The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-11-06
The Quicksands Of loro.
BY CHARLES HOWARD SHINN.

BY CHARLES HOWARD SHINN.
The story properly begins at midnight,
on the San Luis, Obispo coast, California,
twenty years ago, when the September
moonlight shone down upon Stoner's
cattle ranch, near the Pacific Ocean, in
the rugged SAINTS Lucia Mountains.
Stoner had been Texan Ranger, and
could hold his own extremely we'll in
that rough frontier community. He had
carried off a pretty Spanish wife from
the chihuahua region years before. had
brought her to the rocky Californian
coast, and had purchased settlers
claim and an old adobe house built by q
Spanish hidalgo half a century ago.
Here he farmed, raised cattle on the
unused Government lands. and kept a
sort of rude hotel; for several mountain
trails joined at that point the broad
highway which led from the county seat,
twenty miles south, to the northern set
Elements in the pineries. He had five
daughters, too, the Youngest, Theresa,
known as Tessa, girl of seventeen.
That added to the attraction, and almost
every night the dark-eyed, half-Spanish
girls sang and danced, and old Stoner
managed to hear all the news that was
ahoat, and somehow, most of the loose
coin of the region ultimately found its
way into his pockets. He was a deep
one, that same Ephraim Stoner, quiet,
sly and patient, secret in his methods,
deadly in his blow.
Stoner's wife and his four elder daugh-
tiers were uneducated and in complete
subsection to his will. But Tessa had
more brains and energy than all the 9th
ers put together, and quite as much
beauty, so that the old Texan Ranger
took a certain pride in her, and had even
allowed her to attend q distant school
for two years.
This midnight, when, as I have said,
the story begins, person of a prying
disposition might have discovered sew
eral Interesting performances in progress
around the Stoner abode. On the north
side of the house, quite in the shadow,
Tessa was leaning from her window,
couversing in low tones with q blond,
fair-baired and sturdy young man on
horseback.
"Tom, you do not know my father.
He is not the careless, warm-hcarted man
you suppose. I must admire his ability,
but that is all. I warn you, Tom, there
never was more dangerous man. He
may be where he hears every word you
say, but if he is, he will not speak 20
you or to me about it. But if he knew
that you cared for me he would be your
enemy. He has other plans for me. He
wants me to marry for money"
Tom Warren had once been a school
teacher in the mountain district, miles
away, where Tessa had been one of his
pupils. Thrown upon his own resources
from his childhood, he had developed a
strong, earnest character, and was already
so popular in the county that he had just
been elected sheriff, although the young
est man on the ticket.
While Tessa and her lover were talk
ing, a scene of q far different nature was
been enacted on the south side of the old
adobe, which overlooked deep ravine,
and camp of five or six men in a field
below, For several years these men had
spent their summers there, ostensibly
hunting, fishing and exploring the coun-
try with their dogs and guns. Everyone
knew them, and most persons liked them.
Tessa did not.
Stoner, though it was midnight, sat in
the moonlight on an old rawhide chair,
outside the door, smoking his pipe and
meditating-a tough, siucwy, grizz!cd
night-owl of man.
"That chuckle- head at the camp ought
to have reported before now," he thought
to himself, as he smoked.
A man came out of the brush and spoke
deferentially!
. "Capt'n, good evenin'."
"You're late"
"Dick was shot"
"Wenp
"Just as the driver throwed off the
box. Shot by passenger in the neck
and shoulder"
"He mustn't stay here to get us into
trouble. Take boat and carry him to
the Point, and leave him in the lave
there"
eyes, capt'n."
Chow much was aboard"
"About two thousand dollars for the
Josephine miners"
"Send it over the cliff before morning,
an. III divide it up soon. But you be
extra careful; that new sheriff is smart
one."
Albright, capt'n," and the man went
back to the camp.
A moment later, just as Stoner was
going into the house, there was the slow
thud Of horses hoofs, and Tom War
ren, the young sheriff, rode down the
trail, around the corner of the old abode
building, into the main county road that
lay to the west. He had at last yielded
to Tessa's entreaties to go, 60, this
minute, Tom
ImDassible as Stouer was, he felt lit