CHAPTER VII.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 29, 22 December 1883, Page 4

CHAPTER VII.

It was quite dark when Mr Jack Brace stopped before Father Wynne's open door. The windows were also invitingly open to the wayfarer as wore the pastoral counsels of Father Wynne, doliverod to some favoured guest within, in a tone of voice loud enough for a pulpit. Jack Brace pausod. Tho visitor was the convalescent Sheriff, Jim Dunn, who had publicly commemorated his recovery by making his first call upon tho father of his inamorata, The Rev. Mr Wynne had been expatiating upon the unremitting heat as a poss'blo precursor of forest fires, and exhibiting some Catholic knowledge of the designs of a Deity in that regard, and what should be the policy of the Legislature, when Mr Brace concluded to enter. Mr Wynne and tho wounded man, who occupied an armchair by the window, were the only occupants of tho room. But in spite of tho former's ostentatious greeting, Brace could free that his visit was inopportune and unwelcome. The Sheriff noddod a quick, impatient recognition, which, had it not been accompanied by an anathema on the heat, might have boon taken as a personal insult. Neither &poke of Miss Nellie, although it was patent to Braco that they were momentarily expecting her. All of which went far to strengthen a certain wavering purpose in his mind. "Ah, ha! strong language, Mr Dunn," said Father Wynn, referring to tho Sheriffs adjuration, "but, 'out of the fullness of the heart the mouth spcaketh.' Job, sir, cursed, we are told, and even expressed himself in vigorous Hebrew regarding his birthday. Ha, ha ! I'm not opposed to that. When I have often wrestled with the spirit 1 confess 1 have sometimes said, 1D -m you.' Ye&, sir, ' D— m you.' " There was. something so unutterably vile in the reverend gentleman's utterance and emphasis of this oath that the two men, albeit both easy and facile blasphemers, felt uneasy. As the purest of actresses is apt to overdo the rakish post, of a gay Lothario, Father Wynne's immaculate conception of ati imprecation was something terrible. But he added, "The law ought to interforo with the reckless use of camp fires in the woods in such weather by packers and prospectors. " " It isn't so much the work of white men,'' broke in Brace, "as it is of (i readers, Chinamen, and Diggers*, especially Diggers. There's fcliafc blasted Low, ranges the whole Carquinez Woods as if they were his. I reckon ho ain't particular just where he throws his matches." "But he's not a Digger ; he's a Cherokee, and only a half-breed at that, " interpolated Wynne" "Unless," lie added, with the artful suggestion of the betrayed trust of a too credulous Christian, "he deceived me in this as in other things." In what other things Low had deceived him he did not say ; but to the astonishment of both men, Dunn growled a dissent to Brace's proposition. Either from some secret irritation with that possible rival, or impatience at the prolonged absence of Nellie, he had " had enough of that sort of hog-wash ladled out to him for genuine liquor." As to tho Carquinez Woods, lie (Dunn) "didn't know why Low hadn't as much right thei*e as if he'd grabbed it under a presumptive law, and didn't live there." With this hit at certain speculations of Father Wynne in public lands for a homestead, he added that if they (Brace and Wynne) could bring him along any older American settler than an Indian, they might rake down his (Dunns) pile." Unprepared ior this turn in the conversation, Wynne hastened to explain that he did not refer to the pure aborigine, whose gradual extinction no one regretted more than himself, but to the mongrel, who inherited only the vices of civilisation. " There should be a law, sir. against the mingling of races. There are men, sir, who violate the laws of the Most High by living with Indian women — squaw men, sir, as they are called." Dunn rose with a face livid with weakness and passion. "Who dares say that? They are a d — d sight better than sneaking Abolitionists, who married their daughters to buck niggers like—" But a spasm of pain withheld this Parthian shot at the politics of his two companions, and he sank back helplessly in his chair. An awkward silence ensued. The three men looked at each other in embarrassment and confusion. Dunn felt that he had given way to a gratuitous passion. Wynne had a vague presentiment that he had said something that imperilled his daughter's prospects, and Brace was divided between an angry retort and the secret purpose already alluded to. "It's all the blasted heat." said Dunn, with a forced smile, pushing away the whisky which Wynno had ostentatiously placed before him. " Of course," said Wynne, hastily ; "only it's a pity Nellio ain't here to give you her smelling salts. She ought to be back now, " he added, no longer mindful of Brace's presence; "the coach is overdue now, though I reckon the heat made Yuba Bill take it easy at the up grade." "If you mean the coach from Indian Spring," said Brace quietly, "it's in already ; but Miss Nellie didn't come on it." " Maybe she got out at the Crossing," said Wynno cheerfully ; " she sometimes does." "She didn't take the coach at Indian Spring," returned Brace, "because I saw it leave, and passed it on Buckskin ten minutes ago coming up the hills." "She's stopped over at Burnham's," said Wynne reflectively. Then, in response to the significant silence of his guests, he added, in a tone of chagrin which Jiis forced heartiness could not disguise : '• Well, boys, it's a disappointment all round ; but we must take the lesson as it comes. I'll go over to the coach office and see if she's sent any word, Make yourselves at home until I return." When the door had closed behind him Brace arose and took his hat as if to go. With his hand on the lock, he turned to Jus rival, who, half hidden in the gathering darknoss, still seemed unable to comprehend his ill-luck. " If yovi're waiting for that bald-headed fraud to come back with the truth about his daughter," said Brace coolly, "you'd better send for your things and take up your lodgings here." "What do you mean?" said Dunn sternly, " I mean that she's not at the Burnham's ; I mean that he either does or does not know where she is, and that in either case he is not likely to give you information. But /can." "You can ?" tt Yes." "Then where is she?" " In the Carquinez Woods, in the arms of the man you were just defending—Low,

* Diggers. A local name for a peaceful tribe of Indians inhabiting northern California who live ou roots aua liorbs,

tho half-breed." Tho room had become so dark that from tho road nothing could be distinguished. Only tho momentary sound of struggling feet was heard. "SiL down," said Brace's voice, ''and don't be a fool. You're too weak, and it ain't a fair fight. Let go your- hold. I'm not lying— l wish to God I was !" There was a silence, and Brace rosumed : "We've horn rivals, I know. Maybe I thought my chance as good as yours. If what I say ain't truth, we'll stand as we stood before—and if you're on the shoot I'm your man when you like, where you 1 like, or on sight, if you choose. But I can't bear to see anothor man played upon as ! I've been played upon— given dead away as I've been. It ain't on the square. "Theve." he continued after a pause, ' ' that's right, now steady. Listen. A week ago that girl went down to Indian Spring. It a\ as given out, liko this, that she went to the Burnhams'. I don't mind saying, Dunn, that I went down myself, all on the" square, thinking I might get a show to talk to her, just as you might have done, you know, if you had my chance. I didn't come across her anywhere. But t\\ o men that I met thought they recognised her in a disguise going into tho woods. Not suspecting anything, I went after her ; saw her at a distance in the mi Idle of the woods in another dross that I can swear to, and was just coming up to her when she vanished — wont like a squirrel up a tree or down liko a gopher in the ground, but vanished." "Is that all ?" said Dunns voico. ' ' And just because you were a. d — d fool, or had taken a little too much whisky, you thought " • ' Steady. That's j usfc what I said to myself," interrupted Brace coolly, "particularly when I saw her that same afternoon in another dress, saying 'Good-by ' to the Burnhams, as fresh as a rose and as cold as tho.se snow peaks. Only one thing— she had a riny on her finger she never wore before, and didn't expect me to see." "What if fche did? She might have bought it. I leclcon she hasn't to consult you," broke in Dunns voice sternly. "She didn't buy it," continued Brace quietly. "Low gave that Jew trader a bearskin in exchange for it, and presented it to her. I found that out two days afterwards. I found out that out of a whole afternoon she spent less than an hour with the Burnhams ; I found out that she bought a duster liko the disguise the two men" saw her in ; I found the yellow dress she wore that day hanging up in Low"s cabin— the place where I saw her go— the rendezvous tvherc she meets him. Oh, you're listenin' uons', are you V Stop ! Sri 1 Down I "I discovered it by accident," continued the voice of Brace, when all was again quiet; "it was hidden as only a squirrel |or an Injin can hide when they improve upon nature. When I was satisfied that that girl had been in the woods I was determined to find out where she vanished and went there again. Prospecting around, 1 picked up at the foot of one of the biggest trees this yer old memorandum book with grasses and herbs stuck in it. I remembered that I'd heard old Wynne say that Low, like the d— d nigger that he was, collected these herbs, only he pretended it was foi science. I reckoned the book was his, and that he mightn't be far away. I lay low and waited. Bimeby 1 saw a lizard running down the root. When lie got sight of me he stopped." "D— n the lizard! What's that got to do with where she is now?" " Everything. The lizard had a piece of sugar in his mouth. Where did it come from? I made him drop it, and calculated he'd go back for more. He did. He scooted up that tree and slipped in under some hanging strips of bark. I shoved 'em aside and found an opening to the hollow where they do their housekeeping." " But you didn't see her there ; and how do you know she is there now ?" " I determined to make it sure. When bho left to-day I started an hour ahead oi her and hid myselt at the edge of thewoo'ds. An hour after the coacli arrived afc Indian Spring she came there in a brown duster, and was joined by him. I'd have followed them, but the d — d hound has the ears of a squirrel, and though I was five hundred yards from him he was on his guard." ' ' Guard be blessed ! Wasn't you armed ! Why didn't you go for him ?" said Dunn, furiously. "I reckoned I'd leave that for you," said Brace, coolly. "If he'd killed me— and il he'd even covered me with his rifle, he'd been sure to let daylight through me at double that distance— l shouldn't have been any better off, nor you either. If I'd killed him, it would havo been your duty as Sheriff to put me in gaol, and I reckon it wouldn't have broken your heart, Jim Dunn, to havo got rid of two rivals instead of one. Hulla ! Where are you going ?" " Going ?" said Dunn hoarsely. " Going to the Carquinez Woods, by God ! to kill him before her. Pll risk it if you daren't. Let mo succeed, and you can hang me and take the girl yourself." "Sit down, sit down. Don't be a fool, Jim Dunn ! You wouldn't keep the saddle a hundred yards. Did I say^ I wouldn't help you ? No. If you're willing, we'll run the risk together, but it must be in my way. Hear me. I'll drive yon down there in a buggy before daylight, and we'll surprise them in the cabin or as they leave the wood. But you must come as if to arrest him for some offence— say, as an escaped Digger from the Reservation, a dangerous tramp, a destroyer of public property in the forests, a suspected road agent — or anything to give you the right to hunt him. The exposure of him and Nellie, don't you see, musti be your making. If he resists kill him on the spot, and nobody'll blame you ; if he goe3 peaceably with you and you once get him in Excelsior gaol, when the story gets out that he's taken the belle of Excelsior for his squaw, if you'd the angels for your posse you couldn't keep the boys from hanging him to the first tree. AVhat's that ?" He walked to the window and looked out cautiously. "If it was the old man coming back, and listenin'," he said, after a pause, "it can't be helped. He'll hear it soon enough, if he don't suspect something already." "Look yer, Brace," broke in Dunn, hoarsely ; " d— d if I understand you or you me. That dog, Low, has got to answer to me, not to the law ! I'll take my risk of killing him— on sight and on the square. I don't reckon to handicap myself with a warrant, and I'm not going to draw him out with a lie. You hear me ? That's me, all the time !" "Then you calkilate to godownthar," said Brace contemptuously, "yell out for him and Nellie, ana let him Hue you on a rest from the first tree as if you were a grizzly ?" There was a pause. "What's thatyou were saying just now about a bearskin he sold?" asked Dunn, as if reflecting. "He exchanged a bearskin," replied Brace, "with a single hole right over the heart. He's a dead shot, I tell you." 1 ' D— m his shooting, " said Dunn. * ' I'm not thinking of that. How long ago did he bring in that bearskin ?" " About two weeks, I reckon. Why ?" " Nothing. Look you Brace, you mean well— thar's my hand. I'll go down with you there, but not as the Sheriff. I'm going there as Jim Dunn, and you can come along

as a white man -to sec things fixed on tho square. Gome !" Braco hesitated. " You'll think better of my plan boforo you got there— but I've said I'll stand by you, and I will. Come, then. There's no time to lose." They passed out into tho darkness together. " What are you waiting for ?" said Dunn impatiently, as Brace, who was supporting him by tho arm, suddenly halted at tho corner of tho house. " Someone was listening — did you not see him? Was it the old man?" asked Brace hurriedly. " Blast the old man ! It was only one of them Mexican packers chock full of whisky, and trying to hold up the house. What are you thinking of ? — we shall be late." li\ spite of his weakness, the wounded man hurriedly urged Brace forward, until they reached the latter's lodging. To his surprise the horse and buggy "s\ ere already before the door. "Then you reckoned to go anyway?" said Dunn, with a searching look' at his companion. "I calkilated somebody would go,*' returned Brace evasively, patting the impatient Buckskin ; "hut como in and take a drink before we leave." Dunn started out of a momentary abstraction, put his hand on his hip, and mechanically entered the house. They had scarcely raised the glasses to their lips when a sudden rattle of wheels was heard in the street. Brace set down his glass and ran to the window. " It's the mare bolted," he said with an oath. " We've kept her too long standing. Follow me." And he dashed down the staircase into the street. Dunn followed with difficulty ; when he reached the door he was already confronted by his breathless companion. "She's gone off on a run, and I'll swear there was a man in the buggy y He stopped and examined the halter-strap still fastened to the fence. " Cut ! by God !" Dunn turned pale with passion. c< Who's got another horse and buggy?" he demanded. " The new blacksmith in Main-street, but we won't get it by borrowing," said Braco. " How then ?" asked Dunn, savagely. " Seize it, as the Sheriff of Yuba and his deputy, pursuing the confederate of the Ingin Low — the hor.sk thief !" {To he Continued)