Litchfield enquirer., 1878-11-28
forearm whicl you have. seel

thing boy can.
 Apprehension took the place of ill-humor in her nearer. He turned his eyes hastily away and glanced above him. The elder guide had gone forward to catch Miss Alice's horse, which, relieved of his rider, was foundering toward the trail. Mrs. Rightbody was mo- where to be seen. And these two were still twenty feet below the trail
 There was an awkward pause. queried.
 Miss Alice looked at his nose, and hesitat- ed.
 tOr will you take my hand 2' he added, in surly impatience
 To- hls surprise, Miss Alice took his hand. and they began the ascent together.
 But the way was difficult and dangerous Once or twice her feet slipped on the smooth ly worn rock beneath, and she confessed to an inward thankfulness when her uncertain femi- nine hand-grip was exchanged for his strong arm around her waist. Not that he was un- gentle, but Miss Alice angrily felt that he had once or twice exercised his superior masculine functions in a rough way and yet the next moment she would have probably rejected the idea that she had even noticed it. There was no doubt, however, that he ecGs little surly
 A fierce scramble finally brought them back in safety to the trail but in the action, Miss Alice's shoulder, striking prjecting powder, wrung from her feminine cry of pain, her first. sign of womanly weakness The guide stopped instantly.
 q am afraid hurt you? p
 She raised her brown lashes, trife moist from suffering, looked in his eyes, and drop ped her own. Why she could not tell. And yet he had certainly kind face, despite it's seriousness and a fine face, albeit unshorn and weather beaten. Her own eyes had never been so near to any mans before, save her lovers; and yet she had never seen so much in even his. She slipped her hand away, not with any reference to him, but rather to pom der over this singular experience, and somehow felt uncomfortable thereat.
 Nor was he less so. It was but few days ago that he had accepted the charge of this young woman from the elder guide who was the recognized escort of the Rightbody party, having been a former correspondent of her | fathers. He had been hired like any other | guide, but had undertaken the task with that chivalrous enthusiasm which the aveEageu Cal | ifornian always extends to the se3 30 rare S6 him. But the illusion had passed ,And he had dropped into sulky practical sensecob higSRk- uation, perhaps fraught with less Sdapgento himself. Only when appealed to by his man hood or her weakness, he had forgotten his wounded vanity. r"I
 He strode moodily ahead, dutifully breaking the path for her in the direction of the distant canon, where Mrs. Rightbody and her friend awaited them. Miss Alice was first to speak In this trackless, unchartered terra i'scognStG of the passions, it is always the woman who steps out to lead the way.
 l "You know this place very well. suppose you have lived here long ?" "Yes" -... l 'You were not born here-no ?" A long pause.
 1T observe they call you 'Stanislaus Joe.' l Of course that is not your real name" (Mem. I Miss Alice had never called him GTlytltng, usually prefacing any request with languid "O-er-er, please, mister-er-a!' explicit enough for his station) | "NO"
 Miss Alice (trotting after him, and bawling l in his earl: "Wh0t name did you say ?"
 The man (doggedly) 'I don't know" Nevertheless when they reached the cabin, l after half hours buffeting with the storm, 1 Miss Alice applied herself to her mothers es- cort, MT. Ryder.
 Whats the name of the man who takes care of my horse?"
 "Stanislaus Joe" :" responded Ryder. ''No; sometimes he's called Joe Stanislaus." s'Is that all?" -...
 Miss Alice (satirically) q suppose it's the custom here to send young ladies cut with gentlemen who hide their names under an | 0IiGs ?' MT. Ryder (greatly perplexed): ''Why, dear me, Miss Alice, you alters peared to me as gal as was able to take keer--" Miss Alice Gnterrupting with wounded, dove-lke timidity): "Oh, never mind, please !"
 The cabin offered but scanty accommOda- i ti0n to the tourists, which fact, when indig- nantly presentled by Mrs. Rightbody, was ex- I plained by the good-humored Ryder from the | circumstance that the Casual Hotel was only slight affair of boards, cloth, and paper, put up during the season, and partly dismantled in | the fall. ''It couldn't be kept warm enough I then," he added. Nevertheless, Miss Alice l noticed that both Mir. Ryder and Stanilaus Joe retired there with their pipes, after having prepared the ladies' supper with the assistance of an Indian woman, who apparently emerged from the earth at the coming of the party, and disappeared as mystericusly.
 The stars came out brightly before they slept, and the next morning clear unwink- ing sun beamed with almost summer power through the shutterless window of their cabin, and ironically disclosed the details of it's rude interior. Two or three mangy, half eaten buffalo robes, a bear skin, some suspicious looking blankets, rifles and saddles, deal ta- bles and barrels, made up it's scant inventory. A strip of faded calico hung before recess near the chimney, but so blackened by smoke | and age, that even feminine curiosity respect l its secret. Mrs. Rlghtbody was in high spirits and informed her daughter that she was at last on the track of her husbands unknown correspondent.
 Seventy Four and 'Seventy-Five,' rep l resent tive members of the Vigilance Commit tee, my dear, and MT. Ryder will assist me to find them"
 'Mr Ryder l" ejaculated Miss Alice, in scornful astonishment.
 "Alice," said Mrs. Rightbody, with sus- picious assumption of sudden defense, ''you injure yourself-you injure me by this exclu- sive attitude. MT. Ryder is friend of your fathers, an exceedingly well-informed gentle man. Ihave not, of course, imparted to him the extent of my suspicious. But he can help me to what I must and will know. You must treat him little more civilly,-or, at least a little better than you do his servant, your guide. Mir. Ryder is a gentleman, and not paid courier "
 Miss Alice was suddenly attentive When she spoke again, she asked: 'Why do you not find something about this Silsbee-who died-or was hanged-0r some- thing of that kind?'
 '"Child," said Mrs. Rightbody, 'don't you | see, there was no Silsbee, or if there was, he | was simply the cOnfdant of that--woman I" A knock at the door, announcing the pres ence of MT. Ryder and Stanislaus Joe with the horses, checked Mrs. Rightbody'O speech As the animals were being packed, Mrs. l Rightbody for moment withdrew in confiden- tiaI conversation with MT. Ryder, and, to the young lady's still greater annoyance, left her l alone with Stanislaus Joe. Miss Alice was not in good temper, but she felt it n cessary to say something.
 'I hope the hotel offers better quarters for travellers than this in summer" she began
 ssIt does' f'
 ''Then this docs not belong to it ?" sNo, ma 'am." .... <
 "Who lives here, then9"
 II do." pz
 q beg your pardon" stammered Miss AL ice; '1 thought you lived where we hired where we met -in-in-you must excuse me-"
 'I'm not regular guide, but as times were hard, and 1 was out of grub, took the job" Out of grub l" p And she was the 'jObm What would Henry Marin say Pit would nearly kill him. She began herself to