Arizona republican., 1898-09-12
THE OLD
 SILVER TRAIL.
BY MARY E. ST'1CKNEY.
tContinued from Yesterday. :,

could be found 'r,orc wildly beautiful than this tree-ffihgeti water, hIste q bif of silver dropped down in the moiir tain's embrace, with the changing light Ia rising storm falling upon cvcry feature with strange translnut
 ing touch. Ks with most happy folk, natures. sombef tnoeti Has but pleas ant play upon her sefises. a chord of sweet minor to thrill her with neu
 delight. ard her mind was simply c chaos of ineoherpnt exclamation as her glance ranged from the gray s,wirling clouds to the water making kaleido- scopic play with the leaden tints: the guarding trees all shivering and whis- perinS together as though fn cIninous prophecy of evil, the great hills loon- ing up on every side, on whose steer slopes seemed ranged the ghosts of a:. the u ees that had ever died, so unres. they looked in the winding sheets O.
 mist that more and more with every fslo
 rnent disguised their fair outI.nes
 But moment ago the range had toy
 cred in majesty at the west, three Of it's mighty, snow.crowned peGks look ing down over the growing bulwark of cloud like a gathering of kings watch ing in eternal calm the petty con flicts of earth; but now they were as lost to the eye in the all-enveioping grayness as though they had never been. It was scene full of weird des- olution, instinct with wind and woe. So far as the eye might see was no sign of habitation, nothing that bore the touch of human hands Ees.des the small segment of grass-gTown road curving around at orc side of the tiny lake. It seemed a fair dream-v orid of gray and silver, where nature mourned alone, refusing to be comforted.
 But, though in the vested irdepend- enee of American girfhocd she night be cblivious to the claims of an irate fa- ther, she could not long remain deaf to such warnings as the winds were now shrieking through the trees. She was not yet ready to admit that she had been unwise to finger so long: but as she turned her horse back to the road she was forced to reflect that, with more than three miles lying between her and the shelter of the Grubstake shaft-house. she was bound to h"rn
 hard ride to escape wetting. 4 skilled and fearless rider, however. it was but new pleasure to give the horse his head, settling herself in the saddle for break-necI race with the storm; but just at the foot of the first hill she sud denly drew rein. while her gaze wan dered uncertainty up the unIlcmpt. half-obliterated track turning off atthe left, the Old Silver trail.
 Ten years before, just at the last of the Silver City excitement, her father had brought her mother and herself to stay for q month or so at Windy GuIci, and then, with. child's fondness for gadding. she had learned the topogr:,- phy of all the region round. She remem- bered perfectly .he line of the old road, which now passed directly by the Mas cot mine and within a. stones throw Of the Grubstake-her glance as it war dered up the newer way, which now too had grown old. clearly recalling the point of intersection. By taking this short cut she could save a mile CT more. while with such gain in time she ought besides 10 be able somewhat to mollisy her fathers wrath by presenting her self in dry clothing. So far as she knew the way beyond the Mascot mine was
 now never used. and. with it's originally fimsy construction and the awful i grades which had brought it into dis ! favor the chances were that it would b, in the worst possible condition for saf., i travel; but Miss Meredith was not ac- l vustonied to question her ability to gG i wherever horse might carry her, whilt 1 the wiry little broncho she rode was | blessed with cat-like capacity for l climbing at any angle and over any sort l of ground which seems the essential | prerogative of the mountain-bred pony.
 Before sLe had given as much time to i the argument as it las taken to tell it
 she had turned the horse and was flying
 along the old road. -
 There was a pleasure in recognizinp
 familiar features of the landscape as
 she swiftly passed them by. This mai.
 row infervale, hedged in by almost par.
 allel lines of foothills. she remembered so well, although in the old spr:ngtinay
 the ground had been almost carpetel l 'Ash $ Ndt tsoi PiC W Ilic IlOFt
 it was masses of yellow bloom which
 the wind was bending down to earth:
 but the grove of qraking asps intt 1 which she presently rode looked new
 and strange; obviously they had sprung
 up, since her time. And they had
 grown lip in such amazing number;
 there were myria6ls of them all B.
 frou-frou flntter. their delicate. wrap l pings turned silvcry side out, as though
 in futile effort to cover their whiti
 limbs from the storms rude touch. Ths
 girl felt suddenly lost as the way closed
 ill among them: and she would have
 hastened to get out into the open one,
 more, but their branches so swep:
 across the way that she had continual
 ly to take care fest she Were caught
 with singing blows from them. Plain ly nature had been left to work hei
 own will with the old trail. There were
 marks of wheels-wood-teams the gfr