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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20695-8.txt b/20695-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bdb82e --- /dev/null +++ b/20695-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2326 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spirit of Sweetwater, by Hamlin Garland + +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: The Spirit of Sweetwater + +Author: Hamlin Garland + +Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + + + + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + + + + +LADIES' HOME JOURNAL +LIBRARY OF FICTION + +THE SPIRIT OF +SWEETWATER + +BY + +HAMLIN GARLAND + +AUTHOR OF +WAYSIDE COURTSHIPS +MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS +PRAIRIE SONGS, ETC. + +PHILADELPHIA +CURTIS PUBLISHING +COMPANY + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY & +McCLURE CO. + +Copyright, 1898, by +HAMLIN GARLAND + + + + +TO +JESSIE VIOLA +AND +HARRIET EDITH GARLAND + +[Illustration: Hamlin Garland] + + + + +_THE MYSTERY OF MOUNTAINS_ + + + _As the sun sinks + And the caņons deepening in color + Add mystery to silence + Then the lone traveller lying out-stretched + Beneath the silent pines on some high range + Watches and listens in ecstasy of fear + And timorous admiration._ + + _In the roar of the stream he catches + The reminiscent echo of colossal cataracts; + In the cry of the cliff-bird + He thinks he hears the eagle's scream + Or yowl of far-off mountain-lion; + In the fall of a loose rock + He fancies the menacing footfall of the grizzly bear; + And in the black deeps of the lower caņon + His dreaming eyes detect once more + Prodigious lines of buffalo crawling snake-wise + Athwart the stream, + Or files of Indian warriors + Winding downward to the distant plain, + Where camp-fires gleam like stars._ + + + + +Part I + + + + +The Spirit of Sweetwater + +CHAPTER I + + +One spring day a young man of good mental furnishing and very slender +purse walked over the shoulder of Mount Mogallon and down the trail to +Gold Creek. He walked because the stage fare seemed too high. + +Two years and four months later he was pointed out to strangers by the +people of Sweetwater Springs. "That is Richard Clement, the sole owner +of 'The Witch,' a mine valued at three millions of dollars." This in +itself was truly an epic. + +Sweetwater Springs was a village in a caņon, out of which rose two +wonderful springs of water whose virtues were known throughout the +land. The village was wedged in the caņon which ran to the mighty +breast of Mogallon like a fold in a king's robe. + +The village and its life centered around the pavilion which roofed the +spring, and Clement spent his evenings there in order to see the +people, at least, as they joyously thronged about the music-stand and +sipped the beautiful water which the Utes long, long ago called "sweet +water," and visited with reverence and hope of returning health. + +Since the coming of his great wealth Clement had not allowed himself a +day's vacation, and he had grown ten years older in that time. There +were untimely signs of age in his hair and in the troubled lines of +his face. He was a young man, but he looked a strong and stern and +careworn man to those whose attention was called to him. He was a +conscientious man, and the possession of great wealth was not without +its gravities. + +For the first time he felt it safe to leave his mine in other hands. +He had a longing to mix with his kind once more, and in his heart was +the secret hope that somewhere among the women of the Springs he might +find a girl to take to wife. He arranged his vacation for July, not +because it was ever hot at the Creek, but because he knew the Springs +swarmed at that time with girls from the States. It would have +troubled him had any one put these ideas into words and accused him of +really seeking a bride. + +He was a self-unconscious man naturally, and he hardly realized yet +how widely his name had gone as the possessor of millions. He supposed +himself an unnoticed atom as he stood at the spring on the second +night of his stay in the village. Of a certainty many did not know +him, but they saw him, for he was a striking figure--a handsome +figure--though that had never concerned him. He was, in fact, feeling +his own insignificance. + +He was standing there in shadow looking out somberly upon the streams +of people as they came to take their evening draught at the wonderful +water of the effervescing spring. The sun had gone behind the high +peaks to the west, and a delicious, dry coolness was in the caņon. + +It seemed to Clement to be a very fashionable and leisurely throng--so +long had he been absent from people either modish or easeful. He felt +himself to be hopelessly outside all this youth and brilliancy and +merriment, and he looked upon it all with a certain wistfulness. + +He perceived at length that the strollers were not all of the same +conditions. There were rough, brown cow-boys from La Junta and Cajon, +and miners in rough dress down from the gulches for a night, but +mainly the promenaders appealed to him with elegance of dress and +manner. + +Many of the ladies came without hats, which added to the charm of +their eyes and hair. Some of them looked twice at the tall man with +the big mustache and broad hat, who seemed to be watching for some +tardy friend. + +As he studied them his memory freshened and he came to understand them +better. He analyzed them into familiar types. This was a banker and +his wife from some small town--the wife fussy and consequential, the +husband coldly dignified. This group was composed of a doctor and his +daughters. Behind them came a merchant from some Nebraska town--he +rough of exterior, his children dainty of dress and very pretty. +Occasionally a group of college-bred girls came up without +escort--alert, self-helpful and serene. They saw Clement at once, and +studied him carefully as they drank their beauty cup at the circular +bench before the spring. All good-looking men had interest to them. + +All classes came, a varied stream, yet they were Western, and of the +well-to-do condition for the larger part. + +The deft boy swung the glasses of water on his tripartite dipper with +ceaseless splash and clink. There was a pleasant murmur of talk in +which an Eastern listener would have heard the "r" sound +well-defined. There were many couples seated about the pavilion on the +benches and railings. It was all busy yet tranquil. Each loiterer had +fed, had taken his draught of healing water--and this was the hour of +pleasant gossip and repose. Clement fell at last to analyzing the +action of the boy who supplied the water at the pool. He slammed the +glasses into the pool, and set them on the bench with a click as +regular as a pump. Occasionally, however, he was indifferent. With +some of his customers he handled the glasses as if they contained +nectar, thus indicating his generous patrons. Once he stopped and +dipped the glass into the pool with his own hand--a doubtful +action--and extended it with a bow to a young lady who said "thank +you" so sweetly that he blushed and stammered in reply. + +All this fixed Clement's attention, and as the young girl lifted the +glass in her slim hand he wondered how she had escaped his notice for +a single moment. A woman at his side said sighfully, "There is that +consumptive girl again, she hasn't long to stay." She was as pale, as +fragile, and as lovely as the mountain columbine. Her face was thin, +and her head shapely, but her eyes! They burned like rarest +topaz--deep, dark and sad. Clement shivered as he felt them fixed upon +him, and yet he could not turn away as he should have done. + +He gazed at her with a sudden feeling which was not awe, nor +compassion, nor love, but was all of these. He felt in his soul the +subtlest sadness in all the world--the sadness of a strong man who +looks upon a beautiful young girl who is dying. + +Extremest languor was in every movement. She was dressed in dark, soft +garments--very simple and graceful in effect, and her bearing was that +of one accustomed to willing service from others. Her smile was as sad +as her eyes which had in them the death-shadow. + +Clement's action, the unwavering self-forgetful intentness of his +look, arrested her attention, and she returned his gaze for an +instant, and then turned away and took the arm of an elderly gentleman +who stood beside her. She moved slowly, as an invalid walks when for +the first time she is permitted a short walk in the outdoor air, +leaning heavily on her companion. + +The big miner roused himself and stood straight and tall, hesitating +whether to follow or not--a sudden singular pain in his heart, as if +he were losing something very close to his life. + +He obeyed the impulse to follow, and moved down the path, just out of +reach of observation, he fancied. As he made way through the crowd he +grew aware again of his heavy limbs, of his great height, of his +swinging, useless hands. It had been so long since he had mingled with +a holiday company, he appeared as self-conscious as a boy. + +Once the fair invalid turned and looked back, but she was too far away +for him to discern the expression of her face. He was not possessed +of self-esteem enough to believe she had turned to look for him. + +He followed them in their slow pace till they turned in at the doorway +of the principal hotel of the village. They entered at the ladies' +door while he kept on to the main entrance and rotunda. There was no +elevator in the house, and the invalid paused a moment before +attempting the stairway. It was pitiful to see her effort to make +light of it all to her companion, who was quite evidently her father. +She smiled at him even while she pressed one slim hand against her +bosom. + +Clement longed to take her in his arms and carry her up the +stairway--it seemed the thing most worth doing in all the world--but +he could only lean against the desk and see them go slowly stair by +stair out of sight. + +"Who are they?" he asked of the clerk whom he detected also watching +them with almost the same breathless interest. + +"Chicago merchant, G. B. Ross. That's his daughter. She's pretty far +gone--consumption, I reckon. It looks tough to see a girl like that go +off. You'd think now----" + +Clement did not remain to hear the clerk moralize further; he went +immediately to his own hotel, paid his bill, and ordered his baggage +sent to the other house. He wondered at himself for this overpowering +interest in a sick girl, and at his plan to see her again. + +He reasoned that he would be able to see her at breakfast time, +provided she came down to breakfast, and provided he hit upon the same +hour of eating. He began to calculate upon the probable hour when she +would come down. It was astounding how completely she occupied his +thought already. + +He struck off up the caņon where no sound was, other than the roar of +the wild little stream which seemed to lift its voice in wilder clamor +as the night fell. Its presence helped him to think out his situation. +He had grown self-analytical during his life in the camp, where he +was alone so far as his finer feelings were concerned, and he had come +to believe in many strange things which he said nothing about to any +friend he had. + +He had come to believe in fate and also in intuition. A powerful +impulse to do he counted higher than reason. That is to say, if he had +a powerful impulse to run a shaft in a certain direction he would so +act, no matter if his reason declared dead against it. The hidden and +uncontrollable processes of his mind had given him the secret of "The +Witch's" gold, had led him right in his shafting and in his selection +of friends and assistants--and had made him a millionaire at +thirty-seven years of age. He was prone to over-value the intuitional +side of his nature, probably--an error common among practical men. + +Fate was, with him, luck raised to a higher power. What was to be +would be; the unexpected happened; the expected, hoped for, labored +for, did not always happen. All around him men stumbled upon mines, +while other men, more skilful, more observant, failed. The luck was +against them. + +It was quite in harmony with his nature that he should be absorbed in +the singular and powerful impulse he had to seek an acquaintance with +that poor dying girl. + +Dying! At that word he rebelled. God would not take so beautiful a +creature away from earth; men needed her to teach them gentleness and +submission. More than this, he had an almost uncontrollable impulse to +go to her, and putting aside doctors say to her: + +"I am the one to heal you." + +He had never had an impulse to heal before, but the fact that it was +unaccountable and powerful and definite, fitted in with his successes. +He gave it careful thought. It must mean something because it had +never come to him before, and because it rose out of the mysterious +depths of his brain. + +She must not die! The wind, the mountains, the clear air, the good, +sweet water, the fragrant pines, the splendid sun--these things must +help her. "And I, perhaps I, too, can help her?" + +Back in the glare of the hotel rotunda, with its rows of bored men +sitting stolidly smoking, idly talking, his impulse and his resolution +seemed very unmanly and preposterous. It is so easy to lose faith in +the elemental in the midst of the superficial and ephemeral of daily +habit. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Clement was an early riser, and, notwithstanding his restless night, +was astir at six. The whole world had changed for him. It was no +longer a question of ore and amalgams, it was a question of when he +should see again that sad, slender woman with the hopeless smile. + +He had now a great fear that she would not be able to come down to +breakfast at all, but as her coming was his only hope of seeing her he +clung to it. Eight o'clock seemed to him to be the latest hour that +any one not absolutely bedridden would think of breakfasting, and at +four minutes past the hour he entered the dining-room. + +The negro waiter tried to seat him near the door, but he pushed on +down the hall toward a little group near one of the sunny windows, +which he took to be the sick girl and her father, and so it proved. + +His seat at a table next to theirs brought her profile between him +and the window, and the light around her head seemed to glorify her +till she shone like a figure in a church window. She seemed not +concerned with earth. He was more deeply moved than ever before in his +life, but he concealed it--the only sign of emotion was in the tremor +of his hands. + +He studied the sick girl as closely as he could without seeming to +stare. She was even more lovely than he had thought. His eyes, +accustomed only to rough women, found in her beauty that which was +flower-like, seraphic. + +Her face was very thin, and her neck too slender to uphold the heavy +masses of her brown hair. Her hands were only less expressive of +suffering than her face. The father was as bluff and portly and +irascible as she was patient and gentle. He bullied the waiter because +he did not know how else to express his anxiety. + +"Waiter, this steak is burned--it's hard as sole leather. Take it back +and bring me----" + +"Please don't, father; the trouble is with me. I have no desire for +food." She smiled at the waiter so sweetly that he nodded as if to +say, "I don't mind him, miss." + +The father turned his attention to the country. + +"Yes, there is another fraud. I was told it would help your appetite, +and here you are with less than when you left Hot Springs. If I'd had +my way----" + +She laid a hand on his arm, and when he turned toward her his eyes +were dim with tears. He blew his nose and coughed, and looked away +after the manner of men, and suffered in silence. + +Once she turned and looked at Clement, and her eyes had a mystical, +impersonal look, as though she saw him afar off, not as an individual +but as a type of some admirable elemental creature. He could not +fathom her attitude toward him, but he thought he saw in her every +action the expression of a soul that had relinquished its hold on +things of the earth. Her desire to live was no longer personal. She +did all that she did for her father and her friends wholly to please +them. + +The desire to aid her came upon Clement again--so powerful it carried +with it an unwavering belief that he could help her. + +What was his newly-acquired wealth good for if he could not aid her? +Wealth? Yes--his blood! He looked at his great brown hand and at his +big veins full of blood. Why should she die when he had so much life? + +Meanwhile his common sense had not entirely fled him. He perceived +that they were not poor, and he reflected that they had probably tried +all climates and all the resources of medical science; also that the +father had quite as much red blood in his veins as any other man; and +these considerations gave him thought as he watched them rise and go +out upon the little veranda. + +Clement was not a markedly humble person under ordinary conditions. +He had a fashion of pushing rather heedlessly straight to his +purpose--which now was to speak to her, to meet her face to face, to +touch her hand and to offer his aid. Naturally he sought the father's +acquaintance first. This was not difficult, for the waiters in the +dining-room had been pointing him out to the guests as "Mr. Clement, +the meyonaire minah." The newspaper correspondents had made his name a +familiar one to the whole United States as "one of the sudden +multi-millionaires of Gold Creek." + +The porter had "passed the word" to the head waiter, and the head +waiter had whispered it to one or two others. It was almost as +exciting as having a Presidential candidate enter the room. Clement +was too new in his riches, however, to realize the extent of all this +bustle about him. + +When he rose to go one waiter removed his chair, another helped him +lay his napkin down, a third brushed his coat, and the head usher +kindly showed him where the door opened into the hallway. It was +wonderful to Clement, but he laid it to the management of the hotel. + +There were limits to his insanity, and he did not follow the girl out +on the veranda, but when Mr. Ross came down a few minutes later to get +a cigar Clement plucked the proprietor of the hotel by the arm. + +"Introduce me to Mr. Ross, won't you?" + +The landlord beamed. "Certainly, Mr. Clement." He took Mr. Ross by the +lapel familiarly. "Ah, good-morning, Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross, let me +introduce my friend, Mr. Clement; Mr. Clement you may have heard of as +the owner of 'The Witch' and the 'Old Wisconse.'" + +Mr. Ross shook hands. He was not exactly uncivil, but he was +cool--very cool. "I have heard of Mr. Clement," he said. He softened a +little as he got a good look at the powerful, clear-eyed young fellow. + +The landlord expanded like one who has accomplished a good deed. "I +thought so, I thought so. Mr. Clement, let me say, is a square +business man. Whatever he offers you is worth the price!" He winked at +Clement as he turned away. + +Clement began, "I beg your pardon, Mr. Ross, for taking this liberty, +but I wanted to know you and took the first chance that offered. I +have no mine to sell--I want to know you--that's all. I wanted to meet +somebody outside the mining interest. I saw you and your daughter at +the pavilion last night. She seems to be not--very strong." He +hesitated in his attempt to describe his impression of her. + +The father's theme was touched upon now. "No, poor girl, she is in bad +condition, but I think she's better. The air seems not to have made +her worse, at any rate. I haven't much faith in climate, but I believe +she has improved since we left Kansas City and began to rise." + +He had a marvelous listener in Clement, and they consumed three +cigars apiece while he told of the doctors he had tried and of the +different kinds of air and water they had sought. + +His eyes were wet and his voice was tremulous. + +"The fact is, Mr. Clement, she don't seem to care about living--that's +what scares me. She's just as sweet and lovely as an angel. She +responds to any suggestion, 'Very well, papa,' but I can see she does +it for me. She herself has lost all hope. It ain't even that--she has +lost care about it. She is indifferent. She is going away from me just +because I can't rouse her----" + +He frankly broke down and stopped, and Clement felt his throat swell +too tight for speech at the moment. + +They sat for a time in silence; at last Clement said: + +"Mr. Ross, you don't know me except as a lucky man--but I have a favor +to ask: it is to meet your daughter." + +There was something very winning in the young man's voice and manner, +and Mr. Ross could see no objection to it, and it might interest +Ellice to meet this man who had stumbled upon a gold mine. "Very well, +suppose we go up now," he said, almost without hesitation. + +The girl was alone, seated in an easy-chair in the sun--her head only +in shadow. The father spoke in a low and very tender voice, "Ellice, I +want to present Mr. Clement. Mr. Clement, my daughter Ellice." + +The impossible had come to pass! As Clement bent down and took her +hand and looked into her eyes his heart seemed to stop death-still for +a few seconds--then something new and inexplicable took possession of +him, and he stood before her calm and clear-eyed. "Don't move," he +commanded, "I will draw a chair near you." + +Mr. Ross said they had been having a long talk, and she listened, +smiling the while that hopeless smile. Then the father rose and said: +"Where is Aunt Sarah? I want to go down to the telegraph office." + +The girl spoke in the quiet, tranquil voice of one to whom such things +have no importance. "I don't know, papa. A moment ago she was saying +something to me, and now she is gone. That is all I know. Never mind; +she'll be here in a moment." + +"I'll be back in ten minutes." + +"I am all right, papa. If I need anything Mr. Clement can call Aunt." + +There was a pause after Mr. Ross went. Then she added in the same +gentle, emotionless way: "Poor papa! He is a martyr to me. He thinks +he must sit by me always. I think he fears I may die while he is +gone." + +Clement leaned forward till his eyes were on a level with those of the +girl, and his voice was very calm and penetrating as he said: + +"What can I do for you, Miss Ross? I have the profoundest conviction +that I can do you good." + +A startled look came into the big brown eyes. She looked at him as a +babe might, striving to comprehend. + +He went on, "Here I am a millionaire, a strong young man--what can I +do for you?" + +"I think I understand you," she said slowly. "It's very good of you, +but you can do nothing." + +"It is impossible," he broke forth in answer, and his voice gave her a +perceptible shock. "There must be something I can do. If it will help +you there is my arm--its blood is yours." He stammered a little. "It +isn't right that one so young and beautiful should die. We won't let +you die. There must be something I can do. This wind and sun--and the +good water will work with us to do you good." + +His voice moved her, and she smiled with the tears on her lashes. "It +does me good just to look at you. You are so big and brown. I saw you +at the spring last night. Perhaps I have come at last----" She +coughed--a weak, flat sound which made him shudder. + +She tried to reassure him. "Really, I have coughed less than at any +time during the last five months." + +He faced her again. "Miss Ross, I felt last night a sudden desire to +help you. I believed I had the power to help you--I don't know +why--I'm not a healer." He smiled for the first time. "But I felt +perfectly sure I could do you good. I feel that way now. I never had +such a feeling toward any person before. It is just as strange to me +as it is to you." + +She was looking at him now with musing eyes. + +"That is the curious part of it," she said. "It doesn't seem strange +at all. It seems as if I had been wanting to hear your voice--as if I +had known of you all my life----" She tried to suppress her coughing, +and he was in agony during the paroxysm. The nurse came hurrying out, +and while he waited at one side Clement felt that if he could have +taken her by the hands he could have prevented it. It was a singular +conviction, but it was most definite, and had a peculiar air of +actuality. + +When she lay quiet he approached again and said: "I'll go now. I must +not tire you. But remember, I'm going to come and see you, and I'm +going to do you good. Every time I see you I am going to will to you +some of my vitality--my love of life. For I love life--it is beautiful +to live." + +She gave him her hand, and he bowed and left her. + +She lay quietly after he went away and smiled, a little, wan smile, +which made her pallor the more pitiful. It was all so romantic and +wonderful--this big man's coming. He was so unspoiled and so direct of +manner. She had the hope he would come again, and it seemed not +impossible that he might help her, his voice was so stirring and his +hands so big and strong. + +Yet she was beyond the reach of even the conjectures of passion. She +had come to a certain exterior resignation to her fate. The world had +lost its poignant interest--it was now a pageant upon which she was +looking for the last time, yet she was too tired, too indifferent to +lift her hand to stay it in its course even had it been within her +power. + +At times, however, she rebelled at her fate. There were hours, even +yet, when she lay alone in her bed hearing her father's regular +stertorous breathing till a great wave of longing to live swept upon +her, and she was forced to turn her face to her pillow to stifle her +mingled coughing and sobbing. + +"Oh, Father, let me live! I want to live like other women. Oh, dear +Father, grant me a little life!" + +These waves of passionate rebellion left her weaker, sadder, more +indifferent than ever, and as coldly pallid almost as if death had +already claimed her. + +On the night following Clement's talk with her she fell asleep while +musing upon one mind's influence upon another. Perhaps if she could +only believe she might be helped; perhaps he was sent to help her. It +had been long since such a personality had stood before her--indeed, +no such man had ever touched her hand or looked into her eyes. + +He came down out of the mountain heights with the elemental vigor of +wind and sun and soil about him like an aura. A man of great natural +refinement, he had grown strong and simple and masterful in his close +contact with Nature. The clay that might have brutalized another +nature had made him a mystic. + +There was something mysterious in his eyes, in the clasp of his hand. +The world was all inexplicable to her anyhow. Perhaps God had sent him +to help her just as He sends healing water down from the mountain +peaks. + +In thinking these things she fell asleep, and it seemed at once that +she was well again, and that she was dressing for a walk. Clement had +called for her to climb the mountains with him, and she was making +preparation to go, working swiftly and unhesitatingly--and it seemed +deliciously sweet to be swift and active once more. She had put on a +short walking-skirt and leggins and was nearly ready. She stood before +the glass to put on her cap, and as she saw how round and pink her +cheeks were she hardly recognized herself. + +She seemed to hear his impatient feet outside on the veranda, and she +smiled to think how typical it all was of husbands and wives--and at +that thought her face grew pinker and she turned away--she didn't want +her own eyes to see how she flushed. + +But suddenly all warmth--all flushing--left her. She turned cold with +a familiar creep and weakness. She could not proceed. Her glove was +half on, but her strength was not sufficient to pull it further. She +could not lift her feet. + +His steady, strong tramp up and down the veranda continued, but she +was in the grasp of her old enemy. A terrible fear and an agony of +desire seized her. She wanted to go out into the bright sunlight with +him, but she could neither move nor whisper. All her resolution, her +hope, fell away, and her heart was heavy and cold. It was all over. He +would wait for a while and then go away, and she would stand there +desolate, helpless, inert as clay, with life dark and empty before +her. + +"Oh, if he would only call me!" was her last breath of resolution. + +Once, twice the feet went up and down the veranda. Then they paused +before her door. + +"Are you ready?" his voice called. + +She struggled to speak, but could only whisper, "Yes." + +The door swung quickly open and he stood there in the streaming +sunlight of the morning--so tall he was he seemed to fill the +doorway--and he smiled and extended his hands. + +"Come," he said, "the sturdy old mountains are wonderfully grand this +morning." + +His hand closed over hers, and the sunlight fell upon her, warming her +to the heart, but before she could lift her eyes to the shining peaks +she awoke and found that the morning sun had stolen its way through a +half-opened shutter and lay upon her hand. + +At first she was ready to weep with sadness and despair, but as she +thought upon it she came to see in the dream a good omen. It had been +long since she had dreamed a vision of perfect health with no touch of +impotence at its close. There was something of hope in this vision; a +man's hand had broken the spell of weakness. + + + + +Part II + + + + +_APRIL DAYS_ + + + _Days of witchery subtly sweet, + When every hill and tree finds heart, + When winter and spring like lovers meet + In the mist of noon and part-- + In the April days._ + + _Nights when the wood-frogs faintly peep-- + Tr-eep, tr-eep--and then are still, + And the woodpeckers' martial voices sweep + Like bugle-blasts, from hill to hill, + Through the breathless haze._ + + _Days when the soil is warm with rain, + And through the wood the shy wind steals, + Rich with the pine and the poplar smell,-- + And the joyous soul like a dancer, reels + Through the broadening days._ + + _--From "Prairie Songs."_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +This dream gave to Clement, in Ellice's eyes, a glamour of mystery and +power--beyond the subtlety of words, and she met him in a spirit of +awe and wonder, such as a child might feel to find one of its +dream-heroes actually beside the fireside in the full sunlight of the +morning. The fear and agony and joy of the night's vision gave a +singular charm to the meeting. + +It startled her to find she still retained the capability of being +moved by the sound of a man's voice. It seemed like a wave of +returning life. + +Her heart quickened as she saw him enter the dining-room and look +around for her--and when his eyes fell upon her a light filled his +face which was akin to the morning. She did not attempt to analyze +the emotion thus revealed, but she could not help seeing that he +looked the embodiment of health and happiness. + +He wore a suit of light brown corduroy with laced miner's boots, and +they became him very well. + +He smiled down at her as he drew near. + +"You are better this morning, I can see that." + +It was exactly as if he knew of her dream, and that the walk had been +actual, and a flush of pink crept into her face--so faint it was no +one noticed it--while it seemed to her that her cheeks were scarlet. +What magic was this which made her flush--she whom Death had claimed +as his own? + +Mr. Ross invited Clement to sit with them, as she hoped he would. +Clement had, indeed, intended to force the invitation. "I'm going for +a gallop this morning," he said in explanation of his dress. "I wish +you could go too," he added, addressing Ellice. + +Mr. Ross introduced him to the elderly woman: "Mr. Clement, let me +present you to my sister, Miss Ross." + +Miss Ross was plump like her brother, and a handsome woman, but +irritable like him. She complained, also, of the altitude and of the +chill shadows. Neither father nor aunt formed a suitable companion for +the sick girl. + +Clement was the antidote. His whole manner of treatment was of the +hopeful, buoyant sort. He spoke of the magnificent weather, of the +mountains, of the purity of the water. + +"After I get back from my ride I wish you'd let me come and talk with +you. Perhaps," he added, "you'll be able to walk a little way with +me." + +He made the breakfast almost cheerful by his presence, and went away +saying: + +"I'll be back by ten o'clock and I shall expect to find you ready for +a walk." + +Miss Ross was astonished both at his assurance and at Ellice's +singular interest and apparent acquiescence. + +"Well, that is a most extraordinary man. I wonder if that's the +Western way." + +"I wish I were able to do as he says," the girl said quietly. The old +people looked up in astonishment. + +"Aunt Sarah, I want you to help me dress. I'm going to try to walk a +little." + +"Not with that man?" the aunt inquired in protest. + +"Yes, Aunt." Her voice was vibrant with fixed purpose. + +"But think how you would look leaning on his arm." + +"Auntie, dear, I have gone long past that point. It doesn't matter how +it looks. I cannot live merely to please the world. He has asked me, +and if I can I will go." + +Mr. Ross broke in, "Why, of course, what harm can it do? I'd let her +lean on the arm of 'Cherokee Bill' if she wanted to." They all smiled +at this, and he added, "The trouble has been she didn't want to do +anything at all, and now she shall do what she likes." + +It all seemed very coarse and common now, and she could not tell them +the secret of the dream that had so impressed her, and of her growing +faith that this strong man could help her back to health and life. She +only smiled in her slow, faint way, and made preparation to go with +him who meant so much to her. + +He met her on the veranda in a handsome Prince Albert suit of gray +with a broad-brimmed gray hat to match. He looked like some of the +pictures of Western Congressmen she had seen, only more refined and +gentle. He wore his coat unbuttoned, and it had the effect of draping +his tall, erect frame, and the hat suited well with the large lines of +his nose and chin. It seemed to her she had never seen a more striking +and picturesque figure. + +"I'll carry you down the stairs if you'll say the word," he said as +they paused a moment at the topmost step. + +"Oh, no. I can walk if you will give me time." + +"Time! Time is money. I can't afford it." He stooped and lifted her in +his right arm, and before she could protest he was half way down the +stairway. He laughed at the horrified face of the aunt. He was +following impulses now. As they walked side by side slowly--she, not +without considerable effort--up toward the spring, he said abruptly, +but tenderly: + +"You must think you're better--that's half the battle. See that +stream? Some day I'm going to show you where it starts. Do you know if +you drink of that water up at its source above timber-line it will +cure you?" + +She saw his intent and said, "I'm afraid I'll be cured before I get to +the spring." + +"I'm going to make it my aim in life to see you drink at that pool." +His directness and simplicity stimulated her like some mediæval +elixir. He made her forget her pain. They did not talk much until they +were seated on one of the benches near the fountain. + +"Sit in the sun," he commanded. "Don't be afraid of the sun. You hear +people talk about the sun's rays breeding disease. The sun never does +that. It gives life. Beware of the shadow," he added, and she knew he +meant her mental indifference. They had a long talk on the bench. He +told her of his family, of himself. + +"You see," he said, "father had only a small business, though he +managed to educate me, and, later, my brother. But when he died it had +less value, for I couldn't hold the trade he had and times were +harder. I kept brother at college during his last two years, and when +he came out I gave the business to him and got out. He was about to +marry, and the business wouldn't support us both. I was always +inclined to adventure anyway. Gold Creek was in everybody's mouth, so +I came here. + +"Oh, that was a wonderful time; the walk across the mountains was like +a story to me. I liked the newness of everything in the camp. It was +glorious to hear the hammers ringing, and see the new pine buildings +going up--and the tent and shanties. It was rough here then, but I had +little to do with that. I staked out my claim and went to digging. I +knew very little about mining, but they were striking it all around +me, and so I kept on. Besides"--here he looked at her in a curiously +shy way--"I've always had a superstition that just when things were +worst with me they were soonest to turn to the best, so I dug away. My +tunnel went into the hill on a slight upraise, and I could do the work +alone. You see I had so little money I didn't want to waste a cent. + +"But it all went at last for powder and the sharpening of picks, and +for assaying--till one morning in August I found myself without money +and without food." + +He paused there, and his face grew dark with remembered despair, and +she shuddered. + +"It must be terrible to be without food and money." + +"No one knows what it means till he experiences it. I worked all day +without food. It seemed as if I must strike it then. Besides, I took a +sort of morbid pleasure in abusing myself--as if I were to blame. I +had been living on canned beans, and flapjacks, and coffee without +milk or sugar, and I was weak and sick--but it all had to end. About +four o'clock I dropped my pick and staggered out to the light. It was +impossible to do anything more." + +There were tears in her eyes now, for his voice unconsciously took on +the anguish of that despair. + +"I sat there looking out toward the mountains and down on the camp. +The blasts were booming from all hills--the men were going home with +their dinner-pails flashing red in the setting sun's light. It was +terrible to think of them going home to supper. It seemed impossible +that I should be sitting there starving, and the grass so green, the +sunset so beautiful. I can see it all now as it looked then, the old +Sangre de Christo range! It was like a wall of glistening marble that +night. + +"Well, I sat there till my hunger gnawed me into action. Then I +staggered down the trail. I saw how foolish I had been to go on day +after day hoping, hoping until the last cent was gone. I hadn't money +enough to pay the extra postage on a letter which was at the office. +The clerk gave me the letter and paid the shortage himself. The letter +was from my sister, telling me how peaceful and plentiful life was at +home, and it made me crazy. She asked me how many nuggets I had found. +You can judge how that hurt me. I reeled down the street, for I must +eat or die, I knew that." + +"Oh, how horrible!" the girl said softly. + +"There was one eating-house at which I always took my supper. It was +kept by an Irish woman, a big, hearty woman whose husband was a +prospector--or had been. 'Biddy Kelly's' was famous for its 'home +cooking.' I went by the door twice, for I couldn't bring myself to go +in and ask for a meal. You don't know how hard that is--it's very +queer, if a man has money he can ask for credit or a meal, but if he +is broke he'll starve first. I could see Biddy waiting on the +tables--the smell that came out was the most delicious, yet +tantalizing, odor of beef-stew--it made me faint with hunger." + +His voice grew weak and his throat dry as he spoke. + +"When I did enter, Dan looked up and said respectfully, 'Good-evenin', +Mr. Clement,' and I felt so ashamed of my errand I turned to run. +Everything whirled then--and when I got my bearings again Dan had me +on one arm and Biddy was holding a bowl of soup to my lips." + +The girl sighed. "Oh, she was good, wasn't she?" + +"They fed me, for they could see I was starving, and I told them +about the mine--and, well, some way I got them to 'grub-stake' me that +night." + +"What is that?" + +"That is, they agreed to furnish me food and money for tools and share +in profits. Dan went to work with me, and do you know, it ended in +ruining them both. We organized a company called the 'Biddy Mining +Company.' I was president, and Dan was vice-president, and Biddy was +treasurer. Biddy kept us going by her eating-house, but eventually we +wanted machinery, and we mortgaged the eating-house, and the money +went into that hole in the ground. But I knew we would succeed. I +could hear voices call me, 'Come, come!'--whenever I was alone I could +hear them plainly." + +His eyes, turned upon her, were full of mystery. + +"I have always felt the stir of life around me in the dark, and there +in that mine--after we struck the spring of water--I thought I heard +voices all the time in the plash of the water. I suppose it seemed +like insanity, for I ruined Dan and Biddy without mercy. I couldn't +stop. I was sure if we could only hold out a little while we would +reach it. But we didn't. Biddy had to go to work as a cook, and Dan +and I went out to try to borrow some money. I couldn't bear to let in +somebody else after all the heat and toil Dan and Biddy and I had +endured, but it had to be done. We took in a fellow from Iowa by the +name of Eldred and went to work again. + +"One day after our blast I was the first to enter, and the moment that +I saw the heap of rock I knew we had opened the vein. My wildest +dreams were realized!" + +"And then your troubles ended," the girl said tenderly. + +"No--for now a strange thing happened. The assayer tried our ore again +and again and found it very rich, but when we shipped to the mills we +got almost no returns. We tried every process, but the gold seemed to +slip away from us. Finally I took a carload and went with it to see +what was the matter. I followed it till it came out on the +plates--that is where they catch the gold by the use of quicksilver +spread on copper plates--and it seemed all right. I scraped some of it +up and put it into a small vial to take home with me. When I got home +the company assembled to hear my report, and when I took out the +amalgam to show it to them it had turned to a queer yellow-green +liquid. I was astounded, but Dan and Biddy crossed themselves. 'It's +witch's gold,' Biddy said. 'Dan, have no more to do with it.' And +witch's gold it was. They gave up right there and went back to work in +the camp. Eldred cursed me for getting him into it, and so they left +me to fight it out alone. I was like a monomaniac--I never thought of +giving up. I begged a little money from my brother and bought in all +the stock of the 'Biddy Mining Company,' and went to work to solve the +mystery of the amalgam. I was a good pupil in chemistry at college, +and I put my whole life and brain into that mystery and I solved it. I +found a way to treat it so all the gold was saved. That made me rich. +I called the mine 'The Witch,' and it has made me what you see." + +"It is like a fairy tale! What became of your faithful friends, Dan +and Biddy?" + +"I made Dan my foreman of the mine, and I built an eating-house and +hotel for Biddy. They are with me yet. Eldred I bought out on the same +terms as the rest." + +He had a sudden sensation of heat in his face as he passed the chasm +between the withdrawal of Dan and Biddy from the firm and his solution +of the amalgam. He did not care to dwell upon that, because Eldred had +sued him to recover his stock, claiming that it was bought in under +false pretenses. Neither did he care to enter into the stormy time +which followed the sudden leap of "The Witch" from a haunted hole in +the ground to a cave of diamonds. He hurried on to the end while she +listened in absorbed interest like a child to a wonder story. + +She sighed in the world-old manner of women and said: + +"And I--I have done nothing worth telling. I ruined my health by +careless living at school, and here I am, a cumberer of the earth." + +Some men would have hastened to be complimentary, but Clement remained +silent. He was trying to understand her mood that he might meet it in +a helpful way. + +"But if I am permitted to live I shall be different. I will do +something." + +"First of all, get well," he said, and his words had the force of a +command. "Give me your hand." + +She complied, and he took it in a firm clasp. "Now I want you to +promise me you'll turn your mind from darkness to the light, from the +caņons to the peaks--that you will determine to live. Do you +promise?" + +"I promise." + +"Very well. I shall see that you keep that promise." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was rather curious to see that as she grew in strength Clement lost +in assertiveness--in his feeling of command. He began to comprehend +that with returning health the girl was not altogether pitiable. She +had culture, social position and wealth. + +The distinction of his readily-acquired millions grew to be a very +poor possession in his own mind--in fact, he came at last to such +self-confessed utter poverty of mind and body that he wondered at her +continued toleration. He ceased to plead any special worthiness on his +own part and began to throw himself on her mercy. + +As the time came on when she no longer needed his arm for support he +found it hard to offer it as an act of gallantry. In fact, in that +small act was typified the change which he came ultimately to assume. +At first she had seemed to him like an angelic child. Death's shadows +had made him bold--but now he could not deceive himself: he was coming +to love her in a very human and definite fashion. He dared not refer +to the past in any way, and his visits grew more and more formal and +carefully accounted for. + +She thought she understood all this, and was serenely untroubled by +it. She brooded over the problem with dreamful lips and half-shut +eyes. She was drifting back to life on a current of mountain air +companioned by splendid clouds, and her content was like to the +lotus-eater's languor--it held no thought of time or tide. + +That she idealized him was true, but he grew richly in grace. All the +small amenities of conduct which he once possessed came back to him. +He studied to please her, and succeeded in that as in his other +ventures. He did not exactly abandon his business, but he came to +superintend his superintendents. + +However, he attached a telephone to his mine in order to be able to +direct his business from the Springs. He still roomed at the hotel, +though Ellice was living in a private house farther up the caņon. His +rooms were becoming filled with books and magazines, and he was +struggling hard to "catch up" with the latest literature. + +If Ellice referred to any book, even in the most casual way, he made +mental note of it, and if he had read it he re-read it, and if he had +not read it he secured it at once. + +"I know something of chemistry and mineralogy, and geology and milling +processes, but of art and literature very little," he said to her +once. "But give me time." + +The highest peaks were white with September snows before she felt able +to mount a horse. Each day she had been able to go a little farther +and climb a little higher. Her gain was slow, very slow, but it was +almost perceptible from day to day. + +Mr. Ross had been to Chicago, and was once more at the Springs. He +had brought a couple of nieces, very lively young creatures, who +annoyed Clement exceedingly by their impertinence--at least, that is +what he called their excessive interest in his affairs. Without the +co-operation of Ellice he would have found little chance to see her +alone, but she had a quiet way of letting them know when she found +them a burden, which they respected. + +One day he said to her, "Have you forgotten what I said to you about +the spring up there?" + +"No, I have not forgotten. Do you think I can go now? Am I really well +enough to go?" + +"The time has come." + +"What would the doctor say?" + +"The doctor--do you still heed what he says?" + +"Must I walk?" + +"Yes, to have the water heal you. But I will lead old Wisconse for you +to ride down." + +"After I am healed?" + +"One can be cured and yet be tired." + +They set off in such spirits as children have, old Wisconse leading +soberly behind. + +Clement was obliged to check the girl. + +"Now don't go too fast. It is a long way up there. I warn you it is +almost at timber-line." + +But she paid small heed to his warning. She felt so light, so active, +it seemed she could not tire. + +For a time they followed the wide road which climbed steadily, but at +last he stopped. + +"Now here we strike the trail," he said. "You must go ahead, for I am +to lead the horse." + +"Not far ahead," she exclaimed, a little bit alarmed. + +"Only two steps." He was a little amused at her. "Just so I will not +tread on your heels." + +"You needn't laugh. I know they hunt bears up here." + +They climbed for some time in comparative silence. + +"Oh, how much greener it is up here!" she exclaimed at last, looking +around, her eyes bright with excitement. + +He smiled indulgently. "You tourists think you know Colorado when +you've crossed it once on the railway. This is the Colorado which you +seldom see." + +She was in rapture over the glory of color, the waving grasses of +smooth hillsides, and the radiant dapple of light and shadow beneath +the groves of vivid yellow aspens. The cactus and Spanish dagger, and +the ever-present sage bush of the lower levels, had disappeared, +crow's-foot and blue-joint grasses swung in the wind. The bright flame +of the painted cup and the purple of the asters still lighted up the +aisles of the pines in sheltered places. + +"There are many more in August," he explained. "The frost has swept +them all away." + +"Is this our stream?" she asked. + +"Yes, we cross it many times." + +"How small it is." + +"Are you tired?" + +"Not at all." + +He came close to her to listen to her breathing. "You must not do too +much. If you find yourself out of breath stop and ride." + +"I want to be cured." + +He laughed. "By the way you lead up this trail I don't think you need +medicine. I never finish wondering whether you are the same girl I met +first----" + +She flashed a glance back at him. "I'm not. I'm another person." + +"That shows what three months of this climate will do." + +"Climate did not do it." + +"What did?" + +"You did." She kept marching steadily forward, her head held very +straight indeed. + +"I wish you would wait a moment," he pleaded. + +"I am very thirsty--I want to reach the spring." + +"But, dear girl, you can't keep this up." + +"Can't I? Watch me and see." + +She seemed possessed of some miraculous staff, for she mounted the +steep trail as lightly as a fawn. Clement was in an agony of +apprehension lest she should overdo and fall fainting in the path. +This ecstasy of activity was most dangerously persistent. + +It was past noon when they came out of the aspens and pines into the +little smooth slope of meadow which lay between the low peaks which +were already crusted with snow. In the midst of the orange and purple +and red of the grasses lay a deep, dark pool of water--as beautiful as +her eyes, it seemed to him. + +"Here is the spring," Clement called to the girl. + +"I knew it," she said. + +"Wait," he called again. "I must drink with you." + +He hastened up and dipped a cup into the water and handed it to her. + +"Now drink confusion to disease." + +"Confusion!" She drank. "Oh, isn't it sweet? I never knew before how +good water was. But here, drink. You are dying of thirst, too." She +handed him the cup. + +"I want to drink to some purpose also," he said, and there was no need +of further words, but he went on, his full heart giving eloquence to +his lips, "I want to pledge my life to your service--my life and all I +am." + +She grew a little pale. This intensity of emotion awed her as the +majestic in Nature affects great souls. "I don't think you ought. I +don't think I am quite worthy." + +"Let me be judge of that." He spoke quickly and almost sharply. "Shall +I drink?" + +She had walked on while Clement was speaking, and stood leaning +against the browsing horse. After a little hesitation she answered, +"If you are thirsty." + +[Illustration] + +The words were light, but he understood her. He drank and then came +straight toward her. + +She shrank from him in sudden timidity and said a little hurriedly, +"Help me into the saddle. I shall need to ride back." + + + + +_WESTWARD VISTA_ + + + _The half-sunk sun + Burns through the dusty-crimson sky; + Streamers of gold and green soar + In radiating splendor, like the spokes + Of God's unmeasurable chariot-wheels + Half-hid and vanishing. + Around me is coolness, ripeness and repose; + The smell of gathered grain and fruits, + And the musky breath of melons fills the air. + The very dust is fruity, and the click + Of locusts' wings is like the close + Of gates upon great stores of wheat. + The gathered barley bleaches in shock, + The corn breathes on me from the west, + And the sky-line widens on and on + Until I see the waves of yellow-green + Break on the hills that face the snow and lilac peaks + Of Colorado's mountains._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +At first Clement's happiness had no further base of uneasiness than +the lover's fear of loss. It all seemed too good to be true, and he +had a hidden fear that something might happen to set him back where he +was before she came. It was quite like his feeling about his mine--it +took him a certain length of time before he ceased to dream of its +sudden loss, and now it seemed (when absent from her) that it would be +easy for something to rob him of this love which was his life. + +This feeling was mixed, too, with a feeling of his unworthiness, which +deepened the more closely he studied her. She was so free from all +bruise and stain of life's battle. There were no questionable places +in her life. Could he say as much? + +Whenever he asked himself the question his dealings with the +stockholders of "The Biddy" came into his mind. Could he afford to +tell his bride all the facts in the case? This feeling of +dissatisfaction with himself led him to do many extravagant things. He +presented her with beautiful and costly jewels for which she had +little taste. + +"Why, Richard. What made you think of that?" she said once after he +had slipped away to the city to buy her something. + +"Is it so very pretty?" + +"It is beautiful! But can we afford such things?" + +"We can afford anything that will make you happy." + +He made a similar answer when she drew back a little startled at the +cost of the house he had contracted for. + +"Why, it is a palace!" + +"The best is scarcely good enough for you." After a moment he added, +"You see, I know you can never live East again, and I want you to +have all the comforts of a palace out here. And so long as 'The Witch' +holds out you shall have your heart's desire." + +Mr. Ross had come to have a profound respect for his future +son-in-law. "I can't say that he don't make as much of a fool of +himself as any prospective bridegroom, but he is a business man at the +same time. He don't lose his head, by any means." He was telling his +son about Clement. "He is devoted to your sister, but I went over to +his mine with him the other day and it is perfectly certain that he +understands his business. He is only reckless when buying things for +Ellice. He'll take care of her and the mine, too." + +Clement felt a certain incongruity every time he put on his miner's +dress and went through the mine. "I'm too rough for her, too old," he +kept thinking--trying to conceal the real cause of his growing fear. + +He was not honest with himself. He fought round the real point of +danger. He gave a generous sum to the library, aided a hospital, and +did other things which should ease a bad conscience, and yet do not. +He hastened the house forward, and passed to and fro between his mine, +the Springs and the city in ceaseless activity. + +The marriage was set for July, just a year from the time he first saw +her, and the winter passed quickly, so busied was he in building and +planning the home. He grew less and less buoyant and more careworn as +spring wore on, and Ellice could not understand the change. He was +moody and changeable even in her presence. This troubled her, and she +often asked: + +"What is the matter, Richard? Is your business going wrong?" + +"No, oh no. Business is all right. Nothing is the matter." And ended +by convincing her that something was very much wrong indeed. And she +grieved in silence, not daring to question him further. + +The self-revealing touch came to him in a curious way only a few days +before their wedding day. He was in camp on a final inspection of his +mine, and was walking the streets at night, silent, self-absorbed and +gloomy. He had grown morbid and unwholesome in his thought, and the +wreck of his happiness seemed already complete. He spent a great deal +of time in long and lonely walks. + +The street swarmed with rough, noisy miners. A band of evangelists, +with drums and tambourines, occupied the central corner. A low, +continuous hum of talk could be heard at the base of all other noises. + +Being in no mood for companionship Clement stood aside from it all, +thinking how far above all this life his beautiful bride was. + +There had been in the camp for some weeks a certain sensational +evangelist--a man of some power, but of unhappy disposition +apparently. At any rate he had been in much trouble with the city +authorities. He had been called a "hypocrite and fake" in the public +press, and had been prosecuted for disturbance of the peace. But he +seemed to thrive on such treatment. + +Clement had paid very little attention to the man and his troubles, +but as he looked down the street at the crowd around the speakers on +the corner it occurred to him to wonder if they were the fighting +evangelists. + +He was about to move that way when he observed near him in the dark +middle of the street a man and a woman. + +"This will do as well as anywhere," the man said, putting down a small +box. He wore a broad cowboy hat, and a long coat which hung unbuttoned +down his powerful figure. The woman was tall and slender, and neatly +dressed in gray. Clement understood that these were the persecuted +ones. + +The man mounted the box, and in a powerful but not very musical voice +began to sing a hymn full of cowboy slang. His singing had a quality +not usual in street singers, and a crowd quickly gathered about him. +His song was long and not without a rude poetry. He began his address +at last by issuing a defiance to his enemies. This would mean little +in an Eastern village, perhaps, but in a mining camp, even a +degenerate mining camp, it might mean a great deal--life or death, in +fact. + +"Now, gentlemen, I want to say something as a preface in order to know +just where we stand. Some citizens of the town have vilified me in +private and in the public press--over an assumed name, however. It +wouldn't be healthy for any man to do it openly. The man is a +liar--but I don't care about myself. It is a little difference of +opinion among men, but some miscreant has reflected upon the good name +of my wife. Now let me say that the man that says my wife is not a +lady and a woman of the highest character, insults the mother of my +children and will answer to me for every word he utters." + +A little thrill of interest and awe ran through the crowd. The man's +voice meant battle, and battle to the hilt of the bowie. It was so +easy to prove a mark for desperate men, but there was no fear in the +attitude of the speaker. He had come up through a wild life, and knew +his audience, his accuser and himself. + +His voice took a sudden change--it grew tender and reverent. "I am +here to preach the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. I may not do it +in the best way always, but I do it as well as I know how." Here his +tone grew severely earnest and savage again, as he added: "But I shall +defend the honor of my wife with my life." + +His voice and pose were magnificent--lion-like. + +His manner changed again with dramatic suddenness. He took the whole +street into his confidence. + +"I love my wife, gentlemen. She has borne three children to me. She is +a good woman. A mighty sight smarter and better than I am, but she +can't defend herself against sneaks and reptilious liars. I can. +That's part of my business. I tell you, boys," he added in a low voice +very sincere and winning, "they ain't no man good enough to marry a +good woman; it's just her good, pure, kind heart gives him any show at +all." + +A sudden lump rose in Clement's throat. The man's deep humility and +loyalty and apparent sincerity had gone straight to his own heart and +touched him in a very sensitive place. He turned away and sought the +deeper shadow with his head bowed in black despair. + +He thought of the eyes of his bride with a shudder almost of fear. +Could he ever face her again? + +"Oh, God! How pure and dainty and unspotted she is, and I--I am +unclean." + +He saw as clearly as if a light had been turned in upon his secret +thought, that the ownership of "The Witch" was in question. He had not +been candid with her--he had been dishonest. He had not dared to let +her know how he had secured control of that stock. + +All the way back to the Springs he wrestled with himself about it. He +ended by reasserting the justice of his position, and resolved to tell +her at once the whole story and let her judge. He had in his pocket +the deed to the house and lot, which he determined now to give her at +once, and to make explanations at the same time. + +This he did. He called to see her the following afternoon and found +her surrounded with women and gowns and flowers. The women fled when +he approached, but the gowns and flowers remained, and there was talk +upon them till at last, in sheer desperation, Clement said: + +"Ellice, here is something that I want to give you now. It is my +wedding gift." + +He placed in her hand the deed. She looked at it. + +"Oh, there's so much fine print. I can't read it now. What is it?" + +"It is the deed to the new home." + +Her eyes misted with quick emotion. + +"How good you are to me, Richard." + +"No, it's precaution," he replied as lightly as he could. "We will +have a home always if you don't lose it in some wild speculation." + +She put her arms about his neck, an infrequent caress with her. + +"How rich we are. God is good to us. And is it not good to think that +our wealth does not come from anybody's misery? It comes out of the +earth like a spring--like the spring that made me well." + +As he looked down into her face it seemed lit from within by some +Heavenly light, and her voice made his head grow dizzy. He could not +tell her his story then. + +He sat down and listened to her talk. She wanted to know what troubled +him, and he was forced to lie. + +"Oh, nothing. I'm a little worried about a--new piece of machinery." +This gave him a thought. "I must be away this evening. I can't take +dinner with you." + +She was not one of those who worry with expostulations or +complainings. She had a mind of her own, and she granted the same +decision to others. + +"Very well," she said, and she flashed a sudden roguish look at him. +"Don't forget to breakfast with me." + +He had the grace to return her smile as he said: + +"Oh, I'll not forget. I've charged my mind with it." + +His going was like a flight. His inner cry was this: + +"My God! I am absolutely unworthy of her. I am big, coarse and +dishonest--unfit to touch her hand." + +His gloomy face and bent head was a subject of joke for the +acquaintances he met on the street. + +"Saddle Susanna," he called sharply to his Mexican hostler. He had +made up his mind to radical measures. + +As he sat in his room with his face buried in his hands shutting out +the light of the splendid sunset, he saw her as she sat among her soft +silks and dainty flowers. Her lovely eyes and the exquisite texture of +her skin grew more and more wonderful to him. The touch of his lips to +hers came to seem an act of pollution, almost of envenoming, as he +brooded on his unworthiness. + +He wrote a note to her on the impulse of the moment. The missive read: + + "I am not fit to see you, to touch you. I am going away + across the divide to make restitution for a great wrong I + have done. If I do not I can never face you again. When I + see you again I will be an honest man, or I--if you think me + worthy of forgiveness I will see you and ask it to-morrow. + RICHARD." + +He added as a postscript: + + "I am well. I am not crazy, but I am not an honest man. I + can't kiss you again till I am." + +Upon reading this note he saw it would frighten her, and keep her in +agony of suspense, therefore he tore it up, and rushing out of the +house leaped into the saddle. + +The spirited little broncho was fresh and mettlesome, and went off in +a series of sheeplike bounds which her rider seemed not to notice. + +He drew rein at the telegraph office, and there sent three telegrams. +They were all alike: + + "Meet me at the office at midnight. Important." + +As he turned Susanna's head up the trail the mountains stood deep +purple silhouettes against the cloudlessness of the sky. The wind blew +from the heights cool and fragrant, and the little horse set nostril +to it as if she anticipated and welcomed the hard ride. + +The way lay over forbidding mountain passes ten thousand feet above +the sea, and her rider was a heavy man. But Susanna was of broncho +strain with a blooded sire, which makes the hardiest and swiftest +mountain horse in the world. + +Clement's mind cleared as he began the ascent--cleared but did not +rest. Over and over the problem came, each time clearer and more +difficult. He must that night give away a hundred and thirty-five +thousand dollars--terrible ordeal! Ninety thousand dollars to go to an +old Irishman and his wife--both ignorant, careless. + +What would they do with it? It might drive them crazy. As they now +lived they were comfortable. He had made Dan sub-superintendent of the +mine, and he had rebuilt the eating-house for Biddy. Could they take +care of the big fortune he was about to give them? + +Ought he not to give them a few thousands--such sum as they could +comprehend and take care of? Would it not be better for them? + +Then there was forty-five thousand dollars to be given to a cheap +little man--that was hardest of all, for he had come to hate the sight +of the sleek black head of Arthur Eldred. Yes, but he had saved the +day. He had put in six hundred dollars when every dollar was a ducat. +True, but the reward was too great. A hundred thousand dollars for six +hundred. + +Oh, this was familiar ground! He had gone over it in a sort of +sub-conscious way a hundred times, each time apparently the final one. +It had been quite settled when this slender little woman first lifted +her face to him, and now nothing was settled. + +It was very still and cold. There was no stream to sing up through the +pines, and no wind in the pines to answer should the stream call. +Nothing seemed to be stirring save the pensive man and his faithful +pony. + +Reaching the upper levels he spurred on at a gallop, finding some +relief in the pounding action of the saddle and in the rush of air +past his ears. The moon was late, but when it came it seemed to help +him, lightening his mood as it lightened the trail. The big ledges and +lowering, lesser peaks lifted into the dark sky weirdly translucent, +and their upper edges seemed smooth and graceful as the rims of +bubbles. Solid rock seemed melted and transfused with light and air. +It was all miraculously beautiful, and the sore-hearted man lifted his +eyes to the heights seeing the face of a girl in every moonlit rock +and in every wayside pool. + +As he entered the office he found them all waiting for him--Dan and +Biddy in their best dress, and Eldred with a supercilious half-grin, +half-scowl on his face. + +Clement nodded at him, but said "Hello" to Dan and "Good-evening" to +Biddy. Conly, his trusted, discreet cashier, was at his desk, and the +office was dimly lit with a single electric bulb. + +Dan and Biddy greeted him cautiously, for Eldred had filled their +simple souls with suspicion. "He wants to compromise. He's afraid of +our suit against him." + +As a matter of fact Dan would never put a dollar into the plan for a +suit, and it had never gone beyond Eldred's talk--and yet he had made +them suspicious. Dan was forced to confess that Clement was becoming +an "a-ristocrat." And Biddy acknowledged that he "sildom dairkened her +dure these days." They had always felt his superiority and refinement, +and they rose as he entered. + +He wasted no time in preliminaries. "Sit down," he said imperiously, +and his face, when he turned to the light, was knotted with trouble. +He sat for a moment with bent head while he strengthened his heart to +a bitter and humiliating task. He began abruptly: + +"Dan, you remember the time I brought the amalgam home in a vial and +it had turned green?" + +"I do. Yis." + +"You remember that you gave it up right then." + +"I did. I said it's 'witch's gould.'" + +"Sure such it looked like that day," said Biddy. + +"All the same, the thing which scared you put a happy thought into my +head, and I felt then I could solve it." He lifted his head and looked +around defiantly. "In short, when I bought your stock in at ten cents +on the dollar I knew it was worth par, for I had solved the process." + +There was a silence very awesome following the defiant ring of the +voice. + +Eldred was the first to comprehend what it meant. His eyes glittered +like those of an awakened rat. + +"Do you mean that? If that's true you robbed us, you thief, robbed us +cold and clean." He sprang up. "I knew you'd do something----" + +"Sit down," interrupted Clement harshly. "I'm not going to have any +words with you. If I had seen fit not to tell you of this how much +would you have known of it? Sit down and keep your tongue between your +teeth." He turned to Dan and his voice was softer. "Dan, when I was +hungry you took me in and fed me. For that I've given you a good +position. Is that debt paid?" + +"Sure, Clement, me boy, it was only a sup of p'taties an' bacon, +annyway." + +"Biddy, I turned over two thousand dollars to you, and rebuilt your +eating-house. You thought that paid the debt I owed you?" + +Biddy was slower to answer. "For all the grub an' the loikes o' that, +indade yis, Mr. Clement--but sure we wor pardners----" + +Clement interrupted. "I know. I'm coming to that. Now answer me. If it +hadn't been for me wouldn't you have thrown up the sponge long before +you did?" + +The silence of the little group answered him. + +"Would any of you ever have worked out the mystery of that ore? +Weren't you all anxious to sell for anything you could get?" + +They were all silent as before. + +"I made the mine worth money. I discovered the secret, it was my +invention. I paid you four times what you had put into it. The mine +was worthless until I invented a process for saving the gold. I +claimed it as an invention like any man claims a patent right. I +believed I had a right to it--to all of it, and so I bought in your +stock after I had solved the problem of the reduction. I say I +believed I was right--to-night I believe I was wrong--it don't matter +how I came to the conclusion, but I've changed my mind. I have come +to-night to make restitution. I am ready to pay you ninety cents more +on every dollar of stock you sold me at that time." + +Biddy gasped: "Howly Saints!" + +Dan leaped up with a wild hurrah. "Listen to that now!" he cried, with +other incoherences. He shook Clement's hand and kissed Biddy. He +praised Clement. + +"Ye're the whitest man that iver stepped green turf." + +Clement sat coldly impassive and unsmiling. + +"Then you're satisfied?" + +"Satisfied!" shouted Dan. "Satisfied is it, man? Indade I am." + +"And you, Biddy?" + +Biddy was weeping and muttering wild Irish prayers. "Dan, dear, do ye +understand, it's forty-five thousand dollars apiece to the two of us. +Oh, the blessed old Ireland! I'll go back sure. Oh, it's too good to +be true--we must be dramin'." + +Clement looked at the distracted woman with a flush of +self-righteousness. He had been right in his fears. It seemed like to +ruin the simple souls. He turned to Eldred, who sat in silence. + +"What have you to say?" + +Eldred sneered. "I say you can't fool me. These shares are worth +seventeen dollars and eighty cents each. I want their market value, +not their par value. I want one-quarter the present value of 'The +Witch.'" + +Clement's brow darkened and his eyes burned with a fierce steady +light. + +"Is that all you want? If I served you right I'd kick you out of the +door and let you do your worst. I know if you sue that you can't +recover one dollar from me. But I have my reasons for putting up with +your insolence. I will pay you forty-five thousand dollars and not one +cent more. The market value of 'The Witch' to-day I have made by my +management. I have gone on improving the mine day by day. As it stands +it is a new property. You were a quarter owner in 'The Biddy.' We +capitalized 'The Biddy' at your own suggestion at two hundred thousand +dollars, because we wanted it big enough to cover all values. When I +render you your share of that I am doing you justice. John, make out +three checks for forty-five thousand dollars each." + +Dan and Biddy turned upon Eldred and talked him into silence, but he +was unconvinced. + +Clement refused to touch the checks, and the clerk said: "Here is +yours, Biddy." + +Biddy went up and took the slip in her hands. "Is that little slip o' +white paper really worth so much?" + +"Call at the bank and get your money when you want it," said the +imperturbable cashier. + +Dan studied his check, his face foolish with joy. + +Eldred took his, saying, "This puts into my hands the means to fight." + +Clement merely nodded. "You know my address." Eldred went out without +further word. + +When the door closed on him Clement's face lost its sternness, and he +became sad and tender. + +His struggle was not yet done. His mind was clear about the man who +came in at the eleventh hour, but it was not clear with regard to +these true-hearted old friends who had been with him from the first. +He recalled the time when Dan's big arm had helped him to a chair, and +Biddy had put the steaming soup before him--food worth all the gold in +the world at that moment. He recalled her broad, kindly face, hot and +shining from the stove; he remembered their struggles, their +sacrifices. + +"Wait a moment, Biddy," he said, as they called out "Good-night," and +started to leave. + +"Sit down a moment, and you, too, Dan. I want to talk over old times a +while." + +They sat down in stupefaction. + +"Biddy, do you remember the money you squandered on the lottery +ticket?" + +A slow smile broadened her face. "I do, Mister Clement--and I remember +I won the prize sure!" + +"You did, and saved all our lives. Dan, do you remember the day we +lost our last five-dollar gold piece in the grass?" + +Dan slapped his knee. "Do I? I wore me hands raw as beef combin' the +grass that day." + +"Ah, those were great days. We had days when forty-five cents would +have made us joyous, and here you are with ninety thousand dollars, +and wishin' for more." + +Dan laughed again. "Sure, that's no lie." + +"It is, Dan Kelly," said Biddy. "I have enough--too much. My heart +misgives me now. I'm afraid of it, sure. I'm scared to carry it away +wid me." + +"You're safe, Biddy; nobody will steal that check." A sudden impulse +seized him. "Dan, you believed in me in those days--give me that +check." Dan slowly handed to him the check. Clement took it and +turned. "Biddy, you fed me when I was starving, and you pawned +everything you had to 'grub-stake' me--give me your check." She handed +it to him without hesitation. He tore them into small pieces. + +"Dan, you are mining boss, and I make you both quarter owners in 'The +Witch' with all I have, and share and share alike, as we did when we +hadn't a dime. Now hurrah for 'The Witch.'" + +Nobody shouted but the cashier. Dan sat in a stupor, and Biddy was +weeping, with one arm flung around Dan's neck. Dan was turning his hat +around on his fingers and staring at Clement's face for some solution +to the situation. It was beyond his imagination. + +Clement did not speak again for some moments. When he did his voice +was husky and tremulous with emotion. "You notice I say quarter +interest--that's because there is a new member in the firm now. She +comes in to-morrow. I want you to see how she looks." He extended a +picture of Ellice to Biddy. She made a marvelous dramatic shift of +features, and a smile of admiration broke through the red of her broad +countenance. + +"Oh, the swate, blessed angel. Sure, she's beautiful as one of the +saints in the church. Luk at her, Dan." + +"I'm lukin'. She's none too good for him." + +"Don't say that, Dan!" Clement protested in an earnest tone. "All you +have to-night you owe to her. All the best thoughts in me to-day I owe +to her." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +There remained to him now all the joy of riding back to tell her of +his purification of soul. His heart was so joyous it kept time to +every happy song in the world. + +The gloom and doubt of himself had passed away, but the wonder and +mystery of woman's love for man remained. He felt himself to be an +honest man, but a man big, crude and coarse compared to her beauty and +delicacy. He marveled at her bravery and her magnanimity. Leaving +Susanna he leaped upon a fresh horse and set off, riding fast toward +the divide. The wind had risen and was blowing from the dim domes of +the highest mountains--a cold wind, and he would have said a sad wind +had his heart not been so light. As it was, he lifted his bared +forehead to it exultantly. + +He put behind him, so far as in his power lay, all thought of the +great wealth he had given away. He was eager to pour out the whole +story to her, and hear her say, "Well done, Richard." + +Over and over again his thought ran: "Now I am an honest man. I am not +worthy of her, but at least my heart is clean." + +Henceforth she was to be his altar of sacrifice. All he did would be +for her approval. All there was of his money, his inventive skill, his +command of men, should be hers. She should regulate every hour of his +coming and going, and share all the plans and purposes of his life. + +"Oh, I must live right, and deal justly," he thought. "I must be a +better man from this time forth." + +In the east the pale lances of the coming sun pierced the breasts of +the soaring gray clouds, and, behold, they grew to be the most +splendid orange and red and purple. The stars began to pale, and as he +came to the eastern slope where the plain stretched to dim splendor, +like a motionless sea of russet and purple, the sun was rising. + +The plain seemed lonely and desolate of life, so far below was it. All +action was lost in the mist of immensity--men's stature that of the +most minute insects. And down there in the pathway of the morning was +the little woman of all the world waiting for him! + +As he rode down the slope to the river level into the town the sun was +swinging, big and red, high above the horizon. His long ride had made +him look wan and pale, but he ordered coffee and a biscuit, and was +glad to find it helped him to look less wan and sorrowful. He dressed +with great care, then sat down to wait. At 7:30 o'clock he sent a note +to her: + + "I have not forgotten. When do you breakfast?" + +She replied: + + "Good-morning, dearest. Breakfast is ready; come as soon as + you can." + +He entered the room with the heart of a boy, the presence of an +athlete. He was at his prime of robust manhood, and his physical pride +was unconscious. + +She was proud of him, and met him more than half way in his greeting. +Her face was still slender and delicate of color, but in her eyes was +a serene brightness, and her lips were tremulous with happiness. + +She led him to the little table. "Now you mustn't call this +breakfast," she explained. "This is a private cup of coffee to sustain +us through the ordeal. We all breakfast immediately after the +ceremony." + +"I've had one breakfast this morning." + +She looked dismayed. + +"At least a roll and a cup of coffee," he hastened to explain. +"However, I think I could eat all there is here and not be +inconvenienced." + +They sat down and looked at each other in silence. She spoke first. + +"Just think, this is the last time you will ever sit down with Miss +Ross." + +"You seem to be sad about it." + +"I am--and yet I am very happy. I don't suppose you men can +understand, but a woman wants to marry the man she loves--and yet she +is sad at leaving girlhood behind. Now let me see, you take two lumps, +don't you? I must not forget that. It makes the waiter stare when a +wife can't remember how many lumps of sugar her husband takes." + +He felt his courage oozing away, and so began abruptly: + +"Ellice, I have a story to tell and a confession to make to you." + +She looked a little startled. "That sounds ominous, Richard--like the +villain in the play, only he makes his confession after marriage." + +He was very sober indeed now. "That's the reason I make mine now. I +want you to know just what I am before you marry me." + +She leaned her chin on her clasped hands and looked at him. "Tell me +all about it." + +He did. He began at the beginning, and while it would not be true to +say he did not spare himself, he told the story as it actually +happened. He concealed no essential. + +"I rode there and back last night simply because I couldn't kiss you +again until I had made myself an honest man." + +She reached out and clutched the hand which lay on the table near +her--a sudden convulsive embrace. + +"Last night?" + +"Yes, I've been to the camp since I left you last night. I couldn't +stand with you--there--before all our friends, till I could say I had +no other man's money in my pockets." + +She took his hand in both of her own and bent her head and touched her +cheek to his fingers. She was very deeply moved. + +And he--though his voice choked--faltered through: + +"I gave it all back, dear--I mean I gave over to Biddy and Dan their +full share--they are equal owners with you and me in 'The Witch.' I +tried to withhold some of it; it was hard to give it all back; but I +did it because I believed you would approve of it. And now, if you +will let me, I can call you my wife with a clear conscience." + +For answer she rose and came to his side, and put her arms about his +neck and laid a kiss on his upturned face. Words were of no avail. In +his heart the man was still afraid of one so good and loving. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Spirit of Sweetwater, by Hamlin Garland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + +***** This file should be named 20695-8.txt or 20695-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/9/20695/ + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. 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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: The Spirit of Sweetwater + +Author: Hamlin Garland + +Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + + + + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h3>LADIES' HOME JOURNAL<br /> +LIBRARY OF FICTION</h3> + +<h1>THE SPIRIT OF<br /> +SWEETWATER<br /><br /></h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>HAMLIN GARLAND</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF</h4> +<h3>WAYSIDE COURTSHIPS<br /> +MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS<br /> +PRAIRIE SONGS, ETC.<br /><br /><br /><br /></h3> + +<p class="center">PHILADELPHIA<br /> +CURTIS PUBLISHING<br /> +COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY &<br /> +McCLURE CO.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1898, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">Hamlin Garland</span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><small>TO</small><br /> +JESSIE VIOLA<br /> +<small>AND</small><br /> +HARRIET EDITH GARLAND<br /></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"> +<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="376" height="600" alt="Hamlin Garland" title="" /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" summary="toc"> +<tr><td align='left'>Part I</td><td align='right'>Page</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER I</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER II</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Part II</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER I</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER II</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Part III</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER I</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER II</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="heading"><i>THE MYSTERY OF MOUNTAINS</i><br /><br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i4">As the sun sinks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the cañons deepening in color<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Add mystery to silence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the lone traveller lying out-stretched<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the silent pines on some high range<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Watches and listens in ecstasy of fear<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And timorous admiration.<br /></span></i> +</div><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">In the roar of the stream he catches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The reminiscent echo of colossal cataracts;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the cry of the cliff-bird<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thinks he hears the eagle's scream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or yowl of far-off mountain-lion;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the fall of a loose rock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He fancies the menacing footfall of the grizzly bear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the black deeps of the lower cañon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His dreaming eyes detect once more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prodigious lines of buffalo crawling snake-wise<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Athwart the stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or files of Indian warriors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winding downward to the distant plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where camp-fires gleam like stars.<br /></span></i> +</div></div> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Part_I" id="Part_I"></a>Part I</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h1><a name="The_Spirit_of_Sweetwater" id="The_Spirit_of_Sweetwater"></a>The Spirit of Sweetwater</h1> + + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>One spring day a young man of good +mental furnishing and very slender purse +walked over the shoulder of Mount Mogallon +and down the trail to Gold Creek. +He walked because the stage fare seemed +too high.</p> + +<p>Two years and four months later he was +pointed out to strangers by the people of +Sweetwater Springs. "That is Richard +Clement, the sole owner of 'The Witch,' +a mine valued at three millions of dollars." +This in itself was truly an epic.</p> + +<p>Sweetwater Springs was a village in a +cañon, out of which rose two wonderful +springs of water whose virtues were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +known throughout the land. The village +was wedged in the cañon which ran to the +mighty breast of Mogallon like a fold in +a king's robe.</p> + +<p>The village and its life centered around +the pavilion which roofed the spring, and +Clement spent his evenings there in order +to see the people, at least, as they joyously +thronged about the music-stand and +sipped the beautiful water which the Utes +long, long ago called "sweet water," and +visited with reverence and hope of returning +health.</p> + +<p>Since the coming of his great wealth +Clement had not allowed himself a day's +vacation, and he had grown ten years +older in that time. There were untimely +signs of age in his hair and in the troubled +lines of his face. He was a young man, +but he looked a strong and stern and careworn +man to those whose attention was +called to him. He was a conscientious +man, and the possession of great wealth +was not without its gravities.</p> + +<p>For the first time he felt it safe to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +his mine in other hands. He had a longing +to mix with his kind once more, and +in his heart was the secret hope that somewhere +among the women of the Springs +he might find a girl to take to wife. He +arranged his vacation for July, not because +it was ever hot at the Creek, but +because he knew the Springs swarmed at +that time with girls from the States. It +would have troubled him had any one put +these ideas into words and accused him +of really seeking a bride.</p> + +<p>He was a self-unconscious man naturally, +and he hardly realized yet how widely +his name had gone as the possessor of millions. +He supposed himself an unnoticed +atom as he stood at the spring on the +second night of his stay in the village. +Of a certainty many did not know him, +but they saw him, for he was a striking +figure—a handsome figure—though that +had never concerned him. He was, in +fact, feeling his own insignificance.</p> + +<p>He was standing there in shadow looking +out somberly upon the streams of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +people as they came to take their evening +draught at the wonderful water of the +effervescing spring. The sun had gone +behind the high peaks to the west, and +a delicious, dry coolness was in the cañon.</p> + +<p>It seemed to Clement to be a very fashionable +and leisurely throng—so long had +he been absent from people either modish +or easeful. He felt himself to be hopelessly +outside all this youth and brilliancy +and merriment, and he looked upon it +all with a certain wistfulness.</p> + +<p>He perceived at length that the strollers +were not all of the same conditions. There +were rough, brown cow-boys from La +Junta and Cajon, and miners in rough +dress down from the gulches for a night, +but mainly the promenaders appealed to +him with elegance of dress and manner.</p> + +<p>Many of the ladies came without hats, +which added to the charm of their eyes +and hair. Some of them looked twice at +the tall man with the big mustache and +broad hat, who seemed to be watching for +some tardy friend.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>As he studied them his memory freshened +and he came to understand them +better. He analyzed them into familiar +types. This was a banker and his wife +from some small town—the wife fussy +and consequential, the husband coldly +dignified. This group was composed of +a doctor and his daughters. Behind them +came a merchant from some Nebraska +town—he rough of exterior, his children +dainty of dress and very pretty. Occasionally +a group of college-bred girls came +up without escort—alert, self-helpful and +serene. They saw Clement at once, and +studied him carefully as they drank their +beauty cup at the circular bench before +the spring. All good-looking men had +interest to them.</p> + +<p>All classes came, a varied stream, yet +they were Western, and of the well-to-do +condition for the larger part.</p> + +<p>The deft boy swung the glasses of water +on his tripartite dipper with ceaseless +splash and clink. There was a pleasant +murmur of talk in which an Eastern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>listener +would have heard the "r" sound +well-defined. There were many couples +seated about the pavilion on the benches +and railings. It was all busy yet tranquil. +Each loiterer had fed, had taken his +draught of healing water—and this was +the hour of pleasant gossip and repose. +Clement fell at last to analyzing the action +of the boy who supplied the water at the +pool. He slammed the glasses into the +pool, and set them on the bench with a +click as regular as a pump. Occasionally, +however, he was indifferent. With some +of his customers he handled the glasses +as if they contained nectar, thus indicating +his generous patrons. Once he +stopped and dipped the glass into the +pool with his own hand—a doubtful +action—and extended it with a bow to a +young lady who said "thank you" so +sweetly that he blushed and stammered +in reply.</p> + +<p>All this fixed Clement's attention, and +as the young girl lifted the glass in her +slim hand he wondered how she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +escaped his notice for a single moment. A +woman at his side said sighfully, "There +is that consumptive girl again, she hasn't +long to stay." She was as pale, as fragile, +and as lovely as the mountain columbine. +Her face was thin, and her head shapely, +but her eyes! They burned like rarest +topaz—deep, dark and sad. Clement +shivered as he felt them fixed upon him, +and yet he could not turn away as he +should have done.</p> + +<p>He gazed at her with a sudden feeling +which was not awe, nor compassion, nor +love, but was all of these. He felt in his +soul the subtlest sadness in all the world—the +sadness of a strong man who looks +upon a beautiful young girl who is dying.</p> + +<p>Extremest languor was in every movement. +She was dressed in dark, soft garments—very +simple and graceful in effect, +and her bearing was that of one accustomed +to willing service from others. +Her smile was as sad as her eyes which +had in them the death-shadow.</p> + +<p>Clement's action, the unwavering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>self-forgetful +intentness of his look, arrested +her attention, and she returned his gaze +for an instant, and then turned away and +took the arm of an elderly gentleman who +stood beside her. She moved slowly, as an +invalid walks when for the first time she +is permitted a short walk in the outdoor +air, leaning heavily on her companion.</p> + +<p>The big miner roused himself and +stood straight and tall, hesitating whether +to follow or not—a sudden singular pain +in his heart, as if he were losing something +very close to his life.</p> + +<p>He obeyed the impulse to follow, and +moved down the path, just out of reach +of observation, he fancied. As he made +way through the crowd he grew aware +again of his heavy limbs, of his great +height, of his swinging, useless hands. It +had been so long since he had mingled +with a holiday company, he appeared as +self-conscious as a boy.</p> + +<p>Once the fair invalid turned and looked +back, but she was too far away for him to +discern the expression of her face. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +was not possessed of self-esteem enough to +believe she had turned to look for him.</p> + +<p>He followed them in their slow pace till +they turned in at the doorway of the +principal hotel of the village. They +entered at the ladies' door while he kept +on to the main entrance and rotunda. +There was no elevator in the house, and +the invalid paused a moment before attempting +the stairway. It was pitiful to +see her effort to make light of it all to her +companion, who was quite evidently her +father. She smiled at him even while +she pressed one slim hand against her +bosom.</p> + +<p>Clement longed to take her in his arms +and carry her up the stairway—it seemed +the thing most worth doing in all the +world—but he could only lean against the +desk and see them go slowly stair by stair +out of sight.</p> + +<p>"Who are they?" he asked of the clerk +whom he detected also watching them +with almost the same breathless interest.</p> + +<p>"Chicago merchant, G. B. Ross. That's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +his daughter. She's pretty far gone—consumption, +I reckon. It looks tough +to see a girl like that go off. You'd think +now——"</p> + +<p>Clement did not remain to hear the +clerk moralize further; he went immediately +to his own hotel, paid his bill, and +ordered his baggage sent to the other +house. He wondered at himself for this +overpowering interest in a sick girl, and +at his plan to see her again.</p> + +<p>He reasoned that he would be able to +see her at breakfast time, provided she +came down to breakfast, and provided he +hit upon the same hour of eating. He +began to calculate upon the probable hour +when she would come down. It was astounding +how completely she occupied his +thought already.</p> + +<p>He struck off up the cañon where no +sound was, other than the roar of the wild +little stream which seemed to lift its voice +in wilder clamor as the night fell. Its +presence helped him to think out his situation. +He had grown self-analytical during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +his life in the camp, where he was +alone so far as his finer feelings were concerned, +and he had come to believe in +many strange things which he said nothing +about to any friend he had.</p> + +<p>He had come to believe in fate and also +in intuition. A powerful impulse to do +he counted higher than reason. That is +to say, if he had a powerful impulse to run +a shaft in a certain direction he would +so act, no matter if his reason declared +dead against it. The hidden and uncontrollable +processes of his mind had given +him the secret of "The Witch's" gold, +had led him right in his shafting and in +his selection of friends and assistants—and +had made him a millionaire at thirty-seven +years of age. He was prone to over-value +the intuitional side of his nature, +probably—an error common among practical +men.</p> + +<p>Fate was, with him, luck raised to a +higher power. What was to be would be; +the unexpected happened; the expected, +hoped for, labored for, did not always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +happen. All around him men stumbled +upon mines, while other men, more skilful, +more observant, failed. The luck was +against them.</p> + +<p>It was quite in harmony with his nature +that he should be absorbed in the singular +and powerful impulse he had to seek an +acquaintance with that poor dying girl.</p> + +<p>Dying! At that word he rebelled. God +would not take so beautiful a creature +away from earth; men needed her to teach +them gentleness and submission. More +than this, he had an almost uncontrollable +impulse to go to her, and putting +aside doctors say to her:</p> + +<p>"I am the one to heal you."</p> + +<p>He had never had an impulse to heal +before, but the fact that it was unaccountable +and powerful and definite, fitted in +with his successes. He gave it careful +thought. It must mean something because +it had never come to him before, +and because it rose out of the mysterious +depths of his brain.</p> + +<p>She must not die! The wind, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +mountains, the clear air, the good, sweet +water, the fragrant pines, the splendid +sun—these things must help her. "And +I, perhaps I, too, can help her?"</p> + +<p>Back in the glare of the hotel rotunda, +with its rows of bored men sitting stolidly +smoking, idly talking, his impulse and his +resolution seemed very unmanly and preposterous. +It is so easy to lose faith in +the elemental in the midst of the superficial +and ephemeral of daily habit.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>Clement was an early riser, and, notwithstanding +his restless night, was astir +at six. The whole world had changed for +him. It was no longer a question of ore +and amalgams, it was a question of when +he should see again that sad, slender +woman with the hopeless smile.</p> + +<p>He had now a great fear that she would +not be able to come down to breakfast at +all, but as her coming was his only hope +of seeing her he clung to it. Eight +o'clock seemed to him to be the latest +hour that any one not absolutely bedridden +would think of breakfasting, and +at four minutes past the hour he entered +the dining-room.</p> + +<p>The negro waiter tried to seat him near +the door, but he pushed on down the hall +toward a little group near one of the +sunny windows, which he took to be the +sick girl and her father, and so it proved.</p> + +<p>His seat at a table next to theirs brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +her profile between him and the window, +and the light around her head seemed to +glorify her till she shone like a figure in +a church window. She seemed not concerned +with earth. He was more deeply +moved than ever before in his life, but he +concealed it—the only sign of emotion +was in the tremor of his hands.</p> + +<p>He studied the sick girl as closely as +he could without seeming to stare. She +was even more lovely than he had thought. +His eyes, accustomed only to rough +women, found in her beauty that which +was flower-like, seraphic.</p> + +<p>Her face was very thin, and her neck +too slender to uphold the heavy masses +of her brown hair. Her hands were only +less expressive of suffering than her face. +The father was as bluff and portly and +irascible as she was patient and gentle. +He bullied the waiter because he did not +know how else to express his anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Waiter, this steak is burned—it's hard +as sole leather. Take it back and bring +me——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Please don't, father; the trouble is +with me. I have no desire for food." +She smiled at the waiter so sweetly that +he nodded as if to say, "I don't mind +him, miss."</p> + +<p>The father turned his attention to the +country.</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is another fraud. I was +told it would help your appetite, and here +you are with less than when you left Hot +Springs. If I'd had my way——"</p> + +<p>She laid a hand on his arm, and when +he turned toward her his eyes were dim +with tears. He blew his nose and coughed, +and looked away after the manner of men, +and suffered in silence.</p> + +<p>Once she turned and looked at Clement, +and her eyes had a mystical, impersonal +look, as though she saw him afar off, not +as an individual but as a type of some +admirable elemental creature. He could +not fathom her attitude toward him, but +he thought he saw in her every action the +expression of a soul that had relinquished +its hold on things of the earth. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +desire to live was no longer personal. +She did all that she did for her father +and her friends wholly to please them.</p> + +<p>The desire to aid her came upon +Clement again—so powerful it carried +with it an unwavering belief that he could +help her.</p> + +<p>What was his newly-acquired wealth +good for if he could not aid her? Wealth? +Yes—his blood! He looked at his great +brown hand and at his big veins full of +blood. Why should she die when he had +so much life?</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his common sense had not +entirely fled him. He perceived that they +were not poor, and he reflected that they +had probably tried all climates and all the +resources of medical science; also that the +father had quite as much red blood in +his veins as any other man; and these +considerations gave him thought as he +watched them rise and go out upon the +little veranda.</p> + +<p>Clement was not a markedly humble +person under ordinary conditions. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +had a fashion of pushing rather heedlessly +straight to his purpose—which now was +to speak to her, to meet her face to face, +to touch her hand and to offer his aid. +Naturally he sought the father's acquaintance +first. This was not difficult, for the +waiters in the dining-room had been +pointing him out to the guests as "Mr. +Clement, the meyonaire minah." The +newspaper correspondents had made his +name a familiar one to the whole United +States as "one of the sudden multi-millionaires +of Gold Creek."</p> + +<p>The porter had "passed the word" to +the head waiter, and the head waiter had +whispered it to one or two others. It was +almost as exciting as having a Presidential +candidate enter the room. Clement +was too new in his riches, however, to +realize the extent of all this bustle about +him.</p> + +<p>When he rose to go one waiter removed +his chair, another helped him lay his +napkin down, a third brushed his coat, +and the head usher kindly showed him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +where the door opened into the hallway. +It was wonderful to Clement, but he laid +it to the management of the hotel.</p> + +<p>There were limits to his insanity, and +he did not follow the girl out on the +veranda, but when Mr. Ross came down a +few minutes later to get a cigar Clement +plucked the proprietor of the hotel by +the arm.</p> + +<p>"Introduce me to Mr. Ross, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>The landlord beamed. "Certainly, +Mr. Clement." He took Mr. Ross by the +lapel familiarly. "Ah, good-morning, +Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross, let me introduce my +friend, Mr. Clement; Mr. Clement you +may have heard of as the owner of 'The +Witch' and the 'Old Wisconse.'"</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross shook hands. He was not +exactly uncivil, but he was cool—very +cool. "I have heard of Mr. Clement," +he said. He softened a little as he got a +good look at the powerful, clear-eyed +young fellow.</p> + +<p>The landlord expanded like one who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +has accomplished a good deed. "I +thought so, I thought so. Mr. Clement, +let me say, is a square business man. +Whatever he offers you is worth the +price!" He winked at Clement as he +turned away.</p> + +<p>Clement began, "I beg your pardon, +Mr. Ross, for taking this liberty, but I +wanted to know you and took the first +chance that offered. I have no mine to +sell—I want to know you—that's all. I +wanted to meet somebody outside the +mining interest. I saw you and your +daughter at the pavilion last night. She +seems to be not—very strong." He hesitated +in his attempt to describe his impression +of her.</p> + +<p>The father's theme was touched upon +now. "No, poor girl, she is in bad condition, +but I think she's better. The air +seems not to have made her worse, at any +rate. I haven't much faith in climate, +but I believe she has improved since we +left Kansas City and began to rise."</p> + +<p>He had a marvelous listener in Clement,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +and they consumed three cigars apiece +while he told of the doctors he had tried +and of the different kinds of air and water +they had sought.</p> + +<p>His eyes were wet and his voice was +tremulous.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, Mr. Clement, she don't +seem to care about living—that's what +scares me. She's just as sweet and +lovely as an angel. She responds to any +suggestion, 'Very well, papa,' but I can +see she does it for me. She herself has +lost all hope. It ain't even that—she has +lost care about it. She is indifferent. +She is going away from me just because I +can't rouse her——"</p> + +<p>He frankly broke down and stopped, +and Clement felt his throat swell too tight +for speech at the moment.</p> + +<p>They sat for a time in silence; at last +Clement said:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ross, you don't know me except +as a lucky man—but I have a favor to ask: +it is to meet your daughter."</p> + +<p>There was something very winning in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +the young man's voice and manner, and +Mr. Ross could see no objection to it, and +it might interest Ellice to meet this man +who had stumbled upon a gold mine. +"Very well, suppose we go up now," he +said, almost without hesitation.</p> + +<p>The girl was alone, seated in an easy-chair +in the sun—her head only in +shadow. The father spoke in a low and +very tender voice, "Ellice, I want to present +Mr. Clement. Mr. Clement, my +daughter Ellice."</p> + +<p>The impossible had come to pass! As +Clement bent down and took her hand +and looked into her eyes his heart seemed +to stop death-still for a few seconds—then +something new and inexplicable took possession +of him, and he stood before her +calm and clear-eyed. "Don't move," he +commanded, "I will draw a chair near +you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross said they had been having a +long talk, and she listened, smiling the +while that hopeless smile. Then the +father rose and said: "Where is Aunt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +Sarah? I want to go down to the telegraph +office."</p> + +<p>The girl spoke in the quiet, tranquil +voice of one to whom such things have no +importance. "I don't know, papa. A +moment ago she was saying something to +me, and now she is gone. That is all I +know. Never mind; she'll be here in a +moment."</p> + +<p>"I'll be back in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"I am all right, papa. If I need anything +Mr. Clement can call Aunt."</p> + +<p>There was a pause after Mr. Ross went. +Then she added in the same gentle, emotionless +way: "Poor papa! He is a martyr +to me. He thinks he must sit by me +always. I think he fears I may die while +he is gone."</p> + +<p>Clement leaned forward till his eyes +were on a level with those of the girl, and +his voice was very calm and penetrating +as he said:</p> + +<p>"What can I do for you, Miss Ross? I +have the profoundest conviction that I +can do you good."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>A startled look came into the big brown +eyes. She looked at him as a babe might, +striving to comprehend.</p> + +<p>He went on, "Here I am a millionaire, +a strong young man—what can I do for +you?"</p> + +<p>"I think I understand you," she said +slowly. "It's very good of you, but you +can do nothing."</p> + +<p>"It is impossible," he broke forth in +answer, and his voice gave her a perceptible +shock. "There must be something +I can do. If it will help you there is my +arm—its blood is yours." He stammered +a little. "It isn't right that one so young +and beautiful should die. We won't let +you die. There must be something I +can do. This wind and sun—and the +good water will work with us to do you +good."</p> + +<p>His voice moved her, and she smiled +with the tears on her lashes. "It does me +good just to look at you. You are so big +and brown. I saw you at the spring last +night. Perhaps I have come at last——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +She coughed—a weak, flat sound which +made him shudder.</p> + +<p>She tried to reassure him. "Really, I +have coughed less than at any time during +the last five months."</p> + +<p>He faced her again. "Miss Ross, I felt +last night a sudden desire to help you. +I believed I had the power to help you—I +don't know why—I'm not a healer." He +smiled for the first time. "But I felt perfectly +sure I could do you good. I feel +that way now. I never had such a feeling +toward any person before. It is just as +strange to me as it is to you."</p> + +<p>She was looking at him now with +musing eyes.</p> + +<p>"That is the curious part of it," she +said. "It doesn't seem strange at all. It +seems as if I had been wanting to hear +your voice—as if I had known of you all +my life——" She tried to suppress her +coughing, and he was in agony during the +paroxysm. The nurse came hurrying out, +and while he waited at one side Clement +felt that if he could have taken her by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +hands he could have prevented it. It was +a singular conviction, but it was most definite, +and had a peculiar air of actuality.</p> + +<p>When she lay quiet he approached again +and said: "I'll go now. I must not tire +you. But remember, I'm going to come +and see you, and I'm going to do you +good. Every time I see you I am going +to will to you some of my vitality—my +love of life. For I love life—it is beautiful +to live."</p> + +<p>She gave him her hand, and he bowed +and left her.</p> + +<p>She lay quietly after he went away and +smiled, a little, wan smile, which made +her pallor the more pitiful. It was all so +romantic and wonderful—this big man's +coming. He was so unspoiled and so +direct of manner. She had the hope he +would come again, and it seemed not impossible +that he might help her, his voice +was so stirring and his hands so big and +strong.</p> + +<p>Yet she was beyond the reach of even +the conjectures of passion. She had come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +to a certain exterior resignation to her +fate. The world had lost its poignant +interest—it was now a pageant upon +which she was looking for the last time, +yet she was too tired, too indifferent to +lift her hand to stay it in its course even +had it been within her power.</p> + +<p>At times, however, she rebelled at her +fate. There were hours, even yet, when +she lay alone in her bed hearing her +father's regular stertorous breathing till a +great wave of longing to live swept upon +her, and she was forced to turn her face +to her pillow to stifle her mingled coughing +and sobbing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Father, let me live! I want to +live like other women. Oh, dear Father, +grant me a little life!"</p> + +<p>These waves of passionate rebellion left +her weaker, sadder, more indifferent than +ever, and as coldly pallid almost as if +death had already claimed her.</p> + +<p>On the night following Clement's talk +with her she fell asleep while musing upon +one mind's influence upon another. Perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +if she could only believe she might +be helped; perhaps he was sent to help +her. It had been long since such a personality +had stood before her—indeed, no +such man had ever touched her hand or +looked into her eyes.</p> + +<p>He came down out of the mountain +heights with the elemental vigor of wind +and sun and soil about him like an aura. +A man of great natural refinement, he had +grown strong and simple and masterful in +his close contact with Nature. The clay +that might have brutalized another nature +had made him a mystic.</p> + +<p>There was something mysterious in his +eyes, in the clasp of his hand. The world +was all inexplicable to her anyhow. Perhaps +God had sent him to help her just +as He sends healing water down from the +mountain peaks.</p> + +<p>In thinking these things she fell asleep, +and it seemed at once that she was well +again, and that she was dressing for a +walk. Clement had called for her to climb +the mountains with him, and she was making<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +preparation to go, working swiftly and +unhesitatingly—and it seemed deliciously +sweet to be swift and active once more. +She had put on a short walking-skirt and +leggins and was nearly ready. She stood +before the glass to put on her cap, and as +she saw how round and pink her cheeks +were she hardly recognized herself.</p> + +<p>She seemed to hear his impatient feet +outside on the veranda, and she smiled to +think how typical it all was of husbands +and wives—and at that thought her face +grew pinker and she turned away—she +didn't want her own eyes to see how she +flushed.</p> + +<p>But suddenly all warmth—all flushing—left +her. She turned cold with a familiar +creep and weakness. She could not +proceed. Her glove was half on, but her +strength was not sufficient to pull it +further. She could not lift her feet.</p> + +<p>His steady, strong tramp up and down +the veranda continued, but she was in the +grasp of her old enemy. A terrible fear +and an agony of desire seized her. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +wanted to go out into the bright sunlight +with him, but she could neither move nor +whisper. All her resolution, her hope, +fell away, and her heart was heavy and +cold. It was all over. He would wait +for a while and then go away, and she +would stand there desolate, helpless, inert +as clay, with life dark and empty before +her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if he would only call me!" was +her last breath of resolution.</p> + +<p>Once, twice the feet went up and down +the veranda. Then they paused before +her door.</p> + +<p>"Are you ready?" his voice called.</p> + +<p>She struggled to speak, but could only +whisper, "Yes."</p> + +<p>The door swung quickly open and he +stood there in the streaming sunlight of +the morning—so tall he was he seemed +to fill the doorway—and he smiled and +extended his hands.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "the sturdy old +mountains are wonderfully grand this +morning."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>His hand closed over hers, and the sunlight +fell upon her, warming her to the +heart, but before she could lift her eyes +to the shining peaks she awoke and found +that the morning sun had stolen its way +through a half-opened shutter and lay +upon her hand.</p> + +<p>At first she was ready to weep with sadness +and despair, but as she thought upon +it she came to see in the dream a good +omen. It had been long since she had +dreamed a vision of perfect health with no +touch of impotence at its close. There +was something of hope in this vision; a +man's hand had broken the spell of weakness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Part_II" id="Part_II"></a>Part II</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="heading"><span class="i2"><i>APRIL DAYS</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Days of witchery subtly sweet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When every hill and tree finds heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When winter and spring like lovers meet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the mist of noon and part—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In the April days.<br /></span></i> +</div><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Nights when the wood-frogs faintly peep—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tr-eep, tr-eep—and then are still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the woodpeckers' martial voices sweep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like bugle-blasts, from hill to hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Through the breathless haze.<br /></span></i> +</div><div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i0">Days when the soil is warm with rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the wood the shy wind steals,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rich with the pine and the poplar smell,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the joyous soul like a dancer, reels<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Through the broadening days.<br /></span></i> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i11">—<i>From "Prairie Songs."</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>This dream gave to Clement, in Ellice's +eyes, a glamour of mystery and power—beyond +the subtlety of words, and she +met him in a spirit of awe and wonder, +such as a child might feel to find one of +its dream-heroes actually beside the fireside +in the full sunlight of the morning. +The fear and agony and joy of the night's +vision gave a singular charm to the +meeting.</p> + +<p>It startled her to find she still retained +the capability of being moved by the +sound of a man's voice. It seemed like +a wave of returning life.</p> + +<p>Her heart quickened as she saw him +enter the dining-room and look around for +her—and when his eyes fell upon her a +light filled his face which was akin to the +morning. She did not attempt to analyze<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +the emotion thus revealed, but she could +not help seeing that he looked the embodiment +of health and happiness.</p> + +<p>He wore a suit of light brown corduroy +with laced miner's boots, and they became +him very well.</p> + +<p>He smiled down at her as he drew near.</p> + +<p>"You are better this morning, I can +see that."</p> + +<p>It was exactly as if he knew of her +dream, and that the walk had been actual, +and a flush of pink crept into her face—so +faint it was no one noticed it—while it +seemed to her that her cheeks were scarlet. +What magic was this which made her +flush—she whom Death had claimed as +his own?</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross invited Clement to sit with +them, as she hoped he would. Clement +had, indeed, intended to force the invitation. +"I'm going for a gallop this morning," +he said in explanation of his dress. +"I wish you could go too," he added, +addressing Ellice.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross introduced him to the elderly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +woman: "Mr. Clement, let me present +you to my sister, Miss Ross."</p> + +<p>Miss Ross was plump like her brother, +and a handsome woman, but irritable like +him. She complained, also, of the altitude +and of the chill shadows. Neither father +nor aunt formed a suitable companion for +the sick girl.</p> + +<p>Clement was the antidote. His whole +manner of treatment was of the hopeful, +buoyant sort. He spoke of the magnificent +weather, of the mountains, of the +purity of the water.</p> + +<p>"After I get back from my ride I wish +you'd let me come and talk with you. +Perhaps," he added, "you'll be able to +walk a little way with me."</p> + +<p>He made the breakfast almost cheerful +by his presence, and went away saying:</p> + +<p>"I'll be back by ten o'clock and I shall +expect to find you ready for a walk."</p> + +<p>Miss Ross was astonished both at his +assurance and at Ellice's singular interest +and apparent acquiescence.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is a most extraordinary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +man. I wonder if that's the Western +way."</p> + +<p>"I wish I were able to do as he says," +the girl said quietly. The old people +looked up in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Sarah, I want you to help me +dress. I'm going to try to walk a little."</p> + +<p>"Not with that man?" the aunt inquired +in protest.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Aunt." Her voice was vibrant +with fixed purpose.</p> + +<p>"But think how you would look leaning +on his arm."</p> + +<p>"Auntie, dear, I have gone long past +that point. It doesn't matter how it +looks. I cannot live merely to please the +world. He has asked me, and if I can I +will go."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross broke in, "Why, of course, +what harm can it do? I'd let her lean on +the arm of 'Cherokee Bill' if she wanted +to." They all smiled at this, and he +added, "The trouble has been she didn't +want to do anything at all, and now she +shall do what she likes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>It all seemed very coarse and common +now, and she could not tell them the +secret of the dream that had so impressed +her, and of her growing faith that this +strong man could help her back to health +and life. She only smiled in her slow, +faint way, and made preparation to go +with him who meant so much to her.</p> + +<p>He met her on the veranda in a handsome +Prince Albert suit of gray with a +broad-brimmed gray hat to match. He +looked like some of the pictures of Western +Congressmen she had seen, only more +refined and gentle. He wore his coat unbuttoned, +and it had the effect of draping +his tall, erect frame, and the hat suited +well with the large lines of his nose and +chin. It seemed to her she had never +seen a more striking and picturesque +figure.</p> + +<p>"I'll carry you down the stairs if you'll +say the word," he said as they paused a +moment at the topmost step.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. I can walk if you will give +me time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Time! Time is money. I can't +afford it." He stooped and lifted her in +his right arm, and before she could protest +he was half way down the stairway. He +laughed at the horrified face of the +aunt. He was following impulses now. +As they walked side by side slowly—she, +not without considerable effort—up +toward the spring, he said abruptly, but +tenderly:</p> + +<p>"You must think you're better—that's +half the battle. See that stream? Some +day I'm going to show you where it starts. +Do you know if you drink of that water +up at its source above timber-line it will +cure you?"</p> + +<p>She saw his intent and said, "I'm afraid +I'll be cured before I get to the spring."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to make it my aim in life +to see you drink at that pool." His directness +and simplicity stimulated her like +some mediæval elixir. He made her forget +her pain. They did not talk much +until they were seated on one of the +benches near the fountain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sit in the sun," he commanded. +"Don't be afraid of the sun. You hear +people talk about the sun's rays breeding +disease. The sun never does that. It +gives life. Beware of the shadow," he +added, and she knew he meant her mental +indifference. They had a long talk on +the bench. He told her of his family, of +himself.</p> + +<p>"You see," he said, "father had only +a small business, though he managed to +educate me, and, later, my brother. But +when he died it had less value, for I +couldn't hold the trade he had and times +were harder. I kept brother at college +during his last two years, and when he +came out I gave the business to him and +got out. He was about to marry, and the +business wouldn't support us both. I was +always inclined to adventure anyway. +Gold Creek was in everybody's mouth, so +I came here.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that was a wonderful time; the +walk across the mountains was like a +story to me. I liked the newness of everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +in the camp. It was glorious to +hear the hammers ringing, and see the +new pine buildings going up—and the +tent and shanties. It was rough here +then, but I had little to do with that. I +staked out my claim and went to digging. +I knew very little about mining, but they +were striking it all around me, and so I +kept on. Besides"—here he looked at +her in a curiously shy way—"I've always +had a superstition that just when things +were worst with me they were soonest to +turn to the best, so I dug away. My +tunnel went into the hill on a slight upraise, +and I could do the work alone. +You see I had so little money I didn't +want to waste a cent.</p> + +<p>"But it all went at last for powder +and the sharpening of picks, and for assaying—till +one morning in August I +found myself without money and without +food."</p> + +<p>He paused there, and his face grew +dark with remembered despair, and she +shuddered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It must be terrible to be without food +and money."</p> + +<p>"No one knows what it means till he +experiences it. I worked all day without +food. It seemed as if I must strike it +then. Besides, I took a sort of morbid +pleasure in abusing myself—as if I were +to blame. I had been living on canned +beans, and flapjacks, and coffee without +milk or sugar, and I was weak and sick—but +it all had to end. About four o'clock +I dropped my pick and staggered out to +the light. It was impossible to do anything +more."</p> + +<p>There were tears in her eyes now, for +his voice unconsciously took on the +anguish of that despair.</p> + +<p>"I sat there looking out toward the +mountains and down on the camp. The +blasts were booming from all hills—the +men were going home with their dinner-pails +flashing red in the setting sun's light. +It was terrible to think of them going +home to supper. It seemed impossible +that I should be sitting there starving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +and the grass so green, the sunset so beautiful. +I can see it all now as it looked +then, the old Sangre de Christo range! +It was like a wall of glistening marble +that night.</p> + +<p>"Well, I sat there till my hunger +gnawed me into action. Then I staggered +down the trail. I saw how foolish +I had been to go on day after day hoping, +hoping until the last cent was gone. I +hadn't money enough to pay the extra +postage on a letter which was at the office. +The clerk gave me the letter and paid the +shortage himself. The letter was from +my sister, telling me how peaceful and +plentiful life was at home, and it made me +crazy. She asked me how many nuggets +I had found. You can judge how that +hurt me. I reeled down the street, for I +must eat or die, I knew that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how horrible!" the girl said +softly.</p> + +<p>"There was one eating-house at which +I always took my supper. It was kept by +an Irish woman, a big, hearty woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +whose husband was a prospector—or had +been. 'Biddy Kelly's' was famous for its +'home cooking.' I went by the door +twice, for I couldn't bring myself to go in +and ask for a meal. You don't know how +hard that is—it's very queer, if a man has +money he can ask for credit or a meal, but +if he is broke he'll starve first. I could +see Biddy waiting on the tables—the +smell that came out was the most delicious, +yet tantalizing, odor of beef-stew—it +made me faint with hunger."</p> + +<p>His voice grew weak and his throat dry +as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"When I did enter, Dan looked up and +said respectfully, 'Good-evenin', Mr. +Clement,' and I felt so ashamed of my +errand I turned to run. Everything +whirled then—and when I got my bearings +again Dan had me on one arm and +Biddy was holding a bowl of soup to my +lips."</p> + +<p>The girl sighed. "Oh, she was good, +wasn't she?"</p> + +<p>"They fed me, for they could see I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +starving, and I told them about the mine—and, +well, some way I got them to +'grub-stake' me that night."</p> + +<p>"What is that?"</p> + +<p>"That is, they agreed to furnish me +food and money for tools and share in +profits. Dan went to work with me, and +do you know, it ended in ruining them +both. We organized a company called +the 'Biddy Mining Company.' I was +president, and Dan was vice-president, +and Biddy was treasurer. Biddy kept us +going by her eating-house, but eventually +we wanted machinery, and we mortgaged +the eating-house, and the money went +into that hole in the ground. But I +knew we would succeed. I could hear +voices call me, 'Come, come!'—whenever +I was alone I could hear them +plainly."</p> + +<p>His eyes, turned upon her, were full of +mystery.</p> + +<p>"I have always felt the stir of life +around me in the dark, and there in that +mine—after we struck the spring of water—I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +thought I heard voices all the time in +the plash of the water. I suppose it +seemed like insanity, for I ruined Dan and +Biddy without mercy. I couldn't stop. +I was sure if we could only hold out a +little while we would reach it. But we +didn't. Biddy had to go to work as a +cook, and Dan and I went out to try to +borrow some money. I couldn't bear to +let in somebody else after all the heat and +toil Dan and Biddy and I had endured, +but it had to be done. We took in a fellow +from Iowa by the name of Eldred and +went to work again.</p> + +<p>"One day after our blast I was the first +to enter, and the moment that I saw the +heap of rock I knew we had opened the +vein. My wildest dreams were realized!"</p> + +<p>"And then your troubles ended," the +girl said tenderly.</p> + +<p>"No—for now a strange thing happened. +The assayer tried our ore again +and again and found it very rich, but +when we shipped to the mills we got almost +no returns. We tried every process,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +but the gold seemed to slip away from us. +Finally I took a carload and went with it +to see what was the matter. I followed +it till it came out on the plates—that is +where they catch the gold by the use of +quicksilver spread on copper plates—and +it seemed all right. I scraped some of it +up and put it into a small vial to take +home with me. When I got home the +company assembled to hear my report, +and when I took out the amalgam to show +it to them it had turned to a queer yellow-green +liquid. I was astounded, but Dan +and Biddy crossed themselves. 'It's +witch's gold,' Biddy said. 'Dan, have no +more to do with it.' And witch's gold it +was. They gave up right there and went +back to work in the camp. Eldred cursed +me for getting him into it, and so they +left me to fight it out alone. I was like a +monomaniac—I never thought of giving +up. I begged a little money from my +brother and bought in all the stock of the +'Biddy Mining Company,' and went to +work to solve the mystery of the amalgam.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +I was a good pupil in chemistry at college, +and I put my whole life and brain into +that mystery and I solved it. I found a +way to treat it so all the gold was saved. +That made me rich. I called the mine +'The Witch,' and it has made me what +you see."</p> + +<p>"It is like a fairy tale! What became +of your faithful friends, Dan and +Biddy?"</p> + +<p>"I made Dan my foreman of the mine, +and I built an eating-house and hotel for +Biddy. They are with me yet. Eldred +I bought out on the same terms as the +rest."</p> + +<p>He had a sudden sensation of heat in +his face as he passed the chasm between +the withdrawal of Dan and Biddy from +the firm and his solution of the amalgam. +He did not care to dwell upon that, because +Eldred had sued him to recover his +stock, claiming that it was bought in +under false pretenses. Neither did he +care to enter into the stormy time which +followed the sudden leap of "The Witch"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +from a haunted hole in the ground to a +cave of diamonds. He hurried on to the +end while she listened in absorbed interest +like a child to a wonder story.</p> + +<p>She sighed in the world-old manner of +women and said:</p> + +<p>"And I—I have done nothing worth +telling. I ruined my health by careless +living at school, and here I am, a cumberer +of the earth."</p> + +<p>Some men would have hastened to be +complimentary, but Clement remained +silent. He was trying to understand her +mood that he might meet it in a helpful +way.</p> + +<p>"But if I am permitted to live I +shall be different. I will do something."</p> + +<p>"First of all, get well," he said, and +his words had the force of a command. +"Give me your hand."</p> + +<p>She complied, and he took it in a firm +clasp. "Now I want you to promise me +you'll turn your mind from darkness to +the light, from the cañons to the peaks—that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +you will determine to live. Do you +promise?"</p> + +<p>"I promise."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I shall see that you keep +that promise."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>It was rather curious to see that as she +grew in strength Clement lost in assertiveness—in +his feeling of command. He began +to comprehend that with returning +health the girl was not altogether pitiable. +She had culture, social position and +wealth.</p> + +<p>The distinction of his readily-acquired +millions grew to be a very poor possession +in his own mind—in fact, he came at last +to such self-confessed utter poverty of +mind and body that he wondered at her +continued toleration. He ceased to plead +any special worthiness on his own part +and began to throw himself on her mercy.</p> + +<p>As the time came on when she no +longer needed his arm for support he +found it hard to offer it as an act of gallantry. +In fact, in that small act was +typified the change which he came ultimately +to assume. At first she had seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +to him like an angelic child. Death's +shadows had made him bold—but now he +could not deceive himself: he was coming +to love her in a very human and definite +fashion. He dared not refer to the past +in any way, and his visits grew more and +more formal and carefully accounted for.</p> + +<p>She thought she understood all this, +and was serenely untroubled by it. She +brooded over the problem with dreamful +lips and half-shut eyes. She was drifting +back to life on a current of mountain air +companioned by splendid clouds, and her +content was like to the lotus-eater's languor—it +held no thought of time or tide.</p> + +<p>That she idealized him was true, but +he grew richly in grace. All the small +amenities of conduct which he once possessed +came back to him. He studied to +please her, and succeeded in that as in his +other ventures. He did not exactly abandon +his business, but he came to superintend +his superintendents.</p> + +<p>However, he attached a telephone to his +mine in order to be able to direct his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +business from the Springs. He still +roomed at the hotel, though Ellice was +living in a private house farther up the +cañon. His rooms were becoming filled +with books and magazines, and he was +struggling hard to "catch up" with the +latest literature.</p> + +<p>If Ellice referred to any book, even in +the most casual way, he made mental note +of it, and if he had read it he re-read it, +and if he had not read it he secured it at +once.</p> + +<p>"I know something of chemistry and +mineralogy, and geology and milling processes, +but of art and literature very +little," he said to her once. "But give +me time."</p> + +<p>The highest peaks were white with +September snows before she felt able to +mount a horse. Each day she had been +able to go a little farther and climb a +little higher. Her gain was slow, very +slow, but it was almost perceptible from +day to day.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross had been to Chicago, and was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +once more at the Springs. He had +brought a couple of nieces, very lively +young creatures, who annoyed Clement +exceedingly by their impertinence—at +least, that is what he called their excessive +interest in his affairs. Without the co-operation +of Ellice he would have found +little chance to see her alone, but she had +a quiet way of letting them know when +she found them a burden, which they +respected.</p> + +<p>One day he said to her, "Have you +forgotten what I said to you about the +spring up there?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have not forgotten. Do you +think I can go now? Am I really well +enough to go?"</p> + +<p>"The time has come."</p> + +<p>"What would the doctor say?"</p> + +<p>"The doctor—do you still heed what +he says?"</p> + +<p>"Must I walk?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, to have the water heal you. But +I will lead old Wisconse for you to ride +down."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"After I am healed?"</p> + +<p>"One can be cured and yet be tired."</p> + +<p>They set off in such spirits as children +have, old Wisconse leading soberly behind.</p> + +<p>Clement was obliged to check the girl.</p> + +<p>"Now don't go too fast. It is a long +way up there. I warn you it is almost at +timber-line."</p> + +<p>But she paid small heed to his warning. +She felt so light, so active, it seemed she +could not tire.</p> + +<p>For a time they followed the wide road +which climbed steadily, but at last he +stopped.</p> + +<p>"Now here we strike the trail," he said. +"You must go ahead, for I am to lead the +horse."</p> + +<p>"Not far ahead," she exclaimed, a little +bit alarmed.</p> + +<p>"Only two steps." He was a little +amused at her. "Just so I will not tread +on your heels."</p> + +<p>"You needn't laugh. I know they +hunt bears up here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<p>They climbed for some time in comparative +silence.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how much greener it is up here!" +she exclaimed at last, looking around, her +eyes bright with excitement.</p> + +<p>He smiled indulgently. "You tourists +think you know Colorado when you've +crossed it once on the railway. This is +the Colorado which you seldom see."</p> + +<p>She was in rapture over the glory of +color, the waving grasses of smooth hillsides, +and the radiant dapple of light and +shadow beneath the groves of vivid yellow +aspens. The cactus and Spanish dagger, +and the ever-present sage bush of the +lower levels, had disappeared, crow's-foot +and blue-joint grasses swung in the wind. +The bright flame of the painted cup and +the purple of the asters still lighted up +the aisles of the pines in sheltered places.</p> + +<p>"There are many more in August," he +explained. "The frost has swept them +all away."</p> + +<p>"Is this our stream?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we cross it many times."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How small it is."</p> + +<p>"Are you tired?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all."</p> + +<p>He came close to her to listen to her +breathing. "You must not do too much. +If you find yourself out of breath stop and +ride."</p> + +<p>"I want to be cured."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "By the way you lead up +this trail I don't think you need medicine. +I never finish wondering whether you are +the same girl I met first——"</p> + +<p>She flashed a glance back at him. "I'm +not. I'm another person."</p> + +<p>"That shows what three months of this +climate will do."</p> + +<p>"Climate did not do it."</p> + +<p>"What did?"</p> + +<p>"You did." She kept marching steadily +forward, her head held very straight +indeed.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would wait a moment," he +pleaded.</p> + +<p>"I am very thirsty—I want to reach +the spring."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But, dear girl, you can't keep this +up."</p> + +<p>"Can't I? Watch me and see."</p> + +<p>She seemed possessed of some miraculous +staff, for she mounted the steep trail +as lightly as a fawn. Clement was in an +agony of apprehension lest she should +overdo and fall fainting in the path. +This ecstasy of activity was most dangerously +persistent.</p> + +<p>It was past noon when they came out +of the aspens and pines into the little +smooth slope of meadow which lay between +the low peaks which were already +crusted with snow. In the midst of the +orange and purple and red of the grasses +lay a deep, dark pool of water—as beautiful +as her eyes, it seemed to him.</p> + +<p>"Here is the spring," Clement called +to the girl.</p> + +<p>"I knew it," she said.</p> + +<p>"Wait," he called again. "I must +drink with you."</p> + +<p>He hastened up and dipped a cup into +the water and handed it to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now drink confusion to disease."</p> + +<p>"Confusion!" She drank. "Oh, isn't +it sweet? I never knew before how good +water was. But here, drink. You are +dying of thirst, too." She handed him +the cup.</p> + +<p>"I want to drink to some purpose also," +he said, and there was no need of further +words, but he went on, his full heart giving +eloquence to his lips, "I want to +pledge my life to your service—my life +and all I am."</p> + +<p>She grew a little pale. This intensity +of emotion awed her as the majestic in +Nature affects great souls. "I don't +think you ought. I don't think I am +quite worthy."</p> + +<p>"Let me be judge of that." He spoke +quickly and almost sharply. "Shall I +drink?"</p> + +<p>She had walked on while Clement was +speaking, and stood leaning against the +browsing horse. After a little hesitation +she answered, "If you are thirsty."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> +<p class="figcenter" style="width: 406px;"> +<img src="images/image002.jpg" width="406" height="600" alt="She stood leaning against the browsing horse." title="" /> +</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> +<p>The words were light, but he understood +her. He drank and then came +straight toward her.</p> + +<p>She shrank from him in sudden timidity and +said a little hurriedly, "Help me +into the saddle. I shall need to ride back."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> +<h2>PART III</h2> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="heading"><span class="i2"><i>WESTWARD VISTA</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> +<div class="stanza"><i> +<span class="i4">The half-sunk sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burns through the dusty-crimson sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Streamers of gold and green soar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In radiating splendor, like the spokes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of God's unmeasurable chariot-wheels<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half-hid and vanishing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around me is coolness, ripeness and repose;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smell of gathered grain and fruits,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the musky breath of melons fills the air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very dust is fruity, and the click<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of locusts' wings is like the close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of gates upon great stores of wheat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gathered barley bleaches in shock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The corn breathes on me from the west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sky-line widens on and on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until I see the waves of yellow-green<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Break on the hills that face the snow and lilac peaks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Colorado's mountains.<br /></span></i> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>At first Clement's happiness had no +further base of uneasiness than the lover's +fear of loss. It all seemed too good to be +true, and he had a hidden fear that something +might happen to set him back where +he was before she came. It was quite like +his feeling about his mine—it took him a +certain length of time before he ceased to +dream of its sudden loss, and now it +seemed (when absent from her) that it +would be easy for something to rob him +of this love which was his life.</p> + +<p>This feeling was mixed, too, with a +feeling of his unworthiness, which deepened +the more closely he studied her. +She was so free from all bruise and stain +of life's battle. There were no questionable +places in her life. Could he say as +much?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whenever he asked himself the question +his dealings with the stockholders of +"The Biddy" came into his mind. Could +he afford to tell his bride all the facts in +the case? This feeling of dissatisfaction +with himself led him to do many extravagant +things. He presented her with beautiful +and costly jewels for which she had +little taste.</p> + +<p>"Why, Richard. What made you +think of that?" she said once after he had +slipped away to the city to buy her something.</p> + +<p>"Is it so very pretty?"</p> + +<p>"It is beautiful! But can we afford +such things?"</p> + +<p>"We can afford anything that will +make you happy."</p> + +<p>He made a similar answer when she +drew back a little startled at the cost of +the house he had contracted for.</p> + +<p>"Why, it is a palace!"</p> + +<p>"The best is scarcely good enough for +you." After a moment he added, "You +see, I know you can never live East again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +and I want you to have all the comforts +of a palace out here. And so long as +'The Witch' holds out you shall have +your heart's desire."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ross had come to have a profound +respect for his future son-in-law. "I +can't say that he don't make as much of a +fool of himself as any prospective bridegroom, +but he is a business man at the +same time. He don't lose his head, by +any means." He was telling his son about +Clement. "He is devoted to your sister, +but I went over to his mine with him the +other day and it is perfectly certain that +he understands his business. He is only +reckless when buying things for Ellice. +He'll take care of her and the mine, too."</p> + +<p>Clement felt a certain incongruity +every time he put on his miner's dress +and went through the mine. "I'm too +rough for her, too old," he kept thinking—trying +to conceal the real cause of his +growing fear.</p> + +<p>He was not honest with himself. He +fought round the real point of danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +He gave a generous sum to the library, +aided a hospital, and did other things +which should ease a bad conscience, and +yet do not. He hastened the house forward, +and passed to and fro between his +mine, the Springs and the city in ceaseless +activity.</p> + +<p>The marriage was set for July, just a +year from the time he first saw her, and +the winter passed quickly, so busied was +he in building and planning the home. +He grew less and less buoyant and more +careworn as spring wore on, and Ellice +could not understand the change. He +was moody and changeable even in her +presence. This troubled her, and she +often asked:</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Richard? Is +your business going wrong?"</p> + +<p>"No, oh no. Business is all right. +Nothing is the matter." And ended by +convincing her that something was very +much wrong indeed. And she grieved in silence, +not daring to question him further.</p> + +<p>The self-revealing touch came to him in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +a curious way only a few days before their +wedding day. He was in camp on a final +inspection of his mine, and was walking +the streets at night, silent, self-absorbed +and gloomy. He had grown morbid and +unwholesome in his thought, and the +wreck of his happiness seemed already +complete. He spent a great deal of time +in long and lonely walks.</p> + +<p>The street swarmed with rough, noisy +miners. A band of evangelists, with +drums and tambourines, occupied the +central corner. A low, continuous hum +of talk could be heard at the base of all +other noises.</p> + +<p>Being in no mood for companionship +Clement stood aside from it all, thinking +how far above all this life his beautiful +bride was.</p> + +<p>There had been in the camp for some +weeks a certain sensational evangelist—a +man of some power, but of unhappy disposition +apparently. At any rate he had +been in much trouble with the city +authorities. He had been called a "hypocrite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +and fake" in the public press, and +had been prosecuted for disturbance of +the peace. But he seemed to thrive on +such treatment.</p> + +<p>Clement had paid very little attention +to the man and his troubles, but as he +looked down the street at the crowd +around the speakers on the corner it occurred +to him to wonder if they were the +fighting evangelists.</p> + +<p>He was about to move that way when +he observed near him in the dark middle +of the street a man and a woman.</p> + +<p>"This will do as well as anywhere," the +man said, putting down a small box. He +wore a broad cowboy hat, and a long coat +which hung unbuttoned down his powerful +figure. The woman was tall and +slender, and neatly dressed in gray. +Clement understood that these were the +persecuted ones.</p> + +<p>The man mounted the box, and in a +powerful but not very musical voice began +to sing a hymn full of cowboy slang. His +singing had a quality not usual in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +street singers, and a crowd quickly gathered +about him. His song was long and +not without a rude poetry. He began his +address at last by issuing a defiance to his +enemies. This would mean little in an +Eastern village, perhaps, but in a mining +camp, even a degenerate mining camp, it +might mean a great deal—life or death, +in fact.</p> + +<p>"Now, gentlemen, I want to say something +as a preface in order to know just +where we stand. Some citizens of the +town have vilified me in private and in +the public press—over an assumed name, +however. It wouldn't be healthy for any +man to do it openly. The man is a liar—but +I don't care about myself. It is a +little difference of opinion among men, +but some miscreant has reflected upon the +good name of my wife. Now let me say +that the man that says my wife is not a +lady and a woman of the highest character, +insults the mother of my children +and will answer to me for every word he +utters."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>A little thrill of interest and awe ran +through the crowd. The man's voice +meant battle, and battle to the hilt of the +bowie. It was so easy to prove a mark +for desperate men, but there was no fear +in the attitude of the speaker. He had +come up through a wild life, and knew his +audience, his accuser and himself.</p> + +<p>His voice took a sudden change—it +grew tender and reverent. "I am here +to preach the gospel of Christ and Him +crucified. I may not do it in the best way +always, but I do it as well as I know how." +Here his tone grew severely earnest and +savage again, as he added: "But I shall +defend the honor of my wife with my +life."</p> + +<p>His voice and pose were magnificent—lion-like.</p> + +<p>His manner changed again with dramatic +suddenness. He took the whole +street into his confidence.</p> + +<p>"I love my wife, gentlemen. She has +borne three children to me. She is a +good woman. A mighty sight smarter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +and better than I am, but she can't defend +herself against sneaks and reptilious +liars. I can. That's part of my business. +I tell you, boys," he added in a low voice +very sincere and winning, "they ain't no +man good enough to marry a good woman; +it's just her good, pure, kind heart gives +him any show at all."</p> + +<p>A sudden lump rose in Clement's +throat. The man's deep humility and +loyalty and apparent sincerity had gone +straight to his own heart and touched him +in a very sensitive place. He turned +away and sought the deeper shadow with +his head bowed in black despair.</p> + +<p>He thought of the eyes of his bride +with a shudder almost of fear. Could he +ever face her again?</p> + +<p>"Oh, God! How pure and dainty and +unspotted she is, and I—I am unclean."</p> + +<p>He saw as clearly as if a light had been +turned in upon his secret thought, that +the ownership of "The Witch" was in +question. He had not been candid with +her—he had been dishonest. He had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +dared to let her know how he had secured +control of that stock.</p> + +<p>All the way back to the Springs he +wrestled with himself about it. He ended +by reasserting the justice of his position, +and resolved to tell her at once the whole +story and let her judge. He had in his +pocket the deed to the house and lot, +which he determined now to give her at +once, and to make explanations at the +same time.</p> + +<p>This he did. He called to see her the +following afternoon and found her surrounded +with women and gowns and +flowers. The women fled when he approached, +but the gowns and flowers remained, +and there was talk upon them till +at last, in sheer desperation, Clement +said:</p> + +<p>"Ellice, here is something that I want +to give you now. It is my wedding gift."</p> + +<p>He placed in her hand the deed. She +looked at it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's so much fine print. I +can't read it now. What is it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is the deed to the new home."</p> + +<p>Her eyes misted with quick emotion.</p> + +<p>"How good you are to me, Richard."</p> + +<p>"No, it's precaution," he replied as +lightly as he could. "We will have a +home always if you don't lose it in some +wild speculation."</p> + +<p>She put her arms about his neck, an +infrequent caress with her.</p> + +<p>"How rich we are. God is good to us. +And is it not good to think that our +wealth does not come from anybody's +misery? It comes out of the earth like +a spring—like the spring that made me +well."</p> + +<p>As he looked down into her face it +seemed lit from within by some Heavenly +light, and her voice made his head grow +dizzy. He could not tell her his story +then.</p> + +<p>He sat down and listened to her talk. +She wanted to know what troubled him, +and he was forced to lie.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing. I'm a little worried +about a—new piece of machinery." This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +gave him a thought. "I must be away +this evening. I can't take dinner with +you."</p> + +<p>She was not one of those who worry +with expostulations or complainings. She +had a mind of her own, and she granted +the same decision to others.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said, and she flashed +a sudden roguish look at him. "Don't +forget to breakfast with me."</p> + +<p>He had the grace to return her smile +as he said:</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll not forget. I've charged my +mind with it."</p> + +<p>His going was like a flight. His inner +cry was this:</p> + +<p>"My God! I am absolutely unworthy +of her. I am big, coarse and dishonest—unfit +to touch her hand."</p> + +<p>His gloomy face and bent head was a +subject of joke for the acquaintances he +met on the street.</p> + +<p>"Saddle Susanna," he called sharply to +his Mexican hostler. He had made up +his mind to radical measures.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>As he sat in his room with his face +buried in his hands shutting out the light +of the splendid sunset, he saw her as she +sat among her soft silks and dainty flowers. +Her lovely eyes and the exquisite texture +of her skin grew more and more wonderful +to him. The touch of his lips to hers +came to seem an act of pollution, almost +of envenoming, as he brooded on his unworthiness.</p> + +<p>He wrote a note to her on the impulse +of the moment. The missive read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am not fit to see you, to touch you. I am +going away across the divide to make restitution +for a great wrong I have done. If I do not I can +never face you again. When I see you again I +will be an honest man, or I—if you think me +worthy of forgiveness I will see you and ask it +to-morrow.</p> <p class="author">Richard."</p></div> + +<p>He added as a postscript:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am well. I am not crazy, but I am not an +honest man. I can't kiss you again till I am."</p></div> + +<p>Upon reading this note he saw it would +frighten her, and keep her in agony of +suspense, therefore he tore it up, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +rushing out of the house leaped into the +saddle.</p> + +<p>The spirited little broncho was fresh +and mettlesome, and went off in a series +of sheeplike bounds which her rider +seemed not to notice.</p> + +<p>He drew rein at the telegraph office, +and there sent three telegrams. They +were all alike:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Meet me at the office at midnight. Important."</p></div> + +<p>As he turned Susanna's head up the +trail the mountains stood deep purple +silhouettes against the cloudlessness of +the sky. The wind blew from the heights +cool and fragrant, and the little horse set +nostril to it as if she anticipated and welcomed +the hard ride.</p> + +<p>The way lay over forbidding mountain +passes ten thousand feet above the sea, +and her rider was a heavy man. But +Susanna was of broncho strain with a +blooded sire, which makes the hardiest +and swiftest mountain horse in the world.</p> + +<p>Clement's mind cleared as he began the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +ascent—cleared but did not rest. Over +and over the problem came, each time +clearer and more difficult. He must that +night give away a hundred and thirty-five +thousand dollars—terrible ordeal! Ninety +thousand dollars to go to an old Irishman +and his wife—both ignorant, careless.</p> + +<p>What would they do with it? It might +drive them crazy. As they now lived they +were comfortable. He had made Dan +sub-superintendent of the mine, and he +had rebuilt the eating-house for Biddy. +Could they take care of the big fortune +he was about to give them?</p> + +<p>Ought he not to give them a few thousands—such +sum as they could comprehend +and take care of? Would it not be +better for them?</p> + +<p>Then there was forty-five thousand +dollars to be given to a cheap little man—that +was hardest of all, for he had come to +hate the sight of the sleek black head of +Arthur Eldred. Yes, but he had saved +the day. He had put in six hundred +dollars when every dollar was a ducat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +True, but the reward was too great. A +hundred thousand dollars for six hundred.</p> + +<p>Oh, this was familiar ground! He had +gone over it in a sort of sub-conscious +way a hundred times, each time apparently +the final one. It had been quite +settled when this slender little woman +first lifted her face to him, and now nothing +was settled.</p> + +<p>It was very still and cold. There was +no stream to sing up through the pines, +and no wind in the pines to answer should +the stream call. Nothing seemed to be +stirring save the pensive man and his +faithful pony.</p> + +<p>Reaching the upper levels he spurred +on at a gallop, finding some relief in the +pounding action of the saddle and in the +rush of air past his ears. The moon was +late, but when it came it seemed to help +him, lightening his mood as it lightened +the trail. The big ledges and lowering, +lesser peaks lifted into the dark sky +weirdly translucent, and their upper +edges seemed smooth and graceful as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +rims of bubbles. Solid rock seemed +melted and transfused with light and air. +It was all miraculously beautiful, and the +sore-hearted man lifted his eyes to the +heights seeing the face of a girl in every +moonlit rock and in every wayside pool.</p> + +<p>As he entered the office he found them +all waiting for him—Dan and Biddy in +their best dress, and Eldred with a supercilious +half-grin, half-scowl on his face.</p> + +<p>Clement nodded at him, but said +"Hello" to Dan and "Good-evening" to +Biddy. Conly, his trusted, discreet cashier, +was at his desk, and the office was +dimly lit with a single electric bulb.</p> + +<p>Dan and Biddy greeted him cautiously, +for Eldred had filled their simple souls +with suspicion. "He wants to compromise. +He's afraid of our suit against +him."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact Dan would never +put a dollar into the plan for a suit, and +it had never gone beyond Eldred's talk—and +yet he had made them suspicious. +Dan was forced to confess that Clement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +was becoming an "a-ristocrat." And +Biddy acknowledged that he "sildom +dairkened her dure these days." They +had always felt his superiority and refinement, +and they rose as he entered.</p> + +<p>He wasted no time in preliminaries. +"Sit down," he said imperiously, and his +face, when he turned to the light, was +knotted with trouble. He sat for a moment +with bent head while he strengthened +his heart to a bitter and humiliating +task. He began abruptly:</p> + +<p>"Dan, you remember the time I +brought the amalgam home in a vial and +it had turned green?"</p> + +<p>"I do. Yis."</p> + +<p>"You remember that you gave it up +right then."</p> + +<p>"I did. I said it's 'witch's gould.'"</p> + +<p>"Sure such it looked like that day," +said Biddy.</p> + +<p>"All the same, the thing which scared +you put a happy thought into my head, +and I felt then I could solve it." He +lifted his head and looked around defiantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +"In short, when I bought your +stock in at ten cents on the dollar I knew +it was worth par, for I had solved the +process."</p> + +<p>There was a silence very awesome following +the defiant ring of the voice.</p> + +<p>Eldred was the first to comprehend +what it meant. His eyes glittered like +those of an awakened rat.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that? If that's true +you robbed us, you thief, robbed us cold +and clean." He sprang up. "I knew +you'd do something——"</p> + +<p>"Sit down," interrupted Clement harshly. +"I'm not going to have any words +with you. If I had seen fit not to tell +you of this how much would you have +known of it? Sit down and keep your +tongue between your teeth." He turned +to Dan and his voice was softer. "Dan, +when I was hungry you took me in and +fed me. For that I've given you a good +position. Is that debt paid?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, Clement, me boy, it was only a +sup of p'taties an' bacon, annyway."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Biddy, I turned over two thousand +dollars to you, and rebuilt your eating-house. +You thought that paid the debt +I owed you?"</p> + +<p>Biddy was slower to answer. "For all +the grub an' the loikes o' that, indade yis, +Mr. Clement—but sure we wor pardners——"</p> + +<p>Clement interrupted. "I know. I'm +coming to that. Now answer me. If it +hadn't been for me wouldn't you have +thrown up the sponge long before you +did?"</p> + +<p>The silence of the little group answered +him.</p> + +<p>"Would any of you ever have worked +out the mystery of that ore? Weren't +you all anxious to sell for anything you +could get?"</p> + +<p>They were all silent as before.</p> + +<p>"I made the mine worth money. I +discovered the secret, it was my invention. +I paid you four times what you had put +into it. The mine was worthless until I +invented a process for saving the gold. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +claimed it as an invention like any man +claims a patent right. I believed I had a +right to it—to all of it, and so I bought +in your stock after I had solved the problem +of the reduction. I say I believed I +was right—to-night I believe I was wrong—it +don't matter how I came to the conclusion, +but I've changed my mind. I +have come to-night to make restitution. +I am ready to pay you ninety cents more +on every dollar of stock you sold me at +that time."</p> + +<p>Biddy gasped: "Howly Saints!"</p> + +<p>Dan leaped up with a wild hurrah. +"Listen to that now!" he cried, with +other incoherences. He shook Clement's +hand and kissed Biddy. He praised +Clement.</p> + +<p>"Ye're the whitest man that iver +stepped green turf."</p> + +<p>Clement sat coldly impassive and unsmiling.</p> + +<p>"Then you're satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"Satisfied!" shouted Dan. "Satisfied +is it, man? Indade I am."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And you, Biddy?"</p> + +<p>Biddy was weeping and muttering wild +Irish prayers. "Dan, dear, do ye understand, +it's forty-five thousand dollars +apiece to the two of us. Oh, the blessed +old Ireland! I'll go back sure. Oh, it's +too good to be true—we must be dramin'."</p> + +<p>Clement looked at the distracted woman +with a flush of self-righteousness. He +had been right in his fears. It seemed +like to ruin the simple souls. He turned +to Eldred, who sat in silence.</p> + +<p>"What have you to say?"</p> + +<p>Eldred sneered. "I say you can't fool +me. These shares are worth seventeen +dollars and eighty cents each. I want +their market value, not their par value. +I want one-quarter the present value of +'The Witch.'"</p> + +<p>Clement's brow darkened and his eyes +burned with a fierce steady light.</p> + +<p>"Is that all you want? If I served you +right I'd kick you out of the door and let +you do your worst. I know if you sue +that you can't recover one dollar from me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +But I have my reasons for putting up with +your insolence. I will pay you forty-five +thousand dollars and not one cent more. +The market value of 'The Witch' to-day +I have made by my management. I have +gone on improving the mine day by day. +As it stands it is a new property. You +were a quarter owner in 'The Biddy.' We +capitalized 'The Biddy' at your own suggestion +at two hundred thousand dollars, +because we wanted it big enough to cover +all values. When I render you your share +of that I am doing you justice. John, +make out three checks for forty-five thousand +dollars each."</p> + +<p>Dan and Biddy turned upon Eldred and +talked him into silence, but he was unconvinced.</p> + +<p>Clement refused to touch the checks, +and the clerk said: "Here is yours, +Biddy."</p> + +<p>Biddy went up and took the slip in her +hands. "Is that little slip o' white paper +really worth so much?"</p> + +<p>"Call at the bank and get your money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +when you want it," said the imperturbable +cashier.</p> + +<p>Dan studied his check, his face foolish +with joy.</p> + +<p>Eldred took his, saying, "This puts +into my hands the means to fight."</p> + +<p>Clement merely nodded. "You know +my address." Eldred went out without +further word.</p> + +<p>When the door closed on him Clement's +face lost its sternness, and he became sad +and tender.</p> + +<p>His struggle was not yet done. His +mind was clear about the man who came +in at the eleventh hour, but it was not +clear with regard to these true-hearted +old friends who had been with him from +the first. He recalled the time when +Dan's big arm had helped him to a chair, +and Biddy had put the steaming soup before +him—food worth all the gold in the +world at that moment. He recalled her +broad, kindly face, hot and shining from +the stove; he remembered their struggles, +their sacrifices.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, Biddy," he said, as +they called out "Good-night," and started +to leave.</p> + +<p>"Sit down a moment, and you, too, +Dan. I want to talk over old times a +while."</p> + +<p>They sat down in stupefaction.</p> + +<p>"Biddy, do you remember the money +you squandered on the lottery ticket?"</p> + +<p>A slow smile broadened her face. "I +do, Mister Clement—and I remember I +won the prize sure!"</p> + +<p>"You did, and saved all our lives. Dan, +do you remember the day we lost our last +five-dollar gold piece in the grass?"</p> + +<p>Dan slapped his knee. "Do I? I +wore me hands raw as beef combin' the +grass that day."</p> + +<p>"Ah, those were great days. We had +days when forty-five cents would have +made us joyous, and here you are with +ninety thousand dollars, and wishin' for +more."</p> + +<p>Dan laughed again. "Sure, that's no +lie."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is, Dan Kelly," said Biddy. "I +have enough—too much. My heart misgives +me now. I'm afraid of it, sure. +I'm scared to carry it away wid me."</p> + +<p>"You're safe, Biddy; nobody will steal +that check." A sudden impulse seized +him. "Dan, you believed in me in those +days—give me that check." Dan slowly +handed to him the check. Clement took +it and turned. "Biddy, you fed me when +I was starving, and you pawned everything +you had to 'grub-stake' me—give +me your check." She handed it to him +without hesitation. He tore them into +small pieces.</p> + +<p>"Dan, you are mining boss, and I make +you both quarter owners in 'The Witch' +with all I have, and share and share alike, +as we did when we hadn't a dime. Now +hurrah for 'The Witch.'"</p> + +<p>Nobody shouted but the cashier. Dan +sat in a stupor, and Biddy was weeping, +with one arm flung around Dan's neck. +Dan was turning his hat around on his +fingers and staring at Clement's face for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +some solution to the situation. It was +beyond his imagination.</p> + +<p>Clement did not speak again for some +moments. When he did his voice was +husky and tremulous with emotion. +"You notice I say quarter interest—that's +because there is a new member in the firm +now. She comes in to-morrow. I want +you to see how she looks." He extended +a picture of Ellice to Biddy. She made +a marvelous dramatic shift of features, +and a smile of admiration broke through +the red of her broad countenance.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the swate, blessed angel. Sure, +she's beautiful as one of the saints in the +church. Luk at her, Dan."</p> + +<p>"I'm lukin'. She's none too good for +him."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Dan!" Clement protested +in an earnest tone. "All you have +to-night you owe to her. All the best +thoughts in me to-day I owe to her."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>There remained to him now all the joy +of riding back to tell her of his purification +of soul. His heart was so joyous it +kept time to every happy song in the +world.</p> + +<p>The gloom and doubt of himself had +passed away, but the wonder and mystery +of woman's love for man remained. He +felt himself to be an honest man, but a +man big, crude and coarse compared to +her beauty and delicacy. He marveled at +her bravery and her magnanimity. Leaving +Susanna he leaped upon a fresh horse +and set off, riding fast toward the divide. +The wind had risen and was blowing from +the dim domes of the highest mountains—a +cold wind, and he would have said a +sad wind had his heart not been so light. +As it was, he lifted his bared forehead to +it exultantly.</p> + +<p>He put behind him, so far as in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +power lay, all thought of the great wealth +he had given away. He was eager to pour +out the whole story to her, and hear her +say, "Well done, Richard."</p> + +<p>Over and over again his thought ran: +"Now I am an honest man. I am not +worthy of her, but at least my heart is +clean."</p> + +<p>Henceforth she was to be his altar of +sacrifice. All he did would be for her +approval. All there was of his money, +his inventive skill, his command of men, +should be hers. She should regulate every +hour of his coming and going, and share +all the plans and purposes of his life.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I must live right, and deal justly," +he thought. "I must be a better man +from this time forth."</p> + +<p>In the east the pale lances of the coming +sun pierced the breasts of the soaring +gray clouds, and, behold, they grew to be +the most splendid orange and red and +purple. The stars began to pale, and as +he came to the eastern slope where the +plain stretched to dim splendor, like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +motionless sea of russet and purple, the +sun was rising.</p> + +<p>The plain seemed lonely and desolate of +life, so far below was it. All action was +lost in the mist of immensity—men's +stature that of the most minute insects. +And down there in the pathway of the +morning was the little woman of all the +world waiting for him!</p> + +<p>As he rode down the slope to the river +level into the town the sun was swinging, +big and red, high above the horizon. His +long ride had made him look wan and +pale, but he ordered coffee and a biscuit, +and was glad to find it helped him to look +less wan and sorrowful. He dressed with +great care, then sat down to wait. At +7:30 o'clock he sent a note to her:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have not forgotten. When do you breakfast?"</p></div> + +<p>She replied:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Good-morning, dearest. Breakfast is ready; +come as soon as you can."</p></div> + +<p>He entered the room with the heart of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +a boy, the presence of an athlete. He was +at his prime of robust manhood, and his +physical pride was unconscious.</p> + +<p>She was proud of him, and met him +more than half way in his greeting. Her +face was still slender and delicate of color, +but in her eyes was a serene brightness, +and her lips were tremulous with happiness.</p> + +<p>She led him to the little table. "Now +you mustn't call this breakfast," she explained. +"This is a private cup of coffee +to sustain us through the ordeal. We all +breakfast immediately after the ceremony."</p> + +<p>"I've had one breakfast this morning."</p> + +<p>She looked dismayed.</p> + +<p>"At least a roll and a cup of coffee," he +hastened to explain. "However, I think +I could eat all there is here and not be +inconvenienced."</p> + +<p>They sat down and looked at each other +in silence. She spoke first.</p> + +<p>"Just think, this is the last time you +will ever sit down with Miss Ross."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You seem to be sad about it."</p> + +<p>"I am—and yet I am very happy. I +don't suppose you men can understand, +but a woman wants to marry the man she +loves—and yet she is sad at leaving girlhood +behind. Now let me see, you take +two lumps, don't you? I must not forget +that. It makes the waiter stare when a +wife can't remember how many lumps of +sugar her husband takes."</p> + +<p>He felt his courage oozing away, and so +began abruptly:</p> + +<p>"Ellice, I have a story to tell and a confession +to make to you."</p> + +<p>She looked a little startled. "That +sounds ominous, Richard—like the villain +in the play, only he makes his confession +after marriage."</p> + +<p>He was very sober indeed now. "That's +the reason I make mine now. I want you +to know just what I am before you marry +me."</p> + +<p>She leaned her chin on her clasped +hands and looked at him. "Tell me all +about it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>He did. He began at the beginning, +and while it would not be true to say he +did not spare himself, he told the story as +it actually happened. He concealed no +essential.</p> + +<p>"I rode there and back last night simply +because I couldn't kiss you again until +I had made myself an honest man."</p> + +<p>She reached out and clutched the hand +which lay on the table near her—a sudden +convulsive embrace.</p> + +<p>"Last night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've been to the camp since I left +you last night. I couldn't stand with you—there—before +all our friends, till I +could say I had no other man's money in +my pockets."</p> + +<p>She took his hand in both of her own +and bent her head and touched her cheek +to his fingers. She was very deeply +moved.</p> + +<p>And he—though his voice choked—faltered +through:</p> + +<p>"I gave it all back, dear—I mean I +gave over to Biddy and Dan their full<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +share—they are equal owners with you +and me in 'The Witch.' I tried to withhold +some of it; it was hard to give it all +back; but I did it because I believed you +would approve of it. And now, if you +will let me, I can call you my wife with +a clear conscience."</p> + +<p>For answer she rose and came to his +side, and put her arms about his neck +and laid a kiss on his upturned face. +Words were of no avail. In his heart the +man was still afraid of one so good and +loving.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p>The Table of Contents was not part of the original book.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Spirit of Sweetwater, by Hamlin Garland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + +***** This file should be named 20695-h.htm or 20695-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/9/20695/ + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. 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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: The Spirit of Sweetwater + +Author: Hamlin Garland + +Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20695] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + + + + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + + + + +LADIES' HOME JOURNAL +LIBRARY OF FICTION + +THE SPIRIT OF +SWEETWATER + +BY + +HAMLIN GARLAND + +AUTHOR OF +WAYSIDE COURTSHIPS +MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS +PRAIRIE SONGS, ETC. + +PHILADELPHIA +CURTIS PUBLISHING +COMPANY + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY & +McCLURE CO. + +Copyright, 1898, by +HAMLIN GARLAND + + + + +TO +JESSIE VIOLA +AND +HARRIET EDITH GARLAND + +[Illustration: Hamlin Garland] + + + + +_THE MYSTERY OF MOUNTAINS_ + + + _As the sun sinks + And the canons deepening in color + Add mystery to silence + Then the lone traveller lying out-stretched + Beneath the silent pines on some high range + Watches and listens in ecstasy of fear + And timorous admiration._ + + _In the roar of the stream he catches + The reminiscent echo of colossal cataracts; + In the cry of the cliff-bird + He thinks he hears the eagle's scream + Or yowl of far-off mountain-lion; + In the fall of a loose rock + He fancies the menacing footfall of the grizzly bear; + And in the black deeps of the lower canon + His dreaming eyes detect once more + Prodigious lines of buffalo crawling snake-wise + Athwart the stream, + Or files of Indian warriors + Winding downward to the distant plain, + Where camp-fires gleam like stars._ + + + + +Part I + + + + +The Spirit of Sweetwater + +CHAPTER I + + +One spring day a young man of good mental furnishing and very slender +purse walked over the shoulder of Mount Mogallon and down the trail to +Gold Creek. He walked because the stage fare seemed too high. + +Two years and four months later he was pointed out to strangers by the +people of Sweetwater Springs. "That is Richard Clement, the sole owner +of 'The Witch,' a mine valued at three millions of dollars." This in +itself was truly an epic. + +Sweetwater Springs was a village in a canon, out of which rose two +wonderful springs of water whose virtues were known throughout the +land. The village was wedged in the canon which ran to the mighty +breast of Mogallon like a fold in a king's robe. + +The village and its life centered around the pavilion which roofed the +spring, and Clement spent his evenings there in order to see the +people, at least, as they joyously thronged about the music-stand and +sipped the beautiful water which the Utes long, long ago called "sweet +water," and visited with reverence and hope of returning health. + +Since the coming of his great wealth Clement had not allowed himself a +day's vacation, and he had grown ten years older in that time. There +were untimely signs of age in his hair and in the troubled lines of +his face. He was a young man, but he looked a strong and stern and +careworn man to those whose attention was called to him. He was a +conscientious man, and the possession of great wealth was not without +its gravities. + +For the first time he felt it safe to leave his mine in other hands. +He had a longing to mix with his kind once more, and in his heart was +the secret hope that somewhere among the women of the Springs he might +find a girl to take to wife. He arranged his vacation for July, not +because it was ever hot at the Creek, but because he knew the Springs +swarmed at that time with girls from the States. It would have +troubled him had any one put these ideas into words and accused him of +really seeking a bride. + +He was a self-unconscious man naturally, and he hardly realized yet +how widely his name had gone as the possessor of millions. He supposed +himself an unnoticed atom as he stood at the spring on the second +night of his stay in the village. Of a certainty many did not know +him, but they saw him, for he was a striking figure--a handsome +figure--though that had never concerned him. He was, in fact, feeling +his own insignificance. + +He was standing there in shadow looking out somberly upon the streams +of people as they came to take their evening draught at the wonderful +water of the effervescing spring. The sun had gone behind the high +peaks to the west, and a delicious, dry coolness was in the canon. + +It seemed to Clement to be a very fashionable and leisurely throng--so +long had he been absent from people either modish or easeful. He felt +himself to be hopelessly outside all this youth and brilliancy and +merriment, and he looked upon it all with a certain wistfulness. + +He perceived at length that the strollers were not all of the same +conditions. There were rough, brown cow-boys from La Junta and Cajon, +and miners in rough dress down from the gulches for a night, but +mainly the promenaders appealed to him with elegance of dress and +manner. + +Many of the ladies came without hats, which added to the charm of +their eyes and hair. Some of them looked twice at the tall man with +the big mustache and broad hat, who seemed to be watching for some +tardy friend. + +As he studied them his memory freshened and he came to understand them +better. He analyzed them into familiar types. This was a banker and +his wife from some small town--the wife fussy and consequential, the +husband coldly dignified. This group was composed of a doctor and his +daughters. Behind them came a merchant from some Nebraska town--he +rough of exterior, his children dainty of dress and very pretty. +Occasionally a group of college-bred girls came up without +escort--alert, self-helpful and serene. They saw Clement at once, and +studied him carefully as they drank their beauty cup at the circular +bench before the spring. All good-looking men had interest to them. + +All classes came, a varied stream, yet they were Western, and of the +well-to-do condition for the larger part. + +The deft boy swung the glasses of water on his tripartite dipper with +ceaseless splash and clink. There was a pleasant murmur of talk in +which an Eastern listener would have heard the "r" sound +well-defined. There were many couples seated about the pavilion on the +benches and railings. It was all busy yet tranquil. Each loiterer had +fed, had taken his draught of healing water--and this was the hour of +pleasant gossip and repose. Clement fell at last to analyzing the +action of the boy who supplied the water at the pool. He slammed the +glasses into the pool, and set them on the bench with a click as +regular as a pump. Occasionally, however, he was indifferent. With +some of his customers he handled the glasses as if they contained +nectar, thus indicating his generous patrons. Once he stopped and +dipped the glass into the pool with his own hand--a doubtful +action--and extended it with a bow to a young lady who said "thank +you" so sweetly that he blushed and stammered in reply. + +All this fixed Clement's attention, and as the young girl lifted the +glass in her slim hand he wondered how she had escaped his notice for +a single moment. A woman at his side said sighfully, "There is that +consumptive girl again, she hasn't long to stay." She was as pale, as +fragile, and as lovely as the mountain columbine. Her face was thin, +and her head shapely, but her eyes! They burned like rarest +topaz--deep, dark and sad. Clement shivered as he felt them fixed upon +him, and yet he could not turn away as he should have done. + +He gazed at her with a sudden feeling which was not awe, nor +compassion, nor love, but was all of these. He felt in his soul the +subtlest sadness in all the world--the sadness of a strong man who +looks upon a beautiful young girl who is dying. + +Extremest languor was in every movement. She was dressed in dark, soft +garments--very simple and graceful in effect, and her bearing was that +of one accustomed to willing service from others. Her smile was as sad +as her eyes which had in them the death-shadow. + +Clement's action, the unwavering self-forgetful intentness of his +look, arrested her attention, and she returned his gaze for an +instant, and then turned away and took the arm of an elderly gentleman +who stood beside her. She moved slowly, as an invalid walks when for +the first time she is permitted a short walk in the outdoor air, +leaning heavily on her companion. + +The big miner roused himself and stood straight and tall, hesitating +whether to follow or not--a sudden singular pain in his heart, as if +he were losing something very close to his life. + +He obeyed the impulse to follow, and moved down the path, just out of +reach of observation, he fancied. As he made way through the crowd he +grew aware again of his heavy limbs, of his great height, of his +swinging, useless hands. It had been so long since he had mingled with +a holiday company, he appeared as self-conscious as a boy. + +Once the fair invalid turned and looked back, but she was too far away +for him to discern the expression of her face. He was not possessed +of self-esteem enough to believe she had turned to look for him. + +He followed them in their slow pace till they turned in at the doorway +of the principal hotel of the village. They entered at the ladies' +door while he kept on to the main entrance and rotunda. There was no +elevator in the house, and the invalid paused a moment before +attempting the stairway. It was pitiful to see her effort to make +light of it all to her companion, who was quite evidently her father. +She smiled at him even while she pressed one slim hand against her +bosom. + +Clement longed to take her in his arms and carry her up the +stairway--it seemed the thing most worth doing in all the world--but +he could only lean against the desk and see them go slowly stair by +stair out of sight. + +"Who are they?" he asked of the clerk whom he detected also watching +them with almost the same breathless interest. + +"Chicago merchant, G. B. Ross. That's his daughter. She's pretty far +gone--consumption, I reckon. It looks tough to see a girl like that go +off. You'd think now----" + +Clement did not remain to hear the clerk moralize further; he went +immediately to his own hotel, paid his bill, and ordered his baggage +sent to the other house. He wondered at himself for this overpowering +interest in a sick girl, and at his plan to see her again. + +He reasoned that he would be able to see her at breakfast time, +provided she came down to breakfast, and provided he hit upon the same +hour of eating. He began to calculate upon the probable hour when she +would come down. It was astounding how completely she occupied his +thought already. + +He struck off up the canon where no sound was, other than the roar of +the wild little stream which seemed to lift its voice in wilder clamor +as the night fell. Its presence helped him to think out his situation. +He had grown self-analytical during his life in the camp, where he +was alone so far as his finer feelings were concerned, and he had come +to believe in many strange things which he said nothing about to any +friend he had. + +He had come to believe in fate and also in intuition. A powerful +impulse to do he counted higher than reason. That is to say, if he had +a powerful impulse to run a shaft in a certain direction he would so +act, no matter if his reason declared dead against it. The hidden and +uncontrollable processes of his mind had given him the secret of "The +Witch's" gold, had led him right in his shafting and in his selection +of friends and assistants--and had made him a millionaire at +thirty-seven years of age. He was prone to over-value the intuitional +side of his nature, probably--an error common among practical men. + +Fate was, with him, luck raised to a higher power. What was to be +would be; the unexpected happened; the expected, hoped for, labored +for, did not always happen. All around him men stumbled upon mines, +while other men, more skilful, more observant, failed. The luck was +against them. + +It was quite in harmony with his nature that he should be absorbed in +the singular and powerful impulse he had to seek an acquaintance with +that poor dying girl. + +Dying! At that word he rebelled. God would not take so beautiful a +creature away from earth; men needed her to teach them gentleness and +submission. More than this, he had an almost uncontrollable impulse to +go to her, and putting aside doctors say to her: + +"I am the one to heal you." + +He had never had an impulse to heal before, but the fact that it was +unaccountable and powerful and definite, fitted in with his successes. +He gave it careful thought. It must mean something because it had +never come to him before, and because it rose out of the mysterious +depths of his brain. + +She must not die! The wind, the mountains, the clear air, the good, +sweet water, the fragrant pines, the splendid sun--these things must +help her. "And I, perhaps I, too, can help her?" + +Back in the glare of the hotel rotunda, with its rows of bored men +sitting stolidly smoking, idly talking, his impulse and his resolution +seemed very unmanly and preposterous. It is so easy to lose faith in +the elemental in the midst of the superficial and ephemeral of daily +habit. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Clement was an early riser, and, notwithstanding his restless night, +was astir at six. The whole world had changed for him. It was no +longer a question of ore and amalgams, it was a question of when he +should see again that sad, slender woman with the hopeless smile. + +He had now a great fear that she would not be able to come down to +breakfast at all, but as her coming was his only hope of seeing her he +clung to it. Eight o'clock seemed to him to be the latest hour that +any one not absolutely bedridden would think of breakfasting, and at +four minutes past the hour he entered the dining-room. + +The negro waiter tried to seat him near the door, but he pushed on +down the hall toward a little group near one of the sunny windows, +which he took to be the sick girl and her father, and so it proved. + +His seat at a table next to theirs brought her profile between him +and the window, and the light around her head seemed to glorify her +till she shone like a figure in a church window. She seemed not +concerned with earth. He was more deeply moved than ever before in his +life, but he concealed it--the only sign of emotion was in the tremor +of his hands. + +He studied the sick girl as closely as he could without seeming to +stare. She was even more lovely than he had thought. His eyes, +accustomed only to rough women, found in her beauty that which was +flower-like, seraphic. + +Her face was very thin, and her neck too slender to uphold the heavy +masses of her brown hair. Her hands were only less expressive of +suffering than her face. The father was as bluff and portly and +irascible as she was patient and gentle. He bullied the waiter because +he did not know how else to express his anxiety. + +"Waiter, this steak is burned--it's hard as sole leather. Take it back +and bring me----" + +"Please don't, father; the trouble is with me. I have no desire for +food." She smiled at the waiter so sweetly that he nodded as if to +say, "I don't mind him, miss." + +The father turned his attention to the country. + +"Yes, there is another fraud. I was told it would help your appetite, +and here you are with less than when you left Hot Springs. If I'd had +my way----" + +She laid a hand on his arm, and when he turned toward her his eyes +were dim with tears. He blew his nose and coughed, and looked away +after the manner of men, and suffered in silence. + +Once she turned and looked at Clement, and her eyes had a mystical, +impersonal look, as though she saw him afar off, not as an individual +but as a type of some admirable elemental creature. He could not +fathom her attitude toward him, but he thought he saw in her every +action the expression of a soul that had relinquished its hold on +things of the earth. Her desire to live was no longer personal. She +did all that she did for her father and her friends wholly to please +them. + +The desire to aid her came upon Clement again--so powerful it carried +with it an unwavering belief that he could help her. + +What was his newly-acquired wealth good for if he could not aid her? +Wealth? Yes--his blood! He looked at his great brown hand and at his +big veins full of blood. Why should she die when he had so much life? + +Meanwhile his common sense had not entirely fled him. He perceived +that they were not poor, and he reflected that they had probably tried +all climates and all the resources of medical science; also that the +father had quite as much red blood in his veins as any other man; and +these considerations gave him thought as he watched them rise and go +out upon the little veranda. + +Clement was not a markedly humble person under ordinary conditions. +He had a fashion of pushing rather heedlessly straight to his +purpose--which now was to speak to her, to meet her face to face, to +touch her hand and to offer his aid. Naturally he sought the father's +acquaintance first. This was not difficult, for the waiters in the +dining-room had been pointing him out to the guests as "Mr. Clement, +the meyonaire minah." The newspaper correspondents had made his name a +familiar one to the whole United States as "one of the sudden +multi-millionaires of Gold Creek." + +The porter had "passed the word" to the head waiter, and the head +waiter had whispered it to one or two others. It was almost as +exciting as having a Presidential candidate enter the room. Clement +was too new in his riches, however, to realize the extent of all this +bustle about him. + +When he rose to go one waiter removed his chair, another helped him +lay his napkin down, a third brushed his coat, and the head usher +kindly showed him where the door opened into the hallway. It was +wonderful to Clement, but he laid it to the management of the hotel. + +There were limits to his insanity, and he did not follow the girl out +on the veranda, but when Mr. Ross came down a few minutes later to get +a cigar Clement plucked the proprietor of the hotel by the arm. + +"Introduce me to Mr. Ross, won't you?" + +The landlord beamed. "Certainly, Mr. Clement." He took Mr. Ross by the +lapel familiarly. "Ah, good-morning, Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross, let me +introduce my friend, Mr. Clement; Mr. Clement you may have heard of as +the owner of 'The Witch' and the 'Old Wisconse.'" + +Mr. Ross shook hands. He was not exactly uncivil, but he was +cool--very cool. "I have heard of Mr. Clement," he said. He softened a +little as he got a good look at the powerful, clear-eyed young fellow. + +The landlord expanded like one who has accomplished a good deed. "I +thought so, I thought so. Mr. Clement, let me say, is a square +business man. Whatever he offers you is worth the price!" He winked at +Clement as he turned away. + +Clement began, "I beg your pardon, Mr. Ross, for taking this liberty, +but I wanted to know you and took the first chance that offered. I +have no mine to sell--I want to know you--that's all. I wanted to meet +somebody outside the mining interest. I saw you and your daughter at +the pavilion last night. She seems to be not--very strong." He +hesitated in his attempt to describe his impression of her. + +The father's theme was touched upon now. "No, poor girl, she is in bad +condition, but I think she's better. The air seems not to have made +her worse, at any rate. I haven't much faith in climate, but I believe +she has improved since we left Kansas City and began to rise." + +He had a marvelous listener in Clement, and they consumed three +cigars apiece while he told of the doctors he had tried and of the +different kinds of air and water they had sought. + +His eyes were wet and his voice was tremulous. + +"The fact is, Mr. Clement, she don't seem to care about living--that's +what scares me. She's just as sweet and lovely as an angel. She +responds to any suggestion, 'Very well, papa,' but I can see she does +it for me. She herself has lost all hope. It ain't even that--she has +lost care about it. She is indifferent. She is going away from me just +because I can't rouse her----" + +He frankly broke down and stopped, and Clement felt his throat swell +too tight for speech at the moment. + +They sat for a time in silence; at last Clement said: + +"Mr. Ross, you don't know me except as a lucky man--but I have a favor +to ask: it is to meet your daughter." + +There was something very winning in the young man's voice and manner, +and Mr. Ross could see no objection to it, and it might interest +Ellice to meet this man who had stumbled upon a gold mine. "Very well, +suppose we go up now," he said, almost without hesitation. + +The girl was alone, seated in an easy-chair in the sun--her head only +in shadow. The father spoke in a low and very tender voice, "Ellice, I +want to present Mr. Clement. Mr. Clement, my daughter Ellice." + +The impossible had come to pass! As Clement bent down and took her +hand and looked into her eyes his heart seemed to stop death-still for +a few seconds--then something new and inexplicable took possession of +him, and he stood before her calm and clear-eyed. "Don't move," he +commanded, "I will draw a chair near you." + +Mr. Ross said they had been having a long talk, and she listened, +smiling the while that hopeless smile. Then the father rose and said: +"Where is Aunt Sarah? I want to go down to the telegraph office." + +The girl spoke in the quiet, tranquil voice of one to whom such things +have no importance. "I don't know, papa. A moment ago she was saying +something to me, and now she is gone. That is all I know. Never mind; +she'll be here in a moment." + +"I'll be back in ten minutes." + +"I am all right, papa. If I need anything Mr. Clement can call Aunt." + +There was a pause after Mr. Ross went. Then she added in the same +gentle, emotionless way: "Poor papa! He is a martyr to me. He thinks +he must sit by me always. I think he fears I may die while he is +gone." + +Clement leaned forward till his eyes were on a level with those of the +girl, and his voice was very calm and penetrating as he said: + +"What can I do for you, Miss Ross? I have the profoundest conviction +that I can do you good." + +A startled look came into the big brown eyes. She looked at him as a +babe might, striving to comprehend. + +He went on, "Here I am a millionaire, a strong young man--what can I +do for you?" + +"I think I understand you," she said slowly. "It's very good of you, +but you can do nothing." + +"It is impossible," he broke forth in answer, and his voice gave her a +perceptible shock. "There must be something I can do. If it will help +you there is my arm--its blood is yours." He stammered a little. "It +isn't right that one so young and beautiful should die. We won't let +you die. There must be something I can do. This wind and sun--and the +good water will work with us to do you good." + +His voice moved her, and she smiled with the tears on her lashes. "It +does me good just to look at you. You are so big and brown. I saw you +at the spring last night. Perhaps I have come at last----" She +coughed--a weak, flat sound which made him shudder. + +She tried to reassure him. "Really, I have coughed less than at any +time during the last five months." + +He faced her again. "Miss Ross, I felt last night a sudden desire to +help you. I believed I had the power to help you--I don't know +why--I'm not a healer." He smiled for the first time. "But I felt +perfectly sure I could do you good. I feel that way now. I never had +such a feeling toward any person before. It is just as strange to me +as it is to you." + +She was looking at him now with musing eyes. + +"That is the curious part of it," she said. "It doesn't seem strange +at all. It seems as if I had been wanting to hear your voice--as if I +had known of you all my life----" She tried to suppress her coughing, +and he was in agony during the paroxysm. The nurse came hurrying out, +and while he waited at one side Clement felt that if he could have +taken her by the hands he could have prevented it. It was a singular +conviction, but it was most definite, and had a peculiar air of +actuality. + +When she lay quiet he approached again and said: "I'll go now. I must +not tire you. But remember, I'm going to come and see you, and I'm +going to do you good. Every time I see you I am going to will to you +some of my vitality--my love of life. For I love life--it is beautiful +to live." + +She gave him her hand, and he bowed and left her. + +She lay quietly after he went away and smiled, a little, wan smile, +which made her pallor the more pitiful. It was all so romantic and +wonderful--this big man's coming. He was so unspoiled and so direct of +manner. She had the hope he would come again, and it seemed not +impossible that he might help her, his voice was so stirring and his +hands so big and strong. + +Yet she was beyond the reach of even the conjectures of passion. She +had come to a certain exterior resignation to her fate. The world had +lost its poignant interest--it was now a pageant upon which she was +looking for the last time, yet she was too tired, too indifferent to +lift her hand to stay it in its course even had it been within her +power. + +At times, however, she rebelled at her fate. There were hours, even +yet, when she lay alone in her bed hearing her father's regular +stertorous breathing till a great wave of longing to live swept upon +her, and she was forced to turn her face to her pillow to stifle her +mingled coughing and sobbing. + +"Oh, Father, let me live! I want to live like other women. Oh, dear +Father, grant me a little life!" + +These waves of passionate rebellion left her weaker, sadder, more +indifferent than ever, and as coldly pallid almost as if death had +already claimed her. + +On the night following Clement's talk with her she fell asleep while +musing upon one mind's influence upon another. Perhaps if she could +only believe she might be helped; perhaps he was sent to help her. It +had been long since such a personality had stood before her--indeed, +no such man had ever touched her hand or looked into her eyes. + +He came down out of the mountain heights with the elemental vigor of +wind and sun and soil about him like an aura. A man of great natural +refinement, he had grown strong and simple and masterful in his close +contact with Nature. The clay that might have brutalized another +nature had made him a mystic. + +There was something mysterious in his eyes, in the clasp of his hand. +The world was all inexplicable to her anyhow. Perhaps God had sent him +to help her just as He sends healing water down from the mountain +peaks. + +In thinking these things she fell asleep, and it seemed at once that +she was well again, and that she was dressing for a walk. Clement had +called for her to climb the mountains with him, and she was making +preparation to go, working swiftly and unhesitatingly--and it seemed +deliciously sweet to be swift and active once more. She had put on a +short walking-skirt and leggins and was nearly ready. She stood before +the glass to put on her cap, and as she saw how round and pink her +cheeks were she hardly recognized herself. + +She seemed to hear his impatient feet outside on the veranda, and she +smiled to think how typical it all was of husbands and wives--and at +that thought her face grew pinker and she turned away--she didn't want +her own eyes to see how she flushed. + +But suddenly all warmth--all flushing--left her. She turned cold with +a familiar creep and weakness. She could not proceed. Her glove was +half on, but her strength was not sufficient to pull it further. She +could not lift her feet. + +His steady, strong tramp up and down the veranda continued, but she +was in the grasp of her old enemy. A terrible fear and an agony of +desire seized her. She wanted to go out into the bright sunlight with +him, but she could neither move nor whisper. All her resolution, her +hope, fell away, and her heart was heavy and cold. It was all over. He +would wait for a while and then go away, and she would stand there +desolate, helpless, inert as clay, with life dark and empty before +her. + +"Oh, if he would only call me!" was her last breath of resolution. + +Once, twice the feet went up and down the veranda. Then they paused +before her door. + +"Are you ready?" his voice called. + +She struggled to speak, but could only whisper, "Yes." + +The door swung quickly open and he stood there in the streaming +sunlight of the morning--so tall he was he seemed to fill the +doorway--and he smiled and extended his hands. + +"Come," he said, "the sturdy old mountains are wonderfully grand this +morning." + +His hand closed over hers, and the sunlight fell upon her, warming her +to the heart, but before she could lift her eyes to the shining peaks +she awoke and found that the morning sun had stolen its way through a +half-opened shutter and lay upon her hand. + +At first she was ready to weep with sadness and despair, but as she +thought upon it she came to see in the dream a good omen. It had been +long since she had dreamed a vision of perfect health with no touch of +impotence at its close. There was something of hope in this vision; a +man's hand had broken the spell of weakness. + + + + +Part II + + + + +_APRIL DAYS_ + + + _Days of witchery subtly sweet, + When every hill and tree finds heart, + When winter and spring like lovers meet + In the mist of noon and part-- + In the April days._ + + _Nights when the wood-frogs faintly peep-- + Tr-eep, tr-eep--and then are still, + And the woodpeckers' martial voices sweep + Like bugle-blasts, from hill to hill, + Through the breathless haze._ + + _Days when the soil is warm with rain, + And through the wood the shy wind steals, + Rich with the pine and the poplar smell,-- + And the joyous soul like a dancer, reels + Through the broadening days._ + + _--From "Prairie Songs."_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +This dream gave to Clement, in Ellice's eyes, a glamour of mystery and +power--beyond the subtlety of words, and she met him in a spirit of +awe and wonder, such as a child might feel to find one of its +dream-heroes actually beside the fireside in the full sunlight of the +morning. The fear and agony and joy of the night's vision gave a +singular charm to the meeting. + +It startled her to find she still retained the capability of being +moved by the sound of a man's voice. It seemed like a wave of +returning life. + +Her heart quickened as she saw him enter the dining-room and look +around for her--and when his eyes fell upon her a light filled his +face which was akin to the morning. She did not attempt to analyze +the emotion thus revealed, but she could not help seeing that he +looked the embodiment of health and happiness. + +He wore a suit of light brown corduroy with laced miner's boots, and +they became him very well. + +He smiled down at her as he drew near. + +"You are better this morning, I can see that." + +It was exactly as if he knew of her dream, and that the walk had been +actual, and a flush of pink crept into her face--so faint it was no +one noticed it--while it seemed to her that her cheeks were scarlet. +What magic was this which made her flush--she whom Death had claimed +as his own? + +Mr. Ross invited Clement to sit with them, as she hoped he would. +Clement had, indeed, intended to force the invitation. "I'm going for +a gallop this morning," he said in explanation of his dress. "I wish +you could go too," he added, addressing Ellice. + +Mr. Ross introduced him to the elderly woman: "Mr. Clement, let me +present you to my sister, Miss Ross." + +Miss Ross was plump like her brother, and a handsome woman, but +irritable like him. She complained, also, of the altitude and of the +chill shadows. Neither father nor aunt formed a suitable companion for +the sick girl. + +Clement was the antidote. His whole manner of treatment was of the +hopeful, buoyant sort. He spoke of the magnificent weather, of the +mountains, of the purity of the water. + +"After I get back from my ride I wish you'd let me come and talk with +you. Perhaps," he added, "you'll be able to walk a little way with +me." + +He made the breakfast almost cheerful by his presence, and went away +saying: + +"I'll be back by ten o'clock and I shall expect to find you ready for +a walk." + +Miss Ross was astonished both at his assurance and at Ellice's +singular interest and apparent acquiescence. + +"Well, that is a most extraordinary man. I wonder if that's the +Western way." + +"I wish I were able to do as he says," the girl said quietly. The old +people looked up in astonishment. + +"Aunt Sarah, I want you to help me dress. I'm going to try to walk a +little." + +"Not with that man?" the aunt inquired in protest. + +"Yes, Aunt." Her voice was vibrant with fixed purpose. + +"But think how you would look leaning on his arm." + +"Auntie, dear, I have gone long past that point. It doesn't matter how +it looks. I cannot live merely to please the world. He has asked me, +and if I can I will go." + +Mr. Ross broke in, "Why, of course, what harm can it do? I'd let her +lean on the arm of 'Cherokee Bill' if she wanted to." They all smiled +at this, and he added, "The trouble has been she didn't want to do +anything at all, and now she shall do what she likes." + +It all seemed very coarse and common now, and she could not tell them +the secret of the dream that had so impressed her, and of her growing +faith that this strong man could help her back to health and life. She +only smiled in her slow, faint way, and made preparation to go with +him who meant so much to her. + +He met her on the veranda in a handsome Prince Albert suit of gray +with a broad-brimmed gray hat to match. He looked like some of the +pictures of Western Congressmen she had seen, only more refined and +gentle. He wore his coat unbuttoned, and it had the effect of draping +his tall, erect frame, and the hat suited well with the large lines of +his nose and chin. It seemed to her she had never seen a more striking +and picturesque figure. + +"I'll carry you down the stairs if you'll say the word," he said as +they paused a moment at the topmost step. + +"Oh, no. I can walk if you will give me time." + +"Time! Time is money. I can't afford it." He stooped and lifted her in +his right arm, and before she could protest he was half way down the +stairway. He laughed at the horrified face of the aunt. He was +following impulses now. As they walked side by side slowly--she, not +without considerable effort--up toward the spring, he said abruptly, +but tenderly: + +"You must think you're better--that's half the battle. See that +stream? Some day I'm going to show you where it starts. Do you know if +you drink of that water up at its source above timber-line it will +cure you?" + +She saw his intent and said, "I'm afraid I'll be cured before I get to +the spring." + +"I'm going to make it my aim in life to see you drink at that pool." +His directness and simplicity stimulated her like some mediaeval +elixir. He made her forget her pain. They did not talk much until they +were seated on one of the benches near the fountain. + +"Sit in the sun," he commanded. "Don't be afraid of the sun. You hear +people talk about the sun's rays breeding disease. The sun never does +that. It gives life. Beware of the shadow," he added, and she knew he +meant her mental indifference. They had a long talk on the bench. He +told her of his family, of himself. + +"You see," he said, "father had only a small business, though he +managed to educate me, and, later, my brother. But when he died it had +less value, for I couldn't hold the trade he had and times were +harder. I kept brother at college during his last two years, and when +he came out I gave the business to him and got out. He was about to +marry, and the business wouldn't support us both. I was always +inclined to adventure anyway. Gold Creek was in everybody's mouth, so +I came here. + +"Oh, that was a wonderful time; the walk across the mountains was like +a story to me. I liked the newness of everything in the camp. It was +glorious to hear the hammers ringing, and see the new pine buildings +going up--and the tent and shanties. It was rough here then, but I had +little to do with that. I staked out my claim and went to digging. I +knew very little about mining, but they were striking it all around +me, and so I kept on. Besides"--here he looked at her in a curiously +shy way--"I've always had a superstition that just when things were +worst with me they were soonest to turn to the best, so I dug away. My +tunnel went into the hill on a slight upraise, and I could do the work +alone. You see I had so little money I didn't want to waste a cent. + +"But it all went at last for powder and the sharpening of picks, and +for assaying--till one morning in August I found myself without money +and without food." + +He paused there, and his face grew dark with remembered despair, and +she shuddered. + +"It must be terrible to be without food and money." + +"No one knows what it means till he experiences it. I worked all day +without food. It seemed as if I must strike it then. Besides, I took a +sort of morbid pleasure in abusing myself--as if I were to blame. I +had been living on canned beans, and flapjacks, and coffee without +milk or sugar, and I was weak and sick--but it all had to end. About +four o'clock I dropped my pick and staggered out to the light. It was +impossible to do anything more." + +There were tears in her eyes now, for his voice unconsciously took on +the anguish of that despair. + +"I sat there looking out toward the mountains and down on the camp. +The blasts were booming from all hills--the men were going home with +their dinner-pails flashing red in the setting sun's light. It was +terrible to think of them going home to supper. It seemed impossible +that I should be sitting there starving, and the grass so green, the +sunset so beautiful. I can see it all now as it looked then, the old +Sangre de Christo range! It was like a wall of glistening marble that +night. + +"Well, I sat there till my hunger gnawed me into action. Then I +staggered down the trail. I saw how foolish I had been to go on day +after day hoping, hoping until the last cent was gone. I hadn't money +enough to pay the extra postage on a letter which was at the office. +The clerk gave me the letter and paid the shortage himself. The letter +was from my sister, telling me how peaceful and plentiful life was at +home, and it made me crazy. She asked me how many nuggets I had found. +You can judge how that hurt me. I reeled down the street, for I must +eat or die, I knew that." + +"Oh, how horrible!" the girl said softly. + +"There was one eating-house at which I always took my supper. It was +kept by an Irish woman, a big, hearty woman whose husband was a +prospector--or had been. 'Biddy Kelly's' was famous for its 'home +cooking.' I went by the door twice, for I couldn't bring myself to go +in and ask for a meal. You don't know how hard that is--it's very +queer, if a man has money he can ask for credit or a meal, but if he +is broke he'll starve first. I could see Biddy waiting on the +tables--the smell that came out was the most delicious, yet +tantalizing, odor of beef-stew--it made me faint with hunger." + +His voice grew weak and his throat dry as he spoke. + +"When I did enter, Dan looked up and said respectfully, 'Good-evenin', +Mr. Clement,' and I felt so ashamed of my errand I turned to run. +Everything whirled then--and when I got my bearings again Dan had me +on one arm and Biddy was holding a bowl of soup to my lips." + +The girl sighed. "Oh, she was good, wasn't she?" + +"They fed me, for they could see I was starving, and I told them +about the mine--and, well, some way I got them to 'grub-stake' me that +night." + +"What is that?" + +"That is, they agreed to furnish me food and money for tools and share +in profits. Dan went to work with me, and do you know, it ended in +ruining them both. We organized a company called the 'Biddy Mining +Company.' I was president, and Dan was vice-president, and Biddy was +treasurer. Biddy kept us going by her eating-house, but eventually we +wanted machinery, and we mortgaged the eating-house, and the money +went into that hole in the ground. But I knew we would succeed. I +could hear voices call me, 'Come, come!'--whenever I was alone I could +hear them plainly." + +His eyes, turned upon her, were full of mystery. + +"I have always felt the stir of life around me in the dark, and there +in that mine--after we struck the spring of water--I thought I heard +voices all the time in the plash of the water. I suppose it seemed +like insanity, for I ruined Dan and Biddy without mercy. I couldn't +stop. I was sure if we could only hold out a little while we would +reach it. But we didn't. Biddy had to go to work as a cook, and Dan +and I went out to try to borrow some money. I couldn't bear to let in +somebody else after all the heat and toil Dan and Biddy and I had +endured, but it had to be done. We took in a fellow from Iowa by the +name of Eldred and went to work again. + +"One day after our blast I was the first to enter, and the moment that +I saw the heap of rock I knew we had opened the vein. My wildest +dreams were realized!" + +"And then your troubles ended," the girl said tenderly. + +"No--for now a strange thing happened. The assayer tried our ore again +and again and found it very rich, but when we shipped to the mills we +got almost no returns. We tried every process, but the gold seemed to +slip away from us. Finally I took a carload and went with it to see +what was the matter. I followed it till it came out on the +plates--that is where they catch the gold by the use of quicksilver +spread on copper plates--and it seemed all right. I scraped some of it +up and put it into a small vial to take home with me. When I got home +the company assembled to hear my report, and when I took out the +amalgam to show it to them it had turned to a queer yellow-green +liquid. I was astounded, but Dan and Biddy crossed themselves. 'It's +witch's gold,' Biddy said. 'Dan, have no more to do with it.' And +witch's gold it was. They gave up right there and went back to work in +the camp. Eldred cursed me for getting him into it, and so they left +me to fight it out alone. I was like a monomaniac--I never thought of +giving up. I begged a little money from my brother and bought in all +the stock of the 'Biddy Mining Company,' and went to work to solve the +mystery of the amalgam. I was a good pupil in chemistry at college, +and I put my whole life and brain into that mystery and I solved it. I +found a way to treat it so all the gold was saved. That made me rich. +I called the mine 'The Witch,' and it has made me what you see." + +"It is like a fairy tale! What became of your faithful friends, Dan +and Biddy?" + +"I made Dan my foreman of the mine, and I built an eating-house and +hotel for Biddy. They are with me yet. Eldred I bought out on the same +terms as the rest." + +He had a sudden sensation of heat in his face as he passed the chasm +between the withdrawal of Dan and Biddy from the firm and his solution +of the amalgam. He did not care to dwell upon that, because Eldred had +sued him to recover his stock, claiming that it was bought in under +false pretenses. Neither did he care to enter into the stormy time +which followed the sudden leap of "The Witch" from a haunted hole in +the ground to a cave of diamonds. He hurried on to the end while she +listened in absorbed interest like a child to a wonder story. + +She sighed in the world-old manner of women and said: + +"And I--I have done nothing worth telling. I ruined my health by +careless living at school, and here I am, a cumberer of the earth." + +Some men would have hastened to be complimentary, but Clement remained +silent. He was trying to understand her mood that he might meet it in +a helpful way. + +"But if I am permitted to live I shall be different. I will do +something." + +"First of all, get well," he said, and his words had the force of a +command. "Give me your hand." + +She complied, and he took it in a firm clasp. "Now I want you to +promise me you'll turn your mind from darkness to the light, from the +canons to the peaks--that you will determine to live. Do you +promise?" + +"I promise." + +"Very well. I shall see that you keep that promise." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It was rather curious to see that as she grew in strength Clement lost +in assertiveness--in his feeling of command. He began to comprehend +that with returning health the girl was not altogether pitiable. She +had culture, social position and wealth. + +The distinction of his readily-acquired millions grew to be a very +poor possession in his own mind--in fact, he came at last to such +self-confessed utter poverty of mind and body that he wondered at her +continued toleration. He ceased to plead any special worthiness on his +own part and began to throw himself on her mercy. + +As the time came on when she no longer needed his arm for support he +found it hard to offer it as an act of gallantry. In fact, in that +small act was typified the change which he came ultimately to assume. +At first she had seemed to him like an angelic child. Death's shadows +had made him bold--but now he could not deceive himself: he was coming +to love her in a very human and definite fashion. He dared not refer +to the past in any way, and his visits grew more and more formal and +carefully accounted for. + +She thought she understood all this, and was serenely untroubled by +it. She brooded over the problem with dreamful lips and half-shut +eyes. She was drifting back to life on a current of mountain air +companioned by splendid clouds, and her content was like to the +lotus-eater's languor--it held no thought of time or tide. + +That she idealized him was true, but he grew richly in grace. All the +small amenities of conduct which he once possessed came back to him. +He studied to please her, and succeeded in that as in his other +ventures. He did not exactly abandon his business, but he came to +superintend his superintendents. + +However, he attached a telephone to his mine in order to be able to +direct his business from the Springs. He still roomed at the hotel, +though Ellice was living in a private house farther up the canon. His +rooms were becoming filled with books and magazines, and he was +struggling hard to "catch up" with the latest literature. + +If Ellice referred to any book, even in the most casual way, he made +mental note of it, and if he had read it he re-read it, and if he had +not read it he secured it at once. + +"I know something of chemistry and mineralogy, and geology and milling +processes, but of art and literature very little," he said to her +once. "But give me time." + +The highest peaks were white with September snows before she felt able +to mount a horse. Each day she had been able to go a little farther +and climb a little higher. Her gain was slow, very slow, but it was +almost perceptible from day to day. + +Mr. Ross had been to Chicago, and was once more at the Springs. He +had brought a couple of nieces, very lively young creatures, who +annoyed Clement exceedingly by their impertinence--at least, that is +what he called their excessive interest in his affairs. Without the +co-operation of Ellice he would have found little chance to see her +alone, but she had a quiet way of letting them know when she found +them a burden, which they respected. + +One day he said to her, "Have you forgotten what I said to you about +the spring up there?" + +"No, I have not forgotten. Do you think I can go now? Am I really well +enough to go?" + +"The time has come." + +"What would the doctor say?" + +"The doctor--do you still heed what he says?" + +"Must I walk?" + +"Yes, to have the water heal you. But I will lead old Wisconse for you +to ride down." + +"After I am healed?" + +"One can be cured and yet be tired." + +They set off in such spirits as children have, old Wisconse leading +soberly behind. + +Clement was obliged to check the girl. + +"Now don't go too fast. It is a long way up there. I warn you it is +almost at timber-line." + +But she paid small heed to his warning. She felt so light, so active, +it seemed she could not tire. + +For a time they followed the wide road which climbed steadily, but at +last he stopped. + +"Now here we strike the trail," he said. "You must go ahead, for I am +to lead the horse." + +"Not far ahead," she exclaimed, a little bit alarmed. + +"Only two steps." He was a little amused at her. "Just so I will not +tread on your heels." + +"You needn't laugh. I know they hunt bears up here." + +They climbed for some time in comparative silence. + +"Oh, how much greener it is up here!" she exclaimed at last, looking +around, her eyes bright with excitement. + +He smiled indulgently. "You tourists think you know Colorado when +you've crossed it once on the railway. This is the Colorado which you +seldom see." + +She was in rapture over the glory of color, the waving grasses of +smooth hillsides, and the radiant dapple of light and shadow beneath +the groves of vivid yellow aspens. The cactus and Spanish dagger, and +the ever-present sage bush of the lower levels, had disappeared, +crow's-foot and blue-joint grasses swung in the wind. The bright flame +of the painted cup and the purple of the asters still lighted up the +aisles of the pines in sheltered places. + +"There are many more in August," he explained. "The frost has swept +them all away." + +"Is this our stream?" she asked. + +"Yes, we cross it many times." + +"How small it is." + +"Are you tired?" + +"Not at all." + +He came close to her to listen to her breathing. "You must not do too +much. If you find yourself out of breath stop and ride." + +"I want to be cured." + +He laughed. "By the way you lead up this trail I don't think you need +medicine. I never finish wondering whether you are the same girl I met +first----" + +She flashed a glance back at him. "I'm not. I'm another person." + +"That shows what three months of this climate will do." + +"Climate did not do it." + +"What did?" + +"You did." She kept marching steadily forward, her head held very +straight indeed. + +"I wish you would wait a moment," he pleaded. + +"I am very thirsty--I want to reach the spring." + +"But, dear girl, you can't keep this up." + +"Can't I? Watch me and see." + +She seemed possessed of some miraculous staff, for she mounted the +steep trail as lightly as a fawn. Clement was in an agony of +apprehension lest she should overdo and fall fainting in the path. +This ecstasy of activity was most dangerously persistent. + +It was past noon when they came out of the aspens and pines into the +little smooth slope of meadow which lay between the low peaks which +were already crusted with snow. In the midst of the orange and purple +and red of the grasses lay a deep, dark pool of water--as beautiful as +her eyes, it seemed to him. + +"Here is the spring," Clement called to the girl. + +"I knew it," she said. + +"Wait," he called again. "I must drink with you." + +He hastened up and dipped a cup into the water and handed it to her. + +"Now drink confusion to disease." + +"Confusion!" She drank. "Oh, isn't it sweet? I never knew before how +good water was. But here, drink. You are dying of thirst, too." She +handed him the cup. + +"I want to drink to some purpose also," he said, and there was no need +of further words, but he went on, his full heart giving eloquence to +his lips, "I want to pledge my life to your service--my life and all I +am." + +She grew a little pale. This intensity of emotion awed her as the +majestic in Nature affects great souls. "I don't think you ought. I +don't think I am quite worthy." + +"Let me be judge of that." He spoke quickly and almost sharply. "Shall +I drink?" + +She had walked on while Clement was speaking, and stood leaning +against the browsing horse. After a little hesitation she answered, +"If you are thirsty." + +[Illustration] + +The words were light, but he understood her. He drank and then came +straight toward her. + +She shrank from him in sudden timidity and said a little hurriedly, +"Help me into the saddle. I shall need to ride back." + + + + +_WESTWARD VISTA_ + + + _The half-sunk sun + Burns through the dusty-crimson sky; + Streamers of gold and green soar + In radiating splendor, like the spokes + Of God's unmeasurable chariot-wheels + Half-hid and vanishing. + Around me is coolness, ripeness and repose; + The smell of gathered grain and fruits, + And the musky breath of melons fills the air. + The very dust is fruity, and the click + Of locusts' wings is like the close + Of gates upon great stores of wheat. + The gathered barley bleaches in shock, + The corn breathes on me from the west, + And the sky-line widens on and on + Until I see the waves of yellow-green + Break on the hills that face the snow and lilac peaks + Of Colorado's mountains._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +At first Clement's happiness had no further base of uneasiness than +the lover's fear of loss. It all seemed too good to be true, and he +had a hidden fear that something might happen to set him back where he +was before she came. It was quite like his feeling about his mine--it +took him a certain length of time before he ceased to dream of its +sudden loss, and now it seemed (when absent from her) that it would be +easy for something to rob him of this love which was his life. + +This feeling was mixed, too, with a feeling of his unworthiness, which +deepened the more closely he studied her. She was so free from all +bruise and stain of life's battle. There were no questionable places +in her life. Could he say as much? + +Whenever he asked himself the question his dealings with the +stockholders of "The Biddy" came into his mind. Could he afford to +tell his bride all the facts in the case? This feeling of +dissatisfaction with himself led him to do many extravagant things. He +presented her with beautiful and costly jewels for which she had +little taste. + +"Why, Richard. What made you think of that?" she said once after he +had slipped away to the city to buy her something. + +"Is it so very pretty?" + +"It is beautiful! But can we afford such things?" + +"We can afford anything that will make you happy." + +He made a similar answer when she drew back a little startled at the +cost of the house he had contracted for. + +"Why, it is a palace!" + +"The best is scarcely good enough for you." After a moment he added, +"You see, I know you can never live East again, and I want you to +have all the comforts of a palace out here. And so long as 'The Witch' +holds out you shall have your heart's desire." + +Mr. Ross had come to have a profound respect for his future +son-in-law. "I can't say that he don't make as much of a fool of +himself as any prospective bridegroom, but he is a business man at the +same time. He don't lose his head, by any means." He was telling his +son about Clement. "He is devoted to your sister, but I went over to +his mine with him the other day and it is perfectly certain that he +understands his business. He is only reckless when buying things for +Ellice. He'll take care of her and the mine, too." + +Clement felt a certain incongruity every time he put on his miner's +dress and went through the mine. "I'm too rough for her, too old," he +kept thinking--trying to conceal the real cause of his growing fear. + +He was not honest with himself. He fought round the real point of +danger. He gave a generous sum to the library, aided a hospital, and +did other things which should ease a bad conscience, and yet do not. +He hastened the house forward, and passed to and fro between his mine, +the Springs and the city in ceaseless activity. + +The marriage was set for July, just a year from the time he first saw +her, and the winter passed quickly, so busied was he in building and +planning the home. He grew less and less buoyant and more careworn as +spring wore on, and Ellice could not understand the change. He was +moody and changeable even in her presence. This troubled her, and she +often asked: + +"What is the matter, Richard? Is your business going wrong?" + +"No, oh no. Business is all right. Nothing is the matter." And ended +by convincing her that something was very much wrong indeed. And she +grieved in silence, not daring to question him further. + +The self-revealing touch came to him in a curious way only a few days +before their wedding day. He was in camp on a final inspection of his +mine, and was walking the streets at night, silent, self-absorbed and +gloomy. He had grown morbid and unwholesome in his thought, and the +wreck of his happiness seemed already complete. He spent a great deal +of time in long and lonely walks. + +The street swarmed with rough, noisy miners. A band of evangelists, +with drums and tambourines, occupied the central corner. A low, +continuous hum of talk could be heard at the base of all other noises. + +Being in no mood for companionship Clement stood aside from it all, +thinking how far above all this life his beautiful bride was. + +There had been in the camp for some weeks a certain sensational +evangelist--a man of some power, but of unhappy disposition +apparently. At any rate he had been in much trouble with the city +authorities. He had been called a "hypocrite and fake" in the public +press, and had been prosecuted for disturbance of the peace. But he +seemed to thrive on such treatment. + +Clement had paid very little attention to the man and his troubles, +but as he looked down the street at the crowd around the speakers on +the corner it occurred to him to wonder if they were the fighting +evangelists. + +He was about to move that way when he observed near him in the dark +middle of the street a man and a woman. + +"This will do as well as anywhere," the man said, putting down a small +box. He wore a broad cowboy hat, and a long coat which hung unbuttoned +down his powerful figure. The woman was tall and slender, and neatly +dressed in gray. Clement understood that these were the persecuted +ones. + +The man mounted the box, and in a powerful but not very musical voice +began to sing a hymn full of cowboy slang. His singing had a quality +not usual in street singers, and a crowd quickly gathered about him. +His song was long and not without a rude poetry. He began his address +at last by issuing a defiance to his enemies. This would mean little +in an Eastern village, perhaps, but in a mining camp, even a +degenerate mining camp, it might mean a great deal--life or death, in +fact. + +"Now, gentlemen, I want to say something as a preface in order to know +just where we stand. Some citizens of the town have vilified me in +private and in the public press--over an assumed name, however. It +wouldn't be healthy for any man to do it openly. The man is a +liar--but I don't care about myself. It is a little difference of +opinion among men, but some miscreant has reflected upon the good name +of my wife. Now let me say that the man that says my wife is not a +lady and a woman of the highest character, insults the mother of my +children and will answer to me for every word he utters." + +A little thrill of interest and awe ran through the crowd. The man's +voice meant battle, and battle to the hilt of the bowie. It was so +easy to prove a mark for desperate men, but there was no fear in the +attitude of the speaker. He had come up through a wild life, and knew +his audience, his accuser and himself. + +His voice took a sudden change--it grew tender and reverent. "I am +here to preach the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. I may not do it +in the best way always, but I do it as well as I know how." Here his +tone grew severely earnest and savage again, as he added: "But I shall +defend the honor of my wife with my life." + +His voice and pose were magnificent--lion-like. + +His manner changed again with dramatic suddenness. He took the whole +street into his confidence. + +"I love my wife, gentlemen. She has borne three children to me. She is +a good woman. A mighty sight smarter and better than I am, but she +can't defend herself against sneaks and reptilious liars. I can. +That's part of my business. I tell you, boys," he added in a low voice +very sincere and winning, "they ain't no man good enough to marry a +good woman; it's just her good, pure, kind heart gives him any show at +all." + +A sudden lump rose in Clement's throat. The man's deep humility and +loyalty and apparent sincerity had gone straight to his own heart and +touched him in a very sensitive place. He turned away and sought the +deeper shadow with his head bowed in black despair. + +He thought of the eyes of his bride with a shudder almost of fear. +Could he ever face her again? + +"Oh, God! How pure and dainty and unspotted she is, and I--I am +unclean." + +He saw as clearly as if a light had been turned in upon his secret +thought, that the ownership of "The Witch" was in question. He had not +been candid with her--he had been dishonest. He had not dared to let +her know how he had secured control of that stock. + +All the way back to the Springs he wrestled with himself about it. He +ended by reasserting the justice of his position, and resolved to tell +her at once the whole story and let her judge. He had in his pocket +the deed to the house and lot, which he determined now to give her at +once, and to make explanations at the same time. + +This he did. He called to see her the following afternoon and found +her surrounded with women and gowns and flowers. The women fled when +he approached, but the gowns and flowers remained, and there was talk +upon them till at last, in sheer desperation, Clement said: + +"Ellice, here is something that I want to give you now. It is my +wedding gift." + +He placed in her hand the deed. She looked at it. + +"Oh, there's so much fine print. I can't read it now. What is it?" + +"It is the deed to the new home." + +Her eyes misted with quick emotion. + +"How good you are to me, Richard." + +"No, it's precaution," he replied as lightly as he could. "We will +have a home always if you don't lose it in some wild speculation." + +She put her arms about his neck, an infrequent caress with her. + +"How rich we are. God is good to us. And is it not good to think that +our wealth does not come from anybody's misery? It comes out of the +earth like a spring--like the spring that made me well." + +As he looked down into her face it seemed lit from within by some +Heavenly light, and her voice made his head grow dizzy. He could not +tell her his story then. + +He sat down and listened to her talk. She wanted to know what troubled +him, and he was forced to lie. + +"Oh, nothing. I'm a little worried about a--new piece of machinery." +This gave him a thought. "I must be away this evening. I can't take +dinner with you." + +She was not one of those who worry with expostulations or +complainings. She had a mind of her own, and she granted the same +decision to others. + +"Very well," she said, and she flashed a sudden roguish look at him. +"Don't forget to breakfast with me." + +He had the grace to return her smile as he said: + +"Oh, I'll not forget. I've charged my mind with it." + +His going was like a flight. His inner cry was this: + +"My God! I am absolutely unworthy of her. I am big, coarse and +dishonest--unfit to touch her hand." + +His gloomy face and bent head was a subject of joke for the +acquaintances he met on the street. + +"Saddle Susanna," he called sharply to his Mexican hostler. He had +made up his mind to radical measures. + +As he sat in his room with his face buried in his hands shutting out +the light of the splendid sunset, he saw her as she sat among her soft +silks and dainty flowers. Her lovely eyes and the exquisite texture of +her skin grew more and more wonderful to him. The touch of his lips to +hers came to seem an act of pollution, almost of envenoming, as he +brooded on his unworthiness. + +He wrote a note to her on the impulse of the moment. The missive read: + + "I am not fit to see you, to touch you. I am going away + across the divide to make restitution for a great wrong I + have done. If I do not I can never face you again. When I + see you again I will be an honest man, or I--if you think me + worthy of forgiveness I will see you and ask it to-morrow. + RICHARD." + +He added as a postscript: + + "I am well. I am not crazy, but I am not an honest man. I + can't kiss you again till I am." + +Upon reading this note he saw it would frighten her, and keep her in +agony of suspense, therefore he tore it up, and rushing out of the +house leaped into the saddle. + +The spirited little broncho was fresh and mettlesome, and went off in +a series of sheeplike bounds which her rider seemed not to notice. + +He drew rein at the telegraph office, and there sent three telegrams. +They were all alike: + + "Meet me at the office at midnight. Important." + +As he turned Susanna's head up the trail the mountains stood deep +purple silhouettes against the cloudlessness of the sky. The wind blew +from the heights cool and fragrant, and the little horse set nostril +to it as if she anticipated and welcomed the hard ride. + +The way lay over forbidding mountain passes ten thousand feet above +the sea, and her rider was a heavy man. But Susanna was of broncho +strain with a blooded sire, which makes the hardiest and swiftest +mountain horse in the world. + +Clement's mind cleared as he began the ascent--cleared but did not +rest. Over and over the problem came, each time clearer and more +difficult. He must that night give away a hundred and thirty-five +thousand dollars--terrible ordeal! Ninety thousand dollars to go to an +old Irishman and his wife--both ignorant, careless. + +What would they do with it? It might drive them crazy. As they now +lived they were comfortable. He had made Dan sub-superintendent of the +mine, and he had rebuilt the eating-house for Biddy. Could they take +care of the big fortune he was about to give them? + +Ought he not to give them a few thousands--such sum as they could +comprehend and take care of? Would it not be better for them? + +Then there was forty-five thousand dollars to be given to a cheap +little man--that was hardest of all, for he had come to hate the sight +of the sleek black head of Arthur Eldred. Yes, but he had saved the +day. He had put in six hundred dollars when every dollar was a ducat. +True, but the reward was too great. A hundred thousand dollars for six +hundred. + +Oh, this was familiar ground! He had gone over it in a sort of +sub-conscious way a hundred times, each time apparently the final one. +It had been quite settled when this slender little woman first lifted +her face to him, and now nothing was settled. + +It was very still and cold. There was no stream to sing up through the +pines, and no wind in the pines to answer should the stream call. +Nothing seemed to be stirring save the pensive man and his faithful +pony. + +Reaching the upper levels he spurred on at a gallop, finding some +relief in the pounding action of the saddle and in the rush of air +past his ears. The moon was late, but when it came it seemed to help +him, lightening his mood as it lightened the trail. The big ledges and +lowering, lesser peaks lifted into the dark sky weirdly translucent, +and their upper edges seemed smooth and graceful as the rims of +bubbles. Solid rock seemed melted and transfused with light and air. +It was all miraculously beautiful, and the sore-hearted man lifted his +eyes to the heights seeing the face of a girl in every moonlit rock +and in every wayside pool. + +As he entered the office he found them all waiting for him--Dan and +Biddy in their best dress, and Eldred with a supercilious half-grin, +half-scowl on his face. + +Clement nodded at him, but said "Hello" to Dan and "Good-evening" to +Biddy. Conly, his trusted, discreet cashier, was at his desk, and the +office was dimly lit with a single electric bulb. + +Dan and Biddy greeted him cautiously, for Eldred had filled their +simple souls with suspicion. "He wants to compromise. He's afraid of +our suit against him." + +As a matter of fact Dan would never put a dollar into the plan for a +suit, and it had never gone beyond Eldred's talk--and yet he had made +them suspicious. Dan was forced to confess that Clement was becoming +an "a-ristocrat." And Biddy acknowledged that he "sildom dairkened her +dure these days." They had always felt his superiority and refinement, +and they rose as he entered. + +He wasted no time in preliminaries. "Sit down," he said imperiously, +and his face, when he turned to the light, was knotted with trouble. +He sat for a moment with bent head while he strengthened his heart to +a bitter and humiliating task. He began abruptly: + +"Dan, you remember the time I brought the amalgam home in a vial and +it had turned green?" + +"I do. Yis." + +"You remember that you gave it up right then." + +"I did. I said it's 'witch's gould.'" + +"Sure such it looked like that day," said Biddy. + +"All the same, the thing which scared you put a happy thought into my +head, and I felt then I could solve it." He lifted his head and looked +around defiantly. "In short, when I bought your stock in at ten cents +on the dollar I knew it was worth par, for I had solved the process." + +There was a silence very awesome following the defiant ring of the +voice. + +Eldred was the first to comprehend what it meant. His eyes glittered +like those of an awakened rat. + +"Do you mean that? If that's true you robbed us, you thief, robbed us +cold and clean." He sprang up. "I knew you'd do something----" + +"Sit down," interrupted Clement harshly. "I'm not going to have any +words with you. If I had seen fit not to tell you of this how much +would you have known of it? Sit down and keep your tongue between your +teeth." He turned to Dan and his voice was softer. "Dan, when I was +hungry you took me in and fed me. For that I've given you a good +position. Is that debt paid?" + +"Sure, Clement, me boy, it was only a sup of p'taties an' bacon, +annyway." + +"Biddy, I turned over two thousand dollars to you, and rebuilt your +eating-house. You thought that paid the debt I owed you?" + +Biddy was slower to answer. "For all the grub an' the loikes o' that, +indade yis, Mr. Clement--but sure we wor pardners----" + +Clement interrupted. "I know. I'm coming to that. Now answer me. If it +hadn't been for me wouldn't you have thrown up the sponge long before +you did?" + +The silence of the little group answered him. + +"Would any of you ever have worked out the mystery of that ore? +Weren't you all anxious to sell for anything you could get?" + +They were all silent as before. + +"I made the mine worth money. I discovered the secret, it was my +invention. I paid you four times what you had put into it. The mine +was worthless until I invented a process for saving the gold. I +claimed it as an invention like any man claims a patent right. I +believed I had a right to it--to all of it, and so I bought in your +stock after I had solved the problem of the reduction. I say I +believed I was right--to-night I believe I was wrong--it don't matter +how I came to the conclusion, but I've changed my mind. I have come +to-night to make restitution. I am ready to pay you ninety cents more +on every dollar of stock you sold me at that time." + +Biddy gasped: "Howly Saints!" + +Dan leaped up with a wild hurrah. "Listen to that now!" he cried, with +other incoherences. He shook Clement's hand and kissed Biddy. He +praised Clement. + +"Ye're the whitest man that iver stepped green turf." + +Clement sat coldly impassive and unsmiling. + +"Then you're satisfied?" + +"Satisfied!" shouted Dan. "Satisfied is it, man? Indade I am." + +"And you, Biddy?" + +Biddy was weeping and muttering wild Irish prayers. "Dan, dear, do ye +understand, it's forty-five thousand dollars apiece to the two of us. +Oh, the blessed old Ireland! I'll go back sure. Oh, it's too good to +be true--we must be dramin'." + +Clement looked at the distracted woman with a flush of +self-righteousness. He had been right in his fears. It seemed like to +ruin the simple souls. He turned to Eldred, who sat in silence. + +"What have you to say?" + +Eldred sneered. "I say you can't fool me. These shares are worth +seventeen dollars and eighty cents each. I want their market value, +not their par value. I want one-quarter the present value of 'The +Witch.'" + +Clement's brow darkened and his eyes burned with a fierce steady +light. + +"Is that all you want? If I served you right I'd kick you out of the +door and let you do your worst. I know if you sue that you can't +recover one dollar from me. But I have my reasons for putting up with +your insolence. I will pay you forty-five thousand dollars and not one +cent more. The market value of 'The Witch' to-day I have made by my +management. I have gone on improving the mine day by day. As it stands +it is a new property. You were a quarter owner in 'The Biddy.' We +capitalized 'The Biddy' at your own suggestion at two hundred thousand +dollars, because we wanted it big enough to cover all values. When I +render you your share of that I am doing you justice. John, make out +three checks for forty-five thousand dollars each." + +Dan and Biddy turned upon Eldred and talked him into silence, but he +was unconvinced. + +Clement refused to touch the checks, and the clerk said: "Here is +yours, Biddy." + +Biddy went up and took the slip in her hands. "Is that little slip o' +white paper really worth so much?" + +"Call at the bank and get your money when you want it," said the +imperturbable cashier. + +Dan studied his check, his face foolish with joy. + +Eldred took his, saying, "This puts into my hands the means to fight." + +Clement merely nodded. "You know my address." Eldred went out without +further word. + +When the door closed on him Clement's face lost its sternness, and he +became sad and tender. + +His struggle was not yet done. His mind was clear about the man who +came in at the eleventh hour, but it was not clear with regard to +these true-hearted old friends who had been with him from the first. +He recalled the time when Dan's big arm had helped him to a chair, and +Biddy had put the steaming soup before him--food worth all the gold in +the world at that moment. He recalled her broad, kindly face, hot and +shining from the stove; he remembered their struggles, their +sacrifices. + +"Wait a moment, Biddy," he said, as they called out "Good-night," and +started to leave. + +"Sit down a moment, and you, too, Dan. I want to talk over old times a +while." + +They sat down in stupefaction. + +"Biddy, do you remember the money you squandered on the lottery +ticket?" + +A slow smile broadened her face. "I do, Mister Clement--and I remember +I won the prize sure!" + +"You did, and saved all our lives. Dan, do you remember the day we +lost our last five-dollar gold piece in the grass?" + +Dan slapped his knee. "Do I? I wore me hands raw as beef combin' the +grass that day." + +"Ah, those were great days. We had days when forty-five cents would +have made us joyous, and here you are with ninety thousand dollars, +and wishin' for more." + +Dan laughed again. "Sure, that's no lie." + +"It is, Dan Kelly," said Biddy. "I have enough--too much. My heart +misgives me now. I'm afraid of it, sure. I'm scared to carry it away +wid me." + +"You're safe, Biddy; nobody will steal that check." A sudden impulse +seized him. "Dan, you believed in me in those days--give me that +check." Dan slowly handed to him the check. Clement took it and +turned. "Biddy, you fed me when I was starving, and you pawned +everything you had to 'grub-stake' me--give me your check." She handed +it to him without hesitation. He tore them into small pieces. + +"Dan, you are mining boss, and I make you both quarter owners in 'The +Witch' with all I have, and share and share alike, as we did when we +hadn't a dime. Now hurrah for 'The Witch.'" + +Nobody shouted but the cashier. Dan sat in a stupor, and Biddy was +weeping, with one arm flung around Dan's neck. Dan was turning his hat +around on his fingers and staring at Clement's face for some solution +to the situation. It was beyond his imagination. + +Clement did not speak again for some moments. When he did his voice +was husky and tremulous with emotion. "You notice I say quarter +interest--that's because there is a new member in the firm now. She +comes in to-morrow. I want you to see how she looks." He extended a +picture of Ellice to Biddy. She made a marvelous dramatic shift of +features, and a smile of admiration broke through the red of her broad +countenance. + +"Oh, the swate, blessed angel. Sure, she's beautiful as one of the +saints in the church. Luk at her, Dan." + +"I'm lukin'. She's none too good for him." + +"Don't say that, Dan!" Clement protested in an earnest tone. "All you +have to-night you owe to her. All the best thoughts in me to-day I owe +to her." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +There remained to him now all the joy of riding back to tell her of +his purification of soul. His heart was so joyous it kept time to +every happy song in the world. + +The gloom and doubt of himself had passed away, but the wonder and +mystery of woman's love for man remained. He felt himself to be an +honest man, but a man big, crude and coarse compared to her beauty and +delicacy. He marveled at her bravery and her magnanimity. Leaving +Susanna he leaped upon a fresh horse and set off, riding fast toward +the divide. The wind had risen and was blowing from the dim domes of +the highest mountains--a cold wind, and he would have said a sad wind +had his heart not been so light. As it was, he lifted his bared +forehead to it exultantly. + +He put behind him, so far as in his power lay, all thought of the +great wealth he had given away. He was eager to pour out the whole +story to her, and hear her say, "Well done, Richard." + +Over and over again his thought ran: "Now I am an honest man. I am not +worthy of her, but at least my heart is clean." + +Henceforth she was to be his altar of sacrifice. All he did would be +for her approval. All there was of his money, his inventive skill, his +command of men, should be hers. She should regulate every hour of his +coming and going, and share all the plans and purposes of his life. + +"Oh, I must live right, and deal justly," he thought. "I must be a +better man from this time forth." + +In the east the pale lances of the coming sun pierced the breasts of +the soaring gray clouds, and, behold, they grew to be the most +splendid orange and red and purple. The stars began to pale, and as he +came to the eastern slope where the plain stretched to dim splendor, +like a motionless sea of russet and purple, the sun was rising. + +The plain seemed lonely and desolate of life, so far below was it. All +action was lost in the mist of immensity--men's stature that of the +most minute insects. And down there in the pathway of the morning was +the little woman of all the world waiting for him! + +As he rode down the slope to the river level into the town the sun was +swinging, big and red, high above the horizon. His long ride had made +him look wan and pale, but he ordered coffee and a biscuit, and was +glad to find it helped him to look less wan and sorrowful. He dressed +with great care, then sat down to wait. At 7:30 o'clock he sent a note +to her: + + "I have not forgotten. When do you breakfast?" + +She replied: + + "Good-morning, dearest. Breakfast is ready; come as soon as + you can." + +He entered the room with the heart of a boy, the presence of an +athlete. He was at his prime of robust manhood, and his physical pride +was unconscious. + +She was proud of him, and met him more than half way in his greeting. +Her face was still slender and delicate of color, but in her eyes was +a serene brightness, and her lips were tremulous with happiness. + +She led him to the little table. "Now you mustn't call this +breakfast," she explained. "This is a private cup of coffee to sustain +us through the ordeal. We all breakfast immediately after the +ceremony." + +"I've had one breakfast this morning." + +She looked dismayed. + +"At least a roll and a cup of coffee," he hastened to explain. +"However, I think I could eat all there is here and not be +inconvenienced." + +They sat down and looked at each other in silence. She spoke first. + +"Just think, this is the last time you will ever sit down with Miss +Ross." + +"You seem to be sad about it." + +"I am--and yet I am very happy. I don't suppose you men can +understand, but a woman wants to marry the man she loves--and yet she +is sad at leaving girlhood behind. Now let me see, you take two lumps, +don't you? I must not forget that. It makes the waiter stare when a +wife can't remember how many lumps of sugar her husband takes." + +He felt his courage oozing away, and so began abruptly: + +"Ellice, I have a story to tell and a confession to make to you." + +She looked a little startled. "That sounds ominous, Richard--like the +villain in the play, only he makes his confession after marriage." + +He was very sober indeed now. "That's the reason I make mine now. I +want you to know just what I am before you marry me." + +She leaned her chin on her clasped hands and looked at him. "Tell me +all about it." + +He did. He began at the beginning, and while it would not be true to +say he did not spare himself, he told the story as it actually +happened. He concealed no essential. + +"I rode there and back last night simply because I couldn't kiss you +again until I had made myself an honest man." + +She reached out and clutched the hand which lay on the table near +her--a sudden convulsive embrace. + +"Last night?" + +"Yes, I've been to the camp since I left you last night. I couldn't +stand with you--there--before all our friends, till I could say I had +no other man's money in my pockets." + +She took his hand in both of her own and bent her head and touched her +cheek to his fingers. She was very deeply moved. + +And he--though his voice choked--faltered through: + +"I gave it all back, dear--I mean I gave over to Biddy and Dan their +full share--they are equal owners with you and me in 'The Witch.' I +tried to withhold some of it; it was hard to give it all back; but I +did it because I believed you would approve of it. And now, if you +will let me, I can call you my wife with a clear conscience." + +For answer she rose and came to his side, and put her arms about his +neck and laid a kiss on his upturned face. Words were of no avail. In +his heart the man was still afraid of one so good and loving. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Spirit of Sweetwater, by Hamlin Garland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER *** + +***** This file should be named 20695.txt or 20695.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/9/20695/ + +Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. 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