ABE WALLACE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3050, 5 April 1881, Page 4

ABE WALLACE.

A Stout ov the West Aster the Maxnbk, of Bret Habte. What's or matter wid yer ?" demanded Abe Wallace, with a not unnatural petulance , -der the circumstances. " What er yer r ; A> m' around that visage er mine for ? n '<- - rasp that countenance ? nh 7 - ei 1 ' he couldn't. For nearly an Obviously .. va p pec i hig razors and mowed hour he had sw though he was of a diligently, but btu ~.a ordinarj to Leaping thousand, barber cxv , fco nQ intelope Eur. he seemeu .b d f way against Abe's bristling ° hood - „ ~ , .'*■. 'em off. "Ef yer razors won t cut, shoov i ian( j. Year me ? Shoot 'em off," and the *. , „ some, sunburned miner composed hitust. for the novel operation. j "Is the barber at home ?" asked a low, sweet, musical voice, entering the door at that moment. r He started. No yellow water running from his pan had ever looted as sweet to him as that voice. It percolated him, and he aro3e from the chair a new man. The rough life passed away from him. The crust formed by his habits and hardened by his surroundings was broken. " Permit me, madam, to assure you that this individual befovo you is the barber," said Abe, and his new dignity sat easily upon him and seemed a part of him. " I am on my way from Boston to the Sandwich Islands," said the young girl, quietly, "and our carriage broke , down. _ I thought I would improve the opportunity and have my hair banged. Oh! no; no," she exclaimed, as Abe gallantly drew forth .a thousand dollar draft of New York. " 2?ot for the world. I've six millions of dollars, not only in my own right, but in my pocket. I will pay for any service." As the barber proceeded with his task, Abe walked the shop nervously. A presage of danger oppressed him. The chestnut curls on his forehead grew damp with anxiety. He knew life, in his rough way, and he knew barbers. The fair young girl would be no match for the frontier hair dresser, if the worst should come. And why should it not come ? Had she not millions in her pocket ? He glanced at the tiny feet planted squarely and firmly on the stool before her, and recognised character. He knew nothing of Boston, but he understood feet. " And do you live in this funny place te he ?" asked the girl, smiling at Abe's reflection in the glass. "I do," sighed Abe. " Misfortunes havo cast my bark of life high upon this barren shore, and left me with only the shelter the seaweeds afford." , "Tehe .' how odd. Ouch!" But Abe grasped him and laid him upon the floor. The barber had made a dive for the dainty pocket and had failed. Leaping Antelope Run was roused. Such an attack found no apologists among the wild, rough miners. Whatever they might be inherently, they would tolerate nothing of the kind in the barber. " Away to the dull thud !" demanded one more intelligent than the rest. And they echoed the cry till the moonlit air was shivered and the beams crept away convulsively. They may have expected him to beg, but he eyed them sternly. " Oh ! my ! whut will they do with him ?" asked the beauty with one eye. She had no need to speak. The thrill of that eye struck a chord in Abe Wallace. " They'll sprain his neck, darling," murmured Wallace, in tender accents. This feeling was new to him, but ho understood it. " G-racious! and may I see him ?" whispered she with the other eye. Abe's answer was lost in the sullen roar of the crowd. Out under tho grand old trees that fringed the mines. Out under the whisper of the leaves. Out through the shadows. The wind swept down from the sierras, velvet wind, but pitiless. They shook sweet voices out of their satin garments, but not a pleading tone for that human barber soon ' to be neither barber nor human. The rope was round his neck. Willing hands were ready. A cloud floated across the face of the moon, but she struggled from behind it, held by the horror of the scene. " Hold !" commanded Abe. And then addressing the barber, he asked : " You are Justice of the Peace, are you not ?" " I am," responded the condemned, in low, steady tones. " Then marry us,' said Wallace, drawing the Boston girl's arm within his own. "You take this woman for your wedded wife?" asked the barber, with a strange glitter in his eye. " I do," responded Abe. " You do take this man for your wedded husband ?" inquired the barber, with a peculiar smile. " Te, ho! I suppose so, to, he!" whispered the musical voice. " Then I pronounce you man and wife. Go to the devil." Tho rope tightened, hut as he went up the barber tittered a wild demoniac laugh. Then with tho ehadow of tho sierras gathering around him, he hung dead. Try as he might Abe could not shako off the influence of that laugh. It was a ghost in his life. "My God !" he screamed, as ho sprang from his seat a day or two afterward. " I understand it now." " Understand what, love ?" asked his beautiful bride, looking xip from the bite of an apple, " I know why he laughed. 1 know why the barber laughed with his dying breath," ho moaned. " Gracious goodness ! What was it for ?" she demanded with dimpling smilo3. " Because he died without giving us a marriage certificate" With » wild shriek the Boston girl sank dead at his Ueofc. The barber was avenged. — Brooklyn Eagle,