CHAPTER SEVEN
I
The Governor and Archie were waiting on the Huddleston wharf when Putneyand Leary returned from Calderville, bringing two sacks of Heart o'Dreams mail. Putney had loafed about the Calderville post-office andmade purchases in several shops to learn if possible whether Carey'spurpose in establishing himself in the woods was known to the villagers.He had, it seemed, represented himself as an investigator for a lumbercompany engaged in appraising timber. This was the story he had told inCalderville and the villagers had not questioned it.
"That's all right," said the Governor, "and serves our purpose well.Archie, you and Leary take the launch and carry the mail over to Hearto' Dreams. The tug will be within call in case you need help. At twelveo'clock meet me about a quarter of a mile this side of Carey'sbarricade; Leary's got the place spotted so he can find it in the dark.Use a canoe; no noise and no lights. Hurry along but don't blow up thelaunch."
"I have a surprise for you," said Ruth when Archie delivered the mail atthe camp office. "I'm going to be busy sorting this mail, but if youwill step to the door, bear left ten yards and stop by a bench underour tallest pine, some one you pretend to like rather particularly mayappear, but just for a moment, remember! You ought to be eternallygrateful to me for this; I had to overcome both the doctor and the nurseand the prejudices and suspicions of the particular person--"
"Isabel!" he exclaimed. He hadn't dreamed that he might see Isabel.
She came toward him out of the shadows, wrapped in a long cloak,carrying a lantern, and paused by the bench.
"These old-fashioned lanterns are a lot nicer than the electric flashthings," she remarked.
They sat down with the lantern between them, her right hand resting uponits wire guard for a moment. The glow emphasized its fine length andfirmness. The left hand was bandaged and he saw her thrust it quicklyout of sight.
"You haven't let me say how happy I am that you are able to be up, orhow grateful I am for this glimpse of you. It's always just glimpses."
"Maybe it's better that way! But so much happens between our meetings;there was never anything like it in all the world. Never was anacquaintance so pursued by storms! I wonder where the blow will fallnext?"
"Not on your head," he answered decisively, "not if the Governor and Ican prevent it. But let us not waste time on that; I want your assurancethat you are really well."
"Oh, perfectly; not an ache from the ducking; only this little remindermy hand will carry for a day or two; but that's nothing to worry about!"
There was a restraint upon them, due perhaps to the calming influenceof the stars, the murmurings of the shore in conference with the pines.
"The things that have happened since we first met would make a largebook," he said with an accession of courage, "but a separate volumewould have to be written about your hands."
She fell back at once upon her defenses.
"Oh, are they as large as that!"
"They are as dear as that!"
"How absurd you are! Here we are with only a few minutes to talk; notmore than ten--that's official from the doctor; and you're talkingfoolishness. If I were extremely sensitive I might imagine that my facewas displeasing to you!"
"The face is too remote, too sacred; I wouldn't dare let myself thinkabout it. The hand encourages belief in our common humanity; but theface is divine, a true key to the soul. The hand we think of commonly asa utilitarian device of nature, and in your case we know it to beskilled in many gracious arts, but beyond its decorative values--"
"Dear me! Just what are you quoting?"
"Please suffer the rest of it! Your hands, I was about to say, not onlyawaken admiration by their grace and symmetry, but the sight of themdoes funny things to my heart."
"That heart of yours! How did it ever manage to survive the strain andexcitement of last night?"
"Oh, it functioned splendidly. But it was at work in a good cause. Praypermit me to continue. Your hands are adorable; I am filled withtenderest longings to possess them. If I should touch them I might die,so furious would be my palpitations!"
"The minutes fly and you are delivering an oration on the human hand,which in the early processes of evolution was only a claw. If you arenot careful you'll be writing poetry next!"
"The future tense does me an injustice. I've already committed theunpardonable rhyme! I never made a verse before in my life, and thishasn't been confided to paper. I thought it out at odd moments in myrecent travels. The humming of the wheels on the sleeper coming up gaveme the tune. If you will encourage me a little I think I can recite it.It needs smoothing out in spots, but it goes something like this:
"I view with awe and wonder Her hands so slim and long,-- I must not make the blunder Of clasping them--in song!
"But sweet the memory lingers Of happy fleeting times When I have kissed her fingers And folded them in rhymes.
"Hands shouldn't be so slender, So dear and white and strong, To waken thoughts so tender That fold them like a song!"
"Charming! I never thought when I talked to you that night at yoursister's that I was addressing my inanities to a poet. Those are verynice jingles. I'm struck by the imagination they show--in the secondverse I think it is--?"
He repeated the verse.
"Are you daring me?" he asked.
"I dared you once and got you into a lot of trouble. Please rememberthat we are unchaperoned and the dear little girls asleep in those tentsback yonder would be shocked--"
"I shall make the shock as gentle as possible," he said and kissed herunresisting hand.
"The poem seems in a way to have been prophetic!" she remarked. "I mustrun now or the doctor will scold me, or I shall be scolding you! I mustsay one thing before we part. I've had time today to do a good deal ofthinking, and my opinion of myself isn't very high. Out of sheercontrariness that night in Washington I teased you into doing thingsthat led you into grave danger--and the danger is still all about us.I'm sorry; with all my heart I'm sorry! If anything should happen toyou, it would be my fault--my very grievous sin! And maybe there areother men that I may have said similar things to--oh, you were not thefirst!" she laughed forlornly. "They, too, may have plunged into thesame pit I dug for you. Oh, how foolish I've been!"
There was no questioning the sincerity of her dejection and contrition,and he felt moved to tell her of Putney's confession in the park atChicago, that they might laugh together at the curious fling of fatethat had brought two of her victims together In deadly combat. But hermood did not encourage the idea that she would view the matter in ahumorous light.
"I wish you could tell me truly," she went on, "that what I said thatnight really didn't impress you; that it wasn't responsible for yourgiving up your plans for going to the Rockies?"
"Honestly, I can't say anything of the kind! And if we hadn't had thetalk, and if you hadn't sent the verse, I shouldn't be here trying tohelp you now."
"But it was flirting; it was the silliest kind of flirting!"
"That is always a legitimate form of entertainment, a woman's right andprivilege! Please put all this out of your mind!"
"It's not a thing to be dismissed so lightly. I'm very unhappy about it;I'm deeply ashamed of myself!"
"You exaggerate the whole matter," he urged. "You are making me out amiserable weakling indeed when you think I ambled off toward perditionjust because you dared me to assert myself a little!"
"I want you to promise," she said slowly, "that you won't in any wayinterfere with my cousin here. I can't have you taking further risks.After last night I doubt whether he bothers us. Ruth feels as I do aboutit; you must go away. You will promise, please--"
"You would have us run just as the game grows interesting! Of coursewe're not going to quit the field and leave that fellow here to annoyyou! He's a dangerous character and we're going to get rid of him."
She was depressed, much as Ruth had been a few hours earlier and hisefforts
to win her to a happier frame of mind were unavailing.
"I love you; I love you!" he said softly.
"You must never say that to me again," she said slowly and determinedly."After my stupid, cruel thoughtlessness you must hate me--"
"But, Isabel--"
She seized the lantern and hurried away, her head bowed, the cloakbillowing about her. He watched the lantern till its gleam was swallowedup in the darkness.
It was ten o'clock. Leary had got the outgoing mail--a week'saccumulation, and they crossed to Huddleston where one of Perky's menwas waiting with a machine to carry it to Calderville.
"The Governor didn't want the launch goin' up there ag'in," Learyexplained. "He dug up that car somewhere."
"The Governor's a great man," said Archie.
"The greatest in the world!" Leary solemnly affirmed.
II
Shortly before midnight Archie and Leary left the _Arthur B. Grover_ andpaddled cautiously toward the point fixed by the Governor for theirrendezvous. They were fortified with a repeating rifle, a shotgun (thiswas Leary's preference) and several packets of rockets for use insignaling the tug. It was the strangest of all expeditions, the moreexciting from the fact that it was staged in the very heart of thecountry. For all that shore or water suggested of an encompassingcivilization, the canoe driven by the taciturn Leary might have been theargosy of the first explorer of the inland seas.
Archie, keenly alive to the importance of the impending stroke, wasaware that the Governor had planned it with the care he brought to themost trifling matters, though veiled by his indifference, which in turnwas enveloped in his superstitious reliance on occult powers. Whetherthrough some gift of prevision the Governor anticipated needs anddangers in his singular life, or whether he was merely a favorite of thegods of good luck, Archie had never determined, but either way the manwho called himself Saulsbury seemed able to contrive and directincidents with the dexterity of an expert stage hand. The purchase ofthe _Arthur B. Grover_ had seemed the most fantastic extravagance, butthe tug had already proved to be of crucial importance in theprosecution of their business. The seizure of Eliphalet Congdon had beenjustified; Perky and Leary were valuable lieutenants and the crew ofjailbirds was now to be utilized as an offensive army.
Leary, restless because he couldn't smoke, spoke only once, to inquireArchie's judgment as to the passage of time. The old fellow, longaccustomed to lonely flights after his plunderings, possessed theacutely developed faculties of a predatory animal; and the point atwhich they were to debark having been fixed in his mind in a daylightsurvey he paddled toward it with certainty. He managed his paddle sodeftly that there was hardly a drip that could announce their proximityto any one lying in wait on the bay. Several minutes before Archiecaught the listless wash of calm water on a beach, Leary heard it andpaused, peering at the opaque curtain of the woodland beyond the lightershadow of the shore.
"We struck it right," he announced, returning from an examination of theshore markings.
They carried the canoe into the wood and lay down beside it,communicating in whispers.
"That girls' camp's on th' right; Carey's place to the left. Hear that!"His quick ear caught the faint moan of a locomotive whistle far to thesouth. It was a freight crossing a trestle, he said, though Archie hadno idea of how he reached this conclusion.
"Th' rest o' th' boys are away off yonder," and he lifted Archie's handto point.
"How many?" asked Archie, who had never known the number of men droppedfrom the tug to make the swing round Carey's fortress.
"Ten; and a purty sharp bunch! You be dead sure they're right er oleGovernor wouldn't have 'em!"
Leary's confidence in the Governor as a judge of character reenforcedArchie's own opinion of the leader's fitness to command. That he shouldhave been received into the strange brotherhood of the road, which theGovernor controlled with so little friction, never ceased to puzzle him.He was amused to find himself feeling very humble beside Leary, a poor,ignorant, unmoral creature, whose loyalty as manifested in his devotionto the Governor was probably the one admirable thing in his nature.
"Somebody may get hurt if we come to a scrimmage," he suggested. "Whatdo you think of the chances?"
"When ole Governor's bossin' things I don't do no thinkin'," the old mananswered. He raised his head, catching a sound in the gloom, and tappedArchie's shoulder. "It's him, I reckon."
An instant later the Governor threw himself on the ground beside them.He was breathing hard and lay on his back, his arms flung out,completely relaxed, for several minutes. Archie had often wondered athis friend's powers of endurance; he rarely complained of fatigue, andvery little sleep sufficed him. He sat up suddenly and said crisply:
"Well, boys, everything's ready!"
One by one his little army assembled, rising from the ground likespecters. They gathered stolidly about the Governor, who flashed hiselectric lamp over their faces,--evil faces and dull faces, with eyesbold or shrinking before the quick stab of the gleam.
"Remember, you're not to shoot except in self-defense," said theGovernor. "It's Carey, the leader, we're after. Those poor fools he'sgot with him think there's big money in this; I've told you all aboutthat. They may run and they may put up a fight, but Carey must be takenprisoner. Spread out four paces apart for the advance, and move in aslow walk. When you hear me yell I'll be on top of the barricade. That'syour signal for the dash to go over and get him."
Leary was already deploying the men. The Governor laid his hand onArchie's shoulder. In the contact something passed between them, such acommunication as does not often pass from the heart of one man toanother.
"If it comes to the worst for me, you and Isabel will look out for Ruth.I needn't ask you that. Use the tug quickly to clear things up here;there must be nothing left to tell the tale. See that old man Congdonkeeps his promise. That will of his is in my blue serge coat in thecloset of my room. If I die, bury me on the spot; no foolishness aboutthat. I died to the world seven years ago tonight, so a second departurewill call for no flowers!"
Tears welled in Archie's eyes as he grasped his friend's hand there inthe dark wood under the world-old watch of the stars.
Leary reported everything in readiness, and the signal to go forward wasgiven by a hand-clasp repeated along the line. Archie kept at theGovernor's heels as they advanced, pausing every fifty paces for amethodical inspection of the company by Leary and Perky, the latterhaving left the tug in charge of the engineer and joined the party lastof all.
When they reached the little stream that defined the boundary of Hearto' Dreams territory the Governor, Archie and Leary got in readiness fortheir dash across the bridge and over the barricade. The purl of watereager for its entrance into the bay struck upon Archie's ear with aspiteful insistence.
"There must be no chance of these fellows breaking past us andfrightening the women at Heart o' Dreams," said the Governor. "We've gotto make a clean sweep. But it's Carey we want, preferably alive!"
There was not a sound from the farther side of the stream. They crawledacross the bridge and Archie ran his hand over the frame of logs againstwhich stones had been heaped in a rough wall, as the Governor hadexplained to him. Archie had determined to thwart his friend's purposeto lead the assault, but while he was seeking a footing in the crevicesthe Governor swung himself to the top. His foot struck a stone perchedon the edge and it rolled down into the camp with a great clatter.
As though it had touched a trigger a shotgun boomed upon the night,indicating that Carey had not been caught napping. Orders given in ashrill voice and answering shouts proclaimed the marshaling of hisforces. Archie and Leary reached the Governor as he was crawling overthe stones. Some one threw a shovelful of coals upon a heap of wood thatevidently had been soaked in inflammable oil, for the flames rose with aroar.
It may have been that Carey had grown wary of murder as a means ofgaining his end after the escapade of the previous night, for the firstmove of his men was to attempt to drive out
the invaders with riflesswung as clubs. Carey screamed at them hysterically, urging them togreater efforts.
"Fight for the gold, boys! Fight for the gold!"
It seemed impossible that the men he had lured to his camp with thepromise of gold would not see that he was mad. He flung himself firstupon one and then another of the attacking party, a fanatical gleam inhis eyes. Once, with two of his supporters at his back, he directed hisfury against Archie. This invited a general scrimmage in which weaponswere cast aside and fists dealt hard blows. When it ended Archie laywith friends and enemies piled upon him in a squirming mass. He got uponhis feet, his face aching from a blow from a brawny fist, and found thetwo sides taking account of injuries and maneuvering for the next move.
The great bonfire kept the belligerents constantly in sight of eachother, skulking, dodging, engaging in individual encounters poorlycalculated to bring victory to either side. One of Carey's men lay nearthe barricade, insensible from a crack over the head from a rifle butt.His plight was causing uneasiness among his comrades, who began drawingback toward the shadows. Carey, seeing that their pluck was ebbing,cursed them. Only seven of the Governor's party had entered thebarricade, the others having been left outside to prevent a retreattoward Heart o' Dreams in case the enemy attempted flight.
"We ain't gettin' nowhere!" growled Leary at the end of a thirdinconclusive hand-to-hand struggle with only a few battered heads as theresult.
"There's gold for all of you!" screamed Carey to his men, and urged themto another attack.
They advanced again, but Archie was quick to see that they came into thelight reluctantly and precipitated themselves half-heartedly into thestruggle. The Governor, too, was aware of their diminished spirit andgot his men in line for a charge.
"We'll clean 'em up this time, boys!" he called encouragingly.
He took the lead, walking forward calmly, and in a low tone pointing outthe individual that each should attack. The quiet orderliness of themovement, or perhaps it was a sense of impending defeat, roused Carey toa greater fury than he had yet shown. As the invaders broke line for theassault, he leaped at the Governor and swung at him viciously with arifle. The Governor sprang aside and the gun slipped from Carey's handsand clattered against the barricade.
Angered by his failure, and finding his men yielding, Carey abruptlychanged his tactics. He ran back beyond the roaring fire and caught upanother rifle. Leary began circling round the flames in the hope ofgrappling with him, but he was too late. Without taking time for aim,Carey leveled the weapon and fired through the flames.
Archie, struggling with a big woodsman, beat him down and turned as theshot rang out. The Governor was standing apart, oddly and strangelyalone it seemed to Archie, and he was an eternity falling. He raisedhimself slightly, carrying his rifle high above his head, and his facewas uplifted as though in that supreme moment he invoked the stars ofhis dreams. Then he pitched forward and lay very still.
Carey's shot seemed to have broken the tacit truce against a resort toarms. There was a sharp fusillade, followed by a scramble as thebelligerents sought cover. The men who had been left outside now leapedover the barricade. The appearance of reenforcements either frightenedCarey or the success of his shot had awakened a new rage in his crazedmind, for he emptied his rifle, firing wildly as he danced withfantastic step toward the prone figure of the Governor.
Archie, his heart a dead weight in his breast, resolved that theGovernor's last charge to him should be kept. He saw Congdon beyond thelight of the conflagration taking aim at Carey with careful calculation.Carey must not be killed; no matter what the death toll might be, theman responsible for it must be taken alive. He raised his hand as asignal to Congdon not to fire, and waited, hanging back in the shadows,watching the wild gyrations of the madman. Carey seemed now to beoblivious to everything that was happening about him as he continued hisdance of triumph. In the midst of this weird performance, suddenlywidening the circumference of his operations, he stumbled. As he reeledArchie rushed in, gripping his throat and falling upon him.
The breath went out of the man as he struck the ground, and Archiejumped up and left him to Congdon and Leary.
Perky was kneeling beside the Governor tearing open his shirt which wasalready crimson from a fast-flowing wound.
"He's hurt bad; it's the end of him!" muttered the old man helplessly.
"There's nothing to be done here," said Archie, tears coursing down hischeeks as he felt the Governor's faltering pulse. "We must cross toHuddleston as quickly as possible."
At Carey's downfall his men fled through the woods, pursued by severalof the Governor's party. Perky seized the rockets and touched one afterthe other to the flames of the bonfire. The varicolored lights werestill bright in the sky when the answering signal rose from the bay.
"The tug's moving up," said Perky.
A thousand and one things flitted through Archie's mind. The Governorhad not opened his eyes; his breath came in gasps, at long, painfulintervals. To summon aid through the usual channels would be to invite ascrutiny of their operations that could only lead to complications withthe law and a resulting publicity that was to be avoided at any hazard.If a doctor were summoned from Calderville, he would in all likelihoodfeel it to be his duty to report to the authorities the fact that he hada wounded patient. It was hardly fair to call upon the young womanphysician at Heart o' Dreams, and yet this was the only safe move.While Perky and Leary were fashioning a litter he knelt beside theGovernor, laving his face with water from the brook. He despatched twomessengers to Heart o' Dreams, one through the woods and the other in acanoe.
They would make the crossing in Carey's launch, while the tug, nowshowing its lights close inshore could be sent for the doctor. Two menhad already started for the beach with Carey bound and gagged and he wasto be kept on the tug until some way could be found of disposing of him.
"I'll stay behind; I gotta clean up here; you don't need to know nothin'about it," said Leary gruffly.
One of Carey's men had been shot and instantly killed and another stilllay unconscious near the barricade from his battering on the head earlyin the fight. Leary grimly declared that the others would not be likelyto talk of their night's adventure.
It had been a foolhardy undertaking, with potentialities of exposure anddanger that added fear to the grief in Archie's heart at the Governor'sfall. At best the thing was horrible, and but for the coolness withwhich Leary and Perky were meeting the situation Archie would have beenfor abandoning any attempt at secrecy.
"It was th' ole Governor's way o' doin' it," said Leary, as thoughreading Archie's thoughts. "Ole Governor never made no mistakes. Weain't agoin' to make no mistakes now, doin' what he tole us not to do.I'll go back and bury that poor devil and cover up the place. I guesshe's luckier bein' dead anyhow. An' then I'll wake up that other cussan' get rid of 'im. All you gotta do is t' ferget about it and take careo' ole Governor."
III
Archie was very humble as he reflected that he hadn't done justice tothe intelligence and charm, to say nothing of the professional skill ofDr. Katherine Reynolds in his hurried glimpse of her at Heart o' Dreams.His fears that a woman doctor, who was really only a girl of the age ofRuth and Isabel, would not be equal to the emergency were dismissed anhour after she reached Huddleston. She brought the camp nurse with herand was fortified with bags of instruments and hospital supplies.
She went about her examination without a question; made it as though shewere daily in the habit of dealing with wounded men; specifically calledfor boiling water, laid out sponges and bottles and oddly shapedtrinkets of steel, and the Governor's room in the ramshackle hotel wasquickly transformed into a surgery. Perky had gone aboard the tug, whichwas to remain in the bay until the outcome of the Governor's injurycould be learned. Putney Congdon kept Archie company in the hall outsidethe sick room.
The morning was breaking when the door opened.
"There's about one chance in a thousand," said Dr. Reynolds, lookingve
ry tired but smiling bravely; "but we've taken the chance. There arereasons, I assume, why this matter should be kept quiet, and of courseyou know the danger,--to you and all of us!"
"It's splendid of you to accept the responsibility; be sure I appreciateit!"
"But I have no right to take it. I've done all I know how to do, butthere should be another head and a surer hand. Dr. Mosgrove of Chicagohas a summer home twenty miles from Heart o' Dreams. He's an old friendof my family and one of the most skilful surgeons in America. I'vewritten him a note and I'm sure he will come instantly."
The note was sent to the tug for delivery and at eight o'clock thesurgeon was at Huddleston. He was in the sick room for a long, a verylong time. Archie pounced upon him eagerly when he reappeared. He eyedthe young man quizzically, apparently immensely amused about something.
"What does all this mean?" he whispered. "Pirates in these waters whereI've been summering for years! Men shot and the police not notified! Agirl doctor attending the case! May I trouble you for your name, sir?"
Archie replied with all possible dignity that his name was Ashton Comly,and demanded a professional opinion as to the sick man's chances ofrecovery. The doctor became instantly serious.
"The bullet pierced the right chest wall and of course there wasimmediate and copious hemorrhage. You needn't trouble about the delay ingetting to the doctor; nature went to work at once, forming clots thatplugged automatically the gaping mouth of the severed vessels. You menwere fortunate to find Dr. Reynolds; she has handled the case admirably.Dear me! I'm constantly astonished at these girls! You don't knowperhaps that your attending physician is a society girl who studiedmedicine over the solemn protest of her family? Sat on my knee as achild, and it tickles me immensely to see how coolly she takes this. Iapprove of her work in every particular."
"Thank you," cried Archie. "Oh, thank you for that! One thing more:would you advise me to summon the patient's sister, his only closerelative, I believe? I must do it at once if you think, possibly--"
"Yes. There being always the uncertainties, I should certainly do so.I'll run up in my launch this evening."
Archie accompanied Dr. Mosgrove aboard the tug and gave Perky thehopeful news of the Governor's condition. Eliphalet Congdon demanded toknow what had happened in the night, and when he was to be released, andArchie spent some time trying to satisfy him that his solemn covenantwith the Governor would be carried out in every particular.
Leary, who had returned to the _Arthur B. Grover_ shortly afterdaylight, showed the strain of the night.
"It was kind o' lonesome buryin' that poor devil over yonder. Therewasn't a thing on 'im to tell who he was. That other chap came to and Idid the best I could fer 'im, and gave him money; tole him to clear outand keep his mouth shet or he'd do a lot o' time for mixin' up withCarey. I tore down that lunatic's fort and Carey wouldn't know the placehimself."
The old fellow's succinct report gave to the burial of the victim of thenight's encounter an added gruesomeness. A dead man hidden away undercover of darkness, without benefit of clergy, meant nothing to Leary,who smoked his pipe, and asked in mournful accents what was to be donewith old man Congdon and Carey. These questions troubled Archie not alittle, but when he suggested that the detective had also to be disposedof Leary grinned broadly.
"Ole Governor don't do nothin' like nobody else; y' must a-learned thatby this time. That chap ain't no detective; he's a gun man we sent tochum with Carey."
Archie bared his head to the cool morning air. It was almost too much tolearn that Briggs, who had so gallantly played the part of a governmentdetective, was really an ally, shrewdly introduced into the Governor'sstrategy to awaken fear in Eliphalet Congdon.
"Perky ain't no baby," Leary said, "an' you don't ketch 'im runnin' intono detective."
"But Perky wired the Governor that he thought he was being watched?"
Leary grinned again.
"Ole Governor was foolin' you. That telegram was jes' to let Governorknow Briggs was on the job. Got t' have his little joke, ole Governor.It tickles 'im t' fool us boys."
Archie went at once to the Huddleston station, where he satisfiedhimself that the lonely agent knew nothing of the transactions of thenight. The receipt and despatch of telegrams by the Governor had been awelcome relief from the routine business of the office, and recognizingArchie as a friend of his patron Mr. Saulsbury, he expressed the hopethat they were finding the fishing satisfactory.
Archie drew from the breast pocket of his waistcoat the envelope theGovernor's sister had given him the night she dined in the New Yorkhouse. In his subsequent adventures he had guarded it jealously ascontaining his one clue to the Governor's identity. Now that the evilhour the woman dreaded had come, Archie found himself hesitating as helistened to the agent's complaint of the fate that had stranded him inso desolate a spot. The man turned to answer the importunity of theinstrument which was sounding his call and Archie tore open theenvelope. In a flowing hand which expressed something of the grace andcharm of the woman who had given it to him in circumstances soremarkable, he read:
Mrs. Julia Van Doren Graybill Until October 1, Southampton, L. I.
The agent was taking a train order and was unaware of the agitation ofthe man at the window. It was the Van Doren that burnt itself intoArchie's consciousness. It was an old name of honorable connotations,one with which he had been familiar all his life. It was chiseled in thewall of the church near the pew held for a hundred years by his ownfamily; it was a name of dignity, associated with the best traditions ofManhattan Island; and this, presumably, was the Governor's name.Graybill was unfamiliar, and this puzzled him, for he knew and couldplace half a dozen Van Dorens, probably relatives in some degree of theGovernor, but he recalled no woman of the family who had married aGraybill. Julia had said at the Governor's that she remembered him; buteven now with her name before him he could not place her.
He made his message as brief as possible:
Regret that I must act on my promise of several weeks ago and use the address given in confidence. Encouraged to believe that the patient will recover. Suggest, however, that you come at once.
To this he added instructions as to the most direct route to Huddleston,and signed himself Ashton Comly.
He and Congdon were at the supper table when he received the answer:
Thank you. I am just leaving. J. V. D. G.
Archie was not permitted to enter the sick room, but from time to timehe received assurances that the patient's condition was "satisfactory,"and at intervals Dr. Reynolds recited with professional brevity data asto temperature, respiration and the like. A second nurse wasimperatively needed, but when they were considering the danger of addingto the number of persons who knew that a wounded man was fighting forhis life in the abandoned village, Mrs. Leary suggested Sally--Sally whohad been in tears from the moment the Governor was carried into thehouse. Dr. Reynolds accepted Sally on sight and the girl quicklyadjusted herself to the routine of the sick chamber.
At eleven o'clock Archie saw the Heart o' Dreams launch approachingHuddleston and leaving Congdon to answer any call from the Governor'sbedside, hurried to meet it.
Ruth and Isabel had crossed alone and their stress of mind and heart wasmanifest before they landed.
"I felt it; I knew that it would come!" cried Ruth. "If only you hadn'tgone there! It wasn't worth the sacrifice."
"But we have every reason to hope! We must support him with our faiththat he will come out of it!"
"I should never have permitted either of you to come to this place,"said Isabel. "I shall always feel that it was my fault."
The obligation to cheer them raised his own spirits as he explained thenature of the Governor's injury while they sat on the hotel veranda. Hedescribed the fight at the barricade with reservations, mentioning notat all the fact that a man had died as the result. They understood asfully as he that the whole affair must be suffered to slip into oblivionas quickly as poss
ible.
"The complications are so endless!" said Isabel with a sigh. "In thatmass of mail you delivered last night I found a letter from Mrs. Congdonsaying that she would arrive today--almost at once, in fact!"
"The prospect isn't wholly pleasing!" he exclaimed, looking at hiswatch. "I've played the very devil in the Congdons' affairs. I suppose Ishould lift my hat politely as she steps from the train and tell herthat I'm the brute who attempted to make her a widow. She will of courserecognize me instantly as the gentleman who escaped with her in a taxiafter the kidnaping of her daughter."
"It seems to me," said Isabel soberly, "that from the very moment youand I unfolded our napkins on the tragic night of your sister's dinnerthe world has been upside down. If we should ever tell all that hashappened, and how we have been whirled about and made to do things I'msure we were never intended to do, there wouldn't be one sane personanywhere who'd believe it. I feel like crying all the time! And I'm notsure that I'm not responsible for all of it, every bit of it! Why, I mayas well tell you now that I, poor, weak, foolish I, bade Putney Congdontake horse and ride gaily through the world, carving people with hisstout sword! And I played the same trick on you!"
"Oh, he told me all about that!" laughed Archie, glad of something torelieve the tension. "He told me without shame that he had almost fallenin love with you as a distraction from his troubles. But I didn'tconfess that you had started me for the penitentiary. There's the train,and you must permit me to satisfy Mrs. Congdon that her husband is in amood for immediate reconciliation before I break the news that he ishere."
Mrs. Putney Congdon more than justified the impression he had formed ofher in their encounter in Central Park by the manner in which she heardhis story. He told it with all brevity on the station platform. Firstassuring her of Edith's safety, he made a clean breast of the BaileyHarbor visit, but skipped discreetly all that had occurred between thatcalamitous excursion and his meeting with her in New York.
It was so incredible that it was not until he described his journey toHuddleston in Putney's company that she was able to see any humor in theseries of events that had led them all into the north.
"Poor dear Putney! And he doesn't know yet that you nearly killed him!"
"Oh, there are a lot of things he doesn't know. Your father-in-law hasgiven his solemn promise that he will not again attempt to meddle inyour affairs. The umbrella that symbolized his tyranny is at the bottomof the lake and if he should die you and your children wouldn't bethrown upon charity."
"This is all too wonderful to be true," she exclaimed. "After all themisery I've endured it can't be possible that happiness is just ahead ofme. I had become resigned--"
"Your resignation after Edith was snatched away from you there in thepark struck me as altogether charming! Your conduct pleased me mightily.We were both awful frauds, fooling the police and running away!"
"It was delicious! I had always had a wild wicked desire to fool apoliceman. Isn't that a dreadful confession! What must you think of mefor admitting such a thing!"
"My own derelictions make me very humble; it's only a survival of theprimitive in all of us. I shouldn't worry about it. It's terribly easyto become a lost sheep, even a black one. But this is not an hour forphilosophical discussion. Let me assure you that the nasty telegram thatcaused you to leave Bailey Harbor in so bitter a spirit was the work ofyour father-in-law. Putney had nothing to do with it."
"Oh, I rather guessed that; but I ran away thinking I might rouse myhusband to a little self-assertion."
"And when he asserted himself sufficiently to go back to you I was rightthere to shoot him!"
"You are a highly amusing person! It would interest me a good deal toknow your real name and a lot of other things about you."
"In due season you shall know everything. Just now I haven't the heartto keep you from your husband, and I'm going to send him to youimmediately. And as I shrink from telling a man I like so much that Itried to kill him not so long ago, I'm going to turn that agreeablebusiness over to you!"
IV
That night the Governor's condition took an unfavorable turn and Dr.Mosgrove was summoned. He remained until the crisis was passed.
"We must expect progress to be retarded now and then; but now that we'vegot by this we may feel more confident. He hasn't been wholly consciousat any time, but he's muttered a name several times--Julia; is that thesister? Then the sight of her may help us in a day or two when his mindclears up."
Archie was beset with many fears as he waited the arrival of Mrs.Graybill. His utter ignorance of any details touching the life of hisfriend seemed now to rise before him like a fog which he was afraid topenetrate. And there was Ruth, with her happiness hanging in thebalance; she was in love with a man of whom she knew nothing; indeed themystery that enfolded him was a part of his fascination for her, nodoubt; and if in the Governor's past life there was anything that mademarriage with a young woman of Ruth's fineness and sweetness hazardous,the sooner it was known the better. But when he caught a glimpse of Mrs.Graybill in the vestibule of the train his apprehensions vanished. Thepoise, the serenity of temper, an unquestioning acceptance of the fatethat played upon her life, which he had felt at their first meetingstruck him anew.
"Our patient is doing well. The news is all good," he said at once.
"I felt that it would be; I couldn't believe that this was the end!"
"We will hope that it is only the beginning!" he said gravely.
"A capital place for a beginning, or ending!" she remarked glancing witha rueful smile at the desolate street and shabby hotel.
Putney and his wife had moved to Heart o' Dreams for a few days. Itwould be a second honeymoon, Putney said. Mrs. Graybill was introducedinto the hotel without embarrassment. It might have seemed that she hadforeseen just such a situation and prepared for it. She won Dr.Reynolds' heart by the brevity of her questions, and expressed hersatisfaction with everything that had been done. When she came down tothe dining-room for luncheon she avoided all reference to the sick man.In her way she was as remarkable as the Governor himself. Her arrivalhad greatly stirred Mrs. Leary, who, deprived of Sally's services,served the table. Archie was struck by the fact that with only theexchange of commonplace remarks the two women, born into utterlydifferent worlds, seemed to understand each other perfectly. He hadmerely told Mrs. Leary that the Governor's sister was coming and warnedher against letting fall any hint of her knowledge of his ways.
"I've never been in these parts before," Julia remarked to Archie; "Ishould be glad if you'd show me the beach. We might take a walk a littlelater."
The hour in which he waited for her tried his soul. The Governor was theone man who had ever roused in him a deep affection, and the dread offinding that under his flippancy, his half-earnest, half-boyishmake-believe devotion to the folk of the underworld, he was really anirredeemable rogue, tortured him. These were disloyal thoughts; he hatedhimself for his doubts. It was impossible that a man of the Governor'sblood, his vigor of mind and oddly manifested chivalry could ever havebeen more than a trifler with iniquity.
"I'm going to ask you to bear with me," said Mrs. Graybill when theyreached the shore, "if I seem to be making this as easy for myself aspossible. I know that my brother cares a great deal for you. He sent melittle notes now and then--he always did that, though the intervals weresometimes long; I know that he would want you to know. Things havereached a point where if he lives he will tell you himself."
"Please don't think I have any feeling that I have any right to know.It's very generous of you to want to tell me. But first it's only fairto give you a few particulars about myself. You said in New York thatyou knew me and I must apologize for my failure to recall our meeting."
"It was fortunate you didn't! I've known some of your family, I think;your sister is Mrs. Howard Featherstone. Away back somewhere the VanDorens and a Bennett owned some property jointly. It may have been anuncle of yours?"
"Yes; Archibald Bennett, for whom I was nam
ed."
"That's very odd; but it saves explanations. We are not meeting quite asstrangers."
"I felt that the moment I saw the name Van Doren. I had never seen yourbrother until we met in Maine; he was of the greatest service to me; Iwas in sorry plight when he picked me up."
He was prepared to tell the story of the meeting, everything indeed thathad occurred. He had imagined that she would be immensely curious as toall the phases and incidents of his relationship with her brother.
"Just now I shall be happier not to know," she said, and added with asmile: "Later, when my heart is lighter than it is today you may tellme."
She was magnificent, a thoroughbred, this woman, who walked beside himwith the air of a queen who might lose a throne but never the mastery ofher own soul. She was far more at ease than he, walking with her handsthrust carelessly into the pockets of her coat, halting now and then togaze across the water.
"My brother is Philip Van Doren, and there were just the two of us. Anunusual sympathy bound us together from childhood, and there was never acloser tie between brother and sister. I married his most intimatefriend. My husband betrayed him; it was the breach of a trust in whichthey were jointly liable. It was not merely a theft, it was a gross,dastardly thing, without a single mitigating circumstance. My husbandkilled himself."
She spoke without a quaver of the beautiful voice, meeting his gaze asshe uttered the last sentence as though anxious to spare herself nothingin her desire to convince him of her perfect composure. One might havethought her an amiable woman attempting to entertain a dull companion bysummarizing a tale she had read that had not interested herparticularly.
"It broke Philip's heart; it broke his spirit! It destroyed his generousfaith in all men. He was a brilliant student in college and promised togo far in the law; but he felt keenly the dishonor. The financial partof it he of course took care of; that was the least of it. There wasalways a strain of mysticism in him; and he had gone deeply intoastrology and things like that; and when the dark hour came he pretendedto find consolation in them. He was born under an evil star, he said,and would not be free of its spell until he had passed through a periodof servitude. It sounds like insanity, but it was only a grim ironicdistortion of his reason. He said that if honor was so poor a thing hewould seek a world that knew no honor. I dread to think how he has spentthese years!"
"I have found him the kindest, the most loyal, the most lovable of men.He has simply mocked at life--the life he used to know."
"Yes; I suppose that was the way of it," she said pensively. "In one ofhis brief messages he spoke of a young woman who had interested him, butI never can tell when he's serious--"
Archie met the question promptly.
"A charming young girl, Ruth Hastings, whose antecedents and connectionsare the best. You need have no fears on that score. You shall see her,very soon."
She permitted him to describe the meeting with Ruth and Isabel atRochester, and her face betrayed relief and pleasure as he made it clearthat the Governor's romance was in no way discreditable.
"It is curious, and in his own way of looking at things may besignificant, that your telegram reached me on the day following theseventh anniversary of the beginning of his exile."
"He had looked forward to the seventh anniversary as marking the end ofthe dark influences; he believed there would be a vast change in hisaffairs."
"If only he lives!" she exclaimed. "Is it possible that he can ever stepback into the world he left?"
"You may be sure he has planned a return, with marriage at the verythreshold."
"Then God grant that he may live!" she said fervently.
The following evening, after Dr. Mosgrove's visit had left their hopeshigh, Archie carried her to Heart o' Dreams. Happiness shone in thestars over the northern waters. Putney Congdon and his wife wereenjoying to the full the peace that followed upon the storms of theirmarried life. They had established themselves in a tent on the outskirtsof the camp and declared that they might remain there forever. A girlbugler sounded taps and the lights went out, leaving tired and happyyouth to the fellowship of dreams.
Isabel gave Archie no opportunity to speak to her alone, and he foundher aloofness dismaying. Her scruples against hearing protestations oflove from a man she believed she had injured were creditable to herconscience, but Archie was all impatient to shatter them. She made acandid confession to Mrs. Congdon, with Putney and Archie standing by.
"With malice aforethought I practiced my vampirish arts upon these twomen! And, Alice, the crudest thing you could do would be to forgive me!I couldn't bear it. I flirted with Mr. Congdon; not only that but I tookadvantage of his distress over his father's efforts to estrange you twoto counsel him to lead a reckless, devil-may-care existence. And I triedthe same thing on Mr. Bennett, only he was much more susceptible thanyour husband and took me more seriously. I want you, one and all, to besure that I hate myself most cordially!"
"The end justified the means, I think," said Mrs. Congdon.
"I found a friend I'm not going to lose as one result," said Putney."And if the sick man across the bay recovers I hope I have anotherlifelong friend there."
"Oh, it's all so strange!" cried Mrs. Congdon. "One might think that wemust suffer tribulation before we know what perfect happiness is! And Inever expect to understand all that has happened to you men. Is itpossible that you'll ever settle down again?"
"That depends--" Archie remarked, glancing meaningfully at Isabel,--aglance which Mrs. Congdon detected and appraised with that presciencewhich makes every woman a match-maker.
On the wharf they lingered, like a company of old friends reluctant foreven a brief parting; Ruth, lantern in hand, stood beside Mrs. Graybill,looking like a child beside the stately woman. As Archie cried "Allaboard," Julia caught Ruth in her arms and kissed her.
"Good night, little girl!" she said softly.
It was like a benediction and the very graciousness of act and wordlightened Archie's vigil as all night he watched outside the Governor'sdoor.
V
On the eighth day Dr. Mosgrove announced that his visits were no longernecessary; he ran up to Huddleston, he told Archie, for the pleasure ofmeeting the agreeable people he found there. The Governor was making anextraordinary recovery, and the bracing northern air would soon set himup. Someone was always on the water between Leary's hotel and Heart o'Dreams, and clouds no longer darkened the bay.
Dr. Mosgrove had made a careful examination of Carey, and recommendedthat he be sent to a sanatorium for treatment. Perky undertook to carryhim to a private institution near Chicago suggested by the doctor, andthis became another of the series of strange errands that fell to thelot of the _Arthur B. Grover_. Eliphalet Congdon had been importuningArchie to release him, but it had seemed wise to give the erraticmillionaire more time in which to meditate upon his sins.
When the tug returned Archie found that the old gentleman had takenadvantage of a day's parole in Chicago to do considerable shopping. In anew suit of clothes he really looked, as Perky said, like a white man;but the change in him was not merely as to his outward person. He openeda bag on deck and displayed with pride a pearl necklace he had purchasedfor his daughter-in-law, a handsome watch for young Edith and anotherfor his grandson, whom Mrs. Congdon had left with a friend in the east.
"I guess I haven't been square with Putney," he remarked, "and now's agood time to let him know how I feel about it. Here," he continued,producing a bulky envelope, "is two hundred and fifty thousand dollarsin government bonds that he may use as he likes."
"Grand; perfectly bully!" cried Archie. "Please consider yourselfdischarged from the ship. We'll go right over to Heart o' Dreams andspread the glad tidings."
Though so many vistas were brightening, Archie was still troubled byIsabel's persistent refusal to see him alone, or to give him anyopportunity to break down the barriers she had raised against him. Afterluncheon at the camp, where Eliphalet Congdon proved himself a verylikable human being, he
sought her as she was leaving the dining hall.
Her young charges were skipping gaily about her; there was no questionof their admiration and affection for her. He caught the spirit of theirgaiety and took advantage of a moment when Isabel emerged smiling froman adoring group to plant himself before her.
"You are running away from me!" he said sternly. "And that's not fair."
"Oh, this is my busiest day! You mustn't think a place like this runsautomatically."
"I think nothing of the kind. But your studied efforts to escape from meare embarrassing. Ruth, the Congdons, Mrs. Graybill--everybody isnoticing it!"
"Certain matters are one's personal affair," she answered. "Really Imust ask you to excuse me."
"I refuse to be snubbed again! You are trampling me under foot, and Irefuse to be stepped on any more. I wish to assure you, Miss Perry, thatmy love for you is not to be spurned with impunity!"
"Please be careful! Those girls over there are watching us."
"A wonderful opportunity for them to see a desperate man making love; aninvaluable part of their education! They will never forget how I fellupon my knees and declared myself!"
"Oh, you wouldn't! You really wouldn't! You forget that these childrenare highly impressionable!"
"So am I, and extremely sensitive. It would be fine if you'd join me ina little walk. If you refuse I shall follow you the rest of the daysinging. The Governor and I did a good deal of singing in our travelsand--"
As he filled his lungs as though about to burst into song she hastilyturned toward the wood.
"You seem to forget that I'm mistress here while you're merely a guest!I hate to say it, but you're in serious danger of becoming a nuisance."
"You're not resentful and hateful enough yet to frighten me away.
'He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, That dares not put it to the touch To gain or lose it all.'
"It's a fact we can't escape from that you and I are not free agents andwe haven't been from the very moment we met at May's house. And thelines converge here; you've got to admit that!"
"But they lead away again in quite opposite directions. It is cruel ofyou to insist--"
"I insist that I love you! That's the only thing that matters!"
"Except," she corrected, "your cheerful assumption that I reciprocatethe feeling, when--"
"Let me begin all over again," he interrupted hastily. "You must realizethat all the odd happenings that followed our meeting in Washington havecome out pretty well; only this little affair of ours--"
"You call it an affair! Calamity would be a better term for it."
This silenced him for some time. Tradition held that the trail theyfollowed was an inheritance from Indian times; it was like anineffaceable line drawn in the forest by the red men in assertion oftheir permanent title to the soil.
As she walked before him, carrying her head high, his heart ached withlove for her. It would be best perhaps not to urge her further; to waituntil the camp closed and then see her in a different environment. Itmight be that his sister would arrange this for him, and he took couragefrom the thought.
"It has been in my mind for a day or two that May must be wonderingwhat's become of me. I always write to her, you know; and she imaginesme in the Rockies. There must be a stack of mail waiting for me atBanff; I must wire to have it forwarded."
"You needn't necessarily give up the trip--"
She turned her head to dodge an overhanging bough and he caught aglimpse of her face; she was crying; and new and world-shaking emotionswere stirred in him by the sight of her tear-wet cheek.
"Do you know," he said, "when we talk about clearing up things I'dforgotten about that buried treasure. I think it would be a mistake forme to leave without exhausting all the possibilities of finding yourgrandfather's buried gold. I wonder if poor Carey knew any more about itthan you do!"
"I'm sure he didn't. There are holes here and there in these woods thathe dug in his search. He had an idea that it might be found in the ruinsof grandfather's house, but that stood where I built the camp hall and Ihad the old cellar thoroughly explored. Why!" she exclaimed, stoppingshort and glancing about thoughtfully, "that's strange."
"We're lost, I hope!"
"Not lost; but there was a fork in the trail and I must have made thewrong turn. I don't remember that I ever saw that fallen tree before."
At some time, perhaps several years earlier, a storm had evidentlycentered its fury about the place where they stood, and a big hemlockcrushing in its fall several smaller trees lay prone across the trail.
"That old fellow must have made a mighty crash when he went down. I'msure that I never came this way before."
"Here's an old scar," said Archie, "where some one must have blazed thetree years and years ago. It's the mark of an ax or hatchet. And look!Three other big trees bear the same mark. They define a square and musthave been made for some purpose!"
Discussion of the markings brought them immediately into accord. Isabelwas perplexed to find herself in a spot she had never visited beforethough she had spent the previous summer on the land, planning thecamp, and thought she knew every foot of it. She peered into the pittorn by the roots of the huge tree. The sunlight glinted brightly uponsomething that lay half hidden in the earth.
"Oh, how wonderful!" she cried and placed a gold piece in his hands.
They knelt together, tearing up the weeds and loosening the earth. Itwas Archie who quickly found a second coin, a ten-dollar gold piecestamped 1859. With a stick he dug into the hole and soon they had made alittle heap of bright coins, laughing like children with each discovery.A deeper probe resulted in the unearthing of a splintered cedar plankevidently torn from a chest that had contained the money.
"Of all the astonishing things that ever happened this is the mostutterly paralyzing!" exclaimed Archie jubilantly.
Using the board as a spade he scooped out a capful of coins--gold,American, English and French, which the Southerner had buried in thenorthern wilderness.
"It won't do to leave this place unprotected, and we must stop or we'llhave more than we can carry. We must bring Putney back to help. It's myguess that there's a chest of money at the foot of each of these blazedtrees."
"And pretty good hiding places, too, where the gold might have remainedforever if--"
"If you hadn't been hating me so that you lost your way!"
They stood with the heap of gold between them, the bewilderment ofdiscovery in their eyes.
"This is the end of the rainbow and the gold lies at our feet!" hesaid, and he took her hands, and the one still wearing the bandage heheld very, very gently. "Love we know to be better than much fine gold;and wouldn't it be a pity for the finding of these coins to mark thevery end, with nothing beyond! And life is so big and wonderful I wantyour help to make mine of some use--"
She looked at him long and searchingly, and her eyes were so grave,their questioning seemed so interminable, that he did not know until shespoke that her lips had trembled into a smile.
"If you can forgive me," she said; and she laid her hands upon hisshoulders, lightly as though by their touch she were investing him withher hope in life renewed and strengthened, and giving pledge that theywould walk together thereafter to the end of their days.
* * * * *
During his convalescence the matter of the sixty thousand dollars takenfrom Seebrook at Cornford troubled the Governor greatly. While he hadnot personally profited by that transaction it was, he said, his nearestapproach to actual larceny and he wished to make reparation, the moreparticularly as Eliphalet complained that the sale of his stock wasfrustrated by the mysterious substitution of Leary's stolen bills forthe money in Seebrook's trunk. Whereupon Archie bought the stock fromEliphalet and sent it with ten thousand dollars in cash to Seebrook,enclosing in the packet he confided to Briggs for delivery a noteexplaining that the theft had been a mere bit of pleasantry for whichthe guilty person offer
ed the sincerest apologies.
Before he left the North the Governor made generous provision for allwho had shared his fortunes. Perky sold the _Arthur B. Grover_ to adredging company in Chicago and the proceeds were divided among thecrew. To each man's share the Governor made a substantial addition withthe stipulation that the recipient should engage thereafter in somehonorable calling. It may be said that in every instance of which thepresent chronicler has knowledge the man thus endowed invested wisely ina lawful business and so far has kept his promise.
When he closed the hotel Leary took Perky to his home further up thelake, and as Mrs. Leary was perfectly capable of managing theconfectionery alone, the two old friends purchased a garage, where inthe abundant leisure of the long northern winters they discuss theexploits of their lawless days and read the newspaper reports of theperformances of their successors in the predatory arts, deploring, ofcourse, the ineptitude of the new generation. The underground trailceased to exist with the passing of the Governor, and as you tour theGreen Mountain State you may pause at Bill Walker's farm and enjoy aglass of buttermilk on his veranda without fear of a raid by theconstabulary.
Eliphalet Congdon is at peace with all the world, and wherever a chesstournament is forward he may be observed, sometimes an interestedspectator, but not infrequently a participant and a shrewd and dangerousadversary.
Sally Walker deserves and shall receive a final word. When Mrs. Graybillleft Huddleston, happy and wholly at ease as to her brother's future,she took Sally with her, with every intention of adopting the girl andcarrying her abroad for a protracted stay. As Pete Barney was killedlate in the summer while attempting to escape from the Ohiopenitentiary, Sally was quite free to enter upon a new life, and fromall accounts she is realizing fully the expectations of herbenefactress.
In the loveliest of Colorado's valleys you may, if you exercise youreyes intelligently, note three houses in the Spanish style, with roadsthat link them together as though publishing the fact that the owners ofthe surrounding ranches are bound by the closest and dearest ties. As anadjunct of his residence Putney Congdon maintains a machine shop wherehe finds ample time for experiment. The Archibald Bennetts are learningall there is to know about fruit culture; and they are so happy thatthey are in danger of forgetting the existence of cities. Farthest ofthe three homes from the railroad, and where the hills begin, Philip andRuth Van Doren chose their abode. And you may see them any day that youcare to penetrate to their broad pastures, riding together, viewing withcontemplative eyes the distant peaks or the cattle that are theGovernor's delight, a link, he says, between the present and the oldentimes when the world was young. And often at night, when they are notwith the Congdons or the Bennetts, they ride for hours in silence, sogreat is their happiness, so perfect their understanding, so deep theirconfidence in the stars.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books by MEREDITH NICHOLSON
Lady Larkspur
"This is pure comedy carried on in high spirits and mingled with thecharm of romance."--_Outlook_.
"There is a gracefulness to the dialogue and an artistic balance in thecharacterization that keep one reminded that this is an author who isalso an artist down to the last word."--_Philadelphia Press_.
"Mr. Nicholson keeps us entertained and uncertain to the end."--_BostonHerald_.
The Madness of May
Illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steele
"May to Mr. Nicholson is neither a person nor a month. It is a state ofmind and an intoxication of spirit. The little tale is a gay and joyousfantasy that plays with the imagination like the wind through new-leafedtrees."--_New York Sun_.
"No one who wishes to be charmed out of himself or herself for an houror so should neglect to read the story."--_Philadelphia Ledger_.
"Meredith Nicholson has written nothing more charmingly fanciful or morefilled with the spirit of the springtime than 'The Madness of May.'"--_St. Louis Republic_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By MEREDITH NICHOLSON
The Valley of Democracy
Illustrated by Walter Tittle
"It is a book which could have been written only by a Westerner; and itis a book for every American, Westerner and Easterner, Northerner andSoutherner, to read, mark, ponder, and inwardly digest."--_New YorkTimes_.
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"His chapters are set forth with that same easy facility in letterswhich has marked his works in fiction."--_New York World_.
"A notably serious and thoughtful study of the American mind, character,and tendencies in the Middle West.... It is a book of fascinatinginterest and of the greatest possible civic and patriotic value."--_NewYork Tribune_.
"Meredith Nicholson has done a great work in this masterly study of theMiddle West. It is a national, nay, more, an international service whichis performed in these illuminating pages, for in interpreting America toAmericans the author is also interpreting America, or a veryconsiderable section of it, to the world at large."--_San FranciscoChronicle_.
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