The San Francisco call., 1909-05-30
An Incident Of the Trinity Mountains
Where Men Hunt Gold

Out of an awful darkness JerH
Jorke awoke in a land of shimmerins
light. The trees on the high bank
danced weird, zigzag dance against
the sky He could not escape them oy
closing his ~eyes-they drew him to
their circle and threw their arms ana
whirled and turned till he was nauseat-
ed and sank down again into the
dreadful darkness Sinking, sinking,
but never reaching the limit or the
smothcring depth.
The day passed in alternating periods
of half consciousness and a delicious
delrium In which he was a boy again
and wandered through the sweet spring
woods with the smell of snow cleansed
hemlock and arbutus blossoms all
about him. The cool night wind blew
up the canyon and cleared his brain
He knew himself and where he lay
and what lay there beside him. Sharp
pains pierced his body through and
through, surging up to his throat to
close 1t against the breath he fought
for Again the dizzy, waltzing trees
assailed him and he swooned again.
When next he had lucid spell the
moon shone through the tree tops and
the night stiffness was disturbed only
by the water running sluggishly and
the tiny forest folks talking in their
sleep.
He fell to wondering how this man
Dart should be so near. Had he fol-
lowed him? He claimed this range.
He meant to claim the gold. Where
was Sarah? She might not be SO far
away. He thought of her as the little
girl. he had led to school, not as the
wife of this-brute. John Dart was
dead now. and by his hand, though
that Sarah would never know, She
was free. He tried TO nlove-he could
not tell in what direction. or position
his limbs were stretched. Queer frag-
ments oftmemory foated through his
brain.
This body Is ternple'-the rest es-
capped him, and he followed the idea in
amusement. All the rooms in this tenn
pie were closed but one, and he was
moved into that one room to live He
felt that he was waiting for some
thing-who or what wss there for him
to wait for?
The wind blew colder. but he did
not feel it. A faint beam of coming
light fringed the east ridge graf
ing, grinding rush of gravel and boul-
ders, a crash of falling trees as the
hillside above the location pine came
topping forward, pouring into the river
bed, to close forever the door of the
one habitable room in the ruined tenn
PIE, TO smut up once more the treas III o
vault of gold. to fill the common grave
of two unforgiving, wronged and
vengeful men.
At noon the faint tinkle of bell
sounded UP the ridge. Down the long
slope, an old. white bell mare led a
string of pack mules loaded with
bunchy bundles of bedding and
household goods. On the mares back
in a high horned Mexican saddle sat a
thin, faded woman of middle age with
hollow cheeks and haggard eyes. In
her arms lay little child, moaning
fretfully. Behind the mules siouched
a boy Of II.
With the alert eye of the woodsman
born, he saw the recent landslide and
called his mothers attention to 1t. A
small lake was formed above and the
bed of the stream lay dry below it.
With boyish energy he ran to the baLk
the better to see and to speculate on
it's cause.
The woman barely turned her head
and querulously urged him to come on.
Worn with hours in the uncomfortable
mans saddle, and holding the sick child
in her aching arms. she had no
strength for curiosity. Fresh turned
earth had no interest for her. But, a.
she passed on the weary future, g
ghostly shadow rose and followed. as II
ever did, clutching the sources of good
from her life with as sure TYRANNY -
the good of all past years had been
wrested from her-the shadow Of un-
certainty