The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-05-22

4 suddenly unuer uneNpcttei ciTNuHiS'ahre'
aid generally that doubt remains until dis
!. PEELED by certain recognition and indentifica
. ton. SO did mine then as to the identity OF
, the person before me
THAT gal means bizness," | heard one man
whisper TO another, Put her III tight
place, and she'd shoot"
noticed that Broener was regarding her
as attentively as l. He heard the remark
mentioned above and smiled, saying
"Rough diamonds One as character
reader in the house, and one-a brilliant on
the stage"
looked for her name in the cast on the
roughly printed programme. 1t read:
Miss II. Brown"
The stage was not moro than twenty feet
In width. Once she stood 80 near the box
could have reached forth and touched her.
Height, contour, bearing-an resembled
those Of Blanche Seton. But as to the face,
that was so 'made up" as TO leave mo In
doubt Once her eyes ranged across the box
where sat They were Blanche Seton
eyes, but there was no recognition in their
expression. Physically they looked at me
otherwise they seemed no moro to see me
than would those Of wax figure.
The play was over. The curtain fell. The
audience struggled in a congested state for
exit from the one narrow front entrance.
Broener turned in the opposite direction to
ward a door leading to the stage, saying: II
| have an old friend in the company and am
going behind the scenes Good night"
He had gone I would go to the stage
door in the rear, and in some way solve my
doubts. But | was impeded by the crowd.
A wretched fracas, between two armed
inebriates, had developed directly in front of
the Opera house" and the lingering mass,
nothing 10th to see blood shed, cluttered up
the passageway and sidewalk.
Freeing myself from them at last I sought
the stage door A high board fence ran
from the middle of the rear Of the theatre,
which in reality was but the wing of another
house. got on the wrong side of the fence,
ran back and was obliged to pass out again
in front Of the theatre. At last | stood by
the door ! sought. Two ladies and their
escort passed ont. She certainly was not
of them The third and last closely yelled,
finally came, and accompanying her was
Broener'
or course, my friend, you would have stayed
in camp that night, and found out ''some-
how whether the girl was Blanche Seton or
not. / didn't Had not seen the lady with
Broener might have so done. But his pres
ence put such a complexion on the matter.
that of the two situations preferred to be
in doubt as to Blanche's identity to finding
her thus with Broener, whom of course l
pictured as the dangerous rival, as certainly
he was in almost any case.
Besides there were imperative interests at
Scrub mountain to be looked after imme-
diately. Broener expected me to get the
quartz out of the caches down to the cabin
as soon as possible He had given me di-
rections how to find them, and despite his
repulson of everything from me of graft
tude | felt under too much obligation to
him to neglect anything bearing on his
interests.
But the stars on the now long sixteen-mile
ride homeward had lost their subimity for
me. Ny brain was in ferment of con ec-
tire. Was it Blanche Seton? and if so, why
was Broener with her, He had gone behind
the scenes to see al "old friend" Blanche
was a mysterious girl. She had passed much
of her time away from home and in New
York, having frequent access thereunto by
her fathers sloop. She had a way Of coming
and going and locating herself about where
she pleased with that matter-of-course, arI-
thoritative air which half stihed gossip and
enabled her to do what other girls dared not
and could not. People said, "Oh, it's Blanche's
way Certainly it was, and whom might
she have met and known, unknown to all
PASSPORT, in these ways.
Half-past three o'clock and the morning
had dawned as / drew rein on the hill and
looked down on Bull Bar, half mile below
me. The river, shrunk by the summer
drought, ran a mere thread with faint muir
mur over rock and rifle. Log cabin and tent
lay there silent in the cool shadow Of early
dawn. One mountain top, full thirty miles
away, had caught the suns heraldng ray for
the ,lay. But down there rocker and long
tom, pick and pan, crowbar and shovel were
flung where last the weary workers left them,
and the five hundred stalwart men, soon to
renew their battle with hill, bank and stream,
were still in the Inconsistencies of slumber
alive. breathing, it is true, but dead to the
world their bodies were in--dead to all
hope or fear or any of the varied emotions
which would so soon he in full play when the
smoke commenced circling from those rude
chimneys.
Two or three moving figures were seen on
the river tank-watchers of the night
guarding against any sudden rise of the
stream liable through the breaking of dams
above and letting down the vast body Of
"backwater,' fluid avalanche which would
sweep before 1t like chaf mans frail con-
structions
reused Mr.. Rankin and returned him his
horse which he put in the stable with the
remark that yesterday was probably his
benevolent day, which would account for
my return alive. But the next man dies" lie
addel
Broener returned late in the day. What
different man was he to me from yester
day, Despite the uncertainty regarding
Blanche sympathized now with the Moor's
ruling passion Jealous' Yes, and jealous
of Broencr. All of him that had previously
attracted me were now as so many weapons
turned against me-brilliant weapons, too,
and used by skilled hand.
He noticed the change in me- cannot say
in my manner. had rather state it that he
| felt a change-somethng between us-com-
| ing through those fine interior senses which
feel, and sense thoughts, as the outer ones do
material things.
"You seem out of sorts, he said.
/ laid it to a headache-that convenient
beast of burden, which bears so many lies!
Young man. said he that evening, were
| yOu ever i'll lover
| ~ e,,rDn.a Gu ~ renlial HThey say its