The National tribune., 1890-11-20
THE FUEL BEAMS.
a Retired mouse YOU'VE got. BE. Beatty ~
Continued from LIST page.]

said l must be tux from my ole companions,
and he fetched me yer He ginerally has
his own way. Ha! hal"
"You must be named for General Brad
dockP"
Yes, my daddy served under Braddick
some SAYS he shot Braddiek. That's the
tale. Ha, m, hal Amt you got a seegar to
gi'me, sOnny?"
No, not this morning"
"Well, fi'penny- bitwin do jest as well.
Let me have IT,"
Something Of the highwayman was in the
tough, wiry mans saucy tone.
O'ConnOr laughed and struck his horse
contemptuOusly, and left BraddOck Beatty
muttering in the road.
j don't believe that place is SAFE" con-
sidered Brian 0'ConnOr, when he had Hoped
his horse to the mountain summit and re-
flected that he had lost the road by which
he first entered the wood.
There he saw from the rock prOmontory
or cropping called the Kettles, the TWO val
leys which lay at the South Mountains foot,
both beneath his eye, one gnsTled and up.
tilted and gray, the other brown and wide
and full Of goodly substance.
In the CatOctin Valley the poor peoples
homes were thick like a village along all the
mountains base; in Pleasant Valley only
the hidden house in the wood stood like
hermitage inclOsing Barabbas and the
Apostle and their syren.
Should / be afraid Of that woman?" re-
fiected the stenographer to himself
Insensibly he repeated Latin prayer and
made the Catholic sign.
The next day Sir James Athol picked the
hour of noon to visit the cripple's hut, and
took with him primer 10 start CoOrOO upon
the Roman alphabet.
Brian O'Connor parted with him at the
top Of the Gap, where crossroads diverged,
and rode nOrthward nearly TO the mountain
base, passing the picturesque homes of many
laboTing people on the eastern slope, and he
well marked the neOphyte, Archy Beatty,
down in the hydraulic drain upon that side,
helping upon some stOnework for the absent
proprietor.
lie can hardly suspect that will cross
the mountain to the other side" thought
OConnor. any next assurance must. be
that old Braddock Beatty is not at home"
At the point where the road turned
abruptly from the mountain, Brian as abb
ruptly turned into the mountain by some
springy ground strewn with great brook
stones.
FROM THE MOUNTAIN FLOODS.
A childIen's path led into a woods trail,
and this into clearing, and there all paths
came 10 a stop. DismOunting O'COpnOr led
his horse by the bride up the rough summit
Of the mountain, and when he gained the
top the animal was full Of foam and the
pedestrian had the heart pangs
Once through the comb OF naked rock on
the eastern side, however, it was nearly level
turf on the western shelf. with a welI-de-
fined summit road and sometimes sloppy
places, where the fogs and rains could not
run Off
Nothing could OConnor see for the thick
foliage of chestnut, hickory, gum, blackjack
poor pine, sumac and walnut trees, but lie
moved noiselessly along till he believed he
was opposite the House in The Woods, 200
feet below him.
II now appeared that he had lost hisnote-
book in scrambling up. the mountain.
At this discovery, however, he heard the
woodlands AK below and beyond him, notch
ing the rare air as upon the previous day,
and the sensibility OF loves dilemma made
him identify the stroke, he believed, as that
Of old Braddoek Beatty.
He rose from the ground and began 10 de-
scend the mountain on the western side, and
with little more loss of time than ii he had
young man was at the House in the Wood.
This time the cur dog did not bark, but
identified him ar having been peaceably
there before, and came up waggjng its tail.
The place was ominously silent; some mari
Colds and jonquils grew in the rude yard be-
fore the old gray house, and mock-oranges
depended from rOtting arbor at the front
or main story door.
OCOnnor walked past the gable and down
into, the copse, and drank from the spring
with c0cOanut cup.
As he was STOPPING down he thought he
heard something like a sob or a human
chord.
This is new business to me-" he consid-
cred, =" but as i have come / shall not run
away. i have the warrant Of respectable
Intentions and / cannot think this young
woman means herself or me any ILL.,"
lie approached the basement, which was
exposed only in the rear. 1t was q clean
kitchen, with a cot bed in the gable end,
and under a window, and at the other end a
fireplace, with crane and CRATE, aud pot
boiling the dinner. He observed that the
chimney was cracked from ceiling 10 fire.
place, and that the walls were settled and
the floors dangerous.
Beside the fireplace an open door, like
cupboard, disclosed some winding steps.
As Brian O'Connor took the first step upon
the floor the whole structure seemed 10
shrink and groan, and almost at the same
moment the chord of human voice, caught
and suppressed, sounded again down the
winding stairs.
Superstitions agitated the intruder. He
dashed them aside at the next idea that
some One-a woman, prObably-was in dis
tress, and he put his tall form inside the
staircase, and by rising one step from the
floor could look into the main or upper
room.
IT CONTAINED TWO BEDS,
was bare otherwise, had cracked, sOOty
chimney, bench and closet, and over the
bench was hole, showing dark loft
Upon the floor, with her head and arms
leaning on the bench, sat Perry Beatty in
tears or sad emotion.
sShe had heard the step, and was Just
turning her head to recognize or see the
visitor.
Il thought ] heard you crying, Miss
Perry. Am intruding?n
knew it was yOu, Mister Lord. No, I
expected you. / am just a little low spirited,
that is all. Don't mind me crying"
Tell me all about il, pretty friend. Are
| yOu related TO these men have seen here
do not like them altogether, particularly
the old man, but i cannot help having q
good opinion of you"
i know that, answered the girl, with
recurring good humOr, wiping hes eyes with
| long expressive linpeF7 and rising nm