St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1899-01-07
A GIRL WHOSE NAME rs FAITH.

A GIRL WHOSE NAME rs FAITH.
On the trail which crosses Sunset
peak from the gold camps of Eagle
and Murray to the mines in Big Horn
gulch is prospect tunnel located un-
der the name of the Black Dwarf.
In the summer of 1892 two men were
working it and sharing the cabin of
niud-chinked logs that made a trifing
excrescence on the profile of the hill
into which the tunnel of the Black
Dwarf retreated. The senior partner
ard more experienced miner of the
firm was a big, valiant, hilarious Irish
man. Mike MCGOWAN, man of his
hands, yet not disdaining weapons; the
other was a young gentleman of pre-
possessing appearance and uncertain
anteeedents, who had come into the
partnership rather on the strength of
a small capital than of his muscle. Mike
called him 'slittle Darcie;" but this
must be understood as term of en-
dearment, for Darcie's inches were as
many as Mixes, though his pounds
avoirdupois were fewer.
Mike had learned that his partner was
OF Scottish family and English educa-
tion, and that he had travelled in vari-
GUS parts OF the world. He was easy
tempered, and clever in ways in which
Mike had the skill of bear; but he
was slack about camp work and clean
fances said be was too 'stony' for a
miner. People called him Dareie be-
cause he seemed to expect it; but doubts
were entertained in cautious circles as
to its being his name, or all of it
caution, not to say suspicion, being the
common attitude in the summer of 1892
of persons who were not sure of one
unother's sympathies and business in
the Coeur d'Alene.
The situation of the Black Dwarf is
exceedingly shy. The crypt-dark en-
trance to the tunnel gives upon mar
row ledge formed by an excavation of
the hill; the trail crosses this ledge.
after diving down toward it with ex-
treme and slippery suddenness, between
the tunnel mouth and the dump. From
above or from below the humble plant
is equally invisible; but all travellers
by the old trail know of the Black
Dwarf, and on the last night of June,
closing in thunderous and wild with
rain, two riders, overtaken on their way
from Canon Creek, came knocking at
the door of the cabin.
Imagine the CONSERVATION, delight.
embarrassment and concern of the two
hosts of the Black Dwarf when it was
seen that one of their guests was the
lovely young lady of the Big Horn, and
that her first imperative need, after
SHELTER from the storm, was total
change of clothing.
She stood beside her father, the man
ager Of the famous Big Horn-a conn
nlonplace man who borrowed his inn
portance, from the mine--in front of
THE fire which MCGOWAN was heaping
with fuel, while Darcie, the only mem
ber of the firm POSSESSED of a trunk,
searched wildly among its contents for
any garment remotely suggestive Of
she needs and proportions Of a nymph-
like girl. Her glowing cheeks told of q
rough encounter with the wind and
rain, her eyes beamed intelligence and
mirth, her lips smiled pleasure and
sympathy and appreciation. She was
nsdora BILE girl.
I'll, despair Darcie placed at her dis
posal his entire wardrobe, including his
boots, and she made clever selection of
a Turkish bathrobe, red and white
Navajo blanket for drapery and a set
of aeplorabIe hannefs which Mistress
Mallory, of Gem, had soaped and
and kneaded till no vestige re-
mained Of their original size. sex or
condition.
"It's better than going to bed. like a
naughty child" laughed the girl. She
rescued the situation from much of its
awlswardness by her lightness of touch
and her practical, womanly frankness,
which rather abashed the more conven-I
tional young Briton, while her beauty
and girlish rapture in the nights adj
venture quite went to his head.
Mike, in trice, rigged rope across
the low, far end of the cabin, and strung
upon it q line of camp blankets. to make
a dressing-room for the lady, who re-
tired to her bower as damp as Undine,
and as gay, but to modern Hildebrand
more enhancing because so entirely
human.
Meantime, in the mems part of the
cabin a most distressing complication
was waxing to crisis. Mike was cook
ing supper, sitting on his heels in front
of the mud hearth, with his old hat on
his head, taking it off occasionally to
use it as a holder, in shifting his sauce
pans over the Goals. Darcie was laying
the table in high ecstasy, brought to
earth only by the discovery that there
was no morc butter, and by . renewed