The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-04-01
She, h~esitating. seemed to be pursu-

on watch all night long. The poachers
come after your game. you know; one
must protect it. Well, / wanted to
speak to someone"
Sand why to me more than to anoth-
err" said he, moved a little.
81 don't know. You are nearly OF
the same age as l am; you are hand
some. and you look kind. l thought
you would not laugh at me-"
She had begun to walk on. Royal
followed her and they took the road to
the manor.
The bar of dead gold had faded away;
night was coming on; the stars were
shining, like cleaning points, n by
one against the blue. At the edge of a
field the clearing stopped.
"Good night" said Sylvia.
Royal fingered. This encounter to
him was like a dream and had a dream
like charm. 1t was the poetry, dimly
apprehended in hours of silent study,
that had taken sudden and tangible
shape. But the lights from the house
yonder showed through the gloom, and
he could tarry no longer.
"Good night" he said, regretfully.
"You will come back?" asked Sylvia,
the softness of a woman's intonation in
her child's voice.
Yes"
She made a parting gesture with her
hand. stepped back and abruptly SEEM
ed to vanish. an impalpable form, in the
shadows. 1t was as though her recent
presence had only been a vision of his
overwrought imagination.
'Sylv1a!" he called aloud.
Eyes" said her voice, and dimly
through the dusk he saw her white face
turned toward him.
"Good-night,'' he said again, reas-
sured.
"Good-night,' came the answer soft
ly from the depths of the transparent
darkness, and the last syllable seemed
to die away in tremulous vibrations into
the echoing distance.
Every night the twilight and the still
ness fell over the forest a little earlier.
for the summer days were shortening
into autumn. And every night, a little
earlier than the last appointed hour,
Royal met Sylvia on the border of the
woods.
Great friends had they grown. The
pedantic superiority, on his side, of one
on the verge of early manhood, the
half-savage e%lusiveness of the girl, only
served to keep life between them a tan
talizing d~issension that drew them, by
the very force of opposites, irresistibly
one toward the other.
All dow po-, o.4 H. c1J-
and the woods, but when evening came
a pathway traced through the under
growth by his feet brought him always
to the same spot.
AS he approached a curious emotion
would seize him, a mixture of Joy and
of foreboding. II she should not be
there!
But he always found her half con-
cealed by the tall grass, waiting for
him, silently turning her smiling face
toward the forest, and a sort of shame
would take possession of him for the
weakness of his fear. And then he
would sit down beside her, and he
would talk while she listened.
For this curious girl found few words
with which to clothe the thoughts in
her soul. Her eyes alone could speak
for her. And the dark velvet-like soft
ness of her gaze-that somehow made
him think of the dusky depth of the
forest itself, as though she had been an
incarnation of it-lingering on his one
night made him exclaim:
'Do you know that L love your
1t seemed to him that the sun was
later this particular evening. In
reality, he had come earlier than ever
before.
She smiled, though still without
speaking.
Your eyes, and all your whole per-
son." Royal went on, his eyes gliding
over the delicate oval of her face, her
round neck. her slim waist. s.You
are beautiful"
Sylvia continued to smile and to look
at him.
A sudden ardent desire rose, irresist-
ible from Royals heart to his mouth.
He bent toward the girl, but she, start
ed by the new look in his eyes, sprang
to her feet.
.'You are not going yet?" he said,
stretched idly upon the dry warm
ground.
"Come. 1 have something to show
you"
He took up his gun and followed her.
he would have followed her anywhere
and everywhere.
After a minutes walk the girl stop
ped at a rock which, abruptly, sank in
to a limpid stream.
'.See how beautiful it is" she said.
1t was the first time ROYAL had ever
been there. The cool freshness of the
water and the silvery verdure
of the ove-hanging willows seemed to
calm his sudden inexplicable emotion.
Sylvia had thrown herself down upon
the rock, and he went and sat beside
her.
A little stream of water sprang from
the stone and fell into a small basin
which Nature had followed for it be-
the tree trunks. In the bottom
of this hollow were two or three open
which, bubbling up joyfully,
went to feed a dancing brook.
The basin was not deep; o man
would have stood in it no higher than
MS knees. But the ivy and other cling
vines which covered the stones as