CHAPTER III.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 28, 15 December 1883, Page 5

CHAPTER 111.

Out of compliment to Miss Nellie Wynn, Yuba Bill, on leaching Indian Spring, had mado a slight detour to onablo him to ostentatiously sot down his fail 1 passongor boforo tho door of tho Burnhams. When it had closed on tho admiring oyes of the passengers and tho roach had rattled away, Miss Nellie, without any unduo. haste or apparent change in her usual quiet demeanovu, managed, however, to despatch her businoss promptly, and leaving an impression that she would call again before her return to Excelsior, parted from her friends, and slipped away through ; a side street to tho General Furnishing Store of Indian Spring. ■ In ; passing this emporium on tho coach, Miss ' Nellie's quick eyo had discovered a cheap brown linen duster hanging in its window. To purchase it and put it over her delicate ] cambric dress, alboit with a shivering sonso ( that she looked like a badly-folded brown, paper parcel, did not take long. As she loft ] the shop it was with mixod emotions of < chagrin and security that she noticod that J her passago through tho settlement no ' longer turned tho heads of its male inhabi- , ; tants. She reached the outskirts of Indian Spring and tho high road at about the time < Mr Brace had begun his fruitless patrol of 1 the main stroet. Far in tho distanoo a faint olive green table mountain seemed to rise abruptly from the plain. It was tho Carquine/- woods. Gathering her spotless skirts bonoath her extemporised brown domino, she sot out briskly toward them. But her progress was scarcely free or oxhilarating. Sho was not accustomed to walking in a country where "buggy riding" was considered tho only genteel young lady-Hko mode of progression, and its regular pimMsion the expected courtesy of mankind. .Always fastidiously booted, her low-quartevod shoes wore charming to the oyo, but ha dly adapted to tho dust and inequalities of the high road. It was true that she had thought of buying a coarser pair at Indian Spring, but once face to face with theiv uncompromising ugliness, she had faltered and fled. The sun was unmistakably hot, but her parasol was too well known, and offered too violent a constrast to tho duster for practical u.»e. Once she stopped with an exclamation of annoyanoe, hesitated, and looked back. In half an hour sho had twice lost her shoo and her temper ; a pink Hush took possession of i her cheeks, and her eyes were bright with suppressed rage. Dust began to form grimy circles around their orbits ; with cat-like shivers she even felt it pervade the roots of her blond hair. Gradually her breath grew more rapid and hysterical, her smarting eyes became humid, and at last, encountering two observant horsemen in the road, she turned and fled, until, reaching the wood, she began to cry. Nevertheless she waited for the two hoi^emen to pass, to satisfy horself that she was not. followed ; then pushed on A'aguely, intil she reached a fallen tree, where, with a gesture of disgust, sho' tore oft 1 her hapless duster and llung it on tho giound. She then sat down sobbing, but alter a moment dried her eyes hurriedly and started to her feet. A few paces distant, erect, noiseless, with outstretched hand, the young solitary of the Carquinoz wood^ advanced towards her. His hand had almost touched hers when he stopped. " What has happened V" ho asked, gravely. " Nothing," she said, turning half away, and searching the ground with her eye.-;, as if she had lost some-thing. '"Only I mu&t be going back now." " You shall go back at once if you wish it," he haid, flushing slightly. "But you have been cryinir — why?'' Frank as Miss Nellie w ished to be, she could not bring herself to .say that her feet i hurt her, and tho dust and heat wero ruiuI ing her complexion. > It was, therefore, I with a half-confident belief that her troubles were really of a moral quality, that she answered : " Nothing— nothing, but — but— its wrong to come here." " But you did not think it was wrong when you agreed to come at our last meotI ing," said the young man, with that persistent logic which exasperates the inconsequent feminine mind. "It cannot be any more wrong to-day." "But It was not so far off," murmured the young girl, without looking up. "Oh, the distance makes it nioro impioper, then," he said abstractedly, but after a moment.-? contemplation ,of her half averted face, he asked gravely: " Has any one talked to you about me V" Ten minutes before, Nellie had boon burning to unburden herself of her father's warning, but now she felt she would not. "I wish you wouldn't call yourself Low," *he .-aid at last. " But it's my name," he replied quietly. "Nonsense! It's only a stupid translation of a stupid nickname. They might as well call you ' "Water ' at once." " But you said you liked it." " Woll, so I do. But don't you see— I — oh dear ! you don't understand." Low did not reply, but turned his head with resigned gravity toward the deeper woods. Grasping the barrel of his rifle with his left hand, he threw his right arm across his left wrist and leaned slightly upon it with the habitual ease of, a Western hunter, doubly picturesque in his own lithe, youthful symmetry, Miss Nellie looked at him from under her eyelids,, and then half defiantly raised her head and her dark lashes. Gradually an almost magical ohange came over her featnres, her eyes grew laiger and more and more yearning, until they seemed to draw and absorb in their liquid depths the figure of, the youn,g man before her ; her cold face broke into an ecstasy of light and colour ; her humid lips parted in a bright welcoming smile, until with an irrestible impulse she arose, and, throwing back her heaW,.. stretched toward him t\yo hands full of vague and trembling passion. In another, moment he had seised them, kissed them, and as he drew her closer to his embrace felt them tighten around his neck. "But what name do you wish to call me V he asked, looking down into her eyes. Miss Nellie murmured something confidentially to the third button of h.if« hunting shirt. "But that," he replied, with a faint smile, " tliat wouldn^t be any more practical, and you wouldn't want others to ,call me dar " Her fingers loosened around his neck, she drew her head back, and & singular expression, passed over her face, which', to any calmer observer than aloVer, would have seemed, however, to indicate mdre curiosity than jealousy. ' " Who else 1 does call you so?" she added ehavphU " How many, for instance ?"■' u !t "< ! Low's rgply was addressed' not to hereary but to her lips. She did not avoid it, < but added : "And do you kiss 1 them" all like tMt?" 1 Taking him by the" shoulders, -shje. held him a little way from' hetyahd gak<3d<at)' him fr6m head to foot. 'Then drawing- foini again to her enibrace.'she 'mid* '"'l'donlt care; &t least nO Woman- has kissed' You* like that." Happy, dazzled,' and'' embar-' rassed, he was beginning to statrftnev'the truthful protestation that rose to 'his Hjpß,> but she stopped him. " No, don't* protest j. say nothing ! Let me love you — that' is alii It is enough," He would have caught her

in his arms, biitshedrewbaok; "**'We*»w4 :neartho roadV^ehjesnid;, quietly.^, ".Come, you promised to show'me where yOucamped, Let us make the mostvpf our holiday. In an hour, I musfoleave the w00d5. ".,,., > t , x " But I shall accompany you* dearest." " No, I must go as 1 came-— alone." "But, Nellie " "I tell you wo," she said, with an almost harsh praetioal decision, incompatible' with hor provious abandonment. "We might be seen together." " Well, suppose we are ; we' must be seen together eventually," he remonstrated. The young girl mado an involuntary gesture of impatient negation, but ohecked herself. " Don't let us talk of that now. Come, while I am .here under your own roof " — she pointed to tho ,lngh interlaced boughs above them — " you miist bo hospitable. Show me your homo : tell me, L-jn't it a little gloomy sometimes ?" ' ■- ■ •'It never has been; I never thought it would bo until the moment you leave it to-day." She pressed his hand briefly and in a half perfunctory way, as if hor vanity had accepted' and dismissed tho compliment. "Take me somewhere," she said hiquisitivoly, "whore you stay most; I do not seem to see you here," sne added; looking' around hor with a slight shiver. "Itis so big and so high. Have you no place where you eat and rost and sleep ?" - " Except in the rainy season, I camp all over tho place— at any spot whore 1 may hnvo been shooting or collecting." ' " Collecting ?" queried Nellie. " Yes, with tho herbarium, you know." "Yes," said Nellie dubiously. "But you told mo once—the first time wo over talkod together," she addod, looking in his eyes — " something about your keeping your things like a squirrel in a tree. ' Could we not go there ? Is there not room for us to sit and talk without being browbeaten and looked down upon by those supercilious treos ?" "It\s too far away," said Low, truthfully, but with a somewhat pronounced omphasis, "much too far for you just now ; and it lies on another trail that enters the wood beyond. But come, I will show you a spring known only to mysplf, the wood ducks, and the squirrels. I discovered it tho day 1 first saw you, and gave it your name. But you shall christen it yourself. It will be all yours, and yours alone, for it is so hidden and secluded that I dofy any feet but my own, or whose, shall keep step with mine, to find it Shall that foot be yours, Nellie ?" Her face beamod with a bright assent. "It may be difficult to track it from i here," he said, " but stand where you are a moment, and don't move, rustle, or agitate the air in any way. Tho woods are still now." Ho turned at right angles with the trail, moved a few paces into the ferns and underbrush, and then stopped with his finger on his lips. For 'an instant both remained ihotionless ; then with his intent facie forward and both arms extended he began to sink slowly upon one knee and one side, inclining his body with a gentle, perfectlygraduated movement, until hie ear almost touched the ground. Nellie watched his graceful figure breathlessly until, like a how imbemt, he stood suddonly erect again, and beckoned to her without changing tho direction of his face. " What is it ?" she asked eagerly. " All right : I have found it," he continued, moving forward without turning his hoad. "But how? What did you kneel for?" He did not reply, but taking her hand in his, continued to move slowly on through the underbrush, as if obeying some magnetic attraction. " How did you find it?" again asked the half-awed girl, her voice unconsciously falling to a whisper. Still silent, Low kept his rigid face and forward tread for twenty yards further ; then ho stopped and released the girl's half -impatient hand. " How did you find it?" she repeated, sharply. "With my ears and nose," roplied Low gravely. "With your nose?" "Yes; I smelt it." Still foesh with tho memory of his picturesquo attitude, the young man's reply seemed to involve something more irritating to hor feelings than even that absurd anti-climax. She looked at him coldly and critically, and appeared to hesitate whether to proceed. "Is it far?" .she a*ked. " Not more than ten minutes now as I shall go." " And you won't have to smell your way again ?" " No ; it is quite plain now,", he answered seriously, the young girl's sarcasm, slipping harmlessly from his Indian stolidity. " Don't you smell it yourself?" Bub Miss Nellie's thin cold nostrils refused to take that vulgar interest. "Nor hear it? Listen!" "You forget I suffer the misfortune of having" been brought, up under a roof," she' replied coldly. , „ > , , "That's true," repeated Low in all seriousness; "it's not your fault. But do you know I sometimes think I am peculiarly sensitive to water? I feel, it miles away. At night, though I may not see it, or even know where it is, I am conscious of it. .It is company to me when I am alone, and I seem to hear it in my dreams.. There is no music as sweet jto me as its song. When you sang with, me.that day in church 1 seemed to .hear it ripple in your voice. It says to me more than the birds do, more than the rarest plants I .find., it seems to live > with me, and, for , me. It is my earliest reqollection ; , I know it wiU be, my last, for I shall die in its embrace. Do you think, Nellie— he continued, stopping short and gazing earnestly , jn her, face— do you think that the^phiefa knew this when they called me "Sleepirig Water ?" , . , „' , To Miss Nellie's several gifts I fear the gods had not added poetry. A slight knowledge of- English verse < of .a select character unfortunately did not assist* Jier in the interpretation of , the > young raah'l speech,' nor relieve hep 'from the- momentary feeling that lie was at times deficient in in[ tellcct. She preferred-, > however, totake>a personal view of the question, and expressed her sarcastic regret that she had not knowh before that she had been indebted to the greaii flume 1 and ditch at Excelsior- for the pleasure of* his acquaintance. 'This pert remark occasioned some explanation, which ended in the girl's accepting a kiss in lieu Of more logical argument. Nevertheless she was still conscious bf .an inward irritation — always distindt from'her singular and perfectly material passion— which > foiind vent "as the difficulties of their undeviating progress through the underbrush increased. A ; t' last iehe 1 lost-heir shoe again,' jand stopped 'short.* » '* It's a pity your-' lndian*, friends !did riot christen you flWild' Mustard!' -or; '< Clover,'" she said satirically^:'" that' you ■ ■migKti have- had 'some^yra^athiesand lond-, iiigs for the' open 1 fields uinstead of these' ■horrid 'jungle!* \-> l ikriow >w6 will not. got baokiri time;"'-* /'! >«h !n«> '. ,i > „'i 1 ■ Uriforturiatelyv Low accepted this speecji literally and with his remorseless gravity: ♦'If my name annoys youjlcan get 'it ohanged by the Legislature, you know,' anjd I can find out' what my father's name.. wia and- take* that» My mother, who diedi^n giving me birth, was tho daughter of a! chief." -'Hi- .•-*'! ■< > < '<« i.i ij ;

Indian,?" sa^d , Nellie, " and you ( ( are— -p" She stopped short. '' „ " '!''', " But I told you aU>his' the' day We'firel; 1 • met," said 1 Low with grave' asrotiistimetift ' " Don^t you, remember, our longi talk/coming \ f rom church : '" , " No," , stud. Nellie, coldly, ' " you' didii'i' toll me." Biit, she was obliged to drop her eyes beijoro the unw ( avoriug, undeniable ' truthfulness of his. ( ' , ( , "You have forgotten," lie said calmly'; " but it is ojjly right you should have yoiir own way in disposing t of a name that I ' have cared' li'til'e for ; and , as you're to haV6 t a share of, it— '—" ' , • " Yes, bu,t it's geyipg latd, and if we are , not going forward-——;" intbrrupted'thd girl 1 ' impatiently., , ,', ;', \>, ' " .We are going forward," said Low ira- , perturbably j " but I iv.antod to toll you^ as ,'. we were 'speaking, on 'that subject " (Nellie looked at her watch). ( " I've' been, offered the place of bptanist and naturalist in Prof. Grant's survey of Mount Shasta, and if I j take it—why, when I come back, darling— ' well " «!,,', '! ■"'But you're not going just yet?" bmjce in, Nellie, with a, now expression in horfaco. (< No." , " , , " ' ' : " Then, we need no^ talk ,of ,it no ( w," she said, witli animation^ , Her sudden vivacity relieved him. ( "1' ; see what's the matter," he said, gently, looking down at her feet ; " these little shoes were not made to keep step with, a moccason. Wo must try' another way." He stooped as if to secure the erring buskin, but suddenly lifted her like* a chUd to his , shoulder. "There," he continued, placing her arm round his neck, " you are clear of ; the ferns and brambles now, and we can, go on. Are you comfortable ?" He looked up, read her answer in her burning eyes' and the warm lips pressed to his forehead at the , roots of his straight dark hair, and again , moved onward as \n a mesmeric dream. , But he did not swerve from his direct course, ■ and with a final, dash through the undergrowth parted the leafy curtain, before the ; spring. , ' , At first the young girl was dazzled by the • strong light that came from a rent in the interwoven arches of the wood.' < The breach 1 had been caused by the hugd bulk of one of ( the great giants t'lat had naif 'fallen, and was lying at a steep angle against* one 1 of 1 its mightiest brethren, having borne- down 1 a lesser tree in the arc >of its downward ] path. Two of the roots,' as large as young ' tree 1 ;, tossed their blaokened and bare ', limbs high in the air. The spring— -the insignificant cause of this vast, disruption — i gurgled, flashed, and sparkled at the base ; the limpid baby fingers that laid bare the ! foundations of that . fallen column played with the still, clinging rootlets, laved the ' fractured ahdtwisted limbs, wn'df widening, filled with sleeping water the graves from which they had been torn. . j "It had been going on for years down there," said X»O"\v, pointing to a. cavity from which the fresh 'water now slowly welled, " but it had been quickened by the rising of the subterranean springs and rivers which always occurs at a certain stage, of the dry season. I remember that on that very night--for it happened a little after midnight, ' when all sounds' are more audible — I was troubled and oppressed in my sleep by what you would' call a nig'htmare — a feeling as if I was kept down by bonds and pinions that I longed to break. And then I heard a crash in this direction, and the fii'st st r e*»k of morning brought me tKe sound and, scent of water. Six months afterward I chanced to find my way here, as I told you, and gave it your name. I did not drea.intha.tt should stand ever beside it with you, and have you christen it yourself.' " ' " He unloosed the cup from his flask, and filling it at the spring handed it to her, bu.t the young girl leant over the pool, and pouring the water idly back said, "I'd rather put my feet in it. Mayn't I?" "I don't understand you," he said, wonderingly. "My feet are so hot and dusty. The water looks deliciously cool. May I V "Certainly." He turned away as Nellie, with apparent unconsciousness, seated herself on the bank and removed Her shoes and stockings. When she had daWbled her feet a few moments in the pool, she said over her shoulder : " We can talk just as well — can t we?" " Certainly." ' "Well, then, why, didn't you come to church more often, and why didn't you think of telling father that you were convicted of sin, and wanted ' to be baptized?" 1 , "I don't iknow," hesitated the young man. " W.ell, you lost the chance of having father convert you, baptize you, and take you iuto'full cliurch fellowship." " I never thought -"he began. ."You never thought. Aren't you a Christian ?" , , "Isuppbseso." "He supposes so. Have you no convid» tions— no, professions ?" " But," ' Nellie, I, never , thought that you—; — " *' '* Never thought that I — what ? Do you think that I could ever be, anything to aman who did not believe in justification by faith,' or in' the covenant "of Church fellowship? Do you think father would let me?"' " , " ' '„'"* In his eagerness ' to ' defendf himself, he' Stepped to her side.' Bqt seemg '^er little feet s|iining through the dark Vater like outcroppings of delicately veined cluartz, ,he stpppe,d embarrassed. Miss Nellie, h ow ever, leaped' to one foot,, and shaking the other pver the pool,, put her. hand on his, shoulder to steady herself.', ' " Yqu Haven't gota towel— or," she said dubidugty,'looking at her Bmall handkerchief,, '"■ anything 'to dry .them on?", ", ' ',l / ',!. i . Bu.t' Low did'not,, asptje perhaps 'expected,, offer his own handkerchief. '' S) ' "^, lV , , t *f ( lf .yqu.take a b^thfi^fte'r^ 1 our) fashion, 1 " he said gravely,' "ybu J mustHear,^' ,^o' s dr,y yourself a|ter c our fashipn.' 1 ', u , Lifting her again lightly in, hip arina, jhq carried her a few steps to jbhe £i\inny ( openi ing, , and, bade her; bury Jier jfeet in/the| , dried ; mosses, and baked' ,wi,there.d. graces ,tha* :, were; bleaching.^n- a u hollpw. The .young.g|rl .vttered a cry ,pf ..childieh, delight as the. soft ciliated £bres touched her, sensitive skin,! . : >,-; /} „[•/., u. .. "It is healing, too," continued Low \ " a mocasdn filled with it after, a $ayt on the trail raakesyou all righ,t again,", .,/",, ! But Miss Nellie seemed fe>,be .thinking ,of something else. t ;%)iJ ' •MS that the way the aquaws. bathe-an(j. dryihemselYea?" ! „.,n,- i ' .. ,„ ),\ .;, ' ti ','H doji'tknow.Try-QUitiprgftti^ was a bqy when.lle I ftthe^" S S ' i ..,(.,;,, , f ' ;•( „„] "And you're sure you never knew an,yj?r • ."iN(doe,"u,;"ti .;. . j „\,u \ t , v ,,, ,j , - • The i doting girt seemed to,.d^riv^ satisfaction, itt movingvh^leet^p.an^jlowh for 1 fieveral-.minut^l.aniopgj.,^ grass^ili' ithe. ho}ld«t ; then, 'frfte*; fsa\d., , f • Xp« dre squit»icertain, $<msie first , mmti W^> ever touched this spring?" ' ..<>,{ ,> w.flwa^/bui«' ( the; first; h\mm being, except pwMX* .••.,»»» H l They had tftkePj^fih.P^e^.^a^ef ,«eatdd side.byris^dQ; tl^ey Je?m§d agafnst a, oUrvingi «iastia rQot,jtl^t>jba|},.^ppflrt,e i d % ( halfiehcqi»pa?sed them.: Hil she givJL'n cftpri-, coua, fitCuLi4«f n^tr siiaou^ked^a^ejEpjftio/ <sUe'»eai I .floutaQt.of.hej?r cp^p^^o^., jL^k^

selfish.lover's monologue, descriptive of his past; iihct'^iWe'nt^eh'rt^'Wtirdii'ei 4 , whibh 'she ' accepted witli J 4' ' heightejiea ' 'ddlour, \n slight exchtyngoof/sdrltiraent, and'astrarige 1 ' 'The kit\hUd pairiteti tbdr halfembraced' silhouette's dmtinßt' the* Planting tree think, a'h/rbegaii'tq aeclihe 1 urtnoticed'J' ripfple 6i the wfyteV mingHrig with theftwhiskers came as, one sound to the listening ear ; 6vpn thdtr eldque'nt sllencei' were as deep, and, T wot, perhaps ds, dangerous, as" the darkened pool* that' filled so n'diselessly^ 'a d6zeh ya'rd^ 'itVvay."' 'So quiet' were theytremor of .invading wings once or twite ( ' shook 1 ! the" Y Mlenqe,' i dr the 'fciuiek .flcataper of frightened feet rustled the de^d ! grass. Bat iri ' the' midst of- li prolonged' stillness 1 the 'young 1 hiim 'sprang up 'so afad ll •denly 1 that' Nellie was ■stillhalf clinging- to; ,hi^ neck 'asH e 1 stood' eVect. "Hush !" he 1 whispered^ "safae'dne'is near!' ?/ '' < ! , fie 1 disen'e|a'£bd ; her 'anxidtos 11 hands gehtly, leaped' upon the slUnting tree trunk, ,and running half ,'lvay up its incline with the agility of d 'squirrel, stretched himself at full length 1 trpon 'it aiidlistehe'd: ' ' ' Td the impatient, inexplicably startled girl, it &eejn(jd an ' age before 'he rejoined he*. ! ' "' ' ' ' •' • ' ' " You' are safe," he' said ; "he is going by the wdstern trail 'toward Indian Spring." ,'' ' ' ' ' ' ■ ■•■ "'Who is he?" she asked, biting her lips 1 with a poorly restrained gesture of mortification and disappointment. "Some stranger," replied Low. *' As long as he wasn't coming here, why did you give me such a fright?" she said pettishly. "Are you nervous because a single wayfarer happens to stray here ?" •' It was no wayfarer, for he tried to keep near the trail," said Low. "He was a stranger to the Wood, for 'he lost his way every 'now and thon. Ho was seeking or expecting some one, for he stopped frequently and waited or listened, He had not walked far, for lie wore spurs that tinkled arid caught in the brush, and yet he had not ridden here, for no horse's hoofs passed the road since we have been here. Kg 'must have come from' lndian Spring. " ' '" And you heard all that when you listened just how?" asked Nelly, half disdainfully. Impervious to her incredulity, Low ' turned his calm eyes on her face. "Cer- | taihly; I'll bet my life on what I say. Tell me— do you know anybody in Indian Spring who would be likely to spy upon you?" ' The young girl was conscious of a certain ill-defined uneasiness, but answered " No.?' "Then it was not you he was seeking," said Low, thoughtfully. ' Miss Nellie had not time to notice the emphasis, for he added : " You must go at once, and lest you ■ have been followed, I will show you another way back to Indian Spring. It is ldng; and you must hasten. Take your shoes and stockings with you until we are out of tlie bush." 'He raised her again in his arms and strode once more out through the covert into the dim aisles of the wood. They spoke but little. She could not help feeling that some other discordant element, affecting him more strongly than it did her,' had come botwoen them, and- was half perplexed, and half frightened. At tho end of ten minutes he seated her upon a fallen branch, and telling her he would return by the time she had resumed her shoes and stockings, glided from her like a shadow. She would have uttered an indignant protest at being left alone, but he was gone ere she could detain him. For a moment she thought she hated him. But when she had shod herself once more, not without nervous shivers at every falling needle, he was at her side. • "Do you know any one who weirs a frieze coat liko that V"- he 'asked, handing her a few torn shreds of wool affixed to a splinter of bark. Miss Nellie instantly- recognised the material of a certain sporting coat worn by Mr Jack Brace on festive occasions, but a strange yet infallible instinct that was part of her nature made her instantly disclaim all knowledge of it. "No," she said. "Not any one who scents himself with somedoctor's stuft'liko cologne '/" continued Low, with the disgust of keen olfactory sensibilities. Again Miss Nell' recognised the perfume with which the gallan Expressman was wont to make redolent her little parlour, but again she avowed no knowledge of his possessor, " Well," returned Low with some disappointment, "such a man has been here. Bo on your guard. Lot us go at once." ' Shb .required no urging to hasten her steps, out hurried breathlessly at his side. HehadtakeiVa : now trail by which "they left the wood at right angles with the highway two miles away. Following an almost effaced mule track along a slight depression of the plain, deep enough, however, to hide them from view, he accompanied her until, rising to the^ level again; she saw' tliey were beginning to aproach the highway and the distant roofs of Indian Spring. "Nobody meeting you now," he whispered, * { would suspect whore you had been. Good night ! Until next ,week — remember." They pressed each pother's hands, and, standing ori the slight ridge outlined against the paling sky 1 , iri full view of the highway, parted carelessly, as if they' had been .chanCe-met travellers. But Nellie, could 1 notJ restrain' a parting backward glance as 'she left" the 'ridge. Low had descended to the deserted trail, and was running swiftly in the direction of the Carquinez woods, ' , ' ' , , . ,( To be, Continue^.) , (