University of California Berkeley 
 
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f/Y- Pj 
 
 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 
 
This Edition is intended for circulation only in India and 
 the British Colonies 
 
flDacmUlan'0 Colonial library 
 
 A FIRST FAMILY 
 
 OF 
 
 TASAJARA 
 
 BY 
 
 BRET HARTE 
 
 it o n tJ o n 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1891 
 
 The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved* 
 No. 133. 
 
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BUNGAY. 
 
A 
 
 FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "I r r blows," said Joe Wingate. 
 
 As if to accent the words of the speaker a 
 heavy gust of wind at that moment shook the 
 long, light wooden structure which served as 
 the general store of Sidon settlement, in Contra 
 Costa. Even after it had passed a prolonged 
 whistle came through the keyhole, sides, and 
 openings of the closed glass front doors, that 
 served equally for windows, and filled the canvas 
 ceiling which hid the roof above like a bellying 
 sail. A wave of enthusiastic emotion seemed 
 to be communicated to a line of straw hats 
 and sou'-westers suspended from a cross beam, 
 and swung them with every appearance of fes 
 tive rejoicing, while a few dusters, overcoats, 
 2 B 
 
2 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 and "hickory" shirts hanging on the side walls 
 exhibited such marked though idiotic anima 
 tion, that it had the effect of a satirical com 
 ment on the lazy, purposeless figures of the 
 four living inmates of the store. 
 
 Ned Billings momentarily raised his head and 
 shoulders depressed in the back of his wooden 
 arm-chair, glanced wearily around, said, " You 
 bet, it's no slouch of a storm," and then lapsed 
 again with further extended legs, and an added 
 sense of comfort. 
 
 Here the third figure, which had been lean 
 ing listlessly against the shelves, putting aside 
 the arm of a swaying overcoat that seemed to 
 be emptily embracing him, walked slowly from 
 behind the counter to the door, examined its 
 fastenings, and gazed at the prospect. He was 
 the owner of the store and the view was a 
 familiar one. A long stretch of treeless waste 
 before him meeting an equal stretch of dreary 
 sky above, and night hovering somewhere be 
 tween the two. This was indicated by splashes 
 of darker shadow as if washed in with Indian 
 ink, and a lighter low-lying streak that might 
 have been the horizon, but was not. To the 
 right, on a line with the front door of the 
 store, were several scattered, widely dispersed 
 objects, that, although vague in outline, were 
 rigid enough in angles to suggest sheds or 
 barns, but certainly not trees. 
 
I A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 3 
 
 " There's a heap more wet to come afore the 
 wind goes down," he said, glancing at the sky. 
 " Hark to that, now ! " 
 
 They listened lazily. There was a faint mur 
 mur from the shingles above ; then suddenly 
 the whole window was filmed and blurred as 
 if the entire prospect had been wiped out with 
 a damp sponge. The man turned listlessly 
 away. 
 
 " That's the kind that soaks in ; thar won't 
 be much teamin' over Tasajara for the next 
 two weeks, I reckon," said the fourth lounger, 
 who, seated on a high barrel, was nibbling 
 albeit critically and fastidiously biscuits and 
 dried apples alternately from open boxes on 
 the counter. " It's lucky you've got in your 
 winter stock, Harkutt." 
 
 The shrewd eyes of Mr. Harkutt, proprietor, 
 glanced at the occupation of the speaker as if 
 even his foresight might have its possible draw 
 backs, but he said nothing. 
 
 "There'll be no show for Sidon until you've 
 got a waggon road from here to the creek," 
 said Billings languidly, from the depths of his 
 chair. " But what's the use o' talkin' ? Thar 
 ain't energy enough in all Tasajara to build 
 it. A God-forsaken place, that two months of 
 the year can only be reached by a mail-rider 
 once a week, don't look ez if it was goin' to 
 break its back haulin' in goods and settlers. 
 
 u 2 
 
4 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 I tell ye what, gentlemen, it makes me sick ! " 
 And apparently it had enfeebled him to the 
 extent of interfering with his aim in that ex 
 pectoration of disgust against the stove with 
 which he concluded his sentence. 
 
 " Why don't you build it ? " asked Wingate, 
 carelessly. 
 
 "I wouldn't on principle/' said Billings. "It's 
 Gov'inent work. What did we whoop up things 
 here last spring to elect Kennedy to the Legis 
 lation for ? What did I rig up my shed and a 
 thousand feet of lumber for benches at the bar- 
 bicue for? Why, to get Kennedy elected and 
 make him get a Bill passed for the road ! 
 That's my share of building it if it comes to 
 that. And I only wish some folks, that blow 
 enough about what oughter be done to bulge 
 out that ceiling, would only do as much as / 
 have done for Sidon." 
 
 As this remark seemed to have a personal as 
 well as local application, the store-keeper diplo 
 matically turned it. " There's a good many as 
 dont believe that a road from here to the creek 
 is going to do any good to Sidon. It's very 
 well to say the creek is an embarcadero, but 
 callin' it so don't put enough water into it to 
 float a steamboat from the bay, nor clear out 
 the reeds and tides in it. Even if the State 
 builds you roads, it ain't got no call to make 
 Tasajara Creek navigable for ye; and as that 
 
i A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 5 
 
 will cost as much as the road, I don't see 
 where the money's comin' from for both." 
 
 " There's water enough in front of 'Lige Curtis' 
 shanty, and his location is only a mile along 
 the bank," returned Billings. 
 
 " Water enough for him to laze away his time 
 fishin' when he's sober, and deep enough to 
 drown him when he's drunk," said Wingate. 
 " If you call that an ewibarcadero, you kin 
 buy it any day from 'Lige, title, possession, 
 and shanty thrown in, for a demijohn o' 
 whisky." 
 
 The fourth man here distastefully threw back 
 a half-nibbled biscuit in the box, and languidly 
 slipped from the barrel to the floor, fastidiously 
 flicking the crumbs from his clothes as he did 
 so. " I reckon somebody '11 get it for nothing 
 if 'Lige don't pull up mighty soon. He'll either 
 go off his head with jim-jams or jump into the 
 creek. He's about as near desp'rate as they 
 make 'em, and havin' no partner to look after 
 him, and him alone in the tules t ther's no tellin' 
 what he may do." 
 
 Billings, stretched at full length in his chair 
 here gurgled derisively. " Desp'rit ! ketch him ! 
 Why, that's his little game ! He's jist playin' 
 off his desp'rit condition to frighten Sidon. 
 Whenever any one asks him why he don't go 
 to work, whenever he's hard up for a drink, 
 whenever he's had too much or too little, he's 
 
6 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 workin' that desp'rit dodge, and even talkin' of 
 killin' himself! Why look here," he continued, 
 momentarily raising himself to a sitting posture 
 in his disgust, "it was only last week he was 
 over at Rawlett's trying to raise provisions and 
 whisky outer his water rights on the creek ! 
 Fact, Sir, had it all written down lawyer- like 
 on paper. Rawlett didn't exactly see it in that 
 light, and told him so. Then he up with the 
 desp'rit dodge and began to work that. Said 
 if he had to starve in a swamp like a dog he 
 might as well kill himself at once, and would 
 too if he could afford the weppins. Johnson 
 said it was not a bad idea, and offered to lend 
 him his revolver. Bilson handed up his shot 
 gun, and left it alongside of him, and turned 
 his head away considerate-like and thoughtful, 
 while Rawlett handed him a box of rat pizon 
 over the counter, in case he preferred suthin' 
 more quiet. Well what did 'Lige do ? Nothin' ! 
 Smiled kinder sickly, looked sorter wild, and 
 shut up. He didn't suicide much. No, Sir ! 
 He didn't kill himself not he. Why old Bixby 
 and he's a Deacon in good standin' allowed 
 in 'Lige's hearin', and for 'Lige's benefit, that 
 self-destruction was better nor bad example, 
 and proved it by Scripture too. And yet 'Lige 
 did nothin' ! Desp'rit ! He's only desp'rit to 
 laze around and fish all day off a log in the 
 tules, and soak up with whisky, until, betwixt 
 
I A FIEST FAMILY OF TASA.JAKA 7 
 
 fever and ague, and the jumps, he kinder shakes 
 hisself free o' responsibility." 
 
 A long silence followed ; it was somehow felt 
 that the subject was incongruously exciting; 
 Billings allowed himself to lapse again behind 
 the back of his chair. Meantime it had grown 
 so dark that the dull glow of the stove was 
 beginning to outline a faint halo on the ceiling 
 even while it plunged the further lines of shelves 
 behind the counter into greater obscurity. 
 
 " Time to light up, Harkutt ain't it ? " said 
 Wingate tentatively. 
 
 " Well, I was reckoning ez it's such a wild 
 night there wouldn't be any use keepin' open, 
 and when you fellows left I'd just shut up for 
 good and make things fast," said Harkutt 
 dubiously. Before his guests had time to 
 fully weigh this delicate hint, another gust of 
 wind shook the tenement and even forced the 
 unbolted upper part of the door to yield far 
 enough to admit an eager current of humid 
 air that seemed to justify the wisdom of 
 Harkutt's suggestion. Billings slowly and with 
 a sigh assumed a sitting posture in the chair. 
 The biscuit-nibbler selected a fresh dainty from 
 the counter, and Wingate abstractedly walked 
 to the window and rubbed the glass. Sky and 
 water had already disappeared behind a curtain 
 of darkness that was illuminated by a single 
 point of light the lamp in the window of some 
 
8 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CHAP. 
 
 invisible but nearer house which threw its 
 rays across the glistening shallows in the road. 
 " Well," said Wingate, buttoning up his coat 
 in slow dejection, " I reckon I oughter be 
 travellin' to help the old woman do the chores 
 before supper." He had just recognized the 
 light in his own dining-room and knew by that 
 sign that his long waiting helpmeet had finally 
 done the chores herself. 
 
 " Some folks have it mighty easy," said 
 Billings with long-drawn discontent as he strug 
 gled to his feet. " You've only a step to go, 
 and yer's me and Peters there indicating 
 the biscuit-nibbler who was beginning to show 
 alarming signs of returning to the barrel again 
 " hev got to trapse five times that distance." 
 
 " More'n half a mile, if it comes to that," said 
 Peters gloomily. He paused in putting on his 
 overcoat as if thinking better of it, while even 
 the more fortunate and contiguous Wingate 
 languidly lapsed against the counter again. 
 
 The moment was a critical one. Billings 
 was evidently also regretfully eyeing the chair 
 he had just quitted. Harkutt resolved on r, 
 heroic effort. 
 
 " Come, boys," he said with brisk conviviality, 
 " take a parting drink with me before you go." 
 Producing a black bottle from some obscurity 
 beneath the counter that smelt strongly of 
 india-rubber boots, he placed it with four glasses 
 
I A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 9 
 
 before his guests. Each made a feint of holding 
 his glass against the opaque window while filling 
 it, although nothing could be seen. A sudden 
 tumult of wind and rain again shook the build 
 ing, but even after it had passed the glass door 
 still rattled violently. 
 
 " Just see what's loose, Peters," said Billings 
 " you're nearest it." 
 
 Peters, still holding the undrained glass in his 
 hand, walked slowly towards it. 
 
 " It's suthin' or somebody outside," he said 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 The three others came eagerly to his side. 
 Through the glass, clouded from within by their 
 breath, and filmed from without by the rain, 
 some vague object was moving, and what seemed 
 to be a mop of tangled hair was apparently 
 brushing against the pane. The door shook 
 again, but less strongly. Billings pressed his 
 face against the glass, " Hoi' on," he said in a 
 quick whisper " it's 'Lige ! " But it was too 
 late. Harkutt had already drawn the lower 
 bolt, and a man stumbled from the outer 
 obscurity into the darker room. 
 
 The inmates drew away as he leaned back 
 for a moment against the door that closed 
 behind him. Then dimly, but instinctively, dis 
 cerning the glass of liquor which Wingate still 
 mechanically held in his hand, he reached for 
 ward eagerly, took it from Wingate's surprised 
 
10 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 and unresisting fingers, and drained it at a gulp. 
 The four men laughed vaguely, but not as cheer 
 fully as they might. 
 
 " I was just shutting up," began Harkutt 
 dubiously. 
 
 " I won't keep you a minit," said the intruder 
 nervously fumbling in the breast pocket of his 
 hickory shirt. " It's a matter of business 
 Harkutt I " but he was obliged to stop here 
 to wipe his face and forehead with the ends of 
 a loose handkerchief tied round his throat. 
 From the action, and what could be seen of his 
 pale, exhausted face, it was evident that the 
 moisture upon it were beads of perspiration, and 
 not the rain which some abnormal heat of his 
 body was converting into vapour from his sodden 
 garments as he stood there. 
 
 "I've got a document here," he began again, 
 producing a roll of paper tremblingly from his 
 pocket, "that I'd like you to glance over, and 
 perhaps youl'd " his voice, which had been 
 feverishly exalted, here broke and rattled with 
 a cough. 
 
 Billings, Wingate, and Peters fell apart and 
 looked out of the window. " It's too dark to 
 read anything now, 'Lige," said Harkutt with 
 evasive good humour, " and I ain't lighten' up 
 to-night." 
 
 " But I can tell you the substance of it," said 
 the man with a faintness that however had all 
 
I A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 11 
 
 the distinctness of a whisper, " if you'll just 
 step inside a minute. It's a matter of import 
 ance and a bargain " 
 
 "I reckon we must be goin'," said Billings 
 to the others with marked emphasis. "We're 
 keepin' Harkutt from shuttin' up." " Good 
 night!" "Good-night!" added Peters and 
 Wingate ostentatiously following Billings hur 
 riedly through the door. " So long ! " 
 
 The door closed behind them, leaving Harkutt 
 alone with his importunate intruder. Possibly 
 his resentment at his customers' selfish aban 
 donment of him at this moment developed a 
 vague spirit of opposition to them and miti 
 gated his feelings towards 'Lige. He groped 
 his way to the counter, struck a match, and 
 lit a candle. Its feeble rays faintly illuminated 
 the pale, drawn face of the applicant set in a 
 tangle of wet, unkempt, parti-coloured hair. 
 It was not the face of an ordinary drunkard; 
 although tremulous and sensitive from some 
 artificial excitement, there was no engorgement 
 or congestion in the features or complexion, 
 albeit they were morbid and unhealthy. The 
 expression was of a suffering that was as much 
 mental as physical, and yet in some vague way 
 appeared unmeaning and unheroic. 
 
 " I want to see you about selling my place 
 on the creek. I want you to take it off my 
 hands for a bargain. I want to get quit of it. 
 
12 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 at once, for just enough to take me out o' this. 
 I don't want any profit ; only money enough to 
 get away." His utterance, which had a certain 
 kind of cultivation, here grew thick and harsh 
 again, and he looked eagerly at the bottle which 
 stood on the counter. 
 
 " Look here, 'Lige/' said Harkutt not un 
 kindly. " It's too late to do anythin' to-night. 
 You come in to-morrow." He would have added 
 " when you're sober," but for a trader's sense 
 of politeness to a possible customer, and probably 
 some doubt of the man's actual condition. 
 
 " God knows where or what I may be to-morrow ! 
 It would kill me to go back and spend another 
 night as the last, if I don't kill myself on the 
 way to do it." 
 
 Harkutt's face darkened grimly. It was indeed 
 as Billings had said ! The pitiable weakness of 
 the man's manner not only made his desperation 
 inadequate and ineffective, but even lent it all the 
 cheapness of acting. And, as if to accent his 
 simulation of a part, his fingers feebly groping in 
 his shirt bosom slipped aimlessly and helplessly 
 from the shining handle of a pistol in his pocket 
 to wander hesitatingly towards the bottle on the 
 counter. 
 
 Harkutt took the bottle, poured out a glass of 
 the liquor and pushed it before his companion, 
 who drank it eagerly. Whether it gave him moro 
 confidence, or his attention was no longer diverted, 
 
I A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 13 
 
 lie went on more collectedly and cheerfully, and 
 with no trace of his previous desperation in his 
 manner. " Come, Harkutt buy my place. It's a 
 bargain, I tell you. I'll sell it cheap. I only 
 want enough to get away with. Give me twenty- 
 five dollars and it's yours. See, there's the 
 papers the quit-claim all drawn up and signed." 
 He drew the roll of papers from his pocket 
 again, apparently forgetful of the adjacent 
 weapon. 
 
 " Look here, 'Lige," said Harkutt with a 
 business-like straightening of his lips, " I ain't 
 buy in' any land in Tasajara least of all yours on 
 the creek. I've got more invested here already 
 than I'll ever get back again. But I tell you what 
 I'll do. You say you can't go back to your shanty. 
 Well, seein' how rough it is outside, and that the 
 waters of the creek are probably all over the 
 trail by this time, I reckon you're about right. 
 Now, there's five dollars ! " He laid down a 
 coin sharply on the counter. " Take that and go 
 over to Rawlett's and get a bed and some supper. 
 In the mornin' you may be able to strike up a 
 trade with somebody else or change your mind. 
 How did you get here on your hoss ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " He ain't starved yet ? " 
 
 " No ; he can eat grass I can't." 
 
 Either the liquor or Harkutt's practical, unsen 
 timental treatment of the situation seemed to 
 
14 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 give him confidence. He met Harkutt' s eye 
 more steadily as the latter went on, " You kin 
 turn your hoss for the night into my stock corral 
 next to Rawlett's. It'll save you payin' for 
 fodder and stablin'." 
 
 The man took up the coin with a certain slow 
 gravity which was almost like dignity. " Thank 
 you," he said, laying the paper on the counter. 
 " I'll leave that as security." 
 
 "Don't want it, 'Lige," said Harkutt pushing 
 it back. 
 
 " I'd rather leave it." 
 
 " But suppose you have a chance to sell it to 
 somebody at Rawlett's ? " continued Harkutt 
 with a precaution that seemed ironical. 
 
 " I don't think there's much chance of that." 
 
 He remained quiet looking at Harkutt with an 
 odd expression as he rubbed the edge of the coin 
 that he held between his fingers abstractedly on 
 the counter. Something in his gaze rather 
 perhaps the apparent absence of anything in 
 it approximate to the present occasion was 
 beginning to affect Harkutt with a vague 
 uneasiness. Providentially a resumed onslaught 
 of wind and rain against the panes effected a 
 diversion. "Come," he said with brisk practi 
 cality, " youl'd better hurry on to Rawlett's 
 before it gets worse. Have your clothes dried by 
 his fire, take suthin' to eat, and you'll be all right." 
 He rubbed his hands cheerfully, as if summarily 
 
i A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 15 
 
 disposing of the situation, and incidentally of all 
 'Lige's troubles, and walked with him to the 
 door. Nevertheless as the man's look remained 
 unchanged, he hesitated a moment with his 
 hand on the handle, in the hope that he would 
 say something, even if only to repeat his appeal, 
 but he did not. Then Harkutt opened the door ; 
 the man moved mechanically out, and at the 
 distance of a few feet seemed to melt into the 
 rain and darkness. Harkutt remained for a 
 moment with his face pressed against the glass. 
 After an interval he thought he heard the faint 
 splash of hoofs in the shallows of the road ; he 
 opened the door softly and looked out. 
 
 The light had disappeared from the nearest 
 house ; only an uncertain bulk of shapeless 
 shadows remained. Other remoter and more 
 vague outlines nearer the horizon seemed to have 
 a funereal suggestion of tombs and grave mounds 
 and one a low shed near the road looked not 
 unlike a halted bier. He hurriedly put up the 
 shutters in a momentary lulling of the wind, and 
 re-entering the store began to fasten them from 
 within. 
 
 While thus engaged an inner door behind the 
 counter opened softly and cautiously, projecting a 
 brighter light into the deserted apartment from 
 some sacred domestic interior with the warm and 
 wholesome incense of cooking. It served to in 
 troduce also the equally agreeable presence of a 
 
16 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 young girl who, after assuring herself of the 
 absence of every one but the proprietor, idly 
 slipped into the store, and placing her rounded 
 elbows, from which her sleeves were uprolled, 
 upon the counter, leaned lazily upon them with 
 both hands supporting her dimpled chin and gazed 
 indolently at him. So indolently that with her 
 pretty face once fixed in this comfortable attitude 
 she was constrained to follow his movements with 
 her eyes alone, and often at an uncomfortable 
 angle. It was evident that she offered the final 
 but charming illustration of the enfeebling 
 listlessness of Sidon. 
 
 " So those loafers have gone at last," she said 
 meditatively. " They'll take root here some day, 
 pop. The idea of three strong men like that 
 lazing round for two mortal hours doin' no thin'. 
 Well ! " As if too emphasize her disgust she 
 threw her whole weight upon the counter by 
 swinging her feet from the floor to touch the 
 shelves behind her. 
 
 Mr. Harkutt only replied by a slight grunt as 
 he continued to screw on the shutters. 
 
 " Want me to help you, dad ? " she said without 
 moving. 
 
 Mr. Harkutt muttered something unintelligible 
 which, however, seemed to imply a negative, and 
 her attention here feebly wandered to the roll of 
 papers, and she began slowly and lazily to read 
 it aloud. 
 
I A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 17 
 
 " ' For value received, I hereby sell, assign, and 
 transfer to Daniel D. Harkutt all my right, title 
 and interest in, and to the undivided half of, 
 Quarter Section 4, Range 5, Tasajara Township' 
 hum hum," she murmured, running her eyes 
 to the bottom of the page. " Why, Lord ! It's 
 that 'Lige Curtis ! " she laughed. " The idea of 
 him having property ! Why, dad, you ain't been 
 that silly!" 
 
 " Put down that paper, miss," he said aggriev- 
 edly ; " bring the candle here, and help me to find 
 one of these infernal screws that's dropped." 
 
 The girl indolently disengaged herself from the 
 counter and Elijah Curtis's transfer, and brought 
 the candle to her father. The screw was pres 
 ently found and the last fastening secured. 
 " Supper gettin' cold, dad," she said with a slight 
 yawn. Her father sympathetically responded by 
 stretching himself from his stooping position, and 
 the two passed through the private door into 
 inner domesticity, leaving the already forgotten 
 paper lying with other articles of barter on the 
 counter. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 WITH the closing of the little door behind them 
 they seemed to have shut out the turmoil and 
 vibration of the storm. The reason became 
 apparent when after a few paces they descended 
 half-a-dozen steps to a lower landing. This 
 disclosed the fact that the dwelling part of the 
 Sidon General Store was quite below the level of 
 the shop and the road, and on the slope of the 
 solitary undulation of the Tasajara plain a little 
 ravine that fell away to a brawling stream below. 
 The only arboreous growth of Tasajara clothed 
 its banks in the shape of willows and alders that 
 set compactly around the quaint, irregular 
 dwelling which straggled down the ravine and 
 looked upon a slope of bracken and foliage on 
 either side. The transition from the black, 
 treeless, storm-swept plain to this sheltered 
 declivity, was striking and suggestive. From 
 the opposite bank one might fancy that the 
 youthful and original dwelling had ambitiously 
 
CH. ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 19 
 
 mounted the crest, but appalled at the dreary 
 prospect beyond, had gone no further ; while 
 from the road it seemed as if the fastidious 
 proprietor had tried to draw a line between the 
 vulgar trading-post, with which he was obliged 
 to face the coarser civilization of the place, and 
 the privacy of his domestic life. The real fact, 
 however, was, that the ravine furnished wood and 
 water ; and as Nature also provided one wall of 
 the house as in the well-known example of 
 aboriginal cave dwellings, its peculiar construc 
 tion commended itself to Sidon on the ground of 
 involving little labour. 
 
 Howbeit, from the two open windows of the 
 sitting-room which they had entered only the 
 faint pattering of dripping boughs, and a slight 
 murmur from the swollen brook, indicated the 
 storm that shook the upper plain, and the cool 
 breath of laurel, syringa, and alder was wafted 
 through the neat apartment. Passing through 
 that pleasant rural atmosphere they entered 
 the kitchen, a much larger room, which appeared 
 to serve occasionally as a dining-room and where 
 supper was already laid out. A stout, comfort 
 able looking woman who had, however, a singu 
 larly permanent expression of pained sympathy 
 upon her face welcomed them in tones of gentle 
 commiseration. 
 
 " Ah, there you be, you two ! Now sit ye 
 right down, dears ! do. You must be tired out ; 
 
 c 2 
 
20 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 and you, Phemie, love, draw up by your pool- 
 father. There that's right. You'll be better 
 soon." 
 
 There was certainly no visible sign of suffer 
 ing or exhaustion on the part of either father 
 or daughter, nor the slightest apparent earthly 
 reason why they should be expected to exhibit 
 any. But, as already intimated, it was part of 
 Mrs. Harkutt's generous idiosyncracy to look 
 upon all humanity as suffering and toiling ; to be 
 petted, humoured, consoled with, and fed. It 
 had, in the course of years, imparted a singularly 
 caressing sadness to her voice, and given her 
 the habit of ending her sentences with a melan 
 choly cooing and an unintelligible murmur of 
 agreement. It was undoubtedly sincere and 
 sympathetic, but at times inappropriate and dis 
 tressing. It had lost her the friendship of the 
 one humorist of Tasajara, whose best jokes she 
 had received with such heartfelt commiseration, 
 and such pained appreciation of the evident 
 labour involved, as to reduce him to silence. 
 
 Accustomed as Mr. Harkutt was to his wife's 
 peculiarity, he was not above assuming a certain 
 slightly fatigued attitude befitting it. " Yes," 
 he said, with a vague sigh, " where's Clemmie ?" 
 
 " Lyin' down since dinner ; she reckoned she 
 wouldn't get up to supper," she returned sooth 
 ingly. " Phemie's goin' to take her up some sass 
 and tea. The poor dear child wants a change." 
 
n A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 21 
 
 " She wants to go to 'Frisco, and so do I, 
 pop," said Phemie, leaning her elbow half over 
 her father's plate. " Come, pop, say do just 
 for a week." 
 
 " Only for a week," murmured the commis 
 erating Mrs. Harkutt. 
 
 "Perhaps," responded Harkutt, with gloomy 
 sarcasm, " ye wouldn't mind tellin' me how you're 
 goin' to get there, and where the money's 
 comin' from to take you ? There's no teamin' 
 over Tasajara till the rain stops, and no money 
 comin' in till the ranchmen can move their stuff. 
 There ain't a hundred dollars in all Tasajara 
 at least there ain't been the first red cent of 
 it paid across my counter for a fortnit ! Per 
 haps if you do go, you wouldn't mind takin' 
 me and the store along with ye, and leavin' 
 us there." 
 
 " Yes, dear," said Mrs. Harkutt, with sym 
 pathetic but shameless tergiversation. " Don't 
 bother your poor father, Phemie, love, don't 
 you see he's just tired out ? And you're not 
 eatin' anything, dad." 
 
 As Mr. Harkutt was uneasily conscious that 
 he had been eating heartily in spite of his 
 financial difficulties he turned the subject ab 
 ruptly. "Where's John Milton?" 
 
 Mrs. Harkutt shaded her eyes with her hand, 
 and gazed meditatively on the floor before the 
 fire and in the chimney corner for her only son, 
 
22 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 baptised under that historic title. " He was 
 here a minit ago," she said doubtfully. " I 
 really can't think where he's gone. But," as- 
 suringly, " it ain't far." 
 
 "He's skipped with one o' those story books 
 he's borrowed," said Phemie. " He's always 
 doin' it. Like as not he's reading with a candle 
 in the wood-shed. We'll all be burnt up some 
 night." 
 
 " But he's got through his chores," inter 
 posed Mrs. Harkutt deprecatingly. 
 
 " Yes," continued Harkutt aggrievedly, " but 
 instead of goin' to bed, or adding up bills, or 
 takin' count o' stock, or even doin' sums or 
 suthin' useful, he's ruinin' his eyes and wastin' 
 his time over trash." He rose and walked 
 slowly into the sitting-room, followed by his 
 daughter and a murmur of commiseration from 
 his wife. But Mrs. Harkutt's ministration for 
 the present did not pass beyond her domain 
 the kitchen. 
 
 " I reckon ye ain't expectin' anybody to-night, 
 Phemie ? " said Mr. Harkutfc, sinking into a 
 chair and placing his slippered feet against the 
 wall. 
 
 " No," said Phemie, " unless something pos 
 sesses that sappy little Parmlee to make one 
 of his visitations. John Milton says that out 
 on the road it blows so you can't stand up. 
 It's just like that idiot Parmlee to be blown in 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 23 
 
 here, and not have strength of mind enough 
 to get away again." 
 
 Mr. Harkutt smiled. It was that arch yet 
 approving, severe yet satisfied smile with which 
 the deceived male parent usually receives any 
 depreciation of the ordinary young man by his 
 daughters. Euphemia was no giddy thing to 
 be carried away by young men's attentions 
 not she ! Sitting back comfortably in his rock 
 ing-chair he said, " Play something." 
 
 The young girl went to the closet and took 
 from the top shelf an excessively ornamented 
 accordion the opulent gift of a reckless ad 
 mirer. It was so inordinately decorated, so 
 gorgeous in the blaze of papier mackd, mother- 
 of pearl, and tortoiseshell on keys and keyboard, 
 and so ostentatiously radiant in the pink silk 
 of its bellows, that it seemed to overawe the 
 plainly furnished room with its splendours " You 
 ought to keep it on the table in a glass vase, 
 Phemie," said her father admiringly. 
 
 "' And have him think I worshipped it ! not 
 me, indeed ! He's conceited enough already," 
 she returned saucily. 
 
 Mr. Harkutt again smiled his approbation, 
 then deliberately closed his eyes and threw his 
 head back in qomfortable anticipation of the 
 coming strains. 
 
 It is to be regretted that in brilliancy, finish, 
 and even cheerfulness of quality they were not 
 
24 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 up to the suggestions of the keys and keyboard. 
 The most discreet and cautious effort on the 
 part of the young performer seemed only to 
 produce startlingly unexpected, but instantly sup 
 pressed complaints from the instrument, accom 
 panied by impatient interjections of " no, no," 
 from the girl herself. Nevertheless, with her 
 pretty eyebrows knitted in some charming dis 
 tress of memory, her little mouth half open 
 between an apologetic smile and the exertion 
 of working the bellows, with her white, rounded 
 arms partly lifted up and waving before her, 
 she was pleasantly distracting to the eye. Gradu 
 ally, as the scattered strains were marshalled 
 into something like an air, she began to sing 
 also, glossing over the instrumental weaknesses, 
 filling in certain dropped notes and omissions, 
 and otherwise assisting the ineffectual accordion 
 with a youthful but not unmusical voice. The 
 song was a lugubrious, religious chant ; under 
 its influence the house seemed to sink into 
 greater quiet, permitting in the intervals the 
 murmur of the swollen creek to appear more 
 distinct, and even the far moaning of the wind 
 on the plain to become faintly audible. At 
 last, having fairly mastered the instrument, 
 Phemie got into the full swing of the chant. 
 Unconstrained by any criticism, carried away 
 by the sound of her own voice, and perhaps 
 a, youthful love for mere uproar, or possibly 
 
n A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 25 
 
 desirous to drown her father's voice, which had 
 unexpectedly joined in with a discomposing bass, 
 their conjoined utterances seemed to threaten 
 the frail structure of their dwelling, even as 
 the gale had distended the store behind them. 
 When they ceased at last it was in an accession 
 of dripping from the apparently stirred leaves 
 outside. And then a voice, evidently from 
 the moist depths of the abyss below, called 
 out, 
 
 "Hullo, there!" 
 
 Phemie put down the accordion, said, " Who's 
 that now ? " went to the window, lazily leaned 
 her elbows on the sill and peered into the dark 
 ness. Nothing was to be seen ; the open space 
 of dimly outlined landscape had that blank, 
 uncommunicative impenetrability with which 
 Nature always confronts and surprises us at 
 such moments. It seemed to Phemie that she 
 was the only human being present. Yet after 
 the feeling had passed she fancied she heard 
 the wash of the current against some object in 
 the stream, half stationary and half resisting. 
 
 " Is any one down there ? Is that you, Mr. 
 Parmlee ? " she called. 
 
 There was a pause. Some invisible auditor 
 said to another, "It's a young lady." Then the 
 first voice rose again in a more deferential 
 tone. " Are we anywhere near Sidon ? " 
 
 " This is Sidon," answered Harkutt, who had 
 
26 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 risen and was now quite obliterating his daugh 
 ter's outline at the window. 
 
 <c Thank you," said the voice. " Can we land 
 anywhere here on this bank ? " 
 
 " Run down, pop, they're strangers," said the 
 girl with excited, almost childish eagerness. 
 
 "Hold on/' called out Harkutt, "I'll be thar 
 in a moment ! " He hastily thrust his feet into 
 a pair of huge boots, clapped on an oilskin 
 hat and waterproof, and disappeared through a 
 door that led to a lower staircase. Phemie still 
 at the window albeit with a newly added 
 sense of self-consciousness hung out breath 
 lessly. Presently a beam of light from the 
 lower depths of the house shot out into the 
 darkness. It was her father with a bull's-eye 
 lantern. As he held it up and clambered 
 cautiously down the bank, its rays fell upon 
 the turbid rushing stream, and what appeared 
 to be a rough raft of logs held with difficulty 
 against the bank by two men with long poles. 
 In its centre was a roll of blankets, a valise 
 and saddle-bags, and the shining brasses of 
 some odd-looking instruments. 
 
 As Mr. Harkutt, supporting himself by a 
 willow branch that overhung the current, held 
 up the lantern, the two men rapidly transferred 
 their freight from the raft to the bank, and 
 leaped ashore. The action gave an impulse to 
 the raft which, no longer held in position by 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 27 
 
 the poles, swung broadside to the current and 
 was instantly swept into the darkness. 
 
 Not a word had been spoken, but now the 
 voices of the men rose freely together. Phemie 
 listened with intense expectation. The explana 
 tion was simple. They were surveyors who had 
 been caught by the overflow on Tasajara plain, 
 had abandoned their horses on the bank of 
 Tasajara Creek, and with a hastily constructed 
 raft had entrusted themselves and their instru 
 ments to the current. " But/' said Harkutt 
 quickly, "there's no connection between Tasa 
 jara Creek and this stream." 
 
 The two men laughed. " There is now," said 
 one of them. 
 
 " But Tasajara Creek is a part of the bay," 
 said the astonished Harkutt, " and this stream 
 rises inland and only runs into the bay four 
 miles lower down. And I don't see how 
 
 " You are almost twelve feet lower here than 
 Tasajara Creek," said the first man with a 
 certain professional authority, " and that's why. 
 There's more water than Tasajara Creek can 
 carry and it's seeking the bay this way. Look," 
 he continued, taking the lantern from Harkutt's 
 hand and casting its rays on the stream, " that's 
 salt drift from the upper bay, and part of Tasa 
 jara Creek's running by your house now ! Don't 
 be alarmed," he added reassuringly, glancing at 
 the staring storekeeper. " You're all right here ; 
 
28 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 this is only the overflow and will find its level 
 soon." 
 
 But Mr. Harkutt remained gazing abstractedly 
 at the smiling speaker. From the window above 
 the impatient Phemie was wondering why he 
 kept the strangers waiting in the rain while 
 he talked about things that were perfectly plain. 
 It was so like a man ! 
 
 " Then there's a waterway straight to Tasa- 
 jara Creek/' he said slowly. 
 
 " There is, as long as this flood lasts/' returned 
 the first speaker promptly ; and a cutting 
 through the bank of two or three hundred yards 
 would make it permanent. Well, what's the 
 matter with that ? " 
 
 " Nothin'," said Harkutt hurriedly. " I am 
 only considering ! But come in, dry yourselves, 
 and take suthin'." 
 
 The light over the rushing water was with 
 drawn and the whole prospect sank back into 
 profound darkness. Mr. Harkutt had disappeared 
 with his guests. Then there was the familiar 
 shuffle of his feet on the staircase, followed by 
 other more cautious footsteps that grew delicately 
 and even courteously deliberate as they ap 
 proached. At which the young girl in some 
 new sense of decorum drew in her pretty head, 
 glanced around the room quickly, reset the tidy 
 on her father's chair, placed the resplendent 
 accordion like an ornament in the exact centre 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 29 
 
 of the table, and then vanished into the hall 
 as Mr. Harkutt entered with the strangers. 
 
 They were both of the same age and appear 
 ance, but the principal speaker was evidently 
 the superior of his companion, and although 
 their attitude to each other was equal and 
 familiar, it could be easily seen that he was 
 the leader. He had a smooth, beardless face, 
 with a critical expression of eye and mouth that 
 might have been fastidious and supercilious but 
 for the kindly, humorous perception that tem 
 pered it. His quick eye swept the apartment 
 and then fixed itself upon the accordion, but a 
 smile lit up his face as he said quietly, 
 
 " I hope we haven't frightened the musician 
 away. It was bad enough to have interrupted 
 the young lady." 
 
 " No, no," said Mr. Harkutt, who seemed to 
 have lost his abstraction in the nervousness of 
 hospitality. " I reckon she's only lookin' after 
 her sick sister. But come into the kitchen, both 
 of you, straight off, and while you're dryin' your 
 clothes, mother'll fix you suthin' hot." 
 
 " We only need to change our boots and 
 stockings, we've some dry ones in our pack 
 down stairs," said the first speaker hesitatingly. 
 
 " I'll fetch 'em up and you can change in the 
 kitchen. The old woman won't mind," said 
 Harkutt reassuringly. " Come along." He led 
 the way to the kitchen, the two strangers 
 
30 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 exchanged a glance of humorous perplexity and 
 followed. 
 
 The quiet of the little room was once more 
 unbroken. A far-off commiserating murmur 
 indicated that Mrs. Harkutt was receiving her 
 guests. The cool breath of the wet leaves with 
 out slightly disturbed the white dimity curtains, 
 and somewhere from the darkened eaves there 
 was a still, somnolent drip. Presently a hurried 
 whisper and a half laugh appeared to be sup 
 pressed in the outer passage or hall. There 
 was another moment of hesitation and the door 
 opened suddenly and ostentatiously, disclosing 
 Phemie with a taller and slighter young woman, 
 her elder sister, at her side. Perceiving that 
 the room was empty they both said " Oh ! " yet 
 with a certain artificiality of manner that was 
 evidently a lingering trace of some previous 
 formal attitude they had assumed. Then with 
 out further speech they each selected a chair 
 and a position, having first shaken out their 
 dresses, and gazed silently at each other. 
 
 It may be said briefly that sitting thus in spite 
 of their unnatural attitude, or perhaps rather 
 because of its suggestion of a photographic pose 
 they made a striking picture and strongly 
 accented their separate peculiarities. They were 
 both pretty, but the taller girl, apparently the 
 elder, had an ideal refinement and regularity of 
 feature which was not only unlike Phemie, but 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 31 
 
 gratuitously unlike the rest of her family, and as 
 hopelessly and even wantonly inconsistent with 
 her surroundings as was the elaborately orna 
 mented accordion on the centre table. She was 
 one of those occasional creatures, episodical in the 
 South and West, who might have been stamped 
 with some vague ante-natal impression of a 
 mother given to over-sentimental contemplation 
 of Books of Beauty and Albums rather than the 
 family features; offspring of typical men and 
 women, and yet themselves incongruous to any 
 known local or even general type. The long 
 swan-like neck, tendrilled hair, swimming eyes, 
 and small patrician head, had never lived or 
 moved before in Tasajara or the West, nor 
 perhaps even existed except as a personified 
 " Constancy," " Meditation," or the " Baron's 
 Bride" in mezzotint or copper-plate. Even the 
 girl's common pink print dress with its high 
 sleeves and shoulders could not conventionalize 
 these original outlines ; and the hand that rested 
 stiffly on the back of her chair, albeit neither over 
 white nor well-kept, looked as if it had never held 
 anything but a lyre, a rose, or a good book. 
 Even the few sprays of wild jessamine which she 
 had placed in the coils of her waving hair, 
 although a local fashion, became her as a special 
 ornament. 
 
 The two girls kept their constrained and arti 
 ficially elaborated attitude for a few moments, 
 
32 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 accompanied by the murmur of voices in the 
 kitchen, the monotonous drip of the eaves before 
 the window, and the far-off sough of the wind. 
 Then Phemie suddenly broke into a constrained 
 giggle, which she however quickly smothered as 
 she had the accordion, and with the same look of 
 mischievous distress. 
 
 " I'm astonished at you, Phemie," said Clem 
 entina in a deep contralto voice, which seemed 
 even deeper from its restraint. " You don't seem 
 to have any sense. Anybody'l'd think you'd 
 never had seen a stranger before." 
 
 " Saw him before you did," retorted Phemie 
 pertly. But here a pushing of chairs and 
 shuffling of feet in the kitchen checked her. 
 Clementina fixed an abstracted gaze on the 
 ceiling ; Phemie regarded a leaf on the window 
 sill with photographic rigidity as the door opened 
 to the strangers and her father. 
 
 The look of undisguised satisfaction which lit 
 the young men's faces relieved Mr. Harkutt's 
 awkward introduction of any embarrassment, and 
 almost before Phemie was fully aware of it, she 
 found herself talking rapidly and in a high key 
 with Mr. Lawrence Grant, the surveyor, while her 
 sister was equally, although more sedately, 
 occupied with Mr. Stephen Rice, his assistant. 
 But the enthusiasm of the strangers, and the 
 desire to please and be pleased, was so genuine 
 and contagious that presently the accordion was 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 33 
 
 brought into requisition, and Mr. Grant exhibited 
 a surprising faculty of accompaniment to Mr. 
 Rice's tenor, in which both the girls joined. 
 
 Then a game of cards with partners followed, 
 into which the rival parties introduced such 
 delightful and shameless obviousness of cheating, 
 and displayed such fascinating and exaggerated 
 partisanship that the game resolved itself into a 
 hilarious mSlde, to which peace was restored only 
 by an exhibition of tricks of legerdemain with the 
 cards by the young surveyor. All of which Mr. 
 Harkutt supervised patronizingly with occasional 
 fits of abstraction, from his rocking-chair ; and 
 later Mrs. Harkutt from her kitchen threshold, 
 wiping her arms on her apron and com- 
 miseratingly observing that she " declared 
 the young folks looked better already." 
 
 But it was here a more dangerous element of 
 mystery and suggestion was added by Mr. Law 
 rence Grant in the telling of Miss Euphemia's 
 fortune from the cards before him, and that young 
 lady, pink with excitement, fluttered her little 
 hands not unlike timid birds over the cards to be 
 drawn, taking them from him with an audible 
 twitter of anxiety and great doubts whether a 
 certain " fair-haired gentleman " was in hearts or 
 diamonds. 
 
 " Here are two strangers," said Mr. Grant with 
 extraordinary gravity laying down the cards, " and 
 here is a 'journey/ this is ' unexpected news,' and 
 
 D 
 
34 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 this ten of diamonds means ' great wealth ' to 
 you, which you see follows the advent of the 
 two strangers and is some way connected with 
 them." 
 
 " Oh, indeed/' said the young lady with great 
 pertness and a toss of her head. " I suppose 
 they've got the money with them." 
 
 " No, though it reaches you through them," he 
 replied with unflinching solemnity. " Wait a bit, 
 I have it ! I see, I've made a mistake with this 
 card. It signifies a journey or a road. Queer ! 
 isn't it, Steeve ? It's the road" 
 
 " It is queer," said Rice with equal gravity ; " but 
 it's so. The road, sure ! " Nevertheless he looked 
 up into the large eyes of Clementina with a 
 certain confidential air of truthfulness. 
 
 " You see, ladies," continued the surveyor 
 appealing to them with unabashed rigidity of 
 feature, " the cards don't lie ! Luckily we are in 
 a position to corroborate them. The road in 
 question is a secret known only to us and some 
 capitalists in San Francisco. In fact even they 
 don't know that it is feasible until we report to 
 them. But I don't mind telling you now, as a 
 slight return for your charming hospitality, that 
 the road is a railroad from Oakland to Tasajara 
 Creek of which we've just made the preliminary 
 survey. So you see what the cards mean is this : 
 You're not far from Tasajara Creek ; in fact with 
 a, very little expense your father could connect 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 35 
 
 this stream with the creek, and have a waterway 
 straight to the railroad terminus. That's the 
 wealth the cards promise ; and if your father 
 knows how to take a hint he can make his 
 fortune ! " 
 
 It was impossible to say which was the most 
 dominant in the face of the speaker, the ex 
 pression of assumed gravity or the twinkling of 
 humour in his eyes. The two girls with superior 
 feminine perception divined that there was much 
 truth in what he said, albeit they didn't entirely 
 understand it, and what they did understand 
 except the man's good-humoured motive was not 
 particularly interesting. In fact they were 
 slightly disappointed. What had promised to be 
 an audaciously flirtatious declaration, and even a 
 mischievous suggestion of marriage, had resolved 
 itself into something absurdly practical and 
 business-like. 
 
 No so Mr. Harkutt. He quickly rose from his 
 chair, and leaning over the table, with his eyes 
 fixed on the card as if it really signified the rail 
 road, repeated quickly : " Railroad, eh ! What's 
 that ? A railroad to Tasajara Creek ? Ye don't 
 mean it ! That is it ain't a sure thing ? " 
 
 "Perfectly sure. The money is ready in San 
 Francisco now, and by this time next year 
 
 " A railroad to Tasajara Creek ! " continued 
 Harkutt hurriedly. " What part of it ? Where ? " 
 
 " At * the embarcadero naturally," responded 
 
 D 2 
 
36 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Grant. " There isn't but the one place for the 
 terminus. There's an old shanty there now 
 belongs to somebody." 
 
 "Why, pop!" said Phemie with sudden re 
 collection, " ain't it 'Lige Curtis's house ? The 
 land he offered " 
 
 " Hush ! " said her father. 
 
 " You know the one written in that bit of 
 paper," continued the innocent Phemie. 
 
 " Hush ! will you ? God A'mighty ! are you 
 goin' to mind me ? Are you goin' to keep up 
 your jabber when I'm speakin' to the gentle 
 men ? Is that your manners ? What next, I 
 wonder ! " 
 
 The sudden and unexpected passion of the 
 speaker, the incomprehensible change in his 
 voice, and the utterly disproportionate exaggera 
 tion of his attitude towards his daughters, en 
 forced an instantaneous silence. The rain began 
 to drip audibly at the window, the rush of the 
 river sounded distinctly from without, even the 
 shaking of the front part of the dwelling by 
 the distant gale became perceptible. An angry 
 flash sprang for an instant to the young assist 
 ant's eye, but it met the cautious glance of his 
 friend, and together both discreetly sought the 
 table. The two girls alone remained white and 
 collected. " Will you go on with my fortune, 
 Mr. Grant ? " said Phemie quietly. 
 
 A certain respect, perhaps not before -observ- 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 37 
 
 able, was suggested in the surveyor's tone as he 
 smilingly replied, " Certainly, I was only waiting 
 for you to show your confidence in me," and 
 took up the cards. 
 
 Mr. Harkutt coughed. "It looks as if that 
 blamed wind had blown suthin' loose in the 
 store," he said affectedly. " I reckon I'll go and 
 see." He hesitated a moment and then dis 
 appeared in the passage. Yet even here he 
 stood irresolute, looking at the closed door 
 behind him, and passing his hand over his still 
 flushed face. Presently he slowly and abstract 
 edly ascended the flight of steps, entered the 
 smaller passage that led to the back door of 
 the shop and opened it. 
 
 He was at first a little startled at the halo 
 of light from the still glowing stove which the 
 greater obscurity of the long room had heightened 
 rather than diminished. Then he passed behind 
 the counter, but here the box of biscuits which 
 occupied the centre and cast a shadow over it, 
 compelled him to grope vaguely for what he 
 sought. Then he stopped suddenly, the paper 
 he had just found dropping from his fingers, 
 and said sharply: 
 
 " Who's there ? " 
 
 " Me, pop." 
 
 "John Milton?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " What the devil are you doin' there, sir ? " 
 
38 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Readin'." 
 
 Ifc was true. The boy was half reclining in 
 a most distorted posture on two chairs, his figure 
 in deep shadow, but his book was raised above 
 his head so as to catch the red glow of the stove 
 on the printed page. Even then his father's 
 angry interruption scarcely diverted his preoccu 
 pation ; he raised himself in his chair mechani 
 cally with his eyes still fixed on his book. Seeing 
 which his father quickly regained the paper, but 
 continued his objurgation. 
 
 " How dare you ? Clear off to bed, will you ! 
 Do you hear me ? Pretty goings on/' he added 
 as if to justify his indignation. " Sneakin' in 
 here and lyin' 'round at this time o' night ! 
 Why, if I hadn't come in here to " 
 
 " What ? " asked the boy mechanically, catching 
 vaguely at the unfinished sentence and staring 
 automatically at the paper in his father's hand. 
 
 " Nothin', sir ! Go to bed, I tell you ! Will 
 you ? What are you standin' gawpin' at ? " con 
 tinued Harkutt furiously. 
 
 The boy regained his feet slowly and passed 
 his father, but not without noticing with the 
 same listless yet ineffaceable perception of child 
 hood that he was hurriedly concealing the paper 
 in his pocket. With the same youthful inconse 
 quence, wondering at this more than at the 
 interruption, which was no novel event, he went 
 slowly out of the room. 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 39 
 
 Harkutt listened to the retreating tread of his 
 bare feet in the passage and then carefully locked 
 the door. Taking the paper from his pocket, and 
 borrowing the idea he had just objurgated in his 
 son, he turned it towards the dull glow of the 
 stove and attempted to read it. But perhaps 
 lacking the patience as well as the keener sight 
 of youth, he was forced to relight the candle 
 which he had left on the counter, and reperused 
 the paper. Yes ! there was certainly no mistake ! 
 Here was the actual description of the property 
 which the surveyor had just indicated as the 
 future terminus of the new railroad, and here it 
 was conveyed to him Daniel Harkutt ! What 
 was that ? Somebody knocking ! What did this 
 continual interruption mean ? An odd super 
 stitious fear now mingled with his irritation. 
 
 The sound appeared to come from the front 
 shutters. It suddenly occurred to him that the 
 light might be visible through the crevices. He 
 hurriedly extinguished it, and went to the door. 
 
 "Who's there?" 
 
 " Me Peters. Want to speak to you." 
 
 Mr. Harkutt with evident reluctance drew the 
 bolts. The wind, still boisterous and besieging, 
 did the rest, and precipitately propelled Peters 
 through the carefully guarded opening. But his 
 surprise at finding himself in the darkness 
 seemed to forestall any explanation of his visit. 
 "Well," he said with an odd mingling of 
 
40 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 reproach and suspicion. " I declare I saw a 
 light here just this minit ! That's queer." 
 
 "Yes, I put it out just now. I was goin' 
 away," replied Harkutt, with ill-disguised im 
 patience. 
 
 " What ! been here ever since ? " 
 
 " No/' said Harkutt curtly. 
 
 " Well, I want to speak to ye about 'Lige. 
 Seem' the candle shinin' through the chinks I 
 thought he might be still with ye. If he ain't, 
 it looks bad. Light up, can't ye ! I want to 
 show you something." 
 
 There was a peremptoriness in his tone that 
 struck Harkutt disagreeably, but observing that 
 he was carrying something in his hand, he 
 somewhat nervously re-lit the candle and faced 
 him. Peters had a hat in his hand. It was 
 'Lige's ! 
 
 " 'Bout an hour after we fellers left here," 
 said Peters, " I heard the rattlin' of hoofs on the 
 road, and then it seemed to stop just by my 
 house. I went out with a lantern, and, darn my 
 skin ! if there warn't 'Lige's hoss, the saddle 
 empty, and 'Lige nowhere ! I looked round and 
 called him but nothing were to be seen. 
 Thinkin 1 he might have slipped off tho' ez a 
 general rule drunken men don't, and he is a 
 good rider I followed down the road, lookin' for 
 him. I kept on follerin' it down to your run, 
 half a mile below/' 
 
TT A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 41 
 
 " But," began Harkutt, with a quick nervous 
 laugh, "you don't reckon that because of that 
 he" 
 
 " Hold on ! " said Peters, grimly producing a 
 revolver from his side pocket with the stock 
 and barrel clogged and streaked with mud. "I 
 found that, too and look ! one barrel discharged ! 
 And," he added hurriedly, as approaching a 
 climax, " look ye what I nat'rally took for wet 
 from the rain inside that hat was blood ! " 
 
 " Nonsense I " said Harkutt, putting the hat 
 aside with a new fastidiousness. "You don't 
 think" 
 
 " I think," said Peters, lowering his voice, " I 
 think, by God ! he's lin and done it ! " . 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " Sure ! Oh, it's all very well for Billings and 
 the rest of that conceited crowd to sneer and 
 sling their ideas of 'Lige gen'rally as they did 
 jess now here but I'd like 'em to see that." It 
 was difficult to tell if Mr. Peters's triumphant 
 delight in confuting his late companions' theories 
 had not even usurped in his mind the importance 
 of the news he brought as it had of any human 
 sympathy with it. 
 
 " Look here," returned Harkutt earnestly, yet 
 with a singularly cleared brow and a more 
 natural manner. ' " You ought to take them 
 things over to Squire Kerby's, right off, and 
 show 'em to him. You kin tell him how you 
 
42 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Jeft 'Lige here, and say that I can prove by my 
 daughter that he went away about ten minutes 
 after at least, not more than fifteen." Like all 
 unprofessional humanity, Mr. Harkutt had an 
 exaggerated conception of the majesty of unim 
 portant detail in the eye of the law. " I'd go with 
 you myself," he added quickly, " but I've got com 
 pany strangers here." 
 
 " How did he look when he left kinder wild ? " 
 suggested Peters. 
 
 Harkutt had begun to feel the prudence of 
 present reticence. " Well," he said, cautiously, 
 "you saw how he looked." 
 
 " You wasn't rough with him ? that might 
 have sent him off, you know," said Peters. 
 
 " No," said Harkutt, forgetting himself in a 
 quick indignation, " no, I not only treated him to 
 another drink, but gave him " he stopped sud 
 denly and awkwardly. 
 
 "Eh?" said Peters. 
 
 " Some good advice you know," said Harkutt 
 hastily. " But come, youTd better hurry over to 
 the squire's. You know you've made the dis 
 covery ; your evidence is important, and there's a 
 law that obliges you to give information at once." 
 
 The excitement of discovery, and the triumph 
 over his disputants, being spent, Peters, after the 
 Sidon fashion, evidently did not relish activity as 
 a duty. " You know," he said dubiously, " he 
 mightn't be dead, after all." 
 
n A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 43 
 
 Harkutt became a trifle distant. " You know 
 your own opinion of the thing," he replied after a 
 pause. " You've circumstantial evidence enough 
 to see the squire, and set others to work on it ; 
 and," he added significantly, " you've done your 
 share then, and can wipe your hands of it, eh ? " 
 
 " That's so," said Peters eagerly. " I'll just run 
 over to the squire." 
 
 lt And on account of the women folks, you 
 know, and the strangers here, I'll say nothin' 
 about it to-night," added Harkutt. 
 
 Peters nodded his head, and taking up the hat 
 of the unfortunate Elijah with a certain hesitation 
 as if he feared it had already lost its dramatic 
 intensity as a witness, disappeared into the storm 
 and darkness again. A lurking gust of wind 
 lying in ambush somewhere seemed to swoop 
 down on him as if to prevent further indecision 
 and whirl him away in the direction of the 
 justice's house ; and Mr. Harkutt shut the 
 door, bolted it, and walked aimlessly back to the 
 counter. 
 
 From a slow, deliberate and cautious man, he 
 seemed to have changed within an hour to an 
 irresolute and capricious one. He took the paper 
 from his pocket and, unlocking the money drawer 
 of his counter, folded into a small compass that 
 which now seemed to be the last testament of 
 Elijah Curtis, and placed it in a recess. Then he 
 went to the back door and paused, then returned, 
 
44 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 reopened the money drawer, took out the paper 
 and again buttoned it in his hip pocket, standing 
 by the stove and staring abstractedly at the dull 
 glow of the fire. He even went through the 
 mechanical process of raking down the ashes 
 solely to gain time and as an excuse for delaying 
 some other necessary action. 
 
 He was thinking what he should do. Had the 
 question of his right to retain and make use of 
 that paper been squarely offered to him an hour 
 ago, he would have, without doubt, decided that 
 he ought not to keep it. Even now, looking at it 
 as an abstract principle, he did not deceive him 
 self in the least. But Nature has the reprehensi 
 ble habit of not presenting these questions to us 
 squarely and fairly, and it is remarkable that in 
 most of our offending the abstract principle is 
 never the direct issue. Mr. Harkutt was con 
 scious of having been unwillingly led step by 
 step into a difficult, not to say dishonest, situa 
 tion, and against his own seeking. He had never 
 asked Elijah to sell him the property; he had 
 distinctly declined it ; it had even been forced 
 upon him as security for the pittance he so freely 
 gave him. This proved (to himself) that he him 
 self was honest ; it was only the circumstances 
 that were queer. Of course if Elijah had lived 
 he, Harkutt, might have tried to drive some 
 bargain with him before the news of the railroad 
 survey came out for that was only business. 
 
ir A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 45 
 
 But now that Elijah was dead, who would be 
 a penny the worse or better but himself if he 
 chose to consider the whole thing as a lucky 
 speculation, and his gift of five dollars as the price 
 he paid for it ? Nobody could think that he 
 had calculated upon 'Lige's suicide, any more 
 than that the property would become valuable. 
 In fact if it came to that, if 'Lige had really con 
 templated killing himself as a hopeless bankrupt 
 after taking Harkutt's money as a loan, it was a 
 swindle on his Harkutt's good-nature. He 
 worked himself into a rage, which he felt was in 
 nately virtuous, at this tyranny of cold principle 
 over his own warm-hearted instincts, but if it 
 came to the law, he'd stand by law and not 
 sentiment. He'd just let them by which he 
 vaguely meant the world, Tasajara, and possibly 
 his own conscience see that he wasn't a senti 
 mental fool, and he'd freeze on to that paper and 
 that property ! 
 
 Only he ought to have spoken out before. He 
 ought to have told the surveyor at once that he 
 owned the land. He ought to have said : " Why, 
 that's my land. I bought it of that drunken 
 'Lige Curtis for a song and out of charity." Yes, 
 that was the only real trouble, and that came 
 from his own goodness, his own extravagant sense 
 of justice and right his own cursed good-nature. 
 Yet, on second thoughts, he didn't know why he 
 was obliged to tell the surveyor. Time enough 
 
46 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 when the company wanted to buy the land. As 
 soon as it was settled that 'Lige was dead he'd 
 openly claim the property. But what if he 
 wasn't dead ? or they couldn't find his body ? or 
 he had only disappeared ? His plain, matter-of 
 fact face contracted and darkened. Of course 
 he couldn't ask the company to wait for him to 
 settle that point. He had the power to dispose 
 of the property under that paper, and he should 
 do it. If 'Lige turned up that was another mat 
 ter, and he and 'Lige could arrange it between 
 them. He was quite firm here, and oddly enough 
 quite relieved in getting rid of what appeared 
 only a simple question of detail. He never sus 
 pected that he was contemplating the one ir 
 retrievable step, and summarily dismissing the 
 whole ethical question. 
 
 He turned away from the stove, opened the 
 back door, and walked with a more determined 
 step through the passage to the sitting-room. 
 But here he halted again on the threshold with 
 a quick return of his old habits of caution. The 
 door was slightly open ; apparently his angry out 
 break of an hour ago had not affected the spirits 
 of his daughters, for he could hear their hilarious 
 voices mingling with those of the strangers. 
 They were evidently still fortune-telling, but this 
 time it was the prophetic and divining accents 
 of Mr. Rice addressed to Clementina which were 
 now plainly audible. 
 
ii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 47 
 
 " I see heaps of money and a great many 
 friends in the change that is coming to you. 
 Dear me ! how many suitors ! But I cannot pro 
 mise you any marriage as brilliant as my friend 
 has just offered your sister. You may be certain, 
 however, that you'll have your own choice in this, 
 as you have in all things." 
 
 " Thank you for nothing," said Clementina's 
 voice. " But what are those horrid black cards 
 beside them ? that's trouble, I'm sure." 
 
 " Not for you, though near you. Perhaps some 
 one you don't care much for and don't under 
 stand will have a heap of trouble on your account 
 yes, on account of these very riches ; see, he 
 follows the ten of diamonds. It may be a suitor 
 it may be some one now in the house 
 perhaps." 
 
 " He means himself, Miss Clementina," struck 
 in Grant's voice laughingly. 
 
 " You're not listening, Miss Harkutt," said Eice 
 with half serious reproach. " Perhaps you know 
 who it is ? " 
 
 But Miss Clementina's reply was simply a 
 hurried recognition of her father's pale face 
 that here suddenly confronted her with the open 
 ing door. 
 
 " Why, it's Father ! " 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 IN his strange mental condition even the 
 change from Harkutt's feeble candle to the 
 outer darkness for a moment blinded Elijah 
 Curtis, yet it was part of that mental condi 
 tion that he kept moving steadily forward as 
 in a trance or dream, though at first purpose 
 lessly. Then it occurred to him that he was 
 really looking for his horse, and that the animal 
 was not there. This for a moment confused and 
 frightened him, first with the supposition that 
 he had not brought him at all, but that it was 
 part of his delusion ; secondly, with the con 
 viction that without his horse he could neither 
 proceed on the course suggested by Harkutt, 
 nor take another more vague one that was dimly 
 in his mind. Yet in his hopeless vacillation 
 it seemed a relief that now neither was prac 
 ticable, and that he need do nothing. Perhaps 
 it was a mysterious Providence ! 
 
 The explanation, however, was much simpler. 
 
CH. in A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 49 
 
 The horse had been taken by the luxurious 
 and indolent Billings unknown to his companions. 
 Overcome at the dreadful prospect of walking 
 home in that weather, this perfect product of 
 lethargic Sidon had artfully allowed Peters and 
 Wingate to precede him, and, cautiously un 
 loosing the tethered animal, had safely passed 
 them in the darkness. When he gained his 
 own enclosure he had lazily dismounted, and, 
 with a sharp cut on the mustang's haunches, 
 sent him galloping back to rejoin his master, 
 with what result has been already told by the 
 unsuspecting Peters in the preceding chapter. 
 
 Yet no conception of this possibility entered 
 Lige Curtis's alcoholized consciousness, part of 
 whose morbid phantasy it was to distort or 
 exaggerate all natural phenomena. He had a 
 vague idea that he could not go back to Har- 
 kutt's ; already his visit seemed to have happened 
 long, long ago, and could not be repeated. He 
 would walk on, enwrapped in this uncompromising 
 darkness which concealed everything, suggested 
 everything, and was responsible for everything. 
 
 It was very dark, for the wind, having lulled, 
 no longer thinned the veil of clouds above, nor 
 dissipated a steaming mist that appeared to rise 
 from the sodden plain. Yet he moved easily 
 through the darkness, seeming to be upheld by 
 it as something tangible, upon which he might 
 lean. At times he thought he heard voices 
 
50 A FIBST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 not a particular voice he was thinking of, but 
 strange voices of course unreal to his present 
 fancy. And then he heard one of these voices, 
 unlike any voice in Sidon, and very faint and 
 far off, asking if it " was anywhere near Sidon ? " 
 evidently some one lost like himself. He 
 answered in a voice that seemed quite as unreal 
 and as faint, and turned in the direction from 
 which it came. There was a light moving like 
 a will-o'-the-wisp far before him, yet below him 
 as if coming out of the depths of the earth. 
 It must be fancy, but he would see ah ! 
 
 He had fallen violently forward, and at the same 
 moment felt his revolver leap from his breast 
 pocket like a living thing, and an instant after 
 explode upon the rock where it struck, blindingly 
 illuminating the declivity down which he was 
 plunging. The sulphurous sting of burning pow 
 der was in his eyes and nose, yet in that swift 
 revealing flash he had time to clutch the stems 
 or a trailing vine beside him, but not to save 
 his head from sharp contact with the same rocky 
 ledge that had caught his pistol. The pain and 
 shock gave way to a sickening sense of warmth 
 at the roots of his hair. Giddy and faint his 
 fingers relaxed, he felt himself sinking, with a 
 languor that was half acquiescence, down, down, 
 until, with another shock, a wild gasping for air, 
 and a swift reaction, he awoke in the cold rush 
 ing water I 
 
in A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 51 
 
 Clear and perfectly conscious now, though 
 frantically fighting for existence with the current, 
 he could dimly see a floating black object shoot 
 ing by the shore, at times striking the projections 
 of the bank, until in its recoil it swung half 
 round and drifted broadside on towards him. 
 He was near enough to catch the frayed ends 
 of a trailing rope that fastened the structure 
 which seemed to be a few logs together. With 
 a convulsive effort he at last gained a footing 
 upon it, and then fell fainting along its length. 
 It was the raft which the surveyors from the 
 embarcadero had just abandoned. 
 
 He did not know this, nor would he have 
 thought it otherwise strange that a raft might 
 be part of the drift of the overflow, even had 
 he been entirely conscious, but his senses were 
 failing, although he was still able to keep a 
 secure position on the raft, and to vaguely be 
 lieve that it would carry him to some relief and 
 succour. How long he lay unconscious he never 
 knew ; in his after recollections of that night, 
 it seemed to have been haunted by dreams of 
 passing dim banks and strange places ; of a face 
 and voice that had been pleasant to him; of a 
 terror coming upon him as he appeared to be 
 nearing a place like that home that he had aban 
 doned in the lonely tides. He was roused at 
 last by a violent headache, as if his soft felt ha,t 
 had been changed into a tightening crown of 
 
 E 2 
 
52 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 iron. Lifting his hand to his head to tear off its 
 covering, he was surprised to find that he was 
 wearing no hat, but that his matted hair, stiff 
 ened and dried with blood and ooze, was clinging 
 like a cap to his skull in the hot morning 
 sunlight. His eyelids and lashes were glued 
 together and weighted down by the same san 
 guinary plaster. He crawled to the edge of his 
 frail raft, not without difficulty, for it oscillated 
 and rocked strangely, and dipped his hand in 
 the current. When he had cleared his eyes he 
 lifted them with a shock of amazement. Creek, 
 banks, and plain had disappeared ; he was alone 
 on a bend of the tossing bay of San Francisco ! 
 His first and only sense cleared by fasting 
 and quickened by reaction was one of infinite 
 relief. He was not only free from the vague 
 terrors of the preceding days and nights, but his 
 whole past seemed to be lost and sunk for ever 
 in this illimitable expanse. The low plain of 
 Tasajara, with its steadfast monotony of light 
 and shadow, had sunk beneath another level, 
 but one that glistened, sparkled, was instinct 
 with varying life, and moved and even danced 
 below him. The low palisades of regularly re 
 curring tides that had fenced in, impeded, but 
 never relieved the blankness of his horizon, were 
 for ever swallowed up behind him. All trail of 
 past degradation, all record of pain and suffer 
 ing, all footprints of his wandering and mis- 
 
in A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 53 
 
 guided feet were smoothly wiped out in that 
 obliterating sea. He was physically helpless, 
 and he felt it ; he was in danger, and he knew 
 it but he was free ! 
 
 Haply there was but little wind and the sea 
 was slight. The raft was still intact so far as 
 he could judge, but even in his ignorance he 
 knew it would scarcely stand the surges of the 
 lower bay. Like most Californians who had 
 passed the straits of Carquinez at night in a 
 steamer, he did not recognize the locality, nor 
 even the distant peak of Tamalpais. There were 
 a few dotting sails that seemed as remote, as un 
 certain, and as unfriendly as sea-birds. The raft 
 was motionless, almost as motionless as he was 
 in his cramped limbs and sun-dried, stiffened 
 clothes. Too weak to keep an upright position, 
 without mast, stick, or oar to lift a signal above 
 that vast expanse, it seemed impossible for him 
 to attract attention. Even his pistol was gone. 
 
 Suddenly, in an attempt to raise himself, he 
 was struck by a flash so blinding that it seemed 
 to pierce his aching eyes and brain and turned 
 him sick. It appeared to come from a crevice 
 between the logs at the further end of the raft. 
 Creeping painfully towards it he saw that it 
 was a triangular slip of highly polished metal 
 that he had hitherto overlooked. He did not 
 know that it was a " flashing " mirror used in 
 topographical observation, which had slipped 
 
54 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 from the surveyors' instruments when they 
 abandoned the raft, but his excited faculties in 
 stinctively detected its value to him. He lifted 
 it, and, facing the sun, raised it at different 
 angles with his feeble arms. But the effort 
 was too much for him ; the raft presently seemed 
 to be whirling with his movement, and he again 
 fell. 
 
 " Ahoy there ! " 
 
 The voice was close upon in his very ears. 
 He opened his eyes. The sea still stretched 
 emptily before him ; the dotting sails still 
 unchanged and distant. Yet a strange shadow 
 lay upon the raft. He turned his head with 
 difficulty. On the opposite side so close upon 
 him as to be almost over his head, the great 
 white sails of a schooner hovered above him like 
 the wings of some enormous sea-bird. Then a 
 heavy boom swung across the raft, so low that 
 it would have swept him away had he been in an 
 upright position ; the sides of the vessel grazed 
 the raft and she fell slowly off. A terrible fear 
 of abandonment took possession of him, he tried 
 to speak, but could not. The vessel moved 
 further away, but the raft followed ! He could 
 see now it was being held by a boat-hook 
 could see the odd, eager curiosity on two faces 
 that were raised above the taffrail, and with 
 
in A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 55 
 
 that sense of relief his eyes again closed in 
 unconsciousness. 
 
 A feeling of chilliness, followed by a grateful 
 sensation of drawing closer under some warm 
 covering, a stinging taste in his mouth of fiery 
 liquor and the aromatic steam of hot coffee, were 
 his first returning sensations. His head and 
 neck were swathed in coarse bandages, and his 
 skin stiffened and smarting with soap. He was 
 lying in a rude berth under a half deck from 
 which he could see the sky and the bellying 
 sail, and presently a bearded face filled with 
 rough and practical concern that peered down 
 upon him. 
 
 " Halloo ! coming round, eh ? Hold on ! " 
 
 The next moment the stranger had leaped 
 down beside Elijah. He seemed to be an odd 
 mingling of the sailor and ranchero with the 
 shrewdness of a seaport trader. 
 
 " Hullo, boss ! What was it ? A free fight, 
 or a wash out ? " 
 
 " A wash out ! " 1 Elijah grasped the idea 
 as an inspiration. Yes, his cabin had been 
 inundated, he had taken to a raft, had been 
 knocked off twice or thrice, and had lost every 
 thing even his revolver. 
 
 The man looked relieved. " Then it ain't 
 
 1 A mining term for the temporary inundation of a 
 claim by flood ; also used for the sterilizing effect of flood 
 on fertile soil. 
 
56 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA -CHAP. 
 
 a free fight, nor havin' your crust busted and 
 bein' robbed by beach combers, eh ? " 
 
 " No/' said Elijah with his first faint smile. 
 
 " Glad o' that," said the man bluntly. " Then 
 thar ain't no police business to tie up to in 
 'Frisco ? We were stuck thar a week once just 
 because we chanced to pick up a feller who'd 
 been found gagged and then thrown overboard 
 by wharf thieves. Had to dance attendance at 
 court thar and lost our trip." He stopped and 
 looked half-pathetically at the prostrate Elijah. 
 " Look yer ! ye ain't just dyin' to go ashore now 
 and see yer friends and send messages, are ye ? " 
 
 Elijah shuddered inwardly, but outwardly 
 smiled faintly as he replied, " No ! " 
 
 " And the tide and wind jest servin' us now, 
 ye wouldn't mind keepin' straight on with us 
 this trip ? " 
 
 " Where to ? " asked Elijah. 
 
 " Santy Barbara." 
 
 " No," said Elijah, after a moment's pause. 
 " I'll go with you." 
 
 The man leaped to his feet, lifted his head 
 above the upper deck, shouted " Let her go free, 
 Jerry ! " and then turned gratefully to his 
 passenger. " Look yer ! A wash out is a wash 
 out, I reckon, put it any way you like ; it don't 
 put anything back into the land, or anything 
 back into your pocket afterwards, eh ? No ! 
 And yer well out of it, pardner ! Now there's a 
 
in A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 57 
 
 right smart chance for locatin' jest back of Santy 
 Barbara, where thar ain't no God-forsaken tides 
 to overflow ; and ez far as the land and licker lies 
 ye ' needn't take any water in yours ' ef ye don't 
 want it. You kin start fresh thar, pardner, and 
 brail up. What's the matter with you, old man, 
 is only fever 'n' agur ketched in them tides? 
 I kin see it in your eyes. Now you hold on whar 
 you be till I go forrard and see everything 
 taut, and then I'll come back and we'll have a 
 talk." 
 
 And they did. The result of which was that 
 at the end of a week's tossing and sea-sickness, 
 Elijah Curtis was landed at Santa Barbara, pale, 
 thin, but self-contained and resolute. And 
 having found favour in the eyes of the skipper 
 of the Kitty Hawk, general trader, lumber 
 dealer, and ranchman, a week later he was 
 located on the skipper's land and installed in 
 the skipper's service. And from that day, 
 for five years, Sidon and Tasajara knew him 
 no more. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT was part of the functions of John Milton 
 Harkutt to take down the early morning shut 
 ters and sweep out the store for his father each 
 day before going to school. It was a peculiarity 
 of this performance that he was apt to linger 
 over it, partly from the fact that it put off the 
 evil hour of lessons, partly that he imparted 
 into the process a purely imaginative and ro 
 mantic element gathered from his latest novel- 
 reading. In this he was usually assisted by one 
 or two schoolfellows on their way to school, who 
 always envied him his superior menial occupa 
 tion. To go to school, it was felt, was a common 
 calamity of boyhood that called into play only 
 the simplest forms of evasion, whereas to take 
 down actual shutters in a bond fide store, and 
 wield a real broom that raised a palpable cloud 
 of dust, was something that really taxed the 
 noblest exertions. And it was the morning after 
 the arrival of the strangers that John Milton 
 
CH. iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 59 
 
 stood on the verandah of the store ostentatiously 
 examining the horizon, with his hand shading 
 his eyes, as one of his companions appeared. 
 
 " Hollo, Milt ! wot yer doin' ? " 
 
 John Milton started dramatically, and then 
 violently dashed at one of the shutters and 
 began to detach it. " Ha ! " he said hoarsely. 
 " Clear the ship for action ! Open the ports ! 
 On deck there ! Steady, you lubbers ! " In an 
 instant his enthusiastic schoolfellow was at his 
 side attacking another shutter. " A long, low 
 schooner bearing down upon us ! Lively, lads, 
 lively!" continued John Milton, desisting a mo 
 ment to take another dramatic look at the 
 distant plain. " How does she head now ? " he 
 demanded fiercely. 
 
 " Sou' by sou'-east, sir," responded the other 
 boy, frantically danping before the window. 
 "But she'll weather it." 
 
 They then each wrested another shutter away, 
 violently depositing them, as they ran to and 
 fro, in a rack at the corner of the verandah. 
 Added to an extraordinary and unnecessary clat 
 tering with their feet, they accompanied their 
 movements with a singular hissing sound, sup 
 posed to indicate in one breath the fury of the 
 elements, the bustle of the eager crew, and the 
 wild excitement of the coming conflict. When 
 the last shutter was cleared away, John Milton, 
 with the cry " Man the starboard guns ! " dashed 
 
60 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 into the store, whose floor was marked by the 
 muddy footprints of yesterday's buyers, seized a 
 broom and began to sweep violently. A cloud 
 of dust arose, into which his companion at once 
 precipitated himself with another broom and a 
 loud 'bang! to indicate the somewhat belated 
 sound of cannon. For a few seconds the two 
 boys plied their brooms desperately in that 
 stifling atmosphere, accompanying each long 
 sweep and puff of dust out of the open door 
 with the report of explosions and loud ha I s of 
 defiance, until not only the store, but the 
 verandah were obscured with a cloud which the 
 morning sun struggled vainly to pierce. In the 
 midst of this tumult and dusty confusion hap 
 pily unheard and unsuspected in the secluded 
 domestic interior of the building a shrill little 
 voice arose from the road. 
 
 " Think you're mighty smart, don't ye ? " 
 The two naval heroes stopped in their imagi 
 nary fury, and, as the dust of conflict cleared 
 away, recognized little Johnny Peters gazing at 
 them with mingled -inquisitiveness and envy. 
 
 "Guess ye don't know what happened down 
 the run last night," he continued impatiently. 
 "Lige Curtis got killed, or killed hisself ! Blood 
 all over the rock down thar. Seed, it mysefT. 
 Dad picked up his six-shooter one barrel gone 
 off. My dad was the first to find it out, and 
 he's bin to Squire Kerby tellin' him." 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 61 
 
 The two companions, albeit burning with curi 
 osity, affected indifference and pre-knowledge. 
 
 " Dad sez your father druv Lige outer the 
 store lass night ! Dad sez your father's 'spon- 
 sible. Dad sez your father ez good ez killed 
 him. Dad sez the squire 11 set the constable 
 on your father. Yah ! " But here the small 
 insulter incontinently fled, pursued by both the 
 bovs. Nevertheless, when he had made good 
 his escape, John Milton showed neither a dis 
 position to take up his former nautical role, nor 
 to follow his companion to visit the sanguinary 
 scene of Elijah's disappearance. He walked 
 slowly back to the store and continued his 
 work of sweeping and putting in order with an 
 abstracted regularity, and no trace of his former 
 exuberant spirits. 
 
 The first one of those instinctive fears which 
 are common to imaginative children, and often 
 assume the functions of premonition, had taken 
 possession of him. The oddity of his father's 
 manner the evening before, which had only half 
 consciously made its indelible impression on his 
 sensitive fancy, had recurred to him with Johnny 
 Peters's speech. He had no idea of literally ac 
 cepting the boy's charges : he scarcely under 
 stood their gravity ; but he had a miserable 
 feeling that his father's anger and excitement 
 last night was because he had been discovered 
 hunting in the dark for that paper of Lige 
 
62 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Curtis's. It was Lige Curtis's paper, for he had 
 seen it lying there. A sudden dreadful con 
 viction came over him that he must never, 
 never let any one know that he had seen his 
 father take up that paper; that he must never 
 admit it, even to him. It was not the boy's 
 first knowledge of that attitude of hypocrisy 
 which the grown-up world assumes towards 
 childhood, and in which the innocent victims 
 eventually acquiesce with a Machiavellian sub 
 tlety that at last avenges them, but it was 
 his first knowledge that that hypocrisy might 
 not be so innocent. His father had concealed 
 something from him, because it was not right. 
 
 But if childhood does not forget, it seldom 
 broods and is not above being diverted. And 
 the two surveyors of whose heroic advent in 
 a raft John Milton had only heard that morn 
 ing with their travelled ways, their strange 
 instruments and stranger talk, captured his 
 fancy. Kept in the background by his sisters 
 when visitors came, as an unpresentable feature 
 in the household, he however managed to linger 
 near the strangers when, in company with 
 Euphemia and Clementina, after breakfast they 
 strolled beneath the sparkling sunlight in the 
 rude garden enclosure along the sloping banks 
 of the creek. It was with the average brother's 
 supreme contempt that he listened to his sisters 
 " practisin' " upon the goodness of these superior 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 63 
 
 beings ; it was with an exceptional pity that he 
 regarded the evident admiration of the strangers 
 in return. He felt that in the case of Euphemia, 
 who sometimes evinced a laudable curiosity in 
 his pleasures, and a flattering ignorance of his 
 reading, this might be pardonable ; but what 
 any one could find in the useless statuesque 
 Clementina passed his comprehension. Could 
 they not see at once that she was "just that 
 kind of person" who would lie abed in the 
 morning, pretending she was sick, in order to 
 make Phemie do the house-work, and make 
 him, John Milton, clean her boots and fetch 
 things for her ? Was it not perfectly plain to 
 them that her present sickening politeness was 
 solely with a view to extract from them caramels, 
 rock candy and gum drops, which she would 
 meanly keep herself, and perhaps some "buggy- 
 riding" later? Alas! John Milton, it was not! 
 For standing there with her tall, perfectly pro 
 portioned figure outlined against a willow, an 
 elastic branch of which she had drawn down 
 by one curved arm above her head, and on 
 which she leaned as everybody leaned against 
 something in Sidon the two young men saw 
 only a straying goddess in a glorified rosebud 
 print. Whether the clearly cut profile pre 
 sented to Rice, or the full face that captivated 
 Grant, each suggested possibilities of position, 
 pride, poetry and passion that astonished while 
 
64 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 it fascinated them. By one of those instincts 
 known only to the freemasonry of the sex, 
 Euphemia lent herself to this advertisement of 
 her sister's charms by subtle comparison with 
 her own prettinesses, and thus combined against 
 their common enemy, man. 
 
 " Clementina, certainly, is perfect to keep her 
 supremacy over that pretty little sister," thought 
 Rice. 
 
 " What a fascinating little creature to hold 
 her own against that tall, handsome girl," 
 thought Grant. 
 
 " They're takin' stock o' them two fellers so 
 as to gabble about 'em when their backs is 
 turned," said John Milton, gloomily to himself, 
 with a dismal premonition of the prolonged tea- 
 table gossip he would be obliged to listen to later. 
 
 "We were very fortunate to make a landing 
 at all last night," said Rice, looking down upon 
 the still swollen current, and then raising his 
 eyes to Clementina. " Still more fortunate to 
 make it where we did. I suppose it must have 
 been the singing that lured us on to the bank 
 as, you know, the sirens used to lure people 
 only with less disastrous consequences." 
 
 John Milton here detected three glaring 
 errors ; first it was not Clementina who had 
 sung ; secondly, he knew that neither of his 
 sisters had ever read anything about sirens, but 
 he had ; thirdly, that the young surveyor was 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 65 
 
 glaringly ignorant of local phenomena and 
 should be corrected. 
 
 "It's nothin' but the current," he said with 
 that feverish youthful haste that betrays a 
 fatal experience of impending interruption. 
 "It's always leavin' drift and rubbish from 
 everywhere here. There ain't anythin' that's 
 chucked into the creek above that ain't bound 
 to fetch up on this bank. Why there was two 
 sheep and a dead hoss here long afore you 
 thought of coming ! " He did not understand 
 why this should provoke the laughter that it 
 did, and to prove that he had no ulterior 
 meaning, added with pointed politeness : " So 
 it isn't your fault, you know you couldn't help 
 it ; " supplementing this with the distinct cour 
 tesy, " Otherwise you wouldn't have come." 
 
 " But it would seems that your visitors are 
 not all as accidental as your brother would 
 imply, and one, at least, seems to have been 
 expected this evening. You remember you 
 thought we were a Mr. Parmlee," said Mr. Rice 
 looking at Clementina. 
 
 It would be strange indeed, he thought, if 
 the beautiful girl were not surrounded by ad 
 mirers. But without a trace of self-conscious 
 ness or any change in her reposeful face, she 
 indicated her sister with a slight gesture, and 
 said : " One of Phemie's friends. He gave her 
 the accordion. She's very popular." 
 
 p 
 
66 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " And I suppose you are very hard to please ? " 
 he said with a tentative smile. 
 
 She looked at him with her large, clear eyes, 
 and that absence of coquetry or changed expres 
 sion in her beautiful face which might have 
 stood for indifference or dignity as she said : 
 " I don't know. I am waiting to see." 
 
 But here Miss Phemie broke in saucily with 
 the assertion that Mr. Parmlee might not have 
 a railroad in his pocket, but that at least he 
 didn't have to wait for the Flood to call on 
 young ladies, nor did he usually come in pairs, 
 for all the world as if he had been let out of 
 Noah's Ark, but on horseback, and like a Christ 
 ian by the front door. All this provokingly 
 and bewitchingly delivered, however, and with a 
 simulated exaggeration that was incited ap 
 parently more by Mr. Lawrence Grant's evident 
 enjoyment of it, than by any desire to defend 
 the absent Parmlee. 
 
 " But where is the front door ? " asked Grant 
 laughingly. 
 
 The young girl pointed to a narrow, zig-zag 
 path that ran up the bank beside the house 
 until it stopped at a small picketed gate on 
 the level of the road and store. 
 
 " But I should think it would be easier to 
 have a door and private passage through the 
 store," said Grant. 
 
 " We don't," said the young lady pertly. 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 67 
 
 " We have nothing to do with the store. I go 
 in to see paw sometimes when he's shutting 
 up and there's nobody there, but Clem- has 
 never set foot in it since we came. It's bad 
 enough to have it, and the lazy loafers that 
 hang around it as near to us as they are ; but 
 paw built the house in such a fashion that we 
 ain't troubled by their noise, and we might be 
 t'other side of the creek as far as our having 
 to come across them. And because paw has to 
 sell pork and flour, we haven't any call to go 
 there and watch him do it." 
 
 The two men glanced at each other. This 
 reserve and fastidiousness were something rare 
 in a pioneer community. Harkutt's manners 
 certainly did not indicate that he was troubled 
 by this sensitiveness ; it must have been some in 
 dividual temperament of his daughters. Stephen 
 felt his respect increase for the goddess-like 
 Clementina ; Mr. Lawrence Grant looked at Miss 
 Phemie with a critical smile. 
 
 "But you must be very limited in your com 
 pany," he said ; " or is Mr. Parmlee not a cus 
 tomer of your father's ? " 
 
 " As Mr. Parmlee does not come to us through 
 the store, and don't talk trade to me, we don't 
 know," responded Phemie saucily. 
 
 " But have you no lady acquaintances neigh 
 bours who also avoid the store and enter only 
 at the straight and narrow gate up there ? " con- 
 
 F 2 
 
68 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 tinued Grant mischievously, regardless of the 
 uneasy, half-reproachful glances of Rice. 
 
 But Phemie, triumphantly oblivious of any 
 satire, answered promptly : " If you mean the 
 Pike County Billingses who live on the turn 
 pike road as much as they do off it, or the 
 six daughters of that Georgia Cracker who wear 
 men's boots and hats, we haven't." 
 
 " And Mr. Parmlee, your admirer ? " suggested 
 Rice. " Hasn't he a mother or sisters here ? " 
 
 " Yes, but they don't want to know us, and 
 have never called here." 
 
 The embarrassment of the questioner at this 
 unexpected reply, which came from, the faultless 
 lips of Clementina, was somewhat mitigated by 
 the fact that the young woman's voice and 
 manner betrayed neither annoyance nor anger. 
 
 Here, however, Harkutt appeared from the 
 house with the information that he had secured 
 two horses for the surveyors and their instru 
 ments, and that he would himself accompany 
 them a part of the way on their return to Tasa- 
 jara Creek, to show them the road. His usual 
 listless deliberation had given way to a certain 
 nervous but uneasy energy. If they started at 
 once it would be better, before the loungers 
 gathered at the store and confused them with 
 lazy counsel and languid curiosity. He took it 
 for granted that Mr. Grant wished the railroad 
 survey to be a secret, and he had said nothing, 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 69 
 
 as they would be pestered with questions. 
 " Sidon was inquisitive and old-fashioned." The 
 benefit its inhabitants would get from the rail 
 road would not prevent them from throwing 
 obstacles in its way at first ; he remembered the 
 way they had acted with a proposed wagon 
 road in fact, an idea of his own, something 
 like the railroad ; he knew them thoroughly, 
 and if he might advise them, it would be to 
 say nothing here until the thing was settled. 
 
 " He evidently does not intend to give us a 
 chance," said Grant good-humouredly to his 
 companion, as they turned to prepare for 
 their journey ; " we are to be conducted in 
 silence to the outskirts of the town like horse - 
 thieves." 
 
 " But you gave him the tip for himself," said 
 Rice reproachfully ; " you cannot blame him for 
 wanting to keep it." 
 
 " I gave it to him in trust for his two incredible 
 daughters," said Grant with a grimace. " But 
 hang it ! if I don't believe the fellow has more 
 concern in it than I imagined." 
 
 " But isn't she perfect ? " said Rice, with 
 charming abstraction. 
 
 Who ? " 
 
 " Clementina, and so unlike her father." 
 
 " Discomposingly so," said Grant quietly. 
 " One feels in calling her ' Miss Harkutt ' as 
 if one were touching upon a manifest indis- 
 
70 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 cretion. But here comes John Milton. Well, 
 my lad, what can I do for you ? " 
 
 The boy, who had been regarding them from a 
 distance with wistful and curious eyes as they 
 replaced their instruments for the journey, had 
 gradually approached them. After a moment's 
 timid hesitation he said, looking at Grant : " You 
 don't know anybody in this kind o' business," 
 pointing to the instruments, "who'd like a boy 
 about my size ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid not, J.M.," said Grant cheerfully, 
 without suspending his operation. " The fact is, 
 you see, it's not exactly the kind of work for a 
 boy of your size." 
 
 John Milton was silent for a moment, shifting 
 himself slowly from one leg to another as he 
 watched the surveyor. After a pause he said. 
 " There don't seem to be much show in this 
 world for boys o' my size. There don't seem to 
 be much use for 'em any way." This not bit- 
 teiiy, but philosophically, and even politely, as if 
 to relieve Grant's rejection of any incivility. 
 
 " Really you quite pain me, John Milton," said 
 Grant, looking up as he tightened a buckle. " I 
 never thought of it before, but you're right." 
 
 " Now," continued the boy slowly, " with girls 
 it's just different. Girls of my size everybody 
 does things for. There's Clemmy she's only two 
 years older nor me, and don't know half that I 
 do, and yet she kin lie about all day, and hasn't 
 
17 A FIKRT FAMILY OF TASAJARA 71 
 
 to get up to breakfast. And Phemie who's 
 jest the same age, size, and weight as me maw 
 and paw lets her do everything she wants to. 
 And so does everybody. And so would you." 
 
 " But you surely don't want to be like a girl ? " 
 said Grant, smiling. 
 
 It here occurred to John Milton's youthful but 
 not illogical mind that this was not argument, 
 and he turned disappointedly away. As his 
 father was to accompany the strangers a short 
 distance he, John Milton, was to-day left in 
 charge of the store. That duty, however, did not 
 involve any pecuniary transactions the taking of 
 money or making of change but a simple record 
 on a slate behind the counter of articles selected 
 by those customers whose urgent needs could not 
 wait Mr. Harkutt's return. Perhaps on account 
 of this degrading limitation, perhaps for other 
 reasons, the boy did not fancy the task imposed 
 upon him. The presence of the idle loungers 
 who usually occupied the arm-chairs near the 
 stove, and occasionally the counter, dissipated any 
 romance with which he might have invested his 
 charge ; he wearied of the monotony of their dull 
 gossip, but mostly he loathed the attitude of 
 hypercritical counsel and instruction which they 
 saw fit to assume towards him at such moments. 
 " Instead o' lazin' thar behind the counter when 
 your father ain't here to see ye, John," remarked 
 Billings from the depths of his arm-chair a few 
 
72 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 moments after Harkutt had ridden away, " ye 
 orter be bustlin' round, dustin' the shelves. Ye'll 
 never come to anythin' when you're a man ef you 
 go on like that. Ye never heard o' Harry Clay 
 that was called ' the Mill-Boy of the Slashes ' 
 sittin' down doin' nothin' when he was a boy." 
 
 " I never heard of him loafin' round in a 
 grocery store when he was growned up either," 
 responded John Milton darkly. 
 
 " P'raps you reckon he got to be a great man 
 by standin' up sassin' his father's customers," said 
 Peters angrily. " I kin tell ye, young man, if you 
 was my boy " 
 
 " If I was your boy, I'd be playin' hookey 
 instead of goin' to school, jest as your boy is doin' 
 now," interrupted John Milton, with a literal 
 recollection of his quarrel and pursuit of the 
 youth in question that morning. 
 
 An undignified silence on the part of the adults 
 followed, the usual sequel to those passages ; 
 Sidon generally declining to expose itself to 
 the youthful Harkutt's terrible accuracy of 
 statement. 
 
 The men resumed their previous lazy gossip 
 about Elijah Curtis's disappearance, with occa 
 sional mysterious allusions in a lower tone, which 
 the boy instinctively knew referred to his father, 
 but which either from indolence or caution the 
 two great conservators of Sidon were never 
 formulated distinctly enough for his relentless 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 73 
 
 interference. The morning sunshine was slowly 
 thickening again in an indolent mist that seemed 
 to rise from the saturated plain. A stray 
 lounger shuffled over from the blacksmith's shop 
 to the store to take the place of another idler 
 who had joined an equally lethargic circle around 
 the slumbering forge. A dull intermittent sound 
 of hammering came occasionally from the wheel 
 wright's shed at sufficiently protracted intervals 
 to indicate the enfeebled progress of Sidon's 
 vehicular repair. A yellow dog left his patch of 
 sunlight on the opposite side of the way and 
 walked deliberately over to what appeared to be 
 more luxurious quarters on the verandah ; was 
 manifestly disappointed but not equal to the 
 exertion of returning, and sank down with 
 blinking eyes and a regretful sigh without going 
 further. A procession of six ducks got well into 
 a line for a laborious "march past " the store, but 
 fell out at the first mud puddle and gave it up. 
 A highly nervous but respectable hen, who had 
 ventured upon the verandah evidently against 
 her better instincts, walked painfully on tip-toe 
 to the door, apparently was met by language 
 which no mother of a family could listen to, and 
 retired in strong hysterics. A little later the 
 sun became again obscured, the wind arose, rain 
 fell, and the opportunity for going indoors and 
 doing nothing was once more availed of by all 
 Sidon. 
 
74 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 It was afternoon when Mr. Harkutt returned. 
 He did not go into the store, but entered the 
 dwelling from the little picket-gate and steep 
 path. There he called a family council in the 
 sitting-room as being the most reserved and 
 secure. Mrs. Harkutt, sympathizing and cheer 
 fully ready for any affliction, still holding a dust- 
 cloth in her hand, took her seat by the window, 
 with Phemie breathless and sparkling at one side 
 of her, while Clementina, all faultless profile and 
 repose, sat on the other. To Mrs. Harkutt's 
 motherly concern at John Milton's absence, it was 
 pointed out that he was wanted at the store- 
 was a mere boy, anyhow, and could not be 
 trusted. Mr. Harkutt, a little ruddier from 
 weather, excitement, and the unusual fortification 
 of a glass of liquor, a little more rugged in the 
 lines of his face, and with an odd ring of defiant 
 self-assertion in his voice, stood before them in 
 the centre of the room. 
 
 He wanted them to listen to him carefully, to 
 remember what he said, for it was important ; 
 it might be a matter of " lawing " hereafter 
 and he couldn't be always repeating it to them 
 he would have enough to do. There was a 
 heap of it that, as womenfolks, they couldn't 
 understand, and weren't expected to. But he'd 
 got it all clear now, and what he was saying 
 was Gospel. He'd always known to himself 
 that the only good that could ever come to 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 75 
 
 Sidon would come by railroad. When those 
 fools talked wagon road he had said nothing, 
 but he had his own ideas ; he had worked for 
 that idea without saying anything to anybody ; 
 that idea was to get possession of all the land 
 along the embarcadero, which nobody cared for, 
 and Lige Curtis was ready to sell for a song. 
 Well, now, considering what had happened, he 
 didn't mind telling them that he had been 
 gradually getting possession of it, little by little, 
 paying Lige Curtis in advances and instalments, 
 until it was his own. They had heard what 
 those surveyors said ; how that it was the only 
 fit terminus for the railroad. Well, that land, 
 and that waterfront, and the terminus were his ! 
 And all from his own foresight and prudence. 
 
 It is needless to say that this was not the 
 truth. But it is necessary to point out that 
 this fabrication was the result of his last night's 
 cogitations and his morning's experience. He 
 had resolved upon a bold course. He had 
 reflected that his neighbours would be more 
 ready to believe in and to respect a hard, mer 
 cenary, and speculative foresight in his taking 
 advantage of Lige's necessities than if he had 
 as was the case merely benefited by them 
 through an accident of circumstance and good 
 humour. In the latter case he would be envied 
 and hated ; in the former he would be envied 
 and feared. By logic of circumstance the 
 
76 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASA.JARA CHAP. 
 
 greater wrong seemed to be less obviously 
 offensive than the minor fault. It was true that 
 it involved the doing of something he had not 
 contemplated, and the certainty of exposure if 
 Lige ever returned, but he was nevertheless 
 resolved. The step from passive to active wrong 
 doing is not only easy, it is often a relief; it is 
 that return to sincerity which we all require- 
 Howbeit, it gave that ring of assertion to Daniel 
 Harkutt's voice already noted, which most women 
 like, and only men are prone to suspect or 
 challenge. The incompleteness of his statement 
 was, for the same reason, overlooked by his 
 feminine auditors. 
 
 " And what is it worth, dad ? " asked Phemie 
 eagerly. 
 
 "Grant says I ougfyter get at least ten thou 
 sand dollars for the site of the terminus from 
 the company, but of course I shall hold on to 
 the rest of the land. The moment they get 
 the terminus there, and the depot and wharf 
 built, I can get my own price and buyers for 
 the rest. Before the year is out, Grant thinks 
 it ought to go up ten per cent, on the value of 
 the terminus, and that a hundred thousand." 
 
 " Oh, dad ! " gasped Phemie, frantically clasp 
 ing her knees with both hands as if to perfectly 
 assure herself of this good fortune. 
 
 Mrs. Harkutt audibly murmured, " Poor dear 
 Dan'll," and stood, as it were, sympathetically 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 77 
 
 by, ready to commiserate the pains and anxieties 
 of wealth as she had those of poverty. Clemen 
 tina alone remained silent, clear-eyed, and un 
 changed. 
 
 " And to think it all came through them ! " 
 continued Phemie. " I always had an idea that 
 Mr. Grant was smart, dad. And it was real kind 
 of him to tell you." 
 
 " I reckon father could have found it out 
 without them. I don't know why we should be 
 beholden to them particularly. I hope he isn't 
 expected to let them think that he is bound to 
 consider them our intimate friends just because 
 they happened to drop in here at a time when 
 his plans have succeeded." 
 
 The voice was Clementina's, unexpected but 
 quiet, unemotional and convincing. " It seemed," 
 as Mrs. Harkutt afterwards said, " as if the child 
 had already touched that hundred thousand." 
 Phemie reddened with a sense of convicted 
 youthful extravagance. 
 
 "You needn't fear for me," said Harkutt, 
 responding to Clementina's voice as if it were 
 an echo of his own, and instinctively recognizing 
 an unexpected ally. " I've got my own ideas of 
 this thing, and what's to come of it. I've got 
 my own ideas of openin' up that property and 
 showin' its resources. I'm goin' to run it my 
 own way. I'm goin' to have a town along the 
 embarcadero that'll lay over any town in Contra- 
 
78 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Costa. I'm goin' to have the court-house and 
 county seat there, and a couple of hotels as 
 good as any in the Bay. I'm goin' to build 
 that wagon road through here that those lazy 
 louts slipped up on, and carry it clear over to 
 Five Mile Corner, and open up the whole Tasa- 
 jara Plain ! " 
 
 They had never seen him look so strong, so 
 resolute, so intelligent and handsome. A dimly 
 prophetic vision of him in a black broadcloth 
 suit and gold watch-chain addressing a vague 
 multitude, as she remembered to have seen the 
 Hon. Stanley Riggs of Alasco at the " Great 
 Barbecue," rose before Phemie's blue enraptured 
 eyes. With the exception of Mrs. Harkutt, 
 equal to any possibilities on the part of her 
 husband, they had honestly never expected it of 
 him. They were pleased with their father's atti 
 tude in prosperity, and felt that perhaps he was 
 not unworthy of being proud of them hereafter. 
 
 " But we're goin' to leave Sidon," said Phemie, 
 " ain't we, paw ? " 
 
 " As soon as I can run up a new house at 
 the embarcadero" said Harkutt peevishly, " and 
 that's got to be done mighty quick if I want to 
 make a show to the company and be in posses 
 sion." 
 
 "And that's easier for you to do, dear, now 
 that Lige's disappeared," said Mrs. Harkutt, 
 consolingly. 
 
IV A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 79 
 
 "What do ye mean by that? What the 
 devil are ye talkin' about ? " demanded Harkutt 
 suddenly with unexpected exasperation. 
 
 " I mean that that drunken Lige would be 
 mighty poor company for the girls if he was our 
 only neighbour," remarked Mrs. Harkutt, sub 
 missively. 
 
 Harkutt, after a fixed survey of his wife, 
 appeared mollified. The two girls, who were 
 both mindful of his previous outburst the 
 evening before, exchanged glances which im 
 plied that his manners needed correction for 
 Prosperity. 
 
 " You'll want a heap o' money to build there, 
 Dan'l," said Mrs. Harkutt in plaintive diffidence. 
 
 " Yes ! Yes ! " said Harkutt impatiently. " I've 
 kalkilated all that, and I'm goin' to 'Frisco 
 to-morrow to raise it and put this bill of sale 
 on record." He half drew Elijah Curtis's paper 
 from his pocket but paused and put it back again. 
 
 " Then that was the paper, dad," said Phemie 
 triumphantly. 
 
 "Yes," said her father regarding her fixedly, 
 " and you know now why I didn't want anything 
 said about it last night nor even now." 
 
 " And Lige had just given it to you ! Wasn't 
 it lucky ? " 
 
 " He hadn't just given it to me ! " said her 
 father with another unexpected outburst. " God 
 Almighty ! ain't I tellin' you all the time it was 
 
80 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 an old matter ! But you jabber, jabber all the 
 time and don't listen ! Where's John Milton ? " 
 It had occurred to him that the boy might have 
 read the paper as his sister had while it lay 
 unheeded on the counter. 
 
 "In the store you know. You said he wasn't 
 to hear anything of this, but I'll call him," said 
 Mrs. Harkutt, rising eagerly. 
 
 " Never mind/' returned her husband, stopping 
 her reflectively, " best leave it as it is ; if it's 
 necessary I'll tell him. But don't any of you 
 say anything, do you hear ? " 
 
 Nevertheless a few hours later, when the store 
 was momentarily free of loungers, and Harkutt 
 had relieved "his son of his monotonous charge, 
 he made a pretence, while abstractedly listening 
 to an account of the boy's stewardship, to look 
 through a drawer as if in search of some missing 
 article. 
 
 " You didn't see anything of a paper I left 
 somewhere about here yesterday ? " he asked 
 carelessly. 
 
 " The one you picked up when you came in 
 last night ? " said the boy with discomposing 
 directness. 
 
 Harkutt flushed slightly and drew his breath 
 between his set teeth. Not only could he place 
 no reliance upon ordinary youthful inattention, 
 but he must be on his guard against his own 
 son as from a spy ! But he restrained himself. 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 81 
 
 " I don't remember," he said with affected 
 deliberation, l4 what it was I picked up. Do 
 you ? Did you read it ? " 
 
 The meaning of his father's attitude instinc 
 tively flashed upon the boy. He had read the 
 paper, but he answered, as he had already deter 
 mined, " No." 
 
 An inspiration seized Mr. Harkutt. He drew 
 Lige Curtis' s bill of sale from his pocket, and 
 opening it before John Milton said : " Was it 
 that ? " 
 
 "I don't know," said the boy. "I couldn't 
 tell." He walked away with affected careless 
 ness, already with a sense of playing some part 
 like his father and pretended to whistle for the 
 dog across the street. Harkutt coughed osten 
 tatiously, put the paper back in his pocket, set 
 one or two boxes straight on the counter, locked 
 the drawer and disappeared into the back pas 
 sage. John Milton remained standing in the 
 doorway looking vacantly out. But he did not 
 see the dull familiar prospect beyond. He only 
 saw the paper his father had opened and unfolded 
 before him. It was the same paper he had 
 read last night. But there were three words 
 written there that were not there before ! After 
 the words " Value received " there had been a 
 blank. He remembered that distinctly. This 
 was rilled in by the words : " Five hundred 
 dollars." The handwriting did not seem like 
 
 G 
 
82 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA * CHAP. 
 
 his father's, nor yet entirely like Lige Curtis's. 
 What it meant he did not know he would not 
 try to think. He should forget it, as he had 
 tried to forget what had happened before, and 
 he should never tell it to any one ! 
 
 There was a feverish gaiety in his sisters' 
 manner that afternoon that he did not under 
 stand ; short colloquies that were suspended 
 with ill-concealed impatience when he came 
 near them, and resumed when he was sent, on 
 equally palpable excuses, out of the room. He 
 had been accustomed to this exclusion, when 
 there were strangers present, but it seemed odd 
 to him now, when the conversation did not even 
 turn upon the two superior visitors who had been 
 there, and of whom he confidently expected they 
 would talk. Such fragments as he overheard 
 were always in the future tense, and referred to 
 what they intended to do. His mother, whose 
 affection for him had always been shown in ex 
 cessive and depressing commiseration of him 
 in even his lightest moments, that afternoon 
 seemed to add a prophetic and Cassandra-like 
 sympathy for some vague future of his that 
 would require all her ministration. " You won't 
 need them new boots, Milty dear, in the changes 
 that may be comin' to ye ; so don't be bothering 
 poor father in his worriments over his new plans." 
 
 " What new plans, mommer ? " asked the boy 
 abruptly. " Are we goin' away from here ? " 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 83 
 
 " Hush, dear, and don't ask questions that's 
 enough for grown folks to worry over, let alone 
 a boy like you. Now be good" a quality 
 in Mrs. Harkutt's mind synonymous with 
 ceasing from troubling " and after supper, 
 while I'm in the parlour with your father and 
 sisters, you kin sit up here by the fire with 
 your book." 
 
 " But," persisted the boy in a flash of in 
 spiration, " is popper goin' to join in business 
 with those surveyors a surveyin' ? ; ' 
 
 "No, child, what an idea! Run away there 
 and mind ! don't bother your father.'' 
 
 Nevertheless John Milton's inspiration had 
 taken a new and characteristic shape. All this, 
 he reflected, had happened since the surveyors 
 came since they had weakly displayed such a 
 shameless and unmanly interest in his sisters ! 
 It could have but one meaning. He hung 
 around the sitting-room and passages until he 
 eventually encountered Clementina, taller than 
 ever, evidently wearing a guilty satisfaction in 
 her face, engrafted upon that habitual bearing 
 of hers which he had always recognized as be 
 longing to a vague but objectionable race whose 
 members were individually known to him as " a 
 proudy." 
 
 " Which of those two surveyor fellows is it, 
 Clemmy ? " he said with an engaging smile, yet 
 halting at a strategic distance. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 "Is what?" 
 
 " Wot you're goin' to marry. ' 
 
 " Idiot ! " 
 
 "That ain't tellin' which/ responded the boy 
 darkly. 
 
 Clementina swept by him into the sitting- 
 room, where he heard her declare that " really 
 that boy was getting too low and vulgar for 
 anything." Yet it struck him that being pressed 
 for further explanation she did not specify why. 
 This was " girls' meanness ! " 
 
 Howbeit he lingered late in the road that 
 evening, hearing his father discuss with the 
 search-party that had followed the banks of the 
 creek, vainly looking for further traces of the 
 missing Lige, the possibility of his being living 
 or dead, of the body having been carried away 
 by the current to the bay, or turning up later 
 in some distant marsh when the spring came 
 with low water. One who had been to his 
 cabin beside the embarcadero, reported that it 
 was, as had been long suspected, barely habitable, 
 and contained neither books, papers, nor records 
 which would indicate his family or friends. It 
 was a God-forsaken, dreary, worthless place ; he 
 wondered how a white man could ever expect 
 to make a living there. If Elijah never turned 
 up again it certainly would be a long time before 
 any squatter would think of taking possession 
 of it. John Milton knew instinctively, without 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 85 
 
 looking up, that his father's eyes were fixed upon 
 him, and he felt himself constrained to appear 
 to be abstracted in gazing down the darkening 
 road. Then he heard his father say, with what 
 he felt was an equal assumption of carelessness : 
 " Yes, I reckon I've got somewhere a bill of 
 sale of that land that I had to take from Lige 
 for an old bill, but I kalkilate that's all I'll 
 ever see of it." 
 
 Eain fell 'again as the darkness gathered, but 
 he still loitered on the road and the sloping path 
 of the garden, filled with a half resentful sense 
 of wrong, and hugging with gloomy pride an 
 increasing sense of loneliness and of getting 
 dangerously wet. The swollen creek still whis 
 pered, murmured and swirled beside the bank. 
 At another time he might have had wild ideas 
 of emulating the surveyors on some extempore 
 raft and so escaping his present dreary home 
 existence; but since the disappearance of Lige, 
 who had always Excited an odd boyish antipathy 
 in his heart, although he had never seen him, 
 he shunned the stream contaminated with the 
 missing man's unheroic fate. Presently the 
 light from the open window of the sitting-room 
 glittered on the wet leaves and sprays where he 
 stood, and the voices of the family conclave came 
 fitfully to his ear. They didn't want him there. 
 They had never thought of asking him to come 
 in. Well ! who cared ? And he wasn't going 
 
86 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 to be bought off with a candle and a seat by 
 the kitchen fire. No ! 
 
 Nevertheless he was getting wet to no pur 
 pose. There was the tool-house and carpenter's 
 shed near the bank ; its floor was thickly covered 
 with sawdust and pine-wood shavings, and there 
 was a mouldy buffalo skin which he had once 
 transported thither from the old wagon bed. 
 There, too, was his secret cache of a candle in 
 a bottle, buried with other piratical treasures 
 in the presence of the youthful Peters, who con 
 sented to be sacrificed on the spot in buccaneering 
 fashion to complete the unhallowed rites. He 
 unearthed the candle, lit it, and clearing away a 
 part of the shavings stood it up on the floor. He 
 then brought a prized, battered, and coverless 
 volume from a hidden recess in the rafters, and 
 lying down with the buffalo robe over him, and 
 his cap in his hand ready to extinguish the light 
 at the first footstep of a trespasser, gave himself 
 up as he had given himself up, I fear, many 
 other times to the enchantment of the page 
 before him. 
 
 The current whispered, murmured, and sang 
 unheeded at his side. The voices of his mother 
 and sisters, raised at times in eagerness or ex 
 pectation of the future, fell upon his unlistening 
 ears. For with the spell that had come upon 
 him, the mean walls of his hiding place melted 
 away ; the vulgar stream beside him might have 
 
iv A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 8*1 
 
 been that dim, subterraneous river down which 
 Sinbad and his bale of riches were swept out 
 of the Cave of Death to the sunlight of life and 
 fortune, so surely and so simply had it trans 
 ported him beyond the cramped and darkened 
 limits of his present life. He was in the better 
 world of boyish romance of gallant deeds and 
 high emprises ; of miraculous atonement and 
 devoted sacrifice ; of brave men, and those rarer, 
 impossible women the immaculate conception of 
 a boy's virgin heart. What mattered it that be 
 hind that glittering window his mother and 
 sisters grew feverish and excited over the vulgar 
 details of their real but baser fortune ? From 
 the dark tool-shed by the muddy current John 
 Milton, with a battered dogs'- eared chronicle, 
 soared on the wings of fancy far beyond their 
 wildest ken ! 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PROSPEEITY had settled upon the plains of 
 Tasajara. Not only had the embarcadero emerged 
 from the tules of Tasajara Creek as a thriving 
 town of steamboat wharves, warehouses, and out 
 lying mills and factories, but in five years the 
 transforming railroad had penetrated the great 
 plain itself and revealed its undeveloped fertility. 
 The low-lying lands that had been yearly over 
 flowed by the creek, now, drained and cultivated, 
 yielded treasures of wheat and barley that were 
 apparently inexhaustible. Even the helpless in 
 dolence of Sidon had been surprised into activity 
 and change. There was nothing left of the strag 
 gling settlement to recall its former aspect. The 
 site of Harkutt's old store and dwelling was lost 
 and forgotten in the new mill and granary that 
 rose along the banks of the creek. Decay leaves 
 ruin and traces for the memory to linger over; 
 prosperity is unrelenting in its complete and 
 smiling obliteration of the past. 
 
OH. v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 89 
 
 But Tasajara City, as the embarcadero was now 
 called, had no previous record, and even the for 
 mer existence of an. actual settler like the forgot 
 ten Elijah Curtis was unknown to the present 
 inhabitants. It was Daniel Harkutt's idea carried 
 out in Daniel Harkutt's land, with Daniel Har 
 kutt's capital and energy. But Daniel Harkutt 
 had become Daniel Harcourt, and Harcourt 
 Avenue, Harcourt Square, and Harcourt House, 
 ostentatiously proclaimed the new spelling of his 
 patronymic. When the change was made, and 
 for what reason ; who suggested it, and under 
 what authority, were not easy to determine, as 
 the sign on his former store had borne nothing 
 but the legend, " Goods and Provisions" and his 
 name did not appear on written record until after 
 the occupation of Tasajara ; but it is presumed 
 that it was at the instigation of his daughters, 
 and there was no one to oppose it. Harcourt was 
 a pretty name for a street, a square, or a hotel ; 
 even the few in Sid on who had called it Harkutt 
 admitted that it was an improvement quite con 
 sistent with the change from the fever-haunted 
 tides and sedges of the creek to the broad, level, 
 and handsome squares of Tasajara City. 
 
 This might have been the opinion of a visitor 
 at the Harcourt House, who arrived one summer 
 afternoon from the Stockton boat, but whose 
 shrewd, half-critical, half-professional eyes and 
 quiet questionings betrayed some previous know- 
 
90 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 ledge of the locality. Seated on the broad 
 verandah of the Harcourt House, and gazing out 
 on the well-kept green and young eucalyptus 
 trees of the Harcourt Square or Plaza, he had 
 elicited a counter question from a prosperous- 
 looking citizen who had been lounging at his side. 
 
 " I reckon you look ez if you might have been 
 here before, stranger." 
 
 " Yes," said the stranger quietly, " I have been. 
 But it was when the tules grew in the square 
 opposite, and the tide of the creek washed 
 them." 
 
 " Well," said the Tasajaran, looking curiously 
 at the stranger, " I call myself a pioneer of 
 Tasajara. My name's Peters of Peters and Co. 
 and those warehouses along the wharf, where 
 you landed just now, are mine, but I was the first 
 settler on Harcourt' s land, and built the next 
 cabin after him. I helped to clear out them tides 
 and dredged the channels yonder. I took the 
 contract with Harcourt to build the last fifteen 
 miles o' railroad, and put up that depot for the 
 company. Perhaps you were here before that ? " 
 
 " I was," returned the stranger quietly. 
 
 " I say," said Peters, hitching his chair a little 
 nearer to his companion, " you never knew a kind 
 of broken down feller, called Curtis Lige Curtis 
 who once squatted here and sold his right to 
 Harkutt ? He disappeared it was allowed he 
 killed hisself, but they never found his body, and, 
 
v A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 91 
 
 between you and me, I never took stock in that 
 story. You know Harcourt holds under him, and 
 all Tasajara rests on that title." 
 
 " I've heard so/' assented the stranger care 
 lessly, "but I never knew the original settler. 
 Then Harcourt has been lucky ? " 
 
 " You bet. He's got three millions right about 
 here, or within this quarter section, to say nothing 
 of his outside speculations/' 
 
 '' And lives here ? " 
 
 '' Not for two years. That's his old house 
 across the plaza, but his women folks live mostly 
 in 'Frisco and New York, where he's got houses 
 too. They say they sorter got sick of Tasajara 
 after his youngest daughter ran off with a feller." 
 
 " Hallo ! " said the stranger with undisguised 
 interest. " I never heard of that ! You don't 
 mean that she eloped " he hesitated. 
 
 " Oh, it was a square enough marriage. I 
 reckon too square to suit some folks ; but the 
 fellow hadn't nothin', and wasn't worth shucks 
 a sort of land surveyor, doin' odd jobs, you know ; 
 and the old man and old woman were agin it, and 
 the tother daughter worse of all. It was allowed 
 here you know how women folks talk ! that the 
 surveyor had been sweet on Clementina, but had 
 got tired of being .played by her, and took up with 
 Phemie out o' spite. Anyhow, they got married, 
 and Harcourt gave them to understand they 
 couldn't expect anything from him. P'raps that's 
 
92 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 why it didn't last long, for only about two months 
 ago she got a divorce from Rice and came back 
 to her family again." 
 
 " Rice ? " queried the stranger, " was that her 
 husband's name, Stephen Rice ? " 
 " I reckon ! You knew him ? " 
 " Yes when the tide carne up to the tides, 
 yonder," answered the stranger musingly. " And 
 the other daughter I suppose she has made a good 
 match, being a beauty and the sole heiress ? " 
 
 The Tasajaran made a grimace. " Not much ! 
 I reckon she's waitin' for the Angel Gabriel 
 there ain't another good enough to suit her here. 
 They say she's had most of the big men in 
 California waitin' in a line with their offers, like 
 that cue the fellows used to make at the 'Frisco 
 Post Office, steamer days and she with nary a 
 letter or answer for any of them." 
 
 " Then Harcourt doesn't seem to have been as 
 fortunate in his family affairs as in his 
 speculations ? " 
 
 Peters uttered a grim laugh. " Well, I reckon 
 you know all about his son's stampeding with that 
 girl last spring ? " 
 
 " His son ? " interrupted the stranger. " Do 
 you mean the boy they called John Milton ? 
 Why, he was a mere child ! " 
 
 " He was old enough to run away with a young 
 woman that helped in his mother's house, and 
 marry her afore a Justice of the Peace, The old man 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 93 
 
 just snorted with rage, and swore he'd have the 
 marriage put aside, for the boy was under age. 
 He said it was a put-up job of the girl's ; that she 
 was older by two years, and only wanted to get 
 what money might be coming some day, but that 
 they'd never see a red cent of it. Then, they say, 
 John Milton up and sassed the old man to his face, 
 and allowed that he wouldn't take his dirty money if 
 he starved first, and that if the old man broke the 
 marriage he'd marry her again next year ; that true 
 love and honourable poverty were better nor riches, 
 and a lot more o' that stuff he picked out o' them 
 ten cent novels he was allus reading. My woman 
 folks say that he actually liked the girl, because 
 she was the only one in the house that was ever 
 kind to him ; they say the girls were just raging 
 mad at the idea o' havin' a hired gal who had 
 waited on 'em as a sister-in-law, and they even 
 got old Mammy Harcourt's back up by sayin' that 
 John's wife would want to rule the house, and run 
 her out of her own kitchen. Some say he shook 
 them, talked back to 'em mighty sharp, and 
 held his head a heap higher nor them. Anyhow, 
 he's livin' with his wife somewhere in 'Frisco, in a 
 shanty on a sand lot, and workin' odd jobs for the 
 newspapers. No ! takin' it by and large it don't 
 look as if Harcourt had run his family to the same 
 advantage that he has his land." 
 
 " Perhaps he doesn't understand them as well," 
 said the stranger smiling. 
 
94 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Mor'n likely the material ain't thar, or ain't as 
 vallyble for a new country/' said Peters grimly. 
 " I reckon the trouble is that he lets them two 
 daughters run him, and the man who lets any 
 woman or women do that, let's himself in for all 
 their meannesses, and all he gets in return is a 
 woman's result show ! " 
 
 Here the stranger, who was slowly rising 
 from his chair with the polite suggestion of 
 reluctantly tearing himself from the speaker's 
 spell, said : " And Harcourt spends most of his 
 time in San Francisco, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes ! but to-day he's here to attend a 
 directors' meeting and the opening of the Free 
 Library and Tasajara Hall. I saw the windows 
 open, and the blinds up in his house across the 
 plaza as I passed just now." 
 
 The stranger had by this time quite effected his 
 courteous withdrawal. " Good afternoon, Mr. 
 Peters," he said, smilingly lifting his hat, and 
 turned away. 
 
 Peters, who was obliged to take his legs off the 
 chair, and half rise to the stranger's politeness, 
 here reflected that he did not know his inter 
 locutor's name and business, and that he had 
 really got nothing in return for his information. 
 This must be remedied. As the stranger passed 
 through the hall into the street, followed by the 
 unwonted civilities of the spruce hotel clerk and 
 the obsequious attentions of the negro porter, 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 95 
 
 Peters stepped to the window of the office. 
 " Who was that man who just passed out ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 The clerk stared in undisguised astonishment. 
 " You don't mean to say you didn't know who he 
 was all the while you were talking to him ? " 
 
 "No," returned Peters, impatiently. 
 
 " Why, that was Professor Lawrence Grant ! 
 the Lawrence Grant don't you know ? the 
 biggest scientific man and recognized expert on 
 the Pacific slope. Why, that's the man whose 
 single word is enough to make or break the 
 biggest mine or claim going ! That man ! why, 
 that's the man whose opinion's worth thousands, 
 for it carries millions with it and can't be bought. 
 That's him who knocked the bottom out-er El 
 Dorado last year, and next day sent Eureka up 
 booming ! Ye remember that, sure ? " 
 
 " Of course but " stammered Peters. 
 
 ' : And to think you didn't know him ! " repeated 
 the hotel clerk wonderingly. " And here / was 
 reckoning you were getting points from him all 
 the time ! Why, some men would have given a 
 thousand dollars for your chance of talking to him 
 yes ! of even being seen talking to him. Why, 
 old Wingate once got a tip on his Prairie Flower 
 lead worth five thousand dollars while just 
 changing seats with him in the cars and passing 
 the time of day, sociable like. Why, what did 
 you talk about ? " 
 
96 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Peters, with a miserable conviction that he had 
 thrown away a valuable opportunity in mere idle 
 gossip, nevertheless endeavoured to look mysterious 
 as he replied, " Oh, business gin'rally." Then in 
 the faint hope of yet retrieving his blunder he 
 inquired, " How long will he be here ? " 
 
 " Don't know. I reckon he and Harcourt's got 
 something on hand. He just asked if he was 
 likely to be at home or at his office. I told him I 
 reckoned at the house, for some of the family I 
 didn't get to see who they were drove up in a 
 carriage from the 3.40 train while you were 
 sitting there." 
 
 Meanwhile the subject of this discussion, quite 
 unconscious of the sensation he had created, or 
 perhaps like most heroes philosophically careless 
 of it, was sauntering indifferently towards 
 Harcourt's house. But he had no business with 
 his former host his only object was to pass an 
 idle hour before his train left. He was, of course, 
 not unaware that he himself was largely re 
 sponsible for Harcourt's success; that it was his 
 hint which had induced the petty trader of Sidon 
 to venture his all in Tasajara ; his knowledge of 
 the topography and geology of the plain that had 
 stimulated Harcourt's agricultural speculations 
 his hydrographic survey of the creek that had 
 made Harcourt's plan of widening the channel to 
 commerce practical and profitable. This he 
 could not help but know. But that it was chiefly 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 97 
 
 owing to his own clear, cool, farseeing, but 
 never visionary, scientific observation his own 
 accurate analysis, unprejudiced by even a savant's 
 enthusiasm, and uninfluenced by any personal 
 desire of greed or gain that Tasajara City had 
 risen from the stagnant tules, was a speculation 
 that had never occurred to him. There was a 
 much more uneasy consciousness of what he had 
 done in Mr. Harcourt's face a few moments later, 
 when his visitor's name was announced, and it is 
 to be feared that if that name had been less 
 widely honoured and respected than it was, no 
 merely grateful recollection of it would have 
 procured Grant an audience. As it was, it was with 
 a frown and a touch of his old impatient asperity 
 that he stepped to the threshold of an adjoining 
 room and called, " Clemmy ! " 
 
 Clementina appeared at the door. 
 
 " There's that man Grant in the parlour. 
 What brings him here I wonder ? Who does he 
 come to see ? " 
 
 "Who did he ask for?" 
 
 " Me but that don't mean anything." 
 
 "Perhaps he wants to see you on some 
 business." 
 
 "No. That isn't his high-toned style. He 
 makes other people go to him for that," he said 
 bitterly. " Anyhow don't you think it's mighty 
 queer his coming here after his friend for it was 
 he who introduced Rice to us had behaved so to 
 
 H 
 
98 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 your sister, and caused all this divorce and 
 scandal ? " 
 
 " Perhaps he may know nothing about it ; he 
 and Rice separated long ago, even before Grant 
 became so famous. We never saw much of him, 
 you know, after we came here. Suppose you 
 leave him to me. I'll see him." 
 
 Mr. Harcourt reflected. " Didn't he use to be 
 rather attentive to Phemie ? " 
 
 Clementina shrugged her shoulders carelessly. 
 " I dare say but I don't think that now 
 
 " Who said anything about noio ? " retorted 
 her father, with a return of his old abruptness. 
 After a pause he said : " I'll go down and see 
 him first and then send for you. You can keep 
 him for the opening and dinner, if you like." 
 
 Meantime Lawrence Grant, serenely unsus 
 picious of these domestic confidences, had been 
 shown into the parlour a large room furnished 
 in the same style as the drawing-room of the 
 hotel he had just quitted. He had ample time 
 to note that it was that wonderful Second Empire 
 furniture which he remembered that the early 
 San Francisco pioneers in the first flush of their 
 wealth had imported directly from France, and 
 which for years after gave an unexpected foreign 
 flavour to the western domesticity and a tawdry 
 gilt equality to saloons and drawing-rooms, pub 
 lic and private. But he was observant of a 
 corresponding change in Harcourt, when a 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 99 
 
 moment later he entered the room. That indi 
 viduality which had kept the former shop 
 keeper of Sidon distinct from, although per 
 haps not superior to, his customers, was strongly 
 marked. He was perhaps now more nervously 
 alert than then ; he was certainly more impatient 
 than before but that was pardonable in a man 
 of large affairs and action. Grant could not deny 
 that he seemed improved rather perhaps that 
 the setting of fine clothes, cleanliness, and the 
 absence of petty worries, made his characteristics 
 respectable. That which is ill-breeding in home 
 spun, is apt to become mere eccentricity in 
 purple and fine linen ; Grant felt that Harcourt 
 jarred on him less than he did before, and was 
 grateful without superciliousness. Harcourt, re 
 lieved to find that Grant was neither critical 
 nor aggressively reminiscent, and above all not 
 inclined to claim the credit of creating him and 
 Tasajara, became more confident, more at his 
 ease, and, I fear, in proportion more unpleasant. 
 It is the repose and not the struggle of the 
 parvenu that confounds us. 
 
 "And you, Grant you have made yourself 
 famous, and, I hear, have got pretty much your 
 own prices for your opinions ever since it was 
 known that you you er were connected with 
 the growth of Tasajara." 
 
 Grant smiled ; he was not quite prepared for 
 this ; but it was amusing and would pass the 
 
 TI 2 
 
100 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAE. 
 
 time. He murmured a sentence of half ironical 
 deprecation, and Mr. Harcourt continued : 
 
 "I haven't got my San Francisco house here 
 to receive you in, but I hope some day, sir, to 
 see you there. We are only here for the day 
 and night, but if you care to attend the opening 
 ceremonies at the new hall we can manage to 
 give you dinner afterwards. You can escort my 
 daughter Clementina she's here with me." 
 
 The smile of apologetic declination which had 
 begun to form on Grant's lips was suddenly 
 arrested. " Then your daughter is here ? " he 
 asked, with unaffected interest. 
 
 " Yes she is in fact a patroness of the library 
 and sewing circle, and takes the greatest interest 
 in it. The Rev. Doctor Pilsbury relies upon her 
 for everything. She runs the society, even to 
 the training of the young ladies, sir. You shall 
 see their exercises." 
 
 This was certainly a new phase of Clementina's 
 character. Yet why should she not assume the 
 role of Lady Bountiful with the other functions 
 of her new condition ? " I should have thought 
 Miss Harcourt would have found this rather 
 difficult with her other social duties," he said, 
 " and would have left it to her married sister." 
 He thought it better not to appear as if avoiding 
 reference to Euphemia, although quietly ignoring 
 her late experiences. Mr. Harcourt was less easy 
 in his response. 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 101 
 
 " Now that Euphemia is again with her own 
 family," he said ponderously, with an affectation 
 of social discrimination that was in weak con 
 trast to his usual direct business astuteness, " I 
 suppose she may take her part in these things, 
 but just now she requires rest. You may have 
 heard some rumour that she is going abroad for 
 a time ? The fact is she hasn't the least inten 
 tion of doing so, nor do we consider there is the 
 slightest reason for her going." He paused as if 
 to give great emphasis to a statement that 
 seemed otherwise unimportant. " But here's 
 Clementina coming and I must get you to 
 excuse me. I've to meet the trustees of the 
 church in ten minutes, but I hope she'll per 
 suade you to stay, and I'll see you later at the 
 hall." 
 
 As Clementina entered the room her father 
 vanished and, I fear, as completely dropped out 
 of Mr. Grant's mind. For the daughter's im 
 provement was greater than her father's, yet so 
 much more refined as to be at first only deli 
 cately perceptible. Grant had been prepared for 
 the vulgar enhancement of fine clothes and per 
 sonal adornment, for the specious setting of 
 luxurious circumstances and surroundings, for 
 the aplomb that came from flattery and con 
 scious power. But he found none of these ; her 
 calm individuality was intensified rather than 
 subdued ; she was dressed simply, with an 
 
102 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 economy of ornament, rich material, and jewel 
 lery, but an accuracy of taste that was always 
 dominant. Her plain grey merino dress, beauti 
 fully fitting her figure, suggested with its pale 
 blue facings some uniform as of the charitable 
 society she patronized. She came towards him 
 with a graceful movement of greeting, yet her 
 face showed no consciousness of the interval that 
 had elapsed since they met; he almost fancied 
 himself transported back to the sitting-room at 
 Sidon with the monotonous patter of the leaves 
 outside, and the cool moist breath of the bay and 
 alder coming in at the window. 
 
 " Father says that you are only passing through 
 Tasajara to-day as you did through Sidon five 
 years ago," she said with a smiling earnestness 
 that he fancied however was the one new phase 
 of her character. " But I won't believe it ! At 
 least we will not accept another visit quite as 
 accidental as that, even though you brought us 
 twice the good fortune you did then. You see, 
 we have not forgotten it if you have, Mr. Grant. 
 And unless you want us to believe that your 
 fairy gifts will turn some day to leaves and ashes, 
 you will promise to stay with us to-night, and let 
 me show you some of the good we have done 
 with them. Perhaps you don't know, or don't 
 want to know, that it was / who got up this 
 ' Library and Home Circle of the Sisters of 
 Tasajara' which we are to open to-day. And 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 103 
 
 can you imagine why ? You remember or have 
 you forgotten ? that you once affected to be con 
 cerned at the social condition of the young ladies 
 on the plains of Sidon. Well, Mr. Grant, this is 
 gotten up in order that the future Mr. Grants 
 who wander may find future Miss Billingses who 
 are worthy to converse with them and entertain 
 them, and who no longer wear men's hats and 
 live on the public road." 
 
 It was such a long speech for one so taciturn 
 as he remembered Clementina to have been ; so 
 unexpected in tone considering her father's atti 
 tude towards him, and so unlocked for in its 
 reference to a slight incident of the past, that 
 Grant's critical contemplation of her gave way 
 to a quiet and grateful glance of admiration. 
 How could he have been so mistaken in her 
 character ? He had always preferred the out 
 spoken Euphemia, and yet why should he not 
 have been equally mistaken in her ? Without 
 having any personal knowledge of Rice's matri 
 monial troubles for their intimate companion 
 ship had not continued after the survey he had 
 been inclined to blame him; now he seemed to 
 find excuses for him. He wondered if she really 
 had liked him as Peters had hinted ; he wondered 
 if she knew that he, Grant, was no longer inti 
 mate with him, and knew nothing of her affairs. 
 All this while he was accepting her proffered 
 hospitality and sending to the hotel for his 
 
104 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Then he drifted into a conversation, 
 which he had expected would be brief, point 
 less and confined to a stupid rtsumd of their 
 mutual and social progress since they had left 
 Sidon. But here he was again mistaken ; she 
 was talking familiarly of present social topics, of 
 things that she knew clearly and well, without 
 effort or attitude. She had been to New York 
 and Boston for two winters ; she had spent the 
 previous summer at Newport ; it might have 
 been her whole youth, for the fluency, accuracy, 
 and familiarity of her detail, and the absence of 
 provincial enthusiasm. She was going abroad 
 probably in the spring. She had thought of 
 going to winter in Italy, but she would wait 
 now until her sister was ready to go with her. 
 Mr. Grant of course knew that Euphemia was 
 separated from Mr. Rice no ! not until her 
 father told him ? Well the marriage had been 
 a wild and foolish thing for both. But Euphemia 
 was back again with them in the San Francisco 
 house ; she had talked of coming to Tasajara 
 to-day, perhaps she might be there to-night. 
 And, good heavens ! it was actually three o'clock 
 already, and they must start at once for the Hall. 
 She would go and get her hat and return 
 instantly. 
 
 It was true ; he had been talking with her an 
 hour pleasantly, intelligently, and yet with a 
 consciousness of an indefinite satisfaction beyond 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 105 
 
 all this. It must have been surprise at her 
 transformation, or his previous misconception of 
 her character. He had been watching her 
 features and wondering why he had ever thought 
 them expressionless. There was also the pleasant 
 suggestion common to humanity in such in 
 stances that he himself was in some way 
 responsible for the change ; that it was some 
 awakened sympathy to his own nature that had 
 breathed into this cold and faultless statue the 
 warmth of life. In an odd flash of recollection he 
 remembered how, five years ago, when Rice had 
 suggested to her that she was " hard to please," 
 she had replied that " she didn't know, but that 
 she was waiting to see." It did not occur to 
 him to wonder why she had not awakened then, 
 or if this awakening had anything to do with her 
 own volition. It was not probable that they 
 would meet again after to-day, or if they did, that 
 she would not relapse into her former self and 
 fail to impress him as she had now. But here 
 she was a paragon of feminine promptitude 
 already standing in the doorway, accurately 
 gloved and booted, and wearing a demure grey 
 hat that modestly crowned her decorously elegant 
 figure. 
 
 They crossed the plaza, side by side, in the still 
 garish sunlight that seemed to mock the scant 
 shade of the youthful eucalyptus trees, and 
 presently fell in with the stream of people going 
 
106 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 in their direction. The former daughters of 
 Sidon, the Billingses, the Peterses, and Win- 
 gates, were there, bourgeoning and expanding in 
 the glare of their new prosperity, with silk and 
 gold ; there were newer faces still, and pretty 
 ones for Tasajara as a " Cow County " had 
 attracted settlers with large families and there 
 were already the contrasting types of East and 
 West. Many turned to look after the tall figure 
 of the daughter of the Founder of Tasajara a 
 spectacle lately rare to the town ; a few glanced 
 at her companion, equally noticeable as a stranger. 
 Thanks, however, to some judicious preliminary 
 advertising from the hotel clerk, Peters, and 
 Daniel Harcourt himself, by the time Grant and 
 Miss Harcourt had reached the Hall his name 
 and fame were already known, and speculation 
 had already begun whether this new stroke of 
 Harcourt's shrewdness might not unite Clemen 
 tina to a renowned and profitable partner. 
 
 The Hall was in one of the further and newly 
 opened suburbs, and its side and rear windows 
 gave immediately upon the outlying and illimit 
 able plain of Tasajara. It was a tasteful and 
 fair seeming structure of wood, surprisingly and 
 surpassingly new. In fact that was its one 
 dominant feature ; nowhere else had youth and 
 freshness ever shown itself as unconquerable and 
 all-conquering. The spice of virgin woods and 
 trackless forests still rose from its pine floors, and 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 107 
 
 breathed from its outer shell of cedar that still 
 oozed its sap, and redwood that still dropped its 
 life-blood. Nowhere else were the plastered 
 walls and ceilings as white and dazzling in their 
 unstained purity, or as redolent of the outlying 
 quarry in their clear cool breath of lime and 
 stone. Even the turpentine of fresh and spotless 
 paint added to this sense of wholesome germina 
 tion, and as the clear and brilliant Californian 
 sunshine swept through the open windows west 
 and east, suffusing the whole palpitating structure 
 with its searching and resistless radiance, the very 
 air seemed filled with the aroma of creation. 
 
 The fresh colours of the young Republic, the 
 bright blazonry of the newest State, the coat of 
 arms of the infant County of Tasajara (a vignette 
 of sunset-tides cloven by the steam of an advanc 
 ing train) hanging from the walls, were all a 
 part of this invincible juvenescence. Even the 
 newest silks, ribbons and prints of the latest 
 holiday fashions made their first virgin appearance 
 in the new building as if to consecrate it, until it 
 was stirred by the rustle of youth, as with the 
 sound and movement of budding spring. 
 
 A strain from the new organ whose heart, 
 however, had prematurely learned its own bitter 
 ness, and a thin, clear, but somewhat shrill 
 chanting from a choir of young ladies were 
 followed by a prayer from the Rev. Mr. Pilsbury. 
 Then there was a pause of expectancy, and 
 
108 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Grant's fair companion, who up to that moment 
 had been quietly acting as guide and cicerone to 
 her father's guest, excused herself with a little 
 grimace of mock concern and was led away by 
 one of the committee. Grant's usually keen eyes 
 were wandering somewhat abstractedly over the 
 agitated and rustling field of ribbons, flowers and 
 feathers before him, past the blazonry of banner 
 on the walls, and through the open windows to 
 the long sunlit levels beyond, when he noticed a 
 stir upon the raised dais or platform at the end 
 of the room, where the notables of Tasajara were 
 formally assembled. The mass of black coats 
 suddenly parted and drew back against the wall 
 to allow the coming forward of a single graceful 
 figure. A thrill of nervousness as unexpected as 
 unaccountable passed over him as he recognized 
 Clementina. In the midst of a sudden silence 
 she read the report of the committee from a 
 paper in her hand, in a clear, untroubled voice 
 the old voice of Sidon and formally declared 
 the building opened ! The sunlight nearly level, 
 streamed through the western window across the 
 front of the platform where she stood, and 
 transfigured her slight but noble figure. The 
 hush that had fallen upon the Hall was as much 
 the effect of that tranquil, ideal presence as of 
 the message with which it was charged. And 
 yet that apparition was as inconsistent with the 
 clear, searching light which helped to set it off, 
 
v A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 109 
 
 as it was with the broad new blazonry of 
 decoration, the yet unsullied record of the white 
 walls, or even the fraok, animated and pretty 
 faces that looked upon it. Perhaps it was some 
 such instinct that caused the applause which 
 hesitatingly and tardily followed her from the 
 platform to appear polite and half-restrained 
 rather than spontaneous. 
 
 Nevertheless Grant was honestly and sincerely 
 profuse in his congratulations. " You were far 
 cooler and far more self-contained than / should 
 have been in your place," he said, " than in fact 
 I actually was, only as your auditor. But I 
 suppose you have done it before ? " 
 
 She turned her beautiful eyes on his wonder- 
 ingly. " No this is the first time I ever appeared 
 in public not even at school, for even there I 
 was always a private pupil." 
 
 " You astonish me," said Grant ; " you seemed 
 like an old hand at it." 
 
 " Perhaps I did, or rather as if I didn't think 
 anything of it myself and that no doubt 
 is why the audience didn't think anything of it 
 either." 
 
 So she had noticed her cold reception, and 
 yet there was not the slightest trace of disap 
 pointment, regret, or wounded vanity in her 
 tone or manner. " You must take me to the 
 refreshment-room now," she said pleasantly, "and 
 help me to look after the young ladies who are 
 
110 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 my guests. I'm afraid there are still more 
 speeches to come, and father and Mr. Pilsbury 
 are looking as if they confidently expected some 
 thing more would be 'expected' of them." 
 
 Grant at once threw himself into the task 
 assigned to him with his natural gallantry, and 
 a certain captivating playfulness which he still 
 retained. Perhaps he was the more anxious to 
 please in order that his companion might share 
 some of his popularity, for it was undeniable 
 that Miss Harcourt still seemed to excite only 
 a constrained politeness among those with whom 
 she courteously mingled. And this was still 
 more distinctly marked by the contrast of a 
 later incident. 
 
 For some moments the sound of laughter and 
 greeting had risen near the door of the refresh 
 ment-room that opened upon the central hall, 
 and there was a perceptible movement of the 
 crowd particularly of youthful male Tasajara 
 in that direction. It was evident that it an 
 nounced the unexpected arrival of some popular 
 resident. Attracted like the others, Grant turned 
 and saw the company making way for the smil 
 ing, easy, half-saucy, half-complacent entry of a 
 handsomely dressed young girl. As she turned 
 from time to time to recognize with rallying 
 familiarity or charming impertinence some of 
 her admirers, there was that in her tone and 
 gesture which instantly recalled to him the past. 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 111 
 
 It was unmistakably Euphemia ! His eyes in 
 stinctively sought Clementina's. She was gazing 
 at him with such a grave, penetrating look 
 half doubting, half wistful a look so unlike her 
 usual unruffled calm that he felt strangely 
 stirred. But the next moment, when she re 
 joined him, the look had entirely gone. " You 
 have not seen my sister since you were at Sidon, 
 I believe ? " she said quietly. " She would be 
 sorry to miss you." But Euphemia and her 
 train were already passing them on the oppo 
 site side of the long table. She had evidently 
 recognized Grant, yet the two sisters were look 
 ing intently into each other's eyes when he 
 raised his own. Then Euphemia met his bow 
 with a momentary accession of colour, a co 
 quettish wave of her hand across the table, a 
 slight exaggeration of her usual fascinating reck 
 lessness, and smilingly moved away. He turned 
 to Clementina, but here an ominous tapping at 
 the further end of the long table revealed the 
 fact that Mr. Harcourt was standing on a chair 
 with oratorical possibilities in his face and atti 
 tude. There was another forward movement in 
 the crowd and silence. In that solid, black 
 broadclothed, respectable figure, that massive 
 watch-chain, that white waistcoat, that diamond 
 pin glistening in the satin cravat, Euphemia 
 might have seen the realization of her prophetic 
 vision at Sidon five years before. 
 
112 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 He spoke for ten minutes with a fluency and 
 comprehensive businesslike directness that sur 
 prised Grant. He was not there, he said, to 
 glorify what had been done by himself, his family, 
 or his friends in Tasajara. Others who were to 
 follow him might do that, or at least might be 
 better able to explain and expatiate upon the 
 advantages of the institution they had just 
 opened, and its social, moral, and religious effect 
 upon the community. He was there as a busi 
 ness man to demonstrate to them as he had 
 always done and always hoped to do the money 
 value of improvement ; the profit if they might 
 choose to call it of well-regulated and properly 
 calculated speculation. The plot of land upon 
 which they stood, of which the building occu 
 pied only one-eighth, was bought two years be 
 fore for ten thousand dollars. When the plans 
 of the building were completed a month after 
 wards, the value of the remaining seven-eighths 
 had risen enough to defray the cost of the 
 entire construction. He was in a position to 
 tell them that only that morning the adjacent 
 property, subdivided and laid out in streets and 
 building-plots, had been admitted into the cor 
 porate limits of the city ; and that on the next 
 anniversary of the building they would approach 
 it through an avenue of finished dwellings ! An 
 outburst of applause followed the speaker's prac 
 tical climax ; the fresh young faces of his auditors 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 113 
 
 glowed with invincible enthusiasm ; the after 
 noon trade-winds, freshening over the limitless 
 plain beyond, tossed the bright banners at the 
 windows as with sympathetic rejoicing, and a 
 few odorous pine shavings, overlooked in a 
 corner in the hurry of preparation, touched by 
 an eddying zephyr crept out and rolled in 
 yellow ringlets across the floor. 
 
 The Reverend Doctor Pilsbury arose in a 
 more decorous silence. He had listened ap 
 provingly, admiringly, he might say even re 
 verently, to the preceding speaker. But although 
 his distinguished friend had, with his usual mo 
 desty, made light of his own services and those 
 of his charming family, he, the speaker, had 
 not risen to sing his praises. No ; it was not 
 in this Hall, projected by his foresight and 
 raised by his liberality, in this town, called into 
 existence by his energy and stamped by his 
 attributes ; in this county, developed by his 
 genius and sustained by his capital ay, in this 
 very State whose grandeur was made possible 
 by such giants as he it was not in any of 
 these places that it was necessary to praise 
 Daniel Harcourt, or that a panegyric of him 
 would be more than idle repetition. Nor would 
 he, as that distinguished man had suggested, 
 enlarge upon the social, moral, and religious 
 benefits of the improvement they were now 
 celebrating. It was written on the happy, in- 
 
 I 
 
114 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 nocent faces, in the festive garb, in the decorous 
 demeanour, in the intelligent eyes that sparkled 
 around him in the presence of those of his 
 parishioners whom he could meet as freely here 
 to-day as in his own church on Sunday. What 
 then could he say ? What then was there to 
 say ? Perhaps he should say nothing if it were 
 not for the presence of the young before him. 
 He stopped and fixed his eyes paternally on 
 the youthful Johnny Billings, who with a half 
 dozen other Sunday school scholars, had been 
 marshalled before the reverend speaker And 
 what was to be the lesson they were to learn 
 from it ? They had heard what had been 
 achieved by labour, enterprise, and diligence. 
 Perhaps they would believe, and naturally too, 
 that what labour, enterprise, and diligence had 
 done could be done again. But was that all ? 
 Was there nothing behind these qualities which, 
 after all, were within the reach of every one 
 here ? Had they ever thought that back of 
 every pioneer, every explorer, every path-finder, 
 every founder and creator, there was still an 
 other ? There was no terra incognita so rare 
 as to be unknown to One ; 110 wilderness so re 
 mote as to be beyond a greater ken than theirs ; 
 no waste so trackless but that One had already 
 passed that way ! Did they ever reflect that 
 when the dull sea ebbed and flowed in the 
 tules over the very spot where they were now 
 
v A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 115 
 
 standing, Who it was that also foresaw, con 
 ceived, and ordained the mighty change that 
 would take place ; Who even guided and directed 
 the feeble means employed to work it ; whose 
 spirit moved, as in still older days of which they 
 had read, over the face of the stagnant waters ? 
 Perhaps they had. Who then was the real 
 pioneer of Tasajara back of the Harcourts, the 
 Peters, the Billingses, and Wingates ? The re 
 verend gentleman gently paused for a reply. It 
 was given in the clear but startled accents of 
 the half-frightened, half-fascinated Johnny Bil 
 lings, in three words : 
 " Lige Curtis, sir ! " 
 
 I 2 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE trade wind, that blowing directly from the 
 Golden Gate seemed to concentrate its full force 
 upon the western slope of Russian Hill, might 
 have dismayed any climber less hopeful and san 
 guine than that most imaginative of newspaper 
 reporters and most youthful of husbands, John 
 Milton Harcourt. But for all that it was an 
 honest wind and its dry, practical energy and 
 salt-pervading breath only seemed to sting him 
 to greater and more enthusiastic exertions, until 
 quite at the summit of the hill and last of a 
 straggling line of little cottages half submerged 
 in drifting sand, he stood upon his own humble 
 porch. 
 
 " I was thinking, coming up the hill, Loo," he 
 said, bursting into the sitting-room, pantingly, 
 " of writing something about the future of the 
 hill ! How it will look fifty years from now ! 
 all terraced with houses and gardens ! and 
 right up here a kind of Acropolis, don't you 
 
CH. vi A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 117 
 
 know. I had quite a picture of it in my mind 
 just now." 
 
 A plainly-dressed young woman with a pretty 
 face, that, however, looked as if it had been pre 
 maturely sapped of colour and vitality, here laid 
 aside some white sewing she had in her lap, and 
 said : 
 
 " But you did that once before, Milty, and you 
 know the Herald wouldn't take it because they 
 said it was a free notice of Mr. Boorem's building 
 lots, and he didn't advertise in the Herald. I 
 always told you that you ought to have seen 
 Boorem first." 
 
 The young fellow blinked his eyes with a mo 
 mentary arrest of that buoyant hopefulness which 
 was their peculiar characteristic, but nevertheless 
 replied with undaunted cheerfulness, " I forgot. 
 Anyhow, it's all the same, for I worked it into 
 that ' Sunday Walk.' And it's just as easy to 
 write it the other way, you see looking back 
 down the hill, you know. Something about the 
 old Padres toiling through the sand just before 
 the Angelus ; or as far back as Sir Francis 
 Drake's time, and have a runaway boat's crew 
 coming ashore to look for gold that the Mexicans 
 had talked of. Lord ! that's easy enough ! I tell 
 you what, Loo, it's worth living up here just for 
 the inspiration." Even while boyishly exhaling 
 this enthusiasm he was also divesting himself of 
 certain bundles whose contents seemed to imply 
 
118 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 that he had brought his dinner with him the 
 youthful Mrs. Harcourt setting the table in a 
 perfunctory, listless way that contrasted oddly 
 with her husband's cheerful energy. 
 
 " You haven't heard of any regular situation 
 yet ? " she asked abstractedly. 
 
 " No not exactly," he replied. " But [buoy 
 antly] it's a great deal better for me not to take 
 anything in a hurry and tie myself to any par 
 ticular line. Now, I'm quite free." 
 
 "And I suppose you haven't seen that Mr. 
 Fletcher again ? " she continued. 
 
 " No. He only wanted to know something 
 about me. That's the way with them all, Loo. 
 Whenever I apply for work anywhere it's always : 
 ' So you're Dan'l Harcourt's son, eh ? Quarrelled 
 with the old man ? Bad job ; better make it up. 
 You'll make more stickin' to him. He's worth 
 millions ! ' Everybody seems to think everything 
 of him, as if / had no individuality beyond that. 
 I've a good mind to change my name." 
 
 " And pray what would mine be then ? " 
 
 There was so much irritation in her voice that 
 he drew nearer her and gently put his arm around 
 her waist. " Why, whatever mine was, darling," 
 he said with a tender smile. " You didn't fall in 
 love with any particular name, did you, Loo ? " 
 
 " No, but I married a particular one," she said 
 quickly. 
 
 His eyelids quivered again, as if he was avoid- 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 119 
 
 ing some unpleasantly staring suggestion, and she 
 stopped. 
 
 " You know what I mean, dear," she said, with 
 a quick little laugh. " Just because your father's 
 an old crosspatch, you haven't lost your rights to 
 his name and property. And those people who 
 say you ought to make it up, perhaps know 
 what's for the best." 
 
 " But you remember what he said of you, 
 Loo ? " said the young man with a flashing eye. 
 " Do you think I can ever forget that ? " 
 
 " But you do forget it, dear ; you forget it 
 when you go in town among fresh faces and 
 people : when you are looking for work. You 
 forget it when you're at work writing your copy 
 for I've seen you smile as you wrote. You forget 
 it climbing up the dreadful sand, for you were 
 thinking just now of what happened years ago, 
 or is to happen years to come. And I want to 
 forget it too, Milty. I don't want to sit here all 
 day, thinking of it, with the wind driving the 
 sand against the window, and nothing to look at 
 but those white tombs in Lone Mountain ceme 
 tery, and those white caps that might be grave 
 stones too, and not a soul to talk to or even see 
 pass by until I feel as if I were dead and buried 
 also. If you were me you you you couldn't 
 help crying too ! " 
 
 Indeed, he was very near it now. For as he 
 caught her in his arms, suddenly seeing with a 
 
120 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 lover's sympathy and the poet's swifter imagina 
 tion all that she had seen and even more, he was 
 aghast at the vision conjured. In her delicate 
 health and loneliness how dreadful must have 
 been these monotonous days, and this glittering 
 cruel sea ! What a selfish brute he was ! Yet 
 as he stood there holding her, silently and rhyth 
 mically marking his tenderness and remorseful 
 feelings by rocking her from side to side like a 
 languid metronome, she quietly disengaged her 
 wet lashes from his shoulder and said in quite 
 another tone : 
 
 " So they were all at Tasajara last week ? " 
 
 " Who, dear ? " 
 
 " Your father and sisters." 
 
 " Yes," said John Milton, hesitatingly. 
 
 " And they've taken back your sister after her 
 divorce ? " 
 
 The staring obtrusiveness of this fact appar 
 ently made her husband's bright sympathetic eye 
 blink as before. 
 
 " And if you were to divorce me, you would be 
 taken back too," she added quickly, suddenly 
 withdrawing herself with a pettish movement and 
 walking to the window. 
 
 But he followed. " Don't talk in that way, 
 Loo ! Don't look in that way, dear ! " he said, 
 taking her hand gently, yet not without a sense 
 of some inconsistency in her conduct that jarred 
 upon his own simple directness. " You know 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 121 
 
 that nothing can part us now. I was wrong to 
 let my little girl worry herself all alone here, but 
 I I thought it was all so so bright and free 
 out on this hill looking far away beyond the 
 Golden Gate as far as Cathay, you know, and 
 such a change from those dismal flats of Tasajara 
 and that awful stretch of tides. But it's all 
 right now. And now that I know how you feel, 
 we'll go elsewhere." 
 
 She did not reply. Perhaps she found it diffi 
 cult to keep up her injured attitude in the face 
 of her husband's gentleness. Perhaps her atten 
 tion had been attracted by the unusual spectacle 
 of a stranger, who had just mounted the hill 
 and was now slowly passing along the line of 
 cottages with a hesitating air of inquiry. 
 " He may be looking for this house for you," 
 she said in an entirely new tone of interest. 
 " Run out and see. It may be some one who 
 wants " 
 
 " An article," said Milton cheerfully. " By 
 Jove ! he is coming here." 
 
 The stranger was indeed approaching the little 
 cottage, and with apparently some confidence. 
 He was a well-dressed, well-made man, whose 
 age looked uncertain from the contrast be 
 tween his heavy brown moustache and his 
 hair, that, curling under the brim of his hat, 
 wae almost white in colour. The young man 
 started, and said hurriedly : "I really believe 
 
122 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 it is Fletcher they say his hair turned white 
 from the Panama fever." 
 
 It was indeed Mr. Fletcher who entered and 
 introduced himself. A gentle, reserved man, 
 with something of that colourlessness of pre 
 mature age in his speech which was observable 
 in his hair. He had heard of Mr. Har court from 
 a friend who had recommended him highly. As 
 Mr. Harcourt had probably been told, he, the 
 speaker, was about to embark some capital in 
 a first-class newspaper in San Francisco, and 
 should select the staff himself. He wanted to 
 secure only first-rate talent but above all, youth- 
 fulness, directness, and originality. The Clarion, 
 for that was to be its name, was to have no 
 thing " old fogey " about it. No. It was dis 
 tinctly to be the organ of Young California ! 
 This and much more from the grave lips of the 
 elderly young man, whose speech seemed to 
 be divided between the pretty, but equally faded, 
 young wife, and the one personification of in 
 vincible youth present her husband. 
 
 " But I fear I have interrupted your household 
 duties," he said pleasantly. " You were preparing 
 dinner. Pray go on. And let me help you 
 I'm not a bad cook and you can give me my 
 reward by letting me share it with you, for the 
 climb up here has sharpened my appetite. We 
 can talk as we go on." 
 
 It was in vain to protest ; there was something 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 123 
 
 paternal as well as practical in the camaraderie 
 of this actual capitalist and possible Maecenas 
 and patron as he quietly hung up his hat and 
 overcoat, and helped to set the table with a 
 practised hand. Nor, as he suggested, did the 
 conversation falter, and before they had taken 
 their seats at the frugal board he had already 
 engaged John Milton Harcourt as assistant editor 
 of the Clarion at a salary that seemed princely 
 to this son of a millionaire ! The young wife 
 meantime had taken active part in the discussion ; 
 whether it was vaguely understood that the 
 possession of practical and imaginative faculties 
 precluded any capacity for business, or whether 
 it was owing to the apparent superior maturity 
 of Mrs. Harcourt and the stranger, it was certain 
 that they arranged the practical details of the 
 engagement, and that the youthful husband sat 
 silent, merely offering his always hopeful and 
 sanguine consent. 
 
 " You'll take a house nearer to town, I sup 
 pose ? " continued Mr. Fletcher to the lady, 
 " though you've a charming view here. I suppose 
 it was quite a change from Tasajara and your 
 father-in-law's house ? I dare say he had as fine 
 a place there on his own homestead as he 
 has here ? " 
 
 Young Harcourt dropped his sensitive eyelids 
 again. It seemed hard that he could never get 
 away from these allusions to his father ! Per- 
 
124 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 haps it was only to that relationship that he 
 was indebted for his visitor's kindness. In his 
 simple honesty he could not bear the thought 
 of such a misapprehension. " Perhaps, Mr. 
 Fletcher, you do not know," he said, " that my 
 father is not on terms with me, and that we 
 neither expect anything nor could we ever take 
 anything from him. Could we, Loo ? " He 
 added the useless question partly because he 
 saw that his wife's face betrayed little sympathy 
 with him, and partly that Fletcher was looking 
 at her curiously, as if for confirmation. But this 
 was another of John Milton's trials as an im 
 aginative reporter ; nobody ever seemed to care 
 for his practical opinions or facts ! 
 
 " Mr. Fletcher is not interested in our little 
 family differences, Milty," she said, looking at 
 Mr. Fletcher, however, instead of him. " You're 
 Daniel Harcourt's son whatever happens." 
 
 The cloud that had passed over the young 
 man's face and eyes did not, however, escape 
 Mr. Fletcher's attention, for he smiled, and added 
 gaily, "And I hope my valued lieutenant in 
 any case." Nevertheless John Milton was quite 
 ready to avail himself of an inspiration to fetch 
 some cigars for his guest from the bar of the 
 Sea- View House on the slope of the hill beyond, 
 and thereby avoid a fateful subject. Once in 
 the fresh air again he promptly recovered his 
 boyish spirits. The light flying scud had already 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 125 
 
 effaced the first rising stars : the lower creeping 
 sea-fog had already blotted out the western shore 
 and sea ; but below him to the east the glittering 
 lights of the city seemed to start up with a new, 
 mysterious, and dazzling brilliancy. It was the 
 valley of diamonds that Sinbad saw lying almost 
 at his feet ! Perhaps somewhere there the light 
 of his own fame and fortune was already be 
 ginning to twinkle ! 
 
 He returned to his humble roof joyous and 
 inspired. As he entered the hall he heard his 
 wife's voice and his own name mentioned, fol 
 lowed by that awkward, meaningless silence on 
 his entrance which so plainly indicated that 
 either he had been the subject of conversation 
 or that it was not for his ears. It was a 
 dismal reminder of his boyhood at Sidon and 
 Tasajara. But he was too full of hope and 
 ambition to heed it to-night, and later, when 
 Mr. Fletcher had taken his departure, his pent- 
 up enthusiasm burst out before his youthful 
 partner. Had she realized that their struggles 
 were over now, that their future was secure ? 
 They need no longer fear ever being forced to 
 take bounty from the family; they were in 
 dependent of them all ! He would make a 
 name for himself that should be distinct 
 from his father's, as he should make a fortune 
 that would be theirs alone. The young wife 
 smiled. " But all that need not prevent you, 
 
126 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 dear, from claiming your rights when the time 
 comes." 
 
 " But if I scorn to make the claim or take 
 a penny of his, Loo ? " 
 
 " You say you scorn to take the money you 
 think your father got by a mere trick at 
 the best and didn't earn. And now you will 
 be able to show you can live without it, and 
 earn your own fortune. Well, dear, for that 
 very reason why should you let your father 
 and others enjoy and waste what is fairly your 
 share ? For it is your share whether it came 
 to your father fairly or not ; and if not it is 
 still your duty, believing as you do, to claim 
 it from him, that at least you may do with it 
 what you choose. You might want to restore 
 it to to somebody." 
 
 The young man laughed. " But, my dear 
 Loo ! suppose that I were weak enough to claim 
 it, do you think my father would give it up ? 
 He has the right, and no law could force him 
 to yield to me more than he chooses." 
 
 "Not the law but ym could." 
 
 " I don't understand you," he said quickly. 
 
 " You could force him by simply telling him 
 what you once told me." 
 
 John Milton drew back, and his hand dropped 
 loosely from his wife's. The colour left his 
 fresh young face ; the light quivered for a 
 moment and then became fixed and set in his 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 127 
 
 eyes. For that moment he looked ten years 
 her senior. "I was wrong ever to tell even 
 you that, Loo," he said in a low voice. " You 
 are wrong to ever remind me of it. Forget it 
 from this moment, as you value our love and 
 want it to live and be remembered. And forget, 
 Loo, as I do and ever shall that you ever 
 suggested to me to use my secret in the way 
 you did just now." 
 
 But here Mrs. Harcourt burst into tears, more 
 touched by the alteration in her husband's 
 manner, I fear, than by any contrition for 
 wrongdoing. Of course if he wished to with 
 draw his confidences from her, just as he had 
 almost confessed he wished to withdraw his 
 name, she couldn't help it, but it was hard that 
 when she sat there all day long trying to think 
 what was best for them, she should be blamed ! 
 At which the quiet and forgiving John Milton 
 smiled remorsefully and tried to comfort her. 
 Nevertheless an occasional odd, indefinable chill 
 seemed to creep across the feverish enthusiasm 
 with which he was celebrating this day of for 
 tune. And yet he neither knew nor suspected 
 until long after that his foolish wife had that 
 night half betrayed his secret to the stranger. 
 
 The next day he presented a note of introduc 
 tion from Mr. Fletcher to the business manager 
 of the Clarion, and the following morning was 
 duly installed in office. He did not see his 
 
128 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 benefactor again ; that single visit was left in 
 the mystery and isolation of an angelic episode. 
 It later appeared that other and larger interests 
 in the San Jose valley claimed his patron's resi 
 dence and attendance ; only the capital and 
 general purpose of the paper to develop into 
 a party organ in the interest of his possible 
 senatorial aspirations in due season was fur 
 nished by him. Grateful as John Milton felt 
 towards him, he was relieved ; it seemed prob 
 able that Mr. Fletcher had selected him on his 
 individual merits, and not as the son of a 
 millionaire. 
 
 He threw himself into his work with his old 
 hopeful enthusiasm, and perhaps an originality 
 of method that was part of his singular inde 
 pendence. Without the student's training or 
 restraint, for his two years' schooling at Tasa- 
 jara during his parents' prosperity came too late 
 to act as a discipline, he was unfettered by 
 any rules, and guided only by an unerring in 
 stinctive taste that came near being genius. He 
 was a brilliant and original, if not always a pro 
 found and accurate, reporter. By degrees he 
 became an accustomed interest to the readers of 
 the Clarion; then an influence. Actors them 
 selves in many a fierce drama, living lives of 
 devotion, emotion, and picturesque incident, they 
 had satisfied themselves with only the briefest 
 and most practical daily record of their adven- 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 129 
 
 ture, and even at first were dazed and startled 
 to find that many of them had been heroes and 
 some poets. The stealthy boyish reader of ro 
 mantic chronicle at Sidon had learned by heart 
 the chivalrous story of the emigration. The 
 second column of the Clarion became famous 
 even while the figure of its youthful writer, un 
 known and unrecognized, was still nightly climb 
 ing the sands of Russian Hill, and even looking 
 down as before on the lights of the growing 
 city, without a thought that he had added to 
 that glittering constellation. 
 
 Cheerful and contented with the exercise of 
 work, he would have been happy but for the 
 gradual haunting of another dread which pre 
 sently began to drag him at earlier hours up 
 the steep path to his little home ; to halt him 
 before the door with the quickened breath of 
 an anxiety he would scarcely confess to himself, 
 and sometimes hold him aimlessly a whole day 
 beneath his roof. For the pretty, but delicate, 
 Mrs. Harcourt, like others of her class, had added 
 a weak and ineffective maternity to their other 
 conjugal trials, and one early dawn a baby was 
 born that lingered with them scarcely longer than 
 the morning mist and exhaled with the rising 
 sun. The young . wife regained her strength 
 slowly so slowly that the youthful husband 
 brought his work at times to the house to keep 
 her company. And a singular change had come 
 
 K 
 
130 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 over her. She no longer talked of the past nor 
 of his family. As if the little life that had 
 passed with that morning mist had represented 
 some ascending expiatory sacrifice, it seemed to 
 have brought them into closer communion. 
 
 Yet her weak condition made him conceal 
 another trouble that had come upon him. It 
 was in the third month of his employment on 
 the Clarion that one afternoon, while correct 
 ing some proofs on his chiefs desk, he came 
 upon the following editorial paragraph : 
 
 " The played-out cant of ( pioneer genius ' and 
 'pioneer discovery' appears to have reached its 
 climax in the attempt of some of our contempo 
 raries to apply it to Dan Harcourt's new Tasa- 
 jara Job before the Legislature. It is perfectly 
 well known in Harcourt's own district that, far 
 from being a pioneer and settler himself, he 
 simply succeeded after a fashion to the genuine 
 work of one Elijah Curtis, an actual pioneer and 
 discoverer, years before, while Harcourt, we be 
 lieve, was keeping a frontier doggery in Sidon, 
 and dispensing 'tangle foot' and salt junk to 
 the hayfooted Pike Countians of his precinct. 
 This would make him as much of the ' pioneer 
 discoverer' as the rattlesnake who first takes up 
 board and lodgings and then possession in a 
 prairie dog's burrow. And if the traveller's tale 
 is true that the rattlesnake sometimes makes a 
 meal of his landlord the story told at Sidon 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 131 
 
 may be equally credible that the original pioneer 
 mysteriously disappeared about the time that 
 Dan Harcourt came into the property. From 
 which it would seem that Harcourt is not in a 
 position for his friends to invite very deep 
 scrutiny into his ' pioneer ' achievements." 
 
 Stupefaction, a vague terror and rising anger 
 rapidly succeeded each other in the young man's 
 mind as he stood mechanically holding the paper 
 in his hand. It was the writing of his chief 
 editor, whose easy brutality he had sometimes 
 even boyishly admired. Without stopping to 
 consider their relative positions he sought him 
 indignantly and laid the proof before him. The 
 editor laughed. But what's that to you ? You're 
 not on terms with the old man." 
 
 " But he is my father/' said John Milton 
 hotly. 
 
 " Look here/' said the editor good-naturedly, 
 " I'd like to oblige you, but it isn't business, 
 you know and this is, you understand pro 
 prietors business, too ! Of course I see it might 
 stand in the way of your making up to the old 
 man afterwards and coming in for a million. 
 Well ! you can tell him it's me. Say I woidd 
 put it in. Say I'm nasty and I am ! " 
 
 " Then it must- go in ? " said John Milton 
 with a white face. 
 
 "You bet." 
 
 " Then / must go out." And writing out 
 
 K 2 
 
132 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 his resignation, he laid it hefore his chief and 
 left. 
 
 But he could not bear to tell this to his wife 
 when he climbed the hill that night, and he 
 invented some excuse for bringing his work 
 home. The invalid never noticed any change 
 in his usual buoyancy, and indeed I fear, when 
 he was fairly installed with his writing materials 
 at the foot of her bed, he had quite forgotten 
 the episode. He was recalled to it by a faint 
 sigh. 
 
 " What is it, dear ? " he said, looking up. 
 
 " I like to see you writing, Milty. You always 
 look so happy." 
 
 " Always so happy, dear ? " 
 
 " Yes. You are happy, are you not ? " 
 
 " Always." He got up and kissed her. Never 
 theless, when he sat down to his work again, 
 his face was turned a little more to the 
 window. 
 
 Another serious incident to be also kept from 
 the invalid shortly followed. The article in the 
 Clarion had borne its fruit. The third day after 
 his resignation a rival paper sharply retorted : 
 " The cowardly insinuations against the record 
 of a justly honoured capitalist," said the Pioneer, 
 " although quite in keeping with the brazen 
 Clarion, might attract the attentions of the slan 
 dered party, if it were not known to his friends 
 as well as himself that it may be traced almost 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 133 
 
 directly to a cast-off member of his own family, 
 who, it seems, is reduced to haunting the back 
 doors of certain blatant journals to dispose of 
 his cheap wares. The slanderer is secure from 
 public exposure in the superior decency of his 
 relations, who refrain from airing their family 
 linen upon editorial lines." 
 
 This was the journal to which John Milton 
 had hopefully turned for work. When he read 
 it there seemed but one thing for him to do 
 and he did it. Gentle and optimistic as was his 
 nature, he had been brought up in a community 
 where sincere directness of personal offence was 
 followed by equally sincere directness of personal 
 redress, and he challenged the editor. The 
 bearer of his cartel was one Jack Hamlin, I 
 grieve to say a gambler by profession, but be 
 tween whom and John Milton had sprung up 
 an odd friendship of which the best that can be 
 said is that it was to each equally and unselfishly 
 unprofitable. The challenge was accepted, the 
 preliminaries arranged. "I suppose/' said Jack 
 carelessly, " as the old man ought to do some 
 thing for your wife in case of accident, you've 
 made some sort of a will ? " 
 
 " I've thought of that," said John Milton 
 dubiously, "but -I'm afraid it's of no use. You 
 see " he hesitated, " I'm not of age." 
 
 " May I ask how old you are, sonny ? " said 
 Jack with great gravity. 
 
134 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " I'm almost twenty," said John Milton 
 colouring. 
 
 " It isn't exactly vingt-et-un, but I'd stand on 
 it ; if I were you I wouldn't draw to such a 
 hand," said Jack coolly. 
 
 The young husband had arranged to be absent 
 from his home that night, and early morning 
 found him, with Jack, grave, but courageous, in a 
 little hollow behind the Mission Hills. To them 
 presently approached his antagonist jauntily 
 accompanied by Colonel Starbottle, his second. 
 They halted, but after the formal salutation were 
 instantly joined by Jack Hamlin. For a few 
 moments John Milton remained awkwardly alone 
 pending a conversation which even at that 
 supreme moment he felt as being like the general 
 attitude of his friends towards him, in its 
 complete ignoring of himself. The next moment 
 the three men stepped towards him. " We have 
 come, sir," said Colonel Starbottle in his precisest 
 speech but his jauntiest manner, " to offer you a 
 full and ample apology a personal apology 
 which only supplements that full public apology 
 that my principal, sir, this gentleman," indicating 
 the editor of the Pioneer, " has this morning made 
 in the columns of his paper, as you will observe," 
 producing a newspaper. " We have, sir," con 
 tinued the Colonel loftily, " only within the last 
 twelve hours become aware of the er real 
 circumstances of the case. We would regret that 
 
vi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 135 
 
 the affair had gone so far already, if it had not 
 given us, sir, the opportunity of testifying to your 
 gallantry. We do so gladly; and if er er a 
 few years later, Mr. Harcourt, you should ever 
 need a friend in any matter of this kind, I am, 
 sir, at your service." John Milton gazed half 
 inquiringly, half uneasily at Jack. 
 
 " It's all right, Milt," he said sotto voce. 
 " Shake hands all round and let's go to breakfast. 
 And I rather think that editor wants to employ 
 you himself!' 
 
 It was true, for when that night he climbed 
 eagerly the steep homeward hill, he carried with 
 him the written offer of an engagement on the 
 Pioneer. As he entered the door his wife's nurse 
 and companion met him with a serious face. 
 There had been a strange and unexpected change 
 in the patient's condition, and the doctor had 
 already been there twice. As he put aside his 
 coat and hat and entered her room it seemed to 
 him that he had for ever put aside all else of 
 essay and ambition beyond those four walls. 
 And with the thought a great peace came upon 
 him. It seemed good to him to live for her 
 alone. 
 
 It was not for long. As each monotonous day 
 brought the morning mist and evening fog 
 regularly to the little hill-top where his whole 
 being was now centred, she seemed to grow daily 
 weaker, and the little circle of her life narrowed 
 
136 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CH. vi 
 
 day by day. One morning when the usual mist 
 appeared to have been withheld and the sun had 
 risen with a strange and cruel brightness ; when 
 the waves danced and sparkled on the bay below, 
 and light glanced from dazzling sails, and even 
 the white tombs on Lone Mountain glittered 
 keenly ; when cheery voices hailing each other on. 
 the hillside came to him clearly but without sense 
 or meaning ; when earth, sky, and sea seemed 
 quivering with life and motion, he opened the 
 door of that one little house on which the 
 only shadow seemed to have fallen, and went 
 forth again into the world alone. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 MR. DANIEL HARCOURT'S town mansion was 
 also on an eminence, but it was that gentler 
 acclivity of fashion known as Rincon Hill, and 
 sunned itself on a southern slope of luxury. It 
 had been described as " princely," and " fairy- 
 like," by a grateful reporter ; tourists and travellers 
 had sung its praises in letters to their friends and 
 in private reminiscences, for it had dispensed 
 hospitality to most of the celebrities who had 
 visited the coast. Nevertheless its charm was 
 mainly due to the ruling taste of Miss Clementina 
 Harcourt, who had astonished her father by her 
 marvellous intuition of the nice requirements and 
 elegant responsibilities of their position ; and had 
 thrown her mother into the pained perplexity of 
 a matronly hen, who, among the ducks' eggs 
 entrusted to her fostering care, had unwittingly 
 hatched a graceful but discomposing cygnet. 
 
 Indeed, after holding out feebly against the 
 siege of wealth at Tasajara and San Francisco, 
 
138 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Mrs. Harcourt had abandoned herself hopelessly 
 to the horrors of its invasion ; had allowed 
 herself to be dragged from her kitchen by her 
 exultant daughters and set up in black silk in a 
 certain conventional respectability in the drawing- 
 room. Strange to say, her commiserating hos 
 pitality, or hospital-like ministration, not only 
 gave her popularity, but a certain kind of 
 distinction. An exaltation so sorrowfully depre 
 cated by its possessor was felt to be a sign of 
 superiority. She was spoken of as " motherly," 
 even by those who vaguely knew that there was 
 somewhere a discarded son struggling in poverty 
 with a helpless wife, and that she had sided with 
 her husband in disinheriting a daughter who had 
 married unwisely. She was sentimentally spoken 
 of as a " true wife," while never opposing a single 
 meanness of her husband, suggesting a single 
 active virtue, nor questioning her right to 
 sacrifice herself and her family for his sake. 
 With nothing she cared to affect she was quite 
 free from affectation, and even the critical 
 Lawrence Grant was struck with the dignity 
 which her narrow simplicity, that had seemed 
 small even in Sidon, attained in her palatial hall 
 in San Francisco. It appeared to be a perfectly 
 logical conclusion that when such unaffectedness 
 and simplicity were forced to assume a hostile 
 attitude to anybody, the latter must be to 
 blame. 
 
vii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 139 
 
 Since the festival of Tasajara, Mr. Grant had 
 been a frequent visitor at Harcourt's, and was a 
 guest on the eve of his departure from San 
 Francisco. The distinguished position of each 
 made their relations appear quite natural without 
 inciting gossip as to any attraction in Harcourt's 
 daughters. It was late one afternoon as he was 
 passing the door of Harcourt's study that his 
 host called him in. He found him sitting at his 
 desk with some papers before him and a folded 
 copy of the Clarion. With his back to the 
 fading light of the window his face was partly 
 in shadow. 
 
 " By the way, Grant/' he began, with an 
 assumption of carelessness somewhat inconsistent 
 with the fact that he had just called him in, "it 
 may be necessary for me to pull up those 
 fellows who are blackguarding me in the 
 Clarion" 
 
 " Why, they haven't been saying anything 
 new ? " asked Grant, laughingly, as he glanced 
 towards the paper. 
 
 " No that is only a re-hash of what -they 
 said before/' returned Harcourt without opening 
 the paper. 
 
 " Well," said Grant playfully, " you don't mind 
 their saying that you're not the original pioneer 
 of Tasajara, for it's true : nor that that fellow 
 Lige Curtis disappeared suddenly, for he did, if 
 I remember rightly. But there's nothing in that 
 
140 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 to invalidate your rights to Tasajara, to say 
 nothing of your five years' undisputed posses 
 sion." 
 
 " Of course there's no legal question/' said 
 Harcourt almost sharply. " But as a matter of 
 absurd report, I may want to contradict their 
 insinuations. And you remember all the cir 
 cumstances, don't you ? '' 
 
 " I should think so ! Why, my dear fellow, 
 I've told it everywhere ! here, in New York, 
 Newport, and in London ; by Jove ! it's one of 
 my best stories. How a company sent me out 
 with a surveyor to look up a railroad and agricul 
 tural possibilities in the wilderness; how just as 
 I found them and a rather big thing they made, 
 too I was set afloat by a flood and a raft, and 
 drifted ashore on your bank, and practically 
 demonstrated to you what you didn't know and 
 didn't dare to hope for that there could be a 
 water-way straight to Sidon from the cmbarcadero. 
 I've told what a charming evening we had with 
 you and your daughters in the old house, and how 
 I returned your hospitality by giving you a tip 
 about the railroad ; and how you slipped out 
 while we were playing cards to clinch the bar 
 gain for the land with that drunken fellow, Lige 
 Curtis " 
 
 " What's that ? " interrupted Harcourt, quickly. 
 
 It was well that the shadow hid from Grant 
 the expression of Harcourt's face, or his reply 
 
vii A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 141 
 
 might have been sharper. As it was, he answered 
 a little stiffly : 
 
 " I beg your pardon " 
 
 Harcourt recovered himself. " You're all 
 wrong ! " he said, " that bargain was made long 
 before ; I never saw Lige Curtis after you came 
 to the house. It was before that, in the after 
 noon," he went on hurriedly, " that he was last 
 in my store. I can prove it." Nevertheless he 
 was so shocked and indignant at being confronted 
 in his own suppressions and falsehoods by an even 
 greater and more astounding misconception of 
 fact, that for a moment he felt helpless. What, 
 he reflected, if it were alleged that Lige had 
 returned again after the loafers had gone, or had 
 never left the store as had been said ? Nonsense ! 
 There was John Milton, who had been there 
 reading all the time, and who could disprove it. 
 Yes, but John Milton was his discarded son 
 his enemy perhaps even his very slanderer ! 
 
 " But," said Grant quietly, " don't you remem 
 ber that your daughter Euphemia said something 
 that evening about the land Lige had offered 
 you, and you snapped up the young lady rather 
 sharply for letting out secrets, and then you went 
 out ? At least that's my impression." 
 
 It was, however, more than an impression ; with 
 Grant's scientific memory for characteristic details 
 he had noticed that particular circumstance as 
 part of the social phenomena, 
 
142 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " I don't know what Phemie said," returned 
 Harcourt impatiently. " I know there was no 
 offer pending ; the land had been sold to me 
 before I ever saw you. Why you must have 
 thought me up to pretty sharp practice with 
 Curtis eh?" he added, with a forced laugh. 
 
 Grant smiled ; he had been accustomed to hear 
 of such sharp practice among his business ac 
 quaintance, although he himself by nature and 
 profession was incapable of it, but he had not 
 deemed Harcourt more scrupulous than others. 
 " Perhaps so," he said lightly, " but for Heaven's 
 sake don't ask me to spoil my reputation as a 
 raconteur for the sake of a mere fact or two. 
 I assure you it's a mighty taking story as / tell 
 it and it don't hurt you in a business way. 
 You're the hero of it hang it all ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Harcourt, without noticing Grant's 
 half cynical superiority, " but you'll oblige me if 
 you won't tell it again in that way. There are 
 men here mean enough to make the worst of it. 
 It's nothing to me of course but my family 
 the girls, you know, are rather sensitive." 
 
 " I had no idea they even knew it much less 
 cared for it," said Grant, with sudden seriousness. 
 " I dare say if those fellows in the Clarion knew 
 that they were annoying the ladies they'd drop 
 it. Who's the editor? Look here leave it to 
 me; I'll look into it. Better that you shouldn't 
 appear in the matter at all." 
 
vii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 143 
 
 " You understand that if it was a really serious 
 matter, Grant," said Harcourt with a slight 
 attitude, " I shouldn't allow any one to take my 
 place." 
 
 " My dear fellow, there'll be nobody ' called 
 out ' and no ' shooting at sight ' whatever is the 
 result of my interference," returned Grant lightly. 
 " It'll be all right." He was quite aware of the 
 power of his own independent position and the 
 fact that he had been often appealed to before 
 in delicate arbitration. 
 
 Harcourt was equally conscious of this, but by 
 a strange inconsistency now felt relieved at the 
 coolness with which Grant had accepted the 
 misconception which had at first seemed so 
 dangerous. If he were ready to condone what 
 he thought was sharp practice he could not be 
 less lenient with the real facts that might come 
 out of course always excepting that interpo 
 lated consideration in the bill of sale, which, 
 however, no one but the missing Curtis could 
 ever discover. The fact that a man of Grant's 
 secure position had interested himself in this 
 matter would secure him from the working of 
 that personal vulgar jealousy which his humbler 
 antecedents had provoked. And if, as he fancied, 
 Grant really cared for, Clementina 
 
 "As you like," he said, with half affected 
 lightness, " and now let us talk of something 
 else. Clementina has been thinking of getting 
 
144 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 up a riding party to San Mateo for Mrs. Ash wood. 
 We must show them some civility, and that 
 Boston brother of hers, Mr. Shipley, will have 
 to be invited also. I can't get away, and my 
 wife of course will only be able to join them at 
 San Mateo in the carriage. I reckon it would be 
 easier for Clementina if you took my place, and 
 helped her to look after the riding party. It will 
 need a man, and I think she'd prefer you as 
 you know she's rather particular unless of 
 course . you'ld be wanted for Mrs. Ash wood or 
 Phemie, or somebody else." 
 
 From his shadowed corner he could see that 
 a pleasant light had sprung into Grant's eyes, 
 although his reply was in his ordinary easy 
 banter. " I shall be only too glad to act as 
 Miss Clementina's vaquero, and lassoo her run 
 aways, or keep stragglers in the road." 
 
 There seemed to be small necessity, however, 
 for this active co-operation, for when the cheer 
 ful cavalcade started from the house a few 
 mornings later, Mr. Lawrence Grant's onerous 
 duties seemed to be simply confined to those 
 of an ordinary cavalier at the side of Miss 
 Clementina a few paces in the rear of the 
 party. But this safe distance gave them the 
 opportunity of conversing without being over 
 heard an apparently discreet precaution. 
 
 " Your father was so exceedingly affable to me 
 the other day that if I hadn't given you my 
 
vir A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 145 
 
 promise to say nothing, I think I would have 
 fallen on my knees to him then and there, 
 revealed my feelings, asked for your hand and 
 his blessing or whatever one does at such a 
 time. But how long do you intend to keep me 
 in this suspense ? " 
 
 Clementina turned her clear eyes half abstract 
 edly upon him as if imperfectly recalling some 
 forgotten situation. " You forget," she said, 
 " that part of your promise was that you wouldn't 
 even speak of it to me again without my per 
 mission." 
 
 " But my time is so short now. Give me some 
 definite hope before I go. Let me believe that 
 when we meet in New York 
 
 " You will find me just the same as now ! 
 Yes ! I think I can promise that. Let that 
 suffice. You said the other day you liked me 
 because I had not changed for five years. You 
 can surely trust that I will not alter in as 
 many months." 
 
 " If I only knew " 
 
 " Ah, if / only knew if we all only knew. 
 But we don't. Come, Mr. Grant, let it rest as 
 it is. Unless you want to go still further back 
 and have it as it was at Sidon. There I think 
 you fancied Euphemia most." 
 
 " Clementina ! " 
 
 " That is my name, and those people ahead 
 of us know it already." 
 
 L 
 
146 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 "You are called Clementina but you are not 
 merciful ! " 
 
 " You are very wrong, for you might see that 
 Mr. Shipley has twice checked his horse that 
 he might hear what you are saying, and Phemie 
 is always showing Mrs. Ashwood something in 
 the landscape behind us." 
 
 All this was the more hopeless and exasperat 
 ing to Grant since in the young girl's speech 
 and manner there was not the slightest trace 
 of coquetry or playfulness. He could not help 
 saying a little bitterly : "I don't think that 
 any one would imagine from your manner that 
 you were receiving a declaration." 
 
 " But they might imagine from yours that 
 you had the right to quarrel with me which 
 would be worse." 
 
 " We cannot part like this ! It is too cruel 
 to me." 
 
 " We cannot part otherwise without the risk 
 of greater cruelty." 
 
 " But say at least, Clementina, that I have 
 no rival ? There is no other more favoured 
 suitor ? " 
 
 " That is so like a man and yet so unlike 
 the proud one I believed you to be. Why should 
 a man like you even consider such a possibility ? 
 If I were a man I know / couldn't." She turned 
 upon him a glance so clear and untroubled 
 by either conscious vanity or evasion that he 
 
vii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 147 
 
 was hopelessly convinced of the truth of her 
 statement, and she went on in a slightly lowered 
 tone, " You have no right to ask me such a 
 question but perhaps for that reason I am 
 willing to answer you. There is none. Hush ! 
 For a good rider you are setting a poor example 
 to the others, by crowding me towards the bank. 
 Go forward and talk to Phemie and tell her 
 not to worry Mrs. Ashwood's horse, nor race 
 with her ; I don't think he's quite safe and 
 Mrs. Ashwood isn't accustomed to using the 
 Spanish bit. I suppose I must say something 
 to Mr. Shipley, who doesn't seem to understand 
 that I'm acting as chaperone, and you as captain 
 of the party." 
 
 She cantered forward as she spoke, and Grant 
 was obliged to join her sister, who, mounted on 
 a powerful roan, was mischievously exciting a 
 beautiful quaker-coloured mustang ridden by 
 Mrs. Ashwood, already irritated by the unfamiliar 
 pressure of the Eastern woman's hand upon his 
 bit. The thick dust which had forced the party 
 of twenty to close up in two solid files across 
 the road compelled them at the. first opening 
 in the roadside fence to take the field in a 
 straggling gallop. Grant, eager to escape from 
 his own discontented self by doing something 
 for others reined in beside Euphemia and the 
 fair stranger. 
 
 " Let me take your place until Mrs. Ashwood's 
 
 L 2 
 
148 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 horse is quieted," he half whispered to Euphe- 
 mia. 
 
 " Thank you and I suppose it does not make 
 any matter to Clem who quiets mine," she said 
 with provoking eyes and a toss of her head 
 worthy of the spirited animal she was riding. 
 
 "She thinks you quite capable of managing 
 yourself and even others," he replied with a 
 playful glance at Shipley, who was riding some 
 what stiffly on the other side. 
 
 " Don't be too sure," retorted Phemie with 
 another dangerous look ; " I may give you trouble 
 yet." 
 
 They were approaching the first undulation 
 of the russet plain they had emerged upon an 
 umbrageous slope that seemed suddenly to diverge 
 in two denies among the shaded hills. Grant 
 had given a few words of practical advice to 
 Mrs. Ashwood, and shown her how to guide her 
 mustang by the merest caressing touch of the 
 rein upon its sensitive neck. He had not been 
 sympathetically inclined towards the fair stranger, 
 a rich and still youthful widow, although he could 
 not deny her unquestioned good breeding, mental 
 refinement, and a certain languorous thought- 
 fulness that was almost melancholy, which 
 accented her blonde delicacy. But he had 
 noticed that her manner was politely reserved 
 and slightly constrained towards the Harcourts, 
 and he had already resented it with a lover's 
 
vir A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 149 
 
 instinctive loyalty. He had at first attributed 
 it to a want of sympathy between Mrs. Ashwood's 
 more intellectual sentimentalities and the Har- 
 courts undeniable lack of any sentiment what 
 ever. But there was evidently some other innate 
 antagonism. He was very polite to Mrs. Ash wood ; 
 she responded with a gentlewoman's courtesy, 
 and, he was forced to admit, even a broader 
 comprehension of his own merits than the Har- 
 court girls had ever shown, but he could still 
 detect that she was not in accord with the party. 
 
 " I am afraid you do not like California, Mrs. 
 Ash wood ? " he said pleasantly. " You perhaps 
 find the life here too unrestrained and uncon 
 ventional ? '' 
 
 She looked at him in quick astonishment. 
 " Are you quite sincere ? Why it strikes me 
 that this is just what it is not. And I have 
 so longed for something quite different. From 
 what I have been told about the originality 
 and adventure of everything here, and your 
 independence of old social forms and customs,- 
 I am afraid I expected the opposite of what 
 I've seen. Why this very party, except that 
 the ladies are prettier and more expensively 
 gotten up is like any party that might have 
 ridden out at Saratoga or New York." 
 
 " And as stupid, you would say." 
 
 " As conventional, Mr. Grant ; always excepting 
 this lovely creature beneath me, whom I can't 
 
150 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 make out and who doesn't seem to care that 
 I should. There ! look ! I told you so ! " 
 
 Her mustang had suddenly bounded forward, 
 but as Grant followed he could see that the 
 cause was the example of Phemie, who had, in 
 some mad freak, dashed out in a frantic gallop. 
 A half-dozen of the younger people hilariously 
 accepted the challenge ; the excitement was com 
 municated to the others, until the whole cavalcade 
 was sweeping down the slope. Grant was still 
 at Mrs. Ashwood's side, restraining her mustang 
 and his own impatient horse when Clementina 
 joined them. " Phemie's mare has really bolted, 
 I fear," she said in a quick whisper, " ride on and 
 never mind us." Grant looked quickly ahead ; 
 Phemie's roan, excited by the shouts behind her 
 and to all appearance ungovernable, was fast 
 disappearing with her rider. Without a word, 
 trusting to his own good horsemanship and better 
 knowledge of the ground, he darted out of the 
 cavalcade to overtake her. 
 
 But the unfortunate result of this was to give 
 further impulse to the now racing horses as 
 they approached a point where the slope ter 
 minated in two diverging canons. Mrs. Ash wood 
 gave a sharp pull upon her bit. To her con 
 sternation the mustang stopped short almost 
 instantly planting his two fore feet rigidly in the 
 dust and even sliding forward with the impetus. 
 Had her seat been less firm she might have 
 
vii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 151 
 
 been thrown, but she recovered herself, although 
 in doing so she still bore upon the bit, when 
 to her astonishment the mustang deliberately 
 stiffened himself as if for a shock, and then 
 began to back slowly, quivering with excitement. 
 She did not know that her native-bred animal 
 fondly believed that he was participating in a 
 rodeo, and that to his equine intelligence his 
 fair mistress had just lassooed something ! In 
 vain she urged him forward ; he still waited for 
 the shock ! When the cloud of dust in which 
 she had been enwrapped drifted away, she saw 
 to her amazement that she was alone. The 
 entire party had disappeared into one of the 
 canons but which one she could not tell ! 
 
 When she succeeded at last in urging her 
 mustang forward again she determined to take 
 the right-hand canon and trust to being either 
 met or overtaken. A more practical and less ad 
 venturous nature would have waited at the point 
 of divergence for the return of some of the party, 
 but Mrs. Ash wood was, in truth, not sorry to be 
 left to herself and the novel scenery for a while, 
 and she had no doubt but she would eventually 
 find her way to the hotel at San Mateo, which 
 could not be far away, in time for luncheon. 
 
 The road was still well defined, although it pre 
 sently began to wind between ascending ranks of 
 pines and larches that marked the terraces of hills, 
 so high that she wondered she had not noticed 
 
152 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 them from the plains. An unmistakable sugges 
 tion of some haunting primeval solitude a sense 
 of the hushed and mysterious proximity of a 
 nature she had never known before ; the strange, 
 half intoxicating breath of unsunned foliage and 
 untrodden grasses and herbs all combined to exalt 
 her as she cantered forward. Even her horse 
 seemed to have acquired an intelligent liberty or 
 rather to have established a sympathy with her 
 in his needs and her own longings ; instinctively 
 she no longer pulled him with the curb ; the 
 reins hung loosely on his self-arched and un 
 fettered neck ; secure in this loneliness she found 
 herself even talking to him with barbaric free 
 dom. As she went on the vague hush of all 
 things animate and inanimate around her seemed 
 to thicken, until she unconsciously halted before a 
 dim and pillared wood and a vast and heathless 
 opening on whose mute brown lips Nature seemed 
 to have laid the finger of silence. She forgot the 
 party she had left, she forgot the luncheon she 
 was going to; more important still she forgot 
 that she had already left the travelled track far 
 behind her, and, tremulous with anticipation, rode 
 timidly into that arch of shadow. 
 
 As her horse's hoofs fell noiselessly on the 
 elastic moss-carpeted aisle she forgot even more 
 than that. She forgot the artificial stimulus and 
 excitement of the life she had been leadino* so 
 
 o 
 
 long ; she forgot the small meannesses and smaller 
 
vii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 153 
 
 worries of her well-to-do experiences ; she forgot 
 herself rather she regained a self she had long 
 forgotten. For in the sweet seclusion of this 
 half-darkened sanctuary the clinging fripperies of 
 her past slipped from her as a tawdry garment. 
 The petted, spoiled, and vapidly precocious girl 
 hood which had merged into a womanhood of 
 aimless triumphs and meaner ambitions ; the 
 worldly but miserable triumph of a marriage that 
 had left her delicacy abused and her heart sick 
 and unsatisfied ; the wifehood without home, 
 seclusion, or maternity ; the widowhood that at 
 last brought relief, but with it the consciousness 
 of hopelessly wasted youth all this seemed to 
 drop from her here as lightly as the winged 
 needles or noiseless withered spray from the 
 dim gray vault above her head. In the sovereign 
 balm of that woodland breath her better spirit 
 was restored; somewhere in these wholesome 
 shades seemed to still lurk what should have been 
 her innocent and nymph-like youth, and to come 
 out once more and greet her. Old songs she 
 had forgotten, or whose music had failed in the 
 discords of her frivolous life, sang themselves to 
 her again in that sweet, grave silence; girlish 
 dreams that she had foolishly been ashamed of, 
 or had put away with her childish toys, stole back 
 to her once more and became real in this tender 
 twilight ; old fancies, old fragments of verse and 
 childish lore, grew palpable and moved faintly 
 
154 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CH. vn 
 
 before her. The boyish prince who should have 
 come was there ; the babe that should have been 
 hers was there ! she stopped suddenly with flam 
 ing eyes and indignant colour. For it appeared 
 that a man was there too, and had just risen from 
 the fallen tree where he had been sitting. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SHE had so far forgotten herself in yielding 
 to the spell of the place and in the revelation of 
 her naked soul and inner nature that it was with 
 something of the instinct of outraged modesty 
 that she seemed to shrink before this apparition 
 of the outer world and outer worldliness. In an 
 instant the nearer past returned ; she remembered 
 where she was, how she had come there, who she 
 had come from, and to whom she was returning. 
 She could see that she had not only aimlessly 
 wandered from the world but from the road ; and 
 for that instant she hated this man who had 
 reminded her of it, even while she knew she must 
 ask his assistance. It relieved her slightly to ob 
 serve that he seemed as disturbed and impatient 
 as herself, and as he took a pencil from between 
 his lips and returned it to his pocket he scarcely 
 looked at her. 
 
 But with her return to the world of convenances 
 came its repression, and with a gentlewoman's 
 
156 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 ease and modulated voice she leaned over her 
 mustang's neck and said : " I have strayed from 
 my party and am afraid I have lost my way. We 
 were going to the hotel at San Mateo. Would 
 you be kind enough to direct me there, or show 
 me how I can regain the road by which I 
 
 o ?? 
 
 came ? 
 
 Her voice and manner were quite enough to 
 arrest him where he stood with a pleased surprise 
 in his fresh and ingenuous face. She looked at 
 him more closely. He was, in spite of his long 
 silken moustache, so absurdly young ; he might, 
 in [spite of that youth, be so absurdly man-like ! 
 What was he doing there ? Was he a farmer's 
 son, an artist, a surveyor, or a city clerk out for 
 a holiday ? Was there perhaps a youthful female 
 of his species somewhere for whom he was wait 
 ing and upon whose tryst she was now breaking ? 
 Was he terrible thought ! the outlying picket 
 of some family picnic ? His dress, neat, simple, 
 free from ostentatious ornament, betrayed nothing. 
 She waited for his voice. 
 
 " Oh, you have left San Mateo miles away to 
 the right," he said with quick youthful sympathy, 
 " at least five miles ! Where did you leave your 
 party ? " 
 
 His voice was winning, and even refined, she 
 thought. She answered it quite spontaneously : 
 " At a fork of two roads. I see now I took the 
 wrong turning;' 
 
viii A FIBST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 157 
 
 " Yes, you took the road to Crystal Spring. 
 It's just down there in the valley, not more than 
 a mile. You'd have been there now if you hadn't 
 turned off at the woods." 
 
 " I couldn't help it, it was so beautiful." 
 
 " Isn't it ? " 
 
 " Perfect." 
 
 " And such shadows, and such intensity of 
 colour." 
 
 " Wonderful ! and all along the ridge, looking 
 down that defile ! " 
 
 " Yes, and that point where it seems as if you 
 had only to stretch out your hand to pick a 
 manzanita berry from the other side of the canon, 
 half a mile across ! " 
 
 <c Yes ! and that first glimpse of the valley 
 through the Gothic gateway of rocks." 
 
 " And the colour of those rocks cinnamon and 
 bronze with the light green of the Yerba luena 
 vine splashing over them." 
 
 " Yes, but for colour did you notice that hillside 
 of yellow poppies pouring down into the valley, 
 like a golden Niagara ? " 
 
 " Certainly and the perfect clearness of every 
 thing." 
 
 " And yet such complete silence and re 
 pose ! " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " 
 
158 A FIRST FAMILY OF T AS A JAR A CHAP. 
 
 They were both gravely nodding and shaking 
 their heads with sparkling eyes and brightened 
 colour, looking not at each other but at the far 
 landscape vignetted through a lozenge-shaped 
 wind opening in the trees. Suddenly Mrs. 
 Ashwood straightened herself in the saddle, 
 looked grave, lifted the reins and apparently 
 the ten years with them that had dropped from 
 her. But she said in her easiest well-bred tones, 
 and a half sigh, " Then I must take the road 
 back again to where it forks ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! you can go by Crystal Spring. It's 
 no further, and I'll show you the way. But you'd 
 better stop and rest yourself and your horse for 
 a little while at the Springs Hotel. It's a very 
 nice place. Many people ride there from San 
 Francisco to luncheon and return. I wonder that 
 your party didn't prefer it ; and if they are 
 looking for you as they surely must be," he said, 
 as if with a sudden conception of her importance, 
 " they'll come there when they find you're not at 
 San Mateo." 
 
 This seemed reasonable, although the process 
 of being " fetched " and taking the five miles 
 ride, which she had enjoyed so much alone, in 
 company was not attractive. " Couldn't I go on 
 at once ? " she said impulsively. 
 
 " You would meet them sooner," he said 
 thoughtfully. 
 
VIII 
 
 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASA^ARA 159 
 
 This was quite enough for Mrs. Ashwood. " I 
 think I'll rest this poor horse who is really tired," 
 she said with charming hypocrisy, " and stop at 
 the hotel." 
 
 She saw his face brighten. Perhaps he was 
 the son of the hotel proprietor or a youthful 
 partner himself. " I suppose you live here ? " 
 she suggested gently. " You seem to know the 
 place so well." 
 
 " No," he returned quickly ; " I only run 
 down here from San Francisco when I can get 
 a day off. " 
 
 A day off! He was in some regular employ 
 ment. But he continued : " And I used to go to 
 boarding-school near here, and know all these 
 woods well." 
 
 He must be a native ! How odd ! She had 
 not conceived that there might be any other 
 population here than the immigrants ; perhaps 
 that was what made him so interesting and 
 different from the others. " Then your father and 
 mother live here ? " she said. 
 
 His frank face, incapable of disguise, changed 
 suddenly. " No," he said simply, but without 
 any trace of awkwardness. Then after a slight 
 pause he laid his hand she noticed it was white 
 and well-kept on her mustang's neck, and said, 
 " If if you care to trust yourself to me I could 
 lead you and your horse down a trail into the 
 
160 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 valley that is at least a third of the distance 
 shorter. It would save you going back to the 
 regular road, and there are one or two lovely views 
 that I could show you. I should be so pleased if 
 it would not trouble you. There's a steep place 
 or two but I think there's no danger." 
 
 " I shall not be afraid." 
 
 She smiled so graciously, and as she fully 
 believed, maternally, that he looked at her the 
 second time. To his first hurried impression of 
 her as an elegant and delicately-nurtured woman 
 one of the class of distinguished tourists that 
 fashion was beginning to send thither he had 
 now to add that she had a quantity of fine silken- 
 spun light hair gathered in a heavy braid beneath 
 her gray hat ; that her mouth was very delicately 
 lipped and beautifully sensitive; that her soft 
 skin, although just then touched with excitement, 
 was a pale faded velvet, and seemed to be worn 
 with ennui rather than experience ; that her eyes 
 were hidden behind a strip of gray veil whence 
 only a faint glow was discernible. To this must 
 still be added a poetic fancy all his own that, as 
 she sat there, with the skirt of her gray habit 
 falling from her long-bodiced waist over the 
 mustang's fawn-coloured flanks, and with her slim 
 gauntleted hands lightly swaying the reins, she 
 looked like Queen Guinevere in the forest. Not 
 that he particularly fancied Queen Guinevere, or 
 
vin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 161 
 
 that he at all imagined himself Launcelot, but it 
 was quite in keeping with the suggestion- 
 haunted brain of John Milton Harcourt, whom 
 the astute reader has of course long since 
 recognized. 
 
 Preceding her through the soft carpeted vault 
 with a woodman's instinct for there was appar 
 ently no trail to be seen the soft inner twilight 
 began to give way to the outer stronger day, and 
 presently she was startled to see the clear blue of 
 the sky before her on apparently the same level 
 as the brown pine-tesselated floor she was 
 treading. Not only did this show her that she 
 vfus crossing a ridge of the upland, but a few 
 moments later she had passed beyond the woods 
 to a golden hillside that sloped towards a leafy, 
 sheltered, and exquisitely-proportioned valley. A 
 tiny but picturesque tower, and a few straggling 
 roofs and gables, the flashing of a crystal stream 
 through the leaves, and a narrow white riband of 
 road winding behind it indicated the hostelry 
 they were seeking. So peaceful and unfrequented 
 it looked, nestling between the hills, that it 
 seemed as if they had discovered it. 
 
 With his hand at times upon the bridle, at 
 others merely caressing her mustang's neck, he 
 led the way ; there were a few breathless places 
 where the crown of his straw hat appeared 
 between her horse's reins, and again when she 
 seemed almost slipping over on his shoulder, but 
 
 M 
 
162 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 they were passed with such frank fearlessness and 
 
 J Jr 
 
 invincible youthful confidence on the part of her 
 escort that she felt no timidity. There were 
 moments when a bit of the charmed landscape 
 unfolding before them overpowered them both, 
 and they halted to gaze sometimes without a 
 word, or only a significant gesture of sympathy 
 and attention. At one of those artistic mani 
 festations Mrs. Ashwood laid her slim gloved 
 fingers lightly but unwittingly on John Milton's 
 arm, and withdrew them, however, with a quick 
 girlish apology and a foolish colour which annoyed 
 her more than the appearance of familiarity. But 
 they were now getting well down into the valley ; 
 the court of the little hotel was already opening 
 before them ; their unconventional relations in 
 the idyllic world above had changed ; the new ones 
 required some delicacy of handling, and she had 
 an idea that even the simplicity of the young 
 stranger might be confusing. 
 
 " I must ask you to continue to act as my 
 escort/' she said laughingly ; " I am Mrs. Ashwood 
 of Philadelphia, visiting San Francisco with my 
 sister and brother, who are, I am afraid, even 
 now hopelessly waiting luncheon for me at San 
 Mateo. But as there seems to be no prospect of 
 my joining them in time, I hope you will be able 
 to give me the pleasure of your company with 
 whatever they may give us here in the way of 
 refreshment." 
 
vni A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 163 
 
 " I shall be very happy/' returned John Milton 
 with unmistakable candour ; " but perhaps some 
 of your friends will be arriving in quest of you, if 
 they are not already here." 
 
 " Then they will join us or wait," said Mrs. 
 Ashwood incisively, with her first exhibition of 
 the imperiousness of a rich and pretty woman. 
 Perhaps she was a little annoyed that her elaborate 
 introduction of herself had produced no re 
 ciprocal disclosure by her companion. "Will 
 you please send the landlord to me ? " she 
 added. 
 
 John Milton disappeared in the hotel as she 
 cantered to the porch. In another moment she 
 was giving the landlord her orders with the easy 
 confidence of one who knew herself only as an 
 always welcome and highly privileged guest, which 
 was not without its effect. " And," she added 
 carelessly, "when everything is ready you will 
 please tell Mr. 
 
 " Harcourt," suggested the landlord promptly. 
 
 Mrs. Ashwood's perfectly trained face gave not 
 the slightest sign of the surprise that had over 
 taken her. " Of course Mr. Harcourt." 
 
 " You know he's the son of the millionaire," 
 continued the landlord, not at all unwilling to 
 display the importance of the halituds of Crystal 
 Spring, "though they've quarrelled and don't get 
 on together." 
 
 " I know," said the lady languidly ; " and, if any 
 
 M 2 
 
164 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 one comes here for me, ask them to wait in the 
 parlour until I come." 
 
 Then, submitting herself and her dusty habit to 
 the awkward ministration of the Irish chamber 
 maid, she was quite thrilled with a delightful 
 curiosity. She vaguely remembered that she had 
 heard something of the Harcourt family discord 
 but that was the divorced daughter surely ! And 
 this young man was Harcourt's son, and they had 
 quarrelled ! A quarrel with a frank, open, in 
 genuous fellow like that a mere boy could only 
 be the father's fault. Luckily she had never 
 mentioned the name of Harcourt ! She would not 
 now ; he need not know that it was his father 
 who had originated the party; why should she 
 make him uncomfortable for the few moments 
 they were together ? 
 
 There was nothing of this in her face as she 
 descended and joined him. He thought that 
 face handsome, well-bred, and refined. But this 
 breeding and refinement seemed to him in his 
 ignorance of the world possibly as only a 
 graceful concealment of a self of which he knew 
 nothing, and he was not surprised to find that her 
 pretty gray eyes, now no longer hidden by her 
 veil, really told him no more than her lips. He 
 was a little afraid of her, and now that she had 
 lost her naive enthusiasm he was conscious of a 
 vague remorsef ulness for his interrupted work in 
 the forest. What was he doing here ? He who 
 
viii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 165 
 
 had avoided the cruel, selfish world of wealth and 
 pleasure a world that this woman represented 
 the world that had stood apart from him in the 
 one dream of his life and had let Loo die ! His 
 quickly responsive face darkened. 
 
 " I am afraid I really interrupted you up 
 there," she said gently, looking in his face with an 
 expression of unfeigned concern ; " you were at 
 work of some kind, I know. And I have very 
 selfishly thought only of myself. But the whole 
 scene was so new to me, and I so rarely meet 
 any one who sees things as I do, that I know 
 you will forgive me." She bent her eyes upon 
 him with a certain soft timidity. "You are an 
 artist ? " 
 
 " I am afraid not," he said, colouring and 
 smiling faintly; "I don't think I could draw a 
 straight line." 
 
 " Don't try to ; they're not pretty, and the 
 mere ability to draw them straight or curved 
 doesn't make an artist. But you are a lover of 
 nature, I know, and from what I have heard you 
 say I believe you can do what lovers cannot do 
 make others feel as they do and that is what I 
 call being an artist. You write ? You are a 
 poet ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear no," he said with a smile, half of 
 relief and half of naive superiority. " I'm a prose 
 writer on a daily newspaper." 
 
 To his surprise she was not disconcerted ; rather 
 
166 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 a look of animation lit up her face as she said 
 brightly, " Oh, then, you can of course satisfy my 
 curiosity about something. You know the road 
 from San Francisco to the Cliff House. Except 
 for the view of the sea lions when one gets there 
 it's stupid; iny brother says it's like all the San 
 Francisco excursions a dusty drive with a julep 
 at the end of it. Well, one day we were coming 
 back from a drive there, and when we were 
 beginning to wind along the brow of that dreadful 
 staring Lone Mountain Cemetery I said I would 
 get out and walk, and avoid the obtrusive glitter 
 of those tombstones rising before me all the way. 
 I pushed open a little gate and passed in. Once 
 among these funereal shrubs and cold statuesque 
 lilies everything was changed ; I saw the staring 
 tombstones no longer, for like them, I seemed 
 to be always facing the sea. The road had 
 vanished ; everything had vanished but the 
 endless waste of ocean below me, and the last 
 slope of rock and sand. It seemd to be the fittest 
 place for a cemetery this end of the crumbling 
 earth this beginning of the eternal sea. There ! 
 don't think that idea my own, or that I thought 
 of it then. No, I read it all afterwards, and 
 that's why I'm telling you this." 
 
 She could not help smiling at his now atten 
 tive face, and went on : " Some days afterwards 
 I got hold of a newspaper four or six months 
 old, and there was a description of all that I 
 
viii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 167 
 
 thought I had seen and felt only far more beau 
 tiful and touching as you shall see, for I cut it 
 out of the paper and have kept it. It seemed 
 to me that it must be some personal experience 
 as if the writer had followed some dear friend 
 there although it was with the unostentation 
 and indefiniteness of true and delicate feeling. 
 It impressed me so much that I went back there 
 twice or thrice, and always seemed to move to 
 the rhythm of that beautiful funeral march 
 and I am afraid, being a woman, that I wan 
 dered around among the graves as though I could 
 find out who it was that had been sung so 
 sweetly, and if it were man or woman. I've got 
 it here," she said, taking a dainty ivory porte- 
 monnaie from her pocket, and picking out with 
 two slim finger tips a folded slip of newspaper ; 
 " and I thought that maybe you might recognize 
 the style of the writer, and perhaps know some 
 thing of his history. For I believe he has one. 
 There ! that is only a part of the article of course, 
 but it is the part that interested me. Just read 
 from there," she pointed, leaning partly over his 
 shoulder so that her soft breath stirred his hair, 
 " to the end ; it isn't long." 
 
 In the film that seemed to come across his 
 eyes, suddenly the print appeared blurred and 
 indistinct. But he knew that she had put into 
 his hand something he had written after the 
 death of his wife ; something spontaneous and 
 
168 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 impulsive, when her loss still filled his days and 
 nights and almost unconsciously swayed his pen. 
 He remembered that his eyes had been as dim 
 when he wrote it and now handed to him by 
 this smiling, well-to-do woman, he was as shocked 
 at first as if he had suddenly found her reading 
 his private letters. This was followed by a sud 
 den sense of shame that he had ever thus pub 
 licly bared his feelings, and then by the illogical 
 but irresistible conviction that it was false and 
 stupid. The few phrases she had pointed out 
 appeared as cheap and hollow rhetoric amid the 
 surroundings of their social tete-a-tete over the 
 luncheon-table. There was small danger that 
 this heady wine of woman's praise would make 
 him betray himself; there was no sign of grati 
 fied authorship in his voice as he quietly laid 
 down the paper and said drily : " I am afraid I 
 can't help you. You know it may be purely 
 fanciful." 
 
 " I don't think so," said Mrs. Ash wood thought 
 fully. "At the same time it doesn't strike me 
 as a very abiding grief for that very reason. It's 
 too sympathetic. It strikes me that it might 
 be the first grief of some one too young to be 
 inured to sorrow or experienced enough to ac 
 cept it as the common lot. But like all youth 
 ful impressions it is very sincere and true while 
 it lasts. I don't know whether one gets anything 
 more real when one gets older." 
 
vm A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 169 
 
 With an insincerity he could not account for, 
 he now felt inclined to defend his previous senti 
 ment, although all the while conscious of a 
 certain charm in his companion's graceful scep 
 ticism. He had in his truthfulness and inde 
 pendence hitherto always been quite free from 
 that feeble admiration of cynicism which attacks 
 the intellectually weak and immature, and his 
 present predilection may have been due more 
 to her charming personality. She was not at 
 all like his sisters ; she had none of Clemen 
 tina's cold abstraction, and none of Euphemia's 
 sharp and demonstrative effusiveness. And in 
 his secret consciousness of her flattering fore 
 knowledge of him, with her assurance that 
 before they had ever met he had unwittingly 
 influenced her, he began to feel more at his 
 ease. His fair companion also, in the equally 
 secret knowledge she had acquired of his history, 
 felt as secure as if she had been formally intro 
 duced. Nobody could find fault with her for 
 showing civility to the ostensible son of her 
 host it was not necessary that she should be 
 aware of their family differences. There was a 
 charm too in their enforced isolation, in what 
 was the exceptional solitude of the little hotel 
 that day, and the seclusion of their table by 
 the window of the dining-room, which gave a 
 charming domesticity to their repast. From 
 time to time they glanced down the lonely 
 
170 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 canon, losing itself in the afternoon shadow. 
 Nevertheless Mrs. Ashwood's pre-occupation with 
 Nature did not preclude a human curiosity to 
 hear something more of John Milton's quarrel 
 with his father. There was certainly nothing of 
 the prodigal son about him ; there was no pre 
 cocious evil knowledge in his frank eyes ; no 
 record of excesses in his healthy, fresh com 
 plexion ; no unwholesome or disturbed tastes 
 in what she had seen of his rural preferences 
 and understanding of natural beauty. To have 
 attempted any direct questioning that would 
 have revealed his name and identity would have 
 obliged her to speak of herself as his father's 
 guest. She began indirectly ; he had said he 
 had been a reporter, and he was still a chronicler 
 of this strange life. He had of course heard of 
 many cases of family feuds and estrangements ! 
 Her brother had told her of some dreadful ven 
 dettas he had known in the south-west, and how 
 whole families had been divided. Since she had 
 been here she had heard of odd cases of brothers 
 meeting accidentally after long and unaccounted 
 separations ; of husbands suddenly confronted with 
 wives they had deserted; of fathers encountering 
 discarded sons ! 
 
 John Milton's face betrayed no- uneasy con 
 sciousness. If anything it was beginning to glow 
 with a boyish admiration of the grace and in 
 telligence of the fair speaker, that was perhaps 
 
viii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 171 
 
 heightened by an assumption of half coquettish 
 discomfiture. 
 
 " You are laughing at me," she said finally. 
 " But inhuman and selfish as these stories may 
 seem, and sometimes are, I believe that these 
 curious estrangements and separations often come 
 from some fatal weakness of temperament that 
 might be strengthened, or some trivial mis 
 understanding that could be explained. It is 
 separation that makes them seem irrevocable 
 only because they are inexplicable, and a vague 
 memory always seems more terrible than a defi 
 nite one. Facts may be forgiven and forgotten 
 but mysteries haunt one always. I believe there 
 are weak, sensitive people who dread to put their 
 wrongs into shape those are the kind who sulk, 
 and when you add separation to sulking, recon 
 ciliation becomes impossible. I knew a very sin 
 gular case of that kind once. If you like, I'll 
 tell it to you. Maybe you will be able, some 
 day, to weave it into one of your writings. And 
 it's quite true." 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that John Milton 
 had not been touched by any personal significance 
 in his companion's speech, whatever she may have 
 intended ; and it is equally true that whether she 
 had presently forgotten her purpose, or had be 
 come suddenly interested in her own conversa 
 tion, her face grew more animated, her manner 
 more confidential, and something of the youthful 
 
172 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 enthusiasm she had shown in the mountain seemed 
 to come back to her. 
 
 " I might say it happened anywhere and call 
 the people M. or N., but it really did occur in 
 my own family, and although I was much 
 younger at the time it impressed me very 
 strongly. My cousin, who had been my play 
 mate, was an orphan, and had been entrusted 
 to the care of my father, who was his guardian. 
 He was always a clever boy, but singularly sen 
 sitive and quick to take offence. Perhaps it was 
 because the little property his father had left 
 made him partly dependent on my father, and 
 that I was rich, but he seemed to feel the dis 
 parity in our positions. I was too young to 
 understand it ; I think it existed only in his 
 imagination, for I believe we were treated alike. 
 But I remember that he was full of vague threats 
 of running away and going to sea, and that it 
 was part of his weak temperament to terrify 
 me with his extravagant confidences. I was 
 always frightened when, after one of those scenes, 
 he would pack his valise or perhaps only tie up 
 a few things in a handkerchief, as in the 
 advertisement pictures of the runaway slaves, 
 and declare that we would never lay eyes upon 
 him again. At first I never saw the ridiculous 
 ness of all this for I ought to have told you 
 that he was rather a delicate and timid boy, and 
 quite unfitted for a rough life or any exposure 
 
vm A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 173 
 
 but others did, and one day I laughed at him 
 and told him he was afraid. I shall never forget 
 the expression of his face and never forgive my 
 self for it. He went away, but he returned 
 the next day ! He threatened once to commit 
 suicide, left his clothes on the bank of the 
 river, and came home in another suit of clothes 
 he had taken with him. When I was sent 
 abroad to school I lost sight of him ; when I 
 returned he was at college apparently un 
 changed. When he came home for vacation, 
 far from having been subdued by contact with 
 strangers it seemed that his unhappy sensitive 
 ness had been only intensified by the ridicule 
 of his fellows. He had even acquired a most 
 ridiculous theory about the degrading effects of 
 civilization, and wanted to go back to a state 
 of barbarism. He said the wilderness was the 
 only true home of man. My father, instead of 
 bearing with what I believe was his infirmity, 
 drily offered him the means to try his experi 
 ment. He started for some place in Texas, 
 saying we would never hear from him again. A 
 month after he wrote for more money. My father 
 replied rather impatiently I suppose I never 
 knew exactly what lie wrote. That was some 
 years ago. He had told the truth at last, for 
 we never heard from him again." 
 
 It is to be feared that John Milton was follow 
 ing the animated lips and eyes of the fair speaker 
 
174 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 rather than her story. Perhaps that was the 
 reason why he said : " May he not have been a 
 disappointed man ? " 
 
 " I don't understand," she said simply. 
 
 " Perhaps," said John Milton with a boyish 
 blush, " you may have unconsciously raised hopes 
 in his heart and " 
 
 " I should hardly attempt to interest a 
 chronicler of adventure like you in such a very 
 commonplace, every-day style of romance," she 
 said, with a little impatience, " even if my vanity 
 compelled me to make such confidences to a 
 stranger. No it was nothing quite as vulgar 
 as that. And," she added quickly, with a play 
 fully amused smile as she saw the young fellow's 
 evident distress, " I should have probably heard 
 from him again. Those stories always end in 
 that way." 
 
 " And you think ? " said John Milton. 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Ashwood slowly, " that 
 he actually did commit suicide or effaced him 
 self in some way, just as firmly as I believe he 
 might have been saved by judicious treatment. 
 Otherwise we should have heard from him. 
 You'll say that's only a woman's reasoning 
 but I think our perceptions are often instinctive, 
 and I knew his character." 
 
 Still following the play of her delicate features 
 into a romance of his own weaving, the imagina 
 tive young reporter, who had seen so much 
 
viii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 175 
 
 from the heights of Russian Hill, said earnestly : 
 "Then I have your permission to use this 
 material at any future time ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the lady smilingly. 
 
 "And you will not mind if I should take 
 some liberties with the text ? " 
 
 " I must of course leave something to your 
 artistic taste. But you will let me see it ? " 
 
 There were voices outside now, breaking the 
 silence of the verandah. They had been so pre 
 occupied as not to notice the arrival of a horse 
 man. Steps came along the passage ; the land 
 lord returned. Mrs. Ash wood turned quickly to 
 wards him. 
 
 " Mr. Grant, of your party, ma'am, to fetch 
 you." 
 
 She saw an unmistakable change in her young 
 friend's mobile face. " I will be ready in a 
 moment," she said to the landlord. Then turn 
 ing to John Milton the arch-hypocrite said 
 sweetly : " My brother must have known instinct 
 ively that I was in good hands as he didn't 
 come. But I am sorry, for I should have so 
 liked to introduce him to you although by the 
 way," with a bright smile, " I don't think you 
 have yet told me your name. I know I couldn't 
 have forgotten it." 
 
 "Harcourt,'' said John Milton, with a half 
 embarrassed laugh. 
 
 " But you must come and see me, Mr. Mr. 
 
176 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Harcourt," she said, producing a card from a 
 case already in her fingers, " at my hotel, and let 
 my brother thank you there for your kindness 
 and gallantry to a stranger. I shall be here a few 
 weeks longer before we go south to look for a 
 place where my brother can winter. Do come 
 and see me, although / cannot introduce you to 
 anything as real and beautiful as what you have 
 shown me to-day. Good-bye, Mr. Harcourt; I 
 won't trouble you to come down and bore yourself 
 with my escort's questions and congratulations." 
 
 She bent her head and allowed her soft eyes 
 to rest upon his with a graciousness that was 
 beyond her speech, pulled her veil over her eyes 
 again, with a pretty suggestion that she had no 
 further use for them, and taking her riding-skirt 
 lightly in her hand seemed to glide from the 
 room. 
 
 On her way to San Mateo, where it appeared 
 the disorganized party had prolonged their visit 
 to accept an invitation to dine with a local 
 magnate, she was pleasantly conversational with 
 the slightly abstracted Grant. She was so sorry 
 to have given them all this trouble and anxiety ! 
 Of course she ought to have waited at the fork 
 of the road, but she had never doubted but she 
 could rejoin them presently on the main road. 
 She was glad that Miss Euphemia's runaway 
 horse had been stopped without accident ; it 
 would have been dreadful if anything had hap- 
 
vin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 177 
 
 penecl to her; Mr. Harcourt seemed so wrapped 
 up in his girls. It was a pity they never had 
 a son Ah ? Indeed ! Then there was a son ? 
 So and father and son had quarrelled ? That 
 was so sad. And for some trifling cause no 
 doubt ? 
 
 " I believe he married the housemaid/' said 
 Grant grimly. " Be careful ! Allow me." 
 
 " It's no use ! " said Mrs. Ash wood, flushing 
 with pink impatience, as she recovered her seat 
 which a sudden bolt of her mustang had im 
 perilled. " I really can't make out the tricks of 
 this beast ! Thank you," she added, with a 
 sweet smile, " but I think I can manage him 
 now. I can't see why he stopped. I'll be more 
 careful. You were saying the son was married 
 surely not that boy ! " 
 
 " Boy ! " echoed Grant. " Then you know 
 ?" 
 
 " I mean of course he must be a boy they 
 all grew up here and it was only five or six 
 years ago that their parents emigrated," she 
 retorted a little impatiently. " And what about 
 this creature ? " 
 
 "Your horse?" 
 
 " You know I mean the woman he married. 
 Of course she was older than he and caught 
 him ? " 
 
 u I think there was a year or two difference," 
 said Grant quietly. 
 
 N 
 
178 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Yes, but your gallantry keeps you from 
 telling the truth, which is that the women, in 
 cases of this kind, are much older and more 
 experienced." 
 
 " Are they ? Well, perhaps she is now. She 
 is dead." 
 
 Mrs. Ashwood walked her horse. " Poor 
 thing," she said. Then a sudden idea took 
 possession of her and brought a film to her 
 eyes. " How long ago ? " she asked in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " About six or seven months, I think. I be 
 lieve there was a baby who died too." 
 
 She continued to walk her horse slowly, strok 
 ing its curved neck. " I think it's perfectly 
 shameful ! " she said suddenly. 
 
 " Not so bad as that, Mrs. Ashwood, surely. 
 The girl may have loved him and he 
 
 "You know perfectly what I mean, Mr. Grant 
 I speak of the conduct of the mother and 
 father and those two sisters ! " 
 
 Grant slightly elevated his eyebrows. " But 
 you forget, Mrs. Ashwood. It was young Har- 
 court and his wife's own act they preferred to 
 take their own path and keep it." 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Ashwood authoritatively, 
 " that the idea of leaving those two unfortunate 
 children to suffer and struggle on alone out 
 there on the sand hills of San Francisco was 
 simply disgraceful ! " 
 
VTII A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 179 
 
 Later that evening she was unreasonably an 
 noyed to find that her brother, Mr. John Shipley, 
 had taken advantage of the absence of Grant 
 to pay marked attention to Clementina, and had 
 even prevailed upon that imperious goddess to 
 accompany him after dinner on a moonlight 
 stroll upon the verandah and terraces of Los 
 Pajaros. Nevertheless she seemed to recover 
 her spirits enough to talk volubly of the beau 
 tiful scenery she had discovered in her late 
 perilous abandonment in the wilds of the Coast 
 Range ; to aver her intention to visit it again : 
 to speak of it in a severely practical way as 
 offering a far better site for the cottages of the 
 young married couples just beginning life than 
 the outskirts of towns or the bleak sand hills 
 of San Francisco ; and thence by graceful degrees 
 into a dissertation upon popular fallacies in 
 regard to hasty marriages, and the mistaken 
 idea of some parents in not accepting the inevit 
 able and making the best of it. She still found 
 time to enter into an appreciative and exhaustive 
 criticism upon the literature and journalistic 
 enterprise of the Pacific Coast with the proprietor 
 of the Pioneer, and to cause that gentleman to 
 declare that whatever people might say about 
 rich and fashionable Eastern women, that Mrs. 
 Ashwood's head was about as level as it was 
 pretty. 
 
 The next morning found her more thoughtful 
 
 N 2 
 
180 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 and subdued, and when her brother came upon 
 her sitting on the verandah, while the party were 
 preparing to return, she was reading a newspaper 
 slip that she had taken from her porte-monnaie, 
 with a face that was partly shadowed. 
 
 "What have you struck there, Conny ? " said 
 her brother gaily. " It looks too serious for a 
 recipe." 
 
 " Something I should like you to read some 
 time, Jack," she said, lifting her lashes with a 
 slight timidity, "if you would take the trouble. 
 I really wonder how it would impress you." 
 
 " Pass it over," said Jack Shipley good- 
 humouredly, with his cigar between his lips. 
 "I'll take it now." 
 
 She handed him the slip and turned partly 
 away ; he took it, glanced at it sideways, turned 
 it over, and suddenly his look grew concentrated, 
 and he took the cigar from his lips. 
 
 " Well," she said playfully, turning to him 
 again. " What do you think of it ? " 
 
 " Think of it ? " he said with a rising colour. 
 " I think it's infamous ! Who did it ? " 
 
 She stared at him, then glanced quickly at 
 
 the slip. " What are you reading ? " she said. 
 
 " This, of course," he said impatiently. " What 
 
 you gave me." But he was pointing to the other 
 
 side of the newspaper slip. 
 
 She took it from him impatiently and read 
 for the first time the printing on the reverse 
 
vin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 181 
 
 side of the article she had treasured so long. 
 It was the concluding paragraph of an apparently 
 larger editorial. " One thing is certain, that a 
 man in Daniel Harcourt's position cannot afford 
 to pass over in silence accusations like the above, 
 that affect not only his private character, but 
 the integrity of his title to the land that was 
 the foundation of his fortune. When trickery, 
 sharp practice, and even criminality in the past 
 are more than hinted at, they cannot be met 
 by mere pompous silence or allusions to private 
 position, social prestige, or distinguished friends 
 in the present." 
 
 Mrs. Ashwood turned the slip over with scorn 
 ful impatience, a pretty uplifting of her eyebrows 
 and a slight curl of her lip . " I suppose none of 
 those people's beginnings can bear looking into 
 and they certainly should be the last ones to 
 find fault with anybody. But, good gracious, 
 Jack ! what has this to do with you ? " 
 
 " With me ? " said Shipley angrily. " Why I 
 proposed to Clementina last night ! " 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE wayfarers on the Tasajara turnpike whom 
 Mr. Daniel Harcourt passed with his fast trotting 
 mare and sulky, saw that their great fellow- 
 townsman was more than usually preoccupied 
 and curt in his acknowledgment of their saluta 
 tions. Nevertheless as he drew near the creek, 
 he partly checked his horse, and when he reached 
 a slight acclivity of the interminable plain 
 which had really been the bank of the creek in 
 bygone days he pulled up, alighted, tied his 
 horse to a rail fence, and clambering over the 
 enclosure made his way along the ridge. It was 
 covered with nettles, thistles, and a few wiry 
 dwarf larches of native growth ; dust from the 
 adjacent highway had invaded it with a few 
 scattered and torn handbills, waste paper, rags, 
 empty provision cans, and other suburban debris. 
 Yet it was the site of Lige Curtis's cabin, long 
 since erased and forgotten. The bed of the old 
 creek had receded ; the last tides had been cleared 
 
CHAP, ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 183 
 
 away ; the channel and cmlarcadcro were half a 
 mile from the bank and log whereon the pioneer 
 of Tasajara had idly sunned himself. 
 
 Mr. Harcourt walked on, occasionally turning 
 over the scattered objects with his foot, and 
 stopping at times to examine the ground more 
 closely. It had not apparently been disturbed 
 since he himself, six years ago, had razed the 
 wretched shanty and carried off its timbers to aid 
 in the erection of a larger cabin further inland. 
 He raised his eyes to the prospect before him to 
 the town with its steamboats lying at the 
 wharves, to the grain elevator, the warehouses, 
 the railroad station with its puffing engines, the 
 flagstaff of Harcourt House, and the clustering 
 roofs of the town, and beyond the painted dome 
 of his last creation, the Free Library. This was 
 all his work, his planning, his foresight, whatever 
 they might say of the wandering drunkard from 
 whose tremulous fingers he had snatched the 
 opportunity. They could not take that from him, 
 however they might follow him with envy and 
 reviling, any more than they could wrest from 
 him the five years of peaceful possession. It was 
 with something of the prosperous consciousness 
 with which he had mounted the platform on the 
 opening of the Free Library, that he now 
 climbed into his buggy and drove away. 
 
 Nevertheless he stopped at his Land Office as 
 he drove into town, and gave a few orders. " I 
 
184 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 want a strong picket fence put around the fifty 
 vara lot in block fifty-seven, and the ground 
 cleared up at once. Let me know when the 
 men get to work and I'll overlook them." 
 
 Re-entering his own house in the square where 
 Mrs. Harcourt and Clementina who often accom 
 panied him in those business visits were waiting 
 for him with luncheon, he smiled somewhat 
 superciliously as the servant informed him that 
 "Professor Grant had just arrived." Really that 
 man was trying to make the most of his time 
 with Clementina ! Perhaps the rival attractions 
 of that Boston swell Shipley had something to do 
 with it ! He must positively talk to Clementina 
 about this. In point of fact he himself was a 
 little disappointed in Grant, who, since his offer to 
 take the task of hunting down his calumniators, 
 had really done nothing. He turned into his 
 study, but was slightly astonished to find that 
 Grant, instead of paying court to Clementina in 
 the adjoining drawing-room, was sitting rather 
 thoughtfully in his own armchair. 
 
 He rose as Harcourt entered. "I didn't let 
 them announce me to the ladies," he said, " as I 
 have some important business with, you first, and 
 we may find it necessary that I should take the 
 next train back to town. You remember that a 
 few weeks ago I offered to look into the matter 
 of those slanders against you. I apprehended it 
 would be a trifling matter of envy or jealousy on 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 185 
 
 the part of your old associates or neighbours, 
 which could be put straight with a little good 
 feeling, but I must be frank with you, Harcourt, 
 and say at the beginning that it turns out to be 
 an infernally ugly business. Call it conspiracy 
 if you like, or organized hostility, I'm afraid 
 it will require a lawyer rather than an arbi 
 trator to manage it, and the sooner the bet 
 ter. For the most unpleasant thing about 
 it is, that 1 can't find out exactly Jwio bad 
 it is ! " 
 
 Unfortunately the weaker instinct of Harcourt's 
 nature was first roused ; the vulgar rage which 
 confounds the bearer of ill news with the news 
 itself filled his breast. " And this is all that 
 your confounded intermeddling came to ? " he 
 said brutally. 
 
 " No," said Grant quietly with a preoccupied 
 ignoring of the insult that was more hopeless 
 for Harcourt. " I found out that it is claimed 
 that this Lige Curtis was not drowned nor lost 
 that night ; but that he escaped, and for three 
 years has convinced another man that you are 
 wrongfully in possession of this land ; that these 
 two naturally hold you in their power, and that 
 they are only waiting for you to be forced into 
 legal proceedings for slander to prove all their 
 charges. TJntil then, for some reason best 
 known to themselves, Curtis remains in the 
 background." 
 
186 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Does he deny the deed under which I hold 
 the property ? " said Harcourt savagely. 
 
 " He says it was only a security for a trifling 
 loan, and not an actual transfer." 
 
 " And don't those fools know that his security 
 could be forfeited ? " 
 
 " Yes, but not in the way it is recorded in 
 the County Clerk s Office. They say that the 
 record shows that there was an interpolation in 
 the paper he left with you which was a forgery. 
 Briefly, Harcourt, you are accused of that. More 
 it is intimated that when he fell into the creek 
 that night, and escaped on a raft that was float 
 ing past, that he had been first stunned by a 
 blow from some one interested in getting rid of 
 him." 
 
 He paused and glanced out of the window. 
 
 " Is that all ? " asked Harcourt in a perfectly 
 quiet, steady voice. 
 
 " All," replied Grant, struck with a change in 
 his companion's manner and turning his eyes 
 upon him quickly. 
 
 The change indeed was marked and significant. 
 Whether from relief at knowing the worst, or 
 whether he was experiencing the same reaction 
 from the utter falsity of this last accusation that 
 he had felt when Grant had unintentionally 
 wronged him in his previous recollection, certain 
 it is that some unknown reserve of strength in 
 his own nature, of which he knew nothing before, 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 187 
 
 suddenly came to his aid in this extremity. It 
 invested him with an uncouth dignity that for 
 the first time excited Grant's respect. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Grant, for the hasty way 
 I spoke to you a moment ago, for I thank you, 
 and appreciate thoroughly and sincerely what you 
 have done. You are right; it is a matter for 
 fighting, and not fussing over. But I must 
 have a head to hit. Whose is it ? " 
 
 "The man who holds himself legally responsi 
 ble is Fletcher the proprietor of the Clarion, 
 and a man of property." 
 
 " The Clarion ? That is the paper which began 
 the attack ? " said Harcourt. 
 
 " Yes, and it is only fair to tell you here 
 that your son threw up his place on it in con 
 sequence of its attack upon you." 
 
 There was perhaps the slightest possible 
 shrinking in Harcourt's eyelids the one con 
 genital likeness to his discarded son but his 
 otherwise calm demeanour did not change.. 
 Grant went on more cheerfully : " I've told you 
 all I know. When I spoke of an unknown 
 worst I did not refer to any further accusation 
 but to whatever evidence they might have fabri 
 cated or suborned to prove any one of them. 
 It is only the strength and fairness of the hands 
 they hold that is uncertain. Against that you 
 have your certain uncontested possession, the 
 peculiar character and antecedents of this Lige 
 
188 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Curtis which would make his evidence untrust 
 worthy and even make it difficult for them to 
 establish his identity. I am told that his failure 
 to contest your appropriation of his property is 
 explained by the fact of his being absent from 
 the country most of the time ; but again this 
 would not account for their silence until within 
 the last six months, unless they have been 
 waiting for further evidence to establish it. 
 But even then they must have known that the 
 time of recovery had passed. You are a prac 
 tical man, Harcourt, I needn't tell you there 
 fore what your lawyer will probably tell you, 
 that practically, so far as your rights are con 
 cerned, you remain as before these calumnies ; 
 that a cause of action unprosecuted or in abeyance 
 is practically no cause, and that it is not for you 
 to anticipate one. But 
 
 He paused and looked steadily at Harcourt. 
 Harcourt met his look with a dull, ox-like 
 stolidity. " I shall begin the suit at once," he 
 said. 
 
 "And I," said Grant, holding out his hand, 
 " will stand by you. But tell me now what you 
 knew of this man Curtis his character and dis 
 position ; it may be some clue as to what are his 
 methods and his intentions." 
 
 Harcourt briefly sketched Lige Curtis as he 
 knew him and understood him. It was another 
 indication of his reserved power that the descrip- 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 189 
 
 tion was so singularly clear, practical, unpre 
 judiced, and impartial that it impressed Grant 
 with its truthfulness. 
 
 " I can't make him out," he said ; " you have 
 drawn a weak, but neither a dishonest nor 
 malignant man. There must have been some 
 body behind him. Can you think of any personal 
 enemy ? ' ' 
 
 " I have been subjected to the usual jealousy 
 and envy of my old neighbours, I suppose, but 
 nothing more. I have harmed no one know- 
 ingly." 
 
 Grant was silent ; it had flashed across him 
 that Bice might have harboured revenge for his 
 father-in-law's interference in his brief matri 
 monial experience. He had also suddenly re 
 called his conversation with Billings on the day 
 that he first arrived at Tasajara. It would not 
 be strange if this man had some intimation of the 
 secret. He would try to find him that evening. 
 He rose. 
 
 " You will stay to dinner. My wife and 
 Clementina will expect you." 
 
 " Not to-night ; I am dining at the hotel," said 
 Grant smilingly, " but I will come in later in the 
 evening if I may." He paused hesitatingly for a 
 moment. " Have your wife and daughter ever 
 expressed any opinion on this matter ? " 
 
 " No," said Harcourt. " Mrs. Harcourt knows 
 nothing of anything that does not happen in the 
 
190 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CHAP. 
 
 house ; Euphemia knows only the things that 
 happen out of it where she is visiting and I 
 suppose that young men prefer to talk to her 
 about other things than the slanders of her father. 
 And Clementina well, you know how calm and 
 superior to these things she is." 
 
 " For that very reason I thought that perhaps 
 she might be able to see them more clearly but 
 no matter ! I dare say you are quite right in not 
 discussing them at home." This was the fact, 
 although Grant had not forgotten that Harcourt 
 had put forward his daughters as a reason for 
 stopping the scandal some weeks before a reason 
 which however seemed never to have been borne 
 out by any apparent sensitiveness of the girls 
 themselves. 
 
 When Grant had left Harcourt remained for some 
 moments steadfastly gazing from the window over 
 the Tasajara plain. He had not lost his look of 
 concentrated power, nor his determination to 
 fight. A struggle between himself and the 
 phantoms of the past had become now a necessary 
 stimulus for its own sake for the sake of his 
 mental and physical equipoise. He saw before 
 him the pale, agitated, irresolute features of Lige 
 Curtis not the man he had injured, but the man 
 who had injured him, whose spirit was aimlessly 
 and wantonly for he had never attempted to get 
 back his possessions in his lifetime, nor ever 
 tried to communicate with the possessor 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 191 
 
 striking at him in the shadow. And it was that 
 man, that pale, writhing, frightened wretch whom 
 he had once mercifully helped ! Yes, whose life 
 he had even saved that night from exposure 
 and delirium tremens when he had given him 
 the whisky. And this life he had saved, only to 
 have it set in motion a conspiracy to ruin him ! 
 Who knows that Lige had not purposely con 
 ceived what they had believed to be an attempt 
 at suicide, only to cast suspicion of murder on 
 him ! From which it will be perceived that 
 Harcourt's powers of moral reasoning had not 
 improved in five years, and that even the 
 impartiality he had just shown in his description 
 of Lige to Grant had been swallowed up in this 
 new sense of injury. The founder of Tasajara, 
 whose cool business logic, unfailing foresight 
 and practical deductions, were never at fault, 
 was once more childishly adrift in his moral 
 ethics. 
 
 And there was Clementina, of whose judgment 
 Grant had spoken so persistently ! could she 
 assist him ? It was true, as he had said, he had 
 never talked to her of his affairs ; in his some 
 times uneasy consciousness of her superiority he 
 had shrunk from even revealing his anxieties, 
 much less his actual secret, and from anything 
 that might prejudice the lofty paternal attitude 
 he had taken towards his daughters from the be 
 ginning of his good fortune. He was never quite 
 
192 A FILST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 sure if her acceptance of it was real ; he was 
 never entirely free from a certain jealousy that 
 always mingled with his pride in her superior 
 rectitude ; and yet his feeling was distinct from 
 the good-natured contempt he had for his wife's 
 loyalty, the anger and suspicion that his son's op 
 position had provoked, and the half affectionate 
 toleration he had felt for Euphemia's wayward 
 ness. However he would sound Clementina with 
 out betraying himself. 
 
 He was anticipated by a slight step in the 
 passage and the pushing open of his study door. 
 
 The tall, graceful figure of the girl herself stood 
 in the opening. 
 
 " They tell me Mr. Grant has been here. Does 
 he stay to dinner ? " 
 
 " No, he has an engagement at the hotel, but 
 he will probably drop in later. Come in, Clemmy, 
 I want to talk to you. Shut the door and sit 
 down." 
 
 She slipped in quietly, shut the door, took a 
 seat on the sofa, softly smoothed down her gown, 
 and turned her graceful head and serenely com 
 posed face towards him. Sitting thus she looked 
 like some finely finished painting that decorated 
 rather than belonged to the room not only dis 
 tinctly alien to the flesh and blood relative before 
 her, but to the house, and even the local, mo 
 notonous landscape beyond the window with the 
 shining new shingles and chimneys that cut the 
 
ix A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 193 
 
 new blue sky. These singular perfections seemed 
 to increase in Harcourt's mind the exasperating 
 sense of injury inflicted upon him by Lige's 
 exposures. With a daughter so incomparably 
 gifted a matchless creation that was enough in 
 herself to ennoble that fortune which his own 
 skill and genius had lifted from the muddy tules 
 of Tasajara where this Lige had left it that she 
 should be subjected to this annoyance seemed an 
 infamy that Providence could not allow ! What 
 was his mere venial transgression to this exag 
 gerated retribution ? 
 
 " Clemmy, girl, I'm going to ask you a ques 
 tion. Listen, Pet." He had begun with a re 
 miniscent tenderness of the epoch of her child 
 hood, but meeting the unresponding maturity of 
 her clear eyes he abandoned it. " You know, 
 Clementina, I have never interfered in your 
 affairs, nor tried to influence your friendships for 
 anybody. Whatever people may have to say of 
 me they can't say that ! I've always trusted 
 you, as I would myself, to choose your own as 
 sociates ; I have never regretted it, and I don't 
 regret it now. But I'd like to know I have 
 reasons to-day for asking how matters stand 
 between you arid Grant." 
 
 The Parian head, of Minerva on the book-case 
 above her did not offer the spectator a face less 
 free from maidenly confusion than Clementina's 
 at that moment. Her father had certainly ex- 
 
 o 
 
194 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 pected none, but he was not prepared for the 
 perfect coolness of her reply. 
 
 " Do yon mean have I accepted him ? " 
 
 "No well yes." 
 
 " No, then ! Is that what he wished to 
 see you about ? It was understood that he 
 was not to allude again to the subject to any 
 one." 
 
 " He has not to me. It was only my own idea. 
 He had something very different to tell me. You 
 may not know, Clementina," he began cautiously, 
 "that I have been lately the subject of some 
 anonymous slanders, and Grant has taken the 
 trouble to track them down for me. It is a 
 calumny that goes back as far as Sidon, and I 
 may want your level head and good memory to 
 help me to refute it." He then repeated calmly 
 and clearly, with no trace of the fury that had 
 raged within him a moment before, the sub 
 stance of Grant's revelation. 
 
 The young girl listened without apparent emo 
 tion. When he had finished she said quickly : 
 " And what do you want me to recollect ? " 
 
 The hardest part of Harcourt's task was com 
 ing. " Well, don't you remember that I told you 
 the day the surveyors went away that I had 
 bought this land of Lige Curtis some time 
 before ? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember your saying so, but 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 195 
 
 " I thought you only meant that to satisfy 
 mother. ' 
 
 Daniel Harcourt felt the blood settling round 
 his heart, but he was constrained by an irresistible 
 impulse to know the worst. " Well, what did you 
 think it really was ? " 
 
 " I only thought that Lige Curtis had simply 
 let you have it, that's all." 
 
 Harcourt breathed again. " But what for ? 
 Why should he ? '' 
 
 " Well on my account" 
 
 " On your account ! What in Heaven's name 
 had you to do with it ? ;> 
 
 " He loved me." There was not the slightest 
 trace of vanity, self-consciousness or coquetry in 
 her quiet fateful face, and for this very reason 
 Harcourt knew that she was speaking the truth. 
 
 " Loved you ! you, Clementina ! my daughter I 
 Did he ever tell you so ? " 
 
 " Not in words. He used to walk up and 
 down on the road when I was at the back window 
 or in the garden, and often hung about the bank 
 of the creek for hours, like some animal. I don't 
 think the others saw him, and when they did 
 they thought it was Parmlee for Euphemia. 
 Even Euphemia thought so too, and that was why 
 she was so conceited and hard to Parmlee towards 
 the end. She thought it was Parmlee that night 
 when Grant and Rice came ; but it was Lige 
 Curtis who had been watching the window lights 
 
 o 2 
 
196 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJABA CHAP. 
 
 in the rain, and who must have gone off at last 
 to speak to you in the store. I always let Phemie 
 believe that it was Parmlee it seemed to please 
 her." 
 
 There was not the least tone of mischief or 
 superiority, or even of patronage in her manner. 
 It was as quiet and cruel as the fate that might 
 have led Lige to his destruction. Even her 
 father felt a slight thrill of awe as she paused. 
 " Then he never really spoke to you ? " he asked 
 hurriedly. 
 
 " Only once. I was gathering swamp lilies all 
 alone, a mile below the bend of the creek, and 
 he came upon me suddenly. Perhaps it was 
 that I didn't jump or start / didn't see any 
 thing to jump or start at and he said, ' You're 
 not frightened at me, Miss Harcourt, like the 
 other girls ? You don't think I'm drunk or half 
 mad as they do ? ' I don't remember exactly 
 what I said, but it meant that whether he was 
 drunk or half mad or sober I didn't see any 
 reason to be afraid of him. And then he told 
 me that if I was fond of swamp lilies I might 
 have all I wanted at his place, and for the 
 matter of that the place too, as he was going 
 away, for he couldn't stand the loneliness any 
 longer. He said that he had nothing in com 
 mon with the place and the people no more 
 than / had and that was what he had always 
 fancied in me. I told him that if he felt in 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 197 
 
 that way about his place he ought to leave it, 
 or sell it to some one who cared for it, and go 
 away. That must have been in his mind when 
 he offered it to you at least that's what I 
 thought when you told us you had bought it. I 
 didn't know but what he might have told you 
 but you didn't care to say it before mother." 
 
 Mr. Harcourt sat gazing at her with breath" 
 less amazement. " And you think that Lige 
 Curtis lov liked you ? " 
 
 " Yes, I think he did and that he does now ! " 
 
 " Now ! What do you mean ? The man is 
 dead ! " said Harcourt starting. 
 
 " That's just what I don't believe." 
 
 " Impossible ! Think of what you are saying." 3 
 
 " I never could quite understand or feel that 
 he was dead when everybody said so, and now 
 that I've heard this story I know that he is 
 living." 
 
 " But why did he not make himself known 
 in time to claim the property ? " 
 
 "Because he did not care for it." 
 
 " What did he care for, then ? " 
 
 "Me, I suppose." 
 
 " But this calumny is not like a man who loves 
 you." 
 
 " It is like a jealous one." 
 
 With an effort Harcourt threw off his be 
 wildered incredulity and grasped the situation. 
 He would have to contend with his enemy in 
 
198 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 the flesh and blood, but that flesh and blood 
 would be very weak in the hands of the im 
 passive girl beside him. His face lightened, 
 
 The same idea might have been in Clemen 
 tina's mind when she spoke again, although her 
 face had remained unchanged. "I do not see 
 why you should bother yourself further about 
 it," she said. "It is only a matter between 
 myself and him ; you can leave it to me." 
 
 "But if you are mistaken and he should not 
 be living ? " 
 
 " I am not mistaken. I am even certain now 
 that I have seen him." 
 
 Seen him ! " 
 
 " Yes/' said the girl with the first trace of 
 animation in her face. "It was four or flve 
 months ago when we were visiting the Briones 
 at Monterey. We had ridden out to the old 
 Mission by moonlight. There were some Mexi 
 cans lounging around the posada, and one of 
 them attracted my attention by the way he 
 seemed to watch me, without revealing any more 
 of his face than I could see between his scrape 
 and the black silk handkerchief that was tied 
 around his head under his sombrero. But I knew 
 he was an American and his eyes were familiar. 
 I believe it was he." 
 
 " Why did you not speak of it before ? " 
 
 The look of animation died out of the girl's 
 
 O 
 
 face. "Why should 'I ?" she said listlessly. "I 
 
TX A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 199 
 
 did not know of these reports then. He was 
 nothing more to us. You wouldn't have cared 
 to see him again." She rose, smoothed out 
 her skirt and stood looking at her father. 
 "There is one thing of course that you will do 
 at once." 
 
 Her voice had changed so oddly that he said 
 quickly : " What's that ? " 
 
 " Call Grant off the scent. He'll only frighten 
 or exasperate your game, and that's what you 
 don't want." 
 
 Her voice was as imperious as it had been 
 previously listless. And it was the first time he 
 had ever known her to use slang. It seemed 
 as startling as if it had fallen from the marble 
 lips above him. 
 
 " But I've promised him that we should go 
 together to my lawyer to-morrow, and begin a 
 suit against the proprietors of the Clarion." 
 
 " Do nothing of the kind. Get rid of Grant's 
 assistance in this matter ; and see the Clarion 
 proprietor yourself. What sort of a man is he ? 
 Can you invite him to your house ? " 
 
 " I have never seen him ; I believe he lives 
 at San Jose. He is a wealthy man and a 
 large landowner there. You understand that 
 after the first article appeared in his paper, and 
 I knew that he had employed your brother 
 although Grant says that he had nothing to 
 do with it and left Fletcher on account of it 
 
200 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 I could have no intercourse with him. Even 
 if I invited him he would not come." 
 
 ' ; He must come. Leave it to me" She 
 stopped and resumed her former impassive manner. 
 "I had something to say to you too, father. 
 Mr. Shipley proposed to me the day we went 
 to San Mateo." 
 
 Her father's eyes lit with an eager sparkle. 
 " Well/' he said quickly. 
 
 " I reminded him that I had known him only 
 a few weeks, and that I wanted time to con 
 sider." 
 
 " Consider ! Why, Clemmy, he's one of the 
 oldest Boston families, rich from his father and 
 grandfather rich when I was a shopkeeper and 
 your mother 
 
 " I thought you liked Grant ? " she said quietly. 
 
 " Yes, but if you have no choice nor feeling 
 in the matter, why Shipley is far the better 
 man. And if any of the scandal should come 
 to his ears 
 
 " So much the better that the hesitation should 
 come from me. But if you think it better, I 
 can sit down here and write to him at once 
 declining the offer." She moved towards the 
 desk. 
 
 " No ! No ! I did not mean that," said Har- 
 court quickly. " I only thought that if he did 
 hear anything it might be said that he had 
 backed out." 
 
ix A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 201 
 
 " His sister knows of his offer, and though she 
 don't like it nor me she will not deny the 
 fact. By the way, you remember when she 
 was lost that day on the road to San Mateo ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Well, she was with your son, John Milton, 
 all the time, and they lunched together at Crystal 
 Spring. It came out quite accidentally through 
 the hotel-keeper." 
 
 Harcourt's brow darkened. " Did she know 
 him before ? " 
 
 " I can't say ; but she does now." 
 
 Harcourt's face was heavy with distrust. " Tak 
 ing Shipley's offer and these scandals into consi 
 deration, I don't like the look of this, Clementina." 
 
 ' I do," said the girl simply. 
 
 Harcourt gazed at her keenly and with the 
 shadow of distrust still upon him. It seemed 
 to be quite impossible, even with what he knew 
 of her calmly cold nature, that she should be 
 equally uninfluenced by Grant or Shipley. Had 
 she some steadfast, lofty ideal or perhaps some 
 already absorbing passion of which he knew 
 nothing ? She was not a girl to betray it 
 they would only know it when it was too late. 
 Could it be possible that there was still some 
 thing between her and Lige, that he knew 
 nothing of? The thought struck a chill to his 
 breast. She was walking towards the door, when 
 he recalled himself with an effort. 
 
202 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA ( HAP. 
 
 " If you think it advisable to see Fletcher, 
 you might run down to San Jose for a day or 
 two with your mother, and call 011 the Ramirez. 
 They may know him or somebody who does. 
 Of course if you meet him and casually invite 
 him it would be different. 3 ' 
 
 " It's a good idea," she said quickly. " I'll do 
 it and speak to mother now." 
 
 He was struck by the change in her face and 
 voice ; they had both nervously lightened, as 
 oddly arid distinctly as they had before seemed 
 to grow suddenly harsh and aggressive. She 
 passed out of the room with girlish brusqueness, 
 leaving him alone with a new and vague fear 
 in his consciousness. 
 
 A few hours later Clementina was standing 
 before the window of the drawing-room that 
 overlooked the outskirts of the town. The 
 moonlight was flooding the vast bluish Tasajara 
 levels with a faint lustre, as if the waters of 
 the creek had once more returned to them. In 
 the shadow of the curtain beside her Grant 
 was facing her with anxious eyes 
 
 " Then I must take this as your final answer, 
 Clementina ? " 
 
 " You must. And had I known of these cal 
 umnies before ; had you been frank with me 
 even the day we went to San Mateo, my answer 
 would have been as final then, and you might 
 
TX A FIRST FAMILY OF TASA.IARA 203 
 
 have been spared any further suspense. I am 
 not blaming you, Mr. Grant ; I am willing to 
 believe that you thought it best to conceal this 
 from me even at that time when you had just 
 pledged yourself to find out its truth or false 
 hood yet my answer would have been the 
 same. So long as this stain rests on my 
 father's name I shall never allow that name to 
 be coupled with yours in marriage or engage 
 ment ; nor will my pride or yours allow us to 
 carry on a simple friendship after this. I thank 
 you for your offer of assistance, but I cannot 
 even accept that which might to others seem 
 to allow some contingent claim. I would rather 
 believe that when you proposed this inquiry and 
 my father permitted it, you both knew that it 
 put an end to any other relations between us." 
 
 " But, Clementina, you are wrong, believe me ! 
 Say that I have been foolish, indiscreet, mad 
 still the few who knew that I made these in 
 quiries on your father's behalf know nothing of 
 my hopes of you ! 
 
 ' : But / do, and that is enough for me." 
 Even in the hopeless preoccupation of his 
 passion he suddenly looked at her with something 
 of his old critical scrutiny. But she stood there 
 calm, concentrated, self-possessed and upright. 
 Yes ! it was possible that the pride of this south 
 western shopkeeper's daughter was greater 
 than his own. 
 
04 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA OH. TX 
 
 "Then you banish me, Clementina?" 
 It is we whom you have banished.' 
 
 ' ; Good-night." 
 
 2" Good-bye." 
 
 He bent for an instant over her cold hand 
 and then passed out into the hall. She remained 
 listening until the front door closed behind him. 
 Then she ran swiftly through the hall and up 
 the staircase with an alacrity that seemed im 
 possible to the stately goddess of a moment 
 before. When she had reached her bedroom 
 and closed the door, so exuberant still and so 
 uncontrollable was her levity and action, that 
 without going round the bed which stood before 
 her in the centre of the room, she placed her 
 two hands upon it and lightly vaulted sideways 
 across it to reach the window. There she 
 watched the figure of Grant crossing the moonlit 
 square. Then turning back into the half-lit 
 room, she ran to the small dressing-glass placed 
 at an angle on a toilet table against the wall. 
 With her palms grasping her knees she stooped 
 down suddenly and contemplated the mirror. 
 It showed what no one but Clementina had 
 ever seen and she herself only at rare intervals 
 the laughing eyes and soul of a self-satisfied, 
 material-minded, ordinary country girl. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 BUT Mr. Lawrence Grant's character in 
 certain circumstances would seem to have as 
 startling and inexplicable contradictions as 
 Clementina Harcourt's, and three days later he 
 halted his horse at the entrance of Los Gatos 
 Rancho. The " Home of the Cats " so called 
 from the catamounts which infested the locality 
 which had for over a century lazily basked 
 before one of the hottest canons in the Coast 
 Range, had lately been stirred into some 
 activity by the American, Don Diego Fletcher, 
 who had bought it, put up a saw-mill and 
 deforested the canon. Still there remained 
 enough suggestion of a feline haunt about it 
 to make Grant feel as if he had tracked 
 hither some stealthy enemy, in spite of the 
 peaceful intimation conveyed by the sign on 
 a rough boarded shed at the wayside, that 
 the " Los Gatos Land and Lumber Company " 
 held their office there. 
 
206 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 A cigarette-smoking peon lounged before the 
 door. Yes ; Don Diego was there, but as he 
 had arrived from Santa Clara only last night 
 and was going to Colonel Ramirez that after 
 noon, he was engaged. Unless the business 
 was important but the cool, determined man 
 ner of Grant, even more than his words, 
 signified that it was important, and the servant 
 led the way to Don Diego's presence. 
 
 There certainly was nothing in the appear 
 ance of this sylvan proprietor and newspaper 
 capitalist to justify Grant's suspicion of a 
 surreptitious foe. A handsome man scarcely 
 older than himself, in spite of a wavy mass 
 of perfectly white hair which contrasted singu 
 larly with his brown moustache and dark sun 
 burned face. So disguising was the effect of 
 these contradictions that he not only looked 
 unlike anybody else, but even his nationality 
 seemed to be a matter of doubt. Only his 
 eyes, light blue and intelligent, which had a 
 singular expression of gentleness and worry, 
 appeared individual to the man. His manner 
 was cultivated and easy. He motioned his 
 visitor courteously to a chair. 
 
 "I was referred to you," said Grant almost 
 abruptly, " as the person responsible for a 
 series of slanderous attacks against Mr. Daniel 
 Harcourt in the Clarion, of which paper I 
 believe you are the proprietor. I was told 
 
x A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 207 
 
 that you declined to give the authority for 
 your action, unless you were forced to by 
 legal proceedings." 
 
 Fletcher's sensitive blue eyes rested upon 
 Grant's with an expression of constrained pain 
 and pity. " I heard of your inquiries, Mr. Grant ; 
 you were making them on behalf of this Mr. Har- 
 court or Harkutt '' he made the distinction with 
 intentional deliberation ' : with a view I believe 
 to some arbitration. The case was stated to you 
 fairly, I think ; I believe I have nothing to add 
 to it." 
 
 " That was your answer to the ambassador of 
 Mr. Harcourt," said Grant coldly, " and as 
 such I delivered it to him ; but I am here 
 to-day to speak on my own account." 
 
 What could be seen of Mr. Fletcher's lips 
 appeared to curl in an odd smile. " Indeed, I 
 thought it was or would be all in the 
 family." 
 
 Grant's face grew more stern, and his grey 
 eyes glittered. "You'll find my status in this 
 matter so far independent that I don't propose, 
 like Mr. Harcourt, either to begin a suit or 
 to rest quietly under the calumny. Briefly, 
 Mr. Fletcher, as you or your informant knows, 
 I was the surveyor who revealed to Mr. Har 
 court the value of the land to which he 
 claimed a title from your man this Elijah 
 or Lige Curtis as you call him" he could 
 
208 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 not resist this imitation of his adversary's 
 supercilious affectation of precise nomenclature 
 "and it was upon my representation of its 
 value as an investment that he began the 
 improvements which have made him wealthy. 
 If this title was fraudulently obtained all the 
 facts pertaining to it are sufficiently related 
 to connect me with the conspiracy." 
 
 " Are you not a little hasty in your pre 
 sumption, Mr Grant ? " said Fletcher, with 
 unfeigned surprise. 
 
 "That is for me to judge, Mr. Fletcher," 
 returned Grant haughtily. 
 
 " But the name of Professor Grant is known 
 to all California as beyond the breath of calumny 
 or suspicion." 
 
 " It is because of that fact that I propose to 
 keep it so." 
 
 " And may I ask in what way you wish me 
 to assist you in so doing ? " 
 
 " By promptly and publicly retracting in the 
 Clarion every word of this slander against 
 Harcourt." 
 
 Fletcher looked steadfastly at the speaker. 
 " And if I decline ? " 
 
 " I think you have been long enough in 
 California, Mr. Fletcher, to know the alter 
 native expected of a gentleman," said Grant 
 coldly. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher kept his gentle blue eyes in 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 209 
 
 which surprise still over-balanced their ex 
 pression of pained concern on Grant's face. 
 
 " But is this not more in the style of Colonel 
 Starbottle than Professor Grant ? " he asked 
 with a faint smile. 
 
 Grant rose instantly with a white face. " You 
 will have a better opportunity of judging," he 
 said, "when Colonel Starbottle has the honour 
 of waiting upon you from me. Meantime, I 
 thank you for reminding me of the indiscretion 
 into which my folly in still believing that this 
 thing could be settled amicably, has led me." 
 
 He bowed coldly and withdrew. Nevertheless, 
 as he mounted his horse and rode away, he felt 
 his cheeks burning. Yet he had acted upon 
 calm consideration ; he knew that to the ordinary 
 Californian experience there was nothing Quixotic 
 nor exaggerated in the attitude he had taken. 
 Men had quarrelled and fought on less grounds ; 
 he had even half convinced himself that he had 
 been insulted, and that his own professional 
 reputation demanded the withdrawal of the 
 attack on Harcourt on purely business grounds ; 
 but he was not satisfied of the personal responsi 
 bility of Fletcher nor of his gratuitous malignity. 
 Nor did the man look like a tool in the hands 
 of some unscrupulous and hidden enemy. 
 However, he had played his card. If he 
 succeeded only in provoking a duel with 
 Fletcher, he at least would divert the public 
 
 p 
 
210 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 attention from Harcourt to himself. He knew 
 that his superior position would throw the lesser 
 victim in the background. He would make the 
 sacrifice ; that was his duty as a gentleman, 
 even if she would not care to accept it as an 
 earnest of his unselfish love ! 
 
 He had reached the point where the mountain 
 track entered the Santa Clara turnpike when 
 his attention was attracted by a handsome but 
 old-fashioned carriage drawn by four white 
 mules, which passed down the road before him 
 and turned suddenly off into a private road. 
 But it was not this picturesque gala equipage 
 of some local Spanish grandee that brought a 
 thrill to his nerves and a flash to his eye; it 
 was the unmistakable, tall, elegant figure and 
 handsome profile of Clementina, reclining in 
 light gauzy wraps against the back seat ! It 
 was no fanciful resemblance, the outcome of 
 his reverie there never was any one like her ! 
 it was she herself ! But what was she doing here ? 
 
 A vaquero cantered from the cross road 
 where the dust of the vehicle still hung. 
 Grant hailed him. Ah ! it was a fine carroza de 
 cuatro mulas that he had just passed ! Si, Senor, 
 truly ; it was of Don Jose Ramirez who lived 
 just under the hill. It was bringing company 
 to the cam. 
 
 Ramirez ! That was where Fletcher was going ! 
 Had Clementina known that he was one of 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 211 
 
 Fletcher's friends ? Might she not be exposed to 
 unpleasantness, marked coolness, or even insult in 
 that unexpected meeting ? Ought she not to be 
 warned or prepared for it ? She had banished Grant 
 from her presence until this stain was removed 
 from her father's name, but could she blame 
 him for trying to save her from contact with her 
 father's slanderer ? No ! He turned his horse 
 abruptly into the cross road and spurred forward 
 in the direction of the casa. 
 
 It was quite visible now a low-walled, quad 
 rangular mass of whitewashed adobe, lying like 
 a drift on the green hillside. The carriage and 
 four had far preceded him, and was already half 
 up the winding road towards the house. Later 
 he saw them reach the courtyard and disappear 
 within. He would be quite in time to speak 
 with her before she retired to change her dress. 
 He would simply say that while making a pro 
 fessional visit to Los Gatos Land Company 
 Office he had become aware of Fletcher's con 
 nection with it, and accidentally of his intended 
 visit to Ramirez. His chance meeting with the car 
 riage on the highway had determined his course. 
 
 As he rode into the courtyard he observed 
 that it was also approached by another road, 
 evidently nearer, Los Gatos, and probably the 
 older and shorter communication between the 
 two ranches. The fact was significantly demon 
 strated a moment later. He had given his horse 
 
 p 2 
 
212 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 to a servant, sent in his card to Clementina, 
 and had dropped listlessly on one of the benches 
 of the gallery surrounding the patio, when a 
 horseman rode briskly into the opposite gateway, 
 and dismounted with a familiar air. A waiting 
 peon who recognized him, informed him that 
 the Dona was engaged with a visitor, but that 
 they were both returning to the gallery for 
 chocolate in a moment. The stranger was the 
 man he had left only an hour before Don 
 Diego Fletcher ! 
 
 In an instant the idiotic fatuity of his position 
 struck him fully. His only excuse for following 
 Clementina had been to warn her of the coming 
 of this man who had just entered, and who would 
 now meet her as quickly as himself. For a 
 brief moment the idea of quietly slipping out to 
 the corral, mounting his horse again, and flying 
 from the rancho, crossed his mind, but the thought 
 that he would be running away from the man 
 he had just challenged, and perhaps some new 
 hostility that had sprung up in his heart against 
 him, compelled him to remain. The eyes 
 of both men met ; Fletcher's in half-wonder 
 ing annoyance, Grant's in ill-concealed an 
 tagonism. What they would have said is not 
 known, for at that moment the voice of 
 Clementina and Mrs. Ramirez were heard in 
 the passage, and they both entered the 
 gallery. The two men were standing together ; 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 213 
 
 it was impossible to see one without the 
 other. 
 
 And yet Grant, whose eyes were instantly 
 directed to Clementina, thought that she had 
 noted neither. She remained for an instant 
 standing in the doorway in the same self-pos 
 sessed, coldly graceful pose he remembered she 
 had taken on the platform at Tasajara. Her 
 eyelids were slightly downcast as if she had been 
 arrested by some sudden thought or some shy 
 maiden sensitiveness ; in her hesitation Mrs. 
 Ramirez passed impatiently before her. 
 
 " Mother of God ! " said that lively lady, 
 regarding the two speechless men, " is it an 
 indiscretion we are making here or are you 
 dumb ? You, Don Diego, are loud enough when 
 you and Don Jose are together; at least in 
 troduce your friend." 
 
 Grant quickly recovered himself. " I am 
 afraid," he said, coming forward, "unless Miss 
 Harcourt does, that I am a mere trespasser in 
 your house, senora. I saw her pass in your car 
 riage a few moments ago, and having a message 
 for her I ventured to follow her here." 
 
 "It is Mr. Grant, a friend of my father's," 
 said Clementina, smiling with equanimity as if 
 just awakening from a momentary abstraction, 
 yet apparently unconscious of Grant's imploring 
 eyes, "but the other gentleman I have not the 
 pleasure of knowing." 
 
214 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Ah Don Diego Fletcher, a countryman of 
 yours ; and yet I think he knows you not." 
 
 Clementina's face betrayed no indication of 
 the presence of her father's foe, and yet Grant 
 knew that she must have recognized his name 
 as she looked towards Fletcher with perfect 
 self-possession. He was too much engaged in 
 watching her to take note of Fletcher's mani 
 fest disturbance, or the evident effort with which 
 he at last bowed to her. That this unexpected 
 double meeting with the daughter of the man 
 he had wronged, and the man who had espoused 
 the quarrel, should be confounding to him ap 
 peared only natural. But he was unprepared 
 to understand the feverish alacrity with which 
 he accepted Dona Maria's invitation to choco 
 late, or the equally animated way in which 
 Clementina threw herself into her hostess's 
 Spanish levity. He knew it was an awkward 
 situation that must be surmounted without a 
 scene ; he was quite prepared in the presence 
 of Clementina to be civil to Fletcher, but it 
 was odd that in this feverish exchange of cour 
 tesies and compliments, he, Grant, should feel 
 the greater awkwardness, and be the most ill 
 at ease. He sat down and took his part in 
 the conversation ; he let it transpire for Clem 
 entina's benefit, that he had been to Los Gatos 
 only on business, yet there was no opportunity 
 even for a significant glance, and he had the 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 215 
 
 added embarrassment of seeing that she exhibited 
 no surprise nor seemed to attach the least im 
 portance to his inopportune visit. In a miserable 
 indecision he allowed himself to be carried away 
 by the high-flown hospitality of his Spanish 
 hostess, and consented to stay to an early dinner. 
 It was part of the infelicity of circumstance 
 that the voluble Dona Maria electing him as 
 the distinguished stranger above the resident 
 Fletcher monopolized him and attached him 
 to her side. She would do the honours of her 
 house ; she must show him the ruins of the 
 old Mission beside the corral ; Don Diego and 
 Clementina would join them presently in the 
 garden. He cast a despairing glance at the 
 placidly smiling Clementina, who was apparently 
 equally indifferent to the evident constraint 
 and assumed ease of the man beside her, and 
 turned away with Mrs. Ramirez. 
 
 A silence fell upon the gallery so deep that 
 the receding voices and footsteps of Grant and 
 his hostess in the long passage were distinctly 
 heard until they reached the end. Then Fletcher 
 arose with an inarticulate exclamation ! Clemen 
 tina instantly put her finger to her lips, glanced 
 around the gallery, extended her hand to him 
 and saying " Come," half-led, half-dragged him 
 into the passage. To the right she turned and 
 pushed open the door of a small room that 
 seemed a combination of boudoir and oratory, 
 
216 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 lit by a French window opening to the garden, 
 and flanked by a large black and white crucifix 
 with a prie Dieu beneath it. Closing the door 
 behind them she turned and faced her com 
 panion. But it was no longer the face of the 
 woman who had been sitting in the gallery, it 
 was the face that had looked back at her from 
 the mirror at Tasajara the night that Grant had 
 left her eager, flushed, material with common 
 place excitement ! 
 
 " Lige Curtis," she said. 
 
 " Yes/' he answered passionately, " Lige Cur 
 tis, whom you thought dead ! Lige Curtis, whom 
 you once pitied, condoled with and despised ! 
 Lige Curtis ! whose lands and property have 
 enriched you ! Lige Curtis ! who would have 
 shared it with you freely at the time, but whom 
 your father juggled and defrauded of it ! Lige 
 Curtis, branded by him as a drunken outcast 
 and suicide ! Lige Curtis 
 
 " Hush ! " She clapped her little hand over 
 his mouth with a quick but awkward school 
 girl gesture inconceivable to any who had 
 known her usual languid elegance of motion 
 and held it there. He struggled angrily, im 
 patiently, reproachfully, and then with a sudden 
 characteristic weakness that seemed as much of 
 a revelation as her once hoydenish manner- 
 kissed it, when she let it drop. Then placing 
 both her hands still girlishly on. her slim waist 
 
x A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 217 
 
 and curtseying grotesquely before him, she 
 said 
 
 " Lige Curtis ! Oh yes ! Lige Curtis who 
 swore to do everything for me ! Lige Curtis, 
 who promised to give up liquor for me -who 
 was to leave Tasajara for me ! Lige Curtis 
 who was to reform, and keep his land as a 
 nest egg for us both in the future, and then 
 who sold it and himself and me to dad for 
 a glass of whisky ! Lige Curtis who disappeared, 
 and then let us think he was dead only that he 
 might attack us out of the ambush of his grave ! " 
 
 " Yes, but think what I have suffered all 
 these years not for the cursed land you know 
 I never cared for that but for you you, 
 Clementina you rich, admired by every one : 
 idolized, held far above me me, the forgotten 
 outcast, the wretched suicide and yet the man 
 to whom you had once plighted your troth. 
 Which of those greedy fortune-hunters whom my 
 money my life-blood as you might have thought 
 it was attracted to you, did you care to tell 
 that you had ever slipped out of the little 
 garden gate at Sidon to meet that outcast ! 
 Do you wonder that as the years passed and 
 you were happy, / did not choose to be so for 
 gotten ? Do you wonder that when you shut 
 the door on the past 1 managed to open it 
 again if only a little way that its light 
 might startle you ? ' ' 
 
218 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Yet she did not seem startled or disturbed, 
 and remained only looking at him critically. 
 
 " You say that you have suffered," she re 
 plied with a smile. " You don't look it ! Your 
 hair is white, but it is becoming to you, and 
 you are a handsomer man, Lige Curtis, than 
 you were when I first met you; you are finer/' 
 she went on still regarding him, " stronger 
 and healthier than you were five years ago ; 
 you are rich and prosperous, you have every 
 thing to make you happy, but " here she 
 laughed a little, held out both her hands, 
 taking his and holding his arms apart in a 
 rustic, homely fashion " but you are still the 
 same old Lige Curtis ! It was like you to go 
 off and hide yourself in that idiotic way ; it 
 was like you to let the property slide in that 
 stupid, unselfish fashion ; it was like you to get 
 real mad, and say all those mean, silly things 
 to dad, that didn't hurt him in your regular 
 looney style for rich or poor, drunk or sober, 
 ragged or elegant, plain or handsome you're 
 always the same Lige Curtis ! " 
 
 In proportion as that material, practical, rus 
 tic self which nobody but Lige Curtis had 
 ever seen came back to her, so in proportion 
 the irresolute, wavering, weak and emotional 
 vagabond of Sidon came out to meet it. He 
 looked at her with a vague smile, his five 
 years of childish resentment, albeit carried on 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 219 
 
 the shoulders of a man mentally and morally 
 her superior, melted away. He drew her 
 towards him, yet at the same moment a 
 quick suspicion returned. 
 
 " Well, and what are you doing here ? Has 
 this man who has followed you any right, any 
 claim upon you ? " 
 
 " None but what you in your folly have 
 forced upon him ! You have made him father's 
 ally. I don't know why he came here. I only 
 know why / did to find you ! " 
 
 " You suspected then ? " 
 
 "I knew/ Hush!" 
 
 The returning voices of Grant and of Mrs. 
 Ramirez were heard in the courtyard. Clemen 
 tina made a warning yet girlishly mirthful 
 gesture, again caught his hand, drew him 
 quickly to the French window, slipped through 
 it with him into the garden, where they were 
 quickly lost in the shadows of a ceanothus 
 hedge. 
 
 " They have probably met Don Jos4 in the 
 orchard, and as he and Don Diego have business 
 together, Dona Clementina has without doubt 
 gone to her room and left them. For you are 
 not very entertaining to the ladies to-day you 
 two caballeros f You have much politics together, 
 eh ? or you have discussed and disagreed, eh ? 
 I will look for the senorita, and let you go, 
 Don Distraido ! " 
 
220 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 It is to be feared that Grant's apologies and 
 attempts to detain her were equally feeble as 
 it seemed to him that this was the only 
 chance he might have of seeing her except in 
 company with Fletcher. As Mrs. Kamirez left 
 he lit a cigarette and listlessly walked up and 
 down the gallery. But Clementina did not 
 come neither did his hostess return. A sub 
 dued step in the passage raised his hopes it 
 was only the grizzled major domo, to show him 
 his room that he might prepare for dinner. 
 
 He followed mechanically down the long 
 passage to a second corridor. There was a 
 chance that he might meet Clementina, but he 
 reached his room without encountering any one. 
 It was a large vaulted apartment with a single 
 window, a deep embrasure in the thick wall 
 that seemed to focus like a telescope some for 
 gotten, sequestered part of the leafy garden. 
 While washing his hands, gazing absently at the 
 green vignette framed by the dark opening, his 
 attention was drawn to a movement of the 
 foliage, stirred apparently by the rapid passage 
 of two half- hidden figures. The quick flash of 
 a feminine skirt seemed to indicate the coy 
 flight of some romping maid of the casa, and 
 the pursuit and struggle of her vaquero swain. 
 To a despairing lover even the spectacle of 
 innocent, pastoral happiness in others is not 
 apt to be soothing, and Grant was turning 
 
x A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 221 
 
 impatiently away when he suddenly stopped 
 with a rigid face arid quickly approached the 
 window. In her struggles with the unseen 
 Corydon, the clustering leaves seemed to have 
 yielded at the same moment with the coy 
 Chloris, and parting disclosed a stolen kiss ! 
 Grant's hand lay like ice against the wall. 
 For, disengaging Fletcher's arm from her waist 
 and freeing her skirt from the foliage, it was 
 the calm, passionless Clementina herself who 
 stepped out, and moved pensively towards the 
 casa. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 " READERS of the Clarion will have noticed 
 that allusion has been frequently made in these 
 columns to certain rumours concerning the early 
 history of Tasajara which were supposed to 
 affect the pioneer record of Daniel Harcourt. 
 It was deemed by the conductors of this journal 
 to be only consistent with the fearless and 
 independent duty undertaken by the Clarion 
 that these rumours should be fully chronicled 
 as part of the information required by the 
 readers of a first-class newspaper, unbiassed by 
 any consideration of the social position of the 
 parties, but simply as a matter of news. For 
 this the Clarion does not deem it necessary to 
 utter a word of apology. But for that editorial 
 comment or attitude which the proprietors felt 
 was justified by the reliable sources of their 
 information they now consider it only due in 
 honour to themselves, their readers, and Mr. 
 Harcourt to fully and freely apologize. A 
 patient and laborious investigation enables them 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 223 
 
 to state that the alleged facts published by the 
 Clarion and copied by other journals are utterly 
 unsupported by testimony, and the charges 
 although more or less vague which were based 
 upon them are equally untenable. We are now 
 satisfied that one ' Elijah Curtis ' a former 
 pioneer of Tasajara who disappeared five years 
 ago, and was supposed to be drowned, has not 
 only made no claim to the Tasajara property, as 
 alleged, but has given no sign of his equally alleged 
 resuscitation and present existence, and that on 
 the minutest investigation there appears nothing 
 either in his disappearance, or the transfer of 
 his property to Daniel Harcourt, that could in 
 any way disturb the uncontested title to Tasa 
 jara or the unimpeachable character of its 
 present owner. The whole story now seems to 
 have been the outcome of one of those stupid 
 rural hoaxes too common in California." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Ashwood laying aside the 
 Clarion with a sceptical shrug of her pretty 
 shoulders, as she glanced up at her brother. 
 " I suppose this means that you are going to 
 propose again to the young lady ? " 
 
 " I have," said Jack Shipley ; " that's the worst 
 of it and got my .answer before this came out." 
 
 " Jack ! " said Mrs. Ashwood, thoroughly 
 surprised. 
 
 " Yes ! You see, Conny, as I told you three 
 
224 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 weeks ago, she said she wanted time to consider 
 that she scarcely knew me, and all that ! 
 Well, I thought it wasn't exactly a gentleman's 
 business to seem to stand off after that last 
 attack on her father, and so, last week, I went 
 down to San Jose where she was staying and 
 begged her not to keep me in suspense. And, 
 by Jove ! she froze me with a look, and said 
 that with these aspersions on her father's 
 character, she preferred not to be under 
 obligations to any one." 
 
 " And you believed her ? " 
 
 " Oh hang it all ! Look here, Conny I wish 
 you'd just try for once to find out some good 
 in that family, besides what that sentimental 
 young widower John Milton may have. You 
 seem to think because they've quarrelled with 
 him there isn't a virtue left among them." 
 
 Far from seeming to offer any suggestion of 
 feminine retaliation, 'Mrs. Ashwood smiled 
 sweetly. " My dear Jack, I have no desire to 
 keep you from trying your luck again with 
 Miss Clementina, if that's what you mean, and 
 indeed I shouldn't be surprised if a family who 
 felt a mesalliance as sensitively as the Harcourts 
 felt that affair of their son's, would be as keenly 
 alive to the advantages of a good match for their 
 daughter. As to young Mr. Harcourt, he never 
 talked to me of the vices of his family, nor has 
 he lately troubled me much with the presence 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 225 
 
 of his own virtues. I haven't heard from him 
 since we came here." 
 
 " I suppose he is satisfied with the Government 
 berth you got for him," returned her brother 
 drily. 
 
 " He was very grateful to Senator Flynn, 
 who appreciates his talents, but who offered 
 it to him as a mere question of fitness," 
 replied Mrs. Ashwood with great precision of 
 statement. " But you don't seem to know 
 he declined it on account of his other work." 
 " Preferred his old Bohemian ways, eh ? You 
 can't change those fellows, Conny. They can't 
 get over the fascinations of vagabondage. 
 Sorry your lady-patroness scheme didn't work. 
 Pity you couldn't have promoted him in the 
 line of his profession, as the Grand Duchess 
 of Girolstein did Fritz." 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, Jack, go to Clementina ! 
 You may not be successful, but there at least 
 the perfect gentlemanliness and good taste 
 of your illustrations will not be thrown away." 
 
 "I think of going to San Francisco to-morrow 
 anyway," returned Jack with affected carelessness. 
 " I'm getting rather bored with this wild seaside 
 watering-place and its glitter of ocean and 
 hopeless background of mountain. It's nothing 
 to me that 'there's no land nearer than Japan' 
 out there. It may be very healthful to the 
 tissues but it's weariness to the spirit, and I 
 
 Q 
 
226 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 don't see why we can't wait at San Francisco 
 till the rains send us further south, as well as 
 here." 
 
 He had walked to the balcony of their 
 sitting-room in the little seaside hotel where 
 this conversation took place, and gazed dis 
 contentedly over the curving bay and sandy 
 shore before him. After a slight pause Mrs. 
 Ashwood stepped out beside him. 
 
 "Very likely I may go with you," she said 
 with a perceptible tone of weariness. " We 
 will see after the post arrives." 
 
 " By the way, there is a little package for 
 you in my room that came this morning. I 
 brought it up, but forgot to give it to you. 
 You'll find itAon my table." 
 
 Mrs. Ashwfod abstractedly turned away and 
 entered her brother's room from the same 
 balcony. The forgotten parcel, which looked 
 like a roll of manuscript, was lying on his 
 dressing-table. She gazed attentively at the 
 handwriting on the wrapper and then gave a 
 quick glance around her. A sudden and subtle 
 change came over her. She neither flushed nor 
 paled, nor did the delicate lines of expression in 
 her face quiver or change. But as she held 
 the parcel in her hand her whole being seemed 
 to undergo some exquisite suffusion. As the 
 medicines which the Arabian physician had 
 concealed in the hollow handle of the mallet 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 227 
 
 permeated the languid royal blood of Persia, 
 so some volatile balm of youth seemed to flow 
 in upon her with the contact of that strange 
 missive and transform her weary spirit. 
 
 " Jack ! " she called in a high clear voice. 
 
 But Jack had already gone from the balcony 
 when she reached it with an elastic step and a 
 quick youthful swirl and rustling of her skirt. 
 He was lighting his cigar in the garden. 
 
 " Jack," she said, leaning half over the railing ; 
 " come back here in an hour and we'll talk 
 over that matter of yours again." 
 
 Jack looked up eagerly and as if he might 
 even come up then, but she added quickly, " In 
 about an hour I must think it over," and with 
 drew. 
 
 She re-entered the sitting-room, shut the door 
 carefully and locked it, half pulled down the 
 blind, walking once or twice around the table 
 on which the parcel lay, with one eye on it 
 like a graceful cat. Then she suddenly sat down, 
 took it up with a grave, practical face, examined 
 the postmark curiously, and opened it with severe 
 deliberation. It contained a manuscript and a 
 letter of four closely written pages. She glanced 
 at the manuscript with bright approving eyes, 
 ran her fingers through its leaves and then laid 
 it carefully and somewhat ostentatiously on the 
 table beside her. Then, still holding the letter 
 in her hand, she rose and glanced out of the 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA CHAP. 
 
 window at her bored brother lounging towards 
 the beach and at the heaving billows beyond, 
 and returned to her seat. This apparently im 
 portant preliminary concluded, she began to 
 read. 
 
 There were, as already stated, four blessed 
 pages of it ! All vital, earnest, palpitating with 
 youthful energy, preposterous in premises, pre 
 cipitate in conclusions yet irresistible and con 
 vincing to every woman in their illogical sincerity. 
 There was not a word of love in it, yet every 
 page breathed a wholesome adoration ; there was 
 not an epithet or expression that a greater prude 
 than Mrs. Ash wood would have objected to, yet 
 every sentence seemed to end in a caress. There 
 was not a line of poetry in it, and scarcely a 
 figure or simile, and yet it was poetical. Boy 
 ishly egotistic as it was in attitude, it seemed to be 
 written less of himself than to her ; in its delicate 
 because unconscious flattery, it made her at once 
 the provocation and excuse. And yet so potent 
 was its individuality that it required no signature. 
 No one but John Milton Harcourt could have 
 written it. His personality stood out of it so 
 strongly that once or twice Mrs. Ashwood almost 
 unconsciously put up her little hand before her 
 face with a half mischievous, half deprecating 
 smile, as if the big honest eyes of its writer 
 were upon her. 
 
 It began by an elaborate apology for declining 
 
xi A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 229 
 
 the appointment offered him by one of her 
 friends, which he was bold enough to think 
 had been prompted by her kind heart. That was 
 like her, but yet what she might do to any 
 one ; and he preferred to think of her as the 
 sweet and gentle lady who had recognized his 
 merit without knowing him, rather than the 
 powerful and gracious benefactress who wanted 
 to reward him when she did know him. The 
 crown that she had all unconsciously placed upon 
 his head that afternoon at the little hotel at 
 Crystal Spring was more to him than the Sena 
 tor's appointment ; perhaps he was selfish, but 
 he could not bear that she who had given so much 
 should believe that he could accept a lesser gift. 
 All this and much more ! Some of it he had 
 wanted to say to her in San Francisco at times 
 when they had met, but he could not find the 
 words. But she had given him the courage to 
 go on and do the only thing he was fit for, and 
 he had resolved to stick to that, and perhaps 
 do something once more that might make him 
 hear again her voice as he had heard it that 
 day, and again see the light that had shone 
 in her eyes as she sat there and read. And 
 this was why he was sending her a manuscript. 
 She might have .forgotten that she had told 
 him a strange story of her cousin who had 
 disappeared which she thought he might at 
 some time work up. Here it was. Perhaps she 
 
230 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 might not recognize it again in the way he 
 had written it here ; perhaps she did not really 
 mean it when she had given him permission to 
 use it but he remembered her truthful eyes 
 and believed her and in any event it was hers 
 to do with what she liked. It had been a great 
 pleasure for him to write it and think that she 
 would see it; it was like seeing her himself 
 that was in his letter self more worthy the 
 companionship of a beautiful and noble woman 
 than the poor young man she would have helped. 
 This was why he had not called the wee'k before 
 she went away. But for all that, she had made 
 his life less lonely, and he should be ever grateful 
 to her. He could never forget how she uncon 
 sciously sympathized with him that day over the 
 loss that had blighted his life for ever, yet even 
 then he did not know that she, herself, had 
 passed through the same suffering. But just here 
 the stricken widow of thirty, after a vain attempt 
 to keep up the knitted gravity of her eyebrows, 
 bowed her dimpling face over the letter of the 
 blighted widower of twenty, and laughed so long 
 and silently that the tears stood out like dew 
 on her light-brown eyelashes. 
 
 But she became presently severe again, and 
 finished her reading of the letter gravely. Then 
 she folded it carefully, deposited it in a box on 
 her table which she locked. After a few minutes, 
 however, she unlocked the box again and trans- 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 231 
 
 ferred the letter to her pocket. The serenity of 
 her features did not relax again although her 
 previous pretty prepossession of youthful spirit 
 was still indicated in her movements. Going into 
 her bedroom, she reappeared in a few minutes, 
 with a light cloak thrown over her shoulders and 
 a white-trimmed, broad-brimmed hat. Then she 
 rolled up the manuscript in a paper, and called 
 her French maid. As she stood there awaiting 
 her with the roll in her hand, she might have 
 been some young girl on her way to her music 
 lesson. 
 
 " If my brother returns before I do tell him 
 to wait." 
 
 "Madame is going 
 
 " Out," said Mrs. Ashwood blithely, and tripped 
 down stairs. 
 
 She made her way directly to the shore where 
 she remembered there was a group of rocks 
 affording a shelter from the north-west trade 
 winds. It was reached at low water by a narrow 
 ridge of sand, and here she had often basked 
 in the sun with her book. It was here that 
 she now unrolled John Milton's manuscript and 
 read. 
 
 It was the story she had told him, but in 
 terpreted by his poetry and adorned by his fancy 
 until the facts as she remembered them seemed 
 to be no longer hers, or indeed truths at all. 
 She had always believed her cousin's unhappy 
 
232 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 temperament to have been the result of a moral 
 and physical idiosyncrasy she found them here 
 to be the effect of a lifelong and hopeless passion 
 for herself! The ingenious John Milton had 
 given a poet's precocity to the youth whom 
 she had only known as a suspicious, moody boy, 
 had idealized him as a sensitive but songless 
 Byron, had given him the added infirmity of 
 pulmonary weakness, and a handkerchief that in 
 moments of great excitement, after having been 
 hurriedly pressed to his pale lips, was withdrawn 
 " with a crimson stain." Opposed to this inter 
 esting figure the more striking to her as she had 
 been hitherto haunted by the impression that 
 her cousin during his boyhood had been subject 
 to facial eruption and boils was her own equally 
 idealized self. Cruelly kind to her cousin and 
 gentle with his weaknesses while calmly ignoring 
 their cause, leading him unconsciously step by 
 step in his fatal passion, he only became aware 
 by accident that she nourished an ideal hero 
 in the person of a hard, proud, middle-aged, 
 practical man of the world her future husband ! 
 At this picture of the late Mr. Ashwood, who 
 had really been an indistinctive social Ion vivant, 
 his amiable relict grew somewhat hysterical. The 
 discovery of her real feelings drove the con 
 sumptive cousin into a secret, self-imposed exile 
 on the shores of the Pacific, where he hoped 
 to find a grave. But the complete and sudden 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 233 
 
 change of life and scene, the balm of the wild 
 woods and the wholesome barbarism of nature, 
 wrought a magical change in his physical health 
 and a philosophical rest in his mind. He mar 
 ried the daughter of an Indian chief. Years 
 passed, the heroine a rich and still young and 
 beautiful widow unwittingly sought the same 
 medicinal solitude. Here in the depths of the 
 forest she encountered her former playmate ; 
 the passion which he had fondly supposed was 
 dead, revived in her presence, and for the first 
 time she learned from his bearded lips the secret 
 of his passion. Alas ! not she alone ! The con 
 tiguous forest could not be bolted out, and the 
 Indian wife heard all. Recognizing the situation 
 with aboriginal directness of purpose, she com 
 mitted suicide in the fond belief that it would 
 reunite the survivors. But in vain, the cousins 
 parted on the spot to meet no more. 
 
 Even Mrs. Ashwood's predilection for the 
 youthful writer could not overlook the fact that 
 the denotement was by no means novel nor the 
 situation human, but yet it was here that she 
 was most interested and fascinated. The descrip 
 tion of the forest was a description of the wood 
 where she had first met Harcourt; the charm 
 of it returned, until she almost seemed to again 
 inhale its balsamic freshness in the pages before 
 her. Now, as then, her youth came back with 
 the same longing and regret. But more bewil- 
 
234 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 dering than all, it was herself that moved there, 
 painted with the loving hand of the narrator. 
 For the first time she experienced the delicious 
 flattery of seeing herself as only a lover could 
 see her. The smallest detail of her costume 
 was suggested with an accuracy that pleasantly 
 thrilled her feminine sense. The grace of her 
 figure slowly moving through the shadow, the 
 curves of her arm and the delicacy of her hand 
 that held the bridle rein, the gentle glow of her 
 softly rounded cheek, the sweet mystery of her 
 veiled eyes and forehead, and the escaping gold 
 of her lovely hair beneath her hat were all in 
 turn masterfully touched or tenderly suggested. 
 And when to this was added the faint perfume 
 of her nearer presence the scent she always 
 used the delicate revelations of her withdrawn 
 gauntlet, the bracelet clasping her white wrist, 
 and at last the thrilling contact of her soft 
 hand on his arm she put down the manuscript 
 and blushed like a very girl. Then she started. 
 
 A shout ! his voice surely ! and the sound 
 of oars in their rowlocks. 
 
 An instant revulsion of feeling overtook her. 
 With a quick movement she instantly hid the 
 manuscript beneath her cloak and stood up 
 erect and indignant. Not twenty yards away, 
 apparently advancing from the opposite shore of 
 the bay, was a boat. It contained only John 
 Milton resting on his oars and scanning the 
 
XT A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 235 
 
 group of rocks anxiously. His face, which was 
 quite strained with anxiety, suddenly flushed 
 when he saw her, and then recognizing the un 
 mistakable significance of her look and attitude, 
 paled once more. He bent over his oars again : 
 a few strokes brought him close to the rock. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," he said hesitatingly, as 
 he turned towards her and laid aside his oars, 
 " but I thought you were in danger." 
 
 She glanced quickly round her. She had for 
 gotten the tide ! The ledge between her and 
 the shore was already a foot under brown sea- 
 water. Yet if she had not thought that it would 
 have looked ridiculous she would have leaped 
 down even then and waded ashore. 
 
 "It's nothing," she said coldly, with the air 
 of one to whom the situation was an everyday 
 occurrence, " it's only a few steps and a slight 
 wetting and my brother would have been here 
 in a moment more." 
 
 John Milton's frank eyes made no secret of 
 his mortification. " I ought not to have dis 
 turbed you, I know," he said quickly ; " I had 
 no right. But I was on the other shore opposite 
 and I saw you come down here that is " 
 he blushed prodigiously " I thought it might 
 l>c you and I ventured I mean won't you 
 let me row you ashore ? " 
 
 There seemed to be no reasonable excuse for 
 refusing. She slipped quickly into the boat 
 
236 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CHAP. 
 
 without waiting for his helping hand, avoiding 
 that contact which only a moment ago she was 
 trying to recall. 
 
 A few strokes brought them ashore. He con 
 tinued his explanation with the hopeless frank 
 ness and persistency of youth and inexperience. 
 " I only came here the day before yesterday. 
 I would not have come, but Mr. Fletcher, who 
 has a cottage or the other shore, sent for me 
 to offer me my old place on the Clarion. I had 
 no idea of intruding upon your privacy by calling 
 here without permission." 
 
 Mrs. Ashwood had resumed her conventional 
 courtesy without however losing her feminine 
 desire to make her companion pay for the agita 
 tion he had caused her. " We would have been 
 always pleased to see you," she said vaguely, 
 " and I hope, as you are here now, you will 
 come with me to the hotel. My brother 
 
 But he still retained his hold of the boat 
 rope without moving, and continued : 
 
 " I saw you yesterday, through the telescope, 
 sitting in your balcony ; and later at night I 
 think it was your shadow I saw near the blue 
 shaded lamp in the sitting-room by the window 
 I don't mean the red lamp that you have in 
 your own room. I watched you until you put 
 out the blue lamp and lit the red one. I tell 
 you this because because I thought you 
 might be reading a manuscript I sent you. At 
 
xi A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA 237 
 
 least/' he smiled faintly, " I liked to think it 
 so." 
 
 In her present mood this struck her only as 
 persistent and somewhat egotistical. But she 
 felt herself now on ground where she could deal 
 firmly with him. 
 
 " Oh, yes," she said gravely. " I got it and 
 thank you very much for it. I intended to write 
 to you." 
 
 " Don't," he said, looking at her fixedly, " I 
 can see you don't like it." 
 
 " On the contrary," she said promptly, " I 
 think it beautifully written, and very ingenious 
 in plot and situation. Of course it isn't the 
 story I told you I didn't expect that, for I'm 
 not a genius. The man is not at all like my 
 cousin, you know, and the woman well, really, 
 to tell the truth, she is simply inconceivable ! " 
 
 " You think so ? " he said gravely. He had 
 been gazing abstractedly at some shining brown 
 sea-weed in the water and when he raised his 
 eyes to hers they seemed to have caught its 
 colour. 
 
 " Think so ? I'm positive ! There's no such 
 a woman, she isn't human. But let us walk 
 to the hotel." 
 
 " Thank you, but I must go back now." 
 
 " But at least let my brother thank you for 
 taking his place in rescuing me. It was so 
 thoughtful in you to put off at once when you 
 
238 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CHAP. 
 
 saw I was surrounded. I might have been in 
 great danger." 
 
 " Please don't make fun of me, Mrs. Ashwood/' 
 he said with a faint return of his boyish smile. 
 "You know there was no danger. I have only 
 interrupted you in a nap or a reverie and I 
 can see now that you evidently came here to 
 be alone." 
 
 Holding the manuscript more closely hidden 
 under the folds of her cloak, she smiled enig 
 matically. "I think I did, and it seems that 
 the tide thought so too, and acted upon it. 
 But you will come up to the hotel with me 
 surely ? " 
 
 " No, I am going back now." There was a 
 sudden firmness about the young fellow which 
 she had never before noticed. This was evi 
 dently the creature who had married in spite 
 of his family. 
 
 "Won't you come back long enough to take 
 your manuscript? I will point out the part I 
 refer to and we will talk it over." 
 
 " There is no necessity. I wrote to you that 
 you might keep it ; it is yours ; it was written 
 for you and none other. It is quite enough 
 for me to know that you were good enough to 
 read it. But will you do one thing more for 
 me ? Read it again ! If you find anything in 
 it the second time to change your views if 
 you find " 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 239 
 
 " I will let you know," she said quickly. " I 
 will write to you as I intended." 
 
 " No, I didn't mean that. I meant that if 
 you found the woman less inconceivable 
 and more human, don't write to me but put 
 your red lamp in your window instead of the 
 blue one. I will watch for it and see it." 
 
 " I think I shall be able to explain myself 
 much better with simple pen and ink," she 
 said drily, " and it will be much more useful 
 to you." 
 
 He lifted his hat gravely, shoved off the 
 boat, leaped into it, and before she could hold 
 out her hand was twenty feet away. She 
 turned and ran quickly up the rocks. When 
 she reached the hotel, she could see the boat 
 already half across the bay. 
 
 Entering her sitting-room she found that her 
 brother, tired of waiting for her, had driven 
 out. Taking the hidden manuscript from her 
 cloak she tossed it with a slight gesture of 
 impatience on the table. Then she summoned 
 the landlord. 
 
 " Is there a town across the bay ? " 
 
 " No ! the whole mountain-side belongs to 
 Don Diego Fletcher. He lives away back in 
 the coast range, at Los Gatos, but he has a 
 cottage and mill on the beach." 
 
 " Don Diego Fletcher Fletcher ! Is he a 
 Spaniard then ? " 
 
240 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " Half and half I reckon ; he's from the lower 
 country, I believe." 
 
 " Is he here often ? " 
 
 " Not much ; he has mills at Los Gatos, 
 wheat-ranches at Santa Clara, and owns a 
 newspaper in 'Frisco ! But he's here now. 
 There were lights in his house last night, and 
 his cutter lies off the point." 
 
 " Could you get a small package and note 
 to him ? " 
 
 " Certainly ; it is only a row across the 
 bay." 
 
 "Thank you." 
 
 Without removing her hat and cloak she sat 
 down at the table and began a letter to Don 
 Diego Fletcher. She begged to enclose to him 
 a manuscript which she was satisfied, for the 
 interests of its author, was better in his hands 
 than hers. It had been given to her by the 
 author, Mr. J. M. Harcourt, whom she under 
 stood was engaged on Mr. Fletcher's paper, the 
 Clarion. In fact, it had been written at her 
 suggestion, and from an incident in real life of 
 which she was cognizant. She was sorry to say 
 that on account of some very foolish criticism 
 of her own as to the fads, the talented young 
 author had become so dissatisfied with it as to 
 make it possible that, if left to himself, this 
 very charming and beautifully written story 
 would remain unpublished. As an admirer of 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 241 
 
 Mr. Harcourt's genius, and a friend of his 
 family, she felt that such an event would be 
 deplorable, and she therefore begged to leave it 
 to Mr. Fletcher's delicacy and tact to arrange 
 with the author for its publication. She knew 
 that Mr. Fletcher had only to read it to be 
 convinced of its remarkable literary merit, and 
 she again would impress upon him the fact 
 that her playful and thoughtless criticism 
 which was personal and confidential was only 
 based upon the circumstances that the author 
 had really made a more beautiful and touching 
 story than the poor facts which she had fur 
 nished seemed to warrant. She had only just 
 learnt the fortunate circumstance that Mr. 
 Fletcher was in the neighbourhood of the 
 hotel where she was staying with her brother. 
 
 With the same practical, business-like direct 
 ness, but perhaps a certain unbusiness-like 
 haste superadded, she rolled up the manuscript 
 and despatched it with the letter. 
 
 This done, however, a slight reaction set in, 
 and having taken off her hat and shawl, she 
 dropped listlessly on a chair by the window, 
 but as suddenly rose and took a seat in the 
 darker part of the room. She felt that she had 
 done right that highest but most depressing 
 of human convictions ! It was entirely for his 
 good. There was no reason why his best 
 interests should suffer for his folly. If anybody 
 
 R 
 
242 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 was to suffer it was she. But what nonsense 
 was she thinking ! She would write to him, later 
 when she was a little cooler as she had said. 
 But then he had distinctly told her, and very 
 rudely too, that he didn't want her to write. 
 Wanted her to make signals to him the idiot ! 
 and probably was even now watching her with a 
 telescope. It was really too preposterous ! 
 
 The result was that her brother found her 
 on his return in a somewhat uncertain mood, 
 and, as a counsellor, variable and conflicting 
 in judgment. If this Clementina, who seemed 
 to have the family qualities of obstinacy and 
 audacity, really cared for him, she certainly 
 wouldn't let delicacy stand in the way of letting 
 him know it and he was therefore safe to wait 
 a little. A few moments later, she languidly 
 declared that she was afraid that she was no 
 counsellor in such matters ; really she was 
 getting too old to take any interest in that sort 
 of thing, and she never had been a match-maker ! 
 By the way now, wasn't it odd that this 
 neighbour, that rich capitalist across the bay, 
 should be called Fletcher, and " James Fletcher " 
 too, for Diego meant " James " in Spanish. 
 Exactly the same name as poor Cousin Jim 
 who disappeared. Did he remember her old 
 playmate Jim ? But her brother thought some 
 thing else was a deuced sight more odd, namely, 
 that this same Don Diego Fletcher was said 
 
xi A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 243 
 
 to be very sweet on Clementina now, and was 
 always in her company at the Ramirezes. And 
 that, with this Clarion apology on the top of it, 
 looked infernally queer. 
 
 Mrs. Ash wood felt a sudden c@nsternation. 
 Here had she Jack's sister just been taking 
 Jack's probable rival into confidential correspon 
 dence ! She turned upon Jack sharply : 
 
 " Why didn't you say that before ? " 
 
 " I did tell you," he said gloomily, " but you 
 didn't listen. But what difference does it make 
 to you now ? " 
 
 " None whatever," said Mrs. Ashwood calmly 
 as she walked out of the room. 
 
 Nevertheless the afternoon passed wearily, 
 and her usual ride into the upland canon did 
 not reanimate her. For reasons known best to 
 herself she did not take her after dinner stroll 
 along the shore to watch the outlying fog. At 
 a comparatively early hour, while there was 
 still a roseate glow in the western sky, she 
 appeared with grim deliberation, and the blue lamp 
 shade in her hand, and placed it over the lamp 
 which she lit and stood on her table beside the 
 window. This done she sat down and began to 
 write with bright-eyed but vicious complacency. 
 
 " But you don't want that light and the 
 window, Constance," said Jack wonderingly. 
 
 Mrs. Ashwood could not stand the dreadful 
 twilight. 
 
 H 2 
 
244 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CH. XT 
 
 " But take away your lamp and you'll have 
 light enough from the sunset," responded Jack. 
 
 That was j ust what she didn't want ! The 
 light from the window was that horrid vulgar 
 red glow which she hated. It might be very 
 romantic and suit lovers like Jack, but as she 
 had some work to do, she wanted the blue 
 shade of the lamp to correct that dreadful 
 glare. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 JOHN MILTON had rowed back without lifting 
 his eyes to Mrs. Ashwood's receding figure. He 
 believed that he was right in declining her 
 invitation, although he had a miserable feeling 
 that it entailed seeing her for the last time. 
 With all that he believed was his previous 
 experience of the affections, he was still so 
 untutored as to be confused as to his reasons 
 for declining, or his right to have been shocked 
 and disappointed at her manner. It seemed to 
 him sufficiently plain that he had offended the 
 most perfect woman he had ever known without 
 knowing more. The feeling he had for her 
 was none the less powerful because, in his 
 great simplicity, it was vague and unformulated. 
 And it was a part of this strange simplicity 
 that in his miserable loneliness his thoughts 
 turned unconsciously to his dead wife for 
 sympathy and consolation. Loo would have 
 understood him ! 
 
246 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher, who had received him on his 
 arrival with singular effusiveness and cordiality, 
 had put off their final arrangements until after 
 dinner, on account of pressing business. It was 
 therefore with some surprise that an hour before 
 the time he was summoned to Fletcher's room. 
 He was still more surprised to find him sitting at 
 his desk from which a number of business papers 
 and letters had been hurriedly thrust aside to 
 make way for a manuscript. A single glance 
 at it was enough to show the unhappy John 
 Milton that it was the one he had sent to Mrs. 
 Ash wood. The colour flushed to his cheek and 
 he felt a mist before his eyes. His employer's 
 face on the contrary was quite pale, and his 
 eyes were fixed on Harcourt with a singular 
 intensity. His voice too, although under great 
 control, was hard and strange. 
 
 " Read that," he said, handing the young man 
 a letter. 
 
 The colour again streamed into John Milton's 
 face as he recognized the hand of Mrs. Ash wood, 
 and remained there while he read it. When 
 he put it down, however, he raised his frank 
 eyes to Fletcher's and said with a certain dignity 
 and manliness : " What she says is the truth, 
 sir. But it is / who am alone at fault. This 
 manuscript is merely my stupid idea of a very 
 simple story she was once kind enough to tell me 
 when we were talking of strange occurrences in 
 
xii A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJAEA 247 
 
 real life, which she thought I might some time 
 make use of in my work. I tried to embellish 
 it, and failed. That's all. I will take it back 
 it was written only for her." 
 
 There was such an irresistible truthfulness 
 and sincerity in his voice and manner, that any 
 idea of complicity with the sender was dismissed 
 from Fletcher's mind. As Harcourt, however, 
 extended his hand for the manuscript Fletcher 
 interfered. 
 
 "You forget that you gave it to her, and she 
 has sent it to me. If 1 don't keep it, it can be 
 returned to her only. Now may I ask who is 
 this lady who takes such an interest in your 
 literary career ? Have you known her long ? Is 
 she a friend of your family ? " 
 
 The slight sneer that accompanied his question 
 restored the natural colour to the young man's 
 face but kindled his eye ominously. 
 
 " No," he said briefly, " I met her accidentally 
 about two months ago and as accidentally found 
 out that she had taken an interest in one of 
 the first things I ever wrote for your paper. 
 She neither knew you nor me. It was 
 then that she told me this story; she did 
 not even then know who I was, though 
 she had met some of my family. She was 
 very good and has generously tried to help 
 me." 
 
 Fletcher's eyes remained fixed upon him. 
 
248 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 " But this tells me only what she is, not who 
 she is." 
 
 " I am afraid you must inquire of her brother, 
 Mr. Shipley," said Harcourt curtly. 
 
 ".Shipley ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he is travelling with her for his health, 
 and they are going south when the rains come. 
 They are wealthy Philadelphians, I believe, and 
 and she is a widow." 
 
 Fletcher picked up her note and glanced again 
 at the signature, " Constance Ashwood." There 
 was a moment of silence, when he resumed in 
 quite a different voice : " It's odd I never met 
 them nor they me." 
 
 As he seemed to be waiting for a response, 
 John Milton said simply : " I suppose it's be 
 cause they have not been here long, and are 
 somewhat reserved." 
 
 Mr. Fletcher laid aside the manuscript and 
 letter, and took up his apparently suspended 
 work. 
 
 " When you see this Mrs. Mrs. Ashwood 
 again, you might say " 
 
 " I shall not see her again," interrupted John 
 Milton, hastily. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher shrugged his shoulders. " Very 
 well," he said with a peculiar smile, " I will 
 write to her. Now, Mr. Harcourt," he continued 
 with a sudden business brevity, "if you please 
 we'll drop this affair and attend to the matter 
 
xii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 249 
 
 for which I just summoned you. Since yesterday 
 an important contract for which I have been 
 waiting is concluded, and its performance will 
 take me East at once. I have made arrange 
 ments that you will be left in the literary charge 
 of the Clarion. It is only a fitting recompense 
 that the paper owes to you and your father 
 to whom I hope to see you presently reconciled. 
 But we won't discuss that now ! As my affairs 
 take me back to Los Gatos within half an hour 
 I am sorry I cannot dispense my hospitality in 
 person, but you will dine and sleep here to 
 night. Good-bye. As you go out will you please 
 send up Mr. Jackson to me ? " He nodded briefly, 
 seemed to plunge instantly into his papers again, 
 and John Milton was glad to withdraw. 
 
 The shock he had felt at Mrs. Ashwood's 
 frigid disposition of his wishes and his manu 
 script had benumbed him to any enjoyment or 
 appreciation in the change of his fortune. He 
 wandered out of the house and descended to 
 the beach in a dazed, bewildered way, seeing 
 only the words of her letter to Fletcher before 
 him, and striving to grasp some other meaning 
 from them than their coldly practical purport. 
 Perhaps this was her cruel revenge for his telling 
 her not to write to him. Could she not have 
 divined it was only his fear of what she might 
 say ! And now it was all over ! She had washed 
 her hands of him with the sending of that manu- 
 
250 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 script and letter, and he would pass out of her 
 memory as a foolish, conceited ingrate perhaps a 
 figure as wearily irritating and stupid to her as 
 the cousin she had known. He mechanically 
 lifted his eyes to the distant hotel : the glow 
 was still in the western sky, but the blue lamp 
 was already shining in the window. His cheek 
 flushed quickly, and he turned away as if she 
 could have seen his face. Yes she despised 
 him, and that was his answer ! 
 
 When he returned, Mr. Fletcher had gone. 
 He dragged through a dinner with Mr. Jackson, 
 Fletcher's secretary, and tried to realize his good 
 fortune in listening to the subordinate's con 
 gratulations. " But I thought," said Jackson, 
 " you had slipped up on your luck to-day, when 
 the old man sent for you. He was quite white 
 and ready to rip out about something that had 
 just come in. I suppose it was one of those 
 anonymous things against your father the old 
 man's dead set against 'em now." But John 
 Milton heard him vaguely, and presently excused 
 himself for a row on the moonlit bay. 
 
 The active exertion, with intervals of placid 
 drifting along the land-locked shore, somewhat 
 soothed him. The heaving Pacific beyond was 
 partly hidden in a low creeping fog, but the 
 curving bay was softly radiant. The rocks where 
 on she sat that morning, the hotel where she was 
 now quietly reading, were outlined in black and 
 
xii A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 251 
 
 silver. In this dangerous contiguity it seemed 
 to him that her presence returned not the 
 woman who had met him so coldly; who had 
 penned those lines ; the woman from whom he 
 was now parting for ever, but the blameless ideal 
 he had worshipped from the first, and which 
 he now felt could never pass out of his life again ! 
 He recalled their long talks, their rarer rides and 
 walks in the city ; her quick appreciation and 
 ready sympathy ; her pretty curiosity and half- 
 maternal consideration of his foolish, youthful 
 past ; even the playful way that she sometimes 
 seemed to make herself younger as if to better 
 understand him. Lingering at times in the 
 shadow of the headland, he fancied he saw the 
 delicate nervous outlines of her face near his 
 own again ; the faint shading of her brown lashes, 
 the soft intelligence of her grey eyes. Drifting 
 idly in the placid moonlight, pulling feverishly 
 across the swell of the channel, or lying on his 
 oars in the shallows of the rocks, but always 
 following the curves of the bay, like a bird 
 circling around a lighthouse, it was far in the 
 night before he at last dragged his boat upon 
 the sand. Then he turned to look once more 
 at her distant window. He would be away in 
 the morning and he should never see it again ! 
 It was very late, but the blue light seemed to 
 be still burning unalterably and inflexibly. 
 But even as he gazed a change came over it. 
 
252 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CH. xn 
 
 A shadow seemed to pass before the blind; the 
 blue shade was lifted ; for an instant he could see 
 the colourless star-like point of the light itself 
 show clearly. It was over now : she was putting 
 out the lamp. Suddenly he held his breath ! A 
 roseate glow gradually suffused the window like a 
 burning blush ; the curtain was drawn aside, and 
 the red lamp shade gleamed out surely and 
 steadily into the darkness. 
 
 Transfigured and breathless in the moonlight, 
 John Milton gazed on it. It seemed to him the 
 dawn of Love ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE winter rains had come. But so plen- 
 teously and persistently, and with such fateful 
 preparation of circumstance, that the long- 
 looked-for blessing presently became a wonder, 
 an anxiety, and at last a slowly widening terror. 
 Before a month had passed every mountain, 
 stream, and watercourse, surcharged with the 
 melted snows of the Sierras, had become a 
 great tributary; every tributary a great river, 
 until, pouring their great volume into the 
 engorged channels of the Americain and Sacra 
 mento rivers, they overleaped their banks, and 
 became as one vast inland sea. Even to a 
 country already familiar with broad and striking 
 catastrophe, the flood was a phenomenal one. 
 For days the sullen overflow lay in the valley 
 of the Sacramento, enormous, silent, currentless 
 except where the surplus waters rolled through 
 Carquinez Straits, San Francisco Bay, and the 
 Golden Gate, and reappeared as the vanished 
 
254 A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 Sacramento River, in an outflowing stream of 
 fresh and turbid water fifty miles at sea. 
 
 Across the vast inland expanse, brooded over 
 by a leaden sky, leaden rain fell, dimpling like 
 shot the sluggish pools of the flood ; a cloudy 
 chaos of fallen trees, drifting barns and out 
 houses, waggons and agricultural implements, 
 moved over the surface of the waters, or circled 
 slowly around the outskirts of forests that stood 
 ankle deep in ooze and the current which in 
 serried phalanx they resisted still. As night 
 fell these forms became still more vague and 
 chaotic,, and were interspersed with the scattered 
 lanterns and flaming torches of relief-boats, or 
 occasionally the high terraced gleaming windows 
 of the great steamboats feeling their way along 
 the lost channel. At times the opening of a 
 furnace door shot broad bars of light across the 
 sluggish stream and into the branches of dripping 
 and drift-encumbered trees ; at times the looming 
 smoke-stacks sent out a pent-up breath of sparks 
 that illuminated the inky chaos for a moment, 
 and then fell as black and dripping rain. Or 
 perhaps a hoarse shout from some faintly out 
 lined bulk on either side brought a quick 
 response from the relief-boats, and the detaching 
 of a canoe with a blazing pine-knot in its bow 
 into the outer darkness. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when Lawrence 
 Grant, from the deck of one of the larger tugs, 
 
xin A FIEST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 255 
 
 sighted what had been once the estuary of 
 Sidon Creek. The leader of a party of scientific 
 observation and relief he had kept a tireless 
 watch of eighteen hours, keenly noticing the 
 work of devastation, the changes in the channel, 
 the prospects of abatement, and the danger 
 that still threatened. He had passed down the 
 length of the submerged Sacramento valley, 
 through the Straits of Carquinez, and was now 
 steaming along the shores of the upper reaches 
 of San Francisco Bay. Everywhere the same 
 scene of desolation vast stretches of tide, land, 
 once broken up by cultivation and dotted with 
 dwellings, now clearly erased on that watery 
 chart ; long lines of symmetrical perspective, 
 breaking the monotonous level, showing orchards 
 buried in the flood ; Indian mounds and natural 
 eminences covered with cattle or hastily erected 
 camps ; half submerged houses, whose solitary 
 chimneys, however, still gave signs of an un 
 daunted life within ; isolated groups of trees, 
 with their lower branches heavy v/ith the un 
 wholesome fruit of the flood, in wisps of hay 
 and straw, rakes and pitchforks, or pathetically 
 sheltering some shivering and forgotten house 
 hold pet. But everywhere the same dull, ex 
 pressionless, placid tranquillity of destruction a 
 horrible levelling of all things in one bland, 
 smiling equality of surface, beneath which agony, 
 despair, and ruin were deeply buried and for- 
 
256 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 gotten : a catastrophe without convulsion a 
 devastation voiceless, passionless, and supine. 
 
 The boat had slowed up before what seemed 
 to be a collection of disarranged houses with the 
 current flowing between lines that indicated the 
 existence of thoroughfares and streets. Many 
 of the lighter wooden buildings were huddled 
 together on the street corners with their gables 
 to the flow ; some appeared as if they had fallen 
 on their knees, and others lay complacently on 
 their sides, like the houses of a child's toy village. 
 An elevator still lifted itself above the other 
 warehouses ; from the centre of an enormous 
 square pond, once the plaza, still arose a " Liberty 
 pole/' or flagstaff, which now supported a swing 
 ing lantern, and in the distance appeared the 
 glittering dome of some public building. Grant 
 recognized the scene at once. It was all that 
 was left of the invincible youth of Tasajara ! 
 
 As this was an objective point of the scheme 
 of survey and relief for the district, the boat was 
 made fast to the second story of one of the 
 warehouses. It was now used as a general store 
 and depot, and bore a singular resemblance in its 
 interior to Harcourt's grocery at Sidon. This 
 suggestion was the more fatefully indicated by 
 the fact that half-a-dozen men were seated 
 around a stove in the centre, more or less given 
 up to a kind of philosophical and lazy enjoyment 
 of their enforced idleness. And when to this was 
 
xin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 257 
 
 added the more surprising coincidence that the 
 party consisted of Billings, Peters, and Wingate, 
 former residents of Sidon and first citizens of 
 Tasajara the resemblance was complete. 
 
 They were ruined, but they accepted their 
 common fate with a certain Indian stoicism and 
 Western sense of humour that for the time lifted 
 them above the vulgar complacency of their 
 former fortunes. There was a deep-seated, if 
 coarse and irreverent, resignation in their philoso 
 phy. At the beginning of the calamity it had 
 been roughly formulated by Billings in the state 
 ment that " It wasn't anybody's fault ; there was 
 nobody to kill, and what couldn't be reached by a 
 Vigilance Committee there was no use resolootin' 
 over." When the Eev. Doctor Pilsbury had sug 
 gested an appeal to a Higher Power, Peters had 
 replied good-humouredly, that a " Creator who 
 could fool around with them in that style was 
 above being interfered with by prayer." At 
 first the calamity had been a thing to fight 
 against ; then it became a practical joke, the 
 sting of which was lost in the victims' power 
 of endurance and assumed ignorance of its 
 purport. There was something almost pathetic 
 in their attempts to understand its peculiar 
 humour. 
 
 " How about that Europ-e-an trip o' yours, 
 Peters ? " said Billings meditatively, from the 
 
 S 
 
258 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJAKA CHAP. 
 
 depths of his chair. " Looks as if those Crowned 
 Heads over there would have to wait till the 
 water goes down considerable afore you kin trot 
 out your wife and darters before 'em ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Peters, " it rather pints that way ; 
 and ez far ez I kin see Mame Billings ain't goin' 
 to no Saratoga, neither, this year." 
 
 " Reckon the boys won't hang about old Har- 
 court's Free Library to see the girls home from 
 lectures and singing-class much this year," said 
 Wingate. " Wonder if Harcourt ever thought o' 
 this the day he opened it, and made that rattlin' 
 speech o' his about the new property ? Clark 
 says everything built on that made ground has 
 got to go after the water falls. Rough on 
 Harcourt after all his other losses, eh ? He 
 oughter have closed up with that scientific chap, 
 Grant, and married him to Clementina while the 
 big boom was on " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Peters, indicating Grant, who 
 had just entered quietly. 
 
 " Don't mind me, gentlemen," said Grant, step 
 ping towards the group with a grave but perfectly 
 collected face ; " on the contrary, I am very 
 anxious to hear all the news of Harcourt's family c 
 I left for New York before the rainy season, and 
 have only just got back." 
 
 His speech and manner appeared to be so 
 much in keeping with the prevailing grim phil- 
 
xin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 259 
 
 osophy that Billings, after a glance at the others, 
 went on, " Ef you left afore the first rains," said he, 
 "you must have left only the steamer ahead of 
 Fletcher, when he run off with Clementina Har- 
 court, and you might have come across them on 
 their wedding-trip in New York." 
 
 Not a muscle of Grant's face changed under 
 their eager and cruel scrutiny. " No, I didn't," 
 he returned quietly. " But why did she run 
 away ? Did the father object to Fletcher ? 
 If I remember rightly he was rich and a good 
 match." 
 
 " Yes, but I reckon the old man hadn't quite 
 got over the Clarion abuse for all its eating hum 
 ble pie and taking back its yarns of him. And 
 maybe he might have thought the engagement 
 rather sudden. They say that she'd only met 
 Fletcher the day afore the engagement." 
 
 " That be d d," said Peters, knocking the 
 
 ashes out of his pipe, and startling the lazy resig 
 nation of his neighbours by taking his feet from 
 the stove and sitting upright. " I tell ye, gentle 
 men, I'm sick o' this sort o' hogwash that's been 
 ladled round to us. That gal Clementina Har- 
 court and that feller Fletcher had met not only 
 
 once, but many times afore yes ! they were old 
 
 friends if it comes to that, a matter of six years 
 ago." 
 
 Grant's eyes were fixed eagerly on the speaker, 
 
260 A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CHAP. 
 
 although the others scarcely turned their 
 heads. 
 
 " You know, gentlemen," said Peters, " I never 
 took stock in this yer story of the drowning of 
 Lige Curtis. Why ? Well, if you wanter know- 
 in my opinion there never was any Lige 
 Curtis ! " 
 
 Billings lifted his head with difficulty ; Wingate 
 turned his face to the speaker. 
 
 " There never was a scrap o' paper ever found 
 in his cabin with the name o' Lige Curtis on 
 it ; there never was any inquiry made for Lige 
 Curtis ; there never was any sorrowin' friends 
 comin' after Lige Curtis. For why ? There 
 never was any Lige Curtis. The man who passed 
 himself off in Sidon under that name was that 
 man Fletcher. That's how he knew all about 
 Harcourt's title ; that's how he got his best holt 
 on Harcourt. And he did it all to get Clemen 
 tina Harcourt, whom the old man had refused to 
 him in Sidon." 
 
 A grunt of incredulity passed around the circle. 
 Such is the fate of historical innovation ! Only 
 Grant listened attentively. 
 
 " Ye ought to tell that yarn to John Milton," 
 said Wingate ironically ; " it's about in the style 
 o' them stories he slings in the Clarion!' 
 
 " He'z made a good thing outer that job. 
 Wonder what he gets for them?" said Peters. 
 
xin A FIRST FAMILY OF TASAJARA 261 
 
 It was Billings' time to rise, and, under the 
 influence of some strong cynical emotion, to even 
 rise to his feet. " Gets for 'em ! gets for 'em ! 
 I'll tell you what he gets for 'em ! It beats this 
 story o' Peters' it beats the flood. It beats me ! 
 Ye know that boy, gentlemen ; ye know how he 
 uster lie round his father's store, reading flap 
 doodle stories and sich ! Ye remember how I 
 uster try to give him good examples and knock 
 some sense into him ? Ye remember how, after 
 his father's good luck, he spiled all his own 
 chances, and ran off with his father's waiter gal- 
 all on account o' them flapdoodle books he read ? 
 Ye remember how he sashayed round newspaper 
 offices in Frisco until he could write a flapdoodle 
 story himself? Ye wanter know what he gets for 
 'em ? I'll tell you. He got an interduction to 
 one of them high-toned, high-falutm' ' don't- 
 touch-me ' rich widders from Philadelfy that's 
 what he gets for 'em. He got her dead-set on 
 him and his stories that's what he gets for 'em. 
 He got her to put him up with Fletcher in 
 the Clarion that's what he gets for 'em. And 
 darn my skin ! ef what they say is true, while 
 we hard-working men are sittin' here like 
 drowned rats that air John Milton, ez never did 
 a stitch o' live work like me 'n' yere ; ez never 
 did anythin' but spin yarns about us ez did work, 
 is now ' gittin' for 'em/ what ? Guess ! Why, 
 
262 A FIKST FAMILY OF TASAJARA CH. xm 
 
 he's gittin' the rich loidder herself and half a mil 
 lion dollars with her I Gentlemen ! lib'ty is a 
 good tiling but thar's some things ye gets too 
 much lib'ty of in this county and that's this 
 yer Lib'ty of THE PRESS ! " 
 
 THE END. 
 
 RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. 
 
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 adventure and startling incidents, and told with a genuine simplicity and quiet 
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 SATURDAY REVIEW. "It is not often that stories of colonial life are so 
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 contemporary fiction." 
 
 ADMIRALTY GAZETTE." The best work Rolf Boldrewood has done. It is 
 not too much to say that the early chapters, in which the misery of the English 
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 when once begun as ' Mr. Isaacs ' and ' Dr. Claudius, ' and few have 
 been and will be read with so little skipping." 
 
 A ROMAN SINGER. 
 
 THE TIMES. "We are not making use of conventionalities 
 of criticism when we call this a masterpiece of narrative. ... In 
 Mr. Crawford's skilful hands it is unlike any other romance in 
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 individuality, brought out simply by the native stress of the story." 
 
 ZOROASTER. 
 
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 the power with which it is wrought out, it stands on a level that is 
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 MARZIO'S CRUCIFIX. 
 
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 of modern Rome which show the author so much at his ease. A 
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 will throw away a very pleasurable opportunity." 
 
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 THE SPEC T A TOR.' 1 To do justice to Mr. Crawford's remark 
 able book by extracts would be impossible. . . . All we can do is 
 to select one or two bright passages short enough to transfer to our 
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 upon its form, cannot fail to please a reader who enjoys crisp, 
 clear, vigorous writing, and thoughts that are alike original and 
 suggestive." 
 
 GREIFENSTEIN. 
 
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 dedly so much so as to doubt whether it does not dislodge ' A 
 Roman Singer ' from the place hereto occupied by the latter as our 
 favourite amongst Mr. Crawford's novels." 
 
 SARACINESCA. 
 
 THE ACADEMY. "A very remarkable book, and a great 
 advance upon any of the author's previous works." 
 
 SANT ILARIO. 
 
 (A Sequel to " Saracinesca.") 
 
 THE ATHEN^UM. 11 The plot is skilfully concocted, and the 
 interest is sustained to the end. As a story of incident the book 
 leaves little to be desired. The various events, romantic and even 
 sensational, follow naturally and neatly, and the whole is a very 
 clever piece of work." 
 
 A CIGARETTE-MAKER'S ROMANCE. 
 
 TIMES. "The idea is original in a striking degree." 
 GLOBE. "We are inclined to think this is the best of Mr. 
 Marion Crawford's stories." 
 
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