The record-union., 1891-12-12

''You will do your best, Doc, / know.
Think as If it was your wife-your own
wife that you'd die for-you are trying to
save. Oh, she must get well-she must
get well!'
Harry Welch walked with him as far
as the ford, where their ways parted, and
Dan spoke for the first time since they
left the cabin:
Tell the boys,' he said, ''to let Frank
be. You see, he is her husband still, l
suppose. Unless" he added Significantly,
unless he comes back agen."
And we followed, If we did not under
stand, his wish. l think that since it was
clear now that Frank had gone-"va-
moosed,' as we said-we all looked upon
Dan as having certain right in the mat
ter; and certainly our sympathies, which
were, after all, as ready as they were
rough, were entirely with the man who
had been so faithful to Jenny all through;
who had been so far above Franks jeal
ousy and spitefulness, and was even now
so generous to the man who had robbed
him of his love, and whom he must in
heart have hated with a deadly hatred.
Indeed, his feelings in this matter, his
anxiety that no violence or harm should
be done to Frank, simply because he was
Jenny's husband, were unintelligible to
US; but we respected them, and the man
also for them. Never a day passed but
Dan was up at the house asking for news
of Jenny; and the relief he showed in his
anxious face when Mrs. Snaggles would
tell him she wasn't no worse, anyway,
enlisted that good woman's sympathies
to such an extent that she would some
times let him come to the door and look
in for few minutes before he went back
to his claim.
The latter was showing up well, and
Dan worked at it for more than the usual
hours, and a great deal harder. Severe
ms al la n nd
the delicate handling necessary for wash
ing out the gold saved him, perhaps,
from breaking down under the anxiety
that lay so heavily upon him. At night
he would stroll up to the Flat and join in
a game of eucher; but he made an mat
tentive player; and once Joe Carr, stand
ing behind him, saw him quite unconsci-
ously discard a left bower in exchange
for a nine. After a little he would get
up, n tritle lighter in pocket, nod to the
boys. and go off to his cabin, generally to
sleep the sleep of sheer exhaustion.
One day Doc Snaggles came riding into
| the Flat with news. Jenny had come
more to herself and was out of danger.
''But there's something l don't rightly
ketch on to,'' he said. ''She knows me
and my wife, but she don't seem right in
her idees. She hain't said nOthin' about
that night-don't remember the first thing
about it, reckon-and she's always ask
ing where Frank is, and why he don't
come home. She says she saw him often
while she had the fever, but don't call to
mind what be said to her. Maybe she'd
get a bit clearer if she saw Dan."
So Dan was sent for, and told that Doc
wanted him down at the cabin. The
Snaggles were both in the parlor when he
got there, and Jenny was sitting up in a
chair by the table, and, pillows being
scarce in Salt Flat, was propped up with
curious selection OF furs and blankets.
She looked terribly pale and i'll, but there
was vacant expression in her soft,
brown eys-a something wanting, as it
were-which spoke worse for the poor
girls mind. She did not wait for Dan to
speak. AS soon as he was well within
the ROOM and she could see his face, she
held out her hands to him with glad
little cry.
''Oh. Frank! Frank! you have come
back at last. Why have you kept away
you every day
Jenny, it is not Frank-only Grizzly
Dan."
But she did not heed him.
" ou are going to stay now aren't you,
dear? And we'll be happy again, like
we were -before-something hap
pened. What was it. Frank, that hap
pened?''
81 can't Jenny, can't You mustn't
talk like that. | will come and see you
tomorrow, and
Franks got to go to Oretown, Jenny,
after stores, . Mrs. Snaggles hurriedly in
terposed, land must catch the stage.
He'll get back soon, and you'll be better
then"
Git away, YOU fool,'' she whispered to
Dan, brushing quickly past him; "this'll
bring back the fever"
So Dan stumbled out of the room, his
eyes wet with a strange mist of tears.
Half unconsciously he found his way to
his own cabin, where, throwing himself
on his knees on the bare mud floor, he
prayed as he had, perhaps, not done since
he was boy in Missouri.
Takes me for himn' he cried ''Oh.
heaven help me to help her, for l love her
stlll--love her more than ever!'
Salt Flat, of course, heard-through
Mrs. Snaggles-of the scene in Menner's
/ parlor, and many were the opinions de-
! Iivered as to the course Dan should take.
The majority, judging others by them
selves, agreed that Dan should marry
| Jenny right off, since she looked on
him as her husband, if he wanted to,
and ignore Frank as a man who, if he
| was not dead, ought to be. But Dan be-
came so furious at the suggestion that the
idea was at once dropped as subject,
which, if persevered with, would, in ali
Likelihood, end in shooting.
| Boys he said, I'm not that sort, /
reckon. There is only one way out of
this for Dan Hunter, and that's the Cali
| fornia trail. You chaps as like can