News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-11-20
IN THE QUICKSANDS.

The story properly begins at mid
night 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 ruooed
Santa Lucia mountains.
Stoner had been Texas ranger
and could hold his own extremely
well IN that rough frontier communi-
ty. lie had carried off a pretty
Spanish wife from the Chihuahua re-
gIon years before, had brought her
to the rocky California coast. and
had purchased settlers claim and
an old adobe house built bv Span
ish hidalgo half a century ago.
Here he farmed, raised cattle on
the unused government lands. and
kept a sort Ofrude hotel, for several
mountain trails joined at that point
the broad highway which led from
the county seat, twenty miles south.
to the northern settlements in the
pineries. He had five daughters. too
the youngest, Theresa, known as
Tessa, a girl of seventeen. That add
ed to the attraction, and almost
every night the dark-eyed, half-Span-
ish girls sang and danced, and old
Stoner managed to hear all the news
atioat, and somehow most of the
loose coin of the region ultimately
found its way into his pockets. He
was deep one, that same Ephraim
Stoner, quiet, sly and patient, secret
in his methods and deadly in his
blow.
Stoner's wife and his four eldest
daughters were uneducated and in
complete subsection to his will. But
Tessa had more brains and energy
than all the others put together and
quite 80 IIIurIlI DTttaIGy, ana 81 the ola
Texas ranger took a certain pride in
her, and had even allowed her to at
tend a district school for two years.
This midnight when, as [ have
said, the story begins, a person of
prying disposition might have dis
covered several interesting perform
ances in progress around the Stoner
abode. On the north side of the
house Tessa was leaning from her
window conversing in low tones with
blonde, fair-headed and sturdy
young man on horseback.
"TOm, do you know my father?
He is not the careless, warm-hearted
man you may suppose. l must ad-
mire his ability, but that is all. /
warn you, Tom, there never was a
more dangerous man. He may be
where he hears every word you say,
though if he is he will not speak to
you or me about it, But if he knew
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 the
school teacher in the mountain dis
trict, miles away, where Tessa had
been one of his pupils. Thrown up
on his own resources from his child
hood, he had developed a strong,
earnest character, and was already
so popular in the county that he had
just been elected sheriff, although the
youngest man on the ticket.
While Tessa and her lover were
talking, scene of a far different ma
ture was being enacted on the south
side of the old adobe, which over
looked a deep ravine and a camp of
five or six men in a field below. For
several years these men had spent
their summers there ostpnsibly hunt
ing, fishing and exploring the coun-
try with their dogs and guns. Every
one knew them and most persons
liked them. Tessa did not.
Stoner, though it was midnight,
sat in the moonlight on an old raw
hide chair outside the door, smoking
his pipe and meditating-a tough,
sinewy, grizzled, night-owl of a man.
THAT Internal knuckle-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''' y
You're late"
"Dick was shot"
"Well?"
"Just as the driver throwed off the
box. Shot by a passenger in the
neck and shoulder
He must MT stay here to get us
into trouble Take a boat and carry
him to the point, and leave him in
the cave there"
"1es, capt'n."
GLOW much aboard? %
about $4,000 for the Josephine
miners"
"Send it over to the cliff before
morning, and I'll divide it up soon.
But you be extra careful; the new
sheriff is a smart one"
"All right, capt'n,' and the man
went back to the camp.
A moment later, just as Stoner
was going into the house, there was
a low thud of a horses hoofs, and
Tom Warren, the young sheriff, rode
down the trail, around the corner of
the old adobe building, into the
country road that lay to the west.
He had at last yielded to Tessa's en-.
treaties to GO, go, this minute,
Tom p
Impassive as Stoner was, he felt a
little startled by the sight.
"Where in the devil did you come
from, sheriff? Anything up in this
part of the country"