Frontier Stories

lintered their ineffectual lances on the enormous trunks of the redwoods. For a time the dull red of their vast columns, and the dull red of their cast

slowly filled and possessed the aisles. The straight, tall, colossal trunks rose dimly like columns of upward smoke. The few fallen trees stretched their huge length into obscurity, and seemed to lie on shadowy trestles. The strange breath that filled these

guarded, or as if a fragment of one of the fallen monsters had become animate. At times this life seemed to take visible form, but as vaguely, as misshapenly, as the phantom of a nightmare. Now it was a square object moving sideways, endways, with neither head nor tail and scarcely visible feet; then an arched bulk rolling agains

s the obscurity that they shed no light on surrounding objects, and seemed to advance at their own volition without human guidance, until they disappeared suddenly behind the interposing bul

e's shied off that

agin, hev ye?" gro

nots don't give light an inch beyond 'em. D--d if

al, bitter, sarcastic, exasperating. The s

t the hosses? Did you

wood is like

into a hoarse, contemptuous

so, instead of cackling like a d--d squaw there

oice, "untie my hands, let me down, and I'll find

hooter and blow a hole through me, as you did to the Sheriff of Calaveras

vil, then," s

h from the men, the spurs jingled again, the three torches reapp

reappeared in the aisle, and recommenced its mystic dance. Presently it was lost in the shadow of the largest tree, and to the sound of breathing succeeded a grating and scratching of bark. Suddenly, as if riven

al

ans

red tha

e passed away to the right, there was the spi

at the wrist to the horse-hair reins of her mule, while a riata, passed around her waist and under the mule's girth, was held by one of the m

, what are yo

"Look yonder at the roots of the tree. You'r

he animal reared in terror. He then sprang to the ground and approa

living Jingo! Shot

throes, yet the small shut eyes, the feeble nose, the ponderous shoulders, and half-human foot armed with powerful

and pick up your g

ell unheeded on

e can't be far off. It was a close shot, and the bear hez dr

paws and muzzle were streaked with the unromantic household provision, and heightened the absurd contrast of its

for the last half hour, I'd swear there was a s

t replying, remounted

kin make centre shots like that in the dark, and don'

example, and once more led the way. The spurs tinkled, the torches danced, and

ning a coolness like dew fell from above, with here and there a dropping twig or nut, or the crepitant awakening and stretching-out of cramped and weary branches. Later a dull, lurid dawn, not unlike the last evening's sunset, filled the

rred trunk, and showed in its base a deep cavity, a foot or two from the ground, partly hidden by hanging strips of

d to the side of the bear with a light elastic movement that was as unlike customary progression as his face and figure were unlike the ordinary types of humanity. Even as he leaned upon his rifle, lo

o, Mi

f the preceding night stood before him. Her hands were free except for a thong of the riata, which was still knotted around one wrist, th

he hollow tree with her hand. "It wasn't no chance shot." Observing that the young man, either from misconception

h a row, was it?" said the youn

an, nodding her head, "a

ho are

, of Yolo, an

re are t

I reckon. I don't kno

he young man qu

rvous shiver, which she at once repressed by tightly dragging her s

ou're

d gloomily. "But come, I say, ain't you

her, with his arched brows slightly knit and

e would reply defiantly or confidently. After an exhaustive scrutiny of his

nny. Then you're the woman who stab

at's me, all the time. What a

u used to dance

least gayety, recklessness, or spontaneity in the action; it was simply mechanical bravado. It was so ineffective, even upon her ow

ne corner lay a bearskin and blanket; at the side were two alcoves or indentations, one of which was evidently used as a table, and the other as a cupboard. In another hollow, near the entrance, lay a few small sacks of flour, coffee, and sugar, the sticky contents of the latter still strewing the floor. From this storehous

if you were fixed here to stay," and she stared ostentatiously around the chamber. But she had already taken in its min

't be very easy to pull up the stak

caution he had not accepted her meanin

your litt

E

hiding for-her

m not h

come out when they ha

I didn't

I can keep out of sight for a couple of weeks, this thing will blow over here, and I can get across into Yolo. I could g

me to think of it?"

resh, and we'd have seen the torn-up earth; because we had passed no camp; and because I knew there was no shanty her

s had lost their feverish prominence, and were slightly suffused and softened as she gazed abstractedly before her. The only vestige of her previous excitement was in her left-hand fingers, which were incessantly twisting and turning a diamond ring upon her right hand, but without imparting the least animation to he

Am I goin' to stop here, or h

y provisions and ammunition here, and haven't any other place

s smile passed across her face. "All right, old man," she said, holding o

ter my things, and get something to eat; but I'll be away most of the time, and what

. Then she looked down at her torn dress. "I suppose this style

borrow a change for you, if you

m again. "Are yo

N

ment. "Well," she said,

about its being in

d, but no tremor in his voice as he went on: "You'll find tea and coffee here,

he held out to her. "You haven't got last week's 'Sacramento Union,' have you? I hear

he papers," he

me in the 'Police Gazette,' tak

n. The trail is a mile away at the nearest point, but some one might miss it and stray over here. You're quite safe if you're careful, and stand by the t

his head and shoulders, as it had

ration that was quite sexless in its quality; "but I don't see how you pick up a living by

e leaped fro

y, pa

trance, so as to be nearer his level, and was holding out he

and asked for you, wh

"Don't wa

to sing out for you,

ted. "Cal

familiar apostrophe is humorously used in the f

act

iginal suggestion. He did not look like any Indian she had ever seen, but rather as a youthful chief might have looked. There was a further suggestion in his fringed bu

rtheless, she shivered, and drawing her shawl closely around her began to collect some half-burnt fragments of wood in the chimney to make a fire. But the preoccupation of her thoughts rendered this a tedious process, as she would from time to time stop in the middle of an action and fall into an attitude of rapt abstr

see through

man she had cared for insulting her with the flaunting ostentation of his unfaithfulness; herself despised, put aside, laughed at, or worse, jilted. And then the moment of delirium, when the light danced; the one wild act that lifted her, the despised one, above the

ncited her revenge against others; he who had taught her to strike when she was insulted; and it was only fit he shou

. She remembered those flashes of triumph that left a fever in her veins-a fever that when it failed must be stimulated by dissipation, by anything, by everything that would keep her name a wonder in men's mouths, an envious fear to women. She recalled her transfer to the strolling players; her cheap pleasures, and cheape

up by an audience of some kind or quality, if only perhaps a humble companion; there had always been some one she could fascinate or horrify, and she could read her power mirrored in their eyes. Even the half-abstracted indif

wildly a few ste

ried. "Look, '

s space, even as the smoke of her fire had faded into pure ether. She stretched out

take me if

cold and passive vaults with her selfish passion filled her with a vague fear. In her rage of the previous night she had not seen the wood in its profound immobility. Left alone with the majesty of those enormous columns, she trembled and turned faint.

e pressed a variety of flowers and woodland grasses. As she could not conceive that these had been kept for any but a sentimental purpose, she was disappointed to find that underneath each was a sentence in an unknown tongue, that even to her untutored eye did not app

eathe. High noon succeeded morning, the central shaft received a single ray of upper sunlight, the afternoon came and went, the shadows gathered below, the sunset fire

ssionate, haggard visage that confronted him that morning; the feverish air, the burning color, the strained muscles of mouth and brow, and the staring eyes were gone; wiped away, perhaps, by the tears that still left their traces on che

f provisions and necessaries, and withdrew presently, to reappear as noiselessly with a tin bucket of water. This done he replenished the lit

sness slowly, so that the solitude and silence came upon her gradually, with a growing realization of the events of the past twenty-four hours, but without a shock. She was alone here, but safe still, and every

ching, and occasionally a quick, impatient snarl. She crept on her hands and knees to the opening and looked out. At first the ground seemed to be undulating between her and the opposite tree. But a second glance showed her the black and gray, bristling, tossing backs of tumblin

ened scream, that seemed to pierce even the cold depths of the forest, as she

the panting, crowding pack; a few smothered howls and snaps, and a sudden dispersion of the concourse.

down the tree, flew wildly to his side, caught convul

implored, as he endeavored to lift her to her feet. "No-let me stay here close beside you. So," clutching the fri

fringe around her hand to strengthen her hold; "they're only a lot of coward

a broken voice; "it's only the dead they want. Promise me-swear to me, if I'm caught,

her frantic breast. Something like a smile of disdain passed across

didn't mean to kill Curson-no! I swear to God, no! I didn't mean to kill the sheriff-and I didn't. I was only bragging-do you hear? I lied! I lied-don't move, I swear to G

arcely concealed movement of irritation. "

vertheless, he quietly bu

I thought it better for your safety that my camp-fire should be furt

you-beside you," s

silent and wistful, and even offering to carry his burden. When he had built the fire, for which she had collected the pine-cones and broken branches near them, he sat down, folded his arms, and leaned back against the tree in reserved and del

the wood. Then the first breath of morning moved the tangled canopy above, and a dozen tiny sprays and needles detached from the interlocked boughs winged their soft way noiselessly to the earth. A few fell upon the