Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1898-01-01
The Old SILVER TRAIL.
BY MARY {. SnCiNEY.
lcopuisht ,sss. BY J. B uppineott Cal
CHAPTER w.

CHAPTER ".
The road below the Mascot mine, al
ways wet In places from seeping
springs, had been badly quilted by the
rain, but Dorothy had no care for safe
ty as she blindly dashed down the steep
hill. She felt altogether shaken and un'
nerved by this fortuitous reviviscence
OF IN adventure which had fingered In
her memory rs q cherished bit Of ro-
nance.
As she had truthfully told him in
The hurry and perturbation Of the
worlds fair encounter she had had
hardly q thought to spare for the
looks OF the young fellow whom
chance had sent to play q knight
ly part; still less had there been op.
portunity to learn his name or ought
else about him, beyond the patent facts
that he had been charmingly jealous In
her service und that his manner had
been precisely what the manner OF O
gentleman should be under such circum-
stances, deferential and wholly UMPIRE
Stunning. That she should ever meet
him again she was altogether too prac-
tical to imagine; but the picture OF
him which had remained with her, for
the very vagueness of its outlines, had
always had strong hold upon her fancy.
In the extravaganza of youths delight
in adventure, she had liked to magnify
the romance Of the episode by endowing
the hero with every grace, until uncon-
sciously TO herself he had DEVELOPED to
an ideal, altogether transcending the
common run of men.
And now in q moment the fair god
was rudely toppled to Garth. lie was
Harvey Neil, IN unprincipled adven-
turer, who by misrepresentation and
fraud and by clever play upon the falli-
bility of the law would strive to despoil
his ncighbor. He had dared to accuse
her father Of stealing fortune out OF
the Mascot mire; he would brand him
as common thief, simply to attain his
own Ubiquitous ends. "Aregular bunco
game" her father had tersely charac.
tcrized the suit which had been brought
against him. A bunco game! and de-
vised by him who had been idealized In
her mind MS very Chevalier Bayard,
without fear and without reproach.
Youth rcsents SO fiercely Its disillu-
sionmcnts! She could have wept angry
tears for the sense OF loss, Of cruel grie7-
ance, in this ruthless SCATTERING OF her
ideal.
She had nearly reached that point
far down the hill where the road lead
ing up to the Grubstake branched away
TO the east in an acute angle, when her
eyes fell upon the handkerchief still
bousd about her wrist. With little
inarticulatc exclamation she brought
the horse to IN abrupt stop, while, hur-
riedly undoing the damp folds, she
looked back. She would not have nd
mitted TO herself that she expected to
see him glued to the spot where she
had left him, absorbed in sentimental
contemplation Of her back; but her i'll
humor WIS not little augmented by
the fact that he had wholly vanished
from sight, while nobody appeared
whom she could call to her assistance.
Acting upon the first impulse. she
turned to go back up the hill, but wiz
u second thought she stopped MIS-
perpleXedly studying the sithaS ..
One small cabin, somewhat apart n NJ.
the other buildings Of the mipsr "
stinctively settled upoye Apbri-
vate quarters; and. shl Z@sposed
to ride up to he 4 t ith and
boldly tender him tin - his equip
ment, OF which she 4olecenly longed to
be rid; but with tekection appeared
dozen reasons why she should not do
that, not the least of which was her
nervous dread OF again encountering
Neil himself. She must return the
handkerchief by some messenger, she
decided, with sharp dislike for the very
sight of II, thrusting it down into her
saddle pocket, us she turned back again
to the Grubstake road.
Col. Meredith was standing just with
In the shaftIhouse door with the super
intendent Of the mine rs Dorothy rode
rp. both SO much occupied with their
conversation that for the moment neith-
err looked up. There was something In
her fathers attitude which suggested
to the girls mind that he must have
very lately arrived himself, and with
the thought she found herself glancing
back down the road with little start |
Of apprehension rs she reflected how
rear he might have been to seeing her |
ride down the mill on the other side
in company with Harvey Neil. She had
Ind no distinct thought of concealing |
tllat circumstance till this moment;
hut now of a sudden It appeared
clear that 1t might lie far more con-
ducive to her peace OF mind to keep |
TO herself the adventure of that after
noon.
With all the off4hand good-fellowship
which existed between them, there WINS
really very little in common between
Dorothy Meredith and her father. AS
\ child. when by her mother she had
been taken to live In the old family
home ut Brooklyn, her father had been
10 her Us n fairy prince whose occa-
sional visits had meant lavish gifts and
indulgence. She had been
fond Of him, in frank, childish selfish
ness, for what he did rather than what
he was to hereafter the canny method
Of children, who see SO much Of that
10 which they nre supposed to be blind.
half guessing ut the incompatibility
which led her parents to dwell SO much
ipart, and instinctively dlvining some
what OF the jealous regard OF each for