The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-02
He FOLLOWED THE GHOST
And Rescued a Starving Child From
Death in the Most Awful
A Disenthralled Spirit Leads the
Traveller to the Cabin of
Despair.
The Child Restored to Her Family Across
the Water-A Tale of Travel in
Texas.

l checked my horse, and after one long,
straining look around owned to myself that
I was lost. l had suspected the fact some
time since. but had stubbornly fought
dow the suspicion, though my horse evil
IDENTIFY realized. With patient endurance
he plodded along, resignation plainly ex-
pressed in the droop of his tail and ears. In
place Of the ranch, the hearty welcome, pleas
ant words, bed, supper, and fire | had ex-
pected to reach by sunset. there was moth
ing to be seen before. behind, on
either hand, but the dead level of the plain.
There were paths in plenty; in fact the
trouble was there were too ~many-all mar
row and winding, for hose %meandering
there seemed not the slightest excuse, ex-
cept the general tendency to c~rookedness
most things. animate and inanimate alike
possess. But it would have taken the in
stinct Of a bloodhound or a trailing Indian
to have said which paths had been made by
horses feet or those of cattle.
Now that the sun was zone, l found my
knowledge of the point of the compass gone
with it. AS | sat perplexed and worried the
gloom of twilight gathered fast and the
chill of the coming rain smote me through
and through, while in the distance there
was Tue ron OF lnunueT. JlanclnR up j
saw the masses of cloud had closed to-
gether in n curtain of gray mist. My horse
strobe on of his own accord, and hoping
that his instinct would lead US to
some house. ! let him have his
will. Presently it began to rain a sort
of heart-broken, passlonless weeping, but
with a steady determination to persevere all
night, that awoke graver apprehension in
my bosom than any amount of clustering,
showery downpour could have done. This
fine, still rain was accompanied by a low
souqhing wind that added its desolate note
to the general dreariness of the hour. OF
course, / did not mind Il little rain, but the
prospect of spending the entire night ex-
posed to ii was anything but agreeable, and
/ grew really violent in denunciation of
the felly which had led me, an utter stfaIi-
ger in the country. to attempt to find any
thing less than a volcano in active eruption
OF a bald prairie.
TIE Texans are fine people, in many re
spects the most admirable of hosts-but in
dividually and collectively they lack any
appreciation of distance. This is due, oil
course, to them having SO much space
around them; but to a stranger ignorant OF
the extent to which the phrases "a little
piece out" and lust out o. town. can bt
stretched. this contemptuous regard of miles
is a little misleading. But In the face of tina,
dreary, monotonous moaning of rain end
wind. even my anger at my own folly coui(
not burn long. and though chilled to tn.
bone and tired and hungry, | plodded OF
duly, grateful that no night, even th,
longest, could last forever. 1t was nov
quite dark. and very dark at that, though
at short intervals. Gloss to the horizon,
faint CLEAN of lightning showed, too dis
tant to cast brightness on nv path and onl,
sufficient to intensity the blackness abou
me.
All at once ] saw a man walking abou
fifteen feet in front of me. Yes. ] know
said it WAS intensely dark, but, all tn
same, ] repeat it, | saw q man walking il