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diff --git a/15192.txt b/15192.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c89743b --- /dev/null +++ b/15192.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1302 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Salomy Jane, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Salomy Jane + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: February 27, 2005 [EBook #15192] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALOMY JANE *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, William Flis, and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Illustration] + +SALOMY JANE + +BY + +BRET HARTE + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +HARRISON FISHER AND + +ARTHUR I. KELLER + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE + +1910 + + +COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY BRET HARTE + +COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + +COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +_Published October 1910_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + I A KISS AND AN ESCAPE 1 + + II THE LADY'S REFLECTIONS 19 + + III THE KISS REPEATED 35 + + IV ANOTHER ESCAPE 59 + +A KISS AND AN ESCAPE + +[Illustration] + + + + + +I + + +Only one shot had been fired. It had gone wide of its mark,--the +ringleader of the Vigilantes,--and had left Red Pete, who had fired +it, covered by their rifles and at their mercy. For his hand had been +cramped by hard riding, and his eye distracted by their sudden onset, +and so the inevitable end had come. He submitted sullenly to his +captors; his companion fugitive and horse-thief gave up the protracted +struggle with a feeling not unlike relief. Even the hot and revengeful +victors were content. They had taken their men alive. At any +time during the long chase they could have brought them down by a +rifle-shot, but it would have been unsportsmanlike, and have ended +in a free fight, instead of an example. And, for the matter of that, +their doom was already sealed. Their end, by a rope and a tree, +although not sanctified by law, would have at least the deliberation +of justice. It was the tribute paid by the Vigilantes to that order +which they had themselves disregarded in the pursuit and capture. Yet +this strange logic of the frontier sufficed them, and gave a certain +dignity to the climax. + +"Ef you've got anything to say to your folks, say it _now_, and say it +quick," said the ringleader. + +Red Pete glanced around him. He had been run to earth at his own cabin +in the clearing, whence a few relations and friends, mostly women and +children, non-combatants, had outflowed, gazing vacantly at the twenty +Vigilantes who surrounded them. All were accustomed to scenes of +violence, blood-feud, chase, and hardship; it was only the suddenness +of the onset and its quick result that had surprised them. They looked +on with dazed curiosity and some disappointment; there had been no +fight to speak of--no spectacle! A boy, nephew of Red Pete, got upon +the rain-barrel to view the proceedings more comfortably; a tall, +handsome, lazy Kentucky girl, a visiting neighbor, leaned against the +doorpost, chewing gum. Only a yellow hound was actively perplexed. +He could not make out if a hunt were just over or beginning, and ran +eagerly backwards and forwards, leaping alternately upon the captives +and the captors. + +The ringleader repeated his challenge. Red Pete gave a reckless laugh +and looked at his wife. + +At which Mrs. Red Pete came forward. It seemed that she had much to +say, incoherently, furiously, vindictively, to the ringleader. His +soul would roast in hell for that day's work! He called himself a man, +skunkin' in the open and afraid to show himself except with a crowd +of, other "Kiyi's" around a house of women and children. Heaping +insult upon insult, inveighing against his low blood, his ancestors, +his dubious origin, she at last flung out a wild taunt of his invalid +wife, the insult of a woman to a woman, until his white face grew +rigid, and only that Western-American fetich of the sanctity of +sex kept his twitching fingers from the lock of his rifle. Even her +husband noticed it, and with a half-authoritative "Let up on that, +old gal," and a pat of his freed left hand on her back, took his last +parting. The ringleader, still white under the lash of the woman's +tongue, turned abruptly to the second captive. "And if _you_'ve got +anybody to say 'good-by' to, now's your chance." + +The man looked up. Nobody stirred or spoke. He was a stranger there, +being a chance confederate picked up by Red Pete, and known to no one. +Still young, but an outlaw from his abandoned boyhood, of which father +and mother were only a forgotten dream, he loved horses and +stole them, fully accepting the frontier penalty of life for the +interference with that animal on which a man's life so often depended. +But he understood the good points of a horse, as was shown by the +one he bestrode--until a few days before the property of Judge +Boompointer. This was his sole distinction. + +The unexpected question stirred him for a moment out of the attitude +of reckless indifference, for attitude it was, and a part of his +profession. But it may have touched him that at that moment he was +less than his companion and his virago wife. However, he only shook +his head. As he did so his eye casually fell on the handsome girl by +the doorpost, who was looking at him. The ringleader, too, may have +been touched by his complete loneliness, for _he_ hesitated. At +the same moment he saw that the girl was looking at his friendless +captive. + +A grotesque idea struck him. + +"Salomy Jane, ye might do worse than come yere and say 'good-by' to a +dying man, and him a stranger," he said. + +There seemed to be a subtle stroke of poetry and irony in this that +equally struck the apathetic crowd. It was well known that Salomy +Jane Clay thought no small potatoes of herself, and always held off +the local swain with a lazy nymph-like scorn. Nevertheless, she +slowly disengaged herself from the doorpost, and, to everybody's +astonishment, lounged with languid grace and outstretched hand towards +the prisoner. The color came into the gray reckless mask which the +doomed man wore as her right hand grasped his left, just loosed by his +captors. Then she paused; her shy, fawn-like eyes grew bold, and fixed +themselves upon him. She took the chewing-gum from her mouth, wiped +her red lips with the back of her hand, by a sudden lithe spring +placed her foot on his stirrup, and, bounding to the saddle, threw her +arms about his neck and pressed a kiss upon his lips. + +[Illustration] + +They remained thus for a hushed moment--the man on the threshold of +death, the young woman in the fullness of youth and beauty--linked +together. Then the crowd laughed; in the audacious effrontery of the +girl's act the ultimate fate of the two men was forgotten. She slipped +languidly to the ground; _she_ was the focus of all eyes,--she +only! The ringleader saw it and his opportunity. He shouted: "Time's +up--Forward!" urged his horse beside his captives, and the next moment +the whole cavalcade was sweeping over the clearing into the darkening +woods. + +Their destination was Sawyer's Crossing, the headquarters of the +committee, where the council was still sitting, and where both +culprits were to expiate the offense of which that council had already +found them guilty. They rode in great and breathless haste,--a haste +in which, strangely enough, even the captives seemed to join. That +haste possibly prevented them from noticing the singular change which +had taken place in the second captive since the episode of the kiss. +His high color remained, as if it had burned through his mask of +indifference; his eyes were quick, alert, and keen, his mouth half +open as if the girl's kiss still lingered there. And that haste had +made them careless, for the horse of the man who led him slipped in +a gopher-hole, rolled over, unseated his rider, and even dragged the +bound and helpless second captive from Judge Boompointer's favorite +mare. In an instant they were all on their feet again, but in that +supreme moment the second captive felt the cords which bound his arms +had slipped to his wrists. By keeping his elbows to his sides, and +obliging the others to help him mount, it escaped their notice. By +riding close to his captors, and keeping in the crush of the throng, +he further concealed the accident, slowly working his hands downwards +out of his bonds. Their way lay through a sylvan wilderness, mid-leg +deep in ferns, whose tall fronds brushed their horses' sides in their +furious gallop and concealed the flapping of the captive's loosened +cords. The peaceful vista, more suggestive of the offerings of nymph +and shepherd than of human sacrifice, was in a strange contrast to +this whirlwind rush of stern, armed men. The westering sun pierced +the subdued light and the tremor of leaves with yellow lances; birds +started into song on blue and dove-like wings, and on either side of +the trail of this vengeful storm could be heard the murmur of hidden +and tranquil waters. In a few moments they would be on the open ridge, +whence sloped the common turnpike to "Sawyer's," a mile away. It +was the custom of returning cavalcades to take this hill at headlong +speed, with shouts and cries that heralded their coming. They withheld +the latter that day, as inconsistent with their dignity; but, emerging +from the wood, swept silently like an avalanche down the slope. They +were well under way, looking only to their horses, when the second +captive slipped his right arm from the bonds and succeeded in grasping +the reins that lay trailing on the horse's neck. A sudden _vaquero_ +jerk, which the well-trained animal understood, threw him on his +haunches with his forelegs firmly planted on the slope. The rest of +the cavalcade swept on; the man who was leading the captive's horse +by the _riata_, thinking only of another accident, dropped the line to +save himself from being dragged backwards from his horse. The captive +wheeled, and the next moment was galloping furiously up the slope. + +It was the work of a moment; a trained horse and an experienced hand. +The cavalcade had covered nearly fifty yards before they could pull +up; the freed captive had covered half that distance uphill. The road +was so narrow that only two shots could be fired, and these broke dust +two yards ahead of the fugitive. They had not dared to fire low; the +horse was the more valuable animal. The fugitive knew this in his +extremity also, and would have gladly taken a shot in his own leg to +spare that of his horse. Five men were detached to recapture or kill +him. The latter seemed inevitable. But he had calculated his chances; +before they could reload he had reached the woods again; winding in +and out between the pillared tree trunks, he offered no mark. They +knew his horse was superior to their own; at the end of two hours they +returned, for he had disappeared without track or trail. The end was +briefly told in the "Sierra Record:"-- + +"Red Pete, the notorious horse-thief, who had so long eluded justice, +was captured and hung by the Sawyer's Crossing Vigilantes last week; +his confederate, unfortunately, escaped on a valuable horse belonging +to Judge Boompointer. The judge had refused one thousand dollars for +the horse only a week before. As the thief, who is still at large, +would find it difficult to dispose of so valuable an animal without +detection, the chances are against either of them turning up again." + + + + +THE LADY'S REFLECTIONS + +[Illustration] + + + + + +II + + +Salomy Jane watched the cavalcade until it had disappeared. Then she +became aware that her brief popularity had passed. Mrs. Red Pete, +in stormy hysterics, had included her in a sweeping denunciation of +the whole universe, possibly for simulating an emotion in which she +herself was deficient. The other women hated her for her momentary +exaltation above them; only the children still admired her as one who +had undoubtedly "canoodled" with a man "a-going to be hung"--a daring +flight beyond their wildest ambition. Salomy Jane accepted the change +with charming unconcern. She put on her yellow nankeen sunbonnet,--a +hideous affair that would have ruined any other woman, but which only +enhanced the piquancy of her fresh brunette skin,--tied the strings, +letting the blue-black braids escape below its frilled curtain behind, +jumped on her mustang with a casual display of agile ankles in shapely +white stockings, whistled to the hound, and waving her hand with a "So +long, sonny!" to the lately bereft but admiring nephew, flapped and +fluttered away in her short brown holland gown. + +Her father's house was four miles distant. Contrasted with the +cabin she had just quitted, it was a superior dwelling, with a long +"lean-to" at the rear, which brought the eaves almost to the ground +and made it look like a low triangle. It had a long barn and cattle +sheds, for Madison Clay was a "great" stockraiser and the owner of +a "quarter section." It had a sitting-room and a parlor organ, whose +transportation thither had been a marvel of "packing." These things +were supposed to give Salomy Jane an undue importance, but the +girl's reserve and inaccessibility to local advances were rather the +result of a cool, lazy temperament and the preoccupation of a large, +protecting admiration for her father, for some years a widower. For +Mr. Madison Clay's life had been threatened in one or two feuds,--it +was said, not without cause,--and it is possible that the pathetic +spectacle of her father doing his visiting with a shotgun may +have touched her closely and somewhat prejudiced her against the +neighboring masculinity. The thought that cattle, horses, and "quarter +section" would one day be hers did not disturb her calm. As for Mr. +Clay, he accepted her as housewifely, though somewhat "interfering," +and, being one of "his own womankind," therefore not without some +degree of merit. + +"Wot's this yer I'm hearin' of your doin's over at Red Pete's? +Honey-foglin' with a horse-thief, eh?" said Mr. Clay two days later at +breakfast. + +"I reckon you heard about the straight thing, then," said Salomy Jane +unconcernedly, without looking round. + +"What do you kalkilate Rube will say to it? What are you goin' to tell +_him_?" said Mr. Clay sarcastically. + +"Rube," or Reuben Waters, was a swain supposed to be favored +particularly by Mr. Clay. Salomy Jane looked up. + +"I'll tell him that when _he's_ on his way to be hung, I'll kiss +him,--not till then," said the young lady brightly. + +This delightful witticism suited the paternal humor, and Mr. Clay +smiled; but, nevertheless, he frowned a moment afterwards. + +"But this yer hoss-thief got away arter all, and that's a hoss of a +different color," he said grimly. + +Salomy Jane put down her knife and fork. This was certainly a new and +different phase of the situation. She had never thought of it before, +and, strangely enough, for the first time she became interested in the +man. "Got away?" she repeated. "Did they let him off?" + +"Not much," said her father briefly. "Slipped his cords, and going +down the grade pulled up short, just like a _vaquero_ agin a +lassoed bull, almost draggin' the man leadin' him off his hoss, and +then skyuted up the grade. For that matter, on that hoss o' Judge +Boompointer's he mout have dragged the whole posse of 'em down on +their knees ef he liked! Sarved 'em right, too. Instead of stringin' +him up afore the door, or shootin' him on sight, they must allow to +take him down afore the hull committee 'for an example.' 'Example' be +blowed! Ther' 's example enough when some stranger comes unbeknownst +slap onter a man hanged to a tree and plugged full of holes. _That's_ +an example, and _he_ knows what it means. Wot more do ye want? But +then those Vigilantes is allus clingin' and hangin' onter some mere +scrap o'the law they're pretendin' to despise. It makes me sick! Why, +when Jake Myers shot your ole Aunt Viney's second husband, and I laid +in wait for Jake afterwards in the Butternut Hollow, did _I_ tie him +to his hoss and fetch him down to your Aunt Viney's cabin 'for an +example' before I plugged him? No!" in deep disgust. "No! Why, I just +meandered through the wood, careless-like, till he comes out, and I +just rode up to him, and I said"-- + +But Salomy Jane had heard her father's story before. Even one's +dearest relatives are apt to become tiresome in narration. "I know, +dad," she interrupted; "but this yer man,--this hoss-thief,--did _he_ +get clean away without gettin' hurt at all?" + +"He did, and unless he's fool enough to sell the hoss he kin keep +away, too. So ye see, ye can't ladle out purp stuff about a 'dyin' +stranger' to Rube. He won't swaller it." + +"All the same, dad," returned the girl cheerfully, "I reckon to say +it, and say _more_; I'll tell him that ef _he_ manages to get away +too, I'll marry him--there! But ye don't ketch Rube takin' any such +risks in gettin' ketched, or in gettin' away arter!" + +Madison Clay smiled grimly, pushed back his chair, rose, dropped a +perfunctory kiss on his daughter's hair, and, taking his shotgun from +the corner, departed on a peaceful Samaritan mission to a cow who +had dropped a calf in the far pasture. Inclined as he was to Reuben's +wooing from his eligibility as to property, he was conscious that he +was sadly deficient in certain qualities inherent in the Clay family. +It certainly would be a kind of _mesalliance_. + +Left to herself, Salomy Jane stared a long while at the coffee-pot, +and then called the two squaws who assisted her in her household +duties, to clear away the things while she went up to her own room to +make her bed. Here she was confronted with a possible prospect of that +proverbial bed she might be making in her willfulness, and on which +she must lie, in the photograph of a somewhat serious young man of +refined features--Reuben Waters--stuck in her window-frame. Salomy +Jane smiled over her last witticism regarding him and enjoyed it, like +your true humorist, and then, catching sight of her own handsome face +in the little mirror, smiled again. But wasn't it funny about that +horse-thief getting off after all? Good Lordy! Fancy Reuben hearing he +was alive and going round with that kiss of hers set on his lips! She +laughed again, a little more abstractedly. And he had returned it like +a man, holding her tight and almost breathless, and he going to be +hung the next minute! Salomy Jane had been kissed at other times, by +force, chance, or stratagem. In a certain ingenuous forfeit game of +the locality known as "I'm a-pinin'," many had "pined" for a "sweet +kiss" from Salomy Jane, which she had yielded in a sense of honor and +fair play. She had never been kissed like this before--she would never +again; and yet the man was alive! And behold, she could see in the +mirror that she was blushing! + +She should hardly know him again. A young man with very bright eyes, +a flushed and sunburnt cheek, a kind of fixed look in the face, and +no beard; no, none that she could feel. Yet he was not at all like +Reuben, not a bit. She took Reuben's picture from the window, and +laid it on her work-box. And to think she did not even know this young +man's name! That was queer. To be kissed by a man whom she might never +know! Of course he knew hers. She wondered if he remembered it and +her. But of course he was so glad to get off with his life that he +never thought of anything else. Yet she did not give more than four or +five minutes to these speculations, and, like a sensible girl, thought +of something else. Once again, however, in opening the closet, she +found the brown holland gown she had worn on the day before; thought +it very unbecoming, and regretted that she had not worn her best gown +on her visit to Red Pete's cottage. On such an occasion she really +might have been more impressive. + + + + +THE KISS REPEATED + +[Illustration] + + + + + +III + + +When her father came home that night she asked him the news. No, they +had _not_ captured the second horse-thief, who was still at large. +Judge Boompointer talked of invoking the aid of the despised law. It +remained, then, to see whether the horse-thief was fool enough to try +to get rid of the animal. Red Pete's body had been delivered to his +widow. Perhaps it would only be neighborly for Salomy Jane to ride +over to the funeral. But Salomy Jane did not take to the suggestion +kindly, nor yet did she explain to her father that, as the other man +was still living, she did not care to undergo a second disciplining +at the widow's hands. Nevertheless, she contrasted her situation with +that of the widow with a new and singular satisfaction. It might have +been Red Pete who had escaped. But he had not the grit of the nameless +one. She had already settled his heroic quality. + +"Ye ain't harkenin' to me, Salomy." + +Salomy Jane started. + +"Here I'm askin' ye if ye've see that hound Phil Larrabee sneaking by +yer to-day?" + +Salomy Jane had not. But she became interested and self-reproachful +for she knew that Phil Larrabee was one of her father's enemies. "He +wouldn't dare to go by here unless he knew you were out," she said +quickly. + +"That's what gets me," he said, scratching his grizzled head. "I've +been kind o' thinkin' o' him all day, and one of them Chinamen said he +saw him at Sawyer's Crossing. He was a kind of friend o' Pete's wife. +That's why I thought yer might find out ef he'd been there." Salomy +Jane grew more self-reproachful at her father's self-interest in her +"neighborliness." "But that ain't all," continued Mr. Clay. "Thar was +tracks over the far pasture that warn't mine. I followed them, and +they went round and round the house two or three times, ez ef they +mout hev bin prowlin', and then I lost 'em in the woods again. It's +just like that sneakin' hound Larrabee to hev bin lyin' in wait for me +and afraid to meet a man fair and square in the open." + +"You just lie low, dad, for a day or two more, and let me do a little +prowlin'," said the girl, with sympathetic indignation in her dark +eyes. "Ef it's that skunk, I'll spot him soon enough and let you know +whar he's hiding." + +"You'll just stay where ye are, Salomy," said her father decisively. +"This ain't no woman's work--though I ain't sayin' you haven't got +more head for it than some men I know." Nevertheless, that night, +after her father had gone to bed, Salomy Jane sat by the open window +of the sitting-room in an apparent attitude of languid contemplation, +but alert and intent of eye and ear. It was a fine moonlit night. Two +pines near the door, solitary pickets of the serried ranks of distant +forest, cast long shadows like paths to the cottage, and sighed their +spiced breath in the windows. For there was no frivolity of vine or +flower round Salomy Jane's bower. The clearing was too recent, the +life too practical for vanities like these. But the moon added a vague +elusiveness to everything, softened the rigid outlines of the sheds, +gave shadows to the lidless windows, and touched with merciful +indirectness the hideous debris of refuse gravel and the gaunt scars +of burnt vegetation before the door. Even Salomy Jane was affected by +it, and exhaled something between a sigh and a yawn with the breath of +the pines. Then she suddenly sat upright. + +Her quick ear had caught a faint "click, click," in the direction +of the wood; her quicker instinct and rustic training enabled her to +determine that it was the ring of a horse's shoe on flinty ground; +her knowledge of the locality told her it came from the spot where +the trail passed over an outcrop of flint scarcely a quarter of a mile +from where she sat, and within the clearing. It was no errant "stock," +for the foot was _shod_ with iron; it was a mounted trespasser by +night, and boded no good to a man like Clay. + +She rose, threw her shawl over her head, more for disguise than +shelter, and passed out of the door. A sudden impulse made her seize +her father's shotgun from the corner where it stood,--not that she +feared any danger to herself, but that it was an excuse. She made +directly for the wood, keeping in the shadow of the pines as long as +she could. At the fringe she halted; whoever was there must pass her +before reaching the house. + +Then there seemed to be a suspense of all nature. Everything was +deadly still--even the moonbeams appeared no longer tremulous; soon +there was a rustle as of some stealthy animal among the ferns, +and then a dismounted man stepped into the moonlight. It was the +horse-thief--the man she had kissed! + +For a wild moment a strange fancy seized her usually sane intellect +and stirred her temperate blood. The news they had told her was _not_ +true; he had been hung, and this was his ghost! He looked as white and +spirit-like in the moonlight, dressed in the same clothes, as when she +saw him last. He had evidently seen her approaching, and moved quickly +to meet her. But in his haste he stumbled slightly; she reflected +suddenly that ghosts did not stumble, and a feeling of relief came +over her. And it was no assassin of her father that had been prowling +around--only this unhappy fugitive. A momentary color came into her +cheek; her coolness and hardihood returned; it was with a tinge of +sauciness in her voice that she said:-- + +"I reckoned you were a ghost." + +"I mout have been," he said, looking at her fixedly; "but I reckon I'd +have come back here all the same." + +"It's a little riskier comin' back alive," she said, with a levity +that died on her lips, for a singular nervousness, half fear and half +expectation, was beginning to take the place of her relief of a moment +ago. "Then it was _you_ who was prowlin' round and makin' tracks in +the far pasture?" + +"Yes; I came straight here when I got away." + +She felt his eyes were burning her, but did not dare to raise her own. +"Why," she began, hesitated, and ended vaguely. "_How_ did you get +here?" + +"You helped me!" + +"I?" + +"Yes. That kiss you gave me put life into me--gave me strength to get +away. I swore to myself I'd come back and thank you, alive or dead." + +Every word he said she could have anticipated, so plain the situation +seemed to her now. And every word he said she knew was the truth. Yet +her cool common sense struggled against it. + +"What's the use of your escaping, ef you're comin' back here to be +ketched again?" she said pertly. + +He drew a little nearer to her, but seemed to her the more awkward as +she resumed her self-possession. His voice, too, was broken, as if by +exhaustion, as he said, catching his breath at intervals:-- + +"I'll tell you. You did more for me than you think. You made another +man o' me. I never had a man, woman, or child do to me what you did. +I never had a friend--only a pal like Red Pete, who picked me up 'on +shares.' I want to quit this yer--what I'm doin'. I want to begin by +doin' the square thing to you"--He stopped, breathed hard, and then +said brokenly, "My hoss is over thar, staked out. I want to give him +to you. Judge Boompointer will give you a thousand dollars for him. I +ain't lyin'; it's God's truth! I saw it on the handbill agin a tree. +Take him, and I'll get away afoot. Take him. It's the only thing I can +do for you, and I know it don't half pay for what you did. Take it; +your father can get a reward for you, if you can't." + +Such were the ethics of this strange locality that neither the man who +made the offer nor the girl to whom it was made was struck by anything +that seemed illogical or indelicate, or at all inconsistent with +justice or the horse-thief's real conversion. Salomy Jane nevertheless +dissented, from another and weaker reason. + +"I don't want your hoss, though I reckon dad might; but you're just +starvin'. I'll get suthin'." She turned towards the house. + +"Say you'll take the hoss first," he said, grasping her hand. At +the touch she felt herself coloring and struggled, expecting perhaps +another kiss. But he dropped her hand. She turned again with a saucy +gesture, said, "Hol' on; I'll come right back," and slipped away, +the mere shadow of a coy and flying nymph in the moonlight, until she +reached the house. + +Here she not only procured food and whiskey, but added a long +dust-coat and hat of her father's to her burden. They would serve +as a disguise for him and hide that heroic figure, which she +thought everybody must now know as she did. Then she rejoined him +breathlessly. But he put the food and whiskey aside. + +"Listen," he said; "I've turned the hoss into your corral. You'll find +him there in the morning, and no one will know but that he got lost +and joined the other hosses." + +Then she burst out. "But you--_you_--what will become of you? You'll +be ketched!" + +"I'll manage to get away," he said in a low voice, "ef--ef"-- + +"Ef what?" she said tremblingly. + +"Ef you'll put the heart in me again,--as you did!" he gasped. + +She tried to laugh--to move away. She could do neither. Suddenly he +caught her in his arms, with a long kiss, which she returned again and +again. Then they stood embraced as they had embraced two days before, +but no longer the same. For the cool, lazy Salomy Jane had been +transformed into another woman--a passionate, clinging savage. Perhaps +something of her father's blood had surged within her at that supreme +moment. The man stood erect and determined. + +"Wot's your name?" she whispered quickly. It was a woman's quickest +way of defining her feelings. + +"Dart." + +"Yer first name?" + +"Jack." + +"Let me go now, Jack. Lie low in the woods till to-morrow sunup. I'll +come again." + +He released her. Yet she lingered a moment. "Put on those things," she +said, with a sudden happy flash of eyes and teeth, "and lie close till +I come." And then she sped away home. + +But midway up the distance she felt her feet going slower, and +something at her heartstrings seemed to be pulling her back. She +stopped, turned, and glanced to where he had been standing. Had she +seen him then, she might have returned. But he had disappeared. She +gave her first sigh, and then ran quickly again. It must be nearly ten +o'clock! It was not very long to morning! + +She was within a few steps of her own door, when the sleeping woods +and silent air appeared to suddenly awake with a sharp "crack!" + +She stopped, paralyzed. Another "crack!" followed, that echoed over to +the far corral. She recalled herself instantly and dashed off wildly +to the woods again. + +As she ran she thought of one thing only. He had been "dogged" by one +of his old pursuers and attacked. But there were two shots, and he was +unarmed. Suddenly she remembered that she had left her father's gun +standing against the tree where they were talking. Thank God! she may +again have saved him. She ran to the tree; the gun was gone. She ran +hither and thither, dreading at every step to fall upon his lifeless +body. A new thought struck her; she ran to the corral. The horse was +not there! He must have been able to regain it, and escaped, _after_ +the shots had been fired. She drew a long breath of relief, but it was +caught up in an apprehension of alarm. Her father, awakened from his +sleep by the shots, was hurriedly approaching her. + +"What's up now, Salomy Jane?" he demanded excitedly. + +"Nothin'," said the girl with an effort. "Nothin', at least, that _I_ +can find." She was usually truthful because fearless, and a lie stuck +in her throat; but she was no longer fearless, thinking of _him_. "I +wasn't abed; so I ran out as soon as I heard the shots fired," she +answered in return to his curious gaze. + +"And you've hid my gun somewhere where it can't be found," he said +reproachfully. "Ef it was that sneak Larrabee, and he fired them shots +to lure me out, he might have potted me, without a show, a dozen times +in the last five minutes." + +She had not thought since of her father's enemy! It might indeed +have been he who had attacked Jack. But she made a quick point of the +suggestion. "Run in, dad, run in and find the gun; you've got no show +out here without it." She seized him by the shoulders from behind, +shielding him from the woods, and hurried him, half expostulating, +half struggling, to the house. + +But there no gun was to be found. It was strange; it must have been +mislaid in some corner! Was he sure he had not left it in the barn? +But no matter now. The danger was over; the Larrabee trick had failed; +he must go to bed now, and in the morning they would make a search +together. At the same time she had inwardly resolved to rise before +him and make another search of the wood, and perhaps--fearful joy as +she recalled her promise!--find Jack alive and well, awaiting her! + + + + +ANOTHER ESCAPE + +[Illustration] + + + + +IV + + +Salomy Jane slept little that night, nor did her father. But towards +morning he fell into a tired man's slumber until the sun was well up +the horizon. Far different was it with his daughter: she lay with her +face to the window, her head half lifted to catch every sound, from +the creaking of the sun-warped shingles above her head to the far-off +moan of the rising wind in the pine trees. Sometimes she fell into +a breathless, half-ecstatic trance, living over every moment of the +stolen interview; feeling the fugitive's arm still around her, his +kisses on her lips; hearing his whispered voice in her ears--the birth +of her new life! This was followed again by a period of agonizing +dread--that he might even then be lying, his life ebbing away, in the +woods, with her name on his lips, and she resting here inactive, until +she half started from her bed to go to his succor. And this went on +until a pale opal glow came into the sky, followed by a still paler +pink on the summit of the white Sierras, when she rose and hurriedly +began to dress. Still so sanguine was her hope of meeting him, that +she lingered yet a moment to select the brown holland skirt and yellow +sunbonnet she had worn when she first saw him. And she had only seen +him twice! Only _twice_! It would be cruel, too cruel, not to see him +again! + +She crept softly down the stairs, listening to the long-drawn +breathing of her father in his bedroom, and then, by the light of a +guttering candle, scrawled a note to him, begging him not to trust +himself out of the house until she returned from her search, and +leaving the note open on the table, swiftly ran out into the growing +day. + +Three hours afterwards Mr. Madison Clay awoke to the sound of loud +knocking. At first this forced itself upon his consciousness as his +daughter's regular morning summons, and was responded to by a grunt of +recognition and a nestling closer in the blankets. Then he awoke with +a start and a muttered oath, remembering the events of last night, and +his intention to get up early, and rolled out of bed. Becoming aware +by this time that the knocking was at the outer door, and hearing the +shout of a familiar voice, he hastily pulled on his boots, his jean +trousers, and fastening a single suspender over his shoulder as he +clattered downstairs, stood in the lower room. The door was open, +and waiting upon the threshold was his kinsman, an old ally in many a +blood-feud--Breckenridge Clay! + +"You _are_ a cool one, Mad!" said the latter in half-admiring +indignation. + +"What's up?" said the bewildered Madison. + +"_You_ ought to be, and scootin' out o' this," said Breckenridge +grimly. "It's all very well to 'know nothin';' but here Phil +Larrabee's friends hev just picked him up, drilled through with slugs +and deader nor a crow, and now they're lettin' loose Larrabee's two +half-brothers on you. And you must go like a derned fool and leave +these yer things behind you in the bresh," he went on querulously, +lifting Madison Clay's dust-coat, hat, and shotgun from his horse, +which stood saddled at the door. "Luckily I picked them up in the +woods comin' here. Ye ain't got more than time to get over the state +line and among your folks thar afore they'll be down on you. Hustle, +old man! What are you gawkin' and starin' at?" + +Madison Clay had stared amazed and bewildered--horror-stricken. +The incidents of the past night for the first time flashed upon him +clearly--hopelessly! The shot; his finding Salomy Jane alone in +the woods; her confusion and anxiety to rid herself of him; the +disappearance of the shotgun; and now this new discovery of the taking +of his hat and coat for a disguise! _She_ had killed Phil Larrabee +in that disguise, after provoking his first harmless shot! She, his +own child, Salomy Jane, had disgraced herself by a man's crime; had +disgraced him by usurping his right, and taking a mean advantage, by +deceit, of a foe! + +"Gimme that gun," he said hoarsely. + +Breckenridge handed him the gun in wonder and slowly gathering +suspicion. Madison examined nipple and muzzle; one barrel had been +discharged. It was true! The gun dropped from his hand. + +"Look here, old man," said Breckenridge, with a darkening face, +"there's bin no foul play here. Thar's bin no hiring of men, no deputy +to do this job. _You_ did it fair and square--yourself?" + +"Yes, by God!" burst out Madison Clay in a hoarse voice. "Who says I +didn't?" + +Reassured, yet believing that Madison Clay had nerved himself for +the act by an over-draught of whiskey, which had affected his memory, +Breckenridge said curtly, "Then wake up and 'lite' out, ef ye want me +to stand by you." + +"Go to the corral and pick me out a hoss," said Madison slowly, yet +not without a certain dignity of manner. "I've suthin' to say to +Salomy Jane afore I go." He was holding her scribbled note, which he +had just discovered, in his shaking hand. + +Struck by his kinsman's manner, and knowing the dependent relations +of father and daughter, Breckenridge nodded and hurried away. Left +to himself, Madison Clay ran his fingers through his hair, and +straightened out the paper on which Salomy Jane had scrawled her note, +turned it over, and wrote on the back:-- + + You might have told me you did it, and not leave your ole + father to find it out how you disgraced yourself and him, too, + by a low-down, underhanded, woman's trick! I've said I done + it, and took the blame myself, and all the sneakiness of it + that folks suspect. If I get away alive--and I don't care much + which--you needn't foller. The house and stock are yours; but + you ain't any longer the daughter of your disgraced father, + + MADISON CLAY. + +He had scarcely finished the note when, with a clatter of hoofs and a +led horse, Breckenridge reappeared at the door elate and triumphant. +"You're in nigger luck, Mad! I found that stole hoss of Judge +Boompointer's had got away and strayed among your stock in the corral. +Take him and you're safe; he can't be outrun this side of the state +line." + +"I ain't no hoss-thief," said Madison grimly. + +"Nobody sez ye are, but you'd be wuss--a fool--ef you didn't take him. +I'm testimony that you found him among your hosses; I'll tell Judge +Boompointer you've got him, and ye kin send him back when you're safe. +The judge will be mighty glad to get him back, and call it quits. So +ef you've writ to Salomy Jane, come." + +Madison Clay no longer hesitated. Salomy Jane might return at any +moment,--it would be part of her "fool womanishness,"--and he was +in no mood to see her before a third party. He laid the note on +the table, gave a hurried glance around the house, which he grimly +believed he was leaving forever, and, striding to the door, leaped on +the stolen horse, and swept away with his kinsman. + +But that note lay for a week undisturbed on the table in full view of +the open door. The house was invaded by leaves, pine cones, birds, +and squirrels during the hot, silent, empty days, and at night by shy, +stealthy creatures, but never again, day or night, by any of the Clay +family. It was known in the district that Clay had flown across the +state line, his daughter was believed to have joined him the next day, +and the house was supposed to be locked up. It lay off the main road, +and few passed that way. The starving cattle in the corral at last +broke bounds and spread over the woods. And one night a stronger blast +than usual swept through the house, carried the note from the table +to the floor, where, whirled into a crack in the flooring, it slowly +rotted. + +But though the sting of her father's reproach was spared her, Salomy +Jane had no need of the letter to know what had happened. For as she +entered the woods in the dim light of that morning she saw the figure +of Dart gliding from the shadow of a pine towards her. The unaffected +cry of joy that rose from her lips died there as she caught sight of +his face in the open light. + +"You are hurt," she said, clutching his arm passionately. + +"No," he said. "But I wouldn't mind that if"-- + +"You're thinkin' I was afeard to come back last night when I heard the +shootin', but I _did_ come," she went on feverishly. "I ran back here +when I heard the two shots, but you were gone. I went to the corral, +but your hoss wasn't there, and I thought you'd got away." + +"I _did_ get away," said Dart gloomily. "I killed the man, thinkin' +he was huntin' _me_, and forgettin' I was disguised. He thought I was +your father." + +"Yes," said the girl joyfully, "he was after dad, and _you_--you +killed him." She again caught his hand admiringly. + +But he did not respond. Possibly there were points of honor which this +horse-thief felt vaguely with her father. "Listen," he said grimly. +"Others think it was your father killed him. When _I_ did it--for +he fired at me first--I ran to the corral again and took my hoss, +thinkin' I might be follered. I made a clear circuit of the house, +and when I found he was the only one, and no one was follerin', I come +back here and took off my disguise. Then I heard his friends find him +in the wood, and I know they suspected your father. And then another +man come through the woods while I was hidin' and found the clothes +and took them away." He stopped and stared at her gloomily. + +But all this was unintelligible to the girl. "Dad would have got +the better of him ef you hadn't," she said eagerly, "so what's the +difference?" + +"All the same," he said gloomily, "I must take his place." + +She did not understand, but turned her head to her master. "Then +you'll go back with me and tell him _all_?" she said obediently. + +"Yes," he said. + +She put her hand in his, and they crept out of the wood together. She +foresaw a thousand difficulties, but, chiefest of all, that he did not +love as she did. _She_ would not have taken these risks against their +happiness. + +But alas for ethics and heroism. As they were issuing from the wood +they heard the sound of galloping hoofs, and had barely time to +hide themselves before Madison Clay, on the stolen horse of Judge +Boompointer, swept past them with his kinsman. + +Salomy Jane turned to her lover. + + * * * * * + +And here I might, as a moral romancer, pause, leaving the guilty, +passionate girl eloped with her disreputable lover, destined to +lifelong shame and misery, misunderstood to the last by a criminal, +fastidious parent. But I am confronted by certain facts, on which this +romance is based. A month later a handbill was posted on one of the +sentinel pines, announcing that the property would be sold by auction +to the highest bidder by Mrs. John Dart, daughter of Madison Clay, +Esq., and it was sold accordingly. Still later--by ten years--the +chronicler of these pages visited a certain "stock" or "breeding +farm," in the "Blue Grass Country," famous for the popular racers +it has produced. He was told that the owner was the "best judge of +horse-flesh in the country." "Small wonder," added his informant, "for +they say as a young man out in California he was a horse-thief, and +only saved himself by eloping with some rich farmer's daughter. But +he's a straight-out and respectable man now, whose word about horses +can't be bought; and as for his wife, _she_'s a beauty! To see her at +the 'Springs,' rigged out in the latest fashion, you'd never think +she had ever lived out of New York or wasn't the wife of one of its +millionaires." + + +The Riverside Press + +CAMBRIDGE. 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