Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-01-20
EAGLES CRAG.

Three o'clock on December afternoon,
among the wild hills and moorlands OF
Glen Lee. There had been but little snow
as yet, but for q fortnight black and bit
ter frost had made the tracks like iron and
held the river in its grip Over these lone
ly miles Of heather, beyond where the deep,
dark loch lies with mountains on two sides,
rising sheer from it's brink, grim and steep
er than any prison walls, came q young girl.
When the wind whistled round her with
a sharper, keener gust than usual, she hid
her face in her rough, homespun shawl;
when the hand that held basket nipped
and ached with the searching cold, she
breathed on it and chafed it with the other,
and now and then she kept lifting her eyes
to the sky somewhat enXiously, for the
early coming darkness seemed even too
early, and these were surely snow clouds
over Craig ma-skeldie. That little cottage,
the very farthest that could be seen stand
ing lonely and remote away up on the far
off hillside, was her destination, and it was
good two hours walk.
1.-THE snaw'll keep aft for awhile yet"
she thought, "an il I shouldna win hame
afore dark mither'll hae the lamp lit in the
There is no place in the world more soil
tary than those mountain glens in the dead
of winter but this girl was not nervous,
and she knew every step of the way Be-
tween her and her home there was only one
other dwelling. That was o cozy enough
building of gray stone, with tidy bit OF
ground about it, just where the moorland
road began to slope upward and become
hill track. Lizzie Iowden had long ago
made up her mind that she would take the
other side of the moor rather than pass
close by the door of Alan Grant, the game
keeper. There used to be two brothers at
Moorfoot-Alan, the gamekeeper, and
Sandie, the younger. q shepherd. Now
there was but one, for Sandie, the 'blythest
lad an the brawest in a. the glen,' 'the'
dainty chiel' of the "auld folk" and the
'secret ane" in more than one maiden's
heart, had disappeared.
Disappeared suddenly and strangely, and
yet after the first talk had died down there
seemed little mystery in it after ALL San
die had too much push and spirit, some
said, to remain long what he was-a shep.
herd in a quiet glen. He had been heard to
say that he would be ''aff some fine day,
and they would need to find anither to
dance Chile Callum' at the gathering in
summer and sing u sang by the winter fire Z"
And one fine spring morning his dog
wandered, with dropped head and melan-
choly eyes, around the house and over the
we'll known track, and all Alan said was
that Sandie ''hadna CAM hame last NIGHT,
and as his money has game, too, hesupposed
he was spendin it somewhere"
IAN nae wonder, he was fair sick o. the
likes of him, !" was the commonest comment
when his words were reported, for the elder
brother was no fayorite Big and strongly
made, with dark face and silent taciturn
ways, he was no sympathetic companion
for his light hearted brother. 1t would be
a year ago come April, and people had
ceased to s,lrmise or even to think much,
but Lizzie Lowden thought of little else,
though she had spoken less than any, and
tonight her heart was full of it.
She came to paling and put down her
basket to climb. She had been running
for some distance before coming to it and
stopped Il moment to take breath. The
moor rose Immediately beyond, and then
dipped into u sort of hollow. Beside the
paling, a little below where she was, lay Il
biggish stone. The ground was white,
though it was but a sprinkling of snow
that covered it, but just beside the stone
something drew her attention. She came
nearer. The color rushed into her face and
left it pale. The snow there was red dyed,
crimsoned with blood, but that was not
all. There were marks beyond, terrible
CHASTITY traces. Here the impress of-el,
could it be? handl There as If some
heavy body had dragged itself or been
dragged up the slope, and all the way that
horrible CHASTITY track!
Whatever it was-n,an or beast--it lay
just out Of sight, hidden in the hollow.
Her breath came and went in little gasps.
Must she pass t9 She would hide her eyes
and fly past, never looking, hardly stop
ping till she was near home, but for a mo-
ment her limbs refused to move. Then,
long and low, on the frightful silence came
"a moan? She was woman, and pity
was stronger than fear. 1t was anguish
unto death that called her, and she almost
few in the direction of the sound, Her
foot stumbled on something Almost be-
fore she looked, with a sick, shuddering
apprehension, she knew what it was-Alan
Grant, the gamekeeper's, gun, and-he had
moaned.
The man lay on bank of heather. His
hands clutched the twigs the snow hardly
whittier than his face, his eyes staring at the
sky In moment the girl realized what
had happened. He must have slipped on
the icy stone on leaping the fence, and in
the fall his gun had exploded. He WAS now
bleeding to death. ".Alan!" she said. and
he turned his dimmed eyes on her. The
life was almost out Of him, but the express
sion of some great mental agony, some ter