Iron County register., 1898-02-24
CHAPTER III.

/ hC1A hOb Ac1A ~ SOs OCl II " ctSo q
rough climb, and the young mans first
words were of apology when, spring
ing TO the ground, he came back to seize
her horse by the bit and guide him up
the last few feet over an almost per-
pendicular mass of loose gray rock.
81 would have gone round by the trail
| if had known it was quite so rough;
but we're all right now," he said, turn
| ing to try the door of the rude hut to
which they had come. The horses
were huddled together on a small,
rhomboidal bit of ground formed at the
top of an old dump pile, which went
crumbling away in a sheer descent far
| down among the trees, some of which
had been half buried in the lava-like
| flow. At the left yawned the mouth of
a tunnel about which appeared no sign
| of recent work, while the rough slab
| door of the shanty was fastened by a
| chain and paddock so rusted that they
| seemed to have been exposed to the
storms of years. BY no means daunted
| by this obstacle, however, the young
man coolly caught up a jagged piece of
rock and in a moment the staple was
broken and the door thrown open.
''If you will just step inside while
run the horses into the tunnel" he
hastily advised, when he had lifted her
TO the ground. Dorothy needed no
second bidding, but once within the
| door she paused, peering about doubt
fully. It was nothing more than rude
smithy, obviously designed merely for
the sharpening of drills used in the
tunnel, it's floor the bare, brown earth,
its only equipment a great stone forge
in one corner with an anvil at one side,
4 few empty candle-boXes, u small pile
of wood, and some picks and drills
thrown down with other undistin-
guishable rubbish in one corner.
ut is not quite the lap of luxury, but
we might do worse" the stranger smil-
ingly observed, as he came back, car
rying his hat filled with pine cones,
while he was further laden with an
armful of broken sticks. 'And fire
will help the looks of things amazingly"
ITO say nothing of the comfort of it,"
Miss Meredith rejoined, her teeth chat
tering as she smiled. 'How cold it has
grown!"
THAT is the worst of this much
vaunted climate; it has a capacity for
infinite variety. When the barometer
gets started on the down grade there is
never any telling where it will stop.
The weather is always exceptional, if
one is to believe the statements of the
oldest inhabitants. But there-that
looks encouraging, doesn't it?" he said,
standing back and pIeasedly surveying
iC +iny off
with sputtering eagerness through the
damp pitchiness of the piled-up cones
on the forge.
81 have seen the fire-I am warmed"
the girl smilingly quoted, holding out
her hands to the blaze. 1T is lovely"
And now won't you sit down and
make yourself comfortable" He
turned a candle-box on end for her as
he spoke.
but the box is so low and the fire is
so high" she smilingly objected. 81
should only be warming the tip of lay
nose, and am half frozen"
Are you?" He looked as dismayed
as though he accepted the statement
literally. "But of course you are. What
can 1 do?" He answered the question
for himself by reclllessly heaping upon
the forge the greater part of all the dry
wood that had been in the hut; from
which he turned to fish out from the
debris in the corner q dusty gunny-
sack, which he held up before him as if
measuring its possibilities.
1T won't do; it is not half big
enough" Dorothy exclaimed, divining
his idea with a merry laugh.
II suppose not: and it is so abomin-
ably dirty besides he disgustedly re-
joined, his laugh by no means so gay as
hers, as he threw the thing back where
he had found it. But you ought to
have something around you; you will
have your death of cold. l am afraid
my coat is as wet as your Dress" anx-
iously feeling the sleeve.
~And could not think of taking it if |
it we're not" she decidedly returned. |
please don't trouble; am doing beau |
tifully. It is such glorious FIRE"
But still, with all the draughts in |
this sieve of a place Oh, l say, why |
can't I put the box up on the forge for |
you, to the windward of the smoke |
So" suiting the action tn the words, and |
hastily adding a small erection of sticks /
10 save her feet from contact with the |
ashes. Now, Miss Meredith, you won't |
find this half bad, / promise you.
Come" He confidently held out his |
hand to assist her.
''Dut I cannot" the Rirl protested, |