In a Hollow of the Hills

s supposed to follow the performance of a good deed. He was by no means certain that what he had done was best for the young g

h he believed she would find some way to send. But no message was forthcoming. The day passed, and he became alarmed. The fear that her escapade had been discovered again seized him. If she were in close restraint, she could neither send to him, nor could he convey to her the solicitude and sympathy that filled his heart. In her childish frankness she might have confessed the whole truth, and this would not only shut the doors of the convent against him, under his former pretext, but compromise her st

s waiting for you i

ind him. He looked eagerly towards the window where she had stood the day before, but now she rose quickly from the sofa in the corner, where she had been seated, and the missal she had been reading rolled from her lap to the floor. He ran towards her to pick it up. Her name

that he stood before her, stammering, but without the power to say a word. Luckily for him, his utter embarrassment seemed to reassure her, and to calm that timidity wh

for a meeting, and the Lady Superior thought that I, who knew all the fact

ering, Key bowe

is sister, and even allowed her, as an unattended woman, to pass the night at the convent. We were therefore surprised this morning to receive a letter from him, absolutely forbidding any further intercourse, correspondence, or association of his sister with this companion, Mrs. Barker. It was necessary to inform the dear child of this at once, as she was on the point of writing to th

with relief, sprang to his fee

ded, hurriedly recalling himself, "your rules,

adness-a sacrilege we are willing to believe she did not

identify her," he said, contr

ivert rather than attract attention to any individuality. We have sent private messengers in all directions, and sought her

st suspicion, in spite of his eagerness to cut short the

es-a friend who seems to be sent by Heaven to find out this brother for us, and speed this news to him. We come to the old pupil of Father Cipriano, a fri

ut I will do my best to find him. And this-this-young girl? You say you have no trace of her? May she n

ily taken a train to San Francisco before we discovered her flight. We believe that it was the poor c

y depend on me! And now, as there is no time to be lost, I will make my arrangements to take the next train.

an evidence to such phenomena. Sister Seraphina's application to him seemed little short of miraculous interference; but what if it were only a trick to get rid of him, while the girl, whose escapade had been discovered, was either under restraint in the convent,

inctive feeling. He tore it open hastily. But it was only a single line from his foreman at the mine, whi

tter to the Lady Superior had been postmarked from "Bald Top," which Key knew to be an obscure settlement less frequented than Skinner's. Even then it was hardly possible that the chief of the road agents would present himself at the post-office, and it had probably been left by some less known of the gang. A vague idea, that was hardly a suspicion, that the girl might have a secret address of her brother's, without understanding the reasons for its secrecy, came into his

that asked that quest

n?" ejaculated

ooking woman, about thirty, with black eyes. I hope that ain't the kind o'

ted to describe Alice; for he instantly recognized the portrait of her

man was one o' their spies, and spotted his little game, and managed to give 'em the tip, so they got clean away. Anyhow, they ain't bin heard from since. But the big s

y the big shake?" a

l along Galloper's the other night? Well," he added disgustedly, "that's jist the conc

ind. Possibly Skinner saw his concern, "I reckon your mine is all right, M

days that she had passed there, and the fate that had brought them so nearly together. There was nothing to recall its sylvan beauty in the hideous works that now possessed it, or the substantial dwelling-house that had taken the place of the old cabin. A few hurried questions to the foreman satisfied him of the integrity of the property. There had bee

y hotly, "and every one of them are outlaws, and have no standing before the law." He stopped with

o be the gift of their leader to his young sister, afore t

was purely an act of the brother's to secure some possible future benefit for his sister.

s character myself. There was no trace or sig

mining laws is mining laws, and it's the one thing ye can't get over," he added, with

as already impatient of even this slight delay in his quest. In his perplexity his thoughts had reverted to Collinson's: the mill

said the foreman. "The morning after the shake, some of the boys picked up a mustang, with a make-up lady's saddle on." Key s

he inquired eagerly; "there

reman coolly, "for the riata was loose and traili

been gathered somewhere in the vicinity where Mrs. Barker had warned them,-perhaps in the wood beyond Collinson's. He would penetrate it alone. He knew his danger; but as a SINGLE unarmed man he might be admitted

curved towards the woods that had once stood behind the mill, but which now bristled on the very edge of a precipice. A mist was hanging over its brink and rising from the valley; it was a full-fed stream that was coursing through the former dry bed of the river and falling down the face of the bluff. He rubbed his eyes, dismounted, crept along the edge of the precipice, and looked below: whatever had subsided and melted down into its thousand feet of depth, there was no trace left upon its smooth face. Scarcely an angle

t even Collinson might have had time to escape. He slowly skirted the edge of the chasm, and made his way back through the empty woods behind the old mill-site towards the place where he had dismounted. His horse seemed to have str

li

time, and then the tall ferns parted, and her lithe, graceful figure came running, stumbling, and limping towards him like a wounded fawn. Her face was pale and agitated, the tendrils of her li

id not dream it would be YOU. And then I heard YOUR voice-and I

aimed passionately. "You ha

of the cliff. I could not help him much, I did not care to leave him. No one WOU

; she permitted it as unconsciously, as he half

eak," she went on quickly. "I dragged him away to a tree, it took me hours to move him, he was so

ou doing here?"

away quickly. "I-was going to find my brother at Bald Top," she rep

d you speak with him? Does he kno

d his eyes when I dragged him. I don't

per, and stepped timidly into the open light. Only a few feet from the fatal ledge,

back. It w

him, listened to his hurried respiration and the beating of his heart. Then he pressed a drinking-flask to his lips. The spirit seemed to revive him; he slowly opened his eyes. They fell upon Key with quick recognition. But the look

roubled voice, "nor seem to move my arms, but you'll

happen?" said

z if I fell over and got caught in the rocks trying to save my wife; but then when I kem to think sensible, and know my wife wasn't there at all, I get mystified. Sometimes I think I got ter t

the house when the s

h them fellers as the sheriff was ar

ing to my horse, which you will find somewhere near your

face, and, attributing it to the imminent danger of the injured man, at on

mes. She must NEVER know them-nor even know his fate! If he perished utterly in this catastrophe, as it would seem-it was God's will to spare her that knowledge. I tell you this, to warn you in anything you say before her.

yere, and that mebbe she was somewhar in Californy. I was that foolish-and that ontrue to her, all the while knowin', as I once told you, Mr. Key, that ef she'd been alive she'd bin yere-that I believed it true for a minit! And that was why, afore this happened, I had a dream, right out yer, and dreamed she kem to me, all white and

ain?" asked Key

der feel e

gently, "if it does not tax your strength, all that

serable wife. The story was at times broken by lapses of faintness, by a singular return of his old abstraction and forgetfulness in the midst of a sentence, and at last by a fit of coughing that left a few crimson bubbles on the corners of his month. Key lifted his eyes anxiously;

s"-his eyes sought Alice's in half apology-"afore witnesses, you understand. Would you mind standin' out thar, afore me, in the light, so I kin see y

e by side, painfully humoring what seemed

importance; mebbe I'll be away a long time-for years! You know,' sez he, 'Mr. Key, in the Hollow! Go to him,' sez he, 'and tell him ez how I hadn't time to get to see him; tell him,' sez he, 'that RIVERS'-you've got the name, Mr. Key?-you've got the name, miss?-'that RIVERS wants him to say

y saw his plain, hard face take upon itself, at first, the gray, ashen hues of the rocks around him, and then and thereafter

" added the editor, with a fine touch of Western humor, "whether this was the result of his being forcibly mixed up with his own tanglefoot whiskey or not, we are unable to determine from the evidence before us." For all that, a small stone shaft was added later to the rocks near the site of the old

many caballeros thought it most discreet to intrust their future brides to the maternal guardianship