She raised her light riding-cane and cut him once across 
 the face. (See page 34 6. ) 
 
The HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 A Sab of 
 
 EDITH M. NICHOLL 
 
 Illustrated by 
 
 CHARLES COPELAND 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1905, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company. 
 
 Entered at Stationers Hall, London. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 THE HUMAN TOUCH. 
 
 Published, April, 1905. 
 
 Noriooob fJrraa 
 
 Berwick and Smith Companv 
 
 Norwood, Mass. 
 
 U.S.A. 
 
- 
 
 o2> /Sy/ 
 
 \* 
 
 "If God had committed some orphan child to thee, wouldst 
 thou have neglected it? Now He hath given thee to thyself, 
 and saith : I have none other more worthy of trust than thee ; 
 keep this man such as he was made by nature reverent, faith 
 ful, high, unterrified, unshaken of passions, untroubled. 
 
 EPICTETUS. 
 
 M578472 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 She raised her light riding-cane and cut him once 
 
 across the face Frontispiece 
 
 Page 
 She had forgotten everything in the mad rapture of 
 
 the race 92 
 
 Sylvia swayed in her seat, and David . . . passed a 
 
 supporting arm around her 28O 
 
 "You sure is gettin 1 sassy for your years, Bob!" . . 329 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ON s amuse tou jours ! " 
 The speaker shrugged his shoulders 
 slightly, and knocked the ashes from the end 
 of a remarkably fine cigar. 
 
 "Agreed. But that s not precisely this native s 
 idea of domestic bliss." 
 
 " That the wife should achieve nervous prostra 
 tion, writ large, and demand a year in Europe in 
 order to rest up from social duties, leaving you to 
 business cares and other matters less fatiguing? 
 Perhaps not, my boy but you have your consola 
 tions. Your wife is in the way of conferring on 
 you indirectly, of course letters patent of nobility ; 
 that is, of the Four Hundred. What further can a 
 Western cattle-king desire?" 
 
 The individual thus addressed threw himself back 
 in his chair and raised a hand, rather small, but 
 strong and shapely, as was his entire person, to pull 
 at the time-honoured resource of troubled man ; but it 
 was gone at her command a sacrifice to Style. He 
 
2 THE HUMAN TOUGH 
 
 laughed bitterly, looking suddenly old and hard, his 
 clear young eyes narrowing under their dark brows. 
 
 "Oh, you re too primitive, my dear fellow!" con 
 tinued his mentor, glancing at him quizzically. 
 
 Now Buckley had known Kingdon for a consider 
 able period, as clubmen know one another, but the 
 conversation that had taken place between them to-day 
 had revealed impulses and cravings in the latter s 
 nature the existence of which the older man had never 
 before suspected. He had always found Kingdon 
 an eminently satisfactory person. His good looks 
 were of the kind to appeal to the artistic dilettante; 
 for it was rare indeed to find such richness of flesh 
 colouring in combination with hair of so peculiar a 
 shade of brown, and features well-nigh perfect. In 
 short, to Buckley the young Westerner represented a 
 delightfully human type perfectly harmonious, joy 
 ous and joy-giving. 
 
 " When a fellow finds the everlasting old round 
 becoming stale," he would assert, "David s the chap 
 to renew his capacity to take it all in again." 
 
 While this cultured man of the world was familiar 
 with his companion s marked business ability, he had 
 felt toward him much as one feels toward a charming 
 boy gifted with enough brains not to be a bore. But 
 of bitterness, irony, strong passion, or in fact any 
 
THE HUMAN XUUCH 3 
 
 emotion other than that of a superficial nature, he 
 had not deemed him capable. And yet he might have 
 been aware that he had not fully understood Kingdon, 
 for the latter was secretive to an extraordinary degree, 
 and his faculty for avoiding personalities was nothing 
 short of the marvellous. 
 
 At length Buckley spoke again. 
 
 "No kids, I suppose?" 
 
 "Children? No!" 
 
 The changeful face of the speaker was dark with 
 emotion. Buckley was becoming interested, but stuck 
 to his characteristically indifferent drawl, fearful of 
 scaring so shy a bird. 
 
 "How did it come about?" 
 
 " What ? The marriage ? " 
 
 David sprang up with one of his alert movements, 
 plunging his hands deep down into his pockets. 
 
 "Propinquity, I guess," he said, with unwonted 
 bitterness. " Style, a fine figure " 
 
 " Oh, yes, we all know you re a bit of a fool where 
 a fine woman s concerned, old man!" 
 
 "I may have been once, but I am not now," was 
 the brusque retort. "That s where you re all out." 
 
 "Oh, come now," said Buckley, smiling indul 
 gently, " can we forbear conducting ourselves prettily 
 to a pretty woman eh, David?" 
 
4 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 He was surprised to find how pleased he was to 
 receive once more the responsive smile which, until 
 this day, had never failed to greet his gentle gibing. 
 
 " Propinquity," repeated David, " mixed with 
 ambition, the entree into the best society I then knew 
 of that which groans and struggles in the agonies 
 of the Correct Thing. In the second-rate cities of 
 the Middle West we take the disease in a more aggra 
 vated form than you do ; it goes harder with us. Ah, 
 we were in the swim then, Buckley, I can assure you ! " 
 His smile flashed and died again. " My wife did not 
 like New Mexico, and I did not think, when I married, 
 that I should have to continue to stick so closely to 
 the Territory; but circumstances arose which made 
 sticking necessary." 
 
 "Circumstances?" put in the other man 9 with 
 deliberate derision ; " I shouldn t have believed that 
 circumstances could exercise compulsion over such 
 a spoiled son of fortune as yourself, David." 
 
 David looked down, and for a while answered 
 nothing. 
 
 " There are things a fellow has to do," he remarked, 
 at length, with more brevity than elegance. 
 
 Buckley was reduced to a contemplative silence. 
 Associating duty with a sober demeanour and an aver 
 sion to feminine society, he found difficulty in connect- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 5 
 
 ing it with Kingdon s charming personality and 
 frank enjoyment of the good things of life. 
 
 " Clairette I m not responsible for the highfalut- 
 ing name, my dear fellow; such is considered chic in 
 our circle had not been raised in the lap of luxury, 
 anyway, and she could have anything she wanted, in 
 reason; it was only for part of the year, moreover, 
 that she had to live in the Territory. But her little 
 world was everything to her. Home, and those 
 other things, meant nothing in comparison. To me 
 they have always meant a good deal. Buckley, I 
 really believe I could meet any decent woman half 
 way." 
 
 Seriously, questioningly, he raised his eyes clear 
 and rounded as those of a very young boy, of a brown 
 many shades lighter than his sombre brows, and with 
 childish, up-curling lashes. It was these eyes, a cer 
 tain pathetic droop noticeable at times in the flexible 
 lips and a grieved lifting of the eyebrows, to which 
 was probably due his intermittent air of extreme 
 youthfulness. 
 
 Buckley with difficulty restrained himself from 
 bursting into a laugh; but he rejoined with a serious 
 ness equal to that of his companion: 
 
 " But your wife is evidently an especially and par 
 ticularly decent woman, David." 
 
6 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Hang it all yes ! It s domestic affection and all 
 that kind of thing that I mean." 
 
 " Well, my dear fellow, if you do not care for each 
 other, you have the remedy in your own hands. You 
 settle these matrimonial unpleasantnesses with great 
 dexterity and despatch in your section, I have always 
 understood. Write and suggest to her that you 
 agree to differ. One divorce or divorcee more or less 
 what s the odds?" 
 
 Kingdon s glance fell again, and the elder man 
 noted not for the first time, but now with amused 
 and affectionate interest the childlike pathos in that 
 downward look. Presently an idea struck him in 
 regard to the matter, and he said : 
 
 "Perhaps she cares a little for you still, David?" 
 
 " She claims to do so," he replied, voice and face 
 grown suddenly old and stern. 
 
 "Yet she leaves you for a year at a time to your 
 business cares, and other amusements, two or three 
 trips to this gay village included ? " 
 
 " Business trips," emphasised Kingdon, grimly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, my dear boy ; business trips, of course 
 with the side issues." He arose and stretched him 
 self. Both men laughed. Then Kingdon reached 
 for his overcoat. 
 
 " Well, I m off down-town. Have to make one of 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 7 
 
 the ravening crowd in a department store stuff 
 needed for the ranches." 
 
 " The gods defend you, then ! Oh, by the bye," 
 and Buckley took a card from the rack, " have an 
 invite for you here swell affair, to-night dancing. 
 How will that suit you ? " 
 
 " First-rate ! So-long, for the present." 
 
 It was fashionably late that evening when Kingdon 
 and Buckley made their way toward the spot where 
 Mrs. Newman and her oldest daughter stood, receiv 
 ing their guests. As David s eyes fell upon the 
 younger woman, he uttered a low ejaculation. 
 
 A form of rounded slenderness, possessing the 
 exquisite grace with which birth and breeding have 
 as much to do as art; a face of somewhat irregular 
 yet high-bred beauty, holding probably no appeal in 
 it for the masses ; a charming, rippling mouth ; a 
 firm little chin ; a delicate, slightly arched nose ; deep, 
 soft eyes whose colour it was hard to determine; a 
 low, square forehead, dazzlingly white, from which 
 the hair was swept in a shining, gold-dusted mass 
 all this formed a picture which a man, sensitive to a 
 certain order of beauty, having once seen, was not 
 likely to forget. 
 
 And David had already seen that very afternoon. 
 Habituated as he was to a coarser mould of women, 
 
8 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 he had recognised this one, at once, as a being from 
 another sphere. 
 
 The episode in which she had figured had been a 
 brief one; the scene, the department store with its 
 usual selfish, greedy-eyed, feminine crowd; a baby 
 nearly killed by a swinging door, and saved only by 
 the intervention of Miss Newman s slender arm, rein 
 forced by David s never failing alacrity; a package 
 dropped and promptly recovered by him; a smile of 
 acknowledgment that was all. 
 
 Buckley, observing that his friend s eyes were fixed 
 with interest upon the girl, explained: 
 
 "Fine young woman, Miss Newman, but guilty of 
 the Unpardonable Sin: she s shy. A virtue of the 
 most distinguished, I call it, in this age. It is also 
 affirmed that she is cold and proud." 
 
 David took in, with his usual acuteness, the contra 
 diction in the constant variation of colour in her 
 delicate cheek to the quiet dignity of her bearing; 
 and remembering also a certain flash in those soft 
 eyes, exclaimed: 
 
 " If that girl s cold, then " and paused 
 
 expressively. 
 
 "Then all indications fail, eh? You re right, my 
 boy. I ve known her since she was two foot nothing, 
 and she s not cold. Shy, that s all overweighted by 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 9 
 
 that tremendous mother and those sisters of hers. 
 See her in her own element, and she s the brightest 
 creature! Needs encouragement, congenial sur 
 roundings, and all that sort of thing." 
 
 " How did she come by a special * element ? " 
 " The father. He was a scholar as well as a very 
 fastidious gentleman of the old school ; educated this 
 girl himself. He was of the critical, sensitive kind 
 lacking in the power of expression unless his environ 
 ment were favourable. Sylvia is her father over 
 again. He stood immensely high in appreciative 
 circles." 
 
 "Where does the Four Hundred come in?" 
 
 " Both sides ; the mother was a Miss " Here 
 
 he mentioned a name before which the One Hundred 
 and Fifty bows the knee. 
 
 Kingdon was introduced, and passed on. That 
 Miss Newman had recognised him he was positive, for 
 the slight hesitancy of her manner, and a sudden 
 wave of colour upon his presentation, had not escaped 
 his keen perceptions. 
 
 Buckley was promptly swallowed up in the social 
 whirlpool, drawing his Western friend with him. 
 Buckley soon perceived that he could safely cast him 
 loose, and, not being a dancing man himself, he soon 
 lost sight of his protege. Later, as he was making 
 
10 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 his way out with another man, he caught sight of 
 David once more, in the act of saving his partner from 
 a bad fall. His partner was Miss Newman. Both 
 men involuntarily smiled as they observed the dex 
 terity with which he deposited her in precisely the 
 right place, possessed himself of her fan, and pro 
 ceeded to use it for her benefit in precisely the right 
 manner. 
 
 "Knows the ropes, doesn t he?" commented Buck 
 ley s acquaintance. " Have you led him around 
 much? " 
 
 " Not into this kind of thing before. But, you 
 see, he s so very presentable." 
 
 "Presentable? Lord, yes! Has the dollars, too. 
 But although he s deuced good company, I ve a 
 notion he has also the deuce of a temper laid away 
 somewhere, and that the girl he finally takes up with 
 had better know him pretty well first." 
 
 " The girl he takes up with ? " echoed Buckley, with 
 a laugh. " Why, he s been married for years ! " 
 
 The other man gave vent to an expletive, then 
 asked : 
 
 "Where s his wife?" 
 
 " On the usual European trip." 
 
 "More fool she! Well, what do you say to the 
 Union League and a rubber? " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 11 
 
 But whether Kingdom s wife were a fool or no 
 appeared to be of no pressing consequence to that 
 young man. His gaiety was as infectious as that of 
 an attractive boy. Although perfectly realising his 
 environment and all that it implied, he seemed to be 
 beatifically unaware of the fact that, as a rank out 
 sider, he was being very specially favoured; and his 
 absolute naturalness and unfeigned enjoyment in the 
 midst of so much boredom were, to others beside Sylvia 
 Newman, as the wind from his own "bald prairie" 
 blowing through jaded streets. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MRS. NEWMAN, in spite of her long 
 assured position in society, was one of 
 those restless women who are not content 
 with being what they are, but are forever strain 
 ing after what they never can be. Thus she spent 
 her days and a large portion of her nights mentally 
 on tiptoe, in order that she might be sure of catching 
 every winged fad and fancy of fashion in its passing. 
 Her two younger daughters were handsome girls, 
 after the approved modern style, adopting always, 
 with a beautiful docility, any form of pleasure 
 ordained by the whim of the hour, no matter how 
 ugly, inconvenient, or ill-suited to its environment. 
 In short, these girls were all that they ought to be, 
 had their mother only been willing to let well alone. 
 But she was not. She had arranged certain careers 
 for them before they left school. She had sedulously 
 cultivated the delusion that Etta possessed histrionic 
 talent ; and the girl, pleased with the notion, figured 
 extensively in private theatricals, was described in the 
 Society columns as " the talented Miss Newman," and 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 13 
 
 had oven dreamed of herself as a coming Langtry or 
 Potter. But mother and daughter were secretly 
 wearying somewhat of the flattery of satellites, when 
 a diversion was afforded just in time to enable Mrs. 
 Newman to sigh, " Only think what a future my 
 Etta has thrown away for Mr. Van Schoolen ! " Van 
 Schoolen was one of the finest cross-country riders 
 connected with the Long Island Hunt, and a member 
 of the Tuxedo Club. 
 
 While Cora, the youngest, desired greatly to be a 
 fine actress, she was cajoled into the belief that she 
 was a musical prodigy. It was contrary to Mrs. 
 Newman s tenets that her daughters should possess 
 similar tastes and talents, and " Violin solo by Miss 
 Cora Newman, piano obligato by Miss Newman " was 
 conspicuous on the programmes of numerous concerts 
 given for fashionable charities. Meantime, nature 
 had designed Etta and Cora primarily as compo 
 nent parts of her regular annual output of common 
 place women of fashion, and she pursued her original 
 intention, undismayed by maternal vagaries. 
 
 And Sylvia? Mrs. Newman had planned for her 
 future also. The girl had inherited a remarkably 
 fine intellect from her father, and from this rock of 
 assurance Mrs. Newman had launched her highest 
 hopes. She had dreamed glorious dreams of this 
 
14 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 daughter s success in general scholastic attainment, 
 literature, and what not. She would form a salon 
 a real Parisian salon of which Sylvia should be the 
 bright, particular star. The best intellects of both 
 hemispheres should be drawn to frequent it. As for 
 matrimony, that should not be included in Sylvia s 
 role. She should be cast for one whose conditions 
 were to be of greater distinction, and which held out 
 finer possibilities than marriage. 
 
 When the year of mourning, spent in Europe, came 
 to an end, Mrs. Newman launched her gifted young 
 daughter upon society with a blatant flourish. Sylvia 
 faithfully endeavoured to fulfil her mother s expecta 
 tions, but she was hampered by a hopeless lack of self- 
 confidence. Until she was seventeen, she had had no 
 audience but her father an audience as sympathetic 
 as it was critical. In the life which was now hers, 
 discouragement or uncomprehending criticism smote 
 her like a freezing blast, benumbing her faculties and 
 making endeavour doubly difficult. Even her ex 
 quisite voice never happened to be at its best on show 
 occasions. 
 
 To complete Mrs. Newman s despair, Sylvia s mind 
 was critical and reasonable to a degree which the poor 
 lady, had she not felt the expression to be out of date, 
 would have described as " unfeminine." She revolted 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 15 
 
 from false enthusiasms and shams of nil kinds, and 
 the methods pursued by the anxious mother in accom 
 plishing her purposes with the younger daughters 
 proved ineffectual with this one. Had she not per 
 sisted in her scoldings, warnings, exhortations, and 
 flatteries, she might not so signally have failed in her 
 efforts to make of Sylvia a desirable ornament to her 
 own coterie. As it was, her touch upon the girl s life 
 had the effect of a rough, blunt-fingered hand on a 
 sensitive plant. 
 
 But notwithstanding her disappointment, Mrs. 
 Newman was obliged to acknowledge in her own heart 
 that for unselfish helpfulness and sound common 
 sense Sylvia was her most reliable standby. Her 
 bluestocking propensities did not seem to impair her 
 usefulness in matters pertaining to the management 
 of the household and other practical affairs, in which 
 Etta and Cora took little interest and would assume 
 no responsibility; for Sylvia was decidedly domestic 
 in her tastes. 
 
 And the family was affectionate in its relations, 
 when it had leisure for any. But in a life such as 
 that led by the Newmans and hundreds of others, 
 family affections suffer, and outside intimacies are 
 apt to be stifled at birth. Existence is conducted in 
 reception-rooms, so to speak. 
 
16 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Sylvia longed for a fuller response, a deeper 
 recognition than was afforded her nature by the life 
 with which her mother surrounded her, and it was 
 only when, upon rare occasions, she could be spared 
 to go amongst her father s chosen friends that 
 charming, semi-Bohemian, yet eminently select society 
 upon which New York with justice prides herself 
 the society of brains, little leisure, and moderate to 
 small means that she was able to free herself of the 
 restraint that usually hampered her, and scintillate 
 in her full brilliancy. Here she was able to sustain 
 sincere relations, without paying the penalty of being 
 misunderstood. 
 
 It was probably the same relief, found in David 
 Kingdon s intense humanity and apparent simplicity, 
 that sent her upstairs that night with the light of 
 girlish laughter still in her eyes. That part of her 
 being which was as replete with human impulses, 
 sympathies, and affections as his own, sprang to meet 
 him in the unconscious attraction of resemblance. 
 Long repressed by her mother s exhausting demands 
 in directions from which her critical sense revolted, 
 they turned toward the newcomer as the sunflower 
 turns to the sun. 
 
 And on this young iftan from the West social 
 laurels soon began to shower. Young men and maid- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 17 
 
 ens, old men and matrons, took more or less interest 
 in him, the more because he was a rather provoking 
 departure from the usually accepted type of West 
 erner. The son of a mother of French Huguenot 
 descent and a pettifogging English lawyer was liable 
 to present some uncommon characteristics for the en- 
 livcnmcnt of a bored world. It was vaguely rumoured 
 that he was a married man, but if the rumour ever 
 reached the ears of any of the numerous women on 
 whom he danced attendance in his easy yet perfunctory 
 manner, they were content to let the matter rest, only 
 wishing that he were a trifle more inclined toward con 
 centration. For all his faculties, perceptive and 
 receptive, were centred on the one woman ; and her, 
 owing to Buckley s absence at a country-house party, 
 he rarely met. Thus his very popularity grew to be 
 a source of irritation to him. 
 
 Once, by good luck, he met her at one of those 
 studios in which congenial souls are in the habit of 
 gathering informally. Kingdons entree was obtained 
 by his skill in rendering light, French chansons with 
 the grace, vivacity, and pathos of the original; 
 although, greatly to his surprise, he found that the 
 interchange of ideas rather than music was the object 
 of the so-called reception. It must be confessed that, 
 ubiquitous and adaptive as he was, he at first found 
 
18 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 himself a little out of his element in a social gathering 
 which amused itself very well without the assistance of 
 the games and toys in his world considered indispen 
 sable for the entertainment of grown people. More 
 especially did he feel this when he perceived how 
 entirely in her element Sylvia Newman was ; the arch 
 and gay Sylvia of the ball was presenting herself to 
 him in a new aspect. He stood outside of discussions 
 in which she bore well her part, watching half jeal 
 ously the keen play of intellect in her expressive face ; 
 and it was not until she had been asked to sing, and 
 he, the provincial who loathed " classical music," had 
 had the very soul drawn out of him by the strains of 
 Handel s "Largo," that he found his chance to 
 approach her. When she looked up, it was with some 
 thing of his own direct, childlike gaze, but Sylvia s 
 dark eyes possessed the softness which results from 
 slightty imperfect vision. For the first time David 
 noticed that they were not entirely brown ; they made 
 him think of rock-bound pools in the mountains, upon 
 the face of whose waters plays the blue radiance of 
 the unclouded Western sky. As they smiled back 
 into his own eyes, the azure light in them was plainly 
 to be discerned. For the moment he almost forgot his 
 fears, his anxiety lest he should fall short of her 
 intellectual standard. Like two happy children, they 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 19 
 
 leaned upon the piano and talked, they hardly knew 
 of what; only the words came easily, and ideas half 
 framed found their mates ere they were uttered. It 
 was the lightest interchange, but through it all ran 
 the golden thread of that elusive thing called sym 
 pathy. 
 
 And yet afterward he realised that the easy yet 
 courteous audacity which was his birthright, and 
 which he could no more throw off than a handsome 
 pigeon can help strutting and bowing in the sun, was 
 unworthy of her to whom it was addressed; realised 
 also that no other woman had ever so moved him, 
 whilst making him feel that he and she belonged to 
 spheres wide as the poles asunder. It was not his 
 marriage that thus separated them, he would have 
 declared, for this barrier sank into insignificance 
 beside other things that he could neither name nor 
 number. He recognised in her something finer than 
 anything he had ever encountered in woman, and 
 wished that she* in her turn could discover that there 
 was, as he expressed it to himself, "more to him" than 
 appeared on the surface. He felt that she must in 
 evitably misjudge him. Secretive and inexpansive, the 
 yearning for utterance, for complete understanding 
 by another, had never before possessed him so strongly. 
 
 One day Mrs. De Lancey, one of New York s fash- 
 
20 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ionable matrons with whom he was a particular favour 
 ite, began to talk of the Newman girls, praising Sylvia 
 effusively, and finally asking David if he had ever 
 seen her on horseback. 
 
 Now David was gifted with remarkable self-control, 
 but at the attractive possibilities suggested by this 
 query he found it hard to keep the fire out of eyes 
 and voice. Morning after morning he had partially 
 satisfied his craving for freedom by throwing himself 
 across a good horse and getting out of the city by 
 the shortest route possible. By this means alone, he 
 declared, could he survive late hours and close rooms. 
 
 "No?" continued the lady. "Well, then, you 
 have never seen a woman ride. I don t care what you 
 say about Western riding" putting up her hand to 
 avoid contradiction " but " 
 
 " But," David managed to interpose, with due 
 meekness, "I claim nothing but utility for Western 
 horsemanship. Grace? The gods know better!" 
 
 " Then you are in a proper frame of mind to appre 
 ciate Miss Newman. Hers is riding no Park school 
 sham. She rides in the Park nearly every morning. 
 I suppose you despise our Park? Well, never mind. 
 What s more, she owns what Mr. De Lancey claims 
 to be the finest saddler this side Mason and Dixon s 
 line none of your bumpety, bobtailed English imita- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 21 
 
 tions, but a real Southern saddle-horse with half a 
 dozen gaits to his name. Sylvia s as proud of Vir 
 ginia Boy s blue ribbons at the Horse Show as other 
 girls are of their frocks. She s able to indulge her 
 personal tastes, as her father saw to it that some of 
 his property should be secured to her at his death. 
 She could set up a miniature establishment of her own, 
 if she chose, but she s too good a daughter. I don t 
 know what Mrs. Newman would do without her, though 
 she is the crumpled rose-leaf in that gorgeous lady s 
 lot." 
 
 " Granted the rose-leaf, but I fail to observe the 
 crumple." 
 
 " So do I. But some mothers are so queer ! " 
 
 After this, David frequented the despised Park, 
 selecting for himself a gaited saddler. One dull 
 morning, when the bridle path was almost deserted, 
 his ear caught the light beat of horse s hoofs in his 
 rear. He knew by the sound that the animal was not 
 the ordinary hard-trotting beast affected by the aver 
 age frequenter of the path, and wheeling about, found 
 himself face to face with Sylvia Newman. 
 
 As she checked her horse to respond to his saluta 
 tion, a wave of colour suffused her cheeks, and a frank, 
 sweet smile irradiated her whole face. David had 
 studied her too minutely to feel that these indications 
 
22 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 were other than the result of the sudden animation of 
 a countenance grave in its repose. But it should have 
 been some slight warning to him that his pulses 
 bounded at the sight of her, and that he could scarcely 
 maintain an ordinary demeanour. He was, however, 
 entirely unconscious of danger, present or remote. 
 He felt secure in his own ideas of duty, such as they 
 were, and he was capable of cleaving to them with a 
 tenacity surprising to the many who read his char 
 acter amiss. 
 
 " I was told you had a real saddler, Miss Newman," 
 he began, at once, to cover his secret exultation. 
 " But what a splendid fellow ! " 
 
 " The American horse is good enough for me," she 
 said, leaning over the arching neck and looking up 
 into David s eyes, her own sparkling with more hap 
 piness than she was in the least aware of. "I leave 
 to my sisters the delights of being pounded to death 
 in the interests of fashion." 
 
 And as the pair swept along at that easy, cradling 
 gait which is the very poetry of motion, Miss New 
 man s groom racing after them at a hand gallop, 
 neither could have explained the exhilaration that 
 was theirs under those lowering skies, the chill of the 
 wet east wind in their faces. Both riders seemed to 
 have so much to say. And why? 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 23 
 
 Sylvia had put this question to herself before, but 
 had never yet obtained a satisfactory reply. Mr. 
 Kingdon was assuredly very bright, in a way, but she 
 was acquainted with several men of greater intellectual 
 force. Neither could his attractiveness be set down 
 altogether to his charms of person and manner, 
 although those of course had some influence, as is 
 inevitable, given a woman whose artistic sensibilities 
 are keen. The attraction sprang from some deeper 
 source. 
 
 "I think it must be the human touch ," she 
 thought, is she sank into a sleepy-hollow chair that 
 afternoon in her rooms. 
 
 David s inborn sense of the fitness of things inter 
 posed to prevent more meetings on the bridle path; 
 but, to his relief, Buckley returned from his outing, 
 and with the aid of this friend he was enabled to pre 
 sent himself often at the Newmans , and even received 
 invitations to their various entertainments, meeting 
 Sylvia at other houses also. 
 
 David was beginning to believe that he alone knew 
 all her attractions, or they flashed to the sur 
 face only when she was entirely at her ease, as he 
 knew with secret delight that she invariably was with 
 him. He was going away soon, and the tender, 
 human side of his nature craved this interlude of hap- 
 
24 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 piness; for it was only an interlude, he told himself. 
 Spoiled son of fortune others might call him, but he 
 knew as no one else did how much the jade owed 
 him, and with what false pretences she had put him 
 off. If he could not force her to pay him in full, she 
 should pay him a little ; it was his right. As for his 
 marriage that miserable farce what did it matter 
 whether Sylvia were aware of it or not? He had 
 never made love to her. Marriage had nothing what 
 ever to do with the situation. 
 
 Buckley s thoughts must also have been dwelling 
 upon David and his affairs, for one day he remarked 
 to his young friend, between the whiffs of a cigar : 
 
 " By the way, David, do the women all know you 
 are a Benedict ? " 
 
 "Women in particular, or a particular woman?" 
 asked David, airily. 
 
 "Either or both." 
 
 " Mrs. De Lancey knows it, I believe also, prob 
 ably, the Kitteridges." 
 
 "Ah, but they are not in the Newman set; that is, 
 they only meet in the most formal manner," said 
 Buckley, with meaning. "People with stupendous 
 visiting lists can t be expected to keep track of the 
 private affairs of common acquaintances. See here, 
 old chap, I m aware that you have an almost unlimited 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 25 
 
 capacity for biking care of your own personal con 
 cerns, but don t you think that this is a matter not 
 entirely personal ? " 
 
 "My marriage? Very much so, I consider." 
 
 " Oh, pshaw ! Don t try any of your elusiveness 
 on me. Out with it, man ! Do the Newmans know, 
 or do they not know, that you have a wife ? " 
 
 There was a pause. Then David said: 
 
 "Well, you see I am not familiar with the wheels 
 within wheels of this social machine. I supposed 
 they the Newmans knew. Anyway, I don t quite 
 understand whose business it is " 
 
 He stumbled, came to a dead stop, and looked at his 
 friend with his most infantine, appealing expression. 
 There was another pause, a very long one this time. 
 David began to walk about the room. 
 
 There is a condition of mind which cannot be called 
 thinking; rather is it the waiting through a long 
 night of darkness whilst circumstances, great and 
 small, are slowly piling themselves one upon another. 
 Morning dawns, and we open our windows upon the 
 completed deed, of which the building has gone for 
 ward while we strove to sleep. 
 
 After what seemed to him an eternity of silence, 
 Buckley resolved to try again. 
 
 " David, I have discovered that you can be 
 
26 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 serious deucedly so, in fact. What do you really 
 mean ? " 
 
 Then David turned upon him, his eyes dark under 
 their dark brows. This was one of the moments when 
 he was neither young nor debonair. The words issued 
 from his shut lips as if from a steel trap. 
 
 "What do I mean? Why, just this: that it s the 
 hardest luck that ever struck a fellow ! " 
 
 Buckley w r histled long and low. 
 
 " So it s bad as all that ! What are you going to 
 do about it?" 
 
 " Do ? Take my medicine like a little man." 
 
 "Which, being interpreted, means " 
 
 " That I ll do the best I can." 
 
 Another pause. 
 
 "And she? Remember that she s an awfully and 
 particularly nice girl." 
 
 " She s not hurt ! "roughly. 
 
 But Buckley, watching him, thought to himself: 
 " Is he, or is he not, capable of a grand passion ? She 
 is worse luck to it! And if he is not, then what?" 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A FELLOW can take such an epistle as this 
 any way he chooses," was Kingdon s men 
 tal comment, as he thrust a letter from his 
 wife back into its envelope. 
 
 He was an attentive and fairly patient husband; 
 this was the pitiful remains of an early ardour for the 
 domesticities. 
 
 A compendium of contradictions, he had inherited 
 from his mother his beauty and abounding vitality, 
 from his father a business capacity quite out of the 
 common. 
 
 His birth had succeeded that of other children 
 and their subsequent loss. Long before this son 
 came to her, the young mother had begun to learn 
 lessons in self-repression at variance with her real 
 nature, and their painful acquisition had its effect 
 upon her unborn child. David s was a temperament 
 peremptorily demanding love, a home, a wife; a 
 nature capable, too, of hardening dangerously, and 
 which needed some skill in the handling. And he had 
 found a Clairette. 
 
 87 
 
28 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Now he had a new duty to perform, and he did not 
 waver. Buckley had spoken. 
 
 "Are you going to that Charity Fair?" he asked, 
 abruptly entering his friend s apartments. " Because 
 if you are, you may as well mention casually to com 
 mon acquaintances that I can t put in an appearance. 
 I ll attend to the P. P. C. s. Got a letter here from 
 my wife; she s coming home on the St. Paul, next 
 month, and I ve a lot of work to do packing and 
 so forth. I must go West and fix up for her." 
 
 Buckley glanced at him inquiringly. Evidently 
 David had not slept much the previous night; his 
 brown eyes were as tired and wistful as those of a 
 sick child. He hesitated a moment, as if to speak 
 further, then simply said: 
 
 "Well, good-bye for the present. I ll see you 
 again." 
 
 At the fair Buckley was at once assailed by inquiries 
 for Mr. Kingdon, who was to have assisted the New 
 mans at their stall. 
 
 "Didn t know he was married?" this in answer 
 to an exclamation from Etta Newman. " Why, that s 
 a good joke! He never made any mystery of it. 
 But you see it s rather an old story ; been a Benedict 
 for years!" 
 
 When at length Buckley thought he might safely 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 29 
 
 move to Sylvia s side, it seemed to him that he had 
 never beheld her so pale ; but she glanced up and smiled 
 as he approached. 
 
 " She ll get there unless she dies on the way. 
 She s driving the spurs home now!" was his inward 
 comment. 
 
 Of course, she had overheard what had been said; 
 therefore further allusion to it was, fortunately, 
 unnecessary. The two talked for a few minutes about 
 the prospects of the fair, and then Buckley passed on 
 with an inward groan. 
 
 Yes, Sylvia was driving the spurs home, and gallant 
 was the response of her proud spirit. 
 
 " Only give me time ! " she whispered to her own 
 heart, as on that memorable night she paced the 
 floor. 
 
 David could not bring himself to leave a formal 
 card at the Newmans , and when he was announced he 
 found Miss Newman the only one of the ladies at home, 
 and with her Mrs. De Lancey, with whom, for unde 
 fined reasons, Sylvia had of late become more intimate. 
 
 His visit was brief, and he soon rose to take leave. 
 The subject of conversation had been the Western 
 life to which he was about to return, and Sylvia had 
 scarcely spoken. 
 
 "You won t quite forget me?" he said wistfully, 
 
30 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 standing between the two ladies, and looking from one 
 to the other with his most winning, troubled air. 
 
 "Forget you, dear boy?" cried Mrs. De Lancey, 
 impulsively. " No ! " And taking the soft, brown 
 head in her hands, this mother of sons, she kissed him 
 between the eyes. 
 
 David was equal to the occasion. Instead of the 
 merry retort that she anticipated, her hand was lifted 
 to his lips and held there for a moment. 
 
 " Thank you ! " he said, simply. 
 
 He swept both women with one swift glance, 
 bowed, and was gone. 
 
 "And he has a wife!" ejaculated Mrs. De Lancey. 
 " What can she be made of ? " 
 
 As days lengthened into weeks, pride reasserted 
 itself, and Sylvia knew hours of rebellion. If there 
 had been nothing, if David had not what? Things 
 could not have come to such a pass with her, had she 
 not, in some imperceptible way, been led on. Yet 
 when she sought to blame him, there was in truth 
 nothing of which to accuse him. He had neither made 
 love to, nor flirted with, her. He might have told 
 her that he was married? Yes; but might she not 
 have discovered for herself that the something she 
 knew to be amiss with his life was an uncongenial 
 marriage? Apparently Mrs. De Lancey and others 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH :n 
 
 were aware of it; why should he not presume that 
 Sylvia also understood? 
 
 Friendship that was what their association had 
 meant to him. Its roots were in that certain touch 
 of kinship necessary to the formation of enduring 
 emotions of whatever kind. He had brought into 
 her life something that she had missed. Now she must 
 live without it. That was all. 
 
 Everything should come right it must. After 
 Etta s marriage and the departure of the depleted 
 family for Europe she herself would remain in New 
 York. She would be a slave no longer, either to the 
 unworthy god, Fashion, or to her own pitiful self. 
 She would mix socially only with interesting people, 
 and form uplifting intimacies. 
 
 The intense absorption of inward conflict rendered 
 her less diffident, less susceptible to her mother s con 
 stant depreciation. She talked brilliantly, sang glor 
 iously, because she no longer cared for success or 
 failure. Every one declared that that Miss Newman 
 was " coming to the front after all," and Mrs. Newman 
 began once more to dream dreams and see visions. 
 
 Nevertheless 
 
 " This is obsession ! It is madness ! God keep me 
 sane!" she cried one night to herself; and then dis 
 covered that she was weeping bitterly. Starting up, 
 
32 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 she walked over to the mirror and regarded herself 
 therein, with scorn unspeakable. "You re a nice 
 ob j ect ! And where s the use of it all ? Where s the 
 use, I say? Who cares?" Only the reflection, 
 apparently, whose brimming eyes let fall another pair 
 of useless tears. The scornful voice continued : " No 
 one s going to help you, and no one s going to care 
 ever! Just remember that. You ve only yourself 
 to look to. God is not going to alter anything 
 because you say you cannot bear this any longer. 
 You ve got to bear it ! " 
 
 And the very next day a heavenly, fragrant day, 
 when street-corners and store-windows break out with 
 violets and narcissi, and the rumble of wagons laden 
 with pot-plants mingles with the cries of vendors down 
 side streets she saw David again. He was spring 
 ing from a car, satchel in hand, and in another instant 
 disappeared through the open doors of the Fifth 
 Avenue Hotel. 
 
 Sylvia hurried home, and locked herself into her own 
 apartments. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WELL?" 
 "Well!" 
 The two men look at each other. 
 Buckley s sense of humour was painfully keen, and, 
 try as he might, he could not appear as solemn as 
 the occasion obviously demanded that he should; 
 for David was extremely serious, and they were dis 
 cussing a serious matter. 
 
 " Don t you think, my young friend, that it s 
 rather ahem hasty ? " 
 
 "No, I don t!" shortly; "life itself is a hasty 
 affair, if it comes to that. There s not enough of it 
 to throw away on any maudlin sentimentality." 
 
 "Precisely!" 
 
 Kingdon s moustache had once more defied the dic 
 tates of fashion, and he was pulling at it now, gazing 
 straight ahead with eyes that saw nothing. With an 
 ostentatious groan of resignation his friend reseated 
 himself. 
 
 "Look here, Buckley! Four months ago I lost a 
 wife, who was practically lost to me a year or so after 
 
 33 
 
34 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 marriage. Don t you believe that Syl Miss New 
 man can be persuaded to view the rather unusual facts 
 from the actual standpoint?" His clear eyes now 
 rested inquiringly upon his companion. 
 
 "Possibly. Your persuasive powers are immense; 
 I give them their full due. I won t suggest the em 
 ployment of tact on your part, because you have 
 enough of that quality and to spare too much, 
 perhaps." 
 
 David was still regarding him gravely, and now the 
 colour in his cheeks deepened. 
 
 " Does that mean that you consider I " 
 
 " No, dear boy, no ! Simply that you have con 
 siderable mental agility in dodging things. Miss 
 Newman, according to my knowledge of her, is sin 
 gularly devoid of this gift, and, I should say, has 
 small admiration for it." 
 
 Another silence ensued. Then David stepped im 
 pulsively forward, and grasping the hand of his 
 friend, exclaimed: 
 
 "Buckley, if she will accept me, I take God to 
 witness that I will be another and a better man!" 
 He caught up his hat, and hastily quitted the 
 apartment. 
 
 " They all say that ! " murmured the elder man, as 
 he once more arose. But the cynical speech was 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 35 
 
 belied by the expression of his countenance ; and after 
 a minute he smiled and exclaimed, " Hang the fellow ! 
 
 He has* a way with him " then in his turn sallied 
 
 forth. 
 
 But even at the club Buckley s mind dwelt upon his 
 friend s affairs. He could scarcely realise that only 
 four months had elapsed since the sinking of the 
 small coasting steamer that plied between Naples and 
 Genoa. He had questioned Kingdon closely as to 
 what his wife was doing on that steamer. David had 
 learned that, wearying of the acquaintances she had 
 made in Naples, and being fond of travelling by 
 water, she had insisted on taking passage by this 
 route, in order to join the Atlantic liner at Genoa, 
 and that warnings as to the unseaworthiness of the 
 coasting craft had passed unheeded. Buckley 
 gathered that, like most women of narrow nature and 
 limited brains, she was intensely obstinate; and that, 
 having made up her mind to a certain course, she 
 prided herself upon pursuing it in spite of heaven 
 or hell. The body was washed ashore at a small 
 village on the seaboard, and one of her Naples 
 acquaintances had gone thither to identify it. But, 
 except for the dress, which was familiar to her 
 companions, and for the colour of the hair, it was 
 already unrecognisable. It was shipped home in a 
 
36 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 casket soldered down, and interred in the family lot 
 in her native city. That was the whole story. 
 
 But David had not gone directly to Sylvia. Sev 
 eral days elapsed before the two met, and in that time 
 she had collected her forces. 
 
 The meeting took place at an inopportune time and 
 place the reception after Etta s wedding. The 
 rooms were crammed to repletion. Womanlike, she 
 heard his voice before he even caught sight of her, 
 and at the sound her heart leaped into her throat. 
 After the long struggle she was so glad, so pitifully 
 glad, to see him, that she dared not even glance his 
 way. When finally he reached her, she smiled upon 
 him with the indifference of the desperate woman, who 
 will die rather than betray herself. 
 
 David, in common with others of his more or less 
 deluded sex, believed that he understood women. 
 When, after hastening to this particular woman s 
 side, his heart on fire, his soul aflame, he was received 
 with a quiet, conventional smile, his face fell like that 
 of a disappointed child. 
 
 In a few minutes he was once, more in the Avenue, 
 turning mechanically in the direction of his club. As 
 sensitive as he was ardent, he felt, after the foolish 
 manner of his sex, that he had been cruelly rebuffed. 
 The sense of Sylvia s remoteness from him, overborne 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 37 
 
 when they were together by the strength of a mutual 
 attraction, was paramount now. Undoubtedly she 
 regarded him as an empty-headed, light-minded per 
 son, unworthy a second thought. With that singular 
 mixture of impulse and self-control peculiar to him, 
 he fumed and writhed, but waited ; and it Was not until 
 rumours reached him of the approaching departure 
 of the Newmans for Europe that he betook himself to 
 his faithful friend, Mrs. De Lancey, and laid the whole 
 affair before her. She was greatly astonished, al 
 though claiming to have suspected something of the 
 sort all along; for this kind-hearted lady was not 
 above the common foibles of her sisters. 
 
 " Please tell me what to do ! " concluded David, with 
 his most appealing air. 
 
 "What to do?" she echoed. "Go in and win, my 
 dear boy ! " 
 
 " But she s about to sail for Europe." 
 
 "Europe? Fiddle-de-dee! Her people sail for 
 Europe to-morrow, but she s coming to stay with me 
 until she can make other plans." 
 
 David leaped from his chair. " To stay with you, 
 dear Mrs. De Lancey ! " 
 
 " Keep cool ! " said she, smiling fondly upon him ; 
 " don t be such a hot-head. I ll give you your 
 chance, and you must do the rest." 
 
38 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 David looked down, and traced the pattern of the 
 Persian rug with his cane. At last he raised his eyes, 
 and said, still with that half -timid air of appeal, " Do 
 you think it s too soon, Mrs. De Lancey?" 
 
 The woman of the world, on whose warm heart con 
 ventionality was but a graft, hesitated. " Well, a 
 little, perhaps. Still, circumstances alter cases. 
 And you wouldn t be married at once, I presume? " 
 
 " Married ! " groaned David ; " she hasn t given 
 me an encouraging word as yet ! " 
 
 "Young man, how often have you seen her since 
 you returned?" 
 
 " Only once," he admitted " at the wedding 
 reception." 
 
 Mrs. De Lancey laughed outright, then proceeded 
 more seriously : " She comes to me, as I told you, 
 to-morrow. Do you think you can wait until the day 
 after?" 
 
 David s eyes shone, but he said nothing. 
 
 " Very well, then. On Wednesday afternoon I 
 have a series of engagements, in none of which Sylvia 
 figures. You shall have her to yourself from three 
 until six." 
 
 David departed from the house in an exuberant 
 state of mind. He forgot his fears, forgot Sylvia s 
 coldness. In fact, he thought of nothing but that 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 39 
 
 for three whole hours he would be at liberty to plead 
 his cause with all the eloquence at his command. 
 
 Sylvia, seated at the piano in her hostess particular 
 sanctum on Wednesday afternoon, was singing with 
 so full a heart that she was oblivious to all else. She 
 did not hear the opening and shutting of the door, or 
 the quick step upon the thick carpet. 
 
 ** Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are sealed: 
 I strove against the stream and all in vain: 
 Let the great river take me to the main: 
 No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield; 
 Ask me no more." 
 
 The song came to an end, but Sylvia remained in 
 dreamland, her hands continuing to wander over the 
 keys, and the last lines fell again softly from her lips. 
 
 David watched her for a moment, noticing that she 
 was thinner and paler than when he first met her. 
 Then he glided forward and leaned upon the piano, 
 and when those dreamy near-sighted eyes of hers 
 rested upon his face he met them unflinchingly, and 
 with a seriousness equal to their own. For a few 
 seconds neither spoke. It was as the meeting of 
 spirits in a dream. 
 
 Then Sylvia awoke. Passing her hand over her 
 face, and with a rush of uncontrollable colour, she 
 exclaimed impatiently: 
 
40 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "You startled me, Mr. Kingdon!" then added, in 
 ordinary tones : " If you understood me better, you 
 would know that I am never quite myself unless I am 
 able to get out of myself. There s an Irishism for 
 you! But find yourself a chair. Mrs. De Lancey 
 has gone out." 
 
 But David did not move. 
 
 "It is because I want you to know me better that 
 I am here," he said, in a low voice. 
 
 Sylvia sat quietly, her hands clasped in her lap, 
 and David almost thought he could detect the hurried 
 beating of her heart beneath her light spring gown. 
 
 " Will you hear me ? " he asked, in the same sub 
 dued tone. 
 
 Her lips moved in assent. 
 
 " I think we have been together sufficiently often 
 for you to have discovered that it is hard, very hard, 
 for me to speak of myself, of my own affairs." 
 
 She glanced up, as if about to reply, but did not 
 speak. 
 
 " It should not have been hard," he continued, " to 
 have talked openly to you; but habit is strong, and 
 I find it difficult to speak even now." 
 
 The intuitions of sympathy would no longer be 
 denied, and as he faltered she took up the threads of 
 speech. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 41 
 
 " I think I know what you mean," she said, gently, 
 with her soft, yet direct gaze. "You fear that we 
 accuse you of want of straightforwardness about 
 being a married man. But you made no false pre 
 tences. There was, therefore, no misrepresentation." 
 
 " But it was your right to know ! " he cried, spring 
 ing impulsively forward. " From the first hour I 
 saw you, I knew you were the one woman in the 
 world for me! There was no other. But I did not 
 know it then God knows I did not ! When I found 
 it out, I went away. Don t you know that I did? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember." 
 
 " And you knew that last February I lost my 
 wife?" 
 
 " That also we knew." 
 
 " But in reality, she was lost to me long ago." 
 And then, fairly started on a difficult subject, David 
 told her the story of his life. 
 
 " We were both young," he proceeded, after a brief 
 introduction to his tale, " and she thought, because I 
 entered so thoroughly into the whirl of our little 
 social world, that I cared for nothing higher. Per 
 haps it was a natural mistake to make ? " He looked 
 at Sylvia deprecatingly, inquiringly. She restrained 
 a smile, and answered demurely : 
 
 " It was." 
 
42 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "But I believed in marriage. I regarded it very 
 seriously, even when I was a mere boy. She did not 
 believe in it as I did. I longed for a home, and all 
 that home means. I was ambitious, too, in directions 
 which held for her no interest. So it came about that 
 she lived mostly away from me, in her native city. 
 But there was no quarrel or separation ; it was only 
 that she cared nothing for the duties which were 
 mine. And I was lonely. I could not live without 
 affection, and may I tell you all?" this impul 
 sively. "And, Sylvia, I m not the weak fool that I 
 appear. Let me call you Sylvia, won t you? " 
 
 She strove to control the tiny smile that persisted, 
 nevertheless, in curling the corners of her mouth. 
 His perception was far too quick not to note the 
 momentary weakening. 
 
 " Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia ! " he cried, flinging him 
 self down on a footstool before her, his eyes alight. 
 But she drew from him gently the hands he was press 
 ing to his lips and cheeks. He was on his feet again 
 in an instant. 
 
 " Yes ; I must wait. But oh, don t let it be long ! 
 
 Think of the many hard years " He walked 
 
 away from her, returned, and continued in his former 
 tones : 
 
 " My home went with my mother. Her dying 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 43 
 
 behest to me was that I take my father away from his 
 surroundings to -a new country, where, among new 
 associations, his mental condition might improve; but 
 it never did. Years before this a mysterious brain 
 disease had begun to develop. He turned against my 
 mother, the most devoted wife that ever breathed, and 
 in consequence against me, because I resembled her. 
 Nevertheless, after her death I coaxed him away by 
 means of promises such as one might make to a child. 
 And I was scarcely more than a child myself! His 
 brother, who had large interests in the West, came 
 with us and installed us. We prospered or rather, 
 I did. We had capital, and I business ability and the 
 faculty of profiting by the advice of others. But my 
 father believed until the hour of his death that he was 
 the business head of our concern, and that I was a 
 worthless trifler." 
 
 Sylvia, who had long ago discovered the sterner 
 stuff so well concealed beneath the charm of his social 
 guise, looked still deeper now, and divined something 
 of what that awful charge must have been. 
 
 "Clairette rarely saw my father, It was quite 
 possible to spare her all that part of my life ; although 
 he was quite presentable, only headstrong and unrea 
 sonable. She had nothing to complain of so far as 
 he was concerned." 
 
44 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 As David proceeded he grew graver and more im 
 pressive. Leaning on the back of a chair, his clear, 
 unwavering eyes, now deep with emotion, met her 
 squarely. 
 
 " But let that pass. What I want you to under 
 stand is that I am not so light-minded, so incapable 
 of feeling, as I must appear. I had been learning, 
 some time before her death, how to live alone; and 
 after I met you I learned that the old careless exist 
 ence was no longer possible to me. I tormented my 
 self every hour with questioning as to what you would 
 think of what I was or did, and then said: What 
 does it matter? She can never be anything to me. 
 But it did matter. That better part of my nature 
 
 known only to my mother and to you " He 
 
 paused, a question in his eyes. She nodded gravely, 
 and he went on, " And to you, pulled at me, although 
 I did not realise all that this implied. Whatever may 
 be said of me, nothing short of the best would content 
 me long. And then, when I went home" with a 
 bitter accent on the word " I discovered that it was 
 you you, Sylvia who were the home-maker of my 
 dreams and visions! And you were not there and 
 never could be. Men don t forget as easily as women 
 say they do. I should not have forgotten even 
 if " The pause was eloquent. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 45 
 
 " I do not think they all forget easily," she said 
 softly, " but you " 
 
 "Were not long tried? True. But Sylvia- 
 Sylvia " Voice and lip trembled. He turned 
 
 from her again, struggled with himself, and came 
 back. 
 
 "Is it any use to swear to you? I^have laid my 
 heart, my life, bare to you, as I have to no one else. 
 I know God knows how much there is in your life 
 that I cannot meet or fill yet. But, Sylvia, I can 
 learn. And notwithstanding all that may, that will, 
 be said as to my unworthiness, my inferiority, there 
 are some things, some of the vital things which go to 
 make living, in which we are in absolute accord. And 
 what is more, we knew from the very first that this 
 was so. Much of the weariness, the unspeakable mis 
 ery, of the married world springs from the deluded 
 notion that only a man and a woman of opposite 
 temperaments should mate. Love they may for a 
 while but mate, never!" 
 
 He was at the end of the self-command needed for 
 argument, even for Love s argument. Leaning upon 
 the piano, he covered his face with his hands. 
 
 Little as she had said, instinct, which is stronger 
 than reason, told him that her heart was touched. 
 Nevertheless, reason spoke too, bidding him remember 
 
46 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 her capacity for weighing both sides of a question, 
 and for counting the cost. And he feared that for 
 her the cost might be too great. 
 
 At last Sylvia spoke, in tones so low that he could 
 barely catch the words. 
 
 "Have we not always understood each other? 
 Why should you think I might not now understand? " 
 
 It was enough. He sprang forward, tried to look 
 into her eyes, and failed. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 NEEDLESS to say, there were no surprises 
 in store for Mrs. De Lancey when, voluble 
 and ecstatic, she sailed into the room. She 
 could scarcely be persuaded to part with David, even 
 for an hour. 
 
 " Don t tell me I m not worthy of her, and all 
 that," were his first words, as he hurried into Buck 
 ley s apartments and unfolded his tale. "Don t I 
 know it, man?" 
 
 "When is it to be?" 
 
 " Not yet. She will have to write to her people 
 and make arrangements." 
 
 "Poor girl! David, are you aware that you re 
 setting her an awfully hard row to hoe?" 
 
 David s radiant countenance clouded. 
 
 "Yes, they will object," he said, in a low voice. 
 " They will say I am beneath her in every way, and 
 worse luck! it s true. But I love her, Buckley. 
 That s all there is to it." 
 
 "That s all," rejoined his friend, gravely. Then, 
 rising, he turned upon David with a solemnity which 
 that young man had never witnessed in him before. 
 
 47 
 
48 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " David," he said, " if you ever fail one iota in love 
 or loyalty to the sweetest woman that ever drew the 
 breath of life, and I know of it, I will find you and 
 hold you accountable, if I have to go to the uttermost 
 ends of the earth! So help me God!" 
 
 He took up his hat, and unceremoniously abandoned 
 his visitor to his reflections. 
 
 For a moment David felt as nearly angry as was 
 possible in such an hour; but this emotion was suc 
 ceeded by another, so different that many minutes 
 elapsed before he aroused himself and slowly made his 
 way from the apartment. 
 
 To one of Sylvia s temperament it was not possible 
 to accept lightly the disapproval of those who had 
 claims upon her allegiance. Poor Mrs. Newman, for 
 the second time disappointed in the daughter regard 
 ing whose future she had once more begun to hope, 
 spared not her lamentations that Sylvia was still her 
 father s daughter, and, like him, destined to make a 
 failure of life. When the letter arrived, absolutely 
 forbidding the celebration of the wedding at Mrs. De 
 Lancey s country-house, and insisting on its post 
 ponement until Mrs. Newman s return the following 
 spring, David rebelled. 
 
 " It is clear, Sylvia," he observed, looking momen 
 tarily old and stern, " that your mother intends, should 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 4.9 
 
 we be married from your own home, to manifest in 
 some way her disappointment in your choice. I 
 decline to be thus humiliated ; neither can I leave my 
 business in the spring ; neither, most important of all, 
 will I wait so long. I know that I am unworthy of 
 you, my Sylvia, * this with one of his lightning-like 
 changes " but, God helping me, not so entirely as 
 your mother believes. But you are of age; you can 
 choose for yourself. Meet me at Kansas City late in 
 August, and let us be married there." 
 
 The very audacity of the suggestion won it a hear 
 ing, and in David Kingdon s case that was all that was 
 needed. Thus it came to pass that one late summer 
 day, after his departure for the West, Sylvia, followed 
 by the good wishes of Mrs. De Lancey and a small 
 band of her friends, found herself also speeding West 
 ward. And as the Limited began its rush along the 
 bank of the Hudson she was conscious of a depression 
 scarcely warranted by the latest letter from her 
 mother, resigned in tone, in her satchel. 
 
 " Bless me, even me, O my mother ! " 
 
 But this cry of her heart was forgotten as she 
 emerged with David from the forlorn and dingy 
 station at Kansas City and entered the waiting cab. 
 As the vehicle began the ascent of the steep hill on 
 its way to the minister s house, David leaned forward, 
 
50 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 and, on pretence of arranging the lap-robe, pressed 
 to hers his firm and rounded cheek. He did not speak, 
 but she understood his mood. His silences were 
 always filled with speech for her. 
 
 After a loitering trip which had done duty at this 
 busy season for a wedding journey, the two arrived 
 by night at David s valley ranch. Five miles of dark 
 ness, chug-holes, and sand, further enlivened by 
 assurances that the buggy was not going to tip over, 
 had been a very inadequate preparation for the sight 
 that met Sylvia s eyes as she stepped off the porch 
 into the glory of a New Mexico morning. 
 
 " It s rather a rough place, dearest, but : The 
 
 somewhat halting sentence was never finished; one 
 glimpse of her face rendered continuation superfluous. 
 
 In the Arid Belt, when the rainy season closes, earth 
 renews her vanished youth. The fall of her leaf is 
 at hand, but the deep heart of her thrills with mem 
 ories that breathe and live again. His courting-days 
 are over, yet the mocking-bird sways and stoops upon 
 his bough in an ecstasy of song, or hurls himself, 
 shouting, a flash of silver, into the rain-washed blue. 
 Basque and meadow wear their mantles freshly dipped 
 in emerald green; and the desert, robed royally in 
 cloth of gold, spreads its interminable miles beneath 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 51 
 
 the azure arch of a sky, whose light clouds flee like 
 the passing of violet wings over the paler blue of the 
 far mountains. 
 
 Sylvia and David, themselves radiant as the new 
 morning, stood hand in hand on the threshold of a 
 life which was to be, as it seemed to them, the fulfil 
 ment of their best and highest ideals. All that had 
 gone before was but a miserable pretence. 
 
 Yet when David spoke again there was a wistfulness 
 in his voice that touched a responsive chord in his 
 wife s being. 
 
 "Do you think it so beautiful, Sylvia?" 
 
 " How could I help it ? I, an Impressionist of the 
 Impressionists ! " 
 
 She answered lightly ; but in her heart was an ache 
 of sympathy for the shadowy boy of long ago, who 
 had stood beside another woman, younger and perhaps 
 fairer than herself, upon this same bluff above the 
 brown river, at the door of the house he had built for 
 her home-coming. Here he had brought Clairette; 
 here, fretful and discontented, she had blasted his life, 
 and left him to make the best of his mutilated exist 
 ence. 
 
 The adobe house was substantially built, the walls 
 being two or three feet thick. A windmill on the 
 bluff supplied its inhabitants with water. The barns 
 
52 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 were also of adobe, instead of consisting of wattled 
 sheds or no sheds at all, as is the case on the majority 
 of New Mexico ranches. Under the bluff, sufficiently 
 removed from the whims and moods of an unreliable 
 river, and further protected by dense groves of cotton- 
 wood and a strong dyke, spread acres of ripening corn, 
 and of alfalfa, bending its purple heads in the light 
 south wind, and now ready for the last cutting. A 
 bridge crossed the wide bed of the river further down, 
 and on the other side grew orchards of peach, pear, 
 apple, plum, and quince, with here and there a mud- 
 dauber s nest of a home amidst the wavering shadows. 
 Beyond stretched the golden desert, and still further 
 away nestled the brown village, backed by an airy 
 battlement of mountains. 
 
 " And there, you see," said David, pointing to the 
 mud-daubers dwellings, " are the homes of certain of 
 my cow-men, who live in them in the summer time when 
 other work is slack, to protect the fruit. And those 
 dark lines across the alfalfa and orchards are the irri 
 gating ditches. See the water shining in the sun ! 
 My Mexicans are at work, and I must work, too. 
 Playtime is over ! " 
 
 As the days flew by Sylvia found that she was 
 understanding better the secret of her husband s suc 
 cess. It was not due merely to the fact that he was a 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 53 
 
 thorough business man, far-seeing and prudent as 
 well as alert, but he possessed the equally valuable gift 
 of organisation a gift rarely accompanying such 
 energy as his. But she also discovered that neither 
 money nor business capacity on the part of the 
 employer can prevent Manuel from not caring to work 
 at any given moment, or Matildo from imbibing too 
 freely of the red wine, or Jose from collapsing in the 
 shade of some convenient peach tree for the purpose 
 of rolling the eternal cigarette. She was to learn 
 later that, whatever were the shortcomings of the 
 native, those of the average white assistant in that 
 vicinity were even more pronounced in what are com 
 monly supposed to be distinctively Mexican character 
 istics. In addition, she found out that even a David 
 could suffer from fatigue and discouragement, as 
 other less favoured mortals. 
 
 As for Sylvia herself, David had seen to it that she 
 should be spared the hardest portion of Western 
 existence. In fact, with an elderly coloured couple, 
 originally from Virginia, who had been in the employ 
 of the Kingdons for years, to attend to the work, the 
 lot of the mistress of the house was almost a sinecure. 
 Still, she found enough employment to develop the 
 home-making instinct to a remarkable degree. 
 
 Cold and stinging letters from Mrs. Newman were 
 
54 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 not fully offset by affectionate ones from the sisters. 
 They had always been firm believers in Sylvia s right 
 to please herself, even when they were inclined to 
 question her selection of means. They had also felt 
 David s charm, so merely wondered, in the intervals 
 of social gaiety, how their sister could endure existence 
 in the desert. 
 
 Mrs. Newman did not really intend to be stinging ; 
 a little judicious comparison, she thought, would be 
 good for the soul of a disappointing daughter. But 
 she had not reckoned on the power of a satisfied life 
 for drawing the lasting sting out of the wounds she 
 inflicted. 
 
 David watched his wife with secret rapture, feeling 
 that her love was not a passing girlish enthusiasm that 
 would gradually ebb away as the flood of a swollen 
 river, leaving ugly snags and gullies exposed to a 
 rueful view, but the serious impulse of a developed 
 woman. 
 
 " Between us, Sylvia, we ought to be able to con 
 quer the world!" he exclaimed, half jestingly, one 
 day, entering the pretty sitting-room to get a light 
 for his pipe, and lingering for a moment before 
 returning to his work. 
 
 Full to the lips with life, and all that life means, 
 they looked at each other and smiled. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 55 
 
 " Oh, there s so much I want to do ! " she cried. 
 " David, why is life so short? " 
 
 Theirs was a mating never likely to prove distaste 
 ful from too strong a similarity of tastes and opinions. 
 The dissimilarity in rearing and environment had 
 created mental and spiritual differences sufficient to 
 make each feel the interest of something undiscovered 
 in the other. 
 
 David was fully cognisant of the influence that his 
 wife s more liberal and exalted views of life were 
 having upon his own. " Having been reared a provin 
 cial of the provincials, it was only during his latest 
 visits to New York and recent introduction to a higher 
 form of society than he had ever before enjoyed, that 
 he had realised his limitations, and with prompt and 
 characteristic adaptability responded to its expanding 
 and refining influence. 
 
 He had previously been in the habit of attending 
 rural festivities, distant though they were; but he 
 found himself pleading with his wife, one evening, 
 that they should eschew these gatherings and remain 
 at home. 
 
 " At Kingdon s Crossing, where Clairette spent most 
 of her time when in New Mexico, you can all have 
 the society you desire of a kind. But let us enjoy 
 our divinely appointed lot whilst we may ! " he 
 
56 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 exclaimed, as he closed the book and piano for the 
 night. " We are free in our home here from a 
 society which is entertained principally with card- 
 playing, dancing, and, last but not least, gossip, 
 eternal and infernal ! " 
 
 " I m only afraid we shall become horribly selfish," 
 sighed the conscientious Sylvia. 
 
 " Oh, we shan t have time to be selfish. You don t 
 know how busy I m going to be soon." 
 
 " Busier than you are now ? " 
 
 " Much busier ! Soon I must go to the mountains. 
 Dick is a jewel, but he d die in his tracks if I left him 
 all the responsibility of the rounding-up and shipping 
 season. It s a pretty rough place, but you won t let 
 me go alone, will you, sweetest ? " this in the alluring 
 tones she had learned to know so well. 
 
 She laughed. " David we are growing selfish ! 
 What are we to do about it? " 
 
 His face clouded. Although his wife was gradu 
 ally winning him from the partly acquired, partly 
 inherited secretiveness of his nature, there yet remained 
 anxieties in an existence, free apparently, from grave 
 cares, with which he had not acquainted her anxieties 
 suspected by her watchful love, but for the full revela 
 tion of which that love was willing to wait. 
 
 " Sylvia," he said, dropping her hand and pacing 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 57 
 
 the floor, " our life is not so care-free as it looks on 
 the surface. There is trouble ahead. True, we may 
 steer clear of it, but the chances are against us. I did 
 not wish to cloud our happiness the first real hap 
 piness, I think, that either of us has ever known by 
 
 alluding to possible shadows; but " He paused 
 
 abruptly, bit his lip, and looked at her ; his eyes dark 
 with the expression she disliked so much, yet always 
 forced herself to meet with serenity, knowing of what 
 years of mistrust, silent brooding, and disappointment 
 it was the result. 
 
 " Don t let us speak of such things, then," she said, 
 quietly. " There is time enough, and I shall not fail 
 you." 
 
 The contraction of his heavy brows relaxed, and 
 his eyes cleared. " It shall be as you say," he replied, 
 passing his fingers through his hair. " I dare say 
 you wonder why I work so hard when we already have 
 enough, but I will tell you all in time. I know you 
 understand that you make allowance for this hateful 
 secretiveness, which, even in my association with you, 
 I cannot shake off at once. It was the long, long 
 years alone which did it no one to whom to go with 
 my difficulties from the time I was a mere boy ! Then 
 there were the complications connected with my poor 
 father, my own loveless existence oh, everything ! 
 
58 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 But I am improving, sweetest," this with one of 
 his brilliant smiles "I m learning every hour!" 
 
 And, inconsistent as it may appear, Sylvia found 
 herself making some allowance for Clairette also. She 
 perceived just where the husband of her own love 
 might have tried that other wife, formed as Clairette 
 was by nature, or circumstance, on cold and trivial 
 lines. Undisciplined, and without mental resource, 
 what better could have been expected of her? 
 
 Poor Clairette! 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ONE afternoon a loud, rasping voice made 
 itself heard in the hall, accompanied by a 
 beating on the open door. David was 
 busy with his ranch books, and Sylvia was giving 
 the last touches to a sketch. As she glanced up inquir 
 ingly, David pushed away his work with impatience 
 and went out. He ushered in an undersized man, 
 introducing him as Mr. Atherton, a minister in charge 
 of a small congregation some miles away across the 
 range. The cause of this visit never transpired, 
 probably because it was simply unadulterated curi 
 osity. He announced himself as a Christian worker. 
 
 Both husband wife heaved sighs of relief when he 
 took his departure. 
 
 "He s probably a good man, David," Sylvia 
 hastened to say, " and, as such, of course he s worthy 
 of respect." 
 
 David moved his shoulders impatiently. " Yes." 
 
 The reply, colourless, noncommittal, made little 
 impression on Sylvia at the time; but there came a 
 day when she remembered it well. 
 
60 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 As the two stood on the porch, waiting for their 
 horses, for they were to make a final round of the 
 ranch before going to the mountains on the morrow, 
 David observed, rather inadvertently : 
 
 " Hypocrites are not quite so common with us as 
 they are in the East, Sylvia. Our heathen respect 
 goodness when it s solid, but it s obliged to have some 
 thing to stand upon. They re not easily blinded. A 
 minister here does himself no good by assuming moral 
 superiority. He must earn respect. Tithing mint, 
 anise, and cummin isn t going to help him with our 
 people if he doesn t conform to what we consider the 
 weightier matters of the law ; I mean not simply clean 
 living, but kind, helpful living is requisite. Oh, 
 naturally, like you in the East, we have our crowd 
 that looks out only for what a man says for his 
 preaching and praying and so on not what he does. 
 But on the whole, hypocrites are in the minority in 
 the mountains, at all events." 
 
 The horses arrived at the moment, and the two 
 mounted and started on their tour of inspection. The 
 work for the season was about done. The winter 
 apples were gathered and stored, the fodder piled on 
 long sheds formed of brush laid on giant bigas, or 
 posts. At one and all of these operations Sylvia had 
 been present, observing with an intentness which 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 61 
 
 caused David laughingly to remark that another year 
 he would appoint her " boss " of River Ranch. 
 
 Sylvia lifted the Boy into a lope which accorded 
 well with that of David s Western-bred horse. As 
 they swept along side by side she with her bright 
 hair rippling backward, her deep eyes shining, he with 
 his well-poised head and splendid colouring enhanced 
 by the rich crimson of his outing-shirt they looked 
 the very embodiment of life, hope, and beauty. 
 
 " Whom the gods love die young what made 
 me think of that, David?" She reined in her horse, 
 and looked at him as if he must be able to answer 
 the question. 
 
 " Who can follow your winged thoughts ? " was the 
 light response. " But see, here comes one of the 
 heathen, according to Mr. Atherton." 
 
 A man was riding toward them. The mare upon 
 which he was mounted was so fine a specimen that, in 
 spite of herself, Sylvia s glance was attracted to the 
 lower animal first. 
 
 "Look at him well, Sylvia," added David, in an 
 undertone meaning, of course, the rider "he s our 
 sheriff." 
 
 " He looks very clean," she murmured. 
 
 David laughed softly. "And that s all you have 
 to say about one of our Western heroes ? " 
 
62 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "Yet you must allow that it s a circumstance 
 here," she persisted. 
 
 The three riders came together before David could 
 retort. The sheriff s smile in response to Kingdon s 
 greeting, and the introduction to Sylvia, came heartily 
 and spontaneously. 
 
 John Cristol was a man past middle age, lean and 
 sinewy, yet with a singularly clear skin, tanned pink 
 rather than brown by the everlasting sunshine of the 
 Arid Belt; it was the latter peculiarity which had 
 evoked from Sylvia that awe-stricken comment on his 
 cleanliness. He had gray, abstracted eyes, remark 
 able in one of his alert calling. 
 
 "Out gunning, Cristol?" remarked David, as the 
 horses started to move on. 
 
 " Yes, I guess so," was the somewhat dreamy 
 reply. 
 
 The sheriff lifted his soft felt hat and loped upon 
 his way. 
 
 "Armed to the teeth, isn t he? " 
 
 " Yes. And what a far-away eye he has ! " 
 
 "And doesn t the Bad Man wish he had!" ejac 
 ulated David. " Cristol s what the mountain people 
 call the suddenest man with a gun in this whole 
 section, Sylvia. There s not a man who can get ahead 
 of him." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 63 
 
 As they rode into the corral upon their return Aunt 
 Julie came running out of the house. " Dat big 
 cattle boss in de office, Marse!" she said. "What s 
 he name? Berry?" 
 
 Sylvia, whom David was in the act of lifting from 
 her horse, was immediately aware that one of his 
 sudden storms of rage had seized him. Of these 
 usually well-controlled attacks she rarely took notice ; 
 but in the fleeting glimpse she caught of his face she 
 felt she had never seen its brightness darken so com 
 pletely. Slowly she followed him to the house. On 
 the porch she paused and glanced across the valley. 
 
 There is something in the swift on-stealing of these 
 far-western twilights which has in it an element of 
 relentlessness. As she gazed, there fell on Sylvia s 
 spirit a shadow akin to that now gliding over the wide 
 landscape and dimming its radiance. 
 
 Happiness is something to which some of us have 
 to become accustomed, and, as a new garment, it 
 brings its moments of discomfort. To Sylvia it was 
 still new, and as she stood alone in the sombre hush 
 of the evening a disquietude for which discomfort is 
 too poor a word took possession of her. The crush 
 ing sense of finality, of nameless apprehension, is the 
 common heritage of impressionable natures, obliter 
 ating at times the zest of living, and even love itself. 
 
64 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Fortunate are they who have, in such inevitable 
 moments, the warm and near comradeship of some 
 human heart. 
 
 Instinctively Sylvia moved to seek David, then 
 remembered that he was not alone. With the move 
 ment she became conscious of a glow upon her face, 
 and, looking up, beheld the nightly miracle, the 
 resurrection of departed day. From the dark and 
 sleeping valley had sprung a rose-hued vision from 
 the land of dreams battlements of rose and pearl, 
 airy castles never raised by human hands, enchanted, 
 evanescent. 
 
 "The splendour falls on castle walls 
 And snowy summits old in story: 
 
 The long light shakes across the lakes, 
 And the wild cataract leaps in glory." 
 
 As she passed through the hall David opened the 
 door of his office. 
 
 "Have the kindness to step here a moment," he 
 said, in his curt business-voice. 
 
 She entered, and he closed the door behind her. 
 
 "Mr. Berry, this is my wife. Mrs. Kingdon 
 Mr. Berry." 
 
 Sylvia divined immediately that it was as a witness 
 she was needed; so, seating herself at the desk, she 
 began, as was her nightly wont, to set to rights the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 65 
 
 disorder left by David s proceedings with the morn 
 ing s mail. 
 
 The two men were standing, the light from a 
 bracket-lamp falling full upon their faces. Unob 
 served herself, Sylvia was able to make observations, 
 and speedily became aware that David s extreme cool 
 ness was simply the result of anger at white heat. 
 His flexible red lips were drawn to a thin line ; his eyes, 
 usually wide and pellucid, seemed to have permanently 
 receded under their dark brows ; his nostrils quivered. 
 His wife was acquainted with these symptoms, but had 
 never before seen them so pronounced. His compan 
 ion, a large, loose-jointed man considerably older than 
 he, presented a rather amusing contrast to the con 
 centrated, highly finished specimen of manhood with 
 which he was confronted. The elder s eyes, moreover, 
 were not direct, but furtive in expression, and his face 
 was unbecomingly flushed. 
 
 The conversation, momentarily interrupted by 
 Sylvia s entrance, was resumed. 
 
 "As I was a-tellin you, Mr. Kingdon, that stock 
 o yours has been a-runnin on my range a good many 
 months." 
 
 " Two years, sir, as I understand it. Seven are fine 
 cows, branded now with your brand on top of mine." 
 
 " Quite a mistake, Mr. Kingdon, I assure you, sir ! 
 
66 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 The branding was entirely an oversight. Send one o 
 your men to my place, and you can take the stock 
 at any time as suits you." 
 
 " Yes ; and have my man shot for running off cattle 
 branded with your brand? No, sir, thank you!" 
 
 For a moment Sylvia believed that David s rage 
 was about to break loose on this man; and, unac 
 quainted as yet with range etiquette and cattle-feuds, 
 she failed to see cause for such extremity of wrath on 
 the part of her husband. She had never beheld him 
 give free rein to his passionate temper, and in spite of 
 her confidence in him she shrank from witnessing an 
 outbreak which instinct warned her would be tremen 
 dous. But David now held his temper well under 
 control. 
 
 " Have the goodness, Mr. Berry, to send one of 
 your men with the calves to my ranch-house, early next 
 week. I shall be there myself to-morrow. Give 
 orders to have the stock rebranded with my brand 
 or there ll be trouble." 
 
 His voice was perfectly composed, but Sylvia, the 
 city -bred, to whom "trouble" was something awful 
 and indefinite, connected with fearful and unfamiliar 
 weapons, quailed before the threat implied in its tones. 
 Involuntarily she moved so as to throw her handker 
 chief over the six-shooter lying on the desk. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 67 
 
 Had she seen Berry s face, she might have felt her 
 fears to be even better justified than was already the 
 case. Fortunately for her, she had not. David had, 
 however, with the result that he repeated in even 
 tones, continuing to look his visitor in the eye. 
 
 "There will surely be trouble, sir." 
 
 A short silence ensued. Then Berry began in a 
 fawning, disagreeable voice : 
 
 " Not between sech good neighbours as we ve been, 
 Mr. Kingdon, I hope. You don t disremember, as I 
 take it, what I done fer you in that trouble with your 
 Paw? Your good lady will excuse me, I m sure," 
 turning suddenly on Sylvia. " She knows, by this, 
 as young men will be young men sow their wild oats 
 and all that. They do say as Molly Fisher s turned 
 over a new leaf too married an settled ! But maybe 
 Mrs. Kingdon don t know nothin about the little 
 times we has up here, an I let the cat outer the bag? 
 \Vill, when folks is new married there s got to be 
 fusses till so be as they git better acquainted ; but " 
 gathering fresh courage from David s silence and 
 from the ever ready colour dyeing Sylvia s fair face, 
 and speaking, therefore, more jauntily "but ladies 
 has got to learn that fine feathers don t allus make 
 fine birds, whatever the chicken books says, and that 
 inen ll have their fling. My, but your other lady was 
 
68 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 a fine figure of a woman ! " this with a disparaging 
 glance, which fortunately passed unheeded by David, 
 at Sylvia s slender grace "no wonder it didn t suit 
 her here." 
 
 Sylvia s whole being was now absorbed in terror lest 
 David should hurl himself upon this man and throttle 
 him. But under the magnitude of the offence, and 
 possessed also by an intense sympathy for his wife, 
 David preserved his calmness. He bent his eyes, now 
 cleared of their threatening shadows, gravely upon 
 her, and she met them with a look whose serenity 
 deserved to rank this among the most heroic efforts of 
 her life. 
 
 Completely baffled by the attitude of the pair, to 
 whose behaviour he had no clue, Berry shuffled his 
 feet and put on his hat. 
 
 "Well, I ll bid you good evenin ," he said, and 
 opened the door. 
 
 But David had not done with him. With a flash 
 like that of a sword leaping from its scabbard, he 
 whirled upon his tormentor, and said in his former 
 steely tones: 
 
 " Good evening, sir. But if you forget what I 
 have said to you this day, there will as surely be 
 trouble between us as there is a God in heaven ! " 
 
 The door closed. Berry was gone. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 69 
 
 David turned again to his wife. Taking her face 
 gently in his hand, he lifted it to his own and gazed 
 once more deep into her eyes. Then with the same 
 ineffable gentleness he kissed her on the lips. He was 
 trembling from head to foot. 
 
 " God do so unto me and more also ! " he murmured, 
 released her, and was gone. 
 
 And Sylvia sank into a chair and burst into tears. 
 
 In a very few minutes she pulled herself together 
 and faced the situation. What was there to cry 
 about? David was now altogether her own soul, 
 heart, and body. Moreover, although quite willing 
 to acknowledge that his past had contained its wand 
 ering fancies, for which there had been excuses of 
 circumstance as well as of temperament, she under 
 stood him too perfectly to harbour for one instant the 
 suspicion that he could be guilty of a base action. At 
 the very worst, his past belonged to another woman ; 
 to this other woman, not to Sylvia, was he answerable 
 for its actions. 
 
 Then there was the allusion to Kingdon pere. 
 David had gradually brought himself to speak freely 
 to his wife of his relations with one who had burdened 
 his life almost beyond the power of his endurance. 
 Those who have never had to conflict daily with minds 
 from which the ability to reason has fled, leaving the 
 
70 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 other faculties comparatively unimpaired, can form no 
 conception of what such conflict means. Sylvia came 
 to understand only by degrees, as she stumbled some 
 what painfully over the consequences of the old man s 
 ill-regulated tongue. But she already knew that the 
 father had, to the last, persisted in the belief that his 
 son, to whom was due the success of their business, 
 was a flighty, irresponsible boy, in hourly need of his 
 steadying hand. Out of what delusions, therefore, 
 might not the Molly Fisher incident have been created. 
 That dark hint of " trouble," however, produced a 
 disquiet for which even her admirable tolerance and 
 common sense could find no palliative. And when, 
 after half an hour, she heard her husband s step in the 
 room adjoining, she realised at once that the moment 
 for "letting go" in the feminine manner had not 
 arrived. She refrained from going forward to meet 
 him, aware that such a course only increases irrita 
 tion. She heard him kick off his heavy boots, and 
 splashed violently in the bowl. Presently he pushed 
 aside the portiere and entered. Thrusting his hands 
 into his pockets, he walked to the window and stood 
 staring out into the deepening night. He took no 
 more notice of the wife of his adoration than if she 
 were in no way concerned with his existence. To say 
 that Sylvia was disappointed is but to acknowledge 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 71 
 
 that she was human also that she was a woman. 
 Her effort represented just so much wasted energy 
 then ? Nothing more ! 
 
 She sat quite still, and considered. She felt assured 
 that had she been Clairette he would not have trusted 
 her to the extent of calling her in as a witness to what 
 was bound to prove a disagreeable scene; in the sec 
 ond place, he would thereafter have avoided her and 
 the domestic dangers incident to an abandoned 
 feminine tongue. Instead, he had, even if half uncon 
 sciously, sought his wife while in one of his blackest 
 moods. 
 
 Thus slightly encouraged and consoled, Sylvia 
 arose and began to move quietly about the room, mak 
 ing sundry minor preparations for the evening meal 
 always served in " the snuggery." 
 
 It was as if David gradually became aware of some 
 soothing influence stealing into the darkness of his 
 being; and soon, as she passed near him, he put out 
 his hand. It was like an appeal from the dumb. 
 Sylvia placed hers within it, and, gently drawing him 
 toward the lounge, sat down. He flung himself 
 beside her, and leaned his head upon her shoulder. 
 
 Sylvia possessed in its fulness the gift of silence, 
 a gift priceless or fatal according as it is used. Now 
 it fell as drops of balm upon a smarting wound. Only 
 
72 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 her hands spoke for her those tender hands which 
 softly smoothed the thick hair from his brow. 
 
 Slowly his excitement subsided. His eyes wan 
 dered about the pretty, firelit room, with its drawn 
 curtains and tea-table, sparkling with silver, and gay 
 with bright autumn leaves. This was home the 
 home for which he had always longed. What did 
 anything matter, now that he had Sylvia s breast 
 upon which to lean, her heart where his love might 
 rest ? 
 
 "Dearest! Forgive me!" 
 
 She leaned nearer, and touched his forehead with 
 her lips. His eyes closed. But, while her body was 
 so still, her mind was hurrying with an anxiety essen 
 tially feminine over possible and impossible dangers. 
 Her heart beat so fast that she feared he might notice 
 its emotion; but the masculine absorption in per 
 sonal pain was now overriding David s characteristic 
 acuteness. 
 
 When he awoke it was to find his head upon a heap 
 of cushions, and Sylvia putting the finishing touches 
 to the tea-table. She made no allusion either to 
 Berry or his visit, feeling confident that he would 
 tell her all when the right moment came. It was not 
 by pressing him with inopportune questions that she 
 had won him to a greater expansiveness. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 73 
 
 In the night, half-waking, he sighed and stretched 
 his hand toward her. Once more she placed her own 
 within it. He drew it close, and slept again. But 
 she lay waking long, and it must have been two hours 
 later, in the chill of the dark that precedes the dawn, 
 that he spoke softly, as though unwilling to arouse 
 her. 
 
 "Sylvia?" 
 
 She stirred, and answered. 
 
 "May I tell you something? about that girl? 
 Dearest, will you hear me?" 
 
 She winced she would have been some other Sylvia 
 had she not done so but replied steadily : 
 
 " Tell me, dear, if it will help you to do so. Not 
 otherwise." 
 
 Thereupon followed a not uncommon story, related 
 with the vigour and brevity which distinguished 
 David s rare outpourings. The principal actors in 
 it were well known to him ; in fact, he did not attempt 
 to deny that all the men, himself included, had flirted 
 with the heroine of the tale, a wild mountain lass. 
 But the actual offender had fled, before the vengeance 
 liable to be meted out by the mountain people in such 
 cases had overtaken him. Every man and woman of 
 them, save certain individuals who bore David a 
 grudge, gave credence to the true story, in which 
 
74 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 David did not figure. But Mr. Kingdon, with that 
 hideous faculty for distorting facts characteristic 
 of a mental condition such as his, promptly assumed 
 David s culpability, and with the aid of Berry, the 
 father of the real culprit, furnished many a delectable 
 morsel to his son s traducers. Influenced by the same 
 queer trick of nature, Mr. Kingdon had before this 
 ardently " professed religion " ; and at the camp 
 meetings, attended by the religious enthusiasts in 
 variably supplied in large numbers by the mountain 
 people, he made himself and his son conspicuous by 
 his prayers. To David s friends such episodes 
 afforded unholy amusement. To David they were 
 gall and wormwood. Such was the story, up to date. 
 
 For a while after David had finished, Sylvia 
 answered nothing. Then she said, half timidly: 
 
 " Did she know about it? " 
 
 " Clairette? No. Even had it been true, I should 
 not have told her. She would not have understood; 
 she was not like you. Then, she never went near 
 my poor father, although he stood ready to espouse 
 her cause and make trouble between us. She was 
 afraid of him I don t know why. But, Sylvia- 
 dearest I may have been light-minded I admit it 
 but I never could have done so base a thing! It 
 isn t, it never was, in me ! " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 75 
 
 She laughed softly in the darkness. 
 
 "Don t you think I know that, David? What 
 does it matter to us what they say? And, David, 
 didn t you promise me that now you are no longer 
 alone you would not go on taking things so hard, and 
 brooding over them? What is a small matter like 
 this to us ? " 
 
 There was another pause, and when he spoke again 
 it was as one who has had a load lifted off his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " One more word, dearest, before you sleep ; as 
 sleep you must, with that mountain trip ahead. I 
 do not say that there will be trouble with that fellow 
 Berry, but there may be. These cattle-feuds are 
 slow to die, and he is an old hand at mischief-making. 
 Nothing to worry about on my account, remember. 
 But you, poor little city mouse ! What will become 
 of you? I ve more than half a mind to be unselfish 
 enough to leave you behind in the valley, with Aunt 
 Julie!" 
 
 " No, you haven t ! " retorted Sylvia, comfortably ; 
 adding, with an assurance that momentarily deceived 
 even herself : " You ll soon see what will become of me, 
 if that is what you are worrying about. City mice 
 sometimes astonish their country cousins." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BY noon on the ensuing day the Kingdon caval 
 cade had put many hundred feet between 
 itself and the valley. The lower lands, 
 decked in their cloth of gold of cottonwood and 
 frosted weeds and grasses, lay already far beneath, 
 and the wagons moved slowly across the high ranges. 
 The road becoming steeper and more rugged, Sylvia 
 took David s advice and abandoned the spring wagon 
 for the saddle and Virginia Boy, who, born and bred 
 in the mountains, reverted to the habits of his type 
 without protest. A second wagon followed, packed 
 with a Chinaman and the necessaries of existence. 
 
 To right and left spread the rolling prairie, to which 
 the ascent had been a protracted struggle through the 
 deep sand of the lower mesa, or across the firm bot 
 toms of arroyos, now dry, but in the season of the 
 summer storms the beds of torrents which poured 
 themselves, roaring with the sound of many waters, 
 into the valley. Here is the tierra encantada, carry 
 ing upon its surface only the desert fruits, but bear 
 ing within its bosom promise a thousand fold of nearly 
 all the fruits that grow. 
 
 76 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 77 
 
 Under such a heaven of blue, and breathing such an 
 air, Sylvia s fears for her husband began to seem 
 unreal. As the path wound upward betwixt rocks and 
 boulders, she turned and said: 
 
 "But where does the stock graze, David?" 
 
 He pointed to the glimpse of the prairie, seen now 
 only through breaks in the rocky walls. "As far as 
 you can see. We keep only the choicest cows in the 
 Canon." 
 
 " But if there are no fences, how can you ever find 
 them ? " 
 
 " We are in the midst of our semi-annual round-up 
 now, and to-morrow, if you are very, very good, we ll 
 ride out and meet the chuck-wagon. Dick will know 
 where the men are to eat dinner. All, here comes 
 Dick!" 
 
 A typical cow-puncher or rather a very fine 
 sample of his class was riding toward them. It re 
 quires a man with a good figure to carry off a style of 
 horsemanship which has its uses, even its graces, where 
 bunching or roping cattle is concerned; but for less 
 strenuous effort this same figure may be ungainly 
 and ludicrous beyond the power of language to 
 depict. 
 
 Dick, somewhat awkward and too long of limb out 
 of the saddle, was in it the perfection of a Western 
 
78 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 horseman, and a fine, handsome fellow to boot 
 healthy, ruddy and blue-eyed. 
 
 "How goes it, Dick? All well?" 
 
 "Middlin , Mr. Kingdon. How s yourself?" 
 
 " Better than middling. Here, Dick, I ve brought 
 you a new boss. Sylvia, I m introducing you to one 
 of my best friends." 
 
 Blushing and embarrassed, Dick shoved his " cuttin 
 horse " one of the finest professionals on the ranges 
 close beside hers, and held out his hand. The frank 
 smile with which she met the advance completed a con 
 quest whose value was yet to be estimated. 
 
 As Sylvia rode on ahead, leaving the two men to 
 follow and talk business, Dick s glance repeatedly 
 wandered to the Boy. 
 
 "Awful fine horse, Mr. Kingdon! But kind o 
 tender for this country, ain t he ? " 
 
 " No, Dick ; there you re out for once. He s a Vir 
 ginia mountain-horse, and next to the range-ponies 
 they re the toughest and soundest made. It s the 
 good blood and the raising, I guess. This fellow has 
 all the grit you can ask for, and if he ever is called on 
 I am pretty badly mistaken if he doesn t make a show 
 ing in endurance that s going to astonish you all. He 
 was bit tender when he first came from the city stable, 
 but he s hardening every day." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 79 
 
 " He s mountain-bred, all right," assented Dick ; 
 " see how pretty he handles his feet over them rocks ! 
 And don t she handle him pretty, too ! " 
 
 David smiled. " You wait awhile, Dick, and they ll 
 both astonish you. My wife shall sing the heart out 
 of you to-night. But hold on now fall back a piece 
 you ve something to tell me ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir, I have. But we ve got to brand that 
 horse, and in a hurry, too." 
 
 " It must be done this very night, and done on the 
 quiet." 
 
 " Surely ! We ain t a-goin to say nothin about it 
 till it s all over. Some women is mighty curious and 
 tender-hearted." 
 
 David smiled again, this time at the perspicuity of 
 his factotum, and the two dropped into serious con 
 verse, while Sylvia rode alone through the opening 
 jaws of the canon. 
 
 Here were trees, hemlock and pinon, quaking asp 
 and mountain ash, clambering up the precipitous 
 sides of this fan-shaped recess in the mountains, and 
 meandering along the banks of the stream scarcely 
 wider than a ditch which ran through wild oats and 
 grasses. Midway up the canon stood a small but sub 
 stantial rock house, wearing something the aspect of a 
 
80 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 fortress in miniature. Twenty yards or so removed 
 from it was a long shed the cow-men s sleeping-place, 
 as Sylvia learned later. 
 
 Turning, she saw that her husband was out of ear 
 shot, and, what was of more importance, that Dick 
 was imparting information of a serious nature. In a 
 moment her sense of exhilaration was overpowered by 
 the swelling tide of the previous night s alarms. Over 
 the rampart-like walls of the canon she saw in imagi 
 nation the heads of unknown foes; and the house of 
 rocks, with its tremendous doors, became on the instant 
 a castle of defence. 
 
 But David soon clattered up beside her, and his 
 quick eye noted at once the change in her face. He 
 leaned sideways out of his deep saddle and laid his 
 hand on hers. 
 
 " Cheer up, Sylvia mm! We re going to have the 
 best of good times in this rough place, you and I ! " 
 
 She brightened with an effort. 
 
 "Oh, it s beautiful here, David! It s not that." 
 Her voice failed her. 
 
 " Oh, it s I, is it ? " coming nearer still, and stoop 
 ing to look into her half-averted eyes. He laughed 
 cheerily, and as he lifted her from her horse at the 
 door he held her close for a moment. 
 
 But he did not forget, nor treat her emotion as a 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 81 
 
 passing mood. During the entire evening he con 
 trived to keep her anxieties at bay by a display of 
 thoughtfulness and tact for even which his critic, 
 Buckley, would have commended him, and the delight 
 and amusement afforded by the primitive arrange 
 ments of their temporary home admirably seconded his 
 efforts. Sylvia sang, and her melodious voice pro 
 duced upon Dick the expected result. After she had 
 retired to her room, sufficiently wearied and diverted 
 and, David trusted, to sleep throughout the night he 
 lit his cigar and stepped out into the open, where his 
 foreman awaited him. 
 
 " Your brand s on him, sir right under the mane, 
 where it s never goin to show in the world. But I 
 could wish as you hadn t brought Mrs. Kingdon up 
 this time," added Dick, as they walked around in the 
 starlight. 
 
 David smoked awhile in silence. 
 
 " Dick," he said, at length, " for some reasons I 
 could almost wish so, too. But Mrs. Kingdon is game 
 all through." 
 
 "You haven t been acquainted with her so awful 
 long," persisted the faithful foreman, dubiously, fall 
 ing into the common error of his kind, which associates 
 courage and endurance with coarser attributes than 
 those appertaining to the second Mrs. Kingdon. 
 
82 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 David smiled. "No, Dick, I ve not known her so 
 very long, you re right about that not a year, all 
 told. But let me tell you something: she married me 
 to be my helpmate and true wife, and to stand by me ; 
 and she s going to do it, too, you can bet on that. 
 At the same time, I don t want her to be tested too far, 
 if it can be avoided." 
 
 " Me, neither. She ain t the kind for this sort 
 o work. But I don t know as we ll have any trouble. 
 Berry s mostly blow." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SHE regarded him intently, and continued in 
 the slowest and softest of voices, " You look 
 like an excessively naughty little boy." 
 
 David had been offending after an impertinent 
 manner peculiarly his own. Sylvia had not yet dis 
 covered the graver offence of the branding. All feel 
 ing of impending tragedy had been blown out of the 
 canon on the morning breeze, and the two stood con 
 fronting one another upon the rocks before the house, 
 in the sunlit silence succeeding the bustle of Dick s 
 departure. 
 
 David made a saucy moue at her, with him a virtual 
 acknowledgment of discomfiture. 
 
 "There!" she cried triumphantly; "I knew it! 
 How much for 
 
 But the sentence was never completed according to 
 original intention ; the culprit himself managed that. 
 Then, as he dodged the resulting missile with char 
 acteristic agility, and sprang around the corner of the 
 house, Sylvia ran through the hall to cut him off, 
 flung open the back door, and discovered no longer 
 
 83 
 
84 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 the David who had just escaped her, but another 
 David, his face darker than the shadow in which he 
 stood, his lips compressed. 
 
 A cowboy, sitting sideways upon his horse, had 
 evidently that moment handed him the note over which 
 his eyes were running with lightning-like celerity ; and 
 it was with a flash almost equal to lightning that the 
 word and the upward glance followed. 
 
 "Is this all?" 
 
 " Ya-as; all as I knows on." 
 
 " Where are the calves ? " 
 
 The man jerked his thumb in the direction of the 
 northern wall of the canon. There was an instant s 
 hesitation, interpreted aright by Sylvia. 
 
 " I am not afraid to stay here alone," she said, 
 stepping forward. Now this was untrue, but even a 
 Sylvia must be allowed her moments of prevarication. 
 
 David waved his hand impatiently. " I ll be 
 there." 
 
 The emissary of Berry wheeled his pony, and went 
 loping down the rocky path. 
 
 David was not given to hurried and perfunctory 
 caresses, so it was merely with an anxious, " You re 
 sure you won t be afraid ? Dick and the Chinaman 
 will be back before long, and there s nothing that can 
 possibly annoy you you re sure? " that he loosed his 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 85 
 
 horse from the hitching-post, and flung himself across 
 the saddle, leaving reverberating and dying echoes 
 behind him. 
 
 A sudden gust of anger seized Sylvia. Where was 
 he going? What was the trouble? Why did he 
 not trust her? Had she not been forbearing toward 
 the secret iveness from which she had, with some show 
 of justice, believed she was slowly winning him? 
 
 The tremendous loneliness of the place entered into 
 the soul of the city-bred girl. Her heart boomed in 
 her ears. How would David feel if he were to return 
 to find that she had been murdered by outlaws or 
 that she had been devoured by mountain-lions ? It was 
 the Ewigweibliche again, old as the eternal hills. This 
 woman glanced half expectantly, half fearfully, up 
 the terrific walls of the canon, to which the trees 
 clung, here timorously, there confidently and with 
 spreading branches, according to the steepness or 
 gradualness of the ascent. Not a leaf stirred; the 
 rare birds of the high altitude were mute; only the 
 self-absorbed chatter of the Rio Chiquito upon the 
 rocks disturbed the silence. 
 
 " They say people rise to occasions," Sylvia medi 
 tated, ruefully; "perhaps this is my occasion Gott 
 bewahr! " 
 
 These lapses on the part of her husband what were 
 
86 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 they but the result of " the mould of plastic circum 
 stance " ? They were few and far between now 
 anc [ pshaw! She arose. Peace was restored. The 
 desire to know, ergo to help, remained that was all. 
 Idle curiosity, that most plebeian of all vices, did not 
 rank among the shortcomings of Sylvia. 
 
 In the long shed within the stone-walled corral the 
 Boy stood, busy with a lunch of gramma hay. His 
 mistress strolled up to him. As she passed her fingers 
 through his thin, fine mane he winced, and tossed his 
 head fretfully. Simultaneously she gave vent to an 
 exclamation of horror. There, high up on his neck, 
 was the Kingdon brand, raw and fresh! For one 
 abandoned moment another access of feeling threat 
 ened to overwhelm Sylvia, but reason was now too 
 firmly established upon her throne. David undoubt 
 edly had good cause for his action, although to injured 
 sensibilities it might look like one of crass brutality. 
 The horse resumed his contented munching, and his 
 mistress leaned against his powerful shoulder specu 
 lating. 
 
 "Have the boss came?" said a voice at her elbow; 
 " there s a heap o water to pack yet, so I made tracks 
 for home, and " 
 
 Dick stopped short, consternation and amusement 
 struggling for the mastery in his honest eyes. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 87 
 
 " About that horse, Mrs. Kingdon he began 
 again, lamely. 
 
 " Oh, that s all right, Dick. Of course there was 
 some good reason, or it would not have been done. 
 
 But, Dick " she moved toward him, looking up in 
 
 his face. 
 
 Dick felt that he was indeed lost that he was about 
 to give everything away. The wife of the boss was 
 pulling her bow at a venture, but that of course he 
 did not know. The cow-puncher removed his flapping 
 sombrero, and gazed earnestly into it, as if there 
 guidance was to be found. 
 
 " Lookee here, Mrs. Kingdon," he said, at length, 
 "it s just this way: The boss he says as how you ve 
 came to help him, and it s my belief as he s got it down 
 right. All I ve got to say is that if he thinks Berry 
 has the first idea of givin up the calves, and no more 
 said well, he s a-goin to git most almightily left ! " 
 
 "What is going to happen when Mr. Kingdon 
 finds out, Dick? You know he isn t in the habit of 
 getting left." 
 
 Dick grinned with enjoyment at the perspicacity 
 of this new wife of the boss. 
 
 " That s right ! The trouble is that Mr. Kingdon 
 ain t got no more use for Berry than he has for doby 
 mud. He don t even like to glimpse him through a 
 
88 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 winder-glass, so maybe it ll come on him kind o 
 sudden. He won t suspicion it all to oncet. Then 
 Lord help us all!" 
 
 Dick s eyes twinkled irrepressibly, despite his pious 
 exclamation. 
 
 " I would say," he added, with another effort at 
 solemnity, " as th 5 ain t a ghost of a showin for Berry 
 when the boss sure enough jumps on him. There s 
 nothin as I can do for you, Mrs. Kingdon? I m 
 a-goin up the canon to pack water, as the men s all 
 away." 
 
 It was not until the following morning that Dick 
 and Sylvia met again. 
 
 "Mrs. Kingdon a-goin to ride that horse?" the 
 boss cow-puncher inquired, as he rode up to the house 
 in time to behold David mounting his wife upon the 
 Boy. 
 
 " I guess he s all right, Dick. Why not?" 
 
 " Well, supposin as he was to git skeered? There s 
 an awful racket a-goin on down there." 
 
 And Dick turned his head in the direction of the 
 canon s mouth, from whence proceeded the distant 
 howls and bellows of infuriated beasts. 
 
 "What do you say, Sylvia?" said David, pausing 
 in the arrangement of her riding-skirt. "Are you 
 sure you can control him?" 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 89 
 
 " Quite sure," she answered, gaily. " Don t be 
 uneasy, Dick. The Boy s what the stablemen at 
 home called a bold horse. He enjoyed the fuss at 
 the Horse Show every year." 
 
 "This ain t no Horse Show, Mrs. Kingdon," was 
 the cowboy s somewhat grave retort. 
 
 " But indeed, Dick, he s safe ! " persisted Sylvia. 
 "Anyhow, he must get accustomed to everything, 
 if he s going to live here." 
 
 The reasoning was admitted to be sound. 
 
 "But I shall not be able to stay by you, Sylvia," 
 put in David, somewhat affected by Dick s gloomy 
 prognostications. " I shall be in the thick of it most 
 of the time." 
 
 Sylvia replied by patting her horse s neck, who 
 with pricked ears was staring down the cafion. Then 
 she drew herself up and smiled upon the anxious faces 
 of the two men. David could only laugh and mount 
 his own cow-pony, and the party rode off. 
 
 The round-up was complete in the sense that the 
 stock was collected on the open plain, and now it 
 remained only for the cowboys of the various owners 
 to cut out their own beasts for shipment. 
 
 As Sylvia sat alone upon her horse, who, devoured 
 with curiosity, stood so far tense and still, the exhila 
 ration born of the splendid scene and air of this 
 
90 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 glorious fall morning seemed almost more than she 
 could bear in quietude. David, however, waved his 
 hand, signalling at the same time to her to be cau 
 tious ; for the fun was beginning in earnest, and soon, 
 losing thought of all else in the interest of it, Sylvia 
 began to move nearer and nearer. 
 
 David was in the thick of it, as he had foretold, 
 not perhaps quite such an adept as Dick on his 
 famous " cuttin horse," but in his activity and fear 
 lessness giving place to no other cow-puncher present. 
 Sylvia s heart glowed with pride as she watched him. 
 Once he pulled up for an instant, and faced her. His 
 soft hat was pushed backward, his brown eyes were 
 clear and lambent with the joy of action. Sylvia 
 resolved that she would begin a portrait of him the 
 very next day, just as he looked at that moment, 
 crimson shirt and all, and that it should be a study 
 in red and brown. She could think now, with a 
 sensation more akin to affectionate amusement than 
 pain, of her mother s disgust could she but behold 
 her daughter s pride in the cowboy achievements of 
 " Mrs. Newman s son-in-law ! " 
 
 In and out, around and around, through the 
 tangled mass of horns and hides, the riders threaded 
 their way, until gradually the mass began to resolve 
 itself into separate " bunches." The bunch nearest 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 91 
 
 to her was composed of Kingdon stock, and was so 
 restless that it needed the efforts of three men to keep 
 it rounded up. Suddenly two steers broke away and 
 made for the diminished herd, followed in wild pur 
 suit by two of the cowboys. For a minute or so, it 
 looked as though some roping would have to be done 
 if the refractory brutes were to be prevented from 
 allying themselves once more with the main herd, 
 but the men succeeded in turning them just in time, 
 and were racing back to the bunch with their cap 
 tives, when Sylvia perceived that, in spite of the 
 now solitary herder s best efforts, a cow was tearing 
 toward the canon at top speed. It was evident that 
 the one herder in charge was, for the moment, 
 helpless, 
 
 " If you think I m going to let you get there ! " 
 muttered the wife of the boss, and set her teeth. 
 
 The Boy was plunging, shaking his head and tear 
 ing at the bit. 
 
 " I ll do some cowboying, too ! " she cried, and let 
 the blooded horse go. 
 
 It was glorious fun, she thought, as the wind of 
 her flight whistled in her ears, and the thunder of 
 the Boy s hoofs reverberated on the rock road leading 
 into the canon. Catch that cow before it made the 
 canon she would, even if she broke her neck in the 
 
92 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 attempt ! What joy of life ! Why was she not born 
 a cow-puncher! To the shouts in her rear she paid 
 no heed. She had forgotten David, she had for 
 gotten everything in the mad rapture of the race. 
 
 Another moment, and she had passed the fugitive, 
 had wheeled, and the now rearing horse confronted 
 the amazed beast. Sylvia had neither rope nor quirt, 
 nothing but a small riding-switch, and for an instant 
 she feared that she was going to make a failure of her 
 first attempt at a new trade. But her cries and the 
 plunging of the horse across the narrow trail finally 
 disconcerted the cow, and Sylvia had begun the return 
 trip with her prize when David came up with some 
 of the men, who relieved her of her task. The men 
 were shouting " Bravo ! " but David looked white 
 and frightened. 
 
 "Oh, Sylvia, you bad, bad girl!" he exclaimed, 
 in a voice meant for her ear alone. "What am I do 
 do with you ? " 
 
 Yet, as his eyes fell upon her face, triumphant and 
 beautiful, the colour came back into his own. Here 
 was yet another Sylvia, he thought; when would she 
 cease to surprise him? 
 
 "And now you ll have to come home, madam," he 
 added, " even if I have to take you there myself." 
 
 As they turned the corner out of sight of the men, 
 

 She had forgotten everything in the mad rapture of the race. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 93 
 
 he put forth his hand and caught hers. "You gave 
 me a bad scare," he said, gravely. "Dearest, what 
 would become of me if I were to lose you ? " 
 
 " You ll never lose me off a horse, Davie," she 
 returned, lightly, pressing his fingers nevertheless; 
 " I think you may rest assured on that point." 
 
 But David was still serious. 
 
 It was sundown before the cutting-out was com 
 plete, and the Kingdon stock rounded up. Night 
 closed upon a peaceful scene. Cooking in the chuck- 
 wagon was going merrily forward. Some few of the 
 men were paid off, and the rest were divided into 
 watches. But still David was uneasy and restless. 
 
 " I guess I ll go down to the store to-night, Sylvia," 
 he observed, at length. " There are one or two of 
 Berry s men I want to watch. I won t be long away, 
 and Dick shall stay with you." 
 
 " Then Dick shall teach me how to handle a six- 
 shooter," retorted Sylvia. " By the time you get 
 home I shall know how to * take them in. and do 
 them up. Isn t that right, Dick?" 
 
 The moon was shining with a brilliancy peculiar 
 to that region, so the two left behind turned jest into 
 earnest by going outdoors and starting the proposed 
 lesson. Suddenly Sylvia paused in her manipula 
 tions. 
 
94 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Wait ! I hear children coming. I won t try my 
 first shot until they have passed. They might be 
 scared." 
 
 Mountain children " gittin skeered " seemed funny 
 to Dick, but he obeyed nevertheless. The voices 
 came nearer. 
 
 " My Paw says as somethin s a-goin to git crippled 
 down to the store to-night," remarked the small 
 maiden, as she tripped along swinging her sunbonnet 
 by the strings. 
 
 " And Maw says you bet Sam Berry knows a heap 
 more n he lets on to know," piped the other youngster, 
 a boy. Then the children took hands and started 
 to run. 
 
 Sylvia looked at her companion. 
 
 " Dick," she said, in an awe-struck whisper, 
 " do you suppose that Berry really did steal the 
 cattle?" 
 
 " I m not supposin nothin ," was the reply ; " I 
 know as he intended so to do, and the men as swiped 
 em for him is down to the store now. Tim, our man 
 as suspicioned them and located the cows, has been 
 paid up to-day and is to the store, too more fool he ! 
 Those fellers from Berry s 11 put up some job on 
 him, sure s he s born ! " 
 
 "What will Mr. Kingdon do about it, Dick?" 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 95 
 
 " Down cm, if so be as he s able. He s boss here ; 
 this land s all Kingdon land." 
 
 " Dick, I wish you were there to help him!" 
 
 "That s right!" ejaculated her companion, 
 heartily. " But it s laid down for me to stay by 
 you this night, and nothin ain t a-goin to hurt the 
 boss. You can make yourself easy about " 
 
 A shot then another and another flashed upon the 
 white silence of the night. 
 
 " Dick ! " 
 
 " All right, Mrs. Kingdon," soothingly " now 
 don t you worry ! When the boys is paid it often 
 happens as the earth is lit with their guns, but like 
 as not it don t mean nothin ." 
 
 A few minutes of breathless listening; then up the 
 echoing canon were borne shouts, curses, yells. 
 
 "Dick go! Go/" 
 
 " No, Mrs. Kingdon, I can t do that." 
 
 Sylvia was rapidly losing her self-control. 
 
 "Dick, you must you must!" twisting her 
 slender fingers together as she spoke. " I ll never 
 forgive you if anything happens to him ! Oh, go ! " 
 
 Dick considered. That something was wrong 
 " down to the store " he knew far better than Sylvia 
 could tell him. That any one would abandon the 
 fun to annoy the folks at the house seemed to him 
 
96 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 the height of improbability, and he could send Tim 
 directly back to Mrs. Kingdon; it would be better 
 anyhow for the chap to be out of the way. And 
 whilst he thus pondered Sylvia was still pleading. 
 
 "Well," he said, hesitatingly, "let s see first if 
 I ve learned you how to handle that gun." 
 
 " Yes yes ! Isn t it thus ? and so ? " 
 
 Secretly amazed at her quickness, he yielded; and 
 with injunctions that she should lock herself into the 
 house and open to no one whose voice she did not 
 recognise, the big fellow suffered himself to be almost 
 pushed to his horse, which he thereupon mounted 
 and clattered away. 
 
 "Tim shall be along in five minutes," were his 
 parting words. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOMETHING was wrong " down to the store," 
 and for Tim minutes no longer existed. 
 Gay doings initiated the evening s perform 
 ances. Sunburned, ruddy mountain lasses, many of 
 whom had galloped ten or fifteen miles for the chance 
 of a " hop," twirled or sat with partners in the room 
 behind the store, and in the saloon attached gambling 
 proceeded amicably. Indeed, for an hour or two it 
 appeared as if this peaceable state of affairs might 
 continue indefinitely. 
 
 " There," exclaimed one of the married women, 
 peering into the saloon, and nudging a companion, 
 "yon s the feller one o the Kingdon boys as the 
 Berry crowd has a grudge against by reason of his 
 suspicionin as it were they as swiped them cows 
 him as is playin with Long Tom." 
 
 " Ain t Long Tom a Berry feUer? " 
 
 "Sure!" 
 
 "JVhovah! If they gits ter crackin their guns 
 this night, won t there be a racket, though!" 
 
 "You bet! And that Long Tom th ain t his 
 beat on this earth for right down meanness and 
 
 97 
 
98 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 cussedness! There hark to him now! That s him 
 talkin ." 
 
 The women drew nearer. Long Tom s voice was 
 plainly audible. 
 
 " You give me back my money. T ain t but thirty 
 cents, but I mean to have it just the same!" 
 
 "No, I won t!" retorted Tim; "I won it fair. 
 We ll set up the drinks on it." 
 
 " No ; you give me my money, or I ll kill you ! " 
 
 "Well kill me." 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Kingdon!" cried one of the women, 
 catching sight of a well-known figure, " for the Lord s 
 sake come ! You said as you didn t want no trouble, 
 but here it is sure enough ! " Then, with a piercing 
 shriek, " Lord o love ! He s banged loose and shotted 
 him!" 
 
 David leaped forward, but he was not quick enough. 
 At the first shot the saloon had pretty well emptied 
 itself, and yelling, " Come along, boys let s wake the 
 dead!" Long Tom kicked out the bartender, who 
 was only too glad to expedite the matter, and he and 
 two or three friends took possession of the saloon. 
 David threw himself against the hastily barricaded 
 door, but too late. A display of Winchesters and 
 six-shooters at the one window quenched the ambition 
 of his supporters. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 99 
 
 In the confusion, no one noticed that the only mem 
 ber of the " Berry crowd " left outside mounted his 
 horse and rode away. 
 
 Furious as he was, David s nimble wit came, as was 
 fortunately often the case, to the aid of his self-con 
 trol. This was a plain instance of possession being 
 nine points of the law. He glanced around. His 
 own men, according to previous instructions, were 
 nowhere to be seen. Two or three cowboys from the 
 smaller ranches were present, but not in sufficient 
 force to afford support. Moreover, Berry, backed 
 by a large and powerful clan, was feared as well as 
 hated. As for the mountain people, they could be 
 loyal enough when it came to a pinch, but this affair 
 was a little too desperate to plunge into headlong. 
 
 Other considerations besides were being embraced 
 by David s rapidly moving mind: here was a chance 
 legally to apprehend Long Tom for a double crime. 
 
 " Any one know if Cristol or his deputy are at the 
 mining camp ? " he asked quickly. 
 
 As usual, the women were the readiest with an 
 answer. 
 
 " Sure ! My old man seen the deputy this noon. 
 Cristol s gone." 
 
 "Well, I m going after the deputy and a posse. 
 You boys watch that door. Don t attempt to force 
 
100 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 it until I get back, but let fly at those fellows inside 
 if they put so much as their heads out. Hear? " 
 
 With a hastily breathed wish for John Cristol in 
 the valley, and the blooded horse in the stable up 
 the canon, David tore away on his five mile ride, 
 thankful, however, for two things first, that the 
 faithful Dick was in charge of his wife ; second, that 
 official business had called any kind of a sheriff to 
 the mining camp that day. 
 
 He had scarcely vanished when Dick arrived upon 
 the scene, to be immediately inundated with in 
 formation. Elbowing his way through the crowd, 
 he was making for the saloon, when he was forcibly 
 dragged back, and the injunctions and intentions of 
 the boss poured into his unwilling ears. He fell 
 back, of course, but not before his eyes had beheld a 
 spectacle which filled him with grief and rage; for 
 Tim had been a good comrade and worker. Upon 
 the bar-counter, pulled into the centre of the room, 
 lay the murdered man, the glare of the bar-lamps 
 placed at his head reflected in the wide eyes, which 
 none had cared to close, and on the grime and pallor 
 of the dead face. Long Tom and his friends were 
 holding a wake. 
 
 Some expressions forced their way through Dick s 
 shut teeth, as he reluctantly retreated. But righteous 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 101 
 
 wrath did not make him forget Mrs. Kingdon. The 
 only one of his men upon whom his eyes lighted was 
 a young fellow, lately hired, but who had already 
 by his phenomenal sobriety, earned the title of 
 " Waters." True, Mrs. Kingdon was not likely to 
 recognise either his face or his voice, but he would 
 mount him upon his own horse; Dick had already 
 discovered that Sylvia was quicker in her recognition 
 of horse than man. The boy was called up and in 
 structed. He departed under silent protest, alacrity 
 in departure, under the circumstances, being too phe 
 nomenal even for a " Waters." 
 
 Halfway up the canon alacrity s poor substitute, 
 obedience, took wings and fled. This was the first 
 time the youth had been present at a " sure-enough 
 shootin -match " ; and was he, for any woman alive, 
 going to absent himself before the " show" was over? 
 No; he was not! He slipped to the ground, turned 
 the horse loose to find its own way to the corral, and 
 stole back to the scene of enchantment, taking care, 
 however, to keep out of the foreman s sight. 
 
 The night deepened. Within the saloon Long 
 Tom and his friends continued to hold high revelry. 
 Without, the small crowd waited, muttering. 
 
 Suddenly the hideous scene changed. With the 
 clatter and jingle of heavily armed men, the sheriff 
 
102 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 and a hastily organised posse, including David, burst 
 into the canon. In a minute the crazy door was 
 staved in. The gang inside, with the exception of 
 their leader, who possessed a head as long as his name, 
 were by this time too drunk to make much resistance. 
 If Long Tom was drunk, he was " fighting " drunk, 
 and for a while, as the spectators remarked, "made 
 things real lively." The struggle, however, was 
 brief. He was overpowered, handcuffed, dragged 
 out of the house, and tied to a tree. The other men 
 were roped and thrown upon the floor, where they 
 lay, gloriously drunk and very happy. Then a sort 
 of informal coroner s inquest was held over the corpse, 
 which finally was carried into the back room to await 
 more strictly legal proceedings. 
 
 The trouble at an end, and the prisoner again 
 inspected, there was a general exodus to the dis 
 mantled bar. The bartender was reinstated, little 
 the worse for his experience, and the crowd proceeded 
 to refresh itself at the modest rate of one drink to a 
 man; "Waters" excepted, who had just now very 
 particular reasons for living up to his soubriquet. 
 He had, so far, remained unobserved by Dick, who 
 had seized upon the first available moment to assure 
 David of his wife s safety. 
 
 While they lingered at the bar, the sheriff an 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 103 
 
 inferior man to Cristol, both as regarded intelligence 
 and resource and David were discussing in low tones 
 the difficulties sure to be encountered in meting out 
 justice to the robber and murderer, for he would 
 receive powerful support. 
 
 When the party emerged from the saloon the moon 
 had set, and the blackness that precedes the dawn had 
 fallen upon the canon. 
 
 " He s awful quiet," remarked the sheriff, walking 
 toward the prisoner s tree. 
 
 " Had about enough, I guess ! " laughed one of the 
 posse. 
 
 Apparently he had ; for he was gone. 
 
 Meanwhile, for Sylvia too, the darkness had 
 deepened. Alone in a house for the first time at 
 night, she went through the experience of all per 
 sons endowed with the somewhat unusual combination 
 of extreme timidity and extreme spirit. The agonis 
 ing fears of those first hours, when the ears are 
 strained for every sound, yet fail in their duty because 
 of the loud drumming of the pulses, gradually gave 
 place to a slowly rising courage to meet the emer 
 gency. When with the settling of the moon she felt 
 as though she had lost her only friend, and the insist 
 ent pressure of the dark drove her, so to speak, to the 
 
104 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 wall, she turned and faced the situation desperately, 
 if you will, but still squarely. 
 
 Something had undoubtedly happened to prevent 
 the return of either her husband, Dick, or any other 
 man. But in those early terrors she had run the 
 gamut of every possible tragedy, and was now, as 
 she believed, keyed to meet the worst. 
 
 The windows were of course shut down, the out 
 side blinds closed, and the slats in place. Not a 
 breath of air was stirring, yet as Sylvia bent over 
 the fire she became distinctly aware that the slats 
 were being handled, and that some one was endeav 
 ouring to peer into the room. In the flash of a 
 second she had blown out the lamp and grasped the 
 six-shooter lying on the table beside her. She could 
 have smiled at the recollection that, a scant month 
 before, she would not have laid a finger upon the 
 ugly thing! Although the blinds and windows were 
 fastened, in this lonely spot and with consequently 
 small chance of interruption, an entrance could easily 
 be effected. 
 
 There was no mistaking the sounds. Either be 
 lieving the house to be temporarily deserted, or aware 
 that it was tenanted only by a " woman tenderfoot," 
 a hand had softly forced out one of the slats, and 
 was working now on the lower catch of the blind. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 105 
 
 Sylvia s occasion had arrived, and with it flashed 
 the glorious consciousness, given only to the consti 
 tutionally timid to enjoy, that she was flung entirely 
 upon her own resources, and that she was not merely 
 equal to the occasion, but felt a kind of triumph in it. 
 As she swept down the long room toward the window, 
 this rapturous sense of exaltation possessed her to the 
 exclusion of anything approaching bodily fear. Yet 
 even in this supreme moment the idea of killing a 
 human being was not actually present with her, unless 
 as a final resort. Raising the window with swift 
 determination, she said, firmly: 
 
 " I am going to shoot ! " And shoot she did wide 
 of the mark, of course, as might be expected of her 
 inexperience as well as of her scruples, but with a 
 decision and rapidity which, combined with other 
 causes of which she was unaware, had the desired 
 effect. Startled by the unexpected attack, the in 
 truders departed, with a quick scuffling of feet. 
 
 But Sylvia had not done" with them. Her blood 
 was up. She followed her first two shots by two more 
 equally inefficient in one sense, yet effectually 
 bewildering in another and, listening at the raised 
 window, discovered that the house was not the prin 
 cipal object of assault, and had not been. It was 
 Virginia Boy in his stable. 
 
106 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 She could see nothing, but the plunging of the 
 horse was audible. The men in their haste to escape 
 had alarmed the spirited animal. Undoubtedly the 
 one who had come to the house had done so merely to 
 spy out the land for better security, the other work 
 ing meanwhile with the strong lock David himself 
 had put on the stable door. 
 
 This was the last straw. Reckless now, Sylvia 
 flung the blinds wide and fired again. This time 
 there was an echo more than that a rattle of 
 approaching hoofs, yells and more shots. She heard 
 David s voice, Dick s, and that of others. 
 
 The horse was safe ; she was safe. All was over ! 
 
 Lighting the lamp with hands that shook, she 
 unlocked the door and stood, shivering a little, in 
 the entrance. Every sound had died away except 
 the sound of one familiar step; and in a minute 
 David himself entered the house, drawing her in with 
 him. 
 
 " You poor child ! " he murmured, as he held her 
 close. 
 
 But Sylvia drew away. 
 
 "Take it!" she cried, thrusting the empty six- 
 shooter into his hand ; "I did the best I .could ! " 
 
 Then, ashamed of her display and of all that it 
 had cost her, she ran from him into her own room. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 107 
 
 But David was not thus to be put off. He followed, 
 and extracted by degrees her history of the night, 
 giving her in turn a mild version of the other story, 
 and telling her that the man she had withstood was 
 the redoubtable Long Tom himself, come in company 
 of a far-sighted friend to procure the fastest horse in 
 the country for his flight. 
 
 " And," concluded David, smiling a little, " if you 
 had not ridden the Boy to the round-up, Tom would 
 have known nothing about him. See the price one 
 pays for vanity, madam!" 
 
 " Well, I saved the horse, anyway ! " defiantly. 
 At which speech David was obliged to laugh outright. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 NOW, Johnny," enjoined David, in an earnest 
 undertone, " don t you give me away ! It s 
 best for my wife to believe there s no more 
 trouble about that shooting. You and I and a few 
 others know better, but " 
 
 The visitor nodded, sagaciously. 
 
 " Here s my friend, Mrs. Johnson, come to see you, 
 Sylvia," proceeded David, throwing open the sitting- 
 room door. A week had passed since that exciting 
 night, but even Cristol had not yet succeeded in 
 apprehending the murderer. 
 
 In the doorway stood a woman, of whom the first 
 impression was size, bright eyes, and rosy cheeks. 
 With the overdone dignity of the class which is not 
 sure of its social standing, she surveyed her hostess 
 coldly, returning the warm hand-pressure with but 
 the faintest response. With the same elaboration of 
 stateliness she seated herself in the chair brought 
 forward by David. 
 
 But the combination of an ardent regard for her 
 host and the well-bred simplicity of her hostess soon 
 
 108 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 109 
 
 put matters on an easier footing. Mrs. Johnson 
 or Johnny, as she delighted in having David call her 
 quickly showed herself in her true colours ; and 
 when Sylvia, in the course of conversation, doubted 
 whether her guest had been a mountain woman all 
 her life, the genuine Johnny stood revealed. 
 
 " Now, ain t she smart to have got that down rightj 
 and so quick too ! " she exclaimed, smiling on David, 
 and slipping off her tight visiting gloves with a sense 
 of relief. " No, Mrs. Kingdon, I ain t mountain- 
 bred. I married into the San Carlos Johnsons Ed 
 Johnson, one of the best husbands an providers as 
 ever stepped and come here at eighteen all the way 
 from Colorayder. I tell you, I was lonesome! The 
 Johnsons, they ain t no Texans neither," she added, 
 bridling proudly. 
 
 "Now we ve got you on your hobby, Johnny!" 
 exclaimed David. 
 
 " You hush up ! " was the retort. " Let me and 
 your wife visit together." 
 
 " May I really go out and play, Johnny ? " he 
 inquired, anxiously. 
 
 " Oh, go along with you." And Johnny beamed 
 fondly on the departing back of her idol. 
 
 Left alone with her visitor, Sylvia found herself, 
 moment by moment becoming less alive to externals, 
 
110 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 and more and more interested in this woman of 
 multifarious talents. She was proving a veritable 
 treasure-trove. Two hours flew by before, no longer 
 afflicted with dignity, Mrs. Johnson sailed briskly out 
 to the fence where her horse was tied. After David 
 had helped the large lady to mount and she had ridden 
 away, waving her farewells, Sylvia said : 
 
 " It would not take much to make me exceedingly 
 fond of that clever, warm-hearted woman." 
 
 Here again was one of those surprises to which 
 David s wife frequently treated him. The perfectly 
 bred woman of the world, with all that the term 
 implies, was still somewhat of a puzzle to him. He 
 glanced at her quickly ; then replied in a tone in which 
 relief and pleasure were evident : 
 
 "I m so glad, Sylvia. I was afraid you might 
 be damped by the externals in the case. Johnny is 
 one of the best of good women not really coarse in 
 the least and you re right about her brains ; she has 
 them. She knows more about the flora and fauna of 
 the mountains than any professor in the country. 
 She s shrewd, too, and helped me out of many a tight 
 place when I was a young one and had come here 
 green. But of course there are the externals. They 
 are bound to grate on you." 
 
 True enough; they were bound to grate, and did 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 111 
 
 so often. Nevertheless Mrs. Johnson soon installed 
 herself in the affections of wife as well as husband; 
 and even before Sylvia had been able to return that 
 first visit, more than one note from Johnny s fluent, 
 if scarcely literate, pencil had flown across the moun 
 tain from the neighbouring canon, borne by her 
 " baby," Ted. These contained information interest 
 ing to Sylvia, and relating to the plants or flowers of 
 the region. 
 
 The cold weather the cold, still weather of that 
 season, each day a glittering shaft of penetrating 
 sunlight had arrived, when Sylvia set out to visit 
 her new friend. The blue and golden glory of the 
 fall still lingered, though the gold was fading fast, 
 as Sylvia turned her horse s head toward the mouth of 
 Antelope Canon and caught sight of the small ranch, 
 just as David had described it, situated upon the 
 lowest slope of the eastern mountain wall, and fed 
 by tiny irrigating ditches conducted from Antelope 
 Creek. 
 
 As she rode up to the door Mrs. Johnson came 
 hurrying to meet her, a beautiful little dog playing 
 unrebuked with her fluttering skirts. 
 
 " Get down and come in ! " cried Johnny, lending 
 practical assistance to her invitation as she spoke. 
 In a trice the visitor was off her horse and the animal 
 
112 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 tied to the fence, and both women established in Mrs. 
 Johnson s combination parlour-bedroom. 
 
 "Oh, what a beauty!" exclaimed Sylvia, endeav 
 ouring as she spoke to entice the dog to her. But 
 Nino, with the rooted aversion of his breed to 
 strangers, stood aloof, making nervous little jumps 
 at her slightest movement toward him. 
 
 "Let him be, Mrs. Kingdon. He ll come around 
 after a while, and love you dearly. But Chihuahuas 
 is aways that way till they knows you awful shy!" 
 
 "And where is Teddy, Mrs. Johnson? You know 
 he and I are good friends already." 
 
 " Ted? Oh, he s somewheres around, working at 
 somethin sech a boy to work as never was, let alone 
 as it was your husband when he was a chap." 
 
 Sylvia smiled. "He s not exactly lazy now, is 
 he?" 
 
 "My sakes, no! Yet I can t help but wish as 
 you d known him when he was a young one, Mrs. 
 Kingdon you don t mind my talkin of him, do 
 you ? " she said, breaking off abruptly. " He s been 
 just the same as one of my own so long, and now as 
 he s got some one to take care of him at last, it does 
 me so much good that I feel as if I just had to talk 
 about it all see ? " 
 
 Yes ; Sylvia saw very well, and there was something 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 113 
 
 in her eyes that drew Mrs. Johnson irresistibly toward 
 her, and impelled her to launch herself upon the sub 
 ject so engrossing to both of them. 
 
 " It was wonderful the way that boy got along ! 
 Smart? why, smart ain t in it with him! Course, 
 his uncle gave him a good start, but then he up an 
 died before so long, and his father was worse n a 
 hindrance, although Davie does claim as he got his 
 hard, business-sense from his Paw. But the little 
 chap was awful knowin for his years, and didn t 
 waste nothin in foolish spendin neither, as some o 
 your smart chaps does : he had a bank account of his 
 own when most kids is thinkin of how to get rid o 
 their earnin s. He was free-handed, too, if another 
 feller was down on his luck ; got that from his Maw, 
 I guess. He wa n t scared o nothin , and he gathered 
 up stock an sized up prices quicker n winkin ; never 
 see sech an eye for stock sence I was born. Lord o 
 love, but he was quick to catch on! The man had 
 to rise before light to get ahead o David Kingdon, 
 and that before he was full grown. Dick was along 
 all the time to help him, and Dick s good stuff, but 
 he ain t what you d call a rusher, when all s said. 
 Once he wa n t more n sixteen years old Davie 
 come in my house long about dark, and Johnny, says 
 he, let me set by your fire awhile. Then I knew as 
 
114 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 that Paw o his was makin hot times at the ranch; 
 but I didn t let on jes says, All right, sonny! 
 an 5 kep right along cookin supper. David was 
 always notiony about keepin hisself to hisself." 
 
 Mrs. Johnson at this point met Sylvia s smile of 
 perfect understanding. 
 
 "Yes, you know that too! Well, so I let him set 
 an study, without so much as oncet openin my head. 
 Then he lifts his face sudden, with that look in his 
 eyes that ought to melt a heart o stone so solemn 
 and tender and Johnny, says he, when I m grown 
 I m goin to have the loveliest wife ! That s right, 
 Davie, says I, without so much as crackin a smile, 
 and what ll she be like? Oh, says he, she ll 
 be just lovely! We ll have the sweetest home no 
 fussin nor abusin , says the poor boy. Won t you 
 come and visit us, Johnny? What did I say? Why 
 I jes walked right up to him, an took a-holt of his 
 head between my hands, and kissed him square on the 
 mouth that s what I did! I couldn t say nothin ; 
 and he wa n t the same as other boys about dislikin 
 bein kissed, if he had a likin for a person. And I 
 always was most the same as a mother to Davie. And 
 then, after talkin that way, he ups and marries her! " 
 
 At this point disgust, supreme and unutterable, 
 closed temporarily the eloquent lips of Johnny. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 115 
 
 Then, with an effort, she changed the subject or, to 
 be more accurate, made a feint at so doing. 
 
 "Well, you asked me oncet about my ranch, Mrs. 
 Kingdon. Well, I tell you as I m doin fine ! I had 
 lots o stuff to market in the city, an t ain t nothin 
 to hitch up a team any time an pack it there not 
 more n sixty mile. Then I got three good cows for 
 butter, the finest bein Sonny. The boys jes raised 
 the laugh on me about the name ! Twas the cow as 
 
 your husband give me when I stood by him " She 
 
 stopped abruptly, glancing at her visitor. 
 
 "When, Mrs. Johnson?" put in Sylvia encourag 
 ingly. " Don t be uneasy. I know everything." 
 
 "Very well," proceeded the older woman, with a 
 sigh of relief; " that s all right! Well, when I stood 
 by Mr. Kingdon as one friend ought to stand by 
 another in his day of affliction. But somehow he s 
 thought even more of his old Johnny, since then, than 
 he did before. Oh, Mrs. Kingdon, his Paw was a ter 
 ror ! " she broke out suddenly. Then stopped again, 
 arose, and walked to the open door. She stood gaz 
 ing up at the exquisite sky, as if there she saw once 
 more the scarcely less exquisite face of the boy as she 
 had first beheld it. " He was the sweetest young one ! 
 Not a child either exactly, but seemed so to me. I 
 jes took him right into my heart so pretty an win- 
 
116 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 nin an lonesome he was ! so hard druv all the time, 
 an no thanks for it! His eyes was like the stars of 
 heaven so innocent an shinin ! They re that, now, 
 oncet in a while, but not all the time. And then, 
 when he was grown, and got so awful good-lookin , 
 an all the girls here an in the cities where he visited 
 went wild over him, as I ve heard oh, Mrs. Kingdon, 
 there ain t no wrong in sayin as his Paw should have 
 been took years before he was ! The old man got 
 religion, and talked the croolest talk as ever was con- 
 cernin the best son as ever a bad old man had. And 
 that beast, Berry! Never mind; he s above ground, 
 and I ll get even with him yet for the wicked lies he 
 set a-goin about my Davie! Why, Mrs. Kingdon," 
 she added emphatically, coming back into the room, 
 her fine eyes gleaming, " not one o them tales could be 
 true ! Davie wa n t no saint he was too highstrung 
 but he couldn t do a bad thing if he tried ever so ! 
 And he had enough worry at home to drive any other 
 feller with as much spunk as him to the devil. But 
 Davie never come within whisperin distance o the 
 devil ! / know ; I ve raised sons o my own. After he 
 got married, he stopped his foolishness. He seemed 
 awful happy at first ; yet I knew when I laid my eyes 
 on her as it wa n t a-goin to do! And it didn t do. 
 She never come up here. I see her in the city. Well ! " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 117 
 
 Mrs. Johnson sighed, then smiled, and, falling upon 
 the slight form of her visitor, gathered her into her 
 large embrace. 
 
 " I know as you ll be good to him, my dearie ! " she 
 whispered brokenly, " and he loves you as it s only in 
 Davie to love ! " 
 
 After this outburst Mrs. Johnson resumed a man 
 ner more befitting that of a hostess receiving a bride s 
 first call. But she had won the heart of the second 
 Mrs. Kingdon. 
 
 And as the weeks and months went on, a tenderness 
 for her husband, separate and apart from the passion 
 of love, stole into Sylvia s heart. The long-continued 
 jar of mismating could not fail, in the case of a man 
 of David s peculiar temperament, to leave conse 
 quences. When the slip into the short speech or the 
 sullen brooding befell, or that worse slip from his 
 wife s high standards to those lower ones which his 
 environment had formerly assured him were all-suffi 
 cient, his remorse proved less futile than most repent 
 ance is. Sylvia, early trained in patience, had the 
 soft answer ready not the meek, adorning softness 
 of the historic Griselda, but rather that which bears 
 in its bosom a reproachful tolerance. David under 
 stood, and loved her the better for both reproach and 
 tolerance. 
 
118 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Following on the close intimacy of a harmonious 
 marriage came the slow development of David s real 
 self. He had from the first realised that there were 
 certain matters in which his wife would never come 
 down to him, that he would have to rise to her level; 
 and it was becoming daily easier for him to do this. 
 Previously bound to a colder nature, he had allowed 
 his restless, though never wholly ungovernable, im 
 pulses to wander away with him in a manner that 
 belied his really remarkable capacity for self-govern 
 ment. Now all was changed. He gathered in those 
 wayward moods and wandering impulses, and laid 
 them at the feet of her who satisfied alike the cravings 
 of his heart and of his higher nature, moral as well as 
 intellectual. Purpose took shape in him, together 
 with a secret resolve to mould his life rather than be 
 moulded by it a secret resolve, so far, because 
 actions spoke for him more readily than words. His 
 mind, always vigorous, grasped abstract subjects in 
 a new way firmly, clearly, analytically. 
 
 There were some matters, however, that David con 
 cealed from Sylvia and wisely. He took infinite 
 pains, on every occasion, to make light of the Long 
 Tom affair and Sylvia s share in it, whereas in real 
 truth his heart seemed to stop beating whenever he 
 thought of her in connection with it; and more than 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 119 
 
 once she wondered why he would unexpectedly and 
 without due cause, as she considered, catch her in his 
 arms and press his face silently and passionately to 
 her own. Well aware as he was, that Berry and his 
 following were protecting the murderer, he was 
 equally aware that Cristol, like a sleuthhound, never 
 forsook the trail, and never would until some life paid 
 the forfeit. 
 
 The incident of Tim s murder was but one in a 
 long succession of like events extending over a period 
 of years. The cattle-feuds of New Mexico and 
 Arizona now slowly dying a natural death, owing 
 not so much to an advance in civilisation as to a 
 change in conditions partook of the character of 
 the vendetta, and were almost as relentless. The feud 
 between the Kingdon and Berry ranches, fostered as 
 it had been by the imbecility of " Old Man Kingdon," 
 of which Berry had not been slow to take advantage, 
 was one of long standing. Sylvia was told merely 
 that Long Tom had escaped for the time, but that 
 he would probably be caught eventually. As the 
 instincts of love are stronger than spoken facts, 
 Sylvia had been doing some meditation and observa 
 tion on her own account. 
 
 The result was that one afternoon, David being 
 down at Kingdon s Crossing on business regarding 
 
120 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 some cattle, she mounted her horse and took the now 
 well-known way to the Johnson Ranch. Not a soul 
 was to be seen around the little house. Light clouds 
 were scudding across the azure of the sky a paler 
 azure than usual, precursor of a winter gale and 
 puffs of penetrating south wind found their way into 
 the canon. Sylvia shivered as she sat on her horse. 
 Presently, however, Mrs. Johnson came hurrying up 
 from the stream, upon whose borders she had been 
 superintending the labours of a Mexican ploughing 
 for winter wheat. Ted and Nino appeared cavorting 
 around another corner, and warmth and cheer came 
 with the whole family. Sylvia slipped from the 
 saddle, Ted tied the Boy, and the two women entered 
 the house, glowing with the afternoon sun. 
 
 " I m uneasy, Mrs. Johnson," began Sylvia at once,, 
 " about my husband." 
 
 " Set down," rejoined the hostess, her face harden 
 ing suddenly, yet mindful of David s injunctions. 
 
 " I know I can trust you," went on Sylvia, 
 falteringly. 
 
 " Course you can trust me ; I m one o that kind. 
 Even my enemies an I ve got em all right can t 
 say as I ever opened my head when I hadn t ought 
 to." 
 
 Then Sylvia poured out her tale. Mrs. Johnson 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 121 
 
 listened with a curiously hard look upon her rounded 
 countenance. She knew so much so much more than 
 this inexperienced girl ! 
 
 " He asked me if I was willing to stay up here for 
 some time yet," the narration concluded, "and, of 
 course, I m willing. I like being in the mountains 
 much better, I am sure, than I should like the Cross 
 ing. It s not that; I m uneasy because I feel sure 
 there s fresh trouble brewing." 
 
 Johnny considered a minute. 
 
 " What makes you think your husband would not 
 tell you, if it was so as it was best for you to know? " 
 
 The sharp query brought the colour to Sylvia s 
 face. 
 
 " Simply because his reason is that he is afraid of 
 frightening me," she answered, quietly; "and that 
 reason does not count with me." 
 
 Mrs. Johnson considered again. She was in some 
 thing of a dilemma. 
 
 " Well, you see, my dear, he don t know nothin 
 I mean nothin to amount to anythin . He don t 
 want to git you all worked up over some foolishness 
 that maybe 11 fizzle out to nothin . Him and Cris- 
 tol s jes nosin round, that s all. It s best for Davie 
 to stay here awhile, till things gits sorter settled. I 
 wouldn t go for to worry if I was you: it never did 
 
122 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 no good yet. He ll tell you jes as soon as you can 
 help him. That s Davie ! He never was a great one 
 to talk." 
 
 " No, I know. But he talks quite a good deal now 
 about his business to me," rejoined Sylvia, smiling; 
 " so that won t do, dear Johnny. Think of something 
 else!" 
 
 Johnny cast her eyes around the mountain-tops, 
 searching for inspiration. Finally she gave it up. 
 
 "My dear," she said, impressively, "I won t deny 
 as there s trouble ; there mostly is. But it won t do 
 no good to run around a-huntin of it up. David 
 can t tell you till he s got scent of it himself; he s 
 jes suspicionin now, that s all. You know as that 
 old beast Berry s layin to run for sheriff next term ? " 
 Sylvia nodded. " Well, mark my words, the fight ll 
 be then not yet. See ? " 
 
 And so upon another tack the shrewd Johnny 
 gently led her inquiring guest, until, " Oh, you bad, 
 bad boy!" she suddenly interrupted herself to 
 exclaim. 
 
 "Don t scold the little fellow, Maw!" cried Teddy, 
 bursting in on the heels of Nino, who with head in air 
 and tail curled tightly over his back was whirling 
 around the room as rapidly as the convoying of one 
 of his mistress s largest slippers would permit. " He 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 123 
 
 don t mean no harm, and he is bavin sech an awful 
 good time ! " 
 
 " Nino, come here ! " 
 
 Nino dropped the slipper promptly, tail and ears 
 and every hair of him suddenly unstarched, and crept 
 to his mistress s knee. Then, curling an insinuating 
 rose-pink tongue over a black nose, and rolling over 
 on his back, he elevated one small and deprecating 
 hind foot. Evidently from Nino s point of view 
 apology could go no further. Mrs. Johnson, who 
 had just been fulminating wrathful invectives of a 
 murderous description against Berry and his clan, 
 smiled indulgently down upon the tiny sinner. In an 
 instant he was upon her knee and climbing to her 
 neck, where he laid down his head with a sigh of 
 renewed confidence and content. 
 
 " Now, who could be hard on the helpless dumb 
 things, Mrs. Kingdon?" said Johnny, pressing the 
 silken head to her as if it was that of a child only 
 with a difference. 
 
 Yet there is a sufficiency of dull persons in the 
 world who never would have observed that difference. 
 
 The women, in entire sympathy, sat silent for a 
 while. 
 
 " My dear, we who s left here without no home-man 
 
124 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 around has got to look out for ourselves ; the outside 
 men don t jump up to help us every pop, same as they 
 do East. My boys was babies when Johnson was 
 took, and I soon got so I could pull a gun s quick 
 as the other feller; and bein always rugged, I was 
 strong to work till the chaps got so they could take 
 aholt. But I do feel s I d like you to know that I 
 ain t no ways mean, even if my tongue is sharp and 
 I ve had to learn to do my fightin myself." Here 
 the two women exchanged a smile of affectionate 
 understanding. "I was raised a member of the 
 Pis copal Church, but I ain t so awful perticular 
 about denominations. A good man s a good man to 
 
 me, every time. But that Atherton " She 
 
 paused expressively. "Well, we has our preachers 
 up here oncet in a while, but it s either Atherton or 
 Methodist revivalers, and I never was stuck on re 
 vivals. Now I don t know how you feels about it, 
 Mrs. Kingdon," she continued, turning her fine eyes, 
 liquid with reverential emotion, upon her new friend, 
 " but there s no Sunday when the wind don t blow as I 
 don t climb on top o the mountain, and set there all 
 by myself, unless it s for Ted, and look around on all 
 the beautiful works of God as I don t feel that I m 
 doin as much prayin , and givin ear to as much 
 preachin , as there s necessity for. When I stoops 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 125 
 
 down to a flower, and it peeks up at me with its pure, 
 innocent eye, I love it and the good God as set it in the 
 lovely air and sunshine and had it to grow so pretty. 
 Thank God! says I. And that s my Sunday 
 preachin , Mrs. Kingdon. It s done me a heap o 
 good in my bad spells. Soon s my children got so 
 they could notice, I commenced carryin them up 
 on the mountain, and they ve grown up lovin all live 
 things and things as can feel and all that s beautiful, 
 because God made em; and my great rough boys is 
 gentler than the most of women when they handles 
 a flower or a plant or a helpless dumb beast. I raised 
 em so, Mrs. Kingdon. It was the best I could do for 
 em. And they re good men, Mrs. Kingdon the two 
 as is away from me in St. Louis makin a good livin , 
 and livin steady and pleadin all the time with their 
 mother to come an make her home with one o them. 
 But Lord o love ! how could I live even on a son 
 till so be as I get too old to work? And then there s 
 Teddy to raise, as is still a chap; and, please God, 
 he ll do well, too, and grow to be a good man! And 
 there s the blue sky and the mountains and my speci 
 mens how could I, Mrs. Kingdon?" 
 
 There was an appeal in the voice, usually so 
 resolute and on occasion so combative. Sylvia laid 
 her white hand on the brown one nearest to her, and 
 
126 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 answered nothing. But Johnny understood. And 
 because she understood, her big heart went out to this 
 woman of another breed and rearing, as in all its 
 large and various outgoings it never had gone out 
 before. 
 
 Sylvia went home comforted and cheered she 
 could hardly have told why. She pondered over 
 many things that Mrs. Johnson had said. She took 
 a leaf, too, from the good woman s book of life, and 
 enlarged it. Curiosity and admiration the latter 
 somewhat critical at first, but gradually warming to 
 a passionate adoration combined to attract to her 
 the wild mountain children. Sunday after Sunday, 
 interrupted only by rare intervals of bad weather, 
 found her scaling the mountains, surrounded by a 
 shouting, joyous throng. Up there was her Sun 
 day-school, and there the shouting ceased and rapt 
 interest took its place. No orthodox Sunday-school 
 books or papers directed these lessdns; nevertheless, 
 seed by seed, truth was dropped into those untutored 
 minds, to bear fruit in years to come. What " she " 
 said soon came to have portentous weight in fam 
 ily circles, especially if they contained growing 
 boys. 
 
 David, watching the scene from below and recall 
 ing the Sylvia of old, wondered more and more. Her 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 127 
 
 adaptiveness to her novel surroundings continued to 
 be a source of surprised delight to him. He knew 
 that every detail of his affairs interested her, and 
 marvelled as much at his own growing communica 
 tiveness as he did at her supreme content. And Sylvia 
 was perfectly content, except for the vague fears she 
 had confided to Mrs. Johnson. Of her former life 
 she missed nothing. Had she thought she was to live 
 forever removed from the big stirring world, it might 
 have been otherwise, but there was no " forever " about 
 it. She and David could go East as often as they 
 desired or, at least, as often as his business per 
 mitted, and as soon as the keen edge had worn away 
 from Mrs. Newman s disappointment. 
 
 Their world had not forgotten them. David was 
 the kind of person whose men-friends like to show their 
 affection by writing casual notes at decent intervals, 
 beginning " Dear old man," and ending " Yours 
 ever." Buckley was resolutely determined to keep 
 in touch, and Mrs. De Lancey wrote Sylvia all the 
 news of the town. 
 
 Thus the Christmas season passed, and the New 
 Year began to unfold its unknown stores. 
 
 " Sylvia," David said one night, " I want to go on 
 working until I ve made enough to be absolutely inde 
 pendent, to choose my own career, and you know that 
 
128 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 takes a pile of gold at my age. Don t laugh, you 
 bad woman!" 
 
 But Sylvia was not laughing. 
 
 "Now you ve come into my life, I feel more than 
 ever as if I might amount to something. And I will, 
 too you see if I won t! I m not going to live in 
 idleness, Sylvia!" 
 
 He sprang to his feet, looking down upon her, all 
 his keen vitality in his face. 
 
 "Idleness? No!" responded Sylvia, with fine 
 scorn. " But I ve a career all marked out for you 
 already," nodding her head sagely. " Just wait 
 awhile, until you re tired of your old cows, and then 
 I ll tell you what it is." 
 
 "You will, will you?" he retorted, teasingly, slip 
 ping to the floor at her knee. Then, with one of his 
 abrupt transitions : 
 
 " Sylvia, do you remember that I was at your feet 
 once before, like this, and you thrust me from 
 you?" 
 
 His arm was around her waist, and he was kissing 
 the hands in her lap. 
 
 " Not quite like this, David ; and I never thrust you 
 from me!" she rejoined, blushing and laughing, but 
 laying her cheek on the soft brown head. Then, 
 after a moment s hesitation for Sylvia was not over- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 129 
 
 lavish of caresses, always seeming to hold something 
 in reserve she drew that head into her arms. 
 
 He rested thus, very still, his bright eyes growing 
 larger and deeper in the firelight. 
 
 " It is the gift of God ! " he murmured, at last. 
 
 "What is, Davie?" 
 
 There was no reply; but Sylvia understood. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 I DON T see how I can leave these men to-day ! " 
 With one hand David shuffled the morning s 
 mail upon his desk, whilst with the other he 
 ruffled his hair. Then, following a now established 
 habit, his perplexed eyes sought those of his wife. 
 
 She did not reply with her usual alacrity, and his 
 look of appeal turned to one of solicitude. 
 
 "You are pale, sweetest!" he exclaimed, revolving 
 in his desk chair the better to observe her. " I was a 
 selfish brute to keep you here all summer, instead of 
 packing you off to the California coast. And after 
 all, I ve been obliged to be away so much myself, these 
 last three months, that I might have found the grit 
 to face a few lonely home-comings. I got back only 
 last night, and here I am called to Correone again ! " 
 
 " I have not felt the heat. It has been nothing to 
 what I have experienced in the East," replied Sylvia, 
 leaning on his shoulder. 
 
 " Well, sit down then " drawing her to his knee 
 " and let s see what s to be done about this confounded 
 mail." 
 
 130 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 131 
 
 It was late summer-time at the River Ranch, of 
 which Sylvia had that season been, on various 
 occasions, the interested and successful " boss." The 
 sky, of a less intense blue than in the cooler months, 
 spread unflecked to the mountains, upon whose loftiest 
 summits rested a fair, light cloud, apparently no 
 bigger than a man s hand. It was the finishing touch 
 of loveliness to the exquisite picture, but nevertheless 
 was the innocent cause of the busy scene in the green 
 meadows below the house, where men, horses, and 
 wagons were hastily gathering the third crop of 
 alfalfa, whose growth and ripening had been of such 
 absorbing interest to the " new boss." In the peach- 
 orchards, too, men were at work, filling baskets and 
 boxes with the magnificent fruit peculiar to that sec 
 tion, to be shipped to more or less distant markets. 
 
 " Well, it s settled, then ; and I may go instead of 
 you ? " questioned Sylvia, with an air of finality. 
 
 " If you are sure you feel well enough," he replied, 
 doubtfully. 
 
 "I m well," laughed Sylvia; "and oh, you don t 
 know how badly I want to see store windows again ! " 
 she cried, squeezing him around the neck, and then 
 running away to make her few preparations. 
 
 David s business and Sylvia s shopping were com- 
 
132 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 pleted, and she was upon her homeward way. Even 
 ing was drawing her softening veil over the glittering 
 expanse of desert, upon whose circling edge the far 
 peaks still shone. Beyond that jewelled distance lay 
 home. The sweet air, cooled by the storm, blew in 
 softly at the open window ; the dust had been laid by 
 the heavy rain of the night. Sylvia was very tired, 
 yet never had she felt more completely at peace. A 
 smile illumined her face now and again when she 
 thought of David, and what she had made up her 
 mind to tell him when they met. 
 
 Notwithstanding the smile, however, the weariness 
 behind it was sufficiently marked to cause the con 
 ductor, advancing down the aisle toward her, to hesi 
 tate before delivering the message with which he was 
 commissioned. But as he hesitated, she chanced to 
 look up, and he immediately stepped to her side. 
 
 " Pardon me for disturbing you, madam," he said ; 
 "but there s a sick lady in the drawing-room who s 
 set on having you go in to see her. She asked me to 
 say to you that she d consider it a great favour if you 
 would. I think myself that she s kind of hysterical, 
 but she believes she s real sick. Her maid s about 
 wore out." 
 
 " Why certainly I ll go, if it will help her," replied 
 Sylvia; adding, as she preceded the conductor down 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 133 
 
 the aisle, "Is she the lady who boarded the train at 
 Correone, and felt faint ? I loaned the maid my 
 vinaigrette." 
 
 " That s the one. She stopped off at Correone from 
 the Limited." 
 
 A jaded French maid responded to the knock on the 
 door, her eyes brightening as they fell on the madame 
 of so distinguished an appearance. 
 
 Sylvia perceived at once that the maid was more in 
 need of assistance than the mistress. Therefore, as 
 soon as the apologies, demurs, and explanations incum 
 bent on the occasion were exhausted, she suggested that 
 the maid get her berth made up and lie down for an 
 hour or so, and she would remain with the mistress. 
 
 Had it not been for the incident of the stranger s 
 spell of faintness upon first boarding the train, Sylvia 
 would not have observed her; for while good-looking, 
 she was of an extremely ordinary type. There was 
 nothing either noble, spiritual, or intellectual in the 
 countenance. In old age it would be distinguished by 
 its least beautiful features, being devoid of that dis 
 tinction which lends dignity to age. Nevertheless, 
 the woman was handsome, notwithstanding tem 
 porary pallor and faintness. She had either a well- 
 developed or well-tailored figure, the result being the 
 same in both cases. She was stylishly clothed, and 
 
134 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 knew how to wear her clothes. Her hair was of the 
 usual brown, her skin moderately fair, her eyes of no 
 particular shape nor colour, but almost insolently 
 unabashed in expression. Nicely curved, self-compla 
 cent lips folded into a wide mouth. The whole effect 
 was frankly egotistic and commonplace. 
 
 " Madame has not the bel air of the other madame," 
 had been the prompt criticism of the travelled French 
 woman. 
 
 The conductor had been correct in his surmise that 
 the lady was more tired and hysterical than ill, 
 although she certainly did not look well. She soon 
 arrived at the loquacious stage, which for one of her 
 temperament is an efficacious medicine for the nerves. 
 She burst into a flow of talk as soon as her new 
 acquaintance had settled the pillows of the lounge 
 more comfortably behind her head. 
 
 " I m all unnerved, I know ! I ve been through 
 everything this last year or two ! And my physician 
 in the middle West, where my home used to be, says I 
 show symptoms of lung trouble, and told me to lose no 
 time in coming West. I m going to join my husband, 
 whom I ve not seen in the longest while ! " 
 
 Sylvia murmured expressions of sympathy, adding, 
 " I think you ought to have some refreshment. Did 
 you go out to supper this evening ? " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 135 
 
 " No, but Justine brought me a cup of coffee and a 
 chicken sandwich; and I never stir without malted 
 milk and a spirit lamp. My physician is very par 
 ticular about my nourishment." 
 
 Sylvia had travelled sufficiently to be aware, by this 
 time, that she was doomed to be the recipient of one of 
 those remarkable confidences which some women are 
 addicted to making on trains, to complete strangers. 
 
 " I took a fancy to you directly I saw you I don t 
 know why. And I felt if I were to get to feeling very 
 badly, I d like to have you come, because, if you were 
 to sit by me awhile, I d get over my spell. I m better 
 already. I always was very quick at sizing up people. 
 Justine s so stupid; she got me all worked up. But 
 I m sure you ve done a great deal of nursing, haven t 
 you?" 
 
 Sylvia shook her head, smiling. 
 
 " You haven t ? Well, I am surprised ! You must 
 take to it naturally. As I told you, I ve been through 
 everything. You d never guess what a good figure I 
 used to have! If it wasn t for this lung trouble, of 
 course I should have nervous prostration. Every one 
 does, now, who has trouble; and I ve had so much! 
 I was on the verge of it when I went to Europe." 
 
 " Tell me about it," said Sylvia kindly. " Perhaps 
 it would help you to go to sleep afterward." 
 
136 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "You re awfully good! Do you live in this sec 
 tion ? You re from the East, I m sure." 
 
 " Yes, I came from the East, but my home is here 
 now. I ve been up the road attending to a matter of 
 business for my husband, and doing some shopping on 
 my own account, too." 
 
 Perceiving that the invalid was interested in the 
 trifling narration, Sylvia talked on. 
 
 "I must change cars to-morrow morning very 
 early, at Mendoza City, and go up another road to a 
 little country depot, where my husband will meet me. 
 Then I shall have five miles to drive. He wired me 
 this afternoon to Correone, to inquire how I was get 
 ting along." 
 
 "Do you mean to tell me that he drove ten miles 
 just to ask how you were getting along?" 
 
 "You see," said Sylvia, apologetically, "we have 
 not been married quite a year, and I have never been 
 away before." 
 
 "My! What is your husband, anyway?" 
 
 "He is in the cattle business." 
 
 "So is mine. How odd!" she prattled on. "I 
 don t know but you may have heard of him, though I 
 don t care to call any names until we re together again ; 
 then I hope you and I will get real intimate. Oh, 
 I ve had the most romantic experiences ! It s a wonder 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 187 
 
 I m alive to tell them! My husband s one of the 
 biggest cattle-men in this whole section; has three 
 places. While I was in Europe he went to New York 
 City, and stayed ever so long, mixing in the best 
 circles. He s awfully stylish and good-looking. I 
 used to be awfully proud of him when we were first 
 married. I never did care for New York; I always 
 preferred my native city, Jonesville. But I might 
 like it better now he s got into the exclusive set there. 
 But he s got some of the queerest notions, and says 
 as long as he s got a business he s going to attend to 
 it right. So when I feel like dropping everything 
 and going away to have a good time, he says he s too 
 busy, that he ll take me later. This doesn t didn t 
 suit me, so I got to going by myself, and staying too 
 long, I guess. I know now I did wrong to leave him 
 so much alone, but I was simply obliged to have the 
 society I d been used to. I hate country life! My 
 husband, he got so he couldn t abide Jonesville. He 
 used to like it when he was a bachelor and had business 
 
 there. But now I m sure you re all tired out. 
 
 Yet I d love to tell you my experiences. I feel drawn 
 to you, somehow." 
 
 a lt s early yet," said Sylvia; "I shall be glad to 
 hear your story, and I think you will sleep better 
 when it s off your mind." 
 
138 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "Thank you so much! Yet I guess when I get 
 started you ll find out who I am. Never mind; I 
 don t care if you do ! I m sure I can trust you." 
 
 "You can." 
 
 " Well, as I told you, I d been in Europe, but I got 
 tired there, and commenced to think that I hadn t 
 treated my husband just right, after all, and I 
 wrote him that I was coming back to do better by 
 him." 
 
 Then she told her companion how she had been 
 wrecked in a small, unseaworthy steamer on her way 
 to join the Atlantic liner at Genoa. She had been 
 picked up by a French fishing-smack, on board of 
 which, by a fortunate chance, was the wife of the 
 skipper. The narrator s maid was drowned. 
 
 " Poor Marie ! And I d given her one of my most 
 stylish travelling costumes only the day before! I d 
 got tired to death of it ! " 
 
 In a delirium she herself was put ashore in an 
 obscure fishing port on the south coast of France, a 
 few miles from which was a convent and Sisters 
 hospital. Anxious to get rid of so sick a woman, her 
 rescuers hurried her across country in a cart, and 
 deposited her with the Sisters. 
 
 Sewed to her underclothing was an oilskin bag, 
 containing a large sum of money in gold, and French 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 139 
 
 and Italian notes ; also two or three valuable diamond 
 rings. 
 
 "I never would have anything to do with letters 
 of credit and troublesome business papers," she inter 
 jected. " I hate business, and never could under 
 stand it." 
 
 The good Sisters remunerated the fisher folk with 
 some of their patient s money, locking the remainder 
 carefully away to await the restoration of its owner s 
 reason. 
 
 The lady had a long spell of delirium and fever, 
 and, when bodily health was finally regained, it was 
 found that her mind was a complete blank as to 
 the past. Means of identification there were none. 
 When, at length, the Sisters found an opportunity to 
 send two of their number to report the matter to the 
 American consul at Marseilles, they encountered a 
 new arrival, a rather raw importation from a " down 
 East " State, unacquainted with a word of the French 
 language. He was at once overwhelmed with a sense 
 of his own importance and his alarming ignorance of 
 his new duties. This gentleman had not heard of the 
 disappearance of any American or English lady, and 
 dismissed his visitors rather summarily. 
 
 Thus the matter rested. The Sisters, accustomed 
 to exercising patience, calmly waited. Meanwhile, 
 
140 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 their charge, while still showing the effects of expo 
 sure, was strong enough to take up some of the lighter 
 duties in the building, displaying in their accomplish 
 ment sufficient aptitude to prove that, at some time 
 before, she had performed similar ones. She had 
 simply reverted to the habits of youth, and the inter 
 vening years of luxury and ease were wiped out of her 
 consciousness. 
 
 Her mind was, however, slowly preparing itself for 
 a change. Flashes of memory, so transitory as to 
 elude her grasp, came to her from time to time. One 
 day the hospital was visited by some American tourists. 
 Among them were two ladies who, while strangers to 
 her, were from her own State. They dropped some 
 remarks which awoke long-silent echoes in the lost 
 woman s mind. The effect was that of a cloudy dawn 
 and the slow rising of a tardy sun. The first keen 
 emotion of which she was conscious was indignation 
 indignation that neither husband nor family should 
 have exerted themselves to find her. By the following 
 day she was able to interrogate the Sisters, and to 
 give a clear account of herself. They told her of their 
 fruitless visit to Marseilles, and produced the oilskin 
 bag. 
 
 Pressing upon the Sisters as much cash as she could 
 spare, for the benefit of their hospital, she announced 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 141 
 
 her intention of starting at once for her own country, 
 begging her kind friends to maintain silence respect 
 ing her movements until they should receive a letter 
 from her. Her most valuable jewels and trinkets had 
 been left for safe keeping in a bank in Paris, but she 
 rightly judged that her husband would have removed 
 them long ere this; and, moreover, she could not go 
 to the bank without disclosing her identity. Should 
 she run short of funds, the diamonds in her bag could 
 be sold. 
 
 When she came to her native city her indignation, 
 which had begun to die away, received fresh stimulus 
 at finding herself a feature of the past. Her mother 
 and only unmarried sister, who had recently inherited 
 a moderate legacy, had abandoned all evidences of 
 mourning. When the wanderer, tearful and ex 
 hausted, arrived upon the scene, they were setting off 
 for a reception. They were inclined, at first, to 
 question her identity. A scene ensued, in the midst 
 of which the central figure somewhat conveniently 
 fainted. 
 
 " Madame is ill mats vralment malade! " explained 
 the French maid soberly, laying her hand where she 
 supposed Madame s lungs to be. 
 
 The invalid revived, coughing and weeping and 
 calling upon her husband, who, she now learned, had 
 
142 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 made exhaustive search for her along the Italian 
 coast, to be rewarded by finding what was believed to 
 be her dead body. Since the interment of this body 
 that of the maid Marie and the solemn ceremony of 
 the funeral, her husband had ceased all communica 
 tion with the family, but they presumed he could 
 readily be found. 
 
 The resurrected wife, however, would not hear of 
 their telegraphing him. No one, not a living soul, 
 should know that she was alive until she had met 
 her husband face to face. And she was resolved not 
 to meet him until accomplished artistes had repaired 
 some of the ravages made in her appearance. But 
 stronger even than vanity was fear regarding her 
 physical condition, concerning which a specialist was 
 to be consulted. Her mother was requested to advance 
 the funds necessary for the invalid to go to St. Louis, 
 where she expected to "lie low" until she could 
 consummate her plans for a meeting with her hus 
 band. 
 
 " Suppose he is married again," the sister had 
 suggested, a trifle maliciously. " Then you ll be in a 
 nice fix!" But the idea had been scouted with 
 meritorious scorn. 
 
 The weather became atrocious, and the sojourn in 
 St. Louis wac responsible for another real illness. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 143 
 
 Upon her recovery, the specialist attending her learned 
 of, and endorsed, her intention to go to New Mexico, 
 appending advice of the unpractical kind usually 
 furnished by Eastern physicians, whose knowledge of 
 the climate of New Mexico does not even embrace the 
 fact that the summer is its rainy season. 
 
 " And now I m here," concluded the invalid, " I ve 
 come to get well, and be a good girl and stay with my 
 husband. He was real good to me, and I know I 
 didn t treat him right. Of course he wasn t a saint 
 you can t expect husbands to be that but he did 
 the best by me he knew how, and it will be good to see 
 his bonny face again, and have him take care of me 
 and save me all worry, as he used to." The speaker 
 pressed her handkerchief to her eyes. 
 
 " I ll remain in Mendoza City a few days, and get 
 rested up so as I ll look and feel better. I never did 
 stop over there but once for a night, and, if I stay in 
 my room at the hotel and register under another name, 
 no one will find me out till I get ready. But I m 
 
 imposing on you, Mrs. She paused for a 
 
 name, but none was supplied. 
 
 After a minute her listener spoke. " Not at all. I 
 have been deeply interested." 
 
 "I feel so much better," resumed her companion, 
 with a yawn, " thanks to you. I do believe I could go 
 
144 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 to sleep. You ve done me a lot of good, and I m more 
 than grateful to you. But ring for the porter now, 
 and have him send Justine to me." 
 
 "Are you going to have your berth made up?" 
 inquired Sylvia, in a strange, toneless voice. 
 
 "No," replied the invalid, observing nothing. 
 " I m quite comfortable here." 
 
 " Well, then, I shall stay until you are asleep. I m 
 not sleepy, and Justine seemed very tired." 
 
 There was a murmur, another yawn, and the matter 
 had arranged itself. 
 
 To go to a berth ? To lie down in the dark behind 
 drawn curtains? God help her no! 
 
 She moved to the seat beside the window, and, draw 
 ing up the sash, leaned her face against the cold pane. 
 With eyes that saw only the face of David, who loved 
 her, and her alone, she gazed across the solemn, moon 
 lit stretches of the desert. Her mind was a blank, 
 except for a slowly growing consciousness of mortal 
 hurt. 
 
 Then her mind began to stir, like a tired sleeper 
 aroused too soon. 
 
 She stood up and leaned over the lounge. 
 
 Clairette had dropped into one of those heavy 
 slumbers in which persons of her temperament win 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 145 
 
 relief from all malaise, whether of mind or body. As 
 Sylvia bent her delicate, clearly cut face over the more 
 bluntly and liberally outlined one upon the pillows, 
 a discerning onlooker would have said that to the 
 composition of the one woman had gone tempered fire 
 and refined steel, to the other the elements in their 
 crudity. 
 
 It must be one or the other she, or this woman. 
 Reason, common sense, everything that seems highest 
 and wisest, were on her side. On the other side, what? 
 Nothing but that which we are in the habit of calling 
 our higher nature that which impels us to the doing 
 of many vain and foolish things, yet which, in the 
 doing, proves us to be other than the beasts that 
 perish. 
 
 The still, small voice urged her to that which, from 
 any other standpoint, was the act of a fool. 
 
 With those simple, pious souls who count not the 
 curse they may bring to others while wrestling for 
 their own particular crowns of glory Sylvia could 
 claim no kinship. She saw only the cross of martyr 
 dom upon which might hang the one to whom she had 
 given herself and all that was hers. And there was 
 always the chance that such martyrdom would be at 
 once senseless and useless. 
 
 Louder and louder arose the cry of the Human, 
 
146 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 but behind it was yet the still, small voice. Could she 
 heed it, and yet save him? 
 
 The dawn lay cold upon the narrowing valley. 
 Sylvia arose, rang the bell, and, bidding the porter 
 send the lady s maid in the course of half an hour, 
 crept away. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 DEAREST, what is it?" 
 She lived through the first breathless 
 question evoked by the sight of her face; 
 lived through the long drive home, through David s 
 silent solicitude for her comfort, broken as it was 
 only by some expression of endearment, or of self- 
 reproach for having permitted her to take the jour 
 ney alone. 
 
 It was over at last, and then came an hour of soli 
 tude in her own room a solitude nominally devoted to 
 the refreshment of the body. That, too, was over, 
 and she descended to the little sitting-room. As she 
 opened the door, David sprang to meet her then 
 paused, looking into her face with a premonition of 
 catastrophe. 
 
 "I think you would best sit over there, David, on 
 the other side of the table. It will be easier to tell 
 you so." 
 
 He obeyed, silently, a chill in his heart. Then 
 Sylvia began. Once or twice during her narration 
 she glanced at him. He sat absolutely still, the 
 
 H7 
 
148 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 light behind him, and his face consequently in 
 shadow. 
 
 When she had finished, a silence fell upon them. At 
 length he spoke, in a voice she scarcely recognised. 
 
 " And you will leave me, Sylvia ? " 
 
 "David David! I have thought it all out in 
 that long night of agony. She loved you first; she 
 loves you now. She is penitent; she will begin anew. 
 Hers are the prior rights " 
 
 David pushed back his chair. 
 
 " She does not love me ! " he cried. " She never 
 did! What are the rights of a neglectful wife? 
 What are her rights, I say ? " 
 
 The struggle of the night before started afresh. 
 What human prescience could foresee the actions of a 
 woman like Clairette? Might not she herself claim 
 her freedom? And yet there were always those pres 
 ent rights of hers. It was now now! 
 
 " David, you must go back to her ! But, oh, David, 
 do you not think I have suffered that long, long 
 night? And yet what did I care, if only I could have 
 spared you you you? And I could not! Over 
 and over again I asked myself, Will this murderous 
 sacrifice help him? What if it ruin and destroy him? 
 Oh, Father of Mercies ! " 
 
 She leaned against the table, her face hidden in her 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 149 
 
 hands. In a moment, however, she looked up, speak 
 ing quickly. 
 
 " But it is right. You must go back to her. I will 
 go away. I have made up my mind. There is no 
 other way." 
 
 Then David arose, and his face was as the face of 
 an old man. 
 
 " You have wrecked my life," he said. 
 
 /? David!" 
 
 It was too much. In another instant his arms were 
 around her, and she was sobbing like a heartbroken 
 child upon his neck. 
 
 Inconsistent? Alas, yes! if to be human is to be 
 inconsistent. This poor humanity of ours, so much 
 decried, so ostentatiously despised, yet is set to move 
 mountains and to accomplish the tasks of gods and 
 angels at the cost of all that makes dear the life 
 appointed to it by no will of its own this gallant, 
 struggling, of ttimes starving, humanity of ours ! 
 
 "My best-beloved! What is to become of 
 you?" 
 
 Tears, not Sylvia s alone, were on his face. 
 
 "That you must not know. It will be my secret. 
 And, David, you must tell her all. Dearest, you will 
 have it to do ! " 
 
 " Give me time give me a little time ! " 
 
150 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Yet even as they clung together Sylvia knew that 
 she had won, but would not have been woman had she 
 not wavered in the hour of victory. 
 
 " What will you do ? " she asked, wistfully. 
 
 " I do not know. The best I can." 
 
 The door opened and shut. He was gone. 
 
 It seemed to Sylvia that she had stood, straight and 
 immovable, a long age before he returned. 
 
 " And you will not tell me where you will go ? " 
 
 She shook her head. They dared not look at each 
 other. He went, and this time did not come back. 
 
 " De Marse done gone dis long while. Oh, my pore 
 lamb ! " said Aunt Julie, bending over Sylvia, who had 
 lain ill for many days. 
 
 " De ol Mammy knows it all," she pursued, ten 
 derly, " all what you done not tell him, too. Don t 
 you fret, Miss Sylvia ; hit ll all come right an squar . 
 I s gwine wid you-all; de Marse done fix it so. Dis 
 house, he lock it up ; no one live hyar no mo , cept as 
 it s Uncle Isaac an de boys, to care for de Ian . De 
 Marse say your plunder stay hyar, tel de day come 
 you send for hit. But I s gwine pack yo trunks, 
 an Marse done set to one side de readin you loves 
 most, an de paintin truck, an a heap mo trash as he 
 reckons ll sorter help yo . He lows you go ober de 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 151 
 
 mount n, an de spring wagon rides mighty light an 
 easy an Francisco to hoi de lines. Don t worry, 
 honey ! De Marse, he done forgot nothin . De horse, 
 dey rope him to de big wagon." 
 
 Then, after a quick glance at the set, white 
 face upon the pillow, "Whar s you gwine, anyway, 
 honey ? " 
 
 Sylvia mentioned the place she had thought of, a 
 remote village a mile or so from a flag-station on the 
 Correone railroad. The Athertons had a small church 
 there. They were good people, no doubt, and openly 
 devoted to Christian work; therefore, she thought, 
 they would be kind and take her to board. She could 
 pay them well, as she had ample means of her own 
 for quiet living. She would write at once to Buckley 
 and he would arrange for the payment of her 
 dividends. 
 
 "Then we ll have to lay ober at Bubbling Spring, 
 sure!" announced Aunt Julie, decisively. " Datter 
 road too long ways from hyar for yo to travel in less 
 than two-three days, Miss Sylvia." And she rolled 
 away, brimming over with importance at the trust re 
 posed in her by " Marse." 
 
 In this, Sylvia s hour of agony, there was but one 
 person to whom she desired to turn for help to the 
 plain mountain woman, with her strong human sym- 
 
152 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 pathies and her flashes of spiritual insight. Upon 
 that broad bosom her heart yearned to lean. But it 
 was not to be. The woman loved David and under 
 stood him ; that settled it. There was, therefore, only 
 herself her own strong self. And could she not be 
 strong ? 
 
 Meanwhile Aunt Julie, in the course of her pack 
 ing, had come upon something that caused her to pause 
 and " study." That something was the small portrait 
 of David painted by Sylvia the preceding fall. It 
 stool on an easel in the sitting-room, an effect in reds 
 and browns, brilliant with colour and life, truly a 
 " speaking likeness." Aunt Julie gazed upon it with 
 fond admiration. 
 
 " Oh, Marse Davie ! " she moaned ; " when s you ever 
 gwine look datter way again?" 
 
 After some further consideration, she deliberately 
 picked it up and laid it between Sylvia s gowns in the 
 trunk. 
 
 " Miss 11 be sure glad, one day I done took it," she 
 assured herself. 
 
 David had hired Francisco for a few days on the 
 recommendation of a friend. Nothing could have 
 been more fortunate than the arrival of this stranger 
 on the scene. Francisco knew merely that Mr. King- 
 don was a married man, and had heard in the past 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 153 
 
 that his wife, when in New Mexico, lived at Kingdon s 
 Crossing. Of Sylvia he knew nothing, except that 
 she was a sick lady who wished to go over the Sierras 
 to Rosalia Valley. He had received orders as to what 
 route to take, but the one leading past Kingdon s 
 Crossing was shorter by a couple of miles. When 
 Uncle Isaac, who drove the second wagon, and was 
 able, as Aunt Julie had loudly asserted, to "keep 
 a shet mouf," remonstrated at this disobedience, Fran 
 cisco had the ready Mexican lie at hand. 
 
 There were no other men on the place when they 
 started; David had arranged it so. 
 
 Kingdon s Crossing received its name from the fact 
 that two railroads crossed at that point, and that it 
 was the principal shipping point for the Kingdon 
 stock. The dwelling house had been built according 
 to Clairette s directions, and a very ridiculous edifice 
 it was. Taste, as exemplified in a sense of the fitness 
 of things, seems to be very much a matter of back 
 ground or hereditary instinct. It was a frame build 
 ing, unsuited alike to the climate and environment. 
 
 Sufficiently removed from the " residence," as its 
 mistress had termed it, and lying against the railroad 
 track and the small station, was the business part of 
 the establishment conveniences for the rounding-up, 
 feeding, watering, and shipping of cattle. 
 
154 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Clairette s preference for this somewhat dreary 
 abode was easy of comprehension. Straight up one 
 of those glittering tracks, a few hundred miles, lay 
 what had meant life to her her native town, whose 
 little social wheels whirled desperately to keep up with 
 the bigger wheels still farther away, never realising 
 how far behind they fell. And Clairette shared to the 
 full that passion for " seeing the train go by " which 
 is the birthright of the vacant-minded. 
 
 Aunt Julie had never been to Kingdon s Crossing, 
 and furthermore, as the wagon rounded a bend which 
 afforded a view of the house and barns, she was sleep 
 ing. A passenger train thundered up to the small 
 station, and at the same moment two figures emerged 
 from the house and walked slowly toward the track. 
 Their faces, of course, were not distinguishable. 
 They did not turn their heads, their attention appar 
 ently being absorbed by the arrival of the train from 
 the East. But for Sylvia there could be no possibil 
 ity of mistake. They walked very slowly, the woman 
 leaning on the man, and he accommodating his steps 
 to hers. 
 
 Francisco pointed to them with his whip, explain 
 ing that he had been told that the Sefiora down 
 there was muy mala, that it was believed she would 
 die. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 155 
 
 "No, no!" 
 
 The Mexican looked in astonishment at the lady in 
 the wagon. Was she acquainted with the Sefiora? 
 
 " No, no ! Si ! Oh, quien sabe! " 
 
 The impatience of an unendurable anguish had 
 never fallen to the lot of Francisco. He removed his 
 astonished regard, and bestowed it once more upon his 
 horses and upon the rolling of a cigarette. 
 
 Was the hideous thing that had seized upon her 
 jealousy? What was this spasm of fury that seemed 
 to concentrate itself upon David ? Why had he yielded 
 to her? He might have known might have known 
 she could not bear it ! If he had known what love 
 was, he would have understood that she could not bear 
 this pain! And he had already forgotten. He 
 was with Clairette his wife ! 
 
 A low moan escaped her rigid lips, then a burst of 
 uncontrollable sobs, shaking her being to its founda 
 tions. 
 
 And Julie awoke and staggered toward her. " My 
 lamb ! " she said ; " what ails my pore lamb ? " 
 
 The old woman sat down and, gathering Sylvia into 
 her arms, pressed the fair head down upon her faith 
 ful black bosom. " Sleep, honey, sleep ! " she mur 
 mured. 
 
 Then high above the clatter of the wheels rose the 
 
156 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 words of the only "white folks" hymn with which 
 Aunt Julie was familiar: 
 
 " They climbed the steep ascent of Heaven 
 
 Through peril, toil and pain, 
 Oh, God, to us may grace be given 
 To follow in their train ! " 
 
 Thus, clasped in the arms of the old-time slave, 
 Sylvia was borne away. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 G3SSIP concerning the Kingdon domesticities 
 had pretty well run its course in the regions 
 where David was known. This was due par 
 tially to the fact that very few members of this 
 provincial society had met wife number two, and 
 wife number one seemed to have succumbed to an at 
 tack of silence, and obstinate isolation from her former 
 associates. That Clairette had her reasons for this, 
 and that they were widely remote from those attrib 
 uted to her, goes without saying. The chief reason, 
 however, for the comparative absence of interest in 
 the matter was the excitement created by the steady 
 and daring increase of cattle stealing, and the mys 
 tery surrounding the movements of Long Tom, which 
 called for constant discussion. That Cristol, hitherto 
 so successful, should continue to be baffled, kept curi 
 osity, and even apprehension, continually on the alert. 
 The chilly rains of September had come and gone, 
 and a slight coolness in the air was making Clairette 
 happy in the thought that now she could obey her 
 doctor s instructions and live in a tent, and that in a 
 very few weeks she would also be able to take sun- 
 
 151 
 
158 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 baths. On this particular morning she had had her 
 steamer-chair drawn off the porch into the sunshine, 
 where David presently joined her. This living at the 
 Crossing was awkward for him, as it necessitated in 
 cessant travelling on his part. But Clairette would 
 have stoutly declined to go to a lower altitude, and he 
 himself would have refused to take her to the River 
 Ranch. 
 
 "Clairette, I have something to say to you," he 
 began, after making all the inquiries called for by the 
 situation. His manner betrayed as near an approach 
 to awkwardness as was possible for him. 
 
 " Don t let s have a scene, David ! " she retorted, 
 nestling down into her chair in the glorious sunlight. 
 " I m out here to be company for you and to get well. 
 My physician says I must not be agitated, but have 
 things to suit me, and must think about just nothing 
 but doing the best I can for my health live in the 
 fresh air, sleep in a tent, and eat as much as I pos 
 sibly can. I asked him if I mightn t use an umbrella 
 till cold weather came" here she glanced at the in 
 genious umbrella holder David had that morning im 
 provised and set up for her " because you always ad 
 mired my skin, didn t you, David? And he said that 
 I could. And I was to take my temperature twice a 
 day, and notice what made it rise." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 159 
 
 Thus she ran on, while David s heroic effort to lis 
 ten patiently showed itself chiefly in an intensification 
 of the pathos of his face, as with characteristic deft 
 ness he busied himself in arranging on a stand at her 
 side the various impedimenta of idleness. 
 
 " But, Clairette," he interposed at length, an un 
 accustomed note of weariness in his voice, "I have 
 been told on good authority that the invalids who come 
 out here in your condition not so very sick, you 
 know get well far more quickly and surely if they 
 live a little bit like other folks. If they take interest 
 in outside things, for instance, and don t watch tem 
 peratures all day, and think of nothing except whether 
 they re getting all the fresh air their doctor pre 
 scribed, and eating enough, and all that. Suppose 
 you let me get you a horse and buggy, and drive up 
 in the mountains to those mines just above here, and 
 look around and see all the changes that have gone on 
 since you were here. I ve seen fellows come up into 
 the mountains and get to botanising or geologising, 
 or even mining, and pull their minds clean off their 
 own internal machinery, and get well in a hurry. Sup 
 pose you try, eh ? " 
 
 " Don t, David ! " she exclaimed petulantly, putting 
 up a feeble, protesting hand ; " I m not a fellow 
 a great, rough man ! I m determined to do just as my 
 
160 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 physician says, and you know what a strong will I 
 have. What time is it now, anyhow? I believe it s 
 time to take my temperature, and that stupid Justine 
 has forgotten the thermometer, as usual! No one 
 cares how I feel or what becomes of me, and yet the 
 doctor told mamma it was a case of life or death al 
 most. Oh, David ! " she cried, holding out her arms to 
 him in a sudden access of selfish terror, and bursting 
 into loud weeping, " I don t want to die ! I must get 
 well ! Don t let me die, David ! " 
 
 And this would have been another David if he had 
 not taken his wife in his arms and soothed her grief 
 and wiped away her tears. Then, as Justine hastened 
 with the thermometer, and the form of nourishment 
 ordained for that particular hour, he turned away. 
 
 " Come back soon ! " cried Clairette. 
 
 He nodded, then went around the barn and flung 
 himself face downward on a pile of gramma hay in 
 the shade. There he lay, absolutely still, for one long 
 hour. But he was not asleep ; and had any one been 
 there to see or care, they might have observed a tear 
 on the long, dark lashes resting on the cheek upper 
 most. 
 
 "I haven t any temperature this morning," was 
 Clairette s cheerful salutation, upon his return, "so 
 we can talk about anything you want." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 161 
 
 It was characteristic of his wife that she had not 
 yet asked him a single question concerning his well or 
 ill being during her long absence, or manifested the 
 faintest interest in his affairs. 
 
 " A woman in the case, of course ! " she said, turn 
 ing her eyes from her abstracted husband toward the 
 small hand-mirror, held in such a position that she 
 could observe whether or not the slight hollows in her 
 cheeks were beginning to vanish. 
 
 " Oh, well," she proceeded. " I m woman of the 
 world enough to understand that wives must expect 
 such things if they leave their husbands for only a 
 few months; and I was gone nearly two years, and 
 supposed to be dead and all that. Of course it was 
 the inevitable liaison! Why should we talk about it?" 
 
 David s eyes grew dark, and they were reflected in 
 Clairette s mirror as he stood a little behind her chair. 
 
 " For mercy s sake, don t look that way ! " she ejac 
 ulated, peevishly. "I m not blaming you, am I? 
 Can t I speak without your getting mad at me? Let 
 me tell you, some wives wouldn t have acted as well 
 as I ve done ! " 
 
 " Clairette," he said, conquering himself and com 
 ing around so as to face her, and keeping guard on 
 eyes and voice, "I am not mad, but I am troubled. 
 Clairette, you say you were supposed to be dead. The 
 
162 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 case was stronger than that; you were proved dead 
 by competent witnesses." 
 
 " Oh, I don t want to hear all that horrid stuff 
 again ! " she cried ; " I m sick to death of it ! " 
 
 "Unfortunately, Clairette, it is important to the 
 case. The other woman you spoke of as being ine 
 vitable I married her." 
 
 "You married one of those creatures you, 
 David ? " She was watching him curiously, as the 
 words fell slowly from her lips. " I did not know men 
 ever did such things at least, not fussy, particular 
 men like you." 
 
 He closed his eyes for a moment. Steady, sweet, 
 and strong rang in his ears, "Dearest, you will have 
 it to do! " 
 
 When he opened his eyes, his wife was again busy 
 with her hand-mirror. He drew up a chair, sat down 
 in front of her, took the mirror, and captured her 
 hands. His face had once more relapsed into some 
 thing of its winning curves. 
 
 " Clairette, listen to me. I married a good woman. 
 Do you understand? As soon as she discovered that 
 she had taken your place, and that we both had done 
 you an injury without intending to do so, she went 
 away. We parted." 
 
 Clairette was growing interested. This was bet- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 163 
 
 ter than a novel of adventure, or even the latest his 
 torical romance. She forgot what the doctor had told 
 her about not " running up a temperature," and sat 
 erect in her chair. 
 
 " She went away ? " she repeated, in awe-struck 
 tones. " Where did she go, David? " 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "You don t know?" she repeated, dubiously this 
 time. 
 
 Then, impelled by the same tolerance which had 
 marked her conduct during the whole of this surpris 
 ing interview, she put out one finger and gently 
 touched his firm, round cheek. 
 
 " I don t believe you cared much, David," mani 
 festing for the first time some interest in him as him 
 self. " You look paler than you did, and I think have 
 lost some flesh, but you re handsomer than ever, I do 
 honestly believe! But if you d cared so awfully 
 much, you could easily have got a Dakota or Okla 
 homa divorce, you know. I guess she got tired of 
 this kind of thing," waving her other hand toward 
 the detached and remote landscape " and didn t feel, 
 anyway, as if the business was worth a scandal." 
 Then abruptly, " Did she live here? " 
 
 Again he shook his head. 
 
 "When did you get married?" 
 
164 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 It was at this point that David had to employ the 
 talent once described by Buckley as " a considerable 
 agility in dodging things." He succeeded, however, 
 in handing his wife dexterously away from an awk 
 ward question and involving her, as dexterously, in 
 others. 
 
 "Were you together when she found out that I 
 was alive ? " 
 
 "No. She had gone away on a little trip, partly 
 on business for me, and learned of it on the road. 
 When she came back, she told me. Then she went 
 away." 
 
 Clairette, who had relapsed into a recumbent atti 
 tude, now ceased to cough, and sat erect again. 
 "When did she take that trip, David?" 
 
 He told her. 
 
 " Then I know all about her ! " she exclaimed, with 
 slow and deliberate emphasis. "I met her on that 
 very train ! I didn t think her particularly pretty," 
 in spite of himself, her auditor winced "but she 
 was real good to me. Justine was stupid and tired, 
 and this person sat up part of the night with me. I 
 was feeling dreadfully! I told her my story. She 
 didn t say much, now I come to think of it. I guess 
 she was wondering how she could get away without a 
 fuss. She looked ill; maybe she has lung trouble, 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 165 
 
 too? No? If she had, she wouldn t have gone away 
 from this climate, at least 7 wouldn t in her place. 
 David," solemnly " I m not one mite afraid of her ! 
 And I m glad you ve told me ; for it shows what con 
 fidence you must have in my good sense and kind 
 heart. And I m glad I ve met her, and got to know 
 what she s like, and all that. She s a perfectly 
 splendid nurse! I do believe if you have to go East 
 anv time before I m well, I wouldn t mind having her 
 to nurse me ! I m not altogether sure about that, how 
 ever; it might be awkward. It s an awfully queer 
 feeling, knowing that your husband has had another 
 wife while you were alive. It s just like a novel. 
 And, David " 
 
 But David s endurance was at an end. Rising, he 
 said gently, " Shall we consider this chapter closed, 
 Clairette? You ve been very good and generous, and 
 I appreciate it every bit. But don t let us talk of 
 the past any more. You ve got to live in the present 
 now, and get well and strong." 
 
 "Oh, suit yourself, David! I think, on the whole, 
 it would be better to let this affair pass entirely out of 
 our lives." 
 
 It was true that Clairette had returned with the 
 intention of being very good to her husband when 
 
166 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 she should recover her health. A husband is a useful 
 person, especially when he has plenty of money, and 
 she really was as fond of David as it was in her nature 
 to be fond of any one. Needless to say that she was 
 of a jealous temperament; women of her mental limi 
 tations invariably are; but for more than one reason 
 this tendency was, for the time being, under an 
 eclipse. 
 
 David had always been pathetically anxious to keep 
 the domestic hearthstone warm ; and therefore it is to 
 be presumed that he had never given even a careless 
 wife obvious cause for jealousy. Clairette had felt, 
 from the first, fairly sure of her husband. 
 
 Her remembrance of Sylvia pale, with dark 
 shadows beneath her large eyes, and under the unbe 
 coming light of the car lamps was not that of a 
 very dangerous rival. On the contrary, she had im 
 pressed Clairette principally as what she herself de 
 scribed as " a good woman." Moreover, according to 
 Clairette s sage reasoning, Sylvia would not have 
 left a rich man and a comfortable home without a 
 fight unless she intended to give up the game alto 
 gether. 
 
 As regarded rivalry, Sylvia s exquisite grace and 
 elegance, which had always excited the good-natured 
 envy of her fuller and more fashionably figured sis- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 167 
 
 ters, was to a certain extent lost upon Clairette. This 
 is to say, she was merely vaguely aware that here was 
 something to which she had not attained. In short, 
 only faintly she realised that Sylvia was in possession 
 of an " air," for the acquirement of which she, Clair 
 ette, might strive in vain all the days of her life. A 
 well-formed woman in her own style, she was not tall 
 enough for up-to-date requirements; consequently, 
 whilst submitting to fashion s arbitrary dictum, she 
 presented something of the appearance of a full- 
 blooded pouter-pigeon. 
 
 But the real secret of Clairette s comparative in 
 difference to " the other woman " lay deeper yet. The 
 ruling passion of her existence at this time had 
 another source. It had made itself manifest even 
 whilst she was giving ear to David s narration. It 
 was in the action with which she withdrew her arm 
 from its light wraps and contemplated and felt it, 
 with constantly recurring attention. Clairette had 
 but one idea in her brain at present the dread and 
 terror of death. Get well she would, if the way to life 
 should lie over the bodies of her friends, of David 
 himself. Nothing in her world was of so much im 
 portance as that she should lay on a desired number 
 of pounds per week. 
 
 Clairette s mental attitude, although in her case 
 
168 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 somewhat exaggerated, was in truth merely that of 
 many victims of a disease conceded to be unique in 
 its moral effect. In her case no great metamorphosis 
 was requisite to reduce her to a condition of abject 
 self -absorption, in which the ills of others, no matter 
 how much graver and more agonising they may be, 
 pass unless of the same nature unregarded, un- 
 pitied. Clairette had never failed to shrink from sick 
 people, and hitherto had never been sick herself; 
 therefore, when the dark mantle of a complete sel 
 fishness fell upon and enshrouded her, the spectacle 
 was less piteous than the like annihilation of a nobler 
 nature. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NOW, mother, you shall not write Sylvia like 
 that!" 
 
 The speaker was Etta Van Schoolen. 
 She had entered Mrs. Newman s room one morn 
 ing, to find that lady rapidly covering sheet after sheet 
 of crested paper with an eloquence which, after a 
 cursory glance thereat, Mrs. Van Schoolen considered 
 misdirected. 
 
 Etta, more than ever the " glass of fashion and the 
 mould of form," well groomed to the last hair on her 
 erect head, wore the unvexed, prosperous air of the 
 typical young matron of New York s Upper Four. 
 She now laid a firm, immaculately gloved hand on her 
 mother s letter. 
 
 " Shall not," echoed Mrs. Newman, with an indig 
 nation which in this daughter s case had long since 
 proved futile. " That s strange talk from you to me, 
 Etta." 
 
 "I m sorry, mother," pursued the offender, una 
 bashed, however, " but I can t help it. I m a married 
 woman myself, and I can feel for poor Sylvia." 
 
 169 
 
1TO THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "And am / not a married woman?" retorted the 
 older lady, in a still stronger tone of offence, " and 
 a mother, too ! Etta, you forget yourself ! " 
 
 " No, mother, I don t excuse me. But Sylvia 
 was awfully in love with Mr. Kingdon, and it must 
 be pretty hard " The speaker paused, embar 
 rassed for a moment; for she herself was quite un- 
 fashionably in love with her husband. Then she con 
 tinued : 
 
 "What you ve written is going to hurt Sylvia 
 badly, and it won t do any good that I can see. Of 
 course, she won t think of coming back to us yet, so 
 it s not necessary to urge her to stay away. No one 
 could ever accuse Sylvia of being wanting in good 
 taste. But let her alone, and she can travel a while, 
 or something, until this affair has blown over." 
 
 " Yes ! " exclaimed Mrs. Newman, her spirit rising 
 with the sense that this time she had the better of the 
 argument; "very nice and comfortable indeed if 
 there s no baby ! " 
 
 "Mother!" The word broke from Etta s lips in 
 a cry. 
 
 " Hush, Etta ! " glancing toward the portieres, 
 " The servants ! " 
 
 "Mother, what makes you think of anything so 
 perfectly dreadful ! r 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 171 
 
 " Because it is not an unheard of occurrence in mar 
 ried life, my dear," replied Mrs. Newman, senten- 
 tiously, still elated at her own superior acumen. 
 
 " Did Sylvia hint anything? " 
 
 "Not a word! But " 
 
 "Well, then, don t let us think of such a horrid 
 contretemps," said Etta, restored to her wonted de 
 cisiveness. " Sylvia can travel around with a good 
 maid, and do some lionising. She likes scenery, and 
 there s plenty in this country that she s never seen. 
 Then, in a couple of years or so, she can come back to 
 New York, a widow, and settle down." 
 
 "Travel!" groaned the mother, with uplifted 
 hands, her mind reverting to perils to which the 
 greatest of all had momentarily rendered her indif 
 ferent. "Why, Etta, think of our enormous ac 
 quaintance, and how sure she would be to meet some 
 of them, travelling around that way, and she not in 
 mourning ! The whole scandal would be out in no 
 time! No, if you won t let me be the judge of what 
 is wisest in so serious a matter, and write your sister 
 as my heart and sense dictate, I shall certainly tell her 
 at least to go to some obscure place, and stay there 
 indefinitely. She can take up her sketching again, and 
 you and Cora can send her a package of new books 
 and music. But I cannot and will not submit to a 
 
172 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 scandal as the result of her wilfulness about that Mr. 
 Kingdom ! " 
 
 So saying, Mrs. Newman took a fresh sheet of 
 paper, her daughter lingering only long enough to 
 see that it was of less dangerous size, and again pro 
 ceeded to write vigorously. 
 
 As Etta moved away to seek Cora she uttered a 
 half-sigh. After all, as she had observed, it was 
 pretty hard. She found her sister engrossed with 
 tailors samples, in view of the approaching Horse 
 Show. 
 
 "Isn t this too chic for anything?" exclaimed 
 Cora, holding out one of the samples for inspection. 
 Etta replied in the affirmative without looking, and 
 walked to the window. 
 
 "Why, what s struck you, Etta? I never saw you 
 shy, as Harry would say, at samples before. Come 
 and tell me how you think these two would work up 
 into a combination gown for the first evening ? " 
 
 "I m thinking of poor Sylvia, and the snarl she s 
 made of her life," said Etta, paying no heed to her 
 sister s request. " I wonder, does Mr. Buckley know? " 
 
 "Why should he?" 
 
 " Oh, only because father thought so much of him, 
 and left Sylvia s money in his hands till she came of 
 age. I know she writes him sometimes, and he always 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 173 
 
 did think we weren t good enough to polish her shoes. 
 Poor Sylvia! And think he and Mr. Kingdon were 
 chums; that s how we came to know him. Harry s 
 gone around to the club for only half an hour; so I 
 believe I ll get him to drive me to Buckley s rooms in 
 stead of to the Park." 
 
 "Well, anyhow," observed Cora, with an air of 
 finality, " mamma says there s no use in worrying, 
 and she told me she warned Sylvia " 
 
 " How could she warn Sylvia that Mr. Kingdon 
 was a married man when he did not know it himself? " 
 interrupted the elder sister, contemptuously. 
 
 " No, of course she could not say anything defi 
 nite," replied the more phlegmatic younger woman; 
 " but she said Mr. Kingdon was one of those Western 
 mushrooms of whom no one knows anything." 
 
 " Sylvia told us herself he was an Englishman by 
 birth." 
 
 "That makes it still worse!" retorted Cora, 
 triumphantly. "We all know the kind of English 
 who do us the favour of making their home in our 
 country." 
 
 "Oh, pshaw!" said Etta with a gesture of impa 
 tience. "You know you liked Mr. Kingdon, Cora, 
 and so did I. He danced and skated divinely, and 
 never bored one." 
 
174 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " He certainly was handsome ! " murmured Cora, 
 reflectively. 
 
 "Well, then, why should we tear him to pieces 
 now ? And he certainly made Sylvia happy ; any one 
 could tell that by her letters. And that s a good deal, 
 I can tell you, Cora ! " added the married sister, 
 sapiently. "You just wait till you re married, and 
 then you ll find out that, although of course money 
 and family and such things come first, there are other 
 things which count, too." 
 
 " Oh, I m much too well occupied to get married," 
 Cora said, turning again to her samples. "But do 
 as you think best about Mr. Buckley, Etta; only I 
 wouldn t tell mother if I were you." 
 
 "Tell mother!" echoed Etta, with fine disdain; 
 and then, hearing her husband in the hall, she hur 
 ried away. 
 
 The Van Schoolens found Buckley at home, and 
 for the first time Etta saw this old friend in a kind of 
 mental dishabille. His manner, usually lazily quizzi 
 cal, had the languor of a person who is indifferent to 
 the opinion of his world. He was grave, almost sad. 
 
 "Yes, I have heard from them both," he admitted, 
 in reply to her query. 
 
 " And what do you think about it? " inquired Etta, 
 anxiously. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 175 
 
 Buckley shrugged his shoulders slightly; it was 
 the old gesture, with a difference. 
 
 "I think nothing, Mrs. Van Schoolen. All I can 
 say is tjiat I did not believe Kingdon had it in him to 
 rise to your sister s level. He has proved that he has 
 capacities with which I did not credit him, and I take 
 off my hat to him in spirit, that s all." 
 
 "But, Mr. Buckley," said Etta, hesitatingly, "I 
 know Sylvia s in the right, in a way; the marriage 
 tie must be respected under all circumstances; yet 
 don t you consider that she might have managed a 
 little better? need not have been quite so quixotic? " 
 
 "Mrs. Van Schoolen, I do not feel able to judge. 
 I know only that if I made up my mind to have my 
 leg cut off I should want it done in a hurry, without 
 bungling. Your sister has chosen, we may presume, 
 the course that suits her own ideas of right. Her hus 
 band has behaved like a man and a gentleman." 
 
 Etta sighed, and Buckley decided that he had 
 never before liked her so well ; he had scarcely expected 
 her to show so much feeling. Then he spoke 
 of the financial arrangements he had resolved upon 
 with Sylvia, which practically gave him power of 
 attorney over her affairs, in order that she might 
 receive remittances direct from him and thus excite 
 as little remark as possible over her change of name. 
 
176 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " She has taken the name of your father s family 
 Archibald. I have further advised her to accept 
 the allowance insisted upon by Kingdon, which will 
 also be paid through me. Under the circumstances, it 
 is perfectly right and proper that she should not 
 refuse him this one satisfaction, after the sacrifice she 
 has exacted of him. Have you her address ? " he 
 added. 
 
 " Not yet. She said she would write again. She 
 has been sick." 
 
 " Yes, but now she is established with some people, 
 missionaries or something of the kind, at a small set 
 tlement off the railroad. There are reasons why she 
 should not go down into Mexico, far away from 
 friends. It would be more than she could bear " 
 
 Buckley broke off ; for a moment he could not pro 
 ceed. 
 
 " Poor, poor Sylvia ! " sighed Etta. 
 
 There was a short silence. Then Harry Van 
 Schoolen spoke. 
 
 "It s a pretty bad business, anyhow. Mrs. New 
 man s awfully cut up about it. You don t think 
 there ll be any scandal, do you, Buckley ? " 
 
 " In what way ? " rej oined Buckley, coldly. " The 
 place Mrs. Kingdon has selected is quite remote from 
 her former home. The whole tragedy is well removed 
 
L THE HUMAN TOUCH 177 
 
 from our civilisation. I think you need be under no 
 apprehension." 
 
 " Come, Etta," Van Schoolen said, consulting his 
 watch, " we must be off. And we are detaining Mr. 
 Buckley, too." 
 
 Etta held out her hand. "Good-bye, Mr. Buck 
 ley. How can we ever thank you enough ! " 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SUCH an unfortunate occurrence! . . . Sylvia 
 must see for herself that it was impossible for 
 any member of her family to join her, or for 
 her to return to her loved ones at present, for the 
 reporters would get hold of the affair. In their 
 position " Mrs. Newman was now alluding to the 
 Family, of course " and with their prominence in 
 Society, such a catastrophe was not to be considered. 
 Noblesse oblige! . . . Meantime, she had her 
 fond mother s love and sympathy " and so forth and 
 so on. 
 
 The inestimable boon of cocksureness is rarely 
 granted to natures of fine fibre; or at least, seldom 
 survives in any degree of completeness the deed 
 prompted by that happy confidence. 
 
 "I must not give way," whispered Sylvia to her 
 self, as she laid aside her mother s letter, " I must not. 
 God lend me strength ! " 
 
 Then there flashed upon her mind a sentence that 
 occurred in a French book which David had once read 
 aloud to her: 
 
 " C est le crime qui fait la honte, et non pas 
 
 1 echafaud." 
 
 178 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 179 
 
 Hers was the scaffold, not the crime. 
 
 "Mis Sylvie," Aunt Julie poked her head in 
 through the door, and spoke mysteriously. 
 
 "Go long, Aunt Julie! Here I come!" And 
 Sylvia was in the arms of Mrs. Johnson. 
 
 " I come down to the city to see my dentist," pro 
 ceeded that lady, after the first greetings had passed, 
 " and on the street met up with this Christian worker 
 of yours, and told him right square as how I was most 
 demented about you ; and after some fussin , he says : 
 She s been under my roof for quite a while, says 
 he. And" here Johnny whirled, and bent her 
 piercing eyes upon Sylvia " and I ll lay most 
 any odds that s he s chargin it up to you, all 
 right?" 
 
 " No, Johnny no ! " Sylvia said earnestly ; " not 
 more, I think, than any one would ask under the cir 
 cumstances. Aunt Julie and I require four of their 
 rooms, because we need a kitchen." 
 
 Mrs. Johnson sniffed. This performance relieved 
 her own mind without insulting, too grossly, the un 
 derstanding of her companion. 
 
 "Well, anyhow, I never would have thought of 
 this place but for meetin him, and he made me that 
 mad that I just struck a bee-line for the depot, 
 bought my ticket, and here I am ! " 
 
180 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 The two women clasped hands silently. 
 
 "I m comin to you, my dearie!" whispered the 
 elder. 
 
 "Johnny dear Johnny how can you? The 
 farm Teddy?" 
 
 " Oh, the work won t have well set in by then. 
 And as for Ted, he ll be all right, and if he ain t, it s 
 time he learned as his Maw ain t one to go back on a 
 friend. He ll be all right, though. He ll be proud 
 to run the ranch for me, and he can cook to beat the 
 band, and crack a gun as good as the other fellow. 
 Now let me tell you what your Christian worker says, 
 an you tell me if I done right. 
 
 " Mrs. Johnson, says he, * our young friend 
 doubtless needed chastisement, or the good Lord 
 wouldn t ha sent it along. Her lines has been laid 
 off in pleasant places, he says, eatin o the fat o 
 the land an drinkin of its cream. We all has our 
 burdens, says he, an hers has been long in comin , 
 an tel she bows her shoulder to it in a humble an 
 thankful sperit, it s a-goin to set heavy. She don t 
 bow sufficient, says he, she should pour out her soul 
 in prayer with me, he says, an let me wrestle with 
 the Lord for her, an let patience have her perfect 
 work. 
 
 "I looked him up and down, an don t smile, my 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 181 
 
 dearie! an I said nothin not one word! But I 
 thought, an I thought oh, a heap! of those wild 
 young ones in the mountains, an the good you done 
 em an most every one as come nigh you, your mind 
 always turnin last thing to your own self; an the 
 good wife you been. Dearie, how could I speak?" 
 she concluded, with childlike earnestness. "If you 
 was me, could you have spoke? " 
 
 For answer Sylvia pressed the toil-roughened, yet 
 strangely sensitive, hand more closely in her own. 
 
 " Now, my dear," continued Johnny, " I want you 
 to understand as you ve picked a number-one place, 
 ef so be as you had to go off. It s way back from the 
 railroad clear and clean away from old trails and 
 locations. He don t even ship on this side the moun 
 tain, nor trade in this city, as you know. And" 
 lowering her voice "I m to the house oncet in a 
 while. Oh, but it hurts bad to go there! I does it 
 for his sake an yours jes to see how the land 
 lays. She don t worry about things as has been, mer 
 ciful gracious be thanked! She s stuck on you, any 
 way, believin as you ll act on the square; an I told 
 her as neither me nor him knew where you was. An 
 she sorter fancies me because I ve been around sick 
 folks a lot an knows how to do for them ; then she s 
 too taken up with her own ailin to be jealous." 
 
182 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "I came here because I did not feel able to go 
 farther away from help, or travel a long distance; 
 and the Athertons did not seem to mind taking 
 me " 
 
 " Mind! " Mrs. Johnson sniffed again. " I guess 
 not. No; no one 11 suspicion as you re here, an if 
 they do, what matter? You ve done the right thing 
 at least I guess that s the way you want me to look 
 at it an you re all right. Berry lives here, an they 
 say is awful thick with your Christian worker. But 
 no matter; all the better for my schemes when they 
 get to workin out. An he couldn t get to see her 
 to save his skin ! She won t see no one, nohow, an 
 he s too awful scared o Davie these days to go a-nigh 
 the place. An besides, it s as much as he can do to 
 fry his own fish. You know as Berry s awful relig 
 ious an law-abidin down here ! " At this point Mrs. 
 Johnson chuckled. " But I m layin for him all 
 right ! Now, my dearie, what you ve got to do is not 
 to lose your grip. You ve done better than I could 
 have done in your fix but hold on! There s better 
 days a-comin ; you don t know tel you ve tried 
 how good they can be. An there s work for 
 you yet good work for him. Do you hear 
 me?" 
 
 "I don t intend to lose my grip, Johnny," Sylvia 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 183 
 
 said, stoutly. But the eyes she raised to her friend 
 were brimming. 
 
 It was all Johnny could do to refrain from clasp 
 ing her in her motherly arms and mingling her own 
 tears with Sylvia s. But, like the wise woman she 
 was, she did refrain. Nevertheless, she alarmed her 
 fellow-passengers by sobbing loudly for several min 
 utes after boarding the train. That interlude over, 
 she relapsed into meditation, grim and deep. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IT has long been an axiom accepted by the 
 majority, that the woman who does not bemoan 
 her woes has none to bemoan, and Mr. Atherton 
 and his good little wife belonged to this class. Sylvia 
 endured silently because to have done otherwise would 
 have added humiliation to her grief. 
 
 The full import of what she had to bear dawned 
 upon her very slowly ; not through lack of sensitive 
 ness, but through ignorance of life s hard conditions. 
 A girl reared in an exclusive circle, in New York or 
 elsewhere, whose ears have never been tainted by 
 even a whisper concerning the grosser side of life, 
 and, moreover, whose closest and dearest companion 
 throughout her most impressionable years has been a 
 scholar and a gentleman, develops into a woman of 
 an innocence well-nigh pristine. 
 
 To such as she cognisance of evil drifts gradually, 
 almost imperceptibly; and the realisation of this 
 knowledge is, for a time, worse than death. Yet, 
 inconceivable as it may be, these are the women whose 
 human sympathies often prove strong enough to 
 
 184 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 185 
 
 override the first repulsion and disgust: it is as if a 
 certain largeness of mind that helped to keep them 
 for so long pure of heart enables them to understand 
 and forgive. 
 
 What we call Christian charity is often nothing 
 more than a comfortable dulness. When the hard 
 facts finally strike on the undeveloped perceptive fac 
 ulties of those whom we falsely style charitable, what 
 becomes of their charity? The forbearance which is 
 the not infrequent accompaniment, whether trained 
 or inherent, of keen perceptions, is in their case con 
 spicuous by its absence. Such persons are unfor 
 tunately not always harmlessly tiresome; they have 
 a bad habit of helping the sound dogs over the stile 
 and leaving the lame ones on the wrong side. 
 
 The Mexican population regarded Mr. Atherton 
 as merely a harmless freak. To his exhortations they 
 listened with characteristic courtesy, thus causing 
 him to believe that he was a successful as well as an 
 active worker, and they never declined his little book 
 lets, or threw them away until he was out of sight. 
 The Mexicans, however, being but measurably in 
 telligent, may be forgiven if they failed to compre 
 hend cste hombre, or were not visibly affected by the 
 unpleasant view he appeared to take of their priests 
 and their religion generally. Therefore, they con- 
 
186 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 tinued to go to mass with their former regularity, 
 undisturbed by the eloquence of the ministro. This 
 was well, perhaps, for thus all parties were satisfied. 
 
 There were moments when Sylvia s tolerant spirit 
 actually permitted her to admire the man. He was 
 so intensely in earnest, and believed in himself and 
 his usefulness so strongly. If he had been caught 
 young, instead of having been allowed to rush, a mere 
 boy, pellmell into " Christian work," he really might 
 have become a power for good. If he had even been 
 instructed in consideration for others, and if his 
 observant faculties had been ever so slightly trained, 
 his total want of education (in the highest sense) 
 might have been overlooked. 
 
 Mr. Atherton was one of those whose belief in self 
 is unassailable. Merely to affirm that he was con 
 ceited would be but a feeble characterisation of his 
 spiritual exaltation. Many of his type deem them 
 selves called of God to Christian work, when in truth 
 the " call " is rather to the working out of their own 
 salvation. Uplifted by a blind, misdirected enthu 
 siasm, their eyes scorn the downward glance necessary 
 for the guidance of their own stumbling feet, tread 
 ing upon, and too often bruising unto death those they 
 declare themselves called to save. It is only the 
 ignorant, the unobservant, or those who for pretence 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 187 
 
 make long prayers, whom such men influence. Were 
 theirs the faith of the one righteous man, whose 
 righteousness shines steady, silent, yet illuminating, 
 a beacon for the guidance of the lonely struggler, 
 then the solution of certain problems might well 
 assume less formidable proportions. 
 
 But with men of William Atherton s pattern, firm 
 believers in the power of the tongue, such qualities 
 as steadiness and silence have no affinity. Yet, let it 
 be repeated, these men are good men of a kind 
 though it is not to them that men and women, burdened 
 with unspeakable griefs, turn, confident that their 
 wounds, if probed severely, will be gently healed. 
 Uttering their Scriptural war-cries and shibboleths, 
 the Athertons of life stalk upon their way, heedless 
 of the deep, unspoken anguish beside them, heeding 
 only that which strikes on their short-sighted vision 
 in some guise not to be mistaken. They concern 
 themselves not at all with their sins of omission 
 briers trailing behind them for the tripping of unac 
 customed feet which call a sneer to the lips of those 
 whom they glibly class with the worldly and ungodly, 
 but who are in truth the unpretentious Good Samari 
 tans of life, who drop out of the procession to offer 
 the cup of cold water to the fallen wayfarer passed 
 unnoticed by the pious enthusiast. 
 
188 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 To the man who is in earnest, no doubt, much is 
 forgiven. We who carp at the misguided zealots do 
 so, not because we have never bowed the knee in rever 
 ence to the noble and worthy " Christian worker," but 
 because there are so many " others," forcing them 
 selves unbidden into work which needs not only our 
 purest and our best, but our wisest, too, and where 
 Love should be, must be, lord of all. On the frontier, 
 in country districts remote from the inspirations of 
 the higher life, in all dark, uncertain byways, we 
 need them ; and yet of the many claiming to be called 
 how few are worthy to be chosen ! 
 
 Between Mr. Atherton and his tenant there was so 
 little in common that to speak of our "common 
 humanity" in connection with the two seemed like a 
 misnomer ! That she had not permitted him to wrestle 
 with the Lord for her in prayer had proved a serious 
 cause of offence. Tolerant Sylvia was, but she was 
 in no mood to assist at those frantic scramblings upon 
 the footstool of the Almighty, or the noisy directions 
 to the All-Wise, which pass with some people for 
 prayer. 
 
 More than once she had turned away heartsick, on 
 hearing through the closed door the strident tones of 
 her landlord storming over the head of his weary, 
 overworked little wife, summoning the attention, not 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 189 
 
 only of the Almighty, but of his long-suffering and 
 adorning helpmeet, to shortcomings of which he alone 
 was guilty. Yet she doubted whether he had ever 
 spoken a rough word to that wife, at least no more 
 than was inevitable from the lips of a rough, ill-bred 
 man. His sins against her whom he loved after his 
 own uncomprehending fashion, she being of finer clay 
 than himself consisted mainly in a supreme egotism, 
 and an absorption in his "work" which rendered 
 promises made to her valueless, consideration for 
 her practically non-existent. He was an inex 
 haustible chatterbox, and indulged this trait to the 
 utmost. 
 
 With a crass brutality, which naturally did not 
 appeal to him as such, he was addicted to improving 
 the occasion in regard to David s actions generally, 
 especially as they concerned his favourite, Berry, 
 who was a very acceptable guest at the Atherton 
 establishment. When not at his cattle-ranch, Berry 
 made his home with a married son in the Rosalia 
 Valley. He was an ardent church-member, and was 
 cordially hated by the Mexicans. For the first few 
 weeks of Sylvia s stay in his house Atherton worked 
 more conscientiously than intelligently to influence 
 her in the latter s favour; with what object he himself 
 could scarcely have told, there being no human prob- 
 
190 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ability that Sylvia ever again would be in a position 
 to influence David Kingdon. 
 
 Berry s project for getting himself elected sheriff 
 at the end of Cristol s term of office appeared to be 
 greatly on the minister s mind, entirely in disregard 
 of the fact that Berry would, if elected, make the 
 worst officer that section had ever known. 
 
 "We need God-fearing church-members in public 
 office, Mrs. Archibald. I have always been sur 
 prised " his words went stumping along, pounding 
 heartstrings and nerves " that your husband Mr. 
 Kingdon, I should have said supported Mr. Cristol. 
 We have unfortunately so many heathen in this be 
 nighted section, and the officer I speak of is little 
 better than an ordinary homicide, Mrs. Archibald. 
 That s what he is!" 
 
 There was distinct venom in the minister s voice. 
 The obvious rejoinder, that, given more adequate 
 Christian workers, there would be fewer heathen, was 
 of course impossible of utterance ; indeed, to any one 
 acquainted with actual conditions the whole exordium 
 was too ridiculous to merit a reply. 
 
 But Mr. Atherton was not to be put off so easily. 
 
 "Did you never reason with Mr. Kingdon on the 
 subject?" he persisted. 
 
 "On the subject of Mr. Berry? Or of Mr. Cris- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 191 
 
 tol? You know the two subjects have nothing in 
 common." 
 
 Frankly speaking, Mr. Atherton did not like this 
 woman. The rack could hardly have wrung from him 
 the acknowledgment that she was as a sealed book to 
 him to him, a minister of such wide and varied ex 
 perience of human nature! Nevertheless, although 
 her tone was entirely serious, he was irritatingly 
 conscious that her mental attitude toward him was 
 not so decent or becoming. 
 
 " Brother Berry is a gentleman whom we do not 
 need to discuss," he retorted loftily ; " I am aware that 
 he is not generally appreciated, but 
 
 " Your wife is calling you, Mr. Atherton." 
 
 At the kitchen door stood the pale little woman : 
 holding in her thin arms a washtub half filled with 
 water, and appealing in a patient voice to the hus 
 band who had faithfully promised to lend her his 
 brawn and muscle for an hour or two that morning. 
 The morning was now half gone, and he had been 
 steadily and consistently " otherwise engaged." 
 
 " Coming, Janie coming ! " he responded affably, 
 but continued to bestow his attention upon his tenant. 
 
 Sylvia motioned to Aunt Julie, who went rather 
 sullenly to the assistance of Mrs. Atherton ; for the 
 old coloured woman hud reasons of her own for abomi- 
 
192 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 nating the husband, and often lay awake nights think 
 ing up appropriate " conjure tricks." So far, she 
 had not succeeded in selecting one suitable to the 
 emergency. 
 
 " Since boyhood, Mrs. Archibald, I have devoted 
 myself to Christian work. In this community my 
 opportunities are sadly limited, and I know by melan 
 choly experience how hard is the lot of God-fearing 
 persons in this far West. Yet I am of the opinion 
 that the presence of an earnest church-member might 
 have averted that bloody affray in Kingdon Canon." 
 
 " You were not present, I believe ? " 
 
 " No, I was not. Would that I had been ! The 
 result, I venture to affirm, would have been very dif 
 ferent if I had. Mrs. Archibald " suddenly " you 
 I understand, are not a church-member. May I not 
 urge upon you the importance of making good use of 
 this necessary period of retirement? Will you not 
 devote it to self-communion and prayer, and join the 
 church of which I am the humble representative ? " 
 
 There was a perceptible pause. " I am an Episco 
 palian," rejoined Sylvia, coldly. 
 
 Against Sylvia s coldness there never was, never 
 had been when she choose to resort to it, any appeal. 
 Hers was a natural hauteur rarely coming to the 
 surface, but, when visible, omnipotent. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 193 
 
 Thick-skinned as he was, it pierced even Mr. Ather- 
 ton s hide. Hastily muttering that he had a hard 
 day s work before him, he hurried away, calling to 
 " Janie " that he would be back in half an hour. 
 
 The blue and gold of the fall gradually changed 
 to the blue and drab of winter. Day by day the sun 
 lost a little of its intensity, ice showed itself in the 
 water buckets later and later in the mornings, the 
 dazzling gold of the cottonwood leaves faded as they 
 clung, the pure ivory of mistletoe berries grew clear 
 upon the gorgeous radiance of the azure sky. And 
 Sylvia was again mistress of herself. To say that 
 she never faltered or fell would have been to say that 
 she was free from mortal weakness ; but it was seldom 
 that she lost her grip. That unreasoning, though 
 not unnatural, spasm of jealousy had long since passed 
 away. She resolutely tore her thoughts from the past 
 away from David except when she could think of 
 him with the comfort brought by the knowledge of 
 his courage and steadfastness; for of these Johnny 
 took care that she should know. 
 
 No stronger incentive to self-mastery could be sup 
 plied to Sylvia than the consciousness of a growing 
 life within her own, on whom it was her duty, as also 
 her pleasure, to bestow the best both physically and 
 mentally that the mother may. To this end she 
 
194 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 fought against her own yearning, human self. She 
 read and studied and painted. Sing she could not; 
 there was too much of David there ; but she took up 
 Greek again, which she had read to some extent with 
 her father, and in the tense exercise of brain forgot 
 for a while the constant moaning of the heart. But 
 there were hours when the utmost strength of which 
 she was capable did not suffice. 
 
 She secured a buggy, and drove daily. It was the 
 last of November now, and the day or two of wet or 
 showery weather almost certain during that month 
 had descended like a short-lived frown upon the 
 splendour of nature s rarely failing smile. Sylvia 
 was in tune with the passing gloom. It was Sunday, 
 and Aunt Julie had departed the previous morning 
 for Mendoza City, in order to do some shopping for 
 her mistress and to attend the coloured church. 
 Sylvia, therefore, was alone. The past night had 
 been a hard one. Mrs. Atherton, to whom she had 
 shown many of the trifling kindnesses which pass 
 almost as a matter of course between women, knew of 
 her indisposition, but had hurried off to church in 
 the morning without even looking in to see how the 
 sick tenant fared. 
 
 The squally, gusty day was departing over the 
 mountains with treachery in its black heart; but it 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 195 
 
 left its trail behind, like a frowning brow shading an 
 eye of mild, effulgent azure. Upon this quiet azurine 
 background, cottonwoods, which so far had escaped 
 the frost, burned warmly, apparently oblivious that 
 the sun had forsaken them. 
 
 Sylvia held the reins loosely in her right hand ; the 
 other was lying palm upward on the seat beside her. 
 Her whole attitude was the epitome of surrender, 
 which, when beheld in the strong and brave or in 
 those whom we superficially term such, ignoring 
 the magnitude of the endeavour underlying these 
 appearances is beyond measure pitiful. The Cry 
 of the Human which had beaten from within against 
 closed doors was fighting now for utterance fighting 
 as it had seldom fought before. It was not faltering 
 words, or the tears that fell helplessly, which marked 
 the tragic element ever present in lonely, unshared 
 grief. It was the attitude despair, defeat, helpless 
 ness everything that was at variance with the 
 woman s normal aspect. 
 
 There was only one observer, however, and that was 
 the Boy, and even he gradually came to understand 
 that something was very wrong. Flirting, after his 
 manner, with every puddle of water or stray cornstalk 
 in his path, he met with no tightened rein or word of 
 reproof; he carried the buggy how and whither he 
 
196 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 would. Several times he rolled his full, dark eye 
 back at his mistress in questioning astonishment, and 
 then proceeded gently and ever more gently on his 
 way. 
 
 Sylvia had not demanded sympathy of those who 
 dwelt under the same roof; she had been rather too 
 little than too much exacting. And yet 
 
 Presently she sat up and grasped the reins firmly. 
 She was ashamed yes, ashamed. Did ever lonely 
 woman have better, warmer friends than she? 
 
 When she drove briskly at twilight to her own door, 
 Aunt Julie came out to meet her, and said myster 
 iously, " Dick in dar, waitin on you." 
 
 The Mexican boy took the horse, and in a moment 
 Sylvia was face to face with David s foreman. He 
 took her offered hand simply ; explained in his awk 
 ward yet straightforward way how he came to be 
 there. He had not known exactly where she had 
 hidden herself. As the boss never mentioned her 
 name perhaps he did not know either where she was ? 
 He had been sent with a message to Berry. But he 
 had more to say. 
 
 "Mrs. Kingdon you don t lay no objections 
 against me callin you that, do you? becaz I don t 
 know as I can do better, you bein sure enough the 
 wife of the boss, as / look at it." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 197 
 
 Simple-hearted Dick was flaying the wife of the 
 boss alive, had he only known it; but there are so 
 many things that are not revealed unto babes. Her 
 face was averted, and it was only after a rather pro 
 longed silence that she answered in a low very low 
 voice, 
 
 "Thank you, Dick." 
 
 And then, feeling the absolute necessity of a 
 greater expansiveness toward this naive yet shrewd 
 soul, she added with difficulty: 
 
 "You are right in a way. I thought we both 
 thought I was his lawful wife. But we were mis 
 taken. I must be Mrs. Archibald now." 
 
 "Yes, I knew as it was all square with you two. 
 Don t necessitate any tellin to me ; but the boss, you 
 know, he s got an awful close mouth too close some 
 times, maybe. She " jerking his head over his 
 shoulder " she wa n t drowned, and you thought as 
 she was, that s about the size of it. A darned sight 
 better if she had bin," he muttered ; " she never wa n t 
 no good for him; didn t so much as know on which 
 end of a horse to throw a rope!" 
 
 Sylvia was obliged to smile; the picture conjured 
 up of the proper sort of wife for David was irresisti 
 ble. Dick saw the tiny flicker pass across the sad 
 face, and was at once encouraged and apologetic. 
 
198 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Not as I mean as that s all a woman ought to know 
 to be wife to the boss. She s got to know a heap 
 more n that as much as you do, and they do tell as 
 you re awful smart at the books," looking at her 
 questioningly. 
 
 Thus they talked, Sylvia asking nothing, and he 
 avoiding with tact born of good-feeling all informa 
 tion of a personal nature, but relating the story of 
 ranch matters, the Berry trouble which he rightly 
 guessed would interest her and things of a like 
 nature. When at last he reluctantly rose to go, it 
 was with a new understanding of the situation; he 
 saw now why the boss had been so painfully per 
 haps unjustly, as regarded himself, Dick uncom 
 municative. 
 
 "A mighty bad business!" he ejaculated, softly, 
 as he closed the door of Sylvia s room as if a sick or 
 dying person lay therein. 
 
 But Dick was not to get off so easily; there is 
 always the curiosity of the unemployed to be 
 reckoned with. A door at the end of the long hall 
 opened, and Mr. Atherton s figure appeared. 
 
 " Kindly step this way a minute, Mr. " 
 
 "You must excuse me, sir, but I dunno as I can 
 to-day. I m rushed for time." 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Atherton was, in less than three 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 199 
 
 minutes, closeted with the impatient Dick. The 
 latter, it must be confessed, kept his hat on Mrs. 
 Atherton was not present and stood restively switch 
 ing his legs with the quirt he held in his hand. Dick 
 was not good at the fence, but he knew how to hold his 
 tongue when it was a case of betraying confidence. 
 The minister could make nothing of the cowboy, and 
 failure no doubt prompted the malice of his next 
 remark : 
 
 " In regard to the person under my roof, it is not 
 an association I would have chosen for my little wife. 
 Not that the woman is exactly to blame. I guess she 
 did the best she knew how without Christian teaching 
 and guidance. Still, as regards Mrs. Atherton, in 
 Christian work husband and wife must encounter the 
 same associations, hand in hand " 
 
 Dick was a good-natured fellow, but he claimed, 
 with an air of truthfulness which caused his statement 
 to be rather hurriedly accepted, that there were some 
 things he would not take from any living man. This 
 was one. He came close to Mr. Atherton, and seized 
 him by the lapel of his coat. 
 
 " Look ee here," he said slowly, his blue eyes gleam 
 ing dangerously, " if you was anythin but what you 
 is one as takes advantage of bein considered half 
 a female I d pull my gun an punch you full o 
 
200 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 holes ! Don t you never dare to talk that way again 
 concernin the wife o the boss! If you do, an it s 
 so as it comes around to me, I may have to learn you 
 somethin yet." 
 
 Dick loosed his hold so suddenly that the poor man 
 staggered. Then, turning on his heel, he marched 
 away, with a clank of spurs. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE earth was as the heart of a golden cup, 
 red with the dregs of new wine. The track 
 clove the ripe wheat as a lance piercing the 
 glowing embers of the sunset. Other light there 
 was none, for the June day was over ; only in the 
 red of the wheat and of the sky, and in the profound 
 azure of the mountains, its warm memory lingered. 
 
 Across the tranquil meadows, where the purple 
 heads of the alfalfa drooped in their cradles of green, 
 came the rumble of home-going wagons, or the weird 
 cry of the Mexican urging his weary flock to the 
 trampling of the outspread sheaves. 
 
 Upon the bank of the high acequla sat Sylvia, her 
 four-months-old baby sleeping on her knee. There 
 was a peace in her face that had not been visible for 
 many a long day before the filling of her empty 
 arms; yet a deep sadness was there also. Her gaze, 
 no longer bent over the child, wandered, dreamy and 
 pensive, over the now familiar scene. 
 
 " He do favour his pa mightily ? " the old woman 
 
 201 
 
202 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 moaned, on an average twice a week; "I don see s 
 how you se ever in dis worl gwine tell dat boy. No, 
 Miss Sylvia!" 
 
 There was another cause for the thoughtful sad 
 ness in Sylvia s face, as she arose and proceeded 
 slowly homeward. She lived in a small rented house 
 now, alone with the child and servant. The full 
 knowledge of her position had at last arrived. Hints, 
 and the amiable patronage of well-meaning persons, 
 had opened her eyes wide. 
 
 The child, to whose advent her bereaved heart had 
 looked forward with a hunger of yearning it had 
 been vain for her by any argument to repress, she 
 did not regard as a misfortune. The mixture of com 
 mon sense and purity characteristic of Sylvia could 
 see nothing either evil or guiltily embarrassing in the 
 possession of her one treasure. To her unwordly yet 
 logical mind the situation was as simple as it was 
 tragic. When the child grew old enough to under 
 stand, she would say : " You have no father, for the 
 reason that when I married him we both believed his 
 former wife to be dead. When we discovered that she 
 was alive, we parted, and he went back to her. No 
 sin attaches to us, no shame to you." 
 
 How simple! So had it appeared to her; now she 
 was doubting. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 203 
 
 The house was empty ; Julie had gone to the store. 
 Sylvia laid the baby down on the bed, and stead 
 fastly regarded him. There were times when, young 
 as he was, his resemblance to his father struck her 
 lu-art like a blow when he looked at her appealingly 
 with that father s expression, though out of eyes that 
 were her own, or drooped his pretty lips and hung his 
 head in baby grief. Those were the times when the 
 mother thought she must go mad; when she doubted 
 not merely the righteousness of her deed, but the 
 righteousness, nay, the very existence, of a God who 
 could demand so supreme a sacrifice. 
 
 She had not even written her mother or sisters of 
 the baby; to expect them to rejoice with her would 
 have been absurd and unreasonable. But she had 
 written to Buckley ; and even as her mind reverted to 
 him, Aunt Julie entered with the mail, and in it was 
 a letter from the man himself. Sylvia coloured with 
 pleasure as she read. Buckley was an excellent 
 correspondent. The present effusion concluded 
 thus: 
 
 "I m that young one s godfather, so don t go hir 
 ing any one else, or I m done with you forever. I 
 shall be down after a while; I guess he will keep till 
 I come." 
 
 She would wait then, for Buckley. Besides, Johnny 
 
204 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 was of the opinion that, in the fight for sheriff which 
 was to take place that fall, some good might arise 
 from Sylvia s neighbourhood to the arch-enemy. In 
 such relentless struggles, devoid as these were of both 
 honour and principle, no one could foretell what 
 might happen. And even as these ideas crossed Syl 
 via s mind the old coloured woman had undressed 
 the still sleeping child and laid him in his cradle 
 there came a stumping up the steps of the porch, and 
 Johnny walked in through the screen-door. 
 
 " Here I am, my dearie, missed the mail wagon, of 
 course, a-chatterin j like an id jit to a feller as got off 
 with me! Dear knows what I d ha done if the sun 
 had been a-shinin , but lucky for me the train was 
 awful late. How s the blessed lamb ? " 
 
 Scarcely waiting for Sylvia s reply, Johnny pro 
 ceeded to inspect her idol in the inner room. 
 
 "What a picture!" she sighed, ecstatically; which 
 was true enough, partiality apart. The downy, 
 brown head on the pillow, the long dark lashes on the 
 soft cheek, the limbs of a cherub a picture little 
 Davie was. 
 
 "I must kiss him if I die for it!" whispered 
 Johnny. 
 
 Then, raising herself, she looked earnestly at 
 Sylvia in the light of the full moon. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 205 
 
 " How do you bear it ? " she asked, still whispering. 
 "Or do it help you any?" 
 
 The eyes of the two women met; no more was 
 said. 
 
 On the porch, after supper, Johnny found it easy 
 to glide into the subject which, next to little David, 
 principally occupied her mind. " There ll be a heap 
 a-goin on down here in regards to the election," she 
 said, her keen eyes roving to the store a few hundred 
 yards away, around which a number of men, Mexi 
 cans chiefly, hung. " Without no spyin you can 
 serve him an his friends, maybe. Berry s a fool if he 
 don t suspicion that there ll be Cain raised over this 
 election. There s a lot knows too much about his 
 dirty, low-down tricks ; but the religious crowd s got 
 him an turned his fool head. He won t touch the 
 ground oncet," she added, with her low, chuckling 
 laugh, " soon s our Davie gits a-goin for him. 
 There s old scores to pay ; and besides, Davie s got a 
 sore heart, an that causes a man to act quick and 
 rash." 
 
 There was a pause. Then Sylvia said, speaking 
 with difficulty, "Tell me, is it any easier for him 
 than it used to be?" 
 
 "At home? Well, it s some better n twas in a 
 way." Johnny dropped her already lowered tones. 
 
206 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " She don t nag same as she did in former times ; 
 don t take enough interest to nag, I guess. It s my 
 belief " a note of intense bitterness betraying itself 
 "as she only come back to get a good home an 
 plenty o money to get well with ! " 
 
 The other woman shook her head. "No, Johnny. 
 She cared for him, and was sorry because of the 
 past." 
 
 "Very well, that s what you think, and you ve 
 mostly got it down right, I will say." 
 
 There was another silence. Then Sylvia rose to 
 her feet, and her face was pale in the moonlight. 
 
 " Johnny ! " 
 
 "What is it, my dearie?" 
 
 Sylvia put her hand to her throat; speech seemed 
 to have stuck there. 
 
 A light flashed upon the older woman. " Now," 
 she cried under her breath, "you re worryin , and I 
 know what it s about! There s no manner of use in 
 worryin , an there s no call to, neither. He ain t 
 took the disease, nor never will; he ain t that kind. 
 The doctors may talk all they ve a mind to; you ve 
 got to be the right kind to ketch it, and he ain t that 
 kind, I tell you! And lungers I ve waited on dead 
 loads of em ; they come up to the mountains an 
 camps out is more selfish than other kinds o sick 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 207 
 
 folks, generally speakin . It s a poor few on em as 
 cares whether it s so as they give their disease to 
 others or not ; so I say, if it s so awful ketchin , why 
 don t most every one take it hereabouts ? " 
 
 " But those who are so much together," fal 
 tered Sylvia, but half reassured "husbands and 
 wives " 
 
 "Yes, they takes it oncet in a while, I don t deny. 
 But, dearie, he ain t so awful much with her, nohow; 
 t ain t as it was with him an you. He s off a heap 
 sort of obligated to be, on account of her stayin all 
 the time at one place, an then this election. And 
 then she lives to herself in a tent, winter and sum 
 mer some foolishness of her Eastern doctor. This 
 blazin weather too ! An when she calls upon him 
 an he s around, he waits on her, takes her buggy- 
 ridin , or plays cards with her in that old tent when 
 she ain t skeered o raisin temperature wi th egg- 
 zitement." 
 
 Again Johnny sighed; then, after a brief pause, 
 added briskly : " I can tell you as it ain t no slouch- 
 work, runnin a house for lungers, either. I has a 
 friend as does it, an I ve been there to help nursin 
 and sech like. Th ain t no livin person as could 
 make the most of em anyways contented, savin as it 
 might be one o them old-timey gods as Ted reads out 
 
208 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 to me of oncet in a while from his school-readers; 
 gardens o Hespreedies, or some sech a place, might 
 suit em, maybe. Mat, my friend, s an awful silent 
 chap; don t open his head unless it s so be as he has 
 to; an that s all right. Talkin em smooth all the 
 time don t do em no good; he tends to his business, 
 an treats em right, an that s all there is to Mat. 
 When the sun shines day in an day out, then it s: 
 Dear Mrs. Johnson, do you never have any clouds in 
 the sky? It would seem like home to see them some 
 times ! An when a shower o rain, or two-three ugly- 
 appearin days comes along : How long does it stay 
 cloudy in this section, Mrs. Johnson? Or along 
 comes a wind, an course the dust gits a-blowin . 
 Then it s : * Oh, this terrible dust ! If only a shower 
 of rain would come and lay it! To all o which talk 
 I says quiet and even, I ain t no weather-burro, 
 says I. Was a time when I d try an calm em down ; 
 put myself out no end, a-talkin to em ; but I ve quit 
 sech fool-talk now; for if it ain t one thing with 
 health-seekers, it 11 be another. I d ask em why in 
 the name o gracious they come to a dry country if so 
 be as they leans to a wet one; an whether, with all 
 their education, they ain t never been learned as winds 
 has got to blow oncet in a while in these high parts ; 
 an what for they kick at rain when it do come along ; 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 209 
 
 an all kinds of fool-argufyin with em. But I m 
 done now. My breath ain t give me to waste it on 
 health-seekers as ain t got no sense ! " 
 
 "Now, Johnny," exposulated Sylvia, "didn t you 
 tell me once of lovely health-seekers you had known ? " 
 
 " That s so, my dear. I don t deny it ! But then 
 there s dead loads o lungers, an not many angels 
 among em." 
 
 She paused ; then continued reflectively : " There s 
 one thing as I d like awful well to know. I ain t one 
 o the pious kind, no loud-prof essin Christian, but I 
 say as there s either a God as knows what is best for 
 us, or there ain t no God at all it s up to us to 
 choose. But if we believe as there is a God, there 
 ain t no sense, so far s I can see, in murmurin at Him 
 all the time. We got to give in easy if He do know 
 best. But along comes all these sick, or half-sick 
 folks, many of em professin Christians, an it s one 
 everlastin , endurin kick! They talk an act as if 
 God hadn t got a mite o sense or jedgment; an yet 
 they d be terrible shocked if so be as I was to set it up 
 to them as they re the same as unbaptised heathen, 
 and a heap worse than lots o white folks as I ve 
 known who has never set foot inside of a church door 
 sence the time as they was kids. Then if one acts 
 right tryin awful hard, you bet! the others all 
 
210 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 cries out, What a mercy to be blessed with a cheer 
 ful, easy-goin disposition! an sighs an grunts 
 an wishes as they had the same. But they don t never 
 think as him or her they re makin out to envy is tryin 
 all they knows how to be unselfish an not worry others 
 with their own griefs and aches." 
 
 "It s hard on all lungers, Johnny." 
 
 " I don t deny it ! All I claim is that they re lots o 
 things as bad an worse, an why lungers should be 
 different to other sick folks, an claim sech a heap o 
 privileges, beats me to say." 
 
 " I have learned in whatsoever state I am there 
 with to be content, " murmured Sylvia, dreamily. 
 
 " Learned yes, that s about the size of it ! " ej acu- 
 lated Johnny. "Now you got em! Them as learns 
 to be patient an content an there s some of em as 
 does ain t got no more showin from the others than 
 a fiddler in purgatory! Them others knows it all; 
 ihey ain t got a thing to learn ! " 
 
 When the eloquent speaker resumed, the sarcasm 
 had gone out of her voice. " Do you think as lie has 
 found out where you is?" she said, gently. "You 
 see, David ain t one as would ask questions, even o 
 me, if it was so as you didn t wish it." 
 
 "I didn t tell him where I was going," replied 
 Sylvia, in a low tone, "because I thought it was best 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 211 
 
 for us both that he should not know, and " she hesi 
 tated "I didn t tell him about little Davie coming, 
 because " 
 
 " Because as you knew he d never ha let you go 
 from him if he d known," put in Johnny, quickly. 
 " Yes, my dearie, I guess it was all right for you to 
 do, but it s mighty hard, an ain t a-goin to get much 
 easier. An Davie how he d ha loved to have had a 
 young one of his own ! " 
 
 Johnny caught the slender hand, uplifted as though 
 to ward off a blow, and clasped it penitently to her 
 broad bosom. It was not often she thus turned the 
 sword in the wound. 
 
 "Don t you worry no more where there ain?t no 
 need ! " she added, tenderly ; " Davie wa n t born to be 
 a lunger ! " 
 
 Two months had slipped away since Johnny s brief 
 visit. It was the close of a hot August day. Sylvia 
 had sent Aunt Julie and the baby to the banks of the 
 big acequia in a cotton wood grove about half a mile 
 distant, for the sake of the coolness ever to be found 
 beside running water, and now anxiously awaited 
 their return ; for a tremendous storm was threatening. 
 She supposed that the branches of the trees hid the 
 clouds, or else that the old woman, fearful that she 
 might not be able to reach home before the bursting 
 
212 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 of the storm, or rather of the terrific wind sure to pre 
 cede it, had taken shelter in one of the small adobe 
 houses close at hand. Sylvia chided herself for feel 
 ing anxious; there was absolutely no cause for 
 anxiety, with Aunt Julie in command; nevertheless, 
 her heart beat with dread of she knew not what. 
 
 There was indeed something horrible in the silent 
 march of that inky wall of cloud. Slow it might be, 
 but it was relentless beyond all power of words to de 
 scribe. Involuntarily the mind of the solitary watcher 
 reverted to the dungeon of old, closing in hour by 
 hour upon the prisoner with intent to crush out his 
 life. The craggy peaks, threatening at first, soon 
 became trivial, and ere long were entirely extinguished 
 by the greater and more terrible force above and 
 behind. 
 
 Then across the sinister face of that wall began to 
 spread and soar a pale brown mist ; yet a little while, 
 and the line of the distant mesa was broken and split 
 up into whirling pillars of the same brownish hue. 
 Far away as yet, the sound as of a mighty rushing 
 river struck upon the listening ear louder, nearer, 
 more significant with every fleeting moment the 
 great desert wind, rousing the sand from its long, 
 warm sleep and driving it pitilessly southward, down 
 down into the green peace of the valley. The 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 213 
 
 cottonwoods shivered; the lark s timid, intermittent 
 call was heard no more. 
 
 The tension of suspense snapped. With a leap and 
 a roar the sombre, lightning- jagged wall fell upon 
 the land. Following on the awful silence and the on 
 slaught of sound, came the rain at first as deafening 
 and terrific as the sandstorm itself, then beating down 
 the wind and dominating it until, almost instantly, 
 the water stood in pools around the house, or raced 
 under ill-fitting doors, or probed with insistent finger 
 the flat adobe roof. The seething cataracts were 
 slashed fantastically with knives of steely blue, the 
 thunder rattled and growled, but the worst was over; 
 and soon a gleam from the western sky turned the 
 rain-torrents to rose, and this was the beginning of 
 the end. 
 
 But it is a misnomer to call these awful exhibitions 
 of nature " passing storms." For hours after the 
 rush and roar are spent the earth and sky are as the 
 human heart which has been shaken to its depths. The 
 shrouded moon, the uncertain stars, sobbing gusts out 
 of the wet north, quivering trees and trembling earth, 
 all voice the plaint of unassuaged and unregarded 
 pain. 
 
 Shaken herself, oppressed not only with anxiety, 
 however unreasonable, but with that nameless sense of 
 
214 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 loneliness that a storm endured with no human being 
 within sight or sound can scarcely fail to produce on 
 the impressionable, Sylvia opened the door of her 
 house and stepped upon the dripping porch. Flying 
 across the open space toward her, came the tall figure 
 of a man, clasping a bundle to his breast. The man 
 was Dick. 
 
 "Here we are!" leaping up the steps with a 
 bound that set the whole porch shuddering. " Here 
 we are boy and all, safe and sound." 
 
 He dashed on into the sitting-room, carefully 
 unwrapped his bundle, and revealed little Davie dry 
 and smiling, and holding out his arms to his mother. 
 
 For a moment Sylvia could not speak for fear of 
 falling tears. Aunt Julie, fat and waddling, entered 
 almost at once. Explanations followed, descriptions 
 of the warm and dry shelter to which Dick, happening 
 along, had carried them. Then the old woman bore 
 away the child, and Sylvia turned smiling to her 
 visitor. 
 
 " It s nice to see you, Dick ! Is it the Berry busi 
 ness again ? " 
 
 Dick looked shamed-f aced, then answered sturdily : 
 
 "No, Mrs. Kingdon not this day. I jes took a 
 notion to see how you was gettin along, an saddled 
 up, an here I am. Say, I ve been puttin in a rattlin 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 215 
 
 good time with that young one ! " he proceeded, con 
 fidentially. "Ain t he great, though? It s durned 
 
 tough as " He pulled himself up short; then 
 
 started again, " If he ain t the very spit and moral 
 
 of " tripped again, took breath and forged ahead 
 
 once more. " Seems like it s awful queer in Mrs. 
 Johnson not to let on about the kid ; an I was up to 
 her place, it wa n t a week since." 
 
 He tipped his hat over his brows, and scratched the 
 back of his head ruminatingly. "Ain t it queer to 
 you, Mrs. Kingdon?" 
 
 Sylvia smiled a sad, small smile. " No, Dick. 
 Mrs. Johnson knows what is best." 
 
 "Well, maybe so! But you bet I m goin to get 
 after her about layin so low in regards to the young 
 one ; it don t matter about tellin me, nohow." 
 
 "It s all right so far as you are concerned, Dick, 
 but stick to what she says." 
 
 "I will so!" rejoined the cow-puncher, crunching 
 Sylvia s slender fingers in his powerful grasp. " Well, 
 so-long, Mrs. Kingdon ! It s awful late. Guess I ll 
 have to stop over some place on the road. No ; much 
 obliged and grateful to you all the same, but I can t 
 stay here. Good luck to you ! Be good to yourself ! " 
 
 The two were standing on the porch now, and, shak 
 ing hands with the wife of the boss once more, Dick 
 
216 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 descended the steps, untied his horse, which had been 
 led after him by Aunt Julie, wound the yards of rope 
 around the saddle-horn, mounted and rode soberly 
 upon his way. 
 
 " Well, I ll be durned ! " he might have been heard 
 to ejaculate at intervals during the first mile or two. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 BUCKLEY did not write to fix a day for his 
 arrival ; he was too much of the old bachelor 
 for that; but before leaving Mendoza City 
 he had found out that the mail-carrier s buggy 
 would be at the flag-station to meet the train. Con 
 sequently, when, satchel in hand, he dropped from 
 the train as it came to a perfunctory stop, he was not 
 surprised to see the ramshackle rig beside the track. 
 There was, however, another sort of surprise for him. 
 
 Upon the Boy, straight and lithe, and looking 
 directly ahead of her with grave, dark eyes that saw 
 nothing, sat Sylvia. It may sound absurd, but as 
 Buckley watched her he could think only of some 
 gallant, simple-minded soldier, too single-hearted to 
 dream that he is brave. 
 
 She turned her head unexpectedly, and her eyes 
 fell upon him, the swift colour dyeing her face. 
 
 "Mr. Buckley!" 
 
 For a minute nothing more was said on either 
 side. Then Buckley, feeling the situation to be over 
 strained, remarked in his usual tones : 
 
 217 
 
218 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Have you a first-class hotel on the European plan 
 in your vicinity, Sylvia ? " 
 
 His tact led him to compromise at once upon her 
 first name, a reversion to former habits. 
 
 She followed his roving glance over the expanse of 
 sage-brush and mesquite, the deeply sandy track, until 
 it rested on the Mexican mail-driver and his dilapi 
 dated vehicle. 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " Get in that buggy, Mr. Buckley, and Refugio 
 Sarabio will tell you all about it." 
 
 " Jupiter ! What a jaw-breaking name ! " groaned 
 Buckley, as he pitched his satchel into the buggy, fol 
 lowing, himself, in a more gingerly manner. 
 
 Johnny was at the house on one of her flying 
 visits, and as the small cavalcade approached she 
 appeared on the porch. 
 
 It was noontide, and although the intensity of the 
 summer heat had now departed, and mornings and 
 evenings were not only cool but sparkled with the 
 rare dews of the Arid Belt, the thick- walled adobe 
 house was still more acceptable than the sunshine 
 without. Aunt Julie was despatched to a neighbour s 
 to bespeak a room for the newly arrived guest, and 
 Johnny, who was labouring under an attack of the 
 grand manner suitable to the reception of a distin- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 219 
 
 guished stranger, sailed away to keep watch over the 
 sleeping babe and the cooking of the plain yet excel 
 lent repast the old Mammy knew so well how to 
 concoct. 
 
 Buckley, whilst secretly observing Sylvia with a 
 vehemence of compassion and emotion surprising even 
 to himself, talked on with as much ease, and with 
 almost as much indifference, as though he were an 
 afternoon caller at her mother s city house; and she 
 met him on the same plane. It seems, sometimes, as 
 though habit and training are the most potent forces 
 in our lives. 
 
 Presently he remarked: 
 
 "Well, I ve got him for you. He ll be here to 
 morrow, and we ll go through with the function with 
 what grace we can muster, all except the young one. 
 Grace can t be looked for in him yet." 
 
 Sylvia smiled indulgently. 
 
 " Babies and bachelors ! You shall be spared, as 
 far as the drivelling condition of a proud mother will 
 permit. But tell me more about this minister." 
 
 " He s not long from God s country, for one thing, 
 and 
 
 " God s country ? " she repeated wonderingly . 
 
 Buckley shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Well, the far, the very far, East, then. He was a 
 
220 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Harvard man once, and is here for his health. To be 
 brief, Sylvia, he is a gentleman." 
 
 " Because he s a Harvard man, or because he s here 
 for his health? Rise to explain, Mr. Buckley ! But, 
 seriously, no matter whether he be Episcopalian or 
 Salvationist, to entertain a gentleman again will be 
 refreshing." 
 
 "Present company excepted, of course?" mur 
 mured Buckley, meekly. 
 
 Johnny s voice was heard announcing dinner, and 
 during its progress Buckley amused himself with 
 drawing out the shrewd woman, who, despite her 
 shrewdness, was not quite equal as yet to " sizing up," 
 as she expressed it, this unknown masculine quantity. 
 Nino s confidence was gained with less loss of time, his 
 mistress looking and marvelling. In the perspicuity 
 of minute dogs she had unbounded, and not misplaced, 
 faith. 
 
 " He can t abide the old darkey," she said, at last. 
 
 "Did you ever know a dog that could abide a 
 darkey, unless he was obliged to?" replied Buckley. 
 
 " Then Aunt Julie will persist in calling him she, " 
 put in Sylvia, " and he looks back at her with an air 
 of the most unmitigated disgust, ties his tail into 
 several bow-knots, and walks off as if the ground 
 burned his toes." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 221 
 
 " Yes," observed Johnny, drily ; " it s only the 
 lower animals, two-legged and four, as is humiliated 
 by bein mistook for a female." 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Johnson ! " expostulated Buckley, 
 deprecation in his tones. " Don t say I brought this 
 on myself ! Stand up for me, Sylvia ! " 
 
 " I didn t call no names," proceeded Johnny, quite 
 unmoved, " and I know as you re all right ; any friend 
 of hers has got to be. But I never did find as it hurt 
 the men any to give em a kind of a hitch-up oncet in 
 a while. It helps em in the end." 
 
 At that critical juncture sounds were audible from 
 the back of the house. The party were in the sitting- 
 room by this time. 
 
 " Bring me the child ! " announced Buckley, 
 sententiously. 
 
 Johnny glanced at him, suspicion in her eye. This 
 was probably a ruse for the purpose of diverting well- 
 meant criticism. 
 
 "Do you want to see him really?" Sylvia 
 inquired, dimpling with one of those radiant smiles 1 
 that, despite her persistent cheerfulness, Buckley had 
 never hoped to behold again. For a moment he could 
 not trust himself to reply. Johnny, however, was 
 entirely capable of acting as his substitute. 
 
 "Does he want to see him?" she repeated, sniffing 
 
222 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 scornfully. " Don t waste anythin so sweet on a 
 bachelor, Mrs. Kingdon! They ain t worth it." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Johnson," expostulated the accused, 
 with anxious humility, "would it not be possible, if 
 er " 
 
 "What, sir?" 
 
 " I don t know what," murmured Buckley, unex 
 pectedly dwindling to nothing. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson looked at him steadily. What was 
 passing in her mind no man could tell. Then she 
 turned and swept majestically out of the room. 
 
 It was so like the Buckley of old, this fooling; yet 
 it puzzled the usually quick-witted Johnny. As 
 suredly she did not guess with what a sorry heart he, 
 like many another, wore the cap and bells. 
 
 She had no sooner reappeared with the baby than 
 he made one stride toward her, snatched the child from 
 her arms, and began whirling around the room, hold 
 ing the little one, shrieking with glee, high in air; 
 Johnny following, scolding and expostulating. 
 
 "Let him alone!" laughed Sylvia. "He s past 
 praying for when he has these spells on him." 
 
 And so indeed it seemed. Around and around he 
 flew, leaping a stool here, a chair there, apparently 
 never even glancing at the bundle of infantine ecstasy 
 that whirled with him. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 223 
 
 Suddenly he stopped, looking as cool as when he 
 started. Dropping his burden upon Sylvia s lap, he 
 observed, calmly : 
 
 " Now let me make a note of him." 
 
 He took up his pince-nez and carefully adjusted 
 them. 
 
 " What you puttin on readin specs for to look at 
 the innocent lamb, Mr. Buckley?" objected Johnny. 
 " He ain t no newspaper." 
 
 But Buckley was merely gaining time, as Sylvia 
 well knew. He let the glasses drop again, and, tak 
 ing the small, soft chin between his finger and thumb, 
 turned the baby face toward him. The deep eyes that 
 met his inquiringly were Sylvia s, but that was all 
 of Sylvia. The beautiful boy proclaimed his father 
 hood with an emphasis positively startling. He was 
 not shy ; it seemed probable that he had also inher 
 ited his father s social qualities. At all events he made 
 himself as agreeable as present limitations would 
 permit. 
 
 "He s a beauty!" 
 
 Buckley s tone was so sad that Sylvia involuntarily 
 glanced at him, and their eyes met in a long under 
 standing gaze. Then he pulled himself together, 
 and, putting up his hands as if to ward off a blow, 
 exclaimed anxiously: 
 
224 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "Isn t that all right, Mrs. Johnson? Won t 
 that do?" 
 
 " Oh, get along with you ! " she cried. But her 
 voice was eloquent of pride and joy; and presently, 
 gathering up the baby, she departed, leaving the old 
 friends alone. 
 
 The truth was that Johnny was already jealous of 
 Buckley. 
 
 From the first she recognised in him a member of 
 a social existence which was to her unknown, and con 
 sequently open to suspicion ; therefore had she treated 
 him to her haughtiest stare. The stare had consider 
 ably relented in severity, not in its entirety as in 
 Sylvia s case, but to an appreciable exent. Never 
 theless, not Sylvia s utmost efforts could do more than 
 transform a flaming jealousy into a smouldering one. 
 Yet Buckley s obvious admiration of her idol took the 
 sting out of the knowledge that she was leaving him 
 with Sylvia to " talk secrets." 
 
 Mr. Hendrick arrived on the following day, 
 remained between trains, and baptised the baby. He 
 was indeed, as Buckley had declared, a gentleman 
 also, of course, familiar with Sylvia s tragic story. 
 A preacher who, out of the pulpit, never preached, 
 his whole life was a sermon for the reading of those 
 who run. Before the ceremony he inquired what 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 225 
 
 name he was to bestow upon the child, and when the 
 mother replied in a low, firm voice " David," he made 
 a sound of approval, adding with quiet warmth : 
 
 " I have only met Mr. Kingdon a few times, but he 
 taught me to feel very kindly toward him, and he is 
 certainly proving himself worthy of the regard with 
 which he inspired me. If little David is as like his 
 father in disposition as he is appearance, Mrs. Archi 
 bald, I think he will grow, with God s help and your 
 careful training, to be a blessing and comfort to 
 you." 
 
 On taking leave, he held her hand in his for a few 
 seconds, saying: 
 
 " Do not forget that in Mrs. Hendrick and myself 
 you have friends. Whenever you feel able to come 
 to the city, call on us ; and if trouble should chance, 
 as trouble always may, remember us." 
 
 Sylvia thanked him with lips that trembled a little, 
 adding that, so far, she had not left Rosalia. 
 
 " That perhaps is well for the present. But 
 changes may come." 
 
 And he was gone. 
 
 " That s a pretty good specimen of a minister, 
 Sylvia," said Buckley, as they went into the house; 
 " I m glad for your sake that fate has it that he is 
 an Episcopalian." 
 
226 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Johnny, who was finishing some sewing for the 
 baby preparatory to her departure, glanced up as 
 they entered, and launched into a comparison, of 
 necessity somewhat odious, between the two preachers 
 Mr. Atherton and Mr. Hendrick. 
 
 " Yes, 6 the Lord s Anointed are often extremely 
 troublesome," remarked Buckley. He was thinking 
 of something else. 
 
 "When they anoints theyselves," retorted Johnny, 
 biting off her thread in direct opposition to her 
 dentist s orders. " It s my belief as the Lord has 
 mighty little to say to much o the anointin as goes 
 on. I tell you I don t feel no call to supply con 
 sciences to Christian workers ! " 
 
 Johnny went, and the day came when Buckley too 
 had to leave. 
 
 Before he rose to depart he sat silent for a few 
 moments, his eyes wandering around the well-filled 
 room. Books of all kinds, painting materials every 
 thing was there but a piano, the absence of which he 
 had understood without the need of words. 
 
 " Do you mean to spend the balance of your life 
 here, Sylvia?" 
 
 "No, not my life. But I must not drop behind 
 whilst I have to stay in a mental desert. I have Little 
 Davie to educate, you know." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 227 
 
 She smiled as she spoke. The smile was a little 
 wan, but back of it was the indomitable cheerfulness 
 born only of great disasters. 
 
 " Isn t it a trifle early to begin ? " inquired Buck 
 ley, hesitatingly. " Do they er take notice so 
 young? " 
 
 Their eyes met, and this time Sylvia laughed out 
 right. 
 
 " You re not changed one bit ! " she said. 
 
 Buckley s smile died. 
 
 " Do you want me to change ? " he said, gravely. 
 
 " No, dear old friend no ! " earnestly, laying her 
 hand for an instant on the arm of his chair. " Thank 
 God for such as you!" 
 
 " And you will go on living in this God-forsaken 
 hole?" he repeated, this time with a trace of heat. 
 
 " Through the boy s second summer, I think. The 
 climate is ideal. Afterward but you know how 
 my people feel? " She turned her wistful eyes upon 
 him. " If they approve, then I will move. But 
 where? Here I see no one. I am as far away from 
 I mean, I am as isolated as if I were cast away 
 on a desert island ! " 
 
 " You mean by that, you see no one connected with 
 your former life except our esteemed Johnny?" 
 
 " No one except, twice, the foreman of the cattle- 
 
228 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ranch. Don t worry! I am as clean forgotten as 
 a dead man out of mind." 
 
 She smiled again; but in her voice was that note 
 that went to her listener s heart. 
 
 Buckley was silent, this time for many minutes. 
 He was " seeing things." Perhaps he had seen things 
 before quien sdbe ? Had he wasted his opportuni 
 ties in the past? Again quien sdbe ? 
 
 The chronicles of his set had it down against him 
 that he was the most confirmed of bachelors. 
 
 " Well, I must go," he said, glancing at his watch, 
 and rising. " I hope you will write without waiting 
 for something to say, and especially if you need me. 
 Don t forget the brat s my godson." 
 
 " I will write. And I won t forget." 
 
 She went with him to the door, where the buggy 
 waited. They did not care to make their farewells 
 at the depot. 
 
 A warm, firm clasp of the hand, and Buckley was 
 gone. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 WEEK after week of stillness and splen 
 dour slipped along that splendour of 
 the New Mexican fall, that symphony 
 in blue and gold, which the inhabitants of the 
 Arid Belt look upon as their inalienable right. 
 Then, one evening, the sun plunged headlong into a 
 blue-black abyss; and when he started on his march 
 up the morning sky there hung on tne eastern moun 
 tain-tops a pillow of cloud; and when at length he 
 burst upon the waiting world his triumph was short 
 lived. 
 
 By noon the cloud was rent by a furious gale 
 which shook the earth to its centre, and raged along 
 the valley, shutting out sky and mountain with a veil 
 of sand. 
 
 It was afternoon now, and Sylvia sat at the window 
 engaged in putting the finishing touches to a water- 
 colour sketch made the day before. Signs of Little 
 Davie were omnipresent, but he himself slumbered 
 upon the broad lounge. The doors through into the 
 
 229 
 
230 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 kitchen were all open, and Aunt Julie could be heard 
 crooning over her ironing. Variations of 
 
 " Swing low , sweet chariot ! " 
 
 filled the pauses in the wind. 
 
 Gradually Sylvia ceased to paint. Leaning back 
 in her chair, her unseeing eyes fixed upon the storm 
 without, she glided imperceptibly into dreams. 
 
 She came to, with a sigh and a start. Dreams? 
 No ; such are the luxury of the happy. She sprang 
 to her feet, recollecting that her ostensible reason 
 for stopping work had been that a certain colour 
 she needed was in a trunk kept in a lean-to shed 
 adjoining the house. 
 
 Bidding the old coloured woman listen for any 
 sound from the baby, she unlocked and entered the 
 shed, which was close to the kitchen door. There 
 was a small square window in the rude structure. The 
 door had a spring lock, and, expecting to find what 
 she wanted promptly, she had not withdrawn the key. 
 An impish gust suddenly whirled around the corner 
 and slammed the door. She was a prisoner. This 
 was provoking, but nothing more. The baby was 
 cared for, the day was not cold, and her period of 
 discomfort would be but brief; Aunt Julie would 
 soon appear, to find out what delayed her mistress. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 231 
 
 Undisturbed, therefore, she began to remove the 
 articles in this trunk that Aunt Julie had packed and 
 that had not been opened since. As she did so, she 
 became aware of voices ; men were evidently standing 
 close against the side of the shed, out of the wind, 
 and talking together in voices intended to be low, but 
 which were in reality not so, on account of the roaring 
 of the gale. 
 
 For a few minutes Sylvia paid no attention to them, 
 until suddenly David s name struck upon her ear. 
 The speaker was Berry. Then occurred one of those 
 coincidences we are in the habit of calling remarkable, 
 but which are common enough in this real life of 
 ours. 
 
 She had penetrated to the middle of the trunk, and, 
 as she lifted a gown of soft silk and lace, there, 
 smiling up at her, was the face of David himself, 
 brilliant, animated the portrait she had painted dur 
 ing those happy days in the mountains. 
 
 The shock was supreme, the effect produced far 
 more remarkable than the coincidence itself. 
 
 Sylvia arose, and, laying the gown gently back 
 upon the face of the picture almost as though she 
 were covering the face of the dead, walked deliber 
 ately, with white face and set lips, in the direction 
 of the voices. There was a knot missing in the rude 
 
232 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 boarding, and unhesitatingly she put her eye to the 
 hole. 
 
 Spying and listening what a role for " the proud 
 Miss Newman " ! And she was not ashamed. If 
 by any means she could succeed not only in aiding 
 David, but in frustrating the eternal mockery of 
 law, such means she was now resolved to employ. Her 
 mood was not one for trifling. 
 
 Long Tom had been pointed out to her at the 
 round-up, and, assisted by that half-unconscious 
 memory of faces developed by a wide and varied 
 social life, she recognised the man in an instant; 
 and in spite of her resolution, shuddered as she 
 did so. 
 
 The third member of the group was Berry s son, a 
 favourite with Mr. Atherton, and whom, therefore, 
 she had often met. The expression of his counte 
 nance was sufficient for any one with eyes wherewith 
 to see. He belonged to the type of manhood who, 
 by a natural law, may be depended upon to make 
 themselves offensive to women who have been inno 
 cently compromised, and from whom such women do 
 well to follow their equally natural instinct to shrink. 
 Sylvia had not merely shrunk, but had taken refuge 
 behind the unassailable hauteur before referred to. 
 How this man contrived to make a living, unless by 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 233 
 
 living on his father, no one could have told. He was 
 looked upon generally as "a pretty bad egg." 
 
 " It was a d d fool-trick ! " growled Berry. 
 
 " T wa n t no sech a thing ! " retorted Long Tom. 
 " Bluff s a good game to play, I tell you, played 
 right. Me an you wa n t never one on that." 
 
 "/ tell you that it s resky!" persisted the 
 
 older man, piling on the oaths " jest at election time, 
 too ! an the other side raisin Cain tryin to suspicion 
 true regardin them cows. But we done em up, 
 sure!" 
 
 And the speaker laughed a cackling laugh at the 
 recollection. 
 
 " You bet ! A dozen an more cows to the good we 
 
 is, an that d d Kingdon chap to the bad ! An it s 
 
 bluff as done it every time, Mr. Berry!" 
 
 There was a short pause. Then Vincent Berry 
 spoke : 
 
 " Well, we got to win ! That s all there is about 
 it." 
 
 "What s an election, anyway?" said his father. 
 " Dollars an whiskey ! An the h 1 of it is the other 
 side s got the dollars." 
 
 "An ain t we got em equally as good?" snarled 
 the son. " It s up to you, Paw, to plank em down. 
 Th ain t a d d Mexican as ain t to be bought, not 
 
234 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 so awful many white men neither. So jes go ahead 
 an win, / say ! " 
 
 " Yes," retorted Berry, " an if we re cornered 
 an has to throw up our hands before election, then 
 what?" 
 
 "Oh, come off, Paw! If you re a-goin to corner 
 us on the other business an as for buy in votes, 
 they ll have to prove it. An as for juries you 
 know s well s I do as fifty dollars will buy any jury 
 as ever stepped!" 
 
 There was another silence. Then Long Tom 
 stretched himself and yawned. 
 
 " Well, I guess as I ll be makin tracks. The wind 
 has moderated some. An if Vin s goin to board that 
 train, / say as we d best hump ourselves, get a drink 
 
 over to the store, an get out to that d d fool 
 
 Atherton s." 
 
 They were gone. In another moment Julie s voice 
 was heard at the door, the lock was turned and 
 Sylvia was free. 
 
 The baby was awake, but for once his claim on her 
 notice was waived. She sent nurse and child out of 
 the room, and, sitting down to her desk, began to 
 consider the matter before her. It was of the great 
 est importance, not omitting the fact that Long Tom, 
 murderer and cattle-rustler, was walking abroad un- 
 
(THE HUMAN TOUCH 235 
 
 molested. But how, and to whom, could she transmit 
 the information she had gathered? To make use of 
 the wire was out of the question ; the telephone in 
 the store was equally so; in country communities 
 news imparted by such means becomes at once public 
 property. There was nothing for it but to write 
 and to whom ? Suspicion had become certainty ; and 
 yet how could she ever appear as witness? 
 
 She seized a pen and wrote to John Cristol. This 
 done, there was exactly twenty minutes in which to 
 catch the train, which of course would be flagged for 
 Berry. The mail-carrier had started. The Boy 
 was at pasture half a mile away ; and the horse for 
 her purpose was at that moment being tied to the 
 porch of the store. The animal was a retired cow- 
 pony, but Sylvia was horsewoman enough to have 
 discovered long since that the claims his master made 
 for him were not unfounded ; and that when that mas 
 ter insisted that this low-crested, lowering-eyed " son 
 of the sage-brush" had a capacity for "humping 
 himself, " the said assertion was no empty boast. 
 
 The wind was subsiding, to some extent. Aunt 
 Julie, bathing the baby in the inner room, was sing 
 ing at the full pitch of her lungs. Sylvia picked 
 up a hat and a light coat, and went forth, letter in 
 hand. 
 
236 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 She went straight to the clerk, the horse s owner, 
 a respectful admirer of hers. 
 
 " Want to catch the mail ? " he said, briskly, in 
 reply to her query. " Why, certainly, Mrs. Archi 
 bald! Take Ketchum, and welcome! He ll do the 
 trick for you, if you handle him right." 
 
 He added one or two words of advice, and she was 
 off. The sun was just setting in a dusty, murky west ; 
 and to an imaginative person there is always some 
 thing weird and tense in driving alone through a fast 
 vanishing twilight. The solemn, swift advance of 
 night presses hard, like some antagonistic presence, 
 upon the solitary. 
 
 Mr. Brown was not mistaken about Ketchum. He 
 made, with but slight encouragement, the mile and a 
 half, some if it through hub-deep sand, in eleven 
 minutes. Thoroughly disgusted, but by no means 
 blown, he chewed in mute annoyance the telegraph 
 pole to which his driver hitched him just as the train 
 came to a stop. 
 
 The letter was safe now on the rapidly disappear 
 ing mail-car, and Sylvia started homeward. The 
 wind was reduced to a mere nothing, but there were 
 other annoyances. Vin Berry, who with two friends 
 of the same calibre had escorted his father to the train, 
 had lingered around, watching Sylvia as she untied 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 237 
 
 her horse and got into the buggy. She detested the 
 man, his companions looked equally odious, and she 
 was bitterly aware that they all considered her fair 
 game for insolence The carefully nurtured city 
 girl had never been alone at nightfall on a country 
 road before; and it is vain to pretend that Sylvia 
 was possessed of much native courage. 
 
 All went well until the stretch of deep sand not far 
 from the depot was reached. She decided to let 
 Ketchum slouch through it at a walk, although this 
 arrangement permitted the wagon to approach very 
 near, the men within making personal remarks 
 intended for her delectation. Her object was to save 
 her horse, feeling sure that, once upon the hard adobe 
 road, the cow-pony would show a clean pair of heels 
 to her tormentors; more especially as they, in merci 
 less Western fashion, were jagging and slashing their 
 panting team through the heartbreaking sand. They 
 passed the buggy, turning around as they did so 
 to stare and make yet louder remarks than before; 
 then to her dismay, having reached the hard road, 
 they pulled their horses to a walk, and amused them 
 selves with observing her slower progress. 
 
 It was a bitter ordeal for Sylvia, though some other 
 kind of woman might have scorned to be disturbed 
 by it ; but to Sylvia it was so unspeakably bitter that 
 
238 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 she even caught herself smiling at the monstrosity of 
 the thing, and then was suddenly torn with a shame 
 and indignation that no Western woman under like 
 circumstances could possibly have comprehended. A 
 wild cloud swayed across the moon, the gust that 
 drove it lifting her hat and blowing the dust in her 
 face. She was still calm enough to remember that 
 she could not afford to have her actions impeded by a 
 hat. She whipped it off and thrust it under the seat ; 
 then, holding the reins between her knees, tied her 
 veil over her head. Now she was ready, and the hard 
 road was close at hand. 
 
 Ketchum, who could scarcely be described as a good- 
 natured or ambitious animal, resented her first tight 
 ening of the reins by a cross snatch at them. But 
 Sylvia was not discouraged ; she felt confident he would 
 respond when seriously called upon. 
 
 The men in the wagon had come to a full stop, and 
 another gust of wind enveloped her in a cloud of 
 dust. This was her opportunity, and, like a good 
 general, she seized it. Taking Ketchum short by the 
 head, she gave him one sharp cut with the whip. He 
 kicked up his heels, then flung himself forward on a 
 dead run. Sylvia braced her feet against the iron 
 stretcher and pulled steadily on the reins ; pulled even 
 when the horse had settled to a trot; pulled until he 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 239 
 
 was trotting his best ; then let him go. She had 
 learned the trick; and Ketchum, in his nasty, ill- 
 tempered way, acknowledged that she had got the 
 better of him. Once he nagged; she drew on the 
 rein again, and again he flew. In less than a mile the 
 men in the wagon had abandoned the pursuit. 
 
 "Well, did you make it, Mrs. Archibald?" inquired 
 Ketchum s proud owner, as the buggy rolled up to 
 the store door. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Brown, thanks to Ketchum. He s a 
 good horse ! " 
 
 " Ain t he, though ! " cried the delighted youth. " I 
 always did say, once let Mrs. Archibald get behind 
 him, and she d know enough to find it out! These 
 fellers here don t know nothing. You re more than 
 welcome, any time you need him. You ve got the 
 finest saddler this section s ever seen, but Ketchum s 
 the boy for a buggy!" 
 
 " That s right, Mr. Brown," she responded, in the 
 vernacular of the country. 
 
 " Laws sakes, chile ! " exclaimed Aunt Julie, as 
 Sylvia pulled off her veil, displaying in the light of 
 the lamp eyes like stars and cheeks pink with excite 
 ment. " Whar, fo de Lor s sake, have you been? " 
 
 "Just to mail a letter, Mammy. Is Baby 
 asleep ? " 
 
240 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "Dis long time, de blessed lamb!" 
 
 Sylvia took a small lamp and passed into the inner 
 room. Leaning over the sleeping child her eyes 
 devoured him with the intensity of love. 
 
 The roar and rush of the day was over. In the 
 profound violet blue of the sky floated the silver boat 
 of the young moon, at the prow her guiding star. 
 Near the horizon this passion of colour lost itself in 
 rarest ether, deepening to orange and flecked here 
 and there with tossed plumes of sable tortured into 
 strange shapes by the hand of the strong west 
 wind. 
 
 The wind was gone now, leaping over the mountains 
 into the east. Here all was still. 
 
 Sylvia put out the lamp, and, sinking into a low 
 rocker beside the bed, wept long and silently. 
 
 " Mis , don look at me datter way ! I ain t done 
 nuffin. Dick, he done tole him!" Then, more 
 defiantly: " An ef a man cayn t see his own chile 
 who favours him so mightily dat no one ain t gwine 
 to so much as peek at him an not know hit now, 
 Mis , don t take hit so hard." 
 
 For Sylvia was white as death. 
 
 Aunt Julie, in slippery, faithful darkey fashion, 
 had betrayed her ; Dick had betrayed her. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 241 
 
 "Who told him that I was going to Mcndoza 
 City to-day ? " she said, hoarsely. 
 
 A pause. Aunt Julie was wondering how she could 
 shuffle out of this dilemma. 
 
 "Dick say, nex time your Mis go way, you tell 
 me. I say, my Mis don never go from hyar. Then 
 you say you bleeged go see Mr. Hendrick one certain 
 day this week. Dick come down, seein after dat 
 Berry. I done tole him!" 
 
 Aunt Julie was sullen now. 
 
 And Sylvia had missed her train, and was back 
 again. Whose fault was that, Aunt Julie would like 
 to know? 
 
 "Who has seen him?" 
 
 Sylvia s voice was almost inaudible. Her whole 
 being was one yearning cry. 
 
 " No one done see him. They camped thar in de 
 bosque all night, an soon in de mornin , after you 
 done gone, I ca ied Davie way off to dat little old 
 adobe to de Marse." 
 
 The old woman looked at her mistress with the 
 furtive expression which is the birthright of her race ; 
 then she added, insinuatingly : 
 
 " Mis , you listen to the ole Mammy, an take your 
 hat an go thar. Let Marse Davie see your face jes 
 this one time ! T ain t gwine hurt, I tell you, an it s 
 
242 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 right he should see de chile an 5 de mother. How s 
 you-all gwine raise datter chile widout de father say 
 how? Ain t de sweet lamb his, well as your s? 
 Ain t he to have no say-so to hit? De ole Mammy 
 ain t never spoke bef o , but she s talkin now, sure ! 
 She done let you have it your own way. But, Mis , 
 dat boy Marse Davie s too!" 
 
 There was a long, long silence. 
 
 In such struggles, when what we call the Flesh 
 wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the 
 Flesh, it is often the element of righteousness in the 
 demands of the Flesh that gives them their power 
 over us. At last Sylvia spoke. 
 
 " Come, Aunt Julie ! " And the two went out 
 together. 
 
 " I been back an forth a heap o times. Even de 
 goats an de herdin boy done gone dis day. De ole 
 bosque still, like de grave." 
 
 The door of the deserted hut stood open. The 
 old woman pulled her mistress down behind a mes- 
 quite bush, and bade her look. 
 
 And Sylvia? As she watched the two brown heads 
 so close together, the mother s heart contracted with 
 the very anguish of love. For the child looked back 
 at his father with his mother s eyes, and was not 
 afraid. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 243 
 
 How she entered she knew not, how the three met 
 she knew not ; but Aunt Julie had gone outside with 
 the baby, and David was kneeling at her feet and 
 covering her hands with kisses, and she had had time to 
 note, with another contraction of the heart, the fine 
 lines drawn around his eyes and about his brow. 
 
 " How could you keep this from me? " he murmured 
 at last. "Dearest, how could you?" 
 
 She answered nothing. There was indeed nothing 
 to be said. We bear, we endure, we scarce know how. 
 God knows, we say, and as Sylvia freed one hand and 
 laid it on the bowed brown head, the pity of it went 
 to her heart with a pang as pure and selfless as that 
 of a mother for her grieving child. 
 
 At length she spoke softly her hand still upon 
 his head. 
 
 "Would it be any help to you to see the child 
 sometimes ? " 
 
 He lifted his face, his eyes darkened and dimmed 
 with tears. 
 
 " How can it be? He is too like too like " 
 
 " I know. But, David, it is your right." 
 
 " But we we cannot meet ! I dare not ! Oh, my 
 Sylvia my wife! " 
 
 He arose and walked away from her. Outside, 
 
244 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Aunt Julie was crooning to the child. But for that, 
 the place was utterly still. 
 
 When he turned, he was himself again. Here was 
 the rare man who did not, after the common manner 
 of man, mistake the self-control of the brave woman. 
 That she suffered even as he did acted as a call upon 
 that manhood which had been strengthened and deep 
 ened by her influence; most of all, by her undying 
 faith in him. From the first, she had believed in him, 
 had divined the possibilities lying hidden beneath 
 apparently trivial externals hidden from the entire 
 world of his own sex and from the large majority of 
 her own. 
 
 " You are right," he said. " You have been right 
 all through, my Sylvia. How long this must go on 
 we cannot tell; perhaps not always. * 
 
 He held out his hands, and she laid her own within 
 them. 
 
 "As for the boy," he said, after that long pause, 
 " I need not tell you what it would be to me to see him 
 
 sometimes. You know how I always longed " 
 
 He curbed himself; then started afresh. "But the 
 difficulties are stupendous, even if you stay where you 
 are." 
 
 "And that is best for the present?" 
 
 "I think so. And no trouble is being made for 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 245 
 
 either of us, I understand. Next year, perhaps, when 
 the boy is older, you may have to go " 
 
 The yearning in his eyes for a moment overcame 
 her; and he saw the instant s faltering. Strong is 
 the Human, and it found voice now. 
 
 " Sylvia," he whispered, " are you sure sure 
 we are doing right ? " 
 
 " Sure, David? Who can be sure? We must do 
 the best we can it is all that we can do live up to 
 the highest that is in us as long as we are able " 
 
 There was another silence, and when she spoke 
 again it was firmly. 
 
 " As for the difficulties in regard to little Davie, 
 they shall be overcome. You have your rights. 
 Leave them in my charge for a while." 
 
 "Dick waitin on you, Marse," said Julie, at the 
 door. 
 
 One last, long gaze; one close pressure of the 
 clasped hands. 
 
 " Not once, my Sylvia? " 
 
 For answer she raised her face to his, and they 
 kissed one another almost as we kiss the dead. 
 
 At the door he took the child from the arms of its 
 nurse, stroked its soft head, and clasped it for a 
 moment to his breast ; then mounted his horse without 
 a word, and rode upon his way. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE Territorial elections were close at hand. 
 Mystery and strife thickened the moral at 
 mosphere of the county town as effectually 
 as the perpetually stirred dust of its streets con 
 taminated the purity of its more tangible atmosphere. 
 The constant hurrying of horses, at the ungainly 
 Western lope, bearing riders who are really not in 
 a hurry at all, is like a perpetual sarcasm in a section 
 where haste which is either efficient or seemly is practi 
 cally unknown. 
 
 There are, however, exceptions to the universal 
 Territorial rule, and Cristol and his right-hand man, 
 David Kingdon, figured among them. 
 
 For into the turmoil and dirt, moral and physical, 
 of the elections David had thrown himself headlong. 
 His own business was not, in consequence, performed 
 perfunctorily; but, temporarily at least, stock-own 
 ing had lost much of its interest for him. For a while 
 it had to some extent availed as a distraction from 
 pressing griefs; but as life had grown increasingly 
 more barren and difficult, mere work had not availed. 
 
 246 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 247 
 
 The accepted belief, that unvaried daily toil, whether 
 of mind or body a toil and strife in which 
 
 "No eye beams Courage. 
 
 And no voice cries Well ! " 
 
 can withstand the equally ceaseless strain upon the 
 heart, David had long since discovered to be even as 
 other popular beliefs invented for the satisfaction 
 of the prosperous. 
 
 The fall business had, therefore, been left to the 
 faithful Dick, whilst David abandoned himself to the 
 excitement of serving his friend Cristol. 
 
 The marked change for the better which had taken 
 place in Clairette s condition had served to lessen her 
 claims upon his time. With the advent in late August 
 of friends from Jonesville, a former admirer and his 
 invalid sister, literally as well as figuratively to pitch 
 their tents at Kingdon s Crossing for the winter, this 
 decided improvement had set in. Like the majority 
 of women whose beauty is of mediocre quality, her 
 vanity exceeded her good looks. The beautiful 
 woman, she whose beauty has a more solid foundation 
 than youthful diablerie or rounded cheeks, is seldom 
 afflicted with this plebeian characteristic ; she is too 
 proud to be vain. But to Clairette that the full 
 cheeks and figure which go with her style should fall 
 
248 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 away had been a dread second only to her dread of 
 death. Of late, her anxiety had been lest a growing 
 double chin should not prove becoming. Her vanity, 
 therefore, was now in good working order. 
 
 Invalidism might do for a husband; but, potent as 
 she believed her charms to be, she was nevertheless 
 dimly aware that they were not of a sufficiently inter 
 esting character to stand being coupled with the 
 manners and customs of ill-health; in her case the 
 two were clearly a misfit. The coming of the young 
 man in question was a godsend to Clairette. Yet her 
 terror of death was still all-powerful. She manifested 
 extraordinary prudence, even when the thermometer 
 got pushed to the back of her bureau-drawer and 
 forgotten, and the hour passed unnoticed at which 
 she had been in the habit of having her husband or 
 Justine feel her pulse; or, more significant yet, she 
 played cards two evenings in succession. 
 
 David, therefore, was not so much in request, and 
 it was with an undisturbed conscience that he threw 
 himself into the task of assisting the Will of the 
 People, to use a phrase now become worse than mean 
 ingless. The usual bribery and corruption were here 
 seconded by arts produced by far Western conditions, 
 and David found his waters of Lethe somewhat dirty 
 and unpleasant to the taste. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 249 
 
 Cristol had not mentioned the receipt of that note 
 from Sylvia. For a while, indeed, he had not seen 
 his way to making use of the information it contained. 
 
 It was late one night that he and Kingdon found 
 themselves alone, after a fatiguing day that, for 
 Cristol, had not yet closed. They were enjoying a 
 quiet smoke at the headquarters of the political party 
 to which both belonged ; rather perforce than because 
 either considered that the game of politics and the 
 election of guardians of the peace have anything 
 in common. The two men showed the effects of 
 sleepless nights and hard work. 
 
 The sheriff took a letter from an inner fold of his 
 pocketbook and passed it across the table to his com 
 panion. David s sensitive face flushed as his eyes 
 fell on the familiar handwriting, but he drew the letter 
 from its envelope and read it without comment; then 
 returned it, though with evident reluctance, to its 
 owner. 
 
 "No, my son," and Cristol smiled an indulgent 
 smile "you can t keep it. Pen-work ain t over and 
 above safe these days." 
 
 He struck a match and held both letter and envelope 
 in its flame until ashes on the bare floor were all that 
 remained. 
 
 " She can t appear as a witness ! " 
 
250 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 The sheriff lit a fresh cigar before replying: 
 
 " Not much ! That s the devil of it." 
 
 " Well, I don t see that there is anything to be 
 done, then." 
 
 Cristol glanced sharply at his companion. To be 
 nonplussed or dejected in the very thick of the fray 
 what new David was this? 
 
 But the sheriff did not know of that meeting and 
 parting scarcely a month back ; and it is these things 
 that take the heart out of a man. 
 
 Cristol took his cigar from between his lips, 
 examined it critically at both ends, and returned it 
 where it belonged. 
 
 "Everything s done," he retorted, quietly. 
 
 Springing from his chair, David faced his friend. 
 He was once more his alert and eager self. 
 
 With a deliberation which the younger man had 
 learned to expect and endure, Cristol told his tale. 
 
 True, he had not been able to act directly upon the 
 information furnished him by Sylvia, but her prompt 
 ness in catching him whilst at Mendoza City, she 
 having learned from village gossip that he was there, 
 had proved of extreme value. He had laid his plans 
 in the city; gathered there, "on the quiet," details 
 likely to advantageously supplement those sent him 
 from the Rosalia valley; and one night he mounted 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 251 
 
 his horse, rode forty miles to a friendly ranchman s, 
 where he passed the following day, and toward evening 
 started again, arriving at Sylvia s village after dark 
 and unobserved. Removing his guns from the saddle, 
 he hid his horse in the deep bosque, and proceeded 
 in the moonless October night to Sylvia s house. 
 Accustomed to the watchfulness which is the never 
 sleeping companion of a travelling sheriff who carries 
 his life in his hand, Cristol was positive that he had 
 both entered and left the house unseen, except by the 
 faithful old coloured woman. Here the narrator, 
 being but a kind and human man, paused for the 
 breathless query : 
 
 " And you saw her ! Did she seem well ? " 
 Cristol s deliberation appeared to increase on him. 
 Finally he said: 
 
 "Well, I guess so. But she ain t the kind of 
 young woman that dances on graves, so to speak, or 
 flirts around in crape because it s so interesting. Any 
 one can see she s got a deep, feeling heart; and I ve 
 been around enough to know that it s not every woman 
 has that. Of course she s broken up some, but she 
 wouldn t let on as she was, and spoke as well and 
 showed as much mind as if all her life she d been at 
 this work. And she s got mind, let me tell you! 
 And what s more, Kingdon, your wife-as-was always 
 
252 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 did seem to me the sweetest, faithfulest kind of a 
 woman and beautiful too, even if she has lost her 
 colour and flesh some." 
 
 The men smoked in silence. Then Cristol ex 
 claimed : 
 
 " And as for the kid I tell you, Dave, he s a likely 
 young one ! A regular buster, and no mistake ! " 
 
 He turned a face eloquent with sympathy upon 
 his companion, but was not prepared for the flash of 
 David s smile, or his quick 
 
 "Isn t he, though!" 
 
 The sheriff stared; then light dawned on him. 
 
 "Pretty risky, eh?" 
 
 " Risky enough but " Then followed the fuller 
 
 explanation the occasion of the Fair at Correone 
 which had depleted the village, the carefully laid plot 
 of Dick and Aunt Julie, Sylvia s frustrated visit to 
 Mendoza City. 
 
 All this produced on the sheriff an effect of silence ; 
 but time was passing, and he soon hurried to a close. 
 
 After a lengthy consultation, he and Sylvia had 
 parted. He was in possession now of certain points 
 indispensable to success ; it only remained for him to 
 bring his practiced faculties to bear on the case. 
 This he had done, and now produced a document, 
 which he spread out upon the table. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 253 
 
 He had not considered the matter of buying votes 
 of prime importance, as witnesses to that procedure 
 could be found almost anywhere, at almost any time ; 
 but in regard to the other matters he had needed 
 accurate proof. This he had obtained, partly at 
 Sylvia s suggestion, from Joe Brown at the store, 
 and from a Mexican teamster of Berry s. Both wit 
 nesses knew Long Tom well by sight, had seen him 
 that windy day in the village, and had heard him 
 boasting in his cups. The Mexican, who had reasons 
 of his own for revenging himself on Berry, had more 
 than once been an auditor of compromising discussions 
 in the Berry household. Brown was an easy-going 
 backward sort of a fellow, who would never have come 
 forward but for Sylvia s action. The accumulated 
 evidence was practically the same as hers would have 
 been had it been possible to bring her forward. It 
 was clearly written out, and signed by both witnesses. 
 
 "You understand," concluded the sheriff, as he 
 pocketed the document, and pushed back his chair, 
 "that no names are to be called unless our hand is 
 forced. I simply make statements, and my belief 
 is they ll take the trick. If they don t, I hold the 
 winning card see? Berry and the gang can t afford 
 to monkey with t his hand ! " 
 
 The two candidates, Berry and Cristol, belonged to 
 
254 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 the same political party, but there was absolutely no 
 question with which candidate the best element ranged 
 itself. When the day of nomination dawned, there 
 fore, the Cristol faction proceeded to the place of 
 meeting of their party without a suspicion of what 
 was in store for them. In conflicts which may better 
 be described as a series of assassinations in the dark, 
 not even the most experienced can foresee when or 
 where the stiletto will strike; and those longest tried 
 in political corruption may be entrapped by tricks 
 worse and dirtier than any previous experience has 
 foretold; and worst, perhaps, of all enemies is the 
 supineness of what is called " the best element in 
 the community " amongst all sins surely one of the 
 basest, and in a case like the present amounting to 
 actual criminality. 
 
 There was a certain portion of the county in which 
 the influence of the Reverend William Atherton, 
 exerted of course for Berry, had not been wasted. It 
 had told with men who " had no use for sheriffs, any 
 way " ; who were indifferent or unintelligent ; who had 
 no interests at stake; or who, in common with too 
 many other nominally excellent citizens, regarded all 
 public questions as beneath their notice. To this 
 collection of promising scions of democracy must be 
 added the merely ignorant or ineffectually pious 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 255 
 
 those who cherished a vague belief that to walk with 
 " the minister," politically or otherwise, is to make one 
 step nearer heaven. Mr. Atherton s partisanship 
 was, in short, of such a character that even Sylvia s 
 cultivated liberality could no longer tolerate either 
 it or him ; a circumstance of which his dull sensibilities 
 finally made him aware, and which he was now resent 
 ing after his own manner. 
 
 The convention had scarcely begun its sitting when 
 Cristol, like the old war-horse that he was, scented a 
 fray. But the opposition had been too carefully 
 planned. He was powerless and trapped. The Berry 
 faction was enormous, comprising as it did an inex 
 haustible family as well as numerous outsiders held 
 in bondage to Berry for reasons various, financial and 
 worse. A man may be loathed and despised, and yet 
 in certain sections of this great country may wield 
 tremendous power. 
 
 In less than five minutes Cristol discovered that the 
 political leaders of the convention had been " got at." 
 The whole affair swept like a cyclone through the 
 town of frame houses; and when it had passed 
 scarcely a man of Cristol s faction was left alive. To 
 all intents and purposes Berry was not merely nomi 
 nated, but elected. It was the same as regarded other 
 men of his colour, for offices hardly less important 
 
256 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 than that of sheriff. It was a clear case of railroad 
 ing motions through a convention. 
 
 Yet, like Goliath of old, the oppostion had reckoned 
 without its David. When this modern David sprang 
 to his feet, and in language tense and vigorous de 
 nounced the assembly as lawless, and its proceedings 
 as unparliamentary, his equally tense and vigorous 
 figure dominated for a while the entire convention; 
 not by physical bulk or by means of the voice of a 
 bull, but by the force and intensity of the man. His 
 eyes, darkening as always when under the sway of 
 emotion, seemed to burn each lifted face as they flashed 
 and passed ; his eloquence, never windy or vapouring, 
 was condensed now to white heat. Whether he would 
 or no, every man present lent his ear, and there was not 
 one among them who, of David Kingdon, had expected 
 this. 
 
 It was his first public effort, if effort such fire and 
 flame can be called. And there was but one person 
 in the world who, had she been there to hear and see, 
 would have felt no surprise the woman who loved 
 him, and had always believed in him. 
 
 It was a paltry stage and a petty occasion, perhaps ; 
 yet is anything paltry or petty when a man fulfils 
 himself? 
 
 When the brief and impassioned speech closed, as 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 257 
 
 abruptly as it had opened, chaos engulfed the assem 
 bly. For a time it appeared as though a free fight 
 were imminent. Accusation and recrimination rent 
 the air, already foul with the fumes of whisky and 
 tobacco of many days generation. Again David was 
 on his feet, and again his voice rang out like a clarion, 
 calling on all who loved honour, law, and freedom to 
 follow him. 
 
 A sudden hush fell on the convention. Even 
 Cristol, standing at the speaker s right hand, was 
 momentarily stunned by this amazing leap to leader 
 ship of him whose powers had been hidden from his 
 nearest friends, from all but the one woman. 
 
 Hesitation was short-lived. As though animated 
 by one soul, a small yet sufficiently influential body 
 of men left the hall in the wake of Kingdon and 
 Cristol. 
 
 The mass of the community might be inert and 
 corrupt; but, the best element once earnestly banded 
 together, for the lowest element there was danger 
 ahead. This fact the latter were not slow to recog 
 nise; and now the fight was to begin the real fight 
 for supremacy. 
 
 Such revolutions are not necessarily of enduring 
 quality, partaking doubtless of the hysterical char 
 acter of religious revivals; but occasionally they 
 
258 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 accomplish something. Fortunately this one was only 
 called upon to endure four days. 
 
 As, after leaving the hall, the men crowded around 
 to shake their new leader by the hand, it was Cristol 
 alone, the veteran seamed and scarred by war s ex 
 perience, who sounded the note of warning. 
 
 "It s been tried before," he said, laying his hand 
 affectionately on David s shoulder "over to Los 
 Amigos. And it failed. Independence and principle 
 ain t worth a cent here; it s all dollars and dirt, and 
 don t you forget it ! " 
 
 "You won t go back on me, John? " 
 
 "Go back on you?" Cristol swore a little oath. 
 " Not quite, my boy ! I m here to play the cards for 
 all they re worth ; and I m in to win, too, if winning s 
 in it." 
 
 The evidence in regard to purchased votes did not, 
 as Cristol rather anticipated, count for much. Men 
 whose shoulders were accustomed to shrug at such 
 treachery in open fight shrugged them now. What 
 was to be done about it? The bribery law was prac 
 tically null and void in a community where the price 
 of any jury ranged from fifty dollars upward. 
 
 But cattle-stealing was another matter. Cattle 
 men who had been raging for months in futile wrath, 
 and suspicion worse than futile, flew to arms. There 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 259 
 
 was no necessity to call up witnesses ; the paper 
 Cristol held served to inflame them. The sheriff knew 
 that he was tampering with dynamite; knew that he 
 was stirring up dead issues as well as live ones ; but, 
 habituated in his vocation to take chances and to 
 handle desperate men, imbued, too, with the Western 
 spirit in regard to the unsurpassed criminality of 
 meddling with your neighbour s ox or ass, he troubled 
 himself no whit. If he could get the offender or of 
 fenders not merely brought to the bar, but sentenced, 
 he felt that his life s work would be well done ; and in 
 order to accomplish something more than a mere 
 profitless capture of criminals, public opinion must 
 be aroused. 
 
 Never had such a " revival " been witnessed before 
 in the history of that section. It gathered in men 
 of both parties, men of none: the best element which 
 lazily accepted the nomination of its political party, 
 or simply murmured that all was vanity and abstained 
 from casting its vote; men who drifted because they 
 considered all human effort wasted in any endeavour 
 to stem the tide of political corruption ; all the flotsam 
 and jetsam of a voting community was dragged in, 
 spurred and fired by Kingdon s tremendous enthu 
 siasm, backing the fury of the cattle-men. 
 
 It was as if all the repressed emotions of the past 
 
260 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 year and a half had broken loose in David. Nothing 
 seemed able to withstand such force. 
 
 Cristol found time to write a note to Sylvia, and 
 cheer her with the news of the good results of that 
 effort which had cost her so much. He did this the 
 more willingly, knowing the barrier which prevented 
 even the exchange of letters betwixt David and Sylvia. 
 But he told David what he had done. 
 
 In those four days it was vain for the croakers to 
 croak. The high tide of enthusiasm ignored whisky- 
 drugged Mexicans corralled by the opposition in order 
 to obtain their " straight vote " on election-day, 
 ignored all the old tricks of the tricky game of 
 politics. The Independents were sick not only of the 
 old tricks, but of the worn-out political treadmill, and 
 gloried in the vigour and eloquence of their new 
 leader. 
 
 As he had won languid clubmen in New York, so he 
 won, now that he desired to do so, rural spirits who 
 needed the spur to the full as badly. And of him 
 of whom it may be said that he can win men to a strong 
 respect and liking there is, as a rule, not very much 
 that is evil to be told. The liking of the average 
 woman, given a personality such as that of David 
 Kingdon, is not, after all, much of a feather in a 
 man s cap. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 261 
 
 Yet the liking of woman came in oddly enough at 
 this period. Molly Fisher, concerning whom Berry 
 had gloriously lied when he said that she had married 
 and settled down, descended upon the county town 
 to do battle in her own way for the cause repre 
 sented by him whom, in her innocent girlhood, she had 
 secretly loved. Despair drove her to the man who 
 later betrayed and deserted her, and in rushing to 
 enrol herself under David s standard she felt that 
 she was avenging his wrongs with her own. For had 
 it not been Vin Berry s father Vin, who had treated 
 her with all the baseness of his kind who had black 
 ened the character of the man who toward her had been 
 only too blameless? Therefore it was that one day 
 she descended upon the town and proclaimed upon 
 the house-tops the story of her wrongs. 
 
 To David it mattered nothing at all whether or no 
 he were cleared of old accusations. Sylvia knew of 
 the whole affair from the beginning; and Clairette 
 was better engaged at present, and, moreover, as we 
 have seen, ceased to associate with the citizens of the 
 Territory. 
 
 The days and nights for who amongst the war 
 riors slept all night? wore on, hour by hour. 
 
 And Cristol marvelled continually as he beheld his 
 inexperienced ally wearing out opposition by his 
 
262 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ceaseless energy, or by his tact disarming it; riding 
 pellmell over his enemies when necessary; proving 
 himself, in short, a born conqueror as well as leader 
 of men. Unable to command his own destiny or con 
 quer fate for himself, he was conquering for his 
 friend. And none but himself knew who was answer 
 able for all this. Even in the heat of this, his first 
 battle, David recognised to whom he owed his 
 success. It was to the ennobling influence of the 
 woman with whom he had for one short year lived in 
 the closest association this world can give; to her he 
 owed the uplifting of his whole nature; the gradual 
 disentanglement from the bonds of much that had been 
 trivial and unworthy ; the planting of a moral stand 
 ard which, up to the time of his association with her, 
 had never before flown to the breeze at such an alti 
 tude. Not only all this he owed to her, but also the 
 development of gifts which, but for her, might have 
 lain forever in disuse. 
 
 And David did not forget; he was not of the for 
 getting kind. And yet had it not been the hand of 
 the woman who loved him, not with the blind and 
 foolish passion apt to end in domestic discord or the 
 divorce-court, but with a noble and believing love 
 had it not been her hand that had thrust him into the 
 furnace seven times heated, out of which a man comes 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 263 
 
 as the fine gold that rings true or the dross fit only 
 for the dump-heap ? This had she done, and it was to 
 this that she had abandoned him. 
 
 And it was now that he was remembering now, of 
 all times! In the bare and sordid room leading out 
 of the large apartment where was congregated the 
 rest of his party, awaiting the election returns, there 
 David sat, and thought of Sylvia. Every one was 
 worn out, or more or less drunk. David was neither, 
 but reaction and its accompanying depression were 
 already upon him. 
 
 Cristol, glancing into the room and seeing him 
 drooping in his chair, above the rail of which only 
 the back of his head was visible, shut the door again, 
 believing him to be asleep ; but had he walked around 
 so as to face his friend, he would have perceived that 
 his eyes were wide and fixed that he was merely 
 dreaming. He was seeing visions. He was at the 
 mountain ranch, standing upright and very much 
 awake in front of Sylvia, looking down at her; and 
 she was nodding her fair head and smiling up into 
 his face. " Yes," she was saying ; " I ve got a career 
 all marked out for you! Just wait awhile, and I ll 
 tell you what it is ! " 
 
 So vivid was the dream that he started to his feet, 
 and it was with one of his old brilliant smiles that he 
 
264 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 turned to greet his re-entering friend, together with 
 the exultant roar from the outer room. 
 
 "Ah, I see you re already posted!" exclaimed 
 Cristol, misunderstanding the smile. And drawing his 
 arm through his own, he led the leader forth to 
 receive the congratulations of the party he had led to 
 victory. 
 
 Cristol was re-elected sheriff of the county by 
 exactly ten votes a somewhat tempered triumph for 
 the man who had served it faithfully for two long 
 years. 
 
 But then, as Mrs. Johnson was fond of observing: 
 
 " Them as sets down and waits for thank-yous in 
 this world has got all the waitin they can ask fur; 
 they can wait I " 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 K1STLESS?" exclaimed Johnny, repeating 
 herself, for no one had uttered the word. 
 "Restless ain t the word! I never know d 
 before as Davie could git poor in the face, but he ll 
 be that ef he keeps to the gait he s started on. You 
 know as he s deputy now, an him an Cristol s got it 
 down ag in the Berry lot for all that s in it. There ll 
 be big doin s in the mountains this comin year, or 
 my name s not Polly Johnson ! " 
 
 Johnny caught up a newspaper and fanned her 
 self, although it was midwinter. Sylvia smiled, and 
 took the rattling thing away an action wholly 
 unobserved on Johnny s part, who was still election 
 eering in fancy. She had worked hard for John 
 Cristol, and her influence had borne fruits. Now she 
 had come to Rosalia Valley to tell her tale to Sylvia 
 and to hug the baby. 
 
 After she had simmered down, Sylvia broached the 
 subject of David s unexpected visit and her decision 
 in regard to little Davie. The information reduced 
 Johnny to silence, even as it had done CristoL At 
 last she said: 
 
 265 
 
266 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " What a awful, awful resk ! " shaking her head. 
 "An 5 it was Dick an Aunt Julie as done it? Well, 
 you see as I wa n t so fur out when I lay low to that 
 Dick!" 
 
 "Don t be hard on him, Johnny. He meant no 
 harm; and in a way I think he is right." 
 
 "As how, dearie?" 
 
 " In this way. David has nothing ; I have the boy. 
 David had his rights. That s the way Dick rea 
 soned, no doubt." 
 
 " And what are you a-goin to do about it ? " 
 
 There was a tinge of anxiety in the faithful 
 woman s voice. 
 
 " Johnny ! " Sylvia laid her delicate hand on her 
 friend s large knee, and looked her straight in the 
 eyes. Then she paused, her own eyes deep with 
 emotion and her lips trembling. 
 
 " What is it, my dearie ? " said Johnny again. 
 
 "I have written to Mr. Hendrick. He knows 
 everything. He told me to come to him in any 
 difficulty. I have said to him what I say to you ; the 
 boy s father has his rights, and I have asked Mr. 
 Hendrick if he will help me to see that he has them. 
 I think he is sure to approve the plan I have 
 suggested." 
 
 " And what may that be, dearie ? " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 267 
 
 "That Aunt Julie shall take little Davie to the 
 Rectory at Mendoza City at such intervals as Mr. 
 Hendrick and his wife shall judge proper, and that 
 David shall see the child there." 
 
 Johnny moved her head dubiously. 
 
 " And what s all the devout church-members 
 a-goin to say to it, anyhow? They ain t never 
 a-goin to rest tel they knows the whys and where 
 fores of little Davie, and have basted on frills and 
 trimmin s to suit theyselves." 
 
 Sylvia s face clouded. In scheming thus to con 
 tribute to David s happiness she had been almost 
 happy herself. 
 
 However, Mr. Hendrick s reply to her letter proved 
 entirely satisfactory ; if he pointed out difficulties, 
 he showed himself ready to try to smooth them away. 
 He acknowledged, though in less strenuous language, 
 the existence of obstacles such as had been brought 
 forward by Johnny, but deferred them for future 
 consideration; they were not likely to interfere with 
 one meeting at least. He wrote that he would 
 immediately arrange with Mr. Kingdon to visit him 
 at the Rectory, at a date fixed for a week hence; if 
 Mr. Kingdon was able to keep the appointment, he 
 would notify Mrs. Archibald to send the baby and 
 nurse; and at that meeting further plans could be 
 
268 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 talked over. Mr. Hendrick further added that he 
 entirely agreed with the mother of the child that the 
 father should have access to it whenever he " could 
 do so without hurting the feelings, or bringing sorrow 
 into the life, of any other person for whose comfort 
 he was at this time responsible." 
 
 So the matter was arranged, and with mixed 
 emotions Sylvia stood watching the train glide from 
 the station, carrying little Davie to a meeting in whose 
 joys she could have no share. 
 
 On the following day Aunt Julie returned tri 
 umphant. 
 
 "Now Mis , ain t I done tole you so?" she ex 
 claimed, as soon as she and her precious charge were 
 settled in the buggy and the little party were rolling 
 homewards. " I done tole you-all as Marse Davie 
 ought to have a sesso to dis chile, an you say no. 
 But fur de ole black Mammy an dat triflin Dick, 
 Marse ain t hyar nuffin bout no chile; an yet he 
 jes as humble an thankful to set his eyes on him s 
 ef he wa n t none o his. I tell you, Mis , as et wa n t 
 no ways right to hide de boy de way you-all 
 done!" 
 
 To argue with an imperious coloured lady concern 
 ing subjects of morality as abstruse as the present 
 one would have been to expend energy very uneco- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 269 
 
 nomically; so the white woman merely smiled and 
 answered nothing. 
 
 " An Mis Hendrick," proceeded Aunt Julie, pull 
 ing down the baby s skirts with vigorous hand and 
 straightening his hat " she mighty fine lady ! They 
 all real, sure-enough white folks, anyhow! Marse, 
 he done tote dis chile pretty near all de time, an 
 little Davie, he mighty sot on his pa; he holler good 
 an loud when Marse tell him good-bye. An 
 now, Mis , don t you never allow no mo as de ole 
 Mammy ain t got no jedgment an don t know 
 nuffin ." 
 
 " I won t, Aunt Julie," rejoined the mistress, 
 meekly. 
 
 A month later, at David s earnest request, the visit 
 was repeated. The next morning s mail brought 
 Sylvia a letter from Mrs. Hendrick setting forth that 
 Mr. Hendrick had been hurriedly called away to a 
 sick person up the road, and that he had departed 
 before the arrival of the nurse and child the previous 
 day; that she, Mrs. Hendrick, had opened a note 
 addressed to her husband and brought by a Mexican ; 
 that this note was from Mr. Kingdon, although she 
 was not familiar with his handwriting, Mr. Hendrick 
 having always taken the precaution to destroy any 
 note received from Mr. Kingdon in which he alluded 
 
270 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 to the child; that in the present letter Mr. Kingdon 
 said that his duties as deputy prevented him from 
 coming to the city, but instead begged that Mr. 
 Hendrick would send the nurse and baby by train 
 to mentioning a small station at which place Dick 
 would be in waiting with a spring wagon to convey 
 them to Cristol s ranch in the San Juan Pass ; at 
 the ranch he, David, would arrive that same evening. 
 The writer further begged that Mr. Hendrick would 
 communicate the change of plan to the child s mother, 
 and notify her that the child would be a day late in 
 returning to her, and would come by wagon through 
 the Pass to Rosalia Valley. 
 
 It was heavenly March weather, dropped in between 
 spring gales. The air, soft yet invigorating, touched 
 the cheek like a kind, familiar hand. High tides 
 of colour were surging swiftly through the alfalfa, 
 slowly through the orchards ; and birds of divers hues 
 streaked an azure background with scarlet, gold, and 
 blue, hurrying past on nesting business bent; or 
 crowned here and there some bare tree-top, like jewels 
 fallen from unseen, careless fingers. 
 
 No ; in such weather there was no fear for the child. 
 And yet 
 
 There was no fear; but it came to pass that for 
 two days Sylvia rode in one direction only miles 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 271 
 
 up on the mesa, from whence she could watch the 
 entrance to the San Juan Pass. 
 
 That he might be a day or so late was to be 
 expected, David s duties being both peremptory and 
 uncertain ; yet on the second day she rode to the very 
 foot of the hills which on this side of the range rolled 
 along the base of the mountains. 
 
 She expected nothing. Nevertheless, the furious 
 galloping of a horse upon the hard trail leading from 
 the Pass sent the blood to her face, and her heart 
 pounding in her ears. Even in a country where furi 
 ous galloping is the common habit of the laziest of 
 its inhabitants, it takes long before the pulses of the 
 unaccustomed cease to leap to the thrill and rush of 
 frantic hoofs. 
 
 Sylvia, who expected nothing, stood up in her 
 stirrup, and shading her eyes from the dazzling 
 sunlight, watched with beating heart the entrance to 
 the Pass. 
 
 It was with a sense of vague disappointment that 
 she sank again in the saddle. 
 
 The horseman rounding the curve was only the 
 mail-carrier. On seeing Sylvia, with whom of course 
 he was acquainted, he pulled his beast down to a walk, 
 and, held perhaps by the dumb questioning in her 
 eyes, paused at her side. 
 
272 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Good-morning, Mrs. Archibald. Is there any 
 thing I can do for you ? " 
 
 Sylvia hesitated. The answer to the question she 
 longed, yet dreaded to put, might be too merciless. 
 Womanlike, she tried to evade it. 
 
 " How much further is it to the Cristol ranch, Mr. 
 James ? " 
 
 " The Cristol ranch? A good ten mile ; and you ve 
 made pretty nigh ten already. If you ll excuse me, 
 the Cristol place is entirely too far and lonesome a 
 ride for a lady." 
 
 She turned her horse, and rode alongside of the 
 mail-carrier in silence for a while. 
 
 "Did you want a message taken to John, Mrs. 
 Archibald? Because if it s so as you do, I go by 
 his ranch again to-morrow and can carry it. He 
 ain t there to-day. I turned out for a drink of water 
 that s what delayed me some for his man was 
 way off makin him a spring-garden. Spring-garden 
 indeed, says I, when a spring s all the folks has to 
 do their irrigatin with! As there wa n t no one 
 around, and the house locked, I got behind, and was 
 hurryin to make up time through the Pass. I m all 
 right now, though," he added, comfortably. 
 
 No one around! Sylvia moistened her dry lips, 
 before she could speak ; even then the man had to ask 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 278 
 
 her to repeat the low words ere he could catch their 
 purport. 
 
 " No ; as I say, th ain t no manner of use in your 
 try in that awful long trip, if so be as it s Cristol 
 you want to see. His man was real glad to palaver 
 with me awhile; said as twas mighty lonesome at the 
 ranch, Cristol not there inside o two weeks, an not 
 a soul to trade words with, savin it might be a Mexi 
 can cowboy or me too much pressed to stop. Got to 
 make tracks, Mrs. Archibald? It s that kid as you ve 
 got to the house, of course ! And ain t he a buster, 
 though ? I know ; ain t been a family man these 
 dozen years for nothin . Push on, then," concluded 
 the kind-hearted Southerner ; " don t mind me. I m 
 better than on time, so me an Pete can take things 
 easy." 
 
 Only necessity could condone the gait at which 
 Sylvia sent her horse plunging down through the 
 deep sand of the mesa. Yet why was she thus hurry 
 ing? What could she do? 
 
 Even in this hour, which brought with it at first 
 rather bewilderment than poignant anxiety, she was 
 sufficiently mistress of herself to remember ; it needed 
 not Mr. Hendrick s warning to bid her forbear. 
 
 " Do nothing to hurt the feelings or bring sorrow 
 into the life of the other woman." 
 
274 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 That was what he had in effect said. And Sylvia 
 remembered. 
 
 Something must be done. Yet what could be done 
 by her, Sylvia, not only alone, but hampered by that 
 mandate which her own soul called upon her to obey 
 until? Until the limit of human endurance should 
 be reached. And that limit is wider set than we 
 know. 
 
 Her horse was moving along now at a gentle, 
 cradling single-foot, which presently at her half 
 unconscious signal dropped to a walk, then fell to 
 a dead stop. 
 
 She took off her glove and swept her hand help 
 lessly across her hot brow. The mother within her 
 was arising, annihilating in its insistence common 
 sense, self-control, all that in this hour the woman 
 most needed if she was to remain faithful to her trust. 
 
 And in the great stillness of the desert s remoteness 
 she was alone. How few of us have grasped the full 
 meaning of that bitter word ! 
 
 The horse pulled at a grease-wood bush, shaking 
 his bit ; the saddle creaked ; beyond these trivial noises 
 not a sound. She leaned over her saddle-bow, staring 
 at the drab sand. 
 
 A low butte projected itself between her and the 
 valley, its shadow cutting clear and sharp across the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 273 
 
 trail. And the mother, whose child was lost, was 
 sitting gazing at it as if the world contained nothing 
 better ! 
 
 Suddenly she lifted her head, her eyes sweeping 
 the expanse of wide green vale. Throughout its 
 length and breadth there was not one living being 
 to whom she could turn. For the other woman s sake 
 she had shut herself from human intercourse, human 
 aid. 
 
 Where is the child? 
 
 It was the mother-cry again, rending the heart, 
 tearing soul and body, the force that makes mad 
 with intent to destroy. 
 
 Bowed once more upon her horse s neck, the woman 
 strove with herself, with this wild self that it was 
 her lot to grip by the throat, to crush into submission. 
 She had done it before ; it was to be done again. 
 
 In a few minutes she straightened her body in the 
 saddle, and rode on, down into the valley. 
 
 Certain things were possible. David might have 
 met the Mammy and the boy part way, and have taken 
 them somewhere else ; or the meeting might have come 
 off as planned, in the San Juan Pass, and the nurse 
 and baby have been sent back by way of Mendoza 
 City. 
 
 These things were possible, but unlikely. 
 
276 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 As Sylvia crossed the railroad close to the little 
 depot she wheeled her horse, dismounted, and entered 
 the telegraph office. 
 
 And what then? How flash along the wires her 
 anxiety, her loss? inquire the whereabouts of that 
 father, that child ? And added to this was the shrink 
 ing, innate in a person of Sylvia s temperament and 
 breeding, from proclaiming her woes to the com 
 munity at large. 
 
 But she must write something, no matter what. 
 The message was to Mrs. Hendrick, and ran thus : 
 
 "I am still waiting. Have you any news for 
 me?" 
 
 The operator, actuated as well by good-nature as 
 desire for his dinner, told her not to worry about pay 
 ing; she could bring her pocketbook when she called 
 for the answer ; and even went so far as to lead her 
 horse up to the platform that she might remount the 
 more easily. Even this trifling attention to her wants 
 brought comfort, and hoping for a cheering reply 
 to the despatch, Sylvia rode swiftly home to the dinner 
 she naturally enough failed to eat to the vast dis 
 comfiture of Delphina, the Mexican woman filling 
 Anut Julie s place. 
 
 The reply she found at the office late that after 
 noon ran as follows: 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 277 
 
 " We know nothing more. Look out for letter to 
 morrow. Come to us if you will. We are at your 
 
 service." 
 
 The operator watched her curiously, as she refolded 
 the despatch and placed it carefully in its envelope, 
 after handing him the charges due. But he could 
 make nothing of this woman ; no one in Rosalia could. 
 Her face was as a mask. It is possible that she felt 
 nothing ; the effort to betray nothing produces some 
 times singular results. 
 
 She drove home, went herself to the corral in order 
 to see that Estevan neglected no detail in his care 
 for the Boy. 
 
 Then she entered the dusky house, and sat down. 
 
 Neatly arranged upon a shelf were the toys of 
 little Davie ; in a corner the low chair which, inspired 
 by a recently developed ambition to walk, he was in 
 the habit of propelling recklessly across the room in 
 search of adventures. 
 
 The effort to maintain self-control, to guard her 
 secret, had by this time outgrown normal proportions ; 
 like other morbid growths, it was dominating feeling 
 or rather, still held the wild thing down by the 
 throat. 
 
 Yet that wild self possessed a lawless strength of 
 its own, despite its apparent subjugation; it had long 
 
278 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ere this dismissed probabilities. The letter to Mrs. 
 Hendrick was by it adjudged a forgery, the whole 
 scheme a fraud. But if so, then where was David? 
 
 The sudden question acted like a searchlight cast 
 into a dim and empty space. Sylvia sprang to her 
 feet. 
 
 David! She was no longer alone. In spirit she 
 flung the cruel hand from her throat. She was free ! 
 Somewhere in the wide and now moonlight desert, 
 somewhere in the deep canons of the mountains, he 
 awaited her. Together they were to search for the 
 child. 
 
 But though she had broken loose, she had not 
 altogether lost her wits. There was but one horse 
 staunch enough for her purpose, and rest and food 
 were for him a necessity. Delphina and Estevan were 
 dismissed, and Sylvia had forced herself to eat, had 
 even stretched a body apparently incapable of fatigue 
 for a restless ten minutes upon the lounge, before she 
 made her start. 
 
 She took no thought of the letter ; there is no claim 
 made that she was at present a reasonable being. 
 Neither will it ever be known how far she rode. Twice 
 her horse s hoofs resounded on the rocks of the San 
 Juan Pass. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 279 
 
 Once she went by the Cristol ranch in the night, 
 and there were no friendly lights in the windows ; 
 once at high noon, and not a living being was 
 in sight. She watered her horse there; that much 
 was known, as the tracks of his small round hoofs in 
 the mud around the spring were visible for many 
 days; and she fed him too, for oats lay scattered 
 upon the ground not far from the ranch. But be 
 yond that nothing was ever known of those twenty- 
 four hours of wandering. She herself had thereafter 
 no tale to tell. There are times in some lives when the 
 body to all intents and purposes dies, so feeble are 
 its claims upon the spirit. 
 
 It was at sunrise on the second day that they met. 
 She was once more near the entrance of the San Juan 
 Pass ; once more listening, every sense alert, to the 
 furious pounding of a horse s feet upon the rocky 
 trail. She sat leaning forward, a faint smile in her 
 tired eyes and upon her drawn mouth. Something 
 was going to happen now; she was sure of it. Her 
 hand gripped the reins firmly, as he who awaits the 
 starter s flag. 
 
 It was thus that David found her as he rounded 
 the curve. 
 
 " Come ! " he cried. 
 
 His hat was gone, and the unclouded March sun 
 
280 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 beat into his fierce eyes, upon his ashen face and his 
 dry lips. 
 
 It was as if they had never parted. He grasped 
 her extended hand, and the horses leaped together. 
 How often in the past, a hundred years ago, had these 
 stable-companions made for one goal, side by side, 
 along one narrow trail ! With the wonderful memory 
 of their kind they now, jaded as both were, pressed 
 closer, remembering some dim past; and, as in the 
 past, David s knee touched Sylvia s saddle, and more 
 than once he leaned forward to restrain with a touch 
 upon the rein the blooded horse whose speed and stay 
 ing powers were alike telling against the cow-pony. 
 And as they galloped, Sylvia swayed in her seat, and 
 David, urging his horse closer yet, passed a support 
 ing arm around her. 
 
 Every now and again she alluded to the child in 
 broken phrases, as though they had always cared for 
 him together. Her mind, distraught with the long 
 strain of anguish endured alone, wavered. It was, 
 " Don t you remember, David ? " and, " You were 
 
 there when he " and the like, again and again. 
 
 And with groans that might not be uttered, David 
 lied, and lied again. 
 
 They were in the Pass, and halfway up it a man 
 sat on a horse, straight and still. It was John Cris- 
 
tS 
 
 
 Sylvia swayed in her seat, and David . . . passed a supporting 
 arm around her. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 281 
 
 tol. On catching sight of the pair he raised his hat 
 and held it high above his head. 
 
 An exclamation broke from David s lips ; Sylvia 
 apparently neither saw nor heard. 
 
 Then Cristol turned, and galloping ahead was 
 suddenly lost to view. As the other two riders ap 
 proached the spot -/here he had disappeared they 
 were confronted by a sheer wall of rock rising several 
 hundred feet into the air, and around which the trail 
 bent, going abruptly to the left. 
 
 But David caught the Boy s rein once more, and 
 it was to the right that both horses were impelled, 
 plunging into a deep gully grown up with stunted 
 junipers, and which in the season of the summer rains 
 was a boiling torrent. Upon its now dry rocks a 
 spring wagon stood, the team feeding at the tail 
 board. Two men were there also, Cristol and Dick. 
 
 There was no pretence at greeting; but Cristol, 
 standing beside his horse, his hand gripping the 
 saddle-horn as though in act to mount, spoke 
 promptly. 
 
 "They re there all right," he said, and his voice 
 was low and stern. " Never thought they d have the 
 brass to locate them so near my place ! But let me 
 tell you, no horse can make the trail. I took it 
 afoot." 
 
282 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 He averted his eyes, thus evading the mute ques 
 tion in those of Kingdon. 
 
 But to the woman questions and answers were alike 
 superfluous. She said not a word; but before even 
 David s quickness could anticipate her action she had 
 slipped from the saddle and was speeding up the 
 gully s side. As David sprang after her, Cristol 
 called : 
 
 " You ll see a narrow path windin up through the 
 brush to one side of the cliff. On top, sort o down 
 in a hole, as you may say, the hut is. I m off now ! " 
 
 But sight, or instinct, had already led Sylvia 
 aright. Unhesitatingly she struck the path, and 
 began the steep and difficult ascent. The summit of 
 the cliff was reached at last, and there, in a depres 
 sion in the ground and partly concealed by cedars 
 and pinons, was a small house, built out of the loose 
 environing rocks. 
 
 Then for the first time since leaving the trail David 
 spoke. 
 
 "Wait, Sylvia! Wait!" 
 
 But shaking her head, she broke from him ; and as 
 he entered the hut the characteristic wail of the negro 
 in distress struck on his ear, followed by the exclama 
 tion : " Oh, Mis Sylvie ! Mis Sylvie, honey ! " 
 
 Was that waxen, wasted little form that of the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 283 
 
 splendid boy whom David had held but lately in his 
 arms and been so proud to call his own? Alas, of 
 this there could be no doubt ; for she whom he had 
 once called wife had caught up the child and was 
 clasping him passionately, vainly, to her breast. 
 
 " Mis Sylvie," put in Aunt Julie, gently, " t ain t 
 no manner of use actin datter way. Hand de ole 
 Mammy dat chile. He most starved, pore lamb ! " 
 
 Tenderly she unwound the clinging arms, and, 
 sitting down, stretched the body out upon her lap, 
 and strove once more to force a few drops of the 
 milk and whisky brought by Cristol betwixt the 
 pale lips. Here David s deftness was of service; for 
 the back of Sylvia s endurance was broken. Drop 
 ping on his knees beside her as she crouched at Aunt 
 Julie s lap, he sustained her with one hand, whilst 
 with the other he assisted the old woman in a man 
 ner which, even in that agonised moment, drew from 
 her exclamations of admiration. 
 
 " Dat s right, Marse Davie ! Hoi him jes so ! No 
 woman couldn t do no better! Thar now, hyar him 
 sigh, de sweet lamb ? Don t you fret, Mis ! Gawd 
 bless my boy! He ll be creepin aroun , foolin his 
 ole Mammy yet ! " 
 
 But it was not to be. 
 
 The child straightened himself upon his nurse s 
 
284 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 knee, and sighed again. Tnere was a moment s pause. 
 Then the old Mammy raised her head and glanced at 
 the two kneeling beside her. Her eyes were scared, 
 and her face, already gray with want and pain, went 
 grayer yet. 
 
 " Oh, Lord Gawd Almighty ! " she whispered. 
 
 For the child was dead. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 KTNGDON S CROSSING, and the two men 
 in David s sanctum, behind locked doors. 
 John Cristol had just arrived, and was 
 speaking now in lowered tones. 
 
 " Didn t I know what was comin ? Of course I 
 did! The greasers had been gone for a whole day, 
 the old woman said; wa n t no use in me wastin time 
 huntin em then ; went for the telegraph office, and 
 so had Hendrick to Rosalia when we all got in with 
 the wagon. Twas all right for me to send you back, 
 Kingdon, though it was tough, too ; wouldn t do for 
 you to be down there, and you wa n t in no condition 
 neither. Tough luck as Mrs. Hendrick couldn t show 
 up; but that s a good man, Kingdon, a right down 
 good man ! He stayed with her three of four days ; 
 tried to have her go back with him, I heard, but she 
 wouldn t. The poor old woman was more n half sick, 
 starved too ; not as she believes they meant to be that 
 
 bad, but food gave out " 
 
 " Don t, Cristol for God s sake, man ! " 
 David s hair was ruffled up all over his head; his 
 fresh colour had departed, his eyes burned. 
 
 285 
 
286 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 The older man laid his hand upon his shoulder, and 
 felt that he was trembling from head to foot. He 
 gently pushed him into a chair. David spread his 
 arms upon the table, and dropped his face upon them. 
 
 " Kingdon," said the sheriff, in a voice no " bad 
 man " had ever heard proceed from his lips, " King 
 don, pull yourself together ! Brace up ! You ll lose 
 your mind if you give down this way, and how s that 
 goin to help Tier? The poor little kid s with the 
 angels, if all the good books tell us is so; nothin s 
 goin to hurt him no more. It s her as you ve got to 
 think for. Your chance as deputy will come along 
 after a while, but just now /say this : do all the still- 
 huntin you ve a mind to, but lay low! Leave the 
 rest to me. And I swear to you, David Kingdon, 
 that as there s a God in heaven I ll never quit till I 
 run to earth the devil as is at the back of them Mexi 
 cans! You and me know as this ain t no greasers 
 work." 
 
 The last words were significant, and after them he 
 paused. Then seeing that the other man was quiet 
 now, and listening, he proceeded : 
 
 " You re not in this racket, Kingdon. You ve 
 acted on the square all through; don t go back on 
 yourself now. There s not a person, man or woman, 
 as I ve heard speak of your troubles as don t own up 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 287 
 
 that you ve done the square thing by her" jerking 
 his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the 
 tent ; " too square, some say. There s no gossip 
 about you and the other one, so they tell me. It s 
 straight goods I m givin you, Kingdon no fool- 
 talk." 
 
 "Cristol," said David, at last, his face still upon 
 his arms, " it s not myself. It s her, her! My poor 
 girl, my innocent wife ! For she is my wife ! " he 
 cried suddenly, throwing back his head and confront 
 ing fiercely the other man s mild regard. 
 
 " She is, if ever a woman was," agreed the sheriff, 
 with commendable fervency. 
 
 " And she ll die ; she ll die, I tell you ! She can t 
 stand it all alone! Oh, my God!" 
 
 John Cristol had been in many a tough place in his 
 life, but this, he thought, was the toughest. 
 
 " Now see here, Kingdon," he said, sitting down on 
 the table and resting his hand heavily once more on 
 the other s bowed shoulder, " you ve got to pull your 
 self together, or else make a bonfire of this whole 
 business. Which shall it be? If you re still dead 
 set on giving that woman " again indicating the 
 occupant of the tent by a gesture " her fair, square 
 chance, you ll have to continue acting as you ve done 
 right along, like well, like a man, / say ! But if 
 
288 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 you want to pull up stakes and vamoose, why, I m 
 with you all the same. Sdbe? " 
 
 David shook his head miserably. 
 
 " If she only had some woman with her ! " he ejacu 
 lated at last. 
 
 "Where s Mrs. Johnson?" 
 
 " In St. Louis, visiting with Jemmy and Al ; won t 
 be back for another week." 
 
 The sheriff was silent for a while. Then he said, 
 stroking his moustache meditatively: 
 
 "I m not so sure as a woman s best for her just 
 now. If she gives down, why, that s the last of her. 
 Seems like tough talk, Kingdon, about such a lady 
 as she is, but it does look as if her only showing was 
 not to lose her grip. It s all right for women to cry 
 and talk together when there s some help around, but 
 when the only help s a woman s own sand, why, let 
 her hold on to it, / say ! Don t start the waterworks 
 to wash it away ! It looks to me as, with men around 
 and she not very well acquainted with them either, 
 a lady with the right kind of pride, same as Mrs. 
 Kingdon has, can hold on better see ? " 
 
 David had raised his head again, and was staring 
 out of the window. He nodded. 
 
 "Will you trust your wife to me, Kingdon? I m 
 on to a scheme as will keep her head level, and her 
 
,THE HUMAN TOUCH 289 
 
 heart from hurtin so bad, if she s only half the 
 woman I take her for." 
 
 David stretched out his hand and grasped that of 
 the sheriff firmly. 
 
 "God bless you, John!" . 
 
 "That s right, man! Pull yourself together!" 
 was the hearty retort. " Now, I m off. So-long ! " 
 
 David pulled himself together, but not at once; 
 some mental attitudes need a little time for adjust 
 ment. Dick came down and stayed by him for a 
 day or two, warding off any possible wifely attentions 
 by hints of smallpox among the Mexicans, into whose 
 midst Kingdon s duties as deputy had recently led 
 him. 
 
 The unforeseen contingency of her husband s 
 possible illness affected the lady of the house unpleas 
 antly. Strange to say, Clairette did not believe in 
 the smallpox scare. She looked on it as merely a 
 clumsy masculine device, accepted it, nevertheless, 
 without demur; for, as has been said, Clairette was 
 not fond of sick people or sick-rooms, and besides was 
 still firmly abiding by her physician s advice as to 
 fresh air. Fresh air, therefore, she must have, if 
 to obtain it she must walk over the dead body of her 
 husband and those of her friends. She kept out of 
 David s room, contenting herself and quite inci- 
 
290 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 dentally him also with sending kind messages of 
 inquiry. 
 
 Yet she was more than troubled ; she was outraged 
 both in person and sensibilities by this unfeeling 
 emancipation on her husband s part from accepted 
 traditions. A man who has a sick wife to take care 
 of has no business to get sick himself; and if it had 
 not been for that ridiculous nonsense about getting 
 made deputy sheriff, just for the sake of hunting up 
 a few stolen cows, he would not have worn himself out, 
 riding all over the country like a lunatic ! What did 
 some old cows matter, either, in comparison with his 
 wife s comfort? Now she would be sure to have a 
 set-back just as she was gaining so nicely, too! 
 three whole pounds in one week! Not even the near 
 neighbourhood of her Jonesville friends would prevent 
 her from losing again, she felt sure. Her usually 
 excellent, not to say large, appetitie was already fall 
 ing off, after only two days of this worry. Anxiously 
 she tested her temperature. This would never do! 
 It was half a degree above normal! And this morn 
 ing she had not been able to eat her regulation number 
 of wheat-biscuits at breakfast, and 
 
 Her lip was trembling and the tears were ready to 
 fall when her ear caught the sound of a key turning 
 in a lock. She sprang up, and actually hurried 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 291 
 
 across the room to meet her husband. His face was 
 drawn and haggard, as she had never seen it, but 
 he was smiling faintly; Clairette s physician had 
 prescribed a smiling environment. 
 
 " Oh, David ! How thankful I am that you re not 
 going to have an illness ! I don t know what I should 
 have done if you had! But mercy sakes, how pale 
 you are!" 
 
 Cristol took the train to Mendoza City. He was 
 in the still-hunt business himself this trip, as he 
 expressed it. But further interviews with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hendrick produced nothing new or pertinent. 
 The letter purporting to come from Kingdon, and 
 which had been the cause of the tragedy, was of 
 course a forgery; but, even as the minister had to 
 acknowledge, a very good one. It was barely pos 
 sible that had he himself been at home to receive it 
 he might have been deceived; one does not pore over 
 notes in these days of high pressure, neither are dep 
 uty sheriffs masters of their own time. David had 
 intended to come to the city on horseback as before; 
 and this in fact was what he did, arriving, how 
 ever, too late at night to go at once to the Rectory. 
 Early in the morning Cristol, who had already picked 
 up suspicious items, came to his hotel, and with char- 
 
292 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 acteristic impetuosity David had flung out of the 
 city, dragging his chief with him. Cristol s uneasi 
 ness had been aroused by a meeting with Dick, whom 
 he had run across by chance after he, Cristol, had 
 heard at the Rectory of the new plan for the baby 
 and nurse. Dick, on being questioned, had shaken 
 his head vaguely, but there was nothing vague about 
 his ensuing actions. He left the city immediately, 
 and although in such a case as the present the wires 
 had to be used with great caution, Dick contrived 
 by means of them to inform Cristol, ere he left the 
 city, that a coloured woman and a white child had 
 been observed to leave the small station mentioned in 
 the forged letter. Two Mexicans in a wagon had 
 escorted them, and it was also observed that the old 
 woman had at first strenuously objected to this escort, 
 but had finally yielded. The party, however, had 
 not take the trail leading to San Juan Pass. 
 
 In the night a wind had arisen, blowing the sand 
 over the wagon tracks ; therefore even Cristol s saga 
 city had for a while been at fault. When at length 
 he had got upon the scent, and with Kingdon had 
 hastened to the Pass, it was as the two men rode down 
 the mountain side that David had recognised Sylvia 
 far away beneath the foothills, on the Rosalia trail. 
 During his absence Cristol s instinct led him to the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 293 
 
 deserted hut to find it no longer deserted. The 
 kidnappers had already fled, and with such a long 
 start were of course well across the border into Mexico. 
 Dick had been instructed to remain in the canon with 
 the spring wagon hired at the station. The rest we 
 know. 
 
 It was in a thoughtful mood that Cristol rode with 
 the mail-carrier the mile and a half to Sylvia s house. 
 Poor Aunt Julie met him at the door, her face worn 
 and aged. In answer to the sheriff s inquiries, Aunt 
 Julie replied volubly: 
 
 " Now, Mister Cristol, sah, I dunno. I can t 
 xactly say, Marse. But Mis Johnson, she say Mis 
 ain t never done tell her folks of the blessed lamb. 
 She say they don t care nothin bout dat chile. 
 But a gemmun hyar with we-all las fall he mighty 
 nice gemmun I done plead with Mis to write him, 
 an she jes shake her head mighty sad an mournful 
 an low * No. Now, sah, de blessed lamb done dead 
 no use fur Mis to fret no mo an , Mister Cristol, 
 she done try, sah she done try to hold up her head, 
 all dis long time! But it wuz mighty hard on her, 
 an now she mos same as a dead woman! My heart 
 jes turn in my breas when I look at her! Oh, sah, 
 but it s pitiful! I done ca ied de chile s clo s an 
 truck an locked dem in de big trunk ; she never see 
 
294 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 dem mo . But still she don t say nuffin. Ef some 
 o her folks don t come an take her away from hyar, 
 she gwine die she gwine die, sah! De ole Mammy 
 know. Name er goodness, sah, get her so she talk 
 wiv you ! " 
 
 The sheriff comforted the faithful creature to the 
 best of his ability, and followed her to the sitting- 
 room, the door of which Aunt Julie closed softly 
 behind him. 
 
 John Cristol was not a family man, but a long 
 training in the ways of men and women perhaps 
 served him as well, or better. He walked straight up 
 to the rigid figure sitting in the chair by the window, 
 and extended his hand as if the meeting were an 
 everyday affair. It had the desired effect, in so far 
 as it extracted from her an everyday greeting. 
 
 There was nothing far-away now in the gray eyes 
 that rested on the wan, changed face with a tender 
 ness well-nigh paternal. But John Cristol had not 
 come to pity. As he would have expressed it, there 
 was nothing in it, in this case. 
 
 " Mrs. Kingdon," he began, at once, " I have work 
 for you. Are you able to do it?" 
 
 " Work ? " she echoed, vaguely. 
 
 "Yes. Work for him." 
 
 "For him? He is dead." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 295 
 
 "I m not alluding to the little chap. He s all 
 right; he don t need you any more. It s his father 
 as needs you; he s all broke up, same as you are. 
 But you could help him. Can t you work for 
 him?" 
 
 Then, seeing that he had won her attention, he 
 proceeded, slowly and emphatically. " I call you 
 Mrs. Kingdon, and I expect to call you so all the 
 time, so long as there ain t no one else save me an 
 you around. You were a wife, and an Al wife to 
 him ; more than me knows that. He sent me to you. 
 He didn t write; we both judged best not. We ve 
 got to keep your name out o this business, if so be 
 as it can be done, an you an him don t look to 
 meet; but you can help him all the same. Are you 
 willing?" 
 
 She had clasped her delicate fingers together, and 
 was leaning toward him now, a faint colour dyeing 
 her pale face. The sheriff s kind heart hurt him as 
 he watched her. This was heroic treatment indeed! 
 Supposing it killed her! Not likely; but even if 
 it did, she would die happier, helping the man she 
 loved, than she was living now. Some women not 
 many, but some love that way, reasoned the sheriff, 
 and he had an idea she was one of that kind. Another 
 man, far away in New York, had also divined that 
 
296 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 here was one of those rare beings capable of a grand 
 passion. 
 
 "You don t appear any too rugged," he added, 
 presently. 
 
 " Oh, it is nothing. I am well. I never had much 
 colour, and " 
 
 She broke off, and Cristol hoped the tears were 
 coming. Of course he hated a watery scene, but in 
 this case he was prepared to endure such valiantly. 
 He was disappointed, however. The eyes lifted to 
 his own were dry and bright. 
 
 " You ll need all your grit," he said, smiling down 
 upon her. "Are you brave, Mrs. Kingdon?" 
 
 " I used to be a coward. I do not think I am now." 
 
 The smile that reflected his own was faint; still, 
 there it was. 
 
 " Well, round up all the courage you have, then. 
 And now, can you give me your whole attention? 
 because it won t do for us to slip up in this business." 
 
 He drew his chair close to hers, and proceeded to 
 explain himself. 
 
 He dared not be entirely explicit. He had been 
 so once in the past, in a case not dissimilar, and the 
 mother bereft of her young, a timid little woman, con 
 fronted him in the prisoner s dock a few weeks later, 
 a murderess. His cue here was to shift the intensity 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 297 
 
 4 
 
 of feeling from child to father. He did not think 
 this would be difficult to do, believing that in losing 
 the child the loss was intensified by the knowledge 
 that with it went all that was left to her of that 
 father. 
 
 " I guess you know who s at the back o them 
 greasers, Mrs. Kingdon ? " A steely light flashed 
 into her eyes. It was gone on the instant ; but Cris- 
 tol was answered. 
 
 " Well, then, we understand one another. But the 
 greasers has got to be caught on the quiet, mind 
 you ! It s the very devil excuse my language before 
 a lady that we can t act open an aboveboard, but 
 you know as we can t." 
 
 She nodded quickly. 
 
 "I ve kind o suspicioned one o the fellers, and 
 am layin for him, all right. He s over to Mexico 
 now, but that don t make no difference. The gang 
 I m thinkin of, and as is back o the Mexicans, comes 
 together at one o Berry s cow-ranches, a small one, 
 not three miles from Bubbling Spring. Now the 
 feller as has run over to Old Mexico will come to that 
 ranch to report you can bet on that ! I ve kept my 
 eye on the Berry gang this ever so long, and am 
 pretty well acquainted with their ways. Don t you 
 worry, Mrs. Kingdon. It won t be so long now 
 
298 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 before the last man o them will be dead, or serving 
 his time in the Pen! There s other things against 
 them Berry s besides your account. I may be lay in 
 low, but I m layin all the same ! " 
 
 Sylvia was at last aroused, and was gazing intently 
 at the sheriff. It was for the moment easy to under 
 stand why John Cristol was such a terror to evildoers ; 
 why in the quest for them he was rarely known to 
 fail. 
 
 " Well, Mrs. Kingdon," resuming his customary 
 mild tones "now we re gettin down to business. 
 Some one has to watch for them fellers the greasers, 
 I mean. Do you catch on? Well, all right then! 
 Kingdon s my deputy, an the watchin should by 
 rights fall to him. But you know how he s placed, 
 an as this is just the one case he can t meddle openly 
 in see? Now I m comin to it: will you act as my 
 deputy for a while, an help me catch the rascals, an 
 bring to justice them as has most broke the hearts 
 of him an you ? " 
 
 He came to a dead stop, his eyes, keen enough 
 surely at this moment, meeting her own. 
 
 If he had waited long for the transformation, it 
 came at last. Those well acquainted with this woman 
 were accustomed to her sudden variations, but John 
 Cristol knew her not. There was an instant in which 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 299 
 
 he feared he had gone too far, and remembered the 
 little woman in the prisoner s dock. 
 
 She rose to her feet, and into the dull calm of her 
 face and of her heavy eyes flamed a light that was 
 almost unearthly, so unexpected and so intense it 
 was. 
 
 Her lips opened as though for speech, but no sound 
 came from them. Her sudden and singular beauty 
 awed John Cristol into a silence that nothing but 
 necessity nerved him to break. 
 
 " Well, you re game, then. That s all right. Sit 
 down" pulling forward her chair and speaking in 
 soothing tones " and let s you an me talk this thing 
 out." 
 
 She hesitated momentarily ; then obeyed. 
 
 " You ll be safe at Bubbling Spring. The man 
 who runs that shebang s a good friend of mine, an 
 ain t mixed up in any o this business neither; pretty 
 independent sort of a chap, anyway. But somehow 
 or another the whole Berry gang s scared of him ; 
 bad men every place thinks him a kind o holy ter 
 ror. Yet he don t get into no rows t ain t that. 
 Well, however it is, you re safe with Mat Douglas. 
 Moreover, no one ain t goin to bother you ; that s a 
 game as would be altogether too risky. I told Matt 
 something about you at Mendoza yesterday, jes so as 
 
300 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 to see if he d treat you right if so be as you put up at 
 his place. Says he : * That s the woman as married 
 Kingdon, an acted right on the square by the other 
 woman? All right! That s a lady, John, if ever 
 there wuz one, an she shall be treated all right, you 
 bet! He s jes a rough old mining man, but he s 
 straight, all through, an knows what a lady is. 
 Treats his guests all on the square, too. You know 
 as he takes lungers through the summer months, but 
 they ll be apt not to be there yet awhile." 
 
 " If I could be alone ! " murmured Sylvia. 
 
 The big man shook his head. 
 
 " No," he said, with gentle insistence, " best not, 
 Mrs. Kingdon. If one or two goes up there, they ll 
 be sick folks, an you ll want to help them, an that ll 
 help you. An you ll have time to look around and 
 settle yourself before they come along." 
 
 It was possible now to go into details with her, and 
 Cristol did so; and before this "heathen" (or Good 
 Samaritan) departed, their plans were perfected. As 
 he went out of the door he grasped the old coloured 
 woman s hand, saying heartily : 
 
 " Cheer up, auntie ! She ll do now." 
 
 Aunt Julie s face brightened, but instead of an 
 swering she moved so as to reveal the figure of Mr. 
 Atherton in the porch. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 301 
 
 " Mister Cristol," she said, anxiously, " please, 
 sah, say a word to the preacher. He sot on seein 
 my Mis , an she don t want to see no one, she 
 say." 
 
 " If she has seen you," put in the Christian Worker, 
 stiffly, " she can certainly see me. When I heard 
 that her child had got lost in the mountains with his 
 nurse on his way home by wagon " this was the ver 
 sion of the story presented to an inquiring public 
 " I hastened to bring to her the consolations of Chris 
 tianity, but it appears that she has found another 
 form of consolation." 
 
 Now although Cristol had long been aware that 
 this well-meaning person could be on occasion vicious, 
 in no case had he any idea of treating his avowed 
 enemy otherwise than courteously; for the sheriff, 
 despite his careless Western speech, was a gentleman. 
 But Mr. Atherton had this time overstepped the 
 bounds of even Cristol s easy good-nature. He looked 
 down upon the man from his superior height, his 
 far-away eyes cold and repellent. 
 
 "Mr. Atherton," he said, in his most deliberate 
 tones, "if you was a man same as me, and not pro 
 tected same as women are, I d have you to explain 
 them words o yours ; but bein as you is, I ll just say 
 as I take it you don t understand that they insult a 
 
302 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 sufferin and helpless lady, and maybe you don t know 
 a lady when you lays eyes on her. And I d also have 
 you to understand that though I ain t a professin 
 Christian same as you and Berry" here a deadly 
 pause " I d think hangin too good for such as me 
 if I was to insult such as her" another pause 
 " same as you and Berry done." 
 
 The unhappy minister flushed darkly all over his 
 muddled, dyspeptic-looking skin; it is scarcely to be 
 supposed that he had intended to be as venomous as 
 his words made him out to be. Cristol continued to 
 regard him, thereby increasing his discomfiture. 
 
 "You misunderstand me," he said at last, with a 
 miserable attempt at loftiness ; " and I certainly did 
 not come on an errand of mercy in order to listen to 
 foul abuse of a faithful elder of the church. I will 
 call another day," he added, confusedly, and turning 
 to the coloured woman that he might escape from 
 under those terrible gray eyes. 
 
 " Mis Sylvie, she done see de minister ob her own 
 church," retorted Aunt Julie, politely, but with firm 
 ness. " I done tole you, sah, bef o dat he been stayin 
 wiv we-all in his house. What fo she need another 
 minister, sah? She much obleeged all same, sah, but 
 Mis Sylvie always wuz one to hold to the white folks 
 as has been good to her, sah." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 303 
 
 With this parting shot, the old woman folded her 
 hands upon her portly front. But poor Mr. Ather- 
 ton was already retreating in bad order, and perhaps 
 did not hear the irrepressible chuckle that the sheriff 
 failed to suppress. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 EARLY in the month of May a wagon con 
 taining two women, a Mexican teamster, and 
 a couple of trunks, a led horse attached to 
 the whole outfit, might have been seen ascending the 
 sandy mesa and later struggling up the rocky trail 
 of the canon leading to Bubbling Spring. But there 
 was none to see ; the scene was one of solitude of the 
 most complete. 
 
 In the light of the newborn day the gray-helmeted 
 heads of Motes marked the receding track, like tomb 
 stones in some forgotten burying-ground, prone, or 
 tottering to their fall. Here, in this rock-walled 
 pocket of the mountains, the ghost of the dead night 
 found shelter yet. Afar, upon the mountain-tops 
 across the valley, the radiant morn stepped lightly. 
 Moment by moment she drew nearer, scattering jewels 
 as she passed, until every distant peak gleamed in 
 delicate array of sapphire and amber, coral, diamond 
 and pearl ; and the broad vale lay spread, a shadowed 
 sea of blue, flecked with the white wings of passing 
 ships, bound as in a dream for the " perilous seas " 
 
 304 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 805 
 
 of some "faeryland forlorn." High overhead the 
 towering rocks crowned themselves in solemn silence. 
 Not a bird lifted its voice, not a butterfly flaunted a 
 gay wing. And as the small and solitary party 
 pressed on into the still heart of the mountains, those 
 rocks closed in nearer and nearer, making a rugged 
 and forbidding frame for the tender beauty of the 
 valley and the glory of the morning sky. 
 
 For morning in the Arid Belt is indeed as the very 
 day-spring from on high; hope unbidden springs 
 with it. 
 
 And for Sylvia this immense solitude held no dreari 
 ness. Strong and self-sufficing, it upbore her fainting 
 spirit. Almost unconsciously, yet with vague glad 
 ness, her tired eyes noted the tall spires of living 
 chlotes hung with silver bells; the cacti s scarlet and 
 golden fingers pointing heavenward, giving here, 
 where no grass grew, no evidence of earthly sus 
 tenance; bright flowers staining the face of the 
 tremendous precipice with joyous bursts of colour. 
 
 " You like it hyar, Mis ? " put in the old woman, 
 softly. "Marse, he done like it, too, mighty well! 
 We done camped hyar oncet huntin stray steers, an* 
 he low he like to live in dis canon all de days of his 
 life." 
 
 Narrower and narrower grew the canon, until it 
 
306 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 ended in a scattering grove of junipers and a low, 
 lone stone house pressed against the perpendicular 
 face of the soaring rocks which barred all further 
 progress. 
 
 Mindful of her task, Sylvia had inquired of the 
 driver the whereabouts of the little ranch owned by 
 Berry, and before entering the canon the Mexican 
 had pointed to a well-defined trail leading up the 
 mountain side and disappearing around its shoulder. 
 But he had scoffed at the idea of calling so small a 
 place a rancho por las vacas. He acknowledged that 
 there was quite a large house upon the ranch, but 
 either did not or would not know for what purpose 
 it was intended. 
 
 Mat Douglas proved to be that rare production 
 amongst the mountain men, a fat man; but this, 
 perhaps, was because he was not a mountain man ; 
 that is to say, he had been born and bred in the 
 mountains, but had early sought the valleys, and had 
 there gone in for hotel-keeping. Growing older, and 
 also probably attracted by the gathering excitement 
 in mountain circles, he had opened a hostelry at the 
 Spring favoured of tourists and health-seekers. How 
 in the world this rotund and exceedingly silent man 
 had won a reputation for being " awful sudden with a 
 gun," few could say. That it had, however, been 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 307 
 
 won fairly was evidenced by the wide berth accorded 
 its amiable bearer by " bad men " generally. 
 
 The uneffusive yet encouraging reception offered 
 by him to his guest was entirely acceptable. Having 
 said his say, he, to use his own expression, turned the 
 party loose to do the best they could for themselves 
 in two or three small, plainly furnished, but spotlessly 
 clean rooms. Aunt Julie was soon in her element. 
 As a special favour to a lady-acquaintance of the 
 sheriff, one of the rooms had been fitted up as a 
 kitchen, and the clatter of pots and pans, and the 
 aroma of coffee were soon alike assailing ears and 
 nostrils. 
 
 A few hours later Douglas, standing amongst the 
 junipers below the porch, turned from watching the 
 wagon that had conveyed his guests, disappearing 
 down the narrow trail, to find himself confronted by 
 a pair of dark eyes which, at this period of their 
 owner s history, seemed altogether too large for the 
 face in which they were set. 
 
 Sylvia, leaning upon the hand-rail of the porch, 
 had been contemplating the wide acreage of her host s 
 back, and wondering how much he knew. Her soul 
 revolted from the idea that even a Mat Douglas 
 should suspect her of coming up here on an errand of 
 vengeance. Yet how could it be otherwise? Far 
 
808 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 from criticising his guest s action, he would probably 
 admire her for her " grit " and " sand." Sylvia 
 shrank from being admired on these lines ; yet shrink 
 ing availeth nothing the woman who is out of her 
 element. 
 
 Vengeance! As, in the long night watches, the 
 mother s arms sought the child and found him not, or, 
 waking from some happy dream, listened for the 
 soft breathing and heard it not, what place was there 
 in that tender anguish for thoughts of vengeance? 
 
 " It is to help him him! " she whispered, as think 
 ing of these things, her yearning gaze searching the 
 blue and smiling distance, the old cry found words 
 once more. 
 
 Then it was that, withdrawing her gaze, it had 
 lighted upon her host, peacefully engaged in smoking 
 a remarkably bad cigar. 
 
 "Don t you want to come down and see how I ve 
 fixed up that fine horse o yours?" inquired Douglas. 
 
 Sylvia descended the steps of the porch, and 
 together they walked through the junipers toward the 
 spring, a few yards from which the Boy was tied in 
 the shade of a spreading cedar. He nickered on 
 perceiving his mistress, come to relieve his uneasiness 
 at being abandoned by his fellows in this queer and 
 lonesome spot; and it was in discussing the horse s 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 309 
 
 points that Douglas found an opportunity to say 
 what he wished to say. Being, as has been observed, 
 a silent man, opportunities did not always lie ready 
 to his hand. 
 
 " It may be so as you ll need a fine animal," he 
 remarked, " and this one s all right. There s one 
 thing as I has to say to you, Mrs. Archibald: don t 
 hesitate to call on me at any time. I m your friend, 
 as it s so as you re Cristol s. Th ain t no one a-goin 
 to tech you so long as I m around, and don t you 
 f orgit it ! " 
 
 Sylvia listened to this somewhat ambiguous address 
 uncertain how to reply. Feeling the hopelessness of 
 any attempt to explain her real attitude, she contented 
 herself with thanking her new adherent, and thus 
 the two separated. She wished she could have asked 
 Douglas some questions concerning the topography 
 of the country, but was deterred by the reasons 
 aforesaid. 
 
 Left thus to herself, she began by exploring the 
 mountain trails; and, field-glasses slung over her 
 shoulder, scaled every accessible peak, until in less 
 than a month Douglas pronounced her to be better 
 acquainted with the locality than he was himself. 
 Needless to say that the Berry ranch was visited, 
 cautiously at first, but on finding the lonely rock- 
 
310 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 house to be entirely deserted, she rode within sight 
 of it daily, for the purpose of observing whether any 
 one came or went. 
 
 One evening her vigilance was rewarded. From 
 the upper trail she saw two men riding toward the 
 house. A couple of bounds on the part of her horse 
 carried her to the shelter of an overhanging rock, 
 and, as the wind was blowing, she felt assured that 
 any sound made by the Boy would be unnoticed by 
 the passers-by. For they passed by the Berrys, 
 father and son. 
 
 As Sylvia had herself remarked, she was no longer 
 a coward. What have those to fear who have lost 
 everything? Yet when, just as she was preparing 
 to leave her hiding-place, Long Tom loped into view, 
 her heart stood still. She had not seen him on the 
 lower trail. After this adventure, her expeditions 
 became more restricted; and this partly because she 
 was now beginning to look for instructions and advice. 
 
 Both came ; but not immediately. 
 
 There have been others in worse case than Sylvia at 
 this period. Hers at least was that draught of simple 
 human pity, more helpful than all wisdom, that does 
 not forsake us. 
 
 Yet what Cristol had dreaded for her had occurred, 
 and innocuously. Tears had been mingled feminine 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 311 
 
 tears. But the helping hand of the sturdy, simple- 
 minded man, extended in time, had had power to save. 
 
 For Johnny, on her way from St. Louis some weeks 
 previously, had resolved on giving her a surprise. 
 Sending Ted home, she, unannounced, stopped off at 
 Rosalia. No news of the tragedy had reached her 
 during her absence, and the mail-carrier who drove 
 her from the depot knew not Johnny, and was there 
 fore unknown himself a new man, in short. The 
 drive was a silent one, and Johnny, arrived at her 
 destination, lumbered softly up the steps and passed 
 in at the open door. Once in the hall, she uplifted her 
 voice : 
 
 " Little Davie ! Little Davie ! Come to your 
 old Johnny!" 
 
 But the opening of doors, the hurrying of feet, 
 and the baby sounds she had expected, all failed her. 
 No, not all; for a door slowly opened, and a figure, 
 wan of face, large-eyed and haggard, paused upon 
 the threshold. Was this Sylvia? 
 
 For the flash of a second the two women confronted 
 one another in silence. Then the bent bow snapped, 
 and with an exceedingly bitter cry the childless 
 woman fell upon the neck of her friend. 
 
 It is doubtful whether even the strong-willed 
 Johnny could have controlled her grief in this hour. 
 
312 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 But she did not try. It was not until the old Mammy 
 touched her gently, telling her in broken accents that 
 these were the first tears the mother had shed since the 
 pitiful death of the child, that Johnny bethought her, 
 and, checking her own tears, abandoned herself to the 
 care of Sylvia. She needed that care. For many 
 days and weeks it seemed as though the long-enduring 
 spirit had endured for the last time. The thought 
 of the living David alone brought her weary feet back 
 from the grave s edge. 
 
 In the month that she awaited instructions at Bub 
 bling Spring other guests came thither, health-seek 
 ers, as Cristol had prognosticated. At first from a 
 sense of duty, as much as from a sympathy born of 
 her own loneliness and suffering, she strove to cheer 
 these lonely travellers, whilst her personal appearance 
 and her sojourn at this isolated spot excited their in 
 terest in return. Fortunately for Sylvia, the self- 
 absorption which is a rarely failing characteristic of 
 their disease served to distract their attention from 
 herself, when curiosity threatened to become awkward. 
 From the host or the coloured woman no satisfaction 
 was to be obtained, beyond Aunt Julie s vague in 
 formation that " Mis had had a heap o trouble." 
 She was thin, undoubtedly, was the universal com 
 ment, but seemed to be well and cheerful. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 313 
 
 For Sylvia had arrived at that stage of suffering 
 when the endeavour after concealment, to appear even 
 as others, absorbs the whole being. She quickly learned 
 the trick of laughing with a heart full to bursting, 
 and other tricks of a like nature known to those who 
 have passed their novitiate. Sounding the depths of 
 human agony, or shivering in its shallows, may pro 
 duce in the same person widely differing effects; and 
 there are few individuals of strong character whom 
 the awful experience of the worst that life can offer 
 does not nerve to a display of courage and cheerful 
 ness. To such natures necessity knows no other law. 
 
 At the end of the month Cristol was found, early 
 one morning, watering himself and his horse under the 
 rocks near the big cedar. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 NO nor the savages ain t got no use for help 
 less dumb things! They kicks an abuses 
 them same s you does. Folks has got to 
 be sorter civilised afore they cares for them as 
 can t help theyselves. An lemme tell you, God s 
 a-watchin to see who s got understandin sufficient 
 to treat the creatures He gives us right, an sense 
 enough to know as they has feelin s an minds same 
 as civilised folks, an a heap more n savages has ! " 
 The above fiery speech proceeded from the lips of 
 Johnny. Wrath blazed in her eyes, and her hand 
 some countenance flamed. But in the hollow of her 
 left arm she held with surpassing tenderness the tiny 
 Nino, his small head resting confidingly beneath her 
 ample chin. 
 
 Her fury had been evoked by the abrupt entrance 
 of Ted, in tears and unashamed, because Berry, on his 
 way to the house, had kicked the little dog. Johnny s 
 wrath was due not only to the treatment of her son s 
 pet, but to Berry s sneering and untruthful comment 
 on the mollycoddle fashion in which she raised her 
 boys. 
 
 314 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 315 
 
 If Berry possessed a guardian angel, the same was 
 oversleeping himself that morning. The redoubtable 
 Mrs. Johnson now paused in order to hand her tiny 
 burden to her son, and then whirled on her exceedingly 
 foolish visitor. 
 
 Berry rarely ventured to Antelope Canon, but he 
 felt the necessity of finding out what Sylvia was doing 
 at Bubbling Spring ; for he had by this time seen her 
 on the mountain trails, and did not want her in his 
 neighbourhood, for reasons at present known posi 
 tively only to himself and his immediate following. 
 He had intended to begin by appearing interested in 
 the kidnapping affair, to pretend to lament it, and to 
 express the hope that the now somewhat frail-looking 
 mother of the baby was not really going into a de 
 cline, as he had heard. He had, of course, heard 
 nothing of the sort, and began to wish he had not 
 come. 
 
 "You re gettin too smart, you is, Sam Berry!" 
 observed his hostess, in a withering voice. " An don t 
 you never dare again to take the names of that blessed 
 lamb an his lady-mother upon your lips ! Lemme tell 
 you somethin : I knows your ways all right; she s 
 my friend, an whoever plagues her has got Polly 
 Johnson to reckon with hear me?" 
 
 Indubitably Mrs. Johnson was one of those rare 
 
316 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 women capable of using a horsewhip to advantage on 
 the right kind of man. 
 
 " An don t you go fur to play none o your dirty 
 Texas tricks on him, neither," she proceeded, drawing 
 up her stalwart figure, and eyeing the shambling, 
 loose- jointed man before her with a gaze of immeasur 
 able scorn. "I ain t forgot your low-down ways o 
 doin to a gentleman whose shoes you ain t fitten fur 
 to lick, let alone tie! An I ain t a-goin to forget, 
 neither." 
 
 Thereupon Mrs. Johnson slammed the door of her 
 hospitable home in his face. 
 
 " D n the old she-devil ! " cursed Berry, impo- 
 
 tently. For to engage Johnny other than impotently 
 called for more nerve and brain than Berry was able 
 to produce. At the same time it might be mentioned 
 in passing that had the warlike lady found her enemy 
 wounded by the wayside, it is quite likely that she 
 would have laid him upon her own beast and carried 
 him -to an inn. 
 
 Berry had no sooner departed than Johnny sum 
 moned her son and the hired man, and, telling the lat 
 ter to saddle her horse, and the former not to look for 
 her until the following day, withdrew to prepare her 
 self for her thirty-mile ride to Bubbling Spring. 
 
 When she arrived at her destination it was to find 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 317 
 
 Sylvia off on horseback, no one could exactly say 
 where. Douglas was always willing to expend his 
 limited powers of expression on Mrs. Johnson ; in fact 
 was in the habit of inviting that capable person, with 
 much regularity and persistence, to take possession of 
 himself and his house upon that day and forever 
 more. If Johnny had not received the unfailing invi 
 tation, she might have missed it ; as it was, she scouted 
 it with rather more vim than usual. 
 
 "Oh, go-long, Mr. Douglas! I ve got more impor 
 tant matters to think of than courtin ." 
 
 Having thus summarily disposed of her admirer s 
 passion, Johnny proceeded to business. She was still 
 engaged in warily sounding that silent person, when 
 Sylvia came riding up the canon, and in less than five 
 minutes the two women were sitting in the doorway of 
 the corner room at the end of the porch, safe from lis 
 tening ears. 
 
 It was warm June weather, but at this altitude the 
 heat of the day was at five o clock already spent, and 
 the sweet mountain breeze sighed softly through the 
 junipers and cedars, and trailed the shadows of imag 
 inary clouds across the valley, dreaming miles below. 
 
 " Johnny," began Sylvia, impressively, " I ve made 
 a discovery. When Mr. Cristol was here the other 
 day, he told me that there were caves somewhere on 
 
318 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 this mountain." The other woman nodded her head 
 vigorously. 
 
 " Sure ! but they been lost for years and years. They 
 do say as the old cave dwellers were mixed up some 
 how in their makin , an Johnson used to tell how a 
 real old man as lived on our ranch before Johnson 
 bought it had known a party of emigrants to take 
 refuge in them caverns one time when the Injuns was 
 after them ; though how emigrants ever got up so high 
 beats me to say." 
 
 "Johnny," whispered Sylvia, with shining eyes, 
 " I ve found those caves ! " 
 
 "You have! My sakes!" 
 
 " Mr. Cristol asked me to hunt them up, if I could ; 
 he said he did not think I could, because they had been 
 lost, as you said, for years and years. But, Johnny, 
 I ve found them ! And it is as Mr. Cristol suspected. 
 That s the way all the stolen cattle have gone. Do 
 you see?" 
 
 "Do I see?" echoed Johnny, rising majestically. 
 " My dearie, we re gettin there all right ! We ll have 
 them cattle-rustlers, sure pop! and with them, you 
 mark my words " lowering her voice " we ll get the 
 others, too." 
 
 Then she paused, remembering a conversation she 
 had held recently with the sheriff. Sylvia believed, 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 319 
 
 and with some show of justice, that by assuming, so 
 far as she was able, Kingdon s duties, she was saving 
 him from dangers which in her case would amount to 
 possibilities only. Also Cristol realised that David s 
 mood was not such as to render him an efficient pro 
 tector of Sylvia s name, or his own domestic peace. 
 His customary self-control was to a large extent in 
 abeyance, and, in thus giving the rein to the desperate 
 side of his nature, he was also incapable for the time of 
 discharging his duties in the manner required by the 
 law. And as these thoughts passed through the one 
 woman s mind, the other took them and put them into 
 words. 
 
 " Johnny," she said, slowly, " it isn t only because 
 remark might be caused by David s taking up this bus 
 iness that I want to try and do it for him ; it is because 
 well, you know how it is with him ; when he has held 
 himself in as long as he can, then he " She hesi 
 tated, as if unable to find exactly the right word. 
 
 "Turns hisself loose!" put in the other woman, 
 promptly ; " I know all about it, my dear. I ve seen 
 Davie real mad, and this time if ever a man had 
 cause " 
 
 But the expression of Sylvia s face was such that 
 Johnny hurriedly restored the subject to its abandoned 
 channel. 
 
320 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Now tell me about those caverns, my dearie," she 
 continued; "I m jes 5 wild to have you tell what you 
 seen." Then, as an idea struck her, " Did John let on 
 to you about the train-robbing?" 
 
 "Yes, but he says he has absolutely no proof at 
 present that it s the same gang." 
 
 " You bet it is ! " cried Johnny, slapping her knees ; 
 "I ve been suspicionin that Vin Berry this ever so 
 long, and though Cristol s been awful close with me, 
 I ve got even with him, all right ; an so I told him last 
 week." Here she laughed, enjoying certain reminis 
 cences ; then sobered suddenly. " But don t you know 
 that it s as much as our lives is worth, mine an yours, 
 for any one to suspicion us? There s men in that 
 gang who d as soon do up a woman as they would a 
 man; an* don t you forget it, my dear!" 
 
 " No, I won t forget, but they won t touch me. 
 Well, Johnny, there s no going up about it. The reg 
 ular wagon-trail leads right past the mouth of the 
 caves ; yet it was by the merest chance I stumbled, not 
 only upon them, but into them. I d tied the horse on 
 the trail below the Berry house on the other side of the 
 mountain, and had climbed on to the top of a kind of 
 butte, and was sitting there, thinking, and throwing 
 little bits of rock at nothing at all. Suddenly a larger 
 piece than usual seemed to disappear ; I threw another ; 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 821 
 
 that went down, too. Then I got interested, and went 
 over to the place. There I found a queer dent in the 
 ground; hardly a hole, yet when I poked my riding 
 switch into it, the point went on down. I cleared 
 away the trash, just from curiosity, to see if my rocks 
 were there, but could not find them. I took a sharp 
 rock and enlarged the opening. By this time I dis 
 covered that the ground was hollow underneath. Then 
 I thought of the lost caves. I went down to the trail, 
 took off the Boy s rope, and hitched him to a bunch of 
 grass. Tying a heavy bit of rock to the rope with my 
 handkerchief, I forced the rock through the hole. It 
 went on dropping until at last I came to the end of 
 the rope, and had to stop. That was only this after 
 noon, Johnny ! " 
 
 Sylvia came to an impressive pause. 
 
 " I scarcely like to tell you what I did afterward," 
 she continued, "because you always says Go slow! 
 I didn t go slow. I noticed that the rope seemed to 
 hang perfectly straight at first, and then slanted to 
 one side, toward the trail. I leaned over the edge of 
 the butte. Nothing was to be seen down there but a 
 sheer face of limestone rock; at least, that s how it 
 looked at first. Then it looked to me as if the rock 
 was uneven in places. I went down, and began to ex 
 amine the face of the cliff as high as I could reach. 
 
322 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Up and down I walked, back and forth, staring until 
 my eyes ached ! And then at last at last, Johnny ! 
 I saw that one huge slab was detachable, had been re 
 cently detached! I examined the ground closely. 
 There could be no doubt about it. By this time I did 
 not care what I did." 
 
 " Come ! " remarked Johnny abruptly, rising from 
 her chair; "let s be goin ! " 
 
 Sylvia pulled her back into her seat, laughing. 
 
 "Dear Johnny, it s too late! And you couldn t 
 possibly get into the cave ! It was as much as I could 
 do to squeeze in, and 
 
 "You mean to tell me as you ventured into them 
 caves all by your lonesome ? " Johnny s voice was stern. 
 
 " Johnny, I had to ! I know I promised you I would 
 do nothing rash, but sometimes promises have to be 
 broken. I feared I might lose my chance if I went 
 away then, perhaps waste valuable time looking for 
 that slab of rock again, for you d be surprised to see 
 how natural and untouched the face of the cliff ap 
 pears! I remembered about David how hard it al 
 ways is for him to wait, to be kept back, and that no 
 one could hold him much longer in the mood he s in 
 now ; and I said to myself that I d go into that cave, 
 mountain-lions or no! So I squeezed in, but I had 
 sense enough not to go far " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 323 
 
 "And God forbid you ever should! Don t you 
 know as I told you that the story of the lost caves 
 is as they has no end? Or leastways no man has 
 found the end of em? The tale is that the man 
 who starts in to explore carries with him a ball of 
 twine " 
 
 " Stop, Johnny, stop ! " interrupted Sylvia, ex 
 citedly ; " I ve not done yet ! I didn t forget what you 
 told me about the twine. Way up on a ledge above 
 my head was an iron ring in the rock, and there was 
 a ball of twine fastened to it! Now what do you 
 think?" 
 
 " Go on go on ! " gasped Johnny. 
 
 " Well, of course I took it down, and unwinding it, 
 started off. I m here to help him, I thought, so 
 where s the use of being scared? I unwound the ball, 
 and unwound, and presently I came to a round sort of 
 room; and, Johnny, there was a gramma there, and 
 traces of animals, and bits of rope, and things that 
 looked like branding-irons. I remembered what you 
 said and did not try to go farther, but I believe there s 
 one cave after another there that there s no end to 
 them ! " 
 
 Both women sat silent for a while. 
 
 "I m a study in " said the elder, finally; then 
 turning quickly on her companion and laying her hand 
 
324 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 upon her knee: "What say to me an you workin 
 this racket to ourselves ? " 
 
 "And the train-robbers, Johnny?" 
 
 "That is as it may be," was the sapient reply. 
 " Are you willin ? " 
 
 Was Sylvia willing! 
 
 John Cristol was a wise man in his generation. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 SYLVIA was mistaken as to stout women s powers 
 of contraction. Previous to this apparent 
 miracle, however, Johnny had induced Doug 
 las to ride to Antelope Canon on her behalf, and 
 see to it that all went well with Ted and the ranch, and 
 to tell the boy to lock up the house and bring Nino 
 and " come on, if so be as he felt like it ; Maw was 
 awful stuck on Mrs. Archibald, and wanted to stay at 
 Bubbling Spring a while." But Ted, the budding 
 ranchman, did not feel like it, and sent back word that 
 there was a heap to do. Mrs. Johnson, therefore, con 
 sidered herself at liberty for a few days. 
 
 In her wily brain other ideas than those appertain 
 ing to stolen cattle were revolving. It could scarcely 
 be that any train-robbing business could be carried on 
 in such dangerous surroundings ; yet extreme fool- 
 hardiness sometimes " gets there." Johnny pondered, 
 but said little. To surprise John Cristol would indeed 
 be a prize worth playing for! 
 
 How she entered the cave cannot be told; suffice it 
 to say that she was able to follow the slender Sylvia 
 
 325 
 
326 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 with a despatch that amounted indeed to the mir 
 aculous. 
 
 All within was as Sylvia had described it. Silently 
 the two women, the foremost holding firmly to the 
 twine, continued on past the open space evidently de 
 voted to the cattle interest, and went from cave to cave. 
 Sylvia recognised at once the improbability of these 
 being the homes of ancient cave dwellers; it was far 
 more likely that the limestone formation was respon 
 sible for their existence. However, this was neither 
 the time nor the place for geological discoveries. At 
 last Johnny called a halt. 
 
 "There s a kind of stairway here. What say 
 shall we go up ? " And she leaned her arm against the 
 rock wall in momentary hesitation, her elbow sank 
 inwards. With a cry she struck a match. "Oh, 
 my dearie, my dearie, we ve got em sure! Cattle- 
 rustlin ain t a patch on it ain t in it with this ! " 
 
 "What is it?" asked the less experienced woman. 
 
 "Oh, nothin ," was the sarcastic retort "nothin 
 at all ! Only a can of white powder, and one of dyna 
 mite, and tools to prize open express-safes, that s 
 all!" 
 
 Ranged upon a ledge were these implements of de 
 struction. After a short, breathless pause, Johnny 
 proceeded : 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 327 
 
 "Now it s my belief as this stairway goes on up 
 into the house; and if that s so, we ve cornered the 
 whole gang run em to earth, all right. They ve 
 waited an awful long time since failin on that other 
 hold-up, and now we know for sure they re a-goin to 
 try it again. That s jes what John is strivin night 
 an day to get on to. There s jerked venison here, too, 
 an some awful dry tortillas an liquor, as I m a livin 
 woman ! Vll liquor you all, an pretty soon, too," she 
 added in a bloodthirsty aside, " or my name s not Polly 
 Johnson ! " 
 
 Suddenly, Sylvia s ear caught a sound a strange, 
 muffled sound, which escaped the other woman s duller 
 hearing. 
 
 "Hush, Johnny! Listen!" 
 
 They had with them a small bull s-eye lantern, 
 which in her excitement Johnny had discarded for a 
 match. This lantern Sylvia now took from her, 
 darkening it. 
 
 " It s some one a-stompin overhead," whispered 
 Johnny. 
 
 They listened again. The sounds ceased. 
 
 " We ve got to hump ourselves an git out o this," 
 was Johnny s next remark. 
 
 They approached the entrance of the caves, and 
 there paused again. 
 
328 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Both women had walked from Bubbling Spring, so 
 there were no horses to betray them; but on the 
 mountain trail was little or no cover. 
 
 "Wouldn t it be safer to wait until dark?" 
 whispered Sylvia. 
 
 " No, no ! Best take chances as they happen around. 
 We took stock of em oncet afore we got started; 
 that s enough. An I ain t scart of any one s 
 a-glimpsin of me ; two women has as good a right to 
 walk on the trail as the next feller." 
 
 So saying, Johnny squeezed into the open and 
 scudded rapidly across the road, upon the far side of 
 which she came to a halt, viewing the scenery with a 
 bland and disengaged air. Just as Sylvia was about 
 to follow, a horseman rounded the corner. 
 
 It was an anxious moment. Was the rider Berry, 
 or only one of his gang? 
 
 "That you, Bob Jones? Didn t know you all to 
 oncet. Got to thinkin as you must have gone out on 
 the bum." 
 
 " Been awful rushed on the range," was the rather 
 sullen reply. 
 
 "You rushed? My sakes!" scornfully. Johnny 
 would have sniffed at the idea of propitiating even her 
 deadliest foe. 
 
 "What you a-doin around here, anyhow?" 
 
" You sure is gettin sassy for your years, Bob ! " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 829 
 
 " Jes a-stoppin to Bubblin Spring awhile, along 
 with a lady-friend who s been sorter sick. I always 
 was a great one for the puny and peaked folks, you 
 know." 
 
 This being a fact common to sectional history, Bob 
 for the instant was nonplussed ; then proceeded grum- 
 blingly : 
 
 " Looks queer to see you afoot. Guess as you sus- 
 picioned you was gittin too fleshy. You an Mat ll 
 make a fine team when you gits ready to hitch up." 
 
 " You sure is gittin sassy for your years, Bob 1 " 
 Then came the laugh and the inevitable " gassin ," 
 and at last the cowboy showed symptoms of moving 
 on in response to Johnny s, 
 
 " Well, so-long ! I m off ! Guess my lady s a-waitin 
 on me." 
 
 And from behind her rock Sylvia saw her compan 
 ion s solid form slowly disappearing around the butte, 
 whilst the clatter of hoofs proclaimed the departure 
 of Bob Jones. 
 
 She was at Johnny s side almost before the latter 
 lady had time to think, for a year spent with a man of 
 David s temperament had not been wasted upon her. 
 It was well that she had in this instance profited by 
 these lessons, for in two minutes Bob was back again. 
 All he got for his pains, however, was a glimpse of the 
 
330 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 two women walking in a leisurely manner toward 
 Bubbling Spring. The oaths that he poured forth 
 unsparingly availed him nothing. There was also 
 nothing to tell the "boss." 
 
 The women said little until, as Johnny succinctly 
 expressed it, they had "cooled off," figuratively as 
 well as actually. Her opinion proved to be that Cristol 
 must be notified without loss of time of their " find," 
 and of their belief that the rocky stairway led up into 
 the Berry house, and that the " stompin " overhead 
 was produced by the heavy boots of a man. To this 
 end she took Douglas partially into her confidence, 
 whereupon he agreed to go down the mountain after 
 Cristol, and appoint a meeting with him for Mrs. 
 Johnson at her ranch on the ensuing day. It was not 
 deemed advisable that the sheriff should appear again 
 so soon at Bubbling Spring; for so far as could be 
 ascertained Berry had no notion of Cristol s suspi 
 cions in regard to his ranch around the shoulder of the 
 mountain, and had never seen the sheriff in that 
 vicinity. Meantime, the women waited, after the 
 accustomed manner of women. Cristol sent word that 
 he was coming to Bubbling Spring anyhow, risk or 
 no risk. Therefore his feminine allies waited, whilst 
 Cristol pondered. 
 
 For he had much to consider. One false step now, 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 331 
 
 and the game would be lost. He had already slipped 
 down into Mexico, and had there located one of his 
 men, and by the promise of ample reward had lured 
 him back to the Territory, in a safe corner of which 
 the sheriff kept him under his hand. So far, so good. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson was one of the voluble persons who 
 are masters of the art of secrecy. The sheriff was 
 absolutely sure of her ; of Sylvia also. So, arriving 
 at Bubbling Spring for a late supper, he proceeded 
 to unfold his tale. 
 
 " The old rascal ! " he concluded, unable to forbear 
 a final chuckle. 
 
 " John, ain t you shamed to crack even so much as 
 a smile over that feller ? " exclaimed Johnny, reproach 
 fully. "Jes to set here an think how he s foolin 
 that church-member crowd down to Rosalia is enough 
 for me. An you ve got it down right, sure pop? " she 
 added, anxiously. 
 
 " Sure pop, old lady ! " replied the sheriff, marking 
 each phrase with his finger close under Johnny s nose. 
 " The cattle-rustlin , the kidnappin , and now the 
 train-robbin catch on ? " 
 
 Johnny nodded admiringly ; and he continued : 
 
 "Then there s three shootin s in the mountains as 
 come o that Long Tom business more o that old 
 bad egg s work ! But I ve started out to get even 
 
332 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 with him, and I ll do it. I ll take in the whole shootin 
 match, if the gang punches me full o holes before I 
 get through!" 
 
 The sheriff swung on his heel, and paced the porch, 
 his stalwart ally watching him with anxiety in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Now, John," she said, " don t go for to do nothin 
 rash, an p raps pass in your checks with nothin to 
 show for them." 
 
 But Cristol did not reply at once. 
 
 " It s out of sight ! " he murmured, smiling an 
 anticipatory smile. Then he came back, and seated him 
 self between his allies. In lowered tones he started to 
 unfold his schemes. He and Johnny had long believed 
 that the Berrys were in some way connected with the 
 two train-robberies that had occurred within the last 
 two years. The fact that Vin Berry had recently, by 
 means of some mysterious "pull" on the road, 
 obtained a position as brakeman on the through mail, 
 did not in the least affect these beliefs. 
 
 " I suspicion as Berry s pull comes in with the ex 
 press agent as acts as sheriff of the road and travels 
 for them," said Cristol. " The old hypocrite stands 
 high with them as is easy fooled, an lives reputable 
 an quiet down to Rosalia, an has a big followin of 
 good as well as bad, as we seen at the elections that 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 333 
 
 is, in the valley ; in the mountains folks has got more 
 gumption. Remember the case o Jem Alton, Mrs. 
 Johnson, when you was first married an come here to 
 live? Well, this is the very same yarn told over! 
 Alton was a respected citizen and a peace-officer, too, 
 and his compadre had been a Wells Fargo agent and 
 knew the ropes. Between them they cleaned up an 
 express-car, and then vamoosed into the Arizona 
 desert, and was the most bloodthirsty outlaw an cat- 
 tle-rustlin outfit in the whole Territory. Then, when 
 things got too hot for them in Arizona, they come over 
 the border, an I was on hand when we cleaned them 
 up, sure ! " 
 
 "An wa n t no slouch, neither, I bet!" put in 
 Johnny. 
 
 The sheriff smiled his gentlest smile, and proceeded : 
 " Well, that s how the land lays and don t you for 
 get it! I could easy go down to the Courthouse an 
 fetch some chap of a lawyer to lay his eyes on that 
 truck as you found in Berry s caves, but that might 
 make more trouble in the end. Law ain t justice every 
 time, an my aim is to catch the old thief red-handed. 
 Accordin to my readin of his mind, the old man ain t 
 got the grit to board no train, but he ll be on hand 
 some place at this ranch o his, I m suspicionin . 
 Vin ll give em the word, all right, an there ll be two 
 
334 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 of em to fix the train when the time comes, and likely 
 three or four o the Berry outfit a half-dozen miles off 
 the railroad with fresh horses to remount the first fel 
 lers an send em whoopin up the trail to the caves 
 catch on? Then, as I take it, the fellers as is waitin 
 will ride off innocent-ways in another direction ; an if 
 so be as they re caught, why, they re only a respectable 
 cattle-men s cowboys huntin strayed stock. Now this 
 bein a critical kind of a job, I ve sworn in the King- 
 don-Ranch Dick as extra deputy, an notified Kingdon 
 to be on call. Them s the two men as I can rely on, 
 whatever comes." Cristol had forgotten, in the ab 
 sorbing interest of his subject, the presence of Sylvia, 
 who now gazed upon him with dilating eyes. " Them 
 chaps has orders to wait on the trail leadin to Long 
 Tom s dug-out. Kingdon has it down that, if Tom s 
 in this racket, it s as like as not he ll carry the stuff 
 there, an I allow as it may be so. It ain t so awful 
 far from this place o Berry s, but it ain t on the same 
 trail. They ll take one o the forks o the road, after 
 meetin up with their cow-puncher friends, an will lay 
 off to carry the swiped stuff to the dug-out, an then 
 make tracks across the mountain to these caves. I 
 tell you they ll have to chase themselves when David 
 Kingdon has it up to them ! " 
 
 The sheriff was interrupted in the enjoyment of 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 335 
 
 his characteristic chuckle by the sudden vision of 
 Sylvia s face. 
 
 "Not that there s any danger to speak of," he 
 hastened to add "not for the deputies, that is. 
 They ve just got to follow an select their own time 
 for attack. Herell be most trouble, to my way of 
 thinkin ; that is, if the bandits make straight tracks 
 for the cave. Mat an me has got to handle them 
 here. But Kingdon s laid off for the other trail be 
 cause he is so awful quick an sudden see? " 
 
 "And what am / here for, Mr. Cristol?" 
 
 He hesitated a perceptible moment. 
 
 "Well, Mrs. Kingdon, didn t you discover them 
 caves ? the best hit that s been made this trip ! And 
 there ll be some more still-huntin to do before we get 
 through, you can bet on that. The work ahead now is 
 men s work, so far s I see. But right now I want you 
 to continue doin as you have been doin watch out." 
 
 It was evident that Sylvia was not satisfied, and 
 Cristol wondered what she had in her mind to do. 
 
 He waited for the setting of the moon, and then 
 took his departure, promising to report promptly. 
 
 " Cristol don t hold no chair down ! " was Johnny s 
 admiring comment, as she watched the fine rider, finely 
 mounted, disappear rapidly and fearlessly into the 
 enveloping dark. 
 
336 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Sylvia glanced at her friend with eyes at once sym 
 pathetic and amused. For, the primal agony, as the 
 primal joy, passed, Sylvia was not one to permit either 
 grief or happiness to possess her completely ; and this 
 was no mere matter of temperament. Blood and tears 
 had gone to that victory s making. In her present 
 environment she was envied by the self-absorbed 
 health-seekers as a rich widow who had long outgrown 
 any sorrows she might have had, and was now free to 
 lend a constant ear to other and lesser tales of woe. 
 So, except for here and there a man or woman quick 
 enough to note a certain expression stealing unawares 
 into those dark eyes of hers, or the lines drawn upon 
 any face behind which lurks heart or soul or brain suf 
 ficient to feel pain s impress beyond the passing hour, 
 none guessed that in their midst was a woman with a 
 history. She had found that high courage which 
 expands instead of contracting beneath the pitiless 
 storm ; yet there still remained one thing she could not 
 bear the cry of a little child in grief or pain. 
 
 "Such a misfortune that Mrs. Archibald does not 
 care for children!" was the comment often made by 
 some doting mother afflicting a patient world with the 
 One-Child Curse this being surely a nuisance calling 
 for some wise and equitably applied law. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 WHEN a drill bucks up against that ar 
 line o rock, it s as hard as the hinges of 
 Old Get-Out ; but it ain t no harder than 
 John Cristol, once he s got his mind sot ! " 
 
 " And what may that mean, Dick ? " 
 
 " Jes this ; he s in to win this round, or pass in his 
 checks." 
 
 David and Dick were lying in the shadow of a great 
 rock set in a thirsty land. It was still broad day, but 
 the deputies thus summoned on special duty were now 
 resting and watering their horses at the last spring to 
 be met with ere they arrived at their destination. The 
 railroad was yet far distant, and the mail-train was 
 due at Cottonwood Bosque at nine o clock that night. 
 Carlos, the Mexican, had so far proved faithful. That 
 he was one of the kidnappers of little Davie had, 
 however, determined Cristol on keeping him out of 
 Kingdon s way. 
 
 At home David had had no questions to answer ; for 
 Clairette had gone with the Gerry-Smiths further 
 north for the summer, and her husband was abandoned 
 
 337 
 
338 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 to his own devices. Perhaps she might not have 
 endorsed these same devices, though, as David muttered 
 to himself, they were harmless enough so far as she 
 was concerned, at least. 
 
 He had been told, of course, that Sylvia was at 
 Bubbling Spring ; knew also that Cristol, even whilst 
 providing her with the promised distraction, would do 
 his utmost to see that she came to no harm ; and Cris- 
 tol s utmost was not to be lightly esteemed. Yet how 
 was it possible for David to be entirely easy as to her 
 safety? Of the hidden fires deep down in her nature 
 he had long since been made aware ; and he was not 
 aware that Cristol, too, had made his discoveries, 
 which, although of necessity but partial, had served 
 as a warning. 
 
 Her face, her eyes, as he and she parted across the 
 body of their child, haunted him. Here was a woman 
 the intensity of whose emotions would be equalled only 
 by their endurance. Feeling, with her, would be no 
 flash in the pan, quenched swiftly by its own tears, 
 and which in dying leaves no trace behind. In Sylvia 
 the fire was undying; concealed, perhaps, from care 
 less sight by those habits of self-control and consider 
 ation for others implanted early by a wise father, but 
 liable to break out whenever nature should fling down 
 its guards in response to some tremendous, unforseen 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 call upon it. The call had rung out now ; what would 
 Sylvia do? 
 
 Thus sadly mused the erstwhile husband of Sylvia, 
 as he lay on his back and smoked in the oasis of shadow 
 splashed like a dark pool on the expanse of high, sun- 
 smitten mesa. 
 
 What would Sylvia do? not the Sylvia the world 
 knew, but his Sylvia? 
 
 Dick, blessed with a mind less strenuous, was mean 
 while enjoying his forty winks in peace; and the 
 horses their corn, in a like manner. 
 
 In the late afternoon the men mounted and moved 
 downward until they arrived at the forks of the road 
 and the edge of the cottonwood bosque from which the 
 little depot several miles beyond took its name. 
 
 Here they concealed themselves and their horses 
 in a night of which the first hours would be moon 
 less. 
 
 The instructions were that the game was to be a 
 waiting one. There was to be no fight until the depu 
 ties rounded up their prey into the arms of the sheriff 
 and the other deputy at Bubbling Spring, or, still 
 better, at the Berry ranch-house. If the bandits struck 
 out in the direction of Long Tom s place, a scout 
 suitably posted was to carry the news to the sheriffs 
 at Bubbling Spring, who were immediately to " put in 
 
340 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 their best licks" across the mountain to the other 
 rendezvous. 
 
 The trail branched off to Long Tom s under the 
 foothills, and there, in the rock, was one of the charac 
 teristic formations peculiar to limestone, a recess just 
 large enough to hold a medium-sized man. 
 
 Now although Mat, for reasons of his own, lived 
 up to the description usually given of him as " a pretty 
 independent kind of a feller," he had distinct under 
 standings with his intimates all the same. There abode 
 with him a boy, offspring of a white man and a Pima 
 squaw, whom Douglas had caught early and raised as 
 his son. It was whispered indeed that Winged Heel 
 was his son in actual fact. The only fact absolutely 
 proven was that the half-breed was devoted to his pro 
 tector, and that he inherited, as is rare in half-breeds, 
 good points from both races; from the Indian, not 
 merely the sober and industrious qualities of the Pima, 
 but the Indian fleetness of foot also. It was the latter 
 quality that had obtained for him the Indian name 
 signifying Winged Heel. It was he who was to lie 
 hidden in the hole under the foothills and to carry the 
 message ahead of the horsemen to the expectant 
 sheriffs. 
 
 So far, so good; but there are always the schemes 
 of mice and men to run a-gley. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 341 
 
 It was fair to assume that the older Berry, true to 
 his nature, would st&y within the ranch-house and 
 refrain from showing himself. Indeed, to have " lain 
 low " would have been the best policy of a bolder man. 
 But even with Berry the unexpected happened. 
 
 He had steadily claimed that at this small ranch he 
 kept his imported bulls and his choicest cows ; and in 
 certain quarters whatever Old Man Berry claimed was 
 bound to " go." On this particular day his boss cow- 
 puncher (in the absence of Long Tom), Bob Jones, 
 was herding the bunch of cows in a gulch below the 
 ranch-house, wherein since the coming of the summer 
 rains the grass grew high. To him Berry in person, 
 all the other men being off except the cook, carried 
 his " grub." 
 
 Cristol and the deputy kept in retirement at the 
 Spring. As the afternoon began to wear away Sylvia 
 presented herself before the sheriff, as he sat upon a 
 bench beneath a cedar tree, gazing in profound 
 abstraction upon the ground. She had taken to riding 
 on a man s saddle of late for the sake of its incon- 
 spicuousness, and was habited suitably, in khaki. 
 
 " Berry has gone down to the mesa," she remarked 
 abruptly. 
 
 Cristol whistled; then exclaimed: 
 
 "What in the name of all creation s come to old 
 
342 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Sam? He ain t like hisself these days. Used to be 
 skeered o his own shadder. We ll have to get to 
 crowdin him if he don t quit puttin up so much 
 bluff." The sheriff rose as he spoke, and looked across 
 the valley. " Must feel he s awful well backed, some 
 way. He never under the sun d dare to " he paused ; 
 then muttered, " I d risk somethin to take a scout for 
 him!" 
 
 "Mr. Cristol, what am I here for?" 
 
 It was the old question. 
 
 " My dear," he said at last, in the fatherly tones 
 he had employed toward her once before, " my 
 dear, are you willing for that? scout work in the 
 open ? " 
 
 She nodded impatiently, shaking back her bright 
 hair. 
 
 "Well, get your hat then, and we ll see about it." 
 
 He still spoke as though to a child why, he could 
 not have told. Perhaps it was the pity of it. 
 
 " It s awful warm for you yet," he resumed, doubt 
 fully, as in a flash she was again at his side. 
 
 " No matter ; it s better so. Berry knows I m in the 
 saddle most of the time; so if he sees me he won t be 
 apt to suspect anything. Don t worry, kind friend ! " 
 she added, gently, laying her white hand for a fleeting 
 instant on the strong brown one outspread on the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 343 
 
 bench. Then with a little laugh, " And you know the 
 kind of animals he rides ! " 
 
 " Plugs ! the last one of em ! " 
 
 " Well, then, why do you fear for me? " 
 
 " Oh, I guess you re all right. But, Mrs. Kingdon, 
 t ain t worth while to take risks. If he talks or acts 
 ugly, have the Boy shake his heels in his face see?" 
 
 " Yes, I see." 
 
 And with the smile still on her lips, Sylvia turned 
 and ran lightly up the steep path toward the corral. 
 
 " If Berry catches sight of me, he ll go back to his 
 lair. That s what I m out for," she said to herself, 
 as she rode in a leisurely manner toward the mesa. 
 The lowering sun slanted in her eyes, but she tipped 
 her wide hat over them, and from beneath its shelter 
 gazed over the broad expanse of mesa and valley. Not 
 a moving thing was to be seen, except far away the 
 smoke of a train. 
 
 It was sunset when at last she decided to return. 
 The cool night breeze of high altitudes was already 
 blowing in her face, yet not a sign had she seen of 
 Berry. 
 
 But stay not a hundred yards distant, in strong 
 relief upon the gilded sky, appeared the figure of a 
 mounted man. He was threading his way slowly 
 through the Spanish daggers and grease-wood bushes 
 
344 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 crowning the summit of a sand hill, and was evidently 
 reconnoitring the downward trail. 
 
 Sylvia s first feminine impulse was to give her swift 
 horse the rein, and get away from the man from whom 
 her whole being shrank ; but common sense prevailed, 
 and, slowly rounding upon her tracks, she held the 
 Boy to his rhythmic, swinging walk. 
 
 The inexpressible loneliness of mesa and desert is 
 something to which the impressionable never become 
 habituated, and it strikes them anew each time, as a 
 deep joy or as an unutterable terror. And set in the 
 midst thereof was the woman and her enemy. 
 
 In a few minutes he was beside her. 
 
 " Good-evenin , Mrs. Archibald, or whatever it may 
 now please you to call yourself." 
 
 " Good-evening, Mr. Berry." 
 
 " Pears as how you re set on runnin that fine horse 
 o* yours clean off his legs, ridin around all the time ! 
 Heard as how you was grievin to death about the 
 young one, but it don t look that way. Well, that s all 
 right; take it philosophical, I see. A kid as has a 
 Paw as dassen t show up as sech, has a tough time 
 anyway. Best as it is, maybe; an I guess you ve 
 learned as there s other good-lookin fellers in the world 
 but one, eh? Then they do tell as how his wife makes 
 awful good times for him these days, and that she s 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 845 
 
 got real smart, an as pretty as a June peach. No 
 more talk of her dyin ! Ain t been in the way to 
 see her, I guess? Well, you ve sure lost something 
 then!" 
 
 The man was leaning forward, peeping under the 
 broad sombrero of the woman. 
 
 " It don t even phase her ! " was his inward com 
 ment. " Ain t she got the grit, though ! " 
 
 And she the real she, of whom the Berrys of life 
 never obtain so much as a glimpse lay quivering 
 and tortured at his very feet, had he but known it ! 
 
 On he went, lumbering back and forth between 
 insulting gallantry and studied insolence, until finally, 
 goaded by her impenetrable coldness, he gave himself 
 away. This was the moment for which Sylvia had 
 been waiting. 
 
 " If it s so as you re wantin* to meet up with that 
 old sweetheart o yours again, an I m interruptin a 
 rendervoo, why don t mind me! Kiss an never tell s 
 my motter ! So long s the wives ain t none the wiser, 
 no matter, says I ! Turn around, an I ll ride with 
 you a piece, jes to show as I don t bear no malice. 
 What say?" 
 
 Sylvia s heart bounded; then sank. This man 
 knew that he, David 
 
 Misinterpreting her hesitation, Berry edged nearer, 
 
346 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 trying to catch her rein, but the Boy, disliking 
 strangers, foiled him. Then Berry with a telltale 
 adroitness for in such small matters do men betray 
 themselves seized the saddle-horn, and suddenly 
 throwing his arm around the rider, leered up in her 
 face. 
 
 Then came the transformation. In an instant she 
 was a creature all spirit, fire, and flame. She was no 
 longer afraid. It had taken but an instant to free 
 herself from his contaminating touch. That mere 
 human part of Sylvia, held down so long, was up now 
 and springing to the unchecked realisation of the 
 fact that here was the man responsible for the death 
 of her child, for the attempt to blast the father s 
 reputation in the past, for murder in the future if so 
 be he could compass it unharmed himself. 
 
 Even a fellow of the baser sort could no longer 
 misapprehend her. Hers was the truculence of a 
 Sir Galahad confronting alone a mortal foe. And as 
 the last and grossest insult fell, haltingly this time, 
 from the man s loose lips, she learned toward him, 
 her eyes gleaming and her own lips set in a thin red 
 line. 
 
 Then with the deliberation of emotion at white 
 heat, she raised her light riding-cane and cut him 
 once across the face. A moment later her horse s 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH :il7 
 
 feet were scattering the desert sand as the whirl 
 wind scatters it. 
 
 " Damn blooded stock ! " sputtered Berry, after 
 having rid himself of a volley of oaths, though not 
 of a smarting cheek or of the dust with which eyei 
 and mouth were filled. As his cow-pony dropped 
 rapidly to the rear, he had half a mind to send a shot 
 after her, woman as she was. Nothing restrained 
 him but cowardice ; he knew that she abode under the 
 roof of the redoubtable Mat. 
 
 " No sense in wearin out good spurs on this old 
 plug!" was his judicious conclusion. "Can t come 
 up with that devil s limb, anyway; I d sure like to 
 cripple the brute, but the resk s too big to take this 
 time." 
 
 Meanwhile, Sylvia, still at white heat, rode on, 
 pausing only at the hole in the rocks, an idea having 
 just struck her. She crept in, emerging almost at 
 once with a package in her hand. Remounting, she 
 proceeded to Bubbling Spring, removed the bridle 
 and loosened the saddle-cinch, watered and fed her 
 horse, and then went straight to Mat s den, where the 
 three men sat in earnest confabulation. 
 
 Briefly she made her report ; then laid the contents 
 of the package on the table for examination. 
 
 "Now we ve got there!" ejaculated Cristol. 
 
348 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Thanks to this lady ! Berry s lookin out for a big 
 thing to-night, sure! But he don t know what the 
 deputies are down there for; that I d stake my last 
 dollar on! Unless the Injun s gone back on us, he 
 thinks as the deputies is after that Mexican as broke 
 into the post-office over to La Media last week. 7 put 
 him on to that lay-out," chuckled the sheriff. " My 
 greaser done the old fool brown, you can bet your 
 life ! As for these here cartridges an the grub, why, 
 it s reasonable as Berry stowed em in the hole for 
 use at the dug-out see? Same time," thought 
 fully "I d a heap rather not take chances on the 
 route. It s on the cards as Berry himself ain t so 
 awful sure." 
 
 Then in a few words Cristol informed Sylvia that 
 Winged Heel had mysteriously disappeared, and that, 
 although Douglas belief in the boy was not to be 
 shaken, the situation was disquieting. Having ex 
 plained, he turned to the men. 
 
 " This is about the size of it, boys. One of you has 
 got to lay around some place, an not too far from 
 where the trail breaks off, neither, same as the Injun 
 was a-goin to do, only you ve got to be mounted to 
 git away quick. There ll be trouble in hidin , an its 
 resky, but I don t see as there s no other scheme. 
 When you see for sure which way the bandits is 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 349 
 
 headin , then you must make your best licks for me, 
 an we ll either meet em at the ranch, as fixed, or cut 
 around the mountain to the dug-out see? May 
 be," glancing at Sylvia " Mrs. Archibald will loan 
 her fast horse for this trip ? It s got to be a fast 
 one, that s sure ! " 
 
 " I can do better than that, Mr. Cristol. I will go 
 myself." 
 
 At the sound of the quiet voice, the eyes of all 
 three men were bent upon the woman in their midst. 
 She had taken the chair offered her upon her entrance, 
 and now, drawing off her gloves, she folded and laid 
 them on the table before proceeding. 
 
 "My plan is this: I will go down the trail and 
 conceal the horse behind a big rock I know of about 
 one hundred yards from the hole. This rock is well 
 off the trail, and I can lie on the top of it without 
 being seen. I will take sugar for the horse." A fem 
 inine device surely, but not a man of them smiled. 
 " That will keep him from nickering when he hears 
 the other horses. If by chance I am discovered, I 
 can get away ; as you all know, there is not a horse on 
 the ranges that has the speed of mine." 
 
 "They may shoot, Mrs. Archibald," put in the 
 sheriff, dubiously, although it was evident that her 
 suggestion had removed a load from his mind. 
 
350 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " I, too, can shoot," was the dry response. 
 
 From a pistol pocket in the folds of her skirt 
 Sylvia produced a six-shooter, and laying it beside her 
 gloves looked with calm assurance from one to the 
 other of her audience. 
 
 As in most things, there are revolvers and revolvers ; 
 this, of its kind, was perfect. Each man took it up, 
 passed his encomium on the weapon, and handed it 
 to his fellow. None there knew that it was David 
 who had bought it for Sylvia after the eventful night 
 in Kingdon s Canon. 
 
 "You re right, gentlemen," went on Sylvia, in 
 the same unmoved tone. "It is a good gun. Shall 
 I prove the assertion ? " 
 
 Without awaiting a reply, she stepped to the open 
 door, and, apparently not pausing to take aim, fired 
 four times with rapidity and precision at a mark upon 
 the trunk of a tree opposite. 
 
 The men ran forward. A dollar would have covered 
 the four holes. 
 
 " Shake ! " said the man of few words. 
 
 Not a trace of emotion of any sort was visible in 
 Sylvia s countenance as she acceded to Mat s request. 
 The brief ceremony concluded, she raised her eyes to 
 meet those of the sheriff, gray and penetrating, 
 rivetted upon her. Did he divine that it had been with 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 331 
 
 but one object, for one man s sake, that she had over 
 come her terror of the deadly little weapon, and had 
 made herself, not certainly the equal of Cristol him 
 self, but of any average man on the ranges? 
 
 Silently Cristol took the revolver from her, removed 
 the empty shells and reloaded. 
 
 Thus the matter was decided. And for once Sylvia 
 was glad of the absence of the faithful Johnny, 
 necessitated by measles on the part of Ted. Now 
 she felt free to incur any risks. Even Aunt Julie 
 was away on a short vacation, obedient to the summons 
 of a coloured revivalist at Mendoza City. 
 
 It was ten o clock before, with a strong hand 
 clasp and a " Be-good-to-yourself ! Look out for 
 them about eleven," Sylvia was started on her way by 
 the sheriff. 
 
 In order to avoid the jingling of bit and bridle, 
 Cristol had twisted the hitching rope around the Boy s 
 neck and muzzle Mexican-wise ; and in moments of 
 excitement the horse was more amenable to the voice 
 and hand of his mistress than he was to the bit. Their 
 long and close companionship had borne good fruits. 
 So now the two slipped almost noiselessly down the 
 trail together, until they came to the big rock. There 
 the rider dismounted, tied the horse to a hump of 
 bunch-grass, and, climbing the rock, curled up behind 
 
352 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 a kind of buttress on top, facing valley-ward. It was 
 not long ere her eyes, growing accustomed to the 
 starlit dark, took in quite a wide sweep of landscape. 
 As she crouched thus, the wind from the western 
 skies in her eyes and in her hair, watching, watching, 
 every keen sense alert, her spirit flew to her former 
 home. She thought of Buckley, the kind, firm friend, 
 ignorant of the death of his godson, and now far 
 away across the ocean. She pictured her mother and 
 sisters, serene in the belief that her " reasonableness 
 and good sense " were leading her to remain in retire 
 ment for at least another season. Of the birth, and 
 of the death, of the child they had never heard. What 
 would they think of her reasonableness and good 
 sense could they see her, Sylvia Newman, the cultured, 
 blue-blooded Society girl, the hoped-for founder of a 
 real Parisian salon, crouched on a rock, without a 
 chaperon, toward the middle of the night? Sylvia 
 laughed; but the laugh was not pleasant to hear. 
 Fortunately there was no one to hear or heed. She 
 thought of her encounter with a human brute that 
 very afternoon; imagined her mother and Berry in 
 juxtaposition, even for an instant, and laughed again. 
 The idea was grotesque ! She saw herself, her father s 
 daughter, her only close associates men and women 
 who murdered the language, who were outside the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 353 
 
 outermost limits of Society, who This time 
 
 Sylvia did not laugh. She arose, and standing up 
 right in her straight brown dress, lifted her eyes to 
 the hills and to the stars. 
 
 " Thank God for them ! " she said. 
 
 Yet the tears ran down. 
 
 Then she thought of him, for whose sake she was 
 an outcast ; for whose sake she was alone in the desert, 
 under the stars. And the tears dried upon her cheeks, 
 and she crouched once more upon the rock. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 SYLVIA was riding down the trail. Suspense 
 and indecision had crystallised into resolve. 
 The hour had long passed at which some 
 kind of a crisis was to be looked for. For the delay 
 cause must be shown. 
 
 It seemed to her that her watch had been close and 
 keen; yet out of the ground, as it seemed, a dark 
 figure suddenly stood before her horse, which startled, 
 sprang aside. Having quieted him, she leaned from 
 the saddle to look into the upturned face of Dick! 
 So close was he that even in the darkness there was no 
 mistaking him. 
 
 Sylvia carried, attached to her saddle-horn, a 
 minute bull s-eye lantern. Opening the slide, she 
 centred its light upon his features, pale as ashes and 
 streaked and smeared with blood and sweat. He was 
 panting heavily, and now supported himself against 
 the horse s shoulder. 
 
 " Dick Dick where is he?" 
 
 To the strained whisper the faithful cow-puncher 
 could not at once reply; but he pointed down the 
 trail. Then after a minute : 
 
 354 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 355 
 
 " They rounded on us sudden, four to two. He 
 ain t hurt so awful bad, and we done up one of em, 
 an skinned another. Cartridges give out, so had to 
 come off an leave him. But don t worry, he s all 
 right ; fixed him up behind a wall o rocks, an the 
 durned brutes is as scared o him as if he wuz the 
 Old Nick hisself ! I am makin tracks for ammuni 
 tion an to warn Cristol. Say, will that critter carry 
 double?" 
 
 For answer Sylvia slipped to the ground. 
 
 " Mount ! " she exclaimed, imperiously. Then, as 
 he stared at her dumfounded, " If you got away, I 
 can get back. I m armed, I tell you!" As he still 
 did not speak, she preceded softly : " Dick, you 
 taught me to shoot; don t you remember? Oh, Dick 
 go! " 
 
 It was the old story over again, the tale of King- 
 don s Canon. 
 
 " But, Mrs. Kingdon, t ain t no way for you to do, 
 to run right into that devil s nest! Hand me the 
 gun an the ammunition, an you ride on back to tell 
 Cristol an the boys." 
 
 " No, Dick ! He s hurt, you say? Well, my place 
 is with him. Tell me just where to find him ; then get 
 all you can out of the Boy. Ride ride I tell you ! " 
 
 Time was too precious to be wasted in vain con- 
 
356 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 tention. Dick briefly described the place, an arroyo 
 a mile further down. 
 
 "Trust me, I ll ride like hell!" muttered Dick, 
 as he flung himself across the saddle, paying no heed 
 to short stirrups, " and it 11 have to be like hell too if 
 I m a-goin to head off them bandits ! " 
 
 " Where are they ? " asked Sylvia, quickly, as he 
 caught the rope and turned the plunging horse. 
 
 "Dunno, after we beat em off; took the forked 
 trail, I guess. This horse has got to get ahead of 
 em, or drop in his tracks." 
 
 " He will get ahead of them, and he won t drop in 
 his tracks!" 
 
 And with a swirl of sand and a sound as of muffled 
 thunder the Boy was off, for life or death. 
 
 Running along the dim trail valley-ward, ankle- 
 deep and over in sand, now losing her way altogether 
 and stumbling into bunch-grass and thorny cacti, on 
 sped Sylvia, crying as she ran, betwixt fluttering 
 breaths : 
 
 " David ! Wait for me ! I am coming ! " 
 
 Could Dick have gently lied? Was David dead? 
 
 The broad arroyo she knew it. Adown its length 
 lay scattered rocks, washed thither by generations of 
 summer rains. In the hollow of one of its caving 
 banks Dick must have built his barricade. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 357 
 
 By a supreme effort she steadied herself and lis 
 tened. Not a sound not a shot! Three minutes, 
 the equal of three years, she waited, prone upon the 
 ground. Against the sky-line the bank of the arroyo 
 was defined; beneath that David lay, living or dead. 
 Measuring the distance as well as she could, she arose, 
 and, stooping, fled across the open. Halfway, she 
 stumbled over the body of a man. By what instinct 
 she divined that it was not the body of David, who can 
 tell? With a stifled cry she fled on, and in a moment 
 was over the low parapet and had David s senseless 
 head upon her knees. 
 
 Mechanically she still carried the bull s-eye and her 
 riding-cane. Hurriedly she threw the light upon his 
 face; then, finding no wound there, ran it down his 
 body and limbs. Yes, he was bleeding bleeding to 
 death perhaps. The wound was just above the knee, 
 and around it Dick had tied a bandanna. But the 
 bandanna had slipped, and it was plain that either 
 a vein or some small artery had been severed by a 
 shot. 
 
 Of surgery she knew nothing, but she had heard a 
 tourniquet described, and she had always her common 
 sense. She had nothing wherewith to cut away the 
 trouser leg at the knee, but winding the bandanna 
 above the wound she drew the ends together with all 
 
358 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 her strength, and, making a loop of the ends, inserted 
 her cane, twisting it with both hands. 
 
 As she leaned over her work an ominous sound 
 penetrated her rapt senses doubly ominous as is the 
 threat of peril when it comes belated. It was a sound 
 never to be mistaken that of a body dragging itself 
 across sand. Not for one instant dared she pause 
 at her task. It was the lifeblood of David that was 
 flowing. But gradual and deadly as was the approach 
 of that unknown terror beyond the frail rampart, as 
 unhesitating and cautious was the movement of her 
 own body to cover that of him whom she was there 
 to save. She could not even have the shelter of the 
 darkness, for she had no hand to spare to close the 
 lantern-slide. 
 
 Two more turns, then the knot, and her work would 
 be done, and she could face the stealing foe. 
 
 Would nothing delay that slow yet relentless 
 approach? Would no bolt from heaven fall? Was 
 God sleeping in the hour when these His helpless 
 creatures needed Him the most? Blind and deaf, 
 did He neither hear nor see? 
 
 As she tied the last knot and slipped the lantern- 
 slide into place, the deep-drawn breaths of the man 
 on the further side of the barricade surged noisily 
 through the silence. In another moment he would 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH .V><> 
 
 pull himself up she guessed that he was wounded 
 and cover her with his gun. 
 
 As Sylvia crouched above the body of David, 
 gripping her own revolver, she recognised with that 
 clearness of vision which attends upon a forlorn hope 
 that this was a judgment from which there could be 
 no appeal ; she or that man must die. She cocked her 
 own weapon, and reopening the lantern, shaded the 
 light with her free hand. 
 
 Now her keen ear caught the creeping of flesh over 
 rock. Any instant the man and the gun would 
 appear. Thus she waited. 
 
 Surely now was the supreme moment ! She with 
 drew her left hand from the lantern, and its light 
 flashed upon the face of Vin Berry ghastly pale, 
 and like that of some evil spirit rather than of a man 
 and along the level barrel of his gun. But the 
 finger upon her own trigger was quicker, and the 
 evil face disappeared. 
 
 He was dead, she supposed the man. She was 
 responsible for the life of a human being like herself. 
 Like herself? God forbid! The day of reckoning 
 had not come, and she was indifferent except to the 
 one thought: she had not failed David. She had 
 done for him the best she could. 
 
 She picked up the lantern, and she, who all her life 
 
360 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 had shrunk from death, stepped coolly to the side of 
 the corpse, turned it over, and looked it in the 
 face. Dead beyond a doubt. Then she went back to 
 David. 
 
 The improvised tourniquet had done its work: the 
 bleeding had ceased. 
 
 On the ground, close to where he lay and undoubt 
 edly placed there by Dick, a pocket flask had been 
 dropped upon an empty Winchester. No water was 
 to be had, but Sylvia forced a few drops of the fiery, 
 undiluted liquid between David s pale lips. In a 
 minute or so he murmured something, and groped 
 feebly for his gun. She laid her hand upon his still 
 closed eyes. 
 
 " Hush ! " she said ; and he obeyed her like a child. 
 
 Then, again rising, she made a pillow of her light 
 coat and laid his head upon it. Creeping once more 
 to the low wall, six-shooter in hand, she swept the semi- 
 darkness with a keen glance. Nothing was to be seen. 
 The stillness was intense, except for the steady sigh 
 ing of the desert wind. 
 
 She went back to her place, and, taking his head 
 again upon her lap, once more administered the stim 
 ulant. As she leaned over him, he opened his eyes 
 wide and full; knew her, and smiled. 
 
 "Sylvia!" 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 361 
 
 "Hush!" she said again; and leaned nearer, her 
 hand upon his brow and in his hair. 
 
 He spoke no more. Whether he slept or was 
 unconscious from loss of blood she could not tell. 
 
 And Sylvia would not have been all woman if the 
 peril of it for her was not far outweighed by the deep 
 joy of serving him whom she loved not merely with all 
 the might of her humanity, but with the undying and 
 ennobling passion of soul and spirit, too. In the 
 solemn silence of the desert spaces, God and the stars 
 above and none to come between, these two were alone. 
 He was hers now living or dead hers only. 
 
 As the hours crept on, and the tardy moon arose, 
 her mind, like his, grew benumbed. For her any 
 earthly afterward ceased to exist. Everything was 
 for the time forgotten duty, obligation, the other 
 woman. Nothing mattered now. He was her*. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 A ND Dick rode rode for all there was in the 
 / % horse. 
 
 ^ -^- When he came to the point where the 
 roads branched to Bubbling Spring, the Berry 
 ranch, and the dug-out, respectively, he drew up, 
 flung himself from the saddle the better to listen, and 
 waited. 
 
 Yes ; there was no mistaking the sounds that reached 
 his ear; the men were coming on. That they were 
 bound for Berry s Dick already knew. In trailing 
 the bandits one of whom, somewhat to the deputies 
 surprise, proved to be Vin Berry himself, thus making 
 the number three information had been procured. 
 Of the three cow-boys who had met them as arranged, 
 one had, after a short but too loud altercation, joined 
 the bandits. 
 
 The party was evidently suspicious of being fol 
 lowed, having undoubtedly got wind of the presence 
 of the deputies in the vicinity. Finally they had 
 separated, in the darkness had slunk back on the 
 trail, and, rounding, had fallen upon the deputies, 
 
 362 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 863 
 
 who but for this circumstance would have remained 
 undiscovered. The sound of shots had naturally 
 brought the foremost robbers to the scene of action, 
 with the result as already told; it was a case of four 
 to two. Nevertheless, apart from Kingdon s wound, 
 the deputies had most distinctly got the best of the 
 game. 
 
 In a moment Dick was on the horse again, and 
 tearing up to Bubbling Spring, at which place 
 Cristol s presence, he now knew, remained so far 
 undiscovered by the Berry gang. 
 
 The furious thrashing of hoofs had been heard 
 by the expectant sheriffs, and, as the Boy and his 
 rider leaped into view, their horses sprang forward, 
 too. 
 
 " The ranch-house ! " cried Dick. 
 
 This was no time for questions, but as Dick forged 
 alongside of Cristol the latter ejaculated sharply: 
 
 " Out with your news ! " 
 
 "Him an her s in the big arroyo. He s hurt 
 pretty bad. I packed him behind the rocks, met the 
 horse, took it, an come ! His horse s killed, mine got 
 away. They re three o them robbers now. Yin 
 Berry s all right ; we done him up in the arroyo." 
 
 To the Berry house past Bubbling Spring was the 
 short cut; the mountain trail was a full half-mile 
 
364 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 farther ; to this fact and to the speed of the Boy upon 
 his errand Dick had trusted. 
 
 Cristol was not given to vain lamentations; never 
 theless, the loss of Kingdon at this juncture was a 
 blow. Two men for the house and two for the caves 
 had been his plan. Well, he himself must count for 
 two, then ; that was all there was to it. 
 
 The cave entrance, carefully described to him by 
 Johnny, was upon the Bubbling Spring trail. Not 
 daring to stop in order to make sure as to the present 
 position of the rock, left before somewhat recklessly 
 out of place, Cristol simply dropped his town-deputy 
 at that point together with the three horses. Then, 
 as expeditiously as men not in the habit of using their 
 own legs could run, he and Dick made their way up to 
 the house. The building was of rock. The scanty 
 allowance of window space was barred and shuttered, 
 and there was but one door. Behind a huge outside 
 chimney the sheriffs concealed themselves; and none 
 too soon, for already upon the other trail rang out 
 the clatter of iron-shod hoofs. With a scramble and 
 a panting of badly blown horses the sounds ceased 
 at the door. 
 
 Now was the crucial moment. Only waiting for 
 Berry to respond to the pre-arranged signal and to 
 open to his allies, the sheriffs jumped in front of the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 365 
 
 unlocked door, and, throwing their combined weight 
 upon it to prevent it from being again closed, shouted 
 the customary, " Hold up your hands ! " 
 
 The order was of course disobeyed, and was equally 
 of course followed by prompt and rapid firing on 
 both sides. Berry from within could have rendered 
 efficient aid to his fellow-conspirators had he not had, 
 as usual, excellent reasons of his own for acting other 
 wise. The Mexican cook did not put in an appear 
 ance. Cristol knew at once that Berry intended to 
 escape by way of the caves, but his hands were for the 
 time being too full to attend to him, and he was 
 compelled to leave him to the deputy posted down 
 below. 
 
 For the fight, though a short, was a merry one. 
 Cristol, however, had picked his men well; moreover, 
 both sheriffs were fresh, whereas the train-robbers 
 were a somewhat jaded crew, and were also hampered 
 by their booty ; for this time the crime had evidently 
 been profitable so far. 
 
 In such lightning-swift encounters as this one 
 description avails little. Shots fly thick and fast, 
 and it is principally a case of " the suddenest man 
 with a gun getting there." In less time than it takes 
 to write the words Long Tom was down with a bullet 
 in his thigh, and another in his pistol arm. The other 
 
366 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 men made a brief stand, encouraged by the sight of 
 blood on the face of the sheriff; but the second man 
 was soon settled, and threw up his hands, whilst the 
 third who proved to be Bob Jones, and was appar 
 ently in charge of the "swag" dug in the spurs 
 and fled. 
 
 The moon had risen, but was a small affair in its 
 third quarter. Cristol, occupied in roping his pris 
 oners, could do nothing. Dick, however, was not 
 easily nonplussed. Recklessly hurling himself down 
 the precipitous face of the butte, he landed on his 
 feet beside the horses, and, telling the waiting deputy 
 to watch the caves, flung himself across the Boy. Bob 
 Jones good start on the mountain trail benefited him 
 but little with such a horse on his tracks. The instant 
 the Boy perceived a rival ahead, he extended himself 
 rapturously for a race. 
 
 Now Bob Jones was a mountain-bred lad no 
 genuine " bad man " and the uncanny ease and 
 rapidity with which he was being overhauled rattled 
 him completely ; and when was added to this the fact 
 that his pursuer was the redoubtable " Kingdon 
 Dick," and that he was to be caught red-handed, it 
 was no wonder that he did not enjoy the situation. 
 
 Had Bob been the geniune article, the affair might 
 have terminated less promptly; but upon Dick rang- 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 367 
 
 ing up alongside, shouting the inevitable words 
 followed on recognition of the fugitive by the ejacu 
 lations : " Save your skin, Bob ! Don t play the 
 damn-fool act ! Are you gone plumb crazy ? " Bob 
 acted wisely and well, especially as he had sense enough 
 left to see that Dick had " the draw on " him : he could 
 do better than be " punched full o holes," he thought. 
 So he threw up his hands, whilst his captor quickly 
 disarmed him. 
 
 " Hand over all that stuff you re packin ! " was the 
 next command. Having been obeyed, Dick unwound 
 the coil of rope from his prisoner s saddle-horn, tied 
 his arms behind him, and proceeded to round him up 
 for the ranch-house. 
 
 Arrived there, and ascertaining by the sound of 
 curses the whereabouts of the two first prisoners, 
 locked into a room, he disposed of his own captive 
 in the same manner, and then was fain to confess 
 himself at a loss. Where was his chief? Gone after 
 Berry, he guessed; but how in the name of all 
 creation was he to follow him? Well, if Cristol had 
 found the way to the caves, he could ; so, picking up a 
 lighted lamp he found on the kitchen table, he started 
 on a tour of investigation. 
 
 Cautiously, as befitted an honest man in a den of 
 thieves, Dick went on his way. But a few moments 
 
368 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 elapsed before he observed a door, of which the lock 
 had very evidently just been forced by some hasty 
 hand. Entering, he groped almost on his knees 
 amongst a lot of old saddles and such lumber, and 
 then hey, presto, no more time need be lost! For 
 there, revealed by the removal of the rubbish, was a 
 ring in the plank floor. A violent jerk, and up flew 
 a trapdoor, and Dick, lowering his lengthy person 
 through the opening, planted his feet firmly on steps 
 cut in the rock. Lamp still in hand, and on the alert 
 for danger, he began the descent, incited to yet greater 
 speed by the sound of voices below. 
 
 At the extreme end of the first cave stood Berry, 
 looking, as Dick remarked later, like a cornered 
 gopher. Facing him was the sheriff, the expression 
 of whose countenance was scarcely at the moment 
 more agreeable. Here at last, delivered into his 
 hand, was the man on whose trail he had been untir 
 ingly for years, the cattle-thief, train-robber, child- 
 murderer, and slanderer. And stranger things 
 have been it was on these two last counts that the 
 sheriff would most gladly have indicted his prisoner ; 
 these two crimes that were chiefly responsible for the 
 steely gleam, ominous and sinister, in his cold eyes. 
 
 At the sound of his deputy s approach, he ceased 
 speaking, and glanced up quickly. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 369 
 
 Near at hand crouched the missing half-breed ; but 
 from his face nothing was to be learned. At this 
 crisis he was all Indian impenetrable, unmoved. 
 
 Cristol s heel was upon Berry s Winchester; a six- 
 shooter was flung on the ground out of reach. Light 
 was afforded by a lantern high up on the wall. At a 
 sign from his chief Dick gathered up the weapons, 
 and Cristol, advancing, snapped a pair of light hand 
 cuffs upon the prisoner s wrists. To the sputtering 
 oaths and protests of Berry but a grim and curt 
 response was forthcoming: 
 
 " I ll make sure of you this time. You can do all 
 the fool-talk you ve a mind to with the lawyers an* 
 preachers." 
 
 The twine was in place leading to the mouth of the 
 caves, but the party returned by the way they came. 
 A few words of explanation sufficed betwixt Cristol 
 and his deputy. 
 
 "Berry concluded as he had no use for the Injun 
 nosin around," Cristol remarked, " so sent Bob 
 to rope him in, and here he is. That s all there is 
 to it." 
 
 And the mystery was solved as simply as other 
 mysteries have been solved before. 
 
 Arrived in the house, Cristol proceeded: 
 
 "I ll send this muchacho hot-foot to the mining 
 
370 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 camp for the doctor, an we ll pack our prisoners to 
 town soon s their wounds is dressed. You go on down 
 to Mat s. Send my other feller up to me as you go 
 by. Then take Mat s light wagon, pile in blankets an 
 pillers an a canteen, an hump yourself for the big 
 arroyo see? Bring Kingdon here. Best to leave 
 her at Mat s. Catch on ? Have Mat pack some grub 
 to us, and send over the mountain for Mrs. Johnson. 
 There s beds here, an pretty soon a doctor. Chase 
 yourself, Dick ! " 
 
 And Dick chased himself; but as he did so he 
 wondered whether any other man but Cristol would 
 have thought, in such an hour, for a woman? For 
 Dick understood what was in the sheriff s mind the 
 curious crowds, the comments, the queries Kingdon s 
 erstwhile wife must be out of it all. 
 
 And while Douglas team was being rapidly hitched, 
 Dick found a few minutes in which to care for the 
 horse that had done such good service that night. 
 
 " She ll be sure glad to know it ! " he murmured. 
 "An you re all right, old Boy!" tossing, as he 
 spoke, corn into a box in the corral-shed, toward which 
 the animal promptly hurried. " You can put in such 
 licks as I never seed sence I was born, an you can 
 stay at em, an git there, too! You re a good horse 
 all right," he repeated, fondly, feeling under the 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 371 
 
 mane for the "K" he himself had imprinted there, 
 " an I wish as you was mine ! " 
 
 "Damn blooded stock!" Berry had ejaculated not 
 twelve hours earlier. Yet from his own point of view, 
 strictly his own, the old sinner had never spoken a truer 
 word in his life. 
 
 Dick turned away, and, springing into the wagon 
 as the last trace was hooked, went storming down the 
 trail. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 IT was some weeks before Dick could trust him 
 self to relate in detail the story of that little 
 adventure. He was a soft-hearted cow- 
 puncher, as we know. 
 
 " I tell you, it beat the band ! " was all that either 
 Cristol or Johnny succeeded in getting out of him at 
 first. "And then to have to take him from her, an 
 she there the best part o the night, all alone in that 
 old arroyo, a-holdin of his head in her lap an not 
 knowin so much as whether he was a-goin to pass in 
 his checks right there or not! An he would have 
 died, sure, if it hadn ha been for the way she fixed 
 him up. Give me some other kind of a job next time, 
 I tell you!" 
 
 Had Sylvia been a fainting woman, she would have 
 been unconscious when Douglas lifted her from the 
 wagon at Bubbling Spring. Unconscious she was 
 not, but the alertness of all her senses was deadened, 
 and for the time failed to respond to further call upon 
 them; even her bodily muscles refused to do her bid 
 ding, so cramped were they. 
 
 372 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 373 
 
 On the other hand the pain caused by the jarring 
 of the wagon had aroused David; and this, combined 
 with the rising fever, brightened alike his eyes and his 
 understanding, and made him appear deceptively 
 better. It was, therefore, easier than it might have 
 been to persuade her to the cruel, yet unavoidable, 
 step of permitting Dick to carry the wounded man 
 on to the ranch-house. 
 
 As David had clung to her hand during the rough 
 trip from the arroyo, there had been scarcely a word 
 uttered; but habit is strong, and it had so long been 
 David s habit, to think first and above all others for 
 her, even whilst submitting to the great sacrifice, to 
 protect her in every way to the best of his ability, 
 that he stood by Dick now. Mustering all the feeble 
 strength at his command, he cajoled her into believ 
 ing not merely the truth that she had saved his life 
 but also the untruth, that with the cessation of the 
 bleeding danger and pain were practically at an end. 
 It was the best he could do, and he did it. But as the 
 wagon rolled upon its way past the Spring he fell 
 back on his pillows with a groan the deeper and the 
 more bitter for its long repression. 
 
 The excitement created by Cristol s grand coup 
 spread with the rapidity of a prairie-fire. There 
 never had been a lynching in that section; but when 
 
374 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 certain irrefutable evidences of Berry s worse than 
 complicity in the late succession of cattle-stealings 
 came to light, matters looked serious for Berry. In 
 the opinion of the cattle-men and cow-boys this crime 
 far outweighed the one of train-robbing. So red-hot 
 was the indignation that from the outset the chances 
 of hanging a jury, or any of the customary per 
 formances for getting a big man like Berry off, looked 
 poor indeed. Rarely had an influential citizen found 
 himself so feebly supported. The shooting of his 
 son, caught in the act, and the arrest of the " tough 
 est " members of the gang, perceptibly dampened the 
 enthusiasm of the entire Berry crowd. Moreover, 
 Kingdon s condition added fuel to the fire. The rail 
 road was welcome to attend to its own robbery busi 
 ness ; Kingdon in time, it was hoped, could " do up " 
 Long Tom for the murder of the cow-boy, Tim, but 
 the cattle-men were to a man resolved on seeing to it 
 that Berry got his deserts. The evidence they desired 
 was now ready to their hands ; the caves were replete 
 with such; and even amongst the herd of choice 
 cows kept quietly at this isolated ranch cattle-men 
 were already claiming their own. The well-known 
 " B " on crossed sticks was branded fresh over old 
 and other marks. 
 
 For a couple of days there was lively coming and 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 375 
 
 going on- the mountain, ere the prisoners were pro 
 nounced fit for the rough trip to the county town. 
 The murmurs of lynching had been met by Cristol 
 with his usual grim business-smile. The murmurs 
 died away before that impenetrable mien of his. And 
 it was a matter of history that the sheriff, whilst 
 always ready to give his life in the exercise of his pro 
 fession, was equally ready to give it in the interests 
 of the law. It would be over his body that the lynch- 
 ers would have to pass. 
 
 The morning following the capture brought both 
 Mrs. Johnson and Aunt Julie to the scene. In spite 
 of every effort to the contrary, hints of Kingdon s 
 dangerous condition found their way to Sylvia s ears, 
 and for a while it looked as though self-control and 
 reasonableness were alike failing her. And when 
 a sheriff of repute has been heard to remark that he 
 had never shot his man in the discharge of his duty 
 without a sense of reluctance, it may well be forgiven 
 Sylvia if for weeks the vision of Vin Berry s ghastly 
 face upon the edge of the barricade was with her 
 night and day. With such visitations reason has 
 little to do, however. That she was the actual slayer 
 of the train-robber no one knew except Dick ; and he 
 kept his own counsel until the day arrived when David 
 knew it, too. Even Johnny was never told. 
 
376 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 It was at this crisis in the lives of her friends that 
 Johnny showed herself at her brightest and best. 
 Though with a heart almost breaking with the dread 
 of losing her "Davie," she contrived from time to 
 time to visit and reassure Sylvia ; not, however, with 
 out the inward reservation, that, should he in very 
 truth have to cross the dark river, the hand of her 
 whom he had loved with an .honour and constancy of 
 which few had deemed him capable should lie at the 
 last within his own, her face be the last his eyes 
 should rest upon. 
 
 But David did not die. No such simple solution 
 of life s complexities befell himself or Sylvia. 
 
 As soon as it was considered safe to remove him 
 he would be taken to the county town, where the 
 preliminary examination of the prisoners was to be 
 held; and Sylvia, in a measure comforted by the 
 assurance that he was saved from death, yielded to 
 the Hendricks urgency, and without even seeing him 
 again betook herself to the Rectory at Mendoza 
 City, there to consider what was best to be done with 
 her mutilated existence. She was by this time rea 
 sonable enough to allow that, in a world arranged 
 after the surely unique and apparently wasteful 
 fashion of the one in which we are set to dree our 
 little weird, there must be other lives besides her own 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 377 
 
 also maimed and broken. Also that they go on, 
 many of them, to good purpose. David needed her 
 no longer; or at least only in the heartrending man 
 ner in which each must always need the other. 
 Obvious perils were at an end for him, and this partly 
 through her agency. 
 
 But even the persistent silence of the few friends 
 acquainted with her participation in the Berry ranch 
 affair could not always protect her from comment. 
 Her very appearance was against her, in that it did 
 not accord with its environment. Mrs. Hendrick, 
 therefore, left her home, and the two women went 
 down to Mexico for a time. 
 
 For in Sylvia s case, as in that of some other 
 women who have drunk life s cup to its bitterest 
 dregs, feminine devotion in its strongest form seemed 
 to be specially reserved. Mrs. Hendrick s devotion 
 emulated that of Johnny herself. And she who re 
 ceived strove to repay, so far as she was able, the 
 full measure meted out to her. By a supreme effort 
 she gathered herself together. There must still be 
 some work in the world for her. 
 
 Letters came, of course ; but to Buckley and to 
 Mrs. De Lancey alone, of all her circle, was the true 
 story ever revealed. The former s brief but char 
 acteristic comments reached her first. 
 
378 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 "Do not come to me," she had written to him 
 "at least not yet. I need to grow strong first, and 
 I am not strong yet. In time I will come back to 
 my world, clothed, and in my right mind. But give 
 me time." 
 
 And as the faithful Johnny clasped her in her 
 arms in farewell, she whispered through her tears: 
 
 "This mayn t be so as it goes on forever. It 
 can t, my dearie! God ain t cruel!" 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 IT was the fall of the same year. Clairette had 
 returned to Kingdon s Crossing with the Gerry- 
 Smiths, who shortly after removed themselves 
 and their camping outfit to the inconspicuous Middle- 
 Western city where they, in the fullest sense of the 
 word, belonged. 
 
 Their farewells, and urgent appeals to " dear Mrs. 
 Kingdon " to follow, had scarcely ceased to disturb 
 the dusty placidity of the Pullman before things began 
 to go wrong with Clairette. Renewed health brought 
 back the former spirit. Nothing suited her; and 
 David, never precisely an angel, was not at present 
 in condition to endure the ceaseless wear and fret. 
 Clairette expressed but faint interest in the affray 
 that had been the cause of his illness, believing that 
 such matters were not fit for the contemplation of 
 women of refinement ; and because he kept his colour, 
 she failed to observe the lines that the last year or two 
 had drawn around his eyes, or the slight hollows at 
 his temples, above the full, firm cheeks. She did 
 observe, however, and strongly object to, the stray 
 
 379 
 
380 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 white hairs in the brown head she had always, and 
 consistently, admired. 
 
 " David," she said, suddenly, one day, as he pulled 
 out the card table for the inevitable after-dinner 
 game before she took her nap, " it s awfully lonely 
 here without the Gerry-Smiths just our two selves. 
 Don t you think so ? " 
 
 " No, I can t say that I do ; I m too busy. Then 
 you know I m tremendously interested in this trial 
 that is coming off at the fall Court ; it s a big thing. 
 I really believe, Clairette, it would interest you, too. 
 There s scarcely a person in the whole country, man 
 or woman, who s not excited over it." 
 
 "Women, perhaps not ladies," retorted Clairette, 
 with languid emphasis. "You never seem able to 
 remember, David, the way I was raised ! " 
 
 David s thoughts involuntarily flew to another 
 woman, and the way she had been raised, and then 
 recollected the home of Clairette! But he kept 
 silence, though his heart was hot within him. Then 
 he tried again. 
 
 " Well, it is dull for you, now that you re so much 
 stronger. Wouldn t you like to go away again for 
 a bit?" 
 
 "Without you?" This time there was complaint 
 in her tones. " David, I must say it doesn t look well 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 381 
 
 for husbands and wives always to go around sepa 
 rately, as long as they are husbands and wives. 
 You re forever glued to this old ranch!" 
 
 " When that trial s over I can go with you." 
 
 He spoke quietly, but with an effort. 
 
 Clairette fidgetted uneasily with the cards. At 
 last she broke out: 
 
 "I think we acted foolishly in coming together 
 again." 
 
 David turned and looked at her, his heart beating 
 madly. 
 
 " Yes," she went on, " we re not suited nowadays 
 less so even than we were before. You ve changed 
 somehow. You used to love society same as I do, and 
 you was awfully popular at Jonesville and you know 
 it! That was one thing we thought alike on before 
 we married, going out and having a good time. But 
 you never was quite the same about it afterward, and 
 since you stayed so long in New York city you don t 
 seem to care whether you have any society or not. I m 
 sure I don t know what s struck you! Old friends, 
 like the Gerry-Smiths, can t help but notice it. It 
 makes me feel awfully to have them talk that way. 
 It s pretty hard on me, I can tell you ! I always did 
 hate this God-forsaken country ! " 
 
 " Clairette " David s voice was stern from a con- 
 
382 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 flict of emotions " Clairette, haven t I tried to do 
 everything you wished?" 
 
 " Yes, yes ! You ve been good and all that, I m 
 willing to own, but you have changed somehow, 
 David!" 
 
 "For the better or the worse?" he inquired, 
 grimly. 
 
 " Oh, for the better in some ways. But that don t 
 alter what I say. And, somehow, now that my health s 
 improved so much, I don t like the idea of that other 
 wife. I didn t mind while I was so sick. Then the 
 Gerry-Smiths sort of got on to it : I don t know how, 
 and they hardly knew anything. But sometimes I get 
 
 a notion I put too much faith in her Oh, 
 
 David! " Her voice broke in a cry. " Don t look at 
 me that way ! " 
 
 For he had leaped to his feet, thunderclouds in his 
 eyes. Speak he dared not. 
 
 Was this the reward of a conflict which might have 
 made the very angels weep for pity? 
 
 He took a turn in the room, came back, seated him 
 self beside his wife, and clasped her hands gently in 
 his own. 
 
 "Clariette tell me how have I sinned against 
 you?" 
 
 She pulled her hands away. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 383 
 
 "Sinned? I didn t say sinned! How hasty you 
 are, David! You ve acted all right about that. I 
 didn t say you hadn t." 
 
 " Then what did you mean ? " 
 
 "Oh, I don t know!" petulantly "nothing! If 
 you was a woman, you d know how little I did mean ! 
 I m just sick to death of this kind of life, that s all. 
 You wrapped up in your old cow-business, and I sit 
 ting pining for the society-life I was meant for, and 
 used to have all the time. Mr. Gerry-Smith" here 
 she flushed slightly, the tears rising "said it was a 
 shame to see how I m wasted down here, with all my 
 advantages and looks and " 
 
 She was weeping now. 
 
 " Clairette, do you want me to take you back 
 to Jonesville? It will not be long now before I 
 shall be free to go. We can remain there several 
 weeks." 
 
 David spoke very gently. It was only the old story, 
 after all. 
 
 " No !" she sobbed. " It wouldn t be any use ! You 
 don t care for the things I do, and you wouldn t like 
 Jonesville any better than I like this hateful old 
 desert. We re not suited, I tell you! And it wasn t 
 as if we had children." 
 
 David winced. 
 
384 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " There it is ! " she cried, irritably " the everlast 
 ing old grievance! You d have liked to have seen me 
 dragged to death by half a dozen young ones, tied at 
 home and getting no pleasure out of living ! " 
 
 " Never mind that old grievance," said David, still 
 quietly ; " it doesn t belong in our life now. Let s try 
 to meet the present trouble." 
 
 "I ve just told you about it, haven t I?" snapped 
 Clairette. " You never used to be dull, David, with all 
 your faults! Can t you get into your head what I 
 mean when I say we re not suited and it s no use 
 to try?" 
 
 Then light came to David. It is probable that in 
 this moment he saw everything more clearly than did 
 Clairette herself. 
 
 Even a husband bound by ties of duty only could 
 not suffer such a shock unmoved. He arose, and his 
 voice was like ice. 
 
 " You want a divorce, I presume ? " he said. " How 
 do you propose to get one ? " 
 
 "Oh, that ll be easy enough!" Her cheeks were 
 still flushed, and she spoke rapidly. "I ll go home, 
 and you can sue me for desertion. There s nothing 
 scandalous about that ; it s done every day. Of course, 
 you ll arrange privately to settle something on me 
 I mean, more than the judge will allow." 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 385 
 
 " Have you never heard of the law concerning col 
 lusion?" 
 
 David s voice was still cold. 
 
 " Well, I don t care ! I m going away, anyhow," she 
 began again, sullenly. " You can fix it to suit your 
 self. I m not going to oppose you don t be afraid ! 
 But I can give you what s called 4 cause, if you want ? 
 Oh, nothing really!" she added, hurriedly, shrinking 
 from the flash of her husband s glance. "I ll take 
 care of your name, all right and my own, too. 
 Brought up as I ve been, in refined circles, you don t 
 think I d get myself talked about, do you?" 
 
 David did not move for a few minutes. Then he 
 left the room. 
 
 His heart was hot within him. Even the possibility 
 of release from the growing insupportability of his 
 chains offered at present no balm for this wound, 
 although dealt by a hand he did not love. 
 
 Unquestionably the possession of a hide rather than 
 a skin must be an unspeakable advantage in compli 
 cated situations such as this one. 
 
 He went out to the barn his favourite sulking- 
 ground, as Clairette called it and flung himself down 
 on the sweet gramma hay, much as he had done on n 
 memorable occasion in the past, only this time with a 
 difference. 
 
386 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Then it had seemed as if the very heart of him was 
 breaking. Now, what was it ? 
 
 The resentment and bitterness which had been 
 accumulating during long, uncheered months were for 
 the moment all of life to this complex nature. 
 
 He had tried! God and Sylvia, perhaps knew 
 how he had tried! And she for whom they both, he 
 and Sylvia, had sacrificed everything, life itself and 
 as he thought of the child, he sat up and held his head 
 between his hands cared nothing no whit. 
 
 When at length the flaming sense of injury 
 smouldered down to a slow fire, the paler light of rea 
 son arose to illumine the darkness of his spirit. The 
 habit of reticence, which had returned upon him with 
 redoubled force after the loss of Sylvia, was rarely 
 broken now ; but he suddenly resolved to go to Johnny. 
 
 The men were all out. He took his horse from the 
 corral, saddled, bridled, and mounted it. After the 
 fight near Bubbling Spring there had arisen a 
 question of whether or no he could prudently take the 
 Boy to Kingdon s Crossing. It had been decided that 
 such a step would be unwise for the present, the horse 
 having acquired some notoriety. Mrs. Johnson, 
 therefore, kept him, until such time as David might 
 reasonably be considered to have purchased the fastest 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 387 
 
 horse on the ranges. But David had visited him 
 often, caressing him with thoughts that might not 
 be uttered. 
 
 When he arrived at the mouth of Antelope Canon, 
 having left a message that he had been called up the 
 mountain and would not be back until the next morn 
 ing, Johnny was working in her late cabbages. After 
 one glance at his face, she shouldered her hoe and 
 marched before him to the little porch. 
 
 " Tie your horse and come in. Teddy 11 see to him 
 after a while," she said, pulling off her huge gloves ; 
 " I m a-goin to take a restin spell." 
 
 And as they sat thus the two old friends, in the 
 silence of the canon, the only sound Ted s cheery 
 whistle as he let the water into the small irrigating 
 ditches, or Nino s frantic barks as he pawed at real 
 or imaginary fishes in the running stream the flood 
 gates of David s soul were unloosed also. 
 
 Here was a case for the exercise of sturdy common 
 sense rather than for mawkish sympathy; and the 
 shrewd woman knew it. 
 
 "Them as looks for rewards in this world for 
 a-doin what s right or kind has got all the waitin 
 they can ask for; they can wait! And now, Davie," 
 she concluded, " th ain t no need to say to you, re 
 member as she s your wife! You ain t never forgot 
 
388 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 it, as I knows on, hard as was the row you had to 
 hoe." 
 
 " I have seen her twice since " 
 
 He turned, and met squarely the eyes of his friend. 
 
 " Don t you suppose as I know d it ? " she retorted. 
 " My poor boy ! Not an angel in God s heaven could 
 set it up to you on that 1 You see your own child oncet 
 livin , an you see the sweet lamb die. God ain t so 
 hard as men an woman is, Davie." 
 
 Her voice broke. Then she resumed resolutely: 
 
 " Now in the mornin you go home, an act same s 
 usual. Don t fuss with her. Give her her head. You 
 done the best you know how. She thinks as how she 
 can get herself better suited. Maybe she can ; you an 
 her wa n t never, so to speak, a match team. But 
 don t so much as grease the wheels for her! Let 
 her rip!" 
 
 The work-worn hand of the mountain woman lay in 
 her lap. As once in the far-back past David had 
 raised to his lips the soft fingers of the New York 
 woman of fashion, whose maternal heart had gone out 
 to him in something of the same manner as Johnny s 
 had done, so now he raised and touched lightly with 
 his lips the rough fingers of this other woman, who also 
 loved him. 
 
 "Thank you, Johnny," he said, simply. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 389 
 
 He arrived at home the next day in time to take his 
 wife for her morning drive ; and as he assisted her into 
 the buggy she observed that his eyes were once more 
 clear. 
 
 "That s over, thank goodness!" she ejaculated, 
 devoutly. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 TO go in detail into the vagaries of law, as 
 opposed to justice, when exerted in favour of 
 " an influential and prominent citizen " 
 would surely be an unnecessary expenditure of 
 energy. Any person acquainted, however superfi 
 cially, with such creditable national exhibitions as that 
 of the trial of a powerful clique, the head of whom 
 is not only a prominent citizen, but, what is more to 
 the point, a prominent politician also, can picture 
 without undue effort the scenes that ensued. Yet this 
 particular trial was looked back upon as one notable 
 in Territorial history, for other reasons besides the 
 startling fact that it closed with the administration of 
 strict and impartial justice. The large stock-owners 
 hung together like a menacing war-cloud in the rear 
 of the various indictments against Berry; they were 
 a force to be reckoned with. 
 
 The supporters of the Berry faction had by 
 this time rallied to some extent; self -protection 
 demanded it, if nothing else. Money changed hands 
 rapidly and in quantity. Two or three of the acutest 
 
 390 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 391 
 
 and most unscrupulous lawyers the Territory could 
 furnish had been long since pre-engaged by the faction 
 in case of the failure of any of their schemes ; and now 
 their time had come with a vengeance ! 
 
 For a while things looked a trifle serious for the 
 prosecution. There arrive moments when juries for 
 the most part composed of Mexicans are for sale; 
 and nothing proved so effective in averting such a dis 
 aster as the war cloud aforementioned. Mexicans .are 
 rarely apt to err on the side of rashness, where per 
 sonal safety is concerned. Every subterfuge afforded 
 by the wide latitude of the law was taken full advan 
 tage of ; and Cristol and Kingdon, in particular, were 
 subjected to a court- room bullying which tried the 
 tatter s high and unaccustomed spirit to the verge of 
 its endurance. Indeed, nothing but the necessity of 
 keeping Sylvia s name out of the business gave him 
 the strength to endure so much and so long. 
 
 Prompted by Berry himself, his attorneys spent 
 hours in the endeavour to ferret out "the woman in 
 the case." But Kingdon s allies remained staunch; 
 the power of attracting and holding decent men had 
 never stood David in better stead. As for Carlos, 
 hatred of Berry and sumptuous bribes together com 
 bined to keep him silent on the subject of the kid 
 napping. 
 
392 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 The trial had not come to an end before Mr. Ather- 
 ton left the court-room with very much the air of a 
 whipped cur ; and this not because he was shocked at 
 his own criminal want of perspicuity well-meaning 
 blockheads rarely see any criminality in persistent 
 abuse of the wrong person but because he was out 
 raged by the revelations brought out by the prosecu 
 tion regarding his beloved "elder." For everything 
 was raked up by the old man s enemies; not a stone 
 was. left unturned. 
 
 David, like the majority of hot-headed persons, was 
 not given to harbouring malice, and would willingly 
 have evaded certain questions put to him in connection 
 with his enemy s past ; but this he was not permitted to 
 do. Nevertheless, as has been said, even the efforts of 
 an untiring prosecution might have failed in part, 
 had it not been that actual fear of bodily violence 
 nipped in the bud the customary resort to an ap 
 peal. 
 
 Cases as rotten to the core as this one have been 
 appealed, and successfully, a hundred times and over ; 
 but those would have been bold men of law who would 
 have attempted such a coarse on this occasion. In 
 short, Berry s supporters were thoroughly well bull 
 dozed ; and for once bulldozing was exerted in a right 
 eous cause. When the Court adjourned it had 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 393 
 
 delivered the following verdicts : for Berry, practically 
 a life term in the penitentiary; for Long Tom, the 
 death penalty ; for the other members of the gang 
 varying tenns of incarceration ; for Bob Jones, who 
 had turned State s evidence, a dismissal. 
 
 It was with a deep sense of relief that Kingdon 
 boarded the train which was to carry him away from 
 the dusty county town. For him there was not only 
 the satisfaction of the just man who has beheld justice 
 triumphant, but also the profound joy of knowing 
 that he, with the aid of his friends, had prevented the 
 name of the woman he loved from being dragged into, 
 and sullied by the filth of, the court-room. 
 
 During his absence his mind had barely reverted 
 to the singular conversation he had held with Clairette 
 some few weeks earlier; indeed, he had soon grown to 
 consider it as merely one of her whims. The exciting 
 events of the trial had soon submerged the memory 
 of it. 
 
 As he walked up to the house he was even humming 
 to himself one of his little French songs of old, so 
 intense was his relief. But the gay and tender air died 
 on his lips upon observing that not only were windows 
 and blinds closed against the sunlit November day, 
 but that the door of the house was locked as well as 
 shut. 
 
394 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Going around to the back, he found the " Chino " 
 smoking a cigarette in unhurried enjoyment, and a 
 glance in the direction of barns and corrals told him 
 that all was as usual there, the men busy preparing 
 for a shipment of cattle to which Dick was attending 
 at the mountain ranch. 
 
 Wung s pigeon-English cleared up the mystery in 
 so far as it directed him to his own den, upon the desk 
 of which he found an envelope representing the latest 
 fad in stationery, and addressed to himself in Clair- 
 ette s newest handwriting that is to say, the last 
 ordained by fashion as chic. Life has its arduous side 
 for those whose writing as well as reading is conducted 
 on such anxious lines as Style demands. 
 
 " I tried," she wrote, " to have a quiet, sensible chat 
 with you some time since about our affairs; but you 
 got so excited I just had to give it up, for you know 
 excitement is so bad for me ! And then you were quite 
 taken up with your own matters. I see that you pre 
 fer vulgar court-rooms to the refined home I have tried 
 to make for you. Now you must go your own way. 
 I told you I was sick to death of this place, and of the 
 life here. I have not yet decided what I will do 
 exactly, and of course it is my duty to think first of 
 my health. I will also be careful not to get talked 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 about, and will have a chaperon wherever I am. You 
 see how I think for you. I shall go first to Jon.- 
 ville, where you can send a remittance, and shall then 
 be guided by the state of my health, which is so very 
 important. " CLAIRETTE. 
 
 " P. S. Of course I have taken my jewels. I am 
 entitled to them, and to your support as your faithful 
 wife." 
 
 David s action on concluding the hasty reading of 
 the above characteristic epistle was characteristic, too, 
 of the man. His face Clairette might not have cared 
 to behold. 
 
 Sitting down to his desk, he unlocked a drawer, 
 pulled out his cheque book his personal cheques were 
 good at Jonesville and writing one to the order of 
 his wife for a preposterously large amount, put it in 
 an envelope, and addressed it to her at Jonesville. 
 
 This done, he leaned back in his chair, his eyes 
 wandering to the window he had flung wide open upon 
 his first entrance. And as his abstracted gaze was 
 gradually, so to speak, drawn into and absorbed by 
 the peace and purity of the noon sky, his hot anger 
 cooled to the touch of something that was as a refresh 
 ing rain upon burning sand. 
 
 What was that something? 
 
396 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 There was a faint smile on his lips, when half an 
 hour later one of the men presented himself for orders, 
 with the additional information that "the stock has 
 came." 
 
 David sprang up, dismissing vague dreams with a 
 sigh, and was at once his practical, vigorous self. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 EIGHT or nine months later Sylvia, down in 
 Old Mexico, received a letter from Johnny, 
 written not quite in the usual strain. She 
 had come to love these letters, in spite of an almost 
 total absence of punctuation and other details deemed 
 necessary to polite penmanship. They represented one 
 of the few strictly personal interests left in her life; 
 for Sylvia had found her work. 
 
 That winter there had been an even severer outburst 
 than was customary of the Mexican national plague, 
 smallpox. In the city to which she and Mrs. Hendrick 
 had betaken themselves were located extensive Ameri 
 can machine shops. Consequently the American work- 
 ingman and his belongings were unusually in evidence. 
 Carelessness as regards health regulations prevailed in 
 this Mexican city, as in most others. There was but 
 one American physician, and vaccination was resorted 
 to by the minority of the population. 
 
 Sylvia had by this time recovered from her mor 
 bidity concerning children. Nature had reasserted 
 itself, and the maternal sentiment, non-existent in 
 
 397 
 
398 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 many of her sex, was in her once more visible. When 
 the viruela spread to the American settlement she 
 drove Mrs. Hendrick back to her husband and home, 
 persisting with equal firmness in remaining, her 
 self. 
 
 " No," she replied to her friend s pleading, " the 
 father of Jack and Benny " two small boys particu 
 larly attached to her person "is already down with 
 the smallpox. The mother is sure to follow. Who is 
 going to look after the children, if I go away? Do 
 you think I am going to leave those babies, or any 
 other babies for that matter, to be carried off to some 
 Mexican adobe if they fall sick? No ; I am not! And 
 then the days of weaving thrilling romances out of 
 smallpox are at an end. I shall be vaccinated sev 
 eral times, if necessary voila tout! Let me go my 
 own way, dear kind friend ! There is no danger." 
 
 Thus the matter was settled, and Mrs. Hendrick 
 departed. 
 
 As Sylvia had asserted, there was no romance in the 
 situation, and just as she was getting her last small 
 patient upon its feet she received that letter from 
 Johnny. 
 
 For some time she failed to realise its import ; for it 
 must be admitted that the writer had not made herself 
 clear to an occupied mind. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 " Now, my dearie," so ran part of the letter 
 "I ve jes got to tell you somethin . Site s a-stoppin 
 in Oklahoma since warm weather come, an it s so as 
 her health could stand it. I don t know nothin about 
 Oklahoma law, but I guess as she does. I m told as 
 she s got them Gerry-Smiths to chappyrone her; but 
 Davie s all right to take the advice I give him last fall, 
 an to let her rip. I ll see you soon as you come north. 
 
 " Your devoted, 
 
 " JOHNNY. 
 
 " P. S. Davie s a-fixin things so as to have Dick 
 run things pretty well to hisself. And I do hate to 
 worry you with my concerns, but me an John Cris- 
 tol, I should say is plannin to get married one o* 
 these days, when it s so as you is better fixed, please 
 God ! " 
 
 The effect of this epistle upon Sylvia was twofold. 
 First it resulted in an affectionate letter to Johnny 
 herself, brimming over with good wishes to her two 
 good friends. Then Sylvia wrote a note to Mrs. 
 Hendrick : 
 
 " Find me work, dear Mrs. Hendrick ! I shall leave 
 here to-morrow for the frontier. Send me anywhere 
 you will, only work me hard!" 
 
400 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 Sylvia left the train at a city on the Mexican side 
 of the border, there to be fumigated and quarantined ; 
 and there also arrived in due course Mrs. Hendrick s 
 letter. One important paragraph ran thus : 
 
 "My husband has started a small creche for the 
 benefit of working mothers. There are, of course, 
 very few such mothers in our city, but still the number 
 is increasing. Here is work for you, dear Sylvia, and 
 work I think you will like. * Society has mostly left 
 town for the summer, so that we are almost alone, and 
 you can live simply as the creche-m&iron, if you so 
 desire. Aunt Julie is well, but is beginning to hone 
 for her Mis ." 
 
 And Sylvia did so decide. When the brain throbs 
 with fancies that must not be indulged, and the heart 
 stirs all in vain, perchance what is left in the world 
 but work? 
 
 Yet in the cool summer dawns, before her work 
 awoke, Sylvia would sometimes arise, and, leaning out 
 of her window, allow her eyes to wander to " the for 
 bidden thing itself" away toward the jewelled peaks 
 beyond which 
 
 When at last Johnny came down, she fully explained 
 her somewhat ambiguous letter. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 401 
 
 " Now, my dearie, there s somethin as I has to tell 
 you. I ve waited till my mind jes cracked, holdin in 
 so long, an now he says, Johnny, suit yourself about 
 it. So I m a-goin to suit myself. It wa n t as if you 
 was one o them fool-women as don t know nothin ; 
 you ve got a heap o sense; you ain t a-goin to git 
 crazy* over perhaps nothin . Well, it s this way ; you 
 know they do have it as Oklahoma law is a-goin to be 
 made over, but as things is now divorces is pretty 
 easy. She s over there, as I wrote you, an it seems as 
 she s raked up somethin to show cause for divorce. O 
 course she ain t got nothin real again our Davie 
 that couldn t be but she s made herself a citizen, an 
 it 11 be incompatability o temper, or some sech fool 
 ishness. Anyway, Davie ain t a-goin again her 
 see? If papers is served on him, he ll hold down his 
 chair for oncet see? Maybe she ll bring suit on 
 account o his not livin in Jonesville dear knows 
 what ! Most anythin goes in Oklahoma, John allows. 
 7 tell Davie as he could bring suit hisself, seein as 
 she s got that Gerry-Smith along of her. No, says 
 he, I m a-layin low, Johnny. I m a-doin as I ve 
 tried to do right along what slie d choose for me 
 to do ." 
 
 And Johnny was wise enough there and then to 
 abandon the subject; it would not bear discussion. 
 
402 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 With the instinct of the true lover, Sylvia s first 
 thought was for David. It was not at first that her 
 own human spirit awoke and strove within her. 
 
 The sun was drooping in the bright fall sky when 
 Johnny walked in one day unannounced. Sylvia sat 
 in a rocker by the window, a sleeping baby on her 
 breast. Johnny gently disengaged the child from her 
 arms, handed it to Aunt Julie, pushed her kindly from 
 the room, shut the door, and came back. 
 
 " It s all done," she said, in a choked voice. " He s 
 a-waitin 5 for you at the River Ranch. He says for 
 you to come there an marry him again, right now. 
 You re not to wait. That s Davie ; he never could 
 abide waitin ! " Johnny was laughing hysterically. 
 " Mr. Hendrick has got there already ; David took him 
 from the train on his way home. The preacher says 
 as how he s seen the bishop, an he allows, in con- 
 siderin o the case, that it ain t jes like others, an* 
 as Mr. Hendrick can marry you all right. But oh, 
 my dearie, don t look that way ! " 
 
 And this time, there being no cause or impediment 
 regarding that matter of weeping, Johnny wept. 
 
 There was the familiar quick step down the familiar 
 hall. The door opened and shut with like promptitude. 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 403 
 
 In silence the two clung to one another face to 
 face heart to heart. 
 
 In those first solemn moments it was enough that 
 they were together; that there was none to come 
 between and none to say them nay. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 " They climb the steep ascent of Heaven 
 Through the peril, toil and pain " 
 
 THE words of the quaint old hymn, set to 
 the quaint old lilt, fell softly from David s 
 lips. Hand in hand they had ascended the 
 high butte, and now they turned and looked into one 
 another s eyes the same Sylvia, the same David 
 marked indeed by the passage of the full years, but 
 the same still. The smile was still for each other. 
 Even their children, whose voices floated to them from 
 below, temporally forgotten. 
 
 The capacity for suffering is, by some divinely 
 appointed law, often allied with the capacity for 
 recuperation, although never for forgetfulness. The 
 early weeks of reunion were for these two as those first 
 moments for the strong swimmer when, after long 
 battling with the fierce tide, he clings at last to the 
 rock saved, yet breathless and exhausted, and still 
 fearful lest the returning wave should draw him again 
 into its cruel embrace. 
 
 404 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 405 
 
 But with natures vigorous as those of David and 
 Sylvia such a condition could not long endure, and 
 soon the desire to be up and doing began to stir in 
 their veins once more. The old existence was, however, 
 by tacit acknowledgment impossible to either; and 
 David made certain arrangements with Cristol and 
 Dick which enabled him to carry his wife away at once 
 on an extensive travelling trip. Indeed, he had for 
 months been preparing for just such a possibility; 
 and as time went on, these two friends gradually 
 bought him out. 
 
 One summer evening, a few months after their mar 
 riage, as they were gliding down the St. Lawrence on 
 one of the regular steamers, Sylvia had broached anew 
 a subject which during their first marriage had often 
 been discussed between them. She had been dashing 
 in some of the marvellous colour-effects to be seen on 
 those beautiful shores ; but now the light was fading, 
 and she laid down her brushes. 
 
 Though entirely unconscious of the fact, David and 
 Sylvia were a striking couple; and it was in large 
 measure due to this circumstance that, as they grad 
 ually emerged from the absorption consequent on their 
 past experience, they were drawn into association with 
 men and women unlike the usual run of tourists. 
 
406 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 During their recent stay in Montreal and Ottawa 
 Canadian politics in relation to a closer alliance with 
 the United States had been brought prominently to 
 their notice. Society in its best aspect had smiled upon 
 them, and David and Sylvia had reaped the advan 
 tages of " looking interesting and distinguished." 
 Where others were passed by, they received notice from 
 men and women, both in and out of political life, whose 
 notice is a compliment of the highest. In the out 
 spoken discussions that had resulted, David had found 
 himself, a little to his own surprise, holding forth as 
 he had done in the old days to Sylvia, and to her alone. 
 The abuses prevalent in American politics had inev 
 itably come forward; and it was then that he main 
 tained the possibility of combining a fairly clean 
 political record with success in the political world; 
 quoting a few scattered instances to that effect, and 
 even asserting, with the shining eyes and the mounting 
 enthusiasm of the David of old, that he would like to 
 exemplify the fact in his own person. 
 
 His words had sunk into the heart of Sylvia, and 
 it was prompted by the old habit, spontaneously 
 readopted by both, of each expecting the other to 
 follow a train of unuttered thought, that she said, as 
 she washed her brushes and closed her colour-box: 
 
 " And why can you not, David? " 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 407 
 
 "Why can I not what, sweetest?" 
 
 " Oh, you know what I mean ! " she retorted. " Don t 
 pretend to be stupid! The role does not fit you 
 one bit ! " 
 
 It did not ; Sylvia was right. 
 
 The long and earnest conversation which followed 
 was as the dawn of a new life. 
 
 In the early days of their first marriage there had, 
 as we know, been small matters in which the two were 
 not, of necessity, in entire accord. But, as we also 
 know, David had quickly perceived that in such points 
 of disagreement he would have to go up ; Sylvia would 
 never come down. She had demanded a perfect up 
 rightness of him in word and deed ; and he had given 
 it to her. Prevarication or evasion had alike become 
 things of the past. Yet hours ensued in which even 
 his strong spirit weakened, and he would exclaim that 
 an absolutely clean record in politics was impossible; 
 that it could only be fairly clean. 
 
 " I shall fail, Sylvia, on those lines ! " he exclaimed, 
 more than once, looking at her with the old engaging 
 air of appeal. 
 
 " Fail, then ! " was the invariable and calm response. 
 
 And, strange to say, he had not failed. As the 
 "straight man," David fought his way to the front, 
 his natural acuteness saving him, no doubt, from many 
 
408 THE HUMAN TOUCH 
 
 of the pitfalls that engulf merely honest men. Inch 
 by inch he had wrested success from the hands of those 
 who would gladly have denied it him, and in the face 
 of obstacles which not even his personal gifts and 
 graces unaided could have altogether overcome. But 
 in his passing hours of failure there was one who never 
 failed him ; and that one was Sylvia. 
 
 That he should be, as now, Governor-elect of a most 
 important Western State, was to her, except for the 
 reward it brought to him and the prospect of redressing 
 crying wrongs, a small matter ; but that he should have 
 passed unscathed through the mire and blood of poli 
 tics was everything to Sylvia. 
 
 Needless to add that she had nothing now to dread 
 from home or its letters. There she was an honoured 
 guest. She had become a Personage, and Mrs. New 
 man s hopes were fulfilled; this was all that had ever 
 been necessary. As the wife of a successful and much 
 talked-of man, Sylvia was at last a Success. Now that 
 she needed love and encouragement no longer she had 
 both in full measure, running over no uncommon 
 experience in this best of all possible worlds. 
 
 For some reason known only to himself, Buckley, 
 though profuse, for him, in good wishes and sym 
 pathy, lingered on the other side much of his time. 
 The two saw little or nothing of him. This was a grief 
 
THE HUMAN TOUCH 409 
 
 to both. David, possibly, had ideas of his own on the 
 subject. If so, this was the sole instance in which his 
 old secretiveness was brought to the fore. 
 
 Down below, Cristol and Johnny waited in the 
 wagon. They lived now at the River Ranch, and it 
 was with them that David and Sylvia were visiting, 
 with their children. Dick, on a " cuttin pony " a 
 successor to the old hero raced with the two elder 
 boys, but the third had climbed the butte, and now 
 slipping in between his parents, took his mother s slim, 
 fair hand, and kissed it softly, over and over again. 
 
 David laughed. 
 
 " You young rascal ! Don t you know yet that that 
 hand belongs to me ? " 
 
 But he understood, nevertheless; few indeed were 
 the occasions on which David had not done so. And 
 as Sylvia swept the brown hair, so like his own, from 
 the boy s forehead, and the child looked from one to 
 the other with grave, questioning eyes, it needed not 
 Sylvia s wistful glance to tell David that her heart 
 was back in the past, marked only by a lonely cross 
 upon a tiny mound. 
 
 He laid his hand upon hers, set free by their child. 
 
 " He is his living image ! " he said, gently. 
 
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