Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-09

| ing before her was in spring cerulean with
| lupins, and later starred with mariposas
| The meadow was transversely crossed by
q crrrving line OF alders that indicated u
rare watercourse, of which in the dry
season only single pool remained to
flash back the unvarying sky. There had
been no attempt at cultivation of this
broad expanse; wild oats, mustard and
rank grasses left it tossing sea of turbu-
lent and varigated color, whose waves
rode high enough to engult horse and
rider in their choking depths. Even the
| traces of human struggle, the uprooted
| stakes, scattered fence rails, and empty
| post were forever hidden under
| these pillows of yerdure. Midway of the
| field and near the watercourse arose Nc
| Kinstry IS barn-the solitary human struc-
ture- whose rrde, misshapen, bullying
1 sides and swallow haunted caves bursting
with hay from the neighboring pasture,
| seemed, however, only an extravagant
| growth of the prolific soil. Mrs. McKins-
| try gazed at it anXiousiy. There was no
| sign of life or movement near or around
| it; it stood as it had always stood, de-
| serted and solitary. But turning her
eyes to the right, beyond the watercourse,
| she could see slight regular undulation
| of the grassy sea and what appeared to be
| the drifting on its surface of half a dozen
| slouched hats in the direction of the
| alders. There was no longer any doubt;
a party from the other side was approach
| ing the border.
A shout and the quick galloping of
| hoofS behind her sent thrill of relief to
her heart. She had barely time to draw
aside as her husband and his followers
swept past her down the slope But it
la1 r,,r ~;
sons hev sold us out - to tell her that the
crisis had come.
She held her breath as the cavalcade
diverged, and in open order furiously ap-
preached the water course and she could
see sudden check and hesitation in the
movement in the meadow at that I'M
lOoked-for onset. Then she thought of
the barn. 1t would be rallying point
for them If driven back-a tower OF de-
fence if besieged. There were arms
secreted beneath the hay for such all
emergency. She would run there, swing
10 its open doors, and get ready TO barri-
ade them.
She ran erouchingly, seeking the higher
grasses and brambes of the ridge to es-
ape observation from the meadow anti
she could descend upon the barn from the
rear. She threw aside her impeding
shawl; her brown holland sun bonnet torn
off her head and hanging by its strings
from her shoulders, let her coarse silver
threaded hair stream like name over
her back; her face and hands were bleed
ing from thorns and whitened by dust
But she struggled on fiercely like some
hunted animal until she reached the de-
scending trail, when, letting herself 60
hlindly, only withheld by the long grasses
she clutched at wildly on either side, she
half fell, half stumbled down the slope
and emerged beside the barn, brenthless
ana exhausted.
Bat What a contrast was there! For
an instant she could scarcely believe she
had left the ridge with hor husband s
savage ontcry IN her ears, and in her eyes
the swift vision OF his furious cavalcade.
The boundary meadow was hidden by the
soft lines of graceful willows in whose
dim recesses the figures OF the passionate
hOrsemen seemed to have melted forever.
There was nothing now to interrupt the
long vista OF peaceful beauty that
stretched before her through this lonely
hollow to the distant sleeping hills. The
bursting barn i'll the foreground, heaped
with grain that fringed its caves and
bristled from its windows and doors until
its unlovely bulk was hidded in trailing
feathery outlines; the gentle tlutter of
wings and shooting twitter of swallows
ana jays around its open rafters, and the
drifting shadows OF a few circling crows
above it; the drowsy song of bees on the
wild mustard that half hid its walls with
yellow bloom; the sound of family trick
ling water in one of those old Indian
haunted springs that had given its name
to the locality; all these for an instant
touched the senses of this hard fierce wo-
man as she had not been touched since
she was girl. For one brief moment
the joys of peace and that matured re-
pose that never had been hers, flashed
upon her; but with it came the savage
consciousness that even now it was being
wrested away, and the thought fired her
blood again. She listened eagerly for Il
second in the direction of the meadow:
there was no report of iirearms-there
was yet time to prepare the barn for de-
fence. She ran TO the front of the build
ing and seized the latch of the half closed
door. a little feminine cry that was half |
laugh came from within, with the
rapid rustic of skirt, and as the door
swung open light figure vanished |!
through the rear window. The slanting |
sunlight falling in the Swallowed interior
disclosed only the single, erect figure of |
the schoolmaster-.Iohn Ford.
The first confusion and embarrassment |
of an interrupted rendezvous that had |
colored Ford's cheeks, gave way to n |
look of alarm as he caught sight of the |
bleeding face and dishevelled figure of |
Mrs. McKinstry. She saw it. To her |
distorted fancy it seemed only proof of |
deeper guilt. Without word she closed |
the heavy door behind her and swung the |
huge cross-bar unaided to its place. She |
then turned and confronted him, wiping |
the dust from her face and arms with her
torn and dangling sunbonnet in way
that recalled her attitude on the first day |
he had met her.
"'That was Cress with ye?' she
said.
He hesitated, still gazing at her in
wonder.
''Don It lie.''
He started. al don It propose to >, - he
retorted Indignantly. s'lt WAS
81 don It ask yer how long this yer's
bid goin on she said, pointing to |
Cressy's sun-bonnet, few books and a
scattered nosegay of wild flowers lying on
the hay; "and don't want to know. In
five minutes either her father will be |
here, or them hell-hounds of Harrison IS
who we sold him out will swarm round
this barn to git possesshun. Eff this
yer-'' she again Dointed centemptlous-