Evening star., 1899-07-08

needn't trouble u.s." returned the doctor,
drily. But here a sudden outburst of laugh
ter from the cabin made them both turn in
that direct ton. They were in time to see
Liberty Jones dancing out of the cabin door
in a large cotton pinafore, evidently be,Ong-
ing to the squaw, who was following her
with half-laughing, half-frightened expos
tulations. The two men stopped and gaaed
at the spectacle.
Don't seem to be takin' the old mans
death very powf fully" said the younger,
with laugh.
quite as much as he deserved dare
say" said the doctor, curtly. "If the acci-
dent had happened to her, he would have
whined and whimpered to US for the sake
of getting something. but have been as
much relieved, you may be certain. She's
yet
Suddenly the laughter ceased, and Liberty
Jones' voice arose, shrill but masteTful:
Thar, that'l do. Quit now. You Jest get
back to your scrubbin', dye hear? Pm boss
o this shanty, you bet!"
The doctor turned with grim smile to
his companion. That's the only thing that
bothered me and I've been waiting for.
She's settled it. She'll do. Come
They turned away briskly through the
wood. At the end of half hours walk
they found the team that had brought them
there in waiting and drove toward San
Jose. 1t was nearly ten miles before they
passed another babitaton or trace of clear
ing. And by this time night had fallen
upon the cabin they had left, and Upon the
newly made orphan and her Indian COM
panion alone and contented in that track
less solitude.
Liberty Jones had been a year at the
cabin. In that time she had learned that
her employers name was DR.. Ruysdael,
that he had lucrative practice in San
Jose, but had also taken up a leag que or
two of wild forest land in the Santa Cruz
range, which he preserved and held after a
fashion of his own, which gave him the
reputation of being a crank among the
very few neighbors his vast possessions
permitted, and the equally few friends his
singular tastes allowed him 1t was be-
lieved that a man owning such an enormous
quantity of timber land who should refuse
to set up a sawmill, and absolutely forbid
the telling of trees; who should decline to
connect it with the highway to Santa Cruz
and close 1t against improvement and spec
ulation, had given sufficient evidence of his
insanity, but when to this was added the
rumor that he himself was not only devoid
of the human instinct of hunting the wild
animals with which his domain abeunded
but that he held 1t sacred to their use
as to forbid the firing of gun within its
limits, and that these restrictions were fur
ther preserved and ''policed' by the scat
tered remnants Of band of aborigines
known as Digger Injins," it was seriously
limited that his eccentricity had acquired
political and moral significance, and de-
manded legislative interference. But the
doctor was a rich man, necessity to his
ii,
rumored, did not include his feliowman
among the animals he had a distaste for
killing.
OF all this, however, Liberty knew little
ana cared less. The solitude appealed to
her sense of freedom: she did not "hanker''
after 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 beneath the sunken
ciiH, she accepted the fact without COM
ment or apparent emotion. Two months
later, when her only surviving relative,
Aunt Marty" of Missouri acknowledged
the news-communicated by DR.. Ruysda ell
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 aunt's letter unanswered.
she looked after the cows and calves with
an interest that was almost possessory pa
tronized and played with the sQuaW-yet
made her feel her inferiority-and moved
among the peaceful aborigines with the
domination Of white woman and a supe-
rior. She tolerated the half-monthly visits
of Jim Hoskins,'' the young companion of
the doctor, whom she learned was the doc
tors factor and overseer of the property
VINO lived seven miles away on an agricul-
tural clearing, and whose control Of her
actions was evidently limited by the doc
tor-for the doctors sake alone Nor was
Mr. Hoskins 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
supervision to the bringing and taking of
messages. She remained sole queen Of the
domain. 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 fol-
lowing an estrayed calf, she had crossed
the highway and been saluted by a passing
teamster in the Digger dialect yet the
mistake left no sting in her memory And,
like the Digger, she shrank fronAAhat civil
ization which had only proved a hard task
master.
The sole touch of human interest she had
In her surroundings was in the rare visits