Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-06-22

| scene Oi eN cltenent ensueu Ouly equdlleu
by the one which followed on the shooting
Of "the Judge" by Little Jack" over a
game of poker, in that very bar-room of the
! Grand Hotel.
"Mought ak your name, ma'am 7' in
qulred Mrs. Sharpe.
"Marian Kingsley" was the faint reply.
"Miss or Mrs, ma'am P'' pursued Mrs.
Sharpe, glancing at the shapely, white,
ringless hands.
The stranger gave a slight impatient
twitcb. at doesn't matter" she said. "Call
me Marian. That will do as well as any
thing"
Mrs. Sharpe was Il washed-out woman.
Many of the natural and laudable instincts
remained, perhaps being fast colors; but a
horror of the class TO which she now sup
posed Marian TO belong was one which had
faded out of her nature. She gave slight
supercilious look, which fell upon the wo-
man like moonlight on ice, and pursued
her inquiries.
"Came from 'FriscO7"
"I came through there. didn't see any
thing of the place."
"Whar did yer come from?"
"Phlladelphia." The tone was changed.
She evidently felt the impalpable rudeness
of the faded woman, and knew how TO re-
sent it in The same way. More couversa-
ton ensued, in the course of which Mrs.
Sharpe discovered that Marian had a little
money-enough 10 pay her board for few
months-and that she came there TO find
"James Courtney Wilmer"
Mrs. Sharpe bad information 10 give as
well as TO take, for she knew something OF
| Jim.
I'VE called him JIM" she said, little
scornfully. "He didn't git no 'courtng'
| from we."
Poor Marian gave faint smile. "Thero
might be other James Winners" she said.
al wanted to lie sure"
Mrs. Sharpe didn't think this could he
the one.
Hes rough, ragged creetur," she said,
lands had the snakes fur weeks at
time"
Marian shrank aud covered at this, with
piIiful look of pain on her beautiful face.
"Hed money left him ?" asked Mrs.
Sharpe.
Marian nodded.
"'Twont do him no good. Soon as he
hears Of it, he'll drink himself into the
snakes. Alters did when they struck
good lead on the Banderita. Circus Jack,
he loses all hisn's at poker so thar they
go."
In the course Of an hour Circus Jack,
scrubbed and "hxed up TO degree which
made him almost unacceptable by his
comrades, appeared, escorted by Scotty, al
SO prepared by a choice toilet 10 enter the
presence OF ''the ladies'"
"'Scuse my not comm afore," said Scot
ty. "Hosses must be tended TO, and them
of mine wus about dead beat"
Marian smiled graciously, If absently,
ant turned her clear, hazel eyes to Circus
Jack, who, with many excuses, circum-
locutions, and profane epithets, most of
which he apologized for instantly, and some
of which he was evidently unconscious Of,
gave her all the information in his power
in regard to the man she had come TO find.
No one in Mariposa knew him better.
As Jim be was almost an integral part OF
the city of "Butterties." The butterflies,
by the by, for which the town is named,
are not those which soar in the air, but
"Msriposas," fastened by long, tough
flaments TO the ground.
Many a night had Jim Wilmer crushed
his swollen face into them, and slept
drunk en- sleep with their soft wings folded
sorrowfully above him.
There was something of 4 mystery hung
about him, which the "boys" had never
been able TO fathom. Some said that lie
belonged to a wealthy and aristocraic fam
lily, and had LEFT home and become a wan
derer and an outcast, because some beauti-
full woman had Tilted him others said that
he had a wife and children, that he had brok-
en- his welded faith and his wife's heart at
the same time, and that grim phantom
followed him wherever he went, aud gave
him no peace. Others told yet another
story that he had been engaged to a beau
tiful girl and had loved her and trusted
her above telling that his wedding day
was near when he had stumbled upon some
miserable secret which was dead and bur-
led, but could not rest in its grave; that
there was no room len for doubt, which is
someti mes blessed, and he had fled with
out word disappeared and left TO her
her own wretched heart the task of telling
her the reason why.
If any of the stories were true, and she
loved poor Jim, he told her enough to
wiring her heart and haunt her dreams for
ever.~
The winter that he spent in the hollow Of
great pine tree, on the rim of Yosemite
valley, was perhaps his happest and most
peaceful. Every Yosemite tourist stops TO
peep inside this tree, and 10 wonder III
man really lived there. ''It was comforta-
BILE enough" says the hale old pioneer of
the valley below. "He had plenty of room.
We both slept in 1t one night"
When Circus Jack told Marian the story
1t was fresher and less wonderful than
now.
"Was the snow very deep2" she said.
"Was there no danger of his freezing to
death %
81 never hoarR much about it anyhow"
said Circus Jack, "'cept thet he lived thar
alone cuttin' shingles. 1 'spect the snow
was bout four or five feet deep up thar whar
he lived. He's close-moulhed one, tell
yer. Never git nothin' outer him, an when
he's drunk be don't tell nothing whstsom-
everr'
This with glance half plying, half re-
assuring, as though he would promise her
that the secret, whatever it might be, was
safe.
One comforting doubt beat at the wo-
mans heart all the while that Jack was
talking. "Perhaps this was not the oneW
She mentioned this at length, and asked
Jack what his quondam "partner" was
like.
"He was a slght.bullt feller, rayther
| light-complected," was the reply. "An'