The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-24

During its progress he was blind to
everything but his work. One day, as
he walked along the top of a ridge. a
huge bear rose up in his path. The
doctor politely lifted his hat and passed
to one side. The decline of the sun
alone he noticed When the shadow
of Harvey crept out to him he turned
toward home. As he neared the log
cabin his placid eyes fairly beamed
through his spectacles. When he came
in sight of 1t he ran forward, his spec
linen bags swinging heavily against his
legs, caught up the child stumbling
to meet him and carried her, laugh
ing and struggling, to the woman in
the doorway. Then they had supper
all together-bacon, or perhaps game,
with vegetables from the garden, and
cornbread. Occasionally they had white
bread and coffee, and always fresh
water from the cold mountain creek.
After supper the doctor went outdoors
TO arrange his specimens and plot out
his notes as long as the daylight last
ed. His wife moved about inside soft
ly After time she brought out the
little girl in her nightdress to be kiss
ed. So ..te twilight neared, and the
long day was done.
AS the yellow glow crept down, she
came outdoors, too, and sat pensively
looking over the peaks of the lower
mountains to the distant Cheyenne and
the plairies. Beyond them was the
East. There were cities and books and
other women and the beat of human
life in the air. Here was a still, lone
ly grandeur that even the wind in the
pines did not relieve.
The doctor finally had to put aside
his work for lack of light, and sat at
her feet leaning against the logs of
the cabin. She looked down on his
little figure, his round shoulders, his
forehead even now abstract and
wrinkled with speculation. his kindly
blue eyes, his sensitive mouth, and then
she softly reached out and took his
hand. The two sat there until the
moon rose over the Bad Lands. Then
they went inside. In moments such as
this the woman lived.
In winter time the doctor sat near
the fireplace, writing by the candle
light on his great book She was in
the shadow, looking at him with ten
derness smiling YEARLY at the eager,
quivering of his chin, and rocking
gently back and forth. The little girl
played demurely on the floor within
the circle OF freight, her curs falling
down on her forehead. She piled up
her blocks, and occasionally, as one
would fall, she would look up in depre-
cdtioneof her mothers hush. The gold
en- heads of the mother and child were
like sunshine before the dark walls of
the cabin. Against them the freight
cleaned. Outside the thin, light snow
drifted fitfully by the pane. The doc
tor wrote. The woman watched in pa
tience. The child played.
AS spring came on the doctor got
out into the hills again.
One day he came back and found
the woman murdered and the child
gone. The cabin was ransacked from
10 Ia aft
had been made to fire it,
The doctor put his specimen bags
methodically in their places, and then
sat down by his dead wife,
At evening some passing miners
found him there holding her hand.
With some difficulty, and by the exer-
else of a gentle force they persuaded
him to rise, after which they tenderly
laid the body on a couch, concealing
as best they might the red tonsure
where the scalp had been. They set
the cabin in order and cooked supper
from the provisions in their wagon.
The doctor ate and drank in silence.
making no sign when the men spoke to
him.
After supper he went outside and be-
gan to arrange his specimens. When
darkness fell he came in, stood unda-
cided for moment, and then lay down
on bearskin, Jim's gift. and slept.
The men looked at one another In a
puzzled way, conversing in low tones.
Soon they, too, rolled themselves up
and went to sleep on the floor
Early in the morning Jim Buckley
came down the gulch with part of a
deer The men told him the news hur-
riedly, between mouthfuls of coffee.
Jim looked at the dead woman with a
hardening of the mouth and softening
of the eyes; then he went out and for
the first time took the doctors hand.
When they had finished breakfast,
the men made rough bier OF willow
branches plated, on which they gently
laid the body. Two went down to the
soft earth by the creek bottom and
began to dig. The others followed with
their burden, which they laid beside
the growing excavation, and then stood
with barred heads, waiting for the dig
gers. The doctor would not come Aft
err little persuasion they left him sit
ting on the ground, leaning against
the logs of the cabin looking out over
the bluffs of the Cheyenne to the east.
The men in the trench worked rap
idly and skillfuly, one loosening the
gravel with his pick. the other shovel
ing IL out on the grass. Suddenly the
latter stopped in the act of tossing a
shovelful. He pushed his stubby fore
finger in among the gravel for a mo-
metal. 1t was gold.
They buried the young wife else
where. and staked out the claim, and
others, lying along the creek.
SO Prue slept quietly at last. Her
little life was drab-colored In spite of
the lights of adventure and drama that
had played over it. 1t contained a great
love and great sacrifice. So little of
the gold would have made her happy,
and yet all the wealth of these new
pfacers could not have saved her at
the last
A rider dashed up to them at the
cabin. bringing news of the outbreak.
1t was directed to the towns of The
North. and had only brushed Spanish
Gulch on its destroying way. The men
camped on the site OF the new placer.
They built cradles and pumped water
down from Spanish creek so that in a
little time the gulch contained quite a
town. The first discovery is known as