In a Hollow of the Hills

ontemptuous smile by the party; but for the commands of their leaders, and possibly a conviction that Collinson's fatuous cooperation with Chivers would be safer than his wrath, whi

rty, was surlily assented to by Riggs, and complacently accepted by the others. Chivers offered to post him himself,-not without an interch

h it. This was to Chivers obviously too strategic a position to intrust to his prisoner, and the sentry who guarded its approach, five hundred yards away, was left unchanged. But there was another "blind" trail, or cut-off, to the left, through the thickest undergrowth of the woods, known only to his party. To place Collinson t

fellow sentry, whose advances, by the way, if I were you, I should not encourage. Your position here, you see, is a rather peculiar one. You we

moonlight with a doglike wistfulness. "I reckon I did say that, Mr. Chivers," he said

an equal enjoyment in his companion's evident admiration of him, "but it struck me that your remark, n

Collinson, with a d

version a few moments ago, I have made some friendly inquiries about you, and I find that you lost all tra

d Collinso

Chivers slowly, "was in a train which followed that o

said Collinson, relapsing into his old pati

of its passengers?" said Chivers,

, and it sorter melted into Californy through a southern pass, and ki

e survivors. I didn't hear her name, but I think my friend's wife called her 'Sadie.' I remember her as a rather pretty woman-tall, fair, with a straight nose and a f

him. So he went on, experiencing a devilish zest in this description of his mistress to her husband, apart from the pleasure of noting the slow awakening of this apathetic giant, with a sensation a

my wife's pints thar to a dot, and it seems to fit her jest like a shoe I picked up t'o

angry resentment of it he would have liked to blurt out the infidelity of the wife before her husband, but he

e are a thousand things that may have prevented your wife from coming to you,-illness, possibly the result of her exposure, poverty, misapprehension of your place of meet

d Collinson, with

cause she did not seek you here; may she not feel herself equally justifie

arded every train that come in that fall," said Col

and I fear was not all that Mrs. Barker could have wished; enough that he succumbed from various excesses, and did not leave me Mrs. Barker's present address. But she has a young friend, a ward, living at the convent of Santa Luisa, whose name is Miss Rivers, who can put you in communication with her. Now, one thing more: I can understand your feelings, and that you would wish at on

d towards him with tremulous eagerness, and grasped his hand in silent g

rest o' you folks that I'd stand guard out yere, and I don't go back o' my word. I mout, and I moutn't find my Sadie; but she wouldn't think the less o' m

may be those who would like to deter you from your search. And now I will leave you alone in this

ock that overhung the edge of

concerned face; "them rocks are mighty ticklish, and tha

ground, turned, waved his hand aga

dread, the lightest of misgivings (perhaps coming from his very ignorance), for the first time touched his steadfast heart, and sent a chill through it. He shouldered his weapon, and walked briskly towards the edge of the thick-set woods. There were the fragrant essences of the laurel and spruce-baked in the long-day sunshine that had encompassed their recesses-still coming warm to his face; there were the strange shiftings of temperature throughout the openings, that alternately warmed and chilled him as he walked. I

l muffled beat-interrupted at uncertain intervals, but always returning in regular rhythm, whenever it was audible. He knew it was made by a cantering horse; that the intervals were due to the patches of dead leaves in its course, and that the varying movement was the effect of its progress through obstacles and underbrush. It wa

ther sentry. It was a single horse and rider, and he was equal to that. He waited quietly, and with his usual fateful patience. Even then his thoughts still reverted to his wife; and it was with a singular

up t

air, trembling, until she slipped, half struggling, half helplessly, from the saddle to the ground. Here she would have again fallen,

!" he

he half w

e him-a little breathless, a little flurried, a little disheveled from rapid riding, as he had sometimes seen her before, but otherwise unchanged.

, I was comin' only to-m

ound her, "To-to find me

n' to ask about ye,-goin' to

he echoed with a fr

thought you was dead,-that's what's the matter. But I never reckone

the moonlight "Chiver

that, Sade, that he told me he reckoned you wasn't dead, and told me how to find you. He was mig

d, gazing at her husba

know him Sade. He's here with some of his folks az hez

terrupted hysterically;

e I built for you, dear. I'd show it to you now,

" she said, clutching

'em as I giv' my house to-night, and I'm bound to protect them and see

ngely, "of course. He was so kind to bring me back to

imple-minded man might have overlooked but for

ld Sadie, ain't ye?" He stopped. For a moment his face blanched as he glanced towards the mill, from which the faint sound of bacchanali

she said quickly. Then after a moment she added, with a faint laugh, "You

ow, calkilatin' to find m

ing both his hands, but with her head sli

o find the mill?" he sai

ps," she added, with a singular smile,

oadening smile, "it's a sort of fairy story. I'll bet,

. "Yes," she said dryly, "it was that old Barker woman. Say, Seth," she

ail,-a sentry,-but don't you be

side of t

straight to the valley; nobody comes yer that way but poor low-down e

rs say that the sheriff was out wi

Did

d at Skinner's, but it may have been o

t none o' these yer road-agents would have teched a woman.

erlooked by Collinson, who was taking his gun from beside the tree

to be warned o' what you he

t after these years," she said, with a faint attempt at a smil

t to get excused; for we'll have to go off to Skinner's or

d out of your home to please Ch

nd of a man thet if I jest as much as hinted you was here, he'd turn 'em all out o' the h

You say there is another sentinel beyond. He is enough to warn them of any approach from the trail. I'm tired and ill-ver

in a sitting posture to the ground. Collinson ca

just over thar feedin'. I'll put you back on him, run in and tell 'e

e said sof

ver Hollow-it'

rigid face close to his, "What hol

end o' mine struck sil

houlder. "Let me stay here,

e old days. He was content to wait, holding her thus. They were very silent; her eyes half cl

hin', deary?" he said,

deathly still," she said

y sound from the mill; there was an ominous rest in the woodland, so perfect that the tiny rustle of an une

ore the storm," she sai

e big shake thet dried up the river and stopped the mill. That was just the time I got the news o' your b

g with a nervous expectation. Suddenly she threw him off, and rose to her fee

efore them, a gray fox had dashed from th

aid Collinson,

They're surrounding them now

on its wooden platform. Collinson staggered to his feet; but at the same moment he was thrown violently against his wife, and they

grade he suddenly shouted, with an awful revelation in his voice, "Come back! Stop, Sadie, for God's sake!" But it was too

d lifted from where the mill had stood, the moon shone only upon empty space. There was a singular murmuring and whispering from