The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-10-13

CuATtCttT. -. .a,
It was curious story he had told. The
mountain world about Us was forty miles
from q railroad, and primitive enough; bui
fifteen miles deeper in the wilderness were
the true mountainous, relapsing into news
paperless barbarian. l looked down on
The broad, dark river, flowing past rel cliff
that crumbled fast under the attack OIL
hydraulic miners, rushing In gltamtn
foam over the bar, where adventurous
Major Redding and his Indians bad wash
ed out gold in 1852, and hewing for itself
year by yesr, wide gateway TO the sea,
through the limestone barriers OF the noun
tains toward the West.
Two or three days were passed IN tins
breezy summerland; but one morning !
was riding along narrow mountain trail
Ave miles or so north OF the mining village.
The ascent was steep aud long, and l took
an illustrated magazine from my saddle
bags and glanced over its contents, letting
the reins lie on my horses neck. Coming
upon wayside spring under clump Vi
jumpers dismounted, laid the magazine
down fat rock, flung the bride rein over
o bow and knelt In boyish haste for a
drink. The tiny pool was luxuriance oil
reflected leaves and bloom, giving one q
Joyous feeling merely to look int Its depth!
and the clear, cool water seemed to taste Of
spicy roots and fragrant herbs.
A few minutes later rose and the scene
had changed. A little gust Of wind was
lifting the leaves Of the magazine, giving
rapid glimpses OF faces and landscapts 8.
0nly o few feet distant, leaning forward
and peering through the evergreen boughs,
sat young girl, looking intently on the
auttering pictures. She must have been
sitting there In obscurity as rode up:
Only the upper portion Of her body could
be seen as her weight massed the thick
boughs darkly across. Her face was round,
full and fair, not noticeably freckled, the
light-colored hair was drawn back and
fastened with ribbon. She seemed about
Is or IS years old, but large and strong for
her age, and the dress she wore was OF
some coarse red material, plainly made,
with little attempt at ornament.
She was, as have eaid, looking at the
magazine with an expression Of intense
curiosity, and slowly reached out hand as
il to take Ii, crouching forward and prees.
ing back the boughs with her other hand
lIlt EtHtult LlVtGAlVat WVtV Wv fSt
lection OF unconscious grace and strength.
The thought came to me that perhaps this
mountain girl was one OF "the Guppy
family" and also the fear that she might
seize the coveted treasure and escape with
out word.
"Would you like to have 1t for your
own 2" asked, as quietly as possible.
She started and looked at me with doubt
and surprise, and settled back little fur
Their behind the branches, gloomily knit
ting her brows, and evidently making up
her mind on the subject.
"Mister, yes, would. TEENS purity
pictures"
Rising, she stepped partly out from her
setting one bare and soiled
loot on the trail, and taking the magazine
into shapely hand disfgured by long and
totally-neglected finger nails.
~ don't see sech things" she remarked,
with an explanatory air. "Pap says it's
al truck. toll him once ter fetch me
book with pictures But he never did"
"Your father is Mr.. Guppv?"
''They don't call him that. TIA 'Or
iupp, most like, an 'Hog.driver Gupp.'
They don't put handles on names round
here"
"How far is It to where your parents
ive?"
"lt's a good ten mile, stranger, an a
mighty rough trail"
Il should think your mother would feel
uneasy about you sometimes II you go 80
lar from camp"
She laughed, shrugged her shapely Shout
1ers, set her arms akimbo, and stepped
Iairly out into the path.
"The OF womanP She wouldn't mind ei
she didn't see me for week at a time III
she had terbacca ter smoke, an coffee ter
drink, and Bob ter keep wood for her fire.
Nam says ken whip my weight in Wild
cats, an needn't be afraid OF anything in
The mountains"
As she turned in addressing me, now
noticed that she carried well-worn army
revolver hanging in buckskin thong at
her waist. A large, ill.favored deerhound
came sliding and creeping out Of the under
brush that thickly clothed the hillside,
and displayed some symptoms Of early hos
tilities.
"You Jakew cried the girl, and catching
up a fragment Of rock, speedily reduced
him into abject submission, and he crouch
ed at her feet. Evidently this young woman
could take care OF herself.
Faint but clear, floating down from far
up the brush covered mountain, came
wild call, sweet, deep and strange beyond
the power OF language TO describe. The
girl started, listened and replied in the
same rich, weird and far reaching strain.
her chest hea wing, her throat swelling, her
eyes fishing, her figure poised aud trem-
bling with picturesque awakening.
"That's my sister. She waits me. I'm
goin'."
hunted in my saddle-bags and found
another illustrated magazine for her. She
with q Thank ye,, mister" and
slipped into the chsparral and under
growth that lined the roadside. The hound
and l heard the rattle Of the slaty
pebbles under their feet as they climbed,
but the bushes grew too closely to allow
even glimpse OF her red dress. Occasion
ally tremulous culver in the boughs, as
she caught hold Of them to assist her as.
cent, showed her sinuous course as she
treaded her way onward. Hallway up
the mountain there must have been more
open spaces, for, looking back as rode on,
l caught glimpses oil her climbing over pro.
jecting masses Of rock. "0ld Guppy's
daughter had returned to her wilderness"
! Thought Of the two girls sitting beneath
the pines that clothed the summit Of that
barrier which overlooked three
and revealed wide region from
the peaks Of Shasta and Lessen to the red
wood belt OF Misunderstanding on that
vast and lonely height and trying to under
stand the strange new work dimly reveal
ed in the pictures and articles OF the maya.
zines had given them. AS l rode on Tor
hours without encountering any human
being, the sense Of their isolation grew
stronger and stronger. They seemed lost
in the frs aud pines like children ship-
wrecked in mid Atlantic.
Nervous, dyspeptIc individuals, whose dis.
tress OF lind and body make lie miserable,
II your uffsrings have been prolonged and In
creased by use Of bitters and pretended cures
n D. 4.