The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-02-19
CHAPTER X
The Seventh Sense.

They were as good as their word,
and when Nance rode up the narrow
defile on the day and hour appointed,
they were waiting, fresh and neat as
abundant water and their worn gar
ments would permit.
Sonny wore denim overalls a shade
less ragged and a little shirt with
sleeves. His face shone like the ris-
ing sun from behind Fairs shoulder as
they sat decorously mounted on Dia-
mond
''The out-riders wait the princess"
said Fair, good morning Miss ALI
SON"
did you bring coekies?" queried the
boy eagerly, we've got the fish"
"Good morning." answered Nance
"sure / did, Sonny. And other things,
too. Well be good and hungry by
noontime."
The sun was two hours high outside.
but here between the towering walls
the shadows were still blue and cold.
The murmur of the stream seemed
louder than usual, heard thus In the
stiffness of the early day. The mys-
terry of the great cut was accentuated,
its charm intensified thousandfold to
Nance. There was a strange excite
ment In everything, a sense Of holiday
and impending JOY. Her face broke
into smiles as helplessly as running
water dimples, and when the two rid
ing ahead turned from time to time to
look back she was fair as "a garden
Of the Lord" her bronze head shining
bare in the blue light, her eyes as wide
and clear as Sonny's own.
This was adventure to Nance-the
first she had ever known, and its
heady wine was stirring in her veins.
She did not know why the tumbling
stream sang different song, or why
the glow of light creeping down from
the rimrock along the western well
seemed more golden than before
She only knew that where her heart
had lain in her breast calm and con.
tent with her labor and her majestic
environment Of hills and river, there
was now a strange surge and thrill
which made her think Of the stars that
sang together at the morning Of crea.
ton. Surely her treasured Book had
something for each phase of human
life-comfort for its sorrows, divine
approval for its happiness.
So she rode. smiling, her hands fold
ed on her pommel, listening to Brand
Fairs easy speech. watching his shout
ders moving lithely under the blue
flannel shirt, comparing him to the
men she knew and wondering agair
why he was not like them.
They followed the stream sometimes
and again trotted across fiat, hard
sandy spaces where the floor of tn,
canyon widened, and passed now ant
again the mouths of smaller cuts di
yerging from the main one.
"About two miles from here" sh,
told Fair, I'VE leave Blue Stone ant
take up Little Blue TO the left. At 1t,
head lie Grey spring and the Circle
Well make it about noon."
The sun was well down in the grea
gorge when they reached the openin,
of Little Blue, and in this smaller can
yon which diverged sharply at RICH
angles, its golden light flooded to thu
dry bottom.
Little Blue has no water to speal
Of" said Nance, "only holes here an,
there-but they are funny places, dec
and full. and they seem to come N
from the bottom and go down some
where under the sand. They hav
current, for IL you throw anything Il
them 1t will drift about, slow, an
finally go down and never come up"
"Subterranean fiow," said Fair; 'Iv
seen other evidence Of 1t In this couu