Morris tribune., 1895-12-04

AS best ne cOuld-that 1t was the pet
ter thing to do under the circumstance
and left the room. He was also some
what apprehensive lest Jeanette should
break loose again and be after him,
and this was contingency to be guard
ed against No sooner had the officer
left than Harry Yorke placed the now
perfectly passive woman gently in q
chair A reaction had set in, and hel
demeanor underwent n complete change.
She was now indulging in a hearty cry.
sob, to think that I should have low
cred myself like that she sobbed,
"But to hear that villain talk of my
young mistress as he did, and here
she could not find words to express her
indignation.
''You have made him pay for it,
Jeanette" said Yorke And, by
Jove l Suppose it's rank treason for
me to say SO, but, as my superior Off
Ger, I'm heartily ashamed of him.
Thank goodness, I've only couple of
months more to put in now, for could
not stand much more of this sort of
thing.
In the meantime the scout had gone
, out and fetched supply of frewood in
for Jeanette, then he lifted away the
box of ashes for her from her stove.
The trooper took the water buckets, and
taking them to the we'll filled them.
As for Jeanette, she was kind heart
ed if impulsive soul, and these simple
little actions touched her. She was now
heartily ashamed of her late outbreak
being usually the best tempered of wom-
en-though, like the best tempered, the
most dangerous when roused-but still
she kept lamenting about Marie. So, IN
order to facilitate matters and hurry
them out to follow up the tracks of her
young mistress, she herself prepared
breakfast for them while they were sad
ding up. After somewhat hurried
meal they were in the saddle once more.
Jamie by this time had somewhat re-
covered his equanimity. He thought
that by following up the tracks Of the
girl he would come upon her father and
make an easy capture. This raised his
spirits. As he had little sense of shame,
the light in which he had so lately fig
ured soon ceased to trouble him. The
marks of Jeannette's finger nails and the
place where the billet of wood had
struck him, however, kept on troubling.
They promised to keep the incident
green in his memory for some little
time. But he was one Of those men
whom it is difficult to insult, an alb
sence of self respect rendering such
contingency almost an impossibility. /
He had, however, sufficient sense to see
that he had not figured in particularly
creditable light, and that the private
and the scout would back up the non
com. in matter of evidence. He there
fore determined to bide his time and
Gland all three, as he felicitously put
it to himself, in some other way.
''Get On her traiL Pierre" cried the
officer. "Surely you can track a human
being in the snow"
But either the little scout was unac-
countably stupid that morning Or else
the girl had shown considerable skill in
avoiding the wreaths Of snow, for he
wasted some considerable time before
he picked up her tracks Indeed, it was
not until after he had whispered col
loquy with the sergeant that he did SO.
No very great quantity of snow had in
deed fallen 1t was the way it had drift
ed before the wind that had given the
impression Of quantity. However, it
was not so easy to follow up her tracks
as they thought it would have been, for
the girl, as has been said, seemed to
have chosen the deepest and most treach-
erous drifts to walk upon, only stepping
on those long strips that the wind had
laid bare on purpose to give them some
difficulty in picking her tracks up again.
She had crossed and recrossed the rug
ged and tortuous creek in a most eXas-
perating fashion. The result was that
in places which she had passed over on
snowsboes, leaving but little visible i'm
preston, their horses sank and foun-
dered about in dangerous manner. On
more than one occasion the officer, chat
ing under the delay and eager to show
the scout that he was not going fast
enough, would put spurs to his horse
and shoot ahead for so yards or SO.
Then ali at once he would disappear
in drift or into the concealed bed of
the creek, where nothing would be seen
Of him save his bearskin cap and the
fine snow dust flying into the air as his
poor horse plunged and paved helpless
". However, Jamie could always be
heard. Yuba Bill or Queensland bull
lock driver could not have expressed
himself more forcibly on such occasions.
The delay thus caused by extricating
him from such positions was consid
cradle. On one occasion the scout,
whose plan it was to throw his lariat
over the officers head and shoulders,
and thus draw him out, pulled "rather
prematurely," as Dick Townley char
acterized it, and the rope Tightening
round Jamie's neck nearly succeeded in
strangling him before they realized his
position.
But all this time Harry Yorke was
sorely disturbed in his own mind. Vie
knew that if by now the girl had not
met her father she must be exhausted
and unable to proceed farther. II she
had met her father, say, three or four