Snow-Bound at Eagle's

ts straps, glided onward and upward as if obeying some mysterious impulse from behind, so faint and indefinite appeared its relation to the viewless and silent hors

thickly-strewn needles of the pine, that choked the way and deadened all sound, yielded under the silently-crushing wheels a faint sopori

ad not been sleeping, and turned impatiently towards the window. It seemed to him that two of the moving trees had

aid a voice i

kly stopped. One of the motionless trees had apparently closed upon the vehicle, and what had seemed to be a boug

t!" said

aining passenger, John Hale, fearless by nature, inexperienced by habit, awaking suddenly to the truth, conceived desperate resistance. But without his making a gesture this wa

peated the voi

ed. He was surprised to find the stage-driver and express messenger standing beside him; he h

p your

ys of a bull's-eye lantern, deftly managed by invisible hands, while it left the intruders in shadow, completely illuminated the faces and figures of the passengers. In spite of the majestic obscurity and silence of surrounding nature, the group

lness that lent a certain suggestion of Custom House inspection to the transaction; "wh

e emphasis. "You'll save time and searching, gentlemen, if you'll tote it

The passenger who had first moved when th

rst, if you please

the road indicated by the voice. A thick envelope, taken from his breast pocket, was laid beside it. "I told the d-

said the inevitable humorist of the occasion, pointing t

d the cool acquiescence of his fellow-passengers, and was furious. His reflections were interrupted by a voice which

like, gentlemen. You've f

mbed to their places. Hale would have spoken, but an impatient gesture from his co

rom the rocky canyon below, betrayed a sound of their flight. A faint breeze stirred the tall tips of the pines, a cone dropped on the stage roof, one of the invisible horses that seemed to be listening too moved s

d-ni

le lurched ahead, and then bounded violently after them. When Hale could make his voice heard in the confusion-a confusion which seemed

minutes to cover the driver with his double-barrel,

Hale. "Then there were on

d given up the greenbacks drawled, with a slow, irri

hough I live a dozen miles from here, at

n' that fancy ranchin' over at E

e tartly; "and that's more than I can say of what I've done-or HAVEN'T

remember, YOU haven't onloaded much. Ef you're talkin' about what OUGHTER have been done, I'll tell you what

rn't quick enough,

YOU. For ef I got that pistol out and i

impatiently, "he

s outer the window, and that before

an gone, and there would have been f

nd slugs; but ez one eighth o' that amount would have done your business, and yet left enough to

ger and the driver were

not FIXED; that make

t under

ou know wha

es

draw a bead on you, and the signal to fire was YOUR DRAWIN' YOUR WEAPON. You may be a stranger to this sort o' th

ared to extract from the conversation, impressed Hale, already beginning to be conscio

ing is inevitable," said he b

certain days. THEY ain't. By the time the sheriff gets out his posse they've skedaddled, and the leader, like as not, is takin' his quiet cocktail at the Bank Exchange, or mebbe losin' his earnings t

med to throw in a few fancy touches, particlerly in that 'Good night.' Sorter chucked a little

side the driver on the box on the down trip, and took stock of everything. He even knew I had those gree

impropriety to create order elsewhere. He was fond of Nature with these limitations, never quite trusting her unguided instincts, and finding her as an instructress greatly inferior to Harvard University, though possibly not to Cornell. With dauntless enterprise and energy he had built and stocked a charming cottage farm in a nook in the Sierr

ce?" he asked suddenly. "We are a few miles f

l lodge the complaint with the authorities, but it will take two d

ly. "I have a horse waiting for me a

ronger light Hale could perceive that his companion was examining him with two colorless, lazy eyes.

he station." He paused. "I don't know ez I'd mind taking a han

inch," said the passenger beside Hale with sudden alacrity. "I'm Rawlins, of Fr

sno, without the slightest further reference to the pursuit of the robbers. It was not until the remaining and undenominated passenger turned to Hale, and, regretting

o take horses from the station we'll

ector of the enterprise, had been reduced. It was true that he had never offered himself as their leader; it was true that the principle he wished to uphold and the effect he sought to obtain would be equally demonstrated under another; it was true that the execution of his own conception gravitated by some occult impulse to the man who had not sought it, and whom he ha

uld be found among the stable-men. The nearest justice of the peace was ten miles away, and Hale had to abandon even his hope of being sworn in as a deputy constable. This introd

just now," said that gentleman confident

ed to defend ourselves, there was

an them road ag

ho

ist ez good as allowe

e I am responsible for it,

the best shot in Southern California, and hez let daylig

dee

eas on this matter carried out up to the handle. He'll make short work of it, you bet. Ef, ez I suspect, the leader is an airy you

on of all imaginative and sensitive natures came to his aid. He felt better; oddly enough he began to be conscious that he was thinking and acting like his companions. With this feeling a vague sympathy, before absent, faintly showed itself in

spect who is

rything, includin' their clothes. They say that at the station hotels, when the coach came in, the folks used to stand round with blankets to wrap up the passengers so ez not to skeer the wimen. Thar's a story that the d

e's

gentlemen?" said

n miles away. They would be alarmed at his absence, would perhaps hear

a line to Eagle's Court befor

inated passenger stepped forward and offered to take it himself when his

em off in case they scent us, and try to double back on the North Ridge. They'll f

for his rash proposal, but it was too late to withdraw now. He hastily scribbled a few lines to his wife on a sheet of

obbery by a higher track. Morning had long ago advanced its colors on the cold w

snow," said R

een summer foliage, mingled with the darker evergreen of pine and fir. Oven-like canyons in the long flanks of the mountain seemed still to glow with the heat of yesterday's noon; the breathless air yet trembled and quivered over stifling gorges and passes in the gran

passengers sledded over the road we came last night, and all the time Thomson, a mile lower down over the ridge in the hollow, smoking his pipe

hat he had only taken Eagle

're there! But it's like Thomson's-it's t

through the keen air. It was followed

e ostler, "about two miles as the crow flies a

ith a gesture that electrified them. "It's THEM, and the've doub

their leader's look and word. With an incoherent and unintelligible cry, giving voice to the chase like the commonest hound of their fields, the

r, the vast distance below seemed to stretch out and broaden into repose. It might have been