Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-02-17
CHAPTER IL

the sandy shore of Gem lake, her en-
joyment of the scene subtly enhanced
by the suggestion of forbidden fruit
more distinctly in evidence with every
moment of dallying. Before her minds
eye she could plainly see her father
tuning with Impotence as he looked
for her out of the shaft-house door at
the Grubstake mine, where it had been
arranged that she was to meet him at
this hour of four in the afternoon; but.
while the troublesome vision appealed
to her sense of duty on the one hand,
OH the other it but filled her with per-
verse longing to loiter.
In all Colorado she was sure no scene
could be found more wildly beautiful
than this tree-fringed water, like bit
OF silver dropped down in the noun
tain's embrace, with the changing
light of rising storm falling upon
every feature with strange transmit
ing touch. AS with most happy folk,
natures somber mood was but a pleas
ant play upon her senses, chord of
sweet minor to thrill her with new
delight, and her mind was simply G
chaos of incoherent exclamation as her
clouds to the water making kaleido-
scopic play with the leaden tints; the
guarding trees all shivering and whis-
pering together as though in ominous
prophecy of evil, the great hills loom
ing up on every side, on whose steep
slopes seemed ranged the ghosts of all
the trees that had ever died, so unreal
they looked in the winding sheets of
mist that more and more with every mo-
Inent disguised their fair outlines.
But a moment ago the range had tow
cred in majesty at the west, three of
it's mighty, snow-crowned peaks look
ing down over the growing bulwark of
cloud like n gathering of kings watch
ing in eternal calm the petty con-
f1icts of earth; but now they were as
lost to the eye in the all-enveloping
grayness as though they had never
been. 1t was a scene full of weird des-
olation, 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 besides the
small segment of grass-grown road
curvinG around at one side of the tiny
lake. 1t seemed a fair dream-world OF
gray and silver, where nature mourned
alone, refusing to be comforted.
But, though in the vested independ-
ence of American girlhood she might be
oblivious to the claims of an irate Ia
Their, 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 linger 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 nave
hard ride to escape a wetting. = skilled
and fearless rider, however, it was but
a new pleasure to give the horse his
head, settling herself in the saddle for
a break-neck race with the storm; but
lust at the foot of the first hill she sud-
denly drew rein, while her gaze wan
dered uncertainty up the unkempt,
track turning off at the
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 n month or so at Windy GuIch,
and then, with u child's fondness for
gadding, she had learned the topogra- |
phy of all the region round. She remem- |
bered perfectly The 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 wan
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 mile or more,
while with such gain in time she ought
besides to be able somewhat to mollify |
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 its originally
fimsy construction and the awful
grades which had brought it into dis
favor the chances were that it would be
in the worst possible condition for safe
travel: but Miss Meredith was not ac-
,ustomed to question her ability to go
wherever horse might carry her, while
he wiry little broncho she rode was
blessed with cat-like capacity for
,ffmirng at any angie and over any SORT
If ground which seems the essential
orerogative of the mountain-bred pony.
Before size had given as much time to
he argument as it has taken to tell IT,
she had turned the horse and was flying
along the old road.
There was a pleasure in recognizing
familiar features Of the landscape as