Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-09-18

two little rivers of tears running over the
crimsoned cheeks. But coacll-box is not a
convenient place for sentiment to display it
self; and, though the temptation was great to
inquire into the cause Of the tears, with view
of offering consolation, Sam prudently looked
the other way, and maintained silence. The
reader, however, knows that those tears sank
into the beholder's SOUL and caused to germi'
nate countless tender thoughts and emotions,
which were, on some future occasion, to be
laid upon the altar of his devotion to Mrs.
Dolly Page. And none the less that, in a
few minutes, the eyes which shed them resumed
their roguish brightness, and the lady was to-
tally unconscious of having heard, seen or felt
any embarrassment. Sentiment between them
was successfully tabooed, so far as utterance
was concerned, for that time. And so Sam
found, somewhat to his disappointment, that
whenever he got upon delicate ground, the
lady was off like humming-bird, darting
hither and yon, so that it was impossible to put
finger upon her, or to get so much as look
at her brilliant and restless wings. But no.
body is ever tired of finding humming-bird
at rest and so Sam never gave up looking
for the opportune moment of speaking his
mind.
Meanwhile, Lucky Dog Camp was having
fresh sensation. An organized band OF
gamblers, robbers and road agents had made
swoop upon its property of various kinds,
and had succeeded in making off with it. The
very night after the ride just mentioned, the
best horses in Sam Rice's team were stolen,
making it necessary to substitute what Sam
called a pair of "ornery cayusses." To put
the climax to his misfortunes, the road agents
attacked him the next morning, when the
"ornery cayusses," becoming unmanageable,
Sam was forced to surrender the treasure box
and the passengers their bullion. The excite
ment in Lucky Dog was intense A vigilance
committee, secretly organized, lay in waiting
for the offenders, and, after week or two,
made capture of well-known sporting man,
whose presence in camp had for some time
been regarded with suspicion. That same af-
ternoon his gentlemanly person swung dang
ling from a gnarled pine-tree limb, and his
frightened soul had fled into outer darkness.
When this event became known to Mrs.
Dolly Page, she turned ghostly white, and
then tainted dead away. Mrs. Shaughnessy
was very much concerned for her friend, be.
rating, in round terms, the brutishness of
people who could talk of such things before
a ender.hearted lady like that. To Mr.. Rice,
particularly, she expatiated upon the coarse
ness of certain people, and the refined sensi-
tiveness of others and Sam was much in
clned to agree with her, so far as her remarks
applied to her friend, who was not yet suffi-
ciently recovered to be visible. Indeed Mrs.
Page was not visible for so many days that
Sans soul began to long for her with mighty
longing. At length she made her appearance
considerably paler and thinner than was her
wont; but doubly interesting and lovely to
the eyes of so partial an observer as Sam, who
would willingly have sheltered her weakness
in his strong, manly arms. Sam, naturally
enough, would never have limited at the event
which had so distressed her but she relieved
him of all embarrassment on the subject, by
saying to him almost at once:
"Mr. Rice, 1 am sorry they have not buried
the man they hung so shockingly. They GER
tainly will not leave him there?" she added,
with shudder.
81 don't know-I suppose" stammered
Sam, "it is the way with them fellows"
"But you will not allow it, You cannot
allow it," she said, excitedly.
81 couldn't prevent them," said Sam, quite
humbly.
"Mr. Rice p and her voice was at once a
command and an entreaty, you can and must
prevent it! You are not afraid? l will 60
with you, this very night, and will help you.
Don't say you will not, for l cannot sleep
until it is done. have not slept for a week" J."
She looked so white and so wild, as she ut
tered this confession, that Sam would have
been the wretch he was not to refuse her. So
he said
"Don't you fret. I'll bury him, if it trou-
bles you so. But you needn't 60 along. You
couldn't; it's too far, and you're too weak
seeing how she trembled.
II am not weak, only nervous. I prefer to
20 along. But we must be secret, | suppose
Oh r'-wth a start that was indeed nervous.
eyes, we must be secret" said Sam and he
looked as if he did not half like the business,
but would not refuse.
"You are a good man, Mr. Rice, and l
thank you," and with that Mrs. Dolly Page
caught up one of his hands, and, kissing it
heartily, began to cry, as she walked quietly
away.
"Don't cry, and don't 60 away until | have
promised to do whatever you ask, if it only
makes you we'll again, said Sam, following
her to the door,
"Then call for me to take walk with you
tonight. The moon is full, but no one will
observe us. They would not think of our
going there !'-with another shudder and
She slipped away from his OBTAINING hand
That evening Mr.. Samuel Rice and Mrs.
Page took walk by moonlight. Laughing
gossips commented on it after their fashion,
and disagreeable gossips after their fashion.
But nobody, they believed saw where they
went, or what they did. Yet those two came
back after performing an act of Christian
charity, with sense Of guilt and unworthiness
very irritating to endure, albeit from very
different causes. One, because an unwelcome
suspicion had thrust itself into his mind and
the other
The ground of Sans suspicion was a pho.
tograph, which, in handling the gamblers
body somewhat awkwardly, by reason of its
weight-Mrs. Page, at the lust, found that she
could not render assistance-had slipped from
some receptacle in its clothing. A hasty
glance under the full light of the moon had
shown him the features of the lady who sat
twelve PAGES away, with her hands over her
face. 1t is not always those thatsin who suffer
most from the consciousness of sin and Sam,
perhaps, with that hint of possible-nay, al.
most Observation-Disclosures in his breast-pocket,
was more burdened by the weight of it than
many a criminal about to suffer all the ter
rors of the law for the woman that he loved
stood accused, if not convicted, before his con-
science and her own, and he could not con-
denim, because his heart refused to judge her.
When the two stood together under the
g IL, 1,,,, -, 6oeorfo9 40 r1nr of Tho