The herald., 1894-10-21
Los ANGELES HERALD. SUNDAY MORNING,

Ccggins' complete approval Only once
---on reading an announcement two
years before, copied from a society pa.
per, and again few months later, when
reading Of wedding--did he evince
any interest in the mail On the latte,
evening he did not care for the club,
BIZ smoked alone in his quarters and
buzned soine letters after reading them.
Then suddenly he seemed seized with
all the cynicism youth freely f1aunts as
if it valnly feels-affected to care only
for married women and few like
transparencies. Then, in illustration Of
his preference, devoted himself violent
ly to Mrs. Blank, clever, kindly soul,
who understood his symptoms, humored
and helped him, being a good woman,
possessed of the best of husbands. Incl
dentally or from habit Hodgson devoted
himself to duty and now that Wilson
had staff work he was given the scouts,
q promotion which provoked comment
from O 'Leary, who said to Coggins, "Oi
tell you, Dan'l, Oh hated to see so foine
q lad punished wild sich a compl 'meent. "
For company of scouts meant annoy
ances not met with in the management
of ordinary troop routine, but it had its
compensations in opportunities for field
service.
News had come that sheriff and dep
uty, guarding prisoners from Globe to
Florence, had been cverpowercd and
killed. Hodgson was to take the trail at
once. In q few hours the scouts had
found it leading from tho old Florence
road near the Gila, crossing where the
killing had occurred. 1t led through the
Superstition mountains, which he had
net had occasion to visit since Chris
topherson $ death. Soon he found him.
self again on the same rugged trail and
had passed the point where before he
had lost it. The Indians were evidently
heading for the Tonto basin and trying
to return, to their own reserve. Once
among their tribe, only the released
prisoners could be identified, and the
perpetrators of this last outrage would
be lost.
Tradition warns you that if one en-
ters far into the Superstition mountains
he will never return, the country being
too rough for animals and too dry for
man. Prospectors who have penetrated
the edges of this range say that it ie
filled with mineral, Improbable for
want of water. Cattle do not range
there, and men hunting large game go
to tho tiinbered mountains, so a trail
across this chain would lead where no
one wished to go save Hodgson, who
now went for sake Of duty. He pushed ON,
with sullen, dogged courage, over the
stony trail used as lost time gaining
refuge by hunted savages in these most
arid mountains of our most arid land
until he emerged, almost mad with
thirst, on the Rio Salinas, in the Lower
Tonto basin. Thence the trail led into
tho Sierras Auchas, and in this great
altitude it was lost under the first fall
Of autumn snow.
There was nothing left for Hodgson
to do now but to return to the reserva-
tion, as the Indians were evidently try
ing to do, for the eastern foothills Of
this sierra border the San Carlos reserve,
and the Indians would not remain long
in the snow. Hodgson must make de-
tour, see their squaws among the cibi-
Gus on the western edge of the reserve,
and if their bucks had not already re-
turned he might hope to cut their trail
where it left the snow line and intercept
them from their haven, the reservation.
He had found from their squaws on
Cibicu that they had not yet returned.
TWAS all he wanted to know, but as he
was leaving a squaw's tepee his eye
caught sight of faded pink letter, Gu
riously embroidered by way of color
ornament onto the face of buckskin
garment. The writing was familiar.
He seized it eagerly-in faded letters by
a fading light he read her answer.
He tore her letter from the garment
and pushed it into tho pocket of his jer-
sey and stood for a moment near the
door of the tepee, looking absently
across the bare hills of the brown re-
serve. He was thinking of the woman
who was not his wife and of children
not his own. Then he turned quickly
and mounted his horse.
''It was all my fault," he said "but
l must not lose the trail today. Ishould
have followed it closer when had it be-
fore" I"
And as he spurred his horse toward
the snow line of the sierras he was
laughing as one should not laugh when
one is young. &C. -Overton in San Fran
cisco Argonaut.