The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-01-21
A RUN FOR LIFE.
Bret Hartes "Gabriel Conroy" from advance
sheets of Scrib1er's for February.

posing wind, which was strong enough to
oblige Arthur to exert a certain degree OF
physical strength to overcome it, SC
wrought upon him, that in a few moments
he had thrown off the mysterious spell
which the rancho of the Blessed Trinity
appeared to have cast over his spirits
and had placed material distance be
tween himself and its gloomy towers.
The landscape, which had hitherto seemed
monotonous and uninspiring, now be
came suggestive; in the low, dome-shaped
hills beyond, that were huddled together
like half-blown earth bubbles raised by
the fiery breath OF some long-dead vol
cano, he fancied he saw the origin of the
Mission architecture. In the long sweep
of the level plain, he recognized the
calm, uneventful life that had left its ex-
preston in the patient gravity of the
people. In the fierce, restless wind that
blew over it-a wind 50 persistent and
perpetual that all umbrage, except mar
row fringe of dwarfed willows defining
the line of an extinct water course, was
hidden in sheltered canons and the lee
ward slopes of the hills--he recognized
something of his own restless race, and
no longer wondered at the barrenness of
the life that was turned toward the
invader. 81 dare say" he muttered to
himself, somewhere in the leeward of
these peoples natures may exist luXu-
rious growth that we shall never know.
| wonder if the donna has not''-but
here he stopped, angry, and, if the truth
must be told, little frightened st the
persisteney with which Donna Dolres
obtruded herself into his abstract philos-
ophy and sentiment.
Possibly something else caused him for
the moment to dismiss her from his mind.
During his rapid walk he had noticed, as
an accidental, and by no means an essen
tial feature of the bleak landscape the
vast herds of crawling, purposeless cattle.
An entirely new and distinct impression
was now forming itself in his conscious
ness-namely, vagrant and wandering,
but were actually Obeying a certain def
mite law of attraction, and were moving
deliberately toward an equally definite
object. And that object was himself
Look where he would before, behind,
on either side-north, east, south, west
to the black hill-tops, on the slope of the
falda, across the dried up arroyo, there
were the same converging lines of slowly
moving objects toward o single focus
himself! Although walking briskly and
with a certain defniteness of purpose, he
was apparently the only unchanging,
fixed and limited point in the now active
landscape. Everything that rose above
the dead, barren level was now moving
slowly, irresistibly, instinctively, but I'M
mistakably, toward one common center
himself! Alone and unsupported, he
was the helpless, unconscious nucleus of
a slowly gathering force, almost immeas-
urable in its immensity and power!
At first the idea was amusing and gro
tesque Then it became picturesque.
Then it became something for practical
And then--but nO!-with
the quick and unerring instincts of a
powerful will, he choked down the next
before it had time to fasten
upon or paralyze his strength. He stop
ped and turned. The rancho of the
Blessed Trinity was gonel Had it sud
denly sunk in the earth, or had-he
diyerged from his path Neither; he
had simply walked over the little eleva-
ton in the plain beside the arroyo and
corral, and had already left the rancho
two miles beheld him.
1t was not the only surprise that came
upon him suddenly like a blow between
the eyes. The same mysterious attrac-
ton had been operating in his rear, and
when he turned to rettace his steps to-
ward the Mission, he faced the staring
eyes'of one hundred bulls not fifty yards
away. As he faced them, the nearest
turned, the next rank followed their ex-
ample, the next the same, and the next,
until in the distance he could see the
repeated with military precls-
ion and sequence. With sense of re
lief, that he put aside as quickly as he
had the sense of fear, he quickened his
pace, until the nearest bull ahead broke
into a gentle trot, which was comm1ni-
Gated line by line to the cattle beyond,
until the whole herd before him undu
lated like vast, mOnOtonOus sea. he
continued on across the arroyo and past
the corral until the binding and pene-
trating cloud of dust, raised by the
plunging hoofs of the moving mass be
fore him, caused him to stop. A dull
of the plain-a sound that
at first might have been attributed to a
passing earthquake-now became so dis
tinct that he turned. Not twenty yards
behind him rose the advance wall of an
other vast, tumultuous sea of tossing
horns and undulating backs that had
been slowly following his retreat He
The nearest were 50 close upon him that
he could observe them separately. They
were neither large, powerful, vindictive,
nor ferocious. On the contrary, they
were thin, wasted, haggard, anxious
beasts, economically equipped and gotten
UP, the better to wrestle with a SIX
months drought, occasional famine, and
the incessant buffeting of the wind
wild and untamable, but their staring
ewes and nervous limbs expressed only
wonder and curiosity. And when he
ran toward them with shout, they
turned, as had the Others, file by file, and
rank by rank, and in moment were,
like the others, in full retreat. Rather,
let me sav, retreated as the Others had
for when he faced about again
to retrace his steps toward the Mission,
he fronted the bossy bucklers and mex
tricable horns of those he had driven !
only few moments ago before him.
They had availed themselves of his dl- |
version with the rear guard to return.
With the rapidity of a quick intellect |
and swift perceptions, Arthur saw at
once the resistless logic and utter hope |
lessness of his situation. The inevitable |
of all this was only ques- |
ton of time, and a very brief period. |
Would it be sufficient to enable him to !
reach the casa? No! Could he regain
the corral? Perhaps. Between it and
himself already were a thousand cattle.
Would they continue to retreat as he ad-
vanced? Possibly. But would he be
overtaken meanwhile by those in the
rear? He answered the question him
self by drawing from his waistcoat pocket
his only weapon, small "derringer,,
and taking aim at the foremost bull.
The shot took effect in the animals
shoulder, and he fell upon his knees. As
Arthur had expected, his nearer com
rades stopped and shifted at their help
less companion But, as Arthur had not
expected, the eager crowd pressing behind
overbore them and their wounded brother,
and in another instant the unfortunate
animal was PROSTATE and his life beaten
out by the trampling hoOfs of the. resist
less, blind, and eager crowd that followed
With terrible intuition that it was
foreshadowing of his own fate, Arthur
turned Yin the direction of the corral,
and ran for his very life!
A he ran he was conscious that the act