +mere trick,--at the best,--and didn't earn. And now you will be +able to show you can live without it, and earn your own fortune. +Well, dear, for that very reason why should you let your father and +others enjoy and waste what is fairly your share? For it is YOUR +share whether it came to your father fairly or not; and if not, it +is still your duty, believing as you do, to claim it from him, that +at least YOU may do with it what you choose. You might want to +restore it--to--to--somebody." + +The young man laughed. "But, my dear Loo! suppose that I were weak +enough to claim it, do you think my father would give it up? He +has the right, and no law could force him to yield to me more than +he chooses." + +"Not the law, but YOU could." + +"I don't understand you," he said quickly. + +"You could force him by simply telling him what you once told me." + +John Milton drew back, and his hand dropped loosely from his +wife's. The color left his fresh young face; the light quivered +for a moment and then became fixed and set in his eyes. For that +moment he looked ten years her senior. "I was wrong ever to tell +even you that, Loo," he said in a low voice. "You are wrong to +ever remind me of it. Forget it from this moment, as you value our +love and want it to live and be remembered. And forget, Loo, as I +do,--and ever shall,--that you ever suggested to me to use my +secret in the way you did just now." + +But here Mrs. Harcourt burst into tears, more touched by the +alteration in her husband's manner, I fear, than by any contrition +for wrongdoing. Of course if he wished to withdraw his confidences +from her, just as he had almost confessed he wished to withdraw his +NAME, she couldn't help it, but it was hard that when she sat there +all day long trying to think what was best for them, she should be +blamed! At which the quiet and forgiving John Milton smiled +remorsefully and tried to comfort her. Nevertheless an occasional +odd, indefinable chill seemed to creep across the feverish +enthusiasm with which he was celebrating this day of fortune. And +yet he neither knew nor suspected until long after that his foolish +wife had that night half betrayed his secret to the stranger! + +The next day he presented a note of introduction from Mr. Fletcher +to the business manager of the "Clarion," and the following morning +was duly installed in office. He did not see his benefactor again; +that single visit was left in the mystery and isolation of an +angelic episode. It later appeared that other and larger interests +in the San Jose valley claimed his patron's residence and attendance; +only the capital and general purpose of the paper--to develop into a +party organ in the interest of his possible senatorial aspirations +in due season--was furnished by him. Grateful as John Milton felt +towards him, he was relieved; it seemed probable that Mr. Fletcher +HAD selected him on his individual merits, and not as the son of a +millionaire. + +He threw himself into his work with his old hopeful enthusiasm, and +perhaps an originality of method that was part of his singular +independence. Without the student's training or restraint,--for +his two years' schooling at Tasajara during his parents' prosperity +came too late to act as a discipline,--he was unfettered by any +rules, and guided only by an unerring instinctive taste that became +near being genius. He was a brilliant and original, if not always +a profound and accurate, reporter. By degrees he became an +accustomed interest to the readers of the "Clarion;" then an +influence. Actors themselves in many a fierce drama, living lives +of devotion, emotion, and picturesque incident, they had satisfied +themselves with only the briefest and most practical daily record +of their adventure, and even at first were dazed and startled to +find that many of them had been heroes and some poets. The +stealthy boyish reader of romantic chronicle at Sidon had learned +by heart the chivalrous story of the emigration. The second column +of the "Clarion" became famous even while the figure of its +youthful writer, unknown and unrecognized, was still nightly +climbing the sands of Russian Hill, and even looking down as before +on the lights of the growing city, without a thought that he had +added to that glittering constellation. + +Cheerful and contented with the exercise of work, he would have +been happy but for the gradual haunting of another dread which +presently began to drag him at earlier hours up the steep path to +his little home; to halt him before the door with the quickened +breath of an anxiety he would scarcely confess to himself, and +sometimes hold him aimlessly a whole day beneath his roof. For the +pretty but delicate Mrs. Harcourt, like others of her class, had +added a weak and ineffective maternity to their other conjugal +trials, and one early dawn a baby was born that lingered with them +scarcely longer than the morning mist and exhaled with the rising +sun. The young wife regained her strength slowly,--so slowly that +the youthful husband brought his work at times to the house to keep +her company. And a singular change had come over her. She no +longer talked of the past, nor of his family. As if the little +life that had passed with that morning mist had represented some +ascending expiatory sacrifice, it seemed to have brought them into +closer communion. + +Yet her weak condition made him conceal another trouble that had +come upon him. It was in the third month of his employment on the +"Clarion" that one afternoon, while correcting some proofs on his +chief's desk, he came upon the following editorial paragraph:-- + +"The played-out cant of 'pioneer genius' and 'pioneer discovery' +appears to have reached its climax in the attempt of some of our +contemporaries to apply it to Dan Harcourt's new Tasajara Job +before the legislature. It is perfectly well known in Harcourt's +own district that, far from being a pioneer and settler HIMSELF he +simply succeeded after a fashion to the genuine work of one Elijah +Curtis, an actual pioneer and discoverer, years before, while +Harcourt, we believe, was keeping a frontier doggery in Sidon, and +dispensing 'tanglefoot' and salt junk to the hayfooted Pike +Countians of his precinct. This would make him as much of the +'pioneer discoverer' as the rattlesnake who first takes up board +and lodgings and then possession in a prairie dog's burrow. And if +the traveler's tale is true that the rattlesnake sometimes makes a +meal of his landlord, the story told at Sidon may be equally +credible that the original pioneer mysteriously disappeared about +the time that Dan Harcourt came into the property. From which it +would seem that Harcourt is not in a position for his friends to +invite very deep scrutiny into his 'pioneer' achievements." + +Stupefaction, a vague terror, and rising anger, rapidly succeeded +each other in the young man's mind as he stood mechanically holding +the paper in his hand. It was the writing of his chief editor, +whose easy brutality he had sometimes even boyishly admired. +Without stopping to consider their relative positions he sought him +indignantly and laid the proof before him. The editor laughed. +"But what's that to YOU? YOU'RE not on terms with the old man." + +"But he is my father!" said John Milton hotly. + +"Look here," said the editor good-naturedly, "I'd like to oblige +you, but it isn't BUSINESS, you know,--and this IS, you +understand,--PROPRIETOR'S BUSINESS too! Of course I see it might +stand in the way of your making up to the old man afterwards and +coming in for a million. Well! you can tell him it's ME. Say I +WOULD put it in. Say I'm nasty--and I AM!" + +"Then it must go in?" said John Milton with a white face. + +"You bet." + +"Then I must go out!" And writing out his resignation, he laid it +before his chief and left. + +But he could not bear to tell this to his wife when he climbed the +hill that night, and he invented some excuse for bringing his work +home. The invalid never noticed any change in his usual buoyancy, +and indeed I fear, when he was fairly installed with his writing +materials at the foot of her bed, he had quite forgotten the +episode. He was recalled to it by a faint sigh. + +"What is it, dear?" he said looking up. + +"I like to see you writing, Milty. You always look so happy." + +"Always so happy, dear?" + +"Yes. You are happy, are you not?" + +"Always." He got up and kissed her. Nevertheless, when he sat +down to his work again, his face was turned a little more to the +window. + +Another serious incident--to be also kept from the invalid--shortly +followed. The article in the "Clarion" had borne its fruit. The +third day after his resignation a rival paper sharply retorted. +"The cowardly insinuations against the record of a justly honored +capitalist," said the "Pioneer," "although quite in keeping with +the brazen 'Clarion,' might attract the attentions of the slandered +party, if it were not known to his friends as well as himself that +it may be traced almost directly to a cast-off member of his own +family, who, it seems, is reduced to haunting the back doors of +certain blatant journals to dispose of his cheap wares. The +slanderer is secure from public exposure in the superior decency of +his relations, who refrain from airing their family linen upon +editorial lines." + +This was the journal to which John Milton had hopefully turned for +work. When he read it there seemed but one thing for him to do-- +and he did it. Gentle and optimistic as was his nature, he had +been brought up in a community where sincere directness of personal +offense was followed by equally sincere directness of personal +redress, and--he challenged the editor. The bearer of his cartel +was one Jack Hamlin, I grieve to say a gambler by profession, but +between whom and John Milton had sprung up an odd friendship of +which the best that can be said is that it was to each equally and +unselfishly unprofitable. The challenge was accepted, the +preliminaries arranged. "I suppose," said Jack carelessly, "as the +old man ought to do something for your wife in case of accident, +you've made some sort of a will?" + +"I've thought of that," said John Milton, dubiously, "but I'm +afraid it's no use. You see"--he hesitated--"I'm not of age." + +"May I ask how old you are, sonny?" said Jack with great gravity. + +"I'm almost twenty," said John Milton, coloring. + +"It isn't exactly vingt-et-un, but I'd stand on it; if I were you I +wouldn't draw to such a hand," said Jack, coolly. + +The young husband had arranged to be absent from his home that +night, and early morning found him, with Jack, grave, but +courageous, in a little hollow behind the Mission Hills. To them +presently approached his antagonist, jauntily accompanied by +Colonel Starbottle, his second. They halted, but after the formal +salutation were instantly joined by Jack Hamlin. For a few moments +John Milton remained awkwardly alone--pending a conversation which +even at that supreme moment he felt as being like the general +attitude of his friends towards him, in its complete ignoring of +himself. The next moment the three men stepped towards him. "We +have come, sir," said Colonel Starbottle in his precisest speech +but his jauntiest manner, "to offer you a full and ample apology--a +personal apology--which only supplements that full public apology +that my principal, sir, this gentleman," indicating the editor of +the "Pioneer," "has this morning made in the columns of his paper, +as you will observe," producing a newspaper. "We have, sir," +continued the colonel loftily, "only within the last twelve hours +become aware of the--er--REAL circumstances of the case. We would +regret that the affair had gone so far already, if it had not given +us, sir, the opportunity of testifying to your gallantry. We do so +gladly; and if--er--er--a FEW YEARS LATER, Mr. Harcourt, you should +ever need--a friend in any matter of this kind, I am, sir, at your +service." John Milton gazed half inquiringly, half uneasily at +Jack. + +"It's all right, Milt," he said sotto voce. "Shake hands all round +and let's go to breakfast. And I rather think that editor wants to +employ you HIMSELF." + +It was true, for when that night he climbed eagerly the steep +homeward hill he carried with him the written offer of an +engagement on the "Pioneer." As he entered the door his wife's +nurse and companion met him with a serious face. There had been a +strange and unexpected change in the patient's condition, and the +doctor had already been there twice. As he put aside his coat and +hat and entered her room, it seemed to him that he had forever put +aside all else of essay and ambition beyond those four walls. And +with the thought a great peace came upon him. It seemed good to +him to live for her alone. + +It was not for long. As each monotonous day brought the morning +mist and evening fog regularly to the little hilltop where his +whole being was now centred, she seemed to grow daily weaker, and +the little circle of her life narrowed day by day. One morning +when the usual mist appeared to have been withheld and the sun had +risen with a strange and cruel brightness; when the waves danced +and sparkled on the bay below and light glanced from dazzling +sails, and even the white tombs on Lone Mountain glittered keenly; +when cheery voices hailing each other on the hillside came to him +clearly but without sense or meaning; when earth, sky, and sea +seemed quivering with life and motion,--he opened the door of that +one little house on which the only shadow seemed to have fallen, +and went forth again into the world alone. + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Mr. Daniel Harcourt's town mansion was also on an eminence, but it +was that gentler acclivity of fashion known as Rincon Hill, and +sunned itself on a southern slope of luxury. It had been described +as "princely" and "fairy-like," by a grateful reporter; tourists +and travelers had sung its praises in letters to their friends and +in private reminiscences, for it had dispensed hospitality to most +of the celebrities who had visited the coast. Nevertheless its +charm was mainly due to the ruling taste of Miss Clementina +Harcourt, who had astonished her father by her marvelous intuition +of the nice requirements and elegant responsibilities of their +position; and had thrown her mother into the pained perplexity of a +matronly hen, who, among the ducks' eggs intrusted to her fostering +care, had unwittingly hatched a graceful but discomposing cygnet. + +Indeed, after holding out feebly against the siege of wealth at +Tasajara and San Francisco, Mrs. Harcourt had abandoned herself +hopelessly to the horrors of its invasion; had allowed herself to +be dragged from her kitchen by her exultant daughters and set up in +black silk in a certain conventional respectability in the drawing- +room. Strange to say, her commiserating hospitality, or hospital- +like ministration, not only gave her popularity, but a certain kind +of distinction. An exaltation so sorrowfully deprecated by its +possessor was felt to be a sign of superiority. She was spoken of +as "motherly," even by those who vaguely knew that there was +somewhere a discarded son struggling in poverty with a helpless +wife, and that she had sided with her husband in disinheriting a +daughter who had married unwisely. She was sentimentally spoken of +as a "true wife," while never opposing a single meanness of her +husband, suggesting a single active virtue, nor questioning her +right to sacrifice herself and her family for his sake. With +nothing she cared to affect, she was quite free from affectation, +and even the critical Lawrence Grant was struck with the dignity +which her narrow simplicity, that had seemed small even in Sidon, +attained in her palatial hall in San Francisco. It appeared to be +a perfectly logical conclusion that when such unaffectedness and +simplicity were forced to assume a hostile attitude to anybody, the +latter must be to blame. + +Since the festival of Tasajara Mr. Grant had been a frequent +visitor at Harcourt's, and was a guest on the eve of his departure +from San Francisco. The distinguished position of each made their +relations appear quite natural without inciting gossip as to any +attraction in Harcourt's daughters. It was late one afternoon as +he was passing the door of Harcourt's study that his host called +him in. He found him sitting at his desk with some papers before +him and a folded copy of the "Clarion." With his back to the +fading light of the window his face was partly in shadow. + +"By the way, Grant," he began, with an assumption of carelessness +somewhat inconsistent with the fact that he had just called him in, +"it may be necessary for me to pull up those fellows who are +blackguarding me in the 'Clarion.'" + +"Why, they haven't been saying anything new?" asked Grant, +laughingly, as he glanced towards the paper. + +"No--that is--only a rehash of what they said before," returned +Harcourt without opening the paper. + +"Well," said Grant playfully, "you don't mind their saying that +you're NOT the original pioneer of Tasajara, for it's true; nor +that that fellow 'Lige Curtis disappeared suddenly, for he did, if +I remember rightly. But there's nothing in that to invalidate your +rights to Tasajara, to say nothing of your five years' undisputed +possession." + +"Of course there's no LEGAL question," said Harcourt almost sharply. +"But as a matter of absurd report, I may want to contradict their +insinuations. And YOU remember all the circumstances, don't you?" + +"I should think so! Why, my dear fellow, I've told it everywhere!-- +here, in New York, Newport, and in London; by Jove, it's one of my +best stories! How a company sent me out with a surveyor to look up +a railroad and agricultural possibilities in the wilderness; how +just as I found them--and a rather big thing they made, too--I was +set afloat by a flood and a raft, and drifted ashore on your bank, +and practically demonstrated to you what you didn't know and didn't +dare to hope for--that there could be a waterway straight to Sidon +from the embarcadero. I've told what a charming evening we had +with you and your daughters in the old house, and how I returned +your hospitality by giving you a tip about the railroad; and how +you slipped out while we were playing cards, to clinch the bargain +for the land with that drunken fellow, 'Lige Curtis"-- + +"What's that?" interrupted Harcourt, quickly. + +It was well that the shadow hid from Grant the expression of +Harcourt's face, or his reply might have been sharper. As it was, +he answered a little stiffly:-- + +"I beg your pardon"-- + +Harcourt recovered himself. "You're all wrong!" he said, "that +bargain was made long BEFORE; I never saw 'Lige Curtis after you +came to the house. It was before that, in the afternoon," he went +on hurriedly, "that he was last in my store. I can prove it." +Nevertheless he was so shocked and indignant at being confronted in +his own suppressions and falsehoods by an even greater and more +astounding misconception of fact, that for a moment he felt +helpless. What, he reflected, if it were alleged that 'Lige had +returned again after the loafers had gone, or had never left the +store as had been said? Nonsense! There was John Milton, who had +been there reading all the time, and who could disprove it. Yes, +but John Milton was his discarded son,--his enemy,--perhaps even +his very slanderer! + +"But," said Grant quietly, "don't you remember that your daughter +Euphemia said something that evening about the land Lige had +OFFERED you, and you snapped up the young lady rather sharply for +letting out secrets, and THEN you went out? At least that's my +impression." + +It was, however, more than an impression; with Grant's scientific +memory for characteristic details he had noticed that particular +circumstance as part of the social phenomena. + +"I don't know what Phemie SAID," returned Harcourt, impatiently. +"I KNOW there was no offer pending; the land had been sold to me +before I ever saw you. Why--you must have thought me up to pretty +sharp practice with Curtis--eh?" he added, with a forced laugh. + +Grant smiled; he had been accustomed to hear of such sharp practice +among his business acquaintance, although he himself by nature and +profession was incapable of it, but he had not deemed Harcourt more +scrupulous than others. "Perhaps so," he said lightly, "but for +Heaven's sake don't ask me to spoil my reputation as a raconteur +for the sake of a mere fact or two. I assure you it's a mighty +taking story as I tell it--and it don't hurt you in a business way. +You're the hero of it--hang it all!" + +"Yes," said Harcourt, without noticing Grant's half cynical +superiority, but you'll oblige me if you won't tell it again IN +THAT WAY. There are men here mean enough to make the worst of it. +It's nothing to me, of course, but my family--the girls, you know-- +are rather sensitive." + +"I had no idea they even knew it,--much less cared for it," said +Grant, with sudden seriousness. "I dare say if those fellows in +the "Clarion" knew that they were annoying the ladies they'd drop +it. Who's the editor? Look here--leave it to me; I'll look into +it. Better that you shouldn't appear in the matter at all." + +"You understand that if it was a really serious matter, Grant," +said Harcourt with a slight attitude, "I shouldn't allow any one to +take my place." + +"My dear fellow, there'll be nobody 'called out' and no 'shooting +at sight,' whatever is the result of my interference," returned +Grant, lightly. "It'll be all right." He was quite aware of the +power of his own independent position and the fact that he had been +often appealed to before in delicate arbitration. + +Harcourt was equally conscious of this, but by a strange +inconsistency now felt relieved at the coolness with which Grant +had accepted the misconception which had at first seemed so +dangerous. If he were ready to condone what he thought was SHARP +PRACTICE, he could not be less lenient with the real facts that +might come out,--of course always excepting that interpolated +consideration in the bill of sale, which, however, no one but the +missing Curtis could ever discover. The fact that a man of Grant's +secure position had interested himself in this matter would secure +him from the working of that personal vulgar jealousy which his +humbler antecedents had provoked. And if, as he fancied, Grant +really cared for Clementina-- + +"As you like," he said, with half-affected lightness, "and now let +us talk of something else. Clementina has been thinking of getting +up a riding party to San Mateo for Mrs. Ashwood. We must show them +some civility, and that Boston brother of hers, Mr. Shipley, will +have to be invited also. I can't get away, and my wife, of course, +will only be able to join them at San Mateo in the carriage. I +reckon it would be easier for Clementina if you took my place, and +helped her look after the riding party. It will need a man, and I +think she'd prefer you--as you know she's rather particular-- +unless, of course, you'd be wanted for Mrs. Ashwood or Phemie, or +somebody else." + +From his shadowed corner he could see that a pleasant light had +sprung into Grant's eyes, although his reply was in his ordinary +easy banter. "I shall be only too glad to act as Miss Clementina's +vaquero, and lasso her runaways, or keep stragglers in the road." + +There seemed to be small necessity, however, for this active co- +operation, for when the cheerful cavalcade started from the house a +few mornings later, Mr. Lawrence Grant's onerous duties seemed to +be simply confined to those of an ordinary cavalier at the side of +Miss Clementina, a few paces in the rear of the party. But this +safe distance gave them the opportunity of conversing without being +overheard,--an apparently discreet precaution. + +"Your father was so exceedingly affable to me the other day that if +I hadn't given you my promise to say nothing, I think I would have +fallen on my knees to him then and there, revealed my feelings, +asked for your hand and his blessing--or whatever one does at such +a time. But how long do you intend to keep me in this suspense?" + +Clementina turned her clear eyes half abstractedly upon him, as if +imperfectly recalling some forgotten situation. "You forget," she +said, "that part of your promise was that you wouldn't even speak +of it to me again without my permission." + +"But my time is so short now. Give me some definite hope before I +go. Let me believe that when we meet in New York"-- + +"You will find me just the same as now! Yes, I think I can promise +THAT. Let that suffice. You said the other day you liked me +because I had not changed for five years. You can surely trust +that I will not alter in as many months." + +"If I only knew"-- + +"Ah, if I only knew,--if WE ALL only knew. But we don't. Come, +Mr. Grant, let it rest as it is. Unless you want to go still +further back and have it as it WAS, at Sidon. There I think you +fancied Euphemia most." + +"Clementina!" + +"That is my name, and those people ahead of us know it already." + +"You are called CLEMENTINA,--but you are not merciful!" + +"You are very wrong, for you might see that Mr. Shipley has twice +checked his horse that he might hear what you are saying, and +Phemie is always showing Mrs. Ashwood something in the landscape +behind us." + +All this was the more hopeless and exasperating to Grant since in +the young girl's speech and manner there was not the slightest +trace of coquetry or playfulness. He could not help saying a +little bitterly: "I don't think that any one would imagine from +your manner that you were receiving a declaration." + +"But they might imagine from yours that you had the right to +quarrel with me,--which would be worse." + +"We cannot part like this! It is too cruel to me." + +"We cannot part otherwise without the risk of greater cruelty." + +"But say at least, Clementina, that I have no rival. There is no +other more favored suitor?" + +"That is so like a man--and yet so unlike the proud one I believed +you to be. Why should a man like you even consider such a +possibility? If I were a man I know I couldn't." She turned upon +him a glance so clear and untroubled by either conscious vanity or +evasion that he was hopelessly convinced of the truth of her +statement, and she went on in a slightly lowered tone, "You have no +right to ask me such a question,--but perhaps for that reason I am +willing to answer you. There is none. Hush! For a good rider you +are setting a poor example to the others, by crowding me towards +the bank. Go forward and talk to Phemie, and tell her not to worry +Mrs. Ashwood's horse nor race with her; I don't think he's quite +safe, and Mrs. Ashwood isn't accustomed to using the Spanish bit. +I suppose I must say something to Mr. Shipley, who doesn't seem to +understand that I'M acting as chaperon, and YOU as captain of the +party." + +She cantered forward as she spoke, and Grant was obliged to join +her sister, who, mounted on a powerful roan, was mischievously +exciting a beautiful quaker-colored mustang ridden by Mrs. Ashwood, +already irritated by the unfamiliar pressure of the Eastern woman's +hand upon his bit. The thick dust which had forced the party of +twenty to close up in two solid files across the road compelled +them at the first opening in the roadside fence to take the field +in a straggling gallop. Grant, eager to escape from his own +discontented self by doing something for others, reined in beside +Euphemia and the fair stranger. + +"Let me take your place until Mrs. Ashwood's horse is quieted," he +half whispered to Euphemia. + +"Thank you,--and I suppose it does not make any matter to Clem who +quiets mine," she said, with provoking eyes and a toss of her head +worthy of the spirited animal she was riding. + +"She thinks you quite capable of managing yourself and even +others," he replied with a playful glance at Shipley, who was +riding somewhat stiffly on the other side. + +"Don't be too sure," retorted Phemie with another dangerous look; +"I may give you trouble yet." + +They were approaching the first undulation of the russet plain they +had emerged upon,--an umbrageous slope that seemed suddenly to +diverge in two defiles among the shaded hills. Grant had given a +few words of practical advice to Mrs. Ashwood, and shown her how to +guide her mustang by the merest caressing touch of the rein upon +its sensitive neck. He had not been sympathetically inclined +towards the fair stranger, a rich and still youthful widow, +although he could not deny her unquestioned good breeding, mental +refinement, and a certain languorous thoughtfulness that was almost +melancholy, which accented her blonde delicacy. But he had noticed +that her manner was politely reserved and slightly constrained +towards the Harcourts, and he had already resented it with a lover's +instinctive loyalty. He had at first attributed it to a want of +sympathy between Mrs. Ashwood's more intellectual sentimentalities +and the Harcourts' undeniable lack of any sentiment whatever. But +there was evidently some other innate antagonism. He was very +polite to Mrs. Ashwood; she responded with a gentlewoman's courtesy, +and, he was forced to admit, even a broader comprehension of his own +merits than the Harcourt girls had ever shown, but he could still +detect that she was not in accord with the party. + +"I am afraid you do not like California, Mrs. Ashwood?" he said +pleasantly. "You perhaps find the life here too unrestrained and +unconventional?" + +She looked at him in quick astonishment. "Are you quite sincere? +Why, it strikes me that this is just what it is NOT. And I have so +longed for something quite different. From what I have been told +about the originality and adventure of everything here, and your +independence of old social forms and customs, I am afraid I +expected the opposite of what I've seen. Why, this very party-- +except that the ladies are prettier and more expensively gotten up-- +is like any party that might have ridden out at Saratoga or New +York." + +"And as stupid, you would say." + +"As CONVENTIONAL, Mr. Grant; always excepting this lovely creature +beneath me, whom I can't make out and who doesn't seem to care that +I should. There! look! I told you so!" + +Her mustang had suddenly bounded forward; but as Grant followed he +could see that the cause was the example of Phemie, who had, in +some mad freak, dashed out in a frantic gallop. A half-dozen of +the younger people hilariously accepted the challenge; the +excitement was communicated to the others, until the whole +cavalcade was sweeping down the slope. Grant was still at Mrs. +Ashwood's side, restraining her mustang and his own impatient horse +when Clementina joined them. "Phemie's mare has really bolted, I +fear," she said in a quick whisper, "ride on, and never mind us." +Grant looked quickly ahead; Phemie's roan, excited by the shouts +behind her and to all appearance ungovernable, was fast disappearing +with her rider. Without a word, trusting to his own good +horsemanship and better knowledge of the ground, he darted out of +the cavalcade to overtake her. + +But the unfortunate result of this was to give further impulse to +the now racing horses as they approached a point where the slope +terminated in two diverging canyons. Mrs. Ashwood gave a sharp +pull upon her bit. To her consternation the mustang stopped short +almost instantly,--planting his two fore feet rigidly in the dust +and even sliding forward with the impetus. Had her seat been less +firm she might have been thrown, but she recovered herself, +although in doing so she still bore upon the bit, when to her +astonishment the mustang deliberately stiffened himself as if for a +shock, and then began to back slowly, quivering with excitement. +She did not know that her native-bred animal fondly believed that +he was participating in a rodeo, and that to his equine intelligence +his fair mistress had just lassoed something! In vain she urged him +forward; he still waited for the shock! When the cloud of dust in +which she had been enwrapped drifted away, she saw to her amazement +that she was alone. The entire party had disappeared into one of +the canyons,--but which one she could not tell! + +When she succeeded at last in urging her mustang forward again she +determined to take the right-hand canyon and trust to being either +met or overtaken. A more practical and less adventurous nature +would have waited at the point of divergence for the return of some +of the party, but Mrs. Ashwood was, in truth, not sorry to be left +to herself and the novel scenery for a while, and she had no doubt +but she would eventually find her way to the hotel at San Mateo, +which could not be far away, in time for luncheon. + +The road was still well defined, although it presently began to +wind between ascending ranks of pines and larches that marked the +terraces of hills, so high that she wondered she had not noticed +them from the plains. An unmistakable suggestion of some haunting +primeval solitude, a sense of the hushed and mysterious proximity +of a nature she had never known before, the strange half- +intoxicating breath of unsunned foliage and untrodden grasses and +herbs, all combined to exalt her as she cantered forward. Even her +horse seemed to have acquired an intelligent liberty, or rather to +have established a sympathy with her in his needs and her own +longings; instinctively she no longer pulled him with the curb; the +reins hung loosely on his self-arched and unfettered neck; secure +in this loneliness she found herself even talking to him with +barbaric freedom. As she went on, the vague hush of all things +animate and inanimate around her seemed to thicken, until she +unconsciously halted before a dim and pillared wood, and a vast and +heathless opening on whose mute brown lips Nature seemed to have +laid the finger of silence. She forgot the party she had left, she +forgot the luncheon she was going to; more important still she +forgot that she had already left the traveled track far behind her, +and, tremulous with anticipation, rode timidly into that arch of +shadow. + +As her horse's hoofs fell noiselessly on the elastic moss-carpeted +aisle she forgot even more than that. She forgot the artificial +stimulus and excitement of the life she had been leading so long; +she forgot the small meannesses and smaller worries of her well-to- +do experiences; she forgot herself,--rather she regained a self she +had long forgotten. For in the sweet seclusion of this half +darkened sanctuary the clinging fripperies of her past slipped from +her as a tawdry garment. The petted, spoiled, and vapidly +precocious girlhood which had merged into a womanhood of aimless +triumphs and meaner ambitions; the worldly but miserable triumph of +a marriage that had left her delicacy abused and her heart sick and +unsatisfied; the wifehood without home, seclusion, or maternity; +the widowhood that at last brought relief, but with it the +consciousness of hopelessly wasted youth,--all this seemed to drop +from her here as lightly as the winged needles or noiseless +withered spray from the dim gray vault above her head. In the +sovereign balm of that woodland breath her better spirit was +restored; somewhere in these wholesome shades seemed to still lurk +what should have been her innocent and nymph-like youth, and to +come out once more and greet her. Old songs she had forgotten, or +whose music had failed in the discords of her frivolous life, sang +themselves to her again in that sweet, grave silence; girlish +dreams that she had foolishly been ashamed of, or had put away with +her childish toys, stole back to her once more and became real in +this tender twilight; old fancies, old fragments of verse and +childish lore, grew palpable and moved faintly before her. The +boyish prince who should have come was there; the babe that should +have been hers was there!--she stopped suddenly with flaming eyes +and indignant color. For it appeared that a MAN was there too, and +had just risen from the fallen tree where he had been sitting. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +She had so far forgotten herself in yielding to the spell of the +place, and in the revelation of her naked soul and inner nature, +that it was with something of the instinct of outraged modesty that +she seemed to shrink before this apparition of the outer world and +outer worldliness. In an instant the nearer past returned; she +remembered where she was, how she had come there, from whom she had +come, and to whom she was returning. She could see that she had +not only aimlessly wandered from the world but from the road; and +for that instant she hated this man who had reminded her of it, +even while she knew she must ask his assistance. It relieved her +slightly to observe that he seemed as disturbed and impatient as +herself, and as he took a pencil from between his lips and returned +it to his pocket he scarcely looked at her. + +But with her return to the world of convenances came its repression, +and with a gentlewoman's ease and modulated voice she leaned over +her mustang's neck and said: "I have strayed from my party and am +afraid I have lost my way. We were going to the hotel at San Mateo. +Would you be kind enough to direct me there, or show me how I can +regain the road by which I came?" + +Her voice and manner were quite enough to arrest him where he stood +with a pleased surprise in his fresh and ingenuous face. She +looked at him more closely. He was, in spite of his long silken +mustache, so absurdly young; he might, in spite of that youth, be +so absurdly man-like! What was he doing there? Was he a farmer's +son, an artist, a surveyor, or a city clerk out for a holiday? Was +there perhaps a youthful female of his species somewhere for whom +he was waiting and upon whose tryst she was now breaking? Was he-- +terrible thought!--the outlying picket of some family picnic? His +dress, neat, simple, free from ostentatious ornament, betrayed +nothing. She waited for his voice. + +"Oh, you have left San Mateo miles away to the right," he said with +quick youthful sympathy, "at least five miles! Where did you leave +your party?" + +His voice was winning, and even refined, she thought. She answered +it quite spontaneously: "At a fork of two roads. I see now I took +the wrong turning." + +"Yes, you took the road to Crystal Spring. It's just down there in +the valley, not more than a mile. You'd have been there now if you +hadn't turned off at the woods." + +"I couldn't help it, it was so beautiful." + +"Isn't it?" + +"Perfect." + +"And such shadows, and such intensity of color." + +"Wonderful!--and all along the ridge, looking down that defile!" + +"Yes, and that point where it seems as if you had only to stretch +out your hand to pick a manzanita berry from the other side of the +canyon, half a mile across!" + +"Yes, and that first glimpse of the valley through the Gothic +gateway of rocks!" + +"And the color of those rocks,--cinnamon and bronze with the light +green of the Yerba buena vine splashing over them." + +"Yes, but for color DID you notice that hillside of yellow poppies +pouring down into the valley like a golden Niagara?" + +"Certainly,--and the perfect clearness of everything." + +"And yet such complete silence and repose!" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"Ah, yes!" + +They were both gravely nodding and shaking their heads with +sparkling eyes and brightened color, looking not at each other but +at the far landscape vignetted through a lozenge-shaped wind +opening in the trees. Suddenly Mrs. Ashwood straightened herself +in the saddle, looked grave, lifted the reins and apparently the +ten years with them that had dropped from her. But she said in her +easiest well-bred tones, and a half sigh, "Then I must take the +road back again to where it forks?" + +"Oh, no! you can go by Crystal Spring. It's no further, and I'll +show you the way. But you'd better stop and rest yourself and your +horse for a little while at the Springs Hotel. It's a very nice +place. Many people ride there from San Francisco to luncheon and +return. I wonder that your party didn't prefer it; and if they are +looking for you,--as they surely must be," he said, as if with a +sudden conception of her importance, "they'll come there when they +find you're not at San Mateo." + +This seemed reasonable, although the process of being "fetched" and +taking the five miles ride, which she had enjoyed so much alone, in +company was not attractive. "Couldn't I go on at once?" she said +impulsively. + +"You would meet them sooner," he said thoughtfully. + +This was quite enough for Mrs. Ashwood. "I think I'll rest this +poor horse, who is really tired," she, said with charming hypocrisy, +"and stop at the hotel." + +She saw his face brighten. Perhaps he was the son of the hotel +proprietor, or a youthful partner himself. "I suppose you live +here?" she suggested gently. "You seem to know the place so well." + +"No," he returned quickly; "I only run down here from San Francisco +when I can get a day off." + +A day off! He was in some regular employment. But he continued: +"And I used to go to boarding-school near here, and know all these +woods well." + +He must be a native! How odd! She had not conceived that there +might be any other population here than the immigrants; perhaps +that was what made him so interesting and different from the +others. "Then your father and mother live here?" she said. + +His frank face, incapable of disguise, changed suddenly. "No," he +said simply, but without any trace of awkwardness. Then after a +slight pause he laid his hand--she noticed it was white and well +kept--on her mustang's neck, and said, "If--if you care to trust +yourself to me, I could lead you and your horse down a trail into +the valley that is at least a third of the distance shorter. It +would save you going back to the regular road, and there are one or +two lovely views that I could show you. I should be so pleased, if +it would not trouble you. There's a steep place or two--but I +think there's no danger." + +"I shall not be afraid." + +She smiled so graciously, and, as she fully believed, maternally, +that he looked at her the second time. To his first hurried +impression of her as an elegant and delicately nurtured woman--one +of the class of distinguished tourists that fashion was beginning +to send thither--he had now to add that she had a quantity of fine +silken-spun light hair gathered in a heavy braid beneath her gray +hat; that her mouth was very delicately lipped and beautifully +sensitive; that her soft skin, although just then touched with +excitement, was a pale faded velvet, and seemed to be worn with +ennui rather than experience; that her eyes were hidden behind a +strip of gray veil whence only a faint glow was discernible. To +this must still be added a poetic fancy all his own that, as she +sat there, with the skirt of her gray habit falling from her long +bodiced waist over the mustang's fawn-colored flanks, and with her +slim gauntleted hands lightly swaying the reins, she looked like +Queen Guinevere in the forest. Not that he particularly fancied +Queen Guinevere, or that he at all imagined himself Launcelot, but +it was quite in keeping with the suggestion-haunted brain of John +Milton Harcourt, whom the astute reader has of course long since +recognized. + +Preceding her through the soft carpeted vault with a woodman's +instinct,--for there was apparently no trail to be seen,--the soft +inner twilight began to give way to the outer stronger day, and +presently she was startled to see the clear blue of the sky before +her on apparently the same level as the brown pine-tessellated +floor she was treading. Not only did this show her that she was +crossing a ridge of the upland, but a few moments later she had +passed beyond the woods to a golden hillside that sloped towards a +leafy, sheltered, and exquisitely-proportioned valley. A tiny but +picturesque tower, and a few straggling roofs and gables, the +flashing of a crystal stream through the leaves, and a narrow white +ribbon of road winding behind it indicated the hostelry they were +seeking. So peaceful and unfrequented it looked, nestling between +the hills, that it seemed as if they had discovered it. + +With his hand at times upon the bridle, at others merely caressing +her mustang's neck, he led the way; there were a few breathless +places where the crown of his straw hat appeared between her +horse's reins, and again when she seemed almost slipping over on +his shoulder, but they were passed with such frank fearlessness and +invincible youthful confidence on the part of her escort that she +felt no timidity. There were moments when a bit of the charmed +landscape unfolding before them overpowered them both, and they +halted to gaze,--sometimes without a word, or only a significant +gesture of sympathy and attention. At one of those artistic +manifestations Mrs. Ashwood laid her slim gloved fingers lightly +but unwittingly on John Milton's arm, and withdrew them, however, +with a quick girlish apology and a foolish color which annoyed her +more than the appearance of familiarity. But they were now getting +well down into the valley; the court of the little hotel was +already opening before them; their unconventional relations in the +idyllic world above had changed; the new one required some delicacy +of handling, and she had an idea that even the simplicity of the +young stranger might be confusing. + +"I must ask you to continue to act as my escort," she said, +laughingly. "I am Mrs. Ashwood of Philadelphia, visiting San +Francisco with my sister and brother, who are, I am afraid, even +now hopelessly waiting luncheon for me at San Mateo. But as there +seems to be no prospect of my joining them in time, I hope you will +be able to give me the pleasure of your company, with whatever they +may give us here in the way of refreshment." + +"I shall be very happy," returned John Milton with unmistakable +candor; "but perhaps some of your friends will be arriving in quest +of you, if they are not already here." + +"Then they will join us or wait," said Mrs. Ashwood incisively, +with her first exhibition of the imperiousness of a rich and pretty +woman. Perhaps she was a little annoyed that her elaborate +introduction of herself had produced no reciprocal disclosure by +her companion. "Will you please send the landlord to me?" she +added. + +John Milton disappeared in the hotel as she cantered to the porch. +In another moment she was giving the landlord her orders with the +easy confidence of one who knew herself only as an always welcome +and highly privileged guest, which was not without its effect. +"And," she added carelessly, "when everything is ready you will +please tell--Mr."-- + +"Harcourt," suggested the landlord promptly. + +Mrs. Ashwood's perfectly trained face gave not the slightest sign +of the surprise that had overtaken her. "Of course,--Mr. Harcourt." + +"You know he's the son of the millionaire," continued the landlord, +not at all unwilling to display the importance of the habitues of +Crystal Spring, "though they've quarreled and don't get on +together." + +"I know," said the lady languidly, "and, if any one comes here for +ME, ask them to wait in the parlor until I come." + +Then, submitting herself and her dusty habit to the awkward +ministration of the Irish chambermaid, she was quite thrilled with +a delightful curiosity. She vaguely remembered that she had heard +something of the Harcourt family discord,--but that was the +divorced daughter surely! And this young man was Harcourt's son, +and they had quarreled! A quarrel with a frank, open, ingenuous +fellow like that--a mere boy--could only be the father's fault. +Luckily she had never mentioned the name of Harcourt! She would +not now; he need not know that it was his father who had originated +the party; why should she make him uncomfortable for the few +moments they were together? + +There was nothing of this in her face as she descended and joined +him. He thought that face handsome, well-bred, and refined. But +this breeding and refinement seemed to him--in his ignorance of the +world, possibly--as only a graceful concealment of a self of which +he knew nothing; and he was not surprised to find that her pretty +gray eyes, now no longer hidden by her veil, really told him no +more than her lips. He was a little afraid of her, and now that +she had lost her naive enthusiasm he was conscious of a vague +remorsefulness for his interrupted work in the forest. What was he +doing here? He who had avoided the cruel, selfish world of wealth +and pleasure,--a world that this woman represented,--the world that +had stood apart from him in the one dream of his life--and had let +Loo die! His quickly responsive face darkened. + +"I am afraid I really interrupted you up there," she said gently, +looking in his face with an expression of unfeigned concern; "you +were at work of some kind, I know, and I have very selfishly +thought only of myself. But the whole scene was so new to me, and +I so rarely meet any one who sees things as I do, that I know you +will forgive me." She bent her eyes upon him with a certain soft +timidity. "You are an artist?" + +"I am afraid not," he said, coloring and smiling faintly; "I don't +think I could draw a straight line." + +"Don't try to; they're not pretty, and the mere ability to draw +them straight or curved doesn't make an artist. But you are a +LOVER of nature, I know, and from what I have heard you say I +believe you can do what lovers cannot do,--make others feel as they +do,--and that is what I call being an artist. You write? You are +a poet?" + +"Oh dear, no," he said with a smile, half of relief and half of +naive superiority, "I'm a prose writer--on a daily newspaper." + +To his surprise she was not disconcerted; rather a look of +animation lit up her face as she said brightly, "Oh, then, you can +of course satisfy my curiosity about something. You know the road +from San Francisco to the Cliff House. Except for the view of the +sea-lions when one gets there it's stupid; my brother says it's +like all the San Francisco excursions,--a dusty drive with a julep +at the end of it. Well, one day we were coming back from a drive +there, and when we were beginning to wind along the brow of that +dreadful staring Lone Mountain Cemetery, I said I would get out and +walk, and avoid the obtrusive glitter of those tombstones rising +before me all the way. I pushed open a little gate and passed in. +Once among these funereal shrubs and cold statuesque lilies +everything was changed; I saw the staring tombstones no longer, +for, like them, I seemed to be always facing the sea. The road had +vanished; everything had vanished but the endless waste of ocean +below me, and the last slope of rock and sand. It seemed to be the +fittest place for a cemetery,--this end of the crumbling earth,-- +this beginning of the eternal sea. There! don't think that idea my +own, or that I thought of it then. No,--I read it all afterwards, +and that's why I'm telling you this." + +She could not help smiling at his now attentive face, and went on: +"Some days afterwards I got hold of a newspaper four or six months +old, and there was a description of all that I thought I had seen +and felt,--only far more beautiful and touching, as you shall see, +for I cut it out of the paper and have kept it. It seemed to me +that it must be some personal experience,--as if the writer had +followed some dear friend there,--although it was with the +unostentation and indefiniteness of true and delicate feeling. It +impressed me so much that I went back there twice or thrice, and +always seemed to move to the rhythm of that beautiful funeral +march--and I am afraid, being a woman, that I wandered around among +the graves as though I could find out who it was that had been sung +so sweetly, and if it were man or woman. I've got it here," she +said, taking a dainty ivory porte-monnaie from her pocket and +picking out with two slim finger-tips a folded slip of newspaper; +"and I thought that maybe you might recognize the style of the +writer, and perhaps know something of his history. For I believe +he has one. There! that is only a part of the article, of course, +but it is the part that interested me. Just read from there," she +pointed, leaning partly over his shoulder so that her soft breath +stirred his hair, "to the end; it isn't long." + +In the film that seemed to come across his eyes, suddenly the print +appeared blurred and indistinct. But he knew that she had put into +his hand something he had written after the death of his wife; +something spontaneous and impulsive, when her loss still filled his +days and nights and almost unconsciously swayed his pen. He +remembered that his eyes had been as dim when he wrote it--and now-- +handed to him by this smiling, well-to-do woman, he was as shocked +at first as if he had suddenly found her reading his private +letters. This was followed by a sudden sense of shame that he had +ever thus publicly bared his feelings, and then by the illogical +but irresistible conviction that it was false and stupid. The few +phrases she had pointed out appeared as cheap and hollow rhetoric +amid the surroundings of their social tete-a-tete over the +luncheon-table. There was small danger that this heady wine of +woman's praise would make him betray himself; there was no sign of +gratified authorship in his voice as he quietly laid down the paper +and said dryly: "I am afraid I can't help you. You know it may be +purely fanciful." + +"I don't think so," said Mrs. Ashwood thoughtfully. "At the same +time it doesn't strike me as a very abiding grief for that very +reason. It's TOO sympathetic. It strikes me that it might be the +first grief of some one too young to be inured to sorrow or +experienced enough to accept it as the common lot. But like all +youthful impressions it is very sincere and true while it lasts. I +don't know whether one gets anything more real when one gets +older." + +With an insincerity he could not account for, he now felt inclined +to defend his previous sentiment, although all the while conscious +of a certain charm in his companion's graceful skepticism. He had +in his truthfulness and independence hitherto always been quite +free from that feeble admiration of cynicism which attacks the +intellectually weak and immature, and his present predilection may +have been due more to her charming personality. She was not at all +like his sisters; she had none of Clementina's cold abstraction, +and none of Euphemia's sharp and demonstrative effusiveness. And +in his secret consciousness of her flattering foreknowledge of him, +with her assurance that before they had ever met he had unwittingly +influenced her, he began to feel more at his ease. His fair +companion also, in the equally secret knowledge she had acquired of +his history, felt as secure as if she had been formally introduced. +Nobody could find fault with her for showing civility to the +ostensible son of her host; it was not necessary that she should be +aware of their family differences. There was a charm too in their +enforced isolation, in what was the exceptional solitude of the +little hotel that day, and the seclusion of their table by the +window of the dining-room, which gave a charming domesticity to +their repast. From time to time they glanced down the lonely +canyon, losing itself in the afternoon shadow. Nevertheless Mrs. +Ashwood's preoccupation with Nature did not preclude a human +curiosity to hear something more of John Milton's quarrel with his +father. There was certainly nothing of the prodigal son about him; +there was no precocious evil knowledge in his frank eyes; no record +of excesses in his healthy, fresh complexion; no unwholesome or +disturbed tastes in what she had seen of his rural preferences and +understanding of natural beauty. To have attempted any direct +questioning that would have revealed his name and identity would +have obliged her to speak of herself as his father's guest. She +began indirectly; he had said he had been a reporter, and he was +still a chronicler of this strange life. He had of course heard of +many cases of family feuds and estrangements? Her brother had told +her of some dreadful vendettas he had known in the Southwest, and +how whole families had been divided. Since she had been here she +had heard of odd cases of brothers meeting accidentally after long +and unaccounted separations; of husbands suddenly confronted with +wives they had deserted; of fathers encountering discarded sons! + +John Milton's face betrayed no uneasy consciousness. If anything +it was beginning to glow with a boyish admiration of the grace and +intelligence of the fair speaker, that was perhaps heightened by an +assumption of half coquettish discomfiture. + +"You are laughing at me!" she said finally. "But inhuman and +selfish as these stories may seem, and sometimes are, I believe +that these curious estrangements and separations often come from +some fatal weakness of temperament that might be strengthened, or +some trivial misunderstanding that could be explained. It is +separation that makes them seem irrevocable only because they are +inexplicable, and a vague memory always seems more terrible than a +definite one. Facts may be forgiven and forgotten, but mysteries +haunt one always. I believe there are weak, sensitive people who +dread to put their wrongs into shape; those are the kind who sulk, +and when you add separation to sulking, reconciliation becomes +impossible. I knew a very singular case of that kind once. If you +like, I'll tell it to you. May be you will be able, some day, to +weave it into one of your writings. And it's quite true." + +It is hardly necessary to say that John Milton had not been touched +by any personal significance in his companion's speech, whatever +she may have intended; and it is equally true that whether she had +presently forgotten her purpose, or had become suddenly interested +in her own conversation, her face grew more animated, her manner +more confidential, and something of the youthful enthusiasm she had +shown in the mountain seemed to come back to her. + +"I might say it happened anywhere and call the people M. or N., +but it really did occur in my own family, and although I was much +younger at the time it impressed me very strongly. My cousin, who +had been my playmate, was an orphan, and had been intrusted to the +care of my father, who was his guardian. He was always a clever +boy, but singularly sensitive and quick to take offense. Perhaps +it was because the little property his father had left made him +partly dependent on my father, and that I was rich, but he seemed +to feel the disparity in our positions. I was too young to +understand it; I think it existed only in his imagination, for I +believe we were treated alike. But I remember that he was full of +vague threats of running away and going to sea, and that it was +part of his weak temperament to terrify me with his extravagant +confidences. I was always frightened when, after one of those +scenes, he would pack his valise or perhaps only tie up a few +things in a handkerchief, as in the advertisement pictures of the +runaway slaves, and declare that we would never lay eyes upon him +again. At first I never saw the ridiculousness of all this,--for I +ought to have told you that he was a rather delicate and timid boy, +and quite unfitted for a rough life or any exposure,--but others +did, and one day I laughed at him and told him he was afraid. I +shall never forget the expression of his face and never forgive +myself for it. He went away,--but he returned the next day! He +threatened once to commit suicide, left his clothes on the bank of +the river, and came home in another suit of clothes he had taken +with him. When I was sent abroad to school I lost sight of him; +when I returned he was at college, apparently unchanged. When he +came home for vacation, far from having been subdued by contact +with strangers, it seemed that his unhappy sensitiveness had been +only intensified by the ridicule of his fellows. He had even +acquired a most ridiculous theory about the degrading effects of +civilization, and wanted to go back to a state of barbarism. He +said the wilderness was the only true home of man. My father, +instead of bearing with what I believe was his infirmity, dryly +offered him the means to try his experiment. He started for some +place in Texas, saying we would never hear from him again. A month +after he wrote for more money. My father replied rather impatiently, +I suppose,--I never knew exactly what he wrote. That was some years +ago. He had told the truth at last, for we never heard from him +again." + +It is to be feared that John Milton was following the animated lips +and eyes of the fair speaker rather than her story. Perhaps that +was the reason why he said, "May he not have been a disappointed +man?" + +"I don't understand," she said simply. + +"Perhaps," said John Milton with a boyish blush, "you may have +unconsciously raised hopes in his heart--and"-- + +"I should hardly attempt to interest a chronicler of adventure like +you in such a very commonplace, every-day style of romance," she +said, with a little impatience, "even if my vanity compelled me to +make such confidences to a stranger. No,--it was nothing quite as +vulgar as that. And," she added quickly, with a playfully amused +smile as she saw the young fellow's evident distress, "I should +have probably heard from him again. Those stories always end in +that way." + +"And you think?"--said John Milton. + +"I think," said Mrs. Ashwood slowly, "that he actually did commit +suicide--or effaced himself in some way, just as firmly as I +believe he might have been saved by judicious treatment. Otherwise +we should have heard from him. You'll say that's only a woman's +reasoning--but I think our perceptions are often instinctive, and I +knew his character." + +Still following the play of her delicate features into a romance of +his own weaving, the imaginative young reporter who had seen so +much from the heights of Russian Hill said earnestly, "Then I have +your permission to use this material at any future time?" + +"Yes," said the lady smilingly. + +"And you will not mind if I should take some liberties with the +text?" + +"I must of course leave something to your artistic taste. But you +will let me see it?" + +There were voices outside now, breaking the silence of the veranda. +They had been so preoccupied as not to notice the arrival of a +horseman. Steps came along the passage; the landlord returned. +Mrs. Ashwood turned quickly towards him. + +"Mr. Grant, of your party, ma'am, to fetch you." + +She saw an unmistakable change in her young friend's mobile face. +"I will be ready in a moment," she said to the landlord. Then, +turning to John Milton, the arch-hypocrite said sweetly: "My +brother must have known instinctively that I was in good hands, as +he didn't come. But I am sorry, for I should have so liked to +introduce him to you--although by the way," with a bright smile, "I +don't think you have yet told me your name. I know I couldn't have +FORGOTTEN it." + +"Harcourt," said John Milton, with a half-embarrassed laugh. + +"But you must come and see me, Mr.--Mr. Harcourt," she said, +producing a card from a case already in her fingers, "at my hotel, +and let my brother thank you there for your kindness and gallantry +to a stranger. I shall be here a few weeks longer before we go +south to look for a place where my brother can winter. DO come and +see me, although I cannot introduce you to anything as real and +beautiful as what YOU have shown me to-day. Good-by, Mr. Harcourt; +I won't trouble you to come down and bore yourself with my escort's +questions and congratulations." + +She bent her head and allowed her soft eyes to rest upon his with a +graciousness that was beyond her speech, pulled her veil over her +eyes again, with a pretty suggestion that she had no further use +for them, and taking her riding-skirt lightly in her hand seemed to +glide from the room. + +On her way to San Mateo, where it appeared the disorganized party +had prolonged their visit to accept an invitation to dine with a +local magnate, she was pleasantly conversational with the slightly +abstracted Grant. She was so sorry to have given them all this +trouble and anxiety! Of course she ought to have waited at the +fork of the road, but she had never doubted but she could rejoin +them presently on the main road. She was glad that Miss Euphemia's +runaway horse had been stopped without accident; it would have been +dreadful if anything had happened to HER; Mr. Harcourt seemed so +wrapped up in his girls. It was a pity they never had a son--Ah? +Indeed! Then there was a son? So--and father and son had +quarreled? That was so sad. And for some trifling cause, no +doubt? + +"I believe he married the housemaid," said Grant grimly. "Be +careful!--Allow me." + +"It's no use!" said Mrs. Ashwood, flushing with pink impatience, as +she recovered her seat, which a sudden bolt of her mustang had +imperiled, "I really can't make out the tricks of this beast! +Thank you," she added, with a sweet smile, "but I think I can +manage him now. I can't see why he stopped. I'll be more careful. +You were saying the son was married--surely not that boy!" + +"Boy!" echoed Grant. "Then you know?"-- + +"I mean of course he must be a boy--they all grew up here--and it +was only five or six years ago that their parents emigrated," she +retorted a little impatiently. "And what about this creature?" + +"Your horse?" + +"You know I mean the woman he married. Of course she was older +than he--and caught him?" + +"I think there was a year or two difference," said Grant quietly. + +"Yes, but your gallantry keeps you from telling the truth; which is +that the women, in cases of this kind, are much older and more +experienced." + +"Are they? Well, perhaps she is, NOW. She is dead." + +Mrs. Ashwood walked her horse. "Poor thing," she said. Then a +sudden idea took possession of her and brought a film to her eyes. +"How long ago?" she asked in a low voice. + +"About six or seven months, I think. I believe there was a baby +who died too." + +She continued to walk her horse slowly, stroking its curved neck. +"I think it's perfectly shameful!" she said suddenly. + +"Not so bad as that, Mrs. Ashwood, surely. The girl may have loved +him--and he"-- + +"You know perfectly what I mean, Mr. Grant. I speak of the conduct +of the mother and father and those two sisters!" + +Grant slightly elevated his eyebrows. "But you forget, Mrs. +Ashwood. It was young Harcourt and his wife's own act. They +preferred to take their own path and keep it." + +"I think," said Mrs. Ashwood authoritatively, "that the idea of +leaving those two unfortunate children to suffer and struggle on +alone--out there--on the sand hills of San Francisco--was simply +disgraceful!" + +Later that evening she was unreasonably annoyed to find that her +brother, Mr. John Shipley, had taken advantage of the absence of +Grant to pay marked attention to Clementina, and had even prevailed +upon that imperious goddess to accompany him after dinner on a +moonlight stroll upon the veranda and terraces of Los Pajaros. +Nevertheless she seemed to recover her spirits enough to talk +volubly of the beautiful scenery she had discovered in her late +perilous abandonment in the wilds of the Coast Range; to aver her +intention to visit it again; to speak of it in a severely practical +way as offering a far better site for the cottages of the young +married couples just beginning life than the outskirts of towns or +the bleak sand hills of San Francisco; and thence by graceful +degrees into a dissertation upon popular fallacies in regard to +hasty marriages, and the mistaken idea of some parents in not +accepting the inevitable and making the best of it. She still +found time to enter into an appreciative and exhaustive criticism +upon the literature and journalistic enterprise of the Pacific +Coast with the proprietor of the "Pioneer," and to cause that +gentleman to declare that whatever people might say about rich and +fashionable Eastern women, that Mrs. Ashwood's head was about as +level as it was pretty. + +The next morning found her more thoughtful and subdued, and when +her brother came upon her sitting on the veranda, while the party +were preparing to return, she was reading a newspaper slip that she +had taken from her porte-monnaie, with a face that was partly +shadowed. + +"What have you struck there, Conny?" said her brother gayly. "It +looks too serious for a recipe." + +"Something I should like you to read some time, Jack," she said, +lifting her lashes with a slight timidity, "if you would take the +trouble. I really wonder how it would impress you." + +"Pass it over," said Jack Shipley good-humoredly, with his cigar +between his lips. "I'll take it now." + +She handed him the slip and turned partly away; he took it, glanced +at it sideways, turned it over, and suddenly his look grew +concentrated, and he took the cigar from his lips. + +"Well," she said playfully, turning to him again. "What do you +think of it?" + +"Think of it?" he said with a rising color. "I think it's +infamous! Who did it?" + +She stared at him, then glanced quickly at the slip. "What are you +reading?" she said. + +"This, of course," he said impatiently. "What you gave me." But +he was pointing to THE OTHER SIDE of the newspaper slip. + +She took it from him impatiently and read for the first time the +printing on the reverse side of the article she had treasured so +long. It was the concluding paragraph of an apparently larger +editorial. "One thing is certain, that a man in Daniel Harcourt's +position cannot afford to pass over in silence accusations like the +above, that affect not only his private character, but the +integrity of his title to the land that was the foundation of his +fortune. When trickery, sharp practice, and even criminality in +the past are more than hinted at, they cannot be met by mere +pompous silence or allusions to private position, social prestige, +or distinguished friends in the present." + +Mrs. Ashwood turned the slip over with scornful impatience, a +pretty uplifting of her eyebrows and a slight curl of her lip. "I +suppose none of those people's beginnings can bear looking into-- +and they certainly should be the last ones to find fault with +anybody. But, good gracious, Jack! what has this to do with you?" + +"With me?" said Shipley angrily. "Why, I proposed to Clementina +last night!" + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +The wayfarers on the Tasajara turnpike, whom Mr. Daniel Harcourt +passed with his fast trotting mare and sulky, saw that their great +fellow-townsman was more than usually preoccupied and curt in his +acknowledgment of their salutations. Nevertheless as he drew near +the creek, he partly checked his horse, and when he reached a +slight acclivity of the interminable plain--which had really been +the bank of the creek in bygone days--he pulled up, alighted, tied +his horse to a rail fence, and clambering over the inclosure made +his way along the ridge. It was covered with nettles, thistles, +and a few wiry dwarf larches of native growth; dust from the +adjacent highway had invaded it, with a few scattered and torn +handbills, waste paper, rags, empty provision cans, and other +suburban debris. Yet it was the site of 'Lige Curtis's cabin, long +since erased and forgotten. The bed of the old creek had receded; +the last tules had been cleared away; the channel and embarcadero +were half a mile from the bank and log whereon the pioneer of +Tasajara had idly sunned himself. + +Mr. Harcourt walked on, occasionally turning over the scattered +objects with his foot, and stopping at times to examine the ground +more closely. It had not apparently been disturbed since he +himself, six years ago, had razed the wretched shanty and carried +off its timbers to aid in the erection of a larger cabin further +inland. He raised his eyes to the prospect before him,--to the +town with its steamboats lying at the wharves, to the grain +elevator, the warehouses, the railroad station with its puffing +engines, the flagstaff of Harcourt House and the clustering roofs +of the town, and beyond, the painted dome of his last creation, the +Free Library. This was all HIS work, HIS planning, HIS foresight, +whatever they might say of the wandering drunkard from whose +tremulous fingers he had snatched the opportunity. They could not +take THAT from him, however they might follow him with envy and +reviling, any more than they could wrest from him the five years of +peaceful possession. It was with something of the prosperous +consciousness with which he had mounted the platform on the opening +of the Free Library, that he now climbed into his buggy and drove +away. + +Nevertheless he stopped at his Land Office as he drove into town, +and gave a few orders. "I want a strong picket fence put around +the fifty-vara lot in block fifty-seven, and the ground cleared up +at once. Let me know when the men get to work, and I'll overlook +them." + +Re-entering his own house in the square, where Mrs. Harcourt and +Clementina--who often accompanied him in those business visits-- +were waiting for him with luncheon, he smiled somewhat superciliously +as the servant informed him that "Professor Grant had just arrived." +Really that man was trying to make the most of his time with +Clementina! Perhaps the rival attractions of that Boston swell +Shipley had something to do with it! He must positively talk to +Clementina about this. In point of fact he himself was a little +disappointed in Grant, who, since his offer to take the task of +hunting down his calumniators, had really done nothing. He turned +into his study, but was slightly astonished to find that Grant, +instead of paying court to Clementina in the adjoining drawing-room, +was sitting rather thoughtfully in his own armchair. + +He rose as Harcourt entered. "I didn't let them announce me to +the ladies," he said, "as I have some important business with you +first, and we may find it necessary that I should take the next +train back to town. You remember that a few weeks ago I offered to +look into the matter of those slanders against you. I apprehended +it would be a trifling matter of envy or jealousy on the part of +your old associates or neighbors which could be put straight with a +little good feeling; but I must be frank with you, Harcourt, and +say at the beginning that it turns out to be an infernally ugly +business. Call it conspiracy if you like, or organized hostility, +I'm afraid it will require a lawyer rather than an arbitrator to +manage it, and the sooner the better. For the most unpleasant +thing about it is, that I can't find out exactly HOW BAD it is!" + +Unfortunately the weaker instinct of Harcourt's nature was first +roused; the vulgar rage which confounds the bearer of ill news with +the news itself filled his breast. "And this is all that your +confounded intermeddling came to?" he said brutally. + +"No," said Grant quietly, with a preoccupied ignoring of the insult +that was more hopeless for Harcourt. "I found out that it is +claimed that this 'Lige Curtis was not drowned nor lost that night; +but that he escaped, and for three years has convinced another man +that you are wrongfully in possession of this land; that these two +naturally hold you in their power, and that they are only waiting +for you to be forced into legal proceedings for slander to prove +all their charges. Until then, for some reason best known to +themselves, Curtis remains in the background." + +"Does he deny the deed under which I hold the property?" said +Harcourt savagely. + +"He says it was only a security for a trifling loan, and not an +actual transfer." + +"And don't those fools know that his security could be forfeited?" + +"Yes, but not in the way it is recorded in the county clerk's +office. They say that the record shows that there was an +interpolation in the paper he left with you--which was a forgery. +Briefly, Harcourt, you are accused of that. More,--it is intimated +that when he fell into the creek that night, and escaped on a raft +that was floating past, that he had been first stunned by a blow +from some one interested in getting rid of him." + +He paused and glanced out of the window. + +"Is that all?" asked Harcourt in a perfectly quiet, steady, voice. + +"All!" replied Grant, struck with the change in his companion's +manner, and turning his eyes upon him quickly. + +The change indeed was marked and significant. Whether from relief +at knowing the worst, or whether he was experiencing the same +reaction from the utter falsity of this last accusation that he had +felt when Grant had unintentionally wronged him in his previous +recollection, certain it is that some unknown reserve of strength +in his own nature, of which he knew nothing before, suddenly came +to his aid in this extremity. It invested him with an uncouth +dignity that for the first time excited Grant's respect. + +"I beg your pardon, Grant, for the hasty way I spoke to you a +moment ago, for I thank you, and appreciate thoroughly and +sincerely what you have done. You are right; it is a matter for +fighting and not fussing over. But I must have a head to hit. +Whose is it?" + +"The man who holds himself legally responsible is Fletcher,--the +proprietor of the 'Clarion,' and a man of property." + +"The 'Clarion'? That is the paper which began the attack?" said +Harcourt. + +"Yes, and it is only fair to tell you here that your son threw up +his place on it in consequence of its attack upon you." + +There was perhaps the slightest possible shrinking in Harcourt's +eyelids--the one congenital likeness to his discarded son--but his +otherwise calm demeanor did not change. Grant went on more +cheerfully: "I've told you all I know. When I spoke of an unknown +WORST, I did not refer to any further accusation, but to whatever +evidence they might have fabricated or suborned to prove any one of +them. It is only the strength and fairness of the hands they hold +that is uncertain. Against that you have your certain uncontested +possession, the peculiar character and antecedents of this 'Lige +Curtis, which would make his evidence untrustworthy and even make +it difficult for them to establish his identity. I am told that +his failure to contest your appropriation of his property is +explained by the fact of his being absent from the country most of +the time; but again, this would not account for their silence until +within the last six months, unless they have been waiting for +further evidence to establish it. But even then they must have +known that the time of recovery had passed. You are a practical +man, Harcourt; I needn't tell you therefore what your lawyer will +probably tell you, that practically, so far as your rights are +concerned, you remain as before these calumnies; that a cause of +action unprosecuted or in abeyance is practically no cause, and +that it is not for you to anticipate one. BUT"-- + +He paused and looked steadily at Harcourt. Harcourt met his look +with a dull, ox-like stolidity. "I shall begin the suit at once," +he said. + +"And I," said Grant, holding out his hand, "will stand by you. But +tell me now what you knew of this man Curtis,--his character and +disposition; it may be some clue as to what are his methods and his +intentions." + +Harcourt briefly sketched 'Lige Curtis as he knew him and +understood him. It was another indication of his reserved power +that the description was so singularly clear, practical, +unprejudiced, and impartial that it impressed Grant with its +truthfulness. + +"I can't make him out," he said; "you have drawn a weak, but +neither a dishonest nor malignant man. There must have been +somebody behind him. Can you think of any personal enemy?" + +"I have been subjected to the usual jealousy and envy of my old +neighbors, I suppose, but nothing more. I have harmed no one +knowingly." + +Grant was silent; it had flashed across him that Rice might have +harbored revenge for his father-in-law's interference in his brief +matrimonial experience. He had also suddenly recalled his +conversation with Billings on the day that he first arrived at +Tasajara. It would not be strange if this man had some intimation +of the secret. He would try to find him that evening. He rose. + +"You will stay to dinner? My wife and Clementina will expect you." + +"Not to-night; I am dining at the hotel," said Grant, smilingly; +"but I will come in later in the evening if I may." He paused +hesitatingly for a moment. "Have your wife and daughter ever +expressed any opinion on this matter?" + +"No," said Harcourt. "Mrs. Harcourt knows nothing of anything that +does not happen IN the house; Euphemia knows only the things that +happen out of it where she is visiting--and I suppose that young +men prefer to talk to her about other things than the slanders of +her father. And Clementina--well, you know how calm and superior +to these things SHE is." + +"For that very reason I thought that perhaps she might be able to +see them more clearly,--but no matter! I dare say you are quite +right in not discussing them at home." This was the fact, although +Grant had not forgotten that Harcourt had put forward his daughters +as a reason for stopping the scandal some weeks before,--a reason +which, however, seemed never to have been borne out by any apparent +sensitiveness of the girls themselves. + +When Grant had left, Harcourt remained for some moments steadfastly +gazing from the window over the Tasajara plain. He had not lost +his look of concentrated power, nor his determination to fight. A +struggle between himself and the phantoms of the past had become +now a necessary stimulus for its own sake,--for the sake of his +mental and physical equipoise. He saw before him the pale, +agitated, irresolute features of 'Lige Curtis,--not the man HE had +injured, but the man who had injured HIM, whose spirit was +aimlessly and wantonly--for he had never attempted to get back his +possessions in his lifetime, nor ever tried to communicate with the +possessor--striking at him in the shadow. And it was THAT man, +that pale, writhing, frightened wretch whom he had once mercifully +helped! Yes, whose LIFE he had even saved that night from exposure +and delirium tremens when he had given him the whiskey. And this +life he had saved, only to have it set in motion a conspiracy to +ruin him! Who knows that 'Lige had not purposely conceived what +they had believed to be an attempt at suicide, only to cast +suspicion of murder on HIM! From which it will be perceived that +Harcourt's powers of moral reasoning had not improved in five +years, and that even the impartiality he had just shown in his +description of 'Lige to Grant had been swallowed up in this new +sense of injury. The founder of Tasajara, whose cool business +logic, unfailing foresight, and practical deductions were never at +fault, was once more childishly adrift in his moral ethics. + +And there was Clementina, of whose judgment Grant had spoken so +persistently,--could she assist him? It was true, as he had said, +he had never talked to her of his affairs. In his sometimes uneasy +consciousness of her superiority he had shrunk from even revealing +his anxieties, much less his actual secret, and from anything that +might prejudice the lofty paternal attitude he had taken towards +his daughters from the beginning of his good fortune. He was never +quite sure if her acceptance of it was real; he was never entirely +free from a certain jealousy that always mingled with his pride in +her superior rectitude; and yet his feeling was distinct from the +good-natured contempt he had for his wife's loyalty, the anger and +suspicion that his son's opposition had provoked, and the half- +affectionate toleration he had felt for Euphemia's waywardness. +However he would sound Clementina without betraying himself. + +He was anticipated by a slight step in the passage and the pushing +open of his study door. The tall, graceful figure of the girl +herself stood in the opening. + +"They tell me Mr. Grant has been here. Does he stay to dinner?" + +"No, he has an engagement at the hotel, but he will probably drop +in later. Come in, Clemmy, I want to talk to you. Shut the door +and sit down." + +She slipped in quietly, shut the door, took a seat on the sofa, +softly smoothed down her gown, and turned her graceful head and +serenely composed face towards him. Sitting thus she looked like +some finely finished painting that decorated rather than belonged +to the room,--not only distinctly alien to the flesh and blood +relative before her, but to the house, and even the local, +monotonous landscape beyond the window with the shining new +shingles and chimneys that cut the new blue sky. These singular +perfections seemed to increase in Harcourt's mind the exasperating +sense of injury inflicted upon him by 'Lige's exposures. With a +daughter so incomparably gifted,--a matchless creation that was +enough in herself to ennoble that fortune which his own skill and +genius had lifted from the muddy tules of Tasajara where this 'Lige +had left it,--that SHE should be subjected to this annoyance seemed +an infamy that Providence could not allow! What was his mere +venial transgression to this exaggerated retribution? + +"Clemmy, girl, I'm going to ask you a question. Listen, pet." He +had begun with a reminiscent tenderness of the epoch of her +childhood, but meeting the unresponding maturity of her clear eyes +he abandoned it. "You know, Clementina, I have never interfered in +your affairs, nor tried to influence your friendships for anybody. +Whatever people may have to say of me they can't say that! I've +always trusted you, as I would myself, to choose your own +associates; I have never regretted it, and I don't regret it now. +But I'd like to know--I have reasons to-day for asking--how matters +stand between you and Grant." + +The Parian head of Minerva on the bookcase above her did not offer +the spectator a face less free from maidenly confusion than +Clementina's at that moment. Her father had certainly expected +none, but he was not prepared for the perfect coolness of her +reply. + +"Do you mean, have I ACCEPTED him?" + +"No,--well--yes." + +"No, then! Is that what he wished to see you about? It was +understood that he was not to allude again to the subject to any +one." + +"He has not to ME. It was only my own idea. He had something very +different to tell me. You may not know, Clementina," he begun +cautiously, "that I have been lately the subject of some anonymous +slanders, and Grant has taken the trouble to track them down for +me. It is a calumny that goes back as far as Sidon, and I may want +your level head and good memory to help me to refute it." He then +repeated calmly and clearly, with no trace of the fury that had +raged within him a moment before, the substance of Grant's +revelation. + +The young girl listened without apparent emotion. When he had +finished she said quickly: "And what do you want me to recollect?" + +The hardest part of Harcourt's task was coming. "Well, don't you +remember that I told you the day the surveyors went away--that--I +had bought this land of 'Lige Curtis some time before?" + +"Yes, I remember your saying so, but"-- + +"But what?" + +"I thought you only meant that to satisfy mother." + +Daniel Harcourt felt the blood settling round his heart, but he was +constrained by an irresistible impulse to know the worst. "Well, +what did YOU think it really was?" + +"I only thought that 'Lige Curtis had simply let you have it, +that's all." + +Harcourt breathed again. "But what for? Why should he?" + +"Well--ON MY ACCOUNT." + +"On YOUR account! What in Heaven's name had YOU to do with it?" + +"He loved me." There was not the slightest trace of vanity, self- +consciousness or coquetry in her quiet, fateful face, and for this +very reason Harcourt knew that she was speaking the truth. + +"Loved YOU!--you, Clementina!--my daughter! Did he ever TELL you +so?" + +"Not in words. He used to walk up and down on the road when I was +at the back window or in the garden, and often hung about the bank +of the creek for hours, like some animal. I don't think the others +saw him, and when they did they thought it was Parmlee for +Euphemia. Even Euphemia thought so too, and that was why she was +so conceited and hard to Parmlee towards the end. She thought it +was Parmlee that night when Grant and Rice came; but it was 'Lige +Curtis who had been watching the window lights in the rain, and who +must have gone off at last to speak to you in the store. I always +let Phemie believe that it was Parmlee,--it seemed to please her." + +There was not the least tone of mischief or superiority, or even of +patronage in her manner. It was as quiet and cruel as the fate +that might have led 'Lige to his destruction. Even her father felt +a slight thrill of awe as she paused. "Then he never really spoke +to you?" he asked hurriedly. + +"Only once. I was gathering swamp lilies all alone, a mile below +the bend of the creek, and he came upon me suddenly. Perhaps it +was that I didn't jump or start--I didn't see anything to jump or +start at--that he said, 'You're not frightened at me, Miss +Harcourt, like the other girls? You don't think I'm drunk or half +mad--as they do?' I don't remember exactly what I said, but it +meant that whether he was drunk or half mad or sober I didn't see +any reason to be afraid of him. And then he told me that if I was +fond of swamp lilies I might have all I wanted at his place, and +for the matter of that the place too, as he was going away, for he +couldn't stand the loneliness any longer. He said that he had +nothing in common with the place and the people--no more than I +had--and that was what he had always fancied in me. I told him +that if he felt in that way about his place he ought to leave it, +or sell it to some one who cared for it, and go away. That must +have been in his mind when he offered it to you,--at least that's +what I thought when you told us you had bought it. I didn't know +but what he might have told you, but you didn't care to say it +before mother." + +Mr. Harcourt sat gazing at her with breathless amazement. "And +you--think that--'Lige Curtis--lov--liked you?" + +"Yes, I think he did--and that he does now!" + +"NOW! What do you mean? The man is dead!" said Harcourt starting. + +"That's just what I don't believe." + +"Impossible! Think of what you are saying." + +"I never could quite understand or feel that he was dead when +everybody said so, and now that I've heard this story I KNOW that +he is living." + +"But why did he not make himself known in time to claim the +property?" + +"Because he did not care for it." + +"What did he care for, then?" + +"Me, I suppose." + +"But this calumny is not like a man who loves you." + +"It is like a JEALOUS one." + +With an effort Harcourt threw off his bewildered incredulity and +grasped the situation. He would have to contend with his enemy in +the flesh and blood, but that flesh and blood would be very weak in +the hands of the impassive girl beside him. His face lightened. + +The same idea might have been in Clementina's mind when she spoke +again, although her face had remained unchanged. "I do not see why +YOU should bother yourself further about it," she said. "It is +only a matter between myself and him; you can leave it to me." + +"But if you are mistaken and he should not be living?" + +"I am not mistaken. I am even certain now that I have seen him." + +"Seen him!" + +"Yes," said the girl with the first trace of animation in her face. +"It was four or five months ago when we were visiting the Briones +at Monterey. We had ridden out to the old Mission by moonlight. +There were some Mexicans lounging around the posada, and one of +them attracted my attention by the way he seemed to watch me, +without revealing any more of his face than I could see between his +serape and the black silk handkerchief that was tied around his +head under his sombrero. But I knew he was an American--and his +eyes were familiar. I believe it was he." + +"Why did you not speak of it before?" + +The look of animation died out of the girl's face. "Why should I?" +she said listlessly. "I did not know of these reports then. He +was nothing more to us. You wouldn't have cared to see him again." +She rose, smoothed out her skirt and stood looking at her father. +"There is one thing, of course, that you'll do at once." + +Her voice had changed so oddly that he said quickly: "What's that?" + +"Call Grant off the scent. He'll only frighten or exasperate your +game, and that's what you don't want." + +Her voice was as imperious as it had been previously listless. And +it was the first time he had ever known her to use slang. + +It seemed as startling as if it had fallen from the marble lips +above him. + +"But I've promised him that we should go together to my lawyer to- +morrow, and begin a suit against the proprietors of the 'Clarion.'" + +"Do nothing of the kind. Get rid of Grant's assistance in this +matter; and see the 'Clarion' proprietor yourself. What sort of a +man is he? Can you invite him to your house?" + +"I have never seen him; I believe he lives at San Jose. He is a +wealthy man and a large land owner there. You understand that +after the first article appeared in his paper, and I knew that he +had employed your brother--although Grant says that he had nothing +to do with it and left Fletcher on account of it--I could have no +intercourse with him. Even if I invited him he would not come." + +"He MUST come. Leave it to ME." She stopped and resumed her +former impassive manner. "I had something to say to you too, +father. Mr. Shipley proposed to me the day we went to San Mateo." + +Her father's eyes lit with an eager sparkle. "Well," he said +quickly. + +"I reminded him that I had known him only a few weeks, and that I +wanted time to consider." + +"Consider! Why, Clemmy, he's one of the oldest Boston families, +rich from his father and grandfather--rich when I was a shopkeeper +and your mother"-- + +"I thought you liked Grant?" she said quietly. + +"Yes, but if YOU have no choice nor feeling in the matter, why +Shipley is far the better man. And if any of the scandal should +come to his ears"-- + +"So much the better that the hesitation should come from me. But +if you think it better, I can sit down here and write to him at +once declining the offer." She moved towards the desk. + +"No! No! I did not mean that," said Harcourt quickly. "I only +thought that if he did hear anything it might be said that he had +backed out." + +"His sister knows of his offer, and though she don't like it nor +me, she will not deny the fact. By the way, you remember when she +was lost that day on the road to San Mateo?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, she was with your son, John Milton, all the time, and they +lunched together at Crystal Spring. It came out quite accidentally +through the hotel-keeper." + +Harcourt's brow darkened. "Did she know him before?" + +"I can't say; but she does now." + +Harcourt's face was heavy with distrust. "Taking Shipley's offer +and these scandals into consideration, I don't like the look of +this, Clementina." + +"I do," said the girl simply. + +Harcourt gazed at her keenly and with the shadow of distrust still +upon him. It seemed to be quite impossible, even with what he knew +of her calmly cold nature, that she should be equally uninfluenced +by Grant or Shipley. Had she some steadfast, lofty ideal, or +perhaps some already absorbing passion of which he knew nothing? +She was not a girl to betray it--they would only know it when it +was too late. Could it be possible that there was still something +between her and 'Lige that he knew nothing of? The thought struck +a chill to his breast. She was walking towards the door, when he +recalled himself with an effort. + +"If you think it advisable to see Fletcher, you might run down to +San Jose for a day or two with your mother, and call on the Ramirez. +They may know him or somebody who does. Of course if YOU meet him +and casually invite him it would be different." + +"It's a good idea," she said quickly. "I'll do it, and speak to +mother now." + +He was struck by the change in her face and voice; they had both +nervously lightened, as oddly and distinctly as they had before +seemed to grow suddenly harsh and aggressive. She passed out of +the room with girlish brusqueness, leaving him alone with a new and +vague fear in his consciousness. + + +A few hours later Clementina was standing before the window of the +drawing-room that overlooked the outskirts of the town. The +moonlight was flooding the vast bluish Tasajara levels with a faint +lustre, as if the waters of the creek had once more returned to +them. In the shadow of the curtain beside her Grant was facing her +with anxious eyes. + +"Then I must take this as your final answer, Clementina?" + +"You must. And had I known of these calumnies before, had you been +frank with me even the day we went to San Mateo, my answer would +have been as final then, and you might have been spared any further +suspense. I am not blaming you, Mr. Grant; I am willing to believe +that you thought it best to conceal this from me,--even at that +time when you had just pledged yourself to find out its truth or +falsehood,--yet my answer would have been the same. So long as +this stain rests on my father's name I shall never allow that name +to be coupled with yours in marriage or engagement; nor will my +pride or yours allow us to carry on a simple friendship after this. +I thank you for your offer of assistance, but I cannot even accept +that which might to others seem to allow some contingent claim. I +would rather believe that when you proposed this inquiry and my +father permitted it, you both knew that it put an end to any other +relations between us." + +"But, Clementina, you are wrong, believe me! Say that I have been +foolish, indiscreet, mad,--still the few who knew that I made these +inquiries on your father's behalf know nothing of my hopes of YOU!" + +"But I do, and that is enough for me." + +Even in the hopeless preoccupation of his passion he suddenly +looked at her with something of his old critical scrutiny. But she +stood there calm, concentrated, self-possessed and upright. Yes! +it was possible that the pride of this Southwestern shopkeepers +daughter was greater than his own. + +"Then you banish me, Clementina?" + +"It is we whom YOU have banished." + +"Good-night." + +"Good-by." + +He bent for an instant over her cold hand, and then passed out into +the hall. She remained listening until the front door closed +behind him. Then she ran swiftly through the hall and up the +staircase, with an alacrity that seemed impossible to the stately +goddess of a moment before. When she had reached her bedroom and +closed the door, so exuberant still and so uncontrollable was her +levity and action, that without going round the bed which stood +before her in the centre of the room, she placed her two hands upon +it and lightly vaulted sideways across it to reach the window. +There she watched the figure of Grant crossing the moonlit square. +Then turning back into the half-lit room, she ran to the small +dressing-glass placed at an angle on a toilet table against the +wall. With her palms grasping her knees she stooped down suddenly +and contemplated the mirror. It showed what no one but Clementina +had ever seen,--and she herself only at rare intervals,--the +laughing eyes and soul of a self-satisfied, material-minded, +ordinary country-girl! + + +CHAPTER X. + + +But Mr. Lawrence Grant's character in certain circumstances would +seem to have as startling and inexplicable contradictions as +Clementina Harcourt's, and three days later he halted his horse at +the entrance of Los Gatos Rancho. The Home of the Cats--so called +from the catamounts which infested the locality--which had for over +a century lazily basked before one of the hottest canyons in the +Coast Range, had lately been stirred into some activity by the +American, Don Diego Fletcher, who had bought it, put up a saw-mill, +and deforested the canyon. Still there remained enough suggestion +of a feline haunt about it to make Grant feel as if he had tracked +hither some stealthy enemy, in spite of the peaceful intimation +conveyed by the sign on a rough boarded shed at the wayside, that +the "Los Gatos Land and Lumber Company" held their office there. + +A cigarette-smoking peon lounged before the door. Yes; Don Diego +was there, but as he had arrived from Santa Clara only last night +and was going to Colonel Ramirez that afternoon, he was engaged. +Unless the business was important--but the cool, determined manner +of Grant, even more than his words, signified that it WAS +important, and the servant led the way to Don Diego's presence. + +There certainly was nothing in the appearance of this sylvan +proprietor and newspaper capitalist to justify Grant's suspicion of +a surreptitious foe. A handsome man scarcely older than himself, +in spite of a wavy mass of perfectly white hair which contrasted +singularly with his brown mustache and dark sunburned face. So +disguising was the effect of these contradictions, that he not only +looked unlike anybody else, but even his nationality seemed to be a +matter of doubt. Only his eyes, light blue and intelligent, which +had a singular expression of gentleness and worry, appeared +individual to the man. His manner was cultivated and easy. He +motioned his visitor courteously to a chair. + +"I was referred to you," said Grant, almost abruptly, "as the +person responsible for a series of slanderous attacks against Mr. +Daniel Harcourt in the 'Clarion,' of which paper I believe you are +the proprietor. I was told that you declined to give the authority +for your action, unless you were forced to by legal proceedings." + +Fletcher's sensitive blue eyes rested upon Grant's with an +expression of constrained pain and pity. "I heard of your +inquiries, Mr. Grant; you were making them on behalf of this Mr. +Harcourt or Harkutt"--he made the distinction with intentional +deliberation--"with a view, I believe, to some arbitration. The +case was stated to you fairly, I think; I believe I have nothing to +add to it." + +"That was your answer to the ambassador of Mr. Harcourt," said +Grant, coldly, "and as such I delivered it to him; but I am here +to-day to speak on my own account." + +What could be seen of Mr. Fletcher's lips appeared to curl in an +odd smile. "Indeed, I thought it was--or would be--all in the +family." + +Grant's face grew more stern, and his gray eyes glittered. "You'll +find my status in this matter so far independent that I don't +propose, like Mr. Harcourt, either to begin a suit or to rest +quietly under the calumny. Briefly, Mr. Fletcher, as you or your +informant knows, I was the surveyor who revealed to Mr. Harcourt +the value of the land to which he claimed a title from your man, +this Elijah or 'Lige Curtis as you call him,"--he could not resist +this imitation of his adversary's supercilious affectation of +precise nomenclature,--"and it was upon my representation of its +value as an investment that he began the improvements which have +made him wealthy. If this title was fraudulently obtained, all the +facts pertaining to it are sufficiently related to connect me with +the conspiracy." + +"Are you not a little hasty in your presumption, Mr. Grant?" said +Fletcher, with unfeigned surprise. + +"That is for ME to judge, Mr. Fletcher," returned Grant, haughtily. + +"But the name of Professor Grant is known to all California as +beyond the breath of calumny or suspicion." + +"It is because of that fact that I propose to keep it so." + +"And may I ask in what way you wish me to assist you in so doing?" + +"By promptly and publicly retracting in the 'Clarion' every word of +this slander against Harcourt." + +Fletcher looked steadfastly at the speaker. "And if I decline?" + +"I think you have been long enough in California, Mr. Fletcher, to +know the alternative expected of a gentleman," said Grant, coldly. + +Mr. Fletcher kept his gentle blue eyes--in which surprise still +overbalanced their expression of pained concern--on Grant's face. + +"But is not this more in the style of Colonel Starbottle than +Professor Grant?" he asked, with a faint smile. + +Grant rose instantly with a white face. "You will have a better +opportunity of judging," he said, "when Colonel Starbottle has the +honor of waiting upon you from me. Meantime, I thank you for +reminding me of the indiscretion into which my folly, in still +believing that this thing could be settled amicably, has led me." + +He bowed coldly and withdrew. Nevertheless, as he mounted his +horse and rode away, he felt his cheeks burning. Yet he had acted +upon calm consideration; he knew that to the ordinary Californian +experience there was nothing quixotic nor exaggerated in the +attitude he had taken. Men had quarreled and fought on less +grounds; he had even half convinced himself that he HAD been +insulted, and that his own professional reputation demanded the +withdrawal of the attack on Harcourt on purely business grounds; +but he was not satisfied of the personal responsibility of Fletcher +nor of his gratuitous malignity. Nor did the man look like a tool +in the hands of some unscrupulous and hidden enemy. However, he +had played his card. If he succeeded only in provoking a duel with +Fletcher, he at least would divert the public attention from +Harcourt to himself. He knew that his superior position would +throw the lesser victim in the background. He would make the +sacrifice; that was his duty as a gentleman, even if SHE would not +care to accept it as an earnest of his unselfish love! + +He had reached the point where the mountain track entered the Santa +Clara turnpike when his attention was attracted by a handsome but +old-fashioned carriage drawn by four white mules, which passed down +the road before him and turned suddenly off into a private road. +But it was not this picturesque gala equipage of some local Spanish +grandee that brought a thrill to his nerves and a flash to his eye; +it was the unmistakable, tall, elegant figure and handsome profile +of Clementina, reclining in light gauzy wraps against the back +seat! It was no fanciful resemblance, the outcome of his reverie,-- +there never was any one like her!--it WAS she herself! But what +was she doing here? + +A vaquero cantered from the cross road where the dust of the +vehicle still hung. Grant hailed him. Ah! it was a fine carroza +de cuatro mulas that he had just passed! Si, Senor, truly; it was +of Don Jose Ramirez, who lived just under the hill. It was +bringing company to the casa. + +Ramirez! That was where Fletcher was going! Had Clementina known +that he was one of Fletcher's friends? Might she not be exposed to +unpleasantness, marked coolness, or even insult in that unexpected +meeting? Ought she not to be warned or prepared for it? She had +banished Grant from her presence until this stain was removed from +her father's name, but could she blame him for trying to save her +from contact with her father's slanderer? No! He turned his horse +abruptly into the cross road and spurred forward in the direction +of the casa. + +It was quite visible now--a low-walled, quadrangular mass of +whitewashed adobe lying like a drift on the green hillside. The +carriage and four had far preceded him, and was already half up the +winding road towards the house. Later he saw them reach the +courtyard and disappear within. He would be quite in time to speak +with her before she retired to change her dress. He would simply +say that while making a professional visit to Los Gatos Land +Company office he had become aware of Fletcher's connection with +it, and accidentally of his intended visit to Ramirez. His chance +meeting with the carriage on the highway had determined his course. + +As he rode into the courtyard he observed that it was also approached +by another road, evidently nearer Los Gatos, and probably the older +and shorter communication between the two ranchos. The fact was +significantly demonstrated a moment later. He had given his horse +to a servant, sent in his card to Clementina, and had dropped +listlessly on one of the benches of the gallery surrounding the +patio, when a horseman rode briskly into the opposite gateway, and +dismounted with a familiar air. A waiting peon who recognized him +informed him that the Dona was engaged with a visitor, but that they +were both returning to the gallery for chocolate in a moment. The +stranger was the man he had left only an hour before--Don Diego +Fletcher! + +In an instant the idiotic fatuity of his position struck him fully. +His only excuse for following Clementina had been to warn her of +the coming of this man who had just entered, and who would now meet +her as quickly as himself. For a brief moment the idea of quietly +slipping out to the corral, mounting his horse again, and flying +from the rancho, crossed his mind; but the thought that he would be +running away from the man he had just challenged, and perhaps some +new hostility that had sprung up in his heart against him, +compelled him to remain. The eyes of both men met; Fletcher's in +half-wondering annoyance, Grant's in ill-concealed antagonism. +What they would have said is not known, for at that moment the +voices of Clementina and Mrs. Ramirez were heard in the passage, +and they both entered the gallery. The two men were standing +together; it was impossible to see one without the other. + +And yet Grant, whose eyes were instantly directed to Clementina, +thought that she had noted neither. She remained for an instant +standing in the doorway in the same self-possessed, coldly graceful +pose he remembered she had taken on the platform at Tasajara. Her +eyelids were slightly downcast, as if she had been arrested by some +sudden thought or some shy maiden sensitiveness; in her hesitation +Mrs. Ramirez passed impatiently before her. + +"Mother of God!" said that lively lady, regarding the two +speechless men, "is it an indiscretion we are making here--or are +you dumb? You, Don Diego, are loud enough when you and Don Jose +are together; at least introduce your friend." + +Grant quickly recovered himself. "I am afraid," he said, coming +forward, "unless Miss Harcourt does, that I am a mere trespasser in +your house, Senora. I saw her pass in your carriage a few moments +ago, and having a message for her I ventured to follow her here." + +"It is Mr. Grant, a friend of my father's," said Clementina, +smiling with equanimity, as if just awakening from a momentary +abstraction, yet apparently unconscious of Grant's imploring eyes; +"but the other gentleman I have not the pleasure of knowing." + +"Ah! Don Diego Fletcher, a countryman of yours; and yet I think he +knows you not." + +Clementina's face betrayed no indication of the presence of her +father's foe, and yet Grant knew that she must have recognized his +name, as she looked towards Fletcher with perfect self-possession. +He was too much engaged in watching her to take note of Fletcher's +manifest disturbance, or the evident effort with which he at last +bowed to her. That this unexpected double meeting with the +daughter of the man he had wronged, and the man who had espoused +the quarrel, should be confounding to him appeared only natural. +But he was unprepared to understand the feverish alacrity with +which he accepted Dona Maria's invitation to chocolate, or the +equally animated way in which Clementina threw herself into her +hostess's Spanish levity. He knew it was an awkward situation, +that must be surmounted without a scene; he was quite prepared in +the presence of Clementina to be civil to Fletcher; but it was odd +that in this feverish exchange of courtesies and compliments HE, +Grant, should feel the greater awkwardness and be the most ill at +ease. He sat down and took his part in the conversation; he let it +transpire for Clementina's benefit that he had been to Los Gatos +only on business, yet there was no opportunity for even a +significant glance, and he had the added embarrassment of seeing +that she exhibited no surprise nor seemed to attach the least +importance to his inopportune visit. In a miserable indecision he +allowed himself to be carried away by the high-flown hospitality of +his Spanish hostess, and consented to stay to an early dinner. It +was part of the infelicity of circumstance that the voluble Dona +Maria--electing him as the distinguished stranger above the +resident Fletcher--monopolized him and attached him to her side. +She would do the honors of her house; she must show him the ruins +of the old Mission beside the corral; Don Diego and Clementina +would join them presently in the garden. He cast a despairing +glance at the placidly smiling Clementina, who was apparently +equally indifferent to the evident constraint and assumed ease of +the man beside her, and turned away with Mrs. Ramirez. + +A silence fell upon the gallery so deep that the receding voices +and footsteps of Grant and his hostess in the long passage were +distinctly heard until they reached the end. Then Fletcher arose +with an inarticulate exclamation. Clementina instantly put her +finger to her lips, glanced around the gallery, extended her hand +to him, and saying "Come," half-led, half-dragged him into the +passage. To the right she turned and pushed open the door of a +small room that seemed a combination of boudoir and oratory, lit by +a French window opening to the garden, and flanked by a large black +and white crucifix with a prie Dieu beneath it. Closing the door +behind them she turned and faced her companion. But it was no +longer the face of the woman who had been sitting in the gallery; +it was the face that had looked back at her from the mirror at +Tasajara the night that Grant had left her--eager, flushed, +material with commonplace excitement! + +"'Lige Curtis," she said. + +"Yes," he answered passionately, "Lige Curtis, whom you thought +dead! 'Lige Curtis, whom you once pitied, condoled with and +despised! 'Lige Curtis, whose lands and property have enriched +you! 'Lige Curtis, who would have shared it with you freely at the +time, but whom your father juggled and defrauded of it! 'Lige +Curtis, branded by him as a drunken outcast and suicide! 'Lige +Curtis"-- + +"Hush!" She clapped her little hand over his mouth with a quick +but awkward schoolgirl gesture, inconceivable to any who had known +her usual languid elegance of motion, and held it there. He +struggled angrily, impatiently, reproachfully, and then, with a +sudden characteristic weakness that seemed as much of a revelation +as her once hoydenish manner, kissed it, when she let it drop. +Then placing both her hands still girlishly on her slim waist and +curtseying grotesquely before him, she said: "'Lige Curtis! Oh, +yes! 'Lige Curtis, who swore to do everything for me! 'Lige +Curtis, who promised to give up liquor for me,--who was to leave +Tasajara for me! 'Lige Curtis, who was to reform, and keep his +land as a nest-egg for us both in the future, and then who sold it-- +and himself--and me--to dad for a glass of whiskey! 'Lige Curtis, +who disappeared, and then let us think he was dead, only that he +might attack us out of the ambush of his grave!" + +"Yes, but think what I have suffered all these years; not for the +cursed land--you know I never cared for that--but for YOU,--you, +Clementina,--YOU rich, admired by every one; idolized, held far +above me,--ME, the forgotten outcast, the wretched suicide--and yet +the man to whom you had once plighted your troth. Which of those +greedy fortune-hunters whom my money--my life-blood as you might +have thought it was--attracted to you, did you care to tell that +you had ever slipped out of the little garden gate at Sidon to meet +that outcast! Do you wonder that as the years passed and YOU were +happy, I did not choose to be so forgotten? Do you wonder that +when YOU shut the door on the past I managed to open it again--if +only a little way--that its light might startle you?" + +Yet she did not seem startled or disturbed, and remained only +looking at him critically. + +"You say that you have suffered," she replied with a smile. "You +don't look it! Your hair is white, but it is becoming to you, and +you are a handsomer man, 'Lige Curtis, than you were when I first +met you; you are finer," she went on, still regarding him, +"stronger and healthier than you were five years ago; you are rich +and prosperous, you have everything to make you happy, but"--here +she laughed a little, held out both her hands, taking his and +holding his arms apart in a rustic, homely fashion--"but you are +still the same old 'Lige Curtis! It was like you to go off and +hide yourself in that idiotic way; it was like you to let the +property slide in that stupid, unselfish fashion; it was like you +to get real mad, and say all those mean, silly things to dad, that +didn't hurt him--in your regular looney style; for rich or poor, +drunk or sober, ragged or elegant, plain or handsome,--you're +always the same 'Lige Curtis!" + +In proportion as that material, practical, rustic self--which +nobody but 'Lige Curtis had ever seen--came back to her, so in +proportion the irresolute, wavering, weak and emotional vagabond of +Sidon came out to meet it. He looked at her with a vague smile; +his five years of childish resentment, albeit carried on the +shoulders of a man mentally and morally her superior, melted away. +He drew her towards him, yet at the same moment a quick suspicion +returned. + +"Well, and what are you doing here? Has this man who has followed +you any right, any claim upon you?" + +"None but what you in your folly have forced upon him! You have +made him father's ally. I don't know why he came here. I only +know why I did--to find YOU!" + +"You suspected then?" + +"I KNEW! Hush!" + +The returning voices of Grant and of Mrs. Ramirez were heard in the +courtyard. Clementina made a warning yet girlishly mirthful +gesture, again caught his hand, drew him quickly to the French +window, and slipped through it with him into the garden, where they +were quickly lost in the shadows of a ceanothus hedge. + +"They have probably met Don Jose in the orchard, and as he and Don +Diego have business together, Dona Clementina has without doubt +gone to her room and left them. For you are not very entertaining +to the ladies to-day,--you two caballeros! You have much politics +together, eh?--or you have discussed and disagreed, eh? I will +look for the Senorita, and let you go, Don Distraido!" + +It is to be feared that Grant's apologies and attempts to detain +her were equally feeble,--as it seemed to him that this was the +only chance he might have of seeing Clementina except in company +with Fletcher. As Mrs. Ramirez left he lit a cigarette and +listlessly walked up and down the gallery. But Clementina did not +come, neither did his hostess return. A subdued step in the +passage raised his hopes,--it was only the grizzled major domo, to +show him his room that he might prepare for dinner. + +He followed mechanically down the long passage to a second +corridor. There was a chance that he might meet Clementina, but he +reached his room without encountering any one. It was a large +vaulted apartment with a single window, a deep embrasure in the +thick wall that seemed to focus like a telescope some forgotten, +sequestered part of the leafy garden. While washing his hands, +gazing absently at the green vignette framed by the dark opening, +his attention was drawn to a movement of the foliage, stirred +apparently by the rapid passage of two half-hidden figures. The +quick flash of a feminine skirt seemed to indicate the coy flight +of some romping maid of the casa, and the pursuit and struggle of +her vaquero swain. To a despairing lover even the spectacle of +innocent, pastoral happiness in others is not apt to be soothing, +and Grant was turning impatiently away when he suddenly stopped +with a rigid face and quickly approached the window. In her +struggles with the unseen Corydon, the clustering leaves seemed to +have yielded at the same moment with the coy Chloris, and parting-- +disclosed a stolen kiss! Grant's hand lay like ice against the +wall. For, disengaging Fletcher's arm from her waist and freeing +her skirt from the foliage, it was the calm, passionless Clementina +herself who stepped out, and moved pensively towards the casa. + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"Readers of the 'Clarion' will have noticed that allusion has been +frequently made in these columns to certain rumors concerning the +early history of Tasajara which were supposed to affect the pioneer +record of Daniel Harcourt. It was deemed by the conductors of this +journal to be only consistent with the fearless and independent +duty undertaken by the 'Clarion' that these rumors should be fully +chronicled as part of the information required by the readers of a +first-class newspaper, unbiased by any consideration of the social +position of the parties, but simply as a matter of news. For this +the 'Clarion' does not deem it necessary to utter a word of +apology. But for that editorial comment or attitude which the +proprietors felt was justified by the reliable sources of their +information they now consider it only due in honor to themselves, +their readers, and Mr. Harcourt to fully and freely apologize. A +patient and laborious investigation enables them to state that the +alleged facts published by the 'Clarion' and copied by other +journals are utterly unsupported by testimony, and the charges-- +although more or less vague--which were based upon them are equally +untenable. We are now satisfied that one 'Elijah Curtis,' a former +pioneer of Tasajara who disappeared five years ago, and was +supposed to be drowned, has not only made no claim to the Tasajara +property, as alleged, but has given no sign of his equally alleged +resuscitation and present existence, and that on the minutest +investigation there appears nothing either in his disappearance, or +the transfer of his property to Daniel Harcourt, that could in any +way disturb the uncontested title to Tasajara or the unimpeachable +character of its present owner. The whole story now seems to have +been the outcome of one of those stupid rural hoaxes too common in +California." + + +"Well," said Mrs. Ashwood, laying aside the 'Clarion' with a +skeptical shrug of her pretty shoulders, as she glanced up at her +brother; "I suppose this means that you are going to propose again +to the young lady?" + +"I have," said Jack Shipley, "that's the worst of it--and got my +answer before this came out." + +"Jack!" said Mrs. Ashwood, thoroughly surprised. + +"Yes! You see, Conny, as I told you three weeks ago, she said she +wanted time to consider,--that she scarcely knew me, and all that! +Well, I thought it wasn't exactly a gentleman's business to seem to +stand off after that last attack on her father, and so, last week, +I went down to San Jose, where she was staying, and begged her not +to keep me in suspense. And, by Jove! she froze me with a look, +and said that with these aspersions on her father's character, she +preferred not to be under obligations to any one." + +"And you believed her?" + +"Oh, hang it all! Look here, Conny,--I wish you'd just try for +once to find out some good in that family, besides what that +sentimental young widower John Milton may have. You seem to think +because they've quarreled with HIM there isn't a virtue left among +them." + +Far from seeming to offer any suggestion of feminine retaliation, +Mrs. Ashwood smiled sweetly. "My dear Jack, I have no desire to +keep you from trying your luck again with Miss Clementina, if +that's what you mean, and indeed I shouldn't be surprised if a +family who felt a mesalliance as sensitively as the Harcourts felt +that affair of their son's, would be as keenly alive to the +advantages of a good match for their daughter. As to young Mr. +Harcourt, he never talked to me of the vices of his family, nor has +he lately troubled me much with the presence of his own virtues. +I haven't heard from him since we came here." + +"I suppose he is satisfied with the government berth you got for +him," returned her brother dryly. + +"He was very grateful to Senator Flynn, who appreciates his +talents, but who offered it to him as a mere question of fitness," +replied Mrs. Ashwood with great precision of statement. "But you +don't seem to know he declined it on account of his other work." + +"Preferred his old Bohemian ways, eh? You can't change those +fellows, Conny. They can't get over the fascinations of +vagabondage. Sorry your lady-patroness scheme didn't work. Pity +you couldn't have promoted him in the line of his profession, as +the Grand Duchess of Girolstein did Fritz." + +"For Heaven's sake, Jack, go to Clementina! You may not be +successful, but there at least the perfect gentlemanliness and +good taste of your illustrations will not be thrown away." + +"I think of going to San Francisco tomorrow, anyway," returned Jack +with affected carelessness. "I'm getting rather bored with this +wild seaside watering place and its glitter of ocean and hopeless +background of mountain. It's nothing to me that 'there's no land +nearer than Japan' out there. It may be very healthful to the +tissues, but it's weariness to the spirit, and I don't see why we +can't wait at San Francisco till the rains send us further south, +as well as here." + +He had walked to the balcony of their sitting-room in the little +seaside hotel where this conversation took place, and gazed +discontentedly over the curving bay and sandy shore before him. +After a slight pause Mrs. Ashwood stepped out beside him. + +"Very likely I may go with you," she said, with a perceptible tone +of weariness. "We will see after the post arrives." + +"By the way, there is a little package for you in my room, that +came this morning. I brought it up, but forgot to give it to you. +You'll find it on my table." + +Mrs. Ashwood abstractedly turned away and entered her brother's +room from the same balcony. The forgotten parcel, which looked +like a roll of manuscript, was lying on his dressing-table. She +gazed attentively at the handwriting on the wrapper and then gave a +quick glance around her. A sudden and subtle change came over her. +She neither flushed nor paled, nor did the delicate lines of +expression in her face quiver or change. But as she held the +parcel in her hand her whole being seemed to undergo some exquisite +suffusion. As the medicines which the Arabian physician had +concealed in the hollow handle of the mallet permeated the languid +royal blood of Persia, so some volatile balm of youth seemed to +flow in upon her with the contact of that strange missive and +transform her weary spirit. + +"Jack!" she called, in a high clear voice. But Jack had already +gone from the balcony when she reached it with an elastic step and +a quick youthful swirl and rustling of her skirt. He was lighting +his cigar in the garden. + +"Jack," she said, leaning half over the railing, "come back here in +an hour and we'll talk over that matter of yours again." + +Jack looked up eagerly and as if he might even come up then, but +she added quickly, "In about an hour--I must think it over," and +withdrew. + +She re-entered the sitting-room, shut the door carefully and locked +it, half pulled down the blind, walking once or twice around the +table on which the parcel lay, with one eye on it like a graceful +cat. Then she suddenly sat down, took it up with a grave practical +face, examined the postmark curiously, and opened it with severe +deliberation. It contained a manuscript and a letter of four +closely written pages. She glanced at the manuscript with bright +approving eyes, ran her fingers through its leaves and then laid it +carefully and somewhat ostentatiously on the table beside her. +Then, still holding the letter in her hand, she rose and glanced +out of the window at her bored brother lounging towards the beach +and at the heaving billows beyond, and returned to her seat. This +apparently important preliminary concluded, she began to read. + +There were, as already stated, four blessed pages of it! All +vital, earnest, palpitating with youthful energy, preposterous in +premises, precipitate in conclusions,--yet irresistible and +convincing to every woman in their illogical sincerity. There was +not a word of love in it, yet every page breathed a wholesome +adoration; there was not an epithet or expression that a greater +prude than Mrs. Ashwood would have objected to, yet every sentence +seemed to end in a caress. There was not a line of poetry in it, +and scarcely a figure or simile, and yet it was poetical. Boyishly +egotistic as it was in attitude, it seemed to be written less OF +himself than TO her; in its delicate because unconscious flattery, +it made her at once the provocation and excuse. And yet so potent +was its individuality that it required no signature. No one but +John Milton Harcourt could have written it. His personality stood +out of it so strongly that once or twice Mrs. Ashwood almost +unconsciously put up her little hand before her face with a half +mischievous, half-deprecating smile, as if the big honest eyes of +its writer were upon her. + +It began by an elaborate apology for declining the appointment +offered him by one of her friends, which he was bold enough to +think had been prompted by her kind heart. That was like her, but +yet what she might do to any one; and he preferred to think of her +as the sweet and gentle lady who had recognized his merit without +knowing him, rather than the powerful and gracious benefactress who +wanted to reward him when she did know him. The crown that she had +all unconsciously placed upon his head that afternoon at the little +hotel at Crystal Spring was more to him than the Senator's +appointment; perhaps he was selfish, but he could not bear that she +who had given so much should believe that he could accept a lesser +gift. All this and much more! Some of it he had wanted to say to +her in San Francisco at times when they had met, but he could not +find the words. But she had given him the courage to go on and do +the only thing he was fit for, and he had resolved to stick to +that, and perhaps do something once more that might make him hear +again her voice as he had heard it that day, and again see the +light that had shone in her eyes as she sat there and read. And +this was why he was sending her a manuscript. She might have +forgotten that she had told him a strange story of her cousin who +had disappeared--which she thought he might at some time work up. +Here it was. Perhaps she might not recognize it again, in the way +he had written it here; perhaps she did not really mean it when she +had given him permission to use it, but he remembered her truthful +eyes and believed her--and in any event it was hers to do with what +she liked. It had been a great pleasure for him to write it and +think that she would see it; it was like seeing her himself--that +was in HIS BETTER SELF--more worthy the companionship of a +beautiful and noble woman than the poor young man she would have +helped. This was why he had not called the week before she went +away. But for all that, she had made his life less lonely, and he +should be ever grateful to her. He could never forget how she +unconsciously sympathized with him that day over the loss that had +blighted his life forever,--yet even then he did not know that she, +herself, had passed through the same suffering. But just here the +stricken widow of thirty, after a vain attempt to keep up the +knitted gravity of her eyebrows, bowed her dimpling face over the +letter of the blighted widower of twenty, and laughed so long and +silently that the tears stood out like dew on her light-brown +eyelashes. + +But she became presently severe again, and finished her reading of +the letter gravely. Then she folded it carefully, deposited it in +a box on her table, which she locked. After a few minutes, +however, she unlocked the box again and transferred the letter to +her pocket. The serenity of her features did not relax again, +although her previous pretty prepossession of youthful spirit was +still indicated in her movements. Going into her bedroom, she +reappeared in a few minutes with a light cloak thrown over her +shoulders and a white-trimmed broad-brimmed hat. Then she rolled +up the manuscript in a paper, and called her French maid. As she +stood there awaiting her with the roll in her hand, she might have +been some young girl on her way to her music lesson. + +"If my brother returns before I do, tell him to wait." + +"Madame is going"-- + +"Out," said Mrs. Ashwood blithely, and tripped downstairs. + +She made her way directly to the shore where she remembered there +was a group of rocks affording a shelter from the northwest trade +winds. It was reached at low water by a narrow ridge of sand, and +here she had often basked in the sun with her book. It was here +that she now unrolled John Milton's manuscript and read. + +It was the story she had told him, but interpreted by his poetry +and adorned by his fancy until the facts as she remembered them +seemed to be no longer hers, or indeed truths at all. She had +always believed her cousin's unhappy temperament to have been the +result of a moral and physical idiosyncrasy,--she found it here to +be the effect of a lifelong and hopeless passion for herself! The +ingenious John Milton had given a poet's precocity to the youth +whom she had only known as a suspicious, moody boy, had idealized +him as a sensitive but songless Byron, had given him the added +infirmity of pulmonary weakness, and a handkerchief that in moments +of great excitement, after having been hurriedly pressed to his +pale lips, was withdrawn "with a crimson stain." Opposed to this +interesting figure--the more striking to her as she had been +hitherto haunted by the impression that her cousin during his +boyhood had been subject to facial eruption and boils--was her own +equally idealized self. Cruelly kind to her cousin and gentle with +his weaknesses while calmly ignoring their cause, leading him +unconsciously step by step in his fatal passion, he only became +aware by accident that she nourished an ideal hero in the person of +a hard, proud, middle-aged practical man of the world,--her future +husband! At this picture of the late Mr. Ashwood, who had really +been an indistinctive social bon vivant, his amiable relict grew +somewhat hysterical. The discovery of her real feelings drove the +consumptive cousin into a secret, self-imposed exile on the shores +of the Pacific, where he hoped to find a grave. But the complete +and sudden change of life and scene, the balm of the wild woods and +the wholesome barbarism of nature, wrought a magical change in his +physical health and a philosophical rest in his mind. He married +the daughter of an Indian chief. Years passed, the heroine--a rich +and still young and beautiful widow--unwittingly sought the same +medicinal solitude. Here in the depth of the forest she encountered +her former playmate; the passion which he had fondly supposed was +dead revived in her presence, and for the first time she learned +from his bearded lips the secret of his passion. Alas! not SHE +alone! The contiguous forest could not be bolted out, and the +Indian wife heard all. Recognizing the situation with aboriginal +directness of purpose, she committed suicide in the fond belief that +it would reunite the survivors. But in vain; the cousins parted on +the spot to meet no more. + +Even Mrs. Ashwood's predilection for the youthful writer could not +overlook the fact that the denouement was by no means novel nor the +situation human, but yet it was here that she was most interested +and fascinated. The description of the forest was a description +of the wood where she had first met Harcourt; the charm of it +returned, until she almost seemed to again inhale its balsamic +freshness in the pages before her. Now, as then, her youth came +back with the same longing and regret. But more bewildering than +all, it was herself that moved there, painted with the loving hand +of the narrator. For the first time she experienced the delicious +flattery of seeing herself as only a lover could see her. The +smallest detail of her costume was suggested with an accuracy that +pleasantly thrilled her feminine sense. The grace of her figure +slowly moving through the shadow, the curves of her arm and the +delicacy of her hand that held the bridle rein, the gentle glow of +her softly rounded cheek, the sweet mystery of her veiled eyes and +forehead, and the escaping gold of her lovely hair beneath her hat +were all in turn masterfully touched or tenderly suggested. And +when to this was added the faint perfume of her nearer presence-- +the scent she always used--the delicate revelations of her +withdrawn gauntlet, the bracelet clasping her white wrist, and at +last the thrilling contact of her soft hand on his arm,--she put +down the manuscript and blushed like a very girl. Then she +started. + +A shout!--HIS voice surely!--and the sound of oars in their +rowlocks. + +An instant revulsion of feeling overtook her. With a quick +movement she instantly hid the manuscript beneath her cloak and +stood up erect and indignant. Not twenty yards away, apparently +advancing from the opposite shore of the bay, was a boat. It +contained only John Milton, resting on his oars and scanning the +group of rocks anxiously. His face, which was quite strained with +anxiety, suddenly flushed when he saw her, and then recognizing the +unmistakable significance of her look and attitude, paled once +more. He bent over his oars again; a few strokes brought him close +to the rock. + +"I beg your pardon," he said hesitatingly, as he turned towards her +and laid aside his oars, "but--I thought--you were--in danger." + +She glanced quickly round her. She had forgotten the tide! The +ledge between her and the shore was already a foot under brown sea- +water. Yet if she had not thought that it would look ridiculous, +she would have leaped down even then and waded ashore. + +"It's nothing," she said coldly, with the air of one to whom the +situation was an everyday occurrence; "it's only a few steps and a +slight wetting--and my brother would have been here in a moment +more." + +John Milton's frank eyes made no secret of his mortification. "I +ought not to have disturbed you, I know," he said quickly, "I had +no right. But I was on the other shore opposite and I saw you come +down here--that is"--he blushed prodigiously--"I thought it MIGHT +BE you--and I ventured--I mean--won't you let me row you ashore?" + +There seemed to be no reasonable excuse for refusing. She slipped +quickly into the boat without waiting for his helping hand, +avoiding that contact which only a moment ago she was trying to +recall. + +A few strokes brought them ashore. He continued his explanation +with the hopeless frankness and persistency of youth and +inexperience. "I only came here the day before yesterday. I would +not have come, but Mr. Fletcher, who has a cottage on the other +shore, sent for me to offer me my old place on the 'Clarion.' I +had no idea of intruding upon your privacy by calling here without +permission." + +Mrs. Ashwood had resumed her conventional courtesy without however +losing her feminine desire to make her companion pay for the +agitation he had caused her. "We would have been always pleased to +see you," she said vaguely, "and I hope, as you are here now, you +will come with me to the hotel. My brother"-- + +But he still retained his hold of the boat-rope without moving, and +continued, "I saw you yesterday, through the telescope, sitting in +your balcony; and later at night I think it was your shadow I saw +near the blue shaded lamp in the sitting-room by the window,--I +don't mean the RED LAMP that you have in your own room. I watched +you until you put out the blue lamp and lit the red one. I tell +you this--because--because--I thought you might be reading a +manuscript I sent you. At least," he smiled faintly, "I LIKED to +think it so." + +In her present mood this struck her only as persistent and somewhat +egotistical. But she felt herself now on ground where she could +deal firmly with him. + +"Oh, yes," she said gravely. "I got it and thank you very much for +it. I intended to write to you." + +"Don't," he said, looking at her fixedly. "I can see you don't +like it." + +"On the contrary," she said promptly, "I think it beautifully +written, and very ingenious in plot and situation. Of course it +isn't the story I told you--I didn't expect that, for I'm not a +genius. The man is not at all like my cousin, you know, and the +woman--well really, to tell the truth, SHE is simply inconceivable!" + +"You think so?" he said gravely. He had been gazing abstractedly +at some shining brown seaweed in the water, and when he raised his +eyes to hers they seemed to have caught its color. + +"Think so? I'm positive! There's no such a woman; she isn't +HUMAN. But let us walk to the hotel." + +"Thank you, but I must go back now." + +"But at least let my brother thank you for taking his place--in +rescuing me. It was so thoughtful in you to put off at once when +you saw I was surrounded. I might have been in great danger." + +"Please don't make fun of me, Mrs. Ashwood," he said with a faint +return of his boyish smile. "You know there was no danger. I have +only interrupted you in a nap or a reverie--and I can see now that +you evidently came here to be alone." + +Holding the manuscript more closely hidden under the folds of her +cloak, she smiled enigmatically. "I think I DID, and it seems that +the tide thought so too, and acted upon it. But you will come up +to the hotel with me, surely?" + +"No, I am going back now." There was a sudden firmness about the +young fellow which she had never before noticed. This was +evidently the creature who had married in spite of his family. + +"Won't you come back long enough to take your manuscript? I will +point out the part I refer to, and--we will talk it over." + +"There is no necessity. I wrote to you that you might keep it; it +is yours; it was written for you and none other. It is quite +enough for me to know that you were good enough to read it. But +will you do one thing more for me? Read it again! If you find +anything in it the second time to change your views--if you find"-- + +"I will let you know," she said quickly. "I will write to you as I +intended." + +"No, I didn't mean that. I meant that if you found the woman less +inconceivable and more human, don't write to me, but put your red +lamp in your window instead of the blue one. I will watch for it +and see it." + +"I think I will be able to explain myself much better with simple +pen and ink," she said dryly, " and it will be much more useful to +you." + +He lifted his hat gravely, shoved off the boat, leaped into it, and +before she could hold out her hand was twenty feet away. She +turned and ran quickly up the rocks. When she reached the hotel, +she could see the boat already half across the bay. + +Entering her sitting-room she found that her brother, tired of +waiting for her, had driven out. Taking the hidden manuscript from +her cloak she tossed it with a slight gesture of impatience on the +table. Then she summoned the landlord. + +"Is there a town across the bay?" + +"No! the whole mountain-side belongs to Don Diego Fletcher. He +lives away back in the coast range at Los Gatos, but he has a +cottage and mill on the beach." + +"Don Diego Fletcher--Fletcher! Is he a Spaniard then?" + +"Half and half, I reckon; he's from the lower country, I believe." + +"Is he here often?" + +"Not much; he has mills at Los Gatos, wheat ranches at Santa Clara, +and owns a newspaper in 'Frisco! But he's here now. There were +lights in his house last night, and his cutter lies off the point." + +"Could you get a small package and note to him?" + +"Certainly; it is only a row across the bay." + +"Thank you." + +Without removing her hat and cloak she sat down at the table and +began a letter to Don Diego Fletcher. She begged to inclose to him +a manuscript which she was satisfied, for the interests of its +author, was better in his hands than hers. It had been given to +her by the author, Mr. J. M. Harcourt, whom she understood was +engaged on Mr. Fletcher's paper, the "Clarion." In fact, it had +been written at HER suggestion, and from an incident in real life +of which she was cognizant. She was sorry to say that on account +of some very foolish criticism of her own as to the FACTS, the +talented young author had become so dissatisfied with it as to make +it possible that, if left to himself, this very charming and +beautifully written story would remain unpublished. As an admirer +of Mr. Harcourt's genius, and a friend of his family, she felt that +such an event would be deplorable, and she therefore begged to +leave it to Mr. Fletcher's delicacy and tact to arrange with the +author for its publication. She knew that Mr. Fletcher had only to +read it to be convinced of its remarkable literary merit, and she +again would impress upon him the fact that her playful and +thoughtless criticism--which was personal and confidential--was +only based upon the circumstances that the author had really made a +more beautiful and touching story than the poor facts which she had +furnished seemed to warrant. She had only just learned the +fortunate circumstance that Mr. Fletcher was in the neighborhood of +the hotel where she was staying with her brother. + +With the same practical, business-like directness, but perhaps a +certain unbusiness-like haste superadded, she rolled up the +manuscript and dispatched it with the letter. + +This done, however, a slight reaction set in, and having taken off +her hat and shawl, she dropped listlessly on a chair by the window, +but as suddenly rose and took a seat in the darker part of the +room. She felt that she had done right, that highest but most +depressing of human convictions! It was entirely for his good. +There was no reason why his best interests should suffer for his +folly. If anybody was to suffer it was she. But what nonsense was +she thinking! She would write to him later when she was a little +cooler,--as she had said. But then he had distinctly told her, and +very rudely too, that he didn't want her to write. Wanted her to +make SIGNALS to him,--the idiot! and probably was even now watching +her with a telescope. It was really too preposterous! + +The result was that her brother found her on his return in a +somewhat uncertain mood, and, as a counselor, variable and +conflicting in judgment. If this Clementina, who seemed to have the +family qualities of obstinacy and audacity, really cared for him, +she certainly wouldn't let delicacy stand in the way of letting him +know it--and he was therefore safe to wait a little. A few moments +later, she languidly declared that she was afraid that she was no +counselor in such matters; really she was getting too old to take +any interest in that sort of thing, and she never had been a +matchmaker! By the way now, wasn't it odd that this neighbor, that +rich capitalist across the bay, should be called Fletcher, and +"James Fletcher" too, for Diego meant "James" in Spanish. Exactly +the same name as poor "Cousin Jim" who disappeared. Did he remember +her old playmate Jim? But her brother thought something else was a +deuced sight more odd, namely, that this same Don Diego Fletcher was +said to be very sweet on Clementina now, and was always in her +company at the Ramirez. And that, with this "Clarion" apology on +the top of it, looked infernally queer. + +Mrs. Ashwood felt a sudden consternation. Here had she--Jack's +sister--just been taking Jack's probable rival into confidential +correspondence! She turned upon Jack sharply:-- + +"Why didn't you say that before?" + +"I did tell you," he said gloomily, "but you didn't listen. But +what difference does it make to you now?" + +"None whatever," said Mrs. Ashwood calmly as she walked out of the +room. + +Nevertheless the afternoon passed wearily, and her usual ride into +the upland canyon did not reanimate her. For reasons known best to +herself she did not take her after-dinner stroll along the shore to +watch the outlying fog. At a comparatively early hour, while there +was still a roseate glow in the western sky, she appeared with grim +deliberation, and the blue lamp-shade in her hand, and placed it +over the lamp which she lit and stood on her table beside the +window. This done she sat down and began to write with bright-eyed +but vicious complacency. + +"But you don't want that light AND the window, Constance," said +Jack wonderingly. + +Mrs. Ashwood could not stand the dreadful twilight. + +"But take away your lamp and you'll have light enough from the +sunset," responded Jack. + +That was just what she didn't want! The light from the window was +that horrid vulgar red glow which she hated. It might be very +romantic and suit lovers like Jack, but as SHE had some work to do, +she wanted the blue shade of the lamp to correct that dreadful +glare. + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +John Milton had rowed back without lifting his eyes to Mrs. +Ashwood's receding figure. He believed that he was right in +declining her invitation, although he had a miserable feeling that +it entailed seeing her for the last time. With all that he +believed was his previous experience of the affections, he was +still so untutored as to be confused as to his reasons for +declining, or his right to have been shocked and disappointed at +her manner. It seemed to him sufficiently plain that he had +offended the most perfect woman he had ever known without knowing +more. The feeling he had for her was none the less powerful +because, in his great simplicity, it was vague and unformulated. +And it was a part of this strange simplicity that in his miserable +loneliness his thoughts turned unconsciously to his dead wife for +sympathy and consolation. Loo would have understood him! + +Mr. Fletcher, who had received him on his arrival with singular +effusiveness and cordiality, had put off their final arrangements +until after dinner, on account of pressing business. It was +therefore with some surprise that an hour before the time he was +summoned to Fletcher's room. He was still more surprised to find +him sitting at his desk, from which a number of business papers and +letters had been hurriedly thrust aside to make way for a manuscript. +A single glance at it was enough to show the unhappy John Milton +that it was the one he had sent to Mrs. Ashwood. The color flashed +to his cheek and he felt a mist before his eyes. His employer's +face, on the contrary, was quite pale, and his eyes were fixed on +Harcourt with a singular intensity. His voice too, although under +great control, was hard and strange. + +"Read that," he said, handing the young man a letter. + +The color again streamed into John Milton's face as he recognized +the hand of Mrs. Ashwood, and remained there while he read it. +When he put it down, however, he raised his frank eyes to +Fletcher's, and said with a certain dignity and manliness: "What +she says is the truth, sir. But it is I alone who am at fault. +This manuscript is merely MY stupid idea of a very simple story she +was once kind enough to tell me when we were talking of strange +occurrences in real life, which she thought I might some time make +use of in my work. I tried to embellish it, and failed. That's +all. I will take it back,--it was written only for her." + +There was such an irresistible truthfulness and sincerity in his +voice and manner, that any idea of complicity with the sender was +dismissed from Fletcher's mind. As Harcourt, however, extended his +hand for the manuscript Fletcher interfered. + +"You forget that you gave it to her, and she has sent it to me. If +I don't keep it, it can be returned to her only. Now may I ask who +is this lady who takes such an interest in your literary career? +Have you known her long? Is she a friend of your family?" + +The slight sneer that accompanied his question restored the natural +color to the young man's face, but kindled his eye ominously. + +"No," he said briefly. "I met her accidentally about two months +ago and as accidentally found out that she had taken an interest in +one of the first things I ever wrote for your paper. She neither +knew you nor me. It was then that she told me this story; she did +not even then know who I was, though she had met some of my family. +She was very good and has generously tried to help me." + +Fletcher's eyes remained fixed upon him. + +"But this tells me only WHAT she is, not WHO she is." + +"I am afraid you must inquire of her brother, Mr. Shipley," said +Harcourt curtly. + +"Shipley?" + +"Yes; he is traveling with her for his health, and they are going +south when the rains come. They are wealthy Philadelphians, I +believe, and--and she is a widow." + +Fletcher picked up her note and glanced again at the signature, +"Constance Ashwood." There was a moment of silence, when he +resumed in quite a different voice: "It's odd I never met them nor +they me." + +As he seemed to be waiting for a response, John Milton said simply: +"I suppose it's because they have not been here long, and are +somewhat reserved." + +Mr. Fletcher laid aside the manuscript and letter, and took up his +apparently suspended work. + +"When you see this Mrs.--Mrs. Ashwood again, you might say"-- + +"I shall not see her again," interrupted John Milton hastily. + +Mr. Fletcher shrugged his shoulders. "Very well," he said with a +peculiar smile, "I will write to her. Now, Mr. Harcourt," he +continued with a sudden business brevity, "if you please, we'll +drop this affair and attend to the matter for which I just summoned +you. Since yesterday an important contract for which I have been +waiting is concluded, and its performance will take me East at +once. I have made arrangements that you will be left in the +literary charge of the 'Clarion.' It is only a fitting recompense +that the paper owes to you and your father,--to whom I hope to see +you presently reconciled. But we won't discuss that now! As my +affairs take me back to Los Gatos within half an hour, I am sorry I +cannot dispense my hospitality in person,--but you will dine and +sleep here to-night. Good-by. As you go out will you please send +up Mr. Jackson to me." He nodded briefly, seemed to plunge +instantly into his papers again, and John Milton was glad to +withdraw. + +The shock he had felt at Mrs. Ashwood's frigid disposition of his +wishes and his manuscript had benumbed him to any enjoyment or +appreciation of the change in his fortune. He wandered out of the +house and descended to the beach in a dazed, bewildered way, seeing +only the words of her letter to Fletcher before him, and striving +to grasp some other meaning from them than their coldly practical +purport. Perhaps this was her cruel revenge for his telling her +not to write to him. Could she not have divined it was only his +fear of what she might say! And now it was all over! She had +washed her hands of him with the sending of that manuscript and +letter, and he would pass out of her memory as a foolish, conceited +ingrate,--perhaps a figure as wearily irritating and stupid to her +as the cousin she had known. He mechanically lifted his eyes to +the distant hotel; the glow was still in the western sky, but the +blue lamp was already shining in the window. His cheek flushed +quickly, and he turned away as if she could have seen his face. +Yes--she despised him, and THAT was his answer! + +When he returned, Mr. Fletcher had gone. He dragged through a +dinner with Mr. Jackson, Fletcher's secretary, and tried to realize +his good fortune in listening to the subordinate's congratulations. +"But I thought," said Jackson, "you had slipped up on your luck to- +day, when the old man sent for you. He was quite white, and ready +to rip out about something that had just come in. I suppose it was +one of those anonymous things against your father,--the old man's +dead set against 'em now." But John Milton heard him vaguely, and +presently excused himself for a row on the moonlit bay. + +The active exertion, with intervals of placid drifting along the +land-locked shore, somewhat soothed him. The heaving Pacific +beyond was partly hidden in a low creeping fog, but the curving bay +was softly radiant. The rocks whereon she sat that morning, the +hotel where she was now quietly reading, were outlined in black and +silver. In this dangerous contiguity it seemed to him that her +presence returned,--not the woman who had met him so coldly; who +had penned those lines; the woman from whom he was now parting +forever, but the blameless ideal he had worshiped from the first, +and which he now felt could never pass out of his life again! He +recalled their long talks, their rarer rides and walks in the city; +her quick appreciation and ready sympathy; her pretty curiosity and +half-maternal consideration of his foolish youthful past; even the +playful way that she sometimes seemed to make herself younger as if +to better understand him. Lingering at times in the shadow of the +headland, he fancied he saw the delicate nervous outlines of her +face near his own again; the faint shading of her brown lashes, the +soft intelligence of her gray eyes. Drifting idly in the placid +moonlight, pulling feverishly across the swell of the channel, or +lying on his oars in the shallows of the rocks, but always following +the curves of the bay, like a bird circling around a lighthouse, it +was far in the night before he at last dragged his boat upon the +sand. Then he turned to look once more at her distant window. He +would be away in the morning and he should never see it again! It +was very late, but the blue light seemed to be still burning +unalterably and inflexibly. + +But even as he gazed, a change came over it. A shadow seemed to +pass before the blind; the blue shade was lifted; for an instant he +could see the colorless star-like point of the light itself show +clearly. It was over now; she was putting out the lamp. Suddenly +he held his breath! A roseate glow gradually suffused the window +like a burning blush; the curtain was drawn aside, and the red +lamp-shade gleamed out surely and steadily into the darkness. + +Transfigured and breathless in the moonlight, John Milton gazed on +it. It seemed to him the dawn of Love! + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The winter rains had come. But so plenteously and persistently, +and with such fateful preparation of circumstance, that the long +looked for blessing presently became a wonder, an anxiety, and at +last a slowly widening terror. Before a month had passed every +mountain, stream, and watercourse, surcharged with the melted snows +of the Sierras, had become a great tributary; every tributary a +great river, until, pouring their great volume into the engorged +channels of the American and Sacramento rivers, they overleaped +their banks and became as one vast inland sea. Even to a country +already familiar with broad and striking catastrophe, the flood was +a phenomenal one. For days the sullen overflow lay in the valley +of the Sacramento, enormous, silent, currentless--except where the +surplus waters rolled through Carquinez Straits, San Francisco Bay, +and the Golden Gate, and reappeared as the vanished Sacramento +River, in an outflowing stream of fresh and turbid water fifty +miles at sea. + +Across the vast inland expanse, brooded over by a leaden sky, leaden +rain fell, dimpling like shot the sluggish pools of the flood; a +cloudy chaos of fallen trees, drifting barns and outhouses, wagons +and agricultural implements moved over the surface of the waters, or +circled slowly around the outskirts of forests that stood ankle deep +in ooze and the current, which in serried phalanx they resisted +still. As night fell these forms became still more vague and +chaotic, and were interspersed with the scattered lanterns and +flaming torches of relief-boats, or occasionally the high terraced +gleaming windows of the great steamboats, feeling their way along +the lost channel. At times the opening of a furnace-door shot broad +bars of light across the sluggish stream and into the branches of +dripping and drift-encumbered trees; at times the looming +smoke-stacks sent out a pent-up breath of sparks that illuminated +the inky chaos for a moment, and then fell as black and dripping +rain. Or perhaps a hoarse shout from some faintly outlined hulk on +either side brought a quick response from the relief-boats, and the +detaching of a canoe with a blazing pine-knot in its bow into the +outer darkness. + +It was late in the afternoon when Lawrence Grant, from the deck of +one of the larger tugs, sighted what had been once the estuary of +Sidon Creek. The leader of a party of scientific observation and +relief, he had kept a tireless watch of eighteen hours, keenly +noticing the work of devastation, the changes in the channel, the +prospects of abatement, and the danger that still threatened. He +had passed down the length of the submerged Sacramento valley, +through the Straits of Carquinez, and was now steaming along the +shores of the upper reaches of San Francisco Bay. Everywhere the +same scene of desolation,--vast stretches of tule land, once broken +up by cultivation and dotted with dwellings, now clearly erased on +that watery chart; long lines of symmetrical perspective, breaking +the monotonous level, showing orchards buried in the flood; Indian +mounds and natural eminences covered with cattle or hastily erected +camps; half submerged houses, whose solitary chimneys, however, +still gave signs of an undaunted life within; isolated groups of +trees, with their lower branches heavy with the unwholesome fruit +of the flood, in wisps of hay and straw, rakes and pitchforks, or +pathetically sheltering some shivering and forgotten household pet. +But everywhere the same dull, expressionless, placid tranquillity +of destruction,--a horrible leveling of all things in one bland +smiling equality of surface, beneath which agony, despair, and ruin +were deeply buried and forgotten; a catastrophe without convulsion,-- +a devastation voiceless, passionless, and supine. + +The boat had slowed up before what seemed to be a collection of +disarranged houses with the current flowing between lines that +indicated the existence of thoroughfares and streets. Many of the +lighter wooden buildings were huddled together on the street +corners with their gables to the flow; some appeared as if they had +fallen on their knees, and others lay complacently on their sides, +like the houses of a child's toy village. An elevator still lifted +itself above the other warehouses; from the centre of an enormous +square pond, once the plaza, still arose a "Liberty pole," or +flagstaff, which now supported a swinging lantern, and in the +distance appeared the glittering dome of some public building. +Grant recognized the scene at once. It was all that was left of +the invincible youth of Tasajara! + +As this was an objective point of the scheme of survey and relief +for the district, the boat was made fast to the second story of one +of the warehouses. It was now used as a general store and depot, +and bore a singular resemblance in its interior to Harcourt's +grocery at Sidon. This suggestion was the more fatefully indicated +by the fact that half a dozen men were seated around a stove in the +centre, more or less given up to a kind of philosophical and lazy +enjoyment of their enforced idleness. And when to this was added +the more surprising coincidence that the party consisted of +Billings, Peters, and Wingate,--former residents of Sidon and first +citizens of Tasajara,--the resemblance was complete. + +They were ruined,--but they accepted their common fate with a +certain Indian stoicism and Western sense of humor that for the +time lifted them above the vulgar complacency of their former +fortunes. There was a deep-seated, if coarse and irreverent +resignation in their philosophy. At the beginning of the calamity +it had been roughly formulated by Billings in the statement that +"it wasn't anybody's fault; there was nobody to kill, and what +couldn't be reached by a Vigilance Committee there was no use +resolootin' over." When the Reverend Doctor Pilsbury had suggested +an appeal to a Higher Power, Peters had replied, good humoredly, +that "a Creator who could fool around with them in that style was +above being interfered with by prayer." At first the calamity had +been a thing to fight against; then it became a practical joke, the +sting of which was lost in the victims' power of endurance and +assumed ignorance of its purport. There was something almost +pathetic in their attempts to understand its peculiar humor. + +"How about that Europ-e-an trip o' yours, Peters?" said Billings, +meditatively, from the depths of his chair. "Looks as if those +Crowned Heads over there would have to wait till the water goes +down considerable afore you kin trot out your wife and darters +before 'em!" + +"Yes," said Peters, "it rather pints that way; and ez far ez I kin +see, Mame Billings ain't goin' to no Saratoga, neither, this year." + +"Reckon the boys won't hang about old Harcourt's Free Library to +see the girls home from lectures and singing-class much this year," +said Wingate. "Wonder if Harcourt ever thought o' this the day he +opened it, and made that rattlin' speech o' his about the new +property? Clark says everything built on that made ground has got +to go after the water falls. Rough on Harcourt after all his other +losses, eh? He oughter have closed up with that scientific chap, +Grant, and married him to Clementina while the big boom was on"-- + +"Hush!" said Peters, indicating Grant, who had just entered +quietly. + +"Don't mind me, gentlemen," said Grant, stepping towards the group +with a grave but perfectly collected face; "on the contrary, I am +very anxious to hear all the news of Harcourt's family. I left for +New York before the rainy season, and have only just got back." + +His speech and manner appeared to be so much in keeping with the +prevailing grim philosophy that Billings, after a glance at the +others, went on. "Ef you left afore the first rains," said he, +"you must have left only the steamer ahead of Fletcher, when he run +off with Clementina Harcourt, and you might have come across them +on their wedding trip in New York." + +Not a muscle of Grant's face changed under their eager and cruel +scrutiny. "No, I didn't," he returned quietly. "But why did she +run away? Did the father object to Fletcher? If I remember +rightly he was rich and a good match." + +"Yes, but I reckon the old man hadn't quite got over the 'Clarion' +abuse, for all its eating humble-pie and taking back its yarns of +him. And may be he might have thought the engagement rather +sudden. They say that she'd only met Fletcher the day afore the +engagement." + +"That be d----d," said Peters, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, +and startling the lazy resignation of his neighbors by taking his +feet from the stove and sitting upright. "I tell ye, gentlemen, +I'm sick o' this sort o' hog-wash that's been ladled round to us. +That gal Clementina Harcourt and that feller Fletcher had met not +only once, but MANY times afore--yes! they were old friends if it +comes to that, a matter of six years ago." + +Grant's eyes were fixed eagerly on the speaker, although the others +scarcely turned their heads. + +"You know, gentlemen," said Peters, "I never took stock in this yer +story of the drownin' of 'Lige Curtis. Why? Well, if you wanter +know--in my opinion--there never was any 'Lige Curtis!" + +Billings lifted his head with difficulty; Wingate turned his face +to the speaker. + +"There never was a scrap o' paper ever found in his cabin with the +name o' 'Lige Curtis on it; there never was any inquiry made for +'Lige Curtis; there never was any sorrowin' friends comin' after +'Lige Curtis. For why?--There never was any 'Lige Curtis. The man +who passed himself off in Sidon under that name--was that man +Fletcher. That's how he knew all about Harcourt's title; that's +how he got his best holt on Harcourt. And he did it all to get +Clementina Harcourt, whom the old man had refused to him in Sidon." + +A grunt of incredulity passed around the circle. Such is the fate +of historical innovation! Only Grant listened attentively. + +"Ye ought to tell that yarn to John Milton," said Wingate +ironically; "it's about in the style o' them stories he slings in +the 'Clarion.'" + +"He's made a good thing outer that job. Wonder what he gets for +them?" said Peters. + +It was Billings's time to rise, and, under the influence of some +strong cynical emotion, to even rise to his feet. "Gets for 'em!-- +GETS for 'em! I'll tell you WHAT he gets for 'em! It beats this +story o' Peters's,--it beats the flood. It beats me! Ye know that +boy, gentlemen; ye know how he uster lie round his father's store, +reading flapdoodle stories and sich! Ye remember how I uster try +to give him good examples and knock some sense into him? Ye +remember how, after his father's good luck, he spiled all his own +chances, and ran off with his father's waiter gal--all on account +o' them flapdoodle books he read? Ye remember how he sashayed +round newspaper offices in 'Frisco until he could write a +flapdoodle story himself? Ye wanter know what he gets for 'em. +I'll tell you. He got an interduction to one of them high-toned, +highfalutin', 'don't-touch-me' rich widders from Philadelfy,-- +that's what he gets for 'em! He got her dead set on him and his +stories, that's what he gets for 'em! He got her to put him up +with Fletcher in the 'Clarion,'--that's what he gets for 'em. And +darn my skin!--ef what they say is true, while we hard-working men +are sittin' here like drowned rats--that air John Milton, ez never +did a stitch o' live work like me yere; ez never did anythin' but +spin yarns about US ez did WORK, is now 'gittin' for 'em'--what? +Guess! Why, he's gittin' THE RICH WIDDER HERSELF and HALF A +MILLION DOLLARS WITH HER! Gentlemen! lib'ty is a good thing--but +thar's some things ye gets too much lib'ty of in this country--and +that's this yer LIB'TY OF THE PRESS!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext A First Family of Tasajara, by Bret Harte + |