St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-25

had been at Heidelberg for three years. for
they could talk about places each had visited
and that was the next best thing to having
visited them together.
1t was also delightful to learn that Ralph
loved music that was a great comfort to her
mother and herself, though her father was
too busy to care for it. She was sure Ralph
could sing, for his face looked like it, and
he flushed and modestly confessed that he
did try it sometimes, but only in the COM
pany of his most lenient friends.
Down to the little bay at the mouth of the
stream, Aqua Fra, they wandered. The
Coloners yacht was at anchor 100 yards out
and the other side of the bay was pic
turesque hamlet, occupied by Mexican fish
ermen some of whom her father had brought
up with him from San Pedro.
How grand and stately the mansion looked
from the white shorel To Ralph this was
Eden before the serpent came. To have given
a thought to time would have been rank
sacrilege. He could have gone on and on in
her presence forever and deemed eternity all
too short to surfet him with such exquisite
happiness.
''Let us go back by another route,'' said
Dora as they turned away from the little
bay, on the opposite of which a swarm of
children, like bronze Cupids, were splashing
and shouting in the water.
They had taken but few steps, when out
from the jungle of dwarf palms and tree
ferns, the TALL gaunt figure of woman, with
bare arms and feet, black, cleaning eyes and
hair that hung over her breast and shoulders,
like the name of wild horse, appeared.
In alarm, Dora seized Ralph's arm, and
noticing the act, the woman called out:
''They call me mad Inez but you need not
fear mev'
Ralph recollected that this was the woman
who chung to the heads of the horses the day
before at the gate, and whom man, Pedro,
succeeded in coaxing away.
No, do not fear you," said Dora, sooth-
ingly, 'but would help you if could
$50 you would, senorita, so you would but
you are powerless to right the wrong that
was done to me before you were born. am
mad Inez but who made me mad? who made
me mad? God, the priests say, but I know it
was the devil, and he knows it too"
She pointed up at the mansion, whose
windows flashed in the sunlight with a dazzl-
ing brilliancy, and continuing in the same
hoarse, dramatic tones:
'Last night the great palace flashed with
lights, as if it were afiame. 1t will flash
again, and there will be red devils dancing
and hunting him from vault to roof. But he
cannot escape, for shall be there. Mad Inez
will be there but will save YOU Call to me
above the roar of the flames and the bowling
of the wind, and I will save you. And this
man. she points to Ralph, 'he is not of the
cursed brood. All, see his soul, and feel
that he loves you, Better he should fly be-
fore the flames come, for Almedo is the son of
a murderer, who will try to improve on his
fathers work %
And then tossing up her long arms, and
shaking back the hair that had fallen over her
face, the woman turned and vanished into the
jungle as suddenly as she had come
''That is certainly an odd experience. T
hope she did not brighten you,' said Ralph,
drawing through his arm the little hand that
had sought it for protection.
poor woman" sighed Dora, 'tyou can see
she is demented. Her brother, Pedro, is our
gatekeeper. They formerly lived near San
Diego, and for some service real or imagined
rendered him in the past, father brought them
up here and has cared for them. Poor, mad
IL.
second time have seen her since my return
from Europe
Ralph changed the subject, for though Dora
bravely controlled herself, he could feel the
tremor of the little white hsnd ON his arm.
AS they neared the house, they saw Amedo
in the distance talking earnestly with Doctor
Ellerton who seemed to be as cool as the
other was excited.
On reaching the piazza, Dora thanked
Ralph for his escort, and then went off to her
mothers room.
Colonel Morton and Lord Pelham who had
been up the coast on horseback, rode up and
the latter sprang from the saddle with the
gracefully, easy swing of a man long accus-
toned to such seat, and not having seen
Ralph before that morning, he greeted him
with refreshing heartiness.
SPY Jove, Holmes !" said his lordship, with
the manner of an old acquaintance this is a
marvellous country. l have been on this
coast before, you know, and thought knew
it fairly WELL but the ride this morning was a
revelation. We got position from which we
could see the snow line of the Sierra Nevada
to the east with a,hundred valleys and streams
and wooded slopes and royal estates inter-
NcuiuS why, L Cdu uuu WOTuS 10 6X-
press my delight, don't cher know"
II must confess, laughed Ralph ''that the
trip seems to have frightened up your de-
scriptive powers for 1 can see the pictures
as you draw Them
"Ah, you are very kind, I'm sure, but I
hunger for smoke, and left my pipe home
Wait, I shall get it, and then we can throw
ourselves under the trees and loaf and chat.
You know like that American word loaf
it satisfies long-felt want in nv vocabu-
larry
His lordship hurried away, and soon re-
turned with his briar-wood pipe and tobacco
pouch, and falling in with his humor Ralph
went with him and threw himself on the
sward in the shadow of sn oak that drooped
about like sylvan tent.
Back of the library there was little room
known as the colonels private Office, he called
it his corral, " into which no one was per-
mitted to enter when he was not there
After leaving Lord Pelham, Colonel Morton
went to his room, where he summoned his
valet, "a Chinaman, and exchanged his riding
boots for slippers. He was in the act of
lighting cigar, when he heard a rap at the
door, and before he could say ''come in" it
opened, and DR.. Elerton entered.
Closing the door behind him and dropping
into a chair with an air of disgust Elerton
said:
.'That cursed fool Almedo is in the tan
trums again"
''That is not news, Dick, for the tantrums,
as YOU call them are the fellows normal