The Black Pearl

illage that Gallito did not care to have his seclusion invaded, and this unspoken desire was universally respected; indeed, it was not questioned. In the solitary places are

iday evening, in the village saloon, where he mingled with the miners, engaging in the eternal and interminable discussions of local mining affairs. He also kept a horse in the village, a fiery, blooded creature, which he exercised every few days, taki

er their cards, while Hughie played upon the piano and Harry Seagreave listened, with his eyes closed, to the music. He sometimes brought Pearl a cluster of the exquisite wild flowe

wn into the village, and she took small interest in the miners' wives who dwelt there. For a time she was curious to see Mrs. Hanson, but, learning through Hughie that that lady lived up near her mine on a mountainside two

next her heart. For the first few months Hanson was content to write to her and to extract what comfort he could from her notes to her mother. These he invested with cryptic and hidden meanings endeavoring to find a veiled message for himself in

s and natural form of expression was gone from her; and once when Hugh had persisted in urging her, she had

ng up from a book of flies over which she had been po

ded the opportunity as propitious for certain elephantine coquetries, stopped to regard t

asked, "were you neve

k me, I was crazy once about Jack, and another awful pretty girl had him. But that wasn't all."

legged on the hearth at her feet, looking up into her fa

t make it mind; but," significantly, "you can manage a dog and train him, too. I had to learn that girl that

Thomas, sighing heavily. "Not always v

e just like my Celora, Marthy. 'Mommie,' she says to me once, 'I wonder when the right man'll come along and learn me to love him?' Well, I happened to be makin' a dog whip jus' when she spoke, and I says, 'Celora, if you give

feet with light agility and, leaning forward, ma

, perishin' brother tried that on me once," she remarked casually. "It was in Willy Barker's drug store over to Mt. Tabor. Celora was with me-she

ying to snatch a kiss now and then, life would seem awful tame for us poor, patient women. And even the worst of 'em's better'n none at all. Look at me! I had the luck to get a cross-grained, cranky one, as you k

of you for?" asks Mrs. Nitschkan a

-callems-accomplishments-that gets their notice. You're apt to skin 'em at cards, you can easy out-shoot

orld of tenderfoots if you don't

loving heart to offer. The game's a hard one for them, 'cause there're so many others in the field. It ain't always a complexion; sometimes it's a head of hair, or eyes, but whatever it is, competition's keen. I leave it to you, Mr. José, if a lady can

but he won't know whether you got a strand of h

ght in his way," said Mrs. Thomas, with a

in the way he can't see but one person, and that's that sul

life. On his last visit, late in September, he had succeeded in persuading her to ride again, and had sent down to the desert for a horse for

ow, glowing torches of autumn, and accentuating all their ephemeral and regal splendor; among them, yet never

ng about them, crimson and yellow leaves blowing on the wind, she expressed

e, Bob, I suppose," she said,

she'd stand it all right for a day or two; then I got afraid

ure like to see her again. I'd most give anything

nd Lolita," returned Flick. "We all got

melons and sweet potatoes and all long enough to come up here, and, oh, there's times when I fe

rt her, he began to speak of José. "Doesn't he make you la

n danger for a thing like that. Sometimes he makes me laugh-a little; but if I had my way

men do like José mu

and save his soul; but it mostly consists in getting him to do all the

just without thinking of them, that I don't believe another man on earth would. He's always good-natured and amusing, and look how he c

siasm for José in Pearl, or to convince her that the proper

n. The jealousy which he could never succeed in overcoming, and yet of which he was continually ashamed, bit like acid into his h

hing, and most of the time he acts like you weren't on the earth." An expression of surprise and resentment grew upon her face and darkened it. Then, with a gesture of annoyance, she threw

hesitatingly, "does that Mrs.

e wanted me to attend to a little mining business dow

usiness?" asked Pearl sharply. "What'

ted some property and she's got to go East to see ab

which had flashed across her mind. If Hanson but knew that his wife had left Colina no power on earth could prevent him from immediately journeying thither. Should she mention the fact in a letter

in the contemplation of glorious moments when she should live to the full again, when she should feel herself to be as a quickened and soaring flame of passion and intrigue. And what an opportunity! Her father was down at the Mont d'Or all

that he meant to come to Colina, that he would not stop to consider any risks he might be taking, and that he was equally i

s that barrier to a marriage between himself and herself-Mrs. Hanson-remained a legal wall between them, but,

tulated themselves that she was speedily forgetting Hanson. Her whole demeanor had changed, she even condescended to banter José, and she took his jibes in good part; and in the evenings when José and Gallito, Mrs.

d, so thick that Pearl's feet sank deeply into them as she entered. All about it were gnarled and stunted pine trees, bent and twisted by the high mountain winds, until they appeared as strange, Japanese silhouettes against the deep, blue sky. It was delightfully warm here, where the sun fell so broadly, and Pearl threw herself down upon the pine needles. The wind sighed softly through the forest, barely penetrating he

ring her move, turned q

come, and, seeing you here and asleep, I thought perhaps you woul

why," rubbing her eyes, "I must have

?" he said, "then the mountains must be

n't hate them like I used to; but I'll nev

e sphynx look in her eyes, but she did not answer him. At last she withdrew her gaze from the hills and glan

nt to," he replied carelessly; "but I rarely

time with your hands or your head,

t would it be?" There was just a

veiled scorn. "You wouldn't be content always to sit

t, for the moment, at least, he had forgotten her presence, and in truth, his mind had traveled back over the years and he was liv

of gentlemen and scholars who had given the world much of service in their day, his material environment offered him no obstacles to be overcome. There were no barriers between him and any normal desires and ambitions, nothing to excite his emulation with suggestions that there were f

o a charming girl about his own age whom his guardians considered eminently suitable. Among many friendship

nd of his boyhood, and he had not only this wound of the heart to endure, but also

wilds, ever strengthening his capacity to do without the ordered and cultivated life of which he had been a part, and which had seemed essential to his well-being; and

ievement as well as in the world of manners, but so insidious was this change, this shifting of the point of view, that he had never fully realized it until no

e it was that clouded his face, her interest in h

ure of impatience as if annoyed at his own weakness, he put from

curiosity, but she could not stop now. She must know more. Her craving intelligen

led about his mouth. "Yes," he

cusingly. "You know the big reward that is offered for him, and ye

on? Do you think shutting José up behind bars would make him any better? At any rate,

e different, my father and me. He likes bad company, and I guess I tak

in it. So it is in life. When we have stopped trying to make people measure up to our standard we have passed one; when we have gone beyond forgiveness an

rough the pines, a sound like the monotonous, musical murmur of distant seas. "But y

incibly. "How

I came here, but now I love it again, I want it." She threw wide her arms and smiled radiantly, but not at

u go away?" he asked, with interest. "Good dancing is very

he did not divine it or take it for granted. She resolved then and there to show him how she could dance, and as she decided this, a

yet that you would d

The camp have sent half a dozen invitations for me to do so, through Hughie. Th

sday night. He always helps out the o

er and see her, it was not much of a risk he would be taking in doing so. Her father would not go down to see her dance, he woul

Seagreave looked up, scanning the sky with a keen glan

credulously. "Why, i

he mountains. Perhaps in only a few days no

way before that time

ust a great, white silence; the snow with its wonderful shadows, and someti

on't believe I'd like it," she sa

h Seagreave had been. Not once, either by word or look had he told her that she was beautiful and to be desired. A new experience for her; never before had she encountered such an attitude in any man. It must be, therefore, that there was some other woman in his life; but where? Certainly not here in Colina or she would have heard of it

Thursday evening, and with an entire return of enthusiasm talked music and different steps to him until José and Mrs. Thomas, rendered more expeditious

the doorway leading to her room and reappeared presently, a fan in her hand and a gorgeous fringed, silken shawl th

ostures; almost without apparent transition she melted from one pose to another of

lines. Again, holding the body motionless, she moved only the arms, now with a slow and alluring rhythm, and again with incredible rapidity, showing to the full the flexibility and liquidity of the wrist movements

urally as they breathed? About Gallito's mouth played the bleak smile which in him betokened content, while José could barely wait for her to finish her preliminary exercises b

, "Hughie's music invites me,

no bad second. Together they danced until Seagreave came down from his cabin, and then, flushed a

Thomas, "don't you believe

married and had children and sorrows and buried a husband and is as heavy as a hippopotamus, and stumbles and interferes with bot

homas's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, jus' take in Mr. Seagreave,

seem' no miner's wives," ret

lifted her narrow, glittering eyes to his, all the old challenge in them again, the pale coffee stains beneath them had deepened, her cheeks held the flush of a crimson rose, "not until Thursday night, then I shall danc

ght have smiled upon a lovely, earthly Bacchante. What had the

at near a window, whither she had withdrawn to be out of the warmth of the fire,

ng, darting glance in their direction. "Caramba!" he cried softly, "but she has the sal Andaluz, she can dance! I have seen many, but not such another." And the

laughing at, José," he sa

s chosen you as an instrum

ter?" asked Gallito, lig

for amusement I dream of, here in these damnable solitudes. But before he was a saint he had a wild heart, had Harry. You have but to look at him to know that. Have you forgotten that he has not always lived in these mount

o's upraised brows, "there have been one or two, here and there, but they meant little to him, as any one might see. But, as you know and I know, Gallito, the Devil often wins by persistence; he never gives up. So, although Saint Harry's case is a puzzling on

run away with you

and stretching his arms and yawning. "But tell me fir

h a damned rascal," said Gallito bi

calm, so peaceful and composed, entirely forgetful of them, and this they cannot endure. Their brains are on fire; they spend their time scheming and planning how they can claw him down from his pedestal. They burn candles and pray to all the saints in Paradise to help them, and they offer hos

that you will never

e myself to good works and to making my peace with the church, and who knows, I may y

w nothin

er a monastery of fat monks first and cook for them. They will ap

t home. The ladies," indicating Mrs. Nitschkan and Mrs. Thomas, who had b