The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-30
.THO STOPPED THE STAGE?

-e Charles BROOKS IN the california Mag
6eos azine.
o,d Dabbs rode slowly up the trail. The
ut the sun reflected from the baked
p' o+b and superheated granite of the hill
a. sbimmered in waves of shel-Iike
au about The dust raised by the
+.uob1ing hoofs of the old clay-bank
stang he bestrode hung in thick, suf-
ZINC clouds in the deadly still air.
-ilence was intense-not a bird, ami
or insect seemed alive. The whole
s LID was baked into silent indifference,
and Dabbs himself was stunned by
abock. the reality of which had never
-.u,ed possible to his unsophisticated
mind
.oss the plains to California from his
-,ire Tennessee and cast his lot, as so
- others had done, in that devils race
~ cold. He never could keep his when
Lod any. however, and so in despite of
LEV 1uck than most of those in the dig
4 80 he found himself when the plaCers
III baen despoiled of the cream of their
oas,,re as Door man as when he first
q uslso5 the Sierras. With his ambition
Soad he turned his face to the mountains
for he was mountain bred-and sought
snot in which he might build for himself
acabin near a spring and possess a few
E crae of bottom land to raise truck"
mon For the rest his rife and traps
81 would suffice 49,,
Ne found such a spot with but little
M +rolble and in a few years IL was known
& 60, and wide as Dabbs' ranch. The only
tbinp to complete a home there was a
woman. and her he found also and in the
co11rsa of wears there came to this pair a
cbiId-a girl baby. In his secret soul
Dabbs thought it the most marvelously
MIRACULOUS interposition of providence
ever known that he, such horny-handed,
scanned and Scared son of Anak, could be
the father of this wee creature with eyes
lie wet violets, creamy satin skin, spun
gold for hair and limbs nodded on the
model of pocket Venus. He worshiped
81 her openly mourning much at the loss of
81 tbe mother, whose life went out few
Years after Starr (for thus he named her)
zane into the world but it was more for
81 the child's sake than for its mothers.
Then one of those mining boomS that
I'll follow the discovery of new gold fields in
nj the mountains occurred near Dabbs, and
+ as the ranch was on the main trail lead
ing 10 the mines land was one of the few
fertile spots, with its never-failing spring,
in MANY weary miles of desert) it was
reaped rich harvest from his little
orchard and garden. This time the money
was boarded as a sacred trust for Starr
and sent down in the treasure box of the
express company to a bank at San Fran
cisco for safe keeping. In a year or so the
diggings failed, as most diggings do, and
the tide of dusty. travel-worn gold hunters
sought other fields, but settlements had
sprung up in the country beyond DabbS' q,
and the stage company still ran a line over
the road. The little ranch sufticed still
for Dabbs and Starr.
One day, however, the old man learned
that the bank he had intrusted Starts
money to had closed its doors, and that
he would never see the coin again. The
news Of the misfortune almost killed him,
but he pulled himself together for the
child's sake In little while he was
almost the same CHEEKY giant he had al
ways been, and now that Starr had be-
come woman (she was l5) he began to
# make plans for her future. She would
marry, of course, but she must be indie
pendent and the little ranch was grow
ing more and more valuable every year
The spring was the only available water
supply in many leagues OF grazing coun-
try and since by this time the district
had been given over to cattle ranching
the old mans fortune was materially in
creased from his water right.
But one evil day the stage line cast en-
viOus eyes upon the ranch with its spring.
They offered to buy it and Dabbs laughed
at them It was Starr Sail he had to
give her The men argued that the sum
they were willing to give would return at
interest as great an income as the spring,
but Dabbs' confidence in the power of
money to earn interest had been shaken
s. by the bank failuIe, and the spring was
always sure-it never closed its doors.
But the company was determined to have
that spring, and the lawyers found ready
flaws in poor Dabbs' title After long,
weary months of litigation the courts de-
clded that the spring belonged to some
one who was willing to sell to the COM
4 pany and that Dabbs was trespasser
and must get off the land
Dabhs was now on his way home from
& the country town where the trial of the
n case had been held His lawyers had
swallowed up all the savings of the years
d that followed the unfortunate failure of
8 the bank, and he and Starr were 'broke''
4 stun bruk, he called it.
h They were nearing the ranch now. The
Il claybank pricked up his ears and started
into lOpe. Dabbs pulled himself together
with mighty effort; he would not tell
Starr yet. He had little present for
her in his saddlebag; he never came from
town without something, no matter how
trivial, for her, and he knew she would
De watching for him somewhere along the
trdll. AS the claybank rounded an abrupt
corner of jutting rock there was a whoop,
slash of the whip across the horses
nank, and Starr was Looping alongside on
her pony. One might have taken the girl
10 be mere child, so small she seemed,
put that the delicately rounded curves
through the close-fitting habit of coarse
Jeans showed a woman exquisitely pro-
Foruoned. She sat her blueskin as only
one who has lived in the saddle can. A
black sombrero, gay with gold bullion,
shaded her face; the golden hair was in
striking contrast to the black eyebrows,
me eyes were of that velvety violet that
shades to black, and her olive skin was
Wlnd-and-sun kissed to a peachy bril-
nancy Of coloring. She urged the blue
sSln close alongside her fathers pony,
ana nestled against him as they rode. The
GA man said nothing, but leaning his
massive head and shoulders down to her
Alssed her very tenderly.
Inc ponies were on walk now, and the
te"orode in silence for some little distance
suddenly the girl looked up at Dabbs and
SAD; Busted, dad'" The old man
nodded before he bethought himself of
ms resolution not to tell her Darn them
lawyers, anyhow was her reply to the
nod Her father, still silent, shook his
mead as if in expostulatio4 at the mild
PROFANITY and Starr continued: Never