The Irish standard., 1897-04-03

ihnvin' a game OF freeZe-Out?'-a prop
osition which was promptly followed
by shutting of feet across the street.
4; 3 - CHAPTER VII. -.
+ A little way beyond the hotel at the
west, Windy Gulch appeared to come to
an abrupt end, it's one street dividing
into a couple Of no less dusty though
somewhat narrower roads, of which the
one~at the right climbed away over the
hills to meet the Old Silver trail and
other remote by-ways, while the other
turned down among the shadows of
the cottonwoods by the creek, keeping
TO its wavering company for g. mile
or more before it was forced to higher
levels on it's way to the mining camp
Of Tomtown. This little cottonwood
grove where the road started was tho
one touch of sylvan beauty of which
Windy Gulch might boast. There was
a great, implanted wooden structure,
housing an abandoned process for treat
ing ores, just at the left of the turn
ing point, followed by two or three
cabins likewise deserted; but beyond
this the trees had been left to grow
old unmolested. A little way along
there was an old Spanish arastra fallen
to ruins across the creel;, while the
yawning mouths of shallow tunnels
here and there told of somebody's fail"
ures; but paying leads had never been
days Windy Gulch for the most part
passed it by unheeding. Sometimes
:: lovers came to loiter along its shaded,
-grownroad on Sunday afternoons;
and more rarely yet travellers passed
that way, going to or coming from Tom
town, but these latter generally chose
to go round by the newer and better
road that turned off down the canyon
q few miles below, so that Dorothy had
discovered that on weekdays she might
safely count on never meeting anybody
here,
But it happened on this August after
noon that Harvey Neil had started for
To1ntown, hoping to consum1nate some
sort of bargain by which his slippery
colleague Brigham might. be left to his
duty in the forthcoming trial. He had
turned aside at Windy Gulch to consult
the doctor about his horse, finding that
the animal had. gone lame; and he was
chagrined, to discover, when he had
gone few miles, that in common hui"
mainly he must turn back, the trouble
being SO aggravated by the bad road,
which in many places was but a stretch
of bleaching powders washed bare by
spring time floods; whence it happened
that Dorothy's. solitude ON this occa-
sion came to- be invaded by the one
person who most occupied her thoughts.
She had almost forgotten her indigna-
ton on her fathers account in the subtle
pleasure growing cut of the idea that
McCready was the one person respon-
sible for all the trouble. This view of
the. case exactly harmonized with her
preconceived opinion. She had instinct
lively disliked the superintendent of the
mine from the outset, and now she
could take to herself credit for her
penetration. Her father had been mis-
led, deceived, mainly that McCready
might profit by it, might find means to
crafty private malice against the
owner of the Mascot mine. She was
now i1npulsively persuaded that Har-
vey Neil had been really wronged, and
ell because her father had been system
atically led to false conclusions by this
arch-plotter, who had no care for any
sacrifice Of honor in attaining his own
evil ends. If but the proofs might be
forthcoming to prove the wrong, to IN
duce her father to withdraw and make |
restitution while yet there was time
to vindicate his real moral blameless-
ness
Harvey Neil had dismounted to spare
the horse, and for mile or more had
been Flooding along, leading the ami
NAL, when, just at turn in the road
as be came down into the little cotton !
wood grove, he stopped short in sur
prise at sight OF Miss Meredith seated !
by the roadside.
The hills had here crowded down on |
either side of the narrow creek, great !
rock masses joining hands as though !
it had been purposed to hold back the |
hurrying water, which, but in madder
Joy as it seemed, went leaping over
the low barriers in series Of foam
ing waterfalls, churned to whiteness |
and shimmering like liquid opal in |
the caressing sunshine. Here the road
had been blasted out of the solid rock |
at one side, and the debris SO formed |
heaped up into low wall along the
waters edge; and hero it was the girl
was sitting, so lost in thought as to
be utterly deaf to the advancing steps
above the swishing and rushing of the
stream.
Neil had~thought the day Of the
storm: that Miss Meredith must look
her best in her riding habit, but to-
day, in the simple cotton gown she wore,
she seemed to him even more daintily
lovely. t'Ten times more charming than,
her fathers Grabbed, and he's COM
posed of harshness,' he quoted, under
his breath, lettering all he might in
the pace that must presently bring him
beside her. Curious as he was to know
how she would greet him, he yet would