Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-01
THROUGH GATES OF GOLD
CHAPTER I

difficult TO nave attained to any such indul-
gence of body and mind. For there was little
left to drink; still less to eat; while desperate
anxiety darkened every face and the shadow
of death doomed close at hand. Yet black as
matters looked, with hundreds of Indians in
furiated with blood-thirst closing them in on
all sides. with only a dozen men to hold the
fort and protect the two women shut ND there
with them, with ammunition running short
with food and water distributed on principles
OF the strictest economy. with a blazing sun
overhead TO add to the torture of the long
hours with their ceaseess dread and expecta-
ton with no prospect but death at the hands
of cruel. merciless foe; yet The Lady Betty
was not swearing at the present conditions of
her existence, but at the one other woman shut
up with her in that besieged 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 The Lady Betty" The
usual tawdry finery with which she delighted
to sdOrn herself was faded. torn. and dirty,
there being opportunities in that doomed.
out-of-the-world fort. peopled only by that
handful of desperate men, for repairing def
ciencies of toilet. There no dignity in the
reckless abandonment of herself to the low.
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 il had stuck to her ever since.
She had been little more than child then;
she was but just women now. year or two
still of thirty. but the years through which
that name had chung to her might have reck-
oned as a century if their experience of reck-
less life were measured instead of time. The
Lady Betty had enjoyed herself after her own
fashion.
but this afternoon, in . vague. dumb way,
as some maddened. pain-tortured brute might
resent the agony of the lash brought on itself
by its own ungoverned 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 rescued and brought
into the fort under hailstorm 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"
had been the best OF friends. She had
shOGldered her rife side by side with them
She had taken her share in the watches;
she had eaten. lived. laughed with them,
fearless they of the death that threat
,noi them. Now all this was changed
Though The Lady Betty. even thinking over it
calmly. which she never did-the very thought
OF these two strangers. whose advent in the
tort had been baptized by the loss of three of
the bravest and brightest of the boys, filling
OF how it first began.
The boys never unkind to her. She
knew that they went on short rations so that
she as well as that girl stranger should have
more. But this knowledge only made her
more furious. Had not she been a good COM
rade with themI 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 gun from the other-at
least. she did not when she came. Now she
mil ban nd n..1 l.l
taught her. The Lady Betty set her teeth as
she remembered watching the lessons the girl
had begged for. All the boys had wanted to
teach her. But 1t was Sorry Carew who had
given the lesson. As The Lady Betty remem-
bered the look ON his handsome face as he
stood by her. showing her how to handle his
rifle. she drew i'll her breath with sharp. short
sob. rs If that first shot fred by the girl had
gone through her own heart.
But though the boys were as good to
her in their rough. familiar way as they had
always been. something seemed to have come
between them and her. They were no longer
so reeklessly cheerful in her society When
she swore they seemed always afraid that that
girl would hear her. They evidently preferred
now to keep their lives to themselves, and de-
sired her To do the same.
The old happy-go-lucky familiarity in which,
II 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 reproached and cursed one of
the men. asking why they all kept so aloof from
her. he had looked perpleXed for a moment or
two. and then answered her:
WAL guess We don't forgit as how you're
game. he said. awkwardly and doubtfully;
but you see you're a woman, and SOS She
All that she" How she hated her 1t 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
death. 1t was for her they had given up ours
ing. gambling. and The Lady Betty. Poor
LADY Betty lit was hard She who had shared
the If perils well their pleasures. to be put
aside for this pale. quiet-faced girl, who had
been total stranger 10 their lives a fortnight
before. They were ashamed Of bar. too. They
did not care to see her-near that pron1Seyed
girl They were uneasy if she Joined theta 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
Bettys garment. At first The Lady Betty had
defed him, az she had defied the bows. and
forced herself upon them. and taken a pleas
ure IN startling that delicate piece Of goods
with her reckless Oath-garnished talk She
took maleyoient pleasure in arousing that
frightened, shrinking. wondering disgust OH
the lovely face that had so bewitched the bows
But even she had at last been cowed by the
stern coldness and contempt of Mr.. Gresham
as he turned away with his daughter. and now
she avoided them, too. Was il only the scorn
and icy hardness of the father that had cowed
her! Was not there something in the pitiful.
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 herr The rage that desperately
detied the thought was full On her ut this in
slant. as Miriam Gresham went by with Sorry
Carew. She Missed out a curse after them.
The young man heard it: his face grew white
TO the lips. He did not look at his companion,
but lie knew how the delicate skin had flushed
scarlet and then paled beneath the gratuitous
insult. and his eyes blazed with fury against
the woman who had dared so to hurt her Yet
there had been a yesterday when his ewes had
glowed with different light as they looked on
that woman. and il was the remembrance of
that past which touched, with its chill hand of
fear his heart to-day
They did not speak till they reached that
part of the low wood buildings in which rooms
had been given her and her father 1t was
Miriam who broke the awkward silence.
why does she hate me sop she asked look
ing up at him with eyes still bright with her
hurt. 1t seems hard. when she and are the
only women here-and when tomorrow we
may be dead"
Her voice caught and fell into lower tones.
They had not told her what manner OF woman
The Lady Betty was. She thought her coarse,
vulgar. insolent foulmouthed. but she believed
her honest. Her father and the other men ha d
Kept up the delusion. sprung like an angels
fancy from her own pure soul
You must not mind her." said Sorry Carew.