The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1898-01-20
Xy.-CoNTINurD.
BY FRANCIS LyNDE.

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Having set out in haste, he had am
pie time to repent in leisure. The road,
little used at any time, and practically
abandoned since the opening of the
railway, soon led away from the valley
aud ran in tortuous windings and in
genious doublings over n spur of Johns
mountain. Al the top of the spur 1t
speedily lost it's identity in a succession
of wood roads, and, after following sew
eral of the latter to their vanishing
points, Philip gave up the struggle and
determined TO let the horse find the
way il he could. In common with un-
equestrian mankind in general, Philip
shared the belief in the inerrant path
finding instincts of horse; but after an
other hour of hesitant wandering, dur
ing which time he had been thrice gar
roted by lo~w-swinging branches, and
impartially bruised about the legs by
the efforts of the horse to squeeze be-
tween close-growing trees, his conf
dence in the sagacity of the animal be-
gan to waver. From doubt to GER
tainty is but a step, and Philips faith in
horses went the way of all delusions
when the clumsy beast stumbled on the
edge of a r%avine, slid helplessly 10 the
bottom, and ended by throwing his
rider into a heap of stones.
Philip was half stunned by the fall,
and when he came to himself he found
that he had gained a sprained ankle and
lost a horse. Remembering ruefully
the maxim about great haste and small
speed, he got up with some difficulty
and continued his wanderings afoot un-
til the pain in his ankle became unbear-
able. After hat there was nothing for
it but to sit down and wait for daylight,
and he was about to resign himself to
this comfortless alternative, when he
heard a cock crow. Chickens argued
inhabitants, and Philip dragged him
self painfully in the direction of the
sound until he came to the log cabin
of a mountaineer. 1t was but a miser-
able howell of a single room and a loft,
and its indwellers were doubtless
Bedouins in other respects than IN their
hospitality; but of the latter Philip
soon had grateful assurances. He was
taken in and cared for; the man making
up n fire in the crumbling stone fire.
place while the oma bathed his swol-
len ankle and called a half-growp boy
from the loft to go out after red clay for
a poultice. And afterward they would
have made him take the only bed in the
cabin if he had not insisted upon sleep
ing on the floor before the fire.
When Philip awoke the next morning
he found himself as completely n pris-
oner as even Sharpless could have de-
sired. Walking was out of the ques-
ton, and his host had neither a horse
nor the disposition to go to Glenco to
procure one, though his offers of hos.
pitality were as generous as he knew
how to make them. Philip guessed AT
the mans reason for not wishing to APP.
pear in Glenco when the mountainee
offered him a potation from a jug
drawn from it's hiding-place beneath the
puncheon floor, and forbore to press
the point, contenting himself with a re
quest that the boy might be allowed t.
carry a letter to Allacoochee. TIL,
permission was given, and Philip wrote
a note to Duncan, telling him of thu
accident and urging him to spare nj
pains to keep Kilgrow out of the hands
of Sharpless and his emissaries during
the enforced armistice. This he in
closed in q line to P~rotheroe, in which
he begged the young engineer to de
liver the message to the Scotchman
Not having an envelope, he tool tina
from Helen's letter, drawing his pencil
through his own name and writing
Protheroe's above it; and, after man,
explicit and precise instructions, tn,
boy left the cabin on Thorndyke's er
rand. An hour afterward lie was sit
ting c~ontentedly on n bowlder Ny tn
side of the A~llacoochee road, waiting il
tranquil idleness for the chance comm.
of some team whose driver would re
lieve him Of the necessity for furthe
exertion. He found a proxy in thu
course of the forenoon, and in due tim
the letter was delivered, not to Profile
roe. but to Mr.. jenkins Fench, VIII,
answered the bearers inquiry as to tn
Whereabouts of the engineer, and VIII
kindly volunteered to convey the mis-
sive to that gentleman's Office on tn
fourth floor of the Guaranty building.