The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-08
CHAPTER XVII.
Into the Golden Sunset.


1t was fair, sweet evening. and the
room where Jessica sat beside David
Stires' bed, reading aloud to him, was
flooded with the failing sunlight. The
height was still in brightness, but the
gulches below were wine-red and on
their rims the spruces stood shadow
southern sky. Since the old man S
seizure in the night he had been much
worse and she had scarcely left his
room. Today, however. he had sat
proppcd by pillows, able to read and
chat, and the deep personal anxiety
that had numbed her had Yielded. She
was reading now from life OF that
poetess whose grave has made lonely
Colorado mountain place OF pilgrim"
age She read in a low voice, holding
the page to the dimming light:
The spot she chose was q bare knoll.
facing out across the curved chasm, the
wide empty gulf on three sides, ploI
whispered softly together. Here above
the sky was beautifully blue, the search =
ing fall wind that numbed the fingers In
the draw OF the gorge was gone, and the
warm sunshine was mellow and pleasant.
II was a spot to dream IN, leaning upon
the great facts OF God that he teaches
best TO those who love his nature. a spot
in which TO be laid at last for the Ions
sleep. when mortal dreams are over and
work Is done.
'.That is beautiful" he said "I
should choose spot like that He
pointed down the long slope, where a
red beam of the sun touched the gray
face of the Knob and turned it TO a
spot of crimson-lake. THAT must be
such a place.
Her checks flushed She knew what
he was thinking. He would not wish
TO lie in the fsr-away cemetery that
looked down on the white house in the
sspens. the theater of his son S down
fall! The Knob. she thought with a
thrill, overlooked the place of Hugh 8
regeneration,
A knock came at the door. It was
nurse with letters for him from the
mail, and while he opened them Jessica
laid aside the book and went slowly
down the hall to the sun-parlor, where
the doctor stood with the group gath.
cred after the early supper, chatting of
the newest ':strike" on the mountain.
'Wcll be famous if we keep on, ~
he was saying, as she looked out of the
wide windows across the haze where
the sunlight drifted down III dust of
gold. Il We a mind to stake out a
claim myself. -
eve pay you better said one of
the occupants grimly, Anyway, the
whole of Smoky Mountain was staked
III Iut tACllcHSUb d year ago. nero
10 doubt about this find | suppose9''
at IS on exhibition at the bank - the
doctor replied. More than five thou
sand dollars, cached In a crevice in the
glacial age, as neat as n Christmas
stocking!"
"Wish il was my stocking" gruntod
the other. "It would help pay my bill
here
The man Of medicine laughed and
nodded to .Tessica where she stood, her
cheeks Redeemed by the crimsoning
light. She had scarcely listened to the
chatter, or, if she did, paid little heed.
All her thoughts were with the man she
loved. Watching the luminous purple
shadows grow slowly over the land
scape, she longed to run down to the
Knob, TO sit where she had first spoken
to him, perhaps by very excess of yearn-
ing to call him to her side She had
a keen sense of the compunction he must
feel, and longed, as love must, to re-
assure him.
The talk went on about her
"Where is the lucky claim?" some
"Just below this ridge" the doctor
replied. 1t is called the Little Pay.
master.
The name caught her ear now. The
Little Paymasterl That was the name
on the trec-on Hugh s claim At that
instant she thought she heard David