Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-07
PART I,

y
ing debris Of the cliff above, there is q mar
row stretch of beach, salt meadow, and
scrub oak. The abrupt wall of rock behind
it seems to isolate it as completely from the
mainland as the sea before it separates it
from the opposite shore. In spite of its
contiguity to San F'rancisco-opposite, also,
but hidden ny the sharp, re-entering curve
of coast-the locality was wild, unculti-
waited, and unfrequented. A solitary fisher
mans cabin, half hidden in the rocks, was
the only trace of habitation. White drifts
Of sea-gulls and pelican across the face iof
the cliff, gray clouds of sandpipers rising
from the beach, the dripping fight of ducks
over the salt meadows, and the occasional
splash of a seal from the rocks, were the
only signs of life that could be seen from
the decks of passing ships. And yet the
isherman's cabin was occupied by Zephas
Bunker and his young wife, and he had
succeeded in wrestling from the hard soil
pasturage for cow and goats, while his
lateen-sailed fishing boat occasionally rode
quietly in the sheltered cove below.
Three years before Zephas Bunker, an ex-
whaler, had found himself stranded on
San Francisco wharf, and had ''hired out"
to a small Petaluma farmer. At the end of
the year he had acquired little taste for the
farmers business, but considerable for the
farmers youthful daughter, who, equally
weary of small agriculture, had consented
to elope with him in order to escape it.
They were married at Oakland; he put his
scant earnings into fishing boat, discov-
cred the site for his cabin, and brought his
bride thither. The novelty of the change
pleased her, although perhaps it was but
little advance on her previous humble posi-
ton Yet she preferred her present free
dom to the bare, restricted home-life of
her past; the perpetual presence of the
restless sea was relief to the old monotony
of the wheat field and its isolated drudgery.
For Mary's youthful fancy, thinly sus-
tanned in childhood by the hghtest literary
food had neither been stimulated nor dis
ilIusioned by her marriage That practical
experience which IS usually the end of girl
ish romance had left her still child in
sentiment. The long absences of her hus-
band in his fishing boat kept her from
wearying of or even knowing his
older and unequal companionship; it gave
her a freedom her girlhood had never
known, yet added a protection that suited
her still childish dependency, while it
tickled her pride with its equality. When
not engaged in her easy household duties
in her three-roomed cottage, or the care of
her rocky garden patch, she found time
enough to indulge her fancy over the uys-
FERROUS haze that wrapped the Invisible city
so near and yet unknown to her; IN the
sails that slipped in and out of the golden
gate, but of whose destination she knew
nothing; and in the long smoke trail of the
mail steamer which had yet brought her
no message. Like all jewellers by the sea,
her face and her thoughts were more fire.
quently turned toward it; and as with
them, it also seemed to her that whatever
change was coming into her life would come
across that vast unknown expanse. But 1t
was here that Mrs. Bunker was mistaken.
It had been sparkling summer morning.
The waves were running before the dry
northwest trade winds with crystalline but
colorless brilliancy. Sheltered by the high,
northerly bluff, the house and its garden
were exposed to the untempered heat OF
the cloudless sun refracted from the rocky
wall behind it. Some tarpaulin and ropes
lying among the rocks were sticky and
odorous; the scrub oaks and manzanita
bushes gave out the aroma OF baking wood;
occasionally faint pot-pourrl fragrance
from the hot wild roses and beach grass
was blown along the shore; even the hnger-
ing odors of Bunker's vocation, and OF Mrs.
Bunker's cooking, were ideaiiZed and re-
fined by the saline breath of the sea at the
doors and windows. Mrs. Bunker, IN the
dazzling sun, bending over her peas and
lettuces with small hoe, felt the comfort
of her brown holland Sunbonnet. Secure
in her isolation, she unbottoned the neck OF
her gown for air, and did not put up the
strand of black hair that had escaped over
her shoulder It was very hot in the lee OF
the bluff, and very quiet in that still air.
So quiet that she heard two distinct re-
ports, following each other quickly, but
very faint and far. She glanced mechan-
icanically toward the sea. Two merchant
men in midstream were shaking out their
wings for long flight, pilot boat and
coasting schooner were rounding the point,
but there was no smoke from their decks.
She bent over her work again,
and in another moment had forgotten
it. But the heat, with the dazzling
reflection from the cliff, forced her to sps-
pend her gardening and stroll along the
beach to the extreme limit of her domain.
Here she looked after the cow, which had
also strayed away through the tangled bush
for GOODNESS. The goats, impervious to tenn
perature, were basking in inaccessible fast
nesses on the cliff itself, that made her
eyes ache to climb. Over an hour passed,
she was returning, and had neared her
house when she was suddenly startled to
see the figure of man between her and the
cliff. He was engaged in brushing his
dusty clothes with handkerchief. and al
though he saw her coming, and even moved
slowly toward her, continued his occupa-
ton with halflmpatieut, half-abstracted
air. Her feminine perception was struck
with the circumstance that he was in deep
black, with scarcely CLEAN of white show
ing even at his throat, and that he wore
tall black hat Without knowing anything
of social customs, it seemed to her that his
dress was inconsistent with ms appearance
there.
"Good morning. he said, lifting his hat,
with q preoccupied air. do you live
here2'
Eyes" she said, wonderingly.
ANYBODY else2"
"AIy husband"
az mean any other people Are there any
other houses?" he said, with a slight i'm
patience.
''No."
He looked at her and then toward the sea-
81 expect some friends who are coming for
me in boat l suppose they can land easily
here2"
''Didn't you land yourself here Just uow?"
she said, quickly.
He half hesitated, and then, as if scorning
an equivocation, made hasty gesture over
her shoulder, and said, bluntly: "No, I
came over the cliff. -
.Down the cliff!'' she repeated incredu-
lousy.
YES he said, glancing at his clothes;
SIT was rough scramble, but the goats
showed me the way
"And you were upon the bluff all the
timel' she went on curiously.
Eyes, you see-I-'i he stopped suddenly
at what seemed TO be the beginning of a
pre-arranged and plausible explanation. as
il impatient of its weakness or hypocrisy,
and said briefly: Eyes, was there
Like most women, more observant of his
face and figure, she did not miss this lack
of explanation. He was very good look
i,o man of middle age, with thin ,-ord