Gabriel Conroy

hat infelicitous title, would have admitted its injustice, but that he fell a victim to the "craftily qualified" cups of San Francisco long before the G

os, where, gorgeously arrayed, he had flitted from champagne to cognac, and from gin to lager

in years, it still had its memories, experiences and antiquities. The first tent pitched by Jim White was still standing, the bullet holes were yet to be seen in the shutters of the Cachucha saloon, where the great fight took place between Boston Joe, Harry Worth, and Thompson of Angel's; from the upper loft of Watson's "Emporium" a beam still projected f

as much from below as above, and the lower limbs of the loungers who gathered around the square box stove that stood in Briggs's warehouse, exhaled a cloud of steam. The loungers in Briggs's were those who from deficiency of taste or the requisite capital avoided the gamblin

casional hiss of expectoration against the hot stove, when the

on, Gabe?" asked

ing to Briggs, "afore the doctor comes. I'd come back in an hour, but I've got to

et anybody tech him but

that. That's what Stimson sed when he was took worse, but he got ov

ough evidently disappointed. Gabriel was walking to t

with the sick baby camped down the gulc

said Gabriel, with

trouble. Couldn't you kinder drop

id Gabriel t

he speaker, settling himself back again over the stove with the air of a man who h

of other folks, Johnson,

orny ought to think of others besides themselves. A little keer and a little sabe on

s nearly one o'clock before he reached his rude hut on the hill-side, a rough cabin of pine logs, so unpretentious and wild in exterior as to be but a slight improvement on nature. The

rments apparently belonging to a girl of seven or eight-a frock grievously rent and torn, a frayed petticoat of white flannel already patched with material taken from a red shirt, and a pair of stockings so excessively and sincerely darned, as to have lost nearly all of their original fabric in repeated bits of relief that covered almost the entire structure. Gabrie

you, Gabe

got tired and

hat had apparently been abandoned after a slight excursion into the n

they're so a

they ever were. That petticoat is stronger," said Gabriel, holding up the garment and eyeing th

five years

nd and addressing himself impatie

've gr

t the tucks, and didn't I put three fingers of the best s

y there appeared a curly head at the flap, and then a slim little girl, in the scantiest of night

dress you in silks and satins, and you'd dip into the first ditch or waltz through the first underbrush that you kem across. You haven't got no sabe in dress, Olly. It

brother as a point d'appui, and began to revolve around hi

g first over one knee and then over the oth

but continued mending the frayed

n town?" said Olly,

said Gabri

said Olly, with a positive shake of the head. "You'

t the baby's dead. Jest remind me, to-morrow, to look t

Markle says of you?" said Oll

tion of indifference that, like all hi

ore'n all these people. She says you're just throwing yourself away

outer the snow at Starvation Camp; when I toted you on my back for miles till we got into the valley; when we lay by thar for two weeks, and me a felling trees and picking up provisions here and thar, in the wood or the river, wharever thar was bird or fis

uick instincts of her sex came to her reli

. Markle lik

re some subjects whereof the youngest of womankind has an

y," said the co

sit up, so she ch

isn't a Mexican, he's a Ch

m a Mexican. He talks too straight,

uestions about-about old t

r-how she acted, and seemed to feel as bad as we did about never hearing anything from her. I never met a man, Olly, afore, as seemed to take s

ip?" quer

abriel, some

y, "I wish you didn't talk so

d Gabriel,

think the people round yer look upon us sorter queer. That little boy that came here with the emigrant family wouldn't play

" asked

l! He said th

gry flush came into his sunburnt cheek, "I'll

" persisted Ol

s questions?" said Gabriel, briskly, lifting her to her feet. "Thet Markle girl ain't got no sense anyway-she's

he thread became entangled, and was often snappishly broken, and Gabriel sewed imaginary, vindictive stitc

, G

l, putting down hi

k-that Phili

nto the cabin. The new-comer cast a rapid glance around the dimly-lighted room, and then remained motionless in th

pefaction as he examined the stranger more attentively. The new-comer smiled faintly, yet politely, and th

, six hour ago you leave me very sick on a bed-where you are so ki

ard, twirled them to signify Gabriel's suppos

d dress myself. Ha! I have great strength for the effort. I am better. But I say to myself, 'Victor, you shall first pay your respects to

eyes, which had roved over the apartment and taken in its minutest details, upon his host. Gabriel, lost in

ranger

man. How many miles you think to the stage town? Fifteen." (He emphasized them with h

tle shelf above the chimney, whereon stood an old-fashioned daguerreotype case open. He rose, and, with a sli

ve we?"

, brightening up. "Taken the

w l

ng the glass fondly with his palm. "Thar warn't no puttier gal in all Missouri," he added, w

l! Angelic! Very pretty!" with eyes still fixed upon the picture. "And it is like-ah, I see the brother's face, too," he said, gravely, comparing Gabriel's face with the picture. Gabriel looked pleased.

aid the stranger: "

ed Gabriel,

e nothin

N

letter, her private papers

t on a boy's suit-Johnny's clothes-when she left. Thet's how it allus puzzl

not speak, and

ever got back thar alone (for thar warn't no trace or mention of the man she went away with) is what gets me. And that there's my trouble, Mr. Ramirez! To think of thet pooty darlin' climbing back to the old nest, and finding no one thar! To think o

er a moment's pause, he lifted his bowed head from his hands

idio that the relief party started from, and may be see some of that party. But then kem the gold excit

nterrupted Ra

Gabriel, simply; "I

in quick assent, and motioned

I put a notiss in the San Francisco paper for Philip Ashley-that was the

rez

t rich, fri

said G

xpect-ah-y

e day to make a str

re, my

repeated Gab

he stranger, go

ou go to-night? What's your hurry?

with a singular smile. "Be

and expanded his chest, a

rheumatism, friend

mining town where the Wingdam and Sacramento stage-coach changed horses. The next morning, while Olly and Gabriel were eating breakfast, Mr. Victor Ramirez st

ou please, to Mi