Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-21
CHAPTER XII

next day, amid great excitement, that
a serious fracas had been prevented OIL
the Inflated boundary by the dramatic
appearance of Uncle Ben Dabney, not
only as peacemaker, but as Mr.
Daubigny the bona fide purchaser and
owner of the land. 1t was known and
accepted with great hilarity that ''old
marin McKinstry'' had defended the
barn alone and unaided, with-as vari-
ously stated-a .pitcbfork an old stable
broom and a pail of dirty water, against
Harrison, his party, the entire able posse
of the sheriff of Tuolumne county, with
no further damage than scalp wound
which the head of Seth Davis received
while falling from the loft of the barn
from which he had been dis
lodged by Mrs. MeKinstry and
the broom aforesaid 1t was
known with unanimous appreciation
that the acquisition of the land title by a
hitherto htiilble citizen of Indian Spring
was triumph of the settlement over
| foreign interference. But it was not
! known that the schoolmaster was par
| tlclpant in the fight, or even present on
the spot. At Mrs. McKinstry's sugges-
ton he had remained concealed in the
loft until after the withdrawal of both
parties and the still unconscious Seth.
| When Ford had demonstrated, with
the remark that Seth would be
sure to declare the truth when he
recovered his senses, Mrs. McKinstry
smiled grimly: 81 reckon when he
comes to know 1 was with We all the time
he d rather hev it allowed that l licked
him than you. l don t say he III let it
pass ez far as you are concerned or won t
try to get even with We, but he won't go
round tellin' why. However, -
she added, still more grimly, eff
you think you IRE ekul to tellin'
the hull story-how We KEN to be
yer, and that Seth wasn't lynn
arter all when he blurted it out afore 'em
why, sham hinder ye." The mas
ter said no. more. And, indeed, for
day or two nothing transpired to show
that Seth was not equally reticent.
Nevertheless, Mr.. Ford was far from
being satisfied with the issue of his ad-
venture. His relations with Cressy were
known to the mother, and although she
had not again alluded to them, she would
probably inform her husband Yet
he could not help noticing, with a
mingling of unreasoning relief and
equally unreasoning distrust that she eX-
hibited scornful unconcern in the mat
ter, apart from the singular use to which
she had put it. He could hardly count
upon McKinstry, with his heavy blind de-
votion to Cressy, being as Indifferent.
On the contrary, he had acquired the
impression, without caring to examine it
closely, that her father would not be dis
pleased at his marrying Cressy, for it
would really amount to that. But
here again he was forced to
contemplate what he had always
avoided, the possible meaning
and result of their intimacy. In the
reckless, thoughtless, eXtravagant-yet
thus far innocent-indulgen of their
mutual passion he had never spoken of
marriage, nor-and it struck him now
with the same homogeneous mingling of
relief and uneasiness-had she! Perhaps
this might have arisen from some super
stitiOus or sensitive recollection on her
part of her previous engagement to Seth,
but he remembered now that they
had not even exchanged the usual
vows of eternal constancy. 1t may
seem strange that in the half dozen stolen
and rapturous interviews which had
taken place between these young lovers
there had been no suggestion of the
future, nor any of those glowing projects
for a united destiny peculiar to their
entirely in a blissful present, with no
plans beyond their next rendezvous. In
that mysterious and sudden absorption of
each other, not only the past, but the
future seemed to have been forgotten.
These thoughts were passing through
his mind the next afternoon to the preju-
dice of that calm and studious repose
which the deserted school house usually
superinduced and which had been SO
fondly noted by Mr.. McKinstry and In
Gle Ben. The latter had not arrived for
his usual lesson; it was possible that I'M
due attention had been attracted to his
movements now that his good fortune
was known; and the master was
alone save for the occasional
swooping incursion of q depredatory jay
i'll search of crumbs from the children s
luncheons; who added apparently queru-
lous insult to the larcenious act. He re-
GREETED Uncle Ben's absence, as he
wanted to know more about his connec-
ton with the Harrison attack and his
eventual intentions. Ever since the
master emerged from the barn and re-
gained his hotel under cover of the dark
ness, he had heard only the vaguest ru-
mors, and he purposely avoided direct in
quiry.
He had been quite prepared for
Cressy's absence from school that morn
ing-indeed in his present vacillating
mood he had felt that her presence would
have been irksome and embarrassing
but it struck him suddenly and I'M
pleasantly that her easy desertion of him
at that critical moment in the barn had
not since been followed by the least sign
of anxiety to know the result |
of her mothers interference. What |
did she imagine had TRANSFERRED between
Mrs. McKinstry and himself? Had she |
confidently expected her mother prompt |
acceptance of the situation and recon-
citation? Was that the reason why she |
had treated that interruption as lightly |
as if she were already his recognized be- |
trothed? Had she even calculated upon |
it? had she-he stopped, his cheek glow |
ing from irritation under the suspicion, |
and shame at the disloyalty of entertain |
ing it.
Opening his desk, he began to arrange |
his papers mechanically, when he dis
covered with a slight feeling of annoy
ance, that he had placed Cressy's |
bouqut-now dried and withered-in
the same pigeon hole with the mysterious
letters with which he had so often COM
muned in former days. He at once sepa-
rated them with half bitter smile, yet |
after moment s hesitation and with his
old sense of attempting to revive a for
gotten association, he tried to reperuse
L