Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-07-18

the wall and took down the Winches-
ter which he handed her.
This one is ready for service. and
you will find a revolver on the shelf
There is only one possible way Of &C.
cess to this cabin; that's down those
rock stairs. One man, one woman, a
child, even, with these weapons could
hold it against an army"
Couldn't I go with you?"
'On that foot2"
Enid pressed her wounded foot upon
the ground. 1t was not so painful
when resting, but she found she could
not walk a step On it without great
suffering.
4 might carry you part of the way"
said the man. Z carried you last
night, but it would be impossible, all
of it,
Promise me that you will be back
by nightfall. with Uncle Bob and"
Il shall be back by nightfall, but I
can't promise that will bring any
body with me-
You mean?"
"You saw what the cloudburst near
ly did for you" was the, quick an
swer. IF they did not get out of that
pocket, there is nothing left of them
now"
But they must have escaped per
sisted the girl, fighting down her
alarm at this blunt statement of posi-
Bile peril. Besides, Uncle Robert and
most of the rest were climbing one of
the peaks, and"
''They will be all right, then; but if
am to find the place and tell them
your story, I must go now"
He turned, and without another
word or a backward glance, scrambled
down the hill. The girl Iimped to the
brink of the cliff over which he had
plunged and stared after him. She
watched him as long as she could see
him, until he was lost among the
trees. If she had anybody else to de-
pend upon. she would certainly have
felt differently toward him; when
Uncle Robert, and her aunt, and the
children, and old Kirkby. and the rest
surrounded her, she could hate that
man in spite of ali he had done for
her, but now she stared after him de-
teTminedly making his way down the
mountain and through the trees. 1t
was with difficulty she could restrain
herself from calling him back.
The silence was most oppressive,
the loneliness was frightful. She had
been alone before in those mountains,
but from choice; now the fact that
there was no escape from them made
the sensation a very different one.
She sat down and brooded over her
situation until she felt that if she did
not do something and in some way di-
vert her thoughts she would break
down again He had said that the
cabin and its contents were hers. She
resolved to inspect them more close
y, She hobbled back into the great
room and looked about her again.
There was nothing that demanded
careful scrutiny. She wasn't quite
sure whether she was within the pro-
prieties or not, but she seized the old
est and most worn of the volumes on
the shelf. 1t was a text book on min
ing and metallurgy, she observed, and
opening it to the fly leaf. across the
page she saw written in a firm, Wig
orous masculine hand a name, will
liam Berkeley Newbold," and be-
meath these words, "Thayer Hall, Har-
ward" and a date some seven years
! back
l. The owner of that book, whether the
present possessor or not, had been a
college man. Say that he had gradu-
ated at twenty-one or twenty-five, he
would be twenty-eight or Twenty-Five
years old now, but if SO, why that
white hair? Perhaps, though, the
book did not belong to the man of the
cabin.
She turned to other books on the
/ shelf Many Of them were technical
/ books, which she had sufficient gen
eraI culture to realize could be only
/ available to a man highly educated,
! and a special student of mines and
mining-a mining engineer, she de
/ cided, with a glance at those instru-
ments and appliances of a scientific
| character plainly, but Of whose actual
use she was ignorant.
A rapid inspection of the other
| books confirmed her in the conclusion
that the man of the mountains was
! indeed the owner of the collection
4 There were a few well worn volumes
Of poetry and essays, Shakespeare, a
/ Bible, Bacon, Marcus Aurelius, Epicte-
tus, Keats, a small dictionary. a com
pendious encyclopedia, just the books
( she thought, smiling at her conceit
that man of education and culture
would want to have upon a desert is.
land where his supply of literature
would be limited.
The old ones were autographed as
/ the first book she had looked in; 9th
ers, newer additions to the little Ii
brary, if she could judge their condi
! ton, were unsigned.
Into the corner cupboard and the
/ drawers, of course, she did not look
| There was nothing else in the room
to attract her attention, save some
piles of manuscript neatly arranged
on one Of the shelves, each one cover
ed with a square of board and kept
in place by pieces Of glistening quartz
/ There were four of these piles and an
other half the size of the first four
on the table. These, of course, she did
not examine, further than to note that
/ the writing was in the same bold
free hand as the signature in the
books. If she had been an expert she
might have deduced much from the
writing; as it was, she fancied it was
strong. direct, manly.
Having completed her inspection Of
this room. she opened the door and
/ went into the other Il was smaller