Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-29


the instructive jealousy Of bucollc IN
land race born by great rivers, she did not
ike the sea; and again the dim and drea-
~ waste tended to recall the vision con-
nected with her husbands flight, upon
which she had resOutely shut her eyes.
But when she had reached it the road sud-
denly turned, following the trend OF the
beach, and she was exposed to the full
power Of its dread destinations. The COM
bined roar of sea and shore was IN
her ears; as the direct force Of the gale
had compelled her to furl the protecting
hood Of the buggy to keep the light vehi-
Gle from Oversetting or drifting to lee
ward, she could no longer shut out the
heaving chaos on the right from which
the pallid ghosts of dead and dying break
ers dimly rose and sank as if in awful sal
utation. At times through the darkness
a white sheet appeared spread before the
path and beneath the wheels Of the bug
gy, which, when withdrawn with a re-
luctant hiss, seemed striving to drag the
exhausted beach seaward with it. But
the blind terror of her horse, who swerved
at every sweep OF the surge, shamed her
own half-superstiti0us fears, and with the
effort to control his alarm she regained
her own f-pOssession-albeit with eye
lashes wet, not altogether with the salt
spray from the sea. This was followed by
a reaction, perhaps stimulated by her VIC
tory over the beaten animal, when for a
time-she knew not how long-she felt
only a mad sense of freedom and power.
( oblivious of even her sorrows, her lost
home and husband; and with intense
feminine consciousness she longed to be a
man. She was scarcely aware that the
track turned again inland until the beat
of the horses hoofs on the firm ground
and an acceieratiOn of speed showed her
she had left the beach and the mysterious
sea behind her, and she remembered that
she was near the end of the first stage of
her journey. Half an hour later the
twinkling lights of the roadside inn where
she was to change horses rose out of the
darkness.
Happily for her the hostler considered
the horse, who had local reputation, Of
more Importance than the unknown
mutfled figure in the shadow of the I'M
furled hood, and confined his attention to
the animal. After careful examination
of his feet and a few comments addressed
solely to the superior creation, he led him
away. Mrs. Tucker would have liked to
part more atfectionately from her four
footed compatriot, and felt a sudden sense
of loneliness at the loss Of her new friend,
but recollection of certain cautions of
Captain PoindeXter's kept her mute. New
ertheless, the hostler's ostentatious adju-
ration of Snow, then, aren't you going to
bring out that mustang for the Sonora ~
puzzled her. 1t was not until the fresh
horse was put to, and she had flung piece
Of gold into the attendants hand, that
the "GrdcidS" of his unmistakable Saxon
speech revealed to her the reason of the
lawyers caution. PoindeXter had evil
IDENTIFY represented her to these people as
a native Californian who did not speak
English. Inner inconsistency her blood
took fire at this first suggestion of de-
aosF o,,1 I'd IN or. 70 oh
he try to pass her off as anybody else?
Why should she not use her own-her
husbands name? She stopped and bit her
lip.
1t was but the beginning of an uneasy
train of thought. She suddenly found
herself thinking of her visitor, Calhoun
Weaver-and not pleasantly. He would
hear of their ruin tomorrow perhaps other
own flight. He would remember his visit,
and what would he think of her deceitful
frivolity? Would he believe that she was
then ignorant of the failure? 1t was her
first sense of any accountability to others
than herself, but even then it was rather
owing to an uneasy consciousness of what
her husband must feel if he were subject
ed to the criticisms of men like Calhoun.
She wondered if others knew that he had
kept her in ignorance of his fight. Did
Poindexter know it--or had he only en-
trapped her into the admission? Why had
she not been clever enough to make him
think that she knew it already? For the
moment she hated Poindexter for sharing
that secret. Yet this was again followed
by a new Impotence of her husbands
want of insight into her ability to help
him. OF course the poor fellow could not
bear to worry her-c0uld not bear to face
such men as Calhoun-Or even POindeXter
Il she added eXultingly to HERSELF but he
might have sent her line as he fed, only
to prepare her to meet and combat the
shame alone. 1t did not occur to her UNI
sophisticated singleness of nature that she
was accepting as an error of feeling what
the world would call cowardlY selfish
! ness.
At midnight the storm lulled and few
! stars trembled through the rent clouds.
Her eyes had become accustomed to the
darkness, and her country instincts, lit
tie overlaid by the urban experiences of
the last few years, came again to the sur
face. She felt the fresh cool radiation from
outlying upturned fields, the faint, sad
odors from dim stretches of pricking
grain, and quickening leaf, and wondered
if at Los Cuervos it might be possible to
reproduce the peculiar Yerdure of her ma
tive district. She beguiled her fancy by
an ambitious plan of retrieving their for
tunes by farming; her comfortable tastes
had lately rebelled against the homeless
4
but teeming Californian acres, and for a
moment INDUCED in vision of vine
| clad cottage home that in any other wO-
man would have been sentimental. Her
cramped limbs aching, she took advantage
| of the security of the darkness and the
! familiar contiguity of the fields to get
| down from the vehicle, gather her skirts
| together, and run at the head of the mus
tang, until her chill blood was thawed,
night drawing a modest veil over this
! charming revelation of the nymph and
woman. But the sudden shadow of a
| cOgOte checked the securing feet of this
| swift Camilla, and sent her back pre-
cipitately to the buggy. Nevertheless
| she was refreshed and able to pursue her
! journey, until the cold grey of early morn
/ ing found her at the end of her second
stage.
Her route was changed again from the
main highway, rendered dangerous by the
approach of day and the cOntiguity of the
neighboring Tdncber0S. The road was
rough and billy, her new horse and We
/ hicle in keeping with the rudeness OF the
route-by far the most difficult of her
whole Journey. The rare wagon tracks
| that indicated her road were often scarce
| ly discernible; at times they led her
through openings in the half-cleared
woods, skirted suspicious fn0rasses,
| painfully climbed the smooth dome-like
hills, or wound along perilous slopes at a
| dangerous angle. Twice she had to alight
and cling to the sliding wheels on one of
those treacherous inclines, or drag them
from impending ruts or immovable mire.
4 In the growing light she could distinguish
the distant low-lying marshes eaten by en-
croaching sloughs and insidious channels,
and beyond them the faint gray
waste of the Lower Bay. A darker penin-
sula in the marsh she knew to be the ex-
IRENE boundary of her future home-the
| Rancho de los CueryOs. In another hour
! she began TO descend to the plain. and to
once more approach the main road, which
now ran nearly parallel with her track.
She scanned it cautiously for any early
/ traveller; it stretched north and south in
| apparent amending solitude. She struck
! into it boldly, and urged her horse to the
| top of his speed, until she reached the
cross road that led to the rancho. But
| here she paused and allowed the reins to
| drop idly on the mustangs back. A singu-
lar and unaccountable irresolution seized
| her. The difficulties of her journey were
over; the rancho lay scarcely two miles
/ away; she had achieved the most impor-
tant part of her task in the appointed
/ time. but she hesitated. What had she
| come for? EShe tried to recall POindex-
! ter's words, even her own enthusiasm, but
| in vain. She was going to take possession
/ of her husbands property, she knew
that was all. But the means she had
taken seemed now so exaggerated and