The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-23
Through Gates Of Gold.
From All the Year Round.
CHAPTER T.


cult to have attained to any such indulgence
OF body and mind. For there was little left to
urink still less to eat; while desperate
anxiety darkeped every face, and the shadow
of death doomed close at hand. Yet, black as
matters looked, with hundreds of Indians
Infatuated with blood-thrst closing them in on
all sides, with only dozen men 10 hold the
fort and protect the two women shut up there
with them, with ammunition running short,
with food and water distributed on principles
Of the strictest economy, with o blazing sun
overhead TO add to the torture of the long hours
with their ceaseless dread and expectation,
with no prospect but death at the hands of a
cruel, merciless foe; yet The Lady Betty was
not swearing at the present conditions Of her
existence, but at thc'one other woman shut up
with her in that besiegcd fort.
1t would have been difficult to say, looking
at her now as she stood within the stockade,
drawn back into the doorway of one of the
buildings to avoid meeting the other woman
who had just passed by, why she had ever
gained the title of 1.-THE Lady Betty" The
usual tawdry finery with which she delighted
TO adorn herself was faded, torn and dirty, there
being no opportunities in that doomed, out-of-
the-world fort, peopled only by that handful of
desperate men, for repairing deficiencies of
toilet. There was no dignity in tho reckless
abandonment Of herself to the low, vulgar
passions that convulsed her. The coarse
beauty OF her face was disfgured by hate, rage,
and desire of revenge.
But some one in her past had given her the
nickname, and it had stuck to her ever since.
She had been little more than child then;
she was but just woman now, a year or two
still off thirty, but the years through which
that name had chung to her might have
reckoned as century if their experience of
reckless life were measured instead of time.
no Ta6v Rot had on ffap bap
own fashion.
But this afternoon, in a vague, dumb way as
some maddened, pain-tortured brute might
resent the agony Of the lash brought on itself
by its own ungoyerned passions, she felt that
those years of reckless folly had brought their
own punishment
Until fortnight ago-when this girl with
her father had been rcscused and brought into
the fort under hailsorm of bullets, which
had cost the lives of three of the garrison who
had made a sortie to save the strangers-The
Lady Betty and ''the boys shouldered her
Tifle side by side with them. She had taken
her share in the Watches she had eaten.
lived, laughed with them, fearless as they of
Che death that threatened them Now all his
was changed. Though The Lady Betty, even
thinking over it calmly, which she never did
sle verv thought thought OF these two stran-
&c.. 'sfsse advent il tbs for. had been
baptized by the loss of three of the bravest and
brightest of the boys, filing her with rage
could hardly have defined the change or how
1t first began.
The boys were never unkind to her. She
knew that they went on short rations so that
they she, as we'll as that girl stranger, should
have more. But this knowledge only made
her more furious. Had not she been good
comrade with them? She did not want them
TO shorten their allowance for her. as they did
for that delicate, pale-faced girl, who scarcely
knew one end of a gun from the other-at least,
she did not when she came. Now she could
handle and load one; Sorry Crew had taught
S,0r La 1EAF. ne h.ark anfI rho
membered watching the lessons tho girl had
begged for. All the boys had wanted to teach
her But it was Sorry Crew who had given
r. the lesson. AS The Lady Betty remembered
the look on his handsome face as he stood by
her showing her how to handle his rifle, she
drew her breath with sharp, short sob. as ii
that first shot fired by the girl had gone
through her own heart.
But though the boys were as good to her in
Sheir rough, familiar way as they had always
been, something seemed to have come between
them and her. They were no longer so recl1-
jessly cheerful in her society. When she swore
shey seemed always afraid that that girl would
hear her. They evidently preferred now 10
keep their lives to themselves and desired her
50 do the same.
The old happy-go-luclgy familiarity in which,
If there were no respect, there was no trouble
some question of etiquette, had vanished
This invisible though perfectly tangible barrier
against which she fretted and ragged was i'm
passable. Once when she had broken out and
stormed at and repToached and cursed one of
the men, asking why tley all kent so aloof
from her, he had looked perplexed for a
moment or two, and then answered her:
"Wa'al, IL guess we don't forgit as how you're
game" he said, awkwardly and doubtfuily
but you see you're woman and SOS She"
All that ''she." How she hated heri il
all started from her. The boys only thought
of her now. They would have laid themselves
down for her to walk over To get word or
Smile from her they would have gone to their
{. /. 4 l..
cursng, gambling and The Lady Betty Poor
Lady Hetty!-it was hard She who had shared
their perils as well RS their pleasures to be put
aside for this pale, quiet faced girl, who had
been total stranger TO their lives a fortnight
before. They were ashamed Of her, too. They
did not care to see her near that proud-eyed
girl. They were uneasy if she joined them in
her presence. The girls father would openly
show his dislike. He would take the girl away
when she drew near them; he would look as il
he feared pollution for his beloved. spotless
daughter from the very touch of The Lady
8etty's garment At first The Lady Betty
had defied him, as she had defied the boys and
forced herself upon them, and taken q pleas
ure in startling that delicate piece of goods
with her reckless out-garnshed talk. She
took maleyolent pleasure in arousing that
frightened, shrinking, wondering disgust on
the lovely face that had SO bewitched the
boys.
But even she had at last been cowed by the
stern GOODNESS and contempt Of Mr.. Gresham
as he turned away with his daughter and now
she avoided them, too Was it only the scorn
and icy harshness OF the father which had
cowed her? Was not there something in the
pitful, shrinking eyes Of the pure girl which
but no! The Lady Betty only broke into more
furious rage when She thought Of this. That
that girl should master her! The rage that
desperately defed the thought was full on her
at this instant, as Miriam Gresham went by
with Sorry Carew. She Kissed out a curse
after them. The yonng man heard It his face
grew white 70 the lips. He did not look at bis
Companion but he knew how the delicate skin
had flushed scarlet and then paira "5eneath
The graiuitous Insult, and bis eyes blazed with
fury against the woman who had dared so 10
hurt her. Yet there had been yesterday
whom his eyes had giowCd with a different
Hight as they looked on that woman, and 70 was
the remembrance OF that past which touched
with Us chill hand of fear, his heart today.
They did not speak I'll they reached that
part Of the low wood buildings in which rooms
bad been given her and her father. IL was
Miriam who broke tie awkward silence.
"Why does she hate mo SOP she asked
looking W al him with eyes skill bright With