The Gold Trail

out of camp. For a time they wandered through shadowy aisles between the tremendous trunks, breathing in sweet resinous odors, and then, soon after the first sunrays came slanting across a mou

she had shaken some of the dew from the fril

ndicate the panorama, for she was usually voluble and disconnected in her conversation. "This, as I said last night, is wonderful-i

panion

ing to paint i

up her face, which

rtraiture is my specialty, and this silent g

n an authoritative manner, as though she h

tless by temperament, and accustomed to indulge in all kinds of petty, purposeless activities. They are petty, though the major

able, to encourage Arabella Kinnaird when she commenced, as she

valley strikes me as being short of something. It's too calm and quiet. Even Eden was not complete until man app

laug

sticking to histori

isn't quite the same thing as power of expression. Still, you asked me what I thought about these mountains, and I'm trying to tell you. You have brought it on yourself, you see. The key-tone of this place is an almost overwhelming tranqu

ould shrink from it. She sat leaning forward, looking out at the mountains with steady eyes that had a half-smile in them.

'm readily distu

f this valley; but too much serenity isn't good for me; and it's probable that nobody ever retains it very long. There's

, her companion afterward decided that she had done so in this case. Ida Stirling had met many rising young men, and some who had made their mark, but none of them had aroused in her the fain

red suddenly that on the previous evening she had certainly been

o this; but in a moment she s

e disturbing element

white amidst the pale green shimmer of the flood. Ida

e prudish. He's ever so far off, and I've neve

m swept out into the sunlight as he flung it forward with far-stretched palm. It fell with the faintest splash, and there was a little puff of spray as his head dipped and the water washed across his lips. Then the white limbs flashed amidst the green shining of th

with that! It's the essence of rhythmic movement! I mu

went down into the green depths, and, shooting up with white shoulders high above the water,

ine, considered as a mus

this, somewhat

him as anything else. Doesn't being an artist ema

doesn't, that is, when you do not paint for yo

er companion with a passable imitation

feguards, and cannot lightly be disregarded. If they wer

laug

station and his possessions," she added, "

"my father worke

re subjects upon which they might have a clash of opinion. In the east there is pride of posses

ker, with his lean, symmetrical litheness, his pleasant English face, his clear eyes, and his clean, bronzed skin, was certainly well-favored physically, and she began to won

t-rod to a neighboring rapid, and Mrs. Kinnaird went to sleep in a hammock. Her daughter got out her sketch-book, and sitting down among the boulders bade Ida

of you. You have rather

fact brusqueness, which made it perfectly plain that his views in the matter did not count, might ha

nd here, mis

ht falls upon the trunks behind you; but you mustn't look wooden. Tha

t and duck trousers are considered dress enough in the bush of the Pacific Slope, an

said. "Oh, no! That is far too much like a waxwork! Hold up your head a l

naird informed him that, as she desired to make a study of the background, she would not keep him any longer; and he strolled away to the waterside, where, after stretching

t didn't strike Miss Kinnaird, or she would

"I don't think it would strike Miss

ut aren't you

s eyes

Kinnaird comes from the same country that I do that I didn't expect he

discomfort. Ida was, however, rather pleased to see that he accepted the fact good-humoredly and did not resent it. She was in no way astonished that he should ans

d tell me what caused the trouble you w

till in certain respects somewhat ingenuous; but

ed. "They had had a hard day, and it was not the fi

, too," said Ida. "If you couldn't

an. The traditions Agnes Weston had held by, however, went back to an earlier age. She had been High Church and imaginative, a woman of impracticable as well as somewhat uncomfortable ideals, and finding her husband proof against them she had done what she could with her son. The result was a somewhat happy one, for in the Kid, as his comrades termed him, her fantasies and extravagances had been to

ion for the old man. He was a person of some consequence once-a

ked you," said Ida, wi

his hands as thoug

e big chopper-would have forced the stuff down his throat. It was horri

while very evident, was wholly genuine, and the faint c

iscussing the result was no doubt that bruise on your face." Then she changed the

said Weston. "The u

it also a hint of disgust, and then seeing that he would s

you out here?"

ral times before, and had never answered it.

respect, anyway, I don't regret it

hadows floated in it, and tremendous slopes of rock ran up toward the gleaming snow on the farther side. The bush lay very silent

em to be content with track-grading. One would fa

"Still, you see, I don't intend to

quiringly. "What d

to be willing to discuss his own plans and projects-though for t

he said. "Other men strike it now and the

almost nothing to somebody who gets up a company?

n lau

to buy a camp outfit and provisions, and if you mean to stay any time in the ranges you have to hire a horse. T

done tha

or four

"isn't it foolish

hesitatingly, and then made a

cy that if I keep it up long enough I shall st

ter-f

on n

ood wells aren't plentiful. You go along with a hazel twig, and it dips when you cross water running under

hough she did not

ied the gift out

good deal of it is burnt up an

to account? I mean-you

dden change in

d, "I never

t w

belief, and she said it was a special gift. She knew I had it.

ial powers-priests, magicians, medicine

ion's eyes

really had the gifts they claimed at all. Now I-can-find water, and I hav

had watched the resolution flash into his young face when he stood facing the angry crowd of track-graders with the ax in his hand, and she had seen very much the same tenacity and steadfastness stamped on the faces of successful men. Her father was one, and he was a man who had scarcely b

itted him like a uniform, and Ida went back to camp with him. She fancied, however, that her father or Weston, who s