The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-18


cluse, preferring the absolute simplicity
of nature, or perhaps wearied with the
artificialitieS of society, had secluded
himself here with the company of his
only daughter. Proficient as a path |
finder, he had easily discovered some
other way of provisioning his house
from the settlements than by the ordi-
nary trails past Collinsons or Skin
ner's. But recluseS are not usually &C.
companied by young daughters, whose
relations with the world not being as
antagonistic, would make them uncer-
tain companions. Why not wife?
His presumption of the extreme youth
Of the face he had seen at the window
was, after all, only based upon the
slipper he had found. And If wife.
whose absolute acceptance of such con-
fined seclusion might be equally I'M
certain. why not somebody else's wife?
Here was a reason for concealment,
and the end of an episode, not I'M
known even in the wilderness. And
here was the Nemesis who had over
taken them in their guilty content
ment. The story, even to its moral,
was complete. And yet IL did not en-
tirely satisfy him, so superior is the
absolutely unknown to the most elab-
crate theory.
His attention had been once or twice
drawn toward the crumbling wall of
outcrop which during the conhagra-
ton must have felt the full force Of
the fiery blast that had swept through
the hollow and spent its fury upon it.
1t bore evidence of the intense heat in
cracked frames and the crumbling
debris that lay at its feet. Key picked
up some of the still warm fragments,
and was not surprised that they easily
broke in a gritty grayish powder in
his hands. In spite of his preoccupa-
ton with the human interest, the in
stinct Of the prospector was still
strong upon him, and he almost me-
chemically put some of the pieces in
his pockets. Then, after another care
ful survey of the locality for any
further record of its vanished tenants,
he returned to his horse. Here he
took from his saddle bags, half list
leSsly, a precious phial encased in
wood, and opening it, poured into an
other thick glass vessel a part of a
smoking fluid. He then crumbled some
of the calcined fragments into the
glass and watched the ebullition that
followed with perfunctory gravity.
When it had almost ceased he drained
off the contents into another glass
which he set down, and then proceeded
to pour some water from his drinking
flask into the ordinary tin cup which
formed part of his culinary travel
ing kit. Into this he put three or four
pinches of salt from his provision
store. Then dipping his fingers into
the salt water he allowed a drop to
fall into the glass. A white cloud
instantly gathered in the colorless
fluid, and then fell in a fine film to
the bottom of the glass. Keys eyes
concentrated suddenly, the listless look
left his face. His fingers trembled
Slightly as he again let the salt water
fall into the solution, with exactly the
same result. Again and again he re-
peated it, until the bottom of the glass
was quite gray with the fallen pre-
cipitate. And his own. face grew as
gray
His hand trembled no longer as he
carefully poured off the solution so as
to not disturb the precipitate at the
bottom. When he drew out his knife.
scooped little of the gray sediment
upon its point, and emptying his tin
cup turned it upside down upon his
knee, placed the sediment upon it
and began to spread it over the dull
surface of its bottom with his knife.
He had intended to rub it briskly with
his knife blade. But in the very action
of Spreading it, the. first stroke of his
knife left upon the sediment and the
cup luminous streak of FURNISHED
silver
He got up and drew long breath
to still the beating of his heart. Then
he rapidly climbed the rocks again
ana passed over the ruins again. this
time kicking aside the charred heaps
without a thought of what they had
contained. Key was not an unfeeIing
man; he was not an unrefned one: he
was gentleman by instinct, and had
an intuitive sympathy for others, but
in that instant his whole mind was
concentrated on the calcined outcropI
And his first impulse was to see if it
bore any evidence of previous exam
lnation, prospecting or working by its
suddenly eVicted neighbors and own
ers. There was none; they had evil
IDENTIFY not known it. Nor was there
any reason to suppose that they would
ever return to their hidden home, now
devastated and laid bare to the open
sunlight and open trail They were
already far away; their guilty personal
secret would keep them from revisiting
it. An immense feeling of relief came
over the soul of this moral romancer;
momentary recognition of the Most
High in this poetical retribution. He
ran back quickly to his saddlebags.
drew out one or two carefully written
formal notices of presumption and
claim, which he and his former com
panions had carried in their brief part
nership, erased their signatures and
left only his own name. with another
grateful sense of divine interference.
as he thought OF them speeding far
away in the distance, and returned to
the ruins. With unconscious irony he
selected a charred post from the en-
bers, stuck it in the ground few feet
from the debris of outcrop, and finally
affixed his Notice. Then, with
a conscientiousness born of his
new religious convictions, he dislodged
with his pickaXe enough of the brittle
of actual work. upon the claim le-
gally required for its maintenance, and
returned to his horse. In replacing
his things in his saddlebags he came
upon the slipper and for an instant,
so complete was his preoccupation in
his later discovery, that he was about
to throw 1t away as useless impede
menta until it occurred to him vaguely
that it might be of service to him in
its connection with that discovery-iu
the way of refuting possible false
claimants. He was not aware of any
faithlessness of his nomentary romance
any more than he was conscious of
any disloyalty to his old COMPANIONS
in his qualification that his good for
tune had come to him alone. This sin
gular selection was q conscious ex-
perience Of prospecting, and there was
something about the magnitude of his
discovery that seemed to point to an
individual achievement. He had made
a rough calculation Of the richness of
the lode from the quantity of precipi-
tate in his rude experiment; he had