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"Then let me tell you what you
haven't suspected. You have come be
tween Nancy Selter and the man
whom she really loves. It was to him
that she went with the miserable
story of what an unjust world calls
your shame."
It crushed her as I feared it would.
For a long- time she sat with her face
hidden her hands, and her sobs
were so many dagger-thrusts for me.
When she lifted her eyes to mine
there was the light of a new pur
pose in them.
"I must g-o away from hereat
once," she said "I should have gone
at first. I would have gone, if I had
not been afraid"
"I know. But you may trust An
gus. And it is for him that I must
plead, Winifred. He knows the worst,
now, and since he loves you the ver
dict of an uncharitable world is
nothing to him. Won't you give him
leave to speak to you, Winifred?"
She started back with a little cry
of anguish.
"You speak of shame, and it is you
who tempt me!" she said, in sor
rowful reproach. "That would be
shame, indeedshame and sin. You
say you know the facts. Are you
quite sure you know all of them?"
"Let me tell you what I know, and
you shall say if it be the truth. Two
years ago the nameless one had a
business engagement which domi
ciled him in a village in New Hamp
shire. While there he met a young
girl, an orphan, whose father had
left her a modest competence. I
know not if it were for the sake of
the money that he wooed and won
her, and was willing to dare the con
sequences of a crime punishable by
law. But the thing was done, and
the crime was scarcely committed
before another woman came with a
child in her arms to claim him as
her lawful husband. He fled, like the
coward that he was, and the young
girl's people connived at his escape
to bury the shame of it. And since,
the girl-wife who was no wife has
paid the penalty of a sin that was
not hers. That is what I learned
through a friend of mine in Massa
chusetts who has known the man
and the evil heart of him from his
youth up. Was my informant cor
rect, Winifred?"
She had heard me through with
out flinching, and her eyes met mine
steadily.
"Not entirely correct," she said,
with a hardness in her voice which
I had never heard before. "Bitter as
it would be, I could almost wish he
were. 'Wooed and won*, you said,
but that is hardly fair toto the
young woman. There were constrain
ing circumstances her guardian was
urgentstrangely urgent, it seemed
to her at the time."
"Why should he have been?" I
queried. "Surely, the most ordinary
inquiry would have shown the 'young
man up in his true character."
"There were reasons why the in
quiry was not made why any past
of his, however despicable, would not
have weighed an ounce in the scale.
You said that the young woman's
father had left her a competence.
That is true and it is also true that
her guardian hadhad"
I began dimly to see the drift of
it and supplied the reluctant word.
"Had stolen it. Go on."
"There was a chance for him to re
trieve, through a speculation to which
the other man, as the chief engineer
of the Improvement company, held
the key He was willing to sell the
keyat a price and the price was
paid
"I understand the price was the
young woman, herself. Is that the
only inaccuracy in my friend's story?"
"No there is another. You say
there was a mock marriage, and so
there was but it was the first one.
The poor girl with the child in her
arms has that shame to bear."
"What!then \ou are"
"So far as a scarcely completed
marriage ceremony can make me so,
I am Herbert Wvkamp's lawful wife."
She left me at that, and it was a
full week, and many things had hap
pened, before I could bring myself
to tell Macpherson. I did it at last,
and he heard me through patiently.
"That settles it," he said, soberly
"and I'm too glad for her sake to be
sorry for my own. The thing is bit
ter enough without the shame and,
somehow, Jack, I have a feeling that
my love could never have made that
up to her They can drive me out
now, as soon as they get ready. I'll
go without a kick."
"She is going," I ventured.
"Is she?but, of course, she would.
Then I must stay. There must be no
chance for the evil tongue to wag."
"I thought you would say that. Is
that Selter coming up?"
There was a heavy step on the
stair, and Macpherson listened.
"No, that isn't Jake," he said. "I
wonder who it is at this time of
night?"
We were not left long in doubt.
The door opened presently to admit
a man* whom Angus knew and I did
not. He got up, greeted the incomer
with a hearty handshake, and intro
duced him.
"Shake hands with Dick Burt, Hal
cott. Dick's the man I was legging
for for sheriff when Ijyrote^you to
i ^VH'*
w^m j^^^aKfBHwatwwii
The Trouble on the Torolito. fc
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.
(Copyright, UM, bjr Francii lomd*
come up to the Torolito
"I'VE GOT A WARRANT
MAC"
How are
things with you, Dick? Who are you
after up here?"
The big man with the bushman
beard seemed singularly embarrassed.
"I'd rather be shot, Mac," he
blurted out "d4 if I wouldn't. But
I've got a warrant for you."
"For me? What have I been do-
ing?" Macpherson sat down to laugh
the easier.
"Not a thing on God's green earth
to be ashamed of, I know, Mac but
this cussed ingineer for the Glenlivat
people comes to the front and swears
FOR YOU.
out a warrant against you for blow
ing up his coffer-dam. I've got to
take you, and I'd rather be shot, as I
say."
Macpherson got upon his feet rath
er unsteadily. "That's the thanks I
get for saving his miserable life," he
said. Then he thrust out his hand:
"Good-by, Jack. I'll be out on bond
in a day or two, and when I get back
you'll hear something drop. Come
on, Burt duty's duty. You don't
need to pack a gun when you come
after me."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP.
Macpherson's trial was set for the
October term of court, and I was not
without the hope of being able to go
to the fort in term time to appear
for him. The case was not as simple
as it seemed. Wykamp's evidence
would be difficult to set aside and
only those who knew Macpherson
would be able to escape the suspicion
which pointed naturally to the man
whom the land company's scheme
would dispossess. There were two or
three ways to clear Angus, but just
how to do it without implicating Sel
ter was a problem. As a last resort,
I determined to bring the Tennessee
an to book and this determination
was clinched when Selter refused to
come to the rescue of his own mo
tion. I put it to him conditionally,
asking him if he would make a depo
sition and take his chances of escape
if it should become necessary to save
Mac from paying the penalty in his
stead.
"I reckon ye wouldn't hardly expect
a man to do that ther', would ye, Mr.
Halcott?" he said, when I had laid
the matter before him. "Ez you say,
Mac's been a powerful good friend to
me, an' all that, but ther's limits,
ain't ther'?"
I said yes, and did not urge him,
but I made out my case for Angus
with a ruthless alternative reserve.
If I couldn't clear him without involv
ing Selter, the Tennesseean should
pay the price.
In the meantime, matters went on
the even tenor of their way in the
valley. For a purpose of my own, a
purpose which detailed itself at some
length in a technical correspondence
with my legal partners in Denver, I
dissuaded WTmifred
from leaving the
valley nay, more I even succeeded
in convincing her that it was her duty
to take the Valley Head school for
the fall term. She did it did it under
protest, I fancy but that mattered
not so long as my end was subserved.
Not to make a mystery of it here, I
was determined to set her free, le
gally, and it was a strong point in
her case to have her resident within
rifleshot of her husband's camp and
ignored by him. There was but one
plea which could be set up and sus
tained against Wykamp, but the evi
dence of that was not lacking. Nan
no longer went about her work with
a laugh and a gibe for all comers.
She hid herself, as is the wont of
such stricken creatures.
Now that it is all over, I willingly
confess that I had serious doubts as
to my ability to persuade Winifred
to appear in court in her own behalf
doubts which would have been con
victions had I known her half so well
as I thought I did. For her the in
complete marriage was a bond not
to be set aside by any decree of court,
and I ought to have known it from
the beginning. Bad as he was Wy
kamp was still her husband, and I did
her an injustice by daring to hope
that his added sin would make her
forget it.
It was in the latter part of Septem
ber that the Glenlivat dam was com
pleted, and the great canal with its
laterals was ready to receive the
water. The "turning on" was set for
the first day of October, and there
was to be some fitting celebration of
the event. A rude barrack for the
i
warn
|THE PREffCETOK TTKldST
accommodation of the invited guests
had been built on the slope below the
engineer's camp, and there was to be
a stockholders* special train from
Denver, and a barbecue, and after
ward a brass band auction sale of
some of the choicer tracts of the
company's land.
The morning of the last Sunday in
September dawned bright and clear.
A hunting party coming from North
Park had stopped over night at the
settlement, and one of its members,
a young clergyman from the east,
held a religious service in the school
house. As I learned afterward, the
young man had no lack of hearers.
Anything in the way of a religious
meeting was a novelty in the seques
tered valley, and the settlement
turned out almost to a man. Wini
fred went with Mrs. Selter Angus
was there with his cowboys, and
there was even a goodly sprinkling of
the workmen from the engineer's
camp.
For reasons of my own which were
not grounded in any cynical preju
dice, I did not go. To tell the truth,
I was growing anxious about Selter.
There was a mystery connected with
his movements reaching back to a
certain evening when I chanced to see
him coming down from the northern
gulch beyond the h6g-back with a
burden which he carried as one car
ries a sick child. The following
morning I had found a new-made
graveor at least a place where
something had been freshly buried
in the embankment of the great
canal and when my morning stroll
up the gorge beyond the hog-back
ended at the door of Wykamp's pow
der magazine. I had warned Angus
to be prepared to prove an alibi at
any hour of the day or night. As a
corollary to all this I watched Selter
beagle-wise.
On the Sunday morning, therefore,
a small thing kept me from going to
the schoolhouse with Winifred and
Mrs. Selter. It was a fact brought
out by my field glass. On the higher
slopes of the hog-back I had chanc*ed
to descry a moving speck making its
way westward toward the upper can
yon in the object glass of the binoc
ular it defined itself as a man zig
zagging across the ridge with a heavy
burden of some kind on his back It
was Selter, and the mystery might
then have pointed to its own solution
if I had not been so deeply engrossed
in Macpherson's affair. The time for
the trial was drawing near, and if I
watched Selter like a paid shadower
of men, it was chiefly because I
feared he might disappear before the
critical moment. This going afield
with a backload had*5
the look of it.
Doubtless he was preparing a hiding
place somewhere in the mountains to
which he could retreat at need.
The schoolhouse meeting had be
gun when I lost sight of the moving
speck and lighted my pipe to weigh
the promisings of an attempt to fol
low Selter. From my chair on the
porch I could hear the singing quite
distinctly above the murmur of the
river in its bed across the road. The
autumn storms were delayed, and the
weather for a fortnight had been
cool. In consequence the water was
low and its thunder was softened un
til the cataract pouring over the
waste weir of the completed dam Was
clearly audible. Up among the west
ern peaks the clouds were gather
ing and I remember thinking that
Wykamp must be relieved to know
that the season for cloudbursts was
fairly over for the year.
The thought had scarcely taken
shape when the man himself came
riding by. As once before, anxiety
was in his face, but this time his gaze
was not upon the river. It was fixed
upon the cloud wraiths hanging over
the western peaks, and he rode as one
who lets his horse find out the way.
The hither shoulder of the hog-back
had scarcely hidden him before I
heard a stir in the house and the gen
tle closing of a door. A moment
later I saw Nan making her way
across the upper field, and thought
I divined her purpose. She had seen
the engineer pass the house had
guessed that he was on his way to
the dam, and had taken this chance,
her last chance it might be, of find
ing him alone to plead once again for
justice.
It seemed a pity that the girl
should have to fight such a hopeless
battle alone. I know not, nor shall
ever know, if she believed that he was
free to marry her. But such poor
amends as money may make should
at least be hers and at the apex of
this thought I determined to follow
her, and to do what a man and a law
yer might do to help her.
When I came in sight of the high
wall of masonry cutting the upper
canyon across, the thunder was a-roll
in the upper air. I could hear the
mutter and growl of it, and the vivid
sun brightness of the day, and the
clear arch of the sky, with no
other hint of a storm abroad, gave
it a weird efEect. The water of the
diminishing torrent was pouring over
the waste weir and, as on that night
when I had crept trembling across
the flume bridge, the engineer was
perched upon his barrier, gazing
down at the flood.
Nan was on the trail below, just
where Macpherson had drawn rein on
the night of the explosion, and when
I came in sight she was calling to
Wykamp. I was too far away to hear
what she was saying, and the thunder
of the waste weir must have made
her words inaudible to the engineer
but her impassioned gestures were
eloquent. She was pleading with him
or warning him, I know not which,
and while I looked Wykamp signed
assent and turned to retrace his
steps to the nearest abutment.
I thought it might be as well to
hold aloof until the time for inter
ference should be fully ripe, and
climbed to a perch on the steep slope
_..
f^
'^f^
THtJBSDAT, StABCH V, XlfoS.
where I should be out of their sight
when they met. None the less, I
watched the engineer narrowly, and
when he stopped midway of the dam
in the attitude of one listening in
tently, I listened, too. Above the
thunder of the waste a hoarser roar
filled the air, coming suddenly but
persisting like the sustained jar of a
distant explosion. Like the lion's
roar, the sound once heard is unmis
takable. It was a cloudburst, and the
test of the great wall of masonry
was fairly upon it.
Wykamp hesitated but an instant,
and in that instant a man darte'd out
of the mouth of the outlet tunnel on
the opposite side of the canyon and
began to climb the mountain side as
one who flies danger. It was Jacob
Selter, and I took it he had been try
ing to ambush the engineer. He, too,
had heard the ominous roar of the
oncoming flood, and whatever his ob
ject had been he had apparently
abandoned it to seek safety. It is
doubtful if Wykamp saw him. The
man in the engineerthere is a man
hidden in whatsoever outward husk
of depravity poor humanity walks
abroadwas alive at last, and he was
racing down in great leaps and
bounds toward the girl standing in
the very shadow of the towering wall.
While I looked, he reached her, gath
ered her in his arms and carried her
swiftly aside and up the hither slope,
and when he finally stumbled and fell
with her there was a margin of safety
behind them.
I held my breath and my heart
skipped a beat when I beheld the
dark wall of water, brown and debris
laden, rushing down the upper can
is on upon the great stone barrier.
It seemed incredible that any work of
man could withstand the impact of
such a terrible battering ram and I
climbed still higher, though my perch
was well above the level of the reser
voir. The engineer had more cour
age, or a better confidence in his own
work. He had risen and lifted Nan
to her feet, and together they stood
and watched the huge brown wall of
water leap high in air to fling itse,lf
over the stone coping of the dam.
The masonry stood the shock like a
wall of living rock. The brown cata
ract choked the waste weir and
poured many feet deep over the top
of the dam, filling the channel below
until at its maximum the foaming
torrent was lapping at the feet of
the man and the woman standing on
the half-buried bowlder on the hither
slope, but they did not move.
It was while the flood was roaring
its loudest that I chanced to lift my
eyes to the opposite cliff where Sel
ter had disappeared. To my horror
I saw him plunging recklessly down
the declivity toward the submerged
dam, and his frenzied yells came to
me above the clamor of the waters.
Not until that great day when the
books shall be opened will his motive
be revealed, but the pointing of it
was clear enough. He was making
frantic haste to reach the couple in
the ravine below, and striving to an
ticipate by shriek and wild gestures
the warning he was bringing.
When he reached the stream's
brink there was but one way to cross,
and he took it without an instant's
pause. The yellow-red arch of the
flood springing clear from the edge
of the dam was. subsiding, but it was
at least two feet deep over the ma
sonry when he plunged in and be
gan to wade across. For a dozen pal
pitant heart-beats I thought he would
make it and then the end came.
A huge column of mud and water
shot up behind the dam like a mighty
geyser-jet there was a deep growl
of imprisoned thunder a nauseating
shock that seemed to kill the very
air and the great wall of masonry
toppled outward and downward,
crumbling like sand in the forefront
of the flood that gathered itself for
the onrush to the doomed valley be
low. I closed my eyes in the sicken
ing horror of it, and when I opened
them I was alone with the clamorous
waters The bowlder where Wykamp
and Nan had been standing was gone,
and in its bed the angry flood was
cutting a wider and still wider chan
nel in the loose shale of the canyon
slope.
CHAPTEE XIV.
"BETTER THE END OF A THING-"
The flood subsided quickly, almost
as quickly as it had risen, and I
made my way down the canyon in
the track of it, nerveless and horror
shaken. The sun was shining as
brightly as before, and the Sabbath
stillness was in the air. It seemed
inconceivable that, but a few mo
ments before, the great ravine had
been the scene of a tragedy in which
three lives had gone Out like match
flares in a tornado. In the basin be
tween the mountain and the hog
back, flumes, ditches and trail had
disappeared, and the very face of
nature was changed. Where Mac
pherson's placer bar had been there
was now a gullying eddy and a new
bar had formed farther down the
stream.
I was obliged to head the northern
gulch to reach the gap in the hog
back, and when the strath of the set
tlement came in view I scarcely recog
nized it. The tidal wave released by
the crumbling dam had been checked
for an instant by the narrow gap in
the ridge, and its charge upon the
tilled lands beyond had been like the
bursting of a second barrier. I can
compare the devastation to nothing
but the track of a crevasse on the
lower Mississippi. Selter's holding
and the two farms adjoining, were
swept clean, not only of buildings
and fences, but of the very son in the
fields. Ditches were gone, boundaries
obliterated, the great barrack below
the engineer's camp was demolished,
and as far as the eye could reach
down the valley the main canal was
filled and leveled until its course
could scarcely be traced. But for
the gathering at the schoolhouse on
the knoll, the loss of life must have
been terrible and as it was, I could
scarcely hope that the tragedy of
which I had been an awe-stricken
witness was the only one.
When I topped the shoulder of the
hog-back the schoolhouse knoll and
the bit of road beyond the flood level
were black with hurrying figures.
Macpherson was the first to meet me
as I picked my way across what, a
few minutes earlier, had been the
Selter infield. His greeting was an
incoherent upbubbling of thankful
ness, since he had taken it for grant
ed that I had been swept away with
the Selter house. There was no time
for explanations, and I made none.
Angus told me where to find his
team and buckboard, and, asking me
to look after the women at the
schoolhouse, hurried away to organ
ize a rescue party. I found the team,
did what there was to be done, and
when the excitement had a little sub
sided took Winifred in the buckboard
and set out to find shelter for her
and for myself. We found accommo
dation at the Byres ranch, whose
house was farthest removed from the
scene of devastation, and there con
tented ourselves as best we might
while the details of the disaster
trickled in by littles. It was soon dis
covered that only Selter and his
daughter and the engineer were miss
ing, but it was not until the evening
of the following day that Angus
came to make his report. I saw him
coming and went a few rods down
the road to meet him.
"Two, sure, and a possible third,"
he said, anticipating my query.
"They're all accounted for except
three, and two of the three were
found on the bar below the engi
neer's camp this afternoon."
"Wykamp?" I asked.
"Yes Wykamp and Nan Selter.
They must have been overtaken to
gether somewhere."
"They were," I said and I told
him the story of the tragedy in the
canyon so far as it touched these
two.
"You say he tried to save her?
There was a bit of the man in him,
after all, wasn't there?"
Angus had shown no disposition
to go up to the farmhouse, where
Winifred was sitting on the porch,
and we had drawn aside to sit on
the embankment of the dry Byres
ditch.
"He did save her," I rejoined "she
would have gone down in the first
rush of the wave over the top of the
dam if he hadn't reached her just in
the nick of time and carried her be
yond the sweep of it."
"And after that, they stopped to
look at it, you say. That was the en
gineer in him betting on his own
game to the very last."
"They were safe enough, so far as
the cloudburst was concerned," I
amended and then: "Have you
found Selter?"
"No and that's a bit curious. His
wife says he went hunting on the
north mountain early in the morn-
ing."
'You'll never find himalive."
"What! How do you know?"
"Answer me one question, and
then I'll tell you. Does anyone sus
pect that it was more than, a cloud
burst?"
"Why, of course not. It was a
cloudburst. Kilgore and the Barnes
boys have been up the canyon beyond
the dam, and the track of it can be
traced for two miles."
"True but if that were all the dam
would be standing at this moment,
Angus. It did stand the cloudburst,
and the pressure on was decreasing
rapidly when it went out."
"The mischief, you say! How do
you know all this, Jack?"
"As I have told you, I was within
50 yards of the dam when it went
out. And Jacob Selter was trying to
cross it!"
"Good Lord! But what wrecked
it?"
"Selter, I think. There was an ex
plosion as if a 12-inch shell had
struck just above the masonry. He
had fired his infernal machine from
the mouth of the outlet tunnel, and
was scrambling up to be out of
harm's way when he saw Nan and
Wykamp below the dam. When the
shell exploded he was trying to
reach themfor Nan's sake, I sup-
pose."
Macpherson smoked his pipe quite
to extinction before he spoke again.
Then he said: "Jack, I'm a little
tangled on the ethics of this thing.
Could it do any possible harm to any
body if we keep this thing to our
selves?"
"I don't see that it can. Jake has
paid the penalty. He's well out of
reach of any court of ours."
"That's what I was thinking. And
if we publish it, it'll likely make it
harder for a poor, miserable, desti
tute widow woman."
"I'm with you," I agreed. "And
now for your plans. I don't think
the Glenlivat people will trouble you
for a year or two, and the suit*
against you will fall to the ground
without Wykamp's evidence. Will
you go quietly back to your cow
punching and make hay while the
sun shines?"
His smile was inscrutable. "If it's
all the same to you, I think I'll go
on with the dirt-washing on my
placer claim."
"But you can't your bar's gone."
The mysterious smile held its own.
"It's a pretty spiteful wind that
blows nobody good, Jack. As you
say, the bar's gone, but there is an
other one formed just below. I went
up there and washed out a few pan
fuls to-day, and this is what I found."
He showed me a handful of dull,
i
Mr
w^ww^w^^^^
yellow nuggets from the size of a
mustard seed to that of a pea.
"Then you've struck it rich at last!
I congratulate you, my dear boy."
"Thanks though it may not be a
bonanzaprobably isn't. But maybe
there'll be enough to stand us all on.
our feet again. If there is anything
in it, I'm going into the stock busi-
ness."
"You're in that now, aren't you?"
"No the other kind of stock. The
Glenlivat people will be mighty tired
when they hear of this, and they'll
sell out cheap, most of them. I want
to buy and own 51 per cent, of the
stock. If there is ever another syn
dicate in the Torolito it'll be Angus
Macpherson & Co."
"Good and the company?"
"You know who the company will
be and that's where you come in.
You've got to think up some scheme
to take care of her while I'm making
the turn."
"It is already thought up, proposed
and accepted. She goes with me to
my sister in Denver, poco tiempo."
"Jack, old man, you're a god in the
car'"he wrung my hand till I
winced "If you go off and die be
fore you see me through on this, I'll
never forgive you
"If I die, I'll leave it as a bequest
to Letitia, and she will see you
through She is a born matchmaker,
"SHE GOES WITH ME TO MT SIS-
TER S
as you have occasion to know, if my
memory serves me."
"Oh, you be dd!" said Mac, his
eyes filling. He had not sworn at me
for many days, and it was hearten
ing. "When will you go?"
"To-morrow, if you'll lend us the
team and the buckboard. Neither of
us have more than the clothes we
stand in, you know."
He was silent for a good while, and
then he said'
"May I go up to the house and see
her?just for a minute? You can
do the chaperon act"
"No." "For a half-minute, then?"
"No. We both know the circum
stances, and that she can't really
mourn him. But we mustn't forget
that he was her husband."
"That's so. Good-by, and God
bless you, old man." He wrung my
hand again, and was gone and I did
not return to the farm house until
I had fairly lost sight of his broad
back at the turn of the road.
And on the morrow we left the
scarred valley, Winifred and I, and
caught the train at the Fort, and
were welcomed with open arms by
Letitia, who was so grateful for the
added odd pounds of flesh that I
brought back in my proper person
that she was lovingly gracious to
Winifred. And later, when she had
come to hope more for me, and to
love the schoolmistress for her own
sake, my part was still harder to
play for, as I have hinted, my sister
is a born maker of matches. Indeed,
I may as well confess that I should
have made a sorry failure of it if I
had not warned Letitia off by telling
her the truth, and sd made her Mac
pherson's advocate instead of mine.
Long before the snows came to
stop the work on the placer bar, An
gus fulfilled his own prophecy. I
acted as his broker in Denver, and
went gunning from time to time for
Glenlivat stock. It was pot-hunting,
for the greater part. The stock
holders were only too willing to be
out of it at any price, and the last
block of stock cost us little more
than the transfer fee. Angus was
jubilant, as he had a right to be and
when he was once more the king of
the Torolito, he wrote me at length,
detailing his plans. There was to be
a new house, and a great stock farm
with ancestored beasts, and a few
more settlers picked and chosen from
among our friends, for all of which
the placer bar promised to be re
sponsibleand kept its promise.
The spring was well afoot on the
eastern plains when next we saw the
sheltered valley nestling between its
snow-crowned mountains, and trav
ersed by the sparkling waters of the
Torolito. But for the lower sweep
of the snow-caps, it might have
seemed but days instead of months
since we left it together, Winifred
and I. We had driven up from the
fort, she to take her summer school
again, so Letitia had assured me, and
I to try if the dry upland air might
give me yet another reprieve and a
little longer lease of life.
It was high noon, when we emerged
from th cliff-shadowed portal of the
Six-Mile and looked once more upon
the scene which had grown dear to
both of us. Winifed drew a long
breath and her eyes were shining.
I had thought her beautiful before,
but the winter in Denver, with the
crushing burden lifted forever, had
made her more than beautiful.
"The dear old valley!" she said.
"It is like coming home to get back
to it. Is that Mr. Macpherson's new
house?"
-J
i