The San Francisco call., 1904-03-06

standing drawing him by the hand one
way, while he gently but persistentiy
drew her the other.
In his softly lit library in his great
house at Menlo Park another man was
at that time also thinking Of Mari
posa He had been thinking OF her of
and on ever since he had hidden her
good-by that afternoon at Mrs. Will
lers'.
AS the train had whirled him over the
parched, thirsty country, burnt to
drouth, he had no thought for anything
but his newly discovered daughter. His
glance dwelt unseeing on the tanned
fields with>their belts OF olive eucalyp-
tus woods. and the turquoise blue of the
bay beyond the painted marsh. Men
descending at way stations raised their
hats to him as they mounted into the
handsome carriages drawn up by the
platform. His return to their salutes
was preoccupied nod. His mind was
full of his child-his splendid daughter.
Jake ShaolSleton had not forgotten
his first wife and child, as Dan Moreau
and Lucy had always hoped. He was
man Of many and secret interests, pull
ing many wires, following many trails.
He knew their movements and fortunes
from the period Of their marriage in
Hangtown. At first this secret espion-
age was due to fear of their betraying
him. He had begun to prosper shortly
after his entrance into the State, and
with prosperity and the slackening OF
the strain of the trip across the desert
came a realization OF what he had done.
He saw quickly how the selling of his
wife would appeal to the California
mind, In those days fantastically ciiv-
alrous to women. He would be un-
done.
With stealthy persistence he followed
the steps of the peaceful couple who
had 1t in their power to ruin him. Ser
entity began to come to him as he heard
that the union was singularly happy;
that Moreau, confident no one would
modest them, had gone through a cere-
mony of marriage with Lucy, and that
the child was being brought up as
their own.
As wealth came to Shackleton he
thought of them with a sort OF jealous
triumph. With his remarkable insight
into men he knew that Dan Moreau
would never make money; that he was
OIG VI Tie UOi4Q QlC0CSllnCQ pun
men. Then as riches grew and grew,
and the emigrant of the f1fties became
the bonanza king of the seventies, he
wondered IL the time might not come
when they would turn to him.
He would have liked 1t, for under the
cold indifference Of his manner the
transaction at the cabin in the Sierra
forever haunted him with its savage
shamelessnesss. 1t was the one debas
ing blot on a career which. hard, self
ish, often unprincipied, had yet never.
before or after, sunk TO the level Of
that base action.
When Moreau died at Santa Barbara
Shackleton heard it with a sense of re-
lief, He was secretly becoming anxious
to see his child. Bessie had borne him
two children, q boy and girl, and 1t
was partly the disappointment in these
that made him desirous of seeing Mar
iposa. He knew and Bessie knew that
she was his only legitimate child.
Though he had virtually entered Cali
fornia with but one wife, and the blot
of Mormonism had been wiped from his
record before he had been two days In
the State, the rumor that he had once
been Mormon still carelessly passed
from mouth to mouth. Should 1t ever
become known that there had been a
former wife, Bessie and her children
would have no lawful claim on him,
though the children, as acknowledged
and brought up by him, would inherit
part Of his estate.
With his great wealth the pride that
was one Of the dominant characteris-
tics of his hard and driving nature
grew apace. He had money by millions,
but no one to do 1t credit. 1t would
have been the crowning delight of his
tumultuous career to have a beautiful
daughter or talented son to grace the
luxury that surrounded him. But Bes-
sizes children were neither of these
things. They were dull and common
place. Maud was fat and heavy both
in mind and body, while Winslow was,
to his father, a, slow -witted, character
less youth, without the wfll, energy or
initiative of either of his parents AZ
lection not grounded on admiration
was impossible to Shackleton, who
sometimes in his exasperation-for the
successful man bore disappointment i'll
would say to himself:
But they are not my real children;
L nave only one cnlI0-Dan MOreau'S 3
daughter"
After the death of Moreau he learned
that Lucy and Mariposa were in San
Francisco. There he lost trace Of them
and was forced to consult a private de-
tective who had done work for him be-
fore. 1t was an easy matter to find
them, and only few letters passed be-
tween him and the detective. In these
the man gave the address and financial
condition of the ladies, and added that
the daughter was said to be "a beauti-
full, estimable and accomplished young
woman" This fired still further the
fathers desire to see her. He learned,
too, of their crippled means and 1t
pleased him to think that now they
might be dependent on him. But he
shrank with an unspeakable repug-
nance from the thought Of seeing Lucy
again, and he was for weeks trying to
find some way Of meeting Maripusa and
not meeting her mother. 1t was at
this stage that. purely by accident, he
learned that Mrs. Willers' daughter
was one of Mariposa's pupils A day
or two after he summoned Mrs. willers