LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 953, 14 July 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ELAMS ADVENTURE,

( Concluded.')

‘ You guess, I daresay, that I have a quick ear, for you know what my temperament is - -all sensitive consciousness. My good hearing had been cultivated, too, by listening for the Indians, By-and by, I detected a very stealthy movement outside the fort, and then a faint chirrup, such as a young squirrel might make. Up sprang the man, hut I covered him with my rifle, cocked. He saw the movement, showed his teeth, and drew out a pistol; but not before I ordered him to throw down his arms, or die. He hesitated ; he saw that in my eye and aspect that made him quail. With the rifle levelled and my finger on the trigger he threw down his arms - pistol and knife—■ with a dreadful oath. I had the best of him, and he knew it; before he could have put his pistol into form, or rushed on me with his knife, the ball from my rifle wouM have been in him His language was awful - and we are not nice in that respect, you know, in California—the foam lay on his lips. He demanded to be let out of the house, denouncing me as a robber and a murderer To all his ravings 1 had hut one answer ; to be quiet, to olvy me, and he should live ; dare to disobey me, and he should die. He sat there, cowed on the opposite side of the fire, nor daring to mke even a doubtful motion. Then I told him what I knew that I had heard what he was, and what he meant to do. With that he broke down utterly—or pretended at it, howled like a child, declaring that he knew my pluck, and as I had been the first man ever to get the better of him, he loved me like a brother. All the same, love or no love, he had to sit where he was, and I iu front of him, with my rifle on my knees. There was a long night before us ; he could have no liberty in it, and the restraint was horrible to him. One moment he laughed uneasily ; the next, cursed ; the next, cried. It was strange experience, was it not ? To pass away the time. I asked him to relate the history of his life. He said he would ; but would first of all just shake hands, for the respect he bore me Touching my rifle significantly, I pointed to the stick lying across the hearth-place between us “That's your boundary line, my man,” said I; “don’t go stretching your hand o er that.” And it sent him into a lit of sullenness. ’ * What came of it ? ’

‘ We must have remained in this position till midnight. Several times I heard slight sounds outside the fort, to which he listened; but he dared not respond to them, he could do nothing. After a while they ceased ; his associates, rightly judging that something or other had gone wrong and spoilt the scheme, no doubt made off, tired of waiting. The follow’s head was bent, Ids chin rested on his breast, his shaggy beard spreading over it like a mantle. He suffered martyrdom. He was like a hyama caged: though he showed it only by involuntary nervous startings and furtive glances. Finally he could bear it no longer ; and entreated me piteously, abjectly, to give him his freedom or blow out his brains. He could not have his freedom just yet, I quietly told him ; but he knew how to get his brains blown out if he desired it. Which brought forth some more of his choice language. And the lad, Edwards, slept through it all!’ ‘ What a situation ! What a night !’ ‘Ay, it was. By andby, we got to talking ; I not relaxing in my vigilance for an instant. Once started on his own history, the subject seemed to have a fascination for him. He had been honestly ‘raised,’ he said, by good and levin-.; parents, in the state of Missouri, had passionately loved a young girl in the town where he lived -and his description of her was pretty and vivid that I declare it brought into my mind that other girl waiting for me down in the Wallamet Valley. To enable him to marry her he resolved to go California and make in some honest way the requisite money. He went, and did make it, and fall of joyful anticipations, returned to find that she had married another. The man —the husband had played them false, told the girl that her lover was dead, and married her himself. When he came out of the brain fever winch this news gave him, he was invited to an evening party in the town, one given in honor of him. To this party came his love and her husband ; when he put out his hand to weh ome her, their eyes met, and each knew then, and for the first time, how they had been betrayed. From that hour the man took to evil courses, and his first victim was the false husband. His hand was against every man’s, and every man’s against him ; and he became a desperate outlaw. Once again he saw his love, meeting her in the streets of Sacramento': she was married again, and she turned from him with a cry of aversion. Yes, he might be desperate now, he added, but he had had his trials. I asked him what his true name was. Hiram Creddin, he answered ; but the one he was known by was Boone Helm. That made me start.’

‘ Why did it ? ’ * Because I had heard of Boone Helm before —and knew he was the greatest terror of the time. I suppose I should have done society a benefit had I shot him as he sat there; but [ did not. Perhaps you won’t believe that I felt a sort of pity for the fellow —but I did. Well, morning came at last. I sent Edwards to get the gate open, and esc nted my visitor out, telling him that there was not room for him and for me in that part of the country, and that he had better quit it for another.’ ‘ Amt did he ? ’

• I suppose so. He never attempted to molest me again. Not long after I heard of his death. He met his fate up east of the mountains. ’

‘ And what of that pretty Amazon, Elam? I’m sure she was almost as good to you as a guardian angel I Coming on horseback to give you warning ! ’ * Was she not ? And I had returned it by behaving so unhandsomely to her. But now, I just ask you—Would it have been proper to have let her come in on that week’s visit ? and I a young man with a reputation ! ’ Again, we burst out laughing. Elam’s appeal to us was put with the most unsophisticated air possible. ‘ At any rate, you did not.’ ‘No,’ said he, ‘I did not. And, taking all things into consideration, I think 1 did right ’ ‘ Have you over seen her since ?’ ‘ Once. It was at thin Fransisco. She was married, and staying at the same hotel that I was. Her husband was s tine, tall, dashing man, what with you would be called

a gentleman, and very wealthy. She had been lucky, you see. I knew her as soon as she came into the drawing-room, and in a few minutes I saw that she recognised me : but sbe did not take any notice, neither did 1. She told me with her eyes that she re membered ; hut there was an appealing glance in them, which I interpreted rightly. Hter dinner she went to the piano and sang ‘ Kate Kearney.’ We had got into conversation before that, the three of us, just as strangers will do in an hotel, and I found the husband a very intelligent, well-informed man. In parting I got just a word aside with her. ‘I am glad to meet you again, and thus.’ ‘flush!’ she answered. ‘I thank you for your reticence. In the past of a life that has been composed of ups and downs, there is generally something or other lying on the memory that we don’t care to recall or pioclaim to the world.' ‘ And about that young girl in the Wallamet Valley? ’ ‘ I never found her,’ replied Elam, shaking his head thoughtfully. ‘ Truth to say, 1 never started fairly to look for her. Life is composed of ups and downs, you know, as that other lady observed, of blighted hopes, and all that. Perhaps it’s as well.’