Omaha daily bee., 1895-08-11

ness on either side Of its preclpitous walls.
Nevertheless, at the end OF an hour the
leader rose in his stirrups with sigh of
satisfaction.
There's the light in Collinson's mill!
There's nothing gaudy and spectacular
about that. boys. eh? No. sir! it's square,
honest beacon that a man can steer by.
Wen be there in twenty minutes" He
was pointing into the darkness below the
already descending trail. Only a pioneers
eye could have detected the few pin pricks
Of light in the impenetrabe distance, and IL
was a signal proof cf his leadership that the
others accepted 1t without seeing 1t. 1T S
Just 10 O'clock" he continued, holding a
huge silver watch to his eye; we've wasted
an hour on those blamed spooks yonder!'
I'VE weren't off the trail more than ten
minutes, Uncle Dick" protested the pleas
ant voice.
"All right my son; go down there If you
like and fetch out your Witch of Endor, but
as for me, I'm going to throw myself the
other side of COllinsons lights They're
good enough for me, and blamed sight
more stationary"
The grade was very steep. but they took
it, California fashion, at 4 gallop, being
generally good riders, and using their brains
as well as their spurs in the understanding
Of their horses and Of certain natural laws,
which the more artificial riders OF civiliza.
ton are apt to overlook. Hence there was
the nervous creatures they bestrode. who
swept over crumbling stones and slippery
lodges with momentum that took away
half their weight and made a stumble or
false step, or indeed anything but
actual collision, almost impossible
Closing together they avoided the
latter, and holding each other well
up became one Irresistible wedge-shaped
mass. At times they yelled, not from con-
sciousness nor bravado, but from the purely
animal instinct of warning and to combat
the breathessness of their descent, until
reaching the level, they charged across the
gravelly bed Of a vanished river. and pulled
up at Collinsons Mill. The mill itself had
long since vanished with the river, but the
building that had once stood for it was used
as a rude hostelry for travellers, which, how
ever bore no legend or invitatory sign.
Those who wanted it, knew it; those who
passed 1t by, gave no offense.
Collinson himself stood by the door smOk
ing a contemplative pipe. AS they rode up he
disengaged himself from the doorpost list
lessy, walked slowly toward them. said re-
fiectively TO the leader i've been thinking
with you that a vote for Thompson is vote
thrown away" and prepared to lead the
horses toward the water tank. He had
parted with them over twelve hours before
but his air of simply renewing a recently in
terrupted conversation too common a
circumstance to attract their notice. They
knew and he knew that no one else had
passed that way since he had last spoken
that the same sun had swung silently above
him and the unchanged landscape, and there
had been no interruption nor diversion to
his monotonous thought. The wilderness
annihilates time and space with the grim
pathos Of patience.
Nevertheless he smiled. aye don't seem to
have got through coming down yet" he con-
tinued. as few small boulders, loosened in
their rapid descent, came more deliberately
rolling and plunging after the travellers along
the gravelly bottom. Then he turned away
with the horses, and, after they were wat
cred he re-entered the house. His guests
had evidently not waited for his ministration.
They had already taken one or two bottles
from the shelves behind a wide bar and
helped themselves, and, glasses in hand were
now satisfying the more imminent cravings
of hunger with biscuits from a barrel and
slices of smoked herring from a box Their
equally singular host, accepting their con-
duct as not unusual. Joined the circle they
had comfort ably drawn round the fireplace
and meditat:vely kicking a brand back at
the fire said, without looking at them:
"Well?'
"Well!' returned the leader. leaning back