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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40546 ***
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/fortunehunteroro00cartrich
+
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNE HUNTER;
+
+OR,
+
+THE OLD STONE CORRAL.
+
+A Tale of the Santa Fe Trail.
+
+by
+
+JOHN DUNLOE CARTERET.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Cincinnati:
+Printed for the Author.
+1888.
+
+Copyrighted, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    CHAPTER I.
+
+    Nature's Blank Page--The Old Stone Corral--The Lost Treasure
+    of Monteluma--Camp-fires--The Warlow and Moreland Families--The
+    Camp on the Cottonwood--A Tale of the Camp-fire                    7
+
+
+    CHAPTER II.
+
+    Colonel Warlow's Story--Bruce Walraven--The Heiress of
+    Monteluma--The Vale of Mexico--Bandits--The Rescue--The
+    Web of Destiny                                                    19
+
+
+    CHAPTER III.
+
+    Breakfast on the Plains--Colonel Warlow's Story
+    Continued--Bruce Walraven's Creed--Blood-drenched Malvern
+    Hill--The Dim Crest of Orizaba--Roses and Thorns--The
+    Wealth of Monteluma--A Cask of Gold--The Casket of
+    Gems--The Overland Journey--A Dark Tragedy                        29
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV.
+
+    Colonel Warlow's Story Continued--Los Angeles--A Friend
+    in Need--A Storm on the Pacific--Shipwreck--Under the
+    Waves                                                             48
+
+
+    CHAPTER V.
+
+    Colonel Warlow's Story Continued--Alone--The Castaway--The
+    Golden Gate to Home Sweet Home--Acapulco--Roger--The
+    Isthmus of Panama                                                 57
+
+    CHAPTER VI.
+
+    Colonel Warlow's Story Continued--The Tropical Groves
+    of Cuba--The Coffee Plantation--A Blooming Christmas--The
+    Tomb of Columbus--The Roses and Passion-flowers of
+    Cuba--The Warm Hearts of Home--Ah! Such a Day can never
+    come Again--Snow-drifts, Sleigh-bells, and
+    Sweethearts--Mary, etc.                                           71
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII.
+
+    Colonel Warlow's Story Concluded--The Wool-picking--The
+    Squire's Harrow--Wedding Bells--Profit and Loss--The
+    Spectre of the Stone Corral                                       79
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    The Monotony of Frontier Life--New Homes--Voting
+    Bonds--The Grasshopper Raid--Back to the Land of the
+    Mother-in-law--Grim Famine's Shadow--The Flood--A
+    Strange Weird Sight                                               87
+
+
+    CHAPTER IX.
+
+    A Raging Torrent--The Crows' Nest--An Aerial
+    Family--"Kansis oR buST"                                         100
+
+
+    CHAPTER X.
+
+    The Picnic--A Biled Vest--A Dark-eyed Maid with her Sweet
+    Guitar--Mora Estill--Fishing, etc., but Principally the
+    Latter--"We have met before"--The Gray Spectre--The
+    Mystery-wrapped Grave of the Hill-top--Rough as a
+    Farmer--Transmigration of Souls                                  108
+
+
+    CHAPTER XI.
+
+    A Western Call--Mystery--The Call lengthens into a Western
+    Visit--Spring Chicken and Mystery                                126
+
+    CHAPTER XII.
+
+    False Riches--A Young Fortune Hunter--The Santa Fe
+    Trail--Searching for the Gold of Monteluma--The Serpent's
+    Warning Rattle--The Stare of Death--The Gray Spectre             144
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    A Western Wheat-field--A Visit to Estill's Ranch--A
+    Skeleton in the Estill Closet--An Art Critic who was "Beef
+    to the Heel"--Very Undairy-like--A Trace of Mystery              159
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIV.
+
+    Phantoms of the Past--That "Unspeakable" Rob Warlow--The
+    Running-gears, if you please--The Clouds thicken--A
+    Glimpse of the Past                                              179
+
+
+    CHAPTER XV.
+
+    The Mysterious Trail--The Secret Cell--A Voice from
+    the Past--The Journal of Ivarene                                 194
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVI.
+
+    The Web of Mystery--The Gems of Monteluma--A Scene of
+    Bewildering Beauty                                               203
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVII.
+
+    The Red Gold of Monteluma--My Father's Doubloons--The
+    Phantom--A Million of Treasure                                   211
+
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+    The Course of True Love--The Cattle-king's
+    Daughter--Flirtation and Practicing--"Your Music makes me
+    Home-sick"--A Dubious Compliment--A Western View of Classic
+    Music--Schubert's Serenade, in which Rob has the "Cheek"
+    to assert that he can recognize the very Bar in that
+    Masterpiece, where the Old Man turns the Bull-dog loose--A
+    Couple of Idiots--Where Grace's Fingers itch to pull
+    Cliff's Ears--A Lover whose Lip hangs Very Low--That
+    Contemptible Thing, a Fortune Hunter                             220
+
+
+    CHAPTER XIX.
+
+    A Strange Theory--Our Bodies may be tenanted by Souls
+    that have lived before--Farewell, my Native Land--A
+    Glimmering Circle of Phantom Warriors--A Haunted Spot--The
+    Crossing of the Santa Fe and Abilene Trails--The
+    Picnic--A Scene that was too Rich for my Blood                   239
+
+
+    CHAPTER XX.
+
+    My Long-lost Gold--A Hero who dripped at the Nose like a
+    Hydrant--An Embarrassment of Riches--The Mirage--The Valley
+    of the Smoky Hill--The Iron Mound and Soldier's Cap--The
+    Mennonite Colony--A Gigantic Land-sale--Eagle Beak--The
+    Wailing Wolf of the Hill-top--A Strange Creed--A Stately
+    Mansion--The Grave-lights of Antelope Butte--A Comforting
+    and Seductive Theory--We may be re-born and live again to
+    enjoy the Happiness lost by Death                                259
+
+
+    CHAPTER XXI.
+
+    The Skeletons on Antelope Butte--The Serene Wedding Morn
+    at the Stone Corral--We Live Again--Wedding
+    Festivities--The End                                             285
+
+
+
+
+A FORTUNE HUNTER:
+
+OR,
+
+THE OLD STONE CORRAL.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I.
+
+
+The sinking sun threw its amber beams over the wide valley, rolling
+hills, and the dim buttes, wreathed in the blue haze of distance and
+looming with vague outlines in the wavering shimmer of the evening
+mirage.
+
+A silvery stream, half hidden by fringing trees, wound through the
+prairie valley, but was lost to sight where a lofty butte shouldered
+boldly down from the highland on the south, as if to catch a view of the
+Eden-like landscape that dreamed below, while far away to the north a
+line of galloping hills bounded the vision, their mantles of tender
+green dappled by the shadow and sunshine of the fleecy clouds that
+floated overhead. On the south the level prairie melted away into the
+limitless distance, clothed in the tender grasses and flowers of early
+spring-time, while on every hand stretched away the horizon-bound
+prairies of the Western plains.
+
+A wide meadow-land, made perfect by the hand of nature, but lacking that
+soul and animation which human occupancy alone can impart to any scene.
+No homes are visible; nothing but the blank page of nature, waiting to
+be written over with the histories of the people, which, something
+whispers to me, will soon invade this peaceful scene, over which now
+broods the unnatural calm of utter solitude.
+
+Out beyond that blue line of hills, which flame up in the east, is
+raging the fierce conflict which we call civilization; but the shock and
+din, the roar and turmoil of the mighty battle die fitfully away long
+before reaching the quivering line of that dim horizon. I stand alone
+upon the crest of a breeze-kissed hill, listening to the moan and
+whisper of the wind sighing through the grasses at my feet, or the notes
+of a meadow lark, thrilling and sweet, as it flits by.
+
+To the westward, on a lofty knoll, are visible the broken arches and
+ruined walls of the Old Stone Corral; rank vines now veil the loop-holes
+where once had flashed forth the leaden death-messenger for many a
+savage warrior that had tried to storm the impregnable inclosure, which
+had been built as a place of refuge for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail,
+that here crossed the Cottonwood on a stony ford. A giant elm, centuries
+old, stood amid the ruins, its drooping boughs of feathery spray weeping
+like a fountain of verdure over the spring that welled out from among
+its roots, then went gurgling away, a purling brook, to join the narrow
+stream in the valley.
+
+The river here at the ruins had nearly encircled the hill on which they
+stood, and after half embracing the knoll in its timber-fringed course
+had wound away down the valley, but where the groves grew in masses of
+darkest green, there the stream had widened to miniature lakelets that
+flashed like silver in the slanting sunbeams.
+
+On a low mound near by I see a great stone, like a rude monument, and
+drawing near I can barely decipher this dim and weather-worn
+inscription, carved on the red sandstone:
+
+            Erected to the Memory
+                     OF
+    FIFTY-THREE VICTIMS OF THE CHEYENNES,
+              AUGUST 22, 1849.
+             NAMES ALL UNKNOWN.
+
+Here is a dim, dark tragedy, buried within this grassy knoll, but within
+these pages all the mystery which haunts the flower-bespangled hillock
+will be cleared away. A difficult task indeed; but without those graves
+my story would never have been written.
+
+I stand silent and thoughtful, gazing out over the tranquil landscape,
+which had once witnessed a scene of revolting horror here on this quiet
+spot; but all is peaceful now, the only sign of life visible being the
+long file of antelope that hurry by from the north. Halting on a lofty
+headland, they pause a moment, stretching their graceful necks to gaze
+back along their pathway, then with loud snorts wheeling and swiftly
+fleeing away.
+
+At this moment the distant sound of hoofs was heard, becoming
+momentarily louder; then a group of riders dash up on their sleek,
+superb horses, and draw rein at the rude monument.
+
+"It must be here, Clifford, at this low mound," said one of the riders,
+a graceful girl of seventeen, with nut-brown hair and blue eyes.
+
+"Yes, Maud, I recognize the knoll from father's and Uncle Roger's
+description. It was uncle who carved this inscription upon the stone,
+little dreaming then that we should all come here a quarter of a century
+later to secure a new home," replied a youth of near twenty years;
+handsome, golden-haired, and symmetrical, with eyes of pansy blue, and a
+look of pride and good birth about him which showed plain through the
+dust and tan of a long journey.
+
+"Ah, dear Bruce and Ivarene! how sad to end their romance with such a
+tragedy!" said Maud tearfully, as Clifford dismounted; then, as he
+helped her to alight, they stood for a moment in mute sorrow while
+deciphering the inscription upon the stone.
+
+"Maud, it is hard to believe that the heiress of grand old Monteluma,
+with her millions of gold and gems at command, who wedded noble Bruce in
+the great cathedral before the dignitaries and ambassadors of half
+Christendom with a pomp and splendor new to even luxury-steeped Mexico,
+is sleeping with her husband in the silence of this lonesome grave,"
+Clifford said in a tone of deep sadness.
+
+"Oh! how vivid the picture returns, of the silken and lace-robed
+heiress, who threw back the gilded lattice of her window, and with
+pearls glinting, and rubies burning in her raven hair, smiled as her
+handsome lover, in his uniform of gray and gold lace, swung himself up
+to her window by the passion-vines and fuchsias, that rained a shower of
+purple, white, and rose on his sunny hair. I can almost see the
+love-look in his blue eyes yet," said Maud with a flood of tears, as she
+leaned against the rude monument and covered her face with her hands.
+
+"I have sometimes fancied that they escaped; for there was no one left
+but father to inquire, and you know how long he was covered with the
+stones of that old wall, remaining delirious for months after Uncle
+Roger found him," said Clifford, "and that million of their gold and
+gems, with father's store of gold, I have often fancied, Maud, was
+hidden near here; for there has never been a search made since the
+terrible massacre."
+
+"That looks so improbable, Clifford. If the savages murdered them for
+plunder, as they certainly did, then it is idle to think that they would
+have left anything of value behind. Even the jewels would have been
+fought for, as savages are very fond of glitter and splendor," Maud
+replied.
+
+"Yes, that very disposition of theirs to wrangle over their booty has
+given me a hope that the leader might have buried the gold, for the
+reason that it would have been impossible to carry away a ton of coin
+without first dividing it. I shall make the search at any rate, though
+it does look like a forlorn hope," he added with a sigh.
+
+"Miss Warlow, there seems to have been a great tragedy enacted here in
+the past," said a young man of near Clifford's age, who had been
+silently regarding them from a distance, in company with a
+flaxen-haired girl, younger than Maud, who still sat upon her horse by
+his side.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Moreland, and it nearly concerns us; for our father, here on
+this spot, once lost a great fortune, and at the same time those two
+friends of whom we have been speaking. This all was long before Clifford
+and I were born; but father has told us so often of the tragedy that the
+names of Bruce and Ivarene Walraven are dear and sacred to us all," Maud
+replied.
+
+"Oh, Ralph! I wonder if Colonel Warlow would tell us the particulars of
+that terrible affair?" said the younger girl.
+
+"It would be doubly interesting here upon the closing scene of the
+tragedy," the young man replied.
+
+"Will you ask your father, Maud, to tell us to-night?" the young girl
+inquired eagerly.
+
+"Yes, Grace: it will help to while away our first Sabbath here, which
+will be a lonesome day to-morrow," Maud made answer as they remounted
+and rode down to the stream to water their horses.
+
+"What a lovely camp-ground!" exclaimed Grace. "Shall we not stop here,
+Ralph?"
+
+"Yes, sister, if the others are willing. It is not only a fine camping
+ground, but it is more: This is a grand home-land, or will be when we
+select our 'claims,' Monday. I never before have seen a more beautiful
+or fertile valley than this."
+
+Soon a long line of white covered wagons and a comfortable carriage
+appeared, coming down the Santa Fe trail, which wound its travel-worn
+course over the hills from the north-east; and where solitude had
+reigned but an hour before there now re-echoed the sounds of a busy
+camp, and ruddy fires leaped and sparkled, about which female forms
+flitted to and fro, preparing their evening meal. But while all was
+bustle and animation within the camp, a solitary figure could be seen
+standing at the long grave, bowed in an attitude of silent grief.
+
+As he walked slowly back within the glare of the camp-fire, it was
+apparent that he was a man past middle life, of grave and dignified
+appearance; the lines of care, on his still handsome face, were deepened
+as if by grief as he seated himself by a tree, away from the glare of
+the light.
+
+As he sat thus--lost in reverie--Maud came softly by, and, passing her
+hand over his hair in a caressing way, said:--
+
+"What a lovely country this is! I am charmed with it already."
+
+"Yes, Maud, my daughter, it is a fertile and picturesque region; but it
+will be hard to inure myself to living on this spot, for it is haunted
+by very bitter memories."
+
+"Oh, it is sad, indeed, to think of the fate of Bruce and his graceful
+bride; but we will deck their grave with flowers, and I shall never
+cease to grieve for them," she said, dropping a kiss on her father's
+cheek, then hurrying away to the camp-fire.
+
+He was roused from his gloomy reverie, a few minutes later, by his wife,
+who came to his side, and, as her hand rested fondly on his shoulder,
+she said, in a sweet voice of womanly sympathy, in which could be
+traced a sub-tone of strength and resolution:--
+
+"George, dear, this is no time for repining; instead we should feel
+happy and grateful that we have found such a delightful country as this
+in which to select our future home. Oh, this valley is more beautiful
+than even my wildest dreams had ever pictured. I had felt apprehensive,
+husband, that your impressions of this place had been colored by your
+youthful enthusiasm of twenty, and own that I had made ample allowance
+for the quarter of a century which has passed since then; but it is
+certainly the most charming spot I have ever beheld."
+
+"My dear, brave wife," he replied joyfully, "you lift a heavy burden
+from my heart; we will select a home near here early Monday morning, and
+begin building at once. I shall leave the selection with you, Mary,
+however."
+
+"Oh, we are too late," she replied, with a cheerful smile. "Robbie has
+found the spot already; he has just returned from down the valley, where
+Scott Moreland and himself had driven the stock, and they report having
+found a perfect paradise. They are both boiling over with enthusiasm,
+and are bareheaded, having left their hats hanging on trees to mark the
+location of their respective 'claims,' and when I left the camp-fire
+they were inveighing against the injustice of a law that would not
+permit fifteen-year-old boys to take a 'homestead.'"
+
+In a more cheerful mood the couple now sought the camp-fire, which was
+surrounded by more than a dozen persons of both sexes, all animated and
+happy over the termination of their long and toilsome journey.
+
+The two who have just entered the circle are Colonel Warlow and his
+wife, while the handsome youth of fifteen, with hazel eyes and auburn
+hair, which has a faint tinge of red, that accounts for the reputation
+he has earned within the Warlow circle, is Robbie, their youngest; while
+that golden-haired young Adonis, who, in a fit of grave abstraction,
+sits leaning against a tree, his white and tapering hands clasped about
+his knee, the firelight glimmering over a small and well-shaped boot
+resting on the round of his chair, is their oldest son, Clifford, whom
+we have met before; while Maud, their only daughter, is easily
+recognized as she flits about, busy and graceful.
+
+Next we see the family of Squire Moreland, from the valley of the
+Merrimac--the squire himself being a representative Puritan, plain and
+grave; his wife, a type of the live and thorough-going New England
+woman, deeply imbued with the "thingness of is," able to discuss apples
+or algebra, beans or baptism, or in fact any subject down to zymology.
+Then Ralph, principally to be recommended for being "general good
+fellow." Next in their family is Scott, quiet and grave, addressed by
+Rob Warlow as the "Young Squire;" and their only daughter, Grace, in
+whose make-up there is more than a faint spice of the tomboy.
+
+Colonel Warlow's family had left their old Missouri home, the tobacco
+and hemp plantation on which the children had all been born, and,
+having met the Morelands on their rout, bound for that indefinite
+region "out West," they had journeyed on together to this spot,
+attracted by Colonel Warlow's remembrance of its great beauty and
+natural fertility, which had deeply impressed him when he was here a
+quarter of a century before.
+
+Learning, at Council Grove, that the valley was open to homestead entry,
+they had hastened on, miles ahead of other settlements, to locate here
+on a spot that was beyond the utmost limit of civilization.
+
+Soon the hungry travelers were seated at the cloth that was spread on
+the downy buffalo-grass, and were partaking of the broiled quail and
+antelope steak, the appetizing odors of which now pervaded the whole
+camp; but as the company ranged themselves about the tempting repast,
+Maud and Grace retired to a seat by the fire, declaring as they did so,
+that they would not sacrifice their precious lives by sitting at a table
+with thirteen other sinners.
+
+"Give us a song, then," cried some one from the table, at which Grace
+sprang up and brought Maud's guitar from the carriage, and soon the
+sweet strains,
+
+    "Oft in the stilly night,
+      Ere slumber's chains have bound me,
+    Fond memory brings the light
+      Of other days around me,"
+
+re-echoed through the tranquil valley. As Maud's tender soprano mingled
+with the luscious alto of Grace's voice the listeners almost forgot the
+tempting feast spread before them, and cries of "Bravo!" "Encore!"
+etc., greeted the close of the pathetic song, which was wholly lost, as
+to its sentiment, upon the younger members of the company.
+
+"Pass the hat," cried Bob, whereupon Grace handed her sunshade around
+among the laughing group, but after inspecting the collection, she said
+with an air of contempt:--
+
+"A wish-bone and five bread-crusts! Why, a _prima donna_ would starve on
+such a meagre salary. I've a notion to play Herodias's daughter and
+dance off your heads;" and when Maud struck up a lively fandango, she
+shook her curls in a threatening manner, and then whirled off into an
+amazing waltz.
+
+Jeers and hoots from the boys resounded at her last _pas seul_, and
+Clifford's voice was heard in the gay tumult saying: "Mademoiselle dis
+Grace must have learned her step at an Irish wake."
+
+"Let us no longer serve an ungrateful public," said Maud, as they sat
+down to the table, where their gayety chased away all traces of care or
+sorrow. When the meal was finished, Maud and Grace begged Colonel Warlow
+to relate his early history. Their request was eagerly seconded by the
+other members of the company, who were anxious to learn the particulars
+of that tragedy, hinted at by the inscription on the mound, and how he
+came to be connected with the actors in that terrible drama, and to lose
+a great fortune on that spot so long ago. Then the colonel, after
+sitting for a few moments wrapped in serious thought, replied that it
+was a long story, and would require more than one evening to relate all
+the particulars of that great tragedy, that would always be fresh in his
+memory as long as life endured.
+
+The company reminded him that it would be rather lonesome on their first
+Sabbath, and entreated him so eagerly that at length he consented; then,
+as the firelight leaped and sparkled, and the beams of the rising moon
+silvered the waters of the stream, moaning and fretting over the stony
+ford, they all gathered about the colonel, still and expectant. The
+quavering scream of a lone wolf died out on the hills in a plaintive
+wail; then only the faint whisper of the wind sighing though the willow
+was heard, and the colonel said:--
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY.
+
+
+"When a boy of twenty I joined the army that soon invaded Mexico, and
+carried victory with its banners into the Aztec capital--the
+world-renowned halls of the Montezumas.
+
+"It was before Vera Cruz--when our ranks were swept by the iron hail,
+rained upon our storming columns by scores of cannon from San Juan de
+Ulloa--that I first saw Bruce Walraven, whom I was thenceforth to regard
+as a brother.
+
+"An exploding shell had killed my horse, which had fallen upon me in
+such a way that made it impossible for me to rise without assistance;
+and while I was yet vainly struggling to extricate myself from the
+dangerous position, a squadron of cavalry rushed by, charging a company
+of Mexican infantry intrenched behind a light breastwork of sand-bags. I
+held up my hand with an imploring gesture--a human voice was lost in the
+wild thunder and roar of artillery--and the leader of the cavalry saw my
+sad plight. He wavered a moment as though struggling with discipline;
+but the sight of a fellow-soldier in distress seemed to outweigh all
+else, even the pride of leading his men, for he dashed to my side and
+helped me to rise; then, as a riderless horse galloped by, he caught its
+dangling rein, and by his help, in a moment more I was again in the
+saddle.
+
+"By rapid riding we soon overtook the command, and were greeted by a
+ringing cheer from the soldiers, who quickly showed their appreciation
+of his humanity. Later in the war I would not have been so fortunate;
+but we were new, as yet, to scenes of bloodshed and carnage, which
+accounted for the laxity of discipline, but evidence of humanity, shown
+in this incident.
+
+"After the successful storming of the enemy's slight earthworks, which,
+with their usual lack of military science, had been but half manned and
+illy constructed, I had a long talk with young Lieutenant Walraven, and
+in a short time I had managed to be exchanged into his company; and we
+soon became inseparable companions, sharing the same blanket at night
+and rude fare during the day, or riding side by side through the battles
+of that glorious campaign, and finally reaching the valley of Mexico
+safely.
+
+"Here, while engaged in a slight skirmish with the enemy, Walraven was
+wounded in the arm, and was immediately conveyed to the old hacienda of
+Monteluma, near by. At his urgent request I was detailed to stay with
+him as a guard. In the courts of that princely villa he rapidly
+convalesced; and one day, while seated by the great fountain, where
+myrtle and jasmine, oleander and roses, mingled their fragrance, he saw
+two beautiful Spanish ladies loitering near, and being concealed by the
+luxuriant foliage himself, he could see and hear all that passed
+without being discovered.
+
+"He always afterward declared to me that at first he had no intention of
+playing the eavesdropper; but when he learned from their talk that it
+was himself they were discussing, then the temptation became too great
+to resist, so he sat very still while the following dialogue took place,
+and which, with his usual boyish frankness, he related to me an hour
+later. This was in Spanish; but Bruce was now quite proficient in that
+language, and readily understood all that was said:--
+
+"'But, Ivarene, my dear, it does not become Don Rozarro's daughter and
+heiress--last, alas! of the proud line of Monteluma--to become
+infatuated with the blue eyes and golden hair of this wounded soldier;
+and if he is as handsome as a Norse king, to which you so foolishly
+compare him, he still is no less our country's enemy,' said the elder
+lady, who seemed to be a duenna, whose sole care consisted in keeping
+the younger and more beautiful lady hidden from the eyes of her
+unwelcome guests, but with what success you may readily perceive.
+
+"'But, Labella, cousin dear, he is alone, wounded and ill in a foreign
+land--no mother, sister, or sweetheart near to soothe his long days of
+pain! (I wonder if he has a sweetheart in that cold Northland!) And
+then, Labella, does not the good Book command us to do good to those who
+hate us, and to love our enemies?' she replied with a mischievous
+smile.
+
+"'Oh, the command, my darling, does not apply to every sunny-haired
+trooper who, invades our country--'
+
+"'No--no; not every one, true!' retorted Ivarene, archly, to which the
+duenna quickly replied:--
+
+"'I fear, Ivarene, that your English education, and your much reading of
+those Northern books, have turned your head.'
+
+"Here the ladies passed on through a latticed arcade, and their voices
+were lost in the distance; but my friend had seen and heard enough to
+lose his heart completely, and in the evening, as we sat on the balcony
+without, he was so quiet and thoughtful that I began to realize the fact
+that he was deeply entangled in the meshes of love at first sight.
+
+"Leaving him to his reflections, I walked to the edge of the balcony to
+gaze out over the matchless landscape which the lofty mansion commanded.
+
+"The tropic moon poured a flood of silvery radiance over the Vale of
+Mexico, while low down on the horizon burned the fiery Southern Cross.
+The bubbling domes of the great capital seemed to float upon the lakes
+which environ its walls, and her myriad lights twinkled and flashed back
+from their waters like stars on a frosty night.
+
+"Old Chapultepec, with its castellated walls, towered out on the lofty
+headland; and the dark forests of cypress, that had witnessed the
+tragedies and pageants of Aztec splendor for a thousand years past,
+clothed the base of the hill in a sombre mantle, peopled by the
+spectres, I thought, of long dead princes and Montezumas that in the
+dim past had lived their lives of inconceivable luxury in those ancient
+groves.
+
+"Over all loomed the old volcanoes, white and ghostly, with their
+mantles of eternal snow and hearts of hidden fire. Shrouded in mystery,
+they seemed a fit emblem of the Aztec past, whose buried histories still
+haunt this ancient land.
+
+"Near by, at the foot of the lofty terrace, the groves of olive and
+orange were sombre in shade. In the soft wind the myrtle rustled
+faintly, and on the roses at our feet the dew-drops glinted in fitful
+splendor.
+
+"In an angle of the old wall, where the murky shadows were deepest, the
+glow-worms burned in the damp grass, and the fire-flies glimmered
+incessantly. There I half fancied that I could see strange forms
+hovering; and when a figure flitted out into the moonlight, then was
+quickly lost again in the black shade of an aloe, I was startled for a
+moment; but concluding it was one of the peons belonging to the estate,
+I turned my eyes to again feast on the glorious view.
+
+"There were numberless fountains pouring down their sheen of waters,
+that, after flashing a moment in the moonlight, rippled away in
+rivulets, which gurgled and sang as they leaped over the terraces in
+mimic cascades, where they joined the waters of the fairy-like lakes
+that slumbered in the grounds below. These tranquil sheets of water were
+the reservoirs which served to irrigate the vast estate, and were decked
+with floating gardens, on which were gilded arbors or lattices of
+white, with beds of bright-hued tropic flowers.
+
+"On every hand lay league upon league of land, all owned by the young
+mistress of Monteluma. The long avenue of cypress only ending close to
+the walls of the capital, the villages of peons, the pasturages where
+the numerous flocks grazed, groves of orange and lemon, and the fields
+of wheat,--all these I knew were the undisputed estate of our hostess,
+of whom Bruce was now dreaming.
+
+"I was aroused from my reverie by an exclamation from my companion, who
+had now sprung up excitedly and was pointing down toward the entrance,
+while he grasped the pistols that hung in his belt--weapons that were
+never lost sight of in this turbulent country. As I looked toward the
+spot where he was pointing I could see the long line of a hundred
+steps--which led up to the only entrance to the hacienda--lined and
+thronging with armed men:
+
+"In a moment the situation flashed upon us: they were banditti or
+marauders, emboldened by the unprotected state of the rich villa, and
+were now attacking the great iron-studded door. If they effected an
+entrance, I shuddered with apprehension to think of the fate of its
+inmates; but we lost no time while we were thus speculating, but quickly
+barring the door on the balcony we rushed down into the court, and while
+I grasped the bell-rope and sent forth a wild alarm from the brazen bell
+that hung in the lofty tower, Bruce hurried on through the long hall
+toward the door of entrance.
+
+"As he was fastening the chains and bars across the entrance a crowd of
+frightened peons came flocking into the hall, and while we were hastily
+arming them with the guns that hung upon the wall and directing them to
+guard the upper windows and doors that opened out upon the lofty
+balconies, the door of the great saloon was hurriedly thrown open, and
+Senora Labella asked in a trembling voice the reason of the commotion.
+
+"When she learned that the bandits were at the door she fled back into
+the room, and as we followed, assuring her of our protection, we saw her
+fly to where the young heiress stood, her arm yet resting upon the
+gilded harp which she had but just that moment ceased playing, and the
+light from the silver chandelier falling softly upon her raven hair and
+the lustrous white silk that fell in graceful folds about her slender
+form.
+
+"While the excited duenna clung to the more youthful lady, and gave way
+to incoherent cries of fear and moans of distress, we begged them to
+retire to a tower of great strength, and we would surely repel the
+attack; but Ivarene declared she would stay and help defend her
+home--saying she would not have it said that the last Rozarro was the
+first to flee from danger.
+
+"After the senora had been given over to the care of a bevy of badly
+frightened maids, Ivarene hurried fearlessly out into the hall and
+showed Bruce where several loop-holes were concealed by slides of iron.
+These commanded the entrance, and while we rained a galling fire upon
+the enemy, she stood in an angle of the thick wall and reloaded the
+guns for us, which we as rapidly discharged again with telling effect.
+The blows upon the door soon ceased, and we could see the marauders
+retreating down the steps; then, as a parting salute followed them, they
+could be heard galloping swiftly away.
+
+"When all was still again, we accompanied the brave young heiress back
+to the saloon, where she thanked us earnestly for the rescue of her home
+from the hands of the marauders. Of course, we quickly assured her that
+the honors and glory of the occasion rested in her bravery and
+resolution. When she gave her hand to my handsome, sunny-haired friend,
+I think something stronger than admiration shone in his deep-blue eyes
+as he gazed upon the beautiful creole face, now suffused with blushes
+and lit by eyes of midnight blackness.
+
+"The senora had now recovered from her agitation, and was voluble and
+profuse in her thanks and compliments. At a sign from her the servants
+brought great silver trays, loaded with cake of white and gold, with
+decanters of ruby wine, glittering in the flasks of cut glass like
+liquid fire. For an hour or more the dark-eyed young heiress sang songs
+of Spain in a voice of cultured melody, while her white fingers swept
+the gilded harp, that vibrated in tones of sweetest harmony under her
+skillful touch.
+
+"As a compliment to us she also sang several Scotch and English ballads,
+and we were pleasantly surprised to learn that she had received an
+education in England, and spoke our own tongue with remarkable fluency.
+
+"From that night we were accorded all the privileges of honored guests
+in the great hacienda."
+
+Here the colonel paused, remarking that as the hour was growing late his
+hearers would excuse him, which they promised to do providing he would
+continue his narrative on the morrow. As the party arose from about the
+camp-fire, Robbie said he felt heroic enough to eat several Mexicans,
+not to mention such relishes as wine, cake, and peons, at which very
+broad hint the tea-kettle was soon humming on the embers; and when the
+cups of the soothing beverage were handed around, Grace passed a basket,
+which, if not filled with such luxuries as those which had graced the
+Mexican saloon, were at least very acceptable to our friends.
+
+Scott, whose attention was divided between a chicken-bone and reverie,
+suddenly inquired if they thought there would ever be another war with
+Mexico. As the party broke up with a laugh at his expense, the quiet of
+nature once more reigned over the valley, broken only by the hoarse
+croak of the frogs in the dark pools and the shrill cry of the cicada in
+the grass.
+
+The moon threw a pale, silvery light upon the row of white tents, where
+our friends were soon dreaming of the new homes that they would build in
+this tranquil valley; yet no vision of the strange events which fate
+held in store for them came to prepare them for the life of trial and
+adventure which they were now entering upon.
+
+One day more of quiet rest, then would begin a life new and strange for
+them all. They had left their old selves forever behind; their past was
+a blank; new faces and new friends awaited them here in their future
+home, which had never been even claimed as the property of any man since
+the dawn of creation.
+
+Yes, fate is both unkind and compassionate in withholding a knowledge of
+the blessings and trials that await them here; so they slumber on, while
+unseen destiny begins to weave her web, checkered and mysterious as the
+veil of moonlight that wavers through the willows.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY--CONTINUED.
+
+
+The morning of that Sabbath broke calm and serene. A warm haze brooded
+over the valley or danced in lines of quivering heat across the green
+prairies of the upland, and the dew had long since ceased to glitter on
+the rank blue-stem grass when our friends awoke.
+
+The breakfast which followed almost caused them to forget the fact that
+they were out upon the borders of the "Great American Desert," and they
+might have fancied that they were once more but picnicking under the
+shade of their native groves; for it was a meal that had exhausted the
+culinary art of both matrons. Wild mushrooms, stewed in sweet cream,
+deliciously fragrant and hinting of the wild-wood near by, delicate
+brook-trout from the stream, mingled their aroma with the elder-bloom
+fritters which Maud was preparing; and on the snowy damask, spread on
+the grass, Mrs. Moreland's golden honey-comb vied with the Warlow jelly
+and crimson marmalade, while the coffee would make one dream of Araby
+the blest.
+
+An hour after the morning meal we find our friends seated under the
+shade of the great elm among the ruins, the sunlight struggling faintly
+through the verdant canopy and weaving a golden veil over the ashen
+buffalo-grass, starred by daisies and violets. The spring welled out
+with a sleepy murmur, and overhead an oriole, near its swinging nest,
+caroled forth a stream of bubbling melody.
+
+"A month passed," continued the colonel, "and we still lingered in the
+stately mansion, daily and hourly meeting the young heiress, who was
+always accompanied by her matronly kinswoman. But one morning, as Bruce
+was loitering in the court, he glanced up and saw the smiling face of
+Ivarene, framed by the passion-flowers, fuchsias, and jasmine which
+festooned the walls within the court and wreathed the lattice above her
+balcony.
+
+"With an impulse which he could not resist our young hero swung himself
+up by the vines, and stood, with his sunny hair and smiling blue eyes,
+within the balcony. He wore the uniform of a captain of cavalry--soft
+gray, with cords and lace of frosted gilt over the breast--top-boots,
+embossed with gold, and a hat half concealed by the drooping plumes.
+
+"She threw back the gilded jalousies which guarded her window, and,
+smiling graciously, held out her hand, which he clasped with all the
+rapture of an infatuated lover.
+
+"She was robed in soft, rose-colored India muslin, embroidered in white
+lilies, and over her breast and arms fell a cascade of lace, caught
+lightly over her raven tresses, in that graceful manner which the ladies
+of Spanish America wear the mantilla; gleaming through its filmy folds
+could be seen the rubies which burned in her hair.
+
+"Within that flower-entwined balcony was re-enacted that tender
+scene--old as the dawn of creation, still ever new. How he told the
+tale, or how she answered, I can not say, but may readily surmise from
+the brilliant wedding which followed in the old cathedral a few months
+later.
+
+"Bruce had become very popular with the young officers of our army, and
+I have often seen him riding about the city with McClellan, and--"
+
+"What! not our 'Little Mac?'" cried Squire Moreland, springing to his
+feet, transformed into an impetuous soldier by the magic of a name, and
+while the others regarded him with amazement, as he paced back and forth
+with clenched hands, he continued in a tone of repressed vehemence: "If
+there is one name that would cause me to leap from the grave, it is that
+of 'Little Mac,' the Giant of Antietam; and, as there is a God above, I
+believe it was McClellan who led us to victory at Gettysburg. Oh, can I
+ever forget that terrible day when the host of Lee beat and broke in
+thunder over the hills like the ocean on a rocky shore, drenching our
+ranks in a surf of blood--when reckless Longstreet charged like a
+whirlwind through smoke and flame, while our columns staggered under the
+shock? The scream of countless shells and the stunning belch and roar of
+a thousand cannon mingled with the trample of the Southern cavalry as it
+hurled its squadrons upon us like the throes of an earthquake, their
+storm of rebel yells rising above the notes of Dixie and all the din of
+conflict with the roar of a hurricane. Oh, Heaven! how then we longed
+for one hour of 'Little Mac!' That day our Nation's fate trembled in
+the balance; a few more shocks and all would be lost; then this fierce
+army--another such the world has never seen--would sweep over the North
+like an avalanche! Every moment hurried myriads into eternity, wringing
+loving hearts and breaking many a home from Maine to Texas. But when the
+word, like an electric shock, flashed along our hopeless ranks, '_Little
+Mac has come_,' can I ever, ever, forget the shout of delight that burst
+from the parched lips of threescore thousand men? the rapid rush of
+marching ranks as they hurried to death, shouting, 'Little Mac, Little
+Mac!' when squadrons flashed by to the cannon's mouth, shaking the earth
+with their thunders of that mighty name? Oh! the wild delight and glory
+of that hour, when the fierce but baffled hosts of Lee broke and fled!
+But at the battle's close they claimed that it was only a ruse, and that
+McClellan was not there. Yet I shall always believe he did lead us that
+day; but, unwilling to impair the laurels of Meade, he has kept silent
+all these years--only such a man is capable of that grand heroism. I
+have interrupted you, Colonel. Please excuse me, and proceed with your
+narrative."
+
+After a moment's silence, the colonel said:
+
+"Bruce Walraven was descended from a noble English family that had
+settled in New York in the earliest colonial days, but their fortunes
+had waned until himself and his sword were all that remained of that
+once powerful house. He was an orphan, who had graduated with honor at
+West Point Military Academy, and was utterly alone in the world, with
+no one to love but Ivarene and myself, yet no brothers could have been
+more deeply attached than we soon became to each other.
+
+"I have never yet described him to you, from the fact that--that--Well,
+I feel a strange reluctance to say that Clifford, here, is the very
+image of that friend who died four years before my boy was born; but as
+I look at my son now, I almost fancy that Bruce is with me again, and
+that all my manhood's troubled years are only a fitful dream.
+
+"Since his boyhood I have noticed Clifford's resemblance to Bruce, and
+as my boy grew older he seemed to almost take the place of my lost
+friend, which has resulted, you perceive, in a sort of companionship
+between us which leads strangers to take us for brothers, instead of
+father and son. But to my story again.
+
+"The wedding-day dawned fair and serene, and at noon a company of young
+cadets from Chapultepec, all of whom were sons of the highest Mexican
+aristocracy, filed out on the avenue of cypresses that led to Monteluma,
+their snow-white horses trapped with gold and purple, and their steel
+helmets a mass of tossing plumes; their high top-boots of glossy black
+were embossed with gilt, and on the breasts of their white tunics the
+Mexican eagle flashed in silver, as two and two they galloped out to the
+great hacienda.
+
+"An hour later Ivarene entered her low, open carriage, which was richly
+gilded and drawn by four white horses that were almost hidden by
+garlands of bright-hued flowers. She wore a robe of white satin, while
+a tiara and necklace of pearls glimmered through the filmy veil that
+trailed like a mist about her form. Behind her, there rode in separate
+carriages, each drawn by two white horses, her seven bridesmaids, who
+were likewise dressed in white. Senora Labella sat by the side of
+Ivarene, and a grand dame also occupied each carriage with a bridesmaid;
+their sumptuous toilets of satin, velvet, and brocade were of purple and
+cream-rose, emerald and lilac.
+
+"As this brilliant company filed out on the avenue, four cadets riding
+in double file between each carriage, flowers were strewn in the road by
+long lines of peon children dressed in white. At the city gates a double
+guard of Mexican and American soldiers, riding white horses and gorgeous
+with military trappings, escorted them through the city to the grand
+plaza, where the old cathedral was thronged with the proud and great of
+two nations, while the ministers and foreign ambassadors of nearly all
+of Europe and the Americas, waited in pomp of state with their wives and
+daughters, all attired in the extreme of luxury. I shall not try to
+depict the splendor of the final scene when the cardinal in his robes of
+scarlet pronounced the solemn service, and pale, handsome Bruce, wearing
+his uniform of a colonel, received his bride from the hand of Don
+Hernando Rozarro, the Spanish ambassador.
+
+"Haughty Santa Anna was there, and General Taylor looked happily on,
+while all around were grouped our gallant officers, graceful and young,
+whose names now thunder down the galleries of fame linked with Antietam,
+Shiloh, and blood-drenched Malvern Hill. Grant and Lee, those slumbering
+lions, that in after years were to shake the continent with appalling
+conflict, now stood side by side, each carrying the wedding favor of
+their friend.
+
+"A scene of splendor ensued that recalled the old pageants of the
+Montezumas, when a long line of gilded coaches and prancing white horses
+filed out in the twilight, along the avenue returning to Monteluma. The
+sun had set, but a parting gleam was yet crimsoning the snow on the
+volcano of Toluco, while the sombre cypresses were aglow with the green
+and rosy light of torches, carried by the double line of peons in their
+ancient Aztec garb. Old Monteluma glimmered like a jewel from terrace to
+turret with colored lights, while out upon the broad esplanades, where
+thousands of the peons were feasting, the fountains flashed white and
+misty, like the snow-storms of my Northern home.
+
+"When Ivarene, leaning on Bruce's arm, walked up the long flight of
+steps to the doorway of her old home, the marble beneath her feet was
+hidden by the rose-leaves strewn by peon girls in white, while her train
+was borne by four small Indian pages in feather costumes, gorgeous as
+humming-birds. Within, the halls were blazing with light, and garlanded
+by tropic flowers. Tables were loaded with gold, silver, and crystal;
+wine flowed like water; while the viol and harp, gay dance and song,
+caused the hours to speed swiftly by, and the tired but happy revelers
+only sought their homes when the snowy summit of Popocatapetl was
+flushed with rose, and bars of pale gold flashed out from behind the dim
+crest of Orizaba.
+
+"After a brief honey-moon, which was spent at La Puebla, Bruce and his
+bride returned to Monteluma, and so urgent was the invitation which they
+extended for me to make my home with them until I should decide to
+return northward, that I immediately joined them in their princely
+abode.
+
+"My friend soon discovered that his rosy path was beset thickly with
+thorns, for every day he was made aware of the aversion in which his
+Mexican neighbors held him; their cold neglect cut deeper than their
+swords. So it was with growing alarm that his wife beheld these
+symptoms, for she well knew how the fine speeches and grave courtesy of
+her countrymen often covered hearts of hate and tiger-like rage; and
+when she saw the covert hostility of her former friends she became
+apprehensive, indeed, for the safety of her husband.
+
+"One day she startled us by proposing that we should all go North to her
+husband's former home on the Hudson, and she then proceeded to say that
+she had grown to view her native land with something of the feelings
+with which it was regarded abroad. She had resided in England several
+years, and now longed again for the life and freedom of the
+Anglo-Saxons.
+
+"Although Bruce was overjoyed at the prospect, he still said he would
+not insist on taking her from her native land and kindred; but when she
+said that her only relative living now was Labella, who was soon to
+marry Herr Von Brunn, a merchant of the capital, and that she had
+determined to sell Monteluma to an Englishman for seventy thousand
+doubloons, or over a million dollars, then he reluctantly consented to
+the change, only stipulating that the immediate park, grounds, and
+mansion should be reserved, so that if she grew tired of her Northern
+home they would find her old mansion awaiting their return.
+
+"Kissing him tenderly, she declared he was a Rozarro in spirit, if not
+in name. It was decided to leave the villa in charge of Labella, and in
+a short time a sale of the estate was consummated for the sum of fifty
+thousand doubloons, or seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
+gold--the mansion and park being reserved.
+
+"Senora Labella was dowered by Ivarene with a gift of several thousand
+doubloons on her wedding Von Brunn, after which event we set to work
+earnestly preparing for our overland journey northward. A long train of
+wagons were loaded with dry-goods for the markets of Northern Mexico.
+The price of such articles there had been enhanced enormously by the
+war, and Von Brunn shrewdly advised us to pursue this course. When
+Ivarene kindly offered to loan me money to invest in this manner, I
+gladly accepted fifty thousand dollars, with which I bought linen and
+cotton goods at the port of Vera Cruz, which was then crowded by the
+ships of all nations.
+
+"I might be pardoned for digressing a moment while speaking of the
+strange belief in a future state which Bruce entertained. There was a
+vein of seriousness and grave, quiet religion running through the nature
+of my friend, and often, while we were stretched on our blanket with no
+canopy but the dewless Mexican sky, studded by the Southern Cross, and
+bespangled by constellations that were new and strange to our
+eyes--often, I say, he would talk of that weird belief, which then was
+very enigmatical to me, but which in my maturer life has recurred with a
+sweet solace to my declining years.
+
+"Bruce believed that the soul was an individual, invisible as air and
+imperishable as time itself, and that the spirit was a progressive,
+rational being, which could never leave this earth until the great
+Judgment-day, at which time our planet would be as unfit for a human
+abode as the moon is at present.
+
+"After death, which, he said, was only a wearing out of the outer
+garment of the soul or spirit, the animating principle, or life, would
+still inhabit the earth, invisible to human eyes, but yet an
+intelligent, observing being; subtile as air, yet powerful as
+electricity. Whenever the newly released soul chose to do so, it could
+take on a new form by being re-born. He thought that before birth we
+were possessed of a life akin to that of the vegetable kingdom, but at
+birth a spirit that had lived before took possession of our bodies, and
+used us as a habitation until our bodies became either worn through age,
+or distasteful to the occupant--death ensuing in either case.
+
+"His highest idea of heaven, he said, would be to have the power to live
+again, and again meet those friends whom he had loved best in the prior
+life, guided to them unerringly by the mystic ties of love and affinity.
+Memory of the past life, he thought, was that sense which we call
+instinct, conscience, or intuition, being only a feeble glimmer, as it
+were, of the previous state in which we had lived.
+
+"I remember well, the night before the battle of Churubusco, how Bruce
+and I talked of these things; for he said, as we sat beneath a
+palm-tree, while the tropic moon flooded the earth with a dreamy
+splendor, that we were to fight the last great battle of the war on the
+morrow--a conflict in which one or both of us might perish--and all that
+reconciled him to such a fate was the belief that we should live again,
+and meet each other in this world, which was the only heaven we were yet
+fitted for.
+
+"I would not have you entertain the thought for one instant that Bruce
+was skeptical or irreligious. On the contrary, his fearless piety was
+often commented upon; for I have seen him kneel on the bloody fields of
+Cerro Gordo and Contreras, and thank God in a trembling voice for his
+gracious preservation of my life and his own, while the rude soldiery
+stood by with mute respect, remembering his reckless daring and
+lion-like bravery in the hours of deadliest peril to which human life
+can be exposed.
+
+"No; his creed was a very strange one, though one that is old as history
+itself; he appeared to differ from the general belief only in his
+definition of heaven and its location. He often said that if a man
+retrograded and became brutal he would meet his punishment in the next
+life, for his brutal instincts would seek their affinity after death and
+he could only be re-born as a brute, in which state he would remain
+until his new life exhausted the brutal element from his soul.
+
+"I fancy he imbibed his doctrines from his father, who had been an
+officer in India. It might have been that the elder Walraven had there
+caught glimpses of a belief somewhat akin to Buddhism. When I pressed
+Bruce for his proof of this strange theory he referred me to the
+Bible--Matthew xvi; 13, 14: 'When Jesus came to Cesarea Philippi, he
+asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?
+And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and
+others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.' All of which goes to prove
+how ancient the belief really is; for it is apparent that people
+believed Christ to be the reincarnation of a spirit of one of those
+people who had been dead many years.
+
+"Ivarene soon became converted to Bruce's creed, while I often find
+myself, even yet, taking solace in this strange belief.
+
+"Early in the spring of 1848, the long caravan started northward, and
+when we arrived at Chihuahua, a ready market was found for the goods,
+after disposing of which I found that I had more than doubled the sum
+invested; so when the debt was repaid to my kind benefactors, with the
+addition of a liberal interest for the use of the money, there was
+still left me, as clear profit, fifty thousand dollars in gold.
+
+"We spent the winter in Santa Fe, but early the next spring resumed our
+journey, I having in the meantime bought a few wagon-loads of wool to
+take through to Independence, Missouri, which was then the eastern
+terminus of the Santa Fe Trail; but the money which I had saved from my
+speculation remained intact, and was deposited with fifty sacks of
+doubloons (which were the property of Bruce and Ivarene) in a large
+iron-bound cask of cypress-wood, each sack plainly marked with the name
+of its owner, and the whole tightly packed in wool within the cask.
+
+"This vast treasure, more than half a million of dollars in gold coin,
+only represented a portion of my friend's wealth; for there were chests
+of costly silks, brocades, velvets, and priceless laces, all the
+accumulation of centuries of luxury and boundless riches; paintings by
+Murillo and Velasquez, that for ages had adorned the long gallery at
+Monteluma; books of vellum, and richly bound volumes from its
+marble-paved library, together with a dozen wagon-loads of carved ebony,
+mahogany, and rosewood furniture from the same stately home.
+
+"I shall never forget that glorious scene, the last evening in
+Chihuahua, when the sinking sun lit up the low room where we three sat,
+with an open casket before us and the stone table ablaze with glimmering
+gems.
+
+"There were scores of great, pure diamonds, flashing back a quivering
+glare of rainbow hues; rubies glowing like fire with rose and crimson
+light; white, frosty pearls, glinting beside the baleful emeralds, that
+emitted fitful gleams of green and gold. Over all flickered the wavering
+shimmer of opal and blood-stones, mingling with the violet, lilac, and
+purple rays of sapphires and amethysts.
+
+"A great many of these gems had been purchased by my friends through the
+advice and assistance of Von Brunn; but the most precious of the lot
+were heir-looms, of which Ivarene was justly proud, and for an hour she
+recounted their histories:--
+
+"The great blood-stone had once shone in the war-club of an Aztec
+prince, who was slain in battle by the first Baron of Monteluma, one of
+those adventurous spirits that came over and shared the glory of the
+conquest with Cortez.
+
+"The carcanet of pearls was a gift from Queen Isabella to the bride of
+the same brave knight.
+
+"A diamond cross that had been bestowed by Leo X. upon a cardinal of the
+house of Rozarro.
+
+"A ruby dragon that carried in its mouth the Order of the Golden Fleece.
+This was a mark of the highest honor that a Spanish king could confer
+upon his subject, a viceroy of Mexico, also a member of the same
+illustrious family at Monteluma.
+
+"There was a chain of rose-colored coral, to which was attached an
+enormous pearl of the same delicate hue; this bauble had been bestowed
+by the Doge of Genoa upon Don Arven Rozarro while the latter was
+ambassador of Spain at that superb though decaying city, and it was
+through this elegant gift that the then all-powerful Spanish sword was
+induced to interpose its terrible edge as a shield against the
+aggressions of France.
+
+"A pair of golden spurs, won long ago in the first Crusade by the Knight
+of Rozarro, and ropes of pearls that had adorned many a proud but long
+forgotten mistress of the great castle.
+
+"All these were placed within the steel casket, and the only jewel that
+Ivarene reserved for her personal use on the journey was a locket with a
+long gold chain. This was the most precious _souvenir_ in the whole
+collection, so she averred, for it was set in gems with the name of her
+mother, and contained the miniature portraits of Bruce and Ivarene.
+
+"The precious casket was kept in the large carriage, where Ivarene, her
+two maids, and Bruce rode on cushioned seats, that were constructed so
+as to serve as couches when the inmates of the vehicle became fatigued.
+Everything that wealth and loving care could secure was provided by
+Bruce to lessen the tedium of the journey.
+
+"The gold was placed in a large, strong wagon, drawn by twelve mules,
+and in addition to the treasure-cask, several barrels of wine and other
+liquors were placed in the wagon for the purpose of warding off
+suspicion. This vehicle was my special charge, and I carefully guarded
+it at night, but spent a portion of the day in sleep.
+
+"We arrived in Santa Fe in the fall of 1848, and early the following
+spring our long caravan started out on the monotonous course across the
+plains, by the route to Independence, Missouri, the quiet routine of
+our journey only relieved by meeting with great trains of freighters on
+the broad trail, or when Ivarene would take her guitar and sit out in
+the starry evening playing the sweet airs of her home-land, old Spanish
+ballads full of pathos and melody. Thus we journeyed until we reached
+this very spot on the 22d of August, 1849. The night was dark and
+cloudy, while a strange silence brooded over all nature, broken only by
+the dismal howl of the wolf as it prowled on the lonely hills.
+
+"We had remarked during the day that no teams were met--a most unusual
+occurrence on that great thoroughfare, the Santa Fe Trail--and we
+vaguely wondered why the corral should be silent and deserted; for it
+was a camping place that was renowned all along the trail for its safety
+and convenience.
+
+"The corral was an inclosure of about an acre, surrounded by lofty stone
+walls that were pierced by loop-holes on every side; two large doors, or
+gates, opened to the north and south, which, after the teams of
+freighters had been drawn inside, were locked in times of danger. This
+fort-like corral had been built by the government as a place of refuge
+for travelers, but our long journey had been so free from trouble that
+we had become careless, and, as the night was very sultry and the air
+oppressive, we preferred camping outside the walls on the level land,
+where we are now sitting, near the bank of the Cottonwood.
+
+"Ivarene had been feeling unwell that day, and we were all very
+solicitous for her comfort and welfare at that time; for it was known
+that an interesting event would soon occur, that would give my dear
+friend Bruce the title of father. In deference to her condition the
+usual noise and hilarity of the camp were not indulged in; but a sense
+of coming disaster, a foreboding of some great calamity, seemed to weigh
+on the spirits of our party on that fatal evening.
+
+"How strange it is that when the sky is serene and clear we may feel the
+approaching storm! Who can explain that shock of repulsion we feel when
+we meet a secret foe? The same Providence whispered, that murky night,
+of the danger and disaster lurking near.
+
+"But each one tried to shake off the feeling of apprehension; and as a
+storm was rising in the north-west we attributed our depression to that
+state of the atmosphere which precedes the thunderstorm.
+
+"I did not sleep for several hours after retiring to the wagon, but
+remained wakeful and restless, listening to the jabbering of the wolves
+and rumble of the distant thunder. The fitful slumber into which I at
+length fell was pervaded by hideous dreams, and when I was awakened by
+the yell of savages it seemed, for a moment, only the continuation of
+the strange phantasms that had haunted my sleep.
+
+"But I sprang out, a pistol in each hand, and was soon struggling in the
+whirlpool of confusion and terror that prevailed around. The crack of
+rifles and whistling of arrows, the shrieks of the wounded and dying,
+the blood-chilling whoops of the Indians, all commingled with the
+bellowing of the frightened cattle in hideous clamor.
+
+"With a feeling of sickening dread I thought of Bruce and his wife as I
+dashed toward their wagon. As I neared it a vivid flash of lightning
+from the cloud which had arisen revealed a scene of such revolting
+horror that its remembrance causes me yet to turn faint and dizzy. More
+than a quarter of a century has rolled by, fraught with war and sorrow,
+but that scene of woe is burned deep within my heart, to rankle long as
+life endures."
+
+Here the colonel's voice broke to a whisper, while the sobs of Maud and
+Grace mingled with their mother's soft weeping. Then, after a moment of
+silent anguish, while his hands hung clenched in an agony of intense
+grief, with bowed head and a voice so husky that it was barely audible,
+the colonel continued:--
+
+"By the dazzling light I saw Ivarene kneeling in her white robe, a look
+of imploring agony upon her pale, uplifted face. Over her, with a poised
+tomahawk, glared a powerful, painted demon. Bruce, struggling in the
+grasp of two hideous savages, was driving his glittering dirk into the
+breast of one of his assailants. I fired at the heart of the wretch who
+stood over Ivarene. With a dying yell he bounded into the air. Then, as
+darkness was once again settling down over the scene, I felt the shock
+of a stunning blow--then a long oblivion."
+
+The colonel was too visibly affected to proceed further with the
+narrative, and as he relapsed into silence the listeners slowly
+dispersed, some to the duties of camp-life; others strolled out to the
+long, grass-grown grave, leaving Colonel Warlow alone, lost in
+meditation.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY--CONTINUED.
+
+
+The listeners had seated themselves on the buffalo-robes which Scott
+Moreland's thoughtfulness had provided, and the colonel resumed the
+thread of his narrative.
+
+"The blow was followed by unconsciousness, and when I awoke, as it were,
+from a long and fevered sleep, I was seated in an easy-chair on a shaded
+veranda, and before me stretched the limitless ocean, its restless waves
+purling in foam on the sandy beach at my feet. Beside the porch on which
+I was seated grew luxuriant lime and orange trees, loaded with fruit and
+bloom, and the air was heavy with the sensuous odors of tropical
+flowers.
+
+"A ray of memory gleamed feebly across my confused and cloudy mind, and
+I vaguely wondered why my hands should be so wasted and thin. Then a
+wavering sensation swept over my mental faculties like a dark cloud. The
+glimmer of memory once again struggled and flickered, then flashed forth
+with a dazzling light, piercing through the fog and haze which had so
+long obscured the light of reason, and I felt as if the sun had just
+arisen.
+
+"As I sat with closed eyes, gently rocking to and fro, I remembered
+dimly, like some half-forgotten dream, my long journey across the
+continent with Walraven, our camping beside the Kansas stream at the
+Stone Corral; and then with surprise I looked out on the ocean before
+me. Suddenly the memory of that night of horror came vividly to my mind,
+and with a loud cry I sprang to my feet; but a firm hand was laid on my
+shoulder, and a kind voice requested me to be calm, and pressed me to
+drink the glass of wine which was held to my lips.
+
+"I obeyed mechanically, and as I drained the cup of its sparkling
+contents I glanced up at the bronzed though handsome stranger beside me,
+who, with joy and gratification beaming in his blue eyes, said in answer
+to my look of inquiry:--
+
+"'Old boy, you will soon be yourself again; but you must not talk too
+much, nor ask questions just now.'
+
+"'But where am I, and what does it all mean?' I exclaimed in a dazed
+sort of way.
+
+"'You are near Los Angeles, and this is the Pacific Ocean which lies
+before you,' he answered slowly.
+
+"When he had made this strange statement, I felt a wavering sensation
+once more cross my brain, as if madness were about to seize me.
+
+"'You should not talk, nor think of the past,' said he anxiously, 'but
+brace up and recover; then we will go up to the mines, and dig out
+nuggets like nigger-heads.'
+
+"'But at least tell me how I came here,' I entreated.
+
+"'Well,' said he in a faltering manner, 'if you will be composed I will
+do so; but you must not give way to your emotions.'
+
+"I sank back in the chair, motioning for him to proceed, as the suspense
+was unbearable; and he then related the following, in soothing tones,
+like one who had long humored and tenderly nursed a suffering invalid:--
+
+"'My name is Roger Coble, and my home is near Springfield, Ill., from
+which place I started to the gold-fields of the Sacramento River, which
+had thrown our quiet rural community into a great excitement by the
+rumor of their fabulous richness. Our train had only traveled a few
+days' drive westward from the Missouri, when we came to the Stone Corral
+on the bank of the Cottonwood. There we found you, wounded and
+delirious. I placed you on a canvas bed in one of my wagons, and brought
+you on to Santa Fe.
+
+"'As you were still delirious and in a helpless condition, I could not
+bear the thought of leaving you at the latter place, but brought you
+along with the train to this place, where we arrived last week, and I am
+overjoyed to see you on your feet again.'
+
+"'But what was the fate of Walraven and his wife?' I cried, in great
+excitement.
+
+"Seeing the wild look again coming into my eyes, he said, with a
+saddened expression:--
+
+"'Do not ask any more questions, my boy. When you become stronger I will
+tell you all. But now, my friend, do try to think of pleasanter themes.
+If you do not, you will surely relapse into your former deplorable
+state.'
+
+"Therefore I took his kindly advice, and ignored the past with all its
+bitter memories, and listened with growing interest to his hopeful plans
+for the future. As he told of the great gold-fields that had been
+discovered in the newly acquired California, that were of such fabulous
+richness, he said, that all the world was wild with excitement and
+wonder, I began to feel the infection of his enthusiasm, and almost
+forgot the fact that I was penniless and two thousand miles from home.
+
+"The next day I felt still stronger; but the ugly wound on my head was
+not yet entirely healed, being a painful reminder of the terrible blow
+which I had received the night of the attack at the corral.
+
+"As the days passed by I rapidly convalesced, and erelong was able to
+walk through the orange-groves, or sail with Roger out on the tranquil
+water; but whenever I had nerved myself up to the point of asking the
+fate of my friends, to my horror I would find that same old sickening,
+wavering sensation steal over my brain that I remembered so well, and I
+would shudder to think that I stood, as it were, upon the brink of
+madness.
+
+"So in our long rambles on the sea-shore or drives on the beach, we
+shunned all allusion to the fateful past, tacitly ignoring the
+unexplained sequel to that terrible tragedy; but the suspense and strain
+were so great that it is a blissful thing that events followed which
+diverted my mind from the painful subject, or perhaps my reason may have
+been utterly overthrown.
+
+"Roger had disposed of his teams, and, after consulting me, procured
+tickets to San Francisco, a small village that had sprung up on the
+coast to the north, and as he gave me my ticket he said with a smile:--
+
+"'We will be pards, George, and divide profit and loss up in the mines,
+and when you strike it "rich," why, you can repay me; and as for
+interest--guess we will smoke that out at your expense.'
+
+"I replied, through my tears, that all the gold of this earth could not
+repay his kindness and generosity.
+
+"Before sailing on the _Lapwing_ I wrote to my friends in Missouri,
+telling them briefly of the disaster which had befallen me, but that I
+was with the best fellow alive; and in my letter to sister Amy I told
+her how nobly Roger had cared for me in my direst hour of trial and
+need, and I hinted that she must wait for me to bring him back, which I
+would do when I had regained my lost fortune by working in the mines, to
+which we were now just starting, full of hope and enthusiasm.
+
+"Our first day out on the Pacific proved that body of water to be
+woefully misnamed indeed; for the weather was just as vile and fickle as
+I ever saw on the much maligned Atlantic. In the evening Roger and
+myself were seated on deck, watching the sun set in a pile of black
+clouds, which, as the broad streams of amber and violet flamed up from
+behind the sombre mass, slowly changed to purple, rose, and crimson,
+edged with gold.
+
+"When the brilliant hues had faded, the dusky clouds rested on a sullen
+sea, that was only ruffled by the fitful breeze, which rose and fell,
+then died away, leaving a death-like calm, oppressive as it was
+foreboding.
+
+"The frightened sea-birds flew screaming by, flapping their broad white
+wings, then fading swiftly away. The captain now came on deck, and, by
+his quick orders and restless movements, we knew that he anticipated
+danger from the storm which we could see rapidly rising, and the rigging
+was soon in order to meet the heavy gale.
+
+"A fiery moon rose in the pale eastern sky, and out to the south-west
+hung the bow-shaped cloud, black as ebony, save when veined by the
+blood-red lightning; but as the majestic mass towered to the zenith, it
+changed to green, edged by a roll of fleecy white, which rose and fell
+as if weaving a shroud for sea and sky.
+
+"We lashed ourselves to the rigging, so we could get the full benefit,
+as Roger said, of our first storm at sea. We had not long to wait, for
+soon a wall of waves, like a troop of war-horses, came tossing their
+snowy manes on the gale, and when the mad surge struck us the old ship
+quivered in every timber. The clouds wrapped us about, and the blinding
+spray and rain drenched the deck; the lightning glimmered fitfully
+through the mist, or hissed in zigzag streams of molten gold along the
+surging waves. A lull, then again the blinding flash, followed by the
+bellowing thunder, crashing down, it seemed, to the caverns beneath, the
+wind shrieking through the rigging, the tumult of waves, rising in
+hoarse clamor and deafening roar--followed again by blinding stroke and
+maddening crash.
+
+"I have stood on old Chapultepec's crumbling wall, when mortar and
+cannon hurled their iron hail; when screaming shells and belching roar
+mingled with the shrieks of mangled and dying men, and the sullen boom
+of exploding mines shocked and dulled the ear; but never had I known an
+hour like this.
+
+"The poor old vessel, like a hunted doe, bounded away, followed by all
+the hounds of the gale, climbing the dizzy cliff or leaping the yawning
+chasm, and throwing the foam from off her sides; then hiding in the
+gorges below, where the glassy wall towered far above with combing
+crest, scattering the spray out over the tossing sea. Again, as the ship
+climbed the watery hill, she seemed to pause one brief moment on the
+foamy height, then plunged into the swishing whirlpool beneath.
+
+"The night wore on, yet still our vessel staggered along in her wild
+flight; but the winds began to abate their fury somewhat, and the
+flashes grew more dim and fitful until the storm rolled away to the
+east. Then the moon peered with white face through the rift of clouds;
+but as her spectral light only served to make more weird and appalling
+the waste of heaving billows, she quickly hid behind her fleecy veil, as
+if to shut the wild scene from view.
+
+"Although the wind had died to a gentle gale, the frightened waves still
+galloped madly along as though fleeing from a grizzly horror they dared
+not face, and the ship labored like some jaded cavalry horse, that
+staggers and reels after the fierce charge.
+
+"The deck had been a scene of great confusion ever since the storm had
+abated, and, although the waves and spray broke over the vessel, the
+crew were rushing about wildly, and to our surprise we saw them
+launching the boats; so we unlashed ourselves and hurried forward--only
+to hear the despairing cry: 'The vessel is sinking!'
+
+"I looked out upon the waves, which even now seemed nearer, and with a
+clammy shudder comprehended what horror they were fleeing. Death rode
+those cold waters, and every billow was a yawning grave.
+
+"What a dread alternative--to cast ourselves out on that boiling,
+foaming sea, with only a frail boat between us and eternity, or remain
+on deck and feel the ship slowly settling under us!
+
+"But the boats were quickly manned, and into them were thrown a few
+casks of spirits and water, with a small quantity of food; then we
+pushed off from the fast-sinking ship, and in a moment were riding the
+waves.
+
+"We had left a light burning on the vessel, to enable us to steer away
+from it, and thus avoid being run down or ingulfed by the final
+whirlpool of the wreck; and after tossing about on the troubled waters
+for half an hour, trying to keep the boats together, we heard a loud
+report, caused by the compressed air blowing up the deck of the vessel;
+then the light on the old ship went out forever, and the sea closed over
+her shattered form.
+
+"It may have been an hour before dawn, when suddenly we found ourselves
+among the breakers, and the coast looming dimly through the mist. Before
+we had time to realize our situation our boat was capsized and we were
+struggling with the waves.
+
+"I shouted to Roger, but no answer. Then I saw a head appear above the
+water, and swam toward it, hoping it was he; but the form was carried
+around the headland by the rapid current, so I struck out for the
+frowning cliff.
+
+"Diving under the largest waves, I saw, to my great joy, that I was
+gaining and soon was thrown on the rocks with terrible force; but I lost
+my hold on the stony ledge that I had clutched, and was being carried
+back to sea; but a thought struck me which I instantly recognized as
+being the only chance of escape, and to which I am certain I owe the
+preservation of my life: I dived to the bottom, and began walking toward
+the cliff, which was not more than a rod away.
+
+"Oh, the horror and agony of those few moments under the sea! The
+seconds seemed to lengthen to hours. Brief as the time and short as the
+distance may have been, I've traveled many a thousand miles through the
+sandy deserts of the West and suffered less than in that one minute at
+the bottom of the ocean."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter V.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY--CONTINUED.
+
+
+"Let me see--where was I?" said the colonel, who had paused to light his
+pipe at this critical juncture of the narrative.
+
+"Twenty thousand leagues under the sea," replied Grace Moreland, gaily.
+
+"Well, I certainly could not have suffered more in the same time if I
+had been," said he with a grim smile. "But just when I had given up all
+hope, and thought my lungs would burst, I straightened up, determined to
+come to the surface at any risk. Lo! I had been groping along in four
+feet of water--and only a step from the shore!
+
+"I had only time to plunge forward and clutch a jagged rock, when a
+mighty wave swept in, nearly tearing me from my place; but this time I
+held fast, and when the wave had receded I clambered up out of further
+danger, and there I lay, too utterly exhausted to move until dawn.
+
+"I had hoped that daylight would reveal the presence of my companion;
+but the sun struggled up over a lone stretch of rocky, barren
+shore--nothing living was visible. I strained my eyes, gazing out over
+the long line of breakers. It was a fruitless quest; I was alone.
+
+"Then I climbed up to the table-land. A sandy plain, broken by patches
+of sage-brush and thickets of chapparal was before me, and out toward
+the rising sun rose a lofty chain of mountains, as though to shut me out
+from all the world.
+
+"I walked around the promontory and along the coast for several miles,
+still hoping I might find my friend; in vain. I shouted repeatedly; no
+answer. So with a heavy heart I turned and walked inland.
+
+"After assuaging my thirst at a cavity in the rocks, where the
+rain-water had collected, and satisfying my hunger with the eggs of a
+wild fowl, the nest of which I found near a sage-brush, I continued my
+explorations inland toward a pass which seemed to open in the mountains
+toward the east.
+
+"As I neared the glen, trees, a brook, and a flock of sheep became
+visible. Then, to my great delight, a house showed through the trees;
+and when a woman appeared in the doorway, I hurried forward and
+addressed her in Spanish, to which she replied in the same tongue.
+
+"I told my story of shipwreck, and the kind-hearted peasant woman bade
+me welcome to the humble dwelling, and proceeded to set before me a
+repast of omelet and frijoles. While I was still seated at the table,
+her husband, Pedro, came in from herding his flock, and we soon were on
+our way to the village to make inquiries regarding my lost friend and
+the crew of the _Lapwing_. But nothing could be learned of them; so I
+retired to rest, and that night slept the dreamless sleep of sheer
+exhaustion.
+
+"In the morning I renewed the search, but with no better results; and
+although I traveled along the coast for more than a score of miles,
+nothing could be found but the bodies of three sailors that I recognized
+as having been among the crew of the ill-fated ship. At last, weary and
+heart-sore, I joined a party of miners, and proceeded to San Francisco;
+but as my inquiries there also proved fruitless, I immediately went to
+the diggings, where my fortunes soon mended, and I was able to send a
+small purse to honest Pedro.
+
+"During my stay in the mines I had frequent letters from home, and
+sister Amy expressed great sorrow at the fate of my noble friend Roger;
+but I wrote that it might yet be possible he was living, and we still
+hoped on. The greatest comfort to me, however, were the letters from
+Mary, who urged me to return and not wait to acquire more gold; and as
+my luck was 'jes powerful,' as the miners averred, I found at the end of
+two years I had saved $50,000, and deciding to 'let well-enough alone,'
+set sail for home.
+
+"As we were sailing out through the now world-renowned Golden Gate, the
+captain, to whom I had just intrusted my money, remarked that I did not
+seem to enter into the spirit of joy that pervaded the throng of
+returning miners; and in reply to his look of inquiry and tone of
+interest, I said that the last time I was on a ship I had witnessed a
+terrible storm, in which the vessel was wrecked, the crew and a dear,
+kind friend were lost, and I alone was saved; and now the sight of the
+ocean, once again, recalled it all so vividly that I was sad and
+grieved, even in the hour when I should rejoice that all my toil was
+over. I was too affected to talk further, but looked wistfully out over
+the cruel sea that had closed over Roger, my best and truest friend.
+
+"The captain, after a few moments of silence, asked in a tone of
+sympathy:--
+
+"'What was the name of the vessel that was wrecked?'
+
+"'The _Lapwing_,' I replied.
+
+"'But the crew and passengers were saved,' said he quickly.
+
+"'Saved!--Roger saved!' I shouted, dizzy with joy; then as I sank into a
+seat, weak and unnerved, the officer continued:--
+
+"'Yes, the crew was saved. They were picked up by a vessel bound for
+Acapulco. You can learn the particulars by calling on the American
+consul at that port, as I believe he took charge of them and assisted
+them on to their respective destinations.'
+
+"'I'll give you a thousand gold dollars to put me off at Acapulco,' I
+cried impulsively.
+
+"'Agreed,' said he, with a laugh. 'We always do stop there, and take a
+day to revictual and water. No, my friend, keep your hard-earned
+dollars; but if you find your gratitude burdensome, why, just name your
+next boy after me;' then he left me with a good-natured smile.
+
+"I will say that I found it a very pleasant way of discharging the debt
+by naming my oldest son here after the good old sea-dog, Captain
+Clifford; and some way I always associate the name with the thought of
+that day when I heard the good news.
+
+"How interminable seemed the long, bright days, as we sailed southward!
+I paced the deck for hours, and grew morose and nervous, chafing under
+the slowness of the stout craft. 'But all things have an end'--an adage,
+by the way, which my dealings and travel in the tropics has led me to
+doubt--and when, one evening, we sailed into the long-wished for harbor,
+I was so impatient to land that only the thought of sharks prevented me
+from swimming ashore.
+
+"After night-fall, however, I found myself in a crooked, winding alley,
+termed a street in the florid courtesy of that tropic land, and offering
+a coin to a villainous-looking native--the only guide I could
+procure--asked him to show me the way to the American consulate; and we
+were soon _en route_ thitherward, I, meanwhile, taking the precaution to
+cover my vile-looking guide with a pistol in one hand and a bowie-knife
+in the other.
+
+"For an age, it seemed, we tramped through the murky, unlighted streets,
+until at last we arrived before a fortress-like building, at the gate of
+which blinked one solitary lamp.
+
+"At my request to see the consul, the servant informed me that 'his
+worshipful master had driven out this morning to dine with the noble Don
+Pablo de Zorilla, and that he would remain to the ball at the mansion of
+that illustrious senor,' etc.
+
+"I could barely refrain from kicking the miserable flunky, and the air
+grew thick and maroon with the expressions in which my disappointment
+found utterance. Telling the porter that I hoped his lazy master would
+not stop the 'wheels of commerce' to-morrow to eat garlic and capsicum
+with the aristocracy, I returned to the vessel."
+
+"Next morning I called again at the consulate, and the scowling porter,
+after conducting me to a room, said that his master was sleeping, but he
+was instructed to say 'to the insolent American' that his excellency
+'was too lazy to see me until he had slept off the effect of the garlic,
+capsicum, and other kindred delicacies, of which he had been partaking.'
+Then, grinning derisively, the servant left the room, banging the door
+behind him.
+
+"Well, I just stormed up and down that room for two long hours, fuming,
+raving, and hurling invectives at all the tribe of official sluggards.
+At length, hearing footsteps without, I clenched my hands in rage,
+vowing wrath and vengeance on the insulting and self-sufficient officer;
+but when the servant opened the door and announced, 'Senor Consul,' my
+anger was all forgotten, and, instead of greeting that functionary with
+a thwack on the ear, I sprang forward with a wild cry:--
+
+"'Roger--Oh, Roger--am I dreaming?'
+
+"'George--George--is it possible? Alive and well? I've mourned you as
+dead for years. Thank God--at last!'
+
+"As I stood there wringing his hand and gazing on his dear face through
+my tears, it is needless to say all my belligerent designs oozed
+magically away.
+
+"We were soon interrupted, however, by the porter, who, at the first
+strange demonstration on my part, had fled shrieking 'Murder! murder!'
+his outcry bringing a whole brood of slipshod servants down upon my
+devoted head. They came swarming in, armed with gridirons, tongs, and
+gourds. One sallow, emaciated peon carried a crucifix, which he had
+evidently snatched as he flew to the rescue. A burly fellow was just on
+the eve of disemboweling me with a pot-metal poniard, when Roger
+hastened to explain that we were old friends who had not met for years,
+and as they retreated in a crestfallen manner, with many grunts and
+shrugs, we both smiled at the ludicrous phase of our meeting; yes, I
+believe that 'smiled' is a very mild term to apply to our hilarity on
+that occasion.
+
+"Reminding Roger that the vessel sailed at four P. M., and my stay
+therefore was limited, I begged him to tell me the particulars of his
+happy escape, and when we were comfortably seated on the easy-chairs in
+the secluded court, he told briefly how he, with several others, clung
+to the capsized boat, and had been rescued by a passing vessel, bound
+southward. On reaching Acapulco he had called at the American consulate,
+but found the consul prostrated with yellow-fever, and (as Roger had
+passed through an attack of that dread scourge at New Orleans a few
+years previous to this) he had volunteered to nurse the stricken
+officer, who slowly recovered from the fearful malady.
+
+"While that grateful invalid was convalescing, Roger had been intrusted
+with the accumulated business of the post. Having discharged the duties
+devolving on him to the satisfaction of his employer, that gentleman had
+deputized him as vice-consul, and then returned to the States.
+
+"Finally the consul resigned, and Roger, on his recommendation, was
+appointed to the office as his successor, meantime receiving a hint from
+the home government to make himself as agreeable as possible to the
+natives.
+
+"'Which you see, George,' said he with a merry smile, 'meant to acquire
+a taste for "garlic and capsicum."'
+
+"Then, at his request, I related my experience; how I had searched in
+vain for him along the coast; had gone to the mines and made my 'pile,'
+and on embarking for home had learned of the rescue of the crew and
+passengers of the _Lapwing_; the long days of suspense that had
+followed, and my impatience to learn something of his fate. I did not
+omit telling how narrowly he escaped a sound flogging at my hands after
+I had been kept waiting so long, which caused him great merriment.
+
+"During our brief conversation I had been conscious of an undercurrent
+of burning anxiety to learn the fate of Bruce Walraven and his wife. The
+suspense and uncertainty which had haunted me for two long years--the
+mystery of their fate--would now vanish forever, I knew; but I shrank
+with a strange foreboding from asking the truth which my heart had so
+long been vainly seeking. My dry lips and parched tongue could only
+feebly articulate as I begged Roger to tell me the sequel of that
+terrible tragedy at the Old Corral.
+
+"With a look of pain on his handsome face, he said, in a faltering
+voice:--
+
+"'I was journeying along on the Santa Fe Trail from Independence,
+Missouri, to California. Our large train had been delayed at Council
+Grove by a rumor that the Cheyennes were on the war-path; but nothing
+having been seen of the marauders, we started out, after a few days,
+trusting to our numbers for defense, and when we arrived at the Stone
+Corral, on the bank of the Cottonwood, a scene of revolting horror met
+our startled sight--a scene that will live forever in my memory.
+
+"'The stone walls of the corral had been hurled down, and near the side
+of the stream were the charred and crisped remains of at least fifty
+human victims, mingled with the irons of the wagons, which evidently had
+been fired and the bodies thrown into the blaze.'
+
+"'There were fifty-four persons in our train--How many bodies were
+found?' I asked, breathlessly.
+
+"'We counted the smouldering skeletons, and found that fifty-three
+persons had fallen victims to the diabolical fury of the Indians.'
+
+"'Oh, God--all gone!' I cried, hoarse with the misery of their certain
+destruction--'gallant Bruce and beautiful, kind Ivarene! What a terrible
+fate!'
+
+"'We were burying the skeletons on a knoll a few hundred paces westward
+from the Old Corral,' continued Roger, 'and were carrying stone from the
+confused mass of its ruined wall to place about the long trench, in
+which the remains were laid, when moans, like some one in pain, were
+heard as if issuing from the earth.
+
+"'The mournful scene through which we had just passed had so utterly
+shocked and unnerved us, that it is little wonder we felt it might be
+the spectres of the victims still haunting the scene of the awful
+tragedy; but a moment's reflection set us to searching among the ruins,
+which resulted in our finding you, wounded and delirious, buried under
+the fallen wall.
+
+"'Several large stones had rested against the lower part of the wall,
+and thus, in a providential manner, shielded you from the avalanche of
+stone which had fallen when the savages had thrown down the wall by
+prying with the wagon tongues, that were still lying about as they had
+left them.
+
+"'We placed you on a canvas stretcher, and put you in one of my wagons.
+As there was a physician in our train, you did not lack for medical
+attention; but that dreadful gash on your head was very slow in healing.
+As your mind was completely shattered, and you remained delirious all
+the long journey to Santa Fe, we could not bear the thought of leaving
+you there among strangers, but brought you on to Los Angeles with the
+train.'
+
+"'I never before have told you, Roger, that there was more than one
+hundred thousand dollars in gold and gems with our train; but such was
+the case;' and as he sprang up in amazement, I told him briefly the
+history of Bruce and Ivarene, and how I had lost my fortune of fifty
+thousand dollars in gold with that of my dear friends on that night of
+horror and despair.
+
+"'It is needless to say,' replied Roger, 'that no trace of the treasure
+was found; but it seems incredible that so vast a sum could have been
+carried away by the savages! Did you have any liquor with the train?' he
+asked in a thoughtful manner.
+
+"'Yes, several barrels of wine and brandy,' I answered.
+
+"'Then that accounts for the blood on the grass, near several newly made
+graves close by. The Indians had found the brandy, no doubt, and the
+massacre ended in a drunken row among themselves, in which several of
+them had died a violent death. It is a mystery, though,' he added, 'how
+a pack of drunken, wrangling savages could have divided such an amount
+of coin without leaving some trace. And, George, I would advise you to
+make a systematic search on your return,' he continued; 'for it may have
+been that the treasure was buried there.'"
+
+"Did you ever make the search?" asked Clifford Warlow of his father, in
+an eager tone.
+
+"No; certainly not," replied the colonel; "it would have been folly to
+suppose that the band of pilfering, murderous savages would have left
+anything valuable behind."
+
+But the answer did not satisfy his son, who looked out toward the knoll
+where the Old Corral, with its broken walls, cast long shadows in the
+slanting sunbeams; and as the colonel proceeded with his story it was
+noticed, by more than one of the group, that Sabbath afternoon, that
+Clifford remained lost in thought, and his eyes roamed from the speaker
+out over the scene of that tragedy of bygone years.
+
+"At the end of that mournful story," pursued the colonel, "I was pressed
+by Roger to remain with him until the next vessel passed; but I
+declined, thanking him, and telling him that Mary was waiting for me on
+the banks of the Missouri, and I could tarry no longer than a few brief
+hours, until the craft would sail. Then, as we stood on the ship,
+whither he had accompanied me, I told him to remain in the cabin for a
+moment until I could return. Then going to the captain, I asked him for
+the money which I had deposited with him.
+
+"The fifty thousand dollars was carried into the room where Roger was
+waiting, and when the sailors had retired, I said, in answer to his look
+of inquiry, that I was prepared to execute the compact which we entered
+into at Los Angeles, to be 'pards,' and divide profit and loss; and I
+tendered him there on the spot twenty-five thousand dollars, which was
+one-half of my savings in the mines. Roger would not hear to the
+proposition; he scouted the idea of 'robbing me of my hard earnings,'
+and all my pleadings were in vain,--he was obdurate.
+
+"I reminded him how I owed my life to his care and kindness; but my
+entreaties all were unavailing, as he would only ridicule the offer,
+saying that he had now more than enough for an old bachelor. So I
+finally desisted, but told him that should he ever need assistance or
+the services of a friend, to call on me, for I felt a debt of gratitude
+which I could never repay him.
+
+"I smile even yet to think how I blushed when I showed him Mary's
+picture; and while he was looking with undisguised admiration at the
+miniature of sister Amy, I told him how she had never ceased to regret
+his sad fate, and that in her last letter, which I handed him, she had
+written that she still vaguely hoped he might some time return; that he
+may have escaped--'such things sometimes do occur--and she could yet
+thank him for his care and tenderness to her brother.' When the dear
+fellow beamed with such delight, I proceeded to say how delighted she
+and my mother would be to have him make us a long visit soon, which he
+readily promised to do within the year. As he still held the picture of
+my beautiful sister, and seemed so reluctant to surrender it, I ignored
+it entirely or pretended to do so, and as we proceeded with our talk, I
+saw, with half an eye, that he furtively slipped it into his pocket, at
+which I was so gratified, I had to pinch myself to keep from dancing a
+jig of delight.
+
+"It was hard indeed to part with Roger, and not before he again promised
+to visit me within a year did I say farewell; then we were again sailing
+out on our homeward voyage. We tarried but a short time on the Isthmus
+of Panama; for, in fact, I had but an indifferent opinion of that little
+neck of land, made up, it seemed, of snakes, centipedes, and bad smells.
+Whew! it makes me faint, even yet, to remember how those nasty, vile,
+old swamps radiated their bad odors! There had just been an earthquake
+to roil up the concentrated filth which was packed away in those slimy
+bayous, and as every whiff of wind came loaded with its own peculiar
+stench, the variety became so wearying that I grew at length tired of
+the 'nasal panorama,' and vainly yearned for the friendly precincts of a
+glue factory.
+
+"It always seemed to me that Nature had aimed to make a sea of the
+isthmus, but had taken the flux or cholera, and left her work but half
+completed."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VI.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY--CONTINUED.
+
+
+"Our ship touched at Havana, and in company with several other
+passengers, who lived in the Mississippi Valley, I decided to stop here
+until a vessel sailed for New Orleans, which would not occur for ten
+days yet; but years might be passed in that beautiful city of
+enchantment, the 'Queen of the Antilles,' and we found our stay one
+round of perpetual delight.
+
+"A day was devoted to a sail around the sunlit harbor, environed by
+mansions, castles, and palm-decked hills--the sapphire sky bounded only
+by the purple mountains or pale-green sea. Then we visited Old Moro
+Castle, its portcullis, donjon-keep, and 'sounding barbacan,' its gloomy
+grandeur of turret and tower--
+
+    'Its loop-holed grates, where captives weep,'--
+
+all recalling the feudal days of Scotland and Spain. Next we drove
+through the Prado of San Isabel, with its triumphal arches of snowy
+marble, its rose-decked alamedas lined with palm, cypress, and magnolia,
+its clear fountains foaming amid thickets of acacia and blooming
+oleander; and then on to the great theater of Tacon, where the evening
+was passed as if in fairy-land.
+
+"Christmas-day we drove out to visit a coffee-plantation a dozen miles
+from the city walls. The dew was still glittering on the foliage as we
+whirled rapidly along in our easy volantas, and the air was rich with
+the odor of orange-blossoms and a myriad of other tropic flowers. We
+halted at the Bishop's Gardens for an hour, and I can but faintly
+describe their gorgeous floral wealth. These gardens are centuries old,
+dating back to the days of Charles V., when the Spanish banner of
+crimson and gold waved around the world.
+
+"There were palm, myrtle, and mangoe trees growing beside canals where
+the clear rushing water rippled along over the bottom of gaily-colored
+tiles. Then there were plantations of yucca, the broad-leaved
+bread-fruit, lemons, guavas, and figs, with great basins of marble
+brimming with water, on which floated lilies white as snow. But,
+entrancing as were those avenues of whispering myrtle, orange, and pine,
+we drove on through the warm sunlight until near noon, when we arrived
+at our destination.
+
+"The coffee-plantation contained a league of land--three miles
+square--and was divided into innumerable plats by long avenues that cut
+each other at right angles, like streets, extending through the
+plantation. These avenues were lined on either side by palms of a
+hundred different species, and in their great width of full fifty paces,
+and three miles long, they were set in Bermuda-grass, mown like a carpet
+of velvet. The squares, however, were carefully cultivated, and no weeds
+were visible in the red, mellow soil.
+
+"Next to the row of palms grew a line of orange-trees; then lemons,
+almonds, pomegranates, and olives, followed by a row of evergreens of
+infinite variety, the remainder of the square being planted to
+coffee-trees.
+
+"It was a sight never to be forgotten that unfolded to our view as we
+drove down one of those long colonnades of palm, over which the
+parasites trailed, linking tree to tree with garlands of scarlet, rose,
+and golden blossoms--the snowy orange-flowers contrasting with its
+coppery fruit--gloomy pine, spruce, and cypress, with glimpses between
+of the coffee-trees loaded with their crimson berries.
+
+"Thousands of birds flitted about, lending animation to the gorgeous
+tropical scene,--gaudy parrots, white doves, orioles, and blue-birds;
+while myriads of humming-birds of rose and emerald, gold and purple,
+wove and flashed among the trees.
+
+"We, who live in these dull northern climes, can not fancy the pictures
+of life and color that adorn the forests of tropical America; but as I
+sat that Christmas-day amid the Cuban groves, and ate the most luscious
+fruits, fresh from the tree, the glorious sunlight sifting down through
+the feathery, fern-like palm-leaves, and over all the cloudless blue of
+the southern skies, I thought of the snow and ice which wrapped the
+hills and meadows of my northern home. But a feeling of longing stole
+over me for the brooks, bound by their crystal fetters and sheltered by
+the oak-clad hills, the merry jingling sleigh-bells in the frosty air,
+and, amid all this wealth of bloom and tropic life, my heart turned
+back to the memory of rustic joys in my boyhood's home,--the roaring
+fire on the hearth-stone, when the frost-rime crept over the
+window-pane; the rushing of the storm-king, as he piled the ghostly
+drift without, or fled shrieking by, shaking the gables in his wild
+wrath. Then fancy came thronging on with dear faces of the home-folk
+that I had not seen for years; and when I awoke, with a start, to the
+thought that the ocean rolled between me and my distant home, do not
+blame me that a tear-drop went trickling down through the sunlight of
+that foreign tropic land.
+
+"After loitering for a few hours among the coffee-trees, we ascended a
+mountain to drink of the waters of a famous mineral spring, which gushes
+from among the lofty cliffs; and as I stood on the verge of a precipice,
+before me there spread a landscape of matchless grandeur,--the wide
+savannas with their fields of cane, tobacco, and fruit, the dim city,
+begirt with its walls and grim fortresses, and the blue harbor, crowded
+with the ships of all nations; while far away to the north, stretching
+out, it seemed, to eternity, lay the trackless ocean, dotted with white
+winged ships and those gem-like islands, 'The Queen's Gardens.'
+
+"Driving back to the city, we paid a moonlight visit to the tomb of
+Columbus. I stood long and silently by the urn where rests all that
+remains of the Great Mariner--all save the Columbian spirit, which will
+pervade the people of America as long as this continent endures.
+
+"Yes; you and I are actuated by the same spirit that guided the
+illustrious pioneers out toward the setting sun--enterprise, ambition,
+and energy. As I noted the humble monument, I bitterly recalled the
+ingratitude and perfidy of Spain; but when there rose to my mind a
+vision of the grand and powerful nations, the splendid cities and happy
+homes of the thronging millions from Montreal to Buenos Ayres,--these, I
+mused, are the monuments befitting the noble hero, and it matters not
+that the lowly urn in the old cathedral holds the ashes of mortality.
+
+"Coming forth into the mellow moonlight, I paused a moment to gather a
+spray from the roses and passion-flowers, blooming in dew-drenched
+clusters amid the orange and myrtle of the Paseo hard by; and as I stood
+drinking, as it were, the odors of that perfume-laden air, afar off
+could be heard the sullen boom of the breakers as the sea broke in
+thunder on the walls of Moro Castle, while the faint, sweet notes of a
+guitar floated out upon the night, mingling with the diapason of old
+ocean's roar as it chanted its hymn of eternity on the rocky beach.
+
+"Two weeks later I drove up to my father's gate, through the snow and
+ice of a Northern winter. The white drift wrapped the hills and meadows,
+and the gurgle of the brook in the sheltered valley sang faint and
+muffled within its crystal prison; the dear old cedars bent low under
+their white burden, and from the eaves of the time-worn, red brick
+homestead, the icicles hung glittering like spears in the frosty light.
+
+"When I left home four years before, I was a smooth-faced boy of twenty,
+but while in the mines I had grown a beard like a Turk; and although in
+San Francisco I had passed under the sway of the barber, who despoiled
+me of more locks than Samson ever lost, yet enough remained to complete
+my disguise; and I was smiling at the surprise I had in store for the
+home-folks, when the door opened, and lo! Amy came flying down the path
+with such an outcry that all the family came rushing upon the scene, Amy
+saying, between smiles and tears:--
+
+"'Oh, George, you thought we wouldn't know you; but I was watching, and
+when you paused at the gate and looked so wistfully towards the house, I
+knew--oh, it must be you!'
+
+"Ah well--such a day will never come again! How I followed mother and
+Amy about, or sat in the kitchen with father on one hand and Dick on the
+other--all of us talking at once! Such a homecoming is known in all of
+its keen delight by only the long-absent miner or returning soldier. And
+the dinner which followed, where all the culinary treasures of earth,
+sky, land, and sea were laid under contribution, was a meal which caused
+me to say they certainly meant to stuff me as a curiosity, after the
+manner of a taxidermist.
+
+"'There must be some means devised to keep you at home hereafter,'
+replied my mother.
+
+"I said I was through with rambling; for I had brought enough money home
+for the whole family--unless we indulged in such dinners every day.
+
+"Dick replied with a laugh that 'wealthy people could certainly afford
+salt for the potatoes.'
+
+"'Oh, that is not a luxury, for I find it in both the fruit and coffee,'
+replied my father.
+
+"In the evening I took Dick's grays and sleigh to drive over to Mary's
+home, and at starting was charged by Amy to be sure and bring Mary over
+to the 'wool-picking' at Widow Hawley's--a semi-festive meeting of the
+best society in that primitive but happy neighborhood. Promising to do
+my best to meet Dick and her that evening at the designated place of
+festivity, I touched the horses, and shot down the drive just in time to
+dodge the slipper, which, with a gay laugh, she hurled at my back; and
+as I rounded the curve of the stone wall into the highway, she and Dick
+cheered me very encouragingly.
+
+"As I drove along the sparkling, crusted road, the west was still
+blushing faintly, and the moon peeped through the snowy tree-tops, that
+drooped in feathery sprays of frost and ice, sweeping the drifts below
+with their creaking, rattling branches, and the stars winked knowingly
+in the clear, cold sky as my sleigh-bells awoke the jingling echoes
+among the well-remembered hills that flanked the valley on either side.
+
+"When I reached the door of Mary's dwelling the windows threw out a
+ruddy light from the great fire-place, where the flames leaped and
+crackled, and showers of sparks flashed up the wide chimney, while back
+and forth in the flickering light tripped Mary, singing as she spun on
+the roaring wheel.
+
+"At my rap the wheel ceased its hum, a light footfall was heard,
+and--well, I'll just close the door, as it was only a private
+matter--but in a moment I was kissing her mother, who hugged me almost
+as hard--that is, she and the old gentleman did--no--no--I mean to say
+that Towser and all the rest of the--There--there I go again"--said the
+colonel, joining in the merriment of his hearers, who were shouting with
+laughter at the absurd flounders of the colonel's narrative; but when
+the last giggle of Grace and Rob had subsided, and cries of "hear,
+hear," resounded on every hand, then our friend Warlow resumed, as he
+cast a fond look toward his wife, who had been busy at the camp-fire
+preparing the evening meal while the shades of twilight were thickening
+among the trees.
+
+"I only wished to say that I was highly gratified with my reception on
+that happy evening, and Mary and I were soon on the road to the
+residence of Mrs. Hawley, where we found a merry throng of old friends;
+and, after such a greeting as only one who meets his childhood's friends
+after long years of absence can appreciate, we were allotted a quiet
+corner, and our share of the evening's labor."
+
+At this moment a summons to supper was heard, and the party adjourned to
+the camp-fire, to discuss the savory prairie-chicken and quail on toast,
+with which Mrs. Warlow celebrated the close of that Sabbath-day.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VII.
+
+COLONEL WARLOW'S STORY--CONCLUDED.
+
+
+An hour later the party sat under the drooping boughs of an elm, near
+thickets of snowy elder and blooming wild-roses, which filled all the
+air with their delicious fragrance; the shallow stream murmured and
+gurgled along between its willow-fringed banks, glimmering like silver
+under the beams of the rising moon.
+
+At the request of the group, the colonel resumed, as follows:--
+
+"When the wool had been allotted to the captains, in equal proportions,
+the leaders divided the company in two parties. It was understood that
+the side first finishing its task of picking the burrs and other foreign
+matter from the fleeces of wool, should crown its captain and carry her
+in triumph around the room on a chair; then she should be awarded the
+honor of opening the ball, which was to follow in the wide kitchen.
+
+"Mary and I were the last to finish, but were helped through our task by
+several smiling friends. Then our captain--wild, saucy Peg
+Sickle--bounded up with the cry, 'Crown the captain!' which was
+re-echoed by her noisy followers, who proceeded, with ludicrous
+ceremony, to carry the order into execution.
+
+"The violins struck up a lively air, and the gay Peg, wearing her
+towering head-dress of wool, led off in the inspiriting quadrille; but
+the lively dance was watched ruefully through the open doorway by the
+other party, who still were at their unfinished task; but our hilarity
+was interrupted by cries of--
+
+"'Fraud!--Shame!--Peggy has been hiding the fleece!'
+
+"It transpired that the treacherous Peg had concealed nearly half the
+wool allotted to our party, and it had been discovered, in its
+hiding-place, under the bed; so poor Peg was dragged ignominiously from
+the unfinished set, and made to abdicate her woolly crown, which was
+quickly replaced by a diadem of cockle-burrs, with which her irate foes
+decked her brow, with the taunting reminder that 'uneasy _lies_ the head
+that wears a crown.'
+
+"We slunk back to our unfinished task, as our opponents finished theirs,
+and re-enacted the mummery; but we toiled faithfully, notwithstanding
+their jeers, and soon were allowed to join the revelers.
+
+"I noticed, with gratification, that Amy appeared to still be
+heart-free; and as we were dancing together, later in the evening, I
+told her of finding Roger at Acapulco, and when she almost cried with
+delight at his escape, I began at once to build 'castles in Spain,' but
+prudently omitted mentioning the incident of the picture.
+
+"Dancing and singing continued until a late hour, relieved, however, by
+huge baskets of hickory-nuts and apples, with supplementary pitchers of
+cider. Of that ride home through the moonlight I'll say nothing, in
+deference to that lady by the camp-fire yonder; but suffice it that she
+was the heroine of that very happy occasion, and the 10th of May was set
+for our wedding, which, in view of my four years' probation, I thought
+an age to wait.
+
+"Next day I bought the 'Nolan farm,' which was only three miles from
+Mary's home, and at once proceeded to put the place in thorough repair.
+The premises were rather tumble-down, and 'the bildin's a leetle
+shackelty,' as the fox-hunting squire remarked; but I put such a force
+of workmen on the old stone house and broken-backed barn that the place
+was soon completely transformed.
+
+"The fences were the most demoralized and dilapidated that I have ever
+beheld. In fact, brother Dick asserted that the 'Nolan boys, Bill and
+Ike, were never known to open a gap,' but rode their horses at the
+rail-fence, knocking it down for rods; then half of the next day would
+be devoted to repairing the unpicturesque nuisance--said repairs
+consisting of a load of brush, dumped where the festive youths had made
+the floundering leap.
+
+"Often I would come upon an unsightly place in the fields--the squire's
+'barrier,' a great thornbush, spiked to the earth with brambles and
+thistle--and I would smile at the vision of the sport-loving farmer
+unhitching his team amid-field to chase the venturesome coon or
+stiff-legged deer that had caught his roving eye.
+
+"My carpenters were finishing a stile and two large gates in front of
+the house, which was temporarily occupied by its former owner, when
+Master Dave Nolan, a scion of the old stock, came upon the scene. He
+viewed the improvements with great displeasure, and, crawling under one
+of the large gates, he said, as he wriggled out, lizard style:--
+
+"'Gates is all nonsense; aint half as handy as a gap in the fence and a
+slick rail!'
+
+"The 10th of May found the house thoroughly renovated and furnished
+newly throughout; so, after the wedding ceremony, when we had discussed
+the dinner, Mary and I took a 'bridal tour' by going to our new home,
+and in the evening our neighbors and relatives gathered in to give us a
+house-warming.
+
+"Soon after, I wrote Roger an invitation to spend the summer with us,
+Mary and Amy adding a feminine postscript, in which they expressed their
+valuation of one who had proved so noble a friend in my distress, and
+earnestly begging him to give them an opportunity of thanking him
+personally.
+
+"To which he responded that he would 'do himself the honor' of paying
+his respects in person the following July--a visit which terminated in a
+wedding between my old friend and sister Amy. On their bridal day I gave
+them the deed to the Maple Dale plantation, which adjoined our own, and
+as I handed the astonished pair the papers I remarked that it was in
+fulfillment of the contract which Roger and I had made at Los Angeles,
+and they might charge it to 'Profit and Loss.'
+
+"The newly-wedded pair left the plantation in charge of an overseer, and
+returned to Acapulco; but Roger resigned his position after a few
+months, and returned home to the quiet life of a planter.
+
+"We enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted prosperity; but when the War
+of the Rebellion began, I raised a company and joined the Southern army.
+At the close of that terrible conflict all that was left me was my title
+and family, with the wreck of my once comfortable fortune.
+
+"I shall hurry over the history of the struggling years that followed;
+how on returning from the war I found Mary and the children had fled to
+the city, and how I gathered them once more together on the farm, where
+the dear old homestead lay, a blackened ruin. But earnestly we tried to
+retrieve the lost years.
+
+"The county in which I lived was 'reconstructed,' and from the bonds
+issued by the officers, and the taxes levied to run the costly, corrupt
+machine, there followed wide-spread financial distress.
+
+"A treasurer had been appointed to finger our money. He was a
+hawk-nosed, black-haired little reprobate, named Toler, and the way he
+tolled all the grists which came to his tax-mill led us to believe that
+he was well named indeed. It was reported that he had once held the post
+of sutler in a regiment of Eastern troops. Whether that was true or not,
+he was undoubtedly the most subtle villain that ever sold scabby sheep
+or slipped a flag-stone into a sack of bacon. Finally, this 'patriotic'
+officer, having stuffed his 'grip-sack' with county funds, one dark
+night took an excursion for his health, considerately leaving the
+county, which he only refrained from stealing from the fact that it was
+not portable.
+
+"The reckless extravagance of that class of men, cursed and abhorred by
+both parties, led eventually to wide-spread ruin and bankruptcy; but out
+of the wreck of my once comfortable fortune I saved a few thousands,
+and, hearing favorable reports from the fertile Kansas prairies, we
+turned our steps westward toward the setting sun. Fate seemed to lead me
+here; so I will begin the life-struggle over again on the spot where I
+lost my friends and the gold doubloons here, near the shadows of the Old
+Stone Corral."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the colonel had finished the long and eventful history of his past
+life, a silence fell on the group--a silence tinged with sadness as they
+thought of the fate of Walraven and his wife; and as the camp-fire
+mingled its flickering light with the pale moonbeams, throwing an
+uncertain, wavering shimmer over the tangled vines and milk-white
+elder-blooms, a sense of their lone, isolated position slowly dawned
+upon them. They were far out on the verge of an untried, mysterious
+land, no evidences of civilization for miles around, and all the future,
+with its trials and struggles, looming grimly on the morrow. Is it any
+wonder that a feeling of dread, awe, and fear stole over the stoutest
+heart at the thought of the direful, tragic past haunting the spot with
+its painful memories, and the black veil of futurity hovering over
+them--hiding the joys and fears, the tears and graves, that lay beyond?
+
+The colonel sat gazing, sad and thoughtful, out toward the knoll, where,
+resting in the moonlight, the victims of that horrible tragedy now slept
+their sleep of eternity in the lone, grassy grave.
+
+The winds whispered softly among the trees; a song-bird twittered
+drowsily in its nest; then a long, mournful howl from a wolf on the
+distant hills broke the silence of the summer night. Maud, looking
+wistfully out to the west, where the great planets, those mute sentinels
+of time, kept their watch in the sky, repeated the sweet, pathetic
+"Dirge" of Tennyson:--
+
+    "Round thee blow, self pleached deep,
+    Bramble-roses, faint and pale,
+    And long purples of the dale,--
+        Let them rave;
+    These in every shower creep
+    Through the green that folds thy grave.
+        Let them rave.
+
+    Chanteth not the brooding bee
+    Sweeter tones than calumny?"
+
+A wild cry from Mrs. Moreland startled the group from their reverie and
+broke in abruptly upon their musing. As they lifted their eyes or sprang
+to their feet in dismay, she pointed, with trembling finger, to where
+the uncertain moonlight flickered through the willows, and there they
+beheld a sight which froze them with horror, and haunted them with its
+mystery for long months thereafter.
+
+But a few paces from where they sat stood the form of a strange, gray
+figure, in a loose, long robe, its locks and flowing beard of snowy
+white, its wildly gleaming eyes and snaggled fangs, showing dimly in
+the spectral light. With a long, bony finger pointed at the group, the
+figure stood for a brief moment; then, with a blood-chilling scream, it
+faded away amid the shadows.
+
+Clifford Warlow and Ralph Moreland sprang after the vanishing figure,
+unheeding the wild shrieks of Maud and Grace, who begged them not to
+follow the frightful apparition. As the young men disappeared among the
+trees, Mrs. Warlow fell prone upon the earth with a low moan; and while
+all of the party that remained forgot their terror in their efforts to
+restore her from the death-like swoon in which she had fallen, the young
+men returned, reporting a fruitless search.
+
+It was now proposed, as Mrs. Warlow had revived, that the
+boys--Clifford, Ralph, Scott, and Robbie--should make a more extended
+search with the three dogs; but they could not force the terror-stricken
+animals to leave the camp-fire, where they cowered trembling with fear.
+So the search again proved unavailing.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter VIII.
+
+
+Those were busy days which followed--days all too short for the years of
+labor that loomed so drearily before the pioneers; but they set to work
+bravely, plowing, building, and planning, and the manifold cares of
+their new, strange life left no time for repining over the events of the
+past, or even to investigate the nature of that strange visitant which
+had so startled them with its fleeting appearance.
+
+Although a hurried search was made near the Old Corral, no trace of the
+lost treasure could be discovered; and whenever the subject was
+mentioned, or the hope expressed of the ultimate recovery of the
+princely treasure, the colonel would discourage it as delusive and
+visionary, and would say that the surest way to recover the lost fortune
+was to extract the gold from the soil through the medium of the plow and
+an application of good "horse sense" to their farming.
+
+Several masons were employed from the nearest town, forty miles distant,
+and, after tearing down the walls of the Old Corral, the stone was
+utilized in building, first, a dwelling for Colonel Warlow in the grove
+in the river's bend; next, a cottage for Clifford on the site of the old
+stronghold, which had been entirely obliterated, save that portion which
+had fallen over Colonel Warlow years ago, and which had so
+providentially shielded him from death. The entire party had decided
+that it should remain as a monument of the past, and accordingly the
+stones which had been hurled down by the drunken fury of the Indians,
+were replaced carefully; so the wall now appeared as it did a quarter of
+a century before, on the night of that terrible tragedy.
+
+Squire Moreland and his son Ralph also built, from the same confused
+stone-heap, comfortable dwellings a mile down the valley, but situated
+on the opposite side of the river from the Warlows; and, as all of the
+buildings were located near natural timber, they presented a very
+home-like appearance when completed.
+
+But during all the while the plows were kept busily turning the fertile
+valley sod, which was planted in corn and millet, thus providing feed
+for the stock the ensuing winter.
+
+Yet it must not be supposed by the reader that incessant toil alone
+occupied the time of the settlers, to the exclusion of all pleasure; for
+many were the pleasant fishing parties and excursions to the Sand Hills,
+far off to the north-west, where the delicious sand-plums crimsoned the
+low shrubs which clothed the hills, relieving, on these occasions, their
+life of monotony.
+
+An occasional antelope-hunt on the Flats to the south was indulged in by
+the sporting members of the colony, varied by the excitement of a
+wolf-chase or the sight of a stray buffalo.
+
+Then the ceaseless tide of travel on the Santa Fe Trail, thronging with
+settlers bound for the rich prairies to the south, was in itself a link
+to the past and an endless source of interest to the colonists.
+
+One of the first moves of the Warlow and Moreland families was to
+organize a school district, a proceeding which is never omitted by the
+first settler of the western prairies, who, the very day he "files,"
+begins planning more or less secretly, to secure the location of a
+school-house on his "claim."
+
+So, according to pioneer traditions, the district was organized,
+consisting of a territory ten miles square, and a meeting was called at
+the house of Colonel Warlow, at which assemblage of the settlers it was
+decided "to vote bonds to build a school-house immediately."
+
+All the voters present agreed, with perfect unanimity, that "bonding"
+was the only feasible method of accomplishing the object which they had
+in view; but when it came to specifying the time for which the bonds
+were to run, or, in other words, were to mature, then a stormy scene
+ensued, and with varying degrees of eloquence the subject was hotly
+discussed by the local orators.
+
+It was proposed by one embryo politician--whose speeches were said by
+Robbie to be longer than his furrows--"that the bonds be made payable in
+one year," in which event the entire amount would have to be met by a
+direct tax on all the assessible property in the district; and as the
+lands of the settlers would not be subject to taxation for the period of
+the next five years, the burden would fall upon the railroad land, which
+constituted one-half of all the territory embraced within the limits of
+the district; and the aforementioned "political economist" proceeded to
+demonstrate to his hearers the beauty and fitness (?) of making a
+company of friendly capitalists, who lived, as he averred, over in New
+England, not only pay the two thousand dollars which was to build their
+school-house, but, in addition to this, be taxed to maintain the school
+for the next five years; and he closed his brilliant peroration by
+asserting "that his policy was to make all bloated bondholders and
+corporation scamps squeal when he had the _chaince_."
+
+The squire and colonel both opposed the measure, the latter replying in
+a speech of some length, in which he vigorously attacked the principles
+advocated by the "_chaince orator_" saying that it would be both immoral
+and unwise to take such a rascally advantage of a company that were
+doing so much to help the State and develop its resources. Then he
+warned his hearers of the consequences of so unjust a course, telling
+them plainly it was little better than highway robbery, and the railroad
+company would retaliate by raising the rates of shipping, whereby all
+would suffer alike.
+
+But his appeal was disregarded by the rampant majority, and, although he
+pleaded with the audience to make the bonds payable in thirty years,
+which, he said, was but equitable, the motion to make the bonds payable
+in one year was sustained, and one ardent supporter of that _iniquitous_
+measure, a man in a coon-skin cap, was heard to remark, as he mounted
+his mule, which had one crank leg:--
+
+"Good enough fur them railroad fellers; they just haint got no business
+a-comin' out hyur with their bulljine a-spilin' of our freightin'."
+
+Although the free discussion at the meeting led to a feeling of
+animosity, the work of building was begun and rapidly pushed forward to
+completion, soon as the bonds which had been voted for the purpose could
+be disposed of to those same "bloated bondholders" of the East, and by
+the middle of August, the large stone school-house, with a bell-tower
+and rose window, crowned a knoll just across the river from the Old
+Corral.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE GRASSHOPPER RAID.
+
+A short time after the day on which the new school-house had been
+dedicated by a public dinner, in which all the colonists participated, a
+peculiar haziness was noticed in the air, and, on looking up at the sun,
+swarms of gauzy-winged insects were seen floating southward on the light
+breeze; but they were too high for Clifford and Rob--who stood in the
+barn-yard wondering what they were--to conjecture the terrible import of
+the phenomenon.
+
+Thicker and more dense became the haze, now almost obscuring the sun, or
+again thinning out to a silvery mist, which quickly changed to fleecy
+clouds again, drifting overhead like the scud of a summer storm.
+
+Mrs. Warlow, who stood on the latticed balcony that ran along the
+eastern front of the dwelling, and on which there opened glass doors,
+instead of windows, from the long range of dormer gables in the upper
+story of that picturesque homestead, was looking out to the north, and
+as she saw a dark, strange cloud quickly rising, she called to the boys
+to come in at once as a storm was almost upon them.
+
+As the boys glanced out towards the north-west they could see the
+unnatural, black cloud stretching across the northern horizon, but
+momentarily growing nearer, like a dense shadow on a summer landscape.
+
+Their father, who had been reading on the porch, laid aside his paper on
+hearing the unusual commotion, and stepped out in the yard.
+
+"What can it be?" said Clifford anxiously.
+
+"A dust-storm, probably," replied the colonel, as the weather had been
+dry and parching hot for several weeks past.
+
+On came the threatening cloud, filling the air from the earth to an
+incredible height, and a low muffled roar grew louder every moment;
+then, as the startled family sought the shelter of the dwelling, a
+seething mass of insects filled the air.
+
+"Grasshoppers! grasshoppers!" cried Rob, dancing about in wild
+excitement.
+
+"Locusts!" exclaimed the colonel in great consternation; but even then
+no one but himself realized the terrible disaster and wide-spread ruin
+which their visit portended; but as he said, gravely, that they were the
+dreaded locusts or grasshoppers which often laid waste whole nations of
+Spanish-America, devouring every vestige of the growing crops of those
+countries and in one day leaving the land like a desert, then the
+meaning of the appalling calamity slowly dawned upon them.
+
+It was truly an awe-inspiring scene that met their sight, as they stood
+by the wide windows and looked out on the storm of insect life that
+raged by, darkening the sun itself as they swarmed along in countless
+billions.
+
+One who sees the feeble "hopper" spring aside from his path through the
+Eastern meadows can but dimly comprehend the terrible sight--the cubic
+miles of winged pests that rush by with a hurtling roar, filling the air
+all that day like the drifting snow-flakes, through which the sunlight
+dimly glimmered, or rolling by like the rack of some fierce storm.
+
+As the dew-drop that glints quivering in the morning may be a thing of
+beauty, but when multiplied by the waters of old ocean becomes grand and
+imposing, so it was with this feeble insect when re-enforced by his
+multitudinous kinsmen; and when our friends saw his hordes darkening the
+sun, and earth and sky swarming with his hosts, they realized, as
+Clifford said, "that neither corn nor cotton, but 'hopper,' was king,"
+and thenceforth that once reviled insect was held in great respect,
+though still regarded as an unmitigated nuisance by all the members of
+our colony.
+
+Next morning every tree, shrub, and building was covered by the insects
+in huge, dark masses, which flew up in disgusting swarms as the settlers
+walked along, and the fields of sod-corn were soon stripped clear of
+every ear and blade by the winged pests, and all the vegetables, also,
+fell victims to their rapacious appetites--save, perhaps, the warty old
+radishes, that stood bravely up in the ruined garden, rejoicing in their
+"strength." The woolly stems of the millet, likewise, defied their
+insatiable appetites.
+
+The grasshoppers hung about until late in the fall, as if loath to leave
+such hospitable friends; and when it became apparent that the pests were
+depositing their eggs in the ground, honey-combing the roads, fields,
+and banks of the streams with their cells, then the outlook became truly
+discouraging; for it was known that the young brood, which the next
+summer's sun would hatch out, would work greater havoc and ruin than
+that which the settler had just witnessed,--all of which disheartening
+prospects only served still more to weaken the vertebræ of those
+settlers not endowed by nature with spines like an oak-tree.
+
+Accordingly, near the end of September, this faint-hearted class
+inaugurated an hegira back to the Land of the Mother-in-law, and by
+their haste it was to be inferred that the much-maligned lady of story
+and song had changed her traditional spots, and now stood waiting to
+receive them with open hand, on the digital members of which no longer
+were visible the "claws" of malicious metaphor.
+
+The long caravan, as it wended its eastward course, was headed by the
+"chaince" orator, and the coon-skin cap and crank-legged mule, of
+"bulljine" memory, guarded the rear of the retreating host.
+
+It appeared as if the exodus of the settlers was regarded as a signal
+of departure by the grasshoppers also; for one fine morning they rose up
+in darkening swarms and departed to the south-west.
+
+The Warlow and Moreland families, who had preferred to remain when their
+more faint-hearted neighbors left, now proceeded to sow their fields in
+wheat and rye, and the autumn rains and warm sunshine soon clothed the
+fields with a rank growth of the cereals, which, with the millet,
+prairie-hay, and the pasture the wheat-fields afforded, served to keep
+their stock in good condition during the mild winter that followed.
+
+Our friends devoted the early winter to building stone barns and
+corrals, or pens for the stock, and so busy, indeed, were the energetic
+settlers that they could scarcely realize that March was with them
+again; but the way in which that wayward jade proceeded to demonstrate
+the fact left no doubt in the minds of those who tried to withstand her
+windy arguments. Although the weather was very dry, the wheat and rye
+fields were green and rank; but when April passed, and had neglected to
+shed the customary tears over the frolics of her wayward younger sister,
+and the drouth still continued, even the stoical colonel became alarmed
+and fearful for the future.
+
+To add to the gloom of the outlook, the warm sunshine had so operated as
+an incubator that the earth fairly squirmed with the newly hatched brood
+of young grasshoppers; and as May came on still warm and dry, and the
+young pests began their dread ravages on the tender young vegetables
+and fields of grain, then grim famine, with all its horrors, stared the
+settlers in the face.
+
+But on May 16th, a change was noticed in the atmosphere. The barometer
+denoted a rain; and as Rob limped about, he said that he could feel a
+storm in his bones; but Clifford thought that was owing to his tight
+boots.
+
+A north-east wind began to blow, cold and chilly, and a mist wrapped the
+earth in its foggy folds until all the hills grew faint and dim; then a
+fine, drizzling rain followed, which before noon merged into a perfect
+deluge, and the rivulets as they poured down from the highlands, mingled
+their gurgling songs with the river's low bass, raging and roaring over
+its rocky bed, all making sweet music to the ear of the anxious
+colonist.
+
+The Warlow homestead stood, as I have heretofore explained, in a grove
+that grew in the river's bend; and as the house was situated on low
+ground, some apprehension was felt by the family lest the river should
+reach the dwelling; and as the barn was on still lower ground, on the
+bank of the stream, it was suggested that the stock should be taken to
+the upland pasture; a field that was inclosed with a fence of barbed
+wire, and connected with the barn-yard by a lane.
+
+Accordingly, Clifford and Rob drove the horses and mules, with the
+cattle, up to the pasture, and after closing the gate started on their
+return through the pouring rain; but when they reached the margin of
+what was, but an hour before, a shallow, grass-bedded brook, babbling
+away through the meadow, they found now a wide glassy stream, to wade
+which they knew was impossible; so divesting themselves of their
+superfluous clothing, they tied their boots up in bundles to throw
+across.
+
+Clifford's budget landed safely; but Rob was not so fortunate, he having
+undershot the mark, and he cried:--
+
+"There go my Sundiest boots!"
+
+At the rueful outcry, Clifford turned, just in time to see the bobbing
+bundle disappear in the muddy water.
+
+The boys swam over safely (but Robbie's bundle was not recovered until
+several days had elapsed, but then found to be sadly water-logged), and
+as poor Rob stood shivering in the rain, Clifford gave him his overcoat.
+
+"Oh, a fellow only needs a pair of sandals and a plantain-leaf to keep
+off the dew in this dry region," said Rob, as he buttoned the welcome
+garment around him.
+
+The boys, after changing their wet garments when they reached home, went
+down into the parlor where Maud sat, twanging her guitar and singing:--
+
+    "Oh, gentle, gentle summer rain!
+    Let not the drooping lily pine;"
+
+But Rob interrupted, and with an air of tragedy, sang:--
+
+    "Oh, cats and pitchforks cease to rain
+    And trickle down my chilly spine."
+
+Then, his mother coming in, he proceeded to tell about their "cruise,"
+and the sad fate of his bundle.
+
+"Oh, you might have been drowned in that horrid stream!" said Maud,
+dropping her guitar in consternation.
+
+"About the only way a fellow can escape such a fate out-doors to-day is
+to jump into the river," said Clifford, in high good-humor. "Talk about
+the 'dry belt,'" he continued; "I hope that geographical girdle will
+soon prove all too short to span this western 'waste.'"
+
+The colonel, who had just come in, said with an anxious face:--
+
+"I am afraid the only dry belt left by morning will be the upstairs,
+unless this flood ceases soon."
+
+At this announcement Mrs. Warlow and Maud flew into a panic, saying they
+would all be drowned; to which gloomy predictions the colonel and
+Clifford replied with arguments to the effect that the house being of
+stone would resist any flood, and all that was necessary to insure their
+safety, would be to retire to the upper story of the dwelling in case
+the water rose into the house; and the feminine portion of the household
+was soon reassured, and busied themselves preparing an early supper,
+while the stronger members of the family were busy carrying the
+furniture up to that place of refuge.
+
+The books, pictures, carpets, and other "household goods," were soon
+beyond danger; but the old rosewood piano was a load which nearly defied
+their united efforts, though it, too, was successfully drawn up the
+stairway with the aid of block and tackle, and finally the store of
+provisions--a very slender store indeed--was carried to the upper rooms.
+
+After the hasty supper, Clifford and Bob went to the stream, lantern in
+hand, to take a survey of the situation. They found the river lacked now
+but a foot of reaching the upper bank, and as it was still raining in
+torrents they realized the gravity of their position.
+
+It was a strange, weird sight--the sullen, roaring stream; but yesterday
+a silvery chain, scarce linking the shallow pools where pebbles and
+shells had shown in the clear, quiet depths--now a mad, dark river,
+boiling and swirling along in the red glare of the light.
+
+When they had returned to the dwelling and reported the situation, the
+colonel looked very grave, and they began to canvass the prospect of a
+retreat. There was Clifford's dwelling, they remembered, at the Old
+Corral, situated high and dry; but to reach it they would have to cross
+a stream that was a foaming torrent, and the wild, swift river on the
+south completely cut them off from retreat in that direction; while away
+to the north stretched the limitless prairie, with not a habitation for
+more than a score of miles to shelter them from the cold and driving
+rain.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IX.
+
+
+But when they thought of the wide valley and the vast quantity of water
+necessary to raise one foot after the river left its banks, they
+dismissed the thought of danger, and retired to rest.
+
+The rain now poured down with greater fury than ever; the wind lashed
+the roof with the limbs of the old elm that drooped over the chimneys
+and gables of the dwelling; and the groaning and creaking added a
+gruesome feeling to the drowsiness which the plashing rain-drops caused
+to steal over the inmates of that danger-threatened household.
+
+"It makes me think of spectres and shrieking ghosts," said Robbie, as he
+drew the cover up closer, and cuddled down by Clifford.
+
+"Yes; it recalls the lines of 'Tam O'Shanter,'" replied his older
+brother, repeating a verse from that masterpiece of Burns:--
+
+    "The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last;
+    The rattling showers rose on the blast;
+    The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed;
+    Loud, deep, and lang the thunder bellowed.
+    That night a child might understand
+    The devil had business on his hand."
+
+"If the Old Gent ventures from his fireside to-night, he'll get his tail
+wet," said Rob; then rolling over, the lad was soon in the "land of
+Nod."
+
+But Clifford lay for hours listening to the hoarse roar of wind, river,
+trees, and pelting rain; but finally he was lulled to sleep, though even
+in slumber he was weighed down and haunted by a sense of danger; and
+when the clock chimed the hour of twelve he arose, and stole down the
+stairs. As he reached the next to the last step his foot plashed in the
+water. He knew at once that the river was now out over all the wide
+valley, and had risen in a stealthy flow, invading the house, where it
+was at least two feet deep.
+
+Watching the water by the light which he had returned and procured, he
+saw it was rising in an alarming manner; so he hastily dressed himself
+and went to the window, and opening the sash, which was all in one piece
+and hung on hinges, he looked out on the glaring, boiling flood below.
+As he stood thus, looking down on the terrible, raging whirlpool, he was
+rapidly revolving in his mind plans of escape from their perilous
+position; but every avenue of retreat seemed closed. As he cast his eyes
+about in despair, he started joyfully at the thought of the "Crows'
+Nest" up in the great elm--a place which could be reached by a flight of
+steps springing from the window ledge and leading far up into the forks
+of the tree.
+
+Smiling at the fact that he had not thought of it before, he sprang up
+the stairs into the fanciful retreat, which Robbie in his boyish fancy
+had planned and built in the top of the lofty tree, and which, on warm,
+sultry days, had proved to be an aerial lounging-place as comfortable as
+it was novel. It was a stout platform about eight feet square, railed
+about, and provided with seats, hammocks, and even a rocking-chair. It
+was with a feeling of relief that Clifford stood on the floor of the
+lofty perch and glanced down at the glare of water.
+
+Springing down the steps, which were also safely railed, he went to the
+mark which he had made on the wall and found the water had risen a full
+step, and, knowing there was no time to lose, he ran to the bed and
+awakened Robbie, telling him of the situation, and in a few minutes that
+resolute young chap was dressed and ready to lend a willing hand in the
+plan which Clifford unfolded.
+
+Taking a wagon-cover from one of the stow-aways which flanked the room,
+and a piece of scantling from the same catch-all, the boys cut the ropes
+from the wagon-sheet, and after tying the scantling securely to the
+limbs above the platform, at a distance of six or seven feet overhead,
+they next drew the canvas, tent-fashion, over it, then brought the ends
+down in such a manner that the rain was excluded from the "Nest," and
+tacking the sheet to the floor and making a flap for the doorway, the
+interior was quite impervious to the rain, which still raged without.
+
+Some blankets were next carried up and spread on the floor, and then two
+beds were made hastily, and the busy fellows did not omit the pillows
+and sheets; so the place wore a very cozy appearance. Then, when all was
+complete, they awakened their parents and Maud, telling them of the safe
+retreat into which they would be compelled to remove.
+
+In a few moments they were all safely up in the "Nest," and then the
+provisions and a few valuables were carried thither, Rob cautioning them
+not to forget a jug of water. Then the boys went down to the hall
+stairway and found that the water lacked but two feet of reaching the
+upper floor.
+
+Alarmed and in great suspense, Clifford stood watching the flood, and
+was relieved to see that the water crept more slowly up the stair; then
+Robbie, coming up, said that the rain was about over and the stars were
+twinkling through the rifts above.
+
+As the boys gazed at the water; a faint wet line became visible on the
+wall just above the flood. Breathless with suspense, they watched until
+the band widened; then Clifford shouted in wild excitement,
+"Falling--falling!"
+
+"She's falling, falling!" shrieked Rob as he flew up to the "Nest" with
+the joyful news.
+
+Yes; it was a blissful fact that the water was subsiding, and, that too,
+at a rate which soon promised relief from the danger which had
+threatened them with total ruin.
+
+Clifford, ever thoughtful of the comfort of others, now built a fire in
+the warming stove which stood in his room, and proceeded to make coffee
+for the weary and chilly party that still remained up in their "Nest;"
+and as the young man remembered Rob's caution regarding the water-jug,
+he hastily tied a rope to a bucket, and reaching over the window-ledge,
+soon secured a supply of the necessary fluid. A steaming hot cup of the
+fragrant beverage was declared by the nestlings to be "prime and
+delicious" in the extreme.
+
+Warmed and refreshed now, the family looked out upon the strange scene
+which began to emerge in the dawning light. The valley was submerged
+from hill to hill; but they could see the cattle patiently grazing on
+the highlands, and the poultry on the accustomed trees were roosting
+serenely, far above the danger-line.
+
+The surrounding country was quite rolling, and the stream headed among
+the hills on the west, only a few miles distant; so after the rain
+ceased, the flood subsided as rapidly as it had risen--a peculiarity of
+all Western streams.
+
+The family watched the water subside until all the old land-marks were
+once more visible. The fields were still covered in shallow water; but
+soon the wild river shrank back into its narrow channel once again.
+
+There had been great anxiety felt for the safety of the Moreland family,
+although it was known that their dwelling was situated on higher ground
+than the Warlow house; yet no sign of life was visible at the homestead
+of their neighbor, and when a loud halloo was heard from Ralph Moreland,
+who had ridden over to the top of one of the hills which shouldered down
+to the opposite side of the river, a glad cry in response was raised
+from the inmates of the "Nest."
+
+It was amusing to see the bewildered way in which he peered over, trying
+to discover their whereabouts; and when he finally discovered the aerial
+family, he eagerly asked after their welfare.
+
+When he learned of their safety, he laughed in a relieved and hearty
+way at their "elevated station in life."
+
+In answer to their inquiries regarding his father's family, he said that
+the water had not reached the dwelling; but he was too uneasy thinking
+of their danger to wait longer than daylight to ride over, and, although
+he did not mention the fact, they saw that his horse was wet to the
+saddle-bow, and knew that he had swam a dangerous side-stream to gain
+the hill.
+
+Maud begged him not to return until the water subsided, and she kept
+shouting their experience across the river, while the equally noisy
+youth replied in tones like a fog-horn.
+
+Mrs. Warlow and the colonel had now descended to the "lower regions," as
+Clifford termed the first story of the dwelling, where he and Rob were
+removing a mountain of mud from the floor, and their mother soon
+prepared a breakfast which those hungry youths pronounced a royal
+banquet.
+
+But Maud still carried on her loud flirtation from the tree-top in tones
+which, Rob said, "could be heard in the next county," and the way she
+managed, with her lengthened description of their experience, to detain
+Ralph until all danger of high water on his return had passed, showed
+she felt a greater interest in the rider than in the high-toned subject.
+
+After he had at length ridden away, Maud descended to the rooms below,
+where her mother was, saying that "this inundation would be long
+remembered, and would become legendary and traditional."
+
+"Yes," replied Clifford, gravely, "Rob and I will carry the memory of
+the event down to our 'remotest ancestors.'"
+
+"Oh, I daresay it will lose nothing in the way of variations in the
+transmission," said Maud; "but here, you superior being, bring me a pail
+of water;" and Clifford marched off obediently to the muddy well.
+
+"Why, madam," cried Rob, mockingly, as he scraped the mud from the
+floor, "have you regained your voice? I was afraid it was utterly lost;"
+and he giggled at the thought of how her tones had wandered away over
+the prairie.
+
+"More scrubbing and less sarcasm, young man!" she replied, with a blush,
+as she vigorously attacked the wall, which was stained by the water, or
+frescoed with mud and slime; but as the plastering was of hard coat, it
+soon regained its wonted purity under the drenching which was
+administered by the energetic and busy workers, and long before
+night-fall the usual neatness and order reigned in the Warlow household.
+
+The young brood of grasshoppers had all been swept away in the flood, or
+perished in the long, cold storm. Pious Mrs. Warlow said, "The hand of
+the Lord is revealed in freeing the land of those pests;" and indeed it
+appeared the work of Providence, which had so effectually destroyed them
+that no further trace was visible of the scourge which only a brief day
+before had threatened both the Missouri and Arkansas valleys with famine
+and desolation.
+
+The weather, that for the past year had played the fickle jade, now
+tried to atone for her folly, and often would she burst into tears of
+remorse, and veil her face in summer clouds, at remembrance of the wild
+tantrums which had marred her equinoctial history.
+
+In the propitious rain and sunshine which followed, the fields of grain
+emerged from their coat of rich sediment, and the lush, dank growth of
+the cereals ripened into great level fields of waving grain, the bronze
+and golden wheat and silvery sheen of barley and oats contrasting
+happily with the long rows of corn and emerald millet.
+
+How often it is thus, that misfortune, on reaching a climax of
+superlative disaster, then assumes the form of diminutive comparison!
+
+The migratory settlers, that had been sojourning in the Land of the
+Mother-in-law, now returned, re-enforced by cousins to a remote degree,
+and on their tattered old wagon-covers, on which had glared in letters
+of blue, black, and red, the legend "Kansas or BusT," and which on their
+subsequent flitting had been partially erased and the assertion "buStud
+by--" printed instead, now there glared the dauntless assertion,
+"kansiss is the bEsT lAnd unDur the suNn."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter X.
+
+
+One delightful day in June the Warlow and Moreland families, or the
+younger members of those households, attended a picnic which was held in
+a grove on the river seven miles below the Old Corral.
+
+At an early hour Clifford, Maud, and Robbie drove down in their
+three-seated carriage, drawn by Clifford's iron grays, and at Squire
+Moreland's the party was re-enforced by Ralph, Grace, and Scott. Baskets
+and fishing-lines were stowed away under the seats, and the frying-pan,
+also, was given a place of honor in the same promiscuous stow-away.
+
+The dew was sparkling like gems on the bearded wheat, so soon to fall
+before the reaper's stroke, and the tender grass and softly-fluttering
+trees were all bathed in the mellow sunlight, as they sped down the
+winding road.
+
+When our friends arrived at the grove they found that the platform,
+which had been erected among the trees close to the river, was crowded
+with a well-dressed throng, who were merrily dancing to the music of
+violin, organ, and guitar. After the carriage-load had been deposited on
+the platform, and Rob and Scott had returned from caring for the team,
+the boys found Clifford, Grace, Ralph, and Maud busily improving the
+shining moments in the mazes of a cotillion.
+
+When the music ceased, Maud was requested by one of the amateur
+musicians to second on the organ, which was a mere labor of love; and as
+she acceded to the request, she saw Rob and Grace spinning away in a
+waltz, dizzily gyrating about the platform with a full score of couples,
+all equally giddy and alike bent on extracting the most enjoyment out of
+the least possible time.
+
+Clifford, who stood leaning against a tree, surveying the varied groups
+with that mingling of interest, amusement, and indifference, which we
+experience in viewing the movements of strangers who may soon become
+acquaintance, and possibly friends, was accosted by a handsome young man
+of near his own age, who greeted him very cordially.
+
+The new-comer was Hugh Estill, the son of a wealthy ranchman who lived
+near, or at least but a few miles further down the valley. The two young
+men had become acquainted in a business way while Clifford had been
+buying cattle at the Estill ranch some weeks before, and it was to young
+Estill they owed the invitation to the picnic; so it was with a feeling
+of gratitude, not unmixed with respect in remembrance of the lordly
+ranch-house and its princely domain, that young Warlow shook hands and
+thanked the young ranchman for his thoughtful remembrance of them on
+this pleasant occasion.
+
+Robbie had by this time surrendered his partner to a young cow-boy, a
+son of the greatest "cattle king" in the valley, and as the young
+"prince" led Miss Grace out through the changes of the quadrille he
+seemed totally oblivious of the fact that his leather "leggins,"
+jingling spurs, and silver-mounted revolver hanging from a
+cartridge-belt, were not wholly in keeping with the festive occasion;
+and as they paused in the dance, the bovine princeling, after blowing a
+long breath and wiping his glowing brow on his sleeve, observed:--
+
+"That was a terrible swell--the young blood with a biled vest, who just
+waltzed with you. Ha! ha!--a wild rose in his button-hole! Guess I'll
+have to get one also--by shot!"
+
+But Miss Grace bluntly told him that a gourdvine would be far more
+suitable.
+
+Robbie, who was happily unconscious of the disparaging remarks which
+were being made at the expense of his purple and fine linen, had joined
+Clifford and been introduced to the new friend, who passed some
+good-natured compliments on that urchin's dancing, to which Rob replied
+that he was but re-dedicating his boots that so lately had been
+resurrected; and he proceeded to tell in his inimitable manner of the
+mishap that had carried his best and dearly-beloved boots to a watery
+grave, from which they were at length "resurrected," all filled with mud
+and sand. Laughing heartily, Hugh said he hoped he would shine as
+brightly on the resurrection morn as those same "Sunday boots."
+
+While Hugh and Bobbie had been engaged in the above frivolous and wholly
+unprofitable conversation, Clifford was improving the time in furtively
+staring at a radiant and superbly beautiful young lady who was playing
+the guitar near Maud; and, indeed, young Warlow might have been excused
+if we had detected him in the rude act, for it was a face which once
+seen would never be forgotten.
+
+Her eyes of softest blue were veiled by silken, jetty lashes, and a
+wealth of raven-black hair rippled low on a face of creamy olive. An
+expression of pride mingled with the spirited vivacity of her charming
+face, which he thought was the most fascinating he had ever beheld.
+
+Every detail of her dress, from the wide straw hat with its drooping
+spray of lilies, the creamy grenadine with its tangled pattern of the
+same snowy flowers and cascades of foamy lace, the cross and chain of
+palest coral, with ribbons of the same faint rose-hue, evinced the taste
+and refined instincts of a well-born and cultured lady.
+
+There seemed to be the ineffable charm of grace and elegance in her very
+attitude, as she stood by the organ and swept the guitar with white,
+tapering fingers, while through all the melody there thrilled the sweet,
+dripping notes, like the memory of some half-forgotten dream, which,
+though elusive and vague, still haunts our waking hours through all the
+turmoil of a busy day.
+
+"Where have I seen that form and face before?" said Clifford, half
+audibly, as the last faint notes died away, and he awoke from a reverie,
+while a look of surprise and delight broke over his handsome face; then
+turning to young Estill he said, in an eager tone:--
+
+"Who is that divine young creature who played the guitar until she set
+me to dreaming of old Spain?"
+
+"Why, that musical divinity," said Estill, with a hearty laugh, "is my
+only sister Morelia; or Mora, as we have become used to calling her. I
+shall be pleased to present you, for I am truly relieved to find some
+one who can appreciate her music, which always sounded to me very much
+like cats fighting."
+
+A moment later the young men were upon the platform, and young Estill
+said, in his easy, good-humored way:--
+
+"Sister Mora, let me present my friend, Mr. Warlow, on whom your music
+has had the strange effect of setting him to dreaming, not of cats on
+the roof, but of castles in Spain,--which I have by his own confession."
+
+She gave young Warlow a fair, dimpled hand, on which flashed one ring of
+rose-colored amethyst, and, after he had bowed very low, their eyes met
+in a swift glance of half-puzzled recognition and surprise, while a
+magnetic shock caused them both to tremble; but quickly recovering, she
+said, with a smile, while toying with a bracelet of carved Neapolitan
+coral:--
+
+"My brother's criticisms are not of much value, for the sweetest sounds
+to his ears are the bellowings of beef-cattle."
+
+Then, as she and Clifford sauntered out to a seat under a tree, he
+said:--
+
+"How strange it is, Miss Estill, that I have never met you before, for
+it seems as though I have known you for years!"
+
+"Why, Mr. Warlow, I was just trying to recall the time and place where I
+had seen you. It must have been while we were traveling that we have
+been thrown together for a moment; yet I can not now remember the
+circumstance," she replied, with a look of interest dawning in her blue
+eyes.
+
+"If we had I would not have forgotten such a pleasant incident, Miss
+Estill. But I am puzzled to think why I remember even your tone and
+manner so well, for I can't recall any chance meeting with you in the
+past."
+
+At that moment Grace and Hugh Estill came up, and proposed that they
+should repair to the river, near by, and spend an hour fishing; so they
+soon were seated under the shade of an enormous cottonwood-tree on the
+banks of a deep pool, while Hugh and Grace, who had been introduced at
+some former meeting, strayed along the stream in quest of a "better
+place," which they did not discover in _sight or hearing_ of Miss Estill
+and Clifford.
+
+After casting their hooks into the quiet water, they sat down upon the
+shady bank, and Miss Estill said:--
+
+"Hugh has often spoken of you lately, and we had discussed the subject
+of calling on your sister and Miss Moreland, but decided that we would
+send you an invitation to our picnic, at which I hoped to become
+acquainted with them." Then, seeing a shade of disappointment flit over
+his face, she added, archly: "And you also. But I assure you that the
+call will not be deferred a great while longer; for I am delighted to
+find such charming girls for neighbors."
+
+"The invitation was very kind and thoughtful of you, Miss Estill. We
+had been longing to meet congenial companions, and hailed the news of
+the picnic with all the delight of people who have been isolated from
+society for a year or more. I hope you will believe it is no vain
+compliment when I tell you that I have already met new friends here that
+I value higher than any of my old ones," Clifford replied, as he knotted
+a bunch of elder-bloom, snowy and fragrant, with the blossoms of the
+wild heart's-ease, azure and gold, which grew on the sandy stretch at
+their feet. Then, adding a fern-like tuft of meadow-fescue, he held it
+toward Miss Estill, while a look of undisguised admiration shone in his
+clear blue eyes, saying:--
+
+"In memory of my deep gratitude."
+
+Fastening the flowers among the meshes of lace on her breast, she busied
+herself a moment with the fishing-tackle as she drew the hook from the
+water with a dangerous movement. Then, with a smile dimpling her face,
+she said:--
+
+"If you feel such a deep sense of gratitude, Mr. Warlow, you may
+discharge the debt by baiting my hook, which some wary turtle or other
+aquatic creature, has been investigating."
+
+With ready alacrity, Clifford performed the desired service; and as he
+let go the hook, Miss Estill began a series of manoeuvres with the
+fish-pole that were as womanly as they were threatening. Finally, after
+the hook had performed for some time around his head with a dangerous
+"s-w-i-s-h," it fortunately landed plump into the water, with a thud
+and splash loud enough to scare all the fish upon dry land.
+
+They stood a moment, silently watching the widening ripple; then, as
+they seated themselves on the bank again, Miss Estill said, with a
+smile:--
+
+"You are very brave, indeed, Mr. Warlow, never to wince. But perhaps you
+were not aware of the great risk a man runs who fishes with a woman. I
+never should have forgiven myself if that awkward hook had caught in
+your eye."
+
+"Or my ear," he added, with such a look of comic distress that she
+dropped her fish-pole into the water with a merry laugh; then, as he
+joined in the merriment, the startled mocking-bird overhead hushed its
+song, and flitted away to some quieter nook.
+
+"Now, if we are not more careful, we will have to dine on humility
+to-day," she said, as he recovered the fishing-tackle. "But do you
+really grow lonesome in your new home, Mr. Warlow?" she added.
+
+"Yes, indeed I did," said Clifford, with an emphasis on the past tense
+that indicated the remoteness of those days. "But we were very busy
+until recently, and I did not fully realize what a hermit I had become
+until I came here into the crowd, and found myself growing hot and cold
+by turns, my heart palpitating, and my hands and feet getting heavy.
+Then I knew it would only be a matter of time when I should fly, like a
+South Sea Islander, at very sight of a human face, much less the
+presence of a fashionable young lady;" and he joined Miss Estill's
+merriment at his charming candor, with an easy laugh.
+
+"Oh, I appreciate the situation," she replied; "for when they sent me to
+Cincinnati to the boarding-school, where all was so strange, and the
+only ray of sunshine in the long weeks, months, and years was a flitting
+call from my fashionable aunt, or the yearly visits to my Western home,
+I felt desolate and miserable. Why, I was so shy, and possibly a bit
+wild, that I gained the name of Antelope among my school-mates;" and
+Miss Estill smiled somewhat sadly at remembrance of those past days.
+
+"When you returned to your home, it certainly must have seemed lonely
+after the life in that 'American Florence,'" said young Warlow.
+
+"Oh, it was paradise! I could scarcely believe that the old days of
+banishment were over; and indeed I half feared, sometimes, that they
+would pack me off again. It was such a perfect joy to be back at the
+dear old ranch once more with Hugh and my parents, that I vowed I should
+never leave again. But when I had been back a year I did sometimes long
+for a good, confidential chat with my girl friends, and would be a bit
+lonesome while Hugh was away; but our life is one ceaseless round of
+labor, toil, and care, so I have short time for repining. Would you
+believe, Mr. Warlow, that more than half the time all the duties of
+housekeeper, unaided, devolve upon me? Our house has been a constant
+panorama of 'domestic' weddings since I returned from school; yes, and
+for years before also. No sooner would we begin to appreciate some
+household treasure--a Nora, Ruth, or Nelly, who had come from the East
+to lessen our domestic burdens--than along would come some spruce
+ranchman or handsome young homesteader, and--presto!--our domestic was
+courted away in a twinkling to brighten a new home. And what with the
+wedding which mamma always insists upon, and the bridal finery she
+bestows, the burden is redoubled. My weary shoulders fairly ache as we
+pass through the constant, or tri-yearly, recurrence of the same
+experience. Hugh says that he believes the servant-girls of the East
+have finally come to look upon our house as a matrimonial agency."
+
+"Do you not think, Miss Estill, that the bright new homes, which are a
+result of your charities, are sufficient reward for your domestic
+martyrdom?"
+
+"Oh, if you think our providing wives for the miscellaneous ranchers,
+herders, and homesteaders could be called a charity, I will have to say
+that our furthering of those matches has proved a mixed blessing indeed;
+for I recall a world of conjugal infelicity which has followed those
+hasty and ofttimes ill-assorted matches. 'Marry at pleasure,' etc., is a
+maxim true as it is trite, Mr. Warlow."
+
+"Yes; it is undeniable that unhappy matings do occur; but I can not see
+how a lonesome bachelor, who eats his own vile cooking and goes through
+the vain ceremony of laundry-work, could ever aggravate his deplorable
+condition, Miss Estill."
+
+"But the fact remains that he certainly does," she replied, with a low
+gurgling laugh, like the ripple of some sweet, clear brook. "Why, Mr.
+Warlow, I recall a scene of which I was the innocent witness one evening
+last month. I was riding by the ranch of Mr. Blank, who had wooed and
+won our cook after a courtship that was as brief as it was fervid. I
+have reason to believe he pines for his former state of untrammeled
+freedom; for, in some argument which they seemed to be discussing that
+evening, she, his faithful helpmeet, hurled the milk-stool at his head.
+I rode quickly away, mentally washing my hands of any further
+matrimonial schemes.
+
+"Mr. Warlow! a fish, a fish!" she cried in a low tone, and he turned his
+eyes reluctantly to the sadly neglected fishing-tackle, which he had
+"set" by thrusting the poles into the bank, and which they, in their
+long and absorbing conversation, had totally forgotten. There he saw the
+flash of a finny monster in the water, and the fish-pole violently
+threshing in the air above the pond, and as he drew the glittering perch
+from the pool, he found that it had become entangled in Miss Estill's
+fish-line also.
+
+"It is our fish, is it not?--and a good omen," he said, as he secured
+the prize which fluttered at her feet.
+
+"It is our 'luck,'" she replied gaily; "but we can boast of little skill
+in angling;" at which they both laughed, low but heartily, at the
+thought how far into foreign fields they had rambled, leaving their
+fishing to chance, and in that merry glance was laid the foundation of
+sympathy, appreciation, and friendship.
+
+When they returned to the grove they were joined by Hugh, Grace, Maud,
+and Ralph, whose success had been most woefully indifferent. Those
+discomfited anglers looked with undisguised envy on the great
+piscatorial prize, and while it was frying on the fire, which Scott and
+Robbie kindled, they all lent a ready ear to the malicious story which
+the latter urchin told--"That Cliff had brought a mackerel to the
+picnic, and it was that same identical fish which they were frying."
+
+When the cloth was spread on the grass, and the great fish, garnished
+with elder-blooms and wild-roses, was given the place of honor at the
+feast, Hugh Estill said:--
+
+"Now, Mora, please pass the mackerel."
+
+Only then was the fact made plain that Robbie was a boy, given to
+telling "fish stories," and could be trusted and relied upon only at the
+dinner-table.
+
+Ah! it was a gleeful hour at that _al fresco_ meal,--the soft breeze
+stirring the tree-tops, and the bright sunlight sifting down through the
+fluttering leaves on the silver and crystal, the frosty cake and
+quivering jelly, the crimson and gold, and, above all, the happy faces
+of our young friends.
+
+Dancing and an impromptu concert, followed by charades on a temporary
+stage, served to pass away a few more blissful hours: then the revelers
+broke into groups and couples, sauntering into shady nooks, and engaging
+in those long and confidential chats which are totally devoid of
+interest to any save themselves.
+
+Miss Estill and young Warlow were seated upon a bank where the mingled
+sunlight and pale shadows flickered softly over the lush and tender
+sward, and their conversation steered away from the shoals and quagmires
+of match-making and matrimony to the vague and mystic fields of
+metaphysics.
+
+"Do you know, Miss Estill, that I have--a dim impression, shall I call
+it?--of having met you somewhere before?"
+
+"Yes; I remember distinctly of your having not only met me, but also
+kindly helping me catch a fish, before," she replied, archly.
+
+Clifford said, in a laughing manner, that he was not so ungallant as to
+forget that thrilling adventure, then he continued in an earnest tone:--
+
+"I feel like we had met long years ago; and somehow, Miss Estill, it all
+appears so natural to be with you, to hear your tones and see your face,
+that it is like the return of some dear friend whom you have longed to
+see for years."
+
+"You almost make me believe in the theory of the transmigration of
+souls, Mr. Warlow. How very possible it may have been that in some dim,
+pre-historic age you and I were a pair of giant king-fishers, who to-day
+were reunited on the banks of our favorite stream after the lapse of
+untold ages!--and what is more natural than we should take to our
+antediluvian occupation at once?" and she peered down into the pool with
+a sidelong glance as though searching for her finny prey, while
+Clifford shook with merriment at her happy imitation of that uncanny
+bird.
+
+"I never was a firm believer in Swedenborg; yet the thought haunts me
+still that I certainly have met you before to-day, although, as you say,
+it may have been in some previous happy state, Miss Estill."
+
+"Now, to be frank, Mr. Warlow, I confess to being a bit superstitious,
+which may be owing, however, to my living so isolated from society all
+these years that I even welcomed company of a supernatural nature,
+which, you know, is better than none."
+
+"Why, it can not be that your vicinity is peopled by shrieking ghosts,
+too?" said Clifford quickly, as the memory of the spectre of the Stone
+Corral came to mind, which in the turmoil of their busy lives had been
+nearly forgotten.
+
+"I can not see why I should revert to such a subject to-day; but some
+way the mention of transmigration of souls brought the remembrance of
+the Gray Spectre to my mind," said she, glancing furtively over her
+shoulder; then, as she caught young Warlow's amused look, she smiled
+responsively, and continued:--
+
+"You too have a skeleton in the family, I perceive; so let's unburden
+our souls and exchange confidences."
+
+"With all my heart," said Clifford; "I am glad we have such a mutual
+bond of sympathy."
+
+Then he told how the gray-robed figure had startled the group at the
+camp-fire, and fled shrieking away, that memorable evening more than a
+year before; and although all of their family had maintained an
+apprehensive outlook for a second visit from his spookship, they never
+had been molested further; and he concluded by saying:--
+
+"But I hope, Miss Estill, your experience will throw some light on the
+mystery."
+
+"It is undoubtedly the same spectral being which has haunted our ranch
+for the past twenty-five years, and which has eluded pursuit on every
+occasion, although papa, Hugh, and several herders have endeavored, more
+or less bravely, to trace it; but the mysterious apparition always
+vanishes into the night without leaving a trace. Why, I have become so
+fearful that, like the daughter of the bold Glengyle,--
+
+    'Alone I dare not venture there,
+    Where walks, they say, the shrieking ghost,'--
+
+and I often fly at the sight of my own shadow," said Miss Estill. "One
+evening, Mr. Warlow, I was riding by a peculiarly lonesome spot near
+home,--a lofty hill on which there is the grave of a mysterious
+relative, who died near a quarter of a century since, and of whose
+history I can learn but little. Although Hugh and I often question our
+parents about him, they seem to evade our inquiries. I had reached a
+point close to the grave,--which is all overgrown with thistles,
+notwithstanding the fact that I had repeatedly planted flowers and roses
+there that had always refused to grow,--when that same hideous,
+gray-robed creature emerged from the thicket about the grave, and as I
+halted, frozen with horror at the sight, the gaunt wretch glared a
+moment, then fled shrieking away in the darkling twilight. Oh, I never
+paused to investigate, you may believe, but gave rein to my pony, which
+was as badly frightened as myself, and flew home like the wind," said
+Miss Estill with a shiver.
+
+"Have you ever been up to the corral, Miss Estill?" Clifford asked.
+
+"Not for three years, Mr. Warlow. Now, while we are speaking of
+supernatural things, I must tell you how strangely I always felt at that
+place. I can never go about the old ruin without being assailed by an
+uncanny feeling--something like one might be expected to feel who walks
+over her own grave, you know!" she added with a smile; then continuing
+she said earnestly: "It always seems that something terrible haunts the
+very air there, and I feel a weight of grief and misery that horrifies
+me whenever I pass the spot. If I had lost my dearest friend there, I
+should have very much the same sensation, I believe, at sight of the
+ruin. I struggle with my memory to recall some event with which I seem
+to have been connected there; but it is all in vain, for it is as
+intangible as a moonbeam."
+
+"That is very mysterious indeed, Miss Estill; for I often feel very much
+that way myself there, but not in so marked a degree as when I pass that
+great hill three miles up the valley, known as Antelope Butte. I am
+often overpowered by a feeling of deepest melancholy and grief while
+only passing that hill. The first time I saw the place I was shocked to
+think how familiar it all seemed; for I found the spring near its base
+just where my instinct seemed to tell me that the water bubbled forth
+from the rocky cleft. But a feeling of unutterable longing and an
+uncontrollable yearning to see some one, the name even of whom I can not
+recall, always seizes me there, and I am both perplexed and horrified at
+the sensation," Clifford replied.
+
+Gradually the tone of their conversation lost its gloomy hue, and
+rambled away into the realms of art, history, and song, of the fair
+foreign lands beyond that blue, quivering horizon; and as Miss Estill
+fluttered her fan of carved ivory and rose-plumes, talking in her sweet
+vivacious way, the sunlight threw a halo about the golden hair and
+Grecian face of the youth reclining on the bank, suffusing with rose the
+handsome features that even a western sun in all its fierceness could
+not rob of its fresh glow.
+
+As the fastidious Miss Estill noted every detail of his faultless
+attire, neither old nor new, from the tips of his shapely fingers to his
+glossy boots bearing the undeniable stamp of gentleman, she thought how
+utterly effete was the comparison, "Rough as a farmer;" and as
+admiration shone in his boyish face, illuminated with those honest blue
+eyes, fringed by their lashes of dead gold, is it any wonder that
+romance threw its glamour over the scene, and they half forgot to roam
+in fancy through foreign lands, thinking of the joyful present, which,
+alas! we seldom value until it has become a sweet memory only.
+
+The long shadows which stole down from the hill-tops warned our young
+friends that they would soon part, and reluctantly they returned to the
+platform, where preparations for starting were being made. Grace
+Moreland and Hugh Estill still appeared to be deeply engrossed with each
+other's society, and it was not remarkable that young Estill should
+hover about the vivacious and bewitching Grace; for she was a sparkling,
+graceful creature, the picture of innocence and youth, in her dress of
+fleecy white.
+
+As Clifford stood by Miss Estill at parting, he said, while his hand
+rested on the mane of her creamy horse:--
+
+"Ah, Miss Estill, I little thought what this morning held in store. This
+has been a day that repays the many dark years of the past, and I shall
+treasure its memory forever."
+
+"Yes; a blissful day indeed, Mr. Warlow; and it almost makes me sad to
+think I shall ever grow old," she replied, as she gave her hand, which
+he held longer--yes, I shall have to confess the fact, much longer--than
+the laws of conventionality demanded.
+
+As the Warlow carriage drove up the broad valley, the coolness of
+twilight was brooding over the prairies, and the twittering songsters
+fluttered down from the highlands to the sheltering thickets which
+belted the stream, and the fire-flies gemmed the dusky groves and
+meadows when they alighted at their homes.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XI.
+
+
+On a clear, serene Sabbath following the picnic, Miss Estill and Hugh
+rode up to Squire Moreland's, excusing the call on that holy day by
+saying that they were too busy to spare one day of six; and after dinner
+at that hospitable home, they walked up to Colonel Warlow's, being
+accompanied by Grace, Ralph, and Scott.
+
+They paused at the great latticed and arched gate to glance into the
+yard, which was inclosed by a low stone wall, over which the grapes and
+wild-roses clambered in heavy clusters of tangled foliage. Two gaudy
+peacocks were sunning their glittering plumage on the grass plat in
+front of the long stone dwelling resting so cool under the great
+elm--that same historical tree which had served as place of refuge
+during the "flood"--drooping low over the quaint gables, dormer windows,
+and chimneys wreathed by the transplanted wild vines which festooned the
+rough walls.
+
+The colonel was asleep in a hammock, which was slung in the latticed
+porch, and his placid wife sat near, reading the Bible, as she rocked
+softly in the easy-chair. Clifford, clad in a cool white suit, was
+reading also; but I fear the work, in which he was so absorbed that he
+had not seen the approaching guests, was not of such a sacred nature as
+befitted the Lord's-day. Maud and Bob, swinging in a swing which was
+fastened to the limbs of the great elm, were likewise perusing the pages
+of some entertaining book, which Maud dropped with a little feminine
+squeak of delight as she saw her friends; then she flew down the path,
+and greeted the new-comers with unfeigned pleasure.
+
+As she kissed Miss Estill and Grace in true girlish fashion, Rob, the
+handsome rogue, came forward and gravely offered to salute the ladies in
+the same manner; but his cordial advances were declined with thanks,
+whereupon he turned to the young men of the party and kissed them
+effusively, amid their merry peals of laughter at his sly way of
+ridiculing the feminine mode of greeting.
+
+Mrs. Marlow said in her low, sweet voice, as she led the guests into the
+house, after they had been presented in due form by Clifford,--
+
+"It is very kind of you, hunting us up this lonesome afternoon."
+
+"We should have done so long before this if we had known what very
+agreeable neighbors lived so near," replied young Estill.
+
+"You will smile, possibly, at our thinking twelve miles a neighborly
+distance, Mrs. Warlow, but I assure you it seems only a trifle when we
+remember that for years we have considered the people of Abilene and
+Lawrence our neighbors," said Miss Estill as she sank into an
+easy-chair, after Maud had relieved her of the jaunty black hat with its
+drooping white plume.
+
+"We will freely forgive you, Miss Estill, if you will atone for your
+past neglect," said Mrs. Warlow, with a pleased smile. "The lack of
+society has been the greatest privation attending our Western life, and
+but for the unvarying kindness and sympathy of Squire Moreland's family,
+I fear we should have found it quite monotonous."
+
+The room where they were seated was a wide, many-windowed apartment,
+with cool lace curtains sweeping the dark, rich carpet. The walls were
+graced by a few pictures and portraits, and on the brackets of walnut
+and mahogany were vases of wild-flowers. A wide bay-window at one end
+was half screened by the curtains of lace, and through their filmy
+meshes could be seen the cherished geraniums and fuchsias that were so
+dear to Maud as a memento of the old Missouri home. A great beveled
+mirror, framed in heavy gilt moulding, reached from the mantel to the
+ceiling; and strangest sight in this Western land was a wide fire-place;
+but instead of the glowing coals and crackling flames which one always
+associates with the hearth-stone, there were banks of blooming plants.
+The rich old piano and Maud's guitar occupied one corner, and a low,
+velvet divan the other, on each side of the mantel. It was a room which,
+Miss Estill and her brother perceived, was redolent with the refinement
+and harmony of the family, as simply elegant and devoid of sham and
+pretense as its owners.
+
+Miss Estill gave a sigh of gratification as her glance swept the
+apartment, and rested out on the shady, well-kept lawn, where the hum of
+bees and songs of wild-birds seemed so wholly in keeping with the tone
+of happiness and industry which pervaded the Warlow household.
+
+"How strange it seems that you have been here so short a time! It is
+almost like enchantment--this evolving such a perfect home from the
+wild, lonesome prairies and tangled woodland, where the wolf and buffalo
+roamed unmolested not two short years ago."
+
+"We have to thank nature for the trees and flowers, the vines also, Miss
+Estill; but you see we had little else to occupy our time but the
+improvements of our new home; though I believe we can truly say that we
+have not been idle the past year," replied Clifford.
+
+"It is wonderful what a change your taste and energy have made in that
+brief time. We can not blame our Eastern friends, who never have beheld
+a wide, desolate prairie transformed into such a charming home-land as
+this in a short year, if they do vilify the average Kansan, and tax him
+with boastfulness and other vices not akin to truth."
+
+At request of her guests, Maud was soon seated at the rich, mellow-toned
+piano, and the strains of "The Bridge" floated out through the open
+windows, as her sweet contralto rose, freighted with the heart-throbs
+and regret which thrill through the melody of that pathetic song.
+
+"Ah! Tennyson never had heard this sad, weird poem when he gave the
+title 'Lord of Human Tears' to Victor Hugo, or our own Longfellow would
+have won it," said Miss Estill with a sigh.
+
+"Yes; Longfellow is the poet that seems nearest in all our moments of
+retrospection. I never stand at the crossing of the old Santa Fe and
+Abilene Trails, on that hill yonder, without his lines recurring,--
+
+    'Like an odor of brine from the ocean,
+    Comes the thought of other years;'--
+
+and I must tell you, Miss Estill, that whenever I meet you I feel that
+same remembrance, vague and evanescent, of a time when you and I were
+very happy, and were all--at least we were very great friends. But it is
+so shadowy and indistinct that I can not grasp its meaning. It is like
+the memory of some half-forgotten dream or the dim recollections of a
+former life," replied young Warlow, in a low tone, as the pulsing waves
+of music, the "Blue Danube," throbbed through the vines and lace
+curtains of the bay-window where they sat.
+
+"If you were less thrifty, Mr. Warlow, I would suspect you were too fond
+of poetry to be practical. But I should not throw sarcastic stones at
+your glass house, for it has been no longer than a month ago that mamma
+scolded me roundly for forgetting the yeast in my batch of light bread.
+I had to lay all the blame at the 'open door' of the 'Moated Grange,'
+which I had been reading. Poor Mariana might well have said, after
+looking on my leaden loaves:--
+
+    'I am aweary, aweary,--
+    I would that I were dead!'"
+
+While Clifford was making some laughing reply to this bucket of poetical
+cold water, he and Miss Estill were summoned to the piano, where our
+young friends were floundering hopelessly through the intricacies of a
+glee, in which Grace's alto would persist in getting all tangled up with
+Hugh's baritone, and the cat-calls of Rob's bastard bass and Scott's
+frantic tenor only served to heighten the confusion, that finally
+collapsed in subdued shrieks of laughter. But when Miss Estill's dainty
+fingers rippled over the guitar, and their voices blended with varying
+degrees of melody as its twanging notes mingled with the mellow tones of
+the piano, then something like harmony prevailed again. Yet she and
+Clifford would still exchange amused glances whenever Rob gave vent to a
+more pronounced caterwaul than usual, or Scott's gosling tenor squawked
+a wild note of alarm.
+
+"Miss Estill, I am longing to hear you render a Spanish solo; for I
+never can help the picture of a Castilian maiden playing amid the courts
+of the Alhambra, rising whenever you take the guitar," said young
+Warlow, in a low tone.
+
+"My broken Spanish would soon dispel the illusion," she replied, with a
+soft blush; "but I will give you, instead, a poor translation of a
+Mexican song;" and in a voice rich with melody and feeling, she sang:--
+
+    "There blooms no rose upon the plain,
+    But costs the night a thousand tears,"--
+
+while the guitar rained a shower of soft-dripping music, veined with a
+thrill of sadness. As her bosom rose and fell with the sweet strains,
+the ruby heart which clasped the ruff at her slender throat flashed
+rays of crimson and rose in the stray sunbeams that glinted through the
+room.
+
+Clifford remained rapt in a reverie as the dreamy music, with a low
+minor ripple, died away, and the listeners sat in silence a moment,
+paying a mute tribute to the graceful singer who now was idly toying
+with the guitar.
+
+One white arm was half revealed by the wide-flowing sleeve, with its
+fall of creamy lace; a cluster of fuchsias drooped among the waves of
+her hair, and the wide ruff gave a graceful finish to the close-fitting
+riding-habit of black velvet which she wore.
+
+Young Warlow was aroused by his mother saying:--
+
+"Miss Estill, the colonel, my husband."
+
+He turned quickly, and saw his father standing in the doorway, staring
+as if he had seen a sheeted ghost. Yes; it was undeniable that the
+courtly and urbane colonel was positively staring with a white face at
+the beautiful guest, and as he came forward he said, in an agitated
+voice:--
+
+"Ivarene? No--no--impossible! Pardon, Miss Estill; but your face reminds
+me so strongly of a dear, kind friend, 'who passed over the dark river
+long years ago,' that I was quite unnerved;" and as he held her slender
+hand he looked hungrily into the blue eyes that were regarding him with
+a look of shy wonder. When Hugh was presented, the colonel glanced
+keenly from the blonde, hazel-eyed young man back to the creole face of
+the young lady, and he again murmured brokenly, and in an incredulous
+tone, "Brother and sister? Strange--mystery!" and in the hearts of that
+group for many a day echoed and re-echoed his words: "Mystery, mystery!"
+
+A constraint seemed to fall immediately upon the inmates of the room,
+and Maud, perceiving the traces of social frost in the atmosphere,
+suggested that they should take a look at her flowers; and the guests
+rose and followed in a confused group out into the flower-garden, that
+was surrounded with a low stone wall.
+
+The paths, which divided the small plat into four subdivisions, were
+interrupted at their intersection by a circular path, where a succession
+of terraces of the same figure rose to the height of half a dozen feet,
+the whole forming a circular mound, crowned by a tiny latticed arbor,
+which was reached by a flight of white stone steps, flanked by vases of
+the same alabaster-like material.
+
+The terraces were sodded with the dainty, short buffalo-grass, and each
+offset was planted with a profusion of flowers, now beginning to unfold
+their blossoms. This unique ornament was the work of Clifford and
+Robbie, who had in their "idle" moments thus transformed the unsightly
+pile of earth, which had resulted from excavating the cellar, into a
+"hanging garden to please Maud," and she felt justly proud of the
+compliments which the guests bestowed on the attractive feature of her
+trim garden, with its wealth of lilies, roses, and gladioluses.
+
+Although the group had emerged from the house in a confused manner, it
+was remarkable how soon order was restored, and the young people paired
+off into couples after the law of affinity--Maud and Ralph, Grace and
+Hugh, leaving Clifford and Miss Estill to either mate with Rob and
+Scott, or to choose each other for partners in the ramble; and it is
+also strange how quickly they chose the latter alternative, and
+sauntered away with appalling _sang-froid_, leaving those youths to
+their own resources without even the ghost of an apology. But the
+youngsters had ample revenge for this heartless, cold neglect, when, a
+few moments later, Rob was seen leaning on Scott's arm in a languishing
+manner, with a hollyhock perched daintily just above his nose, in
+semblance of a most coquettish hat, his bob-tailed coat embellished with
+an enormous petticoat of rhubarb-leaves, while Scott alternately cast
+admiring glances upon his frail "lady," or fanned the mock beauty with a
+catalpa-leaf fully half a yard broad.
+
+And while Maud and Grace regarded their manoeuvres with furtive scorn
+and ill-concealed disgust, this precious pair sauntered conspicuously
+after their friends, who could see "Miss Rob" mince along with
+exaggerated airs and graces, often pausing to sniff of the enormous
+water-pot, carried in imitation of a lady's scent-bottle.
+
+Finally the party eluded the persecution of this devoted couple by going
+back into the house, and ascending to the "Crows' Nest" in the top of
+the old elm; and as Maud recounted the thrilling adventure of the
+"flood," she felt certain that Rob was too well acquainted with his
+paternal discipline to venture upon any nonsense about the house. But
+half an hour later, as they were strolling down to the boat, the party,
+in turning an abrupt curve in the path, surprised the infatuated Scott
+on his knees kissing the hand of the shy he-damsel, who, with affected
+modesty, was hiding her face in the dainty fan and the last view our
+friends caught of them while rowing up the river, the fascinating Rob
+was sinking into the outstretched arms of his ostentatious lover.
+
+Clifford rowed up the winding stream, which, although only a few feet
+deep, was here several rods in width. As they passed along, an old
+beaver, which had built a dam below, stuck its snout up through the
+tangled grass that trailed into the water; then, after gazing a moment
+at the intruders, it sank quietly from sight.
+
+The pleasant ride suggested a boating song, and a concert followed,
+which scared many a gray old musk-rat to his den, and the frightened
+wild-fowls scurried with whizzing wings out from the dark, sedgy nooks,
+shaded by the elms and willows, as the unwonted sounds floated out over
+the water.
+
+Our friends walked up to Clifford's dwelling, after landing and mooring
+the boat to a tree, and while they rested on the pale ashen-green
+buffalo-grass in the shadow of a mighty elm that smothered the gables of
+the stone cottage with its wide-spread branches, Clifford pointed out
+the stone wall, which was half concealed by the vines, where his father
+had so narrowly escaped death a quarter of a century before; and as they
+sat, he told of the terrible tragedy that had here been enacted, which
+explained why Maud had so tenderly trained the roses over the ruined
+wall--the wall that had sheltered their father on that tragic night.
+
+At the close of the mournful story Miss Estill exclaimed:--
+
+"Oh, what a cruel fate. Poor, ill-starred Ivarene! It was that
+unfortunate bride that I so strangely resemble. But how mysterious that
+it should be so! Now I do not wonder at your father's agitation at
+meeting one who reminded him of his lost friend and benefactress. That
+was why he gazed so pathetically into my eyes:--I recalled the days of
+his youth, his lost fortune, and the tragic fate of his dear friends."
+
+Hugh Estill said:--
+
+"Oh, this is not the first time I have heard the particulars of that
+tragedy. It was often talked of in the days of my boyhood; but I was a
+child at the time when it was still fresh in the memory of the few
+settlers in the upper valley of the Cottonwood. It was fully ten years
+after the event that I heard the version from one of our herders, who
+said it was whispered that white men were engaged in the massacre.
+Father was unnecessarily irritated, I thought, when I repeated what the
+fellow said, and he went so far as to discharge him, and forbade me ever
+mentioning the subject again."
+
+"Your parents were living on your ranch at that time?" said Clifford, in
+a strange eager tone of inquiry.
+
+"Yes; we have lived on the same place for the past twenty-seven years,
+and both Mora and myself were born on the old ranch," replied Hugh.
+
+After remaining rapt in silence a moment, Miss Estill said, as she and
+Clifford stood apart from the others, while he stooped to gather a spray
+of the sensitive-plant:--
+
+"What is this strange, haunting sense of danger and grief that always
+assails me on this spot? It is like the dim remembrance of some tragic
+event connected with my own life--a half-forgotten night-mare, as it
+were--the very elusiveness of which is distressing to me. I feel that
+same sensation now which I mentioned having always felt on this spot,
+when you told me how strangely you were affected when passing Antelope
+Butte."
+
+"I often experience that peculiar sentiment here, also, Miss Estill,--a
+kind of perception or impression of some dire calamity with which not
+only myself, but you likewise, have been connected here," Clifford
+replied with troubled face.
+
+"I am afraid we shall mould if we stay in this gloomy shade any longer,"
+cried Grace, springing up with a little shiver; but the bright look
+which young Estill beamed upon her showed plainly that he, at least, was
+in no danger of such a blighting fate.
+
+It was a beautiful scene that burst upon their view as they emerged from
+under the low, sweeping boughs, and stood in the sunlight south of the
+gothic cottage. Around the knoll, on which they were standing, purled
+and gurgled the stream, fringed by feathery willows and stately elms,
+and, after half embracing the hill in its tortuous folds, winding away
+down the widening valley. Where the timber, which skirted the serpentine
+river, grew in groves of deepest green, there the stream had expanded
+into placid lakelets, which flashed like silver in the slanting
+sunbeams.
+
+On the south, in the smooth, level valley, were fields of ripening
+grain,--wheat of coppery red or creamy gold, silvery sheen of rye and
+oats, set in a frame of emerald where the wild prairies came sheer up to
+the clear-cut fields, that were _innocent_ of fence or hedge. Then their
+vision roamed out to the north, where the rolling hills melted away on
+the dim horizon.
+
+As they stood silently gazing on the tranquil landscape, the bell in the
+latticed belfry of the Warlow homestead rang out in mellow clang, and
+Maud said:--
+
+"Let's return, for it is the supper-bell. I do hope, though, that mother
+has prepared something more substantial for her guests than Clifford has
+done for us this afternoon."
+
+"Why, have we not reveled in mystery?" cried Grace.
+
+"And feasted on landscape?" said Miss Estill.
+
+"And did he not hospitably entertain us with legend, mellow and old?"
+chimed Ralph.
+
+"Sorry that I could not have treated you to fresher puns," retorted
+Clifford, laughingly.
+
+On rowing down the tranquil stream, and coming once more into the shady
+yard of the Warlows, our young friends found the tea-table spread under
+the boughs of the ever-serviceable elm, and Rob and Scott busy assisting
+Mrs. Warlow with the evening meal.
+
+As with deft fingers Maud culled choice bouquets from her garden, and
+decked the table, she felt a thrill of pardonable pride in the snowy
+damask, the crystal and silver that glittered with the polish of good
+housewifery, and the tempting, dainty dishes which her mother had, with
+true Western hospitality, prepared in honor of the guests.
+
+Ah, hungry reader, I wish that you could have been there also; for my
+mouth vainly waters, even yet, at the remembrance of asparagus and green
+peas, spring-chicken smothered in cream (which I hasten to explain was
+not the fowl of boarding-house memory and tradition, with which the
+frosts of December had "monkeyed;" no barn-yard champion was it, with
+cotton-like breast and sinewy limb, but a tender daughter of the
+May-time, that had perished on the threshold of a bright young
+pullethood), and frosty lemon-pie, just tinged with bronze, flanked by
+the crimson moulds of plum-jelly.
+
+An hour later, in the gloomy twilight, as the guests were taking leave,
+Miss Estill said:--
+
+"Your son has told me of the old tragedy that has saddened your life,
+Colonel; but it is very strange that I should resemble that ill-fated
+Mexican bride."
+
+"Ah, Miss Estill, every hour you recall the memory of my lost friends;
+just such a daughter might have blessed them, _if they had lived_," he
+replied, with a sigh, as he searched the young face with his wistful
+blue eyes.
+
+"It is only a chance resemblance, of course--a mere coincidence," she
+replied, in a tone of uneasiness. "My parents were living here at the
+time of the massacre; but I never have heard of the dreadful occurrence
+until to-day," she added.
+
+"I would like very much to meet your father, and talk over the early
+history of this country," said the colonel, eagerly. "I sometimes find
+myself hoping that they might have escaped," he continued, in a
+half-musing tone, like one whose mind is wholly engrossed by an
+overmastering subject. She overlooked his incoherence, knowing well that
+he referred to Bruce and Ivarene. "Since I have been here on the scene
+of the tragedy, the thought often recurs that I took it for granted that
+they perished, and have trusted too readily to circumstantial evidence
+in confirmation of that belief."
+
+"How strange it is that no trace of that enormous treasure of gold and
+gems was ever obtained!" she replied. "But, then, the horde of
+Cheyennes, which Hugh said to-day were reported as having been led by
+white men, found it an easy task enough, no doubt, to carry away even
+that great amount of coin after their murderous work."
+
+"Ah! it is all a strange, dark mystery," he replied; "and to-day it is
+more impenetrable than ever. But if I could see your father he might
+remember."
+
+Here the colonel paused abruptly, and threw up one hand with an
+involuntary start, and Miss Estill saw by the faint light that he was
+ashen pale. But as the others were now passing out through the gate, she
+reluctantly shook hands with the colonel, who, she saw, was trembling
+with repressed emotion; and then she took leave of the other members of
+the family, vaguely wondering why the courtly old gentleman should be so
+affected by events which had occurred more than a quarter of a century
+before.
+
+When, an hour later, Clifford returned from Squire Moreland's, whither
+he had accompanied Miss Estill, he was accosted by Rob in the following
+vein:--
+
+"What's up, Cliff?"
+
+"Up where?" replied his brother, evasively.
+
+"On the porch, if you have eyes for anything less attractive than a
+young lady with a mop of blue hair," said the indignant Rob.
+
+"Oh--father and mother! Why, I can't see anything strange in our parents
+sitting on the porch," replied his brother, in a tone of feigned
+indifference.
+
+"Well, but they have had their heads together and been plotting for an
+hour; but Maud keeps up such an everlasting racket with her singing and
+dish-clattering that I can't hear a word they say. That girl positively
+is noisier than a fire-engine. Now, just listen at that!" as Maud's
+voice sang in sweet crescendo:--
+
+    "Stars are shining, Mollie darling." (Crash, rattle.)
+
+_Mrs. Warlow._--"Do you think it possible that they were saved?"
+
+_Maud_ (diminuendo).--
+
+    "Through the mystic veil of night." (Rinkety-clink.)
+
+_Colonel._--"She may be their daughter, who survived." (Splatter.)
+
+_Maud_ (piano).--
+
+    "No one listens but the flowers,
+    As they hang their heads in shame." (Klinkety-klink.)
+
+_Rob._--
+
+    "Yes, Miss Maud, you noisy magpie.
+    I hang ditto and the same."
+
+_Clifford._--"If you don't keep quiet, I'll--"
+(Klutter-terattle-tering.)
+
+_Coffee-mill_, etc.--"Kr-rrrrr-r-rrr (Mollie) r-r-r (dar) rrrr-r-rrrr."
+
+_Colonel._--"She is the very image of Ivarene; and I am almost converted
+to Bruce's strange creed when I see them."
+
+_Maud_ (at the well).--"Ke-pump, ke-pump, ke-pump!"
+
+_Colonel._--"I saw them together to-day. I was perfectly bewildered; for
+they are the very picture of Bruce and Ivarene on their wedding-day."
+
+_Maud._--
+
+    "Mollie, fairest, sweetest, dearest!
+    Look up, darling, tell me this--"
+
+_Rob._--
+
+    "Miss Maud Warlow, you're a bull-frog,
+    And I'd like to have a hook in your nose."
+
+But, as his rhyme ended with such an ignominious fizzle, he hurried away
+with a snort of disgust. Clifford lingered a moment, hoping to hear
+more; but his parents rose soon after, and entered the house; so, in a
+thoughtful mood, he went about his farm duties.
+
+Out in the wheat a quail called "Bob White," while down in the pasture a
+flock of prairie-chickens or grouse disturbed the twilight calm with
+their melancholy "ku-boom;" but, as the evening faded into night, the
+quiet of early slumber brooded over the Warlow household.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XII.
+
+
+The week which followed brought sad tidings to the Warlow family. A
+black-bordered letter came, bearing the post-mark of San Francisco; but
+before it was opened the family knew its import.
+
+Mrs. Warlow's only brother, William, had been in the mines for several
+years, but since his health had failed he had been making the great
+coast city his home; and, although grieved at the announcement of his
+death, they were not unprepared for the sad news.
+
+The lawyer wrote that he held a few thousand dollars of the deceased's
+money, which was left by the will to Mrs. Warlow, and they were also
+informed that the "Redwood" mine was left to Robbie, who was a great
+favorite with his uncle; but this latter property was as yet
+unproductive, though the attorney conveyed an intimation that it might
+some day prove very valuable, as there were mines of fabulous richness
+near by.
+
+Soon the rumor went flying through the colony that the Warlows had
+fallen heirs to an immense estate, and as usual the report lost nothing
+by traveling; so our friends soon found themselves invested by the halo
+of riches without any of its substantial benefits.
+
+Speculations and conjectures were rife among the neighbors as to the
+"best manner of investing their friend Warlow's fortune;" and, in fact,
+it became impossible for any member of the colonel's family to meet an
+acquaintance without being informed of some great opening for a
+judicious investment, that was only waiting capital and enterprise to
+develop the fact that there was "millions in it."
+
+As Clifford paused one day to discuss the state of the weather in a
+neighborly way with a male member of this well-meaning but misguided
+class, he learned that all the vast tract of vacant land to the north,
+which still belonged to the government, had been condemned as being,
+"unfit for agricultural purposes," and would be "offered" at public sale
+the following August at the local land-office.
+
+When young Warlow parted with his informant the matter was dismissed;
+but whenever he glanced away to the north or east at the billowy hills
+and level, rich dales, he would begin planning how he could secure a
+tract of the land before it passed into the hands of relentless
+speculators; and one day he actually rode out over the fertile,
+picturesque country for miles, and with a blush found himself dreaming
+how that long, narrow valley should be sown to grain, and the galloping
+hills, clothed with rich grasses, could provide pasturage for his vast,
+imaginary flocks and herds.
+
+Alas, that the lack of a few handfuls of "filthy lucre" only, stood
+between himself and the ownership of the broad acres on every hand! With
+a dreary sigh he realized, for the first time in his life, how bitter is
+the lot of the poor but ambitious man, who sees the avenues to wealth
+barred by his lack of capital.
+
+As he stood on the spot where his father had lost his fortune so many
+years before, Clifford thought how many hundred thousand acres of that
+rolling, fertile country the lost wealth represented; and while his
+horse grazed quietly near, the youth threw himself down in the cool
+shadow of the ruined wall, dreaming and planning how he might recover
+the vast wealth that he had long suspected was buried here near the
+scene of the tragedy.
+
+But when he calmly began to analyze the evidence on which his suspicions
+were based, he was disappointed to see how visionary it all seemed in
+the clear light of reason. But it was too dear and cherished a theory to
+be relinquished without a mental struggle; so again he began to persuade
+himself that those scheming white men, of whom young Estill had
+spoken--those inhuman villains--might have secreted the gold from the
+drunken Indians, and it might have been that the blood-stained,
+avaricious leaders had died a violent death in those turbulent days, and
+the great wealth was still sleeping, undisturbed, all these years, while
+his father was suffering under the heavy load of poverty and fallen
+fortune. As Clifford still mused, there flashed across his mind the
+lines of Rokeby:--
+
+    "Then dig and tomb your precious heap,
+    And bid the dead your treasure keep."
+
+Springing to his feet, young Warlow cried aloud in his excitement:--
+
+"Ah! it is all clear now--the blood on the grass and the newly made
+graves, of which Uncle Roger spoke! Yes, yes--they buried the dead and
+the gold in the same grave, and then decoyed the savages away! It may be
+that those bright doubloons, the red gold of the Walravens and my
+father, are buried but a few steps from where I stand."
+
+Flinging aside doubt and uncertainty, he hurried down the hill to the
+spot where his father had said the treasure-laden vehicle had stood on
+that fatal night, and long and eagerly young Warlow searched for a trace
+of the graves. But it was all in vain; for the vast tide of travel that
+had flowed for a quarter of a century over the spot had not only
+obliterated all trace of those lowly mounds, but had also worn the
+mellow soil into deep gullies, down the sloping sides of which the
+knotted buffalo-grass crept like webs of pale-green lace.
+
+In the old trail, where once the cannon of Phil Kearney had rumbled, as
+with his army he hurried forward to Santa Fe, and along where Coronado,
+Lee, Fremont, and Kit Carson had ridden, now the wild mignonette, in
+spikes of purple, fragrant blossoms, grew, loading the sultry air with
+their rich odors. The sensitive-rose, its fern-like foliage tufted with
+rosy balls of gold-flecked down, closed its leaves as Clifford hurriedly
+brushed by; but in the tangled thickets of wild indigo, now blooming in
+sprays of violet and creamy flowers, or among the tall, lush, blue
+stem-grass the young "fortune hunter" found no traces of the lost
+wealth--no sunken graves were visible to tell of that tragedy of long
+ago; so it was with a slow step and feeling of despondency that our
+friend sought the shelter of his latticed porch.
+
+While he sat, lost in speculation as to the best method of prosecuting
+his search, which he was too resolute to give up easily, his eyes rested
+on an implement that at a glance showed its adaptability for the very
+purpose. It was a long rod of iron, tipped with twisted steel. He
+remembered having had it made the year before for the men who were
+searching for a vein of water before sinking his wells. As he seized it
+eagerly, and started once again down the hill, he felt gratified and
+elated to perceive how easily he could now test the earth to the depth
+of five feet, and ascertain if there was any foreign substance in the
+mellow, loamy soil, which throughout the valley was a bed of rich, black
+loam, entirely free from stone or boulders.
+
+He had but reached the spot near the river, when he saw his father
+riding through the wheat-field toward where our young schemer stood; and
+hastily tossing the iron rod into a thicket, Clifford met his father
+with an assumption of careless indifference; for all his allusions in
+the past to the lost fortune had only met with the sarcastic disapproval
+of his parent, who, being an intensely practical man himself, could not
+tolerate any thing so visionary as a search for the treasure seemed to
+be; and young Warlow had decided to keep his investigations secret, thus
+avoiding the censure and ridicule of the colonel. After a brief
+discussion in regard to the condition of the ripening grain, Clifford
+remarked:--
+
+"It seems very strange, father, that no trace can be found of those
+graves which Uncle Roger mentioned having seen near the Old Corral, when
+he found you after the robbery and massacre."
+
+"This is too busy a time for us to speculate on the past, my boy. The
+wheat has ripened splendidly--I never saw a field to equal that valley
+yonder--and we will have to start the header to-morrow; so if you will
+ride out on to the Flats and engage three more teams, I will go down to
+Squire Moreland's and tell them we shall begin early in the morning,"
+said the colonel.
+
+"But, father, first tell me as nearly as possible where those graves
+were located; for I have a strange curiosity regarding them of late. It
+must be near this very spot?"
+
+"Yes, yes; near that old cottonwood-tree, or on the level space of sod
+just this side. But Clifford," continued he in a tone of suspicion quite
+foreign to the kindly colonel, "what nonsense are you meditating now?
+You are not still counting on that lost fortune?"
+
+"Well, father, there has been a growing belief in my mind of late that
+the treasure is secreted near here. Think how impossible it would have
+been for a leader of such a band as those savages were, to divide the
+booty satisfactorily among the pack of drunken monsters. If the leader
+had the acumen that I believe he possessed, he, no doubt, buried the
+gold, at least, in one of those graves while the others were stupefied
+by the liquor; and there is a chance that he may never have returned,
+owing to the dangers to which such turbulent villains are always
+exposed. I have thought this over carefully, until at last I am
+convinced--"
+
+"That your father has a damned fool for a son!" broke in the colonel
+hotly, as he rode away.
+
+After supper Clifford said he would go up to his house and spend the
+night--an announcement which caused no surprise, as he frequently stayed
+there; but on this occasion Robbie remarked to Maud:--
+
+"Cliff must be _schooling his courage_ by staying of nights up at that
+old spook-ranch; but a fellow who can stand that, could pop the question
+to the witch of Macbeth without faltering."
+
+"What do you mean by his popping the question, Rob?" said Maud, setting
+her pail of foamy milk down on the cellar-steps, while she regarded the
+handsome youth with a puzzled look from her round, blue eyes.
+
+"Why just this," he replied, after "swigging" down a pint of fresh milk
+from his own pail, and deliberately wiping his lips with his
+shirt-sleeve; "Cliff has got more sand in his gizzard than most fellows;
+but I guess he feels too poor, or something, to talk _marry_ to Mora
+Estill, so he goes mooning off up there to that old spectre's nest--just
+like fellows do in novels, you know," he added, lucidly.
+
+But here the peremptory tones of his father called the young philosopher
+to take the colts down to the lower pasture.
+
+When Clifford arrived at his dwelling he prepared several stakes, and
+fastened bits of white paper to their tops; then, securing the iron rod,
+he placed it with the small sticks, which he had left in the porch, and
+sought the dainty and comfortable bed which he owed to the thoughtful
+kindness of Maud and his mother.
+
+Sinking into a profound slumber, he was only awakened by the alarm which
+sounded as the clock struck one. As its chime died away, he arose and
+stole forth into the tranquil night.
+
+A waning moon had risen, and in its faint light the water of the brook
+glimmered coldly as it wimpled over the stony ford. The fluttering
+leaves of the old cottonwood flashed like silver, and the hoary form of
+the great tree, every limb of which seemed outlined in white, towered
+vague and ghostly above the shadows cast by the more dense foliage of
+ash and willows.
+
+Clifford paused in the level glade where his father had said the graves
+must have been when Roger Coble passed the spot twenty-six years before.
+Thrusting the rod deep into the soft, loamy soil, young Warlow threw his
+whole weight on the instrument, which penetrated to the depth of several
+feet with little difficulty. On meeting with no obstruction, he withdrew
+the rod; and after marking the spot with one of the stakes which he had
+provided, he began again to prosecute the search one step further south.
+
+The precaution of marking the place where he had sunk the rod was for
+the purpose of systematizing the search, thus avoiding confusion. In
+fact, these careful details were but an indication of the practical
+nature of the young Fortune Hunter, which, even on this weird night,
+strongly asserted its sway.
+
+While the leaves murmured and whispered, as if striving to tell of the
+tragedies that had marred this spot--of the mystery that seemed to haunt
+the very air around--Clifford still pursued his investigations,
+patiently and in silence, only pausing to draw a deeper breath or a sigh
+of disappointment at each fruitless effort, as he toiled onward into the
+deep shadows near the bank of the stream.
+
+At length, tired and weary, our young friend stood on the verge of the
+stream over the bank of which the dank grass trailed, and the rank vine
+of the wild-gourd, with its silvery leaves, rioted in wildest luxuriance
+and profusion.
+
+Glancing up through the branches of the hoary old cottonwood, he could
+see the glittering constellation of Scorpio far out on the south-western
+horizon, the fiery star Antares, which forms its heart, glowing like a
+ruby in the blue vault of heaven.
+
+For a moment Clifford rested on the handle of the deep-sunken
+instrument, and, lifting his heavy felt hat with its leathern band--a
+badge of the ranchman throughout all the West--he drew a deep breath of
+the cool air that swayed the wild hop-vines and pendulous branches of
+the willows to and fro in the moonlight.
+
+Around, a thousand wild-flowers distilled their odors. The
+sensitive-plant nodded softly in dew-drenched sprays, its rosy balls
+flecked with drops that glinted like gems, while all the air was heavy
+with its perfume of spices and honey.
+
+The foamy elder-blooms exhaled an odor of entrancing sweetness, and over
+the senses stole the fragrance from pond-lilies and water-mint,
+wild-hyacinths and mignonette.
+
+A large prairie-owl flitted by, lending a note of discord to the
+tranquillity which had reigned, with its dismal hoot, that mellowed away
+into a plaintive shriek as it lit in some far-off, sombre nook.
+
+Then again silence brooded over the valley, broken only by the croak of
+frogs along the rush-lined shore, or the soft chirp of insects in the
+grass; but suddenly the jabbering wail of a lone wolf, distant yet
+distinct, pierced through the gloom, startling into silence all the
+minor voices of the night, and adding with its wild echoes a double
+sense of loneliness to the weird night.
+
+Clifford turned to the iron rod, and with a few vigorous efforts sent it
+deep into the yielding earth; and as the quiet of nature once more
+reigned over the wild glade, he kept turning the handle mechanically,
+and listening to the gruesome sound of the answering wolves--faint cries
+that made him shudder--when, lo! the steel point grated harshly against
+some obstruction beneath his feet.
+
+Quickly withdrawing the rod, he seized the sharp spade and began
+digging, throwing the black soil out of the pit with frantic haste as he
+sank rapidly down into the earth at each stroke. As he neared the goal
+he became dizzy and faint, his breath coming in quick gasps, and the
+blinding sweat streaming from his face, from which it fell in great
+drops like rain.
+
+Pausing a moment, while the weird, horned moon peered through a rift in
+the boughs overhead, and gleamed coldly on his upturned, haggard face,
+he thought of the wealth that might lie below,--his father's lost
+fortune; the wealth of Monteluma; its gems and red gold, with all the
+power that great treasure represented; then, quivering with excitement,
+he dashed the spade into the earth, and in a moment more the head of a
+cask was dimly outlined at his feet.
+
+Breathless and panting, he paused, leaning on his spade, while the hopes
+and fears, which so often, often, assail us on the threshold of some
+great enterprise, came thronging on with their mockery, causing him to
+stand irresolute, as if fearing to solve the mystery; but at length,
+after summoning all his strength, he struck the cask with his sharp
+spade, and the head fell in with a dull crash.
+
+As he stooped to peer down into the gloom below, a pair of fiery eyes
+glared at him from the cavity, and, as he sprang back with a shudder, a
+sharp, whizzing rattle in the cask announced the presence of that dread
+reptile, the rattlesnake--a new and terrible danger, worse than the
+sting of poverty with all its terrors.
+
+As Clifford stood frozen with horror, the slimy monster rose from out
+the cask, still sounding its angry alarm. A moment more, enraged and
+writhing, it coiled at his feet, its head erected, slowly swaying to and
+fro--a gigantic, threatening monster.
+
+Its eyes glowed like coals of fire, and in the bright light shed by the
+lantern Clifford could see it darting its tongue and glaring with a look
+of indescribable ferocity and malignant hatred, to which nothing else in
+the world can be compared. Those who have faced an angry rattlesnake,
+and who still turn pale at its remembrance, or start from sleep with a
+cry of fear at the returning vision of terrible danger, will recall the
+awful rage and menace that glared from the eye of the angry serpent--a
+glance that unnerves the bravest man in the world instantly. The reptile
+only seemed to await a motion on Clifford's part to strike like a flash
+of lightning. Then, with a clammy shudder, young Warlow thought of the
+agony and speedy death that was certain to follow. At the tremor which
+involuntarily shook his frame at the thought, the hideous serpent
+crested its head and paused in its vibrations. "Now all is over," our
+young friend thought, and breathlessly awaited the shock.
+
+Instantly the face of Mora Estill rose before him, a fleeting vision of
+loveliness; and with it came a realization of the love for her that had
+rapidly grown into an all-absorbing passion in their short acquaintance.
+He knew at once what had sent him out on this midnight search, and why
+he had begun to wish for wealth so eagerly of late:--It was because be
+craved fortune and a position which would equal that of the "Cattle
+King's" daughter. Yet even in this moment of deadliest peril he thought,
+with a grim smile, of the irony of fate--the reward of his first attempt
+at "fortune hunting."
+
+While death stared at him from those glaring eyes, and the moments
+seemed to lengthen out to years, he thought of his friends at home, all
+unconscious of the dire fate that he was facing; then a wild longing for
+life seized him, and for the first time since the encounter he began to
+plan a way of escape.
+
+The spade on which his hand rested was sharp and bright; but to raise it
+before the serpent could strike he knew was impossible; so he stood
+immovably eying the formidable reptile, which at length slowly uncoiled
+and glided away from his feet to an opposite corner of the pit. With a
+sigh of relief Clifford saw that the danger was lessened, yet he began
+to more fully realize the size of his deadly antagonist, which now
+reached twice across the yard-wide pit.
+
+In moments of great danger we are apt to think with lightning-like
+rapidity, and quickly see any advantage that may arise. So it was with
+Clifford, who remembered that the rattlesnake always throws itself into
+a coil before striking; and as he saw it thus off its guard, with a
+quick movement he struck a violent blow at the snake's head and pinioned
+it to the earth--then throwing his full weight on the handle he felt the
+bones crunch beneath the sharp blade, while the reptile madly threshed
+its now headless body about and wrapped its jangling tail around his
+boot.
+
+Springing out of the pit, with a desperate leap, young Warlow disengaged
+the writhing, heavy monster from his foot, and with the iron rod threw
+it away into the grass; then sinking down upon the ground, unnerved and
+exhausted, he lay, too weak to move for several minutes. But when he
+remembered the unexplored cask, he sprang to his feet again, and after
+listening cautiously a moment, and hearing no further evidence of
+danger, he dropped lightly down into the pit, carelessly tramping on the
+grim serpent-head that but a few moments before was so full of
+threatening danger.
+
+Anxiously he thrust the long rod down into the cask. No rattle
+responded; but the despairing fact became apparent: the cask was empty!
+
+With a sinking heart he groped about the bottom of the cask with the
+rod, and when its iron point struck against a round object that rolled
+over with a harsh sound on the bottom, he quickly thought of the casket
+of gems, and reaching down, with a thrill of excitement he clutched the
+mysterious, smooth object, and sprang out of the pit into the moonlight.
+
+By the pale beams of the gibbous moon, now sinking low in the western
+sky, but throwing a path of shimmering silver on the bosom of the
+rippling brook, he saw--not the gems of Monteluma, but a human skull,
+that, with its wide, eyeless sockets, seemed to glare derisively, and
+with great white teeth laugh mockingly, at this ending of his "fortune
+hunting." With a cry of despair, the disheartened youth dashed the
+loathsome object to the earth; but, as if the sound of his voice had
+evoked its former spirit, there glided from out the wavering shadows a
+tall, gaunt form, gray-robed and silent, with tangled, flowing hair, and
+burning eyes, its lips drawn back from its snaggled fangs in a horrid
+look of hate and ferocity. With noiseless tread it seemed to float into
+the moonlit space; then snatching the skull from the ground and clasping
+it close to its breast, with an unearthly scream it faded away among the
+whispering willows.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIII.
+
+
+On the morning following that Walpurga Night, Clifford came down to the
+Warlow breakfast-table with a weary, feverish air, that caused his
+father to say:--
+
+"My boy, you are far from well, I fear! This first day of harvest will
+be quite hard on all of us; the day promises to be hot and sultry; so
+perhaps you had better rest in-doors. We might send Robbie over on the
+Flats, and secure you a substitute until you are stronger."
+
+At this poor Rob mumbled something about "a sixteen-year-old boy having
+more legs than a centipede;" a remark which he was careful to address to
+his plate, however, while Clifford replied:--
+
+"Oh no, father; a cup of Maud's coffee will set me all right, I am
+certain." Then, as he poured a quantity of yellow cream into the cup of
+fragrant Rio, he added: "I was wakeful and did not rest well last
+night;" all of which we know was correct, if somewhat evasive.
+
+"Oh, Cliff! I had the most terrifying dreams last night, in which you
+were, some way, always mixed up," said Maud wearily; "and although I
+can't remember anything distinctly, I am so nervous that I shiver even
+yet."
+
+"So, madam, you feed the hungry harvester on Cold Shudder, garnished
+with scrambled Night-mare," said Bob, with a glance of contempt at the
+bacon and early potatoes, of which even his ravenous appetite was now
+weary. Then, as he broke an egg that was shockingly overdone, he added
+spitefully: "Why did you _boil_ your door-knobs?"
+
+"I spent a weary, restless night, also," said Mrs. Warlow, ignoring
+Robbie's sarcasm. "I was so vaguely uneasy about you, Clifford, that I
+shall object to your staying alone at the corral hereafter."
+
+"Alone, nothing!" said Rob. "I guess, by the way he goes fishing about
+of late, he will soon find some one to keep him company," he added, with
+a knowing giggle, at which Clifford tried to look unconcerned, while
+Maud and her mother exchanged pleased and amused glances.
+
+After breakfast Clifford drove the header to the wheat-field, which soon
+presented an animated and busy scene. The great machine was pushed by
+four horses, which were guided by young Warlow, who stood behind on a
+small platform, and steered the ponderous reaper with one hand, while
+with the other he held the lines. The elevator carried the heads of
+wheat into a large wagon, which ran, barge-like, beside where a busy
+loader arranged the load, until, towering like a hay-stack, the wagon
+would hold no more. Then it was driven away to the rick-yard by the
+careful driver, being succeeded by another team with military precision.
+The flapping of the canvas elevator, and the rolling waves of wheat,
+rippled and tossed by the summer breeze, made a scene that recalled a
+sail on the sea; all of which was as gratifying to Clifford's sense of
+the picturesque as the prospect for gain was encouraging.
+
+When the evening came twenty acres of the heavy grain was stacked in six
+trim ricks at the edge of the field. A square of golden straw remained
+standing, to be either burned at the end of harvest, or turned under by
+the plows to further enrich the soil. Ten more days of such labor would
+be necessary, however, to finish the Warlow harvest, and no doubt long
+before that time the picturesque side of the operation will be
+appreciated best by those who view it at a safe distance.
+
+In the cool twilight Clifford and Rob were riding homeward, the former
+silent and abstracted, while the latter was calling "Bob White" to a
+badly-deceived quail, that answered back from the stubble-field.
+Finally, becoming tired of this, Rob turned a shrewd but freckled face
+to his brother, and said:--
+
+"What was the matter up there last night, Cliff? You have been grim as
+an old mummy all day! I bet my boots _you_ saw something _too_; so out
+with it."
+
+"Why have you seen anything strange up there recently, Rob?" Clifford
+replied, evasively.
+
+"Now, don't give it away, Cliff, for the folks would raise an awful
+racket if they found it out; but last week I saw that old gray demon--of
+the camp-fire, you remember--by the corral. I was riding Pomp and
+driving the cows home through the dusk, when, as I came along by the old
+stone wall there, out popped that long-haired spook, and glared at me
+like old Nick. Good Lord, Harry! but I dug out of that, my hair
+bristling up mad-dog style, and Pomp wringing his tail till it cracked
+like a whip-lash," he concluded, with a scared laugh.
+
+"Well, I saw him, too, at the same place last night," said Clifford, in
+a low tone as several harvesters came up. "But let's keep the matter
+secret, Rob; for it will never do to let the neighbors know it, and be
+ridiculed for our superstition. Then it would only make mother and Maud
+uneasy. So let's watch and say nothing until we have unraveled the
+mystery."
+
+In the evening Clifford was starting up to his dwelling, on the plea
+that the house at home was crowded with the workmen; but Rob insisted on
+going along and sharing the watch, which on this and the succeeding
+evening was unsuccessful, for no trace of the ghostly visitant was
+found. As Clifford had quite enough of "fortune hunting" the night of
+his first experience, he made no further investigations for the recovery
+of the treasure.
+
+The following Sabbath, which was the second after the Estill visit, the
+younger members of the Moreland and Warlow families drove down to the
+Estill ranch. As they dashed up to the great pile of creamy stone
+buildings, smothered in elms and sheltered on the north by towering,
+tree-clad cliffs, our young friends noticed with wonder the signs of age
+which the vine-mantled and time-stained building presented.
+
+It was a well-dressed, animated group that alighted from the handsome
+Warlow carriage,--Maud in gray silk and dotted tulle; Grace in a "Dolly
+Varden" costume, with her broad, white hat wreathed by daisies; Ralph in
+superfine black, with lawn tie and white vest, his handsome face ruddy
+with health and happy contentment; Scott, quiet and thoughtful, in
+Puritan-gray; while Rob gloried in the splendor of spotless white, his
+small, well-shaped boots glittering like jet. He had given just enough
+cock to his jaunty straw hat to correspond well with the general air of
+pertness conveyed by a slightly freckled nose, dimpled cheeks, dusky
+with tan, and a pair of round, hazel eyes, that always danced with fun.
+But it was golden-haired, pansy-eyed Clifford, with his Grecian face,
+smooth, glossy cheeks, tinged with bronze, but fresh and boyish still,
+who would rivet the gaze longest; for there was a look of pride and
+strength about him which caused one to forget the _boutonnière_ of
+fescue and lobelia, blue as his own eyes, and the rich-textured suit of
+seal-brown, which he wore with the easy grace of a planter's son.
+
+The long frontage of the stately mansion was broken by gables,
+balconies, and quaint dormer windows, and on the broad platform, or
+terrace, in front of the building a fountain flashed in the sunlight.
+The terrace was walled with creamy stone, and railed about by a heavy
+balustrade of white magnesian limestone. In the angles and at the top of
+the steps were great vases of the same alabaster-like material, down the
+sculptured sides of which trailed tangled masses of vines with their
+blossoms, scarlet, gold, and blue.
+
+As our friends drove up, they saw Miss Estill sitting on the
+buffalo-grass which coated the lawn with its thick carpet of pale green.
+She appeared to be twining a garland of flowers about the neck of a pet
+antelope, as it stood with its head on her shoulder in an attitude of
+docile affection.
+
+As the young lady arose to greet the guests, the graceful animal bounded
+away to the shrubbery, where, after peeping a moment with shy wonder at
+the new-comers, it skurried off to the top of the cliff behind the
+dwelling, snorting and stamping its foot angrily at the intrusion.
+
+After greeting her friends cordially, Miss Estill led the way through a
+tessellated hall, where the walls were frescoed and hung with elegant
+paintings, past the winding stairs of dark, rich wood, and to a cool,
+long room to the east, the floor of which was covered with India
+matting, swept by the lace curtains that shaded the lofty windows from
+the fierce sunlight. An air of quiet refinement and simple luxury
+pervaded this apartment, which spoke volumes, in a mute way--all very
+favorable to the Estill family.
+
+When Mrs. Estill came into the room, Mora presented her new friends, who
+were charmed by the elder lady's welcome; but when Clifford was
+introduced she gave him a swift, searching glance from her keen, blue
+eyes, that brought a flush to his face at her look of scrutiny and
+valuation. She must have read him aright, however, for she gave her
+hand to young Warlow in a very friendly way, and he thought he detected
+a sub-tone of graciousness in her welcome to himself a shade deeper than
+when she had addressed the others.
+
+Mrs. Estill was a fair, dignified matron, whose flaxen hair was now
+slightly tinged with gray; but as Clifford contrasted the creole
+daughter with her, he failed to detect any resemblance between the two.
+
+The elder lady must have divined his thoughts, or observed his look of
+wonder at the strange dissimilarity existing between herself and her
+only daughter, for she appeared to be embarrassed and constrained in her
+attempts at entertaining the guests; but Mora was so animated and
+vivacious that her mother's disquiet was unnoticed by all save Clifford,
+who vaguely wondered at this show of uneasiness over such a trifle; yet
+he had occasion before many weeks had elapsed to recall it all with a
+strange significance.
+
+When Mr. Estill came in, and Mora had presented her new friends, the
+ruddy, genial old ranchman said with a smile:--
+
+"Now this is something like civilized life once more! Why, it does my
+very soul good to see young company about the old ranch--a sight that is
+as rare as it is pleasant. I almost fancy myself back in the old home
+again."
+
+The visitors were soon chatting gaily with the courtly and entertaining
+host, who proved to be a typical ranchman of the plains,--shrewd through
+long dealings with a business class noted for sagacity and wealth;
+urbane and refined in manner by having been thrown among bankers and
+the leading men of the city for many years; and lastly, hospitable,
+possibly owing to the fact that his hospitality had never been overtaxed
+nor abused in that thinly settled country.
+
+"Where could this creole daughter have sprung from? She looks as if she
+might have stepped out of the Alhambra into this family of blonde
+Saxons," said Clifford mentally, again contrasting Mora and her parents;
+and while he noted the auburn hair, just tinged with gray, of Mr.
+Estill, and the blue eyes of that courtly old gentleman, the contrast
+with the creole daughter became so apparent that Clifford must have
+betrayed his surprise, for he was soon aware that Mrs. Estill was
+regarding him with an uneasy expression which only served to increase
+his perplexity. "There is a skeleton in the domestic closet at Estill's
+ranch," thought our young friend; "but what can the mystery be?"
+
+His speculations were cut short, however, by Mr. Estill saying
+that all the cow-boys were away with Hugh, shipping a "bunch of
+steers,"--omitting the fact that the modest "bunch" consisted of two
+long train-loads of sleek, fat beeves; and that the duties of hostler
+devolved upon himself in their absence.
+
+The young men thereupon arose and left the room with their host, who,
+after the manner of Western people, believed in the maxim, "Love me,
+love my dog," which finds expression in the care lavished upon the
+horses of a welcome guest. This spirit often leads to a foundered nag,
+however; but it would be a very ungrateful man, indeed, who would
+grumble at such an evidence of esteem.
+
+As they left the room to care for Clifford's team, Mora invited Maud and
+Grace up to her boudoir, which, she said, was so seldom visited that the
+spiders were more at home there than herself.
+
+"You know about how much 'elegant leisure' falls to the lot of farmers
+and ranch people," she added.
+
+"Yes, indeed," replied Maud, ruefully; "what with baking, scouring, and
+dairy-work, we have not much time for frivolous dissipation."
+
+"Oh, what a lovely room!" screamed Grace in delight. "If I had such a
+sweet boudoir I'd steal an hour at least every day to play the heroine,
+even if the bread burned and the dishes went unwashed in consequence,"
+she added, rapturously.
+
+"When up here I often dream that I am a grand lady," said Mora, gaily;
+"but when I catch a glimpse in the mirror of a frumpy, frouzy creature
+with a towel over her head, then I awake to the sad reality that I am
+only the slave of circumstances."
+
+Grace would have been perfectly justified, however, in indulging in
+day-dreams in such a place; for a more elegant apartment, or one where
+greater taste was evinced in every detail of adornment, was rarely to be
+seen in the West.
+
+It was situated at the south end of the upper hall, and opened out upon
+the balcony by a door of plate glass, thick and beveled, through which
+could be seen the flashing fountain on the terrace below and a landscape
+of surpassing beauty. The wooded stream wound away down the prairie
+valley, which was dotted with innumerable ricks of wild-hay; the white
+stone walls which fenced the ranch ran far out onto the highlands, dimly
+defining the boundaries of the great estate.
+
+The walls of the elegant apartment were draped with and paneled by
+carmine and cream colored silk, relieved by lines of white. A carpet of
+creamy velvet was strewn with moss-roses of the same shade of carmine,
+with all the furniture upholstered to correspond. The walls were
+graced--not crowded--by a tall beveled mirror of French plate and some
+delicious paintings, framed in gilt. The low mantel was of Italian
+marble, white, dappled and veined with red shading to faintest rose.
+Vases of Sevres china, statuettes of bronze, and elegantly bound volumes
+were seen on every hand. There was a table of mosaic, on which was a
+basket of fancy-work, that, Miss Estill said, was destined never to be
+finished. Through the draped doorway, on the east, could be seen the
+snowy, lace-canopied bed of the mistress of all this splendor. The
+sunlight, sifting through the tops of the elms which grew below the
+terrace, shone in fitful bars of amber on a picture which was riveting
+the attention of Maud, who sprang up from her velvet chair and cried
+with enthusiasm:--
+
+"Oh Grace! it is 'Sunset on the Smoky Hill,' don't you see the Iron
+Mound looming up with vague mystery? The serpentine river, fringed by
+trees, is the Saline; and there, winding down from the north, is the
+stately Solomon; while here at our feet flows the Smoky Hill between its
+timbered banks. See that white blot, far out to the east, rising in the
+evening mirage,--it must be Fort Riley! There is Abilene; and all along
+the wide prairie valley, flanked by bold grassy headlands, are white
+villages and golden fields of wheat. Here, nestling down in the broad
+valley among the groves at the base of the Iron Mound, is Salina--which
+reminds me of Damascus, with its rivers of Abana and Pharpar. Out to the
+south-west see that long line of purple, jagged buttes, over which
+eternally hovers a smoky haze,--those are the Smoky Hills! Look at the
+twilight stealing down through their gorges. Oh, it is like a glimpse of
+heaven! Mora--Mora! who could have painted this?" she said, with tears
+of genuine emotion. Then seeing Miss Estill blushing hotly, she and
+Grace impulsively kissed the young artist--Maud saying with a little
+quaver of emotion:--
+
+"Mora Estill, you dear, gifted creature--do you know that you are a
+genius?"
+
+"I am not so certain of that, for I am often led to believe in Hugh's
+criticisms. He says that my best pictures are very similar in appearance
+to a newly flayed beef's-hide." Then, as the others gave vent to shrieks
+of feminine amazement, Miss Estill continued merrily: "I had a letter
+from him yesterday. He is at Kansas City, you know. Would you believe
+it?--he sent an order for me to paint the sign for a butcher's shop. The
+aggravating fellow charged me, carefully, to put a sufficient number of
+limbs on the figure of a cow that was to adorn the sign. Then he
+proceeded with a whole page of caution, in which he charged me to avoid
+the fatal error of painting claws upon the animal's hoofs. There
+followed a long homily, showing the dire results of such a slight
+mistake--the innuendo and sarcasm, the cold suspicion and cruel neglect,
+that would alight upon the head of a butcher who was suspected of making
+beef of an animal that wore claws.
+
+"This picture of Lake Inman," said Miss Estill, as the laughing group
+moved forward to where a beautiful painting hung, "Hugh persists in
+calling 'The Knot Hole;' and in his letter he said that as to the horns
+of the animal which was to adorn the sign, they were a matter of
+indifference to the public, and I could keep them for the trunks of the
+'stately elms' in my next landscape, and I might transplant them with
+great success to the shores of Lake Inman, which you see is badly in
+need of shade."
+
+"I'd just like to teach him," said Grace, inadvertently; but seeing the
+amused look which Maud shot at Miss Estill she hesitated with a blush,
+while Mora quickly exclaimed:--
+
+"Oh, I believe he is beginning to learn of late; but I hope you will
+give him a lesson in poetry, for I found an effusion among his papers,
+where he had evidently forgotten it, that will bear a _great deal of
+revision_;" and she took from a bronze cabinet a paper whereon was
+written, in lame and halting couplets, an apostrophe "To My Love."
+
+But the author had failed so signally to secure either rhyme or measure,
+that the girls shrieked aloud as Mora read long verses of the most
+trivial nonsense and doggerel, where "golden tresses," "had went," and
+"blue eyes" were mingled with loving ardor, but very bad grammar.
+
+As the verses progressed, the sentiment became more tender, but the
+diction and measure were perfectly appalling in their untutored
+originality. At each new limp or poetical hobble, the girls would laugh
+gaily; but when Mora looked at Grace with a significant smile, the
+application of the following lines was readily seen:--
+
+    "My love she's golden hair and eyes
+      Of deepest, finest blue.
+    I love her better than ['Gooseberry pies!' cried Maud] any thing,
+      My heart will always be true to you."
+
+Although the author had promoted his lady love from the obscure position
+of third person to the station of second person in the space of a
+second, yet even this was not enough to induce Grace to remain longer;
+for she fled away with burning blushes, while Mora still continued to
+read lines, the syntax of which disclosed the revolting fact that their
+author had throttled his own mother tongue, had slain persons without
+regard to sex or condition, and, like a vandal, had cut off the feet of
+his best subject at some critical moment.
+
+At the close Miss Estill folded the paper, and as she placed it in a
+cabinet she said, it would yet serve to pay off some old scores with
+Hugh. She must have kept her word, for on his return he was immeasurably
+shocked on opening his county paper to see, staring at him from the
+first page: "A Poem To My Love. By H. E."
+
+After Mr. Estill had praised the dappled Normans and cared for them in a
+very hospitable manner, he led the young men out to a near-by pasture to
+show them his Jersey cows. While they were admiring the graceful
+animals, their host said:--
+
+"For twenty-five years we had either depended on Texan cows for milk, or
+had used the concentrated article without even once thinking of the
+folly of such a course. We had so long been accustomed to seeing the
+herders lasso the wild, infuriated creatures before milking them, that
+we had actually forgotten there was any other way. It may have been
+owing to our trusting the operation wholly to the cow-boys that no
+progress was made in subduing the animals or reducing them to a domestic
+state; but we never had thought it safe to allow a woman inside of the
+corral since that morning, a score of years ago, when my wife had been
+kicked insensible by a beast that she had attempted to milk. One
+evening, after Mora had returned from Cincinnati, she witnessed the
+usual proceedings in the milk-yard,--two broad-hatted and bespurred
+herders lassoing a cow. Then, after tying her head to one post and
+hind-foot to another, one of the valiant milk-men stripped a few streams
+of the precious fluid into a cup, while his partner stood by, whip in
+hand, ready to punish any movement on the part of the bellowing brute.
+Only then did she realize how infamously undairy-like the affair really
+was. When I met her a few moments later, she said with a shade of
+contempt in her tone:--
+
+"'Oh, why do you allow such barbarous work on the ranch?'
+
+"'But, my dear,' I replied, 'there is no other way. Why, I would rather
+tackle a mountain lion than one of those fiery creatures while she is
+loose.'
+
+"'Then, why not buy some Jerseys?' Mora said.
+
+"Yes, indeed, why not? I thought, and so I lost no time over
+deliberations, but wrote at once to Major Kingsbury, who sent me these
+gentle creatures, which now we value above anything else on the ranch."
+
+Nothing was said about the vast herds, the thousands of fat cattle
+grazing out over the great pastures around; but the visitors were
+impressed with the evidence of great wealth visible on every hand. The
+capacious corral and innumerable ricks of prairie-hay bore mute
+testimony to the thrift and opulence which reigned at the Estill ranch.
+
+As Mr. Estill led the way back to the dwelling he said:--
+
+"Hugh will be greatly disappointed when he learns that he has missed
+your visit. I have been away with him for the last fortnight, and only
+returned last evening, when I learned from my wife that--that--my
+children had a very pleasant day up at your place." Then in a
+constrained voice he added: "I would like to meet your father, Mr.
+Warlow; for there is a subject which I would like very much to discuss
+with him."
+
+"My father expressed a wish to make your acquaintance also; for it
+appears that he is anxious to discuss the early history of this country
+with you," Clifford replied.
+
+Mr. Estill seemed greatly agitated on hearing this; but when about to
+reply, dinner was announced, and he arose and led the way into the long,
+walnut-paneled dining-room. All this time Clifford was mutely wondering
+why the wealthy old ranchman should be so anxious to meet his father.
+
+"Can it be that the cattle-king is opposed to the intimacy growing up
+between myself and his daughter?" young Warlow asked himself. Then he
+thought of the friendly manner of his host, and rejected the idea at
+once.
+
+They were soon gaily chatting over the soup; but as Clifford's eye
+glanced along the wall his attention was attracted by a painting, which
+hung where the light fell upon it in such a way as to bring out every
+detail with perfect clearness. In its foreground was a mammoth tree,
+shading the gables of a stone cottage; a ruined wall, half smothered by
+vines. Across the stream, which had half encircled the knoll where the
+building stood, were fields of ripening grain, that rippled in the
+billowy waves, stirred and tossed by the summer breeze, wheat of coppery
+red or palest gold, the silvery sheen of rye and oats contrasting with
+the tawny prairie and dark, green groves, through which shimmered the
+brook and pools that he recognized as old friends.
+
+As his eye sought the author of this delicate compliment, which was a
+truthful picture of his place--the Old Corral--he caught Miss Estill's
+amused look; for she had been watching the pleased surprise which had
+grown upon his face as he realized what the picture really was. His
+glance must have been very expressive in reply; for a blush swept over
+her face, usually serene in its quiet dignity, or vivacious with
+blithesome wit, and her blue eyes retreated behind their long lashes--a
+guilty admission that she was the artist who had painted the scene.
+
+This silent by-play was not unnoticed, quiet as it all seemed; for as
+Clifford turned to take the plate of rare good things which the host
+passed to him, he encountered the eyes of Mrs. Estill fixed upon him;
+but the lady smiled with a look of such evident enjoyment of the
+situation that he half forgot that Mr. Estill still held the plate,
+which young Warlow seized with an air which was neither as graceful nor
+self-possessed as a hero should have worn.
+
+With ready tact Mrs. Estill came to the rescue by saying:--
+
+"It all looks strange, no doubt, that I treat you to a ranch fare of
+canned beef from St. Louis, and vegetables from Baltimore and Rochester,
+but if it were not for our Jerseys we should have been compelled to call
+on Chicago for condensed milk also. I never realized the absurdity of
+this course until Mora told me of the luxuriant gardens and fields of
+grain which you are raising in the upper valley. Why, Hugh says it is a
+marvel how prosperous everything appears up there."
+
+"We never before have regarded this as a farming country; it has
+remained for your brave colony to explode that fallacy; and I hope your
+prosperity may be as lasting as it is merited," said Mr. Estill.
+
+An hour was spent in the parlor after dinner; then a long stroll
+followed out among the cedars to the north of the dwelling. Here Mora
+and Clifford soon found themselves deserted by their companions, and
+were left to their own resources for entertainment.
+
+They had been longing, no doubt, for this moment to arrive; so we will
+not intrude--a proceeding that would be alike odious to the couple and
+cruel to the reader; but when they emerged an hour later from the jungle
+of evergreens, Mora was heard to say:--
+
+"I can not imagine why mamma was so agitated when I told her. She never
+was affected by anything before. But she positively forbade my
+mentioning the subject again in her presence. When I begged her to tell
+why she talked so strangely, she replied that the story of the old
+tragedy had completely unnerved her; and then she again questioned me as
+to every detail of that terrible affair."
+
+"No doubt the remembrance of those early days, their danger and trials,
+all recurred with painful minuteness as you related the story, Miss
+Estill, for your parents were residing here at the time of that
+sorrowful event," Clifford replied.
+
+"No; I fear that there is some deeper reason yet; for when papa returned
+from Abilene--whither he had been with Hugh shipping cattle--mother
+sought an interview alone with him, and when I came into the room he
+said that I must be very careful to avoid the subject in the future. My
+parents never could be taxed with being sentimental--of that I am
+certain. But what the mystery can be--for a mystery it certainly is--I
+am at a loss to conjecture."
+
+"The air seems full of mystery since you and my father met," replied
+Clifford; "but I hope it will soon be all explained, Miss Estill."
+
+"I was very glad to see you come to-day; for although papa only arrived
+last night, he had concluded to go up to see Colonel Warlow at once.
+
+"I can't guess why he seems so anxious about meeting him. I tried
+bribery with a kiss; but he would not tell me why he was going--would
+always evade my question by replying that it was business, only, that
+prompted the visit."
+
+"He must be very obdurate, indeed, not to yield on such terms," Clifford
+replied, with a look which betrayed how willingly he would surrender at
+such a proposition.
+
+You have discovered, no doubt, that although our friend Warlow often
+spoke with his eyes, yet he allowed the lady to do three-fourths of the
+talking. This is a very dangerous experiment for an unfettered youth to
+indulge in; for I have always observed that when a fluent,
+silvery-tongued woman finds a ready listener, provided the victim be
+young, handsome, and manly, she first becomes more fluent, then, when
+answered in monosyllables, she shows her admiration of his "great
+conversational powers," and proceeds to make herself irresistible and
+captivating at once--all of which ends in chains and slavery for the
+brilliant listener.
+
+After a moment's silence, Miss Estill said:--
+
+"I notice a strange change has come over you since we last met, Mr.
+Warlow. Is it possible that you, also, have been seized by that strange
+infection of mystery which seems to possess all my friends in the last
+few weeks?"
+
+"Why, Miss Estill, do you really think me changed?" Clifford replied,
+with due regard to the three-fourths rule.
+
+At that moment the other members of the party came up and proposed
+returning, thus precluding Miss Estill's answer.
+
+As the guests were taking their leave, Mr. Estill said, in reply to
+their cordial invitations to visit them, that he would drive up the next
+day in company with his wife, that he had business with Colonel Warlow,
+and that himself and wife would call upon the Moreland family, if it
+would be agreeable to that family to receive them.
+
+On hearing nothing but great pleasure expressed at this announcement,
+the matter was settled definitely in that way; then the guests took
+their leave, and drove home through the cool twilight, vaguely wondering
+what business Mr. Estill could have to transact with Colonel Warlow.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV.
+
+
+Early next morning Clifford rode away, on the pretext that he was going
+to buy cattle of a ranchman in the next county; but his absence was
+mainly owing to the fact that he suspected the Estill visit was in some
+way connected with his intimacy with Mora; so he had decided that he
+would take himself off, and thereby avoid a disagreeable scene.
+
+The cattle-king and his wife arrived at an early hour, although they had
+called a moment at the Moreland homestead and given a promise that they
+would stop for an early tea on their return homeward from the Warlows.
+When they had been introduced by Maud, the colonel and Mr. Estill went
+to the stable to care for the team, and when that important rite of
+hospitality had been duly observed the gentlemen rejoined their wives in
+the Warlow parlor.
+
+Robbie was away in the fields with the farm men; Maud was busy with
+household cares, on the plea of which she had absented herself from the
+parlor. The kitchen, which was the scene of her culinary operations, was
+situated in an ell of the building, and as she stood by a window that
+looked directly through into one in the parlor, she could see and hear a
+great deal that was transpiring therein.
+
+An hour after the arrival of the guests she was standing by this open
+window, putting the last touches of frosting on a cocoa-nut cake, and so
+deeply, indeed, was she engrossed with her labors that she had failed to
+observe what the situation really was in the parlor, until she heard a
+hoarse cry:--
+
+"Oh God! it is Bruce and Ivarene!" and as she glanced hastily into the
+room she beheld a sight that perplexed and mystified her for long days
+thereafter. Her father stood by the window holding a jeweled locket in
+his hand; but at that moment he lowered the window-curtain, thus
+shutting off all view of the parlor.
+
+When, an hour later, Mrs. Warlow came into the kitchen, traces of tears
+were visible on her usually placid face; and when Maud, unable any
+longer to restrain her curiosity, eagerly asked the meaning of the
+mysterious conclave in the parlor, her mother evaded answering; so Maud
+wisely concluded to await her parents' confidence, which she felt
+certain of sharing at the proper time.
+
+At dinner Colonel Warlow ate but little of the tempting food; and the
+guests, although they praised the roast-chicken with its savory
+dressing, the delicate float and frosted cake, left their plates almost
+untouched.
+
+When the constrained and quiet meal was finished, and all had returned
+to the parlor but Maud, Rob came back again to the table, and as that
+youth, with an unappeasable appetite, helped himself to a plateful of
+"stuffing" and gravy, he turned to his sister and said:--
+
+"What's the matter now, Maud? The colonel seems to be all broke up; and
+that old Lady Estill--by grab!--_she_ looked like death on a--a--white
+pony! Mother, too, appeared as if she might have been sniffling; but
+that's nothing but a common pastime with her. You know that all women,
+more or less--yourself included, madam--are very much given to the
+chicken-hearted habit of dribbling at the nose."
+
+"Chicken-hearted, indeed! It is a great wonder, then, that you did not
+devour us long ago, sir!" said Maud, with a great show of asperity, but
+very glad to lead the subject into other channels and elude further
+questioning; for she saw by her mother's manner that there was something
+about the Estill visit which they wished, for unknown reasons, to keep
+secret, and it was a matter of honor with the noble-hearted girl to help
+them conceal what she herself was longing to know.
+
+"Well, big guns of the Estill calibre don't _go off_ on slight
+occasions," persisted Rob, with his mouth half-full of the adored
+"stuffing," and as he reached for a tall glass of ruby-colored
+plum-jelly, Maud quickly said:--
+
+"Won't you have a bit of the cake, Rob?"
+
+"Thanks--yes," said he, as he helped himself to the last solitary
+quarter of that frosted dainty; "and I would be pleased to taste a
+morsel of that chicken also," he mumbled.
+
+"What choice, sir?" she asked sarcastically.
+
+"The running-gears, if you please," he replied with polite gravity.
+
+With a gesture of scorn and disgust, Maud passed him the carcass of the
+fowl; then, after filling a large platter with crusts, bones, and
+egg-shells, she placed them before him with the injunction to help
+himself. Retiring to the window, she watched him devour cake, chicken,
+jam, and potatoes with an appetite that knew no discrimination.
+
+"I am afraid you have not done justice to my dishes," she said, as Rob
+at length arose from the table.
+
+"Oh, now don't give us any more sarcasm," said he, while picking his
+teeth with a broom-split. "It is so long from breakfast to noon, Maud,
+that I just get faint waiting on that slow old dinner-bell."
+
+"No doubt; but you remember how ravenously hungry you were last week,
+when the pup got the bell-rope in his mouth and summoned you in from the
+field at nine in the morning," she retorted, laughingly.
+
+"Well, that was a cloudy day," he said, good-naturedly; then, taking his
+straw hat from its hook on the porch, he hurried away to the field.
+
+After finishing her domestic duties, Maud joined the guests in the
+parlor, with a faint hope of learning something further of the mystery
+which seemed to enshroud their visit, of which she had got such a
+tantalizing glimpse an hour before; but her expectations were, however,
+sadly doomed to disappointment, for nothing was said that would throw
+any light on the subject; and, after spending a while at the piano, she
+invited the guests out to look at her flowers.
+
+The party thereupon adjourned to the garden; and when they had admired
+the flowers and shrubs, they sauntered on to the barn-yard, to look at
+the peacocks and other fowls, of which Mrs. Warlow was justly proud.
+
+"I should like to take a nearer view of your crops, Colonel. It has been
+so long since I saw a well-conducted farm, that it appears quite a
+novelty to me," said Mr. Estill, with evident interest.
+
+In a few moments they all embarked in the boat, and were rowed up to
+Clifford's dwelling; for if there was one thing of which the colonel was
+vain it was his son's farming.
+
+As they stood in the level valley south of the river, a scene of perfect
+rural beauty was visible. On the north was Clifford's gothic cottage,
+half hidden by the drooping elm; to the east, the chimneys and gables of
+the Warlow homestead peeped above the trees; while out to the south, on
+a green knoll, stood the stone school-house, with its tower and
+rose-window.
+
+The yellow wheat-stubble shone like gold beside the silvery oats, fast
+ripening for the harvest; the rank corn stood in clean, dark rows--great
+squares of waving green; scores of ricks were standing along the valley;
+while the clank of the header and shouts of the workmen were borne on
+the breeze from the neighboring field.
+
+"Ah! this is a very home-like scene, indeed--a great contrast to the
+one presented here just two years ago when last I visited this spot,"
+said Mr. Estill. "My ranch, ten miles below here, was then the last
+settlement on the frontier. There was not a human habitation in
+sight--only antelope and buffalo to vary the monotony of perfect
+solitude. In fact, there had never been an owner for the land nor a
+furrow turned here since the dawn of creation. Marvelous change!" he
+added.
+
+After crossing the stream on a foot-log, which here formed a rustic
+bridge, they all walked up to Clifford's dwelling, and while standing by
+the vine-mantled wall of the Old Corral, the colonel said in a musing
+tone:--
+
+"If this inanimate ruin could but speak, we might learn the sequel to
+that tragedy which has risen again, as it were, from the grave of the
+past. The robbers were led by white men, who no doubt divided the
+treasure among themselves while the savages were stupefied with liquor."
+
+He was interrupted by a cry of wonder from Maud, who could not repress
+her astonishment at his assertion that white men had led the Indians--a
+fact which Hugh Estill seemed to have been aware of also, and which,
+taken in connection with the incident of the miniature, led her to
+believe that the Estills were in some way connected with the massacre.
+
+"Maud, dear, will you go and see how Clifford's young catalpa-trees,
+down the drive, are growing? and if they need cultivating again, we will
+send one of the boys over with a plow soon," said Mrs. Warlow, with a
+warning glance; and Miss Maud moved quickly away, somewhat chagrined at
+her summary dismissal.
+
+As she passed along, she was pondering over the strange fact that her
+father had at last obtained a clue to the perpetrators of the outrage at
+the corral; and she became so deeply engrossed with the thought that she
+was quite unmindful which way her steps led, until her eye was attracted
+to a place where the earth appeared to have been recently disturbed, and
+she paused a moment, vaguely wondering what could have been buried
+there.
+
+The tall blue stem-grass was tangled and dead, while the square outlines
+of a cavity showed through the mass of dead vines and leaves, which had
+been suspiciously strewn over the place, with a view, it seemed, of
+concealing all trace of the disturbance. She became also aware of a most
+disgusting odor near the old cottonwood-tree; but, unmindful of this,
+she raked away the grass and litter to examine more closely the cavity
+in which the soil had been firmly trampled, but her curiosity was in no
+wise abated when she discovered that it was Clifford's boot-tracks that
+were visible in the soft, yielding earth.
+
+"What has he buried here, that he seems so anxious to conceal?" she was
+asking herself, when a puff of wind brought the odor with such added
+strength that she nearly fainted, and was hastily retreating from the
+proximity of that mysterious place, where she feared some strange, dead
+thing was buried, when she saw the bloated and mottled form of that
+hideous reptile which the reader may remember as having greeted a
+"Young Fortune Hunter" one weird and murky night the week before.
+
+With a stifled shriek, Maud fled by the vile-smelling and repulsive
+object, which she saw at a glance was mangled and dead; then, as she
+slowly returned and walked south of the reptile, she surveyed it
+carefully, and saw, with a shudder, that it was a hideous rattlesnake,
+with its head severed from the body. Appalled at the thought that it was
+her brother who had slain this formidable monster, the bite of which,
+while living, she knew meant certain death, she was retreating again
+from the place, pale and trembling, but paused at the excavation, to
+wonder, even then, what it meant, when her eye, which was scanning the
+ground carefully, caught sight of a curious, small object lying at her
+feet.
+
+Stooping and picking it up, she was disgusted and surprised to see that
+it was a human tooth. She was about to dash it down again, when a
+thought seemed to occur that caused her to look carefully about for some
+minutes; then, as nothing else was found, she stripped some leaves from
+a grape-vine near, and, after wrapping them about the tooth, she put it
+carefully away in her purse, and then returned to where her parents and
+guests were embarking for home. As they rowed down the willow-fringed
+stream, nothing was said concerning the strange discoveries that had
+been made that day, and on arriving at the house, the visitors prepared
+to take an early departure. As Mrs. Estill stepped into the carriage,
+Mrs. Warlow gave a promise that she would drive down to the Estill ranch
+one day that week.
+
+Clifford returned late that evening with some animals which he had
+bought; and, as all was hurry and bustle, and several laborers remained
+over night, there was no chance for confidential conversation among the
+younger members of the Warlow family. But the next morning broke with a
+lowering sky, and the misty rain which followed precluded any effort at
+farm-work; so the laborers went to their respective homes, leaving the
+house to its customary quiet.
+
+As Rob was plodding about in the rain and whistling shrill as a locust,
+he was signaled by Maud, who stood out by the gate, and when the youth
+joined her they held a low, hurried conversation for a few minutes; then
+Bob darted down to the boat, and rowed rapidly up the stream.
+
+He was gone but a few minutes, however, when he returned flushed and
+excited, and placed something, which was wrapped in leaves, into Maud's
+outstretched hand.
+
+"How did you manage it?" she said in a low tone, as they paused under an
+ash-tree near the river.
+
+"Why, that was easy enough--I just put my boot on his snakeship's tail,
+then taking hold of the rattles with a handful of leaves--and--here they
+are. But--oh fury!--how it did smell, though!" he added in disgust.
+"Fourteen rattles and a button! Don't that beat the snake-tale of the
+oldest inhabitant, Maud?"
+
+Then, without awaiting a reply, he added, out of breath with
+excitement:--
+
+"Cliff had a shocking time of it up there last Friday night, for this is
+only a small part of his experience."
+
+"Rob--what--oh, what can you mean?" cried Maud, in wildest excitement.
+
+"Well, I don't know much; but this much I did learn by guessing at it
+first, then making him own up; for Cliff is as close-mouthed as an
+oyster. From what I could learn, it appears that, while prowling about
+that night like a vagrant tom-cat, our good-looking brother ran into
+that old spectre which shrieked so like a demon that night by the
+camp-fire. This time, of course, it gave him the slip, as it always
+does," he answered.
+
+"You do not mean to say that horrible sight has been seen again, Rob?"
+
+After cautioning her not to raise such a racket, Rob proceeded to tell
+of his encounter, and also what he had learned of Clifford's experience
+likewise.
+
+"Oh, Rob--what a horribly unreal thing it all seems! But everywhere
+there is so much of mystery that I am almost wild," she cried, with a
+good deal of incoherence.
+
+"Why was Clifford digging about the old cottonwood that night, Rob?" she
+added, after a moment's pause; but, as her brother only expressed both
+surprise and ignorance, she continued: "But this is not all, Robbie; for
+I made a most startling discovery to-day--one which throws a gloomy
+light on the old tragedy of Bruce and his wife."
+
+"Why, thicker and thicker!" cried Rob. "But what kind of a mare's-nest
+did you run into this time, Maud?" he added.
+
+In reply, Maud told of seeing the locket, and of hearing her father
+exclaim that it contained the pictures of Bruce and his wife, and the
+strange assertion which he had made while the Estills were standing by
+the ruined wall.
+
+"But how did the locket ever get into the Estills' hands?" Rob said,
+with a perplexed look; then, after a moment, he added, excitedly:--
+
+"Oh, now I know what father and Mr. Estill were talking about in the
+barn. I had just stepped into the upper hall-way to lay a fork on the
+rack--you know how strict father always was about our putting everything
+in its proper place--so, to save myself a blowing up, I went out of my
+way and had left the fork there, and was about to hurry on to the well
+for a jug of water, when I heard Mr. Estill say:--
+
+"'This must be a matter of sacred confidence between us, Colonel; for if
+it were known that any one of my people had participated in that affair,
+or had been engaged in the murder, there are people who are malicious
+enough, no doubt, to connect myself and wife with the crime; and for
+that reason alone I have always kept the matter a profound secret, even
+from Hugh and Mora. The locket was set with rubies and engraved with the
+name which, you see, we have used, and have only shortened; but she has
+never learned its origin, nor anything of the tragedy.'
+
+"Then, after a moment, he continued, after father had said something
+which I could not quite catch:--
+
+"'If Olin Estill had only lived, the mystery might have been explained;
+but I found him dead and mangled beyond all resemblance to a
+human--nothing to identify his remains but the tattered clothing, which
+I recognized; for the wolves had torn his limbs away, and left his
+skeleton bleaching out on the prairie. Yet the strangest part of it all
+is the mysterious resemblance of the faces in that miniature to Mora and
+your son. Why, my wife was terribly agitated when she first met that boy
+of yours; for he is the perfect counterpart of the picture of your
+friend, who must have died years before either of those children were
+born. Mora's resemblance to Ivarene--'
+
+"About that time I grew weary of such rot, and did not pay any further
+attention to what they said. How much more I might have heard I can't
+guess; for I hurried away to the well, as I was mortal thirsty and
+tired. I am sorry now that I didn't stay and hear it out, for there
+certainly is something up."
+
+While talking thus they had sauntered on into the house; and while they
+stood by the parlor door Rob had made the concluding remark, which
+Clifford chanced to overhear, as he came upon them silently through the
+carpeted hall.
+
+"Here, you young conspirators--out with it, and confess at once 'what's
+up,' as this bold robber says with such an air of deep mystery,"
+Clifford said, with a smile of curiosity.
+
+Maud looked up with a flash of resentment in her honest Warlow eyes; for
+she did not half like the idea of this Adonis-like brother keeping
+anything from her. Thrusting her hand into her pocket, she drew out her
+_porte-monnaie_, as he continued:--
+
+"Well, Maud, did you learn anything yesterday?" while an anxious look
+crept into his face.
+
+"Yes, I learned this!" she replied, while holding out her hand, in
+which, resting on a piece of muslin, was a human tooth, and that long,
+reticulated tissue, which he saw at a glance was the rattles of the
+enormous reptile he had encountered while digging for the treasure.
+
+He looked at them in a startled, wondering way for a moment; then, as if
+comprehending it all, he said:--
+
+"Ah, yes--the rattles! But the tooth--that is the hardest part of all."
+
+Maud and Rob could not restrain a smile at the ghastly pun; but the
+former replied:--
+
+"I found them where you had been digging, near the old cottonwood-tree.
+We know about the rattlesnake and that gray-robed figure, which was the
+same one that startled us by the camp-fire, I really believe. But that
+human tooth?--I shall certainly go raving mad if you keep anything
+further from me."
+
+Clifford glanced from her pale face to that of Rob, which wore a look of
+startled perplexity.
+
+"I find it impossible to keep anything from your sharp eyes. So it is
+myself, after all, who has to confess!" he said, seating himself on the
+divan.
+
+Then, while the rain lashed the windows and the chill wind wailed
+through the tree-tops without, he told that story of midnight horror.
+When he finished, Maud was pale and tearful, and Rob's hazel eyes were
+round with mute astonishment.
+
+"But Maud, did you learn the reason of Mr. Ess--that is Mora's
+folks--well--why they came up yesterday?" Clifford managed at length to
+say in a confused manner, that revealed a great deal of uneasiness on
+his part, which was not at all lost on the sharp-eyed couple beside him.
+
+Then, drying her tears, Maud told of the strange revelations which the
+visit of the Estills had disclosed; and when she repeated the singular
+conversation which Robbie had overheard in the barn, Clifford cried out
+excitedly:--
+
+"Ah! that was the mysterious kinsman who Mora said was buried on the
+hill-top at Estill Ranch. He was one of the robbers who perpetrated the
+outrage at the corral years ago. _A bandit and murderer!_ 'Tis no wonder
+that nothing but nettles ever grow on that grave. It was through him,
+Maud, that they obtained the locket, with its picture of Bruce and
+Ivarene. But it can not be that Mr. Estill derived his great wealth from
+the same source! If so, he never would have betrayed himself by showing
+the pictures of the people that were murdered by his own kinsman. What,
+then, became of the great treasure?" he sadly asked. But no one seemed
+able to answer his question; for the whole affair had now assumed a tone
+of mystery such as it had never worn before.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XV.
+
+
+"Why should they have given 'her' the name which was on the locket? and
+who was the mysterious female that never had learned of the tragical
+circumstance?" said Maud, with a puzzled face.
+
+"I am unable to answer your question, Maud," Clifford replied; but there
+was something in his manner that led the sharp-eyed couple before him to
+suspect he had detected some clue which had eluded them in their
+investigations of the mystery.
+
+"Cliff, what the deuce was that old skull doing in the cask?" said Rob,
+innocently; but, seeing the look of amusement on his brother's face, he
+added: "Or I mean to ask, how came it there?"
+
+"To answer your first question I shall have to remind you that a dead
+man's skull has a very limited field of action, confined principally to
+the pastime of rolling over and rattling its teeth when touched; but how
+or why it was there, seems only known to the ill-natured ophidian which
+kept it such close company," Clifford replied, with his usual strain of
+jocular sarcasm.
+
+"Oh dear!" said Maud, drearily, while drumming on the misty window-pane.
+"It is very exasperating to be shut up in a house on such a day, where
+every closet is full of skeletons, and not dare to peep into one of
+them," she added.
+
+"But Cliff has been peeping, and with wonderful luck, too," Rob
+observed, dryly.
+
+"Oh, I am not the first fortune hunter who has found a skull or serpent
+where he had hoped to find gold!" Clifford replied, with perfect good
+nature.
+
+"Oh, Clifford, I shudder to think of the danger you passed through on
+that terrible night--all alone in that dismal place, fighting that
+venomous monster, with death in its fangs, while the gray-robed demon
+hovered near with its fiery eyes and blood-chilling scream," said Maud,
+tearfully, while winding her arm about her brother's neck.
+
+"Now, dear, soft-hearted Maud, you must remember that the path of those
+who strive for pelf is thickly beset by demons and serpents, although
+they may wear the human guise and lurk in the shadow of friendship.
+Many, many are the skeletons of dead hopes and buried dreams that start
+up as the graves of the past are disturbed," Clifford replied.
+
+"But you shall never spend another night alone up at that ill-omened
+dwelling, Clifford; for Rob shall go with you hereafter," she said,
+while drying her tears.
+
+"Well, but suppose I might choose some fair lady to grace my
+spectre-haunted home--that would answer as well?" he replied, gaily.
+
+"Oh! that would be a capital plan indeed; but I shall insist on the
+right to choose her," his sister cried, with returning animation.
+
+"Oh! you are growing very liberal, to say the least, Miss Maud. I guess
+you will have to be satisfied with second choice," said Cliff.
+
+After talking awhile over the mystery which had woven such a tangled web
+about their home in the last few days, Maud exclaimed:--
+
+"Robbie, dear, won't you go and ask father what name was engraved on the
+locket? Also learn all that is possible, for I am just dying of
+anxiety;" but as he began to smile with derision, she added, coaxingly:
+"Now do go, Rob, please; that's a man; father never refuses you
+anything."
+
+"Catch me at it!" cried Rob, with a shrug. "I don't hanker much after
+the dry job of pumping the colonel," he added, winking at Clifford
+significantly.
+
+"No, no, Maud, that would never do. Let us await the confidence of our
+parents, and try, in the meantime, to pick up what facts we can. Who
+knows," he added, "but we may stumble on to some great discovery?"
+
+Little, indeed, did he suspect the great revelations which the day held
+in store for them, and that events were about to transpire which would
+change the tenor of their whole lives.
+
+At Mrs. Warlow's entrance the conversation took on a less sombre hue,
+and when she told of the news confirming the great land-sale which was
+soon to be held at the land office--a fact which she had learned from
+the Estills--it was proposed to take a drive out over the country
+north-east, and find a section for Maud and Rob, which the colonel would
+buy for their benefit at the sale.
+
+Accordingly, after dinner, as the weather had cleared, the Warlow family
+drove out and viewed a well-watered, rolling tract, equal in extent to
+the farms of the colonel and Clifford. After an hour spent thus, it was
+thought advisable to drive on westward and examine a country which, in
+their busy farm-life, had never been viewed, save at a distance.
+
+On arriving at a point about three miles west of their home, they drove
+down into a narrow valley or glen, clothed with tall blue-stem and rank
+sunflowers, now beginning to unfold their golden blossoms. This jungle
+of vegetation was woven together by the slender, leafless tendrils of
+the love-vine, which threw a veil of coppery red over the brilliant
+green of the other vegetation.
+
+While driving slowly through this almost impervious mass of vegetation,
+they discovered a winding but well-beaten trail or pathway, leading on
+down the valley, and which, out of pure curiosity, they followed until
+it disappeared in a thicket of plum-trees at the base of a low cliff of
+magnesian limestone.
+
+As they paused at the scrubby grove, wondering what could have made the
+path, Clifford sprang out of the carriage, saying he would like to
+investigate the matter, and disappeared among the trees. He was gone so
+long that, after they had called him repeatedly, Rob was on the point of
+starting in search, when Clifford reappeared. As he sprang into the
+carriage their questioning was forestalled by his saying that the path
+was possibly made by wolves, and that he had been examining the cliff,
+but had not succeeded in finding their den.
+
+He appeared so pale and agitated, however, that Maud regarded him
+suspiciously; and when the horses flew up the glen along the winding
+pathway and through tangled thickets of blue-stem and sunflowers, she
+managed to ask in a whisper:--
+
+"What have you discovered, Cliff?"
+
+"A clue to the old mystery--but wait," he whispered in reply; and in
+silence they drove rapidly back to the Warlow homestead.
+
+As the boys were leading the horses into the barn, Maud called for them
+to assist her in nailing up some of the lattice which the wind had
+shaken down in her arbor; and when they joined her a few minutes later
+in the vine-clad bower, she cried in a low, eager tone:--
+
+"Clifford--Clifford! what did you see in that thicket?"
+
+"Yes, out with it--quick!" said Rob; "for I know by your looks that you
+saw something queer up there."
+
+"The pathway," said Clifford, hurriedly, "plunged into the thicket of
+plums; then, after winding about in a mazy labyrinth, it led up to the
+base of a low cliff of limestone, and there ended so abruptly that I was
+puzzled to know what to make of it, but noticing that the heavy festoon
+of grapevines that hung down from the soil above, looked as if they had
+been disturbed, I hastily drew them aside. Imagine my surprise when a
+rough door was revealed, hung in the face of the cliff. Drawing it
+open, there was disclosed a low cell or cavern, which had been partly
+carved out of the soft magnesian limestone. Peering into the room, I
+became satisfied that it was empty of human occupants.
+
+"The room was not more than a dozen feet square, the little furniture
+which it contained being dilapidated beyond description. As I stepped
+into the room to examine things more closely, the fact became very plain
+that some one had occupied it recently, for the mouldy couch still
+showed the imprint of a human form.
+
+"Some broken utensils stood about on the hearth, where a fire-place had
+been hewn out of the soft rock. The ashes and charred wood, the bones of
+fish and birds, scattered about on the floor, confirmed the fact that it
+was used, in a desultory manner, as a habitation.
+
+"I was turning to leave, thinking perhaps that I had invaded the private
+dwelling of some squatter, when my attention was arrested by seeing a
+vial half concealed in a cleft in the rocky wall. Inly wondering why any
+one should wish to conceal such a trifle, I drew it forth, rubbing the
+grime and dust from it as I did so.
+
+"What was my surprise to see that there was a paper within. In eager
+haste I uncorked the bottle and drew out this document," said he,
+holding up with trembling hands a sheet that was discolored with age and
+blotted with mildew, but covered closely with writing, still faintly
+legible. "I had only time to glance at the startling title when I heard
+your voices calling, so I closed the door, drew the vines carefully
+over the entrance, and joined you, feeling like one in a dream.
+
+"Now let's hasten," he said, "and read this document, which will, I
+believe, unveil the mystery of Bruce and Ivarene." Then, unrolling the
+time-worn paper again, with bated breath and loudly beating heart, he
+read aloud as follows:--
+
+     SEPTEMBER 14, 1849,
+
+     "NEAR THE STONE CORRAL, ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL.
+
+     "This is written by Ivarene Walraven, late of the City of Mexico,
+     who offers prayers that it may fall into hands of kindness, who
+     will convey to my kinsman, Herr Von Brunn, of Vera Cruz--to him
+     this missive, full of grief and misfortune.
+
+     "We were attacked by savages on the night of August 22d, our
+     servants slain, our wealth all gone, and our kind and tender
+     friend, Senor Warlow, murdered. Bruce, my noble husband, he did me
+     wrap within the folds of a serape, and dashed away out on the dark
+     prairie with me in his arms, far, far away from the noise of murder
+     and savagery. He watched by my side in the tall grass all that day
+     next come; for I was ill to death's gate.
+
+     "Then, near eventide, there came to us a hunter strange, who said
+     he slay the bison-flesh for trailers by, and beg we go to his
+     hidden cell in a cliffy rock. His evil eyes I much mistrust; but he
+     seem friendly be, and food prepare for us when there we go. On
+     morning rise my babe is born--a daughter sweet--and darling Bruce
+     he tenderly nurses me while the hunter watches near the trail for
+     wagons go by; but day by day nothing sees he; then Bruce he say,
+     'I shall go myself to-morrow day.' The hunter frown when this he
+     say. That morning, as the hunter go, he say, with cunning smile: 'A
+     flask of wine for senora and senor.' Then leaves he it and go away
+     as at all time. When him had disappeared, I scent a strangeness in
+     the flask, and Bruce poured out a larger part; then broke he the
+     glassen flask upon the floor. When a cup he bring, and say: 'What
+     is the scent of this wine he gave?' I perceive the deadly loco's
+     odor there, and say it poison is; it drives them mad for evermore.
+     Bruce he frown, and meat and drink prepare; and when the hunter he
+     return he say: 'The flask is broken all! give us wine some more.'
+     But the hunter rudely began the meat to eat, waiting not at all.
+     After him did partake in his rude way of the food he threw his coat
+     by; then sat he strangely still awhile. Sprang he at length to his
+     feet with loud shriek and cry, then rushed away into the night.
+     'Ah! the wine I put into his food is poison be,' Bruce he say while
+     bar the door. In the hunter's coat we find a little book for
+     writing some, and one leaf did have these letter writ:--
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "'EAGLE BEAK,--Take all the braves to Pawnee Rock, and there I will
+     go soon. Several jugs of wine are ready for you to take along; but
+     do not let them taste until there; I have put deadly loco in the
+     wine, which will kill them all, or drive them mad; so there will be
+     the less to share the cask of gold--'
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "Then it was left unfinished, and another leaf had been torn--some
+     out.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "SEPTEMBER 15th.
+
+     "I shall write it more for Bruce; he go to the trail to watch for
+     travelers go. I am all by me, and my blue-eyed, dark-haired
+     daughter here, with barred door I am much secured; but lonely so
+     for darling Bruce.
+
+     "I try so hard to plainly use this English tongue, but strange it
+     seems. My baby dear I deck with my mother's locket, where is the
+     picture of dear Bruce and me--my dear mother's name on it: Morelia.
+     Oh, time is lonely now while Bruce away. I will lay this aside, its
+     vial in, and will write it again after I unbar the door and watch
+     for him."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI.
+
+
+"Oh! they were murdered by the wild hunter,--and this is all that
+remains to tell the fate of our father's friends," cried Maud,
+tearfully. "But do you think, Clifford--" She paused a moment, leaving
+her question unfinished; then, springing to her feet in wildest
+excitement, she exclaimed:--
+
+"We have been blind--blind! but it is all clear now!" and as Rob stood
+by, dumb with astonishment, she said, in a hoarse whisper, while she
+wrung her hands in the intensity of her great emotion: "Bruce's
+daughter--Morelia--Mora!"
+
+"Yes, yes! I have suspected it since the day father called her Ivarene.
+I always felt, from the moment that we met, as though I had known her
+all my life. There seemed to be a look of recognition beaming from the
+eyes of Mora Estill that has haunted me for months. My God! is it
+possible I have only known her three short weeks? it seems like an
+eternity," said Clifford, in a musing tone, while Rob exclaimed,
+hurriedly:--
+
+"That mad hunter was Olin Estill; and it was he who must have stolen
+Mora at the cavern from Ivarene, and left her at the Estill Ranch before
+he met his tragic fate. His is the haunted, lonesome grave on the
+hill-top, of which Mora spoke."
+
+"But, oh, what a terrible retribution!--his limbs torn away by
+wrangling wolves, and his grinning skull left bleaching on the wild
+prairie," said Maud, tearfully. "Dear Bruce and Ivarene," she continued,
+with a sob--"must their history end in silence and oblivion?"
+
+"Do you think, Maud, that the hunter, with all the devilish cunning of
+madness, could have crept back and poisoned them, and then stolen the
+child?"
+
+"Ah! it is too sad to contemplate," she replied. "Their fate would have
+been worse than death; for I now remember having read how ill-starred
+Carlotta, Maximilian's unhappy empress, was poisoned by some terrible
+Mexican drug, and all the world knows of her hopeless madness, which
+will last until death."
+
+"I shudder to think who that gray-robed, ghastly creature, with its
+tangled locks and glassy eyes, may be," said Clifford, hoarse with
+emotion.
+
+"Not Bruce! Oh no, no! it can not be! Oh God! what a fate!" cried Maud,
+with another flood of tears, as she thought of the hideous contrast with
+the smiling, handsome lover in the flower-entwined balcony of Monteluma.
+
+"I will go and take a more extended search up at that cavern," said
+Clifford. "It may be possible to make some more discoveries. But let us
+keep this matter secret, and when our parents are willing to give us
+their confidence, then we will divulge it, but not before," to which the
+others agreed; and while Maud was still cautioning him to be very
+careful of danger, our young hero rode up by his dwelling, then galloped
+rapidly along the winding pathway to the cliff where the cavern was
+concealed.
+
+Alighting, and securing his horse to a low plum-tree in the thicket, he
+went to the door of the cell, and, finding all as he had left it, began
+searching the room critically.
+
+He was reasoning in his mind the probabilities of finding the treasure,
+which the letter of the hunter led him to suspect was hidden near; for
+he had got a very clear glimpse of that villain's nature, when he read
+the part that was crossed out after he had written: "The fewer to share,
+the greater the gain."
+
+Clifford felt certain that Olin Estill had remained with the treasure
+after he had induced his confederate in crime, Eagle Beak (who was, no
+doubt, an Indian chief), to decoy the Indians away to Pawnee Rock. The
+wretch must have decided to poison Eagle Beak when he marked the letter
+over, and no doubt he had suppressed the fact of the wine being drugged,
+so that his confederate would also drink of the liquor.
+
+"Eagle Beak must have been a white man, disguised as an Indian, or he
+would never have been able to read," thought Clifford; but as he knew a
+great many half-breeds had become prominent Indian chiefs, he reconciled
+this fact with the position which that marauder held. Allowing such to
+have been the case, young Warlow knew that he could have been no match
+in cunning deviltry for the educated scoundrel, Estill; so he must
+certainly have fallen into the diabolical trap which the latter villain
+had laid for him, and, with all his Indians, he had drunk himself to
+madness and death from the flasks and jugs of drugged and poisoned
+liquor. They had all shared a common fate long before reaching that
+towering and legendary land-mark of Pawnee Rock. All the actors in that
+dire tragedy had met with such swift retribution that no one was left,
+in a few days after the robbery, to care for the great treasure.
+
+"Yes; the mighty fortune of Monteluma, its red gold and gleaming gems,
+is hidden away near by, only waiting to be restored to their rightful
+heir, Mora Estill," said Clifford aloud, as he clenched his hand, and
+the blood surged to his face in a crimson glow.
+
+The gold, he believed, had been hastily buried near the Stone Corral by
+the leaders while the savages were stupefied with liquor; but the casket
+of gems, our hero believed, was concealed in the cavern; so it was with
+a wildly beating heart that our young friend began searching the mouldy
+pallet of straw, but nothing rewarded his scrutiny.
+
+He had provided himself with a large dirk-knife, which his father had
+carried in the turbulent mining days, and with the heavy metal handle of
+the weapon Clifford proceeded to sound the walls of the cavern; but no
+hollow echo replied, to betray the cavity which he hoped to discover.
+The fire-place, chimney, and the ceiling, also were subjected to the
+same scrutiny, but with no better result. Then he began near the door,
+and sounded the solid floor until he arrived at the old couch; but the
+stone seemed to be a solid sheet of limestone, on which the hilt of the
+weapon rang with a clear, metallic clang, resonant but disheartening.
+
+Hastily removing the old mattress, young Warlow resumed his
+explorations; and as he vainly searched the floor his heart sank like
+lead, and he paused to wipe the cold sweat from his face before
+finishing the last remaining spot in one corner. A feeling of dread and
+apprehension overcame him, and he shrank from the ordeal. Hope deferred
+began to dampen the enthusiasm of our young "Fortune Hunter," and he
+could scarcely summon his courage to the final test of searching that
+one remaining spot; but, drawing a long sigh, he resumed the operation,
+and the very first blow caused his brain to reel and the blood to bound
+madly in his veins; for the hollow sound which the blow elicited proved
+that the hidden cavity was reached at last.
+
+The bottom of the cavern was thickly incrusted with filth and damp earth
+at that place; but he dug with frantic energy, and soon the dim outline
+of a square flag-stone was visible. Breathless and panting, young Warlow
+pried at the stone, and as it slowly arose he closed his eyes, as if
+fearing to glance down into the cavity below.
+
+"Ah, if this is the casket of gems, Mora will be the greatest heiress in
+all the land, and the gulf which the riches of the cattle-king made
+between myself and her will only be widened by this great wealth,"
+Clifford thought; and he now, for the first time, regretted having come
+out on a search which might lead to his life-long misery.
+
+For one moment the tempter whispered in his ear; but quickly the Warlow
+honor triumphed, and he looked down resolutely into the cavity.
+
+Yes! there was the casket, and beside it a roll of papers.
+
+Fate had been fickle and cold so long; but now, when her smile was worse
+than a frown, she could easily relent.
+
+Catching up the papers and casket, he sprang across the room to the door
+with a hoarse cry of delight. Upon the decayed old parchment he could
+only discern one faint word, Monteluma; then the casket dropped from his
+nerveless grasp and fell to the stone floor with a crash.
+
+An exclamation of delight escaped him as the gems which had fallen upon
+the floor, flashed back the sun-rays in scintillating splendor, and the
+low, dull room was lit by a glare like the lightning-riven storm-cloud.
+
+It was a scene of bewildering beauty--of fascinating splendor--that met
+his gaze:--great diamonds, that shot broad flashes of rainbow light;
+strands of pale pearls, glinting in fitful splendor; burning rubies,
+that poured forth flames of crimson, which mingled with the rays shed by
+the amethysts of rose, purple, and lilac; while the lurid, baleful fire
+of opals and emeralds flickered and glimmered in the sunlight.
+
+Stooping down, young Warlow gathered up the priceless gems, trembling
+meanwhile at the strange, unreal event, and after securely placing them
+again within the casket, and rearranging the room, he mounted his horse
+and galloped back over the swelling hills.
+
+As the hoofs of his gray Norman tore through the thickets of rank grass,
+tangled and woven in a maze of golden, leafless tendrils by the slender
+love-vine, or bruised the mignonette until all the moist, sultry air was
+rich with its pungent fragrance, Clifford was revolving in his mind
+several plans for concealing the mighty treasure of which he had just
+become the guardian. He concluded that he must find a secure
+hiding-place at his dwelling, where the casket might remain until the
+proper moment should arrive when he could reveal the discovery, and
+restore the property to its rightful owner.
+
+On arriving at his dwelling, Clifford tied his horse in the stable, then
+entered the house, locking the door and drawing the blinds, so as to be
+safe from intrusion while he pondered over the situation.
+
+The room was a tastefully-furnished apartment, carpeted with a rich,
+dark carpet, a remnant of luxury that had once adorned the old
+plantation home, and supplied with easy chairs, a book-case, well
+filled, and some good paintings, which were gifts from his early
+friends.
+
+This room was the gathering-place for the men and boys of Clifford's
+neighborhood on rainy days and lonesome Sundays, and here it was that he
+spent most of his leisure time in reading or study.
+
+At length he arose and went to the attic, from which place he soon
+returned with a case of tools. Then, taking up the carpet in the corner
+of the room, he sawed out a place in the floor large enough to admit the
+strong, iron-bound chest, which he had dragged out from the adjoining
+room.
+
+After hastily tacking some cleats on the boards, which he had sawed out
+of the floor, thus providing a lid for the cavity, he placed the chest
+within the aperture. The bottom of the strong box rested on the earth
+below, and its top came nearly even with the floor. In a small
+compartment of this chest young Warlow placed the jewels; then he paused
+awhile to look at the roll of parchments.
+
+These documents proved to be the patents to the estate of Monteluma, and
+Clifford could dimly see the signatures of Charles V and Philip II, with
+the broad seal of the Spanish crown on the mildewed, discolored, yet
+precious parchments.
+
+There was, in addition, a large envelope, heavily sealed, on which the
+superscription was quite dim. In the waning light young Warlow failed to
+decipher it; but promising himself that he would soon examine this
+mystery-hinting missive at greater leisure, he placed all the papers in
+the chest, which he securely locked, closed the trap-door, and tacked
+down the carpet; then, fastening up the house with great care, he
+hurried down to his father's dwelling.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVII.
+
+
+Maud and Rob met Clifford at the gate, and as he passed under the
+latticed arch where the trumpet-vine clambered with succulent ambition,
+its sprays of flame-red bugles mottled with spots of velvety black, Maud
+said eagerly:--
+
+"I was growing uneasy about you, Cliff. Did you see nothing of that
+strange, gray-robed creature up at the cell?"
+
+"Nothing whatever; but I am led to believe that mysterious being often
+stays there. We must keep a sharp watch on the place hereafter, and
+perhaps we may unravel the mystery," he replied, anxious to lead the
+subject away from his recent search.
+
+As he stood, dreading further questioning, the supper-bell sounded, and
+he quickly moved on into the house, determined that he would conceal his
+discovery until he had made a search for the gold also.
+
+The Warlow family retired early that night; but as the clock struck two
+Clifford arose, and listening to be certain that Rob was safe in the
+arms of Morpheus, he then stepped lightly out on to the veranda, and,
+after pausing a moment at the foot of the steps to draw on his boots,
+hurried down to the barn.
+
+After saddling one of his Norman horses, he rode up to his dwelling,
+where he secured the iron rod and spade with which he had prosecuted
+his former search, and then galloped on down to the old cottonwood-tree.
+
+Tying his horse to an ash-tree on the river bank, he began digging on
+the very spot where he had unearthed the cask with all its attending
+horrors. While throwing the soil out of the pit, he soon forgot the
+dangers and disappointment which had attended that adventure, and in his
+eagerness to reach the shattered cask, still remaining below him, he
+labored with such energy that he soon reached the object of his search.
+
+As he began to clear the dirt from the shattered cask, he often listened
+to hear the warning rattle that would announce the presence of the mate
+to that venomous reptile which he had slain here a few weeks previous;
+but no trace of the serpent was found. While removing the last spadeful
+of earth, the thought came to him like a flash of sunlight that the
+snake had been placed within the cask for the very purpose of terrifying
+and discouraging any one from searching deeper after he had unearthed
+it.
+
+He remembered having read of circumstances where reptiles had been found
+imprisoned in rock, where they had survived the confinement of an era of
+time to which twenty-seven years was a short period in comparison; so it
+appeared that the snake might have been placed there when the cask was
+buried, and had lived and developed into the enormous reptile which had
+served to unnerve him and arrest his search on the first occasion.
+
+It had occurred to him, before digging, that the cask had been buried
+by the wretches who were engaged in the massacre at the corral, and that
+the treasure was secreted just below the cask. This belief had resulted
+from his successful search at the cavern, and had ripened now into
+almost conviction; so he had resolved to search deeper on the same spot
+where he had met with his first signal failure.
+
+"How true it is that we should always look below the surface of
+treachery, enmity, and failure for the true gold of success!" said young
+Warlow, meanwhile removing the last stave of the old cask, and boring
+down with the iron rod into the bottom of the pit.
+
+As the instrument struck hard against some resisting object, but two
+feet below, he felt the shock of a hot thrill of excitement; then
+grasping his spade with trembling hands, he soon reached the goal of his
+labors.
+
+Another cask was revealed!
+
+Yes; there was the treasure, he felt with all the conviction of
+certainty, that he had so long vainly hoped to recover. He struck the
+head of the cask several blows with his spade, and as the wood crushed
+in, he paused with the same old feeling of vacillation and dread that
+had seized him when the precious casket lay unopened before him at the
+secret cavern,--the irresolute, wavering sensation, the fear of
+disappointment, which so often assails us when fortune's phantom stands
+dimly near, and we hesitate to grasp her beckoning hand, fearing vaguely
+that a buffet may await us. It was in such a mood young Warlow stood,
+while the hopes and fears coursed dreamily through his soul. The
+sweat-drops rained from his brow, and fell trickling down through the
+pale moonlight. At last, with shaking hand, he lit his lantern and
+peered down into the cask below; and as he slowly cleared out the
+fragments of the shattered head, he saw that there was a mass of fleecy
+wool filling the cask completely. Tearing this aside with nerveless
+fingers and panting haste, there was revealed row after row of deer-skin
+bags, with the words,
+
+    "George Warlow, 1849."
+
+plainly lettered upon their sides. With his knife he quickly severed the
+thong that bound one of them, and the dull, red gold gleamed back in the
+flickering light!
+
+"Oh God! at last--at last!" cried our hero (who certainly has earned his
+title), as broken sobs shook his frame, and he leaned faint and dizzy
+against the side of the pit. But while he stood, weak and panting, a
+wild, frightened snort from his horse caused him to bound out of the
+pit, and hurry forward to where he had fastened the animal. When he
+reached the tree the usually quiet creature was found to be trembling
+with fear or excitement. After caressing the sleek Norman for a moment,
+and speaking in a soothing tone to quiet the creature, Clifford walked
+back toward the pit; but as he came into the moonlight, he paused a
+moment to take a full breath of the light breeze, which was rippling the
+water and whispering among the trees.
+
+Far down the valley he could trace the silvery veil of vapor, revealing
+the course of the narrow stream, and among the dense shadows of willow
+and vines the fire-flies wove their webs of glimmering light. The
+midsummer night was still and tranquil, the silence only broken by the
+moan of the brook and the chirp of insects; the heavy dew-drops on tree
+and shrub glinted and flashed in the moonbeams that sifted through the
+willows in a sheen of wavering silver.
+
+The quavering scream of a wolf on some dismal hill-top--a sound heard
+nightly all over the Western prairies, but one that never fails to send
+a cold thrill of horror through the lone traveler--startled Clifford
+from the momentary reverie into which he had fallen, and brought back
+vividly the remembrance of that night of terror and danger, which now
+seemed so long ago; and, as if the very thought had conjured up the
+spirits of the past, that well-remembered spectre, gray-robed, with
+snaky locks and glaring eyes, darted from among the shadows and with its
+bony, talon-like fingers clutched at young Warlow's throat.
+
+Not a sound came from the lips that were drawn back from its snaggled
+fangs, but with its loathsome, grave-like breath full on his cheek, it
+closed in a death grapple with the startled and horrified youth. A wild
+struggle ensued; the rank vines and slender willows were trampled to the
+earth; and soon the combatants stood on the banks of the stream, by a
+deep, dark pool, and the fierce, unearthly creature, tried to force
+Clifford's head beneath the water.
+
+As the fiendish, murderous intention of his assailant became apparent,
+young Warlow sprang back from the danger that yawned before him, and
+tore loose from the fury-blinded wretch, which again darted at Clifford,
+grappling with him in all the frenzy and desperation of a maniac.
+
+The failing strength of the strange creature became more apparent every
+moment; so Clifford determined to first exhaust it by a violent
+struggle, then bind it with the lariat which hung at his saddle; and
+soon it was an easy matter for our athletic and vigorous young hero to
+drag the panting wretch to where his horse stood trembling with terror
+and wild with fright. Clifford spoke in a soothing tone, and when the
+horse became once more quiet, he reached for the lariat, while holding
+the maniac with one hand; but with a desperate wrench the spectral being
+tore loose from his grasp, and bounded away with a loud yell. Then, as
+it fled swiftly away over the prairie, at every step it would shriek
+like a mangled hound--the sound growing fainter, until at length it died
+out in silence on the grassy hills.
+
+With a prolonged shiver, Clifford started like one awakened from a
+terrible night-mare; then remembering the new-found treasure, he hurried
+back to the pit, and peered down--as though fearful that he should find
+it all a dream.
+
+But no--there was the red gold, resting where it had lain so long.
+
+Clifford paused a moment, irresolute and uncertain what course to
+pursue. How should he remove this vast treasure to a place of security?
+he was asking himself, when there recurred to his mind the fact that
+there was harness in his stable, and an old, stout sled there also. The
+latter had been used in transporting stone from the old wall to build
+his dwelling, and was admirably adapted to just such a purpose as
+bearing up the heavy sacks of coin. So young Warlow lost no time in
+hurrying down to the stable.
+
+As he nervously harnessed the horse by the dim light of the lantern, he
+was devoured with anxiety, lest something should occur that would yet
+rob him of the fruits of his great discovery. "What if that uncanny
+demon should return, and undo all his labor by some diabolical plan or
+act?" he found himself saying in a half-audible tone, as with trembling
+haste he hurried back to the treasure--and found all his fears were
+groundless, for every thing remained as he had left it.
+
+When he attempted to lift the sacks of coin he found that it was no
+light task, for each one of the stout bags weighed fully forty pounds;
+but with great difficulty he loaded ten of them on to the low vehicle,
+then led the horse up to the dwelling, close to the door, where,
+unhitching the animal and securing him to the stone post near by, he
+proceeded to carry the sacks into the dwelling.
+
+Five of the first were lettered with the name of his father. These he
+placed by themselves. Then, taking up the carpet and the floor where he
+had concealed the chest, he untied the remaining five sacks, and emptied
+their glittering contents into the iron-bound box. When all this was
+completed, he returned for another load, but not without again
+entertaining grave fears for the safety of the precious cask, which he
+found still undisturbed.
+
+Four more loads of the coin emptied the cask. Then came the work of
+refilling the pit, and obliterating all trace of the search. Then, after
+returning the sled and harness to their accustomed places, Clifford sat
+down, faint and weary, to feast his eyes on the grand sight, the
+enormous wealth that was displayed by the lamp-light.
+
+More than four hundred thousand dollars in gold lay in a glittering, red
+mass before him! The coin almost filled the chest, while in the shallow
+compartment were the gems, which he had taken from their casket, that he
+might once more admire them and feast his eyes on their splendor.
+
+The gems--he remembered having heard his father say--represented more
+than half a million dollars; and he tried to realize what this vast
+aggregation of wealth meant--this million of treasure that he had
+restored to the light since the last sunrise; but only faintly could the
+young "Fortune Hunter" comprehend the power and grandeur of the treasure
+before him.
+
+Out among the mass of red and yellow gold trailed a strand of frosty,
+glimmering pearls. The great diamonds, that flashed their rivers of
+light; and rubies, that mingled their rays of rose and crimson with the
+green glint of emeralds; lurid opals, sapphires of sparkling blue or
+violet red; amethysts of pink, purple, and lilac,--all spoke in proudest
+tones of the wealth of Monteluma; and, with a weary sigh, Clifford
+thought of the wide social gulf which now yawned between himself and the
+heiress of all this splendor.
+
+After securing all the treasure in the chest, and locking the door
+securely behind, young Warlow rode stealthily homeward as the first
+blush of crimson was mantling the eastern sky, and the great planets
+were growing pale.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVIII.
+
+
+In the cool of the following evening we find Clifford swinging dreamily
+in a hammock on the porch, while near by is ever-busy Maud, preparing a
+basket of martynias for the pickle-jar. As she deftly snipped off the
+curling ends of the green pods, locally known as "Devil Claws"--a very
+appropriate name indeed, when applied to the mature fruit--she cast a
+glance of suspicion toward her brother, and said:--
+
+"I never like to see you so quiet, Clifford. I have always noticed that
+silent people need watching. Now, here is Rob, for instance:--Just so
+long as we can hear him whistling or singing, we rest contentedly; but
+the very moment he becomes quiet--ah! look out! There is mischief on
+hand every time; and we are likely to miss pie from the pantry soon, or
+find that the rogue has filched a bowl of cream down cellar. No, sir;
+you have been so suspiciously reticent to-day that I am led to think you
+have learned something since we had our talk yesterday."
+
+"I always endeavor to store up some treasure of wisdom daily, my
+sister," Clifford replied, with lazy evasion, as he swung a polished
+boot to and fro over the hammock's side, and turned a feverish face
+toward Maud. Then, while a look of sarcasm gleamed in his half-closed
+eyes, he added, as she continued to glance askance: "Who was the
+philosopher, sage, or poet that said--or should have said, at
+least--something about the moral obloquy of groping through life with a
+cross eye?"
+
+"Whoever that fellow was who strangled on such a proverb, I'll bet my
+boots he never clanked round of nights, like a loose horse, all the
+while fancying himself sly," said Rob, with a knowing chuckle, as he
+cocked his head on one side to view the horse-hair bridle-rein which he
+was braiding while seated on the edge of the porch.
+
+A loud-mouthed clamor from the dogs precluded an answer to this thrust,
+and as the group on the porch looked toward the gate, Grace, Ralph, and
+Scott Moreland came into the yard, and they were all soon eagerly
+discussing the plan of holding a picnic in the Warlow pasture, on the
+opposite side of the river from the colonel's dwelling.
+
+Before their neighbors left it was decided that the event should take
+place the last of the following week; but in the excitement of agreeing
+on a programme, and the wordy debate as to the propriety of including
+dancing in the list of amusements, all the leisure time of the next two
+days was consumed; so nothing more was said regarding the great
+discoveries which the week had revealed.
+
+Verbal and written invitations were sown broadcast throughout the
+colony, bidding their friends to the picnic; and not many days had
+elapsed before Clifford had ridden down to the Estill Ranch to deliver
+the compliment in person to the members of that aristocratic household.
+
+At the door he met Hugh, who was as cordial and genial as ever, and
+entered into the scheme of the picnic with his customary zest of
+pleasure, sharpened now, no doubt, with the desire to meet the
+fascinating Grace once again.
+
+The call lengthened out astonishingly, as Clifford strolled back and
+forth on the star-lit terrace with the vivacious heiress of Monteluma
+and Estill Ranch, who promised to come up with Hugh the next day, to
+practice, with a dozen others, who were to meet at Moreland's, and agree
+on the music for the entertainment.
+
+"What a delightful evening this has been!" said Clifford at a very late
+hour, as they walked down to the steps, at the base of which his horse
+was tied.
+
+"Oh, charming indeed! I And don't you think that we are progressing well
+with our "practicing," for here we have had all the elements of a
+flirtation without the aid of either a moon or a gate," she said gaily,
+as he unfastened the chain at the steps, which served to bar the way at
+the top of the stairs, which led down from the terrace.
+
+A cool "Good evening, Miss Estill," was all the answer this sally
+elicited from young Warlow, as he rode away, thinking gloomily that the
+proud heiress meant to show him, under the cover of her levity, that she
+was only amusing herself or "practicing" the arts of "flirtation" at his
+expense; and he determined that when they met again he would show her
+that he understood the hint, and would give her no further opportunity
+to repulse his advances.
+
+So, accordingly, it was with a great deal of hauteur he met Miss Estill
+the following afternoon at Morelands'; but either that young lady was
+too indifferent to notice his behavior or had been gratified at the
+result of her light remark, for she was as gay and unchanged as ever.
+
+All of our hero's stern resolves dissolved into smiles and admiration
+while he stood talking with the charming young lady; but when the
+wealthy, dissolute aristocrat, Major Stork, of Devondale, came up, and
+proceeded to monopolize Miss Estill, Clifford froze up completely, and
+became so polite and attentive to Grace that she at length declared she
+would box his ears if he did not quit persecuting her so; which
+persecutions consisted merely in keeping Hugh Estill away from her
+side--a crime which Clifford told her, hotly, was worse than murder in
+her eyes.
+
+"Cliff Warlow, you are a booby!" said Miss Grace, with astonishing
+candor; "and you needn't come round me with any of your second-hand
+attentions; for I've got a pair of eyes in my head, and know how to use
+them too. The idea of your being jealous of that hawk-billed old
+reprobate. Why, it's perfectly absurd," she continued, casting a glance
+of scorn toward the spot where the stately major and Miss Estill were
+talking. "Oh, you should remember, Cliff, that a girl who is worth
+having is not going to fall into a fellow's mouth like a ripe persimmon
+whenever he shakes the tree."
+
+Then in a tone of confidence she continued, with a look of wisdom, which
+Clifford thought, with an ill-concealed smile, resembled that of a
+prairie-owl: "Girls are very apt to pretend a great coldness toward a
+fellow that they want to catch; that is, after they see they have made a
+safe impression on him; and to see such a girl begin manoeuvring
+around another fellow, one too that you know she can't care a straw for,
+why, it always shows plain enough that it is only to decoy fellow number
+one."
+
+"There you are now far beyond my comprehension," Clifford interrupted,
+with returning good humor; and as Hugh Estill joined them he added: "I
+will now retire in favor of number one."
+
+Emboldened by Grace's homily, young Warlow sought Miss Estill's side,
+and in her vivacious friendliness he soon found the happiness that had
+taken flight on the appearance of the major; but the returning bud of
+confidence, which her smiles had called forth, was nipped by a most
+untimely frost in the appearance of a new rival--John Downels, of
+Diamond Springs.
+
+Mr. Downels was a _debonair_, graceful specimen of the gilded youth of
+New York, from whose make-up the last remaining trace of effeminacy had
+been eliminated by a stern course of ranch-life in the West. He appeared
+to be an old friend of Miss Estill, who presented him to Clifford; but
+after a moment's civility, young Warlow took his leave and retired,
+while the late comer devoted himself to the heiress.
+
+While pretending to discuss music with Mrs. Warfield, Clifford watched
+the pair furtively. He began to realize that now he had just cause for
+uneasiness; for there was an air of culture and polished ease about the
+blonde-haired young ranchman which made him very attractive, and young
+Warlow became so absorbed and miserable that he only half realized what
+he was saying.
+
+"Do you think we shall have time at the picnic to sing all the songs on
+the programme before dinner?" Mrs. Warfield inquired.
+
+"Why, no; I believe it would be a better plan to dish it out by the
+quart to the individual tables," he replied, absently; then seeing a
+puzzled look sweep over her face, he hastened to add: "You know it would
+be more liable to melt if it was in such small quantities."
+
+The situation flashed at once upon the keen-eyed lady, and although
+flirtation, jealousy, music, and ice-cream was a combination sufficient
+to upset the gravity of a sexton, yet she replied in a tone of perfect
+suavity while toying with her bracelet of jet and gold:
+
+"A very good plan indeed, Mr. Warlow."
+
+When evening came, and with its brooding shadows the company dispersed,
+our hero returned home with a heavy heart. As he pondered over each word
+and action of Miss Estill, he had to confess that there was nothing in
+her demeanor towards him but friendly courtesy at all times. The only
+way that he could interpret her remark on the terrace, regarding their
+"flirtation" and "practicing," was that she had seen his growing
+attachment for herself, and she had in that way shown him that it was
+only a flirtation, and that his case was hopeless. "Yes; she was too
+genuinely a lady to encourage his suit, then discard him at the last
+moment," he concluded, despondently.
+
+A miserable day followed a sleepless night, and Clifford busied himself
+with the farm duties, trying vainly to forget the bewitching voice that
+was ever haunting him, and which, as he drove the reaper over the wild
+meadow, seemed to be singing above the clang and ring of the sickle the
+sweet refrain,--
+
+    "There blooms no rose upon the plain
+    But costs the night a thousand tears,"--
+
+in the tones of luscious melody that he never--no, never--could forget.
+
+As he swung in the hammock again that evening, while Maud's guitar and
+the sweet strains of "Silver Threads" lulled him into a drowsy reverie,
+he remembered suddenly the incident of the "Moated Grange" which, Mora
+laughingly said, had secured her such "a round scolding" because she had
+neglected her household duties through too much reading of that
+affecting poem. Why should she have felt such sympathy for the forlorn
+Mariana, unless the pathetic cry,
+
+    "'He cometh not--he cometh not,' she said,"
+
+had found an echo in her heart also?
+
+"Yes; she was heart-free, and waiting for some one to come and fill its
+empty chambers with the treasures of his love," mentally concluded our
+hero in a flash of joyful conviction. But again the doubt and
+despondency prevailed; and in no very enviable mood he rode down to
+Estill's ranch alone the next day, to join the company that were to
+meet and practice for the coming musical festival, which now was the
+all-absorbing theme of the colony.
+
+As he rode slowly along, Maud and Ralph passed him in a gallop, flinging
+back some gay badinage--something about "a laggard in love"--which he
+affected not to understand; then, as he saw Hugh and Grace cantering up
+the road behind, he put spurs to his horse, and arrived at the imposing
+mansion just in time to see young Downels and the military Stork alight
+from the latter's carriage, and, in the most amicable manner imaginable,
+both seek the young hostess and rain a shower of compliments upon her
+gracious head.
+
+While these two devoted cavaliers, or rather charioteers--for they had
+ridden over in the barouche of Devondale, a vehicle sumptuous and
+costly--were engaged in a graceful skirmish of wit and verbiage with
+Miss Estill, our hero, after bowing coldly, passed on to the piano,
+where Mrs. Estill was chatting in a good-natured strain with a group of
+friends.
+
+"You are late, Mr. Warlow, and we have been waiting for some one to
+'break the ice' at the piano," she said, with her pleasing smile, as she
+shook hands with Clifford. "Let's see," she continued, "the quartette,
+'My Native Hills,' is the first on the programme, I am very eager to
+hear your tenor since Mrs. Warfield said you made her home-sick when you
+sang it at the Moreland rehearsal," concluded the hostess, innocently.
+
+"It would require a large bump of self-esteem to construe that into a
+compliment," thought Clifford; but meeting Mrs. Warfield's amused look,
+he said, with a smile:--
+
+"I hope her longing for home was not of the same nature as that which a
+hand-organ inspires, Mrs. Estill."
+
+"No, indeed, Mr. Warlow; but you will excuse my faulty compliment, and
+only remember that I've been totally isolated from society for a quarter
+of a century, and am apt to say the wrong thing in the right place."
+
+"There she goes again!" the face of Mrs. Warfield seemed to say; but
+Clifford only answered with polite gravity:--
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Estill. I shall never forget that you are very kind;
+and if Mrs. Warfield will promise not to leave at once we will proceed
+with the singing," he added, with a twinkle of humor in his blue eyes.
+
+"I will promise to stay as long as you are singing a tenor like an
+alpine horn," replied Mrs. Warfield, graciously.
+
+"Well! good-bye, then?" said Clifford, as he joined the singers; and
+soon his voice was heard, clear and ringing, like the soft tones of a
+church-bell in some quiet mountain valley--pealing out with soaring,
+crystal notes, or floating down the wind with a vibrant, thrilling
+sweetness, that caused even the garrulous major to pause and say at the
+end:--
+
+"Why, pon honah, Miss Estill, this young Warlow is a wonderful singah;
+indeed he quite reminds me of Mario, the enchanting, velvet-toned
+tennah, you know, whom I often have heard at the grand opera--aw--in
+delightful Paree. What a pity that he is--aw--only a pooah homesteadah,
+or was until of late, I heah."
+
+"I am certain he is an earnest, industrious gentleman at all times,
+Major," said Miss Estill, with just enough reproof in her tone to cause
+the dissolute aristocrat to wince; then, pausing, only to see that her
+arrow had hit the mark, she continued:--
+
+"His father was a wealthy planter who was ruined financially by the war;
+but we certainly respect the energy that has enabled him to repair his
+fortunes and found such a delightful home, as you will find the Warlow
+homestead to be. His example should encourage others to a similar
+course, instead of remaining in the overcrowded East or South to
+struggle along, hopelessly, amid the scenes of their misfortune."
+
+"Ah! indeed--a plantah before the wah? Why, really, that is another
+mattah, Miss Estill. My fathah was also a plantah; but when the wah
+began he sold his niggahs and left Kentuckah, but finally returned and
+located thah again."
+
+"You appear so sad, Mr. Downels, that I fear you are not enjoying our
+rehearsal," said Mora, ignoring the transaction in "niggahs," and
+turning with a questioning look to young Downels, who stood by her side
+yet, but seemingly lost in reverie since the music had ceased.
+
+"Pardon the ungallantry, Miss Estill; but that song carried me back to
+the Hudson, and I almost fancied myself rambling over the hills and
+dales of my boyhood's home once again." But his sadness was seen to melt
+into an amused smile as Grace sang in a rich brogue:--
+
+    "Ould bachelor's hall--what a quare luking place it is!
+      Kape me from sich all the days of me loife;
+    Och! sure an' methinks what a burnin' disgrace it is,
+      Niver at all to be takin a woife.
+
+    Pots, dishes, and pans, and sich greasy commodities--
+      Ashes and tater-skins kiver the floor;
+    His cupboard's a store-house of comical oddities--
+      Things that were niver heard tell of before!"
+
+Several glees followed; then Miss Estill took her place at the
+rich-toned piano, which was banked in a bed of wild-flowers, where the
+flame-colored blossoms of the desert-sage and the golden sunflowers were
+relieved by sprays of snow-powdered lace-plant and rose-colored
+convolvuli, mingled with tufts of white and purple mignonette, which
+grew in fragrant profusion over all the surrounding hills. As the grand
+strains of Schubert's "Serenade" floated out through the open windows,
+or reverberated along the arched and frescoed ceiling of the elegant
+apartment, the listeners preserved an appreciative silence,--all the
+more flattering when we remember that not a baker's dozen of the
+audience understood a word of German.
+
+"It was all very fine and grand, no doubt, but still perfect Greek, or
+Dutch--which is about the same--to my poor, untutored ears," said Grace
+at the close of the celebrated song, as she turned to Rob and spoke in
+an undertone.
+
+"Well, it was not all quite plain," returned that youth, with a droll
+grimace; "but it was certainly p-r-r-r-r-rrretty." Then, as Grace
+strangled and recovered from an effort at swallowing her own chin, he
+added facetiously: "Didn't you recognize the place where the old fellow
+shuffled out in his wooden shoes, and, after threatening the serenader
+with 'a schlock on the coop,' finally turned the bull-dog loose?"
+
+"No, I just did nothing of the kind; and I don't believe you understood
+one word of that heathen gibberish either," said Grace, with a sniff of
+suspicion.
+
+"Oh, that only shows you can't interpret operatic music," Rob replied,
+with a derisive grin.
+
+"Rob Warlow, you horrible creature! I never know when you are in
+earnest," she retorted, with a puzzled look, as she smoothed down the
+fluffy ruffles of her white muslin gown.
+
+"Why, no--honest injun!--any one can learn to understand this classic
+music. It only requires a sufficient stretch of imagination, and then
+all is clear as--mud. Now, when Maud is playing Mendelssohn's 'Wedding
+March,' I can hear the cat squall like a panther when the baby pulls its
+tail; and she--that is Mrs. 'Sohn--takes an awful tantrum when 'Sohn
+wants her to get up of a cold morning and make a fire; and the way they
+shout and gabble--all in Dutch--would scare a krout-barrel," said Rob,
+with perfect gravity.
+
+"Oh, humbug!" she replied with a shrug, as she flounced away to where
+Maud stood examining a book of engravings.
+
+"Cliff and Mora are acting like a couple of idiots, Maud," whispered
+Grace, as she surveyed the elegant and finished picture, "The Carnival
+in Venice," with a critical glance that reminded one of a wren; but as
+Maud failed to reply to this personal comment, she continued in an
+undaunted undertone:--
+
+"I don't pretend to understand flirtations, but if I did, I'd say that
+Mora Estill was a pronounced coquette. She bears all the ear-marks of a
+born flirt, and the way she throws herself at the head of young
+Downels--the sophisticated creature!--is just shameful. But still my
+fingers itch none the less to pull Cliff's ears; for there he goes, with
+his lip hanging so low you could step on it--and all on her account,
+too."
+
+"Well, Grace, let's reserve our sympathy and censure for the future,"
+said Maud, in a tone meant to discourage any further discussion of the
+subject; and as the supper-bell announced the unfashionable hour of six,
+and the guests were preparing to follow Mrs. Estill and Major Stork into
+the long, fresco-paneled dining-room, Grace ceased her comments, and
+soon forgot all about her friends while leaning on the arm of Hugh
+Estill and hurrying into the damask-draped and luxury-laden table.
+
+However, she noticed that Clifford and Mrs. Warfield sat next to Mora
+and young Downels when they were, at length, all seated, and that while
+the latter couple were silent, the former kept up a semi-animated,
+constrained run of small talk during the meal; but she soon became so
+engrossed while listening to Hugh's not over-brilliant wit that all
+else was devoid of interest.
+
+When the many luxuries had been discussed, and the guests were loitering
+in the parlor or sauntering out upon the terrace in groups of twos
+and--well, twos also, I believe--Clifford walked out alone to the
+fountain, and sat down on a stone seat near the basin, which was
+brimming with water. Here the broad-leaved lilies floated, with their
+blossoms of pale rose and cream, distilling an odor of entrancing
+sweetness for yards around the cool, moss-set brim. As he sat lost in
+bitter meditations, the twilight began to deepen, the cicadas tuned
+their shrill pipes, and Venus shone out with unclouded splendor over the
+tree-tops of the valley below, followed, as she has ever been, by an
+ardent host of glittering stars and planets. That great midsummer
+constellation, the Scorpion, seemed stinging the "milky way" with its
+venomous tail, while the jeweled Sickle sank in the west--an omen that
+the harvest-days were nearly ended. A shrill katydid, overhead in the
+branches, heralded the coming frost, while a low ripple of voices
+mingled with the faint notes of the piano and snatches of song from
+within the house.
+
+As Clifford sat, trailing a lily through the water, thinking, alas! of
+the time when he had strolled here with Mora, only two short weeks
+before, and how trustfully she had told him of "the mystery that seemed
+haunting the very air of late," he found it hard to realize that another
+had supplanted him, and that henceforth they were to be as strangers.
+But slowly it began to dawn upon him that their paths had diverged
+since that fatal night upon the star-lit terrace, when she so lightly
+remarked upon their "practicing" and "flirtation," until now he felt
+they were rapidly and surely becoming totally estranged.
+
+"It is better that I should never, never look upon her fair, proud face
+again; for when I meet her eyes--ah! what can it mean?--there seems such
+a look of pleading, mingled with pride and--something that I can never
+understand--that it totally unmans me, and I can not trust my lips to
+speak a word for fear of betraying the secret of my love. No; she will
+find that the Warlow pride will be a match for her own; for I would
+rather tear my heart out and fling it at her feet, than have her spurn
+my love, as only a proud creature like her can.
+
+"To know that she looks upon me as a fortune hunter, and scans me with
+those haughty--oh, lovely--violet eyes, classing me as 'poor and proud,'
+but far beneath her caste,--oh, Heaven! it is more than I can or will
+bear!" mentally exclaimed fiery young Warlow with a flash of hot
+wrath,--which is about the best remedy known for a sore heart, I really
+believe.
+
+"A fortune hunter? Well, can't a fellow who has yearned all his life to
+meet a high-bred, dainty, and elegant woman, dare to love her when he
+does meet such an ideal, for fear of being called by that contemptible
+name?" continued our hero, impatiently plucking another water-lily, and
+beginning to pace up and down the path in nervous haste, and resuming
+his meditations, saying, half audibly:--
+
+"If she had only waited a few more days I could have shown her that
+Colonel Warlow's son was not the poor homesteader--that pariah of the
+cattle-king--which she seems to consider me in her high pride. But no;
+she must throw cold water on a poor devil before he has made too big a
+fool of himself to offend her pride by a declaration of his folly.
+
+"But she has all the refined instincts of her class at any rate, and can
+send a disheartened, despairing wretch like me on a life-long journey of
+dreary longing, with a sweet graciousness that I must admire, though I
+curse it ever so bitterly!" Then, as there rose vividly to his mind a
+picture of that proud but vivacious face, lit by eyes of violet-blue,
+and framed by the mass of raven, wavy hair; the coral, tender lips and
+creamy, dimpled cheeks so soft and tinted; the graceful form, in its
+filmy, flower-wrought robe of white,--he leaned against the elm-tree,
+and covered his face with his hands as though to shut the lovely vision
+from his sight, and murmured in tones of deepest agony:--
+
+"Oh, Mora, Mora, my lost love! how can I give you up? It seems as if I
+have loved you from eternity; and to lose you now is like the pangs of
+death!"
+
+Rousing himself as the sound of retreating wheels was heard below the
+terrace, Clifford walked back to the hall-way, where he met several
+departing guests; and as he came into the hall, with a slow leaden
+step, he saw, with a start, that Miss Estill was standing alone by the
+stairs, where she had turned after bidding some of the guests
+good-night! When she saw his face, with its look of white, tense misery,
+she said quickly:--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Warlow! I have missed you for an hour. You are ill, I fear."
+
+"Yes, Miss Estill, I am--sick of the world; but it is a very slight
+matter--only a broken heart," young Warlow replied, in a low, husky
+tone, while his eyes flashed like purple amethysts.
+
+She turned deadly white, and gave him a look wherein he read a proud
+pity, that sent a flash of hot indignation to his face; then he bowed
+and walked away without glancing back.
+
+As he came into the glare of the lighted parlor, Maud met him, and,
+after giving him a glance of deep sympathy, she said with her accustomed
+tact:--
+
+"Clifford, you are no better, I fear; so let's return home. Most of the
+guests are starting already, although it is only nine; but we have, like
+them, also a long drive before us to-night."
+
+So, bidding their hostess good-night, the Warlow and Moreland party
+started toward the hall; but at the door Miss Estill met them, looking
+pale and _distrait_, though regretful at their early departure.
+
+She tarried a moment at the door, talking to Maud and Grace regarding
+the details of the picnic; and as she stood under the full light of a
+large lamp, held by a marble statue of Mercury, the wonderful grace and
+beauty of her creole face came into dazzling relief, and Clifford
+paused with a look of hungry longing on his face, while the remainder of
+the group hurried on to where the carriage waited, leaving him alone
+with Mora.
+
+"I will say farewell here, Miss Estill. We shall meet at the picnic,
+Friday, but there will be little chance to bid you adieu there. I start
+for South America the next morning to stay indefinitely; so
+good-bye--forever!"
+
+Even now in this trying moment, while his heart turned cold with an
+agony that not even death could equal, Clifford was true to the
+instincts of a gentleman, and waited immovably for her to offer her
+hand; but she only stood and toyed with her dainty fan, saying with the
+same cold, proud look that she had given him once before that evening:--
+
+"This is very sudden. Indeed you can not be in earnest; so I shall
+reserve my adieus until the very last. I will try at the picnic to
+persuade you to abandon such an unkind course, and remain with us."
+
+"Very well, Miss Estill, but I had forgotten to tell you that I have a
+disclosure to make at the picnic--one of grave import to you--and beg
+for an hour of your time while there. I would prefer the morning, if you
+please."
+
+"With pleasure, certainly," she replied; but their talk was interrupted
+by some guests preparing to depart; so young Warlow hurriedly said
+good-night, and joined Maud and the others in the carriage.
+
+Soon they were rapidly whirling homeward up the level, winding road;
+but as no one seemed to be in a talking mood, the journey was rather a
+silent one, the monotony only relieved by a scurrying flock of
+wild-grouse or the dim and retreating form of a startled jack-rabbit,
+looming large and indistinct upon the level prairie. In places the tall
+blue-stem moved in the wind with a rolling, wave-like motion; then again
+giving place to vistas of open glades, carpeted by the buffalo-grass,
+that the rains and sun had bleached almost white.
+
+A forecast of autumn was felt in the rising gales, which moaned
+through the tall cottonwoods along the stream; the water flashed cold
+and bright under the starlight, and the buffalo-birds--our Western
+whip-poor-will--swooped down with a bellowing roar close to the heads of
+our friends as they drove by, indicating that a rain was near at hand.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX.
+
+A STRANGE THEORY.
+
+"_OUR BODIES MAY BE TENANTED BY SOULS THAT HAVE LIVED BEFORE._"
+
+
+A pouring rain from a vapor-laden sky, dull and gray, saluted Clifford
+the next morning with a chill welcome; but still the general gloom that
+pervaded all nature was in such perfect harmony with his mood that he
+felt a grim satisfaction, in a cold, lethargic way, at the sympathy of
+the elements.
+
+"I am growing tired of this monotonous life," he said at breakfast, "and
+have decided to commute my homestead and knock around in the world
+awhile; so if Mr. Moreland, Ralph, and you, father, are willing to go to
+Abilene as my witnesses, we will start Saturday morning. I can take the
+train from there, and save another trip;" then seeing Maud's and his
+mother's look of distress, he added: "I may not be gone long, so I'll
+leave every thing as it is untill my return."
+
+"Why, Clifford, my boy, what has come over you? This is wholly unlike
+your nature. I had always felt so glad that you were not of a roving
+disposition, and now you fly off at a tangent, and when we were not
+looking for any thing of the kind either. It is very strange, indeed!"
+
+Clifford made no reply, but rose from the table, followed by Rob, whose
+face was momentarily growing longer and more doleful in its expression,
+while Maud shot a warning look at her parents, and as the boy's
+retreating footsteps grew fainter, she answered their questioning looks
+by saying:--
+
+"Poor Clifford! he is passing through that course of true love which is
+said to never run smooth, and it is best not to interfere; but I hope at
+the picnic to see him on better terms with Mora, which may change his
+plans at once."
+
+"Only a lovers' quarrel?" said Mrs. Warlow, with a troubled smile.
+
+"No; I fear it is not so tangible as that," Maud replied. "Clifford
+seems to have caught the impression, some way, that Mora regards him as
+a mere fortune hunter, or looks down on him for his poverty; you know
+that she will be equal heir with Hugh in the immense Estill estate,
+which is said to be worth half a million, she being their only other
+child," she added, while narrowly watching her parents' faces; but to
+her wonder, her father and mother betrayed no surprise at this last
+remark, which caused a doubt to enter her mind that they were aware of
+the great discovery that Mora was the daughter of Bruce and Ivarene,
+which she had until this moment believed was a fact revealed to them
+when the Estills made their visit, more than a week before.
+
+"Can it be that they are still ignorant of that fact?" Maud mentally
+asked herself; and then she began to wonder why the Estills had shown
+the locket, with its pictures of Bruce and his wife, and withheld from
+her parents the more important secret that Mora was also the daughter of
+those ill-fated friends; but her reflections were cut short by her
+father saying, with a weary sigh:--
+
+"Ah! this is the sting of poverty indeed! Oh, why should I have been so
+ill-fated as to lose two fortunes in succession?"
+
+"George, do not grieve over the past; that's beyond recall," Mrs. Warlow
+said gently; then she added: "It is better that my children should
+confine themselves to their own sphere; for you can see that if Miss
+Estill loved my boy, as well she might, for himself alone, she would
+never think of the difference in their wealth. It may save them a
+life-time of misery; for without mutual love, matrimony would be a state
+of abject servitude."
+
+"Well, if Clifford sees fit to take a change of scene, it will serve to
+cure him of his--attachment; and if Mora, in the meantime, discovers her
+mistake in undervaluing Clifford--a fellow that any girl under the sun
+might be proud of--why, it may all come out right yet," said Maud as she
+rose from the table and began to polish and clean the great silver
+coffee-urn, another relic of old plantation glory, but which had never
+been considered too good for every-day service.
+
+All day Clifford worked with a fever of energy to prepare for his
+journey, which he was compelled to do; for the picnic was set for the
+coming day, Friday, and he had to see the Morelands to secure their
+attendance with him at the land-office as witnesses to prove his actual
+residence and cultivation upon his homestead, which he had concluded to
+commute, or in other words, pay the sum of two hundred dollars to the
+government in lieu of five years of residence and cultivation thereon.
+Having secured their testimony, or their willing promise to accompany
+him to Abilene and there testify to his good faith, etc., he made
+everything ready for his departure the next morning after the picnic.
+
+When Maud and his mother questioned him regarding the destination and
+duration of his trip, he said he would go South awhile, but evaded
+telling them that he had determined to go to Buenos Ayres and remain
+until he had made a fortune that would cause Miss Estill to regard him
+as an equal.
+
+He noticed the sadness, however, of the family, and when he met Rob's
+look of grief his fortitude was sorely tried, and he regretted having
+formed such a hasty resolution. But it was too late now to retreat, he
+foolishly concluded; so, choking down a lump in his throat, he walked
+out to take a last view of his farm. As he sauntered along in a listless
+way, looking at the fields, every furrow of which he had turned over in
+the past with such a deep pride of ownership; at the trees and deep
+pools, that greeted him with the air of old friendship, he began to
+realize how dear the place had become, and he wondered, in a
+self-pitying way, how he could bear the existence that awaited him out
+on the sky-begirt level and lonely pampas of the Rio La Plata.
+
+When he came to the gothic dwelling, the circle of roses and trellises
+of luxuriant vines, the sloping orchard and vineyard, they all seemed
+to be still imbued with the strange thought which had ever haunted him
+while he was busied there. "Here for the first time since eternity
+began, I found a true home. All this is mine, and on this spot I shall
+pass my life. What events will transpire here in the unknown future! I
+shall know joy and sorrow here, but who will share it all with me?" As
+these visions recurred, he thought bitterly that he never had counted
+upon an hour of trial like the present. Then, throwing himself down in
+the shade of the old wall, he cried aloud in anguish, as he buried his
+face in the soft, matted buffalo-grass: "Oh, it is hard to part from all
+this--and only for a woman who cares nothing for me!" But at length he
+became calmer, and as a feeling of resentment towards the proud heiress
+began to possess him, he arose and went into the house: then, after
+taking the usual precautions against surprise, he raised the trap-door
+and unlocked the treasure-chest.
+
+On glancing at the heap of red gold mingled with the dazzling gems, he
+took from the compartment the paper which he had almost forgotten having
+never read; then breaking the seal, he found that it was the wills of
+both Bruce and his wife on separate sheets of vellum, executed at Santa
+Fe, devising all their estate each to the other, in case of either dying
+during the long journey on which they were about starting.
+
+"I will bring her here to-morrow. She shall read the pathetic Journal of
+Ivarene and this will. I shall tell her of the long search after the
+treasure, and her right to all this wealth; then, after restoring both
+her name and fortune, there will be little left for me to do but to
+slink away, while some long-necked aristocrat will step to the
+foreground and carry off the prize," soliloquized our hero with bitter
+sarcasm, as he placed the papers in an inner pocket of his drab coat,
+and closed the chest with a vicious snap.
+
+The rain had ceased long since, and a band of crimson and rose on the
+western horizon gave a promise of fair weather on the morrow; but
+Clifford lingered about the beloved place, feeling that this was his
+farewell to a spot that had grown dear as life to him in the last year.
+He found it hard to tear himself away; so he seated himself upon a
+travel-worn ridge in the old trail, worn years ago by the wheels of the
+freight wagons, but now carpeted thickly with the buffalo-grass, which
+seems to delight in hiding just such an unsightly, trampled place with
+its pale-green tendrils. As the shadows darkened among the trees, and
+the gloom of a starless, fog-ladened night settled down with a palpable
+silence, young Warlow became lost in thought.
+
+The scene which followed was always a mystery to him; for he never knew
+whether he had witnessed a supernatural sight or not. He often tried to
+persuade himself that he had lapsed into a fit of transient slumber, and
+the whole spectacle was only a vivid dream.
+
+The time passed by unheeded, and it was near the hour of ten when his
+fit of abstraction was broken by seeing a group of fire-flies flashing
+about in an unnatural manner. He remembered, dimly, seeing great numbers
+of these luminous insects congregating around the long grave, not fifty
+paces away; and his blood grew cold as he saw, with a thrill of horror,
+that the flashing, mazy clouds began to slowly resolve themselves into
+the semblance of human forms, that leaped and danced in fiendish glee;
+now bounding high into the murky air, or again brandishing weapons, that
+resembled war-clubs and tomahawks, in a threatening and heart-sickening
+manner.
+
+While these mysterious forms gyrated about in their unearthly war-dance,
+Clifford stood petrified with horror and astonishment, not unmixed with
+a strange curiosity to see how it would terminate; and when the luminous
+figures joined hands, and slowly paced about the grave, as though to the
+chant of some wild and savage death-song, a dim and glimmering circle of
+phantom warriors, Clifford could bear it no longer, but sprang to his
+feet with a cry of horror, that was echoed by a shriek which he
+instantly recognized as being the voice of Rob. As the skurrying hoofs
+went tearing away, he shouted quickly:--
+
+"Rob! Rob! wait,--it is Cliff! Come back like a man, and let's
+investigate;" but he saw that at the first sound of their voices the
+figures had flashed asunder like thistle-down before a breath, and now
+were whirling and weaving in a bewildering maze of light that melted
+away as he gazed, and separated into the innocent flitting forms of
+fire-flies that were hieing off to the dark nooks along the stream.
+
+As Rob came back, riding slowly and in an uncertain manner, Clifford
+emerged from the gloom of the trees into the less ebon darkness of the
+open ground; then Rob halted and said, in a shaky voice:--"I thought
+that I had run afoul of the old devil himself when you yelled so! What
+is the matter, anyway?"
+
+Briefly as possible Clifford told of the strange sight which he had just
+witnessed--a scene which he then thought was more like a fevered dream
+than a reality.
+
+"But how does it happen you were here?" he added.
+
+"Why, we were uneasy about you, and I had come in search. I knew you
+would be up here, for I saw you walking this way. I had just got here,
+and was going to call you, when you yelled like a catamount down by the
+old grave. What does it mean, Cliff? It makes me cold yet!" he added,
+with chattering teeth.
+
+"Well, it's something that can not be explained away," said Clifford,
+while walking back beside Rob, who, too well bred to ride while another
+walked, had dismounted, and was leading his horse. "There is only one
+view that I can take of it, and that is a supernatural one," he
+continued, as Rob linked his arm within his own, and they struck the
+road homeward. "There is a belief gaining ground, Rob, that the
+spirit--or the life principle, animation, or whatever it may be which
+we call soul--after it is disembodied by death, may yet linger about in
+some subtle, invisible form akin to electricity, and may become embodied
+again by entering into the being of a new-born child,--which, if true,
+may account for the strange resemblance we often see peering out of the
+eyes and face of an infant that recalls some long-dead friend or
+ancestor. It may be that the power which mind wields over matter would
+enable the strong, magnetic spirits of those savage warriors, who, no
+doubt, died terrible deaths of violence on this tragedy-haunted spot, to
+attract the fire-flies, and mold them into a semblance of their former
+bodies, or, at least, imprison them for a time within the spirit outline
+of their former selves. This, alone, would enable them to become visible
+to our eyes, proving what we already know, that without matter of a
+living nature the spirit--or magnetism, which we call soul--would be
+always as invisible as the air."
+
+"Why, Cliff, you talk like a heathen!" replied Rob, vehemently, who,
+though addicted to the vice of swimming on the Sabbath, 'hooking'
+watermelons from the Mennonites, and hiding Easter eggs, was still
+strictly orthodox to his boot-heels. "So you think," he continued, "that
+a human soul may take the form of a panther or a pauper--whichever the
+spirit most resembles--and be cast and recast over and over again, like
+an old piece of boiler-iron, until at last it becomes--well, just what,
+I'd like to know?"
+
+"A good Christian being that progresses towards perfection, and learns
+wisdom from his former mistakes, I guess," replied Clifford, as they
+turned the horse into the pasture and sought the house. As they came
+into the yard, he added: "If there is one spot on the continent that
+should be haunted, it certainly is the old Stone Corral and the near-by
+crossing of the Santa Fe and Abilene Trails; for there has been more
+crime and cruel deviltry committed there than upon any other square mile
+in the Western world."
+
+The next morning broke with a cloudless sky, balmy and serene. A light
+wind from the south-west lifted the ribbon of vapor along the
+Cottonwood, and wafted the fresh and perfumed odors of wild hop-vine and
+water-mint, desert-sage and sand-plum, over the garden and into the
+Warlow breakfast-room, where Clifford was narrating to his horrified
+parents and sister the particulars of that unreal and mystery-wrapped
+scene which he had witnessed the night before.
+
+"It all looks so unreal in this clear daylight that I am almost ashamed
+to repeat it," said Clifford, with a nervous laugh; but the hearers knew
+by the look of earnest gravity on his face that there could have been no
+mistake or deception as to his witnessing a sight that ever was a
+mystery to all.
+
+"Well, this is a strange story indeed," said the colonel; "but, my boy,
+you must have been asleep unconsciously, and when you awoke your mind
+was in that abnormal state in which an optical illusion would have
+seemed like reality. An illusion of this nature is very hard to combat,
+from its very uncertainty; and we can only reason, from general
+principles, that it was a half-waking dream."
+
+The preparations for the picnic put an end to any further discussion,
+and at ten the grounds were enlivened by a throng of people, all in
+their happiest mood and best attire.
+
+When the Estill carriage came on the ground, Clifford hurried forward
+and assisted Miss Estill to alight; then, after shaking hands with Mrs.
+Estill, who excused her husband's absence by saying that he had not
+returned from the Comanche Pool, whither he had gone a week before, he
+found a seat for the elder lady, and disappeared with Mora on the
+pretext of boat-riding.
+
+They walked in silence to where his boat was tied to the trunk of a
+weeping elm. As Clifford helped her into the seat, her warm clasp sent a
+thrill to his heart that caused a hot flush to mount to his face; but it
+soon receded, leaving him paler and more care-worn than ever. But Mora
+noticed that his cravat of dainty lawn was tied with that precision only
+attained by a thorough man of fashion, and the spray of snowy
+elder-bloom, late but fragrant, combined with a solitary pansy-shaped
+flower, pale blue with a fleck of gold at the heart, into a
+_boutonnière_ that denoted a taste refined and fastidious in its wearer.
+
+They shot out into the narrow stream under Clifford's vigorous strokes,
+and skimmed lightly along through the silver-linked pools, shaded by
+trees that were smothered by poison-ivy and wild-grape vines, that
+trailed in the water with their purple-laden tendrils of ripening fruit.
+At length they reached the bank near young Warlow's dwelling, after a
+journey which he thought had lasted for an age, but which, to be
+correct, was just four minutes in duration. There had been an attempt on
+her part at conversation, but seeing the far-away look in his eyes and
+the expression of haggard misery on his white, handsome face, she became
+more cold and reserved than ever, and sat with averted face, trailing a
+gaudy cardinal-flower through the water.
+
+On landing, he again encountered her hand, which did not fail to send an
+electric shock through him, as he assisted her ashore, and for a moment
+he thought that she held his hand longer than the occasion required, and
+he raised his eyes to her face with a quick flash of joy; but the
+downcast look and pale cheeks which he saw, sent the blood back to his
+heart with a sickening chill, and they walked together in silence up
+toward his dwelling.
+
+When they reached the house he led the way to the spring and motioning
+her to a seat under the shade of that giant elm, he drew the wills forth
+and handed them to her saying:--
+
+"Here, Miss Estill, is what makes you the greatest heiress in this
+western land!" then, as she silently read them through and lifted a
+puzzled face to his, he handed her the Journal of Ivarene, and watched
+breathlessly, while she became flushed and pale by turns while perusing
+the faded and time-worn paper.
+
+"Ah! poor, ill-fated Ivarene! what could have become of her and that
+helpless infant,--and brave Bruce too?" she cried, with tears in her
+eyes.
+
+"The parents were murdered, no doubt, by that mad hunter, and the child
+was stolen and left at Estill's ranch along with a locket containing the
+name of Morelia and the pictures of Bruce and Ivarene. The mysterious
+kinsman buried on the hill-top was Olin Estill, who was only the mad
+hunter in disguise, who stole that blue-eyed, dark-haired daughter,
+named Morelia."
+
+"Ah! you believe me to be the daughter of Bruce and his lovely wife!"
+said Mora, springing to her feet, while tears rained from her eyes, and
+her hands were wrung with deep emotion.
+
+"Yes, I am certain that you are Morelia Walraven. I had suspected this
+from the hour that father called you Ivarene, and I set to work
+earnestly to recover the lost fortune, which I believed was buried near
+this spot. I worked faithfully, Miss Estill, to restore it all to you,
+knowing full well, all the while, that when found it would only widen
+the gulf between me and the cattle-king's daughter an hundred-fold. I
+will not dwell on the horrors of that fortune hunt, nor its perils, when
+I fought that gray-robed demon, which glared at you upon the
+grave-capped hill; how I struggled with that murderous spectre in the
+darkness of midnight, after being greeted in a noisome pit by a gigantic
+rattlesnake, which I slew as it writhed at my feet, with certain death
+in its fangs; nor the horror I felt when it was dead, at length, to
+grasp a human skull, that mocked me with eyeless sockets and grinning
+teeth when I snatched it from the buried cask--hoping I had found the
+casket of gems.
+
+"But come with me, and I will show you that the Warlow honor and pride
+is no vain boast; that the poor planter's son can face danger and death
+for the sake of right alone."
+
+Then, as she followed, pale and trembling, into the room, he threw back
+the lid of the treasure-chest, and the red gold, the glorious rays from
+frosty pearls, sparkling diamonds, blood-red rubies, and strange green
+emeralds mingled, in a dazzling glare, with the sheen of fire-opals and
+the glint of amethysts of purple, lilac, and rose.
+
+"Here, Morelia Walraven, is your lost treasure, your million of gems and
+gold, your proud name and ancestral hall, which I restore," as he handed
+her the deed of Monteluma. "To-morrow I shall leave home and country,
+friends dearer than life, to prove--to prove to you I am not that vile
+thing which you take me for--a Fortune Hunter!"
+
+She merely glanced at the pile of dazzling wealth; then raised her eyes
+that glittered through her tears like the turquois among the gold, and
+while he poured forth a torrent of hot words that seemed to come from
+his very soul, her color came and went until a burning blush spread over
+her face, and in a choking gasp she essayed to speak. When he had
+ceased, she gazed a moment up into his face, seamed and drawn in lines
+of white agony, then she cried out:--
+
+"Oh! what do I care for all this dross, whose daughter I may be, or my
+pride of ancestry? Clifford--oh, Clifford!--you shall never leave me. I
+will die if you do. I love you! Oh, will I have to say it?--yes, I love
+you better than all the world beside. No, no! you shall never leave me!"
+she said, with her white arms about his neck and her soft, warm cheek
+pressed close to his; and--and--well, I just skipped out there, leaving
+them alone with a scene that was growing too unutterably "rich for my
+blood," to use a Western phrase; but half an hour later, as they
+strolled back to the boat I overheard him say:--
+
+"But why, my love, did you look so proud and cold in the hall when I
+came in at your house only the other night?"
+
+"Proud and cold, indeed," she replied, with a gay laugh, as she shot a
+look of mingled love and amazement into his beaming eyes. "Now, that
+shows how well you can read a woman's heart, sir. Dear Clifford," she
+added, tearfully, "do you know, you dear blind boy, that at that very
+time I was wretched and miserable, and longed to kiss you and say that I
+had waited for years for just such an ideal as you are?"
+
+"It is not too late now for that!" he cried rapturously, as they passed
+under the boughs of a drooping tree, then followed a sound so explosive
+that I beat a hasty retreat from such a danger-fraught vicinity, and
+never came near again until their boat touched shore. Maud came to them
+as they landed, and said:--
+
+"Where have you been, truants? I have missed you for an hour."
+
+"In paradise," replied Clifford, with such a look of happy abandon that
+Maud started joyfully; then Mora said, with a blush, as she clasped her
+arms about the form of delighted Maud:--
+
+"Yes, I have coaxed him to stay forever; but I had to propose to the
+selfish being before he would promise at all."
+
+Then Maud, seeing the tears of earnestness that began to start, kissed
+her new sister and Clifford very tenderly, saying, between her smiles
+and tears:--
+
+"Oh, this is happiness indeed!" which sentiment seemed to be fully
+shared by the radiant couple whom she addressed.
+
+Maud was not long in finding an excuse to leave the lovers to
+themselves; and when she had disappeared among the throng, they
+sauntered on to a secluded seat, under a vine-canopied tree, where the
+trailing bitter-sweet swept the closely-cropped grass with its graceful
+tendrils, loaded with a burden of orange and pink berries. Here, secure
+from intrusion, they could see the crowd of well-dressed people
+loitering about in detached groups, but were far enough removed from
+them to talk in that confidential strain peculiar to newly-mated young
+people, with no fear of interruption.
+
+"When shall we reveal to your parents the discoveries which I disclosed
+to you to-day, Mora?" said Clifford, in a low tone.
+
+"Let us be in no haste, Clifford," she replied; "for father is away, and
+mother would be unnerved and agitated at the revelation. Then we will
+have several guests to entertain for the next week, as Mrs. Potter and
+Miss Hanford will remain with us after the picnic. So I believe it would
+be best to defer it for a week or two."
+
+"But what shall be done in the meantime with the treasure, Mora dear?
+There is a million dollars in gold and gems lying there in that chest. I
+tremble to think what the result might be if its existence were
+suspected in such an unprotected spot."
+
+"Well, sir, you must nerve yourself to the task of not only caring for
+it, but of me also in the future," she replied, with a furtive caress;
+and, judging from his looks, he appeared to be equal to the latter
+responsibility at least.
+
+"I have made arrangements to start to Abilene in the morning to commute
+my homestead and secure a title to it before the great sale of public
+lands Monday, which, it is said, will be sold at a very low figure," he
+replied, returning her caress with compound interest.
+
+"Clifford, it looks mercenary and not at all sentimental for us to talk
+of business at such a time; but still we can love one another no less
+for that. The time is very short before that sale. It is a critical
+moment. I advise you to buy all the land that you can Monday; it will be
+very valuable soon," she said, with that mingling of sentiment and
+business peculiar to Western women.
+
+"I shall invest what little I possess in that way, Mora; it is secure at
+least. I have always longed to own more of the land to the north of the
+corral; and this is, as you say, a golden opportunity to acquire it."
+
+Then there was silence for a moment as Clifford sadly thought how little
+he really had for investment compared to the hoard that was lying
+useless in the chest. His father's gold was there still, but he had no
+real claim upon it ("I must deliver it to-night," he mentally
+concluded); and an involuntary sigh escaped him at the thought that
+strangers yet might control all that rolling, fertile prairie to the
+north, which he had vainly dreamed of owning.
+
+As if divining his thoughts, Mora quickly said, as her hand sought his
+own with a gentle clasp:--
+
+"Why not use some of that idle treasure for this purpose, Clifford? If
+it is mine, as it really seems to be, there will be no harm in investing
+part of it in that way. The emergency is great for decision and swift
+action, so I really believe you should take a large sum along for that
+purpose, not less than fifty thousand dollars of the recovered treasure,
+at least."
+
+"You dear, clear-headed little woman!" he replied radiantly; "that is a
+capital plan indeed; so, if you think it best, I will take that sum with
+me, and invest it in land for your benefit."
+
+"No, no; you misunderstand me, Clifford; it is for your benefit that I
+made the suggestion. You may take it as a loan, and repay me some time
+in the future," she added, demurely.
+
+He was on the point of making some laughing rejoinder, when he started
+at the recollection that it seemed like fate when he recalled the loan
+of exactly fifty thousand dollars which Ivarene had tendered his
+father, of which Mora was in total ignorance. Then, in a low tone, he
+told her of the strange coincidence, where history was repeating itself;
+but he had not finished the story when a summons to dinner was heard,
+and he accompanied Mora to the Estill carriage, finishing the recital as
+they walked slowly thither.
+
+There were several guests clustered about the carriage, and Clifford
+accepted an invitation to remain for dinner, which Mrs. Estill gave him,
+and with Mora and young Downels, Miss Hanford and Mrs. Potter, Clifford
+was soon busy helping to spread the dinner on the snowy cloth beneath
+the shade of a dense-foliaged elm. When the hampers were unpacked and
+they were all seated upon the grass about the cloth, it was evident that
+the Estills could not be taxed with the sin of inhospitality, for they
+had brought enough in their hampers for an extra dozen guests.
+
+There was boned turkey, hinting of sweet marjoram, garnished with
+quivering moulds of cherry-jelly; chicken salad, with sprays of parsley;
+tankards of silver and glass, filled with creamy milk; tall glasses of
+jelly--pink, amber, and crimson; pyramids of cake, bronzed and frosty,
+that conveyed a faint suspicion they were only meant for show; great
+baskets of silver, marvels of frostwork on flower and vine, piled high
+with purple grapes, peaches of white and crimson, and golden
+oranges,--all of which, alas! were the contribution of far-off
+California.
+
+Young Downels sat near Mora, who was as fascinating and gracious as
+ever; but Clifford felt a contentment and trust too deep for jealousy,
+and was gay and witty to such a degree that Downels began to have a
+suspicion of the true situation, which was in no wise allayed when he
+saw their eyes meet in a quick flash of love and admiration; so he
+speedily transferred his attentions to Miss Hanford, who seemed not at
+all averse to receiving them "_ad infinitum_."
+
+An afternoon of unalloyed bliss followed, and when our hero placed Mora
+in the carriage, he had given her a promise to ride down on his return
+from Abilene, the following week; then, as the stately barouche rolled
+away, he hurried homeward to complete his preparations for to-morrow's
+journey.
+
+At the supper-table, which was spread at a later hour than usual,
+Colonel Warlow looked grave and care-worn, while his wife was sad and
+thoughtful, remembering that Clifford was to leave them, perhaps
+forever, and this was his last night under the home-roof, a delusion
+which he was soon to dispel. Maud's face wore a look of cheerfulness
+which puzzled her parents, who had not witnessed their son's
+manoeuvres during the day; and Rob's eyes fairly danced with
+suppressed excitement.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XX.
+
+
+"My boy, it is a sad day for us all when you leave the home nest. We
+shall miss you more than I can express," said the colonel at length.
+"Ah! I had hoped to see you settled near us in our old age in this grand
+country. Clifford, I have seen a great many regions on this continent
+famous for their beauty and fertility, but this is the only place that I
+have ever seen where I would be perfectly content to live and die. You
+have yet to learn that 'distant hills' are no greener than those of
+home, and you will travel the wide world over and find no other place to
+compare with this, my son. I have been thinking to-day, Clifford,"
+continued his father, as he pushed his plate of untasted food back on
+the table and folded his napkin--"that if I had only a tithe of the
+fortune that I once lost on this spot, it might be enhanced an
+hundred-fold at the great land-sale Monday; for I learn by to-day's
+_Times_ that the Mastodon Bank has failed, carrying down in its collapse
+all the parties who had the lands condemned for sale, so now they are
+unable to bid at the auction, and hundreds of thousands of acres will be
+sold at a few cents an acre without competition. Oh, I realize that it
+is bitter, indeed, to be poor, my boy, for it is only your ambition that
+drives you from us," and, rising, he paced back and forth with bowed
+head, while Mrs. Warlow's tears flowed unchecked as she thought of the
+long, dreary years that might drag on before her beloved boy returned.
+
+The Warlow family were never demonstrative. There was always a
+matter-of-fact regard for each other; but this moment of sorrow brought
+to the surface a depth of family affection of which Clifford had never
+dreamed, and, as his father proceeded, he became more deeply affected
+than he ever had been before.
+
+He thought, "The old days of trial and poverty are over forever," and as
+the realization of the great change, and his narrow escape from the
+misery, of self-exile flashed upon him, he leaned his head upon his
+hands, and a great sob shook his frame, while hot tears--yes, tears,
+which danger and the despair of a hopeless love had failed to wring--now
+fell in a torrent, as the storm of emotion, new and strange, surged in
+his breast.
+
+"Oh, Clifford--Clifford! I thought you were not going," cried Maud,
+white with anguish.
+
+"Cliff, I can't bear to see you leave," sobbed Robbie, while he clung to
+Clifford with the desperation born of his grief at the very thought of
+parting with his only brother.
+
+"Clifford, what does this mean?" said Maud, seized by a nameless dread;
+but Clifford only answered by pushing back the table, the cover of which
+swept the floor and had concealed the object that was now revealed in
+the lamp-light.
+
+"Gold! gold!" cried Maud in amazement, as her eyes caught the glitter
+of doubloons heaped upon the floor.
+
+"Oh God!--my lost fortune!" said the colonel in a hoarse whisper, as he
+knelt beside the half-emptied sacks, which he remembered at a glance.
+
+"My brother--Clifford--you are a grand hero," shrieked Maud, wild with
+excitement and relief, and then ensued a contest between herself and
+mother who should first strangle our young friend in their embraces.
+
+"Hero, nothing!" said Rob, who had just blown his nose upon the
+table-cloth with a snort like a porpoise, and who was still blubbering
+in a suspicious manner; "heroes don't drip at the nose like a hydrant;
+but all the same he is a damn good fellow," he added, with a vigorous
+slap on his brother's back.
+
+"I have something else to show you over at my dwelling," said Clifford,
+recovering from his emotion, and smiling up at Rob; "and, if you will
+drive around there, I will row ahead and light the lamps;" then, without
+waiting to explain, he hurried out into the night. Although they were
+devoured by curiosity, they soon concealed the gold, and were driven
+rapidly up to the corral.
+
+"I bet my boot-heels that Cliff has got that old spook chained up here,
+feeding him like a pauper," said Rob, in a tone of confidence, to
+Maud--a remark which elicited no reply, however, for she was puzzling
+over the strange discovery which she knew Clifford had made.
+
+When they arrived at his dwelling he met them at the door, which he
+closely locked behind them; then, going to the sunken chest, he threw
+back the lid, and a wavering glare of gems and red gold flashed out with
+a splendor which dazzled and almost blinded the astonished group.
+
+"The treasure of Monteluma!" exclaimed the colonel, in a tone of deep
+emotion.
+
+"Oh, those frosty, glimmering pearls!" said Maud, exulting in the
+splendor of the jewels that she loved so well, and had always dreamed of
+owning.
+
+"What a pile of lucre!" cried Rob, dancing about in delight. "Lordy! if
+I owned all this tin, I'd make the shekels fly for awhile, you bet!
+First, I'd swap that slow, flea-bitten broncho for Ed Porter's white
+pony, if I had to give even _twenty dollars_ to boot; then next I'd have
+me a brand-new hat--a broad brim, too--none of your flimsy old wool
+things, but an eight-dollar sombrero, thick as a board, with a leather
+band an inch wide; then two cravats--and--"
+
+"And?" said Clifford with a quizzical smile, as Rob began to show signs
+of an embarrassment of riches.
+
+"Well, that's all, unless it is a pair of high-top boots, like Johnnie
+Russell's--with stars and new moons of red and yellow leather on 'em."
+
+"You are a reckless spendthrift, Rob. Thirty-five dollars gone already!"
+said Clifford, laughingly, as his young brother's eyes continued to
+gloat over the million of heaped-up riches in the chest.
+
+"Clifford, my son, how did you find all this treasure? It seems like
+enchantment," Mrs. Warlow asked, in an anxious tone.
+
+"Mother, it is too long a story to relate now; but when I return from
+Abilene I'll give all the particulars. It is ten now," he said, glancing
+at his watch, "and we must start at six sharp, in the morning, so there
+is but little time to spare."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel, recovering from the stupor of amazement into
+which he had fallen, "we will start to the land-office early in the
+morning; for I have determined to invest twenty thousand of our
+new-found money in land; it seems providential that it should come just
+now. I had been grieving so much of late that this golden opportunity
+would pass by; but, thank God! it will come out right yet."
+
+Maud, ever tactful and alert, seeing that Clifford was unwilling to
+explain the particulars of the discovery, hurried their departure for
+home. When they had all driven away, young Warlow filled one of the
+sacks with coin, and placed it in a trunk of clothing that was ready
+packed, locked the door behind, and slowly rowed down; but he had
+delayed long enough to be certain of finding that they had all retired
+when he arrived home.
+
+In the morning Colonel Warlow was too unwell to appear at the
+breakfast-table, and finding that his indisposition was of too serious a
+nature to admit of his traveling that day, Clifford received twenty
+thousand dollars--nearly thirteen hundred Mexican doubloons--from his
+father, with the instruction to invest it in land at his discretion. The
+colonel told Clifford at parting to consider half of the money as his
+own; so with a light heart the youth started out on his third essay at
+"fortune hunting."
+
+Accompanied by Squire Moreland and Ralph, who had unconsciously helped
+to load the Warlow carriage with more than seventy thousand dollars in
+gold, secreted in two innocent-looking trunks, Clifford took the winding
+trail for Abilene just as the sun appeared above the rim of the eastern
+hills. It was a cool, dry July morning, very favorable for producing
+that Western phenomenon, the mirage; and as they emerged from the
+corn-fields and tall thickets of blue-stem of the valley onto the
+rolling uplands, carpeted with buffalo-grass, a scene of mysterious
+grandeur burst upon their sight.
+
+Objects that were miles away appeared close at hand, plain and distinct
+in the pure, clear air; and although a lofty ridge twenty miles wide
+interposed, all the valley of the Smoky Hill was rolled out like a map
+before them. The winding river, fringed by trees and groves; the wide
+prairie valley, flecked with white villages; a long train on the Union
+Pacific, "fleeing like a dragon through the level fields and leaving a
+breath of smoke behind," seemed but a few miles away.
+
+The Iron Mound, sixty miles distant, loomed off to the north-west, and
+far beyond appeared the faint outline of the Soldier's Cap--a towering
+headland, that, like a giant's helmet, seemed to guard all the Saline
+Valley, but now dwarfed, by the hundred miles which intervened, to a
+mere dot upon the horizon.
+
+The Smoky Hills flamed up in a long line of purple, jagged buttes on the
+west, while to the south stretched away the fat prairies of the Russian
+Mennonite colony, their quaint, old-world villages of thatch and
+white-plastered adobe clustering thickly over the level plain that was
+begemmed by lakes of waving water, or what appeared to be such, but
+which in reality was only an optical illusion caused by a glare of
+rarefied atmosphere. Soon these phantom lakes began to flood the prairie
+with a wavering shimmer. Broad rivers became momentarily wider, until
+all the landscape was submerged and the villages swam in a sea of water
+a moment, sinking down at length like foundered ships, the white
+buildings towering up strangely like masts, which, at last, all sank
+from sight, leaving only a glare of silver behind.
+
+Soon nature resumed her wonted aspect, though it seemed strangely unreal
+to see the Iron Mound sink slowly as they ascended the ridge, until it
+was lost to view, and what had been the Smoky Valley but a moment before
+was now the rolling highland which they had to traverse for hours before
+reaching their destination. For a space of twenty miles square, not a
+solitary house was to be seen. In fact, after leaving the valley the
+only sign of life visible was a distant herd along some timber-fringed
+stream, by which the picturesque and fertile tract was threaded, or a
+long line of antelope, that would cautiously keep to the highest ridges
+as they loped away in single file.
+
+The ridged and travel worn-trail, where in former years the herds of
+Texas and New Mexico had been driven along to Abilene, was now disused
+and lonely, as the traffic had been transferred to more western points;
+so our friends were relieved on reaching their destination after a
+monotonous drive of half a day.
+
+Driving to a bank, Clifford deposited the unsealed bags of gold within
+the safe of that institution, while his two companions were looking for
+a hotel; then, next, young Warlow wrote a long and carefully worded
+dispatch to the American minister at Mexico, inquiring for information
+concerning Bruce Walraven and his wife, Herr Von Brunn and his wife
+Labella, and also the status of Monteluma, with a request for an
+immediate reply, that was no doubt facilitated by the information which
+the banker telegraphed, at Clifford's request, for the privilege of
+reference.
+
+Without difficulty Clifford perfected the title to his homestead before
+the land officers. Then, in a fever of restlessness, our hero passed the
+intervening time until Monday morning, when he received a dispatch from
+the minister at the City of Mexico, stating that no trace could be found
+of either of the parties inquired for; that the old mansion of Monteluma
+had been confiscated during the "French invasion," but the estate was
+held by a wealthy foreign nobleman; that the agent of that nobleman was
+absent at Durango, so no further particulars could be learned until his
+return, etc.
+
+"This is the last evidence in the proof that Mora is heiress to all the
+new-found treasure," mentally exclaimed young Warlow as he hurried into
+the land-office and elbowed his way through the dense throng of
+spectators to the desk, where the receiver was gloomily saying, "that
+the sale would be a failure, unless the agent of Lord Scholeigh arrived,
+which was improbable now, owing to the storm near St. Louis, that had
+prostrated the wires and stopped travel."
+
+"Proceed with the sale, if you please; I would like to bid in a tract,"
+said Clifford quietly. Then, after several tracts in small bodies had
+been purchased by the bystanders, he began to bid in section after
+section at fifty cents an acre; and when the amount ran up to ten,
+twenty, and twenty-three thousand acres, the crowd began to grow
+curious, and jostled each other to get a better view of the man who
+could bid in so quietly a six-mile square tract without faltering; but
+the grave-faced and gray-clad young ranchman, with no ornament about him
+save a gold buckle to the collar of his brown flannel shirt, kept
+steadily on, without any opposition, perfectly heedless of the scrutiny.
+
+"He is a son of Colonel Warlow on the Cottonwood, who fell heir to a
+cool million from California, the other day," said a man, in a tone just
+loud enough to reach Clifford's ears, and the receiver wondered what the
+handsome young man found to smile at as he bid in the last section of
+sixty-nine thousand acres; but how should he know that Clifford was
+amused at the remark, thinking that the small legacy had grown, like the
+story of the "five black crows."
+
+"Young man," said the receiver, in a tone of arrogant suspicion. "I
+shall insist on some proof of your ability to pay such a large sum
+before I proceed further."
+
+"Very well, sir," replied Clifford, blowing a wreath of cigar-smoke into
+the official's face as he coolly handed him his certificate of deposit,
+subject to check of seventy thousand dollars, given Saturday evening
+after the banker had counted the gold. Then, young Warlow began to
+realize the prestige which wealth gives, as he saw the look of insolence
+on the officer's face quickly give place to respectful wonder, as he
+proceeded at once with the auction.
+
+When the figures had reached a hundred thousand acres the crowd gave way
+to cheers, which swelled to a perfect tumult when six townships--nearly
+one hundred and thirty-nine thousand acres--were knocked down to the
+young bidder, who refused to bid any further, and the sale closed.
+
+Clifford wrote out a check for the sum of sixty-nine thousand one
+hundred and twenty dollars, and received the receiver's certificate,
+which entitled the purchaser to a deed for the tract. As the officer
+closed the sale and the papers changed hands in the bank, a noted
+"wheat-king" hurried in and told Clifford that the New York agent of
+Lord Scholeigh was coming on a special train, fast as steam could carry
+him, and requested our young friend to await the arrival, as the agent
+had been detained by storms and wash-outs while _en route_ to the sale;
+and the kingly real estate agent further intimated that a fine profit
+on the purchase could be realized if Clifford was willing to sell.
+
+So our hero consented to remain, and when the agent arrived he was
+almost stunned by the offer of double the price he had paid; the agent
+offering to take the entire tract at one dollar an acre. After some
+deliberation Clifford consummated a sale of seventy-five thousand acres,
+keeping a township, six miles square, for himself, and forty thousand
+acres for his father; and finding that he had seventy-five thousand
+dollars left. "Equal," the wheat-king said, "to the Dutchman's profit of
+ten per schent."
+
+Clifford found it was an easy matter to induce the receiver to accept
+the agent's certified check on New York in exchange for his own. Then he
+arranged to leave the bag of doubloons, sealed, and only left for safety
+until he could return them to the chest; but the twenty-five thousand
+dollars of profit he deposited with the bank, subject to check. Having
+bought a heavy steel safe, with time-lock, and leaving orders for it to
+be delivered at once, he returned home on Tuesday morning, proud and
+happy over the result of his transaction.
+
+When he arrived at home, he was met by Rob, who was pale and excited.
+When Clifford had hurriedly asked after his father's welfare, Rob
+replied that their parent was well, but a strange accident had occurred
+out near the secret cavern. He proceeded to tell how the gray-robed
+spectre had darted out from among the tall blue-stem, while one of
+their workmen was mowing near there. The apparition had so startled the
+horses that they became unmanageable, and when the strange figure, in a
+reckless manner, had sprung at their heads, they had whirled, throwing
+the crazied being under the sickle and mangling him so horribly that he
+only lived a moment. His body was carried to the cell, where it was now
+lying. This had occurred only a few hours before, and all the family
+were up there awaiting Clifford's return.
+
+Mounting a fresh horse, Clifford galloped rapidly up the winding
+pathway, fearing--he hardly dared to think what. "Could it be that he
+would soon stand beside the mangled form of Bruce Walraven, Mora's
+father?" he was thinking as he dismounted at the well-remembered
+plum-thicket, and hitched his horse to a tree.
+
+A moment later Maud flew out with a low cry of delight, and while
+embracing Clifford, she cried tearfully:--
+
+"Oh, I am inexpressibly relieved. It is not Bruce, as we feared, but
+it's that blood-stained Eagle Beak, Olin Estill's partner in crime and
+final victim."
+
+"Why, Maud! how do you know?" said he, breathless with suspense.
+
+"They found a silver breastplate, such as were worn by chiefs in the
+early days, and on the medal was an engraving of the beak of an eagle;
+while on the reverse, now worn dim, was the name, 'Eagle Beak.' This
+large plate was hung about his neck by a heavy chain of silver, which
+was riveted so it is impossible to remove it without filing it through,
+and the links have worn into the flesh--oh, horrible!" she replied, with
+a shudder of disgust.
+
+With reluctant steps Clifford sought the cavern, where his parents and
+the Moreland family were grouped about the door; and after a few minutes
+of greeting, he went in alone to where the corpse was lying cold and
+still; and when he had removed the white sheet from its face, he stood
+long and silently regarding the revolting picture of depravity and
+ferocious cunning that even yet showed on every feature, frozen in the
+rigid calm of death.
+
+"No, thank God! this is not the face of noble Bruce; but still it is
+that of a white man--some wretched desperado, who had fled from the
+avenging arm of justice, and had gained sway over a band of savages as
+brutal and vicious, but less daring and cunning than himself," thought
+young Warlow. "This certainly is a sermon on the retribution which
+Providence holds in store for those who perpetrate such crimes of
+inhuman atrocity as this wretch is stained with," he said, as Maud came
+into the cell.
+
+They buried the remains upon a lofty hill near by, the top of which was
+visible from their homes in the valley; no ceremony was observed, but
+the horrible details of burial were delegated to a few workmen from the
+hay-field, and by three that afternoon only a small mound of clay
+remained to tell of a life that had been but a fever of bloody deeds.
+
+Once--long years after--as Clifford stood in the twilight with Maud,
+they heard the jabbering wail of a wolf on the grave-crowned hill, and
+Clifford said:--
+
+"If the departed soul does hover about the grave after death, seeking
+re-embodiment, then Eagle Beak has surely been born again in the form of
+a wolf; for he was the very incarnation, no doubt, of such a beast
+during his existence here. I never pass by that thistle-grown and
+nettle-hidden grave without a shudder; and often in the dismal night,
+when just such a piercing howl resounds from that hill-top, I vaguely
+fancy it is the soul of Eagle Beak mourning because of the limited
+sphere of deviltry in which his 'wolf-life' constrains his savage
+spirit."
+
+"Oh, Clifford! will you never outgrow such idle fancies?" Maud
+exclaimed.
+
+"No, never so long as I meet foxes, jackals, and hyenas every day, that
+are only veiled by a human form--very thinly disguised often--and it is
+God's goodness, alone, that finally denies them that mask."
+
+"Clifford, my brother, what a strange belief for 'Deacon' Warlow, pillar
+of the Church, and first in all good deeds of Christian charity and
+enterprise in his community, to entertain and express," she replied,
+with a look of strange interest dawning in her beautiful but matronly
+face.
+
+"Well, Maud, I find abundant proof in the Bible to substantiate this
+faith," he answered, gravely, "while our lives teem with the evidence of
+its truth."
+
+But I have digressed too long already, and will return to my theme.
+
+As they drove back home from the death-haunted cell, Clifford told his
+parents of his search for the treasure; how, after discovering the gems,
+he had been convinced that the gold was also secreted near, and his
+ultimate success in discovering it buried in the grave that Roger Coble
+had noticed when he rescued his father after the massacre. The finding
+of Ivarene's Journal, his engagement to Mora, and discovery that she was
+the daughter of Bruce and his ill-fated wife, and the successful
+speculation in which he had figured with such great profit at Abilene,
+were left unrevealed, as Clifford thought his father was not strong
+enough to bear the strain of such excitement yet.
+
+With Maud he was not so reticent, and after supper he told of the
+success at the land-office, and the use he had made at Mora's request of
+part of the recovered treasure.
+
+After Maud had expressed her unbounded joy at the substantial results of
+that venture, Clifford noticed a shade of anxiety and sadness settle
+down on her face, and he hastened to say, while reaching up to gather a
+spray of trumpet-flowers that swung its blossoms of black, crimson, and
+salmon in heavy festoons over the latticed gateway: "Maud, you dear,
+unselfish creature, I know that you and Ralph are about to begin life
+together, and, when father offered me half of the twenty thousand
+dollars, I just mentally concluded to give you the benefit of it. It
+seems to me you ought to keep the pot boiling with twenty thousand
+acres of good land."
+
+While Maud hung about his neck, her tearful face hidden on his shoulder,
+her brother continued:--
+
+"Poor Ralph will need a great deal of encouragement from you. I have
+been in that very kind of a boat myself lately, and know how to
+sympathize with him."
+
+Soon he was galloping down to the Estill ranch; but I will not intrude
+upon the privacy of that meeting between himself and Mora, only leaving
+it all to the imagination of the reader. Mr. Estill had not returned
+yet, so they still deferred making any explanation of the strange
+discoveries made since his departure. It was agreed, however, to reveal
+all on his return. Plans for the future were discussed as they strolled
+out on the terrace; and before he left, young Warlow had won a promise
+that their wedding-day would be an early one--some time in September,
+Mora said.
+
+"I have had such a strange dream, twice on successive nights, lately,
+Clifford. It seemed as though I was Ivarene, and that I led a dual sort
+of an existence, part of the time as myself, and at other times I was
+that ill-fated Mexican bride, longing to meet Bruce once more. Some way,
+Clifford, I never can reconcile myself to the belief that they are my
+parents, and the suspense of this uncertainty is growing unbearable."
+
+Clifford was very thoughtful for a long while after this; but at length
+he begged her to await the return of Mr. Estill before they divulged
+the secret. Then, after a lingering parting, he returned home to begin,
+on the morrow, preparations for the new life that was before him.
+
+Before leaving Abilene he had engaged a skillful stone-mason, who was to
+begin enlarging his dwelling at once with a large force of workmen at
+his command; and I will only briefly tell how soon the cottage grew into
+a many-gabled mansion of red sandstone, with bay-windows and long wings,
+terraces of stone, with balustrades of white magnesia, and marble vases
+filled with blooming plants, that trailed down their sides with blossoms
+of rose, creamy white and scarlet.
+
+A thousand head of cattle were bought, and hurrying workmen were busy
+stacking vast ricks of prairie-hay near the large barn that was rising
+like magic under the trowels of a score of masons.
+
+In these details I have anticipated somewhat, but will return to the
+thread of my story.
+
+The suspicions of the colonel and Mrs. Warlow were at once aroused by
+seeing a force of workmen beginning to enlarge Clifford's dwelling; and
+on perceiving this, Clifford hastened to reveal all the discoveries and
+transactions of the past few weeks. The journal deeply afflicted his
+father, who at once came to the same conclusion which the younger
+members of the family had arrived at on reading that document,--that
+Bruce and his wife had been murdered by Olin Estill, who had stolen
+their child and had left it at the Estill ranch; that Mora was that
+child, and that the family had raised her as their own daughter. When
+Clifford told of his success in the land transaction and of wishing that
+Maud should have the twenty thousand acres meant for himself, his
+parents seemed both pleased and proud of his course, although his father
+cautioned him against using any more of the treasure until Mr. Estill
+was made aware of the discovery.
+
+"Did not the Estills tell you that Mora was the daughter of Bruce and
+Ivarene when they made their first visit here?" said Clifford, in
+surprise.
+
+"Why, no, indeed!" replied his father; "they told us of the part which
+they feared their nephew took in the massacre. They believed he murdered
+the originals of the pictures which he left at their house soon after
+that tragedy, but he appeared to be insane and they never saw him alive
+again. It was months after when his skeleton was found on the prairie,
+barely recognizable, which they buried on a hill near the ranch."
+
+"And that was all?" said Clifford, in a tone of anxiety. "But do you not
+think that Mora is Bruce's daughter?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it; for she is the perfect counterpart of Ivarene in
+voice, face, and expression, although her eyes are blue while those of
+Ivarene were black. Still the same look is there that I shall never
+forget. Why, when I meet her gaze, it always seems that Ivarene is
+trying to speak to me once more," said the colonel with deep emotion.
+
+After this interview, Clifford lost no time in hurrying down to the
+Estill ranch to seek an interview with Mora; and after they had met,
+with all the demonstrations peculiar to lovers, he noticed a strange
+look of trouble on her face, and when he tenderly asked its cause, she
+faltered a moment, then bursting into tears, and hiding her face on his
+breast, she confessed that the suspense of awaiting her father's return
+had become at last unendurable, and she had told her mother all the
+particulars of their engagement, the discovery of the treasure, their
+subsequent use of a portion of it, and their well-founded belief that
+she was the daughter of Bruce and Ivarene Walraven.
+
+"She confessed, then, that it was true?" said Clifford, in a tone of
+suspense.
+
+"No, stranger still!" said Mora, as she raised a tear-stained face to
+his--"no, Clifford, she seemed struck dumb with astonishment, and
+reiterated the assertion solemnly that I was her only daughter, born
+five years after that tragedy. I am convinced that it is true, Clifford;
+nothing can convince me that she is trying to deceive us, for she is too
+sincere to keep the truth from us now. Yes, I am an Estill; but she said
+that my strange resemblance to the picture in the locket had always
+perplexed her, and my father and they were very sensitive on the
+subject. She saw you were startled by my lack of resemblance to any one
+of the family, when you made your first visit here; but she is glad to
+know that you are to be her son at last, Clifford." Had a thunderbolt
+fallen at his feet, young Warlow could not have been more startled than
+he was at this announcement. Then, after a moment of silence, he said:
+"Ah! Mora darling, it does not matter whose daughter you may be, so
+your heart is mine; but how strange it is that we should have arrived at
+such a wrong conclusion!" Then, as he began to reflect, he found that
+her mysterious resemblance to Ivarene was their strongest proof that she
+was not an Estill.
+
+An interview with Mrs. Estill followed, in which she gave a willing
+assent to the lovers' union; then she again asserted, with truth and
+sincerity stamped upon her face and tone, that Mora was her only
+daughter, born of her own flesh and blood, but that there was a mystery
+connected with her birth which she had never revealed to any one but her
+husband.
+
+"Mother! mother! what is it?" said Mora in great agitation, while
+Clifford sprang up with a look of intense interest depicted upon his
+face.
+
+"It is a strange and unreal thing to relate in this enlightened and
+skeptical age, and I should never divulge it but for the events of the
+last few days; but Mora's unaccountable resemblance to the face in the
+locket, which is that of Ivarene, is not the only mystery that surrounds
+her birth. In the autumn of 1849, September 16th--I remember the date
+perfectly--one of our herders came in at night very much terrified by a
+sight which he had just witnessed. He had seen two mysterious lights
+flitting about the base of Antelope Butte, several miles up the valley,
+where he had been looking after our cattle that had become scattered
+while we were at Fort Riley--driven to take refuge there from the
+Cheyenne Indians that were raiding the frontier settlements during
+August. Why I remember the date so distinctly is from the fact that we
+had only returned that day, finding our cabin in ashes.
+
+"Fearing it might be some signal of lurking savages, Mr. Estill and
+myself ran with the herder to the bluff which overlooks the house on the
+north, and saw a sight that was full of mystery; and which, in fact, was
+never explained.
+
+"There were two large blue lights, of such an unnatural color and
+appearance as to attract instant attention, flitting about up the
+valley. They would seem to skim along in long, undulating swells, like
+the flight of swallows, often rising hundreds of feet in the air, but
+always darting back to the base of the butte. We were relieved to know
+it was not Indians, and thinking it was one of those gaseous or igneous
+phenomena peculiar to water-courses, we did not investigate further, but
+only regarded their appearance with curiosity.
+
+"Their visits finally reached our premises, and I was horrified to see
+them hovering about the house later in the season; but all our attempts
+to approach them were frustrated, for they would recede as we advanced;
+then we really began to feel how very unaccountable they were, and
+became perplexed with the mystery. This state of affairs continued until
+Christmas eve, 1852. As I was standing at a window with Hugh in my arms,
+I saw the two lights come flitting down the valley together. When they
+reached a point close to the house they halted, and, after hovering
+about together for a while, the larger light darted off eastward, and
+was never seen again. The lesser one remained flitting about the house,
+or to and fro between here and Antelope Butte. Until, one night in May,
+1854, the light, after hovering near by, disappeared forever. _That very
+night Mora was born._ Seeing a resemblance in her childish face to that
+within the locket--a likeness that has increased with her age, until now
+she is the very image of poor, dead Ivarene--we named her Morelia
+(shortened to Mora by her friends), a name that was engraved and set
+with rubies upon the locket. We thought this the name, of course, of the
+female face within the locket, but from the Journal of Ivarene it is
+apparent that it was the name of her dead mother instead.
+
+"This precious locket had been flung at my feet by Olin Estill, a
+renegade nephew of my husband, whom he had discarded on account of his
+vicious tendencies, and who had been leading a mysterious existence,
+connected, I now fear, with a band of outlaws that committed the
+massacre at the corral. He had been absent from our house several
+months, until the day after our return he suddenly appeared at the
+tent-door, and, after glaring at me a moment, had flung the locket at my
+feet, then, with a blood-chilling shriek, had fled away. We never saw
+him alive after that day; but his skeleton, torn asunder by wolves and
+barely recognizable, was found months after, and buried upon a hill-top
+near here."
+
+"Did you never search Antelope Butte?" Clifford asked, with grave
+thoughtfulness depicted in his face.
+
+"No; we never did, although we once talked of doing so, but forgot it
+soon in the anxiety and care of our life," she answered.
+
+"I shall do so to-morrow," he said, "for I believe the mystery of their
+fate is hidden there. Yes, Bruce and Ivarene must have died some
+terrible death there at that bluff, and I shall never rest until the
+cloud that wraps their fate is dispelled."
+
+On his return home he related to his parents the story which Mrs. Estill
+had told. When he had finished, his mother was pale with a strange
+excitement; and his father exclaimed in a hoarse voice of agitation:--
+
+"Clifford, you should make a careful search on Antelope Butte in the
+morning. I fear that Bruce and Ivarene perished there."
+
+"My son, I never have told you that only a few months before you were
+born just such a light flashed into my room as the one that flitted
+about the Estill ranch," said Mrs. Warlow, pale and trembling with
+emotion. "It was on Christmas Eve, 1852, that I was sitting in the
+firelit room waiting your father's return, when I saw a pale blue haze
+dart past the window, hover a moment, then return; and as I raised the
+sash I seemed to be smothered by a flash of thick, luminous fog, and
+fell prostrated as by a stroke of lightning. I did not lose
+consciousness, however, but called one of the negro women, who helped me
+to a lounge, and lit the lamp. I was nervous about the occurrence; but
+your father explained the phenomenon as being only a collection of
+natural gas, generated in damp localities. The light flitted about for a
+few months; but on the night of your birth, Clifford, it disappeared,
+and was never seen again. How strange that one of those lights should
+disappear from her house that night, and appear at mine, hundreds of
+miles away! Then the similar circumstances under which those mysterious
+halos vanished--the very night, it appears, of your birth and that of
+Mora! She was born in May, 1854, so Mrs. Estill says."
+
+"We must search Antelope Butte in the morning," said Clifford, trying to
+conceal his agitation and to speak calmly; "for I fear that the final
+tragedy of Bruce and Ivarene was enacted there. I dread the discovery
+that we may make, while, at the same time, I long to unravel the dark
+mystery which enwraps their fate." Then he hurriedly left the room and
+sought slumber in the quiet of his own bed-chamber; but it was in vain,
+for strange fancies kept him awake and thoughtful while the hours slowly
+dragged by.
+
+Since the night when he had seen that weird and unearthly phantom
+war-dance around the long grave, Clifford had begun to entertain some
+strange fancies, which slowly grew upon him as he reviewed the stories
+which Mrs. Estill and his mother had told that evening, until finally he
+said, as the gray of morning began to tinge the eastern sky with its
+ashy pallor:--
+
+"I am almost convinced that Bruce's theory is a true one. Father has
+long believed me to be the reincarnation of the spirit of Bruce
+Walraven. This, if true, will account for my strange resemblance to a
+man who died, in all probability, long before I was born, and will also
+account for the mysterious memories which always haunt me, like the
+glimpses of a former life. Can it be possible that the soul, at will,
+can take on a new body again after death, and profit by its past
+mistakes? That would be a resurrection, indeed! Can it be that all the
+air about us is peopled by the spiritual outlines of dead and
+half-forgotten friends, only waiting their time to be re-born, and we
+ourselves may be but bodies that are inhabited by the souls of people
+who have lived before? If this theory is as correct as it is comforting,
+then death has lost all its terrors; for what could inspire more delight
+in the heart of an aged and care-worn person than the knowledge that,
+after he had cast off his faded and wrinkled body, by that process which
+we call death, he could walk again in all the freshness of youth and
+beauty on earth, which, say what we may, is dearer than any other place
+can ever be.
+
+"This theory I shall put to the test to-day," our hero said; "for if the
+remains of Bruce and Ivarene are found near Antelope Butte--as I am
+convinced that they will be--then my conjectures are confirmed and the
+mystery of eternity, which has mocked and puzzled man from his creation,
+is revealed. It will prove that those mysterious lights were their
+spirits still hovering about their grave, waiting their opportunity to
+be re-born. This looks no more improbable than many of the mysteries of
+science did a few years ago. But, then, life itself would still remain a
+grand mystery, as would sight, sound, and hearing."
+
+By this time he had arisen, and, after dressing, he seated himself
+before the tall mirror.
+
+"This strange belief has been growing upon me since I heard Mrs.
+Estill's and mother's revelations until it has become almost conviction,
+and if we find that on Antelope Butte, which I feel we will--then it
+will convince me that Mora is--God how strange that sounds!--Ivarene
+born again to enjoy the happiness which her untimely fate prevented her
+securing in her brief life."
+
+As he scanned his own reflection in the mirror, by the sunlight, which
+now was flooding the eastern hills in its golden mantle, while a look of
+growing wonder and strange curiosity came over his face, he exclaimed,
+with a start: "Then Bruce Walraven is--myself!"
+
+After a moment of serious reflection, he continued: "Well, there is
+nothing so very improbable or uncanny in the thought, at last; for it is
+just as probable that God may have given me a soul that had lived
+before, as one that had not. No; human nature has too much wisdom to
+ever have gained it by one life."
+
+If our hero's theory was true, then Bruce could not have asked a better
+fate than to live his life again as the handsome youth reflected there,
+with his crisp golden hair, eyes of pansy blue, and the flush of young
+manhood on his glossy cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XXI.
+
+
+An hour later found the Warlow family at the foot of Antelope Butte,
+whither they had all driven to make a search for--what they shrank from
+saying. They had been there only a short time when they saw the Estill
+carriage coming. When it drew near they discovered that it was Mrs.
+Estill and Mora, who, when they were assisted to alight, said they had
+seen the Warlow carriage with their field-glass, and suspecting the
+meaning of its visit to the butte, they had hurried up to join the
+search with their friends.
+
+As Clifford, Rob, and Ralph were carefully searching the face of the
+declivity, Mrs. Warlow told Mrs. Estill of the remarkable fact that she
+had also seen that mystic light on the night it had disappeared from
+Estill Ranch; then, as Mora drew near, she gave a circumstantial account
+of the event, which caused her hearers to exchange looks of perplexed
+amazement.
+
+Mora became thoughtfully silent, and, leaving the others, she wandered
+restlessly back and forth at the foot of the bluff, watching the
+searchers intently.
+
+She was startled at length by a cry of astonishment from Clifford, and
+with the others she hastened up the steep acclivity to where he stood in
+a recess of the cliff. When she reached his side he was leaning heavily
+against the rocky wall, white and trembling.
+
+"Oh, Clifford! speak! what is it?" she cried, breathless with a strange
+dread.
+
+He could only point to the face of the rock with an unsteady finger,
+while the sweat-drops rained down from his white face, wrung by an agony
+of emotion which he vainly strove to repress.
+
+Sinking down upon the sloping mound, matted with grass, and kneeling
+there at the foot of the cliff she read with a startled gaze the
+inscription which was carved in faint, moss-grown letters, upon the
+magnesian stone:--
+
+"My Ivarene, my lost love, lies dead beside me with our little child,
+cold and still, on her breast. I am wounded and dying; but death is
+sweet now. We were coming here to watch for the trains when we were
+assaulted by the strange hunter, who shot us both. My love only breathed
+one breath. I carried her here. The child was pierced by the same shot.
+My eyes are growing dim; but I welcome death. Oh, farewell, bright
+world! I feel my life ebbing fast away, but would not stay without my
+darling. I go to meet her where there will be no more parting. Oh, the
+joy and bliss to see her smile again! It makes me long for death. We
+shall live again! Bru--"
+
+With a wild cry of agonized grief, Mora covered her face, while the
+others read, with streaming eyes, that last message from the tomb. Then,
+as they drew back and waited with broken sobs and smothered weeping,
+Ralph and Robbie began tenderly to remove the _débris_ and soil which
+time had formed into a mound below the inscription.
+
+When, at last, there was revealed two skeletons, locked together in the
+last clasp of love, which even death could not sever, Maud cried aloud
+with a wail of anguish:--
+
+"Oh, _can this be the last_ of beautiful Ivarene and dear, brave Bruce?"
+
+Choking back their sobs, they all knelt in a circle, while Mrs. Warlow's
+voice rose in a passionate, fervid prayer; then tenderly, with loving
+care, they carried the remains down to the Warlow carriage, leaving Mora
+and Clifford still lingering by the vacant mound.
+
+They stood in silence a moment, the only sound the soft rustle of
+wild-ivy that half draped the cliff in its mottled foliage of crimson,
+green, and bronze; the radiant sunlight from the cloudless sky lit up
+the sunflowers and gentian that grew in stunted clusters on the
+hillside, while the sumac flaunted its plumes of scarlet, gold, and
+purple along the rifts of the white, rocky wall.
+
+Lifting their gaze from the open grave, their eyes met in a swift flash
+of joy, while a half-puzzled look of delight and recognition struggled
+over their faces; then, bounding lightly over the open grave, Clifford
+whispered in a tone of unspeakable love and yearning:--
+
+"Oh, Ivarene, my sweetheart of long ago, we meet at last!"
+
+"Then it is as I have dreamed--and you are Bruce!" she answered, with a
+sob of joy, while springing into his outstretched arms.
+
+"Yes, love, I am convinced that we meet again after all these years of
+waiting. Though to the world we may be only Mora and Clifford, yet,
+darling, to each other we will ever be Ivarene and Bruce," he replied,
+while raining kisses upon her upturned, radiant face.
+
+Ah! how can I tell of the serene wedding morn that marked that happy day
+when Clifford and Mora paced back and forth on the sunlighted terrace at
+the Stone Corral, now no longer a modest cottage, but a stately though
+quaint mansion of red sandstone. The tender, blue haze of Indian summer
+brooded over the valley, where the fields of wheat shone dewy and green,
+and the newly-mown meadows stretched away like a verdant carpet far out
+onto the highlands, miles upon miles--all their own. The marble fountain
+threw a glittering sheen of silver high in the air, while the breeze
+swept the blossom-laden tendrils that trailed down the showy vases, and
+swayed the limbs of the old elm to and fro about the gables of the
+elegant home.
+
+"Oh, Ivarene, dear love! how strange it is to take up the thread of our
+happiness on the spot, almost where our lives went out in such black
+despair just twenty-six years ago! I know why you wish to have our
+bridal here, darling; for it was here, at the Old Corral, that our
+former trials overwhelmed us, and it is doubly sweet to begin happiness
+again on this spot."
+
+"Bruce, my darling, I can remember nothing of the old life and its
+trials, that ended at our grave on Antelope Butte; but my love for
+you--ah! that can never perish. It has survived even the horrors of that
+lonesome tomb. It is strange we only recognized each other at that empty
+grave; but I had always felt such a longing to meet some one, that now I
+know it was the spirit within me crying dumbly for you; and oh! the
+unutterable content when at length I met you, and the joy of only being
+with you now,--it is more than Eden!"
+
+"Sweet Ivarene, do you ever ponder on what eternity means for us, now we
+have its secret?--a limitless succession of life in all its phases; that
+the grave is only the door to life again, when we can choose another
+birth--passing through all the freshening scenes of infancy and youth;
+growing up again as boy and girl; seeking each other out for another
+union like this, where we shall always recognize each other, but forget
+the old life,--it is _this_ which gives hope and zest to this happy day;
+for we know that we shall really never be separated."
+
+"We will pass a happy life together, my love; and from out our abundance
+we can sweeten the lives of many others who have not been blessed with
+great riches," he continued, in a tender tone.
+
+"Yes, dear Bruce, and the treasure of Monteluma should be dedicated to
+charity alone, for we have enough without it," she replied; then,
+pointing to a newly-sodded grave at the foot of the lawn--a mound that
+was marked by a marble slab on which only was engraved,
+
+    "BRUCE AND IVARENE,"
+
+she continued, with a smile of ineffable peace on her beaming face:
+"That is for the eyes of the world, dear Bruce; but we know that we are
+they, only masquerading under the names of Mora and Clifford."
+
+At that moment Maud, Ralph, Hugh, and Grace came on to the terrace
+above, and Hugh, in a voice husky with emotion, said:--
+
+"Come, Mora and Clifford, the minister waits."
+
+Tarrying a moment, while the others moved on along the terrace, the
+happy pair stood gazing out over the tranquil valley, then, drawing
+aside her veil, which trailed liked a mist down over her robe of
+glistening satin, white as a snow-drift, she raised a radiant face to
+his, and said:--
+
+"My Bruce, we live again--we live again!"
+
+Stooping, while their lips met, he murmured:--
+
+"Yes, Ivarene, dear bride, and this--oh! this is heaven!"
+
+A moment more, and they had disappeared within the flower-wreathed
+doorway.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40546 ***