The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-09

HAS ilAFfAllloIl. nat : the btA4e t-At'-1
that bothered me and I've been waiting
for. She's settled it, She'll do Come
They turned away briskly through the
wood Al the end Of half an hours walk
they found the team that had brought
them there in waiting and drove toward
San Jose. it was nearly ten miles before
they uassed another habitation or trace
clearing. And by This time night had
fallen upon The cabin they had left, ana
upon the newly made orphan and her In
dian companion alone and contented III
that track..ess solitude.
Liberty Jones had been a year at the
cabin. In that time she had learned that
ner employers name was Dr. Ruysoael
that he had a lucrative practice in san
Jose, but mad also taken up a league or
TWO OF wild forest land in the Santa Cruz
range, which he preserved and ned after
a fashion OF his own, which gave nm the
reputation Of being a crank among ne
very few neighbors his vast possessions
permitted, and the equally few friends
mis- singular tastes allowed him. Ii was
believed that a man owning such an enor-
nous quantity OF timber land VINO shouil
refuse TO set up a saw mill, and absolute
ly forbid the telling Of trees, VINO shoIld
decline TO connect it with the highway TO
Santa Cruz and close it against improve
nent and speculation, had zen sufncleRt
evidence OF ms insanity, but when TO this
was added the rumor that he himself was
not only devoid of human instinct OF
hunting the Wild animals with which his
domain abounded, but that he he'd II 50
sacred TO their use as to forbid the nring
of a gun within It's limits and that these
restrictions were further preserved and
"policed' by the scattered remnants of
band OF aborigines known as Digger In
ius'' il was seriously limited that his &C.
Centricity mad acquired a political and
moral significance, and demanded legis-
lative interference. But the doctor was
a rich man, a necessity to his patients, a
good maTksman, and, il was rumored, ala
not include his fellow-man among the
animals he had a distaste for killing.
OF all this however, Liberty knew little
and cared less. The solitude appealed TO
her sense of freedom; she did not han
Kerr after a society she had never known.
At the end of the first week, when the
doctor communicated to her briefly, by
letter, the convincing proofs of the death
of her father, and his entombment be-
meath the sunken cliff, she accepted the
fact without comment or apparent emo
ton. Two months later, when her only
surviving relative, Aunt Marty or MIS-
souri,, acknowledged the news-communi-
Gated by Dr.. Ruysdael-with scriptural
quotations and the cheerful hope that it
would be a lesson to her" and she would
profit in her new place'-she left her
aunts letter unanswered.
She looked after the cows and calves
with an interest that was almost possess
sorry, patronized and played with the
squaw-yet made her feel her inferiority-
and moved among the peaceful aborigi-
mes with the domination of a white wo-
man and a superior. She tolerated the
half-monthly visits of Jim Hoskns"-
the young companion of the doctor, whom
she learned was the Doctors factor and
overseer of The property, who lived eleven
miles away on an agricultural clearing,
and whose control of her actions was evil
IDENTIFY limited by the doctor-for the doc
tors sake alone. Nor was Mr.. Hoskns
inclined to exceed those limits. He looked
upon her as something abnormal-a
crank as remarkable in her way as her
patron was in his-neuter of sex and vague
of race, and he simply restricted his SUI
pervision to the bringing and taking of
messages. She remained sole queen of the
domain A rare straggler from the main
road, penetrating this seclusion, might
have scarcely distinguished her from
Waya, in her coarse cotton gown and
slouched hat-except for the free stride
which contrasted with her companions
waddle. once, in following an estrayed
calf, she had crossed the highway and
been saluted by a passing teamster in the
Digger diaiect-yet the mistake left no
sting in her memory. And, like the Dig
ger, she shrank from that civilization
which had only proved a hard taskmas-
ter
The sole touch of human interest she
had in her surroundings was i'm the rare
visits Of the doctor and his brief but sin
cere commentator Of her rude and rus
tic work Ii Is possible that The strange,
middfe-aged, gray-haired intellectual man,
whose very language was at times mys-
ferrous and uninteligible TO her and whose
suggestion of power awed her. might have
touched some untried filial chord in her
being. Although she felt that. save for alb
soute freedom, she was little more to him
than she had been to her father-yet he
had never told her she had no sense"
that she was "a hindrance," and he had
even praised her performance of her du-
ties. Eagerly as she looked for his coming,
in his actual presence she felt a singular
uneasiness of which she was not entirely
ashamed, and if she was relieved at his
departure it none the less left her to a
delightful memory of him, warm sense
of his approval and fierce ambition to be
worthy of It, for which-she would have
sacrificed herself or The other miserable
retainers about her-as q matter of course.
She had driven Waya and the other
squaws far along the sparse table land
pasture in search of missing stock she
herself had lam out all night on the rocks
beside and ailing heifer. Yet while salts
fled TO earn his praise for the perform
ance of her duty, for some feminine reason
she thought more frequently of a casual
remark he had made on his last visit: you
are stronger and more healthy in this air. q"
he had said, looking critically into her face.
I'VE have got that abominabe alkali out
of your system, and wholesome food will
do the rest" She was not sure she had
quite understood him-but she remembered
that she had felt her face grow hot when
he spoke-psrhaps because she had not un-
derstood him.
His next visit was day or two delayed,
and in her anxiety she had ventured as
far as the highway TO earnestly watch for
his coming. From her hiding place in the
underwood she could see the team and jim
1oskns already waiting for him. Pres
entity she saw him drive up to The trail
in a carryall, with a party of ladies and
gentlemen. He alighted, babe goodbye"
TO the party, and the team turned to re-
trace its course But in that single mo-
ment she had been struck and bewildered
by what seemed to her the dazzlingly
beautiful apparel of the women, and their