The Golden Fleece: A Romance

the square tip of his middle finger. The thermometer on the shady veranda marked eighty-seven degrees of h

th a sniff through his wide, hairy nostrils. "Why, Trednoke, do you realize that

eloped and disciplined. Well set upon his broad shoulders was a noble head, crowned with gray, wavy hair; the eyes and eyebrows were black and powerful, but the expression was kindly and humorous. His moustache and the Roman convexity of his chin would have confirmed your conviction that he was a retired warrior; in which you would have been correct, for G

I licked you at school?" he inquired

e in weight, and a West Point graduate, I will wager my pipe (which is worth its weight in diamonds) against that old wool

ullet in my leg. But you couldn't, forty-five years ago, though you tried, and though I was a year young

eclare! And what brought her into

st sight of her, and I don't think I have seen her since.

ofessor, wagging his head and frowning.

and Parsloe too. But they had a

an might have had me, five-and-forty years ago; but I can't undertake to revive my passion for the be

dian, somewhat remarkable in appearance, with shaggy white hair hanging down on his s

maiakan?" asked the

eplied. "Pablo has just come in sight ov

ther and mother left the girl poor, and she, bei

l do it, when they are clever and energetic,

eneral Trednoke. "She en

aordinary in that. I've seen quantities of women do it, o

ou keep quiet and listen to my story? I say, she went in

! You don't me

said, isn't i

he way, Trednoke? But, seriously, it's too bad. Susan may have been fickle, but she

of its founders, and I know what I'm talking about-is like an enormous family, where children are born, year after year, grow up, and take their places in life according to their quality and merit. What I mean is, that the boy who drives a wagon for them to-day, at three dollars a week, may control one of their chief departments, or even become a partner, before they're done with him; and, mutatis mutandis, the s

the fathers of the big family ARE fathers, and the children ARE children to them... All the same, I fancy the young ladies, when they marry into the higher social circles, as yo

heir minds to give her a change of climate. Now, you know, as she had originally gone to them with a letter from me, and as I live out here, on the borders of the Southern desert, in a climate that has no equal, they naturally thought of writing to me about it. And of course I said I'd be delighted to have her here

en do you

Isthmus. From what I hear, she is really a very fine, clev

ersation that we-or, to be more accurate, that I was engaged in when this digr

wls, became agitated, and developed at one end a slender arched foot in an open-work silk stocking and sandal-slippe

lacustrin

awake again, S

n asleep. What

he pro

d the latter, "means fresh-wate

oes Great S

y. Moisture, evaporation, precipitation. Water is a great

kes, the Salt Lakes were f

in what they call the Bad Lands,-cliffs and buttes of indurated yellow clay and sandstone, worn and carved out by floods long before the Aztecs started to move o

tating itself again, and showing a glimp

was brontosaurus, and atlantosaurus, and hydrosaurus, and iguanodon,-lizards, you know, not like these little black fellows that run ab

they ge

ng, perhaps; or the water draine

did the w

uestions than you do the answers to them," quoth he. "But I wouldn't mind heari

,-abysses, rather, three or four hundred feet below sea-level. The earth is very thin-skinned in this re

there was a law that water always seeks its own lev

s, I suppose, in the trend of the strata, which is generally north and south. You see the ridges cropping out all through the desert; and there's a good

eral, "a little more seismic dis

e than a little, I suspe

o know the very place where the water will begin to flow." And here the hammock, with a final convulsion, gave birth to a beautiful young wom

"I wonder if Kamaiakan is one of those who know the place? I

anted, and people who go near it die.

arkable personage: where did you pi

Kamaiakan. You look so natural, sitting there, Meschines, that I forget it's thirty years since we met, and that all the significa

!" said Meschines, with a queer expressi

ed from the race of Azatlan: there are records and relics indicating that h

ealized my audacity!" exclaimed the professor, laying his

ot, and played with th

" she said; "but I think you must ha

ld hardly have anticipated," he resumed after a pause, addressing Trednoke, "that

e Mexican annexation, I can't say; but I know Inez-made a heaven on earth for me," concluded the general, in a low voice. His countenance, at this moment, w

on on me," he remarked, "and

nted fires living in

ut this Indian of yo

termarriages; and there are many instances of the survival of traditions and records; though the records are often symbolic, and would have no meaning to persons not initiated. But they have been sufficient to perpetuate ties of a personal nature through generation after generation; and the alliance between Kamaia

ss. "He has told me of seeing and doing things

, Nina adorada?"

t the treasu

The professor

garden, blooming with roses and fragrant with orange-trees, and so across the trellised vines towards the soft outline of the mountains eastward. "A great part of their wealth was in the f

now where the place i

w, when the

ou are ready for your dowry," o

s of a temperament so poetical, that the wildest fairy-tales had a sort of reality for her. "No one can find the treasure while the spell

iestly relative by whom the spell was wrought. He bears an enchanted life

e treasures of Montezuma have never been found. Is there no old chart or writi

-writing," replied the other. "No, I fear there is nothing to the

he tunic!" ex

unic anything

dery?" inquired the professor, becoming more interested

in cotton. Even their defensive armor was of cotton, thickly quilted. Their ornaments were feathers, and embroidery of gold and precious stones. But wool,

at clue does it giv

n," said Miriam: "only

re the treasure is hidden is the place whence the w

enomenon as the return of an inland sea i

taking its rise in the heights hundreds of miles north and east of us, may be flowing through subterranean passages into the sea, emerging from the sea-bottom hundreds

the general said. "I wouldn't exchange the ce

and for water are syn

by scientific irrigation. The soil only needs water to become inexhaustibly productive. Our desert, as you know, is not sand, like parts of the Sahara; it has all the ingredients that g

rt opinion as to the like

the affirmative is welcome to half my shar

ngage some exper

pertness only, but as to his good faith. He might prefer to

iven this thing a good d

nd I have made some investigations myself. But this

And what of the

ll tell you about it some time. I should be glad

e only here-who is just the man you want, and can be trusted. He's a civil engineer,-Harvey Freeman: the Lord only

, papa, Coleridge's

, the sacre

erns measur

a sunl

when we find it, sh

she rejoined; "for, if anybo

re he is; and he has got the letters. Let us see! One for you Meschines. And this, I see, is from

through the contents. "The very man I was speaking of,-Harvey Freeman! Says he is in this neighborhood, h

mention it to

you can take a look at him, and act on your own intuitions. I won't say on Princess Mir

tonation worthy of the daughter of a West-P

me cushions that had fallen out of the hammock. Having repl