HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1894-8-2, Page 6TUE SELECT STORY TELLER,
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THE E\l? DP THE ELOPERENT.
RO:YI theorest of the hill the
two schools of Bradbury --
the seminary for ycang
ladies and the academy for
young mei—looked down
the river, silvery in the,
Moonlight. It was the cause of
oft -repeated wonder to the stranger'
in Bradbury this proximity of the
two schools, But the Bradburyite
infallibly replied by insisting with pride
upon the strictuess of surveillance exer-
cised at both centres of learning. They
might contain inflammable material,
btlt—
x X
"Oh, I say, my beauty, you're awfully
late to -night !"
" Why, what's up ?" And the speak-
er, a beardless and puny youth, drew his
arm about the waist of his feminine com-
panion. She started away,
" I thought Iheard someone," she said,
nervously;
" Pooh ! Just the wind in the trees !
But, look here, we're losing time, my
beauty. The preliminaries must be ar-
ranged. We don't want any slip-ups.
Saturday night, isn't it?"
A fter some discussion of details, urgent
on the boy's side, curiously reluctant on
the girl's, the juvenile lover cried:
" Audi haven't had a kiss yet, either.
You're a fine sweetheart, you are, Jen
Just wait till we're married, and if I
don't cure you of this stand-offishnses !"
He leaned, forward. His weak, bleared
face was scarcely on a level with the
girl's. She was tall and statuesque, and
seemed to tower above him. She sub-
mitted to the embrace, then drew back
again swiftly with a shudder.
He frowned and his look turned ugly,
Sae here ! I say again — what's
up ?"
" I tell you I heard. something. Go !
goy go !"
She pushed him away with her strong,
nervous hands. When he had disappear-
ed, however, she seemed to cease to listen
for any sound. The site of the rendezv-
ous was an opening in the trees at the
furthest end of the grounds of the young
ladies' seminary. A gate pierced the
low stone wail at this spot, and through
it the youth had slipped in coming and
going. Genevieve stood. with her back
turned to this gate. She raised her arm
and drew it across her face. She passed
her handkerchief over the cheek that had
received a moment before the lover's
kiss.
" Lover !" she said aloud, and she
laughed out in the silence of the moonlit
grove. "Faugh 1 How shall I ever go
through with it?"
" Yes, it must bo difficult enough. But,
then, think of the reward !" said a man's
voice a few feet from her.
The raised arm. dropped. For an in-
stant the stillness was so great that the
stirring of a bird on a distant bough
reached their ears. Then Genevieve
spoke, and as she' did so she crossed her
arms over her chest.
" I congratulate you.. You performed
your offices of private tutor admirably.
You have watched your charge's most
clandestine movements to good. purpose.
I don't ask you how you managed to fol-
low him here to -night. Enoughthatyou
did, and—listened !"
" Yes," was the calm reply. "I listen-
ed. I heard. a word or two that gave me
a distant desire to know more. Now I
know what I wished to know."
"Needless to say that you will report
me."
Her arms were still crossed on. her
breast. Her dark brows were drawn in
a straight line above her stormy grey
eyes.
" What a pretty scene you will have it
in your power to make," she went on.
"Me, a governess in the Yradbury Semin-
ary for Young Ladies„known the ,country
over for its unimpeachable dignity of
tone, meeting by moonlight, a youth
several years younger than myself, from
the neighboring young men's academy
and arranging to elope with him ! Yes,
you will have it in your power to make a
groat sensation, my dear Mr. Carley.”
"Yea"—Carley's tone continued even
and unchanged—"especially when it is
considered that the youth in question is
the son and heir of Martin. Pressler, one
of the richest men in America. Of
eourse, Miss Genevieve Ainsworth is a
great beauty, but then she is poor and
she loathes being a drudge as a gover-
ness, and so—what more piquant than
such a denoument ?"
Genevieve took two steps toward him.
" And you -you who swear that a man
is above his conditions be it rich or poor,
you, who do not mind the drudgery of a
tutor's life in an academy for young
gentlemen ! Yon who were such a
philosopher ! Will you be so magnani-
mous as to tell me whenyou are going to
report me and how? Let me at least
make ray preparations before I am dis-
missed !"
"Dismissed? You are dreaming. You
will not be dismissed through my in-
strumentation. I shall not report you."
" Ah 1" She drew a long breath, "I
see. You despise me too much to concern
yourself with me in any. way."
There was no reply.
Genevieve Ainsworth turned to go.
The scorn had not left her eyes, but she
was trembling in every limb. Carley had
not moved from the place where he stood.
He looked after her, Then, suddenly,.
he saw her stumble. In an instant he
was at her side.
Thereupon a strange thing happened.,
At the touch of the young man's hand
enevie e s
on her arm G breathing e v b gsmee ed
Carley himself was s
to cease, y ashen.
Their eyes met, and there was in the
girl's a wild sort of appeal, in the man's
a long-surpressed passion'refueing longer
to be curbed.
Genevieve," he whispered,
But she had torn herself away, and
was running blindly, as one distraught,
toward the dark, silent house the Brad-
bury. Seminary for Young Ladies.
Carley, left to himself, passed his hand
twice, thrice, over his eyes. A very riot
of youth and love iri his veins,
She loves me 1 Of course ! of course
Fool that I was never to believe it before!
And yob I could have guessed it e hun-
dred times since first I met her that
from • when, the carriage from the
seminary not having been sentfor her,
I
through a misunderstanding, offered.
her a seat in the buggy 1 was driving up
from the station. She was just going
into bondage then. I had been in bond-
age six months Bondage ? She calls it
sueh, poor, foolish, pleasure -loving, beau-
tiful creature that she is 1 I loved her
from that night, Aud.1 believe now that
she loved me, Yes, yes ! That was the
reason forher ooldne:s, her abruptness
to me ! For," he laughed softly to him-
self, ".can you fancy this proud Gene-
vieve, with her dreams of worldly vani-
ties, consenting to be the wife of a p;tor
tutor, who, at most, will be a poorpro-
fessor some day? She must needs en-
courage, instead, half-witted Martin
Pressler, Jun.'s, infatuation for her, and
lead hili, on to a proposal, and finally to
an elopement. And shall 1 consent to
this murder ? for it would be murder,
She loves me; she loathes this semi-un-
beeile boy, All her adoration of riches
could dot prevent her to -night shuddering,
at his touch. Did not I see all? And,
ah ! how different was that all -revealing
lovelight in her eyes a few moments
later when I--"
He paused abruptly, and stood In the
attitude of a man struck dumb by a sud-
den idea. Then, in an. instant, he had
broken into a low laugh. fr ''";
" all the powers of heaven, why
not?" And then again he repeated to
himself : "Why not ? Why not ?"
"Everything is O.K., my beauty. I've
got the buggy. It's sure to be on time,
and the man that's to bring it up and
leave it near the gate at the foot of the
grounds will skip and not be in the way
nor bother us at all. You're just to wrap
up your face in a veil and jump in, and
we'll drive off and be at the station and
in the 11.30 p.m. train and away before
any living creature gets wind of any-
thing. Now don't you get rattled, that's
all. You're a cool one, enough, I know.
But somehow I thought you were nerv-
ous and queer the other night. Well,
here's a kiss to your fair cheeks and your
cherry lips.
"Your devoted lover,
'" MARTIN."
Genevieve looked down at the absurd
epistle—its spelling exhibited occasional
deviations from the normal standard—
and crushed it in her hand. This was
the man—man ?•—silly boy under twenty,
whom she had promised to elope with
and to marry.
She got up and looked at her ref!ecton
in the mirror. For three nights since
the meeting with George Cayley in the
grove she had not slept. She know now
that he held her whole being in his hand.
She had indeed known it for weeks, for
months. But he had always despised
her for her worldliness, for her love of
riches, and now he despised her more
than ever. He might love her, too—his
eyes had berrayed him the other night—
but still he despised her. He would not
interfere with her elopement. He would
let her go to her doom. Her doom ? She
flung up her hands and covered her face.
Then suddedly she heard the sound of a
bell, and a violent revulsion swept over
over. The bell reminded her of her
servitude ; it was the signal for her to re-
sume her duties—to be present in the
schoolroom. It was the sign of the bond-
age in which she was wearing away her
youth, her beauty. Oh, how she abhor -
ed her life ! Was not anything—any-
thing—better
nything—anythingbetter than this fate?
It had been a week of balmy days, but
on Saturday the weather changed. By
evening it was overcast and threatened
rain. By ten. at night the clouds had dis-
charged themselves in torrents. A north
wind shook the trees and tossed their
boughs, and even a woman's light foot-
fall sank deep in the boggy ground.
Loud as was the tumult of the elements
the low whistle of the watcher by the
gate reached the ears of Genevieve Ains-
worth. Muffled to the eyes, quivering in
every fibre, she hurried on. She felt as
one caught in a morass, who can only
hasten forward gropingly, dumbly, sight-
lessly, in the fear of sinking at every
step, yet in the same danger should she
stand still.
Then at last the gate was reached. The
dark silhouette of a man, a cap drawn
over his eyes, his coat culler turned up
over his ears, moved. toward. her. Beyond,
through the wet darkness, she distin-
guished the black outline of a waiting
buggy, The horse stood, with drooping
head, under the rain. She staggered for-
ward a few steps further. And as she
did so she felt herself suddenly lifted by
a powerful arm. Dimly she was aware
of being wrapped in blankets in the
corner of the buggy—of the horse start-
ing—then she lost consciousness. The
tenison .had been too great ; at the criti-
cal moment human force had momentar-
ily succumbed.
When Genevieve came to herself she
was being driven furiously along the
rain -soaked roads. Her companion's
ma.Iied figure bent intently forward at
her side, watchful of the horse, who shied
nervously now and then as a branch,
heavy with moisture, brushed against
the buggy.
A full realization of her position, of
the step she had taken, burst then upon
the girl. For life she had committed
herself to a weak -witted boy—a boy !—
whom her soul and senses abhorred. ! And
for what? For what?
Wildly she threw herself forward.
"Stop ! stop !" she cried as ono insane.
"You must take me back ! I won't go
any farther ! Do you hear ? I willd I
must ! I shall go back ! I will not
marry you! I will not go with you ! Oh,
God ! Was I, mad ever to consent to
this? I hate you, do you hear? I can't
marry yon! I would sweep the streets
rather I Take me back !"
She had clutched the young man's arm
with both her hands. She threw herself
forward. seize d to th a reins. But she felt
her fingers grasped in. a firm clasp, and
an arm was flung out before her like an
iron. bar.
" Too late now, Genevieve. Don't you
know me? Do you mind $0 much going
with me—with me, Genevieve ?"
Still holding' the reins • with his right
hand, George Carley turned her beauti-
ful, distracted face with his Ieft close to
his own in the thick darkness,
" George 1" she murmured, "George!"
Then, "Mr. Carley--"
He laughed lightly.
" Too late for that, too, Genevieve. Too
late fora ceremonious 'Mr. Carley.' Too
late for everything but confess that you
love me, as I know you do, you lovely,
wild creature, and to become my wife
the first thing tomorrow morning.
Come why do you sink your head, be-
loved ? Are you thinking of young
Martin? He is safe in his bed now, pro-
bably, 1st—reply turned the key on him
two hours ago ; locked him in his room
and prevented him from carrying out a
purpose which would have led to the
misery of your life, cud, as likely as not,
of his. Yon remember that 1 overheard
all your arrangements the other night,
Everything was prepared. I had only to
torn the key surreptitiously on my charge,
as I say, and to substitute my own per -
sou at the gate for his, Well, Gene-
vieve ?"
But Genevieve, in a passion of relieved
tears, was clinging to his damp shoulder.
" Oh, George,I am so happy, I am .so
happy ! Oh, if you knew how horrible
the thought of that boy was to me a mo-
ment ago !"
" I did know, I always knew !,,
" And I had thought of thus selling
myself for money !—for money ! Oh,
darling, what eau it matter whether we
—you and I—are poor or not? You will
be a professor some day, and then but
what am I talking about ? You are
everything in. the world that Iwant now,
at this moment ?"
And this was the end of the famous
elopement from the Bradbury Young
Ladies' Seminary,
Advantages Women. Halve.
The bachelor girl was holding forth on
the advantages women have over,men..
"For instance, in a crowded car," she
was saying, "a woman is always sure of
a seat. Half a dozen men will jump up
to give it to her, no matter how tired they
are. It is a matter of the tyranny of
pablic opinion. Not one man in ten has
the moral courage to defy popular pre-
judice and keep his seat while there is a
woman in the car standing.
"And it's the sane way in a crowd,
too. A woman is always passed through
to the front ranks without the hem of her
gown being torn, while the men will push
and elbow each other and tear each
other's coat tails like so many wild bears.
Women have a great advantage over
men in the matter of dress. They can.
make themselves twice as pretty at half
the cost, whereas a man is called a dude
if he tries to make himself at all pictur-
esque with a pink shirt or a blue necktie..
Another thing in dress. A woman can
abjure starched collars, wear next to noth-
ing, a thin lawn and a pretty white mus-
lin, and carry a lace parasol and be hap-
py and fair to look upon on a hot day.
But a man must mop his warm brow,
wear an alpaca coat at the least, wilted
laundry or a negligee shirt, and that is
an abomination, and then look hot and
miserable.
"Then in the ice cream season she has
the ice cream and he pays the bills; in the
theatre season she goes to every new play
and he pays for the tickets; in fact, she
has all the luxuries of life; and it doesn't
cost her a cent."
An Expensive Cow.
There is a man in Chicago who, pays
$1S,000 a year for the privilege of keeping
a cow.
He is a sane man, a business man, a
man of family, and generally respected in
the community. His poor relatives de-
clare him a freak, and his neighbors
shrug their shoulders and murmur things
about rich men's whims.
The way of it is that he possesses a
valuable building lot in a choice residence
portion of the city, and, having nothing
else to do with it, he put a nice little
fence around it and quartered therein his
pet Jersey cow. The cow was an artistic
cow, and harmonized well with the green
turf and little bushes, so people rather
admired the arrangement. One day a
man came along who thought he would
like to build a house on that particular
lot, so he hunted up the owner and made
him a spot cash offer of $300,000 for the
land. His offer was refused, decisively
and politely.
" But," remonstrated a relative aghast,
"that would pay you $18,000 a year!
Why on earth did you refuse it ?"
The rich man lit a cigar and turned a
protesting face on his accuser. "Yes,"
he assented in a puzzled way, " but what
would I have done with my cow ?"
The Bells Frons. the Convent.
A singular phenomenon occurs on the
borders of the Red Sea at a place called
Nakous, where intermittent underground
sounds have been heard for an unknown
number of centuries. It is situated at
about half a mile's distance from the
shore, whence a long reach of sand as-
cends rapidly to the height of three hun-
dred feet. This reach is about eighty
feet wide and resembles an amphitheater,
being walled in by low rocks. The sounds
coming up from the ground at this place
recur at• intervals of about an hour.
They at first resemble a low murmur,
but ere long there is heard a loud knock
ing, somewhat like the strokes of a bell,
and which, at the end of about five min-
utes, becomes so strong as to agitate the
sand.
The explanation of this curious phe-
nomenon given by the Arabs is that
there is a convent under the ground here,
and that these sounds are those of the
bell which the monks ring for prayers.
So they call it Nakous, which means a
bell. The Arabs affirm that the noise so
frightens their camels when they hear it
as to render them furious. Philosophers
attribute the sounds to suppressed vol-
canic action—probably to the bubbling
of gas or vapors underground.
Valuable Clerks.
Someone praised one of the girl clerks
in a large shop to the head of the depart.
moist, saying that she was so modest and
so pleasant, while so obliging, that she
seemed an ideal person for the place.
'From your standpoint, yes," was the
reply, "but hardly from our. own. She
has all the good points that you mention,
and which I' agree the perfect saleswoman
should not be without. But she does not
sell goods enough to suit us. I mean she
does not help people to make up their
minds and get them out of the way and
someone else in their places. The ideal
clerk does that without pushing or for-
wardness. You would scarcely believe
eve
how dependent most customers are upon
others' judgment, and how much quiet
assistance they require in order to facili-
tate business. The . most valuable clerk
is that one who can render this help with-
out appearing to do anything more than
offer the stuff for others' choice."
Merely a !Matter of Form.
Dentist—," I'm afraid it's too late to
save this tooth, Miss. It will have to
comae out."'
Self-possessed Young Woman—"Is the
corresponding tooth on the opposite side
a, sound CMS?"
' Perfectly."
" No probability that it will get to ach-
ing ?"
None whatever."
" And this one that's aching—is it
likely to keep my jaw swelled up as it does
now ?"
" It is.f0 •
" Then, take it out, doctor. 1t destroys
the symmetry of my fare."
"Why; John, I thought you said. 'like
never eats like?"'
"Well, isn't that right?"
"NO 'r for I see you' are eating greens."
Tilt }MAXI' Or A. MAID*
../' IL, Mil long overland train for
the West had puller out of
Grant; and was snorting up.
' the grade, leaving round
masses of black vapor in the
air, like visible breaths of
the panting engine. In the
lighted Pull:nan could be seen, as in a
mist, the soft, delicatefaces of two young
women—smelt young women as come out
from the towns of New England to the
pueblo to teach the little brown wards of
a paternal government.
The "gang"—the • vaqueros on their
way to the " round up" beyond San
Rafael—stared at their as men do at
women in a comparatively womanless
country, with a kind of open, innocent,
decent yearning that is half -pathetic,
half -absurd.
Then they went back to "the store "
and strung themselves along the porch
onthe piles of sheep -pelts, smoking and
swearing amiably, and watching the day
die against the white cliffs of El Gallo.
And then they missed Longley. "A.p-
polyer," as they called him in tender
scorn of his young beauty.
"Where's the cuss ?" asked Dick Hart.
"Hoofed it down the track efter them
gurls," suggested Flank, ironically.
Then Roberts, who had seen 'white
times," sent out a yell that cut the crisp
air like an arrow.
"Appolyer, approach 1"
He was answered by a grunt, and
Lonley's legs appeared, leaping up the
steps of the portal and followed as usual
by a dog or two, previously kicked out of
the way by somebody, but now showing
a sneaking security under Longley's lee,
Appolyer spread himself down the steps,
his blond, sun -burned head making a
pale shadow against the adobe wall. For
a while there was simply silence and
acrid smoke. Then Longley, whose boy-
ish thinking; were apte:t to lead to
speech, said contemplatively : ,
"Say, them wuz nice girls—end they
hey sand, too. These here Spanish gurls
ain't got none. They're all -fires cute
'ncl just as soft ens gentle as a doe—but
I don't believe they've got any grit in
'ear, 'thout it's 'bout some feller they
get gone. on. I reckon they'd fight then,
'cause 'bout that, womin folks are puri'
nigh alike everywhar."
Longley, who had been filling his pipe
as he spoke, began to pull steadily, fixing
his whole mind on a complex series of
rings that curled, and writhed, and wav-
ered off into the pure darkness of the
New Mexican night.
Beyond the duty of adding.an original
oath to the classic store, "the gang"
rather eschewed conversation; but Long-
ley had only been in camp about six
weeks, and was still in that platitutiniz-
ing stage that precedes actual knowledge.
"The gang" put up with it because they
liked him, and because, as Hank said:
"Df he is a calf, he ain't no maverick.
He's got our brand."
Apaolyer himself said later: "Ef a
man's got sense he gets to boldin' onto
hisself, 'cause of he stays a fool he hez to
leave the country."
And as Longley lounged there, out-
lined now by the blurred light of the
dingy lamp just lighted in the store, big
and bovine, blue of eye and yellow of
hair, he looked no fool, but what he
shortly became, a Compeller of Hearts
and of Cattle.
All the gang envied him, affectionate-
ly or sourly as their luck ran, even to
Dick Hart, who had rich relatives and a
knowledge of grammar.
But the gods—who have jurisdiction
even in New Mexico—had a well -barbed
arro w pointed A.p; olyer's way, and away
over at San Miguel were preparing a
little "experience" for him, which, like
all such things properly digested., led. to
curtailment of opinion and amplification
of vision.
It was the blackest kind of a night at
San Miguel, but so clear that the stars
shone like tiny points of cold fire, too far
for light. The cluster of adobes that,
grouped around a central larger ono,
made the ranch of San Miguel, were mere
brown blots. Here and there a dully
lighted window showed where some be-
lated task was being finished or some
young mother watched her first-born's
unknown slumber. But the family, from
Don Vicente of heroic history to the low-
est of the fond and faithful house-serv-
ants,
ouse-seryants, were gathered in the large house,
overflowing the hall and kitchen and
stamping and laughing in the long
portal, barred by lines of light from win-
dow and open doors.
" The gang," just finished the fall
driving at old man Baca's, were there,
too, the shyest and most exuberant of
the party. So pervaded was the little
placita with their long legs, flapping
sombreros, shoving shoulders and shrill
voices. that the clatter reached the ears
of old Wodan, deaf to all but Don
Vicente's voice these many years. At
least, the mastiff growled and moved
from his warm corner, showing a great
toothless grin of discontent. Tho tough
old hensperched along the warm wall
of the kitchen, clucked protestingly, and
a litter of very misguided kittens forsook
the safe shelter of the round oven and
scuttled off crazily. One, having mis-
taken Longley's leg for a better shelter,
it was he who wao allowed to help ktiss
Cleofas gather them up again. He en-
compassed the entire family in one fist,
tenderly enough, and restored them to
an indifferent mother under the soft,
directing gaze of this, the youngest
daughter of the prolific house of Ortiz.
A slender little thing she was, too,
with groat black eyes shining under a
demure forehead ; the ereamy amber of
her skin
g
OveTCOmine t
he pallor of
child-
hood • the thin cheek just rounding into
a perfect oval. Bat the soul of her sol-
dier father was alive in her. and many
complex problems of the busy life of the
tiny town were settled according to her
wisb. and will—softly and all sweetly,
too, for Cleofas was warm-hearted as
well as quick=witted. And so it hap-
pened that when the best of everything
had been given up to the guests, and
there was still more room needed, it was
Oleofas who decided to make her simple
and brief bed in a large deserted room
sone few yards away in the open,
"It is I, certainly, that will go, and
R site shall care for the madre. Juan
shall build me a little fire of ten sticks,
and before it is out, poof 1 there is bho
sun coming in."
Brushing the withered cheek of the
madre with her soft lips, the girl ran out
into the starlit autumn darkness, her
cousin Juan following with skins and
blankets for the bed, which was stretch-
ed in a corner behind the triangular fire-
High
re-
Ii h up in the thick adobe wall a
small square hole admitted the air, and
the heavy door swung on grating hinges.
Juan, whose jealous eyes had followed
every glance and !notion of "Senor Long-
ley" since his arrival, knelt on the floor,
a ijusting the sticks of wood as the exi-
gen ties of the raised £treplaoe and the
customs of the country demanded -on
one end.
He did not speak. and Cleofas watehed
him as silently, a sparkle of coquetry in
her eyes, already heavy with sleep.
Good night, cousin," said .Juan, in
the careful English be affected since com-
ing from school.
The girl nodded and the young mai
stepped over the sill. Then he turned
sullenly:
"Senor Longley have love for you. He
says Spanish girl nice, but coward..
Oaidado !"
Cloofas sprang from her seat on the
hearth like an arrow from a tense string.
Her eyes shone with anger and fun..
"Cuidado thou.!" she cried, and swung
the door to with a orash, forgetting even
to push home the rude bolt of buckskin
and wood. Folding her reboso tightly
under her chin, she crept under the
blankets, and the flames as they danced
revealed only a formless shadow, from
which came the soft regular breaths of
sound sleep. Suddenly Cleofas awoke.
Her cheek flushed again at the memory
of Juan's speech. •
"No grit. That is the queer word the
Senor Longley have use." Cleofas smiled
again and murmured as she rolled over
on her side for a fresh nap:"And yetit
is I who will grind him."
The girl had not slept long ; but they
had danced late, and already a pale
morning was abroad. Suddenly there
came a slight scratching at the door,
The girl sat up in the shadow listening
for a moment and then lay back again
sleepily. It was some wandering horse
or sheep rubbing stealthily along the
wall. Then. Cleofas rememberod the un-
bolted door. As she roseto bolt it, it
swung open cautiously and a head was.
thrust in—a hideous, shaved head, set on
a thick, fat neck. On the hard, cruel
line of the lower jaw there was the white
cicatrix of a wound, which drew up the
lip with a sneering twist. To sink down
in a crouching, limp heap and throw her
reboso over her face was the girl's in-
stinctive act. Through its folds she
watched breathlessly. It was Mayas, the
murderer, who had beaten his wife to
death in a rage. Cloofas had seen him
pass through the streets of Albuqurque
on his way to prison. He had escaped
from Santa Fe and come over the moun-
tains in desperate flight.
The convict, fearing only an enemy
from without, closed and bolted the door,
and, without a glance toward the dusky
corner where Cleofas was flattened
against the floor, threw himself heavily
down in front of the dead fire. The chain
still fastened to one wrist clanked sharp-
ly, and the man jerked at it savagely
with an oath.
Even in the deadly fear that made her
skin prickle like a thousand fiery needles
and her limbs feel lead -like, Cleofas was
an Ortiz still.
"I will not die like a miserable sheep,"
thought she ; "nor will I kneel and beg
for mercy as the little wife did, and vain-
ly. No, I shall say : 'Murder me if thou
wilt, thou coward ; and may thy; wretched
soul burn in hell forever.' "
Bat the convict's head had rolled heav
ily on to his breast, and he slept, his
breath coming in long waves of exhaus-
tion. Hope grew in the heart of the
motionless spectator in the corner.
"Holy Mother," she prayed, "keep me
as a mouse. Let me live as if I lived
not, and save me for the little mandre's
sake."
An hour rolled on. Through the win-
dow the day was broadening. Cleofas
was stiff, was cold, was impatient.
"He will sleep on and on, like the pig
and the wolf that he is," she thought,
indignantly, "and I must wait his plea-
sure to be killed and eaten. Or he will
wake and go far and be free—he, the
wicked one. It shall not be. Dear Jesu,
help."
With her eyes fixed on the face of the
convict, the girl began to fold back her
reboso and the twisted blankets. When
her limbs were free, with one quick,
silent effort, she stood upright. Never
once removing her gaze, she followed the
shadow of the wall, groping cat -like, her
very breath , suspended to the faintest
flatter: of her throat.
She has reached the door, and still the
murderer sleeps. But, at the slight noise
of the slipping bolt, he stirs and turns.
With a stifled cry, the girl throws up
one slender arm to hide her eyes from
the dreadful death she believes so near.
An instant's silence follows. Fatigue
and sleep weigh on the man, body and
spirit. Cleofas throws herself against
the door, it swings out with her into
freedom.
* x s;
Appolyer Longley's dreams had been
full of enchanting visions of coquettish
girls appearing under different forms,
but all bearing the name of Cleofas. So
restless was he in consequence, that he
had risen early to try the famous counter
Irritant of the chase.
To have the real Cloofas run into his
arms, to have her point gaspingly to a
fleeing figure a few yards away, and to
bring his rifle to his shoulder, were all
parts of a lively and interesting mo-
ment.
His voice rang out with pleasant firm-
noss:
"Hold on, pard."
The man ran on. A little spirit of opal
smoke rose on the air, and the figure be-
came a exampled brown bundle on the
brown earth.
"I'll go bring him in, Miss Cleofas,"
said Longley, cheerfully, and then he
caught the girl about the waist and car-
ried her tenderly into the house, Forth-
with Cleofas' speech had failed and her
eyes shone darkly into a face as white
as
milk.
It was thirty amply surveyed miles
from the sheep•shearieg at Grants to San
Miguel, but Lougley's tough little Navajo
pony "couldn't sleep nowhere else" but
in the all out -doors corral of Don Vicente,
At least, so his master said. But this
Saturday night the shearing was finished:.
The last scared, homely, jagged little
sheet had a "caped the shears, and was
huddled under the lee of the mesa, for
when the Lord tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb, He forgets New Mexico, and
the top of Mount Taylor supplies an icy
variety.
The great brown bags of fleece were
tied and marked, and piled on the plat-
form for the east -bound freight. The
shearers were eating and drinking mon-
strously about their eamp fire on the
malpais, across the Puorco.
Appolyor had a good season's *age in
his bolt, but his spirits were low as he
turned his tired pony loose in the corral
at the Ortiz ranch.
"En I said they wasn't gritty," he
mutter; "en she knows it, ett, of course,
she won't hev me. Laws 1 I wudden't
either."
The door opens and °loofas °ernes out.
"Oh. it is the Senor '!'awn," she cries,
not very loudly ; "'is it not. very nine.
luck for you to be here. It, is a fiesta,"
"Hullo, is that so? What for?" stam-
triers Tom, who has never been called.
Tawn before,
"'My cousin, Luz, she marrying Juan,"
said Clloofas, looking down.
"A wedding ! Oh, Lord !" groaned.
Longley,
""You just like Spanish girl, Senor
Tawn. No grit, no ?"
hisLofangley turned his head sharply.
There was the dawn of a great hope in
ce..
"Why, Cleofas, darlin'," his voice
cracked and broke.
"You not ask me marrying you ?"
whispered Cleofas.
It was always a matter of discussion in
after years where the courage of Cleofas
came in, but Appolyer Longley never had.
any doubts.
A Down -Trodden Race.
First burglar—The deception there is
in this worldp almost makes rue lose my
faith in human nature.
Second burglar—What is up now ?
First burglar—I had a break all fixed
for a house up on the hill, and when ev-
erything
verything was ready and I got there,
blowed if there wasn't a smallpox cordon
the door.
Second burglar—And that drove you.
off?
First burglar—Yes • but that isn't the
worst of it. I found to -day that they
had got onto my game and only put the
oard on to keep me off., That's the way
we poor fellows are cheated out of our
living. It's enough to make us lose all
faith in human nature.
The use of slang words and phrases
should never be indulged in, either in
public or private.
•
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