The Golden Fleece: A Romance

completed. A couple of mules were being loaded with the necessary outfit. It was proposed to be out two days, camping in the open during the intervening night. It was necessary to ta

d. "The atmosphere is rather oppressive. Kamaiakan t

d the professor, with a stealthy side-glance at F

n in this region, aren

eral. "The earthquake is the father of the desert, as the Indians say; a

ung ladies?" in

ght Miss Parsloe was looking a trifle pale this morn

ndary figure. In fact, they were both of them very pretty; but Freeman had become blind to any beauty but Miriam's. Moreover, he was resolved to have some private conversat

urbed by the earthquake l

e? Why should

less time of it, too. But he is a romantic person, and probably, if an earthquake did not make him sleepless, som

kept her mouth shut. Freeman continued to smile. How much did he know? She felt that it might be inexped

vivaciously; and she slipped her arm from Miriam's waist, and was off, leavin

rder to clear myself from a possible misunderstanding. It may happen t

I can give?" asked she, opening he

fficult position. Would you mind stepping do

human. Miriam descended the steps, Freeman beside h

now, I'm a civil engineer, and that includes, in my case, a good deal of knowledge about geology and things of that sort. I have sometimes been commissioned to make geological surveys

, Mr. F

luable. Such lands can be bought now for next to nothing; but, if the theories that control these capitalists are correct, they could afterwards be sold at a profit of thousa

r orders, why do

an to bind you to secrecy. You will have a perfect right to tell it: the only result would be that I should be di

ur secret: I think you

nd yours. I am here to find out whether this desert can be flooded,-irrigated,-whether it's possible, by any means, to bring water upon it.

he very thing-

d me so in so many words. So I'm in the position of surreptitiously taking away the p

no fault of yours," she said at last. "You ow

ather from thinking that I stole hi

in; and why should you care if he did? I know th

was; and by tacit consent they seated themselves upon it. Miriam gave

l your father, I should be unfaithful to my employers. But there's another al

ance of a fortune? Y

o you what be

od to come to you," sa

from hand to mouth. But when he wants to live for somebody else,-even if he has only a very faint hope of getting the opportunity of doing it,-then he must have some settled m

," said Miriam

oking at her as she looked down at the empty basin. "My hope

in a whisper. "I have known you only three days. But it seems as if I must have known you before. There is s

e one's footing on the solid earth. For the first time it occurred to him that this doubt might affect Miriam herself. Was she obscurely conscious of two states of being in herself, and did she therefore fear to trust her own impulses? But, again, love is the master-passion; its fire fuses all things, and gives them unity. Would not this love that they confessed for each other burn away all that was

rate, are flesh and blood, and where we belong. As to the irrigation scrape, there must be some w

know to-morrow

y would be fulfilled: he was over-flowing with the fearless and enormous joy of a young man who has attained at one bound

esert. Here, by common consent, a halt was made, to draw breath,

aching Freeman, as he was tightening his girths, "I

an, straightening himself and looking the other in

nded the gener

Meschines, coming up, and

ur affair, and I am not able to confide my own to you. I wish you to put the least uncharitable construction you can on my conduct.

him three days, and a supply of water; and in a small case he carried a compact assortment of instruments for scientific observation. "Take your departure in whatever direc

e cool blue waves rolled and rippled many leagues to the westward, as, aeons ago, they had rolled and rippled here. There was not a breath of air. Freeman could hear his heart beat, and the veins in his temples and wrists throbbed. The sweat rose on the surface of his body, but without cooling it. The pony which he bestrode, a

e the juice came from. The floor of the desert seemed for the most part level, though there was a gradual dip towards the east and northeast, and occasionally mounds and ridges of wind-swept dust, sometimes upwards of fifty feet in height, broke the uniformity. The soil was largely composed of powdered feldspar; but there were also tracts of gravel shingle, of yellow loam, and of alkaline dust. In some places there appeared a salt effl

is present mission. In the former case, he would find himself in a hostile position as regarded the man he most desired to conciliate; in the latter, he would remain the mere rolling stone that he was befo

the borders of a valley or ravine which he wished to explore. Gradually, as he rode, his shadow lengthened before him. It was his only companion; and yet he felt no sense

couraging spirit. At all events, he kept up his steady lope without faltering or apparent effort, and seemed to require nothing more than the occasional wetting wh

ent. He skirted the base of the pyramid, and there opened on his view a narrow, winding valley, scarcely half a mile in apparent breadth, and of a very wild and savage aspect. Its general direction was nearly north and south, and it declined downwards, as if seeking the interior of the earth. In fact, it looked not unl

midst of it welled up a thin stream of water. The mustang scrambled eagerly towards it, and, before Freeman had had time to throw himself out of the saddle, he had plunged his muzzle into the riv

t come from a good way down. If I could only bring the parent str

it trickled bore the appearance of having been recently opened; fragments were lying near it that seemed to have been just broken off. The bed of the little stream was entirely free from moss

t same earthquake brought this stream to light. It vanished there, to reappear here. Well, the loss is not important to them, but the gain is very import

ave presented a rougher or more chaotic aspect. To look at it was like beholding the secret places of the earth. The rocky walls were of different colors, yellow, blue, and red, in many shades and gradations. They towered ruggedly upwards, sharply shadowed and brightly lighted, mounting in regular pinnacles, parting in black crevices; here and there vast masses hung poised on bases seemingly insufficient, ready to topple over on the unwary passer be

ions from the baked surface, ascending vertically, made the rocky bastion seem to quiver, as if it were a reflection cast on undulating water. The wreaths of tobacco-smoke that emanated from Freeman's

of earthenware suspended between the pillars and overflowing with flowers, the long windows, the steps descending into the garden. Now a figure clad in white emerged from the door and advanced slowly to the end of the veranda. He recognized the gait and bearing: he could almost fancy he discerned the beloved features. She stood there for a moment, gazing, as it seemed, directly at him. She raised her hands, and pressed them to her lips, then threw them outwards, with a gesture eloquent of innocent and tender pas

e young man to himself. "Forty miles at least, and it

ged trail at the bottom. Clambering over boulders, leaping across narrow chasms, letting himself down from ledges, his preoccupation soon left him, and physical exertion took the precedenc

e rock. The arch itself was white; the super-incumbent stone was of a dull red hue. On the left flank of the arch were a series of inscribed characters, which migh

ined partly by the gathering darkness, and partly by the oppressiveness of the atmosphere, which produced a sensation of giddiness. Something white gleamed on the threshold of the crypt. He picked it up. It was a human skull; but even as he lifted it it came apart in his hands

more loud, and the ground shook and swayed beneath his feet. A gigantic boulder, poised high up on the other side of the canon, was unseated, and fell with a terrific crash. A hot wind swept si

the great white pyramid and splinter its crest into fragments, while the whole surface of the gorge heaved and undulated like a stormy sea. H